#newgate

🌊 Umi no kotachi

Roger reached Lodestar Island roughly a year ago, and he's been convinced ever since that there's another island somewhere, so the crew puts their best efforts into finding it.

Rayleigh hands him the latest issue of the News Coo, where the front page article details how Rocks made himself an enemy of World Government as he researches forbidden subjects.

Roger is ill-at-ease about this. He never backs down from a challenge he finds worth his time either, so the feeling is quite uncanny.

"Why are you so worried ?", Rayleigh asks.

"He's got too much ambition", Roger simply says, glaring into the sea. "There's fighting amongst his own crew, and serious one at that. Not the kind I'd trust when it comes to unveiling forbidden history, whatever that entails." Rocks is an enemy, he knows it deep down, and he won't let him do as he pleases.

It doesn't take long before the Rocks Pirates launch an attack on a whole bunch of World Nobles.

Roger sees red when he learns that their slaves are at the same location, knowing that Rocks would never let them live. He decides to ally with the Vice-Admiral that regularly cornered him during the last decades, in order to protect whoever they can and fight the infamous crew.

Garp might be a long-time rival, but Roger knows where his interests lays as well as where his loyalty stops, and that's enough for the time being.

The battle rages on for days, but finally the temporary alliance manages to defeat the Rocks Pirates.

Garp lets the Roger Pirates loot all they can before leaving the island.

As they set sail towards better lands, they find a baby in a chest.

While most of the crew wonders who would leave their own kid there, Roger doesn't care whose family the baby was born into, and decides to raise Shanks as his own : whoever left their own child there is as good as dead, and he knows deep down he'll make a great pirate out of him.

It's been five years since the defeat of the Rocks Pirates, and former members of the infamous crew are starting to make waves again.

The Roger Pirates meet Newgate and his new crew at sea and they fight against each other, but it doesn't hold as much venom as when he was a Rocks Pirate.

Roger learns that Newgate's true ambition is to build a huge family, and he respects that. After all, he's raising two kids himself, and though neither of them have his blood, he loves them all the same.

They cross paths sometimes in the Blues, while Roger searches for the island at the end of the Log Pose and Newgate recruits more people.

Every time, Roger happily duels against Newgate, finds funny that they remain almost evenly matched over the years, and truly appreciates that both of their crews can go all out without casualties, too.

Sometimes Shiki, Kaidou or Linlin are on Roger's way too, but they're different : more aggressive, aiming for the top but each of them in a way Roger doesn't trust.

Roger hopes neither of them rises too far and disrupts the fragile sense of balance the world has now, and he's ready to act against them if need be.

Among the few rising pirates in these times, Roger finds a fellow Captain quite stunning. Strong and smart, not to mention breathtakingly hot, not unlike Rayleigh. Maybe he has a thing for cunning blondes, huh ?

His First Mate – partner, lover, and husband of fifteen years – often gently teases him about not going all out against the infamous Portgas D. Rouge and her crew.

Roger doesn't care. He never attacks her crew with the intent to kill, that's true, but that doesn't mean he goes easy on Rouge either, she's damn resourceful and her Haki is strong enough that she can face him head on. Plus, her crew are a nice bunch, and he feels like there's no grudge or anything hidden underneath their rivalry.

Rouge seems to think along the same lines, too : more often than not she calls for a party once they've declared a truce, and her crew happily mingles with Roger's.

Rayleigh sends Roger knowing looks then, as he watches him and Rouge growing on each other. Roger is an open book to him, and he knows better than anyone how he acts whenever he's smitten. And although his teasing becomes more insistent, he doesn't really seem bothered by the situation.

Roger gets payback whenever they meet the Kuja Pirates at sea, anyway.

Apparently Rayleigh has a thing for confident black-haired people...

Another few years pass before Roger recruits the samurai from Newgate's crew, to his rival's mild annoyance.

With Oden's help, he wraps the last leg of his incredible journey within months, and reaches the island of his dream.

Heart content despite having reached Laugh Tale a mite too early, Roger then disbands his crew. He spends his last night aboard the Oro Jackson tangled with Rayleigh, showering him in sweet words and gentle attentions as they make love, telling him that he means to world to him, and that whatever happens next, no one could ever replace him. He disembarks the next day, not sparing a single glance behind him as he walks away from his crew, his home, his kids, his lover, with a tight and proud fist held high despite the streams of tears spilling from his eyes.

A few days pass before Roger visits Newgate one last time, and tells him that his crew will bring Oden back home to join his family.

Newgate is somewhat upset that he won't see his little brother again, but he understands why the samurai would want to go back home. Oden's children were born aboard the Moby Dick, and Newgate knows how much he cares for them, and that he wouldn't want to leave them alone any longer after such a long time apart.

They share sake under blooming cherry trees, where Roger tells him about the people of the D., and their crucial importance in the forgotten history of the world. It's a comfortable conversation, he realizes, not unlike those he had with his crew. Funny that he sees a rival like him as family, now.

Then Roger lays low as he wanders in the South Blue, searching for a quiet place to end his days. He encounters Rouge in a tranquil port town, without her crew. "What are you doing here alone ?", he asks her.

Rouge holds his inquiring gaze. "I should ask you that, Pirate King."

Roger's gaze briefly flickers to the side. "You wanna hear a funny story ?"

Rouge tilts her head to the side, then sighs as a smile curve her lips. "Go for it."

Roger tells her everything. What they found in Laugh Tale, what they learned there, how despite being the first person in known history to reach this island there's still time to wait before his biggest dream can fully come to life, what the "D." that they both share stands for, and that he disbanded his crew for their safety since he hasn't much time left and won't be able to protect them anymore, and that he left the ship first so he wouldn't have to say goodbye more than once.

"That was supposed to be a funny story", Rouge quietly says. "So that's why Rayleigh's alone with the kids... Last I saw him, he was heartbroken."

Roger offers her a weak smile. "Rayleigh will manage, I trust him." Then he huffs a chuckle. "Plus, there's an Empress who's been courting him for years... Hopefully, he will accept her love... Eventually."

"What about you ?"

Roger frowns.

"Are you intending to spend your last days alone ?"

He curiously observes her for a moment, recognizes all too well a stubborn determination in her gaze even as a faint blush creeps under her freckles, and then he cracks a smile. "There's... one last dream that never came true. Wanna help me ?"

Rouge softly grins. "Why do you think I left my crew ?"

And so, they travel to Baterilla and make a home there, focusing on enjoying the moments they have while they can. The medicine Crocus gave him works wonders, and Roger manages to snatch some extra time... Enough to learn that Rouge is pregnant, not enough to meet their child. Yet another dream that slips just out of his grasp : so close, yet so far.

Rouge is strong, he's known that from their first encounter. And she's precious for being so patient and caring, so precious to Roger's battered heart for offering him her love after years of pining rivalry and after he left his husband and their kids behind, and even more now that she's bearing a child of their own.

When Roger learns that the Marines are starting to track and execute or at least imprison everyone who ever was in good terms with him, he decides to do what he can to protect her, too. He doesn't have much time left anyway, and what's another wound to a pirate that always stands proud ?

After leaving Baterilla, heart sinking about leaving his family once more despite knowing it's best for their safety, Roger finally surrenders.

The Marines bring him to Impel Down and lock him up there while he awaits his death sentence.

Just a couple of days before the scheduled execution, Roger gets a visit from Garp, and grins upon his arrival. "Took your sweet time", he teases, "Decades running after me and now that you've finally got me locked up in here you don't even pay me a visit."

"Shut up ! We'll bring you to Loguetown soon enough. What about your crew ? I thought you didn't want to lose any of them."

Roger almost – almost – jabs back that they're strong and perfectly capable. But he knows there's just one that he can't vouch for, not yet, not ever, he doesn't have enough time left. So instead, he grins and tells Garp that he'll be a father, and then he tasks him with keeping Rouge and their soon-to-be-born child safe.

The Vice-Admiral acts outraged at the demand, but Roger knows he'll follow up.

He trusts Garp because he's never really been an enemy – and maybe because he's a D., too.

Roger fought his enemies, and won.

Rivals ? Allies ? Same difference.

Roger knows that those are the only people outside his crew to whom he can entrust the ones he loves.