Chapter 49
A Chronicler Overboard

Thanks to Ace's hilarious narcoleptic fit, Eli felt more at ease, and managed to enjoy a few hours of restorative sleep. And when she woke up, refreshed, the girl conveniently forgot her previous sources of anxiety.

Yawning and stretching, she sat up and groggily rubbed her eyes. Sluggishly looking around, Eli noticed that she was alone in the girls' bedroom, and seeing the bright light radiating from the porthole, she guessed that the reason was that she must have overslept. It was a very unusual thing for Nami to let her do so, yet the bossy redhead had probably wanted to show some mercy considering the girl's edginess the past few days.

With one last yawn, Eli stood up and searched through the chest of drawers for a change of clothes before climbing up the stairs to take an invigorating shower. The cold water finishing to wake the girl up.

After a large breakfast, Eli picked up her log book. Contentedly, she lay down on the wooden deck, enjoying the sun's warm caress on her pale skin as she started to write down the latest events. Here and there, her crewmates were scattered on their own corners of the ship. They were keeping themselves busy with their usual activities; gazing at the horizon, telling outrageous lies, listening to amazing stories, flirting relentlessly, sun-bathing, reading, napping, and weightlifting.

Lying on her stomach, Eli held the pages tightly as a sudden sea breeze made them rapidly flutter. Once the warm breeze was gone, she ran her fingers through her messy hair, rustling softly against her ears. It was nice. Being able to enjoy her pirate life without concern. With a sigh of content, the chronicler resumed to her log book.

She was writing about the Flame Festival in Kusai. Illustrating her descriptions with sketches of the dancers and of the town illuminated with thousand of candles, a hearty smile on her face as her mind was filled with the memory of its loveliness. However, when she reached the part of Ace's performance, her heart started to make itself heard slightly.

Eli closed her book, put her pen down and clenched her trembling fingers repeatedly. Maybe she could just skip that part... it wasn't even interesting after all.

Sighing, she rolled on her side using her book as a pillow.

Her eyes sluggishly wandering around, the sight of Ace soon caught Eli's attention; he was sitting against the railing, a soft breeze lovingly stroking his raven hair. The young man was looking at her. For a second, when their eyes met, Eli could almost feel his warmth catching her, but seeing a smile appearing on his freckled face, she snapped out of her short daze and glared at him.

"What ?" Eli frowned at the young man, utterly irritated by his insistent stare.

His soft smile morphing into a smirk, Eli felt her cheeks heating up. She sat up and took her log book on her lap, stubbornly pretending to read.

"Stop looking at me, moron !" she said harshly, staring at one sentence, yet unable to grasp its meaning no matter how many times her eyes glided upon the words.

There was a moment of silence then. Eli could still feel his dark eyes on her, edginess growing along with the redness of her cheeks. And then, in the corner of her eye, she saw him stand up, darkness covering her, and soon cold enveloped her body with a shiver as Ace stood imposingly before the sun.

"God, Eli..." He sighed heavily. His arms folded, the young man looked rather condescending. "Why are you playing so hard to get ?"

What Eli heard though, which was much more preferable, was : 'Please kick me in the face'.

So she did.

The flame user flew for a second, maybe two, before plunging in the water with a loud 'splash' that caused the other pirates to go prairie dogging in search of the source of the sound. As if nothing happened, Eli sat down and continued with her book. Her heart was still racing, but her anger was satisfied, at least.

After that, someone must have fished him up, not that she cared though, since he was standing in front of her. Dripping wet, a small puddle was expanding at his feet.

"Okay, that came out wrong," Ace said. His tone of voice was clearly sorry, but did not manage to affect the girl's resentment.

"Oh, really ?" she said coldly, still staring at the pages of her book.

Eli knew that he was looking at her, and under his unbearable stare, her grip on her book tightened, nails digging in the leather cover with a soft squeaking.

Playing hard to get... Did he really think it was a game for her ? How wrong he was, and how insulting ! No, she wouldn't forgive him that easily. These past few days were hard on her. The girl had been carried along with feelings that she could not understand, nor control, and the anger she felt at this instant was almost like a release.

With a long sigh, Ace crouched down in front of her. He was obviously trying to make eye contact, but Eli didn't want to look into his inky eyes, for she knew how weak they could make her feel.

Staring down at her book, she focused on the words, on the letters, intensively. A short gasp escaped her mouth as she saw a drop of water falling from his wet hair on the page, on her page. Eli briskly stood up and took a few steps back while staring at the salty water diffusing on the paper, the words deforming slowly as the water dissolved the dark ink.

It was small, it was insignificant, yet rage started burning up inside of the chronicler. Like a shot, she raised her head from the book and blasted him with a glare of pure hatred that stunned the young man on the spot.

"Oi..." he quietly said, something like incomprehension in the eyes. "It's just a drop of water..."

Eli huffed scornfully. Just a drop of water...

It was so much more than that, it was the last drop that made the furious girl overflow. With a grunt, Eli used the brim of her t-shirt to roughly sponge the damages, ink staining the blue fabric.

As the young man stared at her wordlessly, she slammed her book closed, and gazed harshly at him. Under her burning glare, Ace seemed to gradually lose his composure. Speechless, they stayed silent for a moment, Eli letting her wrath submerge her as the young man looked more scared with every passing second. She wanted him to leave her sight, she wanted him to leave her in peace but then... something hit the top of her head.

Eh ?

Looking at the projectile that had fallen next to her feet, Eli blinked in incomprehension.

It was a chunk of rotten wood.

Wondering who could have thrown that to her, Eli looked around and soon saw multiple chunks and planks raining with loud thuds as they hit the deck.

What the...

The whole crew looked just as surprised as her, but that was nothing compared to the look on their faces when they rose their heads toward the sky. Gasping in utter astonishment, the girl could barely form the words in her head to decrypt the sight of the most impossible thing she had ever seen...

Upside down, a huge galleon was falling from the sky.

Stunned, Eli could only follow the course of the galleon with her wide opened eyes as it threateningly got closer to the Merry. She was surely dreaming, or hallucinating, because there was no way this could be real...

However, as the galleon hit the water with a the loud splashing sound, Eli couldn't deny it anymore, it was real... A galleon had just fallen from the sky before her very eyes, and its dive in the ocean next to the Merry created enormous waves that shook the little ship violently, making the pirates lose their balance.

The vigorous shaking pulled Eli to the side of the ship. She stumbled to the railing, and as she had been taken completely off-guard, the chronicler lost grip of her precious log book. Swinging her head around, she saw it flying toward the sea, fear sweeping over her. Her precious treasure was drifting away and if it touched the water, all the words, all the drawings, all the memories that she had spent days to record would irreversibly dissolve in the salty water...

Instinctively, Eli jumped over the railing to catch it, while completely ignoring her own safety. Extending her long arms, the chronicler felt relieved when her hand closed on its cover and it was only then that she felt herself plummeting toward the stormy waters.

Within her fall the girl managed to swirl her body and thrust her arm toward the ship, wincing as her nails clawed the wood. But her hold was too fickle, and the Merry was still violently tossing about. Gritting her teeth as she lost her grip, Eli was falling again. When a hand appeared in her confused field of vision, she grabbed it just in time, however, when she saw to whom it belonged, the girl let it go in a primal reflex of repulse.

Falling ineluctably toward the sea, Eli saw the bewildered look on Ace's face, and in a last gasp, she threw him her precious book before diving into the cold waters.

Sinking straight to the bottom, Eli's mind slowed down almost immediately, the silence of the ocean clashing utterly with the chaos prevailing aboard the ship. Numbed, the girl absently watched the galleon floating above her, and before losing consciousness, her last thought was that, in spite of its poor state, she found it magnificent...

With a violent coughing fit tearing her throat from the inside, Eli expelled the salty water from her lungs. Her whirling sight becoming clearer, she saw the whole crew gathered around her, relieved looks on their faces. After wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she forced her lips into a smile, vaguely hearing their friendly words through her flooded ears.

"I'll just... rest a bit," Eli said with a creaked voice, a harsh sensation in her throat.

She slumped down wearily and watched them walking away one by one... except for Ace who stayed there, standing still next to her. Trailing up his legs, she smiled seeing her log book in his hand.

"My book," she said happily, reaching out so that he would give it back to its rightful owner.

Relieved, Eli held it tight above her, looking heartily at the Straw Hat's jolly roger carved in its leather cover, so warm compared to the coldness of her hands.

"DAMN IT ELI !"

The yelling forcibly reaching her ears startled the chronicler out of her glee, almost making her jump in fear.

"Stupid BLOCKHEAD ! Why did you let go !"

She was so stunned at Ace's roaring that she couldn't find the words to say anything, not that he would let her get a word in...

"Just how STUBBORN are you ? You could have died ! IDIOT !"

Gaping at Ace's fit of rage, Eli was speechless. Speechless because she had never seen him so angry, and speechless because he was utterly right... She had put her life in danger just because she couldn't stand to hold his hand. How stupid was that...? It was not like she had decided to let go though; her body had reacted on its own in a self preservation reflex.

"I'm sorry..." Eli quietly said, looking away as guilt made it impossible for her to look at him.

And with a grunt Ace heavily walked away. His frustrated footfalls resonating on the wooden deck, Eli nervously clutched her book against her wet t-shirt.

The girl found herself feeling really stupid at that moment. Before her 'fall' in the sea, she was angry at him and her reasons now seemed so silly facing a real, and rightly deserved fit of anger.

With a sigh, Eli rolled on her back placing her book to her side, the sun's heat warming her cold and wet body. She felt so tired, not only because of her drowning, but because of the roller-coaster of emotions she was in whenever she was facing Ace recently. Her pirate's life was already full of twists and turns, she didn't need her emotional life to be in such a mess as well.

A large puddle forming beneath her, Eli rolled away to a dried part of the wooden floor.

Obviously, she would have to apologize. Yet, as this idea made her guts wrench, she decided to wait a bit to calm down before talking to Ace. She would need her composure to deal with him. However, apparently the younger D. brother wasn't going to leave her in peace as he came walking over to her, a large, ecstatic grin on his face.

"Eli get up !"

She sighed while looking at his childish face, gathered up her patience, and sat up.

"What's up Luffy ?"

"We're going to a sky island !" Luffy said cheerfully, pointing his finger up in the air.

A what ? Naturally, Eli looked upward, not quite sure what she was looking at. Nothing unusual there.

She shifted her stare to him while replaying his sentence a few times in her head before slapping her forehead.

The galleon !

How could she have forgotten about this huge ship falling from the sky ? Obviously that was what lead the teenager into talking about a sky island. Somehow, somewhere, in a really creative mind, it made sense; the galleon could have fallen from a sky island... if such things existed.

"Sky islands don't exist Luffy." Eli sighed. It would be really nice though...

To that, the young captain's grin widened, his dark eyes sparkling with excitement. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up to the other pirates. Eli looked in disbelief at a casket lying on the deck. Robin was investigating its 'owner' while Nami and Chopper were hidden behind the mast, eying the archaeologist working, disgust showing all over theirs faces.

"Show her Nami," Luffy said, pointing a thumb at the chronicler.

"Show me what ?" Eli asked.

This was getting more and more mysterious, therefore Eli walked over to the navigator in need of an explanation. Without a word, Nami held out her wrist right under the girl's eyes, and looking at the Log Pose, they widened in amazement.

It was pointing up.

Eli didn't need more proof to become a believer. After all, the Log Pose could not be wrong. Raising her head to look at the sky, a gleeful smile made its way to her cheeks as she tried to picture the fairy-land floating somewhere above them, Luffy's cries of joy floating in the air.

Her green eyes lost in her rêverie. Eli brought a hand to her fluttering hair and sighed in delightful joy before looking around to share her happiness with her best friend. However, Eli's smile faded seeing the coldness in his dark eyes.

It was during those moments that she missed Ace's friendship the most, because he was the one with whom she wanted to live them with the most...

to be continued

Betaed by Fox MC.

Okay, I said that in latest 'Twig' chapter but since you don't all read 'Twig', here I go again.

Got a new beta, so let's all welcome him warmly.
I hope we'll make a good team, and that together we'll give you good and entertaining chapters.

Now, if you wonder about my previous beta. Well, sadly, Iwin Ulose didn't have that much free time anymore.
Still, he's a wonderful writer, and he writes about One Piece too. So, go check his fanfics.

Chapter note now.

This wasn't a fun chapter for our lovely couple... I predict some drama to come.
I hope you enjoy emotional roller-coasters, because you've hopped on the train along with Eli.
Whether you want it or not.

See you on Monday, to see if she manages to make proper apologies to Ace.
Until then I'll be waiting for your reviews !

By the way, we hit the 300 mark ! Thank you all for your support, you brighten my days ;D