As soon as Sakazuki arrived on the island, his attention was immediately drawn to a massive mansion rising deep within the territory.
Without hesitation, he headed straight toward it.
When he reached the estate, a bloody scene unfolded before his eyes.
Bodies of mafia members lay scattered across the courtyard and near the entrance.
All of them had been killed with bladed weapons—clean, precise, without unnecessary movement.
Sakazuki crouched down and examined one of the corpses.
"Hmm…" he muttered, frowning.
The wounds were fresh.
Too fresh.
He understood immediately—he was late.
Someone had already begun wiping out this mafia family before his arrival.
Suddenly—
A sharp sound echoed from above.
Sakazuki lifted his head, his eyes narrowing.
A child, around ten or eleven years old, leapt from a second-floor window.
In the child's hand was a sword, stained with blood.
But what happened next truly caught Sakazuki's interest.
Before his eyes, the child's body began to disperse—
breaking apart and transforming into mist.
"…Huh?"
Sakazuki instantly understood.
A Devil Fruit user.
Either a Logia, or an extremely rare Paramecia.
He stepped back into the shadows, concealing his presence.
For now, he had no intention of revealing himself.
This child was far too… interesting.
Sakazuki continued to observe.
In the very next moment, another figure jumped out of the same window.
Sakazuki recognized him immediately.
"…So that's where you were."
It was the mafia boss he had been hunting for the past two months.
He listened closely to their exchange—and what he heard made his eyebrow rise slightly.
This child…
had killed everyone.
But that wasn't the most shocking part.
The child was blind.
Yet what truly astonished Sakazuki happened moments later.
The child activated a technique, and the entire courtyard became engulfed in dense mist.
This mist was different.
It pressed down on everything.
It swallowed all presence.
Sakazuki relied on the senses he had honed over many years.
…They didn't work.
"Ho…" he exhaled quietly.
Even his experience was useless inside that fog.
Sakazuki narrowed his eyes and finally activated Observation Haki.
"Interesting…" he murmured.
"Very interesting."
Through his Haki, he perceived the blind child striking again and again—
attacks the mafia boss couldn't predict, each one leaving another wound.
Then—
His Observation Haki warned him of something else.
Another presence.
Sakazuki spotted a second child, holding a sniper rifle and aiming into the mist.
At that moment, the mafia boss used a sword technique, dispersing part of the fog.
A gunshot rang out.
The blind child sensed the danger and attempted to transform into mist—
But the bullet struck him.
Blood spilled.
Sakazuki's eyes narrowed.
"Seastone…" he realized.
A bullet made of Kairoseki.
How did a North Blue mafia acquire something like this?
Has seastone already appeared on the black market?
That was dangerous.
If pirates or criminal organizations began acquiring seastone weapons, it would become a serious threat to the balance of power.
I must report this to the Admiral immediately, Sakazuki decided.
He kept watching.
He heard the mafia boss laughing, boasting about the trap—
about how that bullet had been prepared specifically for the child.
The blind child was losing ground.
Sakazuki was just about to intervene—
When something unexpected happened.
The child devised a plan.
Not just any plan—
a brilliant one.
Using a small pocket of mist, he deceived the boss and struck first—eliminating the sniper.
Sakazuki watched until the very end.
He saw how the second child shielded the blind one from a fatal blow.
And how the blind child, using the last of his strength, pierced the mafia boss—killing him.
Silence fell.
Sakazuki stepped forward.
And once again, he was surprised.
The blind child sensed him.
Gathering his remaining strength, the boy turned sharply and attacked.
The blow was weak.
To Sakazuki, it was meaningless.
He felt no pain.
But he caught the child as he collapsed, completely exhausted.
Sakazuki looked down at him.
"…A truly interesting child," he said quietly.