Warnings: Dark themes, lots of mentions of death, strong language, human experimentation, experimenting on children, child abduction, graphic descriptions of experimenting, lots of needles, lots of violence, poor descriptions of panic attacks, descriptions of blood, rated M for safety.
*If I need to add anymore warnings please tell me in the reviews or a PM and I'll be sure to add it!*
Chapter 71: New Bounties
The next day, things started off relatively calm. The brothers woke up easily, blessed with a night of dreamless sleep, and Luffy told them Teach was once again no longer on the ship, which was fantastic news. The three left their room, deciding they wanted to go to the deck to hang out until breakfast was ready. Like usual there weren't a lot of crew members out and about, most still trying to get a few more minutes of sleep. A few commanders were out, as well as Whitebeard, so the brothers decided to sit close by to them.
Marco and Izo were in the middle of a conversation together, as well as Jiru and Jozu, and Haruta was sitting against Whitebeards chair, polishing his sword. When the brothers walked over, everyone greeted them happily, to which they replied with greetings of their own before sitting with Haruta.
"How has your morning been so far my sons?" Whitebeard asked them collectively. The three of them still didn't quite know how they felt about the term that Whitebeard referred to them as, but they didn't say anything about it. They also hadn't called him Oyaji or Pops as everyone else did, and they didn't know if they ever would.
"Not bad so far. We slept pretty well." Sabo said with a smile.
"I'm glad. Would you three mind teaching me a few more of those taps of yours? I think they could be helpful in the future." Whitebeard asked, smiling warmly to them. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy all shared a glance with each other but found no harm in it.
"I can help you like last time!" Luffy said happily with a grin, stretching his arms up to grab onto the arm of Whitebeards chair, sitting near the giant's hand so he would be able to help the Captain tap.
"Gurarara! Sounds good to me." Whitebeard laughed. The Commanders that were present had stopped what they were doing, asking if they could join. After all, if their Captain knew these taps, it would be beneficial for them to know them as well. Besides, they were all interested in the silent language the brothers had created and wanted to know more about it.
And so Sabo and Ace split the group in two, each of them demonstrating for those in their group and showing them how to do the taps correctly. They taught them all a few phrases they'd yet to teach them, and at one point, they're names came up.
"How do you signal each other's names to each other?" Jiru asked, curious.
"Ah, well, at first, when we weren't that good at the language, we spelled them out. For example, Ace, we would tap the sign for A, then C, then E, but it got confusing for people with longer names. Now we've created their own shortcuts. Again, for example, Ace. Instead of spelling his name, we start to sign the word fire, but near the end we give a sharper tap, to indicate we mean it as Aces name. The same goes for Luffy and the word rubber and for me its the word smart." Sabo said, showing them the taps as he said them, the Commanders watching in fascination.
"Whenever we meet someone new, we spell their name to each other until we know more about them and can shorten their names with words. For example, Thatch, we use the word cook. Marco is Phoenix, which we also had to create a new tap for seeing as we'd never needed to use that word before, and Whitebeard is giant." Sabo continued, showing them the taps.
"That's pretty clever." Jozu commended, making the brothers smile at the praise. The groups' attention turned to the sky when they heard the news coo arriving, and a few commanders signaled for a paper. The brothers watched as they received the news, paying the bird and watched it fly away.
"Oh my," Izo said, eyebrows raised in response at the front page.
"What is it?" Haruta asked, not having bought himself a paper.
"You three made front page again, yoi," Marco said with a sigh, and the brothers felt that it wasn't anything good.
"Oh yeah?" Ace asked, frowning. Izo opened his paper, pulling out what looked to be updated and new wanted posters.
"Look at these." He said, raising three of the pages and showing them their own wanted posters. Instead of an empty spot for a picture, they each had their faces plastered on the paper, shocking the brothers, and they had been raised 50 million for a grand total of 150 million.
"Of course they found us." Ace growled out, anger quick to raise its ugly head.
"Be grateful they don't know our names," Sabo muttered, staring at his own picture.
"Yet." Ace grumbled back bitterly.
"It was bound to happen eventually Ace," Sabo said, trying to calm his temperamental older brother. Luffy was silent where he sat next to Whitebeards' hand, face not giving way to his emotions on the subject.
It was obvious where the pictures had been taken and that whoever took them was a little far away, a bit of the festival showing in the background, showing that it had been when they were playing games. Luffy was showing a classic D grin, eyes closed and arms in the air, hat proudly on his head, Ace was smirking in his picture, arms crossed over his chest and hat shadowing one of his eyes, and Sabo's picture was taken at a three-quarter view, showing that he was also grinning in his picture.
"The article says they know you're apart of our crew now, as well as emphasizing that you're as dangerous as ever among other things," Jozu said with a hint of a scowl on his face, eyes skimming through the article quickly.
"Of course it does. Explains the rise in bounty too." Sabo said with a sigh. Beside him, Ace was practically fuming.
"Calm down Ace, do you want to influence Luffy?" Sabo asked with a small glare, trying to keep his own annoyance with his brother to a minimum. Looking over, the group saw that Luffy was looking down, seeming to be concentrating. As usual, the mention of Luffy snapped Ace out of it, and he swallowed down the anger.
"Is it easy to influence him?" Jozu asked in concern.
"Not usually no, especially if he has distractions or other feelings he can focus on, but Aces anger tends to get out of control to the point that it can be a bit overwhelming for Luffy," Sabo said, still watching Luffy carefully. He seemed to be doing ok now that Ace had calmed down. His lips, which had been pressed thin, were now back to normal, only slightly downturned.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Jiru asked, and Sabo turned his attention to the Commanders who all looked worried for his brother.
"Yes, but its a bit difficult to explain. Basically, you need to convince yourself to feel a certain emotion, particularly good ones like happiness. If you feel happy, or peaceful, or calm Luffy can pick up on it and use it to calm down." Sabo said, doing just that himself and sending Luffy peaceful, calm feelings while Ace tried doing the same beside him. It seemed Luffy was feeling better now, and Sabo cursed the marines once again for being able to have so much power over the brothers.
His thoughts were interrupted when the announcement that breakfast was made sounded. Everyone out on deck began shuffling to the galley, the commanders, brothers, and captain still sitting.
"Well anyways, they still don't know your names, so that's good," Jiru said with a cough, trying to ease the tension that had arisen during their conversation. Sabo sighed, Ace scowled and Luffy shifted a bit, but otherwise was fine. With that, their group began heading to breakfast as well, the rest of the commanders appearing and joining them as well.
The tension left with the addition of the rest of the commanders as well as food being able to distract them and new conversations began sprouting up. Thatch joined their table eventually and gladly joined in on the chatter around him. Luffy looked to be feeling better if the smile on his face was any indicator, and Ace was even joining in on a conversation with a couple of the commanders too.
"No way, I don't believe it," Haruta said with a firm shake of his head, many other commanders agreeing with him. Ace merely shrugged, a smug grin on his face.
"Doesn't matter if you believe it or not, it's true." Ace said, eating another mouthful of food. Beside him, Luffy was snickering while continuing to stuff his own face, and Sabo was grinning widely as well.
"What kind of East Blue Island has animals that large?" Rakuyo asked skeptically.
"Ours." Ace said simply.
"Remember that one time we found that giant boar! Shishishi, it almost got you Ace." Luffy laughed, Sabo beginning to laugh as well. Ace turned a glare on the youngest, pausing in eating his food.
"That's only because you-" Sabo instinctively reached his hand out past Luffy, catching his brother's head before it could fall into his food. Luffy continued laughing as if nothing had happened, and the commanders and Whitebeard blinked in shock.
"Is he ok?" Atmos asked as Sabo moved the food away from Aces' place, putting the eldest's head on the table.
"Yeah, it's just his narcolepsy. He'll be awake again soon." The blonde said, satisfied that his brother wouldn't get hurt now and returning to his own food.
"One time, Ace fell out of the tree we were hiding in and Jii-chan found him! Me and Sabo ran away before we saw what happened." Luffy said, remembering the day easily.
"How did you know he was about to fall asleep?" Whitebeard asked, curious. The way Sabo caught his brother made it seem as if there had been some warning beforehand.
"When Ace has a sleep attack his emotions get all weird, and then they get all fuzzy, like when someone falls asleep," Luffy explained.
"Luffy usually warns me that it will happen, and if we're lucky, Ace himself can signal he's about to fall asleep, but that's not always the case," Sabo added.
"That's pretty handy-"
"-Brought it back to the treehouse!" Ace suddenly exclaimed, head shooting up from the table and scaring a few of the Commanders, namely Thatch who nearly fell off the bench.
"Welcome back," Sabo said without skipping a beat, taking a bite of eggs.
"How long?" Ace asked, rubbing his head and blinking his eyes a few times.
"Only a minute," Luffy said, still grinning happily as he finished his food, stealing bits of Aces.
"Oi, you little twerp, that's mine!" Ace said, scuffing Luffy on the back of the head, eliciting more laughs from Luffy who didn't mind in the slightest. There were some chuckles around them from those watching the interaction, but Ace ignored them and opted to finish his food before Luffy could grab anymore.
"Luffy, you know it's not nice to steal from Ace when he's having a sleep attack." Sabo scolded, though didn't look all that serious about it.
"Gee, real convincing there Sabo," Ace muttered, scowling. Sabo sent him another smile and laughed once more before finishing his food as well.
"If I thought Luffy would actually listen then I would try harder, but you and I both know that when it comes to food and Luffy he makes his own rules," Sabo said, placing his empty plates on top of Luffy's, and then those onto Aces, before handing them to Thatch.
"In any case, it was nice talking with all of you," Sabo said, the three of them standing and saying their goodbyes. The commanders and Captain said their goodbyes as well, and then the brothers left, heading towards the infirmary.
They had spoken about whether they wanted to continue their sessions with Whiskey, and after talking for a bit about it, they decided it would be best if they did. They were all pleasantly surprised at the way Whiskey handled the talks with them and found that they didn't mind talking to her all that much. If they got past all of the nervousness and anxiety they felt about nurses in general, then it would probably be a whole lot easier, but as it was now, they just had to push through that part of it.
They wanted to get better. They wanted to be able to accept a nurses, or a doctors help. They wanted to do a lot of things that they now couldn't thanks to the facility. The only way they found that they could do that, was if they went through with the help Whiskey was offering to give them.
Once they were in the infirmary they found the head nurse and went straight toward her. They told her they wanted to continue the sessions, and she scheduled a time later that week that they could talk to her. The whole interaction only took a handful of minutes, but by the time they were heading back out onto the deck, many were finishing up with their breakfast.
"Hey Ace, Sabo, Luffy!" Haruta called from where he was sitting with Atmos.
"Yeah?" Ace asked as they walked over to him.
"I need you to settle an argument between Atmos and me," Haruta said, a look of annoyance on his face.
"An argument?" Ace asked, all of the brothers equally confused.
"Haruta had this theory a while ago that Sabo listens in still whenever your names are mentioned. Half the commanders are divided on whether they think you do, or whether you don't." Atmos explained, obviously on the side that believed they didn't.
"Yeah, so which is it? Cause if I were you, I would totally be listening in. Well, honestly, I would probably listen in even if I wasn't mentioned... but only in certain cases I guess." Haruta said, thinking of all the blackmail he could get on Thatch. Imagine all the sweets he could make Thatch make for him in exchange for him keeping his mouth shut.
He shook those thoughts away.
"Well, honestly, it's a bit fifty-fifty. Sometimes I'll listen if it seems important, but most times lately I just let it go. Like I said before, I'm not exactly a big fan of listening in on people, but sometimes I can't really help it." Sabo answered with a shrug. It was true though, because at night, after waking up from a nightmare, when most of the Moby is quiet, there will be the few on watch that have conversations together, and its a lot harder to block them out when there's nothing else to listen to.
"Wait... so we're both wrong... and right?" Haruta asked.
"Guess so." Sabo said, smiling to the two.
"I'll take that," Atmos said happily, Haruta nodding in agreement. They thanked the brothers before heading off, and the trio decided to go sit by Whitebeard again. Marco, as usual, was at his Captain's side, watching over the crew, and Blamenco was there as well, finishing his own conversation with Whitebeard before deciding to sit and relax as well.
"Welcome back." Whitebeard greeted as they sat down.
"Hi, Mr. Whitebeard!" Luffy cheered, waving to the giant as he sat inbetween his brothers.
"Did you have a talk with Whiskey?" He asked, having watched the brothers leave the infirmary.
"Yeah. We're gonna be using the upper deck again later this week." Ace replied, trying to get used to actually replying to the pirates. Normally they left it up to Sabo to converse for them, but now that they were apart of the crew, he wanted to be better at having his own conversations and not relying on Sabo all the time.
"That's fine, as long as its helping you boys, I don't mind," Whitebeard said sincerely, making the brothers feel warm. With that, a new conversation began between the brothers and the two commanders, Whitebeard merely watching with a smile. Blamenco was talking to them, wanting to know more about their abilities, and occasionally Marco would ask a question of his own. The brothers didn't mind sharing more about themselves, not like they used to, so it was easy for them to respond and explain the different nuances that came with having heightened senses.
"So you can see really far, and you can see in the dark?" Blamenco clarified, Ace nodding.
"Yup. Everything looks a bit dim, like when you wear sunglasses, but other than that, it looks just like morning even when it's dark out." Ace said.
"Doesn't that make it harder to sleep? Because its never dark?" Marco asked curiously.
"Nah, not really. I've had enhanced eyesight for years. It was kind of annoying at first, but everything's dark once you close your eyes so it's not that big a deal." Ace said with a shrug.
"Yeah, and it means Ace can find my hat for me when I lose it at night!" Luffy said, pulling the brim of his hat down at the sides of his head, smiling brightly. There had been more than one occasion where Luffy woke up and wanted the hat, only to find that he couldn't feel it when he'd reach his hand out for it.
"You have a habit of knocking it the table." Ace said with a sigh and a shake of his head, knowing there were more nights to come with Luffy waking him up out of his sleep to find the straw hat. It usually resulted in waking Sabo up too, because with Ace the closest to the wall, it meant he had to climb over his sleeping brother to get a look at the floor next to their beds.
"Nuh-uh! Its gotta be Sabo, cause he's on the end!" Luffy said with a pout as he pointed to the blonde accusingly. The blonde was the one to sleep on the end near the nightstand, Luffy in the middle and Ace, as mentioned before, closest to the wall. Sabo looked offended by the accusation.
"Um, excuse me, but did you forget your rubber? You're the one who knocks it down every time you stretch your arm too far in your sleep." Sabo said, pinching Luffy's cheek and pulling, a playful glare on his face. Luffy looked confused for a second, like he didn't really understand, which only made Sabo huff in annoyance and shake his head, knowing Luffy would probably just continue blaming him.
The interaction made their onlookers laugh, enjoying how open the brothers were becoming compared to how they used to be. When they had first met the brothers, they never would have imagined that they would ever get to this point, where they could ask a question and get an actual answer, where they could see the brothers truly relax around them. They had understood why the brothers had been so cautious about everything they did, but that didn't mean they weren't hoping for this to happen one day.
Watching the three continue joking around and laughing with them was something they wanted to have forever. They wanted the brothers to always feel this comfortable around them.
And if they had to fight a few marines for it, they would.
Well, its not Monday, but here's another chapter! I swore I uploaded this yesterday, and then at around one in the morning I realized I hadn't. Super sorry about that! I didn't want to leave you guys hanging right after I announced I'd be doing double uploads, so I decided to just go ahead and upload this today, especially seeing as I had the chapter all ready to go for yesterday.
It was more of a lighthearted chapter today. I wanted to have some more scenes of the brothers bonding with the crew, hence most of this chapter. I also wanted to address the new bounty poster in this chapter too. Their picture has been taken and everyone knows what they look like, but their names are still- for now- a mystery to the world.
I hope you all enjoyed this little extra update! I'll see you all, for sure, on Friday with the next chapter. I won't forget this time. I promise.
If I do, you all have permission to yell at me.
Thank you all so much for all your support! I wouldn't be able to do this without you guys. See you on Friday!