Chapter 20: Black Magic
He couldn't really deny it. The way her dark black hair swayed in the wind, her tanned sun-kissed skin, and gawd that witty personality. Yeah, he was sure. His face would heat up in a way that had nothing to do with his Devil Fruit. And he'd find himself gawking at her while they trained, and then tried to pass it off in his mind as being observant.
Yes, he was sure. He had contracted some sort of sickness. This weird sickness made his chest tight and his heart beat fast when ever he watched her. It was black magic or something of the sorts.
It came and went. There were days where it seemed to disappear, leaving him to make his usual snappy comments and sarcastic comebacks at everything she said. Then there were other times - when she showed him something on the piano, or smiled at him when they won a victory over the marines. He felt butterflies in his stomach just thinking about those moments. It was beginning to happen more often too.
Black magic indeed.
Ace sighed, running a hand through his wavy hair. The ever so loud crew was beginning to head towards the galley for dinner. Ace's stomach growled. He decided to go to get some food and take a break from thinking. Thinking made his brain hurt.
The galley was a mess of a room. It always was. The smell of delicious food instantly enticed Ace towards the large tables of delicacies. Without notice, Ace walked right past all of his friends; his only objective in his mind was to get food. Or at least it was until his train of thought was interrupted by no other than Thatch.
"Alright now! Everybody listen up! It's time for Thatch Advice of the Day!" The fourth division commander stood on a table in the galley, banging on a pot to get everyone's attention.
"I swear, he gives good advice once and this is what we get." Haruta mutters under her breath. Jenn laughed at that. Neither of them actually minded Thatch's dorky advice. It was entertaining to see what he'd be able to think of next.
"If you don't tuck your shirt into your pants, then your pants are tucked into your shirt." Thatch said seemingly proud of that statement.
"Ummm, Thatch, that wasn't advice. That was just a fact." Jenn pointed out.
"Yeah? Well, how about this one?"
"500 beli says he doesn't actually give advice this time either." Izo placed some money on the table placing his bet. Haruta also places some money on the table as well as a couple of other people.
"Hey, you big idiot! You better come up with nice advice, I betted 500 beli on you!" Haruta called out.
"Don't bet on me! And I'm not a big idiot!"
"Just say something enlightening already!"
Jenn snickered at the usual banter that occurred. Ace slipped into the seat right beside her. "Wanna make a bet, Nerd?"
"Alright!" Jenn had a glint in her eye that made Ace regret making the bet. "I hope you realize you're gonna lose."
Everybody watched Thatch, and Jenn could practically see a light bulb light up above his head. "Alright, I got a good one!"
Izo and Haruta leaned slightly forward so they wouldn't miss a word he said. Their money was on the line. Jenn, on the other hand, seemed to already be sure she would win her bet against Ace.
"It's impossible to bite down on something, you can only bite up."
"You dork, that's still not advice." Haruta grumbled.
"I have a feeling he did that on pur-" Jenn was cut off her sentence with the sudden cry of "MARINES" from the crow's nest.
If the galley wasn't a mess enough already, it was worse now. The sounds of plates clattering and thundering of footsteps filled the room. The rowdy noises of the crew calling out to each other in confidant cocky tones were loud and intimidating. The commanders were rallying together their separate divisions and giving orders. Everyone quickly disassembled, grabbing their weapons and breaking into groups from habit. Dinner was completely forgotten and the easy going atmosphere dissipated. The galley had empty out in a matter of minutes. Everyone was on deck, defending the Moby Dick. In a flurry of bodies, Jenn managed to squeeze by and run off to her room. The wooden door opened with a creak, revealing her neat and orderly room. She quickly snagged the katana laying by her bed and headed back out on deck where she knew she would be taking over command.
She grinned a bit when she felt the familiar warm and fuzzy feeling inside that indicated Ace was nearby, the effect of his Devil Fruit activated onto hers. She could feel her Devil Fruit copying the Mera Mera no Mi. With practiced ease, her shoulders lit on fire like Ace's would.
In the six months she had spent training - between the marine attacks and enemy crews - she'd realized that being a tactician wasn't as difficult as she first thought it'd be. She'd learned a lot of different situations and as her goal was from the beginning, Jenn got to know everyone on the crew.
Names and faces were just the beginning of it. She could tell you all of their interests, dislikes, fighting capabilities, you name it.
Jenn was observant. And she remembered things easily. If someone was willing to share information with her, her brain sucked it up like a sponge. It was no wonder that Pops wanted someone like that as the tactician.
"Ne, Marco." The teen stood in the middle of the deck, watching the marine ships come closer. The crew was busy warding off cannonballs that came close. "Take your division around to the other side, there's probably another ship coming to close us in."
"Alright, yoi." Marco called out to his division and they instantly regrouped. At first, he had doubted some of Jenn's decisions; many of them seemed absolutely absurd. Some of the things she planned out sounded crazy. Many times it would appear that she predicted things that obviously weren't going to happen. Shamefully, every time he was hesitant to what Jenn had to say, he had been wrong.
Marco was a well seasoned pirate. There had been many times when the marines had surprised them, but they had always managed to retaliate. But ever since Jenn had spent a bit more time studying, it seemed like they were always one step ahead of the marines. Her plans were well thought out and she was always able to anticipate what would happen next.
So maybe they were more like four or five steps ahead in Jenn's calculated eyes. Marco couldn't really tell.
"Hey Vista!" Jenn spotted the commander wandering around on deck. "Your mustache is great. Now go back Marco up."
"Okay!" The commander replied, stroking his mustache with pride.
As the tactician had predicted, a marine ship appeared. This time right from the sea, popping up directly in front of the Moby Dick, coated to dive beneath the sea.
Jenn had unsheathed her sword although she hadn't found much reason to be using it yet. Whitebeard was just chilling on his big throne, watching the battle with amusement. Everybody had things under control and Jenn was questioning why the marines even bothered attacking them.
They didn't even send an admiral with them.
They were just a group of silly marines trying to pick a fight with the strongest pirate in the world. Even when it was blatantly obvious that didn't stand a chance.
"Nerd, heads up." Ace warned with almost a bored sounding tone.
Jenn turned to see a marine aiming his sword right at her head. She easily sidestepped and parried. A flick of her wrist was meant to send the sword flinging out of the marine's hand but he predicted the intention and gripped his sword tightly.
Jenn had to take a step back and block his oncoming sword as he took another swing at her. They both took a step in, closing the distance between the two of them. She grit her teeth knowing that it was becoming a game of strength and that she couldn't win. Jenn knew that she was physically weak, especially compared to the strength of everyone in One Piece. They were all monsters to her. (No fair!)
The two blades grinded against each other with both users locking eyes.
"You seem familiar." Jenn stated during their standstill.
"Indeed you seem familiar too. I'm surprised that you pirate scum would remember the face of a marine." He replied smoothly.
"Give me some credit, man. You're that Captain aren't ya?"
"That's Commodore now."
"Ohhh, you got promoted?"
"That's right. I'll be the one to take Whitebeard's head one day." He said in determined but not creepy way. He didn't seem to be crazy about absolute justice like a certain somebody (*cough Akainu cough*).
"It's nice to aim high, isn't it?" Jenn grinned until she noticed something in the distance. "SAIN! Don't board the enemy's ship."
She receives a distant shout back. "Awww! But Tact, you know what Sain the Great can do!"
"Don't make me come over there!" Between the clashing of swords and shouts of pain (hopefully marines), Jenn could hardly hear him. She didn't want Sain boarding the marine warship. There was sure to be more marines over there. Not only that, but they weren't aiming to kill the marines or anything. Hopefully, just scare them into never coming back.
If Sain boarded the marine ship, it was most likely that the Whitebeards would end up sinking the ship. And Jenn didn't really want to deal with that.
The marine watches the whole exchange with a curious look. "Just what position might you be in this crew to be making orders like that?"
"I'm the tactician, duh." Jenn said as if it were the simplest thing in the world. The two opponents had seemed to forget about their fight, more curious about the other's authority.
Sain's excessive complaints with the occasion switch to dramatics was starting to drive Jenn insane, mostly because when he started to speak in old English nobody could understand what he was saying. "Jozu, could you go convince Sain that if he stays on board that he'll get a bounty?"
The third division commander, who happened to be nearby sighed. "That'd be lying."
"I'll make it happen." Jenn said with a smirk like it was a challenge. Jozu didn't really feel like trying to reason with Jenn so he strolled off to get Sain to shut up. Jenn turned her attention back to the marine at hand. "Ummm, could you give him a bounty?'
"Are you asking a marine for a favor?" He narrowed his eyes at her, not sure what dirty tricks the pirate had up her sleeves.
"No, seriously. No tricks or anything. Just give the guy a bounty. I told him he'd get one so I'd rather not break my word." Jenn said humbly. Even if I know he won't shut up for days, she added in her mind.
The marine took a step back, lowering his sword. His stance was still tense and alert but he'd backed off from the fight nonetheless. "You're an odd pirate."
"Why?" Jenn mirrored his movements, also lowering her weapon.
"I've never met a pirate that didn't play dirty tricks and refuses to go back on their word. Perhaps I've misjudged."
"Not all pirates are what you've been taught at your Marine Academy or whatever it is. Although there aren't many marines that stop to look twice at how they see pirates so I'll commend you on that." She smirked at the marine in front of her.
Before he could reply, their attention was diverted to a lower status marine. "Commodore, we're leaving. Vice Admiral said we're getting our asses kicked by the commanders and the surprise attack didn't work either."
Jenn laughed at the lower marine's use of language. 'Getting their asses kicked?' Yeah, you could say that. She watched as they quickly moved to leave before seeing the marine that she was fighting point towards Sain, talking to the cameraman. Sain seemed to notice and struck a heroic pose, causing a few of the crew members to look at him in an even weirder way than they already were.
Eventually the marines disappeared onto their ships and left. The next time they chose to disturb the Whitebeard Pirates during dinner they ought to bring an admiral with them.
"Damn it! I forgot to ask for his name!" The young tactician sighed.
Jenn walked into her room, tossing her shirt off opting to walk around in only her sports bra and shorts. With a huff of exhaustion, she plopped down at her desk pulling out a file of papers containing information on the next island.. She also grabbed a pencil before turning around and looking at her bed where a certain flamebrained commander was laying.
At this point she wasn't even surprised anymore.
"What'd you want to do today? Come up with another genius prank yet?" Jenn looked at Ace who was comfortably grinning at her. It was amusing to the rest of the crew how often they hung out together although they both usually ended up arguing about something ridiculous.
"No. But I was bored, so I figured you'd know something fun to do." He got up, plopping his beloved hat on her head as she went back to concentrating on the papers in front of her. She was used to wearing his hat now, it was generally his way of convincing her to do something. It had only been a total of seven months since she's been on the crew but it felt like she'd always been there.
"I don't. And I'm busy right now." Jenn slowly (note 'slowly') read through the papers with a serious look. She was tired of training all day. Of course, Ace being Ace, wouldn't have that. Ace poked at her, covered up the papers, and in general he was just being an annoying brat.
"C'mon please?" He gave her the puppy dog eyes. Jenn twitched. He wasn't supposed to use that trick on her, it was supposed to be the other way around.
It worked anyways. And Jenn was never one to be able to keep serious for a long time, especially not with the second division commander around. She ended up cracking a smile at him no matter how hard she tried not to.
"Fine, you'll end up persuading me anyways. Let me guess, you wanna play piano?" Jenn tossed the papers back on her desk messily and went to grab a shirt, now realizing she hadn't been wearing one the entire time Ace was there. She just shrugged the thought off, it's not like he really cared and he didn't get to complain since he doesn't wear a shirt either.
Ace grins his infamous grin, giving her a double thumbs up before racing out of the room like an overexcited child. Jenn raced after him after pulling her shirt over her head and adjusting his hat. No matter how tired she was she always managed to somehow keep up with his antics. The same goes vise versa.
When Jenn got in the music room, Ace was already warming up on his part of the duet they'd agreed on. He scooted over on the bench all while still playing his (oversimplified, not that Jenn would tell him that) part.
Jenn joined in, her part blending perfectly with his. She had actually taken a solo song and rewritten it so Ace had something to play that was easy enough for him to handle. He was happy that they get to play a duet and Jenn was happy that the music he made actually sounded like music for once. Not that she would ever tell him she was playing most of it. His ignorance was blissful.
The tactician continued to play though she was now aware that she often played discordant notes but she couldn't seem to fix the trembling in her hands. She frowned as both her and Ace stopped playing.
"You're hands are trembling." He also frowned.
"Vista told me that my hands might be a bit shaky from all the impacts during today's training. I didn't think clashing swords a bunch of times would cause an effect this bad! Look! They're just shaking like crazy!" She actually sounded somewhat excited and amazed by the fact.
"Jeez Nerd, you should have said something." He grabbed her hands, holding them steady; something she couldn't seem to do on her own. It was quiet for a bit as Jenn leaned her head on Ace's shoulder. He could feel heat begin to rise to his face (and it had nothing to do with his Devil Fruit). Ace was aware that he may or may not be blushing (he wouldn't risk it and...*gasp* let Jenn find out), so he quickly tried to think of a way to divert her attention.
Then the commander seemed to come up with a brilliant idea. "Hmmm, maybe you should listen to me play instead. I've been learning a special~ song!"
Jenn only replied with a soft hum and continued to lean on him, closing her eyes. Ace began to play, hoping his distraction would work; he didn't even know that she wasn't paying attention in the first place.
(Kiss the Rain - Yiruma)
Ace was very proud of this one song (No, he didn't play it just to distract her). It was the first song that he'd ever heard Jenn play. Jenn remembered that too. "Where'd you get the music for that?" She asked softly, not bothering to open her eyes.
"I have my sources."
Again, Jenn replied with a hum. After a moment she added, "You stole my phone and asked Ashley to send you the music?"
Ace chuckled softly. "How'd you know?"
"My phone's been missing for a week and I can feel it in your pocket right now." She mumbled. She wasn't even angry, in fact, she was smiling at his efforts. He must have been slaving away at the music if he learned it in only a week.
The next couple of minutes were spent with Ace trying his hardest to replicate the melancholy sound that Jenn had. The first time Jenn had played it, it was like Ace could see the sadness. It wasn't completely sad...just kind of like lost. The song itself was on the down side, it wasn't upbeat and clearly conveyed a depressing tone to it. But when Ace had heard it, it was like the music was speaking to him. Like each note had a feeling attached to it, and it wasn't just the note being played but rather, her heart.
It wasn't until he had finished playing the whole thing (although the ending was a bit horrid) that he had noticed Jenn sound asleep while still leaning on him.
'She falls asleep on me lots.' Ace mused almost convinced that his narcolepsy was contagious.