Mihawk woke up groggily from the sofa-bed in his office. He hadn't actually bothered to transform the furniture into it's bed form, instead he had just thrown the sheet over it and fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. He made his way to the battered old coffeemaker and loaded it with coffee and water. When the coffee was done he settled back on the sofa with his computer on his lap. It was 10 am and he enjoyed the calm lazy morning, reading online papers. After some time he started itching for clicking the IM program open. He couldn't resist.

Not too many miles away Zoro had already been wide awake for a while. He had finished his morning exercise and slumped down on his bed fresh from the shower. He grimaced as he managed to knock his hand on his laptop which was partly buried under the covers. He rolled over and opened it. He wondered if anyone would be online at this hour. Actually one person in particular. He was in luck.

'Hey! You're on early.' he wrote to Hawk-Eyes. 'None of my friends are usually on before noon.'

'Neither am I. Actually I'm almost never logged in unless I have to talk to a certain idiot quickly.'

'Lol, boyfriend/girlfriend?'

'Good Lord no. Thank God no. Not that he didn't try in the beginning but let's not venture there.'

'Heh. Alright.'

' I have to confess that I only logged on to see if you're online. A bit foolish, I know.'

'Then I'm a bit of a fool too. Hoped you'd be on.'

'I didn't scare you off with all the philosophical rambling? I thought that I must have surely bored you to death.'

'No I thought it was really interesting. I don't get to talk about things like that often. Well there were like philosophy classes at school and all but like you could really discuss anything there and our teacher was this horrible old goat.'

'Goats can get degrees these days?'

'Haha! A real goat would have been better than him. How's your morning?'

'Just enjoying the peace and quiet with some coffee. I won't have anything to do until later this afternoon. The only downside is that I slept in a rather awkward position and my neck and shoulder hurt.'

'Ow that sucks. You should try to stretch a bit. I should probably do that too, just got back from a morning run.'

'So you exercise quite a bit? Can't imagine that someone who is not that dedicated would go running early in the morning.'

'Yep. Like that?'

'What ever do you mean?'

'You like athletic types?'

'Why, you are bold.'

'Aww, come on Hawky.'

'Certainly I would find a well-formed body attractive. I appreciate any man or a woman who takes care of their body. Of course the mind must not be neglected either.'

'Hmm, evasive. Alright then. What about you, do you keep yourself fit?'

'Oh I used to exercise all the time. It helped me to take my mind of certain matters. I could direct my frustration and other unwanted feelings into it.'

'You were feeling bad? Why did you stop?'

'Come now, you seriously want me to start droning on about my life?'

'I won't ask you to talk about it if you don't want to. Sorry I didn't mean to be rude or anything...'

'Don't be sorry. It's just that you are actually the first person to really have asked about that time in my life. I haven't really given any thought to it before but I haven't talked about it even with my best friend.'

'Sometimes it could be easier to talk to someone who has some distance to the matter...'

'You might be right.' Hawk-Eyes admitted.

'Are you still there? You've been quiet for a while.'

'I'm here. I'm trying to figure out how to express certain things.'

'Take your time.'

'I never lacked anything materially but the relationships in my family were distant.' Hawk-Eyes began. 'I was a lonely child. As a teenager I was anxious and began to feel anger towards my surroundings. I tried to go out to the world and I tried locking myself away from it. I took up fencing at school and I was able to release some of my feelings through it. It was a nice way of focusing oneself. The mind has to be clear of anything else to truly be able to perform expertly. Now I wish that I could have talked to my family instead of struggling with my problems in private. I keep wondering if things would have been any different that way. They're all gone now.'

'You've had though times for sure...'

'Don't worry about it. Of course I think about it sometimes but in general I've had a good life. It's a thing of the past now and there's no point in dwelling on it. My friend helped me see that. That is one of the reasons I haven't murdered him yet, even though the temptation has been great at times.'

'Friends can be a blessing.'

'This one is mostly a curse, but I suppose that you are right. I'm sorry you had to listen to all that. Not many students want to start their Saturdays by listening to someone talking about their 'childhood traumas'.'

'It's ok. I think you're interesting.'

'Am I good entertainment to you?'

'No! I mean yes, in a way. Argh. What I mean is I don't chat with you just to keep myself from getting bored. I genuinely think you're an interesting person.'

'I'm flattered.'

'And despite all the stuff about not really being able to know who you're talking to online, I feel that on some level we really connect, and I want to learn to know you. Maybe in real life too. I hope I'm not freaking you out or anything when I say that.'

'I could say that you're foolish to say that since you don't know anything about me. You don't even know my sex or age or where I live. (At this point I can reveal to you that I am not a 12-year-old girl as you had previously speculated.) However, I also believe that we do have a certain 'connection', so it would be extremely hypocritical of me to do so. But let me say that it will be a long time until I let you take me out on a date. That's a joke. Just so that you know.'

'Hey you never know'

'Well somebody is flirtatious.'

'Somebody is a tease. But hey, you mentioned fencing.'

'Yes.'

'…...and?'

'That is correct.'

' …'

'I did mention it.'

'Oh come on!'

'Sorry – couldn't resist. Yes, I used to put all of my energy to it. I still do it but I've lacked a sparring partner since my friend was in an accident.'

'Ah, I hope that he gets better. Are we talking about the fiend from Hell?'

'Yes we are. Well...er... Half of his face got scarred. And he kind of lost his arm.'

'Oh. OH. Ow.'

'Broke into a locked room, changed someone's IM nickname and user picture and typed pretty expertly for a one-armed guy, didn't he.'

'Yeah, he did.'

'He's an eternal optimist. If I 'accidentally' cut of his other arm it would just be an excuse for him to research more weird sex positions. I pity his boyfriend.'

'Wow... well he'll be just fine when the apocalypse comes. So you two used to spar together?'

'We did, we did. Our 'duels' were not in terms of the art of fencing, but rather actual practical sword fighting. It started partly because we were not friends in the beginning. He might have seen it as friendly rivalry but to me he used to be an enemy. Already then the style we fought with reflected how our relationship would be. It wasn't about points or correct moves. Every strike meant something.'

'I like the sound of that. It must be nice to have a relationship like that –– even if you're rivals there's a mutual respect and no bullshit. Seems that we have each other a mutual interest. I do sword fighting too. I'm in the school's kendo club. Currently the best of the lot. Were you any good?'

'Now this is interesting! Well, I do not want to brag – but I'm still the crème de la crème of the Mariejois Senior High's fencing club. I have an unbeaten record of winning every tournament I participated in. Think you have a chance?'

'Like I would lose! I'm going to be the best!'

'Oh, he has spirit! I'm sorry, I have to go so I can get from point A to point B on time. The time flies by so fast, thank you once again for the most refreshing conversation! Thanks to you I think I can put up with a group of vegetables.'

'Anytime! Hey, have a good day! I hope we can talk again soon.'

'You too, and next time I want to hear more about you!'

Zoro was a bit surprised to see that it was 1 pm. He would have to find some food and get himself ready to go. He groaned and rolled to his side on the bed. He had to go on a stupid excursion to the art museum with a class. It was something that he absolutely had to do, and with a decent grade too, to graduate. Why did the visit have to be on Saturday? There were so many things he had much rather done than this. While he was cursing the teacher, the school and the universe for putting him into this situation a paper pinned on the cork board on his wall.

Something at the back of his mind kept nagging that there was something that he should remember about it. But there wasn't anything special about it, it was just a schedule for the graduation ceremony which was only few weeks away. Only thing he really needed to remember was the time and place. Then he suddenly realized it. How come his brains hadn't processed this information when they were talking? 'The ceremony starts at 12 am at the hall of Mariejois Senior High'. Hawk-Eyes had gone to the same school as him!?