The Truth of History, the Wind of Forgetting

On the Sunny Merry,

"Nami, are you sure this is really the place?"

If defeating Kaido required teaming up with the Whitebeard Pirates, then defeating Blackbeard was entirely due to the Straw Hat crew's own strength. —Although the Navy attributed all the credit to candidate Admiral 'White Dove' Roman, however:

For the other forces on the high seas, the birth of a legendary King of the Pirates is far more interesting than the story of the Navy 'picking up the scraps'.

"If the coordinates are correct..."

Looking at the extremely ordinary little island in front of her, Nami uncertainly compared the four nautical charts in her hand several times.

"So, this is Laugh Tale!"

"Hehehe~~ It looks like just an ordinary little island."

"And there's no powerful aura about it?"

Seeing Brook and Sanji's puzzled expressions, Roman opened his eyes and shook his head.

"Let alone the powerful aura, the animals on this island... are as normal as can be."

Normal rabbits, normal wild boars, normal insects and snakes... even the island's "overlords" are just a few normal crocodiles, the kind of "normal" wild animals that the Straw Hat crew could easily kill one-on-one before they even set sail in the East Blue.

"Huh? This is too..."

After hearing Roman's introduction, the Straw Hat crew members were all taken aback.

I originally thought that the final journey, Laugh Tale, should be a den of dragons and tigers, an extremely dangerous place, but it turned out to be such an ordinary island.

"This is such a huge surprise!"

"Haha, that's good, finally we don't have to fight anymore."

"Yes, yes, we've been through enough battles along the way!"

Usopp and Chopper were quite happy, believing that setting sail should be a joyful journey. However, as fate would have it, the Straw Hat crew was either fighting or on their way to fight.

"Perhaps this so-called Laugh Tale is a giant bomb? It'll explode as soon as we land..."

"Absolutely not!" x2

Robin always manages to utter terrifying speculations in calm words.

"In any case, we've finally made it this far."

Roman stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the ordinary little island in front of him. He thought back to when in the Grand Line, what were everyone's dreams again?

King of the Pirates? The World's Greatest Swordsman? The one who drew the world's sea charts? A great Sea Warrior? The 'Blue Sea' containing all ingredients? The true Poneglyph? A panacea for all diseases? A ship that can sail anywhere? The promise with Laboon? Peace between Fish-Man and humans?

And then there's myself, witnessing all of this...

"Well, once we find the Poneglyph in Laugh Tale, we'll have accomplished more than half of our dream!"

With the Straw Hat crew's current strength, the remaining issues will no longer be a problem.

Snap,

As the ship anchored, Luffy was the first to leap onto the island, then spread his arms wide:

"King of the Pirates!!!"

"I am now—Waaaaaah!!"

?

Luffy, are you crying?

As Luffy faced Roman, who had built a paper bridge to walk down from the Sunny Merry, Luffy wiped his face.

"Yes, I was so excited I cried!"

Turning around, Luffy watched the crowd disembarking one after another. Luffy adjusted his straw Straw Hat.

"Thanks,"

?

"This isn't like you, Luffy."

"Tearing your thanks is not how a captain should behave."

Faced with these companions who had shared hardships and never abandoned him, even Luffy laughed through his tears.

"Hehehe, because everyone has fought for my willful dream all along the way. If I don't say something, I feel like..."

"Alright, alright~~"

Roman "atmosphere destroyer," waved his hand.

"Let's find that Poneglyph that relates to the entire world first. To be honest, I'm quite curious about what's written on it."

What could be so funny that it made Roger and his crew laugh until tears streamed down their faces?

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it too."

Robin was unusually excited; the true history was right before her eyes. Once she saw the Poneglyph of Laugh Tale, her dream would be achieved simultaneously with Luffy's.

"Hehehe, let's go! Our last adventure~~"

As Luffy turned and strode into the forest, the rest of the Straw Hat crew remained motionless.

"Luffy, are you sure you can find the Poneglyph on the way you're going?"

·····

"I've already spotted the stone tablet here through the white doves."

As Roman led the way, the primeval jungle beneath his feet transformed into blank canvases before him, with a straight road leading to a part of the island:

"Whether it's vegetation or animals..."

Walking along the straight, pure white path opened up by Roman, Chopper observed the creatures around him and sighed with admiration.

"Everything is normal, it's unbelievable!"

After all, the Straw Hat crew, with Luffy by their side, never follows the usual path, and the islands they encounter are all incredibly magical! Now that an ordinary place has suddenly appeared, everyone feels a little unaccustomed to it.

"Hehehe, maybe it's because it's an ordinary island that no one has ever paid attention to it before?"

Roman stroked his chin in response to Luffy's casual remark.

"That makes sense. Look at this, it looks like a completely primitive island, and it's not on any flight path. So even if someone happens to find it, they'll just think it's a normal deserted island, right?"

"An adventure without combat... that's really not what we'd be experiencing—"

Amidst the sighs of the crowd, they passed by one:

"Hey, there's a building here?"

"This... is it more like a thatched hut than a building?"

Roman looked at what was in front of him... well, if it weren't for the signs of binding, it would have looked no different from an animal's nest. Even the white doves he had released for reconnaissance earlier hadn't noticed it.

"Who would build something like this? The craftsmanship is terrible! It couldn't have been left by Roger and his crew..."

No, no, no, Roger's ship had countless strong and capable people, surely it wouldn't be that building a house would be such a mess?

For a fleeting moment, Roman stared at the 'doghouse'-like building before him, a strange sense of familiarity flashing through his mind. It was as if... this thing was himself...

"Roman, what's wrong?"

Roman snapped out of his daze when Nami shook his arm.

"It's alright, let's go."

Splash,

As the weeds in front of them turned to white paper, the Straw Hat crew's eyes lit up: a clearing appeared before them, with a moss-covered stone tablet standing silently in the center. Without a doubt, it was:

"Poneglyph?!"

"The Greatest Treasure—— "

"Hahaha, we finally did it! Luffy, you're the King of the Pirates now!!!"

"Congratulations, King of the Pirates! Hooray!!"

Hehehe, same to you!

?

While the others were fooling around with Luffy, Roman looked at the stone tablet in front of him and felt a strange sense of familiarity. Even the characters on it... He stretched out his finger and pointed it at the characters from afar, stroke by stroke.

Just then, a gentle breeze blew by.

"These words... were written with a finger?!" x2

As Roman and Robin's voices rang out simultaneously, Usopp, who was touching the giant Poneglyph, was the first to wave his hand.

"Impossible! The Poneglyph are said to be indestructible; they can only be carved by artisans from Wano Country using special methods—"

"No,"

Compared to Roman, who seemed strangely familiar, Robin pointed earnestly to the Ancient Script on the Poneglyph.

"Look, the beginning of each character is a semi-circle, which is not how carving should be. It looks more like marks 'carved' out with someone's fingers!"

"Yeah?"

Zoro frowned and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Clang!

With a flash of light and a piercing scraping sound, sparks suddenly burst from the Poneglyph! This startled Chopper and Usopp.

"Zoro, what are you doing?"

"What if it gets damaged..."

"Calm down,"

Wado Ichimonji, whose Zoro had turned completely black from Armament Haki, slowly sheathed his sword.

"I used five times the force in one strike, and I couldn't even leave a mark on it."

"It's hard to imagine anyone using their finger on it..."

"Um,"

Luffy tilted his Luffy.

"I have a feeling that if I use ' Fifth Gear'— "

"Everyone,"

Jinbe couldn't stand it anymore and stepped in to stop the conversation from going off-topic.

"We're here to find the King of the Pirates's 'Greatest Treasure,' right?"

Instead of studying how to cut and slice Poneglyph, therefore:

"The most important thing right now is to let Robin see what's written on this."

······

"Yes, Robin— "

"It's here, it's here! The time has come to reveal the Greatest Treasure!"

"Hehehe, I hope the Greatest Treasure is a piece of meat that can never be finished..."

"What the hell is that? You want all the food you can eat? You can eat as much as you want from the 'Boin Archipelago' I've been living on for the past two years!"

Amidst the Straw Hat Trio's usual banter, Robin took a deep breath, and a hand that appeared out of thin air stroked the Poneglyph, clearing away the moss before beginning to read the inscription on the massive rock before her:

"We...no, I lost."

"Why, Imu... and the twenty kingdoms of this planet, would you do this?"

"Wouldn't it be better to build a world where everyone can laugh, be equal, orderly, and free from war? For this dream, the three of us fought together, worked hard together, and became stronger together... Was I really wrong? Is it really true that the human heart is never satisfied, and that fighting is the nature of humanity... or any race?"

"This is the first paragraph, and the commenter is: Joy Boy."

Robin gently brushed away the moss from the stone tablet and continued reading the second large section of text:

"You are all too naive to believe in equality for all? How foolish! Ordinary people don't care who rules them or whether the ruler is called a 'king,' 'emperor,' 'commander,' or 'mayor.' They are satisfied as long as the strong provide them with a stable living environment."

"And the strength, wealth, and extraordinary status that the strong have painstakingly cultivated, are to be treated the same as 'ordinary people'? This is to be at odds with the entire world."

"So, you two were doomed to fail from the very beginning!"

"I will become the King of the World, and under my rule, the entire ocean will be free from endless war! I will fulfill your 'dreams' in my own way, and as the Twenty Kings who submit to me, I will promise them generations of wealth and glory. I mean what I say—"

"This is the second paragraph, and the commenter is: Imu."

Robin excitedly wiped away the third paragraph, and then:

She trembled violently!

"What's wrong,"

What does it say below?

"Under····"

Cold sweat trickled down Robin's cheeks as he read aloud in a trembling voice:

"Cough cough, don't panic."

"It was just a minor accident, we didn't lose... Okay, it was my mistake. I admit Imu, you won, but this is by no means the end."

"I have sent Joy Boy's soul into the cycle of reincarnation. Next time, eight hundred years from now, we will meet again. And at that time, the opportunity to defeat you will appear."

"Finally, I forgive you for betraying us."

Robin's gaze lingered on the last part of the text.

"The person who left the message is: Tokovic Neo."

?!