Chapter 30: Three Boys, a Forest, and a Dream

"That'll probably be enough, right?"

"Probably."

"I can hit it again."

"Hit what? There's nothing left. That giant rubber fist of yours turned the whole auction house into splinters."

"He's right, Lu. Though, I can still burn it."

"Fine, fine, I know you want to. But make it fast—the marines are coming."

"I thought we want to be seen."

"You do. I don't. It's for the best Luffy isn't associated with the revolutionaries right now. Even if…"

"If what?"

"Never mind. I'll tell you another time."

"Suit yourself. Hey, Luffy, check this out!"

Back on the shores of Rusukaina, Ace laid out on the sand with a pleased sigh. Overhead, the afternoon sky was light on clouds, and for now none of the beasts that prowled the island's inner recesses had taken notice of him. They'd apparently made landfall during one of the island's nicer forty-eight seasons, too. Honestly, for all the island had been hyped up, Ace had yet to even see snow.

Sabo jumped from the ship and landed nearby, then sidestepped as Luffy rocketed by and slammed into a tree, sending a half-dozen coconuts raining down. Ace caught one and popped it up at Sabo without looking. Sabo caught it, cracked it in two, and passed half back to Ace.

Sipping a coconut on the beach. Not bad at all.

He finished with the coconut and tossed it aside, then sat up and brushed the sand from his hair. "Any news yet?"

"There's a coo coming this way."

Ace squinted and, sure enough, there was a bird slowly dropping from its sky route thanks to Sabo waving it down with some beri in his hand. "They're really fast."

"Well, we did kind of wreck several slave operations in Sabaody right under the marines' noses, pose for pictures, and then hightail it out of there before an admiral could get there from headquarters. They had plenty of material and witnesses, and it's been over a day."

"Luffy and I posed for pictures. You skulked in the shadows."

"I did not! I was securing our way out."

"Skulking, skulking, Sabo was skulking!" Luffy sang and then laughed as he dodged Sabo's halfhearted attempts to hit him with his pipe. With the news coo taking up his other arm, he couldn't exactly give chase.

Bird gone, pipe planted in the sand, and newspaper in hand, Sabo examined the front page with a critical eye, then nodded. "They used a good picture."

He flipped the paper around so Ace could see. Luffy bounded up next to him and they both took in the image splashed over the front. In the picture, he and Ace were back-to-back and facing down a bunch of marines. Ace was on fire, his left arm and its ASCE tattoo clearly visible to the camera. And there was Luffy, his right arm equally prominent, along with the temporary tattoo that branded it: 3D2Y, with the 3D crossed out much as Ace's S was. To anyone looking, it just looked like Luffy had gotten a tattoo to match Ace's.

Over the image was the big headline: "STRAW HAT LUFFY, FIRE FIST ACE CLAIM BROTHERHOOD, WREAK HAVOC IN SABAODY."

Man, Ace thought with a grin, Akainu's probably steaming right now.

'Course, the marines had probably already known about that little family fact thanks to Smoker in Alabasta, but they'd been keeping it to themselves. The list of bounty hunters willing to go after a rookie pirate was often as long as the bounty was high; the list of bounty hunters willing to go after a rookie pirate with ties to Whitebeard was, no matter how high the bounty, significantly shorter.

"You said you didn't find all of them?" he asked Sabo, who passed off the newspaper to Luffy so the kid could read the whole article and see more of the pictures they'd printed.

"No, but definitely Robin and Sanji. The rest should see this newspaper, and if Luffy's right, they'll understand what that tattoo means. How did Whitebeard react when you told him you were staying here?"

"He took it well, I think." Ignoring the subsequent calls from Deuce, Thatch, and Marco, which were all variations on the theme of could you at least warn us first. Deuce in particular was more than justified in that, but at least he now had plenty of time to wrap up everything he wanted to do with the medical division. "I'm pretty sure they're all hoping you'll be a good influence on me."

Sabo laughed. "Only because they haven't met me yet, I think."

"They'll figure it out when they do meet you. How long until you have to leave, by the way?"

"They're still shuffling around some mission assignments, but I have a month at least. I'll do everything I can to be here as often as possible, but—"

"I get it, I get it. Thought Luffy knocked that guilt out of you on the way here. Luffy—"

"No, no, it's fine, Luffy, you can keep reading." Sabo sighed. "I'm gonna collect some wood for a fire. Mind getting Hancock's meals from the ship?"

"Sure." Ace stretched his arms over his head with a groan, then let his hands fall. It felt good to be healed. The burn scar on his arm would never fully fade, and he had spots all over his body from other burns, but they didn't hurt anymore. Next chance he got, he was getting that tattoo. Maybe there was a good artist on Amazon Lily willing to put ink on a man, if Curiel wasn't going to be reachable.

He wandered down the beach to the waterline. Hancock had prepared some meals and then, upon hearing Luffy would be detouring back to Sabaody for a minute, had taken it upon herself to quadruple the amount of food she'd have ready on his return. Ace didn't delude himself into thinking any of the food had been made with him or Sabo in mind. He could see two of the overstuffed backpacks peeking over the railing even from down on the beach.

Well, at least the food tasted good.

"We'll start training tomorrow morning," Ace decided over dinner that night. "Tonight, we'll camp on the beach and take turns chasing away any animals that get too close. Eat as many of Hancock's meals as you want; from tomorrow on, the only food we get to eat is what we catch ourselves. Feel free to use it as bait, though."

Sabo and Luffy nodded agreement.

With their bellies stuffed full to bursting on the free food, it wasn't long before all three brothers were fighting drowsiness. Luffy succumbed first, curling up under the small shelter he and Ace had built and snoring away. Ace yawned wide, blinked his eyes clear, and knelt next to Luffy to drag his blanket back up over his shoulders.

Luffy mumbled and turned over, forehead creasing. Ace smoothed it out with his thumb, then let his touch linger.

Arm slipping from Luffy's shoulder, strength fading, can't feel him anymore, can't feel anything anymore.

"Ace?"

Ace gently flicked Luffy's forehead over his half-lidded eyes. "Go back to sleep, idiot."

He stood and walked back to the fire with Sabo, Luffy's snores resuming behind him. He dropped onto the log they'd dragged over as a bench, rested his elbows on his knees, and sighed.

"You could sleep too, you know," Sabo pointed out. "Only one of us needs to stay on watch."

"I'll let you handle it once the dinner drowsiness goes away. Don't need you nodding off."

"You're one to talk."

They both watched the crackling flames for a minute, lost in thought—but neither was so lost they let their observation haki slip. They were both firmly attentive toward the island. If anything lurking in the forest got too close, they'd know. Faintly, they could hear some sea kings fighting in the ocean, but they were safe on shore and could ignore that.

If not for the haki, though…

"It's like old times."

Sabo hummed his agreement. The fire crackled and then released a shower of sparks as one of the logs split and tumbled into the center. Sabo winced and leaned back, reminding Ace of decade-old guilt—and more recent guilt, too.

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"I…I was outta line in Sabaody. I was worried about Luffy, but I shouldn't'a taken it out on you when you were feeling the same way." He licked his lips, the fire having dried them out. "I thought I'd gotten a better handle on myself since we were kids but I guess not."

Sabo was quiet for a moment, then offered, "I accept your apology, Ace. Like you said, you were stressed. It happens."

"It won't happen again."

Sabo clapped him on the shoulder. "You really have grown up, huh?"

"Guess so. Guess you have too."

Mutual guilt simmered in the air between them before it broke up into mutual forgiveness. Sabo squeezed, Ace smiled, and Silvers Rayleigh walked out of the ocean.

Ace froze. Sabo froze. Rayleigh, oblivious or uncaring, merely sluiced off some of the water coursing down his bare chest and then wrang out his shirt while a puddle steadily grew under him.

"R-R-Rayleigh?" Sabo stammered.

"Ah, Sabo. Good to see you again. I guess this means I was right to change course. That must be Luffy over there, then."

The fire next to Ace leapt and danced in time to Ace's shock-scattered thoughts. Rayleigh. Rayleigh. Dark King Rayleigh. Roger's first mate Rayleigh. Wasn't he puttering around Sabaody pretending to be a coating craftsman? What in the ever-loving fuck did a monster like that want? Why was he here?

There could only be one reason.

A burning arm went up between Rayleigh and Luffy. "What do you want with our brother?"

"Ace, he's not here to fight. You're not, are you?"

"Not exactly. I suspect I'm here for the same reasons you are."

"I don't want your help and Luffy doesn't need it. He has us."

Sabo placed a calming hand on Ace's shoulder, the fire reflexively going out where he touched, and got him to lower his arm. "For my brother's sake, can you explain exactly why you're here?"

Rayleigh, after a lingering glance at Ace, nodded. "You noticed it too, but Luffy isn't equipped to handle the New World right now. I've decided to offer my help in getting him to that point, if he wants it."

"Who says he does?"

"Ace, please."

"No, why the hell are you even talking to him?"

"Because he helped Luffy!" Sabo exploded. "Stop letting your grudges get in the way of helping our little brother!"

"Grudge? Are you ser—"

"I don't mean to cause trouble." Finished wringing out his shirt, Rayleigh slung it over one shoulder with a wet slap. "However, I'd appreciate if you let me stay the night. I stopped by Amazon Lily and then heard from Hancock that you were here. They didn't have any boats prepared, and mine was already destroyed in a storm, so a quick swim was the fastest way."

"Then…those sea kings fighting…that was you?" Sabo sat down, rubbing at his temples. "Legendary pirates are something else. Feel free to have some of that food; Hancock made it, and it's too much for us to finish tonight."

"You intended to eat all of this in one night?"

"Starting tomorrow, we eat what we catch. Right, Ace?"

Ace crossed his arms, scowled, and refused to say another word. He hated the way Rayleigh looked at Luffy, hated the fondness in his voice, and above all, hated how he kept looking at Ace with unabashed curiosity.

Really, he wanted him to say it. Just speak the words, please, give me the reason, but he won't actually ask. He'd been spoiling for a fight for days now but he wasn't about to start one with his brothers right there when they were supposed to be doing all of this for Luffy.

But if Rayleigh started it…Ace just needed the excuse. He could probably goad the man into doing it. Yeah, that was the best play.

Thud.

In retribution for the understandable but inconvenient hostility Ace had been spitting all over the place, Sabo made no move to catch his brother when he fell onto the beach. Rayleigh paused in the middle of unwrapping one of Hancock's packed meals.

"Is he alright?"

"Fine, just asleep. He's got narcolepsy." Sabo knelt next to him and rolled him onto his back so he'd quit breathing in sand. "Only time he's slept in the last few days was when an attack hit, so I'm not surprised it caught up to him again." After a beat, Sabo picked him up and carried him over to Luffy, then spread the blanket over them both. Even asleep, they immediately began a slow tug-of-war over it.

He smiled fondly at the sight, then stood straight and faced the Dark King.

"Do I need to pretend I haven't realized you've figured it out, or are you going to be honest?"

Rayleigh bit into a rice ball and chewed for a moment, then swallowed. "The resemblance is uncanny."

"Why do you think he shaves?"

"It helps Roger didn't become infamous until he was older."

"First thing, you do not say that name around Ace. Don't bring him up in conversation, and if you can help it, don't even think about him. It won't do anyone any good. Do that, and I might be able to convince Ace that letting you train Luffy is a good idea."

"His hatred runs that deep, does it?"

"Deeper."

"Hm. And the second thing?"

"If you hurt my brothers, I will tear down every brick of the life you made after leaving his crew and I will salt whatever's left when I'm done."

Rayleigh's eyebrows crept up, but so did a corner of his mouth. "Noted, but you realize I won't go easy on Luffy or the rest of you in training. That would defeat the point."

"You know that's not what I meant." Sabo frowned. "Ace and I don't need training."

"Turning it down?"

Sabo narrowed his eyes while Rayleigh sipped from a bottle he'd had tucked into a pocket. His time with the Revolutionary Army had given him a plethora of skills. He was, he knew, one of the best users of observation and armament haki in the Army and probably above the vast majority of all haki users in that respect. There were, however, still plenty of people in the world who were stronger than him.

One of them was sitting across the campfire.

"I didn't say that."

Rayleigh smiled into his bottle.

In the morning, it took the combined might of Sabo, Luffy, and an entire hour to wear Ace down into agreeing to accept Rayleigh's help. He was, of course, not happy about it. But he was willing.

By noon, no one was happy. Except maybe Rayleigh, who wore a pleased little smile while Ace, Sabo, and Luffy lay groaning in the dirt, each of them sporting a healthy bump on their head.

"Sabo?" Ace muttered, right eye just barely able to see his brother over a tree root. Sabo shifted his head just enough to look back.

"Yeah?"

"I hate you."

Sabo closed his eye. "Me too."

Rayleigh trained them in the mornings. In the afternoons, once they were physically recovered enough to do so and had each taken down their own local beast or foraged for food, Ace and his brothers squared up for a sparring routine they hadn't done to its fullest in a decade.

"C'mon, Luffy." Ace raised his hands and beckoned his brother to attack. "Let's see you get that first win against me."

Motivated both by the need to be stronger for his crew and the desire to finally surpass Ace, Luffy took to the sparring matches with gusto. Ace got a rapid tour of the various gears Luffy had developed, all of which he had vague memories of from Marineford. Gear third in particular was impressive; Luffy had demonstrated some of it at Sabaody when they were destroying those auction houses, but it was hard to appreciate just how much offensive power it granted until he was facing it down himself.

He still won, though. Luffy's grasp of haki was weak, meaning Ace's logia gave him a truly unfair advantage, for now. And Luffy shrinking down to toddler size wasn't exactly conducive to a Luffy victory.

Sabo was another story. Ace's over-reliance on his logia meant Sabo landed several nasty hits, putting him decisively in the lead of their overall totals early on. Each time, Ace picked himself up, spat the blood out of his mouth, and never made the same mistake again.

He made new ones.

Sabo punished him accordingly, but Ace kept getting up. He'd claw his way back to the top; the sting of defeat was too painful to let stand.

Within a week, he'd dragged his daily win-loss ratio with Sabo back to even. Within two weeks, he was eking out more wins than losses, much to Sabo's irritation.

Even when their totals were nearly tied again, though, Sabo still took time after their spars to show Ace and Luffy more about armament and observation haki that Rayleigh either hadn't yet or wouldn't cover. Neither brother could imitate Sabo's dragon claw style, but gaining a similar level of control over their haki was a solid place to start.

In the evenings, they went out and hunted again, then dragged their winnings back to the sanctuary clearing: a break in the forest marked by a large, smooth rock, the only place on the island the vicious wildlife wouldn't go. Half the time, the small shelters they'd made were destroyed on some level thanks to the insane weather patterns that plagued the island and they had to spend a while rebuilding them.

The one small mercy was that, as long as Ace was around, they didn't have to worry about snow.

One morning, Rayleigh asked Sabo to train on his own, leaving just Ace and Luffy under his tutelage.

"I'm sure Sabo can teach you both plenty about armament and observation haki," Rayleigh explained, "but you and Ace possess something he doesn't."

Ace frowned. "Pirate crews?"

"Black hair?"

Rayleigh chuckled. "While it can crop up without warning, some think it's often hereditary. It wasn't that long ago Shakky heard a rumor about a Whitebeard Pirate knocking out a whole castle's worth of opponents with a single look."

Ace tsked and looked away with a scowl. "That's exaggerated."

"What are you talking about?" Luffy asked.

"I'm talking about the rarest form of haki. Anyone can learn armament haki, and with enough training, even observation haki. But not this one." Rayleigh leaned forward, and as he did, an invisible pressure bore down on both Ace and Luffy, making them squirm. On reflex, Ace resisted that pressure, and Rayleigh's grin widened. All around them, faint flickers of red-rimmed black lightning sparked through the air. "I'm talking about conqueror's haki, or color of the surpreme king. Both of you have it."

Ace spun to look at Luffy. Sure enough, some of that lightning was coming from around him. That moment at Marineford…

"I didn't know about Luffy for certain, but what I saw of him made me suspect he had the potential. I'm glad to see I was right. It suits you."

"And me?" growled Ace.

"I leave the exact mechanics to people smarter than I am. Wouldn't you agree what matters is that you have it? Everyone in the New World knows most of what you can do with armament and observation. But very, very few know all the ways you can use conqueror's. Would you like to learn?"

"Yeah!"

Ace didn't match Luffy's enthusiasm. Hereditary. Most likely, he'd gotten this power from his deadbeat father. He'd bet all his beri that Roger had been one of the most powerful users of it, possibly ever. Just one more ability he could learn to get even closer to the man he hated, whose cursed blood flowed in his veins and gave him such aptitude for everything he tried. Only in his logia fruit was he distinct.

But…this power had let him protect Luffy when they were kids. It wasn't just Roger who had it; Whitebeard did too. So did Shanks. And if Ace was ever going to surpass the legacy of Gold Roger, he'd need the strength it offered.

He set his jaw and glared at Rayleigh. "How do we use it?"

"That's probably good enough."

Sabo stepped away from the ancient tree, which released a stuttering groan that broke up into several sharp cracks before its battered trunk, easily several yards in diameter, finally gave way. It fell to the ground with a boom and impact that shook the ground under Sabo's feet.

Behind Sabo, the boar that had been trying to sneak up on him while he practiced the technique for injecting his haki into the tree to destroy it from the inside froze at the sight of the tree falling, stared down at the tiny human who'd unleashed that destruction, and then fled.

"Aw." Sabo tipped up his hat and turned to watch it sprint through the underbrush. "That was going to be dinner."

Oh, well. Boar meat was pretty tough anyway. There were better options roaming around the island, even if Ace was doing his damndest to singlehandedly cull the bear population.

Movement in the sky caught his eye and he glanced up to see a news coo circling uncertainly. They knew someone was on this island—the birds had a remarkable memory for paying customers—but not where, and it was too dangerous to get close while still uncertain.

"Here!" Sabo called, producing a little more beri from his jacket. Within a couple minutes, he was several bills lighter and weighed down by fresh bounty posters. Seeing the faces plastered above the new numbers, he grinned and jogged toward the clearing.

He found Ace and Luffy facedown in the dirt a few feet away from their respective shelters. Rayleigh was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's your teacher?"

"Gone," Ace said to the earth. "I hope."

"Ow," Luffy moaned.

"What happened?"

"Conqueror's haki training." Ace spat out a bit of mud and rolled onto his back with a great groan, arms flopping out to either side. "I don't even know how to explain how shitty I feel right now."

"I have something that might cheer you up."

"Food?" Luffy sat up, hope sparkling in his eyes.

"Unless you want to eat paper, no. But how do new bounty posters sound?"

Ace sat up, then winced and clutched his head. Taking pity on him, Sabo sat in the no man's land between his brothers and spread their posters out on the ground. All the posters for other pirates got weighted down under his pipe to be glanced at later; their might have been something there of note to the Revolutionary Army.

Crawling over on hands and knees, Luffy sat back on his heels next to Sabo and stared out at his poster in wonder.

"What's mine now?" Ace asked, still on his back. Last he'd heard, it was floating around six hundred million.

Sabo took some satisfaction in reading the whole thing. "Wanted dead or alive: Portgas D. Ace, nine hundred million beri."

"What? Why that much?" Ace demanded, pushing himself up so he could stare at the paper and confirm it for himself. "I haven't even done anything!"

Sabo gave him a hard look. "You wreaked havoc across the world with your division, fought an admiral to a stalemate and destroyed an island in the process, and then assaulted a whole group of nobles at an international conference with a known revolutionary before wrecking up Sabaody and declaring Luffy's your brother. I'm honestly surprised it's not higher."

"Whoa," Luffy said. "You did all that?"

"Akainu was the asshole who destroyed the island, but fine, maybe I did some things. I might even get higher than Marco soon. Bastards are being stingy with a billion, though." He grinned at Luffy. "You hear that, Lu? Nine hundred. You're never catching up."

"Hey! I'm up to 300 million."

Sabo cleared his throat. "Actually, you're at 400 now, on account of the Celestial Dragon punching and havoc wreaking. Nice job on that first one, by the way."

"He shot Hachi."

"Trust me, you don't need to give me any reason to punch one of those bastards."

"Next time I go to the Archipelago," Ace muttered. "They weren't around the first time I went through, and I didn't want the Spades caught up in anything when we were still just getting started. And when we went there this time we had a mission. But now? I'm tempted. They've got it coming."

"You just don't want me catching up," Luffy said mulishly. Ace whacked him upside the head.

"Don't act all high and mighty when you're 500 million behind, you brat!"

"Owww, you hit like Gramps!"

"It's haki," Sabo said absently while Ace and Luffy wrestled. Evidently, they were recovering quickly from Rayleigh's training that morning. "Gramps was using it on us all along." He rubbed the back of his head. Ace likewise shuddered at the memory of those "training" sessions. Funny how they were always the most punishing whenever Garp heard them mention dreams of piracy.

"Hey, Ace!" Luffy sounded very chipper for someone whose rubbery limbs were currently pinned under Ace's legs while Ace pressed his head into the dirt.

"Yeah?"

"Did you ever think about what your poster says?"

A warning light entered Ace's eyes. "My name?"

"Shishishishi, no! What it says."

"Dead or alive?" Sabo quoted with a raised eyebrow.

Confused, Ace had eased the pressure on Luffy's head, and so the younger brother lifted his head with a bright, cheeky smile. "Wanted!"

For a second, it didn't land. Then Sabo groaned. "Lu, that's—"

"What's he talking about?" Ace interrupted, adrenaline still running a little too high for him to put it together as fast.

"What the poster says. What most of them say: 'Wanted dead or alive.' I'm guessing he means that first part."

"Yeah!" confirmed Luffy. "Ace has always been wanted!"

Ace's eye twitched and he slammed Luffy's face back into the ground. "That's so stupid."

But he was smiling when he said it.

I don't think I'm gonna be posting any new One Piece stories on this platform. Posting this one…the whole experience has been fucking depressing. My sincere thanks to the three people who kindly reviewed during the months this was being uploaded—you were three bright spots in a black void of silence and bots.

I'll still be posting over on AO3.