Masked Deuce...

Chapter 23

Title: Masked Deuce...

…..

The man eats and eats, after doing so, he lies down on the ground and looks at Ace, who has a smile on his face.

"What's your name?" Asks Ace, a smile still on his face as a strange light shines on his eyes.

"Name… huh…" Says the man, as he sits down on the ground and looks at Ace. "My name… what about your name? What is the name of the man who saved me?"

"Ace, Portgas D. Ace." Answers Ace as he puts his hat back on his head after dusting it off. "The man who will one day become King of the Pirates and go beyond it."

The man is surprised by the answer that he gets. He looks at Ace and curiously asks. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Why not?" Says Ace without missing a beat. But he sees that the man in front of him is still confused. So Ace puts a finger up and says. "One!..."

"Hm?" The man is confused even more by this and he tilts his head to the side.

"One life… one chance to do something. If one doesn't chase after his dreams for some reason or other, he must remember that we all have ONE life." Explains Ace, a serious look adorning his face. "Think of it as a game with only one life, you can only do it once, you must think everything thoroughly before you do it. Take risks, because there is only one life, and only by taking risks can one get the best results. I took a risk when I set sail, I could die on my journey at any time, but at least I will know that I gave it my all and my best. I did not take the easy route to stay on my island and safely spend the rest of my life there."

The man looks at Ace with eyes filled with admiration. He had never heard someone say something that seems reckless… but it's so logical. One must take calculated risks if they want to truly achieve anything in life.

"So what is your name?" Asks Ace again, now the smile is back on his face.

"I don't have a name." Says the man. "I left my name behind when I set sail."

"I see…" Says Ace. "You must get a new name then. What do you want to be called?"

"Hmmm…" Wonders the man. "Maybe I could use something like a pen name as I am a writer."

"How about Masked Deuce?" Suggests Ace suddenly. Deuce looks at him confused, so he explains it more. "As the cards, I am Ace as in one, and you are Deuce as in two."

"Oh! I guess that makes sense. It also is quite catchy, I will go with it from now on." Says Masked Deuce.

"Also I have another question." Says Ace, as he hears this Masked Deuce looks at him. "Wanna join my crew?"

As Ace asks that, Deuce is quite surprised by it. He didn't expect anything like that. But in the end, he smiles slightly and says. "Sure, I am confident that I will be able to write a legendary story if I follow you."

Ace only smiles at this and next he says. "Well then, let's go and look for the treasure on this island."

"I have been here for weeks, there is no treasure on this island." Say Deuce with a serious look on his face. "I have searched the whole island."

"Hmmm… is that so…" Says Ace as he closes his eyes suddenly and this confuses Deuce what he is doing.

But Ace's Observation Haki spreads through the island, trying to sense anything…

….

A couple of minutes later and he opens his eyes. "It seems like we will have to look through the island on foot.  Sabo, Deuce you take the northern side of the island. Cat, you look after the ship, and I will look into the south side of the island."

Deuce is surprised when Ace calls out to Cat and looks as a giant tiger's head pops up from the ship and gives a confirmation growl.

After Sabo explains it to Deuce, he calms down about the giant tiger in the ship as Ace already started searching.

….

-Ace POV-

I jump amongst the trees, looking for the Mera-Mera No Mi (Flame-Flame Fruit). My eyes move around at top speeds trying to find it. But I can't seem to find anything.

This Devil Fruit would raise the crew's strength to a whole other level. Still, though, that doesn't matter, I still can't remember how the original Ace found the fruit. I know that it was just luck that he was able to find something like that. But I have concrete evidence that it happened, so that means that the fruit will inevitably appear here. 

Even the butterfly effects that I create must be logical, after all, something doesn't come out of nothing. For example, something like the World Government being suddenly destroyed… won't happen just because I ate a cookie. 

….

After three minutes of jumping around, I stop immediately as I see that below me there is a ravine with jagged rocks and a ship is pierced into it.

There is also a giant brittle sword amongst it. I frown at that, maybe it was some type of giant that fell down here and died, or maybe the ship was destroyed after its crew had already died. I know that when someone dies then the fruit is reincarnated nearby, just like when Smiley died in Punk Hazard, it reincarnated in a fruit nearby. 

I look down the ravine, a place which I can't even see the end of. I wonder… there is a high possibility that most likely the last user of the Fire-Fire Fruit died and the fruit was reincarnated closeby. There are many theories on how this could happen, but I don't care how some old person who died possibly hundreds of years ago. The present is more important than the past, I must see where the devil fruit is, not what happened to its last user.

Welp, I better get to it then. As I stop my mind from wandering I jump down the ravine.

I use <Geppo> to go into the skewered ship and look around for any Devil Fruit in it, or any treasure chest. The ship has a Viking feel to it as I see horned helmets all around and many other such ornaments.

…

After checking through it, I don't find anything like it so I just decide to take a deep breath close my eyes and concentrate on my Observation Haki, since I won't be able to see anything anyway so it doesn't matter. 

Fwosh!

I start falling down, I can feel the wind run through my body as if it is touching me gently. I use my hand to hold my hat on my head, I must say, this is quite fun. 

As darkness swallows me, I can feel everything around me. I smile at that, Haki is truly amazing. As I sense the ground approaching me I use Armament Haki on my lower body.

BOOOM!!!

I crash into the ground with my legs, and I smile as I don't feel any pain or anything like that. I could have done this without Haki, or even used Geppo. But I want to see how strong my body is, I am an easily entertained man, just casual displays of strength from myself are entertaining. As someone coming from a world like mine, just breaking rocks by punching them is amazing.

Suddenly… I feel something strange that surprises me...

....

A/N: Opened a Patreòn, also yes, there is only one chapter in advance. Will get more every day as I will update more in there.

Pa treon.com/MessyLife

P.S: Don't forget to give some Power Stones. If we get the top 20 I will give out the daily updates. (This time for real... hopefully no one else I know will get sick with Covid.)