He Took to the Sky

By the time Shirakawa woke up again, it was already afternoon. There wasn't an island in sight, and the ship had sailed into who knew what part of the sea.

Aside from the navigator and a few people on duty, almost no one was still standing.

"I can't believe the captain of a pirate crew like this could become the Pirate King. He really must have relied on overwhelming strength."

Shirakawa gave a wry smile and shook his head.

"You've got lousy strength, kid, but you can sure hold your liquor."

A navigator saw him wake up and teased him with a grin.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because of my ability. It lets me recover to normal pretty quickly."

"By the way, we still don't know what your Devil Fruit ability is. Every time you use it, a giant sword appears in the sky. It's so cool."

There was a hint of envy in the speaker's voice. He was probably thinking, If I had an ability that cool, I wouldn't still be single.

"I don't know either. I can't even remember when I ate the Devil Fruit."

"Right. You've lost all your memories, after all."

The navigator left and went back to watching the weather. This was the New World, after all. They couldn't afford to be careless.

With nothing else to do and Mr. Rayleigh still asleep, Shirakawa decided to spend some time getting familiar with his abilities.

He drew a dagger and tried to cut his hand, wanting to see if the wound would heal.

But after hovering the blade over his hand for ages, he still couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Forget it. I'll see what happens when I'm actually hurt."

He put the dagger away. He would never admit he was too scared.

"Wait, doesn't the King of Silver have the ability to fly, too?"

Shirakawa recalled the King of Silver's abilities.

"Seriously, I inherited the abilities without inheriting the memories? Now I have to figure everything out myself." Shirakawa grumbled.

Still, he dutifully tried to work out how he was supposed to fly.

He tried jumping as hard as he could, but aside from jumping pretty high, he only managed to stay in the air for about a second.

He tried again and again, but it still wasn't what he wanted. Or, to put it another way, he still couldn't fly.

"Hey, Shirakawa, what are you doing? You keep going thump, thump, thump. I'm trying to sleep."

"Sorry, Shanks. I'll move somewhere else."

Shirakawa realized he had woken Shanks and gave him an embarrassed smile before moving somewhere empty.

"I'm going to fly today, no matter what."

Shirakawa was determined now. Nothing would make him give up.

As the seconds ticked by, Shirakawa kept jumping until he was panting. He was drenched in sweat, and his legs had almost gone numb.

"How can this be? Did I not inherit the ability to fly?"

Shirakawa wailed inwardly.

"That's not going to work."

A voice suddenly spoke beside him.

Shirakawa turned and saw a man wearing sunglasses with his hair tied in a ponytail sitting beside him. Who knew how long he had been there?

Scopper Gaban. Shirakawa remembered him, since Shanks had given him a special introduction.

He was the third-in-command of the Roger Pirates, a man on par with Silvers Rayleigh, and an old friend of Captain Roger. Supposedly, he and Captain Roger had known each other even before the Roger Pirates were formed.

"I don't know what you're trying to train, but aimless practice like that won't get you anywhere."

"Then what should I do?"

Gaban was incredibly strong. Shirakawa would benefit greatly from his guidance.

"Who knows?"

Gaban laughed heartily, then got up and left, as if he had only come over to mess with Shirakawa.

Watching Gaban walk away, Shirakawa wished he could kick him in the backside. If only he could beat him.

"But whatever you do, you have to ask yourself whether it's really the right thing to do."

"Ask myself...?"

Gaban left, leaving Shirakawa alone where he stood, lost in thought.

At some point, Shirakawa suddenly felt the sounds around him gradually fade away. He could no longer hear the waves crashing, the seagulls calling, or the footsteps and chatter of the other crew members.

All he could hear was his own heartbeat, growing louder in his ears.

Thump, thump, thump. The rhythm seemed completely random, yet somehow it felt as if it was trying to tell him something.

Then, in an instant, a flash of silver light passed through Shirakawa's mind. Everything suddenly clicked, linking together.

"I see. I understand now."

Shirakawa entered the King of Silver's state, his body wreathed in silver light as the Sword of Damocles appeared high in the sky.

Gaban noticed from a distance and smiled faintly, seeming quite pleased with Shirakawa's performance.

"Did Shirakawa pull that stunt again?"

Every awake member of the Roger Pirates had seen the giant sword. They had already seen it twice, but it was still impressive enough to make them gasp.

As they looked up to admire the sword, a figure suddenly flew overhead.

"Th-that... is that Shirakawa?"

Someone stared at the figure and stammered out the question to the person beside him.

"I-I think so?"

They had seen people who could fly before, but aside from the Golden Lion's Doss-Doss Fruit, nearly all of them had been Zoan Type users who could turn into birds. There was also that Marine with the Glint-Glint Fruit.

Their ship had never had anyone who could fly. Even their captain could only stay airborne for a while; he couldn't move through the air as freely as Shirakawa.

"So he needed to fly. No wonder he kept jumping like crazy. But what does jumping have to do with flying?"

Seeing Shirakawa take to the air surprised Gaban a little, but he couldn't understand why Shirakawa had been jumping. Had someone told him that jumping would make him fly? It wasn't as if he were practicing Geppo.

"But this is a good thing. It fills a gap in the crew's abilities."

Gaban muttered to himself again. The Roger Pirates' inability to fight in the air for extended periods had always been a well-known weakness.

"I'll have to tell Rayleigh to train him properly."

The weakness might have been filled, but the new addition was as flimsy as paper and could be torn apart with one poke. Whether he ran into that Pineapple Head from Whitebeard's crew or that Lewd Monkey Face in the Marines, he'd be killed in an instant.

"Woo-hoo!"

Shirakawa cried out in delight as he flew for the first time. For some reason, he had suddenly fallen in love with the feeling. He was free and unrestrained, and his whole body and mind felt relaxed.

But Shirakawa's yelling woke the others, too.

"Shut up, brat!"

A bottle came flying from who knew where, heading straight for Shirakawa. His defense shattered on impact.

As Shirakawa watched in shock, the bottle hit him squarely on the forehead.

"Ah!"

Shirakawa cried out and dropped, crashing hard onto the deck. The Sword of Damocles vanished from the sky.

"Is he dead?"

"Probably not, right?"

"Go check."

"Phew, he's not dead. He just passed out."