【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Lu Qi woke up suddenly.

The room he was in was very quiet. His eyes were not yet open, and he was using his observation Haki to sense everything around him.

Ace was lying on the hospital bed on his left, sleeping soundly with many bandages on his body. They were on a huge ship with many powerful people on the ship. They seemed to be on Whitebeard's ship. Were they kidnapped?

But they were neither shackled nor locked up, and their injuries were treated well. He was not sure what the situation was now.

He raised his hand and touched the mask on his face, feeling a little relaxed. Then he sat up, enduring the pain from the wound. He walked carefully to Ace and gently shook his body, trying to wake him up.

Ace muttered, then suddenly woke up, his eyes immediately looking at Lucci who was shaking him. When he saw that Lucci was awake and looking at him in confusion, he breathed a sigh of relief, smiled and quipped, "Is Sleeping Beauty finally awake?"

"You can still joke. It seems everything is fine." Lucci responded with a smile.

"Ah, we were on Whitebeard's ship, and we were kidnapped by them." Ace looked at Lucci's eyes widened in surprise "Whitebeard invited us to join them, all of us, including you and me."

"Why?" Lucci was a little surprised and confused. He thought they would be killed or locked up, but he never thought it would be like this.

"I don't know." Ace shook his head, then said firmly, "I will stay on this ship for the time being and challenge Whitebeard. I will definitely defeat him."

Lucci sighed, somewhat helplessly, and said with a smile, "I will go with you. I need some time to collect information. If you want to leave, I will find a way to take you away from here."

"You don't have to be like this, Lucci." Ace hesitated. He didn't want Lucci to be implicated because of him. Then he said firmly, "I won't run away. I will defeat Whitebeard."

"I believe you, but you don't have to worry about me. You don't know my strength. No one can hurt me." Lucci said with a smile, and then said seriously, "Besides, aren't we partners?"

"No matter what, we have to understand the situation here." Lucci said with a smile.

Ace looked at Lucci and smiled for the first time in a while.

"Hey, are you guys okay?"

A voice suddenly came, and Lucci and Ace subconsciously looked in the direction of the voice. A tall man was wearing a light blue high-end uniform, black pants that reached his calves, a black belt around his waist, and brown shoes. Looking up, you can see the man's yellow headscarf, and then he has a black goatee around his chin, and a suture scar around his left eye. He has an orange-brown pompadour hairstyle, and he is holding a tray in his hand with some food on it.

"Who are you? What do you want to do?" Ace asked warily.

"Hey, hey, don't be nervous. I think you need food." The man said with a smile, "I am Thatch, the captain of Whitebeard's fourth team and the chef of this ship. I will not let anyone feel hungry on this ship."

"Get away, I don't want anything from you!" Ace said angrily. Although he accepted Whitebeard's proposal, it didn't mean that he would get along with them in a friendly manner. His goal was to assassinate Whitebeard.

"Ace." Lucci pulled Ace's clothes to stop him, then he looked at Thatch at the door, gave him a polite smile, and refused, "Thank you for the food you brought us, but we don't need it for now."

"Dinner time will come in two hours, so don't miss it again." Thatch smiled in understanding, and then reminded, "The cafeteria is on the other side of the deck."

"Okay, thank you." Lucci responded to him politely. At least on the surface, he didn't want to conflict with them.

After Thatch walked away, Ace looked at Lucci and asked in confusion, "Why are you so polite to him, Lucci?"

"We need to avoid conflict with them for now, at least until I figure out this ship and find a way to leave," Lucci explained.

"But we are going to assassinate their captain. Sooner or later, they will be unable to bear it and attack us." Ace sneered, "The kindness they show now is just hypocritical, used to confuse us."

"Well, I understand what you mean, so I will investigate in the dark." Lucci nodded in agreement, "But they don't know my abilities yet, so I will avoid conflicts with them and show my abilities in front of them."

"Well, what's the plan, Lucci?" Ace looked at Lucci and asked about his plan. It was always Lucci who made the plans between them.

"I will observe this ship in the dark, find the location of the Spade members, and then find a way to take the Spade members away. Ace, you just go and do what you want. There is still some food in my space, and I can take some of their food without them knowing." Lucci said to Ace thoughtfully.

"Try not to have too much contact with them. We can't trust any of them." Ace said seriously, "We will leave immediately after Whitebeard dies."

"Well, you better be careful, Ace. Whitebeard is not that easy to kill." Lucci said with some concern.

"Trust me, Lucci, I will do it." Ace said firmly.

Lucci knew he couldn't stop Ace, but he would find a way to help him.

……

Ace felt like he was cursed, from having the worst bloodline in his veins to his current predicament, his luck had always been the worst, the only good thing in his life was having his brother.

Every part of his body ached, he felt the pain in his hair, he leaned his back against the wall, his head buried in his knees. It had been two and a half weeks, he had been trying to kill the old pirate, but his efforts had always failed, he had lost count of how many times he had tried to kill him, but he heard them say he had tried to kill the old pirate 50 times.

He leaned against the wall and banged his head against it several times. He felt embarrassed. He had failed many times. Should he say that it was a good thing that Lucci was not here? He didn't want him to see him in such a state of failure.

He recalled what Lucci said when he left last week, 'Ace, the Spade members are all on one of the ships Whitebeard is sailing on. My fruit ability can help me hide in the shadows. I need to follow the Whitebeard pirates to various Whitebeard warships. I will come back to find you after I understand the situation of the Spade members.' A week has passed. He covered his forehead in some pain, suppressing the worries in his heart.

Ace pulled his hair hard with both hands, revealing a painful look. No one on this damn ship regarded him as a threat. In less than nine months, he traveled through the East China Sea, Paradise, and entered the New World. He was also invited by the Navy to become a Shichibukai. Although he suspected that his grandfather was related to this, he also successfully defeated a Shichibukai. At the same time, he was a captain, a natural devil fruit user with powerful attack power, and had a basic understanding of Haki. He was really not weak, damn it! !

But in front of these guys, he felt like a kid playing pirates with them, he felt like he was 10 years old again, dreaming with his brothers about what they would become, only, he was 18, and instead of being surrounded by his brothers, he was surrounded by strangers he didn't like or trust.

He hadn't seen his crew since he was brought aboard the Moby Dick, and after Lucci left, he was alone.

Luffy was right, loneliness was worse than any harm.