Lilith moved through the empty hall, following the invisible trail that Buggy had left behind. Now how would a person who’s unable to see possibly follow a trail that couldn’t be seen in the first place?

The answer lies in the truth behind her lack of sight. The cause of her being blind was something she’d rather not think about but did so if only to appreciate what it had given her in exchange.

With her most relied upon sensory organ being taken away at an early age, her other senses weren’t automatically heightened, but were instead trained to pick up the slack. Which is how she managed to tap into her ability to use Observational Haki.

Something she herself hadn’t figured out until she had met Buggy, who had confronted her about it after a couple of days of getting to know her and the others.

He was under the impression, as were the doctors he’d brought her to in Loguetown, that she was completely blind. While she claimed that her vision was all but gone, allowing her to see next to nothing. It was how she rationalized being able to see a little at certain times and then nothing at all the rest of the time.

Through this, they figured that she was blind but was somehow using Observational Haki to allow her to see as a person normally would.

After this discovery she would spend hours on end practicing and expanding her ‘sight’. Lilith could sense a person’s presence, aura, or whatever it was called; which was how she was able to follow Buggy.

His presence, along with Solomon’s and Devlin’s to a somewhat lesser extent, was one she was the most familiar with and could sense with the most ease.

It still shocked her that the Haki she read about in her island’s library was the same thing as the one she was using now. The way the book portrayed it was nothing like actually using it. Rather than it being a matter of ‘seeing more’ it was more accurate that she was feeling more.

Almost as if what was within her range was an idle part of her body. This part was something she kept to herself. She thought it sounded like a silly idea since it wasn’t described like that in the book and decided against risking Buggy hearing about it and then laughing at her.

Something she knew wouldn’t happen but scared her nonetheless.

She eventually came across a hallway that had obviously been victim to Solomon’s brute strength. The door had been forced open, covering the ground with wood chips and pieces of what used to be a door hinge.

Sighing as she stepped over the debris, Lilith reminded herself to make Solomon clean up the mess. ‘I swear that the man is like a bull in a china shop sometimes.’

Buggy, on the other hand, was sighing for a completely different reason.

He’d tracked the two to the infirmary and then back to Lilith’s room, where they stood arguing about Devlin’s height. Though it was more accurately described as Solomon laughing at Devlin’s attempts to be intimidating.

It was both tiring and amusing to see the two go at each other like that. They were only joking around, evident by Solomon’s smirk and Devlin’s half-hearted attempts to throw a pillow from Lilith’s bed at his head.

But even then they had enough fight in them to do some more damage to his new ship. The one he’d hoped to have intact for longer than a month and a half.

“Are you two finished? Because Lilith’s not here,” ‘Even though I told her to stay put.’ He huffed silently to himself. “and I don’t think she’d appreciate you two messing up her room.”

Solomon craned his neck indifferently in Buggy’s direction, not at all surprised to suddenly hear him speak. Devlin was not so calm about her captain’s sudden appearance. Obvious by the fact that she jumped in surprise and then stared at him in annoyance and embarrassment.

Solomon seemed to have no qualms being in Lilith’s room uninvited and Buggy would be lying if he didn’t find this attitude of his even a little bit amusing.

“We were looking for you when this one,” he pointed down to Devlin “suggested we check up on Lilith. But it seems as though you already have it covered.”

Buggy nodded. “I told her to stay here and wait for me to come back…but of course she didn’t listen and went off to look for me. Though it doesn’t really matter anyway.” Which was true. As much as she hung around Buggy, she almost never listened to him when he tried to put some distance between the two.

Eventually he just gave up trying to get her to be able to get through the day without him nearby. It wasn’t much of a problem yet, so he wasn’t too bothered by it.

“So…about earlier,” Devlin had explained how she thought that Buggy’s Haki had sent over the edge a bit. She described how it felt as though something inside of her was going crazy trying to get her to understand just how incredibly deadly whatever Buggy was doing was.

He nodded in understanding, and then slapped a palm to his forehead in exasperation. “Of course! Shit, Devlin that’s my fault. I forgot that people in the Blues aren’t like those that live in the Grand Line.”

Now that he knew what the problem was, it was easily fixed. Next time, he would walk her through the process of what h was doing step by step. She wouldn’t be walking in blind the next time they did it.

Speaking of blind, Buggy wasn’t sure what was taking Lilith so long to get here. Without a thought he used his Observational Haki to find where she was on the ship.

‘Oh, she’s right outside.’ He turned on his heels and walked out the door and into the hallway. But rather than seeing her looking angry at being told to stay put, Buggy discovered her writhing wildly on the ground.

He dropped to his knees beside her, trying to no avail to get her to calm down. “Devlin, Solomon!”

He didn’t even wait for them to say anything. “One of you go to the infirmary and get some sedatives. They should be in the in one of the cabinets above the sink. Hurry!” The sound of light footsteps hitting the wood meant it was Solomon who stayed behind.

“Solomon, I need you to hold her down-” He didn’t get to finish as Solomon was already on the other side of Lilith, gently yet firmly keeping her still. Lilith, though, noticed nothing but the white, hot pain in her head that showed no signs of going away any time soon.

“Lilith, I need you to tell me what’s wrong! Lilith, listen to me! You need to-” He cut himself off. It was obvious she couldn’t hear him. But what could he do? He looked at Solomon for any ideas he might have, but the Fishman just shook his head with a concerned frown.

After a few more minutes, Devlin finally made it back from the infirmary, bringing with her an intimidating looking needle. “Here, this should put her down for a while.”

Devlin stuck the needle in Lilith’s arm and the three of them watched as her spasms slowly came to a stop. Eventually she stilled altogether, laying peacefully on the ground as if she wasn’t screaming soundlessly in pain just moments before.

After a few moments of silence, Solomon was the first of them to say something.

“What the hell was that?”