~Ace's POV~
I woke in an unfamiliar room lying on a semi-comfortable cot. My injuries that had been severe enough were bandaged, but otherwise I'd been left alone. Cautiously I opened my eyes to take in my surroundings. It was a small room no more than 3x3 meters. The only piece of furniture in the room aside from the cot I was currently occupying was a small bedside table with a bowl of medical supplies sitting atop it. There was a porthole style window next to the door that bled in enough sunlight to light up the room.
Where was I? Did the Whitebeard Pirates take me into custody after my defeat? Why wasn't I in a cell or shackles? Cautiously I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and tip toed across the small room. I tested the door expecting it to be locked and was more than a little surprised when it easily swung open. However, I was even more surprised when the moment I opened my door, a dainty fist connected with my jaw and sent me flying back onto my bed.
"Good to see you again too, Doll Face." I grumbled as I picked myself up off the bed. It wasn't necessarily that I liked flustering the girl, which I had to admit I did, I didn't have anything else to call her by.
"This is your fault!" She snapped as she placed her hands on her hips and stood in the doorway framed by the sunlight filtering through. It was impossible to take her seriously. She looked like an angry little china doll as she stood there akimbo and glaring fiercely in her little baby doll dress and floral tights.
"What's my fault?" I sighed as I rubbed the back of my head nonchalantly feeling somewhat relieved that the irate girl was alright. My gaze lingered to her temple it looked as if someone had tried to doctor it but she appeared to have either woken up in the process or tried to get rid of their handiwork afterward.
Her garnet eyes were smoldering by this point, "In case you haven't realized, we are now their prisoners! You idiot! If you hadn't interfered none of this would have happened!" She stopped and took a breath and looked as if she were going to continue her tirade.
"Thank you." I offered her a smile and chuckled to myself as she stared at me completely flabbergasted.
"Did you get hit in the head one too many times?" She hissed.
"You could have killed me, but you didn't." I shrugged, "So thanks, Doll Face."
Her pale cheeks flushed with color for the briefest of moments and I thought it was just a spike in her rage, but watched in awe as she suddenly turned and walked out with a flustered sigh. "You have brain damage." She muttered under her breath as she disappeared.
So we were prisoners aboard the Moby Dick? Why was it that I didn't feel like a prisoner? With a heavy sigh I hopped out of bed for the second time, rubbed my aching jaw from the angry girl's knockout punch and ventured from the room. It opened up to a spacious deck with another cabin lined with doors about three meters away. There were a few crew members leisurely lounging outside of various doors chatting and laughing away in the most carefree manner.
I turned and looked both left and right, to the left the deck led to an even bigger three story cabin that looked more like a mansion of sorts than a cabin on a ship, to the right opened up to the main deck of the ship where the main mast was located. A splash of champagne blonde hair disappeared in the direction of the main mast and I hesitated wondering if I should try to follow her or go my own way. She was the only person on the ship that I was prior acquainted with.
Sighing once more, I decided to follow the angry blonde girl. At least she'd prove to be entertaining. "Hey! Doll Face, wait up!" I called and held back a laugh as I heard her angry shriek up ahead.
"Stop calling me that!" She rounded the corner with a snarl earning us the attention of the few crew members lounging around the upper cabins.
"So give me something else to call you." I smiled lazily.
"Don't call me anything. In fact do us both a favor and don't speak to me at all!" She snapped before turning on her heel swatting me in the face with her silken hair and stomping off once again.
A wanted poster fell from above and landed at my feet, before looking down at the poster I looked up to find a man with a strange auburn pompadour wearing what looked like a white chef's outfit with a brilliant gold ascot around his neck. He sat atop the upper cabins with his legs crossed and offered me a rueful smile.
"Got a nasty temper that one. Suppose that's why they gave her that name." He indicated the poster at my feet.
Warily I looked down at the poster, trying to keep my guard up in the event he decided to sneak attack me. My eyes widened as I saw the picture lying at my feet. It was her! In the picture she appeared to be no more than thirteen years old. She still had her baby faced pout, but there was a slightly less seductive curve to her lips. The young girl in the picture wore a dainty pink dress with white ruffles at the bottom and a pair of plain white lace stockings. Everything about her screamed china doll, save for the blood hovering in the air around her and the rage burning in her smoldering eyes. Blood dripped from her curled fingertips and she appeared to be lashing out at her opponent who couldn't be seen in the image. My gaze lingered down to the wording and I stared in awe.
'Wanted Dead or Alive, Blood D. Ikari.'
I nearly choked when I saw the bounty underneath, "300,000,000 beri?!" I gaped.
The man who'd thrown me the poster leapt down from his perch landing lightly on his feet beside me, "The higher ups thought she would be bad news. She has no crew, no ship and no mark. She appeared in the newspaper once a few years back with a measly bounty then she sort of fell off the face of the earth. Lately she's been littering the newspapers again her bounty skyrocketed when some marines stumbled upon her hiding out on some uncharted island in the South Blue. They tried to do the upstanding thing and apprehend the wanted criminal after calling it in to their superiors. According to the article a few weeks ago, when the reinforcements arrived, everyone from the scouting fleet was dead. After that her bounty went up." He shrugged as he placed his hands behind his head and stared after the retreating girl with a sad smile splayed across his lips.
"You seem to know a lot on the matter." I said dryly.
"Aye." He chuckled, "The two of you have been painting the pages of the papers quite a lot these past few weeks. It caught Pops' attention so naturally we all had to do some research."
"Ikari, huh?" I looked down at the bloody picture in my hands before gazing to her retreating frame, "Seems pretty fitting." Mentally, I cursed myself for letting my guard down in the man's presence he put me at ease which unsettled me. If I were a prisoner I needed to keep my guard up.
"I'm Thatch." The man smiled and extended his hand to me.
I knew it would have been polite of me to accept his hand and respond with my own introduction, but they did essentially abduct me against my will. Additionally, I had absolutely no idea where my crew ended up so rather than be polite I shoved past him rudely.
He chuckled at my display but said nothing more.
Ikari stood at the hull of the ship with her arms casually crossed over the woodwork her body posed in a somewhat provocative lean stretching her slender legs and drawing attention to her short dress and the even more revealed amount of thigh. She gazed at the endless sea before her looking desolate and lost.
"Ikari?"
Her glare was sharp, but there was something more lingering in her molten gaze, pain, self-loathing and despair. "I thought I told you not to speak to me."
I shrugged as I sat atop the hull to look down at her, "You seem to like me calling you Ikari even less." I noted. "So I think I'll stick with Doll Face."
Her eyes burned with that familiar lively fire, "Better watch yourself rookie, I'm liable to throw you overboard."
I rolled my eyes at this, "You sure we're prisoners here?"
"Why are you still talking to me?" She sighed in annoyance.
"You seem pretty lonely." I shrugged, "And you're the only person on this ship I know."
"In case you've forgotten, rookie. We don't know each other and just to jar your memory seeing as recent events seem to have gotten lost in that dense head of yours, I did try to kill you." She shot at me coolly.
"But you didn't." I reminded her.
"Beginning to regret that terrible lapse in judgment." She muttered.
I grinned, "I see what's going on."
"Oh this ought to be interesting. Do enlighten me." She laced her fingers together and looked up at me waiting patiently for my response.
"You might act cold and try to push everyone away, but you really just want a friend. And I'm beginning to think you like me." I smirked.
A faint tinge of pink flooded her pale cheeks at this before she could compose herself. "Wrong." She scoffed as she caught my ankle and easily flipped me over the side of the ship sending me plummeting to the sea below.
"Man overboard!" Someone called from the deck and I saw a faint splash of champagne blonde hair over the edge of the deck as she turned and walked away just as I hit the water's surface.
Video- "Kick in the Teeth" By Papa Roach