About a week later, Ace and Marco sailed into the East Blue. Ace figured they still had about a week left until they reached their destination, and they were already bored.

Without the unpredictable weather of the New World or even paperwork to do, they had nothing to keep themselves occupied, and they hadn't made land yet so they hadn't been able to gather information.

So, for now they played with their fire and talked.

"Happy to be home?" Marco asked.

Ace smiled. "Ya, a little. I'm mostly looking forward to 'bumping' into my little brother." Marco laughed, "Yeah, I figured that to be the case. You didn't seem to be too concerned about the others from your island earlier. Any reason?"

Ace hummed for a bit before answering, "I'm really more concerned with Luffy, mainly because I know what he will do if the fishmen are on the island and threaten people he cares about. He's going to fight back and I don't know if he's strong enough for that yet. These are fishmen who sailed with Jimbei after all. If the fishmen did invade, the others could just make their way to the other part of the island I guess, the nobles there should be enough to keep the fishmen away, but... Luffy... he's another story."

Marco just raised an eyebrow. Sounds to him like Luffy gets in a lot more trouble than Ace.

They sailed in silence for a few more days after that, stopping at random islands for food and information along the way. Ace was relieved to hear that Dawn Island was the still the same boring Island he grew up on, he also found Luffy's latest activities to be hilarious. Leave it to Luffy to go after the strongest pirates in the area, even if it was just coincidence.

Although, he could've sworn that Kuro of the Blackcat Pirates was executed three years ago, just after he set out. He remembered being really mad about it, he'd been hoping to fight the guy only for him be captured before he could. And now he comes back to the East only to hear that Luffy beat him up instead. Typical.

As they asked around about Arlong, both Marco and Ace got angrier and angrier about what they heard. They were told that Arlong was a fishman here under Jimbei's orders and protection, so there was nothing the Marines could do about it. Neither of them were happy to hear their friend talked about like that. They were also told about how the people on Arlong's islands were rarely seen off them, and whatever goods used to come from there were getting scarce as well since they had to devote all their resources to keeping themselves fed and taken care of.

Both Marco and Ace were getting worried about the condition they would find these people in, Ace was imagining something similar to the Trash Heap, while Marco was imagining something closer to what he had seen of newly freed slaves. Either way, this wouldn't be good.

They were about 12 hours out when they came across a still heavily damaged Baratie and what looked like a destroyed Galleon. Marco raised an eyebrow at the Galleon, that looked like Mihawks work. Ace looked at the damage to the restaurant and laughed, that looked like Luffy's work. When he asked to speak with the owner, Chef Zeff, he just said one word. "Luffy?"

Zeff looked shocked. How did a Whitebeard Pirate know Chore-boy? "Yes, he came in here following a cannon, stayed for a few days working off the damages, and then left after beating up Don Krieg to go after his Navigator after she stole his ship. Took my Sous-Chef with him."

Marco raised an eyebrow, his kid definitely left an impression behind. Ace was just laughing his butt off. Shaking his head, Marco asked if Mihawk had been there.

"Yes, in fact, Chore-boys swordsman fought him, Mihawk let him live with the promise that he would get stronger and then meet him on the Grand Line. Ace and Marco were floored. Somebody from the East Blue earned Mihawk's respect?

Ace sighed and shook his head, "Figures my little brother would find somebody like that for his crew. Man, that kid is going to be the death of me someday..."

Marco shrugged, "Your brother definitely leaves an impression, I'll give him that, he's also rather destructive." He said as he looked over the damage.

Ace looked at him and just asked, "Where do you think I got it from?" Marco was starting to not want to meet this kid, anybody that was more destructive than Ace could not be good for his health and stress levels.

Ignoring the cooks gaping expressions, he ordered some food to go, he was hungry and they were going to be fighting soon, and him and Marco continued on their way, talking and laughing about Luffy and the damage he caused. Time to go capture a fishman.

The Island was now in view when they heard sounds of a battle, which Ace figured couldn't be good. They also saw wreckage from a Marine ship, it didn't look like their were any survivors.

"Looks like some of the Marines tried to do something after all." Marco said softly. Neither of them had any love for the Marines, but in this case, where the Marines had finally been making themselves useful... it didn't help any that these East Blue Marines never stood a chance to begin with.

Before long they came reached the shore, and headed towards Arlong Park, coming in view just in time for the tower to collapse.

Looking at each other in alarm, they ran forward, Marco asking, "What do you think happened?"

Ace didn't answer, he had a feeling he knew exactly what, or rather who happened.

They arrived at the wall surrounding the park to find a crowd of villagers, all armed with random farming tools and shovels, at the front of the crowd, Ace saw a familiar straw hat, but what alarmed him was that it was sitting on an unfamiliar orange head.

It was at that moment that the rubble shifted, and a person wearing a red vest and shorts stood up, looking like he lost a fight with a bear.

Luffy.

"NAMI!" He shouted. Ace watched as the head wearing his brothers hat jerked up, he could tell from the way her shoulders shook that she was trying not to cry.

"YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY FRIEND!" The girl wearing the hat, Nami, raised her hands to her mouth, and Ace heard a whispered out "Yes."

Ace couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.