Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Water to the left, err, port, and water to the…starboard? Yeah, starboard sounds right. More water past the…bow? And the stern. Wait, then where was the aft? That was part of a boat too, wasn’t it?

Thank goodness this little fishing boat only had one mast, so it had to be the main mast, but we had three sails, and I had no idea what to call them, though I was fairly sure the main one was the one in the middle, not one of the two that went over the front—oops, bow of the boat.

Learning all the nautical terms was going to take a while. At least Ace knew how to tie all his knots; though, I’m not sure he knew which knots to use where. Red beads glinted around his neck from the package Dadan had shoved at him before we left as he messed with the ropes.

“Come hold this rope for me, Captain,” Ace said as he fiddled with one of the front sails. It was catching a side wind that was going to end up turning us back around the way we’d come from.

Carefully coating my fangs in haki to protect myself from rope burn and rope splinters, I took a gentle but firm hold of the rope Ace offered me so I wouldn’t damage it.

“I think we need to take both of these front sails in,” Ace said as he frowned up at them. Ever grateful to Makino and her insight, I let a stream of fire curl up into the air from off my ear.

—Okay—but—how?

“I think I need to…” Ace muttered, trailing off as he pulled and tugged at another rope. “Then, like this—”

It took us a little bit, but we got both sails put away, leaving just the main one. Ace pulled the compass out, holding it so I could look at it too.

“Well, we’re not quite going in the same direction, but it’s pretty close.”

—I—doubt—that—pretty—close—is—good—enough

“Yeah,” Ace sighed, running a hand through his hair. “You’re probably right. Want to try manning the tiller?”

Once we got the tiller figured out, and had the front, no, bow of the boat pointing the right way again we lashed it in place, and Ace and I took a snack break, munching on some jerky.

—Ace?

“Yeah?” he said, biting off another piece of jerky while snuggling close to me for some warmth against the chill of the winter air. I increased my internal heat, and let it spread out into the air right around us, feeling Ace relax almost immediately at the comforting warmth.

—How—do—we—know—where—we—are—in—the—ocean—when—there—is—nothing—but—water—as—far—as—we—see?

Ace blinked and swallowed. “I’m not sure, really. I just know which way we’re going because of the compass and the sun.”

That… That didn’t sound promising. What if we were sailing in the right direction, but missed the next island by miles because we were too far to one side or another of it? Well, at least we hadn’t run into any whirlpools or seakings.

Zoro had survived drifting around the East Blue before he met Luffy, so we should be fine, right?

Chapter Text

I’d never met a News Coo before. He looked pretty spiffy with his little hat and messenger bag stuffed full of newspapers.

[Hello,] I greeted as the News Coo landed on the edge of the boat.

[Do you want a paper?] He sounded rather done with things, annoyed, perhaps. I wondered how far he had flown over the ocean before finding our little boat.

[How much?] I asked, tilting my head.

The News Coo fluttered his wings a bit. [Two-hundred berri. You paying or not?]

[Yes, just let me get the money.] I turned to get Ace’s attention from where he was fishing off the other side of the boat, but paused, turning back. [Do you need anything? Food? Water?]

The News Coo froze from where he’d bent to preen at some of his chest feathers, and blinked several times. [What?]

[There’s no land for miles in any direction as far as I know. You must have flown a long way. Do you need anything before you continue on?]

Straightening up, the News Coo stuck his neck out in my direction, peering at me suspiciously. [What’s the catch?]

[No catch.] I waited patiently while the News Coo studied me before ruffling his feathers and settling a bit more.

[I’d take a snack.] Giving a friendly flash of fang, I turned and barked to get Ace’s attention.

“What’s up, Captain?” he asked over his shoulder. “Oh, the News Coo is here.”

—We—need—200—berri—and—a—little—snack—for—him

“Sure thing,” Ace said, leaning his fishing pole against the side of the boat and getting up, knowing I would keep an eye on it for him. He walked into the little cabin and came back a minute later with the money, and an apple and a plate.

The News Coo took the money with his beak, dropping it into a little pouch before fetching out a paper. Ace took it from him, and passed it to me so he could pull out his dagger and start cutting the apple up into small, bite-sized pieces that he put on the plate. Once a few were there, the News Coo started snapping them up with his beak.

When he was done, he bobbed his head at both of us. [Thanks.] He still sounded gruff, but his attitude was a bit better.

[Safe travels,] I told him as he got ready to take off. The News Coo looked back at me, a strange look in his eye.

[It’s fair winds when you talk to a bird, dog.] Without another word, he took off.

“Well,” Ace said, settling back down next to his fishing pole. “Should we see what’s in the paper today?”

Chapter Text

Dropping down from the top of the mast, Ace let out a sigh. “I never thought I’d be looking forward to birds visiting, but man, there’s not much to do, is there. Too bad you can’t hold cards, or we could play a game.”

—Sorry

“Nah, it’s not your fault,” Ace said, ruffling my fur. “I’m just used to doing more than sitting around and fishing all day.”

Ace wasn’t wrong. So far our daily routine out at sea was pretty bland. We’d check the compass hourly, adjust the sails if we needed to, drop anchor at night and during nap time so we didn’t go somewhere we shouldn’t. Our only entertainment was fishing and reading the newspaper. Ace had resorted to doing workouts from Garp to try and burn some energy while I practiced heating my fire over the side of the boat. I never thought I’d miss running around freely so much.

The daily visits from the News Coos were probably the most exciting thing that happened. The grumpy one had come back the second day. He’d told me his name was Clyde after we’d fed him another apple. On the third day we got a different coo named Toodles. He was an over eager guy, excitedly babbling to me about how new to the job he was, and that he was hoping to meet a pretty lady-bird too woo.

A chattering noise caught my attention, drawing me from my thoughts, though it was faint.

—Did—you—hear—that?

“Hear what?” Ace asked, looking around and then up at the sky to see if it was a bird.

I heard the noise again. Deciding that it was coming from behind us, I jumped up onto the cabin roof. Ace joined me a moment later, shielding his eyes against the glare of the sun as he stared out over the water before replacing his hand with his hat. We should’ve brought a spyglass.

Sooner enough, the noise grew louder, and we started to see splashes in the far off distance.

“Is that…” Ace squinted, head tilting just so. “I think those are dolphins.”

Chapter Text

Dolphin chatter is noisy, high-pitched, and completely unintelligible to me, but I had no doubt the pod of dolphins that had swum up on either side of our boat were smart. They were like the border collies of the sea or something. Too smart for their own good sometimes, and prone to trouble when they were bored.

Ace went to go stand at the edge of the boat, but I snatched the hem of his shirt between my teeth and pulled him back, shaking my head. Dolphins didn’t have as bad a reputation as sharks, but they were at least twice as long as Ace was tall, and they were predators. I wouldn’t be much use if one of them got ahold of Ace and pulled him overboard. The water was one territory I couldn’t compete in.

“What’s wrong?” Ace asked, glancing between me and the dolphins. “Are they saying something?”

—Cannot—understand—them—but—I—do—not—feel—

The entire boat rocked as at least one of the dolphins bumped roughly into the side of it. Water sloshed over the side, and Ace and I both stumbled, Ace using the mast to keep from falling over at the unexpected motion. Another dolphin bumped into the other side of the boat, sending us rocking again.

“Shit,” Ace cursed, tightening his grip on the mast and narrowing his eyes. “I thought dolphins were supposed to be cute or something.”

Their chattering rang like bratty laughter in my ears as they continued to take turns bumping our boat and jumping around in the surrounding water, soaking us with the resulting splashes.

“Any suggestions?” Ace growled, pushing wet strands of hair away from his face.

—Hope—they—get—bored—soon—and—wait—them—out—If—we—make—them—angry—they—can—capsize—the—boat—and—kill—us

“Great,” Ace huffed as another splash rained down on us. “I don’t think I like dolphins.”

—Do—they—annoy—you—as—much—as—the—monkeys?

As the boat was hit again, a loud cracking noise rang out. Ace and I looked at each other wide-eyed. Whatever that sound was, it wasn’t anything good.

“Considering it sounds like they just broke our boat,” Ace said through gritted teeth, “ yeah, these assholes are way worse than the stupid monkeys.”

I had to agree, and could only hope and pray that whatever had broken didn’t open a hole in the hull for us to start taking on water.

Chapter Text

After the dolphins finally left us alone, Ace and I figured out what the cracking noise had been. We didn’t have a rudder anymore, and while slow, there was a small trickle of water bubbling into the boat from a thin crack in the hull.

“I hate dolphins,” Ace cursed as we tried to figure out what to do. “If we ever find one when we don’t have to worry about being capsized and murdered—” he trailed off, running a hand through his hair, but I nodded in agreement to the sentiment. Whether he just wanted to beat one up, or kill it and eat it, I agreed.

Watching the slow trickle of water, Ace sighed and looked around the cabin. “Well, we’re not sinking for now, but we need to keep an eye on this, and be prepared for if it gets worse and we have to abandon ship.”

Even if we didn’t sink, Ace and I were in trouble without the rudder. There had to be a way to manage with just the sails, but we weren’t skilled or knowledgeable enough to get far like that on our own.

We hadn’t really bothered to unpack anything, so it was a matter of minutes to make sure everything important would be ready to go at a moment’s notice, and that the few things that needed to be waterproofed such as Sabo’s journal and Makino’s recipe book were taken care of.

[Hello, hello?] a voice squawked from out on the deck. Ace glanced at me, and when I nodded, grabbed an apple and two-hundred berri before we left the cabin. Both of us stopped at the sight of today’s News Coo. Unlike Clyde, and Toodles, this one looked like he’d stuck himself in an electrical socket. All his feathers were fuzzed up, and several of them stuck out wildly from under his lopsided cap like the bird version of a really, really bad hair day.

[Are you okay?] I asked, padding up to stand under where he’d perched on the arm of the mast.

[Hm?] He clacked his beak, ruffling his body and settling into an almost perfectly round ball of fuzz. [Yes, oh, yes, I’m fine. Orange fur with black stripes, a bandanna, friendly. You must be the nice dog Toodles told me about.]

I found myself surprised. Toodles has chatted to another bird about me? Then again, he was a really chatty guy, so I guess it wasn’t so surprising.

[Yes, that’s me,] I agreed as Ace held out his hand with the money in it. [My name is Captain.] The News Coo happily took the coins one by one and plopped them in his bag before pulling out a paper for Ace.

[Captain, is it? I’m Fluffy.] I couldn’t help but think that whoever had named him had been a little too spot on. Fluffy turned his attention to the apple still in Ace’s hand. [Toodles said you had snacks. Is that for me?]

[If you want it. Ace can cut it up into pieces for you.]

[Oh, yes, yes,] Fluffy said as he fluttered down to land on my back. [A snack sounds wonderful, most wonderful.]

Ace grinned and laughed at me. “Got a new friend there, Captain?”

—This—is—Fluffy—he—would—like—the—apple

“Fluffy, huh,” Ace said, eyeing the bird as he stuck the paper into his back pocket and started cutting up the apple. He let Fluffy eat the pieces from his hand. “Fluffy wouldn’t happen to know how close we are to land, would he?”

Chapter Text

The good news was we were only two days from an island. The bad news was that the island wasn’t in the direction we were sailing. The okay news was that there was an island in the direction we were sailing, but it was four days away, and at the rate we were taking on water, Ace and I weren’t sure we’d make it.

“Should we try turning the boat with the sails?” Ace asked, looking at them as if he was trying to figure out just how that would work.

—If—we—mess—up—we—wont—be—sailing—towards—either—island—but—somewhere—in—between—them

Ace groaned and ran a hand down his face. We needed to make a decision. I butted my head against Ace, and he let his hand fall to rub one of my ears between his fingers and thumb.

Looking up at the sails again, Ace frowned and headed into the cabin. There was more water now, and it seemed like it might be bubbling up a bit faster than before, but I wasn’t sure. Toeing at the spot where the water came up, Ace set his jaw and met my gaze. I nodded back.

“Let’s do this then,” Ace said, cracking his knuckles. “If we’re going to be pirates, we’ve gotta figure out how to handle a boat properly anyways.”

I followed Ace back out onto the deck, manning the compass, and helping hold ropes as needed while he worked the sails. It took more tries than either of us would admit for the front sails to start catching the breeze the way we needed them to. Slowly, the bow started shifting, the boat turning port bit by little bit.

We had to adjust the sails again when it still wasn’t enough. Our course had been running parallel to the island, so we needed a full ninety degree turn; which was easier said than done. I wished there’d been a way to ask Garp for sailing lessons before we left.

The wind changed, and with it I could sense a change in the air pressure, making my stomach drop as I turned to stare at the distant sky with a vague sense of dread. A storm was coming.

Chapter Text

By some stroke of luck, the wind from the storm blew us closer to the island. That didn’t change the fact that by the time we limped into the small bay the next day our boat was sitting so low in the water you could almost call it sunk.

Drifting into the shallows, Ace grabbed a line and jumped out of the boat. “C’mon, Captain. We’re going to need to beach the boat to deal with the crack in the hull.” Jumping out after Ace, I took the rope he offered between my fangs, and together, the two of us pulled the boat completely out of the water and onto the dry part of the sand.

Going around to where the leak in the hull was, we both watched for a minute as water now poured out of the crack onto the beach instead of into the boat.

“Think we can find anyone on this island that knows how to fix a boat?” I gave a shrug and shook myself off, splattering Ace with water. “Captain!” I gave a doggy grin as Ace came after me, the two of us tussling and rolling around on the beach like we hadn’t been able to since we set sail.

The sound of quiet chuckling drew us up short, both of us scrambling to our feet, covered in sand. Farther up the beach stood a man with long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, large round glasses perched on his nose, dressed in a gray yukata with some sort of coat or robe hanging off his shoulders. A sword hung at his hip.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your fun,” the man said. “One of my students mentioned seeing a boat on his way to training this morning, so I thought to take a walk and come see since most boats approach from the other side of the village where the port is.”

Seeming to remember his manners, Ace tried to knock the sand off as he introduced us. “I’m Ace, and this is Captain. Our rudder was broken off by dolphins a couple days ago, making us spring a leak, and then we were at the mercy of the storm yesterday before washing up here.”

“That is most unfortunate. I’m glad you and your dog are safe, young man. Would you like me to introduce you to someone who could help you fix your boat?”

“Really?” Ace grinned. “That would be great, mister! Thank you so much!” Ace gave a quick bow.

The man gave the smallest of smiles and nodded. “Follow me then. My name is Koushiro, and I run a dojo here in Shimotsuki Village.”

Ace gave the man a confused look. “What’s a dojo?”

I sat dumbly in the sand, staring at the man. Shimotsuki sounded familiar, but pair that with a dojo, and a man wearing a sword, no, a katana at his waist? …Were we where I thought we were?

Chapter Text

“Thanks again,” Ace said with a quick bow. I mimicked the motion next to him. The carpenter Koushiro had introduced us to waved his hand in dismissal.

“That’s enough of that. I’ll come find you and your boat at the northwest bay tomorrow morning. You’ve got old Teak’s word on that, now leave me be so I can finish the work I’ve got today.”

Ace and I stepped out of the shop to find Koushiro waiting for us like he’d promised. “It seems it went well with Teak then,” he said in the same even tone he’d used since we’d met him. I got the feeling Koushiro didn’t have a wide range of outward emotional expressions. “Are you still interested in seeing a dojo?”

“Yeah,” Ace agreed quickly, falling into step with Koushiro. “A place where people learn to fight with swords and stuff sounds so cool!”

I trotted along on Ace’s otherside, taking in the scenery. Shimotsuki was pretty rural looking in the grand scheme of things. Green sloping mountains, green grass, simple houses, rice fields, green hair— I stopped.

“Sensei!” Greeted a teenager that was walking our way, three swords hanging at his hip. There was only one person that did that.

“Ah, Zoro,” Koushiro greeted back. “You have good timing.”

“Who’s this?” Zoro asked, coming to a stop in front of us and looking at Ace before sparing me a passing glance.

“This is Ace. He’s going to be here for a few days while Teak fixes his boat. I was about to show him the dojo since he’s never seen one before. Would you like to join us?”

A look of confusion flashed across Zoro’s face, like he couldn’t believe someone had never seen a dojo before, but then he shrugged. “Sure. I need to get back to my training anyways.”

Abandoning my spot next to Ace, I walked at Zoro’s side, sniffing at him and his three swords curiously. The sheaths shifted, quietly clanking together, and I looked up to see Zoro looking down at me with one eyebrow raised.

“What’s with the dog?” I flicked an ear at him, but Ace responded for me.

“That’s Captain. He’s my first mate.”

Zoro and Koushiro stopped walking, leaving Ace and I to stop and turn back to face them. The two looked between us with confusion and disbelief. Even I was a bit stunned. I hadn’t realized Ace considered me his first mate. We’d never talked about my position on the crew—there hadn’t been any reason to. I was there to stand by Ace’s side no matter what, and help in any way I could. That was that, but if Ace saw me as his first mate, then that’s what I’d be.

“Your first mate is a dog?” Zoro sounded more than just skeptical, like he thought Ace might be a bit crazy, and I couldn’t blame him. Until proven otherwise, I was just a regular dog to him.

“Of course,” Ace said, his grin wild and free, with just an edge of sharpness. “There’s no one I trust my back to more than Captain, not even my little brother; though, he’s a close second, despite being a dumbass.”

If dogs could blush, I would be. Instead, I lifted my head proudly, tail wagging happily. I couldn’t let Ace look bad after he’d said all that, so I let fire curl off my ear in the air.

—It—is—nice—to—meet—you

“Huh?!”

The way Zoro’s jaw dropped, and Koushiro’s eyes widened, was amusing. I hoped that surprising people never grew old.

Chapter Text

After a short tour of the dojo, and a demonstration spar by a few of Koushiro’s students, Ace and I found ourselves sitting by a rock at the edge of some nearby training grounds, watching Zoro set the area up.

“So, why three swords?” Ace asked, tipping his hat back. “How does that even work?”

Zoro smirked over his shoulder as he adjusted a training dummy. “Spar with me, and I’ll show you. I could use someone new to fight against.”

“Done!” Ace agreed, hopping to his feet. “I don’t use a sword though.”

“What about that?” Zoro asked, nodding his head at Ace’s dagger.

Ace shook his head. “I was given this recently. I’ve never fought with it. I fight with my fists, or I can use a pipe.”

“You should at least learn a few basics if you’re going to carry a blade,” Zoro said with a frown, crossing his arms.

“Maybe you can show me a few tricks after we spar.” Ace stretched his neck and cracked his knuckles as he walked forward into the open area.

“It feels wrong to raise a blade against an unarmed opponent in an official spar.”

Ace laughed. “Don’t worry about it.” His expression shifted to a sharp grin. “I bet you can’t even hit me.”

Clearly insulted, Zoro’s eyes narrowed as he drew two of his swords and stepped forward.

“What about the third sword?” Ace asked, eyeing the white hilted blade that was still in its sheath.

“I don’t need it to beat you. The only person stronger than me on this entire island is Sensei.”

Shrugging, Ace settled into a ready stance. “Bring it on then. Loser owes the winner dinner.”

Zoro lunged at Ace, blades glinting in the sunlight. I didn’t really know anything about swordplay, but Zoro seemed skilled to my eyes, his swords cutting sharply through the air. Ace though, was dodging every slash, dancing between the dangerous path of the blades on light feet, grinning the entire time. I know Zoro was younger and weaker than he’d be when he’d meet Luffy, but it was nice to see the skill Ace and I had worked so hard for payoff in a fight against someone that wasn’t Luffy or Garp.

Zoro’s expression grew more and more sour with each failed attack. If it was Luffy, he’d be yelling at Ace by now, with Ace taunting him back just as much.

“Damnit,” Zoro finally cursed. “How are you doing that? You’re just like Sensei. Fight back already!”

In one swift move, Ace was in Zoro’s attack space, a sword caught in each of his blackened hands. Zoro barely had time to process what had happened when Ace’s boot connected with his gut and sent him sprawling.

Reaching back and grabbing his hat from where it had fallen to dangle by its cord, Ace placed it on his head. “Want to try using that third sword now?”

Chapter Text

Zoro was frowning, surrounded by stacks of empty plates, but it wasn’t the food bill that had him looking like that. No, he was trying to wrap his head around the explanation Ace had given him about haki. I had stayed out of it, not wanting to freak the owner out with my fire when they had only very reluctantly allowed me inside in the first place.

“Sensei told me not too long ago that if I wanted to be a better swordsman, I needed to learn to listen to the breath of everything. Then I would be able to cut steel, and not cut paper.”

Ace hummed and swallowed down the last of his food. “I mean, I guess that sounds similar. The listening part that is, I don’t really know anything about swords cutting and not cutting stuff.”

Grunting in acceptance, Zoro laid out the cash to pay for our meals. It seemed he only now realized just how much we’d all eaten.

“Geez, do you two have black holes for stomachs or something?”

Ace chuckled as we got up and left. “Nah, this is nothing. You think we eat a lot? You should see my little brother. I pity his future crew when he sets sail in three years. They’re going to have to guard all the food in the kitchen with their lives or he’ll eat it all the first night as a midnight snack.”

Zoro raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like he’s a bunch of trouble.”

“Oh, he is,” Ace agreed readily. “The best kind of trouble though. If you ever get a chance to meet him, you’ll understand.”

We walked through the town, heading back towards the bay. Ace and I were planning to camp out and be there whenever Teak showed up to look at the boat in the morning.

“Hey, Zoro,” Ace said as we went to part ways for the night. “You ever thought about being a pirate?”

“No way,” Zoro said, resting a hand on his swords. “There’s only one future for me, and that’s being the world’s best swordsman.”

Ace gave a teasing grin. “Does that mean in the future I can tell everyone that I kicked the world’s greatest swordman’s ass?”

Zoro scowled, eyes gleaming in challenge. “If you do, I’ll hunt you down and kick your ass to restore my honor.”

“Sounds like a fun time,” Ace said with a laugh. “I’ll be waiting for that day to come then.”

Settling, Zoro gave Ace a considering look. “You’re different. Accepting my dream so easily. Most people would say it’s impossible.”

“My little brother, Luffy, is going to be the pirate king.” Ace rested a hand on my head, ruffling my fur. “And I’m going to be even more famous than that, so really, I could say you’re not dreaming big enough.”

Zoro let out a sharp laugh at that, and the two exchanged feral, hungry, monstrous grins.

Chapter Text

My head rested on Ace’s lap, his fingers threaded through my fur as I watched the man carefully tattoo Ace’s other arm. Teak had found us early in the day, informing us after inspecting the boat that it would take him all day to build us a new rudder, treat the wood, install it, and fix the cracked board in the hull. With a thoughtful look on his face, Ace had asked Teak where he had gotten the tattoo on his forearm from, and here we were.

Ace had stared long and hard at the letters on my bandanna before deciding with some help from me on how to design his tattoo. So, just like I remembered, there were four letters running down his arm that spelled out A-S-C-E with the S being crossed out. But, there were two key differences.

The first difference was that what was originally a small dot in the middle of the C was now a very small version of my pawprint, literally. The man doing the tattoo had let me dip my paw in ink and then place it on paper so he could make an exact copy of the actual thing. The second difference was that the top and middle bars of the E were disconnected from the spine. This allowed the E, for those that knew what they were looking at, to also be read as an L.

Ace. Sabo. Captain. Luffy.

Now, no matter where he went, no matter what happened, Ace would always carry the core of our pack with him as a reminder, and a promise.

Chapter Text

Ace and I were back out on the open ocean, sailing for destinations unknown. But, I’d at least convinced Ace to pick up a very old, falling apart book we’d found in Shimotsuki Village about the basics of navigating.

If Ace hadn’t bumped into a bookcase while we were looking around the shop, knocking a bunch of stuff over, we never would have found the book. It had obviously been long forgotten and abandoned, stuck between the shelf and the back of the bookcase, buried behind other books for who knows how long. The shopkeep had given it to us for free after we’d helped clean up.

We were settled down together on deck, soaking up the sun as Ace carefully turned the pages and read the book out loud. Turns out navigation was a lot more than just a compass and a map. It was reading the weather, knowing the currents, tracking the stars by the seasons and which ocean you were in. According to the book, if we wanted to do this right, we were also missing tools. Things called sextants, and dividers, and sliding rulers, and more. We’d have to find out what those things were.

Ace sighed when we finally got to the end, gently closing the book. “I should’ve guessed it wasn’t so easy.”

—Traveling—by—the—stars—sounds—fun

“If you had hands, I’d give the whole job of navigating to you,” Ace joked, poking my cheek with his finger. I nipped playfully back at him. “Maybe it sounds bad,” he said, leaning back to use me as a pillow, “but even when we gather a crew, I don’t want anyone else to be in charge of our destination. I want to choose where we go, and how we get there. You’re the only other one I’d trust with that.”

—Then—we—learn—together—and—once—we—know—how—we—will—travel—the—entire—world

“The whole world, huh?” Ace said, tipping his hat to block the sun. “Could be fun.”

Chapter Text

[Yeh poisoned it, didn’t ye.]

[What? No.]

[Aye, that’s what they all say, but ole Dave’s smarter than that. Oh, yes siree, no sailor is going to outsmart me. Rip their sails, and sink their boats I will. Leave ’em stranded at sea for thinkin’ they can mess with ole Davy.]

Today’s News Coo was crazy. Legitimately crazy. Maybe that’s what the tattered red bandanna tied around his leg was for. It was a warning sign: do not engage with this creature for your own safety and sanity.

“Does he want the apple?”

I carefully angled my head towards Ace, but didn’t take my eyes off crazy Dave. The moment fire appeared as I went to write, Dave freaked out.

[Fire! There’s fire! You’re trying to roast ole Davy for dinner, but I won’t let ye!]

I suddenly had a face full of angry squawking bird, beak nipping, wings slapping, feet kicking.

“Whoa! What the!” Ace exclaimed, taking a startled step back.

I shook my head, throwing crazy Dave off into the air. My ears laid flat, fangs glinting as I gave a low warning growl to go away. I didn’t want to fight an insane bird. Fighting like this wouldn’t solve anything.

[Bad doggie! Bad, I says!] Dave landed at the top of the mast, squawking his lungs out. [First yeh trys to fatten me, then ye tries to roast an’ eat me! I won’t have it, no siree!]

“Captain, what’s going on? What’s he doing?”

I didn’t get a chance to answer, because, somehow, with a few tugs of his beak, crazy Dave had undone the rope securing the top of the mainsail, the heavy cloth falling down on top of me and Ace.

Scrambling out from under the sail, Ace and I looked up to see crazy Dave flying away, cackling, if a bird could cackle. Waiting until the bird was far away, Ace turned to me with the most bewildered look on his face.

“What just happened?”

I sighed. At least we’d gotten our copy of the paper before that whole fiasco.

Chapter Text

Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Hold. Down. Up. Down. Hold.

Laying out on Ace’s back while he did pushups and planks wasn’t the most exciting thing. I never thought I’d miss being on a marine warship, but I missed Garp’s ship. It was big, I could run around and play, and it didn’t feel like the smallest things could break the ship or capsize it.

Ace was getting antsy too; though, part of that might have been from reading the paper. There were a few rising rookie names that kept being mentioned. Capone “Gang” Bege and the Firetank Pirates from the west. The Heart Pirates, captained by Trafalgar Law, the “Surgeon of Death” from the north. Eustass “Captain” Kidd of the Kidd Pirates from the south. And, the “Pirate Prince” Cavendish of the White Horse with his Beautiful Pirates from the Bourgeois Kingdom in the Grandline.

It was weird to think that several pirates I considered Luffy’s contemporaries were actually out and sailing now. But, I suppose Ace and Luffy were from the same pirate generation, and Luffy was very young compared to the other super rookies that would appear at Sabaody in a few years. It also made me realize that Luffy’s journey from Dawn Island to Sabaody was fast, really fast.

We kept reading about these other pirate crews in the paper, and it was making Ace impatient to make his own name known with a bounty poster and a price on his head. Funnily enough, it would complete the set. North, south, west, and the Grandline were already covered, so all that was missing was a rising rookie from the east. Granted, most people probably didn’t expect anyone like that to come out of the weakest of the seas.

The biggest pirate news out of the east was that Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates had just been defeated by the newly promoted Captain Morgan of the marines. We’d seen a few small notes about Don Krieg amassing more and more ships under his fleet as he attacked marine bases and raided towns, and there had been a new bounty poster recently for “Iron Mace” Alvida, wanted for one million berries.

I knew Buggy had to be around somewhere too, but he seemed pretty good at laying low when he wanted to, and Arlong wouldn’t be in the papers because he was paying off that stupid marine captain.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

I narrowed my eyes, squinting against the glare of the sun on the water. Was I imagining things, or… I hopped off Ace with a soft bark, making my way to the bow of the boat and bracing my paws against the edge. Ace joined me a few moments later, staring out into the distance where a small black shape was taking form.

“Looks like we found our second island!” Ace and I shared a look and a grin. Hopefully, on this island we could find some crew and a bigger ship.

Chapter Text

We’d been tricked. Outsmarted. Bamboozled by mother nature herself.

Dragging ourselves out of the ocean and onto the mockingly white sandy beach, Ace and I turned as one to stare out at our hidden doom. On the surface, the ocean looked no different, but that was exactly what made it so nasty. Upon approaching the island, we’d been caught up in wicked fast underwater currents that slammed our boat into barely hidden reefs and rock formations.

The hull had been shredded, the keel cracked and then snapped in half like a twig. We’d been lucky that our packs were quick and easy to grab. Ace had latched onto mine once it was secure so we wouldn’t be separated in the water. Luckily, Ace wasn’t a devil fruit eater yet. I’d need another human who could save him from the water once that became the case.

“Well, this sucks,” Ace huffed, dropping his pack and pulling off his shirt so he could wring it out.

I agreed, stepping far enough away from Ace that I could shake myself off without getting him more wet. A few apples and broken pieces of our boat bobbed in the water near the shore. I trotted out to retrieve the apples, setting them in the sand near Ace. The rest of our boat and supplies were gone.

Ace helped me take off my pack and wring out my bandanna. I used the opportunity to shake even more water from my fur before using my fire to evaporate away the rest. It left my fur frizzy, and full of salt, but it was better than being soaking wet.

—What—now?

Ace sighed, turning his hat in his hands, and frowning. The hawk feathers and playing cards tucked into the band of his hat hadn’t taken the dip in the ocean well. Fixing them as best he could, Ace plopped his hat on his head.

“I guess we explore the island. Find some people and go from there.”

After checking through the stuff in our packs, and adding the apples to Ace’s, we set off to see what we could find.

Chapter Text

There was nothing on this island. Well, not nothing. There were trees, and beautiful white sandy beaches, and a cove where the currents seemed to drag any shipwrecks that didn’t sink to the bottom of the sea, but there were no people. None. This island was deserted, and we were stuck on it until we figured out how to: one, build a boat, and two, get that boat past the currents that would drag us right back to the island.

The forest was different than the jungle we were used to, but we managed to dig up tubers, hunt a few small animals, and find natural water after digging a hole that we could then boil and drink. The purple potato-looking things were bad though. They made our tongues numb when we ate them, and I’m pretty sure some of the mushrooms had mild hallucinogenic properties, because I had some weird dreams the night we ate those.

Things would be much worse if I couldn’t start fires so easily for cooking, and use my abilities to keep us warm through the cold nights. The only thing missing from our old routine was Luffy. We both missed him now, more than ever.

No, our real problem was building some kind of raft or boat. Neither of us had any idea what we were doing. Day after day passed with multiple failed attempts. News Coos didn’t seem to bother flying by this island, probably knowing it was deserted, so we had no way to ask for help either.

“We make for some pretty crappy pirates,” Ace said after we’d swum back from yet another failed escape attempt.

—Not—bad—pirates—just—bad—sailors

Ace gave a dry chuckle. “Yeah, that too. When we get off this dump of an island, remind me to find some crew members that actually know how to sail.”

—Want—to—take—a—break—and—walk—the—beaches?—Maybe—something—new—washed—up—from—the—storms—a—few—days—ago.

Ace glanced up at the sky, checking where the sun was. “Might as well. We can start building another boat tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

Something had washed up on shore alright, or I should say someone.

A guy with bright blue hair, who looked to be several years older than Ace, was slumped against a palm tree just off the edge of the beach talking to a skeleton. Sharing a look, Ace and I shrugged at each other before getting closer.

The guy’s eyes—surrounded by a strange little blue mask that did nothing to hide his features—were closed, so he didn’t notice us approaching.

“—’ve got rotten luck, the both of us,” the guy mumbled. His voice was hoarse and scratchy, like he hadn’t had anything to drink in some time. With each word he spoke, blood trickled from his cracked lips.

Ace looked between the guy and the sun bleached skeleton he was talking to. The poor sod had obviously been a pirate judging by his clothes and the rusted flintlock pistol stuck in his bony grip. Had he been shipwrecked too, or perhaps marooned and left to die with a single mercy bullet? The faded tricorn on his skull looked like a captain-style hat to me. Maybe there’d been a mutiny.

“We could dig a grave for him if you like,” Ace said, adjusting his hat. “Seems like the right thing to do.”

“Yeah,” the guy said after several long seconds had passed. “It would be… the right thing…good idea.”

I hesitantly sniffed the air, focusing on the guy’s smell. He didn’t smell sick or diseased, but he sure didn’t seem to be very well off either. His smell was more distressed and depressed than anything. Was he maybe delirious? Suffering from heat stroke? Please, just anything but actually being crazy. I didn’t want to deal with a legitimately crazy person.

“Mind digging the grave?” Ace asked, looking down at me. I gave him a look back. Sure. Leave the grave digging to the dog. Why not. It’s not like we had shovels or anything so Ace could help anyways.

“Would, but, can’t…” the guy trailed off, slowly licking at his bleeding lips. He better not die on us. I didn’t want to dig two graves, and just maybe we’d get lucky, and this guy would know something about building a boat.

“Uh, I didn’t mean you,” Ace said. “Captain will take care of it.”

“Oh… That’s nice…” Suddenly, the guy’s eyes popped open. “Who said that?”

“Hey there!” Ace greeted with a cheery grin. “I’m Ace, and this is Captain,” he said, indicating me before dropping into a bow like Makino had taught him. “It’s very nice to make your acquaintance.

“Sorry to bother you about this,” Ace continued as he straightened up, “but, you wouldn’t happen to know how to build a boat would you? Ours sunk.”

I sat at Ace’s feet, watching the guy stare at us in confusion before he suddenly exclaimed: “You’re stuck in the same predicament I am!” His shoulders slumped. “…I’ve been here for three days.”

“We’ve been here for a week, which means we win.” I gave Ace a strange look. I’m not sure I wanted to be able to claim the prize for longest shipwreckees. It just sounded like winning by losing the most. Ace ignored me and held his hand out to the stranger. “So, want to help us build a boat so we can get off this island?”

Chapter Text

Not only did the stranger not want to help us, he didn’t even want to give us his name. More accurately, he claimed he’d abandoned his name and face when he left his island. It made me huff. Why did people think thin little masks around their eyes hid their identity?

Then he tried to take Ace’s name as a pen name, claiming that he’d use it one day when he wrote a chronicle of his adventures. Ace shot that down hard and fast.

“You’re not using my name! I’m going to do great things with it, and everyone in the world will know who I am, so no copying me!” Ace declared, crossing his arms to double down.

The guy gave a dry, rasping chuckle. “Greatness, huh? Did you find the treasure?” As one, Ace and I tilted out heads in confusion at the abrupt change in topic.

“Treasure? What treasure?”

Ace was given a suspicious stare. The guy had ignored me after his first glance my way. “You didn’t come here because you heard the stories?”

Squatting down and getting comfy, Ace gave an excited grin. “There’s stories about treasure on this island? Please tell us!” I agreed. Hidden treasure would definitely make this island better in my opinion.

“Every sailor knows them.” The guy paused to swallow and wipe at his bleeding lips. “There have been tales about the treasure on Sixis Island since before we were born, but no one in their right mind would try to claim it. This place is called the island closest to heaven, not because of its beauty, but because once you’ve set foot on it, you’ll die before you escape.”

Rocking back on his heels, Ace gave a disappointed hum. “So there’s not actually treasure?”

“Probably not, but who cares,” the guy sighed, closing his eyes. “We’re going to die here.”

The three of us sat in silence for a minute. I was just about to get up and find a spot to dig the skeleton’s grave when Ace spoke again.

“I’m going to call you Deuce.” My body froze, a strange feeling swooping over me, sitting hot in my gut, so different from my fire. Had Ace just…?

The guy was staring at Ace again. “What?”

“Your name. We need something to call you, and you can’t be Ace because I’m Ace, and that would just be confusing, so you can be Deuce. It sounds similar.”

“Do you even know what Deuce means?”

“Nope,” Ace said, getting back to his feet. “Ooh, even better, we can call you Masked Deuce, cause, you know.” Ace gestured at his own face, around his eyes.

“What? No! Don’t go adding that lame part to my name!” The guy protested and spluttered, but Ace ignored him.

“Yep, Masked Deuce it is.”

I couldn’t sit still anymore. Fire that wasn’t fire raged through me. The urge to sink my fangs and claws into something was almost overwhelming, and my brain wanted that something to be this stupid stranger with his stupid mask. How dare he make—! How could Ace just—!

My lips were curled back, there was a growl sitting ready in my chest. Frustration like I’d never felt had me stalking off, ignoring Ace’s concerned calls, so I could find a stupid spot to dig a stupid hole for the stupid pile of bones, so I didn’t have to stare at that stupid guy’s stupid face with his stupid mask for one more stupid second.

Why did my chest hurt so much?

I knew why, but it felt stupid and childish to admit, which made me angrier, but at the same time, my instincts howled at the injustice. That stranger wasn’t pack, wasn’t ours, wasn’t Ace’s offspring, and yet he’d been given a name by Ace.

Ace had originally denied me a name before calling me Captain. It had taken a couple days, and I’d refused to take a real name from any other, though Sabo had tried, because Ace was my partner, my everything—the one I would claim in a way I’d never claim anyone else. Only a mate could usurp Ace’s place as my most important, my instincts screamed it was so.

It had been so special—meant so much—when he named me, and now Ace just went and gave this stranger a name because he’d thrown his own name away like a fool. I was angry at Ace, and it was all that stupid stranger’s fault.

I growled and snarled. My paws tore through the dirt with a vengeance.

It hurt. My heart hurt, and I hated it.

Chapter Text

“Captain!”

Nope.

“C’mon, Captain!”

Double nope.

“What’s got you so mad?”

My fangs flashed for a moment. You. I’m mad at you, you idiot, but I’m also mad at me for being mad at you because this is just dumb, but I can’t help it because it’s also not dumb.

“You know this hole is way too narrow and deep to be a grave, right?”

My digging paws slowly came to a stop. Yeah, I knew that, now leave me in peace to impersonate an ostrich with my whole body instead of just my head.

“Find any hidden treasure down there?”

I huffed. Of course not. If there was buried treasure on this island, the chances of me randomly digging a hole and finding it were astronomical. At least when we’d dug up our own treasure we’d known the general area it was in.

“This would be a lot easier if I was talking to your head and not your tail.”

Stubborn idiot. Was this payback for all the times I made him face his emotions instead of running from them? …I wasn’t getting out of this, was I. That thought didn’t make turning around to face him any easier.

I took my time, reluctantly backing up a bit so I could slowly turn around and sit in my hole, staring up at Ace who was framed by the setting sun. I’d dug longer and deeper than I’d thought in my anger. Ears laid flat, head hung low, I’m sure I made quite the sight, sitting here, covered in dirt from nose to toes.

“Hey,” Ace said softly, voice gentle and warm, with a small smile. Cheater. He was using Makino tactics. You can’t stay mad at someone that used Makino tactics. It was literally impossible as was proven and tested over many years. “You stuck down there?”

I wasn’t, but I also had no desire to jump out of my hole either. Ace seemed to understand, settling so I could see half his face in the fading light. How many times had I used the waiting game against him? Having it used back against me wasn’t fair, but as the daylight faded away and the stars came out, Ace made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere.

Something told me the longer I stayed down here at this point, the dumber I’d end up feeling. So, with a heavy sigh that made my whole body slump, I shifted around to get some decent footing, and jumped out of the hole.

Chapter Text

“So, we going to do this the easy way, or do I need to lay on you until you give in?” Ace asked, watching me shake the loose dirt from my fur. I huffed. That was another trick I used on Ace over the years. Figures he’d mimic everything that had ever been used on him in reverse. It’s all he knew, and Ace was rarely— if ever—on this side of the confrontation to have developed his own style.

Well, I’d jumped out of the hole for a reason.The nearly full moon provided enough light to see each other by, and there was no need to drag this on anymore now that my head had cooled.

—I—was—am—angry—hurt

Ace nodded. “What set you off? You were fine and then—” he waved his hand around. “I can count the number of times I’ve seen you this mad on one hand. They’ve all involved someone trying to hurt or kill us, and you’ve always dealt with the problem, not run from it.”

Yeah, well, beating up that stranger or killing him wouldn’t fix this problem.

“Was it me, or did Masked Deu—” Ace cut himself off when I started to growl. I didn’t mean to. It just kind of slipped out. My ears laid flat as I changed my growl to a whine. Being at war with myself over this wasn’t helping.

“Okay,” Ace said slowly, “what did he do?”

—He—didnt

Ace waited, patiently staring me down. I flicked an ear and looked away.

“Captain.” He was channeling Makino again, dammit.

—It—was—you

“Me? What did I do?” Ace looked thoroughly confused, like I knew he’d be, but that didn’t soothe my feelings. I whined again.

—You—gave—him—that—stranger—a—name

Ace was straight up bewildered now. “That’s what made you mad? Why? It’s just a name.” I growled and shook my head.

—It—is—not—just—a—name—That—fool—threw—his—name—away—and—you—gave—him—a—new—one—within—minutes—of—knowing—him—but—I—had—no—name—and—had—to—wait—days—for—you—to—give—me—one—Bestowing—a—name—makes—a—bond—between—those—involved—He—is—not—pack—is—not—ours—is—not—special—so—why?—Why—did—you—do—it?—Meant—so—much—to—me—to—get—a—name—from—you—no—one—else—and—I—was—the—only—one—you—named—Made—me—special—Made—me—proud—So—why?—It—hurts—It—hurts—and—I—hate—it—I—

“Fist of Love!”

My tirade was cut off with a gentle fist to my head, a wave of emotions that weren’t mine washing over and through me in an instant. I could only stare at Ace in shock. When had Garp taught him that? “You idiot,” he whispered, his fist unclenching to pull me into a hug as he knelt in front of me.

“You’re my best friend, Captain,” Ace said when he pulled back. “My partner in crime and everything else, my first mate, my co-navigator even though we suck at it right now.” He ruffled my fur with a smirk before becoming more somber. “You’ve seen me at my lowest, know my darkest secrets, killed to keep me safe, and nearly gave up your life for me and Luffy. Despite all that, I never knew me naming you meant so much to you.”

—It—did—I—growled—at—Sabo—when—he—tried—because—I—wanted—my—name—from—you

Ace chuckled. “I’d forgotten about that, but yeah, you did. He’d probably have named you something stupid.”

—No—he—would—have—named—me—something—complicated—Luffy—would—have—named—me—something—stupid

We shared a look, and Ace burst out laughing. “Can you imagine? You would’ve been Stripey instead of Stripey!” I snorted and bumped my head against Ace’s shoulder. Stripey could keep his stupid name, thank you very much.

Calming down, Ace gave me a warm smile. “I’m sorry for hurting you, Captain.” I nuzzled Ace’s head and licked his cheek. All was forgiven.

Chapter Text

When we returned the next day to bury the skeleton, the strang—Masked Deuce was nowhere to be seen.

—Do—you—want—me—to—track—him?

“Nah,” Ace said as we marked the grave with a bunch of little stones and one big one. “He didn’t seem to like the idea of helping us much, and it got worse after you ran off. You can be kinda scary when you’re mad.” I felt a bit bad about that, but only a bit, like a little tiny smidgen, and only because Masked Deuce hadn’t done anything to deserve my anger directed at him. Now, if he tried to kill us or something, that was a different story.

Still, we returned to our routine. It was a bit sad, really, that we had a shipwreckee routine. Gathering resources, working on our current boat or raft, and taking naps. No matter what, I wouldn’t let Ace skip those. The last thing we needed was to mess up his narcolepsy.

I liked to think our boat building skills were getting better with each attempt, if only by a little bit. I blamed the currents for us not being able to escape. No matter where we tried to leave the island from, they pulled us back in.

There were occasionally signs that Masked Deuce was around, but we never actually saw him.

We’d been stuck on the island for almost two weeks when we had another break to our routine. Making it back to shore after our tenth failed escape, Ace and I found the beach had changed. Little heads and flippers were crawling out of the sand as teeny-tiny baby turtle after itsy-bitsy little turtle crawled out from under the sand and started making their way towards the sea.

Curious, I sniffed at several of them, but it just made them try to scurry past me faster. Ace laughed at me when one of their flippers accidentally flipped a bunch of sand up into my nose, making me sneeze several times.

Walking the beach to see just how many nests there were, Ace and I lost count. It made for a fun reprieve from our situation though. Too bad the turtles weren’t full grown. We could maybe get them to help us get off the island if they were.

It took several hours for the last of the baby turtles to make it to the sea. Stomachs rumbling, Ace and I were about to go see what we could scrounge up when Ace spotted something that had washed up further down the beach while we were distracted.

Something distinctly orange with swirly patterns.

Chapter Text

It looked so innocent as Ace picked it up and turned it over in his hands, but I knew better. He was holding a blessing and a curse all wrapped up in one, a devil fruit, and not just any devil fruit. That was the mera mera fruit, the one that would give Ace the flame powers he’d go on to be famous for.

Ace was about to offer me part, since we always shared, when a loud rumbling came from behind us. Caught off guard, we both turned around to find Masked Deuce standing there. Well, standing was a generous term. He was shakily holding himself up with a piece of driftwood.

“Hey!” Ace greeted, friendly as ever. We’d agreed there was no reason not to be nice if we ran into the guy again. “Nice stick!” I wanted to sigh. For all that he could be friendly, Ace had no actual idea how to start up a conversation to make friends. Besides, that stick wasn’t nice, it was decent at best. I bet a few rounds of fetch would see it broken in two, and there’s no way it would handle a game of tug-o-war.

The rumbling sound came again, obviously from Masked Deuce’s stomach this time. Turning my attention from his stick to him, I realized that he wasn’t in very good shape. He’d obviously lost weight since the last time we’d seen him. Dark bags under his eyes were only partially hidden by his mask, sunken cheeks lead to extremely cracked lips coated in dried blood. Most of his visible skin was chapped and burned, peeling off here and there.

Ace looked at me, and I started to panic. I knew what he wanted to say. He wanted to share the fruit he was holding with Masked Deuce, but he couldn’t! Any food but that! I’d always thought Ace would be my eventual fire-buddy, and I wasn’t giving that up to this guy, but if Ace knew what the fruit was, would he eat it?

Unfortunately, Ace took my silence as agreement, and held out the fruit. “You look hungry, want this?” Ace’s stomach chose that moment to rumble almost as loudly as Masked Deuce’s had.

I watched the expression on Masked Deuce’s face drop. Please, please refuse the fruit! I needed Ace to eat it, not you!

“I-I can’t,” Masked Deuce croaked out. The sound made me want to wince. I wouldn’t be surprised if that somehow made his throat start bleeding from how dry his voice was. “I was going to kill you for that. You can’t just give it to me, not when you’re hungry too.” Seeming to give up, or maybe his strength just gave out, Masked Deuce fell to his knees.

“Well, what if we split it then?” Ace said, even as he pulled out his knife and cut the fruit in two. Any measure of relief I felt at Masked Deuce’s refusal immediately fled. Why was this so hard and stressful? Just eat the fruit already Ace!

Sobbing, Masked Deuce carefully reached out and took the half Ace held out to him. “Are—are you sure?”

“Of course!” Ace grinned and cut his piece in half again. “Here you go, Captain. Sorry I didn’t split it evenly between the three of us, but I think he needs a bit more than we do.” I couldn’t take my eyes off Masked Deuce as Ace stuck my piece in my open hanging mouth. I very carefully and consciously did not bite down or swallow. If Masked Deuce took a bite before Ace did, I might just kill something.

Masked Deuce looked between us and brought the fruit to his mouth. If he wasn’t so dehydrated, I think he’d be drowning in tears. My own mouth felt like it was filled with rocks and sand. This couldn’t be happening.

“Man, that’s nasty!” I jerked my head to stare at Ace who stared at his piece that was missing a big bite, shrugged, and bit into it again. “You gonna eat that, Captain?” Ace asked, pointing to the piece of devil fruit still dangling from my mouth.

With automatic movements, I chomped at and ate the nastiest thing I’d ever tasted, relief leaving me feeling numb and somewhat able to ignore the aftertaste sitting on my tongue.

Chapter Text

“You’re on fire!” Masked Deuce shouted, pointing a shaking finger at Ace. There was something so strange yet satisfying about seeing fire flare from Ace’s shoulder and arms.

“Huh?” Ace looked at his arms in confusion and then at me. “What’re you doing, Captain?”

—Im—not—doing—anything

“Why is there fire coming off the dog too?” Masked Deuce yelped, scrambling back from both of us.

“Nah, that’s normal,” Ace said, examining his arms more closely as his hands now caught fire too. “Me being on fire, not so much.”

“Since when is a dog being on fire normal? And why can he spell with it?” Masked Deuce sounded like he was on the verge of becoming hysterical.

Ace shrugged, poking at himself, and blinking in surprise when his body gave way to flames. “Captain’s been able to use fire since he was a year old or something like that. So for us, it’s pretty normal. And he’s smart, so my brother taught him how to spell.”

“That’s not normal!” Masked Deuce looked at us like we were crazy, but I’m pretty sure the crazy one here was him, not us. He looked the part and everything. I took the chance to step closer to Ace and sniff at his fiery hand. His scent was different with the fire, but still recognizable.

“I think that was a devil fruit,” Ace said as the fire coming from him disappeared.

“A devil fruit?” Masked Deuce scoffed and shook his head. “No way, those things are just a myth!”

Ace grinned at him. “They aren’t, actually. My little brother ate one when he was a kid. It gave him rubber powers.” Looking thoughtful, Ace turned to face the sea. “One way to find out for sure, I guess. Devil fruit users can’t swim.”

Knowing what would happen, I followed Ace out into the water. He was okay for a few steps, and then dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Snagging his shirt, I dragged him back out of the ocean.

“Ugh,” he muttered. “No wonder Luffy felt like crap whenever he fell into the river. That sucked. It’s like I lost all the strength in my body out of nowhere.” Sitting up, Ace rubbed between my ears. “Thanks, Captain.”

“Does that mean I can’t swim anymore either?” Masked Deuce asked.

“I think you’re fine,” Ace said, waving a hand. “Captain ate it too, and the water didn’t bother him. Pretty sure it’s just me since I’m the one that ate the first bite and got the power.”

“Oh,” Masked Deuce said, looking at his hands strangely for a moment before shaking his head. “That fruit was simultaneously the best and worst thing I’ve ever eaten in my life.” He raised his head and locked gazes with Ace. “Thank you, for sharing it with me.”

Ace stared at Masked Deuce for a minute, then looked at me, making a subtle gesture in Masked Deuce’s direction. I nodded.

Walking up to Masked Deuce, Ace held out his hand like he had the first time we met. “Why don’t you come back to our camp with us?” Staring up at Ace, like he’d hung the moon and the stars for him, Masked Deuce took his hand.

Chapter Text

Our camp really wasn’t much. Just a fire pit we’d dug next to some large rocks that helped shield from the wind, and some stockpiled wood to try and build our boats with. Everything else we had stayed in our packs. Masked Deuce still looked at it like it was heaven on earth.

“You two have been able to have fires?”

“Well, yeah,” Ace shrugged. “Captain has taken care of that, though I guess I can too now.” With a thoughtful frown, Ace squatted down next to the fire pit, lit his hand on fire, and touched it to the wood that was still there from our last fire. Letting his hand fade back to normal as the wood started burning, Ace sighed.

“Normally I’d say getting fire powers was awesome, but this isn’t the best time to lose my ability to swim.” Ace was right. If our next boat failed, he’d fall into the water and sink like an anchor. My doggy-paddle was good enough to keep myself afloat, but I had no idea if I could handle completely dead weight from Ace, and I had zero ability to dive underwater and retrieve him.

Sitting down next to Ace, I scratched at my ear. I hadn’t really thought about the fact that him gaining devil fruit powers right now would just make our situation worse.

Masked Deuce stared at the fire for a minute, all of us sitting silently as we contemplated our new situation, when his head snapped up to stare at us.

“Ace! Can you control your fire?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Ace said, calling his fire up. He lifted his hand above his head and shot a blast straight up into the air. “I’m definitely going to need practice. If you’re looking for real fire control, Captain’s the one you want.”

Well, that was true. Ace was going to have a lot of work ahead of him if he wanted to control fire the way I did. Lucky for him, I’d done all the hard part of figuring stuff out on my own, and could guide him through it much faster now that I knew the tricks.

I met Masked Deuce’s gaze over the fire pit. He seemed a bit hesitant, unsure.

—Just—talk—to—me—like—I—am—human

“R-right.” He tried to clear his throat. “Um, I was wondering if you could control just the force of your fire. Like, by regulating its output and maintaining it, on a conscious level?”

—Yes

“Are you limited on where you can produce your fire from, or how you direct it?”

I let my whole body catch fire in answer.

Masked Deuce grinned. “Then maybe we can get off this island.”

Chapter Text

The next few days taught us all a lot of things.

First, we learned that it was a miracle Masked Deuce wasn’t dead. Say whatever else you wanted about him, but the guy had no idea how to live off the land. Seven-year-old Luffy was a better survivor than this guy.

“I grew up in the city in a family of doctors!” he exclaimed when Ace and I stared at him after his second day in a row of failing to contribute any food to our meals. “Captain I can understand, at least for hunting, but why can you do all this stuff?”

“We grew up in a jungle. If we couldn’t do all this stuff, we’d be dead.” That shut Masked Deuce up, and we came to the understanding that Ace and I were in charge of getting food.

The next thing we learned was that despite our multiple attempts, Ace and I were really, really bad at building boats. Perhaps it wasn’t just the currents that kept us from escaping the island after all.

Luckily, Masked Deuce had read lots of adventure books and sailor journals, so he had some idea of what to do. Using my control over my fire while Ace practiced his, we charred and carbonized a bunch of wood to make it more water and fire resistant.

Ace and I even managed to salvage scrap metal off the debris in the cove where the currents dragged any shipwrecks that didn’t sink too fast. This was slowly heated, formed, and added to our boat to better fireproof it.

It wasn’t until we were over halfway done that I realized just what it was that we were building. This was Ace’s little one-man ship, the Striker. Masked Deuce even christened it as such without any input from me when we finished.

“Hey, Deuce,” Ace said as we loaded up what few provisions we’d been able to gather over the past few days, “why don’t you come with me and Captain, even after we’ve escaped this island.”

Masked Deuce stopped what he was doing to stare at us. Several seconds passed before he grinned. “You know, I left home to become an adventurer and write a chronicle about everything I did. Something tells me I’ll be able to write an amazing chronicle if I stick with you guys.”

Ace threw his arm over Masked Deuce’s shoulder. “Welcome to the crew then! By the way, Captain is first mate.”

“Of course he is,” Masked Deuce sighed, covering his eyes, but his grin didn’t fade at all. Ace just tipped his head back and laughed.

I barked happily, tail wagging in excitement. It was time to get off this forsaken island, and we’d be doing it with our first official new crew member in tow.

Chapter Text

Striker’s long, narrow hull shot over the ocean with ease as Ace and I took turns using our fire abilities to power the pair of metal paddles on either side. We could have gone faster, but unlike Ace and I who were safely in the metal pit of the hull, Masked Deuce was forced to straddle the hull instead. There wasn’t room for a third in the pit, and he wasn’t fireproof anyways.

Sixis Island and its entrapping currents were left far behind us as we laughed and whooped, nothing but blue sky and blue sea for as for as far we could see.

“You’re a genius, Deuce! Striker is amazing!”

“I’m curious what she can do when you don’t have to worry about me hanging on for dear life,” Deuce said over his shoulder. Ace and I grinned. That was something we’d enjoy figuring out.

When the sun reached its zenith, I barked at Ace and nodded upwards. Shading his eyes with his hat, Ace looked up and then nodded at me. It was nap time.

“Is something wrong?” Masked Deuce asked, giving us a curious look as Ace let his fire die down, bringing the Striker to a drift.

“Nah,” Ace waved a hand. “It’s just nap time.”

Masked Deuce gave us both a weird look. “Nap time? Look, I know you took naps everyday back on Sixis, but we’re in the middle of the ocean right now. I don’t think it’s a very good time to take a nap.”

—I—can—take—over—powering—Striker—or—we—can—unfurl—the—sail

“That’s not the problem here.” Masked Deuce looked exasperated as he rubbed at his eyes. “Why is Ace taking a nap right now a good idea?”

“I’ve got narcolepsy,” Ace said as he settled down. His feet were still down in the pit with me, but he was seated on the hull behind the pit leaning against the mast. “It’s—”

“A medical condition where you randomly fall asleep, suffer from insomnia, and possibly some other not so nice side effects depending on how severe it is,” Masked Deuce finished, rattling the information off in an unimpressed tone.

He seemed offended when Ace and I blinked at him in surprise.

“Family of doctors,” he said dryly before waving a hand at himself. “I was a med school student myself until I dropped out.” His gaze dropped to me. “Is that why you’re so smart? Were you trained as a service dog?”

—No?—But—I—can—tell—if—Ace—is—going—to—have—a—sleep—attack

“Well, that’s something,” he muttered before raising his voice. “Do you take meds for it?”

“Nope. I’ve got a mild case, so I avoid alcohol and caffeine for the most part, and have a sleep schedule.”

Masked Deuce sighed. “Which includes naps.”

“You got it,” Ace smirked, giving Masked Deuce a finger gun. Reaching down, he ruffled my fur. “Captain here makes sure I take my naps, usually takes them with me actually, and helps to keep my sleep schedule pretty regular. I still have attacks, but they’re pretty spaced out, and I don’t get insomnia too often. He’ll warn me if I’m going to have an attack too.”

I barked in agreement, turning my head to lick Ace’s hand.

“Do I need to worry about you falling off the Striker?”

“I don’t think so. I usually get attacks when I’m eating or really relaxed. It gets worse if I mess up my sleep schedule or have too much alcohol or caffeine.”

—Just—make—sure—if—I—am—not—around—to—warn—him—that—Ace—does—not—drown—in—a—bowl—of—soup

Masked Deuce’s lips twitched. “I feel like there’s a story behind that.”

Ace groaned, letting his head thunk back against the mast. “One time. It happens one time, and you never let me live it down.” Looking at Ace’s expression, Masked Deuce burst out laughing.

Taking it in stride, Ace settled his hat over his eyes, and I slowly built up my fire enough to let us gently keep moving while he napped.

Chapter Text

[So you survived being shipwrecked? Man, that’s rough. Impressive, but rough.]

[Thanks,] I said, looking up at Orville the News Coo who’d landed on the top of our mast.

[Sorry about the rest of your crew. It’s normal for lots of people to die in a shipwreck though.]

I titled my head. [We didn’t lose anyone though.]

[No?] Orville looked between the three of us. Ace was fishing out the berri for the newspaper from the pouch of coins in his bag while Masked Deuce watched. [Small crew then. That takes even more guts.]

[I guess. We haven’t been sailing long. Hopefully we can find a new boat and some crew members soon.]

[Good luck with that,] Orville said, flying down to take the coins Ace had found and letting him have a newspaper. [There’s an island a few days north of here. Your little boat is pretty fast. I bet you could make it there in a couple of days, but there’s been a pirate ship in the area, so you should be careful.]

[Thanks for the warning. Fair winds.]

[And smooth seas to you. If we meet again, I hope you’ll be able to spare a snack like I’ve heard about.]

[As long as we don’t shipwreck again, count on it.]

Nodding, Orville took off.

“He have anything interesting to say, Captain?” Ace asked as he unfolded the newspaper.

—There—is—an—island—north—of—here—He—thinks—we—could—get—there—in—a—couple—days—or—less—but—there—is—a—pirate—ship—in—the—area

“Ooh, maybe we should find the ship and steal their food.” Ace grinned sharply. “It would be fun to get into a good fight.”

—And—their—treasure

“Right. We’d be stupid to forget that.”

“Hold up,” Masked Deuce said, looking between us with disbelief. “Captain can talk to the News Coos?”

—Yes

“And they’ll tell you where islands and other ships are?”

—Among—other—things—yes

“If Captain asks nicely. We usually bribe them with a snack too, to get more information, but we can’t really spare any food right now,” Ace added, flipping through the paper.

Masked Deuce really needed to get with the program. If he looked that exasperated every time we did something, his face would be as wrinkly as an old man’s in no time at all.

“Do you two have any idea how insane that is?”

Ace and I shared a look.

“Nope.”

—No

“Seriously? How do you not realize how rare it must be to have access to information like that?” Muttering to himself for a minute, Masked Deuce looked up and pointed at me. “You. When I get my hands on a notebook, you are telling me everything the News Coos tell you so I can write it down and keep track of it.”

If nothing else, it couldn’t hurt, so I nodded.

“Great,” Ace said, handing the paper over to Masked Deuce. “Now, let’s see if we can find and raid that pirate ship.”

Chapter Text

“Hurry up and kill them already!” the captain of the ship we’d raided yelled. He was a lean man with a very angular face and a long, thin handlebar mustache that curled up at the ends. “No man or beast attempts to raid my ship and lives to tell the tale!”

Ace and I were having a blast tearing through the crew. They were super weak compared to us, but it had been so long since we’d taken on a bunch of thugs like this. Not since before Bluejam and Sabo’s dad ruined everything. It was fun.

“Out of my way, you useless lot!” the captain snarled, shoving his men aside to stand before us. Drawing his cutlass, he pointed it at Ace. “Relish the fact that I, ‘Crescent-Moon’ Gally will kill you personally, boy.”

Ace grinned sharply. “You wish.” Raising his fists, Ace didn’t get a chance to move when a voice rang out.

“Make one move against our captain, and this guy dies first!”

As one, everyone on the ship turned to the voice. A large, rotund man had Masked Deuce gripped around the middle, his arms pinned to his sides with a pistol pressed to his temple.

I growled, and Ace frowned, dropping his hands. Gally laughed, the sound grating on my ears.

“It looks like one of you lot is capable of being useful after all.”

“Sorry,” Masked Deuce murmured, but we heard him anyway. It wasn’t his fault, not entirely. Ace and I should have kept a better eye on him. We’d taken out every pirate that rushed us while Masked Deuce followed behind, so the guy must have been someone below deck or out of sight and then snuck up on him.

“Big mistake,” Ace said, tilting his head so his eyes were hidden by his hat.

Gally sneered at us. “The only one who’s made a mistake is you, boy. Now die and stop ruining my day!” His cutlass glinted in the afternoon sun as he lopped Ace’s head off, but his sneering grin immediately fell into terrified shock as fire flared and Ace stood there unharmed.

“That won’t work on me.” Gally’s crew gave a collective shudder at the look on Ace’s face. For all that I hated when Ace was called a devil, no better moniker would fit in this moment. Flames licked off his body, casting ominous shadows as the air thickened and heated. “Captain, I’ll leave Deuce to you.”

I nodded, growling at the man holding Masked Deuce hostage, my own face twisting into a fierce snarl. Fire dripped from my fangs, and the grip on Masked Deuce loosened. I took a single step forward and the grip dropped entirely, the man scrambling back in sheer terror.

Good.

“What the hell are you two?!”

Let them fear.

“Monsters!”

Let them cower and try to run away and hide.

“Demons!”

No one threatens our crew.

Chapter Text

“You two know you’re terrifying, right?” Masked Deuce asked as we tied up the last of the crew. He took our twin grins—sharp and wicked—as confirmation.

Grabbing the anchor, Ace threw it over the side with a loud splash. “Let’s see what these guys have for food. I’m starving.”

“Me too,” Masked Deuce said as we went looking for the galley. “I'm saying this right now though, I’m crap at cooking.”

“That’s fine,” Ace said with a wave of his hand. “I can cook.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. My little brother Luffy knew a lady that owned her own bar named Makino. She taught me. She tried with Luffy too, but he was a lost cause. Ask him to do anything but roast meat on a stick, and you’re asking to die.”

Ace and I shared a shudder. Luffy’s cooking lessons had ended stupidly fast. One, he didn’t have the patience, and two, he gave all of us food poisoning for days.

“Right,” Masked Deuce said, giving us a strange look. “Hey, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for getting caught, and thanks for saving me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ace said, throwing open the doors to the galley. “You got snuck up on. It sucks, but it happens to everyone at least once, and of course we’d save you. It’s our job as captain and first mate to keep our crew safe.”

Riffling through the fridge and the pantry, Ace nodded his head and got to work, cutting vegetables and searing meat. For anything fancier, he’d need to pull out Makino’s recipe book, but meat and veggies were a daily staple for us, so Ace knew how to cook them with his eyes closed, and could do large quantities like he was with ease. We had no idea how much Masked Deuce could eat, but just Ace and I could eat a lot between us. If we really wanted to, we could clean out the ship’s food stores in a single meal.

All of our stomachs rumbled loudly as delicious smells filled the air. We took to eating some of the fruits Ace found while we waited for the rest of it to cook. Masked Deuce looked like he was going to cry.

“Food,” he moaned. “Real, seasoned food. It’s been weeks since I ate something that wasn’t raw or unseasoned. If you were a girl, and this ends up tasting as good as it smells, I’d kiss you.”

Ace pointed his chopping knife at Masked Deuce. “Try it and I’ll deck you in the face before eating your share and leaving you to starve.”

“Noted,” Masked Deuce drawled with a grin, holding his hands up lazily in a sign of peace.

“It really does smell so good, and you made so much of it too. Can I have some?”

All three of us tensed. That wasn’t Masked Deuce or Ace, and we’d made sure to tie up all the crew. As one, we all turned to stare at our unexpected company.

Chapter Text

It turns out our unexpected company was a stowaway who went by the name of Skull. The name was accurate if nothing else. The man was covered in skull themed clothes, tattoos, and accessories from his toes to his cracked skull mask that covered the top half of his face and contrasted nicely with his long, messy, frizzy blue hair. Masked Deuce could take a few lessons from him in how to actually hide one’s identity.

“So, why’d you stowaway?” Ace asked between bites. We’d settled at the end of one of the galley tables, with Ace dumping my share into a giant mixing bowl he found. He even made sure I got a couple large bones in my share to chew on later.

“I’m a huge fan of pirates!” Skull said with a grin. “Never actually wanted to be one, but I know all about them. I love to stowaway on pirate ships, and once they’re far enough from shore and I deem that the crew won’t murder me first and ask questions later, I reveal myself and work as a swabbie until the next island. Then I get off and find a new ship.”

“So, you’re some sort of pirate fanboy?” Masked Deuce asked, getting up for seconds, and judging by the extra plate he grabbed, thirds too.

“I prefer the term expert.”

I tossed my head and caught Ace’s attention. We shared a look. If we could get this Skull guy to sail with us for even just a little bit, I bet we could learn a lot from him. Ace gave a small nod.

“How much do you know about sailing?”

“Loads,” Skull said, hitting his chest with his fist. “I’m a dab hand with any deck chores or rigging needs, and I’ve picked up a bit on navigating.”

“That’s perfect.” Ace grinned brightly and spun his fork around before pointing it at Skull. “Want to join my crew? We could use an expert like you.”

“Really?” Skull seemed excited, but then deflated a bit. “That’s really nice and all, but I’m only interested in sailing with pirates.”

“But we are pirates.”

Skull looked between Ace and Masked Deuce who’d returned with extra food and was now fending off Ace’s half-hearted attempts to steal a bite. “I don’t see it.”

I huffed, and Ace pinked. “Yeah, I know. We haven’t been sailing long, and we got shipwrecked. That’s how Captain and I met Masked Deuce—”

“I told you to forget the Masked part!”

“—and then we escaped the island we were shipwrecked on, and here we are. We’ve got to work on finding a new ship, and gathering a crew, and actually flying our Jolly Roger, but I swear we’re pirates!”

Skull started chuckling, and it grew into full blown laughter. “So, you’re a baby pirate is what you’re telling me?”

“I prefer the term rookie,” Ace parried back in an echo of Skull’s own words. “We really could use the help of someone experienced like you though.”

“I dunno,” Skull said, rubbing at the back of his head. “Like I said, for all that I love them, I don’t actually want to be a pirate.”

“Then don’t be a pirate,” Ace said easily. “You can be our—what would you call him, Captain?”

—Our—information—expert—for—all—things—pirate—and—sailing

“Wah!” Skull fell backwards off the bench onto the floor, his head landed pretty close to my food bowl. I looked down at him in concern.

“You okay?” Ace and Masked Deuce had both stood up to peer over the table at Skull.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Skull said sitting up. “I just wasn’t expecting the dog to have a devil fruit, and I thought you were the captain?” he said, looking at Ace. “Or is the dog actually a zoan fruit user and the captain?”

Masked Deuce started laughing so hard he was crying. I swear I heard him gasp something along the lines that he knew this would happen when I was introduced to new crew members.

“Oh, I’m the captain alright,” Ace said, holding up his hand and setting it ablaze. “I’m also the one that ate the devil fruit, not Captain. He’s just your regular, fire-using dog, and my first mate.”

“Huh?!”

At Skull’s absolute confusion, his head darting back-and-forth between us, Ace’s laughter joined Masked Deuce’s. I let my tail thump happily against the floor, giving Skull a flash of fang and a wink that had him freezing in shock. I gave a bark of a laugh. He’d get used to it eventually.

Chapter Text

“Is this the last of it?” Ace asked as we looked over the bags and crates of treasure we’d found and piled on the beach. There was no real port, but there was a boat like the one Ace and I had when we left Dawn Island moored to a rock on the other end of the beach, so we figured it worked for us. It was also easy to beach Striker and the longboat we’d used to transport both us and the treasure to shore.

“I think so,” Masked Deuce said. “I was kind of expecting a pirate ship to have more treasure than this.” I wondered about that too. Then again, Luffy’s crew was always broke because of one thing or another, so maybe not having much treasure was more common than I thought?

“Nah, this is on the low end, but still around average for a small-time crew, especially here in the east,” Skull said as he placed the crate he was carrying down with a loud thunk.

“One day you’re going to pay for this!” Gally shouted down angrily at us from the safety of his ship. “No one robs ‘Crescent-Moon’ Gally and gets away with it!”

“You sure about that?” Ace asked, turning back and lifting up a hand that turned to fire. Making an undignified noise, Gally stumbled back from the rail with a pale face. Skull laughed, and Masked Deuce was trying not to grin. “Cause I don’t have a problem kicking your ass again.”

We all watched in amusement as the Gally pirates scrambled to set their sails and get as far away from "the fire demons" as they could. Talk about all bark and no bite.

“So,” Skull said when the ship was little more than a blob in the distance, “who’s on treasure and boat watching duty while the rest of us explore the island?”

Chapter Text

Getting the short straw for guard duty was a bit of a bummer, but fair was fair. Ace did promise I’d get to go exploring later, so for now the beach was my domain, and part of that domain was the unknown boat.

After the others had left, and I was sure that no one was around to sneak up on me or our stuff, I trotted across the beach to the other boat. There were no footprints in the sand leading to or from it, and as I sniffed around it, I couldn’t smell any recent human scents. Not to say there weren’t any, but they were faded, old, and heavily obscured by the scent of sea salt and brine.

Curious, I rose up on my hind legs, front paws braced on the boat’s edge and gave a little bark. Nothing stirred, and no one made a sound in surprise, so I backed up and jumped onto the boat. It really was very similar to the boat Ace and I lost. Walking all around the deck, I sniffed at everything, but I only got the same smells. Whoever owned this boat, it seemed that hadn’t been by in some time.

The cabin door was latched shut, but it was easy enough for me to nudge the latch with my nose and push the door open. I backed up immediately, my nose assaulted by the smell of rotting fruit and dust. I waited a few minutes for the air to adjust before I entered the cabin.

There were things in here that held stronger scents, pieces of clothing and such, that matched the scents from the deck. Three of them. All guys. But, whoever they were, it seemed they’d abandoned this boat. I’d wait for Ace to come back, but if we needed it, it looked like we could take this boat for our own without anyone missing it.

A couple of hours passed with me working on my fire to fill the time. Ace was the first one back, but he hadn’t found any sort of town, let alone a person. It would really suck if this island was deserted like Sixis. I showed Ace the other boat, explaining that no one had used it for at least a few weeks, and Ace took that as good enough to claim it as ours if we needed it.

While we waited for the others, we emptied out all the rotten food and things we couldn’t use from the boat. It would be easier later if Skull and Masked Deuce also came back empty handed, and the cabin needed some time to lose the rotten smell that had started to set in even with the door and porthole windows thrown open.

The next one back was Skull, and he burst onto the beach in a full run, shouting for us.

“Woah, Skull,” Ace said as the man bent over double to suck in several deep breaths. “Where’s the fire?”

“We’ve got a problem,” Skull said, completely ignoring the joke to straighten up and grab Ace by the shoulders. “There’s people on this island alright, but they’re a tribe of cannibals, and they’ve caught Masked Deuce!”

I had a sudden sinking feeling that we knew now why the owners of the other boat hadn’t come back.

“Captain,” Ace said, voice steely as he stepped back from Skull’s grasp, “let’s go.”

I growled in agreement, but Skull just freaked out more.

“What are you doing? You can’t just go barging in! There’s at least a hundred of them!” We ignored Skull, making in the direction Masked Deuce had left. I already had his scent trail. “You don’t even know where they are!”

Skull stilled at the look Ace gave him over his shoulder. “Captain and I have never found a prey we can’t track, and only a hundred?” Ace gave a dry chuckle. “That’s nowhere near enough to stop us.”

Chapter Text

Ace and I burst from the forest, took one look at the large gathering of people, the giant boiling pot with Masked Deuce dangling above it, and went to work. Grabbing the two nearest people, Ace smashed their heads together and threw them into more people. This had the more of them turning to us in confusion.

“Hey!” Ace shouted while cracking his knuckles. “You picked the wrong people to mess with!”

“Ace! Captain!” Masked Deuce cried out, tears and snot running down his face.

Drawing back his arm, Ace smirked. “FIRE FIST!” Fire roared from his punch into the crowd. Screams filled the air. Drowning the screams out with a howl of my own, I dove into the fray, tackling, snarling, biting, burning. I could feel Ace’s fire flaring around me, fierce and comforting. Leaping through Ace’s flames, I drew strength from them, and fed them in return to bolster his strength as well. Less than five minutes later, the entire tribe was defeated under our combined efforts.

We were getting Masked Deuce down when Skull came tearing out of the forest, screaming a battle cry with his sword drawn. The three of us watched as he slowed down, stopped, looked around, turned in a slow circle, and then pointed his sword at us.

“What the hell, guys?! How did you take care of all of them already?!”

—With—fists—and—fangs—and—fire

“Told you one hundred wasn’t enough,” Ace said as he finally got Masked Deuce down and out of the ropes. Skull stared at us for a long minute before he made a what-can-you-do gesture and put his sword away before joining us.

“Thanks,” Masked Deuce said, scrubbing at his face to clean away the snot and tears.

“Is this gonna be a regular thing?” Ace joked, patting Masked Deuce’s shoulder. “Cause if it is, I might have to assign Captain to you for guard duty.”

Masked Deuce winced. “Sorry. I’ve never been in more than a schoolyard scuffle between kids. I was always more interested in books growing up, and you don’t exactly learn how to fight in med school.”

“That’s okay.” Ace used the hand on Masked Deuce’s shoulder to give it a comforting squeeze. “You don’t have to be a fighter if you don’t want to be. Your dream is to write an adventure book about all the places you see, and if I can help you with that dream by rescuing you every other day, that’s fine. But maybe, I could also teach you enough self-defense to be able to hold on until help arrives to kick their butts instead of getting taken captive every time?”

Masked Deuce sniffed once, nodded, and gave a grin that looked more like a grimace. “Yeah, I’d like that. I never imagined getting into lots of fights when I set sail, but I guess being a pirate instead of an adventurer changes things.”

“Pirate, adventurer, marine, I don’t think these guys cared what you were as long as you were human,” Skull tossed in, jabbing a thumb at the cannibals.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Masked Deuce chuckled, pulling himself back together and brushing himself off.

I stared at the cannibals for a minute, morbidly curious.

—Do—you—think—they—eat—each—other—if—no—one—comes—to—the—island—for—a—long—enough—time?

Skull and Masked Deuce visibly shuddered, and Ace’s face turned a bit green.

“I really don’t want to know the answer to that, Captain,” Ace said, Masked Deuce and Skull quickly nodded in agreement. “In fact,” Ace glanced around, “I really don’t want to stay on this island. There’s nothing here for us, so I say we head out before anyone wakes up and we have to deal with them again.”

Skull slumped. “You say that like it was a pain to deal with them, but I didn’t even have time to catch up with you guys and join the fight.”

“Run faster next time,” Ace grinned, giving me a good scratch behind the ears. “And it wasn’t a pain, just annoying.” Skull gave a dramatic sigh and shook his head, mumbling about how fighting a hundred people at once being just annoying was ridiculous. Masked Deuce patted his shoulder in commiseration.

Chapter Text

“Right or left?”

I lifted my paw and waved it at Skull’s left fist. Turning his hand over, he opened his hand to reveal a coin.

“How do you get it right every single time?” Skull moped, adding the coin to the small pile I was accruing. The agreement was if I guessed right I got the coin, but if I guessed wrong, Skull got one of my coins instead. The joke was on Skull though. Both his hands picked up a slight metallic scent as we played longer, but the hand with the coin always had the stronger scent.

“Wah!” Skull and I glanced over as Masked Deuce failed to get out of Ace’s hold and was flipped to the deck with a dull thud. There wasn’t lots of room on our new boat—may the last owners rest in peace—that Skull called a Sloop, so Ace and Masked Deuce couldn’t spar, but working on throwing a basic punch and getting out of holds was possible.

“Try again,” Ace said, helping Masked Deuce up. “Or do you need a break? I think Skull needs rescued from Captain.”

“Please, save me,” Skull whined good-naturedly. “I don’t know how, but I swear Captain is cheating. I’m going to run out of small change soon.”

“How? He’s a dog,” Masked Deuce said, grabbing his canteen and taking a swig. “Or are you just weak to puppy-dog eyes?”

Skull scoffed. “He hasn’t even tried those. Here, you see if you can beat him.” Ace raised an eyebrow and smirked at me over their shoulders as Masked Deuce took a seat next to Skull. He already knew from experience how I was winning. Now, I had a choice to make. Let Masked Deuce win to pull a prank on Skull, or keep my winning streak going. Decisions, decisions.

Taking a coin from Skull, Masked Deuce put his hands behind his back for several seconds before holding them out. “Okay, which one?”

The coin was in his left hand, but I waved my paw at his right. Opening his fist to reveal it was empty, Masked Deuce glanced at Skull whose jaw had dropped.

“No way!” Skull exclaimed. “Do it again.”

Acquiescing, Masked Deuce mixed the coin up again and held out his hands. Once again, I chose the wrong one.

“Are you sure you aren’t just really bad at this game?”

Skull shook his head. “Unless someone’s cheating, this game is all about luck. Do it again.”

Masked Deuce played the game with me five times at Skull’s urging, and every time I picked the wrong hand. Ace was silently laughing behind them, eyes sparkling with contained mirth.

“Alright, my turn again,” Skull said, mixing up the coin and holding out his hands. I waved my paw at his right hand where I could smell the coin. Revealing the coin, Skull narrowed his eyes at me through his mask. “Again.”

Three more times I picked the correct hand before Skull threw his hands in the air and then jabbed a finger at my face. “I don’t know how you’re doing it, but you’re messing with me!”

I gave him a doggy grin, tail thumping happily. Yes, yes I was.

“Captain, Captain is cheating!” Skull whined with an exaggerated pout, trying to pull Ace into it only to realize Ace was laughing. “Hey! Don’t tell me you’re in on it too!” Ace stopped trying to hold his laughter back, clutching at his gut in glee.

“I think I figured it out too,” Masked Deuce said, looking between me and the coin in his hand, a smirk growing on his face. “I’m surprised you can do it with a coin and not just food, but you can smell it, can’t you.”

Skull slumped dramatically. “That’s not fair, you cheater.”

—I—call—it—natural—advantage—You—are—the—one—who—did—not—figure—it—out

“Because it’s like Masked Deuce—”

“Just Deuce.”

“—Deuce said: it would make sense if you could sniff out food, but this is a coin. Just how good is your sniffer?”

—The—best

Skull groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “You better pull this prank on other newbies, or I’m going to have to make you all swear to silence on this.”

Ace, Masked Deuce, and I all shared a grin. We were fine with that.

Chapter Text

“Marine ship,” Skull said looking through the spyglass we’d found left behind on the boat. Ace paused in his work with Masked Deuce on throwing a proper punch, easily catching the fist thrown at him to Masked Deuce’s dismay.

“What’s the figurehead look like?”

“Nothing,” Skull said back, lowering the spyglass. "It’s just a standard marine ship, no fancy figurehead. You piss off a marine officer high enough up to have a custom figurehead on their ship or something?”

Ace and I shared a look. Garp would probably be pissed off when he found out we’d left to become pirates, but it’s not like we didn’t tell him for years on end, and I did leave that letter with Makino. Hopefully, our bonds with each other wouldn’t be for nothing, and he’d understand, even if he didn’t like it.

“Or something about sums it up.”

Skull grinned. “Is there a good story behind ‘or something’?”

Ace snorted. “Not unless you count having your gramps in the marines as a good story.”

“Eh, I was hoping for something involving mischief and mayhem.”

“How did you and Captain end up pirates if your grandpa is a marine?” Masked Deuce asked, taking his fist back.

“It’s not for lack of trying on his part,” Ace said, leaning against the edge of the boat. “I’ve even got a marine cap he gave me in my pack. It’s just…” Ace sighed and tilted his head back to stare at the sky. “The marines wouldn’t have been a very good place for me, no matter what Gramps said. Plus, me and my brothers made an oath when we were kids to set out as pirates when we turned seventeen.”

“How many brothers you got?” Skull asked.

I trotted over to Ace and nuzzled his hand for pets. Finally looking down from the sky, Ace gave me a gentle smile and rubbed at my ears. “One now, but I used to have two.”

There was silence for several seconds before Masked Deuce spoke up. “You’ve mentioned your little brother a few times, Luffy, right?”

Ace’s smile turned into a small grin. “Yeah. We’re not related by blood, any of us, but Luffy is three years younger than me, and Sabo, if he was still alive. That made Luffy our troublesome little brother once we swore our brotherhood over stolen cups of sake.”

“Now that sounds like a story,” Skull said with a smirk. “Stealing, alcohol, underage drinking, and unbreakable vows of brotherhood.”

Ace couldn’t stop the laughter that burst forth from his lips. “You make it sound way more impressive than it was, and honestly, it’s one of the most tame things we ever did. One time we—”

There was something special about spending the afternoon sailing along to the bobbing of the waves, laughing and swapping stories of childhood adventures, stowaways for the ages, and everything in between.

Our crew was small and unconventional, with Ace and I being the only actual pirates since Masked Deuce was still more of an adventurer than anything, and Skull refused the title for reasons only he understood, but this was nice.

Chapter Text

“News Coo coming in hot!” Masked Deuce called from where he was flopped on the deck, taking a break. The rest of us looked up at the odd choice of words only to realize he was absolutely right. There was a News Coo, and it was plummeting towards us at a concerning speed.

“What’s the crazy bird doing?” Skull asked, shading his eyes. “Think it’s injured, falling like that?”

We all watched as the News Coo suddenly turned his dive into a barrel roll that tapered into a corkscrew with him pulling up just in time to harshly brake his momentum with his wings and land on the roof of the cabin with a quiet thud.

[Another perfect execution and landing!] the News Coo squawked, ruffling his feathers to settle them from his acrobatics.

[Full points!] I barked, wagging my tail excitedly. I could appreciate talent when I saw it, and that had been pretty cool.

[Thank you, thank you!] The News Coo gave a dramatic wink and bow. [I’ll be in the area for a few weeks with my high-flying stunts and daredevil acrobatics. The name’s Cork.]

[Nice to meet you, I’m Captain.]

[Captain… Captain…] Cork tapped his beak with his wing. [Now where have I heard that? …Ah, yes! You’re the new snack supplier on the sea! In certain small circles, you’ve become quite the subject of gossip you know. Food makes friends and all that.]

I nodded. Cork wasn’t the first to mention that he’d heard of me from some birdy gossip circle.

“Uh, what’s going on?” I heard Skull asking.

“Captain’s talking to the News Coo,” Ace said, pulling out the berri for the paper. “Sweet dive by the way,” he added as Cork let him drop the coins into his pouch. He grinned when Cork puffed his chest out a bit at the praise.

“What?”

“Yeah, that’s a thing around here,” Masked Deuce said, finally bothering to get up. “C’mon, now that we’ve got food to spare again, we’ll apparently be giving him a snack too. What should I grab?”

“We usually slice up an apple into bite size pieces,” Ace replied, taking the paper Cork offered. “It’s best to check with Captain first though, they don’t always want one.”

Everyone looked at me, and I turned back to Cork. [Want one?]

[Well, I certainly won’t say no, aerial maneuvers work up quite the appetite you know, but I’d honestly prefer something tangier like an orange or a lemon if you’ve got them.]

[You eat lemons plain?]

[You betcher stripes I do!] I had the feeling that if birds had teeth, Cork’s would be glinting in the sun right now while he gave the feathery equivalent of a thumbs up. [Gotta a real zing to ’em that I just can’t get enough of!]

Okay then. I turned to Masked Deuce.

—Cork—would—like—a—lemon

“Cork?”

“A lemon?”

Skull and Masked Deuce looked equally confused. Ace just chuckled. “Cork is the bird’s name, Skull, and I’m pretty sure we’ve got a lemon to spare from all the fruit we stole from the cannibals, Deuce.”

“Yeah, we do, but why a lemon?”

—Cork—says—he—likes—the—zing

“Have you met this News Coo before? Is that why you know his name?” Skull asked, looking between Ace, Cork, and I while Masked Deuce ducked into the cabin to grab a lemon.

“Nope. Captain asks, or they just tell him.”

Skull just shook his head. “I’ve sailed on a lot of pirate ships, but this is a first for me.”

“One lemon, cut into bite-sized pieces,” Masked Deuce said, coming out of the cabin. Cork happily came down and gobbled up the pieces.

[Yes, oh yes, that’s the stuff right there! I can feel the tang in my birdy bones!] When Cork was done, he turned back to me. [You’re a fine furry friend, Captain. Real swell guy. You run a good ship. Afraid I can’t stay any longer though, the sky is calling, and there’s papers to be sold.]

[Captain is just my name. Ace,] I nodded in his direction, [is the actual captain. I’m just the first mate.]

[Just nothing. A first mate still has authority on the crew, and from what I’ve heard, and I can agree having met you, you’re the captain to us coos, Captain.]

I blinked in surprise, but Cork just gave me another wink and a mock salute, and then he was off swooping and soaring through the sky.

“Anything interesting, Captain?” Ace asked, taking in my bewildered expression with amusement.

—The—birds—think—I—am—the—captain—even—though—I—have—told—them—you—are—the—captain

Ace stared blankly at me, blinked once, then twice. Masked Deuce and Skull started laughing, reaching the point where they had to hold each other up they were laughing so hard.

Something about the sight of them like that helped Ace find his voice. “Seriously?! But I’m the captain!”

Chapter Text

Masked Deuce wasn’t the only one getting training while we sailed. For all that Ace found calling his fire to life as easy and natural as breathing, he was finally starting to understand on a personal level all the work I’d put in for the past several years when it came to control.

We sat atop the cabin, facing the wake our boat left behind it as it cut through the water. It kept us safely away from Masked Deuce, Skull, and the sails.

“I know you worked hard, I watched you after all, but it’s still frustrating to see my attempts look like yours did years ago when I know what real control over my fire can look like,” Ace said softly, heaving a sigh. “Is it going to take me as many years as you to get that good?”

I shook my head.

—I—make—fire—but—you—are—fire—I—can—feel—it—when—you—shift—that—makes—a—difference

The difference was something instinctual, hard to put into words, so I nuzzled his shoulder and licked his cheek to reassure him.

—Besides—I—had—to—figure—everything—out—on—my—own—but—you—have—me—to—help—you

Even without my help, Ace would have become quite skilled with his powers, but I would make sure he became better than that—the absolute best, so that nothing, and no one, could ever burn him.

Ace gave me a gentle smile, reaching out to run a fiery hand through my fur. It felt so much better than regular pets, and I let a few embers escape from my fur to mingle with his fire and curl up his forearm. It didn’t take long for me to flop down and roll over, a silent plea for belly rubs that Ace was more than happy to give.

“I can feel your fire, you know,” Ace said, as his fingers ran through my fur. “I can tell it’s not mine. I’m not sure if it’s that way with all fire, or just yours.”

—Your—fire—feels—different—than—other—fire—to—me—I—can—sense—the—sentience—in—it—It—feels—like—you—It—is—you

“Feels like me?”

—Like—Garp—taught—us

Ace’s eyes widened, his lips parting to let an almost silent “oh” slip out. He seemed to concentrate, brows furrowing as several long moments passed. “How?” he asked, his hand coming to a rest on my chest.

—It—may—be—different—Remember—I—make—fire—but—you—are—fire—My—fire—may—not—feel—like—me—I—do—not—know—but—I—will—try—to—make—it—so

Ace nodded, but was no less determined, so I gave him a clue.

—Merge—what—Garp—taught—us—with—what—your—fire—lets—you—feel—and—sense—Use—them—as—one—It—will—take—practice

“Don’t care,” Ace said, threading my fur lightly between his fingers. “I want to learn. We’re both fire users now, and that means we can fight together in ways we only could have dreamed of back on Dawn. I want to recognize your fire as yours from a single ember, so that even in the middle of a flaming battlefield, I’ll know you in an instant.”

I met Ace’s gaze and nodded, resting a flaming paw on his arm. Together, we would become an untouchable inferno.

Chapter Text

“Ugh, this is making my head hurt,” Ace sighed as Skull and Masked Deuce worked on teaching us the basics of navigating. Orienting ourselves to the compass was easy. Figuring out just where we were on the map when we were surrounded by nothing but ocean was harder. Then there was calculating our travel speed to estimate how long it would take for us to arrive at the next island.

I was having an easier time of it than Ace, but it would take time to get good at navigating. I was hoping that learning all the stars like the book we’d gotten from Shimotsuki had talked about would be more fun. Learning how to position ourselves from them would probably be just as big a pain though. Calculations and more calculations. This was something I could help with though, so I would. Besides, Ace had said he wanted one of us to guide our path, no one else, and since Ace was struggling more, it looked like navigating would fall more to me.

“I need a break before my brain explodes,” Ace said, getting up and stretching.

“Not more training,” Masked Deuce said when Ace looked at him. “I need a break from that.”

“Cards?” Skull suggested, holding up a deck. “Or I’ve got dice.”

They settled on cards with Ace using me as a backrest. It became obvious a few rounds in that Masked Deuce was terrible at cheating. In fact, I don’t think he even knew how to cheat. Skull and Ace were much more even, with Skull pulling tricks he’d surely learned from pirates, and Ace was making the Dadan family proud.

Masked Deuce ended up bowing out, unable to keep up with the cheaters. That’s when the kid gloves came off, and Skull and Ace really went at it.

“You two are ridiculous,” Masked Deuce complained as they wrapped up another round. “I don’t know how, but I know you’re both cheating. How’d you even learn to do this?”

“Pirates,” Skull said in a sing-song voice as he laid down a really good hand.

“Bandits,” Ace deadpanned, laying down one of two hands that could beat Skull’s making the man scowl. “They don’t teach cheating in doctor school?”

“No one in med school has time for playing cards, let alone learning how to cheat at them. We’re too busy memorizing books as thick as our heads.” Masked Deuce gathered up the cards and shuffled, acting as the permanent dealer now that he wasn’t playing.

Ace pulled a face. “Why would anyone do that? It sounds awful.”

“Some people really like it, but I dropped out for a reason, you know.”

“Yeah, you decided to pick the fun side of life.”

“Well, that’s one way of putting it,” Masked Deuce agreed. “So, do I just need to avoid card games for the rest of my life, or are there people that actually play without cheating?”

“Learn to cheat, or learn to love being broke,” Skull said, grinning as he took the round. “Every pirate, sailor, and bounty hunter worth their salt cheats at cards.”

“Even marines?”

“Oh yeah,” Ace scoffed. “Gramps was a ridiculous cheat whenever he played against the hag. Granted, sometimes he’d be really obvious about it just to piss her off. Or he’d play off being drunker than he was so no one could get angry if he bumped the table and messed stuff up.”

—They—were—also—too—terrified—of—him—to—call—him—out—on—it

“True.”

Masked Deuce gave us a weird look and shook his head. “I think I’ll just stick to being a dealer then, or avoid future card games altogether.”

In the end, Ace proved the superior cheater to Skull’s frustration, but it was close.

Chapter Text

Ace let out an excited whoop. “I can see land!”

All of us were impatient for the island to get closer faster. Our little boat was okay, but there were many things it left us wanting for. Like a kitchen so Ace could cook since Masked Deuce and Skull were both so bad at cooking they claimed they could burn water, or room to stretch our legs instead of running into each other or the edge of the boat every ten steps.

There was no port again, but we secured ourselves next to a slightly smaller boat with no cabin. I could smell fresh human scents from it, and there were some tracks in the sand, so at least it wasn’t another abandoned boat.

We were in the process of deciding who stayed back to guard the boat when a pair of screams rang out from farther inland. They sounded more like terrified screams than painful ones.

“I swear, if this is another island with cannibals—” Masked Deuce grimaced, glancing at the treeline with unease. “You guys can go explore. I’ll watch the boat this time.”

“Works for me,” Ace shrugged. “You coming with us, Skull, or do you wanna explore on your own?”

“Exploring alone on an island where we just heard screams doesn’t seem too smart,” Skull said, following after us as more screams rang out.

We made decent time through the trees and bushes, but I kept picking up on strange animal smells. Mixtures that just didn’t seem right, and I kept catching an odd human scent too.

I paused, ears twitching, and gave Ace a warning growl to let him know something was coming. Holding up a hand, Ace got Skull to stop too. Soon enough, the sound of something—make that someones as voices became audible—crashing through the brush grew loud enough for Ace and Skull to pick up on it too.

“—said anything about it being haunted!”

“Shut up and run! I don’t fight ghosts!”

“Leave this island now, or you will be cursed forever, and die a most painful death!”

Ace made eye contact with me, and flicked a hand to the bushes in one of our hunting signs. I nodded, taking off into the undergrowth. One of the men tripped over his feet as he looked over his shoulder, and sent both of them tumbling and sprawling to a stop a few feet from Ace and Skull.

“More intruders? How dare you set foot on this island! I, the guardian spirit of this place, shall place a curse on you!”

Several sharp objects flew through the air, but Ace and Skull easily dodged out of the way.

The two men scrambled to their feet, faces pale. One man had purple hair that covered his right eye, and he wore a long coat with a sword strapped to his waist. The other man had a cream colored cowboy hat, a blue-gray jacket, shaggy brown hair, and a pair of short swords.

“I dunno who you guys are,” cowboy hat said, “but you’ve gotta get outta here! This place is haunted with death traps at every turn!”

“Hold up,” Ace said with a placating hand as I closed in on my target. “I don’t believe in ghosts.”

Neither did I.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t until I was staring at the owner of the third voice from my hiding spot in the bushes that I realized just who our “ghost” was, and why the animal scents I’d picked up on this island were so weird. His name escaped me, but there was only one man this could be. Unless there was another poor, unfortunate soul that got stuck in a treasure chest.

Sorry, Luffy, looks like we were stealing one of your adventures.

From the back, the man’s fuzzy green afro really did look kinda like some weird mossy plant thing sticking out of the treasure chest. I don’t remember this guy being strong or scary. Why were the two strangers so freaked out?

“A curse on you then!” The guy yelled in that strange echoing way of his. “Die!”

A gunshot rang out, but Ace let it zip through him, flames flickering. The two strangers started panicking, and Skull drew his sword, less startled by Ace’s fire, and more concerned about who was shooting at them.

Ace grinned in our direction. Since I was behind the guy, I let a small tendril of flame creep into the air for a brief moment, high enough for Ace to see it and know I was in position. “Ghosts don’t use guns. People do.”

“W-what are you?!” The guy stumbled back a couple steps, but I was still safe in my hiding spot.

“A guy that ate a devil fruit.” The two strangers seemed just as shocked as the treasure chest guy.

“A devil fruit?” the guy whispered to himself. “How do I beat that? I thought they were myths! What do I do now?” He quickly cleared his throat and spoke loudly again. “Just because you have a body of fire does not mean I fear you! As the guardian spirit of this island, I will allow no harm to come to this island. Leave now or suffer the consequences!”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Ace smirked. “Captain, flush him out.”

I was expecting more of a reaction when I burst from the bushes with a snarling growl, but the guy just turned enough to look at me with a confused expression.

“You’re not one of my animal friends. Where’d you come from? Now isn’t really a good time doggy. I’ve gotta scare these guys away.”

Well, this just wouldn’t do, so I set myself on fire.

“AH!” the guy yelled in a regular voice, dropping his gun and flailing his hands. “I’ll save you doggy! How dare you set an animal on fire you evil fiend! You’re an even worse scum than I feared!” Ace made a choking sound, but Skull started laughing after a moment, no doubt realizing what had happened.

I have to say, this wasn’t the reaction I was going for either.

Chapter Text

“So, you’re saying it wasn’t you that set the doggy on fire?” The treasure box guy glared suspiciously at Ace.

“For the last time, no,” Ace sighed, running a hand down his face. “Captain and I both have fire abilities.” He held up his hand now turned fire, and I let fire cover my ear.

“Hmm,” the guy stared at the two fires. He wasn’t the only one. The two strangers he’d been scaring off earlier were too, but they were also looking at our entire group like we were all insane.

“Skull, back us up here.”

“Not sure what else I can say,” Skull said with a shrug. “The evidence is right in front of him.”

—Please—stop—blaming—Ace

“See!” Ace waved a hand at me. “Even Captain says it’s not my fault.”

“He does?” The guy didn’t seem convinced.

“Yes! Did you not just see what he wrote?”

“I can’t read.”

That stopped Ace in his tracks, and he groaned. “Fine, these two aren’t with us,” he said, indicating the strangers. “They can tell you if you think we’re playing some sort of trick.”

“Uh, actually,” the guy with a cowboy hat said, looking a bit uncomfortable at being dragged into this, “I can’t really read cursive. It’s too loopy ’n’ sharp ’n’ stuff. But I know it was writing. Never seen a dog that can do that before.”

All eyes turned to the purple haired guy. When he spoke, it was in a mumble. “I can kinda read it. Not fast though.”

I could work with that. It was easier than writing one print letter at a time for cowboy hat to read. Once I finally figured out how to control my fire separately from my body, I’d work on making print letters out of fireballs. It would help with my control, and my fire wouldn’t need to all connect like it does now.

Considering everything, we’d probably meet a lot more people who couldn’t read cursive than those who can. Sitting in front of purple hair, I wrote again, letting my fire hang in the air this time.

—I—said—please—stop—blaming—Ace—My—name—is—Captain—What—is—your—name?

Purple hair was right, he was slow at reading cursive. Word by word, he slowly sounded out my writing, stumbling sometimes and having to start the word over. When he finally said all of it out loud, he looked down at me in surprise.

“I’m Cornelia,” he said.

—Nice—to—meet—you—Cornelia

I let him work his way through the words before holding out my paw for a handshake. Cornelia had to crouch down pretty far because of his height, but carefully took my paw for a moment with a small smile.

“Can I shake your paw too, Captain?” Cowboy hat had crouched down, hand extended. “I’m Saber.” I placed my paw in Saber’s hand, and he grinned. “Never met such a smart dog before, and a fire using one at that! You’re somethin’ else, that’s for sure.”

I dipped my head in thanks, and returned to Ace’s side where I got a nice scratch behind the ears. “Do you believe us now?”

“Yeah, I do. Sorry for attacking you. The name’s Gaimon.”

“I’m Ace, and this is Skull. We’ve got another crewmate back with our ship. His name is Masked Deuce.”

“But he prefers just Deuce,” Skull added in. “So, why’re you scaring people on this island, and why are you stuck in a treasure chest?”

“Now hold up here,” Gaimon said with a frown. “Just because I believe ya, doesn’t mean I’m gonna go telling you all that stuff.”

I whined and let my ears fall flat. If Gaimon couldn’t read, I’d just use body language instead.

“Uh, well, I mean,” he said, making the mistake of meeting my best puppy-dog eyes head on. He didn’t even last a second before he turned away. “Fine, I’ll tell ya! Just stop it with those eyes!”

I immediately perked up, making the others chuckle.

“Come on out everyone!” Gaimon called. “It’s okay!”

Chapter Text

Everyone turned out to be a bunch of really rare animals that Gaimon was protecting.

“There’s old rumors about this island having a hidden treasure on it,” Gaimon explained as everyone stared at the animals.

No one could ever complain about me being a tiger-dog ever again. Ever. Compared to Gaimon’s menagerie of misfit animals, I was one hundred percent perfectly normal, thank you very much. I wasn’t a furry snake with rabbit ears, a bat with a panda body, a pink duck-poodle, or a tortoise with a cow head. Don’t get me started on the actual tiger-elephant or the bear-tiger.

“It’s not as often now, but people do still come looking for it.” Saber and Cornelia both winced, and it was obvious then why they’d come to the island. “And when they can’t find it,” Gaimon said, rubbing the head of some sort of giraffe-dog, “they try to make a profit by capturing the rare animals of the island to sell instead.”

Ace and I shared a look. We were well aware of how that worked. Many had threatened to take me in the Terminal, whether it was to keep, to sell, to kill and stuff, or to pit in fighting rings. My “exoticness” was the entire reason Bluejam was willing to take me as blood payment for the three men I killed instead of taking our lives.

“We can understand that,” Ace said as I pressed my weight against his side comfortingly.

Gaimon gave us a solemn look, his eyes roving over me. “I suppose you could. Captain there looks to be as rare as any of these animals, and he has those fire powers o’ his on top of that.”

We both nodded, Ace threading his fingers through my fur over where a scar from Bluejam could be felt. There were several that hadn’t faded away despite the years, visible from under my fur if you knew what you were looking for, and felt by searching fingers if you didn’t.

“My crew came here thirty years ago looking for the treasure,” Gaimon said, picking his story back up. “All we ever found was this empty chest. I wanted to climb one last cliff to check while everyone else headed back to the ship. It was my bad luck to slip and fall right as I got to the top and spotted several chests.”

“And you got stuck in the chest when you fell?” Skull asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Gaimon sighed. “It’s embarrassing really, but by the time I managed to make it to the shore, my ship and crewmates were nothing but a smudge on the horizon. I was stuck here on the island with no way to get out of this chest.

“Once I came to terms with my fate, I dedicated myself to protecting these guys. Over the years we’ve become family to each other.” Gaimon smiled as wide as he could. “They’re my treasure now.”

“What about the chests you found at the top of that cliff?” Saber asked. Cornelia gave a small nod. I couldn’t blame them for being curious.

“Still there. It’s impossible for me to climb like this, and I haven’t let anyone else near because of where the cliff is located. It would put all these guys at risk to let people wander around the island like that,” he said, motioning to all the animals.

“I say we go check it out,” Ace said.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been sitting on the mystery of what’s in those chests for thirty years, and now you’ve got me curious too. So, let’s go find out what’s in them.”

Chapter Text

Perhaps it was a good thing Gaimon couldn’t read, because I had to set Ace straight when he joked that I could make a bunch of new friends on our way to the treasure chests. I don’t know if it was because of the mixed species thing they had going on or what, but most of these animals were dumb. As in just-about-dumb-enough-to-eat dumb. They communicated basic needs and feelings like any animal could, but that was it. They were all very instinct driven.

That just made Ace laugh harder when the lion-pig took a liking to me and started following me around as our strange group of people and animals made our way through the forest. At least the lion-pig was one of the smarter ones, though that wasn’t saying much.

[What do? Where go?]

[We’re going to see what’s in the chests on the cliff Gaimon has been guarding.]

The lion-pig gave me a blank look, and I sighed.

[Hunt. Cliff. Prey-not-prey on top. For your human.] I tossed my head in Gaimon’s direction for good measure.

Blinking twice, the lion-pig nodded. [I follow leader-dog.]

Yeah, I wasn’t dealing with that. Just because I had to smack a few of the stronger (by their standards) and dumber ones around when they got too curious for my liking, did not mean I wanted to be the new leader-alpha of these weirdos.

“Having fun, Captain?” Ace asked with a cheeky grin and a raised eyebrow. I sent him an annoyed look back, making him chuckle.

“You two are really close, aren’t cha,” Gaimon said, smiling as he watched us.

“Sure are,” Ace said as I nodded. “We’ve known each other since Captain was a puppy.”

“Where’d you find a dog like Captain anyways?” Saber asked. “After seeing the animals on this island, I’d almost say he came from here since he’s a dog but has those tiger-like stripes.”

“Dunno,” Ace shrugged. “Gramps showed up with Captain one day, and that was that. Never asked. You know, Captain?”

I shook my head. I’d been paying more attention to my new body and instincts at the time—and the fact that Monkey D. Garp was carrying me around—than the island itself. He’d taken me immediately to his ship, and we’d cast off not long after, so I really didn’t know much of anything about the island, but I did know it wasn’t a deserted island like this one.

—Not—here—the—island—had—buildings—and—a—port

“What’d he say?” Saber asked.

“He’s from an island with buildings and a port, which only narrows it down to half the islands in the world,” Skull joked. “Though, considering how unique he is, I’d guess he’s from the Grand Line. That’s where the weirdest animal species seem to always come from.”

I huffed, making the lion-pig snort in question, but I ignored him. It didn’t matter what island Garp had found me on. They’d never find another growlithe no matter how hard they looked. I was literally one of a kind, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I’d popped into existence just before Garp found me. It didn’t matter, and I really didn’t care.

—I—do—not—care—where—I—was—found

I headbutted Ace’s hip gently.

—I—belong—where—Ace—is

Ace gave me a fond smile, and when Skull shared what I said with the other three, Gaimon burst into tears.

“That’s so beautiful!”

Saber and Cornelia nodded in agreement, and Skull was grinning at us. Ace seemed a bit taken aback at Gaimon’s reaction, the faintest of pink dusting his cheekbones, but I didn’t care. I’d declare it loud and clear for the whole world to hear, again and again—for however many times it took them to learn that where Ace went, I went. No matter what.

Drying his eyes, Gaimon grinned at us. “You’re good people. Now, c’mon, the cliff is just up ahead.”

Chapter Text

“Race you to the top!” Ace said when the cliff came into sight, taking off at a run to start scaling up the side. Growling playfully, I took off after him. Compared to the ravine back on Dawn Island, the height of this cliff was nothing, but without the climbing skill I’d learned from all the time we’d spent there, I’d have been stuck at the bottom watching Ace.

As it was, everyone else was giving stunned and confused exclamations as I jumped up the side of the cliff like a mountain goat. As one they seemed to settle on the age-old argument: “Dogs aren’t supposed to do that!”

I barked in glee, and Ace laughed. Back from the very first time I spat out embers I’d been doing things dogs weren’t supposed to, but then again, I wasn’t really a dog—I was a monster in dog form.

Ace and I reached the top in no time, our little contest ending in a tie. Turning back, Ace waved down at the others, and I barked, tail wagging happily.

“Are the chests still up there?” Gaimon yelled. The lion-pig had trotted up next to him and was staring at me.

“Yeah!” Ace yelled back. “Want me to open them?”

“Wait for us!” Saber called out, Cornelia nodding next to him. “We want to see too!”

“Then, come on!” Ace grinned, plopping down and dangling his feet over the cliff.

“Give us a minute!” Skull shouted, shaking his head. “We’re not all jungle-raised, cliff-climbing gremlins like you and Captain are, Captain Ace!”

It did take the other three longer to climb up, but I was more entertained by the lion-pig that tried to climb up a small rock at the bottom of the cliff only to fall over and get sent rolling just to come back and try again.

“Not very smart, is he,” Ace said, also finding more entertainment in the lion-pig.

I huffed. No, no he was not.

Once the others reached the top, Ace helped pull them up.

“There really are treasure chests up here,” Cornelia murmured. “I wonder who left them up here, and why? And how did they get them up here? Why not bury them, or hide them in a cave? So strange.”

I had thoughts about Cornelia’s questions, but Saber clapped Cornelia on the back before I could share them. “Strange or not, I’m curious to see what’s inside. Let’s open ’em up, so we can tell that Gaimon guy what he’s been guarding all these years.”

“Well, there’s five of us, and five chests, so why don’t we each pick one to open,” Ace said, choosing a chest. “And, I’m pretty sure this goes without saying, but whatever’s in these chests belongs to Gaimon, not us. If you two have an issue with that,” he trailed off, looking at Saber and Cornelia.

“Nah, that’s fair,” Saber said. “I mean, the guy has literally guarded them for thirty years. Only a real jerk would steal his treasure from him now.”

“It wouldn’t be right.” Cornelia had a slight frown as he nodded.

Ace nodded. “Good. Since we’re all in agreement then, let’s do this.”

“On three?” Skull asked as we each stood in front of a chest.

Together, the four of them counted off. I added in my own soft barks to each count.

“One—”

“Two—”

“Three—!”

Chapter Text

“Uh...” Saber said eloquently as we all stared into our chests and then looked around at everyone else’s. Empty. Every single one of them was empty.

“Well? What’s in them?” came Gaimon’s voice. “Don’t leave me in suspense!”

“I ain’t tellin’ him,” Saber hissed.

“I’ve already done my quota of yelling for the day,” Cornelia added in with a quick mumble.

—Gaimon—cannot—read

Ace and Skull exchanged looks before Ace sighed, knocking his hat off to ruffle his hair. “Fine. I’m the captain, I’ll do it.”

—Can—we—keep—the—empty—chests?

Ace stared blankly at me, blinked once, and then perked up. “Captain, you’re a genius!” He gave me a grin and ruffled my fur. “Hey, Gaimon!” Ace called, walking to the edge of the cliff. “These chests are pretty neat—we’re gonna keep them!”

“Captain,” Saber whispered as he, Cornelia, and Skull all stared at Ace like he’d grown an extra head, “what did you say to Ace?”

“He just asked if we could keep the chests,” Skull answered in a hushed voice. “Not sure what Captain Ace is thinking.”

—He—is—thinking—that—we—need—chests

“Huh?” Skull gave me a confused look as Saber and Cornelia looked at him to translate. “What do you mean he thinks we need chests?”

—Because—we—do

“Keep them?” Gaimon called back. I joined Ace at the edge of the cliff, staring down at Gaimon. The lion-pig was still trying to figure out how to climb the bottom of the cliff.

“Yeah! They’ll go great on our boat! We’ve got lots of stuff we can put in them!”

Gaimon seemed to repeat Ace’s last sentence to himself before rubbing at his eyes. “You’re a pretty nice guy, aren’t you Ace.”

“How is this him being nice?” I heard Saber ask behind us. “He just told the guy he’s taking his treasure chests!”

Gaimon’s voice wavered as he called up to us again. “Those chests, they’re all empty, aren’t they?”

“Yeah,” Ace said, placing his hat on his head and shading his eyes, “they are, but we can put them to good use if you don’t mind. A treasure chest isn’t a treasure chest without some treasure in it after all, and my crew has some treasure, but no chests to put it in. If we don’t have enough to fill all the chests now, then we’ll just have to find some more until we do. That’s what pirates do, right?”

With a watery laugh, Gaimon nodded his head. “Yeah, that sounds like a mighty fine idea to me. Thank you, Ace, for trying to break the news to me gently.” Gaimon sniffed a couple of times. “I always knew it was a possibility, but…” he trailed off with a wry smile. “The chests are all yours.”

The lion-pig tumbled back down again, rolling to a stop right in front of Gaimon. Smiling, Gaimon reached out and gave it a gentle pat on the head. “My treasure isn’t the kind that’s meant to be kept in chests anyways.”

Hearing a sniffle behind us, Ace and I turned around to see Saber rubbing at the corner of his eye.

“What?” he said defensively when he noticed us. “There was a lot of dust when I opened my chest. Must’ve gotten some in my eyes.”

Ace chuckled and walked over to clap him on the shoulder. “Thirty years worth, yeah? Better make sure you get it all out.”

“He might need a minute,” Cornelia mumbled. “Saber may not look it, but he’s a big softy.”

“Am not! Softies cry at every little thing, but I only shed the manliest of tears,” Saber declared, puffing his chest out and squaring his shoulders.

“Manly tears? Is that what you called it when you—” Cornelia didn’t get to finish his sentence as Saber pounced and covered his mouth with his hand.

Together, Ace, Skull, and I watched as the two descended into a strange scuffle that was more good-natured play-fighting and bickering than anything. Ace caught my eye and gave a subtle nod at the two. I nodded back.

If they weren’t opposed to it, Saber and Cornelia seemed like good additions to the crew.

Chapter Text

“So what are you two going to do now?” Ace asked Saber and Cornelia once we managed to get the chests down from the cliff without breaking them. The lion-pig had immediately glued himself to my side again. “You came to this island because of the rumors about the treasure, didn’t you?” Ace had put a chest under each arm and started walking towards the beach.

“Yeah,” Saber sighed, sharing a look with Cornelia. “It was honestly a bit of a last ditch gambit. See, Cornelia and I, we’ve known each other for years. Always got jobs together, but the past few years none of our jobs have lasted more than a few months for one reason or another.”

“Pretty sure we’re cursed,” Cornelia mumbled, slumping over the chest he was carrying. “You name it, we lost our job because of it: owner died, building burned, got fired, company went bankrupt, business was secretly an underground crime ring front the marines shut down,” We all stared at him as we registered the last thing he said.

“How’d you get out of that one?” Skull asked.

“We’d only been working there for two days,” Saber replied. “Thought it was a bit dodgy, but we were desperate for work. No money, no food, no anything. You know how it is. The marines figured out pretty quick that we had nothin’ to do with it and let us go.”

“That’s some pretty bad luck,” Gaimon said with a wince. “No wonder you turned to treasure hunting after that.”

Saber and Cornelia nodded. “That was the idea, but as you can see, we’re not doing a very good job at bringing in money this way either. We knew our chances probably weren’t great since the rumors were so old, but it was this island or rumors about one called Sixis, but an old sailor warned us off that one. Said it was a death trap, and that there was no point in finding treasure just to die.”

I snorted, and Ace laughed. “Good thing you listened. Captain and I got shipwrecked there. It’s where we met Deuce. He was shipwrecked too. There’s no treasure there, and the currents trap you on the island with no way off.”

“There must be some way off if you’re here,” Cornelia accused, eyes narrowed.

“Deuce designed a fire-powered boat that Captain and I could use our abilities to power to get past the currents.”

“It’s a pretty neat little thing, the Striker,” Skull chimed in. “It’s much faster than a regular boat, but not so good if you aren’t fireproof like these two.”

“Huh.”

“So,” Ace said, turning around and walking backwards so he could face Saber and Cornelia, “if you two don’t really have any plans on where to go from here, want to join my crew?”

“You mean become pirates?” Saber and Cornelia gave each other an unsure look.

“If you want, but you don’t have to be. Captain and I are the only actual pirates on the crew. Deuce is more of an adventurer, and Skull isn’t a pirate either.”

“But you look the most like a pirate!” Saber exclaimed. “If you’re not a pirate, what are you, and how are you on a pirate crew?”

Skull puffed out his chest and grinned. “Captain Ace brought me on as an information expert. I know all about pirates and sailing.”

“But you’re still on the crew. Doesn’t that make you a pirate?”

“Nope.”

“How?”

“Cause I say so, and Ace is fine with it.”

“So, we could join your crew as treasure hunters, not pirates?” Saber asked, giving Ace an odd look, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. I couldn’t blame him.

“Yep!” Ace grinned. “You’re free to change your mind later and become a pirate, but treasure hunters and pirates sound like a pretty good team to me.”

“I don’t really get it, but it’s not like we have anything to lose by joining you at this point. What do you think, Cornelia?”

Cornelia’s mouth was pursed in a thin line, and he thought for a minute before slowly nodding.

“Guess that’s that then. We’ll join you.”

“Welcome aboard!”

“By the way,” Skull said cheekily, “Captain is the first mate.”

When Saber and Cornelia stared at me, I grinned back, tail wagging happily. The two shared a bewildered look and shrugged.

Chapter Text

“You’re back!” Masked Deuce called out and waved when we arrived back at the beach. “What’s with all the chests? Did you find a bunch of treasure or something?”

“Or something, I’d say,” Skull joked, handing his chest over to Masked Deuce who seemed surprised at how light it was. “Bad day to draw boat-guarding duty. You missed one weird little adventure Deuce, and not a cannibal to be seen.”

“Then what was the screaming about, and is this thing empty?” He hefted the chest a couple of times like a person would with a wrapped present.

Ace jumped up onto the boat with ease, dropping off both his chests. “Won’t be empty for long. We can put our treasure from what’s-his-face in these. The screaming was Saber and Cornelia. They’re the newest members of the crew.”

“Nice ta meet cha,” Saber said as he and Cornelia handed their chests up to Ace. “I’m Saber, he’s Cornelia. We’re treasure hunters.”

“Masked Deuce,” Deuce said with a nod, “but please just call me Deuce. What’s the story behind you two screaming so loud we could hear you all the way out here?”

Saber and Cornelia looked a bit embarrassed. “We thought the island was haunted,” Cornelia mumbled, “but it was just him,” he said, pointing at Gaimon, “trying to scare us off.”

Masked Deuce nodded. “Makes sense—wait! Are you stuck in a treasure chest?!”

“Sure am!” Gaimon declared. “I’m the guardian of this island. The name’s Gaimon.”

We filled Masked Deuce in on the story of our little adventure, and he took to staring at the lion-pig in fascination. “It’s like an island of chimeras, but less creepy,” he murmured. He reached out to touch the lion-pig, but he didn’t seem to like that, opening his mouth to let out a lion’s roar and then snapping at Masked Deuce’s hand with his sharp, pointy teeth.

“WAH!” Masked Deuce scrambled back, but I kept the lion-pig from chasing him with a good whack to the back of his head with my paw and a stern growl.

[No.]

Immediately cowed, the lion-pig sat his butt down in the sand and stared at me with his beady eyes.

“Thanks, Captain.” I nodded back at Masked Deuce.

“Sorry ’bout that,” Gaimon said, wandering over to pat the lion-pig on the head. “Most of the animals on this island are bad with strangers.”

“A little warning would have been nice,” Masked Deuce muttered under his breath, eyeing the lion-pig warily. He wasn’t the only one keeping his distance after that little display. I huffed. Even if a harmless looking pig with a mane roared and snapped at them, they had no reason to be afraid.

|| I—will—not—let—them—hurt—you—I—am—much—stronger—than—any—of—them ||

Masked Deuce gave me a wry smile. “I hope the day never comes that we meet an animal stronger than you, Captain. They’d have to be a real monster.”

The others agreed with nods and murmurs.

I puffed up my chest and wagged my tail at the praise. Masked Deuce had no idea just how right he was; though, that was an idea.

I barked to get Ace’s attention, and dropped down with a playful growl, watching his eyes light up in recognition. He jumped off the boat with a grin, flexing his fingers. “It has been awhile, hasn’t it. Usual rules then?”

I nodded.

|| Yes—but—with—fire ||

Ace’s grin turned wild and sharp, little licks of flame running up and down his arms.

“Care to tell us what’s going on?” Masked Deuce asked, eyeing Ace’s flames.

“Captain wants to spar, and I agree. It’s been too long since either of us have had a real fight, and the boat’s too small for sparring.”

“Then what do you call the fights with the pirates and the cannibals?!”

“Cannibals?” Saber parroted, he and Cornelia looking quite lost, and rather concerned. Gaimon too. Skull clapped Saber on the shoulder.

“I’ll fill you in.”

Ace waved his hand at Masked Deuce. “Those guys were so weak you couldn’t even call them fights. They were just one-sided beat-downs.” Masked Deuce gave us both an exasperated look as everyone else cleared out of the way, Gaimon helping to shoo the lion-pig to the side. “Mind keeping score for us? We’re going to one hundred fights.”

Masked Deuce looked skyward and then let out a heavy sigh. “Sure, fine. Why not. No catching the boats on fire.”

Chapter Text

I’d missed sparring with Ace, but it was even better now.

Back on Dawn Island I’d always held back. Where Ace’s fists and pipe would merely bruise, my teeth and claws would tear and rend. Haki helped to make up the difference, but it wasn’t enough, and I had haki of my own. Ace’s haki still paled in comparison to Garp’s. And it was only against Garp that I’d had no worries throwing my fangs, claws, and fire around because I knew he could handle it.

Though, even Garp had his limits. My fire had left small burns behind on more than one occasion, my fangs drew a drop or two of blood. Tiny patches of proof that had Garp going that much harder against me, grin that much wilder, and laughter that much freer. It was our little secret, a proof of my strength to my alpha. I knew it to be a silent test of my promise to protect, pitting the monster in me against the monster in him.

The boys never seemed to notice my tiny victories, and I doubt they would have gone unmentioned if they did. But, it was no secret that despite Ace going all out against me, I’d never been able to do the same against him. It had in turns frustrated him and spurred him on, wanting to be able to fight me in the same way that Garp did.

It was different now.

Fire raced through my body, sang in my veins, dripped from my maw, flared off my coat, left trails of fast-fading embers on the ground where my paws touched.

These one hundred fights weren’t like any we’d had in the past.

This was my chance to hammer it home into Ace’s head that he might be made of fire now, but that didn’t make him invincible. That being made of fire didn’t mean he couldn’t be hit. That even though he burned hot, he could still be burned by something that burned hotter.

Ace might be made of fire now, but he didn’t understand it like I did. I would show him just how far he still had to go. I would be mean—cruel even—now, if it meant it would save his life later.

I drew strength from his flames in the way only a fire-type could. My control over my own fire was ironclad, and I used my rudimentary skill over other fire to pull and tug at Ace’s, which was to pull and tug on him directly if I did it right, targeted the correct part of his flames. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it would pull his punch wide, make his footing unsure as he felt the need to stumble or adjust his weight.

Black coated my strikes when he didn’t dodge far enough, got lazy, or as punishment for letting me tug his fire, and therefore him, into my path with stumbling steps and a shocked expression.

It only took a couple of rounds for Ace to realize just how different this sparring was, for his eyes to flash in challenge as his jaw took a determined set to it. But I knew how to fight against all of Ace’s old tricks, and he only had experience fighting against half of mine. That’s when he started trying things with his fire. Blazing fists, waves of flame, his frustration growing like it did when we practiced and his fire couldn’t yet bend to the visions in his mind.

Masked Deuce called the last match hours later with a soft, unsteady voice.

I removed my haki coated fangs from Ace’s throat, my fire dying down to nothing, and I gave a little whine before I proceeded to nuzzle and lick at his face, turning it into a slobbery mess.

“Captain!” Ace complained, but I could hear the hint of laughter in his voice and knew that all was fine despite me beating him like I never had before. So, just to be cheeky, I sat on his stomach and grinned down at him, tongue lolling happily, tail thumping against his side.

“Geroff,” he grunted, shoving playfully at me. “You overgrown, spoiled, charcoal-eating, fire-spitting, menace!” We playfully tussled for a few moments with me getting some really good belly rubs from Ace before separating with identical grins. As one, we turned to our crew and Gaimon who were staring at us, eyes wide.

“What?” Ace asked, cocking his head to the side at the same time I did.

Chapter Text

“Remind me to never become your enemy,” Skull said, clapping Ace on the shoulder. Then he looked down at me. “Yours either.”

Saber chuckled weakly. He and Cornelia were using their chests as seats. “Never seen someone so strong in my life, and there’s two of you.” He clasped his hands in front of him. They were trembling slightly. Cornelia wasn’t much better, white knuckles clenching his knees.

|| You—do—not—need—to—fear—our—strength—We—will—use—it—to—protect—you ||

Cornelia slowly read my message to them out loud. He met my eyes and blinked.

“I think we’re more in awe than fear,” he said lowly. “Watching you two fight was like…” He paused, tongue darting out to lick his lips, and took a slow, deep breath before continuing. “It was like watching a pair of gods fight. Or maybe devils, wreathed in fire like you were…”

“Mama was religious,” Saber said, picking up as Cornelia trailed off. “Never took to it myself, but she used to mention avenging angels that would strike down evil doers with righteous fire. You ’n’ Ace seem too nice to be devils; though at times there, I swear you two were wearing the devil’s smile himself, but I think I understand what Mama was talking about a bit better now.”

Cornelia nodded as Saber unclasped his hands and wiped them on his pant legs. “Deuce was right earlier. I’m no praying man, but I pray we never meet an animal or person stronger than you two. If we do, I fear we’ll be dead before we know what’s happened.”

“It could happen,” Skull said, taking a seat in the sand. “I’ve been to the Grand Line a couple of times. There’s some real monstrous men out there; especially in the second half. Animals, not so much. Not that I know of anyways, not unless you count sea kings.”

I nodded. There were weaker sea kings, like the lord of the coast, and then there were the leviathan monsters that inhabited the calm belts.

|| The—man—that—trained—us—is—stronger—much—stronger ||

“Ace’s grandpa, right?” Skull asked, leaning back on his hands. “The one that’s a marine?”

“Yeah, Gramps is stupid strong,” Ace said, plopping down to join us, dragging Masked Deuce with him.

“What are the chances of him just letting us go if we run into him?” Masked Deuce asked.

Ace grimaced and shrugged. “Honestly? It depends on his mood, and if he has orders. Even with orders, he may give us some leeway, but he won’t go too easy on us.”

“Great,” Masked Deuce muttered, propping his head in his hand.

|| He—will—be—interested—in—us—not—the—crew—if—that—helps ||

Masked Deuce chuckled. “So, what? Are you saying if Ace’s grandpa shows up we should just run and leave you two to deal with him?”

“That’s not a bad idea actually,” Ace said, running his hand down my back. “Just leave us the striker so we can catch up later. Gramps isn’t someone you want to mess with if you don’t have to. He punches mountains to dust before breakfast, and throws cannonballs around like they’re toys.”

The crew all blanched as one.

“I think I understand you two a bit better,” Masked Deuce said weakly. The rest nodded silently.

A throat clearing drew our attention. Gaimon had been giving us some space, but now he spoke up. “That was some pretty impressive stuff. I’m glad I didn’t have to really fight you guys.” The lion-pig at his side met my gaze, immediately dropped his eyes, and went belly up on the sand in a pure sign of surrender.

“Anyways,” Gaimon continued as I merely huffed at the display and turned my attention back to him. “It’s going to be dinner time soon. I bet you both worked up quite an appetite, and we’re all probably starting to get hungry. Want to have a cookout here on the beach? I’m not one to brag, but I’m pretty good at grilling.”

Ace and I grinned. We would never turn down food.

There was no alcohol, but it felt like a party anyways as we sat around the bonfire Ace and I had made, eating food and getting to know one another as the sun set and the stars came out.

Chapter Text

We left Gaimon’s island with two boats. Ace, Masked Deuce, Skull, and I stayed on the boat we’d been using, and Saber and Cornelia sailed alongside us in their little boat. It wasn’t as big as ours, and lacked a cabin, but it gave us a bit more space than fitting five men and myself onto our boat.

According to Skull, if we counted the Striker, we could even loosely say we had a little fleet. Still, our current boat situation wasn’t going to work in the long run, so our top priority now was to find us an actual ship.

That meant finding an island with an actual population and port. No deserted island, no cannibal infested island, no falsely haunted rare animal island. Honestly, how was it that the only normal island Ace and I had visited since setting sail was Zoro’s?

Saber and Cornelia had tied their boat to ours and joined us for lunch when I sensed Ace’s narcolepsy. It had been much later than usual when he finally managed to fall asleep last night. Sometimes that would affect him the next day, sometimes not for a few days, sometimes not at all.

I gave the signal we’d worked out—a certain bark and whine combination—and Ace immediately swallowed what he was chewing and set the rest of his food down.

“Ace?” Masked Deuce asked with mild concern.

“Sleep attack,” Ace replied, as I sat next to him so he could lean on me. Seconds later he was out cold, body limp against mine.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Saber asked. Masked Deuce glanced at me, and I nodded. The crew needed to know about this so it wouldn’t cause problems.

“Ace has a medical condition called narcolepsy. It means he’ll suddenly fall asleep sometimes, but Captain can sense it coming and warn him. This is the first time I’ve seen it happen though. If it happens and Captain’s not around, make sure there’s nothing Ace can choke on or drown in.”

“Oh.”

“What if he falls asleep at a bad time, or doing something dangerous?” Cornelia asked, frowning as he stared at Ace.

|| It—only—happens—when—Ace—is—eating—or—really—relaxed ||

Cornelia relaxed a bit after he figured out my message. “That’s good. It would be bad if he fell asleep during a fight, or in the rigging, or going down stairs, or overboard since he can’t swim. I guess falling into a fire wouldn’t really hurt him though,” he mumbled.

“Luckily, Ace has a mild case, and he keeps it pretty under control from what he’s told me,” Masked Deuce replied.

“Yeah!” Skull chimed in. “He and Captain take naps every day to help. I’ve joined them a couple of times. Nap time is kinda nice.” I agreed, nap time was nice, and having Skull join us was good too. Though, he didn’t dogpile with us like Luffy did. We weren’t close enough for that. I would honestly only feel comfortable doing it with those I consider pack or almost pack.

Ace’s body chose that moment to wake back up. I felt him stir against me before he pushed off me to sit up.

“Thanks, Captain.” He ran his hand leisurely down my back in thanks, and I nuzzled him in turn. “Was I out long?”

I shook my head. He’d only been out a minute or two.

“Everything good?” Masked Deuce asked as he looked over Ace.

Ace grabbed his food again and grinned. “Yep.”

Chapter Text

[No, no, no. I can just tell you’re saying it wrong. It’s Tukket with two k’s and none of those silly c’s.]

I cocked my head to the side. [Why two k’s?]

[Because I can’t let Kraken win!] Tukket ruffled all his feathers and resettled himself. [Guy’s a real jerk. Consider yourself lucky you haven’t met him yet.]

[You know a Kraken? Like the sea monster?]

Tukket brought a wing to his face. [No! See, this is why he has such a big head. Everyone thinks of some impossible deep sea creature when they hear his name. I swear he had to come from an oversized egg to fit his giant head.]

[So Kraken is a bird like you?]

[Unfortunately, yes. We’re hatch mates.]

[What’re hatch mates?]

Tukket huffed something that sounded suspiciously like mammals under his breath. [Hatch mates means we hatched around the same time in the same area. Clutch mates are what I believe you furry creatures call litter mates.]

I blinked. [You mean siblings?]

Tukket gave me an odd look. [I think that’s the human term for it, but yes.]

I made a shrugging motion. [I was raised by humans. I picked up their words for things.]

Making what was probably the bird version of a humming noise, Tukket bobbed his head. [Makes sense, I guess. Well, I gotta go, but if you ever meet Kraken, tell him Tukket wins.]

I wasn’t sure what Tukket thought he was winning, and I wasn’t sure if I’d pass that message on if I ever did meet Kraken. It sounded like something I didn’t want to get caught in the middle of. Not that I mentioned any of that to Tukket as he flew away.

“Hey, Captain,” Ace called, waving me over once he saw that Tukket was gone. “Come look at this.” Curious, I wandered over to see what Ace was looking at in the paper. We still always read it together, but there must have been something interesting for him to draw attention to it.

He shifted so I could see the paper, pointing to a picture on the fourth or fifth page. It was an article about some newly completed warships arriving at Marineford.

“Look,” he said, tapping the edge of the picture. I took a closer look, huffing when I spotted a familiar side profile in the background. Though he was wearing that silly dog hat of his, I’d know him anywhere. It was Garp.

I gave a low, quiet whine, drooping a bit. I missed him. Ace gently ruffled my fur. “Want me to keep the picture when everyone’s done with the paper?” he asked softly. I nodded and settled down with my head in Ace’s lap so he could read the paper to me.

“I miss him too,” Ace murmured, sensing my mood and gently running his fingers through my fur. “I miss Luffy more though.” I squirmed my way farther into Ace’s lap, and he let me. I missed Garp, and Luffy, and Makino, and Sabo. I missed my pack being whole and in one place. Ace was most important, but pack was important too. And even though I’d known we’d end up separated across the world like this, it didn’t make the longing any less.

When Ace did finally start to read the paper, everyone else ended up gathering around to listen. Saber and Cornelia asked if Ace could read just a bit louder so they could hear clearly from their boat too. Later, before we went to sleep, Ace carefully tucked the picture with Garp into my pack.

Chapter Text

Ace and I were both surprised how quickly the next island appeared on the horizon. Sure, we were sailing with people who had navigation and sailing skills now, but this was our shortest voyage by several days at least, and none of the other islands we’d landed at had been this close together.

“That’s the Organ Islands,” Skull said, showing us on the map. “There’s several good sized towns spread over the islands, and the closest one is here,” he tapped the map, Ace and I both leaning over to get a better look. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to get a ship there, but if not, someone there will probably know where we could get one.”

“Even just a bigger boat that can fit all of us would be better than what we’re doing right now,” Ace said, running a hand through his hair. “If we could find that here, but still keep looking for a real ship that can hold a full crew that’s fine by me.”

Skull hummed and nodded. “That’s a good option.”

It was a bit strange to sail into an actual port, small as it was. The last port Ace and I had been at was the one on Dawn Island. Unlike Dawn, there were buildings much closer to the port here, real waterfront property. There was no need to wonder if this island was inhabited as people were going about their business in plain sight from the docks.

Skull walked us through proper docking procedure since we hadn’t had to bother with it before, always just beaching our boats and finding the nearest rock to tie down to. When everything was squared away with the boats, Ace clapped Skull on the shoulder and grinned.

“Nice work, Skull.”

Skull smirked and shrugged Ace off, but he seemed happy with the praise. “I wouldn’t be much of a sailing expert if I couldn’t even teach you the basics like this.”

“And Captain and I probably would have crashed into the docks without you, so thanks. I never knew there were so many steps to docking.”

“I guess that’s one way to start off your pirate career,” Masked Deuce said with a smirk. “Vandalism and destruction of public property are against the law.”

“As much as I want a bounty, getting my first one because I don’t know how to dock my own boat just sounds lame,” Ace deadpanned. “I’d never live it down. If I was going to get a bounty for something small-time like that, I’d rather get one for all the dine-n-dashing I did as a kid. At least that was on purpose, and isn’t so embarrassing.”

Skull and Masked Deuce laughed as we walked down the dock. Saber and Cornelia had volunteered to watch the boats for the first few hours.

“Should we split up and meet back here in a few hours?” Ace asked as we reached the end of the docks.

“Sure.”

“Sounds good.”

“Great,” Ace said, waving at the other two and picking a direction. “Let’s go, Captain.”

Chapter Text

There was something novel about wandering through a cobblestone town with Ace. It had a different feel to it than Windmill Village, and I’d never gone into Goa with the boys. Shimotsuki had reminded me more of Windmill Village, but with rice fields instead of windmills.

“Where to?” Ace asked as we passed a storefront showing clothing in its window. “I’m kinda hungry, personally.”

I huffed. Ace was always hungry.

“Hey, young man!” Ace and I looked down the street to see an older man on a step ladder trying to fix a sign hanging off a metal arm above his shop door. “Can I trouble you to help me out with this?”

Ace and I looked at each other, then Ace pointed at himself.

“Yes, you,” the man chuckled. “I know you must be a visitor to the town—I’d recognize someone with as fine a dog as you’ve got there—but I’ve been struggling with this darn sign for a while now. I could really use a hand.”

I preened at the praise, holding my head a bit higher.

“Sure thing, sir,” Ace said, Makino’s manners showing themselves. “What can I do to help?”

The man climbed down off the step ladder and handed Ace the sign. “See these little loops here? They need to go over those hooks up there, but they keep flipping around, and I just can’t seem to get them back on.”

With a nod, Ace hopped to the top of the step ladder, eliciting a startled “Careful!” from the man. Five seconds later, Ace was jumping back down, the sign hanging just like it should.

“Well, well, looks like I asked the right person for help. I’m Poro. What’s your name, young man?”

Ace gave a shallow bow. “It’s very nice to meet you, Poro. My name is Ace, and this is Captain.”

I gave a short bark and dipped my head in greeting. Poro smiled at us. “Ace and Captain. Good names, the both of you, and good manners. So, what brings you to Orange Town?”

“We’re looking for a ship to buy, or at least a bigger boat than what we’ve got.”

“A ship, hm?” Poro stroked at his short Fu Manchu-style mustache. “We’ve no shipyard here. How big is your current boat?”

“I’ve been told it’s called a small sloop, but I don’t really know much about boats and ships yet,” Ace replied a bit uncertainly.

“That’s alright. We all have to start somewhere, and if you just need something bigger than a small sloop, we may be able to help you out. How many people are on your crew?”

“Five men plus Captain,” Ace said, giving me a head pat.

Poro nodded again. “There’s a few I can think of who have cutter rigs that might be willing to sell or downsize if you’re looking to sell your sloop. Cutter rigs are a step up from sloops, and are good for voyages.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Let me get some pen and paper,” Poro said, folding up the step ladder. “I’ll write down their names and where to find them. Tell them that I sent you.”

A couple minutes later, Poro came back out of his shop and handed Ace a piece of paper.

“You should also stop by the Pet Food Shop while you’re here. I’ve written its location down too. Hocker has his own custom recipe that he’s perfected with the help of his dog Chouchou. He’s got a small wall of other pet necessities too if you need them, but his specialty is food.”

I blinked and tilted my head, thinking hard. Chouchou?

Chapter Text

Ace and I agreed that we should take Skull with us when we went to look at the boats since he was the one that knew stuff about sailing. So, we decided to kill time by checking out the Pet Food Shop even though I’d never had a piece of kibble in my life.

“Let’s see, says we take the next left, down two streets, turn right, it’ll be halfway down the street on the left,” Ace muttered, staring at the paper Poro had given us for another couple seconds and then shoving it into his pocket.

Our path there wasn’t quite so direct, Ace’s stomach providing an immediate detour as we walked past a side street and smelled something divine. Our noses led us to a small bakery, the front door propped open to let the mouthwatering smell of whatever had just come out of the oven fill the air.

Judging by what I could smell, it was either snickerdoodles or cinnamon rolls. There was a girl around Ace’s age manning the counter, putting various goodies and breads into display cases.

“Be right with you,” she called. A few moments later, she popped up behind the counter. “Oh my gosh,” she squealed suddenly, leaning over the counter excitedly. “Your dog is so cute!” I let my tail wag happily. That was two for two on people we’d met in this town complimenting me. I liked this town.

Chuckling, Ace glanced down at me, smirking. “And spoiled.” I huffed at him. If he thought that was an insult, he was wrong.

“Can I pet him?”

My tail stopped wagging, eyes going wide. Pets? From a stranger? Uh…maybe if it was a little kid that didn’t know better and just wanted to pat the doggy, sure. Or maybe a sweet old person, I guess. The kind that everyone adopted as their grandma or grandpa because they were just so gentle, and sweet, and nice that you just couldn’t help but love them.

But now? Like this? I’d never had a stranger want to pet me before. I’d never even stopped to consider that this would happen when we met people. Then again, I’d always either stayed away from strangers, or I’d been fighting them. Not exactly prime opportunities for pets there.

Still, not even our crew members had tried to give me pets, and this girl wanted to? Yes, I was a dog, and yes, I liked pets, but…I liked pets from people I liked—people I knew. And, I was more than just a dog—I was me, and I was also a first mate. My ears lowered a bit. I wasn’t sure about this.

A reassuring hand rested on my head.

“I’m not sure Captain would like that, but he’s really good at shaking hands.”

I nuzzled my head into Ace’s hand. Trust him to understand.

The bakery girl was more than happy to shake my paw, cooing about how smart I was. And, okay, yeah, Ace could stop giving me that smug look now. Getting spoken to like I was a baby was annoying and a bit insulting.

My suffering wasn’t for nothing though as we got the cute dog discount, walking out of the bakery with a whole tray’s worth of hot and freshly iced cinnamon rolls in a box several minutes later.

Chapter Text

We made it to the Pet Food Store with half our cinnamon rolls eaten, and a glob of icing stuck to my nose. I blamed Ace for that one. He got distracted and shoved that particular cinnamon roll in my face while looking in a different direction. I’d managed to lick most of it off, but there was one spot that just—oh, nevermind, I got it. I was really thirsty now though.

“So, this is the place, huh?” Ace said, licking frosting off his own fingers. “Let’s check it out then.”

A bell tinkled when we walked in.

“Welcome, be right with you!” an elderly man with a red wool cap and pale purple beard called as he set down a bag of what had to be dog food.

[Welcome. You’re new.]

I blinked at the small white dog that approached and started sniffing at me. Today was turning into a day of weird firsts for me. There was the bakery girl wanting to pet me, and now it was hitting me that I’d never actually met another dog before. There weren’t dogs just running around on Mt. Corvo, you wouldn’t find any in the Terminal either, and I never went into town.

[Hello,] I said, cautiously sniffing back. It was a bit odd. I’d never done this before, so I wasn’t really sure what all went into it when I could gather his whole smell in one good close sniff. I’d only needed one good sniff of Stripey too, and he hadn’t exactly been jumping to try and sniff me back at the time.

It was actually a bit of a relief when the dog backed off. [I’m Chouchou. Who are you?]

“My, what a good-looking dog,” the elderly man said, walking over to join us before I could answer. “What’s his name?”

“This is Captain,” Ace said, unknowingly answering Chouchou’s question as well as the man’s. “We met a man named Poro earlier, and he recommended we come check out your shop.”

The elderly man smiled, crows feet crinkled around his eyes, and he gave a slow chuckle. “Poro said that, did he? I’ll have to visit him later. You’re here to buy dog food then?”

Ace shrugged. “Not exactly? We had time to kill before we need to meet back up with the rest of the crew, and we’ve never been to a shop with stuff for dogs before.”

“No?” The man seemed surprised. “What do you feed Captain then? A dog his size must have a pretty big appetite.”

“Captain eats what I eat. That’s how it’s always been.”

The man gave a look to the box of unfinished cinnamon rolls Ace was holding.

“Is that what you usually eat?” he asked, sounding almost disapproving. Suddenly, I felt very glad that I’d managed to get that glob of icing off my nose.

“No,” Ace said, shifting the box. “This is a treat. It’s usually whatever we hunted for the day.”

The near disapproving air around the man disappeared. “Ah, I see. That’s a different story. You make sure to feed Captain fruits and veggies too, yes? Just meat isn’t a balanced diet.”

“Like I said, if I eat it, Captain eats it too,” Ace said a bit defensively. “We share everything except for chocolate. I was told that’s bad for dogs.”

The man smiled and nodded, clasping his hands behind his back. “That it is. So, you’ve never been in a store for dogs you say? Well, let me and Chouchou show you around. We don’t have much besides food, but maybe we can give you a small sample of that too. It sounds like Captain’s never had kibble before if he’s always eating what you eat young man.”

“No, sir, he hasn’t.”

The man chuckled again. “Call me Hocker. Sir makes me feel as old as I look, maybe even older, and that just won’t do.”

Ace relaxed, smiling at Hocker. “Sure thing. My name is Ace.”

Chapter Text

Outside of food there really was only a tiny wall of other things which mainly included treats, rawhide bones, a few chew toys that were supposed to be good for helping clean teeth, and a couple of other toys like balls, ropes, and discs. I sniffed curiously at the rawhide bones. Now that we weren’t hunting everyday, my supply of bones to gnaw on had dried up.

[They’re good,] Chouchou said as I inspected them. [Have you never tried one before?]

[I always get the bones from the animals we hunt. I’m used to chewing on those.]

Chouchou nodded. [I’ve never tried real bones, but I like this kind a lot, and they last for a while.]

“Want one, Captain?” Ace asked when I sniffed them again. I didn’t have to really think about it. I missed having my bones to gnaw on. I grabbed the biggest one I could see, awkwardly pulled it off, and placed it in Ace’s hand. Then, for good measure, I went back for two more. I wasn’t sure how long a while was, but I was an expert bone chewer with a really strong jaw thanks to all of Garp’s training.

Looking at the three rawhide bones in Ace’s free hand, I decided it wasn’t enough, and went back for one more.

Hocker chuckled at me. “Knows what he wants, doesn’t he? Are you taking good care of his teeth? I give Chouchou one of the dental sticks to chew on most days.”

“We’re good.” I nodded in agreement. “I brush Captain’s teeth every time I brush mine.”

“Sounds like you two do everything together.” Hocker gave us a warm smile. “It’s always nice to see a bond like that. Reminds me of Chouchou and I.”

Chouchou gave an agreeing bark.

“Come over to the counter,” Hocker said, waving us along. “I’ve got an open bag of kibble Captain can try some of.”

[Is it really that good?] I asked Chouchou. Compared to eating real meat, rice, veggies, and fruits, eating dried kibble just kinda seemed…yuck.

[It wasn’t that great at first, but we started making our own which was much better. We’ve got a few different flavors, but I like them all.]

“Go ahead and set your things on the counter,” Hocker said as he bent down and pulled out a small bag of dog food and a bowl. He poured a bit into the bowl, and then handed it to Ace. “See what Captain thinks of that.”

Ace held the bowl out to me, and I sniffed it suspiciously. It certainly didn’t look anymore appetizing now than it had as a human. Still, Hocker was being nice, and Chouchou said it was good, so… Carefully, I took a single piece of kibble from the bowl and chomped on it.

It… Well, it wasn’t gross, but I didn’t like it as much as the real thing either. It kinda reminded me of flavored potato chips or the meat flavored cubes you would dissolve in water. It mimicked the flavor pretty well, might even have actual meat juice baked in, but it just wasn’t the same as eating the real thing. And like the fancy potato chips, the flavor and texture just didn’t match.

“What do you think?” Ace asked, crouching down so we were eye level. I tilted my head back and forth, gave a soft whine, and nosed the bowl towards his chest. Ace blinked and looked down at the kibble. “You want me to try it?”

I nodded.

“Uh, is that okay?” Ace asked, glancing up at Hocker. “It’s not bad for humans or anything, right?”

“Well, no—” Hocker began, but that’s all confirmation Ace needed to take a piece and pop it in his mouth, chew several times, and swallow.

“Huh.” The look on Ace’s face was contemplative. “Reminds me of Makino’s fancy little meat flavored cubes.”

Considering we’d both eaten one of said flavored meat cubes before Makino could stop us the first time around, I wasn’t surprised we'd come to the same conclusion. Convincing Luffy they weren’t meat treats to keep in his pocket had been a real pain, and he’d wanted all his water to be meat flavored for weeks.

“Meat flavored cubes?” Hocker seemed confused for a moment before his face lit up and he laughed. “Do you mean bouillon cubes?”

Ace snapped his fingers. “Yeah, that’s it.”

Chapter Text

Trying a few more pieces of the other flavors of kibble did not make me or Ace like them any better. In fact, I was just getting more thirsty than I’d already been as a kind of grainy or chalky feeling began to get left behind the more pieces we ate. Real food was much better.

[Sorry,] I told Chouchou who gave a simple huff and showed me where the water bowl was.

[It’s fine. Our food is the best most dogs have ever had when they try it, but I’ve never met a hunter like you before. Your Ace is a very good human to take care of you like he does.]

[He’s the best,] I agreed, finally quenching my thirst that had started with the cinnamon rolls. [I’d do anything for him.]

Chouchou nodded, tail thumping against the floor as Hocker leaned down to scratch behind his ears before going to put the kibble samples away.

[I would do anything for Hocker too.]

We shared a look that said more than words ever could. Loyalty ran far, far deeper in both of us than it usually ever did, even for dogs. I suppose this was what people meant when they spoke about kindred souls, but it was nice, soothing in a strange way—a kind of connection that once it snapped into place wouldn’t budge for anything. There was no need for further words, because we both simply understood.

“Want anything else, Captain?” Ace asked drawing us from our moment as Hocker put my new rawhide bones into a paper bag. I paused, turning to look over my shoulder at the small display of nonfood items. Maybe a ball would be nice, or a rope. Something so I could play with Ace on the ship since there wasn’t room for us to spar.

I ended up tugging down one rope, several balls since I figured we’d lose those easier, and a set of throwing discs. One by one, I took each item over to the counter and dropped them there. When it was all rung up and paid for, I took the handles of the paper bag in my mouth. Hocker just smiled and chuckled.

“You two keep taking care of each other now, and don’t be strangers if you’re in the area.”

[Come back and visit when your travels let you. Maybe we’ll have kibble you’ll like better then.]

[It may be a long time, but I’ll look forward to it. Watch for us in the papers.]

[Are you famous?]

I gave a friendly flash of fang. [We will be. Watch the bounty posters in the coming months.]

Chouchou looked from me to Ace and back again then nodded. [Guard him well. I’ve heard humans on those posters are reckless and get into lots of fights.]

I huffed. Yeah, that sounded like Ace despite him getting just a smidgen better about it over the years. [I will.]

Ace and I bid them both goodbye, me carrying my new stuff, and Ace carrying the half empty box of cinnamon rolls. It was time to meet up with the others.

Chapter Text

Ace ate another three cinnamon rolls on the way back to the docks. He offered me one, but I turned him down. Besides the fact that I was carrying my bag of stuff, I’d had enough sweet things for the day. The idea of even more sugar just…urgh. Nope.

He did save four of them for the rest of the crew though, and they all took them with grins. Saber and Cornelia were glad for a chance to go explore the town, saying we could probably find them at the local bar if we needed them. Skull had agreed to go look at boats with Ace and I, and Masked Deuce was happy to stay behind and start writing in his new adventure book that he’d purchased.

We followed the directions on the paper Poro had given us, and met with a couple of others that Skull had come across. In the end, we narrowed it down to two boats. One was called a cog. It had two deck levels, and a single sail closer to the front of the ship with lots of cargo space. Skull said it would be easier to sail for our inexperienced crew, but we’d be a bit more reliant on the wind, and our speed would be slower.

The other boat was one of the cutter-rigs that Poro had mentioned. It turned out cutter-rigs were a type of sail. It had three sails—one main and two headsails according to Skull, and the cabin was located underneath the deck with a low ceiling. There wasn’t as much free room on deck as the cog with all the sails, but it was double the size of the boat we currently had. We could also learn a lot of sailing skills, and our travel speed would be much faster.

I’m just glad Skull came with us. Ace and I would have been hopelessly lost on this subject without him. In the end, Ace shook hands with the man that owned the cutter-rig in exchange for our sloop and some berri.

“Can you go find Saber and Cornelia?” Ace asked. “Skull and I will go back and have Masked Deuce start helping us move our stuff over to the new boat.”

“Do you even know where the bar is?” Skull asked. “I stopped by it earlier, and never saw either of you.”

“Captain doesn’t need to know,” Ace said with a smirk. He met Skull’s eyes and tapped his nose. “Thought you knew that.”

Skull groaned, making Ace laugh. “Shut up. I thought we swore to never talk about that.”

“Technically, none of us swore to anything,” Ace teased, dodging away as Skull shoved at his shoulder. I gave Skull a doggy grin and a wink, head butted Ace’s hip, and took off at a trot. I’d find Saber and Cornelia in no time.

Chapter Text

I quickly decided that I was going to end up an expert supervisor as I gnawed on one of my rawhide bones and watched Skull instruct the others on how to tack and jib the sails. He’d explained the theory several times now, and I’m pretty sure Masked Deuce and I both got it. Ace was halfway there, but he always learned better by doing. Saber seemed similar to Ace, and Cornelia just looked lost.

Well, they’d all get it eventually. I felt part of the rawhide bone snap off, and spit it out to stare at it. That hadn’t taken long. Was I supposed to eat it? I should have asked Chouchou about that. I sniffed at the broken off piece. It didn’t really seem like something I wanted to eat. Could stomach acid even dissolve whatever it was made of? I didn’t think so. Better safe than sorry.

I stared at the broken piece for a moment longer, gave a mental shrug, and tried to burn it away. A few seconds later I stopped as my nose was assaulted with a terrible smell and pitch black smoke curled off the piece. Luckily, no one else seemed to have noticed yet, so I batted the piece with my paw, watching it skid across the deck and through a gap in the railing into the ocean.

Much better.

“I saw that, Captain!”

Dammit, Ace. You were supposed to be paying attention to Skull and the sails.

I stuck the tip of my tongue out at him even though I knew it made me look ridiculous, and went back to chewing on my rawhide bone, but more gently this time. It would be a shame if I went through all of them in one day. I guess I’d need to start making a collection of real bones to keep and gnaw on since these ones obviously weren’t going to last long.

Ooh, maybe we’d find an island with dinosaurs like Luffy would. I bet I could find some really big, really good bones to keep from a dinosaur. Little Garden couldn’t be the only prehistoric island, right? What would dinosaur even taste like? Chicken? Beef? I bet it would taste gamey. Ooh, maybe it would be greasy like bear. Ace really liked bear. But, wait, weren’t dinosaurs just giant lizards? Maybe it would taste like the giant lizards from the ravine then. That would be okay, but boring.

“Does your rawhide bone taste that good?” Ace asked, standing over me with his hands propped on his hips. It was then that I realized I was drooling. A lot. Whoops.

|| No—I—was—thinking—about—what—dinosaur—meat—would—taste—like ||

Ace blinked once, twice, shook his head, and chuckled at me before crouching down to scratch behind my ears. “I’m pretty sure dinosaurs are supposed to be extinct, but if we do manage to find one, let’s cook it up and find out.”

I let my tail thump against the deck in agreement. We had to find an island with dinosaurs now.

Chapter Text

“Why is Captain growling at the ocean?” Saber asked.

“Maybe we’re about to be eaten by a giant underwater sea beast,” Cornelia muttered.

“Nah, we don’t have to worry about that until we get to the Grand Line, or if we somehow screw up and end up in the Calm Belt at some point,” Skull said.

I would prefer a giant sea beast. I think. Maybe. Well, maybe not in this boat instead of on a proper ship, and there is the fact that Ace can’t swim now… Okay, maybe a giant sea beast wasn’t better at this point, but that didn’t mean I had to like what was coming our way.

“Ace?” Masked Deuce asked.

“It’s a group of dolphins,” Ace said, coming to stand next to me with an annoyed expression.

“You mean a pod?”

“What do peas have to do with dolphins?” Ace asked, glancing back over his shoulder at Masked Deuce.

“Peas? What? No. A group of dolphins is called a pod.”

“Huh.”

“I still don’t get why Captain is growling if it’s just a bunch of dolphins he can hear out there,” Saber said, coming to stand at the railing too, his eyes squinted as he tried to see what only I could hear.

“Dolphins broke the rudder of our first boat while they were knocking us around like a toy, and left a crack in our hull. We only made it to land because Captain asked a News Coo how to get to the nearest island before we sunk,” Ace explained.

“Ah…”

“You two have had some really weird, and really bad luck since you left your home island, haven’t you,” Skull said, sounding a bit perplexed. “Did you break a mirror before you set sail or something?”

Ace frowned. “No. Only mirror we had was Dadan’s, and she’d murder anyone that touched it. Didn’t trust us not to break it, but said if anyone did touch and break it that they deserved the sevens years bad luck they’d get for it.”

“There’s plenty of other ways to get bad luck besides breaking a mirror,” Cornelia murmured. “They could have hung a horseshoe upside down, or opened an umbrella inside, or picked up a berri with the wrong side up, or—”

“We get it, Cornelia,” Masked Deuce said, cutting him off. “Those are just superstitions though—old wive’s tales. They don’t actually cause bad luck.”

“Remind me to get you a lucky rabbit foot,” Cornelia said after a pause. “Non-believers have worse luck when they invoke the taboos.” If I’d been looking, I’m sure he would have been giving Masked Deuce some kind of strange stare down, but I was busy watching the ocean. Those stupid dolphins were getting closer, and I didn’t like it.

“Ah, I think I can hear them now,” Saber said, still uselessly squinting at the horizon. “Always thought their click-noises sounded a bit like laughter.”

“Here, use this,” Skull said, having retrieved the spyglass and handing it to Saber.

“Thanks.” Saber put the eyeglass up, and nodded. “Yep, can see ’em with this. Five of ’em it looks like. No, make that six. They got a little guy with ’em.”

My growling never stopped as the pod of dolphins passed within a mile of our boat, but unlike the last group of dolphins Ace and I had met, these ones just kept going, ignoring us completely. When I could no longer hear them, I finally relaxed.

Chapter Text

“Cannonball incoming!” Skull shouted.

Ace’s fire met the cannonball before it could impact, setting off an explosion midair. Cracking his knuckles, Ace grinned. “How convenient. I was just getting bored.”

“Why am I not surprised that we’re under attack and you’re happy about it?” Masked Deuce sighed.

The ship firing on us was one we’d spotted hours ago. It wasn’t a marine ship, and it wasn’t flying black flags, so we hadn’t been concerned as it had sailed closer.

“My guess is slavers looking for more goods, or black market merchants looking to forcefully conscript more workers. It could also be sneaky pirates that don’t fly their flags until they attack, but I don’t see anyone trying to raise flags now,” Skull said as another pair of cannonballs came our way. Ace took care of them both and I whined. He could save some of the fun for me. I wanted to bite a cannonball and destroy it.

“Sorry, Captain,” Ace laughed. “Why don’t we take Striker out and meet them at their ship. There’s not really room for a fight here, and we don’t need our new boat damaged.”

I barked in agreement, tail wagging furiously. That sounded fun.

“Guess that makes our job easy,” Saber said. Cornelia nodded, hand on his sword.

“We’ll protect the boat and work on sailing closer,” Skull agreed. “It shouldn’t take long for you two to deal with everyone on board the ship.”

Less than a minute later, Ace and I were racing across the ocean, water spraying up behind us. Every cannonball that came from the ship was met with fire, none of them getting even close to our boat.

Shouts echoed across the ship as Ace and I jumped aboard.

“How’d they jump so high?!”

“Get the dog!”

“Why can the kid use fire?!”

“An extra percent of the earnings goes to whoever can bring me that dog!”

Well, if that didn’t solidify why they’d attacked us. Black market merchants indeed. Poachers most likely, or slavers that branched out into rare animals. They’d probably seen me through their spyglass and decided to attack since they thought they could take on a small boat with five people to capture me for easy money without any trouble.

Big mistake.

Ace didn’t hold back, laying into the ship’s crew with a fierce scowl. The last person to talk about me like something to make a profit off of had been Bluejam, and he’d halfway succeeded.

“Shit! How do we fight a guy that turns into fire?!”

The fight was easy, simple enough. Bite a guy here, tackle a guy there, throw in a bit of fire for funsies. As I was leaping over a stack of crates to get at another guy I felt a tiny prick in my flank. I came down on the guy, fangs sinking true, but when I went to rush the next guy I stumbled.

Suddenly, the world seemed like it was spinning and fuzzy. Woozily, I turned my head to stare at where I’d felt the prick. It was the only hit I’d taken in the fight, and it might as well have been a mosquito bite for how little it did. There was—when I squinted to focus my blurry gaze—mostly hidden by my fur, a teeny, tiny dart.

Oh. That probably wasn’t go—

Thwump.

Chapter Text

Warmth. Trailing from my head, down my neck, over my shoulder, past my ribs. Disappearing for a moment then starting back at my head. Over and over.

More warmth. Under my cheek.

A familiar smell.

Ace.

There was a low buzzing, no, murmuring?

Words. There were words, but paying enough attention to make them out was too much effort.

So tired.

The warmth was nice. Ace always gave good pets. The best pets.

The murmuring came and went, but Ace stayed. That was good, but my head was starting to hurt. Or it had been hurting and I just didn’t notice? Either way was not good. Not nice.

My throat started to feel funny too. Not from my fire, and not because it was sore, or dry. No, it felt more like I was trying not to throw up. I didn’t like throwing up. Why did I feel like I was trying not to throw up?

Maybe Ace would know.

My eyelids felt endlessly heavy, but I finally forced them to flutter open.

That was a mistake.

I threw up.

“Captain!”

I threw up again. Ugh. I hated throwing up.

I’m not sure how long it took for me to realize I was staring into the face of a panicked and worried Ace. He was mouthing something over and over. I should probably pay attention to that.

“—you hear me?” Ace’s hands were cradling my head, his thumbs stroking my cheeks.

“Captain, can you hear me?”

I blinked a few times and nodded slowly. The panic receded from Ace’s expression, but the worry remained.

“The poachers drugged you, Captain. You dropped like you were—like you were…dead,” Ace said, whispering the last part. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around me, his mouth next to my ear. “Don’t scare me like that. I—I can’t lose you, Captain. I can’t.”

I whined and tilted my head to rest it against Ace’s. After a minute, Ace pulled back.

“I’m going to grab Deuce. He said he’d take a look at you once you woke up. You’ve been out for hours.”

It was when Ace got up that I realized that I’d thrown up all over his lap. I whined again, and, noticing what I was staring at, Ace chuckled, and gave me a gentle head rub.

“It’s fine, Captain. It’ll wash out, though, maybe I should change real quick before grabbing Deuce.” It was then that I noticed we were in the cabin of our new boat. How out of it had I been to not even realize where I was? In the time it took me to come to terms with that realization, Ace had changed and come back with Masked Deuce.

Masked Deuce was gentle as he shone a light in my eyes, checked my gums, asked me some easy yes and no questions, and made me drink a lot of water. He then showed me a teeny, tiny dart with two little white c’s outlined in dark purple on it.

“The poacher Ace…interrogated,” he hedged slowly, glancing at Ace, there was obviously a story there, but I could get that out of Ace later, “said this was a new drug they got off the black market. They’d never used it before, but it was supposed to put any animal into a near-death state with them slowly waking up later to no side effects. The fact that you threw up and have a headache means your body didn’t take well to whatever the drug was.”

I huffed. I bet you could blame the fact that I wasn’t a normal animal on that.

“Is Captain going to be sick again?” Ace asked.

“Probably not, but he may not have much of an appetite while the drug finishes getting out of his system. Drinking lots of water will help with getting the rest of the drug out of his system faster.”

A line of tension disappeared from Ace’s shoulders. “Okay, that’s okay. Thanks, Deuce.”

“Don’t mention it.” He looked at me. “If you feel funny or off in the next few days, say something. I went to doctor school, not vet school.”

I nodded.

“Great. Now, how does some fresh air sound? Everyone else has been worried about you too.”

Chapter Text

The fresh air was nice, helping me to perk up a bit. Skull, Saber, and Cornelia were all happy to see me up and about. They weren’t the only ones on deck though, and I couldn’t help but stare at the extra addition.

|| Are—the—drugs—making—me—see—things—or—is—there—a—big—cat—on—deck? ||

“He was in the poachers’ hold,” Skull offered up. “All the other animals could fly or swim away, but not this guy.”

I slowly looked over the railings in every direction. The poachers’ ship was nowhere to be seen.

|| Where—are—the—poachers? ||

“The bottom of the ocean,” Ace said coldly, “or they will be soon.”

“Angry Ace is terrifying,” Cornelia mumbled so quietly that I’m sure I’m the only one that heard it.

I stared at Ace for a moment, not sure that was the answer I was expecting, but also not surprised. Nudging his hand and giving it a few licks, I got him to rub behind my ears.

The big cat chose that moment to come over, trying to get Ace’s attention. I let my lip curl back a bit, a low growl rumbling in my chest. I wasn’t in the mood to share, and there really was no reason to. This cat was a guest on our ship. We didn’t owe him anything, and if he wanted pets, there were four other humans on this boat that could give them. Ace was mine.

Fingers threaded through my fur comfortingly. The cat skittered back a bit before slowly trying again, head lowered and body crouched a bit more this time. I repeated my warning. Whoever this cat was, he did not need to be getting attention from Ace right now. Not ever, honestly.

“Does Captain not like cats?” Saber asked. “You know, that whole cats and dogs thing?”

“He’s good friends with a tiger,” Ace said with a shake of his head. “Guess he doesn’t like something about this one, or it may just be because he’s not feeling the best right now.”

Both. I would say both, though my bad mood from being drugged and not feeling great was probably making me far less amenable than normal.

Ace ended up sitting against one of the masts with me half in his lap. Every time the big cat got too close for my liking, I let out a low growl. It quickly became obvious from my few angry and abrupt attempts to communicate with him that he was as dumb as the animals on Gaimon’s island. The lion-pig was smarter, barely, but still.

It helped my mood that Ace didn’t bother to pay the stupid cat any attention. Instead, he kept his hand steadily running down my side like he had when I’d been coming to. Masked Deuce made sure we had plenty of water nearby, and once the cat finally slunk to the far end of the deck and settled down, it wasn’t so bad. The other four started up a poker game with Masked Deuce as the dealer, and it was pretty obvious Skull was out-cheating the other two.

Eventually though, I couldn’t bring myself to wait for the full story any longer. I rolled onto my side, my head still in Ace’s lap, so I could look up at him.

|| What—happened? ||

Ace grimaced, his hand coming to a stop, but not lifting away. We had a short staring contest that I won as Ace looked away to the horizon, his hand resuming its petting motions.

“I heard a guy with a gun shout that he got you while I was fighting,” Ace finally said in a low voice. “I looked over just in time to see you go down. I’m not quite sure what happened next—I wasn’t really paying attention because I was trying to get to you—but all the poachers suddenly collapsed.”

I stared at Ace’s chin. No way. I mean, I knew he had it in him, but did Ace—because of me?

“You wouldn’t respond to me, and I only knew you weren’t dead because I could sense you thanks to Gramps' training.” Ace’s hand stilled again, gripping my fur lightly. “I brought you back here to Deuce because I couldn’t find any wounds, and didn’t know what to do.”

I gave a soft whine and licked at Ace’s hand. It obviously hadn’t been my intention to cause him so much stress that he unlocked his conqueror’s haki, and then be in a state where he could only tell I wasn’t dead because of observation haki. Ace looked down at me and gave a hollow smile, not much more than a twitch of his lips.

“Deuce is the one who found the dart. I—” Ace let out a heavy whoosh of air. “I went back and…interrogated the poachers to find out what they drugged you with. Deuce stayed with you, and everyone else stripped their ship bare of anything of worth.” His free hand was lifted up, turning to flame. “I set their entire ship on fire after that, and we left.”

There was no doubt in my mind that he spent every minute after that with me until I woke up.

Ace met my gaze once more, his flames reflecting in his eyes. “Was this how you felt when you burned Bluejam’s ship and crew?”

Chapter Text

[Warm.]

[No.]

[Warm?]

[No.]

[...Warm? Yes?]

Oh, for the love of—!

[No!]

I growled at the stupid cat who just wouldn’t listen. He kept trying to lay down next to me or Ace, because he liked the warmth we gave off because of our fire abilities. If it was just that, I could maybe let it go, but he was also trying to scent us, and that was not okay. He was not pack, and I would not allow him to mark us like that. I’d had to take to claiming Ace’s lap whenever he sat down or that stupid cat would slink across the ship to try and snuggle up to Ace instead.

Ace chuckled and ran a hand over my back soothingly. “The cat still being dumb?”

|| He—does—not—understand—NO—Are—you—sure—we—cannot—eat—him? ||

“We saved him, Captain. We’re not eating him. That just feels wrong. Besides, I thought you didn’t eat something you’d talked to.”

I huffed and made myself more comfortable in Ace’s lap. I could make an exception for this stupid cat.

“How about we go work on valuing all the stuff the guys got from the poachers? It’ll keep us busy, and the cat can stay out here.”

“You know how to value treasure?” Saber asked, having overheard Ace.

“Yeah. I asked the bandits to teach us before we left.”

“Bandits?” Cornelia asked, moving closer. “You knew bandits? Could you teach us too?”

Ace grinned. “Sure! Gotta know how to value treasure if you’re going to be treasure hunters, yeah?” Saber and Cornelia both looked a bit sheepish, but nodded.

The four of us gathered in the cabin with Ace pulling out all the notes he’d taken from Dadan’s crash course, and together we worked through everything we’d gotten piece by piece.

“Your notes are really helpful,” Cornelia murmured as he held a jewel up to the lamp to check it for any imperfections. “I never really thought about how we’d value any treasure we found. I guess it was because I didn’t really think we’d find any.”

“Sorry you have to keep reading them to me,” Saber said, a bit uncomfortably. “I’m not sure anyone from my hometown knew cursive.”

“I don’t mind,” Ace said, waving a hand dismissively. “I didn’t know it until my brother taught me. I originally thought it was kinda stupid, but it’s all he wrote in, and then Captain started using it too. It just became habit to use it. Even Luffy defaults to using it on the rare occasions he writes. Not that anyone can really read his horrible handwriting either way.”

I snorted. That was the truth. This did just remind me of the fact that I needed to keep working on my control over my fire. I was still struggling to figure out how to control fire that wasn’t directly connected to me, but once I got it, I could start forming print letters.

We’d been at it for a while, making steady progress, when we heard a shout from outside.

“Captain! We need you!” That was Masked Deuce.

“We’re almost done!” Ace hollered back. “Can it wait?”

“Not really! I think the cat is trying to eat the News Coo!”

I growled, lips pulling back in a snarl. That stupid cat! If he pissed off the News Coos and they stopped delivering papers to us, I was going to murder him.

Chapter Text

[Oh, thank you! Thank you indeed, my good dog,] the News Coo said as I kept the stupid cat pinned to the deck under one of my paws. Masked Deuce was now helping Skull wrap up several scratches on his arms. Luckily, the News Coo was unharmed besides a few ruffled feathers.

[Never liked cats much, sneaky beasties they are.] He leaned forward cautiously, peering down at the cat through squinted eyes. [This one seems a bit too dumb to be sneaky though.]

I huffed in agreement. [Sorry about him. He’s a guest on our ship for the time being. I keep asking if we can throw him overboard.] Feeling the cat shift under my paw, I gave a warning growl, and was satisfied when he immediately went limp again. The News Coo made a delighted noise at the sight.

[Well, I must say, you’ve certainly got things under paw my fine fellow. Though, indulge a bird’s curiosity would you? Your name wouldn’t happen to be Captain would it?]

[That’s me.]

[Oh, splendid! That’s just splendid!] the News Coo said, fluttering his wings excitedly. [I’ve been hoping I’d meet you. The name’s Bob. I’m the kind of bird that likes to always know a fellow if you know what I mean, and you seem like the kind of fellow I’d like to know. Never know when knowing a dog that can talk to humans and use fire will come in handy, you know.]

Bob was…a lot. He kinda reminded me of Toodles because he just wouldn’t shut up after I got it through the cat’s head to stay put and leave us alone. But, Toodles had been polite and excited, rambling away about his new job and how he hoped to find his special lady. Bob just kept going on and on about how he knew a fellow for this, and knew a fellow for that, and why it would be so great for me to know a fellow like him.

I’d pretty much drowned his ramblings out when he said something that caught my attention.

[Wait. Repeat that last one.]

If birds could smirk, Bob would look like the cat that got the canary in that moment. [Ah-hah! I knew I’d eventually find a reason why you’d want to know a fellow like me! I was just saying I’m good friends with this crow who saw this strange fellow that ate one of those weird fruits. His body turns to soot, and he forms that soot into crows. Crazy, right? Probably wishes he ate a fruit that would just turn him into a crow.]

I felt more off-kilter than when I’d woken up from the drug. That was—that was one of the main guys from the Revolutionary Army! Why didn’t I think of this before?! I didn’t have to stumble around the world blindly, watching new bounty posters and the news like a hawk, trying to get my own bounty poster that would hopefully trigger some form of recognition with my bandanna.

[Bob!] I said urgently, cutting off whatever it was that he’d been saying. [If I was looking for someone—someone that runs in the same group as that soot-crow guy, do you know someone that could help?]

Bob puffed his chest out, a wicked sharp gleam in his eyes. [Haven’t you realized who you’re talking to yet, Captain? Of course I do, and if I don’t, I’ll know someone who knows someone who can.]

I met Bob’s gaze, my heartbeat echoing in my ears. [Name your price.]

[Simple. Just be a fellow I can know, Captain. Like I said before, never know when knowing a dog like you will be useful for me.]

I thought about the offer carefully.

[And if when you want me to be a fellow you know, I’m not able to help?]

Bob waved a wing. [I’m not expecting miracles, Captain. I’m just a bird that likes to know a fellow for every occasion, but I also know a lot of fellows just to know them. You seem like a fellow worth knowing.]

[That’s it?]

[That’s it.]

There was adrenaline rushing through my veins and nowhere to burn it.

Sabo.

Chapter Text

I know I hadn’t been sailing long, but I had never been more desperate for land. This cat needed to go. The only thing that kept him occupied was food, and that didn’t last long.

“Depending on the winds, we could be there in another two to four days,” Skull explained when I asked him how far our destination was. That turned into another navigation lesson to help keep me occupied until nap time. The hard part was the calculations. Any math lessons I’d had were a lifetime ago, and I couldn’t write them down. Mental math wasn’t my strongest suit, but I would learn. Or find some kind of sand tray to write in with a claw or something, because all the mistakes I kept making in my head were getting frustrating. Skull thought I was just making numbers up.

At least I understood what calculations were. Ace just stared at them like they were a foreign language. Granted, outside of addition, subtraction, and some basic multiplication and division that Sabo had taught him, Ace didn’t know any math, so I couldn’t blame him for that. I wasn’t supposed to even know that much originally, so I’d been forced to sit through basic math lessons with Masked Deuce before Skull even tried calculations with me. The only good thing about that was I got treats because Masked Deuce taught me with food.

Rigging lessons were going much better for Ace. Garp had taught him all his knots during downtime around campfires over the years. It was just knowing which knot to use where, and when to bring the sails in or put them out, which Skull was good at explaining. Saber and Masked Deuce were getting better too, but Cornelia kept getting his knots mixed up, or missing a step when he tied them.

“Where are we napping today, Captain?” Ace asked, looking past me to watch the cat gnaw away at the rawhide bone I’d given to Cornelia earlier to give to the cat in hopes that it would keep him occupied for a while. I broke the first one too easily anyways, but I refused to give the bones over directly in case the cat thought it was me accepting him.

Picking a sunny spot on deck, I made myself comfy, Ace settling down a moment later. I’d strategically placed us so that I could keep an eye on the cat, and not give him room to join us. He’d either get snapped at by me or run into the railing. It would be easier to avoid him if we napped in the cabin, but that felt like giving up territory, and that was not acceptable.

Sure enough, the cat seemed to perk up when he saw us settle down. He never did this with the others. There really was something about the heat we put off, or me being the only other animal that drew him in.

I pulled my lips back in a silent snarl. Messing with Ace’s nap time was. not. allowed.

The entire time Ace napped, I stayed awake, watching the cat inch his way closer and closer. Luckily, Skull noticed and headed the cat off. Everyone knew how serious I was about nap time.

“I’ve got him, Captain,” Skull said quietly. “You can nap, I promise I won’t let him close.”

I stared Skull down for a long minute, glancing at the bandages around his forearm from the other day when he’d tried to keep the cat away from Bob, then nodded, closing my eyes. Skull would do his best, and if the cat got past him… Well, the cat would be the one to pay for waking me and Ace up.

Chapter Text

The mast was covered in scratch marks. The mast was covered in scratch marks because the stupid cat had decided to use it as a scratching post. The mast was covered in scratch marks, and I knew from Stripey that that was one of the main ways that cats marked their territory.

I hadn’t attacked the cat, but it was a close thing, and only because Ace intervened. As it was, I couldn’t stop growling, my whole body vibrating from the chest deep rumble. The mast of our new, albeit temporary, boat was damaged. The cat had claimed territory. My territory.

“Easy, Captain,” Ace said, resting a hand on my back over my raised hackles. The rest of the crew was giving me a wide berth, staring on as I growled and snarled at the cat that was cowering on the deck several feet from me. “The winds have been good. We’re only a day away from Mirror Ball Island. Just put up with the cat for one more day.”

I knew that. I’d helped Skull figure out our positioning on the map. I knew we’d saved this stupid cat from those poachers, and it probably wasn’t right to murder someone we’d saved, but I was pissed.

|| He—claimed—territory ||

“I know, I know. But, if everything goes well, we’ll be getting a real ship from the shipyard at Mirror Ball, and saying goodbye to this boat. So just, don’t kill the cat for the next twenty-four hours? We both know he’s a bit messed up and confused about stuff like this.”

I knew that too, and right now, I really didn’t care. So what if we were getting a real ship as soon as tomorrow? That was tomorrow, and this was my territory right now, and my territory had been challenged. It was the principle of the thing.

“Um, Ace,” Masked Deuce called out.

“Yeah, Deuce?”

“Maybe it would help if you and Captain went out on the Striker for a bit. It would put some distance between Captain and the cat, and Captain could literally burn off some of his anger.”

Heading out on the Striker felt like fleeing, and conceding that the cat had rightfully claimed territory, but Ace managed to talk me into it after agreeing that I could force the cat to submit again first to prove my dominance. I also got to remark the mast myself to claim back my territory.

We then spent hours zooming around the boat on the Striker, testing her limits, and throwing in some fire training for both of us while we were at it. I wasn’t sure if it was my anger that fueled it or not to help push me past my current limits, but the edges of my fire flickered a faint blue.

Chapter Text

Lightning cracked and the rain pelted us. The same winds that had favored our faster travel had also been blowing in a storm, and it had reached us before we could reach Mirror Ball Island. The crew was manning the sails, Skull shouting out instructions as they tried to work the wind to our advantage instead of letting it blow us off course.

There wasn’t much I could do, but I refused to enter the cabin while they were out here fighting the storm. Besides, the cat had run in there. It was a couple hours into the storm that Mirror Ball Island became visible on the horizon. A few hours later we pulled into a place called Dance Port, soaked and miserable with no sign of the storm stopping anytime soon.

Water pooled on the cabin floor as we all took cover inside. I wanted to shake my fur out, but knew I couldn’t, not in here, so I settled for heating up and burning the water away.

“That’s convenient,” Cornelia muttered, having taken off his heavy, water-logged coat. I’d tried my drying trick on some of Ace’s clothes once, and they’d all shrunk because of the heat, so I didn’t offer any help now. Every towel we had was in use as everyone dried off the best they could. Luckily, the cat seemed off put by all the water, staying in the far corner.

While they were busy with that, I pulled out my brush. Drying off my fur like I had always did a number on it, and I doubted we were going out until the weather cleared up a bit.

“C’mon then,” Ace said, having changed into a dry pair of shorts and forgoing a shirt altogether at the moment. He took the brush from me and started working through my fur.

“Anyone have any idea how long the storm will keep going?” Saber asked, toweling off his hair.

“A few more hours, I suspect,” Skull said, having turned his back to us to wipe his face off and then replace his mask.

“I’m catching some quick shuteye then,” Saber said, hanging his towel on a peg near the door to let it dry. Everyone seemed to agree with the sentiment, settling down around the cabin to relax as best they could with the ship still rolling on the waves.

The feel of Ace brushing my fur was soothing enough that I fell into a light doze myself. I was looking forward to the storm letting up. Ace and I had talked while we were on the Striker, and we both agreed that the cat needed to go. Things just weren’t working out with him on board. Ace said we just needed to find somewhere for him to go, so my first order of business when the storm stopped was doing just that.

For now though, it was time for a nap.

Chapter Text

We were getting a lot of weird looks, but I didn’t care as I led the cat through Mirror Ball City on a longish rope lead so I could still have my space. I just needed to find someone that I could trick into taking the cat, and make sure that the cat couldn’t and wouldn’t follow me back, or find his way back on his own.

The first step had been getting far enough away from the dock that whoever I passed him off to wouldn’t just try and find his owner to give him back. Not that I thought anyone on the crew would say anything, but other people could have seen the cat with us, and they could speak up and ruin everything.

My head roved side to side as the cat skittered along behind me. Now, who could I convince to take this rope? Not them. Not her. Kids were out, their parents would just kick up a fuss. Hmm… No. No. No. No—wait. Was that? The outfit was a bit different than what I recalled, but there was no mistaking that bright blue hair, or that big red nose. It really was a strange facial feature, but somehow it looked completely at home on Buggy the Clown’s face.

Didn’t he have a giant tiger or lion on his crew? Something like that. Perfect. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind one more “dangerous” beast.

Target acquired.

I took off at a trot, pulling the cat along as I weaved through the crowd to reach Buggy. When I was close enough, I let out a muffled bark, not wanting to drop the rope yet.

“Hmm?” Buggy turned, his captain’s cloak swishing dramatically around him. I barked again, wagging my tail happily and giving him my best puppy-dog eyes. “What’s this? Some kind of flashy-looking dog? What’s that you’ve got there? A rope?”

I nudged at Buggy’s hand. He needed to take the rope before he caught sight of the cat on the other end. I also took it as an opportunity to learn his scent. With Buggy’s crazy luck, being able to track him in the future could come in handy.

“I think he wants you to take the rope, Captain Buggy,” a man with strange white hair that almost looked like ears said.

“You know, I think you’re right, Mohji,” Buggy said. “But what for, I wonder?” Buggy wouldn’t be getting an answer, because even as he asked the question, his gloved hand curled around the rope. Yes! With a happy bark, I gave a quick bow in Buggy’s direction and took off into the crowds.

“Hey! Get back here you flashy dog! What did you give me?! Huh?! A big cat?! What the—!”

If I could laugh, I would. Instead, I could feel the grin on my face as I ran away. Freedom. Sweet, sweet freedom from that cat! Finally! Thank you, Buggy, may your next treasure hunt be a successful one!

Chapter Text

I returned to the boat in high spirits. Ace and the rest looked at me, and then searched the area behind me with their eyes before looking back at me. Ace smirked and tipped his hat up with a flaming finger.

“Found someone to take the cat, then?”

I nodded and barked happily, tail wagging away.

Chuckling at my good mood, Ace made the call to pull out of port. When I gave him a confused look, he ruffled my fur. “Found out while you were gone that this shipyard is on the other side of the island, and that there’s a much closer port we can use.”

It didn’t take too long to follow the directions they’d gotten and sail around the island to Disco Port. Once everything was secured, Ace jumped off the boat with a grin.

“Alright! Let’s go find the ship that’s going to take us into the Grand Line!”

Leaving Saber behind to watch the boat this time, the rest of us walked through the streets to the shipyard.

“Uh,” Skull called out at one point as we walked past some popular clothing shop that had a panda mascot, “am I seeing things, or is that guy walking backwards?”

We all looked in the direction he was pointing, and sure enough, there was a guy not just walking backwards, but moonwalking down the street. Lots of people were stopping and staring, watching the guy go past them. I narrowed my eyes. Wasn’t there a weirdo like that involved in one of Luffy’s adventures in the East Blue?

Finally seeing the guy’s face as he went past us, it clicked. Mango? Dango? No, that wasn’t quite right. Anyways, he was the right hand of the fake butler guy. I wanted to say he was also a hypnotist that fell for his own tricks, or something like that. Didn’t he somehow end up as a marine?

Banjo—no, that wasn’t his name either—stopped several paces behind us and stared, and stared at us—no, at me. Ace shifted next to me, his scent changing a bit. The poachers incident must have left him feeling a bit on edge at having someone stare at me like that. I couldn’t exactly blame him, but we didn’t need to worry about this Jenga guy. Wait, no, I still don’t think that’s his name. What was it?

“Thought you had a weird tiger, but it’s just a dog. Cats are better,” the guy eventually said in an even tone before proceeding to nod at us and resume his moonwalk. It was going to keep bugging me that I couldn’t remember his name. I swear it was on the tip of my tongue.

“What a weirdo,” Cornelia muttered once the guy was out of ear shot. The rest of us nodded, and went back to walking for the shipyard. Bongo? No. Bingo? Nope. Jingle? …Nah. It was a good thing it wasn’t far to the shipyard. I needed something to distract my brain from trying to figure out that guy’s name, and picking out a new ship sounded like just the thing.

Chapter Text

The shipyard was no Water Seven, but it wasn’t anything to sneeze at either. Walking along the docks, there were lots of ships to stare at. Several were obviously in for repair, others in the process of being built, and more in various stages of being finished.

“There should be an office for the shipyard,” Skull said, looking around. “That’s where we can find out what ships are for sail, or we can explore a bit first, and then go ask if a ship that catches our eye is available.”

“Let’s just look around for a bit,” Ace said with a grin. “Why get a stuffy tour when we can have more fun doing it ourselves?”

No one spared us a second glance as we looked around, weaving between scaffolds and docks to see if anything caught our eyes.

“Do you think the crew on that ship has bad luck?” Cornelia mumbled, pointing out a ship with a black cat figure head that looked like it was in for repairs. I stared at the ship, something niggling in my head. What’s his name was on the island, and wasn't the fake butler guy’s crew something to do with cats? Hmm…

“That’s a cool-looking ship,” Masked Deuce said, pointing out one that had three large masts and a griffin for a figurehead.

“Yeah, but it’s way too big for a crew our size,” Skull said, lacing his hands behind his head. “The biggest we could go would be that one over there with the three side cannons and the horse figurehead. It might be a bit of a stretch in rough weather, but the five of us could handle those two masts and the lateen sail with some practice.”

“How big a crew are you planning on making, Ace?” Masked Deuce asked, taking in the size of the ship Skull pointed out. Ace shrugged in response.

“Dunno. Haven’t really thought about it. However big or small it ends up being is fine I guess. Captain gets a say in it too. He agreed to all of you joining.”

Three curious glances were thrown my way, and I nodded back. Ace had the final call, but he’d asked me about each one of them joining, even if it was just with a look, before extending the offer.

“Shouldn’t be surprised,” Masked Deuce said with a wry smile.

It was fun walking through all the ships and seeing the different styles. Skull would make comments about similar ships he’d been on, or why certain features would be better than others under different circumstances.

We were about two-thirds of the way through the shipyard when a ship at the farthest dock caught my eye. I butted Ace’s hip to get his attention, and trotted off. The ship was a bit smaller than the one Skull had pointed out with the horse figurehead. Though, there were two masts, and one of those lateen sail things at the back, but that wasn’t what had caught my eye. No, it was the figurehead.

Three fierce and proud looking dog heads made up the figurehead—one at the very center, the other two closely flanking it. Underneath them was a gun port for a frontal cannon. Each head was unique, but all their eyes were painted to look like they held an inner fire. Wooden fangs painted white looked like they should gleam under the sunlight, and the fur of all three heads was a deep crimson.

My tail wagged happily as I stared up at the figurehead. I liked this one. I didn’t know if we could have it, but this one was my favorite.

Ace chuckled as he came up behind me. “Well, I think we all know which ship Captain votes for.”

“It’s one we could handle,” Skull said, giving it a once over and nodding. “The figurehead is pretty awesome looking too.”

“I think it’s supposed to be cerberus,” Masked Deuce said. “I like that it feels fierce, but in a noble sense, not a terrifying one.”

“It would be appropriate,” Cornelia added, “having the guardian of hell as the figurehead when we have Captain who is a literal fire-breathing dog on the crew.”

Ace ruffled my fur. “Well, it’s agreed then. Let’s go see if we can buy ourselves a ship.”

Chapter Text

Having lived pretty much my entire life in the wilds of Dawn Island, I knew next to nothing about the economy of this world, so I had no idea if our new ship was just that expensive, or if we were just that poor. Either way, we were now basically broke. Was this how Nami had always felt? Even Ace was frowning a bit as we loaded our possessions onto the Hell’s Guardian as our new ship was named.

But, I had an idea that could fix our new monetary woes. We hadn’t exactly been very piratey since we’d left home, and I think it was about time Ace and I fixed that.

Once everything was moved in and settled, I got Ace’s attention.

“What’s up, Captain?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me. We knew each other inside and out at this point, so he knew I was up to no good.

|| Want—to—be—not—broke? ||

Skull and Masked Deuce made strange noises, passing the message onto Cornelia who hadn’t caught it and Saber. Ace, though, just gave me a devilish grin, knowing exactly what I meant. “Oh? And who or what is our target?” I flashed my fangs.

|| The—ship—with—the—black—cat—for—a—figurehead—It—belongs—to—the—weird—guy—that—walks—the—wrong—way ||

“Hold up,” Masked Deuce said, looking between us. “We’re stealing from another ship again? And how do you even know that, Captain?”

I met Masked Deuce’s gaze, huffed, and lied. || My—nose || I mean, it wasn’t a complete lie. I was ninety percent sure it was the ship that belonged to the weirdo and the fake butler guy, so if I’d bothered to get close enough to learn the guy’s scent, I know I’d smell it on the ship too. Most likely. Eh, it was fine.

Masked Deuce just shook his head.

“Of course he could smell it,” Skull muttered, scowling playfully at me. “Cheater.” I let my tongue loll out and wagged my tail.

“Well, we are pirates,” Ace said, adjusting his hat. “But, Captain and I can handle it ourselves if none of you want in on the action.”

“Stealing sounds fun,” Skull said, clapping his hands together and rubbing eagerly. “I’m really good at sneaking around, but I’m also an expert at distractions.”

Saber and Cornelia shared a look and shook their heads. “We’ll pass on this one. Not sure we’re ready to start actually stealing from people, but we could watch the ship.”

“Works for us,” Ace said, looking at Masked Deuce who sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“I already helped you raid and steal from one ship, what’s one more?”

Ace laughed and clapped Masked Deuce on the shoulder. “We might just make a proper pirate of you yet.”

Chapter Text

“Ready to go?” Ace asked, looking out the galley window. We’d spent a few hours until it got dark enough to sneak around getting familiar with our new ship. I had to say, it was worth every berri we paid for it. There was plenty of storage, an actual kitchen that Ace could use, a captain’s quarters for Ace and I, a room for the crew, a navigation room, and everything else we could think of to need.

“It’s not like our answer is going to change the fact that you’re going now, with or without us,” Masked Deuce said, getting up from his seat at the table.

“Ah, c’mon Deuce,” Skull said, throwing an arm around his shoulder. “It’ll be fun. Just think of it like high stakes hide-and-seek.”

I huffed. || What—are—the—odds—that—we—find—another—stowaway? ||

Skull laughed, heading out the door. “Considering they’re docked for repairs, only a really dumb person would be stowed away on their ship right now. If we’re really lucky, they might not have even left anyone to guard the ship since it’s in the shipyard.”

“Ah, don’t say that, Skull,” Ace teased, settling his hat on his head. “It might make our job easier, but it’ll take all of the fun out of it.”

Sneaking around the docks and onto the ship was easy enough. Well, for Ace, Skull, and I. Masked Deuce obviously wasn’t used to sneaking around like the three of us were, but we made it in the end.

Crouched on the ship so we couldn’t be seen over the railing, we looked around. There didn’t seem to be anyone on deck, but I could tell from the lingering scents that people had been on the ship within the past few hours. Whether those smells were crew or workers, I didn’t know. Luckily, Ace and I could cheat thanks to Garp’s training.

Ace met my gaze and held up two fingers. I nodded, that’s all that I could sense too, and they were quite weak. Not sick, or injured, or anything like that. Just weak. Dadan’s presence had felt stronger than these two, but I’d say they were probably stronger than any of the other bandits.

“Okay, looks like there’s two guys below deck,” Ace breathed out. We’d agreed to avoid using any fire from either of us to avoid drawing attention. “We can either sneak around them, or knock them out, but they may see us.”

“How can you even know there’s two people below deck?” Masked Deuce hissed back. “And don’t you dare tell me it’s Captain’s nose!”

“Nah, not this time. Special training from Gramps,” Ace said, placing a hand on Skull’s shoulder. “You still good for sneaking around and being a distraction? I’d prefer to just knock these guys out without them seeing us, but if we need a distraction, can I count on you?”

Skull’s grin was wide. “Of course! Just leave it to me.” Having someone that was used to sneaking around on ships was quite handy as Skull melted away into the shadows. We all blinked. That had been smooth. If I couldn’t smell or sense Skull, he would have just disappeared to me.

“Well,” Masked Deuce said after a long moment of staring at the spot where Skull had seemingly vanished, “that wasn’t creepy at all.”

Chuckling quietly, Ace placed a hand on Masked Deuce’s back. “C’mon. We’ve got some treasure to steal. Let’s hope these guys are rich, and if we have time, don’t forget to raid the kitchen too.”

“Do you ever not think about food?”

“Sure. It’s Luffy that always has meat on the brains, not me.”

Giving Ace a disbelieving look, Masked Deuce followed after him as they snuck below deck. I was on lookout duty in case anyone came back to the ship. After all, a barking dog was less suspicious than someone yelling if I needed to give them a signal.

Chapter Text

“Can you hand me the gauze?” Masked Deuce asked with a wince as he set down a bloody cotton rag that he’d soaked in alcohol beforehand.

“It’ll be easier if I do it,” Ace said, expertly placing the gauze over the five shallow, but long, gashes running along Masked Deuce’s chest. Once the gauze was held in place with medical tape, Ace secured it with a bandage wrap.

“And here I thought I was the one with medic skills,” Masked Deuce joked dryly.

“Luffy was a real klutz; especially when he was younger. I was always patching him up.”

|| You—went—through—almost—as—many—bandages—as—he—did ||

“Lies. It was more like half. I wasn’t the one getting eaten by the wildlife every other day.”

Masked Deuce smirked and shook his head. “Either way, thanks. And thanks, Ace, for training me the past couple weeks. Without your training, that weird cat guy would have gotten me a lot worse.”

I huffed. The only hitch in our entire heist had been the two crazy guys on the cat ship. They were apparently weak, but weird. Ace said they’d worn cat ears and gloves with cat claws on them. One of them had surprised Masked Deuce and gotten a hit in before Ace could knock him out. After that though, Ace, Skull, and Masked Deuce had tied the guys up and stolen pretty much anything of worth that wasn’t glued down.

|| We—should—celebrate ||

“Good idea,” Ace said with a grin. “Hey, guys,” he called out, getting everyone’s attention. “Want to go find a bar and celebrate our steal?”

“Didn’t the guys guarding that ship see your face though?” Saber asked, scratching at his head. “I thought we’d need to get out of here real fast ’cause of that.”

“There’s a third port on this island, on the north side. We could sail there to put some distance between us and them, and then go find a bar tomorrow after we restock with some of our new funds,” Skull suggested. “They may have seen our faces, but they don’t know our ship, and I’d bet money the rest of their crew will be out drinking until stupid early in the morning considering how late it’s getting already.”

“They’re going to be in for an extra nasty surprise in the morning besides just their hangovers,” Cornelia mumbled, with a smirk.

“No kidding,” Ace said with a chuckle. “But, that sounds like a plan to me. Let’s raise anchor and sail to this other port, and tomorrow, we celebrate!”

Chapter Text

We’d sailed in under cover of darkness, so I hadn’t thought anything of it, but under the light of day… That was Buggy’s ship just down the dock. Unless I was completely wrong, and someone else also sailed around in a circus themed ship with a Jolly Roger featuring a big red round nose.

…Yeah, no. That was Buggy’s ship, and that was Buggy’s big lion on the deck. And—no. No. No. No-no-no-no-no. Do not make eye contact. If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. What karmic being did I piss off that I had to see that stupid cat’s face again? I swear, if that cat tried to abandon Buggy’s ship and come back to us—

“Huh. Isn’t that the cat?” Ace said, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hat. “I didn’t realize you found a pirate crew to take him, Captain. Looks like you picked a good one though, with that lion they have there. It looks like they’ve made friends with each other.”

Good. They can stay friends, and stay off our ship.

We’d almost made it completely past Buggy’s ship when a voice rang out.

“Hey, Captain Buggy! It’s that dog from yesterday!”

I swear my insides went cold. Why, why oh why, did I have to be so recognizable some times? They weren’t allowed to try and give the cat back. No, not ever. He was their problem now.

“Huh? You mean that flashy dog that left the cat with us?”

Ace and I both watched as Buggy approached the rail and looked down at us. “Well, well, well it is the flashy dog. And you, are you his owner?” he asked, staring down at us. “You shouldn’t just let your animals wander around, you know. They can cause a lot of trouble.”

Tilting back his hat so he could see Buggy better, Ace grinned. “You’re a pretty good guy, worrying about animals like that. No wonder Captain chose you to take the cat off our hands.” That was not the reason. That was not the reason at all, but Ace didn’t need to know that. Putting his hands to his sides, Ace executed a perfect bow. “Thank you for taking in the cat. You really helped us out.”

“Huh? What? Oh, of course, you’re very welcome,” Buggy said, imitating Ace’s bow. “And what polite manners you’ve got—Wait! That’s not the point here!” he shouted suddenly, springing back up and pointing a finger at Ace. “Who are you, and why did your dog give me a cat and run off yesterday?!”

“Oh, forgive my bad manners,” Ace said, straightening up and grinning at Buggy. “I’m Portgas D. Ace, and this is Captain.” He rested a hand on my head. “We found that cat after fighting a group of poachers, but Captain doesn’t like him very much, so we needed to find him a new home.”

“Hmm, yes, yes, I see,” Buggy said, holding his chin in hand and nodding. “Cats and dogs are pretty notorious for not getting along. And after seeing the greatness that is I, the Great and Glorious Captain Buggy, your dog Captain decided I was the perfect pick did he? He’s a flashy one.”

Ace ruffled my fur. “Captain is the best. You’ll never meet a better dog than him.”

“Is that so?” Buggy stared at me for a moment. “Can he shake?”

I nodded and held up a paw. Together, Ace and I watched in fascination as Buggy’s hand detached from his body and floated down to shake my paw.

“Whoa!” Ace grinned. “That’s pretty cool! You ate a devil fruit too?”

“That’s right,” Buggy grinned back, looking a bit more menacing for all the face makeup he had on. “I ate the chop-chop fruit and became a chop-chop man. I’m the one and only great Captain Buggy the Clown—the genius jester of the East Blue! Surely you’ve heard of me.”

“I have actually,” Ace said, nodding. “I’ve read your name in the paper. You’re a pretty great pirate, right?”

“Hahaha! Of course I am!” Buggy threw his head back in laughter, his remaining hand on his hip as the other one floated back. “I’ve been a pirate my whole life, kid. I know everything there is to being a pirate.”

“Really? Have you got any tips for someone just setting out? I’m pretty new to this whole pirate thing, and would appreciate any advice from a seasoned pirate like yourself.”

Buggy grinned and jumped down off his ship to join us on the dock, throwing his arm over Ace’s shoulder. “I like you kid. You said your name was Ace was it? Let’s go and get a drink together, and I’ll impart unto you some of the wisdom of Buggy the Great.”

Chapter Text

“I promise he’s very well behaved. You won’t even know he’s here,” Ace said with a polite bow to the manager of the establishment. I also put on my best manners, bowing next to Ace. Makino said manners could get you places, and that was turning out to be very literal.

The manager caved to our delight, and Buggy’s amusement, on the condition that we sat in their outdoor seating area.

“You’ve got him well trained, don’t you?” Buggy commented as we picked a table in their low fenced outdoor seating area with a striped umbrella to shade us from the mid-morning sun.

“Nope,” Ace said with a cheeky grin as I settled down next to his chair. “Captain trained himself. I didn’t have to lift a finger. Pretty sure he’s trained me more than I’ve trained him.”

Buggy scoffed and flagged down the waiter for some rum. It seemed a bit early to be drinking, but I guess it was five o’clock somewhere. Ace ordered their entire breakfast menu, and convinced the waiter to bring a bowl of water for me.

“So, you say you’re new to being a pirate, and I’m sure I haven’t seen your face on a bounty poster. How long have you been at it exactly?” Buggy asked, throwing down half his mug is a single go.

“Less than two months.”

“Hah! You’re a real landlubber.” Buggy grinned and ran his eyes over us consideringly. “Why not just join my crew? You look like a decently strong guy. I’m sure you’d have no trouble rising through the crew ranks, and then you could learn from me first hand.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Ace said, resting his hand on my head. “We’ve already got our own little crew, and we’re heading for the Grand Line.”

The smile on Buggy’s face dimmed a bit. “The Grand Line, huh? You one of those guys trying to chase after the One Piece, become the next pirate king?”

Ace shook his head. “Nah. My little brother’s the one who will be the pirate king. Which means as the older brother, I’ve got to find some way to stay ahead of him. For now though, there’s someone I need to find and thank, and I know they’re out on the Grand Line somewhere.”

Buggy stared at Ace for a long minute and then started laughing. “You—you’re serious! That’s brilliant! You’re actually going to try and find a way to surpass what it means to be the pirate king just because of your brother? How are you even going to do that? The pirate king is supposed to be the one who has it all.”

Ace shrugged. “I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I’ve got three years to think of something before he sets sail. If nothing else, I’ve at least got to keep my bounty higher than his. Can’t let my kid brother go showing me up after all.”

In a swift movement, Buggy downed the rest of his drink, slammed his mug down on the table, and signaled for another. “You sound like a damn good older brother. I can respect that.”

“Thanks,” Ace said as the waiter started bringing out his food along with more rum for Buggy. He asked for an extra fork, and then set to work demolishing the food, using a fork in each hand—one for him, and one for me. Buggy just watched us for a minute, working through another mug of rum and pouring another right after. Should I be concerned at how fast he was going through those?

“You’re going to be one strange pirate, Ace,” he finally said.

“Yeah?” Ace said between bites. “Why’s that?”

“Because anyone looking at you would just think you’re a polite kid and his dog. You seem like you should be helping old grannies carry their groceries, not causing havoc on the high seas.”

“Give us some credit,” Ace said, twirling his fork around. “We’ve already raided one pirate ship, defeated a group of poachers that attacked us and took all their stuff before burning their ship, and robbed another pirate ship last night.”

Buggy chuckled and smirked with a glint in his eyes. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Nobody would guess you’d done something flashy like that, but that’s pretty damn impressive for a newbie. Who’d you steal from? I haven’t heard any rumblings from the bigger names on these seas.”

“I can’t remember the name of the first crew we raided, but the ship we stole from last night belonged to some weird guy that walks backwards.”

“A weird guy that walks backwards you say?” Buggy said, face scrunching up a bit. “You mean like that flashy fool over there?”

Ace and I followed where his finger was pointing to see the exact same weird guy—whose name still escaped me—from yesterday, walking backwards down the street; though, he might be a bit drunk this time since his path was less a straight line and more a wobbly one.

“Yeah, that’s him.”

Chapter Text

I watched the weird guy out of the corner of my eye as I pulled a sausage link off the fork Ace was holding in my direction. This might be bad if he’d found out what happened—and why did this sausage taste funny? I licked my lips, accepting another one, finding the same weird flavor. Whatever they seasoned these with, it was not my favorite. Too sweet. I’d prefer something more savory.

Like he had yesterday, the weird guy walked past us before stopping and staring, his body swaying a bit in his drunkenness.

“Huh. Hic! It’s the—I’s the kid with the wei—hic—weird dog.” He slowly turned his head to stare at Buggy who frowned.

“What’re you staring at, huh?!”

“Hic! Di—did you get stung by a—by a bee?” The guy asked, coming closer. He almost stumbled over the low fence, but caught himself. “Your nose. I’s so big, and so—so red.”

“Who did you say has a big red nose?!” Buggy shouted, his chair clattering to the ground as he lunged forward and grabbed the weird guy by his coat. I watched on in fascination, glad that Ace had switched over to feeding me bacon. It wasn’t crispy enough for me, but that was an easy fix compared to weird seasonings. Ah, the sweet smell and crunch of burnt bacon. Ace didn’t like his quite as well done as I did, but the smell of his bacon cooking more quickly joined mine.

“You shou—should see a doct—doc ’bout that. Looks bad.”

“You flashy fool!” I wasn’t sure when Buggy had pulled out all the daggers with his free hand, but the hand holding the weird guy up had detached from his body and was now lifting the weird guy into the air. “Nobody insults my nose and gets away with it!”

“Vice Captain Jango!” came the shout of several guys from down the street. Ah, Jango. That’s what his name was. Well, I got close. “Let him go, you big-nosed freak!”

“What did you just call me?!” Buggy’s face was as red as his nose at this point in anger. “I’m going to kill all of you!”

“Vice Captain Jango, you’ve gotta sober up!” one of the many guys wearing cat ears yelled. “We don’t have time for this! We went back to the ship! Buchi and Sham were attacked last night, and everything was taken! They said it was three guys—two guys in masks, and a teenage punk in an orange cowboy hat!”

Ace and I both stiffened, then abandoned all manners to scarf down the food that was left as fast as we could. This wasn’t ending well after all, and it was a shame to waste food.

“What?!” Jango said, seeming more with it than he had. His hands were coming up to pry at Buggy’s hand now. “What’d you say?!”

“We’ve been robbed! Please, hypnotize yourself into being sober! We’ve gotta find those guys if they haven’t left the island!”

Buggy seemed stuck somewhere between being pissed off and cackling in glee, knowing that we were the ones who had robbed these guys.

“Hey!” one of the guys yelled pointing a finger at Ace. “He’s a teenager, and isn’t that an orange cowboy hat?!” As one, Jango and all his crew mates turned to stare at Ace who was chugging down the pitcher of water the waiter had brought out to refill my bowl with as he tried not to choke on the food stuck in his throat.

Finally breaking into full out laughter, Buggy grinned dangerously. “You idiots are so slow! Good job robbing these punks blind, Ace! Losers like them don’t deserve treasure. I’m sure you and your crew will put it to much better use.”

“Thanks,” Ace said with a grin as he wiped his face off on the tablecloth. I sighed. He only avoided that bad habit when Makino was around.

“Why you!”

“Thief!”

“Get him!”

As one, Ace and I turned. Knuckles cracked and fangs gleamed.

Chapter Text

One, two, Jango was my new least favorite phrase. It had started with Jango literally hypnotizing himself to be sober; which, cheating. Then it turned into hypnotizing his crewmates to be stronger, and putting the Buggy pirates that had shown up from somewhere to sleep. Then more of Jango’s crew came, and more of Buggy’s, and the fight just kept growing bigger and bigger, spilling all over the street with everyone else running for safety.

It was kind of fun though, and these guys were super weak compared to Ace and I, so we didn’t need to use our fire or our haki to fight. Brawls like this reminded me a bit of our years in the Terminal.

“Ace! Captain!”

And now Saber and Skull were here too, fighting and dodging their way through the crowds towards us.

“What’s going on?” Saber asked, as they reached us. “We could hear the fighting from streets over, and someone was shouting about calling the marines.” Well, that was good to know.

“The guys we robbed last night picked a fight with Buggy, and then with me after they recognized me.”

“Ooh, does that mean Buggy is on our side?” Skull asked, stealing a pistol from a downed pirate with a happy grin. “Nice! This model is out of production.”

“Yeah!” Ace said, grabbing the closest pirate on Jango’s crew and throwing him into two more.

“Which one’s Buggy?” Saber intercepted a guy with his swords, steel screeching against steel.

“Long blue hair, orange captain’s hat and cloak, has a devil fruit, can’t miss him,” Ace said, dodging to the side and tripping the next guy that rushed him, sending him head first into the nearby wall. “His crew are the guys not wearing cat ears.”

“Gotcha!” Shoving the guy he had locked swords with back a bit, Saber kicked him in the stomach. “So, what’s the plan? Are we sticking around, or getting out of here?”

“Take that you flashy fool!” Buggy yelled loudly, drawing our attention before Ace could reply. A detached hand was holding up Jango’s hypnotizing chakram by its string. “No more of your cheap tricks, now! Get ’em boys! These flashy fools are nothing without their little mind tricks.” Buggy’s crew roared in approval.

“You think someone hasn’t tried that before?” Jango said, pushing up his cracked heart-shaped shades. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out two more identical chakrams. “A good hypnotist always has more than one medium up his sleeve.”

“Let’s—” Ace began, getting cut off by a loud shout of: “MARINES!”

“The marines?!” Buggy sneered. “Blast! Who invited them?!”

“Well, this is no good,” Jango added, looking in the direction the shout had come from. “It’ll mess up everything if we get caught now.”

“This isn’t over,” Buggy spat. “Next time I see your ugly face, you’re dead, you flashy weirdo!”

“Not if we kill you first,” Jango shot back, raising a hand to his hat. “Everyone, run! We can’t be caught by the marines now, or else!”

“We’ll get them next time! Back to the ship before the marines catch us!” Buggy called out.

“THIS IS COMMODORE PUDDING-PUDDING OF THE MARINES! I ORDER YOU PIRATES TO SURRENDER IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE!” came a loud voice that sounded like it was being projected by something so the whole city could hear it.

“I guess we should get out of here too,” Ace said as we watched the two crews go from fighting each other to fighting uniformed men and women that had flooded both ends of the street. “You two go first. Captain and I will follow.”

“You sure?” Skull asked, glancing from us to the chaos. “It would be pretty easy for all four of us to slip away in this commotion.”

Ace nodded and grinned, adjusting his hat. “Yeah. We’ll go check and see if Buggy wants a hand escaping. This whole fight started because the guys from the other crew recognized me from the description of the two guards on the ship last night. But, if you guys stick around, you might get labeled as pirates, and I know you don’t want that, so get out of here.”

Skull and Saber shared a look and nodded.

“Okay. We’ll make sure the ship is ready to sail,” Skull said. “The Buggy Pirate ship is at the same dock as us, so the marines are going to come swarming, and you two can be pretty recognizable. It’ll be best if we just leave.”

“Sounds good. If you need to, start sailing out. You can just leave the Striker behind, and Captain and I can catch up.”

“Right.”

With one last glance at the mess we were going to dive into, Skull and Saber took off down a small gap between buildings, easily escaping the chaos.

“Hey, Captain,” I looked up at Ace who was giving me a wild grin. He was having way too much fun with this, but I suppose that would be the pot calling the kettle black, because I was too. “How many marines do you think I’ve got to knock out before they give me a bounty?”

Chapter Text

“Now that’s flashy!” Buggy crowed as Ace and I took out a pack of marines to reach him. “You’re even stronger than I thought you’d be!”

Ace decked another marine in the face as I tackled one to the ground. “Figured you might like a hand!”

“Well, I’d be a fool to say no to that in a situation like this.” Buggy laughed as two marines tried to slice him with their swords only for his body to split apart and reattach. “Idiots! Blades don’t work on me!” The marines paled as Buggy took them out.

Several bullets when zipping through Ace, leaving fiery trails behind.

“Y-you!” Buggy exclaimed in shock, pointing a finger at Ace. “You’re a logia?!”

Grinning, Ace turned on the spot, his fist lighting up with crackling flames. “Fire fist!” he yelled, sending the flames racing into the marines that had shot at him. Buggy’s jaw looked like it had unhinged itself for a minute before he closed his mouth and grinned dangerously, turning to the nearest marines.

“That may be impressive, but I can’t let a rookie like you go showing me up, now can I? Chop-chop festival!” Now that was weird. Not just to see Buggy’s body spread out all over the place, but to feel how it registered to my observation haki was just bizarre. Still, I couldn’t let those two have all the fun.

Ace had already brought the fire, so I guess I’d just have to add to the heat. With an invigorating howl I let myself catch fire, jumping back into the fray of screaming marines.

“The dog too?! What the hell?!” I heard Buggy yell. Taking down another set of marines, I looked up to see his floating head, barked, gave a fiery grin, and wagged my tail happily. Buggy spluttered, and Ace just laughed as he took up a position at my side.

“We still owe them one for taking the cat. What do you say we open up a path for Buggy and his crew to get out of here, Captain?”

I nodded at Ace, fire curling in my throat and spilling out between my teeth. As Ace let loose another fire fist, flames flew from my mouth parallel to his. Our fires barreled into the marines side by side, almost instantly clearing a fire-lined path out of the area.

Cackling gleefully, Buggy shouted out orders. “The path’s been cleared men, let’s get out of here!”

We easily held the line as Buggy’s crew escaped, Buggy coming up at the rear even as his body reassembled itself. “You sure you don’t want to join my crew?” he asked as we let the fire encircle behind us and ran, leaving the marines shouting in frustration behind us. “I think we’d have a flashy good time if we joined forces.”

“We’re sure.”

“Stop you pirates!”

“Do they really think yelling that even works?” Ace asked as we ran. Well, we ran, and Buggy kinda floated along beside us, his feet still disconnected from the rest of him, but running along the ground next to us.

“Who cares. They’ve been doing it as long as I’ve been alive, so don’t expect them to stop anytime soon.”

Chapter Text

There was something satisfying about leaving a bunch of screaming marines on the docks while we zipped across the ocean on the Striker. Ace and I had bought time for Buggy and his crew to get out of the port, and now we circled their ship once, waving up at Buggy who had come to stand at the railing.

“That was a flashy getaway if I ever saw one,” he said with a grin. “Let’s share a drink again some day.”

“Sounds good!” Ace called back as I barked in agreement. I gave a low growl when the cat poked his head over the railing farther down. Ace laughed and ruffled my fur. “C’mon, Captain, let’s get back to the crew.”

Giving one last wave, Ace and I took off across the waves for the Hell’s Guardian that was sailing in the distance. The crew had made good time getting away from the island.

“Ace! Captain!” they called out as we got close, throwing down ropes so we could secure Striker. Once we were back on deck, we checked to make sure everyone else was fine.

“We’re fine,” Masked Deuce said, giving Ace a look. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s a good thing you had us rob everything that wasn’t tied down last night. Skull and Saber had to come back before they had a chance to buy anything.”

“We’re still a bit low on food,” Skull admitted, rubbing at the back of his head. “Since the ship didn’t have tons of food on it for us to steal last night.”

“Then let’s find the nearest island and finish properly stocking up so we can head for the Grand Line,” Ace said easily. “We’ll get lots of food, and new sails.”

“New sails?” Saber said, brow furrowing as he looked up to the sails. “What’s wrong with these ones?”

Ace grinned. “They’re not piratey enough. We’ve got ourselves a real ship now, and Captain and I just fought the marines. It’s about time we gathered the proper cloth and paint to fly the Jolly Roger.”

The rest of the crew tilted their heads and looked up consideringly.

“Makes sense,” Cornelia murmured a minute later. “Do you know what the Jolly Roger is going to look like?”

“I’ve got a few ideas,” Ace admitted. “But first, Skull, grab the maps and let’s set our course.”

“Aye-aye!” Skull called with a grin and a mock salute. Ace shoved him in the shoulder.

“None of that. We’re not trying to be marines around here.”

Laughing, we all followed Skull to our new navigation room and gathered around the table to plot the course that would take us through the rest of the East Blue and into the Grand Line.

Chapter Text

Chop. Chop. Chop. Sizzle. Crack. Flip.

It was nice to sit and watch Ace put the new ship’s kitchen to use. My tail thumped lightly on the floor as Ace hummed the pirate song Luffy had taught us under his breath. Leaning over from where he was keeping stuff from burning on the stove, he double checked the recipe book Makino had made for him.

“Man, that smells so good!” Skull called out from the doorway. “You going to be done soon, Ace? We can all smell it out here, and it’s pure torture.”

Ace laughed, stirring and lowering the temperature of the stove just a bit. “Give it twenty minutes, I’m almost done. There’s stuff to snack on if you need it though.”

“Snack now, dinner in twenty!” Skull hollered out onto the deck. That was all it took for everyone to pile into the galley. The snacks Ace had made out of habit since Luffy would always complain about being hungry before the food was ready quickly disappeared to appreciative groans.

“I’m so glad you can cook,” Saber said, snagging a bite from under Cornelia’s nose, making his glare at him. “All I’m good for is making a sandwich.”

“Just not grilled cheese,” Cornelia muttered, blocking Saber from another plate of snacks.

“That was one time!”

“You set half the kitchen on fire.”

“Hey, I’ve done that too!” Skull cheered, slapping Saber on the back. “Mine wasn’t grilled cheese though. I was craving bacon, but didn’t know what I was doing and started a grease fire. Lost half my hair and my eyebrows. It took forever for them to grow back.”

|| Are—you—sure—they—grew—back? || I stared at Skull’s mask. || Maybe—you—actually—wear—a—mask—to—hide—that—they—never—grew—back ||

“Hey!” Skull complained, tossing a snack at me that I happily chomped out of the air. “I’ll have you know that I have beautiful eyebrows, but if you want to see them, you’ve gotta pay me to take this mask off.”

|| Not—worth—it || Skull clutched his chest dramatically and collapsed to the table.

“I was always told to focus on my studies, and that I’d be married to a girl from a good family who would take care of the household stuff like cooking and cleaning,” Masked Deuce said, smirking at Skull and taking a sip from his mug. “I got in trouble if I tried to cook.”

“I used to just be able to roast meat over a fire and cook rice,” Ace said, turning the stove off. “Captain’s the one who convinced me to ask for cooking lessons.”

“A toast to Captain then,” Cornelia said, raising his mug. “For being smart and saving us from eating bad bachelor cooking and being miserable.”

“Hey!” Saber protested good-naturedly, but lifted his mug anyways.

“And to Ace,” Masked Deuce added in, raising his own mug. “I’ve had his cooking before, and it’s amazing. If he was a girl, I’d kiss him for it!”

“Hear, hear!” Skull cheered, knocking his mug against Masked Deuce’s. “That meal we had on Gally’s ship was one of the best I’ve had in a long time.”

“I stand by what I said about punching anyone who kisses me and stealing all their food.”

Everyone laughed at that, and I barked in agreement as mugs were knocked all around and everyone downed their drinks, thunking their mugs against the table.

“Food’s ready, so come and get it. I’m no waiter,” Ace called, already dishing up for him and me. It didn’t take long for everyone to fill their plates and get back to the table. As the first bites were taken, they all seemed to sigh and slump.

“Oh man, you two weren’t kidding,” Saber said, shoveling more into his mouth. “I haven’t had food this good since I ate Mama’s cooking.” Cornelia nodded in agreement, too busy eating to speak.

“Hey, Deuce,” Skull said cheekily after several bites. “Think we can find Ace a ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron at the next island?”

“Do, and I’m just going to burn it.”

“Then we’ll just need to buy more than one.”

Skull ducked as Ace sent a small stream of fire over his head. “You know, you’ve got me curious now what you look like with half your hair burned off.”

“Oh, come on!” We all laughed at Skull, Ace smirking triumphantly. I placed my empty bowl in Ace’s lap so he could get me more. It really was a good thing I talked him into learning how to cook all those years ago. And, having Makino’s recipes was like bringing the taste of home with us.

Chapter Text

I growled playfully, keeping a steady tension on the rope as I took a step back.

“Dammit! Dogs aren’t supposed to be this strong,” Skull complained, unable to keep me from pulling him over the victory line. “I mean, I know you’re crazy strong with your fire and speed and stuff, but where does this brute strength come from?!”

“I swear there’s something in the water on their home island,” Masked Deuce said, marking down another win for me. What had started as an arm wrestling competition had turned into tug-o-war so I could play too. “Ace is just as bad.”

“It’s not really an island thing,” Ace said, peering over Masked Deuce’s shoulder to see the scores. “Most the people on the island are pretty weak. It was just me, my brothers, Captain, and Gramps that were really strong. The old hag was stronger than the others, but she couldn’t compare to us.”

Everyone else on the crew shared a look, then turned to Ace and said, “It’s your grandpa’s fault.”

Ace shrugged. “Probably. I mean, he did put us through his crazy training whenever he came to visit, and we stuck to it after he left, so we got lots stronger. Whose turn is it now?”

“Mine,” Cornelia said, pushing off the railing with a sigh. “Can Saber and I take you on together?” He asked. I barked in agreement, nodding my head. Picking up the other end of the rope, Cornelia waved Saber over. “C’mon. Maybe we stand a chance together.”

They did not stand a chance. Not even close.

“This is ridiculous,” Masked Deuce muttered, putting down another win for me.

“Well, if two doesn’t work, let’s try three,” Skull said, walking over and grabbing onto the rope behind Saber after we reset it.

Three wasn’t working either.

“Deuce, get over here and help us!” Saber called out as I steadily pulled them closer to the line.

“Fine, I’m coming. Ace, hold this,” Masked Deuce said, giving him the paper and pen for scorekeeping. I held the pressure steady, but stopped dragging them forward while Masked Deuce joined in.

“All right, guys, pull!” Skull cheered. They were definitely putting up more of a fight now, but I was nowhere near the limit of my strength—it was more around half, maybe a bit more. I let them struggle for a bit, gave another playful growl, and took another step back.

“Seriously?”

“Why?!”

“Ace, we’re not winning without you,” Masked Deuce gritted out as he tried to dig his heels in to no effect. “You’re worth several people on your own.” He was right of course. Ace was the only one who’d been able to put up a fight against me so far, but in the end, he didn’t have quite enough strength to beat me.

Grinning, Ace looked at me and raised an eyebrow. When I indicated that I didn’t mind, he pocketed the paper and pen.

I dug my paws in, jerked at the rope, threw my weight back, and did everything I possibly could, but adding Ace to the others more than doubled their strength, and I couldn’t stop myself from being dragged over the line. Without Ace, they would have needed another three or four people to eke out a win.

“Finally!” The guys cheered, giving each other high fives. I may have lost, but my tail wagged happily. Having a real ship with lots of deck room to mess around and have fun on was the best.

Chapter Text

“So…why aren’t we concerned about today’s News Coo smelling burnt and having black feathers?” Saber asked, taking off his cowboy hat and scratching at his head. “It doesn’t exactly seem normal to me.”

|| Tulugaq—says—it—is—fine || I replied, keeping a careful eye on Tulugaq as she tried to stick the tips of her feathers into my fire writing.

“Captain says the bird says it’s fine,” Skull said, even as he peered more closely at Tulugaq. Saber didn’t really seem satisfied with that, but he shrugged and put his hat back on. “And the feathers aren’t burnt, just black.”

“Never seen a black News Coo before,” Masked Deuce commented as he flipped through the paper we’d gotten. “I wonder if it’s like the opposite of albinism.”

“Of whatism?” Ace asked, crunching down on an apple of his own after cutting one up for Tulugaq.

“It’s a medical condition where your cells don’t make pigment, so your hair or fur is white instead of colored, and it can affect the eyes too, making them pale.”

Ace blinked, shrugged, put the apple core into his mouth, and bit off the stem before tossing it over the side of the ship with a flick of his wrist. “Weird.”

[The humans on your ship are silly] Tulugaq said, finishing off her apple bites and flapping her way up onto my back. [I wasn’t born with black feathers.]

[Then how did your feathers turn black?]

Tulugaq hopped on top of my head, bending over to stare me upside down in the eye. [Well, it’s quite the story actually. You see, I’m far, far older than I look. So old in fact, that no one believes me when I tell them I remember the world when it was nothing but darkness.]

I wanted to tilt my head, but couldn’t with Tulugaq standing on it. [When the world was dark? What do you mean?]

[I mean, little fire dog,] Tulugaq said, blocking out the rest of my vision with her inky dark wings, [that I remember this world before it had a sun.]

I blinked. There was no way that was true. Tulugaq made a strange noise in her throat, wingtips brushing along my fur. [I see that you don’t believe me either. No one ever does, but it’s true. No matter how far the birds flew, or the fish swam, there was no sun to light the world. But,] Tulugaq exclaimed, removing her wings and hopping from my head to my back so I could turn to see her, [one day, I changed that.]

I gave her a long look. [Are you saying you’re the reason we have the sun?]

[That’s exactly what I’m saying. You see, I got lost in all that dark, and had to just keep flying, and flying, and flying because I couldn’t see to find a place to rest. My wings grew so tired, but in all that darkness, I finally found a pinprick of light. Of course, what else could I do but fly towards it? I have no idea how long it took me to reach it, but I found the sun.]

Well, the story couldn’t be true, but Tulugaq was an excellent storyteller, so I humored her. [So how did you bring the sun back with you?]

Tulugaq’s eyes twinkled as she spread her black feathers. [Now, that’s a secret I can’t tell you, but needless to say the price I paid was to have my white feathers stained black, and I would always smell a bit burnt for flying so close to the sun.]

[If you say so.]

Tulugaq tapped my nose with her beak. [Silly little fire dog. You obviously don’t believe me, but I promise you it’s true. Now, I have to be off. Do you think I could see that lovely fire of yours one more time?]

I flicked an ear, letting it catch fire and go from the cooler red to the blue-edged white I could now manage.

[So beautiful.] I let the fire disappear before Tulugaq could try and touch it. [It was nice meeting you little fire dog.] With several flaps of her wings, Tulugaq was off, the smell of burnt feathers lingering behind.

“She tell you anything interesting, Captain?” Masked Deuce asked, pulling out the notebook he’d taken to putting News Coo notes in. He and Skull liked to go over it together. I gave him my best doggy smirk.

|| Want—to—hear—the—story—of—how—a—bird—gave—us—the—sun? ||

“What?”

“Ooh, now this I’ve gotta hear,” Skull said, plopping down next to me on the deck. Saber and Cornelia joined, asking for translations so they wouldn’t miss anything. Ace folded up the paper he’d taken from Masked Deuce and settled down against my side with a grin.

“Let’s hear it then.”

Chapter Text

“Land-ho!” Skull called from the crow’s nest. He was using the spyglass, so it was going to take a bit before we could properly see the island with our eyes. Scaling down the rigging, Skull handed the spyglass over to Ace. “It looks like the water gets pretty shallow near the island. You can see the sand through the water up there. We may need to anchor farther out and use the longboat to go for supplies.”

“That should be fine,” Ace said, looking through the spyglass towards the island. “We’re not staying long, just like we planned. Food, sails, paint, and any other odds and ends you guys might have thought of. If it goes well, we should be sailing off again in a few hours.”

|| I—want—charcoal ||

Ace laughed and ruffled my fur. “Sure thing.”

“Why charcoal?” Cornelia asked. “We’ve got plenty.”

|| It—is—my—favorite—treat—so—I—want—my—own—bag—that—I—can—eat ||

Taking a minute to read out my words, Cornelia seemed surprised, but nodded. “Doesn’t sound good to me, but whatever works for you I guess. Must be a fire dog thing.”

In the end, Ace took the Striker, and everyone else took the long boat. I got ship watching duty. If anything happened, I could shoot a pillar of fire into the sky, and Ace could come rushing back. We really needed to get ourselves a den den mushi or something. Not that I could use one, but it would be good for the rest of the crew.

It took most of the afternoon, and several packed trips with the longboat, but we did manage to get everything we needed onto the boat. Ace was the last one back.

“Sorry,” Ace said as he jumped on deck. “I got caught up with this funny kid who liked to tell stories as crazy as the one that bird told you. He was telling one about toppling a beanstalk that reached the clouds to defeat a god so he could save an angel princess to these three really little kids, and I had to hang around to hear how it ended.”

“Oh yeah, we saw those kids running around and playing,” Saber said, hefting a crate from the last load. “I think they were playing pirates. The littler ones all had these teeny wooden swords they were waving all over the place.”

Masked Deuce chuckled. “They were trying to spy on Skull and I at one point, but they were really bad at it. They ended up running away screaming in terror when Skull tried to talk to them.”

“Don’t remind me,” Skull whined, slinging a bag of vegetables over his shoulder. “The older one with the long nose called me some evil-looking-no-do-gooder-villain that was going to eat them. I might not be a saint, but I draw the line at eating people. Otherwise, I would have joined that tribe of cannibals we found and eaten Deuce.”

“And I would have given you indigestion out of spite.”

The rest of the crew burst out laughing, but I sat myself down and blinked slowly.

“What’s up, Captain?” Ace asked when he got his laughter under control.

|| What—was—the—name—of—the—village? ||

“Uh…Syrup Village, I think. Why?”

I gave a shrug. What was I supposed to say? Oh, you just met Luffy’s future sniper and liar while I was bored out of my brains watching the ship? Yeah, no.

Chapter Text

Two white bones sat crossed on black.

“Pass me the red,” Skull said, holding a hand out for the paint can. All of us were gathered in the galley, the black fabric for our flag spread over the table. Growing up in the wilds of Dawn Island hadn’t given Ace much of a chance to learn how to draw well, but Skull and Masked Deuce both said they were decent.

With steady strokes, Skull filled in the chalk marked lines Masked Deuce had made. My tail wouldn’t stop wagging, and Ace’s grin was going to split his face at this point. This was it. We were finally going to fly the Jolly Roger and declare our piracy to the world.

“Orange.”

“Here,” Cornelia said, holding out another can and brush while Saber took the red away. It felt like my heart was in my ears, beating away. One of Ace’s hands was gripping the table while the other was tangled in my fur. I could feel it trembling in excitement.

“Yellow.”

With a few more swipes of his brush, Skull stepped back with a grin. “All that’s left is the finishing touches, and I’ll leave that to you two,” he said, motioning to Ace and I.

“I’ll take this side, you take that side?” Ace asked as he accepted a paint brush from Masked Deuce. I nodded, Saber pushing a tray of black paint my way. Together, we dipped brush and paw, shared a look, and placed our marks. I made sure to rest my paint covered paw on a towel that we’d grabbed just for this so I wouldn’t get paint all over the galley.

“What do you guys think?” Ace asked as he stepped back.

Saber smirked. “Looks pretty perfect to me.”

“I like it,” Masked Deuce said with a nod.

“Suits you perfectly,” Cornelia added.

“It’s simple, but it will stand out from a lot of other Jolly Rogers,” Skull piped in.

Two white bones sat crossed behind a large blood-red spade. In the middle of the spade was a blazing flame of orange and yellow. The lower left of the spade had my paw print in black, and the lower right had "Ace" written in Ace’s sharp cursive, his 'A' in the same star-mimicking style Sabo had liked to use. We’d have to mimic my paw on the sail, and Ace would have to write a lot bigger, but for our flag, it was perfect.

“We missed our celebration on Mirror Ball Island, but we’re not missing it this time,” Ace declared. “Break out the booze, and let’s celebrate!” Everyone cheered, heading for where the liquor was stored. A hand landed roughly on my head, wildly ruffling my fur. “It doesn’t get more official than this, Captain!” Ace laughed. “We’re pirates now!”

Technically, we still needed to get bounties since we somehow hadn’t gotten any after Mirror Ball Island, but that could come later. For now, I threw my head back and howled in excitement. Ace’s howl joined my own as the guys cheered as loud as they could. Mugs were clanked, booze was downed, and we even convinced the others to howl with us once they were a bit drunk.

Today was the day the Spade Pirates became an official crew.

Chapter Text

Ace groaned as he woke up, face buried in my fur. “Not again,” he muttered, rubbing his face. He’d really gone all out drinking with the others yesterday, and like Woop Slap had warned, his narcolepsy was making him pay for it. That was his third episode since waking up this morning. Not to mention the fact that Ace had never had a hangover before, and he wasn’t really liking that either.

“Never again,” he moaned, tucking his head into my shoulder, most likely to hide from the light coming through the window. I huffed and turned my head to lick his cheek. “I don’t care how good the reason is, don’t let me get drunk like this again. Being hungover is the wor—”

I sensed a familiar sensation and gave Ace a warning whine.

“Again? But I just woke u—”

And he was out again, slumped limply against me. I had no qualms enforcing Ace’s idea of limiting his drinks in the future. Luckily we were only in the East Blue right now, but being out of commission like this with such a small and weak crew would be a disaster in the stronger seas. Not to mention we couldn’t trust Ace in the rigging right now. The alcohol had really messed with his narcolepsy, and I wasn’t going to chance that even if he normally only had attacks when he was relaxed or eating.

“—p.” Ah, there he was. “This is dumb,” Ace grumbled, snuggling into me more. “Why’d Dadan always like to get drunk?”

|| You—had—fun—yesterday ||

“Too bright. Your fire is making my head hurt.”

I huffed again. Another reason to not let Ace drink. Being able to communicate was important, and this meant his own fire wouldn’t be good right now either.

A knock at the door drew our attention.

“Ace, Captain? You two in there?” Masked Deuce called through the door. We’d retreated to our quarters after Ace had stopped puking his guts out.

Ace mumbled out a yes, and I gave a soft bark.

“Can I come in?”

At another affirmative from Ace, Masked Deuce came in with a glass of water and something cupped in his palm.

“Here,” he said, holding the glass and what I could now see were two pills out to Ace. “This should help with your hangover.” Ace didn’t need any further convincing, downing the pills in an instant. “Well, at least you aren’t throwing up anymore, and can actually keep the medicine down now,” Masked Deuce said, taking the glass back. “You really should slowly build up an alcohol tolerance instead of just going for it like you did last night.”

“I’m never drinking like that again,” Ace said, squinting at Masked Deuce. “And you guys suck for not telling me hangovers were this bad.”

“Ah, well, we were a bit too drunk to be giving warnings by the time you let it slip that you’d never had more than a few sips of alcohol before.”

Before Ace could retort, I gave him another warning whine.

“Seriously?!” Ace threw his hands up in the air. “I hate this!” Masked Deuce and I shared a look and a nod after Ace fell asleep again. Yeah, as best friend, partner, first mate, and the closest thing we had to a doctor, we were never letting him get this drunk again.

Chapter Text

[Hi! Hello! And Howdy-do? The name’s Zippy, and I’ve brought news for you!]

[News?] I tilted my head. There was only one bird I was waiting for news from. Did she mean she had a message from Bob? I felt a sudden flare of nerves. [What news?]

[Ahem!] She said, mimicking clearing her throat. [A message from one Bob the News Coo to Captain the fire dog: No luck yet. The one you’re looking for isn’t around the crow-guy, but I know plenty of other fellows to ask, so don’t give up hope. It seems their group is one spread around the world, and they like to hide, so please be patient. The one you’re looking for could be anywhere, but we’ll find him.]

I couldn’t help the wave of disappointment. Of course finding Sabo couldn’t be that easy. Before meeting Bob, I hadn’t even had a network to make use of, so I shouldn’t be feeling so down. At least I wasn’t the only one looking.

[Hey now, don’t look so down!] Zippy said, fluttering her wings. [Bob’s a bird of his word. Whoever it is you’re looking for, Bob and his fellows will get them found.]

[Thank you,] I replied, still feeling a bit down. Having hope could be really painful sometimes.

[Oh, come on now,] Zippy said, [I can’t go when you’re looking like that. We’ve got to turn that frown upside down.] I’m pretty sure if birds could put their wings on their hips, that’s what Zippy would be doing. [Now, tell me about this someone you’re looking for. They must be pretty important to you if you’ve got Bob and his friends looking for them.]

[He is,] I said, sitting down. [Sabo is pack, but he had to leave us years ago for reasons out of his control. It’s possible he’s got a head injury too that made him forget us, so I’ve got to find him and help him remember.]

[Oh my.] Zippy reached down with a wing and patted my head a couple of times with it. [That’s terrible to hear. I hope it all works out for you. I’ve known Bob for a few years, and it’s rare that he lets someone down. Just keep your chin up dearie, you’ll have some good news in no time. I’m sure of it.]

[Thank you.]

[Don’t you mention it. Now, how about I take your mind off it? I can tell you about this absolute brute of a coo that I ran into a few weeks ago. The cracked egg thought he could bully me into being courted, but oh no siree, no one bullies this girl into anything.]

Listening to Zippy’s story was distracting, and I found myself snorting at the absurdity of it. If I ever had to fight alongside a News Coo, Zippy would be one of my top choices. She was a fierce little thing.

[Good to see you looking more chipper,] Zippy said when her story was over. [Now, I’ve got to be off, but you take care of yourself. And, if you ever happen to meet any decent single coos that know how to respect a lady, you send them my way, you hear?]

I blinked. I did know one actually. One who was very friendly and polite, talked just as much as Zippy, and was also specifically looking for a lady to woo.

[Have you ever heard of a coo named Toodles?]

[Can’t say I have. He a decent fellow?]

[Very. He’s earnest and upbeat, with a positive outlook on things. He’s new to delivering the news, but he was hoping it would give him an opportunity to meet a lovely lady.]

Zippy nodded. [Well then, I’ll keep an ear out around the gossip circles. You know us birds, always chattering on about something. Maybe I’ll see if I can find this Toodles bird. I’ll keep an eye and an ear out for your Sabo too.]

[I appreciate it. Fair winds, Zippy.]

[And smooth waters for you,] Zippy said, adjusting her bag. [Oh, I plum-near forgot! Silly me, I delivered the message and forgot to ask if you wanted a copy of the paper.]

Thank goodness Zippy had remembered. If the crew had seen her flying away and there was no newspaper to be had, I’d have never lived it down.

Chapter Text

“So, how does this work now that we’re flying a pirate flag, but not all of us are pirates?” Cornelia asked, staring up at the freshly painted sails.

“It works how it works,” Ace said with a shrug. “As long as you guys don’t get bounty posters, you won’t ever be officially declared pirates. So, just avoid conflicts with the marines I guess.”

“It really doesn’t bug you that we don’t all want to be pirates?” Saber asked from where he was sitting and polishing his swords.

“Nope. I’d never force someone to be something they don’t want to be. Just respect me as the captain of the ship and crew, and I’ll be good.”

“But you aren’t captain. Captain is Captain,” Skull said cheekily.

I huffed. If that wasn’t going to be a running gag amongst the crew, I’d eat one of Ace’s boots. Ace seemed to agree with a roll of his eyes and a playful swat at Skull. “If it bugs you that much, my little brother Luffy always called Captain Cap.”

“And miss out on all the confusion? Never!” Skull declared dramatically. “Just imagine us being in the middle of a battle, yelling for our captain, and our enemies expect you to respond, but instead here comes Captain the fire dog. I can see the looks on their faces now.” Cackling, Skull dodged several more playfully swipes from Ace.

The play swipes turned into some strange kind of mock duel as the rest of us watched on.

“So, why don’t you want to be a pirate, Deuce?” Saber asked as Ace caught Skull in a headlock.

Masked Deuce scowled. “Because I’m not out to rape, and pillage, and plunder—not from respectable people, the pirates we’ve robbed don’t count. I want to explore, and go on adventures, and write a book about the strange things you can find in this world. It’s all Gold Roger’s fault. Because of him people don’t care to make a difference between adventurers and pirates anymore. I hate him.” Pure, scathing hatred and loathing dripped from Masked Deuce words.

Ace had stopped his scuffle with Skull, letting the other go, and hiding his face with the brim of his hat. His scent had changed, dripping with self-loathing, self-hatred, depression, and so many more of the negative emotions I had watched him battle since I’d know him. I wanted to snap and growl at Masked Deuce, but I couldn’t. Any kind of unexplained reaction right now could give Ace’s secret away.

Instead, I needed to get Ace away from here. He didn’t need to hear this. Making my way to Ace’s side, I pawed at his leg.

|| Will—you—make—me—cinder—milk? ||

“Sure.” There was a slight falseness to Ace’s voice, but no one seemed to catch it as he took the escape I offered and we both headed to the galley.

Chapter Text

Ace did make me a bowl of cinder milk, but it sat abandoned on the floor, growing cooler by the second.

“Of course they hate him,” Ace murmured into my neck, his arms wrapped around me, and his fingers clutching at my fur. “If they knew, I’m sure they’d hate me too.” I gave a soft whine of protest. I didn’t think any of the guys would hate Ace if they knew, not when they’d had a chance to get to know Ace first. With all his pirate enthusiasm, Skull might even be ecstatic about it, but it wasn’t my secret to share, and one wrong slip up could lead to Ace’s death.

I nuzzled the side of Ace’s head, and licked at his ear and neck. Even if I was wrong and everyone on this ship would hate Ace if they learned the truth, it didn’t matter. We’d started this journey with just the two of us, and we could continue it with just the two of us if it ever came to that. There were people out there who would accept Ace for who he was though, and I was pretty sure four of them were on this ship.

If they ever did find out and turned on Ace because of Roger, I would bite them, burn them, and toss them overboard. Ace gave me a weak smile when I told him as much.

“Thanks, Captain. I know I can always count on you.”

I huffed. Of course he could, but that knowledge alone wasn’t enough to change his scent and improve his mood. So, it was time to pull a Garp. My paw smacked lightly against Ace’s chest as I pushed my emotions through the hit. Garp had told me once that I had a lot more finesse for the Fist of Love than he did, and I’d always been proud of that.

Ace’s eyes took on a watery sheen as my emotions washed over him, and he ducked his head, rubbing at his eyes with his shoulder.

“Cheater,” he mumbled. For my part, I just snuggled closer to Ace, contenting myself with the slow change in his scent as the worst of his bad emotions faded away.

The door to the galley opened a few minutes later, boots clomping against the floor. From both the sound and smell, I knew it was Skull.

“Hey, Ace, Captain, do you wanna—” Skull cut himself off as he peered around into the kitchen and found us on the floor. “Ooh, another narcolepsy attack?”

Well, that was a convenient excuse for us being on the floor, if nothing else. The alcohol had messed up Ace’s body for a few days, so the crew was used to him having more attacks now, though they’d been tapering off and getting back to a more normal amount.

“Yeah,” Ace agreed, not bothering to get up. “What’s up?”

“Saber and Cornelia are going to spar with their swords. I was coming to see if you wanted to watch. Deuce is being boring and won’t bet with me.”

“Sure.” Ace ruffled my fur and got to his feet, but his hand didn’t leave my head. I’d be making sure to stay glued to him for the rest of the day. “Let me just reheat Captain’s cinder milk. I was out of it for a bit.”

Skull chuckled and gave a thumbs up. “We’ve really gotta find something for you to drink that doesn’t put you out for days.”

“I knew a barmaid that always served minors non-alcoholic sparkling ciders. I always liked them, so maybe I’ll just stick with those,” Ace said, picking up my bowl and dumping its contents back into the pot on the stove. We’d learned the hard way that trying to reheat it with fire just set it aflame, and while I could use my heat control trick to warm it back up, Ace seemed to need something to do for a few minutes before going back out on deck.

“Not a bad idea,” Skull said, rubbing at his chin thoughtfully. “Those are easy enough to find and stock. Cheaper than alcohol too.” Thinking about it for a moment longer, Skull shrugged. “I’ll go let the guys know you’ll be out in a minute.”

Ace gave a noncommittal hum while he stirred my cinder milk around in the pot. I sat at his side, pressing my weight against his leg. It was going to be a long rest of the day.

Chapter Text

It was weird to be acting in my official capacity as first mate, but that was exactly what I was doing when I cornered Masked Deuce to talk to him.

“What’s up, Captain?” he asked, setting down a book he’d been reading. The others were all distracted by a poker game near the helm so they could keep the ship on course. That was perfect for me, because it allowed us to keep this conversation private.

|| We—need—to—talk—and—Ace—will—not—bring—this—up—so—as—first—mate—I—will ||

Masked Deuce frowned, turning in his chair to face me. “Is something wrong?”

I allowed myself to sit. We were going to be here for a few minutes at least.

|| Do—you—think—Ace—and—I—have—raped—pillaged—or—plundered—from—normal—citizens? ||

“What?!” Masked Deuce jerked back in his chair. “No! Why would you—”

|| Do—you—think—we—will—start—doing—any—of—those—things? ||

“Of course not! Ace isn’t that kind of guy!” Masked Deuce snapped, anger lining his features. “What is this about, Captain?”

|| Ace—and—I—are—pirates ||

“I know that.”

|| But—yesterday—you—declared—without—reserve—that—pirates—do—all—those—things ||

Masked Deuce face twisted for a moment. “So what? You’re saying I’m not allowed to have an opinion? I didn’t think you were like this, Captain.”

|| A—pirate—saved—Luffy—from—death—when—he—was—a—kid—A—different—pirate—and—his—crew—caused—us—a—lot—of—pain—and—hurt—and—in—the—end—I—had—to—kill—him—to—keep—us—safe ||

“Your point?”

|| I—am—making—sure—you—understand—that—there—are—different—types—of—pirates ||

“Pirates are pirates,” he groused. “They’re all awful, and Gold Roger was the worst of them all.”

|| Then—what—of—Ace—and—I? And—why—do—you—hate—Gold—Roger—so—much? ||

“You and Ace are different,” he argued. “For one, you’re a dog, and two, Ace is way too polite and kind in his own weird way to do any of that stuff. And, I hate Roger because it’s his fault that everyone back home mocks and treats adventures, pirates, and criminals all the same.”

|| Ace—and—I—are—still—pirates—You—are—contradicting—yourself—Not—everything—is—so—black—and—white—And—how—do—you—know—that—that—is—the—fault—of—Roger? It—sounds—to—me—like—you—are—blaming—him—because—it—is—what—is—convenient—and—easy—not—what—is—correct ||

“He’s the king of the pirates, why wouldn’t it be his fault? And of course I know the world isn’t black and white! What do you think I am? Five?”

|| No—A—five—year—old—would—have—a—much—more—open—mind—than—you—You—think—and—speak—like—the—narrow—minded—lowlives—that—gather—in—bars—and—blame—all—the—world—for—their—problems—instead—of—taking—responsibility ||

I had been in enough of those bars with Ace, heard enough of those narrow minded people, to know that this was no exaggeration. I would not allow this particular brand of narrowmindedness to exist on a ship and crew under Ace’s command. Not when it could cause hurt to my most important person.

Masked Deuce stared at me, gobsmacked, his mouth working itself open and shut, but no sound escaped. His face seemed to slowly lose some of its pallor, and you could almost say it looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“I— What— When—” he finally managed to murmur, staring at his hands as if they weren’t his own. Lost eyes looked up at me.

|| I—would—like—to—think—you—are—better—than—this—Masked—Deuce ||

Confused eyes blinked twice. Slowly.

|| Realize—that—not—all—pirates—are—Roger—and—that—you—have—no—way—to—know—how—many—of—the—stories—of—him—are—true—and—how—many—of—them—are—government—spun—propaganda—You—are—supposed—to—be—smart—You—have—a—brain—so—use—it ||

He winced at that, his features twisting into shame and guilt.

|| Stop—blaming—your—shortcomings—and—insecurities—and—truths—you—have—refused—to—face—on—a—deadman—that—you—never—even—knew ||

Masked Deuce buried his face in his hands, but I had one more thing to say to him, so I waited patiently for him to pull himself together enough to once more glance my way. It took awhile, and when he did, I got to my feet.

|| You—are—the—only—one—to—have—the—honor—of—receiving—a—name—from—Ace—besides—myself—and—I—will—never—forgive—you—if—you—do—not—carry—yourself—in—a—way—worthy—of—Ace—and—that—honor ||

With my piece said, I left Masked Deuce to stew in his thoughts.

Chapter Text

The best part about fishing over the side of the boat was the snacks Ace made. There was no comfy grass to nap on, no shallow waters like the river so I could watch the fish dart around, and no Luffy to be stupidly entertaining, but that was okay. The snacks made it worth it. Ace had made lots to tide us over for the afternoon. We were both enjoying chowing down on some jerky when he finally got a pull on his line.

“Alright!” Ace said, leaning back and starting to reel the line. I barked in encouragement, watching the way his pole bent more and more. “Geez,” he said, bracing his foot against the railing. “Whatever fish is on the other side, it’s a fighter.”

All of a sudden, the fishing pole bent to almost the point of snapping as Ace was dragged forward.

“WOAH!”

I lunged for Ace, and if I’d had arms, I could’ve caught him, maybe stopped him, but my teeth fell short as another swift jerk pulled Ace over the boat and into the ocean. My barking turned frantic as I stared at where Ace had gone under the water. Dogs weren’t good divers, and I had no arms to wrap around Ace to pull him back up to the surface. If he was a normal person, maybe we could make it work, but the weakness the ocean would give him for eating a devil fruit wouldn’t let that happen.

“Shit! Ace!”

A coat was thrown onto the deck next to me before Masked Deuce jumped over the side to go after Ace. The other three joined me at the railing. A whine escaped my throat. I hated this. I could save Ace from a lot of things, but not the ocean.

“It’ll be okay,” Cornelia muttered. “Deuce went in right after him.”

“Does Ace really lose all his strength in the ocean because he ate a devil fruit?” Saber asked, turning to look at Skull.

“Yep. I’d only met one other devil fruit user before Ace, and he sank like a rock the one time he fell overboard.”

“Sounds unpleasant,” Cornelia said, repressing a shudder.

I barked as Ace and Masked Deuce broke the surface of the water. Ace was coughing and spluttering, and I needed him back on deck so I could make sure he was okay.

“Throw us a rope!” Masked Deuce shouted, using one arm to keep afloat while the other one held onto Ace. Skull did just that, and the four of us worked together to pull them both back onboard.

The second Ace was out of Masked Deuce’s grip, I was all over him. Sniffing, whining, licking, and head butting him.

“Easy, Captain,” Ace said, pulling me into a weak hug. I could smell the unease wafting off him and whined again. “I’m okay. Falling in the ocean and losing my strength like that sucked, and I lost my fishing pole to whatever stupid fish that was, but I’m fine.” I rested my head on Ace’s shoulder and met Masked Deuce’s gaze. Two simple words curled off my ear into the air.

|| Thank—you ||

Chapter Text

Having an itch you couldn’t scratch as a dog was awful. Biting it didn’t work, going after it with my back paw didn’t work, and I couldn’t find an edged surface at the right height to try that either. If Ace wasn’t busy sparring Saber, learning more about how to use his dagger, I’d be bugging him to scratch it.

“Hey, Captain.” I paused, skin and fur caught between my teeth as I tried the biting method again to still no luck. My eyes roved upwards to stare at Masked Deuce who had a strange look on his face that faded away when he saw he had my attention. “I just wanted to say—” he cut himself off with a huff, running a hand through his hair.

“Look, I’ve never been on another crew, so I’ve got nothing to compare it to, but…” he dropped his hand and looked me straight in the eye as I let go of my skin and gave up on my itch for a minute. This was obviously important. Masked Deuce seemed to gather himself and spoke again. “You’re a good first mate, Captain. I still don’t want to be a bountied man, but I’m really liking this little crew of ours… Is that okay?”

I nodded, never dropping my eyes from his. It was good to see that he’d taken our little talk to heart.

“Does that—are we—are we good again?” I let him shift his weight around before nodding once more, slowly. After several moments, Masked Deuce seemed to almost deflate, his shoulders slumping and a sigh escaping him.

“That’s—that’s good.”

I huffed and gave a toss of my head before going back to trying to make the stupid itch go away. If I could just—!

“Um,” Masked Deuce cut in, not having moved. “Do you want help with that? I mean, I know normally Ace does it, but you’ve been at it for a little bit now, and…” he trailed off as I stared at him again. Normally it was only pack that touched me, but I did let that one baker girl pet me, and Masked Deuce was crew, which was better than a stranger, and the itch was really bad— Screw it.

I nodded, and almost whined in relief as Masked Deuce knelt down and got his fingers to scratch in the area. Sure, he wasn’t as good a scratcher as Ace who knew me better, but, oh, the sweet relief. I couldn’t stop my tail from thumping against the deck.

Masked Deuce chuckled, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Better?”

|| Much—Thank—you ||

Making himself comfy on the deck next to me, he pulled a book out of his coat pocket. “Mind if I keep you company and read?”

I shook my head and tried to get a look at the book’s cover. The book had obviously seen better days, looking quite damaged. Noticing what I was doing, Masked Deuce showed it to me. “It’s called Brag Men. It’s kind of like an exploration journal. I’ve loved this book since I was a kid. Some of the stuff in it may sound crazy, but I like to believe that it’s all true.”

Well, that sounded interesting. Leaning back, Masked Deuce stared up at the sky before turning his gaze back to me. “I used to get so mad when the adults back home called the book nothing but stories and lies. I hated how narrow minded they were about it all, and I swore I’d never become like them. You—you reminded me of that the other day.” He gave a wry grimace. “Without meaning too, I grew up to be exactly what I never wanted to be, and I never even noticed, not until you pointed it out, so…thanks I guess, for slapping some sense into me.”

|| I—have—a—lot—of—experience—slapping—sense—into—idiots ||

Masked Deuce seemed to choke for a moment before laughing. “Yeah, I guess you do,” he finally said, looking back down at his book and running his hand gently over the cover.

|| Would—you—mind—reading—out—loud? ||

Masked Deuce gave me a bemused look, seemed like he was going to say something before thinking better of it, shook his head, and gently opened the front cover of the book to start reading it to me.

Chapter Text

“News Coo is here!” Skull called out.

“I’ll get the apple,” Cornelia muttered, heading off to the galley and shooting Saber a look when he called to bring back snacks for the rest of us too. “Get your own snacks.”

“Ah, come on, Cornelia, I’m hungry!”

“Tell Ace, not me. He’s the one that can cook.”

“I’ll start on dinner after we read the paper,” Ace said, not bothering to get up as he dug a couple of coins out of his pocket. Saber groaned and put a hand over his stomach, mimicking dying which made Ace snort and send a lazy kick his way.

I turned away from the scene to watch the News Coo land just as one of her feet seemed to catch on the other and she was sent tumbling to the deck.

[Are you okay?]

[Oh, I’m fine. Just fine,] the News Coo said as she got to her feet only to promptly trip and fall over again. I tilted my head to the side, and everyone else was snickering in the background.

[You sure?]

[Yes, yes,] she huffed, getting up and stumbling to a standstill. [It’s just these darn feet. Why I was born with two of them, I’ll never know. Always getting in each other’s way, tripping me up, and making me look like a klutz. Doesn’t mother nature know I’m a bird? I use my wings to get around, not my feet. I only need one leg to stand on to give my wings a rest!]

The News Coo glared at her feet, and then waved a wing in my direction. [How you four-legged creatures deal with three extra feet, I’ll never know. I’d be falling over everywhere, even worse than I already do now.]

“Here’s the apple,” Cornelia said, setting down a bowl on the deck next to us.

“Where’s my snack?” Saber joked, nearly getting his head taken off by a spare apple that Cornelia chucked at him. “Hey!”

Cornelia gave Saber a smug smirk. “You asked for it.” Saber seemed to contemplate throwing the apple back at Cornelia, but thought better of it at the last second and took an aggressive bite out of it instead.

[Oh, you are the apple dog then.] I gave a silent thank you to Cornelia in my head that he’d placed the bowl in reach of the News Coo so she didn’t go tripping herself again. [All the coos around these parts are talking about you.]

[All good things, I hope?]

[So far. Why? You done something bad?]

[Not really, but I am a pirate, it’s bound to happen eventually. My name is Captain by the way, not apple dog.]

[Shame, I could have had some juicy new gossip to spread, and juicy gossip makes for a popular coo.] She ate several pieces of the apple before stopping abruptly. [Oh, and I’m Pretzel, like the bendy kind, not the straight kind.]

I blinked. A pretzel was a pretzel. Did it really matter to distinguish which shape of pretzel she was named after? I revisited the thought a few minutes later when her feet got all tangled up again as she went to leave after giving Ace a copy of the paper. Maybe it did matter after all. Straight pretzels would never get tangled up like that.

Chapter Text

We’d been on the ocean for awhile, but according to the calculations I’d slowly worked out with Skull, we were only about two-thirds of the way to our next destination. It made sense I suppose. The distance between the Gecko Islands and the Polestar Islands was much farther than any other distance we’d sailed so far.

We could have headed for the Oykot Kingdom first and then to the Polestar Islands, but Ace was getting antsy to get out of the East Blue. It’s not like the Grand Line was going anywhere, but I could also understand it. There was nothing to challenge us here except each other, and Garp if he happened to be in this sea on a vacation.

My ears drooped a bit. I missed Garp. And Luffy. And Makino. And Stripey. And Sabo. But, maybe I could actually find Sabo now. It still didn’t change the fact that I was missing my pack. I loved Ace, more than anything or anyone, but I missed the others. I missed Luffy’s silly laugh and his too big smile. I missed piling up together on the jungle floor. I missed gentle hands and preparing for the next time Garp came to visit.

“What’s the matter, Captain?” Ace asked plopping down next to me. I gave a low whine and commandeered his lap.

|| I—miss—the—pack ||

Ace ran his fingers through my fur, our two fires intermingling. It was quiet for a few minutes before Ace let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, me too,” he said in a low voice. “Luffy would never let me live it down if he knew how much I missed him right now.”

|| Do—you—think—we—could—write—them—a—letter? ||

“A letter?” Ace seemed perplexed. “I mean, I guess we could. Do you mean just to Luffy and Makino, or Gramps too?”

|| Once—we—get—bounties—we—will—not—be—able—to—write—him—anymore ||

“Fine,” Ace said, giving me a weak shove. “But I’m saying the letter to Gramps is all from you. Now, get off me. We can’t do anything on the floor like this.”

Ace wrote the longest letter to Luffy telling him briefly of some of the cool things we’d seen and done, and also included a short note to Makino, thanking her for all the cooking lessons and telling her just how helpful they were now. Then he let me leave a paw print on another sheet of paper to also include in the letter.

The letter to Garp was harder. We had no idea if he’d been back to Dawn Island yet, and if he hadn’t, this would give away the game if we said anything. I still wanted to send him something though. In the end, we settled for a sheet of paper with my paw print. It took some convincing, but I got Ace to draw a lopsided heart around it, and he stuck a spare ace of spades and ace of hearts card into the envelope at the last minute before we handed it off to the News Coo.

It wasn’t the same as seeing any of them, but I did feel a bit better.

Now we just had to hope sending that letter to Garp wasn’t a mistake, but I couldn’t bring myself to be upset even if it was. Ace was bound and determined to do something once we got to the Polestar Islands to get a bounty. Maybe, our little letter would help soften the blow when Garp found out, even just a teeny bit.

After all, I knew Garp had no sympathy for criminals, but family—pack—was different. Despite him seeing it coming from miles and years away, I knew we were still going to end up breaking his heart just a little. He was going to be angry at us, and scared for us, and probably wondering if there wasn’t something he could have done.

The rest of the afternoon was spent reminiscing while Ace brushed my fur. By the time Ace had to stop and make dinner, I felt a lot better.

Chapter Text

Checkers was a game that never really made sense to me. I mean, I knew you were supposed to jump over and capture all your opponents pieces, but the how escaped me.

Click. Click. Click.

“That’s three more pieces for me,” Saber said, collecting my red pieces and setting them to the side of the board. I huffed and stared at the few pieces I had left.

“Know which one you want to move yet?” Saber asked after a minute. No, I really didn’t. But that was more because I had no idea what I was doing than anything, so I nodded. If I didn’t know what I was doing, it didn’t really matter what I did, did it?

“Okay. Is it this one?” he asked, pointing to the piece to the farthest left. I shook my head, and he moved his finger to the next one. I shook my head again. This would be easier if Saber could read my cursive, but no one else had been in the mood to play with him, and it was something to do. The next piece he pointed at, I nodded my head.

“Alright. Which way?” I pointed with my nose to the left and watched him move my piece. Click. Saber didn’t even have to stop and think as he picked up his next piece. Click. Click. There went another of my pieces. I only had three left now. Skull picked that moment to walk over and peer at the board.

“Wow. Losing pretty bad there, huh, Captain.”

|| I—know—I—am—supposed—to—jump—over—his—pieces—but—I—do—not—understand—the—strategy—of—this—game ||

“I see. That’s a problem. You’re pretty much a lost cause this game. Want some tips next round?”

“What’s Captain’s problem?” Saber asked. I really needed to practice with my fire more so that I could control it free of my being and use printed letters instead so Saber and I could talk.

“He doesn’t know how strategy works in checkers, just that he has to jump your pieces.”

“Well, that would explain a lot,” Saber said, looking from me to the board. “None of your moves were really making sense to me. It was like playing against a little kid.”

I huffed at that, making Skull chuckle.

“Why don’t we reset the board, and I’ll play on Captain’s team. We can teach him together, walk him through what we’re doing and why.”

“Works for me. You okay with that, Captain?” Saber asked, hands hovering over the pieces to rearrange them back to the beginning.

I nodded, happy to see all my red pieces put back in front of me as Skull took a seat next to me. Saber moved one of his pieces first since he was black, and then it was our turn.

“Alright, Captain,” Skull said a bit too cheerily. “Pay attention, cause I’m gonna teach you how to win.”

“Oh? We’ll see about that,” Saber said, narrowing his eyes a bit.

Somehow, it felt like I was no longer a player in this game. But that was okay as Skull stuck to his word and walked me through every move he made, and every move Saber made. It still didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but it was fun to listen to the two of them argue over the game.

Chapter Text

Front of ship. Back of the ship. Front of the ship. Back of the ship.

“I’m surprised he hasn’t crashed into something or someone yet,” I heard Cornelia mutter.

Front of the ship. Back of the ship. Other side of the back of the ship. Front of the ship.

“You really think he would?” Saber asked. “I mean, we’ve seen how skilled he is.”

Back of the ship. Other side of the back of the ship. Harsh turn. Zig-zag the masts. Front of the ship. Zig-zag back. Jump over Masked Deuce as he walked out onto the deck.

“WOAH!” I cleared him no problem. He was fine. Harsh turn. Back of the ship. Front of the ship. Faster. Loop-de-loop the foremast. Faster. Double back the way I came off the back of the figurehead. Faster. Jump over the crew. Immediately hit the ground and do it back the other way. Faster!

“What’s gotten into Captain?” Masked Deuce asked. I could feel his eyes now tracking me along with the others, or at least trying. I was in that zone where my muscles were all loose and the speed just seemed to flow through me. Faster, and faster, and faster, and faster! The only time they caught glimpses of me was when I changed direction. I could do better than that.

Zig-zag. Jump. Harsh turn. Double back.

“He’s finally gone stir crazy,” Ace said, not bothering to look up from the fire in his palms that he was slowly coaxing into different shapes while also working the heat of his flames from hotter to cooler and back like I’d taught him. “He’s spent pretty much his whole life being able to run around all day, everyday. He got his energy out fighting me back on Gaimon’s island, but that was still fighting, not running. He just needs to let it out.”

I would resent that, but it was absolutely true. I just couldn’t deal with not stretching my legs out anymore, but the ship was only so big and it had been way too long, so just running around normally wasn’t going to be enough. That’s why I was pushing myself. Speaking of pushing...

Mainmast. Foremast. Mainmast. Foremast. Crow’s nest. Hi Skull!

“WAH!”

Catch the spyglass. We need it not broken. Hard landing on the deck. I can do better. Back up the masts. It was like jumping between trees. Easy. Simple. Give the spyglass back. Jump back down to the deck. Still a hard landing, but better. Again. Again. Again.

Better. Faster. Swifter. More agile. More. More. More. I could be faster. I could be better. I needed to be, and I so I would. The fact that it was helping me burn off all my extra energy was just a bonus.

“I feel like we should be concerned,” Cornelia murmured again as the time passed.

“You can always go get a cannonball and play fetch with Captain instead,” Ace said. He’d moved on to writing the alphabet to work on his fine directional control.

“A what?!”

Ooh, good idea Ace! I hadn’t played fetch in a long time. That sounded fun. Harsh turn. Through the door. Down the stairs. Off to the gun deck. Grab a cannonball. Back to the deck. Drop the cannonball in Ace’s lap.

Ace looked from the cannonball to me as I impatiently pawed at the deck and barked.

“Wait, you were serious about the cannonball?!” Cornelia seemed completely flabbergasted.

With a smirk, Ace picked up the cannonball and chucked it. I was off, catching it before it could clear the side of the ship and bringing it back to drop it in his lap again.

“I’m seeing this, and I still don’t believe it.” Saber took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair.

“Do you have to use a cannonball?” Masked Deuce asked, seeming to have given up on denying anything strange Ace or I did. “I thought Captain bought toys and stuff at that place in Orange Town.”

Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about those. Oh well, this was fine. I barked impatiently, and darted off when Ace threw the cannonball again.

Chapter Text

I was crowded into the crow’s nest with Ace, staring quietly out at the small dark blur on the horizon. That was it. The Polestar Islands, our next destination. Ace had a frown on his face, his hand clenching and unclenching in my fur in a rhythmic pattern.

“It’s there,” he said lowly, his voice barely meant for me to hear. “The place that man was born, and the place he was killed. …Loguetown.” I leaned my weight heavily against Ace’s side.

|| Do—you—want—to—see—it? ||

“I—I don’t know.” I hated how distressed Ace smelled. “I hate him, Captain. Hate him.” I nuzzled my head under Ace’s chin. “It’s his fault. It’s all his fault that my life—” Ace cut himself off, jaw clenching tight. He brought his free hand up to eye level and slowly closed it. “My blood is cursed, because it’s his blood. I hate it.”

I gave a low growl and forced my way into Ace’s lap. He wasn’t wrong that having Roger’s blood had made his life hard, but that wasn’t saying anything bad about Ace. It said a whole lot about the world and the people in it though.

|| My—blood—is—red—Your—blood—is—red—Blood—is—just—blood—It—keeps—us—alive—but—it—does—not—make—us—who—we—are ||

Ace gave a self-depreciating chuckle. “Tell that to everyone who wants me dead.”

|| I—will—with—fangs—and—fire ||

Huffing at my declaration, Ace turned his gaze back to the horizon. Well fell into a silence as we watched the island creep closer.

“Hey, Captain,” Ace said after quite some time had passed. I flicked an ear and tilted my head to look up at him. “Do you think I should go see it? The place he died?”

I thought about it. Would seeing Roger’s execution platform be good for Ace? His feelings about the man were all tangled up, but it didn’t change the fact that his overwhelming feelings about the man were hatred, anger, and hurt. I knew Luffy would be over eager to see it when he arrived in three years… Now, there was an idea.

“What’s that look for?” Ace asked, as I stared up at him in eager mischief.

|| I—bet—Luffy—will—climb—the—platform—when—he—gets—here—Want—to—burn—a—message—into—the—wood—for—him—to—find? ||

Ace made a startled choking noise.

“You—you want to—?!” His expression was one of incredulous disbelief.

|| Vandalize—where—the—pirate—king—died—to—leave—a—message—for—the—future—pirate—king? Yes—I—thought—you—would—like—the—idea ||

Ace stared at me for a long moment, his current expression slowly slipping off his face to be replaced by unholy glee.

“Hell yeah, I do.”

Chapter Text

Loguetown was a bustling place, just like Mirror Ball Island had been. Having been here several times before, Skull had volunteered to watch the ship while the rest of us explored and restocked.

Ace and I used the time between trips back to the ship with supplies to scout out the town. We hadn’t told the rest of the crew our plan to vandalize the execution platform, and we weren’t going to. They wouldn’t understand, and would probably outright object to it. Besides, this was something personal for Ace. They didn’t need to know.

I’d been keeping a close eye out for the marines, Smoker specifically, but I hadn’t seen any signs of him. Would he even be stationed here as the Captain yet? It would be a lot easier if he wasn’t. Since we needed to keep our vandalizing project quiet, so our little message to Luffy could hopefully survive for three years, Ace had other ideas about what to do in this town to get a bounty.

Ideas that involved the marine base. Just like we’d done on Mirror Ball Island, we were going to send the crew and the ship out to sea before us, leaving the Striker behind. It was the best we could come up with to keep the rest of them from getting bounties, and to allow for a faster, cleaner escape if Ace and I were pursued.

We’d gotten a pretty good lay of the land by the time all our errands were done. Now, we were standing in a narrow alley that spilled out into the plaza where the execution platform was. Surprisingly, there were no guards, but there were marines that patrolled with some regularity.

Ace would be able to climb the scaffold directly, but I wouldn’t. There were a few nearby buildings that looked promising though. If I could get onto the roof of one, it would be easy enough to jump over onto the platform.

Taking a seat on a crate in the alley way, Ace drew up a knee and stared at the distant platform with narrowed eyes. I sat next to him, resting my head on his thigh.

“I never did ask Gramps how he finally caught him,” Ace murmured after some time had passed.

I hesitated for a moment. || Do—you—want—to—know? ||

“No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know,” Ace huffed, drawing his eyes from the scaffold to look down at me. “Aren’t you curious, even just a little?”

|| No—I—asked—Garp—a—long—time—ago ||

Ace stiffened. “Wait, you know?! And you never said anything?!”

|| You—never—asked—Garp—so—I—thought—you—did—not—want—to—know ||

I had asked Garp once, while laying around the sputtering embers of a dying fire, but only so if it ever came up I never had to lie to Ace about how I learned the truth in the first place.

|| I—can—tell—you—if—you—want ||

Ace hesitated, hurt and confusion swimming in his eyes as he stared at me. “I—I—” He fell silent again, several expressions flashing across his face.

|| You—can—ask—me—whenever—you—want—It—does—not—have—to—be—now—or—ever—if—you—do—not—want—to—know ||

Ace went back to staring at the scaffold. “Later,” he whispered. “Not now, not here. Maybe later. When we’re alone.”

I nodded and went back to resting my head on Ace’s leg.

Chapter Text

We took to wandering the backstreets when Ace no longer wanted to stare at the scaffold. There were some interesting shops, and part of me wondered where certain places like the shop Zoro had gotten his swords from, and that bar with the old man running it were.

Perhaps the most interesting thing was actually a someone who I’d completely forgotten was from this town. I couldn’t remember his full real name. It was something long and started with a B, but Luffy had called him Rooster-head, or something like that. I was pretty sure I remembered his green hair being in a messy mohawk to get that name, but right now it was slicked into a pompadour.

Rooster-head was sauntering around the back alleys like he owned the place, several other punks that would probably be part of his future crew tagging along. Ace and I shared a glance and a smirk. Rooster-head was definitely one for dramatics, swaggering around like that.

It was quite obvious when he caught sight of us, blatantly raking his eyes over us. “Hey, punk,” he sneered, strolling over with his hands in his pockets to sneer down at us. I hadn’t realized how tall Rooster-head was. He towered over Ace by at least a foot, and that nose ring looked painful.

“Is there a problem?” Ace drawled, tipping his hat back with a couple of fingers, his weight shifting to be ready for fight.

“Yeah,” Rooster-head leaned back a bit so he wasn’t quite so into Ace’s personal space, but he didn’t step back. “Your shitty hat and shirt are so bright they make my eyes burn!” I wasn’t sure Rooster-head had room to speak on fashion, but what did I know? I was just a dog in a bandanna. “Buuuuut,” Rooster-head bent down low to stare at me intently before straightening up again, “your dog looks hella cool, and I’ve got somewhere to be, so I’ll let it go this time.”

Bumping roughly into Ace’s shoulder, Rooster-head walked off, flipping us the bird as his lackeys followed right on his tail, all laughing at something one of them said. Ace glanced at me and I shook my head. Rooster-head was a punk, but he was an important punk. I didn’t want to know what would happen if we somehow screwed up his future. Luffy needed him.

Rolling his shoulders, Ace and I continued meandering through the backstreets. We had time to kill, and after my stir crazy episode a few days ago, I wanted to spend as much time on land as possible. Who knows, maybe we’d find something cool.

Chapter Text

It had been a long time since Ace and I had to sneak around anywhere. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, making our way from the lower buildings to the higher ones while getting closer and closer to the plaza and the execution platform was fun. Luckily for us, it was a cloudy night, the moon hidden away to help darken the night.

We eventually arrived at our goal, the roof of the building located behind the execution platform. It looked different, staring down at it like this. Maybe it was because it was dark and the plaza was empty of all the people that filled it during the day, but the platform that had loomed so tall during the day now looked quite small and lonely.

There was still something about it though, a feeling perhaps. No matter how it looked, this was the place where one man’s life ended, and with his one life, he set the rest of the world on fire, turning it upside down into a new age unlike any seen before.

I’m not sure how long Ace and I stood there, simply staring down at where Roger had died.

“Is it any good?” Ace’s words were little more than air on the breeze. “The story of how Gramps caught him?”

|| It—is—not—what—you—would—expect ||

Ace seemed dissatisfied with my answer, but finally made the final jump down to land on the platform. I followed right behind him.

There wasn’t a single speck of blood to be found on the wooden planks beneath us. I suppose, given what he did with his final words, the government did their best to wipe any trace of Roger from this world. They were far too little, far too late. He had immortalized himself in the very fabric of the world. Even if the world didn’t remember his real name, shoving the D into Gol, they would never forget the man who triumphed and conquered all the seas.

Kneeling, Ace placed a hand against the wood, glaring at it. Slowly, his gaze rose to look forward. “This view was the last thing he saw. Do you think…” Ace trailed off, his hand clenching into a fist so tight his knuckles turned white. “I bet he didn’t even spare a thought for mom and me—what he was leaving us behind to face. Selfish bastard.”

|| If—he—did—not—think—of—you—Garp—would—never—have—known—of—or—found—you—We—never—would—have—met ||

Ace cursed, punching the platform, but not hard enough to damage it. “I don’t care! He’s still a selfish bastard!” he hissed.

|| He—was—the—king—of—the—pirates—Of—course—he—was—selfish—Luffy—is—too ||

Ace huffed. “Yeah, yeah he is, but Luffy will be a way better king than he ever was.”

I nodded and leaned against Ace. There was no question. Luffy would be the best king ever. A few minutes later we left the platform behind. Right in front of where Roger’s knees would have rested were two new additions to the silent monument. A single burnt in pawprint and Ace’s stylized, loopy-star-point A. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it didn’t need to be. A small weight seemed to shift on Ace’s shoulders as we gave a proverbial middle finger to a man long dead.

Hopefully, Luffy would be the first to find them in three years’ time.

Chapter Text

It was that odd time of the night where you could either call it really late, or super early. Ace’s narcolepsy was not going to like him staying up all night, but exceptions had to be made sometimes.

Exceptions that involved vandalizing where the pirate king died, and then digging a tunnel under a tall concrete wall into a marine base so we could cause chaos and earn some bounties. We didn’t even bother covering the hole I’d dug. These marines were going to know exactly how we infiltrated their yard, and then their base.

Ace took one look at me, stifled a laugh, and knocked a bunch of dirt off my head and nose. There were marines on night duty, so we had to be quiet. With a nod of his head, I followed after Ace. We were probably cheating, using our hard earned abilities in haki against these East Blue baby marines, but it made sneaking through the halls stupidly easy as we got farther and farther into the base.

Ace’s plan had three simple parts to it. First, we needed to find something to steal. Second, we’d picked this time specifically so we could do a major dine-’n’-dash at the canteen for breakfast. And, third, we were going to fight our way out while causing absolute chaos.

So, for now, we needed to find something to steal. Something that the two of us would carry, would be noticed, and wasn’t stupid.

We avoided the barracks, nothing worthwhile to steal would be there. No, we needed to find the offices. Prowling through the base, we couldn’t help grinning at each other as we peered through the rooms. This was fun, and Garp was going to be so pissed when he found out. We weren’t having much luck finding anything to steal though. Paperwork was boring. Important, but boring. Ace shoved some into his bag anyway because Skull had asked him to.

Finally, we found a room that had something I thought was worth stealing. Ace did have to knock an unfortunate marine on guard out, but it was worth it. He could help raise the alarm later when he woke up. I put my paws up on the table, tail wagging slowly as I put my nose a bit closer to sniff curiously. For all the years I’d lived in this world, I’d never actually seen one of these in person.

[Hello. My name is Captain. What’s yours?]

A den den mushi the size of a cat opened its eyes and stared at me before retreating into his shell.

[Hello?]

I pawed at his shell.

[I’m not trying to hurt you. I just want to know your name.] Slowly, one eyestalk appeared, then the other. When I made no other move, the snail emerged back out of his shell.

[Alfalfa.]

I blinked. [That’s your name?]

The eyestalks bobbed together in a nod.

Huh. Strange name.

Ace looked between me and the den den mushi before plucking Alfalfa off the table and tucking him under his arm. Alfalfa wiggled a bit and then went limp, seeming to accept his fate.

[It’s okay. Ace won’t hurt you. Can I call you Alf?]

I think the motion I got in return was a shrug.

Chapter Text

The cooks at this marine base weren’t bad, but Makino’s food was better in my opinion. Makino was nicer too. She’d never throw pots and pans.

“Thieves!”

“Intruders!”

One cook glanced at my bandanna that now not only proudly bore the ASL Jolly Roger on the side-edge in Makino’s crisp lettering, but also our new Jolly Roger that sat boldly in the middle.

“Pirates!”

Grinning, Ace flipped another cook over his shoulder while downing a pot of something. I snarfed a whole plate of sausages, and knocked over a big bottle of oil, making the cook that was trying to catch me slip with a curse.

“Help! Pirates! Pirates in the kitchen!”

Alarms started blaring, and Ace and I grinned at each other.

“Sounds like that’s our cue,” he laughed, shoving several pieces of toast into his mouth. I barked in agreement, running over to where Ace had plopped Alfalfa down by a bowl of fruit when we first popped into the kitchen. “Right, can’t forget this guy,” Ace said, grabbing Alfalfa and the banana he’d been eating. Poor guy looked a bit out of his element, getting dragged around like this.

“Get them!”

“They’re stealing our den den mushi!”

“Forget the snail! They ruined breakfast by eating everything!”

Running out of the kitchen, we found ourselves facing a horde of marines. Some of them looked like they were still waking up, and I spotted several with their shirts on inside out. They must have been in a hurry to try and stop us.

“Stop right there!”

Ace smirked, his free hand lighting up. Alfalfa retreated into his shell. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Fire fist!” Following Ace’s fire, we both jumped into the fray, taking out marines left and right.

“Someone get Captain Patsy!”

“Don’t bother! I’m already here!” The marines in front of us parted for a short, wiry man with a face that strangely reminded me of a goat with a long, bristly looking soul patch.

“What kind of heathen attacks before I can even get my morning cup of joe?!”

His beady eyes seemed to narrow in on Ace’s flame-licked fingers “I got reports from Commodore Pudding Pudding about an unknown fire user helping Buggy the Clown cause a ruckus not too long ago on Mirror Ball Island.”

“That would be me,” Ace said, tipping his hat back. “The name’s Portgas D. Ace, and I’m pissed off that you guys didn’t give me a bounty after that.”

Captain Patsy scoffed. “You think I care about something like that?”

Smirking, Ace let his flames flare a bit. “You should. It’s the entire reason I decided to break into your little base here, steal your stuff, eat your food, and cause problems in the first place.”

“Well, that’s your mistake, boy,” Captain Patsy snapped, jamming some sort of helmet with little horns on it onto his head. “I’m going to stop your little tirade in its tracks, right here, right now. You’ll be locked up without ever getting a bounty. Horn rush!” he shouted, lowering his head and charging at us like an animal.

A few seconds later the man was out cold on the floor, his helmet cracked in half.

“Weak,” Ace said, frowning down at him. “I thought a marine captain would put up a better fight than that.” He didn’t bother to spare the gaping marines around us a second glance. “Oh well, let’s get out of here, Captain.” I barked in agreement. We’d definitely done enough to earn at least Ace a bounty now. Maybe I’d get lucky and get one too.

It took several long seconds for the rest of the marines to pull themselves together.

“Someone get the Captain to the medic team!”

“Don’t just stand there! Somebody stop the pirates!”

The helter-skelter chase through the base was fun, and the more determined ones that actually had their boots on right chased us all across the yard, through the front gates to the base, and down the streets of Loguetown.

We pulled ahead of them just before we reached the docks, jumping into the Striker the crew had left behind for us and taking off to the shouts of angry marines as the sun rose into the sky.

So long, Loguetown. It was time to leave East Blue behind.

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe you stole their den den mushi,” Masked Deuce sighed in exasperation. Alfalfa had not liked the sea spray the Striker kicked up, or the fire Ace and I used to do it. He still refused to come out of his shell. Or maybe he was just sleeping. I wasn’t really sure, but I fetched a banana to put near his shell since he’d seemed to like the one he ate earlier.

“You two are a lot more petty than I thought,” Saber said, kicking his feet up.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Nah. Just funny is all. Can’t say I know anyone else that would mess with a marine base just because they didn’t get a bounty.”

“My little brother would never let me live it down if I made it out of East Blue without earning a bounty,” Ace said, giving a big yawn that I echoed a moment later. We’d need to go to bed soon.

“How big do you think your bounty will be?” Cornelia asked. He’d added a few apple pieces for Alfalfa next to the banana. We shared a look and nodded. Whoever’s offering Alfalfa ate first won.

“Dunno.” Ace looked down at me. “How big is the hag’s bounty?”

|| Just—under—eight—million—I—think ||

Masked Deuce translated for Saber.

Ace nodded. “Then I at least want a bounty bigger than that for my first one. Can’t let the hag have a bigger bounty than me once we’ve both got one. Hey, Skull, you know more about this kinda stuff. What kinda bounty do you think I’ll get?”

Skull paused in looking through all the papers Ace had stolen to look up. “More than eight million. You trespassed on a marine base, broke into the actual building, stole some really important documents,” he said, tapping the papers for emphasis, “stole a den den mushi, raided their food supplies, attacked them, and resisted arrest.”

Crossing his arms, Skull leaned back in his seat. “That doesn’t include any property damage, or all the ruckus you helped cause on Mirror Ball Island. They could tag you with even more from that, and they know you have fire devil fruit powers. Not to mention you were seen on friendly terms with a well known pirate in these seas, and you took out a marine Captain in a single hit.”

“So, more than eight million,” Masked Deuce said, a contemplative look on his face. “But just how much more?”

Skull shrugged. “Beats me. The current highest bounty here in the east is a fishman by the name of Arlong. I’m not sure they’d give you a bounty like that. You’ve caused trouble, but you haven’t been outright dangerous, not to the public at least. If they see you as a contemporary to Buggy maybe they’ll give you a bounty similar to his. I think he’s sitting around fifteen million.”

Ace hid another yawn behind his hand. “Fifteen million sounds like a good start to me, but one day I’m going to be worth billions.” I knew he was thinking of Shanks’ newest bounty poster that we’d seen several months back.

“Billions?” The rest of the crew seemed a bit taken aback.

“The only people in the world with bounties that high are the four pirate emperors, a few of their strongest crew members, and Dragon the revolutionary,” Skull pointed out slowly. “Maybe a couple of the warlords would be worth that much if their bounties weren’t frozen.”

“Yeah, and?” Ace knocked his hat off to run a hand through his hair.

“Nothing. Just didn’t realize you were aiming that high. Are you aiming to be the next pirate king?”

“Hm?” Ace hid his flinch under his tiredness. “Nah. Luffy’s gonna be the king, but I can’t go letting my little brother show me up. That would just be embarrassing, so I’ve got to make sure and keep my bounty higher than his.”

I couldn’t stop a big yawn as the crew exchanged amused looks. Ace’s hand settled on my head to gently ruffle my fur. “Can you guys manage things for a few hours?”

“We’re fine,” Masked Deuce said, waving us off. “Go get some sleep before your narcolepsy makes you.”

Chapter Text

Ace’s fingers ran through my fur in long gentle strokes, our fires lazily mingling together. We’d woken up from our early morning nap after being up all night, but neither of us was quite ready to get up yet.

Sometimes it was nice to just lay together like this, enjoying some peace and quiet. Part of my brain still expected Luffy to join us at some point, since he didn’t ever leave us to our quiet for long.

The sound of the ocean was soothing, and combined with how comfortable I was feeling, I’d almost dozed off again when Ace spoke, his words a gentle murmur.

“Would you tell me?”

I opened one eye and turned my head just enough to look at Ace, my drowsy brain not quite making connections at the moment.

“You know,” he said mulishly, refusing to meet my gaze as he tried to stare a hole into the ceiling. “About how Gramps…” he trailed off, but my brain was working again, and I knew exactly what he meant. Roger. He wanted to know how Garp caught him. I rolled over onto Ace, making him grunt as I got comfy halfway laying on his gut.

|| Do—you—want—the—short—version? ||

Ace huffed, pursed his lips, and nodded. I waited a moment to see if he’d change his mind, knowing this was something Ace couldn’t take back once he knew it, but when he made no indication otherwise, I let my fire curl into the air.

|| Garp—did—not—catch—him—Roger—turned—himself—in—to—Garp ||

“What?!” Ace hissed, jerking up and almost knocking me off him. “You’re lying!”

I shook my head. || I—swear—it—is—the—truth—on—my—life ||

A myriad of expressions flitted across Ace’s face, but overall, he just looked lost and confused.

“Why the hell?” he muttered, hands fisting in the sheets. “Why would he— What was that selfish bastard thinking?! He just turned himself in?! Who does that?!”

I sat quietly, letting Ace get it out of his system. It didn’t surprise me when he finally rounded on me, a demanding look in his eyes.

|| Garp—did—not—know—everything—but—he—had—his—own—thoughts—on—why ||

“And what would those be?” Ace nearly growled. His anger was palpable.

|| To—quote—Garp—Roger—would—not—have—done—something—like—that—without—a—damn—good—reason ||

“He had a damn good reason not to!” If we had been completely alone, and not on a ship with other people, I had no doubt Ace would be yelling right now. “What about mom?!” he spat out viciously. Then, quieter, and with much more hurt, “What about me?”

I whined and wiggled up to lick Ace’s face. Arms wrapped around me, and I could feel Ace trembling, but I wasn’t sure if it was from anger, or from hurt.

“Why weren’t we a good enough reason?” Ace’s voice wobbled and caught on itself. “Did he hate us that much?” I growled and nipped at Ace, pulling back to stare him in the eye.

|| If—he—hated—you—he—would—not—have—asked—Garp—to—protect—you—He—told—Garp—the—sins—of—a—father—should—not—fall—on—the—shoulders—of—an—innocent—child—Garp—was—considering—protecting—Rouge—too—but—there—was—nothing—he—could—do—by—the—time—he—found—her ||

Ace jerked his head away from mine, his eyes shimmering with unshed tears. He took several deep breaths, fists clenching and unclenching.

“Then why?”

Because he was sick and dying, but Garp didn’t know that. Roger had kept that secret close to his chest, only those on his crew, Whitebeard, and most likely Rouge knowing the truth. I thought back to that night that I’d asked Garp. He hadn’t known the truth, not for certain, but he’d pretty much guessed it anyways. After all those years chasing after Roger, he’d come to know the man quite well.

|| Garp—thinks—the—reason—Roger—gave—himself—up—was—because—he—was—already—dying—and—wanted—to—end—things—on—his—own—terms—He—said—a—quiet—death—on—a—bed—would—never—have—suited—Roger ||

Ace seemed caught off guard. “He was…dying?”

|| Garp—thinks—so—otherwise—Roger—would—have—continued—to—sail—the—seas—or—settle—down—with—Rouge—and—you ||

“That’s… That’s a load of crap,” Ace snarled, pounding a fist into the mattress. “This doesn’t change anything. He was still a selfish bastard. He could have stayed, helped mom, or taken her somewhere the marines wouldn’t find her so I didn’t have to kill her when she gave birth to me!”

I growled and nipped at Ace again. || I—will—tell—you—again—and—again—You—Did—Not—Kill—Your—Mom ||

With a harrumph, Ace rolled onto his side, taking all the covers with him. I didn’t miss his muttered “Shut up” either. With a sigh, I settled down. Ace needed time to think through this, and I’d be here when he was done thinking to make sure he hadn’t gotten any more stupid ideas in his head.

It was a good thing the crew thought we were still sleeping and wouldn’t bother us unless there was an emergency. This might take awhile.

Chapter Text

In the end, Ace declared that nothing had changed. Roger was still a selfish bastard, and if there was an afterlife, and he had the misfortune of running into him there, he was going to break his nose. I was fine with that. In fact, I’d probably help. If Garp was dead too, I bet we could enlist his help as well. The thought made me grin, and when I shared it with Ace he laughed.

“Yeah, he would. Gramps can be pretty cool about stuff like that.” Rolling out of bed, Ace stretched for a couple of seconds. “Come on, let’s go see what everyone’s up to.”

Everyone had apparently been waiting for us, and Saber and Skull even gave a small cheer at our appearance on deck.

“Finally!”

“We’ve been waiting for forever for you two to wake up!”

Ace and I shared a look.

“You know if you needed us for something, you could wake us up,” Ace said, settling his hat on his head. “We’ve been up for a while just hanging out.”

“You mean we could have stopped starving hours ago?” Skull moaned dramatically, clutching at his stomach. “I feel like my body is trying to eat itself.”

Ace scoffed. “You do realize there are snacks in the kitchen.”

“Not anymore,” Saber said with a shrug. “We ate them all hours ago for lunch. It’s almost dinner time now.”

I paused at that. I know we’d spent a long time in our cabin, but I hadn’t realized it was that long. Neither did Ace apparently as we both looked up at the sky to see where the sun was. Huh. Time flies sometimes.

“Our bad,” Ace said apologetically. “I can go whip something up here.”

“Wait, before you do, we have something for you,” Masked Deuce said, coming over with his hands behind his back and a shit-eating grin on his face. “We found this for you in Loguetown.” He whipped out an eye-watering pink apron with the words “Kiss the Cook” on it in fancy silver letters with a big red lipstick mark.

“Oh, hell no,” Ace said when the words registered. Not even a second later, the apron was on fire and Masked Deuce was laughing as he threw it up into the air where Ace completely incinerated it before it could land and scorch the deck.

“We thought you might do that,” Cornelia said with a smirk, “so we altered this one for you that we think is much better.” He held up a black apron that also said “Kiss the Cook” but in simple white lettering with a white lipstick mark that had been crossed out in red paint, and underneath that in bright orange paint were the bold words “Get Punched and Starve.”

Ace let his fire flicker away and die as he stared at the apron in disbelief. “Seriously, guys?” he asked after a minute.

“Yep,” they all chorused together. I barked in agreement, tail wagging. Ace gave me a betrayed look, his face turning red in embarrassment.

“You knew about this?”

|| No—but—I—like—it ||

Ace groaned and buried his face in his hands.

Chapter Text

Ace grumbled a lot, but he did eventually put the apron on before cooking up dinner. I sat out of the way, keeping Alfalfa company while he munched on some lettuce. He was doing better now than when we’d first brought him on the ship. Suddenly, he stopped eating and started to make weird noises.

“Purururu—purururu—purururu.”

“Something wrong with Alf?” Ace asked, flipping something on the stove.

|| No—We—are—getting—a—call ||

“What? Really?” Ace wiped his hands on his apron and walked over. “Who would be calling us? How do we even answer this thing?”

Putting my paws up on the edge of the counter, I gently grabbed the talk piece off the top of Alfalfa’s shell with my teeth.

“Purururu—Ka-lick!”

“Uh, what now?” Ace whispered, taking the receiver that I dropped into his hand with confusion. Maybe I should have told him to say hello before I picked up the talk piece. It’s not like Ace would know good phone—uh, snail? Den den?—etiquette. Oops.

|| Say—hello—and—who—you—are ||

Ace looked at me, shrugged, and did just that.

“Hello. This is Portgas D. Ace.”

“Brat! You are in so much trouble right now!”

Together, we stared at Alfalfa who was making an excellent impression of Garp’s angry face in shock.

“G-gramps?!” Ace almost dropped the receiver in surprise.

“Damn straight you brat! Who else would it be?! You and the pup have a lot of explaining to do! What the hell were you thinking breaking into a marine base, causing a ruckus, and stealing a bunch of papers and a den den mushi?!”

“I needed a bounty before we left East Blue. I didn’t get one after Mirror Ball Island, so it’s not like I had a lot of options,” Ace protested. I crowded closer to him, giving a happy whine into the receiver. My tail was wagging as fast as it could. It was so good to hear Garp’s voice, even if he was mad. I’m sure he was worried too. We watched Alfalfa’s expression soften just so. I’d always been good at calming Garp down.

“Stupid grandson,” Garp grumbled, “you weren’t supposed to get bounties, you were supposed to become marines.”

Ace sighed. “You know why we couldn’t, Gramps.” He hesitated for a moment. “I may never be able to wear it, but I kept the hat you gave me. It’s one of my treasures.” Alfalfa’s eyes looked wet for a second before clearing up again.

“Trying to butter me up won’t get you out of trouble. Senny’s got me heading out to Loguetown to take stock of things after your little stunt. Speaking of which, it was really stupid for you to steal a marine den den mushi. Unless you’re planning to change out the equipment on it, it’ll become a liability for you.”

“What do you mean?”

Garp scoffed. “How do you think I was able to call you? Marine den den mushi numbers are available on lists. Ones belonging to higher ranks require clearance of course, but any marine that can get ahold of the number to this snail can call it and then try to track your location when you pick up.”

“How was I supposed to know that?!” Ace griped. “Captain was interested, so I just took him.”

Something was starting to smell like it was burning. Ace seemed to notice at the same time.

“Crap! Dinner’s burning, talk to Captain for a minute,” Ace said, dropping the receiver on the counter to go rescue the food. Garp chuckled.

“Ace is your crew’s cook then?”

I barked in the affirmative. Garp hummed, Alfalfa’s expression becoming more contemplative.

“I visited just a few days ago. Got your letters, both of them. Heard about all your adventures from the other brat’s letter since I was there when he got it too.” Garp sighed. “I’m counting on you to keep your promise, pup.”

I whined and barked. Of course I would keep my promise. Even if it cost me my life.

“Good dog.” I whined a bit, wishing I could feel Garp’s hand on my head. “Yeah, I miss you too.” Garp sounded old and sad. I hated it. Clearing his throat, Garp spoke again.

“Reports are saying that Ace has fire powers, and the pictures I’ve seen…did Ace eat a devil fruit?” When I barked again in confirmation, Garp laughed. “Well, of all the fruits he could have eaten, he somehow managed to eat the one that matches you perfectly! I didn’t think you two could become more of a pair than you already were.”

I whined happily, pawing at the counter. I wished Garp could see me so I could talk to him. I had so much to say.

“Okay, dinner is saved,” Ace said, coming back and picking up the receiver. “I’ll make sure to take care of the snail issue one way or another, Gramps. Thanks for the warning.” There was silence for a moment before Garp spoke again.

“You may be criminals now, but you’re family. I don’t want to see you caught. Take care of each other, be smart, and make sure you’re strong enough to survive.”

Ace’s hand clenched around the receiver. “We will, Gramps.”

“Good. That’s good.” Garp’s voice was starting to take on that quality it got when he was getting emotional. “I can’t let this call get any longer. I’ll watch the papers, and you can send news to the bar, but it’s probably best you don’t contact me directly anymore.”

“We know,” Ace said quietly. I pawed at his arm.

|| Please—tell—him—I—love—him—for—me—and—that—he—will—always—be—pack ||

Ace gave a choked laugh. “Captain wants me to tell you that he loves you, and that you’ll always be pack. And…me too.”

Alfalfa’s eyes were watery again.

“Damn it, you brats. I’d give you both a Fist of Love right now if I could.”

Alfalfa lost Garp’s expression with a loud “Ka-lick.”

Chapter Text

“—so that’s why no one should answer Alfalfa if he starts ringing,” Ace finished with a nod. Masked Deuce buried his face in his hands.

“I can’t believe you answered a stolen marine snail in the first place.”

“I can,” Skull said with a grin. “It’s Ace. What did you expect?”

“For Captain’s common sense and responsibility as first mate to intervene,” Masked Deuce grumbled back, giving me an unimpressed stare from between his fingers. I gave him my best innocent face in return. How was I supposed to know that marines could track us if we picked up? I’d been taught to answer the phone when it rang. Scowling, Masked Deuce pointed a warning finger at me that I playfully snapped at.

“Captain was the one that answered,” Ace said with a shrug. “I didn’t know how.”

Masked Deuce groaned as Skull cackled gleefully. Cornelia’s shoulders were shaking with laughter as he fed Alfalfa some carrots for breakfast.

“Paper is here!” Saber called, walking in from the deck. “You’re gonna want to see this!” He slapped the paper down on the table, but we were all more interested in the piece of paper that slipped out of the middle.

Ace’s smirking face stared up at us, his flaming fingers pushing up on the brim of his hat. In big letters underneath his picture were the words: Wanted Dead or Alive, Portgas D. “Fire Fist” Ace, for 13,000,000 berri.

“Finally!” Ace cheered as everyone hit him on the shoulder or back.

“Way to go, Ace!”

“You’re a real wanted man now!”

“Thirteen million is nothing to sneeze at!”

“Let’s celebrate!”

Grinning, Ace snatched up his new bounty poster to get a better look at it revealing another piece of paper beneath it. Everyone went silent for a moment as we stared at it before snickers and then full out laughter filled the air. Masked Deuce and Skull were doubled over, and Saber was leaning on Cornelia who was holding his stomach. Ace was the worst though, ending up on the floor and rolling about as he howled in glee.

It wasn’t that funny.

I stared at a picture of myself with sausage links dangling from my mouth, breakfast gravy on my nose, a tipped over pot of porridge that my paw was in the middle of, an upside down bowl that I’m pretty sure had had bacon in it, some misplaced flour in my fur, and an angry cook in the background waving a wooden spoon at me. At least my bandanna and both the Jolly Rogers on it were clearly visible.

No, the problem wasn’t the picture… It was everything else.

Wanted Dead or Alive, “Bad Dog” Captain —Pet— for 467 berri.

“B-b-bad dog!” Ace wheezed. There were tears in the corners of his eyes from how hard he was laughing. “Th-they called you—” he couldn’t even finish his sentence, hitting his fist against the floor repeatedly.

The others weren’t any better, not even trying to get their laughter under control.

“They think Captain—our very own fire-breathing hellhound—is just a pet!”

“Only 467 berri, but he’s more dangerous than any of us!”

“Th-the picture! I can’t!”

“Look out world! The first mate of the Spade Pirates is a Bad Dog!”

I'd known getting mistaken as a pet and getting the Chopper and Bepo treatment was a possibility, and I'd thought I'd be okay with that as long as I had a bounty, but actually seeing it was more aggravating than I'd ever thought it could be. And, really? Bad Dog? I’m a dog that can naturally command fire and the marines named me Bad Dog? I was the best behaved dog they’d ever meet! I swore, if I ever met the unfortunate marine who gave me that epithet, I’d burn him to a crisp.

For now though, I had five idiots I could smack some sense into instead, starting with Ace.

Chapter Text

[You really mean it?!]

[O’ course. Wouldn’t lie about sumthin’ like this,] Bonnet said in his deep, gruff voice. I wasn’t sure if he liked bonnets so much he’d changed his name, or if he wore a big, dark blue bonnet because of his name, but right now I didn’t care. Someone had seen Sabo! He was alive!

[Where? Where is he?] I pawed at the ground, too anxious and excited to stand still.

[Bob says his source says it’s a summer island in da Grand Line. Dunno da name of it though.]

I whined. I couldn’t help it. What good did it do me if they didn’t know the island name? Granted, I only knew a handful of islands in the Grand Line, and those were all ones that Luffy would visit. Any other island, even if I knew the name, wouldn’t mean anything to me, but I could find out, somehow.

[It’s an island with lots o’ pink.]

Pink? Maybe it was the island that Iva was from. That place was really pink if I remembered right. It would make sense too. But, I had no idea how to get there even if it was the right island.

[Da name doesn’t matter too much,] Bonnet said, rustling his wings. [Bobs says his source said da guy you’re looking for was gettin’ ready to leave, but he didn’t hear where he was goin’.]

My ears fell a bit. Well, that wasn’t exactly helpful, but at least, if nothing else, I knew I hadn’t screwed things up and somehow actually gotten Sabo killed. He was alive, and he was out there on the Grand Line. Hopefully, wherever he was going wouldn’t take him out of the Grand Line. That would make my chances of finding him even worse.

[Thank you, for passing the message on,] I told Bonnet, doing my best to express my gratitude even though the news was a mixed bag.

[Don’t worry about it. Bob an’ I go way back. We hatched ’round the same time, and have known each other our whole lives.] Bonnet stared at me strangely for a long minute. [You’re a good dog, tryin’ so hard to find your pack like this. Do ya wanna try sendin’ a message to this guy you’re lookin’ for now that we’ve got eyes on ’im?]

I barked in excitement and spun in a cirlce. [Yes!] I hadn’t even thought about sending Sabo a message, too worried about him even being alive, but now that I knew he was… [Wait here!]

I zipped off. I couldn’t involve the others in this, but there was a simple message I could send without their help. A message that had technically already been sent to the whole world, but by sending it specifically to Sabo, I could make sure he didn’t overlook or miss it. Thank you Saber for buying extra copies of the paper yesterday!

Grabbing an extra copy of my bounty poster, I ran off to find Ace and get him to put it in an envelope. If he asked me any questions, I could just say I wanted to send it back to Dawn Island.

Chapter Text

I’d never had something loom over me as much as Reverse Mountain did. Up and up and up it went, disappearing into the clouds where I knew it had to keep going up and up even more. And the Red Line it was part of stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction, and I knew that the only breaks in the massive land mass were the four entrances into Reverse Mountain, and the spillway into the Grand Line.

Ace let out a low whistle, staring up at our destination.

“We really have to go up that to get into the Grand Line, Skull?”

“Yep. The only other way into the Grand Line is the Calm Belt.”

“Calm Belt?” Ace looked away from the mountain. “That sounds boring.”

“Oh, it’s anything but boring,” Skull said, coming to stand next to us. “The Calm Belt is a weird place where the wind never blows, there’s no ocean currents, and it’s where the largest of all sea kings live and nest. It’s crazy dangerous to try and cross it. We’ve got better odds trying to get up the channel here.”

“But weren’t you saying earlier that there’s only a teeny margin for error or we’ll crash into the rocks and die?” Cornelia said. In his hands was a rabbit foot that he kept running his fingers over.

“Yep.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound promising either way,” Saber said, placing a hand on Cornelia’s shoulder. “You have any more good luck trinkets on you, Cornelia? I’m thinking right about now would be a good time to have one.”

Cornelia nodded and reached into his coat pocket.

“Good luck trinkets don’t actually work,” Masked Deuce muttered from my other side so quietly that only I could hear him. I agreed, but if having them gave Cornelia and Saber the mental strength to do what needed to be done, that was fine with me.

A hand rested on my head, and I looked up at Ace who was grinning down at me. “You ready to leave the East Blue?” I barked and nodded. We had the whole world ahead of us, and Sabo was out there somewhere. I was more than ready.

Taking a moment to scratch behind my ears and ruffle my fur, Ace turned and slapped Skull on the back.

“Alright, Skull, you’re the expert here, get us up that mountain!”

With a grin to match Ace’s, Skull started shouting orders. “All hands to sails! Captain, man the wheel! Take a starboard heading and hold her steady! Grab the oars Ace! If we need to push off the cliffs, you’re the only one strong enough to do it! We’ve only got one shot at this, so let’s make it count!”

Everyone scattered to their assignments, nervousness and excitement thrumming through us all as Hell’s Guardian caught the current and started racing forward.

Waves crashed and roared against the rocks, nearly drowning out everyone’s shouting. Ace snapped an oar pushing us away from the rocks on the port side, but it was just enough to clear us without scraping as we rushed past the rocks with a few scant inches to spare.

We seemed to move faster and faster, the roaring of the water growing louder and louder as we were carried up into the clouds. And then, in an instant, we were there, airborne at the very top of the mountain, water splashing all around us and reflecting tiny rainbows everywhere as the four currents collided. Before us, and far, far below, for as far as the eye could see, was the deep, deep blue of the Grand Line waters.

Elation filled me as I tilted back my head to let out a howl in victory as everyone else whooped and hollered. It might have only been for a brief moment, but for that short second, we were on top of the world.