Ace looked around, still in his bubble, holding onto his rope for more stability, and enjoyed the calm atmopthere of the sea. He felt the constant pull from the rope, his brother where working on getting him out. Ace knew he would be under water for maybe an hour. They all had prepared and planned this Coup far better than everything they had ever done before. This one was the best they had ever done! He let out a short laugh, still shaking from the adrenaline. He had stolen from the Whitebeards!

Ace focused again on his breathing, he had to be careful, this bubble wasn't as big as the last. And was created around water. He smiled and relaxed, taking some slow and not too deep breaths, allowing himself to doze off. Sabo said, that would be the best thing to do. Sleep. That way, Ace wouldn't consume too much air.

The bubble popped, Ace was suddenly surrounded by breathtaking, ice cold, water that drained him off all his energy. His eyes snapped open, he opened his mouth too, instinctively taking a deep breath in... Only to not drown. Ace blinked, realizing that Sabo swam in front of him holding him close. Ace continued to breath. His lungs felt like they where freezing and his head was dizzy... Why didn't he wake up when he was near the ship? How hadn't he sensed his brothers presence?

.

"Ace, are you with me again? Don't panic, I got ya. Your bubble was to small, the oxygen level in it was too low, I think you passed out while sleeping." Sabo said, while climbing the ladder, his disorientated brother still in one Arm. Ace only blinked, still breathing heavily. "W-wha.." Sabo sat him down on Deck. "Oxygen turns into carbon dioxide when you breathe. No oxygen in bubble, no oxygen to breath in. No effective breath in, no effective breath out. No effective breathing, you kinda die. Basic knowledge, Ace. Basic!" Sabo singed. "How are you?" he kneeled down beside Ace, who nodded.

"I'm fine, thanks. Where's Lu?" Sabo smiled "Inside, told him to untie the rope, so we would have a moment for us." He whatchend how Ace turned into fire, carefully drying both of them. "Come, eat something and then tell me how it went. You shouldn't have passed out. I checked the math multiple times, you left in a hurry, didn't you?" all he got in response was a growling stomach and a sheepishly grinning brother. That's not good..

.

After he had eaten some meat and got rid of the stupid shirt, he made himself more comfortable and looked at Sabo. His brother was still examining the small wooden chest Ace robbed. Making sure it really was the one they had aimed for. They didn't know what was inside. "So? What happened?" Okay, seems like Sabo just had keept himself busy while Ace ate.

"I did like we had planned it. The air inside the bubble lasted until Luffy's 'friend' dropped me off near the ship and I managed to climb it up. No use where made of my fruit or Haki. Presence hidden." He started to repord, watching Sabo, knowing his brother already knows that something went really wrong, if Ace reported his adventure like that. "I did this thing with... Thinking my thoughts different? That what we use to trick haki.." Ace shrugged at it. He would never remember how Sabo call it, it was cool and worked for the last 3 years.

"Rephraseing your thoughts, Ace." Sabo interrupted, a bit annoyed that Ace managed to do it at least once a week but still couldn't name it. "Did it work on them too?" when Ace nodded, Sabo felt pleased. His strategy did work on a damn Yonko! He was a Genius!

Ace saw the proud look on his brothers face and smiled. Yes, this was probably one of the most intelligent ideas Sabo had ever come up with. His brother did had a hard time explaining it to him... But it was so smart! Ace had never before heared of someone who outmatched Observations Haki with just thinking differently. He remembered that pretty easily.

...some years ago...

"When you really think about it, it's actually pretty simple. Haki itself is a type of visible mind strength, if you want to say so, right?" Sabo didn't wait for a response and just continued excitedly. "With Observations Haki you feel your surroundings, look for someone with a bad intend or something that could harm you, to avoid it." Sabo listed, clapping each time, to keep Ace concentrated. "It's users would get an uneasy feeling when danger is approaching them, they feel it when someone is having any evil thoughts against them.. But if you phrase your thoughts differently, they aren't evil anymore. Like 'I wanna steal something and I'll do everything to get it' can be phrased as 'I would like to get something and I'm willing to do something for it'" Sabo quoted. "It's comparable with the innocence of a child. It can do something horrible, because it thinks that it is something good." Sabo finished his explanation. And it was logical to Ace. He actually understand what sabo was saying.

...present...

Ace did it like that, and it worked. Everytime. So he did it with the Whitebeards too. He thought 'I have to make sure, Namur won't indifference' and not 'I have to take Namur out'

The result was the same, but it wasn't visible. He managed to not show any bad intentions. Or at least he thought so.

Ace showed a bad intend at the moment he checked if the drug was in the tank and had already mixed with the drink. But that was a risk he knew he had to take. He and Sabo had spoken about it, and that there would be no way it could be possible to disguise the thought of shaking a drugged drink. They knew it could be possible that the observations haki from some pirates probably would spike up... But he almost immediately rephrased his "giving a drugged drink" to an "giving someone something to drink bevor this person had to go and get it themself" so the danger they maybe felt should disappear immediately. And Ace didn't get caught by doing so, so it worked, didn't it?

Anyways. He wasn't done with reporting and trying to tell his brother the Crew was after them... He didn't want to tell him.. But okay. If he doesn't do it, it would be too dangerous. They had to make a plan! "Yeah. The Rephrasing-thing.. I drugged Namur and got to the treasury without a problem... But..." Ace looked away.

Sabo pinched his Nose, he already felt the upcoming headache caused by to much stress and to less sleep because he had to save their asses again. "But?"

"Buuuuuuut, maybe it could eventually be, that, as a pure coincidence, I got, by accident, nearly caught and escaped out of pure luck?" Ace said in a hurry, smiling like he would be the personification of innocence, blinking a few times. "I guess? ...Sabo, when was the last time I told you how much I respect you for being the smart brother?"

"I hate you, Ace. I hate you so much. So, so, so much. What happened exactly?" Sabo placed the chest next to him, staring Ace down while being told that their great plan got ruined by a prank that hit Ace, instead of anybody else on that ship. Instead of anyone who wouldn't be that suprised, because it was normality for them... No. It had to be Ace! Sure! Sabo wanted to cry. That wasn't fair. "We have to get back to that stupid island. If we hold this course we would cross paths with them.. That wouldn't be an issue if you wouldn't have got caught.. But you did, so we have to react fast. Go and get some rest, Lu and I, we will handle everything in that time." The door opened and their little brother entered, proudly holding multiple ropes in his hands, which he had managed to untangle.

"I did it! Look, Ace, Sabo, Look!" he stumbled towards them, tripping over his own feet and or the ropes while doing so. "Ace! I missed you! How was your super special double-triple cool adventure mission?" the little raven let the ropes slip through his grip and all but YEETED himself at his oldest brother, sending both crashing to the ground. Ace let out a pained jelp. (How the hell do you do that! Every single time!) "Lu! You are made out of rubber, how can your knees and elbows be so sharp and pointy!" he complained, while he felt how said body parts of his brother made themselves comfortable in his ribs, face and guts. Luffy just laughed like the 8 year old he was. His brothers joined him soon.

After some minutes, Sabo got up and was on his way out, to change the course and save their life, when a question popped up in his head. "Hey, Lu... Do you know what's inside the chest?" both of his brothers got silent, Ace now too looking at the youngest, also interested in the answer. Luffy had almost begged for that chest, he had never done something like that before. One morning, he just had woken both his brothers and asked them to go and get him a wooden chest from the island they were currently staying at. And he hadn't shut up about it, pestered them from midnight over breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, teatime, dinner and even his goodnight snack to midnight again. He was near tears and even drawed them a almost to detailed picture of it, describing the size too. And Luffy couldn't draw. At least not when someone else was supposed to identify what was shown in the picture.. It scared them. It really did. They know, Lu rarely even talked about his ability... But that.. They had to get this chest for him. Their little brother's happiness was worth a fight with the strongest crew of the world. It totally was.

Luffy nodded slightly, crawling off Ace and towards his new treasure, warily eying the chest. "We have to lock it. Now." he looked at Ace "can you melt some metal around it? Please, Ace." said one almost immediately seated himself next to Lu, already starting to melt the closing mechanism, so that the chest couldn't be opened easily again, at least not without damaging it visibly. Sabo watched it, already making some plans about how they could get away and avoid an encounter with the whitebeards. They needed to get some luck. With pure strategy it would be hard to live through this. Whitebeard surely wouldn't take it lightly to be attacked like this.

.

Luffy tucked his brother deeper in his bed, giggling about Ace, before he sneaked out of his room and walked towards Sabo, wanting to help him sail the ship. He did not know why they changed course and are sailing back to the last island... But if Sabo said it was necessary, they would do it. He also liked it there. (There was such a big and pretty flowerfield!) Luffy snickered, hugging Sabos waist. "Ne, Sabo? Can I help you? I wanna do something. What can I do?" he looked up at his brother, disliking the fact he barely reached his chest. Sabo knocked Lu's hat off his head when he ruffled his hair, smiling about him. "You can't really, do something at the moment... But I guess you could hold watch." He pointed at the crowsnest. Luffy stretches his arms and hurled himself up there, happily clinging at the restriction, looking around for ships or something unusual.

Sabo smiled and continued steering their ship around, skilfully avoiding the deadly riff beneath them, having dealt with it multiple times before. It was great for losing an enemy or anything else that was after them. (At least Lu is happy and not longer on edge. That's pretty good. But how do I get us out of that.. We can't stop the raiding and robbing, looting and hunting... We're thieves! And if we don't do such thing, we would have to starve, die, sink, kill someone who isn't involved in those things, a innocent person... and Lu would suffer the most. No. We can't and we won't stop.) Sabo sighed, not liking their situation. But they had to do it. Luffy needed that chest... even if the brothers didn't know what was inside of it. Sabo maneuvered the ship through the reef. They would get away, they would trick the Whitebeard Pirates.

After about 4 hours, he went up to the crowsnest, softly shaking the sleeping Boy awake. "Lu, could you go and wake Ace up? Please? He and I have to discuss some things."

...

I'll update every 11th and 25th of each month.

Please feel free to point out mistakes I made in wording, logic, spelling, everything.

I really love some feedback, ideas, sugesstions, jokes, addictions, whatever you want to share as a comment or something else. Please enjoy it and if you feel like it, give me some feedback.

Thank you for reading it!