Chapter Five

In the week before Lucillia could go out again, her mind flitted back often to her wild forest prince and his blonde knight. The dark-eyed girl daydreamed about them when she practiced her plies and releves, filed Mayor Woop Slap's paperwork and snuggled under the bed for Makino-nee's fairytales (never quite as engaging as Gramp's battles but more informative now that she spoke of dragons and princesses). She couldn't wait to find the two again. They would have so much fun together! She would kidnap Ace and Sabo would save him and somewhere along the way, Lucy would amass enough experience points to transform into a dragon!

It wasn't just fierce scowls and adorable freckles that distracted her though, the Spring Festival would start soon. It was a week of celebrations at the small town before planting season begun. There would be everything from delicious food stalls to prizes for competitions to nightly fireworks. The Mayor was busy organizing it all with village leaders and Lucy, as his erstwhile assistant (the man had an endless supply of candy mints and life advice), was roped into it all too. Mostly that meant running back and forth between people wanting things to be bigger, crazier, brighter and louder and the old man trying to corral that energy into actually getting things done. Lucy was surprisingly helpful to that end. The Mayor was too weak to beat down most idiots but the five-year-old was an excellent enforcer.

"Bottle rockets are against village regulation!" Lucy snapped, cracking her tree branch against the thick skull of the boy that had brought this before her for the third time now. "It's illegal to use any fireworks that can move horizontally in the celebrations. Find a vertical one or use a Catherine Wheel. I don't care but stop bringing this hazard here!"

Ding! +1 STR

"Well done, Lucillia," the old man approved, as they left the sulking teens behind with big lumps on their head. "Don't forget to add that all pyrotechnics need to have switches of at least ten inches."

Ink-toned eyes were dismayed. "You don't think those morons will submit a request again, do you?"

"At least twice more, I'm sure," Woop Slap sighed. "Ignoring basic safety rules in the reckless pursuit of adrenaline is the folly of youth."

The Gamer nodded. "If we added an addendum to increase the switch length and only limited to the beaches, can't we approve a few?"

"To go through so much additional effort for just a few people is foolish when such an important event is coming up."

"I can get it done," Lucy offered. "It's a few sheets of paperwork at the office in Edge Town, right? You'll have to look it over and sign it but I'll handle everything else."

A dubious look crossed her mentor's face. "I don't know…"

"Oh, come on, Mayor," the dark-haired girl coaxed. "Think of how happy it would make the boys. And I don't need anyone to escort me. I can hitch a ride on the woodchopper's wagon to the city."

"That's true," the man allowed. A suspicious glint entered his eye. "Why do you want to go to Edge Town, Lucillia?"

'Nothing ever gets past the old man, does it?' Lucy pouted. "I found books on how to make traps in the library. I want to buy rope, hooks and stakes at the shops."

"You're still going into the forest? I thought you stopped that after Makino set you straight." The suspicion was replaced by concern now. "The forest is dangerous for little girls."

'I'm not any little girl. I'm a Monkey,' Lucy scowled. 'How can I get stronger than Gramps if everyone expects me to stay at home and mind the kitchen?'

No one expected Gramps to mind the kitchen. He kept setting it on fire.

She winced at the memory of Makino-nee's scolding though. Her caretaker had not been pleased when she came to dinner late, dirty and scratched. "I've gone there before and survived fine, Mayor."

"Even then, there's no reason for you to heedlessly risk your own life by going to the forest. Why in my day…" Lucy tuned the man out. Those four words were inevitably followed by a boring lecture. It was an impressive feat for the old man to keep it up all the way from his office (where she picked up the requisite forms) to the Partys Bar.

"Bye, Mayor!" Lucy turned and waved at him. "I'll have these back to you tomorrow!"

She ran back inside to help Makino-nee prepare the lunch special. Afterward, the dark-haired girl devoted an hour to her fraction worksheet before abandoning it to work on her lair. The basement in the Monkey house was half storage room, half wine cellar but through her added strength, Lucy managed to push everything to the corner. Then she mopped, dusted, changed the light bulb and even washed the narrow windows at the upper edge wall. One of the panes had been cracked and she didn't yet know how mend glass, so she just covered it up along the way with butterfly stickers. Lucillia also filled the cooler with extra juice boxes, so Ace would have something to snack on while he waited for his knight to save him.

In the end, she was satisfied. 'Now this is how a lair should look.'

Lucy would have even broken out Gramps' checkbook for a lava pit, if Makino-nee would have let her get away with it.

As it was, the barkeep had been utterly bemused by her efforts. "This is quite nice, Lucy, but why are you cleaning the basement?"

The dark-haired spoke honestly. "It's for Ace."

"Ace?" Makino looked hopeful. "Is that a new friend of yours?"

Lucy nodded vigorously. "He's my prince!"

"Prince?" The wide grin on the older woman was starting to tug at Lucy's suspicions. "Will you invite him home then?"

'Why is Makino-nee looking at me like that?' A little more cautious, she ventured. "Uh, yeah. That's what the cleaning's for."

"Do you have a day in mind? I want to make snacks."

Lo and behold, the suspicions in Lucy's mind were dispelled. Makino-nee just wanted to prepare a treat to celebrate her ascension into dragonhood! She had the best big sister in the world. "I'll bring him here on Saturday."

"I'll be ready!" Makino clapped her hands together and giggled into them. "I'll have to buy a cameko snail first. And call Garp! Oh, his reaction will be priceless. Does this Ace have any allergies?"

"Don't think so." Lucy smiled back at her sister's eagerness. It was nice to have such supportive family members. "He likes crocodiles."

As Makino headed upstairs to plot out crocodile-shaped cookies and green-icing cupcakes, Lucy returned to sorting the fridge. She decided to keep all the orange and cherry juices in the back, so Ace would eat yucky grape first and leave the good ones to her. The rest of the day proceeded as most of her days did and she clambered up to her room for a bedtime story. If this one, a tale of a pretty girl breaking into the house of seven short men, featured herself as a princess and a freckled boy as prince, than Lucy didn't call her out on it. There weren't any dragon roles for her to take after all.

The next day, Lucillia woke up way too early, ate far too many pancakes and then almost missed the wagon.

"Whoa, there! Up you go, little lady!" Her flying jump into the slowly moving wagon had her caught by a rough-and-tumble woodcutter with bulging muscles and kind eyes. He pulled her in and set her on a pile of seasoned lumber. "If it isn't Monkey D. Lucillia! Did the Mayor send you here?"

"Need- huff- file papers- huff- Edge Town," Lucy wheezed out. "Morning Mariko-san."

Mariko-san wasn't the gossiping sort but he could be talkative enough, if you started on grandchildren and worked up from there. The dark-eyed girl settled in to do just that. One of the Mayor's lessons had focused on the importance of intelligence-gathering, not that the old man framed it like that. He'd made it sound more like basic manners to ask after an acquaintance. Regardless, Lucy's bubbly nature, inherent empathy and natural inquisitiveness worked to great advantage here.

The trip to Edge Town took no more than an hour. Much of her cheer faded when they entered the walls. While the dark-eyed girl acknowledged this to be one of the cleanest and most orderly places she'd ever been to, she disliked actually visiting. There was an air here of tedium and discomfort. No one looked very happy and the nobles! Briefly did they visit and each time, she became more soured on them. With their noses so high in the air, it was a wonder that they managed to walk at all. Lucy didn't even want to collect them for her collection. They simply lacked the spark that Ace shone with.

Still, there was no other place for Lucy to get her supplies. She finished the paperwork first, as she had promised Mayor Woop Slap to get it done, then went to a camping store. There were a lot of useful stuff to buy there. As she had beli to burn, the dark-haired girl dipped into her hoard and spent nearly 8,000 B on supplies. Medical kits, water purification pills, magnetic compasses, rope, more rope, lots more rope and a water bottle with kittens on it!

She also bought a shovel. You never know when you might need a shovel.

x

"All I'm saying is that she has sandwiches. And I wouldn't leave you there."

The two friends were walking through the woods, counting the fruits of yesterday's labor. They hadn't stolen a lot of money from the gangs, so breakfast had been settled with a few scraps of bread each and a rotten apple. This had led to the blonde bringing up a scheme that had been debated back and forth for a week now. As usual, the dark-haired boy adamantly shot it down, despite his stomach growling at him.

"I don't care," Ace scowled. "That entire family's trouble. I don't want to be involved with them."

"Somehow, that statement just reeks of irony." Sabo paused. "Even if we're avoiding her, that doesn't mean she'll avoid us."

"It's been a week already, hasn't it?"

"True," the blonde wilted. "But she called you her 'prince'. How could she forget about you so soon, Ace? You're better than that."

He got an odd look for his morose words. "...She wants to eat me, Sabo. We don't want to her to find- what the fuck?"

The two were halted entirely in their tracks when they saw a picnic laid before them. On a quilt was spread a royal feast of freshly baked bread, roasted meats, steamed fish, fresh fruit and even a platter piled high with sugar-dusted cakes. Two children's plastic cups, in blue and red, were filled with milk. There were even place settings… a child's scrawl had written out 'Ace' and 'Sabo' on them.

"This is a trap," Sabo said blankly.

"Definitely a trap," Ace agreed. They paused for a second, as their stomachs roared. "I'm hungry…"

"So am I." The blonde brought his metal pipe up and tapped it against his open palm. "We'll eat first. Then we can beat up your girlfriend."

His friend wasn't quite so bedazzled by the food, not to throw another scowl over. "She's not my girlfriend!"

Intending to snatch the food and make a run for it, the two boys leapt over to the quilt. For a heartbeat they stood there, surrounded by plenty and all too pleased with themselves, and then they screamed. The ground abruptly crumbled beneath them.

"Ace!"

"Sabo!"

The runaway noble tucked his arms to his chest as experience had unfortunately taught him, when he tumbled down the freshly dug hole. He landed on something soft and squishy and it was only after that soft and squishy thing punched his head that he realized it was Ace. Sabo hurriedly rose to his feet, looked back up at the dim light of the hole, and found that it was too deep to climb up alone. There was also some grape jelly on his hat and a slice of bread stuck to his jacket, but he solved the first problem handily with the second.

"Lucy!" A familiar, dark-haired figure with a smug grin poked her head through. "Hi, Ace!"

"Let me out of here, you $%*^&!" His friend diplomatically screamed back. The answer was rope thrown into the hole.

"Tie him up," Lucy commanded, pointing at the blue-clad boy. "No, tie Ace up. I'll pull him out."

"What about me?" Sabo asked, critically looking over the rope. He'd seen this triple-twisted design before hadn't he? There was a shop at Edge Town that sold them for 100 beli a pair. Ooh, so Ace had a rich girlfriend. "I need to get out too."

"I'll drop something down for you, after I have Ace," the crazy girl- Lucy- replied. "We need to leave soon. I promised Makino-nee to introduce her to my prince and then I have paperwork to finish."

'Who would give a clueless girl like this paperwork?' Sabo wondered. She was still smiling happily down at them, despite Ace's stream of invectives, threats and poorly thrown foodstuffs at her. "I can't send Ace alone. I need to come along."

"Why?" Lucy cocked her head to the side, peering curiously down at them. "I won't hurt him."

"I know," Sabo assured, kicking his friend to keep him quiet. "It's- uh, as a chaperone."

"Chaperone?" Those luminous, dark eyes couldn't have appeared more innocently confused had she tried. "Why does Ace need a chaperone?"

"To safeguard his innocence," the blonde proclaimed. 'And to keep him from committing murder.'

The little girl, who was wearing a headband with cloth flowers on it this time around, making it appear as though she had a flower crown, considered this. "Okay. But Makino-nee spent a lot of time on lunch today, so you two can't run away. You'll make her sad."

Then those dark eyes narrowed and something menacing crossed her round cheeks and button nose. "I don't want Makino-nee sad."

"Neither do we." Sabo assured, beads of sweat forming at the back of her neck. He turned to Ace, who had stayed silent but unhappy throughout this entire exchange. His voice lowered to a whisper. "We should go with her."

"Why?" Ace demanded back. "Let's just get back up there and then teach her to never do this again."

"There's no way she'll listen to us! First she knocked you out with a tree branch, then she dug a four meter hole! Do you know how long it takes to dig a four meter hole?"

"No. How long?"

"Not sure but she's tiny! It couldn't have been easy for her."

"Good point," Ace admitted sourly. "Then there's only one thing for us to do…"

Sabo nodded. He was already anticipating the grand meal awaiting them from this Makino-nee.

"...We have to kill her."

"Exact-" The words caught up to him. "What?! We can't kill her."

"There's nothing else to do! She'll follow us forever unless we put her down." Ace grabbed the lapels of his coat, shaking him back and forth. "I don't have a choice, Sabo! She wants to eat me!"

"Maybe she doesn't mean that literally?" The blonde paled.

"I do. I want to eat him," Lucy called down, making them both jump. The dark-haired girl had sat down and was now swinging her feet from the hole. "You know that I can hear you, right?"

"We wouldn't have been discussing your murder if we knew that!" Ace looked at her defiantly. "Why the hell are you trying to eat me?!"

"Because you're a prince." Was the patient and wholly unhelpful answer.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

'I'm in a four meter hole, covered in jelly, listening to two idiots argue about one eating the other,' Sabo reflected. 'Maybe I'm really asleep and the hunger pangs have given me weird dreams?'

He pinched himself. Not asleep then.

"Excuse me," Sabo piped up, after picking up one of the few pastries to have hit the quilt and not the direct and shoving it in Ace's mouth. "But Ace isn't a prince."

"He's the son of the Pirate King, so, of course, he's a prince." The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid."

Ace promptly found death byway of raspberry parfait. It was lucky for him that the crust was so thin and delicate that it came out in spittle-flavored chunks instead. "How do you know that?"

"My Devil Fruit," was the chirped reply.

The dark-haired boy turned incredibly pale. Then he flushed a deep red. Then his body started trembling and for once, Sabo saw true hatred flash through his friend's mist grey eyes. "Here to kill me for my old man then?"

There was a slow blink of luminous black eyes. The first frown Sabo had seen on Monkey D. Lucillia settled on her adorable face. "I don't want to kill Ace."

"You're here because I'm his son. Because I'm a devil child. Because I don't even deserve to live."

'Does… does Ace truly feel this way?' Sabo was stunned. He knew his friend's heritage and he knew Ace hated his father but… 'He was always so confident.'

Portgas D. Ace would scream his defiance at the world. He would demand the right to his existence. He would prove that he was here, that he mattered. It had been this strength that had attracted Sabo to him all those months before. To think that he had internalized all those words against Gold Roger…

"Everyone deserves to live," Lucy's answer came more quickly than his own. Sabo blamed that on shock. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"You dropped me into a trap in the woods," Ace shot back. "That's not- what do you think I am? Some toy for you to play around with?!"

Lucillia's lips trembled. "No! No, I'm sorry. I wanted to be a dragon! I didn't want to hurt anyone-"

"Don't lie!" Those words practically exploded from his friend. "You and that shitty old man are just the same! You pretend that you're different- you pretend that you don't care- but in the end of the day, you're just like the rest! You hate me because I'm the son of the Pirate King! You'd rather I die!"

Sabo stepped back, as his friend practically threw himself forward. His nails scrambled for purchase against the packed soil, his body slid down anyway. A snarl took precedence on his features. Ace looked more a wild animal than a boy then. "Well, I won't! I won't die! I'll live, damn you all!"

There was a look of utter shock on Lucillia's face and then it was taken over by guilt. Sabo had to move back again, as she pushed herself into the hole, sliding down and tumbling arms first around Ace's chest. His friend pinwheeled back, unable to fight back against the tight grip burying dark hair into his dirty red shirt. For a second, the blonde worried that she might be trying to murder Ace.

"I don't want you to die, Ace!" Even muffled against a chest, the words were still several decibels higher than most could manage. Sabo stuck his fingers into his ear and had the sudden thought that Ace had just found the one girl louder than he was. "I'm sorry I hunted you! I wasn't planning to eat you for real! I thought we could have cupcakes and juice until your knight came to save you."

'Am I the knight?' Sabo hoped not. He'd rather be the cupcakes and juice captive.

"Let me go!" Ace ineffectually hit the girl with his fists. While the blonde winced in sympathy, the dark-haired girl kept her arms into a vice grip.

"I don't want Ace to die," she continued to wail. "You don't have to be my prince, if you don't want to! I'll find another one! I don't care if Ace is the Pirate King's son."

The dark-haired boy suddenly stilled. His barnacle didn't notice.

"All of those people are stupid," Lucy sniffled. "You can't kill someone, just for being the Pirate King's son. Did someone say that to Ace? You can tell me! I'll beat 'em up for you."

"I'll help," Sabo volunteered. "Assholes won't know what's coming to them."

In the dim light of their hole, Ace tried to pull away but his barnacle refused to let go. Instead he managed to wiggle his arm free, using it knock relatively gently on the dark-haired girl's forehead to catch her attention. She looked up, owlish eyes filled with tears, to a strange expression on the freckled boy's face. Sabo would even say there was a shadow of a smile there.

"You would fight for me?" Ace asked. There was something almost… vulnerable in his expression.

"Of course!" Lucy snapped back. "It's not right to treat you like that. Ace is a good person!"

"Oh…" He looked over to Sabo and the noble was surprised to find a small grin present. "Let's visit Makino then. I'm hungry."

"I can do that," Sabo agreed. "How do we get out of the hole though?"

The three children all fell to a silence, rather perplexed by the issue. Irritation was growing in Ace, while Lucy had her eyes sheepishly averted from him. Lucily, before violence could break out, a cheerful chime took everyone's attention.

Ding! Party Feature Activated!

Ding! Disguise Templates Activated!

x

Player: Monkey D. Lucillia

Level: 10

Exp: 204/10,000

Gamer Mind: Passive

HP: 650/650

WP: 650/650

STR: 14 (+2)

VIT: 11 (+2)

DEX: 12

INT: 14

CHM: 13 (+6)

WIS: 11 (+2)

Unused Points: 5

Aspects:

Monkey Family Strength: Lvl. 1 (+1/5 STR, +1/5 VIT)

Conqueror's Haki: Lvl. 1 (Blocked, +5/5 STR, +50% Exp. Active)

Will of the D: (+25% Exp Always Active, +2/5 CHM)

Daughter of the Dragon (+100 Rep. Boost with RA, -100 Rep. Boost with FES, +1/5 WIS, +1/5 CHM)

Skills:

Reading/Writing/Math: Accomplished (40/100)/ Good (20/100)/ Good (70/100)

Cooking/Cleaning/Sewing: Good (20/100)/Adequate (65/100)/Adequate (0/100)

Violin/Ballet: Adequate (90/100), Good (20/100)

Money [$1 = 100 B]: 95,800 B