Chapter Text
Hakoda sat in his chambers contemplating his ship’s next move. The waters had grown treacherous and filled with ships from the Fire Nation, no doubt thanks to their attack on the North Pole crashing and burning.
He smiled to himself, imagining them scrambling to save face after such a humongous defeat.
His ship had stationed near an Earth Kingdom town to resupply before heading back to continue with the war efforts. Hakoda heard a knock at his door which was his right hand man, Bato, who came to inform him that they were good to go.
“I think we’re just about done here chief. Everyone’s been so restless after that last ship found us, you made the right call letting them relax a bit,” Bato said.
Hakoda sighed, “The men deserve some time to relax after constantly being on guard. We had to resupply anyway, so this was just the best choice to make.”
Bato smirked at his friend, “You sure you aren’t going soft? Maybe it’s the Dad in you seeping through again.”
“Not a chance,” Hakoda replied.
“Although, I do think it’s time we set sail. Hopefully the men have had their fun, because we won’t be stopping again until it’s time to resupply.”
Bato nodded as he started calling for anyone who was still in the town to hurry up. They needed to get moving before the currents picked up again. Today was perfect sailing weather and Hakoda had no intention of wasting it.
Each crewmember was tasked with bringing something back to the ship whether it was food, clothing, fresh water etc. they had to contribute something if they were to survive on the seas. Bato oversaw them bringing stuff onto the ship as it was his job to make sure what they were bringing back wasn’t junk or borderline useless material.
He spotted one of the younger crewmembers struggling to carry up a large sized trunk onto the ship and stopped him before he could continue, “Mind telling me what’s in that?”
The young man, Torlas, dropped it in front of Bato and grinned, “It’s filled with food! The trunk was just lying around, so I went to various shops and gathered stuff to cook with.”
Torlas was a phenomenal cook and much appreciated on the ship given many of the men here didn’t know their way around a kitchen. Meals always tasted better when they were cooked by him.
He watched him try to pick the trunk up again and could see him visibly struggling, “Need a hand?” Bato asked, much to Torlas’s embarrassment.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I don’t know why it’s so heavy now,” He thanked Bato for helping as the two of them carried the trunk up the ramp of the ship. Bato had to use all his might to get it up the ramp, “Tui La, what kind of food did you get? This is…pretty heavy.”
Tarlos continued to help carry it from the back, “Nothing much…just-” He had to stop talking for a moment until the trunk and them were on the ship again.
“Just cooking supplies. Maybe I overestimated just how much I bought.”
Bato patted him on the back, “Just make it up to me by giving me an extra large portion when you cook.”
Torlas gave him a thumbs up in return.
“Alright men! It’s time to go!” Bato called as everyone scurried back onto the ship that was about to set sail. Loading the last crewmate and reeling up the stairs. The boat started to move and soon they were on their way to continue the fight against the Fire Nation.
Although the fun they’d had in that town reverberated in each conversion being had. For what seemed like hours, the men shared numerous stories of what they did in the town with some ranging from very tame to insanely raunchy. Being the youngest on the ship, Torlas was constantly teased about stuff like this. He did his best to block it out, but the men had fun teasing.
“Their food is insanely good! Far better than what we had on the ship!” One of the older men laughed much to Torlas’s dislike.
“The women weren’t half bad either!” Everyone roared with laughter as Torlas paid them no mind.
Ignoring the men (who had probably gotten back on board drunk), he dragged the trunk full of food into the kitchen to begin prepping for dinner. Bringing it into the kitchen and pre heating the stove to cook with, Torlas made his way to open the trunk that was full of delicious food and ingredients and went wide eyed.
“Aaaaaaaaaaahh!!!” A loud shriek echoed from the kitchen much to the other crew members' amusement.
“You think he cut his finger?” One snickered as others joined in.
Bato nudged Hakoda in his side, “You should probably go check on the kid.” His chief opened his mouth to retort, but Bato was faster, “I helped him carry that massive trunk full of delicious food up onto the ship. My back still hurts. Take pity on an old man, Koda.”
Hakoda rolled his eyes and stood up, “You only call me Koda when you want me to do something,” The man mumbled, but still proceeded to check things out.
“Torlas? Are you ok?” He opened the door to the kitchen, “We heard you screaming and thought you might’ve gotten-” Hakoda went wide eyed seeing what was before him.
Torlas was standing beside the trunk which had been knocked over and a man was lying on the side of the contents that had been spilled out. He looked to be unconscious.
He could see his chief was confused, but so was he! How the hell did this man get in his trunk!?
“I have no idea who this is! I was getting ready to cook when I opened the trunk and saw a man lying in it. I knocked it over by accident, because I was shocked.”
Hakoda moved slowly to the unconscious man on the ground and checked for a pulse. He put his fingers to his neck and could still feel something.
“Well, he’s not dead…” Upon closer inspection, Hakoda found himself in disbelief.
“He’s not even unconscious,” He could hear small snores coming from the man, “He’s just...sleeping.”
Torlas did not care in the slightest, “So what do we do? We can’t just leave him like this. For all we know, he could be some sort of spy.”
Hakoda found that hard to believe. Given the man was shirtless and had a strange tattoo on his back. It resembled a skull with a very large and funny looking mustache. On his left arm, the man also had a tattoo that spelled out-
“ASCE?” Torlas sounded out in confusion, “You think that’s code for something, chief?”
Hakoda shook his head, “I’m not sure, but until we figure out who he is and what he was doing in your trunk, we need to subdue him. I don’t think he’s from the Fire Nation given that tattoos of any kind are frowned upon, but…”
Torlas didn’t need any other notice as he started tying his arms behind his back along with his legs. Hakoda moved to pick the man up and stopped when he saw a nasty looking scar on the center of his chest.
Hoisting the man up over his shoulder, he brought him onto the deck where the other men were located. Bato was overseeing the men in order to make sure they didn’t do anything to stupid since many were still buzzed from drinking in the village.
He heard Hakoda coming back over and turned half way to meet him, “So, how badly did the kid cut-” Bato couldn’t even finish the sentence as he saw what Hakoda had brought back.
“Koda? Why the hell do you have a stranger tied up over your shoulder?” Bato asked as the other men started to look as well. Hakoda placed the stranger in the center of the deck.
“Torlas found him in that trunk you thought was so heavy. Turns out, it wasn’t just food in that thing after all.”
“So he was just sleeping in a trunk full of food?” Bato gave the man a confused look.
Hakoda couldn’t make much sense of it either, “Seems like it. Why? That’s something we’ll have to ask him once he wakes up.”
“He better not be an Ashmaker,” Hakoda heard someone growl.
“I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for this. We just have to wait until he wakes up. We’ll keep him out here until then and make sure he doesn’t do anything to cause us harm.”
“Everybody ok with that?” Hakoda saw no arguments against his proposal. So it was settled. They’d wait until this man woke up and determine what to do from there.
Of course, someone as wild as Ace would never be contained for long. It just wasn’t in his nature.
~*~*~*~
Yawning to himself loudly, Portgas D. Ace, the man who lived his life without a care in the world felt fresh and fully recharged after a nice nap like that. He tried to move and immediately realized what was wrong.
“Why the hell am I tied up?” He looked around and saw numerous…pirates? If you could even call them that, glaring at him with a rather large man standing over him with a stern expression.
Ace wasn’t happy at all, “What the hell’s the big idea?”
Hakoda ignored the tone in his voice, “I don’t think you're in any position to ask us questions when you were the one who snuck onto our ship.
As if gears clicked in his head, Ace went wide eyed, “Wait a minute!” He jumped up while still being tied up and looked around frantically, “I’m on a ship in the middle of the ocean! What happened to the town!?”
“The town we stopped to resupply in? We left over twelve hours ago. You’ve been asleep most of the day,” Hakoda answered.
Ace groaned and dropped to the floor criss cross style and sighed. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Ace groaned. “I wondered who stole my trunk and when I saw some kid putting food in it, I got pissed and decided to teach him a lesson by scaring him.”
Hakoda crossed his arms while raising an eyebrow, “And you planned on doing that how?”
“Well-...I mean…” Hakda could see the young man was flustered. Just what exactly was his goal here?
“It’s none of your business what my plan was. I had my reasons for getting in that trunk,” Ace stated. The men on the ship weren’t happy he was blatantly disrespecting their chief.
“Watch your tone, punk!” He heard someone shout.
“I don’t have to listen to anything he has to say! Piss off if you don’t like it!” Ace argued back as he was now going back and forth with the crewmembers who had gotten louder and louder to match this man’s brashness.
Hakoda raised his hand to calm his men as he kneeled down to meet Ace eye to eye, “Now, there’s no need to turn this into a shouting match. We just want to know why you ended up on our ship.”
Ace sighed in response to the calm manner he was being spoken to in. His temper cooled and he figured it wasn’t the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to him, “I…I was gonna jump out of the trunk the next time he put food in it and scare him, but…”
“I kinda, sorta…fell asleep before I got the chance. Next thing I knew, I was on your ship in the middle of the ocean.”
“Oh, I also can’t swim, so don’t throw me overboard, I’d sink like a rock.”
Hakoda pinched the bridge of his nose hearing such an outlandish explanation. Was this man serious?
“You mean to tell me you fell asleep inside a trunk full of food for half a day?”
Ace shrugged, “I’ve got this thing called Narcolepsy. It happens every once in a while. Causes me to fall asleep at the drop of a dime.”
Hakoda could hear Bato snickering behind him, “So what do you propose to do? It’s not like we can turn around and take him home. We’re nowhere near that town anymore.”
“Actually, I kinda prefer this anyway,” Ace always did prefer sailing than being tied down to one place for too long, “I always did like sailing. It’s way more enjoyable than being cooped up in one area, ya know? This is much more my style.”
“Also, could you take these ropes off? I can barely move in this thing.”
“Not a chance, boy. We don’t trust you and we still don’t know if you're an Ashmaker or not! For all we know that whole story could’ve been something you made up,” He heard yet another crewmember say. Man these guys were annoying.
He’d heard that word before though. Ashmaker…ashmaker…ashmaker…
It clicked in his head that they meant Firebenders, “You think I’m a Firebender?”
Gauging the other men’s reactions, he took it as a yes.
“Nah! You’ve got it all wrong. I’m not one of those guys. I’m just a normal dude who wants to chill.”
“How can we be sure?” Bato asked him.
“You’ll just have to trust me. Do I look like a liar to you?” Ace joked.
“We don’t even know your name. Let alone know anything about you,” Bato looked at Hakoda who was most likely thinking of what to do with the man and figured to help him out, “Look, you say you aren’t from the Fire Nation right? Then I guess you won’t mind answering a few questions.”
Ace had no issue with that, “Sure, knock yourself out and ask away.”
“What’s your name and where are you from?”
“The name’s Ace. Portgas D. Ace and I’m from-” Hakoda saw him stop and think to himself before answering, “Someplace far far away.” Ace said that last bit with some sarcasm.
“That’s not answering the question,” Hakoda insisted.
Ace shrugged again and smiled, “Hey! I’m telling the truth here! I wouldn’t be able to explain it even if I knew how I got here.”
Hakoda crossed his arms again, “So…that’s really the story you’re sticking with?”
Ace gave him another smart ass look in response, “Only story I’ve got I’m afraid. Take it or leave it.” The smugness this man was giving off definitely was definitely pissing off the crew members. Bato found it hilarious while Hakoda only felt a headache coming on.
Hakoda had to put his foot down. This man wasn’t taking this seriously at all, “Well since you think everything is such a joke, why don’t we let you cool off and think about things in the cell we normally reserve for prisoners?” He hoped that would be the thing to scare him into taking him seriously. It only caused him to smile.
“I really get a place to sleep? That’s fine by me then! Man, you don’t understand how hard it’s been sleeping in the woods. I mean, yeah, the sun feels good, but the ground is much harder to sleep on than this wooden floor here-”
Hakoda couldn’t believe it. Was everything a joke to him? He was rambling as if he didn’t have a single care in the world nor was in any sort of imminent danger.
Before he could comment further on this odd man’s behavior, a soldier cried out that he’d spotted something.
“Fire Nation ship ahead!!” And not just one. It looked like they had the displeasure of running into three smaller ships just as they made their way back into the open waters of the sea.
“They’ve spotted us. What do you think we should do?” Bato asked as Hakoda began ordering his men to get ready.
“Simple, we get ready to fight just as we always have. We may be outnumbered, but we have more heart and determination than they do,” He called out to Torlas to come and secure the prisoner, “Escort this man to his cell and keep watch. The last thing we need is a rogue prisoner running around while we’re defending the ship.”
Torlas helped Ace to his feet and started heading towards the room he’d be kept in until this was over. Ace looked at everyone preparing to fight and wanted to ask something before he made a decision on what to do, “So those ships are from the Fire Nation? What are the odds that every one of the people on this deck makes it out of this fight alive?”
Torlas grimaced remembering the last time this many ships ambushed them, “Not very likely…but that’s not for you to worry about. My job is to keep watch over you until the others return. It’ll…it’ll be fine.”
Ace could tell the young man was lying. Seeing all the crew members walking into such an unfair fight didn’t sit right with him., especially since, from what he’s been able to gather, the Fire Nation operated like the World Government back home.
So against his better judgment, he figured “Screw it.” it wasn’t like him to just sit back and watch the weak get picked on anyway.
He broke free from Torlas’s grip and ran towards the edge of the boat at full speed.
“Wait! What are you doing?” He heard Torlas shout as the others watched in confusion.
Ace turned back and smiled before leaping off the boat, still tied up, “Don’t worry! I’ll be right back!” He used his fire to incinerate the ropes and propelled himself to the three ships headed their direction.
Now, if he was being honest, there was still a lot that Ace didn’t know about this world. Given that he’d only been here a few weeks, he was somewhat taken aback by how different this world was from his own, but found the people here to be kind. His hotheadedness would surely cause some problems when he goes back to the ship given him exposing his fire abilities to a group of people that outwardly hate them, but he’d cross that bridge when he got to it.
For now though, he had something to take care of and that was getting rid of these damned troops causing these people constant harm. He soared high above them and felt the power of his fire burst into his hand.
He aimed at the three ships and fired, “Fire Fist!”
The blast from his attack was so big that it ran through and engulfed the ships in one go. It looked as if the devil himself had come to claim them.
Flying back over to the ship he was originally on and landing on the railing. He stood up and smiled before stating, “Pretty cool, huh? Saved you lot the trouble of dealing with things yourselves and saved more of your men from dying. That’s gotta earn me some good faith points right?”
He looked at the faces of the men on Hakoda’s ship and from their expressions, he knew that things may not be that easy.
But he was sure of three things. It’d taken him a bit, but he knew them to be true.
One: He definitely died fighting Akainu. The scar on his chest proved that the event actually happened.
Two: He wasn’t sure how, but he definitely reincarnated into this world in the midst of a great world war. Ace was still sketchy on the details, however from the gist of it, the people of this world could control the elements.
And Three…he was sure that from their point of view, at this exact moment…
He probably looked like a Devil.
More similarities to his Father than he’d care to admit, but alas…his luck always did tend to run from a very shitty well. If he ever made it to the afterlife, he’d punch the man square in the face.
For now though, he’d make due with what he had. These people were interesting enough and had a ship to set sail with.
Beggars couldn’t be choosers after all.