"Your father is... Pirate King Gol D. Roger."
It was Garp's answer to the question young Anne had pondered for so long.
Having heard the secret of her birth, Anne thereafter paid closer attention whenever she heard the name Pirate King.
"The world's a mess because of that damn Pirate King."
"What Great Pirate Era? To ordinary folks like us, it's nothing but hell!"
I knew. I already knew all that.
"My son, who went to study on the island with a city... was killed by pirates."
"Did that damn Pirate King die without any children of his own?"
"If he had any, would he have turned it into this living hell?! Would he have left his children to inherit this shitshow after his death?!"
I can't understand it either... why?
"If he has any kids out there, they must die."
"We've got to make them pay for the suffering that innocent people—like my son, who died—endured because of that old man's world. Tear them apart!!!"
The devil who turned the world into hell—the Pirate King's reputation was the same wherever you went.
And the hidden person I was thought of much the same. After hearing such things for over a year, I began to wonder.
Do I... deserve to live?
"Anne! Where the hell have you been running off to?"
"Hey, Dadan, I have something to say..."
"If you got hurt, who do you think Garp would hold accountable?! It'd be me!"
"What's your problem?! You've got food and shelter here—what more do you want?!"
"W-well..."
"If you really die running off on your own, I'll either run away or beg Garp that I had no idea! So you take care of your own life!"
I know now that back then, Dadan, who wasn't honest with me, was trying to protect me even if it meant speaking so harshly.
But how could a child like me have known her true intentions? Of course, we just fought all the time.
As that child, Anne grew up and when she turned seventeen, she set out to sea.
She gathered a crew and formed the Spade Pirates, and a year after setting sail, she felled one of the Warlords of the Sea.
That achievement put a bounty of over 100 million Berries on Anne's head, and at the same time she was offered an appointment as a Warlord of the Sea by the World Government.
"Anne, you've been offered a Warlord of the Sea appointment. What are you going to do?"
"Tell them to go to hell. I'm not taking orders from the Government or the Navy."
I wanted to prove my existence to the world.
I'm not someone who deserves to die. Being the Pirate King's daughter isn't all I am.
I wanted to be stronger and greater than anyone, and prove that I existed.
If I couldn't, it would've been better to die.
After some time, Anne entered the New World with the aim of challenging one of the Emperors of the Sea, Whitebeard. She raised hell in his territory until Whitebeard himself, who happened to be nearby, came to find her.
The old man, easily four meters tall and massive, wore a white crescent-shaped mustache fitting his epithet. Of course, Anne and her crew fell to the ground without even brushing his coat lapel.
Struggling to stand, Anne glared up at Whitebeard, and he, locking eyes with her, spoke.
"Grarararara! I've heard there's a brat who turned down a Warlord of the Sea offer."
"Let my crew go... but I won't run away!"
"You can still stand... You're not worth killing right now, brat."
"Little one, become my daughter."
"Bullshit... Are you serious...."
After blacking out, Anne awoke some time later on Whitebeard's ship.
At first she'd tried to fight, but her wounds left her easy to subdue. After receiving care from the doctors for several days and recovering, two men approached her.
"I heard you're all healed, Anne. So you're leaving now?"
"I told you, I'm not going to play that old man's daughter."
"Thanks for the meals while I was here... They were good."
"I'm gonna miss you, Shachi. It was great having such a lively little sister around."
"And who's this guy next to you?"
She spoke to the man standing next to Shachi, whose brown hair was tied in a round topknot, the sides and back shaved.
"I'm Marco, captain of the First Division."
"I don't understand. You and everyone here—you're all the same."
"Why do you call that old man 'father'? Is ordering you to call him that his hobby?"
"Because he calls us his sons. That's all there is to it."
"What...?"
"Most of us here, you included, have been rejected by the world."
"He calls people like us his sons. We like that, so we call him father."
After that, Anne, citing her reason of wanting to challenge Whitebeard again, joined the Whitebeard Pirates with her crew.
There, Anne continued fighting Whitebeard's enemies alongside his crew, building her reputation in the world. Sooner or later, recognized by all, she was offered the vacant post of Second Division Captain.
And when she was alone with Whitebeard to discuss the Second Division Captaincy, Anne revealed that she was the Pirate King's daughter and confessed her inner turmoil—that she believed she should never have been born.
"Grarararara! So you were Roger's daughter... I don't see much resemblance, though."
"I heard you fought him often. And yet you'll have your daughter aboard this ship?"
"You were so serious I wondered what you'd say. Turns out it was just some trivial worry."
"No matter who you're born from, every human is a child of the vast sea. No one is born undeserving of life."
"And Anne, like your brothers, you are a daughter I love."
The bit about challenging me was a lie. In truth, I wanted to see for myself.
On that day, Father accepted me as I was. I've never again asked the foolish question of whether I deserve to live.
I no longer feel compelled to prove myself to the world. In that way... I was saved.
But if anyone harms such a father...
Lost in memories, Anne threw a punch at the figure of Teach that emerged from the darkness,
"I won't let anyone get away with it!"
But as the darkness cleared and Teach's figure vanished, standing before her was Luffy, the one who'd been fighting him.
Luffy barely avoided her punch and immediately swung at her face. Yet Anne twisted her entire body—starting from her head, curling herself into a ball—and evaded Luffy's punch.
"You're still using [Jihwe] so well, on instinct instead of conscious effort,"
"That's why I learned [Jihwe] first among the [Six Powers]."
[Jihwe] is one of the [Six Powers] that uses the feeling of relaxation when you release tension in your body, allowing you to handle your body flexibly.
It's a technique that's well-suited to those with the right body type, regardless of strength. I knew it matched Anne, but to use it at that level...
"But now that I think about it, if you've become strong enough to learn [Advanced Armament Haki], the ability from the fruit you ate is completely useless..."
Thinking that, Luffy bent down, retracted his bent arms hardened with [Armament Haki],
He employed a technique that minimizes the force in each blow so it cannot be avoided, while pushing speed and reflexes to the extreme.
And in a moment he appeared before Anne and quickly threw a punch.
[Dragon Claw Explosive Fist].
Puh-buh-buh-buh-buh!
The black fist enveloped in golden [Armament Haki] rained down on Anne at such speed that a normal person couldn't even see the shape of the punches.
It was one of Luffy's [Dragon-Slaying Qi Gong] techniques, skewed to the extreme end of speed over power.
"Ughhh... I'm talking, sis..!"
But Anne held back Luffy's barrage, like a torrential downpour of fists, with both palms hardened by [Armament Haki].
Her palms didn't stop after blocking a single punch; her arms snapped and twisted, repeating the motion to parry each incoming blow.
Crazy... She's using [Jihwe] on each impact?
While Luffy was still stunned, Anne slapped his fist aside with her palm, throwing him off balance, and simultaneously swung her hardened leg in a massive arc.
Luffy caught the leg aimed at his torso, then kicked off the ground and flew up, using his [Moonwalk] to follow the trajectory of the blow.
He could only soften the impact. And I'm not the only one who can fly!
Anne thought this, kicked off the ground, and leapt with [Moonwalk].
With a leap far beyond the leaps of Zoro and Sanji, who had only recently mastered [Moonwalk], Anne chased after Luffy, but she fell slightly short of catching his flight speed, and the distance between them grew bit by bit.
If you only wanted to run, you shouldn't have started the fight in the first place...!
As she thought this, Anne saw Luffy suddenly form in his hand a sphere the size of a torso, condensed with golden [Armament Haki].
Minimum Time, Maximum Output.
[Dragon-Slaying Burst Bullet].
And seeing that, Anne swung a fist swathed in white [Armament Haki], sending a shockwave of its concentrated aura forward.
She was aiming for a ranged attack from the start...!
The [Dragon-Slaying Burst Bullet] not only pushed aside Anne's shockwave, but shot straight at her.
Kah-poom!
Struck down in midair, Anne plummeted to the ground and collapsed, and Luffy flew down to land where she had fallen.
"Ughhh..."
"..."
"Kuhk... Arrrgh...!"
"..."
"Hey! Don't you care about your sister?! You just dropped me from the sky!"
"You got hit by my shockwave, sister. It's obviously not fatal damage—stop whining."
"It really hurts... every bone in my body is screaming!"
Anne said this as she slowly propped herself up on the ground and continued speaking.
"It would've been better for you to defend against the shockwave rather than counter it head-on."
"Yeah... in hindsight, at that mid-range distance where you went for a ranged attack first, defense would have been better."
"You've always liked meeting my attacks head-on and overpowering them, so I expected you'd counter instead of defend."
"... That method only worked because I've always been stronger than you."
"By the way, the Devil Fruit I ate is pretty great too. It lets me use my aura more freely, so I can attack in various ways—that's proof."
"I like how I can keep flying without touching the ground with [Moonwalk], and it's even a bit faster than ordinary flight."
"While my sister's hurt, you just brag about your ability... you jerk."
Now she's calmed down a bit. If I'm going to try talking again, now's the time.
"Look at this, sis: this is the result of three years' effort by your brother, who's never beaten you properly."
"But this guy, who'd been in the Whitebeard Pirates for over twenty years, suddenly killed a crewmate who'd found a Devil Fruit and ran off. Do you really think someone like that did it over a simple quarrel or a momentary feeling?"
"Imagine those twenty years he spent on that ship were all part of his plan, and that's why Whitebeard—who claims to care for his children—told him not to chase. There's a reason for it."
"We can find out exactly what Teach was thinking by going there ourselves!"
"Why do you think he did it?"
"Even if the Whitebeard Pirates chased him for running off with the fruit, he might have backing strong enough to make it go away, or he might be powerful enough to beat most of the officers himself."
"And that Teach guy killed Shachi, who was the Fourth Division Captain, right?"
"How strong could Teach really be? Shachi might have been ambushed and killed!"
"Even if he is stronger than me, there are at least three people on our ship stronger than me, besides Father!"
The problem is I know Teach is definitely a monster stronger than those three! That's why I'm saying this!
"Okay, but if Whitebeard has those three strong officers and others too, why wouldn't he send a pursuit team?"
"How would I know! If I knew that, I wouldn't have come alone ignoring orders!"
"Not just Whitebeard's crew, but the Emperors of the Sea's officers are their core strength. They keep the New World's balance by checking each other."
"In that situation, you've got a traitor who killed a crewmate, stole a fruit, and ran off. And it's somebody who's known the crew for twenty years?"
"You can't send just anyone after someone whose heart is that black, especially someone who killed an officer."
"To handle it quickly and reliably, one of the three stronger than you should go. If not, at least one officer including you should go, and even better if we all go!"
"..."
"And why wouldn't he do that? If you pull that much force out of his crew, he risks attack from other Emperors of the Sea or even the Navy!"
"Whitebeard's staying put, worrying he might risk his remaining children's lives trying to avenge the dead, and look at you—you threw every tantrum and riot you could, and when that didn't work, you came here alone!"
Whitebeard's health wasn't good at that point, and if you take that into account, my argument about the safety of the remaining crewmates makes sense.
As Luffy delivered that mix of hypotheses, insults, and near-facts to Anne, he approached her with her head bowed, patted her shoulder, and spoke.
"There's a saying in the West Blue, sis: know your enemy and know yourself, and you'll win every battle."
"Do you think Whitebeard, who you love, will let Teach, the one who killed a crewmate, sit idle for his whole life? When the time comes, he's preparing to take him down under the best possible conditions."
"Whitebeard held you back not because he wants to let that bastard go, but to minimize collateral damage after gathering enough information...!"
As he said that, Anne suddenly threw a punch at Luffy's face.
Thwack!
Luffy blocked Anne's punch, but that wasn't her only one.
From the start, Anne had crossed her arms and swung both fists at Luffy, and with the opposite fist that Luffy couldn't block, she struck him in the jaw.
"Si-sis...!"
Because of that, Luffy fell to the ground, and with his vision spinning, he could only look up at her.
Damn... of all places to get hit, the jaw. My head's spinning, and all the damage I've taken is creeping into my brain as fatigue.
"I'm sorry, Luffy. Actually, I knew why Father forbade chasing Teach."
"Sis..."
"But I told you earlier—I was the Second Division Captain where a guy like Teach served."
"I couldn't stand that he killed my friend Shachi... letting Teach run loose in these seas was a decision I couldn't bear."
"That was a direct betrayal of Father's will—he vowed to love everyone on this ship as his children—and it was nothing short of tarnishing that name."
"You don't know, but... I really think of him like my own parent. He's truly precious to me."
"So for Father, I wouldn't hesitate to die."
Anne, her expression dark, gave a small smile and spoke again.
"But the worst-case scenario you and Father are imagining? There's no proof that it'll happen, so don't worry too much."
"Like always, he'll come back. So I'll go and come back~!"
At those words, Luffy turned his back and reached out toward Anne's retreating figure.
At that moment, Luffy overlaid that hand with the hand he once reached out with in his childhood.
In that damned past life I remembered, the most painful thing was being an orphan without a single family member.
It was the same before I remembered, but after knowing, how could I not appreciate the value of family?
So I don't not understand Anne's feelings. How could she let someone who hurt her family go unpunished?
"Sis! I'll go with you, sis~!"
"Hurry up, Luffy!"
Luffy, thinking this, recalled reaching out and running toward Anne's back in his childhood.
But sis, I'm family too, aren't I?
It's the same then and now—why do you try to go far away leaving me behind?
At that time, Luffy was slower than Anne, so the distance between them grew, and in his view, her figure became smaller and smaller.
I swore that once I got a little older, I wouldn't trail after her back out of embarrassment.
There was a time when just her growing distant terrified me... Looking back, I haven't changed at all since then.
I still...
Luffy overlaid the image of his childhood self reaching for Anne's back with his current hand reaching for her receding figure, and thought,
"I'm so scared that you might disappear."
Kugukugugum!
Anne, about twenty meters from Luffy and moving away, turned her head in surprise as a dark-red, lightning-like force rippled out in all directions behind her.
"What the hell is this... [Conqueror's Haki]?!"
Turning around, Anne saw Conqueror's Haki emanating from Luffy's body as he rose.
"Luffy, you're using Conqueror's Haki...?"
"Just like you lost someone precious, I've also lost friends I truly cared for after you left."
Under the sky dyed red on the day he lost his crew, Luffy's gaze fell as though Anne was standing at the center of that scene.
Like that day, Luffy rose from the ground exuding Conqueror's Haki, but now he looked very different from then.
Back then, the relatively small-framed Luffy had burned with fierce rage at Kaido. Now, his gaze was cold yet intense as he looked at Anne.
And Anne saw that Luffy's right eye had turned black.
"Witnessing the deaths of precious people with open eyes... has been enough since that day."
"I can't lose you too."
Luffy's right eye was darkened, but the pupil itself remained golden as he glared at Anne.