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Grand Line – Paradise
Alabasta – Port of Nanohana
"So, what's this conversation you guys were talking about?", as soon as the three of them enter an empty room, Ace asks, not understanding the reason for all this privacy.
"Well, you're after Blackbeard, right?", Luffy asks, getting straight to the point.
"Wait, how do you know…", Ace starts to ask, completely confused, only to be interrupted by Luffy.
"I'll explain later, but before that, I know where he's going to be!", raising his hand to cut him off, Luffy says, dropping another bomb into Ace's lap, leaving him even more confused.
"Ow, ow, ow, calm down, damn it! What's going on here? Someone explain to me for the love of God!", taking a few steps back, Ace raises his hands and asks, wanting an explanation for what was happening, his eyebrows furrowed tightly.
"If you wait for us to finish what we came to do in Alabasta, we can go together and deal with…", Luffy continues speaking without explaining anything, only to be rudely interrupted by Ace.
"Time, time, time, you can stop, you can stop right there! I don't know where you got this from, but even if it's true and you really know where he is, Teach is my responsibility, not yours. I don't want to get in the way…", crossing his arms in an X, Ace raises his voice to refuse the help, but Luffy interrupts him.
"You're not getting in the way at all…", Luffy tries to argue, but Ace begins to speak over him.
"You have your own adventures and responsibilities…", Ace says firmly, their voices overlapping in a generalized chaos, the volume rising until Luffy explodes.
"FUCK! I'm trying to stop you from dying, damn it!", Luffy yells, slamming the table in front of him hard, and then, in the silence that follows, only his heavy breathing can be heard.
"... I think this would be a good time for you or Sabo to explain to me what's going on!", Ace looks at Luffy in silence for a long time before sitting in a chair across the table and speaking calmly, realizing that whatever was happening, it was serious.
"...Sigh... look, three years ago, one day after you left for the sea, I woke up with memories that weren't mine, memories of another world, a world where there is a fictional story called One Piece, which tells the journey of a version of me seeking to fulfill his dream of finding the One Piece and becoming the King of the Pirates", letting out a sigh to calm down, Luffy sits in a chair across from Ace and explains seriously.
"... You're serious! Sabo, he's serious!", after a few seconds of silence processing the information, Ace says seriously before turning to Sabo and repeating, he knew his little brother well enough to know he was serious, and that was at least worrying.
"Yeah, that's how he found me!", Sabo says seriously.
"All right, none of you are joking!", Ace comments with concern; if they were serious and really believed this, then either they were completely nuts and delirious, or it was true, and that was scary.
"I know things that may or may not happen in the future!", Luffy continues his explanation, taking off his hat and placing it on the table in front of him.
"Okay, why did you say you were trying to stop me from dying?", Ace asks seriously, wanting to understand why Luffy said that.
"After Alabasta, you meet Teach after a while, you two fight, you lose, he hands you over to the Marines, a war happens, in the end, I couldn't save you, Whitebeard dies... I... I won't let that happen!", Luffy says heavily, narrating what happens in canon aloud before murmuring the last part, more to himself than to anyone else.
"Dude, are you talking about Teach? The same Teach I know?", letting out a scornful laugh, Ace asks to make sure they were talking about the same person, greatly underestimating Blackbeard.
"Yes, Marshall D. Teach, the same man who gave Shanks, the Red-Haired, his scar in the eye, he's not as simple as you think he is, Ace!", Luffy replies, telling him not to underestimate Blackbeard.
"…All right, I believe you! The fact that you seem less dumb proves it", after a few seconds of processing the information in complete silence, Ace raises his gaze to Luffy and says, choosing to trust his little brother; they didn't seem crazy, so the only option left was that all this madness was true.
"No, he's still as dumb as before; he just seems smart like that from time to time", leaning against the closed doorframe, Sabo says to lighten the tense mood.
"Teach will be in Jaya, this other version of me ran into him on that island! So you join us, and after Alabasta, we'll go there and finish him off", Luffy invites him to join them temporarily and explains what the plan would be if he accepted.
"... All right, let's follow your plan if it helps you sleep at night! But seriously, that scar on the Red-Haired's eye was made by Teach?", after a few seconds of pondering, Ace sets aside his pride and stubbornness and accepts the offer of help; his little brother being able to sleep at night was more important than your pride.
"…Sigh… yeah, and from what was shown in the story, Shanks considers him pretty dangerous! By the way, he said he met you a few years ago, how was it?", letting out a relieved sigh, Luffy comments before shifting the subject to something lighter.
"You mean the Red-Haired?", Ace asks to be sure.
"Yes!", Luffy answers with a slight smile.
"Well, I met him shortly after I entered the Grand Line. The idea was to thank him for saving you when you were a child and then leave, maybe have a beer with him before that, but things didn't go the way I imagined. Our conversation was enlightening, so to speak!", Ace begins to tell how his meeting with Shanks went in the past, being a bit ironic at the end.
"He said something about Roger, you got mad, attacked him, and then got your ass kicked, right?", Luffy asks with a knowing smile, hitting exactly what happened.
"Yeah, he beat me up like I was a spoiled child, but I think I needed to have that talk! The Redhead gave me some tips to get stronger in the middle of it, and before I left, he told me to look for a friend of his when I passed through Sabaody! That beating made me see that I was weak and that my father wasn't exactly the way I thought he was. Of course, I was angry at the time, really angry at him for talking about my father as if I was wrong to hate him, but eventually it passed. So, when I got to Sabaody, I did exactly what he told me to do and looked for the friend he mentioned. I just didn't imagine that this so-called friend would force me to go through some hellish training for a few months before letting me go. After that, I hunted down Pops to kill him, and the rest is history", Ace confirms what Luffy said and then explains what happened after the 'eye-opening talk' he had with Shanks.
"Nice, good thing I asked Shanks to talk to you then, otherwise you'd be the weakest of us", Luffy says with a smile, noticing that his brother seemed more at peace with his origins than before.
"Wait, you were the one responsible for the conversation I had with the Red-Haired?", Ace asks, surprised. This idiot was responsible for the beating he took and the hellish training that followed in Sabaody?
"Yes!", Luffy replies cheerfully.
"Ah, you bastard! I should have hit you harder in our fight!", Ace curses angrily. It may have been for his own good, but that doesn't change the fact that it was shit for him.
"Shishishishi! You missed your chance, idiot", Luffy teases with a laugh, dodging a flaming punch right after saying that.
"By the way, what's this story about him saying he met me? Do you keep in touch with him?", calming down after trying to land a punch on Luffy for a while, Ace sits down again and asks curiously.
"I have his number, but I only called him like twice and never again!", Luffy replies. He had no reason to keep calling Shanks for nothing.
"How did you get his number?", Ace asks, curious about where Luffy got the number of a Yonkou.
"From Makino!", Luffy answers, remembering that he also had her number and that it would be nice to call sometimes to see how everyone was doing.
"Why would Miss Makino have Shanks' number?", Sabo asks, doubtful.
"I think there's something going on between the two of them!", Luffy replies with a mischievous grin, gossiping.
"Haha, seriously?", laughing loudly, Ace asks in surprise.
"Yes, I just don't know how all the logistics of that work", Luffy comments as if he were sure, but the reality is that he has no idea if Shanks and Makino are really having a thing.
"By the way, where did you learn the Armament Haki beyond the Advanced level?", turning to Ace, Sabo suddenly asks, curious.
"Are you talking about Superior Armament Haki? If so, then I learned it from Pops! And you guys?", after asking to be sure about what they were talking about, Ace replies.
"Superior Haki, that's the official name?", Sabo asks to confirm.
"Yes!", Ace answers, raising an eyebrow. This idiot learned to use Superior Armament Haki without even knowing the name?
"I learned it from Luffy's father", Sabo replies, now knowing the official name of this level.
"I learned it in the middle of a fight against Gramps!", Luffy replies with a smile.
"Hey, Luffy, you told me not to underestimate Teach. How strong do you think he is?", changing the subject, Ace asks curiously, wanting to know his little brother's opinion.
"One level below a Yonkou, I think!", Luffy answers after pondering for a few seconds.
"Really, that strong?", Ace asks, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
"I mean, for the Red-Haired to consider him dangerous, Teach has to be at least close to the level of a Yonko, right?", Sabo argues, pointing out based on what Luffy said earlier.
"Yeah, you're right, so do you think we can actually defeat him?", nodding his head, Ace agrees before asking uncertainly. If what Luffy said is true, then Teach would be much stronger than them.
"Gramps must be as strong as a Yonkou, and even though he went easy on me, I still managed to fight him for a while, so if the three of us team up, Teach doesn't stand a chance!", seeing Ace's uncertainty, Luffy argues, reassuring him.
"Right… man, this whole thing about our world being a fictional story is crazy, I don't even want to think about it!", nodding his head, Ace then looks at the ceiling and lets out a sigh after a few seconds of silence, talking about how insane this whole thing of their world being a fictional story in another world is.
"Isn't it? It gives you an absurd existential crisis!", Sabo adds, having felt the same thing when he found out.
"Don't think too much about it! By the way, old man Whitebeard is sick, right?", Luffy says before changing the subject and asking.
"That's right, why?", Ace replies before questioning curiously.
"Because I have an idea of how to cure him, but...", Luffy begins to talk about an extremely complicated idea he had based on his memories of the other world, only to be stopped from elaborating by Ace.
"Are you serious, Luffy?", Ace asks in a jolt, his voice sounding urgent.
"I mean, I don't know exactly what disease he has, and even if it's the disease I think he has, the old man would need extremely fine control over his Devil Fruit, plus he'd also need the help of a capable scientist to make it viable! In other words, it's a far-fetched idea where the chances of failing are infinitely greater than the chances of succeeding!", Luffy explains, without giving details, just how wild and complex his idea is.
"I don't care, if there's a possibility it could work, then it doesn't hurt to at least talk to Pops about it! Now, do you have a Den Den Mushi, Luffy?", not caring how hard it was, Ace asks quickly, if there was a chance of a cure, it was worth trying.
"I do, I just have to find where it is!", not remembering where his modified white Den Den Mushi was, Luffy says, completely uncertain about the feasibility of his idea.
"Leave it to me, I know where it is!", Sabo says, offering to go get the Den Den Mushi.
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(AN: 2,169 Words)
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