After watching the first few episodes of Doraemon, Shanks, with his hand covered in Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), took off the helmet and casually threw it back on the neck of the headless armor of ‘B.I.B.’.
“Even though I couldn’t understand it, that cartoon was pretty entertaining!” Shanks laughed, “Was that your hometown dialect?”
“Something like that,” Liam replied with a sigh. The scenes ‘B.I.B.’ played were from Liam’s deep memories, and Liam had mostly watched the Mandarin dubbed version of Doraemon as a child. Of course, Shanks had only watched the version Liam had grown up with.
Now he could only hear his native language through ‘B.I.B.’s ears.
Liam began to play a Marvel movie through ‘B.I.B.’ using the virtual screen projected from his earphones. There wasn’t much else to do while drifting at sea – no chance to exercise and no time to sleep. It was boring!
Shanks pulled his straw hat down over his face and hummed an unfamiliar tune as he lounged with his legs crossed.
Liam absently scrolled through scenes of the Avengers on the virtual screen, his thoughts wandering.
Had he considered showing Shanks *One Piece*?
For a moment, he had.
Even though Shanks wouldn’t understand Japanese or the Chinese subtitles, he could still get a lot from the visuals alone.
But then Liam thought about it carefully.
What was the point of showing Shanks *One Piece*?
To let him see the adventures of the Straw Hat crew?
Would redheaded Shanks even be interested?
To show the whole picture of the *One Piece* world?
Come on, this was Red-Haired Shanks, a man who had sailed on the Pirate King’s ship since he was a boy, someone who had almost reached the final island, Laugh Tale! Shanks undoubtedly knew far more about the world, its seas, and the Grand Line than anything depicted in the manga.
As for the intricacies of the world’s power systems and various settings…
Shanks, the future Yonko, ruler of a part of the New World, knew all this much better than Liam ever could.
The one piece of valuable information… was the incident in which Shanks lost his arm.
Shanks sacrificed his arm to save Luffy from being bitten off by the Sea King.
But Liam was not interested in that…
He turned off the Marvel movie that was playing through ‘B.I.B.’ and instead pulled up the first chapter of the *One Piece* manga, revisiting the story of how Shanks lost his arm.
The bandit Higuma harassed Luffy in Windmill Village, threatening to sell the rubber boy to a circus.
And then the Red Hair Pirates made their grand entrance!
Unfortunately, Higuma sensed trouble and used a smoke bomb to kidnap Luffy and escape into the sea in a small boat.
Looking at that and thinking about it carefully!
A whole future Yonko crew! A simple bandit threw a smoke bomb and kidnapped Luffy right in front of them… Could it get any more ridiculous?
Shanks losing his arm to save Luffy was just as theatrical.
Oh, and according to what Shanks told Whitebeard, he “bet the arm on the new age…”
Since it was a voluntary and intentional sacrifice, why would Liam bother to “warn” Shanks?
If he warned him about losing an arm, Shanks might end up betting a leg on the New Age next time… or worse, his life…
So, losing an arm it is.
Shanks lived a protagonist-like life, diffusing the conflict in the Summit War with his mere presence and strolling into the Holy Land of Mary Geoise to casually converse with the Gorosei (Five Elder Stars)…
His journey had already been filled with thrilling adventures that left no room for regrets!
Why should Liam worry about that?
Besides, even if Liam wanted to spoil the story, the recipients wouldn’t appreciate it. During the Sabaody Archipelago arc, Rayleigh could have told all the secrets of the final island, Laugh Tale, and everything about One Piece… but Luffy had said that if Rayleigh revealed those secrets, their journey would end there, and he wouldn’t want to continue the adventure!
Obviously, someone like Luffy was against spoilers.
…While Liam was thinking about all this, he slowly fell asleep.
“Hey, Liam…” Shanks, his face covered by his straw hat, suddenly stopped humming his unknown melody and asked, “‘A man’s dream never ends’ – why did you write that?”.
He waited for an answer but heard nothing.
Lifting his straw hat, he glanced over to see that the boy was already asleep, using his bulging backpack – probably filled with belly – as a pillow.
Shanks chuckled and was about to cover his face again when he noticed the “ghost” next to Liam.
In the middle of the night, with Shanks not fully focused on using his Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki), the dark figure seemed almost nonexistent…if it weren’t for the faint white glow from its eyes and chest, Shanks might have missed it entirely.
“He’s asleep, but you’re still here?” Shanks said in surprise.
“Yes,” B.I.B., typically silent, nodded slightly.
“Oh? So you have an independent consciousness…” Shanks put his straw hat back on, stood up, and walked over to observe the dark armor. “Liam, the Devil Fruit user, is asleep, yet you’re still responding to me… does that mean that when you spoke earlier, it wasn’t Liam speaking through you, but rather – you speaking on your own after receiving his permission?”
“B.I.B.’s eyes flashed, and it nodded slightly again. It guessed that its master would indeed want to establish a good relationship with the future Yonko before it.
“Then answer this: why did your… um…” Shanks hesitated, unsure how to refer to Liam in relation to “B.I.B.” “Your old boss, why did he write that phrase? Did he tell you to write it? Or was it – ‘A man’s dream never ends’ – something you, as a ‘ghost’, wanted to write yourself?”
“Just because it was fun,” B.I.B. replied.
He knew Shanks might think the fun was borrowing the pirate king’s name to leave a message, but the truth was Liam found it amusing to borrow Roger’s name to use Blackbeard’s famous phrase.
“Just for fun, huh? How whimsical!”
Shanks sighed and looked at the sleeping boy. Though he looked clean and handsome, he didn’t seem to be the Joy Boy they were waiting for.
Liam, in a deep sleep, suddenly felt someone shaking him.
“Hey, Liam, wake up!”
Liam’s eyes snapped open, his hand half raised before he pulled it back, almost activating the Pipe Fruit.
“Ugh… What’s going on?”
Yawning, he sat up and saw that it was still dark, the sea lit only by dim starlight.
“We’re in luck!” Red-haired Shanks stood on the partially melted ice and pointed in a direction, smiling. “There’s a ship passing by.”
Liam looked and indeed saw a large silhouette in the hazy night, dotted with lights, moving slowly across the sea…
The top of the silhouette swayed in the sea breeze – probably the ship’s flag… Wait, was that a pirate flag?
In the sporadic firelight from the ship, Liam vaguely saw the skull on the flag fluttering from the mast…
“Hey~~!”
As the pirate ship approached, Shanks waved vigorously from the ice, shouting, “Is anyone there? Please let us aboard, give us a lift~~!”
“Huh? What’s that noise?”
On the deck of the pirate ship, some drunken pirates heard the shouting from the sea below and looked down in surprise.
“Who are those unfortunate souls floating on the sea at this hour?” One of the drunken pirates slurred, spitting alcoholic breath. “Get lost! Go die already!”
With that, he threw his bottle down on the people below.
……
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