After returning to Foosha Village, life fell back into its old rhythm, loud and peaceful all at once.
That purple fruit tied so closely to "destiny" was a scorching hot potato. Before I made up my mind, I didn't want to look at it for even a second.
So I shoved it out of sight and out of mind, and I became Red-Haired Shanks again, the Shanks who only cared about drinking, throwing banquets, and messing with Luffy.
Maybe the chase itself was an obsession.
When an obsession finally gets an answer, whether it's good or bad, people loosen their grip.
I needed time, time for the shock that fruit brought me to settle.
In Makino's bar, my crew and I were already drinking ourselves sideways.
"Captain! Another round!"
"Hahahaha, Yasopp, you lost again!"
I laughed, drained my beer in one go, and enjoyed this brief moment of peace.
Jingle.
The door was kicked open violently, the bell clattering in protest.
A man with a brutish face and a short blade at his waist barged in with a few lackeys behind him. That arrogant sneer of his ruined the mood in an instant.
"We're mountain bandits. Hand over all your booze!" He planted one foot on the counter and swept his gaze across us. "We're not like you soft, pretend pirates playing house on the sea."
The bar went dead silent.
I lifted a hand and stopped my men.
"Ah, that's unfortunate," I said, raising an empty bottle and giving it a little shake, wearing an apologetic smile toward the bandit who called himself Higuma. "Looks like we drank it all."
Higuma snatched the bottle and smashed it against my head.
Crack.
Glass shattered. Beer and shards slid down my hair.
"My bounty is eight million berries," Higuma said, looking down at me. "Trash like you? I've killed fifty-six of you by myself."
As he spoke, he swept plates and mugs off the table with his scabbard, the screeching clatter cutting through the room.
I didn't move. I simply lowered my head and stared at the mess on the floor.
"Captain…" Lucky Roux mumbled around a bone-in meat leg.
I still didn't react.
Seeing me do nothing, Higuma spat in disgust, then swaggered out with his men.
"Hahahahahaha!"
The instant he left, I exploded into laughter so loud it shook the bar. My crew burst out laughing with me.
"Captain, you looked pathetic!"
"Eight million berries? What a joke!"
I wiped beer off my face, laughing so hard I could barely stand.
Picking a fight with small fry like that was beneath us. Better to turn it into a joke and make everyone laugh.
"Shanks! Why didn't you fight back!"
An angry shout cut through the laughter.
Luffy was standing in front of me, face red with fury, fists clenched tight.
"Are you even a pirate? Someone hits you and you don't hit back!"
"It's just a bottle of booze," I said, rubbing his head. "It's not a big deal."
"I'm not gonna be that kind of pi… mmph!"
Luffy huffed, turned away, grabbed something from an open box on the counter, and stuffed it into his mouth in protest.
It was a small, locked treasure chest.
The smile on my face froze instantly.
My crew's laughter died just as fast.
My eyes locked onto the box.
Empty.
That was the chest I had casually left on the counter.
The chest that held the Gomu Gomu no Mi.
"Luffy! What did you eat? Spit it out!" I grabbed him by the ankle and lifted him upside down.
"Mmph… tastes awful…" His face turned the color of liver.
Then something bizarre happened.
Luffy's body stretched like dough, his cheek slapping against the floor with a wet smack.
"Aaah!"
Makino's bar erupted in screams.
I released him. His body snapped back into shape with a whoosh, returning to normal.
Luffy stared at his hands blankly, then tugged his cheek. It stretched out absurdly long.
"Huh? My body?"
My world went silent.
I had chased it for years, from the Grand Line to the New World. I had visited the giants. I had dug through old legends. I had traded blows with World Government ships…
The Gomu Gomu no Mi, the fruit I believed carried "destiny," the fruit that had finally landed in my hands after countless twists of fate…
Was eaten by some kid as an after-meal snack.
Damn you, fate.
I collapsed onto the floor, my head ringing.
For the next few days, I drifted in a daze.
I watched the idiot kid bouncing around in excitement because he'd become a rubber human, and my chest felt like it was packed with a hundred different emotions.
Why him?
A dumb kid who only knew how to shove food into his mouth?
Then one day, his name rose in my mind.
Monkey D. Luffy.
D.
The same D as Captain Roger, the D that the Celestial Dragons feared as the "natural enemy of the gods."
And from fragments Kael had once let slip, I learned something else.
Back at God Valley, it was this kid's father who saved me. And later, Kael picked me up and brought me onto the ship.
That was it.
Maybe this was the real shape of destiny.
…
"Shanks! I'm going to sea!"
That day, Luffy ran up to me again and announced his grand plan.
"Shanks! When I sail out, I'll find a crew even stronger than yours! I'm gonna become… the Pirate King!" He planted his hands on his hips and grinned, showing all his teeth.
My heart jolted.
Those words…
They sounded exactly like the man who once stood on the Oro Jackson, the captain who made a vow to the sea.
So that's how it was.
I finally understood.
My job was never to become the Child of Destiny.
I was a guide. A messenger.
My job was to carry Captain Roger's will, to carry this straw hat, and to pass on this fruit that embodied "freedom," into the next era.
I looked at Luffy.
Would he become the next Joy Boy?
Would he, in the freest way possible, awaken this fruit into Nika and bring laughter back to the world?
I didn't know.
But I was willing to believe.
And then came a sharper question.
I lifted my left arm.
Hidden beneath ordinary cloth was a secret not even Beckman knew.
A brand belonging to the Figarland family, a mark that symbolized the God's Knights.
How could a Celestial Dragon, a knight of the "gods," become the guide for the one who would liberate the world?
I had to… draw a line between myself and my past.
…
The chance came without warning.
Higuma, the bandit I'd humiliated, didn't learn his lesson. He kidnapped Luffy and fled out to sea in a small boat.
When I arrived, that boat had already been smashed apart by a massive Sea King.
The beast that lurked in these coastal waters, the so-called Lord of the Coast, opened its bloody maw, ready to swallow the terrified Luffy whole.
There was no time to think.
I rushed in and shoved Luffy away.
The Sea King's jaws snapped shut.
Agony tore through my left arm.
I blasted the creature back with Conqueror's Haki, holding the sobbing Luffy in my arms, and yet my mind was strangely calm.
I looked at the Lord of the Coast and smiled faintly as it sank beneath the waves with my left arm.
With it went that ridiculous brand.
It was just a fish.
Fish don't talk.
Blood spread through the seawater.
The world had never been so clear.
I lost an arm, but I severed the chain that bound me.
From today onward, I was no longer a descendant of the Figarlands.
I was only the captain of the Red Hair Pirates.
Shanks.
I put everything on this kid named Luffy.
I put everything on a brand-new era.
"We're leaving, Luffy."
On the dock, I spoke to the kid who was still sniffling.
I smiled, took the straw hat off my head, and placed it on his.
"I'll leave this hat with you for now."
"When you become a great pirate, you can give it back to me."
I turned away and didn't look back.
The Red Force slowly sailed out of the harbor. Foosha Village grew smaller and smaller in the distance.
My crew stared at my empty left sleeve, their eyes complicated, yet no one asked a single question.
I raised my remaining right hand and pressed it against the throbbing stump.
I bet everything on the New World.
Luffy, don't disappoint me.
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