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"This sword… is for slaying evil."
"Today, you meet your end!"
[SLASH!!!]
A crimson arc tore through the sky, ripping through the eternal night, cutting open the land beneath.
BOOM!!!
The ground roared. The sky screamed.
Bai Ye floated in the air and slowly closed his eyes.
He was completely burned out, his energy spent. He didn't even have the strength left to sense whether Kaji was dead or not.
The blood-red qi faded away.
In the blink of an eye, his long black hair lost all color.
Three thousand strands of white danced in the wind—like a visual requiem for his life.
He'd taken the Blood Demon Pill.Not even a god could save him now.
That's what the Daoist Almanac said.
Bai Ye whispered, "So… this is it?"
Come on… I'm a transmigrator, aren't I?
But no miracle came. He didn't even get to finish his final snarky line before losing consciousness completely.
A second later, he started free-falling from the sky.
"Bai Ye!!!"
Just before he hit the ground, a stretched-out figure raced across the field—
It was Luffy!
He'd broken out of Ryuuze's shadow trap?!
Bai Ye's technique, Ryuuze's Shadow, didn't create a swamp—it turned the ground into one.
In other words, it didn't summon a marsh from nothing. It just made the land soft and suck you in.
So Luffy had basically clawed his way out of a vacuum-swamp death trap.
And now, thanks to his rubber body, he was covered in cuts from the sharp rocks underground.
But he didn't care. Not one bit.
All he could see was Bai Ye falling like a broken kite.
[Gum-Gum... Balloon!]
Right before impact, Luffy took a deep breath—puffing up into a massive rubber balloon and caught him.
He caught him!
Luffy smiled. In his mind, that was enough.
Bai Ye was just badly injured, right? Chopper could fix that.
There were still healing pills too. Bai Ye always had those amazing pills.
He'd healed Zoro so many times. And Nami. And Vivi.
Just one pill…If he takes the medicine, everything will be fine.
Yeah—yeah, that's gotta be it!
Bai Ye's just hurt, right?He can't be… dead?
There's no way—He can't be dead!!!
Luffy dropped to his knees, clutching Bai Ye tightly in his arms.
It felt like any second now, a fist would smack him upside the head.
Bai Ye would sit up and complain, "Don't squeeze me so hard, you idiot!!!"
Yeah, that's what's gonna happen!
There's no way Bai Ye's...No way he's really gone!!!
"AAAHHHHH!!!!"
Luffy couldn't hold it in anymore—he threw his head back and screamed, tears pouring down his face like a broken dam.
His first mate… was dead?
[Bai Ye of Wudang, a Taoist priest.]
[Then let me raise some hell with you, Captain.]
[My captain… he's gonna be the Pirate King, you know.]
[Jeez, stop piling work on me, Captain!]
[Luffy, promise me you'll keep going on this journey!]
"You bastard!!!"
Memories flashed through Luffy's mind like lightning—every moment, every word, every laugh.
And then he roared up at the sky:
"I CAN'T BECOME PIRATE KING WITHOUT YOU!!!"
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
BOOM!!!
With that cry, Luffy finally broke.
A wave of dark red Haki—Conqueror's Haki—exploded from him, bursting out of his body like a storm.
The sheer force of it smashed the already-ruined buildings around him a second time, cracking walls and shaking the earth.
"Lu… Luffy?"
That's when Ace, wearing his cowboy hat, finally arrived.
He'd felt that sword slash from earlier, the one that split the sky.
And it had shocked him—its power rivaled even that of his old man, Whitebeard.
Which only made him rush faster, his heart pounding. He had to know if his little brother was okay.
But when he finally got there—
He froze.
The city looked like it had been plowed through by a god. And in the middle of all the wreckage, his little brother was kneeling, screaming at the sky.
Uncontrolled bursts of Conqueror's Haki pulsed off Luffy so fiercely, even Ace—who had it too—struggled to move forward.
And in Luffy's arms… was someone.
Someone who looked completely lifeless.
"What the hell… happened here?"
Gritting his teeth, Ace forced himself forward, pushing against the waves of pressure coming from Luffy's Haki.
He didn't use his own Conqueror's Haki—afraid it might make things worse.
When he finally reached Luffy, he found his brother in a trance, like a walking corpse. Luffy didn't even react to seeing him.
Then Ace saw who Luffy was holding.
The Straw Hat crew's vice-captain—the Celestial Master, Bai Ye.
Ace's eyes widened, pupils shrinking in shock.
Even without knowing the full story, he understood exactly why Luffy was in so much pain.
"This guy… He just got to the Grand Line, and he's already lost one of his own?"
Luffy looked completely wrecked, and it broke Ace's heart to see him like this.
They were both pirates. Ace had even been a captain once.
He knew Luffy's personality inside out, so of course he understood the pain Luffy was feeling now.
But right then, another voice shouted out:
"Ace! And Straw Hat too!!"
From the other side of the street, Smoker and Tashigi arrived with a group of Marines.
But before anyone could react properly—
Luffy, completely out of it, accidentally unleashed his Conqueror's Haki.
The Marines behind Smoker were instantly knocked out cold.
Only Smoker and Tashigi, gritting their teeth, managed to push forward.
When Smoker saw the man in Luffy's arms—Bai Ye—his eyes widened in shock.
"Bai Ye the Celestial Master… is dead?"
Stunned, Smoker muttered to himself:
"So that means… was it Kaji who did it?"
If HQ hadn't sent someone else behind his back, then the only one strong enough to take down Bai Ye would've been Kaji, the Admiral candidate.
It was only then that the realization hit him:
"That slash earlier… was from Kaji?"
Smoker looked around at the wreckage around them—
And saw something that made his blood run cold.
A man wearing a Marine cloak and a mustard-yellow hat lay sprawled over a pile of rubble.
His Justice cape was torn clean in half by a massive sword slash.
Even worse, his right leg and arm looked like they'd been sliced clean off.
Blood poured from his body, soaking the stones beneath him.
It was Vice Admiral Kaji.
Only now did Smoker truly grasp how serious things had gotten.
The Straw Hat crew… had taken down a Marine Admiral candidate?!!
No way—Smoker couldn't bring himself to believe Bai Ye had done it alone.
So he pinned the blame on the whole Straw Hat crew.
With that in mind, Smoker turned to the Marine beside him and ordered without hesitation:
"Tashigi, our top priority is arresting Straw Hat Luffy and his crew."
Tashigi nodded. "Understood."
Clearly, she also realized how big this was.
But then—
"You wanna arrest my little brother?"
Ace suddenly spoke up, glaring straight at the two Marines who weren't even bothering to hide their plans.
His voice was laced with irritation:
"Then try getting past me first."
Brother?
Smoker and Tashigi both froze.
Straw Hat Luffy was Ace's brother?
Did that mean… he was also connected to Whitebeard?
If this had been any other situation, they might have backed off just to avoid a conflict with the Whitebeard Pirates.
But things had gone way too far.
Whitebeard's name alone wasn't enough to scare them off anymore.
"White Fist!"
"Black Spear!"
Smoker and Tashigi attacked at the same time!!
But then, just a second later—
"Armament—Hardening!"
"Three-Sword Style: Tiger Hunt!"
"Shoulder Meat—Shoot!"
"....."