1. You poor fool

Someone knocked on my door.

Way too early in the morning.

"what!" I yelled a little crabbily.

"Maddock wants you, he's in the healing house."

And they disappeared.

Ha! I didn't even have to open my door.

I sat there and thought for a moment.

"nope, I ain't gonna get dressed. Too much effort."

So I went to the healing house as I was, tank top and PJ shorts.

I knocked on the door and entered.

"yeah?"

And then I looked inside.

At the body.

Of the recently executed Portgas D. Ace.

You know, as in the recently dead Portgas D. Ace.

Only the hole that was in the middle of the body is gone.

"he's living, just barely. It is hard to reject death, and only possible if they have the will to be brought back to this world." Maddock sighed.

Maddock ate the reject reject fruit, its ability: to reject any recent event within a concentrated area. For instance how he rejected the event that had killed Ace, but he had only rejected the death wound, the other wounds at that time still remained.

And there were a lot of them.

"he looks like a mummy, why'd you bring him back?"

"a favor to old Whitebeard, Ace is the one son he raised for the future. He had other 'sons' under his protection, in his 'family' but Ace, Ace was the one he chose."

"so why me of all people?"

"I want you to teach him his gift, fire."

"you want e to give him the truth of fire?"

"yes."

"why me?"

"because you're the only one fearless enough, and tough enough I trust to do this. Plus it should keep you from disrupting the rest of our lives."

"……"

"it's not an option, your going to do it, Kora."

"he can't be 'fire fist Ace' anymore, do I have to deal with that as well?"

"I trust you can handle it."

"hmph, call for me when he's stable enough to feed himself, I'm not a babysitter."

"thank you Kora."

"not welcome, old man."

"I'm not old…."

A week or two later….

Again.

With the knocking on my door way too early in the damn morning.

I groaned and went to answer it.

To find Maddock supporting a half conscious Ace.

"he's all yours"

"I said I'd take him when he could feed himself."

"as of this morning he can feed himself. He's yours"

I glared at him.

He smiled, passed Ace to me and walked away.

Ace was heavy.

So I dropped him.

Then I regretted doing that to a half-conscious injured person so I picked him up and drag-carried him to a prepared cot in my living room.

I think I heard him groan a bit, if he did, I'm pretty sure I ignored it.

It took a few hours for him to become fully conscious, or at least conscious enough to feed himself.

I would only give him food that was non-messy and easy to eat though, because I didn't want to be cleaning food off the floor.

He ate a lot.

"where….am….I?" he asked. It sounded kinda painful.

"Isle of Truth, Grand line."

"Isle....of….truth?"

"yup, we know a whole bunch of truth's that no one else knows and that the world government would rather we not know, but, the Isle of truth doesn't register on any lock post and its pretty hard to end up here because of the odd currents surrounding the island. We're the secret keepers of the sea."

"……"

"your father found his way here once, so did a few scholars of Ohara, years and years ago."

"my…only…father….is…Whitebeard."

"blood father, true father, I don't care. Both of 'em have been here and both of them have died carrying the secrets they learned here."

"….Whitebeard…is dead?"

"yup, he died on his feet though, proudest old man I ever saw. Even in death they couldn't bring him down."

"…….."

I saw Ace clench his fists and grit his teeth.

"now, now. Don't go breakin' your spirit, your death already broke your brothers will, and with you two holdin' the fate of this era in your hands, we can't have both of you losin' it."

"Luffy… I gotta….go see…him."

"you can't. as a matter of fact you can't even be Ace anymore."

"..why..?"

"because Ace died on live TV in front of the world. Finding out your alive would only cause more problems. You have to become someone else."

"how…am…I…suppose...to…do…that."

"that's my job."

"….."

"just you wait and see, I'll make you into a great new captain. I already have a ship bein' built for ya'."

"what…about everyone…who knew…me?"

"they'll find you familiar, if you should meet, but they won't guess that you're Ace."

"what…about...my power?"

"I already thought of that. We'll say you ate the Mystical beast Zoan: Salamander fruit."

"I ..don't…..turn…into…a…dragon."

"we'll work on that."