"That really was rude of me."
The "Bondrewd" standing before Ace was not Sephiroth, but an Artificial Angel serving as his stand-in.
To avoid being stretched too thin under unusual circumstances, Sephiroth had made a batch of "stand-in models," originally intended to replace the "Great Angel" when necessary.
But with the Pure Gold issue and the World Government's growing attention, Bondrewd had been born as an alternate identity for directly opposing the World Government.
So he had also produced a batch of Bondrewd stand-ins. Following the original model, he had provisionally named the batch "Praying Hands."
"Naruto..."
Ace lifted Naruto, who had been reduced to a head and part of his torso, tears streaming down his face. The feeling of losing a brother again forced him to examine his heart once more.
He had set out to sea to prove he was stronger than the father he had never met, not because he particularly loved adventure.
But over this past year, he had come to understand, to some degree, what "adventure" truly meant.
Yet his relatively smooth journey up to this point had made him forget just how vast this sea was.
"...I'm sorry-really...I'm sorry-"
What Ace had buried in his heart was fear.
...Fear of something he could never escape.
He had long known that Naruto's identity was anything but ordinary. But he hadn't cared, as long as they could enjoy their adventures together.
How many people in this world could have a more unusual background than his?
Yet precisely because of that background, he could face this fear more earnestly than most.
-I-!
Tiny streaks of black-and-red lightning began to flicker faintly within the invisible waves emanating from Ace.
-I'm not doing this for him!
Overwhelming Conqueror's Haki erupted from Ace like a volcanic explosion.
[-?]
Though Sephiroth