Chapter 35 What Is Up With These Kids?
Less than a minute later a small boy with messy black hair and a scar beneath his left eye appeared along with another boy with parted black hair and a freckled face, he looked like was perpetually pissed off.
"Hmm, who's this?" The freckled boy questioned pointing a pipe at Arch and his group. For a second his eyes moved onto Kuina as he causing him to raise his eye brows. "Oi what are you looking at!" She replied seemingly grabbing Wado Ichimonji out of thin air and pointing it at the boy.
Immediately the boy's expression turned serious, as the other smaller child looked on confused, simultaneously Arch felt a headache coming on, not unlike one he felt when looking at Achilles. "Ace these are some travelers who arrived here recently." Makino quickly defused the situation before it could escalate further.
"ARE YOU PIRATES!!?!" The smaller boy asked in excitement charging towards the group. "Heh, no." Arch doused his spirits almost immediately, and the boy looked a bit gloomy after all. "Anyway, I am Arch, and this is my team, who might you two be?" Arch decided to ask for their names, he knew who they were but it was better to get introductions out of the way.
"Portg-" "I am Monkey D. Luffy the man who will become Pirate King!" As they tried to introduce themselves, Luffy shouted over Ace almost instantly, because of this Ace immediately whacked Luffy with his pipe. "I am Portgas D. Ace, and this is my little brother Luffy." He explained concisely.
Seeing how violent he was, Kuina looked at him in shock. "Are you sure he isn't hurt?" She asked pointing at the fallen Luffy. "I am fine, don't worry about me." Luffy chuckled as he got up, he then stretched his cheek as far as he could. "See because I am a rubber man!"
"Rubber?" Ugo muttered, it was obvious it was a devil fruit ability but Ugo as a medical professional wondered how such a being would work. 'Well its not like I can dissect him.' Ugo pondered as he gazed at the small boy.
"Well now that everything is settled, I should take you guys to your destination. Bye Dadan, bye Luffy, bye Ace." She bade farewell before walking away. "Wait a second, you in the white suit fight me!" Ace's voice sounded.
'What is it with children and fighting me.' Arch sighed before turning around. "I don't have time to waste on kids, I have places to be." Arch replied, he genuinely couldn't be bothered to fight Ace, in fact there was nothing to gain by fighting Ace, it was not as if Ace would come back with him and keeping the son of the Pirate King with him held no value at all. Sadly Arch's words fell on deaf ears as a pipe swung towards his head, but before it could reach him a loud sound echoed out.
"CLINK!"
A pipe clashed with a sword, and it was obvious what would win, the sword sliced through the pipe and stopped just at Ace's neck.
Turning around Arch was surprised to say the least, he would have intercepted the move either way but Kuina seemed to have been a step ahead of him, she had probably been on guard ever since meeting the two boys.
"Hmph, you got lucky, had you not caught me off guard your sword wouldn't have beaten my staff so easily." Ace voiced as the blade inched closer to his neck. "Says the one who launched a sneak attack!" Kuina replied as she held the sword steady, although she didn't show it that last attack had taken a lot out of her.
"You let go of my brother! Gum Gum Pistol!" Luffy shouted as he flimsy rubber fist stretched towards Kuina, but it fell apart barely a meter away from Luffy. "Hahahaha!!" Arch laughed out seeing this, he had seen it in the show but seeing it in real life was a whole different experience.
"Kuina let him go please." Arch commanded. "B-but." She replied, not retracting the sword, seeing this Ace smirked. "Ya move your sword away!" Ace said before flipping back kicking the sword away from him.
"I didn't say I was letting you go though?" Arch chuckled appearing behind Ace, immediately the boy had goosebumps along his body. "W-wha...." Ace muttered, as Makino and Dadan looked on in worry.
"Please let him go." Makino pleaded seeing Arch behind the young boy. "Don't worry about it, all I am doing is teaching him a lesson." The young man replied tapping Ace's arm. "Ah!" He groaned as he fell to the side.
"Take that as a warning boy, there a some people in this world who you can't just provoke, at least not at your current strength." Arch declared, Ace was truly too suicidal the man even tried to attack Whitebeard of all people Whitebeard! Not only that but multiple times.
After this little incident Luffy looked on in shock as he saw Ace on the ground, and Arch simply walked back to the group before indicating Makino to get going. "Don't worry he should be fine I simply tapped him lightly he'll be fine after an hour." Arch assured the woman, before she nodded, after sharing a look with Dadan she led the group away and towards the city.
"Who, do you think that man was." Luffy said in shock as he made it near Ace trying to help him up. "Let go of me....... Besides, that guy, I'll defeat him one day!" Ace muttered pushing Luffy away. Dadan on the other hand looked on worriedly at Arch's departing figure.
'He must be from the Grand Line, its a good thing that little girl stepped in.' Dadan sighed, finally they disappeared from view and her gaze went back to the two boys in front of her.
"After the mess you two caused, you can have double chores for the entire week!" She commanded, Luffy and Ace scowling in response. 'That guy, he better be as strong as he looks cause I am coming for him!' Ace declared a burning desire now in his heart.
On the other side Makino had just finished guiding Arch and his group to the city. "Well I'll stop here, good luck you guys." She said before walking away. "Wait a second, I am sorry for you troubles take this." Arch quickly caught up to her and handed her some money, he knew that she cared for Ace and Luffy a lot so for her to still guide them after that scuffle was very generous of her to say the least.
"Oh no need, you can keep it." Makino rejected waving her hands in a disproving matter. "Don't worry about it, I insist I also apologise about before and I do mean it when I say that. In fact if Ace still has any pain after an hour or two come find me I'll have Ugo here check him out." Arch replied giving her another 100,000 Beli it wasn't a small nor a large sum at least for Arch.
"Okay then, if you insist." She finally gave in and took the money, after that she walked back to Foosha Village before Arch and the gang entered the city.