Notes: This came about as I wondered what would happen if Ace was the one who 'died' during their childhood, thus leaving Luffy to grow up with Sabo? I don't know whether anyone has already written something similar before, but I was so curious!
Hope you like it, everyone!
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of its characters.
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"Sabo was such a kind older brother."
"What's that supposed to mean?! Would you rather I died instead?!"
"I never said that!"
"But that's basically what you meant!"
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That day it was not Sabo who died at the hands of Tenryuubito, it was the other brother—
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There was nothing special about his decision to come to the town today. Normally Dogra and the other mountain bandits would avoid going there at all cost, but with the recent happenings between the two—three—boys he could not stay silent anymore. Luffy and Ace just had another fight this morning about their other 'brother', Sabo. He and the others had began to wonder about the small blonde whereabouts for some time now. Apparently Sabo came from a noble family, and his disappearance was due to his parents wanting him back.
Thus the reason for his trip today was to find the brat and tell him about Ace and Luffy. Sabo was the only one who could take care of the two whenever they fought after all.
Luckily with the arrival of some world noble, the High Town was bussing with activities and none paid a wandering bandit like him any heed. The nobles were said to be at the port as some sort of welcoming commite for the Tenryuubito. Hopefully Sabo would be here with his noble family, and he would get the chance to speak with the boy.
He passed through what looked like pool of red paint (blood? In High Town? Unlikely. Maybe they just couldn't be bothered to get dirty and take care of such mess) and continued on his way to find Sabo. The blond had an uncanny attraction to the sea, similar to his other 'brothers', so he most likely stayed around the port for as long as possible.
He searched through the throngs of people—kid with yellow hair, no, not that one, not that one either. The town just had too many blondes. Must be a noble trait or something—when he picked on the whispering.
"...that uncouth mongrel."
"Good riddance."
"Yes, good thing Saint Jalmack had courageously..."
"Isn't he one of the kids who always caused trouble downtown? I recognized him—"
"Well, he can't cause any trouble again now."
"What happened here?" He asked none in particular. A young man, thankfully not one of those pompous nobles, turned to look at him and scoffed, "You didn't know? Though the news already reached the dump by now."
The man then shrugged, "Apparently some brat pissed off the Tenryuubito and got shot couple of times." He jerked his head to the splatters of blood (so it wasn't red paint!) decorating the supposedly cleanest city in the whole Blues, "Brat is pretty strong, probably would be alive if they didn't leave him on a burning boat."
Dogra felt dread creep on him, a dull ill ache seemed to have settled in the pit of his stomach. One of the kids. Always making trouble in High Town. Pretty strong. "That brat...what did he look like?"
"The brat?" The man strached his chin in thought, "Small, maybe around ten or something. Dark hair, eyes and blue, eh, black shirt? Not sure, didn't get a good look at him. You should—oi, where are you going?!"
The bandit rushed to the front line where many nobles were still clattering about, murmuring and pointing excitedly at the sea. Some of them even had a grand-looking telescope for better view of mildly burning boat drifting off the open water. Hastily fiddling with his own meager telescope, Dogra followed their example and zoomed on his target. He swallowed back string of curses as his shaking hands refused to hold the lens properly and let him focus. However, as the damned thing finally worked, he seriously wished that the telescope was broken and he could undo what he had seen.
Because lying on the burning boat was the boy that he and the whole Dadan Family had raised for the past few years.
—Ace.
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And in turn the youngest got his kind older brother back.
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Luffy was not letting go. Not now and not ever again. If he did surely Sabo would disappear and he wouldn't get to see his brother ever again. So, no, he would not let go no matter what happened. He did let Sabo breath though because the older boy was turning blue and making funny noises. But other than that, Luffy would make sure to always keep Sabo with him all the time! Giggling happily, the seven-year old looped his hand for the six, oh, seventh time around Sabo's left arm. Now, there was no way Sabo could go anywhere without bringing him along!
Sabo chanced a look at his left as Luffy's unique giggle echoed around the small room. Heaving a sigh, he allowed Luffy to do whatever he wanted this time. The kid just missed him and wouldn't do anything too bad, hopefully.
"Yes, so I was planning to send a letter to you before I leave. But Stelly somehow discovered my plan and told my parents." Sabo explained, offering his audience a wry grin, "They were furious and ordered me to be locked up till I got my act together and stopped behaving like a lunatic low-born." Here, the blond rolled his eyes, scoffing. They should have known better. As if such pathetic cage could hold him off his dream. "I managed to get out when everyone were all too busy preparing the noble's arrival. They probably think I have gone with my original plan and won't bother searching for me anymore."
"I see, it's good that you managed to escape. Everyone would be happy to know your return. Isn't that right, Okashira?" Mogra addressed the seemingly sleeping Dadan, who turned red and immediately scoffed as everyone's attention was focused on her. "H-hmph. Not like I care what happens to any of you brats."
"Shishishi...Dadan is so funny!" Luffy laughed. It felt good to have Sabo back. Now his family was complete again! "You're like Ace! Sabo said Ace always turns red when he is emba, embaiased."
"It's 'embarrassed' not 'embaiased', Luffy. And you're not supposed to tell anyone about it or Ace is going to get angry at us again." Sabo cuffed him lightly on the head, frowning. "Come to think of it, where is Ace? I thought he'd already here by now." The blond felt Luffy tense up at the question and looked down at the younger in confusion, "Luffy?"
"Ace is stupid." Luffy grumbled, grabbing his straw hat and yanking it hard down onto his head. "He got so angry just because I called Sabo kind and nice older brother." Pouting, the rubber boy looked at his feet and refused to meet Sabo's eyes, "He didn't have to hit me so hard and run away like that. Stupid Ace. Sabo is much better and nicer."
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Equivalent Exchange.
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Luffy was playing with his beetles when Dogra returned. After much persuasion (super yummy extra meat!), the seven-year old had finally agreed to wait outside while Sabo and the bandits talked over important details.
"Alright! So which one of you is gonna win—huh? Dogra!" He waved to the small bandit, "You went out today, right? Sabo came back earlier!"
"A-ah," Dogra gulped, his features pale and haunted. "Is that so? That's great then..." No, it's not! To think that they got one brat back only to lost another...
"What's wrong? You don't look so good. Are you hungry? Dogra?"
In his insight, Dogra had at least waited until they were all inside and properly seated before breaking the news.
As he expected, none took it too well. Luffy and Sabo, especially, took it the worst.
"W-what'd you say?!" Luffy stammered, his shock mirrored on the faces of everyone present. "Ace is—"
"Don't lie to me! That's not something you should even joke about!" Sabo cut in, throwing himself at the small bandit. The others tried to stop him but he paid them no heed, "Don't you ever dare to joke about something like that!"
"I'm not lying or joking! Everything happened so fast I couldn't believe my own eyes. I thought I was seeing things." Dogra yelled back, refusing to back down. His mind went back to the memory of burning ship and all too familiar silhoutte he could see in it. "Everyone in the High Town is talking about it! They all saw it happen in front their eyes, and..." He took out an all too familiar black elbow guard, stolen when the nobles were still busy admiring the burning spectacle. "...the pipe was there, but I couldn't take it without causing commotion."
"Shut up!" Sabo snapped. "There's no way Ace would die!"
"That's right!" Luffy stepped forward, desperate for Sabo to be right. "Ace isn't dead—he wouldn't, Ace wouldn't die that easily!"
As one, the two picked their pipe and ran to the entrance. However they didn't get too far before the combined force of Dadan and Mogra stopped them. Mogra, choosing a more peaceful approach, pushed Luffy back with enough force to hold but not to hurt him, "Now, now, I know exactly how you feel right now. But with the state you're in and with all the troops everywhere, going anywhere is just too dangerous."
Meanwhile, Dadan, despite her injury, had easily took down Sabo and bashed his head onto the wooden floor. "Just give it up, you little brat!"
Sabo struggled, flipping onto his stomach and pushing Dadan's hand away. "Get off me!" He was bleeding but didn't seem to care or even notice. "Don't get in my way!"
The runaway noble had a wild look in his eyes as he panted, looking ready to attack the orange-haired woman. Dadan held his shoulders down, preventing him from moving. "You keep acting tough even though you don't have any real strength! What the hell do you think you can do now?! You'll just end up dead! You'll die, and everyone will forget about you by tomorrow! That's all you amount to right now! The one who killed Ace was this kingdom! This world! What difference do you think you can make?!" Dadan lifted Sabo by his shirt and began shaking him. "What a little noble like you can do?!" Tears began building in her eyes, but Dadan simply stood up and turned to her fellow bandits. "Don't let them do anything stupid!"
Wordlessly, Sabo sat up and clutched his head, squeezing his eyes shut to drive away the pain in his heart. In the background Luffy's eyes began to tear up and he uttered Ace's name, quickly breaking into sobs. "Accceeeeee!" He cried, tears streaming down his face. "ACCCEEEEEEEE!" His wails carried on for hours, disrupting the oddly quiet night and bearing the sorrow of everyone present.
"ACCCEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
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And a new story unfolds.
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"I…I want to become stronger! Stronger and stronger...Even stronger, and stronger, and stronger, stronger, more and more. And more and more, and more and more…And just continue to grow stronger! I want to be able to protect anything I want, so I don't have to lose anything! So please—"
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"O-oi, what the hell was that?!"
"That's a boat, moron!"
"I know it's a f*cking boat, jacka*s! I'm asking why the hell it's burning?!"
"By Oda. Captain! There is a child on board!"
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"—please don't die!"
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Chapter Ends
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Notes: As you've noticed, I'm changing bits of the original story and timeline to fit with my plot. This story happened after Dadan and Ace came back from the fire but before Sabo set sail. Luffy and Ace had a fight about Sabo, which ended up with Ace leaving alone to the High Town to get Sabo back. He sneaked inside during the Tenryuubito's arrival, and well, being Ace, he unintentionally drew attention to himself and made the Tenryuubito angry. He got shot and left to die on a burning ship. Yes, crazy idea I know. The details would come out later. Meanwhile, as for Sabo, he hasn't sailed away because his parents discovered his plans and locked him up. When he managed to get out, he returned to Luffy and the bandits. So, Ace ended up being the one who 'died' and Sabo grew up with Luffy. In this chapter, I made Sabo play Ace's role and speak his dialogue for most part. However, I don't plan for him to simply be Ace's substitute in this story. It will be different than canon, I hope promise!
And, well, I'm kinda new to this fandom and am afraid if I make any mistakes without knowing (`･/д＼･) so I'd really appreciate if anyone could give me comment or feedback. Please tell me what you think, guys!
(人*´∪`) Thank you! (´∪`*人)