𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝||𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐏𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐱 𝐀𝐓𝐋𝐀

3||Shirohige Kaizoku(Whitebeard Pirates)

The sounds and shouts of the battlefield were muffled around Toph. Right now, she was trying to even out her breathing.

She open and closed her hands, her limbs shaking from the adrenaline and her energy sapped out like Superman to Kryptonite. She could hear her heart pounding in her head, the only clear sound she could identify as hers and was wondering if anyone else could hear because of how loud it was.

Her hearing was fuzzy and muffled to anything else around her as she sensed Akainu weakly struggling against the seastone, his attempts futile against his direct weakness, too exhausted to use haki.

"––ey!-"

Toph really wished she could take a nap, but she can't since it's a battlefield.

How did she even up here? In this war she isn't even supposed to be in? She should've listened to the pirate from before when he told her to leave. It would've been better to sit around on a rock and spectate than actually participate.

"––HEY!"

The young girl jolted at the only clear sound that made its way to her ears. It sounded like the guy from before.

"Hey! Get onto to the ships! Your fight is done, you've won."

The voice was the same one as the man from earlier. Toph noted. The voice of the man she had told to carry Ace and the other boy(what felt like Ace's brother) away from that damned lava man.

"Huh...?" Was all she could muster. She cursed herself internally for her lack of response, but damn, she could barely feel her tongue when she said that. Every part of her was aching and exhausted like a rusted machine that desperately needed oil.

There was the sounds of fluttering of feathers and the heat of fire beside her after she felt the man from before...transform?

She gasped at what she could sense before she was abruptly scooped up by talons and the sound of strong beating of wings filled her hearing, the wind hitting her face as her body was limp in the bird's legs.

"You did good back there, kid. Better than what any of us could do during that..." Marco muttered with a firm voice, but Toph could feel the stiffness in his body. The firm grip on her form was quivering from both fear and adrenaline much like her own just moments prior.

You couldn't fool these blind eyes if they see beyond the world of color.

"Did you get Ace to safety?" She asked instead. She didn't accept the praise. She was just saving a guy and handing this Akainu guy's ass to his face. She didn't need the praise.

She barely felt the bird nod in confirmation before her eye lids began to droop.

"I noticed something about you-yoi." The bird-human thingy said.

Toph hummed, an indication for him to continue.

Marco glanced down suspiciously at the girl. "You never look at your opponents, always straight ahead or at the ground. Even with sensitive observation haki, you would still need your eyes to physically look at your opponent's next move."

There was that word again. 'Haki'. She didn't know what that was, but it seemed to play a big role in this battle.

She tilted her head up in the general direction of the easygoing, yet tense voice. "I don't look at them because I'm blind. I 'see' using my sense of touch. I can sense the minerals in the air and in the earth to help get an idea of my surroundings. Whatever this 'haki' thing is, I don't know. My earth-bending is my eyes."

Marco...

Marco didn't know what to say about that. The girl, who defeated an admiral, got past the Navy's air defenses on a floating rock without a care in the world, joined this war for fun, and helped in the rescue plan to save Ace, was blind, and didn't know the first thing about haki to sense!