Chapitre 16: 16. New Bounties! Call from little brother!
│3rd Person POV│
[Grand Line, New World, Sphinx Island, Near the shore…]
"Is that so?" Marco asked with a sweet smile on his face.
Just then, Ace retracted his Observation Haki from Marco. He didn't want to keep snooping on Marco's inner feelings now that the test fight was over.
Because of this, he replied nonchalantly, not knowing what was about to happen, "Yeah!"
Suddenly, Marco appeared behind Ace and held him in a headlock.
"So, you mean to say that while I was training you, you were basically slacking off, yoi!?" Marco said in a menacing tone.
"Um I- I kinda did! Hahaha!" Ace confessed, a nervous laugh escaping his lips.
Hearing this, Marco coated his arms in Armament Haki and tightened his hold on Ace's head.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!"
Ace and Marco kept messing around for a few more moments before they started heading towards the Moby Dick.
While walking, Ace spoke up, "I kinda lost my motivation to become truly strong after finding a family within the Whitebeard Pirates.
"I thought that this would last forever. But, it seems that reality always has a way to break our delusions. Hahaha!!"
Bonk—!!
"Ow!"
After punching Ace on the head, Marco said, "That's not something you should laugh about, yoi~!!"
Then, while releasing a sigh full of suffering, Marco mumbled, "Even after Pops retires, my babysitting job won't end it seems!!"
Ace heard him and he couldn't help but laugh harder.
Marco just shook his head and kept walking.
Suddenly, Marco asked, "About Bonney leading the Fourth Division someday in the future, you don't have any problem with it, right?"
Ace stopped laughing and questioned back, "Why would I have a problem with that?"
"Maybe because after joining the Whitebeard Pirates, you spent most of your time with Thatch?" Marco replied.
Hearing this, a sad smile appeared on Ace's face as he replied, "When I became the Second Division Commander, I learned something interesting.
"I found out that the position was kept empty for so many years because mostly everyone wished that the former Second Division Commander, Oden, would rejoin the crew someday and resume his duty.
"However, you guys later found out about Oden's death and so, kept the position of Second Division Commander empty in his honor.
"However, when Pops finally decided to give the position to me, you guys didn't object to his decision one bit. I was happy to learn that.
"Similarly, I don't have a problem with Bonney taking up Thatch's position someday in the future. In fact, I think Bonney is perfect for the role.
"Her nickname 'Big Eater' Bonney suggests that she is one hell of a glutton. As the head of the Division which is mostly filled with chefs, she can eat as much as she wants while also learning to ensure that our ship never lacks food under any situation. Hehehe!"
Marco smiled hearing Ace's response and he couldn't help but say, "Oden's position was open not only because most of us didn't want someone else to take it, but also because there wasn't someone competent enough to live up to Oden before you joined."
As he finished speaking, they fell into comfortable silence as they continued on their journey back to the Moby Dick.
A few minutes later, the both of them arrived on the deck of the Moby Dick.
At this moment, the sun was already halfway below the horizon.
"Oh! Ace! Marco! You two came at the right time!" Jozu greeted the two of them just as they arrived before Whitebeard's throne.
He appeared to be inspecting some papers.
As the two of them surveyed the scene, they found out that apart from them, all the other Division Commanders were already present.
Apart from the Division Commanders, some other older members and important members like Jeanne and Bonney were also present.
All of them were standing around Jozu, trying to catch a look at the papers in his hands.
Seeing this scene, Ace couldn't help but ask, "What's the occasion? Why are you all gathered here?"
Putting an arm around Ace's shoulder, Vista said, "Well, a News Coo just came in and dropped some bounty posters.
"Jozu already looked through them. He was saying that yours, Bonney's, Jinbe's, your brother's and the other rookie kids', who participated in the war, bounties have been updated."
Hearing this, Ace smiled widely and asked in an eager tone, "Really!? What's my new bounty!? How much did it increase!?
No wait! Don't tell me!! Just give me my bounty poster!!"
While speaking, he appeared in front of Jozu and snatched all the bounty posters from his hands.
Flipping through the papers, he first came across Bonney's bounty poster and he didn't hesitate to toss it over to her.
Similarly, he came across Jinbe's, Luffy's, Law's, and others' bounty posters that he kept aside before he finally stumbled upon his own bounty poster.
"Heh~! They almost doubled my previous bounty!" Ace said with a smirk on his face.
"Well, what's your new bounty?" asked Marco.
Looking at him, Ace replied, "Hehehe! It's 1,000,000,000 Berries!! You just wait, Marco! I'll surpass you in no time!"
Marco didn't bother to respond to the taunt. Instead, he went toward Bonney and asked her, "What's your new bounty, yoi?"
"320,000,000 Berries!" Bonney answered.
Hearing this, Marco said, "That seems about right!"
"Luffy's new bounty is 400,000,000 Berries." Ace said while checking out the bounty posters of people relevant to him, "Jinbe's bounty has been reinstated with his bounty raised to 438,000,000 Berries!
"Law, Kid, and Urouge, all three of their bounties have also been increased. They now have a price of 386,000,000, 367,000,000, and 200,000,000 Berries on their heads respectively."
Nobody had anything to say about it as they all expected this to happen. They just expected this to happen a little bit earlier.
This meant that Marines were rather busy dealing with the increase of Pirate activity across the world after the news of Whitebeard Pirates winning the War became widespread.
The World Government tried to stop things from getting out of their hands by spreading the propaganda that even a Prime Whitebeard had to retreat after facing the Marine Hero Garp.
However, before this story hit the world, the damage was already done.
Suddenly, Vista asked Ace, "Ace, they didn't change your name in the bounty poster?"
Hearing this, Ace also had to think about it for a moment.
Even though his heritage was revealed before the start of the war, Morgans' newspaper didn't publish anything about it in his newspaper.
"Maybe they are trying to suppress this information so that new pirates wouldn't flock to join Ace. After all, even now, people around the world start sailing after being inspired by Roger's last words.
"The Marines and the World Government may be thinking that the new pirates would join Ace if they knew that you are the son of Roger." Marco speculated out loud.
Ace snapped out of his thoughts and said with a dismissive hand wave, "There's no need to think about this anymore.
"Even if Morgans didn't write about my heritage in his newspapers, I am sure he has already sold the information to all the various groups who would be interested in any information about Roger.
"Not to mention Doflamingo was there when I admitted to being Roger's son."
"Hmm? What does Doflamingo have anything to do with this?" Vista asked curiously.
As if he remembered something, Ace suddenly had a look of realization on his face as he explained, "Ah! I completely forgot to tell you guys that Doflamingo is Joker's real identity.
"While I was searching for a store to custom order a new hat in Sabaody Archipelago, I encountered Disco, the person who used to manage the Human Auction House in Grove 1.
"He was in very bad shape and I only recognized him because I had promised myself to destroy the Human Auction House once I was done dealing with Teach.
"He appeared to be in a pretty delirious state of mind as he kept mumbling about being abandoned by Doflamingo.
"And then, he suddenly started muttering about how he would expose Doflamingo's Joker alias if Doflamingo really stopped caring about the Human Auction House.
"I was pretty lucky to get this information without doing anything."
Everyone took a few moments to process Ace's words.
At this moment, a crew member suddenly came running toward them. He had two Den Den Mushis in his hands.
One had pink skin with random dark spots here and there, while the other one was a White Den Den Mushi.
Coming before Ace, the crew member said, "Ace, the Pirate Empress, Boa Hancock, called and demanded to speak to you!"
While speaking, he handed the pink Den Den Mushi over to Ace.
Ace thanked the crew member before speaking with the receiver close to his mouth, "Hello, Pirate Empress! How's Luffy doing?"
On the other side of the call, Hancock had prepared to say some polite words considering the person she was about to talk to was Luffy's older brother.
However, when she heard Ace's question, hearts appeared in her eyes as she happily replied, "Luffy~ is well now. He just woke up some time ago.
"Right now, he is eating the feast I prepared for him."
"Umm.? Gulp—! Hancock, who are you talking with?" Luffy asked curiously after swallowing the food in his mouth.
Normally, he wouldn't let anything distract him from eating.
However, he remembered Hancock telling him what happened in the War after he suddenly fell asleep. And he also remembered that Hancock was saying something about calling Ace.
If she was really talking with Ace right now, he wanted to speak to him directly.
It was not that he didn't believe Hancock when she said that the Whitebeard Pirates won the war and Ace survived.
He was just slightly scared because of the nightmare that he had just before waking up. He had a bad nightmare where Ace was killed by the Magma guy.
So, while he believed Hancock, he wanted to talk with Ace himself for one hundred percent surety.
Swiftly turning around, Hancock said sweetly, "Luffy~ I am talking Ace. Would you like to speak?"
"Sure!!" With a wide smile, Luffy quickly scarfed down the remaining food in his hands before running toward Hancock.
Taking the receiver, Luffy shouted, "Hello? I am Monkey D. Luffy! The man who will become the Pirate King! (Moshi Mosh! Orewa Monkey D. Luffy!! Kaizoku Ou Ni Naru Otoko Da!!!)"
"Hahahaha! Is that so? Then, I am Portgas D. Ace! I am the man who will become a pirate even greater than the Future Pirate King. Hahaha~!!"
…To Be Continued!
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A/N: I am sorry for not updating more frequently. I am not getting enough time to compose new chapters quickly. I have so much I want to write. So many ideas, plots, epic scenes, etc. However, with my job along with preparing for M.Tech entrance exams, I hardly get time to write in peace.
You know, I have like numerous ideas roaming in my mind for various fandoms. One for Naruto, One One Piece X Harry Potter Crossover, One MCU, Two High School DxD, One Tensura, etc. Who knows when I will be able to put them down in writing.
If only there was a device that could read my ideas and write them down. Hahaha~!
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