Disclaimer: I do not own One-Piece nor any of it's characters. Those belong to Oda Eiichiro.

Nunya Bizniz

Chapter Nine: Time Skip

While Rachel had gone to Fishman Island, Ace stayed in the medical room. It was mostly due to the pain not allowing him to move around so much. He didn't care if people saw him or not, he had a reputation to keep. Rachel, however, threatened to take away his pain killers if he didn't at least try to keep a low profile. Rachel had stopped shortly on Fishman Island to get a feel for the natural resources that they produced. Not much of it caught Rachel's eye. She could get most of it on the surface. There was one resource that did merit her attention though. Copper was in abundance on the island. While there was some on the surface, it was harder to come by and much more expensive. Rachel got as much copper as she could and boarded Nunya. Less than a day had been spent on the island and they were on their way once again.

Once Missy rejoined the Nunya things really got busy. Ace was still too injured to begin the training, but the two women pounded his head with information. They went over what they knew of fire and it's reactions. Backdrafts, vacuum effects, oxygen depletion and the list went on. By the time Ace was recovered enough to move freely he had enough information to start testing it on his own. He became a big help to the girls when they needed to shape metal. This meant they didn't have to spend energy running the furnace to impossible temperatures. Also saved them from 'dying' of heat in the furnace room.

Not long after the events in Marineford, the Government announced the successful execution of Ace and Whitebeard. While Ace was amused that he was now officially 'dead' he was more than a little upset with the news on Whitebeard's demise. The paper never went into detail on how Whitebeard passed, but Rachel promised to tell Ace when he was ready to hear it. He had gotten angry, but she stood firm. She knew he would leave immediately once he found out the truth.

After some digging around, they had discovered that most of the Whitebeard pirates had disbanded with their captain's death. Marco had taken over as captain, but only a small portion of Whitebeard's forces stayed. It was assumed that they also believed that Ace had died, either from the blow that Akainu delivered or later on from not being able to recover from the injury.

Many modifications were made to Nunya over time. Missy and Rachel were preparing for traveling further in the New World. There were dangerous pirates worse than what they had confronted before. Now that Ace was with them a meeting with the Straw Hats was unavoidable, he would want to at least check on Luffy from time to time. Once word got out that Ace was with them, they would be labeled as pirates and have bounties as well. It was far easier to prepare the ship now while they weren't being pursued. Rachel spent a lot of time building turrets and more modernized cannons. They were hidden just below the deck and would be raised with the pull of a lever. If you went to the dock you would be able to see their underside on the ceiling. Missy put in a sonar system that would be able to tell the location of reefs and rocks that would be dangerous to the Nunya. It also came in handy when there was a sea king around.

Ace took it upon himself to teach Missy and Rachel hand to hand combat. While Rachel soaked in all the information, it was slightly harder to press the importance into Missy. To get Missy to be more accepting of the training, Rachel built a weapon specially for her. Missy had been a fan of the twin kitanas that were used in the Mortal Combat games back home, so Rachel used that to her advantage. She figured out a way to build the blades without them causing harm to the wielder. She then bribed Missy with the coveted weapons. If she learned hand to hand combat from Ace then they were hers. After grumbling about evil little 'sisters' Missy accepted the deal.

Rachel also picked up another form of weapon herself. Guns would always be her favorite, but they were quickly spotted by enemies. Rachel started practicing with throwing knives and got her hands on a set that was so thin they were like a set of cards. This also meant that they were weak. If Rachel were to use them on an enemy she had to make the shot count. She practiced aiming for the vulnerable spots of enemies with more durable knives on a practice dummy she would set up on deck.

Missy and Rachel still spent some of their time helping the island villages. The marines tended to stay away from these villages. After Rachel and Missy were through setting them up they had power and security against bandits and pirates. The Nunya Bizniz was quickly becoming a favorite among the common citizens and starting to draw attention to itself. It came as no surprise to the two women when they started to get visitors.

One morning, Rachel was the first to come out on deck. She gazed at the bright sky as she let out a stretch. A voice made her freeze in her spot. "Good morning." Rachel's eyes shifted to the side in the direction it came from. Overnight, a pirate ship had come up and anchored next to the Nunya. Leaning on the rail, with a grin, was Shanks.

Rachel lowered her arms and turned around. "I'm going back to bed," she announced. Shanks laughed at her easy dismissal.

Rachel wasn't able to go back inside, a certain wall was blocking her path at this point. Ace came out into the open. He had his usual shorts on, only now he wore a black tank top. The two girls complained about him showing off. The scar on his back completely destroyed his tattoo. The center of it was no longer distinguishable, only the crossbones, chin and forehead held any detail. Not enough to show that it had once been the mark of Whitebeard.

"Now that's unexpected," Shanks said. "I wasn't expecting to find you here Ace. I thought that you might still be alive since there was no body discovered." He let out a chuckle. "Now I see why you're in hiding. You've got two beautiful women to yourself."

"Hold on just a second," Rachel whipped around. A huge blush was staining her cheeks at that. "It's not like that at all."

"No kidding," Ace let out a sigh. "I pity the men that fall for either of these two." Rachel's blush disappeared as she reached over and slapped him upside the head. He winced and glanced at Shanks. "See what I mean?"

Shanks laughed as he jumped over to the Nunya. Ben was following close behind. He didn't have to worry about being attacked, not with Ace there. Shanks clasped Ace on the shoulder. "It's good to see you're alright," he said. "I can't imagine how you got here though."

"These two are pretty persuasive," Ace shrugged. "They know how to strike a deal right where it hurts."

Missy chose that moment to come up to the deck. Her appearance drew the attention of everyone on the deck. She turned around and started back down. "I need more coffee," she muttered. "I think I'm seeing things."

Shanks was laughing hard at this moment. Ben was smirking as he turned his attention to Ace. "It's never a dull moment around here, is it?" he asked.

"Not even close," Ace agreed. "I have to stay on my guard with these two. They might end up blowing up an island or something."

"We are not that bad," Rachel argued.

"The island hideout of the Buggy Pirates," Ace pointed out.

"It was a golden opportunity," Rachel debated. "How could we have passed it up? We really needed to test the turrets. Besides, it wasn't like he was even there."

"You didn't know that at the time," Ace continued.

"Who cares about the details? No one got hurt in the end."

"You two argue like siblings," Ben pointed out.

Rachel and Ace looked at him, then back to each other. Ace's shoulders slumped and he sighed in defeat. "I suppose that's the only way to look at it," he said. "I have to keep an eye on them like I use to with Luffy."

"Oh no you don't," Rachel said. "I've already got Missy breathing down my neck over the whole crab thing, I don't need you to start too."

"Crab thing?" Shanks asked.

"Rachel has a habit of mentioning different types of crabs when she thinks we're going to run into some bad luck," Ace informed. "It's kind of funny to see Missy's reaction. Although, every time she does say something about crabs, something does happen. We try hard to keep her mouth shut." Shanks was chuckling once again.

"I hate to break up the reunion," Rachel cut in. "But did you want something?"

Shanks looked at her in surprise. Ben was the one that took over. "We wanted to see what all the talk was about in regards to a strange ship with a strange crew," he said. "By the way, where's the rest of your crew?"

"You've already seen all of us," Rachel informed.

"You have this large of a ship with only three crewmembers?" Shanks asked in disbelief.

"It's a self efficient ship," Rachel smirked.

Missy chose that time to return to the deck. A large, steaming mug in hand. "I think I need some more..."

"Get your butt out here," Rachel snapped. "No amount of coffee is going to change the fact that we have visitors. Quit procrastinating and come say 'hello' at least."

"I don't procrastinate," Missy argued.

"If it was a sport you'd have won the gold medal five times over," Rachel deadpanned.

Ace spent some time after that talking with Shanks and his crew. Rachel and Missy busied themselves with training on the deck. Shanks gave Rachel some pointers on her knife throwing skills when he noticed what she was doing.

Yasopp was interested in the gun that he noticed Rachel carried around. This led to her showing him the sniper rifle she used to save Ace. Needless to say, he was very interested in getting his hands on some guns that weren't musket loaders. Rachel just happened to have one other hand gun that she sold to him for a hefty sum. Missy sold Lucky an energy unit along with some appliances for the kitchen. In the end, the visit turned out to be quite profitable for the Nunya Bizniz.

In the afternoon, Ace confronted both of the women. "Why didn't you tell me that it was Blackbeard who killed Whitebeard?" he demanded.

"Because we knew that you would fly off the handle," Missy said.

"Like right now," Rachel pointed out.

"We also figured you would want to go and deal with him," Missy continued.

"Which it looks like you do," Rachel interrupted.

"You needed training before you came close to beating him."

"Still think you could use some more."

"You're not helping Rachel."

"I'm not trying to."

"Anyway, you just can't go after Blackbeard alone." Missy sent Rachel a scathing look when it appeared she was going to talk again. "You need Luffy to help you. He now has just as much reason to go after Blackbeard as you do. Right now he believes that he's the one responsible for your death."

"How do the two of you know that?" Ace asked. He was starting to calm down, hearing the points that Missy was making.

"We'll tell you when Shanks leaves," Rachel said. Missy looked at her in shock and anger. "He deserves to know. Ace has been living with us for nearly two years. He's like a brother to us at this point."

Ace grunted and disappeared. He returned a few minutes later. He was carrying three saki bowls and a bottle of the stuff. He poured the liquor for the three of them. "Let's make it official then," he said. "Once the three of us drink saki together we'll be siblings." Rachel and Missy looked at each other. They knew they didn't like saki, but they didn't want to disappoint Ace either.

"One cup could still be considered drinking with him," Rachel said. The two braced themselves and slammed the drink as fast as possible while Ace savored his. Both women went into coughing fits, but they finished what was in their cups.

At the end of the day, Rachel and Missy were discussing a few things. "We're almost to the two year mark," Rachel pointed out. "I promised Ace I would tell him where Luffy was training. Do you think he'll leave once he knows?"

"We'll let him decide," Missy shrugged. "Right after we tell him our background, we'll also tell him where Luffy is."