Ace's Defiance? Break His Legs First, Then Heal Them

The night wind swept over Mount Colubo, rustling the leaves.

With his back to the forest, Lei En sat on the edge of a cliff, tossing the Cloud-Cloud Fruit up and down in his hand.

"Coming to find your demon instructor in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? Don't you want that water pipe anymore?"

Without even turning around, he spoke lazily, with a hint of mockery in his voice.

A small figure covered in bruises emerged from the bushes behind him.

It was Ace.

Although he had not been electrocuted into rolling all over the ground like Monkey D. Luffy during the day, he had still taken a solid, no-frills beating from Lei En. He was limping even as he walked.

Yet his eyes were like those of a wolf glowing green in the darkness, fixed firmly on Lei En's back, filled with undisguised hatred and wariness.

"Quit acting all mysterious!"

Ace clenched the mud-stained iron pipe in both hands and growled through gritted teeth.

"What exactly are you after? Did that old bastard Karp bring you here just to torture us?!"

Burdened with the world's most vicious bloodline curse—the son of the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger—Ace had grown up amid the scorn and insults of others.

It had made him extremely volatile and irritable, like a little hedgehog with every spine raised, trusting no one.

"My purpose? Torturing you?"

Lei En stopped tossing the fruit and slowly turned around.

Looking at Ace, who resembled a wild cat with its fur bristling, he suddenly burst out laughing. The sound was especially piercing in the night sky.

"Kid, aren't you taking yourself a little too seriously?"

Lei En rose to his feet and brushed the dirt from his pants.

"With your pathetic little tricks, you think you're worth the effort of torturing? I'm only teaching you how to survive in this sea that devours people."

"Shut up!"

As if a sore spot had been struck, Ace roared like a mad dog.

"I don't need you to teach me! Once I set sail, I'll prove to everyone that I'm stronger than anyone! I'll become the Pirate King!"

"With you?"

Lei En sneered disdainfully and wagged a finger.

"With that pathetic strength and that laughable pride of yours? Don't make me laugh. In the New World, trash like you wouldn't even be enough to fill someone's teeth."

Those words completely ignited the powder keg inside Ace.

"AAAAAHHHH—!"

Ace's eyes turned red as he let out a beastlike roar.

He kicked off the ground, shooting toward Lei En like an arrow loosed from a bow. The iron pipe in his hand shrieked through the air as it smashed toward Lei En's temple!

Fast! Precise! Ruthless!

It was a lethal strike aimed entirely at killing him!

Faced with that savage blow, Lei En did not even dodge.

His gaze turned cold. He raised his right leg slightly, and a layer of pitch-black Armament Haki instantly covered the tip of his shoe.

Bang!

An exceptionally dull, thunderous impact rang out.

Before Ace's iron pipe could even touch Lei En's hair, Lei En's toe struck first, viciously kicking Ace squarely in the shin.

Crack!

The crisp sound of a bone breaking was especially horrifying in the silent night.

"Urgh—!"

Ace's charging body instantly lost its balance. Pain twisted his freckled face out of shape, and cold sweat the size of beans immediately covered his forehead.

He crashed heavily to the ground, and the iron pipe rolled away from his hand.

The leg that had been kicked was now bent at an extremely unnatural angle. The bone had clearly been completely broken.

Yet he clenched his teeth so hard that his lips bled, refusing to let out a single scream.

Those lone-wolf eyes remained locked on Lei En, as though he wanted to devour his flesh alive.

"Your bones are pretty tough."

Lei En walked up to Ace and looked down at him, without the slightest trace of pity in his eyes.

"But what use is that? In this world, weakness is the original sin."

He raised his foot and casually stepped on Ace's broken leg, applying a little pressure.

"Ugh..."

Ace finally could not suppress a pained groan. His body began trembling violently.

Looking at his twisted leg, a deep despair welled up in his heart.

It was broken.

Was he crippled for life now?

How could he still set sail? How could he still prove himself to the world?

Just as Ace thought his life was about to come to an end, and even his eyes began to dim.

Lei En suddenly lifted his foot.

He took an exquisite little porcelain bottle from his clothes and poured out a red pill that gave off a strange medicinal fragrance.

This was an [Advanced Bone-Restoration Pill] exchanged from the system shop. Though it was not as good as a Marrow-Washing Pill, it was still extremely valuable.

Without any ceremony, Lei En pinched Ace's mouth open, shoved the pill inside, then slapped him on the back and forced him to swallow it.

"Cough, cough... What poison did you make me take?!"

Ace glared at Lei En as he coughed.

But before he could finish speaking, he felt an intensely numb yet wondrous sensation coming from his broken leg.

Before Ace's ghost-stricken eyes!

His leg, bent at that bizarre angle, began correcting itself at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Under the pill's effects, the shattered bone rapidly healed, becoming even thicker and harder than before!

In less than ten seconds.

The pain vanished completely.

Ace moved his toes in disbelief and discovered that his leg had been restored perfectly!

"H-How is that possible?!"

He stared blankly at Lei En, his mind utterly empty.

The demon who had mercilessly broken his leg one moment ago had taken out a miraculous medicine and healed him the next?

What was he after?!

Just as Ace's head filled with questions and he even began wondering whether Lei En had some unusual fetish.

Bang!

Without warning, Lei En threw a punch that slammed viciously into Ace's chest.

Crack!

Three more crisp sounds of bones breaking rang out!

Ace flew five or six meters away like a torn sandbag, crashing heavily into a tree trunk and coughing up a mouthful of blood.

"You...!"

Ace clutched his broken ribs. It hurt so much that every breath felt like swallowing blades, and his eyes were full of incomprehensible horror and fury.

"What about me?"

Lei En strolled over unhurriedly and took out another identical pill.

Pinching Ace's chin, he stuffed it into his mouth like a candy, watching as Ace's injuries rapidly healed once more.

"What? Still don't understand?"

Lei En's face looked exceptionally sinister and terrifying beneath the moonlight, like a true demon king of hell.

He raised both hands, cracking his knuckles.

"I told you, I'm going to teach you how to survive."

"And my teaching method is—break you, heal you. Break you again, heal you again!"

Lei En suddenly grabbed Ace by the collar and lifted him into the air.

Those deep black eyes carried a pressure that made one's soul tremble as they bore into Ace's eyes, where fear had begun to appear.

"I'll carve the mark of absolute obedience into both your flesh and your mind!"

"Until I grind that laughable pride and arrogance of yours beneath my feet and turn you obediently into the sharpest, most compliant blade in my hand!"

The scheming smile at the corner of Lei En's mouth grew endlessly larger in Ace's eyes.

"Now then, the second round begins."

That night.

From the cliffside of Mount Colubo came the spine-chilling sounds of bones breaking, along with Ace's agonized screams, which finally erupted beyond his control.

His prized defiance was gradually crushed apart in that repeated "hellish torture" until it completely collapsed.

When the first ray of morning sunlight fell upon Mount Colubo.

Ace lay sprawled on the grass like a dead dog.

His body was completely unharmed, even stronger than it had been yesterday.

But the way he looked at Lei En had completely changed.

It was an extreme reverence that came from the depths of his soul, as though he were looking at a fusion of a god and a demon.

Lei En clapped his hands, looked at the "Fire Fist" at his feet who had finally been tamed, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Very good."

He turned to look at the bandit cabin in the distance, anticipation flashing through his eyes.

"The foundation has been laid."

"Next, shouldn't I teach you something real? Like... how to coat your fists in Armament Haki and beat people with them?"