Law was unimpressed.

He had thought that the once feared 'Silver Dragon', a being known for leaving behind a trail of havoc and bloodshed, would possess fighting capabilities beyond belief. Instead, the girl in front of him barely had the battle skill of a field mouse, let alone a dragon. She looked irritated, like one criticism may send her tumbling down a path of inescapable fury.

Law was beginning to wonder if Anka was really worth having on his crew. He had thought that if the rumours of her viciousness were true, she would have at least been of some assistance. However, the only thing she was good at was being a huge pain in the ass.

Apparently, she had almost fainted from blood loss in Amazon Lily and had vehemently refused to get treatment in the village. The native women, exhausted from having to deal with her, had dropped her off in the bay for Law to take care of. Of course, she also refused treatment aboard the submarine. Either way, she seemed to be healing by herself just fine.

"Why the hell are you looking at me like that? You have some sort of problem?" said Anka, as she tried to hide the irritation in her voice.

Law's mouth stretched into a smirk.

Even though he was thoroughly amused, the fact remained that she was a relatively useless ally to have. Part of him wanted to leave her here in the Isle of Women so that he wouldn't have to deal with her anymore. However, there was also his inquisitive side that wanted to figure out the inner workings of her mind. His morbid curiosity wanted to crack open her skull and unspool her brains just so that he could understand what was going on in there.

"Okay seriously," she said, readjusting herself on the bed she was sitting on, "you're being way creepier than you usually are, which I didn't think was possible,"

Another long silence filled the room as Law pondered his next words. He wanted to illicit a strong reaction from her. He wanted to make her angry, more than she was now. He wanted to see if she still had any of that viciousness still inside her and cultivate it like a fruit tree.

"Weak people don't have a place on my crew," he said.

Anka took a few seconds to digest his words.

"Are you implying that I'm weak?" she said.

He smirked, "You're smarter than I gave you credit for,"

She clenched her fists hard enough to make her knuckles go white. But she didn't attack him.

Law wondered why she hadn't immediately gone with a jab aimed for his face. She wasn't flying into a fit of rage like he had wanted, which only fueled his desire to bring out her inner ferocity. But before he could aggravate her more, she jumped off her bed and straightened out her clothes.

"Y'know, I don't have to take this shit from you," and she left the room.

Law caught a glimpse of her face before she disappeared into the hallway and found a strange mix of emotion. Instead of the anger he expected, there was something undefinable. It almost looked like she was sick from the pained look in her eyes, but Law was very familiar with pained looks and knew that it had to be something else.

After seeing such a strange expression, Law was determined to figure out just what the hell was going on with this woman. He didn't want the opportunity of having a weapon like Anka slip through his fingers and if the stories were true, she would be a very valuable asset to his team. There was also that fact that he didn't want all the trouble he had gone through to acquire Anka to go to waste.

He wasn't quite ready to throw her out just yet. There was still so much information about her that he had not yet figured out. Besides the genocide of Yutaka Island and her involvement in the Silver Wing Pirates, Law knew next to nothing about her past. As a man who prided himself in his expansive knowledge, this large gap in information was irritating. And there was always the chance that she knew something that could be useful later on.

He would have to keep her just a little bit longer.


Anka huffed and puffed down the corridors and was more than ready to blow someone's house down. She so badly wanted to punch Law right in his smug face, but something had held her back. She refused to admit it, not even to herself, but the reason she didn't explode with rage was because she knew that he was right. She was weak, and she was sick of it.

She was sick of getting beaten and sick of waking up in a hospital bed. She wanted to go back to the days where hordes of mindless idiots would cower at her feet at the mere mention of her name. If someone had said her name now it would probably be followed by an eruption of laughter or confused silence.

She rubbed her eyes. She needed to stop screwing around and start training. Although, she hadn't legitimately trained in years, constant brawls had kept her sharp enough to defeat most opponents. Of course, exceptions always emerged, the most notable being Akainu.

As Anka kept recycling the same thoughts over and over in her head, a certain determination began to bubble within her, the determination to get stronger, strong enough to protect the things that she cared about. Without being completely aware of it, Anka's legs began to move with no real destination. All she knew was that she had to do something with this sudden burst of resolve.

Anka found herself back within the bustling Amazon Lily and hoped that this trip would be more successful than the last.

Without a real purpose in mind, she wandered around, hoping something would appear with the guidance she desperately needed. A part of her wished that she would come across a wise old lady who would impart words of wisdom that would help Anka find her path. What she found instead, was a large circular structure which served as an arena for fist fights.

Behind the counter in the entrance of the arena was a woman who looked bored out of her mind. The only thing she seemed to be doing at the moment was twirling a knife in her fingers and enjoying a cigarette which had already burned out..

"You wanna fight in the 'rena?"

A moment of silence followed as Anka realized that "'rena" meant "arena"

"Sure,"

The woman sighed and stabbed her knife into the countertop. She began flipping through various papers and shuffling files around. With a loud thud, she produced a haggard looking book in front of Anka and tapped a blank space near the bottom of a page.

"Name 'ere,"

With an unneeded flourish, Anka had scrawled her name in almost illegible writing. The woman looked in disgust at the scribbles.

"You fight tomorrow mornin'. Good luck, you'll need it," and with an almost eager aura, the woman went back to twirling around the blade.

Anka was surprised by the swiftness of the registration process and wanted to ask the woman more about it, but decided not to interrupt her while she was busy being bored.

When Anka left the village, the sun had already sunk passed the horizon, leaving the sky a murky blue. Rather than return to the bay where the Heart Pirates resided, Anka had decided to spend her night in the densely populated jungle that surrounded the town. At least there, she wouldn't be under the constant watchful gaze of Law.

She flew up to the top of a large tree and laid down on a branch sturdy enough to hold her weight. The relative silence of the jungle was comforting. This would be the perfect time to have a smoke and relax. As she rummaged through her pockets to satiate her craving, her fingers fell upon a small pouch. She pulled it out and realized that the pouch was filled with a couple of rumble balls Chopper had made for her.

It was surprising that she still had the pouch in her possession considering everything that had happened. Either way, learning how to use the drug would definitely help in her mission to grow stronger, even though the whole process was quite tedious. Anka wondered if there was a way that she could do the transformations without the use of the rumble ball but quickly realized that tampering with drugs was beyond her limited knowledge.

She pocketed the pouch again and swore to herself that she would start training with them tomorrow.

As she went over her training regimen in her head, her thoughts became less coherent and found herself dozing off. Eventually, the sleep became too much and she faded into the abyss of slumber.


Back in the submarine, Law –as usual –was hunched over his desk in his dimly lit room, pouring over medical textbooks which used words like 'sphenic' quite liberally. Eventually, his concentration began to slip and he leaned away from his table.

A rhythmic knock emanated from his door.

"Come in,"

The door opened and behind it was Varune who did maintenance on the submarine. He usually kept to himself which was a much needed trait in this crew of loudmouths.

"Captain, your dinner," Varune said as he placed the tray delicately on a side table.

He began to exit the room, but Law called him back.

"Before you go, I'd like to get your thoughts on something,"

"Of course, captain,"

Law tapped his fingers on the table, "What are your thoughts on the newest recruit?"

Varune looked up thoughtfully, "Taverens? Well I don't really know her that well so it's hard to say…"

Law looked unamused. Varune, realizing his captain's displeasure, began to search for a better answer.

"Ah, well I mean, from what I can tell, she seems pretty reckless and, uh, a bit slow I guess. But, from what we all saw at Marineford, I feel like she might be useful, maybe. But I've never really spoke to her before so I don't really know,"

That seemed to be a better answer. Law ruminated on Varune's thoughts for a while and then dismissed him. It seemed that there was someone else on his crew that agreed that Anka had some potential hidden somewhere deep in the recesses of her mind. He wondered what the rest of his crew thought about Anka.

He was sure that no matter the circumstances, Penguin and Shachi would argue that she stay, just for the female company. It was a strange thought, considering they were usually too scared to actually approach her. Not that she would treat them well even if they did have the guts to talk to her.

Law put away all of his medical texts and began to eat his meal. As he ate, he had figured that he would have enough time to decide Anka's position in his crew, especially when taking Straw Hat's current status into account. He would just have to wait and see.


Okay, so I know it's been a while since I've posted, but as usual, life finds a way to get unnecessarily busy. I've also had to deal with a myriad of screw ups in terms of technology and everything. I've also gone through a phase where I have realized that my writing is pretty crap so I'm trying to get better and hopefully that'll show in the next chapter.

Well, enough excuses for now, hopefully the next chapter will come out a bit sooner than this one.

I've also seen the reviews and yeah I know that Anka's character is pretty sucky right now but there's a reason for that which will soon become apparent in upcoming chapters. This chapter right now was actually supposed to come out after an entire story arc that happens in Amazon Lily but I realized that I don't want this to be the kind of story where random story arcs happen for no apparent reason and also don't have much influence on the plot.

Anyway, enough rambling for now. Hope you enjoyed!