The Legendary Dark-Dark Fruit

"Ace, are you all right?" After hesitating for a moment, Whitebeard turned back to look at Ace.

As for the outcome of what had just happened—

Given Laxus's age, Whitebeard understood that this was a perfect report card.

No!

Rather, across the entire sea, there were scarcely any who could achieve such a feat.

At the very least, Whitebeard knew that aboard the Moby Dick, aside from himself, even Marco, the commander of the First Division, would likely struggle to reach that level.

After all, Marco's strength leaned toward versatility. To fight Kaido, who had honed his physical defenses to an utterly monstrous extreme—

One had to at least reach the level of Kozuki Oden, the former commander of the Second Division.

Otherwise, all attacks would be meaningless.

"Pops, don't worry. I'm not seriously hurt." Ace came back to his senses and let out a long breath. "I'm just a little tired. I want to go back and rest."

Tired?

Everyone present froze slightly, their faces full of disbelief.

However, seeing Ace's despondent expression, they swallowed the words on the tips of their tongues and obediently fell silent.

They knew full well that nothing they said now could soothe Ace's fragile heart.

"Rayleigh, sorry you had to see that." Whitebeard let out a heavy sigh.

Originally, Whitebeard had thought that obtaining Roger's son would allow him to break the deadlock he had been unable to overcome through his own efforts.

He had never expected Ace to suffer one setback after another instead.

"Heh, Whitebeard, you're too kind." Rayleigh gave a dry laugh. "Life is like sailing across this sea. You're bound to encounter plenty of storms. If you can't even safely weather the storms, how can you become strong?"

"If Ace can't even figure that out, then he might as