The Wild Rover. (A One Piece Ace x OC x Shanks Love Story)

Chapter 4: Lost...

"Where is she?" Ace asks out loud as he paces back and forth in front of the other two boys.  "She should have been back by now!  It's been an hour!"

Sabo sighs, "I knew Ace or I should have gone with Dev...her sense of direction is horrible!  You could tell her to go right and she would go left."

Ace lowers his head in shame, "It's my fault."

Sabo gets to his feet, "This is nobody's fault.  But what do we do now, Ace?  Should we look for Dev ourselves again or should we go back to town and get help?"

Ace thinks about it for a moment then turns to Luffy, "Luffy, go back to Party's Bar and tell Makino that Dev's gone missing.  She can put a search party together while Sabo and I continue to look."

Luffy quickly jumps to his feet, "Okay, Ace!"  He takes off running in...well, let's just say in the general direction that the village is in.

Ace and Sabo look at each other in exasperation.  "That was a really good idea, Ace.  Now we only have to find one lost person instead of two."

Ace nods, "We'll meet back here in an hour.  By then Luffy should be back with more people."

The two boys head in separate directions, each calling Devlin's name and then listening carefully in hopes of hearing a reply.

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Dev wakes up several hours later in a daze.  "What happened?  Where am I?"  Then everything comes back to her and she begins to pout. She looks around at her surroundings and sees the strange jewel not far from her.  It's still glowing brightly, allowing Dev to see enough to crawl over to it.  She picks the gem up and carefully examines it.  It doesn't seem to have been damaged during the fall, but something is definitely different about it.  That's when she notices exactly what it is; a red glow is now emitting from the center of the jewel.  Dev's eyebrows furrow in confusion and her mind is running around in circles trying to figure out how this is all possible.

First, she survives two falls that should have killed or at least injured her.  The first, being over seventy-five feet, definitely should have killed her; a huge pile of dead leaves at the bottom to break her fall or not.  The second fall should have at least broken several of her bones, but as she sits there wiggling her arms and legs she realizes that she isn't hurt at all.  She stares down at her hands with a frown and thinks to herself, 'Maybe my family was right...Maybe I really am a monster.'

Second, is this strange jewel, which not only glows, but also contains several traits from different gemstones: the deep blue of a sapphire, the pristine green of an emerald, and the unbreakable nature of a diamond.

Dev shakes her head and then stands up.  She could sit here thinking about these strange things, but doing so wouldn't get her out of this cave.  So, using the light from the gem to illuminate her way, Dev begins to walk deeper inside the cave looking for a way out.

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With the sun setting on what is now the third day of searching since Devlin's disappearance, the group of villagers looking for the lost girl decide to call it a day.  Some of the villagers have begun to lose hope of finding her.  However, Ace, Sabo, and Luffy refuse to give up on Dev.  Determined to find her no matter what, the three boys have only taken a break from looking by force, usually by Makino who has to have them carried to her bar at the end of each day.

Today is no different than the previous days; three of the men from Foosha Village carry the resistant boys back to Party's Bar and place them down at the counter.  Makino starts to make dinner for all of the exhausted men and women of the search party.