Chapter 23

"Captain, can you tell me again what the purpose of this is?" Olivia asked, voice rather unsure as Marshall checked to make sure her blindfold was secure.

Wilde and Vertara were already blindfolded, more resigned than nervous as he answered, "Haki training, specifically Observation."

"And you have to throw potatoes at us because...?"

"Because the goal is to sense attacks coming and avoid them, and this way if you fail you won't actually get hurt," his tone was full of laughter as he asked rhetorically, "unless you'd prefer I throw knives at you instead?"

"Potatoes are fine!" Three panicked voices yelled.

Marshall cackled, stepping back and picking up a potato as he selected his target.

The spud flew threw the air, and training officially began with a chorus of yelps and colorful swear words.

"Ow...that sucked." Wilde grumbled, examining a particularly vivid bruise on his shoulder.

"But it's for a good reason," Vertara responded, bending and contorting into various shapes to stretch and relax sore muscles. She had the most bruises due to boasting that she barely even felt the potatoes hitting, the captain responding by coating the potatoes he tossed at her in Armament. She definitely felt those.

Olivia winced, rolling her shoulders and groaning when she heard the 'pop'. "That doesn't mean that Captain didn't enjoy it," she snorted, the other two nodding in agreement. Honestly, with the amount of trouble they gave him, he'd earned some fun at their expense. It wasn't like the potatoes, Armament excluded, actually hurt. Once she was done with her own stretches, she made her way over to confirm that neither Wilde or Vertara had any injuries beyond bruises.

They didn't, but some of those bruises were impressive.

"We already know Armament, so why do we need to do this?" Wilde complained. Privately, Olivia somewhat agreed. She was just starting to learn Armament haki herself, but Observation seemed slightly pointless if they were able to shrug off any attacks that did land, so why did Captain insist they learn it?

A few days later, they find out.

It was early in the morning when a pirate ship caught sight of the Coddiwomple and decided it made a decent target, the opening salvo sending up large plumes of water and the loud boom of cannon fire jolting them from a sound sleep.

The sun was just beginning to rise as they stumbled out of their quarters, struggling to pull on shirts, shoes, or in Vertara's case not even bothering as they made their way to the deck to see what was happening. The moment the captain saw the black sail of the attacking ship, the Jolly Roger some kind of rodent skull and crossbones, his expression changed and the fight was on.

The first pirate to try boarding was punched back to his ship, snapping the main mast and probably the pirate's spine. Taking the battle to the pirate ship, the three of them followed their captain, jumping first to the railing and then down to the deck. They had the element of surprise; the pirates had them outnumbered and didn't expect them to fight back, let alone as fiercely as their captain.

Blood swiftly stained the deck, their captain leaving a trail of slaughter behind him as he made a beeline towards the cabins.

Wilde yelped, ducking beneath a swarm of pistol-shots and lashing out with his knives, cutting tendons and slashing throats. Dodging the arterial spray, he ran and slid through the crowd of enemies, instinctively pickpocketing whoever came within reach before he stabbed them. The battle was a cacophony of chaos and confusion, he didn't even have time to think. Bending backwards to avoid the swipe of a sword, he kicked up and rammed his booted heel into his attacker's jaw as he turned the move into a flip.

Landing on the deck in a crouch, he caught a flash of movement from the corner of his eye and, without really registering what he saw, threw one of his knives.

There was a pirate trying to sneak up behind Olivia. His knife just barely missed Olivia's face, flying by to bury itself in the pirate's throat, and he was more shaken than he cared to admit as he watched the body fall backwards. He'd nearly hit Olivia, could have killed her if he'd thrown his knife a few inches to the side-!

Standing there shaking, he didn't even notice as the battle began winding down...not until Vertara lunged passed him. There was a choked off scream, and then Olivia is whirling around and throwing a scalpel at someone aiming a pistol at Vertara's head. The medical tool struck the gunner's hand, distracting him long enough for Wilde to snap out of his shocked haze.

Wilde used his fruit to set off a burst of light in the gunner's eyes, blade following a second later to almost sever the man's head from his body. The movement left him overextended, and one of the surviving pirates rushed to take advantage of the opening, cutlass rushing towards his exposed neck.

And then the captain was there.

Crack!

With a sound like breaking glass, the sword shattered into pieces the moment it made contact with their captain's hair. Hair that was shining a gleaming black in the brightening light.

Armament haki.

The pirate only had time to gawk at his shattered blade before the captain's hand closed around his throat. Then it was over, the last body falling to the deck.

"How...how did you do that?" Wilde asked, subdued and ashamed of how shaken he was. Olivia's legs were also trembling, but not nearly as bad as his. Vertara was the only one who seemed fine, covered in blood as she was.

"Observation Haki." The captain grunted. "Get good enough at it and you can tell what's happening around you, even through walls and on opposite sides of a ship." Turning away, he waved a hand over his shoulder and said, "Look through the ship and take whatever you want. I'm heading back."

Watching him leave, Vertara shifted her feet and said quietly, "Marshall told me he coats his hair in Armament as training, but this is the first time I've really seen it in action..."

After that, none of them spoke as they moved about the ship, taking anything they could use or was remotely valuable. Seeing the destruction their captain had left behind, the trio wondered uneasily what could have set him off...

("Bad memories," he later mumbled, chugging whiskey like water as the three of them looked on in concern, by unspoken agreement keeping their distance but not leaving their captain alone.)

The next day, Marshall came out onto the Coddiwomple's deck to see his three crewmembers waiting for him.

Next to their feet were sacks of potatoes.

Watching Wilde look skeptically at the bracelet of clear glass beads he gave him as a present, Marshall snickered.

"What's this for?" Wilde demanded, eyes narrowed as he turned the bracelet over in his hands.

The thief's confusion was understandable: he'd given Vertara and Olivia accessories made of glass beads, (it was something of a tradition at this point, he privately admitted), but those beads were colored. The ones he'd used to make Wilde's gift were clear, the refraction of light through the small orbs throwing off tiny rainbows.

Marshall's grin widened, "Figure it out yourself!" He laughed, almost wheezing at the look of confusion and suspicion on Wilde's face.

(In the very next battle, Wilde used his bracelet to shoot a concentrated beam of light into the eyes of someone attempting to stab Vertara in the back, likely burning their retinas beyond all recognition. The poor bastard only had time to scream before Wilde finished them off.

Turning around and meeting his eyes, Wilde bared his teeth in a defiant grin. "I figured it out."

Throwing his head back, Marshall laughed, off-handedly tossing someone through a wall.

"That you did! Good job, brat!"

One eye twitching, Wilde yelled, "Damn it, quit calling me that!"

"ZEHAHAHAHAHAHA!")