When Brook learned that Rocks was keeping the Marshall family under his thumb, then compared that timing to the birth of Marshall D. Teach, a bold, dangerous thought flashed through his mind.
"Maybe… the secret behind Blackbeard carrying two Devil Fruits lies with the Marshall family and Rocks."
The idea made his heart pound.
To be honest, Brook wanted to be a multi-fruit user himself. But unlike Blackbeard, he wasn't some naturally abnormal freak who could just swallow a second fruit and live.
The power of the Yomi Yomi Fruit had already fused with his soul. It was that fusion with the original Brook's soul that let him take over this body and step into the world of One Piece at all.
Two souls had become one. There was no longer a clear line between "you" and "me."
If they hadn't merged at the start, he probably wouldn't have been able to use the Yomi Yomi Fruit's power to be reborn in this world.
In the original story, people had speculated that Brook's Devil Fruit either resided in his heart or in his soul.
If it were just the heart, then with so many races and people in the world, there should have been some mutant children born with two hearts. If a second heart was all it took, someone, somewhere, should have tried feeding such a person two fruits by now.
And Drum Kingdom's medical tech had already reached the absurd level of transplanting heads. Compared to that, transplanting a second heart was nothing.
If multiple hearts were enough, the world should already be crawling with multi-fruit monsters.
But there weren't.
If the real condition was multiple souls instead, then things made more sense.
In that case… hadn't Brook missed his chance? If he still had two souls, would he be able to carry two fruits himself?
"Can my soul still be split now?" Brook rubbed his temples. "I really do want to be a multi-fruit user…"
But did this world even treat "soul" and "personality" as the same thing?
He thought of Cavendish, the white horse swordsman with his nightmare persona, Hakuba.
Did that count as two souls?
Could Cavendish eat two Devil Fruits?
Brook shook his head. No, personality, consciousness, thoughts… those weren't necessarily the same as soul.
When Law used the Ope Ope Fruit's personality swap on Chopper and Franky, their minds exchanged, but the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Human, still stayed in Chopper's body. It was just being driven by Franky's mind.
In other words, the fruit stayed tied to the body and whatever deeper existence the soul represented, not just the thoughts rattling around inside.
Blackbeard's abnormal body, on the other hand, wasn't exactly a secret among Newgate's captains. They might not have known the reason, but they all knew "Teach's body is strange."
Whatever was going on with him, it was something visible enough that you could sense it physically.
The more Brook thought about it, the messier the theory became.
This was medical black technology you couldn't explain with common sense.
In the end, he settled on one hypothesis.
To carry two fruits, you might need both: two souls and two hearts. Only then would there be enough stamina, enough "space," to carry the weight of two Devil Fruits without the body collapsing.
In theory, the same would hold for triple-fruit users.
Three souls. Three hearts.
He stared at the intelligence reports in his hand.
And found… nothing conclusive.
"What's the point of guessing?" Brook finally snorted. "Once I get the Marshall family in my hands, the truth will come out."
Beat Marshall D. Teach to the punch, catch the Marshall clan, dig out their secrets. Then he wouldn't have to invent theories.
As long as you were strong enough, most problems could be solved with a beating.
Rocks was the one hiding the Marshall family.
Now, Brook wanted the secret of multiple Devil Fruits and the Dark-Dark Fruit itself.
There was no path where he and Rocks peacefully coexisted.
Rocks' nature and interests were completely at odds with him, and the hatred between them had piled up to the point you couldn't just smooth it over with a handshake.
Trying to get Rocks to join hands with him and fight the World Government together? That was just a fantasy.
It was better to make Rocks part of his own strength.
He wanted the Dark-Dark Fruit, Rocks' soul, the secret of multi-fruit users, and the entire force of the Rocks Pirates.
His Yomi Yomi Fruit had hit a bottleneck. If he devoured a soul as powerful as Rocks', his own soul's strength would jump to a whole new level.
Instead of treating Rocks as a potential ally, it was better to turn him into food.
Brook's smile turned cold.
"Devouring Rocks' soul to strengthen myself," he murmured, "that's the correct answer."
The best power was the power in your own hands.
It was better not to have an "ally" like Rocks at all.
Once Rocks died, his subordinates would also become Hell Pirate assets, whether he recruited them alive or took their souls and corpses. One way or another, they would end up marching under Brook's banner.
"Antonio." Brook rose from his chair. "Work with Moore Thomas. Mobilize every intelligence asset we have. I want every scrap of information on the Marshall family that Rocks is hiding."
Before Roger's crew came back, he needed a complete battle plan for Rocks.
After Brook's order went out, Den Den Mushi signals surged like a storm toward New Beehive Island. Moore Thomas' news birds blanketed the sky, watching every ship, every dock, every harbor.
Spies and agents began scraping for traces of the Marshall family.
Rocks himself became a walking target.
But under such a huge, obvious net, it didn't take long for certain insects to be noticed.
Rocks' powerful Observation Haki swept across New Beehive Island, and the spies he sensed were killed one after another.
That alone was enough for him to understand.
"That bastard Brook is finally going to come for me," he realized.
And he didn't feel fear at all.
If Brook came at him head-on and beat him, then Rocks would only feel excitement. To die in such a battle would mean a life without regrets.
If that despicable Brook brought the Four Hell Kings and swarmed him, then he would just drag a couple of them to hell with him.
Who he killed would be left to fate.
…
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
In the conference room, the air was heavy with tobacco smoke and tension.
It was officially confirmed that the admiral candidates, Buddha Sengoku and Black Arm Zephyr, would be promoted to full admirals after they returned from the New World campaign.
The Knights of God, who had been doubling as temporary admirals during this period, would then be recalled to the Holy Land, Marijoa.
Of course, there was a condition.
Before they came back, the knights had to weaken the power of the two New World pirate overlords, reclaim as many New World member nations as possible, and, if the overlords fought each other, take the chance to heavily damage or even destroy one side.
Only then could the navy re-establish branches in the New World and truly protect the member states again.
They had been waiting for the Hell Pirates and the Rocks Pirates to finally clash.
But Brook was too shrewd, too patient.
He let the navy's forces keep assembling, month after month, burning through money and supplies. Even the logistics corps were starting to feel the strain.
Food, munitions, ships, medical supplies… the consumption was terrifying.
And still, the New World remained frozen in that uneasy calm.
…
On the Final Island.
After weathering one horrifying natural disaster after another, the Roger Pirates finally stepped onto the legendary land, carried there by the indomitable Oro Jackson built from Treasure Tree Adam.
Roger, Rayleigh, and the others charged ashore like children who'd finally reached the end of a long game.
What greeted them nearly stopped their hearts.
Ruins.
But not of some ancient, primitive kingdom.
These were relics of a civilization with technology so advanced it made the current world look like it was still crawling.
Roger had assumed the ancient kingdom erased in the Void Century would be… well, ancient. Stone temples, crumbling walls, primitive tools.
Instead, he saw towering remains of intricate structures, traces of machinery, strange devices that still hummed faintly with power.
He saw countless Poneglyphs and dense lines of ancient script.
He saw sound shells, and even old phonographs.
Rayleigh and the others immediately began to transcribe the inscriptions like madmen.
Roger, however, simply stood there.
He closed his eyes, and let his ability to hear the Voice of All Things draw him in.
Voices came.
A secret entered his ears.
And then, on that silent island at the end of the world, Gol D. Roger threw back his head and laughed, a wild, helpless sound that shook the ruins.
Behind him, no one noticed that at the very back of the group, Captain Mullin quietly produced a brand new Eternal Pose and began to record the magnetic field of the island.
---------------
Roger's laughter echoed across the ruined island, wild and hearty, but underneath it was a helplessness he couldn't hide. Joy Boy had left behind a dream so naive it bordered on absurd, yet so grand it made your chest tighten.
"We're too early!!!"
Roger finally understood. Everything Joy Boy had left behind on the Final Island could only truly be used thirty or forty years from now. All they could obtain here and now was the truth of the Void Century and the prophecy Joy Boy had left behind.
When the others heard Joy Boy's dream and the era he was waiting for, the senior members of the crew fell silent for a heartbeat.
Then they burst into laughter.
It was ridiculous. It was moving. Somewhere in the past, someone had given up everything and fought the world for a dream like that. The drum of liberation Joy Boy carried was both admirable and laughable in its innocence.
"This last island really played a huge joke on us," Roger said at last, still grinning. "From now on, its name will be Laugh Tale!"
He respected Joy Boy's dream. But after everything they had been through, to reach the end of the world and be told, "You're not the ones this is for"… it was hard not to feel like the island itself was mocking them.
They weren't the protagonists of this story.
They were just passers-by.
What Joy Boy left behind could only truly be opened by the successor to the Drum of Liberation, the Sun God Nika.
Roger wanted to give this final island a name that was funny and a little sarcastic, something that captured the way fate had laughed at them.
Laugh Tale.
At the back of the group, Captain Mullin heard the name and lowered his eyes. When no one was looking, he took out a knife and carefully carved the word "LAUGHTALE" onto the brand new Eternal Pose recording the island.
Then he tucked the Eternal Pose back into his pocket and continued to quietly log the island's magnetic field.
The Roger Pirates did not leave right away. After braving that hellish stretch of extreme weather, everyone was exhausted. They decided to rest on the island for a few days and explore the ruins of this technologically advanced land while they recovered.
Soon, shouts of surprise echoed through the ancient streets.
They found blades of light, laser swords that flickered on and off as if their power sources were almost completely drained. They found the wreckage of strange robots. Even if the machines themselves could not be used, they were built from rare metals worth a fortune on the seas.
The more they looked around, the more they realized it.
A man could get rich on this island just by picking up scrap.
Sniper Peterm and shipwright Tom practically dove into the ruins, excitedly gathering rare alloys and parts that could be used to upgrade their weapons and ship.
The combatants also went scavenging, searching for metals that could be reforged into new blades or used to strengthen their current weapons.
Watching their crew fill sacks and crates with loot, Roger and Rayleigh felt their disappointment ease slightly.
At least the crew was walking away with something tangible.
Even so, a hollow feeling lingered in their chests.
After everything they suffered crossing the Grand Line, after finally conquering the last island, they discovered that the story written here wasn't meant for them at all.
"Roger," Rayleigh said quietly as he sat beside him among the ruins, "in forty years, we'll be old men. We might die on the battlefield before then. Do you really think we'll live to see that golden age Joy Boy talked about?"
It felt like they had been born in the wrong era. By the time the age Joy Boy foresaw truly arrived, they would be in their seventies or eighties, creaking old men at best.
"Ahahaha! If we can't keep up with the times," Roger grinned, "then we just have to hope our sons can!"
For the first time, he seriously thought about settling down with a woman. He even started thinking about the legendary Nika Fruit. If possible, he wanted to find it for his child.
The strongest Mythical Zoan that carried the will of a great man.
"You want to get married and have kids?" Rayleigh stared at him like he'd grown a second head. The rough, loud captain who only knew how to drink, fight, and laugh wanted to be someone's husband, and the father of her child?
"What? I can't?!" Roger roared. "Rayleigh, what's with that look on your face?! My son might just be the child of destiny in the next era, a peerless powerhouse who stands far above everyone else!!"
He shouted and cursed, but in his heart he was already turning over options for a wife. To give the next generation the best possible qualifications, he planned to find a woman from the D clan, someone who could meet the conditions for the reincarnation of the Sun God Nika.
"Are you sure you're going to have a son?" Rayleigh laughed. "What if you have a daughter instead, and she marries my boy?"
Maybe he should also find a woman. He couldn't afford to fall behind Roger, even in this.
"What are you two even arguing about?" Gaban cut in, amused. "If there's one boy and one girl, they can be husband and wife. If they're both boys, they can be sworn brothers. If they're both girls, they can be sworn sisters!"
"I will definitely have a son!!!" x2.
Roger and Rayleigh shouted it at the same time, then glared at each other, both refusing to back down.
"Hahaha!"
They held each other's gaze for a moment, then both burst into laughter. Their laughter rolled across the ruins and drew the rest of the crew in. Before long, everyone was laughing together.
Even Captain Mullin, standing at the edge of the crowd, felt his lips curl involuntarily. The warmth and easy camaraderie of this crew wrapped around him like sunlight.
For the first time in his life, he truly wanted to belong.
He wanted to throw away his title and mission and just be a member of Roger's crew.
But the moment he remembered what he had already done, the smile on his face twisted. There was no going back for him now.
If possible, once the mission was complete, he would die at Roger's side to make up for the betrayal he had committed.
That was the only way he could think to atone.
That night, the Roger Pirates held a grand banquet on Laugh Tale. They had completed the Grand Line, circled the world, and now they had conquered the final island itself.
"Captain Roger, once we leave here, are we going to keep sailing in the New World?" one crew member asked.
They had reached their long-cherished goal. With the Final Island under their belt, their dream of circumnavigating the globe was complete. Yet neither Roger nor Rayleigh showed any signs of being worn down by age or illness. Disbanding the crew had never entered anyone's mind.
"Ahahaha! Anyway, we're not getting involved in the war between the New World overlords," Roger replied, waving his mug. "Even if we've circled the Grand Line, we still haven't really explored the Four Seas. So we'll head back to the Blues and keep living the life of adventurers!"
In truth, he also wanted to use those travels to search for other D clan members, and maybe, just maybe, find the perfect partner for himself along the way. He could even help other crew members with their family troubles while he was at it.
"Haha! Captain, are we going back to the Four Seas just to go fishing?" Spencer laughed. "With our strength now, the Roger Pirates can walk sideways through the Blues!"
"Don't get cocky," Rayleigh warned. "The Four Seas are the World Government's backyard. They're crawling with intelligence agencies, and there's almost no extreme weather to hide in. If the Headquarters Navy encircles us out there, we'll be in serious danger. So we go low profile, and we take our adventures carefully."
Even if they were the first to conquer the Final Island, they were still not the strongest force in the world. Above them were Brook, Rocks, Marine Headquarters, and the World Government itself.
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