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Dark clouds rolled in, thunder roaring across the sky.
The wind overhead suddenly picked up, snapping the man's robes violently. The hood that wrapped around his face shuddered as if it might tear free at any moment.
Boom!
A bolt of lightning ripped through the clouds, snaking downward and striking straight toward the towering execution platform ahead.
Beneath the green hood, the man's expression sharpened. An unexplainable authority filled his eyes as he lifted his head to look forward.
The execution platform, empty just a moment ago, now had someone standing on it.
Blue arcs of electricity coiled around his body. He wore a white Marine uniform, the justice cloak on his back snapping in the wind. Behind him lingered the fading afterimage of the lightning that had split the sky.
"Kyle!"
The man called out his name.
Clearly, he knew the Marine now standing on the platform.
The wind grew even fiercer.
Kyle stood at the highest point, looking down, his gaze locking onto the man cloaked in green below.
"Monkey D. Dragon?"
Almost instantly, he identified him.
As soon as the name left his mouth, violent gusts tore across Loguetown Execution Plaza. Dust and sand were ripped from the ground and thrown into swirling columns.
Thunder rumbled again as lightning streaked across the sky.
The two men said nothing after that. They simply watched each other in silence.
One stood amid roaring gales, the other with lightning flashing behind him.
After a long moment, Monkey D. Dragon suddenly laughed.
"What's so interesting about being a Marine?"
"Why not join me and turn this world upside down?"
Kyle laughed as well.
"Are you trying to steal your old man's prized disciple?"
"The whole world knows I'm his student."
Monkey D. Dragon's laughter only grew louder.
"Hahaha!"
"But I can see something in you that the old man never had."
Kyle raised a brow, clearly intrigued. "Oh?"
Monkey D. Dragon's expression turned serious, and the wind around him intensified.
"What about your dream?"
"Kyle."
"Or rather, the conviction you're willing to stake your life on. The path you intend to walk. What is it, really?"
The sudden question caught Kyle off guard.
Dreams? Conviction? A path?
He had never truly sat down and thought about those things. Since meeting Garp, his life had been pretty good. Strength, reputation, status. All of it had risen steadily. He was already being hailed as the most promising Marine of the new era. Some were even openly supporting him as a future Fleet Admiral.
Yet he himself had never seriously reflected on why.
"So… what do I actually want?"
Monkey D. Dragon's question set his thoughts racing. Images and fragments of memories drifted through his mind.
After a moment, lightning flashed behind the execution platform. Kyle suddenly grinned.
"A dream, huh?"
"Then mine is definitely not the same as yours, Monkey D. Dragon."
Monkey D. Dragon smiled too. "Then tell me."
"Let's just treat this as a casual chat from a chance encounter."
"You're the old man's most outstanding disciple. I'm his most rebellious, most disappointing son."
"Seems like we should get along pretty well."
Kyle shook his head, still smiling. "I don't hear anything about this that sounds especially compatible."
The next second, his smile faded. He looked downward, or perhaps farther than that.
From this height, all of Loguetown lay in view. Beyond it stretched the endless sea and the vast world beyond.
"I just think…"
Monkey D. Dragon focused, listening closely.
"This world is too big."
Kyle spoke softly, a trace of melancholy and reflection in his eyes.
"So big that it has twenty kings."
The words were carried away by the wind, but Monkey D. Dragon's pupils shrank sharply.
"Kings…"
"There are too many of them."
Kyle smiled faintly, his gaze resting on Monkey D. Dragon below.
"One is enough, isn't it?"
Monkey D. Dragon fell silent. For a long time, he said nothing.
Thunder roared. Lightning flashed like an angry god shaking the heavens.
At some point, Kyle had vanished from the execution platform.
Moments later, as a gust of wind swept past, Monkey D. Dragon was gone as well, as if he had never been there at all.
Not long after, in a remote alley, the figure in the green hood moved quickly through the shadows.
"So you really have ambitions like that?"
"Destroy Mary Geoise. Replace the Twenty Kings?"
"Then do you want to create a brand-new era of peace, or…"
Monkey D. Dragon's eyes suddenly sharpened.
"…build a world even more brutal, darker, and rotten than theirs?"
As he walked, his thoughts raced.
"So that's why you stay with the Marines."
"Because the Marines control the largest and most powerful force in the world?"
Suddenly, Monkey D. Dragon looked up.
The sky had been split in two by a golden bolt of lightning, stretching all the way toward the distant sea.
"Lightning symbolizes supreme authority."
"In myth, it's the power of the king of gods!"
As the lightning flared and faded, Monkey D. Dragon's expression shifted unpredictably.
He suddenly realized that Kyle's ambitions, and the impact they could have on the future, might far exceed even his own expectations.
Night fell quickly.
That evening, Kyle's squad did not encounter anyone else attempting to break into the prison.
Compared to the night before, it was eerily calm.
The next day arrived in the blink of an eye.
"Hurry! Everyone to the execution platform!"
"Kyle, you're coming with us. You'll escort Gol D. Roger."
At five in the morning, Zephyr appeared before them.
The tension was thick enough to touch. Everyone knew exactly what day it was.
"Yes, sir."
Kyle nodded.
He followed Zephyr into Roger's holding area and soon saw him.
There was no fear on Roger's face. No sign of despair or mental collapse. When he saw Kyle, he even smiled and gave him a casual greeting.
On the way out, Zephyr walked on the left, Kyle on the right. Roger walked ahead, shackles on his hands and feet, with two lines of stern-faced guards behind him.
"Any last words, Roger?"
Their pace was steady, neither fast nor slow. Kyle asked the question suddenly.
Zephyr stood to the side, acting as though he hadn't heard.
"Last words?"
Roger smiled faintly, the moustache above his lip twitching.
"I'm about to die. What good are last words?"
He paused.
"But…"
"If there's anything I want to say…"
"Take good care of the sword at your waist for me."
Kyle froze, then let out a quiet sigh.
"Ace?"
Roger grinned, looking toward the rising sun just cresting the horizon.
"Ace."
"In the future, he'll see a world I never could."
Kyle gripped the hilt of his sword, then slowly released it.
"I'll make sure he sees it."
Roger's grin widened.
Soon after, Monkey D. Garp and Sengoku arrived and joined the procession.
Everyone's footsteps remained steady. In the center, Roger walked forward, chains clinking with every step, heading calmly toward the execution platform.
On the streets of Loguetown, more and more people gathered. They pushed forward, eyes filled with curiosity, excitement, and barely restrained fervor as they watched.
"Roger!"
"So that's the Pirate King, Roger?"
"..."
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