Chapter 38: Flame vs. Smoke

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Tashigi snapped out of it and stared at the man in front of her. Clutching her sword, she asked cautiously, "Who are you?"

The marines behind her also watched Noir warily. Undeterred, Noir chuckled and said, "I am a cold-blooded assassin!"

Tashigi drew her famous sword, Shigure, and the soldiers aimed their rifles at Noir.

Noir twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "All right, actually, I'm just an ordinary pirate hunter. You're not going to back out of the deal, are you?"

Hearing this, Tashigi relaxed a bit and said seriously, "Of course, the Marine won't owe you any money!"

"By the way, what's your name?"

"I'm Noir."

At these words, Tashigi tightened her grip on her sword again, and the soldiers cocked their guns, ready to fire.

Noir quickly waved his hands and shouted, "Wait a minute! What's the meaning of this?"

With a piercing look, Tashigi said coldly, "Pirate hunter Noir, didn't you join Ace's pirate crew?"

With a blank face, Noir firmly denied, "No, I haven't. How could I join pirates?"

"Ace? What a stupid name. Is it delicious?"

Far away at the island's harbor, Ace, who was choosing a pirate ship, suddenly sneezed several times in a row.

Rubbing his nose, Ace grumbled, "Damit! Luffy must be cursing me behind my back again!"

Seeing Noir's innocent and confused expression, Tashigi was a bit unsure.

She hesitated and said, "This is Captain Smoker's order. You must come with us now!"

Noir shrugged indifferently and said, "Let's go. I haven't been paid yet."

Tashigi sheathed her sword, and the soldiers lowered their weapons, though Tashigi still gripped his arm tightly to prevent him from escaping.

Hmm...

Tashigi wanted to grab his shoulder, but the guy was too big...

From a distance, they didn't look like a soldier arresting a criminal, but rather like a mafia boss strolling with his little wife.

Noir walked ahead with his hands in his pockets, while Tashigi followed close behind, looking serious and "demure".

The townspeople watched the odd couple with curiosity and whispered:

"Is Ma'am Tashigi in love?"

"My crush! My heart is broken!"

"That guy's really good-looking, isn't he?"

Although they spoke softly, Noir heard them clearly with his advanced observation haki.

Noir said helplessly, "Can we keep some distance? This looks too ambiguous."

Tashigi glared at him and said, "We haven't confirmed if you're a criminal yet. I can't let go!"

Fine.

That girl is so stubborn, isn't she?

"The host has met an important character. Rewards will be issued: One pair of color-changing flashy sunglasses and ten White Talent copy cards."

Huh?

Hearing the familiar system prompt, Noir raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Getting caught counts as meeting someone?

What are these Color-Changing Flashy Sunglasses? The name sounds cool though.

Noir eagerly looked at the sunglasses in the system room, while deeply questioning the usefulness of the white copy cards the system gave him.

What good is a white talent copy card?

Considering Noir's current strength, white talents were of no use to him.

Sensing Noir's dissatisfaction, the system was silent for a long time before speaking again: "System functions detected insufficient for host. Commencing upgrade!"

"System upgrade will take 72 hours. During this time, the copy function will be unavailable."

What?!

I complained enough that the system is upgrading?

Noir was overjoyed. The system had been a great help in making him stronger. An upgrade should provide more services, right?

Only three days? No problem.

The news of the system upgrade put Noir in a good mood, even making the girl with glasses next to him look prettier.

While Noir was successfully "arrested" by the Marine, Ace ran into some trouble.

Everything had gone smoothly. Ace and his two companions had chosen a ready-built ship, even paid for it, and only needed to change its appearance a bit before setting sail.

But Ace, being Ace, insisted on eating before the ship was ready, and as a result...

Ace's bounty poster had just been distributed by the Navy!

A bounty of 40 million berries, and the information on it was from before Ace had eaten the Flame Fruit.

Who knows what Ace had done before that...

The moment Ace entered the city and walked into a restaurant, he was recognized and a large contingent of Marines came after him.

With a swarm of Marines chasing them, Deuce yelled in frustration, "Why did Ace's bounty poster have to come out now?!"

Dodging the barrage of bullets behind him, Skull yelled, "The Marines have too much firepower!"

With bullet holes sometimes appearing through the flames on his body, Ace said cheerfully, "I think it's okay."

"That's because they can't hit you!" Deuce and Skull shouted angrily at the carefree Ace.

As the three fled, they suddenly saw a man on a flashy, smoking motorcycle blocking their way.

The man raised a strange looking weapon and charged straight at Ace.

Ace watched the man attack him and remained indifferent. After all, his Logia ability made him immune to physical attacks.

But to Ace's astonishment, the Marine's weapon didn't penetrate his body as expected.

The Jutte's slammed into Ace's chest, shaking his internal organs.

Blood rushed to his mouth, but Ace forced it back down.

Wiping his mouth, Ace clutched his chest, the smile fading from his face, and stared coldly at the cigar-chomping man before him.

The smoker, exhaling white smoke, looked at Ace with disdain and said, "Pirate Ace, so you ate a Logia Devil Fruit, too."

"But it doesn't matter. No pirate from the East Blue can get past me!"

High-temperature flames erupted from Ace's body, a sunny smile on his face, but his eyes were like those of a predator.

"Is that so? But I'm going through!!"

The flames intensified, and Ace's body seemed to explode with fiery power, the flames attacking like the fangs of a demon.

Smoker snorted coldly, his body shrouded in white smoke, surging forward to meet the flames.

For a moment, smoke and fire intertwined, like two ferocious beasts tearing at each other.

The elemental storm of fire and smoke grew larger, reaching the sky, visible to everyone in the city.

Noir, who had been teasing Tashigi, saw the spectacular scene and suddenly remembered that Ace and Smoker had fought in the original story.

But wasn't that supposed to happen three years later?

"Did I time travel again?"

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