Chapter 771: The Perpetrator and the Victim
Lowering his head slightly, Ian glanced at his blade, where blood was dripping down drop by drop.
Even the famous Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, the blood flowing within his body was still red...
To be honest, Ian hadn't originally planned to kill Akainu; he had only intended to force the Marines to make way.
But... Ian had underestimated this guy Akainu's obsession. Throughout his entire career in the Marines, he had never tasted defeat, but during the Battle of New Edd War, he lost both hands at Ian's hands...
For Akainu, this was an immense humiliation, and because of this defeat, his succession to Sengoku's position as Fleet Admiral had been highly controversial.
For Akainu to prove himself, the only way was to defeat Ian...
As the saying goes, what you sow is what you reap. Normally, Ian stayed in the New World, and Akainu had no opportunity. He couldn't exactly go to the New World himself as Fleet Admiral to settle the score with Ian, could he? So this time, Ian coming to Marineford was Akainu's best chance.
With Akainu's cold and ruthless personality, he knew full well that starting a war with Ian, a Yonko, at Marineford would destroy the entire Marine Headquarters and cause massive casualties among the soldiers. But in his philosophy, without sacrifice, where is victory?
However, cold-blooded as he was, you had to admit that Akainu was indeed a fierce warrior. Even after being hit by the ultra-spec Amaterasu unleashed by Ian and Little Ian together, suffering severe injuries, he didn't back down and still chose to continue fighting Ian.
Ian couldn't judge whether Akainu was good or bad, but he understood that Akainu's personality would truly lead the Marines into the abyss...
A cold and ruthless approach to commanding the military might be a sharp blade against external enemies, but it was also a heavy burden internally. What was the soul of the Marines? Vice Admirals? Admirals? Or the Fleet Admiral?
None of them! It was the vast number of ordinary Marine soldiers! These soldiers were just ordinary people. Though trained, they couldn't become as strong as you, Akainu. When you knew the opponent was powerful, you should have kept them away from the war, not sent them to their deaths!
If this was how he treated Ian, wouldn't it be the same with other pirates? As the casualty rate among soldiers rose higher and higher, how many people would still aspire to become Marines in the future?
The Marines had weakened—this was an undeniable fact. Yet Akainu had no thought of letting the Marines recuperate. If he kept stirring things up like this, the Marines would surely suffer a severe blow to their vitality!
So, when Akainu stood up again and stubbornly fought Ian, Ian didn't admire him. Instead, he felt that this personality was truly unfit to be the Fleet Admiral...
Strictly speaking, Ian had no ill will toward the Marines. Even though he himself was a pirate, he also despised those vicious and evil pirates, and it was precisely because of the Marines that these evil forces were suppressed. This merit could never be erased.
Because of this, Ian had said before that he never considered the Marines his enemies. In fact, he had many friends among them: Tina, Smoker, old man Garp, and even Aokiji counted.
But after Akainu took power, these people were gradually driven away, and the Marines drifted further and further down the path of being the World Government's lapdogs.
Ian didn't want the Marines, who originally upheld the ideal of justice, to have their ideals twisted beyond recognition under Akainu's leadership. Aokiji and Zephyr had already joined forces, and his own sister Kuina was also among them. Ian didn't know what the whole world would become in the future, but he had a vague premonition that they would all return—return to the Marines!
When that time came, Ian hoped they could take over the Marines and maintain this organization. And after they returned, he certainly didn't want them to take over a rotten, hollow shell of a Marine force...
And Akainu was in the way! So, at the last moment, Ian suddenly decided to kill him.
Everything happened very suddenly. Before this, not only had Ian never thought he would kill Akainu, but Akainu himself never expected he would die...
But now, the outcome was settled, and Ian had no regrets.
Lifting his head, Ian looked at Kizaru but said nothing. Kizaru also looked back at him in silence, his face no longer bearing a smile.
With Aokiji gone and Akainu fallen, among the senior Marine Admirals, Kizaru had become the only candidate to succeed as Fleet Admiral. With Akainu dead, the position was practically within Kizaru's grasp.
But for some reason, Kizaru couldn't feel happy at all!
That's right, he had once thought about vying for the Fleet Admiral position. As one of the three Marine Admirals, Kizaru didn't think he was any inferior to Aokiji and Akainu. In fact, he always believed that he, the Glint-Glint Fruit user, was the strongest among the three Admirals.
However, after Sengoku stepped down, he didn't get the Fleet Admiral's seat. Aokiji had the appreciation and recommendation of former Fleet Admiral Sengoku, while Akainu had the support of the Five Elders of the World Government. As for him, no one cared—no one supported his rise.
This was why he had always been sowing discord between Aokiji and Akainu... He thought that if they fought each other to a standstill over the position, he might be able to benefit from it.
Now, Kizaru seemed to have finally gotten his wish, but the problem was, this wasn't the result he wanted!
Aokiji had left, Akainu was dead. His two former comrades from the same era had been torn apart from him, even separated by life and death. At this moment, Kizaru's heart was filled with an empty sense of loss.
That's how people are—they only cherish things when they lose them. When they could still see each other, they schemed and plotted. Only when they realized they could never see them again did they understand that their old friends were gone...
Kizaru seemed to have aged many years in an instant. He let out a heavy sigh, stepped forward, and under Ian's gaze, bent down to lift Akainu's half-destroyed body, draped one of his shoulders over his own, turned around, and walked away.
Watching the two leave, all Ian could see was the purple flower tattoo on Akainu's back, now stained red with blood, and hear Kizaru's sigh.
"Akainu, you bastard, your beloved potted plants finally belong to me. But don't worry, I'll take good care of them for you..."
The sea breeze blew, accompanied by a clamor of voices, breaking the silence of Marineford's plaza. Ian turned around and saw Hogkin leading the members of the Ian Family as they finally landed.
Almost all the family members had been gripping their weapons nervously as their ship approached Marine Headquarters. But when they got closer, they found that the anticipated battle with the main Marine force hadn't happened. Instead, the sea around Marineford was littered with wreckage of Marine ships, the plaza was covered with the bodies of Marine soldiers, and the various buildings of Marine Headquarters looked as if they had been sliced by some monster.
A gruesome sight!
So after landing, everyone was shouting in shock and confusion.
But then, they spotted a single figure standing in the plaza. When they realized it was their own boss, the family members joyfully surrounded him, chattering and asking Ian questions.
They knew their boss must have fought the Marines, and it seemed he had won—the countless Marine corpses on the ground were proof.
But... they had no idea what they had missed...
Ian had no intention of boasting about his achievements. He just smiled at them and said, "Let's go. Now, no one dares to stop us."
And indeed, as Ian led the family members toward the main road leading to Mary Geoise, the surviving Marine soldiers all scrambled to get out of their way. When they reached Mary Geoise, it was already deserted. The "Gate of Heaven" had long been opened by World Government officials.
The news of Akainu's death had already been reported to the World Government. The Five Elders felt a terror they had never experienced before, but they weren't as obsessed as Akainu. Realizing they could no longer stop Ian from leaving, they simply opened the gates wide, intending to let Ian go quickly.
At the same time, the World Nobles, the Celestial Dragons, who had been notified by the Five Elders, had all retreated to their underground shelters. Even the most foolish descendants of the Celestial Dragons had no reckless thoughts of playing hero. They were all ordered by their parents to stay in the shelters. Usually arrogant and domineering, they now trembled in the underground chambers, surrounded by guards, as if only that could give them a sense of security.
With a Marine Fleet Admiral as a sacrifice, Ian's fearsome reputation had been elevated once again...
Now, in the various Celestial Dragon estates, the only ones still moving were the abused slaves. Their Celestial Dragon masters had abandoned them in their haste to take shelter. Many hadn't even been driven back into their cells, so they now watched Ian's group from corners with complex expressions of fear, awe, excitement, and hope.
As Ian walked along the road, he noticed these gazes and suddenly turned into the nearest Celestial Dragon estate.
A low gasp came from nearby. Ian saw a small figure hide behind a large tree in the estate. When he walked over, he found a dirty little girl. Her hair was a mess, her face covered with whip marks, and her shackled hands and feet were blistered. When she saw Ian, she immediately curled up on the ground in terror, causing her chains to clatter.
"Please don't kill me... please don't kill me... I'll work for you..."
Seeing the little girl like this, Hogkin and the others behind him couldn't bear it and instinctively looked away. Only Ian crouched down, grabbed her handcuffs, and yanked hard.
The shackles broke. The little girl stared blankly at her hands, carefully moving them a few times, then looked up at Ian in a daze.
"It's okay. I'll take you home," Ian said with a smile, not minding her dirtiness at all, and gently rubbed her messy hair.
The little girl bit her lip tightly, not daring to make a sound. In her short life as a slave, she had learned one thing: crying would get her killed by the Celestial Dragons. So she didn't dare to cry out loud.
But tears kept streaming from her eyes...
Ian understood her feelings and reached out to pull her into his arms. Once she leaned against Ian's chest, the little girl finally began to sob quietly.
Ian sighed, said nothing, and turned to Hogkin. "Take them all."
Hogkin nodded firmly, understanding Ian's intention. He directed the Ian Family members to charge into all the Celestial Dragon estates and begin freeing all the slaves.
Ian stood up, watching the busy family members as they rescued one slave after another. Seeing these people crying with joy, Ian finally felt some satisfaction.
I killed you, Akainu, but I saved so many people. This trade was worth it!