His fault…
His fault…
His fault.
It was all his fault!
It had happened too fast, Ace so used to his abilities, so confident in Luffy's crew. They were strong. Most of them were ridiculously strong.
So he didn't worry about them.
They walked right into a marine trap, but he wasn't worried.
Yeah, they were split up, just Nami with him now as they faced off against a group of the uniformed men and women. Yet still he hadn't been worried. He was confident in himself, confident in Nami, and so he gave her space to let her do his own thing.
He didn't know they were using sea stone bullets.
He didn't know that Nami would be forced to fight them alone for a short time once Ace got shot.
He hadn't been worried for himself.
In that moment, when the sea stone-laced bullet barreled towards him and tore through skin and sinew, he didn't care.
Because it wasn't his own scream that startled him. It was hers.
That shrill cry of agony that seemed to pierce through not only the still air around them, but the very core of Ace's heart as well. The scream of one who had just had her life torn from her. The scream of one whoknew they were fatally wounded.
it was that scream that tore through him, that turned ever cell of his being to ice, that shattered into crystal at the sight of her falling form.
"NAMI—"
Auburn hair stained with red.
Splattered crimson that hit his cheek.
The dull thump as she hit the cold, unforgiving concrete beneath their feet.
It was a blood bath after that, Ace not even recalling how many he tore through to get to her. He didn't hear their screams, didn't acknowledge their blood as it hit him. They blood didn't burn through him like the single droplet of Nami's upon his cheek.
Their blood was nothing when compared to the flood that was rapidly escaping from the young woman not a foot from his shaking form.
"N-Nami…?" He tripped, falling to his knees next to her form. Next to her too still form.
"…Nami-chan?!" There was a desperate edge to his voice as he called for her again.
He wasn't looking at the blood. he wasn't looking at the dark stain around her chest where the bullet had hit her. He wasn't allowing the cold hard facts hit him.
Ace was ignoring the truth as he pulled her into his lap. He was ignoring the world as he brushed a strand of hair from her cold face, tucking it behind an ear that was too cold, too dea—
No.
No!
NOOOO!
"Nami! Come on!" He shook her shoulders gently and then firmly. He pulled her close to him, wrapping bloodied arms around her as he ignored the pain in his own shoulder.
How could he focus on that pain when the pain within his chest was so much deeper, bottomless as it threatened to swallow him whole.
"P-please! You can't—You can't do this to me!" She couldn't be dead!
No!
He wouldn't accept it — couldn't accept that the vibrant young woman that had been standing at his side only a moment before, was gone.
"LUFFY! BRING CHOPPER! BRING ANYONE!"He screamed, voice strained and cracking. There had to be a way to bring her back! She couldn't be gone! He wouldn't allow it!
Blood poured over him, darker than it should have been and so thick at spots that it looked blood, an endless ebony that seemed to stare back at him, only solidifying what he had been telling himself since the second that shot reached his ears.
YOU'VE KILLED HER.
"No…"
SHE'S DEAD.
AND IT'S ALL
YOUR
FAULT
"I'm so sorry…Nami…"
.
.
.
By the time Luffy and the rest of the crew arrived, every drop of crimson had turned black.