Will

"Hahahaha!"

"This has to be the most brutal battle I've ever fought."

"For decades, not a day has passed without me growing stronger, all for today."

Rocks's fists were covered in Roger's and Garp's blood.

As the sea's last hope.

Garp and Roger were struck by Rocks's fists, which unleashed sonic booms.

Both slammed into craters in the mountainside.

The damage spread like spiderwebs.

The men embedded there were the sea's strongest Haki users, at the peak of their power, yet still unable to shake Rocks!

"The fruit I originally wanted to eat was the Paw-Paw Fruit. That way, I could completely shut out the Dark-Dark Fruit's side effects!"

"Make this world feel pain! And bounce anywhere in the world whenever I wanted!"

"I've visited so many seas in my life that I could come and go freely using that fruit's properties."

"What do you say, Roger?"

Rocks gave neither of them another chance to escape.

Even as he poured out his heart, his attacks kept accelerating.

The Haki on his fists struck Roger's chest, threatening to shatter his bones.

Garp struggled, his head hanging low, but he could not make a sound.

When despair descended into the deep valley, there was inevitably nowhere to release it.

If the earlier despair had shaken Justice upon the seas and left the Marines helpless.

Without even the courage to set foot on this island.

Then.

The despair now meant that even the sea's strongest could find no hope of survival.

They leaned against the walls as stones kept falling onto them.

With their steadily weakening Observation Haki, they sensed Roger and Garp.

Were they still alive?

Even a god could not survive such a ferocious assault from Rocks.

But they could not die.

They were the only ones who still had the strength to defeat Rocks.

Shane's belly was round from eating, and he spun around once.

The food rapidly turned into energy.

Broken bones, missing teeth, damaged organs.

All were rapidly recovering.

Though his mind was exhausted, his willpower kept Shane calm.

The overstimulated hormones sustained everyone.

"The power of eternal life is more alluring than fine wine, but life always vanishes in an instant. Better to get so drunk you pass out."

John rolled off the oak barrel.

He had truly spent his life in a drunken stupor.

Not only had he spent his whole life searching for pirate treasure.

The treasures he left behind were beyond counting, too.

"Rookie, can your Observation Haki hear it?"

John looked utterly haggard.

His curls hung loose, lifting in the sunlight.

He was actually quite handsome, his carefree air steeped in drunkenness.

Shane did not want to live that kind of life.

Everyone in the Rocks Pirates had bad habits. Whitebeard and Kaido loved drinking just as much as John.

Linlin's love of food was ordinary by comparison.

Golden Lion, like Rocks, had an ambition that would drive him his entire life.

"Why do you always call me rookie? The name Shane is going to resound across the seas!"

Shane stood up.

He felt his body, mutated by the Drug and thoroughly strengthened.

"Maybe. I've seen far too many rookies die suddenly."

"What else would you call someone like you, so lost that you don't even have a will of your own?"

"Shane the rookie!"

Captain John was right.

Though he looked to be in a poor mental state.

He had always followed his own will, living in a drunken stupor and adventuring in search of treasure.

Without a will of one's own, without enough ambition.

One could not reach the summit of the seas.

Even the freedom Roger yearned for was freedom from the restraints of anyone or anything!

That in itself was the greatest ambition!

Unfettered, chaotic-neutral freedom-that was the portrait of the Roger Pirates.

Lost, Shane gazed at the final scene before the Old Era's curtain fell.

Yes.

Ever since he had transmigrated into this world, he had never truly searched for his own will.

"What do I want?"

As he wrestled with his confusion.

The sound of a heartbeat arose in his heart for no apparent reason.

Shane looked up. Someone's Haki was erupting.

Roger!

His Observation Haki, which could hear the Voice of All Things, resonated through his Conqueror's Haki.

The mountains, rivers, plants, and every tiny thing in God Valley.

Every life that still possessed a will could feel the tremors he stirred.

Shane knew Roger would not die so easily.

But even as Rocks battered him, he was desperately reviving his will.

He was unbelievably tenacious!

Even so, more than a decade later, Roger would still die of an incurable disease.

Shane had once felt that a monster so powerful, who had developed Haki to its utmost, should not have died so young.

After all, Roger in his prime.

Was equivalent to a two-armed Red-Haired, plus the swordsmanship of the World's Greatest Swordsman and the Observation Haki of the Voice of All Things.

Now it seemed.

Whether Roger or Rocks.

Only by dying at their peak could they never be caught by others again.

If Whitebeard had died in Roger's era, if Golden Lion had never reappeared after his disappearance.

They would surely have left behind undefeated legends.

What exactly was will?

Family, freedom, power, treasure, fine wine, beautiful women, fine food, status?

Bullet's figure appeared in Shane's mind.

A fellow pirate, Bullet had no will of his own either.

He only wanted power, to surpass everything, to surpass Roger.

What about Shane himself?

To surpass Rocks?

"What do I want to have?"

The sound of Roger's breathing rang in Shane's mind.

This was no Voice of All Things. It was clearly Den Den Mushi Observation Haki.

No wonder he could converse with all things. It could actually ring out directly in the depths of one's heart.

It was similar to the way Zunesha and the overlords of the Sea Kings made their voices heard.

Hearing that call, like a giant whale in the deep sea.

Shane felt his scalp prickle.

In this second life, he had gradually awakened the Three Types of Haki so far.

His body had been strengthened repeatedly, becoming a monstrous physique that ordinary blades could not destroy.

A powerful Devil Fruit, an incredible Demon Compass!

All of it had infused Shane's life with fresh blood.

Opportunity and the future were all in his hands.

For others, God Valley was the end, the fall of the curtain.

For Shane and the vast majority of those here, it was the beginning of a new era!

"I want everything."

For some reason, Shane's gaze fixed on Rocks as he attacked in a frenzy.

After seeing this captain launch his mad, reckless assault.

After experiencing everyone's Conqueror's Haki.

Only one thought remained.

To have everything!

"Why should I choose? I want it all. I want more than Rocks has."

Shane held the Recording Den Den Mushi.

He recorded everything before him within it.

At the same time.

It was also etched deep into the fifteen-year-old boy's soul.

Rocks was unstoppable before his eyes, yet in truth, hardly anyone stood beside him.

The difference was.

Far above on the Red Line, Imu had won and gained countless defenders who would step forward as others fell.

If Rocks lost, his crew would merely go their separate ways.

Shane committed it all to memory, understanding it perfectly.

If one day he challenged the entire world as Rocks had.

He absolutely could not end up like this!

The feeling of carrying all that weight on his own shoulders was too exhausting.

He needed absolute strength, and he also needed the strongest force!

The Den Den Mushi kept its eyes open, recording the King of the World's battle at his peak.

John suddenly looked at Shane, the drunkenness in his eyes fading for a moment.

"Shane, you seem to have found the direction you want to steer toward?"

Shane picked up an apple and bit into it.

As his vitality recovered, his ambition grew like the seeds in its core.

Those eyes had been full of greed before, but only today had Shane found it.

"More or less, old-timer."

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Roger's heartbeat merged with the Voice of All Things.

He overdrew his life force to restore his will.

Garp's fingertip twitched, stirring a resonance from within the crater.

His throat was full of blood, the pain beyond description.

"R...o...cks!"