After the battle—
On the slightly banged-up Oro Jackson in unknown New World waters.
The post-rain sky was crazy refreshing. Once the weather cleared, Roger started rallying everyone for another round of partying.
The reason? Just pick one—
Let's celebrate ditching Garp's ass again!
"Let's party!!!"
"Ohhhhhhh!!!!!!"
With the captain's loud toast, the other crew members laughed and roared back. The deck exploded with wild, rowdy vibes.
"BANG—"
In this chaos, violent door-slamming wasn't weird. No one even noticed a red-haired brat with a massive bump on his skull, grinding his teeth while scanning around.
The straw hat on the kid's head sat crooked thanks to that bump, looking pretty damn funny. Nearby crew who spotted him all cracked up.
"Did your head get fucked up in the sea battle, Shanks?"
Roger, clutching a bottle and drinking like a fish, spotted him—this promising new-era seedling he was high on. He walked over and ruffled his hair, asking with a grin.
"No... Where's Aus?"
Shanks seemed allergic to mentioning the head bump, awkwardly dodging the topic.
After waking up, he'd grabbed Buggy demanding answers about the skull crater. That backstabbing Buggy, trying to dodge heat, instantly threw Aus under the bus.
Sure, Shanks thought of himself as pretty chill. But getting sucker-punched by a crewmate—and that cheap shot knocking him cold while raising a golf ball-sized lump—made him lose serious face.
Everyone knew that besides his crew, Shanks treasured his rep most.
Nine years in the game, first time meeting such a disrespectful bastard.
So this young Shanks, who'd been cruising smooth for years, got pissed.
He wanted to prove himself. Or rather, get payback for this bump.
Weaving through the wild party, Shanks kept scanning everywhere, hunting for Aus's trail.
Finally spotted him in a crowd of big guys—
This asshole was demolishing barbecue.
The kind where he devoured massive bone sticks in single bites while chugging drinks. He looked chill as hell and stress-free—definitely prime eating show material in the old world.
"Oh? Shanks, why the death glare? Want some meat too?"
"What's with the knife? This stuff's pre-cut—each bone's packed with meat."
"What? A man's battle? I'm starving right now. Wait till I'm stuffed—you don't want a cheap win, right?"
"Ate way too much. You get it, right? Let me digest."
"...Hold up, digested fine, but I stuffed myself. Gotta take a dump. Wanna tag along?"
"You done yet? Even camping outside the shitter. You really want this duel, huh?"
"Fine then. Check out my shit-covered mop!"
Shanks knew about Aus's freak strength and insane Observation Haki. Facing this weapon with "biological damage," he wisely chose tactical retreat.
No choice—he wasn't scared of real steel-on-steel combat. Even losing was whatever. Worst case, bandages and bed rest for days.
But a shit-stained mop genuinely freaked him out!
Because of this, for days afterward Shanks kept eyeballing Aus, making him seriously uncomfortable.
Whatever. Kids gonna kid. He wants a fight? Let's fucking fight.
Aus shook his head, grabbed a basic longsword from storage, and tossed it to the still-pouting Shanks.
He fumbled the catch. Aus stuck out his index finger and beckoned, mouth twisting into that devil-may-care smirk.
"You bastard!"
Shanks got hyped because he could tell—this Aus guy was finally down to scrap! He immediately one-handed the sword, coiled to strike. Seeing Aus just standing there, he decided fuck patience.
"Gonna use that gun on your back? I won't give you the chance to shoot."
He admitted Aus's marksmanship was sick, but close combat? He wasn't sweating that.
Seeing Aus acting all casual, Shanks felt disrespected. He exploded forward, slashing toward Aus.
Swordsmanship learned from Rayleigh and Roger was naturally brilliant and devastating.
But same teachers meant it obviously couldn't crack Aus's defense.
"Swoosh—"
"Swoosh—"
"Swoosh—"
Aus closed his eyes, didn't counter-attack, just kept tilting his head, spinning, sucking in his gut...
"Bastard Aus! You planning to just dodge forever?!"
Shanks got heated. He felt played.
"...Since you want me using a weapon, fine."
Aus opened his eyes. He'd wanted more Observation Haki practice, but reluctantly pulled out a tiny knife he'd lifted from Buggy.
"Sorry, don't have anything smaller."
"Are you shitting me?!"
Facts proved same-age kids with and without Haki had completely different power levels, even if that person was Red-Haired Shanks.
Nine-year-old him could only keep using swordsmanship to dance with Aus, but every strike got blocked by Aus's little knife with joke-level precision.
Clang clang clang
And those full-power slashes obviously couldn't budge Aus's monster strength, only forced constant backpedaling.
"Shanks is... getting completely dominated by Aus."
Plenty of crew watched the show, including Roger, Rayleigh, and Gaban. Seeing this beatdown, Rayleigh shook his head and sighed.
Though to them it was amateur hour, Aus was definitely steamrolling Shanks with Observation Haki and freak strength.
And these natural monsters, in their experience, almost always had kingly potential.
"With these brats around, the future's gonna be wild!" Roger laughed his ass off.
Besides those three, the rest were rowdy chaos-lovers. Being pirates, they lived for this entertainment.
Aus's mentor Bitam even opened a betting pool:
Aus: 1-to-1 odds Shanks: 1-to-10 odds
Draw: 1-to-5 odds
This move got even Roger hyped enough to pull out treasure for bets.
"Aus, nice work! Push through and crush him!"
"Hey! Shanks, don't give up!"
"Huh??? What're you saying? No way in hell Shanks can win."
"What if? Those are 1-to-10 odds."
"Degenerate gamblers deserve death!"
The watching crew argued like crazy. Roger also placed bets, constantly cheering for the underdog Shanks.
Though he could tell Shanks had zero shot at winning, this was still his kid he'd raised from tiny, so gotta show support.
The treasure he bet was recently stolen anyway—he couldn't use it himself.
Just as everyone got hyped cheering for the battle,
Aus's Observation Haki suddenly picked up something—weird feeling, then a voice in his ear.
"Call it a draw, Aus."
"Uncle Bitam?"
(In Film Red, this Observation Haki technique appeared—Yasopp and Usopp in different dimensions could communicate through Observation Haki)
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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