"Revive?!!!" Fleet Admiral Sengoku stared unblinkingly at Shirogai, struggling to keep his voice from breaking with raw astonishment.
"You mean you can bring back all ninety thousand Marines who died? Shirogai, do you even realize what you're claiming?!!!" His inner scream had already grown unbearably sharp.
"Of course, Fleet Admiral Sengoku. You wouldn't think I'd lie about something like this, would you?" Shirogai's calm, smiling voice resonated gently through the chaos.
"This…is…terrifying…" Sengoku admitted aloud, shaken to his core.
The promise had done nothing to calm him. Instead, his disbelief had doubled.
Reviving tens of thousands of Marines who had truly died?
Sengoku's entire worldview struggled under the weight of the statement.
That was beyond the realm of any known Devil Fruit ability.
Even the rarest of Devil Fruits, those capable of reversing decay or restoring life within limits, could only save a handful of recently deceased people, and often at great personal cost. Yet here was Shirogai, speaking casually of resurrecting over ninety thousand fallen Marines!
His Devil Fruit…
What could it possibly be?
Could this previously unrecorded Talent Fruit truly hold such a God‑level power?
Was that why it was absent from the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia?
Was this ability what made it transcend even typical God‑level Fruits?
Could it genuinely make someone into a god?
Sengoku felt his breath grow heavier and heavier. After struggling to regain composure, he finally forced a question from within:
"What exactly do you intend to do?!"
That was the real question burning within his heart.
Sengoku did not know what gaze to fix upon the smiling young man before him — upon the dark‑haired figure whose power had repeatedly shattered expectations.
Should he look at him as an enemy?
As an ally?
Or as something beyond human?
What kind of monster was this?
The Marines had always assessed the strength of this mysterious Fifth Emperor in comparison to the power Shirogai had demonstrated.
But no matter how they measured him, his displayed power remained more terrifying than any calculation.
This was not limited to combat strength — it extended to every domain.
As Fleet Admiral, Sengoku understood that under normal circumstances, no single person's ability could change the outcome of a large‑scale battlefield alone.
But now his deepest assumptions had been obliterated.
Shirogai alone claimed the ability to resurrect ninety thousand dead.
This was not merely an ability to change the tide of the war — it was a God's Authority that shattered strategic certainty.
When dead enemies could simply return to life, all plans and sacrifices were rendered pointless.
That thought in itself was terrifying.
What scared Sengoku even more was the realization that Shirogai, who possessed this God's Authority, seemed to be playing a game that went far beyond the Marineford War.
The devastating battle between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates, Luffy's sudden Devil Fruit awakening, and the sudden appearance of the Gorosei — everything seemed intertwined within Shirogai's vision.
And now this offer to resurrect ninety thousand Marines appeared to be the final choice he was placing before the Fleet Admiral:
Revive the forces of the Marines and display their strength before the world?
Or refuse, letting the Marine appear defeated in this war?
…
"What do I want to do?" Shirogai's calm voice echoed through Sengoku's thoughts, "It's simple: to restore order to this world, rather than allow the current chaos, where effects become causes, to continue."
"Wait!" Sengoku abruptly seized on a possibility, his voice grave, "You only intend to revive ninety thousand Marines?"
"How could that be…" Shirogai smiled, a sentence that made Sengoku's heart sink unbearably low:
"I want to revive everyone who fell in this war."
…
Sengoku stared at Shirogai, his expression shifting like flickering light and shadow.
"This is your true intention, isn't it, Shirogai?!"
Of course it was.
The Whitebeard Pirates — all those who fell — would also be revived.
Even the Four Emperors — and Whitebeard himself, struck down by the Gorosei…
"Hehe…" Shirogai's soft laugh drifted into the tension, "Both sides returning to how they were before the war. Isn't that fair?"
"If you revive even them, then what does this war even count as? A mutual slaughter?!!!" Sengoku's voice rose in disbelief, heavy with distress.
"You know that doing this will destroy the Marine's prestige! If the Marines lose their deterrence, how will the world be protected?" Sengoku reasoned.
"It doesn't matter," Shirogai replied, his gaze steady, "Even if the Marines lose their deterrence, there will still be someone to protect this world."
Shirogai's words held a deeper meaning that unsettled Sengoku.
Someone else will protect the world?
Who?
…
Sengoku thought, but he couldn't find any answer.
"Good!" Sengoku's voice suddenly deepened, "Then let it be as you wish! Revive them all! The Marines will allow the Whitebeard Pirates to depart peacefully. This war ends here!"
"You have guts," Shirogai said with a smile, beginning to turn away — but Sengoku's deep voice stopped him.
"Young man! Don't think I'm blind. You want to plunge the Marines into utter chaos! Those who died here will no longer obey Marineford's commands as they once did!"
Shirogai didn't look back. His voice was warm as he laughed pleasantly.
"Back home, I once heard a story," he said.
"It was about a cult whose followers were so loyal, they refused to betray their leader even when captured."
Sengoku frowned, confused by the relevance.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, do you know what that cult leader said?"
Shirogai turned toward him, his expression mocking, his voice deliberate:
"He said it was simple. From beginning to end, he told his followers that they were righteous, they fought for justice. So even when they committed horrors, they believed they were upholding justice. Even when captured, they were willing to die for that justice."
Shirogai looked at Sengoku coldly.
"Do you agree? A leader who deceived them all, or a righteous Fleet Admiral?"
…
Sengoku fell silent.
Suddenly the sternness left Shirogai's face, replaced with a soft smile.
"For reference only. Any resemblance is purely coincidental."
At the same moment, Shirogai crushed the ripe red fruit in his hand.
With a crunch, the juice erupted, and an overwhelming life force radiated across Marineford, briefly stalling the flow of space and time.
"Revive, unwilling departed! Your lives have not yet ended! I grant you…a new beginning! Heroes are immortal!!!" Shirogai's voice — pure, sacred, and resonant like a deity — echoed in the hearts of all the fallen.
"Heroes are immortal!!!"
Suddenly, eyes that had been closed forever opened in fierce life once more.
"This…how is this possible?!"
Terrified screams of the military doctors echoed across the field.
"Admiral Sakazuki's life signs, long thought vanished, have actually returned!!!"