Ronan smiled faintly and slung the heavy black staff across his back.
He stepped forward and placed one foot firmly into the open space atop the barrel.
A pressure like a mountain rolled off him. His voice wasn't loud, yet it rang like a great bell, shaking the rain noise apart around them.
"I… for the sake of reaching the pinnacle of martial arts—"
"—and becoming the strongest grandmaster!"
Six feet—standing on the same barrel.
Six dreams—gathered on the same ship.
Luffy swept his gaze over his crew. That bond, born from the depths of the soul, filled him with a fierce sense of wholeness… and power.
He drew a deep breath, then roared with everything in him—toward this raging sea, toward that Guiding Light—
"Let's gooooo!!!"
"To the GRAND LINE!!!"
"BAM—!!"
All six of them stomped down at once.
The barrel exploded beneath their feet—splinters blasting outward like fireworks, announcing the arrival of a new era!
...
The next morning.
After battling the storm all night, the first thin strand of sunlight tried to pierce the heavy cloud cover.
Up in the lookout, Sanji suddenly shouted—his voice cracking from shock:
"HEY—!! Everyone!! Look ahead!!"
"I can see the Red Line!!!"
Ronan, Luffy, Zoro, and the others rushed onto the deck, braving the still-ferocious wind and rain to look forward.
The next second, every one of them fell silent.
That wasn't a mountain.
It was a wall.
A wall of sighs raised by the gods upon the sea—an impassable barrier.
At the far edge of their vision, a crimson cliff stretched across heaven and earth, running endlessly left and right as if it split the whole world in two.
It rose straight into the sky—its upper half swallowed by thick black clouds, the top nowhere to be seen.
"...So it really is this immense."
Ronan's pupils trembled.
He had seen it countless times in animation in another life—yet seeing it for real, a towering red abyss pressing down on him… was the kind of colossal terror that struck straight into the soul.
Only by standing here could you understand what "small" and "awe" truly meant.
"So big…" Luffy craned his neck until it hurt, mouth forming a perfect "O." "That's unbelievable! We're really going to cross that?!"
"How is it this huge?! Is that even a mountain?! That's the world's wall!!" Usopp's eyes almost popped out of his head.
Nami, wearing a yellow raincoat and gripping the railing, shouted over the storm:
"That's the Red Line! A gigantic continent that circles the world! The entrance to the Grand Line is there!"
"The clouds are so thick you can't even see the top…" Zoro muttered, his palm slick with sweat on his sword hilt.
And then—
The Going Merry lurched.
The hull shook violently, as if an invisible hand had seized it. The ship began to rock out of control.
"Damn it!"
Nami's expression snapped sharp as she read the current. She yelled:
"We're inside the canal current's pull zone! The flow is accelerating like crazy—hold the rudder!!"
"If we can't control our direction, we'll slam straight into the Red Line and it's over—ship and crew!!"
"AAAAH! HELP!! We're going to crash!!" Usopp screamed.
He and Sanji clung to the wheel with everything they had, fighting to keep the bow straight—yet against the torrent surging like stampeding horses, human strength felt laughably small.
Closer.
Closer.
The crimson cliff filled their world, swelling into a giant hammer ready to swat them into paste.
"Nami!!" Luffy grabbed the figurehead and shouted. "Where's the entrance?! I can't see it! We're seriously going to get smashed!!"
Nami stared forward—white foam, red stone, chaos.
Then her eyes caught something.
A hair-thin seam in the rock—so faint it was almost imaginary.
"Huh… that crack…"
Her mind raced, snapping together the chart, the currents, the angle—until a bold conclusion formed in an instant.
"NAMI!!" Usopp cried, voice shaking. "Say something!! Give the order!!"
Nami took a hard breath, pointed straight at the seam, and shouted a command that sounded insane:
"KEEP GOING STRAIGHT!!!"
"THAT'S THE ENTRANCE!!"
"W-what?!" Usopp went pale. "Are you serious?! That looks like a WALL!!"
"It's fine!! Trust me!" Nami yelled back—pure navigator's pride, absolute and unwavering.
Ronan watched her, genuinely impressed.
A true prodigy.
With no experience—only talent and razor observation—she'd made the right call at the edge of death.
"ROOOAARRR—!!!"
The roar was deafening—water smashing rock, the current itself screaming.
The Going Merry, like a leaf in a flood, was seized by the raging flow and hurled toward that narrow crack at terrifying speed.
Splash—!
The ship slipped cleanly into the seam.
And the world changed in a heartbeat.
A wide canal opened up between two ridges—its water defying all common sense, rushing upward like an enraged dragon climbing toward the mountaintop.
"That's—!" Luffy pointed ahead, eyes blazing. "Nami! That's the canal entrance?!"
"Looks like it!" Nami clutched the chart, awestruck. "This is Reverse Mountain's canal! The currents of the four seas gather here and surge up to the summit!"
"This is ridiculous…" Zoro stared through a spyglass, jaw twitching. "Water… is climbing a mountain. What even is this?"
"Don't zone out!!" Nami shouted.
"The most dangerous part starts now! We have to hit the gate head-on! If we're even slightly off-angle and the side of the ship hits the edge—Merry will shatter instantly!!"
"Leave it to us!" Sanji snarled.
Usopp cried, "I'm trying!!"
They threw everything into the wheel.
Ronan moved to the stern, feet planted, both hands gripping a spare rope—ready to brute-force a correction if the hull drifted.
"CHAAAAARGE—!!!"
With everyone shouting at once, the Going Merry rode the torrent like a roller coaster to heaven—
And launched into the upward-flowing canal!
"WHOOSH—!!"
A brutal push slammed into their backs. Bodies pitched, voices flew, rain and spray became a storm of needles.
The bow rose high.
The red walls blurred past.
The ship cut through the surging flood, climbing toward the clouds—toward the summit—toward the unknown Grand Line.
"HAHAHAHA!! We're flying!!" Luffy stood at the bow, arms spread wide, embracing the wind and mist, laughter echoing through the canyon.
Ronan gripped the railing, staring at the breathtaking, impossible sight as his blood boiled with exhilaration.
Upstream to the sky.
This—this was the world of One Piece.
This was the romance of men.
They pierced the cloud layer.
They cleared the mountain crest.
And ahead—
Was the legendary—
Grand Line.
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