44 Chapter 44: Ace’s Appearance

Just before everyone began to walk towards the city, Nami wanted to set some ground rules so that nobody causes any trouble, and ends up inflicting the trouble onto the rest of the group.

[Alright guys… By no means should we act rash or draw attention to ourselves, so do your best to control yourselves, Okay?]: nami

[Of course, Nami! Anything for you]: sanji

[You do realize that the one who needs to hear that the most has already left, right?]: zoro

When Nami heard Zoro's words, she turned to look towards Luffy's previous position, only to see a comedic afterimage of Luffy, and hearing him shout into the distance as he charged off, making her sigh as she turned to Soren for help in reining in Luffy.

[FOOD! FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOOOD!]: luffy

[*Sigh* Soren… Can you please go get him to come back here]: nami

As Nami turned to Soren, she saw his afterimage as well as heard him shouting off in the distance.

[FOOD!]: soren

Nami was stunned, but thinking back to the times when she was younger, she always remembered seeing Soren eating, and the amounts he would eat would put a normal family into a situation of homelessness, but Soren would always go out and catch the food they ate, so worrying about eating was not on the list.

[I should have known I couldn't count on him when the word "Food" was implied… Anyway, lets go guys]: nami

[Sure, I'm Hungry/Yes Nami/Yes/Anything for you Nami dear!]: zoro, usopp, chopper, and sanji

Soon, everyone began to depart from the cove as they went towards the city, but they went under a disguise suggested by Usopp seeing a familiar boat that was pointed out earlier by Vivi before she left with her Duck Ostrich, and the fact that due to both Soren and Luffy's bounties being so high, everyone might start to recognise their faces.

[Now, where is the bestest most tastiest food here?... I've been starving myself over the past couple of months due to the fact that we were on a small ship with little food supplies as it is]: soren

As Soren began walking around town, he began to draw attention for a few reasons. The first and most obvious was that at each food stand he would stop at, Soren would buy everything they currently had grilled, shocking the stand owner as well as the people who were around to see him engulf the entire batch of cooked food in one gulp. And the second reason, and probably the most important one, was that Soren was quite recognisable with his bounty of 100 million.

[Is that Red Devil Soren?... Shhh! Don't let him hear you, or he might try and kill us… He's kinda hot]: bystanders murmurs

Soren could hear all the talk that began spreading amongst the crowds of people, and the more they began to talk about him, the bigger the smile that covered his face got. Soren then began moving from stands, to trying to find a nice restaurant, or more specifically, the one where Ace would be eating so that he could talk with one of Luffy's brothers.

[FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOOD!... Wait… Where even am I?, this doesn't look like a place for a restaurant]: luffy

Luffy began to look around as he thought he would have found a town sooner or later, but he was now standing in the middle of the desert, with nothing in sight except the outline of the city.

[Aww!... Well, looks like I'll be walking back now…]: luffy

Just as Luffy was turning to walk back to the city, he saw some smoke coming from what appeared to be a medium sized building, and then he began piecing 2 and 2 together.

[Hey!... If there's smoke, then there's a fire. If there's a fire… Then that means there's FOOOD!]: luffy

Luffy then ran off towards the building that was releasing smoke from the chimney, while the others had just gotten into town and began looking around.

[Hey Chopper, look… It's venison]: sanji

Sanji held out a meat kabab that was grilled deer meat which startled Chopper, but then he shook his head as he then spoke, drawing Sanji's attention.

[Sanji, there's a strange scent mixed in with the smell of the food]: chopper

[Oh?... And in what way?... Ahh, What you're smelling is the scent of perfume!]: sanji

Sanji had taken a deep sniff of the air around them and noticed the scent Chopper was talking about before telling him what it was.

[Perfume?]: chopper

[Yeah. That shop over there is selling perfume]: sanji

As Sanji began observing the shop, he noticed 2 beautiful women exiting as he then rushed over to them leaving Chopper to gag on the toxic smell of strong perfume. Chopper then saw Sanji hitting on the women and forgetting all about the shopping, so he went and tried to pull Sanji's attention back to the task Nami had given them of getting ingredients to restock the ship.

[Chopper! Why did you do that!? It was just getting good!]: sanji

Chopper had tugged at Sanji's pants to the point he pulled them down, making Sanji break the almost ra*pey vibe Sanji was forcing onto the woman from before letting her free herself from Sanji and run off while giggling at the sight of Chopper pantsing Sanji.

[Sanji, we need to get back to shopping… Can we leave this place? The smell is too strong for me]: chopper

[Don't worry Chopper, I'll do all the shopping, you can just stay here if the smell is bothering you]: sanji

Sanji then began running after the women who ran away from him while Chopper just watched Sanji's fleeting back with a bit of worry for if Sanji would actually do the shopping, but before he could think about it further, he decided to trust Sanji, and find a nice cold and shaded place away from the heat that was beating down on his body.

'I-It's so hot… I think I might be going through the symptoms of a heat stroke… I need to find a nice cold and shaded place soon': chopper

Chopper then found a shaded alleyway along with a dark carriage with it's door open, so seeing this, Chopper went and laid down while feeling much better before he decided to take a nap. And a few hours later Sanji came back to the spot he told Chopper to wait in, but Chopper was no longer there.

[Where'd he go?]: sanji

Across town Soren had just come out of a restaurant, but it wasn't the one Ace was at, so he then decided to meet up with everyone and follow them for a little bit to work off the amount of food he had just eaten.

'Now… They should be in some kind of destroyed building in the slums': soren

Soren then spread his senses to look for the familiar presence of the group, and after finding them, he quickly made his way over to them.

[Hey!... You guys, where have you been?... Also, Vivi, why are you still here? I thought you needed to go back to the palace]: soren

When everyone saw Soren walking towards them, they began to freak out as Soren was quite loud, and they didn't want to drag attention towards them.

[Soren, shut the hell up!]: nami

Soren was hit over the head by Nami as she dragged him over to the corner and tried to slam him into the ground so he could stay low, and even though Soren wasn't hurt in the slightest, he still played along so that Nami wouldn't get hurt trying to harm him.

[Oww!... Why would you do that]: soren

[Don't you see we are trying to blend in here!?]: nami

Soren then looked around while also looking at both Vivi and Nami who were dressed up in some slutty outfits that belonged to dancers, then he looked at Usopp, Zoro, and Sanji who were dressed in clothes matching that of the people of this country. Soren then looked back at Vivi and Nami, before looking at Sanji who had a bit of blood rushing down his nose.

[You really want to die, no?]: soren

Sanji hearing Soren quickly wiped his nose after feeling Soren's killing intent before watching Soren wave his hand over both Nami and Vivi changing their apparel to that of a woman's gown with a cloth hood that wrapped around their heads to hide their faces. Vivi looked thankful as well as shocked that Soren could just create clothes out of thin air, but Nami already knew about this and wasn't too surprised.

[Anyway, we should look for a room if we plan on staying here for a few days… Come with me, I found a nice place and have already got some rooms for us]: soren

Soren then led everyone into the city towards a nearby hotel where Soren had rented 3 rooms and gave out keys. Soren handed 1 key to Nami, and told her that she would room with Vivi and her duck thing, while another key went to Zoro, who would be rooming with Usopp, and Chopper, and then he kept the last key for himself and told Sanji that he would be rooming with him, and Luffy is he was to ever return.

[What do you mean I need to room with you!... How could I ever sleep in the same room as you]: sanji

[Well it's quite simple… I know your personality, and if I were to let you loose on the inn, you would be hitting on every girl here until you get us kicked out, and as for why you are with me… I'd rather keep you where I can see you, then find out you tried to sneak a look at my daughter in law]: soren

As Soren spoke he increased the pressure placed on Sanji with his aura making Sanji start to sweat, and with the recent weighted training Sanji had been through, he could stand up to quite a bit of pressure.

[Anyway… Let's all take a rest for now, and we will start exploring the kingdom later today]: soren

[Oh yeah, where is Luffy?]: nami

When Nami spoke, everyone realized that they had yet to see him, or hear about him causing a mess. This just made everyone worry about him, so the first thing to do was to find him, before he caused any kind of trouble. Soon, everyone began looking for him while Soren just gave a sigh and followed them along in the search, but as they began walking the streets, Soren noticed a familiar looking figure talking to an old man with what appeared to be a Golden apple in his hand.

'There he is… I'll go talk with him now': soren

Soren then broke away from the group and ran off towards the old man and the one Soren assumed to be Ace.

[Welcome young traveler… I haven't seen you around before, is this your first time here?... Would you like to take a look at this Solid Gold apple?... I don't normally do this, but I can really tell when someone had a discerning eye, and this apple is quite special, as it's a magic apple, and it's said that one bite will increase one's life span to 1,000 years]: old swindler

[Thanks, but no thanks… I'm not really that interested in living 1,000 years, and just living for today is good enough]: ace

Just as Ace was about to walk away, Soren came up from behind and spoke, grabbing both the old man's and Ace's attention with what came from his mouth.

[Oh?... A magical apple?... And how much would something like that go for?]: soren

The old man thought he would be able to swindle both Soren and Ace if he were to play his cards right, so he moved the target from Ace towards Soren, while Ace stayed to watch how everything was going to play out, trying to see if Soren was maybe one of his scammer buddies.

[You are truly one with a discerning eye to be able to spot something so mystical and enchanting… Truly one worthy of praise… And as for the price, something like this is priceless, and has run through my family for generations never to rot, never to spoil, and I have only come out with it today to sell it because my daughter has become i'll, and I have no money for the medical bills to cure her… So the lowest I can go is 100 thousand berries]: old swindler

Soren listened to the old man while noticing Ace with a smile plastered on his face from watching the entertainment placed before him.

[Wow, such a thing is going for only 100 thousand?... But it's worth tens if not hundreds of millions… If it were real… But!... I can show you the real thing right now]: soren

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