314 - One Piece: Red Dragon of the Rocks Era (Patreon)

314 - Eight Hundred Years Later

"You may gravely wound Joy Boy, but do not kill him. I still need him. The world's timeline cannot be thrown off course yet."

Caius considered the message. He had never intended to kill Joy Boy here. Even a small change might unravel the future he knew.

If he destroyed that timeline himself, he would have no way to repair it.

How badly he wounded Joy Boy, however, was his decision.

"Stop running, Joy Boy. Do you think you can get away?"

"Stay and finish this."

Caius put the world's warning out of his mind.

He wanted Joy Boy to remember this defeat.

"Caius, enough. Kill me and this world will fall into chaos again. Do you know what it was like before?"

Joy Boy had spent too much of his strength. Fear forced the words out.

Survival mattered more than his pride.

If he lived, there might still be a chance for revenge, however small.

He did not know that Caius was about to leave this era for a future eight hundred years away.

Joy Boy's fate had already been set. Caius had only hurried it along.

Caius caught him soon enough.

"All that running, and for what?"

"I would have had to deal with those four limit-breakers myself if you hadn't killed them. Now you're the only one left."

Caius held Joy Boy fast.

"You're really going through with this?"

Joy Boy stared at Caius as he asked.

"You won't die. I won't kill you. Consider that a reward for the courtesy you showed me earlier. Don't expect the same luck next time."

Caius struck as he spoke.

Joy Boy's screams carried across the island for half an hour.

Caius left him there and went to find Toki and Imu.

At last, the bloodied Joy Boy staggered to his feet. He glared after Caius before leaving the island.

For now, the matter was settled.

...

Caius found Toki and the young Imu. After a brief exchange, he and Toki prepared to leave her behind.

"We have to go. This isn't our era. Keep building your strength and your alliances. I hope that when we meet again, you've won the future you're fighting for."

He gave Imu an encouraging nod.

He had done what he could in the past. Staying longer risked changing too much, and he missed the people waiting for him in his own time, including his adult companions.

"Then go," Imu said. "You're impossible, and you're leaving us with all this work."

Despite her sharp words, she was crying.

Their alliance had changed her plans. Losing Caius and Toki as allies hurt, but the purpose they had shared remained.

She would grow stronger for her own sake and for the struggle ahead.

"We'll meet again," she said. "Go before I change my mind about letting you leave so easily."

Imu turned away and steadied herself.

"We will. Goodbye, Imu."

Caius smiled.

He nodded to Toki. A vast passage through time and space opened before them.

They looked back at Imu once, then stepped through and left the era behind.

...

Elsewhere,

Nearly a year had passed in their own time. Tina and the others had spent it fighting across the seas. Tina had reached the limit-breaking tier, becoming the strongest among them except for Imu.

After driving pirates away from Wano, the women returned to the shogun's residence.

Tina found Imu lost in thought and smiled.

"I told you he'd get caught up in whatever he was doing. We should have made him promise a date for coming back."

"You've been worried too, haven't you?"

Tina was teasing, though she understood Caius had gone there for a reason.

She missed the familiar rhythm of having him home.

She suspected the wait would be easier once the household settled into its new routine.

Most of all, she wanted him to see how far she had come.

Every gain had cost her work.

"So now you're lecturing me?" Imu asked. "Perhaps your training has been too easy."

Her smile carried a warning.

She had been thinking through other matters, not simply waiting for Caius. Tina's teasing still deserved an answer.

Tina would find that Imu could make the next training session considerably harder.

Imu was considering how best to make her work harder when she sensed a disturbance in space. Caius and Toki were returning.

She drew Tina back to make room.

"At last," Caius said from inside the passage. "Joy Boy was eager enough to fight, considering how it ended."

"He was strong, though. He used up half my stamina. I enjoyed that."

"Why didn't you kill him? The Great Kingdom might have collapsed at once," Toki asked.

"The will of the world told me not to. I'm not strong enough to challenge it over this."

Caius sounded frustrated.

"I see. If the world's will is involved, then..."

Toki broke off as they stepped through. Imu and Tina were waiting with smiles.

"Welcome home, Caius. And welcome back, Toki," Imu said.

The adult Imu greeted them with an open smile.

Caius smiled at them. Home felt steadier than the past ever had.

Tina was watching him with an odd expression.

First, they needed to sit down and talk.

The four settled in the sitting room.

"So you spent all this time training Tina and the others?" Caius asked Imu.

"Tina was still some way from the limit-breaking tier when I left. She's there now. You put a great deal into helping her."

He embraced the adult Imu and smiled.

He had wanted the household to grow stronger but had been away too often to guide them. Imu had taken the initiative.

"I couldn't sit idle while you were gone. They had room to improve, so I put them to work. I hope you don't mind."

Imu sounded almost apologetic.

Tina rolled her eyes. Imu had enjoyed being the one to push them, and Tina might have complained if she were still the person she had once been.

Imu had used training to test every one of them harder than Tina expected.

But the training had helped them all. Even those who said nothing were grateful.

So Tina let the matter rest.

"We're family. There's nothing to apologize for. They're stronger now, and that matters."

Caius smiled.

He knew the women valued their progress. Even with Tina now a limit-breaker, he could still hear her thoughts.

Imu could hear them too. One glance between the two adults told him they understood each other.

Word of Caius's return spread through the residence, and the others came home to welcome him.

Soon the place was alive with conversation.

Olvia heard he had returned and felt unexpectedly glad.

Her earlier marriage had been bound up with her hopes for Robin and her own difficult choices.

After that man's death, she had never been certain what love meant to her.

That evening, Olvia joined the gathering at the residence.

The house was crowded with women coming and going.

When she finally looked at Caius, her unease showed.

Olvia's feelings were not simple.

She bristled when Caius kept his distance, yet hesitated whenever he showed interest.

Caius caught the look and sighed. She had rejected him before; now he could not tell what she wanted.

He chose not to press her. There were enough people demanding his attention tonight.

The gathering ended late. Caius and the adult Imu withdrew together, while the rest of the household turned in.

What passed between them remained private.

...

The next morning, Caius went to the sitting room.

Roger's crew had grown formidable, though Caius was not ready to move against them yet. He needed a plan.

He had not decided whether to hand them to the Marines. That choice could wait.

For now he would see Redfield, who had spent Caius's absence trying to grow stronger. Wano was home to an extraordinary number of powerful people.

Many had arrived from distant places for the island's peace. They had no wish to disturb it and had gradually made lives there.

Some regarded Wano as home. Any force that attacked it would have more defenders to face than it expected.

Caius knew who lived among them. His Observation Haki could pick out even Marine infiltrators.

It was a mixed population, but he let them stay. Compared with the wider world, life here suited them.

Before long, Redfield entered the hall.

"How have you been? Learned anything? I'm planning to deal with Roger's crew soon. Want to come?"

Caius wasted no time.

He knew Redfield's history with Roger. But Redfield sought strong opponents, and a fight with Roger's people would test him.

In this era, Redfield had the potential to stand as a solitary power beside Newgate, Shiki, and Roger.

That potential was still developing.

"Roger? Absolutely."

"I've wanted to fight him for some time. If I'd already broken through, I would have..."

Redfield could barely hide his excitement.

"Then it's settled. I'll spar with you first. See what you can learn."

"I've been waiting for you to say that."

They talked a little longer before Redfield left.

Caius looked into the distance. Roger's reckoning was coming.

Garp's would come too.

Some debts had to be paid.

Caius went out for a while, then returned to rest. Ordinary training could do little for him at his present level.

That afternoon, after watching the others train, he took Redfield to an uninhabited island.

Imu brought the others to watch. Even spectators could learn from a clash like this.

The two men faced each other across a short distance.

"Please instruct me, Lord Caius."

Redfield drew his rapier. Conqueror's Haki erupted around him and coated the blade as he struck.

Sword energy ripped toward Caius, opening the earth and parting the clouds.

Caius swept Longquan lightly through the air. A vast slash of sword intent answered Redfield's attack.

Crack!