Contrary to popular belief, Ace did in fact have a brain in his head. Sometimes, he even used it.
So, while half the crew fought in a massive dog-pile for the right to read the paper first, Ace climbed to the top of the mast and held out a couple of beri coins to the clearly hesitant News Coo. Looking relieved at not having to brave to mess on deck, it landed in the crow's nest next to him.
He took the paper and paid the Coo, which flew off with a salute. He opened the paper, catching the new bounty posters that fell out with ease of long practice. Putting the paper under his arm for a moment, he flicked through the posters disinterestedly-
Suddenly, the fight on deck was forcibly broken up by an excited Second Division Commander, who then proceeded to shove a pair of posters in everyone's faces, too close to their noses to make out the details.
"They're here, they're here!" Ace shrieked gleefully, before running towards the giant man sitting on deck.
oOo
Whitebeard was sitting in his chair half-asleep, watching his sons and daughters go about their morning routine with fondness.
Abruptly, he found that he could no longer see his children, his vision being mostly blocked by a pair of bounty posters held by his excitable Second division commander.
"Look, Pops, look!" the shirtless young man exclaimed.
Whitebeard looked, and wondered what was so special about a couple of rookies . . .
On the left was the grinning face of a boy in a straw hat. He had a scar under his left eye and his skin was smudged with dirt. As his face took up most of the picture, there wasn't much else to see.
On the right was a young lady wielding a staff. Her eyes were all shades of the rainbow (a dragon? It had been a while since he'd seen one). She had a clubbed tail and bat-like wings, and was wearing a lopsided crown on her head that was crackling yellow and white with lightning. One hand was outstretched, sending a swirling column of fire and water towards the camera.
Reading the names, the boy on the left was 'Straw Hat' Monkey D. Luffy, worth thirty million. The girl was 'Thunder Queen' Lightning D. Locks (marines these days had no imagination), worth twenty million. The names seemed somewhat familiar . . .
Whitebeard raised an eyebrow at his grinning young son.
"Are these the brother and sister you tell us so much about?"
Ace's grin became positively blinding. "Yeah! Isn't it great! Luffy has an even bigger first bounty than I did, and Locks isn't too shabby either! And they both . . ."
Whitebeard started tuning him out. He'd heard it all before. When Ace paused for breath, he said "That's wonderful. Have you shown Marco and the others yet?"
"Not all of them . . ." Ace replied. With that, he jumped off Whitebeard's lap to go find some other poor soul to natter at.
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Credit to angeldunn1993 for the idea for this chapter.