【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Luffy looked up and saw a group of thugs approaching. They looked like adults. "What do you want to do?" Luffy looked at them without any fear. He didn't notice that the thugs more or less surrounded him, nor did he see that one of them pulled out a knife.

"I didn't see your other brothers today," said one of the thugs holding a knife with an evil smile.

Luffy frowned involuntarily and was about to grab the pipe on his back "My brothers are here, but I don't need them to defeat you" he said loudly.

He didn't like the man who was talking to him, he had dirty blond hair, but the scowl and smugness on his face twisted into something that always seemed to annoy him.

"The little devil is just a big talker!" the man snapped and nodded to his companion. "Catch him!"

Luffy barely noticed that the other three had their weapons drawn as the one in front of him took a swing with his knife, which he managed to dodge but he nearly hit his hat, which made him frown.

He didn't have time to reach for his pipe, so he drew his hand back and balled it into a fist, but he didn't get a chance to try and throw a punch before the other thug punched him in the face.

The punch itself didn't hurt, but some of the sharp objects in his hands dug into his rubber skin, causing him to almost bleed.

With a growl, Luffy quickly jumped up and got into a fighting stance, he knew he had more than enough strength to fight, but in a four on one situation, he was worried his brothers would get mad if he tried to do it alone, they always seemed to think he would mess up without them. Besides, they were still mad about the board just now, so he didn't want to make them angrier by worrying them or depriving them of the chance to fight, they could each take on one thug... that was fair, right?

"Lucci! Ace! Sabo!" he shouted.

……

Lucci looked at the board in his hand, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and turned to look at Ace and Sabo, who were still digging the remaining boards. Lucci looked around and found that he didn't see the other little boy, and he couldn't help but panic.

"Ace! Sabo! Have you seen Luffy?" Lucci shouted to them in panic.

Ace and Sabo instantly looked at Lucci, turned around and looked around, then hurried out of the garbage dump.

"Lucci! Ace! Sabo!" suddenly a loud shout was heard.

"It's Luffy!" Lucci, Ace and Sabo looked at each other and shouted, then rushed towards the direction of the sound.

……

"You little brat!" the man with dirty blond hair quickly grabbed at Luffy, but Luffy dodged it easily and jumped up, taking out his pipe and placing it in front of him.

The other three thugs froze when they heard the names, and sure enough, seconds later, they were busy fending off the three very angry brothers.

Luffy didn't waste any time, launching himself with the Gum-Gum Fruit and swinging his pipe at the thug. The thug didn't expect Luffy to attack so quickly and dodged, but that was the only time. After that, Luffy dodged attacks and kept an eye on his brother's position. His pipe was knocked out at some point, and the other's knife was knocked out as well, and now both of them were weaponless. Regardless, he was more used to punching, and he stretched his arm back as far as he could and punched the thug. His target was closer than normal, but he caught his hand and threw his fist somewhere else.

"Wow!" Luffy stumbled, his arms darting out towards Ace, who he vaguely registered shouting something angrily in his direction.

Lucci noticed that Luffy was in trouble, and Ace's opponent grabbed Luffy's wrist.

Luffy felt his body being tugged and he cried out again, flying through the air towards the man who had grabbed him. Ace's opponent didn't seem to notice this though, and his eyes widened when Luffy collided with him in the face.

Luffy rolled over from the impact, with enough force to knock both men to the ground, causing Luffy to land on the man's chest with a thud, knocking the man unconscious. As he sat up his hands snapped back into place, and Luffy looked around in confusion.

Everyone seemed to stop and watch what Luffy was doing.

"Oh!" Luffy grinned and shouted at them, "Ace, Lucci and Sabo! I knocked one down." He excitedly raised his hands above his head to show his victory.

"You idiot!" Ace groaned, slapping a hand across his face.

"Well...you did knock him out," Lucci said with a smile, covering his face.

"So now there's only one left," Sabo grinned, turning his attention to the man with the dirty blonde hair.

"Luffy, stop messing around and come here!" Ace ordered, as Luffy was still sitting on the fallen thug.

Luffy chuckled, jumped up, and began to sprint in Ace's direction.

"Luffy, be careful!" Sabo's sudden shout caught his attention, but not fast enough.

The man with dirty blond hair suddenly rushed out, grabbed Luffy's shirt, and before anyone could stop him, he punched Luffy in the face. Normally, Luffy would just stumble up and continue fighting after being punched to the ground, but this time it seemed different. Lucci seemed to catch a glimpse of Luffy's cheek bleeding heavily.

Lucci and Ace instantly rushed forward and attacked the thugs attacking Luffy viciously with their pipes. Sabo yelled at Ace and Lucci to stop.

"Luffy, are you okay?" Sabo asked worriedly.

"Yes, that punch hurt...Why did it hurt?" Luffy replied, covering his mouth.

"That bastard was wearing spiked gloves!" Ace spat, walking over with his arms crossed over his chest, looking very angry.

"Luffy, let me see!" Lucci knelt in front of Luffy, trying to take his hands away to see his injuries.

Luffy shook his head, not wanting to remove his hand.

"It's okay, Luffy, let your brother take a look," Lucci asked again.

Luffy hesitated.

"Hey, Luffy, take your hands away, we need to see your injuries," Sabo said softly to Luffy.

"Luffy, take your hand away!" Ace said sternly.

Luffy flinched at the tone, then finally dropped his hands at Sabo's urging.

"Why on earth is he bleeding so much?!" Ace yelled.

"Ace, shut up for a second!" Sabo said impatiently, while carefully helping Lucci to lift Luffy's head slightly to help him check Luffy's mouth.

"The gums are a little cut, and the lips too, but everything seems to be fine. But it will hurt, right?" Lucci looked at Luffy worriedly.

Luffy opened his mouth to answer "yes" but seeing that Ace seemed angry, he quickly wiped his tears and sucked his bottom lip "It...it doesn't hurt at all"