The deafening roar of the barrage instantly swallowed the sound of the waves.
The landing craft lurched, then slammed into Ohara's shoreline with a heavy bang.
Cold seawater mixed with the scalding shockwaves from exploding shells slapped Rain in the face, carrying the stench of gunpowder and burned flesh.
In front of him was a sea of fire.
The cold orders had already been transmitted through Den Den Mushi to every soldier's ears.
Not just them—on the horizon, the warships of Kuzan, Strawberry, Momonga, and Onigumo had also lowered multiple landing boats, surging from every direction toward this peaceful island.
"Carry out the order! Drive all civilians to the evacuation ship on the West Blue coast! Scholars are forbidden to board!" Commander Dal drew his sword and charged first.
Rain and the already half-shocked Rosinante were swept along in the landing force.
They stepped onto the beach, and the scene was pure chaos.
Marines moved like wolves, brutally smashing rifle butts into civilians' backs to herd them in one direction.
"Move! Stop dragging your feet!"
"No luggage! Move!"
A mother screamed as she threw herself over her child. A Marine soldier hesitated for a heartbeat, then hardened his face and kicked her. "Get the hell out! Want to die?!"
Flames devoured houses. Fleeing, screaming civilians were driven like livestock.
Suddenly—
Bang!
A crisp gunshot.
Rain snapped his head around.
Not far away, an elderly man dressed like a scholar was trying to break away and run back toward the Tree of Knowledge, crying, "My books… my history…"
A CP agent in a black suit raised his pistol without expression and fired into the old man's back.
The scholar collapsed slowly. The few books clutched in his arms scattered across the ground, soaking in blood.
Rain stood frozen.
He watched the CP agent coldly holster the gun, then looked at the Marines beside him who were still brutally driving civilians forward.
He saw the word "Justice" on the soldiers' capes—clear and blinding in the firelight.
"Fuck…" Rain's throat bobbed once.
"…This is justice?"
Rain had thought he'd gone numb. Two-plus years in the One Piece world, hands long stained with blood.
He believed his modern soul had already been tempered into iron by this cruel world.
And yet, facing this hellish scene, a violent wave of nausea surged up from his stomach.
"Rain! What are you standing there for?!" Commander Dal noticed his hesitation and roared back at him. "Carry out the order! Move!"
Rain's hand on the sword hilt bulged with veins—yet felt as heavy as a mountain.
He could slaughter pirates without mercy, because they were criminals.
But these people… were unarmed civilians. Scholars.
The values welded into his modern soul became the strongest shackles, pinning him to the spot.
Just as he was being torn apart inside, his talent—Voice of All Things—caught the island's overwhelming negative emotions.
Bzz—!
Rain clapped both hands over his ears, face draining white.
He heard it.
He heard a child's desperate sobs searching for their mother in the flames.
He heard a scholar's death-cry for knowledge being erased.
He heard the wail of beams as burning buildings collapsed.
He heard the land itself, the rocks, the trees… all "crying."
"Stop… stop… don't… don't scream…"
With a heavy thud, Rain dropped to one knee. The flood of anguish and information slammed into his mind so hard his spirit nearly shattered. Cold sweat soaked through his standard Marine uniform in an instant.
"Rain! Rain! What's wrong?!" Rosinante saw his pain and rushed over on instinct, trying to help him up.
All Rosinante heard was Rain forcing out a few words through a tortured rasp: "…Too loud… stop screaming…"
"Loud?!" Rosinante froze, then assumed Rain had been overwhelmed by the cannonfire and the screaming.
Without thinking, he activated his still-unstable fruit ability. An invisible barrier expanded around them, covering both of them.
In an instant, all external sound—cannonfire, screams—vanished.
The world fell into absolute silence.
But Rosinante saw Rain grow worse, trembling violently, face white as paper.
Just as Rain was about to be crushed by the immense chorus of grief and collapse completely—
A voice forcibly cut in, drowning out everything.
It didn't belong to any human. It was ancient, like countless pages turning at once, carrying the wisdom and fatigue of millennia.
"…Can you hear me, 'Listener'…?"
In the mental storm, Rain grabbed this lifeline. "…Who? Who are you?"
"…I have lived too long—so long I have forgotten my own name. People now call me the 'Tree of Knowledge.'"
"…You?" Rain jerked his head up, eyes cutting through fire and smoke toward the colossal tree at the island's center—the Tree of Knowledge, already beginning to burn.
"Why can you speak to me?" Rain realized the overwhelming wailing in his head had been blocked off.
"…Because of your talent," the tree replied, weary. "It allows you to hear the voices of all things… and it made you bear pain you were never meant to bear."
"…I used my will to shelter your mind, for the moment."
"Why help me?" Rain couldn't understand. "I'm a Marine too! I'm on the same side as the people destroying this place!"
"I felt the struggle in the deepest part of your soul… You do not belong to this destruction," the Tree of Knowledge explained.
"…I have rooted myself in Ohara for five thousand years. I witnessed history, and I protected history…"
"Now everything is facing annihilation… Please… save them."
[Ding! Detected: special will…]
[Side quest triggered: The Tree of Knowledge's Lament]
[Objective: Do what you can to save Ohara's scholars.]
[Reward: Unknown]
…
One hour earlier, in the forest on the other side of Ohara.
A black-haired little girl was sprinting through the trees with everything she had. She wore a shabby dress. Dirt smeared her pale skin. Her big eyes brimmed with tears, but she bit her lip hard, refusing to cry.
Her mind was chaos.
Saul's warning and the news that her mother had returned crashed together inside her small head.
She ran against the flow—Ohara's residents were dragging families toward the port, but she alone was racing the other way.
The Tree of Knowledge—only there was her home.
At the next turn, she brushed past a woman in a coat, face pale and frantic.
The woman was running toward the shore.
After what felt like forever, the little girl finally reached the Tree of Knowledge's library.
Unlike the panic outside, this place remained as quiet as ever.
The scholars were buried in the vast sea of books, unaware of the catastrophe about to fall. The only sound was the soft rustle of turning pages.
The girl's arrival shattered that calm.
"Doctor!!"
Dr. Clover, who had been organizing documents, jumped and turned, seeing Robin covered in dirt.
"Robin? What is it? Why are you so flustered?"
"Doctor!" Robin ran to him, grabbing his robe, on the verge of sobbing. "Did my mom… did my mom just come here?!"
"Olvia?" Shock spread across Dr. Clover's aged face. "Robin, you…"
Before he could answer, Robin tugged his robe again and cried, "The Marines… the Marines are coming! Saul, he—"
"What did you say?!" Dr. Clover finally understood. He gripped Robin's shoulders, realizing the gravity, about to order an evacuation—
BOOM—!!
The library's huge wooden doors were blasted open by massive force.
Through the smoke and dust, a group of agents in black suits walked in.
The man in front adjusted his sunglasses and looked coldly at the panicking scholars.
"By order of the World Government," the lead agent said in an icy voice, "the Tree of Knowledge library is hereby sealed. Effective immediately."
~~~
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