A/N: Yes, I'm teasing all of the readers by skipping around. It's surprisingly fun. These next few chapters are dedicated to how the world views Akiyaki's reputation as Valentine and as Benihime. Being in a war teaches you to plan these things as you try to gain information on them and keep them from gaining it on you. Most people hear 'plan for the worst, hope for the best' and maybe get up to Plan C. Aki has more than that.

Ace is 17. Aki is 17/18. Sabo is 16. Luffy is 14.

1/22/2013 Edit

Chapter 10: Another Bird's Perspective

Dracule Mihawk, known around the world as "Hawk-eyes" and "Greatest Swordsman in the World" was confused and hung-over as the brief and pained glance at a soon spinning room proved.

He closed his infamous eyes to better understand how he got to that state of confusion and that level of intoxication in the first place. During the brief amount of time his eyes were open though he had at least recognized the room he was in. The room was one he was familiar with as he had seen it a number of times through a number of years. It was at one time a guest room on Shanks' ship that had eventually evolved into his room on the ship –even if he wasn't a member of his crew. It was his room –complete with spare clothing which proclaimed it as his if nothing else.

The aches he was feeling said that he and Shanks had clashed blades again in a spar, however there were some that said it wasn't just Shanks' work. That was unusual. He didn't remember anything other than that annoying red hair.

The hangover suggested that after the spar they had gotten drunk. The last was slightly unusual as he'd usually never drink enough to get drunk –much less to the point of hangover. He, however, had gotten plastered to the point of not being able to remember what had happened last night and most of that afternoon or at least at this moment. This was highly unusual.

Knowing that he wouldn't get over the hangover fast enough to withstand Shanks' cheerfulness without rehydrating he took himself to the ship's kitchen. Shanks was a man that could outdrink a fish and wake up the next morning with little more than a slight headache and hangover.

Even with the party hard nature of the crew, there were a few that were responsible and limited the amount of alcohol they consumed. Usually the cook, the night's lookouts and Shanks' first mate was chief among them, although Mihawk had the hazy feeling that he had been in a drinking contest with both Benn and Shanks. That was about the only thing he remembered about yesterday other than the fact that it had seemed imperative to get as drunk as possible as quickly as possible after the spars.

He just hoped that he hadn't made an ass out of himself while drunk. He wasn't a nice drunk or a happy drunk. He was a quiet but heavily sarcastic asshole when drunk, although Shanks had once called him a downright pleasant fellow with a sense of humor while heavily buzzed. That was Akagami's opinion though, so it didn't count. Akagami had probably had a few too many blows to the head to be all there.

Mediating his stride so that he wouldn't stumble or even worse still walk drunkenly, Mihawk slowly made his way to the ship's gallery.

Once there he realized why he had gotten smashed, although he did comprehend it as soon as he brain got around to realizing and acknowledging what he saw.

Shanks had a daughter.

A daughter that was highly skilled and was very talented with a blade considering her age and very strong –although the last was based on the bits of him that felt a bit more bruised than others which somehow included his throat.

He doubted that she would ever be able to beat him as she just didn't have the drive to be the very best that he could see, but she would make a reasonably good sparring partner as she was better than about seventy-five percent of the world judging by how callused her hands were and how she moved –and would get better with some more experience and time. He was hungover, but he was known as the best for a good reason.

She was also very, very pretty.

He had eyes after all and was appreciative of her alluring and exotic beauty but she was also just like the infuriatingly cheerful man –but female. A long sleeve white collar button up shirt only proved that she even dressed somewhat like him. He doubted that Shanks ever wore a skirt but he easily could have. She and her behavior would explain why Benn Beckman had been drinking with him and just as fast. Shanks in large doses could drive even a man like Benn to drink for those unused to the man. Doubling the exposure would make anyone want to drink.

"Ah, so you are up!" She said, just as cheerfully as Shanks would be after breakfast but far quieter. So she wasn't a complete a copy of the man as he had feared and somewhat dreaded.

Her mother had some influence then. That was good.

The world wouldn't survive two of Shanks –or they would be too drunk to care.

"I'm pretty sure that you usually don't drink that much, so are well this morning or not?" She asked. Shanks was usually polite, even by pirate standards, but that was a bit overkill on politeness and formality.

"A hangover, but a few glasses of something and breakfast would not be amiss in remedying that." Mihawk replied. She smiled at his order and looking far too at home behind the bar and adjoining kitchen in the gallery and went to prepare it. He thought it was rather odd that Shanks hadn't mentioned anything about this, but he had probably tuned out Akagami's usual babble and missed him informing him of this. Or he could have ignored the man entirely and took a nap. That was possible. Sleeping off a hangover wasn't something that could be done around these pirates. They were too loud –once they got over their own hangovers. Spontaneous real-life musicals could and did happen as they did last night.

Mihawk found his order in front of his face in what seemed like mere moments after he had ordered. She had prepared an omelet for him and divined his preferred breakfast tastes –although he didn't know how and that little and positively female smirk said he shouldn't ask. After breakfast which he thanked her for preparing for him, Mihawk admitted defeat to his pride and asked for her name again.

"Ah, the mightiest swordsman in the world even falls victim to the devil's drink." Mihawk found himself wanting to growl at the Shanks-like answer. He reminded himself that this was Shanks' daughter and not some random person who he could intimidate. "Call me Aki."

Autumn. It seemed like such a simple name, and was probably only part of it.

Mihawk however wasn't interested in her or her name. He was far more intrigued by what he remembered of her sword skills and why she wasn't on a poster somewhere since this was part of the New World they were in. That question had led to some of the crew questioning her skills and she had been vouched for by Benn and Yassop, which is why he had challenged her to a spar.

The recollections of last night must have shown somehow on his face. He blamed that on the hangover or she really was that astute.

"The Greatest Swordsman in the World is being curious. So I guess I could answer a few of his questions. I have nothing better to do for a while, since I've already ate, took a shower and cleaned up after myself. I was just about to get bored again." She smiled a rather sad smile –sad for the opportunities missed of annoying several people no matter how powerful they were.

"Why haven't I heard about you?" Mihawk asked her.

"I didn't want to be known as the daughter of Shanks or by my name, so I'm not. Nor did I want to rely on such a thing or have to deal with his enemies before I'm able to." She shrugged. "It's as simple and complex as that."

An alias and a disguise was an obvious reason for the lack of infamy. This proved that she was someone else's daughter too and not just Akagami's.

A person didn't have to have his infamous eyes to see the resemblance. It really was that obvious. If Shanks was seventeen again, the only way the average person would tell them apart would be the lack of boobs, length of hair, earrings, the cut and style of hair and eye color. Since she seemed to prefer loose white tops like her father, having those bound boobs bound as any decent swordswoman should do would only make it harder. That, in retrospect, might be why Shanks had made the attempt at growing a beard –and was still failing at it nearly two-decades later.

"So what are you known by?"

"These questions seem rather familiar, ya know Hawk-eyes?" Behind the gallery's bar, she pulled out a tall barrel to use as a seat across from him, while she placed her attractive face in her left palm in a move that bespoke of long ingrained habit. "I'm pretty sure that they're what caused you and Benn and me to get into a drinking contest after our little spar. Benn won." She scowled prettily at that. "Then again, the pirates around us were more concerned with watching than fetching more to drink so I bowed out. Habits are such silly things at times."

She seemed to have also inherited Shanks' ability for understatement.

Little spar, she called it, as he could now remember more of it that was gradually being filled in as he sobered up.

Mihawk would eat his hat before he called what he remembered of that brief fight a little spar –then again, spars between those that were levels above the rest had a tendency to be known as a fight. It was still a spar, but it wasn't little or nice.

She couldn't match him in sheer strength but her sheer speed and unpredictability in movement had easily nullified that advantage causing him to fight at her level of physical strength –which was pretty strong for a young woman –even if he could push her back with one hand on his sword still. He couldn't use his full strength behind his blows because that would cause him to overextend to a fatal degree in such a high-paced and intense fight. Swordsmen who used two swords usually made sure they matched for balance reasons –so those who fought with two swords of drastically different lengths had a far more unpredictable style and the mis-matched blades allowed for numerous improvisations that weren't possible with matched blades. There were advantages to each.

She also fought like she was crazy and more than a little dirty and took advantage of openings that were otherwise impossible to use unless the person using them were damn confident, slightly crazy and impossibly fast. Most people would usually dodge, block or re-direct a slash. She instead twisted her shorter blade onto its guard on top of his blade's blunt edge and kicked him in the throat faster than he could react other than using some haki to keep the damage down as she cut into his sleeve and just barely missing with a slice to his chest, although she had gotten his necklace with her longer blade as she had leaped over his blade –before her purposeful deflection of Yoru had sent her skidding back some distance.

Mihawk muddled over the slowly clearing memories of yesterday which included her whispering an alias of hers into his ear during that drinking contest between he, Benn and her. That could be considered flirting behavior, but he really hadn't reacted much to it. He had been focused on getting drunk. "Benihime. You're known as Benihime. And Valentine. You're both."

Mihawk, although curious wasn't going to ask how she was both. He had the feeling that the explanation would involve breaking something like several of the natural laws of the world like it was as easy as breathing.

"No comment about the fact that Valentine is supposedly a guy?" She asked, clearly expecting it.

"No. Gender matters not, and it enables you to travel freely by having such radically different persona."

Mihawk pointedly ignored the fact that Valentine was better known as Bloody Valentine. The Bounty Hunter known to the world as Valentine was infamous for turning in nearly-dead bounties or corpses for bounties, and leaving the various crews and gangs in a similar state. Only a few members and bounties had escaped such a fate, and the only thing that they had in common was that Valentine had said that he was out of ammo before leaving –even if he or rather she had been cutting a bloody swathe through the crew seconds before or so rumor had it –not that he really paid much attention to it or more attention that paid attention to the newspaper anyway.

Sword skills weren't ever mentioned in the rumors he had heard, although claw like wounds were common. However the viciousness was apparent, as was the capacity for mass-murder.

Benihime was considered something like Valentine's female counterpart by rumor although she was infinitely more approachable but still known as painfully untouchable. That was why she was called Sword Maiden among other things. A woman you can look at but you can't touch for if you do -you pay quiet dearly for it –quite like the rumors about his fellow warlord Boa Handcock and Amazon Lily. There were several less pleasant names she was known by such as Bloody Bitch –Mihawk knew the last was because she would supposedly hound and track a target with a dogged persistence and supposedly by smell –but she at least turned in more people alive than dead as Benihime.

Knowing how alike she and her father were from what little he had observed told Mihawk he needed to look at those pirates and their crimes a little closer to find what had angered her enough that her anger would only be appeased by blood and death.

Since Valentine was female (and Benihime obviously was), there was also how often those massacres occurred. It was well known fact to any seasoned pirate that had sailed in a mixed crew that female pirates weren't the most regular when it came to their cycle and that made all the symptoms associated with that dreaded cycle all the worse. Simply annoyance could easily transform into a murderous black rage.

Shanks did have a temper, but it was damn hard to provoke it unless someone threatened someone dear to him at which point it was considered either attempted suicide or successful suicide via Shanks' saber. Mihawk would later wonder if she had a shorter fuse than her old man or if she there was some proof behind the old wives' tale of red heads and tempers.

"Which is exactly the point." She replied with a seemingly cheerful smile that promised a day of reckoning if he ever considered telling the World Government about her being Valentine. He truly didn't care anyway.

She seemed perfectly fine being known as Benihime since that was what her father called her. The feeling of possible impending doom did not stop her from smiling and seeming perfectly nice and cheerful. That had to clearly be her mother's influence –she had to be a scary woman to keep someone so like Akagami in line. He did however have to wonder exactly how she had gotten away with such a charade like that of Valentine on the Grand Line since there were several people would and could probably sense her gender.

"The World Government would probably welcome you to the ranks of the Shichibukai if they could find you. Either of you." They probably would, even if both persona weren't pirates.

He honestly had no idea how Benihime wasn't considered a pirate or have a bounty poster as he had paid attention to the rumors about her. Half-decent swordsmen were everywhere but a highly competent swordswoman? That was worth his interest as it was something different. If he hadn't found her here he would have considered trying to track her down himself -to see how much was fact and how much was fiction.

"They can try to, just like the rest of the world. They just have to find me first –and ask politely. I guess I do have a reputation for being something of a ghost and showing up randomly wherever –in both guises."

That grin wasn't reassuring in its familiarity at all as her body posture and language changed from bored bartender to something primal and predatory before slipping into something that was purely Shanks. Ah, so she did have potential to match her old man in the way of the sword.

"It's just hard to be as serious as Val has to be for longer than a week. It gets depressing and lonely and boring."

Mihawk tried not to show the fact that he was annoyed because he was somehow insulted and she knew that she was insulting him. Or she might not. Akagami wasn't the most astute person when it came to that.

"Besides, it isn't like I'd listen. Pirates will always be pirates after all. It's far more fun than being a stuffy marine or a citizen that's never traveled beyond their home shores. "

Mihawk nodded his agreement to that.

"Being a travelling bounty hunter does have its advantages particularly if no one can connect you to it. Nothing is off limits –I can travel through the Marine controlled channels or by visiting Fishman isle. It's just sad that some small changes in appearance can do all that though. Good bounty hunters, on the other hand, just get paid –a lot more. Hide a portion of the loot and sell the weapons and that later and that can usually cover my bar tab."

If she had inherited Shanks' liver then the loot would be needed. The Red Force held enough liquor to get several small armies drunk and Shanks could drink a third of what would be needed to get a small army drunk. That did bring up a question though.

"How old are you again?"

"Now that is rude, asking a lady her age and all." She pouted.

Mihawk ignored that.

"Shichibukai or not, I'm still a pirate. Pirates don't have to be polite. I just prefer to be." Mihawk replied and was rewarded with a positively predatory smile that had rarely graced Shanks' face but when it did –a better fight was extremely hard to find. So she truly was a catty woman and Mihawk had the feeling that he had managed to place himself in a dangerous position. The predatory smile wasn't assuring in the least.

"Stick around for a week and I'll be eighteen."

Mihawk restrained his jaw from dropping and merely blinked instead but she laughed exactly like Shanks at his carefully hidden shock. Part of that shock was for the amount of skill she wielded, and part of that was because doing the math meant that she was young enough to be his daughter by several years. She would be eighteen and Shanks was still several years shy of forty. She had to have been conceived sometime before the Pirate King died. Shanks would have been seventeen or so.

"Do you need something to drink, Hawk-eyes?" She asked with a teasing smile that was just cruel to see in action –and Mihawk was learning to associate these feminine gestures to the influence of her mother even as she wore her father's face. No wonder a teenaged Shanks fell hard and fast. If her mother was half as good then it was little wonder.

Despite his hangover his eyes were in fine working order and she was strong and beautiful. He was in a very, very dangerous position. She was the daughter of Shanks, someone who he considered to be something of a friend although he'd rather die than admit that, and even if she could take care of herself –there was still Shanks to consider as well. It was very dangerous territory that he had managed to find himself in even without the possible tangle of the father to consider. The daughter had plenty of weapons that were probably as sharp as her blades and that she was equally familiar with. She already knew how to wield politeness like a knife and the white sleeves did a decent job at hiding a few throwing knives.

Somehow he managed to find his voice to ask, "Does that mean that I have to find you a gift?"

"I'd say a few sword lessons, but I doubt they'll happen." Her left hand stopped propping her up as she sat up straighter and tapped her pursed lips with her index finger. He noticed that her nails were rather longer than he associated with any dedicated sword practitioner and painted a soft gold. He marked it as unusual and moved on. "I have plenty of money. I'm fine on ammo, my sharps, clothing and all my usual supplies." She gave a depressed sigh before she perked up with a pleased expression. "Guess that means that I just need some company."

Mihawk tried not to read too much into that last statement given how flirtatiously she had said it. Shanks would kill him. He was older than her father after all by four years exactly as the two of them had the same birthday –that had sparked more than a few hangovers for them both over the years.

She gave a throaty and deep chuckle at what had to be showing on his face -which meant that like his rival she had been teasing and playing with him. Mihawk suppressed the urge to frown or scowl. It would only worsen the morning's headache. Since this was Shank's ship, it wasn't a good idea to have a headache since very few on ship were conductive to curing a headache.

"Since you're up and aware, I'll go and steal your bed. I haven't been there yet." She suddenly said as she before she walked towards the galley's swinging doors and well aware of what such a statement did to men should they misinterpret it. She stopped at the gallery's swinging doors and turned back towards him. "If any of the crew asks, I am not in any way responsible for any artwork left on the crew. The little green fairy was."

It took him a few seconds to translate that from Shanks-logic to normal people logic. Apparently, unlike everyone else, she hadn't slept the alcohol off and stayed awake and bored -or not so bored- as she sobered.

Mihawk was left in silent contemplation about the conundrum that was Shanks' daughter. He must have truly been in deep thought as next thing he knew he had a glass of something alcoholic in hand and his longtime rival and dare he say it –friend, was seated next to him.

"Eh? So she got to you too? She got that from her mother. This gallery is set up exactly like the bar she runs." That explained why Shanks' daughter was so at home on the ship. A traveling recreation of home or someplace she had spent large amounts of time in, on her father's ship. It would be like she had never left home at all –although he knew that she had left home some time ago. This was the second half of the Grand Line after all.

"Her mother must be some woman." Mihawk replied.

"That they both are." Shanks replied, rubbing a spot on his left arm with his right. "They're both unforgettable."

Mihawk turned to look at Shanks and was tempted to laugh.

"Are you aware that someone has played tic-tact-toe on your face?"

"Who won? X's or O's?"

"X's." He confirmed. "Are you still drunk?"

"Seems like it."

Throughout the week Shanks' crew had cheerfully cursed his daughter as they tried and failed with retaliatory pranks. Some of those pranks were quite inventive, and enjoyable to watch fail but she dodged those and most other attempts easily and retaliated in due time if not amazingly promptly. Those that tried to get her while she was asleep somewhere on the ship quickly were dissuaded otherwise –dodging throwing knives tossed disturbingly accurate at them, as leaving one unfortunate man pinned to the wall by his shirt and pants proved while she was asleep- were decisive arguments. It was part of why she stole his bed on Shanks' ship so often –sleeping in the same room as the crew was unthinkable and apparently her father's bed just wasn't comfy and had only gotten worse since she had last done so as a child.

She had doodled on several of them various things and the best of them was a tie between the surprisingly accurate map of both East, South and West Blue on Lucky Roo's face and the sea king on Yassop's arm. Several others had a list of drinks, how many drinks they had and the alcohol content the drinks had, and how many hours they spent consuming that amount. A few were annoyed that they had been declared lightweights but took it in good humor.

As the marker ink faded from their bodies, Mihawk had clashed blades with the two redheads several more times that week in short but fairly intense spars. Shanks was as good with a blade as he remembered and his daughter showed promise of reaching that level in the future but not without a few more years under her belt. As it stood, she would never be a power-fighter and so his title was safe, but she could easily outclass the majority of swordsmen that were around the world. With work she could be a credible threat to his title, but it was clear that like her father she had no desire for such a title as she would be declared the fastest swordsman and not the strongest. She had an amazingly fast draw.

That's not to say that they hadn't injured each other, but she was fast enough to get nothing but close shaves, scrapes, a few nicks and the occasional nick that was long enough to qualify as a cut. She was good at dodging and deflecting sword strikes. Occasionally, she had her hair trimmed by his sword by a little. In one instance it was quite a lot and so she had promptly demanded that he cut the hair evenly. Their spars usually meant that he had the rare bit of damage to his coat –in particular the sleeves at his shoulders- and he had to fix his necklace three times. Once she had managed to knock off his hat, steal it and run away with it in a way, laughing in a way that was best described as perfectly Shanks-like that left him stunned stupid and feeling like he needed to drink a large portion of Akagami's alcohol. He later did so during her birthday party. He was either distracted or drunk enough that the irony of her birthday and the name of one of her persona wasn't noticed until weeks later.

Two days after Shanks's daughter turned eighteen she had disappeared –along with his hat of all things. Shanks had only laughed when it had turned up missing and then the rest of his crew had joined in –before realizing that Shanks had an old black coat disappear on him, Benn was missing a sash and several other crew members had either had something disappear on them or be hidden from them on the ship. The coat, sash and hat didn't turn up when the ship –and the bay they were docked in- was searched.

It was two weeks later and after he had begun his preliminary research by looking through old newspapers that the news coos deposited at his home in Kuraigana, that he realized that Valentine had been around and well known as a bounty hunter for a few years and she was only just recently eighteen. What the hell had she been doing in that amount of time in-between? It was the same for Benihime. It seemed he would have to do some more research out of the government's watchful eye –which although Mihawk was a swordsman first and foremost- was relatively easy to do.

Two months later he had constructed a reasonable timeline. Valentine had first emerged in East Blue; about a month after Akagami's daughter had turned fifteen with two known Valentine incidents in that year, with the occurring six months after the first. Later, she as Valentine had crossed between East Blue and South Blue quite often while she was sixteen. The first few islands on the Grand Line had also seen an incident of a Bloody Valentine during that year. It was two months and a week after her seventeenth when the first Valentine visit had hit North Blue. That was insanely good travel time all around, and an almost miraculously good travel time considering the Grand Line's notorious weather instability and the distance involved –but unreasonable considering the amount of time that had to be involved in tracking those she had massacred down. Another Valentine massacre hit deep in West Blue not a little over a month later. That amount of travel from North Blue back to Fishman's and then to that isle in West Blue would be impossible –even for the things a person saw regularly on the Grand Line. So there was more to the daughter of Shanks than he had thought.

Benihime had first emerged in West Blue, although there were unconfirmed rumors about her being from East Blue. He had also plotted out her course from various article –he didn't have anything better to do and this took a surprisingly little amount of time to do- and came up with one solution.

Doing the bit of mental math and figuring out the places she had visited and been seen at had her making above average time to anywhere she wanted to go. He was much rather annoyed that he hadn't picked up on the fact that as Benihime she was known to use a single and massively heavy katana. So it was soon obvious that she had a way of ignoring the dangers posed by the Calm Belts and crossing them without issue and that the katana wasn't nearly as heavy as various people reported or else she couldn't move.

Shanks' daughter also wasn't affiliated with the World Government at all. If anything, by the conversations they had had during that week she was more likely to join or to have joined the revolutionaries however bribable she might prove to be with good fine wine and something sweet.

His rival with red hair was right. She was an unforgettable lady and not just for her mystery or sword skills. He also wanted his hat back. The weather was annoying without a hat.

A/N; Both Mihawk and Shanks share a birthday –March 9th. Surprisingly, Franky also shares that same B-day. After the timeskip, Mihawk is 43, while Shanks is 39. They both look awesome for their age though and are totally drool-worthy. One Piece wiki is helpful for things like that.

Speaking of Mihawk, I really dislike the stories where Mihawk's character is warped. He's a highly practical and solitary man. He's also methodical and a serious BAMF. He is not a perverted womanizer however, amusing the image is. He is however, one hundred percent human male. He's tempted but few people actually hold his interest for very long. Shanks is one of the few and is something of a friend. Mihawk has few allies and fewer friends (a.k.a. Shanks, possibly his crew and only Shanks, respectively) and a hell of a lot more people as enemies. You don't become the best in the world without attracting a world full of enemies of varying levels of ability.

Dracule Mihawk is also the only Shichibukai whose strength is based totally on natural human skill, being completely human, and possessing no Devil Fruit powers (Doflamingo is assumed to have eaten a Devil Fruit for his 'puppet' powers). During Marineford, while everyone else was sporting serious injuries and casualties, Mihawk remained unharmed and unscathed even when fighting against Vista –Whitebeard's fifth commander and presumably Whitebeard's best swordsman. He's that damn awesome. People in One Piece get to be ridiculously powerful, but Mihawk remains as one of the top contenders for as 'most powerful living character' for a reason and if there was a list of 'most powerful living characters' he'd be in the top ten. He's already the best damn swordsman in the world. Swordsmanship is a serious and dedicated art. Mihawk as the best swordsman in the world and is the epitome and living incarnation of this.

Yes, this means that Akiyaki/Valentine/Benihime is pretty bad-ass. She's a speed fighter and her reflexes are refined to the point that she consciously doesn't have to think about the best course of actions on the battlefield or against someone. Even if that path is straight-up suicidal, she'll make it successful. Yay for occulmency! It gives an unparalleled ability to multi-task! So using haki for things like that is as easy as breathing!

By the way, if someone steps on a blade, it is usually the near the tip. Not the guard, not the handle and definitely not on the back of the blade where a quick flip of the blade can cause her to lose a leg before she could step off. Or in this case, an arm before Mihawk can flip his blade around. The surprise of using such a move and the speed was what allowed her to land the kick to the throat on Mihawk.