The New World had never been a paradise. Besides its dream-filled names—the "second half of the Grand Line" and the "New World"—it had another name: Purgatory.
True, only those who reached the New World could pursue the One Piece. But everyone had to endure Purgatory's trials. It would have been stranger to face no setbacks or defeats at all.
Everything had gone smoothly for Ace before he came here. Call it pride or arrogance, he had grown a little too sure of himself.
That might not cause trouble yet, but the farther he went, the more likely it was to become the spark that destroyed them all.
Crocodile had merely shown these overconfident Supernovas, as someone who had come before them, the New World's true face: death and smoke.
But Ace had paid a steep price for that lesson.
A day later, on the island's southeastern shore.
Ace sat silently on the ground, staring blankly at the towering wooden pyre before him.
The faces lying upon it were all painfully familiar. Their bodies were covered in tung oil and surrounded by dry firewood as they awaited their final farewell.
Bodies claimed by plague were best neither buried where they lay nor cast into the sea. A cremation's heat could kill the bacteria and keep the bodies from spreading the disease. It was the best solution.
"Take one last look at them, Ace."
The wind would shift soon, but Shanks couldn't bring himself to hurry Ace. He had watched his own companions turn to ash before, so he understood Ace's pain all too well.
Ace gave no answer. He simply watched the pyre without speaking or moving.
A long while later, just as Benn Beckman was about to throw the torch himself, Ace moved.
Was he going to light it?
With