Chapter 19
Shooting Star

Ace and Usopp were repairing, the best they could, the Merry. They had patched up the figurehead, and were now working on the mast. Next to them, Eli was reading the newspaper, there was a small story about what had happen in Loguetown.

"Oi Luffy !" Eli called out. "They're calling you 'Straw hat Luffy' now."

"Hehehe..." Luffy took his hat and looked at it happily.

This sight brought a smile to her face, yet Eli thought that the marines didn't racked their brains for the boy's epithet. Her eyes falling on Ace's figure, the flames user's came back to her mind.

"Freckles, how come they called you 'Fire Fist' ?" she asked.

A pause, during which the young man gazed thoughtfully at Eli's face, before letting a sigh escape his mouth. "I helped them a bit..." Ace trailed off.

"How ?" Usopp asked, now observing his crewmate who seemed strangely uncomfortable.

Ace cleared his throat scratching the back of his head. "I used this attack a lot when I met them." He laughed sheepishly.

For a few seconds, Usopp and Eli stared at him speechlessly before looking at each other. Without saying a word, they stood up at the same time, took a few steps back, and faced each other.

"This is it ! You're done for Portgas D. Ace !" Eli said loudly, frowning and pointing her index at Usopp who was now wearing Ace's hat.

"Not quite yet !" Usopp sneered. He launched his fist forward. "FIRE FIST !"

"Oh nooo !" Eli yelled running away.

"Aaahh" Luffy joined the girl's act.

"FIRE FIST !"

They kept on running...

"Heeeeelp !"

... and Usopp kept chasing them around...

"FIRE FIIIST"

... yelling like a mad man.

"NOOOO"

The comedy show went on until they collapsed on the deck, their bodies convulsing from a powerful laughing fit.

Rolling her head to the side, Eli saw that Ace had fallen asleep. She concluded that imposing his epithet, the way he did, was probably a necessity if he didn't want to be named 'Narcoleptic Ace'.

Usopp slowly sat up. "I wonder what name they'll give me." The teenager crossed his arms over his chest while his eyes got lost in the distance. "Probably 'Brave Warrior Usopp'..."

"Yeah right..." Sarcasm showing through her tone of voice and face, Eli rolled her eyes. "More something like 'Hidden-behind-the-real-warriors Usopp'." She scoffed.

The long-nosed marksman frowned. "Let's hope they call you 'Not a Boy Eli' so that people don't get confused," he jested sticking his lips out. He looked like a perfect punching bag then.

Eli's face darkened as she stared harshly at the teenager. "Repeat that !" she said belligerently.

Upon hearing him chuckling stupidly, the girl clenched her fist and grabbed Usopp by his collar. Apparently the idiot began to reckon of the dangerous situation he had put himself in as his laughing face quickly morphed into dread as it got closer to Eli's furious one.

"They could call you 'Shooting Star Eli' !" Luffy said with a large smile.

Heh ?

Etowaru sat next to Eli. The girl was sitting on the porch of her house, her arms wrapped around her legs and her head rested on her knees.

"You father told me you ate his devil fruit."

Eli nodded timidly, and glanced at him. Was he mad too ?

"Why did you do it ?"

Wordlessly, Eli started at her knees.

She didn't reply, as she couldn't tell him the reason. She couldn't tell him that she had eaten it for him. So many girls had a crush on Etowaru, and Eli knew she could never be the prettiest, nor the smartest girl. But she could be the strongest.

Etowaru sighed deeply and gently patted her head.

"You know you won't be able to swim anymore ?"

"But Towa... I'm so fast now !" Eli briskly stood up. "Just look !"

On the spot, Eli ran along the beach and within a few heartbeats, she could barely see Etowaru anymore. Her bare feet digging into the sand, she turned around and yelled his name, waving her arms cheerfully. When she saw him wave back, she dashed to him.

"That's amazing Lizzie !" Etowaru praised enthusiastically.

Eli blushed and laughed softly.

"Now I'll call you Shooting Star..."

Shooting Star heh, Eli thought bitterly. A dying star would have matched Etowaru's tragic fate.

For a moment, she stared into space, letting the memories slowly flutter in her mind. They were painful. Like an invisible hand, they curled around her heart and tightened their grip, making it hard for the girl to breathe...

"I think 'Emerald gust Eli' would suit you perfectly, don't you Elisabeth ?"

Eli blinked a few times as she saw Sanji staring at her as if he was expecting something from her.

"I get the 'Gust', but why 'Emerald' ?" Usopp asked.

Sanji got on one knee in front of Eli, clasped his hands tightly, his loving eyes gazing at the girls' orbs. "Because of her lovely green eyes of course !"

Oh... Eli sighed deeply, and gave Sanji a flick on the forehead. "Ok 'Ero-cook Sanji' it is." This one was really easy to find.

Luffy scrambled to the girl and leaned forward. "Your eyes are green ?"

"... Luffy." Eli pushed the boy away as his face was a bit too close to hers. "We've been living together for four years, and you don't know what color my eyes are...?"

"No..." Luffy pouted his arms crossed. "Okay, tell me mine !"

Eli stared at the young captain in disbelief. "You're actually asking me-"

"Yes."

"...with your eyes wide open...?"

Hearing Nami shriek frantically, the pirates ran to their navigator, only to find her on the verge of an hysterical fit.

Apparently her compass was broken. And that wasn't good news since they were about to start a perilous journey. But soon Ace explained that normal compasses couldn't work on Grand Line. That was because of the islands' mighty magnetic fields. Instead navigators used a Log Pose.

Fortunately, Ace had kept his from his previous journey through Grand Line, and gave it to the grateful navigator. It looked like a watch, with a glass sphere containing a needle floating in its middle. Log Poses recorded the specific magnetic field of an island, and pointed to the next island. The time for the Log Pose to lock onto the magnetic waves varied from one island to another.

Now the pirates had to choose their first destination, and they had seven choices.

"Where did you go Ace ?" Nami asked.

"I started at Hula Island, sounded fun," Ace said smiling. "Wasn't though... We ended up waiting a month for the Log to lock, on a very religious island without any bar or any other kind of distraction."

"No women heh ? Bummer." Eli said in a mocking tone.

"So what other choices do we have ?" Usopp said looking at the map.

"Take us to Whiskey Peak please !"

The pirates looked in the direction of the pleading voice. The two hunters they had ditched earlier had came back. And were now begging, down on their knees before the very pirates they had insulted a few hours ago.

"It's our town and we need your help to get there." Mr. Nine said.

Nami smirked looking into the man's eyes. "Don't you think it's too easy, you tried to kill Laboon."

"It's not like we wanted to !" Miss Wednesday said clenching her fists. "The company we work for hold secrecy dearly, so we can't say anything, but please help us !"

Eli narrowed her eyes looking at the two suspicious hunters.

"Sounds fishy..." she whispered.

Ace and Zoro nodded.

"Ok, you can come with us," Luffy said.

The three wary crewmates sighed at their captain's carelessness.

Their first trip on Grand Line started under a favorable weather, which was always enjoyable. Eli was reading a book on the deck when she felt something cold falling on the top of her hand

Rain ?

The girl looked up and saw snowflakes falling from the sky. She blinked as they were multiplying by the second. The questioning look on her face quickly morphed into joy.

"SNOW !" The girl ran in the ship to change into warmer clothes.

Eli loved snow, she had discovered the white marvel in Fuschia, and from that moment she decided the she was a snow girl.

"How can they be so happy ?" Nami was in the lounge frowning at Usopp and Luffy, who were making snowmen, through the window.

"Come on Nami ! It's snowing !" Eli said happily to cheer the grumpy girl up.

But Nami huffed. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the redhead was actually younger than Eli.

"Kids..." she said rolling her eyes.

Seeing that the snow was pilling up really fast, Eli jumped on the deck, a large grin plastered on her face.

"SNOW FIGHT !" she yelled. "Usopp TAKE THAT !"

She launched a snowball at the boy, but since her aim was very bad it ended up, meters away, on Ace. She giggled looking at the young man emerging from his sleep with a snow ball melting on his face.

"Hey you were aiming at me ?" Usopp asked. "Pitiful creature... I'll show you the wrath of the best marksman in the world !" He blasted a snowball right in the middle of her still giggling face.

Eli wiped the snow off her, now, frowning face, and took a step back.

"Kyuu Kyuu nooooooooooo," she yelled mocking Luffy's attack, "MACHINE GUN !"

She launched dozens of balls per second in every direction. That wasn't the best she could do since she had strained her wrist, but it was still quite scary for her opponents.

"Mwahahaha !"

Luffy and Usopp quickly took cover behind a barrel.

"Fsshhh..."

Eli turned her head in the direction of the strange sound. Ace was burning, literally, and the snowballs that were coming in his way instantly melted.

"CHEATER !" Eli yelled, pointing an accusative finger at the young smirking man.

She had to prepare a massive attack if she wanted to win the war. But she had run out of snow and her three foes were now plotting their counter attack. "Huh oh..."

Luckily for Eli, they were interrupted by Nami.

"TURN 180 DEGREES" the navigator yelled.

"180 degrees ? You want us to go back ?" Usopp asked puzzled by the navigator's order.

"No," Nami shook her head," butt the Log pose is pointing in that direction !" she said nervously, looking at the Log Pose. "I don't understand, the waves were so calm..."

"Are you sure you're a navigator ?" Miss Wednesday sneered. "In Grand Line you can't trust the wind, the sky, the waves, you can't trust anything ! The Log Pose is the only thing you can rely on."

Nami began to jerk orders to each members of the crew when the wind changed.

The snow had stopped and now they could enjoy a nice spring breeze on their faces, until the waves grew stronger...

"Nami ! Fog !" Sanji yelled.

"And an iceberg a 7 o'clock."

"What's wrong with this sea ?" Nami was going crazy.

"We hit an iceberg !"

"The ship is leaking !"

"Usopp hurry up and fix it !"

"The wind is too strong !"

"OPEN THE SAIL !"

"The ship is leaking again !"

"DAMN !"

"The Log Pose has changed again !"

"Eli wake up."

Jerked out of her dreamless sleep, the girl instantly jumped off the couch she was lying onto a split second before. "WHAT ! ANOTHER LEAK !" she yelled.

Quickly regaining proper footing, Eli looked over her shoulder; green eyes still veiled by a heavy sleep haze, she dazedly watched Ace laughing. He was sitting on the edge of sofa.

"No, we've arrived at Whiskey Peak," he said.

Eli let out sigh of relief out of her furred mouth as she slumped down on the comfortable piece of furniture. With a loud yawn, the girl ran her fingers through her messy hair, trying to tame the wild mass as she did.

Rubbing her heavy eyelids vigorously, Eli cocked an eyebrow seeing that Ace was looking at her quite intensely, there was something strange and rather inquisitive in the way he stared at her. "What ?"

"Nothing..." Averting his dark gaze, Ace stood up. "So, are you coming ?"

Wordlessly, she nodded and, as she motioned to follow him, Eli tried to stand up using her arms to support her slightly numb body, a low wave of pain spreading from her arm as she did. The girl had forgotten about her injury, and so, now examining her wrist she reckoned that most of the swelling had disappeared but it was still a bit sore.

"Still hurts ?" Ace asked.

Her green gaze focused on her wrist Eli nodded slowly. "Just a bit."

Without a word or even a simple sound to warn her, Ace sat down next to Eli and gently took her wrist in his hand to warm it up.

A few time, Eli felt her mouth opening, and since no words seemed to be willing to come out of it, she pursed her lips while her eyes clung onto Ace's large hand curled around her thin wrist. It felt good, really good. In his warm embrace, the pain had completely vaporized replaced by a gentle heat fluttering in her flash and maybe in her chest...

Yet, despite the delicious sensation, the girl somehow felt... uncomfortable, quite highly at that. The two pirates were close, so close that Eli could feel the flame user's unnatural warmth gradually wrapping around her, her cheeks growing exponentially hotter with every breath she took. Moreover, it was only the both of them in the small lounge room that only seemed to be shrinking by the second. No sound were heard except for those of the increasing beating of her heart.

"...stop that," she found herself saying, releasing a small portion of tension along with her words.

Ace looked taken aback then. "What ? Why ?" he asked briskly.

Apparently the young man did not understand her reaction more than Eli did. Yet, regaining her forces in a new-found anger, she frowned and took her wrist back from his embrace.

"Stop womanizing me !" she said harshly, feeling her heart beating furiously inside of her chest.

A pause. Ace stared at Eli, and Eli glared back at him. Something akin to fear was flickering in his eyes before vanishing, like washed away by the girl's ire.

"How could I ?" A smirk slithered on Ace's lips. "You're not even a woman yet Twig."

He should have know better, or at least, been prepared to what happened next. On the spot, Eli shot her leg in his face, throwing the young man to the other side of the room.

The glare she bore didn't leave Ace's face as Eli walked out of the room. With a scornfully huff, she slammed the door close.

He really should have known better...

to be continued

Minor revisions~