Chapter 12

Hours after everyone woke up for the new day; the Going Merry was sailing peacefully through the Grand Line until a giant white sea cat surfaced from the ocean right behind the ship.

Vivi looks up at the large sea creature in pure shock. "That's a sea cat!"

Chopper and Usopp scream in fright, while Rose grows excited to see the final sign of them reaching Alabasta today.

Luffy looks at the first sign of food that he's seen for days, with pure hunger in his eyes, as he runs to the back of the ship to get ready to fight it. "FOOD!"

Zoro sees the large sea cat, and unsheathes all three of his swords with starving determination in his eyes. "OUR FIRST FULL MEAL IN DAYS!"

The sea cat starts trembling at the hungry pirates before he slowly backs away from them.

Zoro sees him retreating and yells out to the others. "SOMEONE MAKE THE SHIP GO BACKWARDS!"

"WE CAN'T DO THAT!" Usopp answers as he stays back with Chopper.

Sanji runs out of the kitchen after hearing the noise, then runs to the back of the ship !to join Luffy and Zoro in their mission to catch breakfast. "DON'T LET IT GET AWAY! I'LL FILLET IT!"

"NO!" Vivi grabs a broomstick and whacks Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, on the back of their heads, with the blunt side of the stick to send them flying forward until they slam their faces on the railing!

The sea cat uses the confusion to his advantage, and quickly dives back into the ocean as the boys get up while rubbing their aching heads.

"Why Vivi-chan~?" Sanji whines while Zoro and Luffy look to where their prey was with disappointment in their eyes.

"You can't eat him! Sea cats are sacred animals in Alabasta!" Vivi says while Luffy keeps his stare at the ocean.

"The food..."

Vivi could only sigh as she walks up to him. "Don't worry; you'll be able to eat soon."

Luffy immediately recovers from his depression and smiles at her. "Really?! What kind of cat?!"

"No cats."

Nami shakes her head at her captain's attitude before she walks over to the princess. "We should be getting there soon right?"

"Yes, the sea cat is proof of that."

Zoro looks out in the horizon then smirks at the view. "I bet those ships behind us are even more proof."

Everyone looks at the back of the ship, and tense up when they see a small fleet of ships with the Baroque Works symbol decorating the sails.

Rose goes up to the railing and widens her eyes at the ships. "When did they get here?"

"Those are really Baroque Works ships?!" Chopper asks while Usopp nervous nods while keeping a smirk on his face.

"T-that's right, but that's nothing I can't take care of."

Chopper turns to him in utter shock. "R-really?!"

"Yea, I just need to get the cannon ready!" He goes to his cannon with shaky legs when Luffy runs up to him.

"Wait, it's faster if we go up there and kick their asses! Rose, can you fly us over there?"

Rose shakes her head at the question. "Sorry, but I don't want to risk dropping you guys in the middle of the ocean."

Zoro hums in agreement while he keeps his focus on the distant boats. "Those guys are just the grunts anyway. No point in wasting our time with them."

Nami nods as she grabs the bandages from Chopper's bag. "We should be focusing on getting ready for the island."

The others quickly agree by grabbing a black marker, to write an 'X' symbol on their left arms, then wrap the marks with the bandages.

Once Sanji finishes with his bandages, he looks at the others in confusion. "Was this okama really able to make himself look like you guys that much?"

Usopp quickly nods. "Not just look like us, but it's like he actually was us. You should have seen him."

"I'm not interested in okamas."

Rose rolls her long sleeve over her left arm, after she wrapped the bandages around it, before she casually shrugs. "Still, seeing that kind of power was pretty cool. Knowing that a guy with that power works for Crocodile is useful."

Vivi couldn't agree more as she looks ahead to see that her home island's coast is coming into view. "We're heading to the harbor. We should head to that inlet in the west. It's a good place to hide the ship while we get supplies."

Usopp looks over at the direction Vivi suggested, then gets to work in steering the ship to the west.

Luffy starts smirking as he extends his left arm to everyone. "Ok, whatever happens from now on, these bandages are proof of our friendship."

Everyone grins at the captain's words as they extend their left arms to him with pride. Luffy keeps his toothy grin up before he looks over the island. "Now, let's go to dry land and find a restaurant!"

Zoro twitches an eyebrow in irritation at the reminder of food before he yells at him. "SHUT UP!"

He, Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy start bickering about how the captain shouldn't be so carefree, while Vivi softly smiles at the rambunctious group in silence.

Rose couldn't help but smile at the crew as well, before she takes a look at the nearby island in thought. She knows that she needs to get a lot of things for the trip, and if she's serious about staying in Alabasta, she can't be caught up in the marine chase, so it's best to be alone.

She walks over to Nami with a nervous mask on, and rubs the back of her head sheepishly. "Hey Nami, do you mind if I fly to town alone? I gotta get some supplies for the trip and I don't know how long it'll be."

Nami quirks an eyebrow at the request, but doesn't see why not, so she nods. "Fine, since you're technically not a pirate I don't see you having any issues, but don't take too long. You need to borrow some money too right?"

Rose jolts when she realizes that she's completely broke, and has no choice to take a loan from the money grubbing woman. "Umm, yea, I promise to pay you back..."

The greedy loan shark takes a small pouch full of beli from her bag before she smirks at her customer. "I believe you, but remember, this loan includes a 300% interest."

Rose quietly groans at the unreasonable interest and opens her hand to her. "Not like I have a choice. I don't want to leave the debt unchecked after Alabasta's safe though, so how about this? Every time I help you guys with my powers, it's half off the debt."

Nami couldn't help but chuckle at the offer before she hands her the pouch. "Deal, now get going before Luffy makes you fly him to a restaurant."

She quickly nods as she uses her wind to lift herself up into the air, and flies off into town before anyone else notices that she left.

"Will that be all miss?" The stand owner asks while Rose places the last item she requested in her new, light red, hiker's backpack.

"Yea, that's it." Once she hands him the payment, she bows her head. "Thank you very much for your help."

"No problem at all. Have a nice day." He waves her off as she walks away with her backpack strapped on.

As the wind girl looks around at the busy streets of the bazaar, and couldn't help but grin at the crowded markets that remind her of her hometown. A lively place like this could definitely make a good home for her, but she knows that there's plenty of other parts of Alabasta to check out. Once all the craziness has died down, she'll have plenty of time to find a place to live.

She snaps out of her thoughts when she hears people screaming in a nearby restaurant.

She quickly runs inside the building to see a crowd of people gathered near the counter. She squeezes through the crowd, until she reaches the counter to see a shirtless, brawny man wearing an orange cowboy hat sleeping in the meal that he was eating.

Rose looks at the pale man with complete shock in her eyes when she spots the purple tattoo of Whitebeard's symbol on his back, and realizes that he's Luffy's brother! What's more, she's in the building where the restaurant scene is to take place with him, Smoker and Luffy!

Her excitement is completely hidden under her neutral mask, as the other customers look at the unconscious freckled man nervously.

"He just collapsed while talking to the owner."

"Is he dead?"

"What if he died from a disease that he got from travelling?!"

Rose sweat drops at everyone's worries, so she tries to calm them by going next to Ace. She puts two of her fingers on the unconscious man's neck, just under his wavy black hair, and accidentally causes the crowd to panic.

"What the hell are you doing girl?!"

"Don't touch him! You could catch his disease!"

She rolls her eyes at their complaints as she takes her fingers off him, and turns to the crowd. "Calm the hell down. I'm checking his pulse. He's not dead, he's just asleep."

"Pwah!" The freckled man quickly sits up, and makes almost all of the customers jump back in shock.

"He's really alive!"

Rose face palms at their reactions. "I already said-!"

She stopped talking when she felt the bottom of her shirt being slightly pulled up, just below her bra line, and used to wipe someone's face. She grows irritated by the gross act, before she punches the person holding her shirt, in the face, to get him to let go of her, and fall to the floor! "Let's get one thing clear, I'm a lot of things but a napkin is not-!"

She stopped herself when she looked down at the person she punched, to see that it was Ace! She starts freaking out in her head about how she punched the pyro, but calms down when she realizes that this could work to her advantage!

Ace groans as he rubs his aching jaw from the punch then scowls up at Rose. "What the hell was that for?!"

Rose plasters a scowl on her face, as she wipes Ace's food off her shirt, and then pushes his plate to the right, so that it's in front of the stool next to him. "That was for fucking using people like face wipes! You always wipe yourself on people?! I got enough to worry about without dealing with your ass, so just sit there and leave me alone!"

She takes her backpack off, and sits down on the stool that he was sitting in. If she stays in this seat during the encounter, then at the very least only Smoker would get sent flying by Luffy's attack.

Ace twitches an eyebrow at her attitude before he places his hands under Rose's armpits, and picks her up like a stray cat. Rose yelps at being grabbed like this, when he quickly drops her on the seat to the left of him, and then throws her backpack at her.

She quickly catches it before she sees Ace sitting back in his old seat while taking his plate back. "If you got a problem with me then get out. I'm not leaving my seat."

"You..." She narrows her eyes at him as she stands up and goes to use her abilities to move him, but stops herself when she sees the nervous crowd.

She clenches her fists when she realizes that her plan's not working at all, so she decides to bide her time, and sits back down in a huff. "Whatever..."

The brunette turns to the chef and waves at him with a friendly smile. "Excuse me; may I have a few plates of food please? Anything's fine."

The chef nods as he works to make her food, and then turns to the freckled man. "Did you really fall asleep?"

Ace hums in acknowledgement as he gets back to eating. "Yea, I fell asleep."

The other patrons look at him in utter shock.

"In the middle of a conversation?!"

Ace grows confused at everyone's surprise, but keeps eating. "What's wrong with you guys?"

"WE WERE WORRIED ABOUT YOU!"

Ace just shrugs at their complaints, before he turns to the chef, and points to the patrons. "Did you hire a comedy show or something?"

The chef slowly just tiredly smiles as he hands Rose a couple of meals. "No I didn't. Anyway, I'm glad you're ok."

Before Ace can say anything, he suddenly falls asleep, and lands face first into his meal again.

"HEY, QUIT FALLING ASLEEP!"

Rose couldn't help but chuckle at the sleeping man, before she gets ready to move him with her wind, but he quickly wakes up. She flinches at the quick recovery and looks away from him when her stomach starts growling.

She quietly groans at her hunger before she starts eating one of the meals while thinking of what she can do in this situation. It's better to use her wind as a last resort to avoid anymore conflicts with the pirate. If anything, she can time it for when Smoker is arriving to challenge him.

She lets out a few low chuckles at the thought of seeing Bobby's doppelganger today, as she keeps eating and waiting for her chance.

Ace does his best to ignore the weird chuckling girl next to him, as he takes a wanted poster out of his pocket. "Hey old man, have you seen this pirate anywhere?"

The chef knits his eyebrows in thought as he takes a closer look at Luffy's photo. "What do you need?"

"Have you seen this Straw Hat guy come into town lately?"

He quickly shakes his head before he gets back to work. "Sorry, haven't seen him."

Rose stops eating when an idea forms in her head, so she turns to Ace with a small smile. "I've seen that guy around here!"

Ace is surprised by the news before he starts smiling at her. "You have? Where?!"

"I'll tell you where he's going to be, if you take a seat on that stool next to you." She points to the seat to the right of him in hopes that he'll move.

Ace narrows his dark eyes at this pain in the ass brat, before he gets back to his meal with a scowl. "I'd rather take my chances finding him on my own. Like I said, if you don't want to sit next to me then move somewhere else."

"Looks like you don't have a problem eating and making enemies in public places Portgas D. Ace."

Everyone freezes at the deep voice by the doorway, and turns to the source to see a pale muscular man with two cigars in his mouth and glaring at the freckled man at the counter.

Rose widens her purple eyes at the white haired marine captain before her lips curl up into a small smile from the excitement. As she takes a closer look at the angry man, she can see almost all of her old friend's features in him besides the cigars and white hair. All in all, she couldn't be happier to see the One Piece version of him up close.

She shakes her head to snap herself out of it, while Smoker narrows his eyes on the pirate. "Now, what's the commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division doing in this country?"

Everyone else, but Rose, looks at the freckled man in shock as they move away from him.

"He's really one of the Whitebeard Pirates?!"

"I knew I saw that tattoo before!"

"What's he doing here?!"

Ace couldn't help but snicker at everyone's surprise, before he turns around in his seat, and smirks at the marine. "I'm out here looking for my little brother."

Rose pauses at the exchange as she looks between the pirate and the marine. She knows that her last chance, to get Ace and Luffy more time together, is coming up, so she keeps her focus on Ace to get ready to use her wind at the right time.

Ace doesn't notice the brunette's focused stare, as he keeps smirking at the marine. "So, what exactly do you want from me?"

"Just sit tight and let me arrest you."

Ace casually laughs at the order as he sits back against the counter. "Sorry, no can do."

Smoker groans in irritation of his cockiness but doesn't make a move yet. "Honestly, I'm looking for another pirate. I don't really have any interest in you."

Ace can only snort his lack of interest in him. "In that case, just look the other way."

Smoker begins to get his abilities ready, by having smoke come out of his hands, as he gets in a stance. "I can't do that. Not so long as I'm a marine and you're a pirate."

Ace's smirk couldn't help but grow at the challenge, from the uptight marine. "Now that's a dumb reason, but why not? Let's have some fun."

"GUM GUM ROCKET!"

Everyone's eye widen at the sudden shout until Luffy flies in through the doorway, after he slingshot himself half a mile away from the restaurant, and slams into Smoker's back to send him flying!

Ace's eyes bug out from the sight of the marine flying towards him, but they bug out even further when he looks down to see that he's being lifted up by a gust of wind as fast as possible!

Smoker misses Ace and crashes through the walls of five buildings while the wind carrying Ace makes him crash through the ceiling.

"Crap!" Rose cancels her wind while everyone else stares at Luffy in pure horror.

Luffy ignores everyone's stares, as he recovers from the flight, and laughs in excitement. "Shishishi, alright, a restaurant! Now I can eat!"

Rose couldn't help but laugh at everyone's shock, as she tries to find where Ace landed.

Luffy turns to the nice laughter, and widens his eyes when he sees the wind girl already there. "There you are Rose! Why didn't you take me with you?"

She recovers from her laughing fit, as she keeps looking around the restaurant for Ace. "Sorry Luffy, I wanted to make sure I got everything I needed for the trip. To make it up to you though, I'd like to offer you one P-!"

She stopped talking when she couldn't find Ace anywhere. The novice devil fruit user slowly looked up again, to see that there's not only a hole in the ceiling, but also the roof to show that she accidentally made her wind so strong that it catapulted Ace out of the building!

Luffy tilts his head in confusion before he follows her gaze up at the holes in the ceiling. "You want to offer me what?"

"Umm, one p- p..." She quickly looks around for something to give him, then gets up to show him the meals that she didn't touch yet. "One, actually a couple, of plates of food to help hold you over!"

Luffy widens his eyes at the offer, before he happily takes her seat, and starts eating. "Thanks!"

"N-no problem..." She nervously looks up at the holes again, and starts trembling from holding back from laughing at what happened. Even though she's going to be on Ace's shit list for this, it was worth it to see the hilarious sight!

Luffy looks at the trembling girl, and grows shocked to see her covering her mouth to try to keep herself silent, before he stops eating. "Are you ok?! What happened?!"

She quickly shakes her head as she forces herself to grab her backpack and speed walk towards the door. "I-I just saw something r-really funny and I d-don't want to laugh about it h-here where that g-guy can come back. I-I'm gonna go o-outside and g-get this out of my system. I-I'll be right back..."

He tilts his head in confusion when she leaves, then hears her laughing as if she just saw the funniest thing in the world. He blinks at her loud laughter, before he finishes the meals, then turns to the chef. "Hey old guy, can I have some more food?"

The old man can only blink at his nonchalance, before he prepares some more food, with the rest of the patrons staring at the happy rubber man who doesn't know what. he just did.

Once the chef gives Luffy a few plates of food, the captain couldn't stop smiling as he starts stuffing his mouth with as much food as possible. "Thanks old man! This food's great!"

The chef nervously stares at the carefree boy, and feels like he should warn him. "Umm, thanks kid, but... You might want to start running."

Luffy blinks in surprise, but keeps eating during the conversation. "Why's that?"

"Don't you know who just sent flying?"

"Who sent somebody flying?"

"Umm, you did..." He points to the various holes behind him from when Luffy sent Smoker flying.

The pirate looks over his shoulder, and tilts his head at the multiple holes in the neighboring buildings. "That's a weird passageway for the buildings, so why did you guys make it?"

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MADE IT!"

"I did? Huh..." He shrugs as he keeps eating while everyone else nervously waits for the marine and the Whitebeard pirate to come back.

Ace has seen a lot of things in his life, but he's having a hard time dealing with how one minute he was eating his lunch, and minding his own business. Then, just when he was about to kick a marine's ass, the aforementioned marine was sent flying towards him because of god knows what. The hardest thing that he can understand though, was how a gust of wind not only helped him dodge the marine, but sent him flying through both the ceiling and the roof of the building!

After he was sent flying out of the restaurant, he flew past a few buildings behind the restaurant until he fell in between two buildings that were already damaged from Smoker's flight.

Once Ace was on the ground, he groans from the rough landing as he slowly stands up, while he adjusts his hat. "What the hell was that?"

Smoker slowly gets up from his spot to see Ace walking back to the restaurant through the holes in the walls, and follows suit.

Ace ignores the marine behind him, as he keeps walking towards the restaurant. "What kind of idiot just sends a guy flying without warning? And what was with that wind?"

He pauses when he sees that he's walking through a house, that has a nervous family sitting at the lunch table, then he politely bows to them. "I deeply apologize for disturbing your meal."

The family slowly nods as they watch him walk through their house, with a marine marching behind him.

When both men start getting close to the hole of the restaurant, most of the civilians make a run for it to avoid the crossfire.

Once Rose was done with her laughing fit, she starts walking back inside to see Ace and Smoker approaching the building. She knows that hell's about to break loose, but as long as she stays out of it, Smoker won't think that she's a pirate. After they leave, she can follow behind and catch up at the right moment.

With a game plan in mind, she keeps quiet as she quietly walks towards the crowd, when Ace and Smoker stop at the hole to the restaurant and spot Luffy eating away.

Smoker widens his eyes in utter shock at the sight of his target being there while Ace starts grinning in excitement of seeing his brother. "Hey Lu-!"

He's cut off when Smoker suddenly slams his head to the ground! "STRAW HAT!"

Luffy looks up at Smoker, but doesn't stop eating when the marine approaches him. "I've been looking for you Straw Hat. Looks like I was right about you being here."

The pirate doesn't respond to him at all, and only gets the marine more agitated. "QUIT EATING ALREADY!"

Luffy finally stops eating from the command, but doesn't swallow what he has in his mouth as he gets a closer look at Smoker. "Wait, aren't you..."

He widens his eyes when he remembers who the marine is, then spits his food on him. "YOU'RE THAT SMOKEY GUY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN ALABASTA?!"

Smoker angrily wipes the food that was sprayed on him off his face when Luffy raises a hand to him.

"Wait a second!" The rubber man quickly scoops up all the food around him, stuffs everything in his mouth, then bows his head. "Thanks for the meal!"

Rose couldn't help but chuckle when she sees Luffy run, while he covers his mouth with one hand to make sure he doesn't spill any food. Her smile quickly fades though, when she sees him stretching his free arm towards her. "Oh, shit!"

She squeaks in surprise when his rubber arm wraps around her waist, and pulls her onto his shoulder as he runs out of the restaurant.

Smoker couldn't believe that he just saw, but he won't let it slide, so he furiously chases after them. "YOU DID NOT JUST KIDNAP A GIRL RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, YOU LITTLE SHIT! GET BACK HERE!"

Ace recovers from the attack, but barely listened to Smoker's accusation when he runs after his brother. "WAIT LUFFY! IT'S ME! HANG ON LUFFY!"

The chef can only stare at the chase, that left his restaurant, when realization hits him. "N-nobody paid..."

The chase between Smoker and Luffy keeps going throughout the city, with Rose blushing from her spot on his shoulder.

She tries to push herself off of Luffy's shoulder, but he doesn't let her go. "Put me down right now!"

Luffy finishes swallowing the last of his food, but he won't listen to her. "I can't, we gotta get away from Smokey! My moves don't work on him!"

Rose sighs at his stubbornness, but lets it go as they keep running through the street.

Smoker grits his teeth at the pirate, before he sees his blue haired subordinate at one of the stands ahead of them. "TASHIGI!"

Tashigi looks over at Smoker, but fails to notice Luffy. "What's the matter captain?"

He quickly points to Luffy while he keeps his eyes on him. "Stop Straw Hat, but don't hurt the girl he kidnapped!"

Luffy quirks an eyebrow at the statement before he looks at Rose in confusion. "What kidnapped girl?"

Rose looks from Luffy to Smoker in shock repeatedly before she buries her face in her hands to hide from the embarrassment. Of all the things that could've happened she can't think of anything else crazier than Smoker to think that she's Luffy's hostage. However, she knows that this scenario can be useful, especially with Smoker limiting his attacks on Luffy because of her, so she mumbles loud enough for only Luffy to hear. "Just ignore him... Marines like to jump to conclusions..."

Tashigi looks at Luffy in shock before she draws her sword at the approaching pirate. "Straw Hat?! Don't worry miss; you're going to be alright! I'll stop him!"

She tries to slash his side, that's not carrying Rose, but Luffy quickly jumps out of the way.

"WHOA!" Rose yells from almost getting hit from the attack, to look like a convincing hostage, while Luffy jumps on top of one of the stands, and hops onto the rooftops.

Smoker bites down onto his cigar, at the sight of his prey running from roof to roof, before he turns his lower half into smoke to fly onto the roof.

He quickly re-materializes on the roof to run after the pirate. "Tashigi, assemble the men! Comb all the corners of this town and find his crew!"

"Yes sir!" Tashigi runs off on her own to find the other marines, while Smoker starts gaining on Luffy.

"White Snake!" Smoker shoots a long line of white smoke out of his arm towards Luffy's legs to try to stop him.

Before the smoke can reach him, Rose secretly uses her wind to push the smoke to the left, to look like he slightly missed him, while she looks at the marine as if she's frightened.

Smoker widens his eyes at how he missed his target, but he can't let himself get distracted, so he doesn't dwell on it.

He sees that they're about to reach the end of rooftops, but Luffy jumps off the building to run down the street.

Smoker jumps after him to join his men, who are joining in the chase, after the Straw Hat Pirate.

"Don't let him get away!"

Rose quietly sighs as she keeps inconspicuously deflecting Smoker's devil fruit attacks towards Luffy, while she keeps a terrified look on her face to keep up the hostage act. In all honesty, she'd rather have a full on fight with the marine, but if she wants to keep her status as a civilian, then she knows that this is the best she can get.

She keeps herself away from that thought, and continues to block the smoke, while Luffy keeps running away from the ever growing number of marines after him.

Meanwhile, Vivi and the rest of the Straw Hats are resting at the edge of town to rest, after they finished shopping for clothes and supplies.

Nami looks down at the dancer outfit she's wearing with a smile. "Thanks for the clothes Sanji, I really like it."

Vivi looks down at her dancer outfit sheepishly, and wraps a cloak around her shoulders. "I hate to complain when you gave us these clothes, but we look more like dancers than citizens..."

Sanji couldn't take his heart shaped eyes off the girls as he smiles at their beauty. "That's fine, dancers are still citizens! As long as no one can tell that you're a pirate and a princess, then you should be fine!"

He turns to the guys who are relaxing, while they eat some of the food they bought, after changing into their new clothes. "We even managed to camouflage you guys. At least not to look like pirates, but compared to the girls you look like bandits."

Zoro scowls at Sanji's attitude after he finishes his meat. "You don't look any different from us."

Usopp ignores their quarreling, before looking down to see Chopper lying on the ground while he covers his nose. "Are you ok Chopper?"

The reindeer keeps holding his nose as hard as he can, while he groans in pain. "It feels like my nose is gonna fall off..."

Vivi widens her eyes at the poor reindeer's condition, and realizes what's going on. "Your nose must be very sensitive. This town is famous for its perfume."

Chopper groans as he tries not to breath through his nose. "Perfume?"

"Yea, there are extremely powerful ingredients in them."

Nami nods a she grabs a perfume bottle from her bag and sprays herself. "Like this one."

Chopper accidentally smells the strong perfume, and runs behind Carue. "Ahh! Stop that!"

Sanji couldn't help but swoon at the lovely smell. "The smell even adds to your beauty Nami, I've fallen straight down to the gates of hell in love."

Zoro sweat drops at Sanji's attitude before he takes a swig of his sake. "Can you get any dumber?"

"What was that?!" Both boys start glaring at each other, as they get ready to fight, while everyone ignores them.

Nami takes a look over the supplies before turning to the princess. "It looks like we got everything. Where do we need to go Vivi?"

"The first thing we need to do is stop the rebellion. The leader of the rebellion lives in an oasis town called Yuba. To go to Yuba we-!"

Zoro cuts her off by pulling her to the side of the building, with the others following to hide from the marines, that are running further down the street.

"What are marines doing here?" Zoro asks as he peeks past the wall while the others stay hidden.

"See anything Zoro?" Nami asks as she's ready to run at any moment.

Zoro quirks an eyebrow when he sees the marines chasing a guy, who's carrying a girl on his shoulder, half a mile away from them. "Looks like they're chasing some pirate-!"

He stops himself when he gets a better look to see that the person they're chasing is actually Luffy who's carrying Rose on his shoulder."What the hell?!"

Rose spots the swordsman, and takes her terrified mask off while she casually lifts a hand up to greet him, as if nothing crazy is happening. Zoro could only wonder what the hell's wrong with the pair for them to get caught up in this situation with the civilian acting like this is normal.

Rose looks around frantically, to make her greeting to Zoro look more natural to her act, while Luffy keeps running. When he spots Zoro, he changes the direction of the chase and goes to him. "Hey Zoro!"

Zoro jolts when he sees him bringing the chase to everyone, and turns to the others. "We gotta run!"

The others see the chase coming in, and become dumbfounded at what's coming their way.

The marines spot the rest of the crew, who are scrambling to grab their supplies, and become more motivated to keep up the chase.

"Those guys are the Straw Hats! Get them!"

No one hesitates to make a run for it, while Luffy catches up to them. "Hey guys!"

Nami runs next to Luffy and whacks him on the head for dragging them into the chase. "Why didn't you wait until you lost them, before finding us?!"

"These guys won't quit, and Smokey's here too!" Luffy says while Sanji looks at Rose's hostage act, and starts glaring at his captain.

"Why the hell are you carrying Rose like that?! Can't you see that she's frightened?!"

Luffy looks at Rose, and becomes startled when he sees Rose's mask of fear on her face. "You're scared?! Why didn't you say anything?!"

Rose quietly groans before she keeps her head down to hide her face from the marines, then takes off the scared look, and speaks loud enough for only the group to hear. "I'm not scared, Luffy picked me up when he was making a run for it from the marines. They all assumed this random idea about me, so I have to make it look like I'm afraid."

Vivi quirks an eyebrow at the weird explanation. "What kind of idea has to make you look-?!"

"Stop running and let go of the hostage Straw Hat!"

The others widen their eyes at the demand from one of the naval officers, then look from the marines to Rose, and figure out what's going on.

Luffy ignores the command as he and the others keep running, with the marines gaining on them.

Smoker runs to the front of the marines, and gets ready to use his powers again. "I'll take care of him!"

He turns his arm into smoke as he extends it to Luffy! "You're not getting away!"

"That's enough!" A blast of fire blocks the smoke from Luffy, causing everyone to stop.

Everyone becomes shocked by the fire while it materializes to reveal Ace smirking at Smoker. "That's as far as you'll go."

Smoker narrows his eyes at the new pirate in his way, and gets ready to fight. "You should have escaped when you had the chance Fire Fist."

Ace couldn't help but snicker as he mirrors his stance. "Smoke can't beat a guy who's made of fire."

Rose takes the confusion to her advantage, by getting off of Luffy's shoulder, and hiding behind the crowd to avoid Ace spotting her.

Luffy couldn't believe his eyes as he stares at the freckled pirate. "Ace?!"

The rest of the Straw Hats look at Luffy in confusion, while Ace smirks at Luffy. "You haven't changed a bit. Get going, we'll catch up later."

Luffy nods as he and the others make a run for it with Ace blocking off the marines for them.

Vivi looks ahead and leads them to the direction of the coast. "We should get going to the ship. We can go up the river then head to Yuba on foot through the desert."

Luffy nods before he turns around to run backwards with a smile on his face, as he sees the flying smoke and fire clashing in the air from where Ace and Smoker are fighting. "Man, I can't believe Ace is here."

"Who exactly is he Luffy?" Chopper asks.

"He's my big brother."

Everyone, but Rose, looks at him in shock. "Brother?!"

Luffy starts laughing at their surprise. "Yea, he's a pirate too. He should be fine against those guys."

Rose grins at his excitement then looks ahead to see a fork in the road. "Hey guys, which way's the ship?"

Nami looks ahead then and remembers the direction the ship is. "Make a left."

"Ok." Everyone goes through the fork in the road, and continues running until they reach the coast where the ship is docked.

Usopp catches his breath then grins at the ship. "I'm so glad we made it."

Chopper nods as he looks around, then stops to see that someone's missing. "What happened to Luffy?"

The others scan the group to see that they lost their captain while they ran away.

Sanji scowls at the road they took before he shakes his head. "We must've lost him at the fork in the road..."

Rose softly grins back at the town as she remembers what happens next. With Luffy and Ace meeting up before they reach the ship, then they're going into the anime version of the story arc. With this, Ace will be joining them on their trip to Yuba!

The world traveler couldn't take the smile off her face from the news, as she starts loading the supplies onto the ship. "He should be fine if his brother's here."

The others nod as they get the boat ready for departure.

"Let's start sailing and search for Luffy from the coast line." Nami says as she climbs onto the crow's nest ,while the others get to work on sailing the ship.

Luffy stops running to catch his breath in an alleyway, and looks around in confusion when he finds himself alone. "Where did everyone go?"

"Heh, even when I gave you the chance to run, you still didn't get to your ship. I guess letting you go on ahead was pointless."

Luffy widens his eyes to the familiar voice, then looks up with a smile to see his brother grinning down at him from the rooftop. "Ace, there you are!"

Ace chuckles at his excitement as he jumps off the rooftop, and lands on his feet right next to him. "It's good to see you Luffy."

"You too Ace!" Luffy quickly grabs a barrel full of water, then places it in front of them before both boys set an elbow on the barrel, and begin to arm wrestle.

Luffy couldn't help but chuckle as they both struggle to push each other's arm down. "How long has it been?"

"Good question, but it looks like you're still doing things your way Luffy. Just like back when you were a kid."

"Same with you Ace, like when you snuck into the fields, and ate a hundred watermelons. Then you spat the seeds out like a gun, and ran from the farmers."

Ace groans as Luffy almost pushes his arm down, but uses more force to fight back, and pull his arm up against Luffy's. "That wasn't me! That was you!"

"But you got those bumps on your head from the farmers."

"That was you too! I watched and laughed!"

Both boys keep struggling with all their might to beat the other in their match, until the barrel broke from the pressure to end the match in a draw!

Luffy laughs at the broken barrel while he keeps a hold of Ace's hand. "Looks like we're both the same."

Ace nods as they let go of each other's hand and high five each other with the other. "Yea, just like old times."

Ace digs into his bag in order to grab his canteen before he takes a swig of his water. "Hey, what happened to your friends?"

Luffy blinks in surprise before he shrugs. "Don't know, but they should be fine. Hey what are you doing in Alabasta anyway?"

Ace quirks because he thought he received Drum Island's message. "You mean you didn't get my message?"

"Message?"

Ace shrugs before he hands Luffy his canteen. "It's no big deal. I'm just here on some business, so I thought I could catch up with you."

"Business?"

"Yea, in case you didn't hear, I'm part of the Whitebeard Pirates."

"Yea, I heard. Is that Whitebeard's mark on your back?" Luffy asks just before he starts drinking from the canteen.

Ace nods as he turns around and show off the tattoo on his back. "That's right, this is my pride."

He turns around again while Luffy keeps drinking. "Hey Luffy, why don't you join the Whitebeards? Your friends can come too of course."

Luffy takes his lips off the canteen before he answers him. "No thanks."

Ace could only laugh at the blunt refusal. "I figured not, just thought I'd ask. Whitebeard though, is the greatest pirate I've ever known. My goal is to make him the king of the pirates, and not you."

Luffy starts chuckling at the fact with a toothy grin. "That's fine, we just gotta fight then, because I'm the one who will be king of the pirates."

Ace grins at the declaration until Luffy starts drinking from his canteen again. "Hey you mooch! Don't drink it all!"

He takes the canteen out of his brother's grasp, and puts it in his bag, before he looks around. "We should go look for your friends. It'll be a pain if the marines spot them."

Luffy grins as he follows his brother out of the alleyway, and down the empty street. "Ok, they should be back at the ship by now."

"Which harbor is your ship docked?"

"I don't know."

Ace looks at his brother in disbelief. "Geez, you need to at least remember where your ship is docked..."

Luffy starts laughing at his annoyance as he looks around. "Don't worry about it, we'll find it for sure."

Ace starts sighing as he looks around. "You're still the same as ever."

He shrugs at his brother's attitude before he chuckles and makes up for lost time. "So, what's your crew like?"

Luffy lifts up his hand and starts counting off his crew mates with his fingers. "I have a swordsman, who wants to be the greatest swordsman, and wears a haramaki. There's a navigator who loves maps, tangerines, and money. There's a cook, who makes the best food. There's also a liar, and a reindeer too!"

Ace laughs at how Luffy described the last two members of his crew. "That's an interesting bunch you got there."

Luffy eagerly nods as he keeps going. "We also got a princess, a duck, and a wind girl too! They're all really great!"

Ace absently nods at the list, then stops walking when he processes the last person Luffy spoke about. "Did you say a wind girl?"

Luffy stops walking as well, and was oblivious to Ace's tension, as he keeps smiling. "Yea, her name's Rose. She loves stars, and she's really funny too."

"She is huh?" Ace asks with a scowl, because he remembers how he was sent flying in the restaurant by a gust of wind. Even though he didn't see anyone with Luffy, he doesn't know any other way he could've flown like that, so he's eager to get some answers from her.

Luffy nods at his brother's question before he walks ahead. "Yea, I'll introduce you to the crew when we get to the ship. Come on."

Ace quietly agrees as he catches up to Luffy, then chuckles. "So, you came to the Grand Line with only a handful of people? That's just like you."

"We're not complete yet! We still need a musician."

Ace laughs at his brother's comment, then they stop to see that they became surrounded by a group of bounty hunters during their conversation.

Most of the bounty hunters start smirking at the prey they caught.

"There's nowhere for you to go Fire Fist Ace and Straw Hat Luffy."

"The bounties on your heads belong to Baroque Works now."

"We'll be promoted from this for sure."

Ace and Luffy casually walk past the crowd while they were ranting.

"We should get to shore. It's the best bet in finding your ship." Ace says while Luffy answers.

"Good idea."

The bounty hunters look at the two pirates, who are walking away, in shock before they go after them.

"Hey, don't ignore us!"

All the bounty hunters charge them at once, but Luffy and Ace casually dodge each attack, while punching some of them out.

A large number of them try to jump Luffy but he stretches his arms to grab the clothing line above him. The bounty hunters try to shoot him, but the bullets ricochet off his body, and back at his enemies!

A large bounty hunter draws his sword and charges towards Luffy, but Ace goes in front of him, and catches the blade with his hand.

Ace melts the blade, while Luffy pulls his arms back as long as he can. "Gum Gum Bazooka!"

He pushes his arms forward, just when Ace gets out of the way, to attack the bounty hunter and send him flying out of town! The rest of the bounty hunters look at the two boys in fright as they start walking away from them.

One of the hunters starts regaining his nerve as he draws his sword. "D-don't let them scare you!"

"That's right, our promotion is riding on this!"

The others nod in agreement as they gives chase to the coast line where Luffy is looking around for his ship.

"You can't escape us!"

The two brothers look back at the hunters, and groan before Luffy continues searching for his ship.

"These guys don't learn." Ace says when Luffy widens his eyes at the horizon.

"There's the ship!" Luffy points to the Merry then starts waving towards it.

"Hey guys!" He starts running off to the edge of the island without Ace noticing that he left.

"Hey Luffy, go on-!" Ace stops himself when he sees that Luffy already left him. "Never mind..."

He shrugs before he begins his fight with the bounty hunters, to make sure that his brother can get away.

Nami searches the coast with her binoculars on the crow's nest, when she spots Luffy waving at them from the coast. "Hey guys, I found Luffy!"

The others look at the coastline until they see a boy in a straw hat on the shore, before they see him stretching his arms towards the ship, until he grabs the railing, and slingshots himself towards them.

Everyone widens their eyes when they see him flying towards him, but before he can crash into anyone, Rose uses her wind to catch him, and set him down on the deck.

Luffy widely grins at the landing as he stands up. "Thanks for the catch Rose."

Rose nods while Nami climbs down with a scowl on her face. "Can you not to get us into trouble? You scared us half to death with all those marines you had chasing after us."

Luffy chuckles before he scratches the back of his head. "Sorry about that. Wait, is Ace still there!"

He runs to the railing, to search for his brother, while Zoro quirks an eyebrow at the name. "Is that guy really your brother?"

"Yup, he left to become a pirate three years ago."

Usopp looks out at the island nervously, and tries to find him. "You just left your brother behind?!"

"Yea, he'll be fine. Ace is pretty strong."

Chopper looks up at him in confusion. "How strong is he?"

"Let me put it this way. Long before he got his devil fruit, I was never able to beat him in a fight."

Nami is taken aback by the statement. "There's actually a person that you couldn't beat?"

Usopp can only sweat drop at what he heard. "The big brother of a monster is an even bigger monster..."

Luffy chuckles at the comment, as he leans his back against the railing. "I guess so, because Ace kicked my butt all the time. I bet now I can kick his butt though."

He starts laughing at the statement while Zoro sweat drops at the claim. "I'd like to see you back that up..."

Luffy keeps laughing until Ace jumps up to the railing from behind. "Exactly who's butt's getting kicked?"

Luffy jumps forward when Ace lands on the rails. Luffy blinks in surprise, before he smiles at him. "Oh, hey Ace. This is the crew I was telling you about."

Rose jolts as she sees him looking around the crew, but stays quiet during his scan.

As soon as Ace spotted Rose, he dropped his jaw, because he remembers seeing her in the restaurant. "You're the wind girl?!"

Everyone else looks from Ace to Rose in confusion, until Vivi asks the question they're all wondering. "You know him Rose?"

The brunette nervously nods, while she scratches the back of her head. "Not personally, we kind of got into an argument at a restaurant and I wound up using my powers on him by mistake..."

Rose turns to Ace and politely bows to him. "I'm really sorry for what happened at the restaurant. I'm still new to my devil fruit, and sending you flying out of the building was an accident..."

Luffy widens his eyes at the explanation before he starts laughing. "Shishishi, you sent him flying?!"

She hums in acknowledgement, as she straightens up, and flinches when she sees Ace staring at her with narrow eyes.

Everyone looks at Ace curiously as he keeps staring at Rose, and wondering if what she said was true. If it was all an accident, then there's no reason for her to have tried moving him to another spot. If anything, it makes him want to keep an eye on the suspicious girl.

Ace snaps out of his thoughts when he sees everyone staring at him then puts on a smile to hide his wariness. "It's ok, it takes time getting used to a devil fruit. Just don't let it happen again."

Rose quickly nods while Ace;s brother smiles at the rest of the crew and bows his head. "Pleased to meet you all. Thank you all for taking care of my little brother. I know he can be a handful."

"Not at all." Everyone bows back to him and then straightens up.

Ace straightens up while he keeps a grin on his face. "You don't need to be modest, this is Luffy after all. I know he can be a lot to handle."

"Not at all." Everyone responds back quickly, which makes him softly grin at them.

"You're good people."

Sanji gets his cigarette out before he turns to the kitchen. "Feel free to relax, I'm sure you guys have a lot to catch up on. I'll go make some tea."

Ace quickly shakes his head with a smile. "Don't worry about it, I appreciate the offer, but I don't want to impose." He uses his abilities to light Sanji's cigarette for him.

Sanji widens his eyes at the newly lit cigarette, and the politeness of their new guest. "Wow, this is unexpected."

Usopp slowly nods as he looks at Ace. "He's like the opposite of Luffy."

Rose nods as she looks over the two brothers. "It's really interesting when you take a look at them."

Nami could only stare at them as she analyzes them. "One of them just focuses on stuffing his face..."

"While the other only cares about his brother..." Zoro finishes her statement for her as he keeps his stare on Ace.

Chopper starts tearing up at the sight. "I wish I had a big brother like that..."

Sanji shakes his head at the wish. "I wish I had a captain like that."

Vivi looks at everyone in disbelief of their rudeness then looks to Ace nervously. "I'm sure they don't mean that!"

Luffy chuckles at everyone's input before he smiles at Ace. "Told you they were great."

Ace chuckles at his brother's enthusiasm, when a fleet of Baroque Works ships starts charging towards them from behind the ship.

Vivi looks back at the ship and widens her eyes in horror. "Those are the Billions' Ships!"

Luffy goes to the railing and gets a closer look at the ships. "Those are the guys that tried to pick a fight with me earlier."

Ace narrows his eyes at the ships, and stands back up. "I'll go take care of them."

Everyone watches in shock as Ace jumps down from their ship, and lands onto his small boat.

"What's he going to do in a boat like that?" Nami asks.

Rose casually shrugs as she looks down at the boat. "He should be fine with his devil fruit."

The others look at her in confusion, before they watch Ace power his boat with his flames to sail towards the Baroque Works ships. He jumps off his boat that went underwater while every cannon and gunfire phase through him. He jumps over the boats before he turns his arm into fire as he lands on his boat that resurfaced. "FIRE FIST!"

His flames blast through every Baroque Works ship in his path until all the ships become nothing more than a pile of flames.

Everyone watches the one sided battle in a mix of shock and amazement before they stare at the burning ships.

"He roasted them with one blow!" Usopp yells in astonishment.

Rose could only stare at what she saw, with pure awe in her eyes, from seeing an experienced logia user's power up close. "Wow..."

Ace smirks at the damage before he sails back towards the ship. "See, nothing to it."

Luffy nods as he keeps laughing. "That was awesome!"

"Care to stay for lunch Ace? I insist." Sanji asks while Ace nods.

"That would be great, thank you."

Sanji goes inside then carries out a tray of mugs in one hand, and a tray full of plates with the other. and distributes them to everyone.

"Here's to Ace joining us!" Luffy says as he, Usopp, Chopper and Rose clash their mugs of water together.

Ace quirks an eyebrow at the declaration. "Who said I was joining you?"

"Then cheers to delicious drinks!" Usopp says as the four of them keep toasting to random stuff.

Nami giggles at their silliness before she turns to Ace. "Don't worry about them. They're just goofing around."

Luffy laughs at the random toasting before he looks to Ace. "You sure you can't join the crew? It'll be really fun."

Ace shakes his head before he takes a drink from his mug. "Can't, I'm going after Blackbeard right now."

Rose scowls at the name as she keeps silent. She accidentally makes hot air blow out of her, for a second from the thought of the evil man, before she forces herself to eat to control her emotions.

Vivi grows surprised by the name, because she's heard it before. "Isn't he the one that invaded Drum Island?"

Ace nods at the question. "Blackbeard used to be a member of my division in the Whitebeard Pirates, but he committed one of the worst acts of treason that a pirate could do. He killed one of his fellow crew mates, and jumped ship. As the commander of the Second Division, it's my duty to take care of him."

He clenches onto his mug even harder at the thought of his former crew mate, as he continues. "I came here because I heard that he was seen in Alabasta in a place called Yuba."

Nami widens her eyes at the name of the town before she turns to Vivi. "Isn't that the name of the town we need to go to?"

Vivi nods as she pulls a map out of her bag, and shows them their destination. "That's right, we just entered the Sandora River. From here, we need to sail to Erumalu then dock there in order to proceed on foot to Yuba. We should be able to find the leader of the rebels there."

Ace hums in curiosity as he takes a look at the map. "You don't say, do you mind if I tag along?"

Luffy quickly nods at the idea. "Yea, that will be awesome! To Ace coming with us!"

Everyone grins at Luffy's excitement as they clash their mugs together, and then get back to their lunch.

Rose looks at Ace softly for a moment, when she thinks about his future before she gets back to eating while thinking about her game plan. She knows that if she talks to Ace about anything, then she needs to talk to him alone. Lucky for her, there are plenty of chances on their journey to the desert. All she needs is the right moment...

She nods to her plan as she stays quiet for the rest of the meal, while the ship continues carrying everyone through the Sandora River, and onto their next adventure.

TO BE CONTINUED