"Pretty soon, I couldn't imagine my life without her."

Zoro had joined the gathering partially to hear Crystal's rendition of their memories together and partially to fend off Sanji's unwelcome advances.

"Honestly, I don't know how you were surviving in that cluttered house and off of plates of bare meat," she griped.

"Bare necessities - that's all I need."

"It took me weeks to find an inhabitable house under layers and layers of bachelor life," she explained.

"Let me guess, shortly thereafter, he fell for your exuberant charm and you for his courage and strength so now you two are living happily ever after?" Nami asked. She had to admit, she was a little jealous of their story book beginning.

"Actually, it took about a year or so after we left the village. Up until then, we were just comrades who mutually minded and respected each other. Then we had to rely on each other's strengths and cover each other's weaknesses to survive. That's when we really started getting tangled up."

"Zoro's weaknesses?" Sanji questioningly raised one of those fancy eyebrows.

"One example: After accidentally using poison ivy as toilet paper-"

Zoro quickly clapped his hand over her mouth and muttered something about not remembering that ever happening.

"You two are so cute together," Nami sighed.

"So that's why you fight with a blindfold on, to prevent your Devil Fruit powers from acting out of control." Usopp joined the story-telling session and didn't have much regard for the romantic aspects.

"And to sharpen my other senses. You really don't have a real grasp on how much we rely on our vision until it's taken away. I use my hearing to judge distance and changes in air pressure to detect movement. I'm especially working on my sense of smell for identification. I hope that one day, I'll be able to smell the other half of the statue statue fruit if I can't see it."

"Let me get this straight, you've been training under Zoro for two years, blindfolded, and you aren't dead yet?" Sanji inquired.

"Crystal looks very much alive to me," Usopp retorted.

"Damn." Sanji took a long drag on the cigarette balanced between his teeth. The smoke poured from his lips as he spoke. "You must have nerves of steel and a significant amount of muscle packed in those skinny limbs of yours. So why aren't you ever on the front lines with us? It's good to get real battle experience."

"Because she doesn't need to be," Zoro harshly interjected. "There's hardly a situation that I can't handle myself so there's no need for her to get involved."

Everyone smirked. Beneath his arrogance, he had an undeniable soft spot for her. It was just hidden in the gentle shadows of his personality, just as she hid herself in the shadows during their battles.

"You know, I've heard stories about you two. There are countless rumors floating around the east blue about the great bounty hunter Zoro and his mysterious accomplice, the Blind Assassin. I'm guessing that's you," Nami pointed, turning to Crystal.

"A lot of my training focused on stealth," she explained. "Since I don't pack a powerful punch, I was focusing on agility and covertness. When we started bounty hunting, Zoro would always shove me in an alley and tell me to be stealth. But by the time I had a grasp on the situation, he had usually already finished the job. I rarely had to intervene or even show my face."

"I always imagined that the Blind Assassin was some mystic man born without vision and had magic abilities to turn invisible." As usual, Usopp's conjectures couldn't be further from the truth.

"Nope, I'm actually not blind. Nor am I a mystic man. And to tell the truth, I don't really want to hurt anyone. I don't believe that it's my right to decide if a life deserves to be taken away or not. Of course, if there must be a loss of life, I will do everything in my power to make sure it's not Zoro's."

Crystal had found her morals being strained as they lived their lives as pirates. Never before had she felt that she no other choice but to use her Devil Fruit powers. Their adventure on the sea was just beginning. She got the feeling that as they trekked on, her integrity would take a brutal beating as she would be forced to chose not only between life and death but where to place death. The potency of her icy gaze was a curse she hadn't requested. Every time Zoro rushed into battle, she had the potential to emerge from the shadows and personally write a death sentence to any who opposed them. She felt responsible for the careful balance between life and death on the battlefield. It was a responsibility she didn't know if she could handle.

"Her skills are irrelevant. Like I said, as long as I'm standing, hell, even if I'm fighting on my knees, there's no reason for her to get involved."

It's like Zoro could read her mind sometimes and he never failed ease her worries. They were in it together and just knowing that gave her the strength to courageously face their future.

"Fair enough, young lady," Sanji agreed. "You leave the tough stuff to the men. Though I get the feeling that I can trust you to step in when things really get rough. You've got this edgy vibe beneath that sweet demeanor, am I wrong?"

"I will intervene as necessary to protect my friends," she confirmed.

"Good enough for me," he smirked, taking a slow drag on his cigarette.


A/N: Thanks for reading to the end of my story! I hope you liked it. If you did, there will be more coming featuring my OC so stay tuned :)

I have a one-shot posted (find it in my profile) featuring my OC so check it out if you liked this one! The title is Four Sword Style.

Please leave a review letting me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece

(just had to throw that in there)