Lodestar Island Is Not the Final Island

"Rocks, is this your son?"

Seeing Rocks stand up for Kaya and even use Haki to intimidate the other members of the crew, Roger grew curious.

He had crossed paths with the Rocks Pirates a few times but had never seen Kaya before. Judging by Kaya's age, he thought his guess was quite likely.

"No." Kaya raised his glass to Roger. "Care to join us for a drink, Roger?"

"He's a very interesting man. You'll see for yourself, though I haven't known him for long either." Rocks merely smiled.

Roger didn't mind. He sat down with them for a drink.

It was quite a sight: this band of vicious pirates, drinking together in harmony in a tavern.

Just then, Newgate finished his drink, stood up, and left without a word.

The others followed his example, though it was more that, with Shakky gone, there was no point in staying to drink. So they filed out one after another.

Only Kaya, Rocks, Roger, and the members of the Roger Pirates remained in the tavern.

"Do you know where the end of the Grand Line is?" Roger held a glass of liquor, gently swirling the clear liquid as he looked into it.

"No idea." Rocks shrugged bluntly. "I don't care."

"Lodestar Island?" Kaya said.

"Oh?" Roger glanced at Kaya in surprise, then smiled. "Rocks, your man knows a lot more than you do."

"He's not my man yet." Rocks picked up the bottle and poured himself a drink.

"I won't be, either," Kaya said.

"That's not necessarily true. I intend to turn the world upside down, and I'll need your help, as well as that fellow Harald's," Rocks said confidently.

The giant king? Kaya thought silently.

"Stop getting sidetracked! You two are supposed to be the audience right now. I'm the star telling the story, got it? Got it?!" Roger slapped the table in annoyance.

"Go on." Rocks swirled his glass.

"It's the final island the Log Pose points to, whether you choose any one of the seven routes when you first set out on the Grand Line or cross the Red Line."

"Lodestar Island is the recorded island in the New World where all the routes converge."

"They say it's a place no one has ever set foot on. No pirate has ever followed the routes all the way there."

"I'm going." Roger raised his glass and drained it. "It's the final island! Isn't it strange that no one's ever been there? There's bound to be a mountain of treasure!"

"Great, you have my support." A terrifying smile appeared on Rocks' face. "Bring all the treasure back, and then I'll sink your ship. The treasure will be mine!"

"You've got some nerve, Rocks. If you don't seek adventure, can you really call yourself a pirate?" Roger smiled unconcernedly.

"Pirate or otherwise, my goal is to become King of the World." Rocks spoke calmly, but there was a hint of madness in his voice. "To do that, I have to drag those evil beings at the top down!"

"The World Government? You really are crazy." Roger glanced at Rocks in surprise.

"I'm still building up my strength. If you're willing to help me, I wouldn't object," Rocks said, half joking.

"No thanks. I couldn't bear to see the great captain of the Rocks Pirates following me around all day."

"Roger, don't make it sound like I'm asking you to be my boss!"

"Isn't that what you meant when you invited me?!"

The two stared at each other, a faint clash of auras seeming to pass between them. They had just been drinking together amicably, but now they were at each other's throats again.

Kaya put down his glass. "You don't need to go to Lodestar Island. I can tell you there's nothing on it."

The tavern suddenly fell silent, and the members of the Roger Pirates couldn't help looking over.

Roger had brought his men here to see Shakky before heading to the final island, so he wouldn't miss her if he went a long time without seeing her afterward.

Naturally, he had told his crew all this too.

Rayleigh hadn't known how to face Shakky, so he had stayed aboard the ship without setting foot on the island.

"What do you mean?" Roger gripped his glass.

"When you land there, you'll discover that Lodestar Island isn't the last island, and the Log Pose will go haywire and fail to point to the next one." Kaya added silently, Because that's exactly what happens when you land there in the future.

Roger was silent for a while before slowly saying, "What an annoying brat. Don't you know the moment a pirate looks forward to most is the surprise before opening a treasure chest, you bastard?!"

An immensely powerful burst of Conqueror's Haki suddenly spread out! The air grew heavy in an instant, and the bottles lined up on the counter swayed and knocked against one another with crisp clinks.

No wonder Roger was angry. He hadn't even gone yet, and someone had told him there was actually nothing on the island.

It was like accidentally eating a piece of shit disguised as chocolate. If you didn't know it was shit, you could just about accept it, since it really did taste like chocolate.

But just as it went into your mouth, someone immediately told you it was shit. You really wouldn't know whether to swallow or spit it out...

Roger's Haki was terrifying, forming a ceaseless tide of gravity like a whirlpool!

Yet Kaya remained seated, his expression calm. Even like a tiny boat on the vast ocean, he merely swayed gently with the wind.

He even casually picked up a fresh bottle from the table, opened it, and filled his glass.

Roger's Haki could shatter the floor and make glass explode out of nowhere, yet it couldn't stop Kaya from pouring himself a drink. Reddish-brown liquor streamed from the bottle in a fine, cotton-like flow into the glass.

Kaya wore an expression that said, "Did you do something?"

"Don't waste your time, idiot! Are you a comedian? Scare tactics don't work on this guy." Rocks mocked Roger without restraint.

Kaya kept a layer of Reishi over his body at all times. Let alone an attack of sheer presence, not even a speck of dust could get through.

"Sigh~~"

Roger sighed wearily and withdrew his aura.

His expression turned dejected, and there was no sign that he was the man who had just unleashed that terrifying aura.

"Why did you tell me? Damn it, this is infuriating... Or do you know where the real final island is?" He pressed his face against the underside of the table.

"For that, you'll need Poneglyphs. That's also one of the reasons the World Government suppresses history." Kaya felt no shame whatsoever about spoiling the story.

He didn't care how the original plot changed under his influence. In any case, Roger would never become Pirate King.

Right now, he was more interested in seeing the expression Roger would make.

It had to be said, people who got worked up were easy for others to laugh at!

At Kaya's words, Roger's expression changed slightly, and his gaze grew serious.

"Hahaha! So after all that, isn't our enemy still the World Government?" Rocks laughed. "Roger, you can't escape!"

"Rocks, stop interrupting! What do you mean, we need Poneglyphs? Can you actually read them?" Roger looked at Kaya, surprised.

"The coordinates are recorded on the Road Poneglyphs. Mark those coordinates on a map and connect them with lines. The point where the straight lines cross is the final island. It holds the secrets of this world."

With that, Kaya finished the liquor in his glass, got up, and left the tavern, unconcerned by how explosive the information he had revealed was.

He had no interest whatsoever in the One Piece.

Sitting there chatting with those two wasn't particularly interesting either, so he planned to go find someone, just for a bit of fun.