mountain bandit

Mt. Corvo, Dadan family's house:

While Garp was banging on the bandit's door Luffy caught sight of a butterfly and chased it around the clearing in front of the bandit's hut.

"GO AWAY! WHATEVER YOUR SELLING WE DON'T WANT IT!" a big woman with curly orange hair yelled slamming the door open and realized who she was just yelling at. She got extremely pale, and had snot running out of her nose she was also frozen in Shock.

"Garp!" two bandits named Dogra and Magra yelled appearing from behind a curtain in the doorway for Dadan who was frozen in shock.

"Hey Dadan, How've you been,`" Garp said dryly bringing Dadan out of her shock.

"Garp why are you here?! You know Ace is 11 now! We can't handle him anymore take him back!" Dadan yelled a safe distance away from Garp.

"Really good for him. I bet he's gotten stronger in the time I was gone. He'll be a great marine," Garp said with a goofy smile and Luffy froze at the name Ace which gave Garp a chance to grab him.

Garp picked Luffy up by the back of his shirt and said, "Luffy say hello." Luffy rose his hand up and said "Yo!" then he squirmed out of Garp's hold and went back to 'exploring' as he calls it.

"What!? Garp, who is that brat!?" Dadan said confused and waving her hands in the air.

"That's my Grandson, take care of him too," Garp said suddenly bored with what was happening and settled for watching the clouds.

Over with Luffy, he sensed something coming his way and when he moved out of the way he saw it was actually spit aimed at his face. When he looked over at the person who Spits at him he saw a boy about ten or eleven with what looked like a permanent scowl on his face sitting on top of a dead boar.

"Eww! That's disgusting!" he said to the boy and all he got in response was a deadly glare but Luffy just stared back with an unreadable look. 'He seems lonely.'

"Oh! Ace your back and I see you brought dinner!" Magra said and Garp perked up at the name.

Garp got a harsh glare from Ace while he walking towards the two boys, "Luffy this is Ace you'll be living together from now on so be nice. Okay?" he got a nod from a curious Luffy. Satisfied he started to walk away only for Dadan to stop him.

"Wait why do we have to take care of the brat. We already have one monster and I don't want to take another one," Dadan said with the rest of the bandits nodding furiously.

"Well it's either that or jail, I can have you put away for multiple crimes you can choose which is better. Or is there gonna be a problem about something else" Garp said with a smirk.

"No, no problem here, what about child support?" Dogra yelled after Garp who was walking away. "Just put it on my tab." Garp said finally disappearing from view leaving Luffy all alone again.

"Well get in there you brat," Dadan said pushing Luffy into the run-down, and dark hut. Inside the house a bunch of bandits grabbed Luffy.

"Hand over all your money or you die," the bandit that grabbed Luffy said darkly.

"I don't have any money, I'm a kid!" Luffy said starting to panic even though he was made of water.

"Then get your parents," the bandit said with more bandit appearing around him and Luffy.

"Don't have any, I only have Gramps." Luffy said realizing he was water, and suddenly becoming very bored with his situation. At this point Dadan, Dogra,and Magra came in and just watched. "Well then who is your Gramps?" the bandit said and Dadan interjected, "Garp," the whole room suddenly lit up and the bandits went pale. "And he'll be staying with us," Dogra said making the bandits panic.

"WHAT NOT ANOTHER ONE!" the bandits all screamed running around in a panic until Dadan yelled at them to stop.

Dadan went back in to the kitchen to prepare the boar to eat while the bandits cleaned. While they were cleaning Luffy tried to befriend Ace only to get ignored or get a glare from him. When the food came out Luffy was only allowed one small bowl of rice because he hasn't earned his part.

"Look kid you're not gonna get special treatment here. Ace brought food and he shares it with us so he gets a seat at the table. You're gonna have to clean, do laundry, polish shoes and weapons, commit theft, loot, swindle and even murder to earn your part. Then she taunted Luffy by waving a piece of meat in his face which he tried to eat but she pulled it out of the way .

"That's fine," Luffy said completely accepting it and Dadan dropped to the ground "you're fine with it!?" Dadan's comment caught the attention of everyone in the room including Ace.

"Yeah I'm used to it even though I don't know this forest very well," Luffy said calmly and some bandits became confused.

"Wait how are you used to it if you don't know this forest?" some very confused bandits asked. A little bit away from the crowd Ace was listening a little curious about it as well.

"You see these bandages? There from the man that held me hostage for two and a half years. He threw me in the jungle all day everyday." Luffy said Grimacing because he was lying to them about Rayleigh and making it seem like he was a bad guy.

"Wait who would do that to a kid like you and why." a bandit said. And Ace was very curious now so he got closer to the crowd around the child.

"Rayleigh," his answer made the bandit's jaw drop and Ace to get confused. He continued, "He did it because of who my father is apparently. At least that's what Gramps said."

'What he's the same as me! There is no way that's possible he's just so cheery.' Ace thought getting up to go to bed.

"W-wait a minute." a bandit stutters stopping Ace from leaving to listen. "You're saying that Dark King Rayleigh also known as the Pirate Kings first mate kidnapped you!?" the bandit finished and Luffy nodded making everyone's jaws drop even Ace's. "Just another person to hate me." Ace whispered but Luffy could here it. At that moment Luffy decided to be his friend no matter what.

That night Luffy laid awake that night in the same room as Ace planning how he was going to become Ace's friend. He couldn't decide what to do so he decided to wing it. He didn't know how Ace would react, since he always shoots a glare at anyone close to him.

The Next Day:

The next day Luffy started following Ace into the forest saying he wanted to be friends. But just before he entered the forest Dadan called after him.

"Luffy do your chores!" Dadan yelled with two cigarettes in her mouth.

"No! They're boring and I don't want to," Luffy said sticking his tongue out and pulling his eyelid down and running into the forest after Ace.

Ace was annoyed, that Luffy kid would not stop following him and asking to be friends even with all the attempts Ace made on his life. He wondered why Luffy would want to be friends with someone like him. So far they were half way into the forest and Luffy has currently lost site of Ace. Ace was watching Luffy from a far trying to lose him so he could go on to Gray Terminal.

"Man, I lost him. What do I do now?" Luffy said and remembered what Rayleigh said about his devil fruit and decided.

"Ah! I know let's find a good spot to practice," Luffy said much to Ace's relief but curious as to what he was going to practice. He shook his head and left towards Gray Terminal.

Luffy decided to explore the forest to get to know it before training his devil fruit. He searched the whole forest with his Shave technique and found a big clearing next to a river.

"Alright, this is where I'm going to train!" Luffy said Gathering some big rocks to practice his attacks on. "Alright that Shadow guy showed me how to do that whip move. He just-" He said trying to mimic the move. He gathered a ball of water from the river nearby and tried transforming it into a whip only for it to fall to the ground and seep into the earth. He tried several different approaches and the one that worked the most was where he would gather a ball of water and made it into a stick made of water. He then imagined it flowing and moving like a whip. Doing this he managed to break the rock before it fell apart, so he would need a lot of practice before it is completed.

Luffy didn't want Ace to not be able to eat so he caught his own food for the night. He caught a bunch of boars and picked berries for dinner. When he was done gorging himself he realized there was something following him. When he used his Observation Haki he knew it wasn't a human. He turned around and saw a huge tiger almost the size of the ones in Rusukaina. Luffy's mind went on auto pilot and he launched himself at the tiger. He threw a haki infused punch before he got some awareness back and dialed it back. 'Hmmm, maybe I should try my new move.' Luffy thought getting into stance ready for the tiger who was now getting up to attack. He murmured Water Water Whip before making his arm into a stick imagining and whipping the tiger breaking its skin. Eventually the tiger retreated leaving Luffy to walk back to the hut alone. Luffy did not notice the small Mountain bandit named Dogra watching him fight the huge tiger.

When Luffy got back he was thrown in the room with Ace by a drunk Dandan. "Get in there you little brat. You better get some sleep cause we're gonna work you hard tomorrow," Dadan said slamming the door shut. Luffy complied immediately falling asleep right after the door shut making Dadan open it back up to see Luffy happily snoring the night away.

The next day Luffy chased after Ace until he lost him at almost the same place as before. And again once Ace lost him, Luffy went to his little training grounds this time working on a different attack. He called it Water Water Mace, he gathers water in his arm making it bigger so he could shape it into a mace. The technique would probably be better for many enemies at once instead of one but it was still destructive if he could then he could probably. When Luffy finished training he would catch his own food and explore the forest, this time at a slower rate but still fast. He got half the forest done by dark so he decided to head back to the bandits hut. When he got there he was once again thrown in the same room with Ace falling asleep instantly.

This Process continued everyday, Luffy would follow Ace and ditch his chores. He would train, brainstorm, or just relax and go for a swim. So far Luffy has come up with a Riptide attack where he releases a powerful stream of water that can rip through flesh. He also found out that if he has a source of water he can make the stream continuous and reload his water bullets much faster.

He has also discovered the Water Water Geyser. He moves water into the ground and then shoots it out from under the enemies feet. The last technique Luffy was able to make was called Water Water Snap. He makes any amount of water balls and sends them towards the enemy making them snap shooting little needle like water bullets at the enemy hurting them.

Luffy started making progress on chasing Ace around two and a half months making it a little farther each time using the techniques he taught himself to get him farther he even made a new technique while following him It's called Water Water Grab. He made his arm bigger and grabbed a stone that was falling toward him stopping it in its tracks.

'That kid just won't give up' Ace thought choosing the most dangerous and brutal path towards Gray Terminal on the day that marked three months. Luffy was excited Ace has taken the most dangerous route to the mystery place as he called it. He knew this because everyday after training he would explore and memorize the forest before going back to the bandits.

As they went down the trail Luffy used a little bit of the power he has been holding back making it much easier to follow Ace. He was lucky because no one in the East blue could sense his strength that he knew of at least.

Ace was surprised at how strong the kid had suddenly gotten. And wondered how he knew the forest so well already but shrugged it off thinking it was a stroke of luck. Luffy kept following Ace all the way to Gray Terminal and while Luffy was awed and focused on the heap of trash on front of him Ace slipped away. Luffy didn't care that Ace got away at the moment he just wanted to explore the new place called Gray Terminal. He went heap to heap looking for treasure and dodging fights that broke out over something of value.

When he had enough of exploring he saw Ace enter the forest with a bag over his shoulder so he went after him. When Luffy got close he heard Ace and another voice talking.

"Man Ace you got a lot of treasure today even more than me. Where'd you get it?" The second voice said enthusiastically.

" I got it from some thugs hanging around the gates lucky huh." Ace said to the other voice which Luffy could Identify as a boy with a top hat. When he got closer he saw that the boy had blond curly hair and noble like clothes with a missing tooth in his smile.

"At this rate, our pirate fund will become enough to buy a ship to head out to sea," the blond kid said with a smile and Ace nodded.

"You're right Sabo, We'll be ready in no time at all." Ace said with a smirk on his face.

"A pirate fund!? I didn't know you wanted to be a pirate Ace!" Luffy said smiling his big grin.

As soon as Ace heard the voice of Luffy he snapped his head towards him so fast that someone would think his neck snapped.

"Ace! Who is that! He knows where our fund is he's gonna tell somebody!" Sabo said panicking and waving his hands towards the treasure collected.

"That's the Luffy kid I was telling you about. You know the idiot," Ace said. Ace and Sabo both looked at each other and nodded before crawling down the tree so fast they looked like spiders. When they got down Sabo tied Luffy to the tree unaware of the devil fruit powers that Luffy has.

"We need to kill him, he knows too much," Ace said looking as intimidating as an eleven-year-old can be. And Sabo agreed with killing him.

…

…..

….

"Well do it already Ace!" Sabo said and Ace turned towards him. "I can't I've never killed anyone!" Ace yelled. "Well, I've never killed anyone either!" Sabo yelled.

"TH