AN: Regarding how Teach escaped.
Haha! ffnet's kinda harsh, huh? yes, there is no feasible way Teach can escape Whitebeard's whole forces AND a merman-- it is a detail i left vague on purpose, so I'll admit I was wrong on that.
but you guys are forgetting something right now: Teach hasn't done anything yet.
only the time travellers know anything about what he will do, so there's also no reasonable way they will kill Teach right now.
All he's done up to now in this timeline can be chalked up to a horrid internal disagreement and a rude, disrespectful demand to leave, followed by a bout. He did not attempt mutiny yet, he just wants to leave. There is no reason for Whitebeard to grab him, chain him, or kill him.
Pirates are not saints, but Whitebeard definitely isnt a cruel guy that kills any member that no longer follows the same moral code.
so, it is entirely feasible for Whitebeard at this time, soft as he is for his sons (even if they go against him), to respect Teach's wishes to leave. Teach even fought Ace for his freedom, and he technically won.
all Nami told them to do was stop Teach from getting the fruit, and they did that already. no one said a thing about containment or killing.
if that explanation doesn't suffice, then oh well, chalk it up to the flaws of an imperfect writer. I'll be expanding on all this in a future chapter when Ace reunites with Nami in Alabasta.
- END NOTE
In the darkness of his own mind, Sabo suffers.
He's never been a fan of such complete blindness, but everything was made worse by the consistent plunge of despair that consumes his chest, like a growing lump that burns, burns, and keeps burning .
He could throw up, but he's not nauseated enough for it.
He could scream, but he's out of strength.
He could struggle and writhe, but he was paralyzed, forced to bear with the agony eating him alive, crawling across his body like mounds of carnivorous mites unable to be settled until he was dead.
Could he even die?
He can't even think straight. He can only bear with the pain, try to bear with the pain, fail to bear with the pain-- and rinse and repeat without a choice.
Eventually, he realizes that this is the fruit he's eaten.
And in the endless agony that feels like an eternity, his mind begins to find ways to cope. His instinct for survival rises out of his mind as he reaches the ends of his ropes.
He almost succumbs to the pain.
But his mind refuses to give up, and he begins to think hopefully of the things he'll see when he finally finds his way out of the sweltering darkness.
He sees Koala, the Revolutionary Army-- and he's reminded of the things he can't forget yet. He can't lose to this pain-- he can't forget them, he can't die here.
(And in the crest of his mind, he finds it.)
(He finds the memories of the brothers he used to have, the vision of red sake cups knocking against each other-- and the promise they once made.)
Suddenly, he's awake.
The world is bright-- and above him is a ceiling he doesn't recognize.
"M- Marco! MARCO! HEY, MARCO! He's awake!"
He's not in the darkness anymore. There's a mess of voice and movement as his vision is blurred, so blurred, he can't make anything out.
He groans, a sharp pain shooting up his head. The little movement reminds him of the dull throb-- that instantly crecendoes into a drill of sheer agony in his side.
He struggles to-- he can't sit up.
Heck, he can barely move. He hasn't felt like this since the time Kuma accidentally swatted him to the end of Baltigo.
Ace is hovering over him, and as Sabo's eyes clear up he can make out the panicked expressions, the wide eyes, and the tears brimming the corners.
(Oh, Ace is crying for him? He's kind of flattered.)
(...Ace?)
"You idiot! You didn't have to take that strike for me! I'm fucking fire and your reckless idiot head forgot, of course--"
("Ace…?")
Sabo's eyes widen in horror.
The freckles. The hair, dark and curled in just the right ways, framing his face in an almost uncharacteristically innocent image. He always showed his concern through aggression, and his affection through displays of violence.
Sabo knows this because… because he does.
"Ace?" he croaks out, and he's not so sure if that sounds like a word at all-- but Ace freezes at the call, and Sabo takes a moment to blink-- and really rake in the features.
He remembers.
Shit, Sabo remembers.
Sabo suddenly remembers anything and it's trippy-- it's like nothing's changed-- but everything's changed and there was no way to ignore this except--
"Shit," Sabo whispers. "Shit," because there was no better way to describe the burst of emotions in his chest. He tries to cry, he thinks he does, but it hurts so much he doesn't know why exactly the tears are in his eyes. "Shit… Ace."
Ace freezes where he stands.
"Sabo?" that one word is full of hope.
No response is needed.
It's right there in the way Sabo said his name, a habit that the noble couldn't break, the whisper-like drag at the end of the syllable that he started out doing from a childhood accent brought from the High Town of Goa.
He fixed the pronunciation later on with Makino's help, but Sabo never changed the way he said Ace's name. It was important, almost like a little nickname just between them. Luffy later adopted the same way it's spoken, but that was because Luffy said things however he wanted, always.
(But in that moment-- they just knew.)
Ace's face was filled with tears.
He collapses forward, careful not to manhandle Sabo-- but he buries his face deeply in the man's chest and he just sobs .
"You-- fucking," he certainly hasn't lost his potty mouth, "fucking idiot of a brother I--" a choke, and something that sounds like a sniffle, "Sabo, I hate you so much."
Sabo can't hug back. It hurts too much everywhere to do that-- but in that moment, he just wanted to cry and laugh at the same time.
"Yeah," he says, his voice still raspy. "Good morning to you too, Ace."
Right now, nothing else mattered.
Sabo breaks the silence and the ambience a long moment later.
"Seriously though," Sabo chuckles, a tear at the edge of his voice, a burn of amusement rising in his tone. "Did you seriously get my jolly roger tattooed on your arm?"
Ace shoots right up, his cheeks blooming red. "Oh shut up! You were dead, okay?!"
He pulls his brother's cheeks apart as wide as they would go as Sabo whines in a mixture of pain and defiance. There are tears in the former nobles eyes as he grins, cheekily waxing poetic about, "I'm so happy that you love me so much--"
Ace is seriously going to die of embarrassment, "Shut up! Stop talking! I'll punch you!"
The childish roughhousing ends with a tight, tight-- and almost suffocating squeeze as Ace wraps his arms around Sabo's shoulders, rounding over his figure to clasp him as close as he can even by the head.
He holds and he clings and he doesn't let go because--
--because he doesn't want to be even an inch apart. He doesn't even want to breathe, he just wants to feel Sabo in his arms and never, ever let him go again.
(Because he's sorry he never did this enough.)
"Dammit, if I ever find Dragon, I'm going to punch him," he says, ignoring the husky whispers of the tears clogging up his throat.
"Yes, go ahead," Sabo clenches back, refusing to let go from the warmth that has never hugged him so tightly before but still feels like the most familiar, most homelike thing he has ever received. "But me first, alright?"
He's here and they're together and he doesn't care that this is more touchy-feely than they've ever been. Ace is the only thing right now between Sabo and the insanity of the chronic agony in his veins.
Right now, there's nothing else he wants to do but cry about the years they've lost together.
Haruta runs Sabo through everything he's found out about the Yami-Yami no mi, from the encyclopedia to research notes and to the extra information they found down the information lines in this short time frame.
It's not until Sabo touches Ace and he failed to change, that they realize the horrifying nullifying properties of the fruit.
"Isn't it ironic that Ace gets the bright and fiery Devil Fruit while I get the dark and edgy one?" Sabo asks. "Ace was the living representation of an edgelord back when we were kids. Tried to kill me a hundred times and everything."
Haruta puts his book down.
Then, "please," he says, approaching the revolutionary with the most serious expression in the universe, "please, do tell me more."
"Haruta don't you fucken' dare --"
Ace is held back, literally, by a hand shoved to his face. Marco steps forward, just as interested as Haruta. "Does he try to kill everyone?" he asks, incredulous.
Sabo nods. "His... love language, is murder," he says, his face comically serious. "Did that with me, with Luffy-- our other brother by the way-- and with Gramps too at some point. Only person he didn't do it to was Makino and that's cause he had a raging boy-crush--"
"Sabo, shut up!"
At this point, Haruta's eyes are sparkling, Marco is incredibly amused, and Thatch, who came in with a tray of food, stayed for the tales and misadventures of jungle boy Ace and trash noble Sabo.
It's only after a day of extensive checkup and a very angry phone call from 'my partner that's on standby about three miles from here in case I get killed on this ship', Sabo is finally able to go out on deck.
(Actually, he shouldn't be, he should still be a walking epitome of agony, but for some reason he just says it's okay and he's active. Marco is worried and horrified.)
(But seeing as he's on a ship full of equally thickheaded morons, he isn't very surprised.)
"Tell me honestly, do you pain sensors actually work?" Marco asks, mostly out of incredulity.
"Of course they do. I feel like dying right now," Sabo says, cheerfully. "Except--"
"You are NOT allowed to die again!" Ace snaps, interrupting him as Sabo gestures in a 'as you can see' manner.
The fire Logia is still clinging to Sabo's side, more reluctant to leave him than ever. It's honestly getting annoying.
After hearing the good news and deciding it was a great opportunity to have an excuse to drink their sorrows about Teach away once and for all, the crew had another party yesterday. They were going to be in trouble for stock soon, but it was hard to combat it.
Ace was happy and sad and hungover and so was the rest of the crew.
"Anyways, I cleared things up with my contact," Sabo finishes his report to Whitebeard. It was just the basic situational update about the Revolutionary Army's concerns in regard to Sabo's prolonged stay here. "Sorry for intruding, and our leader extends his words of gratitude."
Whitebeard had been amusing himself with the way Marco and Ace squabble over nothing, but the news was at the very least, easing to his ears. It's not much of a relief to the overall situation, though. "I see, that's great to hear."
He was, however, eager to distract himself.
"Now that you've regained your memories, does that mean I can call you my, by extension, son?" he wonders to the air, rubbing his chin contemplatively.
Sabo's jaw drops.
"New brother?!" Thatch bursts out of the galley door, how the heck did he even hear the conversation? With a hand still holding a large tray of fresh baked bread. "Did I just hear that?"
A few heads immediately lift.
Whitebeard nods. "Looks like we'll need another party to get you settled in," at Sabo's gobsmacked expressions, Whitebeard iterates, "well, Nami was like this too. The more the merrier on this ship, you'll grow into it."
"Did you just say 'you'll grow into it' like we're talking about a new pair of shoes?" Sabo can't believe his ears right now, "wait, I'm not your son--"
"New brother indeed!" Ace cheers. He immediately spins and declares, "hey everyone! This is Sabo and he's our new brother now! Get along!"
"Listen to me!"
"Awh man. Another supply trip soon. We're seriously having too many parties this month."
"Then STOP having them!"
Promptly ignored once again, Sabo is swung around and handed off to the next person that deposits a mug of booze in his hand and initiates a toast. Apparently, their hangover no longer exists.
"Hey, call your partner so they can join the party," someone suggests.
"Excuse me? I'm not compromising her position."
"Oh it's a girl? Then all the more reason not to leave her out there!" Thatch declares. "She must be hungry if she's been waiting for you so long. And Whitey would kill me if she learns about this. C'mon."
It'll be awhile before Sabo finally gets to go back to Baltigo.
"On the sea, send it up with the albatross. On land, lead it down with gold," Nami flips a coin into the air, catching it in the back of her hand. "In times of strife, listen to the party in the wind. When things come through, cast your bets on the fires of chaos."
It's a rumour on the waves, whispering to the world of the four devas that control the flow of information in the Grand Line and out.
Coby will become the fifth-- no, by default, he already is. And so is Usopp and Nami, who have already begun using future knowledge. Buggy's a wild card, so they don't know what on earth he's planning, though.
Vivi hums at the knowledge. "So the News Coo is part of one of those information lines as well?" she says, at least understanding the first part.
Nami nods. "It's the most accessible form of information, and at the same time the least," Vivi has no idea what that means.
The navigator chuckles, standing up from the steps to arrive at Usopp's little deck workshop, where the outer shells of her metal arm lay on the mat.
After being slightly toasted, Nami needed to let it air so it could cool properly. Usopp, finding the chance, decided to add improvements to the structure while he could.
"I thought your arm needed to be set together by an experienced physician," Vivi questions, remembering the need to ask Crocus as a doctor back on Whiskey Peak. "Is this different?"
"Yeah, as long as this part stays on," Nami gestures at the only remaining part of her arm that was still left on the shoulder-- a protruding, glowing section connected by a plug of wires and sockets.
"Ah… I see."
Now, returning to the talk about information.
"So the reason you knew about my identity was due to one of those four lines?" Vivi asks, finally arriving at the reason Usopp even knew she was a princess. "But if it was exposed already…"
"No, the information we're getting is from a different, highly classified source," Usopp fills in before a misunderstanding sets. "There is no line in the world that knows about your involvement with Baroque Works, or our crew, as of now."
Vivi only ends up more confused than before, and she doesn't quite have the motivation to try asking again. She's been attempting to weedle this piece of information for thirty minutes now, she doesn't think she'll ever get any closer.
Promptly, she turns her head to watch Luffy chase Carue around the deck.
The rubber idiot latches onto the bird, and Carue kicks him crudely. It's the most vulgar thing Vivi has ever seen her gentle and domesticated boy do, so it stuns her.
"C'mon, Chachamaru!" Luffy whines, and who the hell is Chachamaru, that's actually kind of cute for a name, "you're huge! Give me a ride!"
Carue responds with a still-offended SQUAWK! And kick to the face, Luffy goes flying overboard, as he should.
Zoro immediately stands up and jumps after him.
Vivi finds herself wondering whatever would happen if one of the Baroque Works Officer Agents fell into the sea while sailing. Do they just let each other die? She hasn't been briefed about Devil Fruit user protocol yet.
(Wait no no, it's not 'yet', it's 'before now'. Gotta get back to normal lifestyle.)
"It's teatime my lovely ladies~!" out comes a dancing Sanji, carting a huge tray of strangely reddish drinks.
Luffy cheers sleepily from his waterlogged spot on the deck, and Zoro groans, squeezing the water out of his sash. Carue sits down, apparently satisfied with chucking him out of the deck once today.
"Here you go, Nami-san and Vivi-chan," Sanji sings, daintily handing them a glass each.
He had only begun to use her name a moment ago, but it feels great to be called by her name again. She hadn't really affused to it yet, but now-- now she has a right to call herself by her name again. For real this time.
"Are you sure we can relax this much?" she asks with a defeated sigh.
"It'll be fine. They'll work hard when a storm comes," Nami sips on her drink and hums in absolute delight, "this is really good! Thanks as always, Sanji-kun!"
"Of course, Nami-swan! Nothing makes me happier than knowing it pleases you," he bows. Then a holler to the rest of the deck, "alright, you hooligans, whoever wants a taste of my special drink gather round!"
Sanji then saunters away.
Even Carue makes his way over, where Sanji teaches him out to drink out of a straw. She wonders if he should even drink anything remotely alcoholic, but she holds herself back, realizing that complaining would do nothing.
Usopp, leaving the arm parts where they were, is handed a drink as well as the group gathers around him instead of making him convene the other way around.
"Hey Usopp, think we can get the net out and fish another sea king?" Luffy asks, excited on the aspect of their first real, sea voyage on the Grand Line.
They were already thinking of what they could do to while their boredom away.
(Wait, what do they mean another?)
"Fishing huh? Not a bad idea," that's Zoro, and Vivi thought he was the sensible one of the ship but apparently she was wrong. "How are we going to lure one out, though?"
"Let's not go for sea kings right away. I want to dismantle the net for supplies anyways," Usopp takes a moment to find the straw, and Sanji has to reach over to help. The action is so casual, Usopp simply continues talking, "I'll make you a fishing rod, okay?"
"Oh! You can?!"
"Of course. Who do you think made Nami's Clima Tact?" came the boasting once more, "I may be blind now, but thirty years ago I used to be called Usopp, the Master Craftsman of the King's entourage!"
"Oooh!"
Luffy sparkles, but Sanji just scoffs, fixing him an unimpressed look as he remarks, "so you're more than thirty years old?"
Usopp sputters, "no! Well, actually-- I mean--"
He doesn't even know how to begin explaining himself, and as everyone starts teasing him for being an old man apparently, Nami lets out a chuckle beside her.
And Vivi turns around to see a beautiful smile.
(That's what Vivi wants to do.)
(Living a mundane life, telling dumb jokes-- these things ultimately build up into a beautiful smile on everyone's faces. That's the ideal world in Vivi's heart, and she wants nothing but to make her country fit the bill.)
"Being on this ship sure makes you lose the will to worry, huh?"
When Nami says that, Vivi almost wants to say something back in annoyance. She wants to focus on her country-- she's still worried about Igaram, and it can only be trouble herein.
And yet, when she sees the joy that radiates from every single member of this crew, genuine and solid and unbreakable, Vivi finds herself wanting to assimilate, if only to be free for once in her life.
The wind blows through her hair, sending it dancing across her back, barely held together in a ponytail by the band at its crest.
"Yes, it is quite relaxing," she admits.
And she might be fine if it stays like this for a while longer.
Kinoko wakes up a few hours later, weak and active and hurt in all places. The first thing she does is leap out of her cot-- Gin has to lunge over in his half-awake state and catch her-- as she frantically checks for the ring around her casted foot.
When she notices it's there, she sighs in relief.
Gin groans, slowly getting up. Wrapped in bandages and sleeping stomach down on the only bed on the ship for hours is not ideal, but Sanji was a strict nurse when times called.
The bird, sluggishly getting squirming in his hands, looks around in confusion. She finally notices the way her wings are bandaged tightly, and she makes a cooing noise, slumping disappointedly.
"You're finally awake." At least she didn't just die-- birds are much more fragile than humans, after all. He doesn't know what to make of the huge duck though, "c'mon, let's get you to the others."
Usopp would be happy to see she's awake.
Cradling his injuries with a grunt-- ugh, he can feel a fever coming. He might be getting an infection, which isn't hard to guess seeing as they left all the medicine and antibiotics for Igaram. Usopp had salve, but that only went so far.
Shrugging on the spare jacket Sanji snatched for him over his shoulders, Gin staggers up the steps and out into the deck.
"Hey," he says, calling attention to him in all sorts of exclamations of his name, "the bird woke up."
Kinoko is then handed off to Usopp, who shows her off to the crew as they begin reprimanding her.
"Geez, one blow and you're out?" Luffy whines. "Now I look bad cause I keep losing races to you." Then a moment later, "what does that face mean?! I'm not admitting defeat yet! HEY!"
"That's right. Stay somewhere we can see you," Zoro crosses his arms, "you're the guide bird, you're not supposed to get lost."
Kinoko then makes a very defiant noise back, and though none of them can quite understand her language, they all know exactly what hypocrisy she's pointing out.
"It's fine," Nami defends, "hey Noko-chan. Want to know how I paid that guy back for you?"
Kinoko perks up, interested.
Gin leans against the railing, "next time, go for the eyes," he says. "You're good at that. But stick your claws forward and they'll scream."
"That's terrifying, please don't," Usopp deadpans.
The birds are then introduced to each other, which is a strange sight, considering how little Kinoko is in comparison to the large spot-billed duck.
Vivi says an awkward greeting to Kinoko, who gives her a silent, acknowledging nod and nothing else. It's one of the most awkward interactions she's ever experienced.
"Here Ennosuke, that's Chachamaru," Luffy introduces.
"This is Kinoko, and that's Carue," Usopp corrects.
"That's confusing," Luffy says, to which everyone gives him an exasperated look he promptly pretends not to notice. "Anyways Chachamaru, don't eat Ennosuke! She's tinier than you."
Carue gives him a pointed look, to which Kinoko croaks back her own incredulous caw.
The birds then dissolve into a conversations of quacks and chirps that none of the humans can ever imagine understanding. But it's filled with mutual laughter and occasional glances in Luffy's direction, so they reckon it's a fruitful little talk.
Luffy, though, gathers enough that they're dissing him.
"You two are assholes!" he snaps, "that does it! I'm catching one of you and using you as fish bait! Wha-- Why are you running?! Get back here!"
When Carue starts dashing across the bow with Kinoko hugging his neck-- well, let's say the rest of the strawhats simply laugh as their captain is stepped on along the way.
Usopp simply smiles, hearing their captain squeak and yelp each time. There's a splash, Zoro curses, and Gin sighs in the distance. Nami is giggling now, and Vivi is slightly worried. Sanji hands Gin a warm drink, and Merry sails on smoothly in the wind
It's peaceful.
Sparring with Nami is wildly different from sparring with Usopp.
Unlike the sharpshooter, Nami's movements are clunky, with big swings and large movements that result in impacts many times stronger.
And she applies many more theatrics to her movements. If Usopp was a force that you could easily hit but never injure-- Nami was impossible to even get close enough.
Kogatana is snapped out of his hands for the fifteenth time-- and he yells out in frustrations.
Nami leans against her axe, smiling in an almost snarky manner. "Wanna go again?" she taunts, and Zoro contemplates the pros and cons of-- nevermind.
"Well, it's hard to blame you, since you're not used to using one sword as opposed to three," Nami reckons. "You could stand to be a little less tough on yourself-- how about you use just one longsword. With Kogatana, I mean."
Zoro picks up his dagger from the deck-- oh sorry, did it give you a heart attack Carue? At least it didn't land on you-- and looks over, confused.
"As in, one katana and one dagger? That's dumb," he says. And imbalanced.
Nami pouts at that, denying it completely. "You're the weird one for using two full length swords. People usually have two swords of uneven lengths so one could be used for parrying, you know."
(That, and people usually aren't ambidextrous enough to wield them equally, so they're uneven to compensate.)
Zoro simply raises a brow at that. "That can be done with two swords of the same length," he denies. "In fact, if it's not the same it throws me off."
A scoff. "A devoted dojo kid you are, Zoro."
"Stop insulting the dojo, viking witch!"
Nami actually sputters. "Vikin- what ? Okay, that one is new," she admits. "But you could try, you know. It could get you somewhere."
Zoro groans at that.
It's not as if he's incredibly stubborn to uphold the rudimental, practiced motions of kendo that he's learned from Koushiro-- but breaking out of it would be a gamble. And he's right-- he's just been reluctant to take that step for now, and that's why he's at a standstill.
To use Kogatana as a parrying blade-- would be the equivalent of deeming it unworthy of cutting anything.
("There are swords that can cut anything, and swords that can cut nothing.")
No… Kogatana isn't a sword that can't hold its own.
(He did manage to hit the vulture Miss Friday back on Whiskey Peak, after all.)
Kogatana is simply a blade with potential that isn't found in Zoro's traditional style. He has to find that line of skill-- and Zoro can't do it while staying in his shell.
Drawing Wado Ichimonji from its sheath, Zoro holds them forward.
The lengths and differing weights are awkward against each other, but he tries not to let it bother him.
"One more time," he prompts.
Nami lifts her axe. "With pleasure."
Zoro didn't defeat a hundred bounty hunters on Whiskey Peak. Not alone, at least-- so if Dracule Mihawk was a hundred times that effort, now he needs two times as much of that. It's still far, far away from where he's at right now.
(He has to rush ahead as quickly as he can, even if it's clumsy and imperfect on the way.)
(Or he'll fall behind.)
Vivi gets alone time with Gin.
Which is incredibly stressful seeing as Gin was the one most against her joining their trip up until very recently, but there wasn't much of a choice.
Gin needed to be watched so he would stay rested.
For a long while, all he did was read the copy of Brag Men in the women's room-- to which Vivi began to soft through the cupboards as well, reminded of the little shelf they had in the King's office in Alabasta.
And there she finds it.
"The Emerald City?" she picks it off the shelf immediately, amazed. "There are only a handful of copies in the world! How rare it is to find one here…"
Gin has to admit-- he'd literally only moved it over from the boy's dorm yesterday because he was moving into this room-- but damn, she's got taste.
Emerald City, unlike Brag Men, Scarcity Value, or A Living Thing, wasn't mass produced.
In fact, Emerald City was such a fabled, constricted tale, that at some point, production of it was banned by World Government law.
The copies that exist today were copied by hand and passed down in hiding. Which is why Gin found such joy in discovering that in the basements of Oykot.
(Some say it had links to the Void Century, but none could make such a claim without questioning the censorship of knowledge by the World Government.)
(Well, Gin isn't too interested in that.)
"You know of it?" he asks instead. Small talk isn't his thing, but he's been forbidden from going out for a while now and he'll take what he gets. And it's also not common for him to be able to talk to someone that even knew of his dream, anyways.
"Of course I do!" Vivi says, holding herself back in embarrassment as she realizes she's gotten excited. She looks away, briefly admitting that, "my mother used to tell me stories about it. It was one of my favourites."
Mother? That would be the queen, wouldn't it?
Gin has always seen the story as the treasure of the civilians, of those hoping for a better life. It was strange to think that a member of privilege, of royalty, would look upon this story with the same fascination as she did.
(It was a dissonance.)
(Didn't royalty already have everything Emerald City promised?)
Gin takes the book from her.
Vivi looks surprised, so he scoffs, "the books on this shelf mostly belong to Nami, but this one belongs to me."
Kinoko caws disapprovingly, glancing side-eyed at him. Gin hisses at her.
"Oh…" Vivi steps back. "My bad. I apologize for not asking permission."
She bows her head-- she bows her head , which takes Gin by surprise-- and fluidly transitions into sifting through the other books.
"May I borrow this one, then?" she gestures clearly without touching-- and she waits, patiently, for his answer.
She doesn't show any signs of being repulsed by his obvious rude treatment. There's just a subtle, polite smile on her face-- it's not mocking. It's almost… almost full of understanding .
It annoys Gin. Very much so.
He looks aside, irritated. "Do whatever the hell you want."
Pretending to ignore Vivi therein, Gin returns to reading. Emerald City is still tucked by his side, forgotten but not unimportant.
Vivi sits by the couch, pouring herself a drink from the mini bar. She settles with a book on her lap, and they read in silence.
It's awkward, but Gin pretends it's not his fault.
Usopp is working on carving wood by the mast when Luffy slowly lowers himself to his side, glancing curiously at the object he was working on.
Usopp doesn't need to look over, he simply blows aside the sawdust and hums. "Did you need something, Luffy?"
Luffy snaps back into his actual size, capturing his straw hat as it bumps out of place before standing up and crouching to get a closer look. "Hey Usopp, what's the hockey thing that you use to see?"
It's the first time Luffy has expressed actual, serious interest in it, so it catches Usopp off guard. He then accidentally nicks himself, which causes a short panic.
"What are you idiots doing?" Sanji snaps. "And you, how many times have I said? No using your hands!"
"No using your hands, no using your feet," Usopp mutters sarcastically, "I need my hands to work. I can handle this."
"I don't care if you can handle it!" Sanji slams a foot on his head, though not as hard as he would usually hit, "if your hands don't heal well and you lose feeling in those fingers, it's all the worse for your already shitty sensitivity!"
And he does have a point.
Touch is an important part of how Usopp gets around-- if his fingers get too calloused, he wouldn't be able to tell when things are hot, or sharp, or the other way around. Usopp's first days on Baratie were filled with clumsy ways of how not to hold hot soups.
The rough work of inventing and machinery have already brought his fingers to a thick padding-- but burns are a different matter entirely. He got some while waitering and sometimes cooking for staff meals, but never to this extent.
Usopp concedes and puts down the block.
"Haki is something essential in the Grand Line," he begins, deciding that explanation is prompt here while Sanji is listening for once. "For the normal people like us, it's the only way we can stand up against most Devil Fruit users in the world."
Luffy doesn't say a thing about how he's being indirectly called an abnormal person. He simply listens, and waits for the rest.
"Remember the smoke guy in Loguetown?" Usopp prompts, "his devil fruit makes him intangible, doesn't he?"
"Smokey, right?" Luffy nods. "He could touch me, but I couldn't hit him at all!" he says. Then he remembers-- "how did he know I didn't have Haki?"
(He had, after all, specifically grumbled on the fact that Nami was following a chump like him. Luffy was going to prove him wrong next time.)
Usopp responds by pulling Luffy's cheek-- to which the rubber captain whines loudly.
Sanji-- this is the first time he's seen it used this way-- blinks amazedly at it. "It can bypass rubber properties?" he wonders. "So even a Logia?"
Usopp nods. "It's the power to enforce your will outwards," he says, describing it as vaguely as it can. "And when you achieve that peak-- it shows as a physical representation."
Luffy and Sanji's attention is sucked right in as Usopp's eyes gleam a bright red against his usual black sheen.
Then they fade out, and Usopp picks up the slab of wood again.
"Freaky," Sanji notes, and Usopp shrugs.
"Knowing how to utilize Haki is one of the requirements to become a Marine Vice Admiral," the sharpshooter says, just for scale, "it's not enough to just know how to use it, but it's the starting point."
And that, to Luffy, meant a very startling revelation.
(So, in the opinion of the two Grand Line veterans on his crew, Luffy wasn't even at the starting line yet?)
(Usopp and Nami are both there, waiting for him to get to their level?)
As a captain-- as a captain, this shouldn't be how it is.He's supposed to pull them forward together. Not the other way around-- this doesn't sound right at all. This doesn't sound right at all.
"Usopp!" he says, almost immediately. "Teach me Haki!"
Usopp is more than happy to comply.
"I'm not a master or anything, so it's not going to be easy, alright?"
Sanji clicks his tongue at that. "Well I bet you aren't, being blind and all. I'll overtake you as soon as I figure it out," he mutters. A moment later he clarifies that, "Nami-swan is perfect as she is, though!"
And he's right. He, and subsequently Zoro and Luffy, will definitely overtake him and Nami in a flash. Once they unlock Haki, they can only go up from there.
(But what about Nami and Usopp?)
Usopp falters at the thought.
(No, no,) he shakes his head. (He'll be strong enough once he gets his Pop Greens, and once he masters his Haki in different, more advanced ways.)
Deep inside, something whispers to him, a grim and dark realization.
(You're in a stalemate, aren't you?)
It taunts him.
(When are you going to get stronger?)
He crushes his hat over his head and tries not to let it bother him.