【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 448 Tell a story, Sabo

"I was about to fall asleep." Lucci yawned, his face full of fatigue, and glared at Ace who woke him up with some dissatisfaction.

"You can't leave the two of us alone to deal with such an excited Luffy." Ace said dissatisfiedly, "If you keep going like this, Sabo and I won't be able to sleep tonight."

Lucci rubbed his eyes tiredly and looked at Luffy who was still wandering around the room. The only thing he could be thankful for was that his and Ace's room was big enough and Luffy also expressed great interest in his brothers' things, otherwise they might have to go outside the cabin in the middle of the night to play hide-and-seek with Luffy.

Lucci looked at Ace and Sabo, who also had tired faces. They seemed to be as tired as he felt. Even though they had slept for a long time during the day, they were also worried about Luffy's worsening injuries in the past few days and had not been able to get a good sleep. The emotional fatigue was obvious.

"Luffy..." Lucci blinked a few times and felt that he could hardly open his eyes. It might be that the complete release of emotions during the day made his long-tensed nerves completely relax. The fatigue that had been accumulated since the advancement of the city finally broke out completely today.

"You need to get some sleep. We'll be in Shampooland tomorrow. You don't want to see your friends exhausted. They'll be worried."

"Yeah." Luffy nodded, but still frowned firmly, "But I'm not tired at all." He raised his head and looked at Lucci, wanting to tell him that you can go to sleep first, but looking at the tiredness on Lucci's face, he frowned. Is Lucci always so tired?

"Okay, but you can come and lay down with us," Lucci yawned and opened his arms to welcome Luffy, knowing he would come.

Luffy practically jumped into his brother's arms, sitting on his lap before telling him "I'll lie down with you guys, but I don't want to sleep."

"Okay." Lucci nodded and put his arms around Luffy, holding him to his chest in response to Luffy's tight hug, and laid down on the bed with Luffy, with Luffy now sitting astride his waist and his arms tightly wrapped around him several times. It can only be said that he has become accustomed to Luffy's constant wrap-around hug, otherwise a normal person might have a nightmare if they were entangled like this.

Ace and Sabo soon followed suit and lay down on either side. Lucci turned his gaze to Sabo. He doubted that he would have enough energy to tell Luffy a story in his current state, so he decided to leave it to Sabo. He and Ace would cooperate. Lucci looked at Sabo with sleepy eyes, "Sabo, tell me a story."

"Story!" Luffy became excited and immediately turned to look at Sabo expectantly.

"What?" Sabo frowned, he didn't expect that it would be his business, he thought Lucci would help them deal with Luffy's excited state.

"It doesn't have to be a story, it doesn't matter what it is, as long as Luffy can lie here quietly." Lucci rubbed his eyes and said.

"Maybe it will prevent us from falling asleep so quickly." Ace said with a tired look on his face.

"Well, you know how bad it would be if we fell asleep and Luffy was awake," Lucci added.

"Okay," Sabo agreed. "I'll tell you three a story."

"With adventure!" Luffy said immediately, then put his cheek on Lucci's chest and stared at Sabo with his big eyes.

Ace sighed, placed his hands on Luffy and Lucci, looked sideways at Sabo, and encouraged, "Come on, Sabo."

"Okay, take a chance," Sabo agreed, covering his mouth with his hand and yawning, readjusting his posture. "Do you know the story of Momotaro?"

"No!" Luffy responded immediately.

Ace shook his head; he had no interest in folk tales, except those told by his brother.

Lucci didn't say anything. He didn't want to talk at all now because he was trying hard to stay awake.

Sabo nodded, not caring that Lucci didn't answer. He knew that Lucci was very likely to know this story. After all, when they were kids, Lucci was the only one who would take the initiative to tell Luffy stories many times. He mostly helped Lucci fill in the details of the story to make the story go smoothly.

So Lucci should also help him this time and help him finish the story smoothly.

"Hundreds of years ago, in a remote village lived an old couple..."

"Sabo, let's skip all the boring parts." Luffy immediately interrupted Sabo. He didn't understand why all the stories couldn't just go straight to the adventure part.

"Yeah, Sabo, let's skip all the boring stuff and get straight to the adventure part!" Ace grinned. He knew that Sabo would not like this idea, but he also knew that it would be fun for Sabo to tell the story in this way in the end.

"Ace!" Sabo gritted his teeth and glared at Ace. Although his tone did not change, there was a threat hidden in his words. He already had to tell them a story. In such a sleepy state, Ace was actually encouraging Luffy to make the story more difficult. "You really want to hear the whole story! Right, Ace?"

"Of course," Ace gave in with a goofy grin, not wanting Sabo to lose his mind so quickly.

"Sabo, can't we just talk about the adventure part?" Luffy looked at Sabo with wide eyes. He hoped to skip all the boring parts.

"No, Luffy, Lucci and Ace all want to hear the full story." Sabo said as he pushed Lucci. This guy had proposed telling the story himself, but now he wasn't helping at all. Sabo was a little dissatisfied. "Right, Lucci!"

Lucci sobered up for a moment, and after hearing Sabo's words, he replied vaguely, "Yeah, that's right."

"Okay." Luffy agreed.

Sabo controlled his temper and continued to tell the story. "Anyway, one morning the old man went to the mountains to collect firewood, while his wife the old woman went to the river to wash clothes. While she was washing clothes, she found a huge peach floating on the water, and she brought the peach back home."

"A peach? Why not meat?" Luffy interrupted. "Meat would taste better."

"That's right." Ace nodded and agreed.

Sabo glared at Ace in annoyance, Luffy's interruption was expected, but Ace's interruption or encouragement was obviously intentional, which annoyed Sabo even more.

"Anyway, when she took it home to eat it, a baby came out of it."

Luffy took a breath.

"No, it's not!" Sabo immediately interrupted Luffy's thoughts, knowing exactly what his stupid brother was thinking. "That's not where babies are normally supposed to come out."

Luffy nodded "But Shanks said he came out of a box."

"No, that's not true!" Sabo interrupted immediately, and then continued his own story. "Then the old couple raised the child who came out of the peach as their own child. Because he was born from a peach, they named him Momotaro."