After Luffy and Sanji left, Ash spent her time with Chef Zeff. He told stories of pirates he had come across, and taught her how to make an easy spicy seafood pasta dish, which she loved.
She shared with him her struggles with Mihawk. He never agreed or disagreed, but he asked questions that made her think, and she tried to see things from Mihawk's perspective. Zeff finished with the question, "Just because you learn how to attack, does that mean you must?"
That night, she slept fitfully, her mind not letting go of the questions, and she turned them over, again and again.
Mihawk returned for her the next morning, two weeks after he had left her there. He was impatient to leave, but she made sure to say goodbye to everyone, and took a few minutes to thank Zeff for his insight and the help he gave her. He gifted her with recipes, and also gave a number which he said was for a transponder snail, so she could get a hold of them and keep them updated every now and then. She couldn't help but give him a hug, then she ran for the boat and Mihawk.
She stopped short at his look and climbed slowly into the boat. "Master," she said calmly.
"Ashley," he replied as the boat began to move.
"Are we headed home?" she asked. Funny, that I already called Gloom Island that, though I didn't miss much there. He didn't answer, and she didn't press the issue. They sailed for some time, seemingly without a destination in mind.
As they sailed, she was simply enjoying the water and the sun. Mihawk gave short lessons throughout the days, from navigation to instructions on the whims of the Grand Line. While she enjoyed the lessons, there was something strange about them. It was as if he was giving her instructions for the future. A future without him.
They stopped for supplies at an island, and she followed Mihawk around as he made purchases. She was curious as to what Mihawk's plan was, as he had always been so straightforward. It seemed like they were wasting time, which was very out of character.
She stopped suddenly as she spotted the wanted posters hanging on a wall as they walked by.
"Master Mihawk," she called to get his attention. As he looked back at her, she pointed to the poster. He stepped back and they both stared at the poster with Luffy's grinning face.
"Whoa, thirty million dollars?" she asked. Mihawk turned to her, looking at her as if she were stupid.
"Berri," he said, considering her still. "Thirty million beri."
"Right, of course," she replied, committing that to memory. How many beri equaled a dollar? I had no idea, and since I didn't have any money anyway… it didn't matter for now.
Mihawk took down the poster and rolling it up, handed it to Ash. He turned and strode away, and she rushed to catch up.
Ash was confused, completely. Once he saw Luffy's wanted poster, Mihawk was suddenly in a hurry. They immediately set sail, and this time there was most definitely had a destination, though she didn't know what it was. After a few days they came upon an island.
It was a smaller island, with a huge mountain taking up the middle of it, and trees all around the base. They pulled up to the shore, and she hurried to secure the boat and catch back up to Mihawk, since he had disembarked and walked straight inland.
They soon came upon some men sitting and drinking, who jumped up when they saw the pair of intruders.
"Wh- what are you doing here Hawk Eye?" a man asked in shock.
"I'm here to see your leader, our business is with him. Move aside." He didn't wait for them to obey, just pushed past them, though the man rushed ahead of them leading them further inland. Along the way, men jumped aside, looking terrified of Mihawk, and she grew concerned. Mihawk never did tell her where they were going, and the men they passed looked like pirates.
She took a chance and asked tentatively, "Master? Who are we here to see?"
"A carefree man apparently, as they are camping on an island. Stay behind me."
She looked ahead to see the man who was leading them, wasn't really leading them. He had gotten further and further ahead. She guessed he was running to warn his captain that Mihawk was here, but… why? Would his captain run, or try to hide?
She followed as they came into a clearing where several men sat under a huge red and white striped umbrella. Remembering Mihawk's words about camping, she thought, more like glamping and started giggling to herself.
Trying to keep quiet while laughing, she accidentally let out a snort and had all the men turning to look at them. Mihawk turned his head to scowl at her, and she gave her best "it was an accident" look followed by her "I'm a failure" hang of her head. She had perfected both of these in her time with Mihawk, and it usually worked on small infractions.
"Hey there Hawk Eye," a man in the middle said nonchalantly, and everyone else acted as though nothing was happening. They didn't even look up! She peeked around Mihawk to get a better look at everyone. "To what do I owe this pleasant surprise?"
These men looked like pirates, true, though compared with the Krieg pirates they looked like gentlemen. In fact, the guy speaking was downright pleasant. And I was absolutely loving his hair. People back home paid huge amounts of money to get that shade of red, and most never could.
"Just another example of how life was unfair," she thought. "Guys always got amazing hair, or eyes, or even eyelashes, and didn't appreciate it at all."
"That's quite the scowl. Looks like she's learning from you all right."
Hearing that, she quickly hid back behind Mihawk, and biting down on her lip looked up at Mihawk warily. He was glaring at her harshly now, and no look or head hanging would help her.
"Did you come to settle the score with me?" the red haired pirate asked.
"As if I would fight a one-armed man," Mihawk replied testily. That peaked her interest, and she peeked back around Mihawk. It was hard to tell, what with the cape he wore, but since she knew what to look for, she could tell that his left arm was missing, just under the shoulder.
She looked back up to his face, and found her eyes meeting his. He gave her a smile and a wink, and she gave him a small smile in return.
"Aren't you going to introduce your friend?" he asked. Mihawk sighed and rolled his eyes, no doubt irritated at the man.
"This is my pupil, Ashley." He glanced down at her and said, "That is Red Hair."
"Shanks," the redhead corrected. "I'd come shake your hand, but I'm not feeling very well." Ash looked around, as everything about the pirates was suddenly making sense. There were tell tale signs of the party the pirates had last night, and the umbrella gave them a cool, dark place to sleep it off.
"I ran into a pirate that reminded me of stories you used to tell," Mihawk said to Shanks, which caught his attention. "A strange boy, from a small village?" He gave Ash a nod, and said, "show him."
She pulled out the wanted poster, and held it up for Shanks. She could see several of his men perk up and smile widely.
"Luffy," she heard Shanks say.
Shanks looked at Mihawk, his expression unreadable. "In that case, we can't just let you leave." His men ushered both of them over to the log where Shanks was sitting, and put mugs on a stump in front of them. Shanks began laughing as he poured ale into our mugs.
"Tell me everything!" he exclaimed. "And drink up! We're celebrating!"
She glanced over to her right in question.
"No." Hawkeye said without even looking at her. She sighed woefully, and handed her mug to the man who had sat on her left. He was a tall man with graying hair, who was quietly smoking.
"Aren't you hung over?" Mihawk asked Shanks, looking at his cup in disdain.
"What? No… well not anymore! Come on men, drink up!"
"But boss," a short, round man said. "Weren't you feeling bad because you drank too much yesterday?"
"No way!" Shanks replied. "Besides, we're celebrating! I can't NOT drink!"
The next morning, Ash asked Mihawk if she could skip her morning run, after all they were vacationing… sort of, and the humandrills weren't here to chase her around. He glared and told her to double her normal hour.
She went to the coast, and ran around the island, and found it was actually nice to have new scenery. She was able to enjoy running just to run, rather than running so she wouldn't die. After circling the island twice, she followed her trail back to camp and was offered breakfast. She turned to look for permission, and Mihawk must have wanted something tastier than her normal fare, because he nodded.
Once finished, she offered to help clean up, but they just laughed and shooed her away.
"Cap'n Shanks would have words with us if we let a guest clean up, not to mention a pretty girl" one of them added with a wink.
Not sure what to do with herself, she wandered back to the main area of camp, seeing that most of the men were again sleeping off their party from the previous day. Seeing Benn Beckman, awake and sitting alone, she moved over to talk with him. Having found out yesterday that the man she had been sitting next to was the first mate of the crew, she had plenty of questions.
He looked up as she walked over.
"Not much happening," he commented.
"I'm used to it," she replied. "though there are far less chores, which is great!" she winced and hunched over. "Did he hear me?" she whispered, looking over her shoulder at Mihawk.
Benn laughed, and stood up. "Come on then. How about we have a spar?"
"What, really?" she asked in surprise. According to Shanks' introductions last night, Benn was the best fighter of the entire crew. Even in sparring, she would certainly learn something to give her an advantage against Mihawk.
"Sure, we pirates always like to have fun. My fun is just different from most of the others," he told her with a wink.
Once they got to a large clearing, she began stretching, and noticing him waiting for her, she asked if he wanted some time to stretch, and he simply laughed. He proved very quickly that she didn't stand a chance against him, but even in failure, she knew she was learning. She kept getting back up each time he knocked her down.
After the best part of an hour, Shanks walked into the clearing they were using and she wondered how he found them. They had gone far from the camp in an attempt to not have an audience, and traversed far from any path. Shanks observed for only a minute or so before walking up to her.
"Ashley, you'll never get the upper hand if you can't read your opponent," he said, and she sagged, dejected.
"That's something I can't seem to do," she said depressingly. "No matter how hard I try, or how long I work."
Benn came over also, lighting a cigarette. "It's not difficult, once you have the basics," he said. "You must take what you know into the entire fight, not just what you are going to do."
"I'm not sure I understand," she admitted.
"That last move, the roll into a sweep of legs, how could it be countered?" She thought about it for a moment. "Once you have that, you can see which counter will be used based on the way your opponent moves."
"That's a lot of thinking in a small amount of time," she complained. "There is usually only a split second to make a decision."
"True," Shanks agreed with a laugh. "That's where the practice comes in. It needs to be muscle memory, and once that happens, your speed will also increase."
"But," Benn added. "there can also be no hesitation. You must give your all, or you will fail."
The two men looked at her in surprise, as she hung her head. It always came back to this. "I suppose it's crazy, but… I don't want to fight others. I know I need to learn to fight, and I want to keep my family safe…" she trailed off, almost ready to scream or cry, she was so frustrated. Why did my dream have to be so unattainable?
"Ashley."
She looked up into Benn's face. He was looking at her with compassion, and it was almost her undoing.
"How often do you think that I have to fight?"
She glanced at Shanks, and he just shrugged. "I'm not sure. I guess, whenever you run into other pirates?"
Now they both laughed, and she felt her face heat in embarrassment.
"No," Benn said kindly after a moment. "Shanks prefers partying to fighting, and with our reputation, most pirates run away rather than face us." She looked at Shanks for confirmation, and he gave an innocent smile. "Really, these days I don't have to fight at all. But Ashley… I am still able to."
"It may seem strange," Shanks added. "To fight so that one day you won't need to."
"No, actually, that makes sense," she said, thinking back to Zeff's words that were eerily similar.
"Of course, it's different for Hawk Eye," Shanks added.
"Right," she agreed as she nodded. "Being the best means he'll forever have people challenging him for the title. I've already seen plenty of people try."
"Yeah," he sighed, then gave a grin and put his arm around her. "Now Ashley, let me tell you a few things about fighting with Benn…" he said loudly, pretending to whisper.
She grinned back at both of them. "My friends call me Ash," she offered.
Mihawk stepped quietly into the clearing, to let Red Hair know he was leaving. They had talked about it at length, and Red Hair assured him that Ashley would be fine in their care. He didn't like that that had grated on his nerves.
What he saw however, made him pause. Ashley was sparring with Beckman, and she was attacking. He could tell that Beckman was holding back, and quite a lot at that, but what amazed him was that she was pressing her advantage. He smirked as he saw her use a complicated move that he had just taught her before they left Gloom Island.
"Not bad, really." He glanced over at Shanks, as he appeared at his right side. He could see the smirk on his face, and did not appreciate it. "Yeah, that Ash is quick. I'm sure we'll make her into quite the pirate before we're done."
"I know what you are doing Red Hair," Mihawk replied.
"Me?" Shanks was the picture of innocence, and Mihawk rolled his eyes.
Mihawk watched as Ashley noticed them, and took a hit she could have avoided. "Distractions Ashley!" he snapped out, seeing her wince, but refocus.
The fight came to a halt a few minutes later as Beckman laid her out on her back. She rose up and gave him a bow, and a handshake, then came over to the two spectators.
"Master," she said with a small nod of her head, and Mihawk returned the gesture.
"Ash, that was much better! Good work!"
"Thank you, Captain Shanks, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help, both of you."
Mihawk felt his ire rising, so he cut them off. "Ashley, I'm preparing to leave. Red Hair has offered you a place with them, to continue your training." He meant to stop there, but somehow, he kept speaking. "Otherwise, say your goodbyes. You have five minutes."
Ashley looked at him in surprise, glancing at both Shanks and Beckman, before reaching out to Red Hair and giving him a hug.
"Thank you so much Captain Shanks! I'm sorry we can't stay longer!" Mihawk froze as he had turned to leave, her words stopping him in his tracks. "Goodbye Benn, thank you for all your help!" she said as she threw her arms around him as well.
She hurried past them, running to gather her things and make her farewells. Mihawk stared with a frown, uncertain of what was happening. He'd been certain that she would want to stay.
"What'd I tell you Benn? Knew he couldn't let her go." Mihawk glared at them, then walked away as they both began to laugh.