【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"I know!" Ace said as he sat up, "So I have to act older than you."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ace!" Lucci showed an annoyed look and decided to defend his position. "You and I are the same age, so you are not older than me."

"Really? But your face looks smaller than mine!" Ace said exaggeratedly.

"Hey! That's just an appearance, it doesn't mean anything!" Lucci insisted.

"Of course!"

"no!"

"Have!"

"no!"

Ace and Lucci glared at each other, and after a moment they laughed together.

Suddenly, Lucci thought of something and turned to look at Ace and asked in confusion, "Why do you ask for the newspaper first thing every morning in the past few weeks?"

In fact, this is the question that all captains want to ask, but since it is a small matter, no one will specifically ask "What are you waiting for?"

"Hey, I'm waiting for the wanted order for my brother." Ace looked at the clear sky and grinned, "That guy will cause a big fuss soon."

"Your brother went out to sea?" Lucci was a little surprised. Although Ace's behavior had been a little strange recently, they really didn't expect this.

Lucci laughed and teased, "No wonder you've been actively taking the newspaper since that day. So that's how it is. You've been keeping it a secret for quite a while! You want to be the first to get the wanted warrant!"

"Of course! As his older brother, I must be the first to get his wanted warrant!" Ace said proudly, "Then I will introduce my cutest brother to you!"

Lucci looked at Ace's excited expression and smiled, "Then I'll start looking forward to it."

He had heard from Ace many times about Ace's younger brother, and every time Ace talked about him, the look on his face was unusually gentle, which was something Ace rarely showed.

A loud growling sound came from Ace's stomach.

"Ace! Your stomach is growling so loudly!" Lucci laughed, but as soon as he finished speaking, Lucci's own stomach also made hungry sounds.

"I think I can eat everything at the banquet tonight!" Ace scratched his head and looked at Lucci's stomach which was also making noises. "It seems you are hungry too, Lucci!"

"In that case..." Ace and Lucci looked at each other, then shouted together, "Sachi! We are hungry! We want food!!"

"Thatch hasn't come back yet!" someone on the deck shouted back.

"What?" Ace complained. "But we need Thatch's food."

"Hey! Calm down!" a familiar voice came from the railing "I'll go to the kitchen and prepare the food when I get there."

Lucci and Ace quickly turned their heads to look in the direction of the railing, and sure enough, Thatch was jumping from the railing to the deck. Lucci and Ace jumped off the bow in surprise and walked towards Thatch, "Thatch!"

"I'm sorry it took so long," Thatch said with a grin. "The island is much bigger than I thought."

"Did anything special happen?" Lucci asked curiously.

"No, I don't, but I found a good place for adventure!" Sachi said mysteriously, "It's like looking for treasure. Do you want to know what's there?"

"No, I don't want to!" Ace said, "You just want to find a tool to play a prank."

"Hey!" Thatch shouted in dissatisfaction.

"Where is it?" Lucci asked with interest. They had been on the ship for a long time and he wanted some adventure or a battle.

"There is a strange forest on that island, with all kinds of strange and dangerous animals and plants." Thatch said excitedly, touching his unique pompadour hairstyle. Then, as if remembering something, he sighed and complained, "But our mother bird is too worried and thinks it's too dangerous for us to go there alone."

"It's dangerous to explore a huge and unknown forest with a tired body," Marco's voice sounded from behind Thatch.

Thatch turned around nervously when he heard Marco's voice and shouted exaggeratedly, "I didn't say anything bad about you, Marco!"

Marco didn't want to pay attention to his stupid brother, so he just looked at him with his eyes downcast and said, "We will stay in this sea area for another day, you can go explore again tomorrow yoi"

"That's great, Marco, you are really the best bird mother!" Sachi shouted excitedly, completely unaware of the dark expression on Marco's face.

Lucci and Ace had obviously noticed the aura of death gathering around Marco. They swallowed nervously and quietly moved away from Thatch. Sure enough, after a while, Ace and Lucci heard Thatch's screams behind them...

Lucci and Ace looked at each other and then laughed. Although they sympathized with Thatch's experience, an angry Marco was really scary...

……

Night fell, the sea was still calm tonight, and darkness shrouded the Konomy Islands as usual, but every villager knew that from that day on, the darkness that had descended upon them was forever lifted, and the long-awaited dawn and bright sunshine would shine upon them again.

The village that was once quiet and full of fear is no longer quiet and fearful. Celebrations are being held everywhere on the island, and laughter is everywhere you look. People are dancing and singing happily. The villagers live their lives enduring humiliation just to welcome this day of free laughter.

Luffy was stuffing meat into his mouth frantically, while Usopp was standing in the middle of the crowd surrounding him, dancing and excitedly recounting his heroic deeds of defeating the fish-man. Zoro, Obi and Sanji were sitting in a corner with wine or drinks in their hands, digesting the food they had eaten.

"Ah... I'm so full. It's nice to just eat like this occasionally!" Sanji exclaimed with a smile.

"The villagers are all enjoying themselves to the fullest..." Qi said with a smile.

"But when will this celebration end? It's already the third day." Zoro said as he drank the wine in his hand.

At this moment, Luffy, holding a handful of meat, looked at them anxiously and asked, "Hey, Sanji! What was on the cantaloupe you ate just now?"

"That's raw ham and honeydew melon." Sanji took out the cigarette from his mouth, blew out smoke rings, and slowly explained, "As the name suggests, it's honeydew melon with raw ham on it."

"Where did you get it!" Luffy asked anxiously.

"Go look over there, Luffy!" Qi pointed in the direction he had just come from.

"I'll go find it!" Luffy excitedly ran in the direction Qi pointed.

"That guy only knows how to eat." Zoro complained.

Qi shook his head in amusement, "You wouldn't be Luffy if you didn't eat."