"Really, Vice Captain!"
Shanks stared hard at Rayleigh, trying to find a trace of truth in those pitch-black eyes.
If, the Rayleigh standing before him possessed Rayleigh's memories, Rayleigh's strength, and everything related to Rayleigh, then, in Shanks's eyes, he was also Rayleigh.
But, at the moment they had met just now, the feeling Rayleigh gave him was still so wrong.
Even after more than ten years, he could still tell.
That wasn't the tone Rayleigh used when he spoke from the heart. Instead, there was a sense that his words didn't match what he truly meant.
"That is indeed the case."
Rayleigh's voice slowly rang out, filled with sighs and helplessness, "I did think about resisting, and I also thought about killing myself. But most of the time, I can't control my own body."
He paused, "Even now. I can talk to you, but my body isn't under my control. And sometimes, I'll even say things against my will."
As he spoke, his weathered face remained completely expressionless.
That appearance was filled with a strange sense of incongruity.
As if his consciousness and his body were two completely independent existences.
"This old man is way too weird!"
Luffy couldn't help speaking.
Although he couldn't understand the complicated exchange between the two sides, whether he was Rayleigh or not, consciousness and memories, things like that, he hadn't understood a single word of it.
But just by looking at the silver-haired old man before him, he instinctively felt it.
'Strange. Very, very strange.'
"This is His Highness's ability."
Gan Fall spoke calmly, his gaze falling on Shanks, "It's only to guard against the possibility of something happening, to prevent him from doing anything bad."
He paused, then slowly continued, "His Highness can control Rayleigh's body. If you can kill him."
His voice suddenly sank, "Then you pass. You'll be able to see the Poneglyph of Skypiea."
"What do you mean by that?"
Shanks suddenly clenched his fist, the veins on it bulging, wishing he could smash it into Gan Fall's face.
'Every time!'
'Every single time it is like this!'
They were like a bunch of clowns being manipulated by others, doing things that had already been arranged for them on a stage that had already been prepared.
Then they had to pay a considerable price just to obtain that pitiful reward they wanted.
'What are we?'
'The protagonists of a play being pushed along by someone else?'
"If you want to go to Laugh Tale..."
Gan Fall's voice contained not the slightest emotion, merely calmly stating the facts, "You need to gather all four Road Poneglyphs. And if you want to uncover the secrets of the three Ancient Weapons and learn what lies on Laugh Tale, you need to decipher the Poneglyphs from these five places: Arabasta, Skypiea, the Mermaid Kingdom, Dressrosa, and the Sabaody Archipelago."
"You can just collect the four Road Poneglyphs and go directly to your destination."
He paused, a trace of amusement showing in his tone, "As long as you believe that, when you begin the final battle there, you are qualified to fight against us."
Although, given Gan Fall's position, he was nowhere near qualified to stand on the stage of the final battle.
"And if you want to obtain these five Poneglyphs," he slowly said, "then naturally, you have to pay the corresponding price."
"However, each place also has a corresponding reward."
"Heh!"
Shanks laughed at himself, his smile filled with bitterness and anger, "You really are treating us like a bunch of warriors clearing stages. That guy really does think he's above everyone else."
From the sound of it, he already understood.
In that person's eyes, he and his companions were nothing more than a group of clowns for his amusement.
Right now, perhaps Rosse was sitting high above in the clouds, watching the struggles of this group of ants like he was watching a show.
"You can choose not to do it. That is your freedom," Gan Fall neither agreed nor disagreed.
If you want to obtain something, you must lose something.
That was how this world had always been.
Back then, Skypiea had also made a choice.
Only now, looking back, their choice back then had been the correct one.
Otherwise, perhaps today, he too would have become one of the pawns before him.
"I don't want to act according to his plan!"
Shanks snorted coldly and turned to leave.
But just then.
"Hey! Old man!"
Luffy suddenly stood up and shouted, "You mean, as long as we defeat you guys, we can get stronger and become the Pirate King, right?"
Those words made Shanks stop in his tracks, his expression becoming complicated.
When he turned around and looked at Luffy, it was as if he were looking at an old acquaintance.
"That's right," Gan Fall nodded, "You can understand it that way."
"Then I'm doing it!"
Luffy raised his head, walked up to Rayleigh, and broke into a bright smile, "Come on! Silver-haired old man! I'm gonna beat you!"
"...."
Rayleigh was silent for a moment.
Those pitch-black, hollow eyes quietly rested on Luffy, not moving for a long time.
After a long while, his voice slowly rang out, filled with complicated emotions, "You really are alike... No wonder..."
He paused, "No wonder fate chose you."
On Luffy, he truly and clearly saw Roger's shadow.
But, Roger didn't have Luffy's luck. He could only be a guide.
Although he wasn't the real Rayleigh, after dying and coming back to life, being able to personally witness what that future that even Roger could only wait for helplessly would look like.
That alone made it worth it.
"Then..."
Rayleigh slowly raised the sword in his hand. Purple lightning once again leaped across its blade, "Come!"
"Gum-Gum!"
Luffy took a deep breath, his arms suddenly stretching backward as his muscles swelled and expanded, preparing to unleash a blow with all his strength.
However, almost in the very same second that he shouted, a red afterimage shot past his side, moving so fast that even his eyes couldn't catch it.
It was Shanks.
Clang!
A deafening metallic collision suddenly exploded.
The lightning-wrapped sword and Gryphon, covered in black Haki, crashed together in midair, bursting with blinding sparks.
Two terrifying forces erupted at the point of impact, and the resulting shockwave swept outward like a gale, sending all the surrounding cloud-sand flying.
Luffy's body, still charging up, was struck head-on by the aftershock. His whole body slid backward several meters, nearly falling to the ground.
"Hey, Shanks, you..."
Luffy had just wanted to complain a little when, before he could finish, he was interrupted by an even more astonishing scene.
BOOM!
Endless yellow sand churned up from the ground, surging toward Rayleigh like raging waves.
Crocodile spread both arms wide, controlling the sandstorm filling the sky and attempting to swallow Rayleigh within it.
At the same time, Rayleigh, who was about to clash with Shanks, suddenly had dozens of slender yet powerful arms emerge from the surface of his body.
Those arms wrapped around him like vines, firmly locking his joints and torso and binding his body in place.
Robin's ability.
The three of them had almost simultaneously completed what could be called a perfect combination in that split second.
"Nice teamwork. Shanks, these companions you found are pretty good."
A smile curled at the corner of Rayleigh's mouth, his tone filled with approval and praise.
Although he couldn't control his own body, his consciousness was still clear.
The voice was still his.
"Hmph! Vice Captain, come evaluate me again when you can control your own body."
Shanks replied in a low voice. He swung his single arm, and the dark-red Haki on the blade suddenly surged.
Ssshh!
A slash condensed to the extreme tore through the air, like red lightning ripping through the night, striking straight toward Rayleigh's body.
Shanks's figure didn't stop for even a moment. He followed directly behind the slash like its shadow, his blade mercilessly cutting through Rayleigh's body before passing straight through.
However, the instant he landed, there was not the slightest relaxation on Shanks's face.
The feel of the blade was wrong.
Too light.
So light that it was like cutting through a phantom.
The next second, just as he had expected, Rayleigh's slashed body suddenly dispersed, transforming into countless purple arcs of electricity that scattered in all directions.
Immediately afterward, his figure leisurely re-formed on the other side, dozens of meters away, completely unharmed.
He didn't even turn his head to look. With a casual swing of his sword, he shattered all the bullets flying toward him and the sandstorm rushing at him.
"This old bastard is really strong..."
Usopp raised an eyebrow, cold sweat already seeping into the palm holding the Kabuto.
His gun muzzle remained locked onto Rayleigh's figure, but his opponent's ghostlike speed and reactions made it difficult even to find an opportunity to fire.
"Heh! After all, he is the famous Dark King Rayleigh."
Crocodile narrowed his eyes slightly, staring hard at the lightning-wrapped blade in Rayleigh's hand, "But if I remember correctly, Rayleigh himself doesn't have a Devil Fruit ability?"
That clearly wasn't a swordsman's own technique.
That leaping, violent lightning was obviously the power of a Devil Fruit.
"Vice Captain indeed doesn't have a Devil Fruit ability," Shanks spoke in a heavy voice, his tone filled with gravity, "But if I'm not mistaken, this should be the Goro Goro no Mi's ability, right? You really went all out."
A top-tier Logia Devil Fruit had been casually bestowed upon a living corpse, who was essentially still an enemy.
The World Government's generosity and foundation truly made one feel suffocated.
"It is the Goro Goro no Mi. So you'd better be careful."
Rayleigh's voice came from a distance, actually carrying a hint of warning, "However, the one I have isn't the real Goro Goro no Mi. It's a mass-produced version made by a woman. Although it isn't the original, there isn't much difference between it and the original."
Before he had even finished speaking, his figure flashed again, narrowly avoiding a sand hand that suddenly thrust up from the ground.
"Sand-playing brat, ambushing people isn't exactly honorable," Rayleigh chuckled, "The person controlling my body can sense everything you do. But speaking of which, you're that rookie who challenged Whitebeard back then, aren't you? You've grown quite a bit."
Rayleigh's voice continued to ring out. Even while fighting everyone, he could actually spare attention to warn them.
Although Shanks, Crocodile, and Robin were fighting together for the first time, relying on their respective hard-earned strength and extensive combat experience, they gradually began to suppress Rayleigh.
After all, even with an additional Devil Fruit, Rayleigh still hadn't broken through the S-rank limit.
On Shanks's side, meanwhile, there were two S-rank and two A-rank fighters.
Four against one.
For Rayleigh, it was ultimately too much.
If they continued fighting like this, and Gan Fall on the side still didn't participate, Rayleigh's defeat would only be a matter of time.
However, the one controlling this body wasn't Rayleigh himself.
Clang!
After blocking another powerful slash from Shanks, Rayleigh's figure suddenly flashed, transforming into a streak of purple lightning. Under everyone's suddenly changed expressions, he shot toward Luffy, who had been knocked staggering by the aftershock.
"Hey, hey, controlling my body to bully the weak is going a bit too far."
Rayleigh's voice was filled with helplessness, but he clearly couldn't stop his own actions.
In almost the blink of an eye, he crossed more than a hundred meters and landed steadily in front of Luffy.
Looking at the enemy who had suddenly appeared, Luffy showed no fear whatsoever. Instead, an excited smile appeared on his face.
"Gum-Gum!"
Luffy took a deep breath, his arms swelling and expanding once again, his muscles rapidly inflating as if filled with air, becoming extremely thick.
At the same time, a layer of Armament Haki appeared over the surface of his arms.
The two enormous arms crashed down toward Rayleigh like siege hammers.
"Kid, let me teach you a lesson."
Rayleigh let out a sigh, his voice filled with regret.
The next second, the long sword wrapped in Armament Haki in his hand had already turned into a streak of black light, casually sweeping across those two enormous arms.
Ssshh!
Blood splashed out like a fountain.
Those two swollen arms immediately deflated like punctured balloons, hanging down weakly.
Luffy's face suddenly went pale, and he cried out in pain.
"On the sea, don't casually attack someone stronger than you."
Rayleigh slowly said this as he raised the sword in his hand, its tip pointing at Luffy's heart.
At this critical moment, Shanks's furious roar exploded from the distance, "Bastard! Don't attack Luffy!"
However, a single sentence was clearly not enough to make that controlled body stop.
Ssshh!
Ssshh!
Two sounds of blades entering flesh rang out almost simultaneously.
Rayleigh's sword ultimately veered off, piercing through Luffy's abdomen and pinning him firmly to the sand.
And Shanks's sword precisely pierced through Rayleigh's heart from behind.
Because the blade was covered in Armament Haki, even though Rayleigh was now a Logia user, he couldn't use elementalization to avoid this fatal blow.
"You've grown, Shanks."
Feeling the blade protruding from his chest, a relieved smile actually appeared on Rayleigh's face.
"Vice Captain..."
Standing behind Rayleigh, Shanks's arm trembled violently as he personally drove his sword into the other man's heart.
Precisely because he was close enough, he could truly feel that the person before him was Rayleigh.
He was using Rayleigh's body, speaking Rayleigh's words, and possessing Rayleigh's memories.
With such a person standing before him, Shanks couldn't deceive himself by saying that the one before him wasn't Rayleigh.
Even if he was merely an empty shell that possessed Rayleigh's body but not his soul, instead controlled by the World Government.
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