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Something Worth Dying For	By : slj812000 Category: +M to R > One Piece Views: 10730 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Chapter Fourteen: Ace
Ace stared with what was probably a look of horror on his face at the yakuza boss. He wasn’t serious, was he? He didn’t intend to watch them, did he? A glimpse at Nami showed that she had come to the same conclusion.
“Come now,” Arlong cooed dangerously, stepping a bit farther into the room. “You don’t want to leave your best customer disappointed on his last night with you, do you? Not when he brought along a friend to share you with.”
The jig was up, apparently. Arlong at least suspected, if not flat out knew, that Nami hadn’t been performing her ‘duties’ with Luffy. Now, he seemed fixed on observing said duties himself.
Nami looked up at Luffy with a defeated look on her face. She leaned close to him and whispered something into his ear. Luffy, though looking unsure, nodded in agreement and hopped up onto the bed, kicking off his sandals.
Nami turned to Ace, giving him an apologetic look before dropping to her knees and reaching up to undo his belt buckle. His shorts and boxers were tugged to his knees. Holy shit. This was really happening. Ace felt like he was witnessing a horrible accident occur. He could only watch, transfixed, as things spiraled out of control headed for disaster, but could do nothing to prevent it.
Ace was locked in a contradiction of feelings. He was receiving one of the best blows of his life, which racked him with pleasure, but conversely, he was in complete misery since the person he wanted to do this for him was the sister of the girl on her knees. Though he’d said earlier he planned to never hold a regret in his life, Ace knew that he regretted nothing more than following Luffy today.
It also upset him how good Nami was at it. His mind tortured him with wonderings of how often she’d been made to do it to acquire such obvious skill. What other things had she been forced to do to keep her family safe? Have sex, yes, that was obvious. But his mind ranged back to the rules list. There had been many things on that list that could be added for a price that made Ace sick to his stomach. How many had she been subjected to?
He decided he didn’t want to know, and hoped that he never found out.
Despite his horror at the situation, Ace could not stop himself from becoming aroused and eventually hitting his orgasm. Even with his wayward thoughts, Ace had tried to keep an indifferent look on his face, knowing that the crime boss was watching him very closely. He didn’t want to give any ammunition to that man, but Ace couldn’t help the choked groan that escaped him as he came.
He looked down at her through an orgasmic haze as she held him in the recesses of her throat. She was looking away, ashamed. Surely it wasn’t because of him? As he’d admitted earlier, he knew exactly what a Mermaid was. Besides, they had just met today. It’s not like he had any preconceived notion of her that he was judging her by. And even if he did judge, her reasons behind her actions made up for any harsh judgments he would make.
No, the shame wasn’t for him. Ace understood as she let his softening penis drop from her mouth and she looked behind her at the bed, the shame was for his brother.
Luffy was watching them. Ace realized that he probably had been the entire time. He took in the look on his brother’s face. There was a little confusion, of course, and Ace had expected that. Also a little bit of lust. Even Luffy could be affected, it seemed. Ace was slightly mollified to know that his previously asexual little brother was showing signs of having hormones.
What Ace hadn’t expected to see was anger. There was a lot of it too. It was the dominating feature on his face.
Well, maybe anger wasn’t the right word after all. As Nami stood up and approached the bed, Luffy’s ire died down a bit. Ace realized that his little brother was jealous. Lust replaced the jealously almost instantly as Nami climbed onto the bed with him and put her hands on the hem of his shirt, slowly sliding it up.
As Ace had been before when receiving his blow job, Luffy became oblivious to the world as Nami stripped him. He had eyes only for her, staring at her as she threw the tee shirt to the side and sidled up close. In a gesture that seemed way too intimate for their surroundings, Nami put her hands on his face and kissed him. After a few seconds, Luffy reached up and pulled her hands from his face and locked his grip on them at their sides. He broke their kiss and gave her a very solemn look.
He was telling her to stop, Ace knew. Luffy knew something wasn’t right about the whole situation and he wanted her to stop. But Ace knew just as well as Nami did that she couldn’t. Luffy didn’t understand that part yet. Nami leaned forward and kissed him again while pulling at her restrained hands. Ace watched as Luffy flinched in resignation and he let go of her hands.
Nami pulled at the tie on her robe, letting the satin loosen and fall to the bed. She put Luffy’s hands in between the folds of the material and let go, intending for him to remove it for her. It took him a minute to get that far. He’d become distracted by the kissing and didn’t understand that’s what she wanted at first. He finally pushed it off of her without much thought, too enamored with the act of kissing.
Ace blanched. From where he stood, he had a very good view of an angry, dark reddish purple bruise on her butt. It looked new, and very, very painful. Despite his wishes, he now knew that she had at least been subject to some sort of beating or marking before.
“I thought marking was against the rules,” Ace muttered. He hadn’t meant to be heard, but he was. In his peripheral vision, he saw Arlong shrug.
“Was done by the man who bought her,” he told him. “Now that she’s his property, it’s not my concern if he leaves marks.”
Ace tasted bile again. He realized part of why Nami had been so desperate for an escape. The man she was now resigned to was abusive. Very abusive, by the looks of it. Ace vowed to himself that he wouldn’t let Nami go to that man. Somehow, someway, he and his brother had to get Nami out of here. Tonight.
“Why don’t you join in,” Arlong suggested, and Ace was reminded why taking Nami with them might be impossible. The crime boss was not someone to be trifled with. The look on the man’s face as he handed Ace a condom was one that was not to be denied. “She’s taken two at once before.”
It was like the man was deliberately trying to make Ace vomit in horror. He didn’t want to think of the things Nami had been subjected to but at every turn, he learned something new. Ace eyed the two on the bed doubtfully. It seemed a bad idea to interrupt them, since they were stuck in their own bubble of obliviousness to the outside world. But as if to deny that thought, Arlong gave Ace’s back a hard smack, forcing him to step towards the bed.
Nami had coaxed Luffy onto his back, and though he looked a little upset at not being able to kiss her anymore, he didn’t complain as she unbuckled his belt and unzipped his shorts. Nami’s lower half was off the bed as she bent over Luffy, and Ace saw contusions around her anus. He couldn’t help it; he cringed. So that’s what Arlong meant by two at once.
Against his better judgment, moral code—hell, this went against everything—Ace unwrapped the condom and slipped it on. He doubted that Nami was as oblivious as Luffy was at that moment, and that she’d heard everything that had been said. For no reason he could fathom, he watched her cross her legs.
“You’re in for a treat,” Arlong chuckled. Ace tried to tune the monster out.
Nami didn’t even flinch when Ace stepped up behind her and placed a hand on her hip. She was focused on the task at hand, which happened to be giving Luffy what was probably his first blow job. With a mental apology for having to do this to her, Ace pushed in.
Fuck, was it tight! Was this what the monster had meant by a treat? Ace took a deep breath in and out. He didn’t want to be aroused by this, but he was. And he wouldn’t last long, either. Steeling himself, Ace began a measured pace.
The worst part was that there was nowhere for him to look. If he looked down, he saw the contusions and angry red mark on her ass. If he looked at the back of her head, he would have to watch her head bob up and down on his little brother. Looking at Luffy was out of the question. So Ace did the only thing he could and stared at the ceiling.
It didn’t surprise him that it didn’t take long for Luffy to hit his orgasm. Ace had been on the receiving end of that particular skill set not too long ago himself. But Luffy, being inexperienced, didn’t react the way Ace thought he would. When Ace had received his first blow, he’d damn near choked the girl when he’d cum because he had grabbed the back of the girl’s head and forced her to deepthroat him. Luffy did the opposite. He tried to push Nami away by the shoulders but she grabbed his hands and held them tightly in hers. Luffy came in a broken moan and a shudder.
Ace didn’t believe that Luffy had never jacked off before. Hell, what boy hadn’t ‘found’ himself by the age of three? Jacking off was just something that every guy did, regardless of whether they were sexually active or not. But by the looks of it, Luffy had not experienced anything to that degree before. He was lost, staring at the ceiling and heaving breaths in and out, apparently stunned.
Ace was stunned himself only a few seconds later. He’d gotten a little used to the tightness that Nami had, but was completely unprepared for her muscles to clench down on him. He managed to mostly muffle a groan, but when her muscles didn’t let go and he was forced to drag himself from within her, he leaned forward and rested his head on her shoulder. It was too much. Pushing back in, he felt himself starting to unravel. Two thrusts later, he was done for and succumbing to his second orgasm in a half an hour.
A little light headed, Ace stood properly and eased himself out of Nami. He felt like he had the legs of a newborn giraffe and half wobbled back a few steps to lean against the wall, removing the condom and tying it off. He watched Nami stand up properly and go over to the dresser, opening one of the top drawers. She pulled out another condom, ripping the foil and oddly, putting the condom in her mouth.
In perverse curiosity, he watched her lean over Luffy again and take him in her mouth. She made one long, slow bob before retreating and climbing onto the bed. Ace could see that she’d used her oral skills to put the condom on him. Ugh, damn it, he didn’t want to be aroused by this!
Luffy was up on his elbows now. Nami scooted over him until she sat in his lap, pulling him up until he had to sit up completely. She kissed him again. Luffy didn’t seem at all put off or disgusted that he’d just blown his load there a mere five minutes ago and resumed kissing her with gusto.
Again, it was like the two of them were in their own little world. Ace felt like he was intruding by watching. Despite being forced into this, it seemed like the moment was private for them. Like he was spying on them.
A disgruntled sigh from the doorway reminded Ace of why they were stuck in this situation. Nami too, it seemed. She rose up on her knees and reached between them, grabbing hold of Luffy and positioning him before sinking down on him. Luffy gave a long groan.
He didn’t seem to know where to put his hands. At first, he’d just wrapped his arms around her and held her against him, but as she began to move, he had to relent his grip. The first place they landed was her hips. It seemed to Ace that he was trying to still her again, but he didn’t get far with that. Nami grabbed one of his hands and put on her breast. It held his attention for awhile, but soon he was trying to grip her hips again.
Ace watched as Luffy, in an unexpected display of dominance, grabbed hold of Nami firm enough to lift her up off of him and get up onto his own knees. He was the one to push her back this time and he lay over her, repositioning and pushing in again. It seemed his unsettled movements were just him fighting with wanting to be in control. Who knew his brother had a commanding nature?
“Never pegged that kid to be a dominant,” Arlong mused, echoing his thoughts. Ace watched the monster that was in the shape of a man teeter on his heels for a moment before taking grip of the door handle. He glanced at Ace. “Condoms are in that top drawer. Lube too, if she gets dry. Have fun; you’ve got ‘til four.”
It was almost a merciful blessing when that man walked out and closed the door. Ace felt some of the tension he’d been unconsciously holding in his shoulders dissipate. He struggled through his giraffe-leg-syndrome to pull up his shorts and rebuckle his belt. Then he slumped to the floor on his ass, exhausted. He placed his face in his hands for a few minutes, trying to ignore the sound of his brother coming to orgasm again.
In his pocket, his phone buzzed. On autopilot, Ace reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He had a new text message. From Nojiko.
Thanks for coming with me today. It means a lot to me.
Damn it. Why was life like this? Why did life have to go around trying to fuck with him?
There was a follow-up message:
You mean a lot to me.
The whole fucking world was so damn unfair. Ace hated himself and everyone in it at that moment.
.o0o.
At four, a pounding knock came at the door followed by a curt voice telling them that their time was up. Stiffly, Ace rose to his feet. He didn’t know how well this was going to go.
In the glow of his second orgasm, Luffy had fallen limply on top of Nami, and pretty much had stayed there all night. The most movement either of them did was when Luffy had sat up to grab the soiled sheet and pull it over them. Then he resumed what could only be described as post-coital cuddling. They’d been that way for hours, not saying a word.
He seriously doubted Luffy would be amenable to leaving. As if to prove the point, when Nami tried to sit up, Luffy tightened his grip on her.
“Luffy, it’s time to go,” she told him. She grabbed one of the hands that was wrapped around her and pulled it off. He fought her for a few moments before she won and sat up. She slid off the bed and picked up her discarded robe and tied it in place.
Finally, Luffy sat up. His look was sullen as Nami put first his shirt in his lap, followed by his boxers and shorts. Luffy dressed in an irritated silence. He got up from the bed and shoved his feet into his sandals with an exuberance that showed his aggression on the matter.
When he was ready to go, Nami stepped up to him and gave him a long hug. Luffy didn’t seem to be in a hurry to end it either, to no one’s surprise.
“Thank you for being my friend,” Nami whispered to him. Luffy’s grip tightened.
“We have to go,” Ace told them, though he felt like he was kicking an abused puppy as he did it. It was of course Nami who broke the hug, stepping back from him. She gave Ace a remorseful glance before her eyes settled on Luffy again.
“Goodbye, Luffy,” she said. Luffy closed the distance she’d put between them and kissed her. Ace had to pull on his arm to get him moving. Obviously frustrated, Luffy wrenched his arm from Ace’s grip and sullenly strode out of the room. Ace followed silently.
They didn’t make it very far down the hall before they heard her start to cry. Luffy immediately stopped and turned to go back, but Ace grabbed his brother in a head lock and kept towing him towards the elevator, knowing that if he didn’t restrain his brother, he’d make a scene. He didn’t let go until he’d pressed the button for the ground floor.
Luffy immediately punched him hard in the jaw. “We shouldn’t have left her!”
“I know!” Ace snapped back, blocking the follow up jab aimed at his stomach, and holding onto that arm for good measure. “I didn’t want to leave her either.”
“Then why—” Luffy started.
“We’re going to take her back,” Ace vowed. Luffy huffed in displeasure, but at least he was listening. “We’re coming back later today. And we’re bringing everything.”
“Everything?” Luffy echoed.
“And everyone,” Ace nodded. “The old man, that guy Smoker, every damn police officer that isn’t a crook. Sabo, too, if I can find his ass.”
“Everyone,” Luffy agreed. The look in his eyes promised forthcoming malice. Yeah, Luffy definitely wasn’t a little kid anymore, and it had nothing to do with losing his virginity.
.o0o.
Despite his early start to the day and the exhaustion from activity, Ace had been unable to sleep while waiting for the night to pass. He’d had a good six or seven hours to reflect on how much he hated himself, on how he deserved to go to hell, and that there was conceivably nothing he could do to get Nami out of that place tonight. The only conclusion he could come to was to tell the old man what was happening.
The problem was that the old man tended to move cautiously. Ace could tell him the location and details of everything that had to do with Arlong Park and the old man could spend days deliberating about how to move in on the place.
They didn’t have days. They had hours.
Without a plan in mind, Ace towed his little brother home. Seeing as it was only half past four in the morning, Ace had a feeling that the old man would be there. He was an early riser, but usually not before five in the morning. Ace would have bet on the old man still being in bed, but his luck had been atrocious over the last twenty four hours, so he wouldn’t even bet himself.
He would have lost the bet, too.
Every single light was on in their house as they approached. Ace could see that as they turned onto their street. It was probably safe to say that they were busted. Big time.
Oh well. At least he didn’t have to wake the old man up now. Luffy had inherited his dislike of mornings from the old man, and with him in his sixties, his attitude regarding mornings had sharply worsened.
Figuring that the cat was out of the bag, Ace elected to let them in the front door. Not to be disappointing, the old man stood a few steps in the house waiting, his arms crossed over his chest and scowling.
“Morning,” Ace said, trying to gauge the intensity of the reprimand they were about to get.
“Yes, it is,” observed Garp, raising an eyebrow, betraying nothing.
It seemed like the old man wasn’t going to say anymore, so Ace just took off his shoes and steered around him down the hall.
“Go sit in the kitchen,” Garp instructed. Ace turned a suspicious eye on him.
“Why?” Ace asked. He didn’t like being separated from Luffy.
“Because I have things to say to my grandson,” Garp told him, “that don’t require your interference.”
The old man had picked the wrong day to bring up the fact that Ace was not his charge by choice. It had been a solid twenty four hours since he had last slept and the scope of emotions and trauma he had been through was turning the last of his patience into dust.
“Fuck if I care!” Ace snapped. “He’s my brother! And between the two of us, I think I give more fucks about him than you do!”
“Portugal D. Ace, go sit in the kitchen,” Garp responded. “Now.”
Angered beyond reconciliation, Ace punched a hole in the wall before stomping towards the kitchen. He made it two steps in before he recoiled back into the hall.
“What the fuck is he doing here?!” Ace hollered, pointing to the man with wild hair and a facial tattoo sitting at the table.
“If you would, for one minute, sit down and act like the adult that your eighteen years proclaims you,” Garp replied with growing irritation, “I will explain. As soon as I am done with Luffy.”
Ace didn’t want to sit anywhere near that bastard, let alone in the same room. But he also wanted to know what was going on. So, instead of sitting down, he went to the fridge and pulled out some leftovers. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday evening and he was starving. That’s the best he could offer the old man in terms of behaving as he’d asked.
“So, Luffy,” Ace heard Garp say from the hall. “Where’s the money I had stockpiled in my room?”
Ace froze in retrieving his chopsticks. Shit. How had the old man known it was Luffy who took it? Was it just taking a fifty-fifty guess? What was Luffy going to say? Ace had wanted to explain this to the old man, because he was pretty sure Luffy had only a minimal understanding of the situation.
“It was an emergency,” was the answer Luffy gave him. He didn’t sound regretful or even chagrined at being caught. He sounded very matter-of-fact.
“Well, that emergency just cost you your freedom for the rest of this year,” Garp told him. “Go to your room. And don’t plan on leaving it again until school resumes.”
Ace listened as Luffy stomped past the old man and up the stairs, his sandals still slapping against his feet. Apparently, Luffy didn’t remember to take them off at the door. It was a common occurrence, but Luffy had stood there and watched while Ace had removed his own shoes. Was he that distracted by what had happened to them that he couldn’t concentrate on anything else?
The old man made it into the kitchen and gave Ace a dirty look as he stood by the refrigerator eating cold leftovers instead of sitting at the table like he was told. Garp took a seat at the table, albeit as far from their ‘guest’ as he could get, and addressed him.
“I would think that at your age, I shouldn’t have to remind you that though you are considered an adult, your brother is still a minor,” Garp admonished. “Though I am relieved slightly at the fact that he was with you all night, that doesn’t make the fact that you dragged your brother out with you until all hours of the morning any more excusable.”
“How long do you plan to lecture me?” Ace demanded, setting aside the mostly gone leftovers. “Because I don’t have time for this shit, and neither do you.”
Garp sneered at his attitude. “What, pray tell, is so much more important than disciplining my charge?”
Ace felt anger roil inside of him. The urge to tell the old man to fuck off was strong, so Ace had to keep reminding himself that he needed the old man’s help in liberating Nami. He took a deep, cleansing breath before addressing the bastard in the room.
“You first,” Ace insisted, jutting his chin at the other man. “What’s he doing here?”
The third man smirked, amused probably by the discord he caused.
“He has come to offer his…assistance on an investigation,” Garp explained cautiously. “Now your turn. Explain exactly why I shouldn’t take you out back, cut a switch and box your ears like you are a little child again.”
Ace took another cleansing breath. He didn’t like giving out any specific details in front of their ‘guest,’ so he settled on the most simple explanation.
“I found Nami,” he stated. Garp’s expression didn’t change. Ace had studied the old man for years, and therefore knew his ‘tells.’ This was one. Garp had been moderately surprised by this revelation, and was working out what to do with this new information.
“Did you, now?” he responded, sitting back in his chair. For no reason that Ace could fathom, he looked at the third man as he spoke. “Based on descriptions of the men that supposedly abducted her, I expected her to be in the possession of the yakuza boss Arlong.”
Ace’s anger was riled again at this information. The old man had known that’s where she probably was? Why the fuck didn’t he say anything before?
“I see that is not the case,” Garp murmured as an afterthought.
“The hell it’s not,” Ace contradicted. He very suddenly had the full attention of both men. Garp got up from his seat and walked very slowly over to Ace.
“I think you will be needing to explain yourself,” Garp urged in a tone that showed how pressing the matter was. “Very quickly.”
It had been a long time since Ace had been intimidated by the old man. A couple years at least. But though he was unsettled by him, Ace didn’t want to show weakness in front of an enemy. He jerked his head in the direction of said enemy.
“Not in front of him,” Ace clarified. Garp sneered again, and turned to face the ‘enemy.’
“As it happens,” Garp sighed, “he is here on that very matter. Well, maybe not that yankee girl’s behalf, but to assist with taking down Fishman Village.”
Ace shot a dark look at the third man. “The fuck makes taking down a yakuza any of your damn concern?”
The man smiled recklessly. “I couldn’t care less.”
Ace knew it. The man didn’t give two shits about what was going on. So why the fuck was he here?
“But my right hand man had a wild urge to subdue them,” the man went on, shrugging indifferently. “He was quite distracted by the prospect, and quite frankly, it was interfering with his other work. So here we are, getting rid of a distraction.”
Something still didn’t add up. Ace narrowed his eyes at the man. He was the only one there. “We?”
The front door opened and closed with a slam. Ace briefly panicked that Luffy had taken off, but after a moment, he discerned that he could still hear Luffy stomping about his room upstairs. Besides that, he could hear footsteps coming towards the kitchen, whoever it was having not removed their shoes either.
“Oh, you little bastard,” Garp cursed, eyeing the newcomer. Ace stood transfixed for a moment before stepping around Garp and walking over to his estranged brother to embrace him.
“What the hell, Sabo?” Ace asked in lieu of greeting, pounding the man’s back fiercely. “You don’t answer me for weeks on end and then just show up out of the blue?”
Sabo chuckled, slapping Ace’s back too. “Meh. You know me, I get distracted easily.”
Ace shook his head at his brother’s explanation. Though it was lackadaisical, it was unerringly true. Still, as happy as Ace was to see his brother, he was also irritated to see him in the presence of that arrogant bastard. Ace knew Sabo was a subordinate of his, but it seemed like he had been promoted over time.
“Right hand man, eh?” Ace asked, unable to hide the distaste in his voice. Sabo shrugged.
“I’m just good at what I do,” he replied. Ace sighed in dismay, but gave up the argument. Sabo took a chair at the table next to the bastard and grudgingly, Ace sat down too. Looks like they were all in this together, for better or worse.
“Now, if you please,” Garp said, taking up a chair at the table as well, “please tell us. Everything.”
Ace frowned at the old man and threw a dark look at the bastard. Sabo gave him an easy smile and Ace couldn’t help but give him half of one in return. Looks like Sabo would be with them after all in this fight.
“Alright, here goes,” Ace muttered before taking a deep breath and beginning.
.o0o.
Despite Ace leaving out a few…intimate details that he didn’t feel comfortable sharing in the presence of the bastard (he didn’t think it was anyone’s business about his sex life, or Luffy’s for that matter), it still took Ace over an hour to explain everything. Where exactly Arlong Park was, what the insides looked like, and how many people he had seen around were just some of the things he told them. Sabo and the bastard needed a little more clarifications on what made the situation so dire.
Ace had to explain that Nami was Luffy’s friend from school, that she’d been abducted four weeks ago and turned into a Mermaid, that Luffy had accidentally found her and had been going to see her every night, that they had tried to buy her away from Arlong, but she had already been sold off to a permanent buyer. That last detail was the only one that ruffled Sabo out of the whole explanation.
“Mermaids can be sold off?” he repeated, looking a little ill at the prospect. Ace nodded.
“That’s why we don’t have much time,” Ace told them. “She said she leaves Arlong Park tonight. If she leaves that building, we’ll probably never find her again.”
‘Not alive, anyway,’ he mentally amended, recalling the sickening lacerations and ugly bruise.
Garp heaved a heavy sigh. “To think my idiot grandson stumbled upon the very thing I have spent years searching for completely by accident. The fool didn’t even know where he was.”
“Neither did I, at first,” Ace defended. “It wasn’t until Nami told me that she was a Mermaid that I knew exactly where I was.”
Garp made a face that said that it didn’t matter; that was hardly an excuse.
“Even if I assembled every man that I had confidence in to storm that strong hold and put it on lockdown,” Garp put forth, “there’s still no way for us to succeed. Fishman Village has been expanding its reach over the last six months and now has its influence in over eighty percent of East Blue. It’s estimated that Arlong has roughly ten thousand men at his disposal. It wouldn’t be the fight with the men at Arlong Park that would kill us; it would be the reinforcements.”
Ten thousand men. That was not a small number. Ace’s shoulders slumped as the situation grew more bleak.
“A trifle,” the bastard declared. “Easily remedied.”
Ace shot the man a scathing look. He wasn’t taking the situation seriously. He was openly belittling it.
“Call in our reserves,” the bastard instructed Sabo. “You’ll be in charge of them. Once the building goes into lockdown, you’ll make sure nothing gets in or out.”
Sabo smirked, taking his cell phone out of his pocket. “Can do.”
Ace gave his brother an incredulous look.
“Don’t worry,” Sabo told him, standing up from the table while dialing. “Our people have mad skills.”
Ace wasn’t mollified in the slightest. He watched Sabo walk out of the kitchen towards the front door, already talking to somebody called Koala.
“The matter of getting into the building in the first place…” Garp trailed off. Ace knew of one way, but the old man wasn’t going to like it. Hell, he didn’t much like it himself. He knew the moment anything happened at Arlong Park, the cease-fire negotiated for Nojiko would evaporate. The thought made him feel ill.
“I can get you in,” Ace stated, wracking his brain for a way to keep Nojiko safe in the meantime. “They already see me as a customer. I’ll go in after six when so that the building should be empty of any regular office workers. I’ll pay for a random Mermaid and go up to the top floor. I’ll unlock the doors from there. You just need someone on the outside to hack their security system so their cameras go down.”
“And how, per se, do you plan on letting them in?” the bastard asked. “Unless there is some master control on the Mermaid floor that you neglected to mention.”
Ace sneered at the man. “Do you know what happens in the event of a fire in any office building?”
The bastard raised an eyebrow in amusement, but did not respond.
“The locks on every door automatically unlock,” Ace answered his own question. “And the elevators shut down. The only way out of that building is going to be through the back stairwell.”
Ace had been right; Garp disapproved of his plan. He didn’t outright reject it, though, which Ace took as a good sign.
“I like the way he thinks,” the bastard praised. “He has a talent for this sort of thing. Could be useful in my outfit.”
“Fuck you,” Ace replied. Praise from that man disgusted him, and the thought of working with him on a temporary basis was hard enough. There was no chance in hell that Ace would take up a permanent mantle with the bastard, whether or not it meant Sabo would be around more.
“Can you organize this raid by six o’clock?” the bastard asked Garp, untroubled by Ace’s terse denial against his offer. Garp glanced at his watch and Ace unconsciously did the same thing. It was ten after six in the morning. Could the old man pull a raid together in just twelve hours?
Garp was silent for a very long time as he deliberated. Ace started to become agitated as silence seemed to fill the entire house. He could actually hear Sabo outside talking on the phone, it was so quiet. It was when the old man made the decision on whether or not he could swing a raid that Ace realized what was wrong.
“I think I can,” Garp answered as Ace bolted up from his chair, knocking it to the floor. He was out in the hall and then taking the stairs two at a time to get to the second floor. He made the trip to Luffy’s room in four wide, jogging strides and threw the door open.
The room was empty, his curtains swaying slightly in the breeze coming in through the window left open in Luffy’s wake.
- 13
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Something Worth Dying For