New Friend?

Chapter 18

Title: New Friend?

….

"Hey there." Greets Luffy with a wide smile on his face, Ace looks at him with a serious look on his face and gets close to Luffy. Due to his training, he is taller than Luffy so their age difference seems more than it is.

Ace doesn't say anything as he grabs Luffy by his nose and due to his body having the properties of rubber the nose extends.

"Ou! Stop it!" Yells Luffy in annoyance, his voice being clamped a little due to his nose being blocked.

Ace looks at the strange sight in front of him full of curiosity. He then let's go and immediately Luffy's stretched out nose flies back.

Pow!

Hitting Luffy in the face, just like the rebounding of rubber. 

"Ow! Ow! Ow!..." Moans Luffy in pain. Rolling on the ground in pain. Ace seems unconcerned by this.

Instead, he pats Luffy on the head, crouches down to his level, and suddenly asks. "Hey, wanna join my pirate crew?"

Luffy looks up with some tears threatening to pour out of his eyes and his nose is read now due to the hit. He looks at Ace and the smile on his face with surprise. 

In the end, Luffy gets up and has an angry look on his face as he points at Ace. "No way! I will become King of the Pirates! I will have my own crew!"

"Oh… I see…" Seeing this reaction, Ace is not surprised by it. Instead, he still has that smile on his face and the pats on Luffy's head turned into a steel-like grip. "Well then, guess I will have to teach you a couple of things before you start your journey."

As Ace says that, he puts Luffy over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and runs off into the wild. 

"Well, they are getting along nicely." Says Garp, feeling slight surprise and happiness at this.

….

Two minutes later and in the outskirts of the island in a river, Luffy was tied by a rope around him and left dangling.

"AHHHH HELP ME!!!" Yells Luffy in terror as he sees giant crocodile-like creatures swarming below him and jumping up, trying to take a bite.

"You are doing good Luffy." Says Ace by the side, as he is holding a stick with the rope Luffy is dangling on attached to it. This is a makeshift fishing rod. "Keep dangling like that, it will make you seem like a helpless child even more. Let's get these alligators excited, today will be a big haul."

….

…

Six hours later and Luffy is just looking at Ace as he carries on his shoulders a mountain of creatures that he hunted today. 

"Hahahaha, we got a good haul today. Me and you make quite a good team together Luffy." Says Ace, as he puts the mountain of food down.

Booom!

It causes shaking a little as he puts it down. He then goes to a couple of trees and pulls them out of their roots and starts a giant fire. 

Then he starts cooking the beasts. Luffy looks at him with a surprised look on his face. 

"Wow! You are strong!" Exclaims Luffy in surprise, Ace would usually kill a giant beast like those with one hit.

Ace smiles at that and holds the beast that he has skewered and is cooking on the fire while he flexes the muscles on his other arm.

"Pretty cool right? Bahahahaha…"

Though Ace is muscular, his musculature would tell nothing about his actual strength if one judged by his size. 

"Then why did you need to use me as bait if you are this strong already!" Yells Luffy in annoyance, while pointing at Ace.

"Oh, it's because the creatures on this island do their best to stay away from me." Answers Ace with an annoyed tone to his voice. "Damn it! They are animals, they should attack me. Who knows they might actually be able to hurt me. Tch, cowards."

Luffy blinks twice and looks at the small mountain of beast corpses. "You are just too strong for them."

"Hm?" Ace has a thoughtful look on his face and says. "I guess that is true. But still…."

….

Ace cooks all the meat, he and Luffy eat as much as they can. The latter is surprised at how much Ace can eat. After eating so much that their bodies become bloated up, Ace just jogs a little and the food is all digested.

He then picks up the now smaller mountain of cooked food and starts walking away.

"Where are we going?" Asks Luffy, curious as he notices that they are not going towards Dadan's house.

"Well, I am gonna have you meet some nice people." Says Ace mysteriously, with a teasing smile on his face. Luffy is confused by this, but he still followed Ace.

….

Two hours later… Luffy and Ace finally arrive at their destination.

Ace smiles as he sees Luffy look at the wooden walls in front of him with curiosity.

"Luffy, welcome to Portgas Town!" Says Ace with a huge smile on his face.

"Oy! Everyone, Ace is back." Comes a loud shout from atop of the walls.

"Hell yeah! Ace is back!"

Luffy looks at Ace curiously, wondering if Ace is some famous person in this town.

"GUYS!!!" Screams out Ace, his voice so loud that it causes the grass to lean back as if a wind storm hit them. "LET'S HAVE A FEAST!!!"

Ace then runs towards the town and before the gates, he drops the food, the people happily come and take some of the food with smiles on their faces. Ace is always like this, very generous to them and even though they don't need it anymore, he still brings giant piles of food every now and then so they can have some feasts.

"Oy! Ace, you are gonna make all of us fat. Bahahahaha…" Says a man with a mustache and a gun strapped to his back. He is Jason, he is the official mayor of Portgas Town.

As they walk inside, Luffy is shocked to see everyone carrying weapons on them. But his wonder is cut short as some men in marine uniforms appear in front of Ace, they all have serious faces and a bald and burly man who is wearing a marine captain uniform comes forward. 

"Ace…" Says the Marine Captain with a serious look on his face. Luffy gazes at them with a nervous look on his face.

Ace's eyes are shadowed by his hair and he walks forward.

 "Benny…" Says Ace with a serious tone on his face. 

As he is in front of the marine captain… the man suddenly smiles and puts a hand on his shoulder and says. "Where the hell have you been Ace. I haven't seen you in months, I was almost worried. Bahahahahaha…"

"Hahahahahahaha…" Ace laughs too and turns around, facing Luffy and he friendly slaps the marine captain on the back. "Luffy, this is Benny, a Marine Captain, he is a nice guy as long as you don't comment about him being in his twenties and that he is already bald."

"Ace!" Benny yells out annoyed and punches towards Ace, who dodges all of the man's punches while laughing at him.

Luffy looks at all of this confused, not knowing what to say. Suddenly a blond kid that is only a little shorter than Ace comes forward and says to Luffy. "Don't worry about that, Ace is always like this. He intentionally annoys Benny."

Luffy looks up and sees a blond teen look at him and with a friendly smile on his face.

'Wow... Ace really has a lot of friends.' Thinks Luffy.

….

A/N: Ace is very charismatic when he wants to be.