The cliff behind them finally fell silent, as though even the wind had tired of listening to prophecy.
Shanks stretched, rolling his shoulders until something cracked loudly. "Alright, kid," he said with a lazy grin that didn't fool anyone. "Let's get back before Makino starts yelling that I let you freeze to death on a cliff."
Luffy didn't move at first.
He stood at the edge—not the cliff, but the moment. A quiet threshold between childhood and the future. The moon poured silver down his hair, catching every gold streak like the glint of unsheathed weapons. For a heartbeat, the world didn't feel twenty times larger.
It felt endless.
"Shanks…"His voice was soft, pulled from some deep place.
The pirate looked back. "Yeah?"
"…When I'm older… will this world still be this big?"
Shanks's grin softened into something older. "You won't understand this yet," he said gently, "but the world grows with you. You'll never reach the end of it. Not even if you live a hundred lives."
Luffy absorbed that… then nodded like it was the best news he'd ever heard.
They walked.
Down the worn path that twisted along the cliffside. Grass whispered against their ankles. The sea breathed its long, ancient rhythm. Fireflies drifted between them like wandering souls, blinking slowly, giving shape to the darkness.
The air was cool and sharp.
The kind of night that felt like a clean page.
But halfway down the path—the night changed.
It wasn't dramatic.No thunder.No explosion.No monster erupting from the sea.
It began with a tone.
A note, impossibly low and impossibly far, humming through the stone beneath their feet. Not sound exactly—more like the vibration of something enormous turning in its sleep.
Luffy stopped mid-step.
His heart stopped with him.
Shanks didn't turn, didn't breathe, didn't blink. His every muscle tightened just enough for Luffy to notice.
The vibration deepened.
It came from the east—from somewhere beyond several islands, beyond a stretch of ocean no one in the Blues dared cross, from a place most maps left blank because the cartographers didn't want to be blamed for describing impossible things.
"Shanks…"Luffy whispered, voice trembling."What is that?"
Shanks stared into the dark with that stillness only true warriors had—the stillness that meant something ancient inside them was listening with more than ears.
He didn't answer.
He listened until the tone faded…then returned…this time layered with something else.
A distant, bone-deep groan—as if an island shifted its weight.
Luffy's breath caught.His Force sense flared—wild, untrained, erratic—pulling impressions:
Scales.Pressure.Age.Something dreaming…
Something too large.
Something aware.
Not watching them, but…rolling over in its slumber like a continent flexing.
"What… is that?" he repeated.
Shanks finally exhaled.
His voice lost even the hint of playfulness.
"That," he said quietly, "is the world reminding us it's alive."
Luffy swallowed."…Is it dangerous?"
Shanks didn't lie.
"Everything that big is dangerous," he said. "Even sleeping."
Luffy's skin prickled.
He felt—somewhere under his ribs, behind the still-sleeping third-life instinct—something respond. Not awaken. Not speak.
Just… react.
A ripple.A pulse.A faint click like gears shifting in a deep chamber.
It was tiny.But it terrified him more than the sound.
Not because of fear.
Because it felt like recognition.
Like something inside him whispered:
Soon.
Shanks noticed Luffy's shiver and placed a steadying hand on his head. "Don't drown in it," he murmured. "That call isn't meant for you yet."
Yet.
The word clung to him like mist.
They continued walking.
The distant vibration subsided slowly, melting back into the world as though it had never been there. The fireflies returned. The sea softened. The sky exhaled.
By the time village lights flickered into view, the night looked normal again.
But Luffy knew better.
Something had shifted out there.A sleeping giant had turned.An ancient territory had stirred.A place beyond sane waters had awakened just a fraction.
And somewhere in the village below, Uta's voice floated faintly through the night—light, warm, unaware of how the world itself had just breathed.
Shanks slowed, eyes half-lidded, listening to her melody drift upward.
"That girl…" he muttered with a fond sigh. "Her voice could calm storms if she tried."
Luffy perked up. "Really?"
"Not yet," Shanks corrected. "But someday."
He looked down at Luffy, eyes glinting.
"And someday, you'll answer calls like the one we just heard."
Luffy blinked.
Shanks placed a hand over Luffy's chest.
"When your will is ready," he said, "the world won't whisper to you."
He leaned in, voice low.
"It will call your name."
The words struck Luffy like a promise carved into stone.
They reached the edge of the village.
Warm light spilled from the open door of Makino's bar. Uta's voice hummed inside—tired, soft, but happy. The sound wrapped around Luffy like a blanket.
Shanks nudged him forward.
"Go on," he said. "You've got training tomorrow. And a partner waiting."
Luffy nodded… then paused.
"Shanks?"
The pirate turned.
"…Did the world ever call your name?"
Shanks's grin was slow and sad and proud.
"It still does," he said."But I don't answer every call anymore."
Luffy didn't understand the shadow behind the words.Not yet.But he would.
Soon.
Luffy stepped into the bar's warm glow.Shanks watched him go.
Above them, a star blinked out—not falling,not fading,simply turning darkas though something vast had passed in front of it.
The omen went unnoticed by every villager.
Except Shanks.
He looked up.
His expression tightened.
"…It's too early," he muttered.
But the darkness in the sky said otherwise.
The world was shifting.And the boy with silver-and-gold hair…had already begun to shift with it.
END OF CHAPTER 4