Chapter 14

Ace, Vash, and Terzo spent a few days in Sixis. Ace took the time to figure out his Devil Fruit. He tried doing what Ace can do in the canon, and surprisingly found it easy to accomplish. It barely took half a day.

'I knew it. Eating the whole Devil Fruit was a good idea… maybe. It could also be because I'm stronger than Ace was when he started his journey.'

It was said that the power of the Devil Fruit depends on the strength of the eater's mind and body. When a Devil Fruit eater's mind and body reaches a certain level, that is when a Devil Fruit awakens. Kaido said it when he battled Luffy atop Onigashima.

'Ahh, whatever. As long as I keep getting stronger, it's good for me.'

Ace spent the rest of the days beating up the remaining giant birds he fought with Vash and Terzo. They only used their fists to do it. He also taught them the training method to awaken Observation Haki.

Since Vash already knew how to do it unconsciously, Ace just made him realize what he can do. In the end, Vash easily avoided 50 consecutive strikes from Ace. But that was when Ace masked his intent to hit Vash, making the latter unable to sense the next attack.

That is when users of Observation Haki realize they should stop trying to just 'feel' and instead try to 'see' the attack ahead. That was the first step to unlocking the advanced application of Observation Haki: Future Vision.

The mornings were spent beating up the birds to improve physical strength, and the nights were spent training Observation Haki.

Food and water were easily available. There were other animals and fruits on the island. As for water, they found a small lake on the island to drink from.

Vash and Terzo didn't really make any complaints about postponing the journey for a few short days. Vash understood and realized that he's still weak and needs to get stronger for the arduous journey ahead. Terzo just liked the thrill of battling and getting stronger.

…

When Vash and Terzo learned how to use Flicker and Iron Body, Ace decided it was time for them to set out. But, they quickly realized that their boat was too small for the three of them.

So, Ace decided to modify their boat a little, making it big enough to fit the three of them plus the supplies they collected from Sixis. The few days that they were supposed to spend on Sixis turned into a week and a half.

Currently, the three of them were on the sailboat. They easily got through the rough waves around Sixis with Ace's flying slashes.

Ace stood on the bow of the ship with a rope tied around his waist. The other end of the rope was in Vash and Terzo's hands.

"Are you sure about this, Ace?" Vash asked Ace, unsure if his captain was thinking properly.

"Of course I am!" Ace was confident. "If I don't resurface, just pull me up."

"Remind me again why you think this is a good idea?"

"I'm different, you see." Ace didn't really want to make them know that he's not an entirely normal human. "I think I can still swim even after eating a Devil Fruit."

"Well, whatever happens, we'll just dive in and save you." Terzo said, not as much worried about Ace.

"Thanks! Well then, here goes nothing!" Ace jumped into the sea. The moment he submerged, a wide smile bloomed on his face.

'I can swim!'

Ace instantly swam up to let Vash and Terzo know the result of his little experiment. He watched Vash and Terzo stare with wide eyes, shocked that Ace's words were true.

"You're actually swimming!" Terzo had more knowledge about Devil Fruits than Vash. He heard about its curse before, but he was surprised to see it didn't work on Ace.

"You're something else, captain!"

"HAHAHAHA! I guess I don't need the rope anymore, huh?"

Ace threw the rope tied around his waist to the boat before diving in for a swim. The currents couldn't really carry him away. His body was strong enough to swim against the currents without a problem.

'I knew it! Having two souls fused inside me really made me different!'

Ace tested what he could do underwater. He didn't feel weakened at all, so he moved to other aspects. He tried to see if his Devil Fruit power still worked. Unfortunately, it didn't.

Next, he tested his Haki. His Armament and Observation Haki felt much weaker than normal, but still very impressive. Having two souls fused made his normal Haki much stronger than the average.

'I guess that's it! I think I can eat another Devil Fruit, but I feel like that would mean I'd lose the advantage of being able to swim. Since I could swim in the sea, that also means I'm immune to seastone to an extent! Alright, this is too good! I won't eat another Devil Fruit! Not worth it.'

Ace resurfaced and got back on the boat. Now that he was out of the water, he could use his fire powers again. He quickly dried himself by increasing his body heat, enough to quickly dry his clothes.

"Now then, let's continue with our journey!" Ace said. But before he could give orders, he noticed something coming into view from the horizon.

"You guys see that?"

Vash and Terzo looked at where Ace was pointing. Vash saw it instantly, but Terzo had to squint his eyes a little.

"Looks like… a ship. A pirate ship?" Vash had great eyesight since he was a sharpshooter.

"A pirate ship! Finally! We can have our first pirate battle!" Ace was excited. He raised the sails himself and guided their boat to sail towards the pirate ship they spotted in the distance.

Soon, they were able to see the pirate ship clearly. It was a heavily damaged caravel. It was a mess, to say the least. It was barely floating. It was damaged to the point that it looked like it could be sunk by just a small wave.

Luckily for the crew on board, the waves were gentle.

"Woah. What a mess," Terzo said at the sight of the barely functioning ship.

"What I don't get is, why weren't they just sunk by the crew they came across?" Vash was curious.

Ace looked closer. Whatever way he looked at it, the ship didn't look like it was damaged by another ship. There were no holes on the ship that would say it was damaged from a naval fight. Instead, the caravel looked… smashed.

"Interesting," Ace said, curious as well about what happened to the ship. "I still see people. Let's help them out."

Ace guided their boat closer to the smashed up caravel before jumping straight up from the boat to its deck. His sudden arrival surprised the crew aboard trying to fix their ship. Trying.

"Hey! Who are you!"

"Are you that woman's crewmate or something?"

The crew got spooked and pointed their weapons at Ace who was casually squatting on their ship's broken railing. At that moment, Vash and Terzo jumped up too.

They got stronger after staying to train at Sixis. With one jump from their boat, they landed on the deck. They stood on Ace's two sides.

"More of them!"

"Captain Newt! What should we do?"

The captain of the crew stepped up to face Ace. Captain Newt was a spindly man who looked to be around Vash's age. He looked thin and weak. Ace doesn't know why a weak looking man like that was the captain until he noticed the two crocodiles by Captain Newt's side.

With a steady hand, Captain Newt raised his sword at Ace.

"You have one chance to tell us who you are and what you want before I order my friends here to eat you," Captain Newt threatened Ace and his friends. The two crocodiles snapped their snouts as if backing up Captain Newt's threat.

"Woah! Cool! You have crocodile friends too?" Instead of feeling scared Ace got down from the railing and squatted in front of the crocodiles instead. Everyone was looking at him weirdly.

"Shake!" Ace put a hand forward. One of the crocodiles opened its snout and snapped it shut over Ace's extended arm.

"HAHAHAHA! WHAT AN IDIOT!"

"IS THAT YOUR CAPTAIN, YOU TWO?"

The crew laughed at Vash and Terzo, but the two of them just stayed silent. They focused on Ace and Newt.

The crew was too busy laughing to see that their captain was sweating profusely as he looked at Ace.

"Hey, come on! That's not very nice!" Instead of being hurt, Ace sounded disappointed at the crocodile. He looked up at Newt. "You didn't train them very well. You suck!"

"Krok! Let go of him!" Newt was scared now. It seems he was the smartest one in his crew. The others finally looked at Ace and stopped laughing.

But, the crocodile named Krok refused to let go of Ace's arm.

"Let go, or I beat you up," Ace said. He didn't need to use his Conqueror's Haki.

The crocodile eventually realized that he was no match for Ace, so he quickly let go and hid behind Newt and the other crocodile.

"Yuck! Crocodile saliva!" Ace shook off the spit covering his arm as he stood up. "Now then! I was going to help you guys fix your ship. But now, I feel like beating you up!"

Ace was looking at the pirate crew with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Tell you what, let's make it interesting!" Ace turned to Newt. "Let's play a game! Me against your whole crew! Whoever loses becomes the subordinate of the winning crew!"

"You make it sound like I have a choice!" Newt gritted his teeth.

"We always have a choice," Ace said, grinning mischievously.

…

Needless to say, Ace beat their asses. But not too much. Just enough to make them understand who the boss is.

The crew was currently patching up the ship under Ace's commands. The progress they were making was much faster compared to before Ace directed them. Once the ship was patched up enough to survive going to an island to be properly fixed, they set sail to the nearest island.

"Newt! Come here. I wanna ask you something," Ace called out to the Captain of the Newt Pirates, Salman Newt, as he leaned on the mast of the ship.

It was a greatly made caravel, as far as Ace could see. Despite its condition, it sailed across the waters faster than Ace expected it to. It felt like they were flying. Which was why Ace felt the ship was aptly named.

The Little Drake. Its figurehead was a golden head of a dragon.

"Yes, Commodore Ace?" Newt greeted Ace respectfully the moment he stood in front of the man their pirate crew now serves.

"Oho! Commodore! Sounds nice! I don't even have a ship yet!" Ace was on cloud nine after being called Commodore, but he instantly snapped out of it.

"Tell me, what exactly happened to you guys? It didn't look like you fought a ship."

Newt sweated at Ace's question. It seems he and the rest of the crew were traumatized at what happened to them.

"Well, you're right. We didn't fight a ship. We fought a woman."

"A woman?" Ace raised his eyebrows. He was surprised. Not because the enemy was a woman, but because she did it alone.

"Yes, Commodore. A very strong one."

"Well, if she did all that damage alone, she must be," Ace commented. He really wanted to meet whoever it was. "Describe her to me. Maybe we'll meet her."

"Yes, Commodore! She had short red hair. She wore a patch that covered almost the entire right side of her face. She used a strange hammer as her weapon. It could change sizes."

'That sounds like a strange weapon indeed.'

"Was she an old woman?"

"No, Commodore. Probably a few years older than you."

"I see. Well, no use worrying about it. I'll deal with her when the time comes," Ace said before standing up. "One of you! Fetch me a bottle of sake and two cups! Your captain will now fulfill his promise!"

"Yes, Commodore!" One of Newt's subordinates instantly rushed off to get what Ace told him to.

"You sure that's wise, Ace?" Vash whispered next to him. "They could poison it and stab you in the back."

"That's the point," Ace whispered back to Vash. "I'm not worried about poison. I can burn it off inside my body. This is more like a test for them."

"You can do that?" Vash was impressed that Ace found such a creative way of using his Devil Fruit.

"Yeah. I figured out how to do it after I drank a bad cup of water back on Sixis."

"Well then, for their sake, I hope they're not stupid," Vash said, already pitying the Newt Pirates if they do decide to try and get themselves rid of his captain.

"I hope so too."

At that moment, the pirate that went off to take what Ace demanded returned with a bottle of sake in one hand and two cups in another. The other pirates set up a table in the middle of the deck.

Ace and Newt sat across the table face to face. The sake bottle and the two cups were placed in front of them. It was Newt who poured the drinks into both cups. Of course, he filled Ace's cup first.

"With this drink we will soon share, the Newt Pirates swear allegiance to Captain Ace as their one and only Commodore! May it be in his glory and victory, or shame and defeat, we will share it with him! May he rise above the seas!"

Ace and Newt shared a drink. They clinked their cups together with the cheer of the Newt Pirates before drinking. Ace waited to feel something, but nothing came. It was a clean cup of sake.

"Now, I guess it's time to make my promise!" Ace walked to a railing and stood up on it so everyone could see him. "Welcome, Newt Pirates! You are the first member of the soon to be infamous Spade Fleet!"

The Newt Pirates cheered, happy to have the honor of serving an unbelievably strong man who only needed to use one fist to subdue all of them.

"As my fleet, you will rise and fall with me! Let me tell you now. I sail the seas to become the greatest pirate to have ever lived!" Ace declared with conviction, letting a bit of his Conqueror's Haki leak out to entrance his audience.

"Greater than the Warlords! Greater than the Four Emperors! Greater than the old King of the Pirates!" Ace's audience listened with rapt attention. "I set out to rule the seas and kick out the damned dogs of the World Government! Those who can't even fathom the idea of declaring war against the world, step up!"

No one stepped up to say that they were afraid of going against the World Government. All of the Newt Pirates were shivering, but not in fright. They were excited. They were enthralled by the young man in front of them.

Vash and Terzo watched all of this with wide grins on their faces. Shivers went up and down their spine as they felt like they were witnessing the true glory of their captain for the first time.

"That was your last chance. Now! I welcome all of you! Take pride! Shed the fear in your hearts! Run wild on the seas with me!"

The Newt Pirates cheered the loudest they have ever cheered. Vash and Terzo laughed out loud as sheer excitement filled their hearts.

This was the day the Spade Fleet first took shape. A fleet serving the man who held the ambition and conviction to be the only Emperor of the Seas!