Coby, having received the report of the situation in the square from the mayor, was standing outside instead of in the building he'd originally been in, and over thirty Marines trailed behind him.
From afar, the figure of a woman was running toward them, and Coby waved his hand at the approaching figure.
"You've arrived, Hibari."
"Senior Coby! I'm sorry I'm late!"
"Major! You're here!"
The soldiers, saluting, greeted her alongside Coby as Hibari, a sword strapped to her back, ran up.
"No, Hibari, in an emergency you arrived without delay."
"Currently, Buggy the Clown has appeared in the square with over sixty of his men."
"If it's Buggy, his bounty is fifteen million…"
"He's tied a man to the execution platform and is causing a riot, saying he'll execute him publicly."
"Hibari and the First Unit will move with me; we'll head to the Town Hall Road beside the square, where we have firing range, and be ready to engage at a moment's notice."
"Contact the Second Unit and have them stand by at the harbor and on the streets connecting the harbor and the square. We'll completely block any chance of the pirates escaping."
Coby gave his orders without hesitation, his voice unwavering even though the situation was urgent and could have rattled anyone.
"Does anyone have anything else to add?"
"No, sir!"
"Then let's move out to the Town Hall."
The eyes of the men following him showed not surprise but steadfast trust.
Their expression proved what kind of person Coby had been up to now.
*****
In the square of Loguetown, countless screams echoed.
Buggy's appearance sent the crowd into chaos as people fled in all directions.
Those pressed by the mass crashed into walls and shop windows; some who fell took the fleeing crowd's footsteps squarely on their backs.
"Mom!"
"Move! My son is there!"
A young woman cried out as she looked at the boy currently on the ground, part of the unlucky few.
She tried to move forward, but the surging crowd swept her away, pulling her further from her son, when—
Thud!
"They've got zero manners. Do they not know the concept of 'lady first'?"
"...!"
At that moment, Sanji appeared before the woman, smashing the paved ground with a kick, and the men pushing her back froze in their tracks.
While they hesitated, they felt the crowd pressing from behind and hurried past, lowering their gazes and keeping as far away as they could from Sanji and the woman.
"How's the kid, Marimo?"
"Can't you see?"
In the direction Sanji was looking, Zoro stood holding the boy on his shoulder.
The sight of Zoro standing with a sword held vertically in one hand made people naturally step aside and pass them by.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
The mother grabbed her son's hand tightly and went with the crowd out of the square.
As she held her mother's hand and walked, the boy kept turning his head, watching Zoro and Sanji, who had saved him and his mother.
"Ero Cook… you even go after women with children?"
"Don't talk crap, you little bastard! That was just me acting on my love for humanity!"
"Even if the start was love, it's the finish that matters!"
"Let's go. There's nothing left to hold us back from fighting."
"They tied the chains with some pretty thick links. Let's split up and break the ones anchored into the ground first."
Zoro and Sanji turned their gaze toward the execution platform's front, where the giant chains binding Luffy were anchored into the ground on both sides.
The square had emptied of all but Buggy's men since the crowd, including the boy and his mother, had fled. Only Buggy's crew remained in front of the platform.
"The first to free their chain wins, Ero Cook!"
"Don't start making excuses if you lose, Marimo!"
Zoro and Sanji split to the left and right, charging toward the crew to smash the chains anchored into the ground.
"W-Wait a bit, Nami!"
"How do you expect me to move something this heavy?!"
Meanwhile, Usopp lay trapped under a bundle of flags near the back of the square, knocked down when Zoro and Sanji charged out.
Nami tried to hoist the end of the bundle with all her might to free him, managing only to lift it a little, when—
"Don't push me!"
Glumph!
Nami collided with the fleeing crowd and Usopp was crushed under the flags once again.
"Let's give up, Nami. I'm worried about Luffy, too, but us getting involved won't change much… I can hold on."
"You don't understand how dangerous it is! The temperature and pressure have dropped suddenly! And clouds have appeared out of nowhere!"
Under the stormy, cloud-filled sky, Nami spoke up.
"A typhoon is coming! A storm big enough to obliterate our ship!"
*****
On the top floor of the Town Hall next to the square, Coby leaned out the window, one knee bent as he placed a foot on the sill, looking serious.
He pulled his foot back onto the floor, his expression unyielding, and Hibari spoke up.
"Senior Coby…"
"I waited in reserve to prevent civilians from getting caught up in the pirate pursuit."
"Considering your abilities, sir, it was obvious civilians would be vulnerable if we moved in directly."
"My judgment put a child and a woman in danger. I should've called the Second Unit here instead of the harbor."
"If we'd deployed more personnel to help evacuate the civilians, what just happened wouldn't have occurred…"
The soldier's words brought a bitter expression to Coby's face as he blamed himself. Then, one of the men spoke up.
"Colonel, your reputation here isn't undeserved! You've led pirate cleanups that earned cooperation from other bases time and again!"
"All thanks to your thorough strategies! What happened just now was dangerous, but it doesn't mean your judgment was wrong…!"
"Catching pirates is secondary to keeping civilians safe. I lost sight of that."
"My fault put civilians at risk."
"Don't dismiss my mistake as trivial… it'll become a habit."
"I-I'm sorry."
After that outcry, an icy silence hung in the air for a while. Then Coby spoke again.
"By the way, is there any information on the man tied to the platform—whether he's from this island or elsewhere?"
"He's not a wanted man. When we asked around, no one recognized him."
"The only unusual trait is that his eyes are gold…"
"I see."
Gold eyes… that's rare.
"Have you eaten, Coby? If not, I'll buy you something."
"You'll just snatch away whatever I'm eating again!"
"I'd be buying it, so I can do that!"
I miss Luffy.
Thinking of Luffy, Coby raised his spyglass to his eye and looked at the man tied to the platform.
He's wearing a straw hat too. Straw hat under gold eyes… huh?
Coby slid his finger across the knob by the spyglass to bring a closer view into focus.
Through the spyglass, Coby saw Buggy standing on the platform and a man bound beside him.
The man was wearing a straw hat, with faint traces of gold in his eyes.
"Luffy~!!!"
*****
"Hahaha! How's that, Straw Hat?"
"Your nakama can't do a damn thing right in front of you!"
Spreading his arms, Buggy spoke to Luffy, who lay bound and face-down, one arm dangling off the platform.
On the ground below, Zoro and Sanji stood on either side, facing the points where Luffy's thick chains were anchored into the earth.
Buggy's crew, split into two groups, had thrown the loose ends of those same chains around Zoro and Sanji, restraining them with the weighted links.
"These guys ain't as strong as their captain, but they're tough… There's no opening to press them!"
"Hang on! Just hold out until Straw Hat's head gets cut off!"
"Who's gonna die, you bastards?!"
Hearing those shouts, Zoro twisted his body and shouted, but Buggy's men pulled the chains tighter with both hands and held firm.
Watching Zoro and Sanji struggle, Luffy below looked up and spoke.
"Zoro, those guys are pros. They bound me all over, so my strength wasn't focused in one spot."
"But even if they'd tied me up all at once, I only flinched. If it weren't for the Seastone weight, I'd have died for real."
"But you two are split up and still barely holding on… I'm disappointed in you."
"That's not something to say in a situation like this!"
Sanji shouted at Luffy, who spoke in an oddly calm tone unsuited to the crisis.
"I've run for this moment since that day, Straw Hat—for perfect revenge."
"All the supporting players are here: Roronoa Zoro, who was your accomplice that day, and that orange-haired woman over there, Nami!"
"Eh?! How did you know I was here?!"
"I can see everything, you witch!"
"Last time you hid behind a wall, now you're out in the open in a square—how could you not know?!"
Buggy shouted at Nami, who was struggling to lift the flag bundle that was still crushing Usopp at the entrance to the square.
With the square cleared of people, Buggy's eyes naturally fell on his presence.
"Nami, I'm fine, so grab a gun from my holster!"
"Your holster is pinned under my legs!"
"Nami—I told you back in Orange Town!"
"Luffy!"
"Your hair's orange, you stand out!"
"Instead of saying that, please do something!!!"
Buggy felt exhilarated seeing the desperation on his nakama's faces. He placed one foot on the chain binding Luffy.
"All the bit parts are here, so now I think I'll kill you."
"They should be worried about themselves, yet they're worrying about me—you guys are great friends."
"Any last words? Or do you want to beg this great Buggy for your life…?"
"To be honest, I didn't have any friends in my past life because no one liked my personality."
"Shut up, you bastard! How long will you keep spouting nonsense? Cry, beg, get angry—try something!"
"Other than Smoker and the men under him, I hardly had any real emotional connection with anyone… or did I?"
"It's over now! Confirmed! It's completely confirmed!"
Buggy shouted with a face red as his nose, raising an electric chainsaw with thick teeth above his head from behind the execution platform.
"Straw Hat Luffy, you have the gall to piss me off, so I sentence you!"
"Oh… wait, there was someone before them."
"A stylish execution confirmed!!!"
As Buggy yelled, Luffy's nakama were aghast.
Their expressions began to show despair as the fact that they couldn't do anything in this critical moment sank in.
"I almost forgot you, Hancock."
"No… you did it on purpose to forget me."
But the emotions on Luffy's face were different from his nakama's despair.
At that moment, the scene around him began to change; he saw a beach by the sea.
The hard wooden floor of the platform turned into soft grass, and the clouded sky changed to a clear blue with warm sunlight.
The massive chains that had bound his body vanished, and he lay face-down with his arms folded underneath.
"What are you thinking about, Luffy?"
"When are we going back to Amazon Lily? You said that then, Hancock."
On the hill overlooking the sea grew a single tree, and the shade of its branches covered Hancock's face as she lay with her head on Luffy's waist.
"It's peaceful… It's been a long time since I felt this relaxed."
"It's nice to rest like this on a sunny day."
"Since the day my sister died… never have I felt as at ease as today."
"…I see."
Hancock spoke calmly with her eyes closed, and Luffy replied in kind.
"Thank you for easing my guilt. Without you, I might never have felt this peace."
"I won't forget my sister, but thanks to you, I could choose to remember her better."
"…That's good."
"Don't give up on becoming a better person. Live your life doing your best."
"You told me that, but I'm still clumsy at it."
"I try to get closer to my companions first, but it's hard. So I want you to see me trying by your side."
"What a bother…"
"It's fine, I'm not asking you to follow me."
"I want to follow your path… and ask that you allow me to be by your side each time."
"…"
"Is that too much?"
"…Do as you please."
"Hehe, that means the first step succeeded."
"Stop the nonsense and take a nap while you're at it. I'm not going to sleep."
"…All right."
After that, Hancock remained silent for a long time. Then Luffy gazed at the sea and spoke.
"My friends and crew died because of me, but I found myself unconsciously admiring the strength of Kaido who did that to me."
"As I struggled with the contradiction and humiliation of this situation, I hurt you, the one who appeared before me."
"The reason I didn't think of you until recently… was probably because I didn't want to admit my wrongdoing toward you."
"Because admitting that meant acknowledging that what happened with Kaido was my fault."
"Thinking about how you, with your own painful past, decided to move forward… I felt pathetic."
Luffy continued speaking even though Hancock, who had been his pillow, was no longer there.
"The memories of my past life gave me a sense of duty to save the world, and that drove me back to the sea—along with my promise to Shanks and my desire for revenge."
"But duty, promises, revenge… these aren't things I do purely because I want to."
"So I kept wondering what life I truly desired."
"But thinking back on meeting my crew… I think I already knew deep down."
Even though the sky filled with dark clouds and the shade of the tree vanished, he kept speaking.
"When I remembered the time I helped you, and you told me thanks… I felt certain."
"What I want is… to build a world where innocent people can live without suffering."
"Now that I've realized this, I can live again doing my best."
"So I'm truly grateful to you…"
He said that as he stood up.
"I'm sorry for hurting you."
As he finished speaking, the dreamscape vanished.
The square and his nakama reappeared in his view, and he stood on the platform with his back to the hotel.
Veins bulged on his face, and his golden eyes began to glow brightly.
"L-Straw Hat! Even with a Seastone weight on your throat, how…!"
"No matter how weak I get, this is what I can do…!"
Still bound by the giant chains, with the Seastone pendant still pressing on his windpipe, Luffy gritted his teeth and rose, gripping each chain with both arms and pulling.
"Hahaha! That's right! No matter how much you struggle, you can't break these chains with strength like yours…!"
Crack!
"Uh…?"
Luffy's nakama and Buggy's crew looked at the platform, hearing the cracking sound.
The wooden platform was splintering, starting where Luffy's feet pressed against the floor and moving down to the supports.
Unlike Buggy's men, Luffy's crew looked up at him with faces mixing joy and amazement.
"Th-This is impossible!"
"To enjoy freedom… you have to bear responsibility."
"But if you get caught up in the world's goings-on… you can collapse when you can't bear that responsibility."
"But I've decided… I'm not going to give up and I'll move forward."
"I won't anymore…!"
Luffy, pulling on the giant chains, felt his tendons tearing in pain.
Yet despite that, he looked down at his nakama, a grin on his face as he spoke.
"In this rotten world… I refuse to lose!!!"
Buggy sank to his knees in front of Luffy, looking up at him.
Terror and shock replaced the ecstasy and superiority on his face.
"Yes, only when you're that strong do you become my husband!"
Luffy turned his head toward the voice of the woman coming from the upper rear of the platform.
At the same time, the glass at the very top of the hotel shattered into fragments, revealing a woman among the shards.
"Hancock?!"
The suddenly appeared Hancock was holding two giant swords, each over three times her height, one in each hand.
She swung the swords in midair, the blades bending dramatically before lashing out like whips, and—
"I've been waiting for you, Luffy!"
The blades cut through the giant chains that bound Luffy and the platform itself, shredding them to pieces.
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