Protectors [One Piece Fanfiction]

Old Adventures: "I love..."

Old Adventures: "I love..."

Bright, polychromatic sparks exploded in the air, signalling the near-end of the festival as Portgas D. Ace and Ryuu D. Irin exchanged dumb stares wordlessly. The cacophony of booms and blows of the fireworks rang throughout the festive night.

"What do you mean you can't heal yourself? I saw you do it that night!" Ace exclaimed, finally breaking their silence.

Irin furrowed her brows and moved her head back out of confusion, "What? I ate the Mizu-Mizu no Mi, not the Heal-Heal no Mi, Ace. There's just no way I healed myself," she said.

"No, I swear! I saw your hand get all healed up! I was helping you treat it and it just healed by itself!" he argued

Irin stifled a laugh at the freckled ravenette, "I'm not sure what's harder to believe-- my hand healing on its own or you treating my wounds," she said.

"Wow... Thanks Irin, you're an amazing person... Just, wow... Thanks for letting me know that you find me incapable of kind acts..." he deadpanned.

The pinkette snickered a little before speaking, "That's not what I meant but the idea of you treating my wounds just sounds a little strange."

"Are you just calling me dumb right now?"

"What?! No!"

"But that's what you meant, no?"

"Now you're just picking on me."

Irin pouted, sticking her lower lip out as Ace continued to tease her by making her feel bad. He meant no harm, that was just how he was and he knew, very well, how to pick on the pinkette.

Smirking at his victory, he chuckled at her expression then his face slowly softened, "You know, I wasn't joking around when I told you that you could heal yourself," he said.

The pink haired girl raised her brow, about to rebut.

"It sounds crazy but I know what I saw-- Your hand healed up like-- like an animal putting itself on guard in a foreign environment. You get what I mean?"

"No, but I'd like to think that I do."

Ace deadpanned at the girl's response, "What I'm trying to say is that you healed yourself subconsciously-- like you did it on instinct or something. You were asleep when that happened and I tried to treat your hand but the moment the cloth touched your hand, you turned into water and the wound closed by itself," he explained.

"Wha-- How could the wound just close by itself?" she asked, shocked at the information she was receiving.

"It's like how normal wounds would close except it happened in a span of a few seconds for you," he said as he sat up and thought about how the scene unfolded that night, "Your wound didn't miraculously heal, it was like a sped up version of a normal wound healing, which means it wasn't magic!"

Irin tilted her head to the side then tilted it back, "Of course it wasn't magic, I'm pretty sure magic doesn't exist in this world; not that I've seen much of the world-- but I'm just pretty sure that it wasn't magic, the question is what was it then..." she said.

"Did you perhaps eat a strange fruit that gave you the ability to heal yourself?" Ace asked.

"Wouldn't that just be a devil fruit?" Irin said as she shook her head, in disappointment, at the male.

His lips formed and 'O' as he thought about what Irin had said, completely oblivious of the fact that she had just looked down on him and was probably secretly judging him in her head.