12. Ace’s new ultimate move! The War ends!
│3rd Person POV│
[Marineford, War of the Best…]
Once he got his bearing in control, Blackbeard came to the back of the ship to take a look at his former Captain.
"Zehahaha…!! I didn't get what I came here for, Pops! However, I will certainly get it in the future! We will meet again, Pops! Zehahahaha…!!"
While Blackbeard was laughing after delivering his final words, a huge flaming ball suddenly appeared in the air above the Battleship his crew was on.
Looking up, he saw that the ball of flames was even bigger than the size of their Marine Battleship.
Just then, Ace's voice reached Blackbeard's ears, "If you survive this, consider yourself lucky!
"DAI ENKAI: SPIRIT BOMB!"
With a loud roar, Ace pushed the gigantic sphere of flames towards the Marine Battleship.
Bubble—!
Pop—!
Sizzle—!
Shuuu—!
As the flaming death ball neared the Marine Battleship, the temperature of seawater near the ship rapidly increased.
Steam began to rise up in the air in huge quantities.
With sweat pouring down his forehead, Blackbeard raised his hands high above and once again utilized the power of his Dark Dark Fruit!
"Dark Star!!"
Once again, darkness gushed out of his hands and took the shape of a ball.
This time though, the ball was significantly larger than when Blackbeard used the same move to stall Whitebeard's attack.
The previous time, Blackbeard just needed to buy some seconds of time so that Augur could get them out of the island.
Right now, however, Blackbeard wanted to defend the Marine Battleship, as this was the only ship he had under his command at the moment.
A few moments later, Ace's gigantic ball of flames collided with Blackbeard's ball of darkness.
The next second, a massive explosion occurred that resulted in Ace getting thrown even higher in the air.
Ace took a few seconds to stabilize his body by releasing short bursts of flames from his palms and feet.
Then, he looked down and saw a huge gaping hole in the sea in the position where the Marine Battleship had been moments ago.
Apart from some pieces of burning wood floating here and there, the Marine Battleship was nowhere to be seen.
He turned back and utilizing the power of Flare Flare Fruit, he returned back to the island of Marineford.
Once he landed next to Whitebeard, he noticed that Whitebeard was watching the sea hole getting plugged with surrounding sea waters with a frowning expression.
"They escaped, didn't they?" Ace asked in a small voice.
Whitebeard's expression eased up hearing Ace's question and he tore his gaze away from the sea.
Looking at Ace, he answered, "They did. Just before the explosion engulfed the Marine Battleship, that sniper brat used his Devil Fruit powers and disappeared along with everyone."
Nodding his head, Ace responded, "Next time, he won't get away! Teach will definitely pay for what he did to Thatch."
"You won't be going after him on your own again! And that's my order!" Whitebeard said in an authoritative voice.
Ace looked at Whitebeard with a smile and replied, "Yes, Pops!"
"Good! Now, let's go! It's time for you to return home!"
Saying that Whitebeard turned around and started walking toward the still-frozen bay of Marineford Island.
While walking back, Whitebeard ordered loudly, "All right, you bastards!! We have achieved our purpose for coming here!
"There's no need for us to linger here any longer! Take our injured and unconscious allies and go back to your ships. Set course to the New World! We are going back home!"
"UWOOOHHH!"
Hearing his orders, most of the pirates cheered loudly.
However, although some pirates were curious about why their boss wasn't taking this chance to destroy the marines completely, they chose to bury their curiosity and dutifully followed their boss' orders.
Meanwhile, Sengoku and the other marines only watched as the pirates ignored them and started picking up their downed allies before proceeding towards their ships.
None of them, not even the Admirals, moved to stop them.
Although Akainu was boiling mad within, he restrained himself. He saw what Whitebeard's last attack did to the island.
If Whitebeard let loose another punch using his Tremor Tremor Fruit's power, the island of Marineford would sink.
Even Akainu didn't want to see such an outcome.
While the crew members of the Whitebeard Pirates were boarding the three ships that were still intact in the frozen bay, Ace could be seen standing beside the hole made in the icy layer by Jinbe.
Once all the Whitebeard Pirates finished boarding, Ace submerged his palms in the water and started releasing flames in massive quantities.
The temperature of water under the frozen bay rapidly increased and the ice started to melt.
After a few minutes, Ace felt that the ice under him was about to completely melt, so he took his hands out of the water and jumped towards the Moby Dick with flames bursting out of his feet.
As Ace landed on the deck, he saw that Whitebeard was sitting on his throne with the Division Commanders standing around him.
Law, Bonney, Jinbe, Ivankov, Bon Clay, Kuma's real but unconscious body, and Luffy were also present along with them, with Marco taking care of Luffy's injuries with his healing flames.
Surveying the situation of all the pirates, Ace found out that the other escaped prisoners of Impel Down had taken two of the Marine Battleships to depart from there.
Buggy, his admirers, and Mr. 3 were in one battleship along with Crocodile and Daz Bonez. While the people from New Kama Land were in the other battleship.
The ships of the Supernovas were also ready to depart.
Suddenly, Ace heard Whitebeard say, "Jozu, there's no need for the trump card!"
"Right!' Jozu understood the assignment and went into the Captain's cabin.
A few moments later, another ship with a figurehead resembling a whale's head emerged from within the water.
Seeing this scene, Sengoku exclaimed in shock, "He had another coated ship hiding under the water all this time!!!"
Looking at his shocked face, Whitebeard let out a small smirk and ordered, "Gurarara!! Set sail!"
Receiving the order, every ship currently under the commands of the pirates that fought against the Marines started sailing away from the island of Marineford.
While watching Marineford getting smaller and smaller, Ace suddenly questioned from beside, "How does it feel without your illness affecting you, Pops?"
"Gurarara!! Better than ever!" Whitebeard responded while laughing.
"Ivankov may have a method to cure your illness!" Said Ace.
His words grabbed the attention of every Division Commander. All of them looked at Ace in shock and disbelief.
After all, they had witnessed as the finest doctors in their crew tried to find a cure for Whitebeard's illness for years only to fail.
Even Marco's Phoenix powers were useless.
After watching a young Whitebeard laying waste to the Admirals, they were very happy and thrilled.
However, they knew that this was temporary. Whitebeard would eventually revert to his old self and he would once again be tormented by his incurable illness.
Ace's words rekindled the hope they had long since abandoned.
For a few moments, Whitebeard just looked at nothing without saying a word.
Seeing this, Ace continued speaking, "If Bonney didn't turn you younger, you were planning to die in this war, right?"
His words once again shocked the hell out of the Division Commanders.
Most of them had been adopted by Whitebeard as his sons for close to two decades now. And they were this close to losing their father.
Whitebeard finally turned to look at Ace with narrowed eyes, "I haven't yet punished you for leaving the crew and going after Teach alone against my order, brat!"
Ace chuckled lightly while scratching the back of his head.
Just then, Whitebeard suddenly raised his head and looked in a certain direction.
Upon noticing this, everyone followed suit and looked in the same direction.
There, on the horizon, they saw a ship gradually coming into view.
"It's the Red Hair Pirates ship, the Red Force!"
One pirate exclaimed after recognizing the jolly roger of the ship.
Whitebeard stood up from his throne and walked to the prow of the ship. The Division Commanders, except for Marco, followed him.
As the Moby Dick and the Red Force arrived in front of each other, Ace could see that Shanks was also standing at the prow of his ship along with his senior officers.
"Does the wound given by Captain Roger still hurt? Hahaha!" Shanks said with a small laugh at the end.
"Gurararara! It seems you forgot to bring some healing water this time!"
Seeing them talking to each other so casually, Law couldn't help but say in his mind, 'Is the news of the enmity between the Four Emperors fake?'
"So, what did you come here for? Last time I heard, you were fighting with Kaido yesterday." Whitebeard questioned once he stopped laughing.
With a small smile, Shanks replied, "Well, I heard that Teach was going to be in the war! So I came over to look how much stronger he had grown since the last time we met.
"However, it seems I was late if you guys are all the way here! And you have succeeded in rescuing Ace!"
Nearly everyone on the Moby Dick had their face soured once Teach was mentioned.
Noticing this, Shanks attempted to divert the topic and said, "It's good to see you young again, Whitebeard! I don't see Marco anywhere. Where is he?"
At this moment, Lucky Roux spoke up from his side, "Boss, Marco is over there! He is using his powers to heal Luffy's injuries it seems! It's been ten years since we last saw him!"
"Oh! Luffy's on your ship too, Whitebeard?"
=+=+=+=< Scene Break >=+=+=+=
[Marineford]
At this moment, Sengoku was standing in the place where the Marine Headquarters building once stood.
He was staring at the horizon where the 49 ships carrying the pirates disappeared.
Around him stood Garp, Tsuru, and the three Admirals.
Suddenly, a marine came running toward them and reported, "Fleet Admiral! We've just received a report stating that the Red Force had been coming towards Marineford.
"At this moment, they have made contact with the Whitebeard Pirates Fleet. There's no sign of them starting a fight."
"Red Hair!? The man who dragged Luffy onto the Pirate's path!" Garp muttered in a low voice.
Hearing the report, Tsuru muttered, "It seems that this war wasn't going to end in our favor, one way or another!"
Sengoku could only grit his teeth in anger, having no words to retort to Tsuru.
…To Be Continued!
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A/N_1: Well, I don't think an apology would be enough at this point.
I will just say that something happened IRL and I couldn't just muster the motivation to write.
I have the subsequent plots ready in mind, and if composed into chapters, their number would exceed at least twenty.
However, whenever I opened the Docs to compose the chapter, one thing or other happened and I couldn't write more than a few dozen words.
I hope this doesn't continue. However, let's see how it goes.
Thank you all for not removing this from your Library.
A/N_2:
Shameless P@treon & Coffee plug...;
👉 patreon.com/ChaosWriter;
👉 buymeacoffee.com/ChaosWriter;
You can read advanced Chapters there. Also, while your support would be appreciated, but don't feel pressured to join. I'll upload stuff outside it and not keep it behind a paywall forever.
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