"In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed, and Marine Headquarters still looks about the same as before."
The white-haired old man, draped in a red captain's coat, looked around with open curiosity.
"With how wrecked this place is, how can you even tell?" Buggy could not help complaining.
"Here."
Ozz handed Ace over, and Roger caught the black blade in his hand.
"So my saber ended up being inherited by you."
As Roger took hold of the black blade Ace, a familiar feeling surged through him, and a broad smile spread across his face.
Ozz, on the other hand, did not look reluctant in the slightest. He was not a swordsman anyway. He was a sniper.
Lighting a cigarette, he walked calmly at Roger's side.
There were some things that perhaps should not come from him, but since things had already reached this point...
"Captain Roger, you do realize Ace doesn't have any good feelings toward you, right?"
Roger paused, then turned to look at Ozz, who was smoking with the sea breeze tugging at his hair.
"Stop pretending. You liked Aunt Shakky from a long time ago. Then right before dying, you found Rouge, hurriedly left a child behind, and surrendered yourself to be executed..."
Ozz's pupils shifted slightly as the cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth.
Then he looked calmly at Roger's aged face.
As someone who had witnessed nearly the entirety of Roger's life at sea, from before the God Valley Incident until his surrender, Ozz naturally understood him extremely well.
"A guy like that is lucky if Ace doesn't hate him. You don't seriously think there's going to be some touching father-and-son reunion, do you?"
If he were Ace,
beating Roger half to death would already count as having a good temper.
"Rayleigh must've told you all that, didn't he?!"
Even old, Roger was still Roger. Since the version of him standing here only had memories up to before his execution, he clearly did not understand the later Ozz very well.
He assumed Rayleigh had told Ozz all sorts of stories from Roger's youth after his death.
"No. It had nothing to do with Uncle Rayleigh. I found out myself."
It was too troublesome to explain, so Ozz only mentioned it briefly.
But he really had witnessed that era firsthand.
He admitted that young Aunt Shakky had indeed been beautiful enough to drive people mad.
But among all those powerful men, Roger had been the only one truly smitten.
The others would get heart-eyes for a moment, then go right back to whatever they were doing. Only Captain Roger had lost all composure, to the point of even trying to steal his own vice-captain's woman.
When Ozz went back in time and beat Roger up, it turned out he had not beaten him for nothing.
Hearing all this, Roger fell silent.
Clearly, he understood that Ozz was right.
That included the final stretch of time in Impel Down.
Back then, Roger had truly been grateful from the bottom of his heart that Ozz had tried to make up for the mistakes he himself had made.
"Ozz, the younger me really did a lot of bastard things."
"But now... let me try to make up for them as much as I can. And the one giving me this chance is you, of all people. Hahahahaha..."
His laughter was still as hearty as ever, but his eyes had turned serious.
Then his expression gradually quieted.
"Thank you, Ozz."
...
As the earth shook violently,
"Pwah..."
Shiki spat out a mouthful of blood.
In the end, he had simply grown too old. He could not even use Haki anymore.
The rudder embedded in his head, his missing legs, his advanced age...
This old lion had already entered his twilight years.
"Hahahahaha!!! Shiki, just go back to Impel Down and stay there for the rest of your life!!!"
In contrast, Garp was only somewhat disheveled. With his own strength not having declined too badly, dealing with the current Golden Lion was something he could still do with ease.
Victory was close.
"You think you can take me down just because of that? Keep dreaming, Garp!!!"
Shiki swung the swords that had replaced his legs, and a massive cross-shaped slash instantly formed.
But right then, a figure appeared in the sky.
"For a strong man's curtain call to end in some prison corner would be far too humiliating, wouldn't it?"
"What?!" x2
The black figure that had appeared out of nowhere stepped right into the middle of their attacks.
It was Ozz, who had teleported in.
The gigantic cross slash, sharp enough to shred the air itself, was crushed into nothingness by Ozz's single outstretched hand.
And when faced with the terrifying Conqueror's Haki wrapped around Garp's fist, Ozz remained utterly at ease. He clenched one hand into a fist in an instant.
Crackling black-red lightning gathered around it.
"It's not like twenty years ago anymore, Vice Admiral Garp!!!"
The current Ozz was no longer that immature young man who had once needed to flee while relying on Golden Lion to distract Garp's iron fist.
Now,
he had long since become a king of the seas.
"Don't talk big, brat!!!"
Garp grinned savagely, but the Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki on his fist had condensed to the extreme, even giving off a cross-shaped brilliance like the sun itself.
"This is Marine Headquarters. It's not for pirates to destroy!!!"
Facing that terrifying punch, Ozz loosened his tie with one hand, the cigarette still between his lips as a slight smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Your old nemesis may not be me, but sending the remnants of the old era off with dignity is something I'm duty-bound to do!!!"
He clenched one fist as well, not yielding to Garp in the slightest. In fact, the terrifying crimson glow on his fist was even more intense.
At Shiki's current strength, he could no longer ignore the aftershock of an attack at this level.
Even though his heart was full of unwillingness, he was still blown away, crashing through countless giant rocks and tearing up the earth.
The aftershock was so terrifying it almost seemed capable of wiping out half the island.
When it finally faded,
Garp's body flew out from the center of that collision of fists and skidded across the ground for dozens of meters before stopping.
As for Ozz, he had already appeared instantly at Golden Lion's side.
"Vice Admiral Garp, instead of wasting your time here, you should probably go take a look at Marineford's main battlefield."
"If you don't, you're definitely going to regret it."
"I guarantee it."
A faint smile curved Ozz's lips as he spoke, instantly setting Garp's heart pounding.
Could there be another powerhouse?
Then Marineford really would be in danger. The three Admirals were already facing countless legendary pirates, and only Sengoku was still locked in battle with Whitebeard. If there was another expert...
Watching Garp retreat unwillingly, Ozz saw him off, then turned his gaze toward Golden Lion.
At that moment, Shiki sat cross-legged among the rubble, on the verge of death, but with not a trace of panic on his face.
"You're here to kill me, aren't you?"
"Yeah."
Ozz nodded, yet Shiki only seemed delighted by the answer.
"Jahahahaha!!!"
"This is actually not bad at all. Not a bad way for a washed-up old bastard like me to die!!!"
Shiki spread his arms wide, facing the Den Den Mushi camera as though giving one final farewell to the world.
"I didn't die of old age in some forgotten corner, and I didn't die at the hands of some rookie pirate crew..."
"Instead, I'm going to die at the hands of the world's strongest man, the one they call King!!!"
"Jahahahaha!!!"
"That suits my status and my ambition perfectly!!!!"
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The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
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