Protectors [One Piece Fanfiction]

Secrets and Plans

Secrets and Plans

He did not show up.

Irin snuck out of her ship that night to meet with Luffy if anyone were to agree to her terms, but alas, no one showed up.

Returning to her ship empty handed, she began to feel worried about the young boy. However, her worries were quelled when her crow returned to her with a letter in its claws. She unscrolled the sheet of paper and read the words that were drawn onto it,

'Hi Irin!

I'm alive and well! I'm so glad you're here, will you help me get to Ace? I have a plan to get there with the help of the Snake Woman! She said that we'll be leaving to where Ace is tomorrow morning, I think that means I'll be seeing you! I wasn't sure what to write but the Granny told me to tell you that I'm alive and well because that's what you said you wanted to know!

From: Luffy'

The pink haired girl let out a sigh of relief as she huffed a small laugh, "That does sound like him, I'm so glad you're alright," she smiled to herself, tearing up a little.

That night, Irin did not sleep. She stayed up all night trying to figure something out.

She thought a lot, stressed over Ace a lot, and cried quite a fair bit. It was a tiring night but she could not sleep. Irin could not rest knowing that Ace was still in Impel Down with no safe way out. Sure, Pops had a plan, but she needed more assurance. She trusted the Whitebeard Pirates but at the same time, she wanted to help in some way.

She wanted to devise a plan that would save Ace for sure.

Consider this as insurance, Irin did not feel safe that Ace's life depended on the outcome of a war.

She needed something that would help protect him, should the Whitebeard Pirates fail. She had to protect him along with the request of her family. They did not want her to be part of their plan but at the same time, she wanted to help them.

'There must be something I can do to help... There must be something that only I can do... What can I do to help them?' she questioned herself as she flipped through her journal, in search of something that might help spark an idea.

The flip and flick of each page could be heard throughout the room as she scanned the pages carefully; maybe there was something about herself that she had written through the years and it could help her figure something out. As she turned the pages impatiently, her delicate fingers brushed through the edges of the page and sliced her gentle skin.

Irin hissed at the sudden pain she felt at her fingertips, bringing her hand towards her face as she looked at the cut and watched it heal automatically.

A light bulb then glowed bright above her head, she figured out a way to help Ace, as well as protect him.

There was something in her cells after she ate the Mizu Mizu no Mi that helped her instinctively heal herself even if she didn't purposely focus on healing. If she could extract a part of that ability temporarily and lend it to Ace, she wouldn't have to worry about him getting terribly injured or dying.

That extracted part of her water cells would help heal him in her stead.

She had thought it all out in those few seconds, the problem that troubled her was that she had never done something like this before.

She wasn't even sure if she could pull off something like this, but either way, she was determined.

For starters, she wasn't even sure how to extract a part of her ability and give it away. There were no manual or instruction guides to devil fruits. She just had to figure this out all by herself.