That afternoon, after having lunch, Ace visited Otama one last time.
He crouched slightly, bringing his eyes level with hers.
"Well, Otama… I'll be going today. I'll be leaving Wano around one o'clock."
Otama's eyes shimmered immediately. Tears threatened to spill, but she stubbornly held them back.
"When will you come again next time?" she asked.
Ace was quiet for a moment, looking away as he chose his words.
"Maybe this year… or the next. I can't say for sure."
Otama nodded, swallowing the ache in her chest. She forced a bright smile.
"Okay! Then I'll take care of myself. And you should take care of yourself too!
By the time you visit next, I'll be a strong kunoichi!"
Ace studied her closely, as if memorizing her face, before a small, warm smile tugged at his lips.
"If you really become a strong kunoichi by the time I'm back… I'll let you join my crew."
Her smile exploded into pure sunshine.
"Promise?"
Ace chuckled. "Promise."
And with that, he turned and left the village—Amigasa Village, in Kuri—heading toward Udon.
---
Meanwhile…
The moment Ace disappeared from view, Otama's small body trembled. The tears she had held back finally spilled.
For the past ten to twelve days, she had wandered Wano, eaten delicious food, helped people whenever she could, and lived as she wished.
But now that he had gone…
the familiar ache of loneliness returned.
An old man wearing a tengu mask approached her quietly. After a brief pause, he spoke in a gentle, warm voice.
"Don't worry. He will come again very soon."
Otama wiped her face and nodded, her voice small but determined.
"I'll cry today… but tomorrow, I'll train.
I'll become strong first… and then I'll be Aniki's partner."
---
After leaving Kuri, Ace travelled rapidly toward Udon.
His schedule was tight—every minute mattered—so he didn't waste a single second.
When he arrived, he didn't disguise himself.
No transformation. No mask. No hiding.
He simply walked straight toward the prison entrance.
Two Beast Pirate guards were laughing near the gate, but the moment they saw him, their laughter died mid-breath. Their hands slid to their swords.
Wano had been restless these past three or four days.
Rumors of a mysterious killer—the "Fire Demon"—who slaughtered without mercy, had made even hardened guards cautious.
They assumed he would attack, but Ace stopped, closed his eyes, and exhaled slowly.
The guards exchanged a confused glance.
Their decision was made—they would strike first.
But, before they could move—
Ace opened his eyes.
And the world shook.
Conqueror's Haki erupted from his body like a collapsing storm: invisible, violent, absolute.
Both guards dropped instantly, their eyes rolling back.
Across the prison, Beast Pirates—wardens, officers, soldiers—fell one by one. Only a handful remained, trembling and drenched in sweat, barely able to stand under the crushing pressure.
Ace didn't glance at them.
He kept walking deeper into the prison.
A strange silence filled the air—yet chaos lingered.
Two opposite states coexisted at once.
Prisoners panicked, shaking their chains as the Beast Pirates collapsed around them.
But the seasoned prisoners—the real monsters locked behind iron bars—felt something else.
Conqueror's Haki.
A power one in a million.
In Wano's history, only Oden, Kaido, and a few others were known to possess it.
The prisoners trembled, wondering:
Could Kaido have returned?
No… this felt different. Sharper, hotter… like fire wrapped in will.
Footsteps approached.
All eyes fixed on the entrance.
And then they saw him: Ace.
Babanuki staggered forward, disbelief flooding his face. His hands trembled.
Shock—because he recognized him.
Fear—because he knew what this encounter meant.
He swallowed hard and growled:
"Portgas D. Ace… Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.
So it's you who's causing trouble in Kaido-sama's territory.
Do the Whitebeard Pirates seek war?
Is your presence the declaration of all-out conflict?!"
Ace didn't blink.
He didn't care for speeches. He didn't care for threats.
He simply replied, calm and chilling:
"Are you surrendering… or should I make you unconscious?"
Babanuki's body flared with anger. He wasn't as strong as Kaido, the three disasters and the six tobiroppo— far from it, but he was still a high-ranking officer, entrusted to govern Udon.
He would not bow without a fight.
He gritted his teeth.
"Then let's see… if I can win this!"
---
Ace didn't respond verbally. He simply took a stance.
Babanuki's muscles coiled, senses alert.
From his pocket, he produced the Excite Shot—a projectile 200 times more poisonous than a standard Excite Bullet.
The shot contained a plague capable of wiping out every living being in Udon Prison. Babanuki fed it into the mouth of his SMILE elephant, which expanded its trunk as it absorbed the attack.
In the original anime, this attack had been stopped by Luffy by tying a knot in the elephant trunk to prevent it from spilling poison—but Ace didn't rely on trickery. He wanted a direct confrontation, a test of strength.
He inhaled deeply, his stomach slightly inflating, preparing his one of the strongest attack.
Babanuki, on the other side, had fully loaded his own weapon. He unleashed a poisonous gas bomb, roaring as the attack shot forward like an unstoppable force aimed at Ace.
Ace roared in response.
Hellfire Resonance.
From his roar erupted a towering column of fire—more than ten times the strength of his previous Flame Fist Impact, hotter and fiercer than anything he had released before. The flames burned a deep, furious red, radiating heat that melted the very air around them.
When the two attacks collided, the strongmen still conscious in the prison watched in frozen awe.
Ace's fire completely engulfed the poisonous gas, consuming it without faltering, and then passed through Babanuki like a storm of molten wrath.
Babanuki screamed. For two, three seconds, his roar echoed—and then it vanished.
The mountain behind him shattered. The impact dug hundreds of meters into the rock, creating a cavern that seemed naturally carved, lava flowing along its walls, glowing like molten rivers.
Ace felt the weight of his power. He had poured all his stamina, all his heart into this attack. The flames were fueled not just by his fire, but by inspiration—like heroes from Legends he had imagined as a child. He could have delivered it as a simple punch—but breathing fire, letting it explode with precision and force, was far cooler.
When the inferno cleared, Babanuki had disappeared, swallowed by the attack and the newly formed cavern behind him.
Silence fell over the prison.
Not a sound—no whispers, no movement. Only the distant crackle of lava along the cave walls.
Everyone present—guards, prisoners, strongmen—knew without a doubt: Ace had demonstrated power beyond comprehension.
And in that silence, the weight of his presence settled over Udon Prison—absolute and unchallenged.