The Blade That Pierced Through His Chest

"Fire Fist!"

The scorching flames surged toward Sakazuki like a slowly rising sun!

"Boom!!!"

At that moment, as the flames exploded, everyone's gazes fell into a brief daze.

Fire... Fire Fist?!

Wasn't that a technique of the "Flame-Flame Fruit"?

The next moment, everyone's eyes turned toward a certain direction.

They saw a Marine wearing a Marine uniform and a baseball cap that concealed most of his face. Flames still burned around him as he leaped onto the top of the city wall where the Shichibukai were seated. Then, with a backhanded motion, he tore off the justice cloak, Marine uniform, and baseball cap from his body.

At once, the person who appeared before everyone was unmistakably a black-haired young man with a few freckles on his face—Portgas D. Ace!

What?!

Everyone... was stunned in an instant, their faces filled with disbelief.

Countless civilians watching the broadcast instinctively rubbed their eyes hard, their expressions filled with shock and surprise.

Portgas D. Ace... hadn't he already been executed?

Even his corpse was still on the execution platform, not yet cleared away.

"What's going on?"

"Why has another Portgas D. Ace appeared?"

"This has to be fake, right?"

"This one should be real. That just now must have been the legendary 'Flame-Flame Fruit' ability of Portgas D. Ace!"

Standing atop the city wall, Ace raised an arm and called out toward Whitebeard and his family in the distance, tears of emotion filling his eyes.

"I'm... I'm sorry for making you come all the way here... I'll definitely remember your kindness for the rest of my life..."

At that moment, as another version of himself was executed on the execution platform, Ace inexplicably felt liberated, as though the curse of the Pirate King's bloodline within him had vanished along with it.

Compared with that