Chapter 46: The Lost Swordsman! The Vermilion Bird Soars
SMILE Factory, Underground Trade Port.
Dark. Damp.
The air was permeated with a strange odor—a mixture of rust and despair.
Sabo led Sanji, Nami, Chopper, and the others as they silently infiltrated this den of sin.
"So many people... no, toys."
Nami covered her mouth, looking at the piles of assorted toys stacked in the corner of the port, all of them twitching slightly.
"They... were all once living, breathing humans."
Sanji blew out a smoke ring, the anger in his heart almost igniting the cigarette butt.
Just then.
A sticky, nauseating voice rang out in the empty port.
" Ne, ne... looks like we have guests."
A man with a bloated figure, draped in a yellow spotted cloak and leaning on a plum-blossom scepter, walked out from the shadows of a massive pipe.
It was the Supreme Officer of the Donquixote Family, Trebol.
Beside him followed a little girl wearing a polka-dot dress, hugging a massive jar of grapes.
Her appearance was childlike and cute, yet she radiated a creepy aura that made one's skin crawl.
Sugar.
"Capture them!"
Trebol pointed his slimy finger at Sabo and the others.
"Disgusting guy!"
Sanji was the first to rush out, his right leg igniting with blazing flames. "Diable Jambe!"
His figure turned into a black bolt of lightning, aiming straight for Trebol's head.
Trebol didn't dodge or evade; he simply grinned.
Squelch.
Sanji's leg—powerful enough to shatter steel—sank deeply into Trebol's sticky body and couldn't be pulled out.
"What?" Sanji's movement stalled.
"Ne, ne... caught one!" Trebol let out a nauseating laugh.
"Sanji-kun!" Nami screamed.
In the instant everyone's attention was drawn to Sanji, Sugar moved.
Her small figure charged toward the most harmless-looking target in the group with a speed completely inconsistent with her appearance.
"Little Reindeer, let's play a game."
Sugar extended her small hand, clad in a white glove, reaching toward Chopper's body.
"Chopper!"
Usopp let out a scream that didn't sound human.
Chopper's body froze instantly. He could feel an irresistible, eerie power invading his body.
In the nick of time.
CLANG!
A slash, fast to the extreme!
Like moonlight cutting through the darkness, it exploded out from the shadows of a tunnel to the group's rear flank.
The target of the slash was not Sugar, but the ground between her and Chopper.
BOOM!
The hard ground was split open, forming a deep ravine. The exploding air pressure lifted Sugar's small body and blew her directly away.
"Who goes there?" Trebol's laughter came to a screeching halt.
Amidst the dust.
A man with short green hair and three swords at his waist walked out, looking completely annoyed.
"Tch. Where the hell is this?"
Zoro scratched his head. "Isn't the Coliseum in this direction?"
"Zoro!"
"Why are you here?!"
"Weren't you with Luffy?!"
The exclamations from the Straw Hats rose and fell.
"I got lost."
Zoro's answer was self-righteous and confident.
"You bastard!"
Sanji, still stuck in place, was so angry he almost vomited blood.
"The swordsman from Luffy's crew?"
Sabo glanced at Zoro, then at Sugar who had been blown away, and instantly understood the situation.
"Be careful of that little girl. Her ability is weird."
"Hmph."
Zoro bit the Wado Ichimonji in his mouth and gripped the Sandai Kitetsu and Shusui in his hands.
"Just right. I haven't cut enough yet."
"Dragon Claw!"
Sabo wasted no more words.
His hands transformed into dragon claws as he went straight for Trebol.
Zoro moved at the same time.
Three swords carried a chilling killing intent, sealing off all of Sugar's escape routes.
"Hey! You guys go!"
In the gap between attacks, Zoro roared at Nami and the others behind him.
"Leave this place to us!"
"But Sanji-kun is..."
"Don't worry about me! Go to the factory!" Sanji shouted at Nami.
Sabo and Zoro joined forces, instantly suppressing Trebol and Sugar firmly.
"Annoying slime."
Zoro watched Trebol constantly wriggling and repairing his wounds, losing his patience.
He took a deep breath. Around one of his swords, an ominous black aura wrapped itself tight.
"One Sword Style: Yakkodori (Disaster Harbor Bird)!"
BOOM!
A massive, spiral-shaped flying slash shaped like a monstrous bird detached from the blade.
It didn't fly toward Trebol.
Instead, it slashed toward the thickest wall in the port—the one leading to the factory interior.
The wall, like butter cut by a hot knife, blasted open.
A path leading into the depths was forcibly opened.
"GO!"
Sabo roared.
Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and the others hesitated no longer, rushing immediately toward the breach.
Sugar was intimidated by Zoro's sword pressure and couldn't advance for a moment.
In that moment of distraction—
The eerie power she had exerted over countless toys instantly vanished.
On the Port.
Crack... crack...
Sounds of transformation came from the mountain of toys.
"My hands... my hands are back!"
"I'm not a toy anymore!"
"What happened! Why am I here!"
"It was the Donquixote Family! It was Doflamingo who turned us into toys!"
"Kill them! Avenge our brothers!"
Ten thousand pirates, marines, and kingdom soldiers who had been imprisoned for years—some even for a decade—reverted to their original forms in this instant.
The anger and hatred suppressed for countless years erupted like a volcano.
The entire underground port instantly turned into a complete purgatory.
Meanwhile, Inside the Corrida Coliseum.
The slaughter had reached its conclusion.
"Gomu Gomu no... Grizzly Magnum!"
Luffy, with Gear Second fully active, slammed two massive fists ruthlessly onto Jesus Burgess's crossed arms.
BOOM!
Burgess's meat-mountain body was knocked back frontally for the first time.
The ground beneath his feet shattered inch by inch as he slid backward dozens of meters.
"Zehahahaha! You've got some moves, Straw Hat!"
Burgess shook his numb arms, his face full of fanatical battle lust.
"You're too slow!"
Luffy's figure appeared above him like a ghost.
"Gomu Gomu no..."
"Jet Gatling!"
Countless fists wrapped in Armament Haki poured down on Burgess's massive body like a torrential storm.
After Garp's special training, his fists were no longer so easy to stomach!
The next moment!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Like a hail of bullets!
Burgess let out a muffled groan.
His body flew backward uncontrollably, smashing heavily into the Coliseum wall, completely losing consciousness.
"Champion! A Champion is born!"
Announcer Gatz's voice cracked from excitement.
Luffy landed on the high platform. He didn't even look at the luxurious treasure chest.
He threw a punch.
The chest shattered into pieces.
A strangely shaped Devil Fruit, burning entirely with golden flames, rolled out.
Just as he was about to pick it up—
"Luffy!"
A familiar voice came from the Coliseum entrance.
It was Sabo.
His clothes were somewhat disheveled; clearly, he had gone through a fierce battle to escape the underground port.
He looked at Luffy.
Then he looked at the fruit, a trace of complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
Luffy saw Sabo and grinned.
He picked up the fruit and, without a second thought, threw it directly to him.
"Sabo! Eat this!"
Sabo caught the fruit instinctively, completely stunned.
"Luffy... you..."
"I already have the Rubber Fruit, I can't eat another one!" Luffy's reasoning was simple and direct.
"You need this power to send all those bad guys flying!"
Sabo looked at the fruit burning with golden flames in his hand, then at Luffy's sincere smiling face.
A wave of warmth rushed from his chest straight to his eyes.
He could no longer suppress his emotions.
This little brother... he's always like this.
Sabo didn't say another word.
He brought the fruit to his mouth. With tears in his eyes, he took a bite.
BOOM!
An unspeakable scorching power exploded within his body.
Golden flames sprayed out from every single one of his pores like a bursting dam.
A clear, high-pitched bird cry, seemingly capable of piercing the clouds, resounded through all of Dressrosa.
In the midst of the soaring golden fire, Sabo's figure began to undergo a drastic change.
Behind his back, a pair of massive, magnificent wings composed entirely of golden flames unfurled abruptly.
Bird-Bird Fruit, Mythical Type: Model Vermilion Bird (Suzaku)!
To be Continued
_______
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=========EXCLUSIVE : ONE PIECE: NEW SOUL IN ACE ========
Chapter 1: ACE : CH 1: Summit War
·
Chapter 1: Summit War
The sea was red.
The waters of Marineford Harbor had been dyed a dark crimson by blood. It was not the reflection of the setting sun, but the last drop of blood shed by countless men who had rushed the execution platform, only to fall there in heaps.
The sounds of cannon fire, battle cries, screams, and the metallic clash of blades all mingled together, carried by the sea breeze to the raised platform at the end of the boulevard.
On the execution platform.
Portgas D. Ace knelt there, with two pairs of shackles locked around his neck, and another pair each on his wrists and ankles.
"Something seems to have entered my mind."
The heavy weight of Seastone spread from his skin all the way down to his marrow, as though countless hands were dragging him toward the depths of the earth. His body had gone numb, or rather, he could no longer feel his body at all.
What no one knew was that Ace's body now housed the soul of a pirate fan.
That soul had entered him the moment he was brought up onto the execution platform.
He had knelt there for a long time.
Ace had long since moved past his initial shock and become calm.
How many hours had passed? He did not know.
Countless eyes stared up at him from below.
Marine Headquarters officers, elite soldiers, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, journalists from the press, and ordinary people watching through Den Den Mushi broadcasts—at this very moment, at least hundreds of millions of people across the world were staring at the back of his head, waiting to see him die.
Yet a mocking curve appeared at the corner of Ace's mouth.
Truthfully, death was not such a big deal to him.
From the moment he had been old enough to remember, he had been a child who should never have been born. His mother, Portgas D. Rouge, had hidden him in her womb for twenty months just to make sure he survived.
It had been a birth bought with her life.
His father was Gol D. Roger, the man who had ushered in the Great Pirate Era, and what that man had left him with were only four words: the son of a sinner.
Every day he had lived in this world had been a bonus.
The wind suddenly grew stronger.
Ace's hair was blown up, revealing that sharp, carved face of his. He narrowed his eyes and looked toward the distant sea—there, the wreckage of the Whitebeard Pirates' Moby Dick still burned.
Old man... that man who had rushed unhesitatingly into Marine Headquarters' encirclement in order to save him was now fighting the entire Marine Headquarters alone somewhere on the battlefield.
All because of me.
That thought cut into Ace's heart like a knife.
The fan was a little shaken, because it felt as though Ace's original soul had stirred its emotions.
Then images began surfacing in his mind one after another.
He seemed to have become an observer.
Was this... Ace's thoughts?
He remembered seven years ago, when he had sailed a small boat straight onto the Moby Dick and drawn his blade against that giant of a man.
He had thought he was strong enough, strong enough to kill the "strongest man in the world" and make a name for himself by taking his head.
The result.
His old man had caught every attack with one hand, then smashed him on the head with that enormous fist, leaving him in pain for three whole days.
"Kid, if you want to kill me, come back and try anytime," that man had said with a laugh. "But before that, become my son."
Son.
When Ace heard that word for the first time, he froze.
He was the son of the Pirate King, the bloodline of a criminal, a stain this world should never have allowed to exist.
And yet that man had said: become my son.
Only later did he understand that in Whitebeard's eyes, every orphan drifting upon the sea was his son.
He had a home.
He had a place to return to.
"Execution time."
Sengoku's voice came from beside him, interrupting Ace's thoughts. He turned his head and saw the elderly man with frog-shaped glasses and thick curly hair standing at the center of the execution platform, holding a Den Den Mushi amplifier.
"In the presence of the whole world, I now proclaim the reason for Portgas D. Ace's execution—"
Sengoku's voice spread across all of Marineford through the amplifier, and via Den Den Mushi broadcasts, across the world.
Ace did not listen closely.
He knew what Sengoku was going to say—about who his father was, about what kind of blood he inherited, about how his very existence was an affront to the World Government. He had heard words like that since childhood; his ears had long since grown calloused to them.
His gaze passed over Sengoku, over the dense sea of figures below the platform, and landed on the tiny silhouette far away.
Luffy.
His little brother.
That idiot who had followed behind him and Sabo ever since he was a child, crying and shouting, "Ace, wait for me!" That fool he had beaten countless times, yet who always came back grinning to cling to him again. That idiot who had trained desperately with his Gum-Gum abilities and declared he would become King of the Pirates.
At this moment, Luffy was charging madly toward this place.
He was covered in blood—some of it his own, some of it his enemies'.
Somewhere along the way, his straw hat had been lost. His face was smeared with blood and tears, mixed together in dirty streaks. No one knew how many enemies he had defeated or how many obstacles he had smashed through, but he was still charging forward.
Behind him were the monsters who had escaped from Impel Down. Buggy the Clown, Crocodile, Emporio Ivankov—those men followed after Luffy, clearing away the enemies on his flanks.
But Luffy himself was taking the greatest amount of punishment head-on.
"Ace!!!"
That voice pierced through the chaos of the battlefield, through the thunder of cannon fire, through the height of the execution platform, and drove straight into Ace's heart.
He opened his mouth, wanting to call out something, only to realize he could not make a sound.
And then, the fan's soul began to merge with Ace's soul.
What was this?
During the process of fusion, Ace saw the later developments of the Summit War, and the outcome of his own body being pierced through by Akainu.
His eyes suddenly stung.
Not because he knew he would die, but because he saw Luffy's tear-streaked face.
Luffy, stop shouting.
He thought.
Please, Luffy.
Run!
His little brother was only seventeen. He had not truly grown up yet. He had not yet seen the vastness of the sea. He had not yet fulfilled their promise.
What was that promise again?
Right. It was the vow the three of them made on Dadan's mountain, before a sky full of sunset clouds.
—We will become the freest people on this sea.
"Portgas D. Ace, your father is—"
Sengoku's words were cut off halfway.
"Enough!"
Ace, who had closed his eyes, suddenly opened them.
His voice was not loud, and even sounded a little hoarse, but for some reason, those two words rang clearly throughout the area around the execution platform.
Sengoku frowned at him.
The entire battlefield fell silent for a single instant.
The soldiers locked in battle, the powerful men clashing with each other, the Warlords watching from the sidelines—at this moment, every pair of eyes converged on the man kneeling atop the execution platform.
Ace did not look at Sengoku.
His gaze passed over everyone, beyond the dense mass of figures, beyond the chilling forest of blades, spears, and swords, and settled on a silhouette on the steps beneath the platform.
That figure sat cross-legged there, with his back to Ace, head lowered, shoulders trembling slightly.
Iron Fist Garp.
The Navy hero, the legendary strong man, the man who had chased the Pirate King all over the seas twenty years ago. He was also the old bastard who had dumped Ace and Luffy with mountain bandits as children, gone off to carry out his duties, and only returned occasionally to beat them up.
"Grandpa."
Ace said it aloud.
The two words were so light they were almost scattered by the sea breeze.
But Garp's shoulders abruptly stiffened.
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