A burning heat blew up right on his retinas, making Zaraki close his eyes as he felt his optic nerves getting forced into a new shape by some outside power.
There was no System message, but he just knew that when he opened his eyes again, the world was going to look totally different.
The air wasn't just empty space anymore, because he could now clearly see the flow of the wind, feeling it like a real thing that he could cut with a blade, crush, or blow to hell.
This was Kenpachi Zaraki's sword pressure, a badass trick capable of turning pure killer intent into a real physical hit.
But before he could really get a grip on this new power, a kid's loud yell cut him off.
"Hurry up and go, Ace! I want to go on adventures too, but I don't want to see you get caught!"
Zaraki rubbed his sore eyes and looked over to see Luffy, that tiny brat, standing on the wooden post at the end of the pier.
His skinny legs were shaking hard, but he stubbornly threw his arms wide open, trying to block the huge dog-headed Marine ship coming over the horizon with his little body.
"I'll hold them off right here! I'll find a way to stall Grandpa for three seconds... no, two seconds! Just get the damn ship moving!"
Zaraki's eye twitched as he watched Luffy acting like a hero ready to die.
'Blocking Garp? Testing how hard Garp's iron fist is with your rubber head?'
"Don't be a dumbass," Zaraki snapped, walking over to Ace.
Ace leaned against a pile of broken wood, his right shoulder twisted at a gross angle, and cold sweat had already soaked right through his sleeveless shirt.
Without getting fixed up, Ace wouldn't even be able to climb into his small boat, let alone sail out to sea, and once Garp hit the dirt, the kid wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting away.
"Open your mouth," Zaraki ordered, keeping his right hand hidden behind his back.
With a quick thought, the weird item he won from the system drop popped right into his palm.
It was a white plastic bottle with a blue label covered in cartoon fruits and a cheap-looking twist-off cap.
[Modified Nutritional Express (Vanilla Flavor): Don't ask about the packaging—the System just has a twisted sense of humor. Upon consumption, it instantly repairs non-lethal physical injuries and replenishes a massive amount of stamina. Note: The taste is excellent, but that's irrelevant.]
Ace struggled to open his eyes, staring at the plastic bottle pushed against his lips, and for a second his confusion took over the pain.
"...Milk? Hey, Zaraki, you want me to drink milk at a time like this? My bones are busted, I don't need damn calcium..."
"Cut the bullshit, if you want to set sail, drink it," Zaraki snapped, twisting the cap off and shoving the bottle against Ace's mouth.
"Or would you rather sit here and wait for that old man to smash your other shoulder so they match?"
Hearing about the old man sent a shiver right down Ace's spine, the childhood trauma scaring the logic right out of his head. Gritting his teeth, he tilted his head back and chugged the liquid.
Instead of a nasty medicine taste, a rich, milky flavor mixed with sweet fruit blew up in his mouth, and as the drink slid down his throat into his stomach, it turned into a crazy heat.
Then, some wild thing happened.
Crack—snap.
A series of sharp popping sounds like bursting beans came from inside his busted right shoulder, the popped-out bones getting forced back into place by his muscles as the ugly purple swelling went down right in front of his eyes.
Ace's dead-pale face turned a bright, weird red, like he just got dragged out of a hot sauna, with wisps of white steam even coming off his head.
'Holy shit...' Zaraki thought. 'Is this stuff that good?'
This wasn't just a health drink, it was like mixing the elixir of life with some milk.
Ace froze, totally stunned.
He slowly rolled his right arm around, feeling the crazy pain gone without a trace, replaced by an insane feeling of being full of energy.
Power pumped through his veins, begging to be let loose.
"What... what the hell is this stuff?" Ace stared at the empty plastic bottle in his hand, his eyes almost popping right out of his head.
"Probably... some kind of weird medicine?" Zaraki tossed out, casually snatching the bottle back and shoving it into his pocket before grabbing Ace by the collar and hauling him to his feet.
"Now that you're fixed, stop gawking! The ship's right there, so get the hell out of here!"
Right then, a pissed-off roar backed by the heavy weight of Armament Haki rolled across the sea from a few hundred meters away.
"Portgas D. Ace! Where the hell do you think you're going, you little brat?!"
Garp's voice hit the Windmill Village docks like a thunderclap.
The waves crashed hard, and the small fishing boats tied to the shore rocked wildly from the sheer force of his shout.
The yell didn't just scare Luffy into falling flat on his ass, but it also brought every villager running out of their houses.
"Ace! Stop this nonsense!" Village Chief Woop Slap limped over, leaning hard on his cane with a worried face.
"Vice Admiral Garp is really pissed! You still have time to say sorry, and if you don't sail away, it'll just be a beating, I can even beg him to go easy on you!"
"Yeah, Ace, come down now!" Makino stood at the tavern door, wringing her hands with her eyes full of worry.
On one side was Garp, the Marine Hero who was really scary and on the other side were the villagers begging him to stay.
The pressure was way worse than the pain from Zaraki's hit earlier.
Ace stood next to his ship's rope, his back that had just straightened out going stiff again under the heavy weight of all that pressure.
He wanted to step onto the ship, but his feet felt glued to the dirt, because leaving now meant turning his back on everyone who gave a damn about him.
For a guy like Ace who just wanted to belong, taking that step was really hard.
He turned his head, his eyes moving past the massive Marine ship and the crying Luffy to land on the black-haired teen standing next to him.
The guy was just fixing his cuffs, looking totally chill.
In the middle of the dock, only Zaraki stayed cool, acting like the giant warship coming at them wasn't even there.
Ace bit his lip, showing a last bit of doubt and a desperate look for some backup in his eyes.
'Can I really do this? Make such a choice and say screw the consequences...?'
Zaraki felt him staring.
Without saying a word, he shifted his feet, putting himself right between Ace and the worried villagers.
Then, with a chill move, he raised his hand and gave a careless wave.