【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Hahahaha! Luffy, you'd better give up on this idea. Brother will always be brother!" Ace raised his chin and said proudly.

"When I'm 11, I'll be older than Ace!" Luffy retorted.

"Idiot, I will grow up too. I will be 14 years old by then!" Ace said proudly as he tapped Luffy's head.

"Huh! Is that so?!" Luffy exclaimed in surprise, then pouted in disappointment.

Ace chuckled at Luffy's expression, "If you want to have dinner early, we should go to the barbecue now, Luffy!" Ace grinned.

"Ohh! Barbecue!!" Luffy raised his hands and shouted happily, then as if he thought of something, he grabbed Ace's arm with one rubber hand and quickly grabbed a tree not far in front with the other hand, allowing Ace and him to bounce towards the open space. Luffy giggled.

"I can walk by myself, Luffy!" Ace complained "What did I tell you to fly around like this?"

"Told you not to do such a thing," Luffy replied with a grin, "but it's fun!"

Ace began to deal with the rabbit in his hand. He had guessed that Luffy would answer like this and shook his head helplessly. Ever since he used this method to cross the cliff last time, Luffy would come up with new ideas from time to time and stretch out his arms to try to take him over.

"Eat some fruit first, the fish will be grilled soon." Ace handed the fruit he had picked earlier to Luffy, letting him fill his stomach first.

"Wow! Ace is the best!" Luffy took the fruit given by Ace and quickly walked to the water's edge. He washed the fruit in the river. During the washing process, Luffy first stuffed one for himself. Then he looked around, picked a larger leaf, and put the washed fruit in it.

Luffy skipped back to the barbecue place with the leaves filled with fruits, and sat next to Ace with a smile on his face, waiting for the food to be grilled. From time to time, he put the washed fruits into his mouth, and then Luffy took one and put it next to Ace's mouth.

"No need to give it to me, just eat it yourself, Luffy." Ace said with a smile as he looked at the fruit Luffy handed over, but he did not refuse. Ace lowered his head slightly with a blush on his cheeks and picked up the fruit in Luffy's hand with his mouth.

Luffy smiled even more brightly as he watched Ace's actions, and while Ace was grilling the meat, Luffy would pass the fruit to Ace from time to time. After eating the fruit, Luffy would stare at the grilling meat without blinking.

"Is Ace okay?" Luffy asked from time to time while wiping his saliva.

Ace gave the grilled fish to Luffy first, but the other fish were almost cooked. Ace looked at the burning fire and somehow suddenly remembered their tree house.

"Let's build a tree house here tomorrow, Luffy!" Ace said excitedly, "We will definitely stay in this forest for a long time and use the tree house as our secret base, just like in Mount Gorbo."

"Huh?! Okay!!" Luffy responded excitedly.

"This way we can continue our daily training, and the tree house will be our base!" Ace added.

"Yeah, we'll be able to defeat the tiger and the bear again soon!" Luffy jumped up and waved his fist excitedly.

Ace grinned, he handed the grilled meat to Luffy, then took another grilled fish and devoured it.

"Great, Ace!" Luffy shouted happily as he looked at the built tree house.

Ace looked at the tree house with pride, having had experience before, they had built it even faster than the first time.

In this way, Ace and Luffy traveled back and forth in the forest every day, surviving in the cruel forest environment, and slowly provoked all the powerful animals in the forest. In the process of fighting with various powerful animals, their strength became stronger and stronger.

......

"Sabo...!!" He vaguely heard someone talking and tried to open his eyes, his whole body screaming in pain. He realized that someone seemed to be holding him and moving quickly. He didn't have time to think more and soon his thoughts sank into darkness.

"You're too slow, Dragon! How long do we have to wait?!" said the man with smoky makeup and a strange big face to the man in the green cloak.

"Ah... sorry." Long responded without any expression.

"Ah, treat the wound quickly! It's so serious!" A subordinate shouted in shock when he saw the injured boy in the hands of his leader.

"Hey! Long, where did you get this little boy from?" The man with the strange big face asked in surprise, "He's seriously injured! He needs treatment quickly!"

"Please, Ivan." Long added expressionlessly, "Let's watch the Celestial Dragons log in before we set off back."

"Do you want to see the Celestial Dragons log in?" Ivan asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Long nodded, without saying anything more, and then returned to his office to prepare to process the documents.

a week later

"Hey!" A loud shout came from the sailing ship. The nurse on the ship saw that the little boy opened his eyes and quickly went to report to the doctor.

"Has he regained consciousness?" Ivan looked at the little boy with his eyes wide open on the bed and asked doubtfully, "But something seems to be wrong..."

"How do you feel?" the doctor asked carefully. "You have been in a coma for a week. Your injuries have been bandaged, but you may have some headaches."

"Who are you?" Sabo covered his head and asked in confusion, "Who am I?" He tried to recall his memories before he fell into a coma, but his head hurt more and more, and no matter how he tried to recall, it was all blank.

"Huh!" The crowd watching let out a surprised sound.

The doctor quickly moves forward to ask Sabo some questions and discovers that he can't remember anything, not even his name.

"Memory... lost...?" Ivan looked at the doctor in front of him in surprise.

"Yes, he doesn't even remember his own name..." said the doctor as he wrote something on a piece of paper.

"It says 'Sabo' on your belongings... Is that your name?" the doctor asked Sabo holding a handkerchief.

"Sabo...?! I don't know..." Sabo looked at the handkerchief in the doctor's hand in confusion. He had no impression of it at all.

"Long, do you know anything?" Ivan looked at Long and asked.

"It is certain that he is a noble of the Kingdom of Goa," Long replied, "but I seem to have seen him with another boy before."

"Then send him back and find his parents first." said someone nearby.

"No!!!" Sabo shouted in horror.

"Hey..." The others looked at him in confusion.

"I don't want to go back...!! Just take me with you!" Sabo said painfully with tears in his eyes. He didn't know why he was so resistant. He only knew that he didn't want to go back to his parents no matter what.

Long looked at Sabo's actions and suddenly remembered what he said when he first met him: "Then follow us first."

Sabo then lost his memory and followed the Revolutionary Army back to its headquarters, where he was trained by them.