Everyone's Reactions (Part Two)

The Grand Line, Sabaody Archipelago, Shakky's Rip-off Bar.

"Rayleigh! What was that mysterious gift the God from Beyond the Domain just sent you?" Shakky asked, blowing out a smoke ring.

A minute earlier, Rayleigh had been chosen as the lucky viewer from among the many who had answered the multiple-choice question correctly. A golden ball of light had suddenly appeared before him: his gift. He had reached out and grasped it, and its brilliant glow had vanished in his hand.

As a result, Shakky still had no idea what reward Rayleigh had received.

"Here. It's this," Rayleigh said, opening his hand. A stone engraved with obscure, incomprehensible writing lay in his palm.

"A... a stone?" Shakky picked it up and studied it for a while. "This God from Beyond the Domain is way too stingy! He just gave you a stone? What good is that?!"

"The God from Beyond the Domain just told me through thought that this thing is called the Life-Calling Stone. The writing on it means 'the obsession of the living, the echoes of the dead.' It can summon the dead back to this world temporarily, for seven days," Rayleigh said, taking a drink.

"Oh! So it's that precious! Then I take back what I just said." Shakky placed the Life-Calling Stone on the table and pushed it back toward Rayleigh. "So who are you planning to summon back to this world for a while?!"

"I haven't made up my mind about that yet." Rather than immediately taking the stone, Rayleigh swirled the drink in his glass, his expression complicated as he spoke in a distant voice.

In truth, it wasn't that he hadn't decided whom to summon. He just didn't know what good it would do to bring him back to this world, other than giving him another seven days together with him.

Afterward, they would have to part forever all over again, forcing him to endure that pain a second time. It would be better not to summon him in the first place. After all, there was only ever one person he wanted to summon: Roger.

Though that was what he thought, for some reason Rayleigh couldn't shake the feeling that the God from Beyond the Domain had given him the stone precisely because he wanted Rayleigh to summon Roger back to this world. He seemed to be laying plans for something profound.

With that thought, Rayleigh picked up the Life-Calling Stone and muttered to himself, "Should I summon you back or not, Roger?!"

The New World, aboard the Moby Dick.

"That bastard Golden Lion is way too arrogant! He only beat a pirate crew that had just started out, and now he's running his mouth about taking down Pops too! He really doesn't know his own limits!"

"He doesn't think the Whitebeard Pirates will be as easy to deal with as the Straw Hat Luffy Pirates, does he? He really has no idea what he's up against."

"Exactly! If Ace weren't in trouble right now, I'd go deal with him for Pops this instant. He's pissing me off!"

"..."

"..."

The crew below were talking indignantly, angered by Golden Lion's arrogance, but Whitebeard paid them no mind. His thoughts were nowhere near that matter. He lowered his head and looked at Marco, who stood nearby holding a thick stack of intelligence reports. "Well? Does no one know what happened to Ace in that town?"

Not long ago, after learning that Ace's Vivre Card, which had been kept in the cabin, was about to burn out, he had sent Marco to use their intelligence network to find out what had happened to Ace.

But the answers they received were that someone had seen him in the Alabasta Kingdom, where he had fought a marine lieutenant commander in one town and another group of people in another. No one knew who the person was, however.

All they knew was that the sky over the town had been split between red and darkness. No one knew what had happened afterward, because the town had been completely wiped off the face of the world, razed to the ground.

"Yes, Pops. But judging from the reports, the ability of the person who fought Ace sounds a lot like the Dark-Dark Fruit. It might have been Blackbeard," Marco speculated.

"Blackbeard? With that guy's strength, he shouldn't have been a match for Ace!" Whitebeard said with a frown.

"Pops, don't forget that guy was always different, with extraordinary talent. On top of that, no one knows exactly what the Dark-Dark Fruit can do even now. So it really is possible that Ace let his guard down and couldn't beat him," Marco said.

"If that's really what happened, then what the hell does that bastard Blackbeard want with Ace?!" Whitebeard asked, puzzled.

"Pops, there's... there's new information." At that moment, a crewman came rushing over. "That traitor Black... Blackbeard seems to have become a new Shichibukai!"

"What?" Marco was startled. He immediately understood what Blackbeard had done after capturing Ace and turned to Whitebeard. "Pops, it looks like Ace has fallen into the marines' hands! They might want to use him to start a war with us."

"Gurarara! That guy Sengoku probably learned from that bastard Blackbeard that I was gravely ill!" Whitebeard laughed. "He wants to take advantage of my illness to destroy me, but too bad, Sengoku! You miscalculated! The God from Beyond the Domain's sudden appearance ruined your plans. I've already recovered! It's still too early to say who'll win this war!"

He immediately gave Marco an order. "Go, Marco! Summon all the other division commanders back! Looks like we need to settle accounts with the marines and that bastard Blackbeard!"

"Yes, Pops."

The New World, aboard the Red Force.

"That bastard Golden Lion actually treated Luffy and the others like that! How awful!"

"Luffy, Usopp, pull yourselves together! Don't give up!"

"Luffy, you can do it! You have to beat that guy!"

"..."

"..."

Hearing the crew around them cheering Luffy and the others on, Benn Beckman looked at Shanks. "What do you think, Shanks?!"

"Don't worry. Luffy won't admit defeat so easily. He'll handle it just fine," Shanks said with confidence.

The Grand Line, somewhere at sea, aboard the Thousand Sunny.

"Nami, listen to me. I only lost to Golden Lion because I let my guard down. Believe me, I'll definitely be able to rescue you," Sanji explained to Nami, whose face had darkened beside him.

In fact, she wasn't the only one. The others on the ship didn't look much better.

Although it was only the contents of the Jianying video, to them it was as real as fact. Not only had they failed to save their companion, but they had also needed her to swallow her pride and beg the enemy to save them. It was something they could never accept.

"Luffy, everyone..." Nami bit her lip. She wanted to say something, but swallowed the words as they reached her lips.

Just then, Luffy suddenly threw back his head and shouted, "Golden Lion!"

Elsewhere, the world's attention finally returned to the video in the sky.

As the recording from the Tone Dial Nami had left behind played, Luffy smashed a large rock with a single punch.

The scene then shifted to Golden Lion, who was holding a banquet with a large group of pirates.