Chapter 623 Let me tell you the story of your father

In front of the cabin in the woods deep in the mountains of Korpo, there was a sound of fighting...

It may not be accurate to call it a "fight" because it was just one person "beating" the other unilaterally.

Bang! The broken water pipe stained with blood hit Shanks' face fiercely.

Bang! Bang! Bang…

Blood splattered everywhere, and Shanks was beaten by the angry Ace with a stick until his head was broken and bleeding.

Shanks is not Lynch, and he does not have the instinct to train iron into muscles and bones, which has almost turned into a passive skill... When he did not use the armament color and gave up all defenses, facing a boy like Ace, who was only ten years old but had been "traveling and training" on Mount Korpo and was even able to fight with wild beasts, Shanks would be beaten black and blue if he attacked madly.

Luffy looked very angry and clenched his fists tightly.

Huh? Tulip found that although her son was angry, he just glared at Ace who was beating up Shanks, and she resisted the urge to go forward and stop Ace.

Hehehe...Tulip's lips curled up into a slight smile.

It's hard to say whether she's happy or not, after all, people with different personalities make different choices. Not stopping Ace doesn't necessarily make her seem greater than running over to stop Ace from beating up Shanks; but she does have a new respect for her son.

The bandits Dadan and his gang stood at the door of the cabin in astonishment and bewilderment, looking at everything that was happening before their eyes. "Ace is too scary..." "He is indeed the 'blood of the devil'." "Fortunately he didn't hit me!"

"..."Karp just stood there with his arms folded, watching and listening, without saying a word or trying to stop anything.

“Huff…Huff…Huff…”

After fighting for a long time, Ace finally got tired. He stood there holding the water pipe, breathing heavily, looking hatefully at Shanks, who was lying in a pool of blood with a bruised face, and said coldly: "That bastard who abandoned his wife... is not my father. Don't mention him to me!"

His hands trembled slightly, and blood dripped down the water pipe onto the grass and flowed into a pool of blood.

Bang, a pair of leather shoes stepped in a pool of blood. Garp walked over with his arms folded, looking down at Shanks who was lying in a pool of blood. The latter was already covered with scars all over his body and face, and there was a trace of sadness and pity on his unrecognizable face.

Karp said calmly: "Roger turned himself in, and in prison, he entrusted Esto to me."

Huff... Huff... Ace's eyes were covered by shadows. He gasped and tremblingly grasped the blood-stained water pipe.

"Later, I found his mother who was pregnant with Ace in the South China Sea." Garp slowly talked about the past many years ago. "In order to avoid being hunted down by the World Government and killing Roger's bloodline, Lu Jiu insisted on being pregnant for twenty months before giving birth to Ace..."

After hearing what Garp said, Ace pursed his lips and turned away.

"Are you going to run away?"

Suddenly a voice made Ace's pupils shrink, and he stopped in his tracks with a bang.

"..." Ace turned his head sharply, "Who do you think would run away?!"

He glared at the guy who was a few years younger than him, "Nothing but a weak coward."

"You're the weak one!" Luffy made a face, "I think people who can laugh even when someone throws wine at them are powerful! You have no idea how powerful Shanks is. If he wants to beat you, one hundred, no, one thousand, even ten thousand of you are no match for him!" He stuck out his tongue in disgust, "But he was willing to be beaten like this by you! And now you want to leave, isn't that weird?!"

Luffy's words made Garp, Tulip, and Ace all look at him, Shanks was still lying in a pool of blood.

"..." Garp sighed softly, "It was as if everything in my body was burned up. After giving birth to Ace successfully, Lu Jiu died. Later, I brought Ace to this remote country in the East China Sea..."

Ace finally did not turn around and leave. He stood there, holding the bloody water pipe stubbornly with a gloomy look on his face.

“…”

Shanks, lying on the ground with a bloodied head and a disfigured face, listened in silence. Suddenly, he raised his bloody hand and grasped the dark sky outside the gap in the woods. "I... once asked Captain Roger a question: Is it really good for me to be born?"

"......?!" Ace never expected that the man who was beaten bloody by him would say such a thing.

This simple sentence made Ace's pretending to be strong heart tremble violently.

The freckled boy opened his mouth slightly and looked at the man who was holding up his bloody hand in a pool of blood. The latter was talking to himself: "I am the son of Captain Roger's enemy... My father was the biggest villain in the world at that time... Later, he was eliminated. ... Captain Roger adopted me on the ship... For a while, I was confused. With such blood, would anyone really want me to live?"

"That's what the captain answered me..."

In a pool of blood, Shanks slowly sat up. In the gaps between the bruises, one could vaguely see the corners of his mouth curled up and the tears in his eyes, "'What nonsense are you talking about? You've already been born into this world'..."

huff… huff…

Ace's breathing became heavy again.

He didn't want to cry at all, but his eyes were filled with warmth and sadness. He had no choice but to grit his teeth, put on a vicious look, and squeezed out the words from his heart, "I said... don't mention it, that bastard!"

"'Whatever other people do...'"

Shanks looked at Ace and said to himself slowly, "'Since I am still alive, even if I only have one day left, I will live with my head held high.'"

It was like the final blow that pierced his heart, and Ace went completely crazy.

"I told you to stop talking!!!"

The freckled boy closed his eyes tightly, roared, and swung the bloody water pipe at Shanks.

Bang! Karp grabbed the bloody broken water pipe. The force of the water pipe falling down... was not that great, and he could easily hold it.

Ace still held the broken water pipe tightly, his head lowered, his shoulders shaking. He didn't dare to look up, speak, or make a sound.

“…”

Looking at this stubborn boy who loved to nitpick, Karp had tears in the corner of his eyes.

He sighed softly, pulled the water pipe over, squatted down and pressed Ace into his arms.

“…”

Luffy stared at all this in a daze. Tulip squatted down, put her arm around her son, leaned on his shoulders, and stroked his head gently.

"What on earth is going on here..."

The bandit Dadan and his family were completely stunned. They felt like they had heard a lot of big things which they could not understand but seemed very impressive.

Gurgle, gurgle, a sudden rumbling sound of the stomach broke the atmosphere.

Everyone looked at Luffy. Luffy touched his belly and looked at the wild boar where Ace was originally sitting. He pointed at it with a smile, drooling from the corner of his mouth, and said, "Can I eat it?"

Garp smiled and turned around and said, "Dadan, Ace's treat today, let's eat outside."

"Oh, okay, then we--" Dadan's family nodded. They had been coveting the wild boar hunted by Ace for a long time, but they heard Cap say: "Oh, not including you. Let's eat roasted wild boar outside tonight."

The meat was gone, and Dadan angrily asked, "Why don't you include us?!"

Karp picked his nose and said nonchalantly, "Oh, is this your prey?"

Dadan and the others stopped talking. Indeed, Ace lived here, and they only provided Ace with a bowl of coarse rice, a glass of water, and a floor to sleep on every day. Compared with the meat that Ace hunted every day, it seemed a bit insignificant... But that's not how they calculated it, right? They took a big risk by taking Ace in!! Obviously, Garp was not the kind of person who would care about how they calculated the bill. He smiled and said to Ace who bowed his head: "Since you didn't refuse, I will take it as your agreement to treat us."

"..." Shanks, with a bruised face and nose, smiled slightly.

"Oh! Time to eat meat!!!" Luffy was the only one who was excited. He rushed towards the wild boar with saliva drooling. He was caught by Tulip with one hand, and his two short legs kicked in the air.

……………………

"Eh?!!!!!! Ace's dad is the Pirate King?!!!!!!!!!"

At night, a bonfire was lit in the forest. The wild boar was on the grill, and golden fat kept dripping onto the flames of the firewood.

Luffy was chewing on the wild boar barbecue, his mouth full of oil, and his eyes were about to pop out of his head in shock.

Ace sat opposite, the flames of the bonfire flickered, and his dim expression could not be seen clearly.

"Didn't you listen carefully before?" Tulip was speechless. Was her son a little stupid? She took out a handkerchief, wiped the grease from Luffy's mouth, and cut a large piece of the best meat from the wild boar barbecue and handed it to Luffy, "Shanks said that he was adopted by Ace's father on the pirate ship..."

“Huh?!!!!!!!!”

Luffy took a bite of the fragrant barbecue cut by his mother, and was shocked again when he heard the words, and his eyes almost popped out, "Shanks is a crew member of the Pirate King?!!!!"

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

Beep, beep, there were occasional explosions from the bonfire, and Luffy's startled movements were just like a background board...

Looking at the dancing flames, Shanks suddenly said, "Sixteen years ago, Captain Roger contracted an incurable disease."

These sudden words not only caused Ace's pupils to shrink instantly and he looked up at Shanks, but also surprised Garp and Tulip on the opposite side, and they all looked over.

Tulip had certainly never heard of such a thing; in fact, even Cap had never heard of it.

Garp murmured, "I see... No wonder that guy chose to surrender himself..."

If he could live to witness the times, how could a guy like Roger be willing to use his last words to open up a bullshit "Great Pirate Age"? Before the so-called "Great Pirate Age", weren't there pirates chasing and fighting for supremacy on the sea? If he had more life left, Roger would certainly be more willing to witness with his own eyes the future he foresaw... Garp held his forehead and said nothing.

Shanks picked up a branch and poked the bonfire, looking at the flames and muttering to himself: "Although Garp had been chasing Captain Roger for a long time, and they were enemies in name but friends in reality, he is a navy after all, and he knows only a limited amount of things."

He turned to look at Ace, "Ace, I know I have no right to comment on your life. But... let me tell you about Captain Roger and the experiences of the pirate group in the past."

Ace pursed his lips tightly and said nothing.

"Even if you still choose to hate him in the end, you should at least know a little more..." Shanks said slowly, "The story of the man you hate, Gol D. Roger."

Ace lowered his head slightly, the flickering flames reflected in his eyes, and in his ears was Shanks telling him about his memories of the Pirate King and his pirate group...

…

Of course Shanks didn't start from the beginning, after all, there were many things even he didn't know.

He began the story from thirteen years after the Roger Pirates completed the Grand Line for the first time and arrived at the Water Star Island, only to find that the road ahead was blocked. This was when Captain Roger was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

…

"When the doctor said Captain Roger only had one or two years left to live..."

Shanks recalled the past events of many years ago. Although it was only sixteen years ago, it seemed like a lifetime ago. "Captain Rayleigh, Jabba, Spencer... Everyone found it hard to accept, but the captain said..."

[“Haha, there are only one or two years left,” Roger laughed heartily as he looked at the blood he coughed up from his hand, “Guys, then every day from now on will be precious! Hahaha… Let’s go, let’s find a better doctor first!”]

[He threw on the pirate captain's windbreaker, pushed the door open, turned around and said with a smile, "Why do you have that expression? Don't look at me like this. If I could, I would also like to live a few more years, hehehehe..."]

…

"We found Doctor Crocus at the Twin Capes at the entrance to the Grand Line and invited him to join us. Later, he accompanied us throughout the entire journey..."

Luffy was full and had fallen asleep on Tulip's knees, while Shanks was still slowly recounting the past events that were buried deep in his memory.

【“From now on, every day, there is no looking back!”】

[At the entrance of the Grand Line, a scarred island whale raised its head and groaned loudly, as if bidding them farewell. Roger stood at the bow, holding down his captain's hat, and laughed loudly at the sea in front of him. ]

[“Guys, set sail! ! ! ! !”]

[“Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!!” The pirates cheered and sang and danced as they ran towards the Grand Line. ]

…

"…When the captain was at his wit's end and thought he was going to die of illness because he couldn't find the great treasure, we met the Whitebeard Pirates at the time and luckily got a key person, so we were able to reach the final island."

[“Oden, it’s great to have you join us! Hahaha…”]

[Roger stood at the bow, looking at the rough sea and the sky covered with thunderclouds, with his beard raised and a smile on his face, "Fate, you took away the rest of my life, but at the last moment you sent Oden to me, you're not bad to me!"]

Ace stared blankly at the bonfire that had become much smaller, picked up a branch and poked it to make the flames reignite more vigorously.

…

"…We came to Fishman Island again and got some kind of prophecy about the future…"

[“It’s about to be born!” “Our king is about to be born…”]

[Ten thousand meters deep in the sea, giant sea kings communicate in their own language, "The ocean in the distance... is also about to be born!"]

[“The whales are also happy and look forward to the day when the two kings will meet.”]

[“There are still ten years before birth.”]

[“There are still fifteen years to go.”]

[On the pirate ship submerged in the sea, Roger looked at the deep sea in confusion, "Who is talking?!"]

…

"…I didn't go to the final island with the captain and his crew because I had to take care of my sick companions. I don't know what they saw."

Shanks looked at the clean white bones of the wild boar on the grill, "When the captain came back, he announced that the Roger Pirates... were to be disbanded."

Many years later, when Shanks said this sentence again, he still felt a little disappointed. "Although I knew that the captain would not live for many years, but when I heard the word disband from the captain's mouth... I have never cried as hard as I did that day."

"..." Ace listened to his story about the Roger Pirates' journey and remained silent for a long time.

Shanks continued: "The captain turned back and sailed back, passing by the places we had been to before, and his companions got off the ship one by one... On the farewell night, the captain thought of the prophecy we heard on Fishman Island, and he suddenly realized that it seemed that we arrived at the final island too early... He felt sorry for this reality, but there was nothing he could do. He had little time left in his life, and he would definitely not be able to see that future with his own eyes. But the captain was not sad at all..."

At this point, Shanks glanced at Ace who was keeping his head down and saying nothing. "One day in the future, who will be able to truly obtain the great treasure? The captain said proudly - 'It must be my son'!"

Ace, who was fanning the bonfire, paused, and was unaware that his fingers were burned by the flames.

(End of this chapter)