A Voice After Twenty Years

The reward text appeared line by line on the Sky Screen.

[Reward recipient: Monkey D. Dragon]

[Reward 1: The Father-Son Fate Binding effect imposed by the previous punishment will be lifted. However, Dragon will retain the ability to sense Luffy's vital signs, with a range covering the entire world. This effect is permanent.]

When that appeared, Dragon glanced down at his chest at the Revolutionary Army Headquarters.

The chain of light that had connected him to Luffy during the previous punishment was gone. In its place was a gentler sensation, as if a fine thread had appeared deep in his chest, its other end connected to a heart beating somewhere far away.

He could feel that heart beating steadily and strongly.

"This is a reward?"

Sabo stood beside him, looking at the Sky Screen, something hard to describe in his voice.

Dragon didn't answer.

His hand rested over his chest, the pulse from the invisible thread beating beneath his palm.

He held it there for three seconds.

Then he lowered his hand.

"Keep watching."

The second reward appeared on the Sky Screen.

[Reward 2: The system will open a two-way communication between Monkey D. Dragon and Monkey D. Luffy for five minutes. Both parties will be able to hear each other's voices.]

The air across the world tightened in that instant.

Two-way communication.

Not one-way like Garp's.

Two-way.

Both of them could hear, and both of them could speak.

Five minutes.

A father who hadn't spoken a single word to his son in twenty years, and a son who had never heard his father call his name since the day he was born.

Five minutes.

At the Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Dragon stared at the reward without moving a muscle.

But Sabo noticed one detail.

Dragon's breathing had changed.

From twelve breaths a minute to sixteen.

That change would have been nothing in an ordinary person, but for Monkey D. Dragon, it was the equivalent of an ordinary person panting.

"Mr. Dragon."

Sabo spoke softly.

"You're nervous."

Dragon's gaze lingered on the Sky Screen for a beat, then shifted away.

"Don't speak to your superior in that tone."

Sabo didn't respond, but the curve of his lips relaxed a little.

He had spent so many years at this man's side, and this was the first time he'd seen him nervous.

The Sabaody Archipelago.

Luffy blinked twice at the second reward on the Sky Screen.

"Two-way communication?"

"So he can hear me, and I can hear him?"

Zoro nodded once.

"Yeah."

Luffy paused, then scratched his head.

"What am I supposed to say?"

His tone was no different from usual when he said it, even a little puzzled.

But Zoro noticed that as Luffy lowered the hand he'd used to scratch his head, his fingertips brushed across the brim of his straw hat.

The movement was slow, as if he were checking that something was still there.

Rayleigh walked over from the wall.

"Say whatever you want to say."

His voice sounded less like a mentor's and more like an elder's.

"Roger was just like you, clumsy with words."

"But he never left a single thing he needed to say unsaid."

A countdown began on the Sky Screen.

[Two-way communication will begin in ten seconds]

[At that time, Dragon's voice will be transmitted through the Sky Screen to the Grove 42 Area in the Sabaody Archipelago, and Luffy's voice will be transmitted to the Revolutionary Army Headquarters]

[The communication will be audible worldwide]

When that last line appeared, everyone realized it.

Audible worldwide.

This conversation between father and son, twenty years overdue, would take place in the ears of everyone in the world.

[Ten]

At the Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Dragon stood before the window, his back to Sabo.

[Nine]

He pushed the hood of his cloak back, revealing his entire face.

[Eight]

His gaze fell on the sky outside, where a thin layer of clouds had formed because of the fluctuations in his emotions.

[Seven]

His lips moved as he practiced, as if rehearsing what his first words would be.

[Six]

He gave up rehearsing, because he'd practiced for twenty years and hadn't gotten a single sentence right.

[Five]

In the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy stood up straight.

[Four]

He took the straw hat off his head and handed it to Zoro.

Zoro took the straw hat without asking why.

[Three]

Luffy took a deep breath.

[Two]

He clenched his fist, then let it open.

[One]

The connection opened.

Both sides fell silent at the same time.

Dragon didn't speak first.

Luffy didn't speak first either.

The silence lasted four seconds.

The whole world listened to those four seconds of silence.

Then Luffy spoke first.

"Hey."

Just one word.

His tone was no different from usual, as if he were greeting someone he'd just met.

But that single word made Dragon's shoulders drop ever so slightly, the kind of drop that came from his muscles relaxing in an instant.

"Yeah."

Dragon answered.

His voice was a little softer than usual, but the tone was the same: deep, restrained, with no extra emotion.

Then both of them fell silent again.

Two seconds.

Luffy broke the silence first.

"The Sky Screen said you thought my name more than three thousand times."

Dragon didn't answer.

"Is that true?"

"The system said it."

Dragon's answer went around the question.

Luffy tilted his head.

"Then say it now."

Dragon's breathing stopped for 0.3 seconds.

"What?"

"Say my name."

Luffy's voice was even.

"Out loud."

The whole world fell silent.

Everyone watching the Sky Screen was waiting for this moment.

A name repeated more than 3,700 times, but never spoken aloud.

A son asking his father to call him by name to his face.

Dragon stood before the window. Outside, the clouds were thickening and the wind was rising, but he made no move to control them.

His Adam's apple bobbed.

"Luffy."

This time, there was a voice.

It wasn't loud, but it was clear.

Two syllables passed between his lips, traveled through the Sky Screen and across half the world, and entered the air of the Grove 42 Area in the Sabaody Archipelago.

Luffy heard it.

His shoulders relaxed.

"Yeah."

He answered.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Dragon closed his eyes for a moment, and the curve of his lips changed almost imperceptibly, so slightly that only Sabo, standing directly behind him, could see it.

Sabo saw it.

It was a smile.

Not Monkey D. Dragon's smile.

It was the smile of a father who had just learned to say his son's name.

"You're smiling."

Sabo's voice came from behind him.

The curve of Dragon's lips disappeared.

"You saw wrong."

At the other end of the connection, Luffy's voice sounded again.

"Hey, Dragon."

"Yeah."

"You sent a gust of wind to save me in Loguetown before, right?"

Dragon was silent for a beat.

"The system already showed it."

"Yeah, I know."

Luffy's tone was still even.

"But why didn't you just come over?"

"One hundred and twenty-seven meters."

There was a slight change in Luffy's voice.

"You were only 127 meters away."

"You could've gotten there if you ran a little faster."

Dragon's fingers pressed tightly against the windowsill, the edges of his nails digging into a gap in the wood.

"I couldn't let anyone know you were my son."

"Why?"

"Someone would kill you."

"So what?"

Luffy's voice rose a fraction.

"I'm made of rubber. I'm not that easy to kill."

Dragon's breath caught in his chest for a moment.

That logic, that complete disregard for his own safety, that despair-inducing innocence.

Exactly like Roger.

At Marine Headquarters, Garp heard those words in the hallway. He covered his face with one hand and braced the other against the wall.

"Just like his dad."

His voice was muffled against his palm.

"Even sounds exactly like him."

On the call, Dragon fell silent for three seconds.

"You're right."

His voice was softer than before.

"One hundred and twenty-seven meters. I should have just walked over."

Luffy didn't answer.

"But I couldn't walk over."

"It wasn't my legs."

Dragon spoke more slowly, leaving a little more space between each word, as if he were scraping twenty years of accumulated rust from his throat, bit by bit.

"I stopped being your father when you were two. I made that choice myself. I can't blame anyone else."

"In twenty years, I never held you once. I never watched you eat. I don't know when you lost your first tooth, or what you were wearing the first time you went out to sea."

"I have a photo of you as a child. It was taken for a newspaper, and it's too blurry to make out your face."

"But I rubbed away the part where your face was."

His voice caught on the last word.

"So you're right."

"Next time we meet, I'll call you by name to your face."

"Out loud."

The call was quiet for two seconds.

Then Luffy said something.

"Okay."

Just one word.

But when he said it, there was a faint rasp in his voice. It was so rare for Luffy to sound like that that Zoro, standing beside him, turned his head and looked away.

There were thirty seconds left on the call.

Dragon opened his mouth, wanting to say something, then closed it again.

Luffy spoke first.

"Dragon."

"Yeah."

"No, wait. Let me try again."

Luffy sniffed.

"Dad."

At Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Dragon swayed.

It wasn't much, but it was enough for his shoulder to strike the window frame.

Behind him, Sabo could clearly see a drop of sweat, or perhaps something else, sliding down the back of Dragon's neck and along his collar.

"You heard that, right?"

Luffy's voice was back to normal, carrying his usual matter-of-fact confidence.

"I said it."

"Next time, you have to say it too."

"No staying quiet anymore."

The call ended.

Five minutes were up.

The voice and text on the Sky Screen vanished at the same time, leaving its golden background.

For those five minutes, no one in the world had interrupted, because no one felt they had the right to make a sound in the middle of that conversation.

At Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Dragon stood by the window, one hand braced against the frame and the other covering his face.

Sabo watched his back for a long time, then quietly stepped out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

Before the door closed, he heard a very brief, very soft exhalation escape through Dragon's fingers.

It had a slight nasal sound, like a laugh, or perhaps something else.

Sabo closed the door.

He leaned against the wall outside and looked up at the hallway ceiling.

"That guy, Luffy."

His voice was soft, and the corners of his mouth curved up.

"Same rotten temper as me."

New text appeared on the Sky Screen.

[This concludes the review of Monkey D. Dragon's regrets]

[With twenty years of silence, he paid every price a father could pay for a revolution]

[Today, at last, he was called Dad]

[Additional system reward: Given the limited communication time, the system grants Monkey D. Dragon an additional ability, Wind Letter. Dragon can use the power of the Storm-Storm Fruit to carry his voice on the natural wind to Luffy. Luffy can hear it anywhere there is wind. Limited to once per day, for no more than ten seconds each time]

When the additional reward appeared, the tension that had gripped the world finally eased.

Ten seconds a day.

A father could speak to his son for ten seconds each day.

Not much.

But infinitely more than zero.

In the tavern, Lin Qi watched the global emotion data panel.

The sadness value was falling, while the warmth and emotion values climbed in turn. The shape of the curves was much like Garp's installment, but the peak was twelve percent higher.

"Father-son stories really do work."

He let out a sigh of admiration.

"All right, second place is done."

His finger moved toward the last name on the system panel.

First place.

First place among the "Ten Great Regrets."

He looked at the name, his finger hovering above the confirm button for two seconds.

"This person's regret..."

His voice was softer than it had ever been before.

"Is the simplest of them all."

"And the heaviest."

He pressed confirm.

New preview text began to form on the Sky Screen.

[The Ten Great Regrets, first place, will soon be revealed]

[Hint: This regret concerns a thank-you that was never spoken, a man who died smiling, and a straw hat entrusted with an entire era]

On the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy had just taken his straw hat back from Zoro and hadn't yet put it on.

He looked at the words on the Sky Screen, his fingers tightening and bending the brim of the hat into a curve.

"A straw hat."

"A man who died smiling."

His eyes turned in one direction.

Rayleigh was standing there.

Rayleigh's expression changed.

It wasn't sadness or shock, but something deeper, as if he had suddenly been dragged back, after more than twenty years, to a moment he thought he had already moved past.

"Rayleigh."

Luffy's voice reached him.

"Is it Shanks?"

Rayleigh didn't answer immediately.

He was silent for three seconds.

"It isn't Shanks."

His voice was very soft.

"It's my captain."