Another Nakama Omakes

Disclaimer: The following is a fan made work of fiction. One Piece is owned by Funimation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV, Shueisha, Shonnan Jump Manga, and Eiichiro Oda. I do not own One Piece or any of its characters, I'm writing this omake for my own amusement.

A/N: Here's another of my 'Another Nakama Omakes' Requests. This one is by GoddessOfNight08 who wanted to see a young Ricky and Ace swindling people on Mount Crovo. This one's tricky as it does technically happen before the story starts but we don't learn about Sabo or Luffy and Ace becoming brothers until after the war. One of my conditions was that I didn't want to do Omakes that took place beyond where I currently am in the story but I hate to disappoint my fans so I decided to make it a simple childhood flashback and just exclude Sabo since I don't want to introduce him in an Omake. So this Omake takes place after the prologue during the short happy time when Ace, Sabo, Ricky, and Luffy are all living together.

Childhood Omake:

Sneaky Siblings:

-x-

Dawn Island was known as one of the biggest islands in the East Blue. Not only was it the location of Foosha Village where Luffy had first eaten the Gum Gum Fruit and had his encounters with 'Red Hair' Shanks and the Mountain Bandit Higuma 'the Bear' but further inland up a large mountain called Mt. Crovo was an entire kingdom! Goa Kingdom was a large round city surrounded by high walls and a junkyard area known as the 'Gray Terminal'. The section closest to the Gray Terminal was a seedy neighborhood known as Edge Town, further inward was the slightly wealthier Town Center where there was an opening in the walls that gave the kingdom access to the sea, and finally even further inward surrounded by another section of wall was High Town the location of the Royal Palace.

Following their adventure with Shanks and the Mountain Bandits, Luffy's Grandpa had taken the two boys to live with a clan of mountain bandits on Mt. Corvo that was on the other side of the Gray Terminal from Goa Kingdom. It was there that they met their older brother Ace and eventually Sabo as well.

At this moment, a ten year old Porgaz D. Ace and a nearly nine two-eyed Ricky had just crossed the Gray Terminal and had slipped into Goa Kingdom.

"So why'd you bring me here?" Ricky asked as he followed Ace down a seedy street in Edge Town. At age ten Ace didn't have his signature orange hat which showed his full head a slightly messy black hair. He wore an orange sleeveless shirt with kanji on the front and a pair of yellow shorts. At nearly nine Ricky's wild red hair was getting bushier, he wore a green t-shirt and a simple pair of black pants.

"Because I'm getting tired of hunting for all our food in the jungle," Ace answered, "I wanna have a nice meal for once."

"Then why bring me?" Ricky questioned.

"Because we'll need money to pay for it," Ace told him, "And you're the best swindler I know."

"Ooh… okay," Ricky said with a sly grin. "I've got a few thousand berries we can start with… let's head for the Town Center."

"Why there?" Ace inquired.

"The people have more money and will be more likely to part with it," Ricky explained, "We'll start off going for sympathy. And nothing's more sympathetic than a pair of sad good-natured orphans. This'll be embarrassing, but here's what we do…"

-x-

"WAAAAAAAAHH!" Ricky cried as he and Ace stood together staring in the window of a jewelry store.

"Oh dear, what's the matter?" a slightly chubby woman asked. She'd been walking by when her attention was drawn by Ricky's crying.

"We… don't… have… enough… moooneeeyy…" Ricky whined through his sobs.

"Y'see, we're orphans," Ace explained, "We came here to buy a present for our foster mother... but they raised the price on the necklace we wanted to buy so now we don't have enough…"

"Oh my… how much do you have?" the woman questioned.

"F-forty th-thousand…" Ricky stammered. They only really had fifteen thousand. "But… but now they raised the price to fiiiiftyyyyy…"

"We've been saving up for weeks," Ace continued, "but just when we had enough they raised the price." Ace leaned over to whisper to the woman, "I think they did it on purpose. They've seen us staring at it."

The woman frowned, "So they think they can cheat children, do they?" she growled. "Wait here boys…" Ace and Ricky watched through the window as the woman stormed into the store and yelled at the owner. They really had gone in an attempted to buy a necklace that had recently had its price raised but didn't have enough so when that part of that part of their sob-story turned out to be true the chubby woman became enraged. The confrontation ended when the terrified owner sold the necklace to the angry woman for half price to keep her from 'telling her friends' negative things, like how he'd tried to cheat a pair of poor, innocent orphan children, that would ruin his business. "And let that be a lesson to you!" With that last shout the woman stormed out and handed the necklace package to Ace, "Here you go boys, for your foster mother."

Ricky wiped away his crocodile tears, "WOW! THANKS LADY! YOU'RE THE BEST!"

"Happy to help boys," the woman replied before she headed off.

"Don't you feel bad about that nice lady giving up her money?" Ace whispered.

"When she tells this story to her friends she'll look like a Saint," Ricky reassured him, "I told you, nothing's more sympathetic that a pair of sad good-natured orphans. Now let's go pawn this necklace off for the full price…"

-x-

"I can't believe he bought that sob story," Ace remarked as he and Ricky left a pawn shop in Edge Town sixty thousand berries richer.

"Saying something's a family heirloom adds sentimental value to it," Ricky told him, "by telling him our mother had sent us to pawn it off so she could afford to feed us, he added the extra ten thousand berries to its actual value."

"Is seventy-five thousand berries enough to buy a large meal for the four of us?" Ace wondered.

"Not with the way you and Luffy eat," Ricky replied, "but it is enough to gamble with…"

They rounded a corner and saw a shady man sitting at a table shuffling around three cards.

"That one," another man said as he pointed to one of the cards.

"Sorry, that's wrong," the shady man stated as he flipped a different card to reveal the Queen of Hearts. "The Queen was here."

"Just try to talk me down," Ricky whispered to Ace then he ran up to the table while the other man cursed to himself. "WOW! Is that some kind of game?"

"Get lost kid," the shady man snapped, "This is a game for adults with money."

"I'VE got money!" Ricky exclaimed as he pulled out the wad of seventy-five thousand berries. "Can I play now?"

Seeing the large wad of money and his innocent prey the Three Card Monte quickly agreed, "Okay, kid, I'll let you play."

"Don't do it kid," the other man warned him, "He'll take your money."

"Hey, let the boy make his own decisions," the shady man protested, "He looks like a smart kid, aren't ya?"

"Yup, I'm sure I'll win," Ricky replied.

"Okay then the game's called Three Card Monte," the shady man explained then held up the Queen of Hearts. "All you have to do is find the red Queen… and I'll double the money you give me. But if you can't get it, I get to keep it."

"Okay… I'll bet fifty…" Ricky said as he put down a large portion of the wad in his hand.

"Ricky… that's a lot of money…" Ace pointed out, "What if you lose?"

"I won't lose," Ricky assured him, "All I have to do is guess the right card. I can do that."

The shady man grinned as he flipped the Queen over and began shuffling the three cards around the table. As it went on, he picked up speed until the cards were practically a blur until eventually, he stopped.

"That one!" Ricky decided as he pointed to the card on the right.

The Three Card Monte's eyes widened as he flipped the card to reveal the Queen of Hearts. "You got it…" the man clearly looked surprised but when he spotted some people across the street he decided to make the most of it. "WOW KID! YOU"RE GOOD AT THIS GAME! Here are your winnings… now… do you wanna play again?"

"Now I have one hundred twenty five thousand berries…" Ricky noted, "Since I won I bet I can win again. Here, double this!" Ricky slid the entire pile across the table.

"WHOA!" the man exclaimed drawing the crowd across the street. "You've got some big balls little man."

"I don't know Ricky…" Ace warned him, "You won once but that was probably luck. What if you don't get lucky again?"

"Yeah… but what if I do?" Ricky countered. "We'll have two hundred fifty thousand berries."

"I'll make you a deal," the shady man offered, "Even if you lose, I'll give you back fifty thousand berries." The crowd murmured at the Three Card Monte's generosity. Fifty thousand berries was chump change compared to the big score the man would make off the crowd. "Are you ready. kid?"

"You bet!" Ricky exclaimed.

"You can do it kid!" a man in the crowd encouraged him.

The Three Card Monte flipped the Queen over and began shuffling the three cards around even faster than before. Only this time he put in all his fancy tricks, he stacked them and used all sorts of sleight of hand to make the cards hard to follow. Eventually, he stopped.

"That one," Ricky announced as he pointed to the card in the middle.

The shady man shook his head and tipped it upward to reveal a Three of Clubs, "Sorry kid," he said, "You lose. But don't worry, I'll give back your fifty thousand berries."

"Ricky, I told you this was a bad idea," Ace scolded him.

"No! Not that card!" Ricky protested, "The one you stacked on top of it!"

The Three Card Monte's eyes went wide as did the eyes of all the people in the crowd. The angry man that had lost before grabbed the Three of Clubs and peeled off the Queen of Hearts that the shady dealer had hidden on top of it.

"Uh… that's right!" the shady man quickly exclaimed as the crowds eyes narrowed in anger, "Uh… here are your winnings!" He quickly slid Ricky's money and the money he'd won over to him in a desperate attempt to do some damage control. "I told you that you were good at this game… Haha…ha…ha…"

"HE'S A CHEAT!" the angry man shouted.

"But who would cheat a pair of orphan kids?" Ace chimed in.

"Orphans?" a man repeated. The crowd got even angrier while the Three Card Monte tried to sneak away from the table. "GET HIM!"

While the shady man was chased away by the angry mob, Ricky and Ace both wore sly grins as they walked away with two hundred fifty thousand berries.

"Okay now we have enough to buy a nice meal," Ricky concluded.

That night, Luffy, Ricky, Sabo, and Ace ate like Kings.

-x-

And there you go. With a little teamwork and a lot of Ricky magic they turned fifteen thousand berries into two hundred fifty thousand.

Important Author's Note: I have a bit of bad news. The left third of my laptop screen is shot. And while the other two thirds work well enough for me to write, it still needs to be fixed. I'm sending my laptop in to be repaired but I'm not sure how long it will take. I have my files saved on a flash drive but I don't think I'll be able to update Another Nakama III until I get my laptop back. Sorry to disappoint.

'Till next time…

Peace!