The only sound was waves.
His mouth was bone-dry. It felt like there were cracks on the inside of his throat. He coughed and spat something that tasted like all of his fluids mixed together—blood, saliva, and stomach acid—and bounded to his feet.
“Agh! Koff!”
He hacked, again and again.
Gradually, clarity returned to his mind. His body felt sluggish, reminding him of being bedridden with fever as a child. Everything hurt: muscles, joints, limbs…
“Here.”
“Huh?!”
He smelled fresh water. It brought his attention to his unbearable thirst. The salt breeze had ruined the lining of his nostrils. He snatched the cup before his face and downed the water in one go.
Then he glanced again at the person who had handed him the cup. Apparently he’d been sleeping on the deck for quite a while.
The man was sitting on the gunwale of the ship, peering down at Ace as though looking at a stray kitten. Ace sat on the deck, leaning back against the side wall.
Where was he? It wasn’t the Piece of Spadille. This ship was much, much bigger.
“Who are you?” Ace hurled the cup aside.
“Don’t throw the dishes.”
“Shut up…ugh!”
Ace tried to get up, but his body wouldn’t obey. What happened? Why am I on this unfamiliar ship? He was confused.
The man sitting on the edge of the ship smiled at him. He was wearing white… A cook? No, not with that scar and the dangerous look in his eyes. You’d wonder what a cook like that was slicing up with his butcher knife.
“You still asleep?”
“Where am I?”
“You’re on our ship. The Moby Dick.”
That was the ship of Whitebeard. Edward Newgate.
In other words, Ace was… Yes, that’s right.
That’s what happened…
“I’m Thatch, leader of the fourth division. If you’re gonna be sailing with us, let’s try to get along.”
“Shut up!”
“Ha ha ha! I see you’re not a morning person. Say…would you like to know what happened after you passed out?”
After using his Flame Fence technique to erect a barricade that allowed his friends to escape, Ace faced off against Edward “Whitebeard” Newgate.
It was immediately following his five-day fight against Jimbei, First Son of the Sea. Ace’s body was ravaged, completely spent from his earlier fight. It was a wonder he could stand.
Perhaps that wall of fire was no obstacle to Whitebeard, however. In any case, he saw the way Ace used himself as a shield to protect his companions, and found it laudable. There’s no way to know Whitebeard’s mind, but the fact remained that he waited until the Spade Pirates had retreated.
And then—one swing of his naginata, Haki and all, brought Ace to his knees. It wasn’t even a fight. The Logia power of flame itself was scattered to the wind by Whitebeard’s blow.
“Agh!”
And yet Ace stood up again. The Flame Fence regained strength.
I’m not going to run.
He would make sure Deuce and the gang got away. He would use every last ounce of strength to protect his beloved Spade Pirates.
He had pride and dignity at stake, too. His enemy, Whitebeard, had clearly allowed his crew to get away. Ace couldn’t just use those lives as bargaining chips and attempt to flee with his fire. If he did, and actually got away alive, he would have a coward’s reputation around his neck. And thus his fame would never outshine that of Roger the Pirate King.
“Gura ra ra ra… You still have the strength to stand?” Whitebeard chuckled.
If Ace attempted to run now, the Whitebeard Pirates would give chase. His crew would be pursued. So Ace did not flee. He had to take the head of Edward Newgate, here and now.
“Agh…”
“It’d be a waste to kill you, boy.”
A waste? Ace couldn’t understand what he meant by that. But he knew what he felt at that moment.
Anger.
It was very clear that the man was looking down on him.
“Eh?!”
“If you still want to terrorize the seas, do it in my name!” said Whitebeard, holding a hand out to the defeated Ace.
“Become my son!”
The blood rushed to his head.
He hated everything about this. The last thing Ace wanted was for this man to treat him like a child.
“Eh?! No way!”
Ace challenged Whitebeard and was utterly flattened. It was a total loss.
He didn’t even remember how he lost. It was like an overwhelming strength had split his skull. Perhaps that’s what it felt like to have your old man crack you on the head.
At any rate, Ace finally understood the obvious.
He had lost.
He’d been taken prisoner, hauled aboard Whitebeard’s ship, and laid out on the deck. For at least a night, if not longer. That island was nowhere in sight now.
“Your men came back for you afterward,” said Thatch, the fourth division leader, “so we clobbered ’em.”
“Ah!”
Ace gasped. It couldn’t be. They’d escaped with their lives and gotten away from the dreaded Whitebeard—and they’d wasted that chance and come back?
“But don’t worry, they’re alive. And they’re all aboard this ship,” said Thatch soothingly, when he saw the look of fury on Ace’s features.
They’re alive? Is that…even possible?
The Spade Pirates were destroyed. They’d met the Whitebeard Pirates head-on and were crushed… That’s what happens. When pirates battle pirates with pistols and swords, there’s no rules or honor, just war. All the loser leaves behind is a dead body.
Ace felt further deflated with each moment that passed.
To Whitebeard, this didn’t even qualify as war. He didn’t engage in war with rookies. There was no comparison between their crews.
Ace looked down at his arms. His hands weren’t even bound by iron cuffs, much less the Sea Prism Stone that could contain Devil Fruit powers. If he wanted, he could certainly use his power to burn down the entire ship.
“You sure you want to let me walk around without chains on?”
“Huh?” said Thatch, in his lighthearted way. “He didn’t order us to lock you in a cell. Why, did you want to be?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Night.
A sneaking shadow crept across the deck of the Moby Dick.
It slipped past watchful eyes, an easy feat for a man who’d engaged in thieving and burglary since he was a child. He plotted his course. He knew which cabin the ship’s captain used. The target was the man known as the king of the seas. He was no weakhearted coward, locking his door against intruders—but Ace was not stupid enough to announce his presence with a knock, either.
Or maybe he was just so desperate that being that foolish was never an option.
“Shnorrr…”
A tremendous snoring was audible through the wall. This was it.
Fwoom. He let his body turn to fire.
If there was a weakness to his powers now, it was that he couldn’t use them and hide in the dark. Neither could he stop himself from exuding heat. He would have one moment—a single chance to end it all.
Ace turned to flame and launched his blade at the strongest pirate in the world, who was sleeping in his bed.
Blink… Crash!
“Whoa!”
“What are you doing? Keep it down, people are trying to sleep!” Whitebeard said, and swatted away the ball of flame as though dealing with a fly in the room. And just as quickly, he was snoring again.
“Shnorrr…”
It was like a bad joke. While in his flaming form, Ace was knocked out by a slap and sent tumbling back out of the cabin and into the hallway.
In fact, his nose was bleeding now. So much for sneak attacks.
✦ ✦ ✦
Portgaz D. Ace was still on the Moby Dick.
He was a loser, a prisoner. He wore no cuffs or shackles. But this was open sea; as a Devil Fruit user, Ace couldn’t float on his own. There could be no escape without at least stealing a rowboat.
And Ace had no intention of escaping.
At first he was just exhausted—he’d been fighting Jimbei for several days. In the weeks following, after he had recovered, Ace “paid his respects” to Whitebeard nearly every day.
Sometimes he tried attacking him in his sleep. Other times, he swung an axe from behind.
Whack! Splash…
Each and every time, Whitebeard swatted him away like a fly.
“Hey! He fell in the sea!”
“Somebody better go save him!”
Ace’s constant failed attempts to attack Whitebeard became a bit of a running joke among the pirate crew. At this point, every last person there knew his name.
He was trying to kill their captain. It would be perfectly acceptable for them to tie him up and toss him into the sea. But ultimately, they seemed to share an unshakable trust that no matter what, no one could do any harm to their captain.
“Ugh… Captain Ace!” shouted Wallace the fish-man, who jumped overboard and easily rescued Ace. The members of Whitebeard’s crew began to chuckle and murmur, both relieved and annoyed.
“I’m surprised he’s not getting bored of this,” muttered Thatch, emerging from a cabin.
Even before he fell into the water and began to drown, the impact of Whitebeard’s strike had knocked Ace unconscious.
“Every single day… Doesn’t he ever quit?” muttered Vista, the Fifth Division leader, known by the epithet of “Flower Sword.”