Ace Arrives:
-x-
"Where the heck is Luffy?" Zoro wondered. The Straw Hats were getting tired of waiting for their wayward captain. The last they'd seen of him was when he ran off in search of food.
"Let's go find him," Usopp suggested, "He doesn't know where we are anyway."
"Nah, I'll go find him," Y/N replied as he pushed himself off of the wall and stood up as waved his arms and legs still attempting to adjust to the five hundred kilogram bands he was wearing. "If you all stay here I'll be able to bring him back once I find him and we can set off without waiting to meet up again."
"In that case, we'll guard the supplies," Usopp decided as he, Chopper, and Carue formed a protective circle around the supplies that Y/N and Sanji had bought back.
"If anyone can find that idiot in a strange town it's you," Sanji reasoned.
"Try to keep him out of trouble," Vivi advised, "if word gets out that pirates are wandering Nanohana the royal army could be called in... or worse... Crocodile."
"Don't worry about it," Y/N reassured her, "I'm good at lying low."
"It's not you we're worried about," Nami pointed out. "Luffy can't seem to remember that he's got a thirty million berri bounty on his head."
"But he can usually get himself out of any trouble he gets himself into," Y/N reminded her as he picked up the bag that contain the money and his sword and headed off. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
-x-
A man walked down a street through the market district of Nanohana. He had short messy black hair and freckles that were mostly hidden by his orange hat that was decorated with two blue faces one smiling and one frowning two straps from the hat met at the man's chest in a bull's skull buckle. Around the hat was a string of large round rubies that matched a similar string that went around the man's neck He didn't wear a shirt exposing his lean muscular physique, eight-pack abs, and his two tattoos one was on his left bicep and read 'A' 'S' 'C' 'E' but had the 'S' crossed out, the second tattoo went across his back. It was a purple mark with two bones in the shape of a cross under a purple skull with a white crescent-shaped beard. He wore an orange elbow pad on his left elbow and black shorts that were laced with an orange belt that had a green and brown knife sheathed on it. There was a blue pouch strapped to his leg and he wore simple black shoes. The man walked casually and carried a small bag over one shoulder. This was none other than Portgaz D. Ace, Luffy and Y/N's older brother.
"Oh hello there young traveler!" a merchant called out to Ace, "I haven't seen you around before. Is this your first time here?" The man held out a shiny gold apple, "Would you care to take a look at this solid gold apple?" The man stepped into Ace's path to force and whispered to him, "I don't normally do this, but I can usually tell when someone has a discerning eye. This apple's magic. It's from an ancient ruin with just one bite you could live for a thousand years!"
"Thanks but no thanks," Ace politely declined, "I'm not really all that interesting in living for a thousand years. Just living today is good enough." Ace walked off leaving the merchant and a few readers staring after him in surprise.
"Care to hear your fortune, young man?" an old lady wearing the robe of a fortune teller offered further down the street.
"No thank you, but I do have one question," Ace replied, "have you seen these guys?" Ace produced and pair of wanted posters and showed them to the fortune teller.
"'Straw Hat' Luffy and 'One Eye' Y/N?" the old woman read off of the wanted posters.
"They might be in town here somewhere," Ace explained, "I've been looking for them for a while now."
