A Small Adventure (One Piece fanfic)

Did You Say... Ace?

y'know that "taking back the number of the beast, cuz 6 is not a pretty number" audio on tiktok? If another video of Usopp with that sound pops up on my FYP, im gonna flip my shit. They're good, but WHO asked you to make me sad? Certainly not me.
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By the time I had ran over to Luffy, the red masked guy was mid-rant. Through the old man's yelling, Luffy and I learned that Otama hasn't eaten in many days, and the rice that Otama served him was a rare birthday meal.

Otama came back before the man could go on. She referred to him as her master and kneeled in front of him in order to plead for him not to dishonor her. The fortitude of this girl is amazing. I can't imagine giving anyone my food if I hadn't eaten for that long, even if I was conditioned for it. Then again, I'm a pirate, not a samurai or anything close to it.

The girl stopped talking when she interrupted herself with a violent cough, followed by her throwing up water. "Tama!" Luffy shouted in alarm.

We both ran towards the hill that the house was on and climbed it. When we were up, the old man picked her up and started talking, "She must have done a foolish thing. I suppose she drank the river water to ease her hunger."

"What's wrong with the rivers?" I questioned, having not seen anything wrong with the wildlife or landscape other than the fucked up village behind us. To be fair, I haven't traveled too far in the first place.

"River waters in this country... are polluted by liquid wastes from Kaido's factory!" the man informed. "For a small girl like her, it's like drinking poison."

"Then why are you living here?!" Luffy asked.

I nodded, "If there's so many regions in the country, at least one of them should have drinkable water."

The old man sighed, "It is true that there are places that would be a bit better, but she's waiting here... For someone who promised to come back. He is a pirate named Ace!"

My eyes widened and so did Luffy's. I looked toward Otama, who looked even smaller in the old man's hands. She was a bit blue, and looked to be getting weaker by the second. She met him? I know that Ace has gone pretty far with the Whitebeard Pirates, but into Wano as well? And this place isn't connected to the rest of the world, so no one here would have got the news about what happened to him.

"Tama..." Luffy called for her. She struggled to open her eyes, but she responded. "The Ace that you're waiting for is... Portgas D. Ace, right?"

She smiled and asked, "Do you know him... big bro?"

I had to bite the inside of my cheek as an image flashed through my head. Shit. "Mhm," Luffy answered. He then gave a short sentence that completely changed her mood, two words that I did not expect him to say so suddenly: "Ace died."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. She sat up even with the state she was in and she cried, saying that Luffy was lying before she straight up passed out. We brought her back inside the house and laid her down.

"So Ace visited the Land of Wano, too..." Luffy breathed out with a smile.

I let out a breath before I smacked Luffy over the head and sent him into the opposite wall of us. The old man ran and stood over him, yelling, "Are you the devil or something?!"

"Wha- she's the one who hit me!" he shouted, motioning to me.

The man facepalmed and so did I. He doesn't even understand. The three of us left the hut to talk so we wouldn't disturb Otama. "How could you tell Otama that Ace died so causally?!" the man questioned.

"But it's true," Luffy responded shortly. "No matter how long she waits, Ace won't come back!"

I pinched at the bridge of my nose and sighed, "Luffy, you can't just tell her like that. There's a way you should do things when it comes to these situations, especially with kids." Ace might be his brother so maybe I shouldn't be upset about the way he executed that, but... I don't know, how are you supposed to handle a situation like this?