One Piece: Blue Scale Admiral

"Hmph, if I see you smoking cigars again, I'll have Zhan Tao Wan change your bandages." Luo snorted and pulled out new gauze, bandages, and some medicine from under the bed, and began to change them one by one.

Upon hearing that Sentomaru was to come and change the medicine, the four flying squirrels, who were fearless in the world, were all terrified and turned ashen-faced.

Rorschach was completely confused.

"Is Sentomaru working here too? Why are you all so afraid of him?"

Luo Xia was a little confused. Wasn't Sentomaru, that chubby little boy, quite cute?

Although that guy is actually almost thirty years old, his mental age is only seventeen or eighteen, or even younger.

Rorschach described him as an honest person, without any guile, and easy to get along with.

He also participated in this war, responsible for delivering concentrated nutritional paste to the naval soldiers who were holding out on G1 Island, which saved many lives.

While enduring the excruciating pain of having his wounds cleaned with alcohol, the flying squirrel said with a wry smile, "You don't know, that fat kid doesn't know his own strength. He wouldn't listen to us, he's just stubborn. He's practically treating us like Vegapunk's test subjects."

Rorschach thought about Sentomaru wearing a bellyband, and then about the scene of him carrying a battle axe to change the dressing and clean the wounds of the flying squirrel, and couldn't help but twitch his lips.

That is indeed quite terrifying.

After chatting with the flying squirrels for a while and finding that they were indeed fine, Rorschach and Skylark went outside.

The two walked down the sixth floor of the hospital, passing through floor after floor.

Through the small window in the ward door, Rorschach saw naval officers and soldiers with bandages wrapped around their faces and pale complexions.

Here, those who are missing limbs are actually the ones with the least severe injuries.

Because of Law's Op-Op Fruit, he can directly cut off any potentially infected wounds and force them to heal. After applying some medicine and resting for a while, he can recover.

He will lose his hands and feet, and may not be able to continue serving in the navy.

But being able to survive is also a good thing.

Compared to those who were swallowed by the tsunami, they were already much luckier.

The most difficult injuries to treat are damage to internal organs, or severe injuries to the brain or spine.

Even with Law's Op-Op Fruit ability, he couldn't conjure up internal organs to repair injuries in this area.

These injuries can only be treated with standard hospital care.

Whether it can be cured or not is up to fate.

Stronger officers and generals are better off; with their superior physical abilities, they can withstand injuries that would be fatal to ordinary people for a long time, waiting for treatment to be completed.

Some officers with slightly weaker physical condition are in great danger, as they may die at any time due to infection, blood loss, or other symptoms.

In the short time it took to walk from the sixth floor to the first floor, Rorschach saw twenty-six marine corpses covered with white sheets being carried out by soldiers with numb expressions.

This made him feel uneasy.

Seeing the ward door on the left open, two soldiers carrying a stretcher came out. Luo Xia went up to them and called out to the two third-class recruits.

The recruit stopped and turned to see Luo Xia's appearance; the numb expression on his face immediately turned into excitement.

"Major General Luo Xia."

"Ah."

Luo Xia forced a smile, stepped forward, and reached out to lift the white sheet on the stretcher.

Beneath the white cloth was a young face.

This is a young naval officer; judging from his rank insignia, he is a lieutenant at headquarters.

Judging from his appearance, he's at most in his early twenties.

To become a captain at such a young age clearly shows that he is an extremely outstanding young man.

His wounds were mainly concentrated on his left chest, near his heart.

One of the penetrating wounds grazed right past the heart.

This wound was his fatal injury.

The dead captain's eyes were slightly open, but the pupils had long since lost their light; he simply stared blankly upwards.

Luo Xia covered himself with the white sheet again, stood up straight, and raised his hand in salute.

"Rest in peace, comrade."

Lark also raised his hand in salute, his eyes reddening.

During the days that Rorschach was in a coma, she had witnessed this scene far too many times.

This is the price of war.

No matter what name a war is waged under, there may be a victorious side, but there will never be a true winner.

The pain brought by war is the loss of countless vibrant lives and irreparable loss.

With a heavy heart, Luo Xia followed the soldiers carrying the stretcher out of the hospital, walking along the hospital corridor towards the back door.

Once he stepped out the back door, he saw a spacious open space.

In that open space, there were rows of stretchers covered with white sheets.

One by one, the family members, their faces filled with sorrow and grief, were saying their final goodbyes to the deceased marine.

In front of the open space lies a vast cemetery.

At this moment, in this cemetery, many naval soldiers are digging the soil with shovels.

Some generals, draped in cloaks of magnanimity and justice, were carving words on the stone tablet in front of them with carving knives.

Rorschach saw many familiar faces.

Suddenly, he was startled and saw a burly figure with rose tattoos all over his body deep in the seaside cemetery. He held a carving knife in his hand, but did not put it down for a long time. He sat there silently, like a sculpture.

Chapter 413 Funeral

"That's... Uncle Sakazuki!"

Rorschach's pupils contracted.

He hadn't expected that Akainu would be here too.

Moreover, seeing his carving knife never fall and his silent, sculpted back, Luo Xia felt as if a heavy stone was pressing on his heart.

Who did he come for?

Suppressing his unease, Luo Xia turned to Yun Que and said gently, "Yun Que, could you please go to Lilith's lab for me and see if she has finished making the concentrated nutrient paste? If so, please bring some over. After you get the nutrient paste, go home. I will come to your house to find you later."

Hibari didn't see Akainu deep in the cemetery. Upon hearing Rorschach's words, he obediently nodded and turned to leave.

Rorschach took a deep breath and walked along the road lined with tombstones, entering the depths of the cemetery.

This Marineford cemetery covers a vast area.

Rorschach quickly scanned the area with his Observation Haki and discovered that there were at least several hundred thousand tombstones remaining.

Among them are some large joint burial tombstones engraved with numerous names.

Strolling here, time seems to slow down, giving you the illusion that you've been forgotten by time.

As Rorschach approached, he saw a deep pit on the ground beside Akainu, with soil dug out and piled up around it, and a shovel stuck in the ground next to it.

Akainu sat cross-legged, holding a carving knife in one hand and a piece of paper in the other, staring at the stone tablet in front of him, and fell into a long silence.

"Uncle Sakazuki, what is this...?"

Rorschach walked up behind Akainu and stood still, speaking softly.

Rorschach's voice seemed to break the silence in the room, and Akainu's raised carving knife fell onto the surface of the stone tablet in front of him.

Amidst the flying stone chips, he steadily began to carve with the carving knife in his hand.

At the same time, he handed the paper he was holding in his left hand to Luo Xia.

He remained silent, simply carving stroke by stroke on the surface of the stone tablet.

He used great force, and the characters he carved were deeply embedded in the stone tablet.

The moment Luo Xia took the paper, his heart skipped a beat.

An indescribable sadness welled up in my heart.

'Charles Adila's Last Will and Testament'

“I am Charles Adila. If I die, this letter will be my will. Hahaha, I hope it will never be needed. I don’t want people crying on my grave. That would be too noisy.”

"How should one write a will? After all, I've never died before and have no experience in this area. If only I could get the legendary Yellow Spring Fruit, then I could wait for others to read my will on my grave, then crawl out of the grave and scare them half to death."

"Well then, let me introduce myself first."

"I am Charles Adila, born in the year 1477 of the Sea Calendar. I am forty years old this year, ten years younger than Brother Sakazuki. I am currently a Vice Admiral in the Navy Headquarters. Hehe, I was just promoted and haven't been assigned any garrison duties yet. Becoming a Vice Admiral at the Headquarters at the age of forty is already very satisfactory for someone like me who is not particularly talented. This is all thanks to Brother Sakazuki's guidance over the years."

"I have a wife named Jennifer. She's a beautiful and kind woman. If I die, I hope she can find a good man to marry and not remain a widow for me. There's no need for that. I know Jennifer will definitely scold me when she sees this, but this is truly my honest opinion. To be honest, being the wife of a Marine who could die in a battle with pirates at any moment is really too difficult. Every day is filled with anxiety, praying that nothing bad will happen to her husband who is away from home. They can only see each other a few times a year. Even when they do meet, it's always a rush, and there's no time for intimacy."

"I joined the Navy when I was eighteen years old and officially became a Navy Private Third Class."

“I still remember the day I joined the Navy very clearly. It was in my hometown, Tarica, the capital of the Kingdom of Lawrence in the North Sea. That day, I had just gotten a good job at a bank in Tarica, earning 8,000 Berries a month. In the Kingdom of Lawrence, 8,000 Berries was only enough to buy a few dozen kilograms of meat, but it was a great fortune for me and my sick, bedridden mother.”

“I was very happy that day and bought two pounds of smoked meat to cook a big dinner for my mother. When I happily carried the meat back to my home outside the city, I saw half of the mountain that had been destroyed.”

"My house is gone, and my mother is gone too."

"As everyone suspected, it was done by a newly formed pirate crew whose captain was a man with a bounty of 80 million Berries. That bastard bombarded the hills outside the capital to show off his strength to the Kingdom of Lawrence, so that they could capture a group of civilians to sell for money."

"To get revenge, I found that man. However, even with all my strength, I couldn't pose the slightest threat to him. He trampled me underfoot and held a knife to my throat. At that moment, I felt utterly hopeless. Then, Brother Sakazuki appeared."

"I will never forget that scene. Brother Sakazuki just glanced at that pirate, and hey, the one who was lawless just a second ago was so scared that he wet his pants and knelt on the ground begging for mercy like a pitiful wretch. I used the pirate's sword to slit his throat, and then I joined the Navy."

"From then on, my goal was to become a powerful naval warrior like Brother Sakazuki. I gave up this idea when I left the North Blue and came to Headquarters. Because I knew that this goal would never be achieved, Brother Sakazuki was too strong. His strength is something I can never reach in this lifetime."

"Hehe, but I never imagined that one day, a man as tough as Brother Sakazuki would have a gentle, kind, and lovely daughter. Sigh, I'm so envious. Jennifer has always wanted a child, but I'm already forty, and we still haven't been able to have one. Little Lark is a kind child, and Jennifer loves her very much. And Rorschach, that kid, I really never thought that one day I would see a man like my brother value a teenager so much."

"As it turns out, my brother's judgment was indeed sharp. Rorschach is really something else. In just over two years, he has become a monster-level naval rising star who is even stronger than me. Damn it, this is so discouraging."

"If I were to die, and someone asked me, 'What are your regrets?'"

"I would say that my regrets are that I didn't get to have a child with Jennifer, that I didn't get to see Sakazuki achieve his dream, that I didn't get to see Rorschach grow up, that I didn't get to see the future of the Navy, and that I didn't get to see the end of the Great Pirate Era."

"Finally, I wish Brother Sakazuki good luck in the war. Justice will prevail."