【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Hey, Marco?"

The captain of the 1st Squadron of the Whitebeard Pirates turned to face his brother, already knowing what he was going to say "I haven't seen the Fire Fist since his last attempt to assassinate Dad."

Thatch frowned "Damn it, he's not in the room we gave him and it's past dinner time and the other kid hasn't shown up in a week."

Marco sighed, when Lucci and Fire Fist acted together, their movements were still regular, and judging from the disappearance of the food, they had enough food to support them, so they were not worried about their physical condition. But since Lucci disappeared this week (Marco guessed that he probably ran away, although they didn't understand how he left without alerting them), the boy almost never slept. He only stole a small amount of food from the warehouse where they stored food and caught the rest.

He continued to attack their dad at least three times a day. Although the child had not attacked anyone other than the dad, anyone who tried to get close to him would be intimidated by him, and he had always refused treatment, which made them very worried about the child's physical condition.

"Why don't you use your observation Haki to find him?" Marco asked with his eyes downcast.

"I don't want him to think we can find him anytime," Thatch replied with a shrug. "He might not be happy about that, and I love my hair and don't want to lose it." He proudly reached up and patted his ridiculous pompadour.

Marco sighed and held out his hand.

Thatch smiled and handed the food in his hand to Marco, "Thanks, bro!"

"Yeah, yeah." Marco replied helplessly.

With his Observation Haki, it didn't take him long to find Fire Fist, the kid was hiding in one of Moby's lockers.

He knocked on the door "Fire Fist, I'm Marco Yoi, I have something for you"

Marco looked at the door that had been closed and couldn't help but sigh, "I know you're in there Yoi, I don't think you want Thatch to come looking for you because you haven't eaten and I don't want to be harassed by him."

"I think I've made it clear to you. I don't want your food." Fire Fist's voice came from behind the door.

He'd made it clear that he didn't want anything from them except his father's head, but wanting and needing were two different things.

"I know what you mean," Marco replied.

"Then why are you here?" Fire Fist's voice was full of suspicion.

"Do you believe it's because I don't want you to faint suddenly, yoi?" Marco was a little helpless. He tried to explain, "We are not here to arrest you."

"Yeah, I'm gonna kill your captain, and I know what that means, idiot."

Marco rubbed the bridge of his nose, somewhat helplessly, and asked a question he had always wanted to know, "Why do you act as if you hold a grudge against the world, Yoi?"

Only silence answered the question, and Marco sighed again "I'll leave the food here, at least take it after I leave, okay Yoi?

He carefully placed the plate by the door and left.

Ace waited until he could no longer hear footsteps, then waited another two or three minutes before he opened the door a little bit, and sure enough, a bowl of food was waiting at the door.

Honestly, he just wanted to throw the bowl of food back in the bastard's face, but his growling stomach stopped him, damn, as annoying as he found them, he had to admit that Thatch was an excellent cook.

'Why do you act like you hate the world?'

Ace stared down at the food, as if he was back in the bar when he was a kid, seeing countless faces in countless bars, countless laughs, constant mockery. He clenched the fork in his hand tightly, and the fork kept turning red and hot in his hand.

How can you not hate the world when it hates your existence?

……

Thatch whistled as he walked down the hall, holding in his hands a covered plate of breakfast, which contained the Sea King meat that he had specially cooked, as he noticed that the boy had started to eat the meat before touching the other food on the plate.

Unlike the night before, he was confident that he could deliver food to Ace himself, the morning Ace was much gentler than the afternoon Ace, and he was confident that his precious hair would survive this encounter.

Thatch knocked on the storeroom door and quickly moved away from the doorway to avoid any possible fire.

"What on earth do you want to do!?" Ace roared loudly. He really didn't know why they were trying so hard to irritate him.

"I brought food!" Sachi said with a carefree smile.

"Ah!" Ace said angrily, "Are you idiots deaf or something? I told you I don't want your food."

"No, we listen to what we want to hear." Thatch replied with a shrug, ignoring his anger.

After a while, the room became quiet and Thatch knocked on the door again.

"What?!" Ace yelled.

"Can I open the door?" Thatch asked.

"Whatever." Ace sighed and said weakly.

Thatch didn't waste any time, he didn't want to give the boy a chance to change. This was the first time Thatch had looked at the boy carefully in a week, and looking at the injuries on his body, he almost backed away.

His tan skin was covered in scars, his face was covered in freckles that made him look very young, dark circles gathered under his eyes, he looked like he hadn't slept properly in weeks, he seemed to be in worse shape than when he first arrived on the Moby.

"Here you go." Thatch placed the food in front of him.

Ace looked at the plate very suspiciously.

Thatch sighed "Kid, I think we need to get rid of the idea of ​​poison."

"I'm not a child!" Ace roared angrily.

"Okay, so how old are you?" Thatch shrugged.

Ace kept his mouth shut and answered with silence. He would not reveal any of their personal information.

Thatch sighed, knowing he wouldn't answer, which was what he always did, and sat down in front of him.

"I didn't say you could stay."

"Do you really want to be alone?" Thatch asked, not understanding why he should be alone "You didn't even mention anything about being with or meeting up with your old members, and you know what, pushing everyone away isn't going to solve anything."

Sachi waited for a while, but still got no response. He sighed and stood up. "Put the plate there. I'll come get it later."

As Thatch reached the door, Ace finally spoke.

"Don't take it personally, I shut everyone out" He paused for a moment and continued "It's easier this way."

Thatch looked at Ace, he didn't know what he should say, so he said nothing.

After Thatch left, Ace sat there, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, he didn't lie, he really rejected everyone, even though he cared about them, they didn't know him very well, well, Lucci might be an accident.

He would rather keep it that way, knowing full well what vicious looks people would get when they knew his secret.

The only people he trusted completely were three people, his brothers, and even though they knew whose blood he had in him, they still loved him.

……

"boom!"

"Wow!!"

"What are you doing? It's so early in the morning, be careful!"

"Snort!"

Ace stared at the old pirate who had easily knocked him away even in his sleep. He covered his bleeding nose, ignored the shouts of other white-bearded pirates around him, and turned away.

"hateful!"

Damn it, Fusa covered his head which was aching from lack of sleep. He was awakened at 5 o'clock in the morning by the sound of the kid being thrown through six walls. For the past two and a half weeks, the Whitebeard Pirate was awakened every day by the sound of the kid smashing the walls when he was thrown out.

It was his department's job to repair any damage, and in fact he really wanted to ask the little guy to fix the parts he broke himself.