Chapter 11. Bounty

The pirate hurriedly brought forward yesterday's newspaper and changed pages until he found it.

The pirate found a new bounty paper on Ace that had come out yesterday. it had a picture of Ace holding his hat while hiding his eyes and smiling brightly. his yellow shirt was open, showing his strong chest and abs.

"130,000,000 berries?! Not bad kid! you caused a fit at lougetown!" He shouted.

'Huh it has only been three days and they've already sent out bounties? Not bad.' Ace thought.

"Ah, it's just my first bounty, don't worry about it" Ace responded, with obvious pride in his voice.

"Hahahaha not bad indeed, let's celebrate!" Shanks shouted out loudly, happy to have another reason for a party.

"Having 130,000,000 bounty for a first time isn't bad kid, you must have left an impression on those marines!" Yassop said.

Ace stood up looking at everyone.

"It was fun meeting you guys, thanks again for saving Luffy." Ace said as he started walking out of the cave.

"Brat, you said you owed me one, stay and party with us!" Shanks said while drinking.

".... I already repayed it today." Ace said as he continued walking.

"Huh, you did? Did anyone else see him repay the debt?" Shanks asked, but they all looked confused.

"You'll understand in the coming year how I paid the debt." Ace said.

His goal was to defeat all the Emperors and become the strongest pirate and the strongest emperor of the sea and create some havoc.

He didn't care about the One Piece and laughtale, he'd leave all of that for Luffy.

He'd set sail to defeat the Emperors and take his place as the strongest, and then the Red-haired pirates would know that today, Ace repaid his debt by not destroying them.

"Ace... where are you going, why not join my crew?" Shanks said, finally addressing him by his name. He'd taken a liking to the young pirate.

"I won't join, after all, I'm going to turn the world upside down." Ace said before finally exiting the the cave.

Shanks halted at those words and frowned, trying to remember where he had heard thsoe words before.

It took a few second before he recalled how his former vice captain had once told him how he met and became the right hand man of the Pirateking, that's when Shanks realised why Ace was so familiar.

"DHAHAHHAHAHAHAH THE SEAS WILL INDEED TURN UPSIDE DOWN" Shanks burst out laughing as he realised what was going on. He had heard rumours about his captain having a child, but seeing it with his own eyes was another thing.

"Huh, captain what's wrong?" Yassop asked seeing how Shanks was laughing like a crazy fool.

"DHAHAHHAHAHAHH NOTHING IS WRONG AT ALL" Shanks laughed, genuinely happy and excited, about finding his captain's legacy, and excited to see what storms Ace will bring the Sea.

Ace could hear the echos of Shanks laughter.

'He must have realised...' Ace thought while smiling, he kept walking back to his ship.

"ACE, I'LL WAIT FOR YOU IN THE NEW WORLD." Shanks shouted.

Ace turned back and found that Shanks stood at the opening of the cave, Ace could barely see him as because of the distance he had walked and the snowfall, but he could feel the radiating Haki.

Shanks stood there as one of the Emperors, welcoming Ace to grandline.

Ace smiled before continuing his walk back to his ship. He really wanted to turn around and challenge Shanks, every cell in his body shouted for a fight, yet he held back.

After he returned, Ace set sail. Nami felt the ship move and so she walked out, there she found Ace standing and looking at the island as it got further and further.

"Did something happen?" She asked as he looked lost in thought.

"Hmmm nothing much, I just met Red haired Shanks." He said nonchalantly.

"I see, red-haired Shanks.... RED-HAIRED SHANKS???!!" She shouted in fear, even she had heard about the four Emperors. The strongest, most dangerous pirates in the world, and the ones closest to being the Pirate King.

"Yes, kind of nice guys." Ace said, making Nami feel dizzy.

"Oh right good news!" Ace said happily.

"Oh, please do tell, I could use some good news!" She said, feeling her knees weak.

"I received a bounty of 130,000,000 berries!" Ace said happily, but then he got confused because Nami passed out.

They kept sailing the sea for 1 and a half week before finding the next island. As they reached the shore, the black pearl turned into a literal black pearl before flying to his ring, which cause alot of murmur as the people witnessed it.

"Maybe we shouldn't bring any attention to us!" She said with slight paranoia as as her captain had a big bounty on his head.

"AHH don't worry about it, what's the worst that can happen?" Ace asked, not understanding that pirates raise black flags, not red ones.

"Hey isn't that that new Monster Rookie Pirate?"

"Don't you mean the rookie captain of the Demon Ace Pirate??"

"No no no, I heard his title is demon monster beast savage rookie pirate!"

Nami's face fell as she heard the murmurs, looking at Ace, he seemed to have a smile that showed content, which made Nami slightly angry.

As they made their way through to the market to explore the island, another pirate crew stopped in front of them.

"Are you that pirate rookie?" A tall, tanned man with a black beard and wings on his back asked. He looked fearsome and strong with his muscular build that could dwarf a normal human. Yet he had a big smile on his face.

"Hhmm Yes I'm the captain of the Flaming Pirates, What do you want?"

"Flaming pirates? Did we get the wrong guy? Sorry about that, were searching for Ace, captain of the Demon Ace Pirates." The man said courteously but still holding his smile.

"Demon Ace Pirates?" Ace questioned, didn't he tell Smoker that he was the flame emperor of the flaming pirates? Or was there another Ace running around?

"Yes, he caused a bit of trouble in Lougetown, and the marines got scared and gave him way too big of a bounty." The tall, scary looking man explained quite honestly, he was a nice guy when he wasn't about to fight.

"Oh that might be me, but where did you get that title from." Ace said, purplexed.

"Oh, its the marines that gave you that title, they consider you a potential threat.... YOU'RE HIM?! YOU BASTARD YOU TRICKED ME!" The tall man said before attacking Ace. Yet even when he is angry, his smile doesn't disappear.

"What a dumbass..." Nami said as she backed off. She found that the tall man had two crew members that stood aside looking excited at the fight.

"You two, are you a pirate group? Where are the rest of your members?" She asked. Normally one wouldn't give away information so easily, but they seemed stupid so Nami just tried her luck.

"Ah, we're the Fallen Monk Pirates, a newly made group... so we're only three members so far." One man with spiky hair and a

scar above his eyes said, looking meek.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Leave a powerstone and a review! It helps my fanfic reach higher heights!

Also, I wrote a short story of 3,000 words in chapter 0 to help get the 15,000 words needed to make my fanfic be on the popularity list. Sadly, after putting it in a

"Auxiliary", I realised that Auxiliary chapters don't count, so I'll put it here just for the word count. Don't worry, you can skip it if you want, or read it if you're bored.

A short story by Passerby_Venne

(Unedited)

Once upon a time, in a fantasy world.

There was a young boy, who always used to go around the streets in rags. He held out a hat as he walk up to people who seemed to have money.

This boy was hopeless and had no one to rely on, and he had become quite well known in the area as the "smiling kid"

His clothes were old, worn out and dirty. His face wasn't impervious to the dirt.

But even then, he always carried a bright smile on his face, it was so bright that anyone who saw it, had to wonder if this boy was really going through any hardship.

In fact, his smile was so bright, that people who saw him smile at them, felt like they forgot their own troubles.

And on one particular, cloudy day, a rich merchant passed through the area that the boy was often seen at.

"Sir Midea, should we return before the sky cries?" His servant asked as they both rode a horse each.

"Jutea, we don't have that luxury today. Having lost my wife, we need to hurry to Morotos sect before they get suspicious." Sir Midea said in a serious tone. Yet, for the one that had known him for many years, it was easy to spot to unease and sorrow in his tone.

Their clan had gone through a lot of hardship in the last few years, and in the last 2 months, tribulations that could erase their clan from the annals of history had befallen them.

Sir Midea carried a heavy load on his shoulder and he felt like the whole world was against him. Certainly, he felt like he had aged a millennia in the last few months.

Just as the clouds cast it's shade over the little village they were passing through, and the world seemed grey, Midea suddenly halted his horse as he saw one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen.

"Sir Midea?" The servant also stopped abruptly when he saw his master in a daze, following his gaze, he saw what his master saw.

Summer's sunshine, blue skies, white clouds, meadows of blooming, colourful flowers! The smell of cotton, flowers and green grass.

All of that flashed by their minds as they saw that bright smile.

Sir Midea soon came back to his senses, so he jumped down from his horse and generously gifted the child with some money.

"Make sure your smile never disappears!" Sir Midea said to the kid as he ruffled his hair.

Getting back on his horse he barked at his servant, which led to the servant to come out of his daze as well. Then both of them hurried along.

The kid kept smiling as he looked at the money he had received. Anyone who saw this would find their heart warmed by his pure joy.

Sir Midea kept riding until they left the village, but as soon as they left the village borders, both of them started frownig heavily.

"Sir... Something wrong with my...."

"Yes, mine to." Midea interrupted.

Jutea, the servant started feeling anxious and very scared at this moment, something very odd was going on.

Midea and Jutea looked at eachother and then jumped off their horses and used their cultivation to escape as fast as they could.

Someone was attacking them, it was with a technique they had never come across before.

Their cultivation was slowly being taken.

"What kind of evil is this?" Jutea cried out as both him and his master couldn't even make it to a thousand steps. The more they used their qi, the more their qi depleted. And it wasn't just their stored qi, no, it was their whole qultivation.

They fell from the 6th level, the soul nascent level, down to foundation building, down to qi forming level until they were completely dry of any qi.

Both of them fell down to the ground as their worried faces stared at eachother.

"Whats going on?" Midea asked himself, he had never heard of such an evil technique that could do this. They hadn't even met anyone or got attacked.

They justs suddenly felt an evil qi attack them from the inside and then all their qi started depleting.

"It must be a heavenly demon." Midea struggled to speak.

"But why would... Someone like... That attack...us?" Jutea seemed to struggle just as much as they were on the ground, they could barely move as their qi core had shattered. All their energy and stamina lost.

Midea found himself so weak that he couldn't even answer. His eyes were stricken by horror by the pain and anxiousness he felt right now.

If he couldn't go there... To that place... His whole clan might get terminated, yet here he was, the last hope of his clan... Dying.

Suddenlly, the horror grew as he felt that, when all his qi had been taken away, his life force started draining as well, and it seemed like jutea was going through the same phenomena as Midea could see in front of his eyes that Jutea started aging very fast, he almost became a Skelton before he died.

Midea knew that he only had a few seconds left, and for some strange reason, the only thing he could think about was that strange boy's smile. Such a beautiful smile.

Midea died, his life force and qi stolen from him from an unknown entity. But atleast in his last moments, he saw that beautiful smile, which led to Midea also smiling brightly.

And it seemed like Jutea went through the same ordeal as his dead body was also smiling as if he had achieved nirvana.

Inside the village the boy kept smiling brightly. He felt his qi and life force increase drastically.

The boy had once lived in a neighboring city where a corrupt nobleman lived. The nobleman had found the boys family and killed everyone in front of the boy for some matter he couldn't understand at the time, maybe his family owned money? Maybe the nobleman wanted his beautiful mother? Maybe the nobleman was just bored? Does that even matter?

The boy was hiding under his bed and saw the nobleman torture and kill his father, his mother and his younger sister, all while laughing and smiling, and since then the boy couldn't stop smiling. It wasn't out of happiness.

He tried but couldn't... He didn't know what happened to him but he felt like something inside him had been broken at that time.

After the nobleman left his house the boy crawled to his dead family members while crying, but his smile just widened and widened.

And at that moment, something happened to the boy that he wouldn't understand until much later in his life. He went into a trance and started comprehending the laws of death and life.

Laws... Was not something a mortal could normally touch upon. It wasn't until they stepped into the path of immortality, and climbed the ladder of heaven, until they reached the Qi Emperor level, that they could even start touching upon the barrier of laws.

Yet this boy, had started comprehending the laws of life and death at the tender age of 4.

Since then he escaped the city and walked into this village where he became a well known beggar, known for his bright smile.

Yet whenever a cultivator saw that smile, the laws of life and death would imprint in their soul, and as soon as they left the vicinity of the boy, the laws of death and life started taking all their qi, and then their life force transferring it to the boy.

The boy had unknowingly been doing this for 8 years inside this village, and he didn't know it, but he had reached the 8th level of cultivation, the Qi Domain level.

He could be considered an elite of the cultivation world. Not many sect leaders had even reached this level. And there were only a handful people above that level, the 9th level, the Qi emperor level, out there.

Yet the boy only felt a some energy flow into his stomach as he kept begging and smiling.

But under that smile, lay the thirst for pain. The boy looks around with his bright smile and the only thing he truly wants is to see the world wither in pain.

The bodies of Midea and Jutea jus layed there for a couple of weeks until a group of 5 cultivators suddenly arrived at the scene.

"Respected Elder, what is this? How did they die?" The second in command asked their group leader and elder.

"..." The leader, who was an elder of a medium sized sect, frowned and inspected the dead bodies.

He noticed something strange, the bodies looked like they had aged and died, almost like they had been sucked out of their life force.

But the strange thing was that they were smiling very brightly, as if they were the happiest two dead bodies out there.

The elder frowned, at first he didn't feel any residue of qi, or see any sign of a battle... But just as he was about to stand something odd came to his mind.

Once when he had just reached the 3rd level of qi, the golden core level, he had been lucky enough to witness a Qi Emperor use laws to destroy an evil sect.

Although he couldn't understand the use of Laws, the feeling of seing it had remained inside his heart all thase years, and that had helped him reach the level that he is at today, to become a respect first elder.

And for some scary reason, he felt like there were laws at play here. He couldn't put his finger on it but he got the same feeling as that day.

He couldn't be certain, so he bent down and tried feeling the skin of the dead bodies and as soon as he did that, he got the fright of his life.

He frantically stood up.

"Let's go, there's nothing to see here." He said before moving on.

His group just looked at eachother not understanding what's going on, there was obviously something weird going on here.

But they kept silent and followed their elder, and for some reason, no one spoke for a whole month after that incident, they just kept flying on their swords.

The group wanted to ask their elder what was going on but anytime anyone was about to speak they got a dangerous feeling from their elder so they kept silent.

It wasn't until they had flied for a month that their elder had landed, and looked around before breathing out in relief.

"We almost died." He said to his group, making all of them afraid, drawing their weapons and reading their qi.

"Relax, we should be safe now, we're almost back in the sect." The elder said.

The second in command seemed reluctant but he finally asked what should be asked.

"Respected Elder, what's going on? Were we followed?" He asked in worry. If even the respected Elder seemed nervous than they were really in danger as the only person stronger than him in the sect was the sect leader.

Looking around, to make sure no one was there, the elder decide to tell them.

"The dead bodies we found, what level were they at?" The elder asked.

"Dead bodies?" One group member asked confused.

A whole month and passed since then and they had only investigated for a few minutes. It wasn't something that they would try to remember.

"Oh, does Elder mean those two, a month ago?" Another asked, gained he nod of the respected Elder.

"They should've been mere mortals, No?" The second in command spoke.

"I also thought that at first, but when I felt their skin, their skin, muscles and bones were as hard as hardened iron." The elder said.

All of them were shocked to the core.

"Then Nascent soul? They were that strong? That's impossible, there wasn't a single hint of qi in them, even if they had been dead for a millennia, their bones wouldve had some qi residue!" The second in command responded instinctively.

"I'm not sure but I think laws were involved." The elder said gravely.

Suddenly all of them shut their mouths. No wonder the elder acted so weird.

The technique used on those two bodies were definitely evil, demonic.

The cultivation world had always had tribulations and war, but in the last millennia, there had been no demonic Emperors.

A thousand years ago, a great war broke out between the demonic fraction and cultivation world. In the cultivation world, there uncountable amounts of sects, clans, governments, martial halls, and all of them either fall into the category of Orthodox, neutral, or beastly fractions.

The orthodox follow righteousness, the beastly follow the hedonistic. And the neutral doesn't care about either, as long as inner peace is achieved.

There are many conflicts between sects of different fractions, but there hasn't been a great war where all the fractions has united against a common enemy since the last demonic Emperor fell, and since then, the cultivation world has been relatively peaceful.

These group of cultivators came from a sect that's from the upper echelons of the medium calibre sects. And their sect is in a war with a beastly fraction sect which has put them in a disadvantaeus situation.

Their first sect leader and founder, originally came from Xia Clan, one of the top 3 clans of the eastern continent. So their sect can be considered a daughter sect of the Xia clan.

That's why these cultivator are on their way to the Xia clan to seek help. But to think that they'd find traces of a demonic Emperor on their way.

This finding has escalated their mission from the highest importance, to even a greater heights.

Before, the disappearance of their clan was at stake, but now, with this finding, the safety of the whole cultivation world might be at stake.

One has to understand that the Beastly fraction might actually be more peaceful and righteous than a righteous fraction sect, they're just barbaric in their behaviour and do as they please.

But they can be reasoned with and usually wants peace.

But the demonic fraction is different. They simply want to see the world burn. They want power, through any means... And worst of all, the demonic fractions rarely have more than one organisation.

There are countless sects and clans under the righteous, Beastly and Neutral forces.

But under the demonic flag, they are all united, not because of loyalty, rather because the strongest dog becomes the alpha, and anyone that doesn't bow their head, loses it instead.

"We need to hurry back to Xia clan... This is no longer just about our cloud stepping sect any more." The respected Elder spoke.

Back in the village, the smiling boy just looked around with his big smile. But all he saw were bags of skin, meat and blood walking around, carried by their bones.

This boy had actually never learnt cultivation arts, nor martial arts. So the only thing he had going for himself was that his cultivation was at the 8th level. But he himself wasn't aware of that.

He had been in this village for 8 years and was about to turn 13. Looking around, he felt like he was tired of this place.

At first, as a child, he had no choice but to keep living here as he didn't know what to do or how to act except for begging for food.

But now that he had reached his teenage years, he started to realise how... Puny all humans are. He saw how they were born, aged and then died.

And he started to realise, that is an unnecessarily long circle, why not give them death directly and not waste time?

These thoughts had sprouted in recent times.

"Kid, you might not know it but I got divorced 2 years ago and fell into a depression, but whenever I come here and give you a few coins... Well, you helped me realise a lot of things, here take these, it's all I have. I want to thank you, your smile is all the kindness this world needs. Thanks to your presence I've made up my mind to travel the world." A kind middle aged man walked up to the smiling kid and ruffle this hair.

This middle aged man had been one of those that regularly gave coins to the kid, and unknowingly, he found purpose thanks to the kid.

He gave all his money and proof of ownership to his house, he had decided to leave this place.

"Thanks..." The kid said with his bright smile.

The man got a shock. This kids monotone, emotionless, almost eerily voice did not fit his bright smile, at all.

"N-no problem!" Have a good one!" He had never heard the kid speak before and now, hearing his voice gave him the creeps so he lost his composure for a second.

The kid smiled brightly and looked at the silver coins. This is the most he had ever had, but the biggest gains had been the paper he received.

He tried to read it but he never learnt properly so it took a while.

"So I own a house now...." The kid whispered. His smile never leaving his face, as if it was stuck like that.

When he looked up, he saw the man far away, walking towards the exit of the village

'I now realise, that there's no reason for me to be here either.' the boy came to a conclusion, thanks to that man.

And because of that very same conclusion, his will erupted, which made everyone at the village suddenly halt, before falling down. Their bodies withered up and lost all QI and life force they had.

Everyone, amongst the newborns, children, aduls and elderly.

Even the man that had decided to travel the world, wasn't able to leave his village before falling dead.

This phenomena surprised even the kid himself as he looked around and saw that everyone had died. It didn't bother him in the slightest, no, rather, he felt peaceful for the first time since he came here, seeing everyone laying down dead.

He felt the energy inside him slightly rise once again and came to another conclusion, he must have some ability that he was using unconsciously.

Suddenly the smile on his face became genuine.

He picked up a straw hat from the merchants vendor and put it on his head, shading his eyes. The only thing left to be seen is his happy, bright smile.

And then he picked up some grey robes and put them on, they were slightly big but he didn't care, it was better than his beggars clothes.

He walked up to the dead merchant who laid on the street, looking like a bag of bones.

"You once gave me a copper coin. Did it feel good to do a good deed? How does it feel now?" The boy asked with his creepy voice as he slowly ruffled the dead merchants hair.

"Here's copper for the straw hat and robes." The boy said as he picked up a copper kitchen knife the vendor had for sale.

Then he stabbed the merchant's head with it.

He stood up and started walking out of the dead village.

And as he reached the borders of the village, he stared at the world in front of him in wonder, he wondered what the world would look like if he made it silent like the village, or maybe he should make it burn and hear it sing as it turns into ashes.