The surrounding chefs and patrons screamed, scattering in pure panic.
Zoro frowned and stepped forward to kick the bomb away, but the calm voice of the black-coated boy behind him stopped him cold.
"If you want to use that firecracker to send off your captain, I don't mind at all."
Zaraki stood on a piece of floating wreckage, still gripping the plain nameless sword.
He didn't even look at the bomb in Deuce's hand, keeping his dark gaze locked on the surface of the sea.
"Hey, how long are you going to keep playing dead down there?" Zaraki tapped the drifting wood beneath his boots with the tip of the sword, making a steady splashing sound as a rough, teasing edge crept into his tone.
"I held back on that last strike—just enough to break a couple of ribs. If you don't come up now, your vice-captain is going to blow everyone to pieces."
Gurgle, gurgle...
A string of large bubbles rose to the surface, and a wet hand grabbed the edge of the floating wood right beneath Zaraki's boots.
"Cough, cough... Who... who's playing dead you bastard..."
Amidst heavy coughing, Mihar dragged the thoroughly soaked Ace up, struggling to break the surface.
Ace's signature curly hair was plastered flat against his face, his left cheek swollen up with blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and a deep, bruised indentation marked his chest.
The weakness from the seawater made it a struggle to even lift a finger, leaving him helplessly clinging to the driftwood.
Still, he managed to force his unswollen eye open to glare up at Zaraki standing over him.
"You... what the hell did you eat to grow up like this... cough, cough..."
"Ace!"
Seeing his captain alive, Masked Deuce nearly dropped the active bomb!
He frantically snuffed out the fuse and collapsed to the deck, gasping for breath as grateful tears welled in his eyes.
He let out a long, shaky sigh of pure relief.
Zaraki crouched down, bringing his gaze level with the battered Ace. Looking highly amused, he reached out and poked Ace's swollen, pig-like cheek.
"Ouch—! That hurts! What are you doing?!" Ace grimaced in pain, instinctively trying to fight back but only managing a weak shout.
"Just checking the texture."
Zaraki stood back up and brushed the seawater from his fingers.
The heavy fighting spirit in his eyes faded away, replaced by a look that felt strangely familiar to Ace—a mix of arrogant disdain that wasn't entirely cold.
"Since you're awake, stop soaking in the water. Or do you want me to fish you out too?"
That tone made Ace freeze for a second.
That specific way of speaking, that exact feeling of beating someone half to death only to reach out and pull them back up... along with that look just now.
A figure from his memory suddenly overlapped with the black-coated guy standing right in front of him.
"Wait..."
Ignoring the sharp pain burning through his body, Ace widened his eyes and stared hard at Zaraki's face beneath the shadow of that massive coat.
"Hey... Zaraki..." His voice shook just a little. "You... no way..."
Zaraki flicked the seawater off the blade and rested it casually against his shoulder.
The sea breeze swept past, lifting the hem of his massive black coat and making it snap loudly in the wind.
"Hah... haha..."
Ace suddenly started laughing.
Even though the motion tugged at the wound on the corner of his mouth and made him gasp in pain, he still laughed a hearty, open laugh.
He pushed away Mihar, braced himself against the floating log with both hands, and stared intently at Zaraki as if trying to recognize this person all over again.
"I knew it..." Ace swayed as he managed to stand upright on the drifting wood.
Even though his legs trembled from exhaustion, the hostility in his eyes had completely vanished.
"How could a monster like you just suddenly pop up in the East Blue?"
He raised his wet hand right in the middle of this tense battlefield where a suicide bombing had nearly gone off.
Making a move that made everyone's heart stop, he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and flashed a massive grin at the black-coated man who had just blasted him into the ocean.
Ace's voice wasn't loud, but it echoed clearly over the dead-silent sea.
"Long time no see, brother."
The sea breeze kept blowing, yet the scene fell into an utter, heavy silence.
Clatter.
Not far away, the sniper rifle Mihar had thrown onto the deck earlier slid down from the rocking of the ship, the sound of it hitting the wooden planks piercingly sharp.
That small disturbance couldn't break the eerie atmosphere holding the scene hostage.
All eyes—the chefs peering over the railing on the second floor of the Baratie, Zoro on the deck gripping his sword hilt with sweaty palms, even Mihar in the water holding onto the log with a bewildered face—remained frozen in place.
Their gazes snapped back and forth between the black-coated Zaraki and the shirtless pirate captain.
Everyone's minds just completely shut down.
"B-b-brother?!"
Masked Deuce broke the silence first.
The first mate, who had been ready to blow himself up for his captain moments ago, now knelt on the deck with his jaw practically hitting the floorboards!
His eyes bulged out of his skull. His finger trembled as he pointed at Ace, then at Zaraki, making strange gurgling sounds like an invisible hand was choking him.
"Captain?! Have you lost your damn mind?! That's the same guy who just sent you flying like a baseball!"
Deuce frantically grabbed his own hair.
"And... and you're saying you know him?! What kind of brother nearly beats his own brother half to death?!"
Zoro slowly pushed the half-drawn Wado Ichimonji back into its sheath, a heavy trace of confusion flickering in his sharp eyes.
He was a swordsman who valued cold, hard logic, but everything happening in front of him completely broke the bounds of common sense.
The floating debris rose and fell with the rolling waves. Zaraki looked down at the battered young man whose eyes still burned bright and clear.
"First meeting since you set sail, and you already look this messy." Zaraki shoved one hand into his coat pocket, his tone flat and rough, exactly like a guy evaluating his disappointing little brother.
"Seems tossing you out to sea was the right call. If you had stayed in that safe little greenhouse any longer, you wouldn't even be fit to polish my boots."
At that exact moment, every member of the Spade Pirates felt the world spinning around them.
Their captain, one of the most notorious rookies of this generation, was actually the brother of that monster?
Deuce shakily climbed to his feet, unsure whether to raise or lower his dagger.
Staring at the back wrapped in that massive dark coat, he felt a heavy chill rise from the depths of his heart.
If this kind of lunatic was connected to Ace from way back, then no wonder the captain had gone charging at him like a madman instead of running!
Zaraki didn't care what any of them were thinking.
He only lowered his eyes and glanced once more at the water dripping from Ace's clothes.
"Now that the brat's alive, clean up your mess and get out of my way."
"And turn that thing off will ya!"