The scent of medicinal herbs and clean linen replaced the acrid stench of blood and ash. Ace groaned, his eyelids fluttering open to a hazy, unfamiliar ceiling. Pain, a dull, throbbing beast, was his first companion. He tried to sit up, but a chorus of sharp stabs from his chest, arms, and leg forced him back down with a hiss.
"Easy there, Commander Ace."
A woman's voice, calm and kind. He turned his head, wincing. A young Ashina woman, her face kind but etched with the weariness of too many sleepless nights, was dabbing his forehead with a cool cloth. He was in a spacious room, sunlight streaming through a repaired shoji screen. Bandages, thick and expertly wound, swathed his torso, his arms, his left leg.
"Where…?" he rasped, his throat dry.
"The inner room of Ashina Castle, what remains of it," she replied softly. "You've been unconscious for three days."
Three days. He processed that, images of the battle flashing through his mind – Weevil's monstrous strength, Gunnar's Titan form, Isshin's incredible swordsmanship, Crocodile's fall…
"Gunnar? Isshin?"
"Lord Isshin is recovering. He awoke yesterday, though he is still weak." Her expression saddened. "Lord Gunnar… he is still unconscious. The physicians say his injuries were… profound. But he is strong. His breathing is steady. The ice… it seems to be mending him from within, slowly."
Ace felt a pang of worry for his friend, then a surge of relief that Isshin was awake. He looked around. Neatly folded on a nearby table was a fresh set of clothes, and beside it, a stack of newspapers.
A few hours later, feeling marginally more human after some water and a thin rice gruel, Ace was propped up against pillows, the newspaper spread before him. The headlines screamed in bold, stark characters:
"SHICHIBUKAI ALLIANCE CRUMBLES IN WANO! CROCODILE , BYRNNDI WORLD & WEEVIL DEFEATED!"
"ASHINA CASTLE RECLAIMED! MYSTERIOUS 'STRAW HAT RONINS' & FIRE FIST ACE CITED AS KEY FIGURES!"
"MASSIVE CASUALTIES! WORLD GOVERNMENT SILENT ON WARLORD INVOLVEMENT!".
***
WANTED – DEAD OR ALIVE
"FIRE FIST" PORTGAS D. ACE
[A slightly singed, smirked photo of Ace, mid-battle]
฿850,000,000
FOR CRIMES AGAINST THE WORLD GOVERNMENT, PIRACY, LEADING ASSAULT IN ASHINA.
WANTED – DEAD OR ALIVE
"MONSTER" EDWARD GUNNAR
[A grainy, distant shot of his Hybird-Titan form, mid-roar]
฿880,000,000
FOR CRIMES AGAINST THE WORLD GOVERNMENT, PARTICIPATION IN THE FALL OF ASHINA, PIRACY, UNPRECEDENTED DESTRUCTION IN ASHINA.
Ace whistled softly. "Damn. They're not messing around." Higher than before, but not quite at the billion mark. Still, it was a hefty sum. He wondered what Gunnar would think.
---
A week passed. The castle grounds, though still bearing the horrific scars of battle, were slowly being cleared. The scent of woodsmoke from funeral pyres had given way to the aroma of cooking food. A fragile peace had settled.
A modest "Thanksgiving Feast" – as the Ashina people called it, a celebration of survival and gratitude – was held in the largest intact courtyard. It wasn't lavish; resources were scarce.
But there was rice, grilled fish caught from the newly cleansed rivers, and sake salvaged from hidden stores. The straw hat ronins mingled with the Ashina villagers, sharing stories, laughter tinged with sorrow for the lost. Ace, leaning heavily on a crutch, attended, his presence a symbol of their hard-won victory.
It was during this fragile peace that the new threat arrived.
Tall ships, bearing the stark white and blue insignia of the Marines, appeared on the horizon, anchoring just off the Ashina coast. Their arrival sent a ripple of unease through the recovering land.
---
Ace was in his recovery chamber, gazing out at the distant Marine fleet, when the shoji screen slid open. Isshin Ashina, looking older than his twenty years, his youthful face now bearing the indelible marks of leadership and loss, stepped in. He still moved with a slight stiffness, but his eyes were clear, sharp.
"They're here," Ace stated, not needing to ask.
Isshin nodded, his expression grim. "Vice-Admiral Komura. He wishes to discuss Ashina's future." He sat down, his movements weary. "They offer… 'protection.' They want to annex
Ashina, bring it under the banner of the World Government."
Ace snorted. "'Protection.' More like control."
"Indeed," Isshin agreed. "They speak of stability, of preventing future warlord incursions.
They paint a picture of peace, bought with our sovereignty."
"And what do you say, Isshin?" Ace asked, watching the young leader closely. "This is your land, your people."
Isshin was silent for a long moment, his gaze distant, fixed on something beyond the castle walls, perhaps on the ghosts of his past. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet, heavy with an old sorrow.
"I will not be the one to decide that, Ace."
Ace raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"This castle…" Isshin began, his voice laced with a pain that went deeper than his physical wounds. "These lands… they are steeped in the blood of my clan. My father, my uncles, my cousins… so many fell defending it, first from pirates, then from Crocodile's ambition. Every stone, every tree." He looked around the chamber, at the repaired walls. "This place… it haunts me. It is a tomb, not a home."
He paused, then continued, his voice gaining a surprising firmness. "I led Ashina through this war. I avenged my family, in part. My duty to them, to the name Ashina, is fulfilled. But I cannot… I will not rule this land. I cannot spend my life walking amongst their ghosts, forever reminded of what was lost."
Ace listened, surprised by the depth of Isshin's resolve, his weariness.
"The people of Ashina deserve a leader who can look to the future without being shackled by the grief of the past," Isshin stated. "They will choose their own council, their own path.
Perhaps they will accept the World Government's offer. Perhaps they will forge their own way. That will be their decision, not mine alone."
Ace nodded slowly. "I understand. But… what about you, Isshin? What will you do?"
A faint, almost hesitant smile touched Isshin's lips. He looked directly at Ace, a new light in his eyes, a spark of something that wasn't sorrow or duty, but perhaps… longing.
"I was born a samurai of Ashina," he said. "I have lived by the sword, for my people. But I have seen… other ways. I have seen the freedom of the open sea, the bonds of a crew that chooses its own destiny, fights for its own reasons."
He leaned forward slightly. "Ace… you and Gunnar… you came here as outsiders, yet you fought for Ashina as if it were your own. You bled for us. You showed us a strength, a spirit, that went beyond loyalty to a land or a name."
His next words hung heavy in the air.
"My path in Ashina is at an end. But I feel… a new path may be beginning." He took a breath.
"Ace… if your offer still stands… if you would have me… I wish to join your crew. I wish to sail with the Straw Hat Ronins… no, with the pirates you serve, if they are anything like you. I wish to see the world, to find my own purpose, beyond these haunted shores."
Ace was taken aback. The Sword Saint of Ashina, the young hero who had just reclaimed his homeland, wanted to become a pirate? Yet, looking into Isshin's eyes, he saw not a flight from responsibility, but a yearning for a different kind of life, a life he himself understood so well.
"Isshin…" Ace began, a slow grin spreading across his face. "You just took down one of the world's biggest bastards, saved your homeland, and you're telling me you want to trade a castle for a cramped ship and a wanted poster?"
Isshin's smile widened, a genuine, youthful smile that lit up his weary face. "The wanted poster, I suspect, is already being drawn, given my involvement. As for the cramped ship… it sounds like an adventure. And freedom, Ace. That sounds like something worth fighting for, too."
Ace chuckled, the sound a bit rusty but genuine. "Well, damn, Isshin. You sure know how to make an entrance. And an exit." He extended a bandaged hand. "The crew I sail with… they're a crazy bunch. But they're family. And they value strength, loyalty, and a good heart.
You've got all three in spades."
Isshin grasped Ace's hand, his grip surprisingly firm.
"Then it would be my honor," Isshin Ashina said, the last Lord of a fallen era, looking towards a new horizon.
[A/N: This Arc is done for. Now next Arc, Divison Zero Formation]