OP: AMP Ch. 198

Above the White Sea, the night sky showed no stars, just thicker layers of white clouds stacked upon each other. Still, moonlight managed to filter through the gaps between cloud layers, but it was dim.

Inside that house, every member of the Straw Hat crew had crashed hard. The Minecraft beds they'd regained after losing them had quickly become everyone's favorite piece of equipment. Those beds were addictive. When night came, the crew practically teleported to their beds. If Marcus had offered the Curse of Binding, half the crew would've accepted immediately.

But Kira wasn't sleeping.

Marcus sat on a couch made of compressed cloud material, staring at the moonlight, feeling completely out of his depth.

Kira had shown up at his door maybe an hour ago, knocked quietly, and when he'd opened it she'd just started crying.

Now she was sitting on the opposite end of the couch, knees drawn up to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs.

Marcus had no idea what to do with his hands. Or what to say. Emotional support wasn't exactly his specialty. He was much better at solving problems he could punch or build his way out of.

"So, uh..." he started, then immediately regretted opening his mouth because he had no idea how to finish that sentence.

Kira sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Sorry. I shouldn't have come here. I just... I didn't know who else to talk to."

"No, it's fine. I just..." Marcus scratched the back of his head. "I'm not great at the whole comforting people thing. But I can listen if you need to talk."

To understand how they'd ended up in this awkward situation, you'd need to go back about half a day.

After the crew's strategy meeting about dealing with Shiki, everyone had split up to focus on training. Even Usopp, one of the weakest members of the crew and someone who openly admitted to being lazy, had managed to take out fifty-three pirate ships on his own. Sure, Marcus had killed the three Devil Fruit users with his sword, but the victory had still given everyone a massive confidence boost.

They'd realized how much they'd been relying on Marcus to solve their problems. But Usopp's performance proved that with the right preparation and effort, even the "weak" members could accomplish incredible things.

So everyone had thrown themselves into training.

Some focused on developing their Devil Fruit abilities, Nami experimenting with weather manipulation, Vivi pushing the limits of her Whisper-Whisper Fruit, and the others exploring new applications of their powers.

Others prioritized Haki development, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji working on their Armament and Observation, with Bon Kurei and Robin joining them.

Marcus understood why the main fighters focused on Haki. Bon Kurei was a hand-to-hand specialist, so that made sense too. But Robin choosing to focus primarily on Haki development had surprised him. Then she'd explained the problem, and it made a frustrating amount of sense.

The Flower-Flower Fruit could theoretically coat its generated limbs with Armament Haki. There was no limitation preventing it. But the practical application was a nightmare. Robin could generate limbs anywhere within her line of sight, and those limbs shared damage with her real body. Marcus had initially assumed that if Robin coated her actual arms with Haki, all the generated limbs would automatically inherit that coating. After all, when he'd temporarily used her fruit through his Soul Possession, the diamond armor had extended to every limb and clone she created. It seemed logical that Haki would work the same way.

But it didn't.

She could coat one arm with Armament Haki now, thanks to training. For maybe thirty seconds before her reserves ran out.

The Flower-Flower Fruit didn't automatically transfer Haki to generated limbs. Each limb needed to be individually coated, which meant consciously directing her limited Haki to specific body parts that weren't even attached to her. For three or four extra arms, she could manage it with practice. But once she generated more than five limbs, it became nearly impossible to keep track of which arm was which through sensation alone.

Marcus had tried to understand the problem by using Soul Possession on Robin during training. The experience had been disorienting as hell.

Controlling arms that didn't exist on your body felt like trying to operate phantom limbs. You had to maintain a mental image of where each one was, what it was doing, and somehow direct your Haki to coat specific ones without getting them confused.

After eight generated limbs, even he couldn't distinguish which phantom arm was which anymore. They all blurred together in his consciousness. He could only operate them as groups, all the right-side arms doing one thing, all the left-side arms doing another.

Coating individual arms with Armament Haki required precise, focused control. Robin's Haki reserves could only coat one arm at a time. Trying to individually target one arm out of twenty generated limbs was like trying to find a specific grain of sand on a beach while blindfolded. The only real solution was the brute-force approach: coat all the limbs at once. But that would require vastly more Haki than she currently possessed. So she'd chosen a different path. Instead of precision, she'd go for volume. Develop her Haki reserves until she could coat dozens of limbs simultaneously through sheer power rather than finesse.

Marcus and Robin had been discussing potential shortcuts, maybe generating the arms she wanted to coat first, then creating the regular limbs afterward to keep them separate in her mental map, when Kira had interrupted them.

And now here they were.

"Everyone else was busy," Kira said quietly. "Nami and the others are all focused on getting stronger after what happened. I couldn't add to their stress. And the men... Luffy is the one I let down the most. I couldn't face him. Zoro is too intense. Sanji would just try to flirt instead of listening. Bon Kurei makes me uncomfortable for reasons I can't really explain. Usopp and Goliath are constantly working on weapons. And Chopper..."

She managed a weak smile. "He's sweet, but he's more like someone I should be comforting, not the other way around."

Marcus nodded slowly. "So I'm the default option because everyone else was taken?"

"No!" Kira looked up sharply. "I mean... you've always helped me. From the very beginning. You gave me a chance when I had nothing. You gave me a Devil Fruit when you didn't have to. A Mythical Zoan that should've gone to someone more useful."

"Hey, you're plenty useful—"

"I'm not!" The words burst out of her. "I have an incredible power and I can't do anything with it! The fruit gave me the ability to fly, and all I did was slow Luffy down! He lost because he had to protect me! Because I'm too weak to protect myself!"

There it was. The guilt that had been eating at her since the fight with Shiki.

Marcus leaned back against the cloud couch, thinking about how to respond. "You know Luffy doesn't blame you, right?"

"I know. That almost makes it worse. If he yelled at me or told me I messed up, at least I could apologize. But he just acts like everything's fine, and I know it's not fine because we lost and it's my fault."

"You're being too hard on yourself."

"Am I?" Kira's voice rose slightly. "Tell me honestly, if I'd been stronger, if I'd been faster, would he have lost that fight?"

Marcus opened his mouth to give a comforting lie, then closed it. She deserved better than that.

"Probably not," he admitted. "If you'd been more experienced, Luffy might've won. But that's true for everyone. If Nami had been stronger, the outcome might've changed. If Zoro had trained more, if Sanji had better observation Haki, if I'd given everyone better equipment sooner... there are a million variables."

"But—"

"Let me finish. Yeah, your inexperience was a factor. But you've been with us for what, half a year? Most of the crew has been fighting for years. Luffy's been training since he was a kid. You're comparing yourself to people with way more experience, and that's not fair."

Kira looked down at her knees.

"The fact that you lasted as long as you did against opponents way above your level? That's impressive. You didn't freeze up. You didn't run away. You tried your best to support Luffy even though you were scared out of your mind."

"It doesn't feel like enough. Everyone's getting stronger. I still can't help with anything. I can't even function properly as a navigator anymore. Will I... will I get kicked off the ship?"

Her eyes were squeezed shut, as if opening them would make her fears real.

Marcus looked up at the cloud ceiling overhead.

What was he supposed to say now? Comfort again? Encouragement? Some kind of inspirational speech?

Back home, the harshest thing he'd dealt with was his rent being due and his internet going out. Here, people fought sea monsters and legendary pirates. The real world didn't give you rewards just for trying hard. That was a lesson he'd learned the painful way, and it applied even more in the Grand Line.

He'd watched Kira train, everyone in the female group had. She was the only one who could keep up with Alvida's workout regimen. And that wasn't because she was naturally strong. Months ago, she'd been weaker than an average civilian, barely able to run a hundred meters without getting winded. If it weren't for the Minecraft food allowing her body to recover quickly, the kind of training she put herself through would've destroyed her before she got any results.

The fact that she'd grown this much was honestly impressive. She was stronger than most people who called themselves "talented." But the Straw Hat crew wasn't "most people." Everyone on this ship was some kind of prodigy.

Luffy was the guy who'd learned advanced Armament Haki, and Devil Fruit Awakening after getting beaten up by Kaido. Even Usopp, Nami, and Chopper had shown ridiculous development. Chopper had the lowest bounty on the crew but could fight opponents worth hundreds of millions. He'd even clashed directly with Big Mom once, though she hadn't been at full strength. Nami had gone from using a trick weapon to instant-cast weather manipulation, and now she had the Rumble-Rumble Fruit on top of that. Usopp had eaten the Bomb-Bomb Fruit and could level entire fleets as long as his stamina held up. And he still complained about training being too hard.

When geniuses worked hard, normal people got left behind. That was just reality.

"Do you want to leave?"

Kira's body tensed.

Did she want to leave? How could she? In just six months, she'd experienced more excitement, adventure, and warmth than in her entire previous life. The Straw Hats didn't backstab each other or play political games. They just laughed, fought, and looked out for each other every single day. It felt like having a family. Leaving now would be like abandoning home.

But did she deserve this home? She couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't good enough, that she was dead weight the crew had to carry.

Her throat tightened. No words would come out.

Tears started falling. She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face against them, shoulders shaking as she tried to muffle the sound of her sobs.

Marcus didn't say anything. Sometimes people just needed to let it out. Crying wasn't weakness, it was just processing emotions that had been bottled up too long.

"What should I do?" Kira finally managed to ask between quiet sobs.

Marcus thought about how to answer that. He'd shown her the path to getting stronger. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't replicate what he'd done with his Devil Fruit. She'd managed to stack multiple animal forms, but losing her human shape made her weaker because she lost the defensive benefits of the diamond armor.

It was a frustrating problem with no easy solution.

He'd realized something important after Alvida had pointed it out: when he used Soul Possession on people, he wasn't helping them develop their potential. He was just operating their Devil Fruits at a higher level than they could manage themselves. It was like watching a professional speedrunner play a game you owned, impressive to watch, but it didn't make you better at playing.

Kira needed her own path forward, not his. But he had no idea what that path looked like.

"This is probably something Luffy should be saying, but he's too dense to realize it himself. You're a member of this crew, not someone we're just dragging along out of pity. And Luffy doesn't blame you. Knowing him, he's probably blaming himself for not being strong enough to protect you properly during that fight."

"That's not... he shouldn't..."

"Shiki is a legendary pirate from Roger's era. Losing to him doesn't mean you're weak. It means he's ridiculously strong."

Marcus shifted gears, trying a different approach. "You know what? Fuck that guy. Instead of looking for problems in yourself, look for problems in Shiki. Why's he even here? Why isn't he in the New World? What kind of legendary warrior comes to Paradise? That's like... I don't know, a heavyweight boxer beating up teenagers and acting proud about it."

Kira looked up, confused. "What?"

"I'm serious. A guy that strong should be challenging the Four Emperors, not hanging around the first half of the Grand Line picking fights with crews that barely made it past Reverse Mountain. No wonder the Marines threw him in Impel Down. He had to cut off his own legs just to escape, and even then he came crawling back to Paradise instead of facing real competition."

Marcus was laying it on thick, but he could see it was working. Kira's expression shifted from despair to confusion to something almost like indignation.

"That... makes sense," she said slowly. "Someone like him should be in the New World. Coming here just to show off how strong he is... that's kind of pathetic?"

"Exactly." Marcus kept his tone light, glad the distraction was helping.

Kira wiped her eyes and sat up straighter, finally meeting his gaze. "Thank you. For not... for not just telling me to work harder or that everything's fine."

"Yeah, well, lying wouldn't help anyone."

She managed a weak smile. "I guess I should get back to my room. Everyone's probably asleep by now."

---

After Kira left, Marcus sat alone, staring at nothing in particular.

This was his watch shift. Once someone lay down on a Minecraft bed, they fell into such a deep sleep that waking them was nearly impossible. Because of this vulnerability, the Straw Hats had decided to always leave one person on guard. Tonight, that person was him.

He'd expected a quiet night. Everyone else should've been dead asleep by now. So when footsteps approached from behind, he turned around, mildly surprised.

Vivi emerged from the sleeping quarters, looking unusually serious.

"Can't sleep?" Marcus asked.

"I need to ask you something," Vivi said, her tone making it clear this wasn't a casual conversation. "You could fight Shiki, couldn't you? At the very least, you wouldn't have been captured so easily."

Marcus blinked. "What? Why would you think that? He's a legendary pirate."

"Because you didn't seem afraid of him at all. My Whisper-Whisper Fruit doesn't just allow long-distance communication, it lets me 'hear' more than words. Especially after I awaken my Observation Haki, I can faintly sense everyone's emotions."

She took a breath. "During that fight, everyone else was tense, afraid, or anxious. But you weren't scared at all. You seemed almost excited. Like you were looking forward to fighting him. And even now, you don't seem to feel any sense of urgency about the situation."

She looked at him, waiting for his answer.

Marcus sighed and gestured to the cloud chair next to him. "Sit down. This might take a minute."

She settled onto the chair, and he leaned back, looking out at the White Sea.

"You're not wrong about what you sensed. I did think about fighting Shiki one-on-one. But thinking about something and being able to do it are different things. In terms of pure strength, I don't think I'm his match. That attack you saw before we reached Skypiea? You all saw what condition I was in afterward. If I could maintain that state for an extended period, maybe I could go toe-to-toe with him. But I can't. That's reality."

"I see..." Vivi nodded thoughtfully.

Marcus looked at her curiously. "Why are you suddenly asking this? It's the middle of the night."

"Well..." Vivi hesitated, stopping herself mid-sentence.

Marcus frowned. "Are you asking why I didn't go all out? Wondering if things would be different if I had?"

"No!" Vivi waved her hands frantically. "That's not what I mean at all! I just... I don't really understand why you chose to join the Straw Hat crew in the first place. Ah, I don't mean it like that, I just... I just..."

She gestured wildly, her words becoming incoherent.

Marcus laughed and shook his head. "You're asking the same question Shiki asked. And yeah, with your Whisper-Whisper Fruit covering that area, you naturally 'heard' his offer too."

Vivi nodded repeatedly. She hadn't paid much attention to the question at first, but Shiki's offer was something only she had 'heard' through her powers. And over the past few days, curiosity had been eating at her. She'd even quietly asked Nami about it.