With Toguro gone, the God Valley, which had been filled with fierce fighting, suddenly turned quiet.
Garp, Roger, and Rocks each held a shard of the Shikon Jewel in their hands. They stared at one another, and in Rocks' eyes burned endless killing intent.
"Captain…"
As voices came from the distance, Sengoku, the Roger Pirates, and the Rocks Pirates all arrived. The massive tremors from before had made them uneasy, so they had stopped fighting for now to regroup with their captains and comrades.
"Linlin, Kaido, who told you to come?" Rocks turned his head and found that Charlotte Linlin and Kaido, who he had left to guard territory, had also shown up.
"The clash of your Haki was felt across the sea, of course we had to come see!" The future Big Mom, though not yet as strong as she would become, spoke boldly. Within the Rocks Pirates she ranked lower than Whitebeard and Golden Lion, but her tone carried no lack of confidence.
They were all people with Conqueror's Haki. Later figures like Doflamingo might tremble just hearing Kaido's name, but most of these people were extremely self-centered and fearless.
"Hmph…" Rocks didn't say much. He simply turned back toward Garp, Roger, and the others.
"Forget it, you came at just the right time." Rocks grinned coldly. Looking at Roger and Garp, he said in a chilling voice, "Then let's settle what was left unfinished. Whether it's the lives of the Celestial Dragons or the shards of the jewel—they're all mine!"
"Looks like we'll have to join forces."
Seeing Rocks' killing intent rise, Roger spoke to Garp and Sengoku. "In this situation, the only way to beat Rocks is for the two of us to team up!"
"Once Rocks is dead, we can settle our own fight later." Garp clasped his fists, and Sengoku nodded. He too saw the reality—only by joining with Roger's crew could they have a chance.
Garp, Sengoku, Roger, Rayleigh, Gaban and the rest faced off against Rocks, Whitebeard, Shiki, John, Wang Zhi, Charlotte Linlin, and Kaido. This might become the strongest war in history!
Unprecedented, never to be repeated. After today, there might never again be a battle on this scale. How could it not…
Set the blood racing?!
"Divine Departure!"
Even at a disadvantage, Roger was the first to attack. He stared at Rocks with fearless eyes. Just as his technique's name suggested—if even the gods had to step aside, then what was Rocks in front of him?!
This battle was later called the Battle of God Valley. But not many would remember it, because it was a war erased from history itself. After this fight, the God Valley disappeared completely, and gone with it…
Was the strongest crew in the world—the Rocks Pirates!
All of this was seen by Genichi. It wasn't that he didn't want to join the battle fully, but his resources were too limited. He only had Toguro, and even then with restrictions. At 100% full power, the energy drain was huge, and the burden on his body was crushing. In just that short time, he had already reached his limit.
"Looks like I'll need to keep training Haki, keep strengthening this body, until he can truly become one of the world's top fighters."
On an island far from God Valley, Genichi sat in a house deep in thought.
Because of that earlier struggle, he had split up the jewel shards, giving them to the Roger Pirates, the Marines, and the Rocks Pirates. At first it seemed wasteful, but it was a trade. By giving up three shards as bait, he had gained a massive amount of emotional energy.
"And just as I thought, because they got my tool, Roger and the others also appeared on my 'radar sense.' And the emotions I'm getting from them are even stronger."
The complete Shikon Jewel was actually just an ordinary gem. The only reason it was special was because Genichi had placed three Shikon Jewel shards inside it. So when it broke, only three real shards could be picked up. Any more than that and what they got would just be normal gem fragments.
It was exactly because of the shard's power that the gem showed strange effects. And it was also thanks to Genichi's control over them that the gem gave off a voice that lured Roger.
A tool that could grant wishes was enough to stir up human greed. Throwing out such an item with such a setup—compared to the Nine Tails destroying Mary Geoise, this was an even more shocking piece of news for the world.
He didn't let Toguro move too far from God Valley, only had him watch from nearby. The battle there swept across the whole valley, until in the end the entire island sank into the sea. Rocks still couldn't escape defeat, being brought down by Roger and Garp working together. Once Rocks was defeated, the other conflicts around the world also stopped.
The exhausted people left one by one. Roger, following his own instincts, went into the Celestial Dragons' treasure vault, where he found a one-year-old Shanks and brought him onto his ship.
But unlike the original story, this time all three sides walked away with something called a "Shikon Jewel shard." Roger and Garp had already gotten one, while Rocks' shard ended up in Whitebeard's hands.
Rocks' body sank into the sea with God Valley. Toguro, after watching it all, also left the area. He was still waiting for things to spread, and this incident would bring him much more gain than the Nine Tails' attack on Mary Geoise had.
Before, the top fighters he had seen in person were only Sengoku, Garp, and Zephyr. But now, besides Zephyr, Roger, Rocks, Whitebeard, Shiki, and others were all involved—each of them a monster-level fighter.
By now he had mostly figured out how his ability worked. The amount of emotions he got depended a lot on strength, how connected the event was to the story, and whether or not he experienced it directly. In fact, "experienced directly" could also be understood as having a real feeling about it. After all, just reading something in the newspaper and actually living through it were completely different.
So Rocks' death, though it meant losing a huge fighter, didn't bother Genichi much, because…
Rocks' connection to the story was way too low! He was strong, but the emotions Genichi got from him were far less than from Roger or Garp.
The only pity was that his own power still wasn't enough. He couldn't fully take part in this big event!
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