Aella put down her duffel bag on the sturdy wooden floor of the boat that was gifted to her six months prior, before flying back up and landing on the railing of the Red Force. The crew members were all standing there, Shanks in front of them all.

"So... This is it." The woman said, looking slightly lost. She didn't know how to do this, dammit. Saying goodbye was never her thing. With Zac, it was much easier; seeing as he wasn't even going to remember her.

This... This was different. This was the crew she had travelled with for the last three years. Being out on the open waters, in these dangerous yet amazing seas... one just forms a special kind of bond with whomever they were travelling with. Add that to the fact that they had taken good care of her and trained her; helped her whenever she felt homesick or lonely- It was hard.

But this wasn't really a goodbye, either. More like a 'See you later'. She was setting out on her own adventure, yes, but she was going to meet them again (even if it was as rivals). It was just bound to happen at some point, seeing as she's aiming to join the Straw Hat pirates.

There was still about a year left before Luffy was supposed to set out, but one simply never knew what to expect from the ocean. Heading to the East Blue earlier was not really a bad thing, especially since she was going to have to traverse through Paradise alone; that was just asking for something to pop up and delay her.

"This is it, Whirlwind. You better make a name for yourself, don't want all that training to go to waste." Shanks grinned then rubbed the back of his neck apologetically, eyeing the ships in the distance. "Sorry for not being able to take you closer to the red line than this. Apparently, the Old Man is in the area and the Marines want us to stay away from each other."

"Yeah, it's okay. Thanks for everything, Shanks, everyone. I really appreciate what you've done for me over these last few years. I'll see you again sometime." Aella smiled, feeling more at ease now.

Shanks ruffled her hair, sticking out his tongue when she swatted his hand away with a half-hearted scowl. "Stay safe,"

"Now, that's almost impossible. Staying safe is bound to become a foreign concept when I join him, after all."

The redhead guffawed, agreeing. Luffy was bound to be so reckless that his crew was never going to catch a break, she knew that. She looked forward to that.

After sending the pirates one last grin, Aella turned around and jumped back onto the railing. She waved over her shoulder, calling out one last "See ya!" then hopped down to her own boat.

The boat wasn't too big or too small; just big enough to fit a small cabin that held a hammock, a desk and a small bathroom. It was specifically designed so she could use her powers to operate it, seeing as it was built with an engine that transferred the wind she would send out from her legs into the water, which effectively launched the vessel forward (though it still had sails for when she didn't want to keep using her Devil Fruit). Aella didn't particularly care about how it worked, just that it did.

The woman looked up at the sky, thanking whatever deity was up there for the clear weather that was a rare phenomena here in the New World. She then glanced at the nine Navy battleships and smirked mischievously. "Hey, would you mind if I got rid of them?"

Ben paled, Yassop grinned, and Shanks let out a loud laugh. "You do that; they would've probably tried to stop you from going any further, anyway!"

Aella's smirk widened -a part of her was wondering how and when the hell she had become this reckless and mischievous. Shanks had definitely rubbed off on her, it seemed- as she propelled the Glider in the direction of the Marine vessels. Bringing her wrists together beside her hips, wind slowly started swirling in her open palms as some Marines finally started paying attention to her.

If one were to look at the wind in her hands from the front, they would be able to make out the shape it was taking: some kind of demon with fangs. It was growing bigger and the wind sharper by the second.

Once it was roughly a third of the size of the battleships, the woman thrust her hands forward. The Wind Demon followed the command and was launched at breakneck speeds in the direction of the hull of the closest ship, tearing through it easily before sharply changing direction and shredding the next.

The pirates watched in mild awe as the sixth ship started sinking and Aella glanced down at her hands and back at the destruction she caused. The Marines tried shooting cannon balls at the 'creature' sinking their ships, but ended up hitting each other instead.

The air logia snorted, shaking her head, not believing just how stupid they were being; that was literally just wind, so not even Haki would stop it. She decided it was time to going, as not to waste the opening she had created for herself. She took a second to look at the Eternal Pose to Fishman Island on her wrist before turning her small boat in the direction the needle was pointing. Shooting off, the last thing she heard besides the panicked noises of the Marines was a ridiculously loud "Way to go, Aella!" from the Red Force.

During her time with the crew, she had learned how to navigate... to some extent. She was nowhere near as good as she knew Nami was, mind you, but she knew just enough to survive the trip through Paradise. Besides, were she to run into a harsh storm, she could always just fly the Glider above the clouds to avoid it.

With that reassuring though in mind, Aella sped up her boat even more.

...

Only to abruptly come to a halt as she sensed a huge presence rising up from under the water in front of her. The sudden change in momentum sent her flying off of the Glider and she would've gone into the water had she not turned into air in time to stop herself.

A purple Sea King with bright yellow stripes surfaced from under the water as Aella landed back on her deck. Her first thought was 'Its colors clash horribly. This combination should be illegal.' As the hideous Sea King raised a paw, she unsheathed Yorukaze, muttering, "Karma is a bitch."

It was a couple days later when she took the newspaper from the News Coo, flicking a coin to it, that a new bounty poster slipped out from between the pages. Aella looked at it, her own smirking face looking back up at her with sliver strands of hair flying about in the raging winds.

Wanted: Dead or Alive.

'Demon Wind' Aella

฿ 96, 000, 000

She blinked at it before tilting her head in confusion. She understood the need to give her a bounty, but why so high?

Shrugging, she grinned and went inside the small cabin and hung the poster up on the wall; it was her first bounty, after all. Those were supposed to be celebrated, no? Besides, she felt like this cemented her presence in this world. No one other than the Red Hair Pirates (and the Spades) knew she even existed, but now, thanks to her bounty poster and her potential position on the future Pirate King's crew (not that the world knew that bit), her life would be acknowledged. That's one step closer to her dream.

"Did you read the paper?"

"Yeah, I did. Good starting bounty, but isn't it a bit too high?"

"It's probably because there was an Admiral on one of those ships, not sure which, though." Shanks laughed through the Den Den Mushi.

Aella paled slightly, "An Admiral?!"

"Dahahahah! Yeah, but it could have something to do with the fact that you had left from my ship."

"I'm doomed, aren't I?"

"Not necessarily, just avoid the Admirals and you should be alright." His voice sounded more serious, but he was trying to get her to not freak out.

"Still not comforting thought,"

"If you do happen to run into one, run the other way. Try not to fight them unless there's no other option,"

"Yeah, let's hope I don't have to."

Aella strapped both swords to her left hip for easy access, with her throwing knives around her right thigh. A pouch of money hung from the side of her belt and her crystal rested in the inner pocket of her sleeveless green cloak.

Weather in the New World was truly unpredictable and insane; one second it's all great and sunny, the next a hailstorm descends upon the seas. She had barely managed to get away from that last storm. The woman was glad she wouldn't have to deal with this weather again for a while once she exits the New World, and though she hadn't been to Paradise before, it was bound to be more peaceful than this- to some extent, at least. And when she comes back here again, she wouldn't be alone.

She hopped off her docked Glider and onto the island, stretching her arms over her head. She needed to find someone to coat her boat so she could get down to Fishman Island and restock on supplies. The journey here took longer than expected, so she was out of food.

She kept an eye on her surroundings as she walked around town, passing by food stalls and buying some fruits, vegetables and meat as well as a barrel of drinking water. The place was lively and the citizens were friendly. She figured they either didn't recognize her or just didn't deem her a big threat, it didn't really matter which; she didn't mind either way.

By the time Aella took the supplies back to her boat, it was around 4 o'clock and she was hungry. She didn't exactly feel like cooking something for herself, so she opted to go eat in a pub she had seen earlier. Stepping off the Glider once again, she headed off in the direction she remembered the pub being.

Just as she was about to step onto the main path to the town, she sensed a projectile coming towards her head and quickly dispersed, rematerializing a couple feet away with her senses sharp. Two more bullets were shots at her, which she expertly dodged with another one passing through her body, and this time, she managed to track their trajectory to the roof of a building about five hundred meters away.

After dodging a few more bullets, she grew annoyed and let her body turn to air, drifting to where the sniper -was it a bounty hunter?- was. She solidified and landed on the parapet of the rooftop. The sniper was a woman with green hair in a cream t-shirt, black pants and green belt that matched her hair. She looked about a year younger than Aella.

The woman turned around with a rifle pointing directly at the silverette's heart. Aella reached out with her Kenbunshoku Haki to gauge out her strength. She was... okay. Weaker than average New World captain (not that those were pushovers. They were quite strong actually; Aella would know. She had convinced Shanks to let her fight one of the captains that came after him once she had learned Busoshoku... she almost died, but it was fun enough).

"I didn't know your were a Logia, but I'm still impressed you managed to dodge my bullets, Demon Wind Aella." The woman wore a smirk on her face, challenge dancing in her eyes.

"Yeah, well, I don't exactly go advertising myself, Miss Bounty Huntress." Aella replied, unsheathing Excalibur. Seeing the katana, the huntress let go of the rifle and pulled out two daggers. Something about them felt off, like when she fell into the sea... "Seastone huh? This might be troublesome, but I can handle it."

"You are underestimating me too much," the green haired woman scoffed looking offended, "Who do you think I am? I wouldn't run around as a lone bounty hunter in the New World without at least one way to defend against you Devil Fruit users; I'm not stupid. Now I'll beat you and collect your bounty, ninety six million should suffice for a few months. This should be good training, too."

Did Zoro have a run-in with Iva-chan then somehow ended up in the New World before Luffy even set sail? Aella idly wondered, eying the woman curiously but warily. Even her clothes are similar to pre-time skip Zoro's, just give her three katanas and she'd be a a perfect female carbon copy. "Uh, just out of curiosity, but what's your name?"

"Thorson Lyssa." Aella sighed in relief. For a moment there, she thought she was in some kind of alternate universe were Zoro never even met Luffy and the timeline was something totally different. "Future World's Best Bounty Hunter."

...You've got to be kidding me. I'm still in the right universe, right? Aella pinched her arm with Armament-imbued fingers, not reacting to the pain, but it was there. "Okay," she said, voice steady as if she wasn't on the verge of freaking the hell out. "Let's get this over with,"

Lyssa looked at her weirdly before shrugging and adjusting her hold on the knife in her right hand to a reverse grip while the other stayed in a forward grip.

Reverse for more power and forward for more finesse and a longer reach, Aella mused before she was brought out of her own head by the bounty huntress lunging towards her, delivering a slash with her left dagger. The swordswoman parried with Excalibur then turned to block the right knife from stabbing her in the side, almost exactly where she had been stabbed years ago.

She had to force her mind away from the thought lest she enters a flashback, so she shoved the knife away with her katana and sent a side kick at Lyssa's torso, making her grunt and go flying back a few feet.

"I thought you were a swordswoman," The greenette frowned, jumping back to her feet, "Have you no honor?"

"I never said I was a swordswoman, and while I am no pushover when it comes to sword fighting, I do prefer freestyle." Aella replied, launching forwards and bringing down her sword. Lyssa deflected and ducked, moving behind Aella to get more space.

"More like playing dirty, like all pirates."

Aella rolled her eyes, so she's one of those people, eh? The bounty hunter ran towards her bringing both knives, now in a forward grip, down at her.

"You kill, you plunder, you pillage. All of you are the same; bloodthirsty demons!"

Their blades clashed again, the daggers hitting the flat of Aella's katana and sliding across its metal with a noise not unlike the one that nails on chalkboard would make. "Most, not all. There are those who are in it for the freedom and adventure. Don't be so prejudiced. Like with marines, there are good pirates and bad pirates. If you wanna judge, then get to know the person first"

Aella twisted her wrist and sliced at the side of Lyssa's chest, making a diagonal cut down to her belly button. The green haired female hissed through gritted teeth and jumped back falling to the ground, dropping her right dagger in favor of clutching her new wound as blood seeped through her fingers.

"I've been a bounty hunter for four years now, and I have yet to meet one of those so-called good pirates. Not even the Shichibukai, who are approved of by the government, are like that. Even Donquixote Doflamingo, king of Dressrosa. The citizens there might not know this, but he's the worst of the worst!" Lyssa panted, her eyes telling a story of rage, sadness and trauma.

Aella found it odd that she mentioned the overgrown flamingo specifically, when there were many other examples like Kaido and Big Mom. Unless she herself was from Dressrosa. "Then you just haven't met the right people. Take Red-Haired Shanks and Whitebeard for example, I've never heard of either just randomly attacking an island and razing it to the ground just for the sake of it, despite having the power to do so."

Lyssa faltered for a second before retorting, "They're still pirates! They have no qualms in killing to get what the want!"

"I never said we were saints. Yes, we're selfish, and we're all aware of it- Why am I even arguing with you about this? It's not my job to change your view on pirates! Now, do you want to back down and go away or continue fighting?"

"Like hell I'm running away from a pirate!"

Aella smirked, "You have guts. Let's end this, shall we?"

The bounty hunter's red eyes flickered to the dagger on the floor and lunged to it. Aella didn't stop her. Lyssa threw the dagger at the pirate with dead accuracy. Aella's hand turned black and she caught the dagger by the hilt. Apparently, Haki couldn't negate Seastone. Good to know.

The silver haired woman felt her energy leave her and she had to resist the urge to just drop to the floor with fatigue. She took aim and sent it flying back to it's owner, who avoided having her shoulder pierced by her own weapon just by a hair. Though she did gain a new, shallow slice on her bicep.

The greenette bit her lip and brought her feet back under her, standing up. But Aella noticed the other woman's swaying and couldn't help but think she was running on fumes and sheer willpower right now; she had already lost a decent amount of blood and should be, for all intents and purposes, passed out cold. "You're still playing around,"

"I wouldn't disrespect your determination like that. I'll admit I'm not going all out since that would be overkill, but I am very much taking this seriously, Thorson."

Lyssa's eyes widened then narrowed at that. She was good at picking out lies, but that statement was genuine. "I'm still gonna take you down,"

"You sure can try,"

The bounty hunter tightened her grip on her blades and charged forward, delivering a series of slices and slashes and stabs, all of which were either parried, blocked or dodged by the older woman.

Aella grew tired of being on defense and decided to finally end this before the huntress passed out from exhaustion or blood loss. She turned her katana 180° to have the blunt side facing outwards and in a flash, she was behind Lyssa, whose eyes had widened but were unfocused. Breath knocked out of her, tired and battered as hell, she fell forward, knocked out.

Returning Excalibur to its scabbard, Aella sighed and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She turned towards the Zoro lookalike's unconscious form on the ground and frowned, "Better get her bandaged up before she dies,"

She cracked her knuckles and back then walked the small distance between herself and Lyssa and scooped her and her daggers up before leaping off the roof. Running in the air, Aella reached the Glider within five minutes and laid the other woman down on her deck. She went inside the cabin and came out with a first aid kit, a suturing kit, a bottle of alcohol and a bottle of water along with a couple of small towels.

"I am by no means a professional, but I'm not about to go look for a doctor while you bleed out and then be forced to explain what happened. You'll have to bear with me."

Aella's mother was a surgeon, so she had picked some things up over the years. Even tried to stitch a stuffed chicken a couple times, and it wasn't all that terrible. She took a deep breath and pressed the clothed to the mildly bleeding wound. The bleeding was slowing down already, she just had to stop it then clean and disinfect the injury.

Once the bleeding had halted, she grabbed that second towel and drenched it in alcohol then proceeded to wipe the blood from around the injured area. With that done, she sprayed rubbing alcohol on a pair of tweezers and held them over the cut. She had spotted some small rocks in it; probably from when Lyssa fell over.

Aella carefully took the objects out then opened the water bottle and started pouring the liquid over the wound to remove any leftover dust or dirt. Honestly, she had no idea if she was doing this correctly, and poking around the injury was not fun. At all.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and grabbed the suturing kit, taking out a curved needle and thread, which were already sanitized. She was about to insert the needle when her patient twitched and Aella immediately pulled away, not wanting to accidentally poke her injury.

She heard a low groan and Lyssa tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down. "Don't move. I still haven't stitched your would and I would rather not kill you by accident."

"Stitch- where the hell am I?"

"On my boat. Now stay still, this might hurt a bit." Aella ordered. Lyssa immediately tensed up and braced herself, fists clenched and lower lip bitten. As the needle was inserted, the green haired bounty hunter hissed but did her best to stay still.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" She questioned, tone doubtful but not resisting.

Aella pursed her lips, "Nope, not exactly. I'm just doing what I remember my mom doing whenever one of us needed stitching. This'll probably scar."

"What a comforting thought," Lyssa muttered sarcastically. Silence took over for a bit while Aella worked, then, "Why didn't you kill me?"

"Do you seriously think I would stoop so low as to kill a downed opponent?"

"Yes,"

"Ouch. Anyway, I'm not exactly a fan of murder, so I'd rather not kill unless absolutely necessary."

"But you're-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll knock you out again," the pirate threatened, sending Lyssa a pointed glare before refocusing on the stitches again. "I already told you, not all pirates are the same."

The greenette hesitated for a few seconds before looking at Aella cautiously, "You don't seem like a bad person, so why did you become a pirate?"

A smile overtook Aella's face as she tied and cut the thread, "I already answered that, too. I'm in it for the adventure and freedom. I want to travel around the world and fight people and make myself known," She picked out a roll of bandages and helped Lyssa sit up. She continued as she wrapped the bandages carefully, "I had never thought about becoming a pirate, really. It just kind of happened as I travelled with a friend; I got attached to this lifestyle. The adrenaline you get from a good fight and facing danger, the thrill of adventure, the need to change the world- It's all addicting. I may have never seen myself as a pirate before actually becoming one, but this is a choice I will never regret. Is this too tight?"

"N-no, it's good. Um- thank you. For treating me, I mean."

"It's fine, though I'd definitely rather not have to stitch up another person again." (Aella didn't know that she would, in fact, do it again not even a full year later). "So, why did you become a bounty hunter, and why do you seem to hate Doflamingo so much? I-if you don't mind saying," God, had she always been this socially awkward? She inwardly sighed and took out an antiseptic wipe to clean the cut on her arm. It wasn't deep, so it -thankfully- didn't need suturing, just bandages.

Lyssa looked contemplative for a bit before sighing, "I suppose I can tell you. I was born on Dressrosa. The country wasn't always as wealthy as it is today, but everyone was happy. The king at the time was Riku Doldo III. One night seven years ago, everything went to shit. The king asked the citizens to hand over all their money because he needed ten billion berries before dawn. Everyone trusted him, so of course, they went around gathering and collecting the money when when the royal army suddenly starts attacking people, with King Riku doing the same. My parents were cut down, I was thirteen at the time, but they had me run away. In my panic and grief, I ended up overhearing the Donquixote Pirates conversation.

"I remember Doflamingo grinning creepily with his fingers twitching and moving weirdly. From what I understood at the time, he was the one behind what was happening. Then he and his crew swooped and and 'saved the day'. King Riku was dethroned and Doflamingo took his place. I tried telling people the truth, but who would believe a thirteen year old?" She shook her head, "Then these living toys started appearing and I knew it had to be some kind of Devil Fruit. It took a lot of time and research, but I found out which fruit it was. I was so horrified at the prospect of it."

Aella scowled, "The Hobi Hobi no Mi, right? I've read about it. Its power is too disturbing,"

"It is. I don't know who in his damned family is the one using it, though. I also tried telling the Marines- they wouldn't do anything because of his status as a Shichibukai. He's a powerful asset to the Government. Since no one was doing anything to take care of him, I ended up leaving the island. I trained, became a bounty hunter to gain experience, and somehow ended up wanting to become the best. I'm still nowhere near as strong as he is, though, so I can't take him down."

"You know, I'll be joining a crew in about a year. One from the East Blue, though they haven't formed yet. If you can hold on for a few more years, we'll take down Doflamingo. I haven't met the overgrown bird, but I know that I'm not on his level yet, so I can't beat him in a fight right now. But he is going to fall, one day."

Lyssa blinked, not expecting such a claim from the woman that beat her. She suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe in this heavy atmosphere and decided to break it, "I still want to take you down. I'm gonna get stronger and I'll be the one to capture you... but I'll still hold you to that promise."

"Then I'll hold you to yours, too. Do you want another shirt? This one's totally ruined,"

Frowning, the bounty hunter looked down and promptly turned red. "Y-yeah," she choked out, "Please."

Aella laughed and went inside to retrieve a shirt before calling, "Oh, I forgot your rifle on the rooftop." Her stomach then growled and she facepalmed, "And I also totally forgot the reason I went out in the first place: Food."

Author's Note:

This chapter is a bit late. Wrote most of it yesterday, and I would've finished it had my dad not decided on a spontaneous family trip to the ice cream shop then to my grandma's house.

How was it? I'm actually kinda proud of how it turned out lol.

This is most definitely not how the chapter was supposed to go. Aella was supposed to swiftly deal with some random bounty hunter that would have never appeared again, but then the idea of a female Zoro-lookalike came and wouldn't leave for shit so I ended up writing it and giving Aella a rival set on capturing her. Lyssa doesn't like going back on her word.

I have no regrets.

P.S. I have absolutely no idea how to suture or clean a wound, so if the information I wrote are wrong, do tell me so I can't edit it. Either way, DO NOT DO ANYTHING I WRITE!

The next chapter would have what was supposed to be in this one before it turned up like this. Be ready, 'cause the next few chapters are gonna be one hell of a ride. Or at least they will if I manage to write them well enough.

Don't forget to leave a review, advice is welcome and appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Stay safe and healthy, and I'll see you next time!