Chapter 32

It took a few months before they all healed up enough to return to something like normal, crew scarred but a great deal wiser from the experience.

Marshall explored the Coddi, becoming familiar with the new layout of the ship after having spent the recent days in either the infirmary, the kitchen or, most recently, his room. The extra space was appreciated, he hummed, since it had been getting a tad challenging to find room for everything as more people joined his crew. Treasure alone had occupied at least half the space in the formerly caravel-sized ship. Which...he really needed to sort through again, come to think of it.

(To his relief, the crates from Vertara's island were tucked away, untouched, at the back of the main treasure room.)

During his exploration, he was pleasantly surprised to find several flower beds filled with the odd reddish soil from the Valhallian dragon's island on top of the cabins. For the seeds he'd brought back, he guessed. He had no idea how to care for plants beyond 'water occasionally', but what the hell, he decided to give planting them a try.

He stumbled upon a combination of a library and study, the shelves rather bare except for some texts about the history of Valhallia and its laws along with its myths. Rubbing his chin, he eyed the space in the shelves speculatively. He'd missed reading, and now that he had a place to put them, he might pick up some books on the next island. See what passed for literature in the New World that wouldn't get him killed for reading it, he thought, snorting in amusement.

The pantries and food storage areas were, in a word, huge. Apparently the Valhallians hadn't been so drunk before he left the party that they didn't notice his appetite. Which was good, because him aside, his crew could definitely put away the food after a long day of training. Everything was new, from the counters to the cookware, various state-of-the-art appliances set up for ease of use, most of them utilizing Dials in some way - such as the stove with Heat Dials and the pantry equipped with Cool Dials to keep food fresh. A smaller cabinet stood next to Sky Island refrigerator, and he was delighted to discover that the thing, thanks to some Dials, functioned as an icemaker! This was actually his first time taking a good look around the kitchen; back when he was staying in the infirmary to watch over his wounded crew whenever he got hungry he'd grabbed something fast and didn't linger. Now he whistled softly in awe, because those shipwrights really went above and beyond.

When he knocked on the far wall of the navigation room, it sounded hollow. A few more taps and he determined that there was a fairly big secret compartment. It took a minute to find the switch to open it, but when he pressed it a section of wall slid open soundlessly, revealing racks and shelves filled with bottles of booze. Wine, rum, ale, whiskey, you name it, the compartment had it all. Well that would come in handy, he thought, shaking his head and snorting a laugh as he closed the liquor cabinet.

Chuckling under his breath, he went and checked the flight system. The controls were the same, but the network of Dials they controlled was greatly expanded, just like Baldir said. He nodded in satisfaction, relieved that he didn't need to figure out how to work a whole new system.

He explored below decks, poking around the guest cabins, the empty officers quarters, the bunk rooms, and even the brig (which he had to take a moment to wrap his head around because they had a brig now). He looked through the treasury, unable to resist straightening it up a little and wow, they really had to do another inventory, didn't they? He thought, staring at a diamond-encrusted bra and panty set and wondering at the practicality of it.

Firmly telling himself that he did not want to know but also making a mental note to assign Wilde to inventory duty, he continued on his tour.

Arriving back on deck after examining the crow's nest, he leaned against the Coddi's mast and smiled. "Hard to believe you started out as that tiny rowboat who came untied that night, isn't it? You've come a long way, girl." Pausing to listen to the unmistakably smug rustling of the sails, his smile widened. "It's thanks to you that I'm alive today, and you've taken great care of both me and crew even before I wanted to admit that I had one, so even if I never say it again...thanks. Thanks for everything."

As he pushed away from the mast and walked off, the sounds of the ship around him sounded warm, and for just a moment he heard the voice of the Coddiwomple loud and clear.

'You're welcome,' she said.

(A few months later, he would be forced to admit that maybe forgetting about the seeds after sticking them in the soil hadn't been the brightest idea. Staring at the dark red vines spilling from the top of the cabins where the flower beds were located and winding around the railings, bright red buds forming along their length, he concluded that yeah, that hadn't been the smartest move he'd ever made...)

Waking up at the sound of the door opening, Marshall didn't react, his haki immediately identifying the intruder. One of his crew, not a threat, came his brain's sleep-slurred conclusion, not moving when Wilde crept up to the side of the bed.

The teen was wearing pajamas, he noted, the detail somehow seeming incredibly important as Wilde crawled under the covers. Marshall felt the thief press himself close to his side, oddly chilled for all that they were near a summer island and it was a fairly warm night, and then he felt the trembling. Wilde's shoulders shook, something cold soaking through his own shirt where the boy's face was pressed against his ribs, and then it clicked.

Letting out a long sigh, he wrapped an arm around the teen, his hand resting against the back of the kid's head. Wilde barely had time to tense before the captain spoke, voice rough with sleep as he said, "It's okay to be scared. You're safe now, so go ahead and cry..."

The teen needed no more encouragement, the little composure he still had shattering like glass as he broke down. Marshall gently pulled the kid closer to his side, silently opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling as the sound of sobs filled the cabin.

When Vertara poked her head in to check on them a few moments later, their eyes met.

'Everything okay?' her questioning gaze asked.

She relaxed when he gave a slight nod in response to her silent question, and she nodded back, slipping away as quietly as she'd come.

When the tears finally stopped an hour later, an exhausted Wilde falling into much needed slumber, Marshall was wide awake. He already knew he wouldn't be getting any more sleep that night, and so settled in to keep watch.

The third time he found Olivia passed out in the infirmary, hours away from starvation due to an improperly done Life Return, he put his foot down.

"No more." He told the doctor bluntly, not giving her a chance to argue. "I should have put a stop to it the first time, but I thought you would have learned from your mistakes or at least asked someone to be there in case you needed help. That was my fault, I should have known better." He shook his head, grumbling about doctors being the worst patients before telling her, "no training for a week, minimum, until you get your health back on track and really thought about what you're trying to do because starvation is not an acceptable side effect."

"But captain-!"

"No buts."

Trax was actually the easiest one to deal with, at least as far as near-death shenanigans went. Maybe it was because he was a tiger, maybe it was just his nature, but after adjusting to his new blind spot he was rather laidback about the whole thing.

"You know, it probably says something about this crew that you're the only one sticking to a steady training regime," he commented.

The big cat chuffed, the leather of his new eyepatch gleaming.

As it turned out, he was right about Zoro taking after his mother. In the span of two weeks Feral had managed to: reopen her wound no less than ten times, nearly cut her own foot off, and break her own ribs. It was that last incident that prompted him step in and interrupt Olivia's latest attempt at scolding her to have a word with the swordsman himself.

Suffice to say, after that Feral was much more inclined to be patient when it came to training.

"No."

"Captain-"

"No, it's a terrible idea and you aren't doing it."

"But Olivia said," Rune tried to argue, only for Marshall to raise one eyebrow and retort.

"The same Olivia I found nearly starved to death an hour after breakfast because she tried to use a new, untested version of Life Return with no safeguards? She has no leg to stand on when it comes to saying whether something is safe to try or not."

Seeing the rebellious look on the kid's face, he sighed and proposed a compromise, "how about this, you agree not to try anything new without someone there to help in case something goes wrong, and you can - slowly! - work up to trying your idea as long as the first few steps work!" He finished hurriedly upon seeing the eager look in Rune's eyes.

"Don't worry, captain, the theory is sound, and my research says the chance of something going wrong is less than forty percent." Rune informed him in an attempt at reassurance, but really only making him regret giving in even more. Still, he reluctantly smiled as he ruffled the kid's hair.

His voice fond, Marshall chuckled, "Yes, yes, you're my crew's own poison prodigy..."

After the captain walked off, Rune slowly smiled, eyes sharp enough to cut as one hand rose up to cup his chin thoughtfully.

"Poison Prodigy....I like the sound of that."

(When Rune got his bounty almost a year later, Marshall took one look at his epithet and facepalmed because really?)

Putting their heads together, he and Vertara actually made a lot of headway towards helping her control her berserker mode. That was not to say that there weren't some accidents in the course of training.

"I am so sorry, Captain!" Vertara nearly wailed, looking close to tears as she held his coat and watched as Olivia carefully bandaged a - thankfully shallow - bite wound on his leg.

Marshall sighed and patted the air, futilely attempting to calm the cannibal down, "it's fine, it's fine! I know you didn't want to," her reaction when she'd snapped back to normal was proof of that, "and really, I should have known better than to get too close without being sure you were in control. I let the fact you didn't immediately attack mislead me."

Carefully hugging the large coat to her chest, Vertara frowned, "I remember biting you, but it wasn't me biting you. It was like my instincts were in control, even though I knew who you were." She bit her lip, unmindful of her fangs and the blood that welled up from the punctures beyond absently licking them away.

"See? Progress! Now we just need to work on getting you in control instead of the instincts and we'll be good to move things up a notch. Although really, the fact you could bite through my haki is impressive enough on its own."

Vertara giggled, looking surprised at the sound, then turned thoughtful, then pleased as Olivia stepped back and declared she was done. "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it?" she admitted, pleased and laughing when Marshall reached out and pulled her into a hug, not favoring his leg in the slightest as he spun her around.

"That's the spirit!"

He called Rouge to tell her about the encounter with Compote and how things were going, because how could he not? He'd seen dozens of seabirds flying around since the fight and he didn't know if word had reached his sister via her bird Zoan crewmember yet.

It was a good thing he did; barely had the call connected before Rouge was screaming, "MARSHALL! Sweet seas, are you okay!? Why did it take you so long to call me?!"

Rubbing his ringing ear, Marshall sighed, shoulders slumping as he leaned back in his chair, looking at the worried expression on the snail's face and admitting, "Yeah, we're okay, but it took awhile...I don't know how much you already know, but let me start at the beginning..."