Ozz startled himself with that train of thought.
If he really followed that line of reasoning to its conclusion… the possibilities were far too insane.
Not just the likes of Luffy and Zoro what about Akainu, Aokiji…
Or further back, into the older generation Whitebeard, Garp, Rayleigh, Jabba…
Ozz shivered.
This was heresy. A betrayal of everything sacred.
It was sick. Utterly depraved.
He forced himself to stop imagining it. He was terrified his mind might spiral all the way to implicating himself.
With visible effort, Ozz shook those dirty thoughts out of his head and managed to clear his mind a bit.
Whatever others chose to do,
At the very least, Crocodile shouldn't switch back.
He really liked her current look.
Having made up his mind, Ozz's mischievous spirit kicked back into gear. So… how could he stop Crocodile from going to Ivankov for help?
He was starting to hatch a plan.
Maybe it was the way Ozz had been staring, but Crocodile still in her female form furrowed her shapely brows and shot him a glare.
To Ozz, though.
If it had been the male version of her, that glare might've carried a bit of menace. But coming from this icy beauty?
It only stirred something wicked in him.
A perverse urge to twist her fate welled up in his chest.
Crocodile, you're stuck as a woman now.
Even Im-sama couldn't change that. I said so, so it's law.
Fortunately, this little interlude didn't cause any real disruption.
Minutes later, a murmur began to ripple through the distant crowd. Through his Observation Haki, Ozz could already feel that man's presence once more.
Step… step… step…
Heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed across the square, drawing every gaze like gravity itself.
Two soldiers walked ahead bearing flags. A full escort flanked the path. And at the center, clad in a deep crimson captain's coat, wrists bound in shackles, strode a broad-shouldered man with a thick black mustache.
Each step firm. Steady. As if what lay ahead wasn't death but a final declaration.
His face was calm. Eyes clear.
"Captain Roger…"
As the man emerged, Buggy and Shanks froze in place, their mouths agape, eyes trembling with unshed tears.
They stared, fixated on that towering figure who now strode alone toward the execution platform.
Even though they had prepared themselves.
Even though they knew this moment was coming.
The sheer sorrow of seeing that man in the flesh crushed them instantly, like a tidal wave of grief that stole the breath from their lungs.
This was a man destined for greatness.
And in the crowd below rowdy, violent, rebellious pirates from all corners of the seas every one of them fell into stunned silence as they witnessed Roger, smiling as he walked toward death.
That overwhelming aura silenced even the most arrogant upstarts. None dared speak. None looked away.
And Ozz..
He just stood there.
Frozen. Hollow.
His eyes were glazed, fixed on the platform where that legendary figure was about to meet his end.
He'd seen this moment in his mind a hundred times. A thousand.
He thought he'd be numb to it when it finally happened in front of him.
He thought, at the very least…
He wouldn't fall apart like Shanks and Buggy were doing now.
But..
Ozz slowly lifted his hand, staring at the clear droplets falling into his palm.
This feeling… this isn't how it was supposed to be…
"Hey, Ozz, you'll catch cold without a shirt. Let's head to shore and buy a couple things."
"Hahaha, Ozz really gets me. I told you a little drink never hurt anyone cough cough..."
"You wanna wrap Armament Haki around your weapon? Watch me. I'll show you how."
"That's our Ozz! His bounty's gone up again time for a party!!"
"...Thank you, Ozz."
Memory after memory flickered through his mind like reels of film. As the shadow of death loomed, Ozz felt an overwhelming swirl of joy and sorrow.
He was glad that Captain Roger would go out with a bang unapologetic, dignified, a man true to his dream.
But it broke his heart to know…
He would never again see the captain he so deeply admired. The mentor who had shown him grace.
Roger sat cross-legged upon the high platform, smiling as if the gallows were a throne.
There wasn't a trace of fear in his eyes.
He looked, in that moment,
like a true king.
Before the blades could fall, someone in the crowd finally cracked shouting the question that would echo through history:
"Hey! Pirate King! Where did you hide all your treasure?!
You must've found it, right?! The legendary, one-of-a-kind treasure,
One Piece!!"
"Silence!" barked one of the guards.
But no one could stop the words that came next.
Roger grinned wide. His voice rang out, bold and free, piercing the sky and rippling across the world via transponder snails.
"My treasure? You want it?
It's yours if you can find it.
Look for it! I left everything this world has to offer… out there, in the Grand Line!!"
A hush fell over the plaza.
No one paid attention to the blade that pierced his chest. To the slow spread of blood.
The whole world was stunned paralyzed by the weight of what they'd just heard.
And in that moment, the age of pirates exploded.
Amid the fire of ambition and the roaring call to sail, only three figures stared silently at the body slumped forward, tears pouring freely from their eyes.
Especially Ozz.
A relic of the old era. One of the few who truly knew everything.
He didn't care who reached Laugh Tale.
He didn't care who claimed the world's greatest treasure.
All he knew was.
The man who once claimed to possess fame, fortune, power… everything this world had to offer.
In the end, left the ship with nothing but a little bundle under his arm. Just enough to live quietly with Rouge.
He didn't even have a spare pair of pants. That one ratty old captain's hat? He wore it till the day he died.
Captain Roger, you bastard…
Ozz had heard all the criticisms before.
People said Roger started the Great Pirate Era unleashed chaos, brought war, birthed an age of greed.
But after sailing around the world and seeing its countless nations, Ozz understood the truth:
Even if Roger had never uttered a word, this world would still drown in conflict and corruption.
Because the real cause was centuries of rot thanks to the Celestial Dragons, the World Government, nobles who trampled the weak, and tyrants who seized every chance to rise.
If anything, Roger's final shout gave birth to hope.
It lit the fuse for something greater.
It would one day summon the one worthy of inheriting not just Roger's will but Joy Boy's.
And when that person arrived… the world would finally be free.
Roger may not have been a saint.
But he was a damn good captain.
A true hero.
And that… was enough for Ozz.
The skies darkened above, as if the heavens themselves mourned the passing of the Pirate King.
Rain began to fall in a soft, sorrowful drizzle.
Shanks pulled his straw hat low, shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
Buggy wept loudly, bawling for the captain they had lost.
Ozz looked up.
His eyes fixed on the churning clouds overhead.
The water streaming down his face blurred with tears.
Rain or tears who could tell the difference?
"Overcast skies? Are you kidding me?!"
His voice rang out, trembling with rage and grief.
"Captain Roger didn't die a sad death. It was a death of purpose. Of conviction. There's nothing to mourn!!"
His long hair rippled though there was no wind. Slowly, Ozz drew the sword from his waist.
A tidal wave of Conqueror's Haki surged from his body like lightning.
Black and red arcs crackled across the air, and panic rippled through the crowd as everyone stared at the storm of power erupting from him.
Shanks and Buggy looked on in shock.
"That sword… it belonged to Captain Roger…" Shanks whispered.
Ozz raised the blade to the sky just like a man who once stood defiant against the world.
"Divine Departure!!!"
And in that instant, under a thousand stunned gazes
the sky…
split open.
Beams of golden sunlight spilled through the rift in the heavens.
Shining upon the man who left this world with a smile.
Illuminating his final journey in radiant glory.
----------------------------------------------------
(Next Chapter: "Parting Ways, The Formal End of an Old Era")
The next storm's already brewing, Patron's where it hits first.!
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