【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"I must defeat Doflamingo before he makes a move! Otherwise, he'll die..." Rebecca cried out, tears streaming down her face. "I don't want to be protected by him anymore. This time, let me protect Soldier!"

"Soldiers?" Luffy asked, puzzled.

"It's a one-legged toy soldier."

"Hmm... I met him in the arena," Luffy recalled, then said with a smile, "So you were worried the toys would die? I think it's pretty amazing that they're alive."

“You may not understand, but to us, they are just like humans. From the day I lost my mother, I was all alone in my home. It was the soldier who stayed by my side. To me, the soldier was like a parent.”

Rebecca hugged her legs and explained that talking to Lucy about her life with the soldier had made her feel much better. She looked at Lucy, regained her fighting spirit, and said with a smile, "See you in the finals, Lucy."

"The match begins again! Players from Zone D, please proceed to the ring!"

Luffy ate his lunchbox while thoughtfully watching Rebecca's departing figure, then exclaimed, "This food was delicious!"

"Luffy, are you sneaking food here?"

"Yo, Ace!" Luffy looked up and waved to Ace as he walked towards him.

Ace, seeing Luffy enjoying his meal, snatched the bento from his hand and said, "It looks delicious."

"Ace, that's mine!" Luffy shouted in dissatisfaction as he looked at the bento that had been stolen.

"Hmph, who told you to leave your brother here and steal food?" Ace held the bento box above his head, stuffing it into his mouth while dodging Luffy's rubber hand that reached out to snatch it.

"It was Ace who got lost!" Luffy angrily accused, then noticed the noise coming from the video den Den Mushi in the cell and looked at the image of Rebecca being mocked by the audience with some confusion.

"Who is that?" Ace chewed on his food, looking at the girl who was insulted by the audience as soon as she stepped on stage with some confusion.

"She's the one who treated me to dinner! Why is she so disliked? She's such a nice person!" Luffy shouted angrily, then snatched the bento from Ace's hand while he wasn't looking and quickly shoved the rest of the food into his mouth.

"Luffy, you brat!" Ace said, pulling Luffy's puffed-up cheek in annoyance.

"Because Rebecca's grandfather was the previous king who was hated by the whole nation."

Luffy swallowed the food in his mouth and shouted indignantly, "So what if she's my granddaughter! Whatever her grandfather did has nothing to do with her!"

“That’s right.” Ace nodded in agreement, then noticed a bento box on the chair and walked straight over to it.

"Ace! Don't steal my food!" Luffy, who was just complaining, saw Ace eating his food again and rushed over angrily. In the ensuing struggle, the food in the bento box was quickly devoured.

Luffy ran to the prison bars again to watch the match footage. This time, Cabbage was on the field. Unlike Rebecca, Cabbage was greeted with a warm welcome as soon as she appeared. "Why is Cabbage so..."

Ace was puzzled as to why Luffy had stopped so suddenly, but when he turned around, he saw Luffy sniffing around with his nose in his mouth. "Luffy, what are you sniffing? There's no food left here."

"Ace! I smell Sabo!" Luffy jumped up excitedly.

"How is that possible!" Ace muttered speechlessly, but still followed Luffy after him, worried, as Luffy disappeared in an instant.

Ace quickly found Luffy, who had suddenly disappeared, in a corridor. He also encountered a figure wearing a black top hat and a black coat, identical to the one they had met a couple of days prior. The only difference was that this time Luffy was carrying an iron pipe and a sword, and a small figure dressed in the same style of clothing was perched on his left shoulder...

Ace stared blankly at the small figure on Sabo's shoulder for a while. The figure gave him a sense of familiarity, perhaps because his clothes were similar to Sabo's. Ace guessed absentmindedly, but his gaze involuntarily lingered on that brilliant gold. Unlike Sabo's curly blond hair, it was slightly long straight hair, but it was very fluffy and messy, so it appeared slightly curly.

The next second, a pair of bright, glassy eyes suddenly looked up, meeting his gaze with undisguised joy. "Ace!"

Ace's heart skipped a beat, and an indescribable joy welled up from the bottom of his heart, making him want to hug it immediately. At this moment, Luffy's excited shout interrupted his thoughts.

Luffy was delighted to see the doll on Sabo's shoulder, dressed in the same clothes as Sabo, so when Ace came over, he pointed at it excitedly and shouted, "Ace! Look, there's a little Sabo!! I love it!!"

Before Ace could even respond to Luffy's words, Sabo burst into laughter, "Hahaha, Luffy, you're absolutely right!!"

Ace raised an eyebrow, looking at the laughing Sabo and the person on his shoulder angrily pulling Sabo's cheek with some surprise. Only then did he notice the person's full face. Ace hadn't expected that the little figure with bright golden hair on Sabo's shoulder was actually an adorable cotton doll. He blurted out, "Where did you steal such an adorable doll like Sabo from?!"

Hearing Ace's words, Sabo laughed even harder, completely ignoring Lucci's angry tug at his cheek. "Hahaha, what do you say, Lucci? I told you so, even Ace thinks so!"

"Shut up!!" Lucci punched Sabo, then glared angrily at Ace beside him. "Who are you calling cute!!"

Seeing the doll yelling angrily at him, Ace touched his nose guiltily, feeling like he had faced this kind of situation many times before.

"You're Lucci?" Luffy felt a strange sense of familiarity from the moment he saw the toy. He couldn't help but snatch it from Sabo, grinned at the cotton doll in his hand, and shouted, "You're really interesting! Come join me as a pirate!"

Hearing this, Lucci sighed helplessly. It was indeed his fault. "So none of you remember me..."

Ace immediately looked at Sabo, but Sabo just grinned at him, while Luffy had already hugged the doll tightly when he said those words.

"I've found you!" Luffy shouted excitedly. "Ace, I've found you!"

"Stop it, Luffy! Even though I might not need to breathe when I'm a doll, I still feel like I can't breathe when you hug me like this!" Lucci struggled, completely encircled by the boy's bear hug and unable to move an inch.

"Sorry." Luffy quickly released it, a bright smile on his face, and said sincerely, "I'm so happy! Because I found you!"

"Idiot, I was only gone for a short while." Lucci shook his head helplessly as he looked at the excited Luffy.