Title: Ace: King of Pirates
Genre: Hurt/ Comfort, Adventure, Friendship, Family, Romance
Pairing: ? X Ace
Summary: This is the story of Portgas D Ace and how, despite everything and even his own misgivings, he became the King of Pirates.
Or
Where being reborn as a fictional character from a favourite anime is not what fanfictions made it out to be. Mistakes are made… and some cannot be reversible. Instead of saving everyone and having a grand adventure like in those stories, you end up ruining the whole story by killing the most important characters.
Warnings: Slash (Yaoi, Boy X Boy…), Semi-Self Insert, Canon Divergence, Suicidal thoughts, No OC
Chapter One
He clutched the straw hat in his hand, staring ahead at the wide blue sea opening up in front of him. It would be easy, so easy, he sometimes thought to himself. There was no one to stop him and maybe it would right all the wrongs he had done and the world would go back to what it was supposed to be. After all he was never supposed to have been born anyway.
And without him… without him they would still be alive to fulfil their destiny.
But no. He could not do it. How could he when he still had to accomplish their dreams? That was the least he could do after everything.
With that thought, Ace sat back down in the dinghy.
Ace had no idea where he was. Shit. He really hoped he was on the right island. That stupid whirlpool made him lose all his navigation tools when it almost upturned his dinghy. Well, at least he had not actually drowned then. That would take the cake; no sooner had he set off than he lost his life! Well, anyway, there was a marine base stationed on the island so there was a chance he was on the right track.
He was sure there had been something else happening in the journey between Dawn Island to there but he really could not remember what. He hoped he had not ruined everything again. With a stressed groan, he thought that he might have. Typical really.
Well, he could still check the marine base. That was the only way to know for now. No one knew who he was. They did not know his name nor that he was a pirate so he was pretty safe for now.
Grooowl… Ruuuumbleeee…
Ace let out a pained grimace, hands clutching at his hurting stomach. Yeah, food first and then marine base.
With that thought in mind, the young man made his way to the nearest place that offered food which turned out to be a bar not unlike Makino's. With a brief nostalgic quirk of the lips, he sat down at an empty table and ordered. Plate after plate after plate appeared and promptly emptied as Ace wolfed down everything in reach. It was after the eighteenth plate that he looked up. Ignoring the blatantly horrified and disgusted looks around him, he decided to ask what he had come to that island in the first place.
"Ma'am? Excuse me, have you seen a man with green hair and three swords around?" he asked, never slowing down in scarfing down the food around him. The recoil from around him was not what he expected and he even paused to look around him with a slow blink. Everyone around him looked suddenly terrified. It would have been funny if not for the fact that no one looked ready to answer his question.
"A-Ah I'm sorry, sir," the barmaid said, wringing a piece of cloth she had been using to wipe a nearby table in her hands. "It'd be best if you don't talk about that man around here." Ace blinked once more.
"Alright..? I apologise for the bother." Not wishing to remain in that place with the awkward atmosphere, he quickly finished his last plate and left.
"W-Wait, Sir! You did not pay!"
Ace bolted for the door.
When he reached the marine base, he climbed the wall and looked inside. He sighed in relief as his eyes caught sight of a green haired man tied to a pole. Now he could say he had not completely missed his mark. He still felt like there was something missing but if he had found the man as he had expected then it might not be important after all. Just useless details.
He settled on the wall, sitting cross-legged and called attention to himself by whistling. The other's head snapped towards him and Ace came to be on the receiving end of a massive glare. Inwardly, he was impressed; outwardly, he popped his chin on his fist and stared down at the tied up man.
"Who the hell are you?" the other growled, glare remaining in place. "Get away from here."
Ace hummed. "Me? I'm Ace," he said simply. Then, without any prompting, "Join my pirate crew."
"Hah!? Who the hell do you think you are!?"
Ace's lower lip jutted out in thought, confusion clear on his face. "I just said it; I'm Ace. Now join my crew."
"The hell would I do that for!? What makes you think I'll go and become a pirate, huh!? And if I do, why would I join you?"
"Not that it matters, Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro," a new voice interrupted. At the entrance of the yard appeared a group of marines, the one leading the armed men appeared to be the Superior in rank. Unlike the others, his marine uniform differed in that he wore a sleeveless trench coat and his right hand was replaced by an axe. His metal jaw seemed really ridiculous to Ace; he looked like he was overcompensating for something. Well, would not surprise him; marines tended to be egotistical idiots.
(Not that some pirates were any different but whatever.)
"You are my prisoner and you're not going anywhere. I, Captain Morgan, will have you executed right now!"
"HAAAA!? I had a deal with your stupid son, asshole!" Zoro exclaimed starting to flail against his restraints.
"Deal is off," Morgan said as the other marines spread out to form a semi-circle in front of the two.
"What else did you expect? They're marines, not exactly honest people," Ace commented cheerfully.
"How presumptuous, coming from a pirate," Morgan countered.
"Hey, at least for us pirates it's expected. Now Marines on the other hand… People expect you to be all paragon of good and whatnot and then you turn out to be – well, you."
"Why you little –"
Ace smirked at the utterly irked expression on Morgan's face. He glanced at the tied up younger man as he came to stand in front of him. "So, Zoro, as to why you should join my crew, you want to be the World's Greatest Swordsman, right?"
"What the – HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW THAT, ASSHOLE!?"
Ace sweatdropped. "You didn't… exactly make it a secret, you know. It's easy to find out if you ask the right person –
"That's enough, pirate – "
"– Anyway, as I was saying, if you really want to become the World's Greatest Swordsman, you can't stay here in East Blue, the weakest of all Blues. You'll have to go to the Grand Line and you can't exactly do that alone."
"Oi –"
"– I plan on going to the Grand Line, so why not join me?"
"– YOU –"
"And I ask again, why should I join your crew? Being a pirate would put me in the World Government's Black List and that'd be… annoying."
"HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME, CAPTAIN MORGAN!?" The enraged marine captain bellowed, his axe arm tearing through the air to the grinning self-proclaimed pirate captain.
"Because –" Ace pivoted on his left foot, deftly dodging the axe, ducking under the marine's arm, his own punch coming up to connect with the underside of the iron jaw. Morgan's head snapped back, his body following only a split second later, soaring through the air to land a few meters away. As the dust settled, Ace smirked at a gapping Zoro, unperturbed by the other equally gapping marine officers. "– I'll be the World's Strongest Man."
"C-Captain Morgan!" While the other marines screamed, Ace could not help but be transfixed by the utterly feral look in the tied up man's eyes. It was frankly… breath-taking. His smirk widened.
"So what do you say, Roronoa Zoro?"
The other returned his grin with a much more bloodthirsty one.
"You," a voice hissed. When he turned around, it was to Morgan stumbling to his feet, a wild glare directed to Ace. His iron jaw looked completely ruined, dislocated and deformed from Ace's punch.
"Oh? You're still awake? Not bad. Anyone else would be unconscious by now."
"Pirate scum. You dare – DIE! Men! Fire at him!"
Ace dodged the volley of bullets that followed, disappearing from view for a moment, only to reappear behind Morgan. He twisted mid-air, his leg coming in an axe kick at Morgan's head. The man avoided it at the last second as he fell to the side. Ace followed with another punch in the stomach, dodging the axe coming down at him. He swung himself in the air, pressing his hands on Morgan's axed arm for purchase, kicking his knee at the back of the man's head, hard. Morgan fell like a log.
"No way!"
"He beat Captain Morgan so easily!"
"Who the hell is he!?"
"Daddy!" The scream came from a blond man dressed in a ridiculous purple suit and the… weirdest haircut Ace had ever seen. "You! Stay away from daddy or I'll-I'll blow his brains out!" Ace raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the trembling hand pointing a gun at Zoro's face.
Then, stuffing his hands in his pockets, he smirked.
Before anyone could react, Zoro had snapped the rope holding him tied up, slapping the gun away to land across the yard. The blond screeched as Zoro fisted his collar, bringing them face to face.
"Want to say that again?" he growled threateningly. The frightened squeak that left the blond's mouth was hilarious, if anyone asked Ace. The smell of piss not so much.
Zoro wrinkled his nose at the smell, throwing the blond idiot over his shoulder.
From across the yard, the blond idiot sat up and blubbered, "W-What are you idiots waiting for? Arrest them! Do something!"
With a quirk of his lips, Ace turned to the rest of the marines and arched an eyebrow at them, wondering if they would actually attack them after this. They could not lack that much braincell, right?
The marines, honestly consisting mainly of low ranked soldiers, shared a look before, to the astonishment of almost everyone else watching, they threw their weapons to the ground and burst into cheers. Ace let out a huff of laugher as they hugged each other and cried what was apparently tears of joy.
Marines were hilarious. Seriously.
"Well, you don't see that every day." Ace turned to the green-haired man walking up to him and cocked his head at him questioningly. Zoro jerked his head at the celebrating marines. "Marines celebrating pirates beating one of their own.
Ace snorted and grinned. "Pirates, huh? So does that mean you're joining my crew?"
"Only on one condition," the Zoro huffed. "I'll become the World's Greatest swordsman and if you get in my way, I'll cut you down."
Ace threw an arm over the other's shoulders, his other arm thrusting a victorious punch over their heads. "You won't see me complaining; I wouldn't accept any less. Welcome to the crew! Now let's get you back your swords." Ace turned to the still celebrating marines and whistled sharply.
Later, a long, long while later, Zoro would reflect on this moment, the midday sun beating down on them, a marine tyrant not far and lying completely unconscious, his own body weak from hunger and weariness and he would think that it was completely fitting how the marines all snapped to attention. This, he would think, should have been the clear indication of what would come with this man calling himself simply 'Ace' as his Captain.
After all, what else for the man who would shake the world? What else for the one man to whom the world would bow to?
This, he would think, was the beginning of the man the world would call the King of the Seas, the Pirate King.
There was still a long way to go before that though and there was a lot of growing to do along the way. The most change to come however would come from that man, the one who gathered them together, and gave them a reason and the means to pursue their dreams. The man trapped in a dream, gathering a crew of dreamers to chase their dreams.
Now though, all Zoro could do was throw his head back and laugh at the hilarity of the situation. Yeah, being a member of that man's crew promised to never be boring at least.
Not far from there, a young woman with orange hair stared out the window from where she had been ruffling through the marine captain's desk. She had seen the whole scene, as from the young man with messy black hair appeared over the wall overlooking the yard, to when the marines appeared, and the following fight. She had watched, she had seen, she had heard.
And she snorted.
She knew pirates. She had grown up with them and she knew just how despicable pirates were. Traitorously, for a moment she hoped that those two dreamers would be a different kind of pirates, before she shook herself at the absurdity. Who was she kidding? They might dream big, hold the same kind of dream she once held dear but they were still pirates.
And pirates were scum.
Many, many years later, when the whole world would know their names, those who had been there would look back with a feeling of wonder.
This – this – was the beginning of their legend.
(And a part of them would also ask themselves how they never even noticed the absolute lack of joy and warmth in their own Captain's eyes, even as he smiled and laughed and dragged them into crazy adventures. Never knowing that this same man was trappedtrappedtrapped, living life but not living.
They would all go a long way to grow into the legends they would be known as but the one who would change the most, would be their Captain. Their only Captain.)
AN: I'm not going to strictly keep to the story, to show how things really have changed but there will be similarities.
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