Chapter Six
—1—
After Oliva and his operation formally apologized to the Whitebeard Pirates for what they had done in Port Chibaralta, they closed up shop. With the matter settled, the island fell directly under Whitebeard’s control, rather than under a proxy as it had previously been.
In the pirating business, concepts like good and evil do not typically apply. In order to avoid the attention of the authorities—in this case, the World Government—most matters get handled privately between the parties involved.
This is why the law of the pirate’s code exists.
A fireball of a man flew off the Moby Dick and into the sea once again. When he fell into the water, his fire was extinguished.
“Was that the hundredth time?”
“I think so.”
The division leaders, released from the tension of the duel, finally let their thoughts out as words.
There was a crackling, singed smell floating about the deck. The duel between Portgaz D. Ace and Edward “Whitebeard” Newgate had come to a definitive end at last.
“Gura ra ra ra…”
Whitebeard had unleashed a small portion of the power of his Tremor-Tremor Fruit, an ability capable of destroying the world itself. He looked down at the palm of his hand.
“Young Doc’s going to scold me. I got burned in the same spot again,” he said, and glanced at the surface of the water.
Thatch sensed his captain’s meaning and ordered, “Someone pull him out!”
Wallace the fish-man immediately jumped into the water and scooped up the unconscious Ace before he could sink any farther down. When Wallace popped his head back out of the water, he saw a blue flame.
“Here, grab on.”
It was a bird of fire with wings outstretched. Commander Marco of the first division possessed the powers of a mythical-type Zoan fruit. He could turn into the phoenix signified by his epithet.
—2—
Ace tried a hundred times, and failed a hundred times.
In the end, he could use his fiery fist to apply pressure to Whitebeard, but not to reach the top.
They brought him back onto the deck, soaking wet, and sat him with his back against the side of the gunwale. It was the same way that he’d woken up on the Moby Dick for the very first time.
He hadn’t gone in expecting a miracle to occur on his hundredth attempt. To Ace, this contest was no longer about winning or losing. The desire to take Whitebeard out had already left Ace’s heart, even before they fought.
It didn’t mean that he admitted he had lost.
The great man who was Whitebeard should never have been the target for Ace’s fist in the first place. It just took him a hundred losses before he finally admitted that to himself.
It was a pointless fight.
Young people often struggle with pointless pursuits until they realize for themselves that they are pointless. And that, in fact, is the point.
If only he could have noticed it. If only he could have admitted it.
“Why does everybody call him Pops?” Ace asked.
Pops, sons… Why would a bunch of rough pirates play family like this? Captain and crew, that’s how it should be.
The leader of the first division, Whitebeard’s right-hand man, contemplated this in silence before he answered, “Because he considers us his sons.”
“We’re just a bunch of strays and outcasts here,” said Marco, smiling gently.
Because we’re pirates…
Residents of the territory aside, to nearly all of the common people, the word “pirate” was synonymous with fear. They attacked, stole, killed, and were hated and shunned for it. The people preferred the class hierarchy and order that came from the rule of the World Government, rather than the chaos of pirates, who often came out of nowhere like a natural disaster.
“So it makes us feel good, whether he really means it or not.”
Like family…
“Become my son,” Whitebeard had said, the first time he met Ace.
No way, he thought. Ace had to suffer a life ruled by hatred for the terrible father whose sins and accursed blood tainted him. As the son of a demon, he became a pirate and made a name for himself in order to drive away that nightmare, and when he thought he’d at last become free, here was another man trying to control him.
But now that he’d spent time as a guest of the Whitebeard Pirates, he understood the meaning of the word “son” in a different light.
Become my son. If you want to terrorize the seas, do it in my name. And Whitebeard reached out to Ace.
Would taking his hand mean surrender?
Whitebeard accepted everything. That meant that he had been willing to sustain Ace’s companions, the Spade Pirates.
That was the greatness and generosity of the man named Edward Newgate.
The greatness…of a father.
He was a man who had created his own territory. His own sea.
He stood upon the sea and built not a system of law and justice, or fear and conquest—but a family.
Of course, it was all taken from others, everything gained by another’s loss.
It wasn’t about right or wrong.
Wherever Whitebeard’s skull and bones flew, there was family.
Pops, sons… Those weren’t just words. They weren’t a game of pretend.
Though they didn’t share any common blood, it was a symbolic bond they shared, forged through sweat and blood.
Ace looked back.
He wanted to let the world know the name his mother gave him: Portgaz D. Ace. So that he could wipe away the memory of his hatred for Roger. To destroy the worthless world that killed his brother Sabo with such cruelty and callousness.
To live without regrets.
Looking back produced only memories of Sabo and Luffy.
I want to be able to look back at them—and most of all, my young self—and not feel ashamed of my choices…
Whatever form that takes.
“After the way your life was spared, you gonna keep going like this?” Marco asked his guest. “Make up your mind already. You won’t be able to kill Pops in your condition. Either get off this ship and try again later, or stay…and take the mark of Whitebeard on your back!”
—3—
Later that night, Ace and his Spade Pirates gathered on the deck of the Piece of Spadille.
The ship had been accompanying Whitebeard’s main fleet. It was given preferential treatment, as it belonged to guests of the crew, but the damage done during Jimbei’s attack was still there, and the mast was nearly broken.
“Ace…”
“Captain Ace,” said his crew, prompting him to speak at last.
“I’m sorry.” He bowed to the rest of the group.
“Huh?”
“I couldn’t come to the right decision. I was naive, and therefore I’ve been keeping you all hanging in the wind. But…I’ve made up my mind now.”
Ace looked at his oldest partner. Deuce nodded and brought out a piece of cloth.
“Hey, that’s…”
“It’s our flag.”
It was the partially torn flag of the Spade Pirates. Jimbei had torn it from its pole during their fight, but Deuce recovered the scrap during that five-day battle.
“Listen up, guys,” said Ace. This was likely to be his final message to them as captain.
“As of today, at this very moment, I am disbanding the Spade Pirates. I’m taking down this flag,” he proclaimed, flag in hand.
The rest were silent.
There were only two possible options for them. Take this broken-down ship and leave Whitebeard’s territory, or stay here as members of the Whitebeard Pirates.
The former was the loser’s choice. But they would remain independent, and have a chance to rebuild.
The latter would also make them losers, in a way. They would be surrendering to Whitebeard’s army.
Ace admitted his defeat. “I fought Whitebeard a hundred times, and couldn’t beat him once. I’ve got no pride left to make me feel shame… But let me say this one thing…”
What was being a pirate about, to Ace? What was the reason he left for the sea? What was a life without regrets, the one he swore to follow before Luffy and the late Sabo?
“I guess the reason I became a pirate wasn’t for my own fame, or status, or strength…”
But what the reason really was, he was having trouble expressing.
“Ace, are you going to find what you’re searching for here, in Whitebeard’s territory?” Deuce asked.
“I…I think I am.”
“Why do you think that?” his partner asked. It needed to be properly said aloud, not just left unspoken.
“Because…it’s comfortable here,” Ace admitted. He was starting to like the Whitebeard Pirates.
And the rest of his crew, to varying degrees, probably felt the same way. They’d lost the fight, and by many accounts, they should have been killed. But Whitebeard spared them, and gave them food and shelter.
“I lost a hundred times to Whitebeard. But I’m not breaking up the crew simply because I lost the fight. It’s because…I owe a hundred debts of gratitude to Whitebeard.”
Roger was his father. The fact that he was born at all was perhaps the one small reason for gratitude he owed his father. But Whitebeard…Whitebeard had spared his life a hundred times.
“I haven’t done a single thing to repay this debt. So I’ve decided to stay here with Whitebeard. And that means there’s a code that we should adhere to.”
I want to drink from Whitebeard’s cup.
It was the summation of Ace’s travels, and the final decision.
Ace waited for the others to respond. He did not rush them.
“This pirate crew…” said Skull, the first to speak.
“Yes?”
“This pirate crew raised its flag when Master Ace and Master Deu met on an uninhabited island, right? So if you two have made up your minds, then there’s nothing for the rest of us to say.”
The rest nodded along with what he said.
“It’s the way of the pirating world that if the captain says something is white, then even if it’s black, it’s white.”
“Mihal…you guys…”
Ace turned to Deuce, and they shared a look. The masked man spoke for his captain.
“I know that not all of you chose the pirating life for yourselves. If any of you have misgivings about this decision, please speak now. We’ll do whatever we can for you.”
“Are you sure you want to do this, Mihal? Wasn’t it your dream to be a teacher in some far-off country?” Ace asked.
“That’s right, a far-off country… Because with blue sky and a deck beneath my feet, I can teach anywhere,” he replied kindly. But there was sadness in his look too, as he prepared to say goodbye to the ship he’d guarded for so long.
The vessel that took them across the Grand Line was terribly damaged. As the coater at the Sabaody Archipelago had told them, its life span was nearly up. Even the shipwrights of the Whitebeard crew agreed that it would be better to build a new ship than fix up this one.
There would be a disbandment ceremony. A chance for everyone to release the feelings they’d all woven into the flag of the Spade Pirates.
“Given the kind of captain you guys had, what I put into this flag—my beliefs, I guess—weren’t really much to write home about.”
“That’s not true, and you know it.”
“Deuce…” Ace murmured, looking up at his partner. Kotatsu meowed and came over to rub against his legs.
“Ace…you’re a pirate, and your fists turn to fire. We came to this ship and this flag because we admired how you live like a burning flame.”
Shouldn’t that be enough? We were always just a bunch of naive kids and outcasts. That was all we needed.
The crew surrounded Ace, and admired their captain for who he was.
“Thanks, everyone.”
There was fire burning in his hands. The flag Ace held aloft rustled in the winds whipped up by the heat, shining and dancing in the darkness of the night.
The time had come to bid farewell to their ship.
“Goodbye, Piece of Spadille.”
“It was a good home, Ace.”
“Yes it was, Deuce.”
He gave the order to disembark. Ace and his crewmates then saw the burning ship off on its final journey.
—4—
It was an auspicious day.
The deck of the Moby Dick was swept clean of dust, and Whitebeard’s jolly roger flew tall and proud above.
It was time for the ritual of cups.
Upon a wooden stand was arranged a bottle of liquor, a smaller jar for pouring, the wide and flat cups, a ceremonial pile of salt for good luck, and a pair of red sea bream.
The division leaders and other principal members of the Whitebeard crew lined the scene. Deuce and the other Spade Pirates waited on the lower part of the deck as the star of today’s event, Portgaz D. Ace, proceeded toward the stage.
He had taken off his hat for once, and removed his weapons and the beaded necklace as well. He was entering pure of body and spirit.
“This is the ritual of taking oaths through cups. It will be a more informal version of the full ritual,” said the master of the ceremony, a man dressed in the kabuki costume and face paint of a woman—an ancient tradition.
A ritual to bring together strangers as family. To have them swear on the sea itself that they would be bound as relatives. It looked very stately and grandiose, but to pirates, this was a major occasion: the start of their second life. These little wine cups carried with them the weight of all the life ahead of them.
Edward Newgate would be the father, and Portgaz D. Ace the son.
“We will now conduct the ritual of father and son’s cups. My name is Izo, and I will be the speaker for this ceremony. Thatch will conduct the ceremony, Marco will be the observer, and Teech will be his second…”
In this informal ceremony, as the conductor, Thatch’s job was to take the cup from the father figure, Whitebeard, and bring it to the man who was to become the son, Ace. Once Ace had drunk the ceremonial saké, he wrapped the cup in traditional paper and placed it in his pocket.
Then more saké was poured into two other cups, which made their way down the row of division leaders to the left and right. The cups traveled from top to bottom, at which point the man on the end of each row traded those cups so that they could travel back up to the top position.
This was the trading of cups. At the end, the cups were stacked, and the entire group joined in a special clapping rhythm.
After a pause, Thatch the conductor motioned to Ace to say his part.
“Pops.”
“Yes, my son.” They said their parts, quickly and briefly.
“And so these two have now auspiciously joined together as father and son!” Izo announced, and the ship was enveloped in applause.
In addition to the Whitebeard Pirates, other crews affiliated with him had come from far and wide to be present. There were at least ten large ships congregated around them. Some of them were probably hoping to get a glimpse of the rumored “Fire Fist.” That was how notable the event of Portgaz D. Ace taking the ceremonial cup was in the New World.
“I hear you burned your flag,” Whitebeard said to Ace.
“I did.”
“You could have kept your flag, and joined us as an affiliate crew.”
Many people chose to retain the structure of their own crews when they became family with Whitebeard.
“To me, that wouldn’t be respecting the code,” Ace replied.
“I see.”
“Plus…I’m fire. I turned that flag to fire in my hands, and now that fire is part of me.” He held up his hands, showing off his palms.
“Ah, yes,” said Marco the observer. He took it upon himself to explain to Ace the mentality of being Whitebeard’s son. “Listen, Ace, when you join us—”
“May I say something first?” Ace interrupted, taking a step forward.
“Oh?” Marco exclaimed, taken aback.
That allowed Ace to continue. He crouched slightly, turning his left shoulder toward Whitebeard—exposing the tattoo that read 
“My name is Portgaz D. Ace. I received my name from the mother to whom I owe my life. And this tattoo represents my brothers, whom I owe as well. The followers behind me…are my family. And on this day, Whitebeard…I received a ritual cup from you.”
Young Fire Fist turned his back, exposing its surface.
“I leave my back open for you. To me, this cup means that I found what I was searching for, right here. And that the time is right to bear your mark on my back. Pops…”
To bear the ideals of Edward “Whitebeard” Newgate.
To carve a tattoo of Whitebeard’s Jolly Roger onto his back, a mark that would last forever.
“Gura ra ra ra ra!” Whitebeard laughed, long and loud.
“This is the lesson I’ve learned.”
“Very good,” said Marco.
He clapped his hands, and another round of applause filled the air, rising into the blue sky overhead.
Created by Eiichiro Oda
Written by Tatsuya Hamazaki
Translation: Stephen Paul
Design: Adam Grano
Editor: Megan Bates
ONE PIECE NOVEL A © 2018 by Eiichiro Oda, Tatsuya Hamazaki
All rights reserved.
First published in Japan in 2018 by SHUEISHA Inc., Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged by SHUEISHA Inc.
The stories, characters and incidents mentioned
in this publication are entirely fictional.
No portion of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means without
written permission from the copyright holders.
Printed in the U.S.A.
Published by VIZ Media, LLC
P.O. Box 77610
San Francisco, CA 94407
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hamazaki, Tatsuya, writer. | Oda, Eiichirō, 1975- | Paul, Stephen (Translator), translator.
Title: New World / created by Eiichiro Oda ; written by Tatsuya Hamazaki ; translation, Stephen Paul.
Description: San Francisco, CA : VIZ Media, [2020] | Series: One piece: Ace's story ; vol. 2 | Summary: Portgaz D. Ace flees memories of his secret past by leading his Spade Pirates crew to the New World where he sets his sights on one of the strongest fleets in the ocean, the dreaded Whitebeard Pirates.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020010048 (print) | LCCN 2020010049 (ebook) | ISBN 9781974713295
(paperback) | ISBN 9781974718535 (ebook)
Subjects: CYAC: Pirates—Fiction. | Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.H16926 Ne 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.H16926 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010048
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010049
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First printing, September 2020
