Hello! I wanted to be done with 16 before posting this one but seeing as this one is pretty boring I'm giving you this now.

Enjoy

Guest: Thanks for the review, it's appreciated. I like your idea but if things were that simple where would the fun be, right? Some of your point are close tho!

Ages reminder
Luffy: 9
Ace: 12
Sabo: 12
Zoro: 11
Nojiko: 13
Coby: 8
Deuce: 14

~ C ~

"Hey, what if we just spill it in the toilet?" whispered Helmeppo into his ear and Coby simply frowned, their bucket was full of dark brown water that needed to be changed but they were a solid thirty meters away from the railings of the ship. He couldn't deny he wished he had a little less work to do, between Garp's new exercises and the various tasks they were given by the crew, he felt exhausted and in pain all over. At least when the old man beat them up, they were allowed to pass out, it wasn't happening anymore. Coby shook his head.

"If Lieutenant Bogart catches us, we're not hearing the end of this..." And they'd have to clean those toilets with a toothbrush like last time they tried to avoid their chores, not happening again.

Coby glanced at the corridor and the next five rooms they needed to clean.

"Let's empty them now or we'll have to start over." Stated Coby lifting his bucket and he could hear Helmeppo sigh loudly before he followed.

The life on the ship wasn't so bad, in fact, he learned so much everyday, about navigation, marine training, protocols, even though most of them seemed to be overridden by the Garp Rule. If Garp didn't want to, it was not happening. He was explicitly told by some marines that it was very different from any ship they worked on before.

"It's because Vice Admiral Garp is strong enough to be an Admiral but he always refuses the position." And at that, Coby and Helmeppo's mouths dropped to the floor, they knew he was strong but this was way more than he imagined from his friend's grandpa, no wonder they were terrified. He kind of missed them but at least he had Helmeppo with him. Apparently, the older boy never had friends before either and they now got along just fine. Coby could even say that Helmeppo was his best friend now and he wasn't taking this new friendship lightly.

They opened the door to the sea and spilled the buckets overboard. It was a dark stormy evening, it was raining hard but the sea remained pretty calm. Coby was relieved that he didn't follow Garp outside in the rain. It was the third island they stopped at in the past couple of days but this one was different, it was a bandit island called Roumba he heard some marines say and there still was a bandit presence in here. Coby jumped when he heard the boisterous voice of the Vice Admiral returning to the ship, it was coming from the sky but it was… impossible, right?

"BOGARD!"

The ship suddenly tipped on one side and Helmeppo almost slipped overboard. Coby caught him by the arm and pulled him up. It was definitely Garp's voice, he was back fast. He scooted towards the direction of the voice.

"Coby Coby wait we shouldn't go…"

Coby was too curious, shooshed his blond friend and kept walking until he heard voices at the next turn, the rain was muffling it a bit but the pink haired hid behind the corner to listen in on the conversation.

"... can't believe HQ never noticed this! Call a warning on Captain Tuggings he's the one who is responsible for this area."

Coby and Helmeppo looked at each other with a horrified expression on their faces, he was in a bad mood, if he caught them now...

"Right on time. Brats, stop hiding and get over here!'

Coby jumped again in surprise and swallowed hard, not sure how Garp noticed them but he wasn't about to chicken out from an order. Helmeppo followed him with a whine. "Coby why did we need to listen in…"

Bogard was with the Vice Admiral, a serious expression on his face and water dripping from his hat, and Garp...

The rain didn't do anything about Garp's terrifying presence, in fact, it made it worse. His drenched dark/grey hair was falling on his eyes and his usual grin was absent. He was holding something in his left hand.

Coby walked towards him, his knees trembling a bit, he's never seen him that serious.

Once he was in front of him, Garp showed him what he was holding, it was one tiny blue sandal, a bit muddy with one broken strap.

"Whose sandal is this?" Asked Garp, with a lower voice than previously but it didn't even scare the pink heard kid further, he was focused on the shoe, he was so surprised to see it here. Luffy wore sandals too but his were red, Sabo wore boots and Ace wore blue sandals, in a bandit island… Not a lot of doubt was possible here.

"It might be...Ace… I-it' s Ace's… I think…" he mumbled, then straightened, "...sir!"

It was removed from his face and Garp nodded.

"That's what I thought." He vanished inside the ship, and Bogard turned to them.

"You can go back to your work, you still have an hour before dinner."

"Yes sir!" Both boys said before hurrying to get their buckets, relieved to have escaped from some painful training. Coby wondered what Ace's shoe was doing on a bandit island, what kind of trouble did his friends get into this time?

~ ASL ~

"No you can't eat now, you've had food ten minutes ago." Stated Sabo to a pouting Luffy, sitting on their last barrel. And he should have expected that, not only Ace and Luffy were their usual wormholes selves, there were two more people on the crew, Ririka's generous donation lasted them up until now but yesterday's party put a real dent in their food provisions.

Luffy huffed and talked Zoro into fishing, he knew whatever they caught would be his to eat.

They needed someone who could cook, so they could finally stock up some dry foods and stop having to buy expensive pre-prepared ones. A padlock too, thought Sabo, for the stocking room. Maybe even another ship, with a kitchen, as much as he loved the Freedom it was getting too small, Deuce's departure would help but it would be a temporary solution, they were going to have more crewmates that was for sure so they needed a bigger ship.

~ NN ~

It was early morning and hopefully everyone was still asleep. Nojiko was ready to leave, she was almost certain it was the right one. The reason she thought it might be the right room was that it was only on the second floor and usually really well guarded during the day, she could never reach this floor without the guards noticing her. Even during the night there was one, but this morning he left the room unguarded (maybe went to the bathroom) and she needed to work fast. Adrenaline coursed her veins, the lock was way harder to pick than any other room and she struggled for a bit and just as she heard someone incoming the door finally opened and she slipped it, closing it behind her as silently as she could.

The guard was back and she waited, making sure the guard didn't notice the light of her candle under the door, because if he did, she would be pursued before she could make an attempt to leave. After a few seconds she sighed internally and brought her light to see the room, hoping it was the right one and she suddenly understood why this room was so guarded. Gold, a lot of gold coins all over the room with golden chests on the shelves and piles of berrys everywhere. She almost gasped, that was a lot of money, enough… enough to buy back her village and free Nami. The idea was here but she couldn't steal all of this even if she was able to carry all of this on her person.

She was lucky she didn't step on one of those coins because that would have been loud enough for the guard to hear. It was a treasure room with no windows and more money that she'd ever seen in her entire life. And yet, Nojiko was disappointed, no amount of gold she could carry on her person would be able to get her out of this castle. She sat on a clear piece of floor next to the door and waited for a way out. The guard was still here and she wasn't supposed to be near this room. She was really hoping that this room was her ticket out and now she was stuck with all this money taunting her, if she had all of this… her village would be free, she never felt that powerless. She cried a little bit then shook herself, no giving up now, she would escape this castle, it wasn't over yet. Maybe if the guard fell asleep or maybe when he changed his shift he would...

"The little lady escaped again!" someone yelled in the distance and it was enough for the guard to answer to the call and run after the voice. That was lucky, she was pretty sure Sandra would have been the one to catch her here but luckily she was able to lock the door behind her and slip to the first floor before she was found behind a curtain. As usual she was led back to her room. She wouldn't visit any more guarded rooms she decided, it was way too risky. She would still keep the couple of gems she found as a glistering reward.

~ ASL ~

Ace sneezed hard, almost letting go of the rope he was holding and wiped his nose. He hoped he wasn't about to catch a cold… on the other hand he had a doctor now. They spent a couple of days on the ship now, apparently Deuce worked on a ship before and was giving Sabo some tips about navigation and they were both sharing notes. He was pretty glad those two for along so well but he should have guessed this one. They were both pretty smart while he and Luffy barely knew how to read, of course he was better than his little brother but he really wasn't interested in learning the boring stuff, fighting was different though.

"Okay it's good! Thanks Ace!" Yelled Sabo from the wheel and Ace climbed down the mast, noticing that his foot barely hurt anymore but frustratingly enough the pain was still there. Deuce told him to avoid using it too much but that wasn't going to stop him, he was finally free from the bandits and the boring island, he wanted to move and fight and do things. That's why he turned to Luffy and Zoro, and joined them. They were both having a nice sparring match on the deck and Ace was eager to do the same. He sat down on a barrel to watch their moves.

"I'm taking the winner" he said and Luffy's happy woop got his young brother a hit on the face with one of Zoro's sheathed blades. Ace repressed his protectiveness to go defend his brother and instead laughed at him. Luffy stood up, ready to fight again but Zoro shook his head.

"Your nose is bleeding, we said first blood, you lose. " Luffy made a frustrated sound then wiped his nose, spreading the blood all over his cheek and turned to Ace.

"Then I'm taking the winner too!" He smiled, sitting down on the floor, cross legged, almost bouncing in place. Ace stretched a little bit walking towards the sparring spot and got ready to fight.

"Are you sure you can fight me? You're still wounded." He asked. It had been a little less than a week since their party on the beach but Ace saw the state of his wound in passing the day before when Deuce cleaned it. It was still looking pretty ugly, bruised and red all around the stitches, would be a shame to hurt Luffy's first mate any more than he was.

Zoro scoffed at his words, placing his sword between his lips, still audibly answering him.

"If that little sting can stop me, that means I need to train more." Ace smiled and jumped to punch him first. Zoro dodged easily but it gave Ace the opportunity to kick him, Zoro didn't let the foot land and blocked it with his sheath. The material was pretty though against his knee and the dark haired boy winced internally, regretting his pipe, he should have brought it along.

Ace spun again, faster than Zoro could react and landed his pointy elbow on his cheek. Zoro barely reacted and used his free hand to push the sheath against Ace's stomach, missing him as Ace jumped but still got him in the side. As the dark haired boy backed off again Zoro leaned down, mumbling against his sword.

"Two sword technique: Rhino's Revolve"

Ace blinked, unsure about what Zoro was going to do, then faster than he was able to react, he received two flat swords in the solar plexus, making him groan in pain, he didn't lose his footing though and leaning back to pull the swords with him, he kicked Zoro right in the face. That was apparently enough to split his lip and he backed off, his brows frowning in confusion.

"You're bleeding, I win." smiled Ace, standing back up with a victorious grin. And after a few seconds, Zoro nodded with a wild smile.

"Your turn Captain."

Luffy didn't need to be told twice.

~ MDG ~

"What the hell is that pirate doing here? I will send the information to the nearest base." groaned Boguard, leaving Garp alone in the room. The Ties, of course it had to be one of these goddamned Shibukai, he wasn't especially in the mood of chasing the Joker's bases around East Blue and would let headquarters deal with that. He had grandsons to find and would refuse any orders to investigate the black market. Sangoku probably knew this and wouldn't give him a too bad time about this until their next meeting. He'd help if he was in the area but he didn't want to give him too much hope about his involvement.

Garp turned towards the maps, frowning. Ace had been captured but he obviously escaped around the center area. Problem was, they could have gone anywhere, from the Yonkai islands of the south, the Oykot kingdom of the north or even towards the redline. He was confident enough that he could easily catch up to them in East Blue but in the small chance they got on GrandLine… He didn't want to think about it, giving up on them was unthinkable. He slid his finger on Logue Town, he would wait on their way there and the closest were the Kokoyashi islands, he'd never been there, it looked pretty boring normal islands, he recalled Nezumi was the one responsible for the area, he'd send him a message.

~ NN ~

She counted to ten and walked around the corridor, the guard was gone. She hoped she was going inside the one and as she stepped in front of it, she was almost certain it was the King's room. The doors were huge with golden decorations that were coming loose from time, all she had to do now, was to lockpick it. But as she slipped the first piece of metal inside the golden lock, the door unlocked and in panic Nojiko tried to run away but it was too late and a hand caught her arm. It was a familiar feminine hand, holding her almost painfully and her stomach fell. The woman looked at her curiously before her eyes fell on the fork Nogiko was still holding in her hand.

"So that's how you escaped your room every night, I was almost certain someone was breaking you out but I should have figured you have more talents than you show."

Sandra was wearing a long pink dressing gown, her hair undone and looking tired, behind the Mayor, she could see the bedroom, a gigantic room decorated with golden vines. It must be it, it must be there, but there was no way she was going through here during the night.

As the Mayor took her tools away, pulled her up and led her back to her room, Nogiko didn't resist and stayed silent. She needed a new plan, anything to escape and she needed to think fast, the festival started in three days.

Sandra woke the guard up by kicking him and scolded him for falling asleep but Nogiko was barely paying attention, the festival, right! During the festival, Sandra would have to participate and give an important speech to the people. Then, Nojiko would be able to strike and slip through the passageway to hopefully somewhere as far away from the castle. The day of the festival, she would wait.

As the door locked again behind her, she was more than ever resolute to succeed, it was her last chance before she would be shipped away to the Grand Line.

The clothing she's been offered still was on the desk, a disguise was what she needed. If there were enough people in the palace she could be able to slip through with a disguise.

Pulling at the fabric, she tore at it until she had a long band of blue fabric, she needed a costume for her new plan.

Don't forget to review, bye!