The Blind Bandit

Chapter 7

"I'm pleased to hear that Toph's private lessons are going well," Lao said, taking a sip of tea, "But I want to be sure she's not trying anything too dangerous."

"Absolutely not. I am keeping her at a beginner's level. Basic forms and breathing exercises only," reassured Lu.

"Very good," Lao said as a servant entered the room.

"Excuse me, sir, but you have a visitor."

"Who thinks they are so important they can just come to my home unannounced?" Lao said.

"Uh...the Whitebeard Pirates, sir," the servant said, Toph's eyes widening in shock and surprise.

Lao and Poppy look at each other while the servant goes away and Toph blows her hair in annoyance.

In the dining room

Inside the dining room, the Beifongs, Ace, Thatch and Marco gather for a dinner of soup, tea and roast duck. Ace sits across from Toph, devouring his food. 

Bringing a cup of soup to Toph, the servant placed it in front of her and Lao notices.

"Blow on it. It's too hot for her," Lao said as the servant blew on the cup of soup.

"Whitebeard Pirates, it's an honor to have you visit us," Poppy said.

"Yes it is, but why have you come?" Lao queried.

"Oh, you see, this is our first time docking at this island, and we would like to see some earthbending before we finish restocking and depart," Ace said, smiling triumphantly down at Toph, who gave him an annoyed look.

Chuckling, Lao said, "Well, Master Yu is the finest teacher in the land. He's been teaching Toph since she was little."

"Then she must be a great earthbender! Probably good enough to demonstrate to someone else!" Ace said, before Toph sent a fissure under the table at him, "Ow!"

Ace sits up a little while Thatch muffled a snicker and Lao casted an odd glance at his daughter who was merely eating her soup.

"Toph is still learning the basics." Yu said as Lao continued, "Yes, and sadly, because of her blindness, I don't think she will ever become a true master."

Sending weird and confused looks at each other, Marco, Ace and Thatch glanced at each other before Ace said, "Oh, I'm sure she's better than you think she is."

Sending another fissure at Ace, Toph watched as his face fell into his bowl of soup.

Everybody stopped eating. Ace rubbed some soup out of his eyes, giving a glare before a devious smile took over his face. He sneezed on purpose and used his flames to send the food flying at the Beifong family.

"Whoops, sorry, I'm still learning how to control my devil fruit powers," Ace said, using an apologetic tone while rubbing the back of his head, before leering at Toph.

Shook his head at his crewmate's childish behaviour, Marco looked towards Thatch, who continued to snicker with an amused smile plastered on his face.

"What's your problem?!" Toph said angrily, standing up from her seat.

"What's your problem?!" Ace said just as angrily, before also standing up from his seat.

Whipping their faces with napkins, Lao and Poppy stood up as Poppy asked, "Well, shall we move to the living room for dessert, then?"

In a guest room (later that night)

"So how did your brilliant idea work out for you-yoi," Marco said sarcastically with a lazy look, "Why did you even do that?"

"She started it!" Ace defended, lying on the floor, "And I never said my idea was a going to be a good idea!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure-yoi," Marco said, rolling his eyes.

"That was hilarious though," Thatch said, still chuckling slightly when remembering what happened earlier in the dining room.

"Glad you enjoyed it-yoi," Marco sighed.

"So now what? We found the girl, but she doesn't want to come with us to meet Pops," Thatch said, looking towards Marco.

"Who knows-yoi," Marco shrugged, "We might just have to go back and cut our losses-yoi."

As Ace sighed and sat up, he saw a tiny figure enter the room from the corner of his eye. Alerting him, Ace went into a defensive position which Marco and Thatch took notice of almost immediately, tensing up slightly as well.

"Relax. Look, I'm sorry about dinner. Let's call a truce, okay?" the figure, who turned out to be Toph, said.

Letting down their defensive position, Ace, Marco and Thatch relaxed as Toph continued.

"Let's talk."