Luffy – Wahoo, Ace is here!

Yep, that he is. Ready for Chapter 1?

Luffy – Yeah, do me and Ace have to fight more marines? We did when we met in Alabasta. Or maybe pirates this time?

Uh sorta. You will probably fight pirates and marines at some point. Just not in this chapter. Mind doing the disclaimer for me so we can get started?

Luffy – Oh ok. AnimeCat92 doesn't own us.

But I do own the plot and any OCs. There is also some slight swearing and uh…blood, that's right blood, in this chapter.

"Ace!" Ace gave Luffy a wide grin, ruffling his hair. Luffy matched Ace's grin with his own, "What are you doing here, Ace?" "I was in town getting some supplies when a certain someone runs right passed me. I shouted at you, but you totally ignored me. I came after you and just caught up now." "Shishishishishi, sorry Ace. Guess I didn't hear you." Ace sighed, having expected something like that. "You guys just dock now?" "Yeah, you have to come back to Sunny with me! I want to introduce you to my new crew members!" "Sure. I don't have any leads on Blackbeard right now, so if it's no trouble I'd like to travel with you for a while." Luffy's grin, if it was even possible, got wider, "Yahoo, Ace's coming with us!" "Only for a while Luff', once I get a lead on Blackbeard I'll leave." Luffy was too excited to listen to him, which made Ace sigh once again. Luffy never changed, but that was part of what made Luffy so special. "You remember where your ship is docked this time at least." "Nope!" Ace face-palmed, having honestly expected too much of Luffy.

"If we go down this way to the beach, we can take the Striker round to where your ship is. Judging by where you came running from, I think I know where you guys might have docked." "Oh, so that's why we're going this way. You landed over here." "That's right, it's bit far off from the town but I can deal with that. Once we get back to the Sunny, I'll leave the Striker there and we can go back into town. Who's watching your ship?" "No idea." Ace shook his head, "As their Captain, shouldn't you know these things?" "Probably." Ace hit Luffy in the back of the head as the pair walked down a forest path towards the beach Ace had landed on last night. Luffy was just being cheerful as always, while Ace couldn't help but sigh at his little brother. "You haven't changed Luffy." Luffy didn't respond, just kept grinning. Ace suddenly looked backwards, Luffy continued for a few steps before stopping, "Ace?" Ace narrowed his eyes, looking into the forest before shaking his head and turning around, walking down to Luffy. "It's nothing, thought I heard something." He kept walking; Luffy looked towards where Ace had been looking before shrugging and continuing after Ace.

They arrived on the beach, and Ace noticed something was off. Something was different about the beach now than when he'd left it a little over an hour ago. It was Luffy who helped him figure out what was wrong, "Oi Ace, I thought you said your boat was here." That was it; the Striker was not where he had left it. But there were no footprints to show who had moved it; not even his footprints from when he left. "I did…stay alert Luffy. Something's not right here." Luffy got into a fighting position beside him, keeping an eye out for the cause of this strangeness. Suddenly 10 men, dressed head to toe in black outfits appeared. Each wore a mask, a plain white mask which meant they weren't identifiable by anyone. "Who the hell are you guys?" They got into a fighting position, "Ready Luffy?" "Always shishishishi." The masked guys ran at the pair and Luffy wound up his arm, "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" Luffy's arm shot out, catching one of the mask men in the face. He went back a few feet, before getting up, but neither brother had time to do much else as another 20 showed up separating the pair as they fought their way through the mass of masked fighters.

"Damn it, these guys just don't stay down." Luffy had to agree with Ace, these guys weren't giving him time to pull out his strongest moves. One of the men got close enough to slash Ace's back however the long knife just cut through fire. "Sorry guys, but that's not going to work!" Ace roundhouse kicked that one away before Luffy had to dodge a swipe from 3 of them, "Gomu Gomu no Muchi!" He swept a number of them aside and even though they got back up again, they obviously were suffering from the beating the brothers were giving them. "These guys really don't know when to just give up." Then all the attackers that had them put away their swords, some pulled their gloves off while others pulled out a second sword. The men then began to attack the pair again, blocking the two from each other again.

Ace noticed a sword coming for him however as it wouldn't hurt him, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side. The sword had cut through on his right side, luckily not deep enough for it to hit any organs but still a fairly serious wound to take in a fight where endurance meant who would win or lose. "Damn it, the swords are made of seastone, don't let them touch you!" Ace knew Luffy got the message but he couldn't look to see where Luffy was because he had to avoid more swords as well as punches, noticing what looked like seastone wrapped around some of the men's knuckles so he guessed that once they realised that both brothers were devil fruit users, they brought their devil fruit measures into play. These were definitely no common thugs, especially since they had access to large amounts of seastone to make all these weapons. He got cut a few more times and took a couple of punches, feeling his strength drain a bit with each hit. His injury was definitely not helping, but he guessed it must be worse than he thought if it was causing him this much trouble. He then heard Luffy shouting, and paled "Let me go, you bastards!" The men stopped attacking as 5 men pinned Luffy to the ground, all of them having those seastone knuckles on, which were preventing Luffy from breaking free. 5 men grabbed him from behind before slamming him to the ground as well. "Ace! Let us go!" Luffy violently struggled, but was quickly subdued by the men holding him. The rest stood and saluted at something, it was then both brothers heard the sound of footsteps as someone walked towards them, softly clapping his hands. Ace felt it was almost mocking, the sound after all whoever this was had only see the fight as a show or something.

They soon got a look at the men were saluting at. He was the kind of man women would call handsome, with his straight brown hair, piercing grey eyes behind a simple pair of glasses with black frames with a well-defined faces, putting him around his mid-20s. He was taller than Ace by about a head, and considering what he wore (a smart white shirt, black trousers and dress shoes, a dark green waistcoat with some sort of crest on his left breast; he also wore an admiral style jacket in black with dark green trim) he was probably the commander of these men. He didn't look like he was either a pirate or a marine, though he certainly looked the part of the latter. He paid Ace no mind as he walked towards Luffy, no longer clapping as he had been earlier. Luffy was hauled to his feet, 3 of the men backing off with a salute. He gripped Luffy's chin and tilted it upwards, a smirk on his face as he looked down at Luffy in way which unnerved both brothers. "Don't you dare touch my brother, asshole!" The man let go of Luffy, turning so he could see Ace. "My apologizes, I have forgotten my manners it seems in all this excitement. Do excuse me. My name is Ichiro. I am a leader of a group known as Heaven's Vanguard, my title as such is Chief Vanguard and I prefer to be addressed as such. However, considering how rude I have been in requesting an audience with the pair of you, I will have no qualms about the pair of you addressing me by my name this time." The brothers only glowered at him, and he sighed. "It is polite to give your own name when someone introduces themselves but it would seem you are still a tad angry at my men's way of requesting an audience. It matters not, I know that you are Portagus D Ace, and…" He turns back to look at Luffy, "You are Monkey D Luffy." Ace felt a shiver go down his spine before effectively spitting out his words, "And what could you want with a pair of pirates, Ichiro?" One of the men holding Ace rammed him in the back of the head, probably punishing him for being so rude to their boss. "I'm afraid I have no business with you Ace. I do however have business with your brother so if you wouldn't mind I'd like to finish what I came here to do." He pushes his glasses back up his nose, "I know very well that if I request what I require from you, you will refuse me. So I am afraid I will need to take it by force." Ichiro's hand began glowing, before he smashed it into Luffy's chest. Luffy made a strange noise, like all the air was knocked out of his lungs before his head drooped, seeming to lose conscious. "Luffy!"

Ace exploded into a pillar of fire, badly burning the 5 men holding him down. Ichiro turned to look at Ace, a surprised look flashing across his face before returning to his calm, always present look. Ace turned his hand into fire, "Hiken!" Ichiro moved to avoid the attack, it barely missing one of the men holding Luffy. "I thought you'd be a little troublesome, but it seems you're even more of an issue than I thought. And this close to recognizing my ambition, I will not accept such a small bump to derail my plans in any way." It was almost too quick for Ace to notice, but Ichiro had moved from his place next to Luffy to right in front of him, his hand on a sword before Ace felt something run straight through his heart. "Ah…uh…" Ace coughed up blood before crashing to the floor, one of the men kneelt beside him and checked for a pulse, shaking his head indicating he felt none. "Ace…" Ichiro looked over in surprise, having not expected Luffy to still be conscious. Tears were starting to stream down Luffy's face as he stared at Ace, "ACE!"

Luffy - sitting on the floor catatonic Ace…

Sticks head out of barricade Uh, yeah…cliffy on Ace's death, I'm going to hide behind here until I get the next chapter out. Please don't try and kill me, or you'll never know what happens next. ducks back behind barricade

Thank you to the 2 reviewers, 5 people who favourite and 7 who followed this story. And for you guys, the first clue is:

He (and it is a male) has been relatively important in more than 1 arc up to where the anime is at, including the current arc.

You'll all find out who it is at the end of chapter 5, in some fashion. See you next time.