A Different Route (ASL, One Piece)

7. Talk with the captain

Sabo's face had turned completely white with hearing that name and Thatch noticed, 'So you do know us kid?'.

Sabo nodded to Thatch, 'Whitebeard is one of the Yonko's, he is the strongest man alive and has a fleet so big the Navy can't pick a fight with him because it will turn into a war.'

Sabo started to shake in fear and Ace in anger. Luffy just looked at them with a tilted head. Ace grabbed Luffy's shoulder and looked at Thatch and at Marco and Izou next, 'You won't take my brother, he's not going!'.

Before Marco or Thatch could respond, did Luffy put his back towards them and looked at Ace with his head tilted to the other side. 'Ace they only want to talk, besides these guys are stronger than the last ones, we won't win.'.

Luffy then turned his head 180 degrees to look at Izou, 'You said the geezer wants to talk right?'.

Izou nodded, suppressing the chill that ran down his body after watching the kid doing that with his neck. Marco's eye twitched at the insult and Thatch just looked more surprised. 'See? I will talk to him and I'll come back here once it's finished, nothing serious shishi.'

Luffy gave his brother his brother his signature grin. Ace bonked his little brother on the head, 'Did you forget what happened with Don Krieg or Bluejam? We can't just trust them!'.

'It's a talk I'm not trusting them.' Luffy held his head with both of his hands.

But Sabo took a step forward towards Izou and Marco, 'But if this is about the food, can't you just take it back and let us go? We didn't know it belonged to the Whitebeard pirates.'.

Marco looked at the kid with his bored look, 'No kid, Pops said he wanted to talk to the kid so he will talk to the kid yoi.'.

He had to admit he felt for the brats, it was clear they had been through some hard times and those wounds didn't look too good. But if he knew his pops he would like these stupid but brave brats who are trying to be pirates. Sabo looked at Ace who nodded at him, 'Alright but we're coming with you, we are brothers and we won't let Luffy go on his own.'.

'That's very loyal of you guys but I'm giving you one warning. Don't pull those little knives when you're in front of Pops. It's useless yoi.'.

Ace was still shaking and so was Sabo but Luffy seemed surprisingly calm, the three brothers put their knives away grabbed everything Luffy stole from the Whitebeards and started to follow the men. Izou put his gun away and took the lead while Marco and Thatch walked behind the brothers. The three adults had to admit these kids had nerve and that they respected their loyalty towards each other. Infront of the gangway of the Moby Dick, Sabo hesitated for a second before walking towards the boat.

The three brothers followed Izou until they were standing in front of Whitebeard himself. Close to Whitebeard were his commanders, the rest of the pirates were looking at the kids from the sidelines. Luffy looked up at the man in awe standing between his two brothers, Sabo had big eyes was standing on the left of this little brother and Ace with just more hatred standing on the right. Then Sabo took one step forward put the food down Luffy stole, with Ace and Luffy mimicking his actions, 'We're very sorry we stole your food sir. We didn't know it belonged to you.'. Sabo looked straight at the man's shoes not comfortable to look him in the eye.

'Gurarararararara,' Whitebeard boomed, 'First you steal from me but now you call me sir. You brats sure are something.'.

Luffy grinned at the man unbothered, Whitebeard looked at Thatch, 'I thought you said it was one kid that stole from me,' Thatch nodded, 'then why are there three brats in front of me?'.

Ace took a step forward hands clenched into fists shaking with anger, 'Because we were not going to let our little brother go here alone!'. Whitebeard looked at Ace, then Sabo, then Luffy, 'So you're the one that stole from me?'.

Luffy's grin faltered a little but then he nodded to the giant man. 'How did you do it kid? My commander didn't notice you until it was too late.' Whitebeard asked curiously.

Luffy looked at his older brothers who nodded to him, then Luffy looked around and saw a bottle of something standing behind Whitebeard on top of a railing. He stretched his arm, grabbed the massive bottle that was three times his size and retracked his arm putting it down on his other side.

'Gurararara, that's a useful trick you got their kid and you're pretty strong, what's your name?' Whitebeard laughed.

Luffy chuckled and gave him a smile, 'Shishishi my name is Luffy and I'm going to be King of the Pirates!'.

'Guararararara, you cheecky brat, You need to beat me if you want to become King of the Pirates. Think you can do that?' Whitebeard responded.

Luffy just showed him his widest grin, 'Once I'm older I will get a crew that will beat yours and Shanks's, no one will stop me!'. Sabo looked at his youngest brother with a bit of fear and Ace just shook his head then bonked his brother on the head. Luffy grabbed his head looking at Ace with a bit of anger but before he could say anything Whitebeard started talking.

'You know what kid, keep the food on one condition ̶ ' Whitebeard leaned forward to look them in the eye but was interrupted before he could finish. '

A navy ship is headed straight for the Moby Dick, it is Garp's ship, the Navy hero.'. Luffy, Ace and Sabo looked at each other with big eyes turning white, Marco and the other commanders noticing their strange behavior. The three brothers nodded to one another, all grabbing the food and sprinting off the ship.

'Thank you for the food and the hospitality, have a nice day!' Sabo screamed before jumping onto the gangway. Ace didn't even say anything he was already on the pier and Luffy just screamed 'Byeeeeee, nice to meet ya!' and sprinting after his brothers.

'It looks like the brats know Garp, I want to follow those kids, I'm not done with talking with them.' Whitebeard said to his sons, 'But let's deal with Garp first.'. Whitebeard smiled.

The three brothers were back at their home and put the food into the little fridge. They had already put the rest of the stuff away, so the only thing they had to do was unfurl the sails and leave. 'Wait,' Sabo said turning to his brothers and looking at the logpose, 'we need to pass his ship if we want to follow the logpose's directions.'.

'Then we go around a bit, I don't want to be anywhere near that crazy old geezer. Shit, I didn't think we would run into him.' Ace said grabbing the bridge of his nose, he could feel a headache coming up after everything that happened.

Luffy stretched his arms to unfurl the big sail and Sabo fixed the jib. 'Oi, I stole some white paint, so I'm going to fix our flag.' Ace said to his brothers, Sabo nodded in confirmation but Luffy was too busy with one of the knots that didn't want to let go to hear his brother. When it finally gave out the sail fell down and he and Sabo pushed the boat away from the pier. Ace had just finished their flag, when he went to hang it to the mast Sabo stopped him, 'Three boys sailing won't draw the Navy's attention, but that pirate flag will. Do you want Gramps to find us?'.

Ace suppressed a shiver while thinking about that man's fist of love, 'No, we'll wait until we can't see them anymore.'.

The three brothers went around the marine's ship and stayed away, they could see a fight starting between the Whitebeard pirates and the marines so they decided to go far around. They had seen enough of a fight on sea because of the swordsman and they didn't want to relive that any time soon. Luffy looked back at the city they had stayed at for the morning and started to laugh. Ace and Sabo gave each other a look before Sabo asked, 'What's so funny?'.

'Shishishishi, we had a real adventure that ended in us running away with our tressure. We really are pirates shishishi.' Luffy laughed, looking back to the city.

Ace and Sabo started to laugh too and before they could stop all three of them were rolling around, crying with laughter. When they finally calmed down Ace helped Sabo take care of his eye, and Luffy laid down on top of the cabin to look at the clouds. 'Oi Luffy, it's your turn to pay attention to the logpose.' Ace called for his brother.

Luffy climbed down the cabin and accepted the logpose that he put around his neck. 'Sabo needs his rest and I want to take a nap too, do you think you can handle the ship on your own?' Ace asked but Luffy already grinned at him and nodded. So Ace took off his shirt and laid down on the deck in the sun. What a day.

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