A few minutes earlier…
Shanks had still been explaining exactly how he and Makino got together.
It all started on the second night after Cain and the others left.
That evening, the Red Hair Pirates had gotten completely drunk and eventually dragged Kuzan—who had been drinking right alongside them—back to the ship.
Shanks did not go with them.
Instead, he lay alone on the roof of the bar, staring off into the distance and thinking about who knew what.
Then came the soft thud of footsteps across the roof tiles.
Shanks turned his head.
It was Makino.
She waved slightly.
"I brought you a blanket."
Holding the folded blanket in her arms, Makino carefully approached, her footsteps making small tapping sounds against the tiles.
Shanks hurriedly sat up and waved her off.
"I'm fine, really."
"No."
Makino draped the blanket over him, then reached forward and fastened the button near his collar.
"You'll catch a chill."
"During the day is one thing, but at night, remember to close your collar properly."
She paused.
Then finally explained why she had come.
"People around the village have been saying lately that… you're planning to confess to me."
Her voice suddenly grew flustered.
"Maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself…"
"But even if that's the case, I thought I should probably confirm it with you directly."
Makino nervously waved both hands in front of herself.
"I don't mean anything strange by it! I just want to understand what you're thinking. No, wait, what I mean is—"
"So that's why."
Shanks looked at her.
Her hands were still waving nervously right in front of his chest, and somehow even he started feeling awkward.
He abruptly turned his head away and stared at the moon.
"Actually, I was thinking about the same thing just now."
"Uta told me recently that my life skipped an entire stage."
"I never fell in love with anyone. Never dated anyone."
"I just suddenly became a father and started carrying all the responsibilities that came with it."
He paused.
"And honestly, I never really knew how to be a father either."
"Even Captain Roger and the others who raised me never had any experience being fathers themselves."
As for his biological father…
That relationship existed in blood alone.
"And after everything that happened with Uta, I've always blamed myself."
"So I threw everything I had into being a captain and being a father."
"I didn't dare try becoming anything else."
"I was afraid I'd just end up hurting someone again."
Makino listened quietly.
Then she smiled.
She turned and sat beside him, resting her chin on both hands as she looked up at the moon as well.
"You don't need to blame yourself that much."
"Everything has a first time."
"You have to be willing to try, Shanks."
Shanks glanced toward her.
Moonlight fell across the side of her face, softening her features.
Makino continued,
"Mr. Garp rarely came back when Cain and Luffy were little, so I was the one who went over to check on them every now and then."
"Later, after you all left and they moved to Mt. Colubo, I met Ace and Sabo too."
"Before I knew it, I was looking after all of them."
"I naturally started putting myself into something like a mother's role."
"Even Mayor Woop Slap used to tell me I was far too mature and didn't act like a young girl at all."
She smiled faintly.
"Even now, the people I worry about most aren't myself."
"It's still Luffy and the others."
"So when you talk about feeling trapped inside a role like that…"
"I understand it very well."
Shanks blinked.
Then, almost without thinking, he used his remaining right hand to pull half of the blanket off himself and drape it across Makino's shoulders.
"Then I guess the two of us are pretty similar."
Feeling the warmth of the blanket settle over her, Makino unconsciously shifted a little closer.
"Yeah."
She turned her head toward him.
"So… how are you planning to answer that rumor?"
Shanks was silent for several seconds.
"It's true."
Makino's fingers tightened slightly.
"Some of it started because everyone else kept pushing the idea, sure."
"But that isn't the only reason."
"I really do want to enter the next stage of my life with you."
He stopped.
"No…"
"For me, I guess it's actually a stage I skipped and need to go back to."
Makino said nothing.
Shanks looked toward the distant sea.
"But I don't know whether I'll be any good at it."
"I couldn't even be a proper father, so being someone's—"
"Then try."
Makino interrupted him.
Shanks turned.
Their eyes met.
"Try."
She repeated it, her voice steadier this time.
"Like I said, everything has a first time."
"You try doing what you're supposed to do."
"I'll try doing what I'm supposed to do."
Her cheeks slowly reddened.
"Because I want to experience that other stage of life with you too, Shanks."
The words were technically indirect.
Yet somehow, both of them had plainly confessed their feelings to one another.
There were a few detours and awkward turns in the way they said it, but they both understood perfectly.
In the quiet night, the pounding of their hearts suddenly seemed impossibly loud.
Shanks opened his mouth.
His voice came out a little dry.
"I…"
"You don't have to answer immediately."
Makino lowered her face toward her knees, leaving only her eyes visible as she stared toward the sea.
Her ears had turned bright red.
"Neither of us has ever dated anyone before."
"This is the first time we've had to figure out how to act as a couple."
"So think about it properly."
Shanks stared at her.
Then nodded.
"There's nothing left for me to think about."
His answer came without hesitation.
"If I'm doing this with anyone…"
"It has to be you."
Makino lifted her head.
Then she leaned directly against Shanks' shoulder, her ears so red they looked ready to burn.
Shanks instinctively tried to wrap an arm around her.
But the left side of his body was empty.
That arm was long gone.
He paused.
In the end, he simply shifted his body slightly so that more of the blanket covered Makino.
Seeing that, Makino wrapped both arms tightly around his waist instead.
She squeezed him hard for quite a while before finally loosening her grip.
And the two of them stayed like that, talking about whatever came to mind.
Moonlight shimmered across the sea.
Wave after wave rolled toward the shore, their rhythmic sound filling the quiet night.
Neither knew how long they had been talking before they both suddenly froze.
"Aaaah…"
Makino buried her face in her knees again, sounding mildly exasperated.
"We're supposed to be learning how to act like a couple."
"How did we end up talking about the kids again?"
Shanks scratched the back of his head and laughed helplessly.
"Maybe we still haven't adjusted to the change."
"This won't do."
Makino sighed, resting her chin on her knees.
"We just finished saying all those things, and the moment we start talking, we go straight back to the children."
"Because that's all we know how to talk about."
Shanks gave a self-deprecating smile.
"Other than the kids, I honestly don't know what else I'm supposed to talk to you about."
"And it isn't like we can just throw away all our responsibilities and pretend those parts of our lives don't exist."
"Right."
That single sentence suddenly gave Makino an idea.
She stood up so quickly that the blanket slid from her shoulders.
"If we can't abandon our responsibilities…"
"Then we can at least forget them for a little while."
She grabbed Shanks by the hand and dragged him back down into the bar before he could argue.
Their footsteps thudded loudly down the stairs.
"Then let's drink."
Makino placed two glasses on the table, popped open a bottle, and poured amber-colored liquor into both until they were full.
"Cheers."
Shanks looked at her and smiled.
He lifted his glass.
"Cheers."
…
"And then we kept drinking."
Shanks continued telling the story.
"And we really did manage not to talk about any of you."
"But…"
He scratched the back of his head.
"I'd already been drinking with the crew earlier, and then I had a whole lot more with Makino."
"Eventually, I entered a pretty strange state."
He thought about it.
"I mean, it definitely helped the two of us get closer."
"But once I'm properly drunk, I have this habit of encouraging everyone around me to drink more too."
"Yeah."
Makino took over, smiling helplessly.
"Shanks kept pushing drinks on me."
"One glass after another."
"Eventually, I got completely dizzy."
"And when I couldn't take any more, I dragged him to the bathroom so we could make ourselves throw up."
Koala and Uta sat there with Bella in their arms, quietly listening with wide-eyed surprise.
They never would have guessed that the reason Shanks and Makino ended up together…
was indirectly because of all of them.
Ace.
Sabo.
Cain.
Luffy.
And, on Shanks' side, Uta.
Shanks continued,
"After throwing up, I finally sobered up a little."
"But both of us were still pretty drunk, so a lot of things afterward started getting… difficult to control—"
He never finished.
Cain's fist was already covered in Armament Haki.
Tiny arcs of lightning gathered from his mouth and layered themselves over his knuckles as he cracked his fingers loudly.
"Were you seriously planning to tell us what happened after that?"
"Of course not!"
"Then why the hell did you say 'difficult to control'?!"
Cain glared at him.
"Don't tell me you weren't planning to say more!"
"You're just bragging, aren't you?!"
"You know what? Just get electrocuted!"
"I wasn't bragging!"
…
Naturally, Cain did not actually attack Shanks.
At most, he had Sabo give Shanks an electric shock that turned his hair into an afro.
That was enough to vent a little of Cain's lingering resentment.
After all, Big Sis Makino was standing right there.
No matter how badly Cain wanted to beat up that red-haired bastard, he could at least wait until she left the room.
With those thoughts in mind, Cain walked toward the door.
Only then did something suddenly occur to him.
He had almost forgotten.
The situation outside was still complete chaos.
He obviously needed to step in and stop the fighting.
Uta could not conveniently appear in public right now, while Sabo and Koala were both members of the Revolutionary Army.
If any Marines recognized them, things would become much more troublesome.
So the only person who could safely go outside and straighten everything out was Cain—the pirate who publicly claimed he was "protecting Uta of his own free will."
Cain gave Uta and the others a reassuring look and reached for the doorknob.
At that exact moment, his Observation Haki suddenly screamed a warning.
That only made him more determined to get outside.
Cain yanked on the door.
Nothing happened.
Only then did he remember that Lucky Roux had locked it from the outside.
And then—
BOOM!!!
The door was violently smashed inward by an enormous force.
A solid sphere of ice wrapped in bone-chilling cold came hurtling directly into Cain's face.
The impact sent the ice ball bouncing high into the air—
straight toward Shanks.
Shanks reacted instantly.
He lightly stepped off the floor and leaped upward, drawing Gryphon with his right hand.
The blade flashed.
Because his Observation Haki had already shown him that the strange object could not be destroyed easily—and increasing the force of his attack would only risk hurting everyone else—he did not use Haki.
He simply used Gryphon to smash the ice ball downward.
Cain had only just turned his head to see what was happening.
And the damn thing came straight at his face again.
BANG!
'Shanks, you bastard!'
'You did that on purpose, didn't you?!'