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Something Worth Dying For	By : slj812000 Category: +M to R > One Piece Views: 10730 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
Chapter Eighteen: Ace
Life sucked pretty fucking hard most of the time.
Take the last twenty-four hours for example. Ace had found out the sister of his kind-of-but-not-really girlfriend had been forced into the sex trade, he had further been forced to pretty much rape her, to leave her behind to be sold off to some bastard sadist, and to top it all off, he had lost track of his little brother. It sucked harder than the vacuum of space.
And now, he was on his way to face his I-wish-she-was-my-girlfriend-but-I-pretty-much-fucked-that-up-so-now-she-will-hate-me former tutor. Because today wasn’t enough of a disaster already, at half past seven in the morning. He was going to go have to explain to Nojiko what was going on. It wasn’t going to end well.
The moments after Ace discovered Luffy’s departure had been a panicked blur. Ace had futilely ran back down the stairs and out the front door, passing a confused Sabo who was still on the phone with that Koala person, hoping to by some miracle get a glimpse of Luffy’s evading figure in the distance. Not a chance. His brother was long gone; probably having left before the conversation between the four of them at the table had finished. Otherwise, Sabo probably would have spotted him trying to sneak out.
As Sabo had asked him what was the matter, Ace had dug his cell phone out of his pocket and began scrolling through the numbers, looking for the phone number of the boy with the long nose. Luffy regularly let the charge on his cell phone die completely out, so it wasn’t a rare thing for his little brother to borrow his phone to call his friends. Though Ace didn’t have Ussop’s cell phone number, just the house phone, he chose Ussop first because he lived the closest.
The phone rang and rang. It took at least twenty rings for someone to pick up, and when they did, it was the sleepy voice of Ussop’s mother who answered. Ace somehow knew he was already too late, even as he asked the woman to let him talk to Ussop because it was an emergency.
At the word emergency, Sabo hung up from his own call. He stood toe to toe with Ace and demanded to know what was going on. As Ace waited for Ussop’s mother to retrieve the boy, Ace haltingly explained to Sabo that Luffy had taken off. Sabo too looked panicked for a few seconds before recovering his calm demeanor, stating that he would go in and tell the old man and the bastard.
Ace envied his brother’s calm as Ussop’s mother came back to the phone to tell him what he already suspected: that her son was not in his bed, and that some of his things were missing. She was worried, Ace could tell, but he could give her no reassurances. He promised he’d call her back when he could and hung up, going onto the next candidate.
Zoro didn’t have a house phone. Only a cell phone. But the ass hardly ever answered it, even when it was Luffy calling. Today was no different. Ace called three times before giving up and leaving a voicemail that stated to call him as soon as he got it. He then sent a text with pretty much the same message before moving on and calling the final suspect.
Sanji had a cell phone, but he also didn’t answer it. Desperate, Ace called the restaurant. He had no idea what time the boy and his chef guardian got there, but it was probably pretty early. Finally, Ace struck pay dirt. Sanji himself answered the phone.
Not surprisingly, since Sanji lived on the other side of East Blue and it had been only probably about fifteen minutes or so since Luffy had taken off, Sanji had not seen any of them yet. Ace instructed him to stay in the restaurant and not leave under any circumstance, to which Sanji replied that he would do his best, but was still his recovering guardian’s only means of support. Ace didn’t trust the boy to do as told, so when he hung up, he went back inside to talk to the old man.
Garp had looked less than thrilled at his grandson’s untimely disappearance, and the bastard looked positively amused. Ace was at his limit, too, and as quickly as he could, informed the old man that both Ussop and Zoro were unaccounted for, and though Sanji was at the restaurant, he would probably not stay there. The old man had gotten on the phone and arranged a detail of men to patrol that area of East Blue, looking for the boys.
It didn’t matter; Ace knew where they were headed.
Luffy would head straight back to Arlong Park. Ace knew it as surely as he knew that the sky was blue. Ace practically had to drag Luffy out by his head to get him out of there. And if nothing else, Luffy was loyal to those he loved. He never hesitated to walk headlong into a fight whenever someone he cared about was in the picture. It had caused Sabo and himself quite a few headaches in the past, but it was somewhat endearing to know how precious Luffy held them.
The old man had dismissed Ace’s statement that Luffy would return to Arlong Park. Where Ace thought the old man was underestimating, the old man thought Ace was overestimating Luffy. Though Luffy had found the place (completely by accident) and found his friend (again, completely by accident), Luffy would not be able to get himself into the stronghold during the day (as per the rules, Mermaids were only available after two o’clock in the afternoon), and therefore, they had nothing to worry about until later in the day. By then, Luffy would be found.
Ace hadn’t been so sure. Luffy was not on his own. He undoubtedly had two of his friends with him, possibly three if Sanji took off. Luffy could be rash, but his friends complimented him well. Ussop was a coward who would be Luffy’s caution, Zoro would be his strength, and Sanji would be his rationale. True, they didn’t have much for brains between them, but Ace didn’t doubt that they would find a way into that building if they wanted to.
So Ace had no choice but to go after his little brother on his own. And yesterday had proved how good he was at that. He’d been two steps behind Luffy all day until the boy had come home on his own. If it hadn’t been for wanting food, Ace would have never been able to go with Luffy. Still, as much concern as Ace had for his little brother, in the back of his mind, needling him, was the thought of Nojiko.
He had known she would be at home, on her own and completely at risk when something went down at Arlong Park. Ace was completely at a loss of what to do. He had to go after his brother (since it appeared that the old man didn’t care) and he had to protect Nojiko. But he couldn’t do both at the same time.
The old man agreed at least that Nojiko could be at risk if left on her own. He had suggested that Ace retrieve the girl and bring her to the station for when the plan went down, seeing as their mother would be in the hands of Smoker and likely end up there herself. But Ace was torn about whom to go after first: Nojiko or Luffy.
Sabo stepped in and became Ace’s momentary hero. Sabo had told Ace to go after his girlfriend (though the ass couldn’t stop smiling with that shit-eating grin on his face as he said it) while he took care of Luffy. So Ace had done just that after a quick clothes change and was now on his way over to Nojiko’s.
He knew he should be in a hurry to get to her, but each step on the familiar path that brought him closer to Nojiko’s house had him slowing down until he was at a crawl. He would have to explain things to Nojiko. Things he didn’t even want to think about right now.
Not to mention, he was dragging ass from not having slept in over a day. The distance he probably could have covered in a mere forty-five minutes took him twice as long to reach. It was eight o’clock when he walked up to Nojiko’s doorstep and rang the bell.
Nojiko, having probably not been expecting anyone, took a bit of time to answer the door. When she opened it and spied him, her face broke into a huge smile before turning slightly pink and averting her eyes. She looked so demure that it took Ace by surprise for a moment.
“Hey,” she greeted anticlimactically.
“Hey,” he responded with equal verve. “I hope it isn’t a bad time.”
“No, it isn’t,” she assured him, opening the door further and gesturing for him to enter. “I was just going through the fliers to get rid of the ones that were blurry.”
Ace kicked off his shoes as he entered, noting that despite what she said, she was still in her pajamas. Nojiko led him into the living room and over to the couch where she promptly sat down and leaned over the coffee table, resuming sorting through the fliers. Somewhat reluctantly, Ace sat down next to her. Silence filled the room to a stifling level as the first minute passed by.
Why were things so awkward? He hadn’t even told her anything yet. And then he remembered. Just a scant twenty-four hours ago, he’d up and kissed her for the first time. He forgot that he was the one who had created the awkward situation. That meant he had to be the one to fix it. He’d have to speak first.
“Your mom’s already left for the office?” Ace guessed, noting the quietness of the house despite the early hour.
“Yeah,” Nojiko affirmed. “She got a call from Smoker at the damn crack of dawn and was out of the house in like ten minutes. I didn’t even get to talk to her; she was in such a hurry.”
Well, then Smoker had let the cat out of the bag, to her mother at least. No point in delaying the inevitable.
“Noji, I have to tell you something,” Ace began, grimacing. Already, he sounded like a moron. Nojiko turned to look at him for a moment but didn’t stop sorting fliers. Ace stilled her hands and turned to face her on the couch, pulling on her arms until she did the same.
“What is it?” Nojiko asked tepidly. Ace grimaced again. Okay, looking into her eyes was a bad idea. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, he stared at their joined hands in between them.
“Last night, I…” he trailed off. Damn it, he couldn’t get the words out. He swallowed hard. “Last night, I followed my brother around like I told you I would. He went somewhere that I wasn’t expecting.”
“Not a strip club?” Nojiko guessed. Ace had been occasionally confiding in Nojiko his worries about Luffy. He hadn’t specifically said strip club, but it seemed that she had come to the same conclusion on her own based on his descriptions.
“No, not a strip club,” Ace confirmed. “Somewhere much worse. He went to Arlong Park. Do you know what that is?”
Nojiko looked worried, but not horrified, so he guessed she didn’t. When she shook her head no, he sighed heavily. She really had no clue, did she?
“It’s a yakuza stronghold,” Ace told her. Nojiko’s eyes nearly bugged out. She opened her mouth to speak, probably to exclaim at the absurdity of Luffy wandering into such a place, but Ace cut her off. “I—or rather we, I suppose, Luffy and I found your sister there.”
It wasn’t the whole truth, but it wasn’t a lie either. Ace just neglected to mention that Luffy had found her there probably three weeks ago, since he didn’t want to invoke her ire on the matter. Nami had admittedly urged Luffy not to tell anyone of her whereabouts, and though Luffy shouldn't have listened, he'd kept her secret. Luffy's devotion to the people he loved was something that Ace suspected Nojiko wouldn't understand at first.

It was then that Ace noticed the silence. Nojiko had not uttered a word. Glancing up at her, she was not surprisingly in tears. She also looked torn between being relieved and angry. Her hands clutching his began to wring them and without warning, she launched herself at him.

Her arms encircled his neck and she buried her face in his neck, finally letting out a chocked sob. Startled, Ace didn't know what to do at first. After a moment, he finally put his own arms around her as she hiccupped her way through an explanation of how happy she was. Looks like relief won out after all.

"Where is she?" Nojiko asked between sobs. "Is that where Bell-mère went? To pick her up? Damn it, she should have taken me with her!"

Ace grimaced again. "It's not that simple, Noji. We found her, but we couldn't take her back."

Gradually, the arms around his neck loosened until she could sit back (albeit still in his lap) and look him in the eyes. It was as bad as he expected. Though he could see the gratefulness in her eyes, he could see the accusation at leaving Nami behind there too.

"What's going on?" she asked, seeming to take in the full seriousness of the situation.

"She's being held at Arlong Park," Ace explained. "Like I said, it's a yakuza stronghold. Luffy and I were able to see her, but not take her back. But it's going to be okay. I promise. I've already talked to the old man and tonight we're going in to bust her out—"

"We?" Nojiko repeated, interrupting him.

"It's complicated," Ace summed up. "But it's going to be fine. I promise. You're right; Smoker probably called to fill your mother in on the situation. He's gonna keep her with him until this goes down, then she's going to the old man's station. Just like you."

The confusion in her eyes told him she didn't know why she had to go to the police station.

"The yakuza," Ace clarified. "They're keeping her there using the threat against yours and your mother's lives. When we go in there, there's a high probability that they will retaliate by going after your lives."

Nojiko looked ill, but given the rigmarole of emotions she'd been through in the last few minutes it wasn't surprising. He watched a myriad of emotions cross her face as she digested the new information. Finally, she wiped the mostly dwindled tears from her eyes and looked seriously at him.

"Tell me everything," she insisted. "Start with when you found her."

Ace blanched for a moment before he told himself to grow a pair and do it. He had to. It was only fair for her to know, even if she hated him after.
“At first, I didn’t know it was her,” Ace admitted, recalling the previous evening. It seemed like so long ago now. “I’d never heard her voice before. But then I saw her. She looked exactly like her picture on the flier.”
Ace paused as they both looked down at the fliers where Nami’s face prevailed.
“She was scared to see me,” Ace recalled. “She panicked for a minute I think. But I made her calm down and explain to me what was happening. She said she’d sold herself off to keep you and your mother safe.”
Nojiko looked disbelieving. Completely and utterly doubtful of such a necessity, as Ace had been at first.
“She was holding the position of—of a Mermaid,” Ace stuttered. Again, he could not meet her eyes. “That was bad enough, but she said she’d been sold off to someone. We knew we had to—”
“A Mermaid? What?” Nojiko interrupted, furious. “What the hell is that? And what do you mean, ‘sold off?’ She’s not a fucking slave!”
Ace waited for her outburst to settle. Not that it would do any good. As soon as he explained what a Mermaid was, Ace had a feeling she was going to go ballistic.
“A Mermaid is the title used by someone in Arlong Park who has been made a—a call girl,” Ace defined, stumbling because he didn’t think he could manage to call Nami a whore or prostitute. “She was for sale every night, but that wasn’t just it. She was also apparently available to be permanently sold off.”
Not surprisingly, Nojiko did not take the information well. She wrestled herself from his lap violently, angered by him even though he was just the messenger. She stomped fiercely across the spanse of the living room, unable to form coherent words. She only managed to spit out one or two in frustration occasionally, like Mermaid, call girl, and ridiculous.
“We tried to out bid her buyer, to get her out of there last night,” Ace went on, since it didn’t matter if she calmed down; she would only likely continue to get angrier. “We didn’t succeed. So this morning I went to the old man and we came up with a plan to get her back.”
He’d completely chickened out. He completely skipped the most vital thing he needed to tell her. He should just get it out now, while she was already angry. She would be even more livid if she thought he was deliberately keeping it from her.
“I can’t—I can’t even think right now!” Nojiko shouted, taken up to kicking random things about the room. A stack of now useless fliers went flying about in the air. “She—I can’t believe Nami! How could she do something so stupid! That girl! I want to wring her damn neck! I might just do that, the moment I see her!”
Well, now he wasn’t going to get a word in edgewise. He sat pathetically on the couch listening to her rage on about the absurdity of the matter until he heard a funny sound. He looked up to see her tear stricken face, starting to get choked up on sobs. She was still pacing about in an agitated manor, though no longer kicking things.
“Why? Why would she do such a thing?” Nojiko lamented. “To resort to—to doing that—it’s not okay! She’s only sixteen years old! She shouldn’t have done something like that! She should have—have gone to Smoker, or—or, I don’t know.”
The ranting finally came to an end and so did the pacing. Nojiko simply stood in the middle of the room and buried her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. It was instinct that got Ace to stand from his prone position on the couch and go to her. He encompassed her in his arms before he even thought of the possibility that she may not want him. But she did not push him away and he continued to hold her until the sobs quelled from frequent to sporadic.
“Does my mother know?” Nojiko asked from within the confines of her hands and his arms. Ace debated.
“Probably,” he guessed. Smoker likely wouldn’t hold anything back from her.
“She’s going to be so upset,” Nojiko predicted, freeing her face from her hands and resting her cheek on his shoulder. “She’s going to blame herself.”
“Probably,” Ace repeated. What parent wouldn’t? Well, maybe the bastard Sabo worked for wouldn’t, but he was in a league of his own.
Nojiko raised her head from his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. Fuck. Even tear stained, her face was beautiful. Damn it, he was starting to think like a Hallmark card.
“Thank you for finding my sister,” she said, and leaned close.
She kissed him. It was a little like the short kiss he had given her yesterday at first, but it quickly evolved. Soon her mouth was open and her tongue was grazing his lips and before he could stop himself, he had launched himself into a full blown, heavily charged make out session.
It was probably his body’s natural reaction to become aroused by it, but the moment he got hard, Ace felt nauseous. He broke from the kiss abruptly and pulled away, sitting back down on the couch and fisting his hands in his hair, pulling on it in frustration.
“Damn it,” he growled. “I can’t do this.”
Oblivious to what was bothering him, Nojiko stood stunned in the middle of the floor. She watched him for a moment before she sat down next to him on the couch again.
“Sorry,” she huffed. “I guess I misunderstood yesterday.”
“No, you didn’t,” Ace snapped. “I’m just—I can’t—look, I can’t do this with you because I haven’t told you everything.”
Silence for a half a minute.
“Okay,” Nojiko finally relented, though she still sounded irritated. “Then tell me everything.”
“I don’t want to,” he denied petulantly. Another half minute of silence.
“Care to explain why?” Nojiko prompted.
“Because you’re going to hate me,” Ace predicted. “You’re going to loathe my existence. You’re going to tell me to get the hell out of your house and the fuck out of your life and I’m way too selfish to let that happen right now.”
The silence lasted for over a minute this time.
“I highly doubt that,” Nojiko finally spoke. “You’ve spent weeks trying to help me find my sister. You actually found her last night. You organized a plan to get her back from the bastards that have her. And you’re pretty fucking sexy to boot. I highly doubt I’m going to tell you to get lost anytime soon.”
“You’re wrong,” he muttered, though he wished that his good deeds could somehow outweigh the bad one.
“How about I promise you that I won’t,” Nojiko offered. Ace shook his head minisculely.
“You’d break that promise,” he assured her. Anger came back to Nojiko’s voice.
“And what makes you think you know what I’m going to do?” she demanded.
“Because I fucked your sister!” Ace shouted at her. He took one look at her face and knew he had been right. She looked shocked mostly, but under that she looked confused and hurt.
“You—you—” she tried to say, but words failed her.
“I fucked her. Last night,” Ace repeated, going back to pulling out his hair. It wasn’t enough, though. He hated himself so much at that moment that he felt like he needed something else to cause him pain. To give him some sort of punishment. Because it was what he deserved.
“Explain,” Nojiko demanded, her voice hoarse and sounding close to tears again. But he couldn’t look at her. He didn’t want to see how much she hated him at that moment.
“I told you, she’s a call girl,” Ace reiterated. “Luffy and I went to see her, not knowing that was what she was. We only intended to get her out of there, but her boss—er, the yakuza boss, Arlong, he came in and demanded that we—that we do the services while he watched.”
Why was he trying to be so politically correct all of a sudden? Hadn’t he already stated it plainly for her? That he’d fucked Nami.
“That bastard!” Ace spat. “He watched. He stayed and watched the whole time! I didn’t want to do it, and neither did she, but if we didn’t he’d have killed us right there. We—I—”
He had his eyes shut tightly as he bent over his knees, his hands pulling at his hair until it relented. He jerked suddenly when he felt her hand brush against his face. He tried to pull away, but she had grabbed hold of him and was pulling him towards her. He felt her hand brush against his cheek again and he finally opened his eyes, watching her wet hand draw away. Wet?
His hands gave up their grip on his hair and he rubbed his face, feeling the wetness there. Fuck, was he crying? Damn it, how fucking pathetic was he? Crying over this? Really? Could he be any more disgusting?
“It’s okay,” Nojiko told him, though she didn’t sound okay at all herself. “I get it; you didn’t want to do it.”
“It’s not okay,” he denied, wanting to pull away from her but also not wanting to. Plus, he was so damned tired. Exhausted beyond reason. He tried to get out another denial, but before it completely passed his lips he fell asleep.
.o0o.
It was the doorbell that woke him later. Very groggily, he felt the couch beneath him shift and he rolled off of it only to discover it hadn’t been the couch beneath him, but Nojiko. He stared blankly at her for a moment, taking in the pained expression she held even in her sleep before shaking the sleep from his head and recalling his last conversation with her.
Right. He’d pretty much raped her little sister.
Abruptly, he wanted to leave. He didn’t want to be the cause of that expression, and he knew he was. Almost drunkenly, he stumbled out of the living room and towards the front door where his shoes were. He was halfway through putting them on when the doorbell rang again.
Oh yeah. That had gone off, hadn’t it?
Ace forwent tying his shoes and shuffled to the door. His hand was on the handle when his purpose came back to him. He was at Nojiko’s house for a reason. He was supposed to take her to the station to be in the protection of the old man’s men. A little lost, Ace dug his phone from his pocket and lit the front screen, displaying the time. It was almost one o’clock. He’d been asleep for probably about four hours then.
The doorbell went off a third time and Ace yanked the door open, irritated by the insistent person on the other side. With sleepy eyes, Ace glared at the newcomer. He was a fairly tall man with dark hair and a goatee, looking very inappropriately dressed for the summer season in a full length red coat.
“Can I help you?” Ace grumbled, barely able to feign politeness. Sleep had just made him more tired and he wanted nothing more than to go back to the couch and knock out for a couple more hours. He wouldn’t, since as soon as he got rid of this asshole he was going to wake Nojiko, take her to the police station and then head over to meet up with Sabo over at Arlong Park.
The man who somehow didn’t appear to be sweating at all under such heavy clothes glanced back at the number on the house before returning his gaze to him. He put his hand inside of his coat and pulled something from an inside pocket. Ace blinked blearily at the two pictures that were held out to him.
“I am seeking these two,” the man stated. “I understood that they lived here.”
For all the lack of sleep that Ace had, he wasn’t so far gone that he didn’t recognize the uneasy feeling that rippled through him. There was something very wrong with the situation. An unknown man seeking Belle and Nojiko, though he clearly didn’t know them himself.
“Who’re you?” Ace asked. In his mind, Ace went through the possible answers. It was entirely possible that the old man had sent a plain clothes officer to Belle and Nojiko’s house. All of the officers the old man was using today were specifically told not to wear uniforms. But still, something wasn’t right.
“Hired help,” the man stated, putting the photos back in his inner jacket pocket. “You?”
Ace instinctively lied. “New tenant. Been here a month. There was a woman and two girls here before me. You must have an old address.”
The man did not look convinced.
“Look,” Ace huffed, pointing to a house at the end of the block. “The landlord lives there. Maybe he can give you a current address. The point is, you’re in the wrong place. Now piss off so I can go back to bed.”
The man raised his eyebrow in response. His gaze dipped to the ground where Ace’s untied shoes were on his feet. His gaze then strayed further into the house, where a pair of women’s sandals were clearly visible.
Fuck.
Ace could still dismiss this away. It wasn’t unreasonable for a guy like him to have a girlfriend living with him. He just had to pray that Nojiko didn’t—
“Ace? Who’s at the door?”
Damn it! Ace had to get rid of this bastard quickly before she came out into the hallway into view.
“Some guy looking for the old tenants, I think,” Ace called back. “You know, the one’s that lived here before us?”
Please, Nojiko. Please. Stay in the living room.
“Before us?”
“Yeah,” Ace went on. “You know, the ones that moved out when one of the daughters got kidnapped?”
There was a long pause.
“The landlord probably has their new address.”
Thank you Nojiko!
“I see,” the man said, glancing at the number on the house again before turning away. “Pardon the intrusion.”
“Hope you find them,” Ace returned. He shut the door, locking it, and grabbed Nojiko’s sandals, speeding into the living room. He tossed the sandals at her as he bent over to tie his shoes.
“What—” she began in a whisper, but Ace shook his head at her. She donned her sandals and he took her hand, leading her back out into the hallway.
“Clever boy.”
Ace froze, staring at the man in the red coat who was now standing in the doorway, the front door somehow open even though he had locked it. In the man’s hand was a long, curved sword, its handle resembling that of a crucifix.
In that moment, Ace knew his instinct to evade had been right: this man was here to kill them.
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Something Worth Dying For