Inside the Fleet Admiral's office, Kong stood with a newspaper in hand. His face was grave, and then suddenly he slammed the paper down onto his desk and roared, "Pirate King? What kind of Pirate King!"
As the Fleet Admiral of the Marines, the rise of a so‑called Pirate King under his watch felt like an indelible stain on his career. Especially now, just before his transfer, this would deny him a respectable conclusion to his service.
To make matters worse, this time Roger's name had truly eclipsed even Whitebeard's, crowning him as the unrivaled overlord of pirates. If he chose, he could draw countless others to his banner and expand his influence across the seas.
Kong, however, didn't consider that possibility at all. What disturbed him most was not expansion — it was that the unfolding events were diverging from what he remembered.
In the original timeline, once Gol D. Roger became Pirate King, the Roger Pirates disbanded. Roger then went to Baterilla Island to meet Ace. That was the expected sequence of events, and if Kong wanted to stop Roger, he should have found him there.
But now everything had changed.
The thing Kong feared most had come true. Instead of disbanding, the Roger Pirates had begun to expand aggressively.
Roger had claimed an immense stretch of the New World and was steadily absorbing any pirate crew that came to join. In practice, he accepted virtually anyone willing to swear allegiance.
Of course, these outside pirates were only nominally under Roger's command. The true core of the Roger Pirates remained the original crew. Yet aside from Roger and Rayleigh, the original members openly disliked — some even despised — the influx of newcomers.
They believed Roger's decisions had betrayed the spirit of their crew. Roger had once told Golden Lion Shiki that he had no desire to rule, so what did this expansion mean? Was he contradicting himself?
Roger seemed to understand his crew's misgivings. One day during a grand banquet, he finally announced something shocking — he revealed that he suffered from a grave illness.
Before this, only the ship's doctor, Krokus, and the First Mate, Silvers Rayleigh, knew of Roger's condition. When Roger made his declaration, Shanks and the others were taken aback, unable to believe it.
How could such a towering figure, at the absolute peak of strength, suddenly be stricken with a disease no doctor could cure? The idea seemed impossible at first.
Finally, Crocus and Rayleigh confirmed the truth, and the crew reluctantly accepted it.
Shanks and Buggy, the two youngest, immediately cried out in shock. Barrett clenched his fists and roared, "Are you joking!? I won't let you die!"
At that, Roger began laughing. He tilted his head back and took a long swig of sake, saying, "Barrett, of course I won't die from some damn illness. Even if I am to die, I'll do so in the grandest way possible!"
As those words left him, an immense aura erupted from Roger — a surge of Haoshoku Haki so powerful that even the sturdy deck of the Jackson began to crack beneath it.
Everyone aboard, whether Haki‑capable or not, felt the rumble. Barrett stared wide‑eyed in disbelief at the overwhelming force, completely stunned by the strength it radiated.
This Haki was unlike anything they'd felt from Roger before.
Laughing uncontrollably, Roger seemed almost unhinged, as if overcome by some private joke. The once‑solid deck beneath them felt strange, softening as if unreal. Buggy leapt involuntarily, bouncing inexplicably from the trembling wood.
Roger's laughter crescendoed, loud and unrestrained. Even Rayleigh, who was normally calm, barked, "Enough, Roger! You've gone too far!"
"Hahaha… I'm sorry, I just… can't stop laughing… Haha… You bastards… Haha… Stop it!"
With a crackling hum of power, Roger's Haoshoku Haki coalesced into a thick pillar of deep crimson light that shot straight into the sky. When the pillar finally faded, his laughter ceased altogether.
Gasping for breath, Roger clutched at the bed rail, pale and shaking.
Rayleigh hurried forward to support him. Looking at his Captain's weakened form, Rayleigh's expression hardened as he said in a low voice, "Roger, let's get you back to your quarters. We'll talk later."
The others — Shanks, Buggy, Bullet, and the rest — gathered close, their faces full of concern for their Captain.
Roger forced a thin smile, coughing a few times, and said, "It's alright. I'll be fine until I complete my mission. After all… I'm a D…"
Confusion rippled through the crew at that remark. What mission was Roger speaking of, and what did he mean by "a D"? Before anyone could ask, Roger brushed off Rayleigh's help, his eyes sweeping slowly across the worried faces of his crew, and then he said with surprising clarity,
"As your Captain, I announce that in three months, we will go to war with the Marines."
"What!?!" the crew cried in uproar.
Roger's calm voice continued, unfazed by the shock around him. "I need to leave now. Rayleigh will lead in my absence. I will return before the war begins."
With that, he turned and entered his cabin, leaving everyone stunned in silence.
At dawn the next day, Roger departed from the Jackson alone in a small boat. No one knew his destination.
In the wake of his departure, the Roger Pirates continued expanding. Their ranks swelled to ten thousand strong, and with that many pirates, the area of sea they controlled became a chaotic bastion of unruly behavior.
Rayleigh, acting as Captain in Roger's absence, chose not to intervene. Those pirates, sensing weakness, became increasingly brazen, as if the world now belonged to them because the Pirate King's shadow loomed over all.
Some openly declared ambitions to tear down the Marines and the World Government. Others even spoke of conquering every sea in Roger's name, hoping he would become the King of the World.
Rayleigh received their proposals with a quiet chuckle, offering responses that were polite but cutting. Each request was dismissed and the instigator sent away.
Little did those reckless pirates know that in Rayleigh's mind, he had already marked them as dead men.
Did they truly think it was that easy to become part of the Roger Pirates? If it weren't for their limited value, Rayleigh would have purged the lot.
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