With flames erupting from his feet, Ace rocketed toward Aranea in mid-air like a jet engine. He brought his hands together, a faint green light flickering within his palms. When he was barely two meters away from her face, he suddenly threw them open.
"Firefly: Fiery Doll... Ggh!"
Before the technique could fully manifest, Ace let out a cry of pain. Enduring the agony, he looked down to see Aranea's hand, clad in a dark red gauntlet, thrust deep into his abdomen.
I'm a Logia... she has Haki?
Because of the direct hit, Ace's focus shattered. The "Fiery Doll" veered off course, missing Aranea by a mile.
"Too naive, boy."
Aranea seized the opening to draw the gun-lance from her back. Controlling her armor's thrusters, she delivered a mid-air roundhouse kick that sent Ace crashing toward the ground. Immediately, she braced her feet against the tail of the gun-lance, gripped the handle with both hands, and began to spin violently like a top. She dove straight down, a human drill seemingly intent on skewering Ace's entire body.
"Captain!" the Spade Pirates screamed in panic.
As Ace plummeted, he gritted his teeth. "I won't be taken down that easily!" he roared. He crossed his two index fingers into a crucifix and aimed at the sky. "Crossfire!"
The sacred pillar of flame collided with the sharp tip of the gun-lance, momentarily halting her descent.
Ace wasn't worried about the fall itself. As a Logia-type user, he could survive a drop from thousands of meters, let alone a few hundred. But while his back slammed heavily into the earth, Aranea was still coming for him.
When she was about ten meters above the ground, Aranea twisted the handle of her gun-lance. A small section of the barrel retracted, revealing ten pitch-black bores.
"What?!"
Ace's pupils shrank. Before he could react, fire erupted from the dark muzzles hidden within the gun-lance's body. A hail of bullets rained down.
"I'm a Logia user! Bullets are useless!" Ace shouted instinctively.
But in the blink of an eye, reality slapped him in the face. Several rounds tore into his flesh, and blood sprayed from the entry wounds.
Under the searing pain, Ace's "Crossfire" faltered and died. Aranea's descent continued, though she had already concealed the muzzles back within the lance's frame.
BOOM!
In less than a heartbeat, Aranea landed while mounted atop the gun-lance. The tip of the weapon grazed Ace's neck and slammed into the ground with a thunderous roar. Dirt and debris were sent flying over ten meters high. After the dust finally settled, everyone could see the result.
Ace lay battered, blood seeping from gunshot wounds in his shoulders and knees. More terrifyingly, Aranea's gun-lance was pressed flush against the left side of Ace's neck. If it had been a fraction of an inch to the right, she would have pierced his skull instead of the dirt.
Aranea stood there, hands gripping the lance's handle, with one foot planted firmly on Ace's chest.
With such a visual, the winner was indisputable.
"A 77 million bounty beat a 270 million captain?" The Spade Pirate member who had spoken earlier felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head. He couldn't believe it.
"Why do you think she was hand-picked by Vegapunk?" a member of the Immortal Pirates retorted dismissively.
"Mmm~ I've got the hang of how a Logia works now. Thank you, cute freckled boy."
Aranea stood up, sheathed her weapon, and tucked her helmet under her arm. She gave a slight bow. "But honestly, you were a bit of a disappointment."
Ace bit his lower lip so hard it bled, his face contorted with frustration and shame. He didn't even notice the view offered by Aranea's low bow and form-fitting armor.
"Well, goodbye then. I've decided to become an ability user myself."
Though she had won relatively easily, a large part of that was due to Ace's impulsiveness and her surprise attack using the gun-lance modified by Dr. Vegapunk to fire Seastone bullets. In a straightforward head-on clash, it might have taken over ten hours to determine a victor.
But the result was everything. Ace had lost, and he had lost miserably. It was that simple.
"Captain!"
"Captain Ace, are you okay?!"
The twenty or so members of the Spade Pirates rushed forward to surround him, looking at his injuries with alarm. While no vital organs were hit, these were by no means light wounds.
"This is what we call 'Power,'" Ivalis said as he walked over, looking down at Ace. "As long as he possesses it, it's enough to make people follow him."
Ace kept his head down in dejection, the youthful vigor he showed during the banquet completely gone. It was unclear if Ivalis's words even reached him.
Looking at the bleeding bullet holes in the young man, Ivalis felt a spark of sympathy for the youth who shared a similar aura to the late Shanks. He said, "Take him for treatment. The doctors here are world-class."
"No need," Ace said suddenly. He forced himself to crawl up, his face hidden in the shadows of his hair. "We still have our own journey. We can't afford to delay. We're leaving."
Without looking back, Ace ran toward the shore. The Spade Pirates scrambled after him, shouting for him to slow down because of his wounds.
"A fragile kid," Benn Beckman remarked, offering his evaluation.
To possess one of the top Logia abilities at such a young age meant that losing to Aranea was likely one of the few failures Ace had ever faced. He clearly couldn't handle it.
Cavendish, holding a rose, said narcissistically, "He didn't even last ten moves. It looks like I'll soon have a bounty exceeding 'Fire Fist' and start my path to superstardom! Aha, ahahahaha!"
Ivalis shut him down ruthlessly. "You wouldn't even last five. Is your training for today done? Get to it!"
"Dammit!!" Cavendish grumbled in frustration.
…
Returning to the Science Research Division, Aranea passed through several high-security doors and greeted various researchers before finding Dr. Vegapunk, who was busy studying Bartholomew Kuma on an operating table.
Aranea waited for about four hours before Dr. Vegapunk finally emerged.
"Vegapunk-san." Aranea offered a military salute out of habit. "I've decided to accept that Devil Fruit."
"The Logia-type Steam-Steam Fruit? As I said, it complements your combat style perfectly."
————
Note: Steam-Steam Fruit was previously translated as Boil-Boil Fruit.