When Ritter's figure finally solidified within the ripples of time, he was already standing on an unfamiliar shore.
Fine white sand stretched beneath his feet.
Thick fog that never seemed to disperse covered the entire area.
An ancient and mysterious aura permeated the air.
This was the end of the world.
The Final Island.
Laugh Tale.
In the end, he had still come here.
Just by a different method.
Ritter had finally set foot on the land that had once refused to let him arrive.
He looked around.
His gaze was quickly drawn to the two enormous Poneglyphs standing in the center of the island.
Ritter walked over and swept his crimson eyes across the ancient writing.
Then he suddenly realized something.
There were two Poneglyphs.
Not one.
The contents of the first stone were more or less in line with his previous guesses.
Honestly, the internet had already figured out most of it.
The parts that remained unknown did not have much of an impact.
But the second Poneglyph was placed directly beside the first.
That was something he had not expected.
Ritter couldn't help but tease the absent Joy Boy.
"Joy Boy, you had enough free time to make two of these things?"
After all, he and Joy Boy had once been very close friends.
His gaze shifted toward the second Poneglyph.
The stone seemed even older than the first.
The writing carved into its surface also carried a different feeling.
It was more personal.
When Ritter finished deciphering the contents, his entire body paused slightly.
These were the Dragon Kingdom characters he had taught Joy Boy.
The message was not an objective record of history.
Nor was it a prophecy.
It was more like...
A letter of apology that had crossed an impossibly long stretch of time.
"To my partner in the mist."
The opening alone caused Ritter's pupils to shrink.
"By the time you see these words, I have probably already returned to rare earth, and you have finally reached this place."
Ritter stared at the first line with a dark expression.
That typo...
He had no choice but to perform a second translation in his head.
The actual meaning was probably something like this:
"By the time you read these words, I will likely have returned to dust, and you will have finally set foot here."
"I'm sorry."
"I failed to keep the promise we made at the beginning."
"I once promised to spread laughter and freedom to every corner of this world."
"To break every chain and let sunlight truly shine across the earth."
"You always called me a rubber idiot."
"But I knew from the very first moment I saw you that we were different."
"You kept calling me stupid, but I'm actually ridiculously smart."
"Your voice was the most special voice I had ever heard."
Ritter's expression slowly became strange.
This guy...
"But in the end, I failed."
"I underestimated..."
"And at the critical moment, because of certain choices, I betrayed your trust."
"I failed to spread smiles across the entire world."
"Instead, I may have left behind even deeper scars."
"This is not an attempt to shirk responsibility."
"I, Joy Boy, am offering my sincerest apology to you."
"To my companion from another world."
"Our paths may have diverged once."
"But the help you gave me, and that vision of yours that surpassed your era..."
"I have never forgotten them."
"I hope that one day in the future, someone will truly fulfill our promise."
"Even if, by then, neither of us is still here."
At the bottom of the message was a simple little smiley face.
Ritter stood there in silence for a long time.
He remembered that man from many years ago.
A man wearing a straw hat.
A man with a brilliant smile.
Joy Boy had once slapped Ritter on the shoulder and loudly proclaimed his dream of bringing laughter to the entire world.
At the time, Ritter had only treated it as the kind of passionate line every protagonist was supposed to say.
After all, Luffy shouted about becoming the Pirate King every other day too.
Then Ritter remembered the first time he had met Joy Boy.
The idiot had nearly made Ritter's mast shrivel on the spot.
Who could have imagined that this fool had actually taken those words as a promise between the two of them?
Did this world really have to be saved by idiots?
And yet...
Ritter had never expected that, in Joy Boy's heart, those words had become such a heavy promise to his "partner in the mist."
A promise that had tormented him until the very end.
An apology he believed he had failed to fulfill.
"Heh..."
Ritter suddenly let out a quiet laugh.
He shook his head.
"Joy Boy, you self-important bastard."
"That wasn't even a formal promise back then."
He spoke as if addressing the empty air.
Or perhaps he was whispering to a stretch of time that had long since passed.
"I just thought your dream sounded pretty cool, that's all."
"Who told you to carry that kind of guilt with you when you disappeared, idiot?"
Just as Ritter's thoughts were churning, his powerful Observation Haki suddenly caught a disturbance on the distant sea.
The Oro Jackson!
It was his past self.
And the Roger Pirates of that era.
They were approaching Laugh Tale!
Lady Toki could only travel to places she had personally visited in her memories.
That was why Ritter had been sent to the area around Laugh Tale.
He had then walked here himself.
This was the closest he had ever been to Laugh Tale in his memories.
So it was not strange that he had encountered the Oro Jackson.
But he absolutely could not let his past self see this Poneglyph.
At least...
Not now.
The thought flashed through Ritter's mind.
He did not hesitate for even a second.
A massive amount of blood mist exploded from his body.
Like a living creature, it spread toward the coast.
Wherever the mist passed, it seemed to trigger some mechanism within the island itself.
The island began to crazily drain Ritter's stamina and energy.
The scene was eerily similar to the time he had failed to land on the island in his memories.
However, unlike back then, when Ritter had struggled alone and eventually collapsed from exhaustion...
This time, his perception caught something else.
Almost the instant the blood mist spread out, a familiar figure rushed toward the spot where the Ritter of the past was about to collapse.
At a speed far beyond anything Ritter had expected.
Roger!
The eyes of Future Ritter narrowed.
He understood instantly.
So that was what had happened.
Back then, just before he had lost consciousness, Roger had already noticed him and rushed over.
But at the time, Ritter's consciousness had already been too hazy to sense what was happening.
Almost on instinct...
Roger, who was currently standing there, had a sickly pallor to his face.
But his Haki surged violently around him.
He did not waste a single word.
A fierce glint flashed through Roger's eyes.
The Supreme Grade Blade Ace was already out of its sheath.
Wrapped in Conqueror's Haki coating, it slashed directly toward Ritter.
"Divine Departure!"
The dazzling slash tore through the air and shot straight toward Future Ritter!
Ritter withdrew the mist.
Facing a technique he knew far too well, a technique he had fought alongside countless times, a complicated emotion flashed through Future Ritter's eyes.
But his movements did not hesitate.
The Black Tide Greatsword instantly formed in his hand.
Blood mist coiled around the blade.
The sword let out an excited hum.
Peak-level Conqueror's Haki wrapped around it.
Ritter swung his sword and met the attack head-on.
"Fog God Style: Blood Dragon Calamity!"
A crimson dragon roared as it violently collided with the slash of Divine Departure!
BOOOOOOM!!!
A violent shockwave exploded from the point between the two men.
Sand filled the sky.
Even the surrounding fog was temporarily blown apart.
Roger was forced back three steps by the recoil.
He tightened his grip on Ace and stared at the figure surrounded by blood mist.
"Hey, hey, hey."
"Fancy seeing you again, Ritter."
"I'm not letting you attack my crew."
Roger paused.
His expression suddenly became extremely complicated.
"Even if you're attacking yourself!"
"Wait a second..."
"Why does that sound so weird when I say it?!"
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