"So that was your reason?"
With a cigar in his mouth, his whole body wrapped in bandages, even one eye covered, Smoker curled his lip and looked back up at the sky.
"As a Marine, you actually acknowledge a pirate?"
Smoker fell silent for a moment.
For some reason, he thought of another figure.
That person was also a pirate.
Not long ago, he had helped him rescue the children on Punk Hazard. He was someone Smoker, as a Marine, wanted to hate but could not.
His name was Monkey D. Luffy.
"I'm not a Marine anymore, Smoker..."
Kuzan interrupted him, though his own voice carried a trace of hesitation.
"And I've never acknowledged that bastard Ozz. I just think a guy like him will definitely keep moving forward firmly for the sake of his own amusement."
"And you still say that isn't acknowledgment..."
Smoker curled his lip.
"By the way, you didn't leave the Marines just to mix with the scum of the sea, did you?"
"I'm still me, Smoker. I've figured it out now."
As Marine medics bandaged him, Kuzan waved away the soldiers who wanted to search for his leg and see if it could be reattached. Instead, he froze the bleeding stump with ice.
The two of them lay there like corpses while the Marines worked around them.
"Even if I leave the Marines, there are still plenty of things I can do, Smoker.
"For example, cleaning up the messes Ozz creates."
Smoker understood somewhat. He immediately ordered a subordinate to bring over a wanted poster.
"This one, right?"
Wanted Poster: Dark Sun.
Kuzan glanced at it and nodded.
"Yeah... more or less. One look and you can tell this is Ozz's handiwork. I heard he sank dozens of Marine warships and injured a newly appointed admiral and CP0."
"No matter what he's trying to do, stopping him is enough."
Kuzan also could not understand why the World Government and Marine Headquarters had launched such a massive operation, nor why they still showed no intention of letting the target go even after failing.
But Kuzan knew one thing.
As long as he could confirm it was Ozz's goal, that was enough.
Anything Ozz went out of his way to accomplish would definitely throw the world into chaos.
So stopping it was enough.
At that moment, a complete and mature view of justice slowly formed in Kuzan's heart.
Although he could not take down Ozz,
if he could take down Sadgeo and the like, if he could destroy Ozz's ambitions, then that also counted as carrying out his justice, right?
At least it was better than dying outright.
In a certain sense, this was similar to part of Doll's justice, Ozz's Justice.
It could also be called Ozz's Justice, only this version was Anti-Ozz Justice.
"What are you planning to do after this?"
Smoker knew a little about the feud between Ozz and Kuzan. It seemed to have begun decades ago, perhaps even before Smoker had met Ozz as a child.
"Who knows?"
"But no matter where I am, I'm still me, Smoker."
After a brief rest, Kuzan left.
Dragging his heavily injured body, he rode away from the island on a penguin.
As for justice, he had his own way of carrying it out.
...
"Fufufufufu... That was such a good chance just now. Killing a former Marine Admiral and all that~"
Doflamingo sat cross-legged on the ground, spreading his hands with a gloating look, as if he truly regretted it.
Clearly, he was still bothered by Kuzan freezing him into an ice sculpture and making him lose face.
But that had actually been intentional on Ozz's part.
Doffy had gotten a little too arrogant.
"Then should I find some time to set up a fight between you and Little Chick?"
Looking at Doflamingo's arrogant smile, Ozz spoke with a half-smile.
The moment he heard that, Doffy's smile stiffened. He quickly waved his hand.
"Fufu... Fufufufu, forget it. I have no intention of fighting him."
Hearing this, the Seagull King let out a "Gah!" His bird eyes showed clear speechlessness.
Earlier, Ozz had sent him to follow Caesar, and he had experienced quite a few things.
With a scumbag like Caesar as one of his subordinates, no wonder the Seagull King did not look kindly on Doffy.
During the Punk Hazard incident,
Ozz had not brought the Seagull King with him.
The Seagull King had been responsible for following Caesar to make sure everything stayed under Ozz's control.
After all, using children for human experiments was a little too beastly. If Ozz had not seen it, then fine. But since he had, he might as well take care of it.
After all, Ozz was famously fond of teasing cute children.
...
So what happened back then went like this.
"Shurororororo! Watch closely, Lord Ozz, and all the giants of the Underworld! Behold my ultimate research achievement, a poison gas capable of wiping out an entire island!"
Caesar was in the middle of his excitement,
when suddenly, his body was wrapped in a claw and squeezed so hard that he could barely breathe.
"Aaaah! What's going on?!"
He struggled desperately, only to discover that he could not elementalize at all. Even the gas he tried to use for an attack was scattered by a gale that came from nowhere.
He forced his head to turn, and what he saw was a giant bird coldly staring at him.
The massive claw was coated in a thick layer of pitch-black Armament Haki, firmly pinning down his elemental body.
"What's happening... Ow, ow, ow, ow..."
The force coming from that giant claw nearly kneaded him into noodles.
This sudden change naturally caught the attention of the many Underworld bosses watching.
They frowned, wondering who dared interfere with a weapon experiment. How bold.
Then the camera slowly shifted.
Appearing on screen was a giant bird they were all far too familiar with.
"..."
Everyone connected through the Transponder Snails hung up at the same time.
Caesar was stunned stupid, his eyes almost popping out.
"You bastards..."
"Wait, wait, wait, Lord Seagull! There must be some misunderstanding here!"
By the time Luffy and the others arrived, a seagull was standing in midair, staring down at the man Lord Ozz had told it to properly discipline.
His research ability was already far inferior to Vegapunk's. That was one thing.
But he was even using Ozz's name to carry out human experiments using children as material.
The Seagull King struck with a heavy fist.
"Gah!"
The Seagull King saw Luffy and the others come in. The two sides exchanged a look, and every hair on Luffy's body instantly stood on end.
Because he knew this bird.
It was Uncle Ozz's bird, the one that had appeared during the Summit War.
"Wait, Luffy!"
Chopper suddenly stood in front of Luffy's raised fist.
Because he understood what the Seagull King had said.
"You there, raccoon dog and monkey. Come over and keep fighting!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"