The morning sun filtered through the porthole of the Going Merry's infirmary, casting a warm glow over the sterile white room.
Chopper stood on a small stool next to the medical bed, holding a X-ray and a clipboard. He pushed his pink hat up, his jaw practically hitting the floorboards as he reviewed the data.
Chopper mutters, his hooves flying across the paper as he furiously jotted down notes. "The internal hemorrhaging has completely clotted. The hairline fractures in your ribs have fused with a density fifty percent higher than baseline human bone. Your cellular regeneration rate is operating at a level that defies biological thermodynamics!"
Sitting on the edge of the bed, his torso wrapped in fresh white bandages, Ace offered a sheepish, lopsided grin. Despite the horrific beating he had taken less than forty-eight hours ago, the color had returned to his face, and the dark, terrifying bruises were already fading to a dull yellow.
"So..." Ace scratched the back of his head. "Does that mean I can eat?"
"Eat?" Chopper blinked, pulling his stethoscope from his ears. He looked at the hulking, muscular commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. "Well... technically, your body is burning through calories at an astronomical rate to fuel this hyper-regeneration. So... yes. You need to eat. A lot."
"ALRIGHT!" Luffy's voice shattered the quiet of the room. He had been vibrating near the door for the last twenty minutes. "SANJI! MEAT! ACE IS CLEARED FOR MEAT!"
---
The expanded kitchen of the Going Merry was a marvel of spatial magic, easily accommodating the entire crew at the massive oak dining table.
Sanji, a whirlwind of motion in his apron, was flipping pans, carving roasts, and tossing ingredients with the precision of a master artist.
"Incoming!" Sanji shouted, kicking a massive platter of roasted sea king meat, surrounded by steaming vegetables and mountains of rice, perfectly onto the center of the table. "Eat up, you animals!"
What followed was a spectacle of absolute gluttony.
Luffy and Ace sat side by side, their arms turning into blurs as they inhaled food. They didn't chew; they simply shoveled entire turkeys, ribs, and loaves of bread into their mouths.
"Mmmph! Sho good!" Ace mumbled around a bone.
Suddenly, Ace froze mid-bite. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he face-planted directly into a bowl of mashed potatoes.
Zzzzzzz.
"AHHH! HE DIED!" Chopper screamed, dropping his fork.
"He's just asleep, Doctor," Robin smiled serenely, sipping her tea.
A bubble of snot expanded from Ace's nose, then popped. He jerked awake, lifting his face from the potatoes, and instantly resumed chewing as if nothing had happened. "—and then I said, pass the salt!"
The crew watched the brothers with a mixture of awe and disgust.
Mini Merry, sitting in her high chair next to Ben, poked at her own plate of pancakes. "Papa, are their stomachs infinite? Because my internal sensors cannot locate where the mass is going."
"It's a family mystery, Merry," Ben chuckled, cutting a piece of steak. "Some things defy even magic."
Once the mountains of food were reduced to clean white porcelain and polished bones, the atmosphere in the kitchen shifted. The chaotic energy settled into a focused, serious quiet.
Ben leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "Alright, Ace. You're healed. You're fed. Now... tell us what happened."
Ace paused. He wiped his mouth with a napkin, the easygoing smile fading from his face. The shadow of the previous day fell over his eyes.
"It was Teach," Ace began, his voice low and hard. "Blackbeard."
The crew leaned in. Zoro stopped drinking his ale. Sanji lit a fresh cigarette, his eyes narrowing.
Ace recounted the harrowing duel. He explained how he tracked Teach to the island, fully intending to bring the traitor to justice for murdering Thatch. But Teach wasn't the same man who had hid in Whitebeard's shadow.
"He found the fruit he'd been looking for his whole life," Ace said, looking at his bandaged fists. "The Yami Yami no Mi. The Dark-Dark Fruit."
"Darkness?" Nami frowned. "Like... shadows?"
"No. Like gravity," Ace corrected. "It creates a black hole that pulls everything in and crushes it. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is what happens when he touches you."
Ace looked at Luffy. "If he grabs you, Luffy... your rubber stops working. You become a normal human. It nullifies Devil Fruit powers completely upon physical contact."
Luffy's eyes widened in genuine shock. "It turns it off?!"
"Completely," Ace nodded. "He pulled me in with gravity and turned off my fire. I couldn't turn intangible. I couldn't launch flames. For the first time in years, I had to fight completely bare-handed against a monster."
Ace looked at Ben.
"If it wasn't for the Serum you gave me, Ben... I would have died in the first five minutes," Ace admitted, his voice thick with gratitude. "Teach hits like a falling mountain. Because of the serum, my bones didn't shatter. I fought him for twelve hours straight. A pure brawl."
"Twelve hours..." Zoro muttered, impressed.
"As he is a logia I could'nt hit him," Ace explained. "I couldn't break his guard... until I was able to use armament haki."
Ace clenched his fist. A faint, metallic black sheen washed over his knuckles.
"Armament Haki," Ace grinned fiercely. "In desperation, I finally awakened it. I coated my fist, bypassed his darkness, and caved his ribs in."
"Hell yeah!" Luffy cheered.
"But I got careless," Ace's grin vanished. "I thought I had him. While I was preparing a final attack, his sniper shot me from a mile away with a Seastone bullet. It grazed my knee. That split second of weakness was all they needed. Another ambushed me from behind with a ten-ton slab of stone. They knocked me out."
The crew winced at the sheer brutality of the ambush.
"When I woke up," Ace sighed, "I was chained to a raft with Marine-grade Seastone cuffs. Teach told me his plan. He was going to hand me over to the World Government in exchange for a seat on the Seven Warlords of the Sea."
Robin gasped softly. "If they captured you... they would execute you publicly."
"And Pops would go to war to save me," Ace finished, his fists trembling. "He would tear the world apart, and thousands of my brothers would die. I couldn't let my stubbornness kill my family."
Ace reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, simple metal locket Ben had given him.
"So I swallowed my pride," Ace said. He looked directly at Ben, bowing his head deeply. "I used the Portkey. I ran away. Ben... thank you. You didn't just save my life. You saved the Whitebeard Pirates."
Ben simply nodded, his expression calm. "I told you, Ace. It was an emergency escape hatch. You made the right call. The smartest warrior knows when to retreat so he can fight another day."
Ace sat back up, securing the locket around his neck.
"So," Ben asked, taking a sip of his tea. "What are you going to do next?"
Ace's eyes burned with an unyielding fire. "I'm going after him again. I can't go back to the Moby Dick. I can't show my face to Pops and the crew without Blackbeard in chains. It's my responsibility as a Commander."
"No," Ben said flatly.
Ace blinked. "Excuse me?"
"I said no," Ben repeated, leaning back in his chair. "You aren't going after him alone again. Think about it, Ace. Teach didn't know you were coming to Banaro Island. You surprised him."
Ben pointed a finger at Luffy. "Teach told you his original plan, right? Who was he trying to capture to become a Warlord?"
Ace froze. He looked at Luffy. The memory of Teach's words rushed back. 'I was originally going to hunt down that rookie, Monkey D. Luffy...'
"Luffy..." Ace whispered, horror dawning on his face.
"Exactly," Ben nodded. "Teach wants a high-bounty target. With you gone, his Warlord plan is ruined. What do you think his backup plan is? He's going to revert to his original target. He's coming for your brother."
Ace's protective instincts flared instantly. The air around him shimmered with heat. "I won't let him near Luffy."
"Good," Ben smiled. "Then sail with us. You need time to master your Armament Haki. You need time to understand his abilities. And if Teach wants Luffy, he'll have to come to us. And when he does... he won't be facing one Commander. He'll be facing the Straw Hat Pirates."
Luffy grinned his wide, infectious smile. "Come with us, Ace! It'll be just like when we were kids! We can hunt giant bugs and beat up bad guys!"
Ace looked at his little brother. He looked at the crew that had, by all accounts, just declared war on the World Government and survived. They weren't a normal crew. They were monsters in their own right.
Ace let out a long breath, a genuine smile breaking across his face.
"Alright," Ace nodded. "I'll tag along. I'll stay with you guys until I catch Blackbeard. But don't think I'm gonna go easy on your food supply!"
"NOOO!" Sanji wept openly. "Two bottomless pits! My grocery budget!"
"Welcome aboard, Big Brother Ace!" Mini Merry cheered, clapping her hands.
---
With the heavy conversation out of the way, Ben declared a day of rest and relaxation. The crew had earned it.
The Straw Hats, joined by their new temporary passenger, dispersed into the beautiful City of Water.
The day was a montage of joyous chaos.
In the high-end shopping district, Nami was living her best life. Flanked by Vivi and Robin, she walked into luxury boutiques with a briefcase full of cash. Nami bought enough designer clothes, shoes, and jewelry to fill a small house. Robin bought towering stacks of rare historical texts, smiling as the shopkeepers eagerly boxed them up. Vivi bought a beautiful new saddle and armor polish for Caroo.
In the canal streets, Zoro had actually tried to be smart. To avoid getting lost, he rented a Yagara Bull taxi to take him to a sword shop.
"Go that way," Zoro pointed firmly to the right. The Yagara Bull happily swam right. Five minutes later, Zoro randomly pointed left. "No, wait. It's this way. No, up." He kept giving conflicting, geographically impossible directions.
Eventually, the poor Yagara Bull became so confused and terrified by Zoro's demonic aura of directional incompetence that it burst into tears, swam directly onto the pavement, and played dead.
"Useless fish," Zoro grunted, stepping off the 'corpse' and walking blindly forward... straight into the back kitchen of a bakery.
Sanji was in culinary heaven. He toured the massive seafood markets, haggling with fishmongers over the price of massive Blue-Finned Elephant Tuna and buying exotic spices from the South Blue.
Chopper and Mini Merry were having a blast in the lower city. Chopper bought her five different flavors of cotton candy, and the two of them rode a Yagara Bull through the canals, laughing as the water splashed them.
Ben spent his time at the shipyard working on the integration of the Arc Reactor into the new ship's keel.
And then there were Luffy and Ace.
The two brothers were a menace. They bounded through the city, challenging local strongmen to arm-wrestling contests (which they won in seconds), buying every stick of Water Meat they could find, and leaving a trail of empty skewers behind them. At one point, they were both eating so fast at a local diner that they simultaneously fell asleep mid-chew, heads dropping onto their plates, much to the terror of the restaurant owner. Ten seconds later, they woke up and asked for seconds.
For one perfect day, they weren't the targets of the World Government. They were just pirates on vacation.
---
As evening approached, the crew converged on the massive, cavernous cafeteria of the Galley-La Company headquarters. Iceburg had graciously allowed Sanji to commandeer the massive kitchen.
The smell of roasted sea king, garlic butter shrimp, and spicy curry filled the air. The crew sat at a massive long table, laughing and sharing stories of their day. In the background, behind a massive glass partition, Franky and Iceburg could be seen screaming at each other while furiously drafting the final blueprints of the Dream Ship.
"More meat!" Luffy yelled, slamming his plate down.
"Coming right up, Captain!" Sanji spun a platter of steaks onto the table.
Suddenly, the heavy wooden doors of the cafeteria burst open.
"STRAW HATS!"
Zambai and the Franky Family poured into the room, their faces flushed with excitement, waving massive stacks of newspapers.
"You guys!" Zambai screamed, tears of sheer awe in his eyes. "You guys are absolute legends! The whole city is talking about it! The whole WORLD is talking about it!"
"Talking about what?" Nami asked, pausing her wine.
"The newspapers just dropped the special evening edition!" Zambai slammed a stack of Wanted Posters onto the table. "The bounties! They've been updated after Enies Lobby!"
The entire crew froze. Forks dropped.
"Updated?" Usopp gulped, his knees already starting to shake.
"Let's see 'em!" Ace laughed, leaning over Luffy's shoulder. "Let's see how much trouble my little brother caused!"
Zambai dramatically flipped the first poster over.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Monkey D. Luffy$$$$500,000,000 Berries$$
The picture was epic. It showed Luffy mid-air, his fist coated in black Armament Haki, his eyes burning with the fury of a King, captured perfectly during his final clash with Rob Lucci.
"FIVE HUNDRED MILLION?!" The entire Franky Family screamed.
"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed, completely unfazed. "Cool! I went up!"
Zambai flipped the next posters rapidly.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Roronoa Zoro$$$$290,000,000 Berries$$
Zoro smirked, taking a sip of his ale. "Not bad for cutting a giraffe."
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Black Leg Sanji$$$$280,000,000 Berries$$
"WHAT?!" Sanji roared, his leg bursting into flames. He grabbed Zoro by the collar. "WHY ARE YOU TEN MILLION HIGHER THAN ME, YOU STUPID MARIMO?!"
"Because I'm better than you, dartboard-brow," Zoro grinned mockingly. "Read the numbers. Math doesn't lie."
Zambai kept flipping.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Nico Robin$$$$190,000,000 Berries$$
Robin smiled softly. "It seems my value to the government has increased."
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Ariel The Eagle$$$$160,000,000 Berries$$
Vivi stared at her poster. It showed her with red hair with a slightly different face, her majestic eagle wings spread wide behind her. Ben had brilliantly disguised her identity, ensuring Alabasta remained safe. "Ariel... I sound like a superhero!"
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Cat Burglar Nami$$$$150,000,000 Berries$$
"ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY?!" Nami shrieked, her eyes rolling back. "I'M A TARGET! ASSASSINS ARE GOING TO COME FOR ME IN MY SLEEP! I JUST WANT TO DRAW MAPS!"
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Dory the Blue Ogre$$$$350,000,000 Berries$$
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Brogy the Red Ogre$$$$350,000,000 Berries$$
"Gebababa! A proper bounty for warriors!" Dory laughed.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Oimo$$$$200,000,000 Berries$$
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Kashii$$$$200,000,000 Berries$$
"We made the big leagues!" Oimo cheered from the back of the room.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Iron Duck Caroo (Pet)$$$$100 Berries$$
Caroo looked at his poster. His bounty had doubled from 50 to 100. He puffed out his chest, quacking proudly. He was moving up in the world.
Zambai flipped the next poster.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Cotton Candy Lover Chopper (Pet)$$$$80 Berries$$
Chopper froze. He dropped his spoon.
"EIGHTY BELLI?!" Chopper shrieked, tears springing to his eyes. "I BEAT A CP9 AGENT! I FOUGHT LIKE A MONSTER! WHY AM I ONLY EIGHTY BELLI?!"
Caroo strutted over to the devastated reindeer. The duck was wearing his pilot sunglasses and a tiny, makeshift paper crown he had folded from a napkin. He patted Chopper on the head condescendingly.
"Quack. Quack quack," Caroo stated smoothly.
Chopper's eyes widened. He translated through heavy sobs. "He says... he says 'Don't feel bad, little guy. We can't all be triple-digit threats.' WAAAAAH! HE'S PULLING RANK ON ME OVER 20 BELLI!"
Zoro sighed, taking a sip of his ale. "You're both emergency food. Sit down."
$$Cutaway: Marine Headquarters, Marineford$$
A few hours earlier...
In the dark, cluttered office of the Marine Bounty Assignment Division, Commodore Brannew was sweating profusely. He was reviewing the photographs submitted by the surviving agents of Enies Lobby.
He held up a terrifying, blurry photograph. It showed a massive, twenty-foot-tall, fur-covered demon with glowing blue eyes, crushing a CP9 agent into the ground with a single, monstrous palm strike.
"This... this beast..." Brannew trembled. "The Straw Hats have a literal demon on their crew! We need to assign it a bounty of at least 300 Million!"
He picked up his stamp to finalize the bounty.
Suddenly, the door to the office slammed open. A young, starry-eyed Marine Ensign burst in.
"Commodore Brannew! Wait!" The Ensign held up another photograph. "Look at this one!"
Brannew took the photo. It was a picture taken from a distance during the Straw Hats' initial arrival at Water 7. It showed Chopper in his tiny Brain Point form, wearing his pink hat, happily eating a massive stick of blue cotton candy with wide, adorable eyes.
Brannew stared at the photo. His hard, grizzled Marine exterior cracked. His lip quivered.
"He's... he's so fluffy," Brannew whispered, clutching his chest. "Look at his little hooves! He's eating the cotton candy with such joy!"
"Right?!" The Ensign gushed. "He's just the crew's pet! A mascot!"
Brannew looked back at the photo of the terrifying Monster Point demon. He looked at the cute cotton candy photo.
"I cannot release this demon photo to the public," Brannew declared passionately, slamming his fist on the desk. "It would terrify the citizens! And worse... it would ruin this poor, innocent creature's image! Look at him! He doesn't want to hurt anyone! He just wants sweets!"
Brannew grabbed the Monster Point photo and fed it directly into the paper shredder.
"Ensign!" Brannew ordered. "Print the cotton candy picture! List him as a pet! Give him a bounty of 80 Belli! We must protect the mascot's innocence!"
"Yes, sir!" The Ensign saluted, weeping tears of joy.
$$Return to Galley-La Cafeteria$$
"It's okay, Chopper," Robin patted the devastated reindeer's head. "Eighty Belli is very respectable for a doctor."
"It's not about respect, it's about the money!" Chopper wailed.
Zambai coughed, drawing attention back to the table. "There are three more."
He flipped the next one.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Cyborg Franky$$$$44,000,000 Berries$$
Franky, who had walked out of the glass office to see the commotion, stared at the poster.
"FORTY-FOUR?!" Franky screamed, ripping his sunglasses off. "I BREATHED FIRE! I PUNCHED A GUY THROUGH A WALL! WHY AM I SO LOW?! THIS IS NOT SUPER AT ALL!"
"It's your first bounty, bro," Zambai tried to comfort him. "It's a good start!"
"Now," Zambai gulped. "For the big ones."
He flipped the second to last poster.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$Edgar D. Benjamin (The Magician)$$$$100,000,000 Berries$$
Ben raised an eyebrow. The picture was an incredibly crisp, high-definition shot of him adjusting his glasses, wearing his tailored black suit on the Bridge of Hesitation.
"One hundred million," Ben nodded slowly. "Respectable. They clearly recognize my tactical value."
Suddenly, a loud, panicked, high-pitched screech tore through the cafeteria.
"ONE HUNDRED MILLION?!"
Usopp slammed his hands on the table, pointing a violently trembling finger at Ben's poster. His face was pale, his eyes completely bloodshot.
"WHY IS YOURS SO LOW?!" Usopp shrieked.
Zambai slowly, hesitantly, flipped the final poster over.
It was a masterpiece of photography. Usopp, standing tall, his falcon wings spread majestically behind him, one hand adjusting his cool black shades, the other holding his transforming bow. He looked like an apex predator. A god of war.
$$DEAD OR ALIVE$$$$God Usopp$$$$450,000,000 Berries$$
The cafeteria was dead silent.
Four hundred and fifty million berries. It was the second-highest bounty on the crew, completely eclipsing Zoro, Sanji, and the Giants.
Usopp stared at the poster. His soul left his body. It floated out of his mouth in the shape of a tiny, screaming ghost.
"Four... hundred... and fifty..." Usopp wheezed. His legs gave out. He collapsed onto the floor, curling into the fetal position. "I'm a dead man. Admirals are going to hunt me. Warlords are going to hunt me. I'm going to be assassinated in the bathroom."
He shot up, pointing an accusing finger at Ben.
"BEN!" Usopp cried. "YOU LIFTED A SHIP WITH YOUR MIND! YOU TELEPORTED! YOU SUMMONED A MAGIC SHIELD! HOW ARE YOU ONLY 100 MILLION AND I AM 450?!"
Ben took a calm sip of his coffee, looking down at the hysterical sniper.
"It's simple optics, Usopp," Ben explained logically. "During the raid, I stayed in the back. I teleported. I cast a few shields, which they couldn't explain. To the Marines, I looked like a support character. A medic with some weird tricks. 100 million is exactly right for a dangerous strategist."
Ben set his cup down and smiled a terrifying smile.
"But you, Usopp?" Ben chuckled. "You stood on the figurehead of the ship and publicly shot down the flag of the World Government, declaring war on 170 nations. You were calling yourself 'God Usopp'. You defeated a CP9 agent without taking a scratch."
Ben leaned forward. "And let's not forget your final flex."
Usopp turned white. "My... flex?"
"When the Marines opened fire on the plaza," Ben recounted, "You stepped in front of the entire crew, pulled out high-tech bow, and deployed a massive, glowing blue shield dome that effortlessly absorbed thousands of rounds of ammunition and cannon fire. You stood there, untouchable, while an entire army failed to scratch you."
Ben patted Usopp on the shoulder. "To the World Government... you aren't a sniper. You are a walking weapon of mass destruction. You are the vanguard of the Straw Hat Pirates. You earned that 450 million."
Usopp looked at Ben. He looked at the poster.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Usopp threw his head back and wailed, rivers of tears streaming down his face. "I WAS JUST TRYING TO LOOK COOL FOR THE PICTURE! I DON'T WANT TO BE A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION! I HAVE I-CAN'T-FIGHT-ADMIRALS DISEASE!"
The entire crew looked down at him. Even Zoro couldn't bring himself to mock the man. They just looked at him with heartfelt pity.
"There, there, God Usopp," Robin smiled, patting his trembling shoulder. "At least your poster is very flattering."
"It's a really good picture!" Luffy laughed.
---
While the Straw Hats celebrated and mourned their new bounties in the safety of Galley-La, the atmosphere at the Blue Station docks was entirely different.
The harbor workers paused their loading, staring out at the sea.
Emerging from the evening fog, cutting through the water with terrifying speed, was a massive Marine Battleship. It was easily three times the size of a standard cruiser.
But it was the figurehead that made the dockworkers tremble.
It was a massive, intricately carved dog holding a bone in its mouth.
The ship docked with a heavy, authoritative thud. The ramp lowered.
Standing at the top of the ramp, eating a bag of rice crackers and wearing a dog-head mask pushed up on his forehead, was a man whose presence commanded the very sea itself.
Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp stretched his massive arms, a wide, terrifying grin spreading across his scarred face.
"Bwa ha ha ha!" Garp laughed, his voice booming across the silent docks. "I hear my idiot grandson has been causing a ruckus in this city! Let's go say hello and break a few walls!"