Dressrosa Royal Palace, front square.
When Sephiroth used Haoshoku Haki to incapacitate the pirates, the other issues were easily resolved. He immediately opened a spatial gate using his Doa Doa no Mi ability, which allowed the Royal Army from the West Coast to return directly to the Royal Palace square and gather all the unconscious pirates.
"Sephiroth, truly, thank you very much!... Thank you for saving my daughters, and at the same time saving the entire nation..." King Riku walked quickly towards the silver-haired youth, bowing deeply to him, his tone filled with profound sincerity and gratitude.
Sephiroth glanced at the Royal Army who also bowed with the King, and his eye twitched slightly. Damn it! Anyone who didn't know would think you were grieving because this young master had died! Though he grumbled loudly in his heart, he turned his head back to Scarlett, who was still clinging faithfully to his side. In the end, he could only utter a few polite words helplessly: "King Riku, there's no need for this! Eradicating pirates and protecting justice is our Marine duty."
After the Royal Army imprisoned all one hundred-plus pirates in the Royal Prison, the two battlefields on the South Coast and East Coast also quieted down.
On the South Coast, Zephyr charged at the front, raging, and incapacitating opponents with a single blow. Only the two leading Captains were able to withstand a few more blows before being defeated. Kaji and the other Marines, along with the Royal Army members, were responsible for providing support and did not choose to engage in direct confrontation. Their strength was 250 against 1000+, but after the battle, their side suffered only twenty-two dead and thirty-one wounded. The pirate side had over a hundred dead, and the rest were all captured.
As for the pirates who wanted to board ships to escape, before they could even set sail, Zephyr directly used a Rankyaku attack to split the entire pirate ship in two, giving the pirates no chance to escape. As for the handful of pirates who desperately swam out to sea, whether they sank to the bottom of the ocean or found an island and survived in the vast sea, that all depended on their luck... Of course, some pirates might have a lucky mentality and, after swimming far out at sea, secretly infiltrated Dressrosa again from other secluded beaches. But Zephyr also arranged for relevant personnel to search and pursue...
On the other side, on the East Coast battlefield, because Sephiroth had sunk ten pirate ships at sea, those pirates had to swim a long distance with great difficulty to reach the shore. When they saw Gion, Smoker, and the others, who numbered only about three hundred, while they still had nearly a thousand, and had no way out, they instead chose to fight with their backs to the wall, erupting with incredibly strong combat power.
However... With twenty-eight Marine School Students, the super elite force of the Marines, leading the charge, the pirates were unable to win the war as they wished based on their numerical advantage. After a fierce and chaotic battle, four Marine School Students were killed and five were injured, fifteen accompanying Marines were killed and twenty were injured, forty-three Royal Army soldiers were killed and eighteen were injured, three hundred forty-two pirates were killed, and seven hundred twenty-three were captured.
War means death. It was not easy for the Marine and Royal Army to achieve such results... Everyone suppressed the pain in their hearts, collected the remains of their comrades, and temporarily imprisoned the pirates in the Royal Prison.
After the war, Sephiroth did not stop to rest. He immediately rushed to the Iris Medical Center, resuming his old job, to treat the severely wounded Marines and Royal Army soldiers. As for the wounded pirates... permanent treatment by cutting off their heads, did they want that?
Iris Medical Center, outside the operating room.
After finishing the last injured person's operation, Sephiroth, dressed in blue surgical scrubs and a medical mask, pushed the door open and walked out of the operating room. Sephiroth's gaze swept down the corridor and saw Zephyr sitting on a chair in the corridor with his arms crossed, his brows furrowed, as if deep in thought.
Sephiroth merely glanced at the old man and was about to leave directly, having no intention of paying him any mind.
However... "Sephiroth, come with me for a moment." Zephyr suddenly stood up, raised his right hand, and pressed it firmly on his shoulder, an undeniable gesture.
Sephiroth sighed helplessly and could only obediently follow the purple-haired old man up the stairs to the hospital rooftop. The bright moon hung high, and the cold moonlight shone down on the rooftop, creating a quiet atmosphere.
Zephyr stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze fixed on the central hospital garden below. "Sephiroth, you have Haoshoku Haki, don't you? Otherwise, in that situation, you wouldn't have been able to save those hundreds of civilians..."
"No, no, no! Old man, I think you must be mistaken! Perhaps King Riku unleashed his personal aura at a critical moment? Of course, it could also be Scarlett. Isn't it natural for a girl like her to unleash her potential in such a situation?" Sephiroth stared at the moon in the night sky, smiling playfully, ready to deny it to his dying breath. If anything seemed amiss, he would turn and run! With his vampire flying ability, combined with the spatial movement of the Doa Doa no Mi, he didn't believe the old man Zephyr could catch him!
Gradually, a hint of seriousness entered the atmosphere between the two. Zephyr slowly turned and looked directly into Sephiroth's eyes, saying with a slight warning tone: "If you don't want others to know that you possess Haoshoku Haki. Then, try not to use it in front of others in the future... otherwise..."
"Otherwise what...?" Sephiroth's eyes narrowed slightly, and his tone showed a hint of confusion.
"Otherwise... you'll become the Gorosei's target!"
"Those big shots, will they pay attention to me?"
"The Gorosei will absolutely not tolerate someone with the potential of a Conqueror slipping out of their control... You must know some rumors about the current Fleet Admiral Sengoku, don't you?"
"..."
"He awakened his Haoshoku Haki during a war that was heavily disadvantageous to the Marines and managed to turn the tide of battle... However... he has been targeted by the Gorosei ever since! All kinds of dark, unpublishable tasks of the World Government were assigned to him to carry out... either obey orders and carry out the tasks, or leave the Marines... The former Sengoku... to describe him with a word you once used, he was a... clown! It's just that now, it's hard to see his youthful demeanor anymore... The impression he gives all his subordinates now is just silent and serious..."
"This matter, considering you are my student, I will help you handle it ambiguously. As for the future... you decide for yourself!" After speaking, Zephyr turned and immediately left the rooftop, leaving Sephiroth deep in thought.
Sephiroth stood in place, silent for a moment, before muttering softly: "That old man... you're really... alright! I'll accept this favor from you."
All this time, he actually disliked the old bastard Zephyr. It wasn't because the other party trained him to death in the Marine Academy that he harbored ill feelings towards this person. He disliked Zephyr simply because of his 'no-kill' philosophy!
Since joining the military, Zephyr had fought countless pirates throughout his life, yet he had never killed a single enemy... In a life-and-death struggle, he would still show mercy to the enemy? Heh! Are pirate lives lives, but the lives of his Marine comrades not lives?
Zephyr's strength was beyond doubt. Without absolute strength, it would be impossible to become a Marine Admiral! Furthermore, he was the youngest Admiral in history. However, his 'no-kill' philosophy shackled himself, preventing him from fully unleashing his own power.
Take his battle on the South Coast, for example. As a strong man who had honed the Marine's Six Powers to their peak, if Zephyr had unleashed and used Rankyaku on a large scale to clear the area from the beginning, the thousand-plus pirates would have been like chickens and dogs! After a few waves, the number of people still alive would definitely not exceed a hundred!
But... The old man insisted on charging forward and knocking out those pirates, causing his comrades to die and get wounded. Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to comrades... Not killing enemies, this kind of boring mercy, also needs to be applied in the right context, not just a senseless insistence! Therefore, Sephiroth had never understood what was going on with this old man's mindset!
It's just that he still couldn't defeat this old man right now. Otherwise, he would definitely slap him twice, telling him, "You need brain treatment!" Now, owing the other party a favor also made Sephiroth feel a little unhappy. However, there was nothing he could do. In the future, the Umbrella Corporation still needed his Marine identity to develop, and he couldn't just resign now...