Chapter four : Action Plan
"Marion. Ace is still alive."
Marion looked at Lili with eyes full of questions. Her eyes looked back and forth between the poster and the face full of hope of her friend.
"Well, yes?" Answered, "it's normal, we are in One piece?"
The blond looked at her, the hope in her face disappearing for a deep despair which shouldn't have been this familiar. In a long sigh, she shook her head and looked above at the sky, whispering prayers for her mental health to whichever God who was willing to listen to her.
"Marion," her voice matched her face of pure despair," Marion repeat what you just said reaaaaally slowlyyyyyyy. And think. Ace. Is. Still. Alive.""
Marion looked at her, confused, and repeated those words, not sure of herself. Then, her eyes popped out.
"OH FUCK, she exclaimed, WE ARE IN ONE PIECE AND ACE IS ALIVE. WE CAN SAVE HIM OH MY GOD!"
Lili smacked her hand on Marion's lips, looking around them quickly to see if anyone heard them. When she was sure that no one was looking at them, she got closer to her friend.
"Chhhh!" she whispered aggressively, "not so loud! It'll be shitty if anyone learns that we know the future, even more if they know that we want to save a pirate!"
"You're right", nodded Marion, "we can't talk here. Come" she said, taking her friend by the wrist, going out of the city.
Quickly, they arrived at the beach where they were stranded the first time. No one was here.
"So", said Marion as she sat down, "How do we save Ace" she asked, her eyes serious.
The blond stayed quiet a few seconds, her fingers playing with the hem of her dress in a trance.
"We need to see how long we have until he's caught first, and we'll need to find every information that we can about the Whitebeard's. Then…", she swallowed, fear mixing itself with her determination," we'll need to find a way to get to Marineford, and we'll need to get strong enough to survive once we're there."
"Lili, I hope you realize we can't save him ourselves. Even if we train ourselves, we aren't fighters…. No, we need to buy him time and someone to save him for us. Someone who is strong enough for…." She stopped herself before looking at her friend. "Lili. We know someone who is strong enough to save Ace, even Oda wrote it… We need to find Sabo."
Lili clicked her fingers at that.
"Sabo! Yes he'll be perfect! He's much stronger than any characters in the story right now! The only problem that we have though, is how we'll find him…", she bit the nail of her thumb, staring at an invisible point in the sand. "In every case, it's obvious that we can't save him only by ourselves, but we still need to train in every case, just to find Sabo himself. We're in East Blue, and him… Well I guess that he's on Grand Line, the second part if we're that unlucky…"
"You're right. If only there were a way to know where we are in the story… Wait. Lili. You saw the poster panel, didn't you? Did you see a poster of Luffy and Zoro?" She exclaimed
"Luffy and Zoro?", she tilted her head and frowned, "No. Never, that I'm sure. If I had I would have screamed from joy… AH", she straightened up, smiling, "you know, I help at the counter! The other day, I didn't think too much about it but there was this guy -drunker that an elephant I can tell you, and he stank of cigars and beers don't make me think about it again! Anyway, he was complaining about a Pirate hunter with katanas who was catching all the big heads before him! What is the likelihood that it's Zoro?!"
"It's him. It's so him. You need to keep listening at the bar, and me too. It's here we will learn the more I think."
She nodded.
"You won't have the time to chat with every customer so listen very carefully, I'll try to speak with those at the counter. With any luck, they'll be too drunk to even wonder why…", the end was muttered, the young girl already deep in her thoughts.
"If needed, you will help them" joked Marion with a wink.
An embarrassed laugh escaped the blond, scratching at the back of her neck with a grimace.
"If needed yes…", clearing her throat, she cleared her mind at the same time. "More seriously, I think that we'll need to travel around incognito until Marineford. We have the best reason moreover… We're supposed to have no memories."
"You're right, after all we only want to know where we come from! And if we ask weird questions, well it's because of the amnesia. The only problem it's, to travel, we need a boat… and money" Marion looked at the bill on her hand. "I supposed we won't use it today". She put it in her pocket with care.
"Better to start now yes…", Lili stayed quiet a bit. "For the boat, we can try and ask the Marines at the start, or we can try on a cruise ship, there's a few if I remember right. Sanji was on one at first. If we can work on one of them then we'll get the money and the travel!"
"You're right! For once the job of waitress will put us closer to our dream than the despair of drunk people"
"If it's for Ace, I'll survive old drunks trying to hit on me if it's needed!", a false tear fell from her left eyes before disappearing. "By the way… I'll need your help Marion."
"If it's to escape a date with one of the grandsons of the manager, I advise you to run. Fast !" Said Marion
The blond bursted into laughter, shaking her head.
"No no, or well, it's still a good advice! I'm sure that she'll set her sights on me when she'll be done with all of her grandchildrens for you! She does hold back a lot 'cause she knows that I'm not at ease, but it'll be my turn soon enough!", then she sighed softly, calming herself. "No… I'll need help to train myself… I've never been athletic, and I know even less how to fight. So, even if we can't save Ace by ourselves, we'll still need to buy time for them.. But I won't be of any help if I can't even defend myself. I'll try to find a weapon to help me, but hand-to-hand fights might be useful too…"
Marion looked at her in silence.
"You will die, you know it right ? I will try to go easy with you." laughed Marion
A little smile grew on Lili's lips, her cheeks turning a bit red.
"Thanks… I'll try to not be a bad student! But I can't promise, I was last in P.E back then!"
"Oh don't worry, i'm not so gifted myself. But I did the Air force. So I suppose it matters a little bit." She was quiet for an instant. "We are starting to have a plan, aren't we?
She nodded and stretched her arms in a sigh.
"Well then, I think it's time to come back!", the sun was lowering little by little in the sea, dyeing the world in orange and gold, "Me with my old little drunkards… And you with yet another grandchild!", she laughed at her gibe.
"Please, I'm starting to run out of ideas to avoid them !" laughed Marion before becoming quiet. Her gaze focused on the sparkling ocean in front of her, the wind blowing gently her hair. "That being said, she whispered, the plan is beautiful and all. But before everything else, I really wanna bite Teach's calf" said Marion
A few seconds passed, Lili's eyes strained on her friend, blinking and trying to process the information.
"... Excuse me, what?"
"I want to take Teach, to make him eat all the seastone I can find. And after I will bite his calf... I will bite him until he bleeds and cries like the little bitch he is." Whispered Marion with so much hate in her eyes that she could make a fire if she looked at a twig for too long.
The blond bent over, tears of laughter escaping.
"Y-You-", she inhaled, trying to gather her bearing, "i-if that's what you want, we can try to fetch Arlong's teeths to make it more painful!"
"Oh, for the love of god, yes. I never wanted something so hard in my life before now. I need Arlong teeths at every cost. And I will paint it with seastone! I don't even know if it exists! I will create it if needed! Everything to make him suffer!" raged Marion with vividness
"If you want, I'll help you. I watched a lot of videos about how to make paint.", inhaling, she tried to stop her laugh, "As long as you don't swallow this thing I'm in! I don't think Blackbeard tastes really good after all!"
"I think this thing is venomous. And you, Lili, what do you want to do? Against whom do you seek revenge?"
"Me? Hm~", she played with the hem of her dress, thinking about it. Then, a sadistic smile appeared on her lips, misplaced on her usually innocent face, "I for one would like to see that weeping dog from the Marine suffer. He dared to kill Ace by targeting Luffy, and even to hurt him. That's something that I can never forgive, I can tell you!"
"Akino ? Ariko ? I don't remember what's name"
"Akainu.", for the first time, Lili's voice was cold and emotionless, as if the Admiral's name was venom. "If I could, I'd mash his nuts, 'cause apparently the child of someone is important enough that they need to carry on the faults of the father."
" Do you want spiked shoes?" suggested Marion
"... Studs… Of course fucking hell, in seastone to make him suffer like hell… Hehehe."
"It's a wonderful idea, I think everything will go smoothly". Marion watched the sky darken slowly. " Shall we go back? And we start tonight. We need the energy to do that!" She concluded.
The two girls got up together, looking one last time at the beach before walking into the forest.
The next few months were going to be a lot of work. After all, it's not everyday that you plan to go against the government and monsters to save someone, right?
Two weeks later.
The door to the bedroom opened in a creaking noise while Marion came in. Lili, sitting on her bed, looked at her above her papers.
"So?"
Marion sighed heavily as she sat down at her desk.
"It's no, they won't let us take a boat. We need to do it by ourselves. And you? What's new?"
In a grunting sound, Lili laid down on her bed, her hands covering her face.
"Not any better. I looked, no cruising ship. This island is too poor to be interesting enough to those rich bastards…", her hands muffled her voice, making her nearly incomprehensible.
"Shit" sighed Marion as she got up. She went under her bed and she moved the floorboards. Under it, a little box was sitting here. She took it and started to count….
"We have 10.000 Berry's in savings right now. I looked at it on the way out of the marine, for a sit on a boat. It's 5000… We will never have enough for the rest of the trip…" she whispered as she put back the bills in the box.
The blond grumbled again, taking her hands off her face.
"And we can't stop at every island every two months to gather enough money… We need to find something else…"
Marion was quiet for an instant, before looking at Lili.
"What if we boarded… illegally ?" She proposed
Her friend shook her head immediately.
"It'll be useless. Too much risk, we can't make all the journey by getting illegally on boats. Once? Why not, but that won't change our real problem, we won't have money and at some point we'll be caught for sure.", she bit her lips, thinking.
"We disguise ourselves as marine and we steal a boat? I can steal some uniform" Marion tempted
"... You know how to navigate on a boat? 'cause personally I don't. I only know how to use the stars and I'm not even sure if we have the same ones."
"No… but it shouldn't be so hard!"
"And navigating on Grand Line is no joke. Nami had experience and still had a hard time remember. So what of two novices who know nothing…"
"Holy shit…" Marion raised her eyes to the sky, mumbling at herself. Suddenly, her eyes widened. Starting to look a little crazy.
"Why have I never thought of it before ? Lili. Why don't we join a pirate crew ?"
The blond stayed quiet a few seconds, until a bubbling laugh escaped her.
"Pirates? Us?", she thought about it and laughed, "okay, why not?! At least I'll be able to train myself in real fights!"
"You know, for me it will be the same as before. The Army, pirates, same thing after all! Alcoholics and crude jokes. " Marion said as she shrugged.
A snort escaped the blond at that.
"You'll be already used to it at least."
"So now, the most important question is… where the hell will we find a pirate crew we can join ? " Asked Marion as she got up.
She approached the wall, which was covered with posters all annotated and maps which were vaguely drawn.
"It needs to be a crew that we can leave without any problems, and that gather enough money quickly. We don't need to stay too long with them, just until we get enough money… After all, they are quite rare at East Blue, pirates who want to go to Grand Line.", Lili mumbled.
Marion was listening with all her focus. Her eyes went back to the poster on the wall. Her gaze caressing Ace poster, who was lovingly put in the center, before going down to the other. Lili looked at the posters too, passing from one to the other quickly while thinking about it.
Suddenly, her green eyes stopped on one in particular.
"Lili, " said the brown head as she took the poster, "Lili. Why don't we join the buggy crew ?"
The blond got up at once after hearing that, curious.
"Buggy? You want to join Buggy's crew?", she frowned, thinking about it, "Well… He does gather a lot of treasures… And because he'll end up at Impel Down, we can leave before without worries…", a little snort escaped her without any notice. "And well, our life is already a fucking joke so we might as well become real clowns."
Marion laughed at her words.
"You're right, we must live the joke to the fullest ! But, if we became pirates, we must do it undercover… We must be able to enter Marineford without being suspected. So we must have a costume that hides us entirely"
"I mean, Buggy chose the circus as a theme for his crew… I don't think we have a better disguise than wearing a clown's costume, don't you think?~"
"It's… so true…. But, I say dibs! I want to do Arlequin !" she exclaimed
"No worry, I wanted Pierrot!"
"D. Gray-Man?" asked Marion
With a glimmer of joy in her eyes, Lili held out her hand to Marion.
"D. Gray-Man of course."
" Obviously", laughed Marion as she shook her hand. "So. We need to find a clown suit… I think the sewing lesson my grandmother gives me will finally be useful! Thank you Granny!"
"Thanks Granny!", Lili extended her arms toward the sky, trying to send her thanks. "We still have one year left before Luffy's birthday, it should be enough to gain enough money for the disguise, the make up, and the boat to leave. Also, I'll ask at the bar to the Marines where Buggy is when we'll leave. Departures in how many months you think?"
"If I can have a second job, we will go in two months. We need to be sure to meet Buggy's crew… and to think about what we should say, to make sure he take us"
Lili looked pensively at the poster.
"Or, maybe we won't need to give him any reasons… Maybe we can try to give him a treasure's map in exchange… If we can find one of course. But I do think that it'll be easier to convince him with money than with words. Except if we praise him like his followers of course!"
"Why don't we make a false?" asked Marion
"Not sure that we'll be able to create one realistic enough, you already saw a treasure's maps?"
" I had a cartographie course?" she proposed
The blond shook her head, frowning.
"In every case we can't take the risk, he's our only change. If he notices that the map is false we're in deep shit. Especially knowing him, a fanatic of treasures. He did eat his Devil's fruit because of a map…"
" So, we need to find a treasure map…"
"We'll still need to work on what to say if we really can't find one. Better be prepared…"
" You're right. Until Buggy, it's good. But after? How the hell will we find Sabo?"
The blond grumbled in despair.
"That's the crux of the matter, I have no fucking idea… In the first part of One Piece the Revolutionary Army is nearly never mentioned until Impel Down. Zero, no information, nada!"
" Oda, grumbled Marion, you don't make any effort. We need to get their attention. If we don't know where they are, we will make them come to us…Lili, when we join the Buggy crew, we need to create a rumor that we have something on the government… Or that we can see the future I don't know, something to make them interested in us. Something big, that they can't miss"
"No wait! The Army appeared once! We know where! Remember Marion, the chief appeared! At Loguetown!", a big smile formed on her lips, excitement tangible, "it changes everything! We won't need to struggle to get to Grand Line if we can convince Dragon to let us join them, they will even help us to train and Sabo will be there!"
Marion looked at her with empty eyes, murmuring over and over the name of the town….
Lili sighed after noticing the lost look of her friend, shaking her head.
"Remember Marion, Loguetown! When Luffy was leaving for Grand Line he nearly got himself arrested by Smoker!"
"Oh yes! It's go baaack! I had completely forgotten this scene! It's wonderful ! It will resolve so many problems!"
"Yes! Or well… If we can convince Dragon at least…"
"Lili, we have information no one has. Knowledge who can change the face of the earth. We know the location of antique weapons. We have everything to persuade them!"
"Wait wait, maybe not the Ancient Weapons please. Those things are better left hidden away in the world. But yes, we do have a lot of information! Alabasta to start. And we do know what happened to Kuma!"
"Kuma, sweetie pie! Whined Marion, if we warn them, maybe they can save him?"
"We can only hope, but I don't think that we'll be able to change his future… If I remember well, he made a contract no? To protect his daughter… By the way it might already be too late…"
"Yeah, he sacrificed himself so she can be healed. And I think he is still a little bit of himself back in thriller bark. We will see what they can do"
Lili nodded sadly.
"We can't do much anyway, we can't save everyone. We're already trying to save Ace.. We can only give them the needed information."
"Yes, sighed sweetly Marion. Good! I think we have everything, don't we ?"
"Hm… I do think so. For the moment at least I can't think of anything else…"
"Ha, yes wait!" she exclaimed as she took a paper and started to write. "Here!"
She got up, proud with her inked paper. With care, she put it on the wall, just under the paper of Ace.
On top was marked :
" Ace rescue mission
Find a costume
Find Buggy
Getting in his crew
Steal his money
Look at him being beat by Luffy
Go
ing to Loguetown before the departure of Luffy
Convince dragon
Going to Marineford"
"So, said Marion with a smile, we only need to start!"
End notes:
Lili: When you read the chapter 1's ending note, you get part of the reason of why I want to kill Akainu ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶