Chapter 357: What Do You Think of This Country
"Came for me?"
Hearing "Hanafuda's" words, Ace was stunned at first.
Subsequently, the coldness in the depths of his eyes grew even denser: "You really dare to say that. After murdering my companions, you clearly hid away all this time, and now you actually dare to come looking for me proactively?"
What he said was exactly the same as the truth known across the sea.
"Fire Fist" Portgas D. Ace and the "Lizard King" Hanafuda are mortal enemies—the reason lies in the fact that Hanafuda's fleet murdered several of Ace's companions.
Since then, Ace and the other members of the Spade Pirates had been tracking Hanafuda's whereabouts, all the way into Wano Country.
So now, after hearing Hanafuda's words, he only felt it was a provocation.
"However, these Headliners... are all ability users? The rumors are true, the Beasts recently obtained a batch of Devil Fruits?"
Even though the fighting intent in his heart was already surging, Ace didn't lose his cool—he looked at the obvious traces of fruit abilities on the several Headliners in front of him, and his brows slightly furrowed.
And while Ace was observing the Headliners, the Headliners were also observing Ace.
"It's 'Fire Fist' Portgas D. Ace?"
"Hale actually got taken out, what a piece of trash."
"I did hear that the 'Spade Pirates' went missing in the nearby sea area, to think they actually landed in Wano Country?"
"I remember there's a village called 'Amigasa Village' here, it must be the villagers who helped them, right?"
"Lord Hanafuda, we will make a move to restrict this guy's movements, please deal the fatal blow to this guy—after that, we will wipe out this village that dared to rebel against the 'Beasts'!"
As the words fell, several Headliners pounced towards Ace without hesitation.
At the same time, their bodies, except for their backs, were covered with pitch-black Armament Haki, and their respective Observation Haki locked onto every part of Ace's surroundings—as the core force of the Beasts Pirates, they had clearly mastered both types of Haki proficiently.
Seeing this scene, Ace's expression instantly turned solemn.
It wasn't that he was afraid of these few Headliners in front of him, but that he had already seen Hanafuda not far away also making a move—the other party raised the sickle-hammer in his hand, and his body also began to slowly "dinosaurize".
Seemingly just as the Headliners said, he planned to gang up on Ace together with his subordinates.
"Despicable guy as always."
While Ace muttered in his heart, the flames on his body also began to burn, having the resolve to fight to the bitter end in his heart.
"Fire Fist..."
However, before his Fire Fist could be unleashed.
He saw an unbelievable scene.
Not far ahead, Hanafuda indeed transformed into the posture of a Tyrannosaurus Rex as he guessed, and simultaneously swung the sickle-hammer in his hand. But the problem was...
"So slow."
Feeling the speed and strength of the sickle-hammer swung by Hanafuda, Ace's Observation Haki had already given him the answer—compared to the Hanafuda he knew, that sickle-hammer, whether in speed or strength, was at most less than a fifth.
But clearly, against enemies whose backs were turned and were completely defenseless, this level of attack was enough.
Squelch!
Squelch!
Continuous sounds entered Ace's ears—that was the sound of sharp blades slicing through bodies.
But what was severed was not Ace's body, but the Headliners who were originally attacking towards him.
Those Headliners didn't even have time to react before their figures were bisected by the sickle part of Hanafuda's weapon.
The characteristics of Zoan ability users on their bodies quickly dissipated, and when they landed, only corpses full of confusion remained.
Ace: "?"
He looked at Hanafuda in astonishment, somewhat not understanding what this situation was—could it be that Hanafuda was so principled that he wanted to fight him one-on-one?
But even if it's one-on-one, there's no need to kill all his own companions, right?
Before Ace could open his mouth to ask.
Hanafuda's figure had already leaped down and stepped in front of him.
As he stepped forward, his figure also began to change continuously—from the originally unusually tall and robust brute image, he quickly became relatively well-proportioned.
On his face, the original helmet also turned into a Dog Head mask.
"Allow me to introduce myself, I am 'Dog' of The Zodiac."
He looked at Ace and said seriously: "Although I know the situation is somewhat sudden, but... we have some things we want to discuss with you."
One hour later, Amigasa Village.
"Are you saying Hanafuda was already killed by you guys a long time ago? The Hanafuda who has been residing in 'Wano Country' all this time is a clone created by your ability?"
In the village where the evacuation was being organized not long ago, the villagers were still in shock.
Inside the room, Ace lost his composure, a rare sight.
His face was flushed red, and his expression was very complex.
His mood was of course very complex—just as mentioned before, he had been tracking down Hanafuda to kill him for quite some time.
He had decisively chosen to cross Whitebeard's sea area after entering the New World, and for this, he didn't know how many times he and his companions had narrowly escaped death. But now, the person in front of him told him that the person he had been tracking all the way was not Hanafuda at all.
Isn't this a joke?
But unfortunately, Ace couldn't blame the Dog in front of him.
After all, when all is said and done, Hanafuda essentially died at the hands of The Zodiac, which can be considered avenging his great enmity.
And ultimately, The Zodiac had no obligation to inform him of Hanafuda's death in the first place.
Just when Ace was speechless.
Beside Ace, the Vice Captain and ship doctor of the Spade Pirates, and simultaneously his earliest companion, Deuce, frowned and said: "We roughly understand the matter of Hanafuda, but I'm a bit curious... how did your esteemed side know we were in Wano Country?"
His position in the Spade Pirates was somewhat similar to Benn Beckman of the Red Hair Pirates; he was the brains of the team.
So right now, he was instead calmer than Ace and asked this question.
"Your younger brother rescued the 'Knight of the Sea' Jinbe in an incident not long ago, and as a result, his fruit awakened."
Dog's expression remained unchanged: "Our organization was responsible for helping him resolve the side effects of his fruit awakening losing control, and coincidentally learned that you had entered Wano Country."
Ace stood up abruptly with a swoosh, his expression full of shock.
"Younger brother? You mean Luffy—his fruit awakened? Wait, why would he go out to sea? There should clearly still be two years!"
At this time, Ace's head was full of countless question marks.
Since they started pursuing Hanafuda and entered Wano Country, they had not been very clear about the situation of the outside world—after all, Wano Country was an isolated place, even the News Coos of the World Economy News Paper would not come here.
However, even aside from the issue of losing contact with the outside world, what Dog said now made Ace feel it was unbelievable.
What the hell is fruit awakening? How old is that kid Luffy?
Compared to Ace, who had completely lost his composure at this moment, Deuce beside him noticed another crucial point: "You said Ace's younger brother rescued Jinbe?"
His understanding of Luffy only stopped at the stories Ace told him, but for Jinbe, it was different.
Just as mentioned before—Jinbe had been a great help in their ability to secretly smuggle into Wano Country this time.
"That's right."
Dog had no intention of hiding it either, immediately briefly explaining the news of Jinbe being caught by the major villain "Black Judge" in the Sabaody Archipelago earlier, and the situation of Luffy and Rayleigh subsequently going to rescue him.
The more he listened, the more solemn the expression on Ace's face became.
From Dog's words, he could tell—the Luffy and Jinbe the other party described were almost exactly the same as his cognition.
"Attacking a World Government warship under the great elevator—that's way too reckless, but if it's Luffy... it's indeed something he would do."
Muttering in his mouth, Ace didn't have time to care about other things either, instead looking at Dog with a serious face: "You said just now, your organization is responsible for helping Luffy resolve the side effects of his fruit awakening losing control—how... how is the situation now?"
Speaking of this, even Ace couldn't help but be somewhat nervous.
As a pirate who had already sailed into the New World sea area, he naturally also knew the concept of fruit awakening, and even heard of the terrifying side effects after a fruit awakening failure.
So, he couldn't help but worry about his younger brother.
Dog smiled slightly and told Ace about Luffy's current situation.
Hearing that Luffy's condition had stabilized, and he even successfully preliminarily mastered the power of fruit awakening, Ace finally sighed in relief.
Subsequently, he stood up and very politely bowed deeply to Dog: "Thank your esteemed side for saving my younger brother."
"There is no need to thank me—the favors of Red-Haired Shanks and Dark King Rayleigh are also considered sufficient bargaining chips for us. Furthermore... I came looking for you this time, also because I have matters I need your esteemed side's help with."
Dog straightforwardly stated the purpose of this trip.
Yes.
The biggest reason he didn't hesitate to expose Hanafuda's identity to appear here, and also told Ace the news about Luffy, was to gain the trust of this Supernova, in order to implement the next plan.
"'Red-Haired' and 'Dark King'..."
Hearing these two names from Dog's mouth, Ace's expression appeared somewhat subtle.
He knew Shanks—after all, Luffy's fruit came from him, so his helping Luffy was not considered surprising.
But how did Luffy get involved with "Dark King" Rayleigh?
However, although he had many doubts in his heart, Ace didn't ask anything more.
He looked at Dog and said very sincerely: "If you have any matters, feel free to speak—as long as it's something I can help with, I will try my best to help you."
Ace's expression was very determined.
The other party saved his younger brother, and also helped him kill his mortal enemy Hanafuda.
With his personality, as long as the request proposed by the other party didn't violate his bottom line, he would definitely repay them.
Hearing this, Dog didn't speak immediately.
His gaze looked at Ace.
In fact, coming here to find Ace, he had a total of two things to do.
The first of which, was already completed.
[Discovered Fruit Consumer "Portgas D. Ace"]
[Confirmed Devil Fruit as "Logia; Flame-Flame Fruit", its essence is "Wish; Cognition; Flame", currently parsing and storing to "Fruit Encyclopedia"]
[Fruit Ability - Can turn oneself into flames, and manipulate all flames]
[Effects of Each Level]
[LV3: Obtain all fruit effects, can combust oneself and turn into flames, oneself can ignore "freezing" environments]
[LV4: Deep development of the fruit, the temperature of the flames is higher, can shape the flames, and can stimulate various thermal energy attacks through the heat energy of flame combustion]
[LV5: Fruit Awakening; Flame Manipulation, fruit awakening, oneself becomes the incarnation of flames, can manipulate all "flames" in the outside world and maintain their existence, even encountering fierce wind and rain will not extinguish them]
Flame-Flame Fruit—the last time he encountered Ace, due to the distance being too far, he didn't parse this fruit.
So up to this moment, he successfully parsed this fruit.
Of course, looking solely from the aspects of destructive power and combat strength enhancement, this Logia fruit actually didn't hold much significance for Roy, who had now mastered the Source Energy of Lineage Factor and could even create fruits.
But coincidentally, for Roy's plan in Wano Country this time.
The power of this fruit actually had an extremely "special" effect.
And now, what Dog was going to tell Ace was the second thing he came here for.
"Mr. Ace, now that Hanafuda is dead, your goal for coming to this country is completed—are you planning to leave here directly now?"
He asked like this, his gaze still looking at Ace.
Such an inquiry instead made Ace stunned.
He instinctively glanced to his side.
Through the window, he could see the villagers distributing food outside.
Although the food they distributed could hardly be called "provisions" in a normal country.
But Ace, who had already stayed in Amigasa Village for a long time, knew—to the commoners of this country, this was already something worth rejoicing over.
But exactly because of this, so...
"What do you think of this country?"
Without waiting for Ace's answer, Dog continued to ask the second question.
"It's terrible."
And this time, Ace gave this answer without any hesitation.
This country is terrible.
So...
"I will not leave."
He calmly gave his answer: "I want to change this place..."
Perhaps when he first came here from the very beginning, it was only for Hanafuda.
But now, what he sought was long no longer just Hanafuda's head.
"I want to make this place a country where my friends can eat their fill."
Coincidentally.
His answer at this moment was actually almost identical to his younger brother's words in the original work.
This answer made a brisk smile appear on Dog's face.
"That's exactly it."
"In our organization, I have a colleague who is also a person like you—and the first thing I came here for is to issue an invitation to you on his behalf..."
"Cooperate with us, defeat Kaido, and then... change everything in this country!"
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