Chapter 30: Rin's Heartaches.

Luffy, Rin and the bandits safely got out of the fire. They waited for Ace and Dadan to come but they never arrives.

= The Next Morning =

Rin and Luffy slept at the bandits shack. Rin woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep so she keep a watch on Luffy because he's heavily injured. When Luffy woke up he wanted to searching for Ace and Dadan.

"Wait, Luffy! You haven't recovered. Where are you going?" asked Magra.

"I gotta look for Ace and Dadan!" Luffy said weakly.

"You can't do that." said Magra.

Luffy trip and fell as he opens the door. "Ouch!"

"See? I told you already." Magra said worriedly. He puts Luffy on a mattress slowly. "You're seriously wounded. You need to take a rest."

Dogra advised Luffy not to go to Gray Terminal for the time being for his own safety.

"But!" Luffy raised his voice a little. His eyes are getting teary. *sob* *sob* "I wanna see Ace!" Luffy yelled in a sorrowful tone.

In the midst of Luffy's cries, Rin intervene. "Luffy! Ace will be alright. Don't you wanna believe in him?" Rin asked in the most reassuring smile she could muster.

When Luffy heard Rin's words, Luffy stop crying. "I wanna believe in him." He said while still sobbing.

Rin smiled and said "Right! Let's trust Ace!"

= The Next Day =

Dogra and some of the bandits left to search for Ace and Dadan. Luffy even though still very worried about Ace he kept himself as calm as possible.

After a while, one of the bandits came back panting from running while saying, "Guys! Those two... They're back!!"

Everyone except Rin hurriedly went to look at the two persons who came back. Outside, everybody could see Ace walking with Dadan. The bandits was very glad to see the both of them. Ace and Dadan went inside. They weren't heavily injured but still wounded.

Luffy jumped to Ace and hug him. "I knew you're alive!!" Luffy said happily.

"Of course I'm alive! Get off of me!!" said Ace who is irritated.

= A while Later =

Ace told the bandits what happened when that night at Gray Terminal.

"We barely defeated Bluejam. After that we tried to get out of the fire and thanks to Rin we managed to find a safe path to the forest so we're not heavily injured by the fire, but we couldn't come back instantly because the military was on the lookout for survivors." Ace explained.

"... What do you mean by thanks to me you managed to find a safe path?" Rin confusedly asked.

"You said you rigged the boxes right? That causes the fire to spread slower." Ace answered.

"Oh..." Rin said realizing what she had done. ' I actually rigged the boxes to make it easier for Dragon to save the people at Gray Terminal but... okay... I guess. '

Everyone was happy and glad until Dogra came back and told them about Sabo's "death". Ace wanted to avenged Sabo's death but was stop by Dadan. Ace got tied up to a tree for his own safety. Everybody especially Luffy fell in to despair. Rin tries to comfort Luffy but for some reason her heart hurts soo much.

'Sabo didn't died so why... my heart hurts...' Rin looked at the crying Luffy and the tied up Ace, that's when she understands the reason for her heartaches. ' Can I... protect them... can I... save... Ace... ' A tear trickles down her cheek. She realized that she cares for her "brothers" more than she thought she did.

Instead of comforting Luffy, Rin ended up crying with Luffy.