o Chapter 3 o

The Kidd Pirates walked into a restaurant for lunch while Noah wondered off. They only noticed her absence when Killer pointed it out and event then they just shrugged it off.

While they opted to go over to the other town and look around there too, they heard the people saying that Noah was in the capital causing trouble again. Not too surprising, by what they learned about her so far, she's very excitable and likes causing a panic.

The town wasn't all that different from the one they docked at. There were a few more shops that were different and a hospital was located in the middle. The people scurried out of the pirates way just like the last time as they walked around.

"Get back here demon! Let me cut that damned head of your off!" they heard someone yell and in a few seconds saw Noah running our from behind a building. She was grinning and had twin hunting knifes in her hands.

"What makes you think I will let you?" she asked turning back and stopped.

"Finally." the young blond man said as he swung at her with a sword. She blocked it with her knifes and lunched her own attack at him.

"Give back what you stole." he growled at her and tried to decapitate her again but she just stepped back and ducked under his swing.

"No. I need it." she grinned and stepping forward, she stabbed him in the ribs, drawing a cry out of him.

He regained his composure and started to attack her with more vigour and speed as she just chuckled and dodged his attacks, practically dancing around him with ease.

"She looks like she's enjoying it." Jet said watching the two. She was leaving light gashed all over his body where she retaliated. She was wearing him down as he bled more and she only got faster.

"Noah. Stop fucking around. Why are you here?" Kidd called as she stopped in her tracks frowning and turned to look at him.

The guy took that opportunity to swing down at her, but she grabbed the blade still staring at Kidd.

She didn't look too pleased that he interrupted her 'fun', but instead of saying a word, she pulled the sword from the guy's grasp as he stumbled backward. Dropping it, she grabbed one of her knifes by the blade and with a well aimed throw, lobbed it hard at him as it embedded itself in his forehead, quite deeply.

Glancing back at Kidd, she sent him a last glare and walked the other way.

"What the? Get the fuck back here!" Kidd yelled annoyed.

"I think we just interrupted her game. She didn't look too happy about it." Killer said stopping Kidd from running after her.

"I don't fucking care. I'm the captain and she should do what I say." he grumbled angrily.

They didn't see her for the rest of the day and a few more days in fact. She was wobbling around in the morning as Gray let her stay the rest of the week and she came back to a warm bed, but other than that she took off as soon as she could. They didn't know what she was doing but heard she was harassing people from the other town and the capital. She even killed a few of them in broad day light, scaring the absolute crap out of the locals.

It wasn't until two days before they left did she walk into the inn in the morning.

"Where the fuck have you been all week?" Kidd asked as he noticed her.

"Here and there." she grinned. That was when they noticed what was wrong with her. She was in her usual black, grey and blue clothing but the hood was pulled over her head, hiding most of her face but they noticed that her cheeks were bloody and it dripped down her chin and jaw.

"What happened to you now?" Gray grumbled annoyed as she walked up to him, ignoring the death glare Kidd was sending her.

"I don't know. I woke up like this in the capital." she said jumping on the counter like she did the first time.

"Let me see." he asked pulling the hood from her head. As it turned out, both her cheeks were cut up pretty badly, a gash going from the corners of her mouth to the middle of her cheeks, inches from her ears. She stuck her tongue through the gap in her cheek and chuckled at the horrified look on Gray's face.
"Relax. It's not that bad." she grinned.

Grumbling, he cleaned up her face and sew up the wounds with a thick black thread.

"Now I look like Heat." Noah chuckled as she jumped from the counter and walked up to them.

"You go missing for days, then you come back like this?" Killer asked unimpressed. It was still a little weird to see her so indifferent about her injuries.

"Where did you learn how to fix people up?" someone asked Gray as he brought a plate of food for Noah.

"I was a doctor on a pirate ship in my youth." he simply said and walked off.

After she finished eating, took the plate into the kitchen and came back with a lazy smile on her face.

"I don't feel like going out just yet." she mused to herself and pulled her cardigan off, revealing her bloodied bandaged left arm.

Summoning her headphones she put it on and hummed in content as she stood in the middle of the room and summoned three knifes to juggle with.

"Just don't wreck the place." Gray called to her as she skilfully played with the sharp blades.

They watched amused as she hummed with a gentle smile on her face. As a few minutes passed she started to slowly move to the beat only she could hear and swapping the knifes for three identical metal balls, hand sized each, she juggled with them as she danced gracefully. They made a little chime as she tossed them in the air and they looked a little heavy as well.

Seeing her like this, she seemed a lot less insane and more graceful and beautiful as she moved her body.

"What is she juggling with? Do you know?" Wire asked.

"Some silver balls with bells in them. They also weigh a fuck ton. She uses them to train and dance with. Apparently it relaxes her." Gray explained.

"You seem to know a lot about her habits too." Killer commented but he couldn't rip his gaze away from her.

"She takes refuge here most of the time and I get to witness her weird ass habits." he shrugged.

She suddenly made two of the balls disappear with her purple smoke and just danced with one as she let it roll up and down her arms, twisting and twirling it between her fingers. It was mesmerising to watch. How graceful and flowing her movements were, it told nothing of the storm that was usually in her eyes.

Even Kidd was watching her with a tiny bit of awe that he would never admit and would kill anyone who accused him of it.

They watched how she eventually made the last ball disappear and pull a chair out. She grabbed a hold of the backrest and with a jump, got on it, balancing on her hands upside down. With a good tug, she pulled the chair onto one leg, twisting her body and weight, she made it spin slowly as she moved onto only one hand, stretching her legs out over her head and controlling the movement with the way she bent it and arched her back. It was obvious she was trained in gymnastics as well and enjoyed it. It lasted a few more minutes until she flipped off and landed on her feet. Most of the crew cheered, but it landed on deaf ears as she opened her eyes smiling and sat down on one of the other tables.

Summoning a blue paper she started to scribble something on it.

"And she's gone. I never saw her make the landing to that one before though." Gray commented chuckling.

Killer walked up to her, curious about what she was doing and noted that she was left handed. She seemed to be drawing something, he soon realised it was him and his blade.

Noticing him, she stood up and stepped close to him so her nose was touching his chest, she measured herself against him and stepped away with her left hand just under his collar bone where the top of her head reached up to. Her sudden movement caught him off guard and he could feel her warm breath on his chest where his black polka-dotted shirt was open. At that point he was glad he had a mask on as his cheeks were tinted pink.

She grinned with a nod and sat back down. Writing down a few numbers.

She then gestured for him to sit beside her and grabbed his arm to look at his weapon again.

She drew it perfectly and made a few notes on it. On the other side of the blue paper she drew up a design for the new blade and made more notes on it. She even poked at his muscles for some reason and wrote what she found down. It amused Killer that she got so much information off him without even having to speak. He was also impressed about how much she seemed to know about the human body and weapons to make such accurate notes. She guessed his limit on how much he can lift just by poking his biceps.

The two didn't notice the rest of the crew leave. Noah was focused on her work while Killer was focused on watching her.

He never met anyone like her before. She enjoyed fighting and took it seriously despite how much she looked like she was just playing. But on the other hand she was a devoted and talented weapon-smith with a thirst for adventure. She didn't seem too experienced on the social end of things but she seemed like someone that will be very loyal once you got to know her better.

She sighed happily and summoning a lollipop, unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth with a content sigh at it's sweet taste. She always had a sweet tooth but she didn't get enough sweets unfortunately.

"Sweet tooth?" Killer asked chuckling.

Noah only nodded and smiled at him. It was then that he noticed that she actually had pale but full lips. With all the damage around it, he didn't notice before.

Looking over her work, a big grin spread across her lips and she nodded before summoning a knife and cutting her right palm. She let enough blood pool in her palm so she fisted her hand, staining her fingers as well. With that, she placed her hand, palm down on the corner of the blue prints and marked it with her bloody hand print. Killer guessed it was her signature.

"Hey old man." she called over, pulling her headphones to her neck.

"What do you want now?" he asked glancing over as he was polishing glasses.

"I need a bath before I leave. I quite like this hair style I have now so could you cut my hair after?" she asked, confusing Killer but Gray obviously knew what she was on about and just nodded.

"Don't make a mess." he warned as she turned her attention to the wound on her arm. She pulled at the bandages and undid them to reveal the ugly gash. Killer watched her poke at it with a frown on her scarred face.

"I'm getting bored of there stupid injuries. They may not affect me but after a while they get annoying." she said to herself.

"What do you plan to do about then?" Killer asked.

"You'll see." she grinned and stood up.

Making the blue prints and her headphones disappear, she put the bandaged back on messily and pulled her cardigan on.

"I have business in the capital. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon." she said and with that walked out, leaving Killer a bit confused.

She didn't make much sense but she was immortal so he didn't worry what trouble she will get up to there.

. . .

True to her words, she only returned the afternoon of the next day.

"Well leave tomorrow." Kidd said as Noah walked in.

"You're back." Gray said looking at her.

"Yeah. I'm going to need your help. Don't worry I have something that will protect you from getting injured." she said smiling at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go." he sighed and walked out from behind the counter.

"What the fuck are you up to now?" Kidd asked.

"Re-birth. I'm going to take an acid bath. It will take about half an hour to regrow my flesh and until tomorrow noon to fully recover from it." she grinned and ran up the stairs, leaving them a little shocked.

"It will completely heal any injury she has." Gray explained and followed her.

Kidd and Killer stood up and followed them up as well. Noah's room was on the top floor and last door.

"Why are you here?" Noah asked as they stepped into the room.

"I wanna watch." Kidd simply said and leaned against the wall with Killer joining him.

"Kay." she only shrugged and summoned a bath with the acid in it.

She also summoned the long gloves for Gray that reached up to his shoulders, they would protect him from the acid when he pulled her out.

She then proceeded to strip off her clothes, taking both young men by surprise.

"No shame huh?" Kidd chuckled after he recovered.

"Only to your underwear Noah." Gray said sending a glare at the two pirates.

"Why?" she asked pulling her jeans off.

"Because you have company." he said unamused.

"I don't care who sees. I'm pretty sure they've seen a naked woman before. Stop being so weird." she said sending him an equally unamused look.

"You're the weird one here. What self respecting woman has no shame?" he asked getting annoyed.

"I respect myself. I just don't give a shit." she shrugged as she pulled her bra off, revealing to have fair sized breasts and took her panties off as well. Her battered body was revealed as most of her pale skin was covered in dark bruises and cuts, scabbed over gashes and burn marks that were still trying to heal.

"I'm tired of these things bleeding everywhere now." she frowned. Interestingly enough, she only had hair on her head as well.

"Just get in." Gray grumbled.

She sighed and stepped into the corrosive liquid. Without even flinching, she grinned and laid down in it, just like one would in water. They watched as her flesh dissolved in the acid, revealing her bones.

Seeing this, Gray quickly reached in with the gloves on and pulled her bones out. He rinsed them off quickly and arranged them on the bed. Kidd and Killer watched fascinated as her flesh started to slowly grow back.

"Alright. Out you two." Gray said shooing them away as he pulled the gloves off and closed the door behind him.

"What will happen to her?" Killer asked.

"As she said, her flesh will finish growing back in half an hour. She'll be out like a light for a few hours though. It takes a lot of energy to regain all that." he explained as they processed the situation.

They went to sleep that night a little disturbed by her immortality and how it works. Heck she was just overwhelming as it is.

. . .

Noah woke with a jerk as her body shivered. It was cold in the room and Gray left her stark naked on the bed with nothing to shield her from it. She laid there for a little while though, waking up fully. Eventually she sat up and looked around. With a flick of her wrist the acid bath disappeared and she stood up. Her straight black hair was now down to her butt with no fringe and it parted at the middle.

She pulled on a pair of black panties and her black dress shirt. Noah opened her door and walked downstairs slowly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"You're finally awake." Heat grinned, watching her walk up to the bar. They were a bit surprised at her new appearance but they were already told about what happened.

"Gray, cut my hair." she only said and he nodded.

He pulled a pair of scissors out while she sat down in a chair and he got to work. She softly hummed with her eyes closed as Gray cut away a lot of her hair. It didn't take to long to get it back to the way it was; reaching down to her shoulders and a little past it, layered with a full fringe that almost covers her eyes.

"Here you go. Done." Gray said smiling at his work.

"Thank you." Noah grinned up at him and ran back up the stairs.

"She doesn't look that creepy anymore at all. Now that she's completely healed, I'd say she's beautiful." Wire said smiling.

"Yeah. Without all those bruises her skin looks very soft." Heat agreed.

"Don't write her off just like that. She's beautiful but very dangerous." Gray warned them as he cleaned up the hair he cut off.