"Hey, old man! Leave your stuff and walk away!" sneered a thug holding a baseball bat.
The others laughed, forming a tight circle around him.
The old man removed his cloak. It was revealed it's a four kids stacks against each other.
Ling was the foot, Ace on Ling's shoulder, Luffy acted as a hump cling on Ace back, and Sabo on Ace shoulder.
"Whoever takes down the most wins!" Luffy grinned, stretching his arms out with excitement.
"Tch, just a bunch of brats!" snarled one thug, swinging his bat.
Too slow.
Ling blurred forward with Shave, reappearing in front of the thug and slamming his fist into his gut. The thug flew back, crashing into a pile of crates.
"One!" Ling declared.
Ace darted into the fray next, swinging his pole, cracking across two thugs' faces before slamming down on a third's head. Three bodies dropped.
"Three already!" Ace smirked.
"Tch!" Sabo shot forward, spinning low and sweeping the legs of one thug, then twisting his pipe to strike another across the temple.
"Don't forget me!" Luffy yelled, flinging his arm out and catching a thug by the collar, yanking him in and headbutting him with a loud thud.
He bounced into another pair with a wide grin, taking them out like bowling pins.
"That's three!" Luffy cheered.
More thugs came rushing in, shouting threats.
Ling ducked a swing and retaliated with a Tempest Kick, air blasting five thugs off their feet.
He didn't pause, dashing into the next group, punching them.
Ace leapt off a crate, flipping midair and driving his foot into a thug's back. His staff whirled around, deflecting attacks and dishing out pain.
Sabo blocked a knife with his pipe, twisted his body to avoid a punch, and countered with a devastating elbow to the throat.
"This is too easy!"
Luffy was laughing, bouncing around unpredictably, stretching his limbs in every direction.
"Gum-Gum: Pistol!" he shouted, slamming his fists down like bulet.
In less than two minutes, the alley was silent. Thirty grown men lay groaning on the ground, completely defeated.
The four stood at the center of the wreckage, catching their breath.
"How many did you get?" Ace asked.
"Eight!" Luffy said proudly.
"Nine," Sabo added.
"I got ten," Ace grinned.
Ling shrugged.
"Twelve."
"WHAT!!" the other three shouted in unison.
"Too easy," Ling smirked as he walked ahead.
They stacked up again, hiding beneath the same oversized cloak. Ling at the bottom, Ace on his shoulders, Luffy clinging to Ace's back like a hump, and Sabo balanced up top.
Their first stop was a pawnshop to sell the animal pelts. It had been a month and a half since Ace and Sabo last added to their savings.
After that, they headed to a restaurant to celebrate their achievements over the past month.
The restaurant is called Fine Dining Eiichiro, it's in the downtown of Goa Kingdom. It's an expensive restaurant, and because of their ragtag look, they were almost kicked out.
This is when Sabo took out an insignia when the owner saw it they let them in, he then explained that 'he found it in the street.' Of course, Ling knew that wasn't the truth.
After getting a VIP room, they ordered ramen. Four at a time. It continued for a while until Luffy used his stretchy hand to get the ramen.
It freaked out the waiter, so he called the owner of the restaurant. They got caught and decided to run away without paying.
Well, Luffy did leave his signature and asked them to put it on his "treasure tab" on a paper.
Ling, on the other hand, continuously laughed internally. It was so hilarious that he kept smiling the whole time.
A man wearing a suit and a top hat saw a kid running with yellow hair.
"Sabo?" he called out.
All four stopped for a moment, looking at the man in the suit.
'That's Sabo's father? He's ugly as hell,' Ling thought.
"Do you know him, Sabo?" Ace asked.
"Who's that?" Luffy commented.
"He confused me with someone else. Let's go."
Ling saw Sabo gritting his teeth. Ace and Luffy also noticed it, but they didn't question it and followed Sabo running.
"Wait!"
The man in the suit followed them for a moment, but he gave up in the end.
His face contorted in anger.
"Sabo…"
Thirty minutes later, Ling, Ace, Sabo, and Luffy reached where Ace and Sabo moved their treasure.
It's on a cliffside ten minutes away from Dadan's house. When they arrived, everyone had a questioning gaze at Sabo.
"What? I'm not hiding anything." He clenched his fists.
"Really?" Luffy already thought there was really nothing.
"Of course you are! Just tell us, Sabo!" Ace questioned.
"Yes, tell us," Ling played along.
"Tell us, Sabo! There should be no secrets between us!" Ace said.
"We're brothers!" Ace said.
'Brothers?' Ling.
Ling's chest tightened up, his eyes became watery. He immediately wiped it away before anyone saw it.
While lost in thought, Luffy and Ace continued asking Sabo.
"Tell us!" Ace and Luffy said in unison.
"Alright."
"Alright, calm down." Sabo gave up.
"Actually, I'm a noble," Sabo said, his head down.
"EHHH!" Luffy shouted.
Ling was brought back to reality with Luffy's shout.
"I wasn't born in Grey Terminal and my parents are both alive. The man who called me earlier was my father," Sabo revealed.
"Since he said sorry, let's forgive him," Luffy said, smiling.
"Let's hold on about forgiveness for now. Tell us a reason why you left." Ace sat on the ground with his arms crossed.
He's serious. Ling, Luffy, and Sabo followed.
Sabo began telling why he left their house. They kept forcing Sabo to study and he complied. If he did anything else, they would get angry.
One time, while he was out on a walk, he bumped into the King's son, and instead of his parents standing up for him, they beat him.
That's when he decided to leave at five years old, and that's also when he met Ace.
Ace and Luffy were speechless.
"I see," Ace muttered.
Suddenly, Sabo pointed toward the sea, a wide smile spreading across his face.
"Luffy, Ling, Ace! One day, we've gotta set out to sea!"
"Let's get out of this life and live freely!"
"I wanna see the world and write a book about it," Sabo declared.
"And I'm gonna get even stronger and become a great pirate. That's my dream!"
Ling felt a chill run through his spine. This... this is even more emotional than the anime.
Luffy and Ace just giggled.
"I see." Ace walked over to the edge of a nearby cliff.
"I'm gonna become one whether you tell me to or not!" he shouted.
"I'll be a pirate, I'll defeat others and become famous around the world! That'll be the proof I existed!"
"It doesn't matter if everyone in the world hates and despises me! I'll still become a pirate and show them what I can do!"
His voice grew louder with each word, but a smile tugged at his lips.
"Hihihihi. I see." Luffy ran toward the cliff, standing beside him.
Then, at the top of his lungs, Luffy shouted:
"I'm gonna become...!!!"
Ling froze.
A rush of emotions surged through him. His heart pounded. His eyes welled with tears. The world around him seemed to slow, sounds muffled, everything moving in slow motion.
This moment... this moment is real.
"Huh?" Ace and Sabo blinked, shocked.
"I was wondering what you were about to say," Ace muttered, scratching his head.
"Hahahaha! You're so weird, Luffy!" Sabo laughed.
Then he noticed Ling.
"Oh? Ling's becoming a crybaby," Ace teased, grinning.
Ling was caught off guard.
"You're right! He's becoming like Luffy," Sabo added.
"Hahahahahaha!" Ace and Sabo burst into laughter.
After Luffy's declaration, he turned to Ling.
"Hey! Your turn! What's your dream?" Luffy said with a grin, eyes sparkling.
Ling wiped away his tears, stood up, and walked over to the cliff.
"I'll explore the world... I'll eat every kind of food on every island. No one...no one in this life can stop me from chasing that dream."
"I'll do anything to make it happen!" Ling shouted.
"Hahahaha!" Sabo and Ace laughed again.
"He really is becoming a foodie like Luffy," Sabo said with a grin.
Luffy tilted his head, confused.
Then Ace spoke, eyes serious.
"Let's become real brothers."
Ling felt his heart thump again, louder this time.
An hour later, they snuck back to Dadan's house and stole a bottle of sake and four cups. Under the sunset, they stood in a circle around an old tree stump.
"Did you know?" Ace began, pouring the sake.
"We can become brothers if we do this ritual."
"Brothers? Really?" Luffy's face lit up.
Sabo was smiling too. Ling stood quietly, his expression unreadable.
'Do you have an ambition?'
Naguri's words echoed in Ling's mind.
'Why did I remember that now?'
He stared at the sake being poured.
--------------------
Since we still don't know what dream Luffy has, I didn't put anything for now. But on Ling's universe one piece is already a finished story.