Inside Sakazuki's office, heavy curtains were half-drawn, and the air was filled with a faint scent of tobacco.
Sunlight streaming in from outside cast a sharp line of light across the dark wooden desk.
"Sit," Sakazuki said curtly, walking straight to his desk and pulling out a thick stack of documents from a drawer, slapping them onto the desktop with a thud.
Gern didn't stand on ceremony, casually sitting on the sofa, while Libo looked around curiously.
She finally chose to stand behind Gern, her hands resting on his shoulders, her floppy ears swaying slightly.
"Golden Lion's Third Division Captain, 'Death Bell' David, has been taken out," Sakazuki's voice remained low, as if stating a perfectly ordinary fact.
"Oh? Taken out?" Gern's expression didn't change, he merely raised an eyebrow slightly: "That's truly... regrettable."
Sakazuki's sharp gaze swept across Gern's face, with no other meaning.
After all, Gern's matter had already been suppressed, with only Zephyr and Kong among the Marine high command knowing about it.
"Regrettable?" Sakazuki sneered, "For the Marine, this is good news.
But the problem is..." He abruptly flipped open the documents and pushed them in front of Gern.
"Now, the forces under Golden Lion are using this incident to launch large-scale attacks on World Government affiliated nations, and even ordinary island villages."
Gern lowered his head and glanced at the documents, which were densely filled with records of recent attacks.
Merchant ships plundered, villages burned, Marine patrol warships ambushed... every page was stained with blood.
"Not only that," Sakazuki's voice grew colder.
"Many pirate crews that were originally dormant have also taken the opportunity to attack our patrol warships, and even openly provoke other Marine bases."
Gern's fingers tapped lightly on the documents, lost in thought.
He had already received general intelligence from Tsuru through Gion, but only by seeing these detailed reports did he truly realize the seriousness of the problem.
Golden Lion was just a phrase, but the forces under him could not be summarized by 'just a phrase'.
These pirates, using David's death as an excuse, were madly expanding their power, burning, killing, and plundering, as if they wanted to turn the entire New World upside down.
"No wonder the World Government and the Marine didn't casually go to war with the Four Emperors later," Gern secretly sighed.
"If going to war would cause such or greater losses, then it's indeed better to let the pirates fight among themselves."
"Then why don't we directly go to war with Golden Lion?" Libo suddenly spoke, her pink eyes reflecting the photos of pirates massacring civilians attached to the documents on the table.
This was her first time seeing the so-called "pirates" that Zephyr and Gern spoke of!
These were not the adventurers Pedro used to talk about when he was with Nekomamushi and Inuarashi!!
They were cruel, inhumane, and lifeless...
"Isn't he the biggest culprit? Aren't we allies of justice?" Libo stared at Sakazuki, her pupils slightly trembling, her expression serious.
"Why should justice listen to others? Shouldn't justice come from within? These guys should just die!!"
Hearing Libo's questioning, Sakazuki merely gave her a cold glance, his heart simultaneously shaken, completely negating his initial definition of Libo as "naive" when they first met.
"Justice..." Sakazuki was about to explain, but Gern answered for Sakazuki instead.
"Because the cost is too high," Gern's finger tapped the document, "Golden Lion isn't one person, it's the entire Flying Sky Pirates and countless forces affiliated with him.
If the Marine directly goes to war with him..."
"The New World will fall into complete chaos," Sakazuki interjected, his tone grim.
"At this time, other pirates will take the opportunity to launch a furious counterattack, World Government affiliated nations will suffer even more violent retaliation.
Even the Marine's strongholds in the New World will be picked off one by one."
Gern nodded: "So, the World Government often prefers to endure rather than easily provoke an all-out war."
Hearing this, Sakazuki's fist slammed onto the desk with a dull thud.
"Endure? Heh." A hint of brutality flashed in his eyes.
"Pirates are pirates; letting them run wild will only make things worse!"
He turned his gaze to Libo, as if to formally answer her question.
"Seventeen warships attacked, six islands massacred, over three thousand civilians missing or dead (taken as slaves to be sold)."
Sakazuki's knuckles were white, and the heat of magma faintly emanated from him, making the air itself scorching.
"I care more about justice than you do!!"
Gern did not refute, merely watching Sakazuki quietly.
He knew that Sakazuki's anger was not without reason.
Allowing pirates to rampage would only harm more innocent people.
But directly going to war would cause the situation to spiral completely out of control.
This was a dilemma.
So, we must fan the flames! Let the volcano erupt! Let one more person bear the responsibility!
So Gern finally spoke, his tone calm: "So, what's your plan?"
"The order has come down," Sakazuki said to Gern, his voice low, as if squeezed through clenched teeth.
"The higher-ups demand... demand a low-key handling, to avoid escalation."
Gern leaned back on the sofa, his legs crossed, playing with a coin in his hand, the silver glinting as it flipped between his fingers.
"Oh?" He raised an eyelid, "So, we do nothing?"
Sakazuki's fist slammed onto the desk, instantly melting a charred fist print into the wooden surface.
"Those fools!" he growled, "Letting pirates run wild will only make them more rampant!"
Gern didn't reply, simply flicking the coin up and catching it steadily.
"This is a port the pirates attacked yesterday," Gern extended his index finger to the latest intelligence on the document.
"It's said they hung the villagers' heads on the mast, like wind chimes, in a whole row as trophies to show off."
Sakazuki's pupils suddenly constricted, and magma-like patterns spread across his arm.
He couldn't possibly be unaware of Gern's thoughts, so he deliberately said in a cold voice: "Gern, are you testing my bottom line?"
"Those villagers, disemboweled, where was the bottom line they saw before they died?"
"Vice Admiral Sakazuki..." Gern grinned, his eyes as cold as ice.
"They died in the safest place, where there is the most absolute justice. Do you think, before they died, their hearts were hoping for justice?"
"Gern, the order is..."
"To hell with the order!!"
"I don't want to say it a second time. I just believe that delayed justice is not worthy of being called justice!
Sakazuki! 'Justice' is already late, are we not even allowed the chance to make amends now?"
"Or..." Gern suddenly stood up, walked to the window, and yanked open the curtains.
Blinding sunlight instantly flooded the room, illuminating the four large characters "Absolute Justice" hanging on the office wall.
"Is it that your justice cannot be considered justice?!"
Faced with Gern's words, Sakazuki couldn't refute, because his territory, the civilians he protected, had been killed.
His absolute justice, Sakazuki's, was indeed late, just as Gern had said!
"Sakazuki, do you know what's most ironic?" Gern said, his back to him, but every word was like a knife.
"When weak soldiers and civilians are massacred by powerful pirates..."
"When the iron fist of justice is lost, and the wise Buddha remains silent in the face of bureaucracy."
He slowly turned, looking directly into Sakazuki's burning eyes of fury.
"At this moment, only, or rather, only the scorching, absolute magma will stand out."
The air solidified for a moment.
Sakazuki's breathing grew heavy, and magma dripped from between his fingers, sizzling with acrid smoke on the floor.
"Gern." Sakazuki showed a hint of a smile, "Are you instigating me to defy orders?"
Gern spread his hands, his smile innocent: "I just think some things... can be done without orders."
Sakazuki stared intently at him, as if trying to see through his soul.
Gern did not back down, even leaning slightly forward and lowering his voice.
"Or... does Vice Admiral Sakazuki's justice actually only follow orders?
If so, where is the absolute!? Where is the justice?!"
It was a provocation.
But extremely effective.
Sakazuki's magma suddenly erupted, and the temperature of the entire office instantly soared.
"Gern." He said each word distinctly, his voice like steel forged in a hellish furnace.
"You truly are a bastard I can't bring myself to hate."
Gern's smile widened: "Thank you for the compliment."
Sakazuki abruptly snatched the documents from the desk, and magma instantly incinerated them to ash.
"Order!" he roared, startling the messenger outside the door.
"G-3 Fleet, Level One Combat Readiness!"
Sakazuki violently tore off the cloak of justice draped over the back of his chair; the pure white fabric flapped fiercely in the air, like a battle flag, settling heavily on his broad shoulders.
"Since the World Government wants to be 'low-key'..." Sakazuki's lips curled into a ferocious arc, and magma seeped from between his fingers.
It gathered into hot, dark red bubbles, dripping onto the floor with a corrosive sizzling sound.
Gern's smile was equally dangerous; he slowly rose to face Sakazuki, his body already half-transformed into high-frequency vibrating particles.
"Then we'll send them to hell... in the quietest way possible!"