Chapter 15

"It is, however, nice to finally meet you Ace," The Shepherd smiled warmly at him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Shepherd." Ace bowed respectfully.

Sanji couldn't help starting at Ace, the last few hours had been such an emotional rollercoaster and so thoroughly confusing, he didn't even know what to say.

"I'm guessing you're here because of Halloween, right?"

The Shepherd nodded, "I am glad to know you are aware of it, though I would prefer it if you would call it by its proper name, Samhain. No matter though, we are here on business to ask if you are willing to meet with your brother again? He is still grieving, and, as I have understood, feels an immense amount of guilt because of the circumstances of your death."

Ace looked at Sanji, his eyes shining with worry, "Is it true? Is Luffy still beating himself up over it?"

Sanji nodded slowly before he shook his head, shaking himself out of the stupor, "Yeah-," He sighed and looked at Ace sadly, "He barely sleeps, and when he does he's got nightmares, he zones out more often than he used to as well. He's gotten stronger though, like insanely much stronger. I think that he trained like hell over the last two years so he wouldn't have to deal with the emotional stuff." He relit the cigarette he'd been chewing on for the last few hours, unable to keep the cravings at bay anymore. He had tried to save it as he had no idea how long they would be there. He only had eight left including the one he was holding, and he wanted them to last for as long as possible. "Now that we're all together again, we're trying our best to help him, but we don't really know what to do, to be honest." He looked at the ground, feeling shame wash over him, "I'm so sorry Ace, we promised you we'd keep him safe, and we failed."

Ace nodded with a sad look on his face. "I knew it was a lot to ask of you to keep him safe. I mean, you've only seen a fraction of what we were like as kids. And I haven't shown you any of the more dangerous stuff we did at all." He gestured to the area around them, "The memory I just showed you was the first time I truly started to care for Luffy in some way," A fond smile ghosted his lips, "I should probably tell you the circumstances around it though." He chuckled. "I'm sorry I put you in the middle of that memory without any context, but it was pretty funny seeing your face."

Sanji took a deep drag of his cigarette, "It was pretty shitty of you. I'm still annoyingly confused about the whole thing. I've never seen Luffy act like that before. Just what the fuck happened?"

Ace walked over and plopped down on the boulder where Luffy had been sitting. "Well. As you saw in the memory when Luffy first arrived at Dadan's, I couldn't stand him. In fact I hated practically anything and everyone back then, except for Sabo that is, he was the only friend I had. But anyway, you saw how I tried to kill him, I don't remember if I actually did it consciously or not, but I definitely wanted to hurt him. I wanted him to stop following me. I just couldn't understand why he would do that. The first thing I ever did to him was spit him in the face, and still he ran after me into the forest." Ace shook his head. "He did that for three months."

"Three months?" Sanji gaped at him.

"Yup, and he never stopped. When I knocked him into the ravine below the bridge-," a look of shame crossed his face, "It took Luffy a week to come back to the hideout. I was sure he was dead." He looked up at the sky, a tortured look on his face, "And I didn't even care." He looked at Sanji and the Shepherd, his eyes almost pleading, "Who does that? Who doesn't even care that they might have killed a small seven year old kid?" He shook his head, "I don't even know what my life would have been today if it wasn't for what Luffy did before we ended up here." He gestured to the area around them again. "I owe everything to him."

Sanji swallowed, he never would have believed that Ace owed Luffy for anything; he'd always thought it was the other way around. It seemed like that for Luffy at least. "I don't even know what to say to that. What happened?"

Ace chuckled, "Luffy happened, I suppose." He shook his head. "My idiot of a brother, hard-headed, stubborn and crazy, he always refused to take no for an answer. I don't think it's in his vocabulary to be honest."

Sanji only nodded. Yes, that was Luffy alright.

"I should probably tell you the rest." He sighed, and then looked at the ground sadly. "After those three months of Luffy following me through the forest every day, almost getting killed by alligators, gigantic tigers and bears, swarms of bees, and whatever else lives in this insane forest, he managed to get to the Grey Terminal, I'm guessing at the spot you guys arrived at actually. He went looking for me in the rubble, and must have seen me as I left for mine and Sabo's treasure tree."

"Treasure tree?" The Shepherd asked, and both Ace and Sanji stared at him, having almost forgotten he was there.

"Ah, yeah." Ace frowned, "Me and Sabo had spent around five years gathering money for when we would finally set sail and become pirates." He shook his head.

Sanji looked over at the Shepherd, "You told me Sabo had been living in the Grey Terminal since he was five, right?" Then he looked over at Ace again, "I'm guessing you were around the same age as well when you made it out there, right?"

Ace shrugged, "I suppose so, I don't really remember how old I was when I first found that place. But I found Sabo at some point, and since we were about the same age, we became friends. Mostly because we didn't really have anyone else, I guess."

"Hmm, makes sense." Sanji nodded, "But how the fuck did you manage to get out there at that age? And even survive?"

Ace shrugged again, "Again, I don't know really, having grown up with Dadan and the boys, I kinda had to make it on my own from the moment I could walk, so I ran away a lot." He chuckled softly. "I have no idea how many times Dogra and Magra found me beat up in the forest."

"Dogra and Magra?" Sanji looked at him confused.

"Yeah, you saw them in the memory, the tiny guy with the turban is Dogra, and the tall guy with a wattle on his chin is Marga. They're good people." Ace smiled fondly.

"Ah okay," Sanji nodded, remembering the two weirdos from the memory when Luffy was brought there by Garp.

"I guess after spending years running around the forest getting my ass whopped, I finally got strong enough to get through it. It only took Luffy around three months to get through the roughest part of it when he was seven, so I suppose it took me about a year or something when I was around five. I don't know." He rubbed his neck. "Anyway, back to how we ended up here." He gestured to the area around them once again. "On this particular day I had done something very stupid. I'd beaten up and robbed a few of Bluejam's men. A local gang of thugs who paraded around calling themselves pirates." He scrunched up his nose in disgust, "I bet they'd never even been at sea." He shook his head, "Anyway, our treasure tree was one of the biggest trees close to the Grey Terminal. We had made a hole in one of the larger branches and kept our stash in it. I don't remember how much we'd gathered at that point, but it was probably close to around hundred thousand beri or something."

Sanji whistled impressed, and Ace nodded proudly.

"It was a good haul for a couple of kids, I'll give us that." Then he scowled, "Too bad it all went to hell though."

Sanji took a new drag of his cigarette, "I'm guessing this Bluejam guy had something to do with it?"

"Nail on the head there. But yeah, I guess it all started with this day, and my stupid mistake. We were getting cocky and too reckless." Ace continued to scowl at the ground. "I met up with Sabo at the tree and we compared our haul for the day, we were talking too loud however, and when we mentioned that we couldn't wait until we would set out and become pirates. You can only guess who shouted up at us from the bottom that he wanted to become a pirate too."

Both Sanji and the Shepherd nodded.

"Yes. Again, my idiot little brother," Ace shook his head exasperated; "Of course we panicked and climbed down as fast as we could and threw him to the ground to make him shut up. We tied him up to the tree after that, and were debating what we should do with him. I don't know why, but we both decided that killing him was our best option for him to stay quiet. Of course Luffy started screaming that he didn't want to die at that." He sighed a little dejectedly, "And that's where everything started going downhill. His screaming. As we weren't that far away from the trash mountains, a lot of people heard it. So the people I had robbed, and their leader of sorts, Porchemy, came to our spot. We tried to hide, and that's when I realised who I'd just robbed. We tried to keep quiet, and just wait for them to leave, but of course that didn't last long. I have no clue how he managed it, but Luffy somehow got himself caught by them, and started screaming out for me. If I didn't want to kill him before, I had a strong urge to do it then. Porchemy wanted information on where I was, and the treasure, but Luffy lied, and you can only imagine how that looked. He's the worst liar I've ever met." He chuckled a little before he shook his head, "However, when Luffy refused to say anything, Porchemy decided to take him with him to their shack and torture the information out of him."

Sanji growled, "Bastard."

"Oh, he was, trust me. We were sure Luffy would crack pretty quickly, so we spent the next few hours moving our stash to another spot, and then Sabo went to keep watch by the tree. When it was nearing dusk and no one had come there looking for us again, Sabo had panicked and went to find out where Luffy was. When he realised what was going on, he came rushing back and told me. I was so torn, on one hand I was fed up with Luffy always running after me, but on the other I was starting to grow used to him always being a thorn in my side. So we did the only thing we could do, we rushed over there and smashed through the walls, and not a moment to late either as that bastard was about to kill Luffy for not saying anything." Ace glared, "That fucker had tortured him with a spiked glove for close to six hours at that point."

"HE HAD WHAT?" Sanji roared.

Ace nodded somberly, "So now you get why I was yelling at Luffy so furiously in that memory."

Sanji breathed hard, "I do."

The Shepherd nodded, a hard look in his eyes, before he looked thoughtfully over at Ace. "Ace, may I inquire as to why you have shown us these particular memories?"

The scowl on Ace's face disappeared and he looked at the Shepherd confused, "You mean, why show you how me and Luffy met?"

The Shepherd nodded, "I can only surmise that you noticed our presence at some point, either when we were watching you boys learning of Luffy's devil fruit abilities, or during the memory within the city. Usually a person will reveal themselves to us once they notice we are here, you did not do that. Why?"

Ace furrowed his brows as he thought, "Hmm, I'm not sure. I think that maybe I wanted-," he looked over at Sanji, "You, to know a little of Luffy's history. I bet he's never told you guys anything from when he was a kid. And I couldn't help overhear you saying you didn't even know Shanks was the one that gave Luffy his hat. I kinda wish your whole crew was here to see it though, if Luffy's hurting as much as you say he is."

Sanji raised an eyebrow at him, "You wanted me to know about Luffy's past?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "You were right-," he pointed at the Shepherd, "I did notice you. It was when you were leaving after you had watched the memory of when we learned about Luffy's devil fruit. I had already decided on the next memory so I couldn't really change it then, but I followed you and listened to you when you talked. I was pretty shocked when you talked about the fire, Shepherd. I didn't know it happened so often. And I must say Sanji, I had no clue you're from a noble family, you certainly don't act like it."

Sanji looked at the ground, "Yeah well-," he trailed off.

"You don't have to explain it, I gathered you had a pretty shitty life and that you escaped. That's enough for me." Ace smiled at him before he turned back to the Shepherd again. "You had extensive knowledge of some of our past, that we were caught in the fire and stuff. You didn't have the whole story, but it was a good summary I suppose." He shrugged and then hopped down from the boulder. "I kinda want to show you some more of it, if you have the time. I think it will help you-," He pointed at Sanji, "To help my brother. Of course I'll join you on Hall- Samhain. But I think it would do you good to know just a little bit more."

Sanji stared at him before looking over at the Shepherd, "Is there time?"

The Shepherd sighed and looked up at the dusk coloured sky above them, "I believe so." He looked back down at Sanji, "I did tell you we were early. I think now that the Crone wanted us to have more time this time around. We also have others we need to find, but I think this will be important in order to help your captain."

Ace nodded and smiled, "Perfect, let's see, which one to show you first."

As he stepped closer to Sanji, reaching his hand out to touch him, Sanji couldn't help flinch. Ace was radiating with the same energy as the spirit thread, but it was a lot more powerful. It was almost overwhelming.

"What?" Ace stopped his hand, and looked at him worriedly.

"Ah-," Sanji shook his head, "It's nothing." He felt a bead of sweat trail down his back, so this is the true power of a person's spirit?

The Shepherd looked keenly at him, but didn't say anything.

"It'll be quicker this way, instead of us having to walk back and forth through the forest to get to each memory. I've left threads all over the place, so it's easier for me to move around." Ace said a little proudly.

"That is quite a feat for someone who has only been in their Summerland for such a short time, Ace." The Shepherd smiled warmly at him.

"Summerland?" Ace raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ah, I forget you are not familiar with the terminology, forgive me." The Shepherd's smile faltered, "The Summerland is what we call the afterlife of someone who has died. I suppose it is somewhat outdated now." He sighed.

"It sounds a lot more glamorous than it actually is," Ace shook his head.

"I will not disagree with you, but you seem to be doing well in yours." The Shepherd looked at the forest around them, a small smile back on his face.

Ace nodded slowly, "Now I do at least, in the beginning I was reliving the war over and over again. It took me a while to figure out how to bend this place to my will."

"And you have succeeded in doing so faster than most people, I know of several whom it took decades for them to learn it." The warm smile was back as he looked at Ace, "Now, I believe you had chosen a memory for us to see?"

"Thank you, that's kind of you to say, Shepherd," He gave a quick bow before he nodded, "And yes I have."


AN:

This chapter hasn't been beta'ed yet, so if you feel something is off, or wrong, it's because my betareader is away atm.
I still hope you enjoyed it though, and I hope you're looking forward to the next one.
I want to thank everyone whose currently following it, both members and guests. It's nice to know people find it interesting.

And as always, please fav/follow and or leave me a review and tell me what you think.