Hey, update the picture with my own art.

Without an answer to my question I guess whatever happens will happen.

Thanks for the people who still review, even if it's one sentence long, it means a lot, here's the chapter.

Ages reminder:
Luffy: 9
Ace: 12
Sabo: 12
Zoro: 11
Nojiko: 13
Coby: 8

Monkey D. Garp wasn't as unhappy as he should be. While he had found a lead in the kid called Coby this one refused to tell him anything. The older Vice Admiral was frustrated by his refusal at first and tempted to beat the answer out of him (the man wasn't the most subtle). But he heard the kid's dream was to become Marine, in fact he saw him training the same morning he arrived and being his grandsons's "friend" as the witnesses had stated, Garp got intrigued.

So he decided he would test him. As much as he wanted to catch the brats, they were family and he wanted the best for them. It wouldn't do for him to beat the crap out of their first (to his knowledge) friend. Then if Coby turned out rotten and ratted them out he wouldn't be considered his kids friend anymore, right? And he would be able to guiltlessly able to beat him up for being a little traitor and send him to Sakazuki to become his cabin boy. He knew the old dog hated opportunists, it would be perfect.

Yeah, decided the old man, he wouldn't allow his brats to have a poor minded fool as a friend.

Except for the fact that the kid was an actual honest brat who was ready to put his dream aside for his friends. And Garp could read him easily, Coby was clearly tempted by his offer for an easy start, he felt the potential in his unchangeable will. So Garp did the first thing that came to his mind and just decided to take the kid with him, to hell with consequences. Oh yes Bogard would be giving crap about his impulses again but the pink kid could even become an interesting subordinate later on if he could deal with his idea of training. Garp's face split into a very satisfied smile as he carried the brat to his ship. He had no more time to lose, he would find his little rascals as soon as possible.

~ ASL ~

"We've passed this tree four times." Said Sabo in a deadpan tone.

At first he believed the other kid would be able to guide him to the village but now, not only they didn't find the village, they were also completely lost.

"It was here, the path moved." Answered Zoro with the same bored voice and Sabo just got enough of that and punched the green haired at the top of his head.

"No it didn't!"

Luffy was, of course, laughing his ass off, rolling on the ground.

"Urgh what the fu-"

"We need to find Ace and this guy is obviously not helping." Sabo pulled Luffy by his collar to lead him away but his younger brother resisted.

"Zoro is my first mate! He's coming with us, he needs to get off this island too!" The blond stared at his brother's pleading dark eyes and sighed.

"He can come but he's not getting us lost again. You stay behind!" He said towards the young swordsman. This one frowned and his hands itched towards his swords, but he was hesitating for long enough for someone else to interfere.

"What are kids doing here? Hey it's the one that attacked Rug!" They looked at Zoro and immediately got their own swords out ready to fight.

Zoro frowned, those were apparently bandits and Sabo assumed the green haired annoyance knew them.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Sabo got ready to take both of them.

"Oni-giri!" Said a young voice and one of the bandits was suddenly bleeding on the floor. Alright maybe Luffy's chosen future first mate wasn't completely useless. Sabo jumped on the second guy who's attention was taken by the young swordsman and whacked him on the head with his metal pipe before he could react.

He frowned at the sight of blood on the green haired boy side, his makeshift scarf bandage not holding anymore and his blood was dripping to the floor.

"Damn, it opened again." Zoro removed his scarf, he did mention he had been wounded before by pirates. Alright Sabo decided, good fighter or not, Zoro was also an idiot.

"Gum gum no pistol!" Sabo turned around and saw another bandit they didn't notice getting punched to the face by Luffy who smiled playfully when the man flew and hit a tree and fell to the ground, unconscious. Yeah Luffy's strength was definitely going to become something at some point, the blond better not let him surpass him.

"Yeah I got him! Hey Sabo let's find the bandit's home and they can tell us where the village is!"

His blond brother blinked and eventually agreed, they were not going anywhere like this. If they didn't even know where they were they wouldn't find the village.

"They were coming from this direction. Let's go." Said Sabo and the three boys went to find the bandit base.

~ DD ~

He wasn't staying, he was done hearing them yell at eachother, day after day. He wished one of them would leave so he could have some peace. His mother slapped him for suggesting that and he just felt so tired and angry.

The young man slid his notebook to his pocket and checked the backpack he prepared haphazardly. His parents hadn't even noticed the missing money or food. He would be better on his own. He didn't want to do anything with them anymore. He decided he would leave the island and find an Academy for his studies. As the light blue haired boy climbed out of the window, his dream of becoming a doctor didn't feel so far away anymore.

~ ASL ~

Ace woke up in an unpleasant haze, he was tied up and carried on someone's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. His head was aching and the young man realized he must have had a narcolepsy attack. Of course, just his luck, he would be immediately scooped up by some random strangers. He hoped Luffy wasn't in a similar situation, thus without waiting another second, he struggled to escape.

As he kicked the one carrying him to the face, he fell on the grass, he was back in the forest and surrounded by three weird guys. They were wearing some mining uniforms and covered in soot. The weird part was their faces, all of them had empty bloodshot eyes and creepy smiles.

"Who are you?! What do you want?" Asked Ace, finding his balance to stand on his feet.

Depending on the answer he was ready to bolt out of here, actually he wouldn't even need to as his ties were already weakened by his fall.

"You're important for the God of Depths, he's the protector of this island and he wants a child. Please don't resist, we won't hurt you."

Like hell he was believing that from the guys who tied him up. Finally getting his hands free, he took a fighting stance. Those people were weak and emaciated, he was pretty sure he could kick their asses. One of them approached him to grab at him, he swung his arm and punched him in the face. Ace was aware that is strength was superior to even most adults and they didn't expect a child to be that strong. The young man took pleasure in proving them wrong. Without missing a beat he launched himself at a second villager who got kicked in the face. He almost broke into a satisfied smile but before he even touched the floor, a leg out of nowhere kicked the young man at the stomach. A blow much stronger than any he ever remember receiving, maybe save for Garp's fists of love.

Ace fell on the floor and rolled out of the way of the next blow. He didn't hear this man coming but immediately he knew that this one was on another level. He was tall and quite muscular, steadier and heavier than any of the villagers he got caught by. His hair was cut really short and his expression extremely bored even as he was dealing with Ace so effortlessly.

"So you're the kid causing a ruckus on my island, I heard you had swords, where are they now?" The man asked and Ace had absolutely no idea what this guy was talking about. The freckled boy still got no time to answer as he had to dodge a punch to the face. As he tried to ripost with a kick to the man's chest he failed to notice the hand grabbing his other leg until it was too late, stopping him with ease as he dangled from the tall man's hold. Ace got struck to the face, making him see stars until a voice he didn't recognize intervened.

"Hey Boss Hamrock wait, it's not the sword kid I think it's one of the mystery grandsons of Garp. He looks like the picture! He's worth five million!" Ace froze then immediately he started to trash like the devil himself was after him, which from his point of view, was the case. Oh hell no he wasn't letting this guy get him to his grandfather.

"Really?" Hamrock didn't even seem fazed by Ace's attempts to kick his face and the freckled boy was pretty frustrated. The man caught him by his hair and smiled for the first time, showing his dark ugly teeth, not a very pleasant expression.

"Then, where are your brothers? You're not here alone, are you?"

Ace frowned, trying to get out of the man's hold but was unsuccessful. He would not give his brothers out, no way. He would rather die first.

~ RZ ~

Zoro watched the man with apprehension, the pain of his bleeding wound pushed to the background.

When he arrived on this island, he was unlucky. Hungry, dehydrated, hurt and exhausted, he fought five bandits and… he was defeated. For the first time since Kuina, he lost a fight and he couldn't forgive himself for running away. Right here and now though he felt much better and he got a chance for redemption. There was a dozen of bandits in their base and he was kicking their ass.

Sure the rubber kid was helping, taking off his share of bandits and covering his back.

Luffy wasn't a bad fighter, stronger physically than almost anyone he met before. His stretching limbs able to take down five bandits at once. He wondered how strong his blond brother was but he had no idea where the other was. Zoro wished to try his strength against Sabo at some point but the teen had barely looked at him, absolutely dead focused on his objective to find 'Ace'. This blond wasn't even using a sword but this metal pipe did look absolutely deadly in his hands.

Zoro slashed at another opponent, slowly getting his pride back as he defeated more men. He would not lose again.

~ ASL ~

Sabo ignored the sounds of fighting outside the tent and focused his attention on the documents at hand. The emergency of the possibility of Ace being in danger faded in the background. Sabo needed to know what was going on to be able to solve their problem. If he could find a map it would be perfect.

When they entered the bandit base, there was surprisingly so little resistance it was laughable. A lot of guards but really weak bandits and as Zoro and Luffy enjoyed themselves, Sabo wondered where were the strong ones in such an important place, it was suspicious.

The documents were supposed to clear it out for him but they only brought more questions.

The bandits on this island were not simply some low grade criminals making raids on islands and bringing their treasure here. They were part of an organisation, one that had plans and money, it was only mentioned as the Ties and Sabo had no idea what to do with all this information but still memorized it.

From a letter asking for more meat to feed the "God" he deduced that they tamed some kind of sea king so the crazy villagers would get something for them. There was also something about mushrooms but he wasn't all that sure what that was for.

But from what he could gather with the amount of money received by the Ties, it was pretty big. More than ten million berrys just for Roumba, the forbidden island, not only that but he could find traces that this island's isolation might have been orchestrated by this same organisation. Official governmental documents, maybe faked and from the accounts, some dozen millions berrys were send monthly to a Marine Captain called Tuggings. It extended on so many years he must be rich right now. It was absolutely crazy and the blond teen felt sick. He still couldn't stop, he needed to know why. Was it all for money? If they invested so much Sabo assumed this island must be really lucrative so how? More questions than answers. Unfortunately for him the documents were coded too, whatever resource the villagers were getting was called 'sugar' but he was quite certain it couldn't be the food. It didn't look like an island with plantations…

He was interrupted from the task at hand, yeah right, they still needed to find Ace. Sabo shoved some of the documents inside his satchel to read later.

"Hey Sabo!" Luffy called him a second time, entering the tent with a heavy bag on his back. "We found a treasure!"

Looking at what was inside the bag, Sabo's mouth fell open.

Shiny white stones, not all were carved but from his life as a Outlook noble Sabo couldn't not recognize them. Those were actual diamonds, mystery solved.

~ NN ~

She stared at the broken wood sadly. Nojiko knew she should have left a week ago, there was nothing for her here, she missed everyone, she missed Kokoyashi, the grove, Genzo and most of all, her sister. But she couldn't go home empty handed, coming home and ending up in the Mikan grove, alone, hoping her sister wasn't dead yet. The blue haired girl wiped her eyes, and sat down next to the remains of her small ship. Yesterday a group of bandits attacked the docks, her ship was one of the unfortunate victims. There was nothing much in it fortunately, she always kept her precious items with herself but… How was she supposed to go home now?

"Are you alright?" asked a smooth female voice and Nojiko jumped in surprise. It was a woman with yellow sunglasses, she was purple haired and looked like she was in her forties. Nojiko couldn't pretend she was very trusting in general but she really had nothing to lose.

"My ship is gone, I can't go home." She just mumbled.

"You're pretty young to be travelling alone" The woman answered, sitting next to her.

The young teen noticed how nice she looked, her hair tied an intricate bun, her perfume smelt expensive, her jewelry glistened in the evening sun and even her dark top hat was decorated with pearls. She looked rich and Nojiko wondered how she attracted this woman's attention.

"It's a nice view isn't it?" She probably referred to the white walls in the horizon, the ones that used to protect the kingdom until it expanded, the Oykot ki- country, it was a country now and she nodded. She couldn't remember much of her childhood before she found Nami and met Bellemere but the white walls felt somehow very familiar.

"I heard this country used to be your home and you came here looking for family, am I wrong?" the woman asked, in the same casual tone and Nojiko got a bad in her gut, how did she know? She did talk to some people but she never met this woman before. The purple haired woman seemed to have noticed her apprehension and she tilted her hat so it partially hid her face while she whispered.

"I truly am sorry."

Nojiko quickly stood, and looked around her, noticing for the first time the five of guards surrounding them, pointing their spears at her, she had nowhere to go.

"Who are you?" Nojiko asked in a choked up voice, feeling her panic rising.

"Mayor Sandra, nice to meet you." The woman stood, smiling gently at her but Nojiko didn't feel safe. She swallowed hard.

"Would you mind following us for a bit? We do not wish to hurt you." her smooth voice said but it sounded like an order Nojiko couldn't say no to. So she just managed to answer in a small voice.

"Sure."

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