Hurrying through the corridors, Ace shouts apologies over his shoulder, trying his hardest not to drop the cloth-covered sword he is holding. Luffy and Sabo race ahead of him, making a game of this, and Ace fights not to shout at them. Inari will be in trouble if he doesn't get his sword to his mentor before he sets out.
"Sensei!" Ace shouts as they reach the huge portal room. Stepping inside is almost an out-of-world experience, the ceiling and walls dark with glowing stars. Huge doors, twelve of them, lead to the other worlds, this room the Shrine's transportation room.
"Ace," Inari says as Ace finds him, setting the sword on the ground and bending over. "Sorry to make you run all the way here."
Ace rolls his eyes, watching as Luffy and Sabo greet Inari's familiar, grey familiar that is as much a teacher to them as Inari is to him.
"You always forget, Sensei," Ace mumbles. He looks at Inari's masked face, the fox-painted porcelain staring back at him.
"I know, I know," Inari replies, bringing a hand down to ruffle Ace's hair. Ace can imagine him smiling underneath his mask, moustache twitching as he breaks into a rough laugh.
"When will I be able to come with you?" Ace asks, and Inari looks away, lifting his sword and calling to his familiars. He doesn't answer Ace right away, and Ace sighs. He knows the answer, he always knows the answer, but he'd hoped…
"You're still too young. Give it four more years, and you might get to come with me." Ace can see the bright, wild-look in Inari's eyes through the mask, and he nods. Ace can wait four more years, he thinks. He's ten now; it's not too much of a wait.
"I'll see you later," Inari says, and Ace watches his mentor leave, heading for one of the portals. Ace isn't sure exactly what the Shrine does in the other worlds, but he knows they maintain peace and balance. Ace thinks they're heroes, though the current Head of the Shrine says they're more like gods. Ace thinks Sengoku is too old to make sense anymore, a thought that Luffy and Sabo secretly share with him, because Inari isn't a god. Inari is just Inari (and he still won't tell Ace his real name).
As he's not a graduate of the Shrine and still in training, Ace sets about his chores. The Shrine is a huge organisation, and there's always something to clean or organise. Today, he's assigned to clean the wooden deck in the Eastern temple, along with a small troop of other trainees. Ace has been here the longest, since he was born here actually, so he knows the other trainees well, and a hard day's work turns into something fun, familiars joining in too.
While Ace knows it's not normal for someone to have spent their entire life at the Shrine, no one treats him any differently for it. Inari is the one who raised Ace, the one who taught him everything he knows, and the one Ace will follow no matter what. Ace doesn't know his biological family, but he thinks Inari is the closest thing he has to a father.
Ace sighs, looking down at the cloth in his hands. He's busy polishing a door handle for lack of things to clean, and for once, he doesn't feel like skipping chores to stand outside of the kitchen.
See, the truth is that Ace does know his biological family. Or at least half of it. He lies when he says Inari is the closest thing to a father he has. Inari is his father, though they've never openly discussed their relationship. Inari continues on as his mentor, and Ace continues on as the student. It's a relationship that works, and Ace has never felt they need to change how they work. Ace doesn't know any different, after all. The Shrine is his life – he's never seen what parents are supposed to be, and it's not as if Inari doesn't love him.
Ace does wonder who his mother is, though. He wonders who caught Inari's heart and kept it. He wonders how much it will take for him to get Inari to tell him his real name, to get him to trust Ace with every secret he keeps hidden from the world under his mask.
"Ace!" a voice shrieks, the sound of water slopping on the floor accompanying the words. "Ace look!"
It happens in slow motion, and Ace can't stop the laughter that flows from him. Luffy and Sabo are standing in the garden just beyond the deck, except Luffy has somehow managed to throw cleaning water all over Sabo. It's not often Luffy gets one-up on Sabo, and Sabo looks furious.
"This is disgusting!" he roars, kicking a leg out in effort to push Luffy over. Luffy runs off laughing, and Ace sets his cloth down to help Sabo catch Luffy.
Ace has been friends with Sabo and Luffy for years now, and they always know how to cheer him up. They're a perfect team, and Ace would be lost without them.
One day, Ace thinks as he runs off to find another bucket of dirty water, he'll take them outside this world. They'll travel the universes, explore hidden worlds, and there will be nothing that can stop them.
The Shrine continues on as always, and Ace continues training to become a priest. If he can become a priest, he can walk through the doors to the other worlds. He can achieve his dream of freedom and take Sabo and Luffy off on adventures. Inari trains him, and Ace thinks he's setting him up to take the exams at the young age of 12.
It's dark when Ace gets back from his hand-to-hand combat sessions. He is sweaty and can't wait to tell Sabo and Luffy about Sengoku interrupting halfway through his session to storm through the room. He'd been in a bad mood, spoken to Ace's trainer then left. He is excited to theorise with his familiars, but frowns when he feels something strange nearby.
A shadow is clumped against the door to Ace and Inari's quarters of the Shrine. It shifts, and Ace narrows his eyes, surprised to see that it's not a demonic shadow, but a pitch-black rabbit. It stills, looking at Ace, and he can see a spot of lighter fur, just at the junction where ear meets its head.
Ace smiles and opens their house door. They have a few rooms inside, though Ace isn't allowed in all of them. He never gets to go down the far corridor, though Inari's never explicitly banned him from venturing down there. Ace simply has a feeling the place isn't to be disturbed, so he doesn't go there.
Ace had expected the rabbit to run off, so it's a surprise when it hops in through the open door, taking off down the corridor. Ace's eyes widen. If Luffy and Sabo caught the rabbit, the poor thing would become Luffy's new friend, and while Luffy gaining a new friend isn't a bad thing, the rabbit doesn't look like it would be happy for cuddles all day long.
The rabbit disappears around the corner, and Ace curses. He slams the front door shut and races after the rabbit, hoping to catch it before it reaches the places Ace never goes.
His feet slide against the wooden floor as Ace skids around the corner, and he hopes all this noise won't bring Luffy and Sabo to him. The house seems quiet for now, so Ace walks on, eyes peering through the darkness of the corridor, trying to find the rabbit. He's in unfamiliar territory now, and he tiptoes, as silent as he can be.
There is a light at the end of the corridor, coming from an open room around the corner. Ace didn't know that Inari was home, but he has to be. No one else would be in this part of their home. In the light cast on the ground, Ace can see the small form of the rabbit. It hops towards the light, and he thinks it glances back at him for a moment.
It's gone a moment later, and Ace takes off after it, tip-toeing towards the light. He rounds the corner and can hear a soft snore from inside of the room, a snore he recognises as Inari's. Relief floods Ace's chest that Inari is asleep, and he thinks he'll be able to catch the rabbit without any fuss.
The rabbit is in the room now, so Ace steps in quietly. Inari is sitting in a chair, the same kind they have in the kitchen – wooden and uncomfortable. He's fast asleep, head tilted forwards on his chest. The chair faces the wall, and Ace looks towards it as the rabbit presses its side against it, ruby red eyes peering at Ace, as if trying to tell him something.
Ace is lost, however. On the wall are tens of pieces of paper, posted together to form a beautiful picture. It's an entire world, Ace thinks, or at least a huge, sprawling city. It looks almost magical, futuristic and nothing like the Shrine. Ace feels a tug in his belly and moves towards the picture, stopping with his fingertips bare centimetres away as Inari lets out a strange sound.
Instantly, Ace turns around, afraid he's been caught. There's no real reason why he can't be in here, but Ace feels as if he's intruded on something private, something hidden.
"Rouge," Inari says softly, head falling to the side slightly. There is sadness in his voice, longing too, and it makes Ace uncomfortable. He looks down at the ground, eyes searching for the rabbit, only to find empty space.
The rabbit isn't hard to locate, however, and Ace can see it curled against Inari's foot. It looks peaceful, almost as if it belongs. Ace doesn't have the heart to move it for one, but it looks right for another. Ace isn't sure he should be there at all anymore, and he steals one last glance at the drawings on the wall.
If it's possible, Ace thinks, he would like for that world to be real. Perhaps it is a world that Inari has seen, though Ace doubts it. He looks at Inari as he passes, something cool spiking through him as he sees the wetness on Inari's cheeks, the tear-stains tracking down to his moustache. He's been crying in his sleep, Ace sees, and he wonders who this Rouge is, what the rabbit is here for, and what the world means to Inari.
He never asks these questions, of course. Ace continues his training, continues towards his goal of taking Sabo and Luffy on adventures, and pretends the night with the rabbit never happened. Ace always wonders about the rabbit and the other world in the back of his mind, but he pretends everything is as it always has been.
Until one day, when Ace is 14, when Inari is no longer there.