disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of it's characters (but I sure wish I owned Ace) and I am not making any money off this story. Shikashi, I own Kasai (not her powers though). Kasai's powers and two bad guys (Adelheid and Rugal Bernstein) belong to SNK-Playmore.

The words in italics are someone's thoughts or they remember someone else saying something.

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Reunion and reveiled feelings

Chapter 1: Sadness, memories, hope

It was a nice, quiet night; the sea was calm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Only one figure was on the deck of the Going Merry- a young woman. She had long, auburn hair, that went a little past her shoulders. She was wearing long black pants and a red T-shirt. Her name is Kasai and she was in a sitting position, leaning with her back against the railing. Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper and Robin were in the kitchen probably having dinner, but Kasai wanted to stay on deck a little more to think. It was the perfect time to set her thoughts straight. "Why am I still waiting? It's been a year now and we still haven't heard anything from him... should I forget him and move on? Should I still wait? I probably won't admit it to anyone but I have feelings for him and maybe that's why I just can't forget him... Damn you Portgas D. Ace, why did you had to have such an impact on me?"

She closed her eyes and memories started flashing in her head. The first one was of younger versions of herself and Ace (about 14-15 years old) having a fight like they normaly did. No matter how hard they each tried to beat the other, the fights allways ended in a draw. This memory made her smile because it was one of the good ones. The memory fades to black and is replaced by another; when they were in Arabasta, making their way to Yuba, on occasion, Kasai would glanse at Ace, who was on her far right and slightly ahead of her, and she would mentaly kick herself for pushing him away those last four months before he left in search of One Piece. She couldn't even remember the reason she was mad at him. "Now that I think about it, I may have been eighteen, but I acted like a spoiled ten year old." She returned to her memories of their road to Yuba. When she glansed at Ace, every now and again she could see him glansing at her, and when those times came she immediatly brought her gaze back in front of her, but one time, out of the corner of her eye she saw Ace smiling after their gazes met, and the fact that he was smiling at her made her blood boil. Kasai was somewhat a proud young lady and she just wanted to stop in her tracks and yell at him: "JUST WHAT IS SO FUNNY?" But she controled herself and now she was glad she did. The next memory was Ace's fight with Scorpion. She was worried about Scorpion because she knew he didn't have a chace against Ace. But then she saw that Ace didn't use his Devil's Fruit powers against Scorpion and that made her understand that even if Ace was the commander of the Whitebeard Pirates: Second Division, he still had a nobel and fair heart. Her last memory was when Portgas D. Ace and the Straw Hat Pirates went their separate ways: he went after Blackbeard and they were heading for Yuba and after that, Crocodile. Just in the few seconds everyone had their backs turned to say goodbye to Scorpion and his sons, Ace disappeard. Kasai felt some sadness then, and she started to feel sad once more because of that memory, but then she remembered Luffy's words and they brought her hope yet again: "We'll see him again." said Luffy. After that she opened her eyes and looked up at the sky. The moon was so close you could actually touch it. "I sure hope you're right Luffy, I sure hope you're right." was her last thought before she got up. Then, once more she cast her beautiful blue eyes toward the sky.

When she brought her gaze down a bird landed before her feet and had something that looked like an envelope in it's beak. Kasai leaned down to pick up the object and once she had a grip on it the bird let go and flew off. She looked at it; it was an envelope. "Who could this be from?" she asked no one it particular. She turned the envelope to see who the sender was- nothing. She turned it around to see who it was addressed to and it got her thinking... "I wonder what it is?" she asked herself and started to make her way to the kitchen.

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Well, what do you think so far? Please don't flame me all you hardcore Ace fans that don't want to see him paired with anyone... Oh, BTW I'll insert Adelheid and Rugal (in later chapters... DUH) because I kinda lost inspiration on creating some bad guys, so don't think because of that this is a KOF2003 crossover. Well, see y'all later....

Ja ne!