Ace's Second Chance 10
Happy Wednesday, enjoy this chapter.
Desperate Escape: Part 2
Sanji observed his enemy's movements, the zoan type was able to use Soru, Tekkai and Geppo, the cook recognized both techniques from the CP9. Dalmatian growled and charged at the doctor, who switched to Heavy Point in order to stop him. Dalmatian lifted Chopper and jumped to hit his stomach. After the reindeer coughed blood the marine appeared behind him and kicked his head, Sanji tried to intercept the hit but Dalmatian jumped higher and scratched the cook's hand. The pirate cursed for the pain and tried to kick the Vice-Admiral but the zoan was faster and smashed him against a falling Chopper. The marine jumped above his enemies and used Tekkai to crush them in the ground with an amazing force.
Chopper changed into his Brain Point, determined to find Dalmatian's weakness. The marine attacked with several kicks but the doctor evaded them shifting from Point to Point. Sanji closed his eyes and remembered his time with the Okamas, it was a living Hell, suddenly his body set on fire. The cook gritted his teeth and started a battle on the air with the Vice-Admiral, both man fought with powerful kicks, yet the marine had the advantage. "One bite and it's over." Sanji thought when Dalmatian transformed into a dog and bared his fangs at him. After an endless sequence of attacking and dodging, Sanji managed to deliver a blow thus sending the Marine straight to Chopper who used his Heavy Point to restrain him in the ground. "I was just testing your power, brats." The marine transformed into a huge dog.
"Fresh Fire." The pirates heard a familiar voice and used the distraction created by their friend to jump into the river. Sanji carried Chopper, who lost consciousness after touching the water, and entered the bubble of the Sunny. Seconds later the Cyborg joined them and the Vice-Admiral left out a frustrated bark, he could not follow them anymore since he would drown.
Brook jumped very high with sword in hand but Doberman calculated the place where the pirate would fall and blocked the hit singlehandedly, suddenly the marine drew another sword and directed it to Brook's eye socket. The pirate bent his bones to let the attack pass and returned to his normal posture ready to stab his enemy's chest. Doberman would not allow it, so he twisted his arm and blocked the pirate's sword, right after the quick counter attack Brook backed off but he wasn't fast enough to avoid a beheading slash.
The pirate's bones collapsed and Usopp stared in shock, even though he trusted his friend to be strong enough to survive and eventually win the battle. The sniper froze when he saw that the musician wasn't moving so he decided to fight once his legs stopped shaking. "I'm a warrior." The pirate shot several Pop Greens to the floor, they grew into a spiky net, forcing the marine to stay still since a false move could be fatal. Then Usopp threw a shell-like item at Doberman's feet and shot a fire blast with his slingshot. The marine noticed the smell of gas too late, since the fire reached him and caused a huge explosion.
"That's the combined power of my Pop Greens and Dials." The sniper grinned and pulled a string with his finger to retrieve his Flavor Dial but Doberman emerged from the smoke curtain and sent a slash towards Usopp. In the meantime Brook reassembled his bones, he wanted to see his friend's power so he faked his defeat.
Both swordsmen clashed again, this time the musician overpowered the marine and froze his weapon at contact. The Vice-Admiral did not lose his composure, on the contrary, he took his other sword and threw several flying slash attacks, acknowledging the paramecia type as a worthy enemy.
"Thunderbolt Tempo." Lighting forced Doberman to back off, in the commotion Usopp and Brook jumped to the river and Franky dragged them to the Sunny's bubble. Nami dissipated the cloud and went back to the ship. Doberman stabbed his sword in the sand and regretted to miss a good match.
Ace needed to find a way to get to Vivi and say goodbye. The Whitebeard Pirate ran towards Nanohana but Tashigi buried her sword on the sand and used it as support to spin and kick Ace. He could overpower her anytime but since Zoro was just standing there he had to stall her at the moment. The swordsman stared at the marine woman and couldn't help to see Kuina, it was painful to think of her deceased friend and it was even harder to see someone who resembled her so much in everything, from her face to her fighting style. "I must snap out of this… She is not Kuina." Zoro though and prepared to fight her but before he made the first move the girl spoke.
"Roronoa… Aren't you going to fight me because I'm a woman?" Zoro broke at those words, as she even behaved like Kuina. The girl was infuriated, she swung her sword and charged at him with incredible speed, the pirate dodged it but refused to fight back. Tashigi got tired of Zoro's mocking and sent him a flying slash attack, which managed to scratch the pirate's cheek. Then she used a haki based technique to send several more blows that resembled leaves, most of them were deflected by Zoro, yet one hit him in the arm. "Stop pretending I can overpower you, fight like a man. I know my attacks would never touch you." She yelled feeling really humiliated, until she realized what was going on. "You are trying to stall me for some reason." She whispered and her baby snail phone rang. "Yes?"
"The pirates escaped by jumping into the river." Doberman warned. Zoro ran towards the girl to steal the device. The girl grabbed his arm kicked his leg to make him lose balance and restrain him in the ground. Ace saw his chance to escape but before leaving he had to make a comment. "I see you guys are having fun." He said after noticing their proximity and intense stares. "Don't forget to jump to the river when the time comes." He grinned and ran away, being completely ignored.
Zoro stood up to carry Tashigi over his shoulder, once there the girl kicked and punched but nothing worked, until she poked his eye. Then the girl took back the baby snail phone and decided to call the marines at the shore but Zoro stole it again and restrained her arms with his own before she could grab her sword. At this moment Tashigi realized that she could at least find out his motives to be in the Kingdom. "What's going on here? Why would you come to Alabasta when you were so close to entering the New World?" She said, and inch away from the pirate's face.
"This place has something we need, so we came for it. Satisfied?" Zoro smirked.
"Is it treasure?" She narrowed her eyes and the pirate noticed that something made her look different, so he held her with one arm and took off her glasses with the other hand. The girl felt uncomfortable by the look Zoro gave. "Or the Princess?" The pirate crushed the glasses for the shock. "I knew it, what does the Princess have to do with you?" The pirates saved the Kingdom two years ago, that was suspicious.
"We were expecting to get some millions of berries in exchange of her, but you ruined our plans, so we'll have to steal from somewhere else." The pirate lied. "By the way, how much would Smoker pay to get you back alive?" He smirked and Tashigi hit his stomach with her knee and his forehead with hers.
"I don't know, but looks like I'll get a 120,000,000 berry and a promotion." She put her sword around his neck.
"Keep dreaming." He grinned, tossed her weapon aside with a fast move and restrained her again. The girl gritted her teeth and closed her eyes after realizing her defeat. "Sorry about the glasses… Franky don't do anything, she won't follow us." He yelled when he saw the shipwright and let Tashigi go so that he could jump to the river.
"Damn you Roronoa." She cried. "I swear that I'll arrest you someday."
Hina's suit was covered in Sea-stone particles that prevented Robin from appearing limbs on her body. The archeologist took a step back to analyze the situation, which was pretty even. Robin could not attack but Hina could not capture her either. The marine ran towards her enemy as she made hands rise from the sand, but Hina was fast dodging them and threw a cage that passed an inch away from Robin's head. The pink haired woman smirked as the pirate rolled her eyes, Luffy had been caught again. "Luffy, why do you keep falling for her iron shackles?" She whispered.
"Focus on me." Hina kicked Robin but the pirate disappeared and reappeared behind her. The archeologist put her hands on Hina's head and the marine pushed her away and used Soru to punch her repeatedly. Robin's body became a whirlpool of rose petals that transformed into giant legs to crush the marine. The pink haired woman used Geppo to avoid the constant attacks, she managed to approach Robin and punch her. The pirate tried to hold the impact but was blown away because of the power of Soru so once in the air she grew wings to have an advantage, since she was able to fly for more time. The marine made an expression of disgust and threw cages at Robin, which were evaded with ease, until Hina used a combination of Geppo and Tekkai to knock the pirate to the ground. In the impact Robin stole something from the marine and disappeared from the marine's sight, then a hand came from HIna's head and pulled her hair. The Vice-Admiral took out her knife and Robin withdrew her limb.
It was an even match. The women were not able to trick the other or cause severe damage. "This is going to take too long." Both thought. Robin glanced at Luffy, the dumb captain broke free and as soon as he smiled triumphantly other Shackle flew in his direction. Robin grew hands in the sand to move Luffy away and Hina threw several more cages in their direction. That was when Robin noticed why Luffy was so distracted by Hina's attacks, they were really shiny. "So simple minded." She laughed and grew wings once more, to fly far away from Hina. Suddenly a familiar redhead rose from the river and created a tornado.
"Robin, I want to kick that marine's ass, she shot Ace." Luffy frowned.
"I see something shiny on the river." The archeologist faked a gasp.
"Let's go check that out." He said with excitement.
The small sandstorm was not enough to distract Hina, she noticed that the woman at the river was standing on a surface and holding on to a flagpole. "Could it be a mast?" she narrowed her eyes to distinguish why it was so shiny. "A coated ship? Damn pirates, that was so clever. Hina is pissed." She gritted her teeth. She ran towards the river and jumped.
Vivi sighed for the tenth time. Kuzan approached Kohza and told him that he suspected that the princess would try to run away with the pirates, but the blonde laughed and told him that Vivi wouldn't do that, suddenly his face turned serious and explained that the girl was suffering in silence.
"Vivi, will you tell him now?" Kohza approached the princess. Kuzan was right, she was too calmed, even more than the first time the Straw Hats left.
"He will be gone by the time I make up my mind." She smiled sadly. "Besides, we won't even notice the Sunny leaving."
"You do realize that it was your last chance to see him, don't you?" The blond sighed. "You'll eventually get married, become the Queen and have an heir or heiress. You may love your future husband or not, you may forget Ace or not, but I can guarantee that you will regret it all your life if you don't tell him how you feel." He patted her head.
"He knows it." Vivi was outraged. She showed him she loved him in every kiss and every word they exchanged. "How could he not know?"
"You never said it, plus he can be as dumb as Luffy." Kohza smiled and walked towards Kuzan, just in time for Vivi to see Ace running in her direction.
"Wise words… Are they Pell's?" Kuzan asked and Kohza nodded.
Vice-Admiral Hina used Geppo to stay on the air and her devil fruit powers to pierce the river and the Sunny with a little luck, she could not tell where it was since the flag and the redhead submerged once the captain and the archeologist were pulled underwater. "It's a perfect plan. They move underwater, they go unnoticed, they do what they need to do on land and then they escape. All without being seen… but it's over since Akainu is not far and I destroyed their coating." She smiled as the Sunny emerged. Hina jumped to the sand and kept following the ship.
"Vivi, listen to me." Ace said before the princess could say something. "I have an idea, I know its last minute but…" He turned around after seeing Vivi's shocked expression. The Thousand Sunny was exposed, and Hina was behind it, so Ace had no other option than holding Vivi as a hostage. The girl tried to break free from his grip.
Robin jumped off the ship and tackled Kuzan, restrained him with her powers and put a gun into his forehead. Zoro did the same but put the end of his sword at the Kohza's neck. Nami ran towards a small building at the shore. Hina witnessed the pirates' actions and cursed Robin for stealing her gun. Chopper gave Usopp a dart with a powerful sedative, the sniper shot and the marine fell to the ground.
Ace and Vivi stared at each other for a moment and then the Princess took a deep breath and said a simple goodbye. The pirate did not want to hear a farewell, but he stood there waiting for something else. After a minute or two of silence he nodded and turned around. In the last second Vivi held his hand.
"I will forget I'm a princess, I will live the moment and I will have no regrets…" She sobbed much to Ace's surprise. He wondered if she would go with him.
Kuzan tried to stand up but gave up because of Robin. He knew she would pull the trigger if Luffy suddenly decided to take the princess with them. "I knew something was wrong." He gritted his teeth.
There was a 'but', Ace knew it. "But you can't come with me." He wiped the tears of her face, then he slipped a paper on her desert gown. "Become a great Queen." He kissed her cheek, Vivi thanked him for understanding and then he turned to the Sunny.
"I forgot to tell you." She pulled his hand, her heart beat faster than usual and she blushed as the words escaped her mouth. "I love you." The princess and the pirate kissed for the last time.
The kiss went on and the Straw Hats' reactions varied. Zoro and Robin smirked knowingly, Usopp and Chopper sighed at how cute it was, Sanji was sulking, Franky was crying, Luffy smiled widely, Brook took out his violin and played a romantic song. "They make my heart skip a beat, even though I don't have a heart." He laughed. Nami returned to the Sunny carrying a black bag and belies instead of eyes.
The couple broke the kiss and Vivi closed her eyes while taking a step back.
"Akainu." Kohza warned and the Straw Hats looked to the sea and saw a battleship approaching. Some pirates wanted to fight, the others were scared to death.
To Be Continued
Excuses so you won't kill me:
I hope you liked the battles so far.
I'm a hopeless romantic, that explains a lot XD
saveme57: I'll make Luffy fight soon, but I don't want him to kill Hina. I do have the perfect enemy for him and he'll have a reason to kick that enemy's ass for real. XD
Mikila94: Don't worry, Ace forgot about Kohza once he saw Vivi XD but Zoro is not the forgiving type (evil laugh).
AnimeXCats333: Awww thanks for the comment, I'm glad you like the story. And three cheers for Bonney XD.
KimyonaGirl: Me too, I was like 'Robin, please let him go… that's just wrong.' But I couldn't stop laughing. XD I really appreciate that you like the story.
Guys, Thanks for the reviews, they make my day.