9 9. Brothers reunite. Clash of Supreme Kings.
│3rd Person POV│
[Marineford, War of the Best…]
One by one, the Marines who barely held onto their consciousness after enduring Luffy's Conqueror's Haki, succumbed to unconsciousness.
Ace's Conqueror's Haki was powerful enough to even knock out some seasoned Rear Admirals.
Seeing the results, Ace couldn't help but grin even wider.
Immediately afterward, Ace proceeded to ignore the remaining Marines who successfully endured the might of his Conqueror's Haki and turned his attention towards his little brother.
Taking a squatting position, he said to himself, "I can leave these guys to the Division Commanders. Firstly, I should reunite with Luffy."
After he finished speaking, he jumped high up with flames gushing out from the soles of his feet to help him navigate in the air.
After adjusting his flight path so that he would land beside Luffy and the others with him, he shifted his attention toward Whitebeard for a moment.
In the few seconds he was in the air, he enjoyed the scene of Prime Whitebeard easily keeping up with the combined might of three Admirals.
"Ace!! Shishishishishi~!! You are finally free!"
Just as landed, Luffy tackled his face and proceeded to choke the air out of him.
"UMM!!! OOMPFH!! Haa~! Haa~! I'm also glad to be free, Lufffy! And it's all thanks to you and your friends! Hahahaha~!"
Once he succeeded in getting out of Luffy's hug, Ace promptly expressed his gratitude.
At this time, Jinbe stepped forward and patted the older brother hard on the shoulder while saying, "Without your various ideas, we wouldn't have been able to rescue you so smoothly, Ace. Hahaha~!!"
"Jinbe, what are you talking about?" Ivankov had also stepped forward as he wanted to see the adopted brother of Dragon's Son up close. He heard Jinbe's words and was curious to know what he meant.
Without any hesitation, Jinbe started explaining, "It was Ace's idea of using Fishman Karate to destroy the support structure of the Siege Walls.
"Even calling the Underworld Broker at Sabaody Archipelago to enlist the help of Supernovas was Ace's idea."
Ivankov's giant face was filled with astonishment upon hearing Jinbe's explanation. He didn't anticipate that the various brilliant ideas employed by Jinbe were all given to him by Ace.
Suddenly, he came to another realization as he asked, "Wait a minute! Are you saying that Roger's boy knew all along that you would come together with Luffy to the Marineford?
"And he even knew about the Siege Walls beforehand? How?"
Ivankov's shock was justified as from his point of view, Ace was a man of many talents, far surpassing any genius he had ever seen or heard of.
From what he knew, Ace was an extremely capable user of Observation Haki.
He became the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates at the age of twenty.
He had eaten the Logia-type Flare Flare Fruit and now, he was even able to predict the way the war would progress long before it already started.
As Jinbe was about to explain what exactly happened, Ace interrupted their conversation, "You must be Ivankov! Thank you for saving Luffy's life from Magellan's poisons."
"Huh? Oh! Don't mention it, Ace-boy! " Ivankov greeted Ace back while accepting the handshake he offered.
With the introduction complete, Ace continued, "We can talk about the details later, alright? I also need your help with something. And yeah, please don't refer to me as Roger's boy in the future."
Even from an outsider's perspective, Ace's dislike for his birth father didn't disappear.
Gol D. Roger may not be the most terrible criminal in the history of the world as proclaimed by the World Government, but he was a terrible father.
And his opinion on this matter wouldn't change so easily.
"Anyway, I have some questions for you, Ivankov." Ace said before Ivankov could reply to his previous words.
'Well, you are definitely Strawhat-boy's older brother.' Such a thought emerged in Ivankov's mind as he replied, "Ask boy. I will answer your questions if it's within my capabilities."
"Well, I was wondering how exactly your Emporio Healing Hormones work? Like, can it cure Pops' disease if you give him a dose while he is in his prime?" asked Ace.
Ace wanted to know if Emporio Healing Hormones would work as a type of extremely fast-acting chemotherapy drug to eliminate Pops' disease.
If yes, then even without Bonney's power, Whitebeard would be able to hold on against the various strong opponents without succumbing to his illness.
Meanwhile, Ivankov was taken aback for a moment by Ace's question.
While he saw Whitebeard nearly receive a fatal blow from Akainu because of sudden weakness caused by his disease, the thought that his powers could cure Whitebeard of his disease never crossed his mind.
However, he promptly recovered and gave the idea some thought.
After a moment, Ivankov replied, "Well, if I gave Whitebeard a shot of Emporio Healing Hormones while he is old, I think there's a small chance that his disease would be cured.
"A man like Whitebeard could endure the extreme pain brought by the process with his strong willpower. However, I think he would probably lose close to a decade of his lifespan or more.
"With how old he is, I don't think he should go through with the process.
"On the other hand, I don't know much about how the child's powers work to be able to tell how my Hormones will affect Whitebeard as he is now."
"I see. Thank you for your honest answer!" Ace thanked Ivankov while pondering on his words.
After a few moments, he decided, "Well, we'll come back to this later. I've got another question for you. A few minutes ago, you injected Luffy with a shot of adrenaline, right?
"What would happen if he were to suddenly fall unconscious now?"
"Eh!? Why would I fall asleep now? We still have to escape from here." Luffy stated with a confused expression.
Ivankov was also confused by Ace's question. Nevertheless, he answered without any hesitation, "Nothing! My Hormones force the adrenal glands to keep releasing adrenaline so that he can keep fighting even after he has already exhausted his strength.
"If he lost his consciousness, my Hormones would stop working automatically."
Ace nodded, satisfied with Ivankov's answer.
Then, he looked at Luffy and said, "Luffy, I've a surprise for you after you wake up from your nap."
"Why would I—!"
Before Luffy could finish speaking, Ace swiftly struck at the back of his head with his right hand. With Armament Haki coating his hand, Luffy was promptly sent to dreamland without any resistance.
" " "EH!!??" " "
Jinbe, Ivankov, Bon Clay, Mr. 3, and Inazuma, everyone exclaimed in disbelief upon seeing Ace punching the daylights out of Luffy.
Ace caught Luffy's body before he could fall to the ground and gently said in a small voice, "You've done plenty to help me out, brother. Just take a rest for now. I will be able to handle things from here."
Then, Ace put Luffy on his back and said to the others, "Please follow me, guys!"
The next instant, without even waiting to hear their response, Ace once again jumped into the air toward the direction where Marco was guarding Law and Bonney.
Jinbe and the others looked at each other before they started to follow Ace while running on the ground.
They didn't face any obstacles while changing their position.
At this moment, mostly everyone in Marineford had stopped fighting. They were all watching the battle between Whitebeard and the three Admirals.
At the end of the day, the outcome of the war would be pretty much decided by whichever party emerged victorious from this fight.
So, there was no point in continuing their individual battles when the decisive battle was happening right in front of them.
Additionally, they had to be vigilant so as to not get caught up in the aftermath of attacks launched by any one of them.
A few moments later, Ace landed beside Marco.
"Ace!! it's good to see you free of those shackles, yoi~!" Marco exclaimed once he noticed Ace landing beside him.
Initially, he didn't even notice when Ace got freed as all his attention was captured by the destructive fight between Whitebeard and the three Admirals.
Only when Ace had used Conqueror's Haki to knock out most of the marines in the vicinity of the execution platform did he find out that Ace was successfully rescued though he still didn't know exactly how.
Then, he watched Ace move toward his little brother's location by jumping in the air before once again shifting his attention back to Whitebeard's battle.
At this moment, he was sitting near the frozen bay with Bonney and Law beside him.
Ace put down Luffy beside Law and greeted Marco, "It's been a while, Marco!"
Just then, Jinbe and the others also arrived.
"Marco-san!" Jinbe called out in greeting once he came close.
Looking over at the shark fishman, Marco greeted back, "Oh? Jinbe! I heard you took down the Siege Walls, yoi~? Such an idea wouldn't have ever come to me!"
Just as Jinbe was about to respond, an extremely strong Conqueror's Haki swept the entirety of Marineford.
Ace and the others, even the exhausted Law and Bonney, looked over toward the source of Conqueror's Haki.
At the place where Ace's execution Platform once stood was Garp, the Hero of the Marines.
Initially, the legendary Marine wasn't going to actively take part in this war.
However, seeing Prime Whitebeard beating the shit out of the three Admirals changed Garp's mind.
"Sakazuki! Kuzan! Borsalino! Back off for a moment, will ya?" Garp said while staring at Whitebeard with an intense gaze.
Without any words, all three Admirals left the vicinity of Whitebeard. At this moment, they were all in a various state of injury.
Whitebeard, on the other hand, didn't have a single wound on his body.
"Gurararara! You shouldn't force yourself, Garp! As things are now, you know you are no match for me!" Whitebeard declared.
Simultaneously, he released his own Conqueror's Haki for the first time since the start of the war.
Crackle—!
Rumble——!!!
WHOOSH———!!!!!
As Whitebeard and Garp's Conqueror's Haki clashed, lightning rumbled and the cloud parted ways above the Marineford.
Thump—!!
Thump—!!
Thump—!!
One by one, numerous pirates and marines alike passed out, not being able to endure the tremendous pressure exerted on their spirit by the clash of Conqueror's Haki.
Even those who didn't get knocked out were sweating buckets with only a few exceptions who appeared to be unfazed.
For a few seconds, neither Whitebeard nor Garp were able to overpower their opponent. The strength of their Conqueror's Haki was almost equal.
Eventually, Garp couldn't hold on for much longer as his Haki started to get overpowered by Whitebeard's. If he had been also in his prime, the stalemate would have lasted for much longer.
With the result of their Conqueror's Haki clash already clear to them, Whitebeard and Garp withdrew their Haki at the same time.
Most of the conscious people breathed a sigh of relief once the two of them retracted their Haki.
However, things weren't over yet.
"Haha ha ha ha! Let's settle this in one move, Whitebeard!" Garp said while coating his right hand with Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki.
"Gura ra ra ra! As you wish!"
Whitebeard responded before he also coated his Naginata with Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki.
...To Be Continued!
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A/N: Galaxy Impact incoming!
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