"I just arrived on this island. This town is huge."
"Totally different from Windmill Village," Luffy added openly to Smoker.
Smoker cocked an eyebrow. "Why head to the execution platform?"
Luffy shrugged, blunt as ever. "I want to see where the Pirate King died."
Smoker froze. The words hit him like a punch. He looked at Luffy as if the kid had said something impossible.
"Don't you know—?" he began, then cut himself off. He glanced at the sky and a faint puff of smoke drifted from his collar toward the execution platform as if guiding them. "It's over there," Smoker muttered. "Follow the smoke."
"Thanks!" Luffy chirped and trotted off after the smoke.
A marine nearby called to Smoker as Luffy walked away. "Colonel Smoker, that's the pirate with a 3,000,000,000-Berry bounty — Straw Hat Luffy."
Smoker's mouth twitched. Why didn't someone mention that before? He didn't scold the marine; instead he transformed slowly into a column of smoke and glided toward the execution platform.
Kaoru Tsubasa followed the tiny tracker bracelet on his wrist and finally stopped getting lost. The bracelet was handy — it pointed him toward the person he wanted to find. (He'd kept this one to himself; Zoro didn't need another excuse to get lost.)
Kaoru climbed to a rooftop with a clear view of the platform and found a man in a green cloak standing there. The man didn't turn; he simply looked at the execution platform. Kaoru recognized him — Monkey D. Dragon, leader of the Revolutionary Army and Luffy's father.
"No farewell words are necessary for a man," Dragon said softly, eyes fixed on the platform. "One day we'll meet on the sea."
"You read him well," Kaoru replied, sliding down to sit beside him.
"It's more dangerous with me around," Dragon continued without looking back. "Especially for Luffy. He'll have his own adventures anyway."
Kaoru smiled. "Or maybe having me on his ship puts him at more risk."
Dragon considered that for a long moment, then said, "There aren't many in this world who can really hurt you."
By the Revolutionary Army's reckoning, Kaoru's connections were terrifying: Whitebeard (Edward Newgate) counted as a brotherlike ally; Kaido, the Beast, as a disciple; Red-Haired Shanks as a younger brother. Those three emperors included relatives and disciples tied into Kaoru's circle. Even Buggy — absurd as it sounded — was regarded like a younger brother. With that background, who would dare touch Kaoru or the Straw Hats on the sea?
"The fun's about to start," Kaoru said, nodding toward the execution platform.
Below, the platform was jammed with locals and pirates. A thin, spectacled man in strange costume stood over Luffy, pressing the boy to the board. Kaoru recognized him — Zango, captain of the Black Cat Pirates. Zango's grin was smug.
"You hurt our captain," Zango declared. "Pay with your life."
Luffy, pinned and grinning stupidly as always, tried to charm his way out. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again— please don't—"
"How can I save you, idiot?" Zango snapped. "This is what you get for crossing us." He lifted his hand and set a hypnotic circle beneath Luffy.
The Black Cat Pirates had a grudge. They'd learned Hyakuji Crow had been captured, and they blamed the Straw Hats. To pirates, the captain's wanted poster mattered most — they'd focused on Luffy's bounty, not Kaoru's. So they ambushed Luffy first.
"Don't do it!" Luffy yelled. He planted his feet on the board and, just before the circle could be completed, shouted with all his childish bravado, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy — I'm gonna be the Pirate King!"
The platform went quiet. Villagers and pirates alike froze. On the very spot where Roger had been executed, a kid their age had declared he would become Pirate King. Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"He says he'll be the Pirate King," someone whispered. Another voice echoed, "He actually said it — on the execution platform."
Kaoru laughed, because of course Luffy would say something dramatic like that. Dragon simply smiled and raised a hand. Dark clouds gathered overhead, heavy and low.
"Time to pick up our captain," Kaoru said, standing.
Zango smirked as he tightened the hypnosis circle. "Then you can leave as you please, pirate. Become the Pirate King? You'll be executed here!"
At that instant, Zoro and Sanji burst through the crowd.
"Zoro! Sanji!" Luffy's face lit up when he saw them.
A girl on a distant rooftop with a small telescope blinked when she recognized Zoro. The name stuck in her throat: the famous pirate hunter was here, and with the Straw Hats.
"You worthless oaf!" Zoro growled, glaring at Luffy pinned on the board. "There's a limit to your jokes."
"If this is entertainment, I'll join," Sanji said lazily, a cigarette between his lips.
Before the fighting could begin properly, the Black Cat Pirates' crew surged to block Zoro and Sanji. Though minor foes compared to the two, they were still enough to slow them down.
Luffy flashed his standard daft grin. "Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Nami, Kaoru!"
Smoker watched the scene, eyes narrowing. The expression on Luffy's face — that innocent grin — reminded him of something he'd seen years ago at the execution of Gol D. Roger. He felt a strange chill.
As the hypnotic circle reached its climax and a blade was about to fall, lightning struck. It hit the platform with a deafening crack, and the whole place rocked. The blade missed. Luffy snatched up his straw hat and sat up, grinning in the middle of the chaos.
"Believe in it?" Zoro muttered as he sheathed his three blades. "Cut the crap and get out."
Sanji rolled his eyes. "You talking about believing? Let's move!"
Kaoru swooped down, gathering Luffy and the crew. Smoker barked orders, commanding his marines to surround the pirates and cut off any escape. The tension snapped like a drawn bow.
Kaoru felt something surge — not an ordinary feeling, but a cold, dominant pressure. He released it in a wave. Around them, marines and pirates staggered, then fainted — knocked out by sheer will. Kaoru had used Conqueror's Haki.
"What happened?" Zoro blinked as the marines around them dropped like flies.
"You did that, Kaoru," Sanji observed, cigarette smoke curling up.
Kaoru ignored the praise. "Not time to linger. A storm's coming — we have to go."
Zoro, Sanji and Luffy fell in with him without question.
"Where's the ship?" Zoro grumbled as they ran through the square. Rain had already started to hiss down, scattering people.
A woman with glasses and a sword at her side stepped in front of them. Zoro's eyes froze; she looked just like Kuina. It was Tashigi.
"Roronoa Zoro," Tashigi said, her tone tight. "I never expected you to be a pirate."
"You tricked me," she added, voice edged like a blade.
Sanji bristled. "What did you do to this lady, Zoro?"
Bloodthirsty — Zoro's blade given a personality of its own — trembled as if to whisper, Zoro, you aren't human. Zoro, quiet, walked forward.
"You never bothered to ask my name, so I didn't lie," he said simply.
Tashigi's eyes hardened. "I won't let a villain carry such a famous sword. I will take back Wado Ichimonji."
"And you," she turned, gazing at Kaoru, "you must be the Speed Sword Ghost — Kaoru Tsubasa. I'll take your Ryujin Jakka, and Ace as well. I will not allow these blades to suffer in a pirate's hands."
She said it like a vow. As a sword fanatic, Tashigi could not stand famous swords in the hands of pirates.
Kaoru didn't want a fuss. He blinked, teleported silently behind Tashigi, and knocked her out with the flat of a blade. The move was clean and quick. There wasn't time to argue — the storm was closing, and nature's wrath was not something to test.
Kaoru carried the unconscious Tashigi to a sheltered doorway and laid her down under the eaves where she'd be out of the rain.
Zoro said nothing; he was content to let Kaoru handle it so they could leave.
They returned to the Going Merry. Kaoru looked back at Rogue Town. Oddly enough, Smoker still hadn't given chase.
On the street, a man in a green robe had halted him.
"Why help the Straw Hat boy?" Smoker demanded.
The green-cloaked figure regarded Smoker with an almost amused expression. Monkey D. Dragon stepped forward. "What reason can stop a man from setting sail?" Dragon asked, calm and proud.
Smoker swallowed. "Because he's my son," he thought, but did not say it out loud. He only answered in another way: the way a father watches over his child from afar.
Aboard the Merry, Nami barked orders as she strapped down charts. "Lower the sails! We have to cast off now!"
Zoro and Kaoru ran to the rigging; Sanji stowed the food they'd bought in Rogue Town; Usopp climbed the lookout tower, eyes darting for any sign of pursuit. Kaoru took the helm to steady the ship, Luffy sat in his favorite spot with that silly grin, and Nami shouted directions.
"Set sail," Luffy cried. Nami gave an exasperated look that said she'd beat him later.
They hadn't even finished cutting loose when a monstrous storm slammed into the Merry. Wind shrieked and the sea turned to white teeth. Luffy, who'd been sitting on the rail, was blown off and tumbled toward the waves.
"Luffy!" Kaoru shouted. He told Zoro to keep the wheel steady, then leapt and caught Luffy mid-air. He flew back and tucked the flailing captain into the deck.
"Thanks, Kaoru!" Luffy panted, grateful and oblivious to danger.
Kaoru didn't answer. He cast a spiritual stabilization technique, anchoring everyone's center of gravity and keeping the crew from toppling overboard. The storm tore at the ship like a living thing; steering was nearly impossible.
Kaoru could keep the stabilization up with spiritual magic, but not forever. If the spell fell, anyone blown from the deck would be gone immediately — and Luffy, a Devil Fruit user, would be impossible to find in the churning sea.
They had to get out of the storm's teeth — and fast.