Hi everyone! I've decided to do a One Piece story about Ace and Luffy. I hope you enjoy it :)
A stag beetle came to rest in the rotting leaves on the forest floor. It crawled among the leaves, pausing every now and then when it found something suitable to eat. The stag beetle then climbed to the top of a log, unfolding its wings. With a soft buzzing sound it lifted, beginning its upwards assent. Up, through the branches into the canopy high above – or at least it would have if at that very moment a pair of hands had not clasped around it, trapping it in a small cave like cage.
"Gottcha!" exclaimed a young boy as he got to his feet after diving for the large bug. "Thought you got away from me this time hey?" The boy carefully opened his hands a fraction so as not to let the bug escape "Ohh!" He said excitedly "You're an awesome stag beetle! I bet you'd be good in a beetle race – I'll show you how it's done." With that the boy plonked himself down on the grass and allowed the stag beetle to wonder along a nearby log – never letting the creature get far before recapturing it.
The boy was just showing his beetle the finer points of beetle racing when a voice rang out through the trees "Luffy!" The boy looked up peering through the trees in the direction he'd heard his name being shouted.
"I bet that's Ace," Luffy spoke to the stag beetle, holding it at eye level "He's my older brother. I bet he'll be really excited to see you!" He stood, holding the squirming beetle above his head. "Hey Ace! Over here! You'll never guess what I've found!"
"I can guess that it has nothing to do with what you're meant to be doing" came Ace's voice as he made his way through the trees.
"It's this" Luffy said, proudly displaying the stag beetle to his older brother.
"Another stag beetle – really?" Ace eyed the beetle uninterestedly.
"Yep! It's going to be a racing beetle – I've already named it and everything!"
"You've named it?" Ace asked drily "Ok, let me see... what was it you've named every stag beetle you've ever caught? Oh yes – 'Staggie,'"
"Nope not this time" Luffy grinned.
"Really?" Ace asked in some surprise "But you always call them Staggie."
"Well that's cause they were all boys – this one's a girl, so her name is 'Stagetta,'"
Ace rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore Luffy's unique sense of logic. Moving on to the actual reason they were here he questioned "I don't suppose you actually managed to find one of the Woodland Bears?"
"Nope." Luffy answered simply.
"Ok, then what exactly are you planning to eat for lunch – remember we also need to take something back for Dadan and the other idiots – they might be able to get a normal bear for themselves, but Woodland Bears aren't exactly the easiest of catches," Ace paused, watching as the beetle crawled along Luffy's arm "Unless you were thinking of taking that thing back for everyone," he teased.
"No way," Luffy objected "Stagetta's my pet, and she's going to get real good at racing" he looked solemnly at the beetle for a moment "I wish she was bigger though, I bet she'd taste real good – bigger things always taste better."
Ace shook his head "Luffy, It's a bug. I don't think it'll ever taste good – no matter how big it -" Ace stopped short as the breaking of branches sounded from near-by. Ace and Luffy barely had time to exchange glances before a colossal black bear emerged from the trees, its angry red eyes spying the two boys.
"Oh well," commented Ace springing backwards "looks like we won't have to waste time looking for it."
"It sure looks tasty," grinned Luffy – clearly overlooking the bear's manky looking fur. The bear growled, turning its attention on Luffy. Using his rubber abilities Luffy reached out for an overhanging branch, swinging himself out of harm's way. "Stagetta!" He cried as he lost hold of the stag beetle, watching as it flew up towards the freedom of the canopy.
"Luffy! Would you pay attention!" raged Ace while swiftly whacking the bear with his bo staff, "This is a Woodland Bear – you could easily become its lunch rather than the other way round if you keep goofing off like that!"
"Right" affirmed Luffy "I'm gonna kick that bastard's ass!" he shouted as he launched himself from the tree branches "Gomu-gomu no Pistol!"
The sizzling meat was making Luffy's stomach growl. "Come on Ace," he whined "It must be nearly ready!"
"If you keep asking Luffy, it'll take even longer."
"Waa! Ok, I won't ask again!" Luffy took a seat on a boulder at the base of a small rocky cliff. Grabbing a few handfuls of pebbles he spent the next few minutes tossing them into a nearby river watching as they disappeared beneath the surface with a small plonk. Well better it than me Luffy thought as a particularly large rock disappeared rapidly below the surface with a satisfying splash. Retaking his seat Luffy continued to watch Ace cook the meat. "So is it nearly ready now?"
Ace looked over from the bonfire they had built to cook the large beast "I'm not going to answer you again Luffy. I just told you that it's nearly done." He prodded the bear meet with a stick "It'll be ready real soon, then we can eat what we want and take what's left back to Dadan and the rest. That should keep the shitty old hag happy for a while," he paused, considering what else needed to be done "The problem with this," he said more to himself that Luffy "is that we can't really get any money out of this – and we'll need that for supplies to last us through winter, and that's coming up fast. We'll eat all the meat – so no money there, and while the meat is good, Woodland Bear skin is notoriously crap, both in appearance and quality. After that there's really only bones, which of course no one buys. What we need," he continued turning the cooking bear meat as he spoke "is to get one of the crocs from the river – they're always good both food and cash. I reckon that the two of us are probably up to taking down the King Croc now. It might be a bit difficult but I reckon we can do it. What do you reckon Luffy?"
"Is the food ready yet?" came a whiny reply. "Whaa!" Luffy cried as he was sent flying off his temporary seat by the rock Ace sent his way in response.
"Geeze you're impatient," Ace commented as he hacked off a piece of meat and chucked it Luffy's way "I don't envy your ship's future cook" he took some meat for himself as Luffy laughed, disregarding his bo staff in favour of the bear meat.
Ace was near finishing his lunch when he heard something within the forest. Listening carefully to the telltale signs of clumsy footsteps and the breaking of branches it was clear that whatever was coming towards them was not native to the jungle.
"Luffy, I think we've got company" Ace stated as the footsteps, now accompanied by voices came closer to the clearing.
Looking through the trees Luffy caught glimpses of the men approaching. "Looks like there was something here after all," spoke a large man pushing his way through a bush and into the clearing "thought I could smell something cookin'".
"Yeah, it sure looks good" spoke a ratty looking man. "'Make a decent lunch – that's for sure. And they've got a fire going; it'll be nice to warm up a bit." This comment was met with murmurs of agreement as another five men made their way into the clearing.
"Ok boys," said the large man "I've got a deal for the two of you. That meat looks pretty good, give it to us without making a scene and I guarantee my men and I won't hurt you. I mean," the man looked at the large mass of bear meat "That's a lot of meat and it's not like a pair of kids like you are actually going to appreciate it."
"Yeah, it's pretty good," said Ace as he and Luffy placed themselves in between the meat and the newcomers "And I hope you've had a good look at it because that's all you're gonna get!"
"Yeah, we caught this and you're not getting any" Luffy contributed.
This earned a round of laughter from the bandits. "Do you really expect us to believe that a pair of brats managed to take down a Mountain Bear?" laughed the ratty bandit "I doubt that. I bet you found it already dead – or maybe you stole it from someone."
"Yeah, that'll be it," agreed the large bandit "Well I don't really like the idea of kids stealing. How about we teach these brats what it feels like to have something stolen off them?" This was met with shouts of approval from the other bandits.
"We did catch it, and we're not giving any to you!" Luffy argued before sticking out his tongue and adding "Idiots!"
"Oh yes," began the large man "and how are you, a simple pair of children going to stop us mountain bandits from taking what we want?"
"By kicking your asses" Luffy replied raising his fists.
"Pffff" scoffed the ratty bandit, apparently missing the irony between what Luffy had said the way the boy was actually readying himself for the impending fight, "You think you could do that hey? Didn't ya hear? We're bandits, our boss Kutsu even has his own bounty," he added indicating towards the large man.
"Does it look like we care about a stupid bounty?" Ace mocked.
"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, little runt," jeered Rat Face preparing his katana while moving swiftly towards Ace. "You need to learn to respect your elders"
Ace smoothly side-stepped the oncoming blade, quickly twisting around to deliver a well placed blow to the bandits head with his bo staff. "And you," Ace replied to his now unconscious opponent "need to learn to chose your own opponents better."
"Yay! Go Ace!" Luffy happily cheered for his brother as Rat Face's friends looked on in disbelief.
The leader of the bandits stiffened upon hearing the name. "Ace – that Ace? Well he did just take down one of my men, and then there's the kid with the straw hat," he muttered to himself.
"Boss, the kid just said 'Ace', and he's wearing a straw hat," stated one of the bandits "they must be the infamous 'Forest Brats'"
"I've heard about them," another commented "I heard they're much stronger than the average brat. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to underestimate them."
"I wonder if they actually did take down the bear," commented the bandit near the back.
"Men!" said Kutsu "Are you really telling me you're afraid of a pair of brats just 'cause you've heard a few stories? You're embarrassing the name of 'mountain bandit' acting afraid of a simple pair of children, have you forgotten we outnumber them?" Kutsu turned to address Ace and Luffy – both of whom were still guarding their meat. "Being a little stronger than average brats won't help you this time. Like my men said I've got a pretty good bounty." Kutsu bragged "You might find yourselves a little intimidated knowing this – I wouldn't blame you, in all the East Blue it is I-"
"Ace, I'm bored" Luffy stated with a stifled yawn.
"Oi don't get bored while I'm telling you how great a bandit I am, little shit!" Kutsu raged.
"If I want to get bored, then I'm gonna get bored." Luffy retaliated before adding "And I hate mountain bandits – so I'm not going to give you a single bite of our meat!"
"Well now" said Kutsu crossing his arms and looking smugly at the other bandits "I was thinking we'd just take the meat and leave, but ya know? I'm starting to think we should let the kids in on our, *Ahem* other business." This comment was met with calls of approval from his accomplices.
"Oh yeah," Ace said cautiously, bo staff held tight in front of him should he need it "and what would this business be?"
"Oh I guess you could call it some kind of 'exchange' or 'trade' even. You see this world is a big place. And when you get big places you also get jobs that need doing. Now some of these jobs people don't mind doing-"
"Like running a cake shop," one of the bandits randomly interrupted.
"Yes, like running a cake sho-" Kutsu began before: "Would you shut up Bill, I'm trying to be serious here! Anyways some of these jobs people don't mind doing, while other jobs – such as jobs that have elements that are revolting, dangerous or vulgar, well, to be honest there's not a lot of people who would willingly do that. And that's where we come in. You see what happens is my friends here and I look for 'candidates' that are capable of fulfilling such roles. When we find such candidates we take them to the business partners we have and 'exchange' the candidate for money. It's a pretty sweet deal."
"I think these 'candidates' of yours would think different," Ace objected.
"Well," justified Kutsu "what you have to understand is that in the world of business, whenever any decision is made someone is going to be unhappy about it. But in this case I'm happy, our business partner's happy and the purchaser is happy – really it's only the candidate that's not. That's only one out of the four people involved that's unhappy and that's good enough for me."
"Hmmm," Luffy pondered this for a moment, a light frown on his brow "very mysterious."
Now it was Kutsu's turn to frown "I don't think there's anything mysterious about it, I explained it clearly. We find a person to do some other guy's dirty work and we trade that person for money. Pretty simple really"
Luffy stood there with a blank expression, a solitary finger one nostril "So what you're saying is..." he began.
"Luffy, they're talking about human trafficking!" Ace explained in exasperation.
Luffy gasped "What, like the horses and carriages they have in the city but having humans instead!?"
Ace sighed "Not that kind of traffic dumbass – their talking about the slave trade."
"Ohhh, I see now," Luffy thumped his fist down on his open palm. "Whaa! Ace! These guys are bad guys!"
"You don't say," Ace commented drily.
Kutsu chuckled "Well, now that it seems you've finally caught onto the situation it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that we'll now be taking you as candidates, considering how uncooperative you were before." Kutsu withdrew a sword a manic grin spreading across his face. "Now are we going to do this the easy way, or the fun way."
"I'm presuming the fun way involves us beating up you guys?" Ace commented casually swinging his bo staff.
Kutsu laughed "Are you sure about that?" he questioned picking up Luffy's discarded bo staff "Only one of you has a weapon," he tossed the staff into the nearby river.
"Damn it Luffy!" Ace cursed "I've told you before not to leave that kind of stuff lying around. This is why!"
"Don't worry," Luffy reasoned "I've been training a lot lately. I think I can take these idiots on even without a weapon."
Upon hearing this, the bandits again laughed out loud. "Men," Kutsu ordered "I think it's about time these brats were given a reality check." As one the bandits yelled, lunging forward pulling out their weapons.
Luffy dodged as the first man leaped towards him. "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" he shouted aiming at the bandit. His fist sailed forward, clearly missing the man and instead implanting itself in the trunk of a large tree.
"Whaa!" cried the bandit "The rumours are true, the straw hat kid really can stretch!"
"He's clearly a Devil Fruit user," commented Kutsu "Well come on men, don't let that effect you! He may be a Fruit user, but he's still a kid."
Upon hearing this, the two bandits near Luffy drew nearer to attack.
"Damn!" Luffy cursed, trying to free his hand "It's stuck!" He pulled back further, leaning back on his heels. "Oh oh," he began as his feet began to lose their grip.
"I think you need to work on your aim," began one of the bandits while Luffy continued to pull at his arm. "It's not much good if you can't even hit-" the man's words were cut short as Luffy lost his footing and suddenly went flying back towards his arm, smashing into the two bandits in front of him
"Shishishi" Luffy laughed, looking at the two men he'd knocked out "That worked well. Just as I planned!"
"As if," Ace scoffed knocking down his final opponent – a man with a belt load of small knives. Ace turned to his brother "that's what we call 'luck' dumbass."
"Something you don't seem to have much of" said the knife wielding man suddenly getting to his knees while hurtling a number of the small knives at Ace, pinning him to the tree.
"You bastard!" Luffy yelled at the knifed man sending his fist ploughing into the man's face. Luffy then turned his attention to his brother – not caring that he had managed an accurately aimed blow. "Ace!"
"Don't worry Luffy" Ace responded "They've mainly missed me – just a little scratch here and there. It's just my clothes pinning me down. If I wasn't wearing these stupid long sleeves there'd be no problem. Give me a minute and I'll be fine," he struggled against the knives holding him to the tree. "Damn – they're really stuck far in," he muttered under his breath.
"Too bad you don't have a minute" Kutsu said brandishing his katana. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that you've taken down my men – you two didn't become known as the Forest Brats for nothing. Now it looks like it's turned into a one on one fight," Kutsu turned his attention from Ace to Luffy in front of him. "But there's no way you can take me down kid. You heard what my boys said earlier. I've got a bounty. But what they didn't mention is that the price on my head is 9 million bellies. That's three times the average bounty in these waters," he boasted.
"Oi! Luffy!" Ace shouted upon hearing this "Get out of here, now's not the time fighting without a weapon. This guy will be strong!" he continued to tug at the knives restraining him.
"What, and leave you behind again?" Luffy questioned "I don't think so!" Luffy turned to face Bob "And you. I don't care how big your bounty is, I'm still gonna kick your ass. Idio-" Luffy was forced to stop mid insult, dodging the katana Kutsu had swung swiftly in his direction.
"Whoo!" Luffy exclaimed now jumping over the swords blade as Kutsu made another attack. "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" Luffy exclaimed sending his attack towards Kutsu. It missed him by about half a meter "Damn it!" Luffy exclaimed as Kutsu took the opportunity to attack while Luffy's arm was still extended.
"Too bad you can't aim for crap." Kutsu taunted raising his swords to attack the unguarded boy. Luffy quickly reached up to the branches high above, propelling himself upwards though not quickly enough. Swinging his sword blindly in Luffy's direction Kutsu managed to cut a shallow yet long cut in Luffy's leg.
"Ouch!" yelled Luffy as he swung himself into the tree branches, taking a moment to examine his wound.
"Oh, is the little brat scared?" Luffy looked down below to where Kutsu was taunting him near the boulders. He's difficult Luffy acknowledged If only I was a little stronger I could defeat him no problem. Luffy looked down at Kutsu If I want to beat him I need some kind of plan Luffy thought as Kutsu shouted something that sounded like "Stop avoiding me!" Luffy grinned – plan formulating in his mind. Yes!
Luffy stood, ignoring the small sting in his leg – he'd had worse. "Oi Brat," Kutsu was saying "If I have to come up there..."
"Gomu Gomu no" Luffy began, concentrating hard on his target "Pistol!" his fist came shooting outwards, barley missing Kutsu instead sailing straight into the pile of rocks.
"Ha idiot!" Laughed Kutsu "You missed again! And this time you've gotten yourself stuck in rock,"
"Oh, I've missed have I?" Luffy grinned mischievously, leaning back on his arm "Who said I was aiming for you?" Letting the tension in his feet go Luffy let his self rocket forward "Gomu Gomu no... ummmm..." Luffy considered what to call the attack for a moment as he hurtled through the air towards the Kutsu "Rocket!" he decided on as he crashed into Kutsu, hurtling them both into the rocky outcrop. There was a sound as a few pebbles fell down around Luffy quickly proceeding by the sounds of much larger rocks making their way downwards. "Yes!" Luffy said to Kutsu next to him "My plan worked perfectly, now you're going to be buried by a pile of rocks,"
"I hope you realise you're gonna get buried too" Kutsu sneered quickly scuffling to his feet to avoid the rocks. "Wait," he quickly looked at the stunned look on the boys face "You mean you didn't?! Idiot!" he remarked in disbelief as he, now accompanied by Luffy dogged boulders.
Luffy swiftly made his way out of range of the falling rocks, tripping over a smaller rock Luffy fell over, lying in the grass as the last of the smaller rocks and pebbles fell around him.
"Luffy!" called Ace running over after finally managing to free himself "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine" Luffy stated starting to get to his feet "Opps," he looked down at his foot, now obscured from sight by the large rook that was sitting on it. He tugged his leg for a few moments before his foot came loose with a satisfying 'pop'. "I don't think my sandal is though," Luffy commented as his crushed sandal fell off his undamaged foot.
"So you managed to get him then," Ace commented indicating towards the unconscious Kutsu partially covered by rocky debris "a guy with a bounty – and you managed to deal with him alone. Looks like you've gotten a little stronger," Ace looked impressed.
"Yep – sure have," Luffy grinned confidently "before long I'll be kicking your ass!"
"I wouldn't count on that dumbass," Ace smirked leading the way back to the remaining bear meat. "Wait," he paused listening to the unmistakable sounds of more people approaching.
"And what have you two little brats got up to this time?"
Ace and Luffy relaxed upon seeing the large figure of their care taker making her way into the clearing.
"Oh, it's you Dadan" Ace said indifferently "We were just teaching a bunch of idiots not to mess with us."
"Or our food," Luffy contributed.
"Is that so?" questioned another figure arriving behind noting the unconscious Kutsu on the ground "It would seem you came across someone my men have been interested in meeting,"
Ace and Luffy looked on at the new comer with some surprise.
"Oh no!" Luffy exclaimed "Gramps, what are you doing here?!"
"I told you two this morning that Garp would be coming today" Dadan responded.
"I thought it was just some kind of sick joke when you said Gramps was coming!" Ace responded.
"Come now boys," Garp said rolling up his sleeves "shouldn't children be happy to receive a visit from their well loved Grandfather?" he ended this question sending his 'beloved' grandsons flying with his large fists.
"Define 'well loved'" Ace grumbled under his breath.
"You've done a pretty good job here by the looks of things boys," Garp admitted looking at the unconscious bandits "The marines have been looking for this particular group of bandits for some time now – specifically their leader Kutsu."
"I got him" Luffy admitted proudly getting back to his feet "I made a landslide that nearly squashed both of us! It was fu-"
Garp turned to face his grandsons "Look boys" he interrupted "I know it's useless to tell the two of you stay out of trouble because we all know that you get into some sort of trouble on a daily basis – but I am going to ask you to at least try to be a little cautious. There are some things going on around here that you should know about."
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I have the whole story planned fairly in depth, so you don't have to worry about me abandoning the story because I don't know what to do with the story - so that's good, I know I don't like reading a story I find interesting only to find its been abandoned so I wont do that to you guys :)
Oh yes: I am Australian so I could have had Luffy use the word 'thong' instead of 'sandal' but seeing as the rest of the world strangely thinks thongs belong on a woman's butt instead of on anyone's feet I decided 'sandal' might be more appropriate ;P
Anyways - I spent a long time working on this so reviews would be appreciated.