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Ace was ready to murder the men in front of him. All five of them would not live to see another sunrise. Pipe in hand, standing ready to attack, a frown of his face. It didn’t matter how intimidating he tried to look though, he was still just a kid. For the five adults in front of him he looked like a dog with rabies. Even if rabies was dangerous it would also slowly kill whoever had it. There was no reason to really fear the kid.
“Ace!” Another boy called his name, a blond boy of the same height, “Luffy is fine, let’s just go!”
“Fuck off! Like hell I’m letting these bastards live another day!” Ace spatted. If the event had happened some months ago he would probably not care but it was different now. He was the big brother. He couldn’t let his weak little brother get knocked out by some low life scum. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he just walked away. Luffy was bleeding! How could he not fight these men.
“Don’t be stupid! They have guns and knives!”
The five men laughed, “at least one of them has a functional brain,” one of them said, “use yours as well if you don’t wanna end up worse than that thing.”
Ace saw red at hearing Luffy being referred to as a thing. He jumped straight on the first man. A hit directly on the side of the head that made him go backwards and fall on top of another man.
“Seriously?” Sabo wasn’t as surprised as he would like to be, he carefully put the still unconscious Luffy on the ground and jumped to join Ace. He was mad as well after seeing the state Luffy was in.
Luffy was bleeding from his heat and it was obvious he had been used as a punching bag. It was their fault. They shouldn’t have let Luffy wander alone knowing how dangerous the place was. A big trash dumpster with living trash as its inhabitants. Ace and Sabo knew the places to avoid but they hadn’t taught Luffy that. He was always with them, giving him that information just didn’t cross their mind and now they regretted it.
They couldn’t take Luffy to a hospital, they could just hope he would get better on his own. It wasn’t like he could become more idiotic.
While there were areas Ace and Sabo liked to avoid it didn’t mean they couldn’t kick the asses of the men living in those. Two small kids who trained every day against old drunk men, the results were more than obvious.
Sabo was satisfied with just knocking them out but Ace was different. He really meant what he said about not letting them live to see a new day. Even as the men were on the floor unconscious he did not stop punching them with his small fists. Once, twice, three times. He was punching a man on his face over and over to the point there was not a single part of the face not covered in blood. Sabo knew he should stop Ace but a part of him didn’t want to. Those men wouldn’t be missed anyway but… was he supposed to just let Ace murder them. He was a child! They were just children!
Ace had broken their arms and legs, probably their ribs as well, wasn’t that enough? The pipe and bended in many different places, Ace would definitely need a new one.
“Ace…” Sabo slowly approached his brother from behind, “I think- I think that’s enough.”
“It’s not!” Ace yelled at him.
Ace was fine with him getting his ass kicked but Luffy? He could accept that. He couldn’t let that slide. Luffy did not deserve to be punched and kicked, if he could Ace would gladly go back in time and take his place. That would be fine. That was fine by him.
“They-” Sabo noticed that between the anger in Ace’s voice was also sadness, “need to pay!”
Sabo decided to jump on Ace’s back, “your hands are bleeding!” He told Ace, “let’s just go back and treat Luffy’s wounds.”
Ace hadn’t noticed his own hands bleeding… were they? He couldn’t feel any pain, for all he knew it was the blood of the man he had been punching until now.
Had he really done all that?
There was a lot of blood around and on him. Dadan would definitely scold him for ruining a shirt, he couldn’t wear it anymore.
Ah… he was really a monster, wasn’t he?
He lowered his fist.
“I’ll carry Luffy, you take our pipes.”
Ah… that was right. There were two people who didn’t see him as a monster.
“You’re right,” he said to Sabo, “let’s go back.”
But if it was for his brother then…
Then he wouldn’t mind being a monster.