Chapter Sixteen
Ace tugged at the collar of his dress shirt. He wasn't used to wearing formal clothing like what he had on now. He was en route to the island where the party was being held, only a little ways left to go. He was still slightly annoyed by Marco's request that he go to the event at the Whitebeard crew's representative.
His search in Alabasta for the sword was inconclusive at best. The trail led to the city of Alubarna, where the royal palace was, but it went cold once he reached there. No one had seen any girl like who he had described, let alone the sword he was searching for so determinedly.
One benefit of visiting Alabasta and the royal palace was that he got to talk with Vivi again. He'd met her when he went to see Luffy, because she was traveling with his crew, and he hadn't seen her since. It was nice to talk with a friend, but Vivi was a little awkward around him for some reason. He couldn't figure out why.
After getting some advice on how to bake a cake from the palace's cook, he left to head to the island. The cake had seemed easy enough to bake, and his Mera Mera no Mi would help because he didn't have access to an oven.
The cake had to be small, but he frosted it with white icing and dark blue letters that wished Yuki a happy birthday. She had always favored the colors blue, red, and green in that order. It once made him curious about her nickname, "Red Snow".
He wondered if anyone would even eat the cake. He wondered if anyone would recognize the name on the cake. It hadn't been that long since she passed away, so it might have been too early for everyone to forget what happened with the war.
Ace sailed on, contemplating his decisions.
Yuki was going through her clothing for accessories that would suit the dress she had chosen for the party when she spotted something she didn't recognize. It was a simple sundress, pale green with delicate lace on the edges. It had rusty smudges on the inside, around the stomach and upper torso.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she finally recognized it. The dress she had awoken in. Her funeral dress. It made her happy that they had chosen something so well suited to her pale skin and blue hair. She must have looked very peaceful, laying in that coffin, surrounded by her friends.
She wondered what they had said about her. She wondered what they felt when they watched her die. It saddened her. She had to have caused so much grief in their lives. She knew Ace and Mizuki wouldn't be able to go a day without feeling like they should have been able to prevent it. It was her fault, but Luffy could live to become the Pirate King and Ace could spend more happy days with his crew, so it was worth it.
Once they reached the island, Sabo, Koala, Yuki, and Robin all fixed up their respective outfits before proceeding. Sabo was wearing a dashing, deep blue suit that complemented Koala's pale pink dress nicely. Robin was wearing a close-fitting, sparkly gown with a slit cut up one side with a black shawl. It was deep purple and black, and very beautiful on the curvaceous pirate-turned-revolutionary.
Yuki had the more complex of the two dresses she was looking at, the one more closely resembling a ball gown. She had announced that if she had to dress up, she would do it with extravagance. Her hair, temporarily dyed black for the evening, was done up in a bun wrapped with a thin braid. Her bangs were styled and swept off to the side, and the way they framed her face differently made her look more elegant.
Sabo, when he saw her choice, tried to persuade her to choose the other dress, but to no avail. He wanted to have her attract less attention, but she seemed incredibly determined to do the exact opposite.
In the end, he had a skilled makeup artist do her makeup to make her facial structure look different. They had succeeded, to an extent, to make a person who looked almost completely different from Yuki. Until she decided she had enough and washed it all off on their way to the island.
"Gah! I can't do it anymore!" Sabo yelled in frustration. "If you get revealed, don't blame us, you jerk. You're the one who wouldn't listen, damned Yuki."
"That's Arika, remember?" she replied, sticking her tongue out at him.
Koala looked distressed. "Now, calm down, Sabo..."
Robin finally intervened when the arguing had nearly come to the point of blows. In that regard, those two were really like siblings. Everyone had their arguments, but when those two went at it, it involved a lot of excess name-calling and occasionally some soft punches.
"Hey, Sabo, we're nearly there," Robin commented happily.
Koala scanned the horizon until she saw the island. "Look, it's over there!"
Sabo glared and Yuki, who stuck her tongue out again and brushed her bangs out of her face. The four of them gathered up their things and hurried down the road from the docks to the town where the party was centered.
Sabo grinned, grabbing Koala's hand, and raced into the crowd, leaving Robin and Yuki by themselves. The two guessed that he had spotted a friend, but they were unsure about what to do with themselves in the meantime.
Ace was nervously shuffling through the crowd, trying to make sense of things while receiving greetings and well wishes from so many strangers. He didn't see a single person he recognized inside the dance hall, so he wandered over to the food bar to set out the cake.
As he carefully set it down, he heard an incredibly familiar voice behind him. Yet again, he believed he was hearing things. Still, he turned around to check who was around him.
He came face to face with another person who was supposed to be dead. There was a bit of stubble on his chin, and his curly, blonde hair was longer, but there was no mistaking that face.
"Sabo..." he muttered quietly.
Sabo ducked his head, hiding his face. "Hey, Ace. Long time no see, huh?"
Ace stood there, silent, for a solid three minutes. Sabo. Alive. Yuki. Dead. The war where she died. Why hadn't he been there? He was alive. Sabo was alive and doing well, based on his clothes.
Finally, Ace asked a question. "Why didn't you tell us you were alive?"
Sabo looked him in the eyes, and stood with his arms spread out. Ace looked confused, unsure what to do. Did he want a hug? His brother, the first friend he ever had, was standing in front of him, distinctly not dead.
"Hit me. I know you want to," Sabo explained.
Ace was taken aback. "What?"
Sabo looked very sad, tears welling up in his eyes. "Hit me. I wasn't there for you or Luffy or Yuki when you three needed it. I wasn't there when the Navy announced that you were being executed. It's my fault, all of it. I just stood by and watched."
Ace grabbed his shoulders, angry. "Listen! You. Are. Not. At. Fault."
Sabo looked like he was going to deny it, but Ace continued on.
"So you weren't there. We should have been able to take care of ourselves. Both Luffy and I were at the execution, and we couldn't stop Akainu from killing her. It's our own damned faults, okay? The only thing I'm mad about is that you blame yourself and that you didn't let us know you were still alive!"
Sabo wiped his face with his sleeve, stepping back. "Okay, I get it. It's not my fault." He could only think that Ace was no where near ready to meet Yuki again, to find out she was alive. Again.
Ace nodded, catching sight of Koala. His curiosity rose as he noticed that their arms were linked and they stood close together. The two of them must have been more than just friends.
"So, who's this young lady?" he asked, laughing.
Sabo blushed a little, making Ace laugh some more. The girl behind him moved forward a little, allowing herself to be seen fully. She was very cute, and she looked like a kind-hearted person.
When Sabo didn't give him an answer, Koala spoke up. "My name's Koala. I'm a revolutionary, and Sabo's partner. We go on missions a lot together..." The tips of her ears were red a little bit.
"Yeah, Yu- I... um, what do you think? Of us, I mean!" Sabo stammered, only getting more red with every passing second. He had nearly mentioned Yuki, and that was a slip-up he couldn't afford to have. He would have to be more careful.
"So you're together." Ace paused even though it wasn't really a question. He was happy for his brother. Sabo had managed to find someone he liked, and that was enough for him. "Well, I think she's pretty, and seems very nice. Koala, you like him a lot, right?"
Koala nodded energetically, grinning. "Yeah. He's really funny and really kind."
"Hmph. His sense of humor must have improved," Ace replied smartly.
"Hey," Sabo complained, "you laughed at my jokes when we were kids!"
"Later on, I sorta felt like they were really bad, y'know?"
Koala stated, "His jokes have definitely improved, then."
As the three of them turned to leave, Sabo caught sight of Ace's cake on the table, so carefully set out. It had delicate, flowing letters. A birthday cake for someone who could never have another birthday. Or so Ace thought.
"Did you make that?" he asked, motioning towards the cake.
Ace looked down at his feet, embarrassed and slightly guilty. It was an evident "yes" from him. The mood shifted and changed to be somewhat depressing, and they fell back into the guilt contest they had been having earlier.
"I made it," he admitted miserably. "Even though she won't be here for it, I made it for her. It's my fault she won't celebrate another birthday or grow old or see Luffy become the Pirate King."
"Oi," Sabo snapped angrily, "you aren't at fault! I managed to watch the end of the war, I saw what happened. We all knew that one of you three would die. I knew it as soon as I saw Akainu go after Luffy."
"But it should have been me!" Ace shouted, drawing attention from the party goers around them. Quieter, "I was the oldest sibling, right? I should have been able to protect both of them, just like I should have been able to protect you."
"Ace, that's survivor's guilt." Sabo was very serious. "It turned out that I was okay, right? You couldn't have done anything to save me, and you couldn't have done anything to save her. Even though you were there."
Ace sighed, exhausted. He hadn't expected to deal with the loss again so soon. He merely wanted to eat some food, talk to some people he might have known, and gone back to his search. He was happy Sabo was alive. Luffy would be, too, when he found out.
Still, it didn't really take away from the loss they all had suffered. When he followed Sabo and Koala back to the dance hall, he was left to try and drown out his thoughts with small talk and dancing with strangers.