## One Piece Chapter 549, pages 17-18: The Ship Departs - Chapter: 549 - Pages: 17-18 - Characters: Portgas D. Ace, Luffy, Marines ### Summary Page 17: At Marine Headquarters at high noon, the order is given to take the prisoner to the execution site. There are three hours until the execution. Ace is led up an enormous staircase in chains between guards. Memories of Luffy echo in his mind: Luffy asking him to listen, the brothers saying they are definitely going to live without regrets, and Ace answering, "Yeah!!" The panels stretch the climb into a solemn procession, with each step bringing Ace closer to the public scaffold and the war waiting below. Page 18: Ace reaches the doors to the execution platform. A Marine says, "Stop. We're opening the door," and the doors begin to part. Ace remembers Luffy saying that someday they will go to sea and live the way they want. The page frames Ace from behind, hands chained, walking toward the light beyond the opened doors. He is not stepping into freedom but onto the execution stage, yet the remembered promise of choosing their own lives follows him to the threshold.