Chapter 72
"Yea, just sit back and relax Ace. I'll show you something interesting," Luffy replied.
"Well that's no fun. I was looking forward to fighting this guy, but it looks like he's after you, which means I'm stuck with the cannon fodder," Ace said, as he took note of the many marine soldiers loading their weapons and taking aim at them.
Suddenly the two found themselves being riddled by bullets. Only this didn't achieve the desired effect. The bullets passed harmlessly through Ace's flame body and the marines ended up shooting each other. The bullets that hit Luffy ricocheted off of him and also impacted with the unfortunate soldiers. Now the only marines left standing were Smoker and Tashigi. Smoker looked like he'd had just about enough.
"White Blow!" Luffy sidestepped Smoker's lunge and grabbed him. Halting his momentum, he aimed a punch at the smoke man's torso, only for a hole to open up in the spot where his fist occupied. The smoke quickly closed around his arm, trapping him, and Luffy's senses reminded him to be wary of a certain seastone jutte. He used a soru to jump back and broke free of the smoke right before said jutte crashed down into the pavement where he'd been standing. Smoker lunged at him again, making multiple thrusts with the jutte, which were all dodged.
Tashigi tried to aid Smoker, but found her path being obstructed by Ace. "Sorry, I kind of want to see how this plays out," the flame man told her. "Would you mind not interfering?"
"You've gotten faster Smokey. And you've learned from our last encounter," Luffy said. It was true. Smoker wasn't increasing the volume of his body this time, choosing to rely on the speed provided by his devil fruit to trap him. "But...it's still not enough." Luffy ducked under the next thrust of the jutte and kicked Smoker in the face from below, sending him high into the air. Smoker righted himself and hovered in the air using his logia form as he turned back to his opponent. Only Luffy wasn't on the ground anymore. There was no warning as Luffy's leg impacted with his head from behind and he was sent careening back towards the ground, making a small crater in the pavement. He tried to shake off the cobwebs, realizing he probably had a concussion, but before he could attempt to get up, Luffy's arm shot down like a rocket and imbedded itself in his gut. Smoker coughed up a clump of blood and blacked out.
"Smoker-san!" Tashigi shouted as she tried to get passed Ace again. Ace was quick to intercept her at every turn though, and in desperation, she swung her sword at his neck. Ace did nothing to defend himself, and her sword decapitated him, causing her eyes to widen. She quickly realized that she had bigger things to worry about than her morals at the moment though, and rushed over to where Smoker lay unconscious. He had a concussion and a few broken ribs. She thought back to when she had found him like this in Logue town. His injuries had been more serious then, but to be honest, this situation was much worse. Their entire squad was injured, and there was no way she could get them all out of here, let alone cover their retreat.
Tashigi stiffened and turned around to see Luffy standing behind her. She readied her sword again, her mind racing. She knew she couldn't beat Strawhat. Captain Smoker was far stronger than her, and even he had lost. She couldn't call for backup either. He'd just take that chance to end the fight.
The sound of a raging fire drew her attention to the man she had just unwilling killed, only to find him still standing. Her eyes widened in horror as flames converged around his neck and his head reformed. He was a logia user.
"Nice technique," Ace commented lazily. "But without haki it's useless. And even then...you froze up when you 'killed' me. Have you ever taken a life before?"
Tashigi gritted her teeth as she realized the situation she was in. Her hands started to tremble from how tightly she was grasping her sword. Luffy took note of this and raised an eyebrow.
"What, you too?" he said. "You and Smokey both need to lighten up. I'm not going to kill you even if you hold some stupid grudge against me." He turned and walked away, leaving Tashigi dumbfounded. "Hey Ace! Let me introduce you to my crew. You're gonna love them!"
Ace's head perked up as he smiled widely. "Now that sounds like a plan. They must be some fascinating folks if they decided to follow you," he said.
"Sure are! They're really interesting to say the least. We even have a talking transforming reindeer," Luffy said. The two brothers continued to chat amiably as they walked down the street, leaving an extremely confused Tashigi, an unconscious Smoker, and a squad of injured marine soldiers in their wake.
"Would you care to repeat that?" Nami asked with lidded eyes.
The Strawhat crew's faces currently conveyed a myriad of various expressions which included confusion, shock, annoyance, skepticism, excitement, awe, and just about any other emotion that you would expect to see on their faces after their captain just said-
"This is my brother, Portgas D. Ace, who you probably know as Firefist, Second Commander of the Whitebeard pirates," Luffy repeated for the second time.
Silence. For a long moment, unyielding silence. Then…
"Stop doing that," Usopp said, causing Luffy to quirk an eyebrow.
"Doing wha-"
"Stop. Doing. That." Nami repeated, putting emphasis on each word. A confused Luffy opened his mouth as if to respond, then paused in thought for a moment.
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