Chapter 52: Fire Fist, Surging Undercurrents Beneath The Calm Surface
Moby Dick.
This is a quite enormous pirate ship, and unlike common two-mast or three-mast pirate ships, it has four masts, three layers of cannon decks, and a displacement exceeding 3000 tons. Excluding ships of the Giant Race, this is absolutely a top-class large ship among all pirate ships.
Even the Navy,
that is, only first-class warships can compare to this large warship akin to a ‘white whale’.
This ship is a genuine behemoth!
Nowadays, this old partner that has accompanied Whitebeard for nearly thirty years is docked at the port of Silver Iris Island, undergoing regular inspections and maintenance. Whitebeard Pirates’ Ninth Division Captain Blenheim and Fifteenth Division Captain Fossa are leading the pirate crew’s shipwrights in focused work.
The vast port is occupied by nearly half by the massive fleet of the Whitebeard Pirates, but amid these uniform crescent moon-shaped white mustache skull pirate flags, there are over a dozen Golden Coffee Tree Flags fluttering in the wind.
This is the fleet brought by Elus.
Because it was agreed to meet Sea Knight Jinbe on the deck of the Moby Dick three days from now, Elus simply had his subordinate fleet follow the Whitebeard Pirates to Silver Iris Island.
Waiting for the appearance of Sea Knight Jinbe.
······
This is Elus’s flagship.
When the sun was high in the sky, Elus finally got out of bed, washed his face and brushed his teeth, and after finishing these tasks, he sat down at the table to enjoy the most important breakfast of the day—though by time, it was nearly lunchtime.
“Fran, any interesting news today?” Forking a piece of sea beast meat, Elus spoke while taking advantage of a moment amid his hearty eating.
This was a habit engraved into his soul.
When eating, he always needed something to go with it for flavor, like novels, comics, videos, and so on. However, current conditions couldn’t satisfy that, so he switched tastes—listening to news from the newspaper became his new hobby.
Fran, who was already prepared, spread out today’s World Economic Newspaper and softly read out news items based on Elus’s past interests,
“······In the super great power of Alabasta Kingdom in the first half of the Grand Line Paradise, a large-scale riot broke out yesterday evening. An organization claiming to be the Rebel Army has occupied Caterina. Currently, Alabasta’s twelfth-generation King Cobra demands dialogue with the Rebel Army leader, but no response has been received as of now······”
‘Alabasta’s civil unrest has begun!’
This news reminded Elus that it wouldn’t be many years before that man bearing heavenly destiny takes the stage.
Soon,
Another piece of news confirmed once more that a new storm was already brewing.
“······Next is, um, the king of Apreng Kingdom in Paradise was killed by a group of rookie pirates from East Blue. The crew is the Spade Pirates, captain is ‘Fire Fist’ Portgas D. Ace. He is a Logia Flare-Flare Fruit ability user, and his current bounty has reached 150 million Beli······”
“Portgas D. Ace······ Logia ability user?”
Elus forcefully swallowed the sea beast meat in his mouth, reached out to take the newspaper from Fran, and carefully read the report on it.
There wasn’t much content on the newspaper.
It simply explained that the unlucky tyrant king of Apreng was casually taken care of by passing pirates, then used a lot of ink to hype up this ‘Fire Fist’, portraying him as this year’s Pirate Supernova qualified to rush into the New World.
“Your Highness, are you interested in this Fire Fist?”
Fran asked curiously.
“A Logia ability user! Pretty rare.”
Elus gave a vague response.
If talking about interest, he did have some for this posthumous son of the Pirate King, but there was no need to do anything now. This Fire Fist was still in his rapid growth phase; being a quiet spectator before he entered the New World wasn’t bad!
“Let me see, any other interesting news······”
Interesting news was naturally scarce. Even the World Economic Newspaper couldn’t publish world-shocking big news every day, but—Alabasta’s civil unrest, and Fire Fist Ace entering the Grand Line—these two pieces were interesting enough.
The New World had already been changed by him,
so,
What would the future look like after being stirred by his butterfly wings? It was truly something to look forward to immensely!
“Fran, let’s go stroll on the island today!”
————
News that was very interesting to Elus, but not so much to others—for example, a certain Navy Hero currently visiting the capital of Eckmond Kingdom in the New World. This renowned, highly accomplished old navy liked reading newspapers.
His pleasures were practicing punches, eating doughnuts and rice crackers, fighting pirates, sleeping, and in the recent decade-plus, taking care of his grandson······
Reading newspapers was never in his range of interests; it was a boring activity.
But,
Him not reading didn’t mean others didn’t.
The adjutant who had followed Garp for many years saw today’s newspaper news. Fire Fist or whatever wasn’t enough to attract his attention by reason; it was just Portgas D. Ace······ this name seemed familiar?
Soon, he remembered this name seemed to have been mentioned by Vice Admiral Garp: Ace, Luffy······
Harboring complex emotions, he went to confirm with Vice Admiral Garp, and as expected, it was indeed! The captain of this Spade Pirates was Vice Admiral Garp’s grandson—not blood-related, but adopted. In any case, upon hearing his grandson had become a pirate, Vice Admiral Garp rarely lost his temper.
A corner of the royal palace collapsed.
The enraged Vice Admiral Garp merely stomped, destroying several surrounding palaces—this was still the result of Vice Admiral Garp reining in his strength in time.
“Ace, you stupid brat!!!”
Vice Admiral Garp fumed and jumped in rage.
“Bogard, prepare the ship. We’re going back to East Blue.”
Garp shouted the name of his adjutant who had retreated far away.
“You sure?”
The adjutant, who looked young but had followed Garp for a very long time, used ‘Shave’ to return to Garp’s side. “Even going back to East Blue now would be too late, right? This Fire Fist has already entered Paradise. If you’re really going to find him, it should be Paradise.”
The adjutant’s retort left Garp at a loss for words.
He stuck out his neck stubbornly and said, “I said back to East Blue to see Luffy. Ace this idiot is nearly driving me to death. If Luffy learns bad from Ace too······ Sigh!” Halfway through being stubborn, Garp couldn’t keep it up.
This old navy sat down on the ground.
“Ace, you idiot.”
He let out a powerless sigh in a very small voice.
Was this that damn destiny?
He had repeatedly defied Sengoku’s orders to return to East Blue precisely to keep Ace from following his father’s old path. But no matter how carefully he guided him, Ace still walked down this road he absolutely didn’t want to see: pirate······ in the end, he couldn’t help Ace escape this path of no return!
Bogard stopped the Eckmond Kingdom’s Imperial Guard coming to investigate the news and ordered his subordinate navy to set the collapsed palace as a restricted zone, laying down a tight security line, giving Garp time to adjust his emotions.
After a while.
Garp, back to his usual lazy, grinning self, appeared before the kingdom’s Imperial Guard confronting the navy.
“Hahaha! Sorry about that! Just saw a cockroach earlier and used too much strength stepping on it.”
What a lame excuse.
This was
everyone’s heartfelt thought.
Bogard rolled his eyes, looking at the clouds in the sky, clearly unwilling to comment on Garp’s utterly rotten excuse.
“Vice Admiral Garp, ······ please use less strength when stepping on cockroaches. Next time something like this happens, I’ll draw my sword directly.” The man pressed his hand on the hilt of his Western-style sword, looking at Garp and issuing a warning.
This was a handsome man.
Deep brown curly hair, azure blue eyes, upright facial contours like an ancient sculpture, and the faint wrinkles left by years on his face didn’t diminish his beauty but added mature charm.
He was [Beautiful Sword]—Kurosel, one of the two pillars of Eckmond Kingdom.
He earned the reputation of ‘Beautiful Sword’ with his breathtakingly exquisite swordsmanship.
Even in the strong person-filled New World, he was a renowned expert.
“Haha! Sorry! How about I treat you to doughnuts?”
Garp laughed heartily.
“No need. This time, our country won’t demand extra miscellaneous fees. The Navy just needs to settle the damage compensation.” Kurosel said coldly.
“Eh? Still gotta pay?”
“Of course, but rest assured, we won’t force payment now. The bill will be sent to Navy Headquarters later.”
“Oh! Then it’s fine!”
Garp immediately didn’t care.
He truly had no money on him. If compensation was needed······ it wouldn’t be easy! He’d probably have to borrow from Bogard and others. Luckily, the bill would go to Sengoku, which truly relieved this Navy Hero whose pockets were excessively empty.
His salary wasn’t low.
A Navy Vice Admiral’s pay was actually quite high.
But the problem was Garp clearly wasn’t good at managing money. Plus, his wife passed too early, and his son was extremely restless, so Vice Admiral Garp never managed to save money. Saying his pockets were cleaner than his face wasn’t exaggeration.
“Next, please follow me. I need to help you all rearrange accommodations.”
Kurosel said politely.
————
Fire Fist.
Portgas D. Ace.
This name truly stirred many people’s nerves.
Sabaody Archipelago.
Area 13, a bar-cum-intelligence hub called “Shakky’s Rip-off Bar”.
“Portgas······ Rayleigh, you’ve said before this surname belongs to your captain’s wife······” The woman with a ladies’ cigarette between her fingers looked at the old man sitting at the bar counter.
“Portgas D. Rouge. I never met her. Just before Roger turned himself in, he found me and told me about his marriage. Truly······ this recklessness never changed. Getting married······ and only telling after a year, simply·····”
The old man with shoulder-length white curly hair and a neatly groomed beard sat at the bar counter, right hand holding a wine glass, gaze through his glasses falling on the bounty poster on the table, looking at the familiar young face on it.
Suddenly,
he spoke:
“No freckles.”
“What?”
The woman was puzzled.
“Roger had no freckles.”
“Inherited from his mother?”
This time, the woman didn’t speak, because she understood the old man at the bar counter was talking to himself, talking to his already deceased captain.
“Portgas D., another D!”
The woman took a drag of her cigarette and let out an ambiguous sigh.
“Shakky, another drink.”
After a long while,
the old man pushed forward his empty wine glass.
Shakky the boss lady poured while asking: “Rayleigh, going to meet this kid?”
“······Depends on fate!”
The old man called Rayleigh gave a vague answer.
“Fate?”
Shakky the boss lady smiled silently.
“Mad that your captain didn’t entrust his son to you, but to Garp instead?”
Roger had come here before turning himself in, mentioning his wife and her hometown. With those clues, it was easy to find the woman in South Blue, but they were too late. The Navy Hero had taken her child first, leaving only the woman’s grave, exhausted to death after giving birth.
“What are you saying!” The old man smiled and shook his head. “Since it’s Roger’s son, they’ll meet when the time comes. If there’s no such fate······ getting involved with a hiding coating craftsman like me might not be a good thing.”
“Also, I’m very curious what changes the captain’s son will bring to this world.”
His anticipation was genuine.
He truly felt no anger as Shakky mentioned.
After all,
Shakky didn’t know what kind of person his captain really was! Her knowledge of Roger came from external rumors and snippets he revealed in chats, not understanding he wasn’t the clever, profound image people imagined.
On the contrary,
Roger was just an impatient, willful man whose actions were as straightforward and pure as a child’s.
But it was this true nature that was convincing.
It made him, Silvers Rayleigh, willingly follow behind, stirring this world upside down together.
“When Roger found me, he probably hadn’t thought of entrusting his child. Once in prison, he likely remembered to ask someone to care for his wife and unborn child. The only reliable choice he had was Garp. In fact, Garp was indeed more suitable to raise Roger’s child than me. If with me, he’d probably still be fleeing worldwide!”
Only by Garp’s side would he not be suspected as the Pirate King’s son.
If Rayleigh had a child around.
Waiting for him would only be the World Government’s endless pursuit.
“In that case, yeah! Who’d think the Pirate King’s son would be raised by the Navy Hero······” Shakky lowered her head, carefully examining the smiling youth on the bounty poster.
“Roger, your son has grown up too!”
Rayleigh tossed back the alcohol in his glass, a warm smile on his face.
Happy National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone! Eat well, drink well, and have fun during the holiday!
