Galaxy Creator of Pisces: I have both of the Ace spin off books. The first one was a disappointment and I disliked the second one for what I read. It wasn't in Ace's POV like I expected, but some new character. But, we've got endless fanfictions of Ace's time with the Whitebeards lol. And I wrote and am editing a fic about Ace leaving the Beast Pirates that he was part of to go and make his own crew, the Spades. Won't be out for awhile probably, though. But I encourage you to read the novels. They were pretty cheap on amazon. Everyone has their own opinion and a lot of people liked them.
Asuka1920: I'm glad! There's a lot more to this story.
Ngl next chapter is very dark. I look forward to posting it. Anyways, enjoy this one. Some funny Luffy bits lol.
Aizawa was back at it again, trying to scare the students about some other event. They were outside the school waiting to get onto the busses to be taken to the camp. He told them this wouldn't be fun and would be basically all around terrible. Nobody looked concerned, all used to his negative views on everything.
Ace had no doubt that this training camp would be grueling and exhausting, but they'd get stronger from it and have some fun with a new experience. The same guy who was being rude to class A before suddenly made himself known and attempted to make them upset, but nobody was buying it.
"Oh, class B!" Luffy said with a smile.
"Hi, Luffy! You were so cool in the final battle! You, too, Ace! I can't believe how strong you are," some of the girls said. Mineta demanded to know why they were being so nice to Luffy and Ace. Iida was the one to answer.
"Luffy was the one to encourage everybody, not just our class, as well as not interfering with the others in the obstacle course," Iida explained.
Mineta erupted, "What about when he stole everybody's bands! That wasn't cool!" the others were looking at him in pity. A girl with horns from the other class said that they got to play again, and it wasn't much of a big deal. And that it had shown how smart they were.
The tiny pervert collapsed onto his knees and hit the ground with his fist. "Why…? Why? They're not even interested!" he lamented. The girls looked at him in wariness while the guy's in pity.
Jiro said harshly, "Maybe if you weren't such a pervert you would have girls like you as a person, too. Besides, a girl liking a guy doesn't mean she's in love with him." The girls around nodded in agreement and Luffy just laughed.
As bubbly as ever, he said, "I'm sure we'll have a fun time even if it's hard." The other class nodded, even the guys nodding along with him. Luffy had not just charmed the audience and world, but also their fellow first years.
They were called to board the busses, class A in one with class B in the other. When they got inside, Mineta glared at Luffy the whole bus ride, but Luffy barely noticed it. He was talking with the others around them about the kinds of things they thought they'd do. Since Luffy had never been to any summer camp, they were telling him what normal ones are like.
Ace was napping, his head thumping against the window every few seconds. Bakugo was at the front of the bus, not bothering anybody, which was odd. But nobody seemed to be in a bad mood and there was an air of excitement. Not even Aizawa's depressing monologue dampened everyone's excitement.
After an hour, the busses stopped in front of what seemed like a look out, fenced in and on a cliff above the forest that sloped downwards. Some guys were peeing over the edge while the girls complained about how much easier it was for a guy to piss than a girl, which was a... unique conversation. Luffy had his hands behind his head, looking out at the scenery.
"How much you wanna bet we stopped here and are making our way down in a forest full of monsters?" Ace asked easily. Luffy said he wouldn't bet against him or he'd lose his own money.
Sero heard and said, "What's with that fantasy? Don't say something so disturbing!" Ace shrugged, and Luffy laughed.
"If that's what happens then we'll be having fun from the start!" the younger twin explained. Those around them vehemently denied that being any fun. They called Luffy an adrenaline junkie. Well it was true in one sense. He and Ace loved being active and having their heart pumping. Even if it was in fear of a scary movie. Small fears, like losing a battle. Not the fear they felt when they were separated at USJ.
The fear of being apart was more intense than any other fear they'd felt as long as they could remember. The scars of their past fused them together and it was painful to try and pull them apart.
When the car that was sitting there with people in it finally brought attention to itself, people didn't just get out they exploded out. Two of them, dressed in what seemed like robotic, sexualized, halloween cat costumes, and one young kid that looked just done with them. They loudly introduced themselves as the wild wild pussycats.
Midoriya started to explain all about them without anyone being able to actually hear what he was saying and understand it before the blue pussy cat grabbed his face and said she was "18 at heart".
Luffy asked, "Why does your age matter?" loudly. The others looked at him in shock and he realized he shouldn't have said anything. The blue one said, "When you grow up, you'll understand," he like he was stupid. He didn't want to get in an argument so he said, "Oh, okay." and the issue was over. Ace was snickering at his little brother.
The pink one introduced the land as owned by them, and the camp was at the base of the mountain. Both of the brothers moved to the railing, knowing what would happen next. The kids all tried getting back to the bus, but Luffy and Ace knew the situation and jumped onto the railing. "No… we're getting back to the bus. C'mon, we're going back to the bus!" Ashido said, in denial.
"No we're not. It's fun already!" Luffy said with a grin. The kids were sprinting back to the bus, and Lufy turned to the pink one. "Can we get a head start?"
"Go for it," she said and both jumped off.
"Race you to the bottom!" Luffy shouted and they landed easily, sprinting into the forest. They would not be missing lunch and would be the first to make it down. Ace said they weren't allowed to use their quirks, and had to rely on strength only. "Deal!"
It was only a couple seconds later that the look out crumbled. "Damn it, why'd you have to say that?! You jinxed us!" Kaminari screamed about Ace predicting this happening. It was easy to foresee when they stopped at a place with no bathrooms or anything. It wasn't likely that Aizawa would just show them the forest and they'd get back in the bus and drive the rest of the way there.
"A monster! Ace, we're counting how many we take out!" Luffy said excitedly. Ace agreed, and Luffy called this one, landing a kick through its head and then legs, killing the beast made of rock and dirt. They could hear the others getting further away and screaming about something. Well, they weren't even in the twins' minds as they took down monster after monster, cutting themselves on small branches as they brawled.
"Twelve!"
"I got fourteen!"
"You are not beating me again, Luffy!" Ace said, referring to the bots in the entrance exam where Luffy got three more than he did. Luffy laughed and they gave the monsters an absolute beating, slamming them into trees, breaking trees to make them fall on them and crush them, any move that didn't use any aspect of their quirks.
They couldn't even hear anybody from behind anymore as they raced down the mountain. It felt like some anime where the main characters lived in a huge forest and then took down huge monsters and ate them, competing with each other while doing so. That was a fun one to watch.
Ace slammed his heels into one of the monsters and crushed its head before moving on. They were just making it easier for the others by taking down the beasts for them. They were right, this camp was fun already. Challenging their skills and bravery at the same time. The others had barely entered the forest once they were out of haki range, which was huge, so they were pretty far away.
Honestly, they would have been bummed if they had gotten on the bus and drove the rest of the way. They one-shotted most of the beasts, usually going for the eyes or head and punching or kicking through it.
When both of their fists got bloody, they agreed to only use protection on their arms. So Luffy formed a shield on his knuckles so the impact wasn't as harsh. An hour in and both of them were hungry already. Lunch time would be too late when they got there.
Ace was already planning ahead as they were getting closer to the bottom, running as fast as the slope let them and dodging trees perfectly, not tripping on roots or bushes. It was like they were both flying and then as an afterthought taking out the beasts. They seemed to reform slowly, but by then the twins were long gone.
"It's in haki range!" meaning they had about another mile until they reached the camp, which they felt was a small cluster of presences. One of them was Aizawa. Ace said he felt it too. The monsters weren't as frequent here, meaning the heroes had planned on making the start the hardest, tiring them from the beginning and then making them do a downhill walk while tripping all over roots. "Ace, grab something to eat!" Luffy shouted, taking out a larger monster.
"Okay, be right back!" his brother replied and branched off, both of them sensing wildlife. The wildlife wasn't running from the monsters, so they might be used to it or know that they're just moving mounds of earth. They were twenty minutes away before Ace came back to Luffy, carrying a doe over his shoulder and now only using kicks to one-shot the beasts.
Ace wasn't even tired by carrying the deer. This was a new type of endurance training. It was fun and made their hearts beat faster, not just because of the exertion, but not knowing what's next other than sensing movement with haki. After all, these monsters weren't alive, so they didn't give presences, only showing that there were moving objects in front of them.
"How many you got?!"
"67! What about you?"
"72! I'm gonna win again~!" Luffy taunted. Ace threatened to light him on fire. "That would be cheating, we're not allowed to use our quirks," the younger twin pointed out. "I wonder how the others are holding up."
Ace said, "Probably not well. They can't predict the monsters' movements and be able to dodge every single tree. Besides, we're not just fighting, we're running off, too. We don't wait for the monsters to reform."
"We're not here to kill them permanently. They can't come after us fast enough since they're big and made of dirt. But they will reform for the others. Poor guys, I hope they'll be okay," Luffy said in worry.
Ace pointed out that even if they did get seriously hurt, nobody would be dying on the first day. There had to be some sort of rescue if things went wrong. Both weren't very exhausted, though their feet and hands were a bit sore. These weren't the best shoes for this. Boots would have been preferable over sneakers. They sensed and opening in the tree line and shot out, landing hard on the ground, the deer falling down and Ace falling against it. Luffy hit the ground, not a soft furry body.
"87! Beat that!" Luffy said, covered in dirt and small cuts.
"Oh, little brother, how tragic. 91," Ace said, laughing. Luffy laughed, saying he won this time. They dusted off a bit before heading inside the cabin. "We got here first! And brought lunch," Ace called. They heard exclamations from inside. It had taken them around 2 hours. "I'm hungry, is lunch ready?"
The two wild, wild pussycats looked at the battered teens in shock. "It only took you two hours?" the pink one asked. Ace and Luffy looked a little embarrassed, and said they hadn't eaten much that morning and we're kind of hungry. Aizawa said, "Good work. Unload your bags from the bus and we can have lunch." Ace and Luffy nodded, asking if they needed the deer meat. "No, we have enough food, burn that and toss it away so wild animals aren't attracted."
Ace nodded and Luffy went to the van to get both of their bags and carry them inside. They set them up in the community bedroom, claiming the spots near the inside wall which wouldn't be too cold. They went to the eating room, not looking like a cafeteria, and saw the food laid out. "Oooh, it looks so good," Luffy said excitedly.
Ace asked how big their serving size could be. They said as much as they wanted. The twins grinned and took everything they could fit on two large plates. "So, boys, what quirks do you have? They must have helped you get through all of my monsters," the blonde one asked. They both swallowed before answering.
"We tried not to use our quirks but eventually our hands started bleeding so we used a little bit of it, just so we didn't do much damage," Luffy explained. She looked surprised that they hadn't used their quirks.
Ace said it was a competition of strength, not talking of their powers. "But we've never had a competition like that, that was fun."
"I remember you two, now. You were the two winners at each competition at the sports festival." Luffy nodded and grinned, saying that had been fun. "You were quite the charmers."
Ace said, "Luffy can charm anyone. We try to be as positive as we can. Being happy is fun, so why not strive to be happy all the time?" he asked with a smile. Once both of them were full, they asked what they were going to do next.
"When everybody comes, we can have dinner." Ace looked at his watch in confusion, pointing out that it wasn't even 2 yet. "For normal people, that will take hours," the blue one said in amusement.
Both of them heard the pink one say, "I'm surprised you haven't broken their spirits yet, Aizawa."
The teacher said that it was impossible to do for both of them and he just accepted that. She laughed at it. Since there was no cell service here, they could do much but talk and nap. They slept for a few hours, before they sensed the kids coming out of the forest, slow and exhausted. They hurried out to meet them.
"Screw you! When did you make it down?" Sero shouted.
"Four hours ago," Luffy said simply. "You all missed lunch and there are no left overs." They were asked how long it took them to get down. "Two hours."
The others were pissed, but exhausted and many laid or sat down on the ground. They were told to get the bags off of the bus and then go eat. They shot glares at Ace and Luffy who didn't seem tired or sore at all. But they did see both of them had bandages over their fingers and knuckles.
One they were at dinner and not scarfing down food, Midoriya asked why they had bandages on their hands. "They got bloody after punching too many times," Luffy said between bites. "After that we were allowed to only use our quirks to protect our fists. But our legs and feet are pretty bruised. I guess that's what we get for doing that, though."
Kirishima had tears in his eyes. "Are you two human?" he asked sadly, drooping. The twins didn't know how to answer. "Well, whatever. We can't do anything about it now." The others sighed and nodded, and the tense atmosphere around the twins disappeared and they had a great time with great food, even though they were all tired.
After that, there was a bath in the hot spring. Ace and Luffy awkwardly kept their shirts on. They didn't want everyone to see the scars and burns. Nobody said anything about it, which was nice. Mineta was a horrible person and he deserved being knocked down, just not on Iida's face. Poor guy. After that they got dried and dressed and went to bed immediately, Ace and Luffy side by side and making sure not to hold hands in front of other people.
By morning, they found that many of the surrounding sleepers had inched closer to Ace. "The hell?!" he shouted when he was surrounded by the other guys. They all woke up and Luffy started laughing.
"It's because Ace is warm." The others were all embarrassed and didn't make eye contact with Ace. Luffy told him they didn't mean to do anything weird. Ace smiled. "I know, it was just surprising."
It was 5:30 by the time they all had an incredibly rushed breakfast and were now dressed in their gym clothes outside. Most of them were all tired, including Ace and Luffy. They were strong but still humans. Their feet still hurt, but it was manageable. Their hands had been treated but they still had the bandages on.
Everybody was sore from the day before. Aizawa said, "Today the first day of training camp will be working to increase your strength in earnest." He said that the goal was to increase everyone's strength. Luffy and Ace heard whispers that Ace and Luffy didn't need anymore. They didn't feel resented, but it didn't feel nice to be lightly shamed for being strong and giving your all.
Aizawa either didn't hear or didn't care and continued to explain that they were here to help them get through the provisional license, to prepare them to face all hostilities than were coming closer at that moment. They all needed to do their best.
Then the teacher tossed Luffy the baseball from the first day, the fitness test. Luffy looked up, wondering what he had to do with it. "Your previous record was 1,600 meters at the beginning of school, wasn't it?" He was told to throw it.
"Okay." Luffy threw it as hard as he could. It flew off and landed somewhere nobody would ever find it.
"1,620 meters," Aizawa recorded. Luffy thought it would have been more, and so did everybody else. "You've been through a lot in the last three months, and have grown stronger. But most of that is in mental and technical skill, with a little stamina." Luffy was embarrassed. He trained daily, he should have done better than that. "As you can see, your quirks have not improved that much themselves.
"That's why you'll be working on improving your quirks starting today. It'll be so hard it'll feel like you're dying, but try not to actually die."
Minutes later and people were already crying. Todoroki was having a terrible time in the bath, Bakugo was soaking his hands in boiling water and making them explode bigger, Sero was seeing how endless his supply of tape was, Iida was sprinting, Aoyama was making himself ill, Kaminari was shorting out his brain completely, and Ace looked like he was doing nothing. He was just standing there. Aizawa asked what he was doing, but Ace was out of breath.
"Tr-trying to see how long I can stay in this form," he huffed. It was exhausting but looked underwhelming. He felt like he was being torn apart and it did hurt. He looked over to see Luffy punching the tree as hard as he could. It was the third one he'd knocked down. He was trying to form armor around his body with his air shields. His knuckles and legs were bloody as he was kicking the tree as well. He was screaming like everyone else, in pain and just not having a good time.
"THIS. IS. NOT. FUN!" he screamed and pummelled the tree harder. Ace was having trouble not laughing, but he had to hold this form as long as possible.
His was probably the one causing the most blood shed, but others were invisible pain in their own ways. Ace was sagging by the end and Luffy had his hands and legs wrapped in bandages. He could not find it in himself to be happy. That was painful. Sure, he had made progress and was able to use it on certain areas of his body, but it wasn't for offense, it was to protect himself. But it had hurt a lot, so he wasn't happy.
"Look, Luffy's human, too," Kirishima pointed out.
Luffy turned to him and looked like a demon. "Huh?"
"Nothing," Kirishima said. Ace chuckled.
"Of course you're laughing you can still use your hands!" Luffy said.
"No fighting, we have to make dinner," Momo said. Luffy looked at his bandaged hands sadly. He hadn't broken any bones but had skinned his knuckles badly. There were no training bags, the only thing he could hit was other people and objects. Trees were the only option.
Ace said, "I'm sorry I laughed," sincerely.
"I forgive you. Let's make food," Luffy said in a droning voice. Luffy walked forward first, everyone in a daze, and started to prepare the dinner by himself. Aizawa stopped him.
"Everyone needs to work, not just you and Ace," he said. Luffy nodded and everyone got into action. They worked together, making dinner for fifty people. There were some arguments but everyone was too tired to really put any heat into them. They finished the food. And it took exponentially longer to cook than it did to eat it all.
The next day, Luffy had destroyed too many trees and the wild wild pussy cats asked him to stop, so his only choice was to switch with rock. He punched holes into the cliff, screaming profanities the whole time, like Bakugo was, which seemed shocking to everyone else. Ace was glad, it might show that he and Luffy weren't perfect, always happy, wonderful people. They felt pain and emotions, too.
Ace was no longer seeing how long he could last, as it had ended up two hours and instead he was seeing how big of explosions he could make by thrusting all of the fire out at once, competing with Bakugo's explosions. Only Ace's were white and did not make the loud boom that Bakugo's did. Ace was now screaming as well. So they were just massive bursts of flames. He was able to get it to 40 meters before it dissipated. Usually the fire would be hard to see and gain attention, but he had to force himself to the max, not stopping at his comfort zone. His hands were burning by the end after three hours of that, and he went to Todoroki's bathtub and put his hands in.
"Hey, this is my training," he said, exhausted and no heat in his voice.
"I need this too, don't be selfish," and they got into a tizzy that fizzled out almost immediately and they went back to what they were doing. Luffy was now inside the cliff face with rubble and broken rocks around the entrance. More screaming could be heard coming from the Luffy-sized cave.
Everyone was dying and the blue pussy cat told them they would have a test of courage in the woods, both classes competing against one another. You could hear Luffy's voice echoing, "LET US SLEEP DAMN YOU!" from deep inside his man made cave.
It brought laughter to some of those crying, and uplifted the mood. Even when Luffy was mad and not trying to, he made the atmosphere better.
At dinner, Luffy had his hands all wrapped up. "Are you-?"
"M'fine," Luffy mumbled as he tried chopping food with his injured hands. Ace came up and said, "Why don't I do that, Luffy, and you can bring the supplies to the tables?" Luffy made a mumbled sound and walked off to do a new job.
When people took a break, Iida shouted, "You guys! Your hands have stopped moving!" They all heard a bellow somewhere of "My hands are bleeding, what do you want?!" and a small "I don't think he meant you, Luffy". People hid snickers but it got everyone back to work.
When it got dark, they were going to start the test of courage. Luffy was tired and grumpy. "Do I have to do it?" he asked quietly.
Ace said, "We want to beat class B, right? At least, everybody else does. We gotta help. Besides, we're not easy to scare, so we just have to go in and then come back out. Then we can go to bed." Luffy nodded and Ace held his sad, injured hands. Maybe it would have been better to try something else.
"I'm sorry for being cranky, everyone," Luffy said loud enough for the class to hear. They assured him that he didn't always need to be the overly happy one. And that it was understandable he was grumpy. Luffy nodded, glad they weren't mad or irritated at him. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, Iida." The taller teen was sure to say it was just fine and he wasn't mad.
When they were supposed to draw tickets for who their partners would be, Ace and Luffy didn't even take one. If anyone got mad, well, they would go back to the house and not participate. Ace wanted to, but Luffy clearly didn't. He felt bad for making him, but Ace felt Luffy would regret not trying it once he felt better and was in a better mood.
When they entered the woods, Luffy was frowning. "This isn't scary at all, nobody is even jumping out." Then they both froze. There were suddenly more people showing up out of nowhere. Then they looked up and saw smoke in the air, and a purple haze drifting through the trees towards them.
