Chapter 15: Don't underestimate her
Marco woke her up early in the morning to get ready to teach her a certain power. "There are 3 kinds of Haki. the first one is armament Haki. It's like an invisible armor you can protect yourself with and used it for attacks too" He held his arm up and there was suddenly this layer of black on his hand and forearm.
Shay observed him and it looked so smooth. She couldn't hold herself back and she wanted to touch it, but before she could Marco took his arm away, "You can touch it when you learn it yourself, yoi." He smirked down at her.
"I will. Now, tell me about the other two" she said excitedly, "The next one is Observation Haki. It's sensing the presence of someone and being able to predict their next attack, yoi".
She had a similar power, "you have to take your shoes off to feel the earth's vibration properly, right? But with observation haki you can easily do the same, but so much better" he explained further.
"That's so cool" she had star eyes.
This Haki stuff was just getting better and better. Shay was even more determined to learn it and with the first two sounded so cool, she was sure the last one would be even better.
"The last one is the rarest and it's called the Conquers Haki. It's the power to dominate other people's willpower, but only one in a million has it. You can't learn if you haven't awoken it, yoi" he finished.
Even the name sounded badass.
"I don't know if you can learn the third one, yet, but we'll figure it out later" he assured her with his beautiful smile. Shay nodded, but he didn't seem convinced at least to her. "Great, the first step is for you to take a blindfold on while I throw things at you," he said in a serious voice.
"A-alright?" she wasn't really sure about it but used her bandana that was holding her hair as a blindfold anyway. Her hair fell down her back and she had a long piece of ribbon to quickly tie her hair around her arm. You never know when you'll need it.
The result wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for now.
She took a stand to prepared for whatever Marco was going to throw at her, "Ready when you are, Marco" but the second she said that she felt something hitting her. Before she could get over the shock she was hit again.
And again, and again, "Wait, Marco. Let me take my shoes off" there was no way she could concentrate on the vibration of the ground when he kept hitting her. But before she could, something hit her again, "Give me a break" Shay almost screamed.
"If you want to learn, that's how you do it, and if you think that taking off your shoes will help you then go ahead" why did he make it sound like she couldn't, "I will," she said stubbornly back.
When Shayla was ready, she stood up, but she couldn't feel Marco's present on the deck anymore and was suddenly hit at the top of her head. "Really smart. Hiding in the air" she fake laughed and Marco landed next to her transforming his arms and legs back.
"What would you do in that situation, Shay," he said while taking her blindfold off and looked into her eyes. "At those moments, I would have my eyes to see" she simply answered, "What if it were dark, yoi?".
"Then I'll use my fire to light up the place" she didn't understand why he kept insisting on this color of observation so much. Learning it was annoying and she had survived just fine so far without it.
"You still don't seem to understand. So, I'll put the blindfold on, and you can throw things at me" and this was her chance for revenge.
Shay took a couple of steps back and prepared for an attack, "fire punch from your right fist" the first commander said in a low voice, but the girl heard it and caught herself before attacking the way he said it.
"What…?" she looked confused, "I told you with Haki you can predict your opponent's next move, yoi" he was smirking. "See if you can predict this" and she punched a wind attack at him, but he dodged. The next thing was kicking with fire and he dodged too.
It was starting to annoy her, so she attacked with all of her elements without think. Still, somehow, he kept dodging as if it was nothing. This time she took a deep breath and calmed herself down. She needed to focus on this.
Shay closed her eyes and moved her arms in a big circle motion with her index and middle fingers out, gathering energy.
When she was ready, she stopped her motion and opened her eyes locking onto her target with hawk-like eyes before shooting a bolt of lightning at Marco.
When it left her body, it made this terrifying loud noise that shock most of the pirates. The first mate on the other hand was totally calm and just transformed into his phoenix form before the attack just went through him.
"Oi, that's cheating Marco" she pouted, "I'm a pirate" he smirked as he transformed back and gave back her bandana. It frustrated her but he was right, and she had even used the same line a couple of times.
Shay sighed and looked at him, "I'll get you next time". "I'll like to see you try" accepting her challenge.
-x-
The next couple of days has been awful and things had only gotten worse. Shayla was desperately trying to dodge whatever was thrown at her and this time it wasn't only Marco but Thatch and Teach too.
"This is for getting me in trouble when we were kids," the big man said with his sinister laugh, "and this is what your get for stealing food from my kitchen" the cook was a smile but at least they were on the deck and she could feel their movement better.
Shay smirked before dodging their attack and kicked wind at them both. "Hey now, it's supposed to be training" Marco defended. "Yes, thank you" Shay was happy he was here, or Thatch and Teach would just abuse this opportunity even more.
Well, then she would just have to get even in another way later. She knew exactly how. Smirk
While standing there she could smell something burning in the air and quickly took her blindfold off, "oi, we not done, yet" Teach yelled, "Shhh, somethings coming" she warned, and everybody were looking around to look for any danger and saw a few warships.
Suddenly, cannons were being fired at their ship and Shay jumped up to kick them back. The marines started to fire even more cannonballs from all their ships and the girl thought of something interesting.
Shayla took a deep breath and held her arms out to stop them all in front of Moby Dick.
Her crewmates stood there in question and didn't understand what was happening. They start mumbling among each other for answers, "don't panic. It's her doing" Izo said and pointed towards the youngest of them all.
Shay was using this opportunity to learn the color of observation and closed her eyes to feel where the enemy ships were. There were nine cannonballs to practice with and she started to fire them back one by one.
The first one ended up in the ocean next to the ships and so did the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, but the eighth one hit the tip of their mast. Which was pretty good for her so far, "focus Shay. The more you fight the stronger it'll become" Marco and Izo stood by her side encouraging her.
Soon everybody was cheering for her like old times and Shayla had to concentrate on this one. If she missed, she may not get a chance like this, "I can do this" she mumbled to herself and took a deep breath.
Shay went over to punch it and as soon as she did that, she opened her eyes to see where it hit.
Sadly, it hit a small corner part of their rail, but it was a good start. Maybe. This was getting annoying really quickly.
The girl jumped overboard and landed on the frozen surface of the sea she made herself. She surfed over to them while spinning water around herself. When she was close enough, she released it like a scythe and slashed all three ships in the middle.
The ships split in two and each side landed in the sea. Shay turned around in a dramatic way to give her a thump up and was blinking at them. She could hear their cheers from where she stood.
Shay had a feeling that someone on the crew was underestimating her and wanted her to prove herself somehow. When she got back to the ship, there was definitely approval on their faces. "What do you guys say that I finally get my mark" she smirked.
They were cheering even harder and some commanders clapped her on the back.
The girl turned to Haruta, "Will you do my tattoo, commander". They haven't had the time to get to know each other and she wanted them to be friends. "Yeah, I can do that" he smiled at her and the two went inside one of the cabins.
While he was preparing the ink, Shayla sat down on his bed. "What pattern do you want", she didn't understand his question. "There are two different designs. The one on the jolly roger and the one Marco has on his chest".
"I'll be right back, and I want black ink" she smiled before going out to the deck. Shay jumped up to the top of the mast and looked at their flag. It was flying proudly on their ship and the girl knew this would be it.
Shay ran into her room to get her sketchbook, to draw her idea to it. When she was done, she ran back to her Nakama and showed it to him.
It was the classic whitebeard mark but instead of the purple ink, it was all black except the eyes, nose, tooth, and of course beard. The crossbones was black too and it was like they were melting off.
She had drawn the entire tattoo with a dark shadow illusion of crack, "That's so cool, Shayla" her crewmate complimented. Shay smiled, "thanks commander, and I want it on my forearm, not too close to my wrist".
It took a while, but it was finally done. Her arm was sore, but it would heal soon. Haruta had wrapped it around in some plastic and then bandages. When she was done, she went out to the deck and everyone was excited to see it, but they had to wait a while.
Instead, she showed them her drawing of it and they were looking forward to seeing the real thing.
-x-
It has been a long couple of weeks since she started her haki-training and so far, she'd learned the color of observation to a degree. It was similar to her sensing the earth's vibration and might even take a bit more training to master it fully.
Marco had just kicked her ass and it appeared to her, he did very easily. It irritated her to no end. He has always been stronger than her, but the difference seemed to be even greater now. What was up with all these people becoming stronger?
She was being irrational, of course, he got stronger. He wasn't the first division commander for nothing and he had earned that title, she thinks. Marco had to live up to the expectation to be called Whitebeard's right-hand man. It would be embarrassing if she did beat him.
Haruta came over to her with a newspaper, "look at this, Shayla" and gave her the paper. he had opened up to her since doing her mark. The girl's face beamed up, "I have totally forgotten about my bounty" she showed Marco her new wanted poster and the picture of her surfing on the water with her hair flying in the wind. Her smile and eyes were shining too and she was so happy with it.
She ran over to her father, "look, dad, I've got a 100.000.000 bellies bounty on my head, now" she danced around the deck and people were starting to look at her. "Gurarara what a big jump" he loved seeing her this happy.
They had just reached an island in the new world and Shayla was impatiently running into town while smelling for delicious food. Rain stayed behind and weirdly enough spending a lot of time with the captain.
Well, whatever as long as they were fine. The pirate girl found a restaurant with a bar and in there was a lot of pirates were enjoying themselves. Shay ignored them and went over to the counter to get something to eat.
She ordered and an old stinking drunk pirate came over, "Oi, girl come and drink with us" he invited, and she fought back the feeling of punching him. Rather than answering him she didn't say anything and just ignored him before casually ordered something to drink too.
He didn't stop and grabbed her by the arm with the intention of dragging her away with him, "if you don't let go of me, right now. I'll break every bone in your body" she glared at him with an angry frown.
Not only did the bastard not let her go but he also had the nerve to laughed at her in mockery. Shay had enough and stood up to take care of him. He took her standing as a challenge and like any other man, he let his pride control him and he was ready to punch.
The girl was ready for a fight but before she could do anything, she heard a familiar voice behind him and another man had grabbed his arm, "Let her go, now!" A red-haired man ordered, and she suddenly felt a very heavy force.
So that was Conquers Haki, interesting indeed. The man's friend ran out of the bar rather quickly.
The man lost consciousness and his big body fell to the floor, "yo, Shayla. It's been a while" Shanks greeted with a huge grin. "Yeah, it has, and I had that you know," she said while pointing to the man. "I know but it was a cool way to enter" he laughed and was probably a little drunk.
"Whatever. How's it going, Benn, Yasopp, Roo" she greeted them with a wave. "You certainly have grown this time" they joked, and the bartender just came with her food, "Yeah, but if you would excuse me, I have to eat this" she sat on her stool and turned her back to them.
Shanks took the seat next to her, "I see you finally made it back to Whitebeard on your own" Shayla suddenly remembered something and looked annoyed at him, "I was a child last time we saw each other, right?" and the older man nodded, "Then why didn't you explain to me how hard a journey it would be".
"Because you're determined to stay in East Blue with Luffy" he teased, "This is serious, Red-haired," she thought it was obvious.
"You have been a pirate from a really young age, and I just assumed you knew" Shanks answered honestly, "A warning would have been nice" Shayla relaxed, "would that have changed your mind?" this time he was asking her.
"Probably not" she pouted, "Well, it doesn't matter now anyway. You're back with your crew now" and that made her smile. "Yeah, you're right" she took a bite of her food and ordered something to drink.
"Come and drink with us," it wasn't a request. "No, thanks I'll stay here. Our two crew are rivals after all" she reasoned in between bites, "right" was his only response before handing her plate to her and the four of them lifted her along with her chair up.
It caught Shay by surprise, "Tell your crew to let me down, your drunken idiot" she tried to rock the chair from side to side. The pirate refused to do it and just laughed at the moment.
Shay could always just jump down from the chair and walk away but she actually had fun. To make it appear like she didn't she would have to complain every now and then.
That was until Marco, Haruta and Thatch came to the bar and looked at her with a confused face, "Shay, what is this" Thatch started, "Food?" she smiled innocently. Their faces were saying 'really?' and she was about to explain.
"You're the first division commander Marco. Would you like to join my crew?" Shanks said loudly and the entire place went quiet. "No, shut up" the first mate simply stated. "Oi, Shanks. Why didn't you ask me to join your crew, so I could say no, too" she winked at the red-haired man.
Shanks glared at her and it somehow made her a tiny bit nervous, before he laughed out loud and his crew soon joined. "I'm glad to see East Blue didn't change you" what did he mean by that?
"Why would it change me" she question, "I thought that the peace would make you soft" she still didn't understand. "What is peace with a kid like Luffy around" she smiled, "That's… true" Shanks smiled too.
Vista, Jozu, and her captain came through the door a little later. The two pirate captains looked at each other, then at her, and then each other again. "Dad, I'm glad you here. Now tell them to let me down" Shay broke the silence, "Well, you heard her, brats" Whitebeard glared at them.
The 4 men put her down slowly and then she stood up, walking over to them with the plate in her hand and the spoon in the other. "I don't want to fight them. They delivered my message to you guys" she smiled gratefully at the red-haired captain.
"Shayla, I-" Shanks tried but Haruta interrupted him, "What message are you talking about," he asked, "When I stayed in East Blue, he was supposed to deliver a message. You did that, right?" she looked at him and was expecting an 'of course I did' sort of thing but, "I didn't," he said a little hesitant.
"What do you mean you didn't" her anger was growing, "I remember saying; if I meet them" that was his explanation. "Really? You didn't think I was important enough for you to make the extra trip. I actually thought of you as a friend, guess I was the only one".
Shay turned around, "I'm sorry, dad, guys, but I'm going back to the ship" and before anyone could say anything, she turned around laid her empty plate on the table.
"Wait girl, who's paying for your meal," a waiter asked, "he is" and she pointed at the rival captain before exiting the place.
"Wait, Shayla" Shanks tried to follow her, but Whitebeard and his commanders stopped him. "Just stay there and don't do anything unnecessary, fool" her father advised.
Shanks' men were ready to fight with their captain, but he stopped them, "I have to fix this somehow". He sighed before sitting down by the bar, "Don't worry, she'll get over it and decided that you aren't worth her time" Marco said with a little smirk.
-x-
The girl didn't go back to the ship and was sitting by a cliff. The sun was about to set, and it was just so beautiful. Her thoughts when back to a certain red-haired man and she didn't really know what to do.
Shay had liked him since day one and his cheerfulness was always refreshing. When she saw him all grown up, she had come to admire and respect him. That was why she'd reacted like that.
She wanted him to respect her enough to look past that she was so much younger now, was that really a big ask? No, and it shouldn't really be something she had to ask for but demand it instead.
If he couldn't do at least that then he wasn't worth it. Rain found her and sat on her lap, "at least you won't look down on me".
She was probably overthinking things but if he treated her like a child, that meant that he was underestimating her. The thought very made her very furious and she wanted to punch something.
Soon she felt footsteps behind her, and she turned around to look at them. It was the loser's friend that ran away when things got a little tough and see he brought his friends to play. How adorable.
They would do just fine.
They were looking at her with menacing grins, "you're all alone now, girl. The pirates aren't here to help you" about 10 people surrounded her with weapons in their hands.
"This is a perfect way to get revenge on Red-haired Shanks," a bald man said. Shay just looked at them while her little fox got off of her.
"I'm not part of the Red-haired pirate, scumbags" she sighed before standing up. "But hurting you would hurt him" an old man grinned. "No, but assuming you could, Whitebeard would come after you," she said, "yeah right as if a girl like you could ever-"she showed them her new mark.
"You probably just made that yourself" but the men seemed to be afraid anyway, "Don't worry. I'm more than enough for you. I'm going to beat you all into a pup and use your corpses to wipe the deck," she said before using this chance to attack.
Shay ran over to the bald man and punched his stomach. When he bowed down in pain, she punched his jaw. The girl felt a man from behind her and gave him a round-house kick. Rain was also biting a lot of their necks before Shayla finished them.
Needless to say, the battle was over quickly, and the girl still had this burning fire inside herself. She decided that she wasn't done with these scums and would put them to good work back at the ship.
When they arrived, someone from the crew started asking who the men following her were and Shay explain the situation. The crew looked at them with pure hatred, "I want them to wipe the entire deck clean before throwing them overboard" she smirked a little devilish.
The men were almost done when big heavy footstep got their attention. The crew went over to greet the captain when he noticed the terrified strangers, "Who are you" his voice sent a chill through their spines.
"W-w-we are no-no ones" they were literally shaking, "They tried to attack me to get revenge on Shanks but they didn't believe me when I told them I was a part of this crew. After I beat them, I got them to clean for us, and when they're done. I'll personally kick them out." She smiled sweetly at him.
"Wait, do they have a bounty?" Whitebeard asked, which caught Shay off guard, "I don't know, why?". Shortly after, a member of the crew came running out with wanted posters of the scums.
They were apparently worth 237 million in total, "I didn't think they'll place such a high price on these losers" she was almost impressed.
"Let's cash in their bounty and share the reward" the captain announced, "That's a great idea but we're wanted ourselves. How are we going to do that". That was a good question, "Don't worry, Shay. We have a middle-man for that" Jozu said as he walked over to them.
-x-
The bounties were collected, and the crew shared the reward. Shay wanted to buy new clothes and hair products, after not have much to wear.
If any of the men on this crew told you otherwise, they would be a lie.
But after reaching a certain age, she learned to dress and look nicer. After living most of her life with men that dressed in whatever they wanted, she couldn't help but wanting more.
That's why she started taking really care of her hair and not letting it get tangled together. Shayla had soft and smooth curly hair now, after years of advice from Dadan. She loved it very much and would bite anyone's hand off of whoever dared touch it.
"What are you going to do with your part, dad" she looked cutely at him, "I don't know, probably booze" he started to laugh, "yeah, pops really does like his drinks" Marco started. What was up with them, "Not too much of it, pops" Thatch laughed and looked at Shayla, "can I speak with you".
The two went into the kitchen and the girl sat by the table, "I don't think anyone has told you this, but pops isn't going to use his shares on booze" Shay didn't understand what he was trying to say, "He sends all of his money to support his home village" the cook explained.
Shayla blinked at the news, "does he have any family or friends in his home island he hasn't told me about" maybe he was sending money to help them.
"No, none but they don't have enough money to ally themselves with the Government by paying the heaven tribute and it has become a lawless island long ago. Pops protects the island now, but it wasn't always like that. Pops was one of many children that would be made orphans by bad people attacking the island, but that would always be his home. So, that's why he sends his share of money to them"
She didn't think her father could get any better and smiled while looking at her money. She was sure they would plunder other ships soon and could get clothes next time, "No, pops wouldn't accept that. We have tried so many times and he always refuses. It yours use it for something you want" Thatch assured.
"Alright…" she wanted to help especially her father's home island. The cook could see her struggle and he opened the fridge before giving her a big piece of meat, "this once" he said before smiling.
-x-
It's been 2 years since Shay reunited with her father. She had mastered the Haki that used to give such hard times. But like her crew always use to say, it'll get stronger every time you fight.
Shayla was eating dinner with the whole crew out on the deck. Everyone was having fun and she had learned to drink sake with the other. She still had a low tolerance for it, but a few bottles wouldn't hurt... that much.
While Shay was filling herself with food, she didn't notice that a news coo just delivered a paper to the captain. In fact, no one really noticed it until it was laying on the floor a few hours later.
The young adult picked it up to read and she almost screamed when she saw a familiar face.
'You finally set sail, huh, Ace. I know it's the very top you seek so hurry up and get here already' she couldn't help but to smirking at this amazing news.