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"Look out??"
As Ace was speaking with Decalvan, he heard Vista's sharp cry.
Look out for what?
Just then, another pirate noticed something was wrong.
"Where did the sun go?"
"Why is there... another shadow?"
"Hey! Up there! What's blocking the sun?"
A shadow? In the sky?
Ace and Decalvan looked up. A colossal shadow was indeed blotting out the sun, and it was falling fast.
"What the hell is falling from the sky?"
"Hey—I think it's coming right for us!"
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
"IT'S GONNA HIT US!"
Just as panic erupted, streams of air blasted from the bottom of the descending object, slowing its fall until it came to a steady hover.
It hung there, suspended in mid-air.
"It... it stopped!"
"What is that thing?"
"What the hell is going on?"
The crewmates who had been clinging to each other, crying for their mothers, now stared up in utter disbelief.
As the object descended slowly into the water, its true form became clear in the sunlight.
"Is that... a ship?"
"A SHIP?"
"You've got to be kidding me. A ship can't sail through the air!"
"No way..."
But it was true. A ship.
"Amazing!"
"Does it fly? A flying ship?"
"Could it be... the Flying Dutchman?"
Everyone stared in shock.
And then, from the ship's mast, a flag unfurled—a fearsome black dragon on a field of crimson.
Ace. Vista. And even Vergo, watching from the heights of the G-5 base—
—all felt a jolt of recognition.
The name and the flag of Jin had stormed the New World the moment he'd defeated a Warlord and taken the title for himself.
The King of Paradise.
That was the title the World Economic Journal had bestowed upon him.
Just as Shanks and the others had been named the Four Emperors, it wasn't a title he had claimed for himself. It was a declaration, broadcast to the world on the front page of the news.
It was a title recognized by the World Government.
A title forged through the failures of countless challengers.
The King of Paradise.
Some praised him, others sneered, but most of the power players in the New World had been eagerly awaiting his arrival.
What kind of waves would he make here??
How would he clash with the Emperors??
Would he submit??
Would he try to usurp them??
Or would he be sent scurrying back to Paradise with his tail between his legs??
No one aiming for the top—be they pirate or Marine—could afford to ignore him.
And now, here he was, descending from the heavens to make his grand entrance into the New World.
Vista's shock gave way to a sharp, wary caution. Was his sudden appearance a coincidence, or was it planned?
Was his target the same as theirs—Whitebeard?
The thoughts raced through his mind before settling into a steely resolve.
'I don't care who you are. If you've come to challenge Pops, I'll do everything in my power to stop you.'
Decalvan, who had been on the verge of surrendering to Whitebeard for the sake of his crew, now saw a glimmer of opportunity.
'If they fight... I might still have a chance.'
He was like the other young captains of the Worst Generation who would storm the New World in five years' time—Luffy, Kid, all of them. Their goal was the summit.
He wasn't ready to give up just yet.
"The man who defeated Doflamingo," Vergo murmured, his expression grim. "Rumor has it he was invited to Big Mom's tea party. Is that why he's come to the New World?"
The newspapers had been silent on the matter—Morgans wouldn't dare to offend Big Mom. But the whispers had spread through the underworld, and Vergo, with his access to both Marine and Doflamingo's intelligence networks, had heard them.
Of all the people present, Ace's expression was the most complex.
The memory of his encounter in the East Blue at the beginning of the year was still fresh.
'Am I strong enough now to beat him?'
He didn't know.
In the span of just seven or eight months, he had gone from an unknown in the East Blue to "Fire Fist" Ace of the New World. His rise had been meteoric.
But... facing that king again, Ace wasn't sure he could win.
He had challenged Whitebeard a hundred times and lost a hundred times.
Ace knew he had hit a plateau.
An invisible chasm lay between a genius and a true monster. It looked so close, yet it was a world away.
And so, after long and careful consideration, Ace had decided to disband the Spade Pirates and accept the offer to become Whitebeard's son.
But it was more than just that.
During his time with the Whitebeard Pirates, Ace, who had been so fixated on his own purpose and on surpassing Roger, had begun to change.
He had found the feeling of "family."
To continue fighting... it had started to feel meaningless.
—————————
"Yo, Ace. We meet again."
Ace looked up. The sun was blinding. A figure stood on the high deck of the ship, silhouetted against the light.
"The air in the New World... not so different from Paradise," Jin mused, taking a deep breath. "Just a little thicker with the smell of gunpowder."
"Hey, Ace, you know him?" Vista asked.
"Is he a friend?" Decalvan added, a note of worry in his voice.
Ace's answer came in the form of the roaring flames that erupted from his body, the air crackling with heat.
The fire surged, exploded, consuming his entire being.
"WUUUAAAAAH!" he roared, a demon of fire bursting forth from the depths of hell, his presence a palpable force.
"FIRE FIST!"
Propelled by the flames, Ace shot into the air, his right hand transforming into a colossal fist of fire that he brought crashing down.
The heat washed over them, a searing wave before the blow even landed.
The sky itself seemed to ignite.
The power was immense.
"That's... Fire Fist Ace?" someone on a nearby island exclaimed.
"Still as fired up as ever," Jin said, a smile playing on his lips, a flash of red light in his eyes. "But isn't this a rather rude way to say hello?"
He threw a single punch.
The resulting shockwave tore through the flames, a violent gale that swept across the sea.
All the fire, all the heat—extinguished in an instant.
And then, Ace was hit.
Inch-foot power. The art of unleashing devastating force over the shortest possible distance.
A gout of blood erupted from Ace's mouth. He was launched backward, a streak of red light arcing across the sky before slamming into an island several nautical miles away.
The impact was terrifying.
The small mountain where he landed exploded, the reef shattering, the ground cracking. A thick cloud of dust and debris obscured the view.
The sea churned, the aftershock of the punch whipping it into a frenzy of massive waves.
Decalvan's eyes were wide with horror. His crew was sent tumbling across the deck.
"ACE!" Vista cried out, stunned.
The crew behind him were speechless, their faces a mask of disbelief.
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