A/N: Um. Hi. I don't really have anything to say, so just read the fic. Yeah. I don't know why I put this up here at all.

Chapter Two:

The Arena, as it turned out, was in fact where the citizens of this particular moronic nation got their kicks by capturing people in the act of violating some ban or another and pitting them against each other in battle. There were Gladiatorial Deathmatches galore.

In the last two months, the Arena had been the home exclusively to various kinds of weapons wielders, which explained why Zoro and Tashigi were singled out from their crews for this purpose. They were the only two people on each of their respective vessels who were in the habit of continually carrying weaponry, since apparently things like slingshots didn't count.

Really, it was rather cliché, but Zoro could understand that citizens who weren't even allowed to possess weapons probably had a lot of anger issues that needed venting in some ways or means. Not that beating on people with your fists couldn't alleviate some such feelings, but some people just aren't predisposed to that sort of pastime. Vicarious violence has a much wider range of appeal anyway.

This wasn't to say that he was calmly accepting of his fate. Fighting people was pretty much his job, his hobby and his purpose in life, but that didn't mean he wanted to beat the crap out of whatever poor schmuck they decided to throw at him while people sat around taking bets. There was no challenge in it, and it was just plain insulting.

The basics of Arena fighting were easy enough to pick up. Not only were they exactly what one could expect, but the guards assigned to escort the pair to the small offshore island where the Arena was situated were more than happy to share. They also seemed to think that the idea of such daily life or death battles should be some cause for concern.

The only thing that Zoro was actually worried about was how long it would take him to escape. If he took too long and the rest of the crew had to come and rescue his sorry ass, he'd never live it down. He could imagine it now: Sanji's leering face, the exorbitant 'rescue fee' that Nami would levee against him, the well meaning but incredibly annoying concern from other crewmates… and there was no guarantee that Luffy wouldn't do something really stupid that involved launching Zoro to the next island along in the Grand Line.

It would really be best if he could figure a way out of this situation by himself, in other words.

The Arena itself was an imposing structure, most likely a guard outpost that had been converted to this purpose when the Council started punishing people this way. It was essentially a large stone fortress, completely filling the space available on the small rocky island it inhabited. They had been brought over by boat, with quite a few guards present as well.

Once they disembarked in a low cavern carved out of a sheer cliff, Zoro felt his hopes for a quick and easy escape fading. This place was well designed, with this apparently being the only way in or out. It was open enough to have no reasonable skulking places, while enclosed enough to be easily guarded. The only way to escape through this docking area would be to fight your way through… or a disguise, but those never seemed to work out as well as planned.

He didn't have too much time to contemplate it, because they were pulled straight through the area with no pause, extra chains having been attached to the shackles on their hands for this purpose.

The restraint still irked Zoro, but even if he ripped the chain out of the guard's hands and used it to beat him to a pulp, that wouldn't get all of the shackles off of him. There was also the problem that Tashigi was chained to him as well, and she probably wouldn't appreciate being swung around if he started a fight. Rather than face her wrath, he kept his peace.

Their trip ended in a dungeon. There was no other word that described it so well, so a dungeon it was. There were weighty iron doors separating each area, cold, slightly damp stonework for every other available surface, and some inescapable looking prisoner cells.

It was into one of these cells, a large one, that they were finally deposited. The cell was already occupied, surprisingly enough, by about a dozen other rough looking types.

"The rest of the law breakers, I guess." Zoro muttered to himself, massaging his wrists. The shackles had finally been removed to allow free movement, but the guards had disappeared out through the door too quickly for him to take advantage of the situation. Obviously they were used to working with people like him, and knew the risks of hanging around where he could get his hands on them.

As for their new roommates… none had yet moved, but all of them were openly staring at the two new residents of Dungeon Paradise. More to the point, most were focusing on Tashigi. Zoro came to the abrupt and unpleasant realization that she was the only female present in the whole room. Or at least the only one recognizable as definitely female, though there was one person who was questionable.

Zoro felt one eyebrow twitch as he returned the stares, and he became aware of some murmuring in the background. A bunch of the men were now in a huddle, and he could see glances being snuck in Tashigi's direction on a regular basis. Tashigi herself had moved away from the machismo filling the air around Zoro and was inspecting their surroundings. Maybe jail cell construction evaluation was her hobby? It honestly wouldn't surprise him.

At any rate, she had apparently dismissed the other prisoners as 'non-threatening' after her first glance. Zoro considered convincing her to put her glasses back on and take another look, but decided she probably needed that kind of confidence in a situation like this.

Her confidence was all well and good, as previously stated, but certain things needed reinforcing anyway. Just to avoid misunderstandings in the future that would probably end up being Zoro's fault, or at least on his conscience.

Making sure that Tashigi was ignoring him – and she was, quite expertly – he moved forward. The gang of whispering guys peered up at him. Zoro dropped down into a crouch in front of them, a smirk on his face. "Yo!"

"Hey, new man." One replied, marking himself immediately as the leader of the little gang. "You came in with some hot stuff."

Zoro glanced over his shoulder at Tashigi. They probably thought he was checking out this 'hot stuff' once again for himself, but he really wanted to make sure she wasn't looking his way while he did this. "Yeah, well... I gotta say, you probably don't wanna mess with her."

"Oh, and why's that?"

"Well, she's pretty good at lecturing people, so you'd probably want to kill yourself after a few minutes anyway, but the main reason is this." Zoro's fist found its way into the man's stomach.

Zoro was by profession and training a swordsman, but he was quite capable of punching people when he felt like it. And he punched hard, as this poor pervert was finding out. The man was thrown backwards by the impact, nailing two of his buddies who had been behind him before the pile slammed into the wall with a nice, loud 'thud'.

"So, you get it?" Zoro grinned at them, bearing uncanny resemblance to a shark as he did so. He got eager nods all around, and his position as 'guy not to mess with' was firmly and immediately established.

His smugness was short lived. Tashigi, oblivious to the exchange of words or the rest of the preceding situation, had been alerted by the sounds of the men hitting the wall and their pained groans afterward. And she was closing in.

"What are you doing?! We've been here for less than five minutes and you're starting a brawl!"

Ever the conversationalist, Zoro rolled his eyes, rose to his feet and grunted in reply. Turning and walking away, he spotted a corner that he liked. It quickly became unoccupied as he approached, so he was able to find a seat with little trouble. Tashigi had been left behind by his departure, but after a quick glance around she ended up following him over anyway.

He raised one eyebrow as she sat down about five feet away from him. This was actually better than her sitting across the room, as it made it easier to glare at the few brave or stupid souls who never seemed to get he message, but he still wasn't expecting her to seek out his company.

Maybe she wasn't as unaware of the kinds of people she had just been thrown in with as he had thought. She was a Marine after all, so dealing with scummy types was definitely in her job description… and that gave him another moment of pause. They probably shouldn't let it out that she was a Marine officer as well, since there was little love for those in the underbelly of society.

And it appeared that all of the people in the cell were very recent acquisitions, which only lowered Zoro's opinion of them based on their behavior. It was just obvious that they didn't get any on the outside and were jumping at the chance to alleviate the lack in such a situation. Such shallow and worthless people were not worthy of breathing his air. He resolved to do something about that at first chance, perhaps within the fighting ring.

"Honestly, you're really just uncontrollably violent, aren't you?" Tashigi wrapped her arms around herself and pressed back against the stone. "I bet you were just waiting for someone to beat on, weren't you?"

"Be quiet. It's not like I go around starting fights like that for fun." He caught her disbelieving stare. "Not often, anyway." He amended.

"So you're impulsive and shallow too."

He gave out a sound remarkably like a growl. "Idiot female! I shouldn't have bothered! That's the last time I defend your honor…"

"Defend my honor?" She took a moment to peer around at the other captives. "You can't be serious. None of these people are professional combatants, and I'm sure I could take out any one of them in a fight. I do know how to fight hand to hand, you know."

"I don't think it's a fight they want." Ha answered shortly, feeling himself blush at his own insinuation. Why was he getting embarrassed over something like this?

"Oh. You mean that."

"Yeah. That." His blush deepened a bit more.

"Hmmm." This time, she glared at the other prisoners. There were suddenly a lot of dropped eyes and redirected gazes. "I still think I could take them if they tried anything."

"I'll leave that up to you then. No stepping in from me. I'll just enjoy the show."

"Hmph! And I bet you would, you sick pervert."

The List of Zoro's Faults and Personality Defects was getting longer every time he opened his mouth. It was quite irritating actually, almost as annoying as the fact that he was still flushing rather badly. He was torn between removing any further material for her to throw at him by not talking to her anymore and snapping back with his own retort, but he never got the chance to come to a decision.

Footsteps sounded outside the cell, and a group of five men appeared by the door. The one in the center, obviously the leader, was short, squat and heavily muscled. As a matter of fact, he had biceps the size of his own head, which was rather disconcerting. Zoro himself was rather muscular, but he had his own form of vanity that required that he at least keep himself somewhat proportionate. His company, two men in guard's uniforms to either side, was taller but just as powerful looking. They were obviously well suited for their chosen profession.

"Alright scum." The short man spoke, addressing the company at large as everyone got to their feet and turned to face him. "You're now the property of Mr. Rokku, the owner of this Arena. I'm gonna explain the rules to ya, so listen up. I don't repeat myself, and any misunderstandings might lead to some painful consequences around here."

He stared around to make sure he had everyone's attention before continuing. "Your ranking here is determined by the number of fights you win or lose. We have several different 'ranks' of fighters here, and you'll be starting at the bottom.

"After ten wins, your status will be reevaluated. If the Council decides you're worthy, you'll be allowed to move up to the next rank. A total of five levels exist. Once ya reach the fifth rank and acquire twenty wins, you'll be recommended for parole."

"Parole?" Tashigi lifted one hand to push her glasses back up her nose, now that she had finally put them back on. "There's a system for conditional release?"

"Yep. If you're determined to be parole worthy, you'll be offered a supervised position in the ranks of our country's peacekeepers and guardsmen. A noble usage of your fighting skills, and an excellent future career."

Zoro snorted, a sound echoed by several other prisoners. Maybe that was how this particular guy had gotten his job? One of the other skeptics then called out, "Yeah sure. And what if we're not interested in working for you?"

"Then you'll not be considered, obviously." The heavyset man's voice was cool as he as he answered, clearly expecting such a question. "You'll remain in the ranks of the Arena's fighters until you're killed by an opponent, or something else unfortunate happens."

Someone else called out, "So killing's allowed, then?" Several prisoners, including Zoro, narrowed their eyes meaningfully and glanced around at their competition. Tashigi just looked rather put out by the concept.

"Naturally." He bowed his head slightly in confirmation, "Any means of defeating an opponent is permitted. You'll also be allowed weapons in the fighting ring, but don't think that'll allow an escape."

The man stopped to gesture to one of his companions. The other reached into the pocket of his heavy coat and removed a thin piece of metal. "You'll each be fitted out with one of these. These collars have runes on 'em that drain ki, especially fighting ki. In the ring itself, we've got wards up that'll disable these, but as soon as ya leave that area they'll reactivate and you'll be powered down."

A round of muttering started up among the inmates, but Zoro was the one who gave voice to the general sentiment. "Wait a minute, you can't be serious. Runes that drain ki? That's stupid."

The man turned his eyes onto the green haired swordsman. "Ya think so? Here in this world we have demon fruits that give people magic powers and a sea where ya have to use Log Posts to navigate and ya can't predict the weather for the next five minutes. We've got fish men and sea monsters. Hell, we've got cursed weapons and ghosts too! Ya think ki draining runes can't exist?"

"You know, that's really not that out there, I guess." Zoro admitted after a moment of contemplation. "Now that you mention it, I wouldn't be surprised if there were birds that could knit as well."

"I think I've heard of those. Of course the guy who was telling me about it was pretty drunk at the time…" Tashigi muttered quietly.

"You hang out with drunk people a lot?" Zoro murmured as he cast a glance at her out of the corner of his eye.

It was her turn to blush and sputter, but she also didn't get a chance to reply. The score was now even, one point each.

"So, now ya know the rules." The man clapped his hands together abruptly, recalling their attention once again. "So, let's get started with the fights! The crowd's a'waitin', and we don't wanna disappoint. For ya bottom ranks we don't bother with any sort of real organization for your first fight, so whoever got here first and whoever was last, you're up for round one!"

"First? That's me." A tall, wiry man with a rather unattractive scar along one cheek stepped towards the door.

"Last then?" The man stared expectantly at the rest of the gathering, who all turned to look at Zoro and Tashigi.

"We both came in at the same time." Zoro eyeballed the opponent. "But I don't mind taking him."

"No, I'll do it." Tashigi stepped forward resolutely.

"Hey!" Zoro was left in the dust as the towering scarred man sniggered to himself.

"Heh heh. I get a woman first round. Easy win for me!"

Zoro took one long step backwards as Tashigi immediately fluffed up in righteous rage. "You really shouldn't'a said that, man."

"Oh yeah, why's that?" He sneered at Zoro while Tashigi continued forward.

"You're dismissing me because I'm a woman?" Zoro had a moment of painful déjà vu as the female swordsman began her rant. "You think just because I'm female that I'll be a pushover in the fighting ring? How arrogant and small minded!"

"Wha --?" The man was caught off guard by her wrath and actually took a step backwards. There were quite a few wide eyes among the spectators as well. Zoro just covered his eyes with one hand and shook his head, glad to not be the target of such a tirade for once.

"I assure you, fighting me will be far from an easy win! If for nothing else than that I can't stand people like you, who look down on women!"

"Oi! Settle it in the ring, you two! We've got a schedule to keep here!" The jailer snapped, breaking Tashigi's momentum.

The two first round fighters were then allowed out of the cell, one at a time, and the anti-ki collars fitted around their necks. The arm and leg shackles were also reintroduced to prevent any sort of shenanigans or escape attempts. Zoro watched all this, continued watching as they were led away, and then returned to his corner to wait once they were out of sight. "A short fight, probably." He muttered, followed quickly by a wide yawn.

He leaned back, closed his eyes and to all appearances abruptly went to sleep. The rest of the prisoners stared for a moment, and then went about their business. It probably wasn't worth the effort to bother someone like that, after all. Besides, he was a kind of scary guy, and his female companion was even more frightening in her own way.

---------------------------------

Tashigi and her opponent were led through a few stone passages together until she became aware of a distant rumbling sound. Most likely it was due to a large crowd overhead, waiting for bloodshed and violence. At this point the hallway ended in a T intersection and each prisoner was taken in a different direction, with two guards following each to keep an eye on them. The main jailer, who had never bothered to give his name, had disappeared quickly. He was no doubt off performing his own duties in preparing for the impending fight.

The sounds of the crowd were becoming louder, but no more distinct. Just a general cacophony that indicated a large mass of humanity nearby. Through one last door, and Tashigi found herself in a small armory. A wide variety of weapons were arrayed in racks along the walls of the long, narrow room, each one chained in place and securely locked. They were obviously taking no chances of a quick prisoner making off with an arsenal on a whim.

"Pick one." One of the guards gestured to the weapons while another moved forward to unlock her hands and feet.

The choice was quick and obvious – a katana of decent quality and upkeep was present among the swords, and it was soon hanging at her belt. It didn't feel quite right, since the sword was heavier than Shigure and the hilt rougher to the touch, but it was a functional weapon nonetheless.

The guards took her to one last room, barely more than a cubicle, and left her there. There was another door at the other end of the space, and judging from the amount of sound seeping through around the frame it led directly out into the fighting ring under the gaze of hundreds of spectators.

She took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes, focusing on the image and recalled words of the man she would be facing momentarily. Vaguely she became aware of her fighting ki rising up as she unconsciously clutched the hilt of her replacement sword, and realized that this place was apparently within the null range for her collar. That wasn't an important fact right then, but it needed to be stored away for future reference.

The outer door began to rise, slowly giving view to a dusty dirt ring, surrounded on all sides by a several stories high wall that was covered in metal plates. Obviously they also took no chances of a prisoner bolting into the crowd areas during or after a fight.

She stepped out into the dimming sunlight. Apparently it was approaching evening, and about half of the ring was cast into shadow. This was quickly alleviated by overhead lights of momentarily blinding intensity being switched on with a loud 'clunk'. Her opponent was already present, a mace in his hand as he walked towards the center of the circular area.

The crowd's noise level rose to a roar at the appearance of the combatants. Tashigi tuned it out, focusing on the man before her. With a heavy weapon like that, he must focus on power, not speed. He was grinning again, more confident now that he had a few moments to recover from her tongue lashing. Tashigi determined to make him regret both his words and his attitude.

They met in the center, coming to a stop about ten feet apart. He hefted his mace up in both hands, settling into his starting stance. Tashigi drew her sword and took up an en garde position with the sword up and horizontal in front her face.

A dusty wind blew across the space between the fighters as the crowd's sound began to die off. Everyone was waiting for the fighting to begin.

"I won't take it easy on you." The mace wielder grinned, displaying yellowed, jagged teeth. "I'll make you beg."

Tashigi's eyes narrowed. "Bring it on."

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End Ch. 2

Next Time – Tashigi's Duel! Put your fighting spirit into it, and come out the victor! Zoro, get off your lazy butt and do something spectacular too!