【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"This is my most important brother. No matter what he becomes, as an older brother, I will definitely recognize him!" Ace said proudly, then looked at the horrible bounty in his hand and dropped his shoulders in frustration.

The pirates in the restaurant were all amused by the pitiful scene, even Marco couldn't help but laugh, though he tried to hold back his laughter.

Lucci and Harta headed for the dining room, while Izo and Thatch stayed on the deck to report to their father about the findings of this exploration.

"Hey, what's wrong with Ace?" This was the scene that Lucci and Harta saw when they entered the restaurant: a depressed Ace and a group of Whitebeard pirates who were laughing secretly.

Ace heard the voice and turned around to see Lucci. A smile appeared on his face, but his voice was a little frustrated. "Lucci, you guys are back."

Lucci looked at Ace's depressed expression in confusion, somewhat bewildered. He turned to look at Marco who was standing aside with a smile on his face.

Marco understood the confusion in Lucci's eyes and explained to them everything that had just happened with a smile.

Lucci, who already knew everything, turned to look at Ace, who had already squatted on the ground, silently poking at the burnt newspaper on the ground with his hands. Seeing Ace's pitiful appearance, Lucci was successfully amused. He took out the newspaper he bought, put it in front of Ace and teased, "You are so lucky, Ace! I bought one too!"

Ace looked at the intact newspaper in front of him, his eyes lit up instantly, he took the newspaper, and hugged Lucci excitedly, "Great, Lucci!"

Ace quickly let go of Lucci, then, holding the newspaper and wanted poster in his hand, excitedly and enthusiastically began to show off his brother to the pirates in the restaurant.

After showing off his brother to all the pirates, Ace returned to the dining table and excitedly shouted to Lucci, "Hey! Lucci, do you see this picture? This is my brother!"

Lucci looked at the wanted poster in Ace's hand and smiled. He never thought that the boy who caught his attention was Ace's younger brother.

"The first bounty a novice pirate receives is 3 million berries. Ace, your brother is quite capable, especially since he comes from the East China Sea!" Vista said with a smile.

"He must have caused huge trouble for the navy!" Harta smiled mischievously, "and this bounty seems to be higher than the first time Ace got it."

"Hey!" Ace glared at Harta in annoyance, although it was true he refused to think about the fact that his brother's initial bounty was higher than his at the time, but at the same time, he was proud of Luffy for becoming stronger.

Ace looked at the wanted photo in his hand excitedly, which had his brother's innocent and bright smile printed on it. Suddenly, he noticed Luffy's profile next to his smile. Just now, his attention had been focused on Luffy's smile, and he didn't notice that there was another boy next to Luffy in the photo. Ace looked at the boy's profile in the photo and felt inexplicably familiar.

"Ace, is there something wrong?" Lucci didn't understand why Ace suddenly started staring at him.

"Lucci, don't you think this guy looks familiar?" Ace pointed at the side of the boy who appeared on the edge of the wanted poster. "He looks like you. Could it be related to your lost memory?"

Lucci looked in the direction Ace pointed and saw the familiar face. He was a little shocked. Except for the hair color, the boy looked exactly like him. But why didn't he have any impression of this boy and didn't even notice him at first?

"No, I don't have any feelings for him at all. Instead, I care more about the person next to me..." Lucci looked at the curious Ace and silently swallowed the rest of his words. If he told Ace that he cared more about his brother, he always felt that something terrible would happen...

"What?" Ace looked at Lucci in confusion.

"Why don't you show Dad the bounty order for your brother, Ace? Dad should be looking forward to it!" Lucci smiled and changed the subject.

"That's a great idea, Lucci!" As expected, Ace's attention was instantly diverted, and he excitedly ran towards his father who was sitting on the deck.

Lucci followed Ace and walked slowly towards the deck, where Thatch was showing his father the devil fruit he found. Everyone gathered around Thatch and looked at the devil fruit in Thatch's hand curiously, until Ace appeared and everyone's attention shifted to Ace.

Lucci was standing at the door of the restaurant watching this scene with a smile, he saw Teach standing outside the crowd and was about to go up to greet him, suddenly he noticed that Teach was staring at Thatch with a gloomy smile on his face, he was stunned for a moment, Teach's eyes were very strange, then he realized that Teach's eyes were mainly staring at the devil fruit in Thatch's hand.

"Teacher, do you know that Thatch's devil fruit is a power?" Lucci asked Teach.

"Hmm?" Tiqi turned around, his eyes instantly became gentle, just like usual, he smiled and said, "No, I don't know, Vice Captain."

"Really? I must have been wrong. I thought you knew something." Lucci said with a smile. He didn't believe what Teach said. From his eyes, it could be seen that he obviously knew what the fruit was.

Thinking of a conversation he had with Teach long ago, he felt that Teach had revealed his ambition for a certain devil fruit. Could this be the devil fruit that Teach wanted? It seemed that he had to find the relevant information about this devil fruit as soon as possible. He wanted to know what type of devil fruit it was.

……

Late at night, the Moby Dick was quiet, and everyone was asleep except for a few lookouts on duty.

Thatch was leaning against the railing, staring at the sea, he had just finished cleaning the kitchen, usually he would have finished by this time, but he kept thinking about the devil fruit he got today, he kept thinking over his choices in his mind, whether to eat it or not, what to do with it if he didn't eat it, what kind of devil fruit ability did it have.

By eating it, he might gain a new power that suits him or is of little use to him, but it means he'll have to retrain himself to adapt to the new power, and he'll lose his excellent swimming ability and gain an additional weakness.

If he didn't eat it, then what should he do with it, maybe he could give it to a crew member who wanted it or sell him.

But what if he gave this fruit to someone else, and they regretted it, or got hurt because of this devil fruit, it would be indirectly caused by him.

Selling it might provide his enemies with a more powerful force, after all, the possibility of it falling into the hands of the navy was too great.

Thatch sighed heavily, unsure of how best to handle this.