CHAPTER 2

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Diary of Dracule Mihawk, entry #952:

It's been two days. The girl with pink hair can summon ghosts, apparently. Devil Fruit. And it seems I have Kuma to thank for her presence and his on my island. I may be getting rid of Roronoa, at least. He insisted on wanting to leave yesterday so I gave him a boat and then he got caught up with the humandrills. I told him to return to the castle but he persisted so I got myself a bottle of wine and am watching him from the window. This is amusing.

… … …

Zoro wished he'd never laid eyes on Perona. Or that Perona had never laid eyes on Mihawk's diary. Or that she hadn't been perceptive enough to guess the truth. Or that the stupid diary never existed in the first place. Why was Mihawk, of all people, keeping a diary?!

That Perona had been slipping in snide remarks here and there ever since she'd realised that he couldn't read kanji. It was absolutely aggravating. He had never wanted to stab a girl more in his life.

So he couldn't read much kanji. Big deal! He could read the alphabet and that was good enough. Wanted posters and other important news were usually printed in the alphabet, not in kanji.

He slashed at a tree with such force that he cut it right in half.

"I'd rather you refrained from expressing yourself by cutting up a perfectly good tree."

He looked round and saw Mihawk walking out of the woods.

"If you keep that up, you're going to denude the land here. As I happen to like having a thick forest to deter intruders, I insist that you cease this pointless destruction. Please find yourself some other emotional outlet." With that, Mihawk continued on towards the castle.

Zoro gritted his teeth and waited until Mihawk was out of sight before stabbing the fallen tree trunk several times with his sword to relieve himself of a little bit more frustration.

… … …

Perona had to keep herself from yelling at Mihawk when she saw him come through the front door. She crouched behind a pillar and contented herself with glaring at him from her hidden position.

Mustn't let him know I read his diary. Mustn't react. Must carry on as usual. Mustn't throw negative hollows at him for no apparent reason. No hollows. No shouting. Self-control. Self-control.

Mihawk didn't seem to need to see her to know she was there, though. Heading towards his own quarters, he said, "Better make a good dinner, Ghost Girl. Roronoa is in a truly bad mood today."

With an indignant scowl, she emerged from behind the pillar. "Excuse me! I am not your servant! And so what if that idiot is in a bad mood? He's cranky half the time!"

"If you don't cook," said Mihawk, "you know that he will. And that means nothing but tinned beans for dinner since there's nothing else that's easy to prepare. I don't care about eating tinned beans again, but I think you do."

The door clicked shut.

Several hollows appeared and looked inquiringly at their mistress. But Perona merely curled her fingers, wishing that she could get her hands on Mihawk's neck.

She really didn't want to eat tinned beans again.

Before Mihawk turned up after Marineford, she – and later also Roronoa Zoro – was completely stranded on the island and had had no choice but to eat whatever food was available in the castle. That had turned out to be some bread, some vegetables and chunks of meat, and lots of tinned food. Tinned fish, tinned soup, tinned beans, tinned curry... Stuff like bread and vegetables and meat she had eaten up long before Zoro crash landed in the forest. They wouldn't have kept long anyway. So after that she had had to eat all the tinned food, most of which was tinned beans. By the time Mihawk arrived, she was very, very sick of the beans, and although she had been alarmed to discover that the place belonged to a Shichibukai, she had also been extremely glad to see that he'd come with fresh supplies of food.

So Perona gave a deep sigh and stalked off in the direction of the kitchen. Her hollows trailed after her.

… … …

Mihawk had been getting used to having less-than-enjoyable mealtimes with his two "guests" – the ghost girl was usually whiny and Roronoa was usually grumpy. Both were much more bearable when they were in good moods, but rarely were they both in a good mood at the same time. When one was, it often felt as though the good mood of that one made the other more sour.

This dinner was one of those instances. Roronoa's mood hadn't improved from earlier in the afternoon when Mihawk had found him slashing at innocent trees in the forest. The ghost girl, however… He tried to put his finger on it. Something about her attitude was aggravating Roronoa Zoro more than usual.

"I borrowed another one of your books," she said to Mihawk.

"Oh?"

"The Ghouls of the Grand Line. It's interesting."

Of course she'd find a book on ghosts interesting.

"I don't recall that I had such a book," said Mihawk, pushing his empty plate aside.

Perona shrugged. "Maybe it belonged to the previous owners of this place. It was on the top shelf." She gestured towards the bookcase.

Mihawk said nothing. He refilled his wine glass.

She prattled on for a while, talking about the stories she'd read in the book and asking him if he'd encountered any of the ghosts of the Shikkearu kingdom that were listed in it. His answer was always no. If such ghosts did exist, they'd probably fled in terror when he'd decided to make the castle his home. Shanks had once told him that he exuded a spectacularly chilling aura.

"It's rare to find books like that written in kanji," she remarked finally.

Across the table, Zoro stabbed at a piece of chicken on his plate with more vehemence than was necessary. Mihawk noted the reaction.

"What do you think of this dual-writing system we practice?" continued Perona. "It's rather interesting, isn't it? We have the one standard alphabet we use for general communications and then there's the kanji system that we use for other things."

Mihawk's eyebrows lifted several millimetres. That was a rather odd topic of conversation, even for Ghost Girl. "I've never thought about it," he said. "Doubtless, whoever came up with it at the beginning thought it was a good idea."

"Hmm." Perona nibbled at her helping of the chicken. "Do you think there are people who can't read the alphabet? Or kanji?"

"It is quite likely."

"I wonder what it's like to not be able to read half the things you see."

"I wouldn't know."

"Me neither. I just wondered. It must be so sad."

"Or perhaps they do not feel anything because it is unnecessary for their life."

"True," she said, looking thoughtful. "But I would feel sorry for such people all the same. Wouldn't it be a bit like not being able to do math–"

A loud clatter interrupted her. Zoro, apparently finished with his food, had thrown his knife and fork down on his plate. He stalked out of the room.

Several seconds of silence passed. Perona seemed a bit startled and Mihawk realised that the sensation he hadn't been able to name earlier was that of self-satisfied superiority. That was what had been annoying Zoro – her smug behaviour. But interestingly, after he'd left, Perona now suddenly seemed to sink into awkward speechlessness. The superiority seemed to seep out of her even as Mihawk watched. He let several moments pass before he spoke again.

"Even pirates," he said, "have to learn the value of allies."

She gave him a puzzled look. "What?"

"Roronoa is of the type that can be remarkably loyal when he chooses to be. He may not be congenial, but–"

"I should make him an ally?" The sneer evident in her voice was remarkable.

"Would you prefer 'friend?'"

Sputtering sounds issued from Perona. "Us – friends? You've got to be joking."

"Use whatever word you please, Ghost Girl. But I didn't survive in this world and rise to my rank by making myself hateful and annoying to people who could be useful to me."

Mihawk reached for more wine. "Gekko Moriah's crew is as good as gone now. For all I know, Moriah himself is as good as gone. You and Roronoa are both stuck here for the foreseeable future – unless you intend to make your own way in the world (in which case I will lend you a boat with pleasure). In the meantime, it would do you no harm to not antagonise Roronoa. I am not certain what passed between you two, but clearly you are holding something over him, and he resents it. Being smug does neither of you any good. Whatever it is, you could do with a little more kindness."

Perona looked sullenly at her plate. She finished her dinner in silence.

When she'd gone, Mihawk rose from his chair and went to the bookcase. He looked for and found his diary, took a pen from another shelf and wrote his 964th entry:

Well, something must've happened while I was away. I wonder.

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Author's Note: If you've read my other fic, "The Book", then you would probably recognise The Ghouls of the Grand Line from there. ^^

Thank you all for the reviews and the follows/faves; I never thought this piece would pick up more than 5 reviews within a week! I hope Chapter 2 wasn't a let-down. I will try to put out chapter 3 before my birthday next week (with Chinese New Year coming up that may be tricky, but I'll try!)
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