H A Z I N G

Series: One Piece

Main Characters: The people you have to remember at this point are Ace, Saikoro, Tsutsu, Kaikaku, and Whitebeard. Five very distinct people…not too hard, right?

Rating: T as of yet, mostly for cussing and pillaging and violence…you know, pirate stuff.

Genre: Action/Adventure, but really a little bit of everything.

Summery: Ace is picked up by Whitebeard's crew, but it'll take even more than a Fire Fist to earn his place in the elite crew. That is if he survives the hazing.

General Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or anything associated with One Piece. Anything here you recognize as from One Piece is therefore not mine, I'm not making money off it and I don't claim to have created it.

SPOILER WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER!!!!!!

---

H A Z I N G

By LGR

(Beta-Reading by Raptor the Predator: Thank you Raptor!)

(Under-Crewman Saga: Vice-Admiral Kaizer Arc)

--Log Entry Three--

Nakama

---

Surprisingly, it only took Tsutsu about an hour to run about the town, visiting all her crewmate's favorite hangouts. Looking at the twenty people gathered in front of the Barrel Tavern, she realized she was still missing a few members, but they would show up eventually if they didn't want to be labeled deserters and executed. Most everyone knew to check in with the ship a few times each day they were at port for just that reason. So Tsutsu knew stragglers would find their way to the ship probably within a few hours or so; no problems there.

This was the main body of the crew, so they undoubtedly had enough people to storm a simple guard put on their boats. Tsutsu wasn't a strategist by any means, but it seemed to her that while they were at it, Kaizer's ship would be a nice addition to their fleet, though who was to Captain it was beyond her. They'd have to pull someone from another ship; they were short on crewmen with the needed bisection to provide ample labor for the once-naval galleon. And they'd certainly have to go on a recruiting drive or something…

But that was beside the point.

Tsutsu walked through the bar's wood-panel, swinging doors with no interference from Port Altra's infamous random-assailants. Upon examining the interior of the establishment, Tsutsu was dumbfounded to find, not Whitebeard drowning himself in rum, but a near empty bar with employees cleaning up broken furniture and pulling beaten naval men from the scene.

There was a lot of broken glass and splintered chairs, but no Captain. Not even a harassed-looking nurse.

Okay…

It didn't take a genius to figure out that: A) The Navy had been here, and B) Whitebeard had trashed them. She didn't need to ask the patrons and bartenders to tell her what had happened. Unfortunately, however, she being female and well-endowed, they did so anyways, which led to her having to introduce half the tavern to her stylishly efficient stiletto heels to impress upon those in the vicinity that no, she did not like being groped.

How could she have forgotten why she always stayed behind with the ship when they came into this town…how the hell did her fellow nurses and colleagues stand it?

Upon exciting the Tavern, she was immediately interrogated by her fellow crewman.

Why'd you come back out alone, Nurse Tsutsu? They wanted to know.

"The Captain isn't there," she told them. It really wasn't that big a deal, they'd just keep looking. Hell, he probably knew what was going on already. "We'll have to—"

Whah! The Captain ain't there? Where the hell is he?

"How should I know!" Tsutsu argued.

What are we going to do? What if they left without us!

Tsutsu nearly slapped herself in the face. Rolling her eyes, she explained, "They can't leave without us. How would they crew the ship with only a single man and seven nurses?" Sure the nurses could fight and man the ship but she didn't need to mention that. Besides, when it came down to it, you just needed more people than that to do things properly, especially if one got attacked out at sea: the more hands the better.

OH MY GOD THEY LEFT WITHOUT US?

Apparently they hadn't heard a word she'd said. She didn't quite blame Kai for hating humanity at the moment. Sighing exasperatedly, she began, "They didn't lea—"

THEY LEFT WITHOUT US!

"No one is listening to me are they?" she mumbled half-heartedly as the various members of her crew were systematically freaking-out in new and more obnoxiously annoying ways as the moments passed by.

We're gonna die! We're gonna be executed as deserters and then we're gonna dieeeee!! The crew cried in the middle of the street. It was so disturbing that no one even bothered to attack them. This time Tsutsu did smack herself (albeit lightly).

Damn, where was cold-hearted Kai to tell everyone they were dumb-asses when you needed him?

---

Kai barely dodged a pistol shot aimed at his head by jumping off the roof of the apartment complex he had been running across, down to an alleyway along the side of the large building. Running through the narrow passage as fast as he could, Kaikaku bought himself some time as Kaizer cursed at the realization that he couldn't fit through the opening that was no where near regulation width away from the adjacent business building. Dashing through the streets, nimbly evading civilians and would-be Port Altran attackers, Kai tried to put as much distance as he could between himself and his pursuer.

Damn, I hadn't known he'd kept my pistol, Kai reflected briefly, entertaining the thought that he could possibly steal it back before mentally punishing himself for the ridiculous notion. The only thing he would get if he tried to go back there was a brutal murder.

It had been a couple years since Kaikaku had been delusional enough to indulge in some fantasy of gloriously defeating his 'Father', (as far as Kai was concerned, there was no relation; he hated that bastard). As a realist and a pessimist, he didn't see any kind of situation where he would have an advantage against the man who he respected only as a skilled fighter, (and that only because the Admiral would happily kill Kai with said skills whether the pirate respected them or not). Even the sniping idea had been a long shot (bad pun): Kaizer had the eyes of a hawk.

The only thing Kai had over him was agility, and they were about equal in speed and reaction time when it came to guns, but when Kaizer pulled out the rapiers…the Admiral was in a whole other league. And as soon as Kai turned the fight to close combat, the admiral would use his sword. All the pirate could do right now was run (very fast and very far) away and hopefully lose the Officer.

And surprisingly enough, as the blue-haired pirate slid around a corner, hopped a fence, ran down a street and out the back of an abandoned building, it seemed as if he had managed to do so.

How…surprisingly lucky.

Leaning against the blind side of a dilapidated building as he kept a look out for his pursuer, Kai narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Something was obviously wrong, he was never this lucky. In fact, he was notoriously unlucky. Someone else's bad-day was his every-day. This had to be some kind of trap.

With that in mind, Kai scanned the crowded street, automatically taking in and examining the actions of those nearby. Faintly, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching from behind him, Kai tensed but then relaxed when a familiarly irritating voice said "Yo," casually as its owner approached. Even with all the noise coming from the street and the level of attention he was paying it, Ace had been very quiet, almost frightening him for a moment there.

He hated being frightened

"You idiot," he snapped frigidly, as he rotated to face the smirking, orange-hatted pirate who came up to stand before him, arms crossed behind his head casually. Kai narrowed his eyes, "I told you to escape; I haven't the time to baby-sit you at the moment…"

Maybe Ace didn't deserve such a cold greeting, but since when had Kai cared?

Oh wait, he hadn't!

Ha.

The older adolescence snuffed, taking his arms from behind his neck and crossing them in front of him. The movement seemed very awkward until Kai realized that he still had the seastone cuffs hindering his actions.

"I hardly need baby-sitting if you hadn't noticed," Ace replied with an eye-brow raised looking slightly perturbed. That was fine with Kai, he didn't give a wit if Ace was angry or not, he could be infuriated as long as he didn't cause trouble and just did as he was fucking told!

And yes, Kai was rather angry.

"It's quite fortunate that you informed me, as I certainly hadn't noticed…" he told the man, who just continued to smirk irritatingly. The expression only grew when Kai delivered a Glare of Instant Annihilation that was supposed to cause a fatality.

Sadly (in Kai's opinion), Ace didn't suddenly develop a choking fit. Nor did he suddenly sprout icicles from the glacial look he'd received…the fucker didn't even look like he'd noticed…

Whatever, Kai didn't have time for this. Just because that bastard of an Admiral had lost his trail, didn't mean he wouldn't pick it up again. And who knew what kind of trouble the crew was getting into without himself or Saikoro to make them behave properly. He needed to catch up with the Captain and find out how he wanted to proceed.

Wordlessly, Kai set out across the street, and aimed himself towards the Barrel Tavern. He was slightly disappointed when Ace followed.

"It's hardly my fault the bastard took hostages," Ace defended, his smirk turning sour. He was clearly pissed off at the Admiral's action. The whole thing was completely underhanded and the pyro-pirate was none too happy that he'd fallen into the trap.

Kai simply snuffed, not commenting any further. He would have tried to jump Kaizer before the guy even thought of doing something as extravagant as taking hostages. Not that it would have helped much in the actual defeating of said person…

"As if you could do any better…" Ace accused, but his companion didn't respond. Kai's expression was the image of ambiguous haughtiness.

The shit of it was he probably couldn't have done any better…

---

Saikoro was just biding his time.

He'd quit smoking about fifteen years ago, not because he'd necessarily wanted to, but because Whitebeard's health had begun deteriorating and the nurses he'd hired to attend him had suggested (ordered) that he stay away from second-hand smoke and stop smoking himself.

The Captain hadn't asked his Carpenter or anyone else on his immediate crew to halt their smoking activities. In fact, the Captain tended to ignore anything the nurses had to say regarding his health (which seemed rather counterintuitive, but that was just Edward's way.) Even so, Saikoro had done so anyways. To this day his hand still twitched to hold a cigarette and bring it towards his mouth. He found that with his mouth occupied, he didn't think about it as much, and had been sucking on toothpicks ever since.

The absence of his wooden-sliver (taken of course by the two Navy thugs keeping watch on either side of him) annoyed the man to no end, but that wasn't what was really on his mind at the moment.

Tsutsu's guards had limped back to the two ships commandeered by the Navy quite some time ago without her. Usually a situation like this wasn't that big of a deal. It certainly wasn't often that anyone dared to go after Whitebeard; famed Strongest Man in the World and former rival of Gol D. Roger, but it had happened once or twice that someone got it into their head they could get away with something like that. They quickly realized their mistake and paid for it, but this time was a little different. This wasn't another pirate crew with minimal men, experience and resources and an excess of audacity and stupidity. This was a high-ranking Admiral of the Navy, and for all the Navy's faults, a Vice-Admiral in their sea-fairing military was no push over and could even provide Whitebeard a decent fight.

The nurse was a good fighter, and she could think straight under pressure, but if she met up with the Admiral somewhere out there in that town, Tsutsu would be a goner. No one in their current line-up could take Vice-Admiral Kaizer on their own—Ace's prowess or lack thereof on the battlefield was yet to be proven. They'd had a run in with the man a couple times in the past.

The last time, Whitebeard's flagship had been sailing with a companion ship from his fleet whose captain had been killed in action. Their total crew with both ships numbered about forty-five. Saikoro had been watching over the second ship while it sailed with the Flagship until the man sent for to replace the fallen leader had arrived.

This was of course when a fleet of seven navy Galleons led by at-that-time-Commodore Kaizer attacked from behind a fogbank. Everything was so obscured one couldn't see the water keeping the boat afloat from the deck, making the battle more than difficult. Escape had been nearly impossible under the circumstances. The flagship had gotten away, even managing to destroy five of the seven enemy vessels with their canons and by means of boarding the other Galleons and setting them aflame. However, the second ship wasn't so lucky. It was surrounded and boarded; only three people off that Boat survived, including himself. One was assimilated into another crew, but one stayed on.

Oh, and damn…he almost forgot about Kai.

He was probably the person who was in the most danger right now. The kid had lived in boats his entire life and knew more about ships and sailing them in bad weather than a man three times his age. He could tell that a storm was on its way even when the sun burned bright and clear overhead, and he'd be right. Because of this, people tended to listen to him when he chose to say something, although sometimes getting the attention required a gun to the would-be listeners head. No one had known the pistol-wielding blue-haired Boatswain had any relation to the Commodore attacking them, but that was soon revealed when the Commodore personally boarded the second ship with the self-proclaimed mission of killing the boy.

It was the thickest fog anyone had ever seen. Both the ocean and the wind were strangely still, only the faint lapping of water on the boat could be heard as they knew at least one ship was on their tail. In the dead quiet, even the smallest sounds could give away your position to the enemy. A slightly darker patch of mist suddenly loomed beside them and everyone knew they were screwed. The ship had no artillery to speak of; all their canons had been damaged in the same battle that had taken away their captain and a number of other crewman.

A grapple thudded onto the deck, and a sailor raced to cut the rope. They did the same to another grapple, and watched quizzically as quite a few fell short and hit the hull. For some reason, they didn't seem to be firing on them, and Saikoro knew now that it was because Kaizer had wanted to be sure a certain someone died by his hands.

The creek of someone swinging towards the ship on a rope was faintly heard, and before anyone knew what was going on, a flash of silver and the distinct sound of a rapier drawn and then swung, echoed in the near silence of the misty dusk. A moment passed before the blood flowed, but those still living suddenly became aware that half the crew had been gutted as their wounds suddenly exploded open in a spray of red.

Everyone was surprised and probably frightened, but they were seasoned pirates, and they'd drawn blood and seen it drawn enough that they managed to keep their heads. Upon noticing the Naval Officer with his back towards them, standing on the upper deck of the ship in front of the helm, the crewmen were immediately on their guards, ready to receive an attack, but not exactly leaping at the chance to face the officer. (Not that he'd blamed them.)

At the time, it had been quite unexpected that the one to purposefully point his pistol straight at the man's back and fire was the young boatswain, although now Saikoro knew it was the only way the event could have played out. Kaikaku and Kaizer absolutely hated each other to a degree that even most pirates couldn't understand. Kai had remarked once that not even killing the Naval Officer could ever be enough. Enough for what, he'd never been able to get out of the kid.

Secretive Bastard.

Over the years working on Whitebeard's ship, Saikoro had seen a lot of fighters in action, (he'd even killed a couple of them), two of the people who he remembered the best, were the Greatest Swordsman in the World and Warlord of the Sea, Dracule Mihawk and his former-rival Red-haired Shanks. Pirates didn't often congregate or socialize with one another—actually they tended to be fighting one another when they met up at all—but on one occasion he'd been witness to a practice match between Mihawk, and the one armed Shanks. Even with only his left arm, Red Shanks was incredible, and Mihawk easily matched him.

This man had incredible skills on par with that match he'd witnessed between Mihawk and Red Shanks, although Mihawk had been barely trying and Shanks was one-handed and not using his dominant limb, and Kaizer was obviously trying his very best to slice his son to shreds.

It had been impressive to see someone reflect a bullet with the blade of their sword, seemingly disappear and suddenly reappear somewhere else. It had also been cool to see someone manage to dodge seven successive swings of a sword lashing out at blinding speeds, duck, and then do a move that could only be described as a cart-wheel-kick, and then run straight up the ship's mast. Not using the ladder. Or any hands, just vertically dashing up the mast in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew had been either trying to intervene or slicing/being-sliced down by the navy swinging onto the lower deck by means of ropes and more grapples. About five of the men tried to get the jump on Kaizer, but were immediately cut down by an almost elegant series of slashes.

There were less than ten pirates left on the ship, and the navy outnumbered them by far, but no one was giving up at this point. Kai was aiming at Kaizer from the crow's nest. The Officer merely deflected the bullets, but he couldn't attack. More and more men on both sides were killed, but neither Kaizer nor Kai seemed to be paying attention to anyone else—that was until, Kaizer got pissed and killed off one of his own, took the fallen naval man's rifle and fired it on the blue-haired kid up in the air.

The shot had gone wild, however, as a canon ball splintered through the ship's mast. Flying slivers of wood flew through the air like daggers and the solid oak pole smashed onto the lower deck, snapping ropes and rigging. The Flagship had erupted from the fog, to Saikoro's utter relief, and as another canon ball shattered the railings and skidded across the deck taking out a number of navy militia, he grabbed the only other person left alive and bodily tossed him at the ship. He'd been put temporarily in charge by Whitebeard with the mission to take care of the crew, and his word dictated that he try to save anyone still alive.

Kai and Kaizer were still going at it, however Kaizer had ditched the rifle and redrawn his rapier, and Kai seemed to be missing his pistol and had only a knife in his left hand. Another canon ball slammed low through the deck and the ship quickly began to take on water. The planks shook so much from the blow that everyone fell to the floor. In all the ruckus, Saikoro had scrambled over the debris and aimed his axe haft at the Officer's neck. At any other time, it might have been cool to see someone dodge an axe swing, but when all Saikoro caught was the edge of the man's sleeve, the only thing that had kept him alive was a kick to the officer's face by Kai that separated the man from his coat.

Thanking whatever god that had put this into play so they could get the hell out of there, Saikoro grabbed Kai (who was at the time was failing to pry the axe from the piece of the mast it had been imbedded in—probably to use it as a weapon against Kaizer), and tossed him at the ship. It wasn't until later that he realized, by ripping the kid away from the Axe, the coat had ripped along with him.

Saikoro had been thinking that even with that bit of good fortune, they were utterly screwed. The ship was too far away, they were going to fall into the ocean and be left behind or drowned. Or float aimless on a piece of debris until they starved to death, or got picked up by the navy and executed.

Luckily his predictions were wrong; he hadn't factored in the fact that Kai seemed to have some sort of affinity with vertical surfaces, or the fact that the spry Boatswain was much lighter than your average crewman. So when he blindly threw him at the boat, he caught onto some decorative railing, and even managed to grab onto Saikoro when he risked it all and jumped. The crew cheered and sailed away as their other boat sank. It might have been sadder if he'd actually known anyone on that crew. He hadn't, so he hadn't much cared. Frankly, he was more disappointed that they'd had to fire on their own ship and commit her to a watery grave. It really had been a pretty nice boat.

Saikoro still remembered when they'd been pulled back on deck. That was probably the only time someone had tried to kill him for saving their life. Kai was backwards like that. The really scary thing was that he'd actually apologized later. The only other time Saikoro had ever heard him apologize had been to Waku, and the conversation had gone something like this:

Waku: "I'm sorry I'm such a screw-up."

Kai: "And I'm sorry you're such an incompetent moron."

Very heartfelt. You could tell he was really hurting inside.

Not.

A few members of the crew were genuinely afraid of him, which was really funny because most of those people were a foot taller than him and weighed double what he did not to mention were about twice his age or older.

Eh, but he could run, and they were in a town, not a ship. Over the last couple years they'd pummeled a bit of sense into him and he knew he couldn't beat the Admiral alone. He'd know to make a break for it…hopefully.

And Ace? Portgas D. Ace. He was a descendant of Gol D. Roger, the carpenter-pirate was positive. No doubt Whitebeard had brought him along for precisely that reason. A lot of potential in that blood and the guy had easily fit into the crew once it had been decided. He'd managed to elude Kaizer out at sea, and then steal one of his ships. He'd be fine too, right?

Saikoro sighed, and one of his guards clapped him hard on the back with his rifle butt.

After exchanging glares with the hard-faced naval man, he went back to staring into space and pondering the meaning of the Universe. Or, you know, whatever…

…Damn, when the hell was the Captain going to get there?

---

Getting the crew under control had seemed an impossible task, at first. But it was amazing what a single phrase would do. What exactly that phrase was, she didn't want to disclose, but it had worked. Arriving at the dock, she'd let someone else take over the planning. Everyone was assigned a place, and as soon as a signal was given, they would all attack.

Crouching behind a building corner, she and two other pirates waited impatiently for the crewmember to signal that they could reveal themselves. Although her specialty was medicine, she was pretty sure that this elaborate scheme to get the jump on only four guys was a little overboard considering they vastly outnumbered them.

And let's be honest, they were the NAVY.

Why had she let Waku make the plan again? She didn't really know.

This being the case, she wasn't disappointed when the plan was blown to smithereens by Captain Whitebeard stepping foot on the dock wearing a grin that showed way too many teeth, closely followed by six nurses.

The two Naval men standing in front of the two ships held their Rifles at their sides. As the giant man approached, one of the men stared for a moment, noting both the man's stature and the fact that he was being attended by a harem of young women. Clueing in, he immediately began to shake nervously as he aimed a wavering rifle at the Pirate. The other man seemed to be totally oblivious to these facts, and aimed his rifle at Captain Whitebeard.

"Halt! This is a secure area! Please vacate the premises immediately per order of the World Government!" the stupid rifleman called. When Whitebeard continued to approach, only grinning wider, the naval man looked frustrated and repeated himself.

When Whitebeard was only a yard away, the second naval man threw his rifle down and ran. The other guy was confused by his partner's actions but seemed to figure it out when the giant man seized the rifle from his hands, and snapped it over his knee. The sailor stared at it for a moment until a Nurse pulled out a collapsible staff, and smacked him into unconsciousness.

Whitebeard smirked, "So this is the strength of the Navy? Aye, what a joke! And here I'd been all worked up, thinking you'd all be a problem…"

---

Ace wasn't quite sure what his opinion of this person he was following was.

The exchange just now was the closest thing they'd had to a conversation since they'd met, (If you could call it meeting; it was more like Kai insulted him and Ace got angry and joined the crew out of spite,) and the kid didn't seem to be warming up to him, even after helping him escape from Kaizer. The way things had been going, Ace might have been able escape on his own, but Kai's actions had still been nobler than Ace had learned to expect from people. It was something to think about.

"Where are we going?" Ace wanted to know after three minutes of meandering through the streets.

To avoid an arctic glower like the one he'd received earlier (yes, he had felt that, he had nearly been frostbitten, thank you very much), he tried to pitch his question as earnestly as possible. Kai seemed to know what he was doing, but that didn't mean Ace trusted him not to lead them into some kind of trouble.

The pair had been attacked already in that short period of time, and Ace quickly learned that Kai wasn't the type to suffer fools lightly: the assailant would have at least gotten away with most of his teeth and bones intact if he'd went after Ace instead.

After scrutinizing his style, Ace could tell that Kai wasn't nearly as strong as himself physically, but he knew where his hits would cause the most damage and took full advantage that. He also didn't like to admit it, but the blue-haired pirate was possibly faster than him (just by a little bit…) and maybe his little brother Luffy could slingshot himself onto a roof faster, but Ace could not scale a building that quickly no matter the circumstances.

Sigh…the blue-haired guy really should have answered the question by now if he were going to…

"Could. You. Tell. Me. Where. We. Are. Go-ing?" Ace enunciated.

Still no answer. There was no way that he hadn't heard Ace's Question, he was deliberately choosing not to respond.

"Pleeeasies?" Ace begged, lower-lip thrust out as he used his brother's: Don't-break-my-poor-lil'-heart technique. The reaction was even better than he expected.

Stop walking.

Turn to face Ace.

Silent stare.

Blink…Blink…

Respond: "That was horrible. Don't. Do. That. Again."

The orange-loving pirate chuckled, "You still haven't told me where we are going…" he trailed off as Kai interrupted, grudgingly saying: "To regroup."

They still hadn't begun walking again, and Ace smiled jovially as he asked, "Where at?"

"The Barrel Tavern," Kai answered his eyes narrowed and his voice audibly grating.

"Now, was that so hard?" Ace teased as he flashed a bright smile

"Hn…" Glare of Eternal Darkness.

Ace laughed and they went back to ambling down the street—or Ace ambled, Kai was a couple inches shorter than him, but still managed to stalk (hunch-walk? menacingly-stoop-and-glare-trot?) quickly enough that Ace had to step up his pace, now walking at his fellow pirate's side as opposed to behind him.

The dark-haired pirate thought it was probably his way of sulking. Ha.

Silence.

Smiling pleasantly, Ace cheerily asked "So what happened to your Rifle?" interrupting the quiet between them after noticing the weapon's absence.

Kai gave him a weird look out of the corner of his eye and shrugged and muttered something almost inaudible. Maybe he thought he'd talked too much today or something? What Ace could make out indicated that the blue-haired pirate had lost the weapon, and although Ace had no doubt that the statement was entirely correct, he was also equally certain it left out a great deal.

"Lost it? Damn, how did that happen?" Ace chuckled, "Luckily Kaizer isn't around right now or we'd be screwed!"

"Hn…"

"What is 'hn'? Is it like an agreement, or…?"

"Hn…"

"…That was really childish, you know?"

"I'm sorry, but is there a reason you keep talking? Shut up."

"Just trying to be friendly—"

"Now is not the time to 'be friendly'."

"Now is the perfect time to be friendly," Ace contradicted with a toothy grin, "In case you hadn't noticed I can't use my powers right now and there's a Vice-Admiral of the World Government breathing down my neck; I need all the friends I can get!"

"You are looking in the wrong place. And in case you hadn't noticed, the person you're talking about has been after me far longer than he's been after you."

"See? All the more reason to be friends. Not to mention that if you're still alive then he can't be all that unbeatable."

"What is wrong with your brain…"

Things were silent for a moment, then Ace said, "Me and my little brother Luffy (I have a little brother named Luffy by the way)…we were orphans…"

"I don't—"

"Care? Well, I don't care that you don't care. Just shut up and listen for a minute."

"…"

"Well, our Mother died when we were very young and we don't know who our Father is so we lived with our Grandfather. He was a Vice-Admiral too, you know, Monkey D. Garp!" Ace announced proudly.

"Moneky D. Garp? The Vice-Admiral who nearly caught Gol D. Roger?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Anyways, for most of our younger years, we were on our own. Grandfather went out to sea a lot and we had to take care of ourselves. I dunno why you hate your Dad," ("Refer to him as that again and I'll kill you…"), "But Grandpa-Garp wasn't a bad guy, he was just busy.

"Anyways, He wanted us to be strong, so when he was home he would put us into all kinds of perilous situations, throwing us off of cliffs, dropping us off into unknown territory, making us fight against rabid animals..."

"He sounds insane…"

"Probably, but the point is that when I was a kid, I didn't have many friends. And I had to learn to pick myself up without anyone around, and I've found that that just plain sucks, okay? Independence and strength is good and all, but having someone at your back incase a rabid wolf jumps you out of nowhere is almost as important.

Ace smiled at him, "So you see, having and making friends is important. I'm sure you've had people bail you out before, what with being part of a crew and all, I'm sure you've depended on someone or been depended on yourself. So do I make more sense to you now?"

"Not particularly…"

"With a sour look like that I bet you never had any friends."

Kai's eyes narrowed in a way that was absolutely menacing, "That's none of your god damn business," he growled and for a moment Ace actual feared for his life.

Ace easily rebounded, however. "Hit a sore spot, huh?" he goaded and almost regretted it when Kai aimed a punch straight for his face. Key word there being 'almost'. Although it was close, Ace managed to dodge the blow. He was only a little frustrated when the kick he aimed at his companion-turned-opponent's ankle that was supposed to knock him to the ground, didn't even connect because the pirate had already used his momentum to cartwheel out of the way. Those walking by didn't bother to stop and look; they were too used to fights to really care about one as tame as this.

The two faced each other unmoving.

"What…do you fucking want from me…" the blue-haired pirate demanded to know.

"I want to know why you're such a dick," Ace answered seriously, "And if that has anything to do with Kaizer."

"What do you care about it?" he glowered even more intensely.

"Lots of reasons," the pyro-pirate responded, "Mostly because I'm tired of your shitty attitude and if killing this guy is going to fix it we might as well do it right now. And besides, in case you didn't notice we're in the same crew now, we're nakama." He pointed a thumb behind them to indicate that he had every intention of just running back for the sake of a friendship that Kai knew didn't exist.

Kaikaku gave Ace a confused look.

"What?" Ace wondered.

He shook his head exasperatingly, "You are such a moron…" he sighed.

Ace frowned, but didn't say anything. It just wasn't worth it anymore. Man, Saikoro was right when he said Kai didn't talk unless he was insulting you. He forgot to mention the Icy-glares of death, though…

They went on their way again, neither speaking to the other, but for some reason the atmosphere was significantly less hostile. Ace didn't really understand why.

Kai suddenly stopped in front of a tavern and it took a second for him to realize why: they'd reached their destination (this kid really needed to talk more…). A beat-up sign hung above the door revealing its name to be The Barrel. Every window in the establishment was broken and inside, people were trying to clean up splinters of wood and broken glass with brooms and dustpans around the men lying on the ground.

"Where's the crew?" Ace wondered confusedly. Didn't Kai say they were supposed to be here? Ace didn't recognize any of the people around…Oh wow, those guys lying on the ground were Navy sailors. What hap…happened…here…

Kai was moving again, and Ace blinked his eyes and tried to follow him, "Hey, wha…what's go…go…going on…go where…going…go…"

"Owe! Fuck!" Ace snapped up, grabbing his shoulder. He was on the ground and he didn't remember how he'd gotten there. Putting two and two together, he realized he must have fallen asleep again. That was strange, it didn't usually happen while standing up. That was odd.

And gahh, and his arm throbbed what the heck?

"What the hell!" Blinking and examining his shoulder, he turned accusatorily to a rather blurry Kai standing over him, "Did you just…bite me?" he asked astonished.

The blue haired teen raised his eyebrow, giving the impression that he thought Ace was off his rocker.

Trying to hold onto his left shoulder with his right hand which was shackled to his left was difficult, but he managed it, "Dude, you frickin' bit my arm," Ace said after examining his shoulder, "I can see the teeth marks…"

Kai shook his head wearily, "What the hell are you babbling about…"

"Whatever…how long was I ou-out…how long…long was…I…wa-I…ou…"

"Gah! Stop shaking me!" Ace yelled.

Kai did, and was now looking down at Ace, his head tilted quizzically, "You really are a narcoleptic. It's quite bizarre to witness…"

Ace huffed, "What, you thought I was lying? Dude, I fell asleep while we were on the ship!" He tried to sit up and failed, sinking back down to the ground. He felt so weak. That didn't usually happen…

"Tch, when?" Kai snuffed cynically.

"When everyone was telling me why the ships in Whitebeard's fleet were away from the flagship; I don't remember a wit of it."

"Why aren't you getting up?"

"DON'T JUST CHANGE THE SUBJECT!" Ace exploded.

"Stop drawing attention to yourself!" Kai hissed back, his eyes shifting suspiciously at the people who were now looking at them, "Why aren't you getting up, come on. When the Vice-Admiral gets here every one of these people will be able to describe us."

Ace growled before answering the question. "I dunno, I'm just really tired right now, help me up."

His companion grumbled but did as requested of him, grabbing Ace under the shoulder, trying to hall him up, just to fall back down.

"Uuh, you're heavy. Stop going limp…" Kai complained.

The pirate blinked drowsily, "I'm sorry, I just…" Ace yawned.

Kai suddenly narrowed his eyes at Ace's wrists, "…the cuffs," he murmured.

Ace blinked, "Huh?"

"It must be the seastone," he revealed, "It's something of a miracle you've been able to run around almost normally with those touching you. They can drain physical strength and energy, not simply devil fruit powers. We need to get them off of you or we're fucked…"

"So, my nakama speech got to you after all?" Ace smirked from his spot on the ground, fighting to keep his drowsy eyes from closing.

"Not really," Kai responded, "It's just Whitebeard's policy. And I put so much effort into getting you free, I'd hate for it to be all for nothing…"

Ace rolled his eyes, "Heh, I was free long before you came by."

The blue-haired pirate gave him a sarcastic, half-lidded expression, "If by 'free' you mean fleeing for your life with Kaizer two feet behind you, than alright you were 'free'."

Oh, this was war.

"Fine. But you say we're free now, but aren't we still being pursued?"

Oh yeah, Ace had him now…

"That's an assumption," Kai snuffed turning his head in indignation, "You can't prove anything."

Oh, come on!

"But aren't we acting on that assumption?" Ace prodded.

"Doesn't change the fact that it's an assumption."

"…you're a jerk."

"I know."

"Whatever, just get these off of me. Cut them or something." Ace demanded, shoving the chains in his companion's face.

Kai snuffed, "Seastone is only able to be cut using itself…"

"I don't care how you do it, just get it off!"

"Hn…" Kai tilted his head quizzically, "I suppose we could amputate your hands…"

Ace's eyes grew large and fearful, "…please tell me you're joking."

Gold eyes glimmered ominously, "Oh, I never joke."

He extricated what looked to be a switchblade, with an absolutely sadistic grin spreading across his face. If Kai ever decided he wanted to be a bad guy, he had all the requirements down. Evil father, evil glare, evil menacing grin…

Twitch. Twitch. Whimper.

Queue shine off metal lock picks springing out from the handle.

"—however, I figured that you would feel that way so I think in this case we will simply pick the lock..." He finished his expression and voice now completely neutral.

"DON'T EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

Kia shrugged and proceeded to pick the lock on Ace's manacles.