By the time they reached the ship, it surprised absolutely no one that Luffy was gone.
Varin knew the exact moment it happened, too. Sanji had gone left. Luffy had gone right. The idiot he called captain had been too busy watching Smoker and Ace tearing half a street apart, to remember the reason they were even on Alabasta.
They hit the deck in a rush of motion and shouting, ropes loosed, sails hauled. The ship pushed off almost immediately, angling away from the coast but not too far. Close enough that, when Luffy finally realised he was alone and reached out with those ridiculous rubber arms, he would still be able to latch on.
Varin dropped heavily near the railing, still in his wolf form. He sat on his haunches and panted, tongue lolling despite his best efforts to keep some dignity. The heat was brutal. The sun was beating down, the deck boiling under his paws. Fur trapping everything like an insult layered on top of another insult.
He could change back. It would help. Less fur, less suffering. He did not.
Part of it was readiness if Marines showed. If that crocodile decided to come say hello. If things went sideways fast, he wanted claws and teeth already there. The other part was quieter/
He did not want Ace to recognise him because if Ace recognised his bloodline, then there were only two endings he could see. Varin stared out toward the distant shoreline, ears twitching at every sound, every shout carried by the wind. He didn't like the thought, but he couldn't get rid of it. Either Luffy's brother died, or he did.
Varin exhaled slowly through his nose, a low rumble in his chest that was half growl, half sigh. "Gods above," he muttered under his breath, tail flicking once against the deck. "Couldn't we have one quiet landing?"
As the ship cut through the water, sails lowered, and wood creaking as it pulled farther from shore. The sounds of the city faded into heat haze and distance, but the tension did not leave with it. If anything, it thickened, like the air itself had weight now.
Varin stayed where he was, wolf form still planted near the railing, silver eyes fixed on the coastline until buildings blurred into sand and stone. His ears flicked constantly, tracking voices, footsteps, the rhythm of the ship. He could hear Nami barking orders, sharp and efficient. Sanji moving back and forth with too much purpose for someone pretending not to worry. Zoro leaned against the mast, arms crossed, eyes closed, but attention razor sharp. The crew was pretending this was normal. That their captain vanishing in the middle of a Marine hotspot was just another day.
It was for them.
Varin let out a slow breath, heat shimmering off his fur. His instincts were pulled tight, stretched between too many threats. Marines. Warlords. Gods. And now one of Whitebeard's messes was brushing dangerously close to their own mess.
Ace. The name sat wrong in his head. Not because of the man himself, but because of what he represented. The New World creeping closer. Old powers overlapping with new ones. Fate getting ideas.
A hand brushed his shoulder fur, tentative at first.
"You alright?" Vivi asked softly.
He tilted his head just enough to look at her. She stood beside him, hands clasped in front of her, hair tied back, eyes squinting against the sun. She looked tired. Not physically. Something deeper. The weight of responsibility she never put down.
"Aye," Varin said after a moment. "As alright as I get."
She smiled faintly, not fully buying it but letting it go. "Luffy will come back. He always does."
He huffed, something between a laugh and a growl. "That's not what worries me. It's what he's gonna bring back."
They stood in silence for a bit. The ship rocked gently, waves slapping the hull in a steady rhythm. Karoo waddled nearby, pecking at something that did not need pecking. Chopper hovered close to the cabin door, trying very hard not to look nervous and failing.
Varin's ears twitched sharply. Something moved on the shore, fast and erratic.
His head snapped up fully, body tensing. "Heads up."
Zoro's eyes opened instantly. Nami followed Varin's gaze, hand shading her eyes. "What is it?"
Before anyone could answer, a familiar voice cut through the air.
"HEY GUYS"
The shout was followed by the unmistakable snap of rubber stretching too far and the sudden weight slamming into the side of the ship.
"LUFFY!" Usopp screamed.
Luffy swung in hard, arms wrapped around the railing, laughing like he had just won something. "I FOUND YOU"
The ship lurched violently. Varin surged forward without thinking, claws digging into the deck as he braced himself against the railing, shoulder slamming into Luffy's side to keep him from bouncing back off.
"You absolute menace," Varin snarled, teeth bared inches from Luffy's face.
Luffy grinned wider. "Hey, you're still fluffy."
Sanji kicked Luffy in the head. Nami hit him with a sack. Usopp yelled about heart attacks. Vivi covered her mouth, relief obvious.
Varin stayed close even as the chaos exploded around them, eyes flicking back toward the horizon. For half a heartbeat, they thought it was just heat distortion again. Then the wind shifted.
His ears flattened.
"…blood, of course," Varin growled low, the sound rumbling out of his chest. He rose to his full height, paws scraping wood as he stared out over the water. "We've got ships. A lot of them."
Nami followed his gaze, heart dropping as the shapes resolved. Dark specks at first. Then hulls. Sails. Too many to count cleanly, spreading wide like a net being drawn tight.
"Those are…" Vivi's voice caught. She swallowed, hands gripping the railing. "Those are Baroque Works ships. The Billions."
The word hit the deck like a weight.
Usopp turned pale. "B billions as in… a lot of guys… with weapons… who wanna kill us?"
"Yes," Vivi said quietly. "Exactly that."
The sea around Alabasta was alive with movement now. Wooden vessels cutting through the waves, oars churning, sails snapping. They were positioning themselves deliberately, not rushing in blindly. Boxing the Straw Hats in. Cutting off the longer route around the island.
Nami clicked her tongue, already calculating angles and wind. "We can't circle the other way. Not with this many. They'll close the gap before we clear the coast."
Sanji leaned over the railing, eyes narrowed. "So we punch through."
"Punch through how?" Usopp yelped. "There's like a hundred of them"
Zoro cracked his neck once, hand resting on his swords. "Then we sink a hundred."
Varin did not answer. His attention had locked onto something else.
Fire.
A column of it roared skyward near the edge of the blockade, sudden and violent. One of the wooden ships vanished in an instant, hull blackening, then collapsing as flames tore through it. Another followed. And another.
The sea lit up orange.
Ace hovered above the water, body half flame, half man, moving with effortless confidence. Every gesture sent fire cascading outward, controlled and precise. He was not lashing out wildly. He was carving a path.
Wooden boats did not mean much to a man made of fire.
Luffy whooped, climbing onto the railing. "ACE"
Varin snapped his jaws inches from Luffy's head. "Sit. Down."
Luffy froze, then laughed awkwardly and complied.
The Billions reacted fast. Too fast for normal mercenaries. Ships shifted formation, pulling back from Ace, others pushing forward to compensate. Smoke bombs burst across the water, thick black clouds meant to break the line of sight.
"Clever," Varin muttered. "Won't stop him, but it'll slow him."
Ace blasted through the smoke anyway, fire burning it away in rolling waves. But Varin could see the strain now. The way Ace hovered lower between attacks. The way his movements grew sharper, more deliberate.
He is strong, Varin thought. But not endless.
And Crocodile's people knew that. Another ship slipped through the smoke, too close to the Straw Hats for comfort.
"Brace," Varin barked.
The ship shuddered as a cannon fired. The shot missed wide, splashing into the sea, but it was close enough to send spray over the deck. Chopper yelped. Karoo flapped uselessly.
Varin moved before Nami finished shouting orders. He leapt to the railing, claws digging in, chest expanding as he drew in a breath that tasted like salt, smoke, and heat.
Then he howled.
The sound tore across the water, deep and feral, carrying something feral in it. The kind that made prey hesitate and predators reconsider.
Several cannons faltered, and heads turned.
"That buy us time?" Sanji shouted.
"Seconds," Varin replied. "Take them."
The merry surged forward as Nami caught a favourable current, slipping into the gap Ace had burned open. Fire raged to their left, smoke to their right, chaos everywhere. Cannon fire boomed, splinters flew.
Varin stayed planted at the bow, nerves screaming, eyes tracking every threat. He caught one ship lining up another shot and snarled, leaping from the deck in a blur of fur and force. He landed hard on the enemy hull, wood groaning under his weight.
Men shouted, and guns came up far too slowly.
He tore through the mast with a swipe, splintering it clean through. The sail collapsed. The ship lurched, momentum dying as it drifted helplessly.
The ship lurched, momentum dying as it drifted helplessly, mast snapping and sails collapsing into a useless tangle. Shouts followed Varin as he was already moving again, muscles coiling before he sprang back toward the Straw Hats' ship in a powerful arc.
He hit the deck hard, claws skidding as the Merry surged forward beneath him. Nami didn't waste the opening. She hauled the helm over, catching the current Ace had burned clear, and the ship shot through the gap at full tilt.
They burst free of the worst of it moments later.
Behind them, the blockade was fractured and burning. Wooden hulls smoldered, some already half sunk, others spinning uselessly as fire ate through rigging and deck alike. Smoke rolled low across the water, broken now by clear stretches where flames had scorched the sea itself.
Varin straightened, chest heaving, eyes still locked on the chaos behind them.
That was when the fire shifted.
Ace landed lightly on a small boat he had no business standing on, flames licking beneath it like a living engine. He rode the scorched water with casual balance, one hand in his pocket, the other raised in a lazy wave as he surfed straight toward them.
"LUFFY", Ace called, grinning wide.
Luffy nearly vaulted overboard. "ACE, THAT WAS SO COOL!"
Sanji grabbed him by the collar just in time. "DON'T YOU DARE"
Ace laughed as he coasted alongside, cutting the flames and letting the boat drift.
It didn't take long for the celebration to kick off in full force.
Sanji returned with a bowl filled to the brim with alcohol, grinning like he'd personally invented generosity. Varin took one look at it, sighed, and accepted it anyway. Sanji leaned in a second too close and earned himself a sharp bite on the wrist for his trouble.
"Oi", Sanji yelped. "That was instinct"
Varin snorted, already shifting back into his human form so he could drink properly. He tipped the bowl back and drained it in one go, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
That was when the trouble started.
"Hey, Ace", Luffy said, pointing happily. "Whatcha starin at Varin for Come drink with us again"
Varin froze mid-motion.
Slowly, he set the empty bowl down.
Across from him, Ace's grin hadn't vanished, but it had changed. Sharper now. Focused. The heat rolling off him thickened just a little, enough that Varin felt it crawl across his skin.
"You're a Stirnvald", Ace said at last, eyes narrowing. Not accusing. Confirming.
Varin closed his eyes for half a second.
"Oh bloody ale and my love for the stuff," he muttered.
He turned fully to face Ace, shoulders squared, expression flat but calm. No weapons drawn. No shift. Just a man who knew exactly how this conversation could go.
"Aye", Varin said. "I was anyway."
A few heads turned. Nami stilled. Zoro straightened just enough to be ready.
Varin kept going before anyone else could jump in.
"No, I'm not a Marine. No, I'm not part of the family. No, I'm not gonna tell you why." He exhaled slowly. "And before ya ask, I didn't hide it to trick anyone. I hid it because it's never ended well."
Ace studied him in silence.
Varin met his gaze without flinching.
"Besides", Varin added, jerking his chin toward Luffy, who was already halfway through another laugh he didn't understand. "You and I both know your brother's a good judge of character. You really think I'd still be standin on this deck if I meant harm"
Luffy nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, if Varin was bad, I'd punch him already"
Ace laughed once at that. A short sound. Real.
The tension eased, just a fraction.
"Huh", Ace said. "Guess that tracks."
The heat pulled back, flames settling into a low simmer around him instead of a blaze.
"Hey Varin, what's a Styrnvald?" Luffy asked, genuine curiosity written all over his face.
Varin looked at him.
For a long moment, nothing happened. He stared at Luffy like he was trying to solve a puzzle that didn't have an answer. If Odin himself descended from the sky and asked him to explain his own life choices, Varin suspected it would be easier than explaining this to his captain.
He exhaled slowly.
"Aye. Aye. I'll tell ya."
That got everyone's attention.
Varin's eyes moved across the deck. Nami first, always sharp and observant, already piecing things together. Usopp frozen mid-drink. Chopper perched stiffly, ears twitching. Zoro leaning against the railing, pretending not to care while very clearly listening. Sanji, not swooning for once. Vivi was watching him with that calm, steady concern she always carried. Then Luffy and Ace, side by side.
The crew. His crew. "Back before I was on that rock", Varin started, voice low but steady. "Before you lot dragged me into this mess and called it a rescue. I was a Styrnvald." He paused, then added almost absently, "And while we're at it. Nami. Usopp. Thanks for not tellin the others when I let some things slip back on Little Garden."
Nami didn't comment. Just nodded once.
Varin went on. "Styrnvald ain't a title. Ain't a rank. It's a family name." His fingers flexed unconsciously. "Marine family. Old one. Old enough that half the Navy pretends not to remember where it started."
He lifted his head slightly, silver eyes catching the sunlight.
"Our eyes give us away. Bright as stars. Can't hide 'em no matter how hard ya try. We've been in the Navy longer than most nations have existed. As far back as the Void Century. Maybe further. Hard to say what's truth and what's legend at that point."
The deck was dead silent now. "We've always been big names. Never foot soldiers. Never nobodies." His jaw tightened. "My grandfather was Grand Admiral. Before the current one. Sengoku."
That one landed like a hard.
Usopp made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a choke. Chopper's jaw dropped. Sanji slowly lowered his cigarette. Nami's eyes narrowed in thought.
Varin didn't look at any of them.
"Most of the family sits at captain rank or higher. Commanders. Strategists. Executioners when the Navy needs one." He scoffed quietly. "And according to a mouth in Loguetown, one of my sisters is an admiral now. First time they ever broke their precious three-admiral rule. Apparently, she was worth makin' it four."
Silence stretched.
Varin scratched the back of his neck, suddenly very aware of the weight of every eye on him. The deck creaked softly beneath their feet, the sea rolling on like it hadn't just been handed something heavy to chew on.
Nami was the first to break it.
"Not that I'm complaining," she said slowly, arms crossed, tone careful but honest, "but… why now?" She tilted her head. "You've been with us for what, a month? And I'm not saying you aren't one of us, because you are. But this feels kinda…" she searched for the word, "…anticlimactic. I mean, your family being big shots in the Navy? That's terrifying. Especially the part about special trees and devil fruits and how many monsters like you they can churn out. But you could've told us earlier. Why wait?"
A few of them nodded. Even Zoro glanced over, interested. Chopper looked torn between fear and concern.
Varin paused. Really paused. Then he let out a short laugh.
It wasn't loud. It wasn't mocking. But it was sharp enough that half the crew flinched anyway.
"Because I'm from a family of pirate killers, lass," he said plainly. "That alone answers half your question."
He dropped his hand, eyes drifting toward the sea instead of any of them.
"How many crews do you think would hear that and immediately assume I'm waitin for the right moment to put a blade in their back?" he continued. "Or that I'm some kind of sleeper agent. Or worse, that keepin me around paints a target on their sails big enough for the Navy to see from the Red Line."
Usopp swallowed. "Okay, yeah, when you say it like that—"
"And even if they didn't think that," Varin went on, "how many would decide it ain't worth the risk? Toss me overboard. Tie me up. Leave me behind on the next island."
He shrugged, but there was tension in it.
"I've been ousted before," he said. "Cast out. Cut loose. By my own blood bo less" His jaw tightened. "Didn't fancy makin' it happen again."
Vivi spoke up softly. "So you didn't trust us?"
Varin turned his head to her immediately. "No. That ain't it." He sighed. "I didn't trust myself."
That earned him a few confused looks.
"I didn't know if I'd stay," he admitted. "Didn't know if I deserved to. Or if I'd screw it all up the moment my family caught wind of me breathin' free air again. Hard to call people your crew when you're still waitin for the axe to fall."
He glanced at Luffy then, who was listening with an uncharacteristic seriousness.
"And besides," Varin added, voice rougher now, "you don't exactly lead with 'my family would happily execute all of you' when you're askin for a place at the table."
Sanji clicked his tongue. "You could've trusted us with that."
"Aye," Varin said quietly. "And now I do."
Nami studied him for a long second. Then she exhaled, some of the tension bleeding out of her shoulders.
"…You're an idiot," she said. "But I get it."
Usopp nodded furiously. "Yeah! I mean, I'd probably hide that too! I hide way smaller stuff!"
Chopper shuffled closer, ears drooping a little. "You don't feel like… like a Marine," he said. "You feel like you."
Zoro snorted. "Anyone who thinks this guy's secretly loyal to the Navy hasn't been paying attention."
Luffy finally laughed, loud and easy, like the air itself had decided to breathe again. "So you were scared we'd kick you out?"
Varin huffed. "Aye."
Luffy grinned. "That's dumb. We'd just punch you if you did something stupid."
"…Comforting," Varin muttered.
Ace watched the exchange quietly, then took another drink, eyes flicking between them with a faint smile.
Varin straightened a little, rolling his shoulders. "So aye. That's why now. Because I finally stopped waitin for it to fall apart."
He met Nami's gaze again, steady this time. She didn't look away. But it was Ace who spoke next.
"You've convinced me," Ace said, a crooked grin pulling at his mouth. "Any Stirnvald I've ever heard of would've lectured us, threatened us, or tried to arrest half this ship by now. You?" He snorted. "You're way too honest. And way too broken."
He stepped closer and clapped a hand on Varin's shoulder, the heat rolling off him in waves but not burning. "I'll tell Pops about you when I get back. He'll probably challenge you to a drinking contest. Been talkin for years about wantin to see who can outdrink a Navy bloodhound."
Varin barked a short laugh. "Aye. When I meet him, I'll drink him under. I promise that much."
Then his expression shifted. Subtle, but real.
"Since you've been to the New World," Varin said, voice lowering just a touch, "you know which sister of mine wears the coat?"
Ace didn't answer right away. But when he did it was more like a warning. "Astrid," he said simply.
The name hit harder than Mister Three.
"hví, at Óðins skeggi, er hon svá grimm at jafnvel Hel sjálf er eigi svá harðr"
The words slipped out of Varin before he could stop them, old and sharp and instinctive. His eyes never left Ace's face as he spoke, jaw tight, shoulders stiff like he was bracing for a blow that never came. Instead, what met him was mirth. And a flicker of confusion.
"That's the first time I've ever heard you speak… whatever that was," Zoro said, lips curling into a grin so smug it begged for violence. "But I'm guessin that means the name's bad."
Varin glanced sideways at him, eyes narrowing. For half a second, the wolf showed in his posture alone. He was sorely tempted to bite him. In human form, not wolf.
"It means," Varin said flatly, "that even death isn't this cruel."
That did it. Vivi made a strangled sound and ducked into Karoo's feathers, shoulders shaking. Usopp burst out laughing outright. Chopper looked between them, wide-eyed and fascinated.
"I didn't know you spoke other languages," Nami said, stepping closer, curiosity lighting her face. She glanced at Vivi, then back at Varin. "That didn't sound like anything I've heard."
Varin scratched at his jaw, suddenly very aware of how many eyes were on him again. "Aye. Old tongue. The family tongue, so to say. Older than most things that still draw breath." He snorted.
"So," Luffy said, tilting his head, completely unbothered by the tension, "she's like… really mean?"
Varin barked a humourless laugh. "That's one way to put it."
Ace watched him quietly, arms crossed, flames low and steady. He did not interrupt. He did not react beyond a slight tightening around the eyes.
"V-varin," Usopp started slowly, already regretting the question halfway through, "what's her devil fruit. You said Yggdrasil gave everyone a fruit, right?"
Varin closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed at his brow like he was trying to stave off a headache that had been waiting years to catch up to him. "That," he said, voice rough, "is the issue."
He lowered his hand and looked back at them, silver eyes duller than before. "Her fruit is the Ryu Ryu no Mi, model Fafnir. She's a dragon zoan."
Nobody laughed this time. Chopper's jaw dropped. Vivi's breath caught. Even Zoro went still, hand unconsciously shifting closer to his swords.
"A dragon," Nami repeated carefully.
"Aye," Varin said. "Not one of the pretty storybook ones either. Fafnir was greed and fire, and ruin given flesh. Scales harder than iron. Breath that melts stone. A body that does not know when to stop movin."
Usopp swallowed. "So like… big dragon?"
Varin huffed. "Big enough that ships stop lookin' like ships and start lookin' like kindlin."
Luffy leaned forward, eyes bright instead of afraid. "Cool."
Varin stared at him. "You are going to get yourself killed one day."
"Probably," Luffy said cheerfully.
"I aspire to never meet someone else like ya," Varin said, good-natured despite the weight that had always been on him, that he only now recognised.
His chest felt lighter than it had in a long while, like something he had been bracing against had finally passed him by. All that worry, all that time spent waitin' for the moment it went wrong, and it hadn't. He'd forgotten, somehow, just how stupidly good the kid he called captain was at acceptin' things as they were.
Luffy just grinned at him, wide and easy, like none of it mattered more than the next meal.
"Aye, but… thank you," Varin went on, voice quieter now. "Really. Guess I was worried I'd end up stranded on some rock again, starin at the sea and wonderin where I went wrong."
He looked around the deck. The noise, the bickering, the laughter. Zoro, who had been fidgeting with his swords, Sanji was already arguing with Usopp, Chopper was perched near Vivi, and Nami was counting something that definitely wasn't honest.
"So even if you are the best I can do," he added, a crooked smile tugging at his mouth, "I'll take ya."
Luffy blinked once.
Then he laughed, loud and sharp and utterly offended. "Oi. We're the best best."
Varin snorted, leaning back, the ship rocking gently beneath him as the Merry cut through the water. For the first time in a long time, he let himself believe it.
And so the festivities rolled on.
Ace had time. Not much, but enough. Before he had to go hunt down a man named Blackbeard, a former crewmate who'd committed the one sin that couldn't be ignored. Mutiny. All for a Devil Fruit. Varin couldn't fault him for that. If someone stabbed their own family in the back for power, they forfeited any right to mercy. Execution felt less like cruelty and more like inevitability.
The weight of that truth lingered for only a moment before Ace decided he was done being serious.
He squinted at Varin, then grinned widely. "Alright. If you're gonna claim you can drink with Pops, I gotta see it. Right here. Right now."
That was how it started.
The contest drew attention fast. Sanji produced cups with far too much enthusiasm. Usopp began loudly announcing imaginary rules. Luffy cheered for both sides at once. Chopper tried to keep count and failed almost immediately. Nami watched with narrowing eyes, already calculating losses.
Barrel after barrel vanished.
Ace drank like a man who had nothing to lose and nowhere else to be. Varin drank like it was muscle memory, like he'd been trained for this the same way others were trained for war. Neither slowed. Neither faltered. Laughter got louder. The deck swayed, though it was hard to tell if that was the sea or the alcohol.
In the end, it didn't end with one of them collapsing.
It ended with Nami slamming her foot down on the deck hard enough to rattle the mast.
"That's enough."
There was instant silence. Then a glance at the damage. All but one barrel gone. They had just bought all those as well.
Ace blinked, looked around, then burst out laughing, scratching the back of his neck. "Alright, alright. I'll admit it." Everyone leaned in. "I wasn't even really drinkin'," he said, grin unapologetic. "I can burn the spirits right outta the ale. Been doin' it the whole time."
Luffy looked betrayed on a spiritual level.
Varin stared at Ace for a long second. Then he laughed, deep and rough. "So that's how you survive drinkin with Whitebeard."
Ace clapped him on the shoulder. "Yeah. And even then, I still don't win."
By technicality alone, Varin took the victory. By Nami's decree, they were all done.
The fun wound down after that. The laughter softened into something quieter, looser. The kind that only comes when the edge has passed, and nobody feels like pretending they are tougher than the boss. Ace stood with Luffy near the rail, pulling a small scrap of paper from inside his coat. He pressed it into Luffy's hand with a seriousness that cut through the haze.
"A vivre card," Ace said. "It's tied to me. Long as it exists, it'll pull toward where I am. So if you ever get lost… well. You won't be."
Luffy stared at it like it was the greatest treasure he'd ever seen. "Awesome."
Ace grinned, ruffling his brother's hair. He turned after that, glancing over at the rest of them. At Varin, specifically.
"I'll tell Pops about you," Ace said easily. "About all of you. Means you won't have to worry about runnin' into us blind. One less thing tryin to kill ya."
That mattered more than Ace probably realised. Varin nodded once in thanks. He did not trust words much, but Ace's carried weight.
The future waited for them all. Far off, sharp and unavoidable.
Ace moved toward his strange little boat, flames already licking at the edges of it, when Varin spoke.
"Oi, lad. Before you go."
Ace paused, one foot on the rail of the Merry. He glanced back over his shoulder. "Yeah? What's up?"
Varin hesitated. That did not happen often. He rubbed his jaw, eyes unfocused. "My memories are… spotty. Lotta things got torn outta my head. I won't keep ya with another story, but there's a way to hit logias like you, aye?"
Ace blinked. Genuine surprise flickered across his face.
"Huh. You know about that?"
He stepped back onto the deck and lifted his arm. A black sheen spread over his fist, dark and solid, swallowing the fire instead of feeding it.
"Armament Haki," Ace said. "Most folks don't even hear about it till Sabaody. Learning it is another matter entirely. But yeah, it lets you hit us, it lets you hurt us."
Varin watched, breath slow, heart thudding. The sight of it was like a key turning somewhere deep in his skull.
"Haki," Varin repeated quietly.
Something shifted. Memory fragments surfaced. Old voices. Commands barked over crashing waves. The sting of knuckles against stone. His brothers standing in a line. His sisters, taller, sharper. Astrid, among them, already terrifying even then, correcting stances with ruthless precision.
He clenched his hand without meaning to.
"You train it through…" Varin started, then trailed off, brow furrowed as he chased the thought.
"Willpower," Ace finished. "Usually it has to be dragged outta you. Extreme situations do that real well." He tilted his head, studying Varin with new interest. "Honestly? Thinking about it now, it doesn't surprise me you know this. Or that you've brushed up against it before."
For a moment, neither spoke. The sea filled the space between them.
Ace stepped back again, fire flaring under his feet as he jumped onto his boat. "Get stronger," he said, casual but firm. "The world only gets meaner from here."
Varin nodded, then hesitated. Something in his chest twisted, tight and insistent. Before he could overthink it, he lifted his arm.
He focused. Harder than he ever had on anything.
At first, he did what Ace said. Will to live. Pure stubborn refusal to die. It went nowhere, just noise in his head.
So he stopped forcing it. His thoughts shifted without him meaning to. Away from himself. Away from survival.
To faces. To loud laughter on a ship deck. To a rubber idiot grinning at the horizon. To a swordsman sleeping with blades like they were pillows. To a cook who'd die before letting anyone go hungry. To a thief who pretended not to care and a doctor who cared too much. To a princess who carried a country on her shoulders and still smiled anyway.
Family. Not the one he was born into. The one he chose. Protect. The thought hit like a hammer, and something answered.
A faint black sheen crept along the edges of his fingertips, uneven and shaking. It barely made it past the first joint before flickering, unstable, like it might vanish if he breathed wrong, it wasn't clean, it wasn't strong, but it was there.
Varin's breath caught. He held it for a heartbeat, then two, before it slipped away, dissolving like dirt under rain. Silence followed. The deck was very, very quiet.
Ace stared. Then his face split into a wide grin, bright and sharp and painfully familiar, a perfect mimic of his brother's smile.
"Ha," he laughed, pointing at Varin. "You saw that, right? Took you two minutes. That's insane."
Luffy blinked. "Saw what?"
Ace ignored him. "You keep my idiot brother safe, yeah?" His tone was light, but there was steel underneath it, trust, real trust. "You're gonna be a real monster by the time you hit the New World. We should spar then."
He laughed again, fire flaring brighter beneath his boat. "Pops'll love ya."
Ace's grin lingered a moment longer before he turned, flames carrying him away across the water, fast and bright until he was nothing but a streak against the water.
Varin lowered his hand slowly, flexing his fingers. They felt the same. They didn't. Something had shifted. Something had woken up. He wasn't ready yet. But he would be.
He glanced back at the crew. Luffy was already talking a mile a minute. Nami was yelling at him. Zoro looked vaguely amused. The Merry creaked beneath their feet, steady and stubborn.
Varin sat down heavily against the rail, a low breath leaving him.
"Get stronger," he muttered to himself.
Aye.
He would.