“Where were you wandering around, Ace?”
“I was getting food, that’s all.” Ace hopped down onto the pier.
“Well…fine. Once we load up the supplies, we should set sail.”
“Wait! I haven’t been to the Mermaid Café yet.”
“You don’t have to.”
Deuce grabbed the back of Ace’s collar before he could sneak off. Wallace had already gone to the Mermaid Café to summon all the idiots back to the ship.
“C’mon, a little more time won’t hurt. I wanna see the mermaids, too.”
“You see a mermaid all the time… C’mon, the Navy’s on the move. We’re being pursued.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Deuce held out a piece of paper.
DEAD OR ALIVE! Portgaz D. Ace!
It was a Navy wanted poster, the latest version.
“One, ten, hundred, thousand…”
“You’re over a hundred million. It’s gone up. The World Government won’t show mercy to anyone who dares refuse their Warlord offer and shows them up.”
A bounty amount did not always correspond directly to combat strength. According to some, it was the measure of danger posed to the World Government. Therefore, pirates active on the Grand Line tended to have higher bounties than those in remote regions, and defying the government or inflicting harm on Celestial Dragons meant retribution in the form of significantly higher bounties, as a deterrent to others.
“Ha ha.”
“It’s not funny,” Deuce said, scowling harder.
“Really? I think this is fun.”
“Yeah, of course you do. That’s what you’re like,” Deuce said, realizing that it was pointless to explain.
The two met on the deadly lost island of Sixis in the East Blue and escaped from there together. Ace and Deuce formed the Spade Pirates, and had taken the crew this far already. The captain’s bounty was a reflection of that—an appraisal of all they’d done together.
He’d done enough of making a name for himself as a rookie. The time for standing out was over. From this point on, the crew would have to keep winning and surviving in the New World, on the sea where only the real pirates stuck around.
Deuce was worried. All of his preparations were the result of his own sense of anxiety.
But Ace didn’t have worries like that. He had no fear of being eaten up and spat out. He shone and burned as reliably as the sun did, every single day. That was why for Deuce—and for everyone else—Ace was…
“Um, huh?!” Deuce stammered.
Ace was looking up at the flag that flew large and proud over Fish-Man Island harbor.
The Jolly Roger of Whitebeard.
I declare Fish-Man Island to be my territory, said Edward Newgate, Emperor of the Sea. And with that one statement, he kept the pirates away from the island.
His pirate flag represented his promise. And without fear, Ace reached up for that flag.
“Don’t, you idiot!” Deuce hissed at him. “Don’t go picking fights for no reason. Why would you make us more enemies?”
“If you can’t keep up, you can stay behind.”
“Uh…”
“Stay here and chase mermaids. I won’t turn away anyone who wants to be here—I’ve taken on those who aren’t even pirates. But what we’re facing…it’s a voyage to reach the pinnacle of piratehood. I can only use people with the will to fight. Who fights for no reason? If we can’t surpass the Four Emperors, why aim for the top at all?”
A small flame appeared in Ace’s palm. That was a power granted by his Devil Fruit—the Logia-type Flame-Flame Fruit. The fact that he’d bitten into that fruit meant he could turn himself into flame.
“Fine, I get it. But still, Ace—don’t.”
“Boss, if you burn that flag, there are more than a dozen commanders in the Whitebeard Pirates with dozens of other crews under them who will all want to destroy us forever,” warned Deuce and Skull.
“Wait, Whitebeard has that many people under him?” Ace said.
“His entire force numbers in the tens of thousands.”
“So that’s the top, huh?” Fire wreathed Ace’s form. “I’m gonna raise my flag. The flag of the Spade Pirates that will carry my renown up with it. This is the New World!”
It caught fire.
Flame engulfed the flag bearing Whitebeard’s Jolly Roger.
Just then, Wallace returned with the rest of the gang. They saw their captain turning to fire. Many different expressions adorned their faces, but none of them were quaking with fear.
“Sheesh. Why would you make things harder for yourself like this?”
They needed to set sail again before the scene got any more out of control, Deuce realized. He started giving orders to the crew.
“What’s the first thing we do in the New World?” Skull asked the captain.
“We’ll need to pay our respects.”
“I know you, Ace. You’re going to pop him in the mouth to make a name for yourself, aren’tcha?”
“Will you do me a favor, Skull? Help me make it so these Four Emperors—these people who think they’re so high and mighty in the security of their titles—can never ignore my name again.”
Skull saw the ambition burning behind his captain’s words like the flame he embodied, and nodded quietly.
“Then let’s sail…to the New World!”
With the burning flag, they would hoist the name of Portgaz D. Ace.
For fame.
There was twisted hatred in Ace’s heart toward the man who was executed as the world’s greatest and most infamous criminal, Gol D. Roger. It was a wordless rebellion against the father he’d never met, a figure whose absence tormented him. Inside him were ugly, messy things he didn’t want to remember. Things to give to the fire, to turn into ash.
With his hands as the flames.
Ace strove to become even more famous than the King of the Pirates. He wanted enough fame to flip the history books to a new age. Enough to lead a world revolution. To do great things. Because if he didn’t achieve this, Ace knew that his deep-rooted hatred for his father, and for the world at large, would kill him.
I will live without regrets.
He swore it with the tattoo on his left arm. And he could never let himself be contained.