Chapter 51
Sinister Encounter

Wings... and spears...

The nib of her pen rapidly scratching the paper, Eli was in the crow's-nest trying the best she could to sketch the dreadful encounter. Yet, her memories were fuzzy and so unbelievable that the chronicler started to believe that it was only a dream, or more accurately, a terrible nightmare.

After their frenzied departure, one day had passed and the pirates were steering a course toward an island called Jaya. Even though the Log Pose was still pointing up at a sky island, this was made possible thanks to Robin, who managed to steal an Eternal Pose from the monkey ship.

Despite their terrible encounter with the giant giants, the Straw Hats did not gave up on the idea of going to the sky island. Unfortunately, the three temporary salvagers did not manage to bring anything interesting from the remains of the sunken galleon, apart from an octopus, which soon ended up in delicious takoyakis, and a map of a sky island. However, rather than 'map', 'surreal drawing' would better fit the description of the old piece of parchment. Overall, to help them with their dreamlike quest, the adventurous crew only had said map, and Nami's Log Pose, which was imperturbably pointing up. The plan to achieve their goal was to get information on Jaya before the Log Pose lost its record of the sky island, and then head straight upward.

Yawning and stretching, Eli let herself fall on her back lazily. Gazing at the azure sky, she nestled her hands behind her head, the flaps of the pirates' jolly roger filling her ears. Rolling her head to the side, she looked at her log book and let out a deep sigh before looking at the sky again. The chronicler's mind was restless, therefore she had a hard time focusing on her task. The impossible and highly exciting events of the previous day had kept her awake part of the night. That, and something else that was bothering her to no end. Ever since their reconciliation, Eli felt that Ace was avoiding her.

For example, at that very moment, the chronicler had been up in the crew's-nest for more than three hours and the young man never came to join her like he usually did. His absence wouldn't be so troublesome if the two friends hadn't just made up, and that made Eli wonder if Ace had really forgiven her.

After their reconciliation, the girl thought that their quarrel was definitively settled. She thought that no matter how stupid it was for her to let herself fall in the sea, it had finally made him understand that the game he was playing with her was very painful for her. Maybe Ace did understand, and gave up on trying to seduce her, but in no way did she want him to grow distant from her...

Her mind in deep turmoil, Eli stood up stealthily and took a peek downstairs to see what the flame user was doing.

Sitting next to the pile of junk recovered from the galleon, Ace was having a discussion with Chopper and Usopp. From the crow's-nest, Eli could only see his hat, but from his recognizable laughter, she knew that he was having fun.

"Elisabeth~" Sanji called out from the lounge room's threshold. "Do you want some takoyakis ?"

"Yes, please !"

Shifting her gaze back to Ace, she saw that the young man was now looking at her and surprisingly, as their eyes met, Eli found herself jerking away from the crow's-nest side on the spot, as if she had been caught doing something bad. Blinking rapidly, she was puzzled at her awkward reaction, her fast heartbeat, as well as her hot face.

Damn ! Turning around, Eli pressed her forehead on the mast, extremely annoyed at her capricious body. With deep and regular breaths, she managed to simmer down, her cheeks' bright redness slowly fading out. However, if she happened to let her mind picture his dark eyes on her, her heart seemed like it was suddenly squeezed by an unknown force.

Hearing someone climbing the rope ladder, Eli briskly looked over her shoulder and found herself being disappointed to see Sanji, even though he was carrying a plate of takoyakis. Obviously, she had hoped that Ace had finally came to join her.

After thanking the cook, she ate one of the takoyaki and praised him for his wonderful skills, despite her mind wandering away. If Ace had been there, he would have probably stolen one of the delicacies. She could picture the flame user and Sanji fighting over the insignificant matter. Smirking, Ace would taunt the angry blond and she would laugh watching their silly quarrel...

But Ace wasn't here.

"Are you alright, Elisabeth ?" Sanji asked, watching Eli eating the takoyaki half-heartedly.

She nodded while trying not to burn her tongue, as the inside on the ball was extremely hot.

"Did that shitty cowboy do something to you ?" he asked with a frown, apparently not convinced by her reply.

To the mention of Ace, Eli felt her heart squeezing again, and could no longer find the strength to hide her true feelings. Letting her arms fall loosely to her sides, she turned her head to avert his inquisitory gaze, her eyes vagabonding within the blue horizon.

"It's just that..." she cut herself short and sighed while trying to find the words to phrase her feelings. The words did not come, or more accurately, in spite of the many words flowing in her mind, the girl couldn't manage to mouth the source of her discomfort.

It was very simple though; she missed him. Yet, she was too stubborn to admit that out loud, and now she was waiting for him, while trying to act as detached as possible, no matter how much his absence pained her.

Sanji took her chin and turned her head to face his. Worried, he looked deeply into her eyes, her green eyes which were filled with frustration of not being able to understand why it hurt so much. As she looked at her friend, even if she couldn't say the words, Eli longed for his guidance.

"Don't worry, Elisabeth," he said. Letting go of her chin, he rested his hand on her shoulder. "I'll take care of it."

"Take care of what ?" Eli asked. Tilting her head to the side, she wondered what the young man had meant by that.

To that, Sanji's eyes instantly morphed into hearts. He clasped his hands together and started wriggling in front of her.

"Elisabeth is so cute~"

Eli's usual smile came back to her face as she watched the love-cook performing his stupid dance, her anxiousness slowly vanishing with every chuckle that escaped her mouth. However, hearing Luffy ordering more food, Sanji's flirty fit came to a stop. Rolling his eye, the young man huffed, annoyed, like always, at his young captain's bottomless hunger. After making sure he could leave her alone, he gave Eli her plate of takoyakis and climbed down the crow's-nest huffing and grunting at Luffy.

Eli sat down on the wooden floor and slowly ate the rest of the octopus delicacies while looking absently in the distance.

No, Ace did nothing, that was a fact. He had acted courteously toward her, and didn't seem to hold any grudge against her as he bore his usual friendly smile on his face whenever he looked at her. But why did she feel like he was avoiding her then ? He wasn't coming up into the crow's-nest, nothing to get all worried about. Then why was she ? And why couldn't she find the courage to confront him if she thought that something was wrong...?

With a sigh, Eli rolled her eyes at her own incoherent and stupid train of thought. Because it was surely stupid, and it was probably just her guilt that made her imagine things. Useless guilt, since she had already excused herself to her friend.

Without another of those perturbing thoughts, Eli got up to watch seagulls flying near the crow's-nest. The weather was nice and smooth, a gentle spring breeze caressing her face, the girl slowly let her mind drift away. The seagull seemed to be carried by the wind. It made Eli wonder how it would feel to fly so freely in the open sky. It was probably even better than running, freedom from being bound to the ground must feel better than anything...

Her mind flying along with the seagulls, a gasp escaped Eli's mouth as she saw the birds suddenly falling on the deck.

"What.. what happened !" she asked hurriedly, looking down at the deck where Chopper was examining the lifeless birds.

"They were shot !" the small doctor said, looking at three bullets he had extracted from their corpses.

Eli dashed down to his side and looked at the bullets with wide eyes. Quickly, the girl and Chopper calculated that from the angle of the bullets they had probably been fired from the direction in front of the ship, therefore there were high chances that the shooter was located on Jaya. However, looking at the two investigators, Nami laughed, and stated that it was impossible to shoot from an island that was not yet to be seen.

"And if it was true," Usopp began with an amused tone, "with what kind of eyesight, using what king of gun, and what kind of technique does that shooter have ?"

"But, they were shot !" Eli claimed, holding out a bullet between her fingers for him to see.

"They probably got hit before and just happened to fall down right now," the marksman said.

Usopp was a sharpshooter, Eli would never deny it, but she did not dream this; the seagulls were flying for a long time, and they seemed perfectly fine until they fell suddenly, all three at the same time.

"I tell you they were shot !" Eli said loudly with a frown. "And I'll find who did this !"

All the while, Eli couldn't help but notice Ace silently watching the argument, and found it annoying that he did not pick a side, her side. With a scornful huff, the stubborn girl walked away, claiming once more that she would find the one who did it, and prove them wrong.

After an hour, the Merry was approaching Jaya. From afar, it looked like a nice vacation resort, and made the pirates forget for a moment the main reason why they had to stop over at the island. However, as they got closer, the cheerful look on their faces quickly morphed into anxiety seeing that Jaya was far from a vacation resort. Several pirate ships were docked at its port, the sounds of violent fights could be heard even from afar, and the deteriorated state of the streets and buildings were a solid proof of that.

Jaya was the gathering place of people who feared neither god nor man.

Yet, that wasn't enough to keep Eli safely on the Merry. The investigator wanted to find who had shot the seagulls and would not get held back by a few pirates' street fights.

"Well, off I go !" she shouted as soon as the dock was close enough for her to jump off the ship.

Sanji was the first one to try to make her change her mind, soon joined by a very frightened Usopp and Chopper. With a mischievous wink, Eli jumped off anyway and without a word, started walking toward the city.

"WAIT !"

Looking over her shoulder, Eli saw Sanji jumping off the ship as well.

"Sanji ?" Eli spun on her heels and looked at him with wide eyes.

The girl did not care for the cooks chivalrous claims as she was solely focused on Ace. He was there, on the Merry. Sanji was by her side to escort her through the dangerous city, and Ace was standing still on the ship while watching her with an unreadable look on his face.

What the hell ?

"Do you want me to come ?" Ace asked friendlily.

Since when did he need her permission ? Almost as soon as they met up again months ago, Ace had always followed Eli, even if she didn't want him to. Despite how loud and clear she claimed that she would be better off alone, he followed her anyway. Little by little she had gotten used to it, little by little she came to enjoy those moments, her alone with him. Yet, now he was taking it all away. Now that she had came to a point where Eli couldn't do without him anymore, Ace chose to keep his distances from her...

What a cruel game he was playing.

Blasting a hateful glare at him, Eli grabbed Sanji's wrist and briskly pulled him into the city. Focusing on her investigation, the girl managed to erase Ace from her mind, transposing her anger against him toward the sharpshooter. Yet, the streets were bustling with people, and she only had a feeble clue; the person she was looking for would obviously carry an amazing gun as he was able to shoot from such a long distance. Eli didn't know where to look.

Walking through the disreputable streets, Sanji bore an heavy glare on his face to prevent anyone to approach the girl. On the other side, Eli was curiously looking at everyone, making them acting rather belligerently toward her. This caused the love-cook to kick them away on the spot.

After half an hour of search, Eli started to lose patience, but she wouldn't give up. After all, her pride was at stake.

It was then that the two pirates caught sight of Robin. The woman was casually doing some shopping. As soon as Sanji saw the beautiful archaeologist, he ran over to her to offer her his chivalrous protection. With a deep, annoyed sigh, Eli rolled her head upward, and at that moment, she finally found who she was looking for; a man with a dark cape was sitting on a roof, and in his hands a rifle, longer than any rifle she had ever seen.

As he jumped down on the street and started walking away, Eli followed him without notifying Sanji. Speeding up her pace, she soon came to a stop in front of him.

"Oi." Eli eyed the rifle closely, before shifting the stare to his owner. "Are you the one who killed the three seagulls that were flying above our ship two hours ago ?"

The man was silent. For a long moment, he stared at Eli with an impassible look on his face. Peering at him, Eli wondered if the glasses he was wearing gave him the incredible eyesight needed to shoot birds from such a long distance; the left side appeared to be normal but the right lens was a cross-hair.

"Fate killed those birds," the man finally said monotonously, his half-answer making Eli frown at him.

Without adding anything more, the shooter started walking away, avoiding his interrogator. Eli gaped in disbelief at his odd behavior while watching him walking away among the crowd, but soon snapped out of her daze and sped up to walk by his side.

"Oi !" she called out angrily. "Are you the one who pulled the trigger then ?"

"I have no obligation to answer that, do I ?" the man said, his face still showing no signs of emotion.

To that, Eli felt anger burning up inside her.

"What the hell !" she yelled. "It's a simple question, dumbass !"

"Auger !" a loud voice called from behind Eli, making her and the shooter stop.

Spinning on her heels, Eli's jaws dropped as she faced a man almost twice as tall as her, and he wasn't only tall, he was also huge. The imposing man wore a black bandana on his long, curly black hair, and had a small scruffy black beard around his jawline. From the instant she faced, him Eli felt something evil, something dark emanating from him.

"What's wrong lass ?" he asked with a sneer before laughing loudly.

With a quick breath, the pirate girl got a grip of herself and turned around to face the sharpshooter with an heavy frown on her face.

"I'm asking your friend a simple question," Eli said harshly and pointed a finger belligerently at the shooter as her patience had long reached its limits. "Did you, or did you not pull the trigger ?"

"You've got guts lass..." the huge man said, grabbing Eli's thin arm. "But you should leave."

At the moment he touched her, Eli felt weird, she felt... slow. Not only her, the whole world around her was slower. As a girl with her abilities, such an alien sensation was extremely destabilizing. She kept trying to accelerate her mind and analyze the situation but it seemed that, as impossible as it sounded, she had simply lost her ability.

"ELI !"

At the sound of her name, she turned her head slowly to the side and saw Ace marching over to her. The young man looked at the two men surrounding her friend, his face darkening seeing the huge one holding her.

"Ace I-"

"Release her," Ace ordered sharply. Staring at the huge man, his dark eyes were menacing.

"TSHUHAHAHA" The man laughed loudly, and pushed Eli toward Ace. "You should be careful, nosy one," he sneered, his missing teeth giving him an even more evil aura.

"Did they do something to you ?" Ace asked, his eyes never leaving the huge man.

"No..." she said quietly, feeling the world gradually speeding up again.

"Let's go."

His hand on her shoulder in a protective manner, Ace escorted Eli back to the Merry under the loud laughs of the sinister man, and somehow, in spite of the dangerous situation she had just faced, a soft smile made its way to her lips as he was the one who came to her rescue...

to be continued

Betaed by Fox MC.

Many things in this chapter and I'll be waiting for your reviews to know what you thought of it all :)
By the way, did you read the latest Twig chapter ? This is how Ace changes the rules.

Thank you for your patience, I know that you are starting to hate me.
Yet, I hope that you still enjoy the story.

See you very soon~