24 Chapter 22: Day with Marceline

It was a beautiful morning in the woods

with the fresh slightly polluted breeze moving the dead leaves on the ground and the mutated animals starting their day

In this rare but attractive landscape you could see a young white-haired man dressed in sportswear with round blue glasses, running and jumping through the trees

POV: Blanche Petrikov

Nothing like morning exercise to relax the muscles

I remember starting these kinds of routines when I was a kid while Simon was still here, good old days

As I ran through the forest enjoying the silent atmosphere, I started to lose myself in my thoughts.

I recently realized that I need to improve

after the tide of oozers, when I realized that I depended too much on my powers, although it was understandable because I was a physically weak child, I thought that my combat training had covered my weaknesses and it did, but partially

I covered my physical weaknesses, I can defend myself and dodge almost anything thanks to my haki, but I didn't take into account the problem that my great ability generated, I got used to not being hit and always being one step ahead of my enemies

My physical abilities for battle were perfect, but not my mental ones, Marcy showed me that abrupt changes and situations that I did not expect confuse me easily.

I am very used to being superior, so much so that if something happens that I had not foreseen, my mind becomes a total mess

My overconfidence in my abilities made it easy for me to be caught off guard and defeated, just like Marcy did.

My mind became a mess due to the failure of my intagibility, during my confusion Marceline immobilized me and knocked me out easily, I am physically a human after all and without my ice powers I can be easily damaged

Why didn't I cast a spell or freeze her? That was one of the questions I asked myself and that led me to discover this great defect.

Leaving aside the fact that I was knocked out in a few moments, I was also confused and they were hitting me in the face repeatedly, I did not have the calm or the time to think too much

So...

It all comes down to my inexperience with defeat, I have experience in battles as I have been fighting almost all this life, but at no time were my enemies superior to me, the only ones who could have given me a decent fight were the King's court

But they were still pretty predictable

they were just hard to kill and after the growth of my powers they no longer represented any threat to me

So I thought of a plan

I need to put myself at a disadvantage and force myself to adapt to these types of situations

Better now in a controlled way than in a life and death battle, right?

So from today I will no longer use my powers (haki, ice, spells, etc) in fights

only if it's a desperate situation

I'm going to imitate Finn and only use my fists, my dagger and my guts.

Of course I'll be using enchanted gear with different effects, just so I don't lose all the advantage, plus I need some practice with it.

But for that I'm going to need Marcy's help.

i plan to give her the powers of the empress today and those of the sister moon on her 19th birthday

Why not give them at the same time? Well I want her to adapt slowly to the new abilities, giving her too much power in a short time could overwhelm her

While we train she will teach me demonic magic and I will help her practice with invisibility, so we can improve together

All this planning distracted me so much that I didn't notice that I arrived at the camp while I was running.

In the camp

All the humans were having breakfast around the campfire and preparing to continue with the repair of the boat.

Tom was talking to everyone about the next section they should repair and estimating how long it would take them to complete everything.

The first to notice my arrival was Chemy, who ran to me and jumped into my arms.

"Blanche! Where were you? You shouldn't go out without telling us! And if a vampire attacks you or a hungry unicorn or a hungry vampire unicorn!"

Her questions put a smile on my face

Chemy always cares about me, regardless of my status as a hero.

"I'm sorry boss Chemy, I was just finishing my morning exercise, I promise next time I'll let you know, okay?"

"Mmph, you better, I the great Chemy don't have that much patience" Chemy used a fake condescending tone to make his warning clear

I walked with Chemy in my arms towards the campfire, looking for Marcy among the group of humans but she was nowhere to be found.

So I walked up to Tom

"Blanche! Good morning, training early as always, you should take a little break, why don't you leave the great Chemy here and eat something?"

"Good morning Tom, I would really love to, but I have something to do, better another time"

"Fine as you wish, I need to go to the ship with the others, so see you later"

I put Chemy down and looked around, there was still no sign of Marcy so I leaned in front of Chemy to ask

"Hey boss Chemy, don't you know where Marceline is? I need to talk to her"

"Mmmh, I don't think I ever saw her leave her store, maybe she fell asleep?"

"I see, I'm going to go get her, why don't you have some breakfast and then we can go to the boat together?"

"Wow~, seriously!? Fine!"

she went to the food near the campfire and began to stuff her mouth until her cheeks puffed out, she looked like a hungry squirrel

I looked away from Chemy and walked towards Marcy's tent.

It would be rude to enter without warning first, we do not want a cliche situation

"Marcy! Are you awake!? I need to talk to you!" I yelled at her from the tent entrance hoping to wake her up.

......

Looks like there were no results

I'm going to have to go in

I entered the tent and the first thing I saw were some bags full of clothes along with several stakes lying around the place

Marcy must have brought some of her belongings with her when she arrived.

The next thing to notice about the place was Marcy, asleep like a baby on top of her sleeping bag, she was snoring and drooling.

Her Bass-Axe was right next to her.

Now....I have two options

1: I wake her up with a soft and calm tone so as not to alarm her...

2: I record a video of her snoring and drooling to annoy her later

I didn't think too much about it and took out a quite old phone that I repaired a while ago, I don't use it much since I don't have time for games or someone to call, but I do use it to listen to music or take pictures of Chemy and Tom

I approached as stealthily as I could and pointed the phone camera at her face while I tried to contain my laughter as best I could.

But I made a rookie mistake

Don't turn off the flash

The flash illuminated Marceline's face.

And the next thing I saw was her eyes widening and turning bright red.

This surprised me so much that I was paralyzed for a few seconds...until I saw that she took her ax

I quickly backed up a few steps as the ax blade passed right in front of me, splitting my phone in half and cutting off a few strands of my hair.

I had cold sweat running down my back.

Marcy did not move from her place still holding the ax looking at nothing, it seems that she is still half asleep and the cut was by instinct

Her eyes began to shake and turned black again before looking at me.

"Mmh? Nerd? What are you doing in my tent? Why am I holding my axe? And...did you cut your hair?"

I surreptitiously pushed the broken phone and the strands of hair under the luggage strewn about with my foot.

"...hey Marcy...yes I think I had it too long so I tried a new cut, I just came to wake you up and talk a little...how did you sleep?"

"Oh I see, I like the way it looks and I had a great night, I haven't slept so well in a while"

"Yes...yes...I'm really glad to hear that..."

My nerves calmed down a bit, it seems that she doesn't know anything, I better get her out of here to eliminate the evidence

"Hey Marcy, I have to ask you something, what do you think if I tell you while we have breakfast?"

"Okay, my tummy is rumbling for some food"

Marceline walked past me and out of the store.

I quickly reached down to pick up the broken phone along with my bangs and carefully put them away before leaving behind Marceline.

Together we sit near Chemy for breakfast before heading to the ship.

"Now about what I wanted to tell you-"

"Not now nerd, I'm hungry, tell me later"

After interrupting me, Marceline made herself a venison sandwich, for some reason venison is her favorite food.

And....at that moment I remembered something, marceline never had very good manners to eat

she swallowed the sandwich in three big bites, splattering on her shirt and then downed a large glass of water in one gulp, her face was full of crumbs, toppings and water when she finished

"Marcy...should I make a bib for you?"

She seemed offended by my question

"What are you talking about? That way you enjoy the food more, don't be a delicate nerd"

A sigh escaped my lips

"Okay, you win, but one thing, could you come a little closer? I have something to tell you"

"Hmm? Is it a secret?"

"Something like that"

When Marcy's face was close enough, I made my surprise attack

I took a large amount of straws and before she could react I passed them all over her face cleaning all traces of sandwich

When I removed the napkins her face was quite clean, but her cheeks were very red, I don't know if from anger or embarrassment

"You!..Blanchie piece of sh-"

-a few moments later-

After Marcy got tired of chasing me, we walked with Chemy through the forest towards the coast where the human ship was.

Little Chemy was quite curious about Marcy

"So if you're not a vampire, what are you!? And how can you fly!? Is that thing on your back a guitar or an axe!?"

I thought Marcy would be overwhelmed by the amount of questions.

"Well my dad is a demon, so I'm half demon, I can fly because I swallowed the soul of a stupid gnome and it's both"

"Anything else girl?"

Seems I was wrong, she handled it pretty well

"Wow~...Is Blanche your boyfriend?"

"COF COF!"

I breathed so fast from the surprise that I choked on my own saliva and started to cough

That came out of nowhere

While coughing, I didn't notice Marcy's very slight and almost tiny blush that disappeared quite quickly.

"Well Chemy, he and I are..."

"Blanche, Marcy! This way!"

Her response was interrupted by Tom's distant shout, it seems we've made it to the ship

"We need your help moving some things guys!"

"I... I think I'll go first"

Marcy flew at high speed towards the boat leaving me and Chemy alone.

"....I think you guys make a cute couple"

An awkward smile spread across my face.

(One hour later)

Marcy and I travel to the beach of the island near the pier, I have to give it the power of the empress

At this time we were sitting in the shade of the trees looking towards the human ship

"So what did you want to ask me? If it's about my mom's motorcycle, I kept it in a building in the nearby city"

"No, it's not about that, I want to give you a gift, do you remember when you absorbed the soul of the fool and gained his ability to fly? Well here I have another one, I took it when I killed one of the members of the court and I want you to absorb it , if all goes well, you will gain the ability to make yourself invisible"

"Seriously!? That's incredible, can you imagine all the jokes I could do with that!?"

I started to doubt my decision

But I still took the vial containing the essence of the empress out of my pocket and gave it to Marcy.

"When you break this vial you will only have a few seconds to absorb it, so be quick"

"Yeah~ I know"

Marceline smashed the vial against the ground and a strange cloud began to rise into the air.

Unfortunately that did not get very far because Marcy's mouth was transformed, as she demonstrated several years ago and quickly sucked the essence

Marcy closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again, it seems that it worked

"How are you feeling Marcy?"

Marceline didn't answer me but gave me a mischievous smile before disappearing into thin air like an illusion.

Sensing what she wanted to do, I quickly activated my Haki to find her.

She she was behind me, preparing to pull on my underpants.

I quickly moved forward a few steps, narrowly dodging the hands.

"What-"

A surprised Marcy appeared in the air

"I can sense presences, remember?"

"...damn nerd"

A/N: I want to further develop the relationship between the MC and Marceline little by little.

Because I want it to hurt what I'm going to do later

no one is going to die and it's not NTR, my God, how traumatized are all of you