"Eh!!!!!!"
"Th... the people on that ship..."
Looking at the tiny boat in the distance, where the two old men were still drinking and chatting as if the entire Marine fleet surrounding them did not exist, cold sweat drenched the backs of countless Marines.
If it were really just the two of them, then even if the fleet opened full fire and every soldier attacked together,
they would still all be wiped out in an instant, right?!
"That's right. Pirate King Roger and Dark King Rayleigh are not enemies you lot can handle. Full retreat!!!"
"I'll stay here and hold them back myself!!!"
The Marine soldiers were so moved they burst into tears.
"Vice Admiral Garp!!!"
Some hot-blooded fools even stepped forward as though ready to die gloriously.
"We'll fight with you too, Vice Admiral Garp!!!"
The moment Garp heard that, sweat poured down his face. Thankfully, his adjutant Bogard stepped in and stopped them.
"Garp!!!"
"Roger!!!"
The two quickly started fighting, leaving only a single warship beneath them as a foothold while the rest of the Marines fled the battlefield in tears.
They fought fiercely until the fleet disappeared over the horizon.
"Oi, Garp. Being a Marine is way too troublesome, huh?"
"Cheers!!!"
On the warship, Roger and Garp sat together drinking, laughing loudly, not looking like enemies at all anymore.
"I never thought I'd actually live to see the day I'd sit down and drink with you!!!"
Garp threw back his head and laughed.
"The only one I ever wanted to chase was Pirate King Roger, the pirate who turned the seas upside down. Not some retired old geezer!!!"
"Hahahahaha!!! Exactly. Right now, I'm just an old geezer too!!!"
Rayleigh leaned against the ship's rail, watching these two lifelong rivals now sitting together drinking and chatting, and could not help sighing at the unpredictability of life.
Perhaps...
when Roger let Ozz, then just a nameless brat, board the ship, it had not only been Roger showing him kindness.
It had also been Roger's own good fortune.
Before long, the two old men got drunk again. Roger grabbed Garp by the collar.
"Say it clearly, Garp. Why did you make my son call you Grandpa?!"
"That..."
Garp was already half gone himself.
"Because he was raised together with my grandson. Who do you think you are? Unlike you, having a son at that age..."
"You bastard!!!!"
Bickering and roughhousing all the way, they eventually arrived at Windmill Village.
Even after all these years, the place was still peaceful and quiet.
Some villagers passing by saw the Marine warship dock and Garp swaggering off it. A few even came over to greet him.
"Old man Garp, you're back from Marine Headquarters!!!"
"Yeah, I am!"
Some elders also noticed the two old men walking off the ship with him.
"Who are those two old fellows? Marines too?"
Hearing the question, Garp simply picked his nose and answered casually,
"Don't mind them. They're Roger and Rayleigh."
"Yeah, so it's just... eh?!?!"
Roger and Rayleigh's arrival instantly caused an uproar throughout Windmill Village, but by the time the villagers reached them, the men had already left.
They headed straight for the little cabin in the back mountain.
Roger paused for a moment, then still went up and knocked on the door.
"I'm coming. Who is it?"
Because Ozz had always kept people around to protect her over the years, Rouge did not carry too much wariness in her heart. But the moment she opened the door,
she saw a tall old man standing outside in a red captain's coat, with two large curved mustaches above his lip.
She looked up at him and froze on the spot.
"Roger..."
Then tears burst forth like a spring. She threw herself into Roger's arms and cried aloud.
Tears and snot smeared all over Roger.
"I'm sorry."
Of the thousands of words that could have been spoken, in the end, only that one sentence remained.
Ace watched from the side, and tears began to stream down his face as well. Roger pulled him into the embrace too.
The family of three cried together in one trembling knot.
Rayleigh and Garp exchanged a glance.
Their eyes were full of emotion.
...
Elsewhere,
after the Summit War ended,
Law, who had already completed his "reform through labor" and rescued Monkey D. Luffy aboard his submarine, had successfully treated him.
He then looked toward one of the Warlords of the Sea who had joined them midway, Jinbe, who now sat quietly with his eyes closed.
"So... where do we go next?"
Hearing the question, Jinbe opened his eyes and looked toward the cold-faced Law.
"After the war, Mr. Ozz instructed me that I could bring Luffy to Dulamos Island."
"What?"
Law was startled, because he knew exactly what that island represented.
"That man actually thinks that highly of Straw Hat?"
That was Black Spear Ozz's homeland. If they were not truly close, how could he possibly...
"No. More likely, it's just to make that old man happy. Dulamos's king, Gick, is Mr. Ozz's grandfather."
"Mr. Ozz doesn't go back often, so this is probably just his way of finding something amusing for the old man."
"..."
Law nodded. He had not expected that to be the reason.
The submarine sped all the way toward the New World,
heading straight for Dulamos Island.
Several days later,
inside the royal palace, Luffy slowly opened his eyes and found an old man staring at him with a stern expression.
"Old man..."
He had only just begun to rise when,
"Owowowowow!!!"
Not only were his wounds throbbing, Old Gick also brought his cane down on his head with a sharp smack.
"What a stupid brat. Reckless and clueless. When Ozz was a kid, he never got himself injured."
Of course he had watched the Summit War broadcast, so he knew the whole story.
Even though he cursed Luffy with his mouth, he felt quite gratified in his heart.
"But... don't think this has that much to do with you."
"Huh?"
Luffy struggled into a sitting position. Hearing that, he looked toward Gick, who stood there with his arms folded, calm and confident.
After all, he had lived this long. He was an old pirate from the Rocks era. Old Gick had more than enough experience and insight. He opened his eyes and spoke seriously.
"The real reason Roger's son, Fire Fist Ace, was rescued, is because of the debt Ozz owed Roger from back then."
"Otherwise, even with the Impel Down prisoners added to Whitebeard's crew, there was no way they could have shaken all the fighting power of Marine Headquarters, plus the support of the Seven Warlords."
"Today, you escaped by luck, barely."
"But what if Ozz hadn't been there? Or what if one day you met an enemy like Ozz?"
"What would you do then, brat?!"
As Luffy listened, his bandaged body went rigid.
His eyes lost focus,
because he remembered the helplessness he felt in the Summit War when facing monster after monster,
and the agony of being powerless to protect his crew back at Sabaody.
After a long while, he lowered his head.
Struggling, dragging his still-bleeding body, he dropped to his knees before old Gick.
"Old man..."
"Please make me stronger!!!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"