One Piece: Under the Throne

On an uninhabited island in the East China Sea, a young man wearing a cowboy hat is in a fierce confrontation with a maid.

The two sides in the battle were Ace and Gloria. At first, Ace was just beaten unilaterally, but after three months of persistence, he was finally able to fight back. Gloria also transitioned from using her bare hands to using her big hammer as a martial arts sparring partner.

Not far from the battlefield, there were two people sitting on the ground with a tea table in front of them. They were drinking tea while watching the fight between the two.

Today, Leo rarely resisted sleepiness. Even though he looked exhausted, he still checked Ace's growth during this period of time: "His movements have become more coordinated, and he can slightly sense danger. At this rate, it shouldn't be long before he can awaken his Observation Haki."

Alfu, who was sitting next to Leo, nodded affirmatively: "They both have great fighting talents, especially Ace. This kid's physical fitness doesn't look like a 17-year-old boy. He has already mastered the basics of Armament Haki a month ago, and his Observation Haki is also gradually awakening during daily training."

Leo was about to reply when he suddenly felt the Prime Minister nuzzling his neck, "Captain, everyone is helping Ace, and I want to join in, but I don't know how to help him."

"That's easy. Your fruit ability is the best training cheat."

"It's no use. I tried to make Ace smarter, so I used my sage ability on him, but he's still a moron."

"Hmm~ How about you change the way you speak? Remember the passionate way of speaking I mentioned to you before?"

"Is that okay?"

"Just give it a try, just in case it works."

"Alright!" The prime minister yelled at Ace, "Don't look down on the young and poor."

Result...the ability of the Sage Fruit is activated. When the Prime Minister shouts out this sentence, the target's qualifications will be greatly improved.

Ace, who was fighting, suddenly shuddered, as if something suddenly entered his body, and then he felt like he had endless energy.

“Ah…Ahhhhh! I’m on fire!”

Leo: ...

Ah Fu: ...

"This is too unscientific. If I had known this would work, I wouldn't have had to work so hard. Is there anything else besides this?"

"One more thing, this boy is so terrifying." The prime minister said in a low voice.

Ah Fu took a deep breath and said, "Although I don't understand what you mean, it looks pretty impressive."

After watching for a while, Leo couldn't hold it any longer, so he handed the Prime Minister to Ah Fu, and then went back to the boat to lie dead.

……

Time soon came to evening. After the smokeless war on the dining table ended, Ace was brought into the room by Leo, burping.

"From today on, I will teach you how to develop the Flame-Flame Fruit."

At this moment, Ace was sitting on a small stool like a good student, nodding seriously in response.

Leo was very satisfied with Ace's attitude towards learning: "First of all, you have to understand the meaning of the Flame-Flame Fruit. When you use your ability, flames are emitted, but why is it not called the Flame Fruit? That's because the essence of this fruit lies in the word 'burn'. Do you understand what I mean?"

Ace scratched his head and pretended to think. After a while, as if he suddenly understood, he suddenly stood up and made an S-curve: "Is that what you mean?"

……

"Burn means combustion, and combustion will definitely emit light and heat. As for the flames that appear when you use your ability, they are just the appearance of the combustion process of gas or combustibles. Through these few months of observation, I found that you always think about the form of flames. This is completely the wrong development direction."

After finishing speaking, Leo deliberately paused for a few seconds to observe Ace's condition. As a result, Ace tilted his head, and there was a big question mark on the top of his head besides the big bump.

Tsk, I forgot this guy is a fool. Leo shook his head helplessly and had to invite the prime minister.

"Use your abilities to make him smarter."

"My Lord, this boy is extremely talented."

"What is Yato?" Ace was even more confused.

"This boy has the qualities of a great emperor!"

"This boy has amazing bones!"

"This boy is definitely not an ordinary person. When faced with wind and cloud, he will transform into a dragon!"

"Haha, I know that. You're talking about Kaido, right?" Ace said with a silly grin. He thought he finally understood something.

The prime minister seemed to be struck, and was speechless for a long time. His thousands of words finally turned into a sigh: "Alas, this boy must not be kept."

After seeing off the disheartened prime minister, Leo stared at Ace with a complicated look.

"This is my fault, Ace. First of all, you have to forget about the fire birds, fire dragons, fire fists, flaming swords, etc. that you developed. Just remember that you can use these abilities at will, and don't have to focus on changing the appearance of the flames."

"Huh? Leo, don't you think those moves are cool?"

"Being handsome is useless. You should become strong enough first before you think about being handsome. However, among the moves you developed, there is one called Cross Fire which is quite interesting."

"why?"

"The fighting methods you use now are all developed based on the flames produced by combustion, such as using fire to ignite objects and using flames to provide kinetic energy. Only the cross fire move has been developed to increase the temperature."

Seeing Ace in deep thought, Leo continued, "Remember your first fight with Will? All your fancy moves were useless. Only the cross fire could barely hurt Will. So temperature is the key."

"You mean the higher the temperature the better, right? But how can we increase the temperature of the flame? Can we hurt the strong with a high temperature flame?"

Leo's mouth curled slightly. After talking all night, this kid finally got to the point. "That's right. Just remember that any combustion will generate heat, and the higher the heat, the higher the lethality. For example, the orange-red flame you are using now has a temperature between 700 and 1000 degrees. Even if this temperature ignites a human body, it will not kill immediately, let alone a strong person who has mastered the Armament Haki."

"Does fire have other colors?" The biggest fire Ace has ever seen since he was a child was the fire that burned the garbage mountain in the Goa Kingdom. That fire almost killed the young Ace and also burned his stepmother Dadan. So in his concept, red is the strongest form of fire.

And today, Leo revealed to him a glimpse of the real world.

"Dark red and deep red are low-temperature flames, while orange-red is medium-temperature flames. The temperature of the flame you can currently emit is within this range."

"When the temperature exceeds 1000 degrees, the flame's color changes every time it rises. Between 1000 and 2000 degrees, the flame is yellow. When the temperature reaches 2000 degrees, the flame turns white. When the temperature reaches 2500 degrees, the flame turns blue."

"And this is not the limit of your Flame-Flame Fruit. If you can make the air burn out of thin air, the temperature will reach 6000 degrees. If you can do that, you will be invincible."

After Leo finished speaking, without waiting for Ace to ask any questions, he took out a piece of metal and a flamethrower and demonstrated to Ace the process of fire transformation. When Ace saw the blue flames melting the metal, his eyes widened completely.

"Don't be surprised yet." Leo then showed Ace his abilities in mid-air, including the water prison technique that Ace was most familiar with.

"My ability allows me to extract moisture from the air at will. The Flame-Flame Fruit can do the same, but it's much more difficult than mine."

Leo didn't explain too much to Ace. He just demonstrated and let him feel the change in power.

Ace continued to fight with Gloria every day, and researched ability development at night, and two months passed like this.

When Ace completely mastered the Armament Haki Hardening and Observation Haki, he challenged Leo again.

At dawn, Ace and Leo stood facing each other on the shore. When the first ray of sunlight appeared in the sky, it indicated that the duel had begun.

Even the darkest time of the day could not conceal Ace's bright eyes. His gaze seemed to be able to pierce through the darkness: "I have waited too long for this day. I must defeat you."

Leo yawned loudly. "It's right to be confident, but you think you can beat me, Ace, you are getting cocky."

At the same time, on the Poseidon, no one slept in today, and everyone was present to watch the battle.

Gloria suddenly took out 1 Baileys and slapped them on the deck: "I bet 1 that the captain will win."

"Me too x7."

Everyone suddenly turned their eyes to Zeus and asked, "Why did you defect to the enemy?"

Deuce felt a little embarrassed when being stared at: "After all... after all, the difference in strength is too big. Ace has no chance of winning. If we bet on Rio to win, at least we can earn some money for the trip."

Ah Fu nodded: "You have the potential to be a vice captain."

Gloria complained, "What? The bet is not valid at all."

Will also silently took out 1 Baileys: "How about we bet on how long Ace can last? I bet on 50 minutes."

"Then I'll press for 30 minutes."

"15 minutes."

"20 minutes."

……

Everyone except Deuce has placed their bets. Deuce rubs his chin and rolls his eyes around: "Humph, I believe in Ace. I'll bet for more than an hour."

Just as Deus placed his bet, the first ray of sunlight broke through the night sky, and the duel between the two was about to begin.

Everyone immediately turned their attention to the shore, but Deuce shouted at Ace, "Ace, run fast. If you can hold on for an hour, we'll win the money."

Everyone:...

【Fire Fist】!

Ace ignored the funny Deuce. It could be said that all his attention was focused on Leo at this moment.

Leo did not bring his Freedom Mech in this duel. He decided to rely solely on the power of his fruit to defeat Ace. The raging fire fist attacked, but was blocked by an invisible wall 2 meters away from Leo. The fire fist seemed to hit a solid object, and the flames gradually accumulated until they splashed everywhere.

After a fire fist, Ace started running. He began to circle with Leo as the center, and launched sneak attacks with his musket from time to time while running. However, he still could not break through the invisible wall after changing various angles.

Whenever a flaming bullet was blocked, a wisp of white smoke would immediately rise.

Deuce's eyes widened in disbelief: "What on earth is going on? Leo didn't move at all."

Gloria replied disdainfully: "The Captain can extract moisture from the air at will to form a defense. Look at the white smoke, it's the water vapor after the flame evaporates the water."

Ace obviously also discovered this. Leo did not deliberately hide it when he demonstrated his ability to Ace before. Seeing that all the attacks were blocked, Ace suddenly crossed his index fingers and used Cross Fire.

The cross fire was unable to penetrate the water barrier, but it made the barrier visible. It was a semicircular protective shield composed of multiple hexagons. When the cross flames hit the surface of the protective shield, one could see the hexagons on it continuously transmitting energy to the attacked position.

Ace was busy for a long time, but Leo still didn't move. The bubbles of his nose rose and fell with his breathing. Leo fell asleep while standing like that.

"As expected, none of your attacks worked. But I have prepared a great gift for you today."

Suddenly, Ace was wrapped in flames. Flames shot out from the soles of his feet and sent him into the air. As he floated, the flames formed a pair of wings behind him, just like the phoenix in mythology.

Just like the sun god in mythology, the flames covering Ace's body turned golden. He stretched his arms behind him as if to charge for an attack, then swung his arms forward fiercely, and the golden flames gathered into a point in front of Ace.

"Leo, it's time to get up, [Yangyan·Sunbird]."