One Piece 583

The young Luffy tries to become Ace's friend.

Welcome to Luffy's Jungle Adventures!

Summary:
Luffy is now living with the Dadan mountain robbers, and during a meal he wonders why he gets so little food while Ace and everyone else get so much food. Curly Dadan tries to intimidate Luffy, but Luffy isn't scared. Luffy notices Ace leaving and starts following him in order to become his friend. On the way, Ace tries to get rid of Luffy numerous times. Thanks to Ace's efforts, Luffy is lost in the forest for a week but he makes it back to Dadan's headquarters. For days and weeks afterwards, Luffy continues to follow Ace around and eventually he comes upon a smoldering dump/slum known as the Gray Terminal. At the terminal, Ace meets up with his friend Sabo. Ace and Sabo steal and rob people in the area to collect money to buy a pirate ship, and they have collected a sizable amount of valuables over the last 5 years. Suddenly, Ace and Sabo notice Luffy snooping in on them nearby. The two older boys tie Luffy up and both agree that they should kill Luffy to silence him, but neither of the boys has the guts to do the deed. Luffy screams for help, and his screams are overheard by a couple of nearby pirates. It turns out Ace has robbed someone from the Bluejam pirate crew, and now a big pirate named Porchemy and his cronies are out looking for Ace. Ace and Sabo untie Luffy and go into hiding, but Luffy is caught by Porchemy. Having no experience lying, Luffy lets slip that he knows Ace, but he refuses to reveal where Ace is. Porchemy decides to take Luffy with him for interrogation, and Ace and Sabo are wondering what they should do.

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A really early release for One Piece this week. Thanks to The5th for the heads up. Anyways, the flashback segment continues in the expected manner. Usually it takes a small crisis to make a hardened character (Ace) to accept our bumbling main character (Luffy), and this is precisely what the story is setting up. Ace (and maybe Sabo) will eventually decide that they have to rescue Luffy, and in the ensuing action Luffy will impress Ace enough that Ace will open up to Luffy... at least that's my prediction anyways. I have to laugh at Garp's irresponsible ways again though. Although Ace and Luffy had pirating aspirations before being to sent Dadan's place, the environment certainly helped push the two kids towards the side of the criminals.