"Where is this?"
Shirakawa opened his eyes groggily. Night had already fallen, and beside him came the crackling pop of a fire.
Hearing the sound, he turned his head and saw it was Barrett. Only then did he finally relax.
"Awake, brat?"
That form of address made Shirakawa deeply uncomfortable. "Brat? You're about the same age as me. You might even be younger."
More than twenty years later, during the Frenzied Action, Barrett was only in his early forties. Right now, he was probably eighteen or nineteen, while Shirakawa was closer to twenty.
"But I'm stronger than you," Barrett said. "A lot stronger."
"Yeah," Shirakawa admitted as he sat up, sighing with emotion, with a trace of envy in his voice. "At this age, you're the only one with strength like this."
Barrett was insanely talented, and he trained like a madman with Roger as his target. In the current Roger Pirates, aside from Captain Roger himself, nobody could confidently say they could suppress Barrett in a straight fight.
"By the way," Shirakawa asked, "how did you get here?"
"Guess you weren't meant to die," Barrett replied. "I happened to be nearby while you were fighting. And that sword of yours is way too eye-catching."
"True." Thinking of his Sword of Damocles, Shirakawa nodded. "Then why were you so sure we couldn't win?"
"Because I felt Conqueror's Haki colliding."
When he said that, Barrett's mouth curled into a grin that felt like a mockery. "Right now, you can't beat anyone who can use Conqueror's Haki."
"Heh. You really don't hold back." Shirakawa laughed helplessly, but Barrett was telling the truth.
Even among those with a king's disposition, aside from the occasional burst of Conqueror's Haki, most people first master Armament and Observation.
Someone like Shirakawa, who awakened Conqueror's Haki first, was rare to the point of absurdity.
"Thanks," Shirakawa said as he moved closer to the fire to warm himself. "You saved my life."
"No need," Barrett said. "As long as I'm still with the Roger Pirates, I won't stand by and watch you die."
"…So you're planning to leave the crew?" Shirakawa caught the hidden meaning in his words.
Barrett didn't answer. But that silence said everything.
"I've heard about how you boarded," Shirakawa continued. "As a challenger. You've always wanted to challenge Roger and become the strongest in the world."
Barrett stayed quiet and listened, so Shirakawa kept going.
"But finding out Roger has a terminal illness hit you hard, didn't it?"
At that, Barrett clenched his fist.
"And it also made you think Roger isn't invincible," Shirakawa said. "Am I wrong?"
"…Yeah," Barrett finally said. After a heavy moment, he slowly loosened up. "You're not wrong."
"I was a soldier since I was a kid. At fourteen, I became a hero of my country. Up until I turned fifteen, I'd never lost a single fight. So I always believed I was invincible, until I met Roger."
"He shattered your undefeated myth."
"Exactly. That fight with Roger was my first defeat. After that, I challenged him again and again, and every time I lost. Even though I aimed for Roger, in my heart he was always invincible, until he got that terminal illness."
"So the invincible Roger in your mind fell apart?"
"The moment he got sick, he stopped being invincible," Barrett said. "An invincible person doesn't get sick."
His voice flared with agitation on that last line, startling Shirakawa.
"Barrett, that way of thinking is extreme, and it's wrong," Shirakawa said firmly. "No one is immune to illness."
"But he's Roger."
"So what if he's Roger?" Shirakawa shot back. "He's still human. If you're human, you go through birth, aging, sickness, and death."
As he spoke, Shirakawa suddenly felt something was off. By the way he'd phrased it, it almost sounded like he wasn't human.
"Can you guarantee you'll never get sick in your life," Shirakawa pressed, "and never die?"
"I won't die."
Hearing that blunt, extreme answer, Shirakawa didn't even know what to say. Who did he think he was, me?
"There's a Devil Fruit," Barrett said, "a fruit from legends, that can give you immortality. Until I get it, I won't die."
"What fruit?"
"The Paramecia, Op-Op Fruit."
"But you already ate a Devil Fruit, didn't you?"
"I can still find it," Barrett said. "Make someone else eat it, then have them perform the eternal youth surgery on me. Still, you should be glad I already ate a Devil Fruit."
"Why?" Shirakawa frowned.
"Because I'm very interested in your ability," Barrett said, and his smile suddenly turned vicious.
Shirakawa couldn't help shivering.
Meaning, if Barrett hadn't eaten a Devil Fruit, he might have killed Shirakawa on the spot, then waited for his "fruit" to reincarnate somewhere else and taken it for himself.
"Then I really should thank you for sparing me," Shirakawa said dryly.
"By the way," he asked, "why did you come here? I don't believe you'd show up for no reason."
"I heard there's a place on this island that's been used as a battlefield for a long time," Barrett said. "So I wanted to check it out. But the strongest people on this island were all trash like that. I lost interest in the battlefield too."
"Then what about that so-called Great General," Shirakawa asked. "He's dead, right?"
"Of course," Barrett said coldly. "When I strike, I don't leave survivors."
"Heh. You're really ruthless."
"Ruthless? No. This is normal pirate style," Barrett said. "If you show mercy to your enemies, that's cruelty to yourself. You know the Navy instructor, Black Arm Zephyr, right? I don't need to tell you how he ended up."
"Because of his mercy, he received the cruelest punishment," Barrett continued. "Alright. Enough talk. I'm leaving."
"Leaving? Where to?"
"No idea," Barrett replied. "Maybe I'll challenge every strong fighter on this island."
"Alright then," Shirakawa said. "Good luck."
Shirakawa didn't try to stop him. He knew someone with Barrett's personality couldn't be held back, unless your strength was greater than his.
After a while, Shirakawa's stomach growled, "Grrr..."
"Looks like I burned too much stamina today," he muttered, glancing at the three who were still sleeping like logs. "But leaving them here is dangerous."
"And Barrett, seriously," Shirakawa complained, "why didn't you leave me any food?"
He walked right up to Buggy and Shanks and slapped each of them once. The two, already well-rested, jolted awake on the spot.
"What the hell? Who hit me?" Buggy roared the moment his eyes opened.
"Huh? Shirakawa, why'd you hit me?" Shanks was still groggy, like he'd forgotten what happened before he passed out.
But in less than half a minute, both of them suddenly remembered.
"That Great General," Buggy blurted out. "What happened to him? Shirakawa, are you okay?"
"Relax," Shirakawa said. "Someone saved us."
"Saved us?" Buggy stared. "Who?"
"Barrett."
"Barrett… him, huh," Shanks said. "Then it's not surprising he beat that Rog. Where is he?"
Shanks scanned the area, but Barrett was nowhere to be seen.
"He already left."
"Ah," Shanks said, sounding a little disappointed. "I wanted to properly say hi. If the danger's gone and it's already this late, why did you call the two of us up?"
"Why?" Shirakawa snapped. "To get you to find me something to eat. Go see what's left to eat in this mountain stronghold. You think it was fun for me buying time out there?"
"…Alright," Buggy muttered.
Honestly, they were hungry too.
/-\
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