WARNING : There's an adult theme in this chapter, but it's only implied. No graphic details.
Chapter 12 : Captured
"Don't run off like that again!" Ace reprimanded his brother. He bonked his head for good measures and walked back to the bar. They were stopped by ten burly men that surrounded them, cutting off any escape routes.
Ace pushed Luffy behind him like usual and glared at them. The leader of the group spoke up with a chilling tone that unnerved Ace.
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
Darkness. That was all Ace could see when he woke up from his long slumber. He slowly got up to a sitting position but quickly laid down when he felt a sharp pain in his back.
'What the hell happened?'
Ace closed his eyes to ignore the severe headache that was starting. He let out a deep sigh and swiftly recalled the past events that led up to him blacking out and he shot up again, ignoring the throbbing pain in his lower back. He frantically searched his surroundings for any clue where his brother might be.
"Luffy!" he called out.
He heard a feeble whimper to his right side and sighed in relief.
"A-Aceā¦"
"It's okay Lu, I'm right here." Ace hugged his fragile looking brother close to him. He hugged his little brother until the whimpering had subsided and he reluctantly let go.
Ace tried to summon his fire to see where they were, but he found that it was not working. Agitated, he started flailing his arms everywhere, trying to make it burst into flames, but nothing happened. Ace started patting himself down, looking for any indication as to why his powers weren't working when his hand landed on an ankle bracelet on his left leg. When his fingers brushed past it, he felt himself growing weaker and weaker. He quickly drew back his hand and confirmed that Luffy had the same thing on him as well.
"Ace, I'm scared," Luffy said in a quiet whisper.
Ace could only see his brother's outline in the darkness, but he could tell Luffy was on the verge of crying again.
"It'll be alright," Ace comforted. "Oyaji and them will save us." There was a slight doubt dripping from his voice, but Luffy didn't notice. The latter became less tense after hearing his family would come to their rescue, so Ace was glad he had said that.
Abruptly, the lights were turned on, revealing a white room, that was surprisingly clean. There wasn't a single speck of dust anywhere. What caught Ace's attention was the metal bars around him. They were in a tiny cell in a tiny room.
"Seems like you two have woken up." the man that just came in the room said.
The man looked middle-aged with his black hair that had white streaks here and there. His clothes were ragged, much like the boys' clothes right now and when he spoke, the boys could see his rotting teeth that were black and chipped.
The closer the man got to the cell, the more Ace and Luffy backed to the cell. They stopped when they hit the other side of the cell and looked at the man. One looked with fearful eyes and one looked with hateful eyes.
"Who the fuck are you?" the older raven-haired boy said.
The man merely hummed in response and looked through his bag. He took out two stale pieces of bread and a mini bottle of water and threw it inside the cage.
Luffy was slowly reaching out for the food from behind Ace, but his hand was slapped away.
"It could be poisoned, idiot!" Ace kicked the food out of the cell.
The food landed near the man's feet, which was tapping impatiently.
"Listen," the man growled. "The food ain't poisoned. Can't risk it."
"What do you mean by that?!"
"It means we're slaves, Ace." Luffy said dryly.
Ace raised a shock eyebrow at his brother who simply shaked his head in dismay. He spaced out while remembering his conversation with his other brother a while back.
Many months ago, Ace had gotten really sick, so he and Sabo had to sneak into the latter's house to steal some medicine. In there, they overheard Sabo's parents talking about getting some slaves to 'have fun with.' After they had safely got out of the house undetected, Luffy questioned his older brother about what slaves were. The boy in question turned pale and refused to answer.
Sabo couldn't tell him. Why? Because he was ashamed. Ashamed of what his people did to other humans. Also because he didn't want to kill Luffy's innocence. After much prompting from Luffy, or in his case, whining, Sabo relented.
He went into full details about slaves, World Nobles, and Auction Houses and how his parents dreamed of going into one someday to purchase one.
After hearing this, Luffy could not sleep the whole night. Usually, he would forget stuff like this because it was boring. But this, this was different. The thought of losing his freedom terrified him and made him want to curl up and cry in a corner.
Luffy sighed as he was brought back to the present. The man was gone and Ace was looking at him worriedly.
Luffy told him everything.
Ace layed back down on the cold cement. He closed his eyes and let out a frustrated yell. He had to get out. They had to get out. There was no way he would let Luffy become a slave. It would be like spitting into Sabo's face. And kicking him in the balls.
Whitebeard slowly raised his head off the table. He checked the bar and saw that all of his sons and daughters were passed out from the party last night. He felt a slight tug on his heart for some odd reason. The last time he had this odd feeling was when one of his sons, the Second Division Commander, was murdered. They had not been able to find out who had done it, but he was still furious and wrecked havoc on the island where he had found the corpse.
He saw Shakky and Rayleigh behind him with a kid that was no more than ten.
"What, you got a kid you didn't tell me about?" He joked lightly, but his heart wasn't into it.
Whitebeard turned serious when he saw the grim faces on the two former pirates. 'This must be the bad thing that's bothering me.' he thought.
"Kid said he saw two kids get captured by slave traders." Rayleigh informed.
Whitebeard looked concerned for the the two kids' children when realization dawned on him.
"WHAT?!" Whitebeard exclaimed. He looked around and he noted that the two brats were nowhere to be seen. Though, his exclamation woke his children up. He looked to the kid for a further explanation.
The kid was a bit frightened by the giant's outburst, but Shakky kneeled and calmed him down by rubbing the boy's back in soothing circles.
"W-Well," he fidgeted. "I lost my dog and I was searching for him. All the sudden, he shows up and starts dragging me to the back of this bar and I saw two boys around my age fightin' a bunch of older dudes. They were kidnapped and I thought I'd come here to tell their parents."
The boy looked to the right to avoid the scrutinzing gaze Whitebeard was giving him.
"I'M SORRY!" he blurted out in panic. He'd rather not get killed today. He shook off Shakky's hand and ran out the bar. He ran a safe distance and then started walking. Who would of thought their family were the Whitebeard Pirates?
All the Whitebeard Pirates saw red. They were literally seething in their seats.
"Search all the Human Auctioning Houses," Whitebeard ordered absentmindedly. "Don't stop searching until you find them.
Everyone present rushed to the exit, eager to find their missing younger brothers and beat the crap out of the slave traders.
Ace and Luffy were thrown roughly back into the cell after being punished roughly for not eating anything. The perpetrators left the room without a word. The last one out threw a bottle of water and some bandages.
Ace carefully wrapped Luffy's wounds on his back. Part of his skin was torn off from the whipping, but they weren't too severe. After he was done, Ace tried to do his own, but he couldn't reach his back fully without wincing from the pain.
"Let me do it." Luffy said while holding his hands out.
Ace quietly handed the bandages without a word. His lower back and butt were throbbing painfully, but he refused to cry. Luffy wanted to question his brother because he knew Ace was hiding something from him, but the latter already fell asleep as soon as his back was cleaned and wrapped.
Ace took out the sharp rock from his pocket and engrave a vertical line on the cell's floor. There were four other lines next to the one he just made. Five days. He and Luffy have been here for five days.
"They'll come." Luffy would always say when Ace marked the new day. Though they couldn't see the sun to tell what time it is or how many days it's been, they guessed how. They got food every now in which they assume is once a day.
Ace heard a click on the door and he winced. His butt was still sore from the earlier punishment, but still, Ace refused to show he was weakened by a little thing. He only hoped the man would listen and not defile Luffy like he had promised.
They recognized the man as the person on the first day. He was still wearing the same ragged clothes, only this time, it appeared more disheveled. His repugnant smell made the two boys gagged silently. They knew why the man was here. They had been refusing to eat anything. They only drank the water to keep themselves alive.
The man knelt down and stared at the two boys' defiant eyes and smirked.
"No one's gonna save ya so suck it up." the man winked towards Ace and the latter shivered a little at the innuendo.
"Nuh uh!" Luffy exclaimed. "Oyaji will save us!"
"You mean Whitebeard?" the man chuckled darkly. "It's been five days already. Where is your Oyaji now huh?"
Luffy stuck out his tongue and turned to the side. "Whatever old man."
"You little-"
"He'll find us." Ace interrupted, hoping to draw the man's attention on him instead of Luffy.
"He won't be able to find you." the old man declared confidently.
Ace glared at the man while clenching the bars. "Then you're underestimating him. He has Haki. He can sense us and-"
"Can it extend to the ocean then?"
"What?"
The man smirked again in victory and walked to the door. "We're on a ship, brat. We left Sabaody Archipelago five days ago." With that, he closed the door behind him and laughed loudly, leaving the two horrified kids alone.
Marco ran his hand over his pineapple-like hair in frustration. The whole crew had searched every nook and cranny in the island, even Rayleigh and Shakky helped, but there were still no signs of them.
On the fifth day, he felt like hitting himself on the head. I can use Haki. 'Why didn't I think of it before?!' he reprimanded himself. He had been so busy stressing himself out that he never thought about using it.
He closed his eyes and slowly scanned all 79 Groves. His heart clenched when he couldn't spot the brats' life forces anywhere. He walked back to the ship where his Captain was waiting impatiently for any news of his missing sons. He could see at least ten huge empty barrels of sake next to him.
"Oyaji, I don't think they're on the island," Marco reported bitterly.
"What makes you say that, my son?"
"Haki."
Silence.
Whitebeard crushed the barrel of sake in his hand. Of course.
Marco chuckled in amusement. "Same reaction."
"Tell your siblings to retreat onto the ship. Assuming they left the island as soon as they were captured, I'd say we are five days behind."
"Got it."
Marco took out his Den Den Mushi that was connected to the other commanders.
"Commander meeting in ten minutes. Tell your division to come back onto the ship. I'll explain later." With that, he hung up. He was about to walk away when his father called him.
"Yes?" Marco asked.
"I know you're deeply worried, Marco, but please, take a shower."
Marco sniffed at his clothes and crinkled his nose in disgust and laughed. "Alright."
"So, what's up?" Haruta asked.
"They're not on the island -yoi. They have a huge time advantage if they did set sail five days ago, but if we go on at full speed the whole time, we can catch up to them by the end of the week." Marco said.
The other commanders in the meeting nodded their head grimly and the meeting continued with discussing possible strategies.
"You have the kids and the thing I asked for, right?" a gruffly voice said through a Den Den Mushi.
"Yes." the other person on the line replied.
"We can't mess this up or-"
"Don't worry about it, everything is undercontrolled, Teach."
I know most of you guys want me to kill off BB but what good guy do you want me to kill? Someone suggested Izo before...
And Marco and Whitebeard prob seemed a bit OOC with the haki part oops X_X I was in a rush writing this.
