"OH NO! CAIN!" Luffy immediately grabbed his head and shouted.
"HEY, STOP MAKING THINGS WORSE!"
Ace roared and chased after Cain again.
Looking at the waterfall ahead, which was getting narrower and narrower, and the rocks sticking out of the water, he hurriedly shouted to Cain,
"UP AHEAD IS DANGEROUS! GRAB THAT ROCK OVER THERE!"
Hearing this, Cain quickly did as Ace said and wrapped himself around a huge rock jutting out of the water.
But when he turned toward Ace, his face changed drastically.
He kept slapping the water, splashing it toward Ace's face.
The rushing spray choked him so badly he couldn't get the words out.
"W-Why?"
Ace slowly came to a stop, staring at Cain's face in disbelief as drops of water kept hitting him.
'Do you hate me that much? You protected me before, but now you're making that face… was that really just my imagination?'
Words he had heard before suddenly resurfaced in his mind—
'If Pirate King Roger ever had a child, that child shouldn't be allowed to live in this world.'
Those words had always weighed on Ace's heart.
Seeing Cain's expression now, he couldn't help think, 'So you're no different from those people either?'
Just then, Cain struggled to grab hold of a pebble.
Without hesitating, he hurled it toward Ace with all his strength.
'So you really do hate me that much? Enough to throw rocks at me?'
Ace was just about to dodge when he heard movement behind him.
He turned around and froze.
"This is—!"
A pack of wolves was staring at him hungrily, slowly closing in.
"DON'T HURT CAIN AND ACE!" Luffy came running over too.
Stretching his arm out long, he swung it hard toward the area behind Ace, smashing straight into the wolves.
Cain steadied himself on the rock.
Because he had swallowed water, he still couldn't speak, so all he could do was frantically slap the current to warn Ace.
Now that he saw Luffy take action, he stopped worrying, sprang off the rock, leaped onto the shore, and smashed his fist straight down onto the lead wolf pouncing from behind.
Looking at that scene, the confusion in Ace's heart instantly cleared.
"So that expression just now… wasn't because of me. It was because of these wolves…"
Ace immediately set his stance and faced the wolves. Cain and Luffy hurried to stand back-to-back with him.
The three of them were now completely surrounded by the pack.
"Not bad, you two," Ace said, glancing sideways at the pair behind him.
"OF COURSE! I'M GONNA BECOME THE PIRATE KING!" Luffy shouted.
"Pirate king!?"
Ace's pupils shrank in shock.
Luffy had just spoken the name Ace hated hearing most—the title of his father.
Cain picked up the thread right away.
"Of course he will. Luffy's going to become something even greater than the Pirate King. Roger and all that? My little brother's going to surpass him! Of course, as his older brother, I will be stronger than Roger—and stronger than the future Pirate King Luffy too."
"Is that so?" A sharp light flashed through Ace's eyes, full of stubborn refusal to lose.
Then he grinned and said, "THEN I'LL SURPASS ROGER, SURPASS LUFFY, AND SURPASS YOU TOO, CAIN—I'M GOING TO SURPASS BOTH OF YOU!"
As soon as he said that, Ace grabbed his pipe and charged at the wolf pack.
Cain and Luffy immediately rushed after him.
Ace and Cain did most of the real fighting.
Luffy, on the other hand, couldn't quite control his rubber body and mostly just caused trouble, whenever he tried to grab a wolf, his arm would suddenly stretch too far and smack Cain in the back of the head instead.
Whenever he tried to kick one, his leg would wrap around his own waist and send him sprawling flat on his back, startling the nearby wolves instead.
...
They fought for an entire afternoon before the wolves finally broke and fled.
Only a few remained lying on the ground, knocked unconscious and whining.
"You're pretty strong, Cain," Ace said, wiping the dirt off his face.
"You're not bad yourself." Cain brushed the grass scraps off his clothes and couldn't help smiling.
Ace suddenly turned his face away, blushing bright red, his lips puffed out as he mumbled awkwardly,
"About before… sorry. It's just that I really can't get interested in robots and stuff like that."
Cain was just about to say something when he saw Luffy touching the little cuts on his face, practically drooling.
"If these wolves were edible, we could cook a huge pot of meat, right? Roast them, stew them…"
After everything that had happened, Ace wasn't cold to them anymore.
He patiently explained to Luffy, "You can't eat them. These wolves have attacked people before, but their hides can be sold, so they're still useful."
Cain looked up at the towering canyon wall.
"This place is all cliffs. Where's the way out?"
"If only we had a rope," Ace said with a nod.
Then he and Cain turned at the same time and stared directly at Luffy with identical mischievous grins.
Luffy scratched his head, looking utterly confused.
"Why are you two staring at me?"
The next second, Luffy's scream echoed through the canyon.
"AHHH! NO, DON'T—!"
"LUFFY, HOLD ON TIGHT!" Cain shouted, grabbing his legs.
"DON'T GRAB THE GRASS—GRAB THE ROCKS!" Ace shouted, bracing Luffy by the waist.
"Nope, nope, that throw was off!" Cain said helplessly after watching Luffy slam into the cliff wall and slide back down.
"AGAIN! LUFFY, HOLD ON TIGHT! WHETHER WE GET UP THERE OR NOT DEPENDS ON YOU!"
Together, the two of them stretched Luffy's legs way out and hurled him upward with all their strength.
Luffy shot up like a giant rubber band.
Sometimes he couldn't grab onto the cliff and crashed back down, making both Ace and Cain grit their teeth in pain.
Sometimes he managed to catch hold, but didn't have the strength to stay there, and the two of them had to drag him while his arms stretched almost to their limit.
One time, they even threw him into a patch of vines on the cliff, where he ended up hanging upside down and swaying back and forth.
After dozens of attempts, the three of them finally managed to crawl up to the top of the canyon in a miserable heap.
They even dragged the unconscious wolves up after them with Luffy's stretched-out arms.
Panting heavily, the three of them flopped onto the ground.
Looking at how pathetic each of them looked, they couldn't help bursting into loud laughter.
The sky gradually darkened, and the evening wind carried the canyon's chill.
Ace stared at the sunset in the distance, absently scratching at the ground with his fingers.
After a long while, he finally spoke, hesitantly.
"Hey, Cain… Luffy… tomorrow, I'll take you somewhere."
He could clearly feel that these two were nothing like all the people who pushed him away and hated him.
There was no prejudice in their eyes—only pure warmth.
"YAY! YAY!" Luffy immediately jumped up, and Cain smiled and nodded too.
The three of them each slung a few unconscious wolves over their backs and started heading toward Dadan's hut.
Along the way, Ace watched Cain support Luffy with one arm while still carrying two wolves on his back, yet never slowing his pace.
The awkward feelings swirling in his chest finally overflowed.
He clenched his fists, the tips of his ears turning red, and spoke stiffly, even stammering a little.
"Hey… Cain, Luffy… let me…"
"LET ME JOIN YOU!" he suddenly blurted out loudly, then hurriedly lowered his voice.
"I-I'm older than you two, so… so how about you call me big brother?"
"Pfft—"
Cain couldn't help but laugh.
"Ace, that came out way too stiff."
"S-SHUT UP! THAT'S BASICALLY WHAT I MEANT!" Ace's face instantly turned red all the way down his neck, and he couldn't even bring himself to look at them.
"Sure," Luffy agreed casually. Then he added, "But you have to accept Cain's robot."
"HAH? I DON'T WANT THAT THING! WHO'D LIKE SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!"
Ace immediately exploded, his face going even redder as he sped up his steps, clearly trying to hide how embarrassed he was.
...
Late that night, Dadan's hut was quiet and a shadow sneaked over to the table.
It was Ace.
Under the moonlight, he stared at the robot box Cain had left in the corner.
After hesitating for a long time, he finally reached out to touch it.
But the moment he picked it up, he realized the thing was way heavier than he expected.
The robot slipped straight down and smashed right onto his toes.
Clang!
"AHHHH—! THAT HURTS!"
Ace hopped up in pain and couldn't help shouting.
The cry immediately woke everyone else in the hut.
Cain and Luffy came out rubbing their eyes, only to catch Ace standing there red-faced, balancing on one foot, looking both ashamed and furious.
The moment he saw them, Ace's face went even redder.
"Y-YOU TWO… WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?!"
"Grandpa said we're living at Dadan's place from now on," Luffy mumbled sleepily.
Cain pointed at the robot on the floor and asked, barely holding back his laughter.
"What's going on here? Were you looking at my robot?"
"S-SHUT UP!" Ace hurriedly stepped back, waving his hands frantically, the tips of his ears so red they looked ready to drip.
"I WASN'T LOOKING AT IT! I WAS JUST PASSING BY! I ACCIDENTALLY BUMPED INTO IT, THAT'S ALL! WHO'D EVER LIKE SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!"
The more he tried to explain, the more flustered he got, until his face was practically buried in his chest!
His stubborn, embarrassed look made it painfully obvious to anyone that he was lying!
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