-Marco-

I didn't know if I was impressed or disappointed with Willow's skill, or lack of.

She was the child of a retired and possibly dead vice admiral and a pirate. But then again maybe she had always been protected and was never given the chance to fight. It was hard to tell.

Despite having not been to her house, I knew that it was a small cottage like structure that was dead smack in the middle of a clearing. The front door was red and that it was tucked away in the forest, a good thirty minute walk to the outskirts of town. Ace had given me a loooong description of her cute little house- his exact words.

Honestly the distance from people was a smart decision on her parent's parts, considering who they were. Her father could be hunted after being labeled as a traitor and for committing treason, and her mother for quite a hefty bounty.

The weapons weren't too difficult to pull out of the wall and as I handed them back to her I answered her question. "Your reflexes are swift like your mothers. And your dodging skills are pretty good- it's a good skill to have if you're not a logia type like Ace." She nodded but said nothing, not even to the part about her mother that I hadn't let slip. But Willow was really a spitting image minus the eyes and her nose and a few other small minuscule things like that.

"The next thing isn't half as taxing. Come on." I led her over to the unmarred by gunshots as of yet red and white targets. I loaded a pistol and handed it to her, telling her to hit the red dot in the middle, or as close as she could manage.

"How many shots do I get?" she nervously asked turning it over in her hands before holding it with one hand, then two.

"Let's say that target is an enemy who's going to kill you if you don't make this final shot. So let's try one." I knew that was pushing it but if I told her that she could use all five she wouldn't try as hard. I had learned that with the first newbie I had the joy (sense the sarcasm?) of training.

"O-oh. Ok. D-don't be surprised if I put a hole through the wall please."

Did she expect herself to be that bad? Granted her mother wasn't the best at shooting and I couldn't say anything about her father but she should at least be able to hit the outer red ring around the target.

Her grip was shaky and unsteady but she took aim, studied her target with great intensity and concentration before she finally pulled the trigger. The bullet only clipped the first white ring around the bulls eye, which unfortunately wasn't good enough. If she had that one bullet to use to end somebodies life they would have a slim chance of living because of the fact that her aim was off just that much.

"Here's where you are now." I slowly said gently talking the gun front her hand after cocking it, without a single glance sideways at the target I fired it, leaving a clean hole dead center of the bulls eye. "And there's where you need to be."

Of course we had our sharp shooters like Izo and we also had the people who couldn't do any better than she could currently. But the difference between those people and her were that not only were they experienced fighters but they also had certain skills to fall back on, weapons win which they specialized with. Currently Willow was practically a blank slate. Pops had thought it best, after yesterday's display of her skills- rather lack of- that she would be taught multiple things until she could create and adapt to the style of fighting that most suited her and that she adapted to the best and preferred the most.

"S-seriously?" She asked looking between me and the target.

I nodded and ruffled her hair. "No need to worry. This is only your second day after all. However I want you to finish off the round and I'll be right back."

"O-ok then." Willow managed sounding quite unsure.

It wasn't until she had turned back towards the target that I turned and left the training room to find Vista, who would assist her in training with knives, blades and hopefully her mother's crescent blades.

Now that I thought about it maybe I should have had Izo teach her how to handle guns and pistols as well as her aim among other things. But I suppose that it was a bit too late for that.

I found vista training on the deck, making everybody have to go around him in order not to almost get their heads severed. I leaned back against the mast and for a few minutes quietly observed him before deicing to gain his attention. Though there was no doubt that he was aware of my presence.

Sheathing his sabers he asked, "What's up Marco?"

"I got an inexperienced with everything newbie that Pops wants trained." She needed trained and she'd get trained Pops orders or not. Because without training she was more of a liability and Ace would throw a fit about having to leave her on some random island. "You're the best swordsman on the ship so I thought you could help her develop better technique and skill then I'd be able to." Vista didn't need to now this but I didn't feel like training that girl in every aspect of fighting, plus she had to branch out a bit and grow accustomed to being in a large family, with lots of people around all of the time.

"Would you be referring to the girl that Ace dragged in? The one that he begged you to save?"

I nodded with a chuckle, remembering Ace's concerned expression as he watched her swim for her life. "That's the one, Myra's child." I couldn't believe that she had a child who was already in her late teens, early twenties.

Vista let out an almost nervous sounding laugh. "This oughtta be fun if she's anything like her mother."

"If the kid opens up, I think she'd be a lot like her mother. But she's quite reserved. If I were you, to get the best results, I'd try and engage her as much as possible, as often as you can. She also probably won't take the incentive to ask any questions she might have."

"Alright." Vista said and with that he began heading towards the training room.

"Oh and one more thing." I called, pausing and waiting for a response to show that he was listening. Once I got one I continued, "See if you can get her to use the crescents correctly, or at all would be a start." She had wielded them clumsily and they had hindered her fighting instead of improving it.

With a nod and the words 'yeah sure' Vista continued on his way to the training room where Willow unknowingly awaited for him.

-Ace-

"Wake up sleepy head!" I shouted suddenly bursting into Willow's room hoping to catch her off guard so that I could have the enjoyment of startling her. But looking around I realized that she wasn't even in the room, let alone actually asleep and still in her bed. She wasn't even in the process of dressing.

Well this was disappointing.

Actually I had literally just woken up a few minutes ago myself and was going to see if we could bother Thatch- who happened to be able to cook a bit- into making us breakfast because I knew that I had missed it and was too lazy to try and make anything myself. Not only that but I had long since been banned from doing anything other than eating in the galley. I could not even set foot in the kitchen, rather I wasn't supposed to.

However I had a backup plan for if Thatch denied us. And that was to make Willow cook. But both plan A and B went down the drain when I burst into the empty room.

With a frown I turned around wand walked out. At first I just searched for Willow, she was after all probably just lost somewhere on the ship. But after forever of searching I began asking around to see if anyone else knew what I didn't. But none of them were any help to me either.

"Yo Fire Fist." A voice shouted from behind me.

At the moment I was leaning over the side of the rails on the deck of the ship trying to think of where on earth Willow was. But I wasn't getting very far with all my thinking and brainstorming. Soon after the voice called to me someone rested their heavily tatted forearms against the rail only a few inches from mine.

"Give me a light?" the voice belonging to Cole asked as she pulled out an unlit cigarette from the tin box at her hip. Lazily I lit it and she took a long drag before blowing out rings of smoke. "Have you seen Willow today?" she asked and when I looked over at her she was grinning mischievously at me.

"Nah. But you didn't give her a tattoo, did you?" I could just see Willow getting drunk enough to get a tattoo. It was a good thing Cole had eaten her strange devil fruit that had something to do with tattoos and allowed her to do some weird things with them like peel them off of her body and they'd become real objects things or animals. I also knew that she could painlessly get rid of any tattoo mistakes that anyone might have made in the past or might make in the future, anything that Willow might accidentally get.

"Are you kidding, she may be soft but she would have my hide if I tatted her up. If you're looking for her by the way I passed her and Marco heading to the training room."

What?! Training already?! Why wasn't I put in charge of her training and why was I just now learning about this? "See ya." I gave Cole a thankful slap on her back before running off.

"Rawr!" I shouted sneaking up on Willow and lightly brushing my fingertips across her shoulders.

Screeching she jumped and a gunshot rang out. Something- most likely a bullet- passed through my chest and out of my back. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Willow's reaction to having shot me because my breath was coming in short ragged gasps between fits of near mute laughter. At first I was just doubled over. But then sound of her startled screech as well as how she had jumped kept replaying in my head and standing became too much of a challenge so my knees collapsed and I ended up falling to the ground. The scene just kept getting funnier and funnier until my sides were aching and my lungs were burning.

"A-ace!" Willow exclaimed dropping down to her knees next to me. Her small hands tried to maneuver me so that she could see my chest.

Oh did she think that I was hurt? I briefly wondered.

Upon opening my eyes I thought that I'd be met with the sight of wide and worried filled green eyes. And though her eyes were indeed both of those things my laughter instantly died and I asked, "Where the hell did you get that outfit?"

"M-my closet?" she said it as though it were more of a question and less of a fact.

"Shit." I cursed sitting up. Why was she wearing so little? That wasn't safe, and she didn't even know how to hold her own or defend herself to boot. Pops rules or not, someone might decide that they want to try and do something.

"D-does it look that bad?" she managed wrapping her arms around her bare torso as she sat back on her heels.

"No. Who picked this out?" I had my suspicions but then again I could be wrong.

"I-I did."

"Wait wait wait, hold up." I said waving my hands and shaking my head in disbelief. "You picked that out on your own free will?" There was no way, now when I had seen her pick out her own clothing for the past two weeks. Where was the light pastel colored skirts that reached her knees or the jean capris? Where was the shoulder bag, the light tank tops and modest tops? Well at least her sandals hadn't changed.

"Yes."

"Did anyone help you?"

"No. N-not really. They just told me that it looked o-ok. Should I go change?"

"Just stand up." I said doing exactly that myself.

Giving me a confused look she obeyed and once she had straightened up I quickly reached out and zipped up the front of the white sleeveless hoodie. Now her flat, smooth and bare torso and belly were covered along with the half tank top type thing that had succeeded in only covering her rather modest bust. Unfortunately the sleeveless hoodie was too long in length and covered the short black extra short shorts, leaving most of her thighs bare and giving her the appearance that she wasn't wearing any pants at all.

"I-is that better?" she asked trying to tug down the hem of the hoodie. So that bothered her but not the length of the extremely short shorts? How did that make any sense at all? Maybe it was woman logic.

I shook my head. No, it was words because she still appeared to be half naked. "No." with that I grabbed the zipper of the hoodie and pulled it back down.

"What the hell are you doing to the newbie Fire Fist?!" Vista's voice asked from behind me.

"Nothing!" I quickly said whirling around as fast as I could, leaving the hoodie only half zipped.

"Get out and find something productive to do Ace. The child doesn't want you messing with her." He said.

"Have fun training." I called to Willow before running out.

-Willow-

Did Ace not like what I was wearing?

Cole said that it was a step in the right direction and I sortta liked it. I mean it was short but I could live with that.

A tanned guy wearing a dark blue top hat and a curly mustache walked in right when Ace was unzipping the hoodie in which he had just zipped up.

I looked around the man wondering where Marco was as he began yelling at Ace without even actually yelling at him, he didn't have to raise his voice. I knew that he was one of the commanders I had briefly met yesterday but I couldn't remember which one he was or his name. But at least I remembered having seen him.

After telling me to have fun training, which I doubted would happen, he began to jog out. Oddly enough he didn't make it to the door, or past the new guy who had walked in. Mid stride Ace's head dropped only seconds before his body collapsed.

For a second I alternated between looking at his lying face down body and the new guy. I didn't quite know what to do since we weren't eating or in the middle of talking like we usually were when he had one of his sleep attacks.

"Move Fire Fist out of the way, grab a blade from that wall and we'll begin." He instructed.

So with an obedient nod I went over to Ace and grabbed his wrists. Unlike the last time I had to drag him I didn't care if I dragged him along the ground. The ground this time was smooth slightly cushioned mats, unlike last time when the ground had been full of twigs, sticks and, things that would have been more work for me to clean up once I got him home. I pulled him so the wall closest to the door and then just left him lying there as I went to retrieve a sword off the wall.

After grabbing a sword with a curve in the blade and a tip that jutted out from the top of the sword I went back to the man who smiled and said, "Falchion, good choice. You know your mother was quite fond of that one too." And with that we began my sword training. After a while it was evident that Marco wasn't coming back.

We trained long and hard with both the sword that I had chosen and the weapons that Marco had called crescent blades. At first it felt unnatural to hold it and swing it around even in slow motion, but I got the hang of it eventually.

When Ace woke up he didn't leave, just sat up, crossed his legs and watched. Occasionally he'd throw in comments, orders or a suggestion or so. Those were mostly thrown out there for me but occasionally they were for Vista, who had taken to calling me Kiddo and hadn't been offended that I had forgotten his name.

When Vista told me that we were done I had hardly managed to put the sword back in its rightful place on the wall when my wrist was grabbed.

"I've been waiting for food all day." The voice belonging to Ace impatiently informed me as he began dragging me out of the training room. As if on cue, as if his stomach had heard him it growled, long and loud.

"Thank you Vista!" I managed to call out before I was fully dragged out of the training room.

"See!" He exclaimed as if his growling stomach just proved his point. "Come one we're getting food."

I wasn't given much of a choice but once in the kitchen I began cooking food for the both of us. Unfortunately he ate everything the moment I took it off the stove and put it on a plate. He hollered and hooted about how hot things were, which was silly since he could turn into fire, but I said nothing and he continued to eat it anyway.

"Ace." I weakly managed still amazed at the way this guy could eat. Two weeks and some odd days and you'd think that I'd be used to the way he inhaled his food. But I wasn't, not really.

"Yesh?" he asked around a large mouthful of food. His cheeks looked like a chipmunks and were stuffed full with food. Briefly he paused in shoveling food into his mouth to listen to what I had to say.

"You're going to kill yourself if you keep eating like that." I knew that I was wasting my breath but still. There were so many safety hazards in the way that he ate that it wasn't funny.

Swallowing the mouthful so that his cheeks returned to normal he laughed. "It hasn't killed me yet. And besides mere food isn't going to kill me, even if it's poisoned."

"Oh. Well sorry for shooting you." He had startled me so badly that I hadn't even had time to think about my plan of attack; my finger had just tightened around the trigger and wound up shooting him.

"It's fine. I'm a logia type so it doesn't matter. And anyway you didn't hurt me so don't worry about it. Actually it would have been a great shot if I were an enemy looking to kill you."

But he wasn't an enemy and he hadn't been looking to kill me. But I didn't mention that aloud. "B-but. . ." It was still wrong to shoot people in the chest, logia type of not. I mean he was my . . . friend? And last time I checked friends don't shoot friends, at least not in reality.

"What did I tell you about apologizing Willow?" Ace asked as if he had read my mind and knew what was coming next.

"To stop." I muttered.

"Exactly. I'm unharmed so there's nothing to apologize for."

"But what if-"

"Willow, if we lived on what if's I'd never have any fun. Ever." He said before finishing off the plate of food.

"Yeah but-"

"Willow." He said in an almost warning voice.

"I should have known I'd find you in here." A voice said as a person walked in. It was Thatch, or at least that what I believe that's what he had been introduced as. I hope I wasn't mixing him up with anyone else. "You've even got the newbie cooking for you?"

"P-please call me Willow." I quietly managed to slip that between whatever he was going to say next, or before Ace could say anything.

"Alright Kiddo take a seat." As he said that he grabbed the utensils out of my hands before bumping my hip with his and efficiently bumping me away from in front of the stove, taking my place. "Ace don't eat all the newbies food. I bet she hasn't eaten all day and I heard that she's started her training already."

"Yup!" Ace said with that silly little grin of his before he elbowed me almost painfully in the ribs. "Tell 'em about it."

I wasn't going to say anything because I thought that he was playing. But when I saw their expectant looks I managed three small words.

"Fun? Did I hear you right Kiddo?" Thatch asked slapping Ace's hand away from my plate.

I nodded and they shook their heads.

"We'll see how much you like it in a few days."

After fending Ace off once more I took a bite and thanked Thatch for taking over the cooking of the food. He was able to keep up with Ace's appetite and the speed in which he ate until he was full.

"No problem Kiddo, though I wouldn't offer to cook for him again. He's got quite the appetite if you haven't noticed already."

Instead of answering back about how I hadn't offered in the first place I just stabbed Ace in the hand, surprised that the fork didn't go through him like the bullet had. I stabbed him hard enough to make him retreat for the time being.

/

/

/

Feedback. Thoughts. Opinions. Constructive criticism all of that is welcome and greatly appreciated.