The Ultimate Mission

Chapter Rewrite

         "Time to wake up." Thatch's voice whispered softly the next morning, gently shaking me awake by my shoulders, and holding a plate up to my nose, "I'm training you today."

"5...more...minutes..." I grumbled incoherently, beginning to turn over, freezing when I smelt something delicious, sniffing the air, opening my eyes, sitting up, glancing down at the plate, and narrowing my eyes at Thatch, "Is that..."

"My famous breakfast-burrito. Cheese and eggs. Just the way you like it." Thatch grinned, passing the plate over to me, and sitting down in the chair beside my bed, "I also let you sleep in till 10:00 am. Once you're finished eating and getting changed, meet me in the training room."

"You spoil her, Thatch." Marco commented, leaning against my door-frame, crossing his arms against his chest, and narrowing his eyes at Thatch, "You finished that paperwork that needs to be handed in by tomorrow? The only commanders that haven't turned it in yet are you, Ace, and Izo."

"Don't worry, you'll get the stupid paperwork." Thatch assured, pushing Marco out of the room, winking at me, walking out of the room, and shutting the door behind them, "Let's leave Ivy so she can get ready for training."

Ever since I've started training, Shadow has been sleeping in Ace's room. She claims it's because she didn't want to deal with my morning-wrath.

I wonder what Thatch is going to be training me in? I pondered, finishing my breakfast, trekking into the bathroom, brushing my teeth, changing into black-leggings and a neon-green tank-top, ambling to the training room, spotting Thatch standing next to a line of wooden-dummies, and looking at him in curiosity, "What exactly are you going to be training me in?"

"Target practice." Thatch answered, leaning against the wall, nodding his head towards the dummies, and keeping a serious expression on his face, "See those wooden-dummies? I want you to practice your throwing-skills on them."

"Easy enough." I grinned, taking out my silver-dagger, turning my body towards the nearest dummy, arching my arm back, sending the dagger into the dummy, and turning towards Thatch with a triumphant look, "Give me something harder, Thatch."

"Ease up there, Hot-Shot." Thatch chuckled, gesturing towards a table that had different types of weapons laying on them, and curling his lips up into a half-smirk, "All you proved was you were able to hit the target with your specific weapon. Out there, you may not always be able to rely on the weapon you always use. Sometimes, you'll have to improvise. Which is why you need to get used to using all different types of weapons. I want you to practice using these weapons. We'll start with the daggers, since that's your specialty."

"Sounds like it'll be fun." I grinned, walking over to the daggers, picking up a dagger, lifting it up into my palm, and narrowing my eyes in thought, This is really light compares to the dagger Shanks gave me.

The blade of the dagger was extremely thin. The hilt was black and was thin as well.

"Tell me how the dagger feels." Thatch ordered, smiling lightly, and staring expectantly at me.

"It's lighter than what I'm used to." I observed, holding the dagger in my hand, turning to face the dummies, tossing the dagger at the nearest dummy, and wincing when it sailed into the wall, I jinxed myself by saying it was too easy...

"This is why I wanted you to practice with the different weapons." Thatch explained, shuffling over to the wall, pulling out the dagger, coming back towards me, handing me the dagger, and smiling encouragingly at me, "You're used to having a slightly heavier weight to your dagger, so you throw using the right force to accommodate that weight. Depending on the weight, the force needed to hit your target is either going to be less or more. If the weight is light, you're going to use less force than what you normally use..."