"Um… Lady Empress, I'm sorry, but the tournament rules specify that participation is limited to male competitors, so—"
The sentence was cut short when Hancock narrowed her eyes and let a threat slip from her lips—lips as pink as they were venomous—that froze the blood:
"Are you trying to impose your stupid rules on me…?"
"Do you want to die?"
Zmm~
Before anyone could process the warning, a tremendous wave of Conqueror's Haki burst from her and swept across the plaza; the spectators, who were already bewitched by her, barely had time to open their mouths before collapsing.
Within a radius of several hundred meters, men, women—every being with a weak will—fell to their knees or lost consciousness altogether.
Zala, despite her strong will, felt her vision blur; a deafening hum crushed her senses, forcing her to clutch her chest to avoid losing her balance.
The world spun, but didn't fully fade to black—she survived in part because Hancock didn't intend to make her faint.
"L-Lady Empress, p-please, calm down," she stammered, forcing air through a trembling throat. "I-I understand… I understand what needs to be done."
"Y-You will be declared the winner of the tournament…"
"Hmph."
Hancock let out a soft, uninterested snort that was more intimidating than any scream.
"Spare me your breath and take me to the princess of this kingdom—she belongs to me, and I'm taking her."
"Gulp…"
Sweat flooded Zala's forehead as she realized that any attempt at stalling would be a death sentence. Swallowing hard, she abandoned any idea of asserting authority.
"Lady Empress… the princess has fled and is currently in hiding, but we know she's still somewhere within Alubarna."
?
Hancock arched a brow, irritated by the inconvenience that threatened to extend her time away from Tiberion even further.
"Do you have an image of her?"
"Yes."
Zala rummaged through her belongings and pulled out a photo of Vivi, taken a long time ago.
Hancock barely graced the image with a glance, yet still raised a brow at Vivi's appearance.
"Hmph… not bad."
Without wasting a second, she released her Observation Haki, which spread out like a radar—engulfing the entire plaza and far beyond, exposing everything to her senses.
At that very moment, Vivi was hiding not far away, watching everything unfold.
From her position, she could clearly see what was happening in the plaza, and at the same time, she had a carefully planned escape route she had traced when she arrived—her intent being to closely observe how the plan she had made with her friends would play out, without suspecting that another Shichibukai would crash the competition and ruin everything.
She hadn't expected the winner of the competition to be a Shichibukai either—the winner was Boa Hancock, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!
The realization hit her with disbelief, a mix of shock and doubt.
What did the Empress want with her?
During her time infiltrating Baroque Works, she had gathered some knowledge about the Snake Empress.
She was a woman who stood tall on her beauty and pride, incapable of deeming any man or woman worthy—much less giving them a shred of sentimental interest—so it was utterly incomprehensible that someone like her would enter a competition whose apparent goal was to choose a husband, let alone desire to win it.
That was what fed her doubt: What possible reason could the Empress have for setting her sights on her specifically…?
And for a fleeting moment, a pink tint spread across her cheeks at the thought of such a magnetic woman wanting her as a prize. The idea was absurd, and she immediately cast it aside—but the contradiction between Hancock's well-known coldness and her sudden demand to claim her still echoed in her mind, stirring a flood of speculations that ended in the most dangerous possibility of all:
A potential secret alliance between her and Crocodile.
"..."
Amid that storm of thoughts, she kept her eyes locked on Hancock, who had just received a portrait from Zala that unmistakably showed her own face.
And in the silence that followed, Hancock turned her head with the precision of a crossbow, locking her deep blue eyes directly on the ledge where Vivi thought she had remained unseen.
!!!
Vivi felt her stomach tighten, and an electric chill shot down her spine the instant she realized she'd been found.
'N-No way! SHE'S SEEN ME!?' she cursed herself, then immediately blamed her own naivety: 'Of course… she's a Shichibukai. It must be that damn Observation Haki!'
There was no time for more thoughts. Without a single word, she spun around and bolted.
"So it's you…"
Hancock began to descend calmly from the platform.
With her Haki capable of covering dozens of kilometers, any presence that tried to hide or flee stood no chance of escaping.
Even though Vivi was aware of this, she still naïvely clung to the hope of slipping past her Haki—so Hancock adjusted the pace of her steps...
Boom
Suddenly, an explosion erupted from the gates of the royal palace, tearing through the sky like an artillery blast.
A second later, a pillar of fire shot up from the base of the grand staircase and soared into the sky like a hellish geyser, rising over a hundred meters before detonating.
A scorching gust swept across the lifeless plaza, forcing both Hancock and Vivi to turn and look.
In the areas where the blast of Conqueror's Haki hadn't struck with full fury, the remaining people raised their heads with a single collective gasp.
"No way, the palace is on fire!"
"You idiot, fires don't look like that! That's a fight between monsters—and we're way too close to the epicenter!"
Far away, Luffy—his abdomen still tingling with pain—was sprinting toward the plaza, his mind focused solely on beating up the woman who had humiliated him, when the blaze suddenly consumed his entire field of vision.
By reflex, he reached up to the red band of his inseparable straw hat and pulled out the piece of paper Ace had given him.
One corner of the paper had already begun to turn to ash, and now that it was free, it fluttered in the air, pointing unmistakably toward the origin of that towering pillar of fire.
"Ace…" he murmured, and with a quick decision, tucked the Vivre Card back under the band and charged full speed toward the palace.
Naturally, Zoro didn't miss the chance; he adjusted his green bandana and, with a faint smirk, dashed after his captain.
"..."
Hancock stood frozen for a moment, her eyes fixed on the column of flames, and even from here, as the heat brushed her skin, she wondered how magnificent Tiberion must look amidst those flames, with his massive muscles clenched and his gaze unwavering…
The daydream struck her so deeply that, unable to help herself, she raised her hands to cover her blushing cheeks, and through her parted fingers, she let out a whisper overflowing with excitement: she wanted to witness up close the moment Tiberion massacred the flame-covered man—but first, she had to deal with capturing that damned princess who was still trying to escape.
Just imagining the look of pleasure that would light up Tiberion's face when she handed over the kingdom's heir made her pupils briefly take the shape of hearts.
…
[Moments earlier]
"Tiberion Hanma! Did you kill my brothers?!"
Ace stood firm on the final step, several meters away from his target, and the unstable flames flickering from his shoulders mirrored his emotional state.
He blocked the way and, without a hint of expression, demanded to know if Tiberion had truly killed his brothers.
But when Tiberion saw who was in his way, a disdainful smile bloomed across his face.
This guy came to take revenge?
Naturally, he wasn't afraid of anyone coming for revenge.
So he responded to Ace and admitted without hesitation that yes, he had killed several captains and commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates.
There was no need for explicit words—the coldness of that confession struck Ace harder than Thatch's death ever had, and the blood already boiling in his veins reached the point of ignition.
Deep down, he had desperately hoped that what this man had told him was a lie—but hearing it directly from the one responsible unleashed all his fury.
"Dai Enkai…!"
Suddenly, concentric circles of fire materialized beneath his feet and immediately began to multiply.
As the rings overlapped and expanded, the surrounding air grew oppressively hot, and a golden glow—brighter than the midday sun—rose from the ground. What had initially been a swirl of flames turned into a tidal wave of fire, rising several meters into the air.
"...Entei!"
Then the fire compressed, forming a colossal, radiant sphere that eclipsed the sky itself.
A new sun was born above Ace.
"…"
Raising his eyes, a surge of adrenaline coursed through Tiberion's body.
His muscles tensed all at once, and the air around him grew heavy as his red mane came to life—each strand of hair writhing like tiny serpents around his head.
And still, without saying a word, without taking a single step, his gaze remained fixed on the new sun floating above Ace.
A mere ant wanted to fight him?
Meanwhile, the fireball continued to expand relentlessly, yet Tiberion remained still.
With his hands still buried in his pockets, he slammed one foot down.
Boom
The ground shattered in a spiderweb of cracks and collapsed beneath his soles, unleashing a seismic shockwave that shook every nearby structure.
"Come!"
The roar that erupted from his throat briefly overpowered the crackling of flames and seemed to command the very heavens themselves: the rising heat currents, now bloated by Ace's artificial sun, twisted and spiraled upward until, in seconds, they birthed violet clouds that consumed half the sky over Alubarna.
Within the clouds, lightning danced, charging at a terrifying speed—until one massive bolt ripped down vertically and struck Tiberion's silhouette.
Boom
Light engulfed him, outlining every sculpted contour of his body, and became a crackling armor of lightning that hissed and surged around him.
Electricity flowed across the surface of his skin like threads, and Tiberion began advancing in a straight line toward the artificial sun—each step driving into the earth, releasing blue sparks that surged upward to clash against the blazing tongues of fire. Wherever the two energies touched, flame retreated.
The electrical fluctuations dominated layer after layer of heat, devouring the oxygen around them.
!
Ace watched in disbelief as his sun was pushed back—inch by inch—by the arcs of Tiberion's lightning.
What the hell?!
The initial shock turned into a renewed fury that forced him to abandon any concern for the safety of the innocent people around him.
"Hmph."
Swish
With a scornful snort, Tiberion tensed his entire muscular frame at once, and in the next instant, his figure blurred in a flash—only to reappear right in front of the smaller Ace, launching a brutal uppercut straight into his solar plexus.
'Shit!'
Ace barely had time to feel the hairs on his skin stand on end. Gritting his teeth, he summoned a surge of extra power to thicken the flames around his body, coated his fist in intense Armament Haki, and without retreating, threw his punch with every ounce of will he had.
Boom
Both fists—one wrapped in fire and the other shielded by a film of white lightning—collided in a blast so sharp that the light around them collapsed into a blinding, searing white.
The shockwave swept away everything within dozens of meters.
"…"
For a moment that seemed to freeze time, the air turned strange… the pressure dropped, as if the atmosphere had been sucked away all at once.
Swish
Immediately, the balance broke—and Ace's body, consumed by his own combustion, was launched diagonally, flying up the stairs and crashing through the palace doors and the adjoining vestibule before slamming into the interior wall of the main hall, where he struck and collapsed to the floor.
Swish
Without giving him a moment to recover, Tiberion appeared instantly in the main hall.
Still on the ground, Ace lifted his head and stretched out his hand, instinctively releasing the excess heat he had stored up—fueled more by rage than by any strategy.
A stream of flames burst from his palm, but it was useless.
The fire reached Tiberion, but curved away around his electric armor like water over oil: the lightning running across his skin formed a barrier that deflected the heat as he continued his advance.
Upon reaching the Whitebeard pirate, he lifted him from the ground by the neck with a single hand and, with a look of utter disdain, said:
"Fire Fist Ace… you're too weak."
________
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