Tobi was helping out with the laundry, lining up the clothes on the clothesline whilst putting in the peg to keep it in place. His supervisor was looking at what he was doing and guiding his steps.
Dominique was her name, dark-skinned, tall, with a strong physique and a curvy body, she was quite the beauty, she had dark brown eyes with huge, soft, and bouncy afro hair that had less defined curls unlike Tobi's curls, and she had it a head wrap that prevented her hair form covering her entire face!
She did look intimidating, which was why there weren't any ladies in the laundry crew cause they were all scared of her.
There in the laundry space, there was another young boy there, his name was Carol, and he had short wavy white hair and amber eyes coupled with an expression of a nonchalant attitude. He was dropping by the washed clothes in a big black pale, where Tobi could easily take the clothes from and spread them on the clothesline.
Dominique was standing beside the edge of the ship staring at Tobi as he did the laundry.
Tobi had caught her doing so for a while now that he started to feel uncomfortable.
' tch! why is she staring at me?' Tobi thought to himself
' wait... am I doing something wrong? '
'No? I'm doing exactly what she told me to do, so why is she staring at me
'' ... ''
' gah! she's still staring at me! '
" oh?~ What's this? " Domi said as she looked at Tobi's eyes
'' heh!? " Tobi jolted with the clothes in his hand.
"Hey! Boy! " Domi pointed her index finger towards Tobi telling him to come to her in a very assertive voice, it sent shivers down the soul of him.
* gulp *
" me? " Tobi pointed back at himself
"Yeah, come here let me see your face " Domi's eyes got a spark of delight!
' Perhaps she is interested in me, ' Tobi thought as he walked over to Dobi
' Hell no! She better not! ' Tobi starts to freak out in his mind.
Just as he got between her at a safe distance, he got dragged close to her chest and into her face, Man, she stared right into the poor kid's soul. It was like Tobi's soul left him there and just looked at his pale expression in pity.
" Ho ho ho! hey! Carol come check this out! " Domi held Tobi's jaw with her thumb and index finger almost in a seducing manner, which freaked Tobi out.
" what happened ? " Carol said as he slowly walked over to Domi with his limbs slowly moving with no energy. When he looks at Tobi's face he said...
" hmm? Green eyes? " Carol said as he scratched his head in confusion
" I know right ~ "
" oi! Boy, what lenses do you use ? " Domi shakes Tobi's jacket back and forth vigorously and Tobi struggles to speak.
" What lenses ? " Tobi manages to speak
" It's the thing used to change your eye color" Carol points out as if to educate Tobi.
*cough cough*
" Domi please stop he's choking "
Domi lets go of Tobi leaving to stagger with his steps,
" cough no... cough... I was born with green eyes... cough " Tobi aid as he rubs his hurting throat.
Domi and Carol repeatedly looked at each other as if the could not understand what Tobi just said. To Tobi his eye color hadn't really been a problem for him for the longest time, everyone in his village seems to have accepted his odd look, long curly brown hair, dark skin and green eyes that were quite dreamy. No wonder Domi kept staring at him.
But she didn't believe him.
"Nah, he's lying" Domi grabbed Tobi by the collar of his jacket once again with so much force! It was like she yanked him of the floor even though he was standing, she pulled him to herself and even closer than last time...
'Damn it! I'm choke out the air in my lungs because of this woman!' Tobi thought in pain.
*Poke*
"Ahhh! What do you think you're doing?!!!" Tobi tries to run away from Domi with water coming out from his eyes, she poked his eyes "just to be sure his irises were infact real"
'what the heck !' Tobi thought to himself whilst rubbing his redden eye balls.
But it hurt a lot, cause she did not lightly poke his eyeball but more like she tried to push them to the back of his brain. She quite the forceful woman.
" That's pretty disgusting Domi, I think his eyes are real " Carol said with in a not so caring tone.
" Still... I can't believe someone like him has green eyes, bright ones for that matter!!! " Domi said with her words rushing out of her mouth because of the excitement.
"LET ME GO WOMAN!!!" Tobi screamed
' I know I'm not that strong but she's been holding me back for the past five minutes! Is her arm not hurting at all???' Tobi thought as he looked at Domi with anger in his eyes.
As soon as Domi lets go of Tobi, Tobi tries to hit her with his foot which was barefooted but she blocked it with just her arm.
"Woah there boy, calm down" Domi gestures with her hands going up and down as if she was shooing him away.
' DON'T PLAY WITH ME WOMAN ' Tobi thought himself in anger at his own weakness.
" But I have to say, you've gotta be unique in something if you're this different" Domi calmly explains to Tobi.
'Unique?'
"Yeah right.." Tobi thought as he rolled his eyes.
" Anyways, you can go back to your work now boy "
" Yes ma'am "
...
Back under water while Crystal was rejoicing her victory having defeated a tough mystical beast with her bare hands she became confident in her strength on a new level.
"WOOHOO! Did you see that Lord Alfstrat?!" Crystal bounced up and down in the water whilst vigorously smiling at the dead Terrack.
"Hey, Lord Alfstrat are there more beast to fight underwater?" Crystal asked
"..." But the red hair was too stunned to speak.
There was no clear reason to why Alfstrat thought Crystal could not defeat the Terrack and infact, the whole training was a gamble. Not that Alfstrat had planned that Crystal should be killed by the Terrack, he just felt it was the right thing to do.
That is a very stupid risk right there.
"What are you staring at?" Crystal raised an eyebrow at Alfstrat speechless face.
" Young lady... that only took ten minutes, how...?" Alfstrat sunk his eyes further into the oblivion.
" Ten minutes? Geez, that felt like an eternity"
"Maybe it's because the adrenaline was rushed up in my body!!" Crystal smirked in excitement.
" But I don't think I can keep up with the training my oxygen tank is almost finished and my fingers are tingling " Crystal raised up her dislocated, bruised and bleeding knuckles.
" Young lady! What happened to your Fingers?!!!" Alfstrat shouted at her.
...
Back on the ship Tobi was ruminating on what Crystal had told him...
" There's a Monster of Courage rising deep inside your heart " was all he could think about for the past twenty minutes, Domi notices Tobi's absent mind and calls his attention
" Boy? Are you waiting for someone? "
" Yeah, my sister"
" Oh? Does she also have green eyes like you ? "
' What's up with this woman and eyes is she a fish scientist or something ' Tobi gave her a smug face.
" No, she has blue eyes"
" Oh? That's interesting I 'd love to see her "
" She must be very beautiful " Carol said unintentionally
" Shut up Carol " Domi sparked.
" Sigh " Tobi seemed to be fed with the company of the laundry crew and stepped out for some air, whilst going out he asked Domi a question
" Uhmm, Miss Domi... What is courage?"
" Courage? Hmmm let's see... It's the thing that makes you do some real crazy shit, that's what it is " Domi said proudly as if she was educating Tobi.
" Courage makes you do crazy stuff ? " Tobi turned back at Domi with an eyebrow up.
" Yeah it does"
" That's pretty... stupid if ask me" Tobi whispered to himself
" Reason I say this is because of a friend I had "
" A friend? "
" Yeah, his name was Gerd, he had an Ackerman the last generation of Ackerman that is, back when there was the threat of between the heroes and villains my friend trusted the Ackerman... He was stupid.."
" What happened to him ?" Tobi asked
" His Ackerman attacked my family and other friends of his, nobody... Not even Gerd understood what went wrong , Sazier, his Ackerman killed many people around him and Gerd's parents and friends... Everyone he knew, the Ackerman took their lives "
" What.. why ? " Tobi was in disbelief
" I don't know why, but when it came to attack one night for whatever reason... I knew I had no chance against him, Sazier drew out a punch and aimed it at me , right then and there I thought I was going to be taken as well but ... all of sudden I heard blood splatter in the ground ".
* Splatter! *
" Uhn... Gerd! What are you doing here ?" I thought to myself
The Ackerman's left lower arm had been cut off, I was in complete shock, I knew Sazier wouldn't kill Gerd but he could very much still fight him.
They fought like never before, Gerd and Sailer were beaten and bruised as they fought, I ran to call for help from the authority... It was very long the authorities came but with another more powerful Ackerman, and she was able to take down Sazier but Gerd lost his own life,
As he lied down, dying slowly he looked at my messed up teary eyes and smiled...
He said something I never really grasped but I knew it was courage beyond my imagination...
He said " I'm glad I listen to it... I'm really glad"
" He was never courageous but moments before he died I knew that he was nuts from the very beginning... "
Domi concludes
" What?"
" My bad, he just this aura of courage that I've never seen in him, which is why I believe courage makes you do crazy stuff, cause he could have left me but he didn't "
" Well if that's courage I'd don't want anything to do with it " Tobi said to himself
" Thank you for the lesson Miss Domi I'll think about it " Tobi says before leaving the Laundry room only to be greeted with Crystal flushed face and broken fingers.
" What in the world?!!! "
" Crystal!! what happened to your fingers?!!!"