The center of the Flower Capital was gone.
What once stood as the proud heart of Wano was now a crater of burning debris, a furnace swallowing the earth itself. Flames roared skyward like a beast that had finally broken its chains.
On the outskirts, every building lay in ruins, shattered by the shockwave of Ace's earlier explosion. Heat rolled outward in thick waves, bleaching the air white.
Civilians, samurai, even hardened ninjas stared from afar with helpless eyes. Their capital — their home — was collapsing in front of them. Smoke rose in gigantic columns. Ash fell like dying fireflies.
And in the middle of that blazing wasteland…
Ace stood calmly.
He didn't flinch.
Didn't waver.
This level of destruction wasn't surprising to him — this was the pirate world.
Battles were never neat. Never clean.
Compared to this, even the greatest battles of the shinobi world seemed small.
Below Kage-level, ninja rarely destroyed more than a block.
Even Kage battles usually stayed within a few hundred meters.
But pirate battles?
They were catastrophes.
And Ace felt no guilt.
Most civilians had evacuated.
Orochi was a tyrant.
Killing a tyrant was mercy.
Still… Ace knew it wasn't over.
Orochi didn't die easily.
His Devil Fruit — the Mythical Zoan: Yamata no Orochi — gave him eight lives.
Eight heads.
Eight deaths.
Ace had only killed him once.
So he waited.
Flames curled gently around him like tame serpents, lighting the ruined city with an eerie glow. Ash drifted down like black snow.
Then—
A trembling voice rose behind him.
Orochi had revived again, pale, shaking, his face twisted in fear and disbelief. He expected Ace to be gone. Expected the danger to be over.
He was wrong.
Before Orochi could finish a single sentence, Ace stepped forward and unleashed his improved technique:
"Flame Fist… Impact."
The punch detonated against Orochi's chest.
Fire spiraled.
Orochi screamed.
He burned to ash again.
Second death.
Minutes later, Orochi regenerated.
This time Ace hurled the Scorching Fire Spear through his throat. Flames erupted from the inside, erasing him.
Third death.
When Orochi reappeared again, Ace used Haki and smashed him so hard the tyrant became scattered burning chunks.
Fourth death.
The next revival was met with a kick so fast Orochi didn't even react. His skull burst apart mid-sentence.
Fifth death.
By the sixth time, Orochi's arrogance shattered.
Before Ace even lifted a hand, Orochi fell to his knees, beating his head against the scorched ground.
"Please! Please don't kill me! I'll give you anything! Anything!"
His voice cracked, filled with terror.
Then, desperate, he pulled out a pistol with shaking fingers.
"K–Kaido-sama is behind me! If you kill me, Kaido-sama will never forgive—!"
Ace just stared at him.
Then raised his arm.
"Flame Bullets."
Six shots.
Six miniature suns.
Each struck a different point — chest, shoulders, legs — and exploded.
Orochi's shriek filled the dead city.
Seventh death.
When Orochi regenerated for the final time, he barely had form left — trembling, terrified.
Ace summoned the Scorching Fire Spear once more.
"No… no—!"
Ace thrust forward. The spear pierced his heart, detonating from within.
The eighth and final head, the eighth and final life—
gone.
Orochi was no more.
Fire simmered around Ace's feet as he stood alone in the ruined Flower Capital, the last embers rising like silent applause.
---
Three Days Later
Three days passed since Ace burned Kurozumi Orochi out of existence, and all of Wano felt the aftershocks.
Chaos spread everywhere.
But beneath that chaos…
the civilians celebrated.
Villages that had suffered under Orochi's cruelty for decades were finally free. Tax collectors, bandits, and slavers who tormented the people vanished—burned away, hunted down, or fled screaming after hearing about the Fire Demon who erased their Shogun in a single night.
Ace didn't rest either.
He moved from region to region, cutting down every bandit group he found. The battles weren't as grand as the showdown at the Flower Capital, but they added fuel to his legend.
In taverns and teahouses:
"The Fire Demon protects us."
"He burns the wicked, but saves the innocent."
"Wano might finally change…"
News spread quickly.
Fear spread even faster.
---
Ace noticed something else spreading across Wano—
Beast Pirates.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
But strangely…
They didn't attack anyone.
They only interrogated villagers, inspected burn marks, measured craters, and left.
They were investigating something.
No… investigating someone.
Him.
Ace knew he didn't have much time.
---
Next day
He sat on a giant boulder overlooking a scorched field from yesterday's fight. The wind carried faint laughter from freed villagers.
Ace inhaled slowly.
By his estimate:
From the moment he left the Whitebeard Pirates to now—
12 to 15 days had passed.
And based on the One Piece memories in his mind:
Ace was captured two months after leaving Whitebeard.
Which meant—
He had about one month left.
Maybe less.
Maybe more.
But not enough to gamble.
And worst of all—
If Teach couldn't capture Ace…
He would go after Luffy.
Maybe Luffy had plot armor.
Maybe the world itself favored him.
But Ace wasn't gambling his brother's life.
Not this time.
---
Ace stood.
Fire sparked at his feet.
"Today," he said quietly, "I will free Udon Prison."
His fists tightened.
"And tonight… I will free Yamato."
After that…
Run with Yamato?
Storm Onigashima?
Confront Kaido?
Or pull the strings from the shadows?
He didn't know yet.
But he did know one thing:
He wouldn't let fate replay the same tragedy again.
---