The World Ends With You

Chapter 41: Forefront Exhibition Festival II

A/N: For those who are wondering, they are wearing their fits in 'One Piece: Stampede'.

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LUFFY FINALLY BOUGHT himself a cone of ice cream. Him, along with the remnants who were not wearing stuff around their wrists (which was the reason why Nami and Usopp were nowhere to be seen), walked towards the field. Stalls and stalls were to be seen on the grass, as well as in the grandstand.

Meat. Luffy could smell barbecued meat by the distance and he was, in fact, on his way if it weren't for the hand that grabbed his red collared shirt. That hand belonged to Robin's, the de facto archaeologist and peace maker of their 'crew'.

"Usopp said to meet up here," her voice sounded deep yet soothing even when talking to the childish Luffy, unlike Nami's slightly high pitched and scary one. "we should stay here and wait for them to arrive."

"But Robin, I'm hungry."

Sanji turned to him. "You just had popcorn and juice."

"How will that make me full?!"

"But you were the one who grabbed that off the stall from earlier..." Chopper added.

Nevertheless, they didn't find the two yet. So, Zoro was accompanied by Robin and Brook to make sure he wouldn't get lost in this crowd, while the others set out to different directions to find the easier. Even so, the various of meat and rice kept Luffy drooling on his path. Thankfully he had his goal of finding those two to snap out of his gluttonous thoughts.

~~~

BUT NAMI AND Usopp have been hanging out by the stalls with games for a while now. Usopp tried the shooting can game while Nami only looked at the stuff others were selling. She noticed that there were some unfamiliar faces mixed with the familiar crowd; these faces looked a tad younger than her, or maybe just around her age.

"What a sight for sore eyes, nyah~"

Nami turned and saw a blonde haired boy with rose tinted sunglasses looking at her. He was one of those unfamiliar face, but she didn't see him around. She reflexively fixed the orange short-jumper that provided her breathable comfort. "Hello, I'm not selling, by the way."

"Oh it's alright, miss." he chuckled. His shirt was open at the front, revealing a muscular torso and a metal chain around his neck. "I'm just here for a little sightseeing, that's all."

There were an awful lot stalls around them so Nami wondered why this boy bothered walking up to her for 'sightseeing'. Then this boy inched forward. Nami could now smell his manly eau de toilette that had a similar scent with mint. She took note of that as she instinctively stepped backward and as she did, she bumped into yet another figure.

This figure was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts with a belt far too long to wrap around the waist just once. It also had a tattoo on the left bicep and had a muscular built. Freckles were also spotted on the face with black hair split in the middle.

It was a figure Nami herself was very familiar with.

"A-Ace...!"

That figure turned to her. "Oh, Nami! How you doing?"

"All good, yourself?"

Portgas D Ace was the brother of her friend Monkey D Luffy. Also, his biological name was Gol D Ace but he took the last name of her mother Rouge out of respect. That fact was enough to make a person figure out what kind of person he was; a respectful young gentlemen unlike his younger brother who always gets himself in trouble. The greetings took a few seconds to end, making the sunglasses boy blink under those shades then looked at the relatively tall man who also had a tattoo on his back that resembled a cross with a skull in the middle. Whoever this was, this 'Ace', as the girl called him, surely looked like a delinquent. 

Ace glanced at the blonde boy. "Ah, a visitor? Welcome to our school!"

"Just here for a little sightseeing, nyah~"

Sightseeing. Yes. This boy from the other school came for a quote en quote 'sightseeing' but Ace was definitely getting a vibe that this boy actually came for something more than 'sightseeing'. Occasionally, the boy looks around and sometimes his eyes (underneath those literal rose tinted glasses) glued on some girls.

Yup. This boy was a pervert.

Ace gently shoved himself and partly blocked Nami from the boy while he cocked his eyebrow. He had this dull expression and half lidded eyes, his lips forming a straight line. "Look. I know you're here for some sightseeing but that doesn't mean you can flirt with every girl you come across. And by the way..."

The freckled muscular man with the tattoo and was topless bent over a bit and put his hand on Nami's shoulder, his face a tad closer to the boy's. "This is my brother's girl. So hands off."

With that, her cheeks turned bright red. Did Ace just say she belonged to his brother? Essentially he might be talking about Sabo but that bloke was already taken by a certain girl named Koala. The one left was Luffy who was single but had no plans to get himself a girlfriend anytime soon. Heck, he didn't even have a crush on anyone (whilst ignoring that certain incident during the dance, he didn't really appear to have a crush on anybody).

"W-What are you s-saying...?!" Nami blurted out, flustered.

Meanwhile, the boy was chuckling. "I see. Well then, mademoiselle, I apologise for my sudden approach."

Nami and Ace watched as the blonde haired boy with the sunglasses and opened shirt walked away to another stall. Ace's hand soon returned to his side while Nami remained frozen in place, her cheeks still coloured crimson and blinking. She had only one question in mind:

"W-What do you mean 'this is my brother's girl'?!" she managed to finally face him, looking up to his onyx eyes that were small in comparison to her brown ones.

"What, aren't you not Luffy's?" Ace replied. "I'm pretty sure you two are-"

"W-We're not...I-I'm not..."

"Oh. Really?"

"Yes, really!"