"Ah!"
The slave girl let out a panicked gasp as her outer garment was suddenly lifted away.
But the very next second, she fell into silence as if struck by lightning, her whole body stiffening, as though she had committed an unforgivable sin.
To her, whatever the "master" did was supposed to be taken for granted, even humiliating actions were not something she could resist.
And if her cry of surprise disturbed the master's "interest," what awaited her might be a punishment even more cruel than death.
She trembled like a leaf in the wind, her breathing shallow and weak.
"Jotaro, you're so H~" Starlight clapped her hands and laughed loudly, openly teasing without the slightest restraint. "So this is what you're into, huh."
As a former Sea King, she wasn't unfamiliar with "those human things."
After all, this world wasn't Earth, and no one could prove that dolphins were the only ocean creatures capable of experiencing pure pleasure from "non-reproductive intimate behavior."
"Jotaro-san!" Shinobu's pretty face flushed red. Shamed and angry, she quickly shouted out, then hurriedly took off her own coat to cover the slave girl's body, blocking the spring scenery about to be exposed.
"Can't you at least consider the occasion a little?" she whispered, her tone full of helplessness.
Jotaro was the kind of man who acted the moment he decided, and combined with how much the Celestial Dragon's Hoof infuriated him, he had been a bit impulsive just now. But she knew his true intent was good.
"Could it be you really have a way to erase the slave brand from them?" Shakky finally came back to herself and spoke, "If that's the case…"
In her mind appeared the group of women on Amazon Lily, who had once borne the same mark. If Jotaro really could do this…
"Then maybe they too could finally receive true salvation…"
Rayleigh didn't say anything, just drank his wine with the look of someone watching a show.
After lifting the slave girl's clothing, Jotaro's focus entered a state of concentration. Star Platinum's eyes gleamed as it stared at the striking mark on the woman's smooth back.
"Yare~"
Through the outer layer of skin, Jotaro finally witnessed the true nature of the Celestial Dragon's brand with his own eyes, and at that moment, his pupils shrank violently, the sight before him shocking to the extreme.
Just as Shinobu had said, the brand had long since seeped deep into the body. It pierced through the epidermis, the dermis, pressed against the periosteum, sunk into the bone marrow, completely merging with the victim's flesh, like a parasite, clinging tightly to the blood and tissue.
"My Stand, Star Platinum can perform microscopic operations at the cellular level."
"However, even with the finest precision, to cut away those tissues without letting the person feel pain… is nearly impossible."
What's more, what he had to deal with was far beyond a few cells, it was tens of thousands of tangled scar tissues, woven together like a net.
Even erasing a tattoo on the dermis layer would make a person feel unbearable agony. Not to mention this mark, buried deep inside the tissues, like an incurable ulcer clinging to bone, the Celestial Dragon's Hoof.
"I'm going to begin!" Jotaro took a deep breath, his aura shifting, steady and immovable as a mountain.
"I'll try to keep you from feeling pain."
"Star Platinum!"
Star Platinum shrank rapidly with incredible speed, soon reducing itself to the cellular level.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
A storm of punches burst out in an instant, cutting, stripping, reshaping, like a precision instrument at work.
"Ahhhh!!!"
The slave girl's body convulsed violently as a heart-rending scream tore from her throat.
The pain burning from her back was even worse than when the brand had first been seared into her flesh. It felt as if every inch of her body was being ripped apart.
But her feelings now were completely different from then.
This was not the cry of fear, it was the release of shackles, the exhilarating agony of breaking free from fate.
Shakky's eyes went wide.
On the slave girl's back, the Celestial Dragon's Hoof was fading away before her eyes, vanishing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"He actually did it!"
Rayleigh watched with growing interest, the curve of his mouth widening.
"A brand the Celestial Dragons believed could never be removed, erased by this man's own hands."
"Heh, he really is the natural nemesis of the Celestial Dragons."
———
At last, Star Platinum's fists came to a stop.
Inside the bar, silence fell, almost solidified.
Everyone stared blankly at the back before them, strange yet familiar. Upon it had once been carved deeply the symbol of humiliation and bondage, the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragon."
But now it was smooth and flawless, as if that enslaved past had never existed.
It was as if all of it had been nothing more than a dream.
"It's over." Jotaro withdrew his Stand and said softly from behind the slave girl.
The girl trembled as she slowly reached a hand behind her back.
Though she could not see it with her own eyes, the constant stabbing pain that had haunted her had now completely vanished.
In that instant, years of pent-up emotions collapsed all at once.
Her body gave out and she fell to her knees, her shoulders shaking violently as she cried soundlessly.
"Jotaro, you really have done something extraordinary." A voice with a smile rang out.
Everyone turned their heads, Rayleigh had pushed the door open at some unknown point and now stood in the doorway, gazing at the scene with a complicated expression.
"The winds of this world… perhaps they really are about to change."
"Rayleigh." Whitebeard rose slowly from his chair, his rough voice carrying a faint excitement. "Since you're here… does that mean your job is done?"
"Rayleigh, since you're here, that means your task is complete." Whitebeard stood from his seat. "Though it cost us some time, at least now we can finally head for Fishman Island."
Rayleigh smiled, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a raised hand.
"It took a little longer, because you brought far more people than I expected. Honestly… these old bones of mine almost fell apart."
He slowly walked up to Jotaro, smiling. "The future belongs to the young."
"Jotaro, what you aim to do is even more dangerous than what Roger attempted. This time you caught the World Government completely off guard, made them stumble."
"They probably won't make a move again in the short term, but you cannot let your guard down."
"The Navy is not the World Government's top combat force. Every step you take from here on must be extremely cautious."
"The God Valley Incident thirty-eight years ago is still fresh in my memory. The Rocks Pirates, once called the most vicious pirate crew in history, with members nearly on par with the Four Emperors, yet even they ended in total annihilation."
As he said this, Rayleigh glanced once at Whitebeard, who laughed heartily, "Relax, Jotaro isn't Rocks. If he had been the leader of the Pirate Alliance back then, who knows who would've won that war."
Rayleigh meant no offense. It was just that water brims over when full, the moon wanes when it's too round. He was only giving Jotaro a kindly warning.
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