His life had never been boring before, not in this way. It's not that he wasn't content with the life he had led, or that he regretted any decisions apart from the obvious, but somehow, becoming the undisputed Pirate King was kind of lonely without his friends. Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook… it felt empty without them. Of course, he had fun, to be sure, nobody could deny the request of a King, especially not one who just wanted to party and eat. He had already sailed around the world thrice, not in the Sunny, mind you, that old friend had retired long since, but in a small, one-person boat with a little sail and his all-too-familiar jolly roger.
So it was that one day, passively sailing the seas, only barely keeping an eye on the sky, Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy noticed a storm coming on. No, he had not picked up any innate sense of storm, nor had he learnt anything from Nami, all he could register was the fact that the sky was darkening, and it didn't look too good. Luffy, however, no longer feared storms. With a confident smirk, he stood, rising to his full height of 185 centimetres, his red and gold robe fluttering idly on his shoulders, much like a certain breed of marine. He looked rather scruffy, to be honest. His features, previously far more rounded, were now more square, resembling Shanks or Garp, both very fitting people to resemble since they were his metaphorical/adoptive father and grandfather. His body was more muscular and less lean, but his most prominent features were the additions of various new scars all scattered throughout his body. His right eye, previously pretty alright, now had a slash cutting through it, though the eye remained undisturbed. His iconic X-scar now had a thinner, yet deeper cut running vertically through it. Other than these large scars, his body was also covered with various smaller cuts, grazes and burns, all mostly healed by now, causing him no actual pain. He was fine, physically speaking. Mentally? Well, he was mostly fine. He had defeated his enemies, forgiven those who were worthy of being forgiven, grieved those who had fallen and reconnected with lost allies. In short, during these long, lonely years, he had matured and grown. He was no longer a little kid, roaming the seas with a dream and a will, he was a man.
So it was that he stood there, rubbing his stubbled chin, smirking confidently and staring up into the eye of the storm right above him. Had Nami been here, she would have found the coincidence of a storm forming straight above them to be interesting, but she wasn't, so Luffy simply stared at the ominously swivelling purple-blackish clouds with mild amusement. Every now and then, a white flash of lightning would shine up the sky, bolt of lightning shooting through the upper regions of the eye at speeds nearing the speed of light. Luffy didn't fear these bolts of lightning either, as they posed no actual threat to him, being more dangerous to his boat than him. Mumbling a bit to himself, Luffy removed his beloved flag from the mast of his small one-man boat, folding it carefully. He didn't like taking it down for any reason, but if the lightning hit his mast, the flag would burst into flame. And since this was the very flag that Usopp himself had painted, Luffy really didn't want it to become a pile of ash. Similarly, he removed his straw hat from the top of his head and let it dangle on his neck as usual. That hat was the only thing he had with almost as many scars as himself.
And this was good too, because the moment he did, lightning struck him, briefly turning his world into a world of pure light. This lasted less than a second though, and once it was over, Luffy was left standing, seemingly entirely uncaring. Yawning, he absentmindedly realized that he hadn't slept in at least two hours, which was a real shame. He could rival Zoro in naps now, which was only because he didn't have anything better to do. No Usopp to tell him stories, no Franky to show him cool machines, no nobody. Sighing, Luffy let all thoughts of his friends go, and allowed the calming darkness of sleep, so much like death, take a hold of him.
The storm was really picking up, Ace noted as he peeked outside the window of his suburban home. Rain poured down, and flashes of lightning lit up parts of the sky periodically. It was mid-day, and yet the sky was as black as night, deep clouds roiling over each other like a black sea in the sky. There had been nothing about this in the forecast, Ace grumbled as he turned on the television to check the news. Nothing. Not even a report. Well, this horrible weather had started only a couple of minutes ago, so that wasn't surprising in any means. And, considering that it only started minutes ago, the sheer animosity of this overhanging couple 'o clouds was intimidating, to say the least. Should he head out and try to put up some shutters or something? No, this isn't Florida, he hasn't got anything of the like, the freckled man grumbled, wishing for the umpteenth time that he had just listened to Marco and been prepared for anything like he is. He's such a good example.
Thunder roared above him and a flash of lightning lit up the entire sky, suddenly making his living room as bright as day. The second this happened though, a "zzz" resounded through his house as it descended into darkness. Ace was no newbie when it came to power outages, but this didn't feel quite… right? It sounded like bolts were raining down on his roof, which was actually a pretty calming noise. If he wasn't a rational adult man, he would be making hot cocoa and grabbing a nice book to read. Now he was just worried about property damage. When did he become so boring?
However, just as his thoughts raced and wandered regarding the possible damage that this sudden monstrous storm could cause, it kinda… cleared up? Smooth and calm light flowed into the house, and when Ace looked outside, he could see the bright white sun, framed by the blue blue sky. But all around this one patch of bright baby-blue sky, there was the great swivelling of clouds, like sharks prowling around a bleeding prey. He was in the eye of the storm. The winds had calmed down, the rain had entirely ceased, and the rumble of lightnings-to-be was distant and muted. For a moment, Ace allowed his frayed nerves to calm down, taking in the beauty and the relief.
This was interrupted when he suddenly noticed something. From the very core of the eye of the storm, right beneath the shimmering sun, something was… well, there. Like a little dot of something. Ace had no idea what it was, but it didn't look very natural. But whatever it was, it was gradually growing bigger. Or… nearer?... Ace squinted his eyes at the shape. It almost looked like a… person?
The moment this thought hit him, Ace's mind was frozen stiff in terror. Somebody was falling from the sky, and fast. Somehow, he had been up in the air when all this happened, and now he was falling, most likely to his doom. Ace didn't know how to respond. Hell, even if he DID know the proper reaction to a man falling from the sky, he doubted there actually was anything he could do.
The figure grew ever closer, and soon Ace could even make out the fact that he wasn't quite alone - something else was falling along with him. It seemed to be just a little bit bigger than the man, who wasn't reacting too much to any of this, mind you, and was oddly enough shaped like a boat of some sort. Ace highly doubted this though, so he assumed it was some sort of craft the man had been using to be in the sky. Or maybe he was flung up into the air by a nearby tornado, along with his boat? Whatever the situation, Ace knew it wouldn't turn out well.
As the figure grew larger and nearer, Ace became acutely aware of one thing: it was heading straight for him. If it had been going anywhere else, it wouldn't have been just growing in size, so…
Within only seconds of that thought, Ace heard a great crash, his whole house shuttering under the impact. Cursing under his breath Ace quickly ran towards the source of the crash, which, luckily, hadn't been IN his house, but instead just outside his front door. Ace shot out his hand to twist the handle and open the door when he realized just what he would be seeing. He simply stood there for a couple of seconds, hand frozen just by the handle, eyebrows furrowed and gaze stern. His thoughts were racing but he tried to push them out. He might have survived. And if he did, he had to get him help as soon as possible.
Ace swallowed and sighed deeply, finally gripping the handle and twisting it. The door slid open without a hitch, revealing what looked like a smashed up boat of some sort, and… a man. With his head stuck in the porch. Otherwise looking pretty much alright. If anything, it wasn't the man's head that had split open, but instead the cement porch of Ace's house. Stunned, Ace could not help but stand there, his jaw hanging loosely and his eyes wide. He simply did not know how to respond.
He was brought out of this shock, a shock he had experienced at least three times just this past hour, by a strange, growling kind of sound. It sounded like a pig being strangled in a cave, and looking down at the man, Ace realized both what the source and the sound was. The man was snoring. Ace had never before felt like hitting somebody as much as he wanted to hit this man. But he kept his cool and decided against hitting random strangers falling from the sky. On that note, since he was, in fact, quite alive, Ace should probably, well… help him. The eye of the storm was already passing by, so just leaving this man here, a man who probably had a concussion or worse, would be, so to speak, unethical.
Sighing audibly, Ace walked closer to the man, trying to at least somewhat keep his distance. He didn't trust this man, but… he didn't have much of a choice. Finally facing the man's back, Ace took a few steps closer, hesitantly grabbing the man by the shoulders. This was when he realized that not only was the man wearing a weird yet luxurious-looking red and gold coat, he was absolutely drenched. Ace almost couldn't grab onto him, but once he did, he found the prospect of removing him from his porch would be a bit harder than expected. But Ace was no kid, and he hadn't grown up in any good part of town either, so being physically strong was a given. Pulling with all his might, he finally felt something give way and the man popped out of the ground, slumping over on his side.
He was around 30 years old, with a small stubble and black, scruffy hair. His mouth was curled into a grin even as he snored, and Ace could hear him mumbling something about someone called "Sanji" bringing him meat, which seemed like a very strange dream. To be so happy about. However, even more noticeable than his physical features would be the various scars on his face. He had one scar underneath his left eye with clear, prominent stitches, which looked quite old, and another, much more recent over his right eye. Ace couldn't tell if the eye itself was alright, but for the sake of consistency, he hoped so. Of course, the man's face was covered in a lot of dust and dirt, but other than that, he looked perfectly alright, the only injuries being the scars, which didn't look recent enough.
But Ace didn't have time to idly waste time, hurridly heaving the large man upon his back and quickly moving inside, his bright eyes easily noticing the oncoming darkness of the storm. He closed the door behind him, utilizing as much of his flexibility as he possibly could, and walked back into the living room. Ace hurriedly dumped the man on one of his couches, breathing a sigh of relief. His body wasn't what it once had been. With the man laying on his back on the couch, Ace finally got a good look at the man. He was wearing a pair of torn, knee-long blue shorts that had a few cuts and a couple of red splotches he hoped was cranberry juice, as well as a pair of sandals. His upper body was mostly covered with some sort of cape draped around his shoulders, but since they actually had sleeves, Ace decided that it was, in fact, a coat. A very fancy coat. He wore a white cardigan underneath, which strangely enough wasn't damaged or soiled in the least. The fabric seemed very soft, but it was entirely open, revealing his very muscular chest, along with an incredibly noticeable scar. Or two, if you had to be exact. Three? Ace wasn't sure how or when any of them had happened, so he couldn't say. The most noticeable scar(s?) was a large X looking scar, rough and coarse and deep. It looked like somebody had carved through his flesh with a burning hot spoon, a thought that made Ace wince. There was also another scar running over the X, which seemed to somehow be even deeper than the other one.
All and all, the man was covered in countless scars, some unnoticeable, some prominent, but all of them looking like a bastard to have to take. He looked like some sort of veteran, but his leisurely smile made that assumption sour a bit. Whoever he was, he was snoring quite loudly. Ace suddenly realized that if Marco knew he had carried an unconscious man who had fallen from the sky inside and NOT given him any sort of first aid, he'd kill him, and therefore, Ace decided to at least bandage his head. He didn't like letting the sleeping man out of his sight, but the first aid kit was in the bathroom, and he'd just be gone for a second, so it'd be fine, right?
It wasn't.
The second Ace returned, bandages and scissors in hand, he immediately noticed the man standing in the middle of the room, looking confused and somewhat weary, yet somehow confident, a combination of emotions that made Ace just a little bit confused and weary himself, confidence not included.
Luffy was thoroughly and utterly confused. Now, that's not to say that the state of being "completely confused" was foreign to him, it was actually rather often that he felt a little left out, especially when Nami or Robin were explaining the science of the weather or the history of some unexplored island, really, he just wasn't the right man to understand those sorts of things. And so, when he woke up after taking a nap in his boat only to find himself on a comfortable couch in a strange, empty room, it was only natural that his first instinct would be to stand up and look around. However, he had barely even been able to stand up from the couch properly before he could sense someone in the hall just outside the room, ready to enter.
Had Luffy not been the Pirate King, if he hadn't been absolutely certain of his being the strongest man alive, the one person the navy couldn't hope to capture, the single most wanted man on the planet, he might have been a bit scared of this mysterious person. Might have raised a fist or gone into a battle stance, ready to pounce on whatever person came through that open door. But he didn't. Instead, he just stood there, anxiously eyeing the entrance. It might be an admiral. It could be one of the emperors he single-handedly defeated hoping to get payback somehow. Sure, he couldn't be poisoned to death, but there were so many other possible scenarios, so many potential friends or enemies who could enter, so much so that Luffy couldn't help feel his brain start to overheat under the pressure.
But, whoever it was, Luffy could feel that he was somehow… familiar. Like a stuffed animal you had as a baby and suddenly found. Or eating your mother's home-cooked food for the first time since moving out, and suddenly realizing just how much you missed it. The presence was faint, weak, like a normal civilian, and yet strong-willed like a marine captain. Or a pirate. But he wasn't on a ship, that much he knew. The floor wasn't lulling to and fro gently, but was instead fast and stoic, which felt a little strange to Luffy, who had been sailing for around three months before the storm hit.
And suddenly he was forced out of his little thoughts as he saw the face peeking out of the hallways.
Before Ace could even comprehend what was happening, he was on the floor, the somewhat larger, older man already on top of him. Scared, confused and somewhat shocked, Ace stared up at the face above him. The man couldn't have weighed much more than himself, and yet, somehow, Ace could barely move his body due to the sheer pressure. And then he noticed the look on the man's face. Pain, sadness, and… relief? His mouth was twisted into a hesitant, almost unwilling smile, and tears were welling up in his large, brown eyes. Ace couldn't but furrow his brows. He wanted to shout something sarcastic, demand for the man to get off of him, but he couldn't. Not with those teary eyes gazing down into his. "H-, he-," Ace stammered but was quickly interrupted when the stranger brought him into his muscular arms, embracing him gently but firmly.
"Don't say anything," he heard the man tell him softly. Somehow, it was more of a request than a demand. The voice felt so… weak. Weak and hurt and there was something in that voice that made Ace think about all of the scars the man had. Scars like that didn't just stay on the surface. They cut deeper than the skin, and Ace could hear it somewhere in his voice. Ace could feel hot, wet tears run down his back as the man burrowed his face in his neck. "Hey-," Ace croaked, anxiously noticing how the arms grew tighter around him, too tight, really. "Hm?..." the man whimpered questioningly. Ace squirmed a little to show how uncomfortable, and somehow, the man seemed to understand, immediately letting Ace go and retreating into a sitting pose in front of him, looking somewhat meek where he sat formally on his knees.
Ace coughed a little, feeling his chest already start to ache. He was strong, that was for sure. Ace looked over with an irritated glint in his eyes, something that apparently made the man approximately ten years older than him jump at. Looking closer, Ace realized that the man had forced his lips shut, and considering the way his left eye twitched, he was definitively holding back some tears. "Men shouldn't cry," Ace commented off-hand, which the man nodded at in an exaggerated manner. Somehow, Ace could tell he wasn't trying to be exaggerated. "So, uh," Ace started, furrowing his brows and frowning at the stranger. "Who are you?"
Luffy felt as if somebody had stabbed his heart with an icicle. No, this can't be possible. It was Ace alright. He could tell that face anywhere, even if he did look younger than Luffy remembered, and haki didn't lie. So why didn't Ace know who he was?... "Ace?..." Luffy asked meekly, shooting up one eyebrow in uncertain disbelief. Ace, who had just sat himself up after Luffy unconsciously pounced on him, jerked at Luffy's rhetorical question, before letting his face fall into a scowl. "How do you know my name?" Ace asked, his body instantly tensing up. Luffy was good at observing, haki or not, and he could easily see that Ace was ready to attack at any time. The slightest move from Luffy could send him into a fiery, blazing berserk, and since Luffy happened to think the world was nicer when it wasn't on fire, he decided not to take any chances. "It's me!" Luffy stated pleadingly, "Luffy!"
Ace furrowed his brows. "I don't know any "Luffy," he said standoffishly. Luffy could feel his jaw drop. Didn't Ace know his own brother?... "Did you hit your head?..." Luffy asked with genuine curiosity. He really couldn't recall any other reason his very own brother couldn't remember. Ace, however, seemed sort of offended at his question and spat out a "No!" before Luffy could ask any follow-up questions. This shut Luffy up for a second. Cupping his chin in his hand, he spent this second in ponder, thinking hard about the situation.
"Did you hit your head in the war?..." Luffy asked carefully. However, whether this carefulness was for the sake of Ace or himself, nobody will know. "The what?... look, buddy, I don't care which institution you came from, but how'd you learn my name? Did you stage your crash on my porch or something?" Ace asked, giving Luffy a glimpse of just how many questions he had, and this was barely the tip of the iceberg. Luffy picked at his boogers. "I crashed on your what now?" Luffy asked with a blank look on his face. "My porch! It's all smashed up! How do you suppose I'll explain that to my insurance company!?" Ace scolded, frowning heavily at the older, yet somehow dumber man.
Luffy really didn't know what a "Porshe" or an "insurance" was, but if Ace was shouting about it, it must be very important. "Whoever did that, I'll beat them up for you," Luffy stated with a stern look on his face, actually looking serious for the first time in as long as Ace had known him, which wasn't very long, according to him.
Ace really couldn't handle this man. Luffy, was it? Whatever. First, he had been attacked out of the blue, and now he was insisting on beating up… himself? The insurance company?... Ace didn't know if he wanted to know. He probably didn't. But the man looked strong, and if his first reaction to any sort of threat or bad situation was to beat up somebody, he couldn't have lived a very good life. Or, he was very dumb. Probably a combination of the two. But just as Ace was about to protest the possible beating, the man, Luffy, seemed to have an epiphany of sorts, his face lighting up into a whole-hearted smile has he hit his fist on his open palm.
"I know! It's been a while, so I'm sure you just don't recognize me! Shanks did say I had changed over the years, shishishishi!" the man said, laughing a strange little laughter. Ace didn't know who Shanks was(father, maybe?) but the man spoke of him fondly, so he couldn't be a bad guy, at least. "No, I'm telling you, I don't know ANYBODY by the name of Luffy-," Ace said, but his words fell on deaf ears as the man started rummaging around his outfit, only to realize the coat was way over on the couch. Ace couldn't even blink before the coat was in the man's hands. Hm? Hm. Must have been a trick of the light, yup.
The man fumbled about the pockets, eventually removing a rolled-up piece of yellowish, old looking paper. "As I've come to learn, some people tend to forget how you used to look after a while, so I grabbed my first wanted poster from the hands of an old friend for occasions just like this, shishishi!" the man laughed, unrolling the piece of paper. It really was a wanted poster. There was a picture of a young man, about 17 or 18 by the looks of him, his left hand on the camera and a stupid grin on his face, oddly mirroring the man holding up said poster. Above the picture was a headline of "WANTED: dead or alive" and below it was a name, "Monkey D. Luffy", which ACe presumed was the man's name, and a strange symbol that was probably supposed to be some form of currency, along with a number of "30 000 000". There were some other text and a weird logo, but Ace couldn't really make it out.
Now, Ace couldn't honestly say he recognized the kid in the least, but the idea of poster-Luffy being the younger version of veteran-Luffy felt right, so he accepted that. What he didn't accept, however, was the idea that this was in any way a real poster. Of course, it wasn't. That strange B didn't represent any currency Ace knew of, and even if it was a real currency, Ace couldn't imagine a little kid like this to have a bounty of, well, anything. Ace couldn't remain too quiet for too long, however, since this man was probably exerting himself just by sitting still and silent to allow Ace to look at the poster. "...How much is 30 000 000 of these, uh, Bs?" Ace asked, trying very hard not to ask him at which amusement park he got it made. Looking up, he noticed Luffy was giving him a very strange look as if to say "it's worse than I thought…" but, as the numbskull he seemed to be, he instead laughed. "Shishishi, you must've really hit your head bad, huh?" Luffy asked rhetorically, which soured Ace's mood. It's not like he was the stupid one here, right?
"...You're serious? Uh, um, well, one berry can buy, uhhh…" Luffy stuttered, raising a couple of fingers, probably making some sort of calculations in his head. So the "B" stood for "berries", then? Like, actual berries, or?... Ace could practically see the steam rising from his ears. It was sort of amusing to see him hunch his back and squint his eyes in concentration, but after a second he seemed to realize something. "Oh! Uh, one hundred million berries can buy a village! I was never the one uhh, buying things, so…" Luffy shrugged, proving that he didn't really know how much one berry was worth. Sadly, since Ace didn't know the approximate value of a village, he could not figure out how much one hundred million berries were supposed to be. "Can't you think of anything more… normal?" Ace asked, raising an eyebrow at the strange man. Sure, berries were probably just a fantasy currency from some amusement park, but he had gotten this far, might as well go all the way.
"Um, well… I think a cabbage costs maybe, uhhh… oh, right, 150 berries!" Luffy exclaimed after a good amount of thinking. Ace, who had gone to high school and knew math, quickly deduced that a bounty of 30 000 000 would be around 300 000 dollars, which wasn't exactly chump change. "What'd you do to deserve such a bounty?" Ace asked with a slight smirk, allowing himself to buy into the absurdity of it all. "I beat up a couple of guys, uhhh… a Fishman, some guy and this other guy. But this is just my first bounty, I've gotten much further since then!" Luffy said happily, before seeming to suddenly realizing something, getting a little bit gloomy. "Um, Ace, I, uh, I might have become Pirate King before you did…" he mumbled, poking his two index fingers together and looking up sheepishly. Ace furrowed his brows. He had no idea what a pirate king was, and considering the way he said it, Luffy thought he had wanted to be Pirate King. "No, uh, that's fine, I never really wanted to be Pirate King, to begin with," Ace said, waving his hand, hoping to make Luffy feel less bad about being, uh, "Pirate King."
The second Ace said he never really wanted to be pirate king, Luffy knew something was up. Something was definitely wrong. And as the impulsive man he was, the first thing he did in a situation like this was act rashly, which was just what he did. Before Ace could even say a word of protest, Luffy pushed him to the ground once more, fist raised assertively, face serious. "Who are you?" he asked in a cold, stoic voice. He omitted the "and what have you done to Ace" part since, well, there wasn't much anyone could do to Ace anymore. "H-, hey, what are you-," Ace tried to protest but ceased when he saw that Luffy was deadly serious. Ignoring his haki telling him this was, without a doubt, Ace, he continued his interrogation. "I asked you a question, now answer," he said, glaring into the eyes of the Ace-lookalike, who looked somewhat terrified, but mostly confused.
"I'm, uh, Portugas D. Ace?" the Ace-lookalike answered hesitantly, his body frozen, not knowing if that was the right answer. "You can't be Ace!" Luffy shouted right in the face of the Ace-lookalike, who flinched at this sudden barrage. "First of all, Ace would never give up on his dream! Second of all, Ace is-," Luffy caught himself dead in his tracks. He had to say it. It was hard, but even after all these years, he could still barely even say it. "-is dead!" he finished, feeling the red hot tears that started to stream down his face. He had accepted it long ago, but somehow, saying right to his face that he was dead felt so much more real than anything else.
Ace had a perplexed look on his face as if barely being able to believe what Luffy was saying. "Look-, I'm not sure who you're talking about, but that's not me - I'm alive, and-, if you'll just calm down, I'm sure we can figure something out," Ace said softly, attempting to calm the man down. Somehow, he could see that it worked. Luffy's eyes were softening up as if he really wanted to accept Ace's words, but somehow… couldn't. "Do it!" Ace commanded, hoping the was less intimidating on the inside than he was on the outside. At this prompt, Luffy immediately leaned back, letting his fist fall limp to his side, allowing Ace to get up, which he did. However, this was not due to him being less intimidating on the inside as Ace hypothesized, but instead because he was pretty much conditioned to do whatever Ace said, especially if it was in a stern, commanding tone, which this happened to be.
Scowling slightly, Ace looked over the man with one peering eye. He seemed… nervous. This emotion seemed very unfitting for his body and general posture, but Ace prefered it over the one he had just experienced. "Ace," Luffy said under his breath. "Yeah?..." Ace replied, suddenly feeling very tired. "Where are we?..." Luffy asked. "Uh, my house?" Ace replied, a little confused at the question. Surprisingly, Luffy looked a little bit awestruck at this. "Whoa, I didn't know you had a house!" Luffy exclaimed, suddenly smiling once more. "Well, duh, most people do," Ace said, which Luffy decided not to react to. "And where is your house?" Luffy asked. Sure, he didn't know too many islands, but if he remembered correctly, he had been in North blue last. "Um, we're right outside of New York," Ace said, not really knowing what Luffy was on. He couldn't have flown too far, right?
"Noou Jorc?" Luffy mimicked, making a confused face. He had never heard of Noou Jorc, so this was only to be expected. "Which Blue?" Luffy asked. Ace gave him a strange look. "We're in America if that's what you're wondering?" Ace said, answering a question Luffy hadn't even answered. "What's Amirika?" Luffy asked. He had never heard of it. Was it an island? Was Noou Jorc a town in Amirika? Ace looked at him as if he had asked who Gol. D Roger was. "Uhm, the United States of America? Part of the Americas?" Ace said, looking in disbelief at Luffy, who was even more confused than before. Was he supposed to know what an Amirika was? "What, have you never been on Earth or something?" Ace asked sarcastically, smiling a little at the sheer absurdity of it all. "No? Um-, I've been to Alabasta? And Raftel? Is Erf as big as those?" Luffy asked, hoping dearly Ace was talking about islands. He really didn't like to look stupid in front of his maybe-big brother.
"You-, no, okay, let's do it like this - where were you before the storm? I'm assuming you were hit by a storm, right?" Ace asked, trying his damndest not to hit this guy over the head. Ace had a feeling that Luffy could trash him easily, but he was kind of denying it in his mind. "Well, lessee… I was on the North blue, sailing in my little sailboat, I had been sailing for around three months, the last place I visited was Drum island to see how they were doing," Luffy started recounting his last couple of months, but Ace stopped him. "Hold up-, you were on the sea for three months?" Ace asked. Luffy gave him a sort of "what are you, stupid?" look. "Yeah, in my little sailboat," he replied, nodding. "Uhuh… yeah, no, you've lost me," Ace admitted, leaning back a little. This man was insane and he should call somebody. "Just stay right there okay I'll be right ba-," Ace attempted to say, even going so far as to start standing up, when all of a sudden the door was thrust open and somebody almost fell inside, slamming the door behind them. They were dripping wet, which made Luffy realize that the storm was still going on outside. The person was dressed in a blue raincoat and was currently in the process of unfolding an umbrella. Putting the umbrella into a weird cylinder Luffy didn't know the use for by the door, the man looked up, and Luffy recognized him for who he was.
"Ah, Pineapple-head!" Luffy exclaimed, smiling and waving exaggeratedly at the confused looking man. "M-, Marco? Aren't you home a bit too early?" Ace said to the man, who was removing his raincoat despite being quite dazed and confused. "Yeah, I heard about the sudden storm and wanted to know you were alright, um… what's up with the porch? And who's that man?" Marco asked, somehow trying to point in two directions at the same time and failing quite miserably. "Eeeeehh, don't you know me either?" Luffy whined, his shoulders slumping and lower lip puffing out in a small pout. "He says his name is "Monkey D. Luffy", and I don't know how, but he was the one who split the porch in two," Ace said, standing up and walking over to Marco in a tired fashion, showing just how much of a bother Luffy was.
At this, Marco's eyelids flared up for a second. "Did you say "Luffy?..." he asked, his gaze shifting quickly from the man and Ace beside him. "Yeah, what of it?" Ace asked. "Ooooh! So you do recognize me! Shishishi!" Luffy shouted, hopping to his feet energetically, reaching up to his full height rather quickly. And boy, he was quite tall. And muscular. "No, no, can't be," Marco said under his breath, shaking his head in denial. At this little refusal, Luffy pouted once more, puffing his cheeks out like a squirrel. For a grown man, it looked quite strange, and yet it oddly fitted him very well. "The Luffy I know is about 175, 17, and most importantly, in school by this time," Marco stated bluntly. "Well, I wasn't always like this y'know," Luffy said sarcastically, looking off to the left, a bit disappointed that his friend would doubt him. "So? They can hardly be the same guy," Ace replied, completely ignoring Luffy's comment. Marco gave him an odd little look before continuing. "Yeah, but he has the same nickname for me, despite my being his teacher. Plus, the laugh is exactly the same…" Marco theorized, staring into the floor in thought. "Coincidence?" Ace asked. "Coincidence," Marco agreed.
Ace suddenly realized something. "Hey, uh, Luffy? You still got that poster on you?" Ace asked Luffy, who was still somewhat pouting. Luffy, upon hearing Ace say his name, immediately perked up, his mouth turning into a grin quicker than humanly possible, and he easily grabbed the rolled-up poster from within his coat. "He doesn't happen to look anything like this, does he?" Ace asked, unfurling the poster and showing it to Marco. Marco easily ignored all of the text regarding being wanted for so and so many Bs, instead immediately recognizing the teenager in the picture. "Yeah, that's him! Where did you get this though?..." Marco asked, somehow both curious and apprehensive. Why did Ace and/or this here stranger have a picture of one of his students?... Ace simply pointed to "Luffy".
"Hm? Well, I got it from one of my friends who was keeping it on her wall like a poster, but it's hardly the most recent poster I have," Luffy said proudly, smirking a little at all the sudden attention he was getting. Ace didn't know what Marco wanted to say, but Ace really just wanted to get to the bottom of this. "Can I see your latest one?" he asked, to which Luffy immediately gave a half-moon grin and rummaged through his pockets. "I actually got this one on my last trip - I was so happy to see it jumped up again that I just had to borrow it - and now I'm so glad I did - ah, there!" Luffy finally said, fishing another roll of paper out of his coat, however, this one was less roughed-up. Luffy gave it to Ace, who in turn un-rolled it. The picture was almost exactly the same as the earlier one, with the only real differences being his age, and the fact that the man on the bottom left looking away from the camera was no longer present. Other than that, they were pretty much identical, down to the very scar underneath their left eye.
The text on the top still said "WANTED - dead or alive", but the bottom was very different. The name was now given the title of "Pirate King", and the bounty was… Ace had to stop for a moment to read up all the zeroes. One, two, three four… "Th-, thirteen billion?..." he asked aloud, telling himself over and over again that it was just some photograph thing from a wild-west themed amusement park. Or maybe pirate-themed? He could faintly hear Luffy laughing and blushing at the bounty, as if proud. Marco didn't say anything but looked really thoughtful.
"You referred to me by a nickname - do you happen to know me?" Marco asked, only growing more curious by the second. "Huh? Oh, yeah! You were Ace's friend, after all! You helped me a lot back there, y'know! Shishishi!" Luffy thanked Marco. Marco had no idea what this "war" was, but something told him this man wasn't just some random looney. "What war?" he asked. Luffy's eyes darkened, and he smiled bitterly. "...I thought you'd at least remember that…" Luffy mused, his voice quiet and soft. "The battle of Marineford, where the Whitebeard pirates and the marines went to war over the life of a single prisoner," Luffy said, his memories taking on an almost nostalgic tint. "Who was the prisoner?" Marco asked gently, sensing the tone in Luffy's words. Luffy smiled bitterly. "Ace," he replied, pointing a weak finger at the freckled boy standing before him.
Ace really didn't know how to respond to that. This man had been spouting one weird thing after the next, but this had to take the cake. Marineford? Whitebeard pirates? He was a prisoner? What? Somehow, Marco didn't laugh, didn't even smirk at this absurdity. Ace was trying to hold himself as best as he could, but Mark knew a veteran when he saw one, and this man was not lying. "Could you describe in detail?" Marco asked gently. Luffy would rather not, but somehow, he could feel that it would be alright to speak about this to Marco. Maybe if he described it, Marco would remember? Maybe.
"Well, uh, it began when I found out that they had taken you prisoner, and were going to execute you. I decided to rescue you, and broke into Impel Down-," "what's "Impel Down"?" "It's this underwater prison that's pretty much hell. You were at the bottommost level, where they kept all their most dangerous prisoners-," "I was dangerous?" "Well, yeah, you were the second commander of the Whitebeard fleet, so-," "Whitebeard fleet?" "He was this really big ojiisan, supposedly the strongest man alive, a title which I now hold shishishi," "Wait, ojiisan? Did he have a weird white moustache?..." "Oh, yeah, that too," "Marco you don't think…?" "Yeah, maybe," "Anyways, I went down to Impel Down, but when I got to the lowest level, you were gone, but I found this Fishman-," "Fishman?" "...Don't tell me you've forgotten an entire race?..." "..." "...They're half-man half-fish people - anyways, we caused a prison break, stole a battleship and went to Marineford, where we fought for a bit and I barely escaped with my life," Luffy finished, keeping everything as minimalistic as possible.
"Wait-, hold up-," Ace said, lifting his hands into the air to signify defeat. "I don't care about the actual war, how-, how did I, um, die?" Ace asked, or rather, requested, as timidly as he possibly could. Luffy sighed, a slight smile on his face contrasting the horrified look in his eyes. As if he had known he was going to have to explain that. "Akinu punched a hole through your chest with a fist of lava. You died in my arms, Ace," Luffy stated matter-of-factly, almost as if he had said that single sentence more times than he wished he had. "A fist… of lava?..." Ace mumbled questioningly. "Yeah. He's made of lava, remember?" Luffy said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Isn't Akinu what they call that stern police lieutenant?" Marco asked Ace, to which Ace nodded absentmindedly. "-But out Akinu isn't, uh, "made of lava", as you say," Marco continued. Luffy looked at him as if he had told him the One Piece didn't exist.
"Uh… what's he made of, then?..." Luffy asked hesitantly. "Person?" Marco answered. His answer would have been humorous if Luffy didn't look so shocked by it. "He doesn't have magma powers?" Luffy finally asked loudly, almost to the point of shouting. "N-, no, nobody has magma powers? Or "powers" in general, actually?..." Marco said, attempting to answer the hysteric Luffy's questions as best as he possibly could. Luffy, surprisingly, laughed. "What, you're going to tell me you're not a phoenix and Ace isn't made of fire?" Luffy asked. He was met with two very, very confused looks. Luffy frowned. Maybe they had just forgotten that, much like how they had forgotten him and the war and that Fishmen existed?...
Only one way to find out.
"I'm going to hit you now," Luffy said blankly. "What?" Ace answered with a look just as blank. And without using haki of any colour, Luffy casually punched Ace in the chest without using any of monstrous strength, fully expecting his fist to simply pass through Ace's flaming body. However, instead, Ace was thrown across the room, crashing into a fancy-looking table with a loud "thud". Luffy couldn't do anything but stand staring at his fist for a second, absolutely shocked. Not just by the fact that his fist did not, in fact, pass through Ace's body as it was supposed to, but also by the fact that Ace was so… weak. Marco, too. His haki could barely even pick up their signatures!
Once this moment passed, however, Luffy somewhat realized what he did. "A-, Ace!" he cried, running up to the table Ace had crashed into at superhuman speeds. "Are you alright?" he asked loudly, shaking Ace's body back and forth. Ace groaned in response, his hand reaching up to massage his sore head. "Wh-, what did you do?..." Marco asked from behind Luffy, an accusatory tone clearly present in his tone. "I was just going to-, his flames aren't working! What happened to him!?" Luffy cried, worry welling up in him. Marco looked at him, his gaze turning more to pity than to anger or fear. "Luffy, I don't know who you are or where you came from, but we don't have powers here - nobody is made of flames or lava and nobody can turn into a phoenix. That just isn't possible," Marco stated bluntly, ignoring the tears welling up in Luffy's eyes. Luffy had cried more this last hour than he had in all his years as Pirate King.
"But it is!" Luffy said, his left hand quickly pulling on his left cheek, and unlike what Marco would have expected this movement to do, the cheek giving no resistance to the pinch and drag, instead of stretching to the occasion, going as far as Luffy could drag it. Marco doubted his eyes. Luffy quickly released his grip on his cheek, allowing it to snap back in place. "Wha-," "I'm a rubberman! I'm made of rubber! I ate the gomu-gomu no mi!" Luffy shouted, interrupting Marco. "So if I can still be made of rubber, how come you're not a phoenix?" Luffy asked in turn, which sent Marco into thought. Perhaps this wasn't some looney or a shell-shocked veteran. Perhaps everything he had said was true, and this simply wasn't… HIS world?
"Have you thought, that maybe, perhaps, you're not from this world?..." Marco asked. Luffy stared at him blankly. "Think about it - in your world, Ace died, yet here, he's alive. And this is clearly not a dream or anything, so… maybe, in the storm, you were sent here from another world?" Marco asked rhetorically. He could almost see the cogs in Luffy's head turning, albeit slowly. "So, you're not… MY pineapple-head?..." Luffy asked after a while, looking up at Marco with a confused look. Marco nodded slowly in response.
Standing up, Luffy stepped a bit closer to Marco, who suddenly felt very small. "Will Ace be alright?..." Luffy finally asked, looking down at the ground meekly and shamefully. Marco stepped past him and checked Ace over. He wasn't bleeding, and he didn't seem to be doing so bad, and none of his limbs were broken, so… "Yeah, he'll be alright, just give him a moment," Marco answered, to which Luffy sighed a sigh of relief.
"So, uh, you're really a pirate?" Marco asked, poking at Ace to wake him up. "Hm? Yeah, of course! But I'm not just any pirate, I'm the Pirate King!" Luffy stated boldly, standing wide-legged and proud. "And what exactly does it mean to be a "pirate king"? What does that entail?..." Marco asked. "Well, it means that I found the One Piece, and… that's pretty much it," Luffy answered, shrugging. "What's the "one piece"?" Marco asked, feeling as if he was just getting more and more questions out of this. "Well… Shishishi! Not telling!" Luffy suddenly said, grinning broadly from ear to ear, acting more childish than even the Luffy Marco knew. This-world-Luffy.
"So, uh, you're strong?" Marco asked, flinching a bit as Ace finally woke back up, groaning loudly as he rubbed his head. Ace finally sat up. "What the hell happened?..." he asked, wincing as he touched a particularly sore spot on his chest. "Well, I think I figured out the mystery of this guy over here. He's from another world," Marco stated bluntly. Ace was suddenly wide awake. "WHAT?!" Ace roared, getting up to his feet instantly to face Luffy. "Shishishsishi! Yeah!" Luffy said, smiling brightly. "Wait… you punched me!" Ace shouted, caring more about getting revenge than the fact that he was facing a man from a different world. "Ace wait-," Marco said, trying to stop what he knew Ace would soon do. However, he was too late, and the young freckled man threw himself at the much older adult, his right fist clenched for a punch. However, the second his punch made contact with Luffy's flesh, something felt… wrong. The texture was different, and somehow, it felt as though his fist was sinking into the flesh rather than bruising it, and within just a second of him throwing his punch, his fist somehow rebounded, throwing Ace backwards, making him slam back to the floor once more.
Luffy laughed loudly at this, going so far as to clutch at his stomach from the sheer hilariousness of it. "What the-," Ace exclaimed, which made Luffy laugh even harder. Marco, in his eternal wisdom, decided to enlighten Ace. "If you'd listened, you would have understood- he's from another world," Marco said. "He's what?..." "And, if his words are anything to go by, he's pretty strong. And also made of rubber, apparently," "Strong in what way? I mean, you can be strong like endurance-wise or at just punching people, so like…" "I think he's just strong, period," Marco finally responded. Luffy, who had stopped laughing at this point, was eyeing the two curiously. Ace turned to Luffy. "How strong are you, exactly?" he asked, because frankly, he wasn't some sort of wimp himself, and he'd feel a lot better if he knew that this guy was at least somewhat supernatural or something. Ace decided to ignore the "rubber" part for now. Not important. "Uhh, well, I think I'm the strongest man in the world? Wouldn't be much of a Pirate King if I wasn't, shishishi!" Luffy answered briefly. He didn't actually know if he was the strongest, there was always the possibility of some hidden, unknown foe, but for now, he was at the top.
"Okay, so, uh, I don't know how to interpret that, but if I were to go to your world, how strong would I be?" Ace asked honestly. Like in pure strength, he should be at least somewhat strong, right? "Hmmm, well, you from my world was really strong! I never beat him, but if I were to fight him now, I'd win without even trying. And he had a life of training and the flame-flame fruit to back him up, so if you were to be a pirate, I guess you'd be an ordinary henchman?" Luffy said. Ace had been kind of hopeful, FLATTERED, even, but then he dropped that little bombshell. Was Ace really that weak?...
Luffy didn't really know how to follow that one up. Ace looked really depressed, but to Luffy, most everyone below the admirals of yonkou were small-fry that he didn't really care enough about to not take them out with haki. "What am I like? You said I could turn into a phoenix of sorts, what did you mean by that?" Marco asked, changing the subject abruptly, which Luffy was very happy about. "Well, you were the first division commander, but after the battle of marineford, you kind of took off on your own, but you became a warlord of the sea too!" Luffy recalled, a smile lighting his face every now and then. "So I didn't die?" Marco asked suspiciously, knowing that Luffy was keeping quite a lot of things from them, whether he knew it or not. "Well, not as far as I know, but I haven't been to an island in a while, not counting this one, so I'm not too sure about current new," Luffy said. "This isn't an island, but sure," Ace replied, shrugging. Luffy gave him quite a strange look. "This isn't an island?" "No, this is a continent?" "What's a "continent"?" "It's like a really big island?" "Oh, okay,"
Their musing was suddenly interrupted by the growling of certain Pirate King's stomach. Luffy laughed a little and scratched at his neck. Ace could only guess at what this gesture could mean, but he was pretty sure his guess was right on. "Right, uh, it's past lunchtime, but if you haven't eaten, I guess I could whip something up?" Ace asked, pointing in the direction of the kitchen, which was where Luffy had punched him earlier. Ace still felt a bit sore. Had Luffy been serious then, or?...
"Sure! I'm starving!" Luffy exclaimed, grinning broadly at the idea of food. Ace quickly stumbled over to the kitchen, limping slightly, to Luffy's distress, and started rummaging through the fridge to find ingredients to make something from. He didn't find much, but he assumed that Luffy wouldn't mind whether he made food or metal. Luffy really didn't. Luffy hadn't had a properly cooked meal in three months, and a properly cooked meal by ACE?... that was even further from it. Maybe even a little fantastic, if he was to be honest. But, nevertheless, Luffy dumped his body on a bar-like fixture right by the kitchen, nervously waiting for Ace to get started.
Ace decided to go with the most simple of arrangements, with fried eggs and bacon along with some bread, butter and various toppings. However, the second he sat down a plate of food in front of the hungry man, it was gone. Ace doubted his eyes. No man could eat food faster than another man could see, right?... Then again, this man had travelled dimensions and was the leader of some sort of pirate monarchy Ace hadn't bothered to remember much of, so maybe the impossible was possible?...
"Could I have some more?" Luffy asked politely, snapping Ace out of his shocking thoughts. "Huh? Oh, uh, sure," Ace replied dumbly as he went back to frying eggs and bacon. When he turned back, he found that every single topping, a slice of bread and scoops of butter that he had presented were gone. And Luffy still looked hungry. "Marco, did you?..." "No, I… don't know what happened either."
Yo! So, uh, yeah. I wrote this fic a year ago for myself, so this is all there is. But if somebody asks me to, I'd totally write a continuation. Or something. Maybe.