Zoysite - Thank you for checking them out! The artist did make them very cute!
Ace worked long and hard on perfecting that signature! I know right? Marco has lost faith in his own men to know his signatures if they think he would sign of by drawing a pineapple XD

Aaah thank you! Marco's a funny but serious character to write. so many options! and.. cant forget the yoi! Yoi! yoi!
Hope you will enjoy this update too! have a great day!

WinterRose61 - Poor lil Ace getting tricked into the position. Ace does not realise he's become the second division commander! The Spades have by now figured it out, especially with their captain joining all the meetings and making courses.. and the second division going to Ace to ask question regarding things... By now Ace and Whitebeard are best buddies, so I can picture Ace having told the elder of the jobs he did on Piece of Spadille, including navigation. If then, by some absolutely random coincidence, Ace suddenly got all the navigation and map making tools delivered to his room, together with the current courses and everything... wel... that's just... that's just a coincidence... Pops will deny any involvement.

Ace then decided to fix it up by himself without being asked yes, ofcourse he had to do it, the current route wasn't comfy for the old man! And that he can tell Marco that he did things wrong or his division didn't do it perfectly, well, who is Ace to deny himself that fun! We can confirm Marco was on Ace's mind while making the new map/chart, or else he wouldn't have drawn a pineapple as a signature haha

And nope! Marco kinda thinks it's cute! He may or may not have made Ace sign a random paper and now has the drawing pinned to his wall in his room.

Please ramble all you want! I love rambling! Please enjoy this chapter!

The long awaited Marines have appeared!

"Ace, please, I'm just trying to-"

"IT'S MARCO THE PHOENIX! GET HIM!"

"Oh for fucks sake, just leave me alone!" Marco sighed hearing someone call for him like that obviously only meant one thing.

"Oi Pineapple, those marines are trying to get your attention."

"I know-yoi. I would like 5 crates of these, 6 of th-"

"Aren't you going to fight them?"

"No, I am in interested in that right now, I just want to finish this and go back to the ship, I have plenty of paperwork to finish. Anyway. 6 of those,…" Marco ignored the yells of justice and honour and how he should prepare himself for his capture bla bla bla, it's always the same thing anyway, and continued giving his order to the merchant. Who to his luck also ignored the marines and continues to take his order, probably didn't want to miss a sale this big, smart man.

He glanced to the side when he saw flickers of flames, because of course Ace ran towards them to start a fight. Fishing into his pocket he took his money pouch and counted out the amount needed to pay, giving that and a little extra to the man. "Please deliver them to the port, preferably by tonight."

The merchant nodded, quickly putting away the big stash of money, "Of course sir! I will start packing everything up and get my boys to deliver! One- two hours tops!"

With a nod in thanks Marco turned to the ongoing fight, holding the bridge of his nose. Why. Why is Ace fighting them. They're not even after him right now. And like he said, he had paperwork enough and he did NOT want to pay for scorch marks on the pavement.

"Ace-yoi. We're going back, let's go."

"They wanne fight Marco!"

Oh, he said his name. Probably too busy concentrating to remember to make a nickname. He was tempted to let Ace keep fighting and maybe have a real conversation if this mean no accusations against him, but the loud boom quickly ended that thought and he turned into his hybrid form, flying up and picking up Ace by his shoulder seconds later.

"O-o-oiiii! What are you doing!?"

"Going back to the ship."

"I'm not done with them!"

"No, but I am. Like I said, I am busy. I only took you with me because you wanted to check what I spend my money... excuse me... the old man's money on-"

"Of course! I need to know if you're spending it on yourself or stashing it in a secret bank account to steal!"

Marco hummed, "yea, and how much and on what did I spend the money on this last shop? My money pouch seems pretty empty."

Ace was silent trying to look up and search to see the money pouch... it indeed wasn't bulging anymore like before...

"You don't know, do you? Because you went to fight the Marines instead of staying with me-yoi."

"..."

"No need to pout, you'll just have to trust me I spend it for the ship."

Marco snorted at the expression turning even worse, maybe a little cute, "Alright, you saw the prices for each crate, right?"

"... Yea..."

"Well..." He went over every item he bought, letting Ace calculate the price. "I paid around that."

"Why around, why not exact? You hiding money! I knew it!"

"Ace-yoi, I'm going to drop you, shut up. I spend just a little more to have it shipped to the harbour."

"... I want to count the money you have left over."

"Alright alright, once we're back to the ship and if you promise to stop shooting the caps off of the marines."

"But it's funny! They scramble to get them back while chasing us!"

"Because the marines are cheap and only give them two of them at recruitment."

"Whaaaa- that's stupid! They should get more if they lose them!"

"Yeap, but they don't, so leave their stupid hats be."

"... Fine..."

"... Ace..."

"That was the last one! I swear!"

Rolling his eyes he flew a little higher so the screams were less loud, even if these were weaklings, their lungs and vocal cords were top notch.

When the boat came in sight he gave a screech, many of his brothers looking over and grins spread over their faces seeing the huge amount of marines. They hadn't had a fight in a while. Since Ace had practically become their second commander in everything but title, and thus now made all their courses, he chose the absolute safest and most boring routes of all. Not want to scare the old man with fights.

As his brothers were jumping the boat to the harbour, pulling out weapons, it seemed Ace did realise it was going to be a fight.

"O-oiiiiiiiii bird! You can't lure them here! The old man is having his afternoon nap right now!"

"Thus he won't even notice." He did actually need to thank Ace for that afternoon nap. Marco had been trying for years to make the old man take a nap or at least take it easy every other day, but he never listened. Yet Ace managed to get him to do it. But on the condition he had a fresh cup of prune juice whenever he woke up. It was a bit of work, but a fair trade off.

"Don't birds have ears?! You hear them yelling!? He's probably already awake!"

"You're screaming louder than them-yoi."

At this Ace's mouth clamped shut, making Marco chuckle, chuckle even more when he saw Ace wanting to curse at him but snapping his mouth close again because it would be a yell. Aaaah this was maybe a lil fun.

"Anyway, don't worry about it. My brothers will handle this quickly, Pops snores louder then any fight combined so he won't even notice this. You are coming with me inside and can count my money before you accuse me of stealing and then you need to go to Pops because you promised him you would nap with him today."

… True, he did promise that. "Alright... But I want some prune juice too when I wake up."

"Yea yea, two mugs of prune juice for the elders."

Marco laughed inside as he tossed Ace to the deck while the teen was defending himself for just liking the drink, that it wasn't an old man's drink. He just walked passed, letting the teen follow behind him as he went inside. What a lively teen Ace is.

Marco slowly closed the door to his Pop's room, Ace already knocked out of the elder's chest. How the teen could fall asleep this quickly was beyond him, but it was perfect.

With fast steps he made his way to the interrogation room... it was a storage room, an empty storage room. Opening it he was pleased to see someone clad in white and blue sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. Surrounded by the other commanders. "You got one-yoi."

"Of course we did, Marco! Who do you think we are! And this is the captain! Isn't that great! That should be more trustworthy then a lowly lacky right?"

Marco nodded, a grin on his face as he walked to before their prisoner. "Perfect." He grabbed the man's chin, making him look into his eyes. He could see the man was very close to peeing his pants, yet was keeping a strong outward image, "you'll do just fine."

Ace was startled awake by the door being kicked open and was instantly up when he heard a yell.

"DIE WHITEBEARD! THE MARINES WILL SERVE JUSTICE!"

He was about to launch fire at whoever intruded when the old man threw a pillow against said person. "Five more minutes, don't yell."

Sputtering was there and Ace watched the pillow move, now recognizing it was a marine that had been hit and seeing those weird tassels on his shoulders he was a captain at that too.

"What are you doing here? The pineapple is like 10 rooms down the hall or something." Ace asked a bit confused. This was probably the captain of that squad that had followed them earlier. Which also, why did the pineapple let one escape? He said he would take care of I- he gasped loudly and pointed, "That shit let you through on purpose so you could assassinate the old man, take his inheritance, and he would not take the blame! And I started to believe he like the old man too!"

The marine was confused, what the hell was he all saying? But he quickly gathered himself and looked to his arm where a script was written. "Ahem. I've come for your head Whitebeard! I, captain of G-6-"

"G-6? Since when does that exist?"

"..."

"?"

Ignoring firefist he pointed his sword at the sleeping giant, "And I shall get the honour of defeating you! The mighty REAL Whitebeard! Strongest man on the seas!" There was a cough from the hallway and the marine quickly yelled more, "A-also known as Edward Newgate!"

"You've got the wrong person, dude." Ace remarked, by now sitting cross-legged on the elder's chest. Very unimpressed at the display.

"I certainly do not have the wrong person! You're sitting right on the ACTUAL REAL mighty Whitebeard! Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates. Strongest man alive! Edward Newgate!"

"Dude, I'm telling you, you have the wrong person." Ace patted the chest he was sitting on. "This is just an old man fulfilling his dream, having a little adventure at sea."

"And conquer all seas! And the marines shall serve justice to Whitebeard! The stronge-"

"Yea yea yea yea, I get you wanne take Whitebeard's head, you're not the only one, get in line. And like, behind me cause I'm trying first. And then you won't even need to try cause I'll succeed. Now again, this." he patted a few times more, "isn't the one you're looking for. Yes he's big and has white hair, but he doesn't have a beard."

"What?"

Ace waved his hand standing up, "Come up here."

"..."

"Cmon!"

Scrambling the marine climbed on top, joining Firefist in standing on the world's stongest man... god he was so dead.

"Look" Ace pointed to Whitebeard's face. "Do you see a beard?"

"No?"

"Correct, so, now that we have confirmed that, you can accept that you have the wrong person."

The marine was silent, "but... He had the moustache."

"I know he had a moustache, that seems to be fooling a lot of people for some reason, but look." Ace pulled out a dictionary from his pocket, flipping through some marked pages and holding his finger under a word as he held it out for the marine to see. "Moustache, is a noun and the plural is moustaches. It's also known as mustache and then the plural is mustaches. You following so far?"

"Yea... I didn't know it was spelled different ways."

"I know right? It's weird, anyway. A moustache is by definition a strip of hair left to grow above the upper lip. Now, point me out the area on yourself."

"Ehm..." the marine raised an arm, tracing above his lip, "here?"

"Good good. Now, if we flip to the beginning." The raven hummed untill he found the right page and once more put his finger down, "Beard. Also a noun with the plural being beards. No ther way to write it luckily, that always gets confusion. But by definition, a beard is a growth of hair on the chin and lower cheeks of a man's face... though I've seen woman with hair there too, like Dadan, but anyway, point me out this area."

Once more the marine moved to trace over his own face, though this time over his chin and cheeks.

"Correct, thus, back to the old man." Ace said putting his dictionary away. "What does he have? A beard of a moustache?"

"A moustache."

"And why is that?"

"... Because the hairgrowth is on his upper lip."

"Very good, very good, take this apple as a reward."

Not knowing what was going on the marine accepted the random apple, eating it as the raven talked some more over beards and moustaches.

"Now, who were you looking for to behead?"

"Whitebeard. Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates. Strongest man on th-"

"Yes. Now please split up that title, what words are all in whitebeard."

"White... and …. beard."

Ace nodded, he was so proud! They were getting there! "Correct. What color is the old man's hair."

"White."

"Good. So, what are we missing to make Whitebeard."

"The... beard."

"And does this man have that beard."

"... He does not."

"Very good! So now we can conclude that this is not the one you're searching for."

"I... I guess... I guess you're right..." the marine said slowly. Handing the apple core back to Firefist who promptly burned it into non-existence.

Ace nodded and placed a hand on the marine's shoulder, pushing him lightly to get him to jump off to the floor, following himself right after. "Now let me show you to the pineapple's room."

"... Thank you..."

"No problem! We all have to help each other out on these harsh water!"

Hidden in the room next to their captain, the commanders were silent.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Someone do something..."

"..."

"..."

"Thatch, you do it?"

"Why me!?"

"You're his best friend."

"OH now I am his be-"

"Go Thatch."

Grumbling Thatch walked the few steps to the crouched form on the floor, the being holding his head. Gently he placed a hand on his shoulder, "c'mon Marco, don't cry... it was a good try..."

"A dictionary Thatch, where did he get a dictionary from-yoi? He pulled an apple from the same pocket. Have you seen that pocket? It's the thickness of like two hand palms, not even an apple should fit inside, yet he pulled an apple AND a thick dictionary out of it."

"... Atleast now we know he can read?"

"We knew he could read, Thatch... He's been making better reports then you."

"Okay, auwch, I do my best okay."

"You don't."

"... okay, let's not talks about the little things that don't matter now. We're talking about Ace- don't slam your head into the floor Marco, you're damaging the wood. Anyway... We have other things we can try."

"What?"

"We could... no that failed... what about... he'll not believe that either... ooooh what about!... wait... nevermind... ehm..." Thatch looked back to his brothers, "someone help me here!"

After a minute Haruta stepped forward, holding a snail in his hand, "We can always cal-"

"No-yoi."

"Marco, there's a chance it could work."

"But at what cost!"

"It's our only hope left... We will have to accept the consequences if we ever want Ace to figure out the truth. It will be painful for all of us. But... It's for the best."

There was an anxious silence before Marco whispered.

"What?"

"... Call him-yoi... Do it... We have no choices left."

And now... there's internal debate... Does Garp still visit, even if it's for a short visit? Or shall the next chapter be Shanks, And no Garp in this story? Decisions! Help me!