Only two days after the Dawn ship sailed out of the Devil's Triangle, Brook finally began to understand the true meaning behind Ash's words about shattering all the darkness that stood in his path.
In just two days, five pirate crews had been wiped out. Not one survivor remained.
It was not only Ash. Youki, the Kirk siblings, and even Tsuki, who had only recently gained his ability, showed absolutely no mercy when dealing with pirates. The heads of those with bounties were kept as proof, while the rest, together with their ships, were sent straight to the bottom of the sea.
Brook found it difficult to come to terms with it.
Although Ash had already made his attitude toward pirates very clear when they landed on Thriller Bark, witnessing every pirate crew they encountered perish without exception in only a few days still left Brook feeling uneasy.
Fortunately, the Dawn ship was enormous. During the day, Ash and the others each guarded different directions of the vessel, which meant Brook's discomfort went largely unnoticed.
After enduring this for two days, Brook finally sought out Kirk, the person he felt was the easiest to talk to among them, and cautiously revealed his thoughts.
"Our methods are too cruel? Us?"
Kirk looked at Brook with visible confusion.
After a moment of thought, he sighed.
"These words may not be appropriate coming from me," Kirk said while looking at Brook's troubled expression, but he still chose to continue.
"In my opinion, even though you've lived more than twice as long as I have, you still..."
"Yohohoho! Actually, I'm over eighty years old... Pfft..."
Kirk's fist shot forward.
Brook's jaw rattled and a tooth popped out.
Kirk calmly withdrew his hand and said with a blank expression, "I'm talking about the years you lived as a human. I'm not including the forty-plus years after you died and came back to life. And don't interrupt me again."
Brook bent down, picked up the fallen tooth, and replied politely, "Alright. Then may I have a bottle of milk first?"
"..."
Kirk silently tossed him a bottle.
After Brook drank the milk and reattached his tooth, Kirk continued.
"Although you lived nearly forty years as a human, your thinking is still far too naive."
"I don't even need you to say it. You're the type of person who truly admires the idea of brave adventurers setting sail."
Brook scratched his afro awkwardly.
Kirk continued speaking.
"But have you ever thought about what happens after these people sail out to sea?"
"Do they just travel the world and search for treasure?"
"How many treasures are actually scattered across the ocean?"
"And when they cannot find treasure, what do these people who produce nothing and drift across the sea all day eat? What do they drink?"
Kirk's tone gradually became colder.
"No matter how passionate they were when they first set sail, and no matter what grand dreams they carried, most of them will eventually walk down the same road."
"The road of plunder."
"And when that happens, the ones who suffer are always the ordinary people."
Brook opened his mouth, ready to respond, but Kirk raised a hand to stop him.
"Do you remember what Ash told you before?"
"Your Rumbar Pirates shouldn't fly a pirate flag."
"You searched for treasure, fought pirates, traveled between islands bringing music and joy in exchange for supplies, and you even became friends with a whale."
"Although you also produced nothing, you at least brought happiness to people. That can be considered a form of exchange."
Kirk looked directly at Brook.
"But remember one thing."
"You are the minority."
"The anomaly among pirates."
"For the vast majority of pirates, towns and villages filled with ordinary people are the real treasures."
"What they bring to islands is not music or joy."
"It is slaughter."
"And death."
Kirk's voice grew heavier.
"Some pirates may not harm their own hometowns. Some even protect them."
"But what difference does that make?"
"They protect their own homes while destroying someone else's."
"People like that are still scum."
Brook fell silent.
Kirk continued.
"And even if your Rumbar Pirates never harmed civilians, what about the people who became pirates because they admired you?"
"Have you ever thought about them?"
"Can you guarantee that those brave young men who idolized you and chose to set sail will not eventually become the kind of pirates I just described?"
Brook lowered his head slightly.
Kirk spoke again.
"Do you remember what Gecko Moria called you a few days ago?"
"Senior."
Brook felt a faint heaviness in his chest. Many of the questions Kirk raised were things he had never once considered in the past.
After a short silence, Kirk spoke again.
"There is something Ash once said that I think is especially accurate."
He leaned back slightly and stared at the sea.
"He said this world is gravely ill."
"Everyone knows the cause."
"Some people ignore it."
"Some people protect it."
"Some people want to overthrow it."
"And most people simply endure it silently."
Kirk paused.
"But what truly harms the world are the countless small corruptions that spread because of that illness."
Brook raised his head.
"Who was Ash referring to when he said that?"
Kirk shrugged.
"If you want to know, ask him yourself."
---
That night, everyone gathered around a bonfire again for dinner.
The warm fire crackled as the smell of food drifted through the air.
"Oh, it's simple."
Ash spoke casually while eating the fruit cake that Saff had prepared.
"The cause of this world's illness is the Celestial Dragons, parasites who exploit the entire world and break every rule."
Even though everyone was already used to Ash's outrageous statements, this was the first time he had openly pointed at the Celestial Dragons as the root of the problem.
Ash did not seem concerned at all.
"No need to treat them like something special. They're just Celestial Dragons."
"In the end they are still flesh and blood, not the descendants of gods they claim to be."
Ash took a sip of Saff's latest attempt at brewing Lime Fruit Wine.
The moment the liquid touched his tongue, his expression twisted violently.
With a pained face, Ash said,
"If they were truly gods, they would stand above the nine heavens and look down upon the mortal world."
"They wouldn't spend their days exploiting ordinary people."
"And besides, what kind of descendants of gods look like those fat-headed idiots?"
Ash snorted.
"Do I really need to explain what kind of power real gods possess?"
He snapped his fingers.
In the next moment, thunder roared across the sky.
A violent bolt of lightning flashed across the clouds, illuminating the night like daylight.
Everyone looked up instinctively.
Ash continued calmly.
"We have only received a tiny fragment of the power once possessed by ancient deities, yet we already wield this level of strength."
"Moria roamed the seas for more than ten years, yet he was nothing more than a toy in Bro Youki's hands."
"Youki didn't even use his true strength."
Youki nodded in agreement.
"That's right. The beings who granted us these powers are the real gods."
"The ones sitting on the Red Line are merely false gods."
Tsuki blinked in confusion.
"Moria didn't even face Youki's true strength before he died?"
"He really went down quite easily then."
Beside Saff, Perona shivered slightly as she listened.
Ash's expression darkened.
"I said Bro Youki didn't even use his true strength."
Tsuki froze for a moment.
Then realization struck him.
"Bro Ash... are you talking about the Half-Beast Form and the Divine Beast Transformation?"
When everyone first received their Devil Fruits, Ash had warned them not to transform recklessly. Because of this, none of them had ever witnessed what their full Divine Beast forms actually looked like.
Ash nodded.
His meaning was obvious.
Transform?
Absolutely not.
When Ash designed the Divine Beast Fruit of the Divine Beast, he had overlooked one small but critical detail. The Three-Legged Golden Crow transformation grew larger as his physical strength improved.
Out of curiosity, Ash once transformed fully on an uninhabited island.
The result was terrifying.
The Golden Crow that appeared could only be described as covering the sky and blocking the sun. When its wings spread, it completely overshadowed the entire island.
Its body alone stretched for more than a thousand meters.
If his transformation was already this massive, then what about the others?
If everyone transformed into their Divine Beast forms at the same time, the Dawn ship would not even be able to hold half of them.
Why transform into something that enormous for no reason?
To play jump rope with a dragon?
Seeing the stunned silence around the bonfire, Ash turned to Saff.
"The lime pudding tastes great."
He lifted the cup again and grimaced.
"But this fruit wine is so sour it feels like my teeth are going to fall out."
Saff covered her mouth and laughed softly.
"Alright, I'll adjust the recipe later."
===
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