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Chapter 10 - Their First Time Training Together

She couldn't believe it; she had actually agreed to help Zoro train.

Perona stood in the middle of the ruins. The green haired swordsman stood before her still wrapped up in bandages reminding her of a mummy. It had been two days since he got injured and he already was insisting on training. Zoro suggested that Perona train with him using her Negative Hollows, which Perona couldn't reject because otherwise, he would just go off and train with the baboons.

"Oi, we can start now." Zoro said impatiently.

Today's learning objective was speed, specifically to be fast enough to dodge the ghosts and find an opening to attack the eccentric Ghost Princess.

"Mmm…" Perona seemed reluctant even the ghosts floating beside her didn't seem to have their usual lust for negativity. She softly muttered the name of her attack and one of the apparitions made its way to the target.

Zoro entered his Santoryu position, lowering himself before spinning with his swords to create a tornado, "Tatsu Maki." Despite his attack, the spook still flew through his body causing the swordsman to fall to all fours, "I want to be a snail living under the leaves…"

"What are you doing not dodging? You're supposed to work on speed and dodging skills not your Dragon Twister." She chided with a yawn.

"I just thought if I could blow it away…" he replied, his face dusted pink from the embarrassment of what he'd said although he should have been used to it by now.

"There's no way to blow it away, idiot!" she retorted her hands on her hips, "My ghosts are immune to physical attacks!"

"Again."

The training slowly got back on track, taking on the form of a cat and mouse game; Zoro being the mouse and the hollows being the cats. He ran as fast as he could holding all three of his swords while the ghosts continued to chase. Perona was impressed with Zoro's ability to outrun the apparitions. Things started to look like a running race. Both competitors ran in a circle almost in the shape of a track field. They were pretty close together but after a while Zoro gained some distance from the Hollow. This made Perona wonder if her hollows got tired and she entertained the idea of summoning another hollow.

She refocused on the running match again, pondering how and where she should summon her next attack but when she looked at the swordsman he was no longer running in the usual circle.

Did he…get…lost? No, he's running towards me isn't he?!

Perona shrieked as the realization came back to her. This training was about attacking her too. It was almost too late as she dodged flying to the side just as Zoro brought down his swords where she had been standing.

"Oi! You trying to kill me?" She shouted as she glared at him. Her hollow caught up but didn't attack; it merely hid behind the princess to witness another argument.

"Huh? I thought you were immune to physical attacks?" he replied giving her a why-you-dodging look.

"That's instinct! Instinct! Who in their right mind would just stand there while some crazy green haired demon runs at them with that murderous look in his eyes?!"

Zoro sheathed all his katana while looking at her curiously and prepared to go back to the castle.

"Oi, oi, where are you going? The castle is this direction," She quipped, already too lazy to figure out his epic sense of direction.

Zoro kept a straight face while he ran his hand through his hair and turned to follow Perona.

"Hey, how did Usopp manage to beat you anyway?"

She flinched at the question, thankfully, without Zoro noticing, "You think I'd tell you the story of my shameful defeat?"

"Mmm, I guessed as much," he replied as he walked beside her. His curiosity was growing. How was she defeated if she was immune to physical attacks?

Dinner ended and Perona flew back to her room. Zoro didn't get any injuries today but she still needed to help him clean and re-bandage the wounds inflicted by Mihawk. She flew to her bathroom and opened the tap for hot water. While she waited for the steam to fill the room, she needed to do something.

She slowly glided toward a coffin that stood vertically at one end of her room. It was worn and looked old. Red and pink striped decorated the all black coffin and it was in good condition despite its old and worn out look. It wasn't locked either, in fact, it stood partially open. As Perona neared it and almost flew into the coffin the door was thrown open.

"Oi, Perona when is-"Zoro bravely walked in despite the previous argument they'd gone through.

Perona shrieked and immediately halted her path to the coffin staring at the Santoryu user in surprise as he came closer.

"Do you need to get so shocked? Who else would be here but me?" He asked as he ran a hand through his hair and continued to walk towards her.

"WHAT…err...what are you..." Perona stuttered. Her eyes continually glanced at the coffin behind her and she slowly moved her tiny body over to try to block the coffin from a certain man. She blinked nervously and her grip tightened on the handle of her umbrella to the point her knuckles were white. Everything was so obvious, that even the idiot that was Zoro could tell she was acting weird…weirder that her usual self.

"I just wanted to ask when Mihawk was coming back." Zoro stated flatly trying to figure out what had gotten the Ghost Princess so riled up. He could see that she was trying to hide the coffin behind her which meant that something was wrong with the coffin itself, at least in his way of thinking.

"I…I'm not sure, I…" She continued to stutter. She was growing increasingly frustrated in her lack of forming sentences. She had to get him out of her room now before he suspected something.

"Go…go back to your room right now! You Swordsman Pervert Half Dead!" Perona snapped unaware of the fact that she was now acting very differently than what was normal.

Zoro could clearly tell that something was wrong and it most likely had something to do with the coffin she was trying so hard to hide. She wasn't acting like herself. She answered his questions instead of chasing him out like she usually did, "You even got the sequence wrong." He stated referring to the very long nick name she usually called him. He ignored the nervous Princess and strode towards the coffin, determined to figure out what was inside that made the normally arrogant girl so nervous and twitchy.

Perona watched desperately as Zoro got to the coffin and reached out a hand to open it. She had to think of something quick, this was a life and death situation!

"Negative Hollow!" Perona let out the breath she'd been holding as one of her cute hollows emerged at flew straight at Zoro.

However, Zoro's quick reflexes from the earlier training had him do a quick squat to avoid getting hit. He knew that these ghosts, like their master, are simple minded. They are only capable of chasing, they don't know how to stop or make quick turns.
Zoro's move disturbed the balance of the coffin and it began to fall towards the swordsman who easily kept it from falling over. In the middle of all the disaster, he could see Perona's relief at the coffin being safe.

Sadly, everything wasn't over yet. The Hollow managed to turn and was flying back to its intended target.

"Stop!" Perona commanded. If the ghost hit him now, it would go through the coffin first! That couldn't happen. The hollow tried to come to a stop, like a car going at high speed screeching and braking. It passed through the coffin anyway and stopped just in front of Zoro.

"I was to be reborn as a worm…" Perona cried dejectedly falling to all fours as the negative aura settled over her.

Confused, Zoro stood up and looked at Perona. The hollow next to him looked at its master too both of its transparent arms covering its mouth as if knowing it did something wrong.

While both master and apparition were distracted Zoro lay the coffin down and opened it and was shocked to find…Perona?

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