Elsewhere in the castle, Jeanne sat. Humming away as she tinkered with a new device that looked like the stock of a rifle with a tank upon the butt. She could hardly sleep, barely ate, and didn't even smoke while her Captain was unconscious.
So to keep her mind busy she kept to her inventions. She realized that her weapon had three major flaws. Speed of firing, effective range, and power. Sure it could do some damage against regular folks, but it wasn't much against these new potent threats of the Grandline.
She'd set the piece to the side and looked at four pieces before her. Really they were just mock ups. She would recreate them with a more sturdy material after she was sure the design would work.
They looked like triangles of metal and she hummed as she attached them one by one to the device. Producing an X at the barrel. "Alright so that fits...", she would say as she tested how far back they'd bend...
That is when suddenly she heard a ruckus coming from Leroy's room. She let everything clatter to the ground as if it was just a bunch of junk. She had more important things to check on!!!
"Is he awake?" she'd exclaim as she barged in, looking at first to Kale! Her eyes were sagging with lack of sleep but full of excitement of her Captain potentially being alright! It only took the split second of her eyes locking with Leroy's before she burst into steam to move past the swordsman. She'd reform next to Leroy and wrap him up in a big hug.
"DON'T YOU EVER GET HURT LIKE THAT AGAIN KNUCKLEHEAD!"
"What's going on in there?" A familiar, accented voice, sounding a bit alarmed by the yelling. Poking his head around the corner was the face of their cook, Noir himself! Now dawned in, not surprisingly, a pair of slacks and a button up shirt. His eyes lit up as soon as he saw Jeanne and Leroy hugging, a giant grin appearing on his face.
"Leroy!" He said happily, stepping forward to go in-
Suddenly, he was shoved aside by a hand to the face, an even brighter face replacing his.
"LEROY!!" Kirk exclaimed excitedly, rushing on over and sliding onto his knees beside Jeanne and Leroy. He didn't hesitate to wrap them both into his own hug, bear hugging them. He looked a little different from before, the littlest bits of red appearing behind his ears and some of his goatee… gone, instead replaced by tiny whiskers.
Look at that too! He was… oddly shorter? And he was wearing a loose tank top and shorts to make sure his bandaged wounds didn't get too chaffed.
"YOU'RE AWAKE! YOU'RE AWAKE!! LEROY IS AWAKE!! EHEHEHEEE!"
Dezzi was working with a few of the medics when they had begun hearing a commotion coming from Leroy's room, they would quickly set what they had back into their bag and run over to his room and then rush inside.
They were hit with a wave of relief to see Leroy up and awake, they had been super antsy the past few days because he wasn't waking up
"Leroy! I'm glad you're awake! how are you feeling?" They would have to do a few simple checks now that Leroy was awake that he would actually be fine, but those could wait, right now they just wanted to enjoy the fact that Leroy woke up
All of the crew had done all this in only a matter of seconds. The First-Mate hadn't even made it out of the door when the crew slammed in!
"Ah! Jeanne! Kirk!" He said as he was suddenly, in a matter of moments, overwhelmed with the Presence of his entire crew! The Navigator and Markswoman wrapping their arms around the captain
"Good to See you guys too! Hahaha! Ow!" He winced in pain as he was hugged, very tightly. Which caused the two to recoil away from them. A combination of "Sorry!"
"Don't worry about it…" He then looked to Dezzi by his Side. "I'm fine. Just a little Sore." The Mink doctor then raised the captain's arm to look it over. "Heheh, I missed you guys! Even though Its only been like a few hours for me!"
The Captain seemed to be as Scatterbrained as usual as he then returned focus to the Doctor "Dezzi. Where'd your mask go?"
"Oh, right, it kinda got broken during the middle of mine and Kirk's fight... Jeanne helped me fix it up, but I didn't really see a reason to put it back on right now, so it's safely tucked away in my bag" They had forgotten that Leroy passed out before learning what happened to their mask, so they hadn't really thought about telling him
A frown came over the Captains Face. He knew how much it meant to them. But he also felt it was a good thing that they weren't hiding themselves from anyone anymore. He raised his hand and put it on the Minks blue Hair, ruffling it slightly "Hey. That's alright. I think you look better without it."
"And Besides! Now you don't have to worry about it getting in the way while eating!"
"I did what I could with it.", Jeanne sighed, understanding that the mask meant something to the Mink. "But yeah you've been out for a while Leroy. I don't know exacts but it's been like... what would you say guys? A week?", she would say turning to Noir and Kirk. They were probably better at keeping time. Way better than her at least.
The Chef and Navigator nodded. Affirming the estimation.
Jeanne was suddenly Caught off her train off thought when leroy shouted "A WEEK?!"
"That means I've missed…35 Meals! And missed like a ton of naps and time to relax!"
"You counted that Fast?!" Noir was taken back by how quick he did the math. 'Certainly never fails to impress…' the chef thought to himself
"Wait that would imply five meals a day?", Jeanne would say giving Leroy a concerned look. "You already eat a ton during the few meals I see you eat a day.", she said as she tried to contain her confusion. "Where does it all go?", she would ask before snapping back to the topic at hand.
"You got banged up really bad." she said sucking through her teeth as she pulled away from Leroy and stretched her arms above her head before wincing. "Then again I think we all got fucked up, shishishishi." she said as she placed her hand on her injured shoulder and slowly lowered it once more.
"By the way I gotta ask, that girl who dropped you off. Did anyone else think she looked familiar?" she said directing the question at first to Leroy but it was to everyone in general. She had this weird feeling she's seen a face like hers before, but she just couldn't place exactly where. In fact it bugged her a lot to sit on this question until Leroy woke up.
Given he was the one who interacted with her though, she figured he would be the best person to ask. "Like you were passed out at the time, but she had black hair. Purple eyes." she clarified
"But- No. I didn't recognize her…though i wish i did…" Noir gave a coy smile to his captain.
"I didnt recognize her either. But she was a hell of a looker. And really smart. She patched me up in the desert. Seems like she was working with Hornigold as some sort of Double agent…" Leroy said before continuing
"Something about 'Learning Lost History'…"
"Anyways. We never got to thank her I guess. We honestly didn't know what was up with her when she dropped you off with us." Jeanne said digging in her bag for a second. Idly tossing Leroy an apple she got from the kitchen. She had a habit of keeping snacks on her person ever since Reverse Mountain.
Always seemed a smart idea to have something to eat with Leroy around. He usually was less distracted when he wasn't hungry. Sure an apple wouldn't satiate the beast, but surely with Leroy awake there would be some sort of banquet or celebration where they could feed the bottomless pit.
Leroy caught the apple in mid air with his teeth and swallowed it in one go with his elastic power
"Well. I hope we can see her again. I'd like to properly thank her for bringing you to us." Jeanne continued.
"Did you guys not see her?" The captain questioned only for the crew to stand there and look at each other.
"Some wall of hands cropped up before we could get to her, but by them she'd already put you down and left" Noir spoke again
"Hmm…shame." The captain scowled slightly as he lowered his head.