My Big Bro, Now My Little Bro
Hey! I'm back!
First of all, thanks to all my reviewers, followers and favorit-ers! (Dunno what I should call them) I hope you stay with me 'till the end of this fic.
Secondly, I have started a new One Piece fic. Yay. It's called The Notebook The Freak and The Suicidal Orphan. It would be nice if you could just drop by and have a read.
Finally, enjoy this chapter :P
3. Runaway
Today was the big day for both Luffy and Ace. For Ace, it was going to be his first step out to the world. For Luffy, it was the beginning of a silent war between himself and the world. Luffy didn't feel too anxious, though. In fact, he was excited. He was stronger than before. He could do this. He could feel he wasn't the only one excited. Ace was trying hard not to bounce up and down like an immature kid.
"Excited?" asked Luffy as they headed to board the Kuza Pirate's ship. They-meaning Jinbei, Ace and himself- were planning to travel on a little boat until they reached their first island. However, Hancock had insisted that she should-no, must escort them until they were out of Calm Belt. They had no choice but to accept her proposal. At least it was a better deal than going to the Whitebeard Pirates with her. That would have gained a lot of unwanted attention from both commoners and Marines and that was the last thing they needed.
"Yeah! I've been waiting for this day my whole life!" exclaimed Ace. "But really, is all this attention necessary?" Luffy couldn't help but laugh at Ace's comment. Despite staying on the island for quite some time, Ace was never all too open to the women on the island. After hearing the little boy was Luffy's brother, the women had all expected him to be made of rubber as well, which he wasn't. He had gone through some pain of being pulled, poked, hit, you name it and he hadn't liked it a single bit.
"It's your fault for not being made of rubber," teased Luffy.
"At least I'm not an anchor like you."
"Whatever you say, rubber-wannabe."
"Hey! I would never want to be a rubber! It's lame! Fire sounds way cooler." It had turned out; the little Ace had some parts of the older Ace. During combat for instance, he had been performing the exact moves as the older one did, just less skillful and without fire. He had even named one of his favorite moves 'hiken'. The similarities were kind of frightening to the others.
Plus, he also had this 'fire is cooler than rubber' opinion.
"Jeez, stop saying that! It's annoying!" Luffy complained.
"I'll say it as many times as I want!"
Jinbei was already waiting for them when they got on the ship bickering. The Fishman sighed.
"Bickering again?" he asked, massaging his temples.
"I know! We'll ask Jinbei!" yelled Ace.
"Ask me what?"
"What's cooler? Rubber or fire?" Luffy asked. Jinbei blinked a few times before answering the grand question.
"Water."
"That's out of the question!" yelled the two Ds.
"Why?"
"Jinbei~What part of the question don't you understand?" whined Ace. He began to explain why fire was cooler and why water couldn't be included. Luffy just laughed. Ace might act like a grown up, but he still looked immature.
I guess that's what I looked like to Ace. I have to say, it's pretty tiring but…
Luffy looked up at the sky. All clear. Not a single cloud to be seen. It was a perfect day to set sail. He felt Ace tug on his shirt and turned back to him.
"What?"
"Jinbei agreed with me! Fire is better!"
"Jinbei! You traitor!" fumed Luffy.
"Your loss, Luffy!" Ace happily declared.
…being an older brother is nice.
"I'm hungry~!" Luffy whined.
"And whose fault is that?" asked Jinbei accusingly.
"The random Sea King."
"No, damn it! It's you!" screamed Ace, whacking his brother on the head.
Half an hour ago…
"Bye, Hancock! Thanks for everything!" Luffy waved. Ace also waved along with him since she was pretty nice to him. Once they were out of sight, both of them flopped down on the little wooden boat they were given and reached for the pile of food also given from Hancock.
"Stop!" ordered Jinbei. Both Luffy and Ace looked at him.
"What's wrong Jinbei?" asked Ace, his hands inches from the food.
"Hancock gave us that food to eat when we're hungry!"
"We are hungry," said the two Ds 'matter-of-factly'. Jinbei stopped himself from face palming. He should have known. These two were practically black holes.
"I mean," he clarified, "that's emergency food! Who knows when we'll reach the island? We can't just gobble it up right now!" Thankfully, Ace seemed to understand. After all, it was his first time out into the sea, it was normal to be cautious. But Luffy, on the other hand, just had to be stupid.
"We can fish." Jinbei couldn't help but question how this boy's mind worked.
"How? Do you have a fishing rod?" he asked.
"We can just beat it up when one comes out."
"Can you cook?"
"We can eat it raw." Ace decided to cut in. before Jinbei could think of a smart retort.
"Can you eat fish anyway, Jinbei? I mean you're a Fishman after all."
A three second silence followed. No one had ever questioned that, nor did they even think of it.
"You're a cannibal, Jinbei?!" cried Luffy.
"No! What I mean is we can't eat this right now! We don't even know when we'll come across a fish!"
"Okay, okay. If you say so…"
And so, nothing particularly special came up for the next 10 minutes. Maybe some bickering, teasing and fooling around, now and then, but nothing worth remembering. There was 'peace', until a Sea King came up to break it.
"What…What's that?!" asked Ace. It was his first time seeing something so big and weird.
"Food!" yelled Luffy. Before the other two could react, he jumped into the air. "And this is how you take care of it!" He stretched his foot high up.
"Gomu gomu no~" Jinbei noticed how the Sea King was looming over the boat. And to him, it seemed like Luffy was going to kick it. Vertically. Downwards. If he did that…then…that was bad news.
"Luffy, wait!" Jinbei frantically yelled. Too late.
"…Axe!" The straw hat's foot crashed down on the Sea King's head with full speed and power. The creature collapsed, luckily, right next to the boat. Jinbei sighed in relief, they were safe. Well at least he thought. The force of the fall created a tide, one big enough for a small boat to flip over. Which in that case, the one they were on.
"Jinbei! Do something!" cried Ace in panic.
"Move aside!" Jinbei took his stance facing the wave, "Gyojin Karate-"
Boom!
Luffy bulleted into Jinbei, making him lose balance and topple into the water. Ace stood watching the entire show, unable to do anything about the rushing water.
"Luffy! Behind you!" he yelled. Luffy turned, only to dread what he had just seen.
"Gya! Water! Help me, Ace! Jinbei! Where are you?"
"You idiot!"
Too bad the wave didn't show any mercy. The little story met its tragic end as the boat flipped over; causing Luffy and Ace follow Jinbei into the sea along with the enormous pile of food.
Back to the current time…
That was what happened. Ace knew Luffy was his older brother but sometimes he felt like he should be the one looking after the rubber man. Though he would never speak it aloud, Luffy was indeed a nice older brother, but he was too reckless.
"Now what are we going to do?" he moaned. He too, was getting hungry by the minute.
"I miss all the meat," Luffy joined.
"You shut up!"
Honestly, he was really starting to think he should have been the older one.
Fortunately, they managed to reach an island in another hour.
"Yes!" exclaimed Ace.
"Food!" shouted Luffy.
They sprinted side by side to the nearest restaurant, leaving Jinbei to deal with the little boat.
"Young ones, these days…so reckless…"
Ace suddenly skidded to a stop. Up until now, his first priority was food, but something more important had just caught his eye. He walked back a few steps and stared at something in a shop. Luffy, who also stopped when he noticed Ace wasn't with him, reluctantly walked over.
"Ace~ The restaurant's that way, you know?"
"Luffy? Can…Can I buy that?" Ace asked, not taking his eyes off the window. Luffy joined to see what Ace was so willing to buy.
"Why? Something importa-!" Luffy's eyes widened. It turned out that the shop was a hat shop. And Ace was staring at the same trademark hat the older Ace used to have. Two smileys, one smiling and the other frowning, the side string with a medallion of a bull's skull, and even the string of red beads… The only difference was the color of the hat. It was black, unlike the original orange one.
"Are…are you sure you…you want that?" Luffy stuttered.
"Yeah! I need it!"
"…Is that so…"
After a few minutes, Luffy and Ace came out of the store. Ace happily had his new hat on.
"Thanks, Luffy! I love it!"
"…Well…It's Hancock's money anyway…" Luffy mumbled so quietly Ace didn't hear it. Luffy could feel his mind going blank.
Could it be…that his memories…
Luffy shook his head. He already knew there was some old Ace inside the new one.
It should be obvious he had bought the hat in coincidence, not on his own accord.
Luffy couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed at the fact Ace wasn't regaining his memories.
"Luffy!" Ace called out again.
"What now?"
"I need this as well!" This time, it was a black elbow guard. Luffy let out a laugh when he saw it.
"What's so funny?" asked Ace, opening the door, frowning.
"Nothing~" Luffy replied as he followed Ace into the store.
Coincidence, huh. Funny.
Jinbei had shown a pretty funny reaction when he saw Luffy and Ace, with his hat and elbow guard, stuffing themselves with food in a pirate friendly restaurant.
"Ace?!" yelled Jinbei, his mouth wide open.
"Youbr fibabli jeher, Bimbei. Whab towk yob su lob?" (You're finally here, Jinbei. What took you so long?)
"Ace…you…you…"
"Yob whab?" (You what?)
"You…look…different…" he trailed off, confused. Ace quickly swallowed the food he was munching on.
"Yeah! How does it look? I found them on my way here and Luffy bought them as a gift!"
"Yeah…You look great, Ace,"
"Thanks!" Ace continued to eat while Luffy snickered at the confused Fishman.
"So this island's a shopping mall?" repeated Luffy, munching on a piece of meat.
"Yes. You can buy anything you need, from clothes to ships," answered the waiter.
"Well, that's handy. We're going to need to stock up," said Ace.
"We might as well look for a bigger ship," suggested JInbei. "Since I'm done eating, I might as well head over to the harbor to take a look at some."
"I want to look around the island as well!"
"Well, you see," piped in the waiter, "since this island is pretty open to pirates, it might be a little dangerous for a kid to walk around on his own."
"Hey, I can handle myself just fine!" fumed Ace.
"Well, I guess you could hang around. We can meet up in the harbor in an hour or so," said Jinbei.
"I'll go with you."
"No, Luffy," said Ace, stopping him from getting up. "I want to explore on my own." Jinbei and Luffy exchanged glances, trying to decide if it was okay or not.
"Alright! I'll check out some other stuff then!" Luffy smiled at Ace. He knew well the feeling of wanting to do things alone sometimes.
"Thanks! See you guys in an hour!"
"Ace is strong. Nothing bad would happen to him," insure Jinbei. After all, it was him who had trained Ace for 5 months.
"Yeah, you're right."
What could truly happen in a mere hour anyway?
Ace was enjoying himself to the full extent. There were so many interesting things to see on this island. After checking out the toy shop, he spotted a newspaper shop. The place was full of smell of ink. Ace wrinkled his nose at the unpleasant smell, yet decided to look around. Usually, ten year olds wouldn't be interested in newspapers, but Ace was willing to know more about the world. Living only in one island did make him pretty clueless on what was happening. He did spot some catchy headlines. His eyes then strayed onto the wanted posters. They all seemed pretty new to him but one caught his attention.
WANTED:
Monkey. D. Luffy
300,000,000 Beri
Ace beamed at the poster. This was his Luffy and not some other one, alright. The smiling picture of him proved it. He put the poster (which was free) into his pocket. He was going to ask about his pirate life later.
I can't wait until I'm old enough to become a pirate!
He also tried to look for Jinbei's, only to fail. Deciding he had seen enough, Ace turned to leave. He would have left happily if only he hadn't seen another newspaper. Ace picked up the newspaper. His smile slowly turned to fear.
MARINE'S VICTORY! THE GREAT WHITEBEARD AND FIRE FIST ACE DEAD
"Wha…What is this?"
"A…Ace…?"
"Who are you? How do you know my name?"
"Ace? You…You don't recognize me? It's me! Luffy! Your brother!"
Suddenly, he could see thousands of headlines with the similar words.
FIRE FIST ACE, SCHEDUELED TO BE EXECUTED AT MARINEFORD
THE PIRATE KING LIVES! FIRE FIST ACE, THE SON OF THE DEVIL
STRAW HAT LUFFY, REVEALED FIRE FIST'S YOUNGER BROTHER
THE LEGENDARY WHITEBEARD AND FIRE FIST ACE DIES
Ace couldn't set his mind straight. He couldn't stop trembling. This couldn't be right. He…was alive. He possibly can't be this supposedly dead man. He couldn't even remember anything about it.
But…they just fitted in like a perfect puzzle.
"No…This can't be… Impossible…"
"Do you have a problem, kid?" Suddenly, a deep voice rang out from behind. Ace whipped around.
"Ahh!"
He didn't know why, but Ace found himself trying to back away. He didn't know this man, but his instincts were screaming at him to run. Ace stared at the tall man looming over him in fear. He didn't know him. He'd never met him. No, he didn't know this man. Ace shuddered in horror when a single name rang in his mind.
Akainu.
Yeah. Was that alright? I'm goig to set this story before Luffy's bounty went up, btw
