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The Magma Fruit was one of the most famous Devil Fruits in these seas. It was recorded in the Encyclopedia of Devil Fruits as possessing the strongest offensive power among all Logia-type Devil Fruits. This was not merely an exaggerated reputation spread by sailors; it was a fact that had been proven time and time again on the battlefield.
It was a power capable of melting rocks and turning them into molten lava, and even burning through flames themselves. For that reason, it could be said that the Magma Fruit was, by the very nature of its power alone, a superior version of the Flame-Flame Fruit.
But what Garp had witnessed with his own eyes that day made him reconsider everything he knew about Devil Fruits.
Although Ace was a user of the Flame-Flame Fruit, the destructive power he had unleashed in that final attack had surpassed, to an almost unbelievable degree, the power Sakazuki had always been so proud of through his use of the Magma Fruit.
It was not simply a matter of one element being superior to another.
The difference between the two users was so enormous that Garp found the very idea difficult to comprehend.
If Ace had possessed the same physical strength and combat energy that Sakazuki possessed at that time, the attack he had unleashed would have been capable of crushing the magma power Sakazuki was so proud of and reducing it to something utterly insignificant before him.
It was a result Garp had never witnessed throughout his entire life.
Although he had spent decades roaming these seas and had encountered countless monsters and powerful individuals, what he had witnessed with Ace was fundamentally different.
This child...
His future was beyond anyone's ability to predict.
Garp stared at Ace for several long seconds before complicated emotions flashed through his eyes and quickly turned into a genuine smile.
To him, this was no longer merely a matter of strength or exceptional talent.
There was now a real hope that this child might be able to choose the path he wanted and live freely without being hunted by the world because of his name or origins.
Garp raised his head and gazed at the endless sea before him as the waves quietly broke against the horizon.
Then he smiled brightly and said:
"With power like that, you'll be able to live in peace from now on, won't you, Ace?"
Garp did not need an answer.
Deep down, he only hoped that this power would be enough to protect Ace from the world that awaited him.
Then time passed quickly.
Three full years disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Ace, who had once been a small child barely capable of controlling his own power, was now ten years old.
Throughout those three years, his growth had never stopped for even a moment. It was true that his rate of progress was not as terrifying as it had been during his direct training under Garp, but his strength had continued to rise steadily and consistently. More importantly, it was developing in the right direction.
During that period, Ace met Sabo at the Gray Terminal.
From that point onward, the two began moving together, whether they were training, exploring the forest, or carrying out their plans for the future.
And of course, there was another matter that was always on their minds...
Money.
They began collecting everything they could find in the Gray Terminal, from coins to jewelry and small treasures that could be sold later. For two children living in such a place, what they were doing was essentially building a dream with their bare hands.
As for Ace, he was no longer the same child Garp had known years ago.
Thanks to possessing the Tortoise Breathing Method of Complete Absorption and Combat, his body had become capable of absorbing energy and converting it into strength with far greater efficiency. Combined with his extraordinary talent for comprehension and learning, Ace was not merely increasing his strength; he was also gaining a more precise understanding of his body's limits and abilities.
Thus, after a long series of tests, battles, and training sessions, Ace arrived at a rough assessment of his current strength.
In terms of physical fitness and raw strength alone, he was approximately on the level of a Marine Headquarters Colonel.
For a ten-year-old child, that was an astonishing level of power by any standard.
But the body was only one part of Ace's strength.
He was a Logia-type Devil Fruit user, which meant that most people who did not possess Haki would not even be able to touch his body, let alone injure him.
In other words, if Ace faced a fighter who did not know how to use Haki, the battle would turn into a one-sided massacre.
But the most frightening thing of all was that he already possessed an extraordinarily rare ability.
Conqueror's Haki...
And he did not merely possess the ability to unleash it. He had already reached the level of coating himself with Conqueror's Haki.
That alone was enough to place him in an entirely different class from most fighters.
On top of that, Ace possessed a number of techniques that could be described as terrifying even by the standards of the monsters of the Grand Line, such as "Flame Ring — Fall of the Seafloor" and "Burial by Fire with a Single Slash."
When all these abilities were combined, the result was truly frightening.
Even if Ace faced a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral and gave everything he had at the right moment, an opponent who was caught off guard and unprepared would not necessarily be able to walk away from him unharmed.
At this level of strength, Ace's name would no longer be completely unknown even if he reached the Grand Line.
And yet, Ace did not care much about any of this.
In his eyes, what he possessed now was merely the foundation for his future.
As for that day...
It brought an entirely new person to Dadan's home.
Garp arrived as usual, without even giving Dadan a chance to catch his breath.
He was holding a seven-year-old boy by his clothes and lifting him into the air as if he were carrying a sack rather than a child.
Garp flashed his usual grin and shouted:
"Dadan, this is my grandson! Take care of him and raise him too! Hahahahaha!"
Dadan's eyes widened as though they were about to pop out of their sockets.
Then her anger erupted immediately.
"What?! Are you kidding me?! My house isn't a daycare! I'm not taking care of another child!"
Dadan had already reached the absolute limit of her patience.
This man only ever showed up to dump another child on her before leaving as if he had done nothing at all!
But Garp did not look bothered in the slightest.
He stared at her for a second, then narrowed his eyes slightly. A sinister aura surrounded him, making the very air seem heavier.
"Hmm? Do you want to spend the rest of your life in prison?"
Dadan froze in place.
"No, no!"
She quickly swallowed and nodded.
"I understand! I understand completely! I'll take care of him! I'll raise him myself!"
She had no other choice.
Once again, she realized that Garp knew perfectly well how to identify the weakest person in the room and pressure them.
While Dadan was trying to accept her new fate, Garp suddenly turned and looked toward a nearby tree.
Ace had been standing on one of its branches, quietly watching the entire scene from the beginning.
Garp smiled broadly and said:
"Ace, you two should get along well, all right?"
Ace remained silent.
He was staring at the small boy Garp was holding.
Black hair.
Childish features.
And the strange temper that would later become one of the most famous traits in the sea.
Ace's eyes widened slightly.
"Monkey D. Luffy...?"
There was no doubt.
This was the future protagonist of the world of pirates in the original story.
And the strangest thing of all...
This child had already eaten the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Model: Nika.
Ace stared at him for several moments before narrowing his eyes.
Garp, however, only noticed that his other grandson had said nothing.
He simply said:
"I'll come back to visit you when I get my next leave."
Then he dropped Luffy onto the ground without the slightest hesitation, turned around, and left toward the forest.
A few moments later, Luffy raised his head and looked at Ace with obvious excitement.
He ran over until he reached the base of the tree, then shouted:
"You're Ace, right?! I'm Luffy! Let's be friends!"
Ace jumped down from the tree and landed in front of him with ease.
He looked Luffy up and down before a sly smile appeared on his lips.
"Friends? You want to become my friend?"
"Oh! Yeah!"
Luffy nodded enthusiastically.
To Ace, it made perfect sense.
At this age, Luffy hated bandits because of what had happened to him with Shanks, but at the same time, he hated loneliness more than anything else.
And here, in this miserable place, he had only two real options.
The bandits...
And Ace.
So it was only natural that he would cling to the first person he could regard as a friend.
Ace stared at him for another moment, then turned around.
"Then follow me."
Before Luffy could even understand what was happening, Ace leapt away and disappeared among the trees.
"Ace! Wait for me!"
Luffy rushed after him at full speed.
The two continued running through the forest, between dense trees and rocky slopes, until they reached a very deep and isolated area that would have been difficult for any ordinary person to discover.
There, Ace stopped.
At that very moment, a familiar voice came from ahead.
"Ace! You're here?"
A blond-haired boy emerged from between the trees.
There was a noticeable gap between his teeth, and his face wore a smile filled with excitement.
"Sabo."
Ace smiled faintly.
Sabo quickly stepped forward and opened several carefully hidden chests.
The chests were filled with coins, treasures, and jewels.
"Look, Ace! We've collected all this money! We're one step closer to our dream of setting sail!"
Ace looked at the contents of the chests.
This fortune was the result of everything the two of them had collected from the Gray Terminal over the past several months.
With Ace's current strength, the entire Goa Kingdom posed no real threat to him. As a result, collecting money had become much faster than it had been before.
The problem was that the Gray Terminal was impoverished to begin with.
So, after all that effort, the two of them had only managed to collect around ten million Berries.
Even so, Ace was not bothered.
He had never intended to accumulate a huge fortune through such slow means in the first place.
Before setting sail, he simply intended to find one of the nobles who possessed enormous wealth, take one hundred million Berries from him, and then head out to sea.
As for the reason he needed all that money...
It was not merely a desire to become wealthy.
He already had a specific goal in mind.
His future navigator.
But before Sabo could continue speaking, a broken voice came from behind the trees.
"Ace! Wai...wait for me! Heh... heh... heh..."
Sabo stopped talking.
A few moments later, Luffy emerged from between the trees, stumbling forward before collapsing to the ground from sheer exhaustion.
Sabo's eyes widened.
Quickly, he closed all the chests.
Then he shouted cautiously:
"Who are you?!"
Luffy raised his head with difficulty.
"I'm... Luffy! And you?"
"I'm Sabo..."
Sabo suddenly stopped.
Then he shouted:
"And why should I tell you who I am in the first place?!"
Luffy smiled as if he had not heard the anger in his voice.
"Don't be like that! Let's become friends!"
Sabo stared at him in shock.
As for Ace, he answered indifferently:
"This is old man Garp's grandson. I thought I'd managed to get rid of him."
Sabo immediately turned toward him.
"Who would believe that?!"
Regardless of anything else, he knew Ace's speed very well.
There was no way a child like Luffy could actually have caught up with him.
Ace had deliberately allowed him to follow.
Sabo narrowed his eyes, then looked at Luffy.
"Ace... he saw our treasure."
Ace said calmly:
"He's already seen it."
Then he added:
"Then there's no other solution. Kill him."
Silence fell.
Then Sabo said grimly:
"I don't see another solution either."
The next moment, Luffy's eyes widened.
"What?!"
He immediately burst into a scream:
"No, no, don't kill me! Wouldn't it be better if we became friends?! Don't throw me into the sea and let me drown!"
His body had already exhausted almost all of its energy, so he could not even run away.
He remained sprawled on the ground, tears streaming down his face.
Sabo looked at him helplessly.
"Drowning... is actually a good idea."
Then he muttered:
"But why is this idiot suggesting his own method of death?"
Ace said:
"Go, Sabo. Do it properly."
Sabo froze.
"I... I've never killed anyone before."
Then he looked at Ace nervously.
"You'd better do it."
"You were the one who suggested it, weren't you? If you're the one who suggested it, then you should do it yourself."
Sabo had no response.
He sighed, then slowly walked toward Luffy.
The closer he got, the more his hands trembled.
As for Luffy, he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Don't... don't kill me! I don't want to die yet!"
Then he waited.
One second.
Two seconds.
Ten seconds.
But nothing happened.
Luffy slowly opened one eye.
He found Sabo standing in front of him, sweat covering his forehead, and then...
Sabo suddenly sat down on the ground.
"I... I can't do it!"
He was breathing heavily as though he had just fought a real battle.
Ace did not look surprised in the slightest.
He approached Sabo and patted him on the shoulder.
"If you can't kill him, then there's only one option left."
Sabo raised his head.
Ace smiled and said:
"We'll make him join us."
Luffy stared at the two of them for several moments before his expression completely changed.
"What?! Ace! Sabo! You're not going to kill me?! Are you going to become my friends?!"
But Ace did not answer.
Instead, the corner of his mouth lifted into a sly smile as he said:
"Before you join us... there's one ritual you have to perform."
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