Do not underestimate the senses of an almost blind cat

As Tom was lost in thought on his beach chair, he felt weird. When he thought about why he would feel this way, he realized that he hadn't seen Della after he got onto the ship.

Opening his eyes, Tom looked around and saw his crewmates but found no sign of Della. As Tom threw a pebble at Jerry's binoculars, Della emerged from the captain's cabin, wiping her wet hair with a towel.

While Jerry cried over his broken binoculars, Tom looked incredulously at Della.

"It feels great to take a shower after a long time!"

"Hey, did you use my shower?"

Still wiping her hair, Della looked at Tom and said,

"Yes."

"You used MY shower?"

"Uh, he said I could use it."

Tom looked to where Della was pointing and found Jerry, who was cremating his binoculars in a pile of mud. Noticing the looks he was getting, Jerry looked up.

"Did you tell her she could use my shower?"

"Uh-huh, you said everyone can use it."

"That's only for crewmates, you twerp. And stop making a mess on the deck!"

As Jerry pouted and planted a flag in the mud, Tom turned back to Della and said,

"I guess I'll let you go this time."

"What's the big deal? Isn't that the kitchen? Pretty weird to have a shower in there though."

"It's not the kitchen, it's the captain's cabin. MY cabin."

At this point, Della understood that prolonging this conversation would just be a waste of time and turned away. Watching her do that, Tom felt irritated and said,

"Well woman, since you're here, why don't you tell us where to find Hansen?"

"It's fine, we'll get to him if we just follow the log pose. It should be the island after the next one."

"And what about Spike?"

As Tom looked at Tyke, who suddenly appeared and was posing the question, Della said,

"He'll be on the same island. They're from the same place after all."

"So we don't really need you to guide us there, do we?"

"Huh?"

When Della thought about it, it was indeed true. The Whisker pirates could just reach Fatare by following their log pose. As she thought about something to say to divert the conversation, Tom narrowed his eyes at her and asked,

"You're useless then?"

Gulping down her nervousness, Della looked at Tom and said,

"W-well, Fatare is very big! You might get lost if you don't know where to go after you reach the island!"

"We can just ask around, can't we?"

"You don't know the situation there properly! There's a good chance you will waste a good amount of time while doing that!"

"Hmmm."

As Tom narrowed his eyes further, which made him look stupid, Jerry came over and said,

"Tom-san, I'm hungry."

Throwing a look at Jerry, Tom got up and started heading towards the kitchen/captain's cabin. Just as Della let out a sigh of relief, Tom turned around and said,

"I'll be watching you, woman."

"...It's Della."

"Alright, Stella. Be careful with how you live on my ship."

"...."

**********

After everyone had finished their food, Tom made Della wash the dishes, citing that she should be grateful she was getting work. After she finished and left, Tom was alone in the kitchen.

Tom closed the door and locked it from the inside. Taking a look around the room, Tom took a deep breath and channeled his devil fruit. This time, he didn't stop at a partial transformation and fully transformed.

Now a bipedal blue cat, Tom opened his cat eyes and looked around, only to see everything around him covered in some sort of haze, with anything over a few inches away from him almost impossible to see.

'It got even hazier. Dying definitely has something to do with it.'

It was not always like this. When he first started using the devil fruit powers, his eyes were literally perfect. He could even see things that were extremely far away very clearly.

It was only after the 'accident' with Mamy that his eyes became hazy.

'I need to get this under control. Partial transformation might not cut it anymore.'

Until recently, Tom did not feel the need for it, as partial transformation was enough for anyone he faced in East Blue. But it was a different story in the Grand Line. Although he's only recently reached it, he already died once and got defeated.

'Tsk, they were both cheap shots.'

Tom firmly believed he would not have lost against Hansen's cheap shot at least if he had been fully transformed.

Although his other senses worked perfectly fine, Tom still wasn't at a level where he could fight with his eyes closed. He could only blame himself, as he was extremely lazy when it came to training.

'Damn, can't believe the hag was right.'

When he first talked about his eyes getting hazy, Mamy had tried to train him in order to understand why his eyes became that way, but Tom preferred lazing around, and Mamy did not push too hard because of the guilt she felt over the accident.

Having made up his mind, Tom turned around and opened the door. It only took him a few seconds to find the lock through the haze. As soon as he pulled the door in, someone fell into the kitchen.

Tom already knew it was just Jerry who was trying to eavesdrop. Stomping on his back, which elcited a shriek, Tom went outside and walked around for a while before he plopped down on his beach chair and started glaring straight ahead.

At this point, Jerry got up while rubbing his back and saw Tom sitting on his chair. Walking towards him, Jerry waved his hand while standing a few inches away from Tom.

Seeing Tom not react to it, Jerry broke out into an evil smile and took out something when he heard Yuuki whisper to him.

"Why's he glaring at me?"

Jerry looked to the side and saw that Yuuki happened to be standing where Tom was glaring. Walking over to Yuuki, Jerry pushed him away, which made the former realize Tom was just glaring at nothing.

Finding it interesting, Yuuki walked to Tom's back to see if he could understand why he was glaring ahead. Jerry, on the other hand, took out a stink bomb and shouted,

"This is revenge for stepping on me!"

As soon as he threw the stink bomb, Tom leaped away from his chair, and the bomb ended up hitting Yuuki.

While Jerry watched Yuuki choke on the gas, Tom landed behind Jerry and said,

"My nose and ears work just fine, you twerp."

As Jerry turned around, Tom grabbed him by his collar and lifted him up. Jerry let out a nervous chuckle as he came face to face with Tom. 

Sniffing around for a bit, Tom started walking and reached Jerry's pile of mud on the corner of the deck and buried him in it, leaving only his head outside.

As Jerry tried to burst out, he wiggled around and felt comfortable. The shade from the side rail of the ship and the cool mud covering his entire body instantly made him sleepy. So with a blissful smile, Jerry fell asleep.

Unfortunately, Tom was still transformed and had already turned around and headed back to his chair, so he didn't know Jerry started to enjoy it.

Sitting back down on his beach chair, Tom glared straight ahead at the hazy mess that he was seeing, whilst Yuuki shivered from the glare he was getting again.