I'm warning you right now that this chapter is going to be a little OOC

"Oi, shitty gomu. Are you sure you're okay?"

Luffy just grinned and dug into his sandwich that Ace had packed for lunch. When he arrived at school that day, most of his friends flocked right up to him, asking his worriedly if he was hurt during the car crash. Luffy had no clue how his friend knew about it, but it was obvious that they found out not too long ago.

Lunch was the only time Luffy got to sit and eat with all of his friends. It made him sad, since they had other classes, but at least they could spend time together. Luffy wanted to ask them to come to his house, he even suggested it to Ace, but the suggestion was immediately shot down by not only Ace, but Hiken, Marco and Thatch as well.

Luffy wasn't the only one upset by this—He had a talk with Mugiwara right after the whole 'mera-mera no mi' incident. The young pirate captain had just grinned and told him to tell him about all of his friends when he got back from school.

At least someone was on his side . . .

"I'm fine, Sanji." Luffy said with a sigh, trying to make his friends realize that he wasn't hurt during the crash. "It was just a few bruises. Ace got it worse than me, he's still at home. His—erm—boss didn't want him coming to work today."

Beside him, Chopper, the youngest, yet smartest person in their grade, looked outraged. "He's home by himself while he's injured?!"

Luffy was about to say 'no' and that Hiken and Mugiwara were there with him, but then he realized that his nakama didn't know about Hiken and Mugiwara and he wasn't suppose to tell anyone about them. So instead, he just laughed and said, "Ace is strong! He can take care of himself for a few hours!"

"But what if he hurts himself and nobody's around?" Chopper waved his small arms everywhere, trying to get Luffy to understand the seriousness of this situation. "Ace might be in danger!"

"I doubt it," Luffy replied, still smiling, though he had to bite his tongue in order to stop something else from slipping through his mouth. "Ace'll be fine! He's probably too lazy to move, anyway." A lie, but Luffy couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Doctor-san," Robin said, closing her book and glancing up at the smaller child who was fuming at Luffy. "I don't think we can do anything about it. We'll just have to hope that nothing bad has happened."

"But Robinnnn . . !" Chopper looked at her with big, water eyes. "I just. . ."

Usopp threw his arm around his nakama with a big smile, laughing. "Cheer up, Chopper! Here, I brought some brownies that my mom made for us!" He waved the bag in Chopper's face and the tears were immediately gone.

"BROWINES?!"

And just like that, the situation was completely forgotten.

Luffy was fine, or so they all though.

Only two noticed the difference.

And they planned on finding out what was making their nakama act so strange.

Ace always knew his life was shit. They only thing that he had left was his little brother, even if he wanted to murder him sometimes, and the rest of his nakama. If it were up it him, he would've died a long time ago.

He fiddled with the white sticky note in his hands that read 'ONE PIECE . . . DOES EXIST!' in bold letters. The police had found it by the accident, but somehow it ended back up in Ace's apartment. He didn't know how, and he honestly couldn't care less.

The only thing he wanted to know was, what was 'one piece'?

The adult had yet to ask Mugiwara or Hiken, even though he knew that they probably knew the answer. He just couldn't bring himself to ask them, especially since all of this shit happened.

But then again, his curiosity would always get the better of him.

With a huge sigh, Ace got up and slowly made his way towards the living room. He poked his head around the corner, thinking that he'd find his living room in shambles. Instead he found both Mugiwara and Hiken curled up on the couch, asleep.

Ace would have been lying if he didn't think it was cute, especially the way they seemed so protective of each other. He was about to turn around when he heard a sleepy voice call out, "Ace? What are you doing?"

Ace jumped in surprise, almost hitting his head on a self next to him, and turned around only to come face-to-face with Mugiwara.

The said boy yawed, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He then blinked a few times, like he was trying to focus on something. Finally, his gaze settled on Ace and a small smile appeared on his face before he yawed again.

"Sorry," Ace said, lowering his voice so he didn't wake is counterpart. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine," Mugiwara said with a smile that resembled Luffy's smile in every way possible. "What where you doing?"

"I needed to ask you guys a question, actually." Ace confessed, moving over so he was sitting on the couch opposite on Mugiwara.

Mugiwara nodded, then struggled out of Hiken's protective grip so he could sit up. He gave another giant grin that seemed to light up the whole room before he said, "Go on."

Ace took a deep breath, not sure why this was so difficult to ask. Wasn't it just a question? Then Ace mentally slapped himself—What the hell was he? A coward? No! He could do this, and he would, or else he might never know. "What the hell is 'One Piece'?"

Black beard was fuming—Not he was more than fuming. He didn't even notice that he killed ten people in his rage and honestly he could care less. How dare they! The fat man gritted his teeth. How dare they!

Not only does Mugiwara no Luffy get away from his, but that ridiculous brother of his that he had tried so hard to kill, was brought back to life! And then he was sent to this ridiculous dimension that had the strangest machines! How did life get so screwed up?

The only reason he didn't blow up the whole town right then and there was the fact that he spotted himself sneaking in an alleyway.

And well . . . That's basically how he ended up sitting in this dump surrounded by a bunch of powerless idiot who had no clue what they were doing.

"Damn it," Blackbeard's counterpart continuously muttered. "They were supposed to die in that damn car crash! But noooooo. That shitty driver couldn't do shit!"

"This is your fault, you know," Blackbeard addressed his counterpart. "You honestly thought that a car crash was going to kill them? Those damn D brothers may be weak, but they have more damn lives than a admiral!"

Teach glared at him, but Blackbeard paid him no attention until Teach spoke in a dark voice, "You know nothing of my world, know your place."

In less that a second, Blackbeard was in the man's fat face glaring down long and hard. A black ball of swirling black sand was surrounding his left hand, while his right hand was gripping the helm of his counterpart's shirt. The guards gave a cry of alarm, but they knew that they couldn't do anything.

"Know my place?" Blackbeard spat. "You know your place. I could kill you in less that a second considering how weak you are. Your so-called 'comrades' are even worse. I am not afraid to kill you, even if you do look like me." The man's face twisted into an evil grin. "You are no more than an ant, cowering under the mighty ant eater."

Teach's eyes were wide, and all he managed was a weak 'okay'. Blackbeard's lip twitched in an even more sinister smile. Oh this was going well. If he could play his cards right then he might be able to finally get rid of those damn D's . . .

"Listen up!" Blackbeard's yell rung throughout the room. Everyone heard it, and they all looked fearfully at the man who could beat their leader like it was nothing. "From now on you will be following my every order. You will not question me, you will not disobey me. You will do everything I say and you will do it right! If you don't . . . Well then there will be punishments."

Everyone gulped, including Teach himself. If this was him in another world, he didn't want to imagine what that world was like. Just how bloodthirsty could a person be? Not even Teach was that heartless.

But the evidence was smirking up at him, fully aware of his fear. There was nothing he could do to hide it. He could conceal nothing from the monster in front of him. And he never would be able to.

"Now who's ready to kill a couple of D's?"

Hiken woke with a start, gasping for air, his hand over his chest. He didn't even realized that he'd startled both Ace and Mugiwara. He was too focused on the feel in the air.

He stared at his hands, unaware that Mugiwara and Ace were calling his name, unable to respond. Something just seemed so . . . off. Something was wrong. Something was changing.

Finally he looked up, meeting the eyes of Mugiwara's wide ones. They looked scared, worried. But why? Why was his little brother so worried? "Luffy?" He didn't even bother to use the nickname that Ace had come up with. He wanted to know. He wanted to know if his brother felt it too. "You feel it too, right?"

Ace looked at him lie he was slightly worried for his mental health, but Mugiwara stopped moving, his eyes widening before he took two steps back. "That air."

It wasn't a question. Now Hiken knew that something was defiantly wrong. "Something's changing."

"Something big happened," Mugiwara echoed, his eyes slightly glazed.

"Um . . . Guys . . ?" Ace looked like he didn't know what to do. "Oi. Oi! Snap out of it!"

He was ignored. "He's coming, isn't he?" Hiken asked, not even bothering to hide the fear in his eyes. This was the one man who beat him until he couldn't fight anymore; this was the man that killed his father, the one that tried to kill his brother.

"He is," Mugiwara said, his hand roaming to the scar on his chest. Blackbeard might not have given him the scar himself, but that scar was a representation of the whole war, Blackbeard included.

Suddenly Ace wasn't scared anymore. This man had taken him away from his nakama! He had tried to kill his brother! He was the reason he died in the first place! "I'll kill him," Hiken promised. "I'll kill him!"

"Oi!" Ace was looking frantically at both of the older teens. "What the hell are you talking about?! Stop it! It's creeping me out!"

"He needs to die," Mugiwara hissed in a very un-mugiwara like voice. Dark memories that he had tried to forget were now surfacing again. He hated that; he hated these. He wanted them gone! He wanted his nakama back, he wanted to go home with Hiken, he wanted it to be back the way it was before the war.

Yet something in the back of his mind told him that it wasn't going to happen.

"Thank you . . . For loving me!"

Hiken had another place to return to.

Finished yet another chapter! We're starting to head towards the middle of your beloved story, isn't that right? xD

Ah well. This chapter was intense. I tried to crack a few Luffy-like jokes, but it never really fit at the time D: And I have to say that I re-wrote the beginning of this at least seven times. Gosh, I had no clue what two write while they were in school xD

And at the end, Hikena and Mugiwara were using Haki, even if they don't realize it.

So how was it? I'm giving virtual cookies to anyone who can guess who the two that noticed Luffy's behavior issues are!