One Piece: SSS-Rank Haki at Age Seventeen

The laughter and chatter in the courtyard slowly drifted away into the cool night air.

The campfire crackled softly, its flickering flames stretching the shadows of those gathered around it.

After a night of noise and singing, only quiet murmurs remained now—along with a shared, unspoken calm.

Luffy leaned against the root of an old tree, unusually quiet.

Uta was asleep in the crook of his casually outstretched arm.

The hem of her simple white dress had ridden up slightly due to her position, stopping midway along her thighs. In the swaying firelight, it outlined a breathtaking absolute territory.

It was a fragile boundary between innocence and unconscious allure.

Below the hem, her legs were slender and graceful, almost unreal—like jade carved by moonlight.

They were curled slightly in a natural posture, her skin exposed to the night air and the warmth of the flames, glowing with a delicate, porcelain-like sheen.

Her distinctive red-and-white hair—resembling a pair of softly drooping rabbit ears—trembled gently with each shallow breath, brushing against her smooth forehead and Luffy's arm.

Firelight danced across her delicate face. Her long eyelashes cast faint fan-shaped shadows beneath her eyes.

At the corner of her lips lingered a sweet, contented smile—as if she were immersed in a dream filled only with joyful melodies.

Every trace of peace and happiness was written clearly across her sleeping expression.

Luffy's fingertips lightly touched Uta's cheek.

The skin felt cool, like touching an exquisite piece of fragile porcelain.

He sighed quietly.

The sound vanished quickly into the sea breeze.

His Observation Haki spread outward like an invisible field within his awareness.

Yet what echoed there wasn't Uta's calm breathing.

It was the chaotic, exhausted "voice" buried deep within her heart.

It wasn't just the unusual drowsiness she had been experiencing recently.

It was something deeper—a fracture rooted within her soul itself. Even happiness could not fully cover it.

Knowing the full truth made that sensation unbearably heavy.

Through the flow of time, he could almost see the night of flames and shattered music—how it had carved a permanent scar into her heart.

"Glug… glug…!"

Gordon tilted his head back and gulped down cheap, harsh liquor.

Some of it spilled from the corners of his mouth, soaking into his already worn clothes.

His face flushed red unnaturally, his eyes wavering between drunken haze and fleeting clarity.

He wiped his mouth roughly and stared straight at Luffy with bloodshot eyes.

"Hey… Straw Hat kid."

His tongue slurred slightly as his hoarse voice rose.

"You're one of those… Emperors of the Sea now, right? One of the rulers of the ocean…?"

He didn't wait for an answer.

Or perhaps he didn't dare to.

Instead, he hurried on, as though pushing the words out with every ounce of strength he had.

"Take her away! Leave this broken island of nothing but rocks and memories!"

His gaze shifted to Uta, peacefully sleeping in Luffy's arms.

The warm glow of the campfire flickered across her pale face.

That calm, unshadowed sleeping expression—the kind he hadn't seen in ten years—instantly melted the turbulent emotions in Gordon's eyes.

What remained was a deep tenderness filled with regret and love.

"A girl in the prime of her youth…"

His voice lowered, thick with emotion but painfully clear.

"She shouldn't be tied here by the guilt and lies of a useless old man like me… wasting the little time she has left."

"She deserves… she was meant to have the whole world and its applause!"

The sea wind lifted his graying hair.

At that moment, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary, aging father who had finally emptied himself of everything—just to entrust his final treasure to someone else.

"Haa…"

Rayleigh let out a long breath and placed his rough sake bowl onto a wooden stump.

When he raised his eyes, the gaze behind them—seemingly cloudy with age—was suddenly as sharp as an unsheathed ancient blade.

It pierced straight toward Gordon.

"Tell us."

His voice was calm, but carried undeniable weight.

"The truth about what happened over ten years ago… when Elegia, the Island of Music, was destroyed."

He paused slightly.

His gaze swept across the sleeping Uta and the solemn-faced Luffy.

Each word fell with the heaviness of steel.

"I absolutely do not believe—"

"—that the man I watched grow up with my own eyes… 'Red-Haired' Shanks… would massacre innocent people and wipe out an entire nation."

For a moment, even the sea breeze seemed to freeze.

Only the crackling of the fire remained.

Gordon's body trembled visibly.

The bottle in his hand nearly slipped.

It was as though Rayleigh's words had drained away the last strength propping up his drunken courage.

His dry lips trembled.

His voice came faintly, like it was drifting from distant sea fog.

"Eleven years… seven months… and three days."

His eyes lost focus.

They stared toward the dark ocean—yet seemed to pierce through time itself, returning to that blood-soaked night frozen in flames and shattered music.

What churned there was no longer just sorrow.

It was a numb exhaustion born from years of torment.

"The details of that night… how every note turned into screams… how every flame devoured music…"

"They still burn in my dreams."

He slowly closed his eyes.

Then he forced them open again.

"And about Red-Haired Shanks… sir, you're right."

"Shanks didn't kill anyone."

His voice scraped like rusted metal.

"On the contrary… that night, aside from me, he was the only one who tried to stop the tragedy until the very end."

Rayleigh's pupils shrank slightly.

Gordon's gaze fell upon the sleeping Uta, filled with unbearable sorrow.

Then suddenly his voice rose, trembling with ancient terror and hatred.

"It was Tot Musica!!"

His fists clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked.

"That's no legend. No fairy tale."

"It's a Music Demon King that has slept within forbidden scores since ancient times!"

"It isn't truly a living being… but a conceptual entity that feeds on extreme emotions and music!"

He turned toward Uta again, his eyes filled with lingering fear.

"After Uta obtained the Sing-Sing Fruit, the purer her singing and the stronger her emotions became… the more she unknowingly awakened that thing sleeping in the abyss of melody."

"That concert that night… Uta's desire to create a perfect world… her love for the people…"

"All of those overflowing emotions became the perfect 'bridge' for Tot Musica!"

Gordon's breathing grew ragged.

"It seeped out through Uta's voice from an ancient musical score. It wasn't simple possession…"

"It was resonant control!"

"It amplified every emotion in Uta's heart—good and bad alike—twisting her power. Her songs that once created dreams became demonic music that unraveled reality itself!"

"The entire island of Elegia became its instrument!"

His voice cracked.

"Its power… went beyond ordinary destruction."

"It denied order and harmony themselves."

"The civilization built upon music collapsed like a sandcastle under its 'anti-melody.'"

"Even the Red Hair Pirates, at the peak of their strength back then, could only barely restrain it long enough to evacuate civilians!"

"Shanks' sword could cut steel… but it couldn't sever an intangible discordant scale."

"In the end…"

Gordon's voice weakened.

"It was Uta herself."

"When her strength was finally exhausted and she fell unconscious… Tot Musica lost its 'perfect vessel' and unwillingly retreated back into the ancient demonic score that anchored it."

He looked at Rayleigh.

"The destruction of the Island of Music was simply the aftermath of that demon's descent."

"Reality itself couldn't withstand a 'musical war' of that level."

"And Shanks…"

Gordon's voice trembled.

"He held the unconscious Uta—who had nearly been completely assimilated by Tot Musica—standing amidst the ruins of civilization."

"And he made a cruel… yet gentle decision."

"He couldn't allow her to wake up and learn that she had unknowingly become the channel that destroyed her homeland."

"That burden would have crushed her."

"So he chose to play the role of the pirate who took everything away."

Tears slid silently down Gordon's face.

"He told that story to the survivors."

"And then… in front of Uta—who woke with only vague memories, sorrow, and emptiness…"

"He left."

"He took his crew, took the 'treasure,' and walked away… while she cried and stared at him with hatred."

"She was only eight years old."

"And he left her behind… with nothing but the ruins of her home."

The sea wind howled.

It carried away Gordon's final words.

Shanks had never carried only infamy.

He carried the hatred of the person he loved—so she could have a chance to keep moving forward.

"Hey, old man."

Luffy suddenly spoke.

His tone was serious in a way Gordon had never heard before.

"You and Shanks… you both got one thing wrong."

"Uta is way stronger than you think."

"She'll cry… but after that, she'll keep singing."

"But this time, she'll sing for the things she truly wants to protect."

Gordon froze.

He watched as the young captain turned his head and smiled—a completely cloudless smile.

There was something burning within it.

A purity similar to that of the world-destroying songstress herself.

"Because…"

Luffy patted Gordon's stiff shoulder.

"Carrying heavy things and still moving forward…"

"That's what it means to be alive."

"As for the truth—"

"We'll tell her together… when she's ready to hear it."

Then came a soft sound.

Luffy pressed two fingers against the brim of his straw hat.

The hat that had endured countless storms tilted slightly downward, briefly shadowing most of his face.

Only his sharply defined jaw remained visible.

Then he lifted his head.

"And as for that…"

He paused slightly, as if tasting the name.

"…that 'Song Demon King.'"

Luffy stood up.

The shadow of the straw hat lifted from his face as the first light of dawn appeared.

He raised his hand—not pointing toward the sea or an unseen enemy.

Instead, he hooked his thumb toward his own chest.

"We'll handle it."

Each word rang like war drums across the shore before sunrise.

At that moment, the sea breeze seemed to part.

The rising sun leapt over the horizon.

Golden light broke through the gray-blue dawn mist—falling perfectly upon Luffy and the companions standing behind him.

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