Chapter 35

Okay, Thatch had some pretty good timing, he had to admit. Due to his deductions, he figured out that Teach would no longer be in the New World, because well, he'd get his ass beaten in by a lot of people. He also probably had no crew. After all, when would he have had the time to make one? Teach rarely left the ship.

So Thatch headed back into Paradise. The Striker had been brilliant, sailing him along the seas quickly and smoothly.

It might have also helped that he had taken a piece of Ace's vivre card with him...

But still, Thatch was smart and had good timing. Like right now where he had found a ship harassing what could only be the Polar Tang above the ocean's depths. The crew was crowded on the deck, all wielding weapons, and it looked like two of them were about to dive into the water. Thatch quickly raced into action. He swiftly cut the springy guy's ship apart and sent it flying with a good sweep of his swords.

"Thanks the seas!" the woman on the deck cried.

"We're saved!" a masked man cheered.

"Hang on," Penguin, the guy with the penguin hat had to be Law's second in command. "Twin Blade Thatch?"

"Hey." Thatch grinned.

.::.

The kitchen was a bit tense. Thatch had been served a cup of tea after the Striker had been tied to the Polar Tang and lead down into the Heart's kitchen, only to find Law sitting there, glowering at them all. He had been clearly napping on the couch, buried beneath several blankets, but must have woken up when the Hearts went to fight off the Bellamy pirates.

Now he was pissed.

"You're still recovering from your fever, Captain!" Ikkaku protested, handing Law a cup of tea too. "We couldn't have you up there while you're still resting."

Ikkaku seemed to be sorting out tea for everyone.

"He was one of Doflamingo's subordinates," Law hissed. "I should have been up there to fight him off, even in my weakened state, yet none of you even told me he was following us."

"We wanted you to rest," Penguin insisted, a heavy scowl on his face. "It was my order, Law. None of them were to say a word to you until you had recovered enough to stand up without shaking like a leaf."

Law glowered. "You shouldn't have made that call in the first place."

"Well until you've recovered from your witchiness we're not letting you do anything else to endanger your health," Penguin argued.

"I'm so sorry about this, Thatch," Shachi apologised. "This is such a bad welcome, considering you saved us."

"Don't worry about it," Thatch laughed weakly. "Anything for a brother of Ace's."

Law grimaced. "Any news about him?"

"I'm hunting Teach down right now to get Ace back," Thatch revealed. "Don't worry, Law. I won't stop until I get Ace back home."

Law eyed the hat on his back, his face slowly turning dark. "Don't lose that hat."

Thatch startled. "Yeah, of course-"

"Luffy and I bought it for Ace," Law continued over him, eyes steely. "Why are you searching alone, Chef-ya?"

"Chef-ya?" Thatch tilted his head, but he filed away that information for later.

Luffy and Law had bought Ace his hat? He wouldn't have thought it. But that was even more of an incentive to protect Ace's cowboy hat. It looked like his mother's white one and now Thatch knew it had been a gift bought by Ace's brothers.

Law's glower deepened.

Thatch winced and threw up his hands. "Jeez! That is quite the glare. No wonder Rouge gets nervous around you. I feel like you're about to rearrange my organs or something."

"I could." Law smirked. "Now stop changing the subject."

Thatch sighed. "Okay, well Pops has a lot of islands under his protection, so we all couldn't go save Ace until we knew they were safe. The same for splitting up and going out in teams, if we did that and Kaido or Big Mom heard about it, they'd take advantage and attack with their full force. So I decided to steal Ace's Striker, a bunch of his potions, charms and dials, and go search for him myself with his vivre card."

The Hearts stared at him until Shachi cackled.

"Hell yeah!"

"Of course one of you would do that," Penguin sighed.

Law frowned. "Do you want me to check on all the potions and charms?"

Thatch laughed sheepishly. "Might be a good idea. I'm not entirely sure what I picked up."

He laid them all out on the table and Law began shifting them about, hardly blinking at them. Law seemed to know each of them off by heart, because he had them sorted out pretty quickly.

"You have eight charms. Two with Ace's earth magic within them, two with his fire, two with his water and the other two are his wind. These four are healing potions, these two are invisibility potions that last for thirty seconds each-"

"Ooohhh," Thatch whistled.

"Two shields. They will protect you from two attacks. Once they are used they are done, so only use them with when you're prepared to take a bad hit, and one storm potion."

"Storm?" Thatch blinked.

"It's the one you took from Rouge's room," Law said knowingly.

"How-"

"Because only Rouge would have created this. Ace wouldn't have the patience to, nor would I have the ability too. Elemental magic doesn't come as naturally to me as it does to the Portgas clan," Law said. "Potions are difficult to make, especially when people tend to be unable to tell the difference between a nature witch and a clan witch, so trying to buy supplies to make them are a pain when the owner believes that the witch might be of a clan and calls the Marines to capture them. It's rather annoying to be honest."

"So the storm one-"

"Only use it as an emergency," Law ordered. "You will literally become the eye of a storm, so if you're fighting Teach and are overwhelmed, you can use it. Ace won't be affected because it is his magic. Elements can't kill a Portgas, so he will be fine, even if he gets hit by this storm. It won't do him any harm."

"Thank you, Law," Thatch breathed out a sigh of relief. "I can at least save him then, but Rouge-"

"I might be able to summon her here," Law said. "We can summon ghosts, although that ability comes more naturally to the Nico clan, for their death magic."

"That would be great!" Thatch beamed.

"But we don't know if she is also under Teach's control," Law said, going to stand, but Penguin placed his hand on his shoulder and shoved him back on to the couch. "Penguin-"

"No." Penguin scowled. "Thatch, if you want Law to do that then you'll have to give us another week. He just woke up a few days ago from a nasty fever that hit him hard after he learned about what Teach did to Ace. His witch abilities are probably acting up right now, and we can't risk his health declining any further."

"That isn't your decision to make-" Law began to protest.

"As your first mate it is," Penguin cut in swiftly.

"I can wait for a week," Thatch said softly. "I'll search the nearby islands first then check back in while you look after your Captain."

"This is stupid," Law complained.

Ikkaku shoved a blanket back over him. "How come a doctor is the worst patient in the world?" she huffed. "Take another nap. I put some sedatives in your tea, so that should help."

"What the hell, Ikkaku?" Law glowered, but Thatch could see it, he was tiring out fast.

The bear mink carefully picked up their Captain. "I'll take him back to his room."

Law grumbled something, but Thatch didn't catch a word of it.

"Thank you, Bepo." Penguin nodded. "Thatch, do you need any supplies?"

"I packed up plenty for the journey here, and I can get more when I search through these next few islands," Thatch replied.

"Well at least let me make you lunch first," Ikkaku said. "You did save us after all."

"That would be nice." Thatch smiled. "Well, as long as you don't sedate me too."

"Captain needed some more rest," Ikkaku sighed. "Ace must have had some weird dreams before too, right?"

"Not so much since we remain in the New World,. We tended to keep him away from Sabaody way as much as possible," Thatch admitted. "He still gazes out sometimes towards Mariejois, but with so many of us around we can distract him easily."

"That's handy. We try and do the same for Captain too," Shachi said. "So nobody has any idea why they want to go up there so badly?"

"Sadly not," Thatch sighed.

Shachi groaned. "Dammit! Why can't we find one person who knows what is going on?"

"That would be too easy..." Thatch shook his head. "And nothing is easy with witches."

.::.

Ace watched the explosions and listen to the yells from Drum Castle. It looked like the King hadn't willingly handed over his treasure to Teach then. Ace hadn't really been in the mood to fight, his moods were still a bit shaky, so he had bought a hot chocolate and sat against a tree to sip at it. It had been quiet for a while, but now it had gotten busy again.

"I remember you. Your mother brought you to me to check for that disease."

Ace startled and looked up. There was an elderly woman before him, although only her face seemed more elderly, the rest of her looked youthful. Right, this was Dr. Kureha, his mum had brought him to see her for a check up, and to make sure that Ace didn't have the same disease as Roger has. Thankfully Ace didn't.

That was still a conflicting thought. Roger. That he died to the marines so that it wasn't the disease that killed him. Ace didn't know how to feel about that.

"Dr. Kureha?" Ace immediately stood up and bowed his head. "It's good to see you again, Doctor."

Dr. Kureha grinned. "It's good to see you too, kiddo." She eyed Drum Castle, her brow furrowing. "That's not your usual lot."

"I made some friends?" Ace offered.

Dr. Kureha grimaced and eyed him again. "Where's your grimoire, Ace?"

Ace winced. "How-"

"It's not with you." Her eyes narrowed.

"You could only tell that if you're a powerful witch," Ace said, frowning. "And we know nature witches don't grow their magical energy, only clan ones do. So which one are you? And why can't I sense you?"

"I learned to mask my magic a long time ago with a spell from the Knowledge Clan," Dr. Kureha huffed. "It keeps me from being sensed, and from being drawn to Mariejois."

"You know about the Knowledge Clan?" Ace startled.

"Yeah, I know about the clown, but the better question is, have you told the person you're with about him yet?"

"No." Ace smirked. "He hasn't asked."

"At least you're not freely giving him information then," Dr. Kureha huffed.

"Do you know what's up there? In Mariejois?"

She shook her head, much to Ace's disappointment.

"Sadly not, kiddo, and I'm not willing to find out. The last Immortal witch taught me how to protect myself with that spell from the Knowledge Clan before she died, and I'm not wasting my mother's efforts by ignoring her warnings now." Dr. Kureha frowned. "Now, who do I need to call to get your grimoire back?"

"No one," Ace said instantly, before he could even think of the words. "I don't need help."

"Whatever has happened is not of your own free will," Dr. Kureha insisted. "Someone is holding your grimoire without permission. We both know that makes most witches ill."

"And yet I don't look ill."

"Which makes me more worried that the person holding your grimoire has done something to it."

Ace sighed. "I'm fine, Doctor, but thank you for checking up on me."

Before Kureha could get another word in Ace charged himself into a bolt of lightning and teleported away. He struck down outside of Drum Castle, and frowned when his hot chocolate sparked.

"Dang it," Ace grumbled, but sipped it anyway.

It was kind of nippy.