"You… you can't kill me!"
Saint Roswald staggered backward until his back slammed against the rail. His diamond-studded noble's hat sat askew on his head, and the sapphire brooch on his chest rose and fell with his panicked breaths.
"I'm a Celestial Dragon! If you kill me, the World Government and the Navy will hunt you down! You'll never escape!"
In this final, desperate moment, he clung to the only shield he had—the so-called supreme name of a Celestial Dragon.
But the deck was silent.
The only response he received was a cold, mocking smirk. Shiro's hand rested casually on his sheathed blade, its steel catching a sinister gleam.
"Celestial Dragon?" Shiro's tone dripped with contempt. His boots crunched over shattered glass on the deck, each step grinding away the last sliver of Rozwald's pride.
"The thing I hate most in this world is parasites like you. If you weren't a Celestial Dragon, maybe—just maybe—I'd have let you live."
Roswald's face turned ghostly pale. All his arrogance shattered in an instant.
With a thud, he dropped to his knees. The mighty "noble of the world" grovelled on the filthy deck, his forehead pressed down so hard it bled. Tears and snot smeared his once-pristine face as he clutched desperately at Shiro's leg.
"Don't… don't kill me, young hero! Whatever you want, I'll give it to you!"
Shiro's lip curled in disgust. With a sharp kick, he sent Roswald sprawling across the deck, where he smashed his head against the anchor chain with a dull crack.
"You Celestial Dogs!" Shiro spat, voice rising with fury. "Every three years you carry out an 'Extermination Order' on innocent nations! When those people begged for their lives, did you spare them?!"
"N-no… please, I beg you!" Roswald scrabbled up from the blood-slick boards, then began slamming his head into the deck in frenzied kowtows. The dull thud of bone on wood echoed through the night.
"I'll give you everything! Take it all! There's… there's even a Devil Fruit in the hold! Just let me live!"
The once-glorious robes of the Celestial Dragon were now stained with filth and blood.
For the first time, Shiro didn't strike immediately. Watching this so-called "god" reduced to begging stirred a dark, twisted satisfaction in his chest.
Then a stench hit his nose. Acrid and foul.
He looked down. Roswald had wet himself. A stream of urine trailed across the deck.
Shiro wrinkled his nose in revulsion, covering his face with one hand. His eyes narrowed with contempt.
"…You said there's a Devil Fruit?"
Rozwald latched onto the question like a drowning man clinging to driftwood.
"Y-yes! I think it's called the Gomu-Gomu no Mi! They say if you eat it, your body can stretch however you want!"
"What…?!" Shiro's pupils shrank. His breath caught.
"The Rubber Fruit…?"
That was Monkey D. Luffy's fruit. The one tied to the Pirate King's future.
If someone else ate it now… would the course of history itself change? Or would fate correct itself, dragging the fruit back into Luffy's hands somehow?
A storm of questions tore through Shiro's mind. His grip on his sword loosened without him realizing.
Just then, a furious voice broke the moment.
"Oi, Shiro! What the hell are you doing?! Why haven't you killed him yet?!"
Bullet charged forward like a raging beast. His fist came down before Roswald could plead again.
The sickening crunch of bone and the wet splatter of gore followed. Roswald's head burst like an overripe melon, painting the deck in red and white.
Shiro jolted back to reality. He stared down at the twitching corpse, his thoughts a tangle of relief and unease. Without a word, he turned and sprinted below deck.
In the cluttered hold, he tore through piles of treasure chests and silk-wrapped crates until his hand found a golden box. Inside lay a strange fruit, purple skin spiraling with swirling patterns that glowed faintly in the dark.
The Gum Gum Fruit.
Shiro cradled it in both hands, his heart pounding.
When he returned to the deck, the crew was already in full celebration.
The Roger Pirates cheered as they stripped the Celestial Dragon's vessel bare. Gold and jewels glittered under the lantern light.
"We hit the jackpot!" one pirate laughed. "Not just the treasure inside—look at the gems lining the hull!"
"Captain Roger's luck is unreal. He gives away fifteen billion just last week, and now we score three times that!"
"Next time, I'm saving a stash for myself. I don't want to end up broke again!"
The men roared with laughter, chipping out embedded jewels and prying off golden carvings to stuff into bags.
As for the four captured pirate captains the CP agents had enslaved, the crew hesitated at first. But after learning of their countless atrocities—pillaging villages, slaughtering innocents—they exchanged glances and sold them off to bounty hunters, per old tradition.
Later, Roger himself carried a chest of treasure to Shakky's Rip-Off Bar to buy back Rayleigh's freedom.
The bar glowed under dim lamps, the air thick with smoke and liquor. Roger shoved a mountain of gold toward Shakky with a grin.
She took it, but her eyes never left Rayleigh. They brimmed with unspoken emotion.
"Don't worry," Rayleigh whispered, taking her hand for a moment. "I'll be back."
And then he turned and walked away with that easy grace of his.
That night, aboard the Oro Jackson, the crew held a grand feast. Laughter, music, and clinking mugs filled the air.
But in the midst of the revelry, Rayleigh's expression hardened. He strode to Roger and spoke in a low, grave voice:
"Captain… We attacked a Celestial Dragon's ship. One of them is dead. The World Government will move against us soon. We have to act fast—get the last Poneglyph and reach the Final Island."
For once, Roger's trademark smile faded. His eyes burned with fierce resolve.
"You're right. We've sailed these seas for decades. It's time to finish the dream. According to Shakky's intel, the last red Road Poneglyph is in the hands of the Giants. Our course is set—straight to Elbaf!"
The sails of the Oro Jackson snapped taut in the night wind. The ship surged forward, bound for the land of Giants—and the final step toward history's greatest secret.
T/N: If you would like to read up to 20 chapters ahead for all my works, check out my P@treon: patreon.com/GhidorahWriter
Thanks for reading! Be sure to collect and vote for more chapters! A Bonus Chapter will be released once we hit 25 Powerstones!