Yoriichi Tsugikuni stood beside Rigg's corpse. Blood seeped across the deck, pooling silently at his feet, though he seemed unaware.
"I'll ask just once," he said coldly. "Whoever answers me… lives."
"Who sent you?"
"Don't be afraid. I always keep my promises."
The pirates on deck glanced nervously at the body on the ground, then at Yoriichi standing over it. Not one of them spoke.
Yoriichi waited in silence. When no answer came, his brow furrowed slightly. Just as he was about to take action, a young pirate suddenly threw himself forward in a desperate slide, kneeling at Yoriichi's feet and banging his head on the deck.
"It was the chairman! The chairman sent us!"
"I don't want to die! I want to live, I want to live!"
"Please, I'm begging you, don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
Yoriichi lowered his gaze to the trembling man before him. The name "chairman" meant nothing to him.
"Chairman?" he murmured.
Then, he recalled something Santos had once mentioned, the Loro Trading Company. His voice sharpened.
"Do you mean the chairman of the Loro Trading Company?"
The young pirate visibly flinched when he heard the name from Yoriichi's lips. Forcing a servile smile, he nodded repeatedly.
"Yes! Yes, that's right!"
"It's the Loro Trading Company."
"Since you know, then that makes things easier. Just go straight to their chairman! We were only following his orders!"
"Spare me, please, I don't want to die!"
Tears filled his eyes as he pleaded. At last, the rest of the pirates snapped out of their shock. One by one, they dropped to their knees before Yoriichi in unison.
None of them harbored even the faintest thought of resistance—not after watching this man fly over a hundred meters of open sea to land on their deck and cleave their captain Rigg in half with a single slash.
These weren't fresh-faced rookies. The crew of the Rigg Pirates had been sailing for years. They knew exactly what kind of people could be trifled with—and what kind couldn't.
And Yoriichi Tsugikuni was unmistakably the kind you don't mess with.
Of course, before their ambush on the Navy patrol ship, they had no way of knowing someone like him would be aboard.
They'd thought their mission was simple: intercept and eliminate a small naval vessel and its crew.
But now that their lives hung by a thread in Yoriichi's grasp, the pirates scrambled over each other to offer up what they knew.
Yoriichi listened without rushing them, patiently piecing together the story from their chaotic confessions. Gradually, the full picture emerged: the identity of the attackers, their motives, and their affiliations.
Their goal was straightforward—they had been ordered to destroy a Navy patrol ship at a specific time and location, and to leave no survivors.
As for their background, the Rigg Pirates had been founded by Captain Rigg, and later came under the protection of the Loro Trading Company.
The term "under the protection of" was carefully chosen—because back in the Kingdom of Mia, the Rigg Pirates hadn't presented themselves as pirates at all. They operated under the guise of being members of the Loro Trading Company.
Their trade? Long-distance maritime commerce.
Their cargo? Slaves.
In the Kingdom of Mia, the slave trade was fully legal and openly sanctioned. Of course, no one asked how those slaves were acquired.
And the kingdom certainly didn't care.
At the heart of this morally bankrupt economy stood the Loro Trading Company—Mia's largest commercial enterprise. Comprised of thirty-six independently-run subsidiaries, its influence extended across distant maritime trade, arms dealing, real estate, gambling... and far beyond.
Among pirates, the elusive "President" of the Loro Trading Company was a whispered legend. No one had ever seen their face. But every pirate knew one thing for certain: the President was the most powerful person in all of Mia. Bar none.
Listening to the pirates' chatter, Yoriichi Tsugikuni began to form a rough picture of this mysterious organization.
Put simply, Loro was the Kingdom of Mia's version of a "Zaibatsu", a colossal conglomerate controlling both the nation's economic lifelines and political arteries. A shadow sovereign ruling from behind the scenes.
And with that understanding, Yoriichi could now make some educated guesses about this so-called Rigg Maritime Company, which had approached him.
A massive corporation entangled with national livelihood and politics...
A naval outpost, Branch 133 supposedly responsible for the safety of Mia's waters...
To say these two entities had no connection?
Yoriichi didn't believe that for a second.
"Not only were their objectives precise, but their intel on the warship's location was spot-on," he murmured.
"They were clearly after me and Kyros. Otherwise, what would be the point of attacking a patrol vessel?"
"But... I haven't even done anything yet. Why would someone already want me dead?"
"Could it be... they suspect I'm not just some Third-Class Seaman from Navy HQ? That they think Kyros and I were sent here as undercover auditors?"
"In other words, someone in Branch 133 is hiding something worth investigating."
"Heh... Looks like things run deep in this place."
Yoriichi quietly processed the flood of intel he'd just gathered. As he pondered, the young pirate who had first spilled the information nervously spoke up:
"Uh... sir?" he stammered. "I... I told you everything I know. So... does that mean you'll let me go?"
The moment his plea left his lips, the rest of the pirates kneeling on the deck hurriedly joined in.
"Me too! I answered, I answered!"
"Please let me live, I don't wanna die!"
In an instant, the deck was flooded with cries for mercy.
Yoriichi glanced at them and gave a faint nod, his voice calm and measured.
"I'm a man of my word. I always keep my promises."
With that, he turned, stepped into the air, and vanished. Moonwalk carrying him off the pirate ship.
As his figure soared skyward, a collective exhale swept through the vessel. The pirates, their hearts still hammering from the edge of death, felt an overwhelming wave of relief. None of them ever wanted to experience that kind of terror again.
But then-
From above, a sudden hum tore through the silence.
A single slash, silent and without warning, cleaved through the air.
The pirate ship, dozens of meters long split cleanly in two.
Seawater rushed into the hold. The ship began to sink.
On the deck, panic erupted. Screams. Shoves. The desperate scramble to escape. But it was all in vain.
Soon, the vortex created by the sinking hull drowned out the cries.
The sea closed in.
And with one final crash of the waves-
Nothing remained. Not a trace of life.
Yoriichi soared toward the patrol ship, never once glancing back.
Yes, that slash was his.
And no, he hadn't broken his promise. He'd said it himself, he always kept his word.
It's just that, to Yoriichi Tsugikuni, pirates didn't count as people.
*********
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