The impact of Allen and Ace's clash caused no less of a commotion than the Black Pearl's cannon shot.
The frozen ground cracked in every direction from the vibrations caused by Allen and also began to melt from Ace's flames.
Both men were pushed back ten meters, leaving a crater filled with hot water between them in the middle of the fractured ice.
Allen's right sleeve had been burned away, and there were several burns on his arm.
Ace, on the other hand, grabbed his own arm, which the combination of the Fist of Love and the Gura Gura power had nearly broken.
"Tsk... I see how you managed to hit that old man," Ace said as he clenched his fist.
This time, it had been a fair exchange since both had suffered damage. However, that was only because Allen had followed Lenalee's advice and combined Skills.
[How are you?]
'It's not as exhausting as doing it at Level 4, but I don't think I can use that technique more than three times...'
It might sound obvious, but Allen was capable of choosing the power level of his Skills. Level 4 was out of the question—it was putting everything on a single attack and betting everything on victory. Using Level 3 was ideal. However, standing before him was an opponent he couldn't hope to defeat without pushing himself to the limit.
"...!"
Allen was pulled from his thoughts when he saw Ace crossing his index fingers in front of him in the shape of a cross.
"Jujika!"
Something resembling an incandescent shot erupted from Ace's fingers. Judging by the heat it radiated, it was far hotter than ordinary fire.
"Damn it!"
Allen didn't hesitate and used Level 3 Soru to dodge, but even so, the attack grazed his shoulder, and he felt it burn him. The fiery cross struck the ice and melted everything in its path.
In response, Allen pointed a finger at Ace.
"Amaterasu."
A beam of light pierced Ace's shoulder.
"Agh, you have Kizaru's powers too?!" Ace exclaimed.
Ace's body was made of fire, but Allen had infused the attack with Haki. His personal Haki was still very weak, so rather than causing a serious wound, it mostly inflicted pain. As for why he had used Level 1 Amaterasu, it was because that Skill required charging time. The weaker the attack, the faster it could be fired. That was why it didn't explode when it hit Ace; instead, the lightspeed laser simply pierced through him.
Allen grabbed his shoulder, just as Ace held his own, and the two stared at each other in silence.
In terms of raw strength, Ace was stronger, but he wasn't underestimating Allen. Having so many different abilities was a nightmare to fight against. If Allen had another debuff ability like Noro Beam and managed to catch him off guard, Ace wasn't sure he could avoid getting taken down.
Furthermore, he had realized that Allen possessed not only Armament Haki but Observation Haki as well.
'What kind of monster appeared out of nowhere? He hasn't even reached the New World yet, damn it...'
Despite remaining calm, Allen wasn't in a better position than Ace. His Observation Haki barely allowed him to keep up with Ace's movements. Without it, he would have died to that cross-shaped attack.
No, more than that, every attack Ace launched had the potential to kill him. As mentioned before, Allen was a glass cannon. His current physical strength and Armament Haki weren't on the same level as his offensive power.
He possessed terrifying attack power, but if Ace managed to land any technique on him, it would be game over. That was why Allen's expression remained grave. Every move was a deadly gamble.
Silence settled between them.
Ace moved first, causing Allen to react immediately, ready to dodge and counterattack. However, Ace simply raised a hand toward him.
"Wait, I give up..." Ace said as he adjusted his hat.
".... Huh?" Allen blinked. "What do you mean?"
Give up?
They hadn't even exchanged enough attacks to seriously injure each other. How was he surrendering already?
Ace smiled mockingly.
"Don't misunderstand me. I'd win in the end. However, I'm on a mission, and I can't risk suffering an injury that would leave me incapacitated. Besides, I was only curious about you. It's not like I actually hate you."
Allen remained silent. However, he soon relaxed and looked at Ace with disdain.
"Then don't waste my time."
A vein bulged on Ace's forehead.
'Does this guy understand that I simply can't afford to waste time here?! It's not that I'm afraid of you or weaker than you, damn it!'
Despite his thoughts, Ace no longer showed any intention of fighting.
"Wait," Allen said, stopping Ace before he could leave.
"What?"
A crafty smile spread across Allen's face, causing Ace to feel a bad premonition.
"Don't you think it's a little rude? You show up out of nowhere, attack me for no reason, and expect to leave just like that. Is this the savage attitude of a Whitebeard pirate?"
Ace froze. He realized that now that Allen knew he couldn't fight because of his mission, he was shamelessly taking advantage of the situation to extort him.
"Tsk, how much do you want?" Ace grumbled.
Only Allen would dare extort Whitebeard's Second Division Commander so openly.
"Well, considering the loss of my valuable time, the fact that you destroyed a ship I hadn't looted yet, frightened my crew, ruined my shirt, and caused me emotional damage, I'd say about thirty million would be appropriate."
"Huh?!" Ace stumbled before exploding in anger. "Thirty million?! Bullshit! And what the hell is emotional damage?! Are you messing with me?!"
Allen crossed his arms and looked at Ace with contempt.
"If you don't want to pay me, go ahead. I didn't know Whitebeard's pirates were shameless people with so little honor. This leaves me no choice but to tell everyone I meet."
Ace barely managed to stop himself from attacking Allen again.
This guy dared call him shameless while being ten times more shameless himself!
"Ugh... fine. But I don't have any money right now. I'll pay you later."
"Later? When? How do I know you're not lying?"
Ace was speechless.
Did this guy really think Ace was some common scammer? He was the proud Second Division Commander of the strongest man in the world. How the hell was he supposed to hide over a debt of thirty million? If he didn't have things to do, he could simply hunt down a pirate with a bounty of 100 million berries and pay him.
"Fine." Ace scratched his head, turned around, and started walking toward Nanohara. "Follow me."
"..." Allen didn't follow immediately. Instead, he turned toward his crew and signaled for them to come closer. He also sent a message through Lenalee informing them that everything had been resolved.
....
Upon hearing that, all of them felt both relieved and confused. They had watched the battle from afar. For a moment, it looked as though Ace and Allen wouldn't stop until one of them died. Yet suddenly they had stopped, exchanged a few words, and Ace had started walking toward the city.
"What happened?" Nami asked.
"Maybe they reached an agreement?" Kaya guessed.
"Do you really think that?" Tashigi mocked. "The guy who constantly says he'll become King of the World and has enough ego to found his own country wouldn't back down after being attacked."
"Then maybe Portgas D. Ace surrendered," Mikita shrugged.
They were talking about one of Whitebeard's commanders, yet that sounded more realistic than Allen surrendering.
Uta looked at Allen and Ace before speaking.
"There was never any personal hatred from the start. The confrontation was simply the inevitable result of two rival pirates meeting."
Robin nodded.
"Besides, Portgas D. Ace must have realized he couldn't defeat Allen and come away unscathed. It wasn't worth it."
"What a relief," Vivi said as she petted Karoo. "It was terrible luck that someone like him appeared here at a time like this."
Hina remained silent as she smoked.
There was no reason for Ace to be here. Whitebeard's pirates operated in the New World. There was no need for them to come to Paradise.
'Did something happen?' Hina thought, frowning.
"Alright, enough about that. We'd better hurry, or the captain will get annoyed," Nojiko said with a smile.
The rest of the girls smiled as well. Now that the danger had passed, the atmosphere aboard the ship felt much more relaxed.
...
"So," Allen said, looking at Ace beside him with narrowed eyes.
Ace had led Allen into a restaurant. Without saying a word, he sat at the counter and ordered a mountain of food. Meanwhile, Allen limited himself to ordering coffee. The girls occupied two tables and began eating as well.
"So what?" Ace asked through a mouthful of food. The guy devoured food like a starving pig.
"My money!" Allen slammed the counter, startling Ace.
"...!" Ace choked and had to grab a mug of beer to wash the food down. "I thought I was going to die."
"Go ahead. That way I'll be able to collect the bounty on your head," Allen mocked.
"Tsk, you're a nasty guy. Relax, I keep my promises. We just have to wait for your money to arrive," Ace said with a grin.
Allen understood immediately. Ace intended to wait for some pirate to walk into the restaurant and use their bounty to pay him.
Allen himself hadn't fully realized it until now, but he was in the Grand Line. In the East Blue, pirates with bounties of five, ten, or even twenty million were major figures. In the Grand Line, however, they were everywhere like cockroaches.
So waiting in a tavern for pirates to appear wasn't a bad idea. On the contrary, with enough luck and patience, pirates worth dozens of millions might show up.
Allen smirked.
"I see what you're trying to do. But what makes you think I won't defeat them before you do?"
Ace froze with a piece of meat halfway to his mouth before glaring at Allen.
"You're a very unpleasant person, you know that?"
"No. On the contrary, I'm a pleasant and courteous person," Allen replied. "When the other party doesn't try to kill me out of nowhere."
"Ugh."
Ace couldn't argue with that. In the end, he had been the one to show hostility first. He knew it was ultimately his fault, so he scratched his head before giving up.
"You're right. Sorry."
"See? That wasn't so hard. Heh. Since I'm a magnanimous and handsome man, I'll forgive you. I'll even give you a 1% discount," Allen nodded with satisfaction as though the world didn't appreciate his humility and generosity enough.
Ace trembled with a shocked expression.
This guy was incredibly difficult to deal with. He was already beginning to regret getting involved with him.
Eventually, Ace returned to eating, though with much less enthusiasm. Once he was full, he looked at Allen in silence.
"Hey, can I ask what kind of grudge you have against Crocodile? Or is this just your way of announcing your arrival?" Ace asked.
In his opinion, a pirate attacking a Warlord could only be motivated by fame or a personal grudge. It certainly wasn't for money since Warlord bounties were frozen.
Allen, now on his third cup of coffee, glanced sideways at Ace without much emotion.
"See the pretty blue-haired girl?"
Ace looked toward Allen's crew, but there were two blue-haired girls.
"The one with long hair," Allen added. "That's Nefertari Vivi, the princess of this country and now a member of my crew. So I came to settle accounts with Crocodile for daring to threaten my princess."
Vivi, who had been listening the entire time, blushed so hard that she covered her face with both hands. Allen had no shame, but she certainly did.
"I see," Ace said.
Now everything made sense.
As his gaze swept over the girls, Ace didn't comment on it, but he obviously noticed there were two Marines among them. He had no intention of digging into it. Everyone had their own stories. Even so, he couldn't help asking:
"Why are they all women?"
He hadn't expected an answer, but Allen responded anyway.
"I needed a navigator, and Nami is the best. I needed a doctor, and Kaya practically fell from the sky. I needed a cook, and Nojiko did me the favor. Uta was an unexpected encounter, but I gained a musician..." Allen looked toward his crew with a strangely satisfied expression. "Every girl you see here was like a blessing. Maybe it was fate, maybe it was my charm, but here we are."
The girls blushed.
Allen truly had a talent for making women feel embarrassed. Perhaps, as Lenalee claimed, he really did have talent for being a womanizer.
Ace laughed.
"You really are an interesting guy. I wish I hadn't acted that way when we first met. Being friends with you would've been much better."
"Well, you can still become my subordinate. Just let yourself bask in my glory," Allen said with a crafty grin.
"Hahaha! I'd rather eat cactus spines!"
Allen shrugged, not taking Ace's words seriously. From the start, a member of Whitebeard's crew couldn't serve anyone other than Edward Newgate.
"By the way, I told you something, so return the favor. I'm curious about what you're doing here," Allen asked.
Ace stopped laughing, and his expression became somber.
"I'm looking for... Marshall D. Teach."
"..." Allen narrowed his eyes.
Among Whitebeard's pirates, there was one rule—or rather, one piece of common sense.
Never kill a crewmate.
They could fight, argue, or hate each other, but they could never kill one another.
It was taboo.
And naturally, no one had ever needed to take it seriously. Whitebeard's crew was more of a family. Everyone called Whitebeard "Father," and he called them his sons. In a crew like that, such a betrayal was unthinkable.
Then one day, everything changed.
Marshall D. Teach murdered a crewmate and fled.
Since Teach had served under Ace, Ace swore to hunt him down no matter how long it took.
He had no intention of returning to the New World unless he dragged Teach back to Whitebeard's feet.
"I see," Allen said.
It was understandable why Ace was doing this.
The girls, meanwhile, were stunned to hear that something like that had happened within the crew of the strongest man in the world.
"Bring me alcohol and food!"
The atmosphere was interrupted by a huge man and his crew entering the restaurant as if they owned the place.
"It's Jackson Spiked Arm!" gasped a man who was eating with his friend.
As his name suggested, Jackson had a metal arm covered in spikes. His bounty was twenty-three million, and he was known for killing people at the slightest provocation.
"Oh! Captain, look at all the beauties in this restaurant, hehe~" one pirate said with a disgusting grin.
Jackson licked his lips in vulgarity. Most pirates were exactly the stereotype people imagined—immoral, classless bastards. It left Allen, a true Pirate Lord, slightly disappointed.
"Hey, aren't you going to do something?" Ace asked, surprised that Allen hadn't intervened yet.
"No need," Allen replied with a smile.
"Cien Fleur..."
Arms blossomed from flower petals across the pirates' bodies.
Everyone was stunned as they realized there was a Devil Fruit user among the women, but it was already too late to beg for mercy.
"Clutch!"
A dozen cracking sounds echoed through the restaurant as the pirates collapsed to the floor.
All except Jackson, who took a step back.
"Damn bitch!"
Jackson clenched his fist and attacked Robin. However, Mikita stepped in and stopped the punch with her palm.
"Brat, I'll crush you!" Jackson bulged his muscles, trying to break Mikita's arm.
"My, wasn't it enough to be ugly on the outside? You're disgusting on the inside too~" Mikita mocked mercilessly.
"Die!" Jackson roared.
Unexpectedly, he couldn't move Mikita even an inch. It was like trying to move a block of iron.
"...!"
Jackson tried to grab a pistol from his belt with his other hand, but suddenly he felt terrible pain in his groin.
When he turned around, he saw Nami standing there with her staff.
She had just smashed him between the legs.
"Bastard, don't mess with us!"
Nami possessed the strength of Mike Tyson in his prime. Taking a hit from her in such a vulnerable place made Jackson turn pale as he realized he had probably lost all hope of descendants.
The man collapsed to the floor, foaming at the mouth.
"That's what you get for being a bastard," Nami declared proudly, snorting with contempt.
"You really beat him?" Kaya gasped.
Nami paused.
Then it dawned on her that the man lying on the floor had a bounty worth more than twenty million, just like Arlong.
"No way..."
Allen smiled proudly.
[This is nothing. Once a certain captain stops denying his nature and accepts his destiny, the girls will become much stronger~]
"Ugh."
Allen forced a smile at that personal attack but couldn't come up with a response.
Ace laughed.
"Sorry. I think I underestimated your crew!"
"Don't worry. However, you still owe me those thirty million."
Allen stood up and walked toward the man who was trying to rise to his feet.
Without saying a word, he placed a foot on Jackson's head, preventing him from moving.
"Pirates aren't decent people. However, there are limits between being a bad person and being a beast. You dared to try to harm my crew, so you should be prepared for the consequences..."
At first, the man wanted to curse and threaten him. But the moment he looked up and saw Allen's face, he froze.
That face had been everywhere over the past week.
"T-The White-Haired Monster... Allen Walker..." Jackson stammered in terror. "I... wait, please!"
"No." Allen pointed a finger at Jackson. "Everyone has limits, and mine is my crew. You try to hurt them? Then there is nowhere in the world you can hide from me. So no, I don't forgive you."
A laser pierced through the man's back, and he stopped moving.
On the other side of the System's screen, countless viewers fell silent.
It was subtle, but different.
The Allen of One Piece and the Allen they knew were certainly the same person, yet it was impossible for there not to be differences.
After all, at that moment, nothing existed for Allen outside of One Piece.
The same, yet different.
Similar, yet not quite.
A slight concern spread among the viewers.
If Allen had been raised in an even darker world than One Piece, what kind of person would he become? Perhaps they might even see a version similar to Void—or something even worse.
As those thoughts flooded the chat, Lucifer smiled.
He couldn't help it.
This was far more interesting.
It seemed that his decision not to interfere with the world had made everything much more entertaining.
====
A/N: Sorry for the delay, guys 🗿