One Piece: The Silver Sovereign

When Shirakawa woke up again, it was already afternoon. There wasn't a single island in sight; the ship had sailed to some unknown part of the ocean.

Aside from the navigator and a few people on duty, nearly everyone was either lying down or resting.

"A captain like that can become the Pirate King... I guess it does come down to absolute strength."

Shirakawa smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"You brat, your combat ability's nothing special, but your alcohol tolerance's not bad at all."

A navigator noticed he'd woken up and greeted him with a teasing smile.

"I'm not sure either. Maybe it's because of my powers? They might allow me to recover quickly."

"Right, we still don't know what kind of Devil Fruit ability you've got. Every time you use your powers, a giant sword appears in the sky, looks so cool."

The sailor's voice carried a hint of envy. He was probably thinking, If I had such an awesome ability, I wouldn't still be single.

"I don't know either. I even forgot when I ate the Devil Fruit."

"Well, that makes sense. You've lost all your memories, after all."

With that, the navigator left to continue monitoring the weather, after all, this was the New World, and there was no room for carelessness.

With nothing to do, and since Mr. Rayleigh hadn't woken up yet, Shirakawa decided to get more familiar with his powers.

He pulled out a dagger, intending to cut his hand to see if he could heal himself.

But after holding the blade to his skin for a while, he still couldn't muster the courage to do it.

"Forget it. I'll wait until I'm hurt to find out."

He put the dagger away. No way he'd admit he was just scared.

"Wait, doesn't the Silver King also have the ability to fly?"

Shirakawa tried to recall the powers of the Silver King.

"Damn it, inheriting the ability but not the memories? Now I have to figure everything out myself."

Still, he earnestly began thinking about how to fly.

He tried jumping as high as he could. Other than being slightly airborne for about a second, there was nothing special.

After several attempts, he still wasn't achieving the result he wanted; in short, he couldn't fly.

"Hey, Shirakawa! What the hell are you doing, jumping up and down nonstop? I'm trying to sleep here!"

"Sorry, Shanks! I'll move somewhere else."

Realizing he'd woken Shanks, Shirakawa gave an apologetic laugh and relocated to an empty area.

"I'm going to fly today, no matter what."

Shirakawa became determined. No one could talk him out of it.

As time passed, he kept jumping until he was out of breath, drenched in sweat, and his legs were almost numb.

"What the hell… did I not inherit the ability to fly?"

He cried out in frustration in his mind.

"That's not gonna work, you know?"

Suddenly, a voice spoke beside his ear.

Shirakawa turned and saw a man wearing sunglasses and a ponytail sitting next to him, no telling how long he'd been there.

Spock Jabba, Shirakawa remembered him. Shanks had specifically pointed him out during introductions.

He was the third most important member of the Roger Pirates, known to rival Silvers Rayleigh, and had a long history with Captain Roger; rumor was they'd known each other before the Roger Pirates were even formed.

"I don't know what kind of training you're doing, but training blindly like this won't get you anywhere."

"Then what should I do?"

Jabba's strength was formidable. Getting pointers from him would be a tremendous help to Shirakawa.

"Who knows?"

Jabba let out a hearty laugh and got up to leave, as if he'd only come over to mess with him.

Watching him walk away, Shirakawa thought bitterly that if he weren't so weak, he'd kick that smug old man right in the butt.

"But whatever you're trying to do, you have to ask your heart whether it's the right way."

"Ask... my heart?"

Jabba left, and Shirakawa stood there in silence, lost in thought.

At some point, Shirakawa suddenly felt all the sounds around him vanish. The sound of waves crashing, the cries of seagulls, the footsteps and chatter of other crew members, all of it disappeared.

The only thing he could hear was his heartbeat, slowly growing louder in his ears.

Thump… thump… thump…

The sound had no discernible rhythm, yet it felt like it was trying to tell him something.

Then, in a sudden flash of silver in his mind, everything clicked. It was like all the pieces came together at once.

"So that's how it is... I get it now."

In the next moment, Shirakawa entered the state of the Silver King, his body cloaked in silver light, and high above, the Sword of Damocles appeared in the sky.

From a distance, Jabba watched with a satisfied smile on his face, clearly pleased with Shirakawa's breakthrough.

"Shirakawa's pulling off some stunt again?"

The awake members of the Roger Pirates looked up at the massive sword. Even though they'd seen it twice before, it was still shocking.

As they stared upward, a figure suddenly flew over their heads.

"Th-th-that's Shirakawa, right?"

Someone stammered, nudging the person next to him.

"P-probably…?"

It wasn't like they'd never seen someone fly. Aside from Golden Lion's Float-Float Fruit, most fliers were Zoan-type bird users, or that shining admiral with the Glint-Glint Fruit.

But on their ship, no one could fly. Even the captain could only stay airborne for a bit. No one had ever flown freely like this.

"So he really can fly, huh. No wonder he was jumping around like that… but does jumping have anything to do with flying?"

Seeing Shirakawa finally airborne, Jabba was slightly surprised, but still confused why he'd been hopping around like a fool earlier. Did someone tell him jumping would lead to flight? This wasn't Moonwalk training, after all.

"Well, this works out. One of the crew's major shortcomings has been covered now."

Jabba muttered to himself. It was well known that the Roger Pirates lacked the ability for sustained aerial combat.

"Looks like I'll need to tell Rayleigh to train him properly."

Even though that weakness had been patched, Shirakawa was still green, as easy to break as a sheet of paper. If he ran into someone like that pineapple-headed guy from Whitebeard's crew, or the sleazy monkey-faced admiral from the Marines, he'd be toast in seconds.

"Wooohooo!!"

Shirakawa yelled with joy during his first flight. For some reason, he fell in love with the sensation, so free, unrestrained. His whole body felt relaxed and liberated.

Unfortunately, his shouting woke everyone else up, too.

"Shut up, you brat!"

From out of nowhere, a wine bottle came flying straight at Shirakawa. His energy shield shattered instantly.

With wide eyes, Shirakawa could only watch as the bottle smashed directly into his forehead.

"ARGH!"

With a scream, he plummeted straight down and crashed onto the deck. The Sword of Damocles vanished from the sky.

"Did he just die?"

"Probably not, right?"

"You go check."

"He's alive. Just passed out."