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An icy hand grabs hold of Nao's shoulder, jolting her awake. She blinks sporadically, her flitting eyes similar to those of a scared, cornered animal. (What kind of fuckery did she get into this time?)
When she finally comes to her senses, a speedy movement on her part grants her a hold of her potential assaulter's wrist. Once she's decided that her grip is firm enough, she yanks the violator downwards. Her only intention is to startle them—to halt whatever the hell it is that they're trying to do to her.
A startled cry escapes the lips of a man with a familiar mop of unruly, blond hair.
"What the hell are you doing?" Nao snaps, regaining her composure as she fully wakes up.
Rosinante lays face down on the ground—the unfortunate result of his clumsiness mixed together with Nao's impulsive aggressiveness. He waves his hand, motioning for her to give him a second or two, before he picks himself up off of the floor. As he steadies himself while getting back onto his own two feet, Nao takes it as a chance to reexamine their surroundings.
Judging based on what little is shown from the light streaming through the cracks in the shut door, it's quite obvious that they're still in the ship's hold. The light comes from the fluorescent ones in the hallway, but sunlight is nowhere to be seen. Whether it's evening or the early morning, it doesn't matter. All that matters is the fact that time has passed—a fact that serves more to alarm than to comfort the already freaked-out Nao. Is she still in Mariejois? Has she condemned herself and Rosinante to a guaranteed death by staying on the ship? (If Rosinante dies here, is the entire goddamn universe fucked?)
"You've been out for a few hours—not long," Rosinante informs, coughing as he speaks.
Nao nods along as he talks, barely listening to his words. The thoughts about Rosinante's role in the world sends her into a whole other downward spiral of panic as her thoughts shift to the other vital character on the godforsaken ship.
Ace.
"Where's Ace?"
For half of a second, Rosinante looks confused, until his face, too, contorts to reveal horror. "Crap."
"What do you mean 'crap'?" Nao asks, nearly hysterical as her voice rises in pitch. There's no way someone—even a person as accident-prone and clumsy as Rosinante—could just lose the one kid that half the world wants to murder, right?
"I think he slipped away while we were all checking up on you." He scratches the back his head sheepishly.
Wrong.
Every bit of her wants her to completely lose it on Rosinante. This day has just been—even for someone as well versed in all things screwed up as her—too much. From learning that she might've fucked the world over to a point where even she is fucked, to participating in a massacre; did Fate have any intentions of going easy on her for once?
But regardless of how frustrated she is, she refrains from taking it out on the man. If it's possible, he looks even more beaten and battered than her. Though his wounds were no longer profusely bleeding, the fresh bloodstains on his clothing make it evident that he's everything but okay. He's roughly bandaged—a job done well enough to prevent him from bleeding out, but done sloppily enough to show that he's far from being in tiptop condition.
She feels a sense of restlessness, and she briefly fears that she'll accidentally teleport herself right into a watery grave outside of the ship, but eventually, as she lets herself relax, the feeling passed.
Nao puts in a real effort to bury her fury, taking a deep breath before she addresses Rosinante again. "Do you at least know if he's still on the boat?"
Rosinante shrugs. "Probably? I don't see any reason for him to not be."
Nao is baffled—how could the man be so nonchalant when the goddamn grandson of his boss is missing. If anything, he should've been even more frantic than she was. All qualms against going off on the endearingly graceless man are thrown out the window.
"How are you so fucking calm—"
Her indignant cry is cut short by the creaking of the opening door. As her mind registers what she sees in the doorway, her question about Rosinante's unnerving composite is answered.
Standing there, looking more chipper than she'd ever seen him, is Rayleigh. He grins at the awakened girl, and the presence of the little boy holding the usually easygoing man's hand tells her all she needs to know about why he's so ecstatic.
Ah, it's Roger's kid.
As far as she knew, Rayleigh had never met Ace before his death—though whether it was out of some illogical fear of history repeating itself, or simply a dislike for dwelling on the past, she still doesn't quite know. Now that he is meeting Ace, though, happiness is an understatement of what his expression betrays. (For a moment, Nao thinks the look on his face is almost worth the bullshit she's been dragged through as of late.)
"Rayleigh." Nao nods her head in his direction to greet him.
He looks almost—dare she say it—embarrassed as he nods back at her. As he does so, Ace lets go of Rayleigh's hand to make a run for it to Nao.
Unable to do much else other than endure it—she figures punting the brat off the boat isn't a viable option—she lets herself get mowed down by the speedy kid. She grunts as she hits the ground, but what takes her by surprise isn't the impact—it's the disgustingly cute scowl on Ace's face.
"What the hell's wrong with you and yer friends?" Ace asks, though his accusatory tone makes it seem more of an undebatable statement than a question.
Nao gives him an incredulous stare. She can't have been awake for more than a few minutes, and already she's being accused of some kind of foolery that she's certain she didn't do. "What do you mean?"
Ace huffs, crossing his arms defensively as he gets back up. "Yer all refusin' to join my crew."
Rayleigh reacts with a closed-eye laugh—something he often did throughout his years with Nao whenever he wanted her to handle whatever mess they'd gotten into at the time. Internally, she groans; externally, she adorns an apologetic smile.
"Ace," she shoots a not-so-innocent grin in Rayleigh's direction, "that old man was already a part a pirate crew. You don't want your crew to be filled with grandmas and grandpas, do you?" There's irony in her advising a kid who'd end up on one of the oldest crews still existing yo not to recruit a bunch of old men and women.
He looks away. "But yer still strong."
Nao struggles to find a proper response, and Rayleigh finally decides to help her out with defusing the mess. Somewhere along the line during those years they'd spent together, it had become apparent to Rayleigh that whenever Nao was insistent on anything, it meant more than just a biased standpoint on her part. If she was avoiding something, it probably had to do with—what he knew as—her visions.
Walking over to them, Rayleigh ruffles Ace's hair affectionately, though the boy will most likely never know why he's so well liked by the man. Rayleigh crouches down to be at eye level with him. "You're gonna find a good crew once you're older, so don't rush into it right now. Who's to say you won't need people even stronger than us?"
Nao resists the urge to snort. Rayleigh knows damn well that he's one of the most powerful men out there, but bullshitting every once in awhile can't hurt if it's meant to get them out of a mess. Behind her, Rosinante makes a strangled noise that could be interpreted as somewhat of a laugh. He, too, knew just how ridiculous Rayleigh's understatement of himself is.
But still, Ace remains hardheaded. "I don't care if my crew's super strong. I just wanna have friends on my ship."
"Oh, so we're friends now, are we?" Nao quirks an eyebrow, referring to his previous excuse for not aiding them.
A hand comes down and smacks her forehead. "You're not allowed to tease kids when you're a kid yourself."
Nao gives Rosinante a half-hearted glare. "So you're gonna join his crew then, Rosinante?"
Ace hears the question and delivers a killing blow in the form of a hopeful grin. Seeing it, Rosinante blushes and stammers a nervous refusal. "I-I don't think that's gonna work out, Ace."
Before Ace can guilt trip all three of them into becoming a part of his future pirate crew, Rayleigh steps in. "Hey, Ace. Could you do me a favor and go find Hancock-san? The lady who spoke to you all earlier? She should be on the deck."
Ace doesn't look at all eager to comply, but the expectant looks from all three of what he thinks is his future shipmates convinces him to go along with the request anyways. "Okay, but then you owe me a favor, too."
Once he leaves, Nao audibly groans. "Great, Rayleigh. You've gone and gotten us indebted to a brat that's crazier than you."
"It he's anything like his father, we might be in for some trouble when he comes back to collect his favor," Rayleigh laughs, but doesn't deny the claim about his lack of sanity. "With that being said though, I still have never been reckless enough to eat a devil fruit on a whim."
"On a whim? It was either me, this half-dead guy behind me, or a kid who'd go and accidentally destroy the entire world if he ate it. I'd like to think the option I chose was rather logical."
"Logical for your line of thinking, yes, but logical in general…?" he trails off, suggesting that she'd opted for an option just as idiotic as the rest seemed to be. "I won't argue, but you do realize you could've simply lied and said that you've already consumed one, right? Anyways, which one did you eat?"
She flushes, embarrassed about her lack of reason in the moment, but ignores all but his last question. "Not sure. Some sort of teleporting ability, I think?"
Before Rayleigh can comment any further, Rosinante interrupts with a frown. "Teleportation? We had a book on devil fruits in Garp-san's office, but I don't recall ever reading that one."
"In Garp's office? Was that not the room that went up in flames?" Rayleigh asks, referring to the explosion that had occurred during the first wave of attacks.
"Ah, it was, but there's other copies back at headquarters."
"Would you mind helping Nao figure out what kind of disaster she's signed up for this time?"
"No, I don't mind at—" Rosinante freezes as he realizes he's talking a little too familiarly to a man who should be his greatest enemy. "Of course I mind! What on earth are you on this ship for? Why am I this kid's new babysitter?"
"'Cause you marines are the people who burned down my old home?" Nao chirps.
"Because she's now in Garp's care?" Rayleigh suggests.
Both are enough to make Rosinante sing a different tune.
"I won't be returning to base once we leave Mariejois but… I do have someone that owes me a favor…" Rosinante offers, looking genuinely remorseful for not being able to help Nao himself.
She isn't complaining, though. She'd much rather have him be where the universe wants him to be instead of helping her deal with a mistake that was her own fault to begin with. "Who owes you a favor?"
"Kuzan-san."
Scratch that. She'd take Rosinante over the ice-cold, future-admiral any day of the week.
"Does the entire marines just revolve around its members owing people nonsensical favors?" Rayleigh asks the question that Nao's been wondering since the first few years of her life, but before Rosinante can refute the claim, the door opens up once more.
"I brought her. Can ya join my crew now?" Ace demands, strutting into the room with a confused Hancock behind him.
"Rayleigh-san…?"
"Great job, Ace. I can't join your crew, but I'm sure you'll become a great pirate with or without these other troublemakers on board with you." Rayleigh shoots down Ace's request without hesitation, and a new sense of urgency enters his tone. "Hancock-san, are all the boats ready?"
Nao's eyes flick back and forth between Rayleigh and Hancock, but before she can voice her confusion, the ship is rocked by an unidentifiable blow.
Rosinante grabs onto her and Ace, making sure that they don't further injure themselves due to the violently shaking boat. Rayleigh, however, looks unfazed—as if he had expected the attack to come.
"T-The boats are ready," Hancock confirms, looking just as bemused as the trio is.
"Hancock-san, take all the escaped slaves and have them escape on the available life rafts. I'll come with you to help you and and your injured sisters out." He looks Nao dead in the eye as he speaks again. "You three are too injured to be moved."
She understands the hidden meaning behind his words—stay here to go back with the marines.
Ace tries to argue back, but is met with a soft blow to the back of his neck to prevent him from causing too much of a scene—courtesy of Rosinante. Rayleigh looks grateful for the younger man's actions, probably not wanting to place his hands on his former captain's kid, even if it is for a good reason.
The two men share a look—perhaps one of mutual understanding—before Rayleigh leaves with a still-bewildered Hancock, not sparing any of them another glance.
"That guy's really going the extra mile to stop this ship from leaving, huh?" Rosinante barks a fake laugh, looking annoyed more than anything at the attacked ship. "What an asshole."
For the life of her, Nao can't figure out why he's still so relaxed, or who the hell the 'asshole' in question is, but she's never given the chance to voice her confusion.
The world freezes over before her eyes.
Woohoo! Nao's gonna find out what her devil fruit ability really is soon, and Kuzan's entering the mix! I had so much fun writing the interactions between Ace and Rayleigh. I'd like to imagine that Rayleigh always kept tabs on Ace in canon, and that he secretly enjoyed rooting for his former captain's kid.
Did you enjoy the chapter? Please leave a review! It helps a TON with motivating me to update faster and with longer chapters. Can we reach 100 reviews with this chapter? :D
Have a great day! ~