A Silent Cry for Help

The East Blue, on the coast of Shimotsuki Village.

The sea breeze drove wavelets against the beach with a rushing sound.

The call was connected, but the other end was frighteningly silent. Not even breathing could be heard.

"Is it broken?"

Zoro tilted his head and leaned over.

Ron ignored him.

This was the dedicated Den Den Mushi he had personally pressed into Rosinante's hand when they parted in the North Blue years ago. There was no way it would call for no reason.

He had left a spatial marker on it back then. As long as the marker remained, he could use its coordinates to calibrate the Spatial Door.

The only problem was the distance.

The East Blue and the North Blue were separated by who knew how many nautical miles, making it easy for spatial coordinates to drift.

He had to lock onto the marker before he could open the door accurately.

Ron closed his eyes for a moment and forced himself to steady his breathing.

The marker was still there. The connection hadn't been broken.

"Please be all right, brother..."

It had all started in the North Blue a year ago.

"Bastard! Why didn't you dodge?!"

Eleven-year-old Law clutched a bloody dagger and shouted at the tall man in front of him, his fingertips trembling.

That was the first time he had stabbed Corazon.

Rosinante covered his chest, blood seeping through his fingers.

Though his teeth were bared in pain, he gave an awkward smile and reached out to pat Law on the head.

Law stood there, stunned.

He had thought he would be beaten to death.

But this man, who was always clumsy and kept sending himself flying with a kick, didn't have a single harsh word for him.

Later, Law stiffened his neck and gave his full name: Trafalgar D. Water Law.

A little defiant, he waited to see the man's expression change.

But Rosinante's smile slowly faded. He stood stunned for a long moment, his gaze growing somber.

Of course he knew what that "D" meant.

From that day on, he stopped thinking only about how to scare away this child whose head was full of hatred.

He started taking Law from place to place.

They went from hospital to hospital, only to find the doors shut tight or people driving them away with brooms, shouting "contagious disease."

Every time, Rosinante shielded Law behind him. Even when a broom struck his back, he only grunted.

Once, during a heavy downpour, the two of them crouched under someone's eaves to shelter from the rain.

He bought a piece of bread and broke off most of it for Law, then turned toward the corner and coughed until his shoulders shook.

Law watched his back, his lips moving, but said nothing.

He had always called the man an idiot before.

From that day on, he switched to "Hey, you're such an idiot."

Once, Rosinante came down with a fever. Law cursed him for being an idiot, but still pulled the coat that had slipped off him back over him.

When Law accidentally knocked over a medicine bottle, he cursed as he crouched down to pick it up.

Rosinante looked at the kid crouching on the floor and couldn't help laughing.

Then a piece of intelligence reached him.

The Op-Op Fruit.

Diez Barrels, a former Marine officer who had defected and become a pirate, planned to sell the fruit to the World Government for five billion Beli, with Doflamingo arranging the deal.

The exchange was to take place on Minion Island.

Rosinante stared at the intelligence for a long time, crumpling the paper in his fist.

Though he wondered why Doflamingo had suddenly given him this intelligence, the thought of Law's illness made him resolve to act.

"Law, this time, there's hope for you."

A snowy night on Minion Island.

A fire suddenly broke out in the pirate camp.

"Fire! Who started it?!"

"Check the fruit, quick!"

By the light of the flames, Rosinante used the power of the Calm-Calm Fruit to slip soundlessly into the warehouse. He grabbed the strangely patterned fruit and tucked it inside his coat.

But on his way out, he failed to watch his step and missed his footing.

The Calm-Calm Fruit swallowed the sound, but he was far too conspicuous, instantly drawing the eyes of the patrolling pirates.

"There!"

Bang! Bang!

Gunshots split the snowy night.

One bullet pierced his shoulder, and another grazed his thigh.

Rosinante staggered and rolled into a snowdrift. Gritting his teeth, he scrambled up and ran through the uneven snow toward the dilapidated house where they had agreed to meet.

He left a trail of blood across the snow.

"Law!"

He pushed the door open and hurriedly pressed the fruit into the boy's hands.

"Quick! Eat it!"

Law looked at the blood all over him, his face turning pale. "Corazon! What happened to you?!"

"Never mind me, eat it!"

"It's the Op-Op Fruit! With it, there's a way to cure your disease!"

Rosinante was so anxious that he broke into a fit of coughing.

"Haven't you studied medicine? Believe me, there's still hope this time!"

Law's eyes reddened. He stared at him for a few seconds, then finally lowered his head and took a fierce bite.

The foul taste made his whole face scrunch up, but he still stretched his neck and swallowed it.

Seeing that, Rosinante slid down the wall into a sitting position. His chest heaved, but a relieved smile appeared on his face.

"Thank goodness..."

At least this child no longer had to count the days until he died.

But the explosions outside quickly drew closer.

Doflamingo had long since noticed that something was wrong with his younger brother. He had deliberately leaked that intelligence in the first place.

He just hadn't expected Rosinante to actually dare gamble with his life.

Four officers had already arrived ahead of him, blocking the way outside the dilapidated house.

"The young master said it."

Gladius turned the gear mechanism on his left arm, his voice rumbling. "We can cripple Corazon, but we have to make him tell us where the fruit is!"

"Stone-throwing blast!"

Several gray stone balls flew toward them, swelling larger and larger in the air.

Boom!

The entire wall exploded with a crash.

Rosinante grabbed Law and rolled across the ground, narrowly leaping over the collapsing floor.

"Beh-heh-heh! Don't run!"

Trebol's mucus hung down from the roof and suddenly wrapped around his left leg.

Rosinante raised his gun and shot through the mucus, but the ground at his feet suddenly bulged.

Pica's voice came muffled from inside the rock. "You're not getting away!"

A giant rock palm came smashing down at them.

Rosinante immediately turned and shielded Law in his arms. His back slammed into a ruined wall, and the wounds that had just stopped bleeding split open, blood seeping out at once.

"Corazon!" Law cried out from his arms.

Jora stood to the side and waved her hand. Wooden crates and scrap metal twisted grotesquely, clumping together and floating in the air.

"What a heartbreaking betrayal."

Enemies surrounded them on all sides.

The Calm-Calm Fruit could erase sound, but it couldn't erase footprints, nor could it make two people vanish into thin air.

Rosinante spotted a truck parked by the roadside, piled high with oil-soaked waterproof tarps.

He snatched up a torch from the ground and hurled it at the truck!

Whoosh!

The oil-soaked tarps instantly burst into flames, sending black smoke billowing upward!

"Damn it! Don't let him get away!"

While the thick smoke blocked their pursuers' view, Rosinante scooped up Law and ducked into a collapsed alley nearby.

By the time they hid in an abandoned warehouse outside town, he could barely stand.

"Law, listen to me."

A number of discarded goods were piled up by the warehouse door, with a large wooden crate hidden behind them.

Rosinante lifted the lid and gently put Law inside.

Through the gaps between the boards, Law could just see the open ground outside the door.

"Stay inside. No matter what you hear, don't come out."

"What about you?"

Law grabbed his sleeve and refused to let go.

"I'll go out and draw them away."

"No!"

Rosinante pulled out a tiny Den Den Mushi and pressed it into his hand.

"Keep this safe. If something really happens, call it."

"Who does it call?"

"My younger brother."

"Since when do you have a younger brother?!"

"We became brothers."

Rosinante smiled, a little boastfully. "He's at Marine Headquarters, and he's amazing."

"The Marines?!"

Hearing that, Law nearly threw the Den Den Mushi away.

"Trust me."

Rosinante took his hand. "He's different from the others."

Rosinante closed the lid and raised a hand to activate the Calm-Calm Fruit.

An invisible force settled over Law.

From that moment on, whether he cried, shouted, or struggled, he wouldn't make a sound.

"Stay alive."

Those were the last words Law saw him say before the lid closed.

Law nodded desperately, tears splashing onto the back of his hand.

He didn't know that the man outside counted the bullets left in his gun.

Three—not even enough for all four officers.

Then he dragged his injured leg out of the warehouse and into the wind and snow.

Footsteps sounded in the snow, unhurried.

A pink feather coat, red sunglasses—Doflamingo had finally arrived.

The four officers slowly spread out behind him, closing in as they formed a semicircle.

"Fuffuffuffuffu... Rosinante."

He looked at his battered younger brother, his voice soft and sinister.

"My dear younger brother, hand it over."

Rosinante didn't look toward the crate. He deliberately took two steps in the opposite direction.

"I don't have the fruit."

"If you don't have it, where is it?"

Doflamingo raised his hand, the fine threads at his fingertips slowly pulling taut. "Don't tell me you fed it to that kid who's about to die?"

Inside the crate, Law stared intently outside.

The blood on Corazon's body was dripping onto the snow, a piercing red.

He finally realized that this man might actually die.

For him.

Law bit his lip hard, tears streaming down his face.

He wanted to shout, wanted to rush out.

But the field of silence was like a thick layer of cotton, muffling every sound inside it. Not a single word could get through.

Only the Den Den Mushi in his palm grew hot from how tightly he held it.

Law dialed the number with trembling hands and shouted desperately into the Den Den Mushi, "Save Corazon! Please—!!!"

But the moment the words reached his lips, that invisible force erased them completely.

The Den Den Mushi's antennae twitched gently.

The call connected.

But the person on the other end couldn't hear a single word.

East Blue, the coast of Shimotsuki Village.

Ron's eyes snapped open. He had fully locked onto that faint spatial imprint in the distance.

The air before him began to twist, and a pitch-black opening widened in front of him. An icy wind poured through it.

Zoro and Kuina stared at him, barely daring to breathe.

"Big bro, what's wrong?"

"Something urgent came up. You two go back to the dojo first."

The two children instinctively stood up straight, not daring to ask another question.

The next second, his white Justice Coat swept over the threshold as Ron stepped into the Spatial Door.

Click.

The opening closed, and the air stilled.

Only the sea breeze and the two children standing there remained on the beach.