Indeed, Luffy lost this battle.
Or rather, he had never even expected to win from the very beginning. Having witnessed Shanks's true strength, he knew that conquering him was a near-mathematical impossibility. Shanks's operational depth far exceeded that of any adversary Luffy had faced on his journey thus far. That terrifying, specialized force was the ultimate, unmatched offensive weapon across the sea.
Fortunately, he had successfully cracked the code and mastered the basics of that energy system mid-combat. Yet even with that breakthrough, he still couldn't detect a realistic pathway to a straight martial victory.
But his strategic objective today was never to defeat Shanks; it was to return the straw hat. That was their sacred covenant.
The exact moment he mobilized his absolute final attack, he had fully coordinated his trajectory. For an individual commanding top-tier Future Sight, orchestrating a precise behavioral layout wasn't exceedingly difficult.
The solitary reason he had failed to evade Shanks's preceding slashes was due to the crushing pressure of the Emperor's Conqueror's Domain drastically restricting his physical movements. Now that his own vessel could project a Conqueror's Domain, the two fields cancelled each other out, permanently dissolving his previous technical disadvantage.
Even so, he still lacked the raw mass to overcome Shanks in a direct clash.
But that was a non-issue. The exact microsecond he determined to return the hat, this precise tactical blueprint had been simulated a thousand times within his mind. He recognized that to achieve his true goal, this was the solitary avenue available. Approaching the perimeter of a Yonko actively deploying a Conqueror's Domain was a feat that normally defied structural logic; the maneuver could only be executed by trading trauma for trauma.
The exact microsecond their ultimate techniques collided, Luffy gritted his teeth and forcefully breached Shanks's inner circle. Predictably, the kinetic feedback hammered his physical frame violently back down toward the bedrock.
Yet the straw hat, which had previously been resting safely atop the massive boulder on the shoreline, had somehow materialized directly onto Shanks's head...
The deployment was a total success.
"Shanks, our promise from all those years ago... is officially fulfilled today," Luffy laughed unbridledly, his iconic grin splitting his face. "Shishishi..."
It took a long, dense timeline before the vanguard of the Red Hair Pirates finally managed to process the reality of the sequence.
Particularly Beckman and the senior executives who had logged dense files on Luffy's childhood psychology—could the reckless brat from the East Blue truly formulate a high-level tactical feint of this caliber mid-battle? They harbored deep analytical skepticism regarding the data.
"Bwahahaha... Boss, Luffy, the pair of you have genuinely delivered an incredible shock to our command structure!"
"Luffy, are your biological signatures stable?" Lucky Roux frantically closed the distance, extending his massive arms to lift the young captain off the stone.
The remaining executives quickly swarmed around his position. Looking at the external visual parameters, Luffy's condition appeared remarkably depleted, yet not a single member of the Straw Hat crew displayed a shred of deep anxiety.
This wasn't a reflection of detachment or a lack of care. Rather, it was because Luffy historically concluded every major conflict in this exact physical state; they recognized that projecting hollow anxiety was a waste of processing power. Their institutional mandate was to serve as the primary catalyst driving Luffy toward the absolute peak of his dream—providing him with the world's strongest support network. Anything else was irrelevant.
Furthermore, Luffy's physical trauma wasn't catastrophic; compared to the trials of his past, this was practically a scratch. Shanks had intentionally withheld his lethal edge, forcefully arresting his kinetic output the exact microsecond before the strike could inflict deep, structural damage.
Conversely, the veteran core of the Red Hair Pirates still mapped Luffy through the data files of a helpless little kid from over a decade ago. They genuinely detested watching the boy bleed.
Shanks slowly walked over to stand directly before Luffy, and the young captain snapped his head up to lock onto his gaze.
Four eyes met.
Decades of intense, fraternal nostalgia were impossible to translate into spoken syllables—nor did the moment require a single line of script. Their eyes contained the totality of their shared history; everything one wished to articulate was already fully processed by the other.
"Shishishishi..." Ultimately, Luffy shattered the silence, breaking into his familiar laugh. "Shanks, it's been an exceptionally long time."
"Yeah," Shanks smiled warmly, a radiant expression softening his weathered features.
Slowly taking the straw hat into his single hand, he carefully inspected the worn weave.
"Shanks..." Luffy started to articulate a thought, but the Emperor smoothly raised his hand to arrest the sentence.
"I have fully processed the data, Luffy. There is no requirement for further explanation. Listen to me," Shanks murmured, a profound wave of nostalgia coloring his voice. "This straw hat signifies the absolute inheritance of a sovereign will. Long ago, Captain Roger personally bequeathed it to my vanguard, and twelve years ago, I transferred that exact custody onto your shoulders."
"This straw hat is the definitive material symbol of the Pirate King's Will!"
Shanks's expression grew immensely solemn. This marked the absolute first time in global history he had unsealed the true lineage of the artifact.
The revelation hit the clearing like a physical shockwave.
The Pirate King, Gol D. Roger? The inherited will of the ultimate conqueror?
No one was more profoundly shell-shocked by the data than the Straw Hat vanguard. To their collective worldview, this straw hat carried an irreplaceable, sacred meaning. It was the absolute emblem of their entire faction—the solitary anchor of their identity. Even their legal designation across the global matrix was the Straw Hat Pirates.
And today, a supreme authority had casually informed them that their primary symbol was the living manifestation of the Pirate King's legacy. How could their cognitive systems avoid total bewilderment?
"The Pirate King's... Will..." Luffy's pupils shrank to pinpricks, his words faltering as his throat went dry.
"Precisely!" Shanks walked the remaining distance to stand directly over Luffy, holding the straw hat as if the artifact had suddenly been infused with a divine, glowing majesty.
Even Drake, watching from his coordinate, felt as though the simple weave was emitting a visible, radiant light. He couldn't decipher whether it was an actual physical phenomenon or a psychological trick generated by the gravity of the moment.
"Our historical covenant dictated that once your vessel touched the absolute peak of the pirate hierarchy, you would return this hat to my custody."
"Today, your strength has verified that milestone."
"However, my definitive decree is this: though the covenant has achieved absolute fulfillment, the inheritance of that will can never be permitted to terminate."
"The exact microsecond I placed this hat in your custody all those years ago, Captain Roger's sovereign legacy was formally transferred to your bloodline. And throughout your entire voyage, your vessel has never allowed this straw hat to sustain a single shred of dishonor."
"It remaining with your vanguard is the solitary, correct progression of destiny." With those words, Shanks casually reached out, placing the straw hat back onto Luffy's head.
Time seemed to freeze into a permanent, unyielding frame.
A complex storm of raw emotion fractured Luffy's gaze. This exact visual layout seamlessly merged with the memories of twelve years ago—the flowing light of destiny, a sacred promise finalized, a monumental inheritance solidified.
The true freedom of this world must be engineered by our own hands.
Those who yearned for absolute liberty would continuously flood the boundless oceans, pouring their raw, unbridled passion into the sea to preserve the eternal beauty of their dreams. The sovereign who represented absolute freedom—the Pirate King—required a true successor to anchor the line.
To rewrite the global matrix and unearth a fresh paradigm of liberty for the entire world. Real, unconstrained freedom.
"Shanks... I..." Luffy opened his mouth, yet the sentences failed to form. The historical symmetry of the moment was overwhelming.
The corners of Shanks's lips curled into a precise smile as he slowly swept his gaze across the assembled Straw Hat vanguard. Every single time his eyes brushed past a coordinate, the respective crewmate squared their shoulders and held their head high. They harbored an absolute, burning pride in carrying the banner of this crew.
"Your collective identity... is the Straw Hat Pirates. If you permanently separate the straw hat from your formation, can a sovereign fleet without its defining symbol truly claim that mantle? Consequently, absolute custody of this hat remains delegated to your perimeter," Shanks declared with supreme gravity. "Luffy!"
Hearing the proclamation, a brilliant, blinding light ignited within the eyes of the crew. The underlying reality behind their global reputation existed solely because their captain was "Straw Hat" Luffy. Without that central asset, could their armada... truly maintain its baseline soul?
The surrounding spectators remained completely silent, their eyes shifting across the layout. They recognized that Shanks's analysis was flawless. A Straw Hat fleet divorced from the physical straw hat would always lack its core structural depth. Only a crew anchored by the Straw Hat kid himself could ever be recognized as the true Straw Hat Pirates!
After a long, profoundly heavy silence, Luffy reached up with one hand, firmly anchoring the straw hat against his brow as a proud, unbridled grin split his face.
"Men! We are the STRAW HAT PIRATES!!"