The Birth of Fire Fist

Noil walked slowly toward the Great Shaman on the ground. Black flames cloaked him like a coat, and a wisp of fire spread beneath every step.

He had absolutely nailed that dramatic entrance!

Noil pressed his palm against the Great Shaman's face. Held fast by Armament Haki and burned by Amaterasu Flame, the man shook violently as a sizzling sound, like roasting meat, rose from him.

"No! Don't... Please spare me!" the Great Shaman wailed. Noil did not budge.

Black fire spread across his entire body. The pain shattered the Great Shaman's mind, and he screamed a vicious curse. "You'll go to hell... You'll die a horrible death! Aaaah!"

Noil watched him struggle with cold eyes. "Take those words to hell with you."

He drew the Qingxing Blade. Black flames and Haki wrapped around its edge, and he drove it into the Great Shaman's body with a backhand thrust. Black fire erupted from within!

"No!!!" The Great Shaman's shriek rang across the island from inside the roaring flames. When his voice finally faded and the Amaterasu Flame had finished its work, not even ash remained on the ground.

Noil withdrew his hand and turned his icy gaze on the ignorant villagers.

The villagers had seen the Great Shaman they worshipped like a god burned alive. Terror seized them. Some of the spineless ones dropped to their knees and begged for forgiveness.

Ace looked at them with mixed emotions. He walked over to Noil and sighed. "They're beyond saving..."

Noil extinguished his flames. His mood was no better.

For all the island's beauty, it hid dangers and horrors far worse than anything outside it.

And these people... Had the Great Shaman alone led an entire village into such a twisted appetite?

Ignorance, hunger, and greed had stripped away their humanity, leaving them little more than walking corpses.

They could kill anyone who wandered into the mist without a second thought. The beasts inside them had broken free of their restraints.

But Noil and Ace could not do the same.

They could not slaughter everyone on the island just to ensure their own safety. Neither of them had that right.

Noil did not believe he had the right to pass judgment on an entire island like God, even if he thought they all deserved to die.

Perhaps he still had not adjusted to this cruel world...

"I'll find a way to tell the Marines what's happening here," Noil said with a sigh, sheathing his blade.

Ace nodded. Leaving them to the Marines was far better than leaving them to a pirate like him.

Noil stared at the villagers and warned them coldly, "If you eat another person, you'll end up like that damned Great Shaman."

The villagers went pale and nodded frantically.

Ace's face hardened. "Get us out of here!"

The villagers hurried off to find several Red-Spotted Porpoises and tethered them to the bow.

These local sea beasts knew the way. They could easily lead Noil and the others out of the area.

None of them had the slightest fondness for the place. Eager to leave at once, they boarded the ship and finally set sail.

In the thick fog, Noil looked toward Red Leaf Island and wondered whether his threat would do any good.

Perhaps as soon as they left, Red Leaf Island would become a cannibal island again...

The red mist gradually turned white, which meant they were returning to familiar waters. The five of them slowly began to feel lighter.

"I'm so hungry... Noil."

Ace lay on the deck, clutching his stomach and groaning.

Noil shot back, "You sure make a lot of demands for someone riding on my ship!"

Ace had a remarkably thick skin. He grinned. "We're traveling together for now! Just until we find an island where we can have a ship built!"

Noil had told Ace earlier that he was headed for the Grand Line too.

Ace had been delighted and had stubbornly insisted on tagging along aboard his ship.

Noil brought a bag of apples out of the cabin and picked out a big red one.

Then he drew the Qingxing Blade from his waist, rolled up his sleeves, and carefully began peeling it.

He peeled several large apples and handed them around, giving everyone something to eat.

Then Noil casually reached into the bag for another fruit.

Before he could cut into it, though, he realized it looked familiar.

It was orange-red, with a surface covered in swirling patterns made up of countless tiny, flame-shaped spirals.

Could this... possibly be...

The Flame-Flame Fruit?!

The Birth of Fire Fist

Noil stared in shock at the Devil Fruit in his hand. Its appearance was unmistakable!

Why had the Flame-Flame Fruit appeared on his ship after the Great Shaman died?

Something like this had happened once in the Original Story. When a Devil Fruit user died, a nearby fruit had a chance of becoming a new Devil Fruit.

But this was too much of a coincidence, wasn't it?

Noil looked at the Flame-Flame Fruit with a strange expression.

Ace leaned over curiously. "Huh? Why does that fruit look so weird?"

Noil tossed it to him. "It's a Devil Fruit. It should be the Logia Flame-Flame Fruit. That's the power the Great Shaman had."

Ace fumbled to catch it. "A Devil Fruit? Like that weird fruit Luffy ate when he was little?"

The spirals on its skin were like a black hole, drawing the eye.

Ace could not take his eyes off it. "So if I eat this, I can turn into fire like the Great Shaman?"

Noil nodded. "You just won't be able to swim."

Then he added, "This power suits you. Go ahead and eat it."

"Me?" Ace blinked. "Don't you want it?"

Noil held out his hand, and a wisp of black fire rose from his palm. Ace understood at once.

So Noil had eaten a Devil Fruit too...

Wait, that made no sense!

How had Noil been able to swim with him earlier?

Ace could have racked his brain forever and never figured out the system.

Seeing the encouraging looks from his crewmates, Ace nodded. "All right. I'll try it."

He grabbed the Flame-Flame Fruit, opened his mouth wide, and bit into it, exposing the orange flesh beneath its skin.

It looked tasty enough. Noil asked curiously, "How does it taste?"

Ace's expression slowly froze.

Then his features twisted, his eyelids twitched, and his eyes rolled sharply upward.

He looked exactly like Mr. Zeng after eating wasabi.

Just looking at his face made Noil and the others wince.

Ace forced down the mouthful and stuck out his tongue. "Ugh! It's disgusting!"

"Like grilled poop!"

Noil did not know whether to laugh or cry. What a bizarre comparison.

Ace opened his hand. A wisp of hot, orange-red flame burned at his fingertips.

"I really turned into fire!" Ace exclaimed. "And it doesn't burn at all!"

"Let me try something!"

He kicked off the deck and leaped high into the air. In an instant, his body became a mass of blazing fire.

Ace drew the flames into his right arm and compressed them into a huge golden-red fist, then punched hard toward the sea ahead!

A vast surge of searing fire shaped like a fist plunged into the deep.

Its force carried it hundreds of meters underwater, and it kept going!

Deuce and the other two stared, dumbfounded. "That's... incredible!"

Ace landed back on the deck, pleased with himself. Playing with the flame dancing on his fingertip, he said, "This power is great! I'm calling that move Fire Fist!"

Noil watched him with a sense of wonder. Now that Ace had the Flame-Flame Fruit, he was finally the real "Fire Fist" Ace from the Original Story.

He had never expected to witness the birth of "Fire Fist" himself.

Young, strong, and built like a monster, Ace wielded the power on a completely different level from the Great Shaman, who had been at death's door.

That one Fire Fist was stronger than the ultimate attack the Great Shaman had strained himself purple to unleash!

Noil scanned Ace with the system. Sure enough, Ace had gained two talents: Demon Possession · Flame-Flame and Sea's Rejection.

The Flame-Flame Fruit's talent was red quality!

Noil quietly moved up beside the excited Ace, pulled out a red Copy Card, and slapped it onto him hard enough to make him stagger.

The red-quality Flame-Flame Fruit power was his!

And with that, Noil finally replaced the Kensuke Village Police Combat Technique he had picked up in his ignorant youth!

The Zoan Bear-Bear Fruit and the Logia Flame-Flame Fruit! Noil truly was a man with two Devil Fruit powers now!

Once he copied a gold-quality Devil Fruit from each of the three types, who could possibly stand in his way?!

"The system reminds the host that Demon Possession talents are restricted by the laws of this world. Only one person can possess the full version of a given ability unless the host kills its original owner."

Noil snapped out of his elation. "What do you mean?" he asked uneasily.

The system's cold voice continued:

"A copied Demon Possession grants an identical ability, but the host's training speed is halved and the ability's upper limit is reduced. Killing the original owner will allow the host to obtain the complete Demon Possession talent."

Now Noil understood. His face practically said, What the hell?

He had the Flame-Flame Fruit's power, but he could not improve it nearly as efficiently as Ace. He would even hit a bottleneck.

No wonder training his Bear-Bear Fruit power had gone so smoothly. He had already killed the original owner, that poor sucker Kembla.

To wield the Flame-Flame Fruit's power to its full potential, he would have to kill Ace...

Noil dismissed the thought immediately. For one thing, they had become friends.

For another, if old man Garp found out, he would come over and kill him with one punch.

Forget it. He could find someone else to kill later.

Noil soon relaxed. After jumping around in celebration with Deuce and the others, Ace finally began to feel tired.

"Noil, I'm starving! Is there nothing to eat on the ship?" Ace called, sprawled on the deck now that he had finished playing.

Noil glanced at him from his beach chair. "No. Can't you cook for yourself? We still have ingredients."

Ace slumped. "I can't cook. My pirate crew doesn't even have a chef yet."

"And Deuce and the others cook terrible food."

All three crewmates rolled their eyes at him. If it's so terrible, stop eating it.

What you cook would probably taste about as good as a Devil Fruit.

"Hang on a little longer," Noil said. "Our course has been back to normal since we came out of the fog. We'll reach my destination soon."

Ace looked puzzled. "Where are you going?"

Noil smiled. "The seafaring restaurant Baratie."

"Baratie?" Skull brightened. "I've heard all about that place! I never thought we'd get to eat there."

Ace looked at Noil expectantly. "Is the food good?"

"Better than anything you lot make."

Noil left it at that and began looking forward to it himself.