The One Thousand Nine Hundred and Sixty-Eighth

I'm not going back.

The Red Knot in Luffy's palm shrank into a ball, and the child fell silent after speaking.

On the computer screen, a small, thin body was buried between Black Cups, her chest remained still, and her face was covered by several layers of red lines.

Chopper leans closer to the screen.

"Is that you?"

The Red Knot moved slightly.

"It used to be."

What do you mean by "before"?

"I put the part of me that could speak into my Straw Hat, and left my body on the island."

Are you still alive now?

"I have no idea."

Chopper turned to look at Lin Qi.

"A medical check-up is needed first."

Lin Qi paused the camera on the body.

"Vegapunk, what can you see?"

"The screen can only transmit Echo recordings, it can't directly confirm breathing, let him try it himself."

Luffy tucked the Red Knot close to his ear.

Can you sense what's over there?

"Able."

"Where does it hurt?"

"It all hurts."

That is to be alive.

"Mo'er said, even the dead leave behind pain."

Mo'er lay on the long table and reached out his hand to A Hui.

Help me up a little.

"I won't help."

"I need to check the serial number."

"You can talk even while lying down."

"That face was obscured."

A Hui stuffed the folded towel behind Mo'er's neck without the slightest hesitation.

"See? If you dare sit up again, I'll tie you to a table leg."

Mo'er ignored him.

"Expand your chest."

Lin Qi adjusted the image, revealing several rows of old characters below the red line.

[Receiving Body 1968]

[Source of birth: Blank]

[Experimental Mother Affiliation: Experimental Mother]

[Purpose: To replace the undetected Roger bloodline in receiving maternal quests]

First, a sound of a wooden plank breaking came from Ace's side.

Marco reached out and pressed his hand on his shoulder.

"Watch before you act."

"They made a child to replace me?"

That's what the record says.

What does "mean" mean?

Vegapunk brought up the supplementary page of the medical report.

"One thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven searches were conducted, each time collecting birth records, physical data, and the mother's memories. When the World Government failed to find the target, they used the collected materials to fill in a Blank record."

Nami stared at the screen.

Why does a Blank record turn into a person?

"They need to keep the Experimental Mother searching; ordinary files can't answer the mother's call."

So they shoved a child in there?

"I can't tell where the body comes from."

The voice from inside the Red Knot continued the conversation.

"In the cup."

Luffy asked, "Can cups give birth?"

"They poured me out of many cups."

"You remember?"

"First came the hands, then the feet, and last the ears."

Chopper gripped the tweezers.

"Each part comes from a different birth record?"

"Um."

Where is your heart?

"Given to me by my mother."

Upon hearing these words, the unnamed Experimental Mother on the screen stretched her abdominal sutures outwards, while the red thread securing the child's chest tightened.

Chopper pounced on the computer.

"Stop, he's being choked."

Lin Qi opened the Q&A page.

"First, freeze the control between the Experimental Mother and 1968."

"Etc."

Robin's voice came through the line.

"If it's cut off directly, the Echo left inside the Straw Hat might also lose its physical source."

"Will I die?"

"We still don't know how he's surviving now."

The Red Knot rolled from Luffy's hand to the inside of his hat brim.

"I'm not afraid."

Luffy stretched out two fingers and pinched it back.

"But I'm afraid you'll die, so don't say anything rash."

You don't even know me.

"We know each other now."

You don't know my name.

Aren't you number one 1968?

"That was when the cups were counted to my number."

"So what's your own name?"

There has been no response from Hongxian for a long time.

Lin Qi closed the question page.

"Let him choose a temporary protected name first."

"I don't want a name."

"Why?"

"My name will be heard by my mother."

What will she think if she hears this?

Come find me.

On the computer, a woman's voice kept repeating, "Give me back the child."

Ace moved the Den Den Mushi closer.

"If you're afraid of her, why do you say she gave you your heart?"

"She dug it out of her own body for me."

"She's good to you?"

"She'll hug me when she's in pain, but she'll look for someone else when she's not in pain."

Who to look for?

"Every child in a cup."

Has she found it?

"After it was found, the cup grew onto her body."

Lin Qi stared at the Black Cups on the back of the Moving Island.

"Those baby records weren't with her; she put them away after she found them?"

"Um."

Sengoku raised his hand and flipped to the internal figures from twenty-two years ago.

"A total of 1,967 birth records were taken away from the South Blue that year, and all the records were marked as destroyed."

Vegapunk took over the conversation.

"They were actually retrieved one by one from the Experimental Mother and embedded in its body, no wonder it kept getting bigger."

Garp asked, "Why isn't Rouge's death record complete?"

"Have no idea."

"You've been on the island for twenty-two years; you must have heard what she said."

The Red Knot halfway around.

She said that Rouge didn't finish giving birth.

Ace grabbed the microphone.

"I was born."

"The record wasn't born."

"What's the meaning?"

"The Extraction Cup to retrieve her memories of pregnancy, and the Transfer Subject sent those memories back, but the returned memories had no name, nor did they include the day the birth ended."

Mo'er raised his blood-stained hand.

I know what's missing.

A Hui pressed his hand back onto the towel.

"You don't need to raise your hand to speak."

"When the Transfer Subject took over the extraction procedure for Rouge, the medical ship had already recorded her twenty-month pregnancy, but was unable to obtain her complete memories after childbirth."

Garp looked at Sengoku.

"Because the navy is surrounding Baterilla."

"Because Rouge died after giving birth to Ace, the Throne didn't get a second chance to draw a card."

Vegapunk combined the two records.

"The Experimental Mother was centered on Rouge's pregnancy, but lacked the result of a completed delivery. In its understanding, the child had not yet truly left the Experimental Mother."

Nami looked towards the belly of the Moving Island.

"So it keeps searching for places that produced it."

"They're also constantly searching for the child they didn't finish giving birth to."

Ace put the Den Den Mushi to his lips.

"If I tell her I've already been born, will she stop?"

Red Knot answered first.

"She will wake up."

What happens after you wake up?

"Put you back in."

Whitebeard raised his naginata, blocking Ace's path as he walked towards the ship's railing.

"Did you hear that?"

"I heard you."

"Return it."

I don't plan to jump into the sea right now.

"Your position tells me you've already made your decision."

Ace took two steps back, his gaze still fixed on the Den Den Mushi.

"Nineteen hundred and sixty-eighth, how long will you stay by her side for me?"

"Starting from seven days before Roger's death."

Are you older than me?

"Have no idea."

Why don't you run?

"I ran it."

The sound from the Red Knot gradually became dry.

"Mo'er changed course to the Calm Belt, and I came out of the cabin. The island caught me below."

Mo'er turned his head to the side.

You didn't die after falling into the sea?

"My mother sewed me inside."

"How did you manage to send the Echo into the Straw Hat?"

"I heard Roger speak, and those words passed by the Straw Hat, and I caught them."

Shanks asked over the line, "You're telling me not to go to Loguetown?"

"Um."

"Let me leave my hat?"

"Um."

"And you want me to take back Luffy's hat?"

The Red Knot did not respond.

Shanks waited a while.

"Who told you to say that last sentence?"

"Mother."

Luffy held down the Straw Hat.

Why did she ask you to take it back?

"The person wearing the hat will bring me back."

"Then why did you choose me again?"

"I didn't choose."

The Red Knot slid off the brim of Luffy's hat and landed in his Luffy.

"When Lin Qi's multiple-choice question passed through the Straw Hat, you answered it."

Luffy scratched his face.

"I've answered so many, which one is it?"

"To save Ace."

The Den Den Mushi on Ace's end moved forward a little.

"Did you hear him choose me?"

"Um."

"So you're saying Roger's son found you?"

He was the first person to find me.

The Red Knot points to Lin Qi on the computer screen.

"The one who truly wears the door on their head is you."

Lin Qi looked down at the old letter on the table.

A thin red line seeped through the back of the paper, extending along the route north of Amazon Lily, but it did not stop on the Moving Island.

The line pierced the screen and fell onto the Straw Hat.

Vegapunk's instruments emitted continuous prompts.

"The island didn't chase after Ace."

Nami picked up the sea chart.

What is it chasing?

"The Echo from the receiver."

The Red Knot in Luffy's palm heated up again.

On the computer screen, the child sewn between the Black Cups raises a finger.

He pointed to the Straw Hat.