【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Ace went down first and tested the water. He found that it was much shallower than the previous river they were in. It should be possible for Luffy to get down. However, because of Luffy's devil fruit, he still reminded him, "Luffy, come down. It's not very deep, but you have to be careful and don't sink!"

When Luffy heard Ace say that he could go down, he happily jumped into the water, and immediately fell down weakly.

"Luffy!" Ace quickly grabbed Luffy, pulled him up, and said angrily, "I told you to be careful!"

Ace had no choice but to drag Luffy to the shore first, then jump into the water to catch fish. After a while, Ace came up with two big fish and some small fish.

"I'm sorry, Ace, I didn't expect I'd lose my strength once I touched the water," Luffy said angrily, puffing up his cheeks.

Ace rubbed Luffy's head helplessly and said comfortingly, "It's not your fault. It's because of the devil fruit that you can't swim. Now let's go collect firewood and we can grill soon."

Ace heard Luffy's stomach rumbling constantly, and with concern, he told Luffy to eat some wild fruits first to fill his stomach, as the meat should be ready soon.

Luffy sat next to Ace, staring at the grilled meat with shining eyes, eating the wild fruits he picked, and occasionally stuffing a wild fruit into the mouth of Ace who was grilling the meat.

Ace looked at Luffy's actions helplessly, "Okay, Luffy, you can eat now!" Ace picked up a freshly grilled fish and handed it to Luffy.

Luffy took it happily, ate the fish in his hand quickly, and then began to stare closely at the grilled fish.

Ace was about to remind Luffy that the fish was hot, but he saw Luffy quickly finish the hot fish, and then continued to stare at the grilled food. Forget it, Ace had to hand his freshly grilled fish to Luffy first and said, "I'll give it to you first, the rest will be ready soon."

"Thank you Ace! Ace is the best!" Luffy smiled and gave Ace a big smile.

Ace turned his head away with red cheeks, and said proudly, "Who made you my brother!"

After finishing their meal, Ace took Luffy to the tree hole they noticed when they came over, and the two of them huddled together in the tree hole and fell asleep.

The next morning, the sun shone through the shimmering leaves, casting mottled shadows, and shining through the cave onto the face of the sleeping child.

Ace's hands moved slightly, trying to avoid the sunlight. Soon Ace woke up and raised his little hand to rub his sleepy eyes. A heat source next to him was close to him. Ace sat up habitually and pushed the person next to him, "Luffy, get up."

Ace looked at Luffy who continued to sleep unmoved and sighed helplessly, "Luffy, get up and eat meat!"

"Meat!!" Luffy, who hadn't woken up yet, sat up excitedly when he heard the word "meat", and shouted at Ace with his eyes full of meat.

"You only care about eating, get up quickly!" Ace punched Luffy on the head and taught him a lesson.

Luffy held his head and looked at Ace aggrievedly, "Ace, why did you hit me again and lie to me!"

Ace crossed his arms and ignored Luffy's complaints, "Hurry up and get up. We have to go find breakfast. I'll give you a few more pieces of meat then."

"Oh! Let's go!" When Luffy heard that he could eat more meat, he instantly forgot that Ace had just lied to him, and hurriedly pulled Ace to find their breakfast.

Ace looked at Luffy and sighed helplessly in his heart. As long as he wasn't paying attention to Luffy, Luffy would suddenly disappear. He would either catch butterflies or squat on the ground looking at insects. If he hadn't discovered it in time, Luffy would have run off to who knows where. He could only hold his hand all the time, otherwise Luffy would disappear as soon as he let go of his hand. Ace sighed helplessly.

"Luffy, stop walking around, we have to find food quickly." Ace held his brother's hand helplessly. Ace not only had to find food but also had to pay attention to his brother so that he wouldn't be distracted by various things.

"Ace! There's a big river ahead, there might be crocodiles in it!" Although Luffy was being led by Ace, he still jumped around and looked here and there. He happened to see a river ahead that was bigger than the previous stream. He immediately remembered the crocodiles they often ate before, so he pulled Ace and rushed over there.

"Crocodile rice, crocodile rice! Ace, I want to eat crocodiles!" Luffy stood beside the river bank and shouted excitedly to Ace who was observing the situation in the water.

"I know." Ace went down slowly, ready to test the depth of the water. He didn't know what was in the water, so he looked underwater vigilantly.

"Wow!! Ace, what a huge octopus!!"

Ace suddenly heard Luffy's cry and quickly looked in Luffy's direction. He was instantly frightened by what he saw and his face turned pale. A huge octopus appeared from nowhere, and one of its tentacles was grabbing Luffy, ready to drag him into the water.

"Let go of Luffy!" Ace quickly took his feet out of the water, holding the harpoon in his hand, and ran towards the octopus, running towards it along its tentacles. Ace jumped up, gritted his teeth, and attacked the octopus's eyes with all his strength.

"Luffy, are you okay?" Ace asked worriedly as he looked at the drowning Luffy. Although he had just successfully defeated the octopus, Luffy also fell into the water.

"Ahem! I'm fine, Ace." Luffy spat out a mouthful of water, then saw the huge octopus behind Ace, and his eyes lit up instantly. "Ace! I want to eat grilled octopus!"

"Okay, but we have to find firewood first." Ace took off his wet clothes and helped Luffy take off his shirt.

After breakfast, Ace and Luffy continued to explore the forest. Ace felt that the old man would not come to pick them up in the short term, so they could only go out on their own. However, the animals in this forest were much stronger than those on Dawn Island. He and Luffy could use the animals here for training, and they would definitely be much stronger when they went out to sea.

"Ace, what should we do next?" Luffy jumped around behind Ace.

"Let's get familiar with this forest first and see if we can find a way out." Ace said as he walked in front of Luffy with a pipe in hand.

"Okay! Okay! Adventure, adventure, let's go on an adventure!!" Luffy said excitedly, "Where is the fun?" Luffy climbed up the tree and a wide view appeared in front of him.

"Ace, there's a huge forest ahead!" Luffy said to Ace excitedly, "Uh, Ace, the trees ahead seem to be moving?" Luffy looked at them in confusion, they seemed to be coming towards them.

Luffy quickly climbed down and told Ace, and a moment later, Ace and Luffy watched a giant tiger and a giant bear fighting each other in front of them.

Ace reacted quickly, and hurriedly pulled Luffy back before they were discovered.

"Huh! Ace, the bears and tigers here are much bigger than the ones we defeated last time!" Luffy said excitedly, "We're going to defeat them again!"

Ace knocked his brother on the head and said, "We can't beat them yet. We need to train first. When we become stronger, we can eat them."

"Yeah," Luffy nodded excitedly, indicating that Ace was right.