Forced back by a child, Bluejam felt a humiliation unlike anything he had ever known. Riding the momentum of his retreat, he abruptly raised his left hand and pointed the short-barreled flintlock he had been hiding up his sleeve straight at Ace's head.
"Die!"
"Bang!"
Fire flashed from the muzzle. The distance between them was less than three meters—a dead angle with absolutely nowhere to dodge!
Luffy squeezed his eyes shut in terror atop the pillar. "Ace—!"
Yet the smile on Ace's face didn't fade in the slightest.
"Bang!"
Another strange, muffled thud rang through the air. Ace didn't dodge to either side. Instead, he stamped his right foot against empty air! For an instant, the air seemed to turn into a solid staircase.
Six Powers: Geppo!
The moment the bullet left the barrel, Ace's body shot up two meters. The deadly lead bullet skimmed past the sole of his shoe and smashed into a wooden pillar behind him.
"H-He stepped on the sky?!"
Bluejam tilted his head back in despair, staring at the black-haired boy hovering in midair like a demon god. His mind went completely blank. How could a monster who had mastered this legendary martial art possibly exist in some backwater place like the East Blue?!
"Warm-up's over, trash."
Suspended in midair, Ace twisted his body. His right leg swung high behind him like a giant bow pulled taut. His muscles bulged to their limit beneath his red vest, and with a breath-stealing whoosh, his leg came crashing down from above like a colossal battle-axe cleaving the heavens and earth!
Bluejam could only raise the broad-backed sword in his hands above his head, instinctively trying to block the blow.
"Crack—!"
The grating sound of breaking metal rang through the ship's hold. The heavy sword that had slain countless people shattered piece by piece from the middle, as fragile as glass, under Ace's pure physical blow!
Ace's heel kept going, slamming into Bluejam's shoulder with unstoppable force.
"Rumble!!"
The entire abandoned ship's hold shook violently. The tremendous impact drove Bluejam, bones and all, straight through the rotting floorboards. Wood splinters and mud burst into the air. Bluejam coughed up a huge mouthful of blood and plunged into the mud below like a dead dog. Who knew how many bones he'd broken? He was completely unconscious. The remaining twenty or thirty pirate underlings stared at Bluejam, sprawled in the hole and possibly dead, and were scared out of their wits.
"Monster! Those two brats are monsters!"
One underling shrieked in terror. He suddenly drew a short knife from his waist, spun around, and pressed it against Luffy's neck, shouting in desperation:
"D-Don't come any closer! If you do, I'll kill this kid in the straw hat!"
Ace had been about to attack again, but at those words, he slowly stopped.
He turned his head and looked coldly at the pirate holding Luffy hostage, his dark eyes fixed on him.
There was no anger, no despair.
Only the utter indifference of a dragon looking down on an ant from on high.
"Kill him?"
Ace's lips curled into a cold smile. "Go ahead and try, if your hand can stop shaking."
The instant the words left his mouth,
an invisible, terrifying aura that seemed capable of crushing all the space around them erupted from Ace without warning!
There was no gale, no explosion.
But the instant that aura appeared, time itself seemed to stop inside the wrecked ship.
The air grew unbearably thick. A deep, soul-searing terror gripped every pirate's heart like an invisible hand.
"W-What is this...?"
The pirate holding Luffy felt his mind go blank, and his legs began shaking uncontrollably. With a clatter, the knife fell from his hand and hit the floor.
Then came the thuds—one after another...
The twenty or so pirate underlings around them didn't even manage to scream. Their eyes rolled back, foam spilled from their mouths, and they collapsed in droves like wheat cut down by a scythe!
A mere second later, the only ones still standing in the hold were Ace, Sabo, and Luffy, who was tied to a pillar and staring in astonishment.
Conqueror's Haki!
There had been no desperate brush with death to provoke it, no painful epiphany.
Over the past three years of wild growth, Ace's ambition to conquer the world and the kingly presence within him had been building to their peak. When this pack of worthless trash tried to cross his line with their pathetic tricks, his Haki overflowed like a cup filled to the brim—naturally, effortlessly, as though it had been inevitable all along!
"W-What just happened?"
Sabo stared in shock at the pirates sprawled unconscious across the floor, then at Ace, who stood motionless, without even lifting a finger. Even he had felt a terrifying pressure crush down on his heart in that instant.
"Nothing. I just cleaned up some annoying trash."
Ace withdrew his pressure, and the coldness vanished from his face in an instant, replaced by his usual bold grin.
He walked over and looked down at the thick iron chains binding Luffy, sensing the unique chill of Seastone.
"So this is Seastone, with a hardness comparable to diamond. I never thought we'd get our hands on some from a little pirate like this."
After examining it, Ace turned and walked over to Bluejam, who lay unconscious at the bottom of the hole. Without hesitation, he kicked the East Blue pirate captain onto his back, roughly pulled open his clothes, and fished a bloodstained ring of copper keys from his chest.
He walked over to Luffy and inserted a key into the lock.
With a crisp click,
the heavy Seastone Handcuffs and chains slid off and hit the wooden floor.
"Wow! I'm free!" The moment he was released, Luffy jumped around excitedly, swinging both rubber arms. "Ace! That 'death stare' move you used was so cool! Teach me, teach me!"
"Hahaha! That's not something you can teach. It's the natural talent of a born king!"
Laughing, Ace reached over and pushed down the straw hat on Luffy's head, then turned toward the wreckage.
"Sabo, quit standing around. Time to get to work!"
Ace kicked aside a few broken planks and dragged several heavy iron chests out from beneath the wreckage.
With a bang, he pried open a lid. A dazzling golden glow spilled out, bright enough to make their eyes swim. The chests were filled with gold and treasure that the Bluejam Pirates had plundered from across the East Blue over the years!
"Robbing the robbers?" Sabo walked over and stared at the treasure, worth tens of millions of Beli. His eyes immediately lit up.
"It's called returning things to their rightful owners."
Ace hoisted the heaviest chest of gold coins onto his shoulder, looking quite pleased. "Out here on the open sea, the winner takes all!"
"With this money, Sabo, we'll have almost enough to get started on building our pirate ship!"
Watching Ace's excitement, Sabo couldn't help smiling with satisfaction too.
Before you continue