SailorStar9: After getting Chapter 41 out, this is Chapter 42 of this fic. For everyone who put this fic on your favorited and followed lists and/or story alerts, thank you, but remember everyone, a lot of authors, myself included, sustain on readers' reviews.
Pairings: Ace/Sasha, familial Luffy/Sasha, patriotic Law/Sasha (Might end up as a Law/Sasha pairing later if I end up killing Ace at Marineford and if reviewers don't mind the age gap)
Disclaimers: One Piece belongs to Oda Eiichirō-sensei. Me, on the other hand, own absolutely nothing, except my OC.
Chapter 42: Arc 4: Erumalu, the City of Green and the Kung Fu Dugongs!
"You do realize you're supposed to be sitting still when I'm drawing you, right?" Sasha cast an annoyed look at the grinning Ace who was looking over her shoulder at her half-finished carbon sketch.
"Aw, come on, Sasha-hime." Ace pouted. "Don't be like this. Three years, Sasha-chan." he muttered into her neck. "I missed you."
"I missed you, too." Sasha leaned back into his body after setting her sketchpad aside. She bit back a low moan when Ace's lips shifted to suck on her shoulder. "Ace..." her voice hitched when she felt Ace's hand reach up to cup her left breast, his right arm wrapped around her waist to keep her in place. "Not here... the crew's not big on PDA."
"Then, they'd better get used to witnessing it more often." Ace grinned, planting a kiss on his partner's nose. "I've three years of making out to make up for. Your boobs got bigger." he commented, smirking.
"Prat!" Sasha smacked the older pirate on his arm.
Later that night after dinner...
"You didn't tell us everything about Blackbeard." Sasha gave Ace a pointed look, the reunited lovers were snuggling under the mast.
"What makes you say that?" Ace blinked down at her.
"Because I know you." Sasha replied flatly. "Look, Dalton-san from the Drum Kingdom gave us a rundown on what happened when Blackbeard and his crew pillaged the kingdom. Granted Wapol is a coward, but for Blackbeard to do what he did to the Drum Kingdom, even with Dalton-san as a Devil Fruit user, and a Zoan-type at that, there must be something else that enabled Blackbeard to plunder the Drum Kingdom unchallenged."
"The crew-mate Blackbeard killed, Thatch, found a Devil Fruit." Ace sighed. "And Blackbeard killed him for it."
"A Devil Fruit?" Sasha echoed. "That would make sense. Wait a minute, I'll go get something."
"The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia?" Ace raised an eyebrow at the book in Sasha's hands a while later. "Where did you get that?"
"A gift from Chopper's mentor." Sasha replied and settled back between the Fire Logia user's legs. "Okay, which one did Blackbeard steal?" she asked, flipping open the book.
"That!" Ace pointed at the illustration page of the Yami Yami Fruit.
"The Yami Yami Fruit, huh?" Sasha mused. "Allows the user to control darkness..." she read the description box. "Well, that's a given." she remarked. "And gravity." she continued reading. "Able to nullify Devil Fruit abilities by mere touch?" she exclaimed. "Ace," she looked up at her similarly shocked lover. "You're not going after Blackbeard the way you are."
"Sasha, but..." Ace protested.
"Whitebeard doesn't even know you're going after Blackbeard, right?" Sasha gave him a look that brokered no arguments. "I know you feel responsible for Thatch, but going after Blackbeard right now will get you killed, or worse, captured by the Navy."
"Then, what do you suggest I do?" Ace was frustrated. "I just can't let Teach get away with... what he did!"
"Say, Ace." Sasha voiced. "What do you know about Haki?"
"Haki?" Ace echoed.
"You really don't know anything, do you?" Sasha sighed. "You already unlocked Conqueror's Haki, you know."
"I did?" Ace echoed.
"Back in Grey Terminal," Sasha supplied. "Dadan-kaa-san told me what happened to the Bluejam Pirates."
"Ah, that..." Ace recalled.
"You can't train Conqueror's Haki; either you have it or you don't." Sasha lectured. "But Armament Haki on the other hand, can be trained."
"Sasha," Ace gave the smaller female a serious look. "Teach me." he implored.
"You have to manifest it first." Sasha reminded.
"Nami-san, I'd like to land the ship here for a moment." Vivi informed the navigator.
"What for?" Nami blinked.
"I have an important task for Carue." Vivi looked at the duck. "Carue," she handed the duck a letter once the ship docked. "I want you to go to Alubana Palace on your own and deliver this letter to my father. I've written everything Igaram and I learned about Crocodile and Baroque Works' schemes. And that I've returned to Alabasta alive with supportive friends. Can you do it?" she asked the duck. "You'll have to cross the desert on your own."
With a salute, Carue took off.
"I knew Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords, was in this country." Ace voiced from the deck. "But a pirate trying to steal a kingdom? That sounds like a bad joke. A pirate dropping anchor in one spot and settling down? Don't tell me he's trying to usurp the throne. There could be another side to this takeover thing."
"Another side?" Zoro frowned.
"Some sort of deeper goal..." Ace answered, walking off.
"We're finally here." Luffy remarked as the ship neared the shore.
"We're finally going into the desert." Chopper added. "I bet it'll be hot..."
"It gets over 50°C in the daytime." Vivi supplied.
"Okay, let's land!" Luffy gave the order.
"What's that?" Zoro wondered, reaching to drop the anchor when a shadow surfaced from the water and a group of Kung Fu Dugongs emerged on the shore.
"Kung Fu Dugongs!" Vivi gasped.
"Chopper, please translate." Sasha requested.
"'If you wanna come on shore, you'll have to beat me first.'" Chopper translated for the Dugong leader. "'Or else, go back to the other side of the shore, cowards.' Is what he said."
"Usopp-san!" Vivi tried to warn Usopp who had jumped off the ship. "Kung Fu Dugongs are strong!"
"One is winning over there." Nami pointed out, Luffy having punched out a Dugong.
"Winning is bad, too!" Vivi exclaimed. "It's a Kung Fu Dugong rule that if someone loses, they become the winner's pupil. The number of pupils just went up!" she exclaimed.
"Are we bringing them with us?" Zoro exclaimed, seeing the whole troop of Kung Fu Dugongs lines up behind Luffy.
"The Dugongs can't cross the desert." Vivi pointed out.
"Too cute..." Sasha voiced Vivi's and Nami's sentiments when the three girls watched the Dugongs nuzzle Luffy. "It won't hurt to bring just one of them with us, right?" she suggested.
Silence blanketed the entire shore as everyone else, minus Luffy, gave her deathpanned looks.
"Guess not." Sasha sighed.
"Luffy, you corrupted Sasha-hime!" Sanji cried.
"What's this?" Sanji asked, the group stopping on top of a sand dune.
"This is Erumalu." Vivi replied. "It used to be known as the City of Green. The sight of this town explains everything. What the Baroque Works organization has done to this country... what the people of Alabasta are going through... it's a ghost town now, but up until recently, it was a thriving city full of greenery." she added as the group trekked through the sand. "Rain was always scarce, but even so, the city was able to manage by saving every last drop of rainwater it could. But, for three years now, not a single drop of rain has fallen on any part of this country."
"But even without rain, what about the river we just crossed?" Zoro asked.
"Couldn't they just pipe water from in from that big river?" Usopp wondered.
"The answer to that is just up ahead." Vivi replied. "Never in the thousands of years in Alabasta history, has the rain stopped completely. But then, there was one place where the rain fell more than usual. Alubana, the capital. The city with the king's palace. The people called it the King's Miracle. Until what happened that day, at least."
"Dance Powder?" Nami echoed, after Vivi recounted what occurred at the marketplace. "It's also known as the 'Rain-Summoning Powder'." she explained. "I'd only heard stories about it, but a researcher in a country where it doesn't rain created it. By creating a misty smoke from it and letting it rise into the sky, you can artificially cause it to rain."
"Hold on." Usopp stated. "Wouldn't something like that be perfect for this country?"
"As the name suggests, the country that developed Dance Powder was almost happy enough to dance at first." Nami answered.
"But there is a very big catch about it," Sasha continued. "The neighboring country would experience a drought. In other words, Dance Powder quickly makes and artificially matures rain clouds."
"I get it." Usopp realized where Sasha was getting at. "It steals rain that would've normally gone to a neighboring country."
"Eventually, war broke out between the two countries and many lives were lost as a result." Nami added. "Ever since, the World Government has put a worldwide ban on the production and possession of Dance Powder. Is that someone's voice?" she gasped when the wind started picking up as the group traveled through a row of demolished buildings.
"No, it's just wind." Ace corrected.
"It's coming from all directions." Usopp panicked.
"There's no danger." Ace assured. "It's just wind blowing across the town and echoing off old buildings."
"It's as if the city of Erumalu is crying." Vivi muttered. "Here it comes!" she warned as a small sand tornado blew towards them.
"Water Shell!" Sasha reacted, forming a water barrier to shield the group as the sand cyclone blew past them.
"Someone's collapsed!" Nami exclaimed, seeing a person that had fallen on the sand.
"What did my father..." Vivi muttered, kneeling at the skeleton's side. "What did the citizens of this country ever do? These people have worked so hard to live, being natives of a desert land who are forced to fight with nature. Yet he's destroyed their lives. What gives him the right to do that? All the while, as one of the Seven Warlords, he pretends to the hero of the people. No one realizes that he's deceiving the entire country. I can't let him get away with this!"
"Idiots." Sasha muttered, hearing the crumbling sound of a nearby building, Luffy having slammed an enraged fist onto the wall.
"Geez, you're all such kids." Zoro sighed, Luffy, Sanji and Usopp returning from their building pummeling.
"Vivi, let's get going!" Luffy declared.
"Let's go to Yuba." Nami agreed.
"That's where the rebel army is, right?" Zoro reminded.
"Yes," Vivi nodded. "I'm going to persuade their leader to stop the rebellion. All of Alabasta's calamities are Crocodile's doing. I'm going to tell him the truth and having stop the pointless shedding of blood."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-nes is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Reviews are much appreciated.