Chapter Text
It took them the better part of two weeks to reach the little port town of Halva, a decent trade center that they might be able to drum up a Log Pose at since it existed in the shadow of the Marine base called G-77. They moored and paid the harbor master without issues (perks of trade towns and not flying a flag yet, mostly by merit of neither possessing even half decent art skills). The plan was to scour through the shops and see what could be found, and if they failed to buy what they needed, to sneak into the base. Odds were high someone had a Log Pose there.
Deuce really hoped it didn’t come to that.
At any rate, he was halfway through scouring a shop that sold sailing supplies and a handful of other useful items when a tall and lean man in a yellow coat standing over in the section that held some atlases and textbooks on various subjects caught his eye. He wore a gun on his hip and a long case, the right size and shape to hold a rifle, slung across his back. Though Deuce wasn’t totally sure that was what it held, regardless the juxtaposition of the gun(s) and outfit with the book in his hands was fascinating.
A Teacher’s Guide to Advanced Trigonometry was perhaps the strangest book to see in the hands of someone who would look more at home in a mercenary band. And yet, the man was turning the pages at regular intervals and, judging by his eyes, actually reading it rather than just skimming to look like he was doing something. He was by far the most intriguing thing in the shop.
“Can I help you?” the man asked, eyes flicking over to Deuce.
Ah, oops. “Sorry to stare,” he said, “I was just wondering why you picked that book.”
“One of my students was struggling with Trig,” he explained shortly. “I’m looking for other ways to explain the concepts.”
Deuce nodded. “Fair enough, I guess, but why does a teacher need to haul a gun around in a Marine controlled town?” It wasn’t like this place was crawling with the more unsavory types, and most of the civilians seemed to get around without weapons just fine.
The man scoffed. “Surely you don’t believe the Marines in East Blue incorruptible?”
Oh, so that’s how it was. “I’m not from here,” he explained. “The local law enforcement were trustworthy back home.” For the most part. There were always a few assholes who would take bribes and such, but never so many that it was a real problem.
“Huh. Well, keep your head down here unless you’re armed.”
“Noted. Thanks.” He needed to go find Ace. If the Marines here were trouble, it was practically a guarantee that his hotheaded captain would take issue with them one way or another, so he stepped outside to scan the surroundings for the new orange hat.
There!
He slipped through the crowd towards Ace. Unfortunately, he was too late. Five men in uniform, expressions ranging from malicious glee to outright scorn, ringed Ace in like they were planning to mug him. Ace, of course, had the beginnings of a snarl on his face, posture telegraphing the imminent violence.
. . . well, they were pirates, not to mention planning to break into Marineford at some point, so perhaps this was inevitable.
He sidled closer, knife in hand, waiting for Ace to make his move. Ace’s gaze caught on him and the snarl morphed into a devilish smirk, which one Marine apparently didn’t appreciate. He swung the but of his gun at Ace’s head. Ace ducked and got inside his guard, fist slamming into his nose with an awful crack. The guy went down with a howl, gun falling from his grip.
Not very tough then.
The nearest opponent though, a few steps back from the burgeoning brawl, had brought his gun up to his shoulder to aim at Ace. Deuce sank his knife into the bastard’s throat without a second thought. Hot blood spilled onto his hand and he jerked back, releasing the knife. Breath stuttering, he stared down at the body in horror.
“Bastard!”
The shout came from behind him and shook him out of his head. Two more Marines careened into the mess, one of them swinging his sword straight at Deuce.
A portly man with a skull mask jumped in before he could do more than twitch, catching the sword on his own with a cheerful, “Hey, there!”
. . . he didn’t have time to worry about that development and switched his attention to punching the second newcomer. Behind him, he could hear Ace cackling like a wildman and one guy went sailing over their heads and into the side of the bakery.
Well, at least he was having fun.
Once all the current goons were down, Deuce turned to Skull Mask. “Hey, thanks for earlier.”
“Oh, no problem!” the guy said, grinning wide. “You can call me Skull!”
Fair enough. It wasn’t like Deuce was using his birth name anymore either. Though honestly, ‘Deuce’ felt more like his name than his old one ever had. He shook Skull’s hand. “I’m Deuce. Nice to meet you, even in these circumstances. Mind if I ask why you stepped in?”
“Well, I like pirates! Always wanted to be one, really, and fighting Marines is par for the course, no?”
“Oh?” Ace ambled over, eyes alight with interest. “You looking to make your own crew or join one?”
Skull straightened up. Even with the mask it was obvious he was excited about where this line of questioning was headed. “I’d be no good as a captain. But I’d be happy to roll with you two! Er, if that’s what you’re offering?”
Ace grinned and Deuce chuckled. “Oh, that’s exactly what he was offering. Welcome to the Spade Pirates, Skull.”
“Awesome!”
“So, we still need a Log Pose,” Deuce said, turning to Ace. “Might just have to sneak into the base to get it, at this point. Sound good?”
Ace nodded, looking over his shoulder at the massive towers looming over the town. “Way more fun that way, anyway.”
][
The inside of the base was something of a maze, which complicated matters. Fortunately, the uniforms Ace had snagged meant that they could walk around pretty openly. Skull had even removed his mask for the disguise, though he kept his head low so his face was mostly hidden by the hat. Deuce followed suit on that, trailing after Ace as they meandered into various rooms, looking for what they needed.
After about an hour, they stumbled into a cartography room. Maps and everything related were stored neatly on the shelves, a veritable treasure trove.
“Bullseye.”
They split up to scrounge through the boxes and drawers. Deuce unearthed an updated map of the Grand Line, though only the section between the East and South Blues, for some strange reason labeled ‘Paradise.’ He slipped it into his vest.
On the other side of the room, Skull made a triumphant noise. “Found it, I think!”
The three of them converged to check it out. Indeed, it was just as Old Murray’s book had described it. A compass needle suspended inside a glass ball. “Great job,” Ace said, tucking it into a pocket. “Anything else we want to grab?”
Before either of them could answer, they heard a commotion in the hallway outside.
“Unhand me! You know damn well this is unlawful and unprompted!” a man shouted followed by a grunt of pain like he’d been struck in the gut.
Curious, they opened the door a crack and peered out, heads stacked on top of each other. Deuce gasped softly. The guy from the shop, the gun-toting teacher, was being manhandled down the hallway, one eye swollen and purpling.
“Shut it, Mihar,” one of his captors growled, shaking him roughly. “We know it was you. You’re the only schmuck around here who’d be fool enough to kill an officer.”
“Wasn’t me, damn you,” Mihar spat. “Wish it was, though, that prick had it coming.”
Skull hummed. “Wasn’t the guy you killed wearing a coat?” he asked, looking down at Deuce.
Oh. Oops. “Yeah, he was.” He pulled back from the door and met Ace’s gaze. “What do you want to do? We’re still only three people against a whole garrison.”
“‘S our fault he’s roughed up, though. We oughta get him out,” Skull put in.
“It’s not a problem. I was planning on burning this place down anyway.” Ace shrugged. “Might as well make sure no civilians get caught in the crossfire.”
Right, Deuce had forgotten who he was asking. “Fair enough.”
So they slipped back out into the hallway, following the sounds of Mihar shouting abuse at his captors. Once they’d closed the distance, Ace had them pause at a corner and wait while he padded up behind the group in total silence despite the heavy boots.
“Whoa,” Skull breathed, watching him go.
“He’s a hunter,” Deuce whispered. “Grew up in a jungle.”
“Nice.”
Just then, Ace pounced, bashing the two carrying Mihar with a single swing of the gun he’d swiped when he’d grabbed their uniforms. Both assholes dropped and Mihar landed on the tile with a low oof. The other five Marines turned almost as one, and Deuce took that as their cue. He and Skull closed the distance in a dead sprint. Ace bashed the head of one of them right as they got there and Skull bull-rushed the one next to him, tackling him to the ground.
Deuce grabbed Mihar and hauled him upright, passing off his pilfered gun. “Here, you’re better with this than I am, I’m sure.” Then he decked the next guy in the face. The jerk wasn’t weak enough to go down though, and clocked Deuce across the jaw in turn.
Two shots rang out in the hallway and two Marines dropped to the floor, unmoving.
The guy Deuce was fighting turned to look at them, then at Mihar. “Bastard—!” Ace kicked his legs out from under him and he dropped, too, cracking his head hard on the floor.
“Come on, then!” he said, smiling far too widely to be comforting. The four of them ran down the hall to the sound of rushing boots down the hall behind them. Shots rang out and they ducked around the next corner.
Mihar wheezed as they ran and Deuce wedged a shoulder under him to help haul him along. “Sorry about all this,” he told him, raising his voice to be heard amid the thunder of boots and bullets.
“Hah,” he huffed, but he didn’t shove Deuce off.
Ace ducked into a side room, gesturing for them to go on ahead. Deuce took the lead with Mihar and headed to the back exit they’d come in through. He wasn’t sure what their captain was up to, but he had his orders. Two more hallways, three more doors. . . there!
The door came in sight right as Ace caught up again, so Skull opted to kick it down and they all barreled through. They didn’t slow down even after the first few streets, booking it for the harbor. A good thing too, since the ground shook under their feet and a massive explosion tore through the air. All the townsfolk ducked into buildings around them, shouting and screaming, but the only real damage seemed contained to the base itself, held aloof from the civilian buildings by a wall as it was.
From where he was still hanging off Deuce’s shoulder, Mihar laughed, wild and gasping, as he watched the debris rain down. He was still laughing as they boarded their ship and hauled away.
][
Two days at sea took them out of the range of any vengeful Marines and towards Organ Island, hopefully to scrounge up a few more crewmates as crazy as the new additions. Mihar and Skull had slotted themselves into the daily routine with alarming ease, in spite of wildly different personalities (not to mention the fact that Mihar had been sort of dragged into their mess and somehow still took to piracy with aplomb). Ace liked them. It was easier to allow them into his life than he’d expected, but that probably had to do with the seven-ish years of ‘domestication and socialization,’ as Deuce called it.
Though admittedly, as nice as it was to have the beginnings of a proper crew, to have physical evidence that he was closer to both the goals he’d set out for himself, it was also a little nerve-wracking. When it had been just him and Deuce, back on Yotsuba, there hadn’t been much in the way of real danger (Gramps didn’t count). Now they were at sea, with two more people who looked to Ace for direction.
He’d forgotten how heavy it was to be responsible for other people’s lives.
(At least none of them were prone to getting eaten by crocodiles or losing treasured hats that he’d have to go retrieve from whatever ridiculous situation. At least all three of them could swim.
. . . he wondered if Luffy had anyone on Marineford to fish him out of the water.)
He shook off the worry. There wasn’t anything he could do about it yet, anyway. He shoved the last bit of breakfast into his mouth and sat back. Mihar was staring at him with undisguised awe. “What’s up?”
Across the table, Deuce snorted into his coffee, always a little faster to pick up meaning in expressions. “Yesterday, we went a little light on the meals, remember?” he said.
Mihar whipped his head over to stare at Deuce. “This is the normal amount?! How do you expect us to keep a decent ration stock?”
Oh. Right. This morning they’d pulled in a decent haul of fish, so Ace had actually gotten to eat his fill instead of ‘just enough.’ All that to say, neither of their new crewmembers were used to Ace’s appetite like Deuce was. “That’s why we fish a lot,” Ace explained. “That and dine-and-dashing on the islands we dock at.”
“What he said,” Deuce added, downing the rest of his coffee. “You already agreed to stick around. This is the proverbial other shoe.”
Skull, who’d just ducked into the cabin with them, laughed and handed Ace the morning newspaper. “Hardly the worst ‘other shoe’ I’ve heard of! He could have been a psycho like Doflamingo. Rumor has it, that guy can puppet people with his Devil Fruit.”
“Aren’t Devil Fruits a myth?” Mihar asked, though with curiosity rather than disregard.
Ace shook his head anyway, paper momentarily forgotten. “Nah, they’re real. Luffy has one, though it’s a dumb ability.”
Deuce sat up straighter. “Oh? Which ability?”
“It makes him rubber. He was always tying himself in knots or bouncing into the water on accident.” The memories made him smile more now than back when the loss of his brothers was still fresh, but there would always be that ache inside, that he didn’t know if Luffy ever outgrew those problems. Not yet, he reminded himself. He didn’t know yet.
Deuce snickered appropriately but Mihar tilted his head. “Who’s Luffy?”
“He’s Ace’s little brother.”
“Ooh!” Skull said. “How old is he?”
Such an innocent question really shouldn’t feel like a gut punch. “Thirteen. Fourteen in May.” (They’d been brothers for a year, really only known each other for a year, and now Luffy would soon be twice as old as he had been the day Ace met him.)
“Oh man, and a Devil Fruit at that age? That sounds like a handful.”
Mihar frowned, looking between the lot of them. “Your parents allowed that?” Across from him, Deuce froze and glanced at Ace, but Mihar didn’t notice. “Don’t Devil Fruits steal your ability to swim? I can’t imagine anyone responsible would want such a young teenager eating something that potentially dangerous.”
Ace snorted. “Sure, but Luffy and I are orphans, and Gramps was never really around much. Besides, Luffy would eat anything even vaguely food shaped, and getting it out of his mouth before he swallows it is impossible.”
“I understand. My apologies.”
He waved it off. “Not like you could have known, we met two days ago.”
“Speaking of two days ago,” Skull put in, “you might have a bounty issued soon. Blowing up a Marine base is a pretty quick way to be noticed, you know.”
Intrigued, Ace unfolded the newspaper and set it on the table between them so they could all look through it. They didn’t get really far past the first page, though.
Revolutionary Dragon Escapes Impel Down!
“Holy cow,” Mihar breathed. “I didn’t even know they caught him in the first place.”
“Well we did miss yesterday’s paper,” Deuce said, pulling it closer so he could read the actual article. “Oh dang. Apparently, he’d only been in there a day when some of his people snuck him out. There’s gonna be a huge overhaul of personnel to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“So. . . who’s Dragon?” Ace asked, feeling a little lost.
“Oh, right!” Deuce looked up and said, “He’s the guy who pretty much declared war on the Government. The Most Wanted Man in the World, with a higher bounty than any of the Emperors. Not a lot’s known about him beyond that, at least as far as I’ve found.” He looked over at Mihar and Skull, who nodded their agreement.
Huh. Fair enough, he guessed. Probably easier to keep from getting caught if no one knew much about you.
They flipped through the next few pages, but there wasn’t much of note beyond a new monarch taking the throne of the Eigis Kingdom following the previous tyrant getting punched out until they got to the bounty posters. There were a couple names and faces that meant nothing to Ace, but Skull happily filled them in on the ones he knew.
Then there was his.
Mihar grinned wide. “After only one incident, huh?”
“Well, it was a pretty notable one,” Skull pointed out. “But this puts us up there with Don Krieg and the Clown. Twenty million isn’t anything to sneeze at in East Blue! Especially as a first bounty!”
He hummed, looking over the picture. It was a pretty good one, caught mid-fight as he tossed a guy into the side of a building with a sharp smile on his face. Hopefully, the picture was clear enough for Luffy to recognize him. He wanted that rubber menace to know he was coming to get him.
“This’ll also mean some bounty hunters start making bids for your head,” Deuce cautioned him. “We’ll have to stay vigilant.”
“Good.”
Mihar squawked slightly. “Good? Why?”
Because the more we fight, the stronger we’ll get and the quicker I can punch that stupid World Noble. He said none of that though. Instead, he smiled. “It’s more fun that way, obviously! What’s an adventure without a good fight?”
Skull whooped and Deuce grinned. Sighing heavily, Mihar admitted, “Alright, fair. I suppose I’ll have to hone my skills somehow.” Then he raised an eyebrow. “But first, let’s find a cook, Captain. I don’t think any of us really qualify.”
Everyone nodded sagely. They could technically make do, but it would definitely be better to have someone who actually knew what they were doing.
Deuce stretched and stood. “We should be at Organ in a few hours. There’re some decent sized towns there we can ask around at.”
(They couldn’t have known it at the time, of course, but as they went about the morning, trouble was brewing above them, waiting for a moment of inattention to strike. None of them were yet experienced enough sailors to spot the signs of an encroaching stormfront, or the fact that the contrary winds had pulled them off course and into its path.
Well, live and learn, as they say, and better still to learn this lesson in the shelter of East Blue than in the jaws of the Grand Line.)