That year, Dragon was seventeen.
Young. Fierce. Burning with conviction.
He had grown up under the shadows of Garp, Sengoku, and Zephyr, learning martial arts, the Navy's Six Powers, and eventually awakening Haki.
Even at his age, he stood among the strongest of the new Marine generation.
If Kaido was the embodiment of raw pirate might,
then Dragon was the Marine world's answer.
And now—there was someone even younger: Sharn.
Every time Dragon faced him, something stirred inside.
That pull toward the sea.
That heartbeat that no rank or reason could silence.
"Get lost!" Dragon roared, voice trembling between anger and temptation.
Should he leave?
His father was the Hero of the Marines, a man who'd inspired countless others to dedicate their lives to protecting the world from evil.
If he—the hero's son—abandoned the Marines, what would that mean?
Could he?
Would he?
Or was this the moment to defy fate?
The wind was impartial.
It filled the sails of pirate ships and merchant vessels alike.
It carried the banners of the Marines just as easily.
Perhaps…
One day, he would leave.
But not today.
"Get lost!!"
Dragon clenched his fists. He would bide his time, gather allies, and strike when the moment came.
Justice existed everywhere—it just needed to be reborn.
"Dragon," Sharn's voice carried on the wind, "even the air can't drown out the sound of your heartbeat."
On the crude plank-built ship, Sharn sprawled out on the deck, laughing freely.
He was finally free.
A real ship—primitive, crooked, but his.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The island winds turned into a gale.
Dragon didn't want to see Sharn again.
He whipped up a massive typhoon that filled the sails and hurled the ship toward open waters.
Wolf clutched the edge of the giant sail, steering the vessel by brute force.
Dragon stood at the shoreline, watching as the strange ship shrank into the horizon.
"That lunatic…"
Thud.
He collapsed to his knees—not from exhaustion, but from the weight of choice.
Like a boy who'd broken the rules for the first time, he knew he could never lie to his heart again.
"Crewmates!"
Sharn's laughter echoed across the waves as the wind pushed the ship farther into the sea.
Whitecaps rose and fell; seabirds circled; massive fish breached and vanished beneath the glittering surf.
For a moment, everyone just looked at one another.
They'd all been imprisoned together—but hadn't actually known each other long.
Some didn't even know Sharn's name.
He sat cross-legged on the deck, a massive pot of wine before him instead of a cup.
He grinned wide.
"My name is Ronal D. Sharn!"
"And from today onward—I'll be your captain!"
"The Sharn Pirates will challenge every great power of this era!"
"One day, we'll claim the top seat of the seas!"
"We'll be rulers of the ocean! Kings of Kings—Gods among Gods!"
"From this day forth—The Sharn Pirates set sail!"
"Crewmates!"
"Let's head for the open sea!!"
Everyone blinked.
Wait… What?
Set sail?
On this?
A patchwork plank ship made with a giant's shovel and optimism?
Half the "crew" weren't even human!
No one agreed.
No one even admitted Sharn was their captain.
"Oi, Sharn! Enough nonsense!" Kaido barked.
"The crew's name will be the Beast Pirates! And I'm the captain!"
He slammed back a cup of wine and smashed the bowl on the deck.
"There's no way in hell I'm following some reckless brat who does whatever he pleases!"
"I'm New Human, thank you very much!" Moly interjected, her cheeks red and smiling.
She wasn't even sure if she should join, but she did want everyone to remember she was a Newkama.
"Gulp, gulp!"
"I don't even like wine…" she added, already chugging an entire barrel.
A few drops splashed over Moria's head.
"Hey!" the boy groaned, rubbing his bruised forehead.
"I'm supposed to be the boss back home! Why should I take orders from some no-name with no bounty?!"
"Also—can you people stop spilling drinks on me?!"
Before he could finish, a tub-sized mug of liquor poured straight over him—Sanjuan Wolf was drinking again.
"Delicious! Sharn's wine is the best!" Wolf cheered, swinging the empty tub aside—
right onto Moria's head.
Bonk!
The boy collapsed, unconscious.
"Sleep tight, little guy," Moly said kindly, using her shovel to curl the floorboards into a dome over him.
Kaido frowned.
Something felt off.
Why had Sharn gone quiet?
Before he could check with Observation Haki, Sharn reappeared before him in a blur of Soru.
He dropped a massive, unevenly drawn flag on the deck.
A skull emblazoned with dragon-scale ripples—the mark of the Black Dragon Zoan fruit.
"Wolf! Hang the flag!"
Wolf grinned and tied it around his own head.
"Looks good! I'm hungry again! I'll eat a whole island!"
Kaido squinted.
The symbol looked familiar—the same wave pattern that marked his own Azure Dragon form, though Sharn's was black.
Then it hit him.
He'd been tricked again.
"One Newkama giant, one idiot giant, one underfed delinquent kid—"
"Sharn, do you honestly expect me to recognize this as a crew?!"
He jabbed a finger at him.
"What we need is to return to the New World—to Hachinosu, the Beehive Island!"
That was Kaido's goal—to rise among the monsters of the New World.
The Blues were too small for men like him.
"You're right," Sharn said with a grin, "but first—where are we?"
His stomach growled.
"Guess it's lunchtime."
Moly appeared with an entire pile of food, apparently looted from a Marine warship.
"By the way," Sharn added, chewing on a fried pork cutlet, "does anyone here actually know how to sail?"
Silence.
No one did.
The ship drifted freely with the current, like a floating island.
Somehow, it slipped into the waters of the Flower Country, West Blue's mightiest nation.
Meanwhile, on the other side of that sea—
Inside the Flower Country, the Chinjao family's patriarch cracked his knuckles.
The point of his cone-shaped head glinted under the sun.
"Chief! Whitebeard's flag just appeared in our waters!"
"But there's also a strange giant ship approaching from the other side!"
Chinjao sneered.
"Edward Newgate dares enter my domain?!"
"Once I split open the Ice Continent and seize that treasure, I'll be the strongest in the world!"
"Let Whitebeard taste my Hasshoken and drill head!"
(Author's Note: I've been working hard lately, writing late nights after work to keep updates steady.
Thank you to everyone for your art, comments, and support.
Sharn's journey is only beginning—
May the winds guide us all.)
◇ I'll drop one bonus chapter for every 10 reviews (leave a review/comment!)
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon: patreon.com/KageNaruto