There are many things you experience as a swordsman.
Vivid memories of training to the point of exhaustion, knowing the feeling of swinging weights until your palms are bleeding and you can barely walk from blisters. The burst of a second between thought and reaction, where the thought comes after you've executed that final blow and are staring down at what would have been you a split-second earlier. When it feels like you're practically dancing on air as you scrape steel against steel, and the sparks that fly into your face ignite that manic thirst for blood that you know always lives within you. The silence of total concentration versus silence at the doors of death. Peace and violence – how often those two terms collide in your world.
You think about this sometimes, when there's nothing to do in between the whirlwinds of excitement you're inevitably swept up on as a member of Luffy's crew. The quiet moments you enjoy as much as the adventure.
Right now you're settled in your correct place as ordered by Nami – which is your usual place for napping so you don't really mind. But feeling oddly nostalgic, your mind has wandered…
You peer down at the deck below, where Luffy and Usopp have resumed fishing, their excited chatter audible from your post. Nami and Robin you can see, have taken to sunbathing, with the cook crooning over them in his usual overdone, provoking way. At this point you'd usually scowl or mutter something in disgust, but not today – the day is too good to be ruined by a drooling moron. Chopper you can't see, and you figure he must still be indoors, still not being used to the heat, preferring the cool sanctuary of the below deck bunks.
You look at them all, collectively now. Your crewmates. Your family.
Should you pity them because they'll never know what you know? Or be envious of them, maybe?
You let your thoughts drift again as you look ahead to the blue horizon. No, never envious. These experiences are what have strengthened you, moulded you into the person you are today. And that's one thing you can't let yourself regret. There is only the future. Your goal. Nothing else.
You muse a little more over these memories.
Only fellow swordsmen can only every truly understand each other; this notion you have come to accept. But you're never alone.
You breathe in the salty air for a moment, smile, and then, as soon as you let your eyes drift close, you're asleep.
