Chapter 4: More Whispers of Change

Luffy and Ace had been despondent for several weeks after the incident with Sabo. Luffy more so than Ace as she had flashbacks of watching others she'd cared about die weighing her down alongside it. It was after a particularly rough night that Ace finally dragged her outside and without warning started attacking her. While initially confused she quickly caught on to what he was doing and so instead of fighting it went with the flow. They battled for almost an hour before collapsing to the ground beside each panting for breath.

She had to admit, it worked to snap her out of her funk long enough for Ace to actually have a conversation with her.

"Sabo sent a letter before he died," Ace started. "I don't know if you can read or not."

"Of course I can read," Luffy replied incredulously, completely offended he had apparently thought she couldn't.

"Hey now, we've never even seen you reading, it's a valid question."

Luffy just responded with a hum. That was fair.

"You want to read it then?" Ace asked as he held out the letter.

Luffy nodded silently as she took the proffered letter and began reading. By the end she had small tears in her eyes again but this time she was happy. Not only had he died setting out to achieve his dream even if short lived, but his last thought was his worry for them. For his siblings. Well, rather for her, but she knew Sabo was worried about Ace feeling lost without a purpose as well. She sniffed as she handed the letter back to Ace.

"Looks like we have dreams to achieve not just for ourselves but for Sabo too," Luffy commented, because she wasn't touching the other subject unless Ace brought it up first.

"Right, and we'll be doing it together," Ace said with determination in his voice.

"How will we manage that? Grandpa said he was going to take us when we turn seventeen to enlist in the marines."

"We'll just convince him to let me wait for you to be old enough to enlist as well so we can do it together."

"That's sly," Luffy replied with a grin. "I like it."

"In the meantime we need to train and get stronger." Ace commented.

"Indeed." Luffy nodded along.

So it was, Ace and Luffy spent the next two years training and living life. Makino often came up the mountain path to drop off liquor and visit her children. She had two now though she was sad when she heard she'd missed out on getting the third.

In one world Thatch would go on to find a devil fruit he had no clue as to what it was. He would show it off to his crew as he proclaimed he'd sell it for some belli since to him he didn't need whatever ability it offered. Blackbeard in his greed wouldn't even think about bartering for the fruit and would brutally murder his fellow pirate, his brother, over the fruit.

In another, Thatch finds that same fruit almost six years earlier during a time when Blackbeard's eyes are elsewhere looking for something else as he hadn't yet learned that the prize was already outside of his reach. It also happened to coincide with an event that took place in both worlds. A period of depression and lack of motivation from a man who had no clue what to do as he felt lost in his place among the massive crew of whitebeard.

Thatch sat there in his room staring at the fruit he'd gained several days ago. He'd yet to let anyone know he'd gotten the cursed thing aside from the few who were with him during the raid. Which included members from division two as well as his own division four. His commander having assured him that by Whitebeard's law that it's finder keepers on any Devil Fruits.

He honestly didn't know what he wanted to do. It was hard to think otherwise but he was honestly just a grunt on the crew despite claims that everyone were equals as Whitebeard's children. The obvious exception being the commanders in that statement though again Whitebeard claimed he loved the lowest of them just as much as the commanders. Sometimes it was easy to see because he knew everyone by name, somehow. Despite the sheer number of people in his crew. He even assigned missions spread out evenly by name amongst them all to make sure no one felt left out and he placed great importance on even the newest members.

Other times though? Like now, when Thatch wondered just how anyone could want him when he's nowhere near the strongest in crew nor was his cooking the best despite being a chef. He wondered about his true value. He was frustrated though and couldn't make up his mind or not. The fruit could theoretically give him the boost he needed to actually feel useful. Then again it could just make him feel even more useless if it was a joke power of a paramecia that robbed him of his ability to swim with no aid anywhere else. Thatch just sighed as he put away the fruit in the small chest it came in.

It was at that time his commander entered the room.

"Thatch," he said seriously.

"Yeah Gordon?"

"You don't seem to be doing so hot the last couple of days, mind telling me what's wrong? Maybe get it off your chest a bit." Gordon asked kindly. He may be an asshole at the best of times, but even knows when to reel it in when it's truly eating at someone.

Thatch seemed to hesitate as he contemplated telling his commander his woes. Usually his commander was a bit of a hard ass but right now he wasn't. He was showing genuine concern over his well being and so he bit the bullet and he spilled.

Gordon hummed as he listened to Thatch speak of his woes and his indecisions. He knew what the problem was already but he waited patiently for Thatch to get everything he wanted to off his chest instead. After all, it'd do Thatch far more good to air it out and then get the possible solution instead of keeping it bottled up.

"Sounds to me like you need a sabbatical," Gordon told Thatch as he popped a couple nuts into his mouth and chewed.

"A what, now?" Thatch asked bewildered.

"A sabbatical," Gordon repeats after swallowing. "It's where you take a little getaway from life, breathe some new air, see some sights and experience other things. Hopefully when you're done you've gained some perspective and you'll understand where exactly it is you stand and where you want to be standing."

"I see," Thatch murmured while thinking about it. "So you're saying I should take this… Sabbatical, was it?"

"I'm not saying you have to do anything, Thatch. It's just a suggestion." Gordon said as he popped another handful of nuts into his mouth before turning and walking out but not before one final comment. "Think about it, yeah?"

A month later Thatch found himself in east blue heading for anywhere really. He only had a couple of rules, well really only one rule, to follow while he was on his sabbatical. That word was still weird to him. First and foremost he wasn't allowed to interfere with any of the local pirates unless they targeted him first. Which if he was being honest he didn't see how he could even if he'd wanted to since he knew absolutely nothing about the current sea he was in. The rest of the rules amounted to having fun, not doing anything they wouldn't do, and ultimately taking care of himself.

He snorted thinking of those rules that weren't really rules as he gazed at the utterly calm Ocean around him. Truly it was a spectacle in its own right. He'd spent years on the Grandline and had completely forgotten that the ocean could even be this serene as even the calmest of times in the Grandline were always slightly turbulent, particularly the new world, requiring constant vigilance as they could instantly accelerate to a full blown storm. It was with thoughts of the peaceful ocean he decided to take a nap as he still had days before they reached their destination.

Thatch had an instant to think that the nap was a bad idea before he snapped into action. His Haki hadn't even warned him of the danger of the storm until it was too late for the ship. Then again it was utterly ironic that a storm that'd barely rate a three out of ten on the Grandline would ping as dangerous for him. Apparently though the sailors in charge of this ship were absolute rank amateurs in comparison to even the worst of sailors he was used too. They'd somehow managed to let themselves get blown close enough to the cluster of small uninhabitable islands in the area and run aground a shallow shoal of rocks. In fact it was the only spot among the cluster that even had a shoal from what his senses were telling him. To make matters worse, instead of getting stuck on it they'd then bounced off it and gotten shoved by the current further away as they rapidly took on water from the damage.

Thatch would give them one nod however. They had apparently already evacuated all the passengers into the lifeboats. Though the captain was apologizing profusely to him about not realizing they'd overlooked him. Thatch couldn't help but sigh. He thought sabbaticals were supposed to be relaxing? He was about to respond to the captain when a particularly large swell slammed into the side of the ship and how did he miss that? Throwing him off his feet due to being caught off guard. He had enough time think, 'well fuck,' before something slammed into his head and darkness greeted him.

The unexpected storm the previous night has been absolutely the most brutal storm Luffy had seen yet in this world. Even her Grandma had commented that she hadn't seen the likes of it in all her time living on the Island. Currently though she and Ace were moving through the jungle towards the beaches hoping to find anything that might've been washed up as a result. The first beach they'd on the Northern side didn't have much aside from wooden debris littering it. Now they were on their way to the northernmost east beach of the Island. It was here they'd strike gold.

"Luffy!" Ace called out. "There's some actual treasure here, see! I told you we'd be able to find something."

"Yeah yeah Ace," Luffy muttered under her breath as she smiled indulgently at his rare excitement. It's not like she'd argued with him about it. If anything she'd been just excited at the prospect of finding something as he was. "What'd you find?!" She finally called back to him.

"There's a broken chest here with a lot of belli and gold spilled out around it in the sand." He huffed out. "This is annoying Lu, we're going to have to find something to put it in to move it."

"That and the fact some of it's buried in the sand?"

"Yeah, that too." Ace replied with a cringe. He just knew he was going to have sand everywhere in uncomfortable places.

It took some digging but they eventually found a barrel that wasn't too damaged. They moved it next to the chest first to mark their spot before deciding it would be better to just lift the chest on its side and move it first to their hiding spot that fortunately wasn't too far away from this particular beach. Fortunately the locking mechanism on it was still working so they could tip the chest up and move it like that to avoid any more spilling out of the breach in its side.

Once done with the chest they quickly made their way back to the beach and started sifting through the sand around where the chest had been to get everything that had spilled out of it. Luffy had started following the trail of goodies back to the ocean itself when she stumbled upon another much smaller chest that had its top popped slightly open. Out of curiosity she picked the chest up, finding it surprisingly light in weight. Thinking it might have something pretty cool inside she opened the lid only to be stumped.

"Huh, these must be some really expensive grapes to be kept in a separate chest," Luffy muttered at the exact same time her stomach rumbled reminding her of how long it'd been since she last put anything into the empty maw she called a stomach. Shrugging she picked up the light purple colored fruit and took a big bite out of it. A bite she immediately regretted.

"Ugh, blargh, that taste even worse than Polyjuice potion did." Luffy whined as after she swallowed the first bite. She really didn't want to finish eating it but mama said not to waste food. So with a grimace she finished eating the fruit before throwing away the stem.

"Never going to eat another weird looking fruit ever again." Luffy swore to herself.

"Lu! What are you doing?"

"Coming Ace!" She called back to her ever impatient brother.

"Did you find anything else over there?"

"Nope," Luffy replied. "Just a weird nasty fruit I refuse to ever eat again."

"Don't lie Lu, you'd eat anything that gets near you." Ace deadpanned back to her.

"Shishishishishi, usually yeah, but I don't think weird fruits are ever going to be on the menu again." And she meant that. As many nasty potions she'd drank in her previous life none of them compared to that one fruit. It was like a condensed version of all of them in one then left out to rot. "I'm still hungry though Ace, can we go get food now?"

"Well we've still got quite a bit of beach left to clear so get marching Lu." Ace told her as he slapped her back to get her moving.

"Oww." Luffy whined out.

"What? That wasn't nothing Luffy. Did you hurt yourself moving the chest?" Ace asked as he looked at her weirdly.

"I… don't think I did?" She asked more than said as she tilted her head in wonder.

"Let's get moving. Faster we clear the beach, the faster we can get food and get Makino to look at it."

"Neh, Ace."

"Yeah Lu?"

"There's a person." Luffy said pointing at a pile of rubbish they hadn't sifted through yet.

"What?" Ace asked surprised.

"Yeah, you can see the sticking out of the pile."

"Imagine that. Wonder why they were sailing in that weather last night?"

"Ace, I think whether or not they need help might be more important right now." She deadpanned with a bit of a glare.

"Right," Ace sweat dropped. Lately Luffy had been switching moods off and on and he couldn't figure out why. Maybe she was just having a rough time this month, he thought, not realizing how close to the mark he was.

It took them several minutes to dig the person out from the pile of refuse, but when they finished they were both a bit shocked. The man had long light brown hair and was wearing chef's clothing. However what stuck out to them was the fact he didn't have a single mark on him despite obviously having been in what looked like a shipwreck the previous night.

While Ace marveled over how tough the guy had to be. Luffy had dropped to her knees and was checking his vitals. His breathing was fine and his pulse was good.

"What you doing there Lu?" Ace asked curiously.

"Checking to see if he was alive. He seems fine, we just need to get him to wake up." She explained.

"How we are going to do that?"

"Shishishishi, like this." She explained as she reared back slapped the guy with all her might.

"What the hell Luffy?!" Ace exclaimed.

A groan cut off any further remarks between the two as the guy rolled over groggily and got hoisted himself up to a sitting position.

"Shishishishi, told you it would work Ace." She happily chirped with a wide grin.

"Ugh, did you have to hit me that hard though?!" the mystery man asked them.

"I knew you'd be fine," Luffy stated as she shrugged.

"Doesn't mean it doesn't sting you little brat." He snapped back before taking a good look at the two kids who'd apparently rescued him? Or at the least woke him up. The first one he examined was the boy. He was firmly in his teens judging by how he was starting to fill out and was a good foot taller than his companion. Kid had some wicked freckles too.

Then he looked at the girl. She couldn't be much older than 8 years old judging by the height, but she had doll-like features and long black hair that seemed like it would do what it wanted regardless of anyone else's intentions. What really got him though were her eyes. They seemed both young and carefree yet at the same time reminded him of Oyaji. That's when something else caught his attention and his eyes went wide.

"Hey girl you know you're bleeding right?" He asked urgently.

"Huh?" Luffy asked with a tilt of her head as he gestured at her and she looked down. "Oh, that." She said calmly at first before her own eyes went wide. "AH! I need to go get mama!" She yelled as she turned around and booked it.

"What?! Hey Lu what-" Ace started.

"No time, bring him to mama's place!" She yelled over her shoulder as she disappeared into the brush.

"What was that about?" Ace asked aloud looking dumbfounded.

"Kid, you don't want to know, trust me on that." The guy said to Ace with a bit of smirk. "By the way, where are we?"

"On the beach," Ace replied, looking at him like he was stupid.

"I meant, what Island kid."

"Ah, Dawn Island."

"I see, guess I didn't get thrown too far off course from where I was at." He mused aloud. "By the way kid, you seen a small treasure chest round here while you were digging around?"

"No, just a big one, but it's ours. We already hid it." Ace replied warily.

"Ah, that must've been the captain's chest, but I ain't worried about that. The small chest had something important in it." He explained but decided it couldn't hurt to tell the kid a bit more. He likely wouldn't even know the true significance of it. "It had an odd fruit inside."

"Oh that, yeah Luffy ate it because she was hungry."

The man groaned at that part. "That's not good. We need to go get your little sister, kid, before she gets herself killed."

"Huh? What do you mean before she gets herself killed?!" Ace asked or rather yelled.

"I'll explain on the way." He said as he started moving in the direction of the girl, Lu judging by what this kid called her, went. "Just so you know, the names Thatch. What's yours? I can't keep calling you kid." He asked conversationally.

"Portgas D. Ace."

Well now, that's interesting, Thatch thought to himself.

It was a couple of hours later the two managed to arrive at Makino's home to find Luffy eating at the bar. She had already changed clothes and her hair was still wet. She greeted them as they walked in.

"Hey Ace, Mama went to the port to stock up."

"Hey Lu! You going to tell me why you took off like that?" Ace demanded more than asked. Though he filed the part about Makino being out in the back of his mind. He'd need to help unload and put the stuff up later.

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing Ace," Luffy said as she turned slightly red thinking about it. She knew it was going to happen. She just didn't think it would actually happen, you know, ignorance is bliss and all that. Intentional or not.

"What? Come on Lu, you're turning all red and stuff I need to know if you're sick or not." Ace started on her only for the guy they'd found, Thatch, to cut in.

"Nah kid she'll be fine, and besides it's not something you should be asking her about. Just let your mother explain it to you."

"Fine," Ace huffed, not really understanding and knowing Luffy could be stubborn.

"Anyways Lu we-"

"Luffy," she cut him off.

"What's that?"

"My names Luffy, Monkey D. Luffy." She explained.

Another one? He thought to himself before continuing. "Okay, Luffy, we need to talk about that fruit you ate."

"It was disgusting, what about it?" She asked curiously. After all, as fancy as it looked it tasted horrible and from past life experience people didn't care much for food that didn't taste good. So why was he bringing it up?

"I imagine it was. You know everyone who's ever eaten one all say it was the most disgusting thing they'd ever eaten." He commented with a grin.

"You say that like people actually eat them willingly." Luffy said with a grimace.

"You could say that. In fact a lot of people do. That wasn't just no ordinary or fancy fruit. It's what's known as a Devil Fruit."

"A Devil Fruit?" Okay she was definitely interested now with a name like that. Especially since nothing bad had happened.

"Yep, that's what they're called, and each one is different from the next. They're special because each one gives the person who eats them a unique ability or power they can use." Thatch explained to the girl.

"Mmmm," she hummed aloud. "I don't feel any different though." Then she got excited as some of that childlike wonder bled through. "What power do you think I got?!"

"Don't know, I may have found it but it wasn't listed in any of the books we had on Devil Fruits. What's more important is there's something you need to know about eating one, Luffy. People who eat Devil Fruits lose the ability to swim. They say the Ocean hates them and rejects their very being." He told her gravely.

"That's fine I'll just have to make sure I don't get thrown in the water or have strong swimmers who can fish me out." Was her immediate reply to that.

"Why would you need to do that?" He asked because that reply was a little too quick.

That's when Luffy donned the biggest grin yet and jumped onto the bar as she raised her hands to announce, "Because I'm going to be the first Queen of the Pirates!"

"Queen of the Pirates huh? A little runt like you?" he asked, amused.

That's when she looked him straight in the eye as her own emerald orbs seemed to glow and her expression settled on something severe. "That's right, because being the Queen of the Pirates means I will be strong enough to protect what I care about most."

"And what's that?" He asked, indulging her.

"The crew, the family, I plan to build." She said with a longing in her voice and a wetness in her eyes.

That's when Thatch saw the silhouette of his own captain, his Oyaji, superimposed over the girl. He thought about a lot of things as the silence stretched on. His reason for taking the trip, his goals and dreams. He thought about the brothers he already missed. He thought about the little girl in front of him that probably had no idea what she was getting herself into. Then about her brother who looked so much like her except for in the face. Then he finally spoke.

"And what about you Ace? Are you going to be King of the Pirates?"

"No," was the immediate response. "I'm going to be Luffy's first mate and make sure she makes her own dreams come true. That's my dream."

"Alrighty then. I guess it's decided."

"Ano, What's decided?" Luffy asked as she tilted her head and her eyes went wide.

"I've decided I'm going to teach you kids some things you'll need to know if you want to even be able to even start your dream. Also don't make that face again."

"What face?" she asked innocently.

Thatch sweat dropped at that. She was too good for her own good, he thought. Girl was gonna kill someone when she got older with that look.

"Let's talk shop," he said as he ignored her last question.

They ended up spending the rest of the afternoon telling Thatch what they'd already been doing in order to prepare for becoming pirates. Starting with getting money saved up for a ship and their training to be able to fight. When he asked if there was anything else they both said no causing him to sigh heavily as he ran his hands down his face. He then laid out a list of everything they'd need to actually know. From basic sailing, to money keeping, cooking to which Luffy replied she already knew how to cook thank you very much. To which he then asked if she knew how to keep people healthy on the ocean. He explained about all the extra supplies they'd need and then that they'd need to learn about ships in general to figure out what type they'd need and want.

When the initial discussions winded down it was already time for dinner and Makino had arrived with her supplies for the bar. Thatch took the chance to start teaching both kids about cooking on the ocean after they'd helped get everything off the wagon she'd used to bring. It became quickly apparent that Ace would never be anywhere near what you'd call a cook as he didn't have the attention span for it. Meanwhile Luffy peppered him with questions about it.

Thatch ended up staying with them for half a year. Upon further discussion with Makino he learned that none of the ships that'd head for the larger Islands in East Blue would be back until then. Which was fine by him, he needed the time to teach the kids the basics of what they needed to know and trying to cram it in wouldn't do them any good. Especially since physical training would take a lot of time on top of the time the kids took to be just kids for a little while longer.

Thatch taught them as much as he could about sailing different ships, running them through mock drills on getting everything done that they needed to get done. In fact they even managed to clear out and build an area that mimicked the deck of a ship mast and all. Though it had to be changed around for the different types they need to learn every couple of weeks.

One of the things he worked on them with was cleaning up their fighting stances. While he didn't have a set style or anything to teach them. He could make sure that they had their weaknesses shored up and that they had more solid stances. From what he gleaned from them Garp the fist, who was Luff's grandfather, trained them. Though from the way he saw it, that was more survival training through a trial by fire than anything as he never actually taught them anything.

Cooking was obviously one of the things he'd worked with them on as it was a passion of his. Ace was somewhat attentive for the first couple of months, but then he'd started making excuses and missing days. That was fine though he had the most basic of the basics down and could do it in a pinch. Ace also never seemed to mind when he was giving random questions to make sure he remembered. Luffy on the other hand really took a shine to it. While she would probably never dedicate the time it took to be a true master chef of the seas. She was very good for someone who treated it as her favorite hobby.

Money was another thing they'd go over. He taught them how to look into prices on things and how to determine what types of supplies would be best by giving them scenarios to think through based on which type of Island they might be heading to while also keeping enough in case of emergencies.

Luffy's Devil Fruit was another issue they had to tackle all together. During the first spar he had against them she'd gotten frustrated with the lack of hits they'd managed to land on him. Not that he'd tell them the full reasons why. After all Haki was for the blooded and the tested. They'd need to unlock it on their own otherwise they could mess up focusing on it too much. Anyways he'd just avoided yet another one of their double team attacks when Luffy in her frustration coated her entire arm in a smoky black substance and reached for him. It'd taken him by surprise when he felt himself pulled towards the tiny girl. As he braced himself to stop from moving forward she'd instinctively pushed him away causing him to go ass over tea-kettle. This resulted in a whoop of joy from the girl as she did a little dance over managing to hit him with something.

At first they didn't know much about it. However Luffy brought up her Grandpa's home that she'd used to spend time in when she was younger and how he had a lot of books he never seemed to touch stuffed into the shelves. Turns out her hunch was right. They learned the name of the fruit was the Yami Yami no Mi. A Logia that according to Thatch was not really a Logia since she didn't have the auto defense others did. In fact most things that hit her had started to hurt a bit more instead. It vaguely described gravity as being part of the fruit's powerset along with the powerful function of nullifying other fruits if she was in contact with them. Thatch said that'd be very very useful against anyone who was over reliant on their fruit, especially other Logia users. As while she might not be intangible herself she could ignore their intangibility. The book they'd gotten the information from was more like a tomb with how old and heavy it was.

What Luffy loved the most though were some of the stories Thatch told them. He was on the crew of the man she wanted to model her own crew after. And while she might not have nearly as big a crew for a long long time because he'd been around for decades. She loved the stories of how he seemed to know everyone's names and things about them despite just how massive his crew was. He made people feel like they truly belonged there. Like they were important and they mattered. She wanted her crew to feel like that. Her crew wouldn't be as large and her age would make it different since he came to them as a father adopting a new son, but she'd find a way to do it. Her own way.

"Alright," Thatch started as he looked at the two kids in front of him. "Today, I teach you how to shoot."

"Wait, you mean with guns?" Ace asked surprised.

"Yes, with guns. Sometimes you'll need to resort to them for a longer range when you can't afford to get close." Thatch explained.

"Don't you leave tomorrow? Why did you wait for the last day?" Luffy asked, tilting her head. She really thought this would be something they worked more in depth on.

"Because it's the most dangerous thing I can teach you about. Once you draw a gun, you have to be prepared to use it. Bet your life on it. Don't hesitate, because it means you're willing to kill and that means you've escalated the situation and your enemy will respond in kind okay?" Thatch told them seriously.

Luffy and Ace both nodded at this. Though Luffy understood far more than Ace did. After all it was the same concept as drawing your wand on someone in her past life. You just didn't do it unless you were really willing to put someone down for good if things escalated.

"I'll go over how to properly shoot with you as well as safety and maintenance. Then it'll be on you to practice properly. Understood?" Thatch continued breaking their trains of thought.

"Of course Uncle," Luffy replied cheekily. Which was another thing that changed. Luffy considered Thatch as hers even if he was in a different crew. He was the caring yet fun loving Uncle both her and Ace needed. While she figured Shanks would have been willing to teach her this. She figured she was much too young at the time for him to consider doing so.

Thatch just scoffed and pulled out the two pistols he normally carried inside his chef's jacket. Then went over how to hold them amongst others dos and don'ts of using a gun. Such as never putting one's finger on the trigger till they were ready to shoot, not pointing it in the direction of anyone they had no intention of shooting etc. Once done he showed them the basics of aiming and let them have their own turns to make sure they showed him they remembered what to do.

After they were finished with their practice shots, Thatch showed them how to break it down and clean it before putting them back together. He showed them what parts they needed to keep as spares that'd need replacing. When that was done he had them do it themselves despite already having cleaned the pistols. From there he took them to a shed where he showed them the small furnace and reloading bench he'd acquired for them to make their own ammo which would be cheaper in the long run. He had them repeat the process several times till they both got acceptable rounds to use.

"Now remember to keep practicing everything you've been taught and don't let any skills get rusty that you'll need." He pulled out a small but long box and placed it on the table in front of them. "These are pretty cheap compared to mastercraft so you'll most likely need to replace them someday with something better made but they'll do you for now with practicing." He then opened the lid to reveal four newer model pistols designed to hold six rounds each called a revolver.

"Thank Thatch," Ace said softly as he looked in the box. He couldn't help but think about Sabo at this point and how much easier it would have been had they had these when he was still with them. He may have even still been alive. Ace then shook those thoughts from his head. Thinking like that wouldn't help.

"Yeah, thanks for everything Uncle," Luffy followed up while sporting her usual wide grin.

The next morning Thatch was gone before either kids were awake. All that was left was a note about how goodbyes were hard and he better see them in the Grandline some day. Luffy cried her eyes out behind closed doors and if Ace heard her, he didn't say anything.

Several months later found Thatch back with the Whitebeard pirates. He was no longer conflicted on his feelings the way he'd been when he'd taken temporary leave. If anything he was excited to be back and start working with his brothers. Luffy had done him a favor by eating that fruit though. She unintentionally lifted the burden of the choice from his shoulders and him telling her the stories he had? It had only served to reaffirm his feelings for the crew.

"I see you're back my son," A massive man sitting in a chair while hooked up to many medical machines said to thatch with a massive smile on his face. This was none other than Whitebeard, a man who stood above many. "It's good to see you again, I hope your time away has helped."

"It has Oyaji, it has. Met a couple of runts that'll be something someday and me helping them helped me just as much if not more. In fact, I think I want to try for the position of Commander when old Gordan steps down." Thatch told Whitebeard.

"That's good, that's good. So did you decide what you were going to do with that mystery fruit?"

"That old thing? It was lost at sea." Thatch said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"I see," was Whitebeard's only response. "Probably for the best then, aye?

"That it was."