Hi, the shy Ghost here *waves*.

Um so well this is the first time I am writing a longer story in the universe of One Piece. And it's the second longer story I am writing in English. And English isn't my first language so I apologize in advance for spelling and gramma mistake. But I hope you can read it anyway.

So the story will follow different people. It's not a set pattern, it all depends on the story. But most of the characters in One Piece will be in it, one way or another. Either by mentioning or in person. And I must warn you that most characters will be really out of characters. I have taken some of there trait, but I have also changed a lot. And you will get the characters backstory during the story. But I can warn you right now that most of them are really dark and sad. But the city they are in are really fucked up.

I can also warn you that there will be a lot of yaoi couple in this one. So if you don't like that I would say don't read it. It's not like I am going to have millions sex scenes, but there will be some. But trust me there will not be only yaoi couples. If i didn't was spoiling to much I would most likely name a few of the couples, but you will have to wait and see.

I tried to make this chapter in some logical order to what happened during the day. And like you will notice in the next chapter some things happens at the same time in other places. Hope it made some sense.

And well yes I think that's all for now. Or yeah right I can also say that I will try to update as often as I can, and most time that will be on the weekends, if I have some time over I will update during the week but I can't promise anything.

So with that said I hope you will like my story and enjoy the reading :)

"Eh Ace, where are you going?" Marco said as he walked up to him. Ace was just about to walk through the gates and leave the old palace. He had wanted to sneak away without anyone asking. He had talked to the old man already and he had given him permission, so Ace thought he could just leave. But his luck wasn't with him, and his brother had to come up.
"Out" Ace just answered, in a not to friendly voice. Normally he loved Marco and wouldn't have anything against him. But today he was both restless, sad and a bit angry.
"That I can tell" Marco said with a smile. "What I want to know is where and why? And do you want some company?"
"No I don't want company. And neither where or why is none of your business" Ace snapped at his brother and first Marco seemed to be a bit upset over it but then he calmed down.
"So it's this day of the year again" Marco said "I am sorry for asking"
"No I am sorry for snapping. It's not your fault. I am just worried" Ace admitted and Marco smiled towards him.
"Like every year" Marco said and gave him a pat on the back "You are a good brother Ace."
"Not good enough for stopping him…" Ace started but then stopped "Never mind. I need to go"
"Take care out there, and come home safely" Marco told him, and Ace smiled when Marco used his big brother voice.
"Don't you worry Marco, I am not a kid anymore. I can handle some lowlife scum" Ace said and walked past the gate.
"It's not the lowlife scum I am worried about" Marco said to himself before he went back inside.

Luffy sat on the roof, waiting for Ace. Fore once Luffy wasn't late, not that Ace was late either, Luffy had just been early. This year he hadn't been distracted by his gang. Most of them had left to do some work on their own. To be honest Luffy hadn't asked what they were doing. He knew that most of it was bad things, but who didn't do bad things in this town? Everything was so fucked up in this town. You couldn't get by if you didn't do bad things. It was either do bad things and live, or try to do good things and die. Luffy had stayed away from doing some of the worst thing, he had decided to offer protection to people who wanted it, if he got food. He didn't threaten to kill people if they didn't want his protection, he wasn't like Big Mom. No Luffy just tried to do good, by doing bad things, and get food.
He wasn't sure what the rest of his gang really did, but he had told them that if they ever wanted to quite what they did he supported them, letting them know that they didn't need to do anything they didn't want to. If Luffy got the power over the whole city, he wouldn't force anyone to do something they didn't want to.

"Boo" Ace jumped up on the roof and Luffy smiled widely at his brother.
"ACE" Luffy said and jumped his brother to give him a hug. It hadn't been to long since he saw his big brother, a few days at its most, but Luffy always missed him. Ever since they decided to take different paths. Ace thought Whitebeard was the one that could save the city, and making it a great place again. And Luffy thought he could do it himself. They never talked about it, but being a part of different gangs made it harder for them to see each other.
"Hi Luffy" Ace answered and hugged his little brother. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yes I am ready. Let's find Sabo!" Luffy said and smiled, Sabo was the one of his brothers that he rarely saw. Since Sabo unlike them had chosen to live alone. Compared to the other brothers who hoped to get the city a better place by finding a good ruler, Sabo wanted to free if from rulers and corrupt people. He tried to get rid of the corrupt people and give it back to the good people, and not always by the friendliest methods. Ace and Luffy both wished Sabo had chosen another way, but they understood why. And they still accepted him, because he was there brother. And nothing would change that, no matter what he did.

The two brothers got to Sabo's apartment and sneaked in. Neither of them wanted to be seen since Sabo lived in one of the most violent district. It used to be noblemen's district, but most of them had either been killed or fled to the casino district where they continued to ruin people's life. When the nobles were gone, people started moving into their houses. A few gang tried to take over the district but got pushed out by the people living there. As time went by the district become one of the few neutral grounds. This one being the most violent, since the people strong enough to make it on their own lived here. This was people who didn't needed a gang to survive.

Neither Luffy or Ace was worried that Sabo lived here, knowing that their brother could take care of himself without a problem. But they didn't want to be seen here. As a member of a gang, they were hated by most people in the district. It didn't matter which gang you belonged to, you were hated anyway. The people here was tired of the gang fighting over the city, they didn't want anyone to control their life. They preferred to that it was everyone for themselves. Sabo was a bit different. He preferred to be alone, not wanting anyone to control him, but he would always come to his brothers if he needed it. He was a loner by a choice, but it didn't make him alone. Even if they wanted Sabo to join a gang, so he didn't need to be alone all the time, they both knew that would never happen. Sabo didn't want to have people close to him, not after what happened to him. He just didn't trust people enough.

"Can you imagine that it has already been twelve years since we met him?" Luffy asked as they stood in Sabo's apartment. It was dark and both brothers could see that Sabo hadn't been here all day.
"Feels like longer" Ace said when he turned on the lights. They flickered and at first Ace thought they would give up but then they lightened the place. Sabo's apartment was small, just two room and a kitchen.
"Where do you think he is?" Luffy asked as he walked to the kitchen. He had brought food with him. One of the people he protected had given him some extra and Luffy wanted to give it to Sabo. Normally he wouldn't even give food to his brothers, but this day was special. Luffy knew that Sabo would most likely not make himself anything to eat, so Luffy wanted to give him something he could eat.
"I don't know. And I am not sure if I want to know" Ace said and Luffy gave him a look.
"You always want to know where he is. You always worry about him. Especially this day" Luffy answered as he sat down on the table.
"I worry about you too. But it's because you are stupid" Ace told him and Luffy just smiled. "But I am worried that Sabo will get into something he can't handle"
"Sabo can handle everything" Luffy said, believing that both his brother was undefeatable.
"He is starting to get a lot of enemies" Ace informed Luffy.
"He has always had that. But since he use an alias, no one knows who he is" Luffy reminded Ace.
"Someone is going to figure it out. And I am just worried that when they do, we won't get there in time to help him" Ace said to Luffy who just shrugged his shoulders.
"You worry too much. Sabo is more careful then both of us combined" Luffy said and Ace didn't answer him. He knew that he had a temper and Luffy just didn't see danger like the rest of them did. He just threw himself into situations that he couldn't handle. So Ace was just happy that his little brother was good at getting friends who would help him. That's was one of the reasons he was worried about Sabo. He could take care of himself, but he needed someone to be his friend. Everyone needed friends, so Ace just hoped that he would find someone one day.

"Do you think he will get here today?" Luffy asked and Ace thought about it when he took down a bottle from the shelf.
"I don't think so. He normally avoids us this day." Ace said and placed the bottle and two cups in front of himself and Luffy.
"He didn't use too" Luffy said in a low voice. Remember when they tried to make Sabo forget when he was younger.
"He did not" Ace only answered and emptied his cup and sighed. "But he didn't use to act like he does now either"
"Why don't he talk to us?" Ace could hear the worry in Luffy's voice and he squeezed his shoulder.
"I think he doesn't want to worry us. And to be honest I wouldn't understand it. I can on some level understand why he started, but I can't understand how he can continue" Ace admitted.

He had tried to understand Sabo, he really had. He had even talked with his other brother's home at the base. Wondering why people killed, why they acted that way. Ace had never killed anyone; he hadn't needed too. But he felt like Sabo didn't need to either, he chooses to. And people home had often said it was an awful thing to kill someone, that it destroyed you and you had a hard time living with it. Still Sabo didn't seem to have a problem with it. Ace know that there was other people in the city, having the rumour about them, not to care either and only kill for fun, the most well-known was the surgeon of death. But Ace hopped that Sabo would never be like the surgeon. Sabo seemed to care about something at least, and he said that he had some morals. And Ace hoped so, because the Sabo he grew up with was a caring and loving person, even if he had a dark side. But the dark side never took over. And his dark side never took over these days either, not when he was with him or Luffy, but when he wasn't Ace felt like Sabo only was darkness. Or maybe it wasn't Sabo, maybe it was his alias. Ace had started to see them as two different people, Sabo and the blue gentleman.

"ACE!" Luffy shouted and Ace turned towards him. "You aren't listing to me"
"I am" Ace told his brother.
"Then what did I say?" Luffy asked and Ace tried to remember what Luffy had said, but he couldn't.
"That you are hungry?" Ace tried and Luffy huffed.
"I did not say that, but now I am hungry" Luffy told him.
"What did you say Luffy?" Ace asked.
"I did ask if we should leave? It's already afternoon, and I doesn't look like Sabo will comeback anytime soon" Luffy said and Ace nodded.
"Let's leave" Ace said and stood up. The brothers turned off the light and left the apartment.

Luffy had said goodbye to Ace at the east river. Ace had insisted on following Luffy home, but Luffy had refused. Luffy shouldn't go home, we needed to do some work before he went home, and he couldn't bring Ace with him. If he brought another gang member to his district it could send out the wrong signals, and Luffy didn't want that. Ace had understood, he just wished Luffy would be safe. Despite that Luffy was twenty he still saw him as the small kid he founded when he was a kid himself. Luffy had grown up and Ace hated to admit that he didn't need him anymore. Even if Luffy said that he would always need his brothers.

So when Luffy finally had made Ace go away and stop worrying about him he started walking south east to his own district. It wasn't big but he loved it and he fought to keep it safe from others, and he hoped that the people there liked him. They hadn't tried to overthrow him and he took that as a good sign. And he hoped that he could make his district bigger so he could help other people in the city.

As he walked down the old road to the forest he was whistling an old song Brook had thought him, and he was happy, he had met Ace and he had given Sabo some food. Food that he could been eating now, but Luffy could get some other food. And when he smelled something delicious he turned left and walked down another street, and started following the smell, hoping that he could taste whatever it was.

He ended up in another neutral zone, this one a bit friendlier, but it also had visits from the gang often, and it was not as safe for the people living there as in Sabo's district. But they had a market and some smaller shops that was open for everybody, and Luffy had often walked through here if he needed something. And right now he needed to find what smelled so good. He started to look around and he soon found the source of the smell. It was a stall with meat pies, his favourite. Luffy walked closer and it felt like he was drooling, and maybe he was.
"Pay up or go away" the big man on the other side of the table looked at Luffy who just smiled.
"But I don't have any money" Luffy answered him truthfully. Nami hadn't given him any money when he left today, and Luffy hadn't thought he needed any.
"Then go!" the man said.
"Can't I just get one?" Luffy asked, giving the man his puppy eyes, but the man didn't feel for it.
"No!" he said and Luffy gave the old man a cranky look. Why couldn't this man just give him some pie? He had like fifteen of them, and Luffy had none. So Luffy decided to take two and run. At first the man didn't react to what had happened, but as soon as he did, he started to chase Luffy.

Luffy had the pies in his hands as he was running, eating them and laughing. He didn't think about where he was going, not more than that he needed to get away from the man. And Luffy was faster, but when Luffy looked back the man had got some company and Luffy counted them to five and he laughed again. This was starting to become fun. So Luffy eat the pies as fast as he could and picked up the pace. When he come to crossing, he stretched his left arm and turned around the right corner, thinking he would be able to continue to run, but instead he ran into someone. When Luffy looked down he had collided with a blond man, caring a paper bag with food. Luffy was laying on top of him and the other man tried to break free.
"Oh sorry" Luffy said and stood up and collected the things that had fallen out of the man's bag when he heard angry voices behind him. "Shit"
Luffy had thought he had lot them, when he started to run faster, but he guessed that they must have seen him turn and caught up when he had stopped. Luffy grabbed the other man and pulled him up on his feet and gave him the bag.
"You two, stop!" one of the men screamed and Luffy looked at the blond man.
"Run!" he said and took his hand and started to drag the other person behind him. Luffy tried to find a place to hide them. But he didn't know this district very well, and the other man didn't want to help, so it seemed at least. He was actually not trying to run at all. Luffy needed to pull him all the time, and it slowed him down even further. Luffy felt how the man almost felled behind him, but he didn't stop. But after that the other man started to run and Luffy didn't need to drag him at least. Suddenly Luffy saw an open door and he stopped and ran inside with the other man behind him and closing the door. Luffy put a hand over his mouth, to keep him from screaming. The other male tried to fight him, but Luffy just hold him, not wanting them to get caught. Luffy heard how the men ran past them and when he was sure that they had missed them he released the other one, just noticing how the other one seemed really angry at him

"How dare you?" he asked and Luffy just blinked at him. Not really understanding what the male meant, or why he was angry. He had just saved them. Luffy shrugged his shoulders and took an apple from the man's bag, without thinking. It had looked delicious and he was still hungry. This seemed to make the other one even more angry and Luffy saw that he was about to say something when Luffy noticed that he was bleeding from his leg, and quite a lot.
"You are hurt" Luffy told him and the blond man looked down, and he looked a bit dumb fooled, not sure what to say.
"Um, seems like it" the male answered, not sure what to answer him.
"You need a doctor" Luffy told him and took his hand, so the other man would follow me.
"My friend is a doctor" the male said, but Luffy didn't care about that. It was his doing, so he would take the other man to Chopper.
"Let go of me" the other male said and tried to break free.
"No, you are hurt, I got you hurt so I need to fix it" Luffy said and picked up the man in his arms. "Let's go"
And with those words said, Luffy started to run again.

"Did everything go well Ace?" Marco asked as soon as he walked inside the base. Ace sighed, he should have known that Marco should be waiting for him.
"He wasn't there" Ace answered him.
"That's another year" Marco said and Ace just gave him a cold look. "I didn't mean anything with it Ace. I am sure he just want to protect you"
"Well if he was that worried he could just stop avoiding us" Ace said as they walked towards the dining room.
"I am sure he has his reasons" Marco tried. Ace know that he meant well, but right now he just got irritated at him. Marco had no idea of what Sabo did, Ace hadn't told anyone, not wanting to put Sabo in any danger. Another reason he sometimes got irritated, Ace couldn't talk with anyone about it. Luffy didn't care about it, as long as Sabo come back to them, he didn't care, but Ace did. Ace wasn't sure if it was because he was the big brother, wanting to save his brothers from anything, and he felt like he failed with Sabo. Or if it was just that Ace didn't like that Sabo killed people. And when people tried to comfort him about it he just got mad.
"No he has not! He just…" Ace stopped, he didn't meant to scream at Marco, but the other man just laughed.
"Same old Ace." He said and kept walking. "But if you are that worried, talk to him!"
Marco always told him to talk with Sabo about it but he never did. Because when he met Sabo he was always nice and polite, so Ace convinced himself that the rumours about Sabo or rather the Blue Gentleman wasn't true, and Ace had nothing to worry about. And maybe he was too much of a coward to figure out the truth.
"Maybe you are right" Ace answered as always and Marco didn't say anything about it, feeling that they would have this conversation again.
"Let's eat something"

Sabo swung the pipe against some boxes that stood against a wall, even if the sound was loud he didn't care. He should care since the sound could give away his position, and normally he would care. He was always careful. The day he would stop being careful would be the day he died. And he did not wish to die. That's why he normally acted in the shadows never on an open street. He was a man that pulled the strings from the shadows, which made people wondering if he was a myth or not.

The rumours had started spreading a few years, until something that made it sure to know if he was real or not. He was one of the name people feared without knowing if he was real, just like Mr. 0 and the Joker. Sabo had figured out who Mr. 0 was a few years ago, him being the easy one of the two. He wasn't sure if the Joker was real or not, but since he knew that rumours always started somewhere, he didn't doubt that the man was real. People often wondering if he was real, and he was, so why couldn't the Joker be? Even if his rumour was different then the Jokers. People said that the Joker was a cruel man who lived on the pain and misery of others, only wanting to destroy the world and put himself on the throne of the new world he would create. Sabo's own rumour displayed him as a man who was everywhere and nowhere. You never know if he was there or not. You never know what he planned, and Sabo preferred for not people to know. Always hiding his plans, and always staying five steps ahead of his enemies. People said that he was a loner, someone acting without caring about anyone, he did what he wanted to do, but he was always fair. If you had nothing to hide you were safe from him. That wasn't completely true. He would most likely end someone if he saw them as a threat for his brothers, or the city. And that's was why he had created the Blue Gentleman, to protect his brothers. He wanted to save them from this corrupted city, giving them a good life. And he felt like the only way he could do that was to become someone else, a myth, someone that was more than a human. Someone people could fear but respect, someone people would understand was serious. And he couldn't do that as Sabo. Especially since people could easily kill him if they knew who he was. Sabo was a person people could find and eliminate. The Gentleman was a myth, someone everyone knows of, but no one knew him. And it had to be that way, he needed to be careful, and he always was, except this day every year.

Every year was the same. All the memories, thoughts and emotions caught up to him. The most common feeling was anger, and normally he wasn't an angry person, no far from it, but today he had no control over it. Every year it felt like he was someone else, or maybe this was who he really was. Sabo didn't know, and just trying to think about it and figure it out gave him a headache.

He tried to stay occupied every year, but this year he hadn't been able. He had no missions to attend to, which if he had to be honest was good, because he would most likely make a mistake. So he hadn't started a new one. Knowing that he needed to be stable and he needed to concentrate when he was one a mission.
Instead he had cleaned some of the apartments he had around town, about five times, his secret bases around three times, and that was a miracle that he even managed to do that, since they all was so damn clean to start with. When that hadn't worked he had decided to take a walk in the city, something a sane person never would do, especially not alone, but he wasn't sane, not at all. But who in this city was? The city drew people mad, to the point that you either accepted it or lost it. And Sabo admitted that he had hoped that he would meet one of this insane people, someone he could start a fight with.

He sighed, normally that wasn't something he would do either. He never looked for a fight, but today he did, and today he found nothing. Normally the streets had people everywhere looking for fights, but not tonight, almost like the city was mocking him. And that made him even more angry, and all he could do was take it out on the damn boxes in front of him.

Sabo lifted his pipe to hit them ones more when he heard the bell tower ring, three in the morning. Once again he sighed, he needed to get his anger under control. He couldn't run around and smash boxes, he needed to become himself, before someone actually found him and started a fight. Because Sabo was sure that he would kill that person without a thought about what he was doing. And that wasn't him, he didn't kill just like that. Sure he killed people that was corrupted or a threat to his family, but drunk, sad people seeking a fight without a cause, no he did not do that. He was a gentleman after all, and they would never lose their temper like this.

So Sabo took a deep breath, stepped into the shadows again and thought about what he would do. If he hadn't want to spare his brothers from seeing him like this, he had visited them. He knew that they had visited him earlier, but he had avoided them. He knew that Ace and Luffy cared, but they didn't understand. They had tried when they were younger, and Sabo had tried to talk to them, but he saw how upset they got when he started talking about it, so he stopped. So when he got older and got his own place he avoided them every year. None of them talked about it, trying to protect each other from the hurt. And Sabo smiled knowing that he always could see his brothers, they would welcome him with open arms, and that's was why he couldn't see them today. They hadn't gone through what he had, and he was glad for that. He just wished sometimes, not often that he had someone to talk to about this.
But he hadn't, so there was no meaning to complain about it, he could have fixed that problem years ago if he really wanted to.

Sabo sighed again, he needed something to keep his mind away from his thoughts, and Sabo realised that this year he needed to drink away his sorrow and anger. Normally he wouldn't do that, not to found of the way to get rid of your problem. But he felt that it was better than walking around and being angry, something that most likely would end in disaster. But it was moments like this he was happy that people didn't know how he looked. He could move freely around town without a problem. And right now he needed to find a bar where no one would pay any mind to him. Sabo thought about where in town he was and where the safest place for him would be, and he soon decided that it would be the north district. Sure the Surgeon of Death was a crazy dangerously man, but he wasn't as hostile to strangers walking into his district, just visiting as some of the others were. And he also had some of the best bars in town. Sabo lowered his hat even further as he started walking towards a bar he knew off.