Chapter Text
“Hey! Red! Could you get that for us?” Pike called.
Long Brown hair swirled in the wind, a face covered in dust and grime turned to face the equally disheveled man. It was easy to spot her fellow construction worker, her yellow hard hat shielding her sensitive eyes from the midday’s sun.
“Sure, no prob” she saluted, her pearly white teeth almost as blinding as her energy.
“I never met someone so happy while doing grunt work” he muttered, his eyes narrowed in an attempt to quell his colleague’s blinding smile, again he wondered what business a beauty like her had here.
Piker’s was told his team would consist of able bodied villagers from nearest island to the archipelago, mostly those with trained bodies such as blacksmith or carpenter, imagine his surprise when a beautiful young woman was between the group of burly big men, with nothing but an eager smile and a pick axe half her size. Even to the untrained eyes it was painfully obvious that she had no idea what the job entailed, it was as if she tagged along and swiped the next best tool on her way.
His surprise quickly morphed into astonishment when the little lady smiled brightly at him and proudly exclaimed that she was part of the ‘extra hands’ headquarters sent. Not a word left his open mouth, mind too captivated by the shining ruby of her eyes. His mouth simply huffed the air in an attempt to piece together what just happened, he was met with the empathising eyes of the villagers, some shaking their heads.
Their collective inner voices replying to his unspoken question.
‘Yes, she is serious—no, she has no clue what she is doing—yes, her eyes are a weapon.’
She had sweetly promised to pull her weight, big ruby eyes glistening, even apologised for sneaking on the ship.
He is proud to say he…folded like a deck of cards, the villagers nodded their yellow helmets in solemn commiseration, he guessed they tried to send her back when they noticed her on the ship—and too failed miserably.
So he gave the stowaway lady a helmet and a vest, not expecting much from the delicate hands that only moments ago were interlock in a pleading gesture.
Let’s just say he still rubs his jaw from the way it hit the ground. Now he just snorts at the sight of the little beauty who is two heads shorter than him yet moves the towering piece of concrete with relative ease.
“They really did a number on this place, one would never guess that this is Marineford” Pike commented to her, Red dusted off her hands, ruby eyes following the destruction around them. For once Pike missed her bright smile. Her lips pressed together in a solemn frown.
“A pointless war…” for a pointless cause is what she wanted to say but couldn’t, not in the heart of the organisation that led it.
History was made with the blood of the innocent, loyal and the honourable.
Yet the guilty write history, those who survived reaped the benefits.
She knew airing her opinion would pin her as treasonous, so she bit her tongue, she long knew defending the dead was merely self satisfaction, what use does honour have in the grave? No, the dead have no use for memories, memories are for the living.
She only needs to preserve the memories, that is how you honour the dead.
Defending them from those who do not know them is only a waste of time, she can simply correct the rumours if she so wished, because in the echo of time, she alone will have lived to tell the truth.
So she tore her face from the blood soaked rubble, and gave Pike her most dazzling smile.
“Do you think we will get to see the stand?” She wondered aloud, not expecting an answer from her gruff colleague.
“Huh, I didn’t expect you to be interested in that. Well, our sector didn’t include the execution site, but they did request some men to carry the concrete filler—“
“Oh oh oh me me me! I can do that!” Her hair whipped, the gust of air making his eyes tear up.
“…Sure, just maybe compact the ponytail before you blow some marine twink away with the gale you cause” he waved her away, muting a ‘no devil fruit my ass’ and an even more muffled ‘New world returnees are scary’.
So Red runs to the site she originally planned to visit, she wanted to fulfill her promise and get the hell outta dodge.
What she didn’t expect was the sight of the supposed executed Portgas D. Ace tickling unassuming marines and cackling when they shuddered, his see through hands sticking out of their faces.
So she stares straight ahead, hoping to everything holy that he doesn’t realise that she can see him, he had already spotted her so she didn’t have time to look away unless she wanted to make herself more suspicious.
But it was too late.
“You can see me?”
DIDN'T YOU SAY YOUR SON WAS STUPID! DOES THAT LOOK LIKE SOMEONE STUPID?
“No” she denied instinctively.
“Huh, I guess not” he took his hand out of the poor shivering marine and turned around.
…okay maybe she did tell the truth.
Red watched the ghostly figure disappear behind a boulder of concrete, sweat dropping at the display of idiocy. She waited a few minutes, fully expecting him back and simply playing a bit, when he didn’t reappear she finally relaxed her stance.
I forgot that half his DNA comes from that fool—why am I even surprised.
So Red continued her work, reporting to the stiff marines. Their eyes strangely never met hers, not that she wasn’t used to it, it depended on the person, most finding her eyes unsettling, others were fascinated by their jewel-like quality. She didn’t comment on their obvious fidgety behaviour, choosing to complete her task.
She had done her part and should have returned to her site, but to fulfill her promise she needed to find something, something lost that needed to be returned.
“Wait! You replied to my question!” The pale face of Portgas D. Ace popped out of the ground, as if the last time she talked to him wasn’t two hours ago.
She couldn’t help but deadpan. A sigh right from the depths of her soul left her.
They really are brothers.