9 A Purpose To Live...

Chapter 9

Title: A Purpose To Live...

….

Ten hours later and on the outskirts of Gray Terminal, at the place close to the forest. There is a small hill of metal, there were also four men lying on the ground tired.

"What the hell! That kid is monstrous!" Complains one of the thugs as he is too tired to even stand up any more. They even took breaks and switched with each other amongst their ten hours of work and they were still tired. "Ten hours, he took no break and he works harder than us and can still go on. I have never worked this hard in my life… being surpassed by a kid kind of pisses me off… but then again the kid…"

"Woah!!!" Exclaims another one of the thugs. "Look at that."

They look and see that on the horizon, as the sun is setting down. Ace is carrying a giant chunk of metal many times his body size. It seemed like it was some type of fridge. 

Ace is also a little tired as he breathes heavily. After all, he has been pushing himself and carrying as much weight as he can carry every time that he comes here. His body is being pushed in a different way than it was pushed during his time in the jungle.

Ace then throws the metal in the mountain heap of metal and falls on the ground and takes deep breaths. He is tired as hell, he can feel the fatigue all over his body.

…

But not even five minutes later he gets up and walks towards the thugs. "Wait for me here, I will be back in an hour with your payment."

After he says that Ace stretches a little and pushes his now rested body to go towards the forest. He jumps into a tree and then he travels from tree to tree.

….

After Ace left the thugs are left in an awkward position and look at each other. 

"Should we run away?" Asks one of the thugs, unsure of what they should do.

"You wanna try running away from that monster? You would have better luck trying to become a noble." Says another thug. "You don't wanna be on the bad side of someone like him. Did you see how he lifted all that metal? That is something beyond human now."

"I really wanna run away…" Says one of the others.

"Try it, then you won't be able to ever show your face in Gray Terminal anymore." Says the last thug, he seemed the quiet type.

….

The thugs in the end decided to not leave at all and see how this will play out. 

Though Ace said one hour, he appears not even one hour later carrying a boar on his shoulder casually.

"Yo! I brought some food for you guys. I don't really have any money, but I can hunt some food for you." Says Ace as he throws the boar forward. "Anyway, I will start cooking this for us all. Start introducing yourself, by the way, my name is Ace… Portgas D. Ace…"

The other members nod too and they start introducing themselves. They all look like average people, the most distinguished-looking amongst them is the one with a mustache.

"My name is Jason." Says the one with a mustache, not knowing what to say anymore.

 Ace raises his eyebrow at that as he gathers some sticks and gets ready to start a fire. "Well, Jason… tell me what you used to do before you came to Gray Terminal. I doubt that you just came here to have some fun or something like that."

….

Then Jason starts speaking, his story was that he used to be a humble baker. He had a beautiful wife and everything that he could ever want, he wasn't rich or anything like that. But he was happy, until one day his beautiful wife caught the eye of the noble. 

Of course, the noble came and gave him money and expressed to him that he wanted to fu*k his wife. Jason threw the money on the nobles' face and told him that he never wanted to see his face or he would bash it in.

That was of course the wrong thing to say as the noble used his power to pretty much shut down the bakery as it got robbed frequently and thrashed. Until he couldn't financially support his bakery.

The worst part about this is after that, his wife left him to go and become one of the noble's concubines or something like that. As she wanted an easy life and she didn't want to become a beggar. Not much later, he was kicked out of the city, and into Gray Terminal.

Ace just looked at the man, he didn't know what to say. So he just took a bite from the meat that he cooked and says. "That's rough buddy…"

The other thugs are now all eating meat as Ace already cooked the boar while listening to Jason's story. Ace might not be a chef or anything like that, but he has learned how to cook animals and even season them by the things he can find in the wild.

Ace then looks at the other three thugs and asks. "What about you guys?"

….

The others were all also kicked out by nobles. Chriss was a singer, and one night after singing in a bar he got drunk and threw up in a nobles' shoes. 

Bob was a plumber … he was kicked out because a noble kid didn't like the look on his face.

Anderson was a whole other deal, he used to be a banker. He was secretly embezzling money from a noble he was supposed to manage. So he too was kicked out for that reason.

Ace eats like a quarter of the boat by the time they finish their stories. The men are already full as unlike Ace, they can only eat so much in one sitting. "Woah… that is rough. Anyway, if you guys wanna continue working for me, then I can catch some food for you so you don't have to go hungry at least."

The men look at Ace with surprised looks. They have never seen someone like him, they are not thinking about his power as they contemplate that. They have seen countless people pass them by as they used to be beggars for a time. But none, not even a single person stopped to ask them how they are doing or put themselves into helping them.

'This kid… he… is truly something else…' Thinks Jason, he used to be a baker so he never really understood what being hungry and not eating anything for days felt like. 

Tears start coming out of his eyes as he looks at Ace's cold face. Jason bows down, his head touching the ground as he thinks inside his head. 'I promise to follow you till the day I die, Portgas D. Ace.'

Ace looks at the grown man in front of him bowing and crying. He feels a little uncomfortable while seeing this. But in the end, he says. "Oy! Jason, there is no need to bow or do something like that to me."

Ace couldn't understand it, why would someone bow to him just because he fed him and gave him a purpose to continue living and not just wait for the day he dies.

….

AUTHOR NOTE:

Ace is charismatic … but also he gave these men a purpose in life. So they don't just wait for the day they die and have nothing to look forward to in life.