-On a location not far from the place Luffy and his friends are-
"Sir! We found them. They're still alive!"
Akainu looked up from his work. "Where did you find them?" He asked. The man in front of him took out a folder and gave it to the other man. The man took the folder and opened it. In it were a few photos and some information.
"They have been sighted at a house in the forest. It isn't that far from here. They're probably staying there for an unknown amount of time." The man said.
Akainu looked at the photos. All of the photographs had been taken in front of the house. The two he had been looking for were indeed in the photos. There were also other people on some of the photos, but he didn't look at them. He nodded. "Good. Anything else?"
"We found Roronoa Zoro's nametag in the forest. With that and the photos we can confirm that he was indeed the level seven guard who took D-1 and D-3 out." The man said.
The other man's eyes narrowed. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted him with the key. That bastard was getting way to friendly with those monsters."
"Sir, when should we go there to get them back?" The other man asked.
"We have to retrieve them as soon as possible. Roronoa needs to be silenced. It's too dangerous to let him go free with all the information he has about us. D-3 needs to be taken back. We still have some things to be tested out on him before we can put him down."
"Put him down? Sir, I thought Sengoku didn't want them to die?" The other man asked suprised.
"I don't care what that old man wants. I'm the one in charge now and I decide what happens here. We don't need to keep him alive longer than nessesairly. We still have another one anyway. Understood?"
"Yes sir!"
"Good. Now leave. I have things I need to do."
It was a sunny day. Everyone was outside enjoying the weather. Usopp, Chopper and Luffy were playing a game. The others were just sitting on chairs or in the grass. It was Sunday so everyone was home. Nobody, except the youngest of the group (those three were always full of energy), really felt like doing anything.
A few days ago, Zoro told them that he and Luffy would be leaving at the end of the week. They were both almost fully healed and didn't need medical attention anymore.
The others were sad to hear that. They all had started to like the two men. They were their friends. The thought of them leaving so soon wasn't pleasant.
They tried to get the two of them to stay, but Zoro's mind was set. He, and especially Luffy, didn't like the thought of leaving either, but it was simply not safe to stay here. It would bring them all in danger.
Zoro had found a place to stay on the internet. It was far away from where they were now, an almost six hour ride. Franky had told him they could use his car for now. He and the other inhabitants of the house didn't really use it that much anyway. They always walked to the city. They did have to return the car to him someday though.
Since the two men were leaving soon and because everyone now trusted the two completely, Usopp had given Zoro his three swords back. The swordsman was really glad for that. He didn't feel complete without them.
Now, they were trying to spend as much time with each other as they could. Even if it's just sitting near each other without talking. Just the feeling of having their friends close was enough.
The youngest three had other plans than sitting around. Now they knew Luffy was leaving soon, they spent almost every minute of the day playing games like hide and seek, tag and many other games.
When they played hide and seek, Luffy would almost always lose. Even though he couldn't talk, he somehow made so much noise that it was impossible to not find him right away. On the other hand, he was very good at finding the other two.
Tag was their favourite game to play. No one could predict who would win. They ran around trying to catch the others, which was a lot of fun for some reason.
Today, they had started out with a small game of hide and seek. It only lasted for an hour before they moved on to play tag. They were running around while dodging objects and people. Sometimes they would knock something over or run into something. That didn't stop them though.
The rest of the group didn't mind the younger three playing around. They sometimes would tell them to be more careful when they ran into someone, but other than that they didn't interfere.
Right now, it was Chopper's turn to try and tag the other two teens. He was currently chasing Luffy while Usopp took a small break to take a sip of his drink. It was already warm outside and running around made the heat even worse for them. So, it wasn't very uncommon for one of them to take a break to drink some water.
Luffy ran around in circles around the other people, passing the house every time. When he once more passed the house, something in the woods caught his eye. It looked like something reflected the light of the sun for a few seconds. He stopped running and stared at the forest.
The trees around the house stood very close to each other which made it difficult to look behind them. There was only one clear opening at the front of the house for the car. They were currently in the backyard and, even though the sun was shining, Luffy couldn't see much of what was happening behind the trees.
Chopper stopped next to him and tapped his arm. "Tag, you're it!" He exclaimed happily. The smile faltered when he got no response of the other teen.
"Luffy, something wrong?" He asked. The other teen stared for a few more seconds at the trees before shaking his head. He must have imagined it.
He was about to continue his game with Chopper when a sound caught both teens' attention. Apparently, no one else noticed the sound. Maybe they were the only ones who heard it. They both had very good hearing.
The sound wasn't loud, but the noise was somehow familiar to Luffy. It sounded like metal, almost like the cocking of a gun. But that couldn't be, right? No one ever came near the house since it was so far away from any cities.
"You heard that too, right?" Asked Chopper. Luffy nodded. The two teens stared at the woods. The noise came from the same place where Luffy had seen something just seconds earlier.
There was the shimmering again! Luffy squinted his eyes trying to see what the object was. The bright sunlight made it hard to see, but after a few seconds Luffy recognized the object. It was the barrel of a gun.
And it was aimed in their direction.
His eyes widen. He grabbed Chopper by his arm and pulled him down with him to the ground. He was just in time because not a second later a shot was heard and the glass window behind them shattered.
The rest of the group jumped up in alarm at the loud noise. Luffy looked through the hole in the window and saw some kind of dart in the middle of the pile of class shards.
"What happened?!" Nami yelled in alarm. The two teens didn't reply. They didn't know what happened either, though Luffy had a bad feeling about this.
The teen stood up and ran to Zoro's side. His hands made rapid, panicked movements as he tried to tell Zoro something as quick as he could.
I think it's them, Zoro! They've found us!
Zoro narrowed his eyes and looked towards the only place where the dart could have come from, the forest.
At that moment, people started to emerge from the woods. All of them were carrying a gun or some other kind of weapon. The two men recognized the uniforms the people were wearing immediately. They were guards from the place they had escaped from.
Luffy started to panic even more at the sight of the guards. No, this could not be happening. After all those years, he was finally free! He didn't want to go back to that place!
Zoro took out his swords and stood in front of Luffy. Their friends gathered at their side. They didn't know what was going on, but the looks on Zoro's and Luffy's faces said enough. These people were anything but good.
A man with a long white coat stepped forwards. He had to be some kind of leader. Zoro knew he wasn't the real leader. The one in charge of the place he used to work at and which had held Luffy was a man called Akainu. That man was probably too busy to come himself (not that he wanted that man to come).
"Good afternoon, citizens. We are here on behalf of the Government. We will not harm you as long as you cooperate." The man said.
The group instinctively shifted closer together and formed some kind of circle. The three youngest stood in the middle of this circle and the older friends stood around them protectively.
When the small group of people stayed quiet, the man continued. "We are here to arrest two criminals who are with you right now. They have committed various types of crimes and need to be held captive for everyone's safety." He said.
The man then spotted someone in the group he recognized. He smiled. "Well, well. Look who we have here. Nico Robin, another wanted criminal." He said. Some gasps could be heard in the crowd of people behind him. Robin shifted uncomfortably. They had seen her and they would try to take her for sure.
"That's three criminals in one place. I wonder if the rest of you knew this." The man said. He still got no reaction.
"Alright, I need you all to hand the criminals over to us. We'll take care of them." He told the group. The nine friends shifted even closer together.
Luffy's heart was racing. He was scared, not of the people who would take him, but of the place they would bring him to. He only had bad memories of that place. He never, never wanted to return there.
"We'll never give them to you." Franky said. The rest of the non-criminals nodded in agreement. Even though they had expected this answer Robin, Zoro and Luffy almost sighed in relief. Their friends would never betray them.
The man huffed in annoyance. "I guess we don't have an other option than to take them by force." He said. The people behind him took battle stances. They were ready to take on the small group in front of them.
The group of friends, too, took battle stances. Zoro had his swords out already, Nami grabbed a bo staff which stood against the side of the house, Usopp grabbed his slingshot from his bag and loaded it and Brook took his sword from his cane. The others would fight without weapons.
The man looked very annoyed that the group still didn't give in. He raised his hand in the air and yelled.
"Attack!"
And so, the battle began.
AN: Well, it has been a long time since I last uploaded, sorry.
I really should have made this chapter sooner, I know. I wanted to finish an other fanfiction of mine first since there was only one chapter left. If I had known that would take so long I would have made this before I did that.
So, I apologize for the long wait. I hope you're not angry..
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next chapter won't take as long as this one, I promise (I'm already halfway writing that one).
Thank you so much for reading!
