Guardian of the Destined (As You Wish)

Twenty-Four: Falling in--

(A/N: THE READERS HAVE SPOKEN (welltheydidntreallyspeakmoreliketheyjusttypedtheircommentbutyouknowwhatimeant!) !! Wiper is officially (well, not in canon) a straw hat pirate!??!!)

They had left the following morning, and when Wiper had asked, Luffy had been absolutley thrilled to have another member.

Now they were floating/falling. Luffy called it "flaunting."

Oh, wait. That's already a word!

...

Welp.

Nonetheless, Luffy had dubbed it "flaunting" and Sylvie had gathered them all on deck.

"So, as some of you already know, some of those guys had the power to predict your next move, right?" Sylvie sweatdropped as more heads than there should be nodded back at her.

"Well, while they called it Mantra, it is possible for you guys to use it, too. Wiper already knows how, but not that well, so...so nothing, I guess!" She smiled brightly.

"Here in what I would call 'Paradise', most veterans from the New World use it as well. Here, we call it 'Observation Haki.' I'm going to train you to use it. Now, one way to demonstrate is to make you try and hit me, which is the most popular way to do so, but I won't be doing that."

She pulled out four blindfolds and earmuffs from her pocket, and gave one to Luffy, Nami, Sanji, and Robin.

"We'll be playing hide n' seek! You four will be blindfolded and deafened, and you have to look your your assigned partners. Got it?"

"Wait! That's not how hide n' seek works!"

"I said kind of. And this is training." Sylvie said. "Luffy has to find Zoro, Nami finds Usopp, Sanji finds Chopper and Robin finds Wiper."

She winked mischevously at the hiders. "You have five seconds! First to be found will be doing laundry duty for a week!"

"What!?"

"Oh, no devil fruits either."

"B-but isn't five seconds to little?!"

Sylvie contemplated this.

"Fine. I'll give you hiders a five-and-a-half second headstart."

"THERES NO DIFFERENCE!!" The Chopper and Usopp wailed. The seekers blindfolded themselves and put on the earmuffs. Luffy was giggling, and Robin had an amused smile on her face.

"Five...~"

The hiders scrammed.

"FourThreeTwoOneGO!"

Luffy bolted, immediately slamming into the mast. Nami stepped wearily forward, hands waving everywhere. Sanji slowly walked forward, most likely using his knowledge of what was there to guide him. Robin confidently walked forward and up the stairs into the galley. Sylvie knew she shouldn't be so impressed when the woman walked back out with a coffee in hand.

Surprisingly enough, though, Luffy had found Zoro first. Crossing her arms, Sylvie found out why once Zoro began muttering something about "Captain's Orders"

"Lu. You're not supposed to use 'Captain's Orders' to find him. You won't learn Observation Haki if you do that." Luffy pouts.

"Zoro-nii gets a second try."

The swordsman bolts and Luffy tries again.

Zoro ends up doing the laundry that week nonetheless with Chopper.

----/--------------/---------

After Sylvie dismissed them, giggling, the crew all went to relax their way. Shaking her head, she watched in her cloud as Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper all bounce on the octopus balloon. They were going to fall. She knew so. But it would be hilarious.

Thus, when the octopus shrank, she gleefully held onto the railing as the ship began it's descent into what she could tell was the inescapable marine base of G-8. She will start her newest profile of a pirate there.

What will her new nickname be...?

(A/N: sorry it's so short!! It only has about 580 words compared to my usual 1000.

But would you prefer smaller but little more frequent updates or long ones?)