c h a p t e r  f o u r
m a g i c  g a m e s

It has been some time since Portgas D. Ace joined the number one guild in Magnolia. Or at least it used to be number one.

A few months after Ace had joined, they've had a lot of adventures. His favorite being when out of nowhere they woke up in another place called Edolas. To which, once they had returned to their own home he told the entire guild of where he really came from– and they took it quite well. Romeo a little more at having a real pirate as a friend.

After that, a so called Promotion Trial took place in Fairy Tail. And for some odd reason, Ace was welcomed to accompany the master to watch from the side lines. He honestly felt like a total weakling besides his new family, but he sure was putting a lot of effort into his training.

He along with his friends encountered an actual dragon— the apocalypse dragon known as Acnologia.

Luffy for sure would've gotten excited and killed in the process. 

They had lost the bottle and sunk below sea– and Ace could not be happier to have resurfaced because what the hell would he have done if he wasn't protected by that damn crystal, bubble, or whatever the first master said it was. He'd definitely be a skeleton by now.

It had been seven years since the group disappeared and Fairy Tail was now the weakest guild– but they were hoping to change that as fast as they could.

"Goddamn it." Ace cussed softly. "What do you mean you can't find, Wendy?"

"Her and Carla have been gone for a while." said Happy.

"Let's go look for her." Lisanna told the talking cat, who nodded determinedly.

"Ace, you'll have to participate for Wendy." Erza told him.

"What?" Ace widened his eyes. "Y'know I can't do that. I'm not an actual wi–"

"Shut up, will ya?" Gray scoffed. "You're a Fairy Tail wizard. Just because you got your powers from some fruit doesn't make you any weakling. You've gotten stronger, remember?"

"Come on, man." Natsu grinned. "Remember how you belped us beat Hades and all those evil guys on Tenrou Island? They were powerful and we managed. This should be a piece of cake."

Ace sighed and nodded. Truly, he just wanted to search for Wendy too. That was his little sister. "Alright." He turned to Happy and Lisanna. "Let me know as soon as you find her please. Shoot up a flare or something."

"Aye sir!" Happy shouted enthusiastically before flying off with Lisanna.

"Let's do this."

"Yeah!"

And just like that, once it was time, Fairy Tail's team ran off to start the beginning of the Magic Games, unaware of the obstacles that were yet to come.

Somewhere, in a world far away was a pirate captain, that was too busy staring at the horizon to even acknowledge anything his crew mates were doing.

He didn't know where Ace was, but he knew he was alive. But it didn't matter. He was in another world, might as well think of him as dead.

"Hey, Luffy."

His thinking process was interrupted by their ship's chef, Sanji Vinsmoke.

"Are you okay?" He asked, a large plate of meat sitting in his right hand. "I've been calling you for quite awhile but you seem dozed off."

Luffy shook his head and gave him a small smile, "It's nothing, I'm fine."

"I saved you the last of the banquet." Sanji raised the plate closer to his view. "Figured you'd still be hungry."

"Meat!" Luffy's mood was quick to change as he dug into the meat.

Sanji only watched him worriedly. The first thing Luffy would've noticed would had been the meat, but he didn't pay any mind to it until after it was mentioned. It's been only two years after his brother's death but every once and a while Luffy finds himself getting depressed at the thought of him— and the entire crew knew that.

"He alright?" Zoro asked softly once Sanji headed back towards them.

Before Sanji could reply, Usopp let out a sad sigh. "I don't think he's been fully alright since that day."

"Poor Luffy." Chopper said below a whisper, his eyes sad and watery.

"Listen," Nami added. "While I don't like seeing Luffy depressed at all, it'll do him some good to not keep all his emotions bottled up. If he wants to cry, shout, or whatever, all we can do is support him. Understand?"

"It's no good if he does it all by himself." said Robin. "We show him no support by leaving him be. He needs to know."

"Yohoho! And I think I have just the idea!" Brook chimed in.

"Let's get him cola!" The crew's cyborg bellowed. "Maybe I can even build him an Ace Robot." His eyes sparkled at his new idea.

"No!" Both Zoro and Sanji wacked him.

"You ready, Brook?" Robin questioned the skeleton with a smile.

"Ready."

Luffy raised a brow at the sound of a violin and turned away from his meat, eyes widened as his crew grew near him while singing Binks Sake.

"What?" He raised a brow. "What's going on?"

Brook ended the song with a dramatic strung of the violin, transitioning to a sadder melody.

"Captain," The eight members stood proud in front of their friend.

"We know you're hurting." said Nami.

"But don't you worry." Franky added.

Then Brook, "Because you can cry."

"And shout." Chopper smiled at him.

"You can let out all those bottled emotions." Robin said softly.

"You don't have to worry." Usopp chuckled lightly.

"Because we're with you." said Sanji.

"Until the very end." Zoro finished off, a smirk on his face. "Captain."

Luffy's eyes welled up with tears, and soon enough he was on the floor. Heavy tears running down his cheeks and sobs shaking his whole body. He felt utterly weak.

But it didn't matter to him.

Because he had the best crew with him.

"Ah! Luffy!" Chopper and Usopp started crying at the sight of him and ran to hug him. Brook and Franky quickly running after them with their own tears.

"Guess we should join in." Nami said with a smile, wiping the stray tear from her eye.

"What are we waiting for then?" Robin followed next, the other three following behind her.

And so, the Straw Hats surrounded their captain, arms around each other as they let him cry as long as his heart desired.