"Vice Admiral! They're charging straight at us!" a Marine reported.
Rosinante nervously pulled out his pistol.
His hands were shaking so badly that he could barely hold it steady.
Aiden also "nervously" gripped the hilt of his sword.
He had already prepared himself for a boarding battle. In his head, he was calculating how much strength he should use to make it look convincing while "accidentally" killing a few more pirates.
However, Sakazuki had no intention of giving them the chance to board.
He simply watched the pirate ship coldly as it drew closer.
The pirates had already started firing, but their cannonballs all missed by a ridiculous margin.
When the two ships were still nearly a thousand meters apart, Sakazuki raised his right arm, now covered in lava.
The moment he lifted his hand, Aiden's Observation Haki picked up a terrifying heat gathering in the air.
At the same time, his Haki pierced through the pirate ship and clearly sensed what was hidden deeper inside the cabin.
There were not only dozens of pirates there, but also several civilians.
Their life signs were faint. It was obvious they had already suffered terrible abuse.
Alarm bells rang in Aiden's mind.
He suddenly turned to look at Sakazuki.
With Sakazuki's strength, there was no way he had failed to notice them.
But Sakazuki's expression did not change in the slightest.
Oh no. He's going to steal my kills.
The thought flashed through Aiden's mind for only an instant before it was replaced by a much angrier one.
He's going to kill the civilians too...!
A second later, a massive fist of lava shot across the sky.
Trailing fire and black smoke, it moved even faster than a cannonball.
Before Rosinante could even react, the lava fist slammed straight into the center of the pirate ship.
There was no earth-shaking explosion.
There was only a loud sizzle.
The wooden pirate ship and the dozens of pirates on it were like trash thrown into a furnace.
They did not even have time to scream before the extreme heat melted, ignited, and vaporized them on the spot.
A few seconds later, only boiling seawater remained, along with a few charred fragments still burning on the surface.
Wiped out.
The deck fell deathly silent.
Clang.
The pistol slipped from Rosinante's hand and hit the deck.
His face turned paper-white. Looking at the boiling sea, his stomach lurched.
He rushed to the railing, grabbed it with both hands, and started retching.
His whole body was shaking.
Only one thought remained in his mind.
This... this isn't justice... this is slaughter...
Behind him, Aiden was also stunned.
He did not throw up, but his whole body trembled slightly, and his face had gone somewhat pale.
Rosinante was pale from disgust and fear.
Aiden, however, was furious.
He clenched his fists so hard that his nails nearly dug into his palms.
This bastard... he even wiped out the innocent victims?!
Aiden did not think of himself as some kind of saint.
For the sake of his Sin Index, he could kill pirates without mercy.
But treating innocent people kidnapped by pirates the same way and destroying them along with the rest...
Is this your "Absolute Justice"...?
Sakazuki slowly turned around.
The lava on his arm was still sizzling.
He saw Rosinante vomiting so hard he could barely stand. A flash of undisguised contempt crossed his dark eyes.
Then he looked at the other recruit.
Aiden was also trembling slightly and looked pale.
Sakazuki assumed he was scared as well. Since he had at least managed not to vomit on the spot, Sakazuki gave him the bare minimum of approval.
"There is no need for even a trace of mercy or hesitation toward evil."
"Your internship has just begun. Over the next three months, I will teach you what justice really is."
After saying that, Sakazuki ignored both recruits.
He bit down on his cigar and turned to walk back into the cabin.
He did not even bother ordering the crew to salvage the wreckage.
With the power of his Magma-Magma Fruit, nothing worth salvaging would be left behind.
Only after Sakazuki's figure disappeared completely did Rosinante shakily rise from the railing.
He slumped onto the deck, breathing hard, his face still white as paper.
Aiden remained where he was.
Slowly, he loosened his clenched fists and took a deep breath of the sulfur-tainted air.
That night, in Aiden and Rosinante's dormitory.
The atmosphere was unbearably heavy.
Rosinante had not eaten a single bite all day.
He just sat blankly on his bunk without saying a word.
Aiden sat calmly at the desk, slowly wiping down his blade.
This was a habit he had picked up from Gion. It helped him keep his mind absolutely calm.
"Aiden..."
At last, Rosinante spoke in a hoarse voice.
Aiden paused for a moment.
"Don't... don't you think that went too far?" Rosinante suddenly looked up.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice shook with confusion.
"He didn't even try to board them. He didn't even try to arrest them..." he said through clenched teeth.
"He just... he just burned them all. Every last one of them!"
"How is that any different from being a pirate?!"
Hearing that, Aiden set down both his sword and the cloth.
He turned around and looked calmly at Rosinante, who seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
"There is a difference," Aiden said flatly.
"Pirates act for their own greed. Vice Admiral Sakazuki acts for the justice he believes in."
"That's still not..." Rosinante tried to argue.
"Rosinante," Aiden cut him off, "the reason you feel disgusted, and the reason you think it's wrong, is because you're too weak."
Rosinante froze.
"...What?"
"Why is Vice Admiral Sakazuki able to do this?" Aiden's voice was as cold as iron.
"Because he has power."
"He has the power to decide everything. We're just two interns. We don't even have the right to vomit in front of him."
Rosinante was shaken by those cruel but realistic words.
Aiden stood up, walked over, and looked down at him.
"If you don't want things like this to happen again, and if you want to save people with your kind of gentle justice, then work hard and get stronger."
"Become stronger than him. Strong enough that... he'll have no choice but to hear you."
Rosinante stared at Aiden blankly.
There was no emotion in Aiden's dark eyes, and yet they carried a strange power that seemed to see through everything.
"...Get stronger..."
Rosinante slowly clenched his fists.
The trembling in his body seemed to have found a direction.
"I understand..." He lowered his head. "Aiden, thank you."
Aiden patted him on the shoulder and said nothing more.
He did not tell Rosinante that there had been innocent civilians on that ship, people kidnapped by the pirates.
Rosinante was already close to breaking just from watching the pirates be wiped out.
Aiden had no doubt that if this golden-haired fool learned the truth, that innocent people had been killed along with them, he would have grabbed his gun and charged straight into Sakazuki's room.
That would have been suicide.
Some truths are not for the weak to know.