Moonlight
A/N: I remembered Ace hadn't told Luna about his Devil Fruit power yet, so I tried to do a scene for that, sorry if it isn't the best :/ but it helps with the scene after that a little I guess. Btw thanks to the people who followed/favorited this story, I hope you like this chapter.
Chapter Three-The Water Island
After a few days of sailing we were nearing the next island, according to information we found, it was pretty much like the last island, only it could only hold one large town, rather than a few.
I stood up from my position on the deck and headed for the kitchen to make myself something to eat. I stepped in to see Ace, with his arm on fire.
"Ace? Your arm is on fire." I pointed out, trying to read his perfectly calm face, his eyes snapped up to mine, giving me a weird look.
"Oh! Did I never tell you? I ate a Devil's Fruit, the Mera Mera no Mi?" He said.
I should've figured, "Okay, well I'm going downstairs then," I said, backing out of the kitchen, he was probably busy training or something.
I walked back downstairs, momentarily forgetting my hunger. Suddenly something that had been in the back of my mind until now had resurfaced. I looked over at my duffel bag. *What had that woman put in one of the pockets?* I slapped my forehead, I can't believe I had already forgotten about that crazy person. I pulled the duffel bag onto my lap as I sat on my cot and thoroughly investigated it.
I came up with something surprising. A grey fruit that was glistening in the candlelight, and, by the way it smelled, well, not the greatest, I knew it was a Devil's Fruit. I had read about them, the book had said that they were strange colors, had patterns, and taste terrible. It even had a strange aura it seemed to emit that practically screamed that this was no normal fruit.
What confused me the most is, why had that woman, Hikari, put this in my bag? To poison me? I shook my head and ran upstairs with the fruit in one hand.
"Ace!" I called, he quickly came out of the kitchen.
"Look, I found this in my bag, what do you think I should do with it?" I walked up to him.
"Is that a Devil's Fruit?" He asked, inspecting it.
I nodded.
Suddenly, a wide grin spread on his face, "You should eat it."
I gaped at him, was he even considering the consequences? "Devil Fruit users can't swim right? What if one of us fell off the ship? And what if it's poisoned?"
"That's why we'll get some people to join us who can swim, and it probably isn't. Come on, I want to know what it does now." He replied easily.
I looked at him hesitantly, and brought the fruit closer to my face, it was sparkling even more in the sunlight.
"I swear, if this gives me some sort of useless power I'm going to kill him..." I muttered under my breath.
Doing what Ace said, I took a bite out of it and almost gagged, it was definitely the worst thing I've ever tasted. I swallowed the bite quickly as I wondered where Devil Fruits ranked on the list of worst tasting things in the world.
"What does it do?" Ace pestered.
"I don't know!" I shouted, how did he expect me to know so quickly?
"Right, I guess it takes awhile to kick in, tell me when you figure it out," Ace waved as he went back into the kitchen.
I sighed, hopefully I wouldn't regret this.
An island appeared within sight, after I sat out on the deck for an hour, I jumped up and peered at it, seeing a few tall buildings rising into the air. Hopefully we could find someone here who could swim.
"Ace, I can see the island." I said to Ace who had been sleeping on the deck.
"Wha- did you figure out what Devil Fruit you ate?" Ace replied, half awake.
"Yes," I curtly replied, "But I'm not showing you yet."
Ace sighed, I probably sounded childish, but I didn't want to show him yet, I couldn't quite, use it to it's maximum yet, I guess you would say, and it looked weird like that. I was going to practice it on the island.
We neared the island and easily found a place to dock our boat. The first thing I noticed about the island was all the water. Seriously, the streets were made out of water. Each building was practically surrounded by it's own little pond. Plus it all smelled like salt water.
We could definitely see lots of kids swimming, enjoying the cool water on a hot day, I felt a little jealous too.
Ace led the way as we walked down the side of the water street. We had no idea where we were going. As we followed the path, it led us directly to a large lake in the center of the town, but the water was kind of an ugly gray color. However, we could still see quite a few people swimming in it, but they were all teenagers or adults, no kids.
"What do you think is up with swimming here?" I asked Ace.
He shrugged, "We aren't gonna have any problems getting a swimmer to join us at least."
Right after he said that, two people stepped out of the water right in front of us. They were obviously twins.
The girl had shoulder length midnight blue hair and was wearing a black swimsuit, she had a couple piercings in each ear as well. The guy had spiky midnight blue hair and was wearing a black swimsuit also. They both grabbed a towel and dried off their hair. Their movements seemed to be very alike.
"Hello." The girl waved at us, just now seeming to notice us.
Ace waved back, "Hi, we were wondering about information of this island? We just arrived here."
The girl smiled, "Really, we hardly receive any visitors anymore."
The guy continued on from her sentence this time, "This is Sui Tengoku* island, I'm Masa, and that's my twin sister Mizuko. If you haven't noticed-"
The girl butted in, "This is an island where we specialize in swimming, but-" She lowered her voice at this but, but was interrupted by her sibling.
"We can also fight too, and we've been dying to get out of this place." Masa finished in a quiet voice.
I looked over at Ace, these people gave a lot of information to complete strangers, they seemed somewhat suspicious. He just smiled and asked if there was anywhere to eat.
I looked off into the distance, "I'm going to go somewhere real quickly, Ace." I vaguely said before walking off towards a certain abandoned building rising into the air I spotted at the edge of town.
I could hear Ace protesting behind me, but eventually went off with the twins.
I breathed in the musty air, and wiped some dust off an old windowsill. *This is the perfect place.* I thought to myself.
I was just about to practice my new power when suddenly a dark feathered bird came swooping out of the shadows and attacked me. I covered my head as it attempted to peck at me. "What's your problem?" I muttered, trying to shoo it away.
Of course something weird had to happen in this situation, the bird, from what I could now see was a Raven, started talking to me. "This is where I live, get out."
I stood still for a second, my jaw dropping, "What the hell, why're you talking."
The bird stopped attacking me as well and perched on my shoulder, "What the hell, why can you understand me."
I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, definitely not.
A few thoughts ran through my mind, *I could be hallucinating, or does this possibly have anything to do with my new ability?* I took in a deep breath, and began to transform.
The fruit I had eaten was from my guess, a Zoan type. And it was considerably hard to transform, I could only do it halfway, which is why I have to practice more.
I stretched out my arms as the molded into dark, black-feathered wings, which startled the Raven off it's perch on my shoulder. "What the- but you're a human right?!" He cried.
I looked over at him, "Do you have a name?" I asked the bird, moving my 'wings' to my sides.
"Yes, My friends call me Flash, but-"
I interrupted him there, "Alright, I'm Luna and," I lowered my voice here because while this part was a little unnecessary, I couldn't lie, "I really came up with this name on my own, but," I raised my voice again and talked a little slower, "I ate a Devil's Fruit called the Tori Tori no Mi**: Model Raven."
Ace meanwhile was sitting in a small cafe with Masa and Mizuko. He was craving a big meal after all those rationed ones on the ship, hopefully the twins wouldn't mind paying for him, he was still broke.
"So, Ace, you're aspiring to become a famous pirate or something?" Mizuko asked.
Ace nodded as various plates of food were set before them, "Yes, Luna is the only one on my crew so far," He began to eat and a thought came to mind *Though I haven't properly asked her to join my crew have I?* he mentally shook the thought off for now, "She just ate a Devil Fruit she found and won't show it to me yet, but we were looking for people who could swim and fight. I guess it's a good thing we ended up on this island, most people seem to like swimming here." Ace said.
Masa and Mizuko shared a look, "Yeah this island is full of people who dream to become professional swimmers, even though they wouldn't make money off a job like that, or really find a job like that anyways." Masa explained.
"Of course we dream of that too, but just knowing how to swim isn't very practical, which is why our father taught us how to fight, he was a marine himself, but died awhile ago..." Mizuko trailed off.
Ace studied them, "You said earlier this island didn't receive many visitors, why is that?"
Mizuko opened her mouth to answer, but Masa beat her to it, "The water is actually poisonous to anyone who hasn't lived here their whole life and gotten used to it, many people call it a cursed island and avoid it."
Ace was interested in this fact, "Do you know why it's poisonous? And can you swim in other water besides the water here?" He asked.
"We have no idea why and-"
"Yes we can." Mizuko finished.
Ace nodded again, and asked one last question he had, "What can you two fight with?"
Masa leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head, stuffed. "We fight with scythes." Was his reply.
Ace pondered their answers for a bit while he ate more, *They seem pretty strong, but then again I haven't actually seen them fight yet, or swim either, but I doubt on an island like this they'd be bad swimmers.* Ace sighed and copied Masa's movements, resting his arms behind his head, leaving Mizuko wondering if that was like a natural reaction for guys.
Finally Ace broke the silence, "Alright I want to see how you fight."
"Wait, we never said we wanted to go with yo-" Mizuko started.
Ace laughed a little, "But you implied it by saying you wanted off this island, and I can offer that to you if you just show me how you fight."
Mizuko huffed a little and crossed her arms seeing Ace's point.
"Okay, but you'll have to come back to our house with us." Mizuko complied, looking over at her brother.
Thankfully, Ace thought, the twins dropped the money for their meal on the small table and the group of three exited the cafe, Ace never having to pay a dime.
I smiled one of my few smiles to this bird who I had become acquainted with over the last hour and a half. I had told him about myself and he had told me about him, though his stories were rather dull considering the fact he was a bird, but I wasn't going to tell him that.
While we were talking, I had been practicing transforming and could feel I was almost there. Flash had also given me a few pointers about flying. Never would've thought I was going to have a raven as a mentor.
"I think I should go find Ace soon, Flash are you going to come with me?" I asked him without emotion, but a little part in me hoped he would say yes.
"Well of course, if I don't come with you, who's going to teach you how to properly fly?" He replied. This bird seemed to be good at reading the feelings I didn't show.
I stretched as I was back in human form and felt my back pop, I sighed, feeling happy with my progress. "Alright, let's go." I said as Flash perched on my shoulder.
"By the way, who's Ace?" He asked, I had neglected to tell him about Ace yet it seemed.
"Ace is my captain, I joined his pirate crew not to long ago." I said.
"You're a pirate? Awesome, I've always wanted to travel around." Flash excitedly said.
"You aren't going to say bye to your friends?" I questioned.
"No," Flash shook his head, "They weren't really my friends anyways, just birds to talk to if I was bored."
I shrugged as I exited the building, and felt a rush of exhilaration, I still wasn't used to the new heightened sight I had received upon getting my powers as a bird.
*Now then,* I thought, *Were could Ace be?*
I hummed softly as I roamed the streets, searching for Ace and the people he had gone off with, Flash still on my shoulder.
"By the way, Luna, I was wondering. What happened to your right eye?" Flash said out of the blue.
*Ah, so he noticed.* I thought.
"Well," I started, "Like you know, the villagers of the town I lived in didn't particularly like me, although I'm not sure why. So one day when my parents were out on a vacation and I was wandering through town they ganged up on me. There was one villager in particular who hated me, the mother of my best friend, who, well, died partly because of me, anyways she hated me and tried to outdo the others by cutting me with a knife. She would've killed me, but I dodged and she got my eye instead. So now I'm blind in my right eye." I finished explaining.
I still had my eye of course, so you couldn't tell I was half blind unless you noticed it was a slight shade darker than my other blue-grey eye.
Flash I could tell was a little sad at my story, but I didn't really care for pity, so I kept on with my search.
Finally I could see the fiery boy entering a small brown house with many windows. I could make out three figures through one of those windows as I walked up the front walkway and knocked on the dark wood of the door, which was opened by a small girl, no older than eight with long black hair pulled into a braid.
"Hi." She said.
"Hello, can you let me in? I'm with the guy who just entered." I told her, and she opened the door enough to let me through.
It led me to a small hallway that branched off into a living room. A set of stairs were pushed up against the wall.
I walked into the living room where Ace, Masa, and Mizuko were sitting on cozy looking couches next to an unused fireplace.
"Luna!" Ace greeted.
I nodded and sat next to him, Flash fluttered over to him to investigate him.
Ace draped an arm across my shoulders, "This is Luna, you already met her, but she's my first mate." He smiled, I tried to shift away, but his grip on me stayed firm.
Masa and Mizuko nodded and they got back to whatever business they were discussing previously.
"So if you want us to fight each other just know that we're pretty evenly matched." Mizuko warned.
"Okay, shall we go outside then?" Ace asked, standing up, pulling me with him.
"Yeah, we'll meet you out there." Masa agreed.
Once outside, Ace immediately realized I had a new companion. "Hey, where did that bird come from?" He asked.
I rolled my eyes, "His name is Flash, I met him while I was practicing something."
"What were you practicing?" Ace prodded annoyingly.
I shrugged, leaving him with many unanswered questions as the twins came out holding identical scythes, only Masa's was a deep black while Mizuko's shined white.
Still confused as to what was happening, I watched as they got into a battle stance and faced each other.
A/N: Alright, I'm off to finish my English project that I've been procrastinating on way too long. It's technically due tomorrow, haha... I just had some ideas for a new chapter that I wanted to write so I ignored the project and wrote this. I hope you like the chapter, also, wish me good luck.
*Water Heaven Island
**Bird Fruit