The town port of Hargeon may not be the hometown of a famous guild like its other sister-towns but it has a plethora of many restaurants varying in different styles and disciplines of preparing and mixing ingredients to combine into mouthwatering meals. Outside a specific restaurant, which specialty are noodles, a tall cloak-wearing man with his face partially covered by a hood stood a feet away from the said restaurant. From what littles was left visible certain features could be made out such as his growing blond hair, a scar on the left side of his face around his eye which was caused by what looked like a fire, he also looked rather youthful, but what caught everyone's attention was on his left hand was a guild mark, a really famous guild mark. The guild mark itself was black it caught everyone's attention for how famous the guild was quickly becoming, the man showed to be a wizard of Fairy Tail. With a deep breath he walked in, his movement was wobbly at best; most would assume that he was drunk, that was far from the truth however almost everything about him was far from the truth in fact. Finally in the man caught everyone's attention, especially the head waiter who was a fan of Fairy Tail. With his hair combed down the middle with a thin mustache, the waiter looked very typical of an employee of a snooty restaurant.
"It's a pleasure to have a wizard eating at our fine establishment, especially one from Fairy tail." Said the waiter. The cloaked man nodded.
"Would you like to eat in our terrace it has an exquisite I say exquisite view of the town." The man nodded again, "Very well sir, right this way I say right this way."
The waiter led the man up two flights of stairs up to the third level, where in fact there was a beautiful; view of Hargeon Town. There wasn't really anyone there beside the two men; the cloaked individual was led to a table at the edge over looking the port, as he took his seat the waiter left a menu on the table.
"What would you want today sir?" he asked. The wizard cleared his throat
"Bring me 3 bowls of miso ramen, 3 plates of lasagna, 3, and 3 plates of pasta Alfredo." Said the cloaked wizard in a low throaty voice
"Uh yes vey well sir I say very well." Replied the waiter raising an eyebrow
As the waiter left, the man moved in constant shifts and movements. Once he settled down he rubbed his hands together and his tongue licked his lips the signs that he was impatient to eat, a low growl from his stomach clearly stating his hunger. His whole being was moving in nervous energy while waiting for his food at some point it seemed that his lower half completely separated from his upper body and when both parts reconnected there was an audible uff emitted from him. The man recomposed himself when the waiter along with four more waiters brought his order of food.
"I hope I say I hope you enjoy your meal sir." Said the head waiter the man nodded at him
Once he was alone again the man separated himself into three smaller beings, the cloak still covering their forms except for their heads, a yellow straw hat covering jet black hair sat at the left next to him was an orange cowboy like hat tilted up with beads and googles decorating it, and next to him at the far left a blue top hat rested atop blond hair. The three that made up the man began to devour the food that was placed in from of them seconds ago, the noises that they were making hid the footsteps of the waiter coming to see if the wizard needed a drink, what he saw made his whole face twitch.
"What the I say what the hell is going on here!" he shouted, the three hat wearing heads turned to look at the waiter and grinned at him food still in their mouths. The one with the straw hat shot his arms forward grabbing the table cloth and making a bundle with the plates of food still inside, the other one with the cowboy hat took the bundle from him allowing the boy with the straw hat to shoot his arms forward and grab onto to the railings, the boy with the cowboy hat wrapped his free hand around him as the boy with the blue top hat did the same.
"Gum Gum…Rocket!"
The three hat wearing boys rocketed away from the restaurant, leaving a bewildered and slightly annoyed waiter holding a glass of complementary wine. The three boys still caring the bundle of food and expensive silverware and plates reached the peak of their flight they all new after that they would begin to descend so in order to make their perfect escape from the town…
"Boost!" yelled the top hat waring boy, his legs releasing a torrent of flame propelling them forward at a whole new speed across town all the way to the edge were the town ended. Once they wear clear the straw hat wearing boy called out "Gum Gum Balloon!" as the torrent of flames dies, their descent was slow causing them to gently land on their feet, once on the ground they took off running deep into the forest.
It had been three months since boys entered into this new world; they quickly began their training like when they wear kids' back in the East Blue. They also found three pipes like the ones they had, they sparred, hunted wild animals in the forest and fought against the strongest creatures in there which consisted of the occasional Vulcan that wandered down the mountain, a wyvern coming out of its cave, and sometimes a group of mages that wandered a bit too close were they had set up their tree house. They didn't care if they belonged to a guild like Lamia Scale or Fairy Tail they couldn't take the chance of anyone finding their base and destroy it or make them join a guild or worse take them to town for a nice family to take them in, no way they wanted freedom above anything else. They set the bundle of food down and untied it, it was a complete mess plates broken, pasta and tomato sauce randomly spread out, but even if it looked like this the boys still dug in.
"So what do we do today?" asked Luffy
"Same thing we do every day Luffy." Responded Ace, "We train."
"Can we go to a snowy place?" asked Luffy
"What for Luffy?" Asked Sabo
"Um for training uh-huh training." He responded
"Training? I think you just want to play in the snow Luffy." Said Sabo chuckling
"Yeah Luffy get serious you want to get strong right." Said Ace
"But we've been doing the same thing now for three months; we need to change training environments once in awhile." Whined Luffy
"And a place with snow is a good place to train?" asked Sabo
"Uh-huh we need to train in harsh environment too. Didn't you guys know that?" said Luffy
"That's pretty smart." stated Ace 'can't believe I didn't think of that.' He thought
"Ah Reighley told me that." Responded Luffy
'That explains it.' Thought Ace "Ok Luffy you're right we do need to train in harsh environment to get even stronger!"
"While we were in Magnolia last week I overheard people talking about a place called Mount Hakobe, we could go there." Chimed in Sabo, "It apparently has a population of Vulcans."
"Well I guess we'll head out there, we'll stop by our hideout and pick up some stuff and some bear hides for the weather." Said Ace
Sabo and Ace were about to continue eating, but as soon as their eyes turned to the food it was all gone, they heard a burping sound from Luffy, they looked at him and his whole face was covered in sauce and pasta bits. 'He didn't even leave us anything!' Scowling Ace and Sabo stood up followed by Luffy heading out to their tree house
The next day each boy carried a knapsack with them, inside were three pieces of meat, spare clothes, water canteens, and bear hides. They decided to go half way the mountain, in order to go into the forest to hunt for food since neither wanted to eat a Vulcan and for firewood. The three brothers, hiked through the forest straight towards Mount Hakobe that was visible and acted as a way to tell that they wouldn't get lost, that was mostly for Luffy's benefit. The three brothers walked for hours until they heard Luffy's stomach, then Ace's followed by Sabo's, it all pointed to one thing. They were hungry, unfortunate for them they had greedily already ate the three pieces of meet while they walked so now they needed to go hunt for their food which would take time away from the road.
"I bet I can get more meat than you guys." Said Luffy
"Heh like you could out hunt me." Said Ace
"Please I'm the older brother so naturally I'm the better hunter." Said Sabo
"Hey who said you were the oldest!" yelled Ace
"See you still act like a little kid." Rebutted Sabo
"We are kids you idiot!" shouted Ace
"Hhahahahaha!" Luffy laughed
"OK how about who ever between me and you can manage to get the most meat is the older brother." Said Sabo
"Heh no problem, I'll win easily." Smirked Ace
And With that all three brothers took off into different directions scouting for food, Luffy didn't have to go far as he ran into a herd of deer, he snuck up behind on of them and was about to launch at it with all of his strength when he caught an eye of a little deer that reminded him a bit too much of Chopper. The little deer looked at him, holding his stare at Luffy's eyes which completely broke him.
"Ahhhh haha Chopper!" Cried Luffy running to the deer which startled them he took off after them, actually keeping up with them, he chased them as they tried to loose him in the woods, Luffy ran and tripped over a wild pig making him loose sight of the herd." Hey you stupid pig you made me loose Chopper." He said hitting the pig with his pole "Ah at least you'll make a good meat." And with that he returned back were he started, all he had to do was go in the direction of the mountain, he wouldn't get lost.
Sabo found some bear tracks, and followed them until he came face to face with a bears…ass; he made a face of disbelief as the bear was ass up as it tried to dig its paws in a bee hive, the bear turned around as it smelled something behind it. The bear had drool mixed with honey running down its maw, it looked and studied Sabo and then it charged at him. Sabo with his trusty pole swung at the bear, it was a bit rattled when the pole smacked it on the temple, and Sabo pushed himself off the ground with the pole landing on top of the bear's head and continued smacking the bear with the pole. The bear shook him off and was going to swipe at him, but Sabo rolled under the attack he stood below the bears face he launched his pole underneath the bears jaw making it stagger back seeing the opening he called out his attack, well Ace's attack "Fire Fist!" the Colom of violent flames engulfed the bear what was left of it was a nicely cooked bear. "Luckily the bears here are pretty weak." Said Sabo thinking of that one bear that would always give him, Ace, and Luffy trouble back when they were with Dadan
"I'll show him who's the big brother around here." muttered Ace to himself, like Sabo he also found bear tracks, unknown to him it was the same bear that Sabo already had, he was about to head wear Sabo just was until he heard a scream, a rather feminine scream. He stood there debating if he should go see what it was he didn't want to bring trouble back with him to his brothers, but he couldn't abandon someone. Another scream broke out, and with that Ace rushed to the source of it, he saw a pack of wolves surrounding a young girl. She looked hurt; her leg looked like it got bruised pretty badly but she was still standing up throwing what looked like cards at the wolves, small sparks of electricity shocked some of the m at the front. The girl was panting; she was tired from what he saw so he dove straight to the pack of wolves. He swung his pole at the ones at the rear knocking them out with that he garnered the wolves attention to himself he kept running forward swinging his pole down onto the cranium of each of the wolves that launched at him. The smarter ones stood back, creeping to his side trying to get the sneak up on him. With a growl they launched at him, in response dropped his pole he extended his arm towards the remaining wolves, his hand in a in a gun like shape with his thumb up and his middle and index fingers extended while the rest were curled up into his palm. "Fire Gun!" small bits of fire sped out of his fingers with a velocity of a bullet each one aimed for a wolf, when they hit the wolf was engulfed in flames and pushed back.
"Wow, that was cool." Said the girl, Ace looked her over she had a red dress on, her brown wavy hair stopped near her shoulders, she had a slight tan and purple eyes she appeared to be around Luffy's age maybe a year younger. "Are you a Mage?"
"Mmh yeah sure." Replied Ace, "Hey, are you alright though?"
"Yeah I'm fine, I was just startled by them, and they appeared out of no where." She replied
"I sees so I take it you're a mage, I saw you throw cards at them."
"Yeah, I'm just starting actually, I'm still not used to it so I get tired pretty fast." She said
"Can you walk, I'm sure people will be looking for you."
"Mmh I think I can I just have a few scratches oh my name is Cana by the way, Cana Alberona."
"Ace, Portgas D. Ace." Ace introduced himself
"Nice to meet you Portgas…"
"No my name Is Ace, Portgas is my family name."
"Oh um ok sorry, is that how you introduce yourself where you are from?" she asked
'Yeah, it is."
"Oh ok, are you heading into town?" Asked Cana
"No, so how far is the town from here anyway, you're here by yourself so what gives." he bluntly said
"Mmh well it's at least an hour's walk I usually like to walk around here there's a nice view not far from here. Anyways thanks again Ace it was nice meeting you I wish we could talk more but I have to go back before people worry about me."
"Don't worry about it maybe we'll see each other again." He replied
"Really!?"
"Uh yeah sure why not?"
"Ok! Bye I hope I do see you again Ace!" Called out Cana as she walked away
With that Ace began to walk away…"Shit I still haven't found anything to eat!" OK with that Ace began to walk uh no run back to Sabo and Luffy hoping to find something on the way, totally forgetting the wolves he just beat up.