Chapter Text
The Moby Dick is not a fast ship. She is beautiful, of course, and strong enough to carry all her family which is no easy task; she’s also resilient and surprisingly nimble in the middle of a storm. But she is not fast .
That’s why the Whitebeards have yet to reach Jinbei, who sent them a distress message about four days ago.
Marco is trying to nap in a corner on the ceiling of the dining hall, hidden enough that his brothers won’t be able to spot him because he really can’t really be bothered to deal with their problems right now.
He deserves this fifteen minute break, he’s earned it.
Still, just because they aren’t bothering him directly, doesn’t mean they can’t annoyingly keep him awake with their yapping.
“It’s just a rookie,” Thatch tells Jozu for what must be, at least, the tenth time.
Jozu nods but neither man looks convinced.
Because yeah, Ace of Spade is just a rookie. A rookie that has taken the world by storm and who’s already been offered the position of Warlord when he isn’t even twenty yet.
“Look we all know how this is going to go,” Thatch says, trapping Kingdew with an arm over his shoulders so he’ll be forced to listen to this, again . Marco would attempt to save him, he really would, but that would just give Thatch a fresh victim. “We’ll arrive and the kid will try to kill Oyaji who will take one look at him and decide to adopt him on the spot. He may try to kill us a few times after that, but he’ll end up joining. And that’s assuming Jinbei hasn’t defeated him by the time we arrive!”
“We know,” declares Izou, who has just come below deck. “But we must be wrong because the Piece of Spadille has just been spotted coming towards us.”
Well that’s interesting.
“That’s impossible,” says Kingdew, finally managing to free himself from Thatch’s grasp now that he’s distracted. “We are still a day away, are you telling me that this rookie defeated Jinbei in three days?”
“And he somehow found out where we’d be coming from,” Izou nods at him. “Haruta is already looking into it.”
“Maybe he was just escaping and coincidentally ran into us?” Jozu ventures even though he must know it’s a long shot.
“He is coming straight at us,” Izou shakes their head. “Oh, don’t look so worried, it’s just a rookie. And I, for one, won’t let him ruin my schedule. Or yours, Thatch, you are going straight to the kitchen to start dinner prep, otherwise you’ll stress all of us out when you realize it’s time to eat and you are just halfway done.”
“You never let me do anything fun,” Thatch pouts, Izou just glares at him. “Okay, okay, it’s not like we are all needed to deal with a rookie, even this one, I’ll go to the kitchen.”
Kingdew and Jozu share a look. “We’ll go meet the kid, then.”
Marco hesitates for a second. It is just a rookie. He doesn’t need to follow, he could take advantage of the blessed silence and take a short power nap.
He sighs and flies down, sometimes he really hates being the responsible one.
Up on deck there’s a very large group of people gawking at whatever is happening behind the rail of the ship. There’s way, way too many people for this to be just about a rookie crew tailing them.
Marco frowns, “What’s going on?”
Nobody answers, he’s pretty sure they don’t even hear him, so he flies to the roof of the kitchen to get a better look.
He feels his eyebrows raise of their own accord.
There’s what looks like a giant bullet coming straight towards the Moby. Only the bullet is laughing and was that a pirouette?
Marco lets out a snort. Rookies are usually show-off’s, it’s true, but this one is taking it to a whole new level.
Ace of Spades, because it must be Ace, laughs again, his head thrown back and eyes shining with glee, looking like he’s having the time of his life and waves a white cloth that has probably come from someone’s bedding in their direction.
“Nice boat,” he hears Kingdew admit, though it looks like it pains him to do so. “Do you think he is trying to trick us with the white flag?”
Jozu shrugs, it’s not like it matters one way or another.
“Who is the kid with the flashy ride?” asks Curiel, joining the ever-growing group of spectators. “And where can I get myself one of those boats?”
Marco makes a mental note to tell the shipwrights to clear any new boat designs with him.
Luckily, they seem to already be on damage control because one replies, “Pretty sure it’s custom-made to go with his logia, Commander.”
Curiel actually pouts at that.
As if aware that he has a captive audience, Ace accelerates and makes his boat twirl in the air.
“He’s got style,” comments Kingdew. “And guts, if I had eaten a devil fruit I wouldn’t play around like that over the sea.”
Jozu frowns, “He is cocky, all rookies are.”
When the kid gets within hearing distance, he slows down a bit and screams at the top of his lungs. “Are any of you a commander?”
Marco raises an eyebrow (and he had just gotten them down too!) but decides to still not get involved, he’s not really in the mood to spar and his brothers should be more than enough to handle this.
Kingdew breaths in deeply and answers at the same volume. “Some of us. Why? You wanna fight?”
Ace shakes his head. “Maybe later. For now, I just want permission to come aboard.”
The commanders look at one another, baffled by the situation. In the end, it’s Jozu who answers. “Granted.”
Marco swears he hears a ‘thanks, sparkly’ but that has to be wrong, not even rookies are that cocky. Hell there’s only been one man outside their crew that had ever managed to call Jozu that and survived. Well, two, but they came as a pack.
The kid takes a rope from his boat before jumping and letting his legs become fire which propels him even higher. He does a 360 degree flip and lands on the deck crouching down.
“Could you please tie Striker to your ship?” he asks politely, handling Curiel the rope. “I’d hate to lose her.”
Curiel is so surprised that he actually obeys.
Now that it’s clear this is more complicated than just a rookie wanting to test his strength against them, Marco flies down to the deck.
“Care to explain the reason for your visit, yoi?” he asks and has to suppress a smirk when his voice startles all his brothers. Except for Jozu, of course, he’s still annoyingly calm.
“First mate, Marco the Phoenix,” Ace nods at him and he almost looks respectful. “Permission to come aboard?”
“Didn’t Jozu already give it to you?” Marco raises an eyebrow. He wants to test just how well the kid knows the Code.
“He did.”
Ace is still smiling and he and Marco hold each other’s gazes for a full minute before Marco just sighs. “Granted. I hope you know that means you can’t harm any of my crewmates, not even my Captain.”
“Well, duh, that’s why I had the white flag.” He waves it in Marco’s face before wincing. “Is there anywhere I could clean it up before I go back? My first mate will kill me if he finds out I let it get soaked.”
“I don’t think you should be worrying about your first mate when you are on an enemy ship,” points Rakuyo out.
Ace crosses his arms, looking offended. “Not an enemy, I was granted permission to be here.”
“After attacking our ally,” reminds him Curiel.
“Jinbei? He is fine, my doctor made sure of it. Believe me, in a week he’ll be completely recovered and Koala won’t have any reason to skin me alive.” He shudders at that, like the Whitebeards have any idea who this ‘Koala’ is. Marco makes a mental note to tell Haruta, though. Someone that can scare this guy is someone worth keeping their eyes on. “He’s tough, it took me three whole days to take him down. But I had a message for you guys and this was the fastest way to get your attention.”
“You attacked a warlord of the sea in our territory because you wanted to give us a message, yoi?” Marco’s eyebrow couldn’t get any higher unless he started flying.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Ace smiles blindingly at them. “So can I talk with Captain Newgate, please? Oh, and Commander Izou too!”