West Gate: Ash Flame

The smoke of battle still lingered at the East Gate tower, and the air was thick with the smells of blood and burning.

Bullet sat on the crenellations of the city wall, his left arm hanging limply, his fingers still trembling slightly—the neurotoxin hadn't been completely expelled. The Drunkard squatted beside him, bandaging the fang wound on his shoulder with torn strips of cloth, which were immediately soaked in blood, turning a dark reddish-black.

"You're poisoned and you're sitting so high up, aren't you afraid of falling?" the Drunkard muttered.

"It's alright." Bullet looked towards the inner city of the Flower Capital, where the flags atop the Castle fluttered in the morning breeze. "Ginny, how's Simon?"

Ginny's voice came through the Den Den Mushi, her tone hurried and anxious. "Simon's situation isn't good. The Fire Demons are being suppressed by the archers, and Jin just arrived. But they have a troublesome opponent— Huijin, Lunarian, who's very powerful. Her flames can devour energy."

"Can Jhin handle it?"

"I don't know. But he's Jhin."

Bullet paused for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. He is Jhin."

West Gate.

The Fire Demon's flame barrier is shrinking.

Fifty archers stood below the city walls, arranged in three ranks, taking turns firing. Arrows swarmed like locusts, striking the dark red barrier of flames. The arrowheads melted, the shafts burned, but there were simply too many. The Fire Demon's strength was rapidly waning; veins bulged on his forehead, and his hands trembled. His barrier shrank from three meters wide to one meter, barely covering his body, leaving his knees and below exposed.

An arrow pierced his calf.

The Fire Demon grunted, kneeling on one knee, and the barrier shrank even further. Another arrow grazed his shoulder, taking a piece of flesh. Yet another arrow embedded itself in the stone slab at his feet, its fletching trembling.

"Lord Fire Demon! Retreat!" shouted the soldiers behind him.

"We can't retreat..." Fire Demon gritted his teeth, dark red flames surging from his palms again, expanding the barrier slightly. "Without breaking through Ximen, the Flower Capital cannot be taken."

A figure emerged from the city wall.

Huijin.

She wore a black, tight-fitting combat suit, over which was a large gray haori, and she was wrapped in bandages from head to toe—not for injury, but for concealment. To conceal her face, to conceal her skin, to conceal all the characteristics of her Lunarian race.

When Orochi bought her from the World Government, she had already been lying on the lab table for three years. Those people in white coats drew her blood, plucked her feathers, and burned her skin every day. She was not disfigured, nor did she go blind—those bandages were her disguise, her talisman to survive in this world.

Because she is so beautiful.

The women of the Lunarian race are a legendary race possessing "god-like beauty." Her skin is light brown, smooth as porcelain; her features are so exquisitely delicate they seem inhuman, with a cold, gender-defying allure in her eyes; her lips are naturally red, and when slightly pursed, they resemble an unsheathed sword. And her eyes—one gray, one white, both vertical pupils, like a snake or a bird, are the mark of the Lunarian royal bloodline.

But she hid it all. With bandages, with a haori, with indifferent eyes and a distant tone. For twenty years, no one has seen her true face.

"Fire Demon, you betrayed Orochi." Huijin's voice came from behind the bandages, a cold female voice carrying an imposing, unyielding authority. "For what? A dog?"

Fire Demon's pupils contracted. The dog—his dog Kojirō —was locked in the Animal Pens behind the Castle by the Orochi. It was the only memento Yuriko had left him; it was the dog his sister Yuriko died, and it was already fifteen years old, so old that it had lost all its teeth.

What did you do to Kojirō?

"Not bad. Still alive." Huijin raised his hand, gray flames coalescing into a giant python in his palm. "But you won't see it anymore."

The giant gray python lunged at the Fire Demon.

The Fire Demon gritted its teeth, its dark red flames transforming into a fire dragon to meet the attack. Flame against flame—the fire dragon was devoured piece by piece by the giant python, as if being eaten by something. With each bite, the Fire Demon's flames weakened, and the giant python grew larger.

"Your fire is useless against me," said Huijin.

The Fire Demon was forced to retreat, blood flowing from the arrow wound in his calf, while most of the soldiers behind him had already fled. His fire barrier finally shattered, and the giant gray serpent opened its massive jaws, lunging to devour him.

A golden flame swooped down from the sky, struck the gray python, and blasted it into pieces.

The embers landed in front of the Fire Demon, and the golden flames behind them illuminated half the street.

"You're too late," the Fire Demon panted.

"Not too late. Just right." Jin looked at the Huijin on the city wall, his eyes narrowing.

Huijin jumped down from the city wall, landing twenty meters opposite Jhin. She was half a head shorter than Jhin, and bandages covered most of her face, revealing only her eyes. The gray flames behind her flowed slowly in the air, like a sleeping giant python.

"Lunarian," Huijin spoke, "You're working for pirates?"

"You're working for Orochi," Jhin's voice was calm. "What's the difference?"

"The Orochi saved my life."

"Then he's going to die today."

Huijin stopped wasting words. She raised her hand, and gray flames surged from her palm, transforming into four giant pythons that simultaneously pounced on Ash from four directions. The pythons opened their mouths wide, and gray flames surged within their mouths, like four abysses of death.

Jin did not dodge. His golden flames transformed into four fire dragons to meet the attack.

Flame against flame.

The giant python and the fire dragon collided, but there was no explosion, no shockwave—the python opened its massive jaws and swallowed the fire dragon whole. The golden flames of the dragon flowed like water into a bottomless pit; with each bite swallowed, the flames weakened, while the gray python grew stronger.

"The flames of the Lunarian are indeed powerful," Huijin's voice came from behind the bandages, "But my Ash Flame can devour all energy. Your flames are energy, so I can consume them. The harder you try, the stronger I become."

Jin withdrew the flames. The golden light behind him dimmed, and he became like a silent volcano, suppressing all his energy.

Huijin tilted his head. "You gave up?"

Ember didn't answer. He charged forward—not flying, but running. He was twice as fast as before, and punched Huijin in the face. There were no flames, just pure physical skill and pure Armament Haki. A black, hardened layer covered his fist, accompanied by a whooshing sound.

Huijin didn't dodge. Her gray flames formed a barrier in front of her, incredibly dense, like a wall. Ash's fist slammed into the barrier—did it pass through? No, the fist stopped at the surface of the barrier, as if hitting a wad of cotton. The power was absorbed and then bounced back.

Jin was forced back three steps by his own power, his fists going numb.

"Your fists are useless." Huijin's gray flames extended several tentacles from the barrier, wrapping around Ash's ankles and hanging him upside down. "My flames can devour all energy—your flames are energy, and the kinetic energy of your fists is also energy. All your attacks are nourishment to me."

Ember was suspended upside down in the air, the golden flames behind him suppressed to a mere glimmer.

Huijin walked up to Ash and looked up at him, who was hanging in the air. Beneath the bandages, the corners of her mouth were slightly upturned—not a smile, but a mockery.

"The fire of the Lunarian should not be used to burn our own kind," said Huijin. "Your flames should be offered to the Orochi."

"You're right," Jin's voice was calm. "The fire of the Lunarian should not be used to burn our own kind."

He raised his right hand. Not to attack, but to condense. Golden flames compressed in his palm, from a ball of fire into a tiny speck of light the size of a bean. The temperature of the speck of light soared, the surrounding air began to distort, and the stone slabs on the ground cracked from the heat.

Huijin's pupils contracted. "What are you doing?"

"Can't you absorb energy?" Jhin said, "Then you try absorbing this."

He pushed the light into the Huijin.

The point of light moved slowly through the air, but with each inch it moved, the surrounding air exploded. The energy released after the flame was compressed to its limit was not consumed, but detonated. The gray serpent of Huijin pounced on the point of light, opened its maw, and swallowed it whole.

The python's body began to swell. Swell, swell, and swell again—like a balloon being blown up.

"Boom--"

The giant python exploded. Gray flame fragments scattered everywhere, and the shockwave overturned surrounding buildings, ripped up stone slabs, and kicked up dust. The Fire Demon was thrown back by the blast wave, crashing into a wall and spitting blood. King used the Float-Float Fruit to keep himself suspended in mid-air, preventing him from being blown away.

Huijin emerged from the smoke. The bandages were mostly torn off by the shockwave—not completely, but enough to reveal the lower half of her face: light brown skin, a well-defined jawline, and slightly pursed lips. The gray flames behind her flickered violently.

"Your flames... compressed to the extreme... truly cannot be swallowed." Huijin wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "But you forgot, I am not just flames."

Behind her, black wings unfurled. Not the floating wings supported by flames as before, but real wings—the black wings of the Lunarian, with a wingspan exceeding five meters. Dark red lightning crackled at the wingtips, not flames, but Conqueror's Haki.

"Conqueror's Haki?!" Jin's pupils contracted.

"Otherwise, why do you think I've survived this long?" Huijin raised his head, and a dark red light flickered in the eye visible beneath the bandages—a white vertical pupil. "The royal blood of the Lunarian flows in my veins. The World Government captured me not to study fire—but to study Conqueror's Haki. They want to know why our race is born with Conqueror's Haki."

Dark red lightning exploded from Huijin's body. It wasn't a cover, but a swirling—a sophisticated combination of Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki, coiling around her wingtips, around the gray flames, and around her tattered body. Debris was blasted away, dust was flattened, and the temperature in the air plummeted.

Jin was silent for a moment. He also released his Conqueror's Haki. Dark golden lightning exploded from his body, colliding with Huijin's dark red lightning in the air. The two Conqueror's Haki clashed, the surrounding buildings began to crack, the stone slabs on the ground were crushed, Fire Demon was knocked unconscious, and the soldiers behind him collapsed to the ground.

"You also have Conqueror's Haki?"

"Awakening during the God Valley."

"Then you shouldn't be risking your life for pirates." Huijin charged towards King, not flying, but teleporting—the speed was so fast that King's Observation Haki only caught a fleeting afterimage. A punch slammed into King's chest, the dark red Conqueror's Haki lightning piercing through King's Armament Haki and directly impacting his body.

Jin flew out, crashing through two walls and embedding himself in a third. Debris and rubble rained down, burying him halfway.

Huijin didn't give chase. She stood there, panting heavily. The Conqueror's Haki had taken a heavy toll on her, and her stamina was rapidly decreasing.

In the ruins, rubble is moving.

Jin crawled out of the rubble. He had a fist-sized dent in his chest—his sternum was cracked. His clothes were torn, revealing a dark red fist mark on his exposed skin, like it had been branded with a hot iron. But his eyes were still bright, even brighter than before.

"That punch wasn't bad," Jin said, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, "But it's not enough."

He cracked his neck, his joints making a "crack" sound. Dark golden, Conqueror's Haki lightning coiled around him, intertwining with golden flames.

They both moved at the same time.

This was no longer a test; it was a true duel. The dark gold flames of Ember clashed with the gray flames of Huijin, Conqueror's Haki clashed with Conqueror's Haki, and dark gold lightning intertwined with dark red lightning, tearing a rift in the sky. The surrounding buildings trembled, the stone slabs on the ground shattered, and debris flew everywhere.

The flames of Huijin devour energy, but Conqueror's Haki is not energy—it is will. Attacks Conqueror's Haki Coating cannot be devoured; they can only be withstood.

Jhin slammed his fist into Huijin's shoulder. The dark golden lightning pierced through Huijin's Armament Haki and struck her directly. Huijin's left shoulder dislocated, and her entire arm hung limply.

Huijin gritted his teeth and slammed his right fist into Jhin's waist. Dark red lightning pierced through Jhin's Armament Haki, breaking another rib and drawing blood from the corner of his mouth.

They both retreated at the same time, then charged forward at the same time.

Fist against fist, knee against knee, elbow against elbow. No fancy moves, no Devil Fruit powers to aid them, just pure physical combat and Conqueror's Haki clashes. With each punch, they sustained another injury. With each punch they took, their Conqueror's Haki surged even more intensely.

They fought for nearly a hundred rounds.

Huijin's black wing was broken, hanging on its back, covered in blood. Ash's left eye was swollen and unable to open. Huijin's right leg had been kicked off by Ash, leaving it kneeling on one knee. Ash's right arm had been broken by Huijin, leaving it only able to clench its left fist.

"Can you... still fight?" Huijin gasped for breath, his bandages almost completely undone, revealing most of his face.

Jin was stunned.

It wasn't because of her injuries, but because of her face. Her light brown skin gleamed faintly in the smoke, her features so exquisite they seemed otherworldly, her eyes possessing the cold elegance and aloofness characteristic of the Lunarian royal family. Her lips were stained red with blood, yet remained pursed, like an unsheathed sword. Her eyes—one gray, one white, both vertical pupils—stared directly at him.

"What are you looking at?" Huijin's voice turned cold. She instinctively raised her hand to cover her face, but her arm was broken and she couldn't lift it.

Jin didn't answer. He looked away and clenched his left fist again.

"Can you still stand?"

"Yes." Huijin used her broken leg to support herself on the ground, shakily standing up. Her Conqueror's Haki around her body had diminished to almost nothing, with only a few scattered specks of dark red lightning remaining. But she stood up.

Jin stood up as well. His Conqueror's Haki had also diminished, and the dark golden lightning was almost invisible, but the golden flames were still burning—even more intensely than before.

"Why is your flame still burning...?"

"Because my flames aren't energy," Ember said, "They're will. You can't devour them."

Huijin remained silent for a moment.

She looked down at her loose bandages, then at her exposed face, and then looked up at Jin.

"The fire of the Lunarian... shouldn't be killing each other." Huijin withdrew his Conqueror's Haki, and the gray flames went out. "I lost."

Jin looked at her but did not make a move.

"Surrender?"

"Surrender." Huijin lowered his head, his broken wings drooping. "But only to you."

Ember remained silent for a long time. Then he walked up to Huijin and extended his hand. His right arm was broken, and only his left hand was usable; his left hand was also covered in wounds and was bloody. But his hand was steady.

Huijin looked at the hand, remained silent for a moment, and then grasped it.

Her hands were small, and burn scars peeked out from the gaps in her bandages—not from fire, but from experiments. Her fingers bore needle marks, knife scars, and traces of countless blood draws, injections, and cuts. But her hands were also very steady.

"From today onwards, you no longer need to hide," Jin said.

Huijin paused for a moment. "You... saw it?"

"I saw it."

"Don't you find it... strange?"

"I don't think so." Jin released her hand, picked up a relatively intact bandage from the ground, and handed it to her. "It's up to you."

Huijin took the bandage and looked down at the white strip of cloth in her hand. She clutched it for a long time before throwing it on the ground.

"No need." She raised her head, her Lunarian, fully revealed to the outside world for the first time amidst the smoke of battle. "I've been hiding for twenty years; I'm tired."

Ginny's voice came through the Den Den Mushi, carrying a sense of relief as if she had finally finished a call, "Simon has been defeated! Huijin has surrendered, Fire Demon is injured but can still move. Ash... are you alright?"

"Fine."

Your right arm is broken.

"He can still fight with his left hand."

"You're going to the North Gate? There's a problem with Kuma."

Jin turned and walked towards the north gate. After a few steps, he stopped without looking back.

"Will your wings grow back?"

"Yes. You know about the regenerative abilities of the Lunarian."

"That's good."

Jin continued walking. The golden flames behind him danced in the morning breeze, illuminating the smoke and fire on the ruins.

Huijin sat on the ground, watching Ash's departing figure. Her broken wings drooped, her broken leg bled, and her body was covered in wounds, but there was no humiliation of a loser on her face. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly—not a mockery, not a bitter smile, but a genuine, heartfelt smile.

For the first time in twenty years, she didn't need to hide herself.

(End of Chapter 81)