Hello Friends! Whoo! Not only am I posting another chapter this month but it is before midnight! This is a pretty big accomplishment for me lol. Also shout out to my awesome beta Wyrdfyre who not only went through this beast of a chapter but did so ON HER PHONE because her computer decided to peace out just as I finished this. So thanks again friend!

Also shout out to StrFri and acetwolf94 for reviewing last chapter! Thanks guys you're the best! :)

Warning at end of chapter

PARADISE

"98...99...100!" I panted, flopping on to my back. Letting the bo staff roll away from me as I tried to catch my breath.

I had been training with the new staff for a few hours now. Since Ari has been constantly bugging me about relying too much on my fruit, and after what had happened on Kyaku, I've been trying to get back into the swing of using a staff.

Still weird though. I stopped using the pipe to fight years ago. But it was always really helpful back then so maybe it still will be. I might be able to come up with some cool combo moves with my flames?

Fortunately the staff was made of regular metal in the middle and only the ends were seastone so I could use it without dropping like an anchor. I sat up and was about to get back to it when Ari walked on deck. She was wearing her usual outfit of a crop top and jeans, no jacket today but…

Damn she is beautiful...

"I come bearing food. You didn't come down for lunch so I decided to bring it to you. But I brought a normal portion so if you want more then you'll have to go get it yourself." She said.

Food? Ok- she is extra, super beautiful!

I smiled up at her as she handed the plate to me. It was a few pork sandwiches (with extra pork) and they smelled heavenly. I may have moaned lightly as I took a bite of one.

"Thank you Air." I said with my mouth full.

She laughed before sitting down near me. While I was eating, Ari sat there with her eyes closed, smiling slightly. With the wind playing with her hair, she was truly gorgeous. A strong gust of wind came by and pushed her hair off of her back, enough for me to see a bit of ink on her back.

"You have a tattoo?" I asked, having finished my last sandwich.

"What? Oh- my tattoo, yea. I got it last year." She said, moving her hair off of her back and turning so that I could see it. "My sister did it for me."

The back of her shirt had a cut out in it, revealing a collection of bold black lines that swept over her shoulder blades. They spread out to cover the majority of her upper back forming the shape of a heart in the center.

"Nice. Sera didn't strike me as an artistic person."

"Sera didn't do it Law did."

"Law? Oh right you mentioned her. Isn't she a pirate?" I asked.

"Yea over in the North Blue but you wouldn't know her she's more of a covert kind of person." She said with a smirk while turning back to face me.

"Cool. So does it mean anything?"

"Yea, it's for my dad. All three of us have a heart tattoo."

"That's cool." I said nodding.

"Yea. It is." She said with a smile before looking at me and asking, "So are you going to tell me about yours?"

"My tattoo?"

Why does she want to know about that? Fuck. I even went out of the way to make it look like a standard name tattoo that just got a little messed up.

"It obviously has a meaning. I'm assuming the S is the symbolic part and the 'Ace' around it is just to disguise it."

"You can tell all that just from looking at it?" I said with an awkward laugh.

How did she know?

"Well that paired with the fact that I've spent months with you. You're impulsive, but you aren't stupid. I know that you know what you are doing even if it doesn't look like it."

"Thanks I guess." I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I've just been wondering about it is all."

She already figured it out so might as well just tell her.

"No, it's fine. I uh, I had another brother besides Luffy, and he died. So I got this tattoo so I can keep him with me I guess."

Ari nodded and said,"That's why I have mine."

"You're dad's dead?"

But I thought he was a Marine?

"For over 6 years now yea."

"Oh. That sucks." I said awkwardly.

What the hell am I supposed to say here?

Ari just shrugged and said, "It happens. You obviously know that. So all I can do now is fulfill my promise to him and remember him."

"Right."

Ari smiled at that before standing up. "I'm going to go check in with Skull and see how far we are from Lulusia. Have fun training."

I called out a thanks before getting up and picking up the staff again.

"Hey Deuce, how's it goin up here?" I asked as I swung myself up into the crows nest.

"Oh hey Captain I was about to go find you. I just spotted Lulusia." He said.

"Nice. Let's get everyone together so we can figure out what we're doing."

Deuce looked at me with a confused expression before saying, "You want to plan?"

"No. But Ari will get pissy if I don't at least pretend to think of how to go about this." I said.

"Fair enough." He laughed before we both jumped down to the deck.

When I got the galley I took a deep breath and shouted, "HEY YOU GUYS! GET IN HERE WE GOT SHIT TO DO!" Making Ari jump and whip around to glare at me from where she had been sitting.

"WHY are you screaming?" She asked in a highly annoyed voice.

"So everyone can hear me. Obviously." I said as I took a seat in front of her.

"Oh trust me hon, no one has any trouble hearing you. Ever."

"Exactly. So that means I have an appropriate volume." I said with a smile as Ari sighed.

The door opened revealing Skull, who walked in, closely followed by Mihar. Kotatsu also darted in between them before jumping onto the table and curling up in a ball. Which made Ari whine and quickly pick up her nail… supplies?

How many tiny little files does she need?

"What do you need Captain?" Skull asked.

"I need to know how to get rid of those Froggie pirates." I told him as everyone found their seats around the table.

"You mean the Fanged Frog pirates?"

"Exactly. That's what I said."

Obviously.

"Oh- ok then." Skull said with a nod before continuing "Well I don't know why I didn't recognize the name before but they are actually pretty infamous. They're rather new to the Grand Line but they've still been here for a little while. Their captain is a guy named Guentheri and he has a 70,000,000 Beri bounty. Handful of other members also have bounties but they're not that high. They're known for causing a lot of death and destruction. So basically - they're certified dicks."

"Any devil fruits?" Deuce asked.

"Guentheri has a frog zoan. Go figure right?"

"Yes they are just oozing originality, but remind me again why we are even bothering with them?" Ari chimed in.

"Why are you so against this?" I asked her with a groan.

"Because it's pointless. Taking out one crew isn't going to change anything in the world. It's not going to erase what they did, and it won't mean anything to the people they already killed. So why bother?"

"Taking them out isn't meaningless to Mihar now is it?" I turned to look at Mihar.

"I-i-i-i-it wasn't my home island. B-b-b-b-b-b-but they killed my students. I can't let that go." Mihar said.

Ari sighed and rubbed her forehead before saying, "Then why didn't you say that to begin with? Revenge is something I can get behind. Playing the savior isn't."

"What, so just like that you're cool with this?" Deuce asked.

"No. But if we must do this then I want a good reason. Which is what revenge is."

"Alright whatever." I said, getting everyone's attention again before turning back to Skull and asking, "Any ideas about how we can find these dicks?"

"We should circle the island when we get close enough in order to try and find their ship. They probably wouldn't be that far from it. It's likely that they haven't attacked yet since they can't leave, and there's a moderately strong Marine presence on the island." He said.

"How do we know they're still there?" Ari asked.

"That island takes 2 weeks for the pose to set and they only left Kyuaku a day before us. So that still leaves a few days until they should be able to leave."

"Unless they have an eternal pose." She said.

Skull nodded in agreement and said, "Right unless they have an eternal pose."

An eternal what now?

"What is that?" Deuce asked before I could.

"Oh, it's a log pose that permanently points to one island." Ari said.

"That sounds handy. Why doesn't everyone just use them. Sounds like that would be a lot less of a hassle, instead of waiting for these regular ones to set on every island." I said.

"They're expensive to make, and unless you have multiple then they aren't all that useful." Ari said and Skull nodded.

"But either way it would be best if we all stuck together when we make landfall. These guys know what they're doing and we don't want to get caught with our pants down." Skull said.

"We'll be fine!" I said with a smile.

"No Skull's right. We don't need to take any unnecessary risks. We have a smaller crew than I would like already. So we can't really afford to lose anyone. Also don't even pretend like you aren't going to immediately go looking for a fight Ace." She said, causing everyone to turn to look at me.

I felt a blush climb up my neck as I sputter, "I-I can be stealthy! When-when I want… Sometimes..."

Which set all of them into fits of laughter as my face got even redder.

Lulusia turned out to be a huge island. While we were securing the ship I could see mountains in the distance and a vast forest closer to the shore.

"Ok guys, let's get goin!" I shouted before jumping off the ship. I turned back to watch my crew jump down after me.

They're so cool!

"Alright we got some asses to kick so let's get to it!" I yelled while throwing a fist in the air.

"Yea!"

"Meow!"

"Let's do it!"

"ya…"

"You got that right Kotatsu! You're coming with us this time! Mihar, are you sure you'll be alright coming with us? I know you don't really like leaving the ship. Or being outside. Or interacting with people." I asked looking up at where Mihar was standing oddly close to Deuce.

"O-o-o-o-of course Captain. I need to do this. For my students." He said quietly.

"Alright then. Let's get a move on." I said before turning to walk into the forest.

While we were walking I turned to Ari and asked, "Hey Air can you sense those guys?"

She shook her head and said, "No. I don't know their personal signatures so I can't differentiate between them and the townsfolk."

"That sucks. But oh well. We'll just have to do this the old fashioned way!"

We kept walking for a while until I spotted something on the ground ahead of us.

What is that?

"Hey I'll be right back." I told them before I started jogging over to the thing on the ground.

As I got closer I noticed that the thing had legs.

Oh shit it's a person!

"Hey you alright there?" I asked as I leaned down to check on the person

Well they're still breathing so that's good.

I picked up the person and saw that it was an old man. He groaned as I tried to lift him.

"Wha- who- what's going on?" He said in a daze when I got him to sit against a tree.

"Hey take it easy old timer you were passed out."

What is an old man doing out here by himself?

"Oh. I-I have to get home."

"Sure where is that? I'll help you get there."

"That's quite alright young man, I can manage." He said before heaving himself up and panting from his efforts. But as soon as he took a step he started to fall again.

I rushed to catch him and said, "Come on you can't make it alone, just let me help."

"Oh alright. Fine." He said with a heavy sigh.

"Great! Ok, hop up on my back." I said, crouching down in front of him.

"I don't need to be carried like a child! I can walk just fine!" He shouted before he smacked me on the head with his walking stick.

"I'm trying to help you here you shitty old geezer - quit your yappin and get on!" I shouted back.

The old man grumbled for a bit before looking faint and giving in. He wrapped his frail arms around my neck so I could carry him on my back.

His grip is really weak. And his breathing is pretty ragged. This dude is even sicker than I thought. I need to get him back home fast. Maybe Deuce can do something to help…

With the old man secure I started walking back towards my crew. Once Ari saw me she rolled her eyes and said, "What are we, a daycare for old people now?"

I rolled my eyes back at her and said, "He's sick and we need to get him home. So stop complaining and let's go."

"Alright, alright no need to get testy. I'm going see?" She said as she turned to walk ahead of us.

"Hey Deuce, think you can give this guy a check up when we get to his place?"

"Sure but it would probably be best if his own doctor looked him over. They would know his medical history." He said.

I nodded and kept on walking.

Before too long we came to the outskirts of the town. I glanced over my shoulder to check on the old man and asked, "Ok we're here where is your house?"

He lifted his head and looked around for a minute before directing us to a side street and then to a small house. The house was in decent repair, not opulent by any means, but it wasn't a shack. It was also on the border of the woods and the rest of the town. Walking up to the front door I knocked a bit before letting myself in at the old man's insistence.

"My sons aren't home so if you keep knocking like a dumbass we'll be out here all day." He said.

"You know you're being pretty rude to the people who saved your life old man." I said as he huffed in response. Rolling my eyes, I set him down in the living room.

"I didn't ask to be saved, you runt!" He said before he started coughing.

"Ok old timer, where's your doctor's office in town? You need someone to check you out." Deuce asked.

"Don't need no doctor, I'm fine. Just old is all. But I guess I have to repay you somehow for helping me home."

"You can repay us by giving us some information." Ari said walking up to the man.

"What do you want to know?"

"Have you heard of a crew of pirates calling themselves the Fanged Frogs? We know that they came to this island recently and that they should still be here."

The old man coughed and said, "The who? No, I haven't heard anything. But I don't go into town much anymore. My sons would know more. But why are you looking for a pirate crew in the first place?"

"That's not really any of your concern now is it?"

The old man's eyes swept over all of us before he asked, "You guys pirates or bounty hunters?"

"Like I said-" Ari started to say before I jumped in.

"Those wanna be pirates attacked a village on another island. They also killed a bunch of people who meant a great deal to one of my crew members. So I intend to make them pay for it." I said.

The old man nodded and said, "While I respect that I still don't know anything but like I said my sons can help you out."

"Where can we find them?" Ari asked.

"Oh they're probably around... somewhere. But you can just wait for them here. They should be back soon enough."

Ari looked ready to protest, but I quickly responded in her place,

"Sounds like a plan! You got anything to eat here?"

How could I turn down free food?

I woke up with a jerk and groaned, rubbing my face.

When did I fall asleep?

I looked around and saw that I was laying on a couch, with my head in Ari's lap.

I was laying in her lap?

AND I MISSED IT?

"Nice you see back in the land of the living Ace." Ari said as I shot up from her lap and blinked at her...

I WAS LAYING IN HER LAP!

But wait- when did I fall asleep?

"When did I fall asleep?" I asked her.

"Right after you asked if the old dude had any food. Which was a few hours ago now."

Why do I keep doing that?

"Huh weird. I didn't even feel tired." I said while Ari looked at me with her sharp eyes narrowed.

"Right. Well you haven't missed any except for the old man's absolutely riveting story about being a lumber trader. Well that and Skull getting in a-" Ari broke off what she was saying and whipped her head around to look out one of the windows.

"What is it Air?"

"There's a fight. A big one. It's gotta be them Ace."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I said before jumping up and running out of the house without waiting for my crew to follow.

As I was running through the town I could hear the faint sounds of a fight in the distance and headed towards it. All the while people were running the opposite direction past me. Eventually I made it to the massive town square. Or rather what had once been the town square but had now been reduced to a massacre. All over the square people were running in terror, only to be cut down by the attacking pirates. But even through all the chaos, it was easy to see who was in charge of this. On the far side of the square there was a massive greenish-brown frog that was lunging at the townsfolk, ripping off their limbs with it's massive teeth.

That must be the captain. But he's so far away…

Oh well guess I'll just have to beat up all of his minions to get there. Not that I wasn't going to do that anyways.

I jumped into the fray and started punching and kicking my way towards the frog.

"Who the hell is this jackass?" I heard someone shout from my left.

Before anyone could answer him I swung around and threw a column of fire at him with a cry of "Fire Fist!"

The men that were surrounding the one who had yelled immediately started screaming as their clothes and bodies caught fire. The street and surrounding buildings also caught fire and quickly started to crumble as bits of them had been blown off by my attack.

Oh shit! I didn't mean to do that much damage… Maybe I should have trained with this a bit more…

But I didn't have time to think about the burning men any longer as another group of men bore down on me from all sides.

Ok let's try this one.

I threw out my arm and summoned a circle of flames around me which rapidly grew in both strength and size and I called out, "Flame Commandment!"

All of the surrounding men caught fire and were clearly burned but not to the extent as the others. After they fell, I took a second to reassess the battle. While looking around, I glanced behind me to see a hulking man with a sword headed for my face.

"Jet Cutter!" The sound of Ari's voice ripped through the air only seconds before a razor thin stream of water whipped over my head and sliced the man in half... Along with the building behind him.

Holy shit. She's never done that before!

"What the hell was that Air!" I asked while also punching another attacker with a flamed up fist.

"Something we can talk about after we deal with these degenerates!" She said, jumping over multiple people and kicking others hard enough to break bones.

As Ari was jumping and kicking her way through the crowd the rest of my crew charged into the square joining in on the fight. Deuce joined Ari in kicking in the faces of the attackers while Skulled followed with his sword. Kotatsu headed towards me, biting and clawing at anyone who had the misfortune of getting between us. People were also falling from bullets all over the square, but I couldn't figure out where they were coming from.

Is that Mihar? Where is he?

Oh well, I have a frog to deal with.

Now that I had my crew backing me up I could head for the frog much easier. The vast majority of townspeople had taken the opportunity to escape once I had joined the fight, now only the dead and dying remained. I tried my best to avoid them, but also knew that the best way to help them was to take out the one who started this. Breaking into a sprint, I turned into fire and started charging through the rest of the battle without bothering to dodge any of the attacks thrown at me.

"The hell are you doing here? What did I ever do to you? Fuck off!" The frog yelled as I got closer.

"You fucked with one of my crew and you slaughtered innocent people. That means you get to deal with me." I said with a growl before throwing another fire fist at him.

But the frog was more agile than I had anticipated. He quickly jumped out of the way and started jumping off of the surrounding buildings with ease.

"I'm just doin what comes natural ya bleedin heart. If you can't handle that then maybe you should go back to your mommy kid." He taunted before jumping at me and trying to take a chunk out of my side. I changed my body into fire just in time to avoid losing an arm as he landed hard on the ground, howling in pain.

"Or maybe you shouldn't bite off more than you can chew." I said cracking my knuckles and walking towards the downed frog.

As I approached he started to shift his body so that he had human-like arms and legs but still had the greenish-brown skin. He picked himself up and wiped his mouth of the blood that had started to dribble out from his burned mouth.

"Alright. You wanna play this game? Fine kid, we'll play." He said in a croaky voice before raising his fists in preparation for the coming fight.

After trading numerous blows he fell. The rest of his crew were also quick to flee after the defeat of their captain. I looked around to check that my own crewmates were alright and found that all of them were still standing with only minor wounds. Skull had a few cuts and one on his shoulder that looked like it would need a bit more than a bandage, Deuce also had a few cuts and bruises but was mostly fine. Kotatsu was covered in dirt and blood but didn't look hurt, while Mihar had finally come out of hiding and was also unharmed. I looked around a bit more and found Ari standing off on the edge of the town square looking intently at something in the distance. But unlike the others she looked… Perfect. No wounds, no dirt, no blood, not even a single hair was out of place.

Did she even fight? The hell did she stay that clean?

She turned around and looked straight at me and said, "Ace we have to go, the Marines are on their way."

"Great- they can collect these asswipes. But we should check on the townspeople before we go" I said looking at the few townspeople that were still in the square.

"No we need to go now."

"Why? We are the ones who beat those guys."

"And we are both wanted pirates. They'll think we were working with them." She said as she quickly started walking the opposite direction of where she had been looking. She picked up Kotatsu before jogging out of the square on her own.

"Ugh! Ok fine." I said as I headed over to where the other guys were gathering. "Are you guys alright? Skull that gash looks nasty."

"I'll be fine but Ari is right we gotta go." Skull said just as Marines started flooding the square.

"Get them! Don't let those pirate scum escape!" The Marines cried as they charged towards us.

"Oh shit." I said. "Ok, time to go!"

The guys all started running after Ari. I looked to make sure they were all out of the square before I turned to the Marines setting off one last attack.

"Flame Fence!" I called out as I put up a wall of flames so that my crew would have more time to escape. Once I was certain that the Marines couldn't get through I turned and ran after my crew.

"Hey! Hey pirates hold up for a second!" A man called to us while him and the other two people with him ran out into the middle of the road, waving their arms in the air.

Ari stopped and asked, "What business do you have with us? We weren't the ones who attacked this island."

"Yea we know. You guys helped out our dad when he was in the woods. That was you guys- right?"

"The old man? Yea that was us. But we really don't have time to talk. We need to get out of here the Marines are coming after us." Deuce said from his spot next to Ari.

"No, exactly, that's why we're here our dad figured that you all would have to leave right away, since the Marines on this island are so incompetent, that they can't recognize the difference between someone helping and attacking. Anyways he gave us his old eternal pose from when he was still working. So you don't need to wait for your log pose to set."

"Ari didn't you say that those things were really expensive? Why would your old man give it to us?" I asked.

"You saved his life and our island." The man said.

"Ace we really don't have time to discuss this, we need to go. Just take it." Deuce said.

"Ok fine. Tell the old man thanks for us." I said taking the eternal pose from the man.

"Actually we want to come with you." The man said.

"Huh? Why?"

Shouldn't they stay with the old guy?

"Again you saved our father's life and our island. We want to make it up to you and the best way to do that is to sail with you." He said as the other two nodded along.

"Ace, the Marines are coming." Ari said.

"Alright fine come on then." I said as we ran towards the ship with three more people in tow.

Before long the ship came into sight and we all jumped onboard. We immediately went to work readying the ship to sail, after a few frantic moments we were out to sea. However before we could get too far, Skull called out to me.

"Ace, we got Marines comin up fast on us!" I heard Skull warn.

"For fucks sakes! We were helping! Why are they still coming after us?" I shouted.

Seriously, what is their problem? I get that I have a bounty but can't they just look the other way after we gift wrapped those frog fucks for them?

"Get the cannons ready, this is going to be a rough fight boys." I called.

"There's like four ships Captain, how are we supposed to fight them off with this tiny little tugboat?" Deuce asked, looking a little panicked.

Ok don't panic. Our ship is fast, maybe we can out run them? Or we could-

"Don't bother I got this." Ari said, walking over to the railing and calmly diving into the water.

"What the hell? Isn't she a devil fruit user?" Deuce shouted as we all ran over to the railing to see where she had gone.

"Yea- but apparently she can swim? I don't really get it but she wouldn't have just jumped overboard for no reason right?" I said.

Please have a plan here Air.

I just found you...

Once we got to the railing Ari was nowhere to be seen, not even a single bubble came up to the surface. We all stood there waiting for something, anything to happen. We all jumped and covered our ears when suddenly an ear piercing screech tore through the air. At the same time the ocean exploded into several massive water spouts which wrapped themselves around the Marine ships.

Not spouts, arms.

The massive arms quickly wrapped themselves around the Marine ships and crushed them, dragging them under the waves. After what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, all of the pursuing ships were gone with nothing more than a single stray board to prove that they ever existed.

We all stood there with our jaws dropped watching the waves return to normal as Ari calmly jumped back over the railing.

Skull was the first one to get himself under control.

"What the hell was that?" He asked.

Ari just smirked and said, "That was the product of 16 years of arduous training. Why? You impressed?"

"What the hell is wrong with your devil fruit?" Deuce asked.

"'Fraid I can't answer that one. You'll just have to take that up with the sea herself." Ari said before tossing her hair and walking away.

We watched her walk away in stunned silence before one of the new guys whispered, "She scares me."

We all nodded in agreement.

But damn she is sexy...

Warnings:

Violence: Not much more graphic than in canon but if you would like to skip then go ahead and skip the chunk between the 4th and 5th line breaks. The section that starts with "As I was running through the town..." All that happens here is the crew finds the Fanged Frog pirates and they fight.

Whoop that's another chapter down! Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed!