The way to Ohara was uneventful.

Rick did came across one marine ship, but since he’s not stupid, he had long removed the jolly roger floating up on the mast, so the marine left him alone.

‘They didn’t even check what kind of ship it was, they saw no pirate flag and ignored me… What kind of marines are they?’

 

He had sailed the seas for the past 12 years with three Vice-Admiral.

(Author’s note: Remember, he started at 6 and he’s 18 now. To the world his ‘official’ age is 22. )

 

And even though Aokiji and Garp had their own way to do the job, their men would not have botched work like that.

 

What Rick forgot was that those were the elites of the marines! He got incredible luck to have met Garp In LogueTown all those years ago. 

Not only would he not have been able to join the marines at his age but he would have been among the marines plebs.

 

His life would be quite a different one right without Garp.

 

So a marine crew not doing its job properly, was not really as extraordinary an occurrence as he thought. It was not common either at least not on the Grand Line or the New world. 

On seas like East Blue ? That was the norm.

 

It took a long time for Rick to reach Ohara. Not because it was far, but because of supplies. He could have used the system to get some food or repair the damages done by the weather to the ship but…

 

‘A 100 karma points for a single steak?! WHAT THE HELL! That’s 10 thousands belly! HELL NO! Not buying it even if it’s the best steak in the universe!’

 

That’s right, the mundane things like food, tools or wood weren't costing much relatively speaking . A hundred points here, a hundred points there.

 

But points were hard to get. And even though Rick has close to 200k Karma points left, with an average use of 400 points a day, he would not pass the 2 years mark like that.

Since he was laying low he couldn’t get points easily.

 Bounties?

‘Sure… “Here officer, here’s the head of a wanted pirate. Please give this 79 millions belly criminal the reward for his hard work.” Would work like a charm.’

 

So he was stuck to make some stops to resupply. Preferably on a small island to avoid being detected. The problem was , since the islands were small, the quantity they had to sell were small too.

A bigger island might have a marine quarter, so it was a no go.

It was really a hard situation. 

He didn’t miss money though.

This was a pirate ship he stole after all. There was a non negligible amount of treasure on it.

‘All this gold and I can’t spend it...Now that’s irony.’

 

He only took a few months to arrive at his destination.

‘So this is Robin homeland.’

 

What waited for him were only ruins.  The town? Some buildings were still standing but most of them were just a pile of rubbles. There were some skeletons here and there. They were probably the people that couldn’t get on the evacuation ships.

 

The Tree of Knowledge was gone, naturally. A third of the forest was left standing.

 

He did find the lake of books. Apparently the marine didn’t even bother to destroy them. Probably thinking that the weather will do the job.

They were not wrong, Many were done for, a smaller number was just damaged, and an even smaller number was more or less intact.

 

If Rick wanted to live here he would have to work hard.

Since it will be his home for the next 10 years, he would have the time to rebuild the island.

 

‘Okay, the first thing to do is to protect the lake of books from the weather. Next is to gather and bury the inhabitants. After that well, I’ll think about it when the time comes’

 

He thought about storing the books. But the only place for it was his ship and not only was full with supplies but didn’t even have the place for a 10th of their total number.

He decided to use the system. He had found a canvas for a good price.

It was actually quite cheap.

Until he saw the price was for one square meter.

After some calculation it would cost him 10k points.

 

He nearly fainted when he saw the price.

 

But apparently, saving the knowledge of the world was a very good deed so he earned back half the Karma once he was done installing the canvas. 

 

For the burial of the inhabitants he just dug a big grave. He had used his gravity to create a hole into the ground. After putting them there and filling up the grave, he move one of the still standing walls to it and carve into it the following words:

 

HERE LIES THE VICTIMS OF OHARA.

 

FALSELY ACCUSED AND MURDERED 

BY THE WORLD GOVERNMENT

 

He then carves the date of the Ohara incident.

Among them were the body of Saul, the giant that helped Olivia and Robin escape. Since there was no way he could have known his same Rick just put him with the others.

 

There was one other body he had recognized while he was gathering them. Its location and its clothes; he knew who it was.

Robin’s mother: Nico Olvia.

 

He didn’t bury her with the others but took her into a secluded place.

Her tombstone was also different:

 

HERE LIES

 

 NICO OLVIA

 

TRUTH SEEKER AND MOTHER

 

MAY SHE RESTS IN PEACE

 

And carved the date of her death too.

 

If asked how he knew, he could simply answer that he had seen her wanted poster and the clothes matched. Yes it was a bit weak of an answer but plausible.

 

‘Okay, what's next now?’

 

He decided to clean up the place. It took him weeks, but there was nothing left of the town ruins. With his gravity he put everything into the sea.

The place was now just a really big flat area.

 

Since his ressources were getting low he went to get some to some islands nearby. Not too close so he would not attract people's curiosity.

He bought some construction tools too. He couldn’t build a house with his bare hands.

Before leaving he got the idea to be self-sufficient. He bought a lot of different seeds and some gardening tools. 

 

It took him around 6 months to build a house and  make different plow fields.

He made many mistakes and ended up restarting from scratch time and time again but since he could make appear from thin air a hundred hands the development advanced at quite a fast pace.

He diverted part of a river so it could go towards the fields.

 

Rick couldn’t wait for his first harvest.

 

He build a small mill that worked with the flow of the river

‘I’m so smart. No need for me to run the mill myself now.’

 

In the end he rarely used the system. Only for the stuff that was above his competence, like the toilets and the evacuation of wastes.

 

He thought about buying animals and raising them. Both for the company and the meat, but quickly gave up on the idea. In case of any injury or sickness he could treat them.

 

That means for everything that wasn’t a fruit or vegetable he would have to take the sails and buy it on a nearby island.

 

He did find hobbies. He got hooked on gardening really quick and everytime he left the island ask for tips from some farmers.

He didn’t grow food, but also flowers and other plants .

He had started to replant trees and make the forest whole again.

 

His second hoby was reading. With a shit load of books at his disposition he learned a lot.

Rick thought about restoring the damaged books, but knew nothing about it nor what the books were talking about.

 

He did build a gigantic library to store them.

 

He never did forget his favorite pace time though. Lazing around. He did it quite a lot.

 

In the end in ten years he did quite a bit.

 

Soon it would be time to go to Alabasta and meet Luffy.

 

Right now he was on an island he never had the occasion to go, buying food.

He had not changed a lot over the years. The manual labor kept him in shape.

The only noteworthy difference was his grown beard that he didn’t have before.

Appearance wise well, he looked like a beggar.

He never paid attention to his clothes and after 10 years they were quite used.

 

That was the reason why he was in the situation he was in right now.

The sun was setting and he was thrown out of a store as the 8 feet tall owner took him for a pauper.

‘Bastard! Never hear the saying: Don’t judge a book by its cover?’

 

“Hey! Can you move, you’re kinda heavy!”

‘Oh shit! I landed on someone.’

“Oh my god I’m sorry!”

 

Rick got up and offered his hands to the person who he landed on.

“My apologies, young man. Here take my hand.

”

The young man took it and raised his head.

 

‘Seriously, first Hancock, then Vivi, now him? Of all people I had to land on?’

 

“That’s fine. It wasn’t your fault anyway, I saw what hap...”

Ace froze, recognition on his face.

‘Shit!’

“Hey, aren’t you..”

 

“Glad you’re not hurt, have a nice day.” said Rick and started to walk away. The hood he usually used to hide a bit of his face had slipped when he was thrown on Ace.

 

‘Shit! Shit! Shit! This is bad, I can’t deal with Ace right now.’

 

Rick didn’t know what could happen if he interacted with him right now. Soon Ace would meet Luffy in Nanohana. It could potentially derail everything if him meeting Ace somehow changes something.

 

Rick wasn’t able to go far as a ring of fire surrounded him.

‘Damnit!’

He could have used his powers to get away but people were starting to gather around the commotion. Using them could get the marine back on his track if someone else recognized him.

 

“Where do you think you’re going? I just wanna talk. I don’t meet celebrities every day after all.”

 

Rick was cornered.

He finally relented.

“You wanna talk? Fine, have it your way but not here.”

“Suit yourself, lead the way”

 

~~~~~

 

He brought on board his ship.

“Wow, quite the ship you have here. You should have it repaired”

The ship had seen a lot over ten years. 

Rick couldn’t ask a carpenter for help, it would take too long so it took it upon itself to do as much as he could.

“ I’m one of the most wanted men in the world, on the run for the past 10 years, with no money. How the hell would I do that exactly?”

 

Ace ‘s mouth was like a globefish's. He didn’t know what to say.

“You wanted to talk to me, pirate? Then talk!”

“My name's Portgas D. Ace. Nice to meet you Rick Wald! As for the talk, well I kinda forgot what I wanted to ask you.”

‘Perfect’

“Then get off my ship! With the commotion you caused I need to leave!”

“Come on, we just met! Why don’t we get to know each other better” Ace said with a smile.

 

Rick sighed.

‘Those damned D. . Bunch of nutcases I tell you!’

 

In the end they talked, for a long time. Ace asked a lot about Rick’s adventures while he was in the marines, and his life as a fugitive but never asked what happened for him to be branded a traitor.

 

Rick had avoided any subjects related to Ace directly or not. Meaning no talk about Garp. He didn’t talk about Ohara either.

 

He did bring out food and alcohol, making the conversation smoother.

 

Ace had talked about his own experiences about his brothers. How one had passed away and how the other wanted was a big dreamer and wanted to become the pirate king.

 

Hearing those words made Rick cry.

‘Damnit, I’m hearing from none other than Ace that Luffy wants to be the pirate king! Too much feels! Right in the childhood!”

 

“Hey man, why are you crying?” asked Ace.

“It’s just… your little brother’s dream, it’s beautiful. It’s so big and.. And that made me remember mine. How they were just as big and then how they got burned to ashes.”

 

Ace fell silent.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”

“It’s a long story. I don’t...”

“It’s fine, I got time.”

Rick sighed.

‘Jesus this guy can talk. I finally got him to talk about Luffy after 3 HOURS. Now if I don’t fuck it up everything will be alright’

 

“Fine. So Where do I start..”

“From the beginning would be better.”

 

Rick rolled his eyes.

“So, one day when I was four I woke up with, for memories, only my name and my age…”

 

He had already told Ace about his missions with the marines, but never went personal. This time it was the other way around.

 

That since he was an orphan he wanted a family and the marine was perfect for that.

He went on about how he joined the marines and trained to one day become Fleet admiral and protect and help the people who couldn’t do it themselves. 

How he met good people that became his family, still leaving Garp’s name out, the time spent with them. How he flattened Akainu on the floor humiliating him.

How he befriended the young princess of Alabasta.

And how he discovered the truth about the marine and the celestial dragons. The pain of the betrayal from the people closest to him. The way he quit and finally how he was branded a traitor.

 

“My family, my friends, my hopes and dreams, everything… gone.

 And I can’t get it back. To be honest, I’m just tired of it all. I wonder sometimes if it would not be better to just surrender myself to the marines and just end it...”

 

Ace that was crying caught him by the collar. He was pissed

“Don’t say that! Don’t throw your life away!”

“What Life? I don’t have anything.”

“They join my crew! You’ll be part of a family again, and this one won’t be betraying you! I guarantee it!”

Rick laughed

‘I like where this is going’

“Me? Joining a pirate crew? Never! I spent my life chasing pirates, I’m not about to become one”

“Never say never! But fine I get it.”

 

Ace released him and smirked.

“You never said anything about having a pirate as a brother though.

 

‘Huh?’

“What?”

 

“I’ve decided. From now on we’re brothers!”

“What?”

“Well if those bastards in the marines don’t want you as a family, I on the other hand, am taking you in mine!”

“You’re not serious.”

“‘Course I am. From now on I’m your big brother.”

“Dude, you’re insane and I’m like, ten years older than you, I should be the big brother”

“Yeah, not happening?”

“Happening.”

“Not”.

 

That started a fist fight that ended in a draw.

Both were on the floor, breathing heavily.

Both started laughing.

 

They raised themselves from the floor. And went to sit back on their chair. Ace poured alcohol in two glasses and gave one to Rick.

 

He took his, in his hand and went to toast.

“To family.”

Rick looked at him, and hit Ace’s glass with his own.

“To family.”

 

The morning came and each went their own way. Promising to meet again one day.

 

~~~~~

 

It was time for Rick to depart to Alabasta.

‘Time to start my new adventure!’

 

Unfortunately for him as he was about a few days to reach his destination, a storm happened.

With his battered ship Rick was in dire straits.

‘SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!’

~~~~~

 

“Pops! I’m back!”

“Welcome back son. You seem quite happy, something good happened?”

“Yeah you can say that! I made a new brother!”

“Oh really ? Tell me about it.”

“Sure!”