Hello friends! This chapter is short and sweet so I hope you enjoy it!

Warnings at end of chapter.

PARADISE

"Oh hey Ace what did that article say about us?" I asked one morning after breakfast.

"Oh yea! I forgot about that! Let me go grab it. I left it in my cabin." He said before he got up and jogged out of the galley with Kotatsu following him.

"What article?" Deuce asked over his cup of coffee.

"Apparently we made the paper a couple of days back. I'm assuming that we missed it because of the storm around Reverse Mountain" I said.

Ace walked back in holding the paper we had gotten from Crocus before shouting, "Skull you need to fix our jolly roger! Apparently people think that we are the 'arrowhead' pirates or something stupid like that. And that old fart must have kept my wanted poster because I don't see it in here."

"How do you want me to fix it? If people think that the spade symbol behind the skull is an arrowhead then that is kind of their problem." Skull said while Kotatsu slinked back in and curled up near Ace's feet.

"I don't know, just go write the word spade on it or something!" Ace said.

"You want me to write our crew's name on our jolly roger?"

"Yup. Sounds like a good idea to me so if you could get on that then that would be great!"

Seriously? He wants to- nope not worth it.

"You know what? I'm just not even going to argue about this. I know there's no point." I said.

"Now you're learning Air!" Ace said with a huge smile.

Damn it that smile again!

"Ugh, shut up. What does the article say?" I asked.

"Right, basically they are calling us horrible criminals for attacking the glorious Marines. Pretty basic but at least they got a good picture of me!" He said while holding up the front page.

Damn it he's right. He looks so hot and not because he's on fire…

"Did they give you an epithet yet?" I asked.

"Yea they called me the Fire Fist isn't that awesome!"

"Fire Fist? Where did they come up with that?"

"Oh yea you weren't there. But that's what I called the move you helped me come up with, you know the one where I throw a punch and a bunch of fire shoots out?"

Of course he did. Because the fact that fire is SHOOTING OUT OF HIS FIST doesn't make it clear enough that he has the power of the flame Logia. I swear I will never understand the instinctual need to put the name of their fruit into attack names that all Devil Fruit users seem to feel. Why is it so hard for people to just come up with original names? I do not understand!

"Right, the move that I spent days helping you to figure out. You felt the need to gave it the basic bitch name of fucking 'fire fist'? Seriously?"

"What do you mean basic bitch name? Fire fist is an awesome name!" He said.

"No honey. It really isn't." I said.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with the lady here Captain it's pretty basic." Deuce added.

"Deuce? You would betray your own Captain like this? The hell man?"

"I'm sorry but it's true!"

"Don't worry Captain I think Fire Fist is an awesome name! It's real piraty!" Skull chimed in.

"Thank you Skull! At least one of you isn't mutinous. But Ari what are the names of your moves that are so much better than mine?" Ace asked with his arms crossed before he got a slightly confused look on his face and said, "Wait actually I've never seen you fight with your fruit. You only ever use it to move the ship and stuff."

I rolled my eyes at him before saying,"Alright, alright, no need to get testy. Mostly that's because there haven't been any enemies that were strong enough to require me to use my fruit. A good rule of thumb for all devil fruit users is to use your fruit as little as possible. But if you must know, Leviathan and Jet Cutter are two of my stronger moves."

"Ok those do sound pretty cool actually. What do they involve?' Skull asked.

"Well Jet Cutter is basically just a fancy kick. So what I do is I kick towards my opponent but don't actually touch them. Instead I just create a tiny stream of water that gets projected toward them and often results in no small amount of slicing and dicing."

Ah it is so satisfying to be able to slice a man in half without getting covered in their blood!

"Oh shit yea water is actually super strong when it is under pressure isn't it?" Deuce asked.

"Exactly so not only does it preserve stamina because of how little water I produce but it also means that the attack is more precise and dangerous."

Ace's eyes went wide at that before asking, "Whoa do you think I would be able to do something like that?"

"Possibly but it also depends a lot on your element. So since fire kind of needs a lot of itself to be effective I don't know that subtle techniques would really be possible." I said.

"Hm, I could probably figure something out. But even if I can't, subtlety has never really been my thing."

"Really you don't say?" I said which made Ace glare at me from across the table.

"Anyways what is Leviathan?" Skull asked.

I chuckled a little before saying, "A fun time. That's what it is. So with that one I jump into the water and basically make the ocean do my bidding. So with that one I can sink a ship in just a few seconds if I want to."

"Wait if you can sink a ship that easily then why did we have to fight those Marines hand to hand back when they attacked us?" Ace asked.

"Maybe because you ignored me when I tried to tell you?"

"Shit then next time just do that." Skull said.

"I will, don't worry. So long as I'm on onboard it's impossible for a ship to sink." I said.

"Right unless you're the one sailing it." Ace said.

"How rude! I can sail just fine, thank you very much!"

"You literally sank your own ship right before we met."

"Wait that's how you two met?" Deuce asked.

"ACE! WHY WOULD YOU TELL THEM THAT!"

TRAITOR!

"What? It's true!"

"But they didn't need to know about that!" I shouted but the guys just ignored me as they were too busy laughing their asses off.

HOW RUDE!

It was the day after we entered the Grand Line and we still had another day until we reached Vira which is apparently where we were heading according to Skull. For the time being the sun was out and the weather was nice so the five of us were once again all hanging out on the deck. Skull was fixing the jolly roger like Ace had asked. Ace and Deuce were discussing something while Kotatsu was snuggled up to Ace's back. I was enjoying the nice weather by going through some stretches. I had just slid into my left split when Ace and Deuce's conversation peaked my interest.

"I think it should be pretty easy to make a paddle system that can be powered by your flames so you can propel a little boat. I don't know if it would be possible to implement into a full sized ship but a little skiff should be no trouble." Deuce said.

"So we can actually make a rocket boat?" Ace asked.

"I don't see why not."

"That is so cool! We have to get on that right now!"

"What are you two talking about now?" I asked while still stretching.

"Deuce is going to make me a rocket boat!" Ace shouted back excitedly.

Huh, that actually doesn't sound like a bad idea...

"Right. Just be careful and remember that you can't swim and if you are out at sea by yourself that is kind of a big concern."

Ace rolled his eyes and said, "Oh come on Air I'm not an idiot."

"I didn't say that you were. I'm just pointing out that you are still very new to being a devil fruit user."

"I might be new to it but I'm sure that I could still take you on!" He said.

"Oh really? You sure about that?"

"'Course I am. Want me to prove it to you?"

"Sure Captain, so long as you promise not to be too butt hurt when I swab the deck with your face." I said before standing up.

"I wouldn't be too worried about that."

"Uh huh why don't you stop talking and try to hit me."

As soon as I said that Ace lunged at me and quickly started throwing punches. Even though it was obvious that he was actually trying to hit me I easily dodged everything he threw at me.

Hmmmm, his strength is decent but his speed could use some work and he could obviously benefit from observation haki…

Noticing a gap in his punches I quickly ducked and aimed a kick for his head. However what should have been a finishing blow ended up passing right through him as he phased into fire.

He didn't even try to dodge that! Geeze, it's been what, a month and he is already this complacent with being a Logia?

"You know Logia's who rely too heavily on their elemental form don't tend to live very long." I said while still dodging and throwing the occasional kick his way.

"Oh come on what can't hit me can't hurt me!" He said with a smirk.

Oh ok you play it that way. Alright we can do that.

I laughed before jumping into a high kick which he again didn't even attempt to dodge. However this time my kick connected with his head and he was thrown to the floor. He was quick to get back up and came at me once again. But now I was on the offensive. Kick after kick connected with his body as he was thrown around the deck like a bouncy ball. He tried to retaliate with his flames but it was obvious that he was starting to get frustrated which was making him sloppy. After a particularly messy lunge towards me I decided that enough was enough and kicked him solidly in the chest and sent him slamming into the mast. He collapsed onto the deck while coughing and panting. After a few minutes he got himself together enough to speak.

"What the hell was that?" He asked through his pants.

"That was you getting your ass handed to you." I said with my hands on my hips.

"But how did you hit me?"

"Armament haki."

"Which is?"

"Something that you should be far more proficient in given that Garp is your guardian."

"He wasn't the teaching sort."

"Right. Well it's something that you have to awaken for yourself so I don't really know what good it would do to try and teach you it if you haven't found it yet. But basically it makes it possible to grab Logias and to hit things really hard." I explained.

There is so much more to it but something tells me that Ace is a bit more of a hands on learner...

"How do you awaken it?" He asked while climbing to his feet and wiping away the blood from his split lip.

"I wouldn't know I don't remember when I awoke mine."

"Fine, but how did you dodge everything I threw at you. Did I even hit you once?"

"No, you didn't. So I suppose I'm just that good." I said with a smirk.

And I have been training my observation haki for years but maybe he doesn't need to know about that right now…

"Bullshit. Let's go again."

"If we must." I said before getting into my fighting stance right before he jumped at me again.

"LAND HO!" Skull suddenly shouted, while pointing out the window.

I jumped and choked on my drink before snapping, "You do NOT need to SCREAM that when we are all sitting right here."

"Who cares? There's an island! Let's go!" Ace shouted before jumping up and running out on deck with Skull and Kotatsu following.

"Why did I decide to join this crew again?" Deuce moaned with his hands over his eyes from where he was sitting next to me.

"Trust me I'm asking myself the exact same thing. But I think it had something to do with captain dipshit having a cute smile." I said.

"Oh right how could I forget his 'cute smile'."

"I don't know man that sounds like a you problem."

Seriously if I knew how to forget about his smile then I wouldn't be having as many problems myself right about now...

Whatever Deuce was about to say was interrupted by Ace shouting, "Ari! Deuce! Get out here there's an island!"

"It is still over an hour away. I think we can wait in here just as well." I shouted back.

"But it's our first island in the Grand Line! Just come out here!"

"Ugh, fine. Come along Deuce you know he won't leave us alone now." I said before standing up with Deuce following me.

After the hour that I said it would take we eventually were close enough to dock on the island. It had a good deal of wooded area along the coast that wasn't occupied by a city. So we found a secluded spot to leave the ship since we couldn't head for the formal dock for obvious reasons.

"Ok the ship should be fine here. Also this island is pretty heavily populated but there should be a town not too far from here." Skull said after we finished securing the ship.

"I would rather go to the big city than a dinky little town though." Ace said.

"I know but this place is known to be pretty rough from what I've heard so we should check out the town before heading further into the island."

"I agree with Skull. A long time ago this used to be a cute little island but in recent years the government has become mildly tyrannical. So it would be best to keep a low profile if possible." I said.

"Mildly tyrannical? Just mildly?" Deuce asked.

"Right. So it isn't a friendly place but trust me in the grand scheme of things this place still has it pretty good." I said.

Ace groaned quite dramatically before saying, "I don't give a shit about the government, let's just go!"

"Alright, alright no need to get testy damn. We're going!" I said.

Once the four of us started heading towards the town, with Kotatsu left to guard the ship, I let my observation haki fan out to try and get a sense of what was going on in the town.

Now that we are out of that pathetic little puddle of an ocean I really should be keeping a better eye on those around us. Even though this is really early in Paradise you never know who might be around...

However once my haki swept over the town I immediately noticed a distinct lack of life forces.

That's weird.

Once we left the woods we saw what was left of the town. We stood there stunned for a moment before Ace asked, "What the hell happened here?"

Warnings: No warnings apply

Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I know it is shorter than usual and there isn't much plot besides crew bonding. But I wanted to have some relaxed happy time before shit hits the fan next chapter. Let's just say that chapter 10 is going to be where I start earning those tags...