Byrnndi World panted lightly, murmuring to himself as his eyes drifted into a daze.
Instinctively, he turned to glance in a particular direction not far away.
There, a charred pile of bones was still smoldering, releasing wisps of dark smoke.
It was Byojack's corpse.
Caught in an explosion of that scale, and being weaker than most, he hadn't stood a chance.
Suddenly, Byrnndi World laughed.
"Heh... Baro...Barorororo!"
The curve of his lips twisted into madness. Laughter spilled out, laced with helplessness, resentment, despair—an overwhelming flood of mixed emotions.
Two streaks of blood-red tears trickled from his skull-like eyes, still clinging to shreds of flesh.
He stretched out his mangled, bloodied hands. Trembling and struggling, he pushed himself up from the scorched, barren earth.
He used every last ounce of strength, every bit of willpower and resolve left in his broken body, forcing himself to stand upright on unsteady legs.
His eyes swept across Sengoku, Borsalino, and the Marines rushing over with weapons drawn. With a sneer, he spat out a mouthful of blood and finally fixed his gaze on the Marine Captain.
And he laughed—wild and defiant.
This was his final moment. He refused to show a shred of weakness before death.
He drew one last breath and roared:
"Come on, Daren, do it!"
"My life... was one hell of a ride!!"
Byrnndi World threw his head back and bellowed, voice thunderous:
"Who needs last words!?"
He pulled out a silver coin and flicked it with his thumb.
The coin spun through the air, flipping over and over. In the pale winter sunlight, it reflected a series of faces:
Sengoku's solemn expression.
And Daren himself, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth...
In the frigid breeze, snowflakes danced down, only to vanish as they touched the scorched ground.
Byrnndi World stared blankly at the spinning coin. Its polished surface flashed with fragments of buried memories—
Boastful words shouted from a cliff's edge as a child staring out at the sea.
The danger of his first storm at sea.
The fear he felt facing a brutal pirate for the first time.
His first crew, first brawl, first kill...
The fierce light in Byrnndi World's eyes gradually softened.
Then, a voice—young, familiar—echoed deep within his mind.
"Look, World... this sea connects to islands and countries we've never even seen before. Isn't that amazing?"
"World, you have to sail out there one day... At the edge of this endless ocean, something unimaginable is waiting."
"You have to go in my place, explore the world, and grow strong."
The child gazed up at his confident older brother, arms raised proudly, and his own face began to glow with admiration.
Brother... I'm sorry.
Without you, even if I reached the end of the world, even if I saw every corner of this ocean... what would be the point?
Byrnndi World smiled.
He turned his face upward, embracing the sunlight and the falling snow.
A burst of blood bloomed from his chest.
The coin, having reached its apex, suddenly shot out—piercing straight through his heart.
Byrnndi World's eyes slowly closed as he collapsed to the ground.
Sengoku watched in silence, his face solemn.
By standard procedure, a pirate like Byrnndi World—one with a powerful Devil Fruit—should be captured alive and sent to Impel Down for long-term imprisonment. It was the only way to prevent such a dangerous fruit from returning to the world and falling into the hands of another ambitious pirate.
But Sengoku didn't intervene.
Because through his Observation Haki, he could already sense that Byrnndi World's life force was as faint as a thread.
No one could survive wounds like that.
Granting him this final wish—dying at Daren's hands—was Sengoku's last act of respect for a longtime rival.
The coin flipped neatly back into Daren's hand. He turned to Sengoku with a smile.
"Mission accomplished, Admiral Sengoku."
Sengoku blinked, then quickly turned to his subordinates and ordered:
"Move out! Sink the last remaining pirate ship of the Ward Pirates! Wipe out every last one of them!"
Daren gave a tired smile, pulling a blood-stained Den Den Mushi from his coat and dialing in.
"...Commander Daren," came Momonga's steady voice from the other end.
The moment he finished speaking, Sengoku instinctively looked up, a strange premonition flashing across his face.
One of the North Blue Fleet's warships, still hovering in the sky, adjusted its heading.
A black missile extended from the ship's side.
A blast of orange-red flame erupted from the missile's tail as it launched from the ship, trailing a long exhaust plume as it streaked across the sky toward a distant point at sea.
Two seconds later, a muffled explosion echoed in the distance, and flickers of firelight rose through the dense sea fog.
Sengoku stared in stunned disbelief.
What the hell... was that?
"Reporting to Commander Daren, the target has been sunk."
Momonga's voice came through once more.
Daren laughed and hung up, then turned back to Sengoku.
"Reporting, Admiral Sengoku. Mission complete."
"During this operation against the World Pirates, the North Blue Fleet sank five enemy ships and killed over three thousand pirates. Captain Byrnndi World and First Mate Byojack were executed on the spot."
"North Blue Fleet casualties: zero."
Sengoku opened his mouth, but no words came.
Before he could reply, Daren suddenly wobbled. His vision went black—and he collapsed backward to the ground.
"Where's the doctor?! Bring the ship's doctor!!"
Shouts of panic rang out from the surrounding Marines.
"So it's over, huh..."
Borsalino looked at the unconscious Marine Captain and smiled.
"Yeah... it's really over," Sengoku murmured, dazed, like waking from a dream.
"You know, Admiral Sengoku... it kinda feels like whether you were here or not didn't make much of a difference," Borsalino commented casually.
Sengoku was hit like lightning.
Aside from shouting "stop him," he'd... basically done nothing.
At least Borsalino, that unreliable goofball, had shown up in time to save Daren's life and bought some time against Byrnndi World.
Was this whole World Pirate takedown... really unrelated to him? ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoveI~Fire.net
Was he... irrelevant?
As Sengoku stood there, shell-shocked by the absurd realization, he met Borsalino's smug grin—and his face turned the color of liver.
He snapped, flustered and angry:
"Dammit! What kind of look is that!?"
"I was... I was holding the line, Borsalino! You don't know anything about strategy!"
"If I hadn't had the foresight to push past objections and hand command over to Captain Daren, do you think this operation would've gone so smoothly?!"
Having blurted that out, he turned and stormed toward the warship—practically fleeing.
His footsteps were quick and heavy.
Borsalino watched Sengoku's retreating figure and smiled faintly.
Then he looked down at the Marine Captain being carried away on a stretcher, and muttered softly:
"You always find a way to make the impossible seem easy, don't you?"
p@treon com / PinkSnake