Hey guys, here's chapter 7 :D Remember me saying I was doing better? I was so well that I ended up in hospital xD But NOW I'm better, and catching up with my writing :D
Speaking of which, I've started a tumblr side blog (maisstories (here goes a dot) tumblr (here goes a dot) com/) to focus specifically on it. There I'll post any relevant info about updates, comments on how I'm doing and what I'm writing, whining about said writing… So, please, follow me there if you want to know how stories are going :3
Thanks a lot to KohanaTrustMe for the help :D
Chapter 7
Nami was extremely confused about almost everything that was going on right now.
In hindsight, knowing that Luffy had somehow managed to get a marine to hunt him down all the way to the Grand Line wasn't that surprising (this was Luffy they were talking about here), but Nami didn't understand anything else that had happened in the last five minutes.
Whoever this Ace guy was, Luffy obviously knew him, but it was very unlike Luffy to leave a friend alone against an opponent as strong as Smoker. And yet, Luffy had ordered the crew to leave without a second thought the moment Ace had told Luffy to go.
And there was the woman, too. Luffy had recognized her as well, but Nami thought they had just met (really, giving Luffy food was the best way to ensure he remembered you), and she was obviously friends with this Ace. That was obviously enough for Luffy to be okay with having her come along with them when they fled.
"You're Ace's friend?" Luffy asked from just behind Nami. "That's why you know me?"
"Yeah. He's told me a lot about you," the woman —Marco, Ace had said? That was an odd name for a woman— replied. She sounded far too amused and at ease for someone who was running away from the marines with an unknown group of pirates, even if she was familiar with one of them.
"Nice! How's he doing?" Luffy asked enthusiastically.
"He's doing fine. Why? Haven't you been following the news?" Marco asked with a teasing edge to her voice, surprising Nami. That was an extremely on point guess to make about Luffy for someone who had only heard about him from someone else.
Luffy laughed.
"No."
They finally reached the Merry, but before they could leave, Vivi stopped to send Carue off with a letter for her father explaining everything that was going on with Crocodile.
Marco watched as the blue haired girl sent the duck away with a letter, filing away all the information from what she heard.
Crocodile's behind this mess? Marco thought, completely unsurprised by the news. She had met Crocodile in the past, and she had no doubt that everything about him being the model Shichibukai was nothing but a façade. Marco hadn't known why he bothered, before, but now she thought she had found the answer, even if she still didn't know what Crocodile got out of causing a civil war.
She glanced around at Luffy's small crew, impressed by how calm they looked in a set of circumstances that were looking increasingly clearer to Marco. Short of the marines' strongholds and a few select individuals such as Rayleigh, Shichibukai were the most dangerous people for someone to pick a fight with around Paradise.
I definitely see the family resemblance, she thought again.
The blue haired girl —she must be someone important in Alabasta, given what Marco had just witnessed— got on the ship, and they were finally ready to leave.
"Hey, will your friend be able to catch up if we go?" the long-nosed kid asked Marco, and she found herself the center of attention.
"Yeah, don't worry. We've got a ship here."
A guy with green hair pulled the anchor up with his bare hands (promising) and they left the coast.
"So who was that guy?" the other girl, this one with orange hair and a log pose around her wrist (was she the navigator?) asked Luffy once they were a short distance away from the coast.
"He's my brother, Ace," Luffy replied with a grin, much to his crew's shock.
Marco leaned back against the ship's railing and watched as Luffy explained in more detail about Ace, though she raised an eyebrow when Luffy said that Ace was looking for One Piece. Marco was pretty sure One Piece was the last thing Ace would want to look for in this world, no matter how much of a treasure it was said to be.
Then Luffy said that he could beat Ace in a fight now and that was, of course, when Ace showed up and punched Luffy to the deck. Marco snorted.
Marco raised her eyebrows when Ace offered Luffy to join the Whitebeard Pirates, aware of what the answer would be even before Luffy spoke. Luffy refused in such an offhand tone that it made Marco chuckle.
"That mark on your back is real then?!" the long-nosed guy asked, but before Ace could do more than nod, the girl with the orange hair turned to stare at Marco.
"Earlier, you called her Marco," she told Marco, her eyes wide.
Marco smiled. She found it interesting that, marine aside, Luffy's crew were the first ones to recognize the flag on Ace's back and Marco herself.
"He did," Marco confirmed.
"Is she famous?" Luffy asked, tilting his head to the side.
Marco started to laugh when half of his crew yelled at him in incredulous horror, and she heard Ace snort in amusement as well.
"You haven't changed at all," Ace said with an amused grin. "Anyway, I just wanted to give you something and we'll be going," he said, reaching into one of his pockets.
Marco blinked, surprised.
You're not serious.
"Ace," she said, and she pretended that her voice didn't sound as faint as it did, "are you sure of that?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ace asked, holding the piece of vivre card he had just found.
"It's been three years since you saw each other, are you sure you just want to leave?" You never know when it'll be the last time you'll see someone, she wanted to add, but she bit on it just in time. They weren't alone here, and that wasn't something she wanted to say in public.
Ace seemed to get the message anyway and he rubbed the back of his neck in clear hesitation.
"Well… no, not really," he admitted, glancing at her and then at Luffy.
Luffy had a serious expression on his face that Marco was sure was unusual for him, then he grinned.
"You can come with us! We're going to the desert!"
"To the desert?" Ace asked, and Marco saw him glancing at the many supplies Luffy's crew had gathered.
"Yeah, I'm gonna kick Crocodile's ass!" Luffy exclaimed, falling into a fighting stance.
"That's not what we're doing!" the blue haired girl yelled at him.
Nami stared at the scene unfolding before her, certain that she had missed something in the exchange between Marco and Ace. She did, however, understand the important parts. Nami remembered too well the fear she had felt for years every time she left her island, unsure if she would see Nojikop ever again.
Ignoring Luffy as he told an increasingly skeptical Ace and an amused Marco that he was going to beat Crocodile, Nami turned to Vivi.
"How long is the trip to our destination?" Nami asked.
"To Yuba? Around half a day," Vivi replied, and she smiled. She no doubt understood Nami's thoughts.
Nami turned around, and hesitated when she saw that, in the moment it had taken her to ask Vivi, Luffy and Ace had started to argue (Luffy was saying something about how he was stronger now and that he could beat Crocodile). That left Nami with the choice to either interrupt the argument or address Marco. Interrupting meant punching not only Luffy, but also Fire Fist Ace and probably burning her hand in the process, but talking to Marco… well, she was Marco the Phoenix. That option was as scary as willingly burning herself.
"I don't bite, you know," Marco said from her position by the railing, and she still sounded amused.
Nami's back snapped straighter without her permission, and she turned to look at Marco.
"Sorry," she apologized, but decided to avoid any excuses that would make her look worse. "As Vivi said, the trip will take half a day. It's okay if you come, of course, but we'll need more supplies. Especially water," Nami explained, then she glanced at Luffy and Ace. "Or maybe food is more necessary. How much does Ace eat?"
Marco chuckled.
"As much as you're thinking, I believe."
Of course, Nami thought, feeling a resigned kind of amusement that made her relax somewhat.
"Oi, Ace!" Marco called.
When Ace didn't answer, Marco sighed, shook her head, and then Nami found herself blinking in confusion during the time it took her to understand that Marco had somehow disappeared from where she had been standing and she was now sitting on top of Ace. Ace, who was no longer crouched on the railing, and instead was face down on the floorboards.
There was a long beat of silence and then Luffy burst out laughing.
Ace glared up at him for a moment before he started laughing as well. Nami stared in confusion, just as she could see everyone but Marco was doing, until Ace turned his attention to Nami.
"We need food?" he asked, grinning.
Nami nodded. She wasn't sure what she had just witnessed, but that had made Ace look unquestionably like Luffy's brother.
The ship shook violently, and she belatedly realized that the sound of cannon fire had filled the air just an instant before.
"Enemies?!" Usopp yelled in fear.
They all turned in the direction the attack had come from, and Nami's eyes fell on the flags of the ships approaching them.
"Baroque Works?!" she exclaimed, looking at the many ships they couldn't take down from here because they only had one cannon.
"I'm on it!" someone said, and it took Nami a moment to realize it was Ace. By then, he had already jumped overboard and Marco was standing by the railing again.
Nami watched as Ace sailed off towards the enemy ships in a tiny boat that seemed to have its bottom on fire.
Marco tried not to laugh at the surprised reactions of Luffy's crew when Ace took down those ships with a single attack.
"He's such a show-off," she muttered softly, before focusing back on the present. "Could any of you accompany me to get provisions? You already know what's best to take," she said, gesturing at the crew's piled up provisions.
"Shouldn't we dock for that?" the little —well, Marco wasn't sure what he was— animal asked, looking up at her.
"No need for that," Marco replied. She decided to be a show-off herself and transformed.
She would have smirked at the reactions that got.
"I'm coming!" Luffy yelled enthusiastically.
The girl with the orange hair punched him to the floor.
"You weren't even with us to buy them, you idiot!" she yelled at him. Marco saw the blond guy at the stairs perk up, but before he could say anything, the girl (and Marco could swear she had seen the blond about to speak, too) continued, "I'm coming. I paid for everything."
She got a few funny looks, which told Marco that there was a story behind those words.
"Okay, hop on," Marco said.
"Not fair," Luffy muttered. "I wanna fly."
"Don't you have your brother to catch up with?" the long-nosed guy asked in exasperation.
Ace was almost back to the ship.
Nami held on to Marco's neck, careful not to squeeze but also desperately trying not to let go. She was flying, and while it was amazing, she was acutely aware of the height separating her from the ocean right now.
"What about the marines?" she yelled to be heard over the wind.
"It's okay, we're going to the other side of town. And if we run into them, I'll just beat them."
Oh, right, for a moment Nami had forgotten that Marco was a super powerful pirate with a bounty on her head that made Nami salivate simply by thinking about it.
"Do you have money?" Nami asked suddenly, aware that she couldn't exactly refuse to pay if Marco asked her to do it.
Marco chuckled.
"I do. As long as you haven't dropped my bag?" she asked in what Nami was certain was a teasing manner.
Nami glanced at the bag at her back. She moved down and wrapped her arms tighter around Marco when they unexpectedly dropped. She had squeezed her eyes shut without realizing it, and when she opened them again, Nami found herself soaring barely above the level of the sea at a dizzying speed.
They entered Nanohana through what seemed to be one of the ends of the port, and Nami heard a few startled yells before Marco moved, far too quickly, into an alley and stopped suddenly.
Nami stepped down, mournfully admitting to herself that she had liked being on the air, and Marco transformed with a flash of blue light. Nami passed the bag to her and then looked Marco over for a quick moment.
"You'll have to buy clothes, too, or you'll burn yourself in the desert. Ace too," she added, remembering that Ace was only wearing shorts and his hat.
Marco opened her mouth, for a moment looking as if she was about to argue, before glancing down at Nami's clothes and smirking.
"Why not? I'd love to see Ace's reaction," she agreed, taking off towards the open end of the alley.
Nami followed.
"You don't have to dress like this," she assured Marco. "This was just Sanji's… ehm, tastes getting in the way."
Marco shook her head.
"Oh, no, I wouldn't want to stand out amongst you," she said with that same smirk from before.
Oh, dear, she's serious, Nami realized, for a moment wondering what was going on through Marco's mind, but she didn't ask. Sanji was going to be very happy when he saw them at Erumalu.
"By the way," Marco continued, "what's your name?"
"Oh, I'm Nami."
Marco smiled at her.
"Nice to meet you."
Nami was struck by the sudden realization that, scary pirate or not, Marco was nice.
"Oh, please," Thatch complained for the umpteenth time. "Haven't we got enough already?"
"No," Marco said flatly. "You're a member of our crew now, brat, and you'll look the part," she said, pointing over at the store behind her.
Thatch groaned.
"You're pirates. Pirates aren't exactly known for dressing well."
Marco crossed her arms below her breasts.
"I don't care. You're not wearing those rags you arrived in, and I'm sure as hell not letting my clothes even in a washing machine with them, so you're getting new clothes or you'll wash those yourself."
"You're evil," Thatch whined. "Why couldn't the old man come with me instead?"
"Because Pops likes to give in too much to his kids," Marco said, raising her eyebrows. "Now get in there before I decide to drag you."
Thatch, in all of his mature twelve-year-old wisdom, stuck his tongue out at Marco before he obeyed, wearing a massive pout as he walked into the store.
Marco shook her head and followed. She hadn't signed in for babysitting when she had agreed to join the crew, but damn if she didn't like the brat.
To be continued
Okay, so originally Marco and Ace weren't going to tag along to Yuba, but then I checked the manga for the timeline and realized just how rushed everything in Alabasta is. Basically:
-Day 1: the Strawhats reach Nanohana, run into the marines and Ace, cross the desert, and arrive late that night at Yuba.
-Day 2: the Strawhats spend the day walking through the desert. Early that morning we have the Baroque Works meeting at the casino.
-Day 3: the Strawhats reach Rain Base at around 6am, the mess here takes around 2-3 hours, and the battle of Alubarna started at around 1-2pm (the cannon was set to fire at 4:30pm).
So I realized there was no way for Ace and Marco to spend some time with the crew BEFORE the Strawhats went into the desert. However, I refuse to use the anime excuse to have Ace tag along, because that made no sense even to thirteen year old me before I read the manga and learned it was filler.