Well, I don't have much to say here other than I'm sorry for the wait.
Disclaimer- I do not own One Piece. Simple as that.
Thanks to violentyetawesome, LuffyxRuby, HopelesslyHope, XxAyano-ChanxX, Loving-you-is-a-crime, and everyone else for your reviews. You have no idea how helpful they are.
"So how'd you know to come find us?" Hota inquired as they picked their way through the charred remains of marines.
"Jiro said you guys were running late, so Pops told us to go look for you," Thatch answered, leading the way to the opening of the alley.
"Well, it's a good thing you did, thanks," Katsu said, the corners of his mouth tilting up in a smile.
"No problem, but we've gotta get back before they start to wonder what happened to all of us," Marco said nonchalantly as they approached the mouth of the alley.
After a quick glance to check for any remaining marines, Marco, Ace, Thatch, Emi, and the twins ambled casually into the street of the port town. In the front, Thatch, Marco, and the twins were exchanging stories and jokes while Ace and Emi milled behind, taking in the sights around them and pointing out anything that caught their eyes. Within minutes, the group had entered the merchants' district of the town. The sides of the street were lined with colorful, but weather-worn carts and stands holding everything from hand-woven baskets to bejeweled knives. Merchants called loudly to indifferent passersby while pickpockets wove through the crowd in search of their next victims.
Upon spotting a bald, portly man claiming to sell enchanted armor, Ace let loose a bemused laugh and turned to tell Emi. But instead of the rather short girl he had been expecting, Ace was met with empty space. He scanned the heads of the crowd around him but came up dry.
"Oi, where'd Emi get off to?" He questioned aloud.
Curious at his statement, the others looked around the same way Ace had. Marco's and Thatch's searches turned up nothing, causing them to turn to Ace and shrug in confusion. Katsu and Hota continued to look until their eyes landed on the same thing and they groaned in frustration.
"She's at it again," Katsu sighed, slumping over as if he were tired.
Baffled, the others followed the twins' line of vision. They caught sight of the young girl a short distance away, standing in front of a crooked wooden cart that was overflowing with flowers. They couldn't hear what she was saying, but they could see her talking to the vendor, a wrinkled, but kind looking old man, as she dropped a few coins into his hand in return for a handful of flowers.
"What? She's just buying some flowers," Thatch mused, watching Emi turn to walk back to them, smelling the flowers as she went.
"She does this every time she sees someone selling flowers. She'll buy four and then just throw 'em in the ocean," Hota explained, shoving his hands in his pockets. Chewing his lip thoughtfully, he added, "Always the same kind too, now that I think about it."
Before anyone could question him further, Emi appeared between Thatch and Ace.
"Are you ladies ready to keep going? Or would you prefer to gossip some more?" She asked with a taunting grin on her lips.
Following a mixture of protests and chuckles, the group was on their way to the docks again. The twins resumed their habitual banter, with Marco looking on amusedly. Thatch started up a casual conversation with Emi. Ace said nothing, but watched Emi with a combination of curiosity and frustration that came with not being able to put your finger on something. How did he know her? Those big violet eyes and loose black curls seemed too familiar to be just a coincidence. Ace looked at the flowers in her hand. White lilies. Another alarm went off in the back of his mind that he should recognize this girl. But from where?
"You know, you don't really seem like the girly type, Emi," Thatch commented innocently, noting her worn shorts and oversized striped shirt.
Emi blinked at him for a moment before realization struck. "These? I get them out of habit. I used to buy or pick them whenever I saw them as a kid. My friend called 'em friendship lilies, but I don't know what they're actually called."
Thatch nodded in understanding and was about to comment when he noticed Ace, rooted to his spot and looking as if a light bulb had just exploded inside his head.
"Oi, you alright there, kid?" He asked, drawing the attention of the others and causing them to stop once again.
Ace nodded distractedly before turning to Emi, who blinked at him owlishly.
"Emi, did you grow up in East Blue?"
"Yeah," She replied carelessly, blowing a bubble with her gum. She, along with the rest of the group, continued to eye their cowboy hat clad companion curiously. Where was he going with this?
"And did you travel to different islands with your grandparents a lot?" Ace asked, growing more animated with each passing moment.
Emi nodded this time, her curiosity growing quickly.
"Do you remember meeting three boys who lived with a group of mountain bandits?"
Marco, Thatch, and the twins looked at Emi expectantly to find her frozen out of sheer confusion.
"How did you—wait a second… Ace?"
Said pirate could only laugh and nod at his old friend's expression of shock and recognition. Mere seconds later, Emi had launched herself into him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a bear hug. Her feet barely touched the ground when she did so, but she didn't seem to care. Laughingly, he returned the hug, unfazed by the small girl's grip.
"Ace! I can't believe it's really you! I didn't recognize you without that sour look on your face… Or a shirt for that matter. Come to think of it, why aren't you wearing a shirt? Are you an exhibitionist or something?"
At this, Ace blinked at Emi in confusion while Hota and Katsu burst into unabashed laughter. Over Emi's shoulder, Ace could see Marco giving him a smug smile that clearly said he had some explaining to do and Thatch grinning and laughing slightly at the spectacle.
"So I take it you two know each other?" Thatch asked, crossing his arms over his chest, smile still clearly plastered on his face.
"Yep," Emi said cheerfully, hopping down and jerking a thumb at Ace, "He's much friendlier now though."
His nakama's laughter brought a slight frown to Ace's lips and a tinge of red to his face, prompting him to catch Emi in a playful headlock.
"At least I've grown some, shorty," He jibed, a teasing smirk on his face.
"I'm not short; you're just too tall!" Emi argued in response, clawing futilely at the arm around her neck.
Marco watched the two bicker like two childish siblings for a moment before cutting in.
"I hate to break up the reunion, but Pops is still waiting on us and at this rate, we won't get there until next week."
The pair blinked at Marco before agreeing. With that, the group started moving again, chatting idly. Ace and Emi lagged behind, babbling animatedly about how they came to be where they were. Ace told Emi about his time as a captain of his own crew and the early days of his time with Whitebeard. In return, Emi recounted how her captain had found her in her hometown and convinced her to join the Yang Pirates.
They continued down the main avenue of the merchants' district until they hit a well beaten dirt road that lead from the outskirts of town down to the docks. By the time they passed the Yang Pirates' ship, the sun was beginning to set and a vague, dusty outline of the moon had appeared on the opposite horizon.
As they reached the gangplank of the Moby Dick, Emi paused to examine the legendary ship. To say it was massive would be an idiotic understatement, she decided. Emi was fully aware that she wasn't the largest of people, but she couldn't help but feel like an ant in comparison to the structure before her. Even the figurehead was enormous. The whale took up nearly half of the front of the ship with its large, aquatic grin. Emi vaguely wondered if there was some sort of tail on the other end.
"Oi, Emi! Are you comin'?" Hota and Katsu shouted down from the top of the gangplank, breaking their younger crewmate from her reverie.
With a quick shout in the affirmative, Emi flitted up the wooden ramp. By the time she reached the top, the twins had already disappeared into the large group of pirates in front of her. Skimming the faces around her, she couldn't find any sign of her crewmates. Unsure of what to do, but unwilling to stay put, she ventured into the crowd in search of them. As she weaved through the clumps of loud, intoxicated pirates, Emi couldn't help but recognize some of the notorious pirates she had seen pictures of countless times before. It was almost unreal; as if the wanted posters she had grown up seeing had sprang to life.
It took a few minutes for Emi to finally push herself out of the tightly packed throng. When she did, the raven-haired girl found herself on the edge of a fairly sized clearing in the middle of the deck. On either side of her, even more pirates stood about, chatting animatedly. She noticed that this circle had a few more familiar faces, including Marco, Ace, Thatch, and Benjirou, her crew's first mate and doctor. At the head of the circle, Emi found her captain with a large smile on his face and a drink in his hand. However, it was the man Jiro was talking to that caught her full attention. The man towered over the party on the deck easily, and he was still sitting down. Though it was clear that he was older, it was obvious that he still packed a wallop. The trademark upturned, white beard removed any miniscule doubt Emi had; this was Whitebeard, rival to Gold Roger and the strongest man in the world. While the titles alone didn't intimidate her, Emi couldn't help feel a more than a little shaken as she continued to stare at him. Along with the sheer size of him, the authority and power he exuded even while at rest set Emi's teeth on edge. She suddenly felt much smaller than she knew she was.
While Emi was stuck in her train of thought, Jiro had noticed her standing across from him. Stifling a laugh at her star struck expression, he made his way over to her.
"There you are, Emi. I was wondering when you'd turn up. Come here, there's someone I want you to meet," He said, dropping a hand on Emi's shoulder, causing her to jump and look at him in surprise.
Before she could protest, Jiro steered Emi forward, stopping in front of Whitebeard.
"Hey Pops, this is Hanatomi Emi, the new crewmate I told you about." The red-haired man said, grinning up at his former captain.
Whitebeard leaned forward slowly, resting an elbow on his knee as he scrutinized the short girl. She was obviously tense, but eyed him steadily. In the back of his mind, he couldn't help but be reminded of an old pair of pirates. A small grin appeared underneath his moustache.
"So Jiro went all the way out to East blue to find you, eh? You're quite the pipsqueak."
Emi couldn't help but frown slightly at his observation. Was that really the most notable thing about her? She wasn't that short.
It took Emi a moment to force any words out of her mouth, as her nerves had made her throat go dry.
"It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Newgate," She replied hesitantly, unsure of how to respond to the man in front of her.
As Whitebeard's grin grew at the comment, Emi heard an exasperated sigh before the hand that had been on her shoulder moved to the back of her neck, pushing her forward into a bow and making her yelp in surprise.
"How many times do I have to tell you to at least try and show some respect?" Jiro asked irritably.
"Apparently a few more; you know I'm not good at following rules, Captain," Emi replied, a large grin splitting her lips as some of her nervousness slipped away at the familiar chiding. "Besides, bowing to men is a sign of subjugation and is demeaning to women."
Jiro resisted the urge to facepalm. "You've been talking to Yoko again, haven't you?" He asked, letting Emi up and resting his hands on his hips.
While Yoko was a loyal member of the Yang Pirates and a great cook, she was an incurable feminist and never failed to show it. Nor did she hesitate to pass it on to her fellow female crewmate.
"Maybe," Emi replied, the grin on her face growing substantially, causing Jiro to shake his head.
Whitebeard guffawed loudly at the pair before him. Taking a large swig of the drink in his hand, he said, "You were right, Jiro, she is a smartass. So, Pipsqueak, how are Haru and Ruka?"
"Um… They're dead," Emi stated bluntly, unsure of how else she could put it. Her eyebrows scrunching together, she asked, "You knew my grandparents?"
"Of course I knew them. They were some of Roger's first crewmates, them and that cranky friend of theirs. What was his name? Jack, wasn't it?" Whitebeard waited for Emi to nod before he continued with a frown on his lips, "How'd they die?"
Emi pursed her lips and shrugged, "I don't really know," she said. "They went on a trip alone one day and never came back. Jack told me to assume that they died in a storm."
Whitebeard downed his drink as he mulled Emi's story over. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something didn't seem to click. That wasn't how he thought Haru and Ruka would go. But then again, people were lost at sea everyday…
Not wanting to let the young girl before him catch on to his doubts, Whitebeard wiped the frown off his face and changed the subject. "You're awfully young to be a pirate on the Grand Line. What are you doing out here?"
Emi blinked owlishly up at him for a moment before an enthusiastic grin spread across her face. "I want to be free and go on wild adventures. One day I met Jiro and he offered to bring me with him. Why would I pass up the opportunity?"
Whitebeard found her grin to be contagious. He recognized the determined glint in her eyes: it was the same that her grandparents used to get when they thought an adventure was coming. His grin stretched a little more as the memories came back to him. Rivals or not, those two had been damn good pirates. One look at Emi and he couldn't help but think she would be just as monstrous. At the very least, he took some comfort in the thought that not every young pirate bought into that New Age of Piracy nonsense he kept hearing about.
The two talked for a little while longer after that. He asked her why she called him by his name and she replied that her grandparents had called him that when they told her stories. That and she figured if he could call her pipsqueak, she should be able to call him by his name. As Whitebeard laughed heartily at her audacity, Jiro interjected, restarting his previous conversation with Whitebeard. Emi drifted away shortly after, wandering through the still-raucous crowd until she reached the side of the ship. By then, the sun had disappeared and the sky was covered in the thick blanket of night. Emi sat on the railing of the ship, her legs dangling over the edge as she watched the stars.
"Sorry 'bout your grandparents, Emi," The sudden voice made Emi jump until she saw Ace come up and lean against the railing next to her. "When'd they die?"
"'Bout a year after I met you guys," Emi answered quietly after she had gotten over her surprise.
Ace nodded solemnly, letting the silence hang in the air. He had only met her grandparents briefly, and when he did, he hated them for their connection to Roger. But in retrospect, they had been pretty good to him. And he knew how fond of them Emi was.
"So how are Sabo and Luffy? I haven't heard from you guys since I went back home," Emi asked eagerly, turning to face her old friend.
"Luffy's great!" Ace started with a grin, but his face fell quickly. "Sabo on the other hand… He was killed by a Tenryubito about a year after you left…"
Emi was horrified as she listened to Ace's account of Sabo's fate. He told her everything from how Sabo was actually a nobleman's son to the fire in Grey Terminal and Sabo's unexpected, but failed, departure. By the time Ace finished, Emi was glaring at the blackened water below them, her fingers clenched around the stems of the unlucky lilies she had been holding since she bought them.
"Those rotten bastards! And they say that people like you and me are the monsters," She muttered harshly, hot tears stinging at her eyes. She wiped them away roughly, doing her best to keep them at bay.
Ace could only nod in frustrated agreement. He felt the pain prickling in his chest again, prompting him to grip the railing tightly to counter it. After a few moments in silence, he sought a change in topic.
"So what do you keep doing with those flowers?" He asked, nodding towards the delicate lilies in Emi's clenched hands.
Upon registering what Ace was saying, Emi loosened her grip on the flowers to avoid crushing them completely.
"I've been getting them since I met you guys," She answered, twirling a stem between her fingers. "I keep one for myself and then throw the rest in the water. It's stupid, but I like to think that they reach you guys."
"That is a little stupid, I will admit," Ace said, shooting her a joking grin. Emi frowned and punched him half-heartedly in the arm, and soon they were both laughing.
A comfortable silence fell over the pair. Quickly getting antsy, Emi took one flower and tucked it behind her ear. She looked at the remaining flowers in her hand before handing one to Ace.
"You can do what you want with it," She explained, shrugging, "If you put it in a pot of dirt, it'll probably take root and grow. I just figured I might as well give you yours."
Ace took the lily and thanked her, smiling as he played with it idly. "What're you gonna do with the other ones?" He asked, looking at her through the corner of his eye.
Emi flashed him a smile before extending her arm and dropping the two remaining lilies. They wafted down slowly, hitting the water without as much as a splash. Ace and Emi watched the two flowers float away on the black surface of the water.
Well, there you have it! Feel free to let me know what you thought. Also, there's a poll on my profile that you might want to check out. I don't know if/how/when exactly it'll come into play, but I'm curious nonetheless.
Until next time,
~Decadent Decay
