The journey to the East Blue was a spectacle of absurdity.
Ace, a living comet of blue-white fire, blazed a trail across the sky. Behind him, Kuzan pedaled lazily on a bicycle made of pure ice, leaving a glittering trail of frost in their wake.
"Ara ra... can't you slow down, Captain?" Kuzan's voice drawled. "You're going to miss all the scenery."
"There's nothing but water and clouds!" Ace yelled back, a grin on his face. "And if we don't hurry, Marco is going to have a full-blown panic attack before we even get to Elbaf!"
They were making incredible time, a two-man force of nature crossing the Grand Line in a matter of days. As they approached the Red Line, Ace suddenly faltered in the air, his flames flickering.
"What is it?" Kuzan asked, pulling up beside him.
Ace's expression was grim, his Observation Haki focused on a nearby island. "A presence," he said, his voice low and hard. "I've never felt anything like it. It's not like an Emperor's Haki... it's just... monstrous. A raw, bottomless well of power. We have to check it out. A power that big, left unchecked, is a threat to everyone."
Kuzan's lazy smile vanished, replaced by a look of sharp focus. "Lead the way."
The moment they landed, they knew they were too late. The port town was being systematically disassembled by a man with a monstrous, muscular physique and a long, dark ponytail. Beside him, Buena Festa cackled with glee.
Kuzan froze, his eyes widening for a fraction of a second. "Ara ra... this is bad," he muttered, his voice losing its usual lazy drawl. "That's Douglas Bullet. A demon from Roger's era. His file was buried so deep most of the Vice Admirals don't even know he exists."
Bullet's predatory eyes snapped to Ace. He saw the face from the bounty poster, and a deep, ancient rage boiled to the surface. "Gol D. Roger," Bullet growled, the name a curse. Then his lips curled into a cruel sneer. "No. Just his whelp. I never got to kill roger. But killing his son will be the next best thing. It will prove to the world that I am the one who has surpassed him!"
(A/N: this guy is something else, lol)
"A lot of talk," Kuzan said, stepping forward. With a lazy sigh, he waved a hand, and Festa and his cronies were instantly encased in blocks of ice. "There," Kuzan yawned. "Now the adults can talk."
Bullet ignored him, using his Gasha Gasha no Mi power to pull every piece of metal from the surrounding town to form a colossal, steampunk-esque mech around himself. "BULLET ARMOR!" He charged, his metallic fist the size of a small house.
The fight that followed was not a fight. It was a brutal, one-sided beatdown. Ace was strong, but Bullet was a force of nature. Ace tried his swordsmanship, his father's blade coated in Haki, but the strikes just bounced off Bullet's own monstrous Armament with a deafening clang that sent shudders up his arms.
"Is that the best you can do?!" Bullet roared, swatting Ace through a series of buildings. "You fight with a dead man's sword and a dead man's name! You are nothing but his echo!"
Ace pulled himself from the rubble, his body bruised and battered. He formed a Rasengan: Nova in his palm and shot forward, but Bullet was faster, his mech's hand opening up to reveal a massive cannon. A volley of scrap metal, each piece infused with Haki, shot out, forcing Ace to detonate the Nova just to defend himself. He was completely outmatched in raw power.
He tried his awakened flames, unleashing a torrent of blue-white fire, but Bullet's mech simply shifted, the metal plates rearranging themselves into a shield that absorbed the blast, glowing cherry-red but holding firm.
"My Haki is stronger than your fire, boy!" Bullet laughed. He stomped his giant foot, and the very ground beneath Ace erupted, spikes of metal shooting up, forcing Ace into the sky with his Phoenix Wings.
"Pathetic!" Bullet roared, his giant metal fist slamming down from above.
Ace crossed his arms, coating them in the thickest Armament Haki he could muster. The impact was cataclysmic. He was driven from the sky like a meteor, crashing into the earth and creating a massive crater.
He lay there, his body broken, his pride shattered. He could hear Bullet's mocking laughter echoing across the ruined town. He had faced down the world's strongest. But this... this was different. This was pure, unadulterated strength, an immovable object of a man who had dedicated his entire life to becoming the strongest.
He needed more. Not just more fire. Not just more Haki. He needed to be in a different state of being. He remembered Rayleigh's words. Harmony. Joy. He thought of Luffy's stupid, idiotic grin in the face of certain death. He thought of his father, Whitebeard, and his proud, loving smile. He thought of his other father, Roger, and the wild, untamable freedom he represented. He embraced all of it. The joy, the anger, the love, the fire. He let it all burn as one.
"What's this?" Bullet sneered, seeing Ace stand up in the crater, his flames dying down to a mere flicker. "Giving up?"
"No," Ace said, his voice a low, vibrating hum that seemed to come from everywhere at once. "Igniting."
And then, the world changed.
The air around Ace didn't just heat up; it distorted, bending the light around him like a mirage corona, divine and terrifying. His hair, which had been black and smoldering, erupted into streams of flickering, white-hot flame. His eyes, once dark, now glowed like twin, blue-white stars. On his back, the "ASCE" tattoo ignited, the letters burning like a brand, the crossed-out "S" flaring a brilliant, defiant gold. Every cell in his body had become a miniature sun, a continuous chain reaction of combustion and regeneration. This was not the Mera Mera no Mi anymore. This was something new.
Something primal.
IGNITION PHASE ONE
Bullet's grin faltered, replaced by a look of genuine shock. The pressure Ace was now emitting was immense, a crushing wave of heat and gravity-like force that made the very air feel heavy—a Solar Pressure.
"What... what is this power?" Bullet growled, his confidence shaken for the first time.
Ace didn't answer. He just smiled. A calm, terrifying, and utterly joyful smile. And then he vanished.
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