The One Named Vipeba

Vipeba was face first on the ground, and I started to regret having trusted Rosalina to find a doctor willing to help me.

"Rosa, can this person really do what I want him, or.. need him to?"

Rosalina nodded, stating "Your qualifications needed were a little out of the box, and while very few had the qualifications of having knowledge of most everything, but Vipeba here was the only one who was willing to leave the island."

With a questioning look, I turned to Rosalina, as if asking if he could really, truly help.

Understanding what I wanted to know, she sighed and continued "Yes, Buggy, he can in fact help with child birth, and the answer as to who you want to help with such a skill baffles me, but I can trust you to know what you are doing."

Letting my head fall, I said "It's too bad that I trust you. If I didn't trust your judgement, I would say find someone else. But since you think that Vipeba here is a good choice, I have no choice myself but to say 'Vipeba, we leave tomorrow morning, I'll get to talk to you more tomorrow as well, just to get a better feel of how you work.'"

I looked up to see Vipeba finally getting up, and then bowing again with his blob body, catching himself from falling, saying "Yessir!"

I pointed directly at him and said "Okay, stop that, it makes me feel weird."

He didn't bow, but still said "Yessir!"

Defeated, I sighed and spoke "Close enough. Go, pack, we leave tomorrow morning."

"Yessir!" And Vipeba left.

I lifted my head and facepalmed.

"I can't believe I'm gonna entrust it to him, I guess I haven't seen his skills yet, so I'll have to see what he can truly do."

A little while later, while Rosalina was still nearby, I decided to ask "So, what was that.. Forten Ma- Mortam or whatever about?"

Rosalina had sat down next to me a while ago, and said "Flavenstiqe Mortem. It is a.. umm.. ancient text of these people that means 'Returner'."

I was more confused than with just hearing Flavenstiqe Mortem. Rosalina could tell that I was confused.

"Returner is a reference to.. someone who has left the island and returned, be it a friend or one of the tribe."

I sat there, staring, and then I shook my head, then taking in everything that had just been said.

"So, um.. if you've met them before, why would you have to say that? Wouldn't they just remember you?"

I could sense Rosalina freaking out internally, and then listened to her say "It is most likely due to the amount of attacks by the massive birds that populate the tree. They may have a bit too much to do, and forget me, so I learned that saying to make things easier."

'She can keep her cool really well. I don't know how well I can do.'

"Hmm, okay then. If that's what it is, then that makes sense."

Rosalina left to the village for the night, for the reason of "The villagers have given me a place to stay for the night, you are welcome to join me."

I declined for the reason of 'I scared them to death, and I don't feel great around any that would try or think of turning Taki into hot pot.

The rest of the night went surprisingly smooth, with no birds attacking, and nothing happening otherwise. It was early in the morning when we decided to go back to the ship and wait for Vipeba. Once he finally appeared, he had a giant bag that looked full of stuff, as if he had packed up his entire life into it.

"Rosa, do we have the space for that?" I said quietly, but loud enough for Rosalina to hear.

Without either of us turning to talk to each other, Rosalina answered "I do not think so. There may be an issue there. You may have to split your room with him if need be."

I was leaning on the railing of the ship, and with my head hanging down, all that I could say was "Crap."

When he got on the ship, he dropped the bag and said "Sir!" And bowed, catching himself while falling, once again.

"That's a lot of stuff you got there, was all of it necessary?"

"Yessir! It's all stuff related to my ability to be one of the best doctors on the entire island of Torino!"

"Cool. Um.. real quick question before we leave, how did you get the knowledge of almost everything? You look kinda young, so how?"

Not bowing, Vipeba answered "Sir! I'm 22! I learned everything from the village library, it was a lot!"

'Hes 22? That doesn't make sense, but if he read a whole library, which I imagine was a big room full of books on shelves, like a normal library, that would make sense. But why does he act like he's in the military or something? Nevermind, we should probably before I get as angry as I did yesterday.'

"Rosa, let's set sail."

And so, we set off.

But when we were a little far away, I heard one of the loudest yells in the world.

"VIPE! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW! I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO LEAVE!"

It was loud enough that it scared even me. And with that yell, everyone turned to Vipeba.

"Vipeba, who and what was that?"

Sweating a little, he hesitantly answered "My mom."

"That doesn't answer why."

Continuing to hesitate and sweat, he said "She's been overprotective of me, and so, I left without telling her." He was laughing a little, rubbing the back of his head.

I slapped my face to facepalm.

I think it surprised Taki, Alice, and Mariga, especially hearing it. It was a crisp sound of me slapping myself. After removing my hand, I could just tell there was a red slap mark covering most of my face, and didn't care.

Turning to Rosalina, I finally said "Rosa, can we head to Batarilla? I don't remember telling you before, so can we head to Batarilla?"

It had been two weeks of travel, I ended up shoving all my stuff into half of the room, sharing it with Vipeba, because out of my own reluctance to give up a space that was meant to be mine and some good will added into the mix, I caved.

It was fine, until I realized the training I do in secret, and didn't need someone I barely trusted to keep it. And so, I kept most of my stuff in what was once my room, and decided to sleep in the room with Taki, Alice, and Mariga. Alice was reluctant, but I didn't particularly care, as it felt more comfortable to me. So, the bed situation turned into Taki, Mariga, and I sleeping on a giant blanket bed, and Alice sleeping in a normal bed in the same room, with Vipeba sleeping in what was once my room.

It was also the only room I could train in, for the reasoning of I didn't fully trust Vipeba, even if he told me everything, as I considered saving Rouge as a very important thing to do. I also didn't fully care if Alice knew of my training, since she was following me, not Rosalina.

Alice was a little surprised when she learned of my training, only since she had never witnessed anything other than my physical training, so it was a little shock to know that I did more than I let on. When she asked why I was keeping this training secret, I answered "It's a bit of paranoia, don't mind it." And we left it like that.

Taki did observe my own training, trying to find out exactly what I was doing, I guessed it was to improve herself and her own power, and I didn't care about her watching me, even if it was a little creepy.

I hadn't had mach change in my training, as in my training hadn't progressed much, since Haki became stronger against enemies, and I didn't have anyone to challenge my own Haki, meaning I could only steadily become stronger in that aspect. I did also get to an 8-punch training, which was great, until I got really tired the first time.

Some other things that happened were talking and learning about Vipeba. To simplify what he said, he left the Torino Kingdom because of his very clingy and overprotective of him without much reason. Even his father had asked her to chill out with being overprotective, which failed. So, he grew up overprotected, making him want to leave, and yet not fully grow up. While he did want to leave and get away from his mother, he still have some familial love for her, which was understandable.

I learned the entire reason why he left too, which could be boiled down to "I have been overprotected my entire life, I've never left this island, how about I just leave the island and see what's outside, become strong enough to protect myself, and help people in the process with my vast knowledge of medicine and medical practices."

And then, an island was in view.

"He Rosalina, is that Batarilla?"

"Yes, we are almost there, it will most likely take an hour at most to arrive!"