The harbor remained busy for hours after the battle ended.
The two pirate ships were secured without being sunk, and the surviving townspeople were released from holds so overcrowded that many could barely stand when the doors opened.
Marine lifeboats carried them toward the least damaged section of the waterfront, while the Heart Pirates treated dehydration, broken bones, and wounds suffered during their capture.
Z-1 was still afloat, though only barely.
Its bow had been torn open, two decks had flooded, and most of the forward guns were ruined, but Ain organized the surviving recruits with the discipline Zephyr had drilled into them.
The dead were recovered first. The wounded followed. Only after everyone had been accounted for did the Marines begin stabilizing the ship for the eventual arrival of G-9.
Zaraki spent most of that time inside the Polar Tang.
Law had ordered him onto an operating table the moment Nozarashi returned to its sealed form, and this time Zaraki lacked enough strength to make the usual argument convincing.
The fight with Weevil had reopened injuries from Kaido, Mihawk, and Little Garden, while the final controlled slash had drained far more of his strength than he intended to admit.
"You are fortunate," Law said while closing the wound beneath Zaraki's ribs. "Another few centimeters and the muscle would have torn away from the bone again."
Zaraki lay with one arm folded behind his head.
"You've said I'm fortunate three times since Dressrosa. Starting to sound like you believe it."
"I believe I have repeatedly prevented your stupidity from becoming fatal. That is not luck. It is unpaid labor."
"You're getting a front-row seat to every decent fight."
"I would rather be paid."
Bepo stood beside the medical instruments, passing Law whatever he requested and trying not to look at the blood.
"Captain, technically Mr. Zaraki did help us find two possible Warlord candidates."
Law did not look away from the operation.
"Bepo, do not encourage him."
"Sorry."
"And stop apologizing for accurate observations."
Bepo hesitated.
"Sorry—"
Law closed his eyes.
Zaraki laughed, then winced when the movement pulled at the fresh repair.
Once Law finished, Zaraki sat up slowly and looked through the open door toward the neighboring treatment room.
Zephyr rested on a second operating table with his shoulder heavily bandaged.
Law had stopped the bleeding and stabilized the torn vessels, but the old amputation combined with the fresh damage around the prosthetic mount left the former Admiral facing months of treatment and another mechanical replacement.
Ain sat beside him, while Binz occupied a nearby cot with his chest wrapped in bandages. Both officers looked exhausted, but alive.
Zaraki opened the system shop privately.
His balance still stood at 4,380 points.
The rewards from the battle had not yet appeared; the system usually waited until immediate combat and pursuit had ended before completing its evaluation.
The same green item remained available.
**[System-Enhanced Senzu Bean]**
**[Effect: Restores physical injuries, lost stamina, and missing tissue. Effect adapts to the user's body size.]**
**[Price: 750 points.]**
Zaraki purchased one.
**[One System-Enhanced Senzu Bean purchased.]**
**[750 points deducted.]**
**[Current points: 3,630.]**
The bean appeared inside his closed hand.
No one saw the shop, the deduction, or the system messages.
Law only noticed Zaraki looking briefly at empty space before standing and entering Zephyr's treatment room.
Ain rose from her chair.
"You should still be lying down."
"So should he."
"That isn't an answer."
"It's the one you're getting."
Zephyr opened his eye and looked at him.
"You seem disappointed that I'm conscious."
"I was disappointed you let that idiot tear off the arm."
Zephyr's mouth pulled into a grim line.
"I was busy keeping him from tearing through my students."
"That part worked better."
The simple acknowledgment quieted the room.
Zephyr's gaze moved toward the corridor where injured recruits were being treated, and grief settled heavily across his face.
"Not well enough."
Zaraki did not offer the kind of comfort Zephyr would have rejected. He held out the bean instead.
"Eat this."
Law entered behind him and immediately frowned.
"Another one?"
"You complained last time because I used them before you could study them."
"I complained because they made no medical sense."
"Then watch more closely."
Zephyr looked from the bean to Law.
"What is it?"
"Something that restored two severed giant arms in seconds," Law said. "I still object to the sentence I just spoke, but it is accurate."
Ain stared at Zaraki.
"You had something like that while Instructor Zephyr was bleeding out?"
"I was fighting the man who made him bleed."
"That was not what I meant."
Zaraki's expression remained steady.
"I had two before. I used both. This one cost me enough that I'd rather not waste it while everyone argues."
The mention of cost was vague enough that none of them could identify what he meant.
Law recognized the familiar refusal to explain and did not press him in front of the Marines.
Zephyr reached out with his left hand and took the bean.
"If this is some kind of joke, brat, I will make you rebuild Z-1 by hand."
"You'll need both hands for that."
Zephyr gave a rough snort and swallowed it.
The effect began almost immediately.
Warmth spread through his body, closing the wounds Weevil had inflicted and restoring the blood and stamina lost during the battle.
Beneath the bandage, the old scarred tissue of his right shoulder changed.
Bone extended outward, followed by muscle, nerves, blood vessels, and skin.
The process was rapid enough to make Ain rise from her chair and Law expand ROOM on instinct so he could observe every stage.
Within seconds, a complete right arm had formed.
Zephyr stared at the hand as though it belonged to someone else. His fingers opened slowly, then closed into a fist.
The restored muscles responded with the strength and coordination of a limb that had never been lost.
The exhaustion had vanished from his face as well.
His body was physically restored, though nothing in the bean could erase the grief in his eye or the knowledge of the students who had died.
Ain covered her mouth.
Binz pushed himself upright despite the pain in his chest.
"Instructor..."
Zephyr turned the new hand over once, then looked at Zaraki.
"For years, I told recruits there was no miracle waiting to undo the consequences of battle."
"There usually isn't," Zaraki replied. "That's why you shouldn't get careless just because you found one."
Law folded his arms.
"I cannot believe you are the person delivering that warning."
"It's good advice."
"You have ignored it in every battle I've watched."
"That doesn't make it wrong."
A faint, unwilling laugh escaped Ain before she could stop it.
The sound died quickly when she looked toward the treatment rooms beyond them, but the tension in her shoulders eased.
Zephyr studied Zaraki for a long moment.
"You saved everyone who was still alive when you arrived," he said. "You also gave my students a chance to bring the captives out of those ships instead of watching another town die in front of them. I won't forget that."
Zaraki shrugged.
"Weevil was in my way, and Law was already there to pick everyone up."
Law's eyes narrowed.
"That is a remarkably generous description of you ordering my submarine directly into a battlefield."
"Yet you came."
"Against my better judgment."
"Your judgment keeps doing that."
Before Law could answer, a familiar mechanical tone sounded inside Zaraki's mind.
**[Combat evaluation completed.]**
**[Edward Weevil, prospective Warlord candidate, eliminated.]**
**[Evaluation: S.]**
**[System points obtained: 8,000.]**
**[Current points: 11,630.]**
A second notice followed.
**[Miss Buckin eliminated.]**
**[Evaluation: E.]**
**[System points obtained: 50.]**
**[Current points: 11,680.]**
Then came a third message.
**[Nozarashi control assessment updated.]**
**[The host successfully divided a large-scale attack, redirected the resulting force away from allied targets, and completed the intended finishing cut without uncontrolled collateral damage.]**
**[Control proficiency improved.]**
There was no synchronization increase. The completed template remained complete.
Zaraki's gaze lingered on the new balance.
The Premium Blind Box still waited in the shop, its countdown reduced by a little under three hours since it first appeared.
More than twenty-one hours remained, which was plenty of time, but Zaraki had never been known for patience when something interesting was already within reach.
He dismissed the interface before anyone noticed the pause.
Zephyr flexed his restored arm again.
"There is something else we need to discuss once the wounded are settled."
Zaraki glanced at him.
"If it's another thank-you, once was enough."
"It concerns Weevil's origin."
That caught Law's attention as well.
Zephyr looked toward the satchel and sealed papers recovered from Buckin's boat, now resting on a table outside the treatment room under Marine guard.
"I had been investigating him before Sengoku sent this evaluation order. What we recovered today may finally explain why a man with that kind of strength appeared without any history behind him."
Zaraki's golden eyes sharpened.
"Now that sounds more interesting."