Chapter 9

Sanji was still sitting next to the water, blinking at the sudden daylight again, when he heard talking from behind him.

"Luffy? Did you really eat a Devil Fruit?"

"Uh-huh!"

Turning around he almost stumbled backwards into the water at what he saw. There were two boys, no more than ten years old, sitting next to a large fish skeleton holding a bone each and eating off of it. One had unkempt black hair, freckles on his nose and wore a red tank-top, the other had a big tophat with blue goggles around it, and was wearing a blue tailcoat. "Is tha-"

"No wonder you can't swim." The boy with the blue tailcoat said to a boy who was on his hands and knees a little away from them, he was wearing a strawhat on his back and was drooling like a dog at the other boys.

"Is this-?" Sanji felt his throat go dry.

"Yes, this is how they looked. Are you surprised?" The Shepherd had come to stand next to him; again he wore a fond smile as he watched the scene in front of them.

"Well," Sanji trailed off, "I don't know what I expected really." He watched as the boy in the blue tailcoat tossed the fishtail to Luffy who jumped after it before catching it and holding it like it was a treasure.

"You're too kind, Sabo." Sanji stared at the kid who could only be a younger Ace. He was pretty heavily bandaged, and looking at all of them again, he saw that they all were, "How did they get so banged up?"

"Oh, I am sure you know the answer to your own question," the Shepherd raised an eyebrow at him.

"They've been fighting." Sanji said quietly, and he felt a twinge of pain in his chest at the thought of it.

"Yes, but I believe it has almost always been in good spirit and not out of malicious intent, at least that is what I gather from them here. All though-," He frowned in concentration as he watched the boys, "These wounds are from a fight against someone who were out to harm them." He shook his head slightly, "It is hard to read them when they are mere shadows of the past." The Shepherd smiled sadly at him.

"So, what fruit did you eat?" Sabo had walked over to Luffy who was grinning as he tossed the fishtail in the air.

"The Gum-Gum," Luffy answered before swallowing the fishtail in one go.

Sanji nodded slowly at what the Shepherd had said, but he couldn't help smiling at Luffy's antics, "I see he's always had that talent, I'm not even surprised."

"In exchange for the ability to swim, your body turned to rubber. That's crappy," Ace was picking his teeth with a fish bone and Sanji couldn't help shaking his head at it, Luffy had done that on several occasions too, now he knew where he'd gotten that trait from.

"Hang on, they didn't know he was a rubberman before this?" Sanji looked at the old man confusedly, "But in the last memory Luffy said he would beat Ace, I would have assumed they knew?"

The Shepherd kept his eyes on the boys as Ace continued to mock Luffy's devil fruit, "I believe we are not watching the memories in order, it would seem that this happened before the time in the treehouse." He chuckled as Luffy yelled at Ace while walking towards him, and Sabo holding onto his cheek which was stretching. "I did tell you, time is different here, and we are also not the ones controlling which memory we see, that is the real Ace who does, we are merely following him through them."

Sanji turned his eyes back on the boys as well, and couldn't help chuckle as Luffy was blowing himself up like a balloon and the boys started kicking him around like a ball. "I guess that makes sense."

The words had barely left his lips however before Luffy was kicked hard by Ace and he landed in the water. Sanji's eyes widened in shock as he watched a large crocodile open his jaws around the tiny boy before swallowing him, and to add insult to injury, the crocodile spat out Luffy's strawhat. "Luffy!" Sanji was about to leap after him, but the Shepherd touched his arm gently, and Sanji halted immediately in surprise and looked at him agape.

"There is nothing you can do, let the boys handle this. Watch." He pointed at Ace and Sabo who had jumped after him, their metal staffs held high as they charged the beast. "They might have been young, but they were not helpless, in fact-," they watched as Ace and Sabo managed to jam their staffs into the crocodile's mouth making it unable to close its jaw, before they climbed into it to retrieve Luffy, "they had already become skilled tacticians and fighters, even though they might not have known it at the time."

After the boys had rescued Luffy they had proceeded to kill the beast, tie it up and started carrying it off, Ace holding the head, Sabo the middle, and Luffy the tail. Sanji looked at them curiously before he started walking after them. They hadn't walked far however before a flash of light darted quickly through the forest in his peripheral vision. He stopped and turned his head sharply towards it, but it was gone. He narrowed his eyes; there was definitely something there, what was that?

"What is it?" The Shepherd had stopped next to him and was looking into the woods as well.

"I thought-," Sanji scanned the area he thought he had seen it, but there was nothing. He shook his head, "Never mind, let's go." As he turned around to follow after the boys again however, he saw that they had disappeared. Typical.

"It seems that the memory is over," The Shepherd smiled at him. "We should perhaps still follow the route they were taking?" And before Sanji could say anything he had started walking in the direction he had indicated.

Sanji looked around the forest again, his brow furrowed, he was sure he had seen something. Looking up towards the trail the old man had started on, Sanji suddenly felt something tugging him in that direction as well. It felt like the feeling he had had when he had seen the thread by the pond, though a lot fainter, like it was calling out to him to find it. A small smile ghosted his lips as he joined up with the old man.

"You seem pleased," the Shepherd smiled, "I can only surmise that you have finally noticed your ability to feel the thread as well as seeing it, am I right?"

"You knew I could do that?" Sanji narrowed his eyes at him, "Why didn't you tell me in that in beginning? It would have saved us from aimlessly walking around trying to find the damn thing."

"It was not my place to tell you, and even if I had told you, you would not have been able to sense it," The Shepherd shrugged his shoulders, "It had to come to you organically, the more times you touch the thread, the stronger the bond towards it will become, or so you and others have told me in the past."

"So the more times I touch it, the easier it will be to find the real Ace?"

"Essentially, yes."

"Wonderful."


AN: So I know this is a really short chapter, but it had to be because of the next one. Sorry about that. I'm trying to avoid making the chapters super long.

Please forgive me, and please as always fav/follow and or leave a review if you like it. I would love to hear your thoughts about the story so far.