Chapter 487: Ace's Journey, and the Five Elders' Resolve
"Oh? Ace has already made it to Wano?"
Fish-Man Island. Brett had a Den Den Mushi pressed to his ear, his expression easy and amused.
"He sure has! Ha ha! I didn't even know he was a friend of yours until he mentioned your name!" The voice on the other end was bright and energetic, the kind that filled whatever space it occupied. "I thought he was some enemy who'd wandered in, so I gave him a proper fight first!"
"Is that right?" Brett's smile widened with interest. "And how did it end up?"
"Me, obviously!" The woman on the other end said it as though the question barely warranted answering. "Ace is seriously impressive, don't get me wrong. The Flame-Flame Fruit's firepower is something else, and his Haki has been trained hard. But compared to me, there's still a gap!"
"Getting confident, aren't you, Yamato."
Brett's tone was fond.
The one on the other end was Yamato, Kaido's proud daughter, and Brett's good friend. Since they'd last spoken she had taken over as Wano's general, and from the sound of her, nothing about her personality had changed even slightly.
"I'm Wano's guardian deity!" She said it with cheerful self-assurance. "If I lost that easily, what would that say about my ability to protect the country?"
Brett didn't answer. He just smiled to himself.
It was funny. Even in this changed world, Yamato and Ace had still found each other. And from the sound of it, they were already friends.
Though the result was different from what he might have imagined. Even with Haki training that Brett had personally pushed Ace through, putting him well ahead of where he would otherwise be at this point, Yamato had still come out ahead. She had broken whatever limits had once been on her, and her Haki had been honed to a formidable level. Ace had never quite had the ceiling to match her.
Yamato always called herself Kozuki Oden, which he still found a little baffling. But whatever her peculiarities, she may have genuinely grown into something close to that name's worth.
"But Brett, can you talk some sense into Ace?" Yamato's voice shifted into something with a touch of genuine worry underneath the brightness.
"What's the matter?"
"He says he's going to go find Whitebeard next." She sighed. "He's incredible, I'll give him that. But compared to Whitebeard? He's not even close."
Yamato knew very well what the Emperors were capable of. Her father Kaido and her friend Brett were both the genuine article.
And Whitebeard, the one they called the world's strongest man, was probably above her father. Perhaps even in the same class as Brett. Ace, who couldn't beat Yamato, going after something like that didn't seem like a plan that ended well.
She wasn't trying to stop his adventure. She just didn't want to watch someone she'd just made friends with walk into his own death.
She couldn't get through to him herself. So she'd called Brett. Ace respected Brett, after all. If anyone could get the message across, it was him.
But.
"Let him go."
That was what Brett said.
"What?" Yamato's voice stretched out long and incredulous. "Brett. Are you serious? Ace is going to get killed by Whitebeard!"
"He'll be fine, Yamato." Brett's tone was unhurried and certain. "He didn't say he was going to pick a fight. And Whitebeard isn't the type to just slaughter someone on the spot."
"Eeeeeh."
The sound she made conveyed every dimension of her doubt over an extended interval.
"That's all. Tell Ace I said hello."
Brett hung up, smiling to himself.
So Ace had actually taken what he'd said to heart. He was probably going to ask one of his father's old companions what that man had really been like.
Whitebeard would enjoy that, Brett suspected. You reached a certain age, and the pull of old memories got stronger.
Wano Country.
Yamato stood holding the Den Den Mushi with a deeply unsatisfied expression.
She had absolutely been brushed off.
"So? What did Brett say?" A shirtless young man with black hair and a big grin came wandering into the room.
Yamato fixed him with a pointed look. "He said to do whatever you want."
"Ha! I knew it." Ace laughed, bright and untroubled. "Brett was never going to stop me!"
Yamato pursed her lips.
"Anyway, time to say goodbye, Yamato!" Ace tipped the brim of his hat up with a thumb, grinning. "Wano was an incredible trip. Getting to know you was even better. But there's something I need to go do next."
"Ace." Yamato said his name with sudden weight. "You remember what getting hit by my kanabo feels like, right?"
Ace paused. Then he grinned wider than before. "Remember it perfectly."
And he had gained something from it. The feel of Conqueror's Haki wrapped around a clash. He'd felt the edge of it. The shape of it.
"Next time we meet, maybe it'll be you getting knocked around!" His grin stretched to the corners of his face.
"Ha. Come at me anytime!" Yamato struck a fighting stance, eyes bright.
Then came the moment of parting.
Whitebeard.
The monster who had stood as a peer to that man in the age before this one.
What kind of person would he be?
Ace stepped out of the keep and walked into the sunlight, turning the question over in his mind as he went.
On the island housing the Navy Science Division.
A stretch of unremarkable-looking cliff face suddenly exploded outward. A black shape burst through the broken gap and through the open air, leaving a trail of blood scattered across the sky before hitting the ocean and sinking.
Almost simultaneously, a second figure shot out of the same gap.
The white robes that had been pristine were now torn beyond recognition and soaked through with blood. The mask was split, half of it gone, and the exposed half of a face beneath it was drenched in red.
The CP0 agent hung in the air above the water, standing on nothing, watching the surface below where a faint bloom of blood was spreading outward.
"Well." A quiet exhale. "That's a problem."
Pursuit was simply not possible. Not in this state.
The Five Elders were going to have a very unpleasant day.
The CP0 agent's prediction was accurate.
"What? She found out the truth and ran?" Saint Mars's composure cracked around the edges, fury pressing through. "What exactly were you there for?"
"My sincerest apologies, Five Elders." The voice from the Den Den Mushi was perfectly respectful, and equally committed to establishing the relevant context. "Momousagi's combat ability is extraordinary. Even I sustained serious injuries. And at the critical moment, Doberman sacrificed himself to buy her time to escape."
"..."
The Five Elders looked at each other.
A long silence settled over the room.
Finally, Saint Nusjuro spoke. His voice was calm in the particular way of someone who had already decided how to frame things.
"It appears Momousagi was turned during her captivity by Zephyr." He said it as a statement of established fact, without inflection. "Her escape from NEO Navy custody was a performance. She went back to infiltrate our side as a spy."
"The Science Division's new base has been destroyed as a result. Fortunately, Doctor Caesar managed to escape, which allowed us to expose her true purpose."
The other four Elders stared at him.
After a beat, Saint Mars gave a slow, quiet nod. "Contact the Navy. Have them issue the bounty notice immediately."