<><><><><><>
"Katakuri-nii-san!"
"You're awake?"
"How are you feeling?"
Perospero, Smoothie, Galette, Oven, and Daifuku all crowded around him, their faces etched with concern.
"Here, drink this."
Katakuri took the glass of water and downed it in one go. The cool liquid soothed his insides, and he could finally breathe again.
He glanced around. It looked like some kind of clinic.
His memory came rushing back.
He had lost...
He was so badly injured that they had to stay here for now.
Good.
Katakuri looked at Perospero and the others. They were safe.
"Hey! Don't you people know not to disturb a patient??"
A doctor came in and shooed Smoothie and the others out. He had a nurse clean up the mess on the floor and began his examination.
"Incredible self-healing ability," the doctor marveled. An ordinary person would have died from those injuries.
A short while later, Oven slipped past the nurse and came back in with some ice cream and donuts. He knew Katakuri's favorites.
"Ice cream... in the middle of the scorching hot Sandy Island?"
The cold dessert was a refreshing shock in the blistering heat.
"I hear it's thanks to that king," Oven explained. "His island produces a special kind of mushroom called an 'Ice Mushroom.' The mushroom itself is tasteless, but it can lock in cold and moisture. When it's mixed with sweets, it creates all sorts of delicious treats. It's become the most popular summer dessert in all of Alabasta."
Oven's expression then turned somber. "I'm sorry,"
His voice filled with self-reproach. He blamed himself, his recklessness, for Katakuri's defeat. If he had died... he couldn't even imagine it.
"No..." Katakuri said, his voice calm and analytical. "That king... he had no good intentions from the start. He deliberately chose a deserted spot in the desert for the trade. Then he showed up late on purpose to provoke our anger. It was all a setup."
"What??" Oven grit his teeth. "That bastard... he's that strong, and he still pulled a stunt like that just to screw us over?"
Katakuri frowned. He remembered something. "When I landed, was it on my face or on my back?"
He remembered using the last of his strength to try and adjust his landing.
"Face-first!" Oven said without thinking.
Katakuri stared at him.
"What?" Oven asked, confused.
"Nothing..."
Katakuri looked out the window. In the distance, from the direction of the port, he could hear the faint sound of cannon fire. A plume of smoke rose high into the air.
The town's alarm bells began to ring.
"Pirates..."
"Pirates are here!"
People screamed, running and scattering in all directions.
Nanohana, as the primary trading port with the Winter Blossom Kingdom, was a byword for prosperity. Even with a heavy military presence, it couldn't deter the greed of pirates. One good raid, and you were rich.
On the execution scaffold in Loguetown, he had revealed the secret of the "One Piece," the treasure that represented everything in the world.
"Gol D. Roger" had started the Great Pirate Era.
But the waves of this new era did not only bring fortune.
The Fish-Man Island had suffered from the constant threat of kidnappers. And all over the world, villains ran rampant, destroying and pillaging.
No matter how future generations would glorify this era with tales of heroic deeds...
For the nameless common folk who lived through it...
Pirates were like droughts and storms—a merciless, cruel force of nature, an embodiment of the disaster that stole their families and their lives.
"How noisy," Katakuri said, frowning. He didn't like to be disturbed when he was eating.
"I'll take care of them," Oven said, and immediately ran out.
With Daifuku staying behind to stand guard, Oven and the others joined the fray. The pirate raid was quickly extinguished.
In a single confrontation, the crew of over two hundred men was wiped out.
The townspeople cheered, thanking them profusely.
But Smoothie and the others were in no mood for gratitude. They were annoyed by the noise and were about to drive the crowd away.
"Hey! If someone thanks you, you should just accept it!"
A familiar voice—a voice Oven and Smoothie would not soon forget—suddenly piped up, like a devil on their shoulder, making them jump.
'Am I hearing things??' Oven and the others slowly, reluctantly, turned their heads.
Shit.
He's like a ghost.
Jin was standing right there, a grin on his face. No one knew when he had arrived.
"The remaining three Devil Fruits... we'll have to go back and prepare them," Oven said quickly. "They're not something you can just get on a whim."
He thought Jin was here to collect his debt. He was even more worried that Jin would pull the same trick again and capture all six of them...
Three becomes six, six becomes twelve...
It would never end.
"I know, I know," Jin said. "I'm not some devil, here to fleece you for all you're worth. I was just passing by."
And he was. He and Robin had finished their journey and had come to Nanohana to wait for the demonic carrier. They had heard the commotion and had come to take a look.
Even a cornered rabbit will bite. And Big Mom was no rabbit. If he pushed her too far, she really would come storming into Paradise.
It wasn't that he wouldn't fleece them. He just had to do it slowly, carefully, with a bit of finesse...
"No hard feelings, right?" Jin said. "How about this? To show there's no bad blood, I'll buy you all a drink. What do you say?"
Oven and Perospero exchanged a look.
No, thank you.
But Smoothie and Galette had already said, in unison, "Alright!"
"Eh??"
Oven looked at them, surprised. He suddenly noticed that there was a strange look in their eyes.
The strong have always attracted the strong.
—————————
In the tavern, Katakuri and Daifuku had come along, worried something might happen.
Given Stussy's presence and the activity of Cipher Pol, Robin didn't want to draw attention to herself and had stayed behind at their lodgings. The Winter Blossom Kingdom's ships came here to trade so often that they had just bought a piece of land and built their own building for convenience.
The pirate attack from earlier had scared most people off. Only a few patrons were still drinking in the tavern.
Jin sat at the bar with Katakuri and the others. He was having a pleasant chat with Smoothie and Galette. The other four... they were sitting on pins and needles.
A drunk man's voice grew louder.
"Gol D. Roger? You mean Gold Roger?"
"You ask if I know him? Do you not understand why there are so many people in this world who have suffered at the hands of pirates? It's that Gold Roger's fault! He's a man who never should have been born. The worst kind of bastard. He was a menace when he was alive, and he's a menace now that he's dead. Remember this: he is the scum of the earth! The most evil criminal in history, executed by the World Government! He's the trash that everyone in the world should be stomping on!"
"He was just a pirate, wasn't he?" someone else said. "So what if he conquered the Grand Line and reached the final island, Laugh Tale? What's so great about Roger? The man is dead. You can say whatever you want about him now."
Katakuri shot them a sidelong glance.
"The lives of these men who spit on his name," a voice said, "have no causal connection to what Roger actually did. The more a man wastes his life in gambling dens and taverns, the louder he'll curse another man's name for his own misfortune, all while sipping watered-down swill."
Katakuri turned and saw that it was Jin who had spoken.
"Does the world vilify Roger's past because he knew the secret of 'One Piece'?" Jin continued. "Or because he incited the world, encouraged the young to become pirates? There are no definitive answers. But the innocent masses can curse Roger all they want. They can pile all the sins of the world on his shoulders. They can make him atone for them with his death. It doesn't matter. Because Roger is already dead. But... if there is one who inherits his blood, he must be eliminated, root and stem. Go ahead, chase his wife and child with stones. This sentiment, this prejudice, has already spread throughout the world. And this is considered a commendable act?"
"And who orchestrates this narrative? The World Government, of course. Roger's existence, and his actions, were a grave danger to the World Nobles, to the Celestial Dragons, and to their rule... The people know nothing. They don't even know his true name. And still, they curse it."
Smoothie and Galette couldn't help but nod. They were "pirates." Roger was a figure to be looked up to.
<><><><><><>
~ 80 Advanced Chapters Available on my Patreon!
https://p-atreon.com/dragonnx
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)
~# Every 100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter!
~# Add to Library!