This novel is finished, and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395
"A pirate's… resolve?" Rowen repeated the phrase, smacking his lips.
The "pirates" Shanks spoke of were clearly fundamentally different from the pirates Rowen had in mind. The two men were talking past each other, their ideas completely mismatched, and Rowen had no interest in bridging the gap.
"Do you know what I'm going to do next?"
"Hm?"
Shanks frowned slightly and asked, "What else is there that needs to be done?"
"Heh. It does seem like you helped me," Rowen said calmly. "However, that still doesn't change one thing…"
He looked at Shanks with indifferent, chilling scrutiny.
"Your goal remains to step over me and uncover the truth of the Void Century."
Bang!
A chill surged up Shanks' spine, and his pupils shrank violently. But Rowen didn't move, he simply continued sipping his milk tea in silence.
"I will grant you freedom, but I won't grant you the freedom you truly desire. That would be indulgence. Your perspective is so shallow it makes my skin crawl, 'Red-Haired' Shanks."
At that point, Rowen lost all interest in continuing the conversation.
"No matter how magnanimous you are as a person, it doesn't change the fact that you are, at your core, a pirate… but that is irrelevant. No matter what you do, it won't change my resolve."
"Guards!" Rowen raised his voice.
"Soryu (Azure Dragon)-sama!" Kong and Zero pushed the door open and knelt on one knee.
"Throw him into Impel Down. When everyone is gathered later, execute them all publicly."
Everyone?
Kong and Zero couldn't help but shudder at the implied scale of the execution, but they nodded anyway. "Understood!"
However, Shanks wasn't concerned about his own life at this moment. He was racking his brain, trying to figure out what crucial element Rowen was planning that he had failed to account for.
Just before he was dragged out the door, he heard Rowen say calmly:
"You probably don't know this yet, Dragon has already chosen our side."
'Dragon is on your side?'
'What's wrong with that?'
If Shanks hadn't already inferred this, he wouldn't have so decisively let Dragon rescue Luffy.
Wait…
Suddenly, a terrifying possibility flashed through Shanks' mind.
"Laugh Tale…"
Bang!
The thick, pristine, and imposing door of the office slammed shut, cutting off his view.
Shanks stared blankly at the closed door, allowing Kong and Zero to haul him away, his expression utterly vacant.
"So that's… how it is…"
Inside the office, Rowen downed the rest of his milk tea in one gulp, wiped his lips, and lit a cigar.
Huff…
White smoke rose straight upward, shrouding his face and making it impossible to see clearly.
Leaning back against the sofa, a cold smile curled at the corner of Rowen's mouth.
"Refusing to shed tears until you see the coffin… pirates really are pirates. In that case, don't blame me for grinding you completely into the mud!"
…
New World, Revolutionary Army Base
This was a common sight in the New World, an uninhabited stretch of ocean with only two or three unremarkable small islands and no permanent residents.
However, both the Marines and the World Government knew that these few islands hosted one of the Revolutionary Army's forward bases.
At this moment, in a hospital ward carved into the rock walls of a mountain hollow at the center of one of the islands, the small room was packed with people… cyborgs, and animals.
"Luffy!"
When Luffy finally opened his eyes, Chopper couldn't help but leap onto him and cling tightly.
"Ow, ow, ow! Let go, Chopper!"
"Ah, sorry!" Chopper jumped down in a panic.
Though Luffy's voice lacked strength, the fact that he could still shout was enough to make the Straw Hat crew breathe a collective sigh of relief. As long as he could shout, he was fine, what they feared most was him being completely silent.
"That's great, you're finally awake, Luffy!"
Usopp said, leaning on a crutch. As he spoke, his nose twitched and tears welled up.
"I thought you were going to…"
"What are you talking about? I'm not dead, am I?" Luffy grinned foolishly, but the motion tugged at his wounds, making him bare his teeth in pain as his smile instantly deformed into a grimace.
"Pfft!"
Nami and the others couldn't help but laugh. Even the usually composed and unsmiling combat duo had the corners of their mouths slightly lifted, clearly in good spirits.
"Come to think of it… I really thought I was going to die back there," Luffy suddenly confessed. He looked around the room, then froze, his gaze stopping on a tall man. Confusion spread across his face.
When his gaze locked onto him, Dragon pulled down his hood. "Long time no see, Luffy."
"..."
Luffy fell silent for two seconds, then suddenly tilted his head. "Dragon?"
Duang!
"It's Dad!"
Watching Luffy get knocked flat onto the bed with a single, massive punch, a wisp of strange white smoke drifting out of his mouth, Chopper's face turned bright green.
"Oh no! Something's leaking!"
The ward erupted into utter chaos. Eventually, Dragon sat on a chair, his eyelids twitching as he caught his breath.
"You little bastard!"
The Straw Hat crew all wore awkward expressions. By pirate rules, whether father and son or not, anyone who dared to lay hands on their captain deserved immediate retaliation.
But this man had just saved all their lives. Raising a hand against their savior was absolutely out of the question.
So everyone looked at their feet, then their hands, choosing to pretend they saw nothing at all.
After a long while, seeing Luffy carefully clutch the huge bump on his head and sneak glances at his father's expression, Dragon recalled how he himself had looked like this in front of Garp back then. He couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
"Tell me what you think about Shanks."
When it came to business, Luffy lowered his hand and spoke solemnly.
"He's strong! Strong to a terrifying degree!"
The gloomy sky, the boiling sea, it had felt like a doomsday calamity.
The entire world seemed to bow before Shanks' overwhelming dominance. Sea and sky alike appeared to revolve around him, as if he were the unchallenged ruler of heaven and earth.
And yet Luffy himself had been completely stiff, his thoughts frozen, unable even to feel fear.
The sword shadow that came at him wasn't particularly fast, but Luffy knew, he absolutely could not dodge it.
"That's what makes a Yonko terrifying,"
Dragon nodded. No one dared underestimate Shanks, not even the Soryu (Azure Dragon) himself. Though Rowen was confident of victory, he still knew the battle wouldn't end as easily as chopping vegetables.
However, Dragon didn't tell Luffy one thing: even if he hadn't intervened, that final sword strike from Shanks still wouldn't have killed him.
Because…
Luffy was too weak for that final, devastating technique.
Ever since losing an arm, Shanks' Haki had grown purer and more refined, but his body had grown increasingly frail. Like Whitebeard, the backlash from the damage his body suffered no longer allowed him to unleash his strongest power.
In the previous Pure Gold incident, it was publicized that the Soryu (Azure Dragon) had been defeated. In reality, very few people knew that Shanks had been beaten to the brink of death by Rowen, with injury piled upon injury.
Simple swordsmanship was still manageable, but devastating techniques like Overlord Sword (Haōtō), which injured the user almost as much as the enemy, had long become unsustainable.
'Overlord Sword · Emperor Comes!'
This peerless sword technique that once matched Mihawk blow for blow had finally reached its twilight, to the point where it couldn't even kill Luffy anymore.
"You're too weak, Luffy."
Dragon tore the bandage off mercilessly, speaking calmly under the gazes of the Straw Hats, some humiliated, some unwilling.
"But you're still young. You've got a long road ahead, and plenty of chances to grow stronger."
"I know." Luffy tugged at the corner of his mouth lightly. "After all… this is the New World."
The Straw Hats were left speechless.
Yeah. After all, this was the New World.
Ever since the Paramount War, they had trained for two years before reuniting. They thought things would go like before, cutting through thorns and brambles all the way to the top.
But their enemies were far stronger than they had imagined.
It was almost laughable. Aside from a few blind, insignificant pirates they ran into along the way, they hadn't won a single major battle in the New World.
Against the Marines, it was the same, the Coupe de Burst was no match for the Super Electromagnetic Cannon.
Against the Yonko, it was the same, just a single Lirisk was enough to smash them into defeat.
"Oh, right, before the fight, Shanks quietly told me a string of numbers… uh, Dad, do you know what they mean?"
Just as expected!
Dragon narrowed his eyes. "What numbers?"
"Um…"
Luffy racked his brain, then after a moment scratched the back of his head and grinned foolishly.
"Yabai, I forgot!"
Dragon: "..."
(End of Chapter)