Many a time I've envied Robin's devil fruit. To be everywhere at once, with a million eyes to keep on all the little idiots...
But of course, if I could do that I couldn't absorb their damage instead.
[But that's a distraction isn't it? He does this to Robin constantly. Because addressing the other part is too hard. He doesn't want to. He knows exactly that sentiment, and there's nothing that would have settled Marco's mind to put it at ease, all those years ago. So what could he tell his younger self? Or a younger Rayleigh? Any of them?]
But even a devil fruit that could stop time wouldn't be perfectly useful, eh?
[Fears... Marco's fear had always been losing his father, and then he did. Losing the others? And he did. Losing them all one by one, the islands, the crew, the world. Would he be the last one facing Blackbeard in an endless sea of black, forever battling and too stubborn to give up just because he never could, never would? Or would he outlast even that? What then...?]
[He just shakes his head.]
I'll tell you the same thing I told the rest of my crew. That's not a fear that will ever go away. And if it does, you're dead. So you'd best learn to get comfortable with it.
[He doesn't like having to be that harsh. Particularly on the young crew. The crew that was carrying Ace's will where he couldn't. The crew that protected, saved, loved, and adored Robin even more than Marco did.]
[But the world will be a hundred times harder.]
I'll owe you a barrel big enough to get even Pops drunk when it's all over, but for now, so long as you want to make sure the others don't fall, you don't get a break until they're out of it.
[The worst part of being them. Ikki got it, but Chandra and Jean hadn't. It wasn't part of being a phoenix, it was part of being the only one who could when others could not.]
[Voice] 2/2
But of course, if I could do that I couldn't absorb their damage instead.
[But that's a distraction isn't it? He does this to Robin constantly. Because addressing the other part is too hard. He doesn't want to. He knows exactly that sentiment, and there's nothing that would have settled Marco's mind to put it at ease, all those years ago. So what could he tell his younger self? Or a younger Rayleigh? Any of them?]
But even a devil fruit that could stop time wouldn't be perfectly useful, eh?
[Fears... Marco's fear had always been losing his father, and then he did. Losing the others? And he did. Losing them all one by one, the islands, the crew, the world. Would he be the last one facing Blackbeard in an endless sea of black, forever battling and too stubborn to give up just because he never could, never would? Or would he outlast even that? What then...?]
[He just shakes his head.]
I'll tell you the same thing I told the rest of my crew. That's not a fear that will ever go away. And if it does, you're dead. So you'd best learn to get comfortable with it.
[He doesn't like having to be that harsh. Particularly on the young crew. The crew that was carrying Ace's will where he couldn't. The crew that protected, saved, loved, and adored Robin even more than Marco did.]
[But the world will be a hundred times harder.]
I'll owe you a barrel big enough to get even Pops drunk when it's all over, but for now, so long as you want to make sure the others don't fall, you don't get a break until they're out of it.
[The worst part of being them. Ikki got it, but Chandra and Jean hadn't. It wasn't part of being a phoenix, it was part of being the only one who could when others could not.]