The Return Of Joyboy!

Chapter 9

Today was another day of losing sight of Ace when a bear apparently thought to attack Luffy. Ace was hiding nearby and watched the little brat standing before the bear. Ace's grip on his trusty pipe tightened to take down the bear.

Luffy pouted at the angry animal.

"Hey!" Luffy waved his hand.

The bear seemed to have stopped to look at his possible future meal.

"Have you seen Ace?" The bear looked around, not thinking that he was the one to be asked. But he found no one, he looked at his meal again ready to roar.

"Come on!" Luffy whined, "You can tell me that much!"

The bear looked again down.

"Is the human child asking me?" The bear thought out loud.

"Silly Mr. Bear!!" Luffy giggled, "Who else is here than any of us?"

"You can listen to me?" The bear asked with wide eyes.

"Yep!" Luffy grinned, "So, have you seen Ace?"

The bear shook his head and Luffy puffed his cheeks adorably and went to the other side to find Ace.

Ace who was seeing all these things happen left quickly. He ran to Sabo to tell about the mysterious kid whose gaze feels like he is unraveling the person's truth and who freaking talked with a bear.

Sabo just took it as a joke.

.

It was almost three months of chasing after Ace when he had again lost track. He was now in the middle of a garbage dump, which was stinking.

But Luffy felt no problem as he kept on walking ahead in search of Ace. Bad people stopped in his path but Luffy didn't falter. He kept on searching for Ace. That was when he entered the forest again and heard someone talking.

It was Ace! He was with someone else and talking about the Pirate fund and a ship.

"You guys want to be pirates?" Luffy beamed gaining the attention of the two boys sitting on the tree branch.

They climbed down the tree and glared at Luffy.

"Ace, you come out here every day?" Luffy grinned as he noticed Sabo.

Sabo felt himself taking a step back. His back hit Ace's hands. He felt that Ace indeed was true about the gaze of this mysterious boy. The boy soon grinned at Sabo, returning his breath.

"Are you Ace's friend? Be my friend too!" Luffy chirped.

"Shut up!!" Ace yelled as he and Sabo then proceeded to tie the little boy to the tree. But despite all of that, Luffy kept on grinning at them.

"He found out about our secret," Ace spat as he kept glaring at Luffy. "If we leave him alone, he'll tell someone. Let's kill him."

"Yeah! Let's do it!!" Sabo agreed as he glared at the young boy.

Luffy's eyes widened at the words. "Ehh?! Don't do it! I want to be your friend!!" Luffy yelled in panic. He didn't want to lose his new friends.

"Shut up!!" Ace glared. "Stop spouting nonsense!!"

Sabo placed a hand on Ace's and Luffy's mouths when he heard voices coming.

"Someone's coming!" Sabo whispered, straining his ears to listen to the voices.

"Quick, undo the rope!! If we don't get out of here, they're gonna find our treasure!!" Ace hissed as he started undoing the ropes.

They hid behind the bushes and saw some men who claimed themselves as Bluejam Pirates appear. They were searching for Ace 'cause he had stolen their treasure.