Chapter 10 – Arabasta and Portgas D. Ace
"OI! LUFFY! GET UP!" screamed Usopp. Luffy opened an eye. Usopp was rocking his captain's hammock like crazy. Luffy stretched his arm back and punched Usopp out of the room. He then proceeded to jump down from his hammock. He glared at Usopp. "What's the big idea?" "Why don't you come up and see for yourself!" Usopp cried and ran away yelling incoherently. Luffy was half upset he was awakened so abruptly, half overjoyed that he was having an adventure the very moment he woke up. All thoughts about the girls were driven out of his mind, at least temporarily, as he ran to catch up with Usopp out on the deck.
The villagers were attacking the Going Merry. Some were attempting to board, some were firing guns, and some were even throwing javelins and rocks. Sanji would kick the rocks and javelins out of the air if they got too close to hitting anyone, even though Chopper tried to make him lay down. "Your wounds are never gonna heal!" Chopper kept yelling. Nami would attack any would-be invaders and knock them back off the ship with her collapsible bo. Zoro, meanwhile, was getting sick of the attack. He eyed Luffy. "Oi, Captain, wanna back me up?" "You bet!"
They jumped off the ship, Luffy in front of Zoro so all the bullets hit him and were deflected harmlessly away. Zoro drew his swords in midair and immediately went to work when he hit the ground. Zoro charged into the crowd and his cursed swords flashed in the morning sun as they smoothly cut down every last attacker.
Luffy was kind of upset that all he got to do was be the meat shield. "I wanted to fight, too!" he whined loudly. Zoro chuckled as he sheathed his three katana. "I'll leave more for you next time, Luffy, okay?" Luffy grudgingly agreed and launched himself back onto the ship. Zoro swiftly climbed up the ladder. Usopp reported that more villagers were coming. Nami started barking orders and soon, the Going Merry was off.
Everyone collapsed on the deck, panting. Like Luffy, they had all been rudely awakened one way or another. Vivi had been the first up when she had heard the shouts of the angry villagers.
"Apparently," she explained as they all ate breakfast about 20 minutes later, "they found out that Marco was dead. They put two and two together and realized we lied to them. They figured out we killed him." "Ah, what a shame," pouted Luffy as he stuffed his face with a variety of foods. "It's not like I wanted to kill him... He just pissed me off so much..." Nami had to hide a grin at that comment. She knew what he meant; he had gotten pissed off because of what Marco had done to her.
About an hour after breakfast, everyone was back to his or her normal routine. Luffy sat on the ram's head and watched as they moved forward; Zoro napped; Sanji prepared food for being cooked later; Usopp was keeping watch; Nami was constantly making sure they were right on course; and Vivi was cleaning up the ship a bit. Luffy looked behind him to see Vivi struggling with a particularly heavy crate that no one bothered to put away and was now sitting in the middle of the deck. He immediately jumped down to help her. He came up right behind her and stretched his arms out to grab the crate and lift it. He stacked it on top of some barrels off to the side. Vivi turned to look at him. They smiled at each other. Luffy wordlessly went back to his post on the ram's head.
Nami saw the whole thing and frowned. (Should we keep our relationship a secret? How would Vivi react? The poor girl... she is already under a lot of pressure. She's so worried about her kingdom, and she's in love with a guy she knows she can't get. She may not realize it yet, but deep down inside, she knows it's not possible. I feel so bad now...)
Two hours later, they all finished lunch and Sanji made a rather grim announcement. "I'm afraid we've run out of food. We're gonna need to wait until we reach Arabasta until-" "WHAT?" Luffy screamed. "N-n-no food?" Sanji nodded. "Yeah, I'm afraid so." He shrugged. "I don't think we'll starve. We'll be there soon enough, right, Vivi-chan?" He looked at the blue-haired princess. She smiled. "Yes, Sanji-san. We should be there in a few hours."
Sure enough, several hours later, Usopp yelled, "Land spotted! Directly up ahead! Looks like a big desert." It was already getting dark, and everyone was very happy to hear this.
Vivi took a pair of binoculars and looked straight ahead. She smiled. "Good. We've finally arrived, everyone! That's Arabasta!" Everyone cheered.
When they docked, Luffy collapsed onto the sand. "F-f-food..." he panted. "We're all hungry, Luffy," Sanji said, rolling his eyes. "Quit acting so damn dramatic, would ya?"
It was no use. Luffy just kept on groaning while they walked to the first town in Arabasta. When Luffy saw it in the distance, his face immediately lit up. "FOOOOOOOD!" he positively screamed, and he dashed towards the city, a huge cloud of dust billowing behind him. Everyone sweat-dropped.
"He's gonna get into trouble, I know he is," Zoro muttered. "Baka. He better not do anything too stupid."
Captain Smoker lit the two cigars in his mouth and looked at Tashigi. "Tashigi," he grunted. "You have something to report to me?"
"Yeah," she replied breathlessly. "The Straw Hat Crew's ship was found docked at the nearby port..." "Finally," said Smoker almost eagerly. "Straw Hat... I knew you would come here to Arabasta... and now I will finally get you. There'll be no escape this time, you punk..." He looked at Tashigi. "Get the rest of the Marines here and tell them to search the city for the other Straw Hats. I want them all arrested. Understand?"
"Yes, sir!" she answered crisply, saluting him. She walked away, feeling very breathless indeed.
(The Straw Hats...) she thought grimly. (That means Roronoa Zoro is here, too...)
A very strange-looking man walked casually down the road. He had a peculiar hat with a smiling face and a frowning face on the front. He wore no shirt. He had something that looked like "Asce" tattooed on his arm. He had another tattoo on his back. It was the unmistakable mark of the Whitebeard Pirates. He had a cool smile on his face as if nothing could ever go wrong in his life.
He turned his freckled face towards a vendor and gave him a friendly grin. It was almost like a smirk. The vendor tried to offer him a "golden apple" and the strange man politely refused. He took out a wanted poster and laid it down on the table in front of the vendor.
"Have you seen this kid?" he asked. The vendor looked at the poster and scratched his head. "Monkey D. Luffy? No, I'm sorry, I haven't seen him around these parts." The man merely shrugged. "Okay, thanks."
He asked another seller. He turned to face up the road. "A kid with a straw hat? Yeah, I saw one running like a madman towards the restaurant. He was yelling something about food and meat..."
The man chuckled. "That's my brother, all right... Thanks a lot, Oissan." With that, he walked towards the restaurant.
When he went inside, he found a large Marine captain watching a young man wearing a straw hat stuff his face. The captain looked menacing. He had short, sliver hair, a well-built body, and two lit cigars lodged in his mouth. The freckled man gave a polite cough. Smoker turned around. He squinted his eyes at the new stranger. He glared at him as he recognized him.
"Portgas D. Ace... What are you doing here?"
Ace merely smiled in response. "I'm just searchin' for my little brother." He pointed past Smoker at Luffy who was still stuffing his face at the bar. "And that would be him."
Smoker raised an eyebrow. "Straw Hat is your brother? Interesting..."
Luffy suddenly turned his head and stared at Smoker in fright. "Wait, now I remember you... You were the Marine captain I had to run away from!" Smoker stared back at him in a very menacing manner. "Yes, and I'm here to finish what I started." Luffy shoved the rest of the food into his mouth and sprinted past Smoker and Ace. He ran as fast as he could out of the restaurant. Smoker immediately gave chase, yelling, "Get back here, Straw Hat!" Ace ran after Smoker. "Luffy! Oi, Luffy! Wait up!"
Luffy ran and ran. He finally swallowed the rest of his food and quickly turned into an alleyway. Smoker was about to follow him, but a wall of flame abruptly blocked his path. He slowly turned around to see Ace smirking, his hand outstretched, tendrils of flame snaking from his fingers and forming the fire that was blocking the now-annoyed Marine captain.
"Portgas D. Ace," he growled from behind his cigars. "My one and only target right now is Straw Hat. Get out of my way. Rest assured, when I am done with him, I will arrest you next." Ace's smirk grew in response. "I don't think so. This battle... fire vs. smoke; it's pointless. Just give up chasing my brother."
At this point, Luffy was being chased by a very large group of Marines. He was very excited. He wished he could have stayed to chat with Ace, but he didn't have time. He was being chased, and needed to find his nakama. He soon found them. They were all dressed like Arabastans. (A/N- I do not know if that is what the people in Arabasta are really called, but in this fic, that is what they are called. : ) ) Well, all of them except Nami and Vivi; they were dressed like Arabastan dancer girls. Luffy's heart skipped a couple beats when he saw Nami dressed that way. She was so... hot. Luffy had never seen her look so sexy, and he definitely liked it. It was hard to resist staring at Vivi, too.
His crew started yelling in protest when they saw their captain running toward them with such a big group of Marines hot on his tail. "No, baka!" Zoro yelled. "Not towards us! Wait until you've shaken them off!" Luffy laughed as he ignored his first mate. "Hi, guys!" They all screamed as the Marines spotted them and started yelling things like, "It's the entire crew!" "We've found the whole Straw Hat Crew!" "Quick, after the Straw Hats!"
As they ran, they heard a startling noise behind them. They stopped and turned. They watched in awe as a huge wall of flame stopped the group of Marines dead in their tracks. They squinted as they stared into the fire. A hazy figure could be made out in the middle. It was tall and lanky, not entirely unlike Luffy. The rubber man grinned. "It's Ace." "Who?" his nakama asked in confusion. "Portgas D. Ace," Luffy replied with a huge grin. "He's my big brother." They all looked at their captain in different degrees of shock. They had never heard anything about Luffy's family before.
The flames died down. They looked at Ace's bare back. It had the tattoo on it, and Zoro recognized it instantly. "He's a part of the Whitebeard Pirates..." he muttered. "I'm the commander of the fifth fleet, actually," Ace called over his shoulder. (A/N- Sorry if I got that wrong. I can't remember which fleet he said he was commander of.)
The Marines backed off at the prospect of having to face both Fire Fist Ace and Straw Hat Luffy at the same time. They turned tail and ran off to find Smoker.
Ace turned around to finally get a proper look at his brother. "Luffy," he said warmly. "Ace!" Luffy cheered in response. Ace walked over and they clasped hands. They immediately set their arms down on a nearby barrel and started a furious, evenly-matched arm wrestling duel. The barrel eventually shattered under the strain. The Straw Hats gaped in awe as they watched this strange reunion of their captain and his older brother.
The two brothers laughed and turned to face Luffy's crew. "So, this is your crew, huh?" Ace said admiringly. "You've gone far, Luffy." "Yeah, you, too!" Luffy laughed. "Look at you! A commander in the Whitebeard pirate crew! Suge!" They both laughed again. Luffy's nakama all smiled warmly.
After a little while, Luffy invited his brother to join his crew. Ace laughed and politely refused. "Nah, sorry, I could never leave my crew. It's a shame you don't want to join, Luffy." Luffy happily shook his head. "Nope. I got my crew right here."
However, Ace did consent to join them temporarily. He also had business in the capital city of Arabasta. He was hunting down a traitor of the Whitebeard Pirates. The traitor used to be one of Ace's subordinates, and Ace was now out for revenge.
After they got on the Going Merry, Ace destroyed the ships that belonged to the Baroque Works Billions. They were soldiers working to get Number Agent rankings. Ace destroyed them all with one huge fire blast. Luffy's crew respected him even more after that.
Soon after, they docked at the next part of the island. Vivi informed them that this was the part where they needed to start crossing the desert. To Sanji's great despair, the two girls dressed in much less revealing clothing to keep from getting severe sunburns. Secretly, Luffy was also disappointed.
It got dark very quickly after they set off into the desert. They stopped to make camp. They set up tents. Everyone except Ace and Vivi fell asleep.
Ace was crouching by the fire, serenely gazing out into the night sky. Vivi walked up to him. Ace smiled. "My brother causes you guys a lot of trouble, huh?"
Vivi giggled and looked down at her feet. "I won't deny that. But still, there's something about him... He doesn't act like a captain at all, and the others don't treat him like one, either. You saw how they fought him for drinking a bit too much water earlier! But still, Luffy keeps us all together. It's amazing, really."
Ace chuckled. "He's always been like that, for as long as I can remember. Ever since he was a kid, he's had that strange charm. He's really slow, and he always screws things up, but he always has people gathered around him." Vivi smiled and sat down next to Ace. "Yeah..."
They sat in silence for a while. She looked at his calm, confident face. (How can two brothers can be so completely different?) She giggled silently. (They're both really cute, though... Especially Ace. He's actually pretty hot...) An audible giggle escaped through her lips. Ace looked at her, eyebrows raised questioningly. "What's so funny?"
In spite of herself, Vivi blushed as red as Ace's fire. "Nothing..." she mumbled.
Ace smirked and turned back to the sky. He was used to the girls being all over him, and it seemed that this princess was no exception. However, the cute orange-haired girl was different. The tension between her and Luffy was almost palpable. It wasn't a really bad tension, though... Ace smiled. (My brother's growing up... I wonder how long those two have been together without the crew knowing?)
So, how do you like it so far? I have decided to make Ace an integral character. What do you think about that? Please review! Reviews are so important, I think people sometimes forget how much they are appreciated!
