I know it's been a while, but here is Chapter 10! Again thank you to all of my readers and followers! Your support is awesome and is greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: Again, the only thing I own is my writing skills, not the actual series itself, so there.

Chapter 10

Ari's a Swordsman? Wado Ichimonji and its Connection with Zoro!

Zoro wakes up that morning and stretches out his arms, yawning loudly. He gets out of bed and his determination to find the Fluttering Swordswoman is greater than ever before. Kuina died before she could show her gratitude. I have to find that swordswoman. I can't afford to wait around for Robin. It's no use trying to track down a specific woman on a island full of them either. I guess I only have one option then: I need help from an insider. Zoro sleepily stumbles out of his room.

He roams the halls and unknowingly comes across one of the guest rooms. Engraved and painted in gold is the number eight on the door. I could be wrong, but isn't this Ari's room? He creaks open the door to find Ari still bundled under the covers sleeping with her back facing the door. Near the bed are some shopping bags and on the nightstand some sort of book with a receipt as a bookmark. Zoro saunters over to the book, picks up the receipt and takes a look. The Stony Brook Sword Shop... so she's a swordsman. Zoro places the receipt back inside the pages of the book, not noticing that it's now upside down, and peers over at her thin build. It sure doesn't look like it. Ari rolls over, allowing Zoro to get a better look at her. Her brown and pink locks are splayed all around her in delicate waves and her thick lashes are at rest on her cheekbones. The blankets are pulled right below her chin, restricting his gaze to just her face. Her body shifts under the covers and she sits up to stretch out her arms. The blanket draped around her shoulders slides off, revealing her lacy mint bra underneath. Zoro stands there frozen in place and is unable to tear his eyes off her. Unsure what to do next, his brain struggles to think of a way to escape his impending doom. Great, now what? She rubs her eyes open and turns to see Zoro standing there.

"You… WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM YOU BIG PERVERT?!" She hurriedly wraps the blanket around her chest, stands on the bed and clobbers him on the head with a tightly wound fist.

"GEEZ LADY! You sure pack one hell of a punch!" Zoro flees the room and makes his escape down the hall. Damn that woman's a hell a lot stronger than she looks!

"There's more where that came from!" Ari shouts from her doorway, but doesn't go after him. She decides to instead duck back into her room and get ready for her training that day. It's been awhile since I've worked out with Marguerite and the rest of the women, so I'll do some training in the palace gym since I'm here anyway. She pads back over to the nightstand where her bag is resting. Huh, that's strange. She slips on a tee shirt and digs further into her bag to find her shorts. Darn it, there's a paint stain. Oh well, they'll get the job done. After putting on her shorts, she walks down the stairs and through the hallway down to the kitchen to grab some water. She opens the door to the kitchen only to find Luffy sitting in front of the fridge stuffing his face. Sanji is at the stove cooking up some omelets scolding him all the while.

"Luffy would you stop hogging all the food already?" Sanji yells over to Luffy. "We need some of that for breakfast ya know."

"Yeah, but I'm hungry…" Luffy stuffs another meat chunk in his mouth. "Just a couple more bites, Sanji."

"No!" Sanji kicks him and Luffy reluctantly shuts the fridge and sits at the small kitchen table impatiently.

"Hey could you toss me a bottle of water?" Ari says.

"Anything for you, Ari sweeeet!" Sanji opens the fridge and kicks her a bottle of water gracefully.

"Thanks." She catches it. "Oh, and do either of you happen to know where the palace gym is?"

"Nope, not a clue," Luffy responds. She looks over to Sanji.

"No, I only cared to find out where the kitchen and a few… other rooms are," Sanji says.

"Ok, I'll figure it out on my own then." She walks back up the stairs and spots a board with the layout of the palace tacked on it. "Let's see… I'm here and the gym is somewhere in the west wing by the guest quarters." She makes her way to the west wing and spots a set of double doors with a sign above them that reads "gym" in gold lettering. Here we are. She grins. Upon walking in, she notices that a stone statue of the Empress has been left among the other weights. I guess the thousand pound weight wasn't good enough for someone.

Whenever her and the other women train together, they all use the five-hundred-pound weights, one in each hand. She trains with the lighter weights in order to keep up the ruse that she's just like any other villager here. In secret, Ari would train using the thousand-pound weights. In the event that someone catches onto her secret, she has to make sure she's strong enough to keep that person from saying anything ever again. She's never had to go to such extremes before, but her additional training is just a precaution.

Ari gathers up her hair into a ponytail, revealing the tattoo on the back of her neck. She picks up two five-hundred-pound weights, lifting one in each hand. She lifts and lifts until a thick sweat forms on her brow. It really has been too long. It's hard just to lift the easy weights. After a few hours of training, she decides to give it a rest and relax on one of the beach chairs. The gym is peaceful and quiet until someone's voice is heard from outside the double doors.

"Hey, isn't this that place the pink-haired lady was looking for?" Luffy opens one of the doors and peeks inside. He walks over to the lawn chairs by the pool and sits next to her. "Hey, pink-haired lady, you missed out on breakfast."

"I know," she replies, "I'll eat later."

"So, um, what's up with you and Zoro?"

"Wha- I don't know what you're talking about." She's shocked at first, but quickly regains her emotional cool. Her face, however, is a different story. They both sit there in silence for a while before Luffy speaks up again.

"Ok, well, I guess I'll be going then." He hops up from the lawn chair and starts toward the door.

"Wait," Ari pipes up, "why did you think there was something between me and Zoro?"

"Oh, nothing." Luffy scratches his head. "You were just asking about him a bunch. So I thought that you guys were close friends or something."

He only suspects a friendship? I guess it's better that way. Besides, it's not like there would be anything after what happened this morning. Her face turns all red at the thought of him seeing not only her in her bra, but also the scar jagged across her chest.

"Hey, you ok, lady?" Luffy walks over to her lawn chair and pinches one of her bright red cheeks. "Your face is all red."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she says and slaps his hand away. I wonder… it all happened so fast so maybe… maybe he didn't notice my scar after all.

"Ok then, if you say so." Luffy gives her a weird look and is on his way out the door when he turns and says, "Oh yeah, Hancock's fine with you staying here tonight too if you want to."

"I'll think about it," Ari replies.

"Sounds good to me." He smiles. Luffy leaves the gym door ajar when he exits and is a ways down the hall when he says, "Hey, Zoro! Don't forget we're all meeting up for sea beef later!"

"Got it." Zoro approaches the doors to the gym and slips his shirt off as soon as he walks in. Ari sinks down lower in her chair, hoping that he doesn't notice her. Now freshly stripped of his shirt, he goes over to set his things down on a lawn chair when he sees Ari occupying the one he used last time. Ah, crap! How do I explain that I was in her room to find answers and not to find her half naked?!

"Hey, um, sorry about this morning." Zoro's primary memory of that morning was, indeed, of her being half naked, but he could have sworn that there was something else he noticed. Something he missed.

Ari's embarrassed, but manages to come up with a smartass response, "It's alright. You could say we're even." She gives him a once over and grins devilishly up at him. Zoro becomes even more flustered at her comment.

Ari takes notice of the long scar running from Zoro's shoulder to his hips. So he has a scar too… just like the one I have.

"If you wanna get even so bad, then fight me!" Zoro says. "You're a swordsman so you must have a sword. Am I wrong?"

She leans back on her chair casually. "Actually, I lost mine."

"That's a damn shame. A swordsman who loses her sword."

"At least I don't get lost in berry bushes when the path is right in front of me," she comments. "And how would you know that I'm a swordsman anyway?" Her minty eyes glare at him.

Damn, why is this woman so intimidating?

She sighs in understanding. "I thought it was strange that my commission receipt was upside down." She stands and lets her hair down. Zoro is once again embraced in her sweet scent as her hair cascades down to her waist. A lock of hair sifts over an eye and she blows it back into place. "Thanks for the offer, but I don't want to duel." She steps past him.

"Oh yeah? You scared to lose?" He smirks and Ari pauses in her stride. Her body whips back around and slides one of his swords out of its sheath effortlessly. How the hell-

"It shouldn't have been that easy for me to steal one of your swords," she says and draws a finger along the back of the blade. "You're weak, Zoro. And I have no interest in dueling a weak opponent."

Those words… Those were the same words that… she said… "You shut your mouth and give me back my sword!"

"Wado Ichimonji… it's an excellent sword." She hands it back to him with her hand gracefully balancing the blade.

"Excellent swords are a necessity if I'm going to become the world's greatest swordsman." He grins.

His ambition… it almost brings back the fire I used to have for that very same goal. "The world's greatest?"

"And nothing less." His confident smile cocks high up on his face.

She smiles and her stomach growls loudly.

"Let me guess, you missed breakfast, right?"

She nods.

He starts toward the door and stops to turn and look at her when he notices that she's not following him. "You coming or not?"

"Oh, yeah." She walks in stride beside him out the gym door, the two of them on their way to grab some lunch.

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