Rain calmly sheathed his sword. The blade wasn't stained with a single drop of blood.
He glanced at the five successive [Judgment Complete] prompts in his mind and the sharply rising [Sin Points], then nodded in satisfaction.
With a thought, he funneled all available rewards into [Physique Inheritance].
Vmmm—
Five streams of warmth, some strong and some faint, surged through his entire body, as comforting as sinking into a hot spring.
Rain could clearly feel his muscles, bones, and even internal organs toughening and filling with explosive power under that nourishment.
Still not enough… he thought, savoring the power coursing through him. My Physique Tier is just one step away from [Top-Tier]. One more like this… no, maybe just one more SR-rank kill, and I'll break through.
A faint smile tugged at his lips. Shortcuts beat hard work, every time.
In the alley, he was the only one left standing. Rain washed the ground, streaked with gore, in a slow, steady rhythm, and the air reeked.
Rain stepped over to the bodies, crouched, and dipped a finger into the warm blood, smearing it casually across his uniform—especially thickly over his left arm.
Only after that did he walk back toward the alley corner.
Rosinante was still slumped on the ground, face chalk-white, eyes vacant.
His view hadn't been completely blocked.
He'd heard Rain shout for him to run, and then he'd seen Rain charge.
First came two impossibly fast slashes. The hammer-wielding brute was cut in half along with his weapon. Then came wave after wave of efficient, merciless killing…
This was not the Rain he thought he knew. This wasn't a level of strength any "recruit" should have.
When Rain finally stood before him and that ice-cold aura ebbed away like a tide, Rosinante jerked back to himself, shaking uncontrollably.
"R-Rain…" he stammered, staring at Rain's uniform soaked in blood. "You… you're okay? These… these pirates, they…?"
Rain "wiped" non-existent sweat from his forehead, pointed at the corpses (or what was left of them), and gave the vaguest, most laughable excuse:
"Got lucky. Looks like they turned on each other. Infighting. Self-destruction."
He shook his "bloodied" left arm with a pained hiss. "Got careless and got caught in it a bit, took some splash damage."
Rosinante looked from Rain's "wounds" to the clearly sword-sliced corpses, especially the bisected Blood Axe captain, his mind going blank.
Infighting? Self-destruction? Collateral injury?
Who would believe that?
But…
He saw the calm in Rain's eyes and swallowed the instinctive questions.
Rain clearly didn't want to talk.
And even if I knew the truth… what good would it do? Rat him out to Sakazuki? Rain's my friend. How could I betray him…?
Rain saw the conflict flicker, then fade, and understood.
He didn't actually care whether Rosinante believed him or not. The man's kindness—or call it naivety—meant he'd never be the one to snitch. That was enough.
"Come on." Rain grabbed Rosinante by the arm and hauled him up. "We need to regroup with Commander Dal."
Rosinante stumbled along like a marionette, half-dragged out of the bloody alley.
…
Half an hour later, at the central plaza of the fortress.
The battle was mostly over. Under the Marines' elite strike, the Blood Axe crew had been crushed.
Commander Dal was overseeing the mop-up of the last scattered pirates, but his expression was grim—the captain and core officers of the Blood Axe Pirates had apparently escaped in the chaos.
Just then, two blood-soaked figures staggered out of a side alley, bracing each other.
Rain and Rosinante.
"Commander!" Rain called out, voice "weak."
"Rain? Rosinante?" Dal blinked, then hurried over. "You're alive? What happened in those alleys?"
"Reporting, sir…" Rain said between labored breaths, "we got separated in the explosion… ran into Blood Axe Barton and his men…"
"What?!" Dal's face drained. "Where are they now?!"
"They… looked like they turned on each other…" Rain pointed toward the alley behind him, then lifted his "mangled" arm. "Barton and his men got into a fight among themselves. We hid. When we came out, there was only one left. We finished him off… took some minor injuries."
Dal sent men to check. They returned soon with confirmation: the bodies of Barton and his officers were in the alley, and their condition was… extremely gruesome.
Dal looked at Rain's "gnarly" wound, then at the almost-fainting Rosinante, and finally nodded.
"Well done, Rain." The story was strange, but the outcome was what mattered. "Go get those injuries treated."
…
On the warship's bridge—
Sakazuki sat at the central seat, expression unreadable as he read through the fresh combat report from the landing squad.
It was detailed: the squad was forced into a frontal assault after being exposed, ultimately wiping out every pirate and confirming the Blood Axe crew's destruction.
Marine casualties were minor. As for the missing captain and core officers, the report stated they'd engaged in internal conflict in a side alley and killed each other, at which point recruits Rain and Rosinante stumbled upon them and finished the survivors. Grainy footage from the alley was attached.
Sakazuki exhaled cigar smoke, his face unreadable in the haze.
"Infighting. Killed each other, huh," he repeated quietly, a hint of mockery in his tone.
He tossed the report onto the table.
The explanation wouldn't fool a child. But the scene evidence… did line up.
He looked out at the storm-torn sea.
Rain's too-calm eyes flashed through his mind, along with that absurdly flimsy excuse that somehow left no handhold.
"…Hmph."
His rock-hard features didn't change, but his eyes narrowed, a dangerous light glinting within.
"Interesting."
~~~
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