"Uta… is the boss's daughter!"
The moment Lucky Roux's (Razilu's) words left his mouth, the deck of the Red Force fell into complete silence.
For several long seconds, not a sound could be heard—only the soft crash of waves against the hull.
Then, all at once—
"What?!"
"No way!"
A roar of disbelief erupted, shaking the ship.
"The boss's daughter?! Our captain has a daughter that old?" shouted Rockstar, the newest member of the crew, staring wide-eyed in disbelief.
"What?! That can't be right—Captain Shanks is only forty!" Yasopp blurted, his tone half in shock, half in laughter.
He quickly waved his hands. "No, no, that's not what I mean! It's just—none of us have ever heard the captain or anyone mention a daughter before!"
"Yeah, same here!"
"Seriously, if she's the Red-Haired Pirates' songstress, why's she been living outside all this time?"
"Could something have happened back then? Maybe she got lost in some kind of accident?"
The newer members—those who had joined within the last decade—were all talking over one another, voices filled with confusion.
"Don't speculate too much," said Doc Dege, the ship's doctor, frowning. "There's a lot of complicated history there."
"In short," added Navigator Bendick, "all you really need to know is that Uta will always be the eternal songstress of the Red-Haired Pirates."
"Tsk, tsk… to think Uta actually joined Fairy Tail," said Lyme Jones, shaking his head in wonder.
"It might not be a bad thing," Vice-Captain Benn Beckman added, exhaling a lazy ring of smoke.
"Hahaha! True enough!" Shanks laughed, his eyes soft but nostalgic. "Better Fairy Tail than running around with a bunch of scoundrels like us."
Then, turning to Rockstar, who was still staring blankly, Shanks spoke again. "So—aside from Yuuto and Uta, what else happened at Marineford?"
"Ah! Right!" Rockstar blinked, snapping back to reality. He hurriedly sorted the thick stack of reports in his hands and passed them over.
"After President Sugisawa Yuuto and Princess Uta appeared," he explained, "the entire Fairy Tail Guild joined the battlefield! Then reinforcements from the World Government arrived—and after that, everything went completely insane, boss! You'd better see for yourself!"
Rockstar's voice trembled as he spoke, the shock still fresh on his face.
"Boss! Look there—it's Luffy and Rayleigh! Even the Revolutionaries are fighting now!" cried Lucky Roux, eyes shining.
"Nani?! That can't be right!" shouted Yasopp, slamming his hand on the table. "The Flying Pirate—Golden Lion Shiki—he's joined Fairy Tail too?!"
The entire crew was stunned.
"What?! The World Government actually sent a lineup like that?" gasped Benk Punch, the band's monkey-wielding musician. "The Commander-in-Chief Kong, the Holy Knights, even the Five Elders themselves have entered the battlefield!"
A sharp hiss came from Bendick as he read further. "And the other Emperors—Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin, and Kaido of the Beasts—both descended onto the battlefield as well!"
Beckman nodded grimly. "Just as I thought… Gildarts and his team—they're Fairy Tail members now too."
"Hey, hey—what is this, some kind of nightmare?!" Doc Dege shouted. "Someone explain to me how the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, is back from the dead!"
"It's not just Roger!" Lyme Jones yelled, flipping through the pages in disbelief. "There's Rocks D. Xebec—the sea's overlord from thirty-six years ago—and Kozuki Oden, the legendary samurai of Wano! An army of the dead has appeared at Marineford!"
He turned toward his captain, voice trembling. "Captain Shanks—what do we do now?"
For a moment, Shanks didn't speak. He stood silently on the deck, watching the waves glimmer beneath the sunlight. Then, with quiet resolve, he wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes.
"…Set sail."
His voice was soft, but firm as steel.
"Target: Marine Headquarters."
He lifted his gaze toward the horizon, where the thunder of war echoed even across the sea.
"Captain Roger… Mr. Oden…" he murmured. "It's been a long time."
The Red Force creaked as its sails unfurled, catching the wind.
And once again, the flag of the Red-Haired Pirates rose proudly—
headed straight into the storm.
...
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