dmims Chapter 358 What do you think of this country?
Chapter 358 What do you think of this country?
"You came for me?"
Ace was taken aback when he heard what "Hana-sama" said.
Then, the coldness in his eyes intensified: "You really dare to say that. You've been hiding ever since you killed my companions one by one, and now you dare to come looking for me?"
What he said was the same as what was known on the high seas.
Portgas D. Ace, the "Fire Fist," and Hanazawa, the "Lizard King," are mortal enemies—the reason being that Hanazawa's fleet killed several of Ace's comrades.
Since then, Ace and the other members of the Spade Pirates have been chasing Hanazawa's trail all the way to Wano Country.
So when he heard Hua Zha's words, he only felt it was a provocation.
"However, are all these real fighters... ability users? Is the rumor true? Did the Beasts recently obtain a batch of Devil Fruits?"
Despite his surging fighting spirit, Ace did not lose his composure—he looked at the obvious Devil Fruit marks on the bodies of the real fighters in front of him and frowned slightly.
While Ace was observing the Shin Fighters, the Shin Fighters were also observing Ace.
"Is that 'Fire Fist' Portgas D. Ace?"
"Hayel actually got killed, what a piece of trash."
"I did hear that the Spade Pirates went missing in the nearby waters. They actually landed in Wano Country?"
"I remember there's a village here called 'Haibashi Village,' wasn't it the villagers who helped them?"
"Lord Hanazono, we will restrain this guy's movements. Please deliver the fatal blow—then we'll wipe out this village that dared to rebel against the 'Beasts'!"
As soon as he finished speaking, several fighters rushed towards Ace without hesitation.
At the same time, except for their backs, their bodies were covered with jet-black Armament Haki, and their Observation Haki locked down all parts of Ace's body. As the backbone of the Beasts Pirates, they were clearly proficient in both types of Haki.
Upon seeing this, Ace's expression instantly turned serious.
It wasn't that he was afraid of the real fighters in front of him, but he had already seen Hua Zha not far away make a move—the other party raised the scythe hammer in his hand, and his body began to slowly "turn into a dinosaur".
It seems that, just as the fighters said, he planned to attack Ace together with his subordinates.
"A despicable fellow as always."
As Ace murmured to himself, flames began to ignite around him, his resolve to fight to the bitter end hardened.
"Fire Fist."
However, before he could unleash his fiery fist...
He then witnessed an incredible scene.
Not far ahead, Hua Zha had indeed transformed into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, just as he had guessed, and was wielding the scythe-hammer in his hand. But the problem was...
"So slow."
Sensing the speed and power of the scythe wielded by Hanaza, Ace's Observation Haki had already given him the answer—compared to the Hanaza he knew, that scythe was at most less than one-fifth in both speed and power.
But clearly, this level of attack is sufficient against an enemy who has their back to you and is completely unprepared.
"laugh!"
"laugh!"
A series of sounds reached Ace's ears—the sound of a sharp blade slicing through flesh.
But what was severed was not Ace's body, but the Shinbumen who were originally attacking him.
Those who were actually fighting didn't even have time to react before their bodies were cleaved in two by the scythe part of the flower-adorned weapon.
The characteristics of their Zoan-type Devil Fruit users vanished rapidly, leaving only a bewildered corpse when they landed. Ace: "?"
He looked at Hua Zha in surprise, somewhat confused about what was going on—was Hua Zha so particular about the rules that she wanted to fight him one-on-one?
Even if it's a one-on-one fight, is it really necessary to kill all your teammates?
Before Ace could even ask a question.
Hua Zha's figure leaped down and stepped in front of him.
As he walked forward, his figure began to change—from a tall, unusually strong man to a relatively well-proportioned one.
On his face, the original helmet had been replaced with a dog-head mask.
"Let me introduce myself. I am the 'Dog' in the Chinese zodiac."
He looked at Ace and said seriously, "Although I know the situation is a bit sudden, ... we have some things we want to talk to you about." An hour later, in Amigasa Village.
"You mean, Hanazawa was already killed by you? The Hanazawa who has been living in Wano Country all this time was just a clone created by your power?"
The villagers, who were just organizing their evacuation not long ago, are still in shock.
Inside the room, Ace was unusually out of control.
His face turned bright red, and his expression was very complicated.
His feelings were naturally very complicated—just as mentioned before, he had been hunting down Hua Zha for quite some time.
He had decisively chosen to cross the Whitebeard's seas after entering the New World, risking his life countless times with his companions. But now, the person before him was telling him that the person he had been chasing all along was not Hua Zha at all.
Isn't this ridiculous?
But unfortunately, Ace couldn't blame the dog in front of him.
Ultimately, no matter how you look at it, Hua Zha still died at the hands of the Twelve Constellations, which can be considered as avenging his great grudge.
Moreover, in the end, the twelve constellations had no obligation to tell him about Hua Zha's death.
It was precisely when Ace was speechless.
Beside Ace, Deuce, the vice-captain and doctor of the Spade Pirates, and also his first comrade, frowned and said, "We roughly understand the situation with Hanazono, but I'm a little curious... how did you know we were in Wano Country?"
His role within the Spade Pirates is somewhat similar to that of Ben Beckman in the Red-Haired Pirates; he is the strategist within the team.
So at this moment, he asked the question more calmly than Ace.
"Your younger brother saved Jinbe, the 'Knight of the Sea,' in a recent incident, and as a result, his Devil Fruit awakened."
The dog remained expressionless: "Our organization is responsible for dealing with the uncontrolled side effects of his Devil Fruit awakening, and we also learned that you have entered Wano Country." Ace suddenly stood up, his expression filled with shock.
"Brother? You mean Luffy—his Devil Fruit has awakened? No, why is he at sea? There should still be two years left!" Ace's mind was filled with countless questions.
Since they began chasing Hanazawa into Wano Country, they have been largely unaware of the situation outside—after all, Wano Country is a closed-off country, and even the seagulls delivering newspapers for the World Economic News Agency wouldn't come here.
However, even without the fact that they hadn't lost contact with the outside world, what Inugami said now still seemed unbelievable to Ace.
What the heck is Devil Fruit Awakening? How old is Luffy anyway?
Compared to Ace, who had completely lost his composure, Deuce noticed another crucial point: "You mean Ace's brother saved Jinbe?"
His understanding of Luffy was limited to the stories Ace told him, but it was a different story with Jinbe.
Just as mentioned before, Jinbe played a huge role in their ability to secretly sneak into Wano Country this time.
"That's right"
The dog didn't try to hide anything and immediately gave a brief account of the news that Jinbe had been captured by the villain "Black Xie" in the Sabaody Archipelago, and how Luffy and Rayleigh had subsequently rescued him.
The more Ace listened, the more serious his expression became.
From Inu's words, he could tell that the Luffy and Jinbe described were almost exactly the same as what he knew. "Attacking a World Government warship under the Great Elevator—that's too reckless, but if it's Luffy... then it's definitely something he's capable of doing."
Muttering to himself, Ace ignored everything else and looked at Inugami with a serious expression: "You just said that your organization was responsible for dealing with the uncontrolled side effects of Luffy's Devil Fruit awakening—now... how's the situation?"
Even Ace couldn't help but feel a little nervous at this point.
As a pirate who had already sailed to the New World, he naturally knew about the concept of Devil Fruit awakening and had even heard about the terrible side effects of failing to awaken a Devil Fruit.
Therefore, he couldn't help but worry about his younger brother.
The dog smiled faintly and told Ace about Luffy's current situation.
Upon hearing that Luffy's condition had stabilized and that he had even successfully gained initial control over the power of his Devil Fruit awakening, Ace finally breathed a sigh of relief. He then stood up and bowed deeply to Inuyasha with great politeness: "Thank you for saving my brother."
"No need for thanks—the favors from Shanks and Rayleigh are more than enough to us. Besides... I've come to you this time because I need your help with something."
The Dog (戌) stated the purpose of its trip directly.
Yes.
The main reason he risked revealing his identity as Hanazawa to appear here and to tell Ace about Luffy was to gain the trust of this Supernova so that he could carry out his next plan.
"Red Hair and Pluto"
Upon hearing the names of these two men from the dog, Ace's expression became somewhat subtle.
Shanks did know—after all, Luffy's Devil Fruit originated from him, so his help to Luffy wasn't surprising. But how did Luffy get involved with "Dark King" Rayleigh?
Although he had many questions in his mind, Ace didn't ask any more.
He looked at the dog and said very sincerely, "Whatever it is, just say it—I will do my best to help you as long as I can." Ace's expression was very firm.
The other party saved his younger brother and then killed Hua Zha, his mortal enemy, for him.
Given his personality, as long as the other party's request doesn't violate his bottom line, he will definitely repay it.
Upon hearing this, the Dog did not speak immediately.
His gaze fell on Ace.
In fact, he came here to find Ace for two reasons.
The first one is already completed.
The user of the fruit has been identified as "Portcus D. Ace".
[The Devil Fruit has been confirmed as the "Logia-type Flame-Flame Fruit," whose essence is "Wish, Cognition, and Flame." It is currently being analyzed and stored in the "Devil Fruit Encyclopedia."]
[Fruit Ability - Can transform oneself into flames and control all flames]
[Effects at Each Level]
[LV3: Gain all fruit effects, can burn and turn into flames, can ignore "cold" environments] [LV4: Deeper development of the fruit, the flame temperature is higher, can shape the flame, and can use the heat energy of the flame to generate a variety of thermal attacks]
[LV5: Fruit Awakening - Flame Manipulation, the fruit awakens, the user becomes the embodiment of flame, can control all "flames" in the outside world and maintain their existence, and will not be extinguished even in the face of strong winds and rain]
He hadn't been able to analyze the Flame-Flame Fruit during his previous encounter with Ace because of the great distance between them. So it was only now that he had successfully analyzed it.
Of course, in terms of destructive power and increased combat strength, this Logia-type Devil Fruit is no longer of much significance to Roy, who has now mastered the source energy of bloodline factors and can even create Devil Fruits.
However, coincidentally, this relates to Roy's plans in Wano Country.
The power of this fruit, however, has a very "special" effect.
Now, what Xu Gou wants to tell Ace is the second thing he came here for.
"Mr. Ace, now that Hua Zha is dead, you have achieved your goal in coming to this country—do you intend to leave now?"
He asked this question, his gaze still fixed on Ace.
This question surprised Ace.
He glanced to his side instinctively.
Through the window, he could see the villagers outside distributing food.
Although the food they were given could hardly be called "food" in a normal country.
However, Ace, who had been in Amigasa Village for a long time, knew that this was something to be happy about for the people of the country.
But it is precisely because of this that...
What do you think of this country?
Without waiting for Ace's answer, Inugami asked the second question.
"That's terrible."
This time, Ace gave the answer without hesitation.
This country is terrible.
So
"I will not leave."
He calmly replied, "I want to change this place."
Perhaps when he first came here, it was only for the flowers.
But now, what he seeks is no longer just Hua Zha's head.
"I want to make this a country where my friends can have enough to eat."
Coincidentally.
His answer at this moment was almost exactly the same as what his brother said in the original story.
This answer brought a light smile to the face of the Dog.
"This is it."
"I have a colleague in the organization who is just like you, and the first thing I did upon arriving here was to extend an invitation to you on his behalf." "Join us, defeat Kaido, and then... change everything in this country!"