CHAPTER 20
The Expedition to Return Lost Memories! Pomegranate Gift From Zoro!
After searching tirelessly for her bracelet, she throws in the towel for a much more relaxing one. She trudges back up to her room, throws off her dress, and hops into the bath to relax. Or supposedly relax, at least. Her mind is still wandering, still wondering where her bracelet could be, what she has yet to remember, and what she is forgetting. She relaxes her back against the tubside and lets her body dip further under the water until only her face is above it. Suddenly, another flashback: she was choking, gasping, sobbing for air. Sinking further and further, with no possible way of escape. Shocked, she instantly jumps out of the bath, and onto the plush rug beside it. With shaky hands, she reaches for a towel that is neatly folded on the shelf above the water, careful not to slip and fall. She wraps the towel around herself and sinks down to a sitting position against the bathroom door, as far from the tub as possible, with her knees pulled up against her chest. I… drowned… I… died.
And with that thought, a whole other flood of memories dowse her brain. I saw a face after I died, I saw someone I knew… now who was it?! She keeps prying and torturing her brain for answers, but the brain's a hard thing to persuade. And she most certainly doesn't have Conqueror's Haki either, so there's no way she could use that against her current enemy: her amnesia. With a disappointed sigh, she quickly plucks the plug from the tub, dries herself off and wraps her towel around her body, tucking in a corner to secure it. She leaves her damp hair out in the open No use in wasting another towel on my hair. She slips into some cozy slippers and pads downstairs, making her way to the kitchen.
I'm so hungry… when was the last time I ate anyway? It's then that she remembers something: I was eating an apple after I had a nightmare last night. That's when I walked outside.
When she finally arrives at the kitchen, she is happy to see that it is vacant. The inner introvert in me applauds! she amuses herself. She opens the fridge, sees nothing of particular interest so she then moves onto the cupboards, but again, nothing of particular interest. Then she opens the fridge. Wait, there's still the same things in here that there was the last time I checked two minutes ago! Dumb me! She's about to close the fridge again, when she notices something she didn't notice before. A smile alights on her face, as she sees the same bag of pomegranates that Zoro cut down for her in the second-to-bottom drawer. Because they couldn't all fit, some of them were emptied out of the bag and put into the bottom drawer. Marguerite must have left these. Ari smiles.
She pulls open the drawer and reaches into the bag to grab one, ignoring the string that is tied to one of the straps. Ari takes a knife out of the silverware drawer and expertly cuts it open, delving into the sweet fruit. She almost goes back up to her room to eat, but instead opts to sit at the wooden table in the kitchen instead while she enjoys her snack. She chews on the fruit and studies the exquisite kitchen around her. Mom would love to cook in here. She feels a pang of homesickness and suddenly isn't in the mood for pomegranates anymore. What sounds good right now is one of mom's boxed lunches. She notices that she still has a couple more slices left of her snack.
I'll just wrap them up and put them in the fridge for later. She searches through the cabinets again to find some plastic wrap, baggies, or anything of the like. She finds nothing in the top cabinets so she moves her search to the cabinets and drawers under the countertops. There's still one last cabinet under an industrialize-size sink for her to search in. At first glance, there's nothing more than a small trash can right up front. She doesn't pay it much notice, but she looks a little closer and finds that there are tiny boxes behind it. She carefully pulls the trash can out, and discovers that the little boxes have little storage baggies in them! Victory! She bags up the pomegranate slices, deposits them in the fridge and then heads back over to the cabinet to clean up her mess. She places the boxes back where they were, and she reaches back to grab the trash can, and is about to set it back in the cabinet where it belongs when her towel comes loose, and she is forced to let go of the trash can in order to secure it. The trash can falls out of the cabinet and tips over, junk of all calibers and sorts tumbling out with it.
Give me a break… she sighs. Better clean this up. She secures her towel more firmly this time, and goes to work picking up the pieces of trash, when she notices a piece that is relatively out of place in comparison to the rest of the haul. She picks it out of the jumble with her fingertips, and suppresses a gag as she inspects it. It is only a crumpled-up piece of paper with a string taped to it, but the smell from the other junk in the trash had permeated it. She unfolds the paper out of curiosity, and finds that there are words written on it.
Feel Better or whatever. -Z
Her face flushes as she reads that last letter. Z… that must stand for Zoro. She looks at the string taped to the paper more closely, then she moves to open the fridge, carrying the note with her. This is the same string that is tied to my bag. So it wasn't Marguerite who left these here after all… Ari smiles once more, until an expression of confusion settles upon her face. But why did he throw the note away I wonder… So that flash of green that I saw going past my door this morning after I woke up… that must have been him. Ari starts thinking more and more. Black boots… a flash of green… something I can't quite make out… that sounds like Zoro alright. Ari laughs to herself. So… if I was drowning because of my devil fruit powers… then someone must have rescued me from the swamp, right? Was Zoro my rescuer?
XXX
After cleaning up the mess, Ari headed back up to her room with a newly planted smile on her face.
She lies in her bed, still in her towel, with her thoughts completely jumbled. Something important. Amnesia. Water. Zoro. Important. Important. Zoro? Swords. Pomegranates. Apples. Juicy. Something important. Amnesia sucks. Noise. Drowning. Something very important to tell Zoro. Noise again. Knock. Zoro? Noise… Oh my goodness there's a noise at my door! Someone's knocking on my door!
Ari flies out of her bed, towel and all, and quickly swings open her door, only to find that it wasn't her door that was being knocked on. Though it is Zoro that is knocking. Except he's knocking on the one next to hers: Robin's. He looks over at her quizzically. But he looks strange. His face seems… redder. Then the realization dawns on her: she's still only in a towel. Her face lights up bright red and she quickly slams her door shut to avoid any further embarrassment. She rests against the door and gradually slides down to a sitting position, gathering herself up. So embarrassing.