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The battle has been won and all around is a cacophony of different voices, the clinking of glasses, and loud shouts of laughter or groans of annoyance. It's distinctly the sound of peace after a well-earned victory and Jinbei lets it wash over him, belly full of delicious food, watching the gathered crowd with a smile.
It's an odd combination, different pirate crews intermixed with residents of Wano, but it feels right. Feels like something that only Luffy—no, only the Strawhats could accomplish, this band of various crews and samurai all working together to defeat a common enemy. There's a level of comradery that Jinbei would have never assumed he'd see, not with so many rival crews. Not when tomorrow they'd all set out trying to achieve the same goal.
With that thought bouncing around his head, Jinbei is reminded of an old sea shanty. It's been a long time since he's heard it. But if there was ever a time and place for it, here, among these people, feels like the closest he's ever going to get.
These are the best and greatest after all, the ones who have traveled so far from their homelands and they're so close to the end. So close to finally seeing what Roger and his crew saw, all those years ago.
Jinbei has never felt the need to see the end of the world, personally, but Luffy is the kind of man who makes you want for something you've never wanted before. Seeing Luffy become King of the Pirates is a dream that Jinbei is more than happy to take on for him, for the promise he made Luffy's brother, and for the love he now holds for his newfound crew. They all want this, Jinbei knows that well enough.
Standing, he clears his throat. By some miracle, the crowd quiets down into low murmurs as he beams at them, fangs flashing in the light of the fire.
"Captain!" he calls and Luffy focuses on him with a bright look in his eyes. "If I may, I'd love to sing a song for you all!"
Predictably, Luffy lets out a wordless cheer of encouragement. Jinbei straightens and tries to recall the lyrics.
Taking a breath, heart fluttering with not-often-felt nerves, he begins in a deep baritone. It echoes easily over the crowd.
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Grand Line Passage
To find the hand of Roger,
Reaching for the Raftel shore.
Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wild and savage
And make a Grand Line Passage to the sea
Before starting, Jinbei is a little worried that perhaps the younger generation won’t recognize it. It's a song that's popular, sure, but it was one made popular after Roger's death. A song maybe for the beginning of the Grand Line, made for dreamers. Not hardened sailors already well into the New World.
His fears are unfounded, Jinbei is pleased to note, as others immediately join in. A sea shanty should be sung in a group and hearing the way their voices layer and merge together, Jinbei feels elated. He lets himself sink into this moment, and feels the way this will be carved onto his soul for years to come.
A moment of healing, a moment of coming together, here and now.
At the end of the New World,
'Tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the One Piece
For which so many died
Seeking gold and glory,
Leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones
Nami's eyes watch the crowd above a steady grin before she takes a big gulp of beer, wiping casually at her mouth with the back of a hand.
She knows this song—what pirate doesn't?—even if she resisted that title for a very long time. Luffy's loud voice singing along right next to her makes her eardrum vibrate with pain but she lets him have this without complaint. Instead, she turns to take in his profile, his lips widened into a large smile as he sways back and forth.
They're almost there, she can feel it with a certainty that seems to bury itself right into her very bones. The One Piece is almost within their grasp and isn't that a crazy thought? Once she'd laughed at Luffy's declaration of becoming the Pirate King and yet, here she is, sitting next to the man who she firmly believes will do just that.
It's not a goal that comes easily, not a dream for the weak-hearted. But every step closer to Luffy's dream is another line drawn in her own map of the world. It's almost funny; their two different dreams shouldn't combine into wanting the same thing, and yet. And yet.
The chorus makes its way around again and Nami purses her lips before she gives in and starts to sing along, "Ah, for just one time —"
The smile Luffy shoots her, all easy radiance, settles into the heady conviction she feels, nestled right beneath her heart.
Two decades thereafter
I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Rayleigh
Where his "Dark King" legacy began
Watching cities rise before me
Then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer
Driving hard across the sea
Hearing the mention of Rayleigh, Luffy straightens up from his slouch as he realizes with a start that this is the first time he’s heard the song since he’s come to know the old man personally.
Before it was just a distant name, no more important to him than any other. Now memories are tied to it, bringing with it warmth and a tinge of gratitude. Without Rayleigh's training, Luffy isn't sure he'd have made it here. He'd needed him, way back then, to help set him on the path that brought him all the way here, along with the best crew in the whole world!
Soon, Luffy’ll see the same sight that Rayleigh did, all those years ago. He’d never asked the older man what Raftel was like, even though Ray had asked him with amusement if Luffy wanted to know.
He’d refused, saying that he’d see it for himself someday and Rayleigh hadn’t argued. Instead, his lined face had smiled.
As if he knew it was true.
Luffy raises his voice louder, and when Nami jabs him in the ribs for it, he ignores her with a cheerful laugh.
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Grand Line Passage
To find the hand of Roger,
Reaching for the Raftel shore.
Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wild and savage
And make a Grand Line Passage to the sea
Law sighs as the crowd's voices somehow get louder but he can't bring himself to feel too upset by it. From the corner of his eye, he can see his crew singing along, smiling, and drinking happily and he has to suppress a smile, reaching up to tug the brim of his hat down lower.
This was it. They've done exactly what he set out to do: take down Doflamingo and Kaido, somehow. The Strawhats are poised to keep on going and the One Piece suddenly feels so close at hand. Though that's just a feeling, Law knows it won't be that easy. Nothing with the Strawhats ever is.
Still, they keep stacking up win after win—along with a trail of destruction behind, although they leave each place better than they found them.
Law doesn't believe in destiny or miracles, but somewhere deep inside himself he feels... a bit of hope maybe. Definitely some fondness, though that's often immediately forgotten in his irritation for whatever dumb situation the Strawhats somehow end up in.
He'd never been after the One Piece; Law just wanted to see the world changed from the filth that he knew lay just beneath the surface. And now it was that much closer to becoming a reality. The world stripped bare, for all to see.
Settling back, his arms crossed over Kikoku, Law doesn't fight to keep the smile off his face this time.
And through the night, behind the wheel
The Log Pose pointing west
I think upon Whitebeard,
Fisher Tiger and the rest.
Who cracked the mountain ramparts
And did show a path for me,
To race the roaring Red Line to the sea
Marco knows it's coming, his voice warbling a bit when he sings out Pops' name along with the rest.
This isn't exactly where he'd thought he'd be, in Wano at last, freeing the country for a memory of a man who Pops had looked at like a brother. For a moment, it's like Marco can hear Oden's boisterous laugh, and the pain that thought brings makes his heart feel heavy, weighted down by lead in his chest.
The press of bodies against him seems to rub against the ache inside of him, the one that misses his family so much .
It's hard; tears sting his vision.
Thatch, Ace, Pops, Izou... it's like Marco can't stop losing the people he cares about.
Still, he swallows and rubs his eyes with a few careful fingers underneath his glasses. There's always something to celebrate, something to be grateful for. Ace wanted to free Wano too, he remembers with a fierceness that seems to steal the breath from his lungs for a moment.
And Luffy is still here. Ace's brother lives on and Marco knows without a doubt that he'll keep moving mountains as he goes further on his adventure. It seems like the kid draws people in like moths to a flame. You can't help but look into that laughing face and not seem to help, somehow.
It's the sort of love that he felt with his own family. That kind of single-mindedness. While the Whitebeard Pirates maybe never had an 'end' goal so much as just a desire to travel together and be a family, the Strawhats are a different beast altogether. A good crew to follow in Roger's legacy, Marco privately thinks. Though he knows they'll make it their own, a crew like that? A family like that? They're bound to shake this world to its very foundations.
Feeling his resolve stiffen, Marco squares his shoulders. Maybe he doesn't know what tomorrow will bring, but that's never bothered him before. He just needs to find a new path, wherever that might lead.
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Grand Line Passage
To find the hand of Roger,
Reaching for the Raftel shore.
Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wild and savage
And make a Grand Line Passage to the sea
Feeling Killer's solid frame warm against his side, Kidd lets himself smile.
The party's pretty good, the alcohol flowin', and everyone is in a cheerful mood, himself included.
They fucking won. Not that Kidd had any doubts but still. It was nice to come through on the other side.
(If there’s a small voice that whispers how close it had been, how much Kidd had had to depend on Strawhat of all people, well. He shoves that voice way, way down.)
"So, the One Piece then?" Killer leans down to ask next to Kidd's ear, the question only for him, with the way the obnoxious singing around them covers it up. Kidd's smile widens into something bordering on manic—or so he's been told. Killer doesn't flinch away from it, no, he's always accepted Kidd exactly the way he is.
"'Course!" Kidd agrees with relish, toasting to the air. "We're gonna fuckin' show 'em!"
He elbows into Killer's side and laughs when Killer jostles him back, listening to the way Kil's laughter goes high-pitched and squeaky. Kidd doesn't let his smile fall at the sound.
Before, it was always something that was just for him. The laugh that Killer hated so much, which Kidd never minded, but he made sure to punch anyone who chuckled after hearing it. Over the years, Kil had learned to suppress it and only let it out when it was just the two of them.
Kidd's not really enthusiastic to share that part of his best friend with the world, but what's done is done. Besides, it doesn't really matter now, and he knows Killer knows that.
What's important is that they're one step closer to the treasure at the end of the line. What they started all this for.
And Killer—along with the rest of their crew—will be there with him every step of the way. Kidd knocks back the rest of his booze before belting out the rest of the chorus, Killer singing along right there with him.
How then am I so different
From the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life
I threw it all away
To seek a Grand Line Passage
At the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again
Yamato stares around him, wide-eyed with amazement. He's never heard this song before. The sea shanties that the Beast Pirates would sometimes drunkenly break into never included this one.
Not that that's surprising, Yamato thinks with a scoff. For all that his father—Kaido, he quickly corrects himself—liked to talk about finding the One Piece, it always felt like a faraway dream. Nothing more than the rambling of a drunken fool. Not at all how Oden made it feel in his journal. Now that had been a real dream. One that they had actually reached, so long ago.
He lets the song drift over him, swaying a bit. During the choruses he's been able to stumble along with a few of the lines, after so many repetitions. Still, this part quiets him, makes him really listen.
Ever since they won Yamato has been thinking. Of course, he's been dreaming of the day he'd be able to leave Wano and explore on his own. Being part of a crew, part of the Strawhat crew seems like everything he's ever wanted for so long.
But now that it's getting closer and closer he's... hesitating. Thinking about leaving Wano, leaving the friends he's made leaves his gut clenching unpleasantly.
Yamato has been trying for so many years to be Oden that to abandon Wano now when the dawn has finally come... it doesn't feel quite right. It fits across his shoulders like a shirt that's three sizes too small.
He's been struggling with how to bring it up to Luffy. Yamato was the one who asked to be on his crew after all, and now he has to let Luffy know that maybe he's... changed his mind? Is that really what he's been doing? What else is this place—this country—to him? It's only ever been a prison, something to escape from. What does it become when he's free?
There's so many thoughts swirling around in his head that he's completely zoned out when an unexpected hand smacks between his shoulder blades and he flinches. Brain scrambling to catch up, Yamato focuses enough to catch the last line.
"To find there but the road back home again!" voices scream out all around him and he blinks before beaming at nothing in particular.
Home, Yamato thinks, I like the sound of that.
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Grand Line Passage
To find the hand of Roger,
Reaching for the Raftel shore.
Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wild and savage...
The last note echoes out, a clear ringing thing that brings about goosebumps to people's skin. It transforms into a moment of peace, as the silence hangs in the air, poised like a shimmering bubble in the night's sky. Then the moment breaks. There's a release of collective breath before the cheering starts and many start chugging back their drinks.
Tomorrow, the collected pirate crews will set out, each on their own journey, and the people of Wano will begin to rebuild. Everyone has their own part to play, their own path to follow.
But for tonight, there is simply this, this moment, and they let it wash over them.
And make a Grand Line Passage to the sea.
