【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"boom!!"

Lucci looked in the direction of the explosion. A shell hit the Moby and Ace, who was sleeping nearby, was blown away by the impact of the explosion.

"Hey! Ace!!" Lucci shouted in the direction where Ace flew, and suddenly a wisp of blue flame flew towards Ace.

"It's Marco!"

"Huh!? Where is this?" Ace shouted in shock as he looked at the strange ship.

"We are on the enemy ship that is causing trouble," said Marco, standing on the broken hull.

"Don't talk nonsense. How come I'm here when I was sleeping so well!" Ace roared angrily, then looked at the pirates below, pinched his finger joints, and flames came out of his hands. "These are enemies."

"Marco, the captain of the Blue Regenerating Flame Team..." one of the pirates asked doubtfully.

"Who's that red flame next to it? A new crew member?" another pirate responded.

Ace listened to the discussion of the pirates below, "Fire Fist!" He attacked the pirate who said he was a new crew member.

"Hurry up and get rid of them and go back to that ship!" After Ace knocked down the pirates in front of him, he said to Marco who had been behind him.

Marco knocked down the pirate who attacked from behind and responded with a smile, "How reliable, yoi"

"boom!"

Ace dodged the sudden attack by leaning sideways. A huge figure slowly appeared. Ace looked at the knife spinning in the opponent's hand and touched the bloodstain on the side of his face. This guy's knife is so fast... and he will definitely use domineering power.

"Indeed... he is capable of challenging Whitebeard." Ace looked at the enemy opposite him, tore off his shirt and assumed a fighting stance.

"If we can't even deal with pirates of this level, then taking dad's head is a fantasy." Marco said with a smile.

"But that's all!" Ace curled his lips slightly into a wicked smile, and then attacked the enemy opposite.

"The battlefield is indeed the best place to improve your abilities." Ace said with a smile as he looked at the fallen pirate.

……

"Come on, Ace!" Lucci said, pulling Ace's arm.

"You go first, I'm not that hungry." Ace tried to break free from Lucci's hand.

"No! You didn't go with me yesterday. Haven't you accepted Marco's proposal? Come on!" Lucci grabbed Ace's arm and pulled him away.

"No, you go first." Ace tried to persuade Lucci.

"Come on!!" Lucci didn't care about Ace's struggle. He knew he just didn't know how to deal with it.

Thatch turned around and saw a surprising scene, Lucci dragged a reluctant face through the restaurant door. Thatch blinked, he hadn't seen the man who used fire since the battle about two days ago, and it was always Lucci who brought him food after dinner.

Everyone else in the restaurant stared at the two new faces.

"Hey!" Thatch shouted loudly, attracting the attention of the two, and then said with a smile, "Do you need food? Sit here, you can take as much food as you want."

"Oh, thank you, Thatch." Lucci pulled Ace to sit opposite Thatch, and then thanked Thatch.

Lucci placed two plates full of food on the dining table and pushed one of them in front of Ace, motioning him to eat it.

Ace sighed and picked up the cutlery on the table, tucking into his food at a slower pace than usual, he could feel the curious looks from the Whitebeard pirates but now that Lucci was here, Ace felt himself let down his guard and ate as much as he wanted, which was already a lot, Thatch's eyes kept flicking between Ace and Lucci, his eyes growing wider and wider.

……

"See that new guy?" In the dining room of the Moby Dick, a white-bearded pirate said in surprise to the person sitting opposite him.

"I'm going to challenge my dad today too!" The pirate on the other side bit off a piece of meat and said with a grin, "I wonder how long this will last!"

"But the newcomers are improving very quickly. It seems that the duels are no longer one-sided." One of the pirates said with a smile.

"Isn't this quite exciting!!" the pirate on the other side said excitedly, "But this is the nth time you have challenged me."

"Is this the 68th time?" the pirate sitting at another table said with a smile.

"Yeah, I wonder how many times you plan to challenge us before joining us?"

"If you haven't succeeded in the challenge 100 times, then join us!" Sachi approached the person who was speaking and said with a mysterious smile on his face.

"Hey! Captain Thatch!" The pirates who were speaking just now exclaimed.

……

Marco walked into the kitchen and just heard Thatch discussing with other brothers about the Fire Fist Ace. Hearing Thatch spreading the rumor that the Fire Fist would join after 100 challenges, it was obviously Thatch's own decision. In order to avoid someone complaining to him about the destruction of his precious hair in the future, he thought that he needed to remind someone, "Thatch, what are you doing yoi?"

"Hey, Marco!" Thatch turned and walked towards his brother. "Want some coffee?"

"Thank you" Marco rubbed the bridge of his nose "What are you doing yoi? Spreading rumors?"

"Hey! Of course not, I just wanted to add fuel to the fire." Sachi said with a careless smile, then put the coffee in his hand in front of Marco.

Marco took a sip of the coffee on the table, which relieved some of the headache caused by staying up all night grading documents. "The fire that burned your precious hair?"

"Of course not, don't curse my precious hair! Marco." Thatch subconsciously protected his hair, then said with a smile, "After Lucci came back, Ace has begun to trust us slowly. At least he has begun to trust us and is willing to accept our food and help, and to fight with us. We have already won the trust of one of them, and I believe everything will be resolved in the end. The 100 challenges are the number and the goal. Ace will soon fully trust us and then join us."

"Are you talking about Lucci? Why do you say he trusts us?" Marco was a little surprised. He didn't know why Thatch thought so. He could feel that Lucci, like Ace, seemed to have something stopping them. But at least Lucci did trust them more than Ace. Although they didn't know where he went during the time he disappeared, they could feel that since he came back, Lucci no longer refused their food and help, and sometimes he would drag the angry Ace to greet them and then go to the cafeteria to eat.

"I met him on the deck last night. When I approached him, we started chatting. Although he refused to reveal some personal information, when I asked him when Ace planned to give up the assassination plan, he looked at me and then answered my question. You know, I was very happy. I didn't expect him to respond to me." Thatch continued, "He told me that Ace couldn't beat Dad because Ace had stopped trying. He was too stubborn. He was still doing this just because he was unwilling to accept it and didn't want to admit that he liked it here. He needed a little push."

"And you did all this yoi?" Marco rubbed his forehead. Although he felt a little headache about his stupid brother, he was still a little happy to hear this.

"Hey, that's a good plan, Marco!" Thatch retorted.

Marco shook his head helplessly, then walked towards the kitchen exit, waving his hand with his back to Thatch, "I still have some documents to deal with, yoi."