Ace blinked repeatedly trying to process what he was seeing. The girl, who had served as the ship's medic, was currently standing on thin air right in front of him. What was more, this guy she was engaging was aiming an open palm at them. What the hell did he think he was going to do?

He watched as massive pillar of blue electricity shot towards them. The Spade Pirate heard a single word coming from the girl in front of him, "Danku."

The electricity collided with some kind of barrier he couldn't see, but he was able to watch as small cracks appeared within that invisible barrier in front of her. The man eyed her with vitriol as he surmised, "you're a kido expert."

Rina didn't reply and kept her eyes locked on the man before her. He smirked as he addressed Ace, "A human has no business in our affairs."

Ace observed the man before answering, "you planning to attack Rina directly if I leave?"

"that doesn't concern you," the man snarled at him.

"You're wrong," The Spade Pirates Captain announced. He then locked eyes with the man before revealing, "Rina is a member of my crew, but more than that, she's my friend. I can't in good conscience leave knowing you're a threat to her."

The man scowled before charging towards them but then stopped as a cross shaped protrusion emerged from his body. Ace's eyes widened until they looked like they might pop out of their sockets as more portrussions of similar nature appeared.

The man scowled as he looked to the silvery blonde girl and demanded, "What did you do?!"

"you stated I was a kido expert—you were incorrect in that evaluation," Rina began. She gained a smirk as she announced, "I'm a kido master, like my father and maternal grandmother. Earlier in our fight when we were evaluating each other's abilities I piggybacked a time delayed seal onto one of the other kidos I used against you. This seal was originally designed by my father—for your father. I modified it slightly to activate after a set time rather than when you had tired to a certain point."

The man grimaced as he repeated, "your father?"

His eyes widened in alarm as he stammered, "n-no! No! Don't tell me that your father is-"

"Kisuke Urahara," the young woman gave a small giggle before concluding, "The one person your own father admits to be his intellectual rival."

'Geez, a fight between Shinigami is weird,' Ace thought to himself as he watched more cross shaped protrusions appear on the man's body before he seemed to find himself encased in a star shaped container which then rocketed up into the sky.

Ace followed the trajectory and asked, "where'd you send him?"

"Home, to face trial," Rina answered, her voice seemed a little strained to him, but he elected to ignore it for now. He placed a hand on her shoulder. In doing so, he felt a slight tremor, as if she were crying again. He remained silent, waiting for her to speak.

"Why did you follow me out here?"

Not what he'd been expecting, but he'd take it none the less. He gave a broad smile as he asked, "you're kidding right? It's like I told that guy, you're my friend. I knew something was off, I wasn't about to make you face it alone."

She looked back to him, letting him see for the first time that she was in fact crying again. He smiled as he took off his hat, and placed it on her head.

Rina stopped crying for a moment, before the sobs wracked her even harder than before. He hadn't expected that kind of reaction and resorted to the only other thought he had which was to hug her close to himself, and hold her there until the sobs slowed. As her breathing evened out, he stroked her silvery blonde hair and commented, "I may not be able to fight these guys like you can—but if all I can do is create a distraction while you implement some kind of strategic advantage, I'll stand by you through every fight. That's what friends do."

Rina nodded, numbly in understanding. He held her for a bit longer until he could tell her tears had dried and her breathing had evened out again. He offered her a smile, taking his hat back and placing it on his head once more. "So onto the next adventure," he announced.

She hesitated wrapping her arms around herself again, and he realized what was happening, "this is the point where you go back, isn't it?"

"I don't want to, but wanting to and having to are two completely different things," she revealed, she avoided looking at him as if seeing his reaction would make it more difficult.

He gave a small sigh as he sat down on the ledge and recalled, "you did say from the start you wouldn't be with us the whole journey."

She looked to him, knowing that he was pushing himself to smile while he confessed, "but I'll admit it: I'd hoped to change your mind."

"You did change something. I thought it would be easy to leave and go back home. But it's proving to be as difficult as leaving my family behind to go on this mission in the first place," Rina admitted, fresh tears threatening to pour over her cheeks. For his own part, Ace was making every effort to hide his own feelings on her departure, which was his main reason for showing his back to her. However, it wasn't very effective. He realized how ineffective it actually was when he heard her demand, "would you be a man and face me?"

This made him laugh a little as he turned his torso so they could see each other. She wasn't crying, but her eyes were definitely brimming with tears again. He pleaded, "come on—if you cry, I definitely will. We did have fun, right?"

She gave a nod of her head. She did have fun, between the eating contests, the parties with the crew, sailing across the seas, entering the Grand Line—but most of all exploring with him.

She perked up a little as she teased him, "so you going to invite Isuka to join you now?"

He stiffened at this and exclaimed at her, "yeah right! She'd never give up being a Marine."

This reaction did cause Rina to giggle a little, however that quickly subsided when she saw that the gloominess he was fighting against seemed to be winning. She decided to ask the question pointedly, "do you think you're not worth changing paths for?"

Ace scoffed a little as he retorted, "Why would I be? I have that demon's blood in my veins. I've always been a worthless good for nothing."

He was surprised when she grabbed him by the collar of his yellow shirt, pulled him back onto the plateau, and then slapped him hard across the face. The pain of her hand colliding with his cheek instantly began stinging as his own hand came up to his cheek and he bellowed, "what the hell was that for!?"

It was only as he'd finished yelling he'd realized she had screamed out, "I can't stand it!"

She wasn't holding back her tears anymore, and looked into his dark brown eyes as she exclaimed, "Both of you are so much alike that way! It drives me crazy! He risked his life so that the hogyoku could be hidden for all eternity and you—you gave me the opportunity to hide that cursed thing somewhere not even my own kind would have an easy time getting to."

Her hands balled into tight fists as she demanded, "So shut up about being worthless! There's only one human I can think of whose innocent actions lead to protecting the entire universe. I don't wanna hear you talk about having demon's blood again either! Who cares who your father was or what he did? You're not him! You're Ace D. Portgas, Captain of the Spade Pirates, older brother of Luffy, and my friend."

She shook her head and stated, "blood only contributes to if you have black hair or white, grey eyes or brown, if you've got cute freckles or you don't. It doesn't mean bird poop when it comes to who you are. You got that?"

'Cute freckles? Aw shucks,' he thought to himself, a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. But he smiled and nodded a little as he conceded, "yeah, I got it."

He gave a cocky smirk while commenting, "you know Rina—I bet you could slap the moss off a rock if you wanted to."

It was her turn to blush, before the two shared a deep belly laugh together, the last they'd share for a few years.