Legend

"96…97…98…" Lily was in her room doing standard push-ups.

In the past few months, she made sure to exhaust herself nearly every day, consume healthy meals, and practice 'Way of Cloud'.

"99…100!" Lily pushed herself off the floor with a jump as she began to get her breathing under control.

Completing her morning workout, she made her way to have a shower. 

Shhhh.

Lily relaxed, feeling the cold water run through her body, the fog in her mind clearing up.

"Lily, It's going to start soon! Didn't you say you wanted to see it?" She heard her mother's voice calling her from downstairs and she quickly dried and clothed herself after calling back to her.

"Coming!" Lily ran down the stairs, and when she saw Rose, she jumped into her arms.

"Silly girl, why do you want to watch an execution?" Rose asked as she reciprocated the hug. She had been quite dumbfounded, to say the least, when her daughter had voiced her desire to watch the Pirate King's final moments.

"Hehe… I'm just interested. It's weird what people are saying about him, you know?"

Then, Lily turned slightly meek with a blush on her face, "A-also, I thought I might be able to see Shanks and Buggy there…" she said with an embarrassed whisper.

She recalled the two boys and their adoration for their captain. She was slightly worried about them, not knowing if they were also captured, or if they were feeling okay.

Rose looked at her daughter, and couldn't help but smile with pride and love. She always knew it, but her daughter really had a heart of gold.

"Hahaha, well okay then. Your father also has the day off today, so let's go together."

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------

A plaza on Grove 35.

Three enormous screens mounted side by side on the trunk of a tree were being watched by a thick crowd. 

Men, women, children, old, and young.

Rose and Lily wore loose robes, face masks and hoods, while Michael guided them steadily towards the rear of the crowd.

Every minute, more newcomers joined, until the plaza seemed like it could no longer accommodate them.

Even so, people found their way on balconies, tree branches, and even further away, a few held binoculars to view the coming event.

A robust sound system was in place, and large transponder snails connected to the monitors were set to display their vision onto the screens at the right time. 

Marines in their blue and white uniforms attempted to manage the crowd, sometimes firing their rifles into the air to draw attention and maintain control.

It seemed like The World Government wanted to make a show of things, broadcasting this occasion to every corner of the world.

Lily sat on Michael's shoulders, her eyes skimming across the sea of people and through the floating bubbles, recalling the brief meeting she had with the man who was currently at the center of the world's attention.

Zzt.

The screens began to display the scene at Loguetown, where an even larger crowd waited with bated breath. The central screen displayed the scaffolding where the execution would take place, and the two side monitors panned over the observing crowd.

Ding. Ding.

Noon summer sunlight shone upon the square, and Loguetown's belfry began to ring.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The crowd was silenced as not even the sound of a breath emerged into the air.

Measured and stately footsteps somehow cut through the air, and the lateral screens followed them.

Lily watched on with rapt attention. She wasn't exactly sure why she was so interested in this event, but she couldn't help but think back to the way she had felt when she had met Roger. The sunlight seemed to enhance his presence, and there was something magnetic about the way he carried himself.

Even now, through the screen, Lily did not see a man who was about to die, but a man who had an excitement and burning will in his eyes.

And a man who never lost his smile.

Cling. Clang.

His cuffs shuffled as he walked up to the top of the scaffold, each of his footsteps digging into the heartbeats of observers all around the world. 

Once there, he leisurely turned and sat, overlooking the dense crowd, his smile becoming wider as he watched the sea of people who had gathered for this moment.

"Come, let's get this over with already," the sound of the man's carefree voice echoed from the speakers across the crowd, and hit Lily with a feeling she couldn't describe.

"Hey, Pirate King!" A voice from the crowd called out loud enough to be picked up on the speakers, "Where did you hide your treasure? You obtained it right? The legendary treasure…" He continued. Then, taking a deep breath, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "The One Piece!"

The crowd grew even more silent than before. Thoughts swirling between their minds.

And Roger…

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Laughed, just the same as Lily recalled in her memory of the man.

"My treasure, is it? If you want it, you can have it! Find it!" He called out. 

The executioners at either side of him began to raise their polearms.

Roger's smile widened even further, as if seeing something in the future that only he could see, as if recalling something he had already seen, then he spoke his final words.

"I left everything this world has to offer at that place!"

The polearms descended, skewering the man who smiled, even in his last breath.

Silence.

Then, as blood pooled beneath his sitting, smiling corpse…

"WAAAAAAAAAH!" A cacophony of excitement erupted.

And the same was true for those on Sabaody, but as for Lily…

Even as the crowd were talking to each other in excited words, she couldn't take her eyes off the man.

She was totally enraptured.

'What… Was that…?' Her eyes were fixed upon that view, upon that smile, feeling a strange envy rising within her.

She didn't even notice when she got home or how, nor could she hear her parents calling out to her, her mind still occupied with that scene.

'Smile…' Lily's eyes became brighter the more she recalled that view.

Throughout her six years of life in this new world, there were only two images that had burrowed themselves deeply within Lily's heart.

The first was her mother's smile towards her when she was born.

And the second was Roger's smile as he died.

To live a life where she could smile as much as she liked. To be strong enough for that. To be a person who could smile and laugh even in the face of death.

 She wanted - 

"Lily? Lily…" Rose continued to call for her daughter.

Lily looked up at her mother and gave her a smile.

"I'm sorry mom, but I just couldn't get it out of my head…" Lily said, then turned to her father who wore a knowing grin.

"Hehe, Lily really is my daughter!" Michael laughed as he too recalled that spectacle with awe and amazement.

"..." Rose remained silent, then turned to her daughter, "What funny ideas have gotten into your head young miss? If I know anything, it's that your smile just now looks an awful lot like your father's when he -"

"Mom. I love you," Lily cut her off, those words instantly silencing the room.

Rose's eyes widened as she processed what her daughter had just said, and before she could think, tears involuntarily rolled their way down her face.

"... Eh?"

That was the first time she heard her daughter say it. She knew her daughter didn't dislike or hate her, but she had never heard those words she so desperately wanted from her lips.

But now…

Rose couldn't help herself as she found herself hugging Lily in a hot mess of tears and snot.

"I wuv you too!" *Sniffle* "To the moon… A thousand times and back!" *Sniffle* "Waaa!" *Sniffle*

Lily held her mother in her arms, and noticed for the first time how delicate her mother's shoulders were.

Michael observed the mother-daughter interaction with a smile. He knew how much Rose had wanted to hear those words from Lily, and now that she had, it seemed like all of Rose's pent up insecurities as a mother flooded out of her all at once.

—------------------------------------------------------

A few weeks passed, and Lily became more proficient with 'Way of Cloud', her muscles being able to better bear its strain.

As she continued her bodyweight exercises, controlling every one of her movements with an unnatural precision, she heard a knock at the door.

She made her way downstairs to see her father there.

What met them was a man in a blue and white uniform, and behind him, other men in the same, along with a few people in black suits.

"Am I speaking to Marshall Michael?"