Red-Hair and the Interceptor's Pact

The small boat slammed into the beach.

Beckman had already arrived with the others.

The instant he saw Shanks's left shoulder, the calm vanished from his face completely.

"Captain, who did this?"

"The Lord of the Coast."

Beckman tore open a medical kit and cinched a tourniquet around his shoulder.

"You could have dodged."

"Luffy was in my arms."

"You could have drawn your sword."

"If I drew it, I couldn't hold him."

Beckman asked no more questions.

He cut away the blood-soaked cloth and pressed hemostatic medicine onto the wound.

Shanks's back suddenly tensed, but his right hand remained on top of Luffy's head.

Luffy knelt in the sand, his eyes bloodshot.

"Shanks, I'm sorry."

"I'm tired of hearing that."

"But your arm..."

"An arm is gone when it's gone. Crying won't bring it back."

Shanks looked down at him.

"If you really think you owe me, then don't let anyone use you as a hostage again."

Luffy fiercely wiped away his tears.

"I'll get stronger."

"How strong?"

"Strong enough that no one will ever need to protect me again!"

Su Hang sat down against a reef and spat out the seawater left in his lungs.

"First learn how to untie yourself when you're bound. If all you can do is scream for help, all the strength in the world won't matter."

Luffy turned and glared at him.

"You're one to talk? You nearly drowned once, then fell in again just now!"

"I pushed you onto the plank."

"Then you sank yourself!"

"At least I made the right choice."

"How was that right? If Shanks hadn't come, you would've been eaten too!"

Su Hang fell silent for a moment, rubbing the knuckle of his index finger.

"When you're not strong enough, even making the right choice can get people killed. I admit that."

Beckman glanced at him.

"You're clearer-headed than you were before going into the sea."

"I swallowed a lot of seawater. Had to bring something back with me."

"The lesson you brought back still isn't enough."

Beckman tightened the bandage.

Cold sweat beaded on Shanks's forehead. His five right-hand fingers rested on his sword hilt for several breaths before finally loosening.

"The wound is contained, but you can't swing a sword again anytime soon."

"What about the Clearance Ship?"

"Yasopp took out the helmsman, and Lu destroyed the remaining shells. That ship is retreating north, with Red-Hair Pirates keeping watch on it."

"They won't really retreat."

Su Hang raised his head toward the sea.

"Five signal flares have already gone up. The nearby Marine base must have received its orders. As long as that ship holds you here, the follow-up blockade can surround Windmill Village."

Beckman tossed the bloodied gauze into a wooden basin.

"What are you planning?"

"I'll leave the village tonight."

Luffy immediately sprang to his feet.

"You only just came back!"

"The government is after the Nika ability user. If I stay here, their cannons will keep targeting the village."

Shanks leaned against the reef.

"You can't even make it off the shore."

"I'll take the mountain path, go around the harbor, and follow the eastern trade road to the neighboring town. As long as someone sees me leave, the pursuers will follow."

"And then?"

"I'll steal a ship."

Beckman lit a cigarette, its tip briefly glowing in the wind.

"The harbor may already be sealed off. Whose ship are you planning to steal?"

"The government's."

"In your current condition, you might not even beat an ordinary Marine."

"If I can't beat them, I'll trick them. If I can't trick them, I'll run."

Shanks stared at Su Hang.

"You're in a hurry to leave."

"Staying would be stranger."

"I wasn't asking about the village."

Su Hang looked at his empty left shoulder.

Shanks continued.

"After you ate Nika, the World Government wants to kill you, Luffy wants to defeat you, and I said I'd keep an eye on you. Now even seawater can easily take your life. Do you regret it?"

"No."

"You nearly died twice. Still no?"

"Being afraid of death and regretting something are two different things."

"Then what was the first thing you wanted to do after gaining that power?"

Su Hang did not answer at once.

Luffy sat beside him, and even Beckman's cigarette paused in midair.

The sea wind swept over the bloodstained bandages, while Shanks never looked away.

"Survive first."

Su Hang spoke slowly.

"Live until no one can casually decide whether I live or die. Then seize enough power that the World Government, pirates, and so-called fate can no longer choose my path for me."

Shanks pressed on in a low voice.

"And after that?"

"Hit back at the people hunting me."

"Take their place?"

"If their position is useful, I'll take it. If it isn't, I'll smash it."

"What if someone refuses to submit to you?"

"Let him speak."

"What if he resists?"

"See why he's resisting."

Shanks lowered his voice another notch.

"What if the entire world refuses to walk the path you chose?"

Su Hang gave a quiet laugh.

"Then it means I'm not strong enough to make everyone shut up, and not right enough to make everyone follow."

"Will you kill until they submit?"

"I won't use innocent people to test my ambition."

"What about enemies?"

"If he dares to kill me, I'll kill him."

"What about people blocking your path?"

"Blocking my path and taking my life are not the same thing."

Su Hang pushed himself up against the reef, his legs still trembling slightly.

"Shanks, if you want me to promise I'll never change, that's nonsense. Power can make people lose sight of themselves. All I can tell you is where my line stands now."

"Say it."

"Living people aren't equipment, and villagers aren't numbers to be casually thrown in for the greater good. Whoever treats human lives as fuel, I'll tear apart his machine first."

Shanks looked at him for a long time.

"Do you know what Nika represents?"

"Liberation, laughter, or perhaps a name from eight hundred years ago that frightens the government."

"That's all you know?"

"Enough to judge my enemy, not enough to decide who I am."

"There was originally someone else in the prophecy."

Luffy raised his head.

"Was it me?"

Shanks did not answer. He only looked out to sea.

Su Hang asked in a low voice.

"You left the fruit in Windmill Village because you were waiting for the prophecy to happen?"

"I was waiting for an answer."

"Now I ate the answer."

"Which means the old prophecy no longer matters."

Shanks pressed a hand over the bandage on his left shoulder and straightened.

"I originally wagered this arm on the passing of the old era. Saving Luffy today, and saving you as well, counts as saying goodbye to that one and only path."

Luffy bit his lip tightly.

"I don't need a fruit to go out to sea."

"Then prove it to me."

Shanks turned toward Su Hang.

"You too. Nika being inside you doesn't mean you are the one it was waiting for."

"I have no interest in becoming an heir to some fruit."

"Good."

Shanks drew his sword and drove its tip into the sand between them.

"Su Hang, let this pact be made here. If you ever use Nika to enslave the innocent, no matter where you go, I will personally cut off your head."

Su Hang raised his right hand and gripped the flat of the blade.

"If you can stop me, come at me."

"Even if I can't, I'll still come."

"Then I have something for you too."

Su Hang pressed his palm against the blade. Blood ran down the steel and fell into the sand.

"If the World Government slaughters a village over a fruit, and you step aside for the sake of balance, I'll beat you too."

Beckman's brow rose slightly.

"You're the first person to dare threaten the captain of the Red-Hair Pirates like that."

But Shanks laughed.

"You don't need to remind me of that. If the pursuers dare come, the Red-Haired Pirates will stop them."

"I'm not joining you."

"No one asked you to."

"And I won't accept you planning my route for me."

"Get out of the East Blue alive first. Then talk about charting your own course."

Their hands left the blade at the same time.

Luffy squeezed between them and grabbed the sword hilt.

"I want to make a pact too!"

Su Hang looked at him.

"What kind of pact?"

"I won't rely on Shanks to take the fruit back for me, and I won't rely on you to make it up to me. I'll find my own path, then defeat you with my own hands!"

"Fine."

"And I'll beat you up really badly!"

"Learn to untie a rope first."

Beckman suddenly looked up.

A messenger bird swept over the village, a blue strip of cloth from the Red-Hair Pirates tied to its leg.

He raised a hand to catch the paper scroll. After only a glance, his expression darkened.

"Naval warships have appeared simultaneously at the East Coast, North Harbor, and the neighboring town's waterways."

Shanks drew his long sword.

"How many men?"

"At least six hundred. They brought ability-detecting dogs and Seastone restraints."

Beckman handed the note to Su Hang. The final line had just been covered by a bright red mark.

"The Navy has sealed off every port. They intend to search every household for Devil Fruit users."