Author's note: Again, thank you for continuing to read this fan fiction and for your support! I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it! It's one of my personal favorites in this story. And if you'd like to read more about Zoro, be sure to check out this story on my page, "The Secret that Shall Remain Untold! His Skills Went South!" Check it out at this link: s/11962812/1/The-Secret-that-Shall-Remain-Untold-His-Skills-Went-South
And don't forget to leave some feedback, it's very much appreciated!
Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own One Piece. Wish I did, but I don't. Love writing about it, but don't own it, deal with it.
CHAPTER 7
Mysterious Dojo Painting?
Zoro's Conclusion!
Ari snaps awake from her past to find her brush still resting in her hand. She looks up to the sky and to her surprise, the sun is already shining above her, indicating that it's around noon. She gingerly puts a finger against her painting, and finding that it's completely dry, she tucks it back into her bag along with her paints. She slings her bag around her shoulder and looks at her favorite pomegranate tree, reminding her of the fruit plantation back home. Home. It hurts too much to even think about. She glances into her bag at her painting once more, and her heart wrenches, longing for her family, and the place she once called her own. She walks out of the clearing and into the forest as she tries to figure out what she's going to do with the painting. I would take it back to the cottage, but I don't want Marguerite to ask questions about where I got my inspiration for it. I think I'll just give it away instead.
She arrives back in town and ponders on who would take care of her masterpiece without asking any questions about it. Someone slightly cold… self conceited even... Of course! The Empress. She appreciates anything that's beautiful and she's too full of herself to care about the history behind it anyway. Arriving at the threshold of the palace, she raises a hand to knock on the gates when she notices that there isn't anything left to knock on. I guess that pirate captain broke both the gates. She sighs with irritation. She opts to knock on the door instead and is relieved to find it still intact and untouched by the reckless Straw Hats. A petite, brunette servant girl cracks open the door, allowing Ari to get a rather limited view of the grand foyer. What she is able to make out is the staircases going up on either side and a sparkling chandelier in the center of the ceiling. It reflects miniature rainbow beams on every wall, making it seem as if the palace is made of a mystical magic.
"Excuse me, miss, but the Empress isn't accepting any visitors today," the servant girl explains. "She has given me strict orders that she is not to be disturbed while entertaining her guests."
"Yes, I've heard." Ari frowns. "I was just going to see if I could interest her in a painting of mine." She takes the painting out of her bag and displays it in her arms before the servant.
"Oh, my!" The servant puts her hands to the veil covering her face. "It's beautiful."
"So would you like it?"
"Personally, miss, yes I would," she says shyly. "However, unfortunately I cannot spend my Mistress's dollar."
"Well, in that case," Ari says as she extends the painting toward her, "just take it, free of charge."
"Oh, miss, I couldn't possibly." She continues to bashfully admire the work. "But… if you insist... then this would be the perfect painting for our exquisite gym! I just know that the Empress will love it as I do." Ari nods, happy to be rid of the bittersweet memory of when she painted the same painting fourteen years ago. She exits the palace, and her absence is replaced by the hubbub of the servants, excitedly talking about the new present for their beautiful Empress. Ari walks down the path to the village and wanders aimlessly through it as she tries to figure out what to do with the rest of the day.
She stops at several shops set up on the side of the street, but is too distracted to consider any of the items seriously. After a while, she stops looking at shops and just strays beside them, left to her own thoughts. I wonder how Liam and Skyler are doing these days… I wonder if Mom and Da— her thoughts halt when she slams into someone in front of her and a rainstorm of gift bags and shoes comes cascading down on her and knocks her on her butt.
"Hey! Watch it!" a woman's voice shouts from above her. "You almost made my purse spill out on the ground!"
"Sorry," Ari replies, "I didn't mean to." She rubs her head, and digs herself out of the massive pile of bags.
"I'm sorry about my friend," another voice, also a woman, says. "She's quite particular about things that involve money."
"It's ok, I understand." Ari helps the ginger pick up her bags. She gets a closer look at the two of them and recognizes them as two of the strawhats: Nami and Robin. Crap! I keep running into pirates! As soon as the shoes are stuffed back in their bags and all of the bags are picked up and accounted for, Ari bows in apology. "Sorry again for running into you." Ari turns and is about to leave when Nami puts a hand on her shoulder.
"You don't have to leave," Nami says with a guilty countenance. "Why don't you stay and do some shopping with us?" Ari turns around to face them and Robin nods in encouragement.
I don't want to be rude… "I guess it wouldn't hurt."
"Sounds good to me," Robin says and turns back around to the shelf of books her and Nami were looking at. "I'd like to stay here for a while longer. I'm looking for a book about the history of the island."
Nami turns to the bulky lady running the shop and inquires, "Excuse me, I'm looking for some large papyrus." The store lady retrieves some large rolls of paper out from under the stand and unrolls them to show her. Ari stands next to Robin and peeks at various books with her.
Robin looks at her curiously from the side. It seems as if I've seen her somewhere before…
Ari peers around the plethora of history and map books and her eyes pass by a music book. She holds in her gasp due to her present company, but can't help pulling it out and taking a peek on the inside of the front cover. She holds in a sigh of disappointment. I figured it wouldn't be the same copy I had before. She slides the Stravinsky music sheet book back onto the shelf hesitantly. After debating for a couple more moments, Ari grabs the book back off of the shelf and decides to buy it. She turns around and finds that Nami has already checked out and has three large rolls of paper under her arm.
Robin makes her purchase before Ari and walks up to the shop lady with five large books on history. "Just these books for me, please."
Ari buys her book and the girls continue strolling down the street, stopping at nearly every shop they come by until a bright red paints the evening sky.
XXX
The maids have been eyeing Zoro for quite a while, and today they decide to make their move. They peer around a corner, watching intently as Zoro roams out of his room that morning. He wanders aimlessly down the halls, trying to find a shower. The maids follow his every turn and giggle at his horrible directional skills. In their amusement, one of the maids snorts loudly and Zoro whips his head around to face them. He spots them before they have a chance to move, leaving them standing there, frozen in place in the hallway.
"Hey," one of the maids whispers, "maybe if we hide now, he'll forget he ever saw us."
"Good idea!" Tori whispers back.
"Told you the new girl was a genius!" a bulky, body-guard-type maid proclaims. They all scurry behind the grand curtains that are pulled back to let some light in. In their hurry to hide, they stir up the dust that is trapped behind the curtains. Believing that they have him fooled, they start to giggle again.
With another laugh, the new girl inhales some of the dust unintentionally up her nose, and she sneezes loudly, "Ahhhh…. CHOOOO!"
"Shhhhhh!" the other two angrily whisper at her, "you'll blow our cover!"
"Hehehe…. blow!" The new girl sneezes, and then snorts again, accidentally inhaling her veil into her mouth. She coughs it back out which provokes another grimace from the other two maids and says, "I see what you did there!"
Despite what the girls originally believed, Zoro was not fooled, or amused by this even in the slightest. He may be challenged when it comes to navigating, but he isn't a moron. He draws back the curtains and the girls give the new girl another angry look. "So, you mean to tell me that you've been following me all this time while I was searching for the shower?" The girls nod.
"If you want to know where the shower is," the new girl gabs, "it's in the basement of the east wing."
"You idiot!" The bodyguard girl smacks her on the head. "That's where the servant's quarters are!" Both girls realize what the new girl was up to and give her a look of shame.
The second maid continues timidly, "The showers are actually linked to your rooms, sir. Our Empress made sure to have the best accommodations we have available for you and your crewmates." She bows in both apology and respect.
"Oh," Zoro says, flustered. "I'll just get going to my room then." He turns to the right, going toward the east wing.
"Excuse me, sir," the second maid says quietly, "it's the other way. You're headed to the servant's quarters right now."
"Right." He turns and runs the other direction. The new girl pouts, disappointed that Tori didn't let him keep going on to the servants' rooms.
XXX
"I could have sworn that this was the right way!" he shouts in frustration. He wanders aimlessly through the palace, looking for his room. "Damn. Can't find it anywhere! What's wrong with this place?!" He strays into many different rooms: the weapons room, the garden room, the ballroom, and so on until he stumbles across a set of double doors identical, in his eyes at least, to his room. "Finally." He opens the set of doors to find himself in a gym of some sort. There's a huge array of heavy weights, treadmills, and even an olympic-sized pool. Feeling right at home, he grins. He walks over to one of the heavy weights and lifts it. He sets it back down as if it were a feather, deeming it too light for his tastes. His eyes wander the room, looking for a heavier option. In the corner, he spots something large under a dusty, gray canvas. He strides over to it and gingerly picks up a corner.
"Now THIS is more like it!" He lifts the heavy object, which is apparently a large, stone statue of the Empress, and begins his workout. Lifting the statue with one hand, the heaviest weight in the other, and the second heaviest weight in his mouth, he trains until his muscles are numb.
After several hours, he decides to take a quick 'break'. He pulls his shirt over his head, and slides his haramaki and pants off of his hips. Left only in his underwear, he throws his clothes on a lawn chair by the side of the pool and sets his swords down gently on top of them. He dives into the water and a chill runs through his body.
"This water is freezing." Zoro smirks. "Just how I like it."
He starts with a simple butterfly stroke and goes from pool end to pool end. After a while of swimming like this, he pauses for a moment to catch his breath. There's a shuffling of footsteps coming from the hall and voices talking excitedly to one another. He climbs out of the pool and finds a white towel laid out on one of the other lawn chairs. He wraps it around his hips and tucks in a corner to secure it.
"I can't wait to see what it looks like!" one of the voices says from outside of the room.
"It'll look so much better when it's hung up! I can't wait either!" Two giggling servant girls come into the room. A brunette holds a framed canvas and walks over to the wall in front of the weights. The other servant girl skips behind her cheerfully and carries a hammer and a bucket of nails. The brunette takes out a stepping stool from a closet and sets it up. Before she begins, she props the canvas against the side of the stool gently. She climbs up to the top step and extends her hand down toward the other girl, motioning for a nail. The girl hands her the hammer and a nail. The brunette busies herself by hammering it into the wall with a force that is great enough to provoke sparks. After hanging up the canvas, the brunette carries the stepping stool back into the closet and closes the door with a small click.
Zoro, still wrapped in the towel, walks over to investigate. He recognizes the painting instantly as one that was hung up in his old dojo back home in Shimotsuki Village. The maids catch sight of him and wonder what he's doing in the gym, seemingly naked, and in their Empress's towel.
Instead of inquiring about the towel wrapped around his hips, the brunette servant instead inquires, "Do you like it? The painting?"
Zoro realizes that the maid speaking to him is one of the same ones who was following him earlier. "I had the same one back in my hometown," Zoro replies. "How long have you had it?"
"We got it just now, actually," the other maid replies. "The artist just dropped it by and‒"
"Just now?"
"Yes…"
"Funny," he wonders aloud, "since the artist that made the one in my village is dead now."
"Perhaps it's a different artist?" the brunette suggests.
"Yeah," Zoro says as he studies the painting closely, "perhaps." The maids bow in respect and take their leave as they continue on with their excited babbling. The door shuts behind them, leaving Zoro alone with his thoughts. He moves closer to the painting and looks at the bottom right corner. A toothy smile and squinted eyes. The same artist signature as the one at the dojo in Shimotsuki. This means… Zoro rushes over to the exit and bursts through the doors, catching up to the maids right before they turn the corner.
"WAIT!" He comes to a stop beside them. The maids look absolutely shocked and are confused as to why he ran to them the way he did. "You have to tell me what the artist looked like!"
"Um.. let me see…" the brunette ponders and holds a finger to her mouth. "She was… oh let me think… I'm sorry, sir, I can't remember. I was too excited to be receiving a new gift for our Empress."
"Yeah, ok," he retorts.
"Good day to you." The maids curtsy and take their leave as they continue their incessant babbling.
Damn. What's up with this place anyway?