Chapter 2: A suspicious circumstance

Saturday

Zolo was wandering down the street, when he saw a familiar motorbike parked beside a store. He tilted his head and walked in. It was a big book store and at the counter was sitting a bored looking woman. He searched around with his eyes until he saw a familiar looking orange cowboy hat. He walked forward until he finally found Trace standing in front of a line of fire books. Zolo raised an eyebrow and walked forward.

"Hey Trace." he said. Trace started and then looked up at him with a dreary smile. "Hey Zolo. What are you doing here?" he asked. Zolo shrugged.

"I was wandering around town, saw your bike and decided to come and say hello." he replied. Trace gave Zolo a smile and went back to looking at the books. "Look, I want to ask you something as well. About Luffy"

"If it's about his little energy problem, then don't worry, there's nothing wrong, he's always like that." Trace said seemingly trying to guess the problem from complaints about it before.

"No, although he seems a little too energetic. But, no, it's about him. He has fallen asleep in class a few times and he seems to be in pain. A lot." Zolo said.

Trace stiffened and looked around at him. "Uh, that's because he is always climbing trees and keeps falling out of them"

"That's not the truth. Have you been hurting him?" Zolo asked dangerously.

"Hey Zolo!" a voice cried. Zolo turned to see Luffy skipping up the aisle towards them, a red jacket covering the whole top of his body and a pair of baggy jeans on the bottom. It covered him effectively and were obviously way to big for him.

"Hey kid." Zolo replied. He felt a certain closeness to this kid. He knew what the feeling was too. He had identified it last night after having a little accident at school where he had fallen into Luffy and ended up pressed on top of him against the lockers. He smiled.

"Luffy, go and wait out by the motorbike." Trace said. Luffy gave Trace a confused glance and then shrugged, thinking that whatever his brother told him to do was right and went out.

"Zolo. Be careful around Luffy." Trace immediately said after Luffy had gone. Zolo gave him a bemused glance. "He's been through a lot"

Luffy waited outside by the motorbike, wondering why on earth Trace had sent him out when his best friend had been there. He looked up the street and saw a guy trying to sell brooms to some random woman who had had the misfortune of walking past at the moment he had started. Luffy gave a little chuckle and then looked over as Trace and Zolo walked out. Zolo seemed a little shocked and then Trace walked up to him. They stood in silence for a moment and then Zolo grinned.

"Hey Luffy, would you like to come and stay at my place tonight?" Zolo asked. Luffy gave a short glance at Trace, who nodded encouragingly and Luffy grinned.

"Sure!" he squealed. "Well, Zolo, you take him home and I'll come and visit later on. How does that sound little bro'?" Trace asked. Luffy nodded happily and got off the bike.

"You can go downtown with Zolo too. He's gonna buy you some food." Trace said and then grinned as Luffy leaped into the air and grabbed Zolo's arm and began dragging the older teen down the street.

"Bye Trace!" Luffy called as he dragged Zolo away.

"Bye bro!" and then he smiled sadly and said quietly, "Have a good life." and with that he hopped on his bike and drove away.

Oh, so sad, but I figured that if Trace left in the One Piece series, he'd have to leave sometime here as well, and it works effectively. If you review I'll give you a Zolo plushie.