Ace!

One Piece: Starting with Kenpachi Zaraki's Legacy. Author: White Snow on the Rocks

After transmigrating into the world of One Piece, Lin Xuan opened his eyes in Foosha Village and bonded with the Multiverse Template System.

The first legacy loaded at the outset was none other than Kenpachi Zaraki from the Soul Society!

When Ace approached confidently, blazing with flames, Lin Xuan merely drew that bandage-wrapped Zanpakuto slowly.

"Flames? One slash is enough."

From crushing the future Fire Fist to taking the crying, fussing Luffy as his little brother, in this era when Roger was still alive, Lin Xuan held his nameless Zanpakuto and proclaimed to the entire world:

"The strong make the rules? Then from this day forward, I am the only rule on these seas!"

Chapter 1: Ace!

The afternoon air in Foosha Village was thick with the scent of sea salt, and the scorching sun had baked the dirt road white.

"Ding-a-ling-"

The old wooden door of Makino's tavern swung open, sending the brass bell above it into a series of crisp chimes.

Lin Xuan stepped over the threshold and narrowed his eyes out of habit, adjusting to the dim yellow light inside.

He wore a heavy black robe with a collar that stood all the way up to his jaw. The outfit looked somewhat out of place in the perpetually springlike East Blue, but it concealed his build perfectly.

At sixteen, the boy had already grown quite tall. His handsome face carried a gloom that did not belong to someone his age.

Lin Xuan walked to the farthest corner of the bar, the darkest spot and a blind spot that offered the best view.

As he pulled out the tall stool, its wooden legs scraped against the floor with a faint creak, especially distinct on an afternoon with only a few drunks around.

"A Bloody Mary. With ice and extra lemon."

Lin Xuan tapped his fingers lightly on the red oak counter. His voice was quiet but calm.

Behind the bar, Makino was polishing a glass with a dry cloth. At that world-weary order, her hands paused. She sighed helplessly and set the gleaming glass down hard.

"Lin Xuan, I remember Mr. Garp specifically telling me before he left last week that minors aren't allowed to drink."

Makino came around the bar, her smiling eyes now holding a hint of reproach as she looked Lin Xuan up and down, wrapped up so tightly. "Besides, isn't today the day Ace sets sail? Everyone in the village went to the shore to see him off. Why are you hiding here alone?"

Lin Xuan did not answer. He merely turned his head and looked toward the distant shoreline through the tavern's small round window.

He could faintly hear the commotion from over there, cheers for a boy heading out to sea.

"It's precisely because that guy's setting sail today that I need a stiff drink to celebrate." Lin Xuan withdrew his gaze, his fingers still rubbing over the wood grain. "If you won't give me one, I'll have to go into the kitchen and get it myself."

"Oh, you..."

Makino could do nothing with him.

This child Mr. Garp had brought back had never been like that little monkey Luffy. Even as a child, he had been quiet enough to make her heart ache and stubborn enough that she could never refuse him.

She turned, took a bottle of dark red tomato juice from the bottom shelf of the liquor cabinet, and mixed in a little vodka, deliberately keeping the alcohol content low. Then she cut off a large wedge of lemon and dropped it in.

"Just this once. Never again."

The glass slid in front of him, the ice clinking pleasantly against its sides.

Scarlet liquid swayed inside the glass.

Without hesitation, Lin Xuan picked it up, tipped his head back, and drained it.

The sharp vodka mingled with the tartness of the tomato juice, burning its way down his throat and into his stomach.

The sensation burst through him instantly, bringing a faint flush to his somewhat pale cheeks.

At that very instant.

The progress bar that had been loading in his mind for fourteen whole years finally made a sound.

[Ding-]

[Host's bodily functions have reached the critical threshold. Mental load meets requirements.]

[Strongest Template System successfully unlocked.]

Lin Xuan's fingers tightened slightly around the empty glass, his knuckles whitening with the force.

Fourteen years.

Ever since he had been reincarnated into this world and dumped in this Weakest Sea by that unreliable old man Garp, he had waited for this moment every day.

No one knew how he had lived through those years, watching those two cheats, Ace and Luffy, grow at lightning speed in the jungle while he could only rely on tedious basic training, day after day, to keep from falling too far behind.

He had held it in for far too long.

"Would you like more?"

Makino's gentle voice interrupted Lin Xuan's thoughts.

Watching the boy stare blankly at his empty glass, she assumed the alcohol had been too much for him. She picked up a pitcher and poured him a glass of lemon water. "You really are hard to understand sometimes. You're about the same age as Luffy and the others, so why do you have so much weighing on your mind? You should learn from Luffy. Being carefree is so much happier."

Lin Xuan loosened his tightly clenched fingers, and the muscles that had tensed at the system's unlocking slowly relaxed.

"Learn from Luffy?"

An amused curve touched his lips as his gaze swept over the replica straw hat ornament in the corner of the bar.

"Learn from that idiot who only knows how to shout about becoming the Pirate King?" Lin Xuan shook his head and turned his gaze back to the blue sea outside the window. "As for Ace... he's in such a hurry to sail today because he's trying to avoid that old man."

Makino blinked in confusion. "What's that for?"

"To avoid that old man."

Lin Xuan tapped his fingers lightly against the counter, producing a rhythmic knocking.

He had spent the longest time at Garp's side and knew the Marine hero's ways all too well.

"At Vice Admiral Garp's cruising speed, he'll be back in Foosha Village to visit his family within three days. Ace has a nose like a dog. He's afraid that if he leaves even a step too late, the old man's Fist of Love will physically send him to the next world."

Makino froze for a moment, then covered her mouth and laughed softly.

That reason certainly sounded consistent with how that grandfather and grandson got along.

Lin Xuan said nothing more.

He merely gazed quietly at the bottle in Makino's hand. Its scarlet label looked enticing in the dim light.

Now that the system had awakened, it was time for the winds of this world to change direction.

He reached out and pushed the empty glass forward again, his gaze turning somewhat hazy, yet burning with heat.

"One more."

Without waiting for Makino's reply, Lin Xuan's slender fingers closed around the loosely capped vodka bottle again. The dark red liquid left a cloudy streak along the glass.

He added no tomato juice. He was simply entranced by the burning pain of alcohol sliding down his throat.

A corner of the ice had melted in the gradually warming room, and it clinked crisply as the glass swayed.

With his eyes half closed, Lin Xuan looked at the familiar tavern through the distorted bottom of his glass, his gaze wandering slightly.

This mild buzz was just right. It could briefly soften his constantly taut nerves and make his body feel light enough to float.

"With that drinking capacity, you'll probably be living in a barrel someday." Makino shook her head helplessly, but did not stop him again. She merely slid a small plate of freshly fried peanuts beside his hand. "If Mr. Garp knew I was indulging you like this..."

"Bang-!"

Before she could finish, the tavern's poor wooden door let out a shriek. The whole door slammed against the wall, shaking loose several layers of years-old dust.

Even the lamp above the bar swayed three times, sending dim yellow light and shadows dancing wildly over Lin Xuan's face.

"Lin Xuan! Stop drinking!"

A shrill, booming voice charged inside, accompanied by the rapid slap-slap of rubber sandals.

Luffy rushed in like a gust of wind, the air he stirred making the hem of Lin Xuan's robe flap.

The kid had absolutely no concept of braking. He braced his hands on his knees and panted, his brand-new straw hat sitting crookedly on the back of his head.

"Huff... huff... Ace said this is the last chance!"

Luffy snapped his head up, his round eyes brimming with excitement and his grin stretching from ear to ear. "He's waiting outside! Whoever wins gets to be the big brother from now on! The loser has to be the little brother for life!"

"Oh?"

Lin Xuan took a casual sip, letting the sharp liquor roll over his tongue.

Sure enough, only these two brothers could come up with such straightforward thinking.

"There's no need to compete." Lin Xuan set down the glass, its base striking the solid wooden counter with a dull thud.

He did not even turn around, merely speaking calmly with his back to the entrance. "As long as I'm alive, I'll always be the big brother. This has nothing to do with winning or losing. It's seniority."

The light in the doorway suddenly dimmed for a moment.

A lean but wiry figure blocked the afternoon sunlight.

Ace carried that dark green pack on his back, the freckles covering his face bunching vividly together as he raised an eyebrow.

Unlike Luffy, he made no fuss. He simply folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe, a provocative curve on his lips.

"Big words, Lin Xuan."

Ace's voice was much steadier than before it had broken, carrying a wildness on the verge of setting sail. "You used to bully us with that freakish strength of yours. I'm leaving today. Shouldn't you at least let me take the title of big brother out to sea?"

"Me too, me too!" Oblivious to the danger, Luffy poked his head between them and raised both hands. "Then I'll be the little brother! Whether Ace wins or Lin Xuan wins, I'll be the little brother!"

Silence hung in the air for two seconds.

Lin Xuan continued staring at the ice in his glass, while Ace kept staring at Lin Xuan's back.

In unspoken agreement, both filtered out that pointless remark.

"Looks like you're serious."

Lin Xuan slowly swiveled his stool around, his black robe trailing to the floor.

He looked at Ace standing against the light. Those eyes held no sorrow at parting, only a fiercely burning will to fight.

"For Sabo."

Ace's smile faded, and his right hand slowly reached behind his back.

With the sound of metal scraping against fabric, he drew the pipe that had accompanied him through countless days and nights of fighting on Mount Colubo and held it across his side.

The steel pipe's surface was pitted and dented, every mark a testament to the years they had spent growing up together.

"The sights Sabo never got to sail out and see, I'll see for him. And the big brother he never managed to become by beating you, I'll become for him today."

Ace's bearing changed abruptly. The boy who had been grinning a moment ago now seemed to have bared his fangs.

The air inside the tavern seemed to freeze instantly. Even Makino's hand stopped in midair as she polished a glass, and she watched the two boys facing off with concern.

A heavy pressure, built purely from fighting spirit.

Lin Xuan looked at the pipe pointed at him, and the corners of his mouth slowly rose.

He slowly stood up from the stool, the muscles beneath his black robe tightening imperceptibly.

At the same time, the mechanical voice that had only just fallen silent in his mind sprang to life again without warning, carrying a sense of power on the verge of erupting.

[Strongest Template System loading complete.]

[Starter gift package delivered to storage space.] Those few lines of pale blue, translucent text hovered steadily at the focal point of his vision, overlapping the dim tavern in reality.

Through that faint blue glow, Lin Xuan saw Ace's face, filled with defiance and resolve, and farther away, Luffy's features, distorted with excitement.

At that moment, Lin Xuan felt the blood that had lain dormant for more than a decade begin to boil again.

The sluggishness brought on by that long wait vanished completely.

His entire being felt lighter, the shackles on his mind utterly shattered by that notification.

Was this what it meant for sweetness to follow hardship?

He drew a deep breath. Beyond the cheap tobacco and aged liquor, there seemed to be a sweet, metallic scent of opportunity in the air.

His gaze lingered for half a second on the words [Starter gift package delivered], and a piercing light suddenly flared in his eyes: greed and exhilaration long suppressed.

"What? Scared stupid?"

When Lin Xuan remained motionless for so long, Ace impatiently twirled the pipe through the air in a less-than-perfect flourish, producing a whooshing sound. "If you're afraid of losing to me, a future great pirate, there's still time to surrender. The title of big brother might sound nice, but you need the strength to..."