South Blue.
Baterilla.
Thunder roared across the heavens as violent rain battered the island’s coast.
Ferocious sea winds slammed against the small wooden house near the shoreline, causing the old window frames to creak endlessly beneath the storm.
Inside the dark room, only strained breathing could be heard.
Portgas D.
Rouge lay upon sweat-soaked sheets, her entire body trembling from unbearable exhaustion.
Her pale fingers gripped the bedframe so tightly that blood seeped from beneath her nails.
Twenty months.
For twenty impossible months, she had forced herself to continue carrying the children within her womb.
Not through medicine.
Not through some miraculous Devil Fruit.
But through sheer willpower alone.
To protect the bloodline of the man she loved, Rouge had defied human limits and resisted the natural laws of the body itself.
Every extra day had devoured more of her life force.
Now, her body had finally reached its limit.
Creak— The wooden door opened violently as rainwater and freezing wind flooded into the room.
A massive figure stepped inside.
Monkey D.
Garp.
The Hero of the Marines was not wearing his white justice coat today.
Dressed only in ordinary civilian clothing, the old marine’s face appeared heavier than the storm clouds outside.
“Rouge…” Garp’s deep voice sounded unusually hoarse.
Rouge slowly turned her head.
Her once-beautiful golden hair clung damply against her cheeks, while the warmth in her eyes had nearly faded completely.
“Mr.
Garp…” Her voice was so weak it nearly vanished beneath the rain.
“Did they leave?” Garp walked toward the bedside and knelt beside her.
“The government search ships already withdrew from the area,” he answered quietly.
“For now… you’re safe.” Rouge smiled faintly.
But the moment she relaxed, agony surged through her body once more.
“Ahhh—!!” A scream tore through the room.
The elderly midwife beside the bed nearly lost her composure.
In all her decades delivering children across Baterilla Island, she had never witnessed something so horrifying.
Rouge’s body should have collapsed long ago.
Yet somehow, she was still alive.
Blood stained the sheets.
The contractions intensified.
Then— A baby’s cry suddenly echoed through the room.
“Waaaah!!” The first child had been born.
The midwife hurriedly lifted the infant with trembling hands before quickly cutting the umbilical cord.
“It’s a boy!” she exclaimed breathlessly.
“Healthy too… incredibly healthy!” The child cried loudly while waving his tiny fists through the air with startling energy.
Rouge stared weakly at the baby.
Warmth returned briefly to her fading eyes.
“Ace…” Her cracked lips trembled slightly.
“Gol D.
Ace.” That was the name the Pirate King himself had chosen.
But before anyone could relax— Rouge’s stomach contracted violently again.
The midwife froze.
Her face turned deathly pale.
“There’s another one?!” Even Garp’s expression changed instantly.
Twins.
Roger had never mentioned twins.
Rouge’s body arched painfully against the bed as blood continued to spread across the sheets beneath her.
The second child was coming.
“Rouge!” Garp shouted.
For the first time in years, the legendary marine sounded genuinely panicked.
Rouge bit through her own lip to suppress another scream.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as her body trembled uncontrollably.
Meanwhile— Within the darkness of the womb, Kahn felt the world around him collapsing.
Warmth disappeared.
Pressure surged from every direction.
Then cold air suddenly struck his skin.
Light flooded his vision.
His instincts forced a cry from his throat despite his efforts to resist.
“WAAAAH—!!” The midwife quickly caught the second infant.
Another boy.
She stared at him in disbelief before hurriedly wrapping him in cloth and placing him beside Ace.
Kahn gradually stopped crying.
His blurry vision slowly focused.
The first thing he saw was an enormous rugged face leaning over him.
Wrinkled skin.
Scar beneath the eye.
Powerful presence.
Even without the iconic dog hat or Marine coat, Kahn recognized him instantly.
Garp.
His thoughts froze.
Then realization struck like lightning.
One Piece.
He had transmigrated into the world of One Piece.
His eyes shifted toward the crying infant beside him.
Ace.
Then toward the exhausted blonde woman lying weakly upon the bed.
Rouge.
Understanding crashed into him all at once.
He had become the hidden second son of Gol D.
Roger.
Ace’s twin brother.
Rouge slowly lifted her trembling hand.
Her fingertips touched Ace’s cheek gently before moving toward Kahn’s forehead.
“This child…” Her voice had become barely audible.
Garp leaned closer.
Rouge smiled softly.
“Kahn…” “That’s his name…” Relief appeared across her face.
Twenty months of suffering.
Twenty months of fear.
It was finally over.
She had protected Roger’s children.
Her hand slowly slipped from the bed.
Then stopped moving entirely.
Silence filled the room.
Only the storm remained.
Ace continued crying loudly, unaware of what had happened.
Kahn stared at Rouge’s lifeless face quietly.
A strange pain tightened inside his chest.
Even though he had only just been born into this world, he understood clearly what kind of woman she had been.
In the original story, Rouge had endured twenty months of pregnancy solely to protect Ace from the World Government’s purge against Roger’s bloodline.
Now she had done the same for both of them.
The elderly midwife stepped backward in terror until her back struck the wall.
Her entire body trembled violently.
The Pirate King’s children.
If the World Government discovered this… She would never survive.
“Vice Admiral Garp…” she stammered fearfully.
“What… what will happen to me?” Garp slowly stood.
He removed his coat and gently placed it over Rouge’s body.
“You saw nothing,” Garp said calmly.
“You heard nothing.” He reached into his pocket and threw a thick envelope onto the table.
The envelope burst open slightly, revealing stacks of Berries alongside an official Navy protection pass stamped with high-level authorization.
“Take your family and leave South Blue immediately,” Garp ordered.
“Go to East Blue.
Don’t ever come back here.” The overwhelming pressure in his voice left no room for refusal.
The midwife nodded frantically before grabbing the envelope and fleeing the house into the storm.
Garp then looked down at the two infants silently.
“Ace…” “Kahn…” The old marine sighed deeply.
“Roger, you damned idiot… you left me with one hell of a burden.” Despite his rough appearance, Garp carefully wrapped both babies in thick swaddling cloth.
Kahn stared directly into Garp’s eyes without blinking.
Garp paused.
The old marine frowned immediately.
Those eyes were wrong.
Far too calm.
Far too aware.
No newborn should possess such a gaze.
“Tch.” Garp clicked his tongue.
“What’re you staring at, brat?
I’m a Marine.” Yet despite his gruff tone, his grip became noticeably gentler.
Soon afterward, Garp carried both children out into the storm.
At the harbor of Baterilla Island, a small unmarked merchant ship waited quietly in the rain.
Garp had specifically prepared it to avoid attracting Marine attention.
Once aboard, he personally placed Ace and Kahn inside a hidden compartment beneath the lower deck.
The wooden interior smelled of seawater, mildew, and old timber.
Outside, thunder shook the ocean.
“Set sail,” Garp ordered.
The ship slowly departed from Baterilla Island and disappeared into the darkness of the South Blue.
Inside the cradle, Kahn listened quietly to the crashing waves against the hull.
His thoughts rapidly stabilized.
This world was terrifying.
Pirates.
Marines.
The Seven Warlords.
The Four Emperors.
And eventually, monsters capable of splitting the seas themselves with Haki alone.
Without power, survival was impossible.
Worse still, he carried the blood of Roger.
The World Government would never allow Roger’s children to live.
If his identity were exposed, he and Ace would face endless pursuit from Cipher Pol, the Marines, and perhaps even Admirals themselves.
Then another memory surfaced within Kahn’s mind.
Battle of Marineford.
Ace’s death.
Whitebeard’s final stand.
The collapse of an era.
Kahn slowly turned toward the sleeping Ace beside him.
The future commander of the Whitebeard Pirates was currently nothing more than a drooling infant wrapped in blankets.
Kahn’s eyes hardened slightly.
“I won’t let Marineford happen again.” In this brutal world, only strength could protect freedom.
Only strength could defy fate.
And no matter what it took— He would become strong enough to change everything.