Chapter 1 : Meeting WB Pirates

Ace came to the cliff where he saw Luffy with his body face down. He blew on his fist to get ready for his own 'Fist of Love.' He striked Luffy hard on the head. Instead of whining like usual, Luffy just pulled his hat on harder, covering his whole head.

"How long are you gonna keep moping?" Ace asked while crossing his arms. Luffy responded by clutching his hat harder while trembling.

"All the money we hid is gone," Ace sighed. "It might've been stolen from Bluejam's crew or the military found it, but the money doesn't matter anymore. Sabo and I were going to use it. Since he never got to use it, then that's that. There's no point gathering treasure anymore if we can't even take care of it." Ace decided.

"A-Ace...I...want to become stronger! Stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and even stronger than that!" Luffy kept repeating like a mantra. "And then I'll be able to protect anything, I won't have to lose anyone ever again!" Luffy declared.

"Please Ace...don't die!" Luffy wailed.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Ace punched Luffy in the head. "You should be more worried about yourself than me. You're way weaker than I am!" Ace yelled.

"Listen up, and remember this Luffy! I will NOT die!" Ace vowed.

Luffy slowly got into a sitting position and nodded with tears dropping. "Mmm!"

"Sabo made that request too. I promise, I will not die! There's no way I'd die and leave a weakling of a brother like you." Ace said.

"Mmm!"

"I'm not all that smart so I'm not sure what killed Sabo but whatever it was, it was the opposite of freedom. Sabo died without ever gaining freedom but the two of us are still alive so listen up Luffy, we will definitely live life without regrets!" Ace and Luffy gazed at the vast ocean in front of them.

"Someday we will go out to sea and live life the way we want to with more freedom than anyone else. Gramps will become our enemy but no matter what, we will become pirates!" Ace declared for all to hear.

"Uhhh!"

"Come on Luffy, let's go back." The two started walking to their self-made tree house.

Once they got there, they reset the traps in case of intruders during the night.

The two brothers took a short rest before going outside again to hunt for food. Luffy was munching on some meat while Ace was scouting the horizon with their telescope for 'potential threats'.

"Ehhh!? A pirate ship! Oi Luffy, come here!" Ace brought the telescope to Luffy.

"Seriously!? Wahh it's a real pirate ship!" Luffy marveled. "Neh, Ace? Do you know who's mark that belongs to?" he questioned.

"No. Maybe it's the Red-Haired guy you always talk about?"

"You mean Shanks? No, he said he won't come back for a really long time."

"Let's check them out." Ace suggested.

"Oyaji, we should be in Dawn island in an hour or so." one of the navigators said.

"Is that so?" Whitebeard said while taking a swig of sake, much to the nurses' protest.

"Oyaji, are you sure you want to make a stop here? I hear it's Garp's hometown." Haruta, the twelfth division commander said nervously. She was so not looking forward to fighting the old geezer during their 'vacation.'

"It's fine. I don't think Garp would start a fight with us unless he wanted his hometown destroyed." Whitebeard chuckled. "Since we only need meat provisions, we'll dock on the forest side so we don't panic the villagers." he decided.

"Ayyy!" Everyone shouted.

"Marco, Thatch." Whitebeard called.

The first and fourth division commander walked leisurely up to the giant man. "Yes Oyaji?" they both said at the same time.

"I want you two to scour the forest to see if there are any food."

"Got it."

"Ace, we should hide here." Luffy pointed to a bush right next to their hideout. "They might try to destroy our secret base." Luffy pointed out.

"Good idea Luffy." The two then proceeded to wait behind the bush. After waiting a whole minute, a certain someone got bored.

"Acccceeee. This is boring. I don't think they'll come here plus I'm really hungry." Luffy complained while grabbing his stomach.

"Luffy, you just ate an hour ago! Have more self-control." Ace reprimanded.

"But I'm-" Ace covered Luffy's mouth.

"Be quiet, I hear someone coming." Ace whispered while pushing Luffy lower so they'll be hidden.

They both stopped making sounds and were listening closely for the intruders. They heard faint footsteps for about three seconds until everything went quiet. Ace and Luffy both peeked out of their bush to see what had happened only to see two grown men staring down at them.

"AHHH!" they both screamed in surprise.

The man with the pompadour hair style spoke first. "Heh, look at what we have here."

Ace responded to this 'threat' by pushing Luffy behind him while they both gripped their pipes, glaring at the commanders. "What the hell are you doing here?" Ace growled.

The pompadour man took no offense to the boy and smiled. "We were looking for some provisions because we're running low on stocks for our ship." The man informed.

"Wahh ship!?" the little boy jumped. "Are you guys really pirates! Sugeeeeee!" The little boy literally had stars in his eyes.

The two older men couldn't help but chuckle at the little boy's spirit.

The other man with a pineapple shaped hair spoke up. "Won't your parents be worried that you're out here in the forest -yoi? There's a lot of dangerous animals here."

"Che." Ace snorted while crossing his arms. "Nothing we can't handle."

"My name is Thatch." the pompadour man said. "And this-" he pointed at the blonde man. "-is Marco. We're Whitebeard pirates."

"Whitebeard? Never heard of him." Ace mocked. Secretly, Ace knew very well about this man. How could he not? Everyone knew that Edward Newgate, A.K.A., Whitebeard, was the strongest man in the world. It's also well known that he's the closest one to the greatest treasure ever, One Piece.

"Oh I know that Ossan!" Luffy chirped. This caused everyone but Luffy to raise their eyebrows.

"What do you mean you know him -yoi?" Marco inquired.

"Shanks said that he's really really huge and really really strong." Luffy replied happily.

"Shanks? You mean Red-Haired Shanks? One of the Yonkous!? How do you know him?" Thatch exclaimed.

Luffy unconsciously clutched his straw hat. "Shanks stayed at my village for a year. He gave me this hat and I'm supposed to return it to him once I become pirate king!" Luffy explained proudly. He always loved talking about his role model, the man that he would soon surpass.

"Ah, I see. But why are you in Mt. Corvo? Even if you are strong, it's not safe."

"We can take care of ourselves just fine!" Ace snapped. He was getting tired of the two strangers that were implying that he was weak. So what if he was a kid? He can do just fine!

"We live here." Luffy stated while digging his nose with a monotonous face.

"You live here, in the forest?!" Thatch exclaimed.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Ace glared at Marco and Thatch. They both were unwavered by his glare.

"You live here by yourself? Where's your parents -yoi?" Marco questioned.

"Don't got any."

"Then who takes care of you?"

"Dadan and the others. They're mountain bandits." Luffy informed.

The two commander's eyes widened considerably after learning this information. Ace however was furious.

"Luffy why the hell are you telling them that!" Ace punched Luffy in the head, leaving a huge bump.

"That hurt ACE!" Luffy whined with tears brimming out.

"Shut up, that's what you get for being an idiot. We're leaving." Ace dragged an unwilling Luffy back to their secret base leaving the two stunned men behind.

"We should tell Oyaji about this." they both muttered to each other.