"Yonko Red-Haired Shanks… Pirate King… Roger?"
The moment those two names came out of Higuma's mouth, it wasn't just Beckman.
The entire tavern froze.
Especially at the name "Roger."
That name was known by everyone.
In an instant, faces changed everywhere.
Who would've thought this bandit—with an eight-million-berry bounty—could even have a connection to Gol D. Roger?
From his tone, it sounded like he'd been downright familiar with him.
"Shanks was an apprentice crewmate of the Pirate King?"
"And this uncle… could he be the Pirate King's… friend?"
Luffy had been sitting beside Shanks. He'd been scared stiff by Higuma's entrance earlier, but now he snapped back to himself, eyes sparkling as he stared at Shanks and Higuma.
Higuma didn't have time to care about Luffy. He was still nervous, all of his focus locked onto Shanks.
Please, let me bullshit my way through this… Don't choke now. If I mess up here, I'm dead for real!
Then he heard his bandits whispering behind him.
"Isn't Boss a bandit? How does he even know the Pirate King?"
"Didn't Boss say today was his first time seeing these idiot pirates?"
"Wait—has Boss ever gone out to sea? If he knows someone like the Pirate King, why would he be a bandit with an eight-million bounty?"
Higuma's stomach dropped.
Damn it. Do these idiots secretly hate me? Are they trying to sabotage me?
He could practically feel it—the moment those whispers spread, Beckman's gaze turned a shade more suspicious.
Just as Higuma's nerves were fraying, the bald bandit in the crowd suddenly "realized" something again and shouted:
"I get it again!"
"Criminals like the Pirate King—anyone with even the slightest connection to him would be hunted by the World Government!"
"That's why Boss hid his identity, living deep in the mountains as a bandit…"
The bald bandit got so worked up his eyes actually glistened with tears.
"I never knew Boss was this incredible…"
"Boss, I'll follow you for the rest of my life!"
Higuma blinked, then turned to look at the bald bandit, staring for a moment at that shiny, bare head.
This bald imagination machine is built different. No wonder he's my subordinate…
Higuma finally relaxed a little, putting on a calm face as he quietly waited for Shanks's reaction.
"So you're a friend of Captain's, Mr. Higuma… no wonder…"
Shanks laughed loudly, raising his bottle.
"If we're all friends, then come on—let's have a drink."
Higuma's heart loosened.
Only someone like Shanks would get bottle-bonked and still invite you to sit down and drink.
Higuma's mouth curled slightly as he picked up a bottle from the table and smiled.
"Your breadth of spirit really does live up to the name of a Yonko. No wonder Roger handed the straw hat to you."
The two bottles clinked in midair.
Watching the scene, Beckman felt it click into place.
"So that's what this is… Mr. Higuma pretended to be an ordinary bandit and provoked Captain… he was testing Captain's temperament."
With that thought, Beckman stood and signaled the crew to pass drinks to the bandits.
A short while later, what had been a standoff between bandits and pirates ended with both sides sitting together, drinking. Laughter filled the tavern. The mood finally eased.
...
"Shanks… seeing you is like seeing Roger back then…"
After a few rounds of drinking, Higuma grew tipsy. Riding the alcohol, he reminisced about a glorious past that had never existed.
"Roger, that guy… I really thought highly of him back then. Never thought he'd die so young…"
"... and that kid, Kozuki Oden. What a waste."
"He should've inherited the Shogun seat of Wano and opened the country… but he was born in the wrong era."
"Rayleigh? Last I heard, he's lying low over at the Sabaody Archipelago, pretending to be some ordinary coating craftsman…"
A few more drinks in, Higuma was fully getting into character.
Listening to him run his mouth, the last scraps of doubt in Beckman and the others slowly faded away.
Stories from Roger's era had long since been buried by the World Government. This wasn't the kind of thing just anyone could know.
Yet Higuma talked like he had receipts—like he'd actually lived through that age and once stood shoulder to shoulder with Gol D. Roger.
"Is that so… So Captain really has that many stories with you, Mr. Higuma…"
Shanks said with a smile.
"Back then I was just an apprentice on Captain Roger's ship. Anything that happened before I came aboard, I didn't really know much about. Thanks for telling me all of that, Mr. Higuma…"
Shanks felt something stir in his chest.
In this world, there weren't many people left he could sit down with and talk about Roger's era.
Roger's era—and even earlier, the Rocks era…
Higuma was dropping so many old-world secrets that Beckman and the others couldn't help but feel genuine respect.
This was an elder who'd lived through the turning of ages.
"And those rookies from Rocks's ship… Charlotte Linlin, Kaido, Whitebeard—plus you."
Higuma let just the right amount of melancholy show.
"Now you've become the Yonko of a new era…"
"A new generation replaces the old. From here on out, it's your era."
"Time doesn't spare anyone. It's about time I stepped back behind the curtain of the great age."
A trace of weathered weariness slipped through Higuma's eyes.
In truth, Higuma didn't look that old—maybe thirty or forty at most.
But right now, he carried himself like an old man who'd watched the sea change and the world turn over.
"Higuma-senpai, you're not old yet…"
Shanks even changed how he addressed him.
But before he could finish, Higuma cut him off.
"Right. I'm not old."
Higuma tipped the bottle and chugged—glug-glug-glug—then wiped the corner of his mouth, smiling as he looked Shanks straight in the eye.
"Shanks… if it weren't for me, the New World wouldn't even have a title like 'Yonko.'"
Shanks: "?"
Beckman: "?"
Lucky Roux and the others: "?"
The entire Red Hair crew froze.
Higuma was clearly drunk. He didn't just slip into the Mountain Bandit King role—he'd also forgotten Beckman even existed.
He kept smiling.
"In that old era that's already vanished, the seas were unstable as hell. Pure chaos. Pirates at your level? There were plenty."
"Shanks…"
Higuma spoke with grave sincerity.
"Guys at your level… I've already taken down fifty-six."
"Red The Aloof, Patrick Redfield… Devil's Heir Barrett… the Corrupt King Avalo Pizarro… the 'Crescent Moon Hunter' Catarina Devon… the 'Giant Battleship' Sanjuan Wolf…"
"And a whole lot more extremely vicious pirates—so nasty the World Government erased their very names—every last one of them, I took them down."
Higuma hiccuped, his tongue thick with booze.
"If I hadn't stepped in, it wouldn't just be 'Four Emperors' in the New World."
"It'd be… Sixty Emperors of the Sea!"
(End of Chapter)
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