Loguetown. The Central Square.
Sunlight bled over the steel execution platform, casting long, jagged shadows across the stone.
Ace stood at the foot of the gallows, his hands in his pockets. He looked up at the cold, silent wood that had ended the Pirate King and birthed the Great Age of Piracy. He didn't climb the stairs. He didn't shout. To him, this wasn't a shrine—it was a tombstone for a dead era.
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
The rhythmic thunder of military boots flooded the square from every alleyway.
"ECLIPSE PIRATES! YOU ARE SURROUNDED!"
Hundreds of Marines, muskets leveled and bayonets gleaming, formed a ring of steel around the four intruders. Several Captains drew their sabers, their hands trembling as they faced the 50-million-Berry "Demon" of the East Blue.
Carina's hand drifted to the specialized weapon at her hip. Buggy instinctively pulled the supply cart behind Sabo, his red nose twitching.
"Portgas D. Ace! Sabo! You are under arrest!" a sweating Marine Captain yelled, raising his command sword. "Ready! Aim—!"
"There's quite a crowd today, Captain," Sabo noted, adjusting his top hat. His alloy staff tapped the ground rhythmically. "Want me to sweep the floor?"
"No. We're on a schedule," Ace said.
He didn't draw his sword. He didn't even shift his stance. He simply took one casual step forward.
HUMMM—!
Without warning, an invisible, suffocating wave of pure willpower erupted from Ace's body. It hit the square like a physical tsunami, a shockwave of absolute authority that distorted the very air.
"What... is... this..."
"I can't... breathe..."
The Marines didn't even have time to pull their triggers. Their minds went blank as their nervous systems collapsed under the weight of a King's presence. One by one, then dozen by dozen, they rolled their eyes back and crumpled to the pavement.
In two seconds, the square was silent. Hundreds of soldiers lay scattered like fallen autumn leaves.
"Haoshoku Haki..." Carina whispered, staring at the carnage. She had heard Ace describe it, but standing at the epicenter of the 'Supreme King's' storm made her heart skip a beat.
Ace didn't pause to admire his work. He strode forward, stepping over the unconscious bodies with indifferent ease. As he passed the one Captain who was still twitching, clinging to a shred of consciousness, Ace tilted his head.
"Go back to Marineford. Give them a message."
Ace's voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of an anchor.
"The Eclipse Pirates are leaving. Tell the sea to get ready... because I'm about to turn this world upside down."
Loguetown Docks.
The crew moved quickly toward the harbor, but as they reached the main thoroughfare, the air ahead thickened.
A wall of billowing, opaque white smoke surged from the alleyways, cutting off their path.
"Declaring war in my town? You've got a lot of nerve, pirate scum."
From the heart of the smoke, a silver-haired man emerged. He wore a Marine jacket open to the waist, two cigars clenched in his teeth, and carried a massive sea-stone jitte.
Marine Colonel, "The White Hunter" Smoker.
"As long as I stand here, no pirate crosses the gate to the Grand Line! WHITE OUT!"
Smoker's lower body dissolved into rolling clouds. He launched himself into the air, smoke tentacles lashing out like giant pythons to bind the crew.
"Tch. A Logia?" Buggy scoffed, not even slowing down the cart. "This East Blue amateur thinks he's invincible because he has a fruit? He doesn't even know what Haki is. He's just a floating target for the Captain."
As a veteran of Roger's crew, Buggy knew the truth: A Logia user without Haki is just a more expensive corpse when facing a monster.
Ace didn't slow down. He didn't even change his expression. He looked at the descending Colonel with a detachment that was borderline insulting.
As Smoker closed the gap, Ace's right arm tensed. A layer of Armament Haki, as black and impenetrable as obsidian, coated his fist. And then, the Vermilion Bird's Divine Fire ignited over the black armor, glowing with a terrifying, white-hot intensity.
Smoker's pupils shrank to pinpricks. He had seen that black sheen once, in the elite training camps of the New World. That's—!
But there was no time to retreat.
Ace threw a casual, straight-arm punch with the momentum of his stride.
"Divine Fire · Crushing Iron Fist!"
BOOM—!!!
The Haki-clad fist tore through the "invincible" smoke as if it were tissue paper. It connected squarely with Smoker's solid chest, ignoring his elemental state entirely.
CRACK!
The sound of ribs shattering echoed through the street. The cigars in Smoker's mouth exploded into dust. His Logia body, which had never been touched in the East Blue, was dismantled in a single "Dimensionality Reduction" strike.
Smoker was sent flying like a cannonball. He smashed through three stone buildings, leaving a trail of blood and debris, before being buried deep in a pile of rubble hundreds of meters away.
Instant K.O.
"That was... efficient," Carina said, blinking.
"Don't dally. Get on the ship," Ace said, shaking the residual smoke from his fist as if he'd just brushed away a cobweb.
The crew boarded the Black Eclipse within minutes.
CLANK!
The heavy anchor was hauled up. The massive black sails caught the wind. Under the stunned, terrified gaze of the port workers, the warship that had just crippled the town's entire defense force turned its bow toward the horizon.
Ace stood at the bow, his red trench coat whipping in the gale. He stared at the massive silhouette of the Red Line looming in the distance.
"Reverse Mountain," Ace whispered. "Here we come."
The Eclipse split the waves, leaving the "Weakest Sea" behind. Their destination: The Grand Line—the graveyard of fools, and the throne room of Kings.