Ikari ][ One Piece ][

Chapter Three

~Ace's POV~

                Ikari disappeared after her little stunt earlier in the day, leaving me to wander the ship on my own. Thatch followed me around for a bit to tell me that they'd beaten my crew and that they were all on the ship somewhere and I couldn't determine if it was to get a rise out of me or if that was just his nonchalant nature.

                I decided to wait until nighttime to make another attempt on Whitebeard's life. It was my original goal, to defeat the strongest man alive. So I bided my time wandering the ship learning the best escape route for when the task was finished and finding all the life boats and small vessels so I could make a getaway.

                Once the moon was high in the sky and the majority of the crew retired to their cabins, I slunk to Whitebeards room a little surprised it wasn't heavily guarded. There were two people on the ship that wanted him dead. Why wasn't he more cautious? I crept into his room and froze as I spotted the beautiful blonde preparing to attack. She jumped slightly when she heard the door open and threw me a menacing glare.

                "You've got to be kidding me." She hissed under her breath, "Just what in the hell do you think you're doing here?"

                "Me?! What are you doing here?" I asked plainly causing her to shush me with another glare.

                "Shut your big mouth, rookie, before you wake up the whole damn ship."

                Whitebeard continued snoring softly, not even the least bit aware of our presence or the impending threat on his life.

                "I'm going to be the one to take the Old Man's life, not you." I shot at her.

                "Over my dead body!" She hissed forgetting to be quiet as she raised her voice to my level.  "Get lost!"

                The snoring stopped, though neither of us took notice as we turned on each other. Two strong hands reached out and knocked our heads together roughly before a deep booming voice roared, "Why don't both of you get lost and keep it down?!"

                Upon realizing our target was now awake we lunged simultaneously and were both hurled through the wall and smacked into the side of the hull outside of Whitebeard's room startling a few straggling crew members.

                "Oi, don't you two have any respect for people sleeping?" They snickered.

                "This is your fault!" Ikari turned on me with a snarl. "Stop interfering!"

                "Stop putting all the blame on me." I retorted.

                "They fight like an old married couple." Thatch's familiar voice chuckled nearby and I turned to find the nonchalant auburn haired man standing next to the blonde first division commander, Marco.

                "Shut up!" Ikari snarled at Thatch as she swiftly kicked me away from her sending me flying in Thatch's direction. "All of you can go to hell." She hissed as she turned and stalked away. Her body trembled slightly from her rage and she gripped her fists tightly before flitting from view. It was eating away at her, the rage. If she gave into it anymore, it would completely consume her.

                I managed to faze through the fourth division commander and land on my feet casting a glare in the direction she'd disappeared in. What was her problem?

                "Lover's dispute?" Thatch chuckled as he turned to me.

                I threw him a glare and headed in the opposite direction.