27 Arlong Park...

Chapter 27

Title: Arlong Park...

….

Ace looks at duce and smiles. "We will be going to Cocoyashi Island."

"Huh?" Deuce is confused, and suddenly his eyes widen slightly. "Wait! Isn't Arlong the ruler of that place. Why would you even wanna go there? Last I heard the Arlong Pirates were keeping quiet and not really doing anything too big."

Ace smiles at that and clenches his fist. "I am going to beat Arlong of course. Some say that he and Krieg are the strongest in East Blue. Finding Krieg will be too hard, so I will just take care of Arlong."

Deuce nods at that, usually, he would say that it would be stupid for someone like Ace, who has no bounty to go and challenge Arlong, a man who is known to have come from the Grand Line. But he knows just how strong Ace is, he has seen how his fight with Sabo absolutely destroyed Sixis, that place is a fiery hell until the flames calm down.

Ace then goes to Cat and says. "Okay big guy, let's go for a swim."

The elephant-sized was adamant about it since it hates water, but Ace wasn't taking a no for an answer as he took Cat by the tail and threw it into the sea, he then jumped after the cat too.

Sabo doesn't pay any attention to this as he is trying to get better usage of his fruit. He also considers Ace's antics as something normal now. To him, Ace is like a storm, he will do whatever he wants with no care about other people's opinions.

….

….

One day passes like this, and in the outskirts of Cocoyashi Village, there is a tangerine farm and a house on the land. Currently inside the house is Nami, she clutches her side slightly that is wrapped in bandages. As a fifteen-year-old, she wasn't quite as skilled as she wanted to be at stealing money from pirates. 

She is laying down on the couch as she feels the breeze pass through the window. 

'There will be a storm soon.' Thinks Nami as she can feel the sir humidity and her natural talent in Navigation perfectly encompasses her ability to predict the weather.

"You know, you should be more careful next time." Says a woman with light blue hair. She sighs a little as she sees her sister in such a bad mood. Her little sister had already gathered 30 million B, but she worries about her, pirates are not nice to someone trying to steal their loot. 

Nami looks at Nojiko and smiles. "Don't worry about it, those pirates got it worse than me."

*sigh* Nojiko sighs at this, she knows best how Nami is, she smiles only to make her not worry. But that worries her even more. 

She is about to say something more but suddenly she hears a knock on the door.

*knock* *knock* *knock*...

'I wonder who it is?' contemplates Nojiko as she goes and opens the door. She sees three people in front of her, a tall young man with freckles, he was quite nice in the eye. Next to him was a man with blond hair and a blue top hat. Then the last was a young man with blue hair, an open blue jacket, and a blue eye mask.

"How can I help you?" Asks Nojiko, wondering what they are here for. Especially once she saw that the handsome one had a sword and the bling haired one had a spear on his back.

"Oy, hello there. My name is Ace." Says Ace with a polite bow. "This is Sabo and this is Deuce." He then points at his friends. "We were wondering where we can find Arlong Park?"

Immediately Nojiko is on edge once she hears this. After all, she knows that people looking for Arlong isn't a good thing. 

"Why would you want to look for something like that?" Asks Nojiko, being careful of her wording, expressing neither hate nor any of her personal emotions on Arlong, she knows that messing with three armed men isn't a good idea.

But Ace does something that surprises her, an impossibly wide smile appears on his face. "Why I wanna kill him of course."

'So they must be after Arlong's head.' Nojiko only sighs at this, having seen many bounty hunters or the like being killed by Arlong. "Well, that would only be you guys going to your death. But what do I care about that… just go East of this island and you will find the place. It's like a giant building encased in walls." 

"Oh, I see. Thank you, you can have Arlong's bounty when we kill him then. Cya~" Says Ace as he, Sabo, and Deuce disappear before Nojiko's eyes as she blinks and they are not there any longer. 

Nojiko shrugs at that and goes back inside, but her mind is still contemplating what Ace said. At how they will let her have Arlong's bounty once they killed him, she didn't care about the money, what she cared more about is why would they attack Arlong if it wasn't for money?

"Who was it?" Asks Nami.

"Just some weird guys, they told me their names but already forgot them. They are probably going to die soon anyway." Says Nojiko casually without a care in the world. She has already seen bounty hunters go there to die, Ace and his friends were nothing special in her eyes.

….

Ten minutes later she is still thinking about why Ace would attack Arlong as she drank some tea. She looks at Nami, she has gotten up and seems to be better now.

BOOOOM!!!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, they hear a giant explosion, both of the sisters look towards the window and they can see far away a giant pillar of fire going towards the sky. 

"What is that?!!" Exclaims Nojiko in surprise.

Nami on the other hand has a shocked look on her face and a slightly hopeful look in her eyes. "That is coming from Arlong Park…"      

…..

At the same time, at Arlong Park, now there was only wreckage and ash. Nothing is left of the place.

Deuce is just looking at the event and writing everything in his book. Sabo has a smug look on his face as he looks at Ace who has a look on his face as if he just swallowed a bitter lemon.

"Damn it, Sabo!" Yells Ace. "I said you can only attack, not destroy the whole place!"

Ace and Sabo had played rock-paper-scissors for who will deal with the Arlong Pirates. In the end, Sabo won, but Ace being a sore loser said that they were just playing for the first attack only.                                                                                                                                                                                                          

"Well, you never specified how strong the attack had to be." Says Sabo smugly as he looks at Ace, who has an annoyed look on his face. Ever since they were little, Ace had always been like this, he doesn't like losing at all. Even when he did, if the final decision wasn't to his liking he would act erratically and surprisingly childish. "Heh, you think I didn't learn from when we fought the Lord of the Coast back home."

"Tch!" Ace is seemingly annoyed at this and he goes searching for Arlong amongst the wreckage.

….

A/N: When they were kids Ace either cheated or cried wolf when he lost a game of chance. Sabo grew up with that so he has learned.

P.S: Yes... Ace is a very petty person...

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