One Piece 1. Prolouge

Hey everyone, here's the re-write of Luffy's Curse. There's a lot of changes to the original story plan, most obvious of all is that this takes place just after leaving the Florian Triangle. Ah well, best just get on with it.

Ace – Uh…I think you forgot something.

What did I forget?

Ace – The disclaimer?

What do you think you're here for?

Ace – Sigh, fine…AnimeCat92 doesn't own any of us. Only her plot and any OCs unless otherwise mentioned.

You got that right.

This world of ours is such a mysterious place, no more so true then on the Grand Line. Islands which exist in a single season or times, weather phenomenons which can come out of nowhere, special fruit which gives the user powers beyond belief, and legends which withstand the tests of time. Such a wonderful world is it not? The Legend most believed in is one about the treasure left by that man, known to all as the King of the Pirates Gol D. Roger. Pirates flock to the seas in search of it, and in response to it the Marines follow them in their mission of justice. But they are fools… they will know it soon enough. I have been working tirelessly, following the knowledge left by that man…he may have failed but I have planned and worked for every possibility. But I will not relax my guard until everything is done; after all it was his arrogance which cost him was it not? Only one thing remains, the most crucial piece of my plan. And soon, she will be mine…

"Nami, are we there yet?" Life was normal for the members of the Strawhat Crew: Zoro and Sanji had argued at lunch after Sanji had gone love cook mode over Nami and Robin; Luffy had stolen food from the others before getting kicked by Sanji; and now they were either lounging about or in Luffy's case, whining. "Not yet Luffy now shut up." Luffy let out a whine, lying flat on the head of the Sunny Go. "I'm so bored…" After a while, Nami got annoyed and marched over to Luffy. "Luffy shut up!" He turned to look at her only to get punched in the face. She pulled him up by his shirt, to hit him a second time when Zoro, in the crow's nest spotted something. "There's land ahead." "Finally, everyone get ready to land!" Nami just sighed, knowing nothing could stop him once he got started.

About 45 minutes later the Thousand Sunny pulled up near the port. "Ok now everyone, don't do anything stupid alright?" "Yes Nami~swan!" "Of course." "Don't worry." But Luffy had already jumped off the ship and run off towards the town. Nami face palmed, "That idiot…whatever, I'm going to find out how long it takes for the log pose to reset." "I'll come with you Navigator-san." "Thank you Robin." In the end, both Brook and Zoro stayed behind to watch the ship while the rest went into town, with Ussopp and Chopper on finding Luffy duty. Luffy continued running until he hit the other side of town, "Huh where am I?" He crossed his arms and cocked his head, "That's strange…I thought I heard something but there's no one here." "Heh, who are you calling no one Luffy?" Luffy looked around before looking up, the grin on his face widening, "Ace!"

I know it's short but it's a prologue. Things actually happen in Chapter 1 but I just needed to set the scene…sorta. Guess that's everything, see-

Ace – You forgot something again.

Oh lord, what was it this time?

Ace – The contest, remember? The one for the final member of the-

Puts hand over mouth Oh right, thanks. Ok, competition is like this:

Guess who this member of the 5 Heroes is, and the first person who is correct gets to decide who the final member is. However there are some restrictions of who can be chosen. You can't choose:

- A member of the Strawhats

- A member of the Marines (there are some exceptions such as Coby)

- Any enemy pirate the Strawhats have faced

- Shanks (Have plans for him)

- Or a character who would have no reason to leave where they live or are currently inaccessible (like Dalton or Conis) or are known to be dead

You've got until Chapter 5 to guess who it is. I'll release a hint at the end of each chapter until 5, so get guessing either now or wait until I start giving out hints. Bye.


	2. Chapter 1

Luffy – Wahoo, Ace is here!

Yep, that he is. Ready for Chapter 1?

Luffy – Yeah, do me and Ace have to fight more marines? We did when we met in Alabasta. Or maybe pirates this time?

Uh sorta. You will probably fight pirates and marines at some point. Just not in this chapter. Mind doing the disclaimer for me so we can get started?

Luffy – Oh ok. AnimeCat92 doesn't own us.

But I do own the plot and any OCs. There is also some slight swearing and uh…blood, that's right blood, in this chapter.

"Ace!" Ace gave Luffy a wide grin, ruffling his hair. Luffy matched Ace's grin with his own, "What are you doing here, Ace?" "I was in town getting some supplies when a certain someone runs right passed me. I shouted at you, but you totally ignored me. I came after you and just caught up now." "Shishishishishi, sorry Ace. Guess I didn't hear you." Ace sighed, having expected something like that. "You guys just dock now?" "Yeah, you have to come back to Sunny with me! I want to introduce you to my new crew members!" "Sure. I don't have any leads on Blackbeard right now, so if it's no trouble I'd like to travel with you for a while." Luffy's grin, if it was even possible, got wider, "Yahoo, Ace's coming with us!" "Only for a while Luff', once I get a lead on Blackbeard I'll leave." Luffy was too excited to listen to him, which made Ace sigh once again. Luffy never changed, but that was part of what made Luffy so special. "You remember where your ship is docked this time at least." "Nope!" Ace face-palmed, having honestly expected too much of Luffy.

"If we go down this way to the beach, we can take the Striker round to where your ship is. Judging by where you came running from, I think I know where you guys might have docked." "Oh, so that's why we're going this way. You landed over here." "That's right, it's bit far off from the town but I can deal with that. Once we get back to the Sunny, I'll leave the Striker there and we can go back into town. Who's watching your ship?" "No idea." Ace shook his head, "As their Captain, shouldn't you know these things?" "Probably." Ace hit Luffy in the back of the head as the pair walked down a forest path towards the beach Ace had landed on last night. Luffy was just being cheerful as always, while Ace couldn't help but sigh at his little brother. "You haven't changed Luffy." Luffy didn't respond, just kept grinning. Ace suddenly looked backwards, Luffy continued for a few steps before stopping, "Ace?" Ace narrowed his eyes, looking into the forest before shaking his head and turning around, walking down to Luffy. "It's nothing, thought I heard something." He kept walking; Luffy looked towards where Ace had been looking before shrugging and continuing after Ace.

They arrived on the beach, and Ace noticed something was off. Something was different about the beach now than when he'd left it a little over an hour ago. It was Luffy who helped him figure out what was wrong, "Oi Ace, I thought you said your boat was here." That was it; the Striker was not where he had left it. But there were no footprints to show who had moved it; not even his footprints from when he left. "I did…stay alert Luffy. Something's not right here." Luffy got into a fighting position beside him, keeping an eye out for the cause of this strangeness. Suddenly 10 men, dressed head to toe in black outfits appeared. Each wore a mask, a plain white mask which meant they weren't identifiable by anyone. "Who the hell are you guys?" They got into a fighting position, "Ready Luffy?" "Always shishishishi." The masked guys ran at the pair and Luffy wound up his arm, "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" Luffy's arm shot out, catching one of the mask men in the face. He went back a few feet, before getting up, but neither brother had time to do much else as another 20 showed up separating the pair as they fought their way through the mass of masked fighters.

"Damn it, these guys just don't stay down." Luffy had to agree with Ace, these guys weren't giving him time to pull out his strongest moves. One of the men got close enough to slash Ace's back however the long knife just cut through fire. "Sorry guys, but that's not going to work!" Ace roundhouse kicked that one away before Luffy had to dodge a swipe from 3 of them, "Gomu Gomu no Muchi!" He swept a number of them aside and even though they got back up again, they obviously were suffering from the beating the brothers were giving them. "These guys really don't know when to just give up." Then all the attackers that had them put away their swords, some pulled their gloves off while others pulled out a second sword. The men then began to attack the pair again, blocking the two from each other again.

Ace noticed a sword coming for him however as it wouldn't hurt him, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side. The sword had cut through on his right side, luckily not deep enough for it to hit any organs but still a fairly serious wound to take in a fight where endurance meant who would win or lose. "Damn it, the swords are made of seastone, don't let them touch you!" Ace knew Luffy got the message but he couldn't look to see where Luffy was because he had to avoid more swords as well as punches, noticing what looked like seastone wrapped around some of the men's knuckles so he guessed that once they realised that both brothers were devil fruit users, they brought their devil fruit measures into play. These were definitely no common thugs, especially since they had access to large amounts of seastone to make all these weapons. He got cut a few more times and took a couple of punches, feeling his strength drain a bit with each hit. His injury was definitely not helping, but he guessed it must be worse than he thought if it was causing him this much trouble. He then heard Luffy shouting, and paled "Let me go, you bastards!" The men stopped attacking as 5 men pinned Luffy to the ground, all of them having those seastone knuckles on, which were preventing Luffy from breaking free. 5 men grabbed him from behind before slamming him to the ground as well. "Ace! Let us go!" Luffy violently struggled, but was quickly subdued by the men holding him. The rest stood and saluted at something, it was then both brothers heard the sound of footsteps as someone walked towards them, softly clapping his hands. Ace felt it was almost mocking, the sound after all whoever this was had only see the fight as a show or something.

They soon got a look at the men were saluting at. He was the kind of man women would call handsome, with his straight brown hair, piercing grey eyes behind a simple pair of glasses with black frames with a well-defined faces, putting him around his mid-20s. He was taller than Ace by about a head, and considering what he wore (a smart white shirt, black trousers and dress shoes, a dark green waistcoat with some sort of crest on his left breast; he also wore an admiral style jacket in black with dark green trim) he was probably the commander of these men. He didn't look like he was either a pirate or a marine, though he certainly looked the part of the latter. He paid Ace no mind as he walked towards Luffy, no longer clapping as he had been earlier. Luffy was hauled to his feet, 3 of the men backing off with a salute. He gripped Luffy's chin and tilted it upwards, a smirk on his face as he looked down at Luffy in way which unnerved both brothers. "Don't you dare touch my brother, asshole!" The man let go of Luffy, turning so he could see Ace. "My apologizes, I have forgotten my manners it seems in all this excitement. Do excuse me. My name is Ichiro. I am a leader of a group known as Heaven's Vanguard, my title as such is Chief Vanguard and I prefer to be addressed as such. However, considering how rude I have been in requesting an audience with the pair of you, I will have no qualms about the pair of you addressing me by my name this time." The brothers only glowered at him, and he sighed. "It is polite to give your own name when someone introduces themselves but it would seem you are still a tad angry at my men's way of requesting an audience. It matters not, I know that you are Portagus D Ace, and…" He turns back to look at Luffy, "You are Monkey D Luffy." Ace felt a shiver go down his spine before effectively spitting out his words, "And what could you want with a pair of pirates, Ichiro?" One of the men holding Ace rammed him in the back of the head, probably punishing him for being so rude to their boss. "I'm afraid I have no business with you Ace. I do however have business with your brother so if you wouldn't mind I'd like to finish what I came here to do." He pushes his glasses back up his nose, "I know very well that if I request what I require from you, you will refuse me. So I am afraid I will need to take it by force." Ichiro's hand began glowing, before he smashed it into Luffy's chest. Luffy made a strange noise, like all the air was knocked out of his lungs before his head drooped, seeming to lose conscious. "Luffy!"

Ace exploded into a pillar of fire, badly burning the 5 men holding him down. Ichiro turned to look at Ace, a surprised look flashing across his face before returning to his calm, always present look. Ace turned his hand into fire, "Hiken!" Ichiro moved to avoid the attack, it barely missing one of the men holding Luffy. "I thought you'd be a little troublesome, but it seems you're even more of an issue than I thought. And this close to recognizing my ambition, I will not accept such a small bump to derail my plans in any way." It was almost too quick for Ace to notice, but Ichiro had moved from his place next to Luffy to right in front of him, his hand on a sword before Ace felt something run straight through his heart. "Ah…uh…" Ace coughed up blood before crashing to the floor, one of the men kneelt beside him and checked for a pulse, shaking his head indicating he felt none. "Ace…" Ichiro looked over in surprise, having not expected Luffy to still be conscious. Tears were starting to stream down Luffy's face as he stared at Ace, "ACE!"

Luffy - sitting on the floor catatonic Ace…

Sticks head out of barricade Uh, yeah…cliffy on Ace's death, I'm going to hide behind here until I get the next chapter out. Please don't try and kill me, or you'll never know what happens next. ducks back behind barricade

Thank you to the 2 reviewers, 5 people who favourite and 7 who followed this story. And for you guys, the first clue is:

He (and it is a male) has been relatively important in more than 1 arc up to where the anime is at, including the current arc.

You'll all find out who it is at the end of chapter 5, in some fashion. See you next time.


	3. Chapter 2

Sticks head out of barricade Uh, hi I'm back. Glad nobody, at least nobody I know of, was upset at what happened with the cliffy last chapter.

Ichiro - pushes glasses up nose so light glints sinisterly off them I for one am glad that the young man is out of the way, though I do hate having to kill if it isn't necessary.

What are you doing here?

Ichiro - Aside from dear Luffy and his unfortunate brother, I am the only other important character to really appear in this chapter so it is fair I get to appear. Now, hurry along with this chapter so I can comfort my dear Luffy and bury Ace, since a warrior like himself deserves such.

You know what, I will start the chapter now, after all you asked for it.

Ichiro – Things always go my way, Author. I'll thank you though for making it easy for me.

Yeah, yeah whatever. I don't own One Piece; I just own this story's plot and any OCs, no matter how much they annoy me at times.

"ACE!" Luffy struggled weakly in the arms of the two men holding him, desperate to reach his older brother. Ichiro sighed, before pulling out a handkerchief and wiping Ace's blood off his sword before sheaving it. "Such a waste, but it was unavoidable." He walked back over to the struggling Luffy, using an unbloodied part of the handkerchief to dry Luffy's tears, "Now now, there's no need to cry. Your brother died in battle, like any real warrior would like too. We'll even bury him, as he deserves respect for putting up such a good fight earlier. You have my word." Luffy was struggling to hold onto his consciousness as whatever Ichiro had done to him earlier was taking effect as he could feel a numbing pain slowly taking over his body. Already half of his body was numb and black spots were appearing on the sides of his vision but he refused to fall into unconsciousness, he couldn't…he had to help Ace. That's when he started to feel a strange warmth building in his chest, getting stronger and stronger and as he looked up, Ichiro appeared startled as Luffy looked at Ace. His vision was fading faster, and the strange feeling in his chest suddenly expanded then disappeared. Luffy was absolutely exhausted and everything faded to black.

"I wasn't expecting that, his power is even closer to awakening than I thought. I was a little worried, but it looks like he finally passed out before he managed to do anything." Though he had to admit, when his eyes had glowed they were very pretty. The boy was rather adorable and feisty as well, how he couldn't wait to tame the boy. "Bring the ship round, and inform our doctor that we have injuries to treat. Make sure my dear Luffy's room is ready as well." 10 of the soldiers bowed and left and he turned to the remaining 20. "We shall bury the young Ace here on the shore, as I promised Luffy I would. I do keep my promises; I am a gentleman after all. The ship should be here by then. Once we have done that, we will head to the ship and return home." The men saluted and Ichiro pulled on his collar, "It is unusually warm today; I guess I didn't notice due to my excitement." However, he was proved wrong bare seconds later by the crackling sound. He slowly turned to look at Ace; fire was starting to crackle to life on Ace's body as Ace started shifting on the sand before he began to get up on his hands and knees. Blood began to drip from the hole in his chest and side as Ace began to stand up, the fire on his body growing as sparks fell off his body, landing and igniting the ground around him. When Ace stood to his full height, the hole in his chest was still there along with other injuries he'd gained from his earlier fight, but his eyes and face were blank and emotionless. "Don't…" His eyes locked on Ichiro as parts of his body began to steam and all his wounds closed up. "Don't touch Luffy." Fire exploded, almost white hot which he threw forward in massive pillars of fire in an attempt to burn Ichiro and his men to ash.

The two holding Luffy were forced to drop him to the floor as Ace wildly launched the fire at the group, avoiding Luffy by a few inches at most. The fire was far too intense for anyone who was conscious enough to feel it, forcing them all back. Ichiro could see the fire was so intense that Ace was in fact beginning to sustain some burns on parts of his body. There was no physical way for them to retrieve Luffy from the surrounding blaze. "Everyone, we will leave now. As things stand, we will be engulfed in these flames long before he runs out of steam." "And what of the boy?" "Sadly we must leave him here for now." He turned to Ace and spoke, "I will allow you this victory, Portagus D Ace but rest assured I will return for what belongs to me soon. I am only temporarily letting you keep him, besides I managed half of what I came here to do and I am content to leave it at that for now." He returned his attention to his men, "We retreat now, I would prefer to keep any casualties and fatalities as low as possible and it won't be possible if remain any longer." He took one last look at the man in front of him before leading his men in retreat. Ace finally stopped throwing fire and stood still and after a few minutes, in which the fire began to calm then Ace began to blink and groaned before life returned to his eyes.

Ace really didn't know what the hell was going on. He'd died right? Stabbed by that bastard Ichiro who'd done something to Luffy. But he was now standing on a burning beach, and Ichiro and his men were nowhere in sight. Wait, where was Luffy? Ace started franticly looking around for Luffy before suddenly wincing as whatever high he'd just been on was wearing off and he was now beginning to feel pain. "Damn it, got to find Luffy." A burning pain in his shoulder made him look to see what was causing it and his eyes widened. His shoulder was on fire, and he could smell burning flesh. He, the guy who'd eaten the Mera Mera no mi, was being burnt. He proceeded to pat it, and other flames on his body, out while searching for Luffy but the fire surrounding him made it difficult to see. At one point, he tried to put out the fire with his powers, but he couldn't control them properly. He had to concentrate on the fire so hard; the effort of putting out the fires was exhausting him. But finally, all that was left was a few small flames on the beach and Ace found Luffy lying sprawled on the ground. He knelt next to his brother, a relieved smile gracing his lips. "That guy didn't take you away; I was so worried they would after they…" He began to check Luffy for injuries and began to frown. Something was different about Luffy, but what it was he just couldn't put his finger on it. He gently flipped his brother over, in case of injuries on his front and Ace spotted something. He lifted Luffy gently, supporting him with his arm to get a better look. He'd hoped he'd imagined it, but he hadn't and Ace had a feeling that it wasn't over yet.

Luffy groaned, his whole body tingled and his head was swimming. What in the world had just happened? He thought back: he'd been really bored and this island had appeared as if responding to his wish for adventure. Then, he'd run into Ace who was going to be staying with them for a while which was great, he could meet Robin, Franky, Brook and Sunny too. Then they'd gone to go get Ace's boat, which they were going to take to the Sunny. Luffy'd never been on Ace's boat so that would have been fun but then they'd got to the beach and those weird guys had attacked them. They'd tried to fight them off but they used sea stone to weaken them, which sucked. Then that stuck-up guy had come, and he'd punched him which made his body feel weird. Then Ace got mad and tried to attack the guy then he'd- "Ace!" Luffy shot up, before the world started to spin and he fell back down. "Luffy, don't scare me like that. Are you alright?" Luffy blinked a few times before the form of his older brother finally appeared in his vision. "Ace! You're alright!" He threw his arms around Ace's neck and buried his head in Ace's shoulder, letting out a sob. "Don't tell me you're going to start crying, Luffy. You're still a little cry-baby." "But…Ace…I thought…" He hit Luffy on the head, "Idiot, like I can die with a little brother like you to worry about. Though right now, that statement isn't entirely correct." Luffy looked up, blinking away tears as Ace gently eased Luffy's top backwards. "You might want to look down Luff'." He does, blinking like an idiot before poking one of them through his shirt. "What this thing doing here?" "Luffy, it looks like that Ichiro guy…turned you into a girl." "What?!"

See, I didn't kill Ace…just temporarily but he's 100% alive and will stay that way, damn it. I also gender bent Luffy, at least someone saw it coming but no secret fem!Luffy.

Ichiro – I was so close, but I got careless. I must have miscalculated something, I best go over my calculations again and revise my plans due to this debacle. walks off muttering

I think it was forgetting to take into account that both brothers are D's but he'll probably that figure it out later, I certainly don't want to make things easier for him. But on to other things, the next clue is:

The style of fighting he uses is completely unique to himself; no one else currently uses a style like it in the One Piece verse (unless someone uses it in an anime-only arc that I haven't seen).

Well, better sign off and go into hiding; I don't think Ace is too happy about the last 2 chapters especially seeing as he spent most of this chapter dead. Bye now!


End file.

One Piece, Adventure, Friendship