One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Thirty Four [Rewritten]

-Chapter Thirty-Four-

"You sure?" Luffy questioned.

"Any idea where you'll be heading next?" Sanji curiously asked.

"I have a lead on Blackbeard's whereabouts—Scorpion heard about a man who saw him out west, guess we'll see" Ace shrugged, digging around inside his pocket before pulling out a folded-up piece of paper. "Luffy" he called out, tossing the piece of paper to his brother as he did so. "Hey, do yourself a favor and hang onto that."

"But it's just a scrap of paper...?" Luffy questioningly muttered.

"That scrap of paper will reunite us one day" Ace smiled.

"Yeah?" Luffy questioned.

"You don't want it?"

"No, I'll keep it."

"It's perfectly natural for a guy to worry about his bundling kid brother, right?" Ace asked. "He might be a bit much for all of you to handle, but take good care of him for me" he bowed, causing us all to smile. "Luffy, when we meet again—we'll both be top pirates."

"Right" Luffy grinned.

"The top, you and me" Ace repeated as he returned his brother's grin.

"Bye!" our attention was soon dragged away from Ace when we suddenly heard Chip and Dip's voices. Looking in their direction, it didn't take long to spot them waving goodbye from their seat right on top of Popo.

"Bye!" Luffy happily waved back. "Huh? Where did Ace go?" he asked, the first to notice his brother's disappearance the moment he turned back.

"He disappeared" Zoro remarked.

"And just like that, he's gone like the wind" I whistled, amazed by how quick and silent he had been in his departure.

"Yeah" Usopp and Chopper nodded.

"Good old First Fist Ace" Sanji sighed.

"But we'll see him again" Luffy smiled.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it" Nami agreed with a smile of her own.

-The Next Day-

"Jesus" I jolted the second the peaceful silence between us all was suddenly disrupted by the loudest and most anger-filled scream I've ever heard.

"What's he doing?" Nami asked as Luffy went barreling past us all and out into the desert.

"He appears to be freaking out by the looks of it" I answered. "Maybe the heat's finally gotten to him" I suggested.

"How is he running on air?" Sanji questioned, watching as our captain started to run circles around the group. Angrily he continued to scream his head off as he started to jump around, looking more and more like a madman with every passing second.

"He must have eaten another cactus—he's gone crazy" Usopp sighed.

"He...he ate a cactus?" I asked. "Like spikes and all?" I cringed at the thought, unable to imagine the sort of pain that came with getting cactus needles stuck to your tongue.

"Geez, why can't he stay out of trouble for more than five minutes?" Nami frowned. "Chopper" she called back.

"I don't think he'll be much help" Zoro pointed out, casting a glance back to the reindeer that looked to be on the verge of passing out any second now.

"Yeah, he's in bad shape" Nami agreed. "Well, up to you then."

"Why is it my job?!" Zoro snapped.

"I seem to remember a certain debt you owe me" she playfully hummed, not giving him much room to argue as he tensed right up.