Chapter 9: Traveling and Reality

, Ethan maintained this wandering routine for the next six months , gathering information and looking for a favorable place to settle down. He has been extremely careful in selecting merchant and passenger ship for travelling so as to be safe and avoid encountering dangers on the sea. Even though through continuous practice he is stronger than an average adult he cannot guarantee his safety on the treacherous ocean. He has also avoided all intimate contact with people he met on his journey and tried to keep his identity a secret.

He learned many things in these few months that have gradually changed his perspective of seeing the world. He has come to realize that this world is not the anime anymore and is much more complicated with real people in it. The anime follows the perspective of pirates and mostly shows them in good light as people following freedom and dreams but it can't be farther away from truth. Even the most cheerful and "good" pirates like Shanks will have countless blood and bones burried at his feet to reach a high place in this world. No one who can be called a powerhouse and has created a certain foothold for himself in this world can be underestimated.

Underestimating any powerhouse in this world and thinking that they are "innocent" and "nice" , only brings to light either a mentally retarded thinking or an extremely optimistic and surface level understanding of this world. Even though Ethan has lived for more than 60 years with both lives combined and has a plethora of experience in life , at a somewhat subconscious level due to the effect of following the manga and anime in his previous life he always considered some people "good" and some others "bad" , some people "righteous" and some other "evil" , some people as "protector" and some other as "destroyer" .

But the information he has accumulated in these six months from various sources have slowly begun to change his mentality and perception of the world. He has started to take off the tainted glasses with covered his eyes and his mind and slowly started to see the world for what it really is. This change was triggered when he learned through various sources that the "naval hero" Monkey D. Garp , too participated in the search operation for Roger's heir. It was not the kind of hiding and taking away Ace but literally participated in it from the bright side with the navy and even some fortunate people have seen him with their own eyes.

At first Ethan was not ready to believe this too be true so he confirmed it by paying a bribe to a navy he met on a prosperous island. That navy was also happy to oblige in telling him the details because for him there was nothing to hide and he told that almost everyone knew it and there was no secret to it. Ethan could tell that he was not lying and finally believed this fact with overwhelming evidence. After realizing this thunderous fact Ethan calmed his mind and thought for a long time to the logical conclusion that maybe in addition to Sengoku who is most likely in charge of the search operation from the navy side , Garp too participated in it. With their shrewd mind and extremely strong Observation Haki , if someone says that they had no inkling about what atrocities were being committed on ordinary families in this witch hunt , Ethan will say that they think he is too stupid and will not believe them.

Ethan has never doubted that Sengoku knew it and may have even tried to actively cover up these crimes as he has an impression of this man from the anime. He firmly believes in the justice of the world government and is the most avid supporter of the WG from the navy camp. Many fans have a bad image and dislike of Sakazuki as they believe him to be a loyal dog of the WG and an extremist , but what people often overlook is that there is no bigger loyal dog than Sengoku in the navy. If under the heaven he claims to be the second loyal dog , no one would dare to call themselves the first. This person has actively participated in many operations on the WG side and helped them clear up the mess , he didn't even change his face while ordering a Buster Call for Ohara which housed a lot of ordinary people and judging from this heir search incident it may not be a singular event for the guy to dirty his hands for the WG.

Despite being in such a high position and commanding a considerable amount of power, having various means and connections he still tolerated Doflamingo and swallowed his hatred for him on orders of the WG despite knowing full well that this guy killed his "good son" Rosinante, one can only imagine his tolerance and loyalty towards the government and the five elders. But Ethan always considered Garp to be righteous navy , simple minded who can fall asleep any time , eat donuts any time , laugh openly even with his enemies and a great guy who rejected the position of Admiral many times as he didn't want to serve the disgusting Celestial Dragons. He only now realized how naïve his ideas were , how can a man who has reached the pinnacle of this world and is living happily even after being so willful be so simple minded , not him nor Gol D. Roger who always spots a hippie smile and looks and acts stupid can be so simple.

In fact these people are far more cunning than usual pirates and careerists who gallop on the seas , as these people always don a hypocritical mask and act self righteous when deep down even they know that they are not as innocent and righteous as they pretend to be. Roger must have known full well what the consequences would be for him to roam South Blue and leave an heir just as he knew full well what will happen after his declaration about 'one piece' from the execution platform. Just because he has been projected as a happy go lucky person who enjoys freedom , adventures , banquets and as a legendary hero in the anime doesn't mean he is a nice person. In fact all evidence suggests that he is a much more cunning pirate than careerist like Golden Lion ever hope to be.

Does anyone think that with their extremely capable intelligence agencies and sharp minds , the world government was blind and didn't realize that Roger with his crew was collecting historical evidences all over world , or do they think that Roger was so terrifying that they didn't dare to stop him or mess with him. Someone can say that with his extremely his achievements in haki , he may have reached the peak of this world and his crew is also really terrifying but if they think that the WG would just be afraid of him and would not dare to engage him then they think too lightly about the 800 years of heritage of the WG. They didn't fear a real sea overlord like Rocks D. Xebec who once completely dominated the New World and even suppressed the likes of Whitebeard , Golden Lion , Bigmom , Kaido , Captain John , Wang Zhi etc., when he touched their bottom line and one can only imagine how terrifying powerful he was from the various records left from that era. It was such a person who was made to completely disappear from the world history by them , so it was never a question of whether they had any fear of the Roger pirates but more of a question whether they can find the location of these cunning pirates.

You know , no matter how powerful Roger is and how terrifying his haki may be he would never be as big of a threat to the WG as Golden Lion and Whitebeard because this is individual power and they can always take him down with some effort , but the latter two people have special devil fruits which are completely strategic weapons like nuclear weapons hanging on their heads. These people can cause heavy harm to their life and property if push comes to shove , so they may have to pay some extra cost to take them down , but even then they may not hesitate much to take these guys down with their whole power once they touch the bottom line of the WG, not to mention Roger.

This goes to prove how cunning of a guy Roger is to be able to reach the final island under the desperate pursuit of the navy and the WG. He must have known what will happen in South Blue in his wake , hence he asked Garp to take care of his child. Surprisingly Garp agreed and from Ethan's speculation , Garp too knew the consequences of hiding Roger's child from the WG and how this would adversely effect other ordinary people here. May be he was very tied up and could no help anyone but it is a fact that he chose Roger's child over thousands of other families which were destroyed in exchange for this. May be for him saving the life of his friend Roger's heir is much more important , or may be the life of other thousands of people and their babies combined cannot compare to the life of a single child of the D clan who has such strong bloodline. This is not Ethan's malicious guess but this a theme that runs through the whole show , it is shown that any one of the people even remotely related to Roger like Rayleigh , Jaba , Shanks would pay special attention to those whose name include D. , and would go even out of their way to shelter them and train them , so it is not that far fetched , that the value of one D. child may be much higher than that of thousands of other ordinary people in their eyes and this list even includes Garp.

Ethan has unconsciously started hating these people more and more as time progresses , its not that he doesn't hate other navies or the WG and blame them for ruining his happy family , it is just that from his previous impression these people were already bad , but as he learns more about the world , he finds out that the "good people" like Garp , Shanks , Rayleigh , Roger , Whitebeard etc. , are also up to no good and he thinks of them as being extremely hypocritical and is disgusted by them. As his fantasies are slowly broken , he unconsciously came to hate these people more than he hates the WG , as we all know the bigger the expectation the bigger the disappointment. Now all he wants is to destroy these self righteous hypocrites completely and take away what they hold most dear to them just as he lost what was most dear to him. He wants to drag them to hell and completely burn them and watch them turn to ashes.

Although he doesn't hate Rouge and Ace but he has no good feelings or sympathy left for them. This is the reality he has slowly come to accept.