*** I do not own One Piece characters, they all belong to the genius Oda-sensei, the story however is my original work as well as the Original Character!

1- Pink-haired Girl

"Damnit, where did those idiots put the ship?"

Zoro sighed in frustration as he wandered through the thick jungle, without a falter in his step or a doubt in his mind that he was going the wrong way. Zoro's utter lack of a sense of direction has landed him deep inside the enormous jungle that made up the majority of the small island that the crew, headed for Wano Country, had stopped by to recharge. While he had simply ventured into the jungle to find a suitable bush to relieve himself in, he had somehow ended up losing his way and wandering deeper into the wilderness trying to find his way back to the camp they had set up on the beach.

"Eh, guess I'll just find my own dinner and a place to sleep for tonight." he shrugged it off, not wanting to bother worrying about whether he would find the others or not. He leisurely strolled through the domain, one hand resting on his swords that hung on his hips, the other swatting away the thick leaves of the overgrown vines that obstructed his path.

Suddenly, he felt a soft presence hovering near him, and concluded that he was being followed. Without pausing or turning around, Zoro kept moving at the same pace, deciding that the presence was not a threat yet and that he would deal with it later.


"Where are all the damn animals in this place?"

It had been 3 hours since he started wandering the jungle, and he had yet to encounter any animal for him to make dinner with. The presence that he felt following him from before was still there, and he finally grew frustrated enough to deal with it.

"How long are you planning on following me for?"

Zoro felt the presence jump, accompanied by a small, high-pitched squeal. The rustling of leaves and fading presence indicated that whatever was following him had run away in the opposite direction.

"Tch," Zoro sighed and let the matter go, preparing to continue forward until he felt the presence from earlier coming back, and at an alarmingly fast rate. It seemed that it was being chased by something three times its size.

Turning around and squinting into the dark green mass of plants, he finally spotted a pink-haired girl wearing a simple black kimono running towards him. Tears were streaming down her face from behind a white cloth that blindfolded her eyes. Behind her was a giant black bear, snapping and baring his giant, sharp teeth at her trying to gnaw at her flesh. The girl reached Zoro within a split second, and he noted that the girl was extremely swift on her feet despite being a whole head shorter than him. She grabbed at his shirt tail and hid herself behind his body, as if using him as a shield.

Zoro shifted his eye towards the small girl clutching at his shirt without moving his body, and felt her trembling body pressed against his back. He didn't miss the two swords attached to her hip, his eye glinting as he noticed that the longer sword (katana) gave off a powerful energy. When the bear drew within a metre of Zoro, he unsheathed his Ichimonji and cut down the bear with a single strike of lightning speed, and resheathed it before the bear hit the ground with a loud thud that shook the whole island.

"Well, guess I don't have to worry about dinner anymore," Zoro smirked. He took a step toward his inviting dinner, but was pulled back suddenly by the tight grasp that had never left his shirt.

"Oi,"

The pink haired girl gave a little gasp and finally let go of his shirt, immediately stumbling backwards to put distance between them.

She stared at the ground, fiddling with her thumbs as Zoro moved to start chopping his dinner up. After starting a fire, Zoro scratched his head in thought, thinking of how he should cook his meal. He thought of the times Sanji had prepared a meal from freshly hunted game that he had provided, and tried to recall the process, but realised that he had never bothered to watch the stupid cook long enough to remember how to cook a meal.

"Oh well." He shrugged off the bothersome thoughts and decided to just go with his gut, and began to throw parts of the bear directly into the fire.

"Pffft…"

Zoro whipped his head around to find the once quiet girl struggling to stifle her laughter, and his brow twitched in annoyance.

"What?! Shut up.." He huffed.

"S-sorry… I… I didn't mean t-to laugh at you, Master Swordsman*. Why don't you… let me cook it…" the girl almost whispered her words, and if not for the quietness of the jungle at night, Zoro was sure he would've missed what she said. He wondered if it was the silence, or the fact that it felt like they were the only two people in the world at the moment, that made him take notice of the way she pronounced every word deliberately and carefully, as if they were a secret shared between the two, or that her voice was soft and sweet like a warm blanket that wraps around you during a cold winter evening. These thoughts were fleeting, lasting for a mere millisecond, but what bothered Zoro the most was that these thoughts came so naturally, rather than the fact that he even noticed them in the first place.


Where can I get some sake on this island? Zoro thought to himself, tossing the bone in his hand away carelessly as he finished the last of the meat that the girl had cooked for them. They had sat and ate in silence, with the girl sitting a fair distance away from him. He tried to ignore the way it felt like she was watching him, despite her eyes being hidden. It was impossible for Zoro not to notice, however, partly due to his trained senses being alert all the time, and the fact that the girl was impossible not to notice with her pink hair and blindfolded eyes.

"So-" he started, startling the girl so much that she almost choked on the meat she was chewing on.

"Are you going to explain why you were following me earlier?"

The girl placed her bone neatly onto the pile that she had created and dust off her hands.

"Err… I felt the presence of Master's swords… and was curious…" She spoke, slightly louder than last time but still softly.

"Felt?" Zoro raised a brow. Strangely, he could feel her… eyes on his, watching him carefully despite being covered by the white cloth.

"As you can see, I… do not see as an average person does. I can… feel and sense things. That is how I am able to identify that Master is a tall man, perhaps in your twenties, and that Master carries three swords on your waist. One of them is a cursed blade, and the other… the Wado Ichimonji."

Zoro raised his brows in surprise.

"How did you know? And how can you tell one of them is cursed?" He questioned in disbelief.

"I…" The girl hesitated. She paused for a long moment, and Zoro was starting to wonder if she was not going to answer his question when she finally spoke.

"Does the Master want to… come back to my house…? I will explain it to you if you let me examine your Ichimonji." she said, once again in a barely audible whisper.

Zoro paused. She wanted to examine his sword? She didn't seem to have any hostile intentions, and Zoro was also curious about her explanation as well as the two swords on her own hip.

Just as he was considering saying yes, the girl spoke again.

"I have sake." She gave a small smile.

Zoro smirked.

"Ha, you read my mind."


*she calls him "master swordsman", think "swordsman-sama" or something akin to that in japanese. Similar to how Shirahoshi-hime addresses everyone as -sama (e.g. luffy-sama) it's super polite.