This chapter got a little out of hand, length-wise. I ended up getting way more into writing it then I thought I would. It was just really fun working on it (it helped that I got injured and was forced to stay off my feet for a few days). I just wanted to finish the Starving Chang story in two chapters and had to go back and forth on splitting it up into three, but I ended up keeping it at two like I'd originally planned. Which means that the East Blue Saga, if everything else stays according to plan, will end around Chapter 20? Maybe a bit earlier?
Also, before I forget! This story is also being cross-posted to AO3 and is up right now- its still under poprockie. I'm going to stay on here primarily, it's my preferred site just because of its Favorites list and cause I'm so used to it, but if you prefer AO3 I'll be slowly updating the older chapters there as well.
(There is going to be an exceedingly long author's note at the end by the way. It's mostly discussing Logia, Devil Fruit powers, and attack names/themes).
The rain has refused to let up.
The moon is beginning its descent and the sun will be up in an hour or so. If they wanted to keep the cover of darkness they were operating under a time limit.
It was hard to see through the rain. It was thick and heavy and made it impossible to hear anything but it hitting the rooftops. Which is why, in the light of the open doorway they stand in, onlookers see only a flicker of flame. It would then be swallowed by the droplets, petering out before it can get very far. Completely smothered.
The resulting curse was drowned in the noise.
He can't get a proper light. Even the larger flashes of attempts die down before long, disappearing into nothing in his hands. A weakness to water even worse than most.
An umbrella is positioned over him. And it's the first attempt that stays strong.
"...We really need to look into our abilities more, don't we?"
"Yeah." He nods.
If she remembered correctly, he had been able to affect the weather with his fire sometime in the future. And, while she could definitely feel it bubble beneath his skin, a heat that warmed the air next to him, it wasn't nearly strong enough to be more than a slight temperature shift right now.
She dusts gold across his arm, looping it onto the C with little effort and theatrics. It's unreliable and most likely going to be ineffective, but it's somehow comforting that the mark is there. He rubs at it in response. It doesn't move beneath his fingers or even try to come off, as if it's a part of the tattoo, and he decides he likes the addition. It's like he has a secret.
He takes the offered umbrella.
"Are we ready to go?"
"Already marked Kat."
"Mark Cona too."
She bites her lip. "...Do I have to?"
He gives her a look that's dry and answers the question for her.
It continues to rain unrelenting as they're joined by another pair. Gold is quickly lit across skin and red warms the way, acting as a flashlight, and they move down the empty streets with little discussion between them. The brothels lights dim behind them. The residents quiet for a night. And if anyone sees the dark figures running in the darkness they quickly forget about them.
But, unnoticed by all, even those aware of what was soon to be proceeding, a fifth figure followed the group. Much smaller than the rest. Slipping into the dark with hardly a whisper and not a sound to their steps. Leaving the street behind, as if they had never been there in the first place.
…
…
"I'm… sorry. Care to repeat that?"
Quinn heard what she said but it was… still hard to compute.
The answer would almost be cryptic for its sheer unexpectedness alone.
And she was so tired. God, she could feel herself growing more and more weary with every single second passing. She pressed her palms to her eyes, dragging her hands down as she rubbed them raw. The sensation doing nothing to get rid of her now overwhelming need for sleep that felt like it could come at any moment.
It was unfortunate timing. She actually had shit she had to deal with now.
"This brothel…" Cona bowed her head, breath shaky.
At least Ace and Kat seemed to be having an equally hard time wrapping their heads around it.
"...it's a front."
Because, of course it is.
It only makes sense. Sarcasm.
"Yeah, no. I got that part."
Still. That was not the excuse they were expecting. It was hardly even an explanation.
And they really needed more information than that.
"Cona." It was that Salt girl again. Hissing from somewhere in the back of the group of women huddled across from them, hidden by arms and bodies. She's red faced and angry and clearly frustrated with the scene unfolding in front of her. And, if it was any indication, she seemed to know what's up as well. "Don't say anything! Someone will overhear and they- they don't deserve an explanation!"
"Uh. Actually. We do." Ace deadpanned, making his way down the stairs with a single jump. Striding across the room in full intimidating statue, pissed off beyond belief. "And that isn't going to cut it!" He hissed back.
There was only so much anger he can deal with keeping contained.
And this didn't call for him to even try to.
"You tried to kill one of my crew, one of my friends! I'm not just going to forgive that!"
She was lucky that it was Quinn and not him who'd overheard her muttering. Ace didn't think he'd even be able to go easy on her if he'd been the one to see her with the knife over Kat. For now, he'd settle on the dissatisfied curl in his stomach and the cool ire pooling into his eyes.
Sweat seemed to collect on her brow and Cona looked like she couldn't decide between passing out or throwing up. Or both.
"I…"
Kat crept up next to Ace tentatively.
If it was a better time and place, Kat would have tackled him into a hug. The statement forcing him to duck his head and his blushing face, rubbing at his sick mask with the back of his wrist. Beyond bashful.
"I know!" Cona managed to swallow down the nausea and fear long enough to shout back. "I know. I'm not… I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm just…"
Emotions at an all time high. She choked on the lump in her throat and the bartender stepped forward.
"We're just asking you to understand."
Salt growled. "They're pirates," she spat, unhelpfully, "they could never."
"Try me."
Ace is of little patience right now.
A pall of instilled fear has settled by this point. And Quinn watches those who tried to stand in defiance fall back, leaving none but the three too stubborn to give up. Even as the bartender raised her hands in surrender, the gesture was more placating out of necessity rather than a genuine offer of compassion.
"It's okay. We don't have to fight."
"And yet you're the one who gave Cona the knife." Quinn hums under her breath, just loud enough for Ace and Kat to catch wind. It gets her quick glances from over their shoulders.
"We're not your enemies here."
Ace scoffs. "Could've fooled me."
"I- no. We know it was bad. But, please."
"Please," Cona punctuated on their appeal, "trust that we didn't have a choice. And if- if we thought there was another option… we would've taken it. This brothel isn't really a brothel." She paused. "Or, it is. But that's not its primary purpose. We just want to keep the people here safe."
"You thought we were a threat."
"No! I mean, yes, kind of. But not. You… You aren't the ones we're afraid of."
"So," Quinn slid her hands down her face, burying her chin in her palms, utterly disturbed by the unfolding situation, "who are you afraid of then?"
It was hard to keep her eyes on any one of them. They all seemed to shift uncomfortably and look to their feet in despair, hoping for a better sight or to disappear where they stood. It made her suspicious of their every move and every breath. Made all the worse when Cona, who sucked in a deep breath, turned to the bartender for counsel.
They seemed to speak with their eyes for a long minute before Cona drooped and swallowed thickly.
Quinn got the feeling that they'd known each other for a long time. And that they could all also assume that, since the bartender seemed to be the ringleader behind the whole operation, she was also the proprietor of the brothel.
"There is a, uh."
She seemed to be having trouble speaking. Eyes downcast and tongue licking her lips anxiously.
"Group on this island. And they… they come from the other isle, Hunting Chang." Cona let out a self-assuring sigh. Trying to calm herself down. It was hard for her to admit, let alone say. Despite knowing it to be true. Saying it out loud just… made it feel all the more real. The other women seemed equally miffed and angry and she persisted on because of it. "We are at their mercy."
"...So?"
Strangely enough, they say it in unison, sharing one voice of complete disregard.
Cona cracked a smile. It was sad and tired. "Do you know what the Twin Isle is known for?"
"No."
"Spice."
"Drugs?" Quinn filled in.
Unexpectedly, she shakes her head. The smile still quirked on her face, like she expected that assumption. "Nope. Actual spices. Turmeric, nutmeg, ginger, saffron, paprika. You name it, we produce it. It has nothing to do with drugs. I mean, we're the number one distributor in the Blues- heh. Probably even the world."
Salt let out a low huff, "...shut up, someone will hear."
The bartender seemed to agree with her and they all tensed as she motioned at the brothel women and they began to move quickly. Not stepping anywhere closer to Cona, of which Ace made sure with glares and dark looks, as they closed window blinds and locked the door and- standing vigilantly at every possible opening to the building, and the subsequent exits.
"Hey, hey…"
A shared look with Ace had her grumbling under breath but keeping quiet. It didn't stop her from stealing paranoid glances at each slight movement. They weren't surrounded, but they were most certainly blocked off. And, while Ace didn't have any reason to worry about himself, Quinn was plenty worried.
She already didn't like this. Now she hated it even more.
"Everyone thinks that, because of what we do, we're under their thumb." Cona laughed coldly, humorlessly. "The- heh. The Marines talk a big game, but there's no justice for people like us. We're nothing to them. People don't care enough to investigate if we're having a hard time, which makes this the perfect place. They're going to have a hard time catching things going on right under their noses when they refuse to look down."
Quinn knew they were missing something.
"Unfortunately," the bartender hummed, "makes it a little hard to report troublesome people, doesn't it?"
Kat and Ace seemed just as confused.
And Kat tentatively spoke up, "...But, the group, though. You haven't mentioned them. What're they doing?"
"...Blackmailing us."
"What does a brothel have to hide?" Quite insensitively, Quinn asks, mouth getting away from her. She nearly bites her lip in self imposed embarrassment at the tone that slipped out, the sentence coming out with more blithe and bluster than she thought she was capable of. "I mean," she clarifies, "what the hell does that have to do with spices?"
Cona almost snarls a retort but swallows it down with a sardonic laugh and thinly veiled anger.
"Yes, well! When your spice production is so popular that the Celestial Dragons take notice and decide that we're their number one provider and refuse to pay anyone because we should be honored to be forced into labor by them, I think you're going to want to find any way out that you can. Even if it means hiding in safe houses, where people would never think to look, like, you know, brothels, or leaving the island that was once your home entirely."
Oh. Oh.
Quinn suddenly wanted absolutely nothing to do with this island.
"That's bad…"
"It's a monopoly, really."
Kat nearly choked on his own saliva. "Wait- Wait, hold on. You… You're hiding people?!"
She felt sick and her stomach dropped. Quickly trying to steady her breath in order to remain calm, only just barely keeping herself from failing miserably. The Celestial Dragons… Quinn wanted to leave. It was enough to have goosebumps breaking out over her skin as she bit her lip. There was just so much that had her heart stopping.
She almost missed hearing Cona confirm Kat's question. "It's an unfortunate truth."
"...And upstairs?"
Salt had kept her from the top floor when she'd come down. Quinn hadn't thought to check once Ace had arrived, distracting her from exploring it further. But, now it made sense why such a young girl was in the building and apparently knew the workers.
Speaking of her, the girl was growling at them under her breath. Like she didn't know whether to simply prowl or go on the attack.
"We keep most people on the top floor. All the stuff in the hallway…"
It'd reminded Kat of his shell collection that he couldn't bring with him. Important items that he'd love to have because they were his and no one else's but were just too much to realistically and seriously consider lugging around.
"It's the things people have taken from their homes that they want to bring with them. Most of it they can't take. But the factory likes to confiscate people's things, and they'd rather we have it than they do."
It made a fair amount of sense.
A big ol' fuck you to their aggressors. And, relating to it, Kat didn't think he wanted anyone to get a hold of his shells. The small bit of relief he had was owed to the fact that he didn't think any of the islanders would stumble upon his home. Whether for remaining fear or it simply being out of reach.
Ace let out an enraged breath through his nose.
"The ones blackmailing you…" He spoke up darkly. "They're a threat to this."
He's a dark presence in the room. A weight that's heavy on their minds, a constant; one that has Cona second guessing her every move. He's like a predator. Stalking. Not something she can actively engage… but a threat she couldn't possibly ignore.
She still nearly jumps out of her skin, not having expected him to say anything.
"Y-Yes! It's," she swallows nervously, "the group over here. They figured out what we're doing. They're… threatening us because of it. Using it against us. And we can't do anything."
"Not without them messing up our whole operation." The bartender finishes for her. "Then no one will be free."
It shouldn't be enough.
Ace's eyes turn intense, something clicking into place in his brain. It's the sort of- Of course! -feeling when finding out something that should've been obvious. It's not that anything really pointed to those bastards, or that they'd even crossed his mind. But Ace had come to find that most problems in the world seemed to have at least something to do with the Celestial Dragons.
And, that shouldn't be enough. It isn't.
Kat was attacked. And he's still clearly shaken.
But Ace is less accusing. Even if he's not meaning to be. They still don't know a lot, and he refuses to let that be the end of it, but he- He understands. Even if he doesn't want to.
Something like a snarl begins to build in the back of his throat and he swallows it down with gritted teeth.
"-So what?"
Quinn is much more audacious than him at that moment.
"Are we just supposed to forgive you?"
She was sympathetic, she really was. And, any other time, she would've been all ears and way more empathetic to their cause. But it was like they were dancing quickly off the topic of the conversation, the real reason they were pissed, and she refused to let it derail itself further.
"You could be saints for all I care," she pulled the knife from the table and resheathed it, "that still doesn't excuse the fact that you tried to murder one of us. In cold blood." Even she knew it would have been different if it had been a fight, but while he was sleeping. The sheer audacity was enough to offend.
From the look on Cona and the rest of their faces, they did not appreciate the return to the subject. Looking disgruntled.
"So they know your secret. Big deal. What the hell does that have to do with us?"
They were nothing but a small band of no-name pirates. They didn't even know about Ace and her Devil Fruit powers and- let's face it, this is the East Blue. They probably had no reason to suspect that they actually existed in the first place. Nothing but tall tales and mythos. There was no reason for them to have been targets- much less have gotten involved- none of them even had bounties yet!
Salt snapped. "See! I told you- they could never understand!"
"I don't understand because you haven't actually given us any answers. We're not looking for excuses or attempts to pull at our heartstrings." Quinn snorted and then turned her gaze forward. She's receiving eyes from everyone in the room at this point. And Quinn leans forward, glare fixed, trying to draw answers out of them was like trying to siphon oil. Hard at first, but once you got them going, they wouldn't stop. She just needed them going in the right direction. "You know, I bet they like hurting you."
It's acidic. It drips from her tongue like poison, fatal and manipulative. And it has them turning red in the face and babbling with barely kept rage and voices beginning to yell.
Even as the cutting words burn on her own breath, she continues despite the pain.
"Because, again, no one would care. And, on the off chance they did, then you'd be discovered and your whole operation would be ruined. They have you completely backed into a corner. Like you said: you're at their mercy." Her eyes glint. "So why the hell would they go out of their way to hurt us when they're so busy hurting you?"
It causes a bout of silence that's only broken by sputtering.
"It was an exchange."
It's the bartender who admits it. Half expecting to receive a punch to the face when eyes fix themselves on her face.
"And we had to keep our part of the deal."
For the additional words, she very much almost did.
Fortunately for her, Cona quickly swallowed her nervousness down and spoke up. Grim and unbelievably tense, eyes fixing closed. Refusing to make eye contact with any of them. "The… uh, one who saved me earlier- K-Kat? Is Kat his name?" Said redhead flinched at the stutter and the fear in her voice when she said it, only able to nod slightly. "He took out one of their men. Remember? Earlier, the one who was chasing me." Everything was said so hesitantly and quietly that it made it almost a struggle to hear her, she was trying to gauge their reactions without opening her eyes. Too scared that she wouldn't like what she saw if she opened them.
"They… wanted him dead as retribution?" Quinn guessed.
"Y-Yes."
Ace folded the words over in his head. Teeth grinding, there was the chance that she was lying. Though Ace doubted it. The reactions they'd been given corroborated her already. But they couldn't afford to be wrong about this. He tried to figure out every side to her words that he could, stealing a glance at Kat.
He seemed to physically droop, but from the look on his face he was clearly thinking this was pretty par for the course.
Reluctantly, Cona peaked an eye open when no attack came. Nearly shutting her eyes again when she caught sight of the look on Ace's face, a shiver running up her spine. "They- They wanted two more replacements also!" She blurted. "They promised two people to the factory as gifts."
Feeling sick at the glimpse of his grey eyes.
"F-For me and… for Salt."
Said girl seemed to turn beet red, lips pursed shut and eyebrows pulling downward. "I told you not to say anything." Salt hissed, crossing her arms over her chest. The seething was directed away from them for once and Cona squirmed at the shrill disapproval.
Quinn recalled the heinous suggestion the man had offered them before Kat had thrown him through a building. A dark scowl twisted across her face. "That's why he said that he wanted to take me and Ace off his hands, then?"
"An eye for an eye." Ace muttered.
Kat felt like he was about to hurl.
And his tongue grew numb in his mouth with the weight of his teeth.
It felt nothing like regret. No. In fact, a flash of anger boiled over his skin, and he wished that he'd hit even harder. But something disgusting curdled and he wanted to lash out. Fists shaking with dangerous creaks of bones as he clenched them and-
"Kat?"
He swallowed.
Blood from his mouth had been lifting past his lips, raising into solid drops beneath his sick mask, and the sweat and leftover dampness from the shower earlier, drifted unnaturally upward with steely emotions and unshaken anger. He leaned into Ace's hand, letting the emotion bubble inside, before quelling it with a stifling focus. The hand on his shoulder was warm and comforting. And the spark of flames, flickering on his fingers, helped to put him at ease.
"Why…" He shook off the… uh, moment. Trying to pretend like it hadn't happened and quickly took the conversations reigns, a bit unsurely. "Why did they want replacements for you two?"
"Why does it matter?! You have your answers now, just leave us alone!"
Ace, thankfully, squeezed his shoulder a little harder in comfort. It turned his glare into a simmering heat.
Salt still flinched.
Quinn supposed it didn't matter much at this point. They had more than enough to make a decision but it felt like solving an incomplete mystery. And she wanted those few remaining puzzle pieces before anything was decided. Ace didn't seem like he was quite satisfied yet, either. And so she chose to push their luck a little further. Running her teeth over her lip, if it was going to be done, she might as well be the one to do it.
She didn't think Kat would be up for it anymore. He… looked to be in a state.
"No. Go on. It's not like you're in a position to tell us no."
It's a thinly veiled threat that's barely a threat at all. More of a promise at this point. And more of a shove in the right direction, really.
Something tells Quinn that they won't be burning the building down tonight.
Cona turns to Salt pleadingly.
And, for once, the supercilious girl caves in. Pointedly not looking in Kat's directly, unable to bare their gazes, and tells it like it is.
"They… caught me. Calling for help." She rubbed at her neck, the bandages crinkling beneath her fingers. "For people that might actually care. Hunting Chang… everything over there is closely monitored. Everyone is under lock and key every minute of the day and they can scramble any kind of communication lines they don't recognize."
The frustration is clear as day.
"I thought that… over here it'd be better. But those bastards, they hang out on a hill overlooking the ocean, it's the biggest building on the island, and they caught me nearby when I was just starting to pick up a read… damn it."
"Doesn't anybody who leaves bother to come back with help?"
"Well, yeah, some try to. But once people hear it's about the World Nobles they either ignore them or… throw them in jail for trying to go against their rule."
"After a while, we told them to not… bother." The bartender admitted. "We didn't want them to screw up what we still have working for us and we didn't want them to ruin their lives that they just got back."
"Cona… tried to help me escape, and I did, but she got caught doing it." Salt clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms as she bowed her head in shame. "I should've listened to my brother and been more careful…"
Cona soured. "You shouldn't have listened to that brother of yours at all." She sneered, shooting a stern glare over her shoulder. "Getting you involved in all of this…" She shook her head in indignation. "You're just a child!"
Salt turned red. "Just because I'm young doesn't mean I can't do anything! He said that anyone can fight back and those that don't are-!"
"Would you jump off a cliff if he told you to? I know you look up to him but… this. This is just ridiculous. He's not right about everything and filling your head with ideas that could put you in danger- What would your sisters say?"
She puffed out her cheeks, practically steaming from the ears.
"...I bet they would agree with him too…!"
Their arguing was giving her a headache. She rubbed her temples to try and massage the throbbing out but, unfortunately, it seemed to do nothing to help and Quinn sighed.
Almost missing catching sight of Kat turning to Ace. Whatever his eyes seemed to convey had Ace frowning and searching to make sure he got the right answer. No sooner did he blink, words unspoken, and it almost looked as if they had had an entire conversation held between them. And, when Ace takes a step forward, Cona and Salt trail off and the room was subsequently silenced in his presence.
The audience waited with bated breath.
Quinn followed his gait closely and Kat looked away.
"The ones threatening you," he approached with a shadowed face, "they're the ones who wanted Kat dead, not you?"
He was standing over Cona now. The poor woman was shaking like a leaf and was forced to swallow, mouth suddenly unbelievably dry. Nodding, waited for the inevitable, and sucking in a terrified breath that she believed to be her final.
"...Okay then."
Ace let her binds fall, fingers burning through the restraints.
"W-Wha-?"
She gasped. Eye blinking open wildly, gaping at her freed hands.
"They're the ones behind this all." He grinned, teeth showing with an animalistic bare. "I'm going to kick their ass!"
Cona rubbed at her red wrists in shock. "B-But- I thought-"
Quinn ran a hand through her hair, sagging. She expected as much.
A real fight. She didn't know what she was in for.
"Don't get me wrong, I still don't like any of you. But I'd rather focus on the actual threats. Chehehe!"
It was a wonder seeing the reactions from the room. Complete disbelief and disproportionate shock. Ace really knew how to leave a room speechless, didn't he?
And then he promptly fell asleep.
"Ah."
Quinn rushed to catch him before he could hit the floor and crack his head open. Ignoring the opened mouthed attention they gained. Goddamn, she really didn't know what she was in for.
But…
"We'll need to figure out how we're going to do this without messing everything up. And I think you all seem to have quite the surplus of information."
…
…
"This way…" She hissed, hard to hear over the rain.
Under the cover of darkness, their shadows stretched to run against the sides of the building and over the street. The umbrella fighting against the wind, attempting to throw itself inside out, and Ace wipes a hand over his brow. Avoiding the droplets as best he can, but still struggling with the task.
"I got it."
The water suddenly disappeared in front of them and the rain stilled midair.
"Thanks."
It was enough to have Cona stopping in her tracks.
She was dragged forward before she could even register what happened, stumbling over her own feet. Not wanting to think on it and, definitely, not on the possibilities of the power.
They split.
A quick nod had the two men rushing away, sprinting off into the dark, far faster than they had been moving previously. Leaving the others to trek slowly and carefully, dredging through muck and mud at a silent and uncomfortable pace. Deliberate in their movement. There was much to be done and they had found the building.
It stood lonely on the hill at the edge of the island. Further out and displaced from the rest of the land, dark and lustrous in the pale moonlight. They all clambered closer, making sure that they remained unseen.
Kat and Ace shared a smirk.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
…
…
"Can't we just go in there and beat the shit out of them?"
"Mnh, well, we could," Quinn drawled slowly, looking up from the paper that was spread out in front of her, "but we could also not. You know, I don't want to be the one to tell the people this place is protecting that we ruined their hiding spot and decade worth of safety. Do you?"
Begrudgingly, he agreed, pouting. She had a point there.
"Besides," she went back to writing on the paper, "if we tip them off that the brothel isn't under their thumb they'll, I don't know, try and get revenge or something. And, as much as they will have deserved it-" She gave a pointed glare to Cona, who had the decency to at least look ashamed. "-I'm sure said-protected people won't appreciate it. Especially for screwing up their hiding place just because their helpers are massive assholes."
Because, as much as they were pirates, they weren't that kind of a jerk.
They didn't really have any hostility towards people who didn't have anything to do with them.
The women all bowed their heads and Quinn didn't try to hide her self-satisfied smirk.
What? She was not above being as petty as possible.
"So, a plan."
"A plan." Quinn confirmed.
It'd taken Ace quite a while to wake up.
He was completely dead to the world in that span of time. Mouth hanging open, head lolling to the side, and unaware of everything happening around him. Even as she'd laid him on the floor, careful not to jostle him, he hadn't so much as twitched. The sudden narcolepsy attack had had her heart jumping into her throat, the sheer shock of it enough to have her throwing herself forward just so he wouldn't hit the floor. Even though she was pretty sure his fire would protect him from any initial bumps and bruises.
Admittedly, she'd hissed when Cona had tried offering a helping hand.
A reluctant one, she might add, that was only there because of the woman's own surprise and newly released binds. After that, no one dared step closer with Quinn sitting next to him and Kat crouched close. Hovering over her shoulder and watching Ace with a mix of worry and nervousness.
The manga had made a mockery of Ace's narcolepsy. The attacks played up for comedic value and a quick laugh, or a shocking introduction with a twist. And, when she'd read the book and knew nothing of someone with the illness, she'd… thought it a little funny. Now she just felt ashamed of herself.
It… wasn't funny.
It wasn't cute, either.
The sleep attacks were either completely sudden, which was often the case, or were slow and dredged out. Leaving Ace blinking and woozy on his feet, suddenly lacking in basic coordination and function, as he deliriously tried to make sense of the world around him. He would close his eyes and they would roll to the back of his head as soon as he opened them again. The ugly facade of someone desperately trying to stay awake but being unable to.
If he'd been standing, he would collapse, completely unbalanced. If he was sitting, sometimes his muscles would seize up and he'd look as stiff as a board, almost as if he was having a seizure.
Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised if he'd gotten used to getting knocked in the head every time he suffered an attack. It was enough to have her grimacing and standing closer whenever she could, not trusting his fruit to throw up its defenses. Sometimes it left scrapes of fire on her hands wherever she'd catch him. Small blisters and calluses beginning to form.
Thankfully, he hadn't noticed that, and Kat was there to pick up the slack if she ever wasn't able to make it in time.
And when he was getting them multiple times a day… she needed the helping hand.
The first few times it happened had been when he was sitting down, luckily enough. He'd just nod off for a second or a few minutes, depending, and was only half the time aware that he'd even fallen asleep. And the one time where he'd been standing up had been in the middle of the deck, making him lurch forward and right onto Kat, so they hadn't been as worried about it as they probably should have been.
It had been luck.
That's all it had been.
She was glad that she'd been keeping a mark on him at all the times she could.
But…
"Hey, Kat, check out that cool bird over- uh- over-"
"Wha- Ace! Kat, dive after him!"
The resulting tumble over the side of the ship- a death sentence if Kat hadn't been there- had been an abrupt eye opening experience and an especially strong punch to the gut for Quinn.
She'd… She'd just laid down for a second and had forgotten to re-mark him.
She'd been forced to watch Kat grab him and yank him back up to the surface, sputtering and spitting. Thankfully, not breathing in any water.
"Forgot I can't swim."
It was one thing for her to be unable to swim and save herself. It was another to watch someone else nearly drown and be completely unable to help them.
"He cool?" Kat muttered over her shoulder, hunched beside her.
"Yeah. He's fine."
It was beyond worrying. And she hoped that the ones shown laughing at his narcolepsy or not caring at his expense were inaccurate. The depiction of it was not… good from what few she'd seen.
At least Kat was as equally concerned about it as her. The red head fretting over him with anxiety ridden shoulders and a stressed attitude that was not going away anytime soon. He'd gotten into the habit of watching Ace whenever he'd gotten close to a water source he could possibly drown in.
Considering that the majority of the time they were surrounded by the freaking ocean-
Well, it was a state of constant vigilance.
And one they were determined to keep.
"Wow, this drawing is almost as bad as my brothers…" Ace rubbed his chin, mumbling under his breath. Unaware of the worry he caused them.
Kat tentatively whispered, "How… How can he draw worse than this?"
"We can at least tell what this is."
Quinn snorted, calling up the crappy images that Luffy drew to her mind- which she was sure was absolutely ten times worse in reality. The sheet in front of them was a bunch of squiggly boxes and triangles with labels and an approximate idea of where everything was. The map- courtesy of Cona and Salt and whoever else grabbed the pen- was shittily drawn, none of them were particularly gifted artists.
And Quinn was busy making a list of all the things they absolutely couldn't do.
Like Alert the spice factory…
...which would presumably alert the Celestial Dragons.
She definitely didn't want to catch the attention of anyone in association with the Celestial Dragons. Especially not providers of any kind. Even if it was something as dumb as spice they'd undoubtedly get worked up about it if they heard someone was messing with them in even the slightest way. It was absolutely ridiculous.
And it had her biting her lip in fear.
"Now, how many people are we dealing with?"
Quinn didn't want to fight. She was essentially a non-combatant. Oh, sure, she could run and climb buildings and hardcore-parkour (Ha!) her way to safety, lockpick and perform really slow self-defense moves, but that really wouldn't get her far in an actual real fight. The only training she had was defense sessions at a gym in a controlled setting with slow, repetitive motions that she could perform in a completely non stressful situation and with people that knew when to let go.
Was Quinn skipping over the fact that she managed to pin Cona down?
Absolutely. She didn't even count in her mind.
The woman was tiny and looked nearly half her weight.
She did not like the thought of this.
A fight. A fight. A fight. She was actively pursuing a fight.
"Thirty, give or take."
They were bent over the table, trying to formulate some kind of plan that wasn't a foolhardy attack with nothing else going for it. And Quinn was not liking anything she was hearing so far. Half assed ideas or plain stupid ones were tossed around, or simply nothing at all. But, thirty people. Thirty. She hoped that was the max and she wasn't lowballing it because-
Wow, okay. Quinn rubbed her temples.
Ace waved a hand in the air, unbothered by the number. "I can take them."
"I know you can, Ace. But that's not the problem here."
He beamed at the boast of confidence.
She gave him a flat look.
Ace was more of a man of action. While he was interested in the prospect of a plan, this was getting tedious. He was all for rushing in and throwing hands with the first person he saw. Unfortunately, the general and resounding response he was getting to that suggestion was a vehement 'no!'- resulting in a sympathetic pat on the back from Kat. Who was more inclined to go in with a plan if he had the option but… he felt a bit thrown for a loop at the ideas Quinn was muttering about and denying under her breath.
They all seemed good to him but then again- this seemed more Quinn's thing.
"The only person we really need to convince that we're absolutely acting of our own accord and directly in response to the attempted murder is the leader, so we'll have to find him…" That was assuming that he would be the only one who would be listened to if he contacted the factory. "If they're in cahoots then we'll be screwed if they call them and tell them we've been messing with them, and since they're probably going to have direct phone lines to them it'll be annoying…"
It was a lot to unpack.
Also, he didn't know what a phone was.
"You sure about this, Ace?" She asked, not for the first time, with little hope that he would change his mind.
"Of course! They were the ones that wanted to mess with us," he tapped his knuckles together and gave her an absolutely devilish grin, "We're teaching them a lesson one way or another."
"Naturally."
Of course. Instigation promotes reaction.
Well! Quinn had a knife now, so there was that.
She'd had to slap away Cona's hand when she'd tried to retrieve the blade, receiving a dark glare and a glower that was not to be trifled with. The woman had shrunk back and hadn't tried it again, hadn't even looked her way. Sweating under the intensity of Quinn's stare.
While Ace and Kat were seemingly moving on from the- uh, attempted murder. Quinn was not so easily swayed, even if they wanted her to be. It helped that the glaring seemed to be getting to them, causing them to shift uncomfortably everytime her eyes passed over their faces. Though the bartender, who was also very, very suspect, was having a much easier time not acknowledging it.
"I, uh…"
Cona swallowed as the full trio's attention landed on her.
"I-I want to go with you."
"No."
Quinn was immediate to decline.
Kat knocked his shoulder against hers and she didn't even try to hide her scowl.
"Please!" She'd been begging a lot lately. Cona made a distressed noise, bowing her head, hands on the table to brace herself as she spoke. She didn't even think she could say it. "I want to help, you're helping us now! I m-mean, even if it is just because of a common enemy. I want to go and…"
Make up for my actions.
She couldn't bring herself to say it, to admit her wrongdoing, but it was implied.
"Mmhm." Quinn was not impressed. Looking sour.
And Kat… wanted to say yes, but also not at all. He didn't have a lot of practice with forgiving people, would rather bite his tongue than do it, and he didn't want to start now.
Fortunately, this was a situation where he didn't have to decide.
"Ace?"
"Sure."
He'd default to the Captain's choice.
It wasn't quite forgiveness. But it was something.
And he felt like he was getting away with that something. And he didn't feel the least bit guilty about it.
Quinn was unhappy with the turn of events. "Uh-huh." It meant that she'd have to keep an eye on Cona because she'd be damned if she let the women anywhere with either Ace or Kat alone, even if she knew they were both more than capable of defending themselves should they need to. "If you get caught, it's on you then. They'll have a reason to suspect the brothel is behind this."
Cona winced. "I know… but they're connected with the Celestial Dragons. It won't matter either way if it involves them. I'll take my chances."
The unfortunate reality of the situation had Quinn groaning slightly. Yeah, she wouldn't be surprised if they held all the citizens on the island accountable if they thought, for even a moment, the people were behind it. A dark thought crossed Quinn's mind and, while it was quickly shaken away, she didn't… quite forget it.
They'd make the perfect scapegoat.
She really did deserve to go to hell.
"Hey, if Cona goes I want to go!"
"What do you think this is- a field trip?" Quinn asked incredulously.
Salt sneered. Not, it seemed, appreciating her comment. Heh, none of them appreciated her outburst. "I can help just as much as she can. They hurt me too!" She gripped the bandages around her neck, wincing from having touched the injury too hard. It made her eye twitch. "I can-"
She was yanked away with a yelp by the bartender, the woman looking absolutely infuriated by the girl. "I don't care what kind of things your brother has been feeding you, you aren't strong like he is. You shouldn't even be down here. We told you to stay with the others until you were healed and we could send you back to your sisters-" Whatever else was too hard to make out as she dragged her to a stool by the bar. Making sure she didn't add in anymore unnecessary comments.
Salt fumed silently, rage palpable.
"...Right. Anyways, I think I have an idea."
A plan began to form at last. Broad enough for Ace and Kat to stick to it with little effort on their part but still enough that Quinn was finally satisfied that she wasn't walking to her immediate death. The bartender watched them from where she still stood at the bar, pouring herself a drink, listening to the plan with a nod of her head.
"Normally, I would never condone this."
Ace rolled his eyes. "We're not asking for permission."
She ignored him. "They'll screw us over no matter what, whether we help or not, unless you all would let us turn you in-"
"Nah."
"Not happening."
"-So," she raised a drink dispassionately, "give 'em hell."
…
…
Quinn crouched.
Fingers bending a pair of bobby pins into the shapes she required.
It was slow work, picking locks, and usually it was a fun pastime- really, more of a dorky hobby than anything, from when she was too young to think about anything other than how cool it would be to know. Despite being virtually inapplicable in literally every moment of everyday life. Honestly, she was surprised she even remembered. But, being something she'd only had time to practice when Ace wasn't breaking all her pins, the added on stress of actually committing a crime was enough to have her hands fumbling. Even if it was just breaking-and-entering, and they definitely deserved it.
Quinn knew her sense of morality was not… the best. But this was like going from zero to one hundred and she was more than a little rueful.
The rain dripped in her eyes and made it hard to see, forcing her to blink wildly in a useless attempt to push the drops away. They clung to her eyelashes and, wiping a hand over her face, did little more than to smear it before more fell. It made it increasingly hard to break into the storm cellar; a back entrance to the building that was typically ignored, at least according to Cona in what limited knowledge she actually had.
Barely anything or not, the only defense it had was a pair of wooden doors, chained handles, and the clunky, rusted over lock. Proof that she seemed to be telling the truth that it didn't get a lot of attention.
It reminded Quinn of every storm cellar she had ever seen from movies and television, never actually having seen one in real life.
Cona lowered herself down, next to her, and watched Quinn work with a barely held fascination. There was only so much she could do to help at this point and she half-wished that she'd kept her trap shut when she'd offered her services. But, she'd never seen anyone pick a lock before, so she was trying to look on the bright side of things.
Unfortunately, Cona was a very negative person so that didn't last very long.
"Why am I with you?"
It didn't help that Quinn was refusing to acknowledge her.
A pin hanging loosely from her mouth as she looked the lock over, not even glancing up. Honestly, if she had a hammer or something, she was pretty sure they could just break it. The lock was so old and so brown with rust and wear that she felt like she was getting tetanus just from looking.
Cona talked on.
"I could've gone with your Captain or- or Kat."
"No."
She pulled the pin from her mouth and shoved it into the keyhole with way more force than Cona expected. Making her flinch away at the aggressive move and grimace at the sound of rust and grime scraping around from inside the lock. Was this a power move? Cona didn't… Cona didn't know what to think but she thought Quinn was doing it on purpose.
(She was.)
But, Quinn also had to. She wasn't even sure she'd be able to pick it. It was so deteriorated. Just getting the pin inside was a bitch and a half.
"Why not? You…" Cona stammered, trailing off as Quinn finally glanced up. She had a bit of mud smeared across her brow. And, with her hair sticking to her face and getting in her eyes, the beginnings of first light on the horizons catching her gaze, her glower turned three times more intense and borderline demon-like.
Cona wished it'd stay darker. She didn't like looking at her, in the light she was afraid to even see.
She bowed her head, eyes firmly fixed on the space between her feet.
"Need I remind you," she growled through another pin, "that you tried to kill Kat?"
She tried to save face. "Okay. I- Then your Captain!"
"No. I don't trust that for multiple reasons."
Ace was not… a trusting person.
She means, of course not. Quinn knew that much without even having to have met him in real life.
Anyone who'd grown up like him would not have the ability to trust right off the bat, much less with someone that was proven to be a threat. Quinn could assume that it'd been a while since he'd had anyone to actively distrust though. And, Quinn got the feeling that, now that he was free and up and about in the world, while he still regarded people with suspicion, he was also hoping to get the best out of them.
She thinks it has more than a little something to do with Luffy's influence, but Quinn is also inclined to think it has something to do with a, very relatable, tiredness.
There was only so much time you could spend dealing with paranoia and suspicion before you just got sick of it and stopped caring whether or not people were bad, consequences be damned.
And Quinn didn't trust that sort of attitude. Even if she was beholden to it herself sometimes. It was dangerous and liable to end with either the short end of the stick or a knife in your back.
Quinn expected that Ace would put a stop to Cona if he saw her up to something, but she didn't think he'd care enough to actively and closely watch what she got up to. At least, not in a way that Quinn would be satisfied with it and certainly not enough that she felt she could trust him to properly watch over her. Unless Cona was doing something to threaten the people he cared about, like Kat or Luffy, then Ace would probably be extremely blaise about it.
Adding onto that fact, she just didn't trust Cona to not pull anything if she got the chance.
Quinn would rather keep any and all interactions with her to a minimum. And, if she absolutely had to come along, which- ugh, Captain orders -she'd rather she be the one on constant watch. Even if she knew the others could take care of themselves just fine.
She didn't want to get in trouble. They were pirates but… come on. Celestial Dragons? She'd rather they not have the slightest chance of catching wind of their existence.
...And Quinn was from another world. She couldn't help the horrible scenarios running through her head if they ever found out, it almost promoted a physically ill response. No matter how slight the possibility of them actually finding out was- it was just something she didn't want to think about.
Unfortunately she couldn't help but to.
She didn't want any kind of attention.
Even though she knew that Ace would eventually get a bounty. And, presumably, Kat would too. Maybe even her, as pitiful of an amount as it would be, Quinn didn't think she was mentally prepared for that.
Just. No.
She felt something move inside the lock.
"But…"
Cona let a whine bubble out. Low and quiet.
It was impossibly uncomfortable. Being around Quinn. Everytime Cona tried to engage in even the bare minimum of conversation, even if it was just business, she was either brutally ignored or quelled into silence by Quinn's dark looks. She wouldn't even explain the stupid gold mark she'd wiped on her hand. And- while she knew she deserved it- She did!- she was almost certain that she'd be better off with one of the other two. As terrifying as they were.
With Quinn it felt like she was going to be left for dead if the opportunity ever arose.
It was enough to have her rigid and tense with paranoia. But was it really paranoia when they were actually out to get you?
"You hate me."
"I never said that."
The bobby pin was screaming in protest.
Quinn was afraid that it would snap under the pressure but she pressed on anyway. It was hard to be careful when she had to force it like this.
"I can see your face. It's not comforting."
"Oh, sorry, I'll try and change it for you." She snorted, voice dripping with sarcasm. "What- You want me to say that I'm going to protect you? There's nothing to worry about? I'll forget everything and it'll all be alright if we just stick together! Nothing could possibly go wrong." She knocked on wood. "Psh, as if."
"It- You've been like this even before what I tried to pull!" Cona accused. "You didn't like me from the moment you saw me."
"Don't take it personally. I don't like most people I first meet."
Quinn may not have seen the whole situation leading up to Kat punting a guy through a building but, if she'd had to hazard a guess, she'd say that it was likely entirely Cona's fault in the first place. Something told her it was a pretty good guess.
"Well, why not?"
"Seems like you're taking it personally."
"No, I-"
It really wasn't anything deep.
Quinn just didn't like meeting new people and barely liked talking to people she actually knew. Other than the few friends she had growing up, there hadn't been any reason to enjoy it. Even then, with people she actually liked and got along with, there were moments where she just wanted to curl up and not say anything for days on end.
She was the sort of friend who, when the sidewalk wasn't big enough to fit a group, she'd be the one to fall behind. It wasn't a designation or something done out of malice. But it was as if she was always rushing to try and keep up. Sometimes, the lack of need to speak- to be a part of anything, was a breath of fresh air that had her calming down and taking a moment to recompose herself. Most of the time though, she was left alone. A piece of a group that wasn't really needed.
Uncomfortable and awkward and shifting around in her own mess of a self.
"You shouldn't. It's more of a me thing." It borderline sounded reassuring but Cona thought that was wrong. It was more like Quinn was talking to herself rather than to her. "Didn't like Ace or Kat all that much when we first met either."
"I- Really?"
Cona almost couldn't believe that. They hadn't struck her as the best of friends but they still struck her as friends. Companions who actually liked each other's company.
"That said…"
A ship was no sidewalk.
There was no need to push someone out and have them walk behind. They were equally uncomfortable stuck in a small space with little to no allowance for freedom of movement. It was a shitty situation for them all.
She almost resented it, to be perfectly honest. It was so far outside her comfort zone and realm of possible thought that it felt like the only thing she could do was abhor it. That particular zeal had lost its luster quickly.
There was only so much you could hate before you just got tired of it.
In that respect, she could understand Ace.
And it was increasingly getting harder and harder to pretend that she didn't like being part of a group that wasn't trying to shut her away or push her to the side.
Not even when they were on land. A tiny part of her curdles with a selfish victory, born of greed and an appetite that was nowhere close to being sated, because she was the first to join. There was no way that she'd be pushed aside when she was the first.
Or, she liked to pretend that she was convinced of that, and that it was actually true.
"I like them just fine now."
The lock clicks in her hand. Success.
It falls open with a crumble and she untangles the chain with dust covered hands.
"So I'm not going to tolerate anyone messing with them."
Cona swallowed as she watched her open the doors to the storm cellar and jump inside. That comment was definitely pointed at her that time. She could not catch a break today, could she?
She sighed and quickly followed after.
-0-
Ace and Kat were still stuck in the rain. Nearby the building, watching a few dark shadows walk past the windows. Huh, Ace had figured that everybody would be asleep around this time, Quinn had assumed so too- he guessed they were early risers then.
Whatever, he yawned into his free hand, holding back a sneeze.
He was sure it'd all work out.
"Hey…" Kat rubbed his arm, flicking a hand to push rain out of the way. He could only hold it for a minute before he'd have to do it again but at least it felt like he was helping. "Thanks for helping me calm down earlier. I… think I was losing control back there."
"It's cool." He fails to hold back the sneeze, rubbing his nose. "-che! I know what that feels like. Don't worry about it."
They were hanging out under the canopy of trees. He thinks if he squinted he could just barely make out the shapes of Quinn and Cona disappearing into the storm cellar and closing the doors behind them, their shapes getting more pronounced as the sun rose past the hill.
"You do?"
"Huh?"
"...Lose control?"
Oh, right. He'd only been half paying attention to their conversation.
"Yeah, used to all the time."
Heh, he says used to. Really, it doesn't feel like much has changed.
Ace is pretty sure that he's been stuck in a state of eternal rage since the moment he was born and by this point he'd just gotten way better at putting a cap on it-
There was just so, so many things to be angry at.
Maybe not the most healthy of methods but, eh. What did he know?
Kat felt his shoulders slump in relief. "Oh. Okay. Sorry, I-" He'd just gotten so emotional that he'd let his Fishman Jujutsu get out of hand. Enough so that he'd scared himself a little bit.
He didn't think he really was a monster but-
Moments like that? It really made him think that he could be someday.
"It… kinda feels like I'm running away from it." He admits, and blows warm air into his hands. He doesn't know how Ace isn't freezing, especially with his shirt open like that. "Just burying it underneath. I don't think you're supposed to do that."
"Er."
Ah, he'd been called out.
Ace looked away, making a face.
Before shrugging and shaking his head, "Nah! It's not running away. I'd never run away."
"But…"
"Besides, I think Quinn does it too. And she seems fine!"
Kat paused. Unable to help but think back to when Ace had gone missing and Quinn had slowly begun to break down slower over each day, her face blank and words becoming more forced with every passing hour. The fact that she'd kept it together, way better than he had, had been immensely supportive at the time. But she'd seemed… more than a little off once they'd refound Ace.
More than a little awkward and scarred by the situation. And Kat would be lying if he'd said that he hadn't caught her staring out at sea more than once with an empty look on her face, before glancing at Ace and seemingly reevaluating her own thoughts.
He didn't think that was normal but, then again, Ace had known her longer. So he was probably right.
"Ah- okay."
Kat hummed and nodded slowly. It was an odd bit of assurance but, he figured, that if both his crewmates did it too then it was probably fine. And, Ace was right, once a few days had passed, Quinn seemed like she was fine. She only stared out at sea with a creepy expression for half the amount of time as she did before!
He rubbed his face.
Maybe he should ask her about it?
The night seemed to pass into morning before their very eyes and the sky grew warm with the sudden pink of the sun in the far distance. It was still raining noisily and he was beginning to get tired of brushing the rain away from them to keep Ace from getting wet. They were still waiting, much longer than they'd thought they'd be, but not enough to grow worried about it.
The silence between them was beginning to get annoying though.
And Ace turned around, looking disgruntled. Latching onto the first thing that got him curious. "By the way, why are you still wearing that stupid thing?"
He was quick to realize what Ace was talking about and was doubly quick in trying to cover it up. Kat pointed at his sick mask, the object of his attention. Trying to pretend that there was absolutely nothing wrong and that he was confused why he'd even pointed it out in the first place. "Oh, this? I-I just don't want to get sick and-"
Ace rolled his eyes. "Bullshit. It's so no one sees your face, isn't it?"
"I-" He trailed off. He'd been had. "Is it that obvious?"
Ace gave him a look that made him feel really stupid.
Like.
Really, really goddamn stupid.
In fact, he felt himself squeak and bury his head in his hands, face reddening. He'd really thought it'd work, he should've known it was a dumb idea. Ace watched, waiting expectantly for an answer. Kat swallowed. It felt like there was a ball in his throat. "I… thought that it'd keep us out of trouble. That no one would mess with me if they didn't know what I am. Even if I'm just half a fishman, that doesn't stop humans from seeing the gills first and the rest second."
"...I don't think that worked out all that well."
"Yeah, no shit."
Ace snorted, laughing. It fell into a chuckle with him clapping a hand on Kat's back. "You know, anybody who matters won't care that you're half-fishman or that you've got gills. We won't."
Even though he can't see it, Kat still gives him an awkward grin beneath the mask. "I know, I know. Thanks." He shrugs the hand away. "But look at where we are now? It's just causing one big problem for all of us."
"They're just assholes Kat. They may have thought they were in the right because yadda-yadda," Ace mimed a hand talking and Kat smiled for real, "but they don't matter."
"Then why are we helping them? They clearly matter to someone." Like the people they're protecting.
"I don't know what you're talking about. We're just here to get even."
"Right, right… that's the only reason."
"It is!"
With the attitude that Ace was putting out, Kat was inclined to believe him. That they cared enough about him, just him, to go through all of this. And, a silly smile had his cheeks hurting, instead of a bitten tongue for once.
Still, there was one thing bothering him.
"...Hey, why'd you agree to let Cona come along? I know she's a part of the plan but Quinn only found a role for her afterwards." A role that they could all agree that none of them liked. Especially because it could potentially put Quinn in a dangerous situation. She'd been rather adamant that she'd make it work though, so Kat tried not to worry too much.
Ace shrugged. He didn't really have any particular reason.
"It just seemed like she really wanted to make up for herself."
"You sure?"
He laughed, "I mean, I guess. I'm not the best judge of character. What could go wrong?" Ace frowned then, and sideyed him. "Does my choice bother you?"
"N-No, no. I let you choose after all." He didn't really have a leg to stand on anymore, not when he gave up his chance to make his own choice. But no matter how much better giving it up had felt, it still made him a teansy bit anxious. "Just- Quinn seemed really worried about it?" He tried.
Thankfully, that seemed to veer the subject away from himself and Kat nearly sighed in relief.
"Quinn seems like she worries a lot, doesn't she?"
"Yeah, I don't know why though."
Ace then pouted. "I hope she gives the signal soon. I want to go have fun and beat these guys up. I haven't gotten to test my fire on anyone yet!"
"Ah, you might burn down the building though."
He waved Kat off. "Ey, I'm sure it'll work itself out. You can put out the flames can't you?"
"I-" He perked up suddenly. Was this his first official order as a pirate? He felt his eyes grow a little glossy. "I would be honored, Captain."
"It's not that big of a deal."
Really, they had no idea what could possibly worry Quinn. They got themselves covered.
"Ugh!" Both Ace and Kat nearly jumped out of their skins at the sounds of someone facepalming behind them and letting out such a long suffering sigh that it was borderline offensive. "Really? Really?!"
They winced at the hiss and the eye twitching at them.
"No clue?! No possible idea why there might be something, even slightly, worrisome?"
"Oh, it's…"
"...the kid."
Indeed it was.
It was Salt.
She didn't give them the chance to say anything more before she was speaking up, arms crossed over her chest and chin pushed out in raw defiance.
"I said I could help. So I'm going to help, whether you all like it or not."
She glared.
She was done leaving people room to argue with her.
-0-
Salt had been dragged away from the conversation. An unwelcome part to a situation that she was already embroiled in, the only thing holding her back was her age. And she had half a mind to tear a new one into the bartender, and everyone else who agreed with her.
Especially those pirates…
But, Salt kept her lips glued into a firm line, refusing to do anything but glare.
She didn't think they'd even try to hear her out anymore and she-
She wasn't stupid. She knew she was too aggressive for her own good but… she couldn't help it.
"I know you're passionate about this, Salt." The bartender sighed at her and she looked away. "You have perfectly good reason to be. But you're too headstrong for your own good. You don't have the strength of your brother to back up your words."
"I know that!" She snapped.
Ah, she spoke by accident.
Damn it.
"Then, if you know that, why do you keep acting out like this?"
She made sure there was an iron-hard clasp on her mouth this time. She wasn't going to make the same mistake again. They'd just try and turn it around on her and change her mind.
The bartender sighed. "Always like this. When you hear something you don't like, you just refuse to even listen to it."
She wanted to say-
Because I know I'm right!
But she also knows that the bartender thinks she's right and it's useless to try and change people stuck in their ways. Especially when she didn't know the right words to convey it. Her older siblings were always better spoken than she was- she just got frustrated and angry and lost her words before she could say them.
Salt didn't think she would ever be able to try out for a debate team.
Instead, in response, she felt her face turn red.
And watched the bartender sigh and place a glass in front of her, filling it with juice. "Just calm down for now, Salt. I know how it was when I was your age, always wanting to help out. But sometimes it's best to just leave it to the adults."
She's about to fail again but she manages to reel it in.
Salt was pretty sure that the boy with the sick mask on was only two or three years older than her. And she was pretty sure the Pirate Captain himself wasn't much older than that, either.
"Yes, but they're much stronger."
Ah, shoot. She must have muttered something under her breath.
Salt buried her head in her arms and doesn't touch the juice, at least, not when she knows the bartender can see her. Too stubborn for her own good.
The "Plan" gets going behind her. And she tries to hide the fact that she's more than a little impressed by what that pirate lady managed to come up with. There was something about her setting up a signal in a window to tell her crewmates when to attack, but only once her and Cona had successfully sabotaged all the communication in-and-out of the building that they could find.
The time ticks on and she remains in her seat.
Eyes closed and half asleep but with one ear open, just in case, because otherwise she thinks she would have missed hearing the pirate lady lean up against the table next to her. Rubbing at her face and temples and looking more tired and less ferocious and evil than she had been before- Salt thinks she didn't even realize that they were really there.
She feigned sleep in response.
And the bartender stared at the womans frown over the lip of her drink, pretending that the alcohol didn't obscure her view severely as she stole one of many large sips. Swirling the glasses contents and listening to the ice clink against the sides of the cup.
"You know, I know your type."
Quinn glanced up.
"...Oh?"
More than a little bemused. The response was hesitant and curious and annoyed all the same.
An amalgamation of emotions conveyed in a single sound that had the bartender snorting and throwing back her glass like it was a shot, leaving nothing but what remained of the ice that hadn't melted by this point. Quinn watched with a raised brow over her shoulder. Waiting for the explanation or the apparent attempt at interpreting her.
She was honestly wondering what she'd come up with.
"Always have your head held so high and mighty. Proud and glaring, up on your high horse. People like you are… all the same. Stuck in one spot and going to make sure nobody ever gets in your way." She drawled. Her voice didn't contain a slur, but Quinn would be willing to bet that she was drunk. She didn't have the eyes of a woman who was sober. "Wonder what sort of nasty thoughts are going on inside that little head of yours?"
"Oh, all sorts of horrible things. Let your imagination flow." Quinn felt herself huff out a laugh, a smile quirking itself across her face. "Figured all that out, huh?"
"Ah, you and your kind of people." She spat. Briefly, Quinn let herself be confused- My kind? Before chalking it up to the woman's intoxication. "Doesn't matter how high up you are, you could be the lowest of the low by their standards. But you all act the same. Thinking the world revolves around you and that anybody else is beneath you."
"And whose standards is that?"
"Nobles, of course. You formally educated lot are always trying to figure things out, making plans to fuck everything up, trying to look better and smarter than everyone else."
"Right. And just because I'm educated I must be a noble…"
"That's how it works here."
"I'm not from here."
"Doesn't matter. Every place in this world works the same."
"Again. I'm not from here."
The bartender rolled her eyes. "See? Getting smart with me. As if where you're from makes a difference, people like you are the same no matter where they come from."
"I think you'll find that there are many places, even in this world, who don't define themselves by the standards that you are aware of."
Another drink was placed in front of her and she prepared the beverage with practiced finesse.
It's slow and methodical movements.
Her gaze flicks up.
"...Wonder how long those boys of yours are going to let you stick around?"
Quinn flinched.
The bartender smirked.
"They… They're not like that."
Quinn finds her teeth piercing her bottom lip. She doesn't like the sudden change in topic.
"Oh please," she raises the glass to her lips, "once they find out who you are, do you really think they'd let you stick around? After you've hidden secrets from them and betrayed their trust?"
Salt peaks an eye open and catches sight of her face. She, uh. She looks like she's trying not to tear up actually and Salt doesn't know what to do with that sort of information. Then, she blinks. And, while wetness remains, it's surrounded by her face hardening and her remeeting the bartender's gaze head on.
"I said, they're not like that. And you don't know what you're talking about."
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." She sips at her drink. "Are you really going to take that chance?"
"I've always been good at betting."
"Oh, a gambling woman?" She snorts. "Who would've thought you'd see that from a pirate… Heh. I guess you wouldn't put any worth in my words anyways."
She remained silent.
"I'm sure I'm just another nameless character in your story, aren't I?"
Quinn breathed out slowly.
"...Something like that."
The bartender finishes her drink and Quinn pushes off the counter with more force than necessary. Salt raises her head and watches her leave, the older woman wrapping her hands around her arms and squeezing them with such force that she thinks she may have drawn blood beneath her sleeves, the odd exchange leaving Salt confused and bewildered.
"Thing is," the bartender sets her glass on the table without a sound, "even the nameless characters have responsibilities and actions they have to take. Despite being in the background."
Salt found herself scowling.
"-You may be okay with remaining nameless, but I'm not!"
The bartender just gave a small laugh.
"Yes, I'm not surprised you'd think like that."
There's something cold that dances in her eyes and Salt grimaces as she jumps from her stool. The pirates will be leaving soon. She can see Quinn pick up their umbrella before heading over to her Captain, who stands in the doorway, an odd glow flashing every few seconds that she can't quite see.
She has to get ready if she wants to follow.
-0-
It's such a shift.
The room seems to swallow sound.
Even the rain that peppers the storm cellar close by feels like it's miles away and steadily getting further. The sudden stale air, hot with years of dust and dirt, has her wiping away the dampness settling over her limbs and shaking with restlessness. Quinn hides a shiver. It's dark enough that the night looks bright by comparison, and her eyes struggle to adjust, making shapes leap out unnaturally at them and play tricks. But she knows it's only unkempt supplies and untouched boxes.
She sniffs.
It's smelly with must and age, like a fresh breeze hadn't blown through the place in years.
Quinn was guessing that one hadn't.
"It's quiet…"
She manages to refrain from saying too quiet and looks around for any signs of life in the darkness. As far as she can see, which is admittedly not much, there's nothing. And Cona nervously saddles up next to her.
"See? I told you. Safe."
She nearly snorts.
Quinn doubts it's even close to safe. Safe is being back on their ship with Ace and Kat, chatting nonsensical things and not caring about the world or any of its inhabitants- this? This was hardly safe.
"Whatever."
They slowly pick their way through the darkness. Quinn pretends not to hear Cona's horrified gasp when either a rat or a mouse scuttles over her foot. It takes a greater effort than she thought it would, especially when Cona accidentally knocks a mop over and sends her sliding to catch it. Breathing a sigh of relief and growling at the pathetic sounding sorry that she gives. Still, it's a relatively simple process. Made even simpler when they make it to the stairs leading to the first and main floor. It's easy steps climbing up the old, rickety wood that creaks beneath their feet, loud enough that she's almost afraid that it might have disturbed someone.
But, Quinn leans against the wall next to the door and checks down both ends of the hallway, seeing nothing. There wasn't even a light on underneath one of the many doors.
And she can hear the sounds of people snoring- loudly.
Cona whispers in her ear, "This is where most of them sleep. The leaders office is on the top floor, I think. The snails should be either here or one floor up."
"Okay," she whispers back, just as quiet, nodding to the sounds of nothing but Cona and her, "remember the plan?"
"Of course, how could I forget?"
She hadn't given her the chance to.
Well, Quinn licked her lips, she thinks she had good reason to be so high strung about it.
If anything went wrong, Quinn had thought to install a Plan B, but it was less than stellar and she'd rather not have to resort to it. Ace and Kat would've hated it if she'd told them, at least, she's pretty sure they would. It's more than a little cowardly and doesn't involve them much. For now, though, Cona and her were to creep around unnoticed, while everyone still slept, and eliminate all forms of communication they could get their hands on.
Hopefully, it'll be all of them.
And Cona would have to navigate them around.
Which she was more than a little leery of but she really didn't have a choice if they wanted to get this done in a timely manner so Ace and Kat could come in. She crossed her fingers and prayed that they wouldn't get bored and come rushing in before they'd finished what they'd set out to do.
There's a creak from somewhere further down the hall and it has them both jumping out of their skin.
Cona stammers, "What? Who is it?"
"Shut up, I don't know."
A door had opened and she could see the shadowy figure of a person walking out of their room, yawning into his hand and apparently none the wiser to their location. She raises a finger to her mouth in the universal symbol for shush and listens to him grow closer to their hiding space. Cona sucks in a shuddering breath.
They're getting closer.
The floor creaks beneath their feet.
If they stay silent, Quinn is pretty sure he'll walk straight past them without seeing them. This late at night- ah, it should be 'this early in the morning', shouldn't it? -just waking up and walking in the dark? She'd be willing to bet that his eyes weren't even open. The rational thought process didn't help to quiet her quivering heart though.
He's almost next to them.
They're quiet.
And then Quinn feels hands grasping her arms and ripping her from her place on the wall. "Auh-?!" She gasps, wincing at the sharp fingernails that dig into her skin beneath cloth. A foot knocks her ankle and sends her knees knocking with the force of the sudden shove, tossing her into a heap in the middle of the hallway.
She's crashing and her knees are banged up and she hears the man let out a shout.
"Gyeh-! What the hell- Cona! What are you doing-?!"
She falls silent. It's too late to try and fix this.
They suddenly weren't alone anymore.
The lights turned on.
She squeezes her eyes shut, throwing her hands up to block it. It was blinding.
Cona stammers from where she'd been standing before. A high-pitched laugh drawing her to the attention of everyone, "Hahaha! With you breathing down my neck this whole time I almost thought I'd mess this up-"
"What?" Quinn hisses.
She tries to open her eyes but all she can see is burning white and red. She'd gotten too used to the dark and she was paying for it now.
"-Did you really think I would ally myself with pirates?!"
It's unfortunate that she has her eyes closed. Because Quinn doesn't get to see the foot kick out and nail her in the chin violently. Feeling her body temporarily freeze in shock, biting her tongue and blood souring her mouth. "Erk-!" She collapses on her side. Stars filling her blackened and sun spotted vision. "Y-You b-bitch-!" There's a great shuffling of people from opening doors and, even if it was too much to open her eyes and see properly, Quinn knew that this wasn't going to end well for her at all.
Damn it.
So much for planning.
"Fu-!"
Before she can so much as fire off the curse or even scramble to pick herself up, there's hands pulling her arms behind her back and she's facedown with a knee between her shoulder blades. The ground pressed to her cheek, through spitting blood and blurred vision, she can pick out men's laughter taking light in the room. And someone is breathing grossly at the back of her neck-
Quinn yelps.
If she struggles, she thinks her arms may break.
They're so much stronger than her and there's more to hold her down if she attempts to break free. It's not a welcome thought, to give up, but she does so. Falling limp.
She's still gritting her teeth and snarling all the same.
"What is this? Betrayer! Did you plan this from the beginning-?" She can feel her eyes dilate unnaturally and her neck feels like a guitar whose strings had been cut, it's such a struggle to even lift her head that she's already feeling tears prick from the muscle strain. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted you!"
Cona steps in front, a shaky but triumphant smirk looking down on her. The men don't try to hold her down like they do with Quinn, in fact, they don't even try to touch her. And Quinn attempts a bite through bloodied teeth, only to yelp when her hair is pulled- strands breaking under heavy fingers- and her throat burns when it's thrown into an uncomfortable bend that makes it hard to breath. Cona crouches down next to her, listening to the raspy breaths and watching the blood begin to drip down her chin from her, now frighteningly red, lips.
A hand snakes over her shorts.
Quinn tenses.
"I'll be taking my knife back, pirate."
She manages to spit blood in her face. "I should've killed you when I had the chance…!"
It's petty and unnecessary but it has her feeling better for a moment. Unfortunately, that moment's quickly stolen when a hand grips the back of her head and slams her face into the floor. "A-Ah-" Quinn chokes.
I-It hurts.
Cona purrs and wipes the blood from her face away, there's cruel laughter lighting up around them. "But you didn't." The knife has been unhooked from her belt and she's stealing it back, tucking it away where no one can see it. "And look at you now."
Quinn feels her body strain with trying to stay conscious, all she can do is turn her head and focus on breathing. It's labored and painful and her throat constricts, leaving her coughing and whimpering. She probably doesn't look pretty. Cheek pressed so hard into the floor that even the old wood is starting to leave an imprint on her skin.
"Hey, I'm keeping our deal, remember?" Cona calls over the room.
And a large, meaty hand lands on her shoulder and pulls her to her feet. He's pushed past the other men in the room to find their scene. Cona grins to the boisterous laugh that almost shakes the room with it's sheer intensity.
Dimly, Quinn thinks that it doesn't even come close to Garps intimidating guffaws.
"I can see that. Ah, good to know that you girls always make sure to keep your end of the bargain." His hand squeezes her shoulder painfully. "I don't know why I was starting to get worried when I didn't hear anything back!"
To Quinn, the man was a giant.
Easily pushing nine- no, maybe ten feet, and with enough weight that he was almost the same width. The hall seems to fill with his stature and he's bent so as to not touch the ceiling.
In this world, even in the East Blue, she wouldn't be surprised if the size was normal.
A meaty hand snaps his fingers.
Quinn screams. "AAAA-"
She wonders if Ace and Kat can hear. She doesn't want them to.
It rips past her lungs with a ferocity she didn't know she had in her when the knee already stuck in her digs. Seemingly for no other reason than to cause excruciating pain. It feels like a knife being spun into her back. It pops. "S-Stop-!" There's a moment where she thinks he might really break something but with another snap of fingers the grip loosens enough that she's gasping in the closest thing to relief that she can manage, trying to hold in her whimpers and tears with mixed success.
Weakly, she mumbles, "...this... is all your fault, Cona…" A sadistic chuckle, weak and humorless, bubbles past her lips when she sees the satisfying flinch and Cona look away. "Kehehe…"
But Quinn didn't get to enjoy the sight for long before she was being ripped onto stumbling feet and pulled, shambling down the hall. The large man- the leader -hanging off of Cona, popping a bottle open with his teeth, gesturing somewhere down the way with a nonchalant hand. A look on his face telling her that he could give less than a shit about Quinn, "Tie her up and lock her in the backroom. Oh-"
He grinned wickedly down at Cona.
"And keep a few guards on her. We wouldn't want her to get away like our dear Cona here did."
Cona returns the grin with that shaky smile of her own.
And Quinn is deliriously cursing them all out in her head. She doesn't get much of a chance to say anything, in too much pain and busy being dragged away, but she knows she's going to be beyond bruised tomorrow. The thought is cut off when she's being tossed, once again, and her back slams against a wall, leaving her groaning and unable to stop the ropes from tying her down.
Cona felt a relieved sigh fall out of her.
"Finally," she mumbled, "I got rid of her. She was… crazy suspicious. I only got her to come in because she thought it was her idea." She'd been worried that it wouldn't work. "Sorry, for waking you all up."
The boss eyed her with his own suspicious gaze, it was much less than what she'd gotten from Quinn funnily enough, before he was shrugging and patting her on the back. "Don't worry about it. So long as you keep your end of the deal, we won't be throwing you back there with her." He rubs his nose, leery and unattractive. Cona shrinks back. "Though, the factory could always use more workers, you sure you don't want to volunteer? I've heard-" He licks his lips. "-it's an honorable job to help people get back in the workforce. Much better than where you work right now, don't you think?"
He guffaws.
A bit of a nervous sweat begins to gather on her brow and she laughs awkwardly. It's hard to make it not sound forced. Quickly saying, "No, no, not for me, but I'm sure the pirates will love it just fine in my stead."
It has the uproarious laugh once again breaking out and rearing its ugly head. Sounding sadistic and cruel to her ears, it makes her glad that it's not directed towards her.
Cona is instantly reminded why she hated being in his presence, carefully sliding herself away from his grip. He was just… so impossibly loud. To the point it was scary. It didn't help that he liked to act all buddy-buddy but, at the same time, try to squeeze the life out of her until she practically couldn't breathe anymore. Emphasizing words and underlying threats with an intensity that had a shiver of fear running up her spine.
Even in helping them get what they want she wasn't safe.
"Was all that really necessary?"
She changes the subject, not wanting thoughts to linger. And points to the red blood, still fresh and staining the wood.
It's enough to have her making sure to take another step away from him.
"Why- Do you care?"
"No!" She quickly swallows. "But I'd rather not piss them off more than necessary, those pirates were… scary. That's why it took so long to bring them."
He scoffs and chugs at his bottle of beer, meaty hands waving away her concerns. "Not scarier than me! Bah, and we've got to make sure to break them somehow. The factory likes it. Makes it easy to get them to stay and work, they'll have to- if they want money to pay for medicine. You know how it is." She winces because she does. Thinking back on the injuries that Salt had received in the time she'd been caught and that she would've gotten too, if she hadn't been smart enough to get away when she got the chance. "Speaking of those pirates, where is that other replacement?"
"...Outside, somewhere." She looked out the window and into the rainy night. "They're waiting on a signal that the woman was supposed to give them," Cona scowled. "I'm not sure what it is, she refused to tell me. But they're close by."
The bottle has been knocked back entirely and he lets it clatter to the floor once he makes sure there isn't even a single drop left, uncaring of the mess it may cause. Heavy shoulders shrug. "Ah, well, they'll come looking for her eventually. And, if not, I'll send some men out in a bit to go catch them." A large finger is stabbed at one of his said-men, "You!"
He jumps, standing to attention.
"S-Sir!"
"Watch Cona. Make sure she doesn't leave. Not until we've got the last of the pirates captured- you killed the one you were supposed to, didn't you?"
"I'm not going to run away."
"Ha, like I believe you. You're the collateral."
She purses her lips and her brows draw down in anger. Cona may have helped get Quinn captured but she was not going to be referred to as some tool that was there for nothing more than to assist their goals. "...Yes." She lied slowly, carefully. "We killed him and said it was your fault. That's why they wanted to come here."
He nods and leaves, teeth shining.
His giant steps thump and thunder and it takes awhile for them to grow quiet. He sounded like a troll.
Cona was left eyeing the man posted to watch her with a dainty sniff. He didn't seem to know how to act, standing awkwardly close and eyes roaming from her, to the room, and then back again. "Honestly." Cona rolled her eyes. "If it wasn't for me, they probably would've succeeded in screwing all of you over in your sleep." He doesn't look like he believes her but she doesn't care too much. "Now. The least you can do is take me somewhere where I can be alone."
The 'guard' opens and closes his mouth, unhelpfully.
…
…
Quinn curses.
This is such bullshit.
Here she was, once again, imprisoned.
God, she wondered if she should be used to it by now. "Ugh…" At least, when she'd been thrown in jail by the Marines and Roddie, she'd been able to move around. This time there wasn't even a mocking semblance of freedom. She was almost completely immobile, back to the wall, bindings impossibly tight. Rope had bound her hands behind her back and her knees and ankles had been closely tied together, making her look like and about as useful as a particularly pissed off worm.
Not-
Not something she ever wanted to depict herself as.
Quinn wriggled.
"Hey!"
One of the guards slams his hand down on the table in the middle of the room, in order to gain her attention; it works. But Quinn is so engrossed in the pain and chaffing of the rope and too enraged to even pretend that she's afraid of his poor attempt at intimidation. Her own glare, fixed on her bloodied face, has him sitting back down in his own seat.
"S-Stop moving around, we're stuck awake because of you! This is your own fault!"
He tries to order.
Quinn's not having any of it.
"Shut the hell up." He opens his mouth to do the exact opposite and her face has him stopping in his tracks. Quinn didn't think she was all that scary but, hey, she'll take what she can get. Besides, she's been getting in a lot of practice lately. "You're not my Captain. So don't you dare tell me what to do."
The other guard snorts, like he finds this situation funny, and begins shuffling a deck of cards he'd pulled out from somewhere. "Don't bother with her, we're only supposed to watch her. Best to not talk." He grimaces. "You know how Cona got out, right? Ran away and then managed to flirt her way out of her bounds and get even further."
Yeah, that's not the method that Quinn had been seeking to employ anytime soon but it was good to know it was off the table so she didn't have to suffer the embarrassment of trying.
She wriggles.
And then stopped when her head let out such a throb it bubbled like a wave over her temples.
That- did not feel good.
But Quinn was used to pain, was used to working through it, and working with it, so she sucked in a quick breath. Held it. Let the throbbing ride itself out for a long few seconds before she was releasing the breath. It had her entire body hurting. But she picked out the worse pain and focused on it-
It was a testament to her tolerance that she didn't immediately cry out.
Eyes closing with her whimpers, she sucked in a deep breath again. Holding it. She just needed to focus and get used to the worst of it. Then she could force herself to push past. It was the only thing she had going for her at the moment and she resolved to do it. And, when she let the breath finally fall from her lips, it had been almost a minute that had passed.
"Man, I frickin' hate Cona…"
She growled.
It still hurts. Just as much as it did before, but she was better prepared for pushing it away.
This was just a bad situation all around. Trapped, in a small back room with nothing but a table and a few storage containers. And the two dumbasses meant to guard her were playing cards. The second one hadn't even shuffled them properly, having fumbled with the deck and even dropping a few on the floor as he was doing it. Quinn felt anger bubble out as she watched them.
She couldn't help it.
"Really-?!" This was ridiculous. "You're playing cards?!"
The response she gets back is sarcastic: "You're still struggling to get off your bindings?"
Quinn puffs out her cheeks and pretends like the throbbing in her face doesn't make her eyes start to water. Whatever tears she hadn't shed were forcibly sucked back in with a shaky breath and, quite pathetically in her opinion, she snaps out a quick, "Go away!" Not expecting it to work at all.
"Wow, what an attempt."
Okay, Quinn could appreciate some good sarcasm, but right now? It was not the time for it.
A quick wiggle has the ropes tightening and her slumping, sliding to the floor. There's the beginning of a numbness to her finger tips and it's not just an assumption anymore that the tightness has started to block off her blood flow. She thinks they might already be turning purple.
"...This isn't going to work, is it?"
"Nope."
She didn't even expect a response but she thinks she might have preferred it without one.
He places a card down, then another, then rapidly there's three other cards being placed down and suddenly he's making a face as his card opponent is winning. The expression only gets more and more angry as the time ticks on and the rain thunders on the roof. Eventually, when Quinn can no longer keep on exhausting her repeatedly failing efforts, face pressed to the floor, on her stomach, and cheek so smooshed that it was starting to bruise more from just the tilt of her head. They're playing War, from what she can tell, and the one who talked back to her- after telling the other not to, funnily enough -was losing horribly from the looks of it.
She couldn't even really see them playing, his face was just getting redder and redder with each passing card. There's also the fact that the other guard looks like he was actually feeling bad for winning so much.
Which would be absolutely hilarious under any other circumstances.
"Uh, you sure about-?"
"Yes."
Weird. Quinn didn't know you could even fail at War, at least not as badly as he was, it was more a game that hinged on luck rather than thought.
-Wait.
Ohh, right, she nearly forgot. Stupid. Quinn would facepalm if she could.
"Keh, uh, do you need any help there?"
He looks like he's about to lose it and Quinn's glad she's out of his immediate reach. Replying with a furious, "NO!" Placing down a card and losing, the other guard raises his hands in defense when he slams a fist on the table and belts out an angry note. Quinn couldn't help but look to the side with wide eyes, an embarrassed for him 'wow!' passing through her head.
"Are you sure about that?"
It comes out more deadpan and mocking than she meant to. But, also, come on. It was hard to keep herself from laughing at him. Which, she was certain, would only end with her getting a punch to the face- admittedly, probably would just roll into the pain rather than exacerbating her current state. He seemed like he was an especially angry one. Quinn was half sure, through the dazed state that she'd been in, that he was the one that had kicked her and held her down with little to no prompting.
He whips around to snap at her, "Yes!"
A lunge has her flinching back and him looking sadistically triumphant.
They restart another game before he's calmed down, it doesn't seem like it's a good idea.
Quinn hums and shares a pitying glance with the first guard. He tries to look away but can't quite manage it. "Well," she draws out slowly on the off chance that she's already pushed him too far, "what if I said I could help you without even having to do anything? Call it a bit of a magic trick." The looks she receives are both curious but one is half filled with fury. "It's simple, promise."
Unsurprisingly, they're both suspicious of her intentions. She can see it clearly visible on both their faces, even as they share a quick glance between each other to confirm whether they were both interested in what she'd said. A disgruntled look and their saying, "We're not untying you."
Ah-ha! Success.
"No, nope! Don't even have to. All you'll have to do is touch one of my fingers," she laughs and would've raised her hands in sign of peace if she could, "Sounds silly, I know. But it's why I'm part of a pirate crew in the first place- you could say, for my 'magic touch'. It's really the only reason I was recruited, really." She adds it on as an afterthought. Just to help further her story but, ah. It has her pausing and rethinking her words.
She'd… meant to highlight her ability, just make it sound more believable, but now she had to actually pause on her words.
But that- That was true, wasn't it?
Quinn felt her already fake smile grow more plastic. Tongue flicking out to wet her suddenly dry lips but only tasting blood and the bitter taste of iron instead. It wasn't time for a pity party, even if she was really good at making herself feel bad. She didn't want to think about the fact that Ace had only saved her after he'd found out about her Devil Fruit or- or- or that the only reason he got to notice her was because she'd been imprisoned over that very same power.
She swallowed the thoughts down.
"I don't believe you."
"Don't have to. What'll it hurt to test out?" She scoffs, "It's no skin off my back. You're just touching my hand. What could I possibly do to you while I'm tied up like this, besides, ya' know-"
She wiggles for emphasis.
"Hmmph, what're you selling?"
Quinn actually has to laugh at that.
It's just- so something she only expected to hear from her world that it comes completely out of left field and startles her. "Kehaha! Nothing, I just have a bit of good ol' luck on my hands, you see. That's only really good for gambling, no?"
He looks to the other guard, who shrugs.
They lean in to confer quietly, heads together and whispering, and Quinn looks away, pretending like she can't hear every single word that they're saying. To be fair, it was an incredibly poor job of keeping quiet. She wouldn't be surprised if someone in the hall could start to make out what they were saying.
"I don't know, man. I think she's telling the truth."
"What makes you so sure?"
"I mean, how often does a woman actually want you to touch her?"
He receives a smack upside the head.
"Seriously?"
"Uhh, what could it hurt?"
They look back over their shoulders.
Quinn has rolled onto her back and is now whistling the closest approximation of a jail-bird tune. It sucks majorly. But it doesn't matter much. At least, not until it sends specks of blood falling back onto her face and has her mouth and jaw aching even worse than before. Bad idea, oof.
They don't seem all that impressed with the likes of her.
"...Fine. Give us your hand."
"Kinda hard to do that." She sits up and wiggles what fingers she can, which is only the few that aren't being held tightly down by rope. "Just touch them yourself."
It has him breathing a hard sigh and looking back at his cards.
Apparently, not mulling it over for long, it's an easy decision because he, very quickly, is swiping at her hands. Mental gymnastics put to rest. A mark of gold sparking to life as she grins and he pulls back and stares, mind stalling-
And then starts screaming.
Bit of an overreaction much?
"What the-?!" His mouth is hanging open, ready to catch flies, eyes as wide as dinner plates and completely flabbergasted. The other looked equally thrown for a loop. "What is this?! What did you do to me?!"
"It's-"
She gets a punch to the face.
"OW. You bastard, at least let me explain!"
Please, no one ever give this man a gun. He would have the worst trigger finger imaginable.
Quinn's going to kill Cona once she gets her hands on her. This whole thing could've been avoided and she can feel her face grow more strained by stress and pain by the minute. It's starting to get too hard to keep herself from grimacing. "It's-" She spits out a wad of blood, huffing like she was out of breath when she really shouldn't be, "It's a luck mark, damn it. You didn't have to punch me. It just… makes you luckier, that's all it does."
The suspicion has grown ten fold.
The gold glows through the red of her blood on his knuckles. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"Because if it did more I would have already used it to blow up your hand."
Okay, maybe not quite that. But Quinn was starting to wish.
"Just. Play your damn game and see for yourself."
She… wants to lay down. Without ropes or in a boat or on a hardwood floor. All Quinn can think about is when the nights finally over and the next day has gone by and all that's left is small aches as she curls into warm blankets in warm clothes and the quiet ticking of a clock lulling her to sleep and to tears where no one can see her cry over her injuries. Because the only thing keeping her from flat out sobbing right now-
Which, she'll admit, was getting tough, as she was audibly choking back whimpers.
-was the refusal to let them feel satisfaction over making her cry.
There's a couple minutes that pass as cards are placed and glances are shot at her but eventually Quinn gets to watch the gold mark slowly disappear, before they're both jerking out of their seats and: "I won… I actually won…"
"N-No way! That's impossible- you haven't won a game in ten years!"
Okay, this was absolutely ridiculous.
"See?" She tried not to sound like a nasally mess but failed horribly. "Magic touch."
They stared down at her, eyes wide.
"...What are you?"
"A pirate." She deadpanned.
"Bullshit, pirates can't do this kind of thing. You- You're some type of witch, aren't you?"
"Ugh, something like that." She groans. "Just touch my hand if you want to keep using it. Heh, best to do it now. I hear that you're going to toss me over to the factory as soon as you capture my Captain."
They don't say anything to her after that but Quinn can feel the swipe at her fingers, can see them try and pit the luck against one another, and game after game the luck continues to persevere- battling out between the two. Distantly, Quinn can't help but wonder if there's a limit to her luck stores, she doesn't think so. She can't feel a drain on herself and for something as simple as a card game- she's not sure. But, at some point, it becomes hard to keep track of how many marks they've made and their hands seem to be completely covered in gold by the time she looks up.
Once the other had started to steal luck it'd evened the playing field, and then the other decided that two marks was better than one, and then it just descended into nonsense from there.
Quinn quietly let the madness continue.
Face down on the ground, lying on her stomach, they didn't see her frown shift into a wicked grin.
"Hey…"
She was positively purring and if she had a devil's tail it would be curling in delight.
"What?" The guard with the trigger finger eyed her still form, a lot of the suspicion from before had drained away but they still weren't welcoming to her presence at all.
"Your shoes untied."
Which was fine, she didn't want them to like her. And she didn't think they ever would after the next few minutes ended.
"Huh? Oh, so it is."
He bends over to tie it.
As much time as Quinn had spent together with Ace and Kat, whether it be talking, listening to tales of Luffy, arguing, fishing, or fighting the urge to have a panic attack because Ace went missing because he was an idiot who didn't tell them about his narcolepsy even though it was her fault that she didn't remember and-
Anyways.
The point is, that even though her time was spent up and about for most of the day, there was still time to stop and think. To get caught up in her own mind. Particularly at night. When gold stood bright and eyes grew tired and lazy and thoughts wandered.
And, well, when Quinn let her mind go, she got a lot of intrusive thoughts.
Most of them were pretty unhelpful, in fact, the majority of them were unhelpful- okay, all of them were. But that doesn't mean anything! What matters is that, every now and again, a rare unhelpful thought at night, when thought back to in the morning, could be turned into something helpful- like trying to define her Devil Fruit in concrete terms that can then allow for her to actually do shit.
Like figuring out that the Luck Luck Fruit was pretty loosey-goosey and revolved more around luck in general, rather than specifically good versus bad luck, and that she could alter it as she saw fit. So long as the target she had in mind was marked.
Which they both currently were- copiously.
"I'd watch out for that card there."
Dark eyes flicked to the loose few on the ground, The Joker, a useless card that didn't quite fit into the deck, and the one they didn't care to pay attention to when it escaped their interest. His foot folded the corner of it and on the hardwood floor, it's not surprising that it would make someone slip.
Aw, how unfortunate that it was him.
It wasn't as if Quinn snapped her fingers and something in her head pinged like a radar, she thinks there's going to be quite the loss of luck tonight. Keh. It's not as if there wasn't a cause.
"Wha- hey!"
She rolled out of the way.
And from there it was like the most intricate Rube Goldberg machine she'd ever had the pleasure of being witness to. There's a lot that she could point out. Like how, when he slips on the card he catches himself on the table and sends the opposite side careening into the other guards face, or, how, as he's struggling to his feet, the cards suddenly in the air obscure his vision and sends him stepping on an unfortunately tall loose board that goes straight between his legs and- Oh. Quinn will let your imagination fill in the blanks. There's really just too much to describe.
And all she has to do is watch her luck marks disappear in satisfying wisps of gold each time something new happens, ticking them off in her head, one after the other.
Unable to keep herself from relaxing, tension lifting from her shoulders, once they were laid out on the floor in a pair of twitching, unconscious messes. Glorious vindication.
"How'd you like that, Rube?"
It didn't last long.
There came a quiet knock at the door and Quinn shifted uncomfortably in her bounds as it opened and closed. There was a long moment of nothing but silence.
Then Quinn felt herself scoff and roll her eyes, "What took you so long?"
"Sorry, he posted a guard. I had to take care of that first."
"Take out the comms?"
"What do you think I've been doing this whole time? I can see you've been busy too. H-How did you manage…?"
"They slipped and fell. Rather beautiful to watch, but you'd had to have actually been there to understand."
"Ern… I said I was sorry."
"Tch. You heard one guy and your immediate reaction was to go to Plan B? Plan Bait?"
"Ugh, I panicked, okay? I was just so nervous and-!"
Quinn grumbled, "This is what I get for saying I'd play bait if I had to…" She slumped. "Are you absolutely, one hundred percent positive that you've taken out all those damn snails and contraptions?"
"Yes, yes I am. It was… very gross."
"Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. Can you get me out of these restraints now?"
Cona didn't expect sympathy but the overall lack of care had her sighing.
She tried not to think of the blood and snail… innards that drenched her forearm as she bent down to untie the knots holding Quinn down. After the guard had been posted she'd insisted on finding a place where she could be alone and had been taken to another floor, surprisingly close to where the snails were being kept, and then had proceeded to spend ten minutes trying to shove his unconscious body into a good hiding place where she could lock him in. But- when she'd discovered the snails- it was disgusting on multiple levels.
Somehow she thinks she should've expected as much.
The room they had set their pen up in was shockingly small, even for the already small creatures. Which wasn't unusual, to be fair, most people failed to properly take care of the creatures. But what had horrified her the most, to the point that she felt bile begin to rise in her throat, was that the rigs and contraptions, made and put on them in order to help people utilize their signals and catch frequencies, had almost completely fused to their skin. It- It hadn't been taken off in years and they'd ended up growing into them.
Cona had- Cona had decided it was more humane to kill the ones that were clearly suffering. Destroying the rigs of those that she could remove without tearing them and letting those ones free, out an open window.
She may have gone back to the unconscious guard and given him a pair of black eyes to match the back of his skull.
"Gonna be honest," Quinn pulled her out of the appalling memories as she could finally stretch her upper body, "the guy who beat me up, kinda funny."
She got a flat look in return. "You have terrible taste."
"Not what I meant."
Quinn felt her back and neck pop unpleasantly, a shiver running up her spine before she quickly began trying to rip the rest of the rope off her legs. She couldn't wait to stand on her own two feet. She wasn't sure how much time had actually passed but it was enough to have her limbs aching and stiff.
"I… Are you okay, by the way? You don't look too good."
"Oh, Cona, what could possibly make you say that?" It probably had something to do with the blood staining her shirt. Quinn quickly made it worse by rubbing her face clean with it, ignoring the way Cona grimaced watching her. "Keh, damn it, I'm all dizzy." She tried not to collapse as soon as she stood up, knees shaking and eyes heavy.
"Woah," Cona caught her under the arms, "Careful. And of course you're dizzy, you got hit really hard in the head!"
"I'm fine, I'm fine…"
She quickly waved her off.
It was a lie. Quinn was not fine. But she thinks she would be if she just stayed still for a couple minutes and let the dizziness curb away slowly alongside her pounding headache. Cona backed away as soon as she was pushed aside, hands up in sign for peace. Quinn wasn't even paying attention to her anymore though, head in her hands.
They stayed in silence like that for a very long moment.
And, once Quinn's face looked more or less relaxed and her breathing had stabilized, Cona couldn't help but bring up something that had been bothering her ever since they'd left the brothel. Hand itching the gold mark that stood bright against her hand, hoping that she'd actually get an answer about it this time. "Hey…" Quinn peaked an eye open weakly. "So what's up with this?"
"Oh, that." Her eye closed. "I was trying out something new."
"Yeah, but what is it?"
"It's so that, if you actually betrayed us, something bad would happen to you."
Cona's mouth went dry. "I-I don't t-think t-that-"
"Mn, well, it was a bit of an experiment. Just a little Karma, you know?" She received a pat to the shoulder. "Don't worry about it."
Cona was going to worry about it very much, thank you. Suddenly she was very glad that she hadn't decided to betray the pirate for real, eyeing the gold and the men collapsed in the room with a tiny bit of fear. She definitely didn't want to get even worse on their bad side.
"Are- Are we going to signal the others?"
Quinn pursed her lips. "Not yet." Truth is, she would very much like to. But... "I think there's a better place to let them in through. Where'd that Big Guy go?"
"You mean the Boss?"
"That's the one." She grinned, though it looked more like a grimace. "I think Ace and Kat would enjoy meeting him as quickly as possible. So let's find his room, kay? Then we'll signal. And bring them right to him."
Yes, Cona shivered. She thinks it was a very smart idea to not be on their bad side.
And she was ushered ahead. The halls growing lighter as the drifting beams of sunlight started to make their way through the many windows that lined the way. It took a few couple close calls with Quinn being discovered. But, now that Cona had been deemed a welcome sight, she hadn't felt the same panic that caused her to push Quinn into the awaiting arms of the enemy. Which, also, may have something to do with the fact that Quinn was purposely walking behind her, very distinctly out of arm's reach.
Hey, it didn't hurt to be careful.
Cona glanced back, fist laying against the hardwood door. The one that was the Bosses. Quinn motioned for her to hurry it up with her hand, the bloodied woman leant against a wall, far enough that she wouldn't be seen. And- gosh! -Cona was so impossibly nervous.
She just… She just had to suck it up and get inside first. She could do that. Except, even with her hand raised, her body refused to move.
"Cona, go already!"
Quinn hissed from behind and made her jump to work, fist knocking against the door rapidly and instinctively.
Ah, it was too late to back out now.
She received a gruff, loud, and intimidating, "Come in."
And Cona took a deep breath, opened the door, and instantly started flipping the light switch up and down as fast and as many times as she could.
…
…
"Let me go! Put me down, damn it!"
Salt was not having a good time, flailing wildly and leg kicking.
"Should we… I don't know, throw her back?"
"Do not throw a person half a mile, Ace. That's just rude."
"It's more than just rude! It's insane!" She just wanted to help and not be useless and sit back, letting others fight for her. It was even worse that they were strangers. But, now, Salt had to wonder if it was worth it. "I said… Put. Me. Down!"
Each word was punctuated with a kick. A kick that failed to connect and she couldn't figure out why. As far as she could see, which admittedly wasn't very much from the angle she was stuck in, she should've been able to hit him in the face- at the very least she should've made contact with his chest. Instead, he only held her farther and farther away from his torso, a disgruntled look on his face.
Salt kicked.
The jerk had her held up, a few feet off the ground, by the ankle. Like she was some sort of ragdoll he could just swing around however he wanted.
"Ah, Ace."
Huh, suddenly her foot felt very warm.
"Her shoes on fire."
She blanked.
"WHAT?!"
Ace dropped her. "Ah, oops."
Salt took one long, hard look at her burning leg. And screamed-
"I got it!"
Water surged from outside their canopy and twisting rain covered her. The flames went out with a puff of black smoke and she was left coughing and sputtering, completely drenched from head to toe.
"Nice one, Kat!"
They high fived.
Those- Those damn pirates just high fived.
Salt was left almost sobbing into her hands. "I-I don't understand what's happening anymore."
Ace and Kat shared a bemused look. The girl just struggled to wipe herself off, flicking water from her hands, and deal with their particular brand of insanity. Salt groaned. It'd taken a while to find them in the dark and trees, she'd only even been able to locate them because of their chatting. Being the only sound other than rain that she could hear- well, it was easier to pick out once she got close enough. Then, naturally, she'd tripped over a root while she'd been trying to explain herself and ended up being yanked up by an ankle. Ace hadn't cared whether she was right side up or not.
Kat tapped her on the shoulder, dancing fingers lifting some of the dampness away, as much as he could manage with one hand. "Uh, you should really head back-"
She slapped his hand away.
Which was worse for her considering it dropped the water back into place.
Fine. Be wet then.
"No!" She shivered but still bared her teeth, "I said I was going to help, didn't I? I don't care how crazy you pirates are. I'm staying."
It didn't matter if she could feel a cold coming on already. Salt was determined.
Ace rubbed the back of his head. "Why do you even want to help so bad anyway?" He'd admit that, maybe, grabbing her by the foot wasn't the best course of action. But, hey-! She was the one who lit herself on fire by kicking him. He was even actively trying to hold his flames back. That part was on her.
"I've been… involved in this for as long as I can remember," she huffed, "This is my fight. I'm already a part of it so I don't know why people keep trying to take me out of it."
Ace could respect that.
"I will help."
He shrugged. "Whatever you say, kid. I like your attitude!"
It was a wonder watching her face shift. Suddenly lighting up with a mix of surprise and joy. "Wait, really? You'll let me stay?"
"I thought you said you weren't going to take no for an answer."
"I wasn't- I mean, I'm not."
"So, then, I guess there's no choice then."
Kat watched the exchange, scratching behind his ears, adjusting the umbrella so it kept the rain that escaped his capabilities off of Ace while he was talking. The young Captain had tossed it to him when he'd pick up Salt- "So what'll you help with then?" He… uh, he may have been a tad more prideful than he probably should be as he lifted the umbrella a little higher and puffed out his chest. "I'm in charge of keeping the rain away." And, later on, fire.
It was- er, Ace tried to hide his smile -a little comical that he was trying to show off to the kid but, screw it. Kat liked being wanted and needed.
Salt stared. Then gave a slow clap. Immediately stomping all over his pride. "Good for you. No, really, pulling out the big guns for a team effort, huh?"
"...I…" He raised a weak finger. "...want to hit her but… that's also something Quinn would totally say."
Ace snorts, lightly whacking her upside the head with the back of his hand. "I'd just hit Quinn."
They ignored Salt's whine.
Kat covered his face. "Well, I mean, yeah, you could. But I couldn't." She was higher up on the crew than him! He was horrified by just the thought, it was laughable almost. Sure, he'd seen her and Ace playfully hit each other once or twice before, but actually doing so too… He thinks he'd die of embarrassment if not shame first. Besides, she'd known Ace much longer, at least a full island's distance from what he'd been able to garner. That just wasn't in the cards for him- hell, it wasn't even in the same deck. "She'd hate me!"
"Chehehe. No, she wouldn't."
"Ooh, I bet she would."
Salt received another whack.
"Not helping."
She groaned and rubbed the back of her head. "Stop touching my hair…" In retaliation she swipes at Ace and assumes he managed to dodge when she doesn't make contact. "Besides, I don't think you have anything to worry about, that pirate lady seemed like she was pretty hung up about you guys. She was earlier."
Kat perked up.
"Oh! Was she… Was she that upset about all of this that even you noticed?"
"Nah, it was something else."
He immediately drooped.
"The bartender and her were talking before. She was feeling bad about hiding the fact that-"
A flicker of lights catches their eye. It's the telltale sign of a light switch being flipped repeatedly up on the third floor. Looking quite stressed through the window.
"Ah, that's the signal!"
Almost as suddenly as it had started, it had stopped.
Which was a bit odd- Quinn had said that she'd try and keep doing it for as long as possible.
"Let's go!" He leaves before Salt can say anything more. Ace can admit that he's extremely interested in what she'd been about to say, but he also absolutely didn't want to hear it from her. It wasn't her place to tell and Ace felt like he'd be invading his crew's privacy. Besides, he was sure that, if it really was important, Quinn would eventually bring it up herself. Otherwise, though, she'd probably be pretty pissed to learn that some girl they'd just met had blurted out information she hadn't meant to be known-
Ace knew he would be.
Airing out others secrets was just asking for trouble. If he couldn't handle his own getting out- and trust him, he couldn't, and he… he knew that -then it wouldn't due to let others have theirs strung up for all to see.
"Wha- hey?!"
Too late. Salt watched the pirate take off, a hand holding his hat in place, while his crewmate made sure to keep the umbrella above his head while ushering water from the air. Leaving her behind with only a few strides. They're both moving to where the lights had flashed like a strobe.
Kat turned to call back over his shoulder. "C'mon, if you're gonna help, you should be able to keep up!" She quickly followed, trying to make up her seconds of surprise to get back under the spaces where Kat had already pushed rain aside for Ace. He could feel a grin spread over his face. They'd had to wait, longer than they expected or wanted to, but it was finally time to make an entrance.
…
…
And make one they did.
With fire and water and kicking through an upper wall to see shattered remains of glass and Quinn holding onto a fallen Cona. A broken bottle lying next to them, nothing but pieces. Having been thrown and cracked against the woman's head, hard enough to send her sprawling and shards stuck in her face. There's blood on the floor. And neither Ace nor Kat could tell if it was from her entirely or Quinn as well.
They both looked worse for wear. And the front of Quinn's normally white shirt had been almost completely drenched red and pink. The minutes they'd taken alone in the building had turned into quite the ordeal from the looks of it.
"Took you long enough." Quinn grunts and carefully pulls glass from Cona's scalp. The woman is trying to hold her head and groaning but, for the most part, seems okay, if delirious. It didn't look like the bottle had hit her completely head-on, instead the edge had caught the side of her face as it ruptured. Unfortunately, that meant there were still shards stuck in her head and skin.
She was going to have scars for a while, if not forever.
"He's over there." Quinn nodded her head to the man, fingers searching for pieces of glass through bloodied hair. "Bit of a piss-poor attitude. Couldn't handle the lights flickering."
She says it as a clear jab and with a roll of her eyes. But they can both tell that she's trying to hide the tension creeping all over her voice.
"Well, I can't say that I'm not glad it wasn't me."
Cona whimpers. "Screw you…"
A great mass rises. And, on the other side of the room, he slides out from the bed he's been laying on. "Flipping the lights like that, you really wanted to make my head hurt, didn't you?" He mutters. "Should've known… Should've known… A wench like you is too used to screwing people over to resist."
She lets out a low whine. None of them can tell if it's because of what he said or because Quinn was busy pulling out the largest piece of glass from her face at the same time.
"So, these are the pirates then? Quite the little homewreckers, aren't you?" He laughs but his teeth are gnashing. "I see that Cona lied when she said that the cute looking one had been killed."
Kat blinked rapidly in surprise, not knowing how to respond. Cute?
"Oh, uh, thanks?" He tried.
"That was meant to be an insult!"
"Oh. Ooh! Yeah, that makes more sense then."
He coughed awkwardly into his fist. Ah, he'd never had someone insult him like that before. Usually they just came at him outright with the curses and name-calling.
The man sneers but moves on. "So that must mean that that cowboy over there is the Captain then." Ace didn't even give him a glance. "I'll say that your side-girl tried to give us a bit of trouble, but it was useless. Ha! She had a good run in with one of my men and look at her now- You're ignoring me, aren't you? Hey. Hey! Don't just walk away!"
Ace walked away. Uncaring to the large man's face shifting through many varying shades of dark red. "Oy, Quinn." He crouched down next to her, fingers threading together and elbows on his knees. "I thought you said you weren't going to fight."
She yanks on a particularly stuck piece of glass and Cona bites her thumb to keep from yelling. It didn't help in stopping the whimpers.
"Guess I'm just too irresistible."
Ace scowled.
Quinn's blank.
"I don't like your plan."
She can't help it. Quinn snorts. It sounds a little like a laugh.
"Oh, wow, then you're really not going to like the one we ended up switching to."
Given that her nose was still bleeding slightly and looked decidedly… smooshed. Just enough that he could notice as he got close. And the fact that her eyes were not dilating the proper way for the amount of light in the room, Ace didn't think he would like it either. "We should've just walked straight in. They wouldn't have had time to-"
"Are we really going to do this right now?" Her eyes narrowed into slits. "Because I will so argue with you on this."
"Shitty plan. Took too long."
Oh, this little bastard.
"Okay, alright. So we are going to do this right now. Ace, I don't know if you know this, but there are these things called cell phones and they- I mean, Den Den Mushi, sorry, ignore that. And they can make these things called calls. To people we don't like. And who definitely won't like us."
"Oy. Don't talk down to me." He poked her on the bridge of her nose, watching her wretch back with a low hiss. "You're the one who ended up getting hurt 'cause of your plan in the first place."
"Tch. It was more Cona's fault than anything." Quinn rolled her eyes and may have pulled out a particularly sensitive shard that made the older woman whimper. "It would have still been a good plan if we were digging a hole out back later."
Cona turned green.
"That's too stubborn."
"You're one to talk."
Ace poked her again and Quinn swiped at him, outraged. "Couldn't you come up with something better?"
"Well, yes. But none of them would have been ethical."
"We're pirates."
"Erm." She glanced to the side guiltily, with the sort of look on her face that reminded him of when Luffy did something especially stupid or bad. Wow.
Ace felt his eyebrows shoot up in disturbance, Luffy rarely ever felt guilty, and that was enough to tell him that the things she'd come up with were pretty frickin' bad.
"Yeah, kehe. We are." Now Ace was just unsettled. "Doesn't mean I should act on every single bad thought I have. What makes me less of a terrible person."
Okay, so, maybe- just maybe -her mind had briefly drifted to a movie scene that she could only somewhat recall. It might have been about vikings or British soldiers from the Revolutionary War or who knows, it could have been a compilation of many different scenes, the only thing that really stood out to her was that she was pretty sure it was considered a war crime.
Yeah, boarding up exits and setting the building on fire while everyone was sleeping, letting chaos and horrible death ensue would have definitely met their demands. Especially since they wouldn't know who'd done it.
Which was a… troubling idea.
But, everyone got intrusive thoughts sometimes, and maybe her grandmother was right when she said tv would rot her brain, but so long as she never acted on it, or entertained them with any bit of legit seriousness, no matter if the number of them had been steadily growing, she'd be fine, right? Right?
Right.
Kat raised a clawed hand. "Uh, guys, we might want to pay attention now."
He was still stuck standing in the hole they'd made when they busted in through the wall, and Quinn gave a curious blink at the unexpected face of Salt popping up over the edge. Her face red with consternation and strain as she tried to pull herself onto the floor.
In comparison to the ease with which Ace and Kat had nearly cleared the first floor in a single leap and left her behind, she was struggling to inch up just a few feet. Fingers slipping in the rain and almost unable to keep her eyes open against the flow of water, with more than a few bumps and bruises.
Quinn made a face. "Why is she here?"
Ace shrugged, "She said she was staying."
That didn't really answer the question.
"Guys? The man?"
Oh, yes, him.
Ace stood up and stretched, back popping. "Yeah, this guy." He looked a little disappointed as he walked up to him. "You're the one that wanted Kat dead? Che. You look like the coward you are."
He's so red with rage they can hardly distinguish his expression anymore.
It's just pure anger.
Apparently, he didn't like being ignored.
"Instead of settling it like men, you tried to make someone else do your dirty work," Ace flicked the brim of his hat. "So I'm not going to regret kicking your ass."
Kat slowly felt himself begin to clap, unable to keep himself from cheering. "...Woo! Go, Ace! You're so cool!"
He flushed in response.
Quinn covered her mouth.
"Oh, Kat, I know you're not trying to be but it sounds so sarcastic."
They're all being silly. The seriousness of the confrontation, the tension and worry, and even the throbbing in her face and Cona crying in her lap, washes away with the comfort of reuniting. Putting them at ease and back to how they normally were with each other, just jumping off one another with humor despite the situation. It's just too easy to get back to what they're used to, distracting each other to keep from boredom or thoughts, or trying to make the most of, when they were on the boat, a confined space and, now, the tension they should be acknowledging.
Which is why they don't see it in time. Not at first at least.
It's a rustle of cloth, barely a movement really. But he- the man -shifts and then suddenly there's a gun in his hand and the trigger is already being pulled.
"Wait- no!"
They scream.
"ACE!"
He's been shot.
Kat tore his sick mask off, mess of sharp and blunt teeth bared, tears springing to his eyes. "You… You bastard… Ace…"
"Oh god," Quinn feels her heart lurch in her chest as he collapses, a lump forming in her throat, and it feels like her whole body has been doused in cold water. She feels sick and pale and her joke from earlier suddenly feels in poor taste and she-
She sucks in a shaky breath as a thought pierces through the numbness. Right. Right.
He was fire now.
He was fine.
Ah, she… she hadn't even realized that she'd shoved Cona off and had made to run to him.
"...hah, okay, okay, okay." She mumbled lightly, teeth grinding against her bottom lip, falling to the ground with her hand on her heart. It was beating erratically and the panic still fought to be curbed down. But it helped that, when she looked to the ground, there was no blood to be found. "That's… thank goodness." Instincts had gotten the better of her.
And, from the looks of it, they had with Ace too.
He- He needed a minute.
To just lay back and stare up at the ceiling with wide eyes, hat having fallen off behind him. He expects there to be pain or death or anything, actually, but there's such an absence that he can't quite figure out whether it's because of shock or something else. Because he had seen the bullet hit him- had technically felt it too, right through his forehead, but beyond that there was nothing. Just an odd feeling of… his body moving away from it. Seperating, from the inside-out. Which was-
Ace slowly reached a hand up to his forehead.
Pulls it away, expects to see a bit of red, but there's nothing. Just a short black hair hanging off one of his fingers, sliding off as he sits up, hand going back to his head. Feeling for the bullet wound.
There's no hole either.
He's solid.
"Chehehe…" Ace laughs nervously, uncomfortably. The shock of it all had caused him to fall over. "That's unexpected. I'm alive." He glances back just in time to see Quinn give him a considering look, not seeing the fear that had shaken her, and the complete silence that had fallen over Kat.
Which was a little odd.
There should be noise coming from his direction. The rain at the very least, but instead there was nothing.
There was no pitter-patter coming in from the outside to be heard anymore, though Ace could still see the droplets shining with the reflection of the morning sun. The red heads eyes a mixture of fury and disbelief physically manifested by the sudden lack of sound in the immediate area and with, as Ace squints, shuddering and stilled rain. It doesn't move. Only hums with barely contained ferocity.
Kat is- very not okay with this.
"You- You tried to kill my Captain?!"
The only response he gets from the man is a mutter under his breath, "...Did I miss?"
And Ace grimaces. He wasn't handling this well. He couldn't blame him. "Hey, Kat!" It has him jumping to attention, spine snapping ramrod straight. "Remember! You said you'd make sure to keep the flames back, right?"
He's refocusing.
The shivering rage that threatened to seize him entirely is shaken off as he nods. It was just- okay. Kat would like to say that normally he was much better at keeping control. Erm, most of the time. He'd been having a lot of trying moments recently, it was enough to have his heart racing even at rest. He should've been more prepared for this, he'll admit, he should've expected something like this to happen eventually, but he just wasn't.
Being a pirate was going to give him heart problems later in life if this keeps up.
The rain starts to fall again behind him.
He pretends not to notice Salt falling over in shock at the sudden thunderous sound of water slamming down behind her.
"What are you two going on about?!" The man snarls, raising the gun back up at Ace. "Just die already! I only need two of you!"
Ace flinches back when he fires but, when it hits his chest this time, there's once again no pain or blood beyond his body splitting and the bullet getting swallowed in the flames. It took a lot more effort than he'd imagined to hold still and just take it. His instincts screaming at him to move.
He looked down at his chest.
It's disconcerting to watch the skin restitch itself with flames.
"What. The. Hell."
"Chehehe!"
The man turns pale and takes a horrified step back.
Water streaks out and whips him across the jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground and scrambling to get back on his feet. He struggles to realize what had happened, a puddle stretching from Kat to him. The red head hides a cheeky grin behind his outstretched hand and claws.
"Kat-!" Ace whips around. Not really reprimanding, just annoyed. Ace wanted to be the one to fight him.
Quickly he turns back to the now fallen man and Ace is more than a little vindictive as he wills his hand to burst into flames. It's impossibly hot but somehow he doesn't find it the slightest bit uncomfortable. It's almost comforting if he was being honest and it twists around his arm in a beautiful blaze. "It's my turn."
Quinn instantly recognizes the fist of flame, even from still images, it's just too iconic to not recall.
She scoots back, pulling Cona away, urging Kat and Salt to hurry to them in the hopes that she might get some actual protection from him. She's sure this won't end well. Experimenting with devil fruits, especially almost on the fly, was not a good idea- her nose was a testament to that fact.
So, as she sees him rear his fist back, she knows he plans to follow the punch through by throwing fire. "Take." And throw it he does. "This!"
...Pitifully.
"Snk."
Ace turns bright red in the face and presses his lips together in a thin line.
"Krk…" She tries. She really, really does.
She just- can't.
Because she knows what he meant to do and what it's going to eventually be like, but this… this is so unexpected and so out of left field that it has her in hysterics before she can even try to stop herself.
"Kehahahaha! Oh my god, oh my god," she was freaking wheezing. Oh gosh, she could feel her stomach begin to cramp with the sheer intensity of the laugh. "Aa- ow, ow, ow, oh, I'm gonna bust my gut! Keheh- everything hurts!"
"Quinn, shut up!"
"I-I can't b-breathe-"
He's turned such a bright red that she wouldn't be surprised if his ears started whistling and it only throws her into a heavier fit. Kat's shoulders shudder with his own laughter. Though it's more a result of Quinn than Ace's failed attempt.
Ace lets out a thick breath through his nose, pouting, "Whatever! I'm trying again."
"Kehaha, oh, please do!"
Surprisingly, the man seems less threatened now. Maybe because he doesn't think Ace is capable of hurting him or because Quinn's laughter had given a false sense of security. "This is a joke right, this has to be? Some sort of prank the Captain set up, right? That has to be it." That doesn't mean he isn't still sweating. And he recoils when Quinn suddenly stops laughing, an idea coming to her.
A creepy grin forms on her face. "Oh, no, no, no. You're the experiment."
"Maybe I need to add on more fire…" Ace doesn't help the man's growing fear by muttering under his breath, eyeing the patch of fire that still blazes at his feet before being snapped out of existence with Kat controlling water to swallow it from the center outward. "Then it won't fall immediately."
"Needs more direction and force?" Quinn suggested instead.
Even if the first was a fluke she really didn't want there to be more fire.
"Why not both?" Ace chirped.
"Aa, of course. Both…" That'll certainly end well.
Ace hums and an arm bursts into fire and-
Kat gasps and instinctively throws up a wall of water, pulling it from the outside rain- it still doesn't keep the heat at bay.
All four of them are forced to snap their eyes closed and throw up their arms to protect themselves, the sudden burst of fire envelops Ace as a whole and leaves their images stained with orange. It boils. Hot enough that, when Quinn finally manages to peak an eye open, she can see the water in front of them begin to steam, pop, hiss, and crackle and shoot out at them like when you leave a pot of liquid on the stove for too long and it starts to attack back.
Salt screams and Cona looks like she's about to pass out before Salt is desperately trying to pull the collapsed woman away. The head injury keeps her from being able to stand, but she's clearly trying to escape as well. Neither, however, are strong enough to get away.
Then, as soon as it comes, it disappears and Ace is on his back trying to stamp out his arms. "AHH! TOO MUCH, TOO MUCH!"
Kat winces before twisting the boiling water, much less than what it was, moving it to smother the flames. It explodes with small, initial burst of fire but, as he flexes his hands and breathes, the air is sucked from it and there's nothing left but withering embers.
There's- it takes longer than he thought it would - much more fire to quell this time. "...I think my eyebrows might be gone."
"Little more warning next time, Ace?"
"Yeah, yeah, sorry." He sits up and it's a wonder how his clothes are still completely intact. Quinn chalks it up to the heaven-sent physics of the world and is more than a little glad that his hat that she'd worked so hard on hadn't gotten a fresh addition of literal flames this time. "I think that was way too much fire that time!"
"You think?!" Salt screams to herself under her breath. "I wanted to help, not die in a fiery blaze of lunacy."
Quinn shoots her a glare over her shoulder, coupled with Kat doing the same, it had Salt's jaw creaking from the force of slamming it shut.
And the man, brutally singed on all edges, blubbered.
"I- I- I can give you whatever you want!" He scrambles back. "Fame-! However much money you could possibly want-! Even the Celestial Dragons will revere you-!"
It's a sentence that has Ace's face positively darkening in the shadow of his brow. "Hah?!"
He laughs, it's fearful and humorless and everything he says is obviously a lie. "Oh, haha, I see! Not your style, of course. Uh- Uh-" Quinn feels her stomach curdle in disgust as his gaze shoots between her and Cona and a sleazy grin shakily crinkles onto his face. "How about women then?! Prettier ones than what you already have and who are better at-! ERK?!" He chokes.
"You better not be insinuating what I think you are." Ace growls lowly, features animalistic.
"NO-! No- I didn't mean to offend-!" He manages to wheeze out through the squeezing grip around his throat. Not enough to completely suffocate but Ace's hand begins to glow a delicate and dangerous red. "But- I promise, I-I can give you anything that you- AAUGH!"
He's forgotten experimenting in the ensuing rage.
Ace leans back, slow and deceptively calm. "...Anything?"
The man simply screams his voice raw, unable to bear the raising temperature of the fingers surrounding his neck. Distantly, it sounds a little like he's trying to say "anything" back.
"Chehe. Tell me then," he grins, "What temperature does this feel like to you?"
He apparently registers that he isn't going to like what happens next because, all of them duck as, through his screaming, he's able to pull his gun up and fire the remaining rounds into Ace. Who doesn't so much as jerk as streams of fire blowout of his back, following the projection of the bullets.
There's a simple click once the gun runs out.
"M-Monster… Demon! I-I'll kill you-!" The man manages to spit out between his pain. "Just die-"
"Nah. Stopped listening to people tell me that eventually."
And Ace proceeds to rear back a flaming, signature fist. It flickers with a controlled strength, not the destructive mass that had burned off Kat's eyebrows, and he punches. There's soon to be another hole added to the building again. This time, though, in the ceiling.
Flecks of wood fall and the flaming boards are put out by both rain and Kat.
"Holy shit," Kat mumbled, "When Ace said he lost control, he really wasn't kidding."
Quinn slowly leaned over to whisper to him as best and as quietly as she could, staring at the back of their Captain, his yellow shirt fluttering a bit. "...Don't tell him I ever said this but that was literally the coolest shit I have ever seen in real life." Ace still looked peeved, his hand flickering with fire, disgruntled by the exchange.
Salt flinched back, shiver running up her spine, and finally stopped trying to tug Cona out of the room. "How… can they act like this is normal?" It didn't matter if they were pirates or criminals or technically helping them or whatever. Fire. Water. This was all completely unnatural and borderline demonic.
This was-
"I…" Cona whispered to her. "I accidentally got the woman, Quinn, captured and when I went to go and save her. It- It looked like she'd knocked out the two guards without even moving, I'm not-" She raises the gold on her hand into view, swallowing nervously. "I'm not sure how… it was- they looked horrible."
Quinn and Kat pretended they couldn't hear either of them. Exchanging a quick look that told them that they were both struggling to keep their humor down.
"I don't like this. I don't like this at all."
Salt looked down.
Wrapping her head around pirate hijinks was sure to drive her crazy. She can focus on what she can do, instead. Like repaying Cona, at least, returning the favor when she'd helped her escape. "Come on, Cona, you should get back to the bartender. She'll be able to help your head. It'll get infected at this rate."
Quinn humms lightly. It stops her in her tracks. "We're not done yet, remember?"
"Yeah." Kat cracked his neck. "There were others, weren't there? They hurt you too."
She laughs a bit sadistically. "Oh, I took care of those ones already. You heard what Cona said."
Ace nods without turning around.
A couple seconds passed and it'd helped him to calm down, adding a bit more fuel to his fire as well. But that was to be expected. "It was all of them that were responsible for all of this, right?" He asks and doesn't wait for her to respond before continuing. "Besides, can't you hear them?"
Salt stops and listens.
It takes a second but-
"They're running up the stairs." It sounds like a pack of animals. There's so many footsteps and they're coming so fast that she can feel her nerves begin to fray at the edges. "Oh. They heard."
"Chehehe. Yeah," his eyes dance with anticipation, "they did."
Salt swallows and tries to steel her nerves.
…
…
The brothel woke that morning with anxiety filled hearts. It only got worse as the day continued on, there was no sign of the pirates or Cona or even Salt, who they hadn't been able to find since they'd left. But, oh- they had an idea where she'd run off to. They only hoped the kid wouldn't regret it.
The day ticked by.
They were closed for once, the Bartender had shut down shop for the day- they usually worked as a bar and as waitresses when the sun was up -and so there was little to distract their worried minds.
By the time afternoon had rolled around they had all gathered their bets. They… it'd been too long. And they hung their heads for the loss and began another day, they would have to come up with some excuses, wouldn't they?
Or, at least, that's what they all thought until one of the women paused long enough to look out the window.
The morning crowd was up for the day, milling about. But a curious group was walking down the street, causing a bit of commotion from the looks of it. Apparently a pair of women looked to be injured.
She looks closer.
And sees the trio of pirates, one bloodied, the slightly beat up face of Cona, and a skipping Salt. They all had such wide grins on their faces that it threatened to make their cheeks burst. They look triumphant.
"They…" She sucks in a breath. "...did it!"
"What?"
There's excited whispers as more of the girls come to see the group.
"They did it! They really did it!"
-0-
"Check him."
"Kat, seriously, I'm fine."
"Check him."
Quinn let out a small laugh, unable to help herself. She was holding a bag of frozen peas to her face. The brothel workers had stumbled over themselves to treat her wounds, well, after they hauled Cona away to her own room that is. But, whatever, she was just glad to have a white strip of tape across her nose, makeshift ice packs, and what painkillers they could give her. She'd also gotten some ice for her back, which was currently discovering new places to throb, and was laying on that surrounded by wonderful, wonderful pillows and blankets.
The girl that still remained in the room, holding what little medkit they did have, seemed absolutely flabbergasted by Kat's insistence on Ace getting checked out. Staring at the Captain with confusion because he was, very obviously, completely fine.
"It's alright, I'll do it. I'll do it." Quinn waved the girl away and she nodded slowly, still making a face, and left them the small kit. Quinn groaned as she sat up, stretching. Dropping her ice pack to the side and motioning for Ace to come closer. "C'mon, Ace, it'll make Kat feel better."
Said redhead nodded hurriedly.
Ace grumbled but sat down across from her, letting her take his head in her hands. He looked to be pouting. Or, he was just honestly annoyed. She was willing to bet it was a mix of both. Quinn caught his gaze as she held his face and they quickly got stuck in an impromptu staring contest. One that seemed to have Kat looking more and more anxious by the second.
She squeezed.
He blinked.
"Stahp. You're squishin' mah cheeks." Quinn snickered, watching Kat eye him intensely from the side, as she stopped to turn his head this way and that. He didn't even have a scratch on him, not that she expected to find anything. Even eyeing his forehead a little longer than necessary, where the bullet would have gone through. "Do you even know what you're doing?"
"I'll have you know that I actually do. Well, I would if I was actually going to do it."
"What? Quinn," Kat whined, "You said you'd check him out!"
"There's no need to. Because, Ace," she flicks him on the forehead and watches it turn to flames, "ate a Logia fruit. Much different from my Paramecia, and much safer for him to get away with being shot and- well, hurt."
Ace still flinched back, hand coming up to slap the spot. "Hey!" Before he seemed to register what she'd said, "Wait, a what?"
Oh, right. They wouldn't know about the distinctions yet, would they?
Kat made a face. "Yeah, what'd'you mean?"
Quinn took a deep breath in through her nose.
It probably wouldn't do any harm in telling them, would it? She didn't think so. They were sure to find out eventually anyways.
"Devil Fruits, the East Blue seems to think they're just straight up magic. Which is fair, but only somewhat true. There is a science to them. And, while I can't tell you what exactly that science is, I only have guesses and not concrete info, I do know a bit more than what most East Bluers can tell you."
They stared at her with rapt attention, eyes wide.
She snorted at the sight before shaking her head and crossing her legs, holding up three fingers. "There are three categories of Devil Fruit: Paramecia, Logia, and Zoan. I have a Paramecia Fruit, the Luck Luck Fruit, and Ace has a Logia, the Flame Flame Fruit. Respectively it gives us Luck and Fire as powers, as you both know already.
"First, the easiest to explain, is the Zoan fruit. It essentially gives the eater the ability to turn into an animal, like a wolf or a giraffe, and usually in three forms. Human, Human-Hybrid, and Full Beast. Now animals, as a term, is sort of loose, as there's subsets of the category, like: Mythical Zoans, a phoenix for example, and Ancient Zoans, think dinosaurs. Which, yeah, is an animal, but one considered extinct." Er, kind of. Shit, they existed here, didn't they? "I'm… not sure if it would allow for sea creatures though? I would imagine, but given that it takes away your ability to swim, that seems kind of useless. Actually, have I ever seen anyone with a fish fruit? That's a little weird, I figured Oda would've cleared that up at some point...
"Anyways," she coughed, she'd fallen into a bit of a tangent there, and pretended like she hadn't just name dropped their universes author by accident, ignoring their briefly confused looks, "Ace has a Logia. Which is actually the rarest of the three, though Mythical and Ancient Zoans are even more rare, and is basically just the ability to turn into an element. Like, well, fire, but there's also Ice and Light and Sand and Lightning and… you get the point. You're basically intangible and able to absorb attacks and, based on whatever fruit you ate, you gain control of your respective element. Erm, potential control I mean." He needed some work.
Ace perked up at the description of his fruit.
That… helped him out quite a bit to be honest. At least now he had some idea of what he could do.
Quinn stabbed a finger through his cheek harshly, hissing at the flames that licked her finger before pulling it out and watching Ace struggle to reign the flames back in. "Hey, watch it, Quinn!" Okay, he didn't need the demonstration. He got it back with the bullets and damn- he shivered, the feeling would take some getting used to.
"Sorry, not sorry."
Kat clapped a hand to his face. "Wait, so that's why he's not hurt?" He suddenly burst out. He'd been looking more and more mind boggled by the minute. "Because he can't be?!"
"I mean, he can be. See: watch this."
Rather joyfully she licked her palm and proceeded to slap Ace on the face, not hard enough to leave a print or really hurt at all. Just enough to have him jerking in surprise and then rubbing at his face. "Quinn, gross! What the hell?!"
She was having too much fun with this, damn it!
"Kehehe." In thinking that, Ace watched her expression shift to delight as she smirked. "Weakness: Water, obviously. But, presumably, also anything wet." She then made a face, tilting her head in thought. "Though, I'm sure you'll be able to build up an immunity to it over time. Extreme heat could dissipate it before it even reached you, for example." Like back when he'd started eating up Kat's wall of water. Admittedly, she'd been thinking about his fruit much more than her own. His powers were just… She already knew enough about it to actually have ideas for it. "You know, I wonder if you could change the chemical properties of it, at some point?" She suggested.
Ace turned blank faced. "...What?"
"Like, I mean, making it a grease fire instead of a campfire. Water would actually help you then. And you could potentially shift between the two. Keh- then you'd only have to watch out for baking soda! Kat, go get me some, why don't you?"
He didn't seem to appreciate her spot of humor.
Ace slapped her back.
Quinn yelped, loudly.
"Ow, watch the bruises!"
He grinned a bit wickedly as he repeated what she had said. "Sorry, not sorry."
That said- that was a good idea. He'd have to ask her about it more later, if he could get rid of water as such an obvious weakness… that could only help him improve. It was food for thought.
Kat facepalmed. He, at least, seemed to be much less anxious compared to how he was before. Quinn would take that as a win, thank you very much. "So that's it? He just has to watch out for the water-thing for a while, until he can figure out how to, you know, not be?"
"There's Haki and Seastone and other obvious weaknesses that I can't think of right now but- Yeah. Bullets and swords aren't going to be that big of a deal."
Ace blinked.
That- both of those sounded familiar somehow.
"What's those first two again?"
"Haki is… Okay, I'll tell you about that later because it's a whole other thing and the likelihood of us having to deal with that anytime soon is astronomically low." She knocked on wood and paused. "Er, that's assuming we don't run into any more Vice Admirals. I'm pretty sure it's a requirement for them."
Ace shivered and couldn't help but twitch, thinking back on Garp and his Fists of Love. If it was a requirement… he was sure the old man had used it on them once or twice.
"But Seastone- Kairoseki -its a mineral that makes Devil Fruit users weak and shuts off Devil Fruit powers entirely, so long as you're in contact with it. Something about it giving off the feel of the ocean? I don't know, the Marines have it."
They both paused. "You know, I think I've heard of that before…"
"Yeah, me too."
Quinn sort of expected that. There'd probably been mentions of it in newspapers and the like, even if they hadn't known what it did, they'd likely heard the word tossed around once or twice. Somehow she doubted the Marines put out an explanation on the mineral, the better kept the secret was, at least in the Blues, the bigger advantage they had on rising fruit-users.
"Ah. Wait."
Ace suddenly raised his hand. Quinn got the impression of a freshman college student not realizing he had to anymore, the move was awkward looking. "What am I- a teacher? Shoot."
"Luffy, my brother," Kat and her shared a long suffering look at the wall in unison, as if they needed the clarification at this point, "can't get hit by bullets either. And, last time I checked, rubber isn't an element."
Finding out that little fact had been an… experience. And not a very good one. It'd happened a year or so after Sabo's death and the bear incident. He didn't know exactly when but he was pretty sure he'd been twelve or just about to be. Someone had been encroaching on their turf, and not the usual people from Grey Terminal who knew to keep out and keep off.
Ace was proud- er, proud was a strong word, in this case -to say that he'd kept it surprisingly together and only went totally, completely, absolutely ballistic.
The incident had left him more than a little paranoid about Luffy since then and much more- attached, he'll say, to the bubbly boy, after discovering that he'd been okay after getting shot. If bruised and whining.
(He'd actually had a pretty similar reaction to Ace. That is, falling over in shock and expecting to be dead.)
Ace would deny crying about it later on. No sir, he did not shed a single tear about his failure of protecting him and intense, crippling fear of losing another brother.
Quinn nodded like she knew exactly what he was talking about. Which, with how much he'd lost track of how much he'd regaled her with tales while they were stuck alone together, he wouldn't be surprised if she actually did. "Yeah, but rubber bounces. If the bullet had been tipped, it probably would've gone straight through him. So long as the weapon is blunt though, he'll be fine."
She says it so nonchalantly, like it should be obvious- which, hindsight was 20/20 -and is completely unaware of Ace's sudden and uncontrollable, internal panic.
Oh. Oh, no.
That hadn't even crossed his mind.
Tipped. Bullets.
Was that- Was that even a thing?
Kat thankfully, spoke his thoughts. "Does that even exist? I've never heard of such a thing."
And Quinn frowned, like she hadn't expected him to say that. Ace looked at her with sudden terror. Oh shit, was it something new that he hadn't heard about? "Oh, that's… right." Her brow furrowed down and she seemingly took a second to recollect her thoughts. "Nobody uses those here, do they? That's…. Less efficient and less effective." She mutters, which is not something Ace wants to hear right now.
She seems to shake herself out of her thoughts with a final mumble: "They haven't invented them here yet. Ah, I mean," she stumbles over her words, the statement coming out odd, "Yeah! You're right. I don't think there are bullets made for piercing."
Ace groaned, hiding his face in his hands. "Don't scare me like that."
"Sorry."
Though the 'yet' was beyond disconcerting.
If it was a thing, Luffy was the kind of idiot who would get so used to being shot that he'd step in front of bullets that wouldn't bounce back.
...Next time he saw him he had to remind him to watch out for bullets and actually try to dodge them like, you know, how a normal person would.
Says the hypocrite who just took a whole six bullets earlier with the express purpose of letting them hit to see if one of them ended up sticking. But Ace wasn't worried about himself. This was a time to be thinking of Lu-
"He's got a paramecia, you know, like me. His is kind of a weird one, it borders on the edge of Logia. But since rubber's not an element- it's not the same." Quinn steamrolled right past his internal crisis. "Paramecia is… simplest way to put it, it's a colloquial term for everything that doesn't fall into the other categories. I can control luck, he's rubber, I'm sure some asshole is a paper clip."
She shrugged and made a sort of wishy-washy hand motion.
"Basically, that's Devil Fruits. Eat two and you die, and if a user dies, the Devil Fruit reappears into the nearest fruit of the same species it originated from. Which is why Roddie had cherries when he tried to kill me."
Kat jerked. "Wait, someone tried to kill you? Who?"
They both waved him off, saying in unison, "No one important."
"It sounds important. When was this?"
"Island I met Quinn on," Ace stabbed a finger at her over his shoulder.
"Oh! Your home island."
"N-Nah. I mean, technically." She rubbed the back of her head a bit sheepishly, not really knowing what to say about it. She didn't want to talk about it. "Uh- Anyways." Kat frowns as she fails to elaborate. "Ace, I wouldn't worry too much about your brother. I'm sure he'll be responsible enough to figure it out before it becomes a problem." She- of course- knows she's completely full of shit.
But she still enjoys the way Ace's face shifts, looking like he didn't know whether to laugh at the obvious mistake or because of sheer disbelief. It still resulted in an absolutely animated laugh though. "Chehaha-! Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure that he'd-"
The door suddenly slams open
Kat almost jumps out of his skin.
"Uh," Quinn stares at the breathless man, "Can we help you?"
He's an old man, greying hair, wrinkly skin, and all of that jazz. And completely unable to speak as he turns nearly blue from trying to catch his breath, hands on his knees. Ace slides back into his seat. He'd jumped to his feet as soon as the door had opened, fingers flickering.
"You- You're the pirates right?!"
"Depends. Who's asking?"
Apparently, that's all the answer he needed. Because he lights up. "Hey, guys, they're in here!"
The trio exchange looks.
"Do you know what this is about?"
"Mn, no."
There's a sudden rush of footsteps and they all jump back in surprise as the room is being filled with people and chatter and-
Ace blinks rapidly a few times as the old man clasps his hands and falls to his knees. "You're the Captain, right?! Thank you-" Ace makes a face as tears spring to his eyes. "Please, let us throw a party in your honor, you've helped free us for another day! Thank you!"
"I-" His brain short circuited, but one word stuck out above all else, "Party?"
…
…
Cona hums over the glass of whiskey in her hands. She desperately needed the drink. After today, er- the last two days she should say, her brain was about to explode from the stress and the sweet release of alcohol finally seemed to ease her bones and bruises. It helped numb the throbbing in the side of her head. After nursing her wounds and having the girls pick out all the pieces of glass, they'd rubbed salves to keep infection away and wrapped bandages around her head. Thankfully, while the cuts were long and a few even deep, none were bad enough to need any stitches.
The party was in full-swing.
And she didn't know where to even look through the loud chatter and intense drinking and dancing. Through the crowd, she thinks she can pick out the pirate Captain tearing through food like it's been months since he'd eaten and then some. He had also seemingly discovered mixing alcohol beverages together and, oh, Cona was sure that he would have a massive hangover the morning after.
The red head was dancing like he'd never danced before-
Which wasn't a description of intensity.
Cona thinks he'd never danced a day in his life. She thinks he might have just elbowed someone actually- Oh, they were on the floor. He was apologizing. Ah.
And the glaring woman wasn't glaring for once. Though she'd removed herself from the center of attention, she'd taken a while to find actually, seemingly hiding in the dark corner of a booth by the window and continuing to nurse her wounds. Currently turning down the poor advances of one of the pervy old men trying to ask for her hand to dance before turning back to watching the party like Cona had been doing, though with the absence of a drink. Too busy smiling, almost softly as she observed her crewmates hijinks.
It wasn't the best idea. To throw a party. But with the shutters closed and the turn of the day towards the evening now, there was less of a need to hide. Just for tonight.
Cona assumed Salt was around somewhere, joining the festivities.
That is, until she sees the thin girl hop down the stairs, a box under her arm and a determined expression on her face as she walks out the door without so much as a goodbye.
Quietly, Cona drains her drink and sighs. She's sure that she'll be alright. She'll check for her if she's out for too long but Cona thinks she'll be okay by herself for now. There wasn't that much of a reason to be worried anymore anyways.
She wondered where the Bartender had gone to though, that woman- always acting so tough. Cona just wanted to keep sharing drinks with her until it was late into the night and they could finally curl up together and do nothing but sleep. "She's missing out on everything…"
Unbeknownst, to her, the Bartender wasn't too far away. Handling making them both drinks with practiced finesse and flourish from steady hands and years of practice, it didn't matter how drunk she already was- the burn of alcohol had long since stopped having an effect on her capabilities.
Nor did they affect the firmness in her voice or the clarity in which she dialed a number that she'd rather not. On a snail that she'd always wished she didn't have.
"Hello, this is the Twin Isles Spice Factory, proud provider to the Celestial Dragons, how may I help-?"
She rolled her eyes at the annoying, required spiel.
"Get a pen and start transcribing this. I'm from Starving Chang, some pirates are responsible for taking out those associates of the Factory that were in charge of keeping the people here in-check."
There's a long pause.
Then, a quiet, "...Are you sure you want to do this? Isn't this good for us all?"
She knocked her head back, eyeing the three pirates not paying her any mind.
"Not if we get blamed for it. Now, grab the damn pen."
They did so and she gave them descriptions and names, not going into detail of their abilities. It was a bare minimum, and the most sympathy she could offer the pirates. Even if she meant nothing to them, she still had a job to do. And she'd be damned if she let some no-name pirates potentially mess with her girls' safety. Even if they didn't mean to, even if they didn't know that they had.
-0-
"Sir!"
The tower has many stairs, and running up from the bottom floor has his knees weak and his breath coming out in high pitched gasps that couldn't get enough air back in his lungs. He has papers in his hands, a simple transcript with colorful notes quickly scrawled across it in red. He'd only fallen up the stairs twice and crumpled them a little bit on the way up.
"Huff, huff- Sir!"
He wheezes.
It's making his voice come out small and pathetic and takes a while longer for the Captain to turn around.
"Sir," he quickly offers the papers to him, lest he be punished for bothering him without a purpose, "apparently pirates took out the guys at Starving Chang!"
"Who?"
"Pirates, sir, their names are-"
"No. Not them. Who was at Starving Chang, I didn't authorize anyone over there."
He gulps down a deep breath of air and, while he's still huffing and puffing, it lets him speak without having to stop mid sentence. "Uh… sir?" But he was too confused to do anything other then remind him about the group that had vowed to keep Starving Chang in order for them, so they didn't have to spread too many of their resources over two islands. "It was the men from the bandit group that used to operate here, before the Factory became financed by the government, they allied with us, remember?"
The Captain's face blanks and he stares off to space for a long… long… time.
"...Oh, those dweebs. Good. They were annoying." He shrugs. "Why are you telling me? We should give those pirates a medal of commendation."
"B-But sir! What if they start messing with the factory?"
He stares once again.
Then starts laughing.
"Fah, you're hilarious! I didn't know we had such a funny guy workin' here."
"S-Sir-?"
"It's a well known fact that we're employed by the Celestial Dragons. They'd have to be crazy. Or have a death wish." He yawns into his hand. "Anyways, now that they're gone, there's no one to keep the people in check any longer." He pauses. "Or the brothels. Aw, I liked going there too! Too bad we'll have to send a message now."
He grows pale, the papers in his hands, still yet to be taken, crinkling under his fingers.
"What?"
He- He had family hiding there.
The Captain's laughter only grows. "They think I don't know they've been stealing our workers away."
"Y-You… knew this the whole time?"
"Of course, I did. But I liked those places. The women there are fun, if you know what I mean." He raps a hand against his chest before sighing. "Really gonna miss those places." And he doesn't get a chance to say anything before the Captain is calling over his shoulder, hand cupping around his mouth, making him suddenly aware of the odd presence hiding in a dark corner of the room. "Oh~ Mime!"
Long legs and arms, wreathed in black and black and white stripes, the painted face that stands almost twelve feet off the ground with a penciled on and permanent smile. The… person… it resembles a human. But there's features that are just not quite-
Right.
They look correct at a first glance but the more he stares, the more he can pick out, finding that every little bit that should make it human, is just wrong.
Yellow eyes flicker with rapid movement.
"...I-"
The Captain is not unsettled by it. He simply smiles, "Be a dear, go clean that little mess up, will you? Kill those pirates as well. As good a deed as it was, they're still just a pack of lowly criminals."
The Mime takes the paper from him and he flinches back.
It receives a fake smile.
"Oh! And my favorite worker's little sister has been going out of her way to mess with things, get rid of her- it'll help keep her precious older brother in check." He adds quickly: "The second one. The first and third sister are annoying, but fine. For now."
-0-
He's drunk.
So very obviously drunk that she doesn't know whether to laugh or be concerned.
Just… he is so impossibly drunk. Quinn even leans out of the booth seat on the off chance that he passes out standing up and she needs to run and catch him. Even if he's a fire man now, she doesn't think that'll keep him from drowning in his own vomit-
Actually, with the amount of alcohol flowing around the room, she's suddenly afraid that it may all go up in flames if he dares to light off a spark.
Surprisingly, even for his age, he's clearly experienced in holding his liquor. But that's not going to help when he's gone and made such a blend of different concoctions, uncaring to the percentage he's intaking, and had enough that Quinn was pretty sure that a normal person would be dead right now. The only thing keeping her from flatout stopping the influx of drinks is that the women, by this point, seemed to have noticed his overwhelming intoxication and were now limiting him to sparkling water. Not that he seemingly noticed.
"Uh, hey, Ace," still, she thinks he should sit down, "you cool there?"
He squints at her. He'd been passing by with a tray piled high with enough food that it made her sick just looking. "Nah," well, at least he noticed, "I'm fire now. How can I be cool?" Oh no.
"Keheh, my bad."
He goes to hang out where he had been and Quinn quickly catches the back of his shirt. "Hold on, why don't you sit with me for now? I don't think the people over there can hold their drinks anymore." The group had tasted some of Ace's experiments and been blown right out of the water. Most hadn't even gone for a second or third drink.
Ace shrugs and sits down across from her and she's immediately sagging in relief, "What'cha got there?" Grey eyes drift to her own glass.
"Water. You should try it some time." He snorts. "I don't like drinking."
He blows a raspberry her way. "What kind of pirate doesn't drink?"
"I'll just be a weird one then."
"Weird pirate with bad plans…"
Quinn feels her eye twitch. "Okay, if I admit that I could've come up with something better, will you let it go?"
He's too busy eating but with the way he grins she'll take it as a sign of agreement to the proposal. She still rolls her eyes.
"Why don't you like drinking?" He eventually asks. It's through a mouthful of food, which has her wrinkling her nose in disgust and looking away, so it comes out sounding more like 'whishdonoohikdring' but Quinn can translate well enough.
"I don't like being drunk." Especially like you are, she doesn't say.
"But why?"
'Busheiye?'
"Don't like the hangover." Oh, he's going to have a gnarly one to deal with tomorrow morning, she's sure. Unless he's one of those weird ones who doesn't get them until he's older which sounds more likely to be honest. "Also, don't like not knowing what I did the night before." Or who.
But, unfortunately, Quinn was lying. Those were two very true, good reasons but they weren't the definitive one.
Ah, if only Ace knew the real reason she didn't like getting drunk. He'd make fun of her for days.
...Quinn was an emotional wreck of a drunk who couldn't hold her tongue to save her life. Too busy crying over dumb things and panicking about trivial pursuits and complimenting all the people she met or-
One time she'd remembered vaguely sobbing, full-blown sobbing, about an old Tamagotchi dying. From when she was five. Someone had mentioned their dog passing away and she'd cried over a toy.
And, if it was among friends and hell, even strangers, she'd get all sentimental and shit. Recollecting random memories that meant literally nothing, like buying a bag of chips with one of them, or coming up with some, frankly hilarious, stories that were just plain untrue.
Quinn was not ready to expose herself like that, ever again. Definitely not in front of someone who could technically be considered her freaking boss. Even if she figured they were technically friends first.
Ace suddenly turned a little green around the gills. "Hrnf…"
"Woah, you okay, Ace?"
She ducks her head into her hands as he belches in response. Groaning an incredibly pained, "...Nice. Thanks for looking in my direction as you did that."
He grins. "You're welcome, Quinn!"
"Just. Eat your damn food."
Ace, by comparison, seemed to be a relatively happy drunk who seemed surprisingly willing to go along with most of what people tell him to do. She's thanking whatever god is out there that nobody ended up suggesting he set anything on fire when he'd begun to show off his Devil Fruit powers some part way through the night. They'd honestly probably thought it was some sort of fever dream if Quinn considered it.
Quinn sighs and turns away, fingers tapping against her cheek in an odd sort of pattern that made her feel like she could play the piano. She can't stand to actively watch him engorge himself. It's too confounding to even think about, an eldritch abomination of a concept that threatens her mind as it tries to grasp for a reasonable explanation as to 'just how can he eat so much food?!'
"Kat looks like he's enjoying himself."
She catches sight of the red head. He'd thankfully stayed away from drinks as well. Quinn wouldn't have known what to do if he'd dove into it- she really didn't want to see her 6-years-her-junior drown himself in alcohol like Ace did. She could justimagine watching all the brain cells dying.
Ace perks up.
Strangely, he actually swallows before speaking this time, Quinn thanks the small graces, "Hey, his mask is finally gone!"
It is.
He'd gotten rid of it when Ace had gotten shot, not that the oblivious-to-emotions-dealing-with-him even noticed.
He hadn't made to hide his face since then, at least not in the same way. Kat still tried to keep his mismatched batch of teeth hidden beneath uncomfortable looking, closed lipped smiles, even if the green around his face and his scarred gills were now clearly visible to all. A few gave him wide looks and initial gasps but they were, thankfully, buried in drinks and the overflowing joy that seemed to seep off of everyone.
Who knew that beating up their little problem would make them so happy?
Though, Quinn mostly hid to be honest. Letting Kat and Ace have all the "fun".
"Oh, that's cool! I wonder if I can do that with my fire?!"
Quinn quickly grasps his hands and gently lowers them back to the table. "H-How about you wait and do that when you're sober, huh?"
Kat was busy showing off his water powers with one clawed hand, making shapes from drinks as he delighted in entertaining the group of women, men, and children who were practically screaming in laughter. A dolphin, a crab, a lobster, the Beast, and even a mock impression of the men they had fought earlier screaming in terror. It had Quinn covering her mouth when he started making, frankly, quite horrendous voices for them.
Ace chuckled, glancing between his two crewmates. Even if Quinn hadn't joined in with the majority of the party, they both seemed to be enjoying themselves just fine. "I bet I can make even better shapes-" He turns green again.
"Don't look at me this time!"
He turns away just in time to throw up in the corner of the seat.
Quinn leaves an afterimage in the speed of leaping to her feet. Face a mix of disgust and worry as Ace heaves, "Okay, okay," she grabs napkins and hands them to him, letting him wipe off his face. She quickly calls over her shoulder, "Clean up in the corner booth!"
A few groan in response but leave to, presumably, find cleaning supplies.
And Ace leans onto the table, muttering, "'M fine. 'M fine." all the while he's rubbing his brow, face pale and looking like he's dealing with a cold sweat. He can feel his stomach gurgling unhappily and he presses his fist to his mouth, blowing out air in a not-quite burp. All he can taste is bile.
Is- Is this what being sick is like? Ace moaned lightly. Because it freaking sucked.
"Nope, no, no you're so not, mister."
Seeing that he's quickly beginning to turn green again Quinn is more than willing to call bullshit.
"Maybe if I eat it'll go away?"
He suggests and droops at her flat look.
"Not that easy?"
"Not at all." Quinn sighs and runs her hands through her hair as he turns and vomits again. "Oh, you'll just make it worse if I leave you alone, won't you?"
The only response she gets is him laying on the table and, in complete disbelief, whining. "Ugh- what is this? I'll never make fun of the bandits acting like babies when they're sick again!" She thinks she might see tears in the corner of his eyes. "Damn it, it hurts…"
She can't help it. Her lip is trembling and she has to squint her eyes, she can't even look at him. "R-Right- Keh. Of course, it'll all be… snk, it'll all be okay, Ace."
"Are you laughing?" His voice cracks a bit in the midst of his disbelief. "You're too cruel."
"N-No, I'm fine. Completely normal." She has half her face buried in one hand while her other attempts to wave off his wounded expression. Oh, his pride was taking a beating for sure. "Okay," she takes a deep breath and pushes the laughter down, "Okay. I'm good now. Come on, big tough and scary Captain-man, let's get you better."
"Quinn…"
From the looks of it he is not appreciating her comments.
She doesn't know how he wouldn't.
Quinn thinks she's funny.
She gestures for him to wrap his arm around her shoulder and when he doesn't move, he receives a flat, "Do you want me to help you or not?" And Ace begrudgingly does so. A good thing too because his knees suddenly feel weak and he's suddenly light headed enough that it makes Quinn stumble under all his weight leaning against her. "Oof, you're not going to pass out, are you?"
It's not helpful that he doesn't answer.
She quickly drags him over to Kat's table. "Hey, Kat."
The redhead whips around to grin, it falls when he sees Ace hanging off her shoulder. Looking greener around the gills than even he was. And that's saying something. "I- Did something happen?"
Quinn shakes her head. "Nah, Ace just drank too much. I'm gonna go help him, kay? You cool here?" She felt sorry for bothering him while he was clearly having fun.
"I- yeah, but, I can help? Do you need me to-"
"I got it." She shoulders Ace up a bit, he's hanging his head and leaning a bit too heavily. "You can keep enjoying yourself, just wanted to let you know where we're going. You know, so you didn't think we disappeared or anything." She'd had a couple friends pull that on her a few times and let's just say- dick move. She'd actually gotten pretty concerned for them. And had spent most of the nights searching through frats to make sure they weren't in any trouble.
She pauses.
Then adds. "Don't drink anything alcoholic. I'm not taking care of two idiots tonight."
Ace makes a noise against her shoulder that sounds decidedly pained.
"...Thanks…" He moans into the crux of her neck and she catches a whiff of his gross breath and immediately makes a face.
"Just… don't breathe on me, please. It smells."
He groans but nods.
"Is this what being sick is normally like?"
"What? Have you never gotten sick before?"
"No?"
He seemed honestly confused on why that would be odd.
"I think I've heard of an old saying…" They were making their way up the stairs and the continuous conversation seemed to help him get along. "That idiots can't get sick."
"Not funny."
"Kehehe." She carefully guides him towards the next set of stairs, checking to make sure he wasn't going to suddenly throw up as they were moving or completely pass out on her side. "Well, being sick can get much, much worse than this. I assure you. At least you'll feel better sometime tomorrow?"
"Can't I just throw up and- urk- get better?"
"I wish that was how all health issues worked…" Quinn muttered before shaking her head. "No, and you're really not proving that idiot part wrong." He shoves her. "Hey-! I'm the one carrying you, remember? Maybe don't drink so much that you look like you're about to blackout."
"Stop…" He moans and Quinn feels her eyes roll.
Yeah, he probably doesn't want to hear her nagging right now.
Still.
Ace's head feels impossibly heavy and it has his neck rolling with the weight as he tries to raise it back up and look ahead. He just feels gross and sweaty. And, damn it, maybe Quinn was right- but he'd be damned if he let her know it. "Why're we here?" He groans as Quinn opens a door.
To the bathroom.
"So you can vomit to your heart's content."
"I'm not going to-"
He suddenly doesn't look too good and Quinn let's go to watch him rush to the toilet, rubbing her forehead with an exasperated sigh. Who knew that despite worlds she'd still be dealing with helping younger peers hold their hair back as they vomiting in the middle of a party. "Just like good ol' college, ain't it, Quinn?" She mumbles and goes to wash her hands. Pretending like she wasn't already carefully pining her own hair back and wondering if there happened to be any gloves or hand sanitizer in one of the many drawers or bottles on the counter.
Ah, no luck. Dang.
...
...
The fighting had been chaotic.
More so than she can describe. But Salt didn't care about the fire and the water and the lack of an explanation she had been provided, not when she had gotten this out of it. She hefts the box a bit higher on her hip.
It'd eventually stopped raining. Sometime before they had left. And now the ground was slick and covered with muddy puddles that raised the dirt and had her going out of her way to take the long way. She just needed to find a dry spot on the edge of the island, where no one could find her.
Salt smiled to herself lightly.
In the midst of fighting and helping Cona along, they'd found themselves in a room that had been, as Cona told it, where they'd penned the Den Den Mushi. A man had been running there to make a call for help and, upon finding the room dead, had only taken a quick jab to the back of the head before getting knocked out. Salt had been proud of herself for that. Even if it had made her hand ache and been harder than she expected.
And then she'd discovered an open window.
Cona had said, "I tossed the ones that could still live out there."
Salt could see it.
Picking up a dopey-looking snail that hadn't managed to make it more than a few feet away from the window. She recognized it as the one they had confiscated from her when she'd made to call for help before. And she quickly pocketed it. It didn't matter if there wasn't anything to connect it to calls anymore.
She could work with this.
Salt practically skipped as she found the spot she had in mind.
She couldn't fight. No, Salt wasn't strong, but she knew her way around machines. At least these ones. And, with all the parts and pieces that she could find in the halls of the brothel, she could make her own transmission. She'd done it before. She just had to make it look like she was making a call to the Factory at the same time. That way, they wouldn't scramble it.
Salt set the snail next to the box.
It was time to get to work.
…
…
He's rather brought this on himself, hasn't he? Usually the people she helped didn't eat as much as he had.
If anything in the last few days.
She almost wished she was back playing nurse with them. At least her knees wouldn't be hurting from sitting in a kneeling position for so long. Ah, but she'd be lying if it wasn't better to not be helping a complete stranger in an emotional state that she definitely didn't want to hear about versus someone she knew- who was just being stupid for once.
It's probably a good thing that he's so out of it. Quinn's mind has been wandering.
And, as it's been established, it's nowhere good that it ends up.
"...Hey, Ace?"
He's groaning in answer, forehead on the toilet seat and appreciating the fingers that run through his hair as she looks for a rubber band to pull it back.
"Mn, is… is the only reason you recruited me because of my devil fruit?"
"What are you talking about-"
He turns green and is vomiting again. Quinn winces and rubs his back, hand making circles between his shoulder blades. It's probably not the best time to bring up her destructive thoughts but she doesn't know when she'll get a good chance to. If ever. Doesn't know if she should even give herself an actual chance. At least, though, with him drunk and looking to be on the fast track to a terrible hangover, she doubts he'll remember.
"Sorry, sorry. I mean, I already know the answer. I guess I just wanted to be wrong." She sighs.
Quinn feels her fingers brush up against a pair of loose rubber bands and he stops hurling for a minute, long enough that she can carefully braid back his bangs before tying them down and using bobby pins to hold them back. Finally able to let go. It was the only part of his hair long enough to get in front of his face. "There we go, that should help."
He leans against the seat, breathing heavily, cheek smooshed and eyes dark with tiredness. He'd gotten about the same amount of sleep as her and seemed to be much less used to it. She slides a glass of water over towards him. He just stares, looking dazed and confused.
Quinn can't help but let out a little laugh at him.
"Ah, nevermind, don't worry about it."
It's such a bad time to ask anyway.
He blinks slowly, dopey.
"Quinn…" He shudders. "Why are you always so hard on yourself…?"
"Keh. Why are you?"
He shrugs.
Couple of poor sods, aren't they?
She slumps back against the cupboard, fiddling with her hands between her knees. "I… hope I'll be able to be wrong. In the future, I mean. It's… okay for right now. I understand. I'm not worth much right now." She looks up at the ceiling, smiling. "So I'll try and be someone worth having stick around on your crew, 'kay?."
He looks like he's going to be sick again.
"What are you talking about-? You already are."
Quinn can't help but smile like she believes him. Oh, she wished that she could. To just be enough as herself. But she wasn't so naive to think that-
She'd never been enough before. And this wasn't any different. It didn't matter what world she was in.
-0-
Nest Island.
They claim it to be an uninhabitable mess of invasive species and wild animals that threaten to tear anyone who sets foot on it to shreds. They'd be right. For the most part.
He wasn't just anyone.
The sword, easily the length of his body, makes a high pitched noise as it glides to a stop, following the extension of his arm. "Ah," he eyes the fallen monstrosity on the ground, a praying mantis that's head nearly clears the tree tops, "Is it just curiosity that has them all wondering what my blade tastes like?"
He supposed he could understand. There was always an interest towards flavor.
It didn't matter who or what you were; if you were a god or the lowliest of animals, everyone craved taste. It was one of the few honest things in this world.
But you would think they would get sick of steel eventually.
"...I wonder how you would taste sautéed?"
.
.
.
Poor Quinn, she's having worries.
She feels out of place in all of this, I mean, who wouldn't? And doesn't know whether or not she fits as a pirate, especially since the only thing she has going for her is her fruit and otherworldly knowledge, and she already felt like she was lying to Ace and co. but the bartender just made her feel worse about it all. Wonder how long it's going to take for her to sort through all her problems?
The scene she was thinking of was specifically from The Patriot. I'm also pretty sure there was a similar moment in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), but I couldn't find it or I'm just thinking of a different movie, anyways I think there's also a few stories about Vikings doing similar things. Essentially, what came to her mind was closing up all the exits and escape routes and just lighting it on fire while they were sleeping, which - super messed up my dude. Also Ace went through that as a kid so he would have not liked it. At all.
Also, I don't know if you can tell, but I've sorta been avoiding writing fights. Especially with Ace. Sorry about that. I really, really want to- but it super does not make sense in the East Blue to have legit fights.
I mean, you saw how the Straw Hats did when they were there. They curbstomped everyone, sans Mihawk. And it only really took awhile if they were at a severe disadvantage or if something stupid happened (ie. Zoro getting Mihawked versus Luffy getting hypnotized).
And, honestly? I think Ace when he was first starting out was slightly stronger than Luffy when he was first starting out. (Within East Blue at the very least, I mean). He's also smarter too, though with Luffy that's not hard per se. So things have to be different.
But I don't want to make Ace the One Punch Man of East Blue, even if that's what his moniker alludes to. As funny as that would be. It would be boring here, with the kind of story I want to tell.
And I also don't want to throw him out of fights because of his narcolepsy. At least, not right now. It feels like a cop out.
(Also, given the information that we have on the East Blue and notable inhabitants, Don Krieg, Kuro, and Arlong seemed to be the only people with bounties high enough to be noted. And while it's possible that Ace took out a large portion of other pirates, before we see the Marines going over the posters, I don't think it's logical to assume that the weakest sea had much more to offer.
Especially not in types of criminals. Which early shonen villains… urgh.
I find it hard to believe that Ace had a starter bounty lower than thirty million. He's too much of a little shit. Thirty, of which we know is the highest bounty to come from inside East Blue, courtesy of Luffy. So I'm guessing that he only got his first bounty once he hit the Grand Line, presumably getting increasingly higher from there incredibly fast. As I don't think he would have caught Whitebeard's eye in the paper so early on otherwise.)
So I've sort of written fights to specifically revolve around a singular person (Kat vs The Beast) or be with large groups of people they don't necessarily want to hurt too bad/can't hurt (civilians, Gaimon's animals, Garp- He gets a group to himself) or, as you can see from this chapter, serve a different purpose. As in, Ace trying to figure out the Mera Mera no mi.
The Boss dude, who is unnamed because I couldn't be bothered, but also made sense given the conversations that Quinn was having, would have been immediately annihilated by Ace. Kat too. Even Quinn would've been able to fight him if she had, I don't know, a gun or a big heavy stick to whack him over the head with.
So yeah, I wanted to use this fight, if you could call it that, to instead highlight Ace trying to figure out his devil fruit powers. And like- logia. I am confusion.
Because-
Okay, so Logia's are a bit weird. And I've seen many interpretations of the abilities and how they work but, based off what we know from the manga and Ace's story, I think we can safely assume that shifting into a respective element is not an entirely conscious choice. It's more reaction than it is response.
What I mean by that- is that the fruit acts as a secondary defense against danger of its own accord. We can see this in Paramecia like Luffy, for example, who border on Logia almost. While he can control his rubbery-ness, it's not something he can shut off, his body is rubber, so even if he wanted to take a bullet normally, he couldn't. It'll always bounce at least a little, unless its made for piercing of course. Or Haki'd up. So while Ace is constantly fire- his body is in a permanent state of heat- and he'll be able to control it, he will always be on the verge of falling into flame. Piercing, blunt attacks, anything that is attempting to break skin or even perceived as a threat, the logia will naturally react and throw up its defenses. Letting the danger pass through. Think of it like Spidey-Sense almost, or a really adept pain-response/nervous system.
This is why Quinn poking him passed through and didn't. She was poking to, well, poke, but the last one was not meant to push skin, it was made to lay on top. And Kat was wet still when he was poking him, so was Ace, and so he could actually touch him out of the rain.
While I don't think Ace has a weakness to water like, say, Crocodile, it's still a weakness. He would have to boil the water off, get dry, convert it to steam, etcetera etcetera. And if someone stabbed him while he was wet, the non-wet parts, like past his skin, would not take damage. Its just enough to actually touch though. There's all sort of exceptions to this. Like- what if a sword was covered in water? Would blood work too, like what Luffy used against Crocodile? What about other things that put out fires?
But things like;
Can he be punched if wet? Yes.
Stabbed? Technically. But it'd only break the outer layer of skin, assuming it's a regular knife. If it goes through to the other side, which is also wet, it would pierce there too. But, essentially, his organs would be protected.
Blunt? It depends on the specific object but yes. It would be the same as a punch.
Now, this is where I think a distinction between Logia and Paramecia needs to be made. Because, unlike Luffy, I think Ace could learn to be solid. It's not an impossibility for him.
We can sort of see this when Ace protected Luffy for example. While he's clearly not completely whole, in more ways than one (haha, self-five!), his body is physically reacting to Akainu's punch- in a way that it shouldn't, even if Akainu had been using haki. He would have fallen to fire when he pulled his fist out, for example, the areas that were not touched by haki, such as his sides, would have been easily bypassed by Akainu simply carrying through the hit. Instead, Ace was consciously and solidly shielding Luffy with his physical body as much as he could, otherwise Akainu would have just been able to pass through after punching a hole in him and gotten Luffy too.
I think a good fic that really doubles down on the intricacies of Logia is Full Steam Ahead by QuirkyKirsty, it just goes out of its way to explore the concept and does a really good job of it.
Also, a powers' update, I think I'm going to start putting these in when I name new moves/skills by the character, just for readers sake(fun fact, I've actually been writing these down in a dnd spell style on a separate document, in order to try and keep them balanced. I'd recommend doing it if y'all know how that works or if you think it might help you. It helps break things down so you don't make something op or complete bullshit. I'll just give y'all the description though, the semantics can get kinda arbitrary):
Quinn;
Goldberg/Rube: Changing the luck mark intentions to good/bad luck and watching the intricate and unnecessary chaos ensue, with Goldberg denoting shifting to good luck and Rube shifting to bad. Named after Rube Goldberg machines. Rube also can be used as an insult to call someone uneducated or unsophisticated, for example. Bit snobbish sounding, isn't it? It was also apparently used by circus performers as a rally call during fights. Goldberg, more of a homage to the actual concept of the machine and its creator, is rather literal in it's usage.
Karma: Luck that reacts specifically to actions/intentions. It acts like its name, she's still working on it though. It's still in its experimental stages.
Ace hasn't officially named anything yet. Kat didn't have anything in this chapter.
Anyways- aaa- like I said up above, this chapter got away from me. I just really wanted to finish SC in two chapters and I expected this one to only be around 15k. But the next thing I knew I was doubling it and then adding some more. Still, I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. Sorry for the long AN by the way.
Thoughts? Can't wait to read reviews, thanks to all the lovely comments I got on the last update! They really helped me power through this chapter.
