A Fire spirits rekindling!

A guilty man's greed

Docking the ship was harder than any of them thought it was going to be. Not only did their ship not fit in the legitimate docking space the island offered, which they had honestly expected. But they almost gave up finding a place to dock at all. The plan was to just ride the smaller boats to the island but luckily,  they had found at the very back of the island a secluded beach that led into the forest.

Lucky them, A forest which was taller than their ship and thicker than Izou's hair. Marco sighed, Thatch said it would only add to the adventure, Marco should look at it that way as well. Positivity wasn't Marco's strong suit, but someone on the ship has to be a pessimist and pops wasn't going to fill that space.

"Oh hey! There's a path!" Thatch yelled when he ran to the shore. Marco wanted to hold a small meeting with the current present commanders before they went on the island but there goes that plan.

Turns out the path was a straight shot to the village, it had some fenced areas. Probably to detour tourists from entering certain areas. Though the whole thing probably should have been fenced, it's not Marco's job to worry about strangers though.

"I'm going to be back, I want to see if they have any specialties I haven't seen before." Thatch said before walking off to the strand of markets. The markets weren't particularly interesting nor were they promising. Thatch frowned when he looked at the 2 he brought along. "I don't think they'll have anything you're looking for commander." Thatch nodded before frowning. "I told you to just call me Thatch." They were new to his division, they don't know what to look for when they go out shopping so Thatch brought it upon himself to teach the newbies.

It's not typically Thatch who goes out shopping. It's the job of his division to go shopping not himself.

They were walking past a bar when the two stopped in front of a poster. It was hand written."Kinda sketchy." Thought Thatch but it seems to have intrigued the two. "It says there's a wanted spirit in the woods." One of them said while turning to Thatch.

"A spirit?" Thatch asked as he looked at the poster himself. "The thing has a sizable reward too." The other said with a grin. "You can hardly hold a sword, don't bother." Thatch said with a smirk. Though he hardly looked amused. "Can too." Thatch frowned. "You need more practice before you go into actual combat. I don't need you getting hurt." The man only rolled his eyes in response.

"He's acting like I'm exaggerating." Thatch thought with a grimace. Before he knew it Thatch was on the shopping trip alone as the two walked into the forest. "Like a bunch of idiots."

Ace yawned, despite not actually needing to sleep. When you do it for years, it just becomes a habit. Just part of a daily, albeit boring, routine. Ace frowned, he should make something. Something real, not just some fire burned animal meat. It's been a while since he cooked, he'll probably just screw it up.

The devil fruit has been strange getting used to. It wasn't that hard since Ace had been able to use fire even before the devil fruit, but now he could do it without worrying about his strength, well kind of. He could probably control the temperature if he tried hard enough.

Ace sat up from his bed before standing up. It's been around 1 day. 1 day since he had been attacked by those bounty hunters and now more people were coming. "Can't I catch a break."

Ace will give it to them, they are being awfully quiet. Ace moved past his front door before heading into the forest himself, he needs to practice with the fruit anyway. If anything, those two are just walking into a furnace.

"So we split it into 50 50?" The seemingly older asked the other. The younger of the two nodded. "It would be unfair otherwise." The older nodded in agreement. "Yea, I guess."

"50/50?" Ace said with a frown. The other two turned toward him with a frightened glance before calming themselves down. "Yea... The spirit." The older person said cautiously.

Ace nodded in understanding. "He's got a bounty now?" The younger one paused before nodding. "Do you know where the spirit is?"

Ace's eyes narrowed. "Either horribly naive, or faking being this stupid." Though, Ace can't ignore the fact that he doesn't seem like a spirit at first glance.

"No, not really." Ace said with a frown. Ace looked at the two before grinning. "Are you two not from around here?" The older one nodded with a slight smile. "Yea, we are a part of Whitebeard's crew!" Ace couldn't help but see that he was bragging.

Ace has been rather sheltered, was Whitebeard some big name he's never heard of?

Ace nodded slowly. "So pirates?" The younger one nodded. Ace thought for a moment. "Are you here to raid or something?" The older man shook his head. "Whitebeard only orders raids on other pirate ships, or marine bases, it really depends how he is feeling." The younger one looked proud of that.

"Well it's good to not prey on helpless civilians." Ace said with a smile.

"So are you a resident here?" The older one asked. Ace shook his head. "Only for a month, I don't plan on staying either." The younger nodded with a smile plastered on his face.

The younger of the two looked startled when the older brought out a throwing knife chucking it at Ace.

Ace thought they were having a rather nice conversation too.

"What are you doing!" The younger one yelled looking at the older one. Ace really should just start asking names.

The older one looked startled when the knife, instead of impaling Ace went straight through him.

"That was... Rather rude." Ace said with a frustrated glare.

The older of the two took a few steps back before composing himself. The younger one looked lost on what to do. What was he doing here anyway?

Ace pushed himself off the ground before punching the boy in the stomach. The boy grunted before flying into a tree. His face was twisted in pain as he gasped for air. The older one looked back at the other, his face contorting into worry.

Ace frowned. He didn't really want to be the bad guy here, but they did attack first.

Ace drew his fist back before his arm turned a bright orange changing from yellow to red. A punch filled to the brim with his new devil fruit ability. The two looked at him with wide eyes.

"The conversation probably could have gone better I suppose." Ace said with an apologetic smile before throwing his fist.

He only guessed they could only feel the hot air before the flames themselves engulfed them as they ran away.

It shouldn't do anything worse than 1st degree burns, if they dodged well enough anyway. If this Whitebeard crew was as tough as they made him sound, he probably didn't want to kill any of his crew mates. He didn't need a target like that on his back.

He has enough targets on his back as is. Luckily, it's only one. Unless someone wants the Flame-Flame fruit, but he's sure any devil fruit user has that sort of target on their back.

Logia's were rare, well less rare than mythical Zoan's. Ace just shrugged, if someone wanted his fruit they would have to kill him first.

Ace scratched his head. "I guess now is a time as any to find some meat... A deer would probably do fine this time around." Ace said with a defeated sigh. He grabbed his arm checking to see if his wound opened, which it hasn't, lucky him.

"Give it another week and I should be fine to go without bandages." Ace said with a content smile. Ace looked up, "They'll be fine."