Warning/Themes: Has to deal with spirits, reincarnation, and death by association. Curse words and vagueness are inevitable. More warnings later on.
Notes at the end.
For the Days
The air is light and happy, cheerful voices and music filling the air. It was a warm night, natural for the end of summer.
Most people in the town are at the festival at the end of the large hill, enjoying themselves in their colored yukatas or Western styled clothing, fishing for goldfish, eating snacks, winning prizes, or doing other festival related things. All people in the vacancy are clearly happy.
Except for one.
One man watches from afar, a blank look on his freckled, yet mature face.
Portgas D. Ace was handsome. His face was thin, with dark waves of hair nearly at his shoulders and freckles splashed on his cheeks and nose. He doesn't wear a yukata like most of the festival goers, if he could even be considered one. Instead he wears a dark blue Kimono that hangs loosely on his body.
Ace is clearly not in the festival mood.
His eyes express the emotion that his features do not. Thoughtfulness shines in his brown eyes.
Many thoughts roll through his head, 'I wonder what it would be like to go down their' and 'it smells good' being current.
The smell from all of the various food vendors wafts all the way up to him from his perch of sorts; a tree on the hill where the shrine that overlooks the festival lies. If his stomach could growl, he has no doubts that it would be going off non-stop.
He leans back into the tree trunk.
Its nice to hear all of these voices at once.
During the year, silent days are a usual thing that cause time to pass by slowly even for him. After all, not many people would come by the shrine during the year, the only times being the end of the summer festival, New Years, and the occasional private party.
Ways had long changed, not that Ace particular cared. He didn't necessarily mind the loneliness.
Even if he was in the middle of serving a well deserved punishment, after all.
It was hundreds of years after his original sentencing, but his opinion on his punishment never did change.
In fact, being tethered to a shrine seemed lax or even lenient to him.
Yet, there was the occasional time the punishment brought the cruelty that Ace thought he deserved.
She had loved festivals after all.
He was thoughtful, and while he would love to go down at least once more with her, his heart feeling as if it would burst with every festival.
After all of this time, he could remember her. Every smile, every tear, every moment. Her eyes, that sparkled like nearby ocean they had escaped to every now and then once upon a time, silently promising a million little things to each other, were still fresh in his mind.
He had forgotten some things as a part of his punishment and it made him feel like he could be sick, if possible. Ace couldn't remember her voice or laugh, but he could almost remember the feeling of satisfaction that would well in his stomach whenever she burst into laughing fits. No longer could he remember small features either, adding to his remorse and guilt.
The guilt in his stomach was bubbling and threatening to boil over. Ace was deserving of a much worse punishment.
The gods, however, would never listen.
Ace knows they were wise and powerful, but sometimes they were far too soft.
When Ace had voiced this to one of the gods that oversaw him, they looked at him in pure pity.
"You'll understand one day." The gods eyes had said, still boring into Ace's mind after all this time.
But he still did not understand.
What Ace did required much, much more than the apology the gods had sentenced him to.
No matter what though, Ace would serve his punishment. Until the end of time itself, he would stay at the shrine.
It was nearly seven hundred years since he had been sentenced.
Six hundred years of punishment with his lingering memories, endlessly waiting to apologize to her. To apologize for what he had done.
His eyes shut and he can almost feel her skin against his, lips moving aimlessly and in absolute silence but what he knows would be a pleasant song. He could remember pressing her closer to him, pressing his lips on the top of her head, wishing for the moment to never, ever end.
But, as all good things do, it did.
A loud voice cuts through his memories like a sharp knife.
"Ah... I'm lost! Nami isn't gonna like that... Oh well, shishishi!"
Ace feels his heart involuntary beat faster when the laughter reaches his ears.
(It's unexplainable in a way and yet...)
Quickly maneuvering in the tree, unable to help the rustling leaves, Ace sneaks a peek at the new shrine visitor.
The visitor is teenage boy, who can't be older than 16 or 17 at the most. His features are rather feminine, save the scar under his left eye. He's shorter and skinnier than the average male, yet its clear that he's male. He wears a bright red yukata, with an out of place straw hat hanging from his neck. His hair is black and wildly sticking up in all directions.
Hearing the rustling leaves, the visitor quickly looks up. What Ace sees makes his heart stop.
The teenager smiles brightly, eyes still wide open.
"Oh! Hi, I didn't notice you! Why are you in that tree? Are you lost too?"
Ace is speechless for several reasons.
The main reason however, is his eyes.
His eyes are wide and bright. They are a blue color that reflects the ocean and sparkles in even the darkest of nights.
Her eyes.
(...he feels alive in a way he hadn't felt since her death.)
Notes: I've been wanting to write something like this for a long time and I finally got an idea last night. I miss summer and the warmer weather, so maybe this is what I need.
I'm very excited to start this story. It's my first thing I've posted this year. But know that updates won't be scheduled, especially since exams start next month. Also, if you read my other story 'Reset' I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while! Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out this next coming weekend.
I'm also in need of a proofreader who can help me with tenses... So if you're interested in helping, PM me!
Leave a review on your way out!