Chapter 3 : Fight Between Brothers
At that moment, a person came out onto the deck, yawning. The person was wearing a fancy blue top coat with a white scarf and a slightly damaged black top hat with broken blue goggles resting on the rim.
Ace and Luffy felt the hairs on their neck stand up and turned in that direction. What they they saw shocked them to no ends.
"SABO!?"
Everyone on deck turned their attention to the guests.
"Hey, Sabo!"
Ace and Luffy were running to 'Sabo' when they accidentally ran into the mast. They got up and their faces scrunched up when they realize they confused Sabo with a mast.
Luffy walked away. "Sabo was such a kind older brother." Luffy sighed.
"What's that supposed to mean!? Would you rather I die instead?!" Ace yelled.
"I never said that!" Luffy retorted.
"But that's basically what you meant!" Ace punched Luffy hard in the head.
"ITEEE!" Luffy nursed his head bump. "Sabo never punched me like that!"
"What was that!?"
"What's with you!? Be a little nicer, will you?"
"No way!"
Ace and Luffy started walking away from each other. They both jumped off the ship and into the forest in different directions. Thatch looked concerned after seeing them stormed off.
"Marco, should we talk to them?" Thatch asked.
"Yeah, I'll get Luffy, you get Ace." Marco and Thatch jumped off the ship as well and went into seperate directions.
'Who's Sabo?' Marco thought.
'Is it a type of food? Wait, I'm starting to think like Luffy. Damn it.' Thatch pondered.
Marco was walking through the forest for a long time until he saw a small hunched figure under a tree. He wasn't used to cheering kids up, heck, he doesn't even know how to talk to them. Kids were usually whiny so he avoided them. He stood there awkwardly, waiting for Luffy to notice him. When he realized that wasn't going to happen he sighed and stood next to him.
"You okay brat?"
"I'm not a brat, I'm Luffy." Luffy mumbled into his hands.
"Okay, sorry, Luffy." Luffy didn't respond and Marco decided to use his one weakness against him.
"You wanna hunt together for food?"
Luffy perked up immediatly and cheered. "Yay! Let's go!" he chirped.
Marco sweatdropped at his mood change. They were walking around when Marco asked him. "Why are you and Ace fighting?"
"Because Ace is a stupid-head." Luffy reasoned.
Marco decided to ignore that and voiced out something he's been wondering about. "Who's Sabo?"
"He's our brother. But he's dead. A dragon killed him."
"Dragon?" Marco raised one of his eyebrows.
"Mmm. Those rich dragons with ugly faces. I hate them."
A sudden realization hit Marco. "You mean the Celestial Dragons?"
"Yeah!" Luffy beamed, happy that he got something right. "Ah! I wasn't supposed to tell anyone! Forget what I said." he quickly said.
Marco clenched his fist in anger. He knew they were ruthless and killed anyone like it was nothing, but hearing it from someone, a kid no less, made him want to destroy something. He quickly hid his anger. He didn't want Luffy to think he was directing his anger at him. He noticed Luffy was walking a little slower and had his hat shadow his eyes.
Marco quickly changed the subject. "Hey, look at that bear!" Luffy immediately looked up with drool forming on his lips.
"Looks tasty!" Luffy ran up to the bear, dodged a paw, and landed a hit on the bear's head with his pipe. The bear went down from the one hit, unconscious.
"Hmm, it doesnt have a lot of meat like the other one but I guess this is okay."
Marco knew these kids were stronger than other kids but he couldn't help but get surprised everytime.
"Nice one kid." Marco complimented. Luffy beamed at his approval.
Marco started a fire and immediately started roasting the bear. "Where did you learn how to fight like that?"
"Grandpa. I also copy Ace and Sabo sometimes."
"You're Grandpa taught you how to fight?"
"Mm. He's really really strong. But so mean." Luffy turned pale at the thought of his past 'trainings.'
"How's he mean?"
"I don't want to fight monkeys anymore." Luffy said abruptly.
Before Marco could ask, Luffy explained. "Grandpa would make me fight monkeys. They were really strong. He said this is training to be Marines." Luffy pouted.
Marco was pensive as he digested what he heard. 'Sounds like a crazy man to me.' Marco thought.
Marco and Luffy spent the next half hour hunting and eating until they were both satified. "Let's head back to the ship."
Thatch was walking, humming Bink's Sake when he finally found Ace. He just took down a huge crocodile and now noticed Thatch.
"What do you want?" Ace grunted.
"Let's go back to the ship. I'll make some food for you." Thatch suggested.
"Forget it. I'm not Luffy you know."
"Aren't you bored all alone? We can hang around the ship. You don't have to talk to Luffy if you don't want to, you can ignore him."
Ace contemplated this. He loved hunting but it was getting boring without Luffy. Not that he would ever say that to him. "Fine."
"Why are you guys mad at each other?"
"Luffy was annoying the hell outta me."
"Oh. Well it look like you guys weren't really mad at each other, more like you were just taking your anger out at each other." Thatch smirked.
Ace glared at what he was implying. He did not do that. He got mad at Luffy beause he wss being an idiot, not because of Sabo's death. Right? 'Well I was the one that got angry first. Wait, it wasn't my fault though! Luffy pretty much said he wanted me dead and Sabo alive. I think. Damn it, it is my fault. Sabo told me to take care of Luffy, but look at me.'
Thatch was trying to study Ace's expression. What was that? Regret? They continued their walk in silence.
'I am a miracle worker.' Thatch thought.
When they could finally make out the Moby Dick, Ace started running towards it. Thatch smiled and started sprinting after him.
"Marco and Luffy aren't back yet?" Thatch asked.
Vista rubbed his mustache in thought. "Nope."
At that moment, he saw Marco and Luffy on the coast, walking to the ship. They jumped over the ship and saw Thatch and Ace and started walking.
"Hey Luffy." Ace started.
"Hi Ac-oh wait I'm mad at you!" Luffy realized. He quickly turned away, not noticing the hurt on Ace's face. Ace pouted and turned away too. Thatch and Marco were startled at his pout. They could finally add a third expression after a frown and awe!
"Well time for dinner!" Thatch announced. Cheers from the crewmates and Luffy followed by a smile from Ace. 'It's only been a minute and we see a fourth expression.' They both thought at the same time.
Everyone went into the galley, lining up for their dinner. Ace, Luffy, Thatch, Marco, Haruta, and Izo sat on one table while everyone else went to their usual spots.
"Hey, are you an Okama?" Luffy asked innocently to Izo.
Everyone in the room froze and paled except for the two boys. They all knew how sensitive Izo can be when it comes to this. Hopefully he will have mercy on children.
"No. I'm a crossdresser. There's a difference. Is there a problem with that?" he threatened.
"No, why would there be a problem?" Luffy said indifferently.
"Most people would make fun of me." Izo muttered.
"Why would they do that?" Luffy wondered. "I think you look cool!" he exclaimed.
Izo smiled warmly at him and continued his meal. Thirty empty plates later, everyone was resting on the deck, doing nothing. Whitebeard had planned on leaving Dawn Island today but since his sons and daughters seemed to have grown fond of the two brats, including him, he decided to stay another week.
"Brats." Ace and Luffy immediatly sat up and stared at the giant. They were growing accustomed to that term.
"Do you want to join my family and sail under my name?"
Ace and Luffy were too shocked from the sudden question. Crew members around them were all smiling, hoping that they would say yes. Luffy stood up.
"No. The Pirate King can't sail under a Captain!" he exclaimed.
"You can stay with us until you're strong enough to be a Captain," Fossa suggested.
"We can't. Thank you for your offer." Ace said remembering his lessons from Makino. "We made a promise to set sail from Dawn Island at seventeen. We don't wanna break our promise."
"I see." Whitebeard was disappointed since he knew once they left the island, his children will be moping around, himself included, but he knew a promise is a promise.
"Oyaji!" Marco flew down from the crow's nest in his phoenix form. "There's ten battleships heading to the island." he informed with a stoic face.
"It's a Buster Call."
Sorry I killed off Sabo XD. I wanted to focus more on Ace and Luffy. The storyline for Sabo is still the same. He gets rescued by Dragon etc.
