The Grand Line.
Clouds were gathering overhead, but it wasn't a storm that threatened the Going Merry—it was something colder, something more personal. The air was tight with conflict. The sound of ocean spray and creaking sails could not drown out the raised voices echoing across the deck.
The Straw Hat crew stood divided.
At the center of it all, Agni sat atop the cabin roof, silent and unmoving. Cloaked in black, his face cast in shadow, he seemed more like a statue than a man. His long, dark hair blew slightly in the wind, his wings—folded and hidden beneath his cloak—tight against his back like drawn blades.
He said nothing.He never spoke unless necessary.
But the rest of the crew did.
"He's dangerous!" Usopp shouted, voice shaking with something between fear and anger. "We can't keep ignoring what he's done!"
"Don't act like he didn't save your life!" Nami snapped, her eyes flaring. "All of us owe him more than once."
"But at what cost?" Chopper muttered, shrinking behind the mast. "He… he kills people. All of them. No hesitation."
Even Luffy—the heart of the crew—stood with arms crossed, face tense, gaze turned not toward Agni, but downward, into thought.
"He doesn't take orders," Luffy finally said. "He does what he wants. That's not what a crew is."
Zoro leaned against the railing, arms folded. "He's a weapon. But he hasn't pointed it at us. Yet."
"Only because it hasn't suited him," Sanji muttered, exhaling smoke. "He's not one of us. He's… something else."
They weren't wrong.
Agni had joined the Straw Hats after Arlong's fall—mysteriously appearing in the chaos, bloodied, winged, and wrathful. From the beginning, there was something unnatural about him. His aura. His silence. The way the world seemed to bend when he fought.
And fight he did.
He saved them during the battle with Crocodile, facing off against the Warlord alone when all seemed lost. When Crocodile unlocked his awakened Haki, it was Agni who pierced through his sand form with a hand wrapped in flame and shadow.
But it always ended in blood.Where the Straw Hats spared, Agni executed.
He did it again on O-Kan Island—slaughtering the mythical Kirin-Lion, revered by the locals as a sacred beast.
And again, in the Dragon Nest Arc, where he single-handedly slew an ancient dragon, bathed in its fire, drank its blood, and ground its bones into a potion rumored to grant immortality.
He consumed it.Alone.Unapologetically.
Now, whispers followed him across the seas—of the man with burning wings, of a pirate who killed gods, of a celestial being hiding among mortals.
But here, on the Going Merry, he was just Agni. Quiet. Isolated. Feared.
"I vote we let him go," Usopp said, quietly now. "Before he decides we're next."
Chopper nodded in agreement. Sanji remained silent but didn't object.
Only Nami, Robin, and Zoro stood by him.
"He's done what he had to," Robin said, voice calm. "In a world this cruel, survival often offends morality."
Nami looked at Agni and remembered the moment he saved her—when he burned Arlong's palace to ash, carrying her out before it collapsed.
Zoro didn't say much. He rarely did. But the Breathing Styles Agni taught him—techniques that seemed to draw power from the very world itself—had taken his swordsmanship to a new level. He understood Agni in a way the others didn't. A warrior's way.
Luffy finally looked up.
"Agni," he said. "I asked you before. I'm asking you again. Will you follow my orders as your captain?"
There was a long pause.
Then—finally—Agni moved.
He stood slowly, cloak billowing. The air around him grew hotter, heavier, like the moment before an eruption. Still, he didn't answer.
Then it happened.
A strange ripple in the air shimmered before him—like light passing through water. Then a golden screen appeared, floating in front of him, letters glowing with divine energy:
[Congratulations, Traveler.][You have survived 18 years in the One Piece World.]
The others couldn't see it. Only Agni.
Before he could speak, the screen exploded in a burst of light—three searing beams shot straight into his chest.
He screamed—not in pain, but in ascension.
The deck cracked beneath his feet. The air ignited. Agni's body was engulfed in a sphere of white-hot light, the color of suns dying and being reborn. The Going Merry rocked as Haki poured off him in bladed waves.
His cloak vaporized.
Flames erupted from his back as his wings unfurled—no longer black, but shimmering crimson, each feather glowing with the force of a contained sun. His skin turned ash-gray with burning red runes snaking up his arms. Horns grew from his forehead—like obsidian curved blades—and his eyes became molten gold.
From within his mind, knowledge poured in like fire:
Fire Dragon Slayer Bloodline (Fairy Tail): He could consume fire—even his own—to regenerate and fuel unstoppable flames.
Hardening Quirk (My Hero Academia): His body became living steel, durable enough to withstand cannon blasts and blade strikes.
Domain Seed (Jujutsu Kaisen): A cursed seed that would one day bloom into a pocket dimension—his personal domain—a battlefield only he ruled.
He let out a roar—not human—a dragon's cry, shaking the skies.
The Straw Hats were frozen.
Nami's breath caught in her throat.Chopper collapsed.Sanji fell to one knee, stunned.Usopp screamed, covering his head.
Zoro gritted his teeth. "He's not just strong anymore… he's something else entirely."
Agni looked down at them, his voice now deep, resonant—inhuman and godlike.
"So," he said. "This is what it feels like to evolve."
He stepped off the roof, landing with a heavy thud. The deck beneath his feet steamed where he stood.
"I understand," he said, looking at Luffy. "This crew was never meant to carry me. And I was never meant to follow."
He reached into his cloak—what remained of it—and pulled free a tattered piece of cloth: the Straw Hat insignia, burned around the edges.
"I won't wear this anymore."
He dropped it.
"There can't be two kings on one ship," Agni said, eyes locking with Luffy. "And I will never bow to someone weaker than me."
He turned to Nami and Robin, wings flickering with heat.
"Come with me. Let's build something new. A crew that will never kneel. The Celestial Pirates."
They didn't move. Not yet.
Luffy's voice cut the air like a whip. "You're poaching my crew."
Agni smirked. "They were never yours. Not really."
Nami looked down, trembling. Robin's eyes were unreadable. Neither spoke.
Agni nodded once.
"No problem," he said. "It was fun, sailing with you all. A pity we must part."
He turned to the sky.
"I hope we all reach our dreams."
Then—with a single, explosive flap of his massive wings—Agni launched into the air, trailing fire and ash, a meteor ascending.
The sky burned behind him.
Nami fell to her knees. Tears welled in her eyes.Robin knelt beside her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.Sanji exhaled, quietly relieved.Chopper hugged Usopp, both crying—though they weren't sure if it was fear or peace.Zoro stood silently, eyes skyward, a whisper in his heart: "Goodbye, brother."
And Luffy, fists clenched, eyes locked on the horizon, said nothing. But inside, a fire had been lit.
He knew one thing:They hadn't seen the last of Agni.And the next time they met… only one king would remain.