Grand Line — Banaro Island
The flames did not care about Tenjin's pride.
They did not care that he had crossed the sea with a Marine warship and a hunch. They did not care that he had stood on the bow with his coat snapping behind him, smiling to himself like a man already halfway into victory. They did not care that he had come here as a Marine captain, carrying his sense of justice like something solid and unbreakable.
Fire cared about none of that.
It only burned.
Tenjin pushed himself up from the scorched ground with a grimace.
His right hand sank into blackened dirt. The skin along his arm stung. His coat was singed, one sleeve torn open where the flames had chewed through it, and his breathing had lost all of its earlier smoothness. Heat still radiated from the ground around him, rippling the air.
A few meters away, Portgas D. Ace stood relaxed.
Far too relaxed.
There was no tension in his shoulders. No strain in his breathing. Only a loose, easy stance and the faint flicker of fire still dancing along one arm. His hat cast a slight shadow over his eyes, but his smile was visible enough.
He was enjoying this.
Not cruelly.
Just with the confidence of a man who knew exactly how far above the other stood.
Tenjin clicked his tongue.
That smile irritated him.
That ease irritated him.
Most of all, the fact that Ace was right irritated him.
Fire really was a terrible matchup.
Tenjin pushed himself fully upright, one hand gripping his sword tighter.
Ace raised a brow.
"You still want more?"
Tenjin didn't answer.
Instead, the ground behind him cracked.
Roots burst up in a violent spread, thick and twisting, curling over one another as they shot across the burned battlefield like living serpents. They raced toward Ace from every side, snapping through scorched soil and shattered rock.
Ace did not move.
He simply watched them come.
The roots closed in.
Then flames erupted outward from his body.
Not in one neat burst, but in a roaring expansion that swallowed the incoming wood whole. Branches blackened instantly. Vines curled in on themselves. The thick roots Tenjin had thrown forward with careful timing and force were reduced to brittle black shapes before they could even touch him.
Ace let the flames settle.
"What'd I just say?" he asked, almost laughing. "You're really persistent."
Tenjin came in anyway.
He used the destruction as cover, sprinting through the smoke and heat with his sword already drawn. The blade flashed from low to high, cutting toward Ace's side in a fast rising arc.
Ace turned just enough.
The blade passed through fire.
Only a brief distortion of flame where his body should have been.
Tenjin's eyes narrowed. He shifted at once, twisting the blade in his grip and driving another slash across Ace's centerline.
Again—
Nothing.
Ace's torso broke apart into fire, reformed, and then his knee drove hard into Tenjin's stomach.
Tenjin's breath left him.
His body folded around the blow before Ace grabbed his shoulder and flung him aside. Tenjin hit the ground, rolled, dug his boots in, and forced himself back up almost immediately.
Ace watched him with growing amusement.
"You're doing a lot better than most Marines your age," he said. "Shame about the matchup."
Tenjin's jaw tightened.
'I know.'
That was what made it so infuriating.
He knew.
He could feel it in every exchange. In every strike that passed harmlessly through Ace's body. In every root that burned before it could bind. In every second the fire denied him the one thing his fruit did best, control.
Still—
He moved again.
This time the wood did not come from the ground first.
It grew from him.
Bark spread along one arm as he lunged forward, hardening over his forearm like armor before branching out into sharp wooden edges. Simultaneously, roots burst from the scorched earth beneath Ace, not to cage him, but to trip, twist, distract, force his movement into a narrower line.
Tenjin came in from the front.
The roots snapped in from below.
Ace gave a small sound of appreciation.
"Ooh."
He leapt.
The roots missed.
Tenjin slashed upward to meet him.
Ace's leg came down first, coated in flame, smashing into the flat of the blade and driving it downward. The impact shook Tenjin all the way through his shoulders. Before he could recover, Ace turned in the air and drove a second kick into the side of Tenjin's head.
Tenjin went spinning.
He hit the ground, skidded, caught himself with one hand, and forced himself back onto one knee. His ears rang. His vision swam for half a second before leveling again.
Ace landed lightly.
Still smiling.
Still barely taking this seriously.
Tenjin hated that too.
The burned field around them had become an ugly battlefield of ash, half-charred roots, and shattered stone. Wherever Tenjin's power had spread, Ace's fire had reduced it. Wherever Ace had moved, the ground itself looked punished for existing under him.
Tenjin took a breath.
Then another.
His chest hurt.
His arms were heavier now.
Even the sword in his hand felt slightly slower than it had at the start of the fight.
Ace noticed.
Of course he did.
"You done yet?" Ace asked.
Tenjin stood.
"No."
Ace laughed.
Then Tenjin attacked for the fourth time.
This time, he abandoned any pretense of measured pacing.
He came straight in with everything he had left.
Roots surged across the battlefield in a jagged wave, thicker and faster than before, rising not just at Ace's feet but behind him, to his left, to his right, trying to force him into a shrinking space. Tenjin himself moved through the center line with his sword low and his body angled, not waiting for the roots to finish the trap before entering.
He swung once.
Twice.
Three times in quick succession, each slash meant to box Ace in rather than kill.
Ace gave ground for the first time.
Only a little.
His body shifted from solid to fire and back again as Tenjin's blade passed through him, but the swordsmanship itself had become tighter now. Smarter. Less about raw aggression and more about reading movement.
Ace grinned wider.
"Now that," he said, ducking under another cut, "is more like it."
Then he clenched one fist.
Flame roared down his arm.
Tenjin saw it and tried to retreat, but Ace was already there.
A point-blank blast of fire exploded from his fist and slammed into Tenjin's chest.
Tenjin's coat ignited.
He was thrown backward through the burned remains of his own roots, crashed through the side wall of a half-ruined structure, and disappeared inside in a spray of broken wood and dust.
Silence fell.
Smoke drifted up from the shattered opening.
Ace walked toward it at an unhurried pace, hands in his pockets.
Inside the ruin, Tenjin lay on his side amid splinters and debris, breathing hard through gritted teeth. Fire still clung to part of his coat, which he slapped out with a pained hiss before shoving himself up onto one elbow.
Every movement hurt now.
His ribs ached.
His shoulder burned.
His left leg felt slow.
And the worst part of it all wasn't the pain.
It was the simple, humiliating fact that nothing he had done had truly mattered.
He had crossed the sea for this.
Forced a crew to take him here.
Ignored Marineford.
Ignored orders.
Ignored caution.
Only to find himself being treated like a spirited little idiot by a pirate who still hadn't taken him fully seriously.
Tenjin lowered his head.
"…Weak."
Ace, standing just outside the broken wall, heard him.
He leaned one shoulder against the frame and laughed.
"Don't be dramatic," he said. "It's not like you're weak."
Tenjin looked up sharply.
Ace shrugged.
"You just ran straight into your worst possible matchup. That's bad luck, not the end of the world."
Tenjin let out a small, bitter sound that was not quite a laugh.
Ace pushed off the wall.
"Come on," he said. "Let's get drinks."
Tenjin stared at him.
"…What?"
Ace jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
"Drinks. Food maybe. You look half dead."
Tenjin slowly stood, one hand braced against the ruined wall.
"I would never drink with a filthy pirate."
Ace laughed so loudly it echoed across the ruin.
"Yeah? Too bad."
Before Tenjin could react, Ace stepped in, grabbed him by the back of his Marine coat, and started dragging him.
"Oi—!"
"Relax," Ace said. "You'll live."
"I said let go of me!"
"No."
Tenjin struggled.
It did nothing.
Ace simply kept dragging him down the dusty Banaro road toward the nearest little bar like this was the most natural thing in the world.
---
The bar was small.
Worn wood. Cheap stools. A counter that had seen too many elbows. A few locals sat scattered around in quiet conversation, and all of them went silent for a moment when Portgas D. Ace dragged in a heavily scorched Marine captain by the coat.
Ace dropped Tenjin into a stool.
Two waters and whatever food the kitchen could produce quickly were placed in front of them after Ace flashed enough money to discourage questions.
Tenjin sat stiffly, arms folded, expression thunderous.
Ace drank first.
Then looked at him over the rim of his cup.
"So," he said. "How is the old man?"
Tenjin frowned.
"Garp-sensei?"
Ace nodded.
"Who else?"
Tenjin eyed him for a moment before answering.
"He's loud. Annoying. Hits too hard. Laughs too much. Doesn't listen when people talk to him. Eats like a monster. And somehow still feels more like a Marine than most actual Marines."
Ace listened to that with a slow smile on his face.
"Yeah," he said. "Sounds right."
Tenjin looked at him, then away.
The food arrived.
Ace ate with the ease of someone who had not just won a fight. Tenjin, despite every intention of maintaining visible disgust, also ate. Mostly because he needed to. Mostly because his body had moved beyond caring whether the meal had been purchased by a pirate.
After a while, Tenjin set his cup down.
"You're my rival now."
Ace blinked once.
Then laughed.
There was no mocking edge to it.
Only pure amusement.
Tenjin's expression didn't change.
"I'm serious," he said. "Without fail, I will capture you one day."
Ace leaned back slightly, still smiling.
"You?"
"Yes."
Ace looked him over once more, as though reevaluating the bruised, burned Marine captain sitting across from him.
Then he said, with casual certainty—
"You'll never get strong enough to beat me."
Tenjin's eye twitched.
Ace pointed at him with his cup.
"You should pick someone smaller to chase."
Tenjin narrowed his eyes.
Ace grinned.
"Like my little brother."
Tenjin frowned. "The rookie who attacked Impel Down and declared war on the World Government again?"
Ace nodded.
"That's him."
Tenjin clicked his tongue.
"I'm not interested in small-time pirates who'll fade with time."
Ace's grin widened.
"He won't."
Tenjin said nothing.
Ace leaned forward slightly.
"Luffy will become the Pirate King someday."
That got a real reaction.
Tenjin stared at him.
Then let out a short, disbelieving breath.
"Ridiculous."
He pushed his stool back and stood.
Ace remained seated, smiling up at him.
"You're leaving already?"
"Yes."
Tenjin adjusted his coat.
At the doorway, he stopped just long enough to look back once.
"If you get captured," he said, "it won't be by me."
Ace raised a brow.
Tenjin's eyes hardened.
"So don't let anyone else do it. I'll be the one to capture you."
Ace held his stare for a second.
Then smiled and raised one hand in a lazy wave.
"Alright," he said. "I promise."
Tenjin clicked his tongue once more and left the bar.
---
The next day, Banaro Island saw another visitor.
Marshall D. Teach.
Blackbeard.
What followed was not rumor, nor exaggeration, nor the kind of drunken retelling that bars produced for entertainment.
It was a battle.
A real one.
Portgas D. Ace fought the Blackbeard Pirates with everything he had.
And he lost.
By the end of it, Fire Fist Ace. The second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, the man with a bounty of five hundred million berries, the pirate Tenjin had declared his rival—
Had been taken alive.
Captured.
By Marshall D. Teach.
---
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