Onemonth before the Grey Terminal Fire
Luffy and Sabo were both asleep in their respective "beds", while Ace was still awake.
"Not going to sleep ?" He heard a voice behind him and turned around, only to realised that it was Rayleigh.
"Hmph... I'm not tired."
Rayleigh walked over to him and stared at the sky. "I understand why you hate him, but you should know that he was a very different person than what the world thinks."
"I don't care about–"
"You and him are very similar." This made Ace look at him in shock.
"When faced with a cloud of enemies with great power, Roger would never run away. He'd never do that, because he'd leave the loved behind. If he ran away, he would put his crew in danger. Actually, "he ran never away" isn't the right phrase. He wouldn't let the enemies ever go after his crew. In those situations, he'd turn into some kind of demon. He once destroyed an entire country's army just because they talked bad about our crew. He'd become violent and short tempered when angered, but he was naive and straightforward at the same time. That's because his early lif eess like yours, Ace." This made Ace stare at him with an unreadable expression.
"You and Luffy... You're like your Roger in his early age, but Luffy is like him when he was older. Always laughing and smiling. Kind and trustworthy. Everyone liked him."
"Don't lie! There are dozens of people that hate him!" Ace could not believe a single word that came out of Rayleighs mouth.
"We're they there with him ? Have they fought with him or against him ?" This made Ace stop.
"All the people that hate Roger, are the people who have never even seen his face. Ask anyone who he was acquainted with about him, and there won't be a single bad comment made about him!"
Ace could do nothing but stare at him with unsure eyes.
***
The present day
The two young boys could only stare in shock and horror as screams flooded the skies. Smoke, soot and the panicked screams and cried of the people of the Grey Terminal filled the air all around them as the two brothers had a clear view of the fire in the Grey Terminal.
"What's that ?"
"The Grey Terminal is on fire?!"
Dadan and the mountain bandits were just as shocked to see this. Though they weren't near the Grey Terminal, they could still clearly see the smoke and brightness of the flames all the way from their little house.
Screams filled the air as people ran for their lives. The stench of rotting, burning flesh was pungent. The two young boys watched with horrified looks as people whose only crime according to the nobility, was being poor, were simply discarded and killed off like they were garbage.
Ace felt a wave of anger spread through his body. He gripped his fist so tightly that he drew blood.
Luffy on the other hand, just stared at the horrific scene with tears flowing out of his eyes. He didn't understand why these people had to die like this. Why ? They never did anything wrong. So why must they suffer like this ?
Despite all the things he says and does, Luffy has never actually seen proper death and destruction before and was laying eyes on such a traumatic experience for the first time. He wanted nothing more than to help the people of the Grey Terminal and he knew that he probably could. With his Nika transformation, he could probably create a gust of air strong enough to blow the flames, or even control the flames to an extent, but he wasn't able to do either yet. He wasn't strong enough and didn't have that degree of control over his devil fruit.
Small sparks of black lightning emerged from his face and eyes, signifying his highly emotional state. Ace noticed a sudden change in the atmosphere and looked at Luffy, who was gripping his fists tightly as more and more sparks jolted out of his body.
Seeing this, the bandits and Rayleigh decided to help. Eventually, strong winds began to blow and the fire started to lower and spread out to reveal a pathway that lead straight to a large ship. Rayleigh recognised the ship and the people on the ship and they talked before leaving. As the last of the flames died out, Ace turned his back to the Grey Terminal and placed his hand on Luffy before pulling him away, back to the bandit house.
Ace leaned against the railing while Luffy just sat on the corner by himself. Everyone knew he was in a state of shock. He should have never seen such a thing at this age. He shouldn't have been there when it happened. Ace gripped his knuckles together as he felt bad. He was Luffy's older brother. Though weaker than him, ultimately, it's still his responsibility to protect his younger brother.
"Sabo..." Luffy muttered, grabbing their attention.
"I want to see Sabo again..." Luffy said this and Ace looked a little downcast.
Despite the warnings given to them, both Ace and Luffy rushed to the Goa Kingdom to go and meet with Sabo and hopefully, bring him back. This time, Luffy would take out anyone that stands in his way of taking Sabo back.
When they finally arrived, they noticed something grand. The entire city was decorated and a large group of people, including several nobles and even the royals were all gathered there, by the port.
"What's all of this about ?'
"Ace! Look!" Ace looked at where Luffy was pointing and widened his eyes on seeing the massive celestial dragon ship coming to the dock.
"Woah... That's huge. One day, I'm gonna have a ship just like that "
They scoured the place for any sign of Sabo and for many moments, it was useless, until they jumped to the top of a house and noticed a fishermans boat floating away. Using binoculars, Ace saw Sabo on the ship.
"It's Sabo! Where's he going?!"
However, what happened next was not something anyone had anticipated. The Celestial Dragon that was on the ship decided to shoot down Sabo's boat, puttings it to a stop and leaving it in flames. Ace and Sabo stared at this in horror and shock as the boat began to fall apart and burn in the fire.
"SABOOOO!" Ace screamed his lungs out, his voice echoing through the entire place, just as the world noble shot a second time and destroyed Sabo's boat completely.
"SAAAABOOOOOOOOO!!" This time, both of them in anguish as they witnessed what they believed to be the end of their brothers life.
Ace tightened his fist and gritted his teeth until he was bleeding from his mouth and hand. In frustration, he fell to his knees and punches the floor over and over again. Luffy on the other hand, just stood still with tears flowing down his face. No words were made as Luffy's heart rate began increasing dramatically. His eyes turned red and smoke began to come out of his skin as his fist tightened. Sparks of black lightning began to come out of Luffy's body as he screamed out loudly, releasing a bright red conquerors haki wave all around him. Many of the gathered citizens of the Goa Kingdom fell unconscious thanks to this and a few guards turned to look at the two kids, finally noticed them among the people.
"Those kids!! It's them!!"
"Get them! Before the disrupt the ceremony!"
Ace realised that they had been spotted and cursed. "Damn! Luffy! We have to leave."
He then paused when he noticed how Luffy was completely motionless.
"Luffy!"
Luffy's face was not visible, blocked by the shadow of his own hair as more power crackled out of his body. Luffy then slightly lifted his right leg up and its length was suddenly encased in a tough invisible armour, Armament Haki.
"Gomu Gomu No..."
He then kicked his leg up and stretched it out until it was several hundred metres in the air, surprising Ace.
"Hey! Luffy, what are you doing?!"
"...War Axe!"
Luffy then brings his haki clad leg down vertically, keeping his leg extended the entire time. The haki clad foot came down at unprecedented speeds as even lit up in flames. Travelling hundreds of metres, Luffy stomped his foot right onto the celestial dragon's ship. His heel directly hit the celestial dragon right in the centre of his skull and caved his body in as that very same leg ripped through the entire ship, cutting it in half. Fire spread and wood, metal and glass pieces were flung everywhere as the ship was entirely destroyed and began sinking.
The citizens, nobles and guards that were still awake stared at the destroyed ship in horror and shock, seeing a world noble get killed right before their eyes. Ace was astonished by his brothers vengeful actions as Luffy retracted his leg. Luffy's foot snapped back into place as he glared at the broken ship with tears rolling down his face.
"GET THEM!"
"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!!"
"LUFFY!" Aces scream seemed to have been enough to snap Luffy out of his trance and he finally noticed the several guards running at them. Quickly, both boys made a break for it, with Luffy transforming into Nika and jumping away with Ace.
***
Now, Luffy and Ace were both standing on a cliff side, watching the blue seas and blue skies. Ace stood there with a frown but Luffy was laying down on his stomach and covering his face with his straw hat. Ace, who has already cried his heart out by himself, watched Luffy lie on the ground motionlessly, with his straw hat covering his entire head and face.
Ace punched Luffy in the head and folded his hands. "How much longer are you going to be here ?"
"The treasure from our forest is missing. The survivors from Bluejam's crew took or maybe the military found it. I don't know where it is, but I don't care about the treasure anymore. That was the pirate savings that I was gonna share with Sabo. But Sabo didn't need it after all. So I'll just let it go, too. It's no use having treasure if you can't even protect it." Ace told him as Luffy began to cry.
Speaking of Bluejam, let's rewind a little bit to see exactly what happened to him.
***
Flashback
Bluejam was sent flying away by the force of Luffy's punch as he stood over Ace's body in his zoan transformation.
"Don't touch my brother." He coldly said, though his smile was still ever present.
Bluejam coughed out blood and tried to get up while glaring at Luffy.
"Y-You brat...! I-I'll kill you!!" He shot a bullet Luffy, who raised his hand in response.
The bullet went into the middle of his palm and stretched it back, before it came back into its original place and redirected the bullet back at Bluejam. Said bullet hit his own leg and he screamed in pain and fell down.
"Did you just shoot him ? Do you even know how to use a gun ?" Ace asked while standing up.
"I didn't shoot him. He shot him!" Luffy said defensively, before turning towards Bluejam and asking, "Hey, do you think I shot you ?"
Bluejam responded by shooting another bullet, which again redirected and hit him in the butt, making him scream, again.
Ace deadpanned at this scene. "I really want to know how you can turn a serious moment into a funny one."
Later, Rayleigh showed up and dealt with Bluejam himself. But Dadan wanted in on the action as well and joined too. And that was his end.
***
Flashback Ends
"A-Ace... I..."
"I wanna become stronger! More and more, more and more, more and more, more and more, more and more! I wanna become even stronger! Even with this power, I can't protect anything or anyone! I won't even lose anybody! Never!!" Ace looked down at him with neutral eyes as Luffy cried and declared to the raging seas.
"I will not let anybody else that I like die! That's my promise to everyone! I will... never lose anyone else... ever again!!!"
"So please..." Ace looked down at Luffy.
"Ace, please don't die!" Hearing this, Ace's first reaction was to punch his head.
"Idiot, first worry about yourself! You're in a much deeper hole than I am. Or did you forget you're being hunted down ?"
"Listen carefully, Luffy. I'll never die!" He said as Luffy began to get up.
"Sabo told me to take care of you, too. I promise that I'll never die. How can I leave a wimpy brother like you behind ? Sabo died before he knew freedom. We exchanged that same cup of sake and we're alive! So listen, Luffy. We have to live without leaving any regrets." Luffy nodded while crying at his words.
"We gotta go out to sea someday... and live as we like. Freer than anyone else! That means we'll make enemies of many people. Even the old man will become our enemy. You gotta risk everything. To go out to see at 17! And we will become... pirates!" Ace declared to the wind.
***
"ACE! LUFFY! COME DOWN NOW!!" Dadan screamed at the boys to come down.
On reaching, they realised that Garp was there and he was sitting down next to Rayleigh.
"So... it happened ?"
"Yeah... it did."
"What are you talking about, grandpa ? What happened ?" Garp said nothing and only pulled out a piece of paper and gave to the boys.
The took the paper and realised that it was a wanted poster. One with Luffy's face on it.
"Wanted... Monkey D. Luffy... bounty... 3-3-300,000,000!!!"
All the bandits stared at them in shock as Luffy himself was surprised. "EH?! Already?!"
Meanwhile, inside the Grand Line, a lone ship was seen floating at sea. Inside the ship, a red haired male sat down next to a red and white haired girl. It was Shanks and Uta.
"Captain! Look at this!" Lucky Roux came into the room and handed him something.
He handed something over to them, which Shanks took with interest. He widened his eyes on seeing a Luffy's face on the wanted poster.
Uta was shocked by the bounty. "300,000,000 beli?! At that age?!"
Shanks was silent and let out a sigh, before cracking a smile.
"Can't we go back ?" Uta asked him.
"No Uta. Garp said five years. Six at maximum." Hearing this, Uta slumped down while pouting. Shanks smiled, knowing that Uta already missed Luffy a lot.
***
Six years went by really quickly.
With Luffy and Ace together, they trained by themselves with the help of Garp and Rayleigh for years, mastering their haki and skill.
Ace was now 16 years old while Luffy was 14. Later than same year, Shanks and Uta returned to Foosha Village to collect Luffy.
On seeing Luffy, Uta immediately hugged him on reflex, making Ace smirk in the background. Speaking of which, Ace walked up to Shanks and formally thanked him for being there for Luffy. He learned how to be nice from Makino, after Sabo's death.
"Ace! You'll leave in one year right?! Have fun! Become a big name pirate!" Luffy told him and Ace grinned.
"Of course I will, Luffy! You continue your training with the red hair pirates." Luffy grinned at this.
"Of course, I will! I'll get even stronger! In three years, once I've turned 17, I'll set out on my own. With Uta as my nakama, I'll make an amazing pirate crew and then I'll... become the King of the Pirates!" Luffy declared, making everyone else grin happily.
"Hey, captain." Shanks looked over to his right hand, Benn Beckman.
"Luffy's bounty increased again." He said while showing them an updated bounty poster of him worth 500,000,000 beli.
"EEEEEEHHH?!!!"