The Father Who Never Came

Golden letters hung above the sky, and the air seemed to be sucked out of the entire world.

[Correct answer: C]

[During the Paramount War, Monkey D. Dragon possessed enough power to intervene and change the course of the war, but he chose not to participate and gave no aid to his biological son, Monkey D. Luffy]

The sky screen began playing the explanation.

The footage opened not on the battlefield, but in the war room at Revolutionary Army Headquarters.

The time stamp showed three days before the outbreak of the Paramount War.

A huge nautical chart lay spread across the table. Dragon stood before it, with Sabo and several staff officers behind him.

"Reporting, Mr. Dragon. The date of Fire Fist Ace's public execution has been confirmed. It will take place in seven days at Marine Headquarters, Marineford."

"The Whitebeard Pirates are already gathering."

"In addition, your son, Monkey D. Luffy, is currently in Impel Down. He is suspected of trying to rescue Ace from the inside."

Dragon's expression did not change as he heard the reports. His finger traced across the chart to Marineford and paused there for two seconds.

"How many troops can the Revolutionary Army's fleet currently deploy?"

"Six legions, with twelve thousand combat personnel at full strength. Mr. Ivankov is also carrying out a secret mission in Impel Down."

Dragon lifted his finger from Marineford and moved it in another direction.

"And the progress of the supply transfers?"

"Three supply points along the East Blue route have yet to complete their handoffs. At least two legions will be needed to escort them."

Silence.

Everyone in the war room waited for Dragon's orders.

"Continue the supply transfer mission. The East Blue route takes priority."

Dragon's voice was utterly level.

"As for Marineford, we will not intervene."

The staff officers exchanged glances. One of them hesitated, then spoke.

"Mr. Dragon, Luffy..."

"I know."

Dragon cut him off.

"Meeting adjourned."

The footage on the sky screen shifted to the day of the Paramount War.

A special Visual Den Den Mushi had been set up in the Revolutionary Army's war room, transmitting the battle at Marineford in real time.

Dragon stood alone in the dark room, watching the screen.

Marineford was burning. The Whitebeard Pirates and the Marines fought a desperate battle, while Luffy, covered in wounds, charged toward the Execution Platform, only to be intercepted by one powerful enemy after another.

Dragon watched it all without moving.

His fists were clenched, the outlines of his knuckles protruding beneath his skin.

But he did not take a single step.

When Luffy was knocked to the ground on the screen and got back up, Dragon's breathing quickened for an instant, but only an instant.

When Akainu's magma pierced Ace's chest on the screen, Dragon's body swayed.

He closed his eyes.

Then he turned and walked out of the war room.

On the screen behind him, Luffy held Ace's body and let out the howl the whole world had heard.

The footage on the sky screen stopped there, but an additional line of text appeared.

[After witnessing the entire war, Monkey D. Dragon took no action. The Revolutionary Army fleet did not change course at any point during the war]

The whole world fell silent.

This silence was different from the silence when Akainu had killed the people aboard the evacuation ship.

That silence had been born of fury at its peak.

This silence came from a more complicated emotion that caught in everyone's throats.

Because everyone had seen one thing on Dragon's face.

It was not that he didn't care.

He did care.

He clenched his fists, his breathing quickened, and his body swayed.

But he still chose not to go.

"What kind of father is that?"

On the streets of Alabasta, Princess Vivi's eyes reddened.

"Wouldn't he even save his own son?"

King Cobra sat in his wheelchair, watching Dragon's retreating figure on the sky screen, and let out a long sigh.

"Vivi, if, during Alabasta's crisis back then, I had been forced to choose between you and the entire country..."

"I would have chosen you."

"Because I'm a father."

"But he is a revolutionary."

"The distance between those two identities is greater than the Grand Line."

Vivi bit her lip and said nothing.

On Drum Island, Dr. Kureha watched the sky screen and, for once, poured herself a drink.

"That's the price important people pay."

She took a swig, and the fiery liquid slid down her throat into her stomach.

"People who want to save the whole world often can't even protect those closest to them."

In the New World, aboard the Moby Dick.

Whitebeard looked at Dragon's figure on the sky screen and gave a low, cold snort.

"Monkey D. Dragon."

"So that's Garp's son?"

Marco stood beside him, his expression hard to read.

"Pops, this man... how should I put it?"

"He had the strength but didn't come to save his own son. That's even more cold-blooded than Akainu's absolute justice."

Whitebeard shook his head.

"No, Marco. He's not cold-blooded."

"A cold-blooded man wouldn't clench his fists."

"He's turned himself into a tool."

There was profound pity in Whitebeard's eyes.

"For the sake of some supposedly greater goal, he dug out his own heart and threw it away."

"A man like that is more pitiful than any enemy."

"But being pitiful is no excuse."

Whitebeard's voice grew low.

"If my son were trapped there, I'd tear all of Marineford apart."

"To hell with strategy, the bigger picture, and revolution."

"A son is more important than anything."

His words carried from the Moby Dick and were picked up by the sky screen's audio system, echoing through the skies across the world.

Sabaody Archipelago.

Luffy listened to everything playing on the sky screen, his expression unchanged throughout.

Not anger.

Not sadness.

A strange sort of calm.

"Luffy?"

Zoro glanced at him.

"I'm fine."

Luffy's voice was very quiet.

"I never expected him to come save me."

"Because I don't know him."

"I only know what he looks like because other people told me."

Zoro fell silent.

"But..."

Luffy raised his head.

"If he had the power to save Ace and didn't come..."

"Then I am a little angry."

"Not for myself."

"For Ace."

"Ace didn't do anything wrong. Why did everyone leave him there?"

His voice grew quieter and quieter, until the last few words were barely audible.

Rayleigh stood beneath a coconut tree some distance away. Listening to Luffy, he took off his glasses and wiped them.

"Roger was like that too."

He spoke to himself.

"He left his son in this world and went away, without leaving any instructions or making any arrangements."

"At least Dragon is still alive."

"Alive, but he never shows up."

"That's crueler than being dead."

The explanatory footage on the sky screen ended, and the system's voice rang out with its judgment.

[Now passing judgment on Monkey D. Dragon]

At Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Sabo's whole body tensed when he heard those words.

He looked at Dragon.

Dragon was still standing by the window, his coat billowing in the wind, his posture no different from ten minutes ago.

"Come on."

Those were the only words Dragon said.

The punishment began to appear on the sky screen.

[Subject of punishment: Monkey D. Dragon]

[Reason for punishment: As a father, he chose to be absent when his closest blood relative's life hung in the balance, using the greater good as a pretext to evade his responsibility]

[Punishment one: Monkey D. Dragon's complete history and an assessment of his true combat strength will be forcibly made public, including the type and level of his Devil Fruit ability]

[Punishment two: The temporary effect "Father-Son Fate Binding" will be applied. For the next thirty days, Dragon will simultaneously suffer fifty percent of all damage inflicted on Monkey D. Luffy]

The moment the two punishments appeared, discussion erupted across the world.

The first was tantamount to laying the Revolutionary Army leader's greatest trump card bare in the sunlight.

The second was even more underhanded. It did not weaken Dragon's strength, but forcibly established something Dragon had always tried to sever.

The bond between father and son.

In the tavern, Lin Qi looked at the two punishments and slapped his thigh.

"Good, that's more like it. Didn't you want to be a hands-off dad?"

"The system's tying you directly to your son. Can you handle that?"

He chuckled, his fingertip sliding across the screen.

"And the first punishment is brilliant. The Revolutionary Army boss's combat strength has always been the biggest mystery in this game."

"And now it's being made public just like that?"

"I give this one full marks."

On the sky screen, the details of the first punishment had already begun to unfold.

Dragon's photograph was enlarged across every inch of the sky screen worldwide, accompanied by a personal file so detailed it was suffocating.

[Monkey D. Dragon, age fifty-five, supreme commander of the Revolutionary Army. Bounty—unknown (the World Government has imposed the highest level of information control on his true bounty)]

[Devil Fruit: Storm-Storm Fruit (Logia). Ability level assessment—Disaster Level]

The air around the world was stirred the instant that line appeared.

Logia.

Disaster Level.

The weight of those two terms together made everyone who understood them draw a sharp breath.

At Marine Headquarters, Sengoku stared at the line. The teacup in his hand gave a sharp crack, fine fractures spreading from its sides to its base.

"Logia."

His voice was so hoarse it changed pitch.

"I knew that guy couldn't have had only that much ability."

"Storm-Storm Fruit, Disaster Level."

"What kind of monster did Garp raise?"

The information on the sky screen continued to unfold.

But the focus of the footage had already begun shifting to the second punishment.

An invisible chain of light descended from the sky. One end sank into Dragon's chest at the Revolutionary Army Headquarters, while the other crossed most of the world and sank into Luffy's chest in the Sabaody Archipelago.

Both of them felt a warmth in their chests at the same time.

Luffy looked down at his chest, touched it a couple of times, and tilted his head.

"What's that?"

At the other end of the world, Dragon looked down at the faint light on his chest, and a real crack finally appeared in his expression.

It wasn't pain.

It wasn't fear.

An emotion that had been suppressed for too long, one he didn't know what to call, seeped out through that crack.

"Luffy."

He said the name once, so softly that even Sabo, standing behind him, couldn't hear it clearly.