Acceleration! / Psychiatrist

"..." Luffy watched in amazement. This man was actually a match for Ace in strength! When Ace was only ten, he could already beat up all sorts of fierce beasts on Mount Colubo.

"..."

Ace gritted his teeth, enduring the pain in his hand bones, when he suddenly heard the strange man opposite him say, "I don't think you're someone who has to be captain himself. What do you think, Gol D. Ace?"

Chapter 49: Acceleration!

"Gol D. Ace?"

Luffy looked from side to side and asked Ruidio in confusion, "Who are you talking to?"

"How many D. Aces are there here?" Ruidio said with a smile.

Ace glared at Ruidio, his eyes practically spitting fire. "My last name is Portgas!"

Luffy suddenly understood. He pointed at Ruidio and exclaimed, "You know Ace's dad is the Pirate King?!"

Ruidio said, "Is it that hard to guess? Go look at Roger's wanted poster from when he was young. Ace, he looks just like you. Besides, Roger's Supreme Grade Sword was named 'Ace.' Once there are enough coincidences, they stop being coincidences."

"I have... nothing in common with that man!"

Ace looked ready to devour him. He stared coldly at Ruidio as an astonishing aura poured off him. Beside them, Luffy was so shaken that sweat broke out on his forehead, and he shouted, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

"Oh, with that Conqueror's Haki on top of it, the resemblance is even stronger," Ruidio said with a smile.

"Shut up!!"

Ace could bear it no longer. He slammed a fist into Ruidio's face, sending him flying.

Ruidio flipped over and landed, wiped the blood from his nose, and said with a smile, "Is that your dream? To draw a clear line between yourself and your father, Pirate King Roger?"

"I told you to shut up!!!"

His face livid, Ace charged forward. Halfway there, he vanished with a whoosh, darted to Ruidio's rear flank, and punched at the back of his head.

"Your footwork's right, but you still need more practice."

Ruidio ducked beneath the blow, turned, and drove a heavy punch into Ace's abdomen. "You're too easy to read."

Ace vomited a mouthful of acid and flew backward, crashing into the mountainside with a bang.

"Stop!"

Furious, Luffy charged in to help again, only for Playful Cloud to come flying as expected and smack him in the face.

"Damn it... this weird... rock again..."

The Rubber Man immediately went limp and fell backward, unable even to turn his head and dislodge the seastone Three-Section Staff. All he could do was lie there helplessly, watching the sun rise to its noon position overhead and then move west. The temperature dropped, the sky turned orange-yellow, and evening came.

The fierce exchange of punches and kicks between Ruidio and Ace crackled in his ears, with the ground and trees going boom and bang as they fought. It continued for an entire day before finally dying down.

The ground in the area was pockmarked, broken tree roots stuck up everywhere, and thick trunks lay scattered about, snapped into several pieces. Blood, whether Ruidio's or Ace's, had splattered the ground in spot after spot.

"..."

Ace lay spread-eagled on the ground, battered all over and utterly exhausted. He panted heavily, staring blankly at the dusk sky.

"..."

Across from him, Ruidio struggled to his feet. This was the first time he had been this exhausted since setting out to sea. His shirt had been torn into strips, bruises covered his body, and blood kept streaming from his temple...

He pulled off the ruined shirt and wiped away the blood, turning it into a red wad. He tossed it aside, then threw seven Essence into the Three-in-One's Slot 1.

An instant later, piles of roasted meat appeared one after another in the clearing before him. None were smaller than the enormous tiger he had thrown away earlier. They were coated in sauces or spices of different flavors and gave off an indescribable aroma.

"Even if you don't want to eat, your little brother is starving." Ruidio casually tore off a hefty piece of roast meat. It was steaming hot, and when he popped it into his mouth, it was tender and juicy, the spices unable to mask the meat's own flavor. He let out a satisfied breath.

"Grrrroooowl—"

Hearing the rumble from Luffy's stomach on the other side, Ace slowly got up. He silently removed the Three-Section Staff from Luffy's face and tossed it aside. Drool had already pooled on the ground on both sides of Luffy's head.

"Go eat," Ace said, embarrassed.

"Whoa!" Like a starving ghost, Luffy rushed at the mountain of roast meat.

Aching all over, Ace slowly followed him over to get some food and drink. He sat down and wolfed it down for a while before it suddenly hit him: Wait, where did all this meat come from???

Forget it. I'll eat my fill first.

Ruidio smiled and kept his hands moving too, tearing off meat and eating it with relish. With a thought, he opened the system's radar interface and started a search.

If he forgot about it, that was that. But whenever he thought of it and happened to have searches available that day, he would open the radar. It was easy enough to do.

The first two radar results were nothing special. Both were nearby tasks, and judging by their descriptions, one involved helping a noble in town find a cat, while the other involved getting a noble young lady a pretty dress that would outshine those of her close friends...

Give me a break!

Ruidio abandoned the tasks.

But the third result found by the radar made his gaze sharpen...

"What's so funny?"

Ace's voice drew Ruidio's attention back.

Sitting with his legs apart across a pile of picked-clean roast meat bones, Ace stared at Ruidio's strange smile. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

Ruidio said, "I came to help. I don't care which of you two I help, but since Luffy here keeps pestering me, I can only turn to you, his big brother, to settle the debt."

With his mouth full of meat, Luffy said, "Wen did I kesp pestering you?"

"..." Ace said flatly, "Didn't you ask me what my dream was? My dream is to be free and live without ever regretting it. I don't need your help."

"That's hard to say," Ruidio said with a smile. "How about this? Let's say I'm the one who needs your help. If you won't help, I'll stay here and mess with Luffy."

A question mark appeared over Luffy's head.

"Will you ever quit?" Ace said irritably. "What do you want me to help you with?"

Ruidio said, "Ask me for help."

Ace and Luffy said, "..."

Night was falling. The beasts in the mountain forest kept away, not daring to approach.

Ace looked up at the starry sky and suddenly asked, "Hey, do you know Gol D. Roger well?"

"I wouldn't say that!"

Ruidio leaned against a tree root. "I know a little more about him than most people in the world, but a little less than the people who actually knew him."

"..." Ace was silent for a moment before asking, "Why did he say those things before he died and start this age of pirates? Everyone says he was a true devil, and I'm the son of that devil, someone who never should have been born into this world."

"..."

Ruidio glanced at Luffy, who had eaten and drunk his fill long ago and was sound asleep. "Is the age of pirates such a bad thing? A serious illness needs strong medicine. This world is gravely ill, and it needs things to speed up. With so many boats racing against the current, someone will eventually come out on top, someone who can bare their fangs at those lofty beings and make even gods bleed."

Ace said, "..." What is this guy talking about?

Ruidio smiled. "After reaching Laugh Tale, the Pirate King and his crew learned the whole truth that had been hidden from the world. They thought they had arrived too early and couldn't do anything, so they disbanded the crew on the spot. And Roger... he had long since contracted an incurable disease and was already at death's door. Nobody knows what the Pirate King did in the final stretch of his life, but one thing's certain: before he died, he turned himself in to the Marines and gave that speech to the world from the Execution Platform in Loguetown. If he was a devil, so be it! Aren't devils the natural enemies of gods?"

Ace fell silent.

Ruidio got up. "Take your time thinking it over. I have something to do. I'll be back in a bit."

You don't have to come back! Ace grumbled inwardly. Then his eyes widened. The man had suddenly vanished into thin air right in front of him!

[Radar search found a new task]

[Again and again, Boa Hancock recalled the four years she spent as a slave to the Celestial Dragons in her midnight dreams. Sadly, even in her dreams, she could not escape the ship bound for hell...]

[Client: Boa Hancock]

[Distance: Extremely far (teleportation available)]

[Estimated difficulty: ★★★★★]

[Estimated time remaining to accept: Approximately 69 years]

Chapter 50: Psychiatrist

South Blue, near the Calm Belt, on an island—

Ruidio's vision blurred. The night vanished, and it was still evening in this part of the sea.

"..."

He looked up. Half a meter above him was the sharply upturned corner of a ship's stern. He had teleported into the shadow of a large pirate ship stranded on the shore.

Whoosh—splash—

A cool sea breeze brushed past him, mingling with the sound of the tide lapping against the stranded pirate ship.

Not the island of women?

Ruidio was puzzled. Boa Hancock was the empress of the island of women, Amazon Lily, which lay in a completely windless, waveless stretch of the Grand Line.

He walked out from beneath the stranded stern and came face-to-face with a frightening grimace.

Oh, it was a human statue.

It was a one-eyed pirate wearing a skull captain's hat, with a hook for one hand. In the final moment of his life, he had been looking toward the sea, his mouth wide open and hearts flying from his one eye, before being petrified where he stood.

The Love-Love Fruit...

Ruidio continued forward and saw more and more such human statues. Judging by their appearance, style of dress, and the swords and other weapons in their hands, they had all clearly come from the stranded pirate ship.

The petrified pirates stood scattered along the shore, the same hearts in their eyes as they faced the same direction, like a field of sunflowers carved from stone.

"Lady Snake Princess seems to be in a very bad mood today..."

"But even when she's angry, she's still so beautiful~~"

"The best part of joining the Kuja Pirates is being able to admire Lady Snake Princess's beauty up close... Hehe..."

"All right, hurry up and move this stuff, or Lady Snake Princess will punish you."

"That's even better! Heehee."

Ruidio heard the women talking and slowly approached. He saw several women in white capes carrying treasure chests, provisions, and assorted goods out of the stranded pirate ship.

"Shh!"

The warrior leading them, her hair tied in a bun, suddenly stopped. Then she whipped around and hoisted a short cannon onto her shoulder. Fire flashed with a boom as she fired at Ruidio.

Does that make sense?

Ruidio darted aside. With a boom behind him, the overturned pirate ship exploded into flames.

"There's one we missed!"

"It's a man."

"Let's deal with him first."