Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece
With a bloodied man on her shoulders and just as many not-so-innocuous stains on her own clothing, there's not much Nao can do to find a way out of this mess. At the current moment, she's the furthest thing away from being inconspicuous—something she needs to be if she wants things to not completely be fucked in the universe.
Ace stares at her with dead-fish eyes, looking as bored as a middle school student attending detention. He seems blissfully unaware of the Armageddon occurring outside of the ship walls—the first good thing to happen to Nao in years.
This, she can work with. This, she has to work with. (But with the shit this world likes to pull on her, there's no telling whether or not it will work with her.)
"I said," he starts, pausing to dig a dirty finger deeper into one of his flared nostrils, "who're you?"
She figures honesty—though it may be a vague brand of it—is the best policy. "I'm Nao."
"Why're ya on Gramps' ship?"
A million thoughts and possible scenarios race through her mind. If she's truthful with the kid, she risks introducing herself into the brat's life far too soon. If she isn't honest and she runs into him again later down the line—an inevitable event considering her luck—then she's jeopardizing being able to stay on his good side. Didn't heroic characters glorify the truth above all things? Honor and whatnot?
Luckily, Rosinante has regained enough consciousness to notice the conundrum that had forced her into a suspicious silence.
"Ace-san, I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm with your grandpa," Rosinante speaks in between wet coughs, praying to God, Kami, Buddha, and any damned deity that he can think of to make it so that, for once, Ace had been aware enough to recognize his face. "I came with him to pick you up a couple weeks ago."
"Oh. Yer one of the marines." If it's even possible, Ace looks even more bored. Jutting his chin out and looking away, he elaborates on his apparent distaste for the ragtag pair. "I already told Gramps. I'm not gonna be a marine, I'm gonna be a pirate! Whatever ya say isn't gonna change my mind."
Rosinante, between his fits of coughs, musters a smile. "Don't tell Garp I said this, but I'm sure you'll be a great pirate. Before that, though, could you help us out?"
Ace looks at the pair dubiously, but Rosinante's compliment serves to make him a little more receptive to their request. "What'dya mean by help?"
"Can you help us hide until your grandpa comes back?" Nao butts in. She can't risk Rosinante giving away too much information to a kid who should've never been in the area in the first place. The more ignorant she can make Ace to the events in the world around him, the better.
Ace crosses his arms, defiantly looking up to avoid eye contact with them. "Pirates don't help marines."
Before Rosinante can inform the kid about the direness of the situation transpiring outside of the boat, Nao pipes up again. "Pirates don't help marines, but they do help friends. If you want to be a good pirate, you better start on that now."
Ace looks anything but ready to give them aid. "Who said we're friends?"
If the kid wasn't so goddamn important to the Universe, Nao would've smacked some sense into him by now. This just wasn't the time for him to give her attitude. Luckily, Rosinante is a lot better of a person than her.
"We can be friends starting now, Ace," Rosinante offers, still beaming at the stubborn brat.
He doesn't budge. "Sabo's the only friend I need."
When Nao's just about ready to knock him out and go about her day, he speaks up again. "But I do need people to join my crew. You're strong, aren't ya? That's why yer all covered in blood."
Nao blanches. This isn't exactly the time or place to start spewing false promises to one of the few kids insane enough to force her to keep them, but surviving is what she prioritizes above all. "I can't guarantee that, Ace, but I'll make you a deal. When you become a great pirate, I'll become strong enough to help you if you ever get yourself into a mess you can't fix. Deal?"
"I dunno… Once I'm a pirate, I'll be stronger than ya, and I won't need yer help…" Just when Nao thinks there's no hope of him coming around, he continues to talk. "But I guess it can't hurt to have some backup. Deal! What'dya need help with?"
From where she had dragged Rosinante and herself in, the sound of at least a few dozen footsteps is heard. Nao swears her heart's one more adrenaline rush away from bursting. She feels slight pressure on her shoulders, and one glance at what it is sends her reeling.
Rosinante has lost consciousness again—her one friend in what's soon to be a sea of potential foes.
"Great!" Her voice is a few pitches higher than usual. "Let's start with pretending that we're all just slaves. Can you do that, Ace?"
Ace nods enthusiastically. "You betcha!"
As he agrees, the first few runaway slaves step into the hull, looking just as rabid and frantic as the ones Nao had cut down no more than half an hour before. Knowing full well how dangerous a cornered person could be, Nao grabs Ace by the wrist and pulls him behind her, all three of them now backing up against the various cargo boxes around them.
When the sound of Rosinante's back hitting the wooden crates echos through the room, all eyes are on them.
A dauntingly pretty girl steps in front of the steadily amassing crowd, holding them back and checking out the trio. Black hair cascades down her back, and her eyes hold a depth that draw in anyone who dares to look into them. Though she is young, there's no mistaking the making of a future beauty to behold.
Nao feels her mouth go dry.
Boa Hancock and, cowering behind her, her sisters.
The irony doesn't escape Nao. Behind her is the boy who'd one day be on an execution stand, and in front of her is the girl who'd one day be forced to play a part in his death—both of them merely being pushed along by the world government whose very base is where they're currently standing. (If the universe could self-destruct, Nao would bet both her lives on this jumble of horrible run-ins being when it'd happen.)
Delicate lips part to spit out ugly words unbefitting of such a pretty child. "Who are you? If you're one of the marines, I'll kill you right where you stand!"
Regardless of how parched she suddenly feels, now isn't the time for her voice to fail her. "We're escaped slaves! We boarded this ship in hopes of being able to escape, but we're all too injured or too weak to sail the ship." To prove her point, she forces herself to cough up a glob of congealed blood.
Gazing over the various injuries and rags for clothes, Hancock seems to buy the ruse. She turns around to address the people accompanying her. "This ship is empty—the marines have probably all gone to land to help the rioting there. Everyone, find a place to hide. Rayleigh-san will help us escape through this ship."
Her voice rings loud and clear, and the crowd disperses to follow her order. She is, without a doubt, the girl who'd soon become the formidable captain of the Kuja Pirates—a woman Nao has no intentions of pissing off. She stands tall, even in the midst of what could very well be considered a war, and in her hands is a box that Nao figures would best be kept shut. Whatever the teen commands for them to do, Nao has every intention of doing it.
This resolve (as nearly everything in this damn world fuckin' does) comes back to bite her in the ass.
"Here." The box Nao had decided that she wanted nothing to do with is tossed into her hands. "One of you, take this. We need all the firepower we can get, and based on how much blood is on your clothes, I'm assuming you've already been in a fight to have even gotten this far."
Nao's heart sinks as she starts to get an idea of just what her trembling hands are holding. Praying that it isn't what she thinks it is, she looks up at Hancock. "What is it?"
Hancock's bottom lip quivers as she explains. "I took it from the house I served in."
She stares at Nao expectantly, and, with dread, Nao complies. With hands shaking in fear of what's in the box rather than fear of the bloody mess that's going on outside, Nao opens the container slowly.
A devil fruit.
"You want one of us to eat this?" Nao asks, knowing that she's only buying time at this point.
"It won't harm you. It'll only help if we get into another fight on the way out of Mariejois."
As Hancock describes the obvious reason as to why someone needs to eat the fruit, Nao weighs her limited options. Rosinante is out of the question; even if he was conscious, his body couldn't handle consuming another devil fruit. Ace was even less of a possible choice than the clumsy blond; there was no telling the screwed the world would be if Fire Fist Ace was never able to eat the Mera Mera no Mi.
"Oi, I'll eat it!" Ace offers himself up, and Nao hurriedly moves the fruit out of his grasp.
Wanting to halt his protest before it can start, Nao uses the simplest excuse she can think of. "You won't be able to become a pirate if you eat this."
Ace clearly doesn't like it, but the idea of being unable to pursue his dream quiets him. All Nao can hope for is for him to decide the risk is worth it when he stumbles upon the Mera Mera no Mi later in life.
As of now, though, there's no one else but Nao who can eat the damned thing.
"Are you sure no one else who you came with can eat this?" Nao asks, an octave away from being able to break glass.
"Most of us have already had one force fed to us, or are too weak to use whatever it does." A faint blush touches Hancock's cheeks—so light it could be mistaken as an image falsified by the dim lighting in the hull. "Plus, based on how much blood you've lost, if it's something that could help you heal, then you should have it."
The fact that she's giving it to the trio out of the kindness of her heart makes the idea of simply refusing all the more unfeasible. If she has to do this—if Nao really has to damn herself to the oddities of this world—she'll do it fast. Before her want to live a somewhat normal life can hinder her any further, Nao grabs the fruit and stuffs it in her mouth in one smooth motion.
Long before the bitterness and downright awfulness can register in her mind, the mushed fruit has already slid its way down her throat.
She resists the urge to puke, wiping away the spit from the corner of her mouth. "T-Thank you."
Nothing feels all that different, and for a moment she sees a small sliver of hope—perhaps the fruit had been a dud.
Then she looks up at Hancock. Had the girl always been so close?
"Wha—" Hancock's startled cry is cut short as Nao falls onto her, bringing with her both Ace and Rosinante.
Before anyone can even begin to comprehend why they'd suddenly found themselves in a pile with the soon-to-be empress of Amazon Lily, Nao looks back at the corner she had just been cowering in. As her eyes focus on the sight, the three are back in the corner in a flash.
She can't help the vulgar words that slip out of her mouth. "What the fuck?"
"Teleporting, huh?" Hancock pushes herself off of the floor, heaving a heavy sigh as she brushes off the dirt and grime. "It's not really combative in the slightest, but at least it does something sort of useful."
Nao's body feels extra heavy, and whether it's from exhaustion due to her using the devil fruit, or out of her finally succumbing to effects of the blood loss from her hand injury, she doesn't know.
As her vision fades, all she knows is that she and—out of association—the world, just got a lot more screwed.
And Nao has eaten a devil fruit! How do you guys feel about her new ability? Trust me when I say it isn't something quite as simple as just teleporting. :)
I had so much fun writing sassy little Ace lol.
Did you guys enjoy the chapter? I'd appreciate the heck out of a review if you guys have the time to leave one. Thanks for reading!
As always, have a great day!~