Pinned to the wall by Tom, Commodore Nezumi, upon hearing Tom's words, instinctively looked into his eyes.
The moment Nezumi's gaze met Tom's dark crimson pupils, the dazzling golden light surrounding them began to spin rapidly, like a golden vortex, completely captivating the Commodore's vision.
Immediately afterward, a series of images related to Nezumi flashed through Tom's mind.
Over a decade ago, Nezumi and a like-minded friend had joined the Marines together. Both had vowed to become Vice Admirals of Marine Headquarters, to sweep through the Grand Line, eliminate pirates, and protect the people. Supporting each other, they strove tirelessly toward this goal.
However, years later, with average strength and no notable achievements to their names, neither had received any promotion, remaining ordinary seamen.
This left both dispirited for a time, muddling through their Marine service aimlessly, though they eventually rallied themselves.
Later, during an operation to suppress pirates, Nezumi and his friend fought desperately and, through immense luck, managed to take the head of a pirate with a bounty of 13,000,000 Beri.
That pirate had been severely wounded during the Marines' encirclement, and Nezumi and his friend were fortunate enough to find his hiding place, allowing them to finish him.
But the one who delivered the final, fatal blow wasn't Nezumi. It was his friend.
Thus, the greatest credit wouldn't go to Nezumi. Blinded by greed and the desire to get closer to his dream, he hardened his heart and secretly murdered his friend as they returned to the Marine base.
After killing his friend, Nezumi discarded the body in the wilderness, brought the pirate's head back to the base, became the hero who slew the pirate, and pinned his friend's death on the deceased pirate as well.
With the credit for defeating a pirate worth over 10,000,000 Beri, Nezumi was quickly promoted. But later, while sorting through his friend's belongings, he discovered his friend's diary.
It turned out that even before that pirate-suppression operation, his friend had planned that if they truly achieved a feat, he would let Nezumi take the credit if possible.
Because Nezumi had already been married for years, while his friend was still alone and carried fewer burdens.
Upon learning this truth, Nezumi immediately recalled how, on the eve of the murder, his friend had seemed to want to tell him something but hesitated. He had probably wanted to give him a surprise by not revealing his intention to give up the credit.
But precisely because of that, it led Nezumi to commit his terrible mistake—killing the friend he had known since childhood.
Overwhelmed with regret, Nezumi, to atone, brought his friend's younger brother to live nearby so he could care for him.
Then one day, the younger brother told Nezumi he wanted to join the Marines, inherit his deceased brother's will, and become a Vice Admiral of Marine Headquarters.
From that day on, every time Nezumi saw his friend's brother, he would remember the friend he had killed with his own hands, tormenting his spirit.
To find release, Nezumi killed his friend's brother as well. His personality changed drastically from then on, becoming increasingly despicable and cold-blooded. He gradually forgot why he had joined the Marines in the first place, forgot the shared dream he once had with his friend.
Sinking further into degeneracy, Nezumi voluntarily requested a transfer to the East Blue to serve as Commodore of Branch 16. He didn't bring his family, cutting himself off from Headquarters and completely abandoning his former dream. In the East Blue, he joined forces with the Arlong Pirates to exploit the people.
"You truly are a rat so foul it makes people sick!"
Tom now had a general understanding of Nezumi's past. For someone worse than scum, he really had nothing more to say.
Hearing Tom's words, Nezumi still showed no reaction, merely staring blankly at Tom's golden-flecked crimson eyes.
Slowly, Nezumi saw a faint trace of golden light appear at the very center of Tom's fiery red pupils, like a tiny, flickering flame.
Quickly, that starlike flame within Tom's scarlet pupils burned brighter, making it seem as if his entire eyes were on fire. The churning golden flames reflected in the black depths of Nezumi's own eyes, making his head ache more and more intensely. A low groan of pain escaped him.
After a short while, the golden flames in Tom's blood-red eyes faded. The blinding golden light around his pupils also vanished. But within the crimson red of his irises, a symbol resembling a dark golden cross appeared.
"Receive your judgment!"
As Tom spoke, an identical dark golden cross symbol surfaced within Nezumi's own black pupils.
Immediately, the dark golden cross in Tom's blood-red eyes began to spin at extreme speed. The one in Nezumi's black pupils spun in tandem, but counterclockwise.
Then Nezumi let out an extremely shrill wail. His mind relentlessly replayed the moments he cruelly murdered his friend and his friend's brother.
The expressions on their faces as they died staring at him—the disbelief, the hatred-filled eyes—appeared before him with terrifying clarity. These were the two things he regretted most in his life, the memories he least wanted to recall, now surfacing vividly once more.
Overwhelming regret, pain, and guilt flooded Nezumi's heart, making him burst into tears on the spot, crying in agonizing anguish, completely hysterical.
But very quickly, Nezumi discovered that when he tried to scream to vent all the inner pain, he couldn't make a sound. He had forgotten how to speak, only managing baby-like babbling noises.
"Crying is a human instinct. I cannot take that away. But the ability to speak, to walk—things you learned as you grew—those I can strip away!"
Tom tossed the Commodore to the ground. Nezumi could only move on all fours like an animal, having no idea how to stand and walk anymore.
Kneeling with his hands on the ground, Nezumi crawled around in chaos. His mind was in turmoil. He could no longer recall the warmth and emotion of striving upward with his friend toward their dream. He could no longer remember the laughter and joy with his family. It was as if all the things in his life that had brought him joy, moved him, or were worth cherishing had never existed.
Nezumi felt his life consisted only of darkness and pain: the hatred-filled look in his friend's dying eyes, the tragic scenes of villagers slaughtered by the Arlong Pirates during his inspections, the faces of villagers who had come begging for help only to be secretly killed on his orders.
These images of death flashed one by one through his mind, filling him with both pain and intense fear.
And the memory of his wife and children, crying and begging him not to abandon the family when he left for the East Blue.
Nezumi felt his mind retained only these deeply unpleasant things. He couldn't remember anything else, as if many past experiences had never happened.
Especially his former dream. Nezumi remembered having the dream clearly, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall the process of striving for it.
It felt as if he had never done anything to achieve his goal. He only remembered how he had betrayed and killed his friend. It made his life seem utterly blank, completely empty and painful.
The dark golden cross symbol imprinted in his black pupils slowly turned a dead grey. Nezumi collapsed on the ground, body twitching uncontrollably, face a mask of desperate terror, devoid of all vitality, becoming little more than a breathing corpse.
"You may think you only stole her money. But what you took was eight years of her hope. And what lay behind that hope—the burdens she carried—is something someone like you could never understand. Even as just an accomplice, I will not let you go!"
Tom's blood-moon-like red pupils returned to normal, the dark golden cross within them slowly fading. He pressed a hand to his slightly aching left eye, looking down at the trembling Commodore.
"For the rest of your life, live in fear, in emptiness, and in despair!"
After saying this, Tom entered the Branch 16 building and thoroughly ransacked it. After finding Nami's money, he whistled. Soon, the earth trembled slightly as the giant Sea Cow, Mohmoo, crawled up from the coastline.
"Tear this place down. Don't hurt that guy. Letting him die would be too merciful."
Tom pointed at the fallen Nezumi, looking up to address Mohmoo.
The look Mohmoo gave Tom was clearly one of fear. Whether it understood Tom's words or not, it proceeded to smash the Marine Branch 16 base to pieces.
"That's enough. Save your strength to tow us back."
With a large sack of money slung over his shoulder, Tom rode Mohmoo and swaggered away from the now-ruined Marine Branch 16.
By the time Tom returned to the Going Merry, the Commodore, lying in the rubble, still twitched incessantly, as if trapped in an endless cycle of hell. Every deeply unpleasant memory of his past replayed in his mind in an infinite loop, impossible to stop.
Conversely, the cross symbol in his pupils, now dead grey, grew increasingly clear, like a mark branded deep into the depths of his eyes.
"You're finally back! I thought something had happened to you!"
Nojiko saw Tom, carrying a large sack, jump from Mohmoo onto the Going Merry and hurried over. To her surprise, Tom simply collapsed toward her.
Using this Devil Fruit ability to strip away another's life experiences for the first time had left Tom's eyes aching and his spirit extremely weakened. Combined with his existing injuries, high fever, and utter exhaustion, he could no longer hold on and lost consciousness.
"How could he keep going in this state?"
As Nojiko re-bandaged Tom's wounds on the Merry, she saw he was covered in cuts and several gunshot wounds. His body was burning hot with fever.
That he could storm a Marine branch in such poor condition and return safely left Nojiko deeply shocked.
She finally understood what Nami had told her before: after every major battle, they were all covered in wounds.
Nojiko felt Tom was downright gambling with his life. This went far beyond mere desperation.
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T/N :
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