A New Crewmate...

Chapter 12

Title: A New Crewmate...

….

-Sabo POV-

"By the way, wanna join my pirate crew?" Asks Ace as he smiles at me.

As he asks that I am more than a little confused by the question. After all, we don't really even know each other that much. So doing this feels a little out of nowhere.

But as I look at his smile and think back on how the adults followed him. Without even contemplating it too much I just say. "...Yes…"

"Hahahahaha…" Ace laughs at this as he easily pulls me up. "Well, since you are my Nakama, then you won't need to pay me back."

I sigh a little at that, he is a little weird… but everyone is weird in their own way I guess.

"So what do I do as your crew member now?" I ask him unsure of what my duties might entail. We are both young so I don't think that Ace has a ship either.

"Hmmm…" Ace seems to be thinking for a little bit before he says. "Oh! I know! Since you are a new recruit and super weak, we will need you to get some training."

Well, he is right about that, in comparison to him, I am very weak. He then smiles at me and puts a hand on my shoulder. "I know just the training for you."

"Huh?" I am confused by what he means. 

"Follow me." Says Ace as his smile widens even more and he jumps from one tree to the other.

….

After a dozen or so minutes we arrive at a river in the forest.

I can see that the river seems to be muddy and there are no animals or anything around it. 

Ace goes and grabs some rocks. He then throws them in the water. 

Why is he doing that? I am confused by it… that is until a giant reptilian head pops out of the water.

WHA?!?!? Is that a crocodile??

Ace turns his back to the crocodile and smiles at me. He then points behind him and says. "Fight him…"

"What!?!? You wanna kill me or something???" I exclaim out loudly. There is no way that I am gonna be able to defeat something like that. I will be swallowed alive in a second.

*GROWL*  The crocodile growls angrily as he sees me yell out loudly in shock. Ace doesn't seem scared at all as he just turns around and looks at the crocodile with an annoyed look on his face. 

"Oy! You lizard, fight my friend here and maybe I won't eat you." Says Ace, he seems annoyed at the crocodile.

*ROAR*

The crocodile immediately charges at Ace. But Ace just looks at this with a bored look and he pulls out his short sword. 

Fwosh!

Ace jumps up at the giant crocodile who looks more like an elephant. And he just slashes his sword at the beast's neck.

Fwish!

The head of the crocodile flies off and Ace uses its body as a springboard to jump back on the ground.

"Well… that didn't work out. But we have dinner at least." Says Ace as he wipes his sword against the grass to get rid of all the blood from the sword.

….

-General POV-

Ace just looks back at the shocked Sabo like he has no care in the world. "So, we will have to find another opponent for you to fight against."

He then goes towards the crocodile's headless corpse and outs his sword back on its sheath. He then turns the crocodile's body around and grabs its tail and starts pulling. Though he has a little difficulty doing so, Ace is able to pull the crocodile's body out of the river.

He then takes out his sword again, chops up the crocodile's body, gets some sticks, and starts a fire. He does all of this so quickly that Sabo is surprised by how efficient he is.

As he starts cooking some meat, Ace looks at Sabo and asks. "So… tell me some more about yourself, Sabo."

….

Sabo then tells Ace his life 'story' of how he grew up in Gray Terminal and such. 

Ace takes a bite off the meat and says. "Well… when you feel like telling me the truth, I will always be here to listen to you."

Sabo is surprised about this, after all, Ace listened to his story with a nonchalant look on his face. He was surprised that Ace didn't say anything sooner, but he still listened to him.

"You are not curious about my life story? Where do I come from? Who I am?" Questions Sabo, his interests peaked by Ace and what he is thinking. 

But Ace is unreadable as he eats meat portions that are many times the size of his body. 

….

….

Three days pass like this and Ace together with Sabo spend a lot of time together. Ace teaches him many things, like how to survive in the wild and such.

He is also able to finally convince Sabo to fight against big fish. The fights against the fish either end up in draws or victories for Sabo.

Sabo also uses a gun now that he stole one from the city guard. Ace is intrigued and asks Sabo to teach him how to steal and such. They both end up stealing quite a bit of swords and armor from the guard barracks.

At the same time, the number of people that Ace feeds has grown to forty now. They have built some cottages made of trash from Gray Terminal, this is all built in the outskirts of the forest next to Gray Terminal. The people in there all work for Ace and he pays them in food, weapons, armor, and even money sometimes.

It is like a small village and it's called Portgas Village. Ace is the unofficial mayor, in name only as there is nothing except the people's work to manage in there.

….

As this all happens, Sabo is surprised by Ace's intelligence. He couldn't believe his eyes even as he saw the small village being made within three days. Though that too was all thanks to Ace as he did the extensively hard manual labor.

Of course, many people liked to cause trouble within the village. After all, not all people were kicked into Gray Terminal because they offended a noble. 

But those trouble makers were easily repelled due to almost every single citizen in the village being armed to the teeth.

Sabo is currently sitting on the sidelines as he sees Ace just cut up a giant armadillo-like creature and cut it into pieces and put it in a giant pit in the middle of the village. He is making soup for everyone in the village.

'He really is something else.' Contemplates Sabo as he can see Ace just laugh around with the villagers as he has gotten to know every one of them personally.

Since everyone knows each other in the village, they all celebrate. 

"Oy! Sabo! Come here and let's party, this is a feast! Bahahahaha…" Calls out Ace, and Sabo can only smile as he gets up. 

'This isn't so bad after all.' Contemplates Sabo as he goes to celebrate with the people.

…..

At the same time as this was happening, at the top of the mountain, where the Dadan Mountain Bandits lie. They are all eating breakfast, Dadan is especially eating with gusto as she is a little worried about Ace as she hasn't heard anything from him in days now. 

*knock* *knock* *knock*...

Suddenly someone knocks on the door and one of the bandits gets up to open it. As he does so he immediately yells out in shock. 

"G -GARP!!!!"

Suddenly all of the mountain bandits stop eating as a chill descends down their spines. Now Dadan wouldn't be worried… if she hadn't exaggerated her motherly role when she told Garp of how she takes care of Ace and never lets him out of her sight.

"Yo! Ace! Grandpa is here!" Calls out Garp in a merry voice.

….

AUTHOR NOTE:

Don't forget to give this story some power stones if you like it…

P.S: Ace might seem a little manipulative but he isn't a bad guy.