【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Stop it, green-headed monster, let Ace go!" Dadan suddenly appeared and knocked the pistol aside with a knife. The bullet hit the side of Ace's head and successfully saved Ace.

"Dadan!" Luffy murmured weakly.

"Dadan, why are you here!" Ace looked at Dadan in shock, struggled to get up from the ground and confront Bluejem with them.

"Hey! You're seriously injured, Luffy!" Dogura supported Luffy and looked at him worriedly.

"Aren't Sabo and Lucci with you?" Magura asked.

"Sabo and Lucci are fine, they're not here," Luffy replied weakly with a frown.

"Asshole, you are the bandit from Mount Cobol, right?" Bluejem looked at him gloomily.

"I am a bandit, but due to a series of coincidences, I became the adoptive mother of these little devils." Dadan stared at Bluejem and said loudly, "Then next... run away!!" Dadan then turned around and ran back.

"Yes, boss!" The other bandits quickly picked up Luffy and prepared to escape.

"I... won't run away!!" Ace stood there and continued to stare at Bluejam angrily.

"Ace, what nonsense are you talking about! Don't go against this guy, Lan-chan is not just a name for nothing!! Kids are no match for him!" Dogula shouted at Ace.

"I...I want it too..." Luffy struggled in the bandit's arms and wanted to fight with Ace.

"No, Luffy!" The bandit grabbed Luffy and wouldn't let him go down.

"You take Luffy away from here first! I will be responsible for bringing Ace back!" Dadan said seriously.

"Boss..."

"Go quickly!!"

"Boss! You must come back!" The bandits gritted their teeth and turned away.

"Woman and brat..." Bluejam looked at them sarcastically. "If you think you have some skills and become arrogant, you will suffer a lot! There are only two kinds of people who can survive on the battlefield, the strong and the cowards. The brave will always die! "

"Pah!" Dadan spat, then picked up the axe and rushed forward.

……

"Damn it... there's no hope, we're surrounded by fire..."

"What those guys said was true, how come it suddenly became like this?"

"Hoohoo!"

A strong wind blew and the fire was extinguished, forming a fire-free belt.

"What's wrong with this road?! We can see ships!"

“I don’t know what happened, but thank God!”

"I never thought that you would even involve a border country like the East China Sea..." A tall man on the ship with a large hood on his head and thick smoky makeup looked at Long and asked doubtfully, "Is there something here that you are particularly concerned about?"

"This country is a microcosm of the future world. In this world where the fittest survive, happiness will not fall from the sky... One day I will change this world." Long recalled the boy's words and added seriously, "Even in this kind of country, children will still be born."

Long looked at the crowd gathered under the ship, raised his hand and shouted to them, "Anyone willing to fight for freedom, get on this ship!!"

……

"Ace and Dadan didn't come back from the burning waste terminal!" the bandits cried and shouted while standing on the hillside.

......

"Okay, okay, wait, Luffy! Where are you going with this body?" Magura held Luffy down and persuaded him.

"I'm going to go find Ace and Dadan..." Luffy was lying on the bed, struggling to get up.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Dogula cursed.

"You are too badly injured, you should rest and recover first!" Magula said worriedly. "A large number of troops are now cleaning up the garbage mountain. Even if they can clean up the burned garbage and eradicate the roots, you will die if you go there now!"

"I really want to see Ace and Lucci. Sabo must be worried too!" Luffy said crying.

......

The morning after the waste terminal burns

"Ace won't die!" Luffy said angrily, struggling to get out to find Ace and Dadan.

"Okay, okay, we understand how you feel, but it's too dangerous for you to go to the garbage mountain with your current health. The king's army is still there!" said the bandit. "Dogula went to the garbage mountain to get information, and Magula has gone to look for Lucci and Sabo."

"Hey! Look everyone, Ace and Dadan are back!" a bandit shouted outside.

"Ace!" Luffy shouted, rushing over and hugging him crying.

"Great, both of them are back safely!"

"Luffy, do you think I'm dead?" Ace didn't expect that when he came back, he would be greeted by Luffy's tears. He wanted to teach him a lesson, but when he thought about how he treated him in the garbage hill, he didn't do it after all.

"But!" Luffy murmured with sobs.

"Don't cry, Luffy, don't just think that I'm going to die!" Ace shouted angrily, then pulled Luffy away and took off his tattered clothes.

"On the night of the fire, I finally defeated Lan-chan, but the fire had blocked our way and Dadan was covered in burns. We then finally reached the river in the forest where the fire had not hit. I went to the town and stole some medicine, and I managed to save Dadan's life." Ace explained to the surrounding bandits.

"Okay, okay, it's great that both of them are still alive!" said the bandit with a sigh.

"I'm sorry to have made you worry!" Dadan said weakly.

"Boss, just take good care of your injuries..."

"Sabo and Lucci must be worried about what happened at the garbage mountain," Ace thought as he looked at Luffy.

"Ace, why didn't you run away at that time?" Dadan asked puzzledly.

Ace curled his legs up in front of his chest, wrapped his arms around his legs, lowered his head and buried his face in his hands. He was silent for a while and said, "Sometimes my brain suddenly gets hot and I feel that if I run away, I will lose something very important. That was the case at that time... Luffy was right behind me."

Dadan looked at Ace and suddenly remembered what he had asked Garp before, about Roger. Even if he hated him to the core... their blood relationship was unquestionable.

"Have you seen Lucci and Sabo?" Dadan asked, looking around.

"No, we haven't seen them since we came back. Magula went to the forest to look for them," Dogula said. "I just came back from the garbage mountain and didn't see them either."

"Lucci and Sabo?" Ace asked doubtfully. "Are Lucci and Sabo back?"

"Didn't you see them? Lucci and Sabo were looking for you yesterday. They told us that the garbage mountain would catch fire. We went to inform the people in the garbage mountain. Lucci and Sabo wanted to go to the Blues Pirate Ship to look for you first." Dadan asked doubtfully, "Ace, didn't you see Lucci and Sabo?"

"What? Sabo is back? And why is Lucci with Sabo?" Ace asked in surprise.

"Lucci must have gone to Gao Town to bring Sabo back!" Luffy said excitedly.

"Stupid Luffy!" Ace punched Luffy angrily.

"Why, Ace!" Luffy pouted.

Ace looked at Luffy angrily. "Did Lucci hide behind us when Sabo was taken away? Sabo turned out to be unhappy. We should have brought Sabo back earlier. Fortunately, Lucci did it!" Ace thought happily.