The sunlight over the Sabaody Archipelago stayed bright, the Yarukiman Mangrove kept blowing its dreamy resin bubbles, yet beneath this vast tree the air felt sucked dry, so heavy it hurt to breathe.
Wind combed the leaves into a whisper, a quiet sigh no one wanted to hear.
Rayleigh's fists unclenched, clenched again, then fell to his sides in defeat.
The face that was usually framed by an easy smile had gone colorless with helplessness.
He knew Roger too well. Once that man chose a path, you could heap the truths of the whole world in front of him and still not turn him around.
Kael Grylls said nothing. He tipped his head back and drained the last of his rum. The burn scoured his throat, yet it did nothing to drown the turmoil bucking in his chest.
He pitched the empty bottle aside. It thudded into the grass, somewhere between a vented temper and a send-off.
Watching the two of them, Roger's grin only widened.
He knew how selfish this choice looked. He also knew how cruel it was to the people closest to him.
"Hey, quit looking like someone died." Roger nudged silent Rayleigh with an elbow. "I am the one dying, not you."
"This is not just about me." The smile thinned. Roger began to speak slowly.
"The ones I owe most are you bastards who followed me through fire. Once I am gone, the Roger Pirates become history. The World Government will not let you go. The Navy will come like sharks on blood, and they will hunt you to the ends of the sea."
"So what." Rayleigh's snort was cold. "When have we ever been afraid."
"I know you are not." Roger smiled again, and there was pride in it, the kind a man does not need to say out loud.
"But I do not want my exit to be the shackle that weighs down the rest of your lives. I want you to live like ordinary men if you wish, to open a bar in some small town, to find someone you love, or to put back out and see the sights we did not have time to admire, not to spend the rest of your days hiding as former crew of the Pirate King."
He paused, then laid each word down like an iron ingot.
"So I am going to wager my life on one last bargain with the World Government."
"I will trade the head of Gol D. Roger, Pirate King, for amnesty for every single member of the Roger Pirates. From the moment I step onto the scaffold, there will be no remnants of my crew left in this world, only a handful of ordinary people who have regained their freedom."
The air locked up again.
The flare in Rayleigh's eyes blew out, replaced by something vast and wordless, grief and awe braided tight.
His mouth worked and nothing came out.
Kael's bottle stopped halfway, the gold in his eyes gone dark and hard.
This bastard, this selfish, willful captain, was thinking of them even now.
Seeing their faces shift, Roger knew they understood.
He shook the weight from his shoulders and turned back into the same reckless soul as always, as if he had not just announced his own death.
"Kuhahahaha. Wipe those funeral faces. This is great news." He slapped both their shoulders. "Speaking of which, there is something I forgot to tell you."
He flashed a white-toothed grin, leaned in as if to share a heist.
"I am going to be a father."
"What." Kael and Rayleigh said it together, heads snapping his way, expressions a carousel of shock.
"Kuhahahaha. Surprised." Roger puffed his chest. "Which means the two of you are getting promotions. Rayleigh, you are the big uncle. Jabba, that meathead, gets to be third uncle. As for you, Kael…"
He pointed and laughed. "You are the fourth uncle. How about that rank. Satisfied."
Rayleigh stared for a long breath, then managed a smile that was equal parts bitter and glad. Kael looked thoroughly aggrieved.
"Fourth. Why am I behind Jabba. I boarded third."
Fourth feels unlucky, he griped inwardly. Your uncle Kael is here, kid. Nod for yes, shake for no, now go, go, go.
"Because you are the youngest." Roger fired back, grinning.
The laughter ran its course. Kael's face clouded again as a heavier thought fell back into place.
He fixed Roger with a look and asked the only question that mattered.
"Then who are you entrusting Sister-in-law Rouge and the child to."
There was no light way to ask it. The Pirate King's widow and bloodline would be the World Government's highest priority, no matter where on earth they hid.
Rayleigh's smile vanished. He gave Roger his full attention.
He was ready. If Roger handed this charge to him, or to Jabba, or to both, he would guard it with his life.
Roger scratched his head like this was the most natural trouble in the world, then gave a name that froze the air again.
"Oh, that. I already asked Garp."
Silence.
One second.
Two.
"Hah."
The shout cracked the stillness.
Kael shot to his feet, outrage flaring.
"You are giving your child to that rice cracker munching cannonball-throwing knucklehead." He paced, fuming. "Rayleigh might be old enough to miss a shot and Jabba's brain is mostly steel and swing, sure, but me. You do not think I can raise a kid."
He got more heated as he went, hands on his hips, wearing the look of a man affronted in his soul.
"Open your eyes. Who raised Shanks and Buggy. Look how upright they turned out, how strong. One future great swordsman and one… one fellow with exceptional luck."
He wrestled with it, then generously upgraded Buggy's appraisal. "With my experience, why not me."
Rayleigh's eye twitched. He quietly adjusted his glasses.
Roger blinked at Kael's righteous tantrum over custody, then exploded into a roar of laughter that shook the roots.
"Kuhahahaha. You just want to be a doting dad, do you."
"It is not about wanting." Kael's face had gone red. "It insults my ability as an educator. It is an attack on my character."
Watching him splutter like an offended child, Rayleigh could only shake his head. The corner of his mouth kept wanting to climb.
He knew Kael was not chasing some title of master teacher. He just could not accept being cut out of Roger's last trust.
The laughter ebbed. Roger wiped damp from the corner of his eye. When he looked again, his smile had gone incredibly gentle.
He looked at the brother who had grown up at his side, who had run himself ragged across the seas for a cure, who was now hopping mad over a single word, and his eyes, usually bright with wildfire, warmed through.
"Kael."
His voice had none of its usual thunder. It was soft, calmer than Rayleigh had ever heard it.
"The Pirate King's little brother is free."
Every protest in Kael cracked at once. The anger, the refusal, the hurt, all came apart inside that one line.
He stared at Roger. In those golden irises, Roger's face reflected back, tender and resolved.
"Rayleigh can fade into the quiet and watch a new age rise. Jabba can keep training, go challenge the depths he never walked. Their lives get to start again after my curtain fall."
"You too." There was a sigh in Roger's voice, and something like fondness.
"If you take my child with you, your name is shackled to the Pirate King's blood the instant you do. You become a nail in the Government's eye. You will not step where you please, you will not raise hell when you please. That title will cuff your life."
"I am buying your freedom with my life. Your freedom is what I want most to protect."
Roger lowered his hand and grinned, so bright it could have embarrassed the sun.
Kael stood rooted.
Something hot surged behind his eyes, hot enough to sting.
"You self-appointed bastard."
He held it there, refused to let it spill, and forced the words out through his teeth.
The sunlight felt a little too sharp.
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