"What…"
The moment they heard that, every member of the Straw Hat crew broke out in cold sweat.
Stronger than the Pirate King?
Chopper's mouth ran ahead of his brain. His tiny body froze mid bite of cotton candy, face stiff as he blurted out,
"But Luffy already declared war on Ozz. No way, right?!"
Rayleigh paused, then looked over the crew.
Every face was heavy.
His expression turned strange too. He took a drink to steady himself.
No way…
Ozz shouldn't go back on what he'd promised Roger. He wouldn't snuff out the future's hope, would he?
After a moment of silence, Rayleigh could only force out a dry laugh.
"Relax. Ozz has a sense of proportion. He won't go too far. After all, you kids basically grew up under his watch."
"Really?!" the coward trio lifted their heads with desperate hope and stared at Rayleigh.
Rayleigh wanted to nod, but then he remembered Ozz's habit of never doing things the normal way. He could only smile awkwardly.
Even if Rayleigh had once been Ozz's first mate, he was old now. In a straight fight, he couldn't beat the current Ozz.
All he could do was offer a few words of comfort.
Luffy, on the other hand, had that fearless, reckless spirit only the young possess. He seriously adjusted his straw hat.
"I got it, Rayleigh. I won't back down from fighting Uncle Ozz!"
After that, they stopped talking about fighting Ozz. Worrying wouldn't change anything.
Then Usopp asked the question he'd been holding in for ages.
"Old man… what exactly is the One Piece?"
But before the words even settled, Luffy cut him off immediately. He said he didn't want to know now. He wanted to find it through adventure himself, even if it meant danger.
"This sea is far more dangerous than you imagine," Rayleigh said. "Can you rule it?"
"I don't want to rule anything. The Pirate King should be the freest, right?"
Hearing that answer, Rayleigh looked genuinely pleased.
"That's right. The Pirate King should be the freest man alive. On that point, you, Roger, and Ozz all arrived at the same answer."
Robin frowned.
"That Emperor who once dominated half the sea… his ambition was freedom too?"
She couldn't reconcile it. A man so strong the World Government had to yield, a man who made sea kings and overlords bleed, and it wasn't for conquest?
"Emperor? Oh, you mean Ozz."
Rayleigh almost didn't react. It had been a long time since anyone used that title.
"That brat's dream is absolute freedom and happiness that belongs only to himself. It's not the same as Roger's, and it's not the same as yours."
"Maybe that's why, even though Ozz's strength has practically conquered the world, he still won't become the Pirate King who inherits Roger's will."
"Of course… it might also be because he simply doesn't want to be Pirate King."
Rayleigh spoke calmly, as if it were nothing.
"After all, he holds an Eternal Pose that points straight to Laugh Tale."
For the Straw Hats, the information density was overwhelming.
"An Eternal Pose to the One Piece… that actually exists?!" Usopp stared blankly, mumbling.
Nami, meanwhile, swallowed hard.
"A shortcut to the greatest treasure, and he's supposedly the richest man in the world too!"
Her eyes practically turned into money signs.
In her mind, Ozz was glowing.
But everyone else focused on different things.
Sanji silently lit a cigarette. Zoro hugged his swords and lowered his gaze.
Franky, as blunt as ever, couldn't help blurting it out.
"A dream of becoming absolutely happy and free… said another way, that's insanely domineering!"
Chopper's small face turned grim as he remembered Alabasta.
"A man who's conquered the world… maybe tragedies like Alabasta are just a game to him."
Maybe they'd face something like that again in the future.
But Luffy would still step in, because he couldn't ignore suffering, or injustice, especially when it involved his friends.
Rayleigh could only shrug. There was nothing he could do. These days, he was just a retired old man living off Ozz's tab.
They split up outside Shakky's bar. Rayleigh went to coat their ship.
And the Straw Hats headed for Area 23, the place Ozz had named.
Luffy and the other two tried to get the rest to stay behind.
No one agreed.
They all followed.
Even Usopp, trembling as he gripped his slingshot, sniffling through snot and tears, still forced himself forward.
"Aren't we friends?!"
…
And during this same stretch of time, Ozz had already completed most of his Supernova capture plan.
One Instant Transmission Kick.
Urouge didn't even have time to convert the karma. He felt his waist nearly snap, coughed blood, and collapsed.
"What kind of joke is this… what monstrous strength?!"
This was beyond the upper limit of what he could absorb and transform.
Ozz's kick hadn't even fully retracted when a massive dinosaur lunged in, jaws snapping.
As it charged, it tried to call for support.
"Hawkins! You've got a bounty over a hundred million. You're really going to surrender that easily?!"
Normally, that kind of provocation wouldn't work on Hawkins.
But Ozz spoke up anyway.
"I'm starting to feel warmed up. Hawkins, you come too."
Ozz didn't mind having another punching bag.
And if he didn't let Hawkins personally feel the gap in strength, the guy might regret later not resisting like the other hardheaded Supernovas.
"…Fine."
Since it had come to that, Hawkins's pride as a Supernova flared. He transformed instantly into a massive straw effigy.
"Demon Subjugation Form!"
Drake's bite charge hit nothing but air, but the razor straw from Hawkins's transformation finally did something.
It sliced across Ozz's neck.
In the next instant, a head flew up.
"What?!" Hawkins himself froze, not to mention the captured Supernovas and Urouge.
"I… I killed Mr. Ozz?!"
Hawkins stared at the straw in his hands. There wasn't even a drop of blood.
He fell into deep doubt.
Then something jaw dropping happened.
"Once an ability's been developed, even turning younger makes it easy to return to an awakened state."
The headless body was holding its own severed head.
Ozz's head was still talking.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the head reappeared on the neck as if it had never left.
Yes.
In that split second, Ozz had connected the space between his neck and his head using his power.
This was the awakened strength of the Warp Warp Fruit.
Space.
An immortal body.
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