Early the next morning, aboard the Gale.
The maid who had delivered breakfast had just left when a burst of carefree, ringing laughter echoed through the cabin.
"Ahahahaha—!"
Hearing Aileen's voice, Leno and Kuina, who were just about to eat, both turned their heads at the same time.
Aileen stood at the top of the stairs, hands on her hips, head thrown back as she laughed loudly.
The two at the table exchanged looks. Worry flickered across Leno's face as he spoke hesitantly.
"Hey, Kuina… if someone's brain gets overstimulated, can they show signs of… insanity?"
"Well… if the stimulation is excessive, then maybe…"
As she spoke, Kuina looked at Aileen with eyes full of pity.
But in the next instant, she turned her head toward Leno, barely suppressed anger burning in her gaze.
"With Little Aileen like this, how are you going to explain it to Belle-Mère? To Nami and Nojiko?!"
"Hey~ Brother, Kuina sis, did you seriously not notice me?"
After laughing on the spot for quite a while and realizing no one was paying attention to her, Aileen immediately became dissatisfied.
She hurried over to the dining table and stared at the two of them, launching straight into a complaint.
"I've been standing there forever! You didn't even ask why I was laughing!"
Seeing Aileen bounce over full of energy and still able to talk normally, Leno finally let out a sigh of relief.
Looks like yesterday's shock didn't affect her too badly… though seeing how unstable her emotions seemed, he wasn't completely sure.
Maybe he should test things a bit.
Looking at Aileen, he asked softly, "Aileen, do you feel unwell anywhere? Or notice anything strange?"
"Not at all! I feel great right now!"
The little girl looked at Leno in confusion, not understanding why he would ask that. Did she really look like something was wrong?
Still unconvinced, Leno pressed on. She had cried her eyes out yesterday—how could everything be fine after just one night?
"Do you remember what happened yesterday?"
As soon as the question fell, Aileen's small face stiffened. She started hesitating and stammering, unable to respond for a long while.
How could she possibly bring up how ugly she'd cried yesterday?
Seeing her reaction, Leno assumed she couldn't remember at all. His heart sank.
Stress-induced amnesia… severe psychological trauma causing memory impairment.
Looks like he'd underestimated it. Yesterday's shock had hit her harder than he'd thought.
Guilt filled his eyes as he looked at Aileen, his voice turning incredibly gentle.
"It's okay. If you can't remember, don't force it. I'll have Chopper take a look at you later."
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
Aileen looked completely lost. She understood less and less of what her brother was saying.
And wasn't Chopper the ship's doctor? Why would he need to check on her?
Realizing this, the little girl immediately panicked.
"I'm not sick! Why would I need a checkup?!"
"Right, right, you're not sick. We're just doing an examination. Yeah—an examination~"
Memory issues, emotional instability… silently noting Aileen's symptoms in his mind, Leno's voice grew even gentler as he began soothing her softly.
"No, Brother, why do you think I'm sick?"
Aileen was close to losing it. How did he even get the idea that she was ill?
Wouldn't she know best whether she was sick or not?
"You can't even remember what happened yesterday. How is that not an illness?"
"I remember! I was just embarrassed to say it."
At this point, Aileen didn't care about being embarrassed anymore and roughly recounted what had happened yesterday.
When she got to the part where she'd been scared into crying, her cheeks still couldn't help but heat up.
Fortunately, everyone present was close to her, so it wasn't like they'd spread it around.
After hearing it all, Leno finally felt his heart settle. He'd really been scared just now.
But then he thought of something else. Looking at Aileen suspiciously, he asked,
"If everything's fine, then what was with the nonstop laughing first thing in the morning?"
At that, Aileen immediately put on a deep, world-weary look. Her expression was full of helplessness, her tone tinged with melancholy.
"I wanted to live as an ordinary person with you all, but all I got in return was disdain and mockery."
After a brief pause, she lifted her chin high, hands on her hips, her tone turning outrageously arrogant.
"Now, I won't pretend anymore. I'll lay it all out—I'm a genius! Kneel before this divine maiden!"
"This divine maiden has awakened! Observation Haki is nothing special!"
"…"
She really did awaken. Leno was a bit surprised.
What was this, stumbling into success by accident?
After what happened yesterday, he'd been planning to give up on teaching her for now.
He'd thought it would be fine to wait until she was older before training Haki.
Who would've thought she'd awaken at this moment? It really was an unexpected delight.
Awakening Observation Haki at such a young age—Aileen's talent was clearly exceptional.
Beside him, Kuina also looked at Aileen in astonishment. She awakened just like that?
So Leno's method really worked!
She turned to look at Leno, a hint of admiration in her expression, and asked curiously:
"How did you even come up with this method?"
"Hey! You two are going too far! There's a limit to how much you can ignore someone, you know?!"
Before Leno could even open his mouth, Aileen slammed the table and immediately started accusing the two of them.
What was wrong with these people? She had just pulled off such a huge miracle, and they didn't have any reaction at all.
"I awakened it, you know! At a moment like this, shouldn't there be applause? Shouldn't there be cheers?"
Seeing the little girl on the verge of exploding, Leno immediately let out an exaggerated cry of amazement, clapping his hands wildly in front of his chest—yet not a single sound came out.
"You jerk! I'm never talking to you again!"
She had originally wanted to hear Leno praise her, but instead he brushed her off like this.
Aileen's eyes instantly turned red with anger. She shot Leno a glare, then turned around and ran out of the cabin.
Kuina, standing nearby, instinctively raised her hand to call after her, but the girl vanished in the blink of an eye.
She turned back to look at Leno and rolled her eyes at him in annoyance.
"Is that the right way to act like an older brother?!"
"..."
Leno looked at Kuina across from him, feeling somewhat speechless. What was he supposed to say? Who was he supposed to reason with?
She had scared him half to death yesterday, then showed up early this morning just to show off.
Applause? Cheers?
If you hadn't run so fast, I would've definitely flicked you on the forehead!