C21:-OnePiece_FanFic_Ace

21. Douglas Bullet’s Challenge.

│3rd Person POV│

[Grand Line, New World, Polar Tang…]

“Douglas Bullet?!! You mean the Demon Heir?!”

Izou exclaimed in shock while the others only had confused expressions on their faces.

Twenty-one years have passed since the Buster Call was executed by the Marines to deal with Douglas Bullet.

After he was captured, Bullet was imprisoned in Level Six of the Impel Down.

Most of the world only knows of the first five levels of the Impel Down since the World Government kept the existence of the sixth level a secret.

Only insanely powerful pirates are usually imprisoned in the sixth level.

Over time, the World Government erased their existence from history, causing them to gradually fade away from people’s memory.

This was the reason young pirates like Law, Bepo, and Jean Bart didn’t know about Douglas Bullet.

Of course, Ace knew about him.

However, he masterfully controlled his expression, not allowing his inner turmoil to show on his face.

‘Bullet was a non-canon character. Why does he exist here? Are the other non-canon troublesome characters also going to pop up in the future? What a drag!!’

Inwardly, Ace was incredibly annoyed and apprehensive of the numerous troubles that awaited him in the future.

Focusing on Kuroka, he thought, ‘This cat is the cause of one headache after another. I am going to drown her in ice cold water if this keeps up.’

Kuroka felt a shiver run down her spine as her tail and ears stood up rigidly. She looked around vigilantly while also deploying her Observation Haki to the limit and looking for any signs of danger.

Seeing this, Ace fought to keep his smirk in check, ‘She felt my intention, huh! Her instincts and Observation Haki are quite good. If only her Haki was more refined, she would have been able to pinpoint the source of danger.’’

The others also put up their guards seeing Kuroka’s actions.

Just as Bepo was opening his mouth to question her, Kuroka’s ears and tail settled down and she focused her attention back toward Ace and the others.

‘It must have been my imagination.’ Kuroka thought to herself, though she was unsure if that feeling of danger truly had been her imagination.

Still, she put the incident at the back of her mind and answered Izou, “Yes, I am talking about the Demon Heir of the Rogers Pirate.”

Hearing this, Izou frowned heavily. “This isn’t good. This isn’t good at all.”

Before Izou could get lost in his thoughts, Law asked, “Why is that? This pirate is a member of the Roger Pirates, right? And Ace-ya is Roger’s son, so this shouldn’t be bad news, right?”

Izou shook his head in response to Law’s question and let out a heavy sigh.

He explained, “While that would be the case if this was anyone else from the Roger Pirates, it isn’t the case with Douglas Bullet.

“Bullet was the outliner of the Rogers Pirates. Just like Teach. Teach only joined our Whitebeard Pirates to make use of us to search for the Dark-Dark Fruit.

“He didn't hesitate to betray us once he achieved his goals, even going so far as to murder a fellow pirate he'd spent decades sailing with.

“Bullet was like that. He joined the Roger Pirates because Roger was the first person to ever defeat him. During his time together with the Roger Pirates, he repeatedly challenged Roger, only to be defeated each time.

“After spending three years with the crew, he suddenly left them for reasons unknown to us. Four years after that, the Marines launched a Buster Call to capture him with Sengoku and Garp leading the charge.

“He was most likely kept imprisoned in the sixth level of the Impel Down and escaped from there because of the chaos created by Ace’s brother and Teach.

“If he is seeking out Ace now, then it only means that he wished to challenge him because Ace is the son of Roger, the person whom Bullet was never able to defeat.”

Izou paused to take a breather before focusing solely on Ace, “Ace, I am not demeaning you or anything of the like when I say that currently, you are not a match for Bullet.

“From our Whitebeard Pirates, only Pops and Marco are capable of contending with this guy. And you know Pops’ health. If Pops participates in fights, his illness will escalate and we will have less time in our hands to search for a cure.

“On the other hand, while Marco is capable of keeping up against Bullet for a long time, he lacks the firepower required to take down a guy like Bullet.

“I believe that you will definitely be able to become stronger than Bullet in the near future, Ace. If Bullet is challenging you now, please, don’t fight him. Not by yourself at least.”

Even knowing Ace’s trait of never running away from a battle, Izou was planning on continuing to try to dissuade him from accepting Bullet’s challenge.

However, he was interrupted by Kuroka speaking up, “Hey, I think you should let me relay the message before you piss off the cutie pie any further.”

Izou shut up, and only now did he notice that Ace was looking at him with an indifferent expression, a menacing aura radiating off him.

He also noticed that Law and the other Heart Pirates members had retreated to a distance away from him and behind Kuroka.

Izou let out an awkward cough and said, “Cough–! Alright, please let us know the message Kuroka.”

Kuroka giggled at his awkward attempt to divert Ace’s attention. ‘This people are fun.’ She thought before once again adopting a serious expression.

“As I was saying, I have a message from Douglas Bullet for you cutie. He said that he will come for you in about three months from now on.

“His exact words were, ‘[I want to see exactly how much the spawn of Captain Rogers amounts to. Tell him, I will come for him after three months from now.

“ ‘[Tell him that I am giving him three months to prepare for me. However, if he avoids me after the three months preparation time is over, I will start destroying the islands and crews under the Whitebeard Pirates one by one.]’ “

A solemn silence enveloped the group once Kuroka stopped speaking.

Nobody spoke for a few moments, they were all thinking about the implications of Bullet’s message and what it entailed for the Whitebeard Pirates as a whole.

Clap—!

Suddenly, Ace clapped his hands, drawing the attention of everyone. He had a smile on his face as he said, "Well then, we have nothing to worry about for now.

“Izou, you contact Marco and relay the message to him. Marco and Pops will take care of this until we return from our trip.

“Law, we will continue our journey as planned, alright?”

Getting a nod from Izou and Law in response to his orders, Ace looked at Kuroka and continued, “Kuroka, thank you for passing on the message.

“Though I have a question. How did you encounter Bullet? And are you working under him now?”

The atmosphere became slightly tense after Ace asked the questions.

Even under the scrutinizing gaze of everyone except Ace, Kuroka was completely at ease. With her Observation Haki, she was sure that only Ace was stronger than her in the present company.

Additionally, she could feel that Ace was just curious when he asked the questions. She was sure that he wouldn’t take action here even if her answer didn’t satisfy him.

So, there was no need for any cautiousness.

She answered calmly, “Well, as you can see, I am a Cat Mink, nya~.

“I left Zou, Mink Tribe’s home, a few months ago to see the outside world. I am very stealthy, nya~. Using my skills, I would sneak onto unsuspecting Pirate Ships to go from one island to another.

“A few days ago, I snuck into the ship of Dog-something Pirates, nya~. They were much weaker than the normal pirate group I encountered previously.

“Yesterday, the ship came across a small sailboat equipped with weird machines. Seeing that only a single person was on the sailboat, the Captain of the Pirate Group ordered his underlings to seize his sailboat before throwing him into the sea, nya~.

“Well, that was a mistake as not even ten seconds later, the Pirate Group and their ship were destroyed by the sailboat’s owner.

“I was able to escape his initial assault, though not for long, nya~. He said something like, ‘[A stronger weakling. You will do.]’

“Then, he attacked me and easily defeated me. Even after I used my Sulong Form, my punches and electro were ineffective against him, nya~.

“After I exhausted myself from trying to escape him, Bullet trapped me inside a big barrel he made on the spot and threw it in the general direction of the Sphinx Island after he gave me the order to pass his message to you, cutie nya~.”

Even though Ace didn’t detect any falsehood in her words through his Observation Haki, he found it hard to believe her explanation.

After all, there wasn’t a full moon yesterday, so how did Kuroka access her Sulong Form?

However, before he could question her, Law beat him to it, “Yesterday wasn’t a Full Moon day. How did you transform into Sulong then?”

“Oh! Oops! I shouldn’t have said that, nya~.” Kuroka exclaimed sheepishly, completely unbothered that this response would likely worsen the situation here.

As expected, apart from Ace, the others concluded that she was lying and immediately raised their vigilance to the highest degree.

Although they refrained from taking any action they waited for Ace, the one with the highest authority among them, to come to a decision.

Meanwhile, Ace recalled that just a few minutes ago, Law had stated something like Kuroka having two souls in her body.

‘Is it possible that her having two Souls is related to her ability to enter Sulong Form without Full Moon? After all, Bepo was able to transform into Sulong with Chopper’s special drug during daytime in the Canon.’

With this conjecture in mind, Ace asked, “Is this somehow related to you having two Souls in your body?”

Kuroka’s playful expression was promptly replaced by a shocked and panicked expression. Her ears and tail straightened in alarm.

Witnessing this, Ace was sure of his conjecture.

“How did you know about that?” Kuroka asked in a guarded manner.

“Haha~!” Ace let out a small chuckle in response before explaining, “You don’t have anything to worry about.

“I promise that we wouldn’t speak about it to anyone not present here without your permission. As for how I came to know about it? Law would be able to explain it better.”

Kuroka was slightly reassured by Ace’s promise as she deemed him trustworthy enough to keep his word with the help of her Color of Observation.

She looked at Law and raised an eyebrow, signaling him to explain.

Knowing that the opposite party likely wouldn’t share the information about transforming into Sulong unless he gave a satisfactory explanation, Law decided on how to respond.

“I ate the Op-Op Fruit, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit. One of the many abilities of the Devil Fruit lets me sense the Soul of the people within the range.

“While I was examining you with the help of my Devil Fruit, I sensed the presence of two Souls in your body.”

Kuroka sighed hearing the explanation, “There are all kinds of Devil Fruits in this world, huh?”

Then, she quickly composed herself, readying herself to reveal the secret behind her ability to enter Sulong Form without Full Moon.

…To Be Continued!