Where after seemingly having his life threatened once again, Geno feels certain and worthy to proceed in another level of training in combat.

No one's POV:
-

Another day rose on the ship. Everyone was just chilling or training lightly. With Alter's reassurement no one was feeling uneasy around him. But anyways, he wasn't up to the deck right now. Geno had left him sleeping, he had been woken up by another night terror and took many hours to shut eyesockets again.

Just like the others, Geno was chilling around too, waiting for the doctor to finally begin the training. But he had gotten late, unusual. The hour for the Unfairdictable Circle was arriving closer and Markus had already brought the bucket with the names.

"¡TE VOY A CONVERTIR EN HARINA DE HUESO, PEZ BASTARDO!"

A loud aggressive bark cut through the air like many arrows together falling on enemies. Geno recognised Ramirez' voice.

RUUUN~

PRINCEEE RUUUN~

"Uh oooh." Geno thought as he saw the Alsatian walking on a fast pace, his head snapping to all directions, his eye wide open and his claws and bare teeth in his mouth shining grey. But when his look stopped at Geno, he didn't just keep walking, he started running after the smol, who had started running too.

"¡VEN AQUÍ HIJO DE PERRA!"

"WHAT THE F***CK?!" Geno yelled with his soul ready to launch itself out of his mouth. "WHAT DID I DO?!" He couldn't recall doing anything recently that could anger Ramirez so much as of right now.

Could it be the event yesterday in the Captain's office? Reasonable, but this much?! Yes he had been told about Ramirez' loyalty towards Reaper, but now this was just getting out of hand. Didn't the Captain reassure he wasn't in danger? Wasn't that enough for him to chill?

"¡CORRE MIENTRAS PUEDAS, PEDAZO DE MI*RDA!" Ramirez barked again. "¡NO ESTARAS CORRIENDO POR MAS TIEMPO!"

A wild chase began around the ship, first intriguing thing of the day. The pirates were staring as their doctor was running after the small skeleton, without intervering. Who would want to interfere anyways with Ramirez being in such state as of now?

Geno had tried to slow down the dog on multiple occassions. He would launch stuff at him with blue magic, for fleeing moments turn around to throw bones at him, heck he even tried to push him away with magic. Nada. Nothing was keeping this wild dog behind.

Instead he was foaming the more he ran after the siren. Even as Geno had tried to gain distance by climbing up the masts, thinking he was fast enough, oh how wrong he realised he was as he saw the doctor climbing the masts at high speed.

"OH COME ON!" Geno had yelled in his mind as he was being chased up on the masts.

And when the doctor started launching metallic stuff at Geno, sh*t got even more real. However, the more the chase proceeded, the panic and confusion Geno was feeling gave place to seriousness.

He had no idea what he had really done to anger Ramirez so much, but he shouldn't care about that. He had to care about surviving the angry maniac. He had to put together all training he had received the past few weeks.

He had gotten better on many things. Much to everyone's impression and perhaps Geno's too, they watched as he was evading all of Ramirez' attacks, both gracefully and sharply and little by little instead of mainly running, turning to face him and attack.

Heck he was even catching with his bare hands the metallic objects Ramirez was launching at him and throwing them back fast, drawing the Alsatian's blood thrice actually! Not on vital spots, but still.

At some point however as Geno had almost got late to evade Ramirez from swatting him, he stumbled and fell backwards. His first insict led him to grab the cutlass that was laying next to him. At the very last second he prevented to lay on his back and hold back Ramirez who was above him and tried to grab him, by placing the blade horizontally in front of him.

The dog's paws didn't get cut from the weapon, they had turned silver. As Geno was still laying on his back and holding off Ramirez, he moved with blue magic a big barrel that hit the dog on his back and broke on him.

Tar stained a big part of the floor and all of Ramirez from the back. Upon this sudden hit Geno rolled to the left and let Ramirez fall on his face. He stood up quickly and summoned blue bones that kept the Animalistic down, seemingly ending the fight. Now he couldn't move.

"I don't know what on earth I did, but ya better stop dogface! It's over." Geno said.

Was it though?

It would have been the case if Ramirez hadn't stood up and let the blue bones harm him, as if they didn't exist and opened holes on his body.

"¡AHORA ESTÁS MUERTO!" He said and attacked directly Geno, who stepped to the right and gripped the cutlass tightly.

Now Ramirez too was holding in his hands a cutlass. He was dripping blood from his body and foam from his mouth. Him and Geno started walking circularly, staring focused at each other.

Not for long as the doctor attacked again. Geno blocked his attacks, he dodged the other's cutlass and even attacked back. After a while he got used to Ramirez' pace and soon after he felt as if he was dancing around.

Ramirez hadn't managed to hit him once, while he did! Though he had almost got hit then. At some point Ramirez had managed to unarm Geno. The cutlass had stabbed the main mast of the ship very high.

There for a moment Geno had panicked as he had no weapon. As Ramirez ran up to him he flailed his hands trying to think where to go to avoid him. He shut his eyesocket and sharply moved his hands in the sky.

"Pleaseworkpleaseworkpleasework!" He thought frantically as he turned his own soul blue and… flew up high in the air.

"Did he-?! Did he just use blue magic on himself?!" Michael asked with perked up eyes from surprise, same as others.

Having in mind the neat trick he had witnessed Decans doing, controlling his very own body and soul with blue magic, Geno had asked Alter just how possible it would be for him to do the same.

"Small monsters that control earth, gravity, direction and souls are most likely to be able control their very own bodies. Yes it is possible, even for ya if you practice." But because he knew Geno well enough, he had hummed cheerfully and pinched his cheek gently. "Lemme guess, ya remember that lil' skeleton back at… Olissipo… ahem, Decans Noko, doin' the same and decided to conquer the skill."

"Eheheh… ya got me." Geno had pouted. "Would it be possible for ya though?"

"Nope. I'm way too large to lift my own body in comparison to my soul. My advantages for bein' like this are other. As you are smaller, you have the ability control and balance your own body. As I am bigger, I can lift more and heavier objects around me. I'm certain that you're gonna conquer that skill though."

"How come we can lift stuff heavier than ourselves but can't lift ourselves as easily?"

"Almost like how a human can pick a heavy rock but can't lift themselves because they have nowhere to stand and bare their own weight. With magic on our side, it ain't as impossible. When we control somethin', we stand somewhere. We have stable ground. But when it comes to ourselves, it takes a lil' bit of strong will and calculation of the amount of magic needed to move yourself. Not just with your strength, but with blue magic."

Geno grabbed his cutlass and as he was still in the air send a few bones towards Ramirez, who jumped back. By that he gave space for the small skeleton to land. A few meters away from the floor he flailed his right arm, temporarily surrounding himself with blue magic and breaking his fall.

He momentarily smiled satisfied and grateful that he had practiced that secretly by himself. At times it was funny, both with dangerous. At first when he was trying to boost himself up and wasn't using enough magic he was getting frustrated.

And when he was getting frustrated he was giving himself too much propulsion and almost flying higher than the tallest mast of the ship. Screaming and barely managing to hold onto the horizontal masts of it.

However he had figured out how much force and propulsion he had to be giving himself. Most of the time at least. Luckily he had got it right and grabbed the cutlass. Ramirez attacked again and swung his sword at the smol.

Geno was bending backwards, spinning around, jumping when the doctor was swinging his sword horizontally and lowly. He was almost surprised as to how quickly he was responding to the offense towards him.

Even more surprised he got as without much thinking and while he was many steps away from Ramirez, he run up to him, summoned a bone on his free hand, pressed the tip of it on the floor's deck, did a backflip as he kept his balance perfectly and flew above the alsatian's head, only to land with his back turned at him and back-kick him with force causing him to stumble forward.

"WOOOW!" The pirates did shocked. Wow, Geno had think too from what he had just done. The adrenaline was rushing through his bones madly fast and his excitement caused him to be smiling uncontrollably. He quickly turned to face Ramirez, ready for his next attack.

But before a second could pass, Ramirez streched his arm towards Geno and twisted his cutlass so it wrapped around the small skeleton's wrist like a sharp handcuff. Geno hissed from the pain but then another small metallic object stabbed him on his shoulder. Then another on his heel.

He lost his balance and almost stumbled, which was enough for Ramirez to run up to him, grab him by the neck and slam him against the forecastle's wall. The cutlass' blade he was holding on his other hand approached threateningly close to the siren's throat.

And more metallic objects flew and pointed towards Geno head. The slightest resistance would cause him to get penetrated. Well damnit. But he looked at Ramirez with a daggereed eyesocket, ready to face what he thought was coming for him.

Him and the dog stared at each other for many seconds. But then… Ramirez straightened his back, let go of Geno abruptly, stepped back, threw his cutlass on the floor, dusted himself off and sighed.

"Not bad." He only commented. Geno's eyesocket widened up. Wait a damn second, was that whole fight-?!

Someone was heard approaching and clapping slowly. The Captain walked up to the doctor and the siren with a grin.

"Bravo, bravo, bravissimo." He said. Looking at Geno, he almost lost his smile seeing him injured, but he quickly hurried to look at Ramirez, grinning wider than when he first approached. "He got ya good."

"Way more than I expected." The doctor said, indifferently looking at his wounds.

"Counts as improvement?"

"Massive."

"So YOU'RE SAYIN'!" Geno interrupted them as he stood up and supported himself against the forecastle's wall. "That this WHOLE fight was an act?! ÆN ÆCT!" He asked and his skull had started boiling from anger.

"The best way to test if you've gained and conquered any combat skills, is under high pressure and the threat of death." Ramirez said chilly.

"HÆVƏ ¥ØU LØST ¥ØUR MINÐ?!" Geno yelled flailing his arms abruptly and objects around him jolted from blue magic.

"No, that's how I evaluate newbies the past 2 years I'm on this ship and am asigned to train them. You responded to the danger at first with panic, but then actually fought as if your life depended from it." The alsatian responded calmly. Geno stared at Reaper.

"Is he serious now?" It was as if he was asking. The other skeleton nodded.

"At any given time and circumstance, your life can be in danger. If you don't learn to face it, you die. If tomorrow, or in a week or more we are faced with a bunch of hostile sirens in the port of Gibraltar, what are you gonna do? Fight, or stay a helpless ninny? What I did today will seem merciful in what you might face in the future. So, be grateful that I'm not assigned to kill you and that was simple aggressive evaluation of your skills. You're on a good path. For now. You shall go to the medbay and ask the priest to bandage you."

"He's sleepin' though."

"Doubt he's still sleeping with so much noise we were making a while ago."

"Øh yøu'rə sœ rıght ðœc." A calm but vibrating voice was heard from behind and to Geno's left, who saw the pirates staring at there with expressions that almost seemed as if they had sh*t themselves from fear. The smol skeleton turned to look and saw Alter standing a few steps away.

Dark circles were under his eyesockets, visible even on the burned one. He shivered. First time he was seeing him so annoyed and pissed for not being able to sleep peacefully. That fatique was showing and his glare was almost Hellish, despite it seemed so emotionless.

~

"For such an intensive evaluation as said it was, the fresh injuries ain't that many." Alter commented tiredly as he sat on a stool next to the water-filled bathtub Geno was in, cleaning and rubbing gently the injuries on his torso in the privacy of the medbay. Luckily he hadn't snap on the deck from the lack of sleep, or seeing Geno hurt, though he was very close to do so.

Reaper and Ramirez explained what had happened, but that seemed to convince Alter very little. He needed Geno to stop him and walk away with him to not snap anyone's neck, especially Ramirez', given he was the one who had injured 'his prince'.

"You could say my clothes got more damaged than I did." Geno joked as his clothes layed in a corner. Only clothes they couldn't be called anymore, they were almost rags from the fight. At first it didn't seem like it, but when Geno simply proceeded to take off his shirt, it just ripped without much force.

"Guess it was about time ya got a makeover." Alter said then. Geno snapped his head to look at him. "Gotta ask Yalin if there's anythin' your size to wear."

"But-…" He stopped for a moment staring at his tail thoughtful. "Ain't there a chance they get repaired?"

"They're beyond repair son. 'Sides, ya deserve somethin' new. A change."

"I don't think I do." Geno murmured hesitantly while looking away. Alter must have heard that because he abruptly stopped rubbing the siren's back.

"… I'll pretend I didn't hear this just now and leave you here temporarily to ask Yalin for a new set of clothes for you. For now relax in here." Alter stood up and exited the medbay, not before turning once again to give a small smile to Geno. The small skeleton sighed and layed beneath the water's surface with only a big part of his long tail being out of the bathtub. The water smelled nice.

It had in it small amounts of healing substances and more over lavender. He sighed and as the bubbles rose up to the surface he closed his eyesocket. Once again, given how he was towards the crew the past few weeks, he doubted if Yalin for that matter would be so willing to help and give, or even make clothes.

He must have slept because of the lavender, not for too long though as the sun hadn't move much in the sky. But he was out of the water, his legs were back, he was properly wrapped up in bandages and also wrapped up like a burrito in a soft fluffy blanket.

And Alter's familiar humming was being heard very close to him, almost above him. Ah yes. Because he was on his lap. He looked up to him and soon after realised they were back in the hermitage, sitting on the bed.

"Lavender made you sleepy, amirite?" The priest asked cheerfully. "But you almost caused a heart attack to poor Michael. He saw you layin' beneath the surface and almost forgot you're part siren, ya can't drown." Geno wheezed.

"Oh no, poor kid!"

"Anyways. Look." Alter pointed to a spot on the bed next to them. Geno followed the direction and saw neatly folded new clothes. His eyesocket perked up and looked again at the taller skeleton. "When he heard you were in need for a new set of clothes, that was perhaps one of the fastest time I've seen him crawling, not in battle, but from excitement. Though he was almost ready to throw hands with me when I asked if your old clothes can be repaired."

"Ah, so you asked. And what did he say?"

"He told me in his whistling melodic voice, Giaour, I like Geno and sympathise with him, but if he dares to come out keep wearing these old and trimmed rags, I'm going to make him eat them."

"Woah!"

"And then he gave me as he said, the best set of clothes he had so far, prepared just for the küçük güzellik."

"The what now?" Geno asked.

"Lil' beauty, you." Alter translated and Geno buried his bright red face deeper in the blanket. But then he groaned.

"Why would he make clothes for me? After how I've been treating him and everyone in here with our return from Lisbon?"

"Cause that's what he does better than any of us in here. And because when he likes somebody more than usual he makes clothes without 'em askin'." Alter said, causing the smol to look up to him surprised. "Yes yes, Yalin ain't one to hold grudges. He told me anyways that he could see ya were upset ever since ya returned from the mission and mainly because I was in bad condition. He didn't misunderstand you."

"… I really don't get how some, under even the worst circumstances, can be kind like this." Geno said quietly as he pressed the side of his skull against the taller's chest.

"'Cause even the most bloodthirsty pirates can have some dignity and kindness left in them." Alter replied and the 2 skeletons stayed silent for a few seconds. "Now, try your new clothes and come up to the deck. I'm pretty certain Yalin is gonna start flyin' from happiness when he sees you."

The shirt was a creamy color with buttons in the shape of ovals. A red diagonal red strip was exactly above Geno's slash. The sleeves were puffy and it's cufflinks a golden color. The trousers were just black but the leather was glistening beautifully with the slightest movement.

On the sides of each trouser leg was climbing from a golden braid. Now above the shirt, Geno was wearing a slightly darker tone of creamy sleeveless coat, long just below the knee joint. The boots and scarf hadn't change. But now in the place of the cloud covering the melted eyesocket, Geno had an eyepatch.

Not the one he used back at Lisbon but one that had in the middle the head of what seemed as a woman with snakes on her head and fangs. That was how Geno made appareance on the deck, quickly gaining the attention of many pairs of eyes on him.

"WOOOOO! MASALLAH BABYYY!!!" Yalin was heard saying excited when he saw at once Geno wearing the clothes he had made.

"You look-…" Dave was about to say with a face ready to mock, but then he felt a soft hand tapping his shoulder blade and saw Alter's cheerful face greeting him. If anything, anyone knew damn well he wasn't actually cheerful, just waiting to hear what the tiger would say. Dave gulped and stuttered before grinning widely and headpat very gently Geno. "… actually better than before I was going to say!"

"Hmmm…" Alter did simply. Dave walked away fast. Geno fought not to wheeze.

~

The new game of the Unfairdictable Circle had already proceeded, with several pirates to have lost when Geno walked up to the bucket keeper, who had happened to be Adrian. He asked for his name to be added.

"Can't do that little guy. You should have put it from the beginning." He told him. But then came to the smol's aid… Ramirez. He walked up to the minotaur and whispered in his ear closely for many seconds. Adrian seemed to listen interested.

He looked to the direction of the 2 pirates picked, beating the crap out of each other before the one of them manage to throw the other out of the circle and win. As the pirates applauded, he signed Geno to follow him in the circle. He congratulated the winner of this round and then asked everyone to be quiet.

"Alright, let's hear what the dogface said to Adrian." Geno thought, having a bad feeling deep down in his soul.

3700 words. i caught a huge flu from the kindergarten days back on wednesday. that's what i got for hugging too many toddlers at once and squeezing them without thinking of consequences.

the first days after the kindergarten, my whole body was hurting, especially in the area around AND in my womb as i also was on my period too, my nose was constantly full of mucus (even now it is) and i'm pretty certain i've scratched my throat badly enough from the coughing to be tasting blood. none has come out of my mouth, i just feel it.

but i'm alive and feel better. happy march everybody. stay determined :3

*pet pet pet*.