Everyday life with the Straw Hats

Mariejois Arc: part 7: Centorea Arrives

It was early morning the next day, and everybody except for Zoro was still asleep. The previous evening was enjoyable, they played board games, watched some movies, and Miia never left Luffy's side the entire time, always keeping him in arms reach. "She really took a liking to Luffy" Zoro thought to himself as he walked down streets of the city, with the cool morning air hitting his face. Zoro decided to take a seat on a nearby bench and take a drink of his early morning booze, and appreciate the peaceful morning. However, after a few minutes of relaxing on the city bench, someone who was busy reading a book while they were walking accidentally bumped into Zoro, which made him spill his alcohol on his shoes. The person who was reading their book looked up to quickly apologize.

"I'm so sorry sir, I should have paid better attention where I was going." The person said.

Zoro looked up to see women with long blonde hair in a ponytail, and had pointed ears that were covered in brown fur. Then, of course, he noticed the rest of her body, she was a centaur; a race that has the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse.

"I'm truly sorry, usually I wouldn't be so careless." The centaur continued, clearly trying to convince Zoro for forgiveness.

Zoro gave a low sigh and grabbed his sake bottle, "Its fine, don't worry about it," he said, "these things happen here and there, no reason to be that upset about it. But I do appreciate the apology, whenever someone spills my drink, they usually just shrug and give a half-attempt 'sorry' or 'my bad' and then walk off. I appreciate that you at least care enough."

"Perhaps I can treat you to another bottle sometime" Centorea offered.

Zoro smiled at that. "I'll take you up on that offer." He stuck out his hand and said "My name is Roronoa Zoro, what's yours?"

The centaur girl stood there shyly for a moment, clearly caught off guard by Zoro's sudden attempt at making hand contact, even if it was just a handshake. The girl smiled, there was a small blush to her cheeks, she grabbed Zoro's hand and gave him a gentle handshake. She said "my name is Centorea Shianus, it is a pleasure to meet you Roronoa Zoro."

Zoro gave her a light grin, amused by the formality. "You can just call me Zoro, everyone else does."

Centorea smiled back, "Very well…Zoro." She paused for a moment, unsure of what to say next, there was something she clearly wanted to say, but unsure on how to go about it. She took a breath, then added, "I've been studying…that in some cultures, people that come across each other in situations like these…they are destined to be soulmates." She was blushing quite red. Zoro had a confused look on his face.

"Where did you hear that?" he asked, still bewildered at what culture would follow such a tradition.

She held out the book she was reading, it was romance light novel. Centorea continued to explain her reasoning. "In this novel, a young man and women meet each other while walking through the city, they first start out as friends, but then eventually become romantically interested in one another, and one thing leads to the next." She was still blushing quite a lot. "Clearly this novel must be based on some aspects of human culture, so I curious if this aspect of the story holds true."

Zoro let out a small laugh, "You don't have to worry about that, it's a fictional novel. I wouldn't say its impossible for two people who meet each other by accident to form a romantic relationship, but its not as common as many love stories make it out to be."

"I see…" Centorea replied. she was pondering the information zoro provided, then came a conclusion. "so this novel, and what it says about human culture, is only partially true, and the rest is an exaggeration of the truth?" she finished.

Zoro gave a small shrug and replied, "I guess you could say that, but most people don't read stories for how factual they are, my friend robin enjoys all types of stories, whether the books are fact or fiction."

Centorea smiled, "I'm glad to hear that, I rather prefer the fictional stories myself anyway. Especially Fantasy"

Zoro looked at his watch and saw that it was around the time when everyone else would be getting out of bed. "If you want, you could meet my friends, I think you and my friend Robin would enjoy talking about different types of books." Zoro offered.

Centorea looked quite happy at Zoro's offer to come visit him at his house and meet his friends. "I would very much enjoy that." She said, it was easy to hear the excitement in her voice, even if she was trying to hold it back.

Suddenly, a man wearing a leather jacket and riding a motorcycle came zooming down the street, a shopkeeper came running down the street, panting and out of breath. He turned to Zoro and Centorea and said in between pants "That guy on the motorcycle stole the money from my shop, can you please stop him for me? I'm desperate!"

Centorea removed an iron sword from a sword holster she had around her human waist. "Of course I will help you, it is my duty as a noble centaur to help those who can't help themselves against the forces of injustice!" she turned to Zoro and said, "Will you help me Zoro? Because I came to this city as a member who signed up for the cultural exchange program, I can't go too far away from the cultural exchange office building without a human to accompany me. Without you, I can't go any further than this street block by myself."

Zoro took his bandanna and tied it around his forehead and smirked. "I don't mind, let's go catch that thief!"

Centorea smiled, but then she told Zoro in a somewhat nervous tone, "However, I can't allow you to ride on my back. You see…in my culture, that is a privilege only given to someone I choose to be my master. In centaur culture, in very similar to marriage." She was blushing, but explained that he would have to find another way to keep up with her if they were going to catch that thief in time.

The shopkeeper grabbed a bicycle he had in front of his store and told Zoro he could use it. "this is what my employee uses to deliver orders to our customers, he had the day off today, so you can use it. I would use it myself to catch the thief, but I'm not as physically fit as I used to be."

Zoro got on the bike, and in a matter of minutes, Zoro and Centorea where off to catch that thief.