Chapter 12
One Piece: Legacy of the Pirate King
Seven years had passed.
The Grand Line was calmer now—its waves less violent, its storms less frequent, almost as if the sea itself had grown tired. The World Government no longer ruled. The Reverie had dissolved. Pirate crews had turned into trade alliances, and for the first time in centuries, there was an era where the flag of the Pirate King flew not for war—but for peace.
But peace is a fragile thing.
Especially when time itself is under threat.
At the heart of Amazon Lily, Lian had grown into a wild storm of energy and curiosity.
At age seven, he had already tamed a Sea King cub, cracked a boulder with a single punch, and once caused a thundercloud to split in half just by laughing too hard.
He bore his father's messy black hair, but his golden eyes had matured into something unsettlingly ancient.
His Haki—what Chopper now called Chrono Haki—had awakened.
It didn't just sense people.
It sensed moments.
Lian could feel past echoes of battlefields. Hear conversations spoken a decade ago if he stood in the same spot. Sometimes, when scared, he would accidentally slow time for a few seconds around him.
He was powerful.
Too powerful.
Which is why the Timeforged came.
It began with a whisper.
A ripple in the wind that only Robin noticed.
One night, deep in the archives beneath the palace, she found a page that shouldn't exist. A page written in the future, chronicling Lian's death.
She brought it to Luffy at sunrise.
"This wasn't written," she said softly. "It was remembered… by someone who lived it already."
Luffy's eyes hardened. "Then we make sure they don't live long enough to see it."
The Timeforged appeared the next night.
Shadows cloaked in rusted armor, with eyes like melted silver. Their voices echoed out of sync, like they were speaking in different timelines at once.
They didn't walk.
They flickered.
One appeared in Lian's room.
But it was already too late.
"Dad…" Lian whispered, his eyes wide.
Luffy crashed through the wall.
The Timeforged raised a blade made of black glass, swinging in three dimensions at once.
Luffy met it with a single punch.
Gear Fifth, Full Control.
The blow shattered time around them like a mirror. The entire room froze in a suspended shimmer of memory. Even the stars in the sky paused.
Luffy grabbed Lian and Hancock, pulled them into his arms, and leapt outside just as the palace behind them exploded in reverse—collapsing, then rebuilding, then collapsing again.
The Timeforged emerged from the smoke.
"Tidalborn Lian," one of them said, its voice made of clocks. "You must not reach your tenth year."
Luffy growled.
"He'll reach his hundredth, and you'll still be running."
The Straw Hats mobilized instantly.
Zoro was already on the northern cliffs, slicing through Timeforged scouts who flickered backward and forward between stances, their blades rewinding each time he parried. But Zoro adapted.
He closed his eye.
And let instinct fight.
Sanji was in the skies, battling a woman with wings made of ticking hands. She bent space with her kicks. He bent flame. They danced above the jungle like gods of light and shadow.
Robin summoned hands that reached into the past, grabbing Timeforged warriors before they could attack.
Franky deployed a chrono-cannon made from old blueprints of Vegapunk's time experiments.
Chopper worked in a bubble of frozen time, healing wounded Kuja warriors using needles that didn't follow normal hours.
And Brook—
Brook played a song that slowed time for the enemy.
Music from the soul that disrupted their unnatural pulse.
Luffy stood at the palace gate, Lian behind him, Hancock by his side with a javelin in hand. Her Haki glowed around her like an empress of war.
"You really think you can stop what's coming?" asked the Timeforged leader.
He stepped forward.
He wore a broken Straw Hat.
Luffy's eyes narrowed. "Who the hell are you?"
The man smiled.
And his face… looked just like Lian.
Older. Hollow.
"I am the version of him who chose power over love," he said. "The one who opened Calypso's Core. The one who broke the sea."
Lian trembled behind Luffy. "That's not me…"
The Timeforged Lian raised a blade made of reversed time.
"No," he said. "But you could be."
The battle that followed shook the entire island.
Father versus future.
Light versus shadow.
Luffy's fists cracked time with every blow, colliding with his son's potential gone wrong. Every punch carried love, hope, and rage. And every time the Timeforged struck back, he brought echoes of despair.
"You're just a memory!" Luffy roared. "I'll protect his story!"
He struck one final time—fist burning with Chrono Haki, fueled by his son's pulse—and shattered the false future into a rain of golden fragments.
The Timeforged vanished.
But not before whispering:
"You bought time… not peace."
The night passed in silence.
Lian sat between his parents, wrapped in a blanket.
"Dad… will I really become like that?" he asked softly.
Luffy placed a hand over his son's heart.
"No," he said. "Because you have us. And we'll remind you who you are. Every day."
Hancock leaned down and kissed Lian's hair. "The future isn't written yet."
And Lian—smiling, trembling—closed his eyes and slept under the stars.
Protected.
Loved.
Chosen.
End of Chapter 12
Next Chapter Preview:
Lian begins training with Zoro and Robin to better control his Chrono Haki. But as remnants of the Timeforged hide in the shadows of Wano and Elbaf, a deeper mystery is revealed: the original creator of the Calypso Core still lives… and he was once a crewmate of Joy Boy.