Banaro Island, a place on the Grand Line where even seagulls could hardly be bothered to land, now lay in ruins after the attack by Teach and his men.
Ace crouched on what remained of a rooftop.
His orange cowboy hat was pulled low, its brim casting a shadow over his eyes.
"You bastard-are you kidding me?" Ace's voice was low, but the fury rising from deep in his throat had already burned through his laid-back, easygoing mask. "Luffy is my little brother!"
Teach stood at the other end of the ruins.
Behind him, Van Augur knelt on one knee atop a broken chimney, his sniper rifle resting on his knee, its muzzle aimed between Ace's brows.
Burgess stood with his arms folded, the wreckage of a wooden house he had uprooted beneath his feet.
Doc Q lay in a corner, coughing violently. The apple in his hand rolled into the ashes, its skin quickly coated with blackened dust.
Lafitte took several steps back, standing apart from the others.
Teach looked at Ace, his lips moving slightly.
He remembered the first time he had seen Ace aboard Whitebeard's ship. The black-haired boy had been tipping a plate of cherry pie into his mouth.
Thatch had laughed beside him and said, "This kid eats exactly like you."
He had laughed then. Now he could not.
But he spoke anyway.
"Ace... join me. Pops is old. He's pinning his hopes on playing along with other people-that alliance of Four Emperors. You see it clearly, and so do I. A loose alliance is bound to collapse."
He took a step forward, crushing a charred plank beneath his boot. "We can give up on capturing Luffy. If there's one thing this sea has plenty of, it's pirates. One less won't matter. We can join