"Why are there suddenly so many clouds...?"
Nami mumbled as she looked up at the sky in the streets of Loguetown, carrying thick paper bags in both arms.
"I can feel the pressure dropping all of a sudden, too. Feels like it's gonna pour..."
"Listen closely, Usopp!"
"Huh?"
She turned her head toward the sound of a familiar voice at the end of a crossing street.
There, Sanji bore the front end of a rope-bound bundle of thick black material over ten meters long on his shoulder, Usopp hoisted the middle part, and Zoro carried the tail end on his shoulder.
The load looked much thicker than a human torso.
"Why did you try to move the bundle of ship flags all on your own, Usopp?"
"I was planning to pay someone to move it, but since you and Sanji just happened by, saving money is great~."
"Don't complain, Marimo! You got your sword like you wanted, but because of this I could only buy spices instead of good ingredients!"
"Shut up, you pervy cook!"
"I'm not pervy! This is lo~ve!"
"What are you guys doing over there?"
"Nami!"
Hearing Nami's voice, Sanji dropped the bundle and rushed over to her.
As a result, Usopp, who had been in the middle of the bundle, fell when its balance collapsed, leaving only Zoro standing there with the tail end resting on his shoulder.
"Ugh! I almost got crushed! Sanji!"
"You damned pervy cook, love my foot...!"
"Have you seen Luffy? We were supposed to meet here."
"Yeah, Nami, we just got here, too, and we haven't seen Luffy. He's nowhere in sight..."
Like Sanji, the others looked around their surroundings.
They were standing at the entrance of the wide plaza at the center of Loguetown, with people coming and going in front of them.
"But why are people gathering over there?"
"That is the execution platform where the Pirate King died..."
"Can't you see anything, Usopp?"
"I've got something new for moments like this, Nami."
Usopp slipped on a pair of goggles over his eyes and turned his gaze toward the crowd gathered inside the plaza.
In the spot where people were gathering stood a tall wooden structure with a ladder.
It was the execution platform where the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, met his end, and now several people had climbed up onto it.
"Th-that's Luffy!"
"What? Where is Luffy?"
"He's up there on the platform! He's tied up in a massive chain!"
"Eeeeeeeh~!!!"
As Usopp had said, Luffy was lying face down on the execution platform.
A single loop of chain as thick as a person's forearm was draped over him, with the chains descending from both diagonals of the platform.
The chains' ends were buried in the ground and secured with concrete, and at those anchoring points, men with rough expressions looked up at the platform.
"So~ Straw Hat, even now that you're awake, your mind is still foggy, so you can't move properly~ Django!"
There were four men on the platform: Jango, who was shaking the ring before Luffy's unfocused eyes, and Buggy along with two other men watching him.
"Partner, was this hypnosis a success too?"
"Of course, Buggy. With that, the Straw Hat won't be able to recover for a while even after he wakes up."
"My hypnosis is undoubtedly the best..."
"Yeah, seeing how his mind is still foggy, it's confirmed... Take him down."
"Mr. Buggy, but is it okay for you to stay here alone...?"
"What do you people think I am, letting me hear such crap! You think I can't take care of someone chained with Seastone on my own?!"
"...We'll take him down."
As the two men carefully began to lead the staggered Jango down the steps, Buggy noticed a shadow cast over the corner of the platform where he stood.
The shadow prompted Buggy to look, not at the center of the plaza where Luffy was staring, but at a building behind the platform.
"Some random guys are gonna watch my show for free from that hotel up there."
The hotel he referred to was a huge five-story white building towering in front of him like a massive wall.
Its roof was a deep blue, and the pointed spires at the center and both ends made the hotel resemble the small palace of some kingdom.
A peculiar feature was that, unlike other rooms, the front windows on the fourth floor were connected to the fifth floor, creating a long, wide opening, indicating that a single room spanned two stories.
"To build a hotel like this so you can look down on the place where the captain died… I'd love to blast it with a cannon, but I'll hold back this time."
"You say you care about the captain so much… and now you wanna spill blood all over the spot where he died?"
"Straw Hat...!"
Buggy's gaze dropped when he heard the voice from below.
There, Luffy turned his head to the side and looked up at Buggy with foggy eyes.
Buggy panicked and took a step back, but upon seeing Luffy's still body and unfocused stare, he smiled and spoke.
"The execution platform where my captain died was damaged and rebuilt long ago. This one you're on is the new platform, so it has nothing to do with you."
"Even so, this is still the final destination of the captain, right? You get the glory of dying in such a place, so you should be thanking me, shouldn't you?"
"How strange the world is… In the original story, I was supposed to hate this bastard, but we ended up getting along."
"Then again, choosing to stay in the Navy at Headquarters… wasn't something the original Luffy ever did."
"Do you have any idea how I felt when I was about to drown at sea but barely drifted to an island thanks to a wave?!"
"That bastard killed Anne… no, in the original it was the male Ace that he killed."
"But why did that guy eat the Flame-Flame Fruit that controls fire instead of the Magma-Magma Fruit? In the original, that fruit was eaten by Ace."
"There were tears, but also laughter! And with friendship mixed in, my tale was truly a grand adventure…!"
"By the way, in the original, lava burned fire… there was that weird setup where one ability ranked above the other, I think."
"Hey, you bastard! What part of this old man's busy adventure story are you listening to that you're spouting such nonsense?!"
"Not like you're the only busy one… I'm busy too, you red-nosed commie bastard."
"Re-red-nosed commie, what do you mean...?!"
"I was reflecting on my life in front of that grave... and you lot messed it up."
"Ha ha... hahahahaha! You can't even move a finger and yet you keep flapping your mouth, you're all talk."
"Hancock's age has even decreased, and her family relations have changed drastically."
"If I remember right, she should be 29 at this point, but she's only 24 now… She was the eldest of the three sisters, and now she's the youngest."
As Luffy spoke like that, Buggy gave a mocking smile and turned away.
"Alright, Straw Hat, keep rambling with that stupid look on your face until the moment you die."
"Because of the hypnosis… words are just spilling out of his mouth."
"Yes, the moment that head with that tongue on it is severed, that face smeared with agony and screaming in despair—that will be the ultimate highlight!!!"
Bang!
Buggy raised his pistol to the sky and pulled the trigger.
The shot rang out across the plaza, and everyone's attention snapped to the execution platform.
"All of you, listen up! Pay attention to what Clown Buggy has to say!"
"Who is that guy?!"
"A pirate...?"
"From now on, I will publicly execute that Straw Hat guy who's been causing a ruckus in East Blue!"
"And spread the word far and wide! Let everyone know that it was Buggy the Clown who killed the Straw Hat!"
At Buggy's shout, some sixty to seventy men under the platform surrounded it in a circle, brandishing guns and knives.
"Wha—it's Clown Buggy!"
"That's a pirate! Where are the Marines?!"
"Run!"
"The grand show is about to begin, you lot!!!"
Immediately after Buggy's shout, the people in the plaza screamed and began to flee, some stumbling to the ground, their bodies tripping over others in the chaos.
"These settings that didn't even change because of what I did… why are there so many of them?"
"Man, this is really exhausting… and I'm actually in a life-or-death situation right now, too."
"But why… did I come back out to the sea?"
As Luffy spoke, he lay there and watched the pandemonium in the plaza below and Buggy's mad laugh.
Behind Buggy, Luffy was still moving his mouth.
"Just because I've been reincarnated as the protagonist and have to save the world? There's no guarantee that if I did nothing everything would actually fall apart."
"Because of the promise with Shanks? Is that really so important that I should risk my life over it?"
"Revenge… thinking about that gives me some kind of feeling that it's the answer… but it's not. It feels incomplete."
"None of these are the full answer; there has to be something else."
Amidst the cries of chaos in the plaza and Buggy's laughter beside him, Luffy continued speaking.
"I don't know the answer; all I can do is weed out the wrong ones."
"It's like it's sitting in the palm of my hand, but when I try to grasp it, it slips right through my fingers."
"Now I'm certain: I know it, but I haven't realized it."
"If it's not that someone is deliberately preventing me from realizing it, then..."
These words didn't come out limp like before; they were quicker and more distinct.
While the earlier words had simply been a stream of consciousness, these were questions posed to himself.
"Am I deceiving myself?"
A small light began to flicker in Luffy's eyes as he muttered those words.
*****
"Out of the way, everyone!"
"Mayor?"
A middle-aged man in a suit flung open the door of a room in a building and rushed in.
The startled Marine soldiers, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath, followed the mayor into the room, and upon seeing the man rising from his desk, they spoke up.
"We apologize, Colonel, but the Mayor said he couldn't wait..."
"Huff, huff… wait for a report? What do you mean? Don't you know how urgent the situation is...!"
"In your current state, you won't be able to say anything. Please calm down and then tell us."
"Huff, huff… all right, Colonel Coby."
The Mayor took a deep breath and looked at the man who had stood up from behind the desk.
The man was about 170 centimeters tall, with pink hair and a green cloth wrapped around his forehead, his youthful face giving him the appearance of a boy.
Dubbed Colonel, he wore the Marine officer's coat of justice—normally draped over the shoulders—by putting his arms through the sleeves instead, unlike other officers.
Just like Luffy had done in the past when he served as a subordinate.
"Please, go ahead, Mayor."