To be forced back by a mere child was a humiliation Bluejam could not endure. Using the momentum of his stumble, he snarled, his left hand snapping up. A short-barreled flintlock, hidden within his sleeve, pointed directly at Ace's eyes.
"Die!"
BANG!
The muzzle flared. At a distance of less than three meters, evasion was a mathematical impossibility.
Luffy, chained to the pillar, squeezed his eyes shut. "ACE—!"
But the predatory smirk on Ace's face didn't flicker.
Thump!
A strange, muffled boom echoed. Ace didn't dive left or right. Instead, he slammed his foot down against the empty air. For a fraction of a second, the atmosphere itself seemed to solidify into a marble staircase.
Rokushiki: Geppo!
Just as the lead ball cleared the barrel, Ace's body was propelled two meters into the air. The bullet whistled harmlessly beneath his boots, shattering the wooden pillar behind him.
"He... he stepped on the air?!"
Bluejam looked up, his mind fracturing. He stared at the black-haired boy hovering above him like a vengeful demon. How could a backwater gutter like the East Blue produce a monster capable of a legendary Grand Line technique?
"The warm-up is over, you ten-million-Berry piece of trash."
In mid-air, Ace twisted his body, his right leg coiling back like a heavy ballista. His muscles bulged against his red vest, straining with kinetic energy. With a sound that tore the air asunder, his leg descended like a guillotine.
Bluejam didn't even have time to scream. He threw his broad-backed machete over his head in a desperate, final block.
CRACK—!
The sound of shattering steel shrieked through the cabin. The heavy blade, which had tasted the blood of hundreds, disintegrated into shards under the sheer weight of Ace's heel.
The momentum didn't stop. Ace's heel slammed into Bluejam's shoulder with the force of a falling meteor.
RUMBLE!!
The abandoned ship groaned and shuddered. The impact drove Bluejam—bones, pride, and all—straight through the rotting deck. Wood splinters and mud erupted as the pirate captain was hammered into the earth below. He lay in the pit like a broken dog, vomiting blood before his eyes rolled back, slipping into a coma.
The remaining thirty pirates stared at the crater in paralyzed horror.
"Monsters! They're both monsters!"
One underling, pushed past the brink of sanity, shrieked as he drew a jagged knife. He lunged toward the pillar, pressing the blade against Luffy's throat. "Don't move! Come any closer and I'll open this straw-hat brat's neck!"
Ace, who had been adjusting his vest, went still. He turned his head slowly, his pitch-black eyes settling on the pirate.
There was no heat in his gaze. No panic. No desperation.
There was only a cold, terrifying indifference—the look a dragon gives an ant that has wandered too close to its claw.
"Kill him?"
A sharp, arrogant curve touched Ace's lips. "Try it. If your hand stops shaking long enough."
The moment the words left his mouth, it happened.
An invisible, crushing pressure erupted from Ace's body. It wasn't a wind, and it wasn't an explosion. It was an aura that seemed to freeze time itself. The air turned heavy, thick as lead, and a primal, soul-deep terror gripped the hearts of every pirate in the room.
"Wh... what is...?"
The pirate holding Luffy felt his mind go blank. His knees turned to water, shaking uncontrollably. With a metallic clatter, his knife slipped from his nerveless fingers.
Then came the thuds. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Twenty-odd pirates collapsed in unison. They didn't scream; they simply folded like paper, eyes rolling back and foam forming at their mouths as they were harvested like wheat.
In less than a second, the only ones left standing were Ace, Sabo, and a stunned, silent Luffy.
Haoshoku Haki—The Conqueror's Will.
There was no life-or-death tragedy to trigger it. During three years of untamed growth, Ace's ambition and kingly aura had reached a boiling point. When this low-class trash dared to threaten his brother with such petty means, the Haki simply overflowed. It was natural. It was inevitable.
"What... what just happened?" Sabo gasped, staring at the carpet of unconscious bodies. Even he had felt a momentary constriction in his chest, a weight that made his heart skip a beat.
"Nothing. Just taking out the trash."
Ace retracted the pressure, his cold expression melting back into his signature, flamboyant grin. He walked over to the pillar, his fingers brushing the cold iron of Luffy's chains.
"Sea Prism Stone. Hard as diamond. I didn't think a small-time thug like Bluejam would have something this valuable."
Ace chuckled and walked over to the pit. He unceremoniously flipped Bluejam's limp body with his boot, tore open his coat, and fished out a ring of blood-stained copper keys.
Click.
The heavy shackles fell away, clattering against the wood.
"Wow! I'm free!" Luffy bounded up, his rubber arms flailing with excitement. "Ace! That 'stare' thing! It was so cool! Teach me! Teach me!"
"Hahaha! Sorry, Luffy, you can't teach that. It's the mark of a king!"
Ace laughed, ruffling Luffy's hair and pressing the straw hat down over his eyes. Then, he turned to the shadows of the hold.
"Sabo, quit daydreaming. We've got work to do!"
Ace kicked aside a pile of debris, dragging out several heavy iron chests. With a violent crack, he pried the lids open. Dazzling, golden light flooded the dark cabin. It was the accumulated plunder of a decade—gold coins, jewels, and artifacts stolen from across the East Blue.
"Pirating from pirates?" Sabo asked, his eyes widening as he estimated the haul. There were tens of millions of Berries in that chest.
"I prefer to think of it as returning the treasure to someone who actually knows how to use it," Ace said, hoisting the heaviest chest onto his shoulder with ease. His voice was filled with a wild, intoxicating arrogance.
"The rules of the sea are simple, Sabo: The winner takes it all."
Ace looked at his brothers, his silhouette framed by the golden glow of the hoard.
"With this... we finally have the capital to build our ship. The start of the Eclipse Pirates starts today!"
Looking at Ace—standing atop the bones of his enemies and announcing his reign—Sabo couldn't help but feel his blood begin to boil. He smiled, a helpless, eager grin.
The era of the brothers had officially begun.