Chapter 50
Impossible things

Hearing a rumble, Eli steadied the barrel she was pushing and ran to catch the one that was rolling away.

"Thanks," Usopp said, when she came back with the fugitive, and without delay, he returned to his craft.

Watching the marksman sawing holes in the barrels, Eli couldn't help but being slightly skeptical. From her basic knowledge, salvaging a sunken ship required real equipment, and planks and tubes stuck together hardly fit the description. However, Usopp's handiness was almost legendary, therefore she chose to keep her doubts to herself and wait for the result.

"Can I help with something else ?" Eli asked, tilting her head side to side to peer at the marksman's carpentry.

The teenager shook his head silently, apparently extremely focused on his task.

Sighing, Eli leaned her elbows on the railing and rested her chin in the palms of her hands. Having no occupation was troublesome, highly troublesome... Because if she had nothing to do, she surely had no excuses to postpone her apologizes to Ace any longer. But the faulty girl wasn't ready to face him. No matter how many times she replayed the scene in her head, her guts just kept twisting each time she pictured his dark eyes on her.

Looking over her shoulder to find something to do, anything to help with, she saw that the other pirates were unfortunately in the same state of nothingness as her. Except for Sanji, who kept swirling around Nami and Robin, serving the two gorgeous women drinks and pretty delicacies. But Eli wasn't desperate enough to help the love-cook with that...

After a heavy sigh, Eli turned her head around to look at the crow's-nest.

As her eyes trailed up the mast, she felt anticipation raising slightly inside of her, along with the rhythm of her heartbeats. Ace had climbed it about an hour ago, and from her careful observation, he was still up there. Was he napping ? Sulking ? Eli had no idea.

It's just an apology... nothing to freak out about, she reassured herself.

Without an other thought, Eli inhaled deeply, plucked up her courage, marched over to the rope ladder, and valiantly grabbed the cordage.

However, as she got closer to the nest, expectancy shot up in her mind and the girl felt more and more feverish. Her insides trembling annoyingly, Eli was in such a state of nervousness that she could swear she felt stares scrutinizing her and the ascent of her personal Everest.

When her hand came in contact with the wood, Eli swallowed audibly, and to prevent a much wanted withdrawal, she grabbed the nest's brim with both her hands and promptly jumped inside, making a loud thud as her shoes heavily hit the wooden floor.

Somehow, Ace didn't seem surprised when he looked at Eli, foolishly standing next to him. Frowning at her, he uttered an annoyed sigh and looked away.

Okay...

Obviously, he wasn't going to make things easier for her. Eli closed her eyes, and breathed deeply while trying to ignore her wriggling guts. The words of apology flowing in her rapid mind, she snapped her eyelids open.

"I'm sorry !" she sputtered quite loudly, staring down at Ace.

Hearing the words coming out of her mouth, Eli couldn't help but notice that she had apologized a little bit too often to him recently, and somehow it made the apology lose consistency.

"And what for Eli ?" Ace shifted his stare back to her, piercing and cold. "For preferring dying than holding my hand ?" he said wryly.

Eli bit her bottom lip. The words were sharp, and as all the evidences were against her, undeniably true. And so, once again, she didn't know what to say. What she did she could not erase, and even if she used the reflex explanation as an excuse, it would hardly lessen the fault.

She would have rather jumped into the sea, at great risk of her own life, than held his hand.

Yet, Eli wanted to prove him wrong. For him, for their friendship, and for her.

Watching Ace, who was once more looking away, her eyes trailed down his arm resting on his knee, and gazed at his hand hanging carelessly. It was large, and slightly threatening... On impulse, she sat down next to him, and slid her delicate fingers in between his, tightening his hand in hers.

"See ?" she said almost nonchalantly.

Gazing at their hands locked in this sudden embrace, Eli had directed the words to herself more than to Ace. It wasn't even a question, the girl forced the words out in a motion to convince herself that it wasn't such a big deal, and more than that, Eli wanted to convince herself that it was the most natural thing in the world.

And maybe it was.

Far from threatening, quite the opposite in fact, Eli found that her hand in Ace's, her fingers intertwined with his, felt somewhat reassuring. His hand was very big compared to hers, his palm almost twice as large as hers, yet instead of feeling overpowered, it gave out a sensation of protection.

Feeling her previous nervousness quietly dissipating, Eli shifted her gaze from their hands to Ace's face in order to see his reaction. As she looked at him, the girl was surprised to see that he was looking upwards.

What was that ? Indifference ?

Offended, Eli found herself frowning at him. Yet, she kept the words of resentment inside. After all, she was here to apologize.

There was a moment of silence. A long moment, during which Eli stared at him, heavily, to make sure he was aware of it, but Ace was imperturbably looking upwards, making her frown furrow.

"How does it feel ?" Ace finally asked, the softness of his voice causing her frown to fade instantly. "Not scary ?"

Scary ?

No, Eli wasn't scared. Oddly, she felt much better than when she had been avoiding him. Odd indeed to feel at last pacified while holding the hand of the one person that was the cause of her anxiety.

Looking at him Eli wondered... maybe he was the scared one. Scared of losing her. At this possibility, she felt a little more stupid, and guilty.

Those past few days, she had been running away from him under the pretext of protecting their friendship. He had tried to talk to her and she ran away. But no friendship could be saved by separation, no friendship was even worth saving if one of them was scared of the other...

Eli shifted closer to him, and rested her head on his shoulder, seeking the gentle closeness they had lost even faster than it came.

"It feels good," she said in a soft whisper, as a warm sensation gently diffused inside of her.

It wasn't his abnormally high temperature, Eli was sure of it. It was something else, something deep, something tender yet overwhelming. His presence maybe, the memories of the good times spent with him probably, her affection for him surely, his gentle touch definitely...

It was all of it and even more.

"You're really an idiot," Ace quietly said.

The young man lightly rested his head against hers, his raven hair softly rustling as it brushed against hers. Eli closed her eyes, letting his warmth soothe her entirely.

"And you're a jerk..."

A crash of cymbals reaching their ears, the two drowsy pirates brusquely raised their heads at the same time, letting out two well synchronized pained cries when their heads knocked together.

Rubbing her forehead, Eli blinked her eyes groggily, her vision becoming clearer with every flutter. As she squinted at Ace yawning by her side, the girl concluded that she must have fallen asleep against him, and him against her.

When the young man unclasped his hand from hers to get up, her fingers felt weird and as she was absently looking at her hand, Eli could not understand the alien sensation lingering in her flesh. Yet, as she heard the cymbals crashing again, she ignored it and followed Ace to watch who was causing such a ruckus.

"Wow..." Eli breathed, her eyes widening in awe as they raced upon a ship too large for her field of vision to perceive its entirety. Even if she was on the Merry's crow's-nest, she was only level with its deck.

More than the ship's size, it was its flashiness that amazed the chronicler; a huge banana-shaped pole that seemed to be paired with its twin on the other side of the ship, a large monkey figure head holding cymbals, and palm trees along the side of the deck.

Without a word, Ace climbed down to join the rest of the crew, and on the spot, Eli followed him.

"So you guys are here to salvage ?" Usopp asked to the crew of the flashy ship. Trembling, the marksman was partly hidden behind the Merry's railing.

"Of course I'm here to salvage," a man, who actually looked much more like a monkey than human, proudly replied. "I'm a man who will salvage every single ship that sinks !"

Looking at three pulleys on the side of the Merry, as well as the three pipes diving into the ocean, Eli concluded that Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji were already down there taking care of the job.

It was quite troublesome that those salvagers came so soon. Yet, the Straw Hats were quite fortunate since the crew of the flashy ship didn't seem to notice the diving equipment and naïvely believed Nami's words of admiration. Stupidly, they were waving at the cunning pirates.

On the other side, Ace wasn't agreeing with his crewmates' deceptive approach. In his opinion, they were there to salvage the galleon first, and consequently that gave them its propriety.

"Oi ! Monkey !" he called out haughtily.

"Are you talking to me ?" the captain of the monkey crew asked. As Ace nodded with a sneer, he blushed brightly while making embarrassed motions with his hand. "Nah, you don't really mean it~"

Stunned for a second as his purposed insult didn't have the effect expected, the flame user snapped out of it with a frown. "That ship is ou-"

Naturally, Usopp and Nami jumping on the arrogant pirate surprised the monkey-man. He questioningly cocked an eyebrow watching the two youngsters holding and striking the third while forcing a smile on their faces.

"It's OUsome !" Usopp said trying hard to keep a straight face. "Your ship, it's awesome !"

The two scaredy cats sighed in relief seeing the monkey-man proudly beaming at them while he was taking a pose on the railing of his ship. Behind them, Eli chucked as she watched Ace frowning and grunting.

"And you've seen nothing yet !" Monkey-man smirked, turning around to look at his crew. "Barco hunter ! Forward !"

"Yes sir, captain !"

The monkey figurehead detached from the ship and started a decent into the sea thanks to a large a pulley. Apparently, this was extremely amazing in Usopp and Chopper's opinions since the two teenagers yelled words of admiration, their eyes locked on the monkey figurehead.

Once the 'Barco Hunter' had completed its immersion, the captain of the monkey crew took a large tube attached to it and started blowing an impossible amount of air inside. The purpose was apparently to pull the sunken ship out of the waters by filling it with air.

"Sir ! There is someone inside the ship !" one of the monkey crewmates informed in a panicking tone of voice.

At the moment he was informed that his ship-men were facing a threat, the captain dove in the water. There were very high chances that the said 'threat' was in fact the three pirates. Subsequently, the Straw Hats that were still aboard the Merry should have been scared for their crewmates's safety. However; they did not, for they were completely stunned at the sight of an humongous shadow swimming right under the Merry as well as the salvagers' ship. Speechless, they stared at the threatening shadow, their pale faces distorted in horror.

"Wh...What...is...that...?" Eli managed to say.

But none of them could reply as they were completely terrified as a giant turtle slowly emerged from the waters. It was as big as a small island...

"Ah... The guys in the water," Robin said calmly, "they were swallowed by that thing, right ?" Impassible, she was observing the turtle.

With loud munching sounds the turtle was chewing the remains of the galleon.

"Hmm, the pipes are going into its mouth. I guess I was right," Robin said monotonously as Usopp and Chopper looked away in distress, pretending to ignore her dreadful remark.

As Ace motioned to dash over to the turtle on his Striker to go to his crewmates' rescue, Eli hopped on. However, it seemed that it was too late as the colossus had already swallowed the galleon, and the people inside.

"Damn !"

Not losing hope, Ace got closer to the turtle, yet the two pirates didn't know what to do. Their options were very thin; the monster was so huge. Even for the flame user, it would be a tough opponent or it could easily escape below the sea, taking their crewmates with it.

Looking at the colossus, the chronicler tried to find a solution within her rushing mind, but her hurried train of thought was soon interrupted as someone grabbed the small raft from below, making it shake so violently that she almost fell overboard.

"Sanji !" she yelled while clutching the Striker's side as she saw the cook emerging from the waters. He was soon followed by Zoro, who was carrying Luffy.

It's only when the pirates got their crewmates safely back to the Merry that they noticed that the night has fallen suddenly... and during the day.

"What the hell ?" Peering at the sky, Eli quickly understood what was the cause; a large mass of clouds was hovering above them. It was so thick that it completely blocked the sunlight.

That's odd... But after all, they were on Grand Line, and maybe even the clouds here were different.

Still gazing at the dark sky, the chronicler was surprised at the silence of her crewmates and even more surprised when she saw the look on their faces. They all bore the famous scared-Usopp expression; the bleached face, the gaping mouth, and the eyes so wide open that it looked like their eyeballs could pop out of their orbits. Even the usually impassive Zoro looked completely terrified. Of course, following their terror-stricken stares, Eli ended up in the same state.

Her mind was blank for a moment, as if her brain found it impossible to process what her eyes were seeing. After a few seconds, it came back, slowly, cautiously analyzing the informations; they were three, three humans' shadows. They had little wings on their backs, and each of them carried a spear. All of this was completely inconceivable, even the fact that it looked like they were walking on the ocean...

Oh, god...

But how could they be so big, so huge... so extremely ginormous ? They were bigger than giants, bigger than any living thing Eli had ever seen. They were as big as mountains...

When the mountain-sized human-like thingies started moving, and thanks to their instincts of self-preservation, the pirates finally snapped out of their petrified states.

"MONSTERS !" they all screamed in unison.

Like a shot, the Straw Hats dashed to the Merry's oars on the spot and rowed away. Completely frenzied, their minds were still imprinted with the image of the most impossible, and terrifying things they had ever seen...

to be continued

Betaed by Fox MC.

Eli holding Ace's hand... Nice picture right ?

Can you feel the love now ?
Eli surely feels it, yet she is still very blind...
I'm sure you are wondering for how long she is going to be oblivious of her own feelings... well, I obviously can't tell you that !
You will have to wait, and wait a little bit more. All the while I hope you will enjoy the waiting :)

I am going to try writing a 'Twig' chapter for the last two chapters of 'Freckles'. It should be interesting, right ?
If I manage to write it, it should be my next update.
The problem there is that I haven't been able to write something new for a while. All those chapters were written before my vacations...
But now I have a beta again, and so I should be able to focus on writing.

In any case, see you soon :)