One Piece: The Eternal Flame

"Damn it. I lost it."

Angrily hammering down on the wall, Ace gritted his back molars and complained in a low voice.

When saying goodbye to Blacks, he heard the conversation between the ship elves and Gray, and saw that no one else had any surprised expressions. At that time, he knew that Gray and the others must have something to hide from him and Oden.

What should be your reaction when you know that your partner is hiding something from you, which may be fraught with danger?Of course, it is to find a suitable opportunity to ask out.

So Ace's original plan was to ask Gray for clarification, but by coincidence, he saw the back of Gray leaving in a cloak.

Ace chose to keep up, but he couldn't follow too close, which finally led to this result-he lost it.

"Who! Sneaky!"

Just as he was thinking, a yell interrupted Ace's thoughts. He looked up and saw a few sailors in uniform running towards him.

Due to the pirate's reaction to the navy, Ace ran away without thinking.

"stop!"

"Come on, there is a suspicious person!"

This is actually the territory of the navy?Ace looked back in surprise at the navy that was chasing him. There were quite a few of them, so they might not have reached the naval base camp in the water capital.

etc!Since he followed Gray around here, that is to say, what is Gray doing here in the Navy?
While thinking about it, Ace rushed into an alley and climbed up to the roof in twos and threes.

From a place with a very high view, he looked at the mayor's building in the city of water. There were several lighted windows. Could it be that Gray came here for Rocks?

If he really went to find Lockes, where would Lockes be?

Ace gradually let go of his knowledge, and was about to examine the atmosphere in the building carefully, but saw a dark window upstairs suddenly opened, and a figure leaned out half of his body, looking at the naval guards on the left and right below.

In the dark night, her appearance is not very clear, and she can only be seen as a woman through the outline.

For some reason, Ace's heart skipped a beat when he saw that figure.

His body moved forward subconsciously, and after seeing the figure throw a rope tied with a bed sheet, he suddenly realized that the woman might want to leave the room through the window.

No, no, that's the fourth floor, even if the rope is fastened, it's dangerous, okay?
Ace immediately jumped off the roof and ran there in a hurry.

The woman had already stepped on one of the building bulges outside, and was moving the other foot out of the window. Her whole movement was cautious, and she looked extremely dangerous.

In desperation, Ace yelled sharply: "Don't move! I'll go pick you up!"

"Here he is! Catch him."

"do not move!"

With Ace's shout, the marines who were looking for him immediately identified the source of the sound, and the originally quiet night suddenly became noisy.

"Ah!" Lu Jiu was taken aback by this sudden change. The place where her feet were originally placed was small, but her feet slipped immediately in this panic, and her whole body was supported in mid-air by a rope.

In the room, the tight rope suddenly loosened, and Lu Jiu only felt that the pressure on the rope in her hand was gone, followed by a sudden sense of weightlessness.

Seeing this, Ace sped up his speed even more. He kicked off the wall and jumped up with his strength. He caught Lu Jiu, and when he fell to the ground, he bent his knees to vent his strength.

Could it be that this person broke in to save people?For a while, the navy didn't know whether to continue arresting people.

When Lu Jiu knew that she was going to fall, she closed her eyes tightly. It was only when she felt that she was being hugged by the princess that she opened her eyes in astonishment and looked up.

A black-haired young man smiled at her and said, "Don't worry, you will be fine with me here."

Lu Jiu didn't know him, but she had never seen him before, but she had a very strong sense of familiarity. This feeling filled her heart, and then flowed to her limbs and bones in an instant, calming down the heart that was beating rapidly because of the fall.

It was a very reassuring feeling, except for her parents, it seemed that only Roger had ever brought her this feeling.

She could clearly hear the beating of Ace's heart in his chest, one after another, powerful and hot, burning like a flame with great vitality.

"You..." Lu Jiu opened her mouth, but a salty liquid flowed into her mouth. She actually cried. She didn't know whether it was because of fear or the joy of being alive after the catastrophe. Maybe it was neither. Just seeing the young man in front of her, she had the urge to cry.

Ace panicked all of a sudden, "Hey, hey, don't cry, did I say something wrong?"

He wanted to put down Lu Jiu to wipe her tears, but he was afraid that after letting go, Lu Jiu would disappear.

He was always worried that this was a sweet dream of his, and when he woke up, there would be nothing left.

"He's pretty handsome~" Gray, who was standing by the window watching the whole process, showed off to the steel frame: "This is the boy on our boat."

"What is he here for?" Steel Bone frowned slightly, "The commotion was too loud."

"Hahaha, it's not him if there's not much movement." Gray finished speaking meaningfully, and then asked the steel bone, "Who is this woman, the mayor's runaway bride? You won't buy and sell by force, will you?"

The steel bone was speechless, and it took a while before he said: "You don't read those boring scripts in the future, this woman should be a reporter who was locked up before."

"reporter?"

"Well, it's a reporter from the World Economic News, who was about to tell the truth, so she was temporarily locked up."

"Hmm~ what's her name?" Gray thought, it couldn't be such a coincidence, although he knew that Lu Jiu was in the water city, but it was still surprising to meet her so soon.

Steel Bone thought for a while, "Lu Jiu, why, you know her?" He looked at the dazed expression on Gray's face, and remembered the impression Lu Jiu had left on him.

He still admires this reporter very much. He dares to speak out in the face of power and his thoughts are transparent. If CP0 is not there, he may still praise him.

Cyborg patted Gray on the head, and continued: "If you like her, I won't object. At your age, it's time to find a wife."

"Stop it, stop it." Gray's mouth twitched, "You are a bachelor who hasn't married a wife yet, what right do you have to urge me?"

"Who am I for!" Steel Bone's hand on Gray's head immediately pressed down hard, "If it weren't for you, kid, I would have been married a long time ago."

"It hurts, it hurts, I was wrong, I was wrong." Gray admitted, pointing to the bottom of his rumpled hair, "Okay, if they continue to quarrel, CP0 will probably come. Today's meeting is over, dad."

"Hold this." Steel Bone took Griffin from the wall beside him, threw it to Gray without hesitation, and said in a deep voice, "Since you know how to use a sword, use it well."

The scabbard was slightly cold in his hands, and Gray was a little dazed. After decades, he touched Griffin's temperature again.

Steel Gu's eyes turned cold, his fist raised, and the armed color instantly covered his entire arm, and then he slammed hard at Gray.

The latter didn't dodge or evade, and took the blow hard, and his whole body flew out of the window and fell hard to the ground.

Ace was confronting the marines at the moment, and when he heard the movement, he looked over immediately, only to see the smoke and dust dissipate, and Gray was standing in a big pit wiping the blood from his mouth.

"Grey!" Ace ran over as if he saw a savior, because Lu Jiu was crying all the time, and even he was so anxious that he wanted to cry, "Why is she crying? Hurry up and coax me."

Gray, who used his life back to heal his injuries, blinked and expressed his appreciation for Ace's rush to the doctor for his illness. For coaxing people, he is the right place to look for.

"Leave it to me." Gray gave Ace a reassuring look, and then said to Lu Jiu: "Cry if you want to, Ace's clothes were just changed today, and they are perfect for wiping your face."

"Hey?" Ace was dumbfounded. It didn't seem like the kind of comfort he wanted, wouldn't this kind of comfort make Lu Jiu cry more and more?

But unexpectedly, when Lu Jiu heard this, her crying sound was really much quieter. She looked at Ace and murmured, "Your name is Ace, right?"

"Ah? Yes, yes, yes." It was because he heard his name that he stopped crying. Ace blushed and did not dare to meet Lu Jiu's eyes.

Gray scratched his cheek, although it is not good to interrupt them at this time, but if we stay here, things will get worse.

"Okay, this is not a place to talk, let's go back first."

Watching the three of Gray leave, Cyborg looked away from the broken window and looked at the door. A member of CP0 broke in and asked, "Steel Gu, why didn't you stop Heiyan Gray!"

"I wanted to stop him, but he ran away." Steel Bone stood with his hands behind him unmoved.

"With your strength, how could you let him escape!"

"You want to say that I let him go on purpose? Whatever you say in front of Wulaoxing, as long as they are not old and blind, they should know that Heiyan's strength is not something I can easily stop."

CP0 was silent, and asked again: "What is he doing here?"

"Black Flame Gray stole my saber."

-

At the same time, facing Ace's questioning, Gray raised the sword in his hand and said innocently: "I went to take Griffin."

The rest of Ace's questioning was stuck in his throat. If he was going to get the sword, it seemed to make sense. Gray was originally a swordsman with a sword, but he always felt that something was wrong.

"No! I want to ask you about the ship spirit!"

"Ah~ that, of course it is to rule the world." Gray tilted his head naturally, and said with a smile, "Didn't they mean to turn the world upside down?"

Ace is not so easy to fool, or he has been fooled many times, so now he has grown up, "No, I don't believe it, this is definitely not what the ship elf said, you must be hiding something from me."

Gray had no choice but to mention Lu Jiu, "By the way, what have you been writing since just now?"

Lu Jiu paused, closed the notebook before Ace looked over, and said, "I'm recording your conversation just now."

"Why do you remember this?" Ace asked puzzled.

"I'm a reporter, of course I have to record all the news materials." Lu Jiu was a little embarrassed, "Put me down, thank you for saving my life, Ace."

"I" Ace doesn't really want to let go of Lu Jiu, but considering that it's the first time they meet, it's really impolite to keep hugging like this. If Lu Jiu misunderstood him as a hooligan, it would be the worst thing in this world.

He carefully lowered Lujiu to the ground, they had already left the navy, and there was a quiet street around them.

Gray thought for a while and asked, "Lu Jiu, you." As soon as he called Lu Jiu's name, he found that the latter's footsteps moved towards Ace, and he seemed quite afraid of him.

What he didn't know was that his image was not very good with Lu Jiu.

Ace naturally noticed this too, and comforted him: "Don't worry, this is my captain, Gray, he is a super guy."

Is it awesome?Lu Jiu looked at Gray, then at Ace, she didn't introduce herself, why both of them seem to know her.

For Ace, Lu Jiu couldn't raise the slightest vigilance for some reason, so she was willing to believe even for Gray, even if her impression of Heiyan Gray was not very good before that.

"Although I don't know why you are afraid of me." Gray scratched his head and said with a smile: "But it doesn't matter, it's good to get to know each other in the future, I now officially invite you to join the Black Firework Pirates, how about it?"

"Why, why?" Lu Jiu was taken aback by this sudden invitation. She widened her eyes and suspected that she had heard wrong. "I'm just an ordinary intern reporter, why invite me?"

Gray was stumped, "Uh because we just need a trainee reporter on board to document our daily life?"

"But I don't know how to fight, and I don't have any sailing experience. I never even thought about being a pirate."

"Because I want you on board." Ace said at this moment.

His dark eyes are like the surface of a calm sea, calm on the surface, but turbulent waves hidden inside, he looked at Lu Jiu very seriously, "It doesn't matter if you don't know how to fight, I will, I can keep getting stronger, and I can protect you."

He was solemn and serious like never before, and wanted to assure the woman in front of him and the mother who gave birth to him that he was really, really grateful to her, "It's really great that I can live."

Lu Jiu's hand was held by Ace and pressed against his forehead. At the moment of sticking it, Ace finally burst into tears.

Lu Jiu looked at the face with tears flowing wantonly, and suddenly felt a suffocating palpitation, and she said distressedly: "It has been very hard all this time."

Ace shook his head vigorously, "There are many people who love me."

"That's right, that's good." Lu Jiu nodded and asked, "Do you really want me to join?"

"Ah."

"Wait, wait! It depends on your own wishes~"

Gray, who had been serving as the background board, scratched his head and interjected, "If you don't want to, no one will force you. If this kid wants to go with you, he can get off the boat~ I agree with both."

Gray doesn't need Ace to do anything for the Pirates, let Ace join, just want to give him a place to stay.

If he wants to be with his mother and Lu Jiu doesn't want to join the pirates, Ace can get off the ship.

Gray can understand that, after all, mothers are more important than those who are not related by blood.

It would be a good ending to stay away from the center of struggle and live happily with my mother.