Welcome! Welcome, my friends, to (what I hope will be) my greatest fanfiction yet! :D
I hope you guys all love this story! I've been working so hard on it. If you read Serendipity, you might be thinking: "Whaat? Strix! You just published the recent chapter! And you said in that chapter that this book was still in progress!" You...might not be thinking that, but I would be if I...wasn't myself...? Yeah. The answer is simple: I procrastinated on that chapter too much! While I should have been writing that, I wrote this. I already have two chapters out, counting this one. But I don't know how you guys are going to like this story so I'm only publishing the first chapter right now. So, yeah. I got that covered!
Unlike my other fanfictions, I will not be putting an Author's Note at the very bottom, only one in the very top. So, if you get to the bottom, no. I didn't miss anything. It's just that there's only one Author's Note! And, with that, please comment (please, it gives me inspiration to write more of my fanfictions) and I hope you enjoy it! :)
Lightning flashed, striking the air like a whip, illuminating the clouds with a brilliant dash of blue light. The red liquid pooled off of the tip of the sharp dagger, falling to the brown, wooden floor beneath the two men, one fat, dark-colored man and the other thin, limp, and lifeless.
The fat man smirked, a low chuckle rumbling from deep within his throat. He walked over to the dead man, reaching down and snatching the purple fruit from his victim's pale hand. The fruit had drops of blood on it, which dripped down its surface and onto the murderer's hand.
Suddenly, a door behind him flew open. "What the hell!" a man in the doorway screamed. "Teach! What 'ave you done!"
Without responding, the fat man gritted his teeth together and jumped out the nearest window, shattering the glass. Two men ran up from behind the one in the doorway.
"Well? Don't just stand around like idiots! Get that damned son 'a bitch!" he roared.
"Thatch is…dead?!" a tall, freckled man in a black and orange suit breathed, his tanned face turning pure white.
"'Friad so, sir…" replied one of the three men.
"Who…? Who killed him! Who was the bitch that did it?" the freckled man snapped, gripping onto the collar of the man's shirt.
"Ace!" a young man gasped taking a step forward but doing nothing.
"T-Teach…!" the man breathed.
Ace let out a breath, unconsciously releasing the person under his grip, letting him fall to the ground. "T-Teach did…? B-but…why…?"
A tall, long-haired man in a dark suit sat about eight feet away from him, the young man standing beside him. The long-haired man in the dark suit narrowed his eyes, remaining in his relaxed position with his chin resting on his right hand and his legs crossed.
"Father…?" the young man turned to the long-haired man. "What do we do, Father?"
"Ace," the long-haired man growled at the freckled man. "Don't."
Ace whipped his head around to stare at him, a burning rage roaring in his obsidian eyes. "Sir! I've got to—"
"No! You work under me; I am your boss. And, as your boss, I say no. You may not go to Teach. There is no point."
"N-no point! How dare you! He was my friend! My friend! And you say there is no point… I'm going to go find this goddamned bitch if it's the last thing that I do! Don't tell me that you wouldn't do the same…" Ace muttered.
The long-haired man gritted his teeth. "It depends…"
"Thatch was my friend!" Ace roared at him, his voice making the glass in the light bulbs and in the windows vibrate throughout the enormous room. "My friend has just been killed and you're tellin' me not to go get revenge!"
"Revenge is a cowardly move."
"Cowardly? Cowardly!" Ace clenched his fists together. His expression looked as if he wanted more than anything to run up and knock the man in front of him straight in the jaw. "I ain't no coward. You're the coward, sitting there in your crappy chair and not doin' anything!" Ace turned around and began to walk away. "I ain't gonna take your shit."
"Ace!" The freckled man stopped and turned to look at the young man in the eye, the fury still broiling deep within him. "You should listen to Father!"
"Father? Father! You can't be serious, little brother," Ace muttered. He pointed to the long-haired man. "That man…is not my father."
The young man gasped, watching his older brother walk out the door and slam it closed shut behind him. "A-Ace…!"
"Luffy!" The young, black-haired man jumped. He blinked his eyes open and looked up, seeing a green-haired man and a black-haired man walking over to him. "I got him, Luffy," the green-haired man told him.
Luffy smirked at the black-haired man. "How yah been, Law?"
"How have I been? I'd rather eat shit than do what I just experienced over again!" Law snarled at him brushing the dust off of his black and white clothes.
"Hmm? I dunno, it looked like it was a pretty dandy place to me!" Luffy snickered.
"A dandy—Why I oughta…! You got me put in jail all because o' yer crazy antics!" Law snapped at him. "You were the one that wanted to have dinner at one specific diner that was closed! Who does that?"
"The boss does," the muscular, green-haired man muttered.
"I do," Luffy replied matter-of-factly, his smile instantly fading and a hurt scowl replacing his previous expression.
Law sighed, rolling his eyes at him. He looked down at his prisoner clothes. "Do you have something that I can wear? Those government bastards went an' stole my clothes…"
Luffy smirked at him again, standing up from where he had been leaning up against his car. "Zoro," he said to the green-haired man, "Get him somethin'!"
Zoro nodded, reaching into the back seat of the car and pulling out a large, dark coat. The green-haired man threw it at him, Law struggling to catch it. "Wear that," Zoro muttered, stepping into the driver's seat.
"Come on, Law!" Luffy ordered with a grin, getting into the back passenger's seat, "We got a man to find!"
Law grumbled something under his breath as he reluctantly walked around the car to the front passenger's seat, sitting down and crossing his arms as Zoro drove off. "Remind me why I'm here with you bastards…"
Luffy said as he looked over his smooth, high-quality pistol, "You're my new bodyguard, Law. Zoro was my first one, but my father decided that if I wanted to go track down Ace, it would be dangerous to have only one bodyguard."
"Right…" the black-haired man muttered, staring out the window in anger, watching it begin to rain.
"At the moment, we are trying to get my older brother back, who is being held hostage at the moment," Luffy told him.
Law paused. "W-we are? I'm sorry, but I don't recall ever hearin' that he was imprisoned!"
"Oh… That's right. You were in jail when Zoro and I discussed this…" Luffy realized, his eyes widening. "Well, it appears that Ace has been captured by the mafia."
Law's eyes bulged open wide. "T-the mafia! He's what!?"
"It turns out that Teach had stolen Thatch's Yami-Yami no Mi, a fruit with the ability to turn the man that eats it into a controller of darkness. The mafia apparently wanted this fruit and were bribing Teach with a considerable amount of cash," Luffy explained, "While Ace was searching for Teach the mafia found and captured him. Now he's being held hostage there. It turns out that this certain mafia is the one led by the man known as 'Akainu.'"
"Eh!? Akainu!?" Law repeated.
Luffy looked up at him. "Yes. Why? Do you know him?"
"Do I know him? Who doesn't know about 'im?!" Law screamed, "He's the leader of the mafia that just so happens to be protecting and blackmailing the company in charge of the creation and harvesting of Devil Fruits! They're a very powerful mafia. I'm sorry, Luffy, but… I don't think that we stand a chance against these maniacs…."
Luffy frowned deeply at the black-haired man. "Are you stupid? I don't care if we stand a chance or not! I'm going to save Ace no matter who stands in my way!" Still scowling, the young, black-haired man looked back down to his pistol. "Besides, even if we aren't strong enough to take 'em down, I know someone who is."
Law narrowed his eyes. "And who's that?"
"We're going to find 'the Boss,'" Luffy told him. He paused. "Good Oda, you missed a lot while you were away, didn't chyou?"
"T-the Boss!?" Law repeated with a shocked expression. "You mean… the Boss!?"
Luffy frowned up at him again. "Yeah. Who else would I be referring to?"
Law gulped. "And who gave you permission to go find him?"
"My father."
Law scowled, turning around to look straight ahead again. "'Course 'e did… O' 'course…" Law, Zoro, and, of course, Luffy were all in an enormous gang that people called 'D'. D was feared all throughout the entire country. There wasn't a single man or woman that hadn't heard of D. All of the men in this group with the letter 'D' in their name were people that were descended from the founders of D. Most of the top officials had this letter within their name, save for Law. Law had this feared letter in his title, but he wasn't popular. He was just a regular, run-of-the-mill gang member. He wasn't quite sure why he wasn't highly respected; maybe it was because he was more of the quiet type? He doubted that he had ever told anyone his full name: Trafalgar D. Watel Law. However, he doubted that he would ever tell anyone about it, though. Law was just fine with being normal. He didn't need to be special. He didn't want to be special. He hated attention, after all. That was probably because he hated people…. Yeah, that was probably it.
Law turned his head half-way to see Luffy looking straight into the pistol's muzzle with one eye closed to try to see into it better. The black-haired man wanted to reach out and pull on the trigger so badly. However, if he did, he would probably be kicked out of D. After all, Luffy was the son of the gang's leader, Monkey D. Dragon. Dragon was a tall, sophisticated man while his son, on the other hand, was a foolish, stupid, and idiotic boy with no sense whatsoever. He often wondered what in the world could have happened for such an intelligent man to have such an annoying son. Yes, Luffy had his clever moments, but those were extremely rare. Most of the time, he was either cracking a joke or doing something stupid such as trying to see what the noise coming from the sewers was or wondering what the loud explosions and fires in one particular area were all about. Ever since Law had become Luffy's bodyguard, the black-haired man would continuously get blamed for whatever senseless thing that that insane brat would do.
Law turned to the green-haired, muscular man beside him, who was quietly driving down the road. Zoro was, and always had been, Luffy's loyal, trusted bodyguard. He was a professional swordsman, born and raised in the foggy mountains of Japan with the most skilled dojo master in the entire country. He was loyal to Buddhism and made sure to enter nirvana every single day at dusk, and if he missed his regular practice then, he would do it at dawn, and if he missed that, he would become stressed and yell at every single thing in his field of vision, living or nonliving, animate or inanimate. Luffy and Zoro had been best friends for as long as the young, black-haired man had been alive. Zoro was about seventeen to eighteen years older than Luffy, but they still got along better than any pair that Law had ever seen.
The black-haired man looked away, continuing his thoughts. Finally, the Boss. In D, there are many duties for the officials, but out of them all, there are only two that are actually important at the moment. One of them is Ace's duty, which is to make sure that everyone in the gang is looked after, and if someone does something wrong, it's his job to punish them. The other one is the Boss' job. The Boss is the only official that doesn't have the letter 'D' in his name. His job is telling the gang members of D which city they'll attack or who they'll assassinate. One could call the Boss 'the general' of D. However, the Boss has been absent for the past two years, out recruiting, and killing people that have annoyed the gang in previous years.
Law narrowed his eyes. He didn't exactly know what he thought of going to see the Boss. After all, the Boss doesn't just get comfortable with anyone. He doesn't have many friends, and it's very hard to become one of them. It's not impossible, just difficult. He's friendly, but doesn't trust easily. Law saw through the rear-view mirror above him Luffy put down his pistol. The Boss' only friends, were his bodyguard, his girlfriend, Dragon, and Luffy. Law had heard that Luffy and the Boss were especially close. Maybe he would help them out then?
"Luffy? You know the Boss pretty well, yes?" Law asked him.
"Yep! Why, the Boss an' I go way back. I'm just as close to him as I am to Ace, my very own brother! Now, Ace and I may not be actual brothers, but that ain't a problem! Never has been, never will be, for certain! The Boss an' I are so close, one could even say that we—" Luffy caught himself before he started rambling. He looked up at Law and snickered, "Aww, don't chyou worry, Law! Good man, 'e is! He's got good morals. There's nothing to fear in the Boss. He'll help us no matter what! He loves Ace just as much as I do."
Law frowned at him. "That's real cute an' all, but where the hell are we gonna find the Boss. After all, lest I remind you: he's been gone for two years."
"Ah, don't worry, my old friend! I have a few companions from back in my youth that own a casino a few towns away. The place that my friends have is directly around the places that the Boss had been causing trouble. We've decided to go seek out these friends of mine and ask them if they've seen the Boss around lately."
Law nodded. He sighed and looked away. It looked as if he was, once again, getting himself wrapped up in another one of Luffy's crazy adventures...