Rakuya and Momousagi stood atop the Red Line.
Beside them sprawled the Holy Land of the World Government.
Mary Geoise.
"Rakuya, this place is full of Celestial Dragons. Why did you bring me here?"
"To show you the truth. The evil the Marines protect. The evil the World Government shelters."
"The Marines protect evil? The Government shelters it? What are you talking about?" Momousagi had heard rumors of the Celestial Dragons' blood-soaked arrogance, but she had never seen it with her own eyes. Headquarters told them to protect the Dragons, so she had followed orders in a fog.
"System, how do I hide someone's presence?" Rakuya knew his strengths. Repulsion, gravity, a body at its peak, mastery over the sea. Stealth was not one of them. You can teach a butcher to hunt, but he will never be a fish.
Everyone excels at something and lacks something else. Rakuya's whole plan to collect strange energies was to patch those gaps.
He could slip in via water as Lord of the Sea, but that did not guarantee slipping past the Five Elders. He did not fear them. He wanted this visit to be about opening Momousagi's eyes. He would settle accounts with the Elders after.
"Hide presence? I have a method. Duration one hour. Cost: 1,000 points."
"One thousand?" Rakuya stared. "Robbery."
"Ancient system. Honest pricing."
"Two copies. One hour each." He grit his teeth and paid.
"Ding. Exchanged. Deducted 2,000 points. Remaining: 11,000."
Rakuya's lip twitched. Two thousand points gone for the lesson he wanted to teach. So be it.
"Conceal."
A thin gray haze wrapped him. To the naked eye he vanished, and even his presence thinned to nothing, as if he had never existed at all.
He shrouded Momousagi the same way.
"Huh? What is this on me?" She looked down at the film around her body, wide-eyed.
"A divine tool. It hides your body and your breath. Even your voice is smothered. Observation Haki cannot find you. Aside from me, no one in this world will notice you."
"That miraculous?" Her eyes grew rounder.
"It is."
"I don't believe it."
"Ignorance is normal. Try it and see."
Hidden from sight and sense, they glided into Mary Geoise. Not even the Five Elders twitched.
They stepped into a lavish estate. Slaves and Dragons moved about, oblivious.
"Filthy trash. You've disgraced me," snarled a Celestial Dragon as he swept in from the door. A slave crawled behind him on bleeding knees, his movements quick from practice.
"Your Grace, this slave is useless," said a man in gold-rimmed spectacles at the Dragon's side, voice slick with flattery. "He made you lose face before Saint Charlos. It is entirely this beast's fault."
"Your Grace, please, mercy," the slave begged, body a lattice of wounds, skin tight on bone. "I was starving. I had no strength. If I eat I can win next time. Give me one more chance."
Once a pirate, he had been caught and collared for a Dragon. He feared death too much to stop living.
"Useless garbage. You humiliated me before Saint Charlos, let him mock me, and you think you walk away?" The Dragon's eyes burned red.
"Ross. Behead this trash. Drag him out and feed him to the dogs."
"No. Please, no. I don't want to die." The slave's howl tore at the air.
Beside Rakuya, Momousagi's face twisted. "This is too much."
Before Rakuya could speak, men hauled the slave away. Moments later, right under their invisible noses, they carved him apart and shoveled the meat to the hounds.
Momousagi shook, then pressed herself into Rakuya's chest and wept.
"This is the world," he said softly. "Only the strong get a voice. Under the Government's shelter, the Dragons strut and spit. Do you still think the Marines' every act is justice?"
"I… I don't know. What if this is an exception? What if only this Dragon is like this? What if that pirate had done terrible things and deserved it? Then we Marines are still justice."
Her heart warred with itself.
"Is that so? Fine. I'll show you more. But this Dragon is mine."
Rakuya lifted his chin, stepped in front of the Celestial Dragon, and slapped him.
Crack.
The sound snapped through the courtyard. The Dragon pinwheeled, hit stone, and coughed blood, curling up in pain.
Rakuya had held back. Otherwise the man would already be a corpse.
"Who?" The Dragon's voice broke as he screamed, terror trumping pain.
Ross, the man in spectacles, went green. His eyes shone with pure fear.
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