From Ninja to Pirate

30

Lives are like wisps of smoke in the sky.
They dance and twist, and in a moment, gone.
Once they vanish, all one can do is cry,
And flail about and deny and groan.

The bud ends and the smoke dies.
The person sighs and their lives move on.
Whether one takes another, is up to them and their sighs,
But don't come crying when you get cancer, because you couldn't move on.

-author

"Hello Ace. Sorry about my tantrum earlier, but when I die, prepare for a whooping because I haven't forgiven you for dying yet." She warned, smiling weakly when she saw his hat and knife.

She took the knife and the belt, touching it fondly, and asked the person hiding behind her to come out.

"So you're Ace's older sister huh?" Marco said, slowly walking up to her. She just nodded, looking back at Ace's grave. "He talked about you a lot you know. Along with his two brothers. How you were always stronger than him, and how he was going to surpass you one day. Think he surpassed you?"

"If that was all it took to keep him alive. For him to keep chasing his dreams. I would be the strongest person on this earth to keep him in this world." Natsuki told him, sitting down in front of Ace. She touched a storage seal on her arm and brought out four red cups along with an expensive bottle of sake. She offered the three cups to Ace and glugged the portion in her own cup.

"That how you became siblings?" Marco asked, without questioning her method of getting the cups and alcohol.

"Nine years. I was only his sister for nine years, but I know, his time had come. Just like everybody else's time comes. I know mine isn't today, and no matter how angry I am at him, I bet he'll somehow be angrier than me if I killed myself today." She laughed and gave herself more of the sake. She offered the rest to Marco, who gladly accepted. "Where's your crew by the way?"

"We decided to disband our group with the promise to meet when in trouble."

"What are you going to do?"

"I dunno. That peaceful life with a family and a wife doesn't sound too bad now." He said fondly.

The rest of the night was spent with Marco and Natsuki drinking and talking about Ace, and for once, Natsuki wished her metabolism wasn't this good at keeping her sober.

She wanted to be drunk. To forget everything. To let everything loose, but Kurama knew better. If he let her be drunk, who knows what'll happen. Probably a few dead men and a couple of island's disappearances.

"Take it." Marco slurred at around four in the morning.

"What?"

"His stuff. I'm sure he would've wanted you to have it." Marco said after jumbling the words a few times.

"Hm? You really think?"

"Yeah. He would've wanted to fight with you rather than stay at this soppy place." Marco laughed, and Natsuki smirked as well, threading her new belt around her kimono. She placed her holsters for her revolvers on each side, and tied Kusanagi as well. She put the hat on, but then decided that they didn't match with her kimono, so she went to change her wardrobe slightly, unsealing one of the outfits her grandfather bought her when he was pampering her.

She laughed at the memory, knowing that it was no use trying to force herself to drown in regret. That wasn't something Ace would wish for.

She pulled out a long-ish shirt/short-ish dress that reached her thighs, and tied Ace's belt around her torso. She then got out a pair of long garter socks, with brown boots, and to keep it still look kind of modest, she wore a much longer red jacket . She placed his hat on her head, made a simple clone and smiled.