"One strand of fur for one piece of flesh… then just now—"
At that moment, Bask Jot stood frozen in place. Fine beads of sweat seeped from the tip of his sausage-like nose as the alcohol haze vanished in an instant.
As a notorious, viciously infamous pirate of the New World, there was no way he didn't recognize that man—
The Marine monster who had shattered the sky itself and cut down the Golden Lion with a single blade.
Jot's bloodshot eyes widened grotesquely as he twisted his head ever so slightly, staring deathly at the black blade in Gern Reginald Sigmar's hand—the sword wrapped in trembling, pale vibration particles.
Gern didn't answer.
He merely raised his gaze.
Conqueror's Haki surged outward like a tidal wave.
The wooden splinters scattered across the deck began to rattle and rise without any wind at all, releasing faint crack-crack sounds as if the ship itself were screaming.
Cold sweat streamed down Jot's face.
"W–Wait… wait!!"
He suddenly raised both hands high in surrender. The wine jug slipped from his grasp and clanged heavily onto the deck.
"I surrender! I give up!"
"Y–You see…" His voice trembled violently as he forced a sycophantic smile onto his bloated face. "I'm just a drunk idiot… what just happened was all a misunderstanding. I was only—"
He swallowed hard.
Then, without warning, he twisted his body and opened his mouth wide—
"Liquor-Liquor · Alcohol Mist Fountain!"
PUFF—!
He slammed his fist into his gut, spewing an enormous volume of alcoholic vapor from his mouth, instantly engulfing the entire deck.
The stench of ethanol burned the eyes. Visibility was swallowed completely by dense white mist.
"Hahahaha! Thanks for the warship, Marines!"
Jot's laughter echoed through the fog, followed by a deep THUD—
His massive body leapt with shocking agility, launching toward Gern's Marine battleship!
"Heh."
Gern curled his lips into a cold smile, showing no intention of giving chase.
Midair, Jot was still reveling in his escape—when a sudden chill crawled up his spine.
Instinctively, he looked up.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints.
"DAMN IT—SAKAZUKI?!"
At the bow of the warship, Sakazuki stood with his arms crossed. His Justice cloak snapped violently in the wind as magma veins crawled across his face.
His eyes were cold—utterly lifeless.
"Great Eruption."
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
"NO—!!"
Jot screamed in sheer terror, trying to twist away—but it was too late.
A colossal magma fist roared toward him, death itself looming inches away!
At the very last instant, Jot forcibly wrenched his body sideways, altering his trajectory midair by sheer desperation.
The magma grazed past him, scorching a massive hole through his clown outfit.
"Hahaha! You missed!"
Jot laughed hysterically, drunk on survival, turning to flee again—
Then Gern's voice reached him.
Soft. Almost like a sigh.
Yet it made every hair on Jot's body stand on end.
"I'm sorry," Gern said quietly."I'm a man who keeps his promises."
He exploded upward in a single leap.
"So… if I said I'd cut you, I will cut you. You've picked a very good execution ground."
The blade of Black Saber · Eight Desolations erupted in blinding white light.
Gern's arm muscles tightened to their absolute limit as Armament Haki, infant-flowing Ryuo, and dark crimson lightning coiled around the blade like a living thing.
The sword vibrated violently.
The air itself fractured—spiderweb-like spatial cracks spreading outward.
"Heavenquake · Cross Sever—"
A horizontal slash.A vertical cleave.
Two intersecting slashes tore through the sky.
Pale vibration particles formed an enormous cross-shaped shockwave.
The horizontal wave split the clouds cleanly apart.The vertical strike carved a massive trench straight through the sea.
CRACK—!!!
The sound of the sky breaking thundered.
Jot managed only a single, strangled scream.
His body stiffened midair as fine red lines surfaced across his skin.
First strike — Horizontal Cut!
The pale vibration wave swept through his waist.
Fat and muscle were ripped apart instantly by high-frequency震动, bones screeching with a teeth-grinding CRRRK before collapsing into powder.
His upper and lower body slid out of alignment.
Blood erupted like a fountain.
Second strike — Vertical Cleave!
In the same instant, the vertical slash tore down from the crown of his head.
Nose.Jaw.Chest.Abdomen.
All split cleanly in two.
Flesh shattered into crimson mist.Fragments of organs rained down like gore-soaked confetti.
"DISINTEGRATE."
Gern flicked Black Saber · Eight Desolations.
SCHLK!
Jot's eyes rolled white.
His body detonated midair—precisely diced into dozens of neat segments by the cross slash.
His skull split vertically, brain matter dispersed by shockwaves before it could hit the deck.
Both arms severed cleanly at the shoulders, fingers still frozen in a grasping pose.
His torso cleaved into upper and lower halves, ribcage and spine polished smooth like mirrors.
Then—
As if sliced by invisible blades—
His remains fragmented further, splitting into thousands of perfectly uniform cubes.
Blood bloomed in the air like grotesque flowers—then vaporized into mist under the following vibration waves.
The Marines aboard the battleship stood frozen, mouths agape.
Someone's binoculars slipped from their hands and clattered onto the deck.
"B–Bounty… eight hundred twenty-two million five hundred thousand Beli…"
A young Marine's voice trembled violently before he screamed at the top of his lungs:
"'Big Drunk' Bask Jot——was just… just turned into paste by Commodore Gern!!!"
At the bow, Sakazuki stood silently, magma still flowing slowly around his fists.
Watching the execution, the corner of his mouth lifted—just slightly.
That's how it should be.
He turned his gaze toward Gern, unmistakable approval flashing in his eyes.
Bask Jot—That beast who delighted in torturing civilians, who mutilated children as "collections," who drunkenly threw Marines into shark-infested waters for amusement—
He should have been torn apart long ago.
He died far too easily.
Sakazuki clenched his fist. Molten lava dripped onto the deck, burning charred holes into the wood.
Then he strode forward and, to everyone's shock, slammed a heavy hand onto Gern's shoulder.
"Well done."
His voice remained rigid and cold, yet the acknowledgment was unmistakable.
"For trash like that, total annihilation is the only answer.Gern—assigning you here was one of the best decisions I've ever made. We're a perfect match."
Gern raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised.
He hadn't expected the Marine Headquarters' famously iron-disciplined Akainu to openly approve of such an execution.
Sakazuki snorted.
"You think I care about empty platitudes?"
He turned toward the slowly settling sea, voice low and heavy.
"Justice… sometimes must be carried out in the most extreme way.Especially for butchers like Jot, who spilled oceans of blood in the New World.
Letting him die painlessly would have been mercy.
Your execution ensured that, in his final moments, he experienced absolute terror.
That's enough."
Then Sakazuki's gaze shifted to Lipo.
"You did well too."
"M–Me?!"Lipo looked up, eyes still glossy with tears. "Uncle Sakazuki… are you praising me? But I… I lost…"
"Losing isn't shameful," Sakazuki said bluntly."When you realized you were facing a powerful enemy, you didn't retreat. You didn't run. You chose to fight.
That's enough.
Good work."
With that, he turned and headed toward the cabin.
"Rest for thirty minutes. Then we continue the pirate suppression."
Watching his back disappear, Lipo suddenly broke into a smile through her tears.
"Uncle Sakazuki is actually kind of nice!"
"That's just surface-level talk," Gern said, rubbing her head."If something feels wrong next time, you can't push yourself like that again."
Then he chuckled softly.
"Still, earning his recognition isn't easy."
As if performing a magic trick, he pulled a carrot from his pocket.
"Here. For our partner of justice—calm your nerves."
"Mmhm!!"
Lipo's eyes lit up. She took the carrot and CRUNCH—bit into it, cheeks puffing out immediately.
"Mmm… Gern really is the best!"
...