Ominous
Family
Outlook III scowled at the doctor. "What do you mean you don't know what's wrong with him? How can you not know?" he demanded. "Is it a disease? Did he catch something in that filthy place?"
The old doctor swiped sweat from his forehead, nervously glancing towards the nobles, and leaned forward to check his patient's pulse again. The young blond boy was lying in a bed, pale and unmoving, save for the slow rise and fall of his chest. He had been in this bed since they first brought him in earlier today, but other than looking as though death had visited him, there was no serious outward change in the young boy. His heart rate was a bit erratic and his breathing slightly uneven, but that was it. So why was he frowning even in his unconscious state as if he was in great pain?
"Well—" the doctor started, only to be interrupted by the loud, obnoxious voice of Outlook III's wife, Didit.
"How useless!" she said, stamping her foot. "He hasn't woken up yet and you just keep giving us excuses! What use of him if he continues to be unconscious like this!" She threw her hands on her hips and glared at the young boy, as if expecting him to suddenly snap awake and start being useful. After a moment, she turned to her husband and asked, "Do we still need him now that we have our darling Stelly?"
Outlook III gazed at the sleeping boy, brow furrowed. "He's—" He paused, noticing Sabo's eyes flutter open to reveal slits of color.
Not the usual grey-blue, but red like blood.
Outlook III's face sunk into itself with the force of his frown. His wife screamed. The doctor scrambled away from the bed and the boy in it.
Sabo turned his head, his eyes open a bit more now, still glossy and unfocused. He stared blankly for a few seconds, then let out another groan as if suffering physical pain. "Where… am I?" he asked softly, his breath raspy and weak. The dazed crimson eyes eventually widened as further awareness took root, along with a fair amount of alarm. As more and more alertness set in, the red started to fade from his irises until there was only the usual grey-blue left behind.
Sabo jumped up with a shout at the tip of his tongue, "You..!" but then doubled over, sweat instantly covering his face as he clawed at his chest.
"Aaaaaaaaah!" Didit shrieked at the top of her lungs. "He's infected! What if it's contagious?!" She grabbed Outlook III by his arm. "Get rid of him! Quickly!"
Outlook III's lips pulled into a sneer as he pushed his wife away. "You've been giving me nothing but trouble, Sabo! You're such a bad son!" He motioned to the four guys standing in a hallway, beyond the open door, and they marched in one after another. "As I thought, we were wrong to accept you into our family after all!"
Sabo looked at him in utter shock. "Father, what are you..?" His breath was cut short when the men that just entered the room by his father's command aimed rifles at him. "…F-father?"
Outlook III turned his back to his son, ignoring his frightened and shocked call. "Now, now, don't mind the noise," he said to the doctor, putting his arm around the latter's shoulders and guiding him out of the room after Didit rushed out. "I can see now that my son caught an incurable disease while running around with those wild animals. It also seems that it's contagious, so we have to do what we have to do to stop it from spreading." He pulled a stack of beli and slipped it into the doctor's pocket. "Right?"
"That's right, that's right," The doctor agreed with a hungry gleam in his eyes while pawing the money inside his pocket. "That's what I said, I assure you. I'm happy you understand how dangerous his condition truly is."
Outlook III smiled. He glanced at Sabo over his shoulder for the last time, before ordering the men, "Do it."
Sabo felt the world falling right from underneath him. His father… wanted to kill him. He clenched his teeth, tears springing into his eyes. The pain inside his chest twinged, coming and going in waves. It left him exhausted. He couldn't avoid this. Did he even want to avoid it?
The men cocked their rifles up.
Sabo shrunk into himself, closing his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
The window exploded in a brilliant cloud of glass and debris when two small figures burst through.
"Don't touch Sabo, you bastards!" one of them roared, throwing his pipe at the armed men. It slammed at the mug of one of them, knocking him out in an instant.
Sabo gasped. "Ace! Luffy!" Despite the constant pain, his chest swelled with happiness. They came! They came for him!
"Luffy, three enemies in front!" Ace yelled, already moving towards the bed.
Luffy lunged at the three guards, swiping her claws blindly at them. There was a cloth tied around her head, covering her eyes.
"Wha—Ace!" Sabo cried out. "Luffy can't see!"
"She's gonna be fine," Ace said with absolute certainty. "Come on, Sabo, we need to run." He turned around and kneeled so that the other boy could easily climb onto his back.
"But—"
There was a shout of pain. Sabo's jaw dropped when he saw his father crashing into a wall with a bloody nose. The three guards were on the floor, blood pooling around their unmoving bodies.
"I thought you said three, Ace!" Luffy snapped.
"My bad," Ace shot back. "But can you even count that one loser as something worthy?"
Luffy scrunched her face. "I guess not," she agreed.
Sabo yelped when impatient Ace pulled him onto his back, jumped to his feet, and immediately ran towards the window. "Luffy, over here!"
The girl hurried to his side, almost tripping over one of the downed enemies.
Ace vaulted over the windowsill, landing gracefully on the ground, despite jumping from the third floor. He stepped to the side and a moment later Luffy came down just as easily as her brother. Wordlessly, Ace grabbed her by her hand to guide her and they sprinted through the broken gates and into the street towards the exit to the Gray Terminal.
Sabo passed out right after a short tussle with the gate guards. The kids didn't stop to fight them and instead decided to flee. Now they were running through the Gray Terminal and towards the Mt. Colubo jungle.
There was a strange smell in the air. Something new, something that hadn't been present in the Gray Terminal's stink before, but Ace couldn't quite figure out what exactly it was. He had no time to stop and investigate what bothered him about it, because he had to get Luffy and Sabo out of there as soon as possible.
Ace could feel Sabo's shallow breaths against the skin of his neck and his heart sped up when he realized that his breathing was more labored than before. A quiet, painful whine resounded from inside his soul at that realization.
They needed to speed up, but… Ace glanced over his shoulder. Luffy was barely able to keep up with him as it was. If he increased the pace, blind as she was, she would definitely fall behind.
Ace clenched his teeth, swallowing the curse that threatened to slip out. His hold on Luffy's hand tightened as he sped up.
"Ace!"
"Hurry up, Luffy!" the boy growled back. "Sabo's in a bad shape!"
"Ace! It's gunpowder!"
It took a couple of seconds for that information to sink. Gunpowder? Ace's heart almost jumped straight into his throat. He skidded to a stop, turning to look at Luffy wide-eyed. "What?" he muttered. The weird smell permeated the air and not even the garbage stench could hide it. If that truly was the smell of gunpowder, just how much of it was around? Ace's hands shook as he frantically looked around, not knowing what exactly he had expected to see.
"Ace, we—"
A stunning flash blasted somewhere on the side, then an ear-shattering boom followed by a piercing silence, a rush of hot air, the ground fell away, and the three of them were slammed by some indescribable force.
Ace tasted blood and dirt and ash, his lungs burned, and it took him a few seconds to realize that he had been knocked off his feet and thrown into a trash pile. He shifted, feeling dizzy, his ears ringing. Something slick and warm flowed into his eye. He brushed it off with a growl.
His demon started to purr. The low, steady sound inside his head calmed Ace down and the world came back in a rush like a tsunami.
A second explosion went off somewhere in the distance. And then one more. One blast after another, in rapid succession. Ace saw fireballs rolling up into the darkening sky and a sea of fire rapidly spreading across the trash heaps.
They… They were burning down the Gray Terminal! And the three of them were stuck right in the middle of it!
The thought of his siblings startled Ace out of his dazed stupor. He looked around, panic blazing through his veins like acid and his demon growling, furious that they hurt what was theirs. Ace noticed Sabo just a few feet away. As he was carrying him, they got thrown here together.
Ace struggled out of the garbage pile, ignoring glass and metal shards leaving bloody scrapes and scratches across his arms and knees. He slid to Sabo's side and checked on him with trembling hands. There was a new bleeding cut across his temple, far too close to his eye for Ace's comfort, and a few other small wounds, but otherwise his condition seemed the same as before.
Pulling his brother into his arms, Ace continued to scan his surroundings. The fire grew rapidly, swallowing trash like a hungry beast. More and more screams echoed from all around, residents of the Gray Terminal finally becoming aware of the fire.
Ace's blood ran cold, despite feeling like his skin was about to combust from heat, when he failed to locate Luffy. If only… He gnashed his teeth, standing up on wobbly feet and pulling Sabo onto his shoulder. If only he was able to put his mark on her, he would know where she was right away. He was such a waste of space…
"Luffy!" Ace yelled, wiping off the blood that got into his eye again. "Luffyyyyyy! Say something!" Silence. He moved forward, calling his sister over and over again. She shouldn't have been thrown far, she was standing right next to him, and she—
There!
Spotting a golden straw hat, Ace's mouth twitched into a smile, his demon letting out a happy yip. His smile grew even wider when the straw hat moved and a black, disheveled mop popped up.
Luffy heaved her injured body up, pressing one hand to the side of her head. Blood ran down her other arm. Too much for a light injury, it looked serious.
"Luffy!" Ace screamed again, already sprinting towards her.
The girl lifted her head and squinted in the direction of the voice. The blindfold she used must have been lost during the explosion. "Ace?" she mumbled, staring blankly into the distance. Didn't seem that her eyesight recovered yet.
A shadow suddenly fell over Luffy, a dark silhouette appearing behind her.
A guard from the Goa Kingdom, one of the many that chased them all the way here.
He lifted his arm with a pistol, pure hate smoldering in his eyes as he glared at Luffy.
Ace's heart might as well stopped beating, it sure felt that way. "Luffy! Behind you!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Luffy froze at his tone and sniffed the air. She turned around, unseeing eyes staring straight at the man, fire reflection dancing in her big black irises.
Ace's heart practically beat out of his rib cage.
No, no, nonononononono! He could lose her, couldn't lose his family that he only just gained! He spent the majority of his life without one until these two tore their way into his life and found their place inside his heart. What was the point in being a D if he was too weak to protect his Pack?! Help me, he hissed at his demon, you want her to live just as much as I do, don't you?!
"Just die, you demon!" the guard sneered, finger pressing down on the trigger.
Ace's eyes widened.
A snarl rocked his insides, dark and menacing and much closer than usual. There was a ghost of a feeling of something breathing down his neck; something big and familiar. Ace could almost hear a deep, guttural growl just an inch from his ears, encouraging him, urging him, but not forcing him. It gave him a choice to accept his power or to refuse it.
There was only one answer Ace could offer his demon.
He didn't fight the power that surged from deep within his chest, spreading to his arms, his waist, and his legs, filling Ace's body to the brim. His senses cleared and each muscle and joint was bursting with renewed energy and strength. Raw energy thrummed underneath his skin.
The world around seemed to come to a halt. Fire and smoke froze, suspended in time and space, but all Ace's attention was on the man with the loaded gun pointed at his little sister, and a finger halfway on pressing the trigger.
"Leave Luffy alone!" a roar ripped out of Ace's throat as he sprung forward with a force that surprised even him. He appeared in front of the guard in a blink, eyes glowing red and lips pulled into a snarl, and winded his arm for a punch—
The gun dropped out of the man's hand, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed, foam falling out of his mouth.
Ace blinked. "Huh?"
"A-Ace..?"
The boy spun around instantly, adjusting his hold on Sabo still hanging limply over his shoulder. "Hold on, Luffy," he said, wrapping his arm around her waist. She eeped when he heaved her up and over his second shoulder. He was simply overflowing with energy. Carrying his siblings out of his hell now would not pose a problem at all. "Cover your head. We'll be out of this fire soon."
It was the first time Ace truly felt grateful for being a D. Thanks, he sent to his demon.
A rumble that sounded suspiciously like an overjoyed cackle resounded from within his soul in response.
Ace was panting. Luffy placed her palm on the back of his neck, feeling his skin hot and clammy to the touch. "Ace, I can walk," she insisted, squirming slightly where she was slung over his shoulder. They had left the burning Gray Terminal and now were slowly trudging through the forest.
The boy didn't reply.
"I can even see a little now." Her vision was still blurry, but at least it wasn't painful anymore to keep her eyes open. Her arm hurt though. There was a lot of blood and she could barely move it. It felt broken. When her brother didn't say anything again, Luffy craned her neck, trying to see his face, and quietly called, "Ace?"
Ace stumbled, his grip on his siblings loosening.
A choked scream stuck inside her throat when Luffy landed on her battered arm. She bit her lip to stop herself from letting out any sound. Once her mind cleared a little, she squinted at the blurry blob next to her.
Ace was kneeling, breathing harshly. Sabo lay down on the ground where he fell.
They were in deep trouble. Still too close to the Gray Terminal, still not safe enough, and too injured to defend themselves if someone hostile came across them.
A snap of a wig nearby made both Ace and Luffy scramble to their feet, despite barely being able to keep themselves upright. The moment they focused on the direction where the noise came from, both of them froze in sheer terror.
An unfamiliar adult D was approaching them. They didn't need to see the person to sense a fully matured demon staring straight at them, making their own inner companions cower at the corner of their souls.
This was bad. So bad. Ds were family creatures, regarding the lives of their Pack members above their own. At the same time, they were unpredictable, violent beings who loved a good fight and could rarely get along with their own kind outside their Pack.
"W-we need to run…" Luffy stammered out, blindly reaching for Ace. She fisted her hand into his t-shirt.
Ace tsked under his breath and muttered, "It's too late." A growl in warning left his throat the moment a tall man stepped out of the bushes and into the view. Ace shifted to stand in front of Sabo, at the same time tugging Luffy behind him. "Go away!" he yelled at the stranger. "This is our territory!"
The man was silent for a second before he crouched down and said, "I cannot do that."
Luffy's breath hitched. That voice… She knew it from somewhere. She squinted, but with her injured eyes and in the darkness, she couldn't see his face.
"Luffy. I'm sorry I'm late."
The man's voice spoke to her deepest instincts. Even her demon perked up, letting out a happy yip. "…Dad?" the word tumbled out of her mouth before her brain could even register its meaning.
"That's right."
Luffy couldn't see clearly, but she heard a distinct lilt of a smile in the man's tone. Her eyes watered, her lip trembling. "Daaaaaad!" She rushed forward, bloody and limping, tears flowing down her dirty cheeks. The man caught her in his embrace, pressing her to his chest. Luffy buried her face into the crook of his neck as she wrapped her good arm around it, the other hanging limply at her side. "Where have you been?!" Luffy sobbed, hugging her father with a sort of desperation as if afraid that he would disappear into thin air. "What took you so long…"
"I'm sorry," he murmured into her hair, rubbing soothing circles on her back. "I had some trouble with my demon, but everything's okay now." The said demon encompassed all Luffy's senses, cocooning her into a fold of safety, purring comfort and reassurances to her. "It's okay, don't be afraid. I'm here now."
A thud behind startled Luffy. She whipped her head around and panic flooded her veins upon seeing Ace lying on the ground. "Ace!" she screamed, wiggling in her father's arms until he let her go. She sprinted back to her brothers, but didn't quite know what to do. "Dad! Help them!" she pleaded, fresh tears pouring out. "They're my brothers! Please!"
"Calm down, Luffy," the man said as he approached. Crouching down and wiping her tears off, he smiled. "Everything's going to be alright." He put a hand on Ace's head first for a few seconds. "This one's going to get better after getting some rest. These symptoms are normal after linking with the demon for the first time."
Luffy sniffled. Right. She remembered getting very sick after her first linking as well.
Her father moved his hand to Sabo's head and frowned. "This one, on the other hand, needs some help."
Luffy grabbed her father's sleeve in a deathly grip. "W-what's wrong with Sabo?"
"His demon is hatching only now and it's dangerous without a parental demon's guidance," the man muttered thoughtfully. He shifted the boy so that he would lie on his back. "He has your mark. Did he also drink your blood?"
"Y-yeah… We exchanged sake cups with our blood mixed in."
"Then he'll be alright."
"Really?" Luffy asked, her tone bursting with hope.
Her father nodded. "Because it was awakened by you, I can offer guidance in its parental demon's stead," he explained, rolling one of his sleeves up. Then he bit his wrist and brought it to Sabo's mouth, letting the blood drip in.
Luffy watched his action with a tinge of apprehension. "But…" she trailed off, furrowing her brow in confusion. "But Sabo is human?"
"He never was," her father stated, but before the girl could process what his words meant, he picked her up. "Let's go back home, Luffy."
"My brothers—"
"Of course, they'll come with us. This island isn't safe for them anymore."
Luffy's face lit up, mouth stretching into a smile. Putting her head on her dad's shoulder, she watched as he carefully slung Ace over his shoulder, then picked Sabo, and started walking. Her eyes grew heavier with every passing second, wounds finally taking a toll on her and her mind unwinding now that she felt safe.
A minute later, the girl was already asleep.
Sabo woke up to a sound of a quiet growl. He lay there, trying to discern where it was coming from. It almost seemed as if it came from somewhere inside his head. Brushing this thought off as nonsense, he looked around.
He was in a room that looked like a small infirmary. Not the one in Foosha village though. After spending so much time there, Sabo would have recognized that place immediately. So, where was he exactly? The last thing he recalled was passing out as Ace carried him into the Gray Terminal, but judging by the soft swaying, he appeared to be on a ship now. What exactly happened?
Doors opened and Sabo shot up into a sitting position, so he could defend himself easier.
"Sabo!" Luffy and Ace both exclaimed from the doorway. "You're awake!"
Sabo blinked at his siblings. They both had bandages and plasters around various parts of their bodies, one of Luffy's arms appeared to be in a sling, but otherwise, they looked fine. A weird feeling of contentment filled him and he shuddered at the strange emotion that he was sure wasn't his but seemed to bleed over from somewhere, muted but real. There also was some sort of uncanny presence around his siblings, as if someone else was in a room beside the three of them.
Sabo ignored all of it with a stubborn fervor. Perhaps he hit his head and now was seeing hallucinations. No need to scare the two worrywarts over something so trivial. He smiled at the two Ds. "Ace, Luffy, I'm glad you're both okay."
Luffy's eyes watered. "Saboooo!" She crashed into him, eliciting a muffled 'oof' out of him as he managed to catch her before she sent them both out of the bed and onto the floor. She wrapped her arms around his torso, hiding her face against his stomach. "I'm so sorry! You can't be my brother anymore!"
Sabo's chest tightened. "W-what?" He felt breathless all of a sudden. "Why?"
"Because you're my son!"
Sabo stared at the girl, his head now completely empty. What— What the— What just— What? "Wh... Huh?" was all he could squeeze out, unable to form even a single coherent thought.
Ace's fist slammed down on top of Luffy's head as he shouted, "Don't scare him like that, moron!"
"B-but..!" Luffy finally straightened, rubbing her head. "That's what Dad said!"
"There's no way Dragon said that!"
"He said that I awakened Sabo and that his parents should have done that!"
"That doesn't mean you're his mom now!"
"But I caused it!"
Sabo grabbed both of their shoulders and pushed them apart. "Wait, stop!" he ordered and two Ds complained, but not before growling at each other for the last time. "What—what are you even talking about?"
Ace stared at him with a scowl. Rubbing the back of his neck, he sighed. "It turns out, you're also a D, Sabo."
Sabo stared and stared and stared. "Come again?"
This time, Luffy repeated, "You're also one of Ds."
"That—" Sabo shook his head with a wry smirk. "That's impossible."
"It's not impossible," a new voice chimed in.
Three of them looked up and Sabo instantly went rigid at the sight of an adult walking into a room. A tall middle-aged man with spiky black hair and a red tattoo on the left side of his face, dressed in a long green cloak.
Though it wasn't the stranger's rough appearance that sent Sabo's heart into overdrive. It was something—a beast, an entity, a demon—that he couldn't see, but knew was there with absolute certainty. Like his eyes couldn't quite see the full reality in front of him.
"Dad!" Luffy cheered.
"Dragon," Ace nodded as a greeting.
"I've heard about cases like yours before," Dragon said as he slowly walked to the bed and reached for Sabo. "Though survival rate is low, it's not non-existent."
The boy flinched when the man's big, warm hand landed on his head. He didn't know how he knew, but the thing that accompanied this man was staring at him. It sent a terrible chill down his spine.
"How's Sabo, Dad?" Luffy asked, inching closer to her blond brother. "He doesn't look good…"
Dragon hummed, dropping his hand to his side. "He's out of danger now, simply overwhelmed by his new senses."
A different hand touched his cheek. Sabo flinched again and whipped his head, meeting Luffy's face, her expression brimming with concern. "Dad's not going to hurt you," she murmured, gazing straight into his eyes.
"It's going to take a while for you to get used to it," the man—Dragon, Luffy's father—noted from another side of the room where he moved after checking on Sabo. "Your entire sensory faculty might be jumbled because your body, mind, and soul are completely out of sync at the moment."
"Oh…"
"Everything's going to be okay," Ace assured, squeezing Sabo's shoulder in a sign of his support. "We'll teach you!"
"Yeah!" Luffy agreed.
Sabo cracked a tight smile. Another wave of emotions that weren't his spread through his being and he suddenly realized that it must be his demon.
He had a demon inside his soul.
Such a strange notion to get used to.
"But… how is that possible?" he questioned, looking back at the man.
Dragon crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. "I sent my people to investigate," he began. "About eleven years ago, a passing merchant vessel picked a pregnant woman from the shipwreck. They brought her into the Goa Kingdom with them. There, she gave birth to a healthy boy, but passed away right after." He paused, letting the boy digest this information. "On the same day, there was another baby born. However, due to his disfigurement, it seemed that he was abandoned by his parents."
Three pairs of eyes widened, easily connecting the dots.
As I thought, we were wrong to accept you into our family after all!
"So, they… weren't my real parents?" Sabo whispered, waiting for a reply with bated breath.
Dragon nodded. "Hospital records say they weren't."
"They didn't look like you at all," Ace pointed out.
"Ah!" Luffy perked up before she grinned. "No wonder your blood sang differently than theirs!"
"Thank god!" Sabo sprawled on his bed, relief turning his bones into jelly. He wasn't related to those people! But he had a connection with Ace and Luffy now! Just these two thoughts brought a wide grin to his face.
"Shishishishi!"
"Your real mother passed away before she could help with the hatching of your demon, so it stayed dormant throughout all these years," Dragon continued and Sabo sat up again to listen. "It wouldn't have stayed in that state for much longer, however, without a parental demon's guidance you would have died."
Sabo paled at the news.
"But Dad helped you!" Luffy cheered, falling onto Sabo to hug him and almost bringing him back down. Ace bonked her over her head again with a stern, "Be more careful."
A corner of Dragon's lips twitched into a smile as he watched the kids. "Luckily, Luffy awakened it from its slumber by coincidence and forged a connection with my lineage. Your demon accepted mine and hatched successfully," he finished.
He still didn't fully understand this situation, but either way… Sabo bowed his head. "Thank you."
"Wait!" Luffy screamed suddenly, shooting up from there she was laying with her arms wrapped around Sabo's waist. "If your demon accepted my dad, doesn't that mean he's your dad now too?" Everyone looked at her in surprise. "So that means you can continue being my brother!" She dived back into hugging her brother with a peal of merry laughter.
Sabo couldn't help but laugh as well. Ace sighed with a muttered, "He was always your brother, idiot."
"Ne, ne, Sabo," Luffy peered at him from below, a Cheshire-like grin slowly growing on her face. "You don't know your real family's name, so how about taking mine?"
"W-what?"
Luffy twisted around to look at her father and asked, "You don't mind, right, Dad?"
Dragon smirked, his expression tinge with amusement. "I don't."
"Shishishishi… So, what do you think? Monkey D. Sabo?"
A/N
…aaaaaand we're done with childhood arc! Yeaaah! I told you I'll end it in this chapter! Next time, we're gonna see Zoro! I'm excited ^^
Thank you all who read and especially those who spent a minute to write a comment! Love you all!