Rumble—
Amid commotion like the earth turning over, Tesoro slowly woke up.
The moment he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Tanaka's loyal face.
"Lord Tesoro!"
Tanaka cried out in delight, the unease in his heart rapidly settling down.
If the boss had died, he would have had to find a new job all over again.
"…"
Tesoro remained silent at first, staring up at the sky as he felt the terrible state of his injuries.
Then, in a hoarse voice that rose with the trembling earth, he asked,
"Is it an earthquake right now?"
"No. It's a Devil Fruit user."
"From the Donquixote Family?"
"No."
"Report the situation. I want to know everything that happened here. You've been with me a long time. You should be able to guess the real reason behind my sudden actions."
Tesoro closed his eyes, as if waiting for something.
"…I understand."
Tanaka hesitated for a moment, then honestly recounted everything he had seen.
At the end, he gave a summary of it all.
"In short, the Donquixote Family is finished.
Doflamingo himself has disappeared. We only found a few feathers, but from the look of it, they seem to have been left behind deliberately.
I'm sorry that I didn't witness Doflamingo's death with my own eyes, so I can't confirm whether he's really dead.
That man named Ren… he was far more terrifying than when we met him before.
To the point that… even getting close to him felt like an impossible dream… like… the sun itself.
The Beasts Pirates suffered a devastating loss. Aside from King and Kaido himself, the only thing left of the others were charred remains.
Even for Zoan Devil Fruit users, they probably don't have any chance of surviving.
But the Demon Pirates—"
Before Tanaka could finish, Tesoro suddenly interrupted him.
"Call them Ren's group."
Tesoro corrected him coldly.
There was no longer any need to distinguish them as the Demon Pirates, because that unbelievable man did not like being treated as a pirate.
If it had been before, there would have been no reason to correct that.
Making an enemy unhappy was exactly what he ought to do.
But now it was different. Completely different.
Even after Tesoro had pushed himself to his absolute limit, Ren had still calmly accomplished his objective and escaped.
There was no doubt that this gamble had ended in his defeat.
Even if the Ren Tanaka spoke of had not defeated one of the Four Emperors, that still did not mean the other side had lost.
At the end of the day, the condition for victory in this gamble had never been to defeat a Yonko.
As long as the other side did not lose, that was enough.
After all, Ren had not been the one who won.
But the person who lost was not him either.
"This is…"
Tanaka was somewhat surprised, but wisely chose not to ask more questions and simply continued recounting everything he had seen.
"But Ren's group didn't obtain victory either. What happened afterward on the Dressrosa battlefield was far too bizarre.
It wasn't just a Yonko. A blind man also appeared, and then a Marine Admiral showed up too.
One of the three Admirals—Kizaru, Borsalino.
Three sides—no, it should be four sides—stood in opposition, and then chaos broke out. One of them used a Devil Fruit ability to move the battlefield into the sky.
And in the end, for some reason…
I, along with the people near me—no, you could say everyone within this entire country—
for a period of time afterward, forgot the existence of 'Ren's group.'
It was just like… a Devil Fruit ability. As if their existence had been temporarily erased from memory.
After around two hours, which is to say, only now, our memories came back."
As he spoke, the earth shook once again.
Tesoro, who had remained silent the whole time, frowned slightly before sitting up.
"Then what's causing the disturbance now?"
"…One of the parties involved in the battle—that blind man—has returned to this country. And with his Devil Fruit ability… no, I should say he's reconstructing it."
Tanaka pointed toward the far end of a sea of ruins, his expression grave.
"He's monstrously strong. Earlier, Ren's fight with the Yonko destroyed part of Dressrosa's land.
But now it looks like he's already repaired and stabilized it."
At the end of that awed gaze—
Issho, dressed in a purple kimono, silently walked across the scarred land.
Invisible yet tangible gravity turned into countless enormous hands, smoothing over the wounds of Dressrosa.
That volcano, still glowing red with magma, was moved away by him and used to fill in the shattered rock walls.
This prevented the New World's harsh weather from pouring through the broken gaps in the cliffs and continuing to ravage the land.
As for the sunken foundations around the colosseum, Issho took the rubble from the collapsed bridges as materials.
Then, using his overwhelming gravity, he forcibly compressed and leveled them into place.
Dressrosa was being repaired at an astonishing speed, and the only cost was that its many-angled rock walls had turned into rounded ones.
While he worked, tens of thousands of Dressrosans saw it.
They saw that wherever the blind man passed, things returned to normal.
The people of Dressrosa were currently in utter confusion.
A king who should have been dead had reappeared. Along with him came lost memories, and people who had turned back from toys into humans.
The rumors of Dressrosa's fairies had turned out to be true, the truth from nearly ten years ago had been brought to light, and even King Riku's return to the throne had happened.
Everything had come too suddenly, so suddenly that everyone was left dazed in disbelief.
But they could still understand. They could still see.
That man—
that blind man… no, their benefactor—
was repairing this nation and cleaning up the wreckage left behind by those powerful figures.
No matter who it was, upon seeing Issho, they would kneel with tears in their eyes and thank him.
Some even chased after his footsteps, trying to offer him their gratitude.
Issho accepted it all in silence.
And after finishing everything, he left behind those offerings of thanks and quietly disappeared from the people's sight.
Meanwhile, Tesoro boarded a new ship, escorted by Marine warships that had responded to his request for help.
An Admiral also appeared before him, though it was not Kuzan, whom he had requested, but a rather weary-looking Kizaru.
But that did not matter.
Sitting in the most luxurious room, Tesoro lit a cigar and silently gazed out the window.
The sea before him was one he had long since grown tired of, the same as ever.
Yet now, in his eyes, it carried an inexplicable new shade.
Was that… anticipation?
"So even I can have a moment like this?"
Tesoro suddenly laughed.
He laughed as though he had gone mad, laughed so hard that tears streamed down his face.
Tanaka rushed over immediately, only to be waved away with a flick of his hand.
Left alone, Tesoro continued laughing, until that laughter and weeping twisted into something almost hysterical.
At a certain moment, Tesoro abruptly raised his head and expressionlessly wiped away the tears and mucus from his face.
He stood before the mirror, staring at his reflection, murderous intent blazing in his eyes.
"Sooner or later… I'll kill all of you."
It was calm. Flat. Not the roar of a defeated man, but the statement of a fact.
Tesoro gradually quieted down, then called Tanaka over and began making preparations.
If someone can achieve something like that before even reaching twenty, then there's nothing wrong with allowing myself to hope, is there?
In that case, I can't let that man down.
At this moment, that thought became what remained in Tesoro's heart.
He did not even spare a glance for Kizaru, who pushed the door open, apparently intending to say something.
That left Borsalino rather puzzled.
People like nobles and royalty were usually arrogant and self-centered, a tremendous nuisance, especially after encountering danger.
One of his original tasks had been to protect Tesoro during the rescue operation.
After all, the man was still a king of a World Government-affiliated nation.
And as someone who operated in the underworld, he should have been even better at exploiting the rules for profit.
For example, he could have accused the World Government of negligence because Kizaru had failed to protect him immediately, and demanded compensation from Marine Headquarters.
But… Tesoro did not seem to have any such intention.
That kind of situation was actually quite rare.
Well, if that's the case, then that's one less headache for me. I'll go get a bowl of ramen.
Borsalino strolled away leisurely.
The main reason was that he did not want to go back and write reports.
Fighting a Yonko meant one report, sure, but that was not all that important.
They were already old acquaintances. He had crossed hands with Kaido who knew how many times before Kaido even became a Yonko.
What was really troublesome was Ren's group…
Sengoku had been hounding him for a report on that the whole time.
But—
Borsalino had no idea how to even begin writing it.
They had been fighting just fine, and then suddenly he forgot about them.
Even if he could blame it on a Devil Fruit ability, he would still probably just get cursed out for being careless.
At his level of Haki, he should have been able to basically ignore the effects of any Devil Fruit ability below the level of an awakened user.
And yet, unexpectedly, this time he had fallen for it without even noticing.
"What in the world was that ability?
Not just me—even Kaido and that blind gentleman were affected by it… come to think of it, I'll have to write a report about the blind man too…"
Borsalino let out a sigh. He no longer wanted to think about any of it.
Why did people have to write reports in the first place?
Forget it. Better to eat ramen first…
Tap—tap—tap.
The blind man's cane struck the ground as he appeared in a dark alley far from the crowd.
He had avoided the throngs of people chasing after him.
For Issho, gratitude was not something he needed.
He simply did not want to see tragedies happen, nor hear the cries of people being tormented.
But he had to come here.
Because of the confusion that had followed him from the very beginning of all this.
Is it here?
Standing at the entrance to the alley, Issho locked onto that unique presence with his Observation Haki.
That person was sitting in a corner of the alley, relaxed—so relaxed that he might as well have been lounging.
After all, he was the one who had deliberately leaked his presence to invite him here.
Was it really so… natural for him?
As though nothing had ever strayed beyond his calculations…
Issho remained silent, then slowly walked in.
The sunlight disappeared behind him.
Shadows swallowed him whole.
And at the end of the dim alley—
a small stool was offered to him.
"Would you like to sit?"
"…"
The blind man silently "looked" at the stool.
After a moment of thought, he accepted it and sat down.
The person in the darkness chuckled softly, not revealing any particular attitude.
"Sir…"
It seemed Issho wanted to ask many things, but in the end, all of it condensed into a single question.
"…Did you do all of this for justice?"
"No."
The man gave a light laugh, scarlet eyes calm as an abyss.
"It was for an arrogant ambition, Mr. Issho.
I am not a companion of justice, nor am I someone who saves those trapped in tragedy.
I am merely—
a madman whose arrogant ambition is to stand above all things.
That is all."
(End of Chapter)