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Loguetown smelled of salt, quality smokes, and citruses. Gentle threads of sun rays were shining through the grapevines and glowing on their skin as they advanced in the street, guided by the cool shades of the pergolas running along the sides of the lane.
Every corner and crevices on the walls seemed to convey a feeling of grandeur, as if each part of town was tied to some glorious myth or legend. However, even as a renowned historical and touristic Haut-lieu, the place somehow still felt strangely confidential, with its narrow paved roads and pastel stone fronts.
This beautiful and well-loved place happened to be the town that, many centuries ago, birthed the king of the pirates, and Ace couldn't help but resent the fact that it was only acknowledged because of that matter.
His little brother, however, didn't seem to share his opinion, given his incessant rambling about the Captain and his many adventures.
"Luffy, you better not run off like last time," Ace reminded him with clear annoyance in his voice that somehow went completely over the younger boy's head. The kid nodded, grinning, and resumed his excited chattering with renewed vigor.
Ace almost wanted to be mad at him for that, but couldn't bear to tame the light in his kid brother's eyes.
Also, the stories were still kind of entertaining.
As they followed their way, the boys entered an open area filled with local shops and restaurants of all kinds. A fountain was gently gurgling at the center, and the vines there were all heavy with fruits, mingling in the atmosphere the soothing noises of flowing water and aromas of sugar and spices.
Luffy's mouth immediately snapped shut. He stilled, drool already running down his lips, and looked around in excitement before taking off with a spring in his steps, Ace's previous reminder already forgotten.
"Hey!" the older boy called out, exasperated. He prepared to follow after him but was stopped with a hand on his shoulder by an amused Sabo, gesturing with a flick of the wrist to save himself from the trouble. "Let him exhaust himself," he reasoned. "It's fine as long as we can still see where he is anyways."
The two older boys watched their brother running around, gripping the brim of his oversized straw hat as he let his sense of smell and hope for a mid-afternoon snack lead him in his search. They could only snort in derision when he abruptly stilled, a comical pout on his face, probably too overwhelmed by the variety of smells and enticing calls of fishmongers and other merchants.
He just stood there for a minute, pondering his choices, then looked around to spot his big brothers.
The smile he gave them afterward could only be deemed suspect, especially when it turned into a characteristic satisfied laugh of the little boy.
Sabo leaned against Ace, feigning discretion. "Why do I feel like he's up to something?" he joked, never taking his eyes off their younger brother already running back to them, cheeks pink from the effort and the heat. Ace just sighed and shrugged.
Luffy slightly tripped on his feet in his hurry to reach the others. "I'm hungry," he proclaimed, suspiciously without a whine in his voice. They exchanged a look, then followed Luffy's gaze to an ice cream stall hidden in the shade of a huge lime tree.
"And you're planning to rob them clean of all their ice cream?" Ace arched an eyebrow. The kid began to frantically search his pants, and after a few seconds of fumbling took his closed fist out of his pocket and declared proudly, "I still have some of the money auntie Makino gave me!", demonstrating with the reveal of a crinkled bill and a few tiny copper coins.
The other boys leaned to inspect his loot, a serious look on their faces, then finally nodded their approval to the bright-faced seven-year-old. None of them were really aware of ice cream prices in such a touristic place, but the vendor from the stall still accepted their money with a smile and gave them each a generous portion of the frozen treat.
They finally made their way to the emblematic town square of Loguetown as they were still licking the last remnants of ice cream on their fingers. None of them were paying much attention to the signs and banners promoting the pirate king's memorials, so they realized in shock the place they were in when they all but stumbled upon a sculpture of the man.
The statue was massive and showed on its stone the undeniable mark of centuries spent in a maritime region. The pirate, laughing under his impressive mustache, was represented in a stance of combat: his cutlass held high in the air, his tricorn proudly sat on his head, and the cape behind him as if floating with the wind.
Ace observed the figure, dubious. It seemed as if looming over him, and he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in front of it, especially with the idea he had of the man's character.
Although he was the most known and beloved pirate of all time and was dubbed by history along with his crew as some sort of Robin Hood of the seas, Ace couldn't help but wonder about the extent of the romanticization that had affected his story with the decades.
Moreover, he knew that power made people ugly; and so could have a man who reigned over the sea been truly mindful of the weaker? Ace had never really believed it in his life.
It had always been an unvoiced opinion of his, though. It wasn't like the comments Garp occasionally made about the pirate's lack of basic courtesy (or just plain and petty insults that sometimes felt so personal he wondered if the geezer hadn't actually known the guy), and only Sabo had a remote idea of it, sharing to an extent the same interrogations.
He had never told Luffy, and didn't plan on doing so. The kid was so admirative of the pirate it would only end in confusion (or pain, which was even worse), and Ace had figured (or at least hoped) that his brother would just progressively distance himself from that adoration with age.
As of now, however, Luffy was escalating the statue like some sort of koala, giggling and whooping as he sat on the man's shoulder and admired the plaza from his spot, fighting against the wind with tight hands on his precious hat. Sabo, for his part, looked deep in thought as he read some trivia next to the statue's pedestal, but was fast to pay attention when a commotion picked up around them.
Ultimately, some adult grew agitated at Luffy, and they all scattered with a cackle, sticking out their tongue at the guy as they followed their way to the execution platform, where the king of the pirates, as the story told, had on his death day triggered and shaped the famed golden era of Piracy.
When boredom finally got the better of their attention, the three boys decided to follow their visit of the plaza with a stroll around town.
Since they had known they were coming for a day in Loguetown, all three of them had been adamant to see the view of the ocean from the island, and excitement was especially palpable now that they finally had the chance to do so.
They were following Luffy, with the strongest nose of them all, letting themselves be guided by the smell of salt in the air and the dances and cries of the seagulls over their head.
The youngest had also been talking for a few minutes about lemons and oranges close by, and Sabo and Ace were just now beginning to smell those sweet and smooth fragrances along with the more alkaline scents of the seaside.
They followed those trails to the very outskirts of town, up to a remote clifftop area with a large and picturesque citrus grove at its heart.
Rays of sunlight were creating like a halo around the foliage of the ancient trees, and the boys could already notice in the distance tiny dots of yellow, pink, and orange from the ripe and maturing fruits hanging on the branches.
They went on a full sprint and raced to the grove, giggling as they climbed the tallest treetops in search of the best view over the wide and open sea. However, laughter and chattering soon died down, replaced by a contemplative awe, and only a blissful quietness remained around the three brothers. They watched, sparkles in their eyes, the waves crashing at the bottom of the bay, and listened to the lulling rustling of the leaves by the cool afternoon breeze.
Miles and miles of water spread before their eyes; and far, far to the horizon, sky and sea embraced as one.
"I wonder if the view was the same to the pirate king," Sabo mused after a minute. His brothers glanced curiously at him, but the boy's gaze remained fixed on the scenery, following the course of a small fishing boat coming back ashore. Luffy hummed in reflection. "There were probably more boats at sea during his time," he noted after a moment.
"But more navy vessels too. And probably no grove yet," Ace remarked, giving a quick tap to the branch he was sitting on as an example. the first nodded in agreement; "True, the area must have been very open at the time." A beat. "Maybe it was even risky to be there. Somebody could have just shot him from down below."
Luffy gave a disapproving noise.
"This doesn't matter," he pouted.
When both his older brothers prompted him with confused looks to explain himself, he followed, "He was the King of the Pirates, so he had to be the freest man in the world! A small thing like that wouldn't have stopped him."
The boy crossed his arms on his chest and frowned, as if offended by his brother's statement alone. He even picked an orange close to him and began to peel and eat it in frustration.
"It must have been nice," Sabo remarked after a beat.
Ace tore his eyes from the sea to arch an eyebrow at the blond. "Hm?"
"To be the freest man in the world."
"Ah."
Ace hummed. He had to admit that the whole title had a nice ring to it.
However, he was slightly curious as to where Luffy had learned such a thing.
(Well, to be fair, only uncle Shanks could have taught him that, he realized with a huff.)
"Well, me," Luffy decided as he stood up on his perch, "when I'll be older, I'll be the King of the Pirates too!" And with a sticky mouth from the juice of the orange he had been snacking on, he gave the sea his hugest and most blinding grin, as if offering it as a promise to her, leaving the two others to stare in shock.
Then, realizing how serious he truly was, one burst out laughing as the other shook his head in defeat.
"You fool," Ace sighed. "You just had to go and say something like that," he lamented, his sigh progressively turning into a derisive chuckle.
"I'm serious!" Luffy whirled around in protest, earnest. "I'll be so free I could go on any adventure!"
This, at least, had the advantage to snap his brothers' mouths shut. They peered at him, wide-eyed, searching for any hint of a joke on his face, but the little boy's features only showed what they already expected: complete and utter seriousness, like he rarely ever was.
Adventure had always been a big thing in the brothers' minds; the simple act of evoking that word was something meaningful. Ace couldn't even remember a time they weren't yearning for some, listening to the stories of pirates and explorers uncle Rayleigh would tell them, the old man always having a seemingly infinite amount of those to share.
They all had the same dream, but all three of them had brought their own variations to that goal they were collectively striving for. Sabo wanted to write the stories of his journeys across the sea, Ace wanted to discover the world and make a name for himself, and Luffy, well. He had always had this strange understanding of freedom and adventure, like a perception of those things that was his very own.
Ace was just now beginning to understand how inherent the figure of the pirate king, in Luffy's head, was to his dream.
But he still didn't understand why, why the man was this example he appeared to strive for, and why he seemed so sure of it, so trustful of what he had stood for. Ace wanted to put it on the kid's immaturity and a lack of proper critical skills, but it felt deeply wrong, somehow, to assume that much about someone so perceptive.
The kid was smart, despite acting most of the time like an airhead. He was just sometimes so difficult to understand people mistook it for foolishness. But even without knowing the extent of his little brother's perceptiveness, Ace had come to trust its reliability over the years: through seemingly unmeaningful and always unexpected reflections, Luffy had unconsciously helped his brothers come to realizations more than a few times, while himself had intuitively known everything all along, never realizing the influence he had on the two older boys.
His ability to read people, especially, was the sharpest Ace had ever seen.
And, maybe.
Maybe this was the gap that separated Luffy from him and Sabo. Maybe this was what allowed him to trust this figure when they remained reticent to do so, some understanding the kid had, that they didn't.
A sudden curiosity took over the boy with that thought, and he turned to Luffy, who was innocently munching on another fruit and frowning like he thought too hard of everything.
"Hey, Luff," Ace murmured.
The younger boy tilted his head to the side, still engrossed in his snack, motioning for him to follow.
"How do you think the king of the pirates was like?"
Luffy looked at him funny.
"Like in the stories?" he tried, confused by the question. Sabo observed them both, brows furrowed, probably trying to figure out what the older one was getting to.
"No, I mean," the boy scratched his head in annoyance, "how do you think he was like in his everyday life?"
Luffy studied him with a slight frown over his big brown eyes. He hummed, as if to show he was thinking, and crossed his arms over his chest.
"He was like anybody," he finally answered.
A beat.
"Wait, you can't leave it at that," Sabo interjected when nothing else followed. "What do you mean, 'like everybody'? He was still the pirate king."
Luffy just shook his head, uncharacteristically stern.
"Being King of the Pirates doesn't mean having power over someone else."
"Then what does it mean?" Sabo pressed.
Ace observed them both, some sort of greedy and anxious anticipation building in his chest at the cryptic answers. Fear, that the boy would soon grow tired of the questions and refuse to reply altogether, was palpable in the air, and the two others waited in tense silence for something more, anything more to finally get a glimpse of what was going on in the youngest's head.
"The King of the Sea is the freest man in the world," Luffy repeated matter of factly, apparently choosing to follow on his reasoning. "So he's only tied down by his own principles and the life he chose for himself. It's not about conquering anything."
And with that, understanding slowly started to bloom in Ace's mind.
'Pirate king' was actually an inaccurate way to describe someone like the man who had earned that title, he realized.
The one dubbed as such never earned it by forcing into submission or reigning over anyone. He simply bested all others on the water and was granted the title as a memento of adventurous greatness and strength of will.
Truth be told, he was more King of the Sea, being the one to hold in the palm of his hand her most foreign secrets and wonders, than he was of her people.
Some words Garp had uttered one time came back to his mind at the realization: he had said that the king of the pirate was known throughout History as a very simple man, driven by adventure and uninterested by things such as power, and so therefore free from their shackles.
The old man, although always speaking ill of the pirate king and his crew, had been in retrospect very much emphasizing that point for the boys to understand, but Ace still hadn't seen it at the time.
He caught Sabo's eyes, who lightly smiled at him, both realizing they had come to the same conclusion. They turned to the youngest, innocently playing with some citrus skin, and watched with fondness his obliviousness to their silent epiphany.
Maybe their little brother had always been the one paying attention all along.
A sea creature leaped somewhere out of the water, all they all turned back to the ocean, gears turning in their heads.
"D'you think we could eat meat for dinner?" Luffy asked softly.
"I heard grilled marinated sea king is one of Loguetown's specialties. Maybe you could ask Dadan about it," Sabo mused.
As afternoon lazily turned into evening, a warm pink took the sea in its embrace and draped her in a beautiful robe of light. Gold hues of the sun were glinting on the horizon, and the shine of the fishes leaping over the water was even more remarkable, embracing too the last of the day's warmth before dusk.
It was truly a beautiful sight, so unique in a world where all islands were so drastically different, and Ace couldn't help but feel a sudden burst of reverence fill his chest for those grandiose waters, full of life and spirit.
"We will take to the sea someday," he announced to no one in particular, "and we'll explore every last part of it too." The other boys inhaled a deep breath, and with eyes rived to the horizon, quietly expressed their shared agreement.
And we'll become free like the King of the Sea was, he didn't dare say; they both understood anyway.
Silence, once again, took over the boys paying no mind to the distant sounds of people in the city or the whispers of the wind in the leaves. They stayed still for a few instants, contemplating the waters and their oath, and slow smiles of realization raised to their ears as they imagined the possibilities and indulged in their fantasies of adventures.
The breeze shifted, and the sound of the sea quieted slightly to bring to their ears more and more intelligible sounds from behind. After a minute of confusion, They even recognized a very familiar voice calling out to them between heaving breaths, and spun around in surprise to notice in the distance a disheveled Dadan, making her way to them, and Garp following at his own leisurely pace.
"Ace! Luffy! Sabo!" The woman called in her usual hoarse and sharp voice. "We've been looking for you three savages the entire afternoon!"
("I told you they would have found a spot over the sea," Garp remarked with a snicker, to which she threateningly showed him her fist.)
Sabo gave a large gap-toothed smile to the adults from his perch. "Luff wants to eat meat for dinner!" he informed. The other boy, perking up at his name and the mention of his favorite food, gave an equally face-splitting grin and chuckled lightly to himself in anticipation. Dadan simply sighed and leaned in exhaustion at their antics. "Whatever, we'll get meat if you want. Just get down already."
And as his brothers leaped from one branch to another with practiced ease, Ace turned his gaze back to the sea to admire her, one last time.
He smiled to himself quietly, proudness overflowing from his chest as he remembered the promise they had made to her.
We will take to the sea, someday; and we'll explore every last part of it.