"The Pirate King, huh… not getting the chance to cross swords with him was truly a regret."
Mihawk folded his arms across his chest and murmured to himself.
"Fufufufufu… this trip was really worth it. Even the final curtain performance was this breathtaking."
Doflamingo covered his face and burst into laughter.
Beside him, Crocodile felt utterly embarrassed. She turned around and left.
"Hey!!! You damn Crocodile, where are you going?"
"What I do has nothing to do with you…"
Having finally come out of Impel Down, she naturally wanted to properly enjoy her freedom, and at the same time think things through—
After failing in Alabasta, how should she realize her ambitions in the future?
Orin, that guy, couldn't be relied on.
She had already realized this the second time she entered Impel Down, when he never sent any word at all.
And while Crocodile merely glanced at Orin and walked straight away, the other Shichibukai headed toward Orin's direction.
"Goodbye, Buggy, and Shanks."
Orin smiled and waved as he said farewell.
Although Shanks had gotten a bit carried away lately and even kicked him once, they had known each other for so many years that becoming enemies so easily was impossible.
It was just that…
No matter how Orin looked at him, Shanks seemed to have some kind of issue with him.
"Farewell, Orin…"
"I hope we won't ever have to cross blades again."
Shanks' gaze was extremely serious, as if the one who had been kicked into coughing blood earlier hadn't been him at all.
Then he led the Red-Haired Pirates away.
As they departed, the Red-Haired Pirates' crew members all wore complicated expressions, hesitating to speak. After glancing a few times at Orin and the Shichibukai, they followed Shanks and left.
When Shanks left, Buggy was rather reluctant.
After all, it hadn't been easy to reunite with Orin, Captain Roger, and Vice Captain Rayleigh, and to see Shanks as well. Having to part ways again so soon made him truly sad.
"Stop crying, Buggy. You're a big shot now, you know~"
"The whole world knows your name!!!"
Patting Buggy on the shoulder, Orin watched as Buggy left with Mr. 3 and a whole group of underlings who had come out of Impel Down.
As for Red the Aloof, no one knew where he had gone.
He probably saw that the war was over and left out of boredom.
The war had reached its conclusion here. Even the Whitebeard Pirates had already left in tears, carrying Whitebeard's corpse away.
Yet Orin always felt as if he had forgotten something.
What was it…
...
"Zehahahahaha!!!"
"While the Roger Pirates were reminiscing and the Marines and pirates were in total chaos cleaning up the battlefield, we decisively escaped—just as expected, we succeeded!!!"
A warship had already sailed away from Marineford.
Blackbeard casually slaughtered the Marines on board and tossed them into the sea.
Though he looked extremely disheveled, with a few more teeth knocked out, the ending was still good.
Hades… no, that bastard Orin—the sneaky bastard who had been hiding on their ship—had already disembarked, and he himself had obtained the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Seen from another angle, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"That monster… it's hard to imagine how anyone could survive if they really went up against someone like that!!!"
"That kind of powerful man—there probably isn't a single one like him in the entire Infinite Hell."
Catarina Devon forced a smile as she spoke.
As for [Heavy Drinker]Vasco Shot, this useless drunk had been kicked by Orin and still hadn't woken up.
Only Van Augur still harbored some doubts.
"Captain, are we really safe now?"
"Of course we are. After all, we're about to—"
Before Teach could finish speaking,
[Warp]
"..."
In the next instant, even Sanjuan Wolf—whose body was incomparably massive—appeared instantly in the plaza of Marineford.
Everyone from the Blackbeard Pirates broke out in cold sweat.
"Th-this is… impossible…!!!"
Blackbeard looked up.
He was sitting on shattered, broken ground, and right in front of him stood a figure, crouching down with a smiling face as he looked at him.
"Yo, Teach, you sure ran fast~"
"O-Orin!!!"
Blackbeard's mouth gaped open, his pupils trembling violently.
"You didn't forget, did you? About how you deceived me—I haven't fully settled that score with you yet~"
Although during his time using an alternate identity he had caused Blackbeard plenty of trouble and drawn countless grudges toward him—venting much of his anger in the process—and because of certain special reasons stemming from the God Valley incident he once participated in, Orin didn't actually harbor that much killing intent toward Teach, he still had to make a statement.
"Y-you… what do you want to do?!"
"Please, don't kill me!!!"
What Orin hadn't expected, however, was that in front of the entire Blackbeard crew and the Shichibukai,
Teach directly knelt down.
That bloated body collapsed to the ground, begging without the slightest dignity of a strong man.
Orin was stunned for a moment. Then his eyes narrowed slightly as he squatted down.
"Hey, Teach, do you know that with how good you are at enduring, anyone with even a bit of sense would only want to kill you even more…"
Thinking about it carefully, for someone like Blackbeard—a truly sinister, profit-driven pirate—acting in such a tyrant-like manner was actually quite reasonable.
Orin's gaze was dark and deep, without the slightest hint of softening.
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"Enough of this. We're all grown pirates—let's talk straight, Teach."
Orin could sometimes be hot-blooded, or value bonds and loyalty.
But toward someone like Teach, he felt none of that.
Teach's lowered head snapped up the moment he heard this. He clenched his teeth, ruthlessness flashing in his heart.
"Pu-chi…"
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
From the knee down, one leg snapped cleanly in two.
For Blackbeard, who was already extremely sensitive to pain, this nearly made him pass out on the spot.
Orin raised an eyebrow.
Ruthless enough!!!
Worthy of someone who could endure for decades just for the Dark-Dark Fruit.
If Orin only possessed Yonko-level or Admiral-level strength right now, he would probably have gone all out and killed him the instant he started rolling on the ground.
Because someone like this was far too dangerous.
But now that Orin was already invincible, he only found it interesting.
Because humans do not fear a clever little ant whose life they already control.
Such a vicious and ruthless character would surely put on an even more exciting show in the future.
Right?
~~
In the end, Orin still let them go, and even stopped Mihawk, who was about to unleash a Conqueror's Haki Infusion slash.
"Why?"
Hawk Eyes didn't understand. In his view, it would have been best to kill them.
"If I truly held the mindset of killing anyone who posed a threat, then all the monsters in the world would probably already be dead by my hand. But wouldn't that be terribly boring?"
Orin looked at the distant raft, madly pushing forward, and smiled brightly.
"I'm not afraid of death—but I am afraid of living a dull and tedious life."
"The stage of the new era has already been set. How could we kill off the actors?"
"Hahahahahaha!!!!"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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