Chapitre 56: Chapter 56. Shiki achieves inner peace, almost.
Both flashed towards each other in a punching manner, but right before their fists connected, Shiki kicked upwards, trying to cut Ace in two.
Because Ace was in the air, he couldn't move out of the way, so his hand reached towards the upcoming blade, his hands turned black as he caught the blade.
Shiki had started feeling his stamina run out. He had aged to the point of running out of gas after only 30 minutes of battle.
Shiki backed off, but before he could recollect himself, Ace appeared in front of him with a punch to the gut. His punch was infused with advanced conqueror's haki.
Not only did his fist turn black, the air around them got heavier and the sea started shaking as the waves got more aggressive.
Even the Demon Ace pirates felt heavy.
Shiki looked down on the fist that and connected with his gut, and he felt it, the force that had raptured all of his organs, his ribs were broken and his spine as well.
Shiki started grinning as blood burst from his mouth.
He tried to speak but he couldn't utter a single word.
Looking at Ace, he could see the resemblance between his former rival and Ace.
'I guess, dying by his son's hands... Is a good death.' The Golden Lion thought in his final moments as the light in his eyes started disappearing, he had achieved inner peace.
Ace felt slightly empty, killing one of the few people that had rivaled his father. This made him look slightly disappointed.
Shiki saw that Ace seemed disappointed, and instantly regretted his last thought.
'Does this bastard not think I was good enough?' Shikis eyes suddenly opened wide in anger.
'Dying by his hands is the worst possible outcome!!!!' Shiki angrily gave Ace a death glare as his inner peace was broken into thousand pieces, and that's how he finally went out.
Ace looked at Shiki not udnertasnning why the old goat was so angry in his last moment. But Ace was content with the fight in the end, although, Shiki was one of the weaker rivals of Gold Roger.
Only Whitebeard, Garp and Xebec had fought with Roger to the point, that they pushed eachother to almost dying.
Shiki wasn't someone that had conqueror's haki, yet he was on their calibre.
A legend of his own.
Ace plucked Shiki's two swords and flew down to the black Pearl carrying Shiki's dead body. The old goat deserved a burial.
As Ace landed on the ship, it was Jojo's eyes that widened the most seeing Shiki's dead body. Jojo was one of those that sailed the sea when Shiki was causing havoc.
"Let's..." Before Ace could say anything, a big shadow was cast over them.
Looking up, they saw a gigantic island-ship that had started flaking towards them.
"Oh heeeelll naa" Yennow accidently spoke in a dialect he didn't know he knew.
"I suddenly miss being home with mama." Spikewards uttered.
"SET SAIL!" Ace barked
He went back and started pushing the black Pearl while his lower half turned into bursting flames.
All of them worked hard to sail as fast as they could.
It took almost a minute before they heard a big, fat splash.
Looking back, that only saw that the sea had risen almost a hundred meters, and it was moving towards them as if it was a hungry beast starving for their meat.
It wasn't a simple wave, no, it was as if the sea level had risen, ready to swallow them.
"Captain, PUSH, PUSH HARDER!" Apoo cried out while shaking.
Boney looked on with her jaw dropped, and with chewed pizza was in her mouth.
Nami was crying while steering the rod.
Even Law had frozen as he looked up totnhe incoming wave.
The Black Pearl got swallowed by a 100 meter wave.
Ace looked at the wave and understood, when such a wave hits a ship, then the ship usually breaks into a thousand pieces while being swallowed deep, deep underneath the sea.
And usually all of the inhabitants of the ship dies as well. Although Demon Ace Pirates are strong and some of them might survive, but the wave will take them far beneath the breathable air, and split them far from each other, which means that the devil fruits user will most likely die.
Even if some successfully come out of the water, theyll have no ship to sail... And being lost at sea in grandline... Is a death sentence.
All of these thoughts ran thought the crews minds as they were about to be swallowed.
"EVERYONE, GET INSIDE!" Ace's voice woke them up. Those close to the door ran towards it in hopes of making it inside.
And then the sea swallowed them.
After a few minutes, the waves had travelled far away and the water had calmed down.
Beneath the surface, bubbles started surfacing, and soon, a big black ship arose from the surface.
All the Demon Ace Pirates were coughing up water and breathing hard.
Ace was looked around, making sure no one had been lost. Luckily the Black Pearl wasn't just any regular ship, and it seemed like it could take such a blow.
"YENNOW?" Ace shouted as he noticed that his yellow haired, afro styled crewmate was nowhere to be seen.
His sight turned towards the sea as he used his observation Haki to find him but....
Ace dived into the sea and swam down, he could feel... many life forms, fishes, seakings...
He used his observation to the peak of his ability, but even after 15 minutes underneath the sea, he couldn't find Yennow.
When he swam up, all his crewmates were looking down in worry, those who could, also jumped into the water and looked for him.
Half an hour later, they found no traces of him.
"It can't be right..." Spikewards spoke to himself.
The ship was silent. Ace stood at the railing and used his Haki, still trying to feel him.
The others did as well, but they started giving up.
Gaga was sobbing.
"Gaga, don't worry, I'm sure he's... Fine..." Nami tried consoling her but even she didn't sound like she believed herself.
"YENNOOOOOOW" ACE shouted, hoping the fool would hear him.
They tried to stay at their location with their ship, to the best of their abilities. But such a thing in the middle of the sea, in grandline none the less, is impossible.
By the time the sun started setting, everyone was either crying or looking down in bitterness.
Most of them had given up, it had been 4-5 hours since they got hit by the wave, yet they found no traces of Yennow.
Only Ace was still using his fully powered observation Haki. He had been at it almost 5 hours without easing up, and that's after his fight with the legendary Golden Lion Shiki.
"Captain,, it's getting dark... You should rest..." Nami didn't know how to tell him to stop.
Ace's face was hardened, and it was as if he hadn't heard Nami as all of his focus was beneath the surface.
A big hand reached for Ace's shoulder.
"The first time losing a crewmates... It's like losing a child. But this is the life of a pirate, danger is in every corner." Jojo said with a sad tone, he spoke from experience
Urouge's eyes were crying, but he still had his big smile on his lips although he was obviously weeping for his friend.
"I haven't lost a crewmate." Ace refused to accept the situation.
"Captain, if you continue like this, you'll worry your other crewmates." Jojo explained, nudging him to look backwards.
Ace looked back and found all of his crewmates with red eyes. Some crying, some looking away, some weeping.
Law looked like his face was cold as ice. It was as if he had had to become cold as to not show weakness.
Only when he saw their state of grief did Ace realised that they had been at it for a long time already and everyone was exhausted.
"... Fine... Everyone, go back to your quarters...." Ace commanded.
No one moved.
"It's an order." Ace said, only then did they start turning around.
"Aren't you coming?" Jojo asked.
"Soon."
"I'll stay with you then." Jojo said.
Ace turned back to the sea, but just as he was about to use his Haki again, he felt the exhaustion hit him.
He had been fighting and then use this fully powered observation Haki for 5 hours... He was worn out.
"Ace, you can rest now." Jojo said, this time not speaking by his title, but his name.
The others were in the resting quarters and only Jojo and Ace was left as the moon and stars had become visible, yet the sky wasn't completely dark yet, as the sun and just set.
Ace suddenly fell down to his knees.
"How did this happen." Ace cried out.
"There was nothing you could've done." Jojo said.
"Maybe if I flew up, I could've kept an eye on everyone or if I..." *SMACK*
"Captain, Yennow was lost while the ship was far beneath the surface, there was NOTHING you could've done." Jojo smacked him to not allow him to fall into these kind of thoughts.
Ace's grinded his teeth in frustration.
"For some reason, I miss Hancock right now." Ace whispered out as his shoulder fell down. He remembered how frail she had seemed when she exposed her past to him.
Right now, he felt almost as feeble as that.
For him, going through horroble things that happened to him, wasn't as bad as going through horroble things that happened to his close ones.
He would rather be in pain, than allow anyone he cares about be in pain.
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone