Pursuit

Warnings: oOc-ness, spelling errors, grammar and all.

Disclaimer: I do not own One piece, Oda Eiichiro does

I quite enjoyed the episode when Blackbeard tries to capture Luffy when he found out that Luffy was worth 100 million but he escaped because of the Knock-up stream :) and so I thought of this idea and all

Just sharing it with you guys :D

Hope you enjoy~

Chapter 1

"Geez!" the man shouted in frustration through the gaps of his teeth. "Why aren't there any big shot pirates here!" He turned his head around with his curly black hair following behind and he gazed upon the beaten pirates here and there in the vast land that used to be a town only mere minutes ago.

His condescending stare gave the pirates the chill as they crawled up to other pirates that they would have considered their enemies, if they weren't also the victims of the pirate 'Blackbeard' who wielded undeniable strength and power.

This pirate 'Blackbeard' wore green trousers with black patterned lines, a yellow sash above his waist to hold his liquor and a couple of hand guns. Unlike the other men behind him, he uniquely had a large black and gold coat draped over his shoulders- in other words, he was the captain of this pirate group.

"But captain! All these pirates are at least over 10 million beli each! If we hand them all to the government we could be rich!" a man with an even bigger build stepped forward and picked one pirate up by the collar using only his hands, treating human weight as if it were on the same scale as an ant. The others pirates all shuffled and crawled back with their leftover strength, feeling pressured.

"Jesus! I don't care about small fish!" Blackbeard shouted back, ignoring the sighs of relief from the beaten pirates. "We need to hand over a guy over 100 million beli so I can have my Shichibukai status! We already have more than enough money!" his point proved when he pointed at his helmsman 'Champion' Jesus Burgess, showing off all the jewels and rings on his fingers.

"Damn it! Where is Straw-Hat?" He muttered "His 100 million beli head would be more than enough." casually taking a 'seat' on a of a pile of pirates.

"We don't really need to capture Straw Hat Luffy, right? there are plenty of other pirates that are over 100 million beli." Jesus said just wondering why his captain, who was usually so easy going about things, so fixated on capturing Straw-hat Luffy.

"Have you forgotten Jesus." another man replied the 'champion' in place of his captain. This man carried himself very calmly and his clothes, compared to his captain, were dapper. The left lens of his black framed glasses covered one eye but his right eye was a circular eyepiece which appeared to be a cross-hair. It was used for higher accuracy to shoot opponents with his rifle, Senriku, that he carried with the support of his shoulder because of its size.

"Forgotten what Auge?"

"The Captain is just mad at Straw Hat Luffy when he escaped from our clutches last time." replied 'supersonic' Van Auge.

"Oh, during that time at Mock Town."

Auge nodded. "We announced that we were going to take his head but they successfully escaped because of that pillar of water that shot up which, utterly destroyed our raft like ship."

"We were completely humiliated that day, especially the captain." Auge stated 'we', guessing that himself and the rest of the crew felt the same as their captain. Though it might have slipped out of one's mind, glancing suspiciously at a certain muscle-head. "Even though captain claims that he is searching for big-shots, he is specifically searching for Straw Hat. That's why he doesn't like staying on one island for too long or else Fire-fist Ace will catch up to him and fighting him will eat up too much of our time."

"Why would Fire Fist Ace be chasing us?" Jesus asked, baffled at the idea why the second division commander of the White-beard Pirates would be chasing his captain.

"Do you think with your fist?" Auge stated coldly, still expressionless as ever. "Captain killed a crewmate when he was on Whitebeard's ship to obtain his devil fruit. Who else, but the commander of the second division he was from, would chase us?"

"Oh I see." The 'champion' nodded, disregarding his earlier insult.

"Really, I can't tell if Straw Hat's lucky to have escaped."

"Straw Hat Luffy is lucky, but now that he had been targeted by us, it can only fall." A sickly looking man said. This man was riding on the back of his horse, and was wearing a large black fur that covered most of his body. His pallid expression and his scythe he used as a weapon would definitely never occur to anyone that he was the crews doctor, but it was very befitting of his epithet 'Grim Reaper.' "His fate to be captured by us and handed over to the government."

"Neiggghhh!" His horse, named Stronger, agreed.

"Have you seen Straw-Hat?" 'Blackbeard' Marshall D. Teach interrogated the pirate he was previously sitting on using the newest method of interrogation: picking him up by his feet and shaking him up and down for an answer.

"..."

"Captain, I think he has already lost consciousness." Jesus said, noticing the man's face has turned red from the blood gushing to his head and the bubbles foaming in his mouth.

"Tsk, small fry." Blackbeard threw him to the side like piece of trash. "We've lost track of Straw Hat ages ago! When will the heavens be on my side!"

"Captain." A voice called from the sky."I think the heavens have finally sided with us." He descended down, folding his wings away and landed in front of his captain. His complexion was tones paler than everyone else but his occasional tap-dancing proved that he was actually quite healthy. A held the rim of his black top hat in one hand so that it wouldn't fly off during his land while his abnormally big circular earrings that look like they could be bracelets jingled around. In the other hand he clutched his red cane and a newspaper.

"Laffite! You're late! We have got to set sail soon!" The captain growled.

"Now, now captain." Laffite replied not even flinching an eyelash from his captains growl. "Here take a look at this. It will please you." he smiled mysteriously, confident in his words.

Blackbeard took the newspaper from his subordinates hands and skimmed through the pages. Reading, in Blackbeard's case was something he trusted with his crewmates to do and they would inform him of the important news. But if Laffite was personally telling him to read it, then it was probably considerably worth reading with his own eyes.

"Zehahahahaha!" Blackbeard broke out in laughter as his hands controlling the pages stopped. "This is good Laffite!"

Jesus was thrilled to see his captains usual behaviour bounce back and he threw his hands up in a cheer pose. "Captain! What caused the sudden change of mood?"

"I told you to work on your deduction abilities." Auge said with no expression as usual. "It must be that Straw-Hat Luffy was mentioned in the newspaper."

"That's right Auge!" Blackbeard said. "It seems that he took down the Judiciary Island!" he revealed the newspaper to his crew. A picture of the Judiciary Island in ruins suffering from the effect of the Buster call. But what caught everyone's attention was the seven new bounty posters that fell from within the newspaper and scattered around the floor.

"This is the Straw-Hat crew." Auge stated while reading the article and drawing his conclusion which was right on mark.

"With this Straw-Hat's bounty is bound to rise!" Jesus cheered

"Rise is an understatement Jesus!" Blackbeard said, a victorious look on his face."It tripled!" he held out a wanted poster that read 'Monkey D. Luffy' with a new bounty of 300 million beli.

"We can catch Straw hat and earn 300 million beli! That's killing two birds with one stone! Hahahahaha! But captain, capturing the ENTIRE crew could earn us more than 600 million beli, should be catch them too?" Jesus asked after looking at the rest of the high bounties on the crew.

Auge's eyebrow twitched slightly, discreetly giving Jesus the look of 'wow, you can do maths.'

"Nah! Forget the rest of the crew! They are not my target." Blackbeard waved his hands, declining his mates idea to rack in some more money. "But..." he smiled wickedly, "if they get in our way feel free to kill them."

"Woohoo! Can I really smash their small necks in pieces?"

"Sure, but killing them is only an option when they seriously become a nuisance." Blackbeard said. "Making them suffering in pain of losing their captain sounds more fun right?" his wicked smiled stretched from one ear to the other.

"What about Straw Hat? He defeated Rob Lucci of CP9, capturing him won't be that easy." Auge commented, still reading the article.

"Keep him alive at all costs! or else my 'gift' to Sengoku won't be as magnificent anymore."

"CAPTAIN!" Jesus shouted, his enthusiasm already reaching the peak before they have even set sail. "Are you a sadist by any chance?" when Jesus said this as a question, the rest of the crew was thinking that it should have been a statement instead.

"Zehahahahaha!" Blackbeard just laughed, it was hard to tell whether he was agreeing or disagreeing but whichever one he said, everybody else knew that there was no doubt that he was.

"So where should we go? Enies Lobby?"

Laffite who was standing there the entire time, observing the reactions of the crew with an all-knowing look finally spoke up. "Enies Lobby is famous for having for having a sea train running all the way from Water Seven."

"So we should go to Water Seven?" The champion asked, unable to understand what Laffite was indirectly saying.

"No," Auge replied. "This article is from two days ago. They are probably preparing to depart, if not already departed. Even though we are close to Water Seven, we would only be chasing their tail."

"So what should we do?"

"They should be heading towards Fish-man Island but before that they need to cross Florian Triangle."

"Should we catch them at Florian Triangle then?" Jesus was starting to get annoyed, his mates were being too vague.

"Florian Triangle is famous as a stretch of sea that is covered in thick fog." Laffite said, demonstrating his knowledge. He was the navigator though, so it must have essential to know this information. "There is a high chance that we will lose them in the fog."

"That won't be good." Blackbeard shook his head. "I can't afford to let that pesky brat run away from me any longer."

"Then what should we do?" The helmsman asked.

"That's simple." Laffite answered with a smile. "We intercept them. Meaning, we just have to approach them before they reach Florian Triangle."

"Oi, Laffite! What's the Island that fulfils those terms?" Blackbeard called standing up, fixing his creased coat.

"Endet Island." Laffite said whilst smirking.

"Zehahahahaha! That's perfect, couldn't ask for a better place."

"It's not far from here." Auge was just as 'expressionless' as ever but his crewmates didn't fail to notice a flicker of curiosity in his eye when he was staring at the 'Sogeking' wanted poster and article that had called him the sharpshooter with near 100% accuracy, shooting from over a mile away.

"To be within our firing range...how pitiful...an unlucky bunch they are..." The grim reaper coughed lightly as he and his horse trotted along.

"Straw Hat! You were doomed to fall the second we targeted you!" Blackbeard yelled towards the sky as if he were talking to Straw hat, kicking away the pirates collapsed on the road and paying no attention to the villagers who were 'inconspicuously' hiding among the rubble of their demolished homes. He had already taken their valuables, food and their home, what else could he rob of them? "Zehahahahaha! Let's go men!"

"What...is this" he muttered. This was already the fourth civilization he had seen destroyed just because he was in the pursuit of a single man. He held the rim of his orange hat, as a way to quell his raging heart. Though in the back of his mind, he hoped to find someone who can fill him in on the details.

All of the pirates had been dealt with thoroughly and majority were either dead or on their last breath. Suffering from many broken bones, life-threatening cuts and blood loss. They were beyond the point of recoverable, cause unlike some 'monster' brother he knew with incredible life force, these pirates have probably been brought up much thrown into a bottomless ravine or sent into a jungle filled with beasts at night and getting tied onto balloons and sent towards the sky would have remained a nightmare inside a nightmare. So interrogating them was out of the question.

The continued walking around, believing that maybe the villages could help him. But that idea wasn't such a feasible one. After all, their lives has just been ruined by a pirate so for them to believe him would remain close to impossible. Lots of villagers were crying, lending each other's shoulders to cry on. They too seemed to suffer physically quite a bit but their hearts must have suffered an even greater damage. It was not an everyday occurrence when a man appeared like a whirl storm taking away everything an instant.

The thought of giving up and somehow searching for information on his own, a small voice grasped his attention.

"Mama! Mama!" a child was screaming while one hand clawed at the debris, attempting to push it away. The other hand tugged at the lifeless like form, who had their legs buried under the debris.

"You have to run..." the women under the debris caressed her child hair. "This place is dangerous, stuff could fall down soon."

"But mama!" she had tears trickling down her face, she understood that she couldn't just abandon her mother but she also understood that her strength was nowhere near enough to save her mother. As a child, she was torn between abandoning her mother or dying together with her.

But like the woman had guessed, the stability of the piled debris was not stable and could fall any minute now. It was as if something, something had sucked everything in and spat it all back out completely smashed, thus the foundation was not very strong, especially with a woman crushed underneath.

A pile of broken wood started to fall down right above where the small child was. The woman knew that her child had no time to escape, so hopefully she could use the last of her strength to protect her baby girl with her body.

"HIKEN!" he unleashed a fiery fist that pushed the falling material away and also adjusted the size and power accordingly so that the small child and her mother would only feel a light warmth. He couldn't just let such an incident happen before his eyes, even if they might bear a grudge against him.

The woman sighed, relieved that the danger has miraculously disappeared, replaced with warmth similar to that of a fire. Only problem was that, there was no fire.

He walked up towards the woman and lifted the debris crushing her legs with ease and carried her and her child to the nearest 'corpse free' area. He smiled at the scene when the child was crying her heart out, burying her face in her mother's chest, desiring the comfort she was so close to losing. The man sighed in relief that the family was back as one. He truly understood how lonely it felt being left alone in this world.

"Who are you?" She asked, skeptical as to what was happening. She had known that pirates were generally bad, her point further supported when a pirate gang had earlier ransacked and destroyed this village. But now, this man had protected her, saved her and is now giving her medical treatment by wrapping her legs in bandages to stop the blood flow. There was no choice but to believe that he meant no harm.

"I'm Portgas D. Ace." Ace replied. "I have a few things I want to ask you, despite your condition. I apologise in advance."

"Portgas D. Ace?!" She jerked up in surprise which turned out to be a bad idea causing she winced at the pain that throbbed in her legs. Half of her surprise was nothing out of the ordinary, witnessing a pirate as infamous as he is here was like a miracle but the other half was completely unexpected. Who would have thought the second division commander of the formidable Whitebeard Pirates had such manners?

"Wow! Mister you are a pirate?" the small girl's head shot up from her mother's chest. Stars twinkled in her eyes once she heard the identity of her savior, completely forgetting that a pirate had also caused her such grief earlier.

"Yeah," Ace said, suddenly finding it harder to ask about the earlier pirate when she expressed such an innocent, vulnerable smile. However it was necessary, in order to stop this man from other unforgiving deeds such as this one. "Can you remember the appearance of the guy who assaulted this place?"

"YEAAH!" she said enthusiastically, to Ace's surprise. "he was big! dirty! and had black oily hair!" she said, gesturing his appearance with her hands as well.

"Any distinguishing features?" Ace turned towards the women, seeing as how the little girl had a limited vocabulary.

"Mmmm," she put her finger on her lips and thought for a while."Ah! he had a black beard..."

Bingo.

"Then, did he mention where he was going?"

"Yes, I heard it clearly. He said he was going to Endet Island."

Ace scratched his wavy, black hair wondering why he, now out of all times be going to Endet Island out of all places. Did he have something he wanted to accomplish?

"Did he by any chance mention what he was going to do?"

She shook her head. "No, I lost unconsciousness from then til when this naughty girl arrived." she looked at her child while stroking her finger through her soft hair. The little lady was rolling on the grass, bathing in sunlight. Despite being only a child, she probably instinctively knew that savoring what she was left and what was saved was much better than lamenting over what's lost.

After staring at her for a while, Ace noticed that the smallest things caught her eye which affected her attention span, instantly intrigued by it. She indeed reminded him of a slow-little brother he had. I wonder how Luffy's doing? Ace thought, his mind drifting off the point before he shook his head from side to side, refusing to be drawn into this girl's pace.

"I see." Ace coughed, hoping that the woman didn't get any particular ideas when he stared at her for a whole minute. But still, without figuring out what Blackbeard was trying to do what the same as chasing him around blinding, just plainly following in his tracks. But little information was better than none. "Thanks for the information, See you." And Ace gave a small bow and ran off in the direction he parked his Striker.

The woman drew one similarity between both the pirates, the fact that they both appear and disappear like that.

"Mama." the small child tugged at her sleeve, her attention directed back at her mother once she noticed the pirate skull slowly disappear. "I know! I know!"

"You know what?"

"I know what the bad guy is going to do at Endet Island."

"What?"

"He said he was going to go capture some straw pirate!"

"Straw Pirate?" the mother was confused as to what her daughter was saying, but she was also quite disappointed that she couldn't have passed this on to Ace. This small piece of information could have changed something, even thought it might not have meant much.

"Should I have told good pirate?" she asked, regret slowly growing apparent in her eyes.

She lovingly caressed her child's hair to bring back that smile. "No, I sure it would have been unnecessary information."

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