Note: I've mentioned this before, but this whole story was greatly inspired by the song "When You Were Young" by the Killers, and that will never be clearer than in this chapter. Listen to it if you like, and you'll definitely understand. That song really gets to me, and so does this chapter.
Chapter Seven: Kuina and Ace
Several months had passed since the massive battle that had quickly become famous, and things had changed quite a bit aboard the Moby Dick, at least for Kuina. For one, it had made her famous, not only by her title, as it was before, but now by name and face. In terms of notoriety, she was now on par with the most known members of Whitebeard's pirate crew, and her name was fresh on everyone's lips. As pirates go, more fame means a higher bounty, and Kuina's saw her jump from the measly 30 million had been before, all the way up to 250 million. Over a 200 million beri increase, all at once. A spike that significant was practically unheard of, as usually bounties climb bit by bit after each new crime. This was for a few reasons, the first being she had gone from being a shadowy assassin that only killed other criminals, to revealing herself as a member of one of the most, if not the most, well-known, feared pirate crews in the Grand Line. The strange change in profession had criminals and world government officials familiar with her exploits scratching their heads.
The second reason was due to the details of her abilities finally coming to light, and not just because of how absurdly powerful an opponent she would be, although that was certainly part of it. More than anything else, however, it was the nature of her abilities that had turned her into such a massive public enemy of the World Government. Rokushiki was supposed to be a top secret technique, and most people, even criminals and pirates, had never even heard of it, only the strongest or most well informed, and even they didn't know the techniques themselves. Only elite agents and the top of the top Marines were supposed to be familiar with them, but now someone outside the World Government, and a pirate no less, was using these abilities against them. Something like that couldn't be tolerated, and as a result Kuina had become a priority for either capture or elimination. Her mere existence was seen as an embarrassment, and the World Government wanted her removed immediately.
Unfortunately for them, she was a member of the Whitebeards now, and no bounty hunter alive was stupid enough to make a move on her while she was on the Moby Dick. It would mean taking on the entire crew, and some of the strongest people alive were on that ship and with even higher bounties than Kuina. Even if they managed to somehow kill or capture her while she was ashore and alone, they would have to deal with the massive retaliation that would undoubtedly follow, so it simply wasn't worth it. The World Government would either have to raise her bounty to such an absurd level that someone would be willing to take such an insane risk, or deal with the threat in a more direct, creative fashion.
The other reason Kuina's life had changed was because, against all odds and previous hostilities, Ace and Kuina had gone from bitter enemies to being on the verge of becoming friends. They had both impressed the other during their duel, and Kuina realized how much he reminded her of Zoro, at least at first. He too had at first earned dislike from her due to his rude, arrogant, and stubborn nature, although Kuina herself was at least two of those things. After Ace eventually accepted his place in Whitebeard's crew, he began to reveal his true personality, which was much more respectful than he at first made himself out to be. In truth, he was actually quite the gentleman, and a very kind individual. This shift in attitude admittedly impressed Kuina, but as stubborn as she was, she still hadn't entirely forgiven him. It wasn't just that though, that had changed Kuina's perspective of Ace. Shortly after the battle and Kuina's duel with Doma, Marco finally got around to telling her the truth about Ace, as Whitebeard had instructed. Whitebeard thought that this would help her better understand him, and find common ground with him, and he was right. For so much of his life, Ace had been ashamed of who he was, and Kuina knew that feeling all too well.
The truth was before she met Jakon, Kuina was ashamed of being a girl. Boys were supposed to be one way, girls the other, and Kuina had never fit into that. She hated being a girl. She hated the way people looked at her because of it. She would dress like a boy, act like a boy, and always wore her hair short. She acted twice as tough as the boys just to make up for it, but it was never enough. She was looked down upon and underestimated her whole life, even as a prodigy. The belief she would hit her ability ceiling as a female was always expected. A great anger, a deep resentment grew within her, not only at the world for treating her like a lesser, but at herself just for being a girl. It was hardly her fault, being born a girl, but she hated herself for it anyway. It wasn't until she met Romanov, when she learned not only how to remove her feminine features, but to use them to her advantage did she finally embrace her gender. She was still something of a tomboy, she would never be very feminine, it just wasn't in her nature, but she no longer felt ashamed to be a woman.
Like Ace, she too eventually learned to accept herself for what she was, and was all the happier for it. Marco made sure Kuina understood how sensitive a secret this was, as only a few people on the whole ship knew the truth about Ace. Kuina couldn't even talk to Ace about it, because he didn't know that she knew, and she was forbidden from mentioning it to him. Whether Kuina acknowledged it or not, her and Ace were a strange pair of parallels, and not only because of their own identities, but because they both shared a similar influence in their lives. Two stubborn boys who changed them forever and helped give them purpose.
The Moby Dick had been docked for quite some time in one of the many port cities in the Grand Line, and they were about to cast off. That is, until a discovery was made. Ace was missing, and they couldn't very well leave without him. Now there were Whitebeard pirates all over the city looking for Ace, and Kuina was one of them. Kuina hoped Ace didn't decide to desert the crew, as she was only just starting to warm up to him, and an act as dishonorable as abandoning his comrades would just reinforce her previous, unfavorable opinion of him. Although, she had done her own fair share of leaving people. Also, not that she'd ever admit it, but she'd miss Ace if he left. She had grown attached to his antics, similarly as she did to Zoro's when she was young. When she spotted Ace on the street walking in her direction, she was relieved, but also understandably annoyed. He had kept them waiting and there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. As soon as Ace saw her face, he knew he was in trouble.
"Hey!" Kuina shouted, accosting him. "You know half the crew is wandering around the city trying to find you? Where the hell have you been?"
"Relax lady, I just lost track of time, and I got a little lost. Give me a break, everything in this city looks the same," Ace admitted, folding his arms behind his head.
"You know if you were just a normal member of the crew we would have left without you!"
"I don't think Whitebeard would do that to anyone in his crew," Ace said back, considering he considered them all his family.
Ace was probably right, Whitebeard wasn't like most captains, but that wasn't the point.
"It doesn't matter, by being late you're wasting everyone's time!"
Ace scowled, sick of being berated by Kuina. It was how their relationship started, and although it had improved, Kuina was still pretty hard on him.
"Of all the people who had to find me it had to be you. It was an accident. You always get so worked up over everything," Ace said, looking away from her to avoid her harsh stare.
And that's when he saw it. On the bulletin board on the side of the street. A familiar face on the new wanted posters that were just put up. A truly unmistakable face.
"Hey! No way!" Ace suddenly exclaimed, turning and dashing towards the board.
Kuina watched him go, feeling totally ignored. She looked at him disbelievingly. Had he really just took off while they were talking? And after already wasting so much time? Her eyes went from wide to very, very narrow. Before she was irritated, but now she was just plain mad. Now he was just being obnoxious.
"HEY!" she yelled, going after him.
She joined him at the bounty board, to find him for totally ecstatic for some reason. He was looking intently at a particular poster. It certainly wasn't the amount of money that had caught his eye, for the bounty was just a measly 30 million beri. She figured he had to know the person. The poster read "Monkey D. Luffy." Kuina had never heard of him, but that wasn't surprising seeing that the bounty was so small. In the New World, 30 million was chump change, but these posters got shipped and distributed everywhere in the world.
"Ace?" Kuina asked, now more curious than angry.
"This is my brother!" Ace said to her, a huge smile on his face.
"Your brother?" Kuina raised an eyebrow, thinking that would mean Gold Roger had more than one child, which seemed very unlikely.
"Well, not by blood, but we grew up together. We promised that we would both become great pirates when we were kids! I left a couple years before him, but it looks like he finally made it!"
"I see. A promise huh?" Kuina said, being reminded of her own.
"I'm taking this with me!" Ace said, tearing down the poster.
Now she was thinking about Zoro again. She wished she left him on good terms like Ace apparently did with his brother. If Ace and his brother reunited, she imagined it'd be a magical, joyful moment. If she ever ran into Zoro, well, she didn't want to think about how he'd react. She wanted badly to see him again, but at the same time, the last thing she wanted to do was face him. She often wondered if she should have told Zoro about her plan, but ultimately chose not to for fear of him coming after her. He was stubborn and determined like that, and Kuina knew he wouldn't understand. To him, he would have seen it as her abandoning him, but that just wasn't true. Kuina had to take her own path, make her own way in life. She couldn't take the risk of him coming after her, and she knew he wouldn't understand, so she decided not to tell him. It was a hard choice, but one she had to live with. If they met again, would he be mad? Or would he just be glad she's alive? Kuina was nervous just thinking about it. She wondered what had become of Zoro. Was he still living by the promise they had made to each other, even though he thought she was dead? Was he still at the village? Or had he too left to find his own way? She would soon have her own answer.
Not a second later a man's arm thrust forward beside her, slamming another poster onto the board. Kuina jumped, whipping around to see the man nail the poster up with a sharp strike of his hammer. Whether or not he just didn't recognize the two wanted pirates standing before him or just didn't care was on Kuina's mind as he proceeded to then walk away without saying a word. Out of curiosity, she looked to the poster that the man had pinned up. At first the face didn't register to her, like something wasn't quite clicking in her brain. Then she read his name.
"Pirate Hunter" Roronoa Zoro.
Kuina felt her heart leap, sink, turn and twist all at the same time. She just stood in place, wide-eyed and silent, gaping at her old friend's face. The last time she saw him he couldn't have been more than ten or eleven. He was always so juvenile. Such a kid. To see him now, fully grown. It was surreal.
"Kuina?" Ace asked, noticing her distraught state. "You okay?"
Kuina didn't even hear him. An alarming thought ran across her mind. If she was seeing his bounty poster here, it was just as likely he had seen hers wherever he was. He could have just thought it was some crazy coincidence, but for there to be another swordswoman named Kuina that looked exactly like his childhood friend in the world? What were the chances of that? No, Zoro wasn't stupid. Stubborn and a bit thick-headed, but not stupid. Kuina was one of the most wanted pirates in the world now. If Zoro was a pirate now too, there was no way he hadn't seen her poster, which meant he already knew she was alive. This proved it. They were destined to meet again. But when? It was so exciting, but absolutely terrifying as well.
"Kuina!" Ace said more sharply this time, giving her a small shove.
"Huh?" Kuina spun around to him, totally out of sorts.
"The hell is wrong with you? You look like you saw a ghost."
Kuina stared at him blankly for a moment before turning back to the poster.
"This man, he's . . . I know this man," she barely got out. "He was, well, I guess he was my best friend when I was a girl. Never really thought about it at the time, but he was also my rival. We . . . we both promised each other one of us would become the world's greatest swordsman. He gave me a reason to keep going when I was about to quit," Kuina confessed, feeling like her chest was on fire.
"Seriously? So he's like your brother then?"
"I never thought about it like that, but I guess."
"So why are you so doom and gloom? You should be happy! He made it, you're gonna see him again someday."
"Because I ran away. I abandoned him. Without saying goodbye."
Ace's jubilant face changed to look more like his friend's. Kuina was a lot of annoying things. Arrogant, stuck up, and a little cold, but she wasn't cruel. He couldn't imagine her betraying her best friend like that.
"Why?" Ace asked.
"It seemed like the right thing at the time. Things were complicated. I couldn't stay, but he couldn't come with me."
"Oh, well, you know I also had to leave my brother," Ace said, trying to be empathetic. "It was tough, but I was old enough and he wasn't. Sometimes, you gotta do hard things."
"Yeah, but I don't know if I did it the right way. Ever since then I wondered if I made the right choice. It's kept me up nights. It still does. I don't want him to see me again and think I'm a coward. That I'm a liar."
"Why'd you leave?"
Kuina grew angry just thinking about the answer to that question. She clenched her fists so tight they cracked. So much resentment, just for one person. One of the things that kept her going the most was the thought of proving him wrong. She lived to spite him. Part of her still loved him, but many more hated him.
"My father," she said, almost whispering.
"Jakon?" asked Ace.
"No, my real father. Your father is supposed to believe in you, to support you. He did the opposite. He tried to stop me. To protect me, but he was a fool. If I stayed there . . . I can't even imagine it," Kuina said, shaking her head in frustration.
Kuina looked like a mental train wreck. Ace had to say something to her. As far as having a hard early life goes, Ace could definitely relate.
"Listen, so your father wasn't great. I didn't even have a father at all. He's dead, I never got to know him," said Ace. "No mother either. She died giving birth to me."
Kuina already knew that, but to hear Ace say it himself was something else. Kuina hadn't thought about her own mother in years, not that there was much to think about. She had never met her. Yet another thing in common she shared with Ace.
"Mine too," Kuina said softly.
Ace reached forward, tearing the poster off the board and handing it to her.
"Take it," he said. "Use it to remind yourself you'll see him again, and when you do, if he's truly your brother, he'll understand why you did what you did."
Kuina silently took the poster, having no idea what to say in return. Throughout all his faults Ace always seemed to know what to say, a trait Kuina certainly didn't believe she shared. She couldn't even muster up a thank you.
"Come on," Ace said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Let's go before Pops kills us both."
Kuina had completely forgotten about that. It was the whole reason she came here.
"Yeah, yeah you're right. Let's go," Kuina agreed, trying to get back to reality.
One day she would see Zoro again, but that day was not now. She couldn't let worries of the future get in her way, nor should painful memories of the past. She needed to focus on now. She was still young, she still had a life to live, and a promise to keep. She could only hope Zoro would do the same, and when the time came for Zoro and Kuina to meet again, he'd be able to forgive her.
