【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Makino!" Luffy shouted happily at the door of the tavern.

Makino pushed open the door of the tavern and happily looked at Luffy who was running towards her, "Luffy! Great, you're back!"

Makino shed tears of excitement, then happily hugged Luffy and touched his cheek happily with her hand. She saw Ace standing behind them and watching them. She gave him a very gentle smile, pulled him by the hand and gave him a hug. She hugged the two brothers tightly, "That's great! I'm so glad you're all right!"

"Makino, we are back, don't cry." Luffy wiped the tears from Makino's face.

"I'm not crying, I'm just very happy!" Makino laughed, and then said, "You should go see Dadan, they miss you too."

"She won't miss us." Ace said, looking away.

"Oh! Ace, let's go see Dadan!" He pulled Ace into the forest, then thought of something and waved to Makino, "Makino, we will come to see you later!"

After a day of trouble, Ace and Luffy temporarily lived in Dadan's house as before. They planned to go to the tree house tomorrow to pack up their things, as they left in a hurry before and didn't pack anything.

The next morning

Ace looked at the familiar forest and the familiar tree house. They had obviously left here for two years, but everything seemed to be the same as before, and everything seemed to have happened yesterday. Ace shook his head and stopped thinking.

"Luffy, let's pack up our things and move to our kingdom." Ace said to Luffy beside him. They didn't want to live in the tree house without Lucci and Sabo anymore.

"Okay!" Luffy responded calmly. Luffy looked at the tree house which was the same as before, and rarely did he smile as brightly as usual.

Ace was tidying up the corner where Luffy often stayed, when suddenly a photo album fell out with a loud noise, which scared Ace and Luffy.

Ace picked up the photo album that fell on the ground and felt a little confused. It seemed that he had never seen Lucci take it out before. He was a little curious for a moment. Luffy was already sitting next to Ace and was also a little curious about what was inside.

Ace and Luffy looked at each other and decided to open it and take a look.

Ace slowly turned to the first page and looked at the contents. He didn't expect that there was a photo of a baby inside. Ace looked at Luffy in confusion and found that Luffy was also confused, so he could only continue to turn the pages.

After Ace flipped through a few pages, he was surprised to find that these seemed to be photos of Luffy as a child, when he was a baby, when he first learned to walk, when he first spoke, when he was 2 years old, 3 years old, and up to 5 years old. Ace could also feel the love in these photos, and he felt a little heavy. Lucci had always been the brother who doted on Luffy the most. Although Sabo doted on him too, he sometimes insisted on his principles, but Lucci was completely doting on him without principles, just like the time when Luffy clamored for them to get on his ship, he and Sabo both firmly refused, but Lucci hesitated and quickly agreed. He was very surprised at the time. He could feel it when he first met Luffy that Lucci's personality was actually very similar to his, and he would never be the kind of person who would be inferior to others.

Ace looked at Luffy and found his expression very funny. Ace snickered and asked "What's wrong with you, Luffy?"

"Well! That's too much, Lucci!" Luffy said with a pout, "He actually took pictures of me secretly. I didn't know he took so many pictures of me. We didn't even take a photo together." Luffy's voice became lower and lower.

Ace noticed that Luffy was in a bad mood. He knew that these photos made Luffy sad again, so Ace decided to say something to divert Luffy's attention.

"We haven't taken a group photo yet, let's go find Makino to take a photo, Luffy!" Ace said to Luffy excitedly.

"Really? Then let's go!" Luffy's attention was instantly diverted, and he shouted excitedly, "I want to take a lot of pictures with Ace!"

Ace looked at Luffy excitedly holding his hand, he breathed a sigh of relief, then he showed a happy expression, thinking of the photos taken by Lucci, he decided that he also wanted to record Luffy's growth, so that at least he could see Luffy after going out to sea, even if it was a photo, but before Luffy went out to sea, in order to prevent Luffy from being exposed, he decided that he would only watch secretly, Ace thought silently in his heart, then a relaxed smile appeared on his face.

……

5 year later...

Ace, Lucci, and Sabo are 17 years old, and Luffy is 14 years old.

Luffy looked at the shop in front of him. It was a clothing store. Various styles of clothes were placed on the shelf on the left, and various styles of hats were placed on the right. Luffy rushed in and looked everywhere on the right for what he wanted. Luffy searched for a long time but still couldn't find what he wanted. Luffy drooped his shoulders in disappointment and prepared to go out.

"Hey! Brother!"

Luffy turned and looked at the shop owner in confusion, wondering why he was calling him.

"Do you want hats? Here are some that were recently delivered and haven't been put out for sale yet." The shop owner said with a smile, pointing to a pocket in the corner.

"Really?" Luffy looked at the bag in the corner and decided to take a look. He had already looked in all the clothing stores in town, but he still couldn't find what he wanted.

Luffy picked up an orange cowboy hat with a bull's head pendant on the hat string underneath.

"That's it!" Luffy said happily while looking at the hat in his hand. He looked at the hat in his hand and felt that something was missing. Then he ran to the accessories and saw a string of red beads, which looked very similar to the one that Dadan often wore, but there were two round decorations on the beads, one with a smiling face and the other with a crying face. He put the beads on the brim of the hat.

"Nihehe, Ace will definitely like this!" Luffy smiled brightly.