CHAPTER 9
Just started school last week, wanted to ball my eyes out. School sucks.
I'm going to upload on Sundays now because it gives me more time than on a school day.
DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE!
The brothers tensed as they approached the door, the loud bangs making them almost deaf. Luffy slowly reaches for the handle and yanks it open. The brothers eyes widen in disbelief, this was the last person they were expecting.
"What do you have to say for yourselves?!" Standing in front of them is a petit girl with short strawberry blonde hair. She had a very pissed off expression with her arms crossed and a vein popping from her head. She was a monster, a beast, and Sabo's girlfriend!
"Koala! What are you doing here?" Ace asked in surprise. She stepped forward so her nose was almost touching Ace's.
"What do you mean what am I doing here?! Sabo hasn't called me back for almost a week! Where is he?! I need to talk to him!" Ace takes a step back and semi hides behind Luffy to escape her wrath.
"He isn't here right now." Luffy responds. She turns her angry gaze to him and points behind her.
"Then why's his car here? SABO! YOU CANT HIDE FROM ME WHERE ARE YOU?!" Ace shrinks back and Luffy steps in front of her.
"Sabo is out of town right now, he isn't here Koala." She examines Luffy's straight expression in suspicion then her demeanor totally changes.
"Why didn't he tell me? It would have been nice to get a heads up." she said sadly gazing at her phone. Luffy and Ace exchange a guilty glance before Ace throws an arm around her shoulders.
"I'm sure he feels sorry, but he left in a rush and forgot his phone here. Don't be too upset, he wouldn't do anything to hurt your feelings." Koala heaves a big sigh.
"Well as soon as he gets home, tell him to call me as soon as he can."
"Sure thing!" Luffy responds with a smile. After good byes were said she made her way to her car and drove out of sight. The brothers watched her leave before closing the door.
"You know, it's only a matter of time before everyone becomes suspicious." Luffy points out. Ace ruffles Luffy's hair.
"That's right, so that means we need to go through the rest of that video footage today. Since school starts back up in two days, we have to wait that long to get answers out of Bellamy."
"I can't believe I'm actually wanting school to start again."
"Our world has been flipped upside down." The brothers then went through the footage with a groan. They both took turns pressing the skip button while the other got food together to keep them occupied. Though Luffy was usually the one looking because of Ace's constant narcoleptic fits.
Throughout the day the brothers phones would buzz from their friends texts, but they ignored them.
After some time had passed Luffy jumped up with an excited yell. This caused Ace to fall off the couch he was napping on. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and looked around in a daze.
"Wha-what's going on?" He stands up and Luffy points to the television screen while jumping up and down.
"Ace look! I finally found it! This is the time where Sabo went missing!" Ace looked at his brother shocked, then stood beside him as they watched the screen intently for any action. The brothers watched for a few minutes but when nothing was happening, Ace fast forward. Finally the CD cut out, and the footage was over. Ace furrowed his brows in confusion as he went back, thinking he had missed it.
'What, it doesn't even show Sabo's car at all. Where is it?' He frustratedly went through the footage over and over again but couldn't find anything.
"What the hell?! Where is it?!" He yells slamming the remote on the ground. Luffy just sits quietly beside him, staring intently on the screen. Ace looks at him in confusion then snaps his fingers in front of Luffy's face.
"Oi! Luffy! Do you see something?" Luffy blinks a few times before his eyes are shaded from his hat.
"Ace. Did you look at the date of the footage?"
"No why?"
"Well I think you should." Ace gives Luffy an odd look then reads the information at the bottom right of the screen.
"11:16 am, parking lot camera C, Wednesday, March 12th..." Ace trailed off then slapped himself in the face.
"This is footage from a week ago! I grabbed the wrong box from Wednesday! Damn it!" Luffy took the CD out of the player and put it back in the box. He then shoved the box in Ace's arms and flopped down on the couch.
"Looks like we only have Bellamy as a lead right now. Just leave the box under your bed for now." Luffy snuggles himself deeper in the couch and closed his eyes. Ace sighs angrily then shoved the box under his bed. Then he walked to the living room and plopped on the couch next to Luffy. He found his eyes closing from exhaustion until he finally fell asleep.
Late that night, Dadan walks into the house and notices the brothers on the couch.
"What are they doing so late?" She walks into their rooms and strips the bed of blankets then places them on the brothers. Luffy immediately pulled the comforter over him while Ace snuggled deeper into the covers.
Dadan smiled at the cute sight before stumbling upstairs to get some rest.
"Are we really going to this?"
"Why not? They deserve it for ignoring us!"
"But they look so comfortable, it kinda looks cute..."
"No! We're doing this! Go get it!" Ace internally groans at the noise all around him and squints his eyes open. He turns his body to face whoever was talking.
'What? Who are these people?' He thought with a head still hazy from sleep. His eyes were finally adjusting when he felt freezing water soak his skin.
"AHHHHH!" Ace flips off the couch and smacks his head off the coffee table while Luffy abruptly gets up and falls down again.
'My head ow!' He laid on the ground holding his head while letting out a pained moan.
"Oops, didn't think that would happen." Ace sat up and glared at the intruders. His eyes widened in surprise when he recognized Marco and Thatch as well as some of Luffy's friends. Marco was holding a large bucket of water and Thatch had his arms crossed with a pissed expression.
"What the hell do you guys think your doing?!" Ace screams at them. Luffy jumps up beside him in anger.
"Nami, Zoro, Sanji, ViVi what are you doing here?! And what was that for?" Luffy yells with steam coming from his ears.
"Ace, why didn't you respond to our calls and texts yesterday?!" Thatch demanded.
"Yeah! That goes for you too Luffy! What were you guys doing?" Nami asked.
The brothers glance at each other before Luffy gestures to Ace to explain with a smirk.
'You sneaky betraying bastard!' Ace turns back to the angry mob with a nervous expression.
"Well you see, me and Luffy trashed the house by accident yesterday so Dadan took our phones away and grounded us." He said rubbing a finger under his nose with a satisfied expression.
"Dadan?" Sanji asked.
"Our caretaker." Luffy piped up.
"Caretaker? Where are your parents?" Zoro asked. The brothers looked at each other then shrugged.
"Our mom died when we were small, and our dad is somewhere working. Never really knew the guy though." Ace responded. The group looked guiltily at each other.
"Sorry about that." said Zoro, rubbing the back of his head.
"Hey, it's not your fault he's gone. We're just fine by ourselves." said Luffy proudly, puffing his chest and hitting it with a fist.
"Oh yeah, how did you guys know where we live? I understand Thatch and Marco, but what about you?" Ace nods to Luffy's friends. "And how did you get in here? The door was locked."
"I'm friends with Zoro so I called him up to come and see you guys." said Marco. "And I saw you pull the key from under the mat last time, so we used it."
'Maybe we made it a little too easy for Sabo's kidnapper to come in the house...' Ace thought in shame.
On the outside, Vivi and Nami are keeping a cool demeanor. But on the inside, they're freaking out that they were in Ace's house. Suddenly the girls' fangirling was disrupted when the doorbell rings.
"I'll get it!" Luffy jogs from the living room and opens the door to find a deliveryman.
"Hello!" Luffy greets with a grin, but the man just pushes a package into his arms. Luffy stumbles a bit at the force and looks at the package in confusion. He lifts his head to ask where the package was from only to discover the deliveryman was already speeding away.
Luffy frowns and closes the door silently; he then turns his attention to the medium sized box in his hands. He quietly opens it and finds a bunch of green tissue paper. He sticks his hand it and shuffles it around until he feels a piece of cardboard. He shifts the paper to look at it and sees the kidnappers symbol.
Luffy quickly closes it and hides it away in the coat closet behind him, not wanting anyone to catch him with it.
"What was that?" Luffy jumped at Zoro's deep voice beside him.
"Um, it was a package for Sabo. Just putting it away until he gets back." Luffy responds nervously.
"Right, Sabo is away on a trip or something. Listen, are you feeling okay? Your acting kind of jumpy today." said Zoro looking directly into Luffy's eyes.
"Yeah! Just after you guys drenched us I guess I'm just a bit paranoid. But I'm okay, really!" Luffy says with his big grin.
"Okay then, if you say so." Zoro walks back to the living room and looks back in anger. He didn't believe a word Luffy said.
When Zoro left Luffy alone, Luffy let out a huge breath and takes a longing look where the package was before following Zoro back to the living room.
As soon as he steps foot into the kitchen, Nami is dragging him to his room. He looks over to Ace and sees that Thatch is dragging him towards their room as well. Luffy tries to tug his arm free of Nami's grip but fails.
"Nami! What are you doing?" he complains. Nami swings him forward and pushes him into their room at the same time Thatch pushes Ace.
"You both have to change clothes! We're going out!" Then Nami slams the door shut and the brothers look at the door, bewildered. Knowing they weren't going to be let out until they changed, the brothers complied.
"So who was at the door?" Ace asked while taking off his soaked clothes and slipping a red t-shirt over his head. Luffy glanced reluctantly at the door, not wanting to risk being over heard.
"Someone came to deliver a package to Sabo." Luffy gives Ace a long look. Understanding what Luffy means, he silently accepts it and finishes dressing.
"So Ace, are you guys going to get an apartment soon? I remember you said you wanted to get one for you and your brothers." said Marco when Nami let the appropriately dressed boys out of their room.
"Yeah, but we're waiting for Sabo to get back before we decide on one. We all need our input on this." Ace replied.
"Do you guys have enough money for that sort of thing? I mean your only in high school." Sanji points out.
"We've been saving money since we were kids to buy our own apartment. We never really liked living here, so we decided to save up on our own." said Ace.
"How much do you have saved?" asked Vivi. Luffy bit the inside of his cheek.
"Five thousand dollars." he said quietly. Everyone's jaws dropped comically and their eyes bulged out of their head.
"Holy crap! You're loaded! Where the hell did you get the money from?!" Thatch asks in disbelief.
"You know, just here and there..." Ace mumbles. Marco raised an eyebrow when he noticed Ace's subtle behavior. Suddenly they all hear a cough and turn to Nami who had been patiently waiting till the commotion went down.
"Anyway, the main reason we are here is to take you two-" she points to Luffy and Ace,"-outside for a nice game of soccer."
"Uh soccer? Not that I don't appreciate you guys coming or anything, but why are you doing this?" Ace asks. Thatch comes up behind him and smacks him on the back, knocking the breath out of Ace.
"Because, my dear friend, you and your brother here have been a little glum lately about Sabo being gone. I know you love him and stuff but that doesn't mean you have to be down about it. I mean, he's having fun, so why can't you?" Ace and Luffy stared at the group in shock.
'I wish that was the case.' They both thought simultaneously. Ace opens his mouth, about to object when Luffy grabs his arm.
"C'mon Ace! Their right! We need to take a break from all of this, please?" asked with eyes full of desperation. Ace grit his teeth and thought about all the crap they've been through. Ace closes his eyes and let's out a big sigh.
"I guess that's what we need. Okay then, let's go!"
"Yeah!"
Ever since they arrived at the park, everyone was having a blast. Luffy was ecstatic when he found out that Sanji and Thatch threw together a picnic feast they were going to have later. The rest of Luffy's crew came along and created a large gathering.
They played soccer for several hours with endless energy before deciding it was time to eat. Luffy gives a cheer of appreciation and runs to the picnic blanket they set up under the tree. When the rest of the group eventually sat down, they set out the feast, which included sandwiches, pastas, salads, chicken wings and e.c.t.
"Oi! Luffy! Get your hands off my plate!" Zoro yells for the millionth time.
"Sorry," he said non-apologetically.
"I thought he just did that at home." Ace exclaims in mild surprise. "How much does he do it?" Usopp finishes chewing his sandwich before responding.
"A little too often for our liking." The whole crew gives Luffy an annoyed look that Luffy happily ignores because he is too busy eating.
"So this is where you brats were!"
Ace automatically pales and Luffy chokes on his sandwich.
"Is that-"
"Gramps?" Luffy finishes. They slowly turn around with wide eyes and let out screams of terror when they try to run away. However, Garp was much quicker as he reaches and grabs the brothers by the neck of their shirts. They both let out a choking sound as they are dragged away. Garp turns around to their friends with a smile.
"I'm just borrowing them for a moment." He resumes his walk away to his car. The group looks at each other in confusion.
"Gramps?"
As Ace and Luffy were being dragged away, they sent pleading looks to the group that was quickly fading from view. They were met with confused stares then they looked away and whistled innocently.
Eventually Garp pulled them up next two his car and plopped them in front of him.
"Where have you brats been? I called you plenty times but you and Dadan ignored me! And where's Sabo?" He yells.
'We ignore you because you're crazy.' They both thought.
"Sabo's out of town right now and the phone broke so we didn't get any calls." Ace lied. Garp punches them both in the head and they fall over in pain. Luffy hissed when the bruise on his head is aggravated. They immediately spring back up and are about to protest, but Garp cuts them off.
"Why didn't you brats tell me he was gone?! I have an important message for all of you!" Ace and Luffy straighten themselves with their eyes full of curiosity.
'A message? Please don't tell me the kidnapper is talking to gramps!' Ace thought in anxiety. Pleased that he has his grandson's attention, he clears his throat.
"Well, it turns out that your father finally wants to spend time with you brats in the city he works in!"
"What city is that?" asked Luffy.
"West Blue city." The brothers glance at each other, knowing full well they couldn't leave the city and Sabo behind.
"Sorry Gramps, we don't want to meet the guy. He's been gone all of lives and suddenly turns up now? No thank you. Besides, we promised Sabo that we'd wait until he gets back." Ace said firmly.
"You should go, Dragon really wants you to meet his best friend and business partner Roger and show you the kind of work they do." Luffy shakes his head.
"No can do Gramps. I don't want to go see him at some boring office job. I'd rather stay here with my friends. Besides, we can't miss school."
"Well, it's not up to me if you want to go." Garp sighs. "But their work is not just some office job. Their scientists who are developing- wait I shouldn't tell you that here." Garp digs in his pocket and pulls out two business cards.
"If you change your mind brats, give them a call. Dragon may be irresponsible, but he's still my son. And I don't want to see him mess up the chance he has with his children." Garp gives them one more annoyed punch for good measure then gets in his car.
"Don't ignore me again! Tell Dadan if she doesn't pick up the phone I'm coming over there and giving her a fist of love!" Garp gives a booming laugh then speeds away, leaving his grandsons in the dust.
"Well that was annoying." Ace complains. The brothers walk back towards their friends and Luffy examines the business card. His breath hitches when he looks at the logo. Luffy holds the card out for Ace to see.
"Does this look familiar to you?" Ace looks down and his expression slowly turns to shock.
"But that's, that's the kidnapper symbol!" Ace says in disbelief. "Well, close to it anyway." The logo on the business card had two D's stamped in the middle of a blue square.
"Even thought the arrow and the circle are different, the D's look exactly the same!" Luffy exclaims.
"Does our dad have something to do with this?" They both exchange looks of worry.
"What kind of father would do this to his own sons? I think it's a coincidence. He can't be! Even though he hardly knows us, he couldn't! Cause we're family..." Luffy trails off and grips the card with shaking hands. Ace puts a hand on Luffy's arm to calm him.
"I know how you feel but we can't ignore this big coincidence. It may not be our father, but someone related to the company."
"But why would they care about us? We have nothing to do with it."
"I have no idea Lu." Ace ruffles his hair and jogs ahead to their friends. Luffy cringes in pain and runs after him.
'Stupid Gramps! He hit me straight on my bruise!' He walks up to the group while rubbing his head.
"Everyone ready for round two?" Ace asks. Then the group walks away to the field and Luffy is still holding his head, a headache growing.
"Are you okay Luffy?" Said teen turns around to a worried looking Vivi.
"Yeah I'm alright, I'm just a little more sensitive when Gramps gives us his 'fist of love'." Luffy says with a chuckle. Vivi gives him one last incredulous look, then beckons him to the field.
"Come on! Our teams losing and I don't want to keep it that way!"
He hated this room. This was the room that he spent everyday dreading no matter how hard he tried to forget.
Sabo looked around the blank white walls around him in distaste, and then paused to glare at the black glass in front of him. He couldn't see them, but he knew they could see him.
He hated the men in white suits. All they did was cause him pain. The only time he actually didn't mind them was when they brought him back to the cell after the horrible day he had.
Then again, that just made him worry about when they would enter and take him away again.
Never mind, he hated them all the time.
But the one he hates most of all is 'that' man. That damn bastard who just comes around to tell him how he's taunting his brothers. He absolutely, undoubtedly hates that man.
Speaking of him, he just walked into the room. Sabo had to stop himself from spitting on his face, oh wait, he's probably going to get punched anyway, so he spits directly between the man's eyes.
To Sabo's surprise, he casually wipes it away and gives an evil grin. Sabo held his breath in anticipation.
'I swear to god if he hurt Ace or Luffy screw these chains, ill murder him.'
"You've had a hard day today by the looks of you." he points out. And he was right, Sabo was exhausted from what he went through today. It was worse today than most others. Sabo's eyes widen as the man slips a knife from his coat pocket.
"Don't worry yourself, your day is almost over. Just carry on for a little bit longer." And quicker than lightning he plunges the knife into Sabo's shoulder.
Omake:
Koala gets in the car and leaves the D household.
Koala: ...
Pulls up to a red light and rolls the window up.
Proceeds to throw a fit about Sabo causing people in other cars to wonder about her mental health.
Son of Whitebeard: Raggggging
Wildnaturexx: Well here you go! I hope Garp's craziness satisfies you
Until Sunday~
Didn't feel like omake lalalala
What to expect next time: Living in butchery.