【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

They found a pile of rocks before nightfall and prepared to set up camp under it. Luffy was very excited because he could finally eat, and Sanji had to deal with Luffy who was extremely excited to eat the food immediately. Finally, after Luffy reached out to take it countless times and got burned several times, Sanji pulled Luffy's collar and threw him directly to Qi who was sitting next to him watching the show, and shouted angrily, "Don't let him come over again!"

"Just stay here quietly, Luffy." Qi pulled Luffy who was trying to rush towards the grilled meat. "Sanji will bring the food soon."

"Okay." Luffy was frustrated that he couldn't eat the meat right away, but he was immediately attracted by Chopper's fur. He ran over and hugged Chopper for warmth with Usopp.

"It's so hot during the day, why is it so cold at night!" Nami and Vivi leaned together and got close to the fire to keep warm. "What the hell is going on?"

"In this desert without any shade, it's scorching hot during the day, but at night the temperature drops to zero degrees and becomes unbearably cold." Weiwei explained while hugging herself as she shivered. "There are many unexpected dangers in the desert."

Ace, who was sitting far away from the fire, just quietly watched his brother whom he hadn't seen for three years laughing and playing with the crew members. At this moment, Qi, who had been sitting on the other side, took some food from Sanji and walked towards him.

"Here." Qi sat next to Ace and handed the food in his hand to Ace. "If you don't get the food quickly, Luffy will eat it all."

"Ah, thank you." Ace smiled and then asked, "You look a lot like a friend of mine."

"I know you have a lot of questions. If you want to ask something, just ask it directly." Qi chuckled and then teased, "Of course, I will selectively answer you."

Ace looked at the man sitting next to him seriously. After a day of getting along, he noticed that Qi and Lucci not only looked alike, but also had similar personalities. They were smart, calm, focused, and occasionally gentle. He even noticed that they had some of the same bad personalities, which made him wonder if Lucci had a twin brother or younger brother.

"Do you know..." Ace hesitated for a moment, then whispered "Lucci?"

Qi was a little confused by Ace's sudden lowering of his voice, but he still replied, "Of course I know him. Didn't you already know that?"

"Ah?" Ace was a little surprised. Why did Qi's words sound a little strange? And seemed he was too familiar with me, as if they had known each other before.

Qi looked at the confusion on Ace's face with doubt. Didn't Ace already know his identity?

"Ace, didn't you sail with Lucci?" Lucci asked back. He wanted to know what was going on with the main body. Given how much the main body doted on Luffy, he shouldn't have given up seeing Luffy for the sake of the mission. After all, when they were young, he would use his only clone, the shadow, to protect Luffy without hesitation. This was equivalent to giving Luffy the second chance that should have belonged to him.

"Yeah." Although Ace was confused as to why he knew that, he still answered him.

"Then why didn't he come with you to see Luffy?" Qi asked puzzledly, and then as if he thought of something, he joked, "Haha, it can't be that he forgot his brother." After saying that, even he felt that this guess was outrageous. When he was about to say something else, he noticed that Ace's expression was not right.

Ace didn't know when his face turned pale, and he stared at him as if he had seen a ghost. Qi asked in confusion, "Ace, what's wrong with you?"

Ace felt his body begin to tremble uncontrollably, and he began to doubt if he had heard it wrong. Ever since the first time he saw Lucci's true appearance under the mask, he had thought countless times whether Lucci would be their Lucci, but the time and place were completely different, and Lucci had lost his memory, even if he hoped.

Later, they joined Whitebeard and became a family, and he hadn't thought about it again, until now, the man in front of him gave him hope again "...The Lucci you are talking about is Monkey D. Lucci?"

"Of course, are there two Monkey D. Lucci?" Qi said confusedly, not understanding why Ace suddenly asked this. "I can feel that he was sailing with you before."

"Then who are you?! How do you know him!" Ace calmed down. Regardless of whether what he said was true or not, why did he know so much about Lucci? Ace frowned and asked, "I didn't know our Lucci had twins."

Qi was silent. Ace obviously didn't know his identity, so was he going to tell it?

Ace looked at Qi who suddenly became silent and asked again impatiently, "Who are you?!"

Qi was startled by Ace's sudden increase in volume and subconsciously turned to look in Luffy's direction. He saw Luffy, who had just been playing with Usopp and the others, was attracted by Ace's sudden voice and was looking at them with wide eyes in confusion.

Qi's expression became more serious, and as he was about to leave, he said to Ace, "I'll talk to you later."

"Can't you tell me now?" Ace grabbed Qi's shoulders as he was about to leave, and said through gritted teeth, "Or is everything you just said a lie?"

"What? Of course not!" Qi turned and looked at Ace in shock, then looking at Ace's angry expression, he realized something was wrong, so he pulled Ace away from the camp.

Luffy looked curiously at Ace and Odd who suddenly stood up and left, muttering quietly "Why are they so weird?"

"Hey, Luffy!" When Usopp turned around and tried to blame Luffy for finishing his food again, he saw that Luffy, who had just been here, suddenly disappeared.

They stopped a little further away from the camp. Ace just followed him silently, and then let the flames burn on his shoulders to drive away all the animals that tried to get close. Ace frowned and said, "Can you tell me now?"

"I'm Qi." Qi said, looking into Ace's eyes.

"I know." Ace interrupted irritably. "That's not what I want to know."

"The same devil fruit ability will not appear in two people at the same time, but I have all of Lucci's abilities." Qi did not care about Ace's irritable tone. As he spoke, he controlled Ace's shadow that appeared on the ground under the illumination of the flames, making it stretch and deform. "Do you know why I have Lucci's abilities?"

Ace frowned as he looked at the fruit ability displayed by Qi. It was indeed the same fruit ability used by Lucci, but why would Qi have it? Even if it was a similar fruit ability, it was impossible for the control method to be the same.