Chapter 174 - Chapter 176

Pillars of flames erupting all around them, two individuals stood trading punches with each other, one a lot more distinct than the other. This was Ace and Jinbei and currently, they had been fighting for five days straight. Reason for the fight? Simple, Ace wanted some one on one time with the legendary Whitebeard. Ace wasn't as much arrogant as people believed him to be, that included his crew members. He just had great confidence in his power. Jinbei fought with great determination, he had held out against Ace's powerful logia fruit for five straight days, and on the surface, he looked more energetic than Ace.

"Feeing tired yet?" Ace asked with a great smile on his face. He held respect for Jinbei for standing firm in his determination and belief for this long without even showing signs of backing down. Jinbei chuckled loudly and took a stance against him again, "Not a chance, kid! You have no idea how many times I have seen someone like you roaming this sea. You all go after the old man and die quickly after, you don't need to waste his time, I am enough and I will show it as I will be the one standing in the end."

"It's your funeral! [Fire Fist]!" Ace yelled and Jinbei's view got occupied by a massive wave of flames rushing at him from the front. [Kairagi] Jinbei crossed his arms and applied haki so they hardened and turned completely black. Ace's flame hit Jinbei but failed to hurt him as the Fish-man's defence was one of the best in the world.

"Your haki is REALLY annoying!" Ace yelled while breathing heavily. For normal humans, a few minutes could greatly exhaust them, these two had been fighting for five straight days without a break. Ace was dead-tired, and Jinbei found himself in a similar position.

"You are unhappy that your Haki is not powerful enough to break mine. If you can't break my defence, how the hell did you expect to defeat the old man?" Jinbei wore a smug smile. He felt Ace was most likely the one that would be walking out of here alive, but he also felt contentment with how long he had stood and defended Whitebeard's name and honour. He felt proud of himself, and if death would come for him, he could die happy.

"Let me worry about that, will ya?"

Ace jumped at Jinbei again and their fight started heating up once more. Jinbei could control water all around him through fish-man Karate, and Ace controlled fire, this was partially the reason why Jinbei could last so long against Ace. Also, he was greatly skilled in haki, but so was Ace, so this match-up was about as equal as they come.

A punch to the face, another one to the chest, a third one to the stomach. They stood and traded punches because they were both too tired to walk or run around each other. At this point, the match came down to endurance, which one of them could endure this endless torture the longest. The answer came quickly as Jinbei very quickly collapsed on the ground unconscious. Ace breathed out and collapsed on his knees. "Captain! Are you alive?" Ace's crew yelled, clearly overjoyed that he wasn't dead.

"I-I'm fine, just hella tired!" Ace cracked his neck and let out a moan of sweet pleasure. "Jinbei, Knight of the Sea. Without my devil fruit, another two years at least before I could defeat him. Damn, he is powerful!" Ace said all this with a smile, indicating as stated previously that he had some respect for the fish-man.

"No kidding, you fought him for five days. I have never seen anyone last that long against you before."

Ace wore a smirk as he nodded, "Let's get out of here, I need food and sleep." Ace tried standing up, but his body wasn't feeling it so his crew ran over to help him walk. As they helped their captain stand up, an outline of a ship appeared in the fog and coming closer to the shore.

"Where is the brat that wanted to take my head?" A mighty voice rang out and Ace and his crew saw a giant man standing at the front of the ship with a weapon in hand. "I-It can't be!" Masked Deuce prepared to fight. He and the rest of the crew could recognize the man on the ship, it was their goal to eliminate him after all.

"Whitebeard!" Ace pushed his help away and fully rose to his feet. His body experienced a jolt of energy and fire started appearing on his body as he got ready to fight. Whitebeard jumped down from the ship and started walking towards the Spade Pirates. "So, are you the boy that think you can take my head?" He stopped some distance away from the Spade pirates and looked them over one at a time, and stopped his gaze on Ace.

"Run!" Ace looked back at his crew then yelled out a warcry to summon the rest of his energy. [Fire Fist] He summoned forth the absolute last amount of energy he had and hit Whitebeard with an attack bigger than anything he had thrown at Jinbei. Whitebeard raised his weapon and sliced through the attack, cancelling it.

"W-What!?" Ace stood dumbfounded and watched as his attack was casually defeated by Whitebeard. He was about to try and throw another attack by summoning upon the infinite stamina supply he and his brothers had been rumoured to possess.

Whitebeard stamped on the ground and caused the exhausted Ace to lose balance and fall. He smiled and raised his weapon, "Goodbye, brat!" Whitebeard swung his weapon lightly and activated his fruit at the same time. After the initial cracks formed in the air, the attack travelled towards Ace, ready to obliterate him. But, suddenly, from nowhere a decently sized wind wall grew in between Whitebeard and Ace and it stopped the attack dead in its tracks.

The Spade pirates looked on confused, "W-What happened? Ace, are you okay?" Masked Deuce yelled over to his best friend and captain. "Yeah, I'm fine!" Ace said and gave a little wave to his crew. While the Spade pirates, including their captain, were confused, the Whitebeard pirates grew anxious. They were Overlords in the New World, so they knew about other bigshots, and they knew only one person who could manipulate the wind like this.

"That specific brat is under my protection, would you mind not hurting him, Edward." Amell came floating down and landed on the ground so Ace, Whitebeard and him created a triangle with their positions.

"AMELL?!" The Spade pirates yelled and backed off unconsciously. Now two emperors stood on the same small island only meters apart. This could quickly turn into a fight where their survival rate would be zero.

"What are you doing here? Why are you involving yourself in the business of me and this boy?" Whitebeard asked, not hostile, nor friendly in tone. Since their meeting, Whitebeard had spent most hours of the day contemplating what was said. After some time Whitebeard had concluded that when Amell made his move in the New World, he would need to pick a side so his family could survive past whatever happened. This was the reason for him not exploding in anger at this moment, he had chosen one of the sides.

"I came here to make that clear, but there is a little too crowded here." For a second, Amell's aura revealed itself and skyrocketed above anything Whitebeard had ever seen before. Amell's Haki appeared as a great and powerful ocean wave that swept passed everything on the island. Sounds of bodies hitting the ground reached Ace's ears as he saw every single Whitebeard pirate collapsing on the ground, even the powerful Marco wasn't safe from Amell's willpower. He turned around and saw his entire crew out cold on the ground.

"GUYS! WAKE UP!" Ace, in a fit of panic, yelled at the top of his lungs. Whitebeards reaction was a lot laxer. He cleared his throat and spoke up, "Brat, for Amell to do this and allow you consciousness means the secret involves you, I would listen if I were you." His voice reached Ace's ears and the boy turned to Amell.

"What do you want from me? I don't even know you!"

"That's my fault, Ace," Amell said and sat down in mid-air in the lotus position. "Let me ask you this, why do you choose to carry the family name of your mother instead of your father?" He looked serious but you could see the hint of a smile.

"What's it to you?" Ace started growing suspicious. Did Amell know who his father was, or was this about something else?

"Is it wrong of me for trying to get to know my descendant?" Amell said cheerfully. Whitebeard immediately released a chuckle, "I didn't see that coming!" He shook his head, but beyond that, he didn't seem to care. Ace couldn't quite comprehend what was just said.

"Descendant? Do you mean me? But, I don't know you! I have never even seen you before except wanted posters!"

"Hahaha, that sounds fair!" Amell looked at Ace's expression that screamed complete and utter confusion. "Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Portgas D Amell. I'm not quite your uncle, but feel free to call me that anyways!" Amell smiled and said casually.

"Wait, wait, wait, WAIT!" Ace stood up abruptly, seemingly full of energy again. "You're my family?" He looked to Whitebeard, but the old man held a calm and confident smile but remained silent.

"Technically, you're my family since I am a lot older than you, brat!" Amell started floating over to Ace still in his lotus position. "Give me your hand!" He commanded Ace. He grabbed ahold of Ace's hand after he offered it. "Look at this," He swiped his free hand through the air and water now covered his hand. He placed that hand over Ace's and the water seeped into his body and disappeared from view.

"Woah, what's going on?!" Ace felt an incredible energy and power rise inside of him. It felt like he could fight anyone, even Whitebeard and win easily.

"Rejuvenation water, a secret technique belonging to the Portgas family. Neat, right?" He flicked Ace on the forehead hard enough to knock the boy down on his ass. "Our family is quite special, but you'll understand in time."

"M-My family has secrets?" Ace tilted his head to the side.

"Quite a lot!" Amell summoned a small flame to his hand and turned his palm upwards to display the fire to Ace. "What do you think?"

"Fire? How is that possible?" Ace touched the flame Amell summoned and it hurt him, even though he was a flame human himself. "How is that hurting me?" He looked at his hand and it was red from touching the fire.

"Secret!" Amell said and changed the colour of the flame to blue. The heat changed and Whitebeard could feel it now from where he stood. Ace had to take a step back because the heat started bothering him as well.

"Why are you telling me this now?" Ace's tone turned stern and now that his brain had caught up to the things Amell said he started his questioning.

"I have been unable to come and see you for quite some time now, and I just came back from something important so I wasn't available until now. When I saw that you became a pirate it was all about picking the right time to show myself."

"I thought I should at least make you aware that more Portgas are running around. Now, whether you want anything to do with me at all is all up to you. If you choose to never see me again, I understand."

Ace took a second to compose himself properly. "Can you teach me how you made that flame so hot?" He looked seriously into his eyes.

"Of course. It's the Portgas legacy made especially for members of our family. I can teach you how to master those flames of yours."

Ace bowed low like Makino had taught him as a boy, "Please make me stronger!" He said loudly.

"Gladly!" Amell put out the flame he summoned and looked at Whitebeard. "Edward, I'm gonna train this boy and his crew for a while, would you be willing to wait for your fight a little longer?" Amell was polite enough to ask, but his tone told Whitebeard that he wasn't asking.

"Anything to make life more interesting is what I say." He laughed out loud. Amell continued saying, "Also, about the things that transpired here..." He said and glanced at Whitebeard. The old emperor nodded sternly, "I am not the enemy of the Portgas family." His tone stoic and his expression neutral.

"Looking forward to working with you some more." Amell gave him a friendly nod, and Whitebeard did the same.

"The feeling is mutual, old man" He said casually and started walking away from them. Ace that heard what Whitebeard said looked at Amell. 'Old man?'

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End