It was then that Vivi asked the one question I hoped she never would. “Where did you even find this thing!?” I could still feel she was very angry, and it scared me a bit to know what she would do if she knew. “It was me, it’s my fault he has it.” Everyone’s head snapped towards Robin. “I convinced him to find the catacombs with me. After we went down there…” “Robin stop!” I yelled out to her, garnering the looks back at me. “It’s not like you put a gun to my head. It was my decision to go down there with you. If anything it was my fault for not heeding the warnings on.. The.. door…”

I then thought back to the door. I could remember Anubis, but now I could read the Hieroglyphics underneath it that I remembered. “All ye who pass this door, may ye be weighed of your heart. Those that fail, may rest in the stomach of Ammit for eternity.” I said the warning out loud, now that I remembered it. I quickly looked at the book, to see I could understand what it was saying now. “Books of Thoth Vol.1 Book of the Dead” I could feel like I always knew the words, but just forgot for a moment.

I shook my head a bit as the book then fell to the ground. Everyone then stared at the book for a bit before Vivi spoke up. “Nami, get a lighter.” I then put my paws up in defense. “Stop! Don’t burn it!” Vivi then scowled at me. “And why shouldn’t I!? Look what it’s done to you! In the span of 10 minutes I’ve seen you more distressed than in the last days that I’ve known you!” I could feel Robin feel worse and worse as Vivi yelled. Robin seemed to still be blaming herself for this, and I didn’t want her to run.

“Just because something is scary doesn’t mean it’s evil! Or what would I be then!?” After I yelled that, the room became silent. I let out a sigh to help ease my emotions. I could feel Nami’s guilt overtaking her. Vivi’s sadness, probably of how I knew exactly how many viewed me as a monster. Chopper was reverent, because he knew more about that pain than I did. However Robin was surprised and confused. Almost as if wondering if people would ever view me like that. I smiled at her thoughts, but she noticed I was doing it and felt more anxious. I chuckled a bit before talking again.

“The book only showed me more about death. I’m just scared of death. It’s as simple as that. The book doesn’t want to hurt the person it’s bound to. I can feel it. The book has no ill-will.” I could feel Vivi’s emotions move. They eventually settled, and when they did she sighed and gave me a hug. “Thank you for trusting me.” I said while patting her back. She nodded and then let go. Just as Robin was about to say something the door flung open. “Hey Chopper! Have you seen Calvin! I wa-” It was Zoro, he was talking while opening the door, and almost finished his question before he was greeted by all of us in the room.

Our gazes met and I could feel Zoro demanding me to help him train. I nodded at him and grabbed my book. “Yes, I can help you train. Robin you coming with?” She felt surprised and conflicted, all hidden behind her poker face of course. I then grabbed her hand and started to drag her out. She then felt embarrassed and anxious. I smiled while feeling her emotions and looked back at her with my grin. Her poker face was still up, but I could feel past it.

Once Zoro made it to the training field I sat the book down on a bench and walked over to him. I could feel Robin’s confliction of something, and turned back to talk to her. “You can read the book if you want. Might have some good historical value.” Robin’s eyes widened a bit as she looked at me. “Do you really read minds?” She asked quietly before she looked away in embarrassment. 

I smiled calmly at her as I spoke. “I can only feel emotions, not thoughts. I can trust you with my life because I can see your Aura. I trusted you the moment I saw you. And the moment you never felt scared of my appearance when we first met felt nice. Most don’t think the same.” I then walked away from Robin feeling her emotions of sadness and disbelief. 

I made it to Zoro who was sitting in a meditative position. I took one myself in front of him. “You finally ready?” He asked while his eyes were still closed. “Yup, just had to iron some things out.” He nodded and opened his eyes to meet my gaze. “Teach me.” I nodded and stood up. I grabbed two nearby sticks. I held one up and offered it to him. He squinted a bit but grabbed it anyway. “Now… You must close your eyes.” He grabbed his bandana and used it to cover his eyes. “Now… I’m going to try and hit you with this stick, and you use anything but sight to find and stop me.”

“I don’t-” Just as Zoro was trying to disagree with my idea I snapped the stick against his leg. It seemed to sting, but it only angered Zoro. He swung his stick very close to where I was, most likely he knew where the attack came from because of his training. I dodged it easily and snapped the stick against his other leg. 

“This is not a board game! You can move and do more than just defend then attack! This is war!” I yelled out to get him to focus. He began to swing towards my voice. I was still able to dodge and sometimes parry his attacks. I was mostly relying on Aura to help me know where to put the stick to parry, but this was good sword fighting practice for me too. He was able to swing his sword in my direction after I made a noise or hit him. But aside from that, he would have no clue where I was. He seemed to be a little annoyed he wasn’t getting it, but not actually mad.

We kept training like that until we both were out of energy. By the end I felt like Zoro could sometimes try to attack or dodge with the only way imaginable was with the power of Aura. It was still in its infancy though. He could hardly use observation Haki enough to know an attack was coming from, or where the enemy was less than two feet away, but it was definitely a start. “I think that’s enough for today. At least for me. If you still want to train more, I think I might be able to make something for you to train with on your own.” I said in between gasps of air.

Zoro then shot up to look at me. Determination filled his eyes again. “You know a way for me to do as much training as I want?” I nodded while stretching. “Yea, but it would take a while to set up, and a large covered area. We don’t have that on the ship.” Zoro thought for a bit, before coming to a conclusion. “Can’t we just set up the training here?” I looked around and saw this training field had a large tree. I nodded a bit while coming up with a plan. “Alright, we just need 100 feet of rope, get more if you can, and a bunch of small logs, or small sticks of bamboo.” 

Zoro felt confused at what I was making, but nodded with how he could get stronger. We left the field and I made my way back to Robin, who was sitting next to Vivi and Nami. I looked over and saw how Robin was explaining information from the book of the dead with confusion. I went over to see what they were learning about it. Vivi was the first to notice my presence. She smiled at me as I came over, but I could feel rage from underneath it. I sweat a bit, and not from exercising. Robin and Nami were anxious, but Robin was also feeling guilt.

“What did you guys learn in the book?” I said carefully, not wanting to set Vivi off. She smiled while her anger burned inside, she knew I could feel it, and that I got extra scared when she didn’t show it on her face. “Nothing much… Just how this book is now bound to your soul, and that if this book is ever destroyed it has a good chance of hurting your soul with it.”