Summary: Kagome's been with Whitebeard's crew for two years now, how'd she get there? Oh, no! Ace is in prison! Can Kagome break him out? But Luffy's already there, will they meet? Will Ace *gulp* die? Or will he be saved? And, as always, is there something more sinister going on? Read and find out!
Pairing: Ace X Kagome
Emerald: Repeat after me: I do not own Inuyasha and/or One Piece.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and/or One Piece.
Emerald: Good Disclaimer! Who's a good Disclaimer? You are, yes you are!
**Edited on 3/13/15**
"Jiji! Don't drink so much," a young woman with long raven hair and piercing cobalt eyes scolded him.
Not many had the guts to face him, let alone scold him, yet here she was at 5' 7", glaring at him. She stood before him with her hands on her hips, wearing a black tank top that had intricate blue designs on the edges, black cargo pants that had numerous pockets, and black, steel-toed, combat boots, with blue laces. A silver charm bracelet with flecks of gold, studded with onyx and sapphire stones, circled around her left wrist. The raven hair that flowed down her back, coming to an end at her waist, was moving softly in the breeze.
"Relax Kagome, it's just a little bit o' rum," He said, taking another swig from the bottle in his hand.
She ignored him, trying to get the bottle out of his hand; sighing when he pulled it out of her reach and drank some more, "I can't keep healing you like this! Eventually, your body won't be able to take anymore. On your gravestone, you know what people will see? 'Whitebeard, The Strongest Man in the World, Defeated by a Bottle of Rum,' is that what you want?"
"I'm not gonna die so easily, Kagome," Whitebeard's voice held the utmost confidence.
The crew ignored the two's bickering, after more than two years of hearing the two go at it - Kagome trying to get Whitebeard to drink less, if not stop completely, and Whitebeard chugging down his drinks - they were used to it.
Kagome placed her hands on her hips, "The only reason you have years instead of mere months to live is because I'm healing you! Soon, the rate of deterioration will be faster than I can heal you, which is also less effective because of the devil fruits, and you will be on your deathbed, wishing you hadn't drank so much!"
Whitebeard paused seeing the tension in her body and the, more than usual, concern in her eyes, "What's wrong?"
Kagome opened her mouth to deny such a thing, but one look from him made her squash any protests. She heaved a sigh and ran a hand through her bangs, sweeping them to the side, "I have a very bad feeling. It's been weighing on my mind for a while now."
When Kagome had a bad feeling, bad things usually happened. For her bad feelings to last this long, it had to be something big.
"Oyaji, Kagome!" A blond man walked up to the pair and held out the Mizu Mizu Newspaper for them to see, stopping Whitebeard from replying.
With a wave from Whitebeard, Kagome took the paper, scanning the headlines, she let out a gasp, "and we are currently holding Portgas D. Ace, a.k.a. Fire-Fist Ace, at Impel Down…" Kagome's voice held horror as she read on, "where he will stay until his public execution, which will be a week from today."
Her eyes narrowed in anger as she read the next sentence, "We have Blackbeard to thank for bringing in Fire-Fist Ace and he has been awarded the title of Shichibukai-"
At the sound of breaking glass, the crew looked up from Kagome to their Captain; the red liquid ran down Whitebeard's hands mixing with the deep crimson of his blood as the broken glass lay at his feet, leaving a few pieces to embed in his skin. Kagome's eyes widened, seeing the enraged expression on Whitebeard's face.
"Gather all the Division Commanders, meeting in the planning room in ten," Whitebeard's voice boomed out as he stood from his chair.
That was all the commanders who were above deck needed, Kagome nodded to a crewmember, who ran below deck to get the rest of the commanders, as she followed Whitebeard to the planning room.
She grabbed a clean rag and some cleaning alcohol on the way in. She sat down on Whitebeard's right side and grabbed his hand. She caught the look he gave her but she cut off any protests with her next words, "It will do you no good if you get an infection, especially if you're about to plan something big."
Whitebeard simply nodded as he sat still and let Kagome work. Kagome swiftly pulled out the three glass fragments that had lodged into his skin; she poured some of the alcohol on to the wounds, letting it sizzle a bit, before wiping his hand with the rag. Her hands glowed green as her healing powers closed the shallow cuts.
Once she was done and the last of the commanders entered, the meeting began.
Kagome wasn't a regular division commander; she was Whitebeard's healer and given the title of Healer Commander. She was offered a position to become a division commander, but she had refused. She didn't want to be in charge of a bunch of reckless pirates. However, Whitebeard had insisted, so instead, she had become head healer, in charge of all doctors; although, she was only in charge of Whitebeard's health – and the occasional pirate that needed a more experienced touch – which wasn't hard as much as it was tedious. Considering his drinking problem, she was surprised the man had lived so long, granted he was only 72, but still.
Usually, all the division commanders wouldn't all be on the same ship, but they were going to celebrate their victory of getting an especially tricky haul of treasure in the next week, or when Ace returned, so all the division commanders had gathered together.
Coming out of her thoughts, Kagome rolled her eyes at some of the ideas that were being tossed around.
"Why not just break him out?" Her question paused all the conversations around the table and laughter broke out, "Good one, Kagz!" Izo shouted.
Kagome simply raised an eyebrow, "I wasn't joking."
Beside her, Whitebeard had a pensive expression on his face.
"It's impossible, Impel Down is the world's mightiest prison, no one has ever broken in or out, ever," Haruta said, as if the very thought of it was unthinkable.
"Shiki did," Kagome said nonchalantly.
With those two words, all conversation stopped. Everyone was thinking, considering her words.
"Yes, well he cut off his legs to escape," Blamenco said.
"Well, there would be no loss of body parts, but I could do it."
"What are you saying, Kagome? Do you have a plan?" Whitebeard rumbled, turning his head towards her.
Kagome grinned in response and held up her right hand, a small, sphere of air came out of her hand, floating just above her palm.
Before she had joined Whitebeard's crew, she had eaten a devil fruit by accident. In her defense, if it was such a valuable fruit, then the owner shouldn't have left it at the bottom of the tree, in which a hungry person could have access to it. True, it was in a box, but seriously, if her one punch broke it open, then it couldn't have been that strong of a protection.
The guy had returned to see the last of the fruit pop into her mouth before he had blown a gasket. Fortunately for her, the guy was a wimp and had run away after she had, literally, kicked his ass with a few well-placed kicks. After she had spent an afternoon meditating, she had realized that the fruit gave her certain abilities and, combined with her miko powers and combat skills, she made one formidable opponent. She later came to know that there were more of these fruits and that they were called Devil Fruits, which were categorized in to three categories, Paramecia, Zoan, and Logia. Apparently, she was a Paramecia type.
However, there were a few drawbacks. The most curious thing that she had learned was that the color of her Miko Ki had changed. From a soft pink, it was now a cerulean blue, like the light of the well that she had used to travel in time and her blue healing powers had changed to a soft green color. Another difference was that her healing powers were not as effective on devil fruit users as they usually were on humans or demons.
There were also differences between her and other devil fruit users. One thing that made her different from the other devil fruit users, was that she was able to swim in the ocean for a certain amount of time and that the sea-prism stone, while not letting her use her devil fruit abilities, didn't make her feel weak like with other users. She guessed that was because of her Miko Ki, as it could be used to heal herself.
Her miko ki circulated all throughout her body, protecting her from that which could harm her, however, using it to heal her for a long time drained her powers and she became weak in the ocean. However, similar to all the other devil fruit users, she also had her weaknesses.
"I have a plan, I can get there easily enough if you can get me within half a mile of the place, from there, I can use my Miko Ki to make a barrier that hides me from sight; I can sneak down and get Ace from where they are keeping him, after that, I'll figure something out. You'll have to come near enough to get us, as the prison is in the middle of the calm belt, and I have no intention of using the Tarai Current, so that takes out stealing a marine ship."
Whitebeard considered her words, "And if you can't get him out? Then what?"
"You could always declare war and storm the Navy HQ," Kagome replied jokingly.
Whitebeard cocked his head, "That wouldn't be a bad idea…"
Kagome's eyes widened, "No! I was only joking!" she said, cursing herself for even mentioning it, she took one look at his face and groaned, "Oh, dear Kami! You're actually considering it."
"Regardless, we need to think of a way to get you into that prison, the marines will be swarming the place and any pirate ships approaching it will be attacked no questions asked," Marco said, steering the conversation away from the topic of an all out war.
"Aren't there any prison visits allowed?" Kagome asked.
"No, only the marines are allowed and the lower ones need permission from their superiors," Vista said.
"It's not like you can just get caught, you're as infamous as Ace," Fossa sighed.
Rakuyo scoffed, "As? If anything, she's more infamous than him."
"It's not my fault, the World Government officials were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time," Kagome said innocently.
Izo snorted, "Riiight, and you had no idea what-so-ever that they would be there."
Kagome gave a beatific smile in response. She honestly hadn't known, but who was she to say anything?
A bell rang, signaling dinner was being served.
"Why don't we take a break and sleep on it?" Marco suggested, "We've been planning for quite a few hours and a little break will refresh our minds."
Kagome sighed, "As much as I don't want to, I have personally learned that rushing into things will only make it worse."
They all looked to their Captain, "Very well, go on," he waved them away. One by one, they all filed out of the room, soon only Kagome and Whitebeard were left.
"We'll get him back, don't worry," Kagome said turning in her seat to fully face him.
He gave a weary sigh, "I told that idiot to leave Blackbeard alone, but did he? No, he had to keep my honor," he grumbled.
Kagome smiled, "You know how stubborn he is, there is no use dwelling on the past, we can't change it, only move forward and try dealing with the consequences as best as we can."
"I wish you could have given some of your brains to Ace, it would've kept him out of trouble long enough for help to arrive," Whitebeard said.
Kagome laughed, "Oh, come now, he wouldn't be half as much fun with my brains. Come on, you need to eat."
"Don't forget, I need rum as well," Whitebeard said, getting out of his seat.
"Oh no, you don't! You've had enough for today! In fact, you don't get any rum until we get Ace back!" Kagome said, determination lacing her tone, "I'm going to place a barrier over the rum supply."
Whitebeard's eyes widened, horrified, "But, that could take almost a week!"
Kagome grinned, sending shivers down Whitebeard's spine, "Well, I guess you won't be having rum for a week."
It was a beautiful night; stars glittered in the cloudless sky, the moon hung over the sea in all its silver glory, and the gentle waves of the ocean lapped against the side of the ship as they sailed through. She heard footsteps coming up from behind her and she turned her head slightly to see whom it was.
"Blackbeard needs to be taken out; he'll become a problem in the future," Kagome said after a moment of silence, a slow breeze picked up her ebony tresses, making them wave cheerfully in the night.
Whitebeard sighed, "He is powerful, especially with the Yami Yami no Mi."
Kagome nodded, "True, however, he cannot win against me. My powers can negate his and I can take him out."
"Leave him be, Kagome, I do not wish for you to be taken, too."
"I let him go when he murdered Thatch, I would have gone with Ace to hunt him down, had you not forbid me and had it not been for your deteriorating health, so I stayed here and Ace went on. Now, Ace is in prison, and that bastard has become a Shichibukai," Kagome said, cobalt eyes darkening with anger, her hands clenched into fists.
"Let's make a deal," Whitebeard said; if it had been anyone else, he would have pulled rank over them, but Kagome had a special place in his heart. He considered the crew his family, which Kagome was apart of; she was his daughter, ever since that day. He was willing to compromise with her, at least in the small things.
Kagome cocked her head, "I'm listening."
"If you come across him, you can take him out, but one other person has to be with you when you battle him," at this Kagome pursed her lips, but didn't say anything, allowing him to continue, "and you cannot go looking for him, it has to be a chance encounter," Whitebeard said, noting the frown on her face as he finished.
"I don't like the last part," Kagome said, "but I'll agree to those terms."
Whitebeard sighed, Blackbeard had hit too close to the heart. Kagome and Ace may have been oblivious to it, but he had not. Shaking his head, he told Kagome to get some rest before he wandered off to his own bed.
Emerald: So… how was it? Was it good? Bad? Review and tell me!
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