Is that so?
So I was just being sentimental?
The surging Haki made the air heavy and oppressive. Ever-expanding darkness swallowed everything, shrouding his figure and leaving only those glowing crimson eyes faintly visible within.
Perhaps, to the Marines, I had always been nothing more than a simple "troublemaker."
Otherwise, "Steel Bone" Kong would not have had Garp lie in wait beforehand and do something like that.
Red recalled the past. Back then, Sengoku handled Whitebeard while Garp handled Roger. The four of them had fought each other to the death whenever they met, yet they had never resorted to such despicable methods simply to win.
At the time, he had considered such behavior both proud and foolish.
But when he found himself in that position, he had no such answer. There were only endless schemes and plots. Red began to hate.
"You will never measure up to Whitebeard or Roger. That is why you failed, Lone Red!"
After he had been defeated and captured that day, Kong, dragging his severely wounded body, had looked at him with firm, cold eyes and spoken those words. Now, Red understood them a little.
The man he had regarded as his lifelong enemy—Garp—perhaps no longer even remembered him. Instead, Garp had been willing to lay down his life for other reasons.
No one cared who he was. All he possessed was strength that inspired fear, nothing more.
Just like the title the world had given him: "Lone Red." He seemed to exist upon the seas, yet had no bonds with anyone—not even... the mutual respect between rivals.
"How tragic, someone like me..."
Those crimson eyes vanished into layers of dark mist. Ron's brow suddenly furrowed. As that glimmer of red faded, his special Observation Haki, Sky Net, lost track of Red as well.