The McPuffin Part 7

The McPuffin Part 7

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"How do I see?"

"Yes, Captain Billy!" I bobbed my head quickly.

The dour man's lips turned upwards just a bit, "Why do you think I can?"

"You react far too well and quickly for your lack of eyesight to be complete. I don't think you can see," In addition to a large diagonal scar that covered his left eye as well as much of his forehead and cheek, there was another that stretched from ear to ear, like someone had tried to cut the top of his head off and only caught the front of his face. His eyes under those eyepatches were probably lumps of flesh at best, "But you have some way of perceiving your environment with more clarity than just your ears can provide."

"Big words for a little boy." My Captain noted.

"Captain, I've been using big words since I was five." I pointed out, deadpan. And even if Ami's mother made it harder for us to hang out, I'd been expanding my local vocabulary basically ever since I was aware of myself in this life.

"That you have," he said, tilting his face upwards some as he sat in his chair on the rearmost deck of the ship.

I waited, despite the boundless energy of being young, I forced myself to wait. And it was hard, I wanted to fidget, but I kept it contained to just opening and closing my hands and messing with my fingers.

Despite the sounds of the waves and the crew working on the rigging, the two of us were silent for several minutes. I'd avoided asking partially out of respect, partially because it was an awkward question to ask of an obviously blind man even if I suspected the answer, and partially because Captain Billy scared me.

I'd seen him punch cannonballs out of the air, chop a mizzenmast in half with a single swipe of his hand, and punch the sea so hard that the geyser it sent up covered our escape. And despite all the craziness of the crew and the places we'd gone, he kept his cool, his calm, and his center. I respected the hell out of him, despite him running into things rather often. I would have as a child the first time around even, even more so now that I'd already gone through the bullshit of puberty and growing up.

Eventually, another subdued smile found a place on his face, and he reached out to put his hand on top of the spiky mess of brown hair I had, "Alright. Do you know what Haki is?"

"No." I lied easily. Because in a lot of ways, it was true. What the flying fuck was this stuff really?

"It's your will, your energy, your vitality… your life force."

Initially, when I'd first started to regain my past life memories, and I was very, very aware of how silly that sounded, but it'd been a bit disconcerting how my Captain didn't look at people when he talked to them. But now? Now it was just a part of who he was.

"There are ways to sense and manipulate it."

"And you sense it to see." I filled in.

"That is correct." He nodded just the slightest bit.

I chewed my lip for the briefest of moments, "Could you teach me?"

"Yes."

"Will you teach me?"

And there was the subdued smile once more, "It will require intense training."

"… so a different kind of normal day?"

He ruffled my spiky hair, "More intense training."

"… so… momma not being happy with me day?"

He smiled, just a bit, "Close enough."

-oOo-​

"How you holding up?"

I looked over my shoulder at Jaime, the Mexican-esque man who was struggling up the little rocky crag after me, "Most of us cannot run on air mi amigo."

He'd kept a green turtleneck, though it wasn't wool, I actually didn't know the material off the top of my head, but it wasn't silk either... regardless, it was only a little silly in this heat rather than retarded. And he'd switched out for shorts and light boots rather than pants. Kept the cowboy hat though, the shadow of which almost comically didn't cover his somewhat oversized jaw, a pear-shaped head was kind of unusual.

"Which is why I asked." I said with a grin, getting one in return as he hoisted himself up. I extended a hand towards him, but he shook his head and instead hoisted himself up with a bit of effort.

"Why did we pick this route anyways?"

"We're headed to the savanna, which has some of the greatest amounts of diversity in fauna outside of the rainforests on the other side of the island." I said, letting my coat drape over the front of my shoulders, my hood up to shield my eyes from the sun. Though it was still too hot to consider actually wearing the heavy leather coat, "And that's where I want to head. And you wanted to test yourself against interesting creatures."

Jaime pulled himself up entirely and rolled over onto the rock, breathing just a bit hard, "Agh… how much further?"

Taking my waterskin from my belt I popped the cork that was tied to it and took a sip as the older Hispanic man sat up. I swallowed, "We're here."

"That… is a lot of grass…"

If you've ever seen the pictures of the savanna, where the brown and green grass stretches to the horizon, small scraggly trees peeking out, herds of beasts in the distance as the grass slowly waved… yeah, that's where we were at. And it's one thing to see that on a screen or on a page… but it's another entirely to stand on the precipice of a sea of grass. Because of the slight curvature of this plateau that the savanna sat on, there was an optical illusion of it being significantly bigger than it was.

"Wow…"

"Yeah," I grinned just a bit as I agreed, grabbing Jaime by the scruff of his neck and lifted him onto his feet, "Now come on, let's get moving, the river is in this direction."

He grinned right back, "Right."

-oOo-​

"You do not want to stay near the river?"

Jaime sat nearby as the sun slowly set, his own skin of water in his hand, the string of fish he'd caught attached to a pole. I was crouched over a fire set up, dry grass, dry sticks, and a few dry branches. A small, smokeless fire to cook the fish, but little else.

"We're trying to avoid conflict with the locals. We don't know what the local problems are like or how they feel about trespassers, and I'd like to avoid drawing attention," I had a lighter but… hm…

I held out my hand over the grass, flexing my fingers into metal and giving them a snap with a small *clink*.

"I don't think they'll be too much of an issue mi amigo," he said with a small smile.

'Hmmm… too smooth…?' I transformed my fingers back into flesh, rolling my fingertips against one another, feeling the little whorls of my fingerprints and trying to delicately flex them into metal, getting a little grinding noise when I did, "I'd rather not take the risk if I can help it. If it happens, it happens, but no reason to bait the sea king."

"Mm… true."

This time, there was a small crack as I snapped my fingers, but nothing happened. A few more snaps and still nothing. 'Hmm… am I not the right metal…? Or am I not shaving off any bits…?'

Laughter from the darkness around us, the laughter of hyenas without a doubt. A surprisingly common sound here on the plateu.

I held up my hand, looking at it as I sat cross legged in front of the fire, thinking as my hand returned to flesh. After a moment, Jaime said, "I do have a lighter if you need one mi amigo."

"I've got one too, but I'm trying something out right now…" another flex of my hand… no, that didn't work… I imagined the feeling of goosebumps along my skin as I flexed it, trying to turn the individual cells into metal rather than as a solid mass… and rubbing my fingers together got a small bit of dust. Okay, now…

A snap, and this time sparks flew, a grin spreading across my face as I snapped my fingers again, near the grass. Taking only a few times to start it going before I softly blew on the tinder.

Jaime made a face as he looked at me, his mustache curling the opposite direction in confusion briefly before it straightened out and his eyebrows went up, a grin appearing on his face, "You used your fingers as a flint and steel!"

"Mhm… wasn't sure I could do that actually."

"What is your power anyways? Iron? Steel? Metal?"

I shrugged slightly, "Not entirely sure yet, I'll figure it out eventually though."

-oOo-​

A large, pale brown and green zebra lowered its head to the water–

"Hiiiisssssss…"

There was a sudden surge of water as the crocodile lunged for the zebra at the edge of the river, a deep blue with brown flecks along its bumps and oversized fangs as the nearly fifteen foot behemoth grabbed the zebra by the mid-section, lifting it off of the ground as it brayed, eyes wide.

"Hurrhhurrrhhurrrh…"

With a sudden, even larger geyser of water from the river, a massive, multicolored hippo, nearly twenty feet long and almost ten feet wide, with massive jaws filled with black teeth, grabbed the crocodile around the mid-section and lifting it from the water.The crocodile and zebras eyes bugged out, the crocodile holding tightly onto the zebra even as it was lifted high in the air as well.

"Heeeyyyyy~"

The three animals froze, only their eyes moving to look at me as I hunkered atop the hippo's head, my elbows propped up on my knees and I grinned.

"How y'all doin'?" The three animals stared at me, blinking in confusion before I continued, grin widening, "Is there any chance I could study y'all?"

As one, the three animals glared at me, as if to say 'Hey, butt out!' The zebra brayed, the crocodile… no, wait, gator, my bad, I should feel bad for making that mistake even at a distance… the gator roared, and the hippo made this unhappy noise that I struggled to put words to, it was sort of like a growl.

I grinned, "I'll take that as a yes."

Grabbing the hippo by its little ears I threw my legs out with a snap, flexing my body into metal from my feet upwards to increase my momentum massively, and the three massive animals were pulled from the water and air as I spun with them, their eyes bugging out even as I closed my own, "Eyepatch–!" with a tight grip on the sides of the hippo's head, I flexed my back hard, converting portions of myself into metal as I controlled my momentum mid-air like a cat, spinning us around so fast that I knew we appeared to be nothing more than a vaguely circular blur, "Suuuuupleeex!"

Three thuds in quick succession signaled the three heads slammed into the riverbank hard.

"I thought we wanted to be subtle," Jaime snarked from not far away as I landed lightly beside the animals, dusting my hands off.

"True. But part of the reason I like this plan is because I get to study new flora and fauna. And I mean, just look at these guys!" I grinned in spite of myself, "This zebra's green and brown! And nearly the size of a draft horse! Last I knew they were supposed to barely be able to carry a person!" I gestured at the huge zebra before moving to the creature still holding it, all of their eyes rolled back and foam leaking out of the corner of their mouths, "And this gator! I mistook it for a crocodile at a distance! It's got actual thumbs! And this hippo! I mean, just check out these teeth!" Reaching down, I pried the large animals mouth open, letting the crocodile drop from it as I pointed at the teeth, "Hippo tusks are for combat, but these? These are bone crushers, you can tell because these back teeth aren't really molars in the classical sense but rather the sharpened teeth of an omnivore… and is this acid?! Ooh!" I pushed its mouth open wider, nearly fitting inside it as I leaned in, looking closer at the unusually colored liquid in the hippo's mouth, "Ooh! You have acid glands in your mouth! Why do you have acid glands in your mouth?!"

I could practically hear the eyeroll from Jaime behind me as I lightly touched the nearly bubbling liquid, holding it up in my fingers and rubbing it back and forth quickly before carefully sniffing it, "Are we going to take them or eat them or anything? Or are we just going to look at them?"

"Probably going to let the zebra go, not much point in examining it, but crocodile leather could sell for a bit and be useful, as well as anything I might learn from dissecting it… not to mention that I like the taste of gator, it tastes like chicken." Where did I know this scent from… it wasn't anything I recognized as dangerous… "Hey, Jaime, does this smell familiar to you?"

With a completely undeserved long suffering sigh, the man came over, kneeling beside where I was half-crawled inside the unconscious hippo's mouth, "What are you talking about?"

I got another swipe of the liquid and held it out towards the Hispanic man, "What I thought was acid on first glance…"

He sniffed it a few times before suddenly straightening, "That smells like alcohol!"

The hippos mouth was pushed further open and he got a swipe of the liquid and tasted it, making me cringe. I was taking liberties even touching and sniffing the stuff, but just tasting it…? I really hoped nothing bad would happen…

He smacked his lips a few times, seeming to consider the taste before his mustache straightened out like party favors, "It is Mezkal!!"

After a moment, I prompted, "… which is…?"

"A glorious drink from my homeland!"

"… is it alchoholic?" I deadpanned.

"Yes!"

A small sigh escaped me, "Of course."

"Why in the world does this creature have booze in its mouth…?"

My grin returned, "No idea! That's what I'm about to try to find out~"

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The McPuffin Part 7 End