Wayne stood atop a massive seaside boulder, a black jester mask hiding his face. Cold sea wind snapped his cloak like a flag, but his mind was calm. Hands clasped behind his back, he gazed at the glittering water.
A pirate ship slid into view. The black flag bore a skull flanked by a laughing face and a crying face: the emblem of the Spade Pirates.
"Captain Ace, Loguetown straight ahead!"
"The legendary town of beginnings and ends, where the Pirate King was executed!"
Ace slung an arm around the pirate who spoke and thumped a huge welt onto the man's head.
"Quit worshipping the last Pirate King. I'm the one who'll take that title, and I sure won't surrender to the marines."
The crew's chatter soon drifted back to dreams of the Grand Line, but Ace still felt a sting of annoyance.
"Bunch of greenhorns," he muttered.
On the shore, Wayne waited. One thousand meters… eight hundred… five hundred… He drew the blade at his waist and inhaled.
"Flying Slash."
A white arc of sword light tore across the sea. It cleaved the Spade Pirates' ship in two with a single crack yet spared every life aboard.
"Enemy attack!"
"Help! I can't swim!"
Crew members flailed into the water, thrashing toward land.
Only Ace remained airborne, a streak of crimson fire shooting across the sky toward Wayne.
"Fire Fist!"
"You reacted fast, kid."
Wayne did not dodge. He swung twice. One slash scattered the incoming blaze; the other flew straight at Ace.
"Flame Mirror."
Ace converted to fire, slipping past the sword light, flipped once, and landed on the sand thirty meters from Wayne.
"Who are you, and why did you hit my crew?"
Seeing a face so like Rouge's made Wayne's expression soften for a heartbeat. He straightened.
"A promise to someone dear. I'm here to stop you from reaching the Grand Line."
Ace frowned. "A promise? Did that old geezer Garp send you? Tch."
"If you want to block a man's path to the sea, show the strength to do it."
Wayne stayed silent and swung again.
Too fast. Ace turned to flame but still yelped, clutching a fresh cut on his arm. Blood trickled down.
"H-how did you hit me? I was already in elemental form."
Shock rippled across his face. Since eating the Flame–Flame Fruit, no one in East Blue had ever hurt him. Yet this masked stranger carved him open with ease.
Wayne offered no answer, only another Haki-coated slash that etched red across Ace's abdomen.
"Coward. Ditch the sword and fight me fair."
Wayne shook his head. "Naïve talk. You have no idea who you're facing."
"Listen well. I'm not Garp's errand boy, but if you do not fight seriously, you will die and your crew will join you."
It was a bluff. Wayne simply needed Ace to turn back. If Ace never entered the Grand Line, he would never fall to Blackbeard and never die at Marineford. A simple fix, Wayne thought.
Ace's eyes blazed. "Shinka: Shiranui."
Both hands became lances of fire that thrust like spears.
"Pure fire can't touch me."
Wayne's Observation Haki warned him an instant ahead; he sidestepped effortlessly.
"Then take this. Fire Gun!"
Ace formed finger-guns. Bullets of flame peppered the beach, chasing Wayne's silhouette.
"I told you, flames alone will never land."
Wayne sprinted forward, every fiery bullet left behind in his wake.
"Got you. My new move. Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor!"
Ace suddenly closed distance, grinning. A sunlike sphere of fire slammed into Wayne and exploded.
The blast seared every plant off the islet, charring the ground black. Smoke billowed skyward.
"Captain Ace did it!"
The drenched Spade Pirates scrambled ashore just in time to witness the fiery cataclysm. Even Ace let out a breath of relief.
"We need a spare boat. That ship cost me a fortune." Ace started planning the trip to Loguetown.
"Captain, look!"
The smoke thinned. In its heart stood a tall figure, skin sheathed in obsidian black Haki.
Wayne coughed twice through the haze. "Impressive technique. Unfortunately, its force was too low to pierce my Haki."
Moments before impact he had clad himself in Advanced Armament. It was not the flowing variety of Wano but plenty strong enough.
A sigh escaped him. If this were the Ace who fought Blackbeard two years from now, that blow might have drawn blood.
"Haki? What is that?" Ace stared at the black coating on Wayne's forearms, mind racing. So this was the secret to landing those hits and dodging his flames.