Shaya: Stussy, do you know? I'm really angry right now!

"Hey, hey, hey! Have you all forgotten about me?!"

"I never agreed to cooperate with you!"

Just as Roger and Shaya were chatting amiably, Garp, who had been standing silently beside them, suddenly frowned and spoke up.

"Ahahaha! Garp..."

"We've known each other for decades—you wouldn't refuse a little favor like this, would you?!"

Hearing Garp's words, Roger acted as if they were old friends and sidled up to him.

He then threw an arm around Garp's shoulder and laughed.

"Who's an old friend of yours?!"

"I am a righteous Marine soldier, and you're a pirate that everyone wants to hunt down!"

"How can a Marine be friends with a pirate?!"

Garp crossed his arms in front of his chest and replied coldly.

"Relax, Garp..."

"Once this matter is settled, I definitely won't treat you poorly..."

Just as Roger and Garp were talking, Shaya suddenly interjected.

"Hah? This isn't about treating me well or not!"

"This is about the justice I carry on my shoulders!"

Garp emphasized after hearing Shaya's words.

"Alright, alright..."

"In front of us, you don't need to keep harping on the word 'justice.'"

"Whose justice is the Marines' justice, anyway? You should know better than I do..."

"In this world, the Celestial Dragons are justice. In other words, I am justice."

Shaya cut off Garp's words, speaking in a calm, declarative tone.

Yes, Shaya's words carried no personal emotion—he was merely stating a fact, nothing more...

"You little brat..."

Yet, it was precisely Shaya's words that left Garp speechless.

Because everything Shaya said was true, without a single lie.

Lies don't hurt; the truth is the sharp blade...

It was precisely because Shaya's words were all true that they pierced Garp's heart, breaking through his defenses.

"Speaking of which, Shanks' little brother..." Roger, seeing Garp's grim expression, quickly changed the subject. He looked at Shaya, who sat on a four-wheeled cart, gently waving a feather fan like a strategist, and asked with some curiosity: "I've been meaning to ask you since earlier! Do you have some hidden ailment? Why are you always sitting in that wheelchair?"

"Heh, no hidden ailment, but I've been frail since childhood. My days at the Holy Land are mostly spent in the library, reading some books!"

"I rarely move around, so when I travel far, I usually sit in this cart and let Stussy push me, to avoid overexertion..."

Shaya let out a light laugh, then explained softly to Roger.

Yes, he, Shaya, was merely a scholar, without the immense power that Shanks possessed.

"What a pity..."

"If you truly want to learn my techniques, a strong physique and profound Haki are absolutely necessary!"

Roger looked Shaya up and down, then sighed helplessly.

"How should I put it?"

"I do know a thing or two about Haki."

"Don't let my scholarly appearance fool you..."

"If it really came to a fight, I'm not entirely unskilled in some martial arts."

As he spoke, Shaya slowly stood up from the four-wheeled cart. Then, before Roger and Garp's eyes, his gaze erupted with a fierce, overwhelming Conqueror's Haki.

"Conqueror's Haki! Do you, boy, also aspire to be a king?"

Roger asked softly, sensing Shaya's Haki.

"Don't misunderstand. I have no interest in the position of Pirate King."

"However, I am quite interested in the master of the Void Throne."

Facing Roger, a dying man with only a few months left, and Garp, a Hero of the Marines who had lost the pride of his youth and no longer wished to meddle in right and wrong, Shaya saw no point in lying.

"You want to become the master of the Void Throne?"

"Kid, you may be young, but your ambition is anything but small..."

"Your ambition is greater than I imagined..."

"But I wonder if you have the strength to match that ambition! Sitting firmly on that vacant Void Throne is far harder than going to Raftel to find the ONE PIECE and becoming the Pirate King!"

After hearing Shaya's words, a flicker of shock crossed Roger's face—he had never imagined that Shaya's ambition could be so vast! But Roger was, after all, the Pirate King; after his brief surprise, he immediately looked at Shaya and asked softly.

"Try it and you'll know!"

Shaya said this without giving Roger any chance to react!

His body turned into a cannonball, blasting the air aside!

He shot straight to the Pirate King Roger's front and swung a fist wrapped in Armament Haki.

Yes, unfortunately, with Shaya's current Haki level, he couldn't yet manage Conqueror's Haki coating! After all, coating Conqueror's Haki was the threshold to the realm of top-tier powerhouses.

"So fast! Shaya... he's this strong?"

Stussy watched Shaya, who had launched himself from the four-wheeled cart like a bolt of lightning, and her pupils trembled violently. Though she had long guessed that Shaya was deliberately hiding his strength, she never imagined he had concealed this much?!

After all, even as a Celestial Dragon, Shaya was still just a boy of fourteen or fifteen! Yet despite that, his strength was already close to hers, or even surpassed it! Yes, the power Shaya displayed now was far greater than Stussy had ever imagined...

If Shaya could hear Stussy's thoughts at that moment, he would only chuckle lightly and then humbly say: "What's this compared to me? Charlotte Linlin could wipe out a giant village at five, and Teacher Kaido was rampaging through the New World at fifteen, joining the Rocks Pirates as an apprentice. I still need to lie low and keep learning!"

Indeed, every master always carries the heart of an apprentice.

After all, Ma Yun once said he wasn't interested in money, right?!

"Heh."

"I have to say, by the standards of your peers..."

"Shaya, your fist is indeed very strong!"

"But a fist like that won't earn you a seat on the Void Throne!"

Yet that very punch, carrying a Haki that even stunned Stussy, reached the Pirate King Roger—only to be easily blocked with one hand. Truly, Roger's strength was unfathomable...

"Boom!!"

At the same moment, as Shaya and Roger's fists collided, their Conqueror's Haki clashed endlessly.

In an instant, dark clouds gathered in the sky, and thunder roared in everyone's ears!

Beyond the thunder, a gale swept up at that moment!

The violent shockwave rustled the leaves of the surrounding forest, "Crackle, crackle..."

Before Stussy could think further...

The 'duel' between Roger and Shaya seemed to have ended.

Both seemed to tacitly stop at the right point. In truth, that punch was merely a mutual probe of each other's strength.

After all, if Roger had truly intended to go all out...

With Shaya's current strength, he wouldn't have been able to withstand it at all.

"Alright, Shaya..."

"I've got a rough idea of your strength now."

"For the next month, let me train you properly."

Roger said this, slightly stretching his somewhat stiff neck, producing a series of 'crack, crack' sounds from his joints.

"Go all out against me!"

"Also, besides your swordsmanship, Roger, I want to learn some physical combat..."

"Vice Admiral Garp, let me study your fist techniques as well."

Shaya said, his gaze falling on Garp, who stood nearby with a conflicted expression and furrowed brows.

"Huh? What's this old man got to do with it?!"

Garp, who had been agonizing over Roger's identity and whether to capture him here, was startled by Shaya's words.

"Of course."

Shaya nodded lightly in response.

"For the next month, let's all get along."

"As for after that month passes..."

"Let's add an even more legendary chapter to the already magnificent, legendary life of the great Hero of the Marines!"

"The Hero of the Marines, Garp, lurks on Baterilla Island for a month, ultimately succeeding in arresting the Pirate King Gol D. Roger, who had been living incognito as a wanderer..."

"Justice may often be late, but when it's needed, it never fails to show up. The sea does not belong to evil pirates—it belongs to the righteous Marines..."

"At least, once this story hits the newspapers, I think the common people among the World Government's member nations will see it that way."

"By then, Roger protects his wife and child, the Marines gain the prestige of capturing the Pirate King and strengthen their authority in the hearts of the common people, and the World Government clears an obstacle that shakes its ruling foundation! It's a triple win—win, win, win."

With a few words, Shaya neatly arranged the futures of Roger, Garp, and the others.

"Don't you all agree?"

After laying out Roger's fate, Shaya looked at Garp and the others and asked softly.

"Then it's settled."

Before Garp could speak, Roger nodded first.

Whether he turned himself in to the Marines or let Garp arrest him and bring him to justice—

In Roger's eyes, there wasn't much difference either way...

After all, even if he did go to Marine Headquarters to surrender, the Marines could still slander him, claiming he was captured by them. So it was better to let the world know outright that Garp was the one who caught him.

"Sigh..."

"Since you're both saying that..."

"Then this old man doesn't mind either!"

Garp crossed his arms in front of his chest and spoke thus.

"After all, that Kong fellow told me I had to follow the Celestial Dragons' arrangements." As Garp said this, a flicker of cunning flashed in his eyes. He turned to Shaya and asked, "Isn't that right, Saint Shaya, great Celestial Dragon?!"

"Of course."

To that, Shaya gave a light smile upon hearing Garp's words.

"Then..."

Having secured the agreement of both Garp and Roger, Shaya gently twisted his neck and looked behind him, locking his gaze onto the last person currently present.

The one who had been standing silently behind Shaya the entire time without speaking—Stussy.

And just as Shaya turned around to look at Stussy, both Roger and Garp's gazes followed the direction of Shaya's eyes, landing on the silent Stussy as well.

"Huh?!"

For a moment, Stussy was taken aback, then countless fine beads of sweat immediately broke out on her forehead. Inside, Stussy was screaming, "No way? I'm involved in this too? What did I do to deserve this? Being noticed by a bunch of big shots like you?"

To be honest, being stared at by three people—the youngest son of the Figarland family, one of the World Nobles and Celestial Dragons who held the highest privileges in this world; Garp, Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral and Hero of the Marines, one of the two strongest fighters on the seas; and Gol D. Roger, the legendary Pirate King—put immense pressure on Stussy, a CP0 agent.

"Um..."

Flustered and panicked under the gaze of three big shots, Stussy put on an awkward smile, as if she was about to say something to ease the tense atmosphere.

"Stussy, you won't leak anything, will you?"

Shaya looked at Stussy with interest, his voice low and hoarse, like the whisper of a demon.

"Who could I possibly tell? I'm just an ordinary maid..."

Stussy spoke to Shaya in a coquettish, soft voice.

"Too modest, Stussy..."

"You're no mere maid."

"To be precise, I should call you the successful clone of MADS's first clone subject, Bakkin Gohm Stussy, current CP0 squad leader, and the queen of Pleasure Street controlling Sabaody Archipelago and several other districts—Lady Stussy."

Shaya whispered Stussy's identity softly.

"..."

When Stussy heard what Shaya said, she stood frozen in shock.

She had never imagined she would be exposed so thoroughly!

"Oh! Now that you mention it, I realize you're Stussy, right?"

"It's been over a decade, and you haven't changed at all?"

"I heard a rumor that you fell out with Whitebeard?"

Roger looked Stussy up and down, then suddenly remembered something. He walked up to her and asked in a low voice, looking like he was ready for some gossip.

"I told you, it's just a clone."

At that moment, Shaya cut in to explain.

"Since His Highness Saint Shaya already knows my identity so clearly, what do you intend to do with me? Kill me here?"

After Roger's interruption, Stussy finally snapped out of her initial shock! Now, she looked seriously at Shaya before her and asked softly.

As for running away or anything like that, Stussy never even considered it. With Garp and Roger present, there was no way she could escape! And as for taking Shaya hostage to flee...

If it were before Shaya had shown his strength, she might have actually considered it. But now that Shaya had demonstrated power surpassing hers right in front of her...

She abandoned that completely unrealistic idea.

Yes, the reason Shaya had sparred with Roger wasn't to show off to Roger and Garp, but to warn Stussy—to tell her not to pull any pointless tricks.

"Stussy, you should know."

"The thing I hate most is being deceived."

"And you not only deceived me, but you showed no sign of remorse."

Shaya looked at Stussy, whose delicate, frail body seemed easy to push over, and furrowed his brow. In his eyes was a trace of disappointment toward her.

"So what do you mean?"

Stussy looked at Shaya and asked tentatively.

"I mean, I'm really angry right now!"

With that, Shaya took Stussy's soft little hand without waiting for her to respond and led her toward a nearby grove of trees.

Since he had already laid his cards on the table with Stussy, Shaya naturally intended to take this opportunity to properly discipline the disobedient Stussy and make her completely his alone.

Continuing with a four-thousand-word chapter, brothers, please keep reading, keep reading, always keep reading! Thank you~