Chapter Text
A small boat slipped onto one of Dawn's secluded shores, unnoticed by the waking island. As soon as the hull hit sand, two white blurs sprang into the dense treeline, leaving only the whisper of brushed leaves in their wake.
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Luffy grinned as he hauled not one, but two full sized gators back to the base. He couldn't wait to see the looks on his stupid brothers' faces! They'd laughed at him, saying he was too much of a crybaby to get gator meat without being eaten or drowned. While, yea, he did get eaten, he'd ripped out one of the offending future meal's teeth and stabbed the inside of its mouth 'till it opened and he got out. So it doesn't even count! He giggled a bit, speeding up so they could see how strong he is sooner. Sandalled feet pumped the worn dirt of the hunting trail, his catches crashing through the undergrowth behind him.
The figures watching from above exchanged a look through masks, noting the way the target's fingers stretched around the Grand Line sized tails behind him. The animals here were quite frankly preposterous for a sleepy little island on the so called weakest sea, and had no doubt something to do with Vice Admiral Garp. That, though, was irrelevant. They had orders. And orders had to be followed out. Both flitted up higher, shadowed by the highest reaches of the jungle as two older kids burst onto the trail. The darker haired one wore a scowl over thinly veiled worry and the blond simply open relief.
"LUFFY!" the blond all but roared as both rushed up to the smug looking target. The dark haired one still wore a scowl as he not-so-discretely catalouged the state of the little one. And, oh, wasn't that interesting. The onlookers readied seastone loaded pistols but remained on their perches. They were, of course, not entirely necessary but they were agents, not brash glory junkies. They weren't going to fail due to entirely preventable outcomes.
"YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE WITHOUT TELLING US," the blond had his shoulders now, yelling directly into a still smug face, "DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU GET INTO?"
"You're too rubber-brained to go off on your own, idiot," the dark haired one spoke this time, followed by a hit to head. The target, if possible, smirked wider. He gestured grandly to the two beats carcasses behind him.
"I have dumb, mean," punctuated with a glare for both boys, "brothers so I got meat 'cos you meanies are too dumb for it."
'brothers'? Interesting indeed. Their orders were simple: capture and interrogate the Worst Criminal's offspring, Monkey D Luffy. No mercy for anyone harbouring him. No mentions of other children. The three looked similar enough, with the target and the blond sharing the same facial shape, and the two darker heads of hair. Even if they weren't Dragon's mutts, they'd be able to use them as leverage against the little one. A quick nod had one figure splitting off in the direction the boys had come from, looking for criminals harbouring cursed blood.
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He revelled in his stupid brothers' stupid faces, little fingers bending back just a little too far in the direction of his awesome prey. Until they just looked even more angry-worried.
"You went down to the river alone!?!" Stupid Ace took his shoulders this time, turning him around and lifting his shirt to look for injuries. He wasn't having it though, pushing him away and crossing his arms
"Lu, you could've drowned. Without us-" Stupid Sabo's eyes widened at something above his head. He could barely notice before a hand had him by the neck. It hurt. Only pointy things could hurt him, and the hand wasn't pointy!
"Don't move." The voice was cold, and accentuated by the click of a gun. Ace, who barely had time to react, was stopped in his tracks before he could lunge, teeth bared in a snarl. That quickly morphed into desparation when he saw the stubborn set in Luffy's eyes. Sabo, similarly frozen, felt dread settle as he saw the blackened hand actually impacting his supposedly strangle-proof little brother. His impulsive, stupid little brother. The same little brother who was turning to get a look at the masked man holding him.
The man didn't even seem to move but a hiss tore through the air. Luffy crumpled, little hands clutching his calf. Ace and Sabo were already launching towards him as the masked weirdo sighed. He didn't seem to even move again before both of his brothers were on the ground too, like they'd been switched off mid-air. He tried to stretch out to them, to do anything but his arm wasn't going anywhere. He tried crawling over, leg screaming at him to stop, but he felt all sleepy like when he falls into the river and his arms weren't listening. Why weren't they listening? Ace and Sabo were right there! Hurt!
He could only scream and yell and growl and snarl as a second stupid mask - a woman this time - appeared out of nowhere and put his brothers on her shoulders like they were just sacks of meat. Could only spit and wriggle and snap when he got thrown over stupid mask man's shoulder himself, even though he felt so, so sleepy and his leg really, really, REALLY hurt. At least he was staining the dumb white shoulder with his blood. Who even wore white into a jungle??? He couldn't even bite, stupid mask had stupid hard skin that hurt his teeth. He fought tears as he watched his brothers flop around in front of them. He wasn't a crybaby. He WASN'T but he wasn't stretchy and strange people hurt his brothers before they could even eat the gator he got and he was all tired and cold and weak.
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He knew he'd be collecting criminal spawn, but this target was downright feral. Even with a seastone bullet lodged in its calf, it struggled way past what most adult devil fruit users ever could. He hadn't knocked it out, wanting it to realise the power they held over its 'brothers' - they'd have to figure out the details of that connection in their lines of questioning - to get it to behave in the future. It made him tempted though, only succumbing to sea stone weakness and blood loss - non fatal of course - when they broke out of the treeline at their landing point. It truly had the devil's blood, still conscious and watching his brothers' ragdoll forms despite its clearly echausted state.
Their 'ship' was unassuming: ouwardly it looked like a fishing vessel, with a small cabin and some below deck storage space. It was anything but, with seatone coating the hull and a concealed propeller. The storage, of course, was specialised to hold living cargo and held all the tools for interviews to go smoothly. The cell, reinforced by seastone, was in the bow, facing the entrance of the soundproofed interveiew room. The target gained a second wind - having been limp from the treeline, through the cabin and the small below-deck halls - when it saw his partner place the collateral down. It struggled, albeit pathetically, until he placed it too down. It wasted no time in dragging itself in front of the collateral, forming a rather redundant barrier.
Even as he locked the cell door and turn to leave, he felt himself bearing a small amount of interest. This child might pose somewhat of a challenge.