The Kingdom of Music, Elegia.
To fulfill Uta's dream of becoming a singer, Shanks brought her to Elegia, the island known as a sacred land of music.
But…
The nation that once echoed with gentle melodies was now nothing but shattered ruins and soaring flames.
The Red Hair Pirates' flagship, the Red Force, slowly pulled away from the harbor. The atmosphere aboard was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.
No one spoke. The crew cleaned up the wreckage left by battle, but all of them instinctively avoided the lonely figure at the bow.
Shanks stood there. The sea wind ruffled his red hair, his cloak snapping loudly.
He did not turn around, yet the heart wrenching cries from the island behind him stabbed at his heart like needles.
"Liar! Shanks, you liar!!"
"I hate you!!"
It was Uta's voice.
The daughter he had held in the palm of his hand was now cursing him with the most venomous words she could muster.
Benn Beckman walked up beside him with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. He did not try to comfort Shanks. He simply stood shoulder to shoulder with him, both of them staring at the ruined island.
"Are you really going to do this?" Beckman finally asked in a low voice after a long silence.
"It's the only way," Shanks said hoarsely, his tone empty of emotion. "She's meant to be a singer, not… a vessel for a Demon King. I'll carry that sin."
To make Uta's dream come true, he brought her to this holy land of music.
Who could have imagined that her heavenly voice, born from the Uta Uta no Mi, would unintentionally unseal the ancient Demon King, Tot Musica?
After a brutal battle, the entire nation was reduced to rubble.
So Uta would not bear the guilt of destroying her own homeland, so she could keep singing, Shanks chose to become the villain.
He entrusted the unconscious Uta to the surviving Gordon, while taking the blame for Elegia's destruction upon himself.
When Uta awakened, what she saw was her home, destroyed by her "father's" own hands.
The misunderstanding took root, and there was no longer any chance to explain.
The ship sailed farther and farther away, until Uta's cries were finally swallowed by the waves.
Shanks slowly closed his eyes, burying that piercing pain, along with his daughter's resolute gaze, in the deepest part of his heart.
…
The return route to East Blue was long and tedious.
The mood aboard remained heavy after what happened at Elegia. Even Lucky Roux, usually the loudest of them all, only gnawed silently on his meat.
That day, as the ship reached an unfamiliar sea, the sky suddenly darkened.
Without warning, the sea rose into towering waves. Howling winds carried sheets of rain that slammed down onto the deck.
"A storm!"
"Hold the rudder steady!"
"Everyone, brace yourselves! Reef the sails!"
Under Beckman's command, the crew fought the wind and waves in an orderly manner, every movement sharp and efficient.
Then the lookout shouted an alarm.
"Ship ahead! It's… a World Government vessel!"
Through the curtain of rain, a guard ship flying the World Government flag struggled through the storm.
Shanks walked to the rail. Rainwater streaked down his face.
He stared at the ship, his eyes turning cold. The gloom he had been suppressing for days was desperate for an outlet.
A pirate's nature was plunder, after all.
"Looks like they're transporting something valuable," Yasopp said, peering through his telescope.
Shanks said nothing. He simply drew his saber, Gryphon.
"Boys!" He flashed a grin, teeth bared, the smile edged with cruelty.
"Yeah!"
"Let's go give those government dogs a little warmth!" Shanks slung the blade over his shoulder. Rain dripped from the tips of his red hair. "We'll help lighten their load!"
"YEAHHHH!"
The crew, restrained for far too long, erupted with thunderous roars. Pirate blood was ignited in an instant.
The battle started fast and ended even faster.
Against the Red Hair Pirates, the CP escort ship had almost no ability to resist before it was blasted into pieces.
"Tch. Boring," Lucky Roux muttered, slinging his empty gun over his shoulder as he was the first to jump onto the enemy deck.
The crew eagerly began tallying the spoils, only to be disappointed.
"Captain, these broke idiots! Not even a decent bottle of booze!"
"This side's all useless papers. Too stiff even for toilet paper!"
"Hey! Come look! I found a weird box!"
Lucky Roux hugged a locked, ornate treasure chest and ran to the center of the deck.
Shanks walked over. Beckman smashed the lock with his gunstock, and the lid popped open.
Inside lay a thick bed of deep crimson velvet.
At its center rested a strange purple fruit, covered in swirling patterns.
"Is that… a Devil Fruit?"
"Looks weird."
The crew crowded in, staring with curiosity.
Shanks' pupils tightened sharply. His breathing stalled for a split second.
The shouting, the storm on the deck, the roar of waves striking the hull…
All of it faded away.
In Shanks' world, only the fruit remained, lying silently inside the chest.
He reached out. His fingertips trembled slightly as he brushed the spiral pattern on its surface.
This was it.
A voice inside him screamed wildly as buried memories burst forth like a broken dam.
Once upon a time, he was just an apprentice on Roger's ship, staring with worship at crewmates who were strong like monsters.
And Kael, that man who carved the word freedom into his bones, strong and dependable, the pillar everyone leaned on.
Shanks once believed the one who would inherit the captain's will had to be Kael.
But after Captain Roger died, Kael simply dusted off his hands and said he had no interest in One Piece. He only wanted to live his own carefree life.
Kael was too free. So free that even fate could not bind him.
Later, Shanks believed he would be that person.
He wore the straw hat entrusted to him by his captain. He and Buggy dreamed together on the rail, swearing they would find One Piece and become the next Pirate King.
He thought he was the Child of Destiny.
How laughable.
When he pieced together his own absurd lineage from scraps of rumor, that belief became the cruelest joke of all.
Figarland.
A Celestial Dragon surname.
How ironic.
A descendant of the gods, meant to become the Child of Destiny who would overthrow the gods, liberate the world?
He began to doubt. To search.
From scattered whispers, he heard legends of Elbaf, and of a Devil Fruit tied to the Sun God.
He personally went to Elbaf, visited his old friend Scopper Gaban, and even witnessed the fall of the giant king Harald with his own eyes, yet he never even caught a glimpse of the fruit.
And now, when he was exhausted from his daughter, when he was on the verge of giving up his search…
The fruit appeared before him in a way so absurd it felt like a mockery.
Not through a perilous journey across the Grand Line.
Not by defeating some fearsome enemy.
But as a random piece of loot seized during a storm from an unremarkable government escort ship.
Fate really was a bastard who loved jokes.
"Shanks?"
Beckman's voice pulled him back from the surge of thought.
He saw the probing in his first mate's eyes, and a trace of concern.
Click.
Shanks shut the chest.
The crisp sound of the latch made the deck fall silent instantly.
Every crewman looked at their captain, at the complex expression on his face.
Shanks did not speak. He simply held the chest, turned, and walked back to his captain's cabin.
His back carried a weight the crew could not understand.
Beckman removed the cigarette from his lips and stared at the cabin door as it slammed shut.
His gaze was deep.
After a long time, he flicked the cigarette butt into the sea and watched the waves swallow it.
"The storm…" he murmured. "Looks like it isn't over yet."
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