This story is especailly for Yuko no Mei. She is translating "Am I Evil" into French for me! Isn't that the greatest thing? This is the third story in my "Ten years ago in East Blue" fanfiction series that I have sort of seem to have started.

--I know nothing about Luffy's grandfather, so everything about him is made up until I learn about him. I'll probably change him into Luffy's uncle when I learn whatthe grandfather is really like, but this is just a thought in the meantime. All but four of Shanks' crew members are fanfictional, too. They're all just for fun and depth. Not to be taken seriously.

'Okashira' means 'Boss'. It's what most of Shanks' crew call him. I think Ben is the only one who calls him Cap'n. (But don't quote me on that) :) 'Akagami' means 'red-hair', it's the name of Shanks' pirate crew; the Akagami pirates.

What I Remember About That Day

You guys wanna know what that day was like for me? Hmmm…

I guess that's okay. I mean, better me than the mayor who loves to exaggerate the bad details so much. I'll tell you what happened that day as best as I can, and I'll give you all the details about how I felt and stuff.

But first I'll warn you that I got there a little late and it was all really chaotic (the way things always are when something tragic happens and no one knows what's going to happen). And you should also know that no one saw the attack itself except for my brother and Shanks, because apparently it was all over really quickly.

I know a little more now than I did then, but I'll try to stick to the time frame of where everyone's mind was just on that day as much as I can.

It happened almost a year ago, when I was ten. Luffy was still seven then, and it was before Shanks left Fuchsia, our hometown, for the last time…

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I first heard that something was up was when I was trudging out to the barn with the milk bucket.

I wasn't really supposed to be milking the cow that morning, as it was Luffy's turn, but Luffy had decided to skimp on his chores. Again. I figured he had run down to Party's Bar to visit Makino. After I milked the cow, I was gonna make up a good excuse to go to town. I had every intention of showing up in Party's and dragging my little brother home again before we both got caught.

Ya see, the last time Luffy vanished and I had gotten caught covering his chores, our grandfather had wanted to know what was up. I'm not a tattle-tale, and don't like it when Luffy gets into trouble. So I told him one story, and then when Luffy got home he told another.

Yeah… Needless to say the stories didn't match by a long shot. I said that I had given the money to Luffy to run into town and buy that evening's fish. Luffy (who's a pathological truthsayer whom everyone knows can't lie to save his skin) said that he'd been practicing for when he became a pirate and then gone over to Makino's to pilfer lunch. Then he said that I had happily volunteered to do all his work for him. Our grandfather hadn't liked that at all.

Luffy had been punished for ditching chores, and I had been punished for letting him get away with it. That was how it went around our ranch. I'm was responsible for all of Luffy's actions, being the big brother. It doesn't really bother me though.

What's always gotten to me a whole lot more is that Luffy has never been held favorably by our grandfather, and was likely to be punished much worse than I was. Yet he still disobeyed. I was always worried about what might happen if Luffy ever pushed it too far.

Anyway, as I continued my looong journey across the field to the barn where the still-unmilked cow most likely was (I'd finished with the other four already), I looked down the road that I was walking next to and thought about how nice it would to have someone walking with me to talk to. It was boring.

Then it was as if my wish came true! …sort of. That's what I thought at first, anyway.

Down the road, I could see two of the Akagami pirates, Lucky Roux and Dodger, running up the road that I was sort of trudging next to on the other side of the fence. I knew it was Dodger because he had this totally queer looking snake tatoo on his always-exposed chest. Lucky was always pretty easy to spot because he's approximately the size of our barn door and the shape of one of the shooter marbles that Luffy and I collect, and I knew that to see him running would probably end up being the most absurd vision on the whole island that I would behold that month.

And I thought: well, if Shanks was back then I wouldn't even be able to get mad at Luffy for running to the harbor. I probably would have ditched, too, had I known. Ya see, when both of us ditched, Shanks would sometimes walk home with us and make up a really great story along the way that we could both play along to so we wouldn't get in to as much trouble.

So I sped up my walk a little to meet up with them sooner, and once I knew they were in hearing range, I called out to them "Hey guys! When did you get back?"

Lucky and Dodger came to a stop beside me, both of them knowing who I was. Dodger was the one to answer, for Lucky was panting too hard. "Just sailed in. Have you seen any mountain bandits run this way? Or anybody odd?"

I set the milkbucket down. "Aside from you two, no."

The pirates swore fluently at this, turned, and began back toward the town. I was a little put-out at this, and called after them, "Why are you hunting mountain bandits?"

"They kidnapped Luffy."

…I couldn't have heard that right. "They whatawho?" I climbed over the fence and began jogging with them.

"The leader was gonna kill Luffy, but then Okashira challenged him and Roux here shot one of his members and then Ben got into it, so then the leader took Luffy hostage to save his own skin when he was the last one left."

Once I heard this, I sped up and ran ahead for the harbor.

Almost the whole town was massed around the docks by the time I got there. Everyone was shouting and talking at once, but I picked up several words from the crowd, each more scaring me more as I tried to shove my way through the bodies. "Did you see it?" "No, did you?" "It was that huge monster that hunts off shore!" "--sea dragon!" "-Luffy… hurt… "--don't know how badly--" "The Captain swam out to him--" "--started in Party's Bar." "--so much blood on the dock." "--think he'll die?" "--attack again?" "--ate the bandit!" "--won't let us closer."

It was at about this point where I simply began pushing people hard to get them to move the hell out of my way, cuz I was fed up with body-wading. I got up to the front of the crowd, finally, and ducked under someone's arm. It looked like the pirates were keeping people away from the harbor itself for some reason.

I still didn't know what the hell was going on, but if Luffy was hurt, then I knew I had to reach him.

Then one drunk pirate with a thick accent grabbed me arm. "Whare da ya think yarr goin, laddie? Back again, now. Cam'on!"

He started hauling me back with the others and wouldn't listen to me, but then another pirate reached out and took the drunkard's arm. "Let him in, Pete! That's Luffy's brother, remember? Gads, you smell awful."

I was so happy for the exchange, because when Pete was distracted, he'd let me go, and as soon as the large hand had let up on my arm, I was away, running across the villager-free harbor in search of my brother. Pirates were lingering about, looking nervous and worried. Their expressions scared me more than the villager's gossip had, because I had always believed up 'til then that pirates didn't get scared.

I heard my name called out right beside me and started to turn just as Yassopp lifted me without warning to stand on a crate so I was eye level with him. "Did you just get here?"

I nodded, face red and trying to catch my breath. "Yassopp, what happened? Is Luffy-"

"Luffy's fine. He's okay, he wasn't hurt. He's really scared, though. What have you heard?"

"Nothing. Bits of sentences here and there. All I know is Luffy was held hostage and then I heard something about the sea monster off shore and that someone was hurt."

Yassopp nodded, "Okay. That's the captain. Luffy got taken by the bandit leader to get even with us for taking out some of his men. Bullies always pick on the smallest ones around them. He took him out in to the bay and then the sea monster ate the bandit and their dinghy. Cap'n got there in time to get Luffy to safety, but the monster took his left arm." I learned later on that he had decided to explain and avoid connections to blame by leaving out certain details.

All I could do for a minute was stare at him, wide-eyed. They had been almost eaten? "What do you mean 'took his arm'?"

I could tell that Yassopp didn't feel great about describing anything like this to a kid, but Luffy had been a part of it, so I had to know. "Bit clean through it just under the deltoid. He's in surgery now."

I looked around frantically to see if I could find a place where Shanks might be under operation, which was kinda dumb, I later realized..."Where is he?"

"On the ship. Charlie's working on him, and we think he's gonna be okay. Ben's with him, too. The rest of us are waiting for news."

I knew that Charlie was Shanks' doctor at the time. I didn't know it then but he would be killed in a storm at sea a few months later.

"Luffy?"

Yassopp looked toward the ship. I followed his gaze, knowing that if I headed out into that mess, one of Shanks' nakama was bound to decide I didn't belong there and stop my progress. I needn't have worried. Without explaining anything, Yassopp figured out my dilemma and picked me up off the crate. He carried me through the mass of pirates, way out to the end of the dock, by the ship ramp. No one interfered with us.

All the way I looked around eagerly for my brother as the two of us moved forward. As soon as Luffy was in my sights, I must have pushed away from Yassopp, because he set me down quickly and followed behind so I could dash over to my baby brother.

Luffy had been stripped out of his wet clothes and wrapped in a fluffy white towel that was four times bigger than he was. Luffy's always been pretty small for his age. He now sat on the dock, sobbing wholeheartedly, with Makino on his one side and our town doc checking his heart with a stethoscope, on his other side. He seemed to be finishing his examination, because he gave the clean bill of health only a moment later.

As I arrived next to him, my little brother looked up at me. "Ace! Shanks is- Shanks--" He re-dissolved into body-racking sobs that wouldn't allow him to speak for a moment, as I knelt down close to him. It was a good thing Yassopp had told me a little so that I wasn't panicking and scaring Luffy even more…

Seeing that Luffy had so much energy to put into crying actually calmed me considerably. Now I was sure that physically, Luffy was going to be okay.

The little boy tried to speak again, hiccupping out wet disconnected words of sorrow and fear. "Shanks was bleeding-- and I-- it's because of me. I was-- It was all my fault-- and now he's-- I couldn't swim and--" He coughed a few times.

I reached over to press my hand to the smaller forehead. That was my way of letting Luffy know that he had to try to calm down before he tried to talk again. I did it when he had bad dreams and climbed into my bed sometimes, because when he fussed and tried to talk, he could get hysterical and wake the rooster. Luffy stopped trying to talk for a moment and just concentrated on getting his breath back. He closed his eyes and his shoulders heaved as the sobs slacked off.

I was now glad that the pirates were keeping everyone back. If the town had been allowed to crowd up the dock, I couldn't imagine how much worse they would have made everything. Ben was probably the one to give the order to hold the gawkers at bay, because it looked like anyone not immediately involved in what had happened, unless they had family or nakama that were, had to stay over by the buildings. As I looked around, and noted that myself, Luffy, Makino, and Mr. Mayer were the only four locals even on the wooden harbor planks.

All the rest were Shanks' worried crew, and even then a large portion of the crew was upholding the impressive boarder they'd made out of themselves, and no one dared step past a bunch of armed pirates.

After the quick glance around, I looked back to Luffy, who seemed to be ready to speak again.

"Ace…What if Shanks dies-?" He broke off with a sob.

I'm gonna tell you a not-so-secret secret. I love my brother more than life itself. He's the only thing on this whole windmill-covered island I have going for me. I would kill for this kid. I would die for this kid, and obviously so would Shanks.

Now I reached over and pulled him into my lap and held him there. I was afraid for Shanks, too, and I didn't know why Luffy was blaming himself because I still wasn't too clear on how he had ended up getting stolen in the first place. But now I really really hoped that Shanks would be okay, because if he wasn't…then what would become of Luffy?

I hugged him close in his towel and rubbed his back. "Hey, Shanks isn't gonna die. Pirates are strong! And he's the captain of so many pirates, right?"

Luffy sniffled and nodded.

"See? Shanks is gonna be okay, don't you worry. Because he's a great pirate!"

"That's right." Yassopp seconded from behind me. Makino nodded as well, with tears in her eyes.

When everyone agreed with me, Luffy was finally able to stop crying so hard.

For some reason, whenever Luffy was scared or crying, I felt more grown up. It was like I was an adult and I had to take care of him. I liked to protect him. It was one of the good parts about being a big brother. Now that Luffy had stopped crying I felt like I was doing my job okay, and I wanted to stay with him until this was over.

I let him go, and we all lounged around the dock, waiting for the word on Shanks' condition. We stayed there for a long time. The pirates stayed off the ship, none wanting to do anything that could disturb Charlie, even though I know all of us wanted to at least send someone to check up on the situation.

Luffy finally asked why no one did, after a couple hours of nervous fidgeting on his part, and Lucky (who had arrived shortly after me and had a much easier time parting the masses with his amazing girth, Dodger in tow) told him that there was really no point. No one knew how the captain was, and no one could say for sure how he going to be until Charlie finished the operation. "If anything goes wrong," Lucky had said, "Ben will come out here and let us know right away. So no news is better than bad news at this point. Besides, it'll take more than this to beat Okashira."

Yassopp had nodded in strained agreement, "That it's taking so long is a good sign. It means that there's a lot that Charlie can do to help him."

I remember that Luffy and I had both nodded in understanding.

Luffy, in fact, decided to stick to this as a temporary motto and if anyone got close to the ramp, he would repeat the pirates words for them, almost verbatim. Most of the pirates smiled when he did this. They all loved Luffy so. I think everyone understood why Shanks had done what he did, even though many were still in shock that it had happened. And in our nowhere town, of all places…

Eventually the sun had started to set, and we had still heard nothing. Makino had run up to our farm to grab some dry clothes for my brother, and he had changed into them once she returned.

As it had gotten late, many of the villagers had learned that Luffy was fine and that no one was dead, so many of them had drifted home. As the dwindling crowd shrank more and more, most of the pirates that had been keeping everyone away were able to come back down the dock. Upon arriving and hearing that no one knew what their captain's condition was, I could tell that most of them were disappointed, but kind of relieved that at least there had been no bad news, just like Lucky and Yassopp had said.

When I was much younger, my dad and I had seen a bar fight break out between two men for no apparent reason. Within moments, everyone in the house had been beating each other up. I asked my dad why this was, and he told me that when men got into a rambunctious or strained atmosphere that they weren't used to, it was usually only a matter of time before they decided to take out their energy by fighting with each other.

I think that's kinda what happened on the dock that evening. With emotions so tense, when one of the pirates came back down the dock to find that no one knew what was happening on the ship, he got this incredulous, disgusted look on his face and started to climb the ramp.

Well, when he saw this happening, my dunce of a baby brother (whose lack of common sense has always worried me to no end) called after him, "You shouldn't go up there cuz you could mess things up."

When we heard that, myself and several pirates around me rolled their eyes, groaned, or put their head in their hand, because the man that Luffy had called after was Tiny Tim.

Tiny Tim was about as big and muscular as Lucky was fat. He sported a studded leather jacket, a huge purple Mohawk, and bore no patience for children. I think he was the only one on the whole crew who felt negatively toward Luffy, but Luffy probably hadn't noticed because, as I said, he's not quite all there most of the time. Plus Shanks loves my brother, and Tiny Tim greatly respected Shanks, so he'd never actually spoken against Luffy before. He had just quietly sneered a lot at how Luffy always managed to completely absorb the captain's attention when they were in port.

Now Tim, who no doubt blamed Luffy entirely for his captain's injury, turned and glared at my brother, saying, "No one could mess things up more than you already have."

This roused quite a bit of backlash toward him as many of the men around us stopped leaning on barrels or sitting on crates to fire various remarks of outrage, some defending my brother and others insulting Tiny Tim's lineage…

Luffy said nothing, trying to stay strong even as chin dropped to his chest. He seemed determined to be a man and not make any noise as fresh tears fell soundlessly onto his clenched fists.

Soon a few fists had flown between Tim and a couple other guys I didn't know that well, but before it got too bad, the voice we'd been waiting for silenced everyone.

Ben stood at the top of the ramp. "Everybody shut-up!" It grew instantaneously quiet. Except for Luffy's quiet sniffles, but I don't think anyone else could hear them much. He was the only one who hadn't looked up when Ben spoke.

Ben began to tromp down the ramp in his heavy boots, giving us the news that set our hearts at rest along the way. "Cap'n is going to be fine. Charlie stopped the bleeding a while ago and stitched up the wound. He's gotta take it easy for a while, but he's awake…"

Now he was at the bottom of the ramp and his voice grew soft as he knelt down in front of Luffy, who still hadn't looked up. "…and he wants to see you."

Luffy gasped a little and finally raised his eyes to meet Ben's. The sub-captain smiled at Luffy, whose face was wet with tears again. "Whaddaya say, Luffy? Wanna come visit the Cap'n?"

Luffy lowered his face again, sniffled a little… and then nodded, raising his arms to reach for Ben at the same time.

Ben lifted him up and cradled Luffy to his chest before turning back to the ramp.

That was the first time I realized how much smaller than him Luffy and I were. I mean, Luffy probably wasn't even the length of his whole arm.

"Can we go see him soon?" Some random pirate asked.

Ben called over his shoulder as he started to stomp up the ramp again, holding his new bundle close. "Probably tomorrow. Charlie says he needs peace tonight. He'll be out to tell you everything in just a minute, and he knows more than I do. I just came to get Luffy."

With that, Ben vanished above us onto the deck of the ship. I wanted to follow, but Dodger's hand on my shoulder stopped me. I looked up at him and he shook his head. I understood why; Luffy had to spend some time with Shanks alone.

I understood, but that didn't mean I had to like it. I was curious, too.

But then Charlie appeared and walked down to the dock and started talking, so I soon found myself distracted by listening. But the questions and answers went on and on… The pirates might have had no problem with staying up all night, but after about an hour of this I was wiped!

I think I must have fallen asleep at some point because before I knew what was happening, Yassopp was carrying me home. I knew then that Luffy wouldn't be coming home that night, but he had spent the night with Shanks when he first became rubber, too, so doing it again was no big deal.

The farm was quiet when we got there, so Yassopp helped me up the stairs and into bed. He asked lots of questions and if I wanted to talk about anything, but I was too tired to talk, and he said that the offer stood for life, so I could go to him anytime.

I think I remember telling him in a sleepy voice that he was a good dad, and it's too bad he couldn't tuck his own son in, because I remember him smiling and thanking me before wishing me good night.

And that's what I remember about that day.

End.

AN: Ace is experiencing this at ten, so i tried to keep it through the perspective of a very bright ten year old boy, which is what I believe probably descirbed Ace pretty well when he was ten. He's eleven as he tells the story now, but I tried to make him regress to that day a year before so that he could say what he saw happened, instead telling us what we already know happened from the third person view. If he seems OOC from the Ace you know from the series, please remember that his isn't that same Ace. This is that Ace at only half the age.

I already have what happened on the ship between Shanks and Luffy that day in the works. It will have more of that "Am I Evil" feel that many people seem to have enjoyed so much. And thanks, Zoe-chan. You're the best!