Portgas D. Ace stood in the center of the ruins.
He first looked at Deuce, his First Mate, who had just been revived and was still gasping for air.
Then he looked at the middle-aged man wrapped in a white coat, who looked innocent and was trembling uncontrollably.
Finally.
His gaze fell upon his beloved ship, which was now riddled with holes.
His mouth twitched violently.
The veins on his forehead pulsed as if they were alive.
The pain!
It was genuine heartbreak!
This ship was the face of the Spade Pirates, the home that carried everyone's dreams!
And now?
It was so dismantled that even its own mother wouldn't recognize it!
"Bastard!!"
A furious roar broke the silence on the deck.
Ace suddenly turned around and strode rapidly toward Banner.
His momentum was like an enraged fire lion.
The still-trembling Bruce Banner shuddered in fear.
He instinctively wanted to back away.
But his pitiful strength was no match for Ace.
Snap!
A powerful hand grabbed Banner's collar tightly.
He was lifted completely off the ground.
His feet dangled.
Banner flapped helplessly in mid-air, like a chick whose throat was seized by fate.
"Look at the great job you did!"
Ace pointed at the surrounding wreckage, spittle nearly hitting Banner's face.
"My ship! My keel! My kitchen!"
"All dismantled by you!"
"Did you come here to treat illnesses or demolish buildings?! Huh?!"
Fire was practically shooting out of Ace's eyes.
For pirates, a ship is the vessel that carries their dreams, and it is also their companion.
"I... I..."
Banner's face was flushed red from the choking, and his glasses were crooked on his nose.
He wanted to explain, but the lack of oxygen prevented him from speaking.
His eyes were filled with grievance and fear.
"Warning."
"Hostile action detected."
Just then.
The T-800, which had been standing nearby, moved.
Its mechanical prosthetic eye, still sparking with electricity, instantly locked onto Ace's head.
Click.
Its palm flipped over, revealing the dark muzzle of a gun inside.
"Release the Doctor."
"Otherwise, mandatory measures will be taken."
The T-800's voice was devoid of emotional fluctuation.
"Do you want to fight, Tin Can!"
Ace also had a fiery temper.
Seeing someone dare to point a gun at him, flames instantly erupted from his body.
It looked like a new battle was about to erupt.
And it might even send this already precarious wreck of a ship straight to the bottom of the sea.
"Enough."
A cold voice abruptly cut in.
It wasn't loud.
Yet it carried a strange penetrative power, clearly reaching everyone's ears.
The Divine Physician unhurriedly straightened his sleeve.
He didn't even glance at the two people facing off.
Instead, he pulled out an unknown purple crystal from his huge medicine box and toyed with it in his hand.
"Release him, little fire punk."
"It wasn't his intention for this ship to end up like this."
Ace paused his movement.
He turned his head, frowning, to look at this mysterious doctor.
"Not his intention?"
"Are you blind? It was clearly him who turned into that giant green monster and smashed holes everywhere with his fists!"
"The facts are right in front of you, and you still want to defend him?"
The Divine Physician lifted his eyelids, his eyes gleaming with the indifference of one who has seen through the world.
"This is not defending him; this is pathological analysis."
He extended a finger and pointed at Banner, whom Ace was holding up.
"Didn't you notice?"
"Inside this man, there slumbers an extremely violent and unstable energy."
"That is a form of... high-intensity radiation mutation."
Radiation?
Mutation?
Ace blinked, looking utterly lost.
He knew both words separately.
But put together, why couldn't he understand them?
This was the disadvantage of being uneducated.
In this world dominated by pirates, scientific literacy is clearly not a required course.
"To put it simply."
The Divine Physician sighed, seemingly exasperated at having to explain a condition to an illiterate person.
"He suffers from a special 'disease'."
"This disease is usually dormant, showing no symptoms."
"But once subjected to intense external stimulation."
"The mutated energy inside his body will lose control, forcibly changing his cellular structure."
"Turning him from a defenseless doctor into that green monster who only knows destruction."
Upon saying this.
The Divine Physician paused, his deep eyes staring intently at Ace.
A faint, enigmatic smile curved his lips.
"This is what is called—Gamma Ray Mutation Syndrome."
The entire area fell silent.
Only the sound of waves slapping against the broken ship remained.
Everyone was stunned by what they heard.
Although they didn't understand Gamma Rays or cellular structure.
They grasped the general idea.
If his heart beats too fast, he transforms!
"Heart rate... too fast?"
Ace was dumbfounded.
The hand gripping Banner's collar unconsciously loosened slightly.
Scenes from earlier began replaying in his mind, like a movie.
Just half an hour ago.
To save Deuce, he rushed into the clinic on the island.
Without a second thought, he hoisted the doctor and ran.
Then... using the power of the Mera Mera no Mi, he transformed into a blazing meteor and streaked across the sky.
That speed.
That altitude.
The middle-aged man seemed to have been screaming then?
He seemed to have been struggling desperately, saying his heart couldn't take it?
And the result?
Not only did he not stop, but he found the man annoying and flew even faster!
Boom!
It was as if a bolt of lightning from a clear sky had struck the top of Ace's head.
Leaving him utterly shocked and roasted.
Stiff.
Petrified.
Ace's expression shifted from anger to astonishment, and finally to embarrassment.
Extreme embarrassment!
If this Divine Physician's explanation was correct... a fast heartbeat causes transformation.
And the reason this man's heart rate spiked... in other words.
The green monster that destroyed his pirate ship.
Was actually... unleashed by his own hands?!
"This..."
Ace opened his mouth, and the aggressive momentum he had just displayed instantly deflated completely, like a popped balloon.
After all that.
The Joker was me all along?
I destroyed my own home?
Ace let go.
Banner fell to the ground with a "plop," gulping down fresh air.
He had nearly been choked unconscious just now.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Banner clutched his neck, his face showing the relief of surviving a disaster.
He looked up at Ace pitifully.
He was the absolute picture of a wronged victim.
Although he didn't say a word.
That look seemed to say: See? I told you it wasn't my fault.
The atmosphere became extremely strange.
"Well, uh..."
Ace awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
His normally tanned face was now flushed crimson.
Redder than when he unleashed his flames.
He looked at the trembling Banner on the ground, then at his crewmates around him who were trying to hold back laughter.
Finally, he took a deep breath.
And suddenly bent over.
He bowed deeply to Banner!
Ninety degrees!
It was perfectly standard!
"I am sorry!!"
His voice was loud, making the deck buzz.
"I was too reckless!"
"I didn't know you had this... this strange disease!"
"I shouldn't have forcibly carried you into the sky, and I certainly shouldn't have blamed you when you had an episode!"
"What happened to this ship is entirely my own doing!"
"Please forgive me!"
This was Ace.
Although he sometimes acted without thinking, reckless like a single-celled organism.
He possessed the responsibility of a man.
Wrong was wrong.
He would never shirk responsibility or act coyly.
Honest and upright.