Why Red-Haired Pirates Did Not Kill for the Fruit

"Wipe out the entire island?"

Shanks walked into the half-collapsed warehouse.

He carried two baskets of fruit in his right hand.

The Red-Haired Pirates were hauling the remaining gunpowder away along the mountain path.

Su Hang looked at the fruit first, then at Shanks.

"You brought all this up the mountain. Planning a celebration?"

"Makino asked me to bring you food."

Shanks set the baskets beside the cannon mount.

"On the way up, I saw a cannonball fly back over my head and into the sea, so I had to pick up the pace."

Beckman handed over the coded message.

"The support ship has ceased fire. Su Hang broke its mast, and the code contains an order to wipe out the entire island."

After reading the final line, Shanks pinched the edge of the wax paper.

"They won't wait for the mast to be repaired. There must be a backup means of signaling aboard the ship."

"What are you going to do?"

"Seize the ship, destroy the shells, then sink it beyond the cliffs."

"What about the report?"

"If the ship sinks, what report is there to make?"

Su Hang took an apple from the fruit basket and rolled it twice in his palm.

"When a Devil Fruit user dies, the fruit is reborn in nearby fruit, right?"

Beckman's gaze fell on the apple.

"All we know is that it reappears somewhere in the world. Some powers do choose nearby fruit of the same kind, but the pattern has never been fully disclosed."

"Then the timing of you bringing two baskets of fruit here is pretty convenient."

Luffy picked up the other basket and headed out of the warehouse.

"Makino told me to bring this. There's meat in it too. If you won't eat it, I'll take it all."

"Put it down. This has nothing to do with you."

Su Hang grabbed the basket handle, stretched his arm half a meter, and dragged Luffy and the basket back beside the cannon mount.

Luffy hugged the basket and refused to let go.

"Weren't you wondering if Shanks wanted to kill you? Give me the meat first so it doesn't go to waste."

"Who taught you to divide up someone's belongings like that?"

"You said yourself that food in your stomach shouldn't be wasted."

"I'm not dead yet."

Shanks leaned against the broken stone wall.

"If you have something to ask, ask it directly."

"I ate the Nika Fruit. You had a chance to take it back."

Su Hang placed the apple on the cannon mount.

"My shoulders were dislocated just now, and Benns was shooting beside me. If you'd had Beckman arrive half a minute later, I might already be dead."

"And then?"

"You'd have fruit ready, wait for the fruit to be reborn, then give it to the person you originally chose."

Luffy was about to speak when Su Hang raised a hand and pressed down on his straw hat.

"This still has nothing to do with you."

"The fruit might originally have been mine. How does it have nothing to do with me?"

"We're discussing why Shanks didn't kill me."

"I want to know too."

Luffy turned toward Shanks.

"Would you kill Su Hang and give the fruit to me?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Do you want a fruit bought with someone else's life?"

"No."

"Then that settles it."

Su Hang released Luffy's straw hat.

"It doesn't settle it. Even if you don't kill me, you could still give the fruit to someone else."

Shanks raised his left hand and rested it on the hilt at his waist.

"Do you really want me to draw my sword?"

"I'm confirming whether I can negotiate the next step with you."

"You didn't confirm that before stealing the fruit."

"Back then, I had nothing. I could only bet that you wouldn't kill someone on the spot. Now that the World Government wants to wipe out this entire island, I can't keep relying on luck."

Beckman lit a cigarette and stood at the gap in the warehouse, watching the sea.

"Captain, he's right. When a Fruit user dies, the power leaves the body. If we want Nika back, killing him would indeed be the simplest way."

Luffy stepped in front of Su Hang.

"Then fight me first."

Su Hang stretched out his arm, grabbed Luffy by the collar, and lifted him behind himself.

"Stop making trouble. I didn't ask you to shield me."

"You shielded me from bullets just now."

"I used you to lure Benns away. If I hadn't shielded you, everything before that would've been for nothing."

"But you still did it."

"Go eat your meat."

Shanks pushed away from the stone wall, his right hand falling onto his sword hilt.

"Su Hang, do you know why I left the fruit in Windmill Village?"

"For Luffy?"

"I was waiting."

"Waiting for him to open the chest himself?"

"Waiting for someone who could answer that fruit. Luffy heard the drums. I thought the answer had appeared."

"Then I interfered."

"The fruit ended up in your hands. You knew seawater would take away your power, and you knew the World Government would hunt you down, yet you ate every last bite."

"You wanted to see whether I was the one Nika chose?"

"I don't believe a fruit would choose a savior for the world."

Shanks drew his long sword half an inch, the blade scraping against the mouth of the sheath.

"I only watch what the person who gains power does with it. Last night, you used Luffy to lure Benns away. I won't forget that."

"I never planned to pretend to be a good person."

"You got the child off the street, shielded Lia from the gunpowder, and just now turned the cannon toward the sea. I saw all that too."

"So you think I'm worth keeping alive?"

"You just haven't given me reason to draw my sword yet."

"That answer is enough."

Su Hang tossed the apple back into the fruit basket.

"If I use my power to hurt innocents in the future, you'll kill me."

"Yes."

"What if you can't stop me?"

"Then I'll stake my life on it."

"Fine. Don't hold back when the time comes."

Luffy pulled out a chunk of meat from the basket and took a huge bite.

"Then I'll beat up Su Hang too."

Su Hang glanced sideways at him.

"What are you joining in for?"

"The fruit was supposed to be mine. If you turn bad, of course I have to send you flying."

"Train for ten years first."

"I won't need ten years!"

"You can't even beat Benns."

"But I helped put out the fuse!"

"The wet sack did."

"I was the one who threw the sack in!"

Shanks pushed his long sword back into its sheath.

"Are you two planning to keep arguing until the warship is repaired?"

Su Hang took the coded message back from Beckman.

"We can't just sink the support ship. We need the World Government to believe Nika sank with it."

"A Devil Fruit user won't vanish the instant he drowns at sea. They'll send people to recover the body."

"Then we'll fabricate a report saying recovery is impossible."

Beckman exhaled smoke.

"Sea Kings attack, the powder magazine explodes, the ship sinks into the deep sea, and everyone responsible for confirmation goes missing."

"Once the coded message is sent, who will sign for Benns?"

"Let him sign it himself."

Su Hang walked over to the unconscious Benns and nudged his shoulder with the toe of his shoe.

"His jaw is broken, but his hand still works. Writing won't be a problem."

Beckman shook his head.

"An ordinary code can fool patrol ships, but not the World Government's follow-up investigation. They'll verify Benns's Vivre Card."

"Then leave him alive and let the Vivre Card keep burning."

Shanks looked toward the support ship burning at sea.

"The report can only buy time. The Five Elders know how important the fruit is. They won't stop searching just because one ship sank."

"Time is all I need."

"For what?"

"To leave Windmill Village and take the Cause-and-Effect Lighthouse with me."

Su Hang folded the coded message and handed it to Shanks.

"You seize the ship. I'll take Benns aboard and create a scene showing his mission failed. As long as the report makes the Government hesitate for a few days, the cannons won't turn back toward the village immediately."

"You can't even sail a ship yet."

"That's why I need the Red-Haired Pirates."

"More rent owed?"

"And another round of drinks."

Beckman bent down to inspect Benns's sleeve and found a hard shard hidden in the torn cloth lining.

"There's something else here."

He pulled out a thin iron plate.

Its front was engraved with five rings surrounding a cross, while the back held only a string of numbers.

Benns's eyelids twitched twice, and a muffled laugh squeezed from his throat.

"You think a shipwreck report can fool them?"

Su Hang crouched down.

He seized Benns by the hair and raised that blood-smeared face.

"Whether it can fool them or not, we'll find out."

"The code belongs to the patrol ships. Command aboard the vessel doesn't."

"Who's on the ship?"

"You've already seen the second signal flare."

Shanks turned toward the northern sea.

Behind the burning support ship, a point of red light rose into the sky and split beneath the clouds into five straight trails of fire.

The iron plate in Beckman's hand began to heat up, and the cross insignia gradually turned blood-red.

"A clearance mark directly under the Five Elders."

"What's his name?"

Benns grinned through his broken teeth, blood dripping from his chin onto the stone floor.

"That man didn't come to retrieve the fruit. He came to confirm whether you were dead."