Chapter 39
"I'm surprised we're not just raiding the town," Ace mused following Laffitte, tugging his hood up.
Ace had taken to wearing a black jacket with a fluffy hood ever since he had joined with Teach. It hid his tattoos well, and stopped people from recognising him as Portgas D. Ace. So nobody thought he was a Whitebeard, and nobody also chased him around for being a witch.
In most people's eyes, he looked like just any regular civilian.
"Doc Q said he needed more medicinal herbs first before we let Burgess rampage. He didn't want to see his ingredients get caught up in the cross fire," Laffitte explained.
"Zehahahaha, besides, it looks like this town is hosting a party," Teach said. "I can see a bonfire being lit up."
"During the day?" Ace tilted his head.
"Wihahahaha, that just means this is one fun town!" Burgess cheered. "C'mon, let's go celebrate!"
They made their way to the centre of town, but it took Ace a moment to realise that the cheers weren't happy. They were mocking snarls and cries. Teach frowned too, while Burgess went off to try find some food and drinks.
"Look up there, on the platform," Laffitte said. "That is not a bonfire, Captain."
"Shit!" Teach cursed. "Those fuckers! They're fanatics."
Ace followed his gaze and froze.
It was a stake. There were three already lit, burnt bodies bound to them, some still screaming, choking and wheezing. Ace could see a woman was being bound to the fourth stake. She was sobbing and screaming. Ace gasped breathlessly and stumbled back, only to flinch when Teach's arm wrapped around him, his coat shielding his eyes.
Ace kept panting. He felt like he couldn't breathe. That he was choking on smoke.
Elements couldn't kill a Portgas witch, so why was this affecting him so badly? This terror wasn't coming from any of his ancestors, so what was going on?
"Hey, is your friend alright?" someone asked.
Ace couldn't see them. Teach's coat was protecting him. Teach was protecting him.
"He's fine," Teach grunted. "C'mon, we're going, Ace, just keep breathing, I'll get you out of here now," Teach whispered to him.
"He started panicking as soon as he saw those witches!" a man yelled.
Teach growled. "I suggest you keep your fucking mouths shut."
"He's a witch too, ain't he?" another hissed.
Teach snarled. "For fucks sake. You lot just can't well leave enough alone. You take one step closer towards us, and I'll have you all drowned in darkness."
"Get him!"
"Get the witch!"
"Black hole!" Teach shouted.
There were a lot of screams, but Ace couldn't see what was going on. Teach was still keeping him under his coat. Ace leaned against Teach, his breathing slowly calming back down. There was no smoke filling his lungs. Ace wasn't burning. He couldn't burn, no matter what. He had eaten the flame fruit, and he was a Portgas witch. The elements couldn't hurt him, especially not fire.
The screams slowly quietened down, and the jacket slipped off of him slowly. Ace rubbed a hand over his face, then went to look back, but Teach's hand blocked his gaze.
"They're gone," Teach growled. "Don't look back at their filthy remains."
"It's unusual for you to be quite so worked up, Captain," Laffitte said.
"Those fuckers were trying to sacrifice witches like the Vinsmokes did for good luck," Teach snarled, and Ace shuddered. "Ace, even after all these generations, and despite being in another bloody clan, still felt their suffering." Teach's face darkened. "Then they wanted to take Ace and put him to the torch? Not my witch. Not in a million years. Not when I worked so hard to finally bring Ace aboard my ship."
"Thanks," Ace muttered tiredly.
Teach ruffled his hair. "Destiny has a lot in store for us, Ace. Plenty for us indeed. Nobody gets to take you away from me now."
.::.
"So Sanji doesn't know how to use his magic?" Zoro raised a brow.
"I can do it for basic things," Sanji admitted.
They were all in the kitchen now, all nursing a cup of tea, or coffee. A cookbook floated next to Sanji, something about Alabasta, Rouge only caught a glimpse of the title, as Sanji and Thatch cooked, preparing lunch boxes for their travel into the desert.
"But unlike Vivi and I, Sanji will rarely have practised it," Nami explained. "Clan witches can naturally learn spells faster, like levitating small objects like his cookbook now, but I doubt you know how to control all aspects of your empathy magic."
Sanji sighed. "You are right, Nami-san. I can't control someone's emotions, like I should be able to, or cloud them in a sense."
"Cloud them?" Usopp asked, tilting his head.
"Well, say one of you were panicking, I am supposed to be able to 'cloud' that emotion from anyone else's senses, like a predator animal," Sanji explained. "Or control the effects of it. Like for you, Usopp, if you were so afraid you started shaking, I should be able to calm you to stop your shaking."
"But because you haven't practised any of your magic you can't," Sabo noted.
"Yeah, I'm good at sensing emotions, but my control over them is abysmal," Sanji sighed.
"It doesn't help that you were never in an environment that you could properly use your magic," Rouge mused. "Perhaps now you could, yes, but you have to be careful not to alert the World Government. If they find out you're a witch, and what type you are, you are fucked. That knowledge will be published all over the world, and the Vinsmokes will find out."
Sanji paled. "They'll burn me alive..." he said shakily, breathing in sharply as his hands trembled.
Zoro and Luffy both looked alarmed as Sanji grew pale, and Nami looked horrified as Vivi collapsed heavier into her chair, shaking her head. Zoro even taking Sanji's knife, that had been chopping up vegetables, off him carefully. Sanji took a deep breath and stumbled over to a chair, breathing in heavily, while Vivi took in a deep breath and forced herself to settle.
"Sanji?" Luffy frowned, kneeling down in front of him as Sanji kept drawing in slow, heavy breaths.
Rouge scowled. "The Vimsmokes, the last ones, all witches could feel their deaths at the time. It's something the clans naturally just do, because of whatever connection binds us together, but the trauma of it, how bad it was, meant that we still feel it even now..."
Zoro frowned. "Sanji can still feel his ancestors deaths?"
"We all can," Rouge corrected. "If I started discussing it in detail right now, Sanji, Vivi and I would all be having a panic attack like Sanji is going to do soon if we don't end that line of thought."
Vivi reached over and gripped Sanji's hand tight, her face strained. "I saw you're making food from an Alabasta cookbook," she said, changing the subject instantly.
"Y-Yeah, I wanted to try some of your cuisine, and treat you to some home cooked food," Sanji managed out, throwing her a grateful smile.
"That's very kind of you, Sanji. Thank you," Vivi said softly, smiling warmly.
Rouge walked out the kitchen and out into the deck now that Sanji was being distracted. She dialled her baby den den mushi and waited, but it wasn't even done dialling the first time when the call was answered.
"Everything alright, Rouge?" Eddy asked.
"I might need a favour from Haruta," Rouge admitted. "Are you by yourself right now?"
"Yeah. Do you want me to get Haruta?"
"Don't mind if you tell her to be honest. I need information on the Vinsmoke Family. I think I might be running into some trouble with them soon enough and want a bit more information about them."
"Trouble with them?"
"It's Luffy stuff."
"You want my family to look out for a snot nosed brat?" Eddy scoffed.
"My kid," Rouge growled warningly.
"Fine, fine," Eddy huffed. "Ace would throw a fit too if I let his little brother get himself killed I suppose. I'll see what Haruta can did up."
"Discreetly please. I want only her on this if that is possible."
"What did you find?" Eddy asked suspiciously.
"I found your nose digging into my business."
"Guararara, you're the one asking me for help!"
"I'm asking Haruta, and you can tell her I'll do her one favour after this."
"With conditions?"
"Perhaps a few, but we both know I'm willing to do a lot of crazy shit," Rouge said, chuckling darkly.
"I'll see what she says."
"Cool, if she doesn't want to then that's fair enough. I know you lot have a lot on your plate at the moment," Rouge said.
She would have honestly contacted Buggy first, for his information, but she didn't want him involved with the Vinsmokes, not those witch burning bastards. She would murder them all (or more like Shanks would beat her to it these days) if they laid a hand on Blue.
Shakky, her other choice, would definitely look into why Rouge wanted information on them, and discover Sanji.
Rouge wouldn't risk that.
"I doubt she'd disagree," Eddy said. "Anything else, Rouge?"
"All good here."
"And Thatch?"
"Being Thatch I suppose..."
"Sounds about right. Try and get him to call me, would you?"
"Will do."
Rouge ended the call with one last goodbye, then smiled and looked over her shoulder and into the shadows of the deck. Zoro stood there watching her. His gaze had been sharp at first, but since she hadn't said anything about Sanji, he seemed to relax.
"You're such a protective boy," Rouge teased. "Glad you're protecting Sanji though, despite your rivalry."
"I'm not worried about that idiot," Zoro scoffed.
"Yet you came out here to make sure I didn't spread information about Sanji," Rouge chuckled.
Zoro huffed and looked away. "He's our cook," Zoro grumbled.
Luffy really had found quite the interesting crew. The thought made Rouge laugh as she wandered over, roughly ruffling Zoro's hair. He protested with a squawk, while she smirked.
"Best swordsman right?" Rouge mused, startling Zoro. "Guess you might take my old title one day."
Zoro froze, staring at her with wide eyes. She winked and walked past, cackling as he stood there in stunned silence.
"What do you mean by that?" Zoro asked, his voice a mere whisper.
"Mihawk used to chase after me all the time and challenge me," Rouge said, not even glancing back. "It was rather adorable, kinda creepy being stalked though, but he was just a kid."
Zoro remained silent, much to her amusement.
"Just keep at it, and maybe unlike Mihawk, you'll gain the title by defeating him."
"He didn't defeat you?" Zoro sounded worried.
"I died before he could," Rouge admitted. "I wanted to protect something worth much more than a title."
"What was more important to you?" Zoro asked.
"A dream that came true."