Cain placed the bomb steadily atop a flame cloud, and the orange cloud carried it upward, slowly rising into the sky.
After taking care of that, Ace and Cain both turned their gazes toward the two forces locked in battle in the center of the battlefield.
Whether it was the rebel army or the kingdom's army, both sides were people who cared about this land.
They had simply been deceived and used.
Neither Cain nor Ace wanted to see either side get hurt.
The two exchanged a glance.
With tacit understanding, they both activated their Conqueror's Haki, then walked side by side through the smoke-filled city.
Ace walked in front, his gaze sweeping over the shops along both sides of the street from time to time, as though he were checking whether any of them sold navigation supplies.
Cain, meanwhile, followed behind calmly, clenching his fist as he tried to make his Armament Haki flow.
"Hey, Cain, isn't it kind of weird to keep using Conqueror's Haki like this?"
Ace looked around while speaking to Cain behind him without turning his head.
Cain answered casually, and the Haki around his fingertips quietly faded away.
"This is nothing. Conqueror's Haki can't be improved through ordinary methods anyway. The only thing we can do now is increase our proficiency with it. You'd better not get to a critical moment and fail to squeeze out even a fart!"
Ace choked, then immediately shot back, "MY STOMACH IS PERFECTLY FINE! I DON'T FART!"
"You're thinking nonsense again."
Cain glanced at him helplessly.
Just as he was about to say something else, the sound of bodies collapsing reached his ears.
Ace followed the sound and looked over, his pupils shrinking slightly.
"Wait, those are Marines!"
"Yeah. They were probably knocked out by our Conqueror's Haki," Cain said calmly.
At that moment, quite a few Marines and rebel soldiers were already lying all over the ground.
Suddenly, Cain remembered that Smoker was not currently in the city.
If he wanted to get his hands on Seastone, he would still have to go to a Marine warship.
Cain slowly crouched down and pretended to search the fallen Marine for something.
His tone was careless as he said, "Speaking of which, the Marines seem to have already gotten information on Blackbeard."
"REALLY?!"
Ace immediately leaned in, his face full of urgency.
The name Blackbeard practically tugged at every nerve in his body.
"Would I lie to you?" Cain rolled his eyes at him.
"After all, that guy is also someone the Marines are paying close attention to. He betrayed Whitebeard, one of the Four Emperors. Who knows what kind of trouble he might cause? I've got an idea. It'll solve the conflict between us, and we can settle things with him along the way."
Ace frowned.
For some reason, Cain's confident look felt a little strange to him.
"What you're saying makes sense, but why do I feel like something's off?"
"Don't overthink it. Here, put this on."
Without giving him any chance to argue, Cain shoved a Marine uniform into Ace's arms.
It was the very uniform he had stripped from the fallen soldier.
Ace looked at the uniform in his hands and instantly understood.
"So that's it. You want to infiltrate the Marines?"
"Yeah, exactly. Next, we're going to the warship by the coast."
Cain also changed into the uniform with practiced ease and tugged at the collar.
Ace's movements paused.
He subconsciously looked toward the direction of the royal palace, worry in his voice.
"Will Luffy and the others really be okay? Crocodile once challenged Pops, after all. He's not some minor pirate."
"Don't worry."
Cain patted his shoulder, his tone certain.
"That guy is now so weak he can't even use Haki anymore, and he has water as a weakness. Luffy can beat him."
Not to mention, in this final battle against Crocodile, Luffy had not been heavily wounded by that hook.
In fact, he was in much better condition than in the original story. His victory was only a matter of time.
Ace was silent for a moment, then finally nodded.
"Yeah. All right."
The two lowered the brims of their caps and walked out of the city without obstruction.
Most of the rebels had been knocked out by their Conqueror's Haki, and now they had already arrived outside Alubarna's gates.
Just then, a sudden explosion rang out, tearing across the entire sky.
Ace subconsciously looked up.
At that exact moment, Luffy fiercely punched Crocodile out from underground and sent him flying high into the sky, sand and air currents surging around him!
"YOU DID IT, LUFFY!"
A blazing light ignited in Ace's eyes, and he clenched his fist.
"Then I definitely can't fall behind either! Blackbeard, you'd better wait for me. I'll definitely capture you with my own hands!"
…
"Fire Fist Ace, you're under arrest."
"Hah?"
He suddenly turned his head, only to meet Cain's calm eyes.
"HEY, WAIT! WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO— WH-WHAT'S GOING ON…"
Ace was just about to blow up, but suddenly his whole body went weak.
It felt as if his strength had been drained away in an instant.
"BASTARD…! IT'S SEASTONE!!"
He looked down and saw that a pair of heavy shackles had been placed around his wrists at some unknown point.
Ace collapsed weakly onto the floor.
Looking at Cain, who stood in front of him wearing gloves and playing with the key, Ace's eyes filled with confusion before suddenly widening in realization.
"You tricked me into coming here… just for this, didn't you?"
"What else?"
Cain sneered, spinning the Seastone key between his fingers.
"Did you really think I, a pirate, infiltrated a Marine warship for no reason?"
In any case, he had spent three years as a Marine.
He knew the layout of Marine warships and the storage locations for Seastone like the back of his hand.
Now, most of the Marines had been dispatched to the palace to suppress the rebellion and had yet to return.
Only a few people were left guarding the warship, so infiltrating it had been ridiculously easy.
"Don't look so depressed. Come on, look at the camera—cheese!"
Cain pulled out a camera Den Den Mushi that he had casually picked up from one of the warship's rooms, then aimed it at Ace's helpless, half-laughing, half-crying face and snapped a photo.
"Mm, not bad. Your expression's kind of weird, but it'll be good to show the old man."
He looked at the freshly developed photo in satisfaction, then threw up a peace sign at himself.
"I'll take one as a souvenir too."
At the same time, he thought inwardly, 'Grandpa, this time, you finally won't have to Photoshop the picture.'
"Had enough fun yet, Cain?"
Ace sat on the ground and looked up at him, his tone carrying helplessness and a barely noticeable trace of grievance.
"Hurry up and unlock these! We're brothers, aren't we? Do you really not remember everything from the past?"
"The past?"
Cain turned to look at him, the still-warm photo pinched in his hand.
"You're bringing up the past?"
The moment his words fell, the storage room inside the warship seemed to sink into silence.
Memories of the past surged in like a tide.
They had fished and roughhoused together on the shores of Foosha Village.
They had bickered and roasted one another over unreliable pirate ships.
They had beaten up troublesome wild crocodiles together, and once, shoulder to shoulder, they had rescued Luffy after he caused trouble.
One warm scene after another flashed by.
But in the next second, the images abruptly reversed.
Ace smearing boogers on Cain's face.
Ace scribbling all over Cain's treasured books.
During a game where Cain played Marine and Ace played pirate, Cain had been tied up and hung from a tree, left baking under the sun for an entire day.
And countless times, because Ace caused trouble, Cain had been chased around by Garp and beaten until his head was covered in bumps.
A vein throbbed violently on Cain's forehead.
He suddenly bent down, placed both hands on Ace's head, and rubbed it viciously.
"YOU'RE EXACTLY THE ONE I SHOULD BE TYING UP! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR ALWAYS CAUSING TROUBLE BACK THEN!"
"OW, OW, OW! YOU HOLD GRUDGES WAY TOO HARD, YOU BASTARD!"
Ace grimaced from the pain, but he had no strength to push Cain away.
He could only allow Cain to ravage his hair.
"Haah. But it's exactly because we're brothers that I can't just watch you jump into a fire pit, Ace."
After messing up Ace's hair enough, Cain straightened and let out a soft sigh.
He was just about to explain what kind of consequences would follow if Ace's identity were exposed.
But right then—
"I'LL FIGHT YOU TO THE END!"
Ace shouted.
Borrowing the last bit of strength he had, he actually used the chain between the Seastone cuffs to tightly wrap around Cain's arm.
The Seastone's effect instantly spread through the chain.
Cain felt all the strength in his body suddenly drain away. His body, which had just straightened, went limp again!
With a heavy thud, the two of them both collapsed to the floor and rolled into a tangled heap.
"LET GO OF ME!"
"YOU UNLOCK THESE FIRST!"
"I'M WRAPPED IN SEASTONE TOO! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO UNLOCK YOU?!"
"NO WAY! I DON'T TRUST YOU! WHAT IF I LET GO AND YOU IMMEDIATELY RUN AWAY? YOU HAVE TO UNLOCK MY SHACKLES FIRST!"
"HEY, WHY ARE YOU TAKING OFF YOUR SHOE?! DON'T POKE MY NOSTRIL WITH YOUR TOES, DAMN IT!"
"SO ARE YOU UNLOCKING THEM OR NOT?!"
Just as the two were tangled together and arguing nonstop, hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the storage room.
The next second, the door was kicked open with a loud bang.
Marine Headquarters Captain Hina, with half a cigarette in her mouth, stormed inside.
"WHAT'S ALL THE NOISE?! ARE YOU TURNING THIS CRAPPY STORAGE ROOM UPSIDE DOWN OR WHAT?!"
But the moment her words fell, her gaze landed inside the room.
Two people in Marine uniforms were stacked on the floor in a miserable heap, tangled together in an indescribably strange posture.
Hina's cheeks flushed scarlet, as though she had accidentally seen something she absolutely should not have.
Flustered, she hurriedly pulled the door shut again, leaving behind only one vague, awkward sentence drifting into the room.
"Y-you two may continue… sorry for interrupting!"
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