A few more months passed. Ace was born safely. However, unlike the joy in the original work, Rouge, who had successfully become a mother, showed little happiness on her face.
The Kuja female ship's doctor who delivered the baby brought the child to her, but she didn't even have the heart to hold it.
Makoto walked over and asked her, "What is this child's name?"
Rouge lowered her head and remained silent. After a long time, she said softly, "He and I agreed, if it's a girl, call her Ann... if it's a boy, call him Ace."
Seeing Rouge's lack of interest, Makoto didn't provoke her further and just left the room.
After going out, he said to Kaido and the others, "As agreed, raise this kid."
Then Makoto left and returned to Flower Capital. Now that Ace was born, to put it bluntly, whether Rouge lived or died no longer mattered.
But to be fair, Makoto still hoped this unfortunate woman would live. After all, being tricked by a scumbag was pitiful enough... there was no need to seek death. However, it all depended on Rouge's own thoughts. Makoto wasn't interested in being a babysitter.
During this time, Mrs. Yuigahama had been counseling Rouge frequently, though he didn't know if it helped.
Back in Flower Capital, Makoto gathered the girls who were preparing to jump through time, ready to travel to the world twenty years later.
"I'm entrusting the Kuja to you now, Hancock." Tritoma came before Hancock, now only seven years old, and formally passed the position of captain of the Kuja Pirates to her.
Hancock first looked at Makoto, then at Gloriosa and Shakky, and asked, "Are Gloriosa-sama and Shakky-sama leaving too?"
To be honest, with her only seven years old, about to become captain is a bit unsettling.
Although Makoto had already arranged for Queen Otohime to move into the Shogun's mansion to temporarily manage Flower Capital in Hancock's place until she came of age, the absence of several elders from Kuja still made Hancock uneasy.
Tritoma was also a bit speechless. She also didn't understand what these two elder sisters were thinking, suddenly wanting to jump through time too.
Hiyori, not yet three, upon learning that she wouldn't see Makoto for a long time, cried and screamed until she passed out from crying.
Yamato carried the sleeping Hiyori on her back, patted her chest, and assured Makoto, "Leave her to me with confidence."
Makoto smiled and ruffled her white hair. No matter what, long as she wasn't 'possessed', Yamato was relatively reliable.
Makoto then said to Yu, "Then I'm leaving it to you. For these twenty years that I'm not here, you'll be the one holding down the fort."
Yu immediately said, "Please leave it to me with confidence, Senpai."
During this time, Makoto had talked with him quite a bit, explaining some key points, and Yu had even taken notes.
Kei also bid farewell to her brother, Miyuki. Komachi kept telling her big brother and 'sister'-in-law to be careful while she was away.
Hachiman immediately retorted, "Aren't you just a janitor? You weren't much use when you were here either."
This pissed off Komachi, who gave her brother a good kick.
After everything was ready, Makoto called Nishikawa Toki, formerly Kozuki Toki, and had her activate the Time-Time Fruit's ability.
Toki put her hands together, emitting a dazzling light from her body, enveloping Makoto, the Aizono sisters, the Fujiwara sisters, and many other players.
The light lasted for a few seconds, then quickly contracted until it disappeared without a trace. Also disappearing were the figures that had just been enveloped.
Seeing Makoto and the others gone, Yu and the others let out a long sigh. For the next twenty years, they would have to rely on themselves.
Hancock, Yamato, Hiyori, and others, whose ages added up to less than the age of majority, began training day after day, waiting for Makoto's return.
Shortly after Makoto left, Yu and his group set sail again, traveling the world.
On one hand, they wanted to continue strengthening themselves this way. On the other hand, they felt it necessary to sail the world in a ship bearing Makoto's flag, so the world wouldn't forget their boss's greatness.
It should be noted, why did a rookie like Ace have the nerve to challenge Whitebeard in the future?
His own ignorance was one reason, but another important reason was that Whitebeard hadn't done many earth-shattering deeds during that period.
His deterrence had greatly decreased, giving many rookies the illusion that 'Whitebeard is old, can he still fight?'
Otherwise, why didn't they challenge Kaido? He'd smash their heads in.
Yu felt that this must never happen to Makoto. He would continuously travel the seas, showing the greatness of his Senpai to the endless stream of new people emerging in this world, and continue to solidify Makoto's position as the [King of the World].
…
Year 1500 of Sea Circle Calendar. Yu and his group traveled to the West Blue.
It's because a tragic incident called the [Ohara Annihilation] had occurred there not long ago.
It was said that scholars there had threatened world peace by privately developing Ancient Weapons, so they were destroyed by the World Government.
Yu and his group didn't believe a word of such nonsense, but they were somewhat interested and came to the West Blue to see the commotion.
However, while resupplying, they encountered a young girl who had run away. The girl appeared to be seven or eight years old, dressed in rags, her body dirty.
She was standing by the ship, looking up at the flag on the Otherworlder-Go that bore the name [Makoto].
Yu and his group, having finished resupplying, were about to return to the ship when they saw this little girl blocking the way.
"Move." Yu said expressionlessly.
The girl turned around, looked at Yu and his group, her gaze lingering on him for a moment, and immediately recognized him. The man standing at the front, with his hair covering one eye, was the famous [Gun Devil] Ishigami Yu.
The girl's eyes lit up. Then, she spoke, "I greatly admire the King of the World, Nishikawa Makoto-sama. I hope to join your team. Whether it's washing clothes and cooking, or cleaning and scrubbing toilets, I am willing to do anything."
Yu looked down at this little brat with some disdain. He wasn't short of people to clean and cook on his ship. Yu initially didn't intend to agree and turned to leave.
However, the girl stretched out her hand. Several petals grew from her palm, and the petals quickly transformed into the shape of an arm… the power of the Paramecia-type Flower-Flower Fruit.
"I can be useful." The girl's voice was firm. "No, I will definitely be useful to Nishikawa Makoto-sama in the future. Please believe me."
Yu stopped, hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded. "Alright."
The girl breathed a sigh of relief. She had heard about this Gun Devil's admiration for Makoto.
Sure enough, by constantly showing her admiration for Makoto, she had caught his interest.
But now the problem was, if they discovered she was the [Devil Child] Nico Robin, with a bounty of 79 million Belly, what measures would they take?
However, Robin didn't have time to think about that now. The Marine and the World Government were hunting her all over the world, and hiding under the umbrella of Makoto's forces was undoubtedly the safest choice at the moment.
Also in the same year. The Yukinoshita sisters entered the Grand Line from the East Blue, beginning to fight against pirates whose numbers were growing increasingly swollen with the advent of the Great Age of Pirates, who loved to kill, burn, and loot the innocent.
They distributed the wealth they obtained to the oppressed poor people, and the two became fairly famous bounty hunters in the first half of the Grand Line under the nickname [Yukinoshita Sisters].
…
Year 1502 of Sea Circle Calendar.
For some unknown reason, the Yukinoshita sisters suddenly vanished. There were rumors that they had been targeted by pirates for revenge and had died at sea.
However, in an unknown base, Dragon, Ivankov, Ginny, and others, who had visited Onigashima three years earlier to meet Makoto, looked at the Yukinoshita sisters walking into the base and said, "Welcome to the Freedom Fighters."
…
Year 1504 of Sea Circle Calendar. Fisher Tiger, the fish-man adventurer, left the New Amazon Lily to go on an adventure. He was missing for three years.
…
Year 1507 of Sea Circle Calendar. Fisher Tiger returned to the New Amazon Lily, met with Neptune and Queen Otohime, and said that during the three years he was missing, he had seen hell.
A few months later, news shocked the world. Fisher Tiger scaled the Red Line, set fire to Mary Geoise, and freed a large number of slaves.
Subsequently, Fisher Tiger, together with the fish-man Jinbei and others, formed the Sun Pirates. He had wanted to recruit Beam, the number one fighter of the fish-men, but Beam said he only served Makoto and refused to join.
In the same year, the Beasts Pirates returned victorious from an expedition, bringing back a precious Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit.
At a celebration banquet, someone brought up the topic of Roger and loudly mocked him as the [Suppressed King], bringing up how he had killed his own vice-captain and attempted to forcibly take his sister-in-law Ripley.
They also said Rouge was just an unlucky woman, merely chosen because Roger wanted to leave offspring before he died.
However, after the pirate said this, the entire hall fell silent. Because everyone turned their heads and saw… Eight-year-old Portgas D. Ace, standing at the door. He had heard everything.
Ace was nearly broken. He ran all the way from Onigashima to Flower Capital, found Rouge, and demanded to know his background.
Rouge was silent for a long time, finally giving an affirmative answer.
In fact, Rouge herself was very conflicted about whether she should tell Ace the truth.
Her feelings for Ace were very complex. As a mother, she certainly loved her child. But whenever she saw Ace's face, which increasingly resembled Roger's, she didn't want to face Ace.
Therefore, a few years ago, she had moved from Onigashima to Flower Capital to live, just to reduce contact with Ace.
However, Rouge never expected that, without her saying anything, someone else would let it slip. Helpless, Rouge could only tell Ace the truth.
Ace was heartbroken. He went alone to the wilderness and cried bitterly, punching the ground repeatedly, feeling extreme hatred and despair that he was the child of such a scumbag.
Just then, thirteen-year-old Yamato happened to meet the crying Ace.
"Aren't you being a bit too dramatic?" Yamato sat in a tree, looking down at him, a blade of grass in her mouth. "We can't choose our fathers."
Ace, his face covered in tears and snot, shouted at Yamato, "You're not the one suffering, so it's easy for you to talk!"
Yamato shrugged. "My dad is a scumbag too. Have I ever cared?"
She jumped down from the tree, turned, and walked away, waving her hand behind her back. "Enough talking. I have to go back to training. So that when Old Man Nishi comes back, he won't laugh at me."
"Old Man Nishi?" Ace was stunned, 'Was she talking about Nishikawa Makoto? That legendary [King of the World]?'
For a moment, Ace became somewhat interested in Makoto.