disclaimer: Kasai belongs to me, One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda and Adelheid Bernstein belongs to SNK-Playmore. Got that?

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Reunion and reveiled feelings

Chapter 5: The deep breath before the plunge a.k.a. The silence before the storm

They kept walking a little more and people kept turning their heads and looking at the young woman that was with Luffy.

"Look Luffy! That's the Summit building!" said Kasai pointing at a one story high building that clearly was the entrance because behind it was a really big hall.

"Wow! It's huge!" exclaimed Luffy.

When they got to the entrance, the guards recognized Luffy and let him and Kasai enter.

"I wonder how they knew who I was?" said Luffy.

"When you have a 100.000.000 bellie bounty on your head, people tend to recognize you, Luffy." replied Kasai, smiling. "The Summit Committee wasn't kiddning when they said there might be some problems with the space." said Kasai when they entered the hall and after she saw how many pirates there were. But the thing that surprised her more was the fact that there was a good number of women in there.

Luffy and Kasai took only a few steps and already two pirates were in front of them, took both Kasai's hands and kissed them, after which they introduced themselves and talked very politely to both Kasai and Luffy.

Meanwhile, in the far left, Alvida was talking to Ace; well, she was actually flirting and he was playing along for now. But his gaze strayed from Alvida and he saw Kasai. That moment, all his other sences went numb. He only saw the auburn haired beauty and he felt that his heart could burst out of his chest.

"Ace-san, is everything alright?" asked Alvida, snaping him back to reality.

"Huh? Oh, yes, everything's fine. Please excuse me, I have to talk to someone." he replied and left.

Kasai was getting a little uncomfortable. There's only one thing scarier than a polite pirate and that's two polite pirates. However, Ace appeared out of nowhere.

"Don't you two ever stop trying to woo every beautiful woman you see?" he asked them with his arms over their shoulders and smiling at the same time.

"We weren't trying to woo her, ehehe..." nervously responded one of them.

"Whatever, I think I hear Alvida calling you."

"Really? Yes, Alvida-sama! We're coming!"

And they ran to where Alvida was.

"What's wrong, Kasai? Don't you like people to be polite to you?" asked Ace because he saw she was uncomfortable,

"I'm not used to people being polite without trying to get me into their beds." she replied bitterly.

"SAY WHAT?" screamed Luffy.

"Don't worry. Now they'll think twice about doing that again." she reassured him.

"Phew. You had me scared for a minute there." said Luffy.

"Excuse me, miss Alvida wishes to speak to you." said a man coming up to them and addressing himself to Kasai.

"Well, looks like I have a talk with a vixen." she told Luffy and Ace before she headed into Alvida's dirrection.

"Yes, Alvida. What is it?"

"You have some nerve doing what you just did."

"What are you talking about?" Kasai was visibly confused.

"Don't play dumb, Jade Flames."

Kasai was really surprised at hearing the nickname she got because of her power.

"Surprised because I know who you are? Listen here; I've never lost a man to any woman and if you don't back off, more people will know who you really are." threatened Alvida.

"I could care less what you tell to anyone, but this threat says that you are afraid of me. Now you listen; I'll tell what other people have told me. You'd better keep an eye on your title of "Most beautiful woman in the four Blues" because I just might take it from you." Kasai spat back at Alvida.

"You should learn to respect people that are older than you..."

"Yes Alvida. You are older than I am. Keep that in mind."

"Do you know what my oppinion on you is?" asked Alvida crossing her arms over her chest.

"Let me say one more thing before you start, Alvida. Oppinions are like assholes, everybody's got one, and they all stink." replied Kasai and then she left leaving Alvida with smoke coming out of her ears.

Kasai kept walking until she reached the right side of the hall where there was a long table with food and some big bouls of punch. She took a glass, filled it with punch and started to drink, not turning to face the middle of the room.

"Did you have a bad talk with Alvida?" asked Ace aproaching her.

"Gee, how did you realize that?"

"You're drinking."

"Don't get me wrong, I totally despise the woman."

While they were talking, Kasai didn'y look at Ace and that made him feel bad.

"Kasai, listen. It's obvious that you're still mad at me for that night. I'm so sorry."

Kasai put her glass down, hands next to it and leaned on them. She closed her eyes and started remembering.

------FLASHBACK------

"MOM, DAD, MAYA! WAKE UP! PLEASE!" yelled a little girl at three dead bodies.

"Your parents and your sister are dead. Give it up." said the man that murdered Kasai's family. "Your sister was good. I wonder if you're as good as she was. Come here little girl." he took her arm and threw her on the bed.

Kasai struggled, but what could a ten-year-old girl do against a full grown man? All she could do was clench her teeth, keep her eyes shut and hope the pain would soon be over. But it wasn't like that. The man didn't stop until she screamed in pain. When she did, he was satisfied and he stopped, after which he left.

A little while after, Kasai got up from the bed and left the house. She could barely stand and she was bleeding like crazy but the poor girl started to make her way to the village. Why that man didn't kill her was still an unanswered question.

Her next memory shows her and Ace in her new house. They were yelling at eachother.

"You're the one that can't beat me, a girl!"

"Well, I'm not the one that couldn't protect herself from being raped!" came Ace's reply.

"Get out! Get out NOW!" yelled Kasai.

Ace did what he was told. The second he closed the door, Kasai dropped to her knees, her face in her hands and started crying.

------END FLASHBACK------

Those memories were the most painful ones Kasai had and she wished she could forget them but she couldn't.

"I had no right to say what I said. Please forgive me."

"Ace, just shut up!" she said raising her right hand making him do what she said.

"I guess it's no use. Well, I'm probably the last person you want to talk to. I'm not gonna bother you from now on." and he turned to leave.

"Before you go, hear me out." for the first time since only the two of them were talking, Kasai looked at Ace. "I should be apolagising too."

"What?"

"I had a right to be angry, but not five months. You tried to apolagise the day after our arguement but I acted like a total bitch. It's my turn to ask for your forgivness."

"Kasai, I was never upset at you for that. You don't need to ask for forgivness." said Ace with a suthing tone of voice.

"Neither do you." replied Kasai, showing a true smile.

Just then, "Glory- kimi ga iru kara" started playing.

"If I remember correctly, this was your favourite song." said Ace.

"It still is." replied Kasai.

"Then, may I have this dance?" he asked, extending his hand.

"Sure, why not?" she said, taking Ace's hand and letting him take her to the dance floor.

While they were dancing Kasai said: "Ace, everybody's looking at us."

"They're looking at you, because you're so beautiful." he replied.

Kasai could swear she heard some men say: "This guy has all the luck. Why can't we get a woman like that?" and it was making her smile.

Luffy also saw them and he said to himself: "Looks like she's forgiven Ace. They do make a nice couple."

The song ended and Ace and Kasai went back into the croud. Suddenly, a part of the ceiling came down and through the hole came a young man. He was blond and had dark green pants, boots, a sleevless shirt and a pair of dark green fingerless gloves.

"Where are you, Jade Flames?" he was still in the air and looking through the croud.

While he landed, something lifted Kasai into the air and brought her in front of the young man. Ace tried to grab her but an invisible wall was placed between the croud and the blond boy and Kasai. Immediatly, Luffy was by his older brother's side.

"Who is that?" asked Luffy.

"I have no idea, but he's got something to do with Kasai." replied Ace.

"Who are you?" asked Kasai the young man in front of her.

"Don't you see a resemblance to anyone?" he teased her.

"No, I don't." she replied coldly.

"My name is Adelheid... Bernstein."

Her eyes widened: "Nani? Bernstein?"

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Told you the good stuff starts in this chapter, didn't I?

That whole "Oppinions are like assholes, everybody's got one, and they all stink" quote doesn't belong to me. It's from "Fallout 2". I liked it a lot and thought I could use it in my story.

You know what I want to continue, don't you? So push that nice little purple button and leave a review.

Ja ne!