Loguetown, central plaza.
The sky was perfectly clear. The blazing sun hung high overhead, baking the stone-paved square until it almost burned.
In stark contrast to the bright weather was the suffocating heaviness hanging over the plaza.
Tens of thousands of civilians, reporters, pirates, and bounty hunters had flocked here from every corner of the world, packing the place so tightly not even water could drip through.
They were like people attending some grand but twisted festival. The air was thick with sweat, alcohol, and a kind of near-mad excitement.
This was a death pageant watched by the entire world.
…
Inside the Marine base, in the dormitory.
Rain pulled on a brand-new Marine uniform.
He did not wear a mask.
He calmly studied his faint reflection in the window— the face of a handsome, delicate-looking teenager.
"Dong—Dong—"
A heavy bell tolled deep in the base.
Time was up.
Rain stepped out of his room and joined the escort unit made up of Headquarters elites. He and a stern-looking Headquarters lieutenant commander took the left and right positions behind that man.
Gol D. Roger.
The moment Roger stepped out of the base gate and onto the final road leading to the plaza's center, a roar like crashing mountains and seas hit them like a physical force.
Rain's senses, far sharper than any normal person's, took a terrifying impact all at once.
The shouting, laughter, crying, and cursing of tens of thousands of people all mashed together yet painfully clear, made his brain buzz.
"It looks exactly like it did in the manga from my previous life…"
Looking at the sea of people, that thought surfaced in Rain's mind on reflex.
"No… not the same at all."
He overturned it immediately.
Everything here… was far too real.
The acrid stench in the air, a mix of countless people's sweat and cheap alcohol, was real.
The faint vibration of the stone street under his feet, trampled by the endless crowd, was real.
The twisted expressions on the faces around him—burning with fanaticism, greed, fear, and excitement—were real.
Rain's gaze finally settled on the tall back walking a few meters ahead of him.
This man was no longer a legendary symbol inked on paper, no longer a 2D character behind a screen.
He was a real person.
Rain could see the fine wear and tear on that famous red captain's coat from years at sea; he could hear the dull clack-clack of the special shackles on Roger's ankles as they scraped over stone; he could see his black hair shifting slightly in the sea breeze.
That man, hands in cuffs and a smile on his face, was walking calmly toward his own death.
And he…
Rain lowered his head and glanced at his own hands, covered in white gloves, which would soon be lifting the execution rifle.
…was the one who would personally send him on his way.
In that moment, Rain felt it in his soul for the first time—he had truly transmigrated.
He was no longer a "reader" making snarky comments about the story from behind a screen.
He was a participant in this real, brutal, and infinitely possible world—someone who was about to personally kill the "protagonist of the old era."
A strange, cold, slightly deranged excitement mixed with absurdity surged wildly in his chest.
He watched the man he was about to kill with his own hands, and every stray thought vanished, leaving only an unprecedented chill and razor-edged focus.
When Rain's boots stepped onto the massive wooden scaffold built especially for the Pirate King, towering more than ten meters high, it felt as though all the noise in the world moved far away from him.
He could see the endless sea of faces below, a dense ocean of twisted fanaticism. He could hear the wind, and his own heart, steady and calm inside his chest.
At the edge of his vision, he could see several huge one-eyed "visual Den Den Mushi" projecting every moment of this scene to the entire world in real time.
He and the stern Headquarters lieutenant commander stood on either side of Roger, rifles in hand, looming behind him.
On a slightly lower platform beneath the scaffold, Fleet Admiral Sengoku stood grim-faced, holding a long list of charges.
Further back, in the shadow of a building, the "Hero of the Marines" Garp—who by rights should be front and center, basking in the world's cheers—was leaning against a wall alone, arms folded, his dog-head hat pulled down low so no one could see his expression.
Beside Sengoku, Chief of Staff Tsuru's brows were tightly furrowed. Her wise eyes were filled with unease at how smoothly this "grand spectacle" was playing out.
Sengoku stepped forward and began reading out Gol D. Roger's crimes to the world.
"In Sea Circle Calendar 1484, Gol D. Roger led his pirate crew in ravaging the seas and defying the World Government…"
His voice was solemn and heavy with killing intent, but Rain wasn't listening at all.
He lifted his eyes and, with his sharpened vision, carefully scanned the crowd below.
He saw them.
Amid the crashing human tide, he spotted the red-haired boy Shanks, sobbing uncontrollably under his straw hat—
and beside him, the red-nosed boy Buggy, crying so hard snot bubbles were coming out.
He saw a young swordsman with a cold face and eyes sharp enough to cut everything—Dracule Mihawk.
He saw Crocodile, cigar in his mouth and defiance written all over his face.
He saw the blond young man Doflamingo, sunglasses on and a mocking grin at his lips.
He saw Moria, still tall and not yet beer-bellied, his face twisted with a sickly excited smile.
He saw a white-haired Marine recruit in the ranks, Smoker, staring up at the scaffold with a face full of pride and longing.
And in the most inconspicuous corner, he saw a man in a hooded cloak, strange markings on his face, watching coldly from the sidelines—Monkey D. Dragon.
"All the future big shots are here, huh…"
Rain murmured inwardly, appreciating this play called "The New Era" that was about to begin.
And he… was the one who would pull open the curtain.
At last, Sengoku finished the long list of charges. He raised his right hand high, then swung it down sharply, issuing the final command in a voice full of authority that rang across the whole plaza:
"Execute him!"
In that instant, the whole world fell silent.
By instinct, Rain snapped his rifle up and aimed at Roger's back.
But his mind went buzz—completely blank.
Wait? I'm supposed to shoot now? His heart lurched. What the hell? This isn't the right sequence! Where's the last words segment? Isn't some random nobody supposed to yell and ask where the treasure is? Then Roger gives that speech that kicks off the new era. Why are we skipping straight to the end?!
They weren't following the script at all.
Like a statue, he held his rifle at the ready and didn't move a muscle.
That strange hesitation plunged the entire plaza into dead silence. The lieutenant commander beside him stared in shock. Captain Stock below practically lost his soul. Sengoku's brows knotted into a 川. Tsuru's eyes filled with shock and suspicion.
In the shadows, Garp's folded arms tightened instinctively.
The whole world was waiting for the gunshot that would end an era—but in that moment, only the wind spoke in the square.
Rain's eyes swept across the numb, fanatical, greedy faces below.
No… not yet.
Right now, Roger was just a captured Pirate King.
His [Sin Index] might not be low—but it definitely hadn't reached its peak.
"This world… is already a stagnant pool."
Roger's calm back was reflected in Rain's pupils.
"You saw through it all long ago, didn't you, Roger?"
"You're going to use your own death—and that illusory 'Great Treasure'—to ignite all the pent-up power and courage in the world! You're going to use this raging desire to smash into this rotten, chaotic world!"
"This is the only way you could think of to save this messed-up world… to set it on fire and forge a new one!"
"By opening a chaotic Great Pirate Era and drawing every would-be tyrant onto the sea—this choice, this resolve to plunge the next twenty years into chaos, is your life's greatest 'achievement'… and my greatest fortune."
Say it, Roger! A man like you wouldn't just quietly accept dying like this, right?
Say the words!
As if he'd heard the scream from Rain's soul, Roger—who had been smiling calmly while waiting for death—seemed to sense that strange, unnatural silence.
He slowly turned his head. Those deep eyes that had seen the end of the world fell, for the first time, on the boy standing behind him.
In that gaze, Rain saw no fear or hatred—only a hint of curiosity at this unexpected pause, and a look that suggested… he had already seen through everything.
For a moment, Rain had the illusion that Roger had seen straight through the mature soul inside this fifteen-year-old body, a soul that didn't belong to this world.
Roger understood the brief "stage" this boy had created for him.
Then, using the last of his strength, he threw back his head and unleashed that great laugh and declaration that would open a new era to the entire world:
"You want my treasure?"
"If you want it, go find it out on the sea! I left everything this world has to offer there!"