Chapter 908 - 908: Those Extra Hands

Yasopp was being beaten badly, but elsewhere, the members of the Straw Hat Pirates, Sanji, Zoro, and the others, simply stood with their arms folded, watching coldly, looking like they were there to watch the show. They had no intention of getting involved at all.

What did the internal conflict of the Red Hair Pirates have to do with them?

Seeing Yasopp getting beaten, Usopp himself was even laughing unusually happily.

If this hadn't been a private matter of the Red Hair Pirates, he would have wanted to go over and kick him a couple of times himself.

As if!

Crocodile and Robin were even too lazy to lift an eyelid.

One lit a cigar on his own and blew out clouds of smoke. The other silently placed the unconscious Shanks and Luffy on the soft couch to the side, his expression so calm that it was as if the fight didn't exist at all.

"Ugh... Ah..."

Yasopp curled up on the ground, his nose and face swollen, blood constantly seeping from the corners of his mouth and his brow.

His consciousness was gradually beginning to blur.

Yet those rain-like punches and kicks still showed no sign of stopping.

Lucky Roux's eyes had already turned completely red.

The anger he had accumulated over these days, his worry over the captain's safety, his resentment toward Yasopp's cold-bloodedness...

At this moment, it all turned into force in his fists.

Again and again, they slammed hard into Yasopp's body.

"I'll beat you to death, you cold-blooded bastard!"

"Bastard!"

Yasopp's screams gradually weakened.

His body was no longer struggling, merely letting those fists and kicks fall helplessly upon him.

It looked like this Yasopp was about to be beaten to death right here by his own crewmates.

"Sto... Stop!"

A hoarse voice, weak to the extreme, suddenly rang out faintly from the soft couch.

Everyone's movements froze at once.

Everyone suddenly turned toward the voice.

They saw that the unconscious Shanks had, at some point, slowly opened his eyes.

Those eyes were filled with blood vessels, revealing deep exhaustion and weakness.

Yet even so, his gaze still carried an unquestionable authority as he stared fixedly toward them.

Shanks struggled, wanting to sit up from the couch.

Seeing this, Snake hurriedly reached out and supported him.

Shanks panted heavily, those bloodshot eyes glaring at Lucky Roux and the others as he angrily questioned them, "What are you doing?"

"Why are you attacking your own crewmate?"

Lucky Roux was left speechless by the question.

He released his grip on Yasopp's collar, his flushed face full of unwillingness and grievance.

"Crewmate?"

Lucky Roux gritted his teeth, his voice filled with resentment:

"Captain, does a guy like Yasopp even deserve to be considered a crewmate?"

Shanks frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Why did we support him following you?"

Lucky Roux's chest heaved violently as he poured out all the words that had been bottled up inside him, "Because we thought he could protect you! Even if he couldn't protect you, at least he could stay by your side and lend a hand!"

"But what happened?"

He suddenly pointed at Yasopp, who was curled up on the ground with his face swollen and bruised, his voice trembling from agitation:

"Not only did he fail to protect you and let you end up in this state. He didn't even know a damn thing about what had happened to you! What gives a guy like that the right to be vice captain? What gives him the right to stay by your side?"

"And last time in Cocoyasi Village, if it weren't for this fucking bastard, would Rockstar and the others have died?"

"Yes, it was Rosse who made the move back then. He wanted to kill people, and all we could do was wait to die."

"But there are many ways a person can die. I don't believe they weren't filled with resentment when they died."

"Yasopp, you're a fucking trouble!"

Every one of these words struck right at the heart.

Although the Red Hair Pirates present didn't say anything, the gloomy faces of every one of them were clearly silently agreeing with Lucky Roux's accusations.

Shanks was also left somewhat speechless at this moment.

"I had something more important to do!"

Even though Yasopp had already been beaten half to death and was lying on the ground, barely breathing, he still stubbornly craned his neck and cursed angrily, "It's not like I didn't care about the captain! Seeing the captain unconscious, I was hurt too..."

"Enough!"

Shanks interrupted him and sighed, a complicated look flashing through his tired eyes.

He slowly spoke, explaining things for Yasopp, "I was the one who told Yasopp to go with Crocodile and the others."

As soon as he said this, everyone froze.

"Even if he had stayed by my side at the time, he wouldn't have been able to change anything," Shanks's voice was low and hoarse, "He might even have died there. Conis was strong, strong enough that I couldn't stop her."

This was a step down he was giving Yasopp.

It was also the responsibility he could take as captain for his subordinate.

As for what the truth actually was, whether Yasopp had insisted on going himself or whether it had been his order.

It no longer mattered.

However, Lucky Roux and the others didn't believe this explanation at all.

Because just moments ago, Yasopp himself had said that he had acted on his own and insisted on going to see the Poneglyph.

The two accounts contradicted each other.

Anyone with eyes could see that this was nothing more than the captain covering for Yasopp.

Lucky Roux gritted his teeth hard, the muscles on his face twisting with anger.

He opened his mouth, wanting to refute him, wanting to expose this clumsy lie.

But in the end, he said nothing.

Because... Shanks was their captain.

If the captain wanted to protect someone, what could they do?

No matter how much resentment and injustice they felt in their hearts, no matter how unfair they thought it was.

In the face of the captain's will, they could only choose to obey.

Lucky Roux gave Yasopp a hard glare, his eyes full of undisguised contempt and hatred.

"Ptui! If it weren't for the captain's sake."

He snorted heavily, released his hand, and stepped aside.

The others also tactfully dispersed, no longer beating and kicking Yasopp.

But the indignation on their faces was impossible to conceal.

They would remember this debt for now.

They were only letting this bastard off today because of the captain's face.

"Captain... Captain!"

Yasopp struggled to get up from the ground, staggered over to Shanks, and dropped to his knees with a thud.

His whole body was covered in injuries, his nose and face swollen, tears mixed with blood running down his cheeks:

"Captain, it was my fault! I'm useless! I failed to protect you... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Captain! I'm sorry!"

Shanks looked at Yasopp, kneeling before him and crying his eyes out, his expression complicated.

He sighed, still supporting his weakened body as he slowly stood up and reached out, wanting to help Yasopp up.

However, at the moment his hand touched Yasopp's shoulder, Shanks suddenly froze completely.

That hand.

That hand he had reached out to support Yasopp.

It was much thicker and stronger than his own hand had originally been in his memory.

The knuckles were broader, and even the lines on the palm were completely unfamiliar.

Shanks slowly lowered his head and looked at his own hands.

After all these years, he had another pair of hands again.

But they weren't his hands. They were a pair of hands he was incredibly familiar with, yet that absolutely should not have been growing from his own body.

Those lines, those knuckles, that thin callus at the base of the thumb worn down from years of gripping a sword.

These were the vice captain's hands.

Rayleigh's hands.

They belonged to the man he had once respected and loved immensely, yet whom he had personally killed not long ago.

Shanks's breathing suddenly stopped.

He stared blankly at those hands, a pain that nearly drowned him completely welling up in his eyes.

Those hands that had once taught him how to hold a sword, patted his shoulder, and rubbed his head...

Now they were connected to his body in such a cruel way.

Every time he raised his hand, every time he clenched his fist...

It was as if they were reminding him of that man's death.

It was as if they were silently accusing him, the murderer.

His body began to tremble slightly.

"Captain? Captain, what's wrong?"

Yasopp was still kneeling on the ground, completely unaware of the abnormality in Shanks, continuing to chatter and plead:

"Don't stay silent! Are you still angry with me? Captain, I know I was wrong. Please forgive me this once! I definitely won't..."

"Stop talking!"

Shanks suddenly shouted, his voice carrying a trace of pain and irritation that was almost out of control.

Yasopp was so frightened by the shout that he immediately fell silent, mouth hanging open as he knelt there blankly, no longer daring to make the slightest sound.

Nearby, Lucky Roux, Snake, and the others were holding back their laughter as they watched Yasopp's dejected appearance with schadenfreude.

Look at this clueless bastard.

The captain clearly had something on his mind and was suffering.

Yet he was still shouting and carrying on here without a break, making a racket nonstop.

Wasn't that just asking to die?

Serves him right for getting yelled at.

Shanks, however, had no time to care about any of this.

He stared fixedly at his unfamiliar hands, pain and struggle intertwined in his eyes, almost dragging his entire person into endless darkness.

These hands belonged to Rayleigh.

Then, was he still himself now?

He wore his close friend's hands. From now on, whenever he swung a sword, whenever he cut down an enemy, who would be the one doing it?

Shanks?

Or Rayleigh, who had already died long ago?

This strange and painful sense of division was now frantically gnawing at his nerves.

"All right, don't think about it anymore."

Just then, a hand slowly came to rest on his shoulder.

Shanks raised his head.

It was Crocodile.

"Shanks, don't fall into their rhythm."

Shanks's body trembled slightly.

"I can more or less guess what you're thinking."

Crocodile exhaled a mouthful of smoke, the smoke slowly rising between the two of them, "You think wearing Rayleigh's hands is a humiliation, a torture. You think the World Government deliberately used this method to disgust you and crush your will."

"That's right," Crocodile paused, his tone becoming heavier, "That is indeed her purpose."

"But have you ever thought..."

Crocodile's gaze suddenly sharpened:

"These hands of yours are Rayleigh's hands."

"Who is Rayleigh? He was once the right hand of the Pirate King Roger, and he was your vice captain. He was the man who fought until the very last moment of his life to break this rotten world, to pursue freedom, and to fight against the World Government."

"You tell me, someone like him..."

Crocodile spoke each word with force:

"Would he be willing to let his own hands rot in the grave?"

Shanks suddenly raised his head, staring blankly at him.

"Maybe...", A meaningful curve appeared at the corner of Crocodile's mouth, "Maybe he would instead hope that you could carry these hands of his and accomplish the dream he failed to accomplish for him."

"Go and create, with your own hands, an era that truly belongs to pirates."

These words were like a bolt of thunder, suddenly splitting apart the gloom that had enveloped Shanks's heart.

That's right.

He had always treated these hands as a humiliating shackle forced upon him by Conis.

But he had forgotten.

The owner of these hands was Rayleigh.

The man he admired and respected second-most in his entire life.

'Vice Captain... is this what you think too?'

Shanks slowly raised those unfamiliar hands and stared at them.

The heart-piercing pain gradually gave way to another kind of burning warmth.

His trembling body slowly steadied.

He slowly clenched his fists.

Those hands, those hands belonging to Rayleigh, were now clenched with absolute firmness and strength.

"You're right!"

Shanks closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, the pain and confusion in his eyes had already faded.

In their place was a firm light that had been lost and regained.

"Thanks, Crocodile."

He took a deep breath and looked toward his arms, which looked very old, but were new to him, his voice low and firm:

"Vice Captain! I'll keep moving forward with your hands. I'll inherit your will! Until I see the arrival of that era with my own eyes."

Crackle!

At the moment Shanks clenched his fists and made up his mind.

A dazzling purple arc of electricity suddenly emerged and leaped quietly between those unfamiliar palms of his without warning.

The lightning crackled, traveling and winding around his fingertips, giving off a dangerous and violent aura.

Seeing this scene.

Everyone present widened their eyes in unison.

They had no idea when Shanks had gained the ability to wield lightning.

"Goro Goro no Mi?"

Crocodile was the first to react, crying out in shock.

That leaping purple lightning was something he had seen clearly in Rayleigh's hands just moments ago.

"What Goro Goro no Mi?"

The crew members who had stayed behind, such as Lucky Roux, were completely confused, looking at one another.

They had not gone with them to Upper Yard, so naturally they knew nothing about the thrilling battle just now, much less what was wrong with that body of Rayleigh's.

They didn't even know how Shanks had suddenly gained two extra arms.

Seeing this, Crocodile briefly explained the previous information about Rayleigh.

It was quite simple: the body revived by the World Government, the mass-produced version of the Goro Goro no Mi, and the process of Shanks personally killing him.

That was all.

Everyone listened with their hearts pounding, looking at one another.

Lucky Roux, meanwhile, stared blankly at Shanks's hands wrapped in lightning and murmured:

"Captain... doesn't that mean you also have the power of the Goro Goro no Mi now?"