Disclaimer: Do not own One Piece or Fairy Tail
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Ace was always an overly cautious man, it came with having a price tag placed upon your head whether it be brought in dead or alive. One of the fewer things he hated more than when people came after him, was when they put his friends in danger. While he hadn't gotten to know the guild members well enough to call them true friends, he felt a warmth with them that felt reminiscent of that of a family, a warmth he had never felt in his life other than with Luffy and Sabo. Now with this unknown assailant seemingly having randomly appeared in this mix, he wanted nothing more than to protect this family with all his might.
"Hey Mest wait up," said Ace as he jogged to catch up to the retreating form of the wizard. Mest turned around, focusing his eyes sharply at Ace who patted him on the shoulder as he caught up.
"I'm sorry who are you?" asked Mest, unsure as to why he had been approached.
"You haven't heard the news of the latest guild member?" asked Ace, trying not to arouse too much suspicion. "You make it sound like you appeared out of nowhere today."
Mest's eyes sharpened slightly as he looked at Ace. Realising that he needed a diversion and quickly, he picked up a nearby plant. "I want to know what this flower tastes like," he said as he bit the petals off the flower as if it was an everyday thing.
"I've eaten a strange fruit before, and unless you have some serious mental condition you would not try to avoid my appearance so readily," said Ace. "Just wondering, when did you get back from your last mission?"
"Two days ago, I'd been out on this mission for a month," stated Mest. Coinciding this information with the information that Makarov had given him the prior day, Ace immediately realised that something was amiss with this character.
"You know, I don't really approve when people lie straight to my face," said Ace, heat beginning to radiate off of his body. "Your background story may be good, but if you had gotten back two days ago you would have realised that there had been a pirate attack on the guild. I have to say, your background is a solid one and for some reason or another, it ain't working on me pal."
'How is he not affected by my memory magic, everybody with a Fairy Tail insignia should be under the spells effect,' thought Mest as he wondered why his spell had failed to pick up on this single person. "That incident, I heard about it but since everything seemed sorted out I thought there no need to bring up such a thing," he said.
"That pirate was me," said Ace. "Now on my pirate crew, whenever a crewmate sought to cause harm to another member of the crew, I would not hesitate to take my own justice upon them. If you only seek to hurt the members of this guild in any way shape or form, I will not hesitate to do the same."
His message getting across loud and clear, Ace walked away with a stern look upon his face. In order to make sure nothing happened on this test, he needed to get onboard the S-Class ship in any way that he could. Making his way back to the guild, he was nearly bowled over as Natsu came charging past, Happy flying by his side. "Ace, when I become S-class, you and I need to fight again," shouted Natsu over his shoulder, not slowing down for a second as he sprinted through town.
"I feel like I missed something there," said Ace as he shrugged his shoulders before stepping back into the guild hall. Looking around, he needed to discover a way of getting to the island without arousing any suspicion. He couldn't go directly to Makarov on the situation as he himself was under this spell. With a stride in his step, he walked over to where a number of the S-class nominees were seated. If he asked if he could be their partner, he would become suspicious of master as he would have rejected the chance to go only to seek going in another form. "What's happening?" he asked casually.
"We just finished picking who our partners are going to be," said Gray, sticking a thumb at the orange haired man standing behind him. "Elfman's the only one here who hasn't chosen yet but he's asking Evergreen right now."
A resounding smack sounded out as Ace slammed his palm into his forehead, his plan swiftly having been tossed mercilessly out the window. "I do not believe we have met," said Loke as he eyed the former pirate.
"Name's Ace," he said extending his hand.
"Loke, otherwise known as the celestial spirit Leo," introduced the lion zodiac.
"That's...easy to comprehend," said Ace taking it in stride as he had more important things to think about as of the moment. He wondered if it was right to purposely injure one of the partners and offer to take their place but he pushed the idea to the back of his mind, regretting ever having thought of the idea. An accidental injury in a spar was understandable, but to purposely seek to hurt someone that was a comrade seemed more than dirty. "Just wondering, where were you guys setting sail from again?"
"Hargeon and making our way to Tenroujima," said Juvia.
"Cheers...there's a library downstairs isn't there?" asked Ace.
"That's right," answered Lucy.
"Good, there's something I need to check out," said Ace as he walked towards the stairs, leaving the rest of the guild members more than a little confused. On his way down he passed Erza who looked over her shoulder at the former pirate, wondering what he was up to. Leaping down the stairs that connected to the library, Ace looked around at the number of books that were lined up along the shelves. "This is going to take a while," he said as he looked at the number of documents in amazement.
With a sigh, he took his hat off and placed it on a nearby table as he started looking at the books nearby. "Where would I find a navigational chart?" he murmured to himself as he ran his finger across a number of books.
"What are you planning on doing with those charts?" asked Erza having come down to see what Ace was doing. Ace wasn't shocked by her appearance, he had expected one of those he had asked where the library was to come down and see what he was doing so he had actually been expecting company.
"I'm a pirate, remember, I can only take so long on land before I head out to sea again," said Ace.
"Despite the fact that you lose all of your strength the moment you touch seawater?" asked Erza, seeing a contradiction in the statement.
"I take the quote, 'Live every moment like it's your last,' to a whole new meaning, don't I," said Ace tossing the scarlet haired woman a smile over his shoulder. "Ever since I was young I wanted to set sail, no matter what the danger. Guess you could say I'm still chasing childhood dreams."
"Childhood dreams huh," said Erza deep in thought. "Would you be coming back?"
"I'd hope so, but the seas a dangerous place so I can't give you any guarantees," said Ace as his eyes focused on a bunch of scrolls sitting nearby. Erza slowly started walking towards him as he pushed a number of scrolls out of the way until he came across an exceptionally large one. Pulling it out, he gave it a quick look over before unrolling it across the floor. Somehow he had managed to grab the one he was after and as his eyes glanced over all of what he was after a small smile graced his lips.
"So what's your plan?" asked Erza.
"If I had a plan it wouldn't be an adventure now would it," said Ace trying to get the S-class mage off of his back as he committed as much information he could to memory. Using the scaling system to what he could figure, he knew that he'd have to leave much earlier than the ship the guild would be using in order to not be spotted at any stage otherwise his entire plan could collapse around him. He would also need money in order to purchase a boat, renting one would only cause him to fall into a lot of debt if it were to somehow not make it back from his voyage. "Curious, you know how much a single person boat would cost me?" asked Ace.
"A sailing boat won't cost you too much, maybe thirty thousand jewels," said Erza. "However they have been working on ways to get magic users to channel magic through a lacrima which creates an engine of sorts which propel the vessel forward."
"How much would one of those be?" asked Ace.
"Last I saw they were near the eighty thousand, maybe ninety thousand price range," said Erza.
"Ninety thousand huh, looks like I'm going to have to pick up some work," said Ace as he rolled up the scroll. Placing it back on the shelf, Ace turned towards the exit only to find that Erza was standing at the base of the stairs. "Can I help you?"
"Promise that no matter what happens, you'll come back," said Erza flatly, her voice unwavering in her declaration.
"That's a pretty hard promise to make," said Ace rubbing the back of his head.
"Promise me, or you're not leaving this room," said Erza threateningly.
"Threatening someone for safety's sake, haven't seen that one in a while," said Ace with a chuckle feeling somewhat nostalgic. "You have my word Erza, I'll come back."
"You better," said Erza as she turned and marched up the stairs.
"So under all that armour you hide a very fragile and caring personality, you learn something new every day," muttered Ace out of earshot as he made his way up the stairs. Once again he found himself subject to the boisterous sound of the guild as he made his way over to the request board where Nab was standing. "Anything of interest?"
"Oh Ace, a new batch came in a minute ago, I'm looking to see if there's anything that's specially made for me," said Nab hopefully.
"Good luck with that," said Ace as his eyes scanned all of the flyers, not focusing on the money or the actual quest, but rather where the quest was located. Like lightning his hand flashed out and tore a sheet off the wall, before he pulled another sheet, and then another mission request before he grabbed a final one. Looking at the four in his hands, he quickly added up the totals and was happy to discover that if he got through all of these with little hassle, he should successfully have enough money to get one of these boats Erza was talking about. Walking over to where Master was sitting on the bar, he showed the wizard saint the missions he was about to set off on.
"Heading to Hargeon are we," said Makarov looking straight at the destination all of the missions were located.
"Reckon I need to have a look round a port town, feeling a bit nostalgic," said Ace with a smile.
"Good luck then, might see you there when we come pass if you're still in town," said Makarov mimicking Ace's smile.
"We'll see, catch you round Master," said Ace as he turned and headed towards the guild door. Before he exited, his eyes gazed around at all of the people laughing and having fun with one another and he knew that everything he did from now until he had solved this mystery wasn't for him, it was for them. His guild...his family.
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Hope you enjoyed.
Asredwar: Find out soon, won't we.
Sakura240: At this moment, I am prepared to add people from the One Piece world into the world of Fairy Tail and I've already decided on who. The hardest part was figuring out how they were going to appear in the world.
Peace out and please review.