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Running Up That Hill
By : yinneko23
Category: +M to R > One Piece
Views: 11948 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or make any money from this fic.
Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
One week before Ace�s birthday, Luffy snuck into Goa.
She knew it was ridiculous to search for a present in a town of the noble and rich, that she�d have more luck and an easier time of it in Fuusha, and yet; lingering in the back of her mind was a thought. To give Ace something she had, and Sabo�d had in the past, almost like a mark. Luffy, familiar with the shops and stock of her home village, knew she wouldn�t find what she wanted there. Still, coming to Goa alone was a dumb idea.
They�d caused too much trouble the last six and a half odd years. Neither she or Ace could set foot in the deeper parts of the city without a horde of guards descending on them in no time at all.
Luffy wasn�t here to cause trouble. Nothing had been further from her mind, and yet when she glanced up at High Town, that place where Sabo had been kept prisoner his own family, she couldn�t help but wonder what it looked like, the big house so unbearably empty her brother traded for piles of trash.
Creeping towards the towering wall that segregated Goa, Luffy briefly considered turning back. Ace would be pissed at her recklessness. She disliked the thought of him being angry at her so soon after Christmas, but the siren song of Sabo�s house tugged at her. What if she found some of his old things? It was possible that his parents had thrown everything out - it�d been a very long time, after all - but the chance to have more of her brother proved too tempting to ignore.

Maybe no one will notice, Luffy thought, and Rocketed herself into High Town.
She landed on the edge of the wall to get a better look, and heard shouting from below. Though she couldn�t see them clearly, Luffy would bet her hat everyone was pointing upwards.
�Oops,� she said. �My bad.�

The people of High Town were beginning to take notice of her, so Luffy quickly leaped to a roof, and from there dropped into a disgustingly clean alleyway. It suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea which house was Sabo�s; a uniformed man raced past, hollering as he went. Several answering shouts could be heard from the other side of town.

Luffy backed out of the alley and took to darting between buildings, keeping low in the shadows. She�d never find Sabo�s house if she was busy being chased by a horde of angry security. Yet it wasn�t long at all before she spotted a vaguely familiar face.
It was him, the man Sabo had called his father. The man who�d forcibly separated Sabo from the family that really loved him, taken him away to a place Sabo despised so much it killed him.
Brick cracked beneath the immense pressure of her rage, fingers driving through the wall and clenching, grinding the blocks to grit. Every ounce of instinct Luffy possessed screamed at her to get over there and plant a fist in his gut. Someone so blinded by greed they couldn�t understand the suffering of their own child deserved to have the crap beat out of them.
But she didn�t. Luffy simply watched the small, tired looking noble lock his gate and take off down the street, hands in his pockets and hat pulled low to cover his eyes. Luffy hated him. She wouldn�t ever forgive what he had done. He was Sabo�s father, half the reason her blond brother existed in the first place.
He vanished in the crowd unharmed, oblivious to the fact that the son he�d never loved had just saved his life.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Luffy dragged her attention to the enormous white structure swallowing the opposite row of houses. It wasn�t the largest in High Town, but it dwarfed Dadan�s hideout and anything she�d seen in Fuusha.
There were so many windows to choose from. Luffy dashed across the road, took to the gap between the surrounding wall and the neighboring house. She stretched her arms for the roof and climbed through a window on the top floor, right side.
She could tell at once that the room had belonged to Sabo, not because it was dusty or bare or untouched, but because it was exactly the opposite.
Someone was using it as storage for their unwanted things. The floor was littered with discarded books and crinkled pages of creamy paper, toy cars missing wheels and broken coloring pencils. A dented trumpet lay propped against a polished wooden bookcase.
Luffy stepped closer to examine its haphazardly piled contents. She sucked in a breath when she browsed through their titles and realized what this was: an entire bookcase dedicated to navigation. Taking one, Luffy flipped open the cover, curious about Sabo�s favorite subject.
She couldn�t have read it if she�d wanted to; whoever turned her brother�s space into a garbage dump had also vandalized his books. Page after page was obscured by the aimless scrawling of a child, but it was the red marks she found on the finals pages, purposely etched across each line of text, that made her whole body blaze with anger. Setting it aside, Luffy grabbed another book only to see the same. With the next too, and the next, and the next, and the next�
Someone had actually taken the time to do all this-

�Because they were Sabo�s,� Luffy whispered aloud. Wasn�t that the simple truth? The person who�d taken over this room after Sabo died, they�d done it because they were glad he was gone and not ever coming back.
Luffy turned, dead set on tearing the house apart until she found the person responsible and broke their nose. She was spared the trip - the door slammed wide, and in stomped the ugliest boy she�d ever seen.
He was blond like Sabo, but that�s where all resemblance stopped. He must have gotten the short end of the genetic stick, with his flat nose, tiny eyes, and fish lips. His hair was shaped like a bowl.
They stared at each other in shock until he pointed and asked, �Who the hell are you?�
�I�m Luffy, stupid bowl head.� She held up a book, open so the scribbles were on clear display. �Did you do this?�
The boy�s cheeks flushed red. �My name is Stelly! And those books are mine. I�ll do what I want with them.�
�No, they aren�t.� Luffy walked over to the case and started neatly replacing the books she�d dropped in her haste to check for marks. �These belong to Sabo.�
His dead silence spoke volumes.
�How- who are you?� Stelly gasped.
�I already told you. I�m Luffy.�
�But how do you know about Sabo? You�you smell like trash. I bet you met him in Grey Terminal when he ran away.� Stelly recoiled, pressed himself against the wall. �Don�t come any closer! I�ll catch your germs!�
Luffy raised an eyebrow at his sudden freak out. �Yeah, that�s right. I�m his brother,� she said, crossing her arms.
�You�re a girl.�
�So?�
�Girls can�t be brothers, idiot.�
�Me, Ace, and Sabo are brothers. Ace said so!� Luffy huffed. Stupid bowl head didn�t know what he was talking about.
�You aren�t his sibling anyway, because that�s me.� Stelly twisted his lips into a smirk. �I�m Sabo�s legally adopted younger brother.�
Luffy felt the bottom of her stomach plummet. Sabo hadn�t mentioned having another brother, even after confession everything about his parents and being a noble. The two obviously didn�t get along, but it hurt a little to think Sabo still hid it from them.
�I was his replacement. Mother and Father realized Sabo�s lack of smarts, so they brought me into the household as a respectable heir they could be proud of.�
�Sabo wasn�t dumb,� Luffy growled, defensive. �He knew more about navigation than anyone, and which mushrooms are safe to eat, and how to make a crocodile open its mouth when it swallows you whole��
�Useless knowledge for a noble.�
�But not for a pirate!�
�And being a pirate got him killed, didn�t it?� Stelly risked edging forward, convinced he could chase the scrawny wild girl out. If he defended the house, Father would reward him. �Got blown up because he was flying a Jolly Roger.�
��What?� The word was soft, dispersing in the space between them like a wisp of smoke. Even now, Dogura refused to tell them the full story of what happened that day.
�He tried to sail past a ship carrying the Tenryuubito while parading his pirate flag and had a cannon turned on him. Serves him right. Dear big brother was no better than the rest of you human scum.�
Feeling secure in his position of authority, sure she didn�t dare assault him, Stelly ignored the way Luffy�s fingers curled slowly into fists. Like a fool, he ignored how hard she was trembling. The ragged straw hat veiled her expression.
He made the mistake of assuming.
�No one bothered mourning - not Father, not Mother. Certainly not me. Not a single tear shed for that wasted effor-�
Luffy swung more quickly than he could follow. One second he stood there insulting his lucky break, and the next he hit the wall with obscene force, pain exploding through his jaw. Blood welled from his swollen lower lip.
She was no longer interested in hearing anything he had to say.
A terrible, sick rage churned her stomach. How someone could both call Sabo brother and mock him with all seriousness Luffy could not, would not understand; the hate she�d felt at the sight of Sabo�s father doubled and ignited, burning away what little reason she had left.
Luffy yanked Stelly in by the collar and threw him bodily across the room, where he smacked against a dresser, sending it crashing down. Drawers slid open and ejected their contents. Sets of clothing - those of a small boy - and a litter of knickknacks skittered across the floor to rest at Luffy�s feet. As she stepped over them, she recognized a white swathe of material that could only be Sabo�s neckerchief.
�So you didn�t ruin everything,� Luffy said, stuffing the cloth in her pocket. Stelly crawled backward only to have his escape blocked by the dresser.
With no way back and most certainly none forward, Stelly recovered enough to begin shrieking for all he was worth. His mother was in the house, along with their servants. They would hear. They would help, because he was nobility and it was the duty of those of lower status to protect him from wild beasts like the one currently advancing on him with no hint of remorse or mercy.
�Please!� he bawled, hands raised in entreaty. �There must me something you want! Money? Food? I can get it for you! Anything at all!�
Luffy could make out faint footsteps heading their way. Let them come, she thought. They�ll never know what hit �em.
�Unless you can bring Sabo back from the dead, there isn�t anything I want from a stupid bowl head like you,� Luffy said, voice low with palpable anger. It felt good to punch his flat nose flatter and hear it break, that sharp crunch of cartilage shattering beneath her knuckles.
Stelly screamed as blood gushed down his chin. Why was it taking so long for aid to arrive? At this rate his precious face would be permanently scarred!
Luffy brought her fist back to hit him again, but a flash of red caught her eye. She turned to look and saw a thing she�d believed lost for good -

�Whatcha doin�?� she asked, craning her neck to see what it was Sabo held between his hands. He pursed his lips, considering.
�All right, guess I�ll tell you.� Sabo beckoned her closer. �But you�ve got to promise to keep it a secret, okay?�
�I promise!� she swore at once. Sabo nodded and offered up his discovery for her inspection.
It was a lengthy string of large red beads, dirty but somehow intact despite having been salvaged from the trash mountains of Grey Terminal. She reached out to touch, loving how smooth and shiny they were under the layers of grime.
�A surprise for Ace.�
She bounced excitedly. �This necklace is amazing, Sabo! I bet he�ll grumble a lot but wear it every day.�
Sabo grinned, ruffling her hair with affection.
�Let�s give it to him together.�

- and her vision blurred abruptly as she remembered, eyes fixed on those very same beads, dusty now but otherwise undamaged. They�d never had the chance to�
Luffy shoved Stelly out of the way, her interest in beating him unconscious draining away as she clutched the necklace to her chest protectively. The footsteps were a lot nearer now; unwilling to risk loosing her precious bit of loot in the approaching fight, Luffy decided it was time to hightail it back to Mt. Colbo.
Her first step towards the window was aborted by a sudden pressure around her ankle. She looked down to see Stelly gripping at her with what was probably all his strength. �HU�Y, HU�Y THE CRIM�N�L IF GET�IN� A�AY!�
Apparently she hadn�t hit him hard enough.
�Difficult to yell with a busted nose?� Luffy asked, and lifted one sandaled foot to stamp on the rest of his face. Stelly released her with a howl, hands coming up to cover his wrecked mouth - but not before spitting a tooth onto the carpet.
She escaped through the window just as a group of burly men rammed their way inside. One charged her, but Luffy jumped to a higher piece of roof and left him reeling for balance. Luffy fled across the rooftops until she spotted the dividing wall and, beads tossed around her neck for safekeeping, stretched out her arms in preparation for flight.
Of all the abilities her Devil Fruit power had given her, this was by far her favorite: defying gravity. With a powerful heave, she soared away from High Town and over the lower section of the city. Wind whipped at her face and hair, would have torn the straw hat from her head if not for a strong hand clamped across to keep it in place; Luffy laughed with the joy of it, shouting greetings at the shocked expressions of those below -
She was so distracted by the awesome sight of buildings streaking by (why hadn�t she tried this before?) that she failed to notice her slow descent, or the tall and proud outer wall of Goa hurtling towards her at great speeds -
Luffy struck stone feet first, muscles twanging as the impact was absorbed by her body, only its rubber nature preventing every bone in her legs from being destroyed. The wall fractured and caved, sending Luffy and a mass of rubble tumbling to the ground. A larger piece fell against her spine.
People gathered around her, drawn by what they were sure was a fatal accident while Luffy lay still, blinking dust out of her eyes and wondering where her hat had gone and where the heck that wall had come from. She�d intended to land in Grey Terminal.
She spotted her hat not far away, out of range of the rubble and miraculously unsquashed. The beads were similarly undamaged, at least what Luffy could see of them, and she shrugged off the chunk of stone and got to her feet to retrieve her treasure. Many in the growing crowd gaped openly as she stuck her hat back where it belonged and glanced around to see where she was, a part of Edge Town she�d seemingly missed; Luffy�s eyes widened as she saw the very thing she�d been searching for perched cheerfully in the display window of a small shop.
Luffy shoved passed the group of gawkers and pressed her face to the glass. The shape, color, even the styled goggles perfectly reminded her of Ace - she pictured her brother wearing it, skull medallion swinging wildly in the sea breeze or brim pulled low as he napped - but it was more than just its appearance that utterly convinced Luffy this was the one meant for Ace: in place of an ordinary goggle strap sat a string of beads, identical to the one around her neck.
The shop owner came to stand in the doorway, gaze shifting restlessly from where Luffy stood to the ruined wall. He startled when she spoke.
�Hey mister,� she said, �how much is that hat?�
- 5
- 6
- 7
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Running Up That Hill	By : yinneko23 Category: +M to R > One Piece Views: 11948 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or make any money from this fic.

Running Up That Hill