CHAPTER 3

.

Diary of Dracule Mihawk, entry #954:

I suppose it is a good thing that Kuma sent the girl here as well as Roronoa. She's proving useful. At least I don't have to be the one treating Roronoa's injuries. He had plenty of them after dealing with the humandrills. The silly fool.

… … …

Zoro limped back into the castle with his teacher's arm supporting him.

"You need to learn more caution, Roronoa," was what Mihawk had said after he'd been on the receiving end of Mihawk's blade. "You wouldn't have gotten cut if you'd paid a little more attention to what I was doing instead of trying to predict what I might do."

Cut? Mihawk called that a 'cut'? The bleeding gash just below his right knee and the matching one on his left were hardly "cuts." Zoro had a dreadful suspicion that at least one of them was more than skin-deep. His legs were hurting enough for him to wonder if Mihawk's double slashes had reached muscle or tendon or something, and was grimly surprised that his legs were still attached to the rest of him. Walking was definitely a problem right now.

He regarded the staircase leading up to the dining hall with some dread. Fortunately, his bedroom was located on the same floor as the dining hall. That would reduce the walking distance.

"Ghost Girl!" called Mihawk.

No!

The last person from whom Zoro wanted help at that point was Perona. Since the diary incident, he'd tolerated her presence at mealtimes but hadn't spoken to her in days. He hated feeling ridiculous and he hated that she knew something that made him look ridiculous.

"What?" came the surly response from above.

Her astral form was floating in the air, arms folded and a resigned look on her face.

"Get down here," said Mihawk, hauling Zoro up each stair with an odd mixture of care and carelessness. "You need to treat his wounds."

Zoro saw the twitch of her mouth that suggested one of her usual "why do I have to do that?" retorts was forthcoming. But she said nothing of the sort.

"Fine," she said. The ghostly figure glided up through the ceiling while the two men made slow progress to Zoro's room.

Perona came in just as Mihawk let him drop onto a chair. She was holding an old box that now served as a first aid kit, as well as a basin of water and a couple of towels.

Mihawk nodded towards Perona, and told Zoro that he was not to do any physical training for the next three days at least. At Zoro's beginning to object, he held up a hand for silence. "There is no point in exacerbating injuries, Roronoa. Your captain has given you two years. A few days of recuperation will not affect anything. But if you insist on pushing yourself when you are not yet healed, all that will get you is a weakened frame."

Perona had sat herself down on the floor and was now regarding Zoro's bloody legs with a frown. Zoro was not sure he liked what that frown suggested.

"I did not get where I am by neglecting my injuries, Roronoa, which is something you seem to do frequently. I understand that your ship's doctor was quite a marvel, but even he cannot perfectly mend injuries that are aggravated again and again. This" – Mihawk gestured at the gashes on Zoro's legs – "will not, I think, be the worst injuries you will suffer in training with me. So you had better rest. And let her do what she can for you, though she is no doctor."

"I'll have you know that Doctor Hogback taught me a lot!" Perona glared at Mihawk. She took out a bottle of medicine that Zoro presumed was antiseptic of some sort, and fished around in the box for some other things.

"Then I trust you will apply his teachings," said Mihawk as he swept out of the room.

Zoro couldn't help a tiny flinch as she cleaned up his wounds. He gritted his teeth. He'd been through worse. These injuries weren't life-threatening, at least.

"I think these need stitches."

Those were the first words she'd addressed to him in days. It felt a little odd. Then her words sank in.

"What?" he yelled. "No way am I letting you touch me with anything even resembling a needle!"

And those were the first words he'd addressed to her in days.

… … …

In the dining hall, Mihawk heard Zoro yelling and Perona shouting back. He shrugged to no one in particular, leaned back in his chair and took a nap. Later, his diary entry read:

#965

They're at it again. These children. Sometimes I wonder if they secretly enjoy fighting with each other. It is entirely possible. They're both such exaggerated personalities they could be comic book characters and it would be just like comic book characters to secretly enjoy the quarrels.

… … …

Perona looked at her handiwork. "Not bad, even if I do say so myself."

"Oh, shut up."

"This is only the second time I've ever stitched anyone up on my own. I think I'm allowed to have a little pride in my work."

Zoro looked murderous – or as murderous as a person with injured legs lying prone on a bed could look. "Only the second time?! And you – you dared… You could've made it worse! It hurt like hell too!"

"Please!" said Perona with a roll of her eyes. "Didn't you heal just fine after Kuma sent you here? Need I remind you that I treated all your wounds then?"

"All you did was slap on some medicine and bandage me up! And for all that you learnt from that crazy doctor, your bandaging skills could use some work." He eyed the clumsy bandages.

"Well, excuse me for not being a perfect nurse!" she snapped. "Can't you even say 'thank you'?"

She stomped out of his room, intending to return to her own. Irritation rose and bubbled over. He was just so ungrateful!

But then, said a little ghost in her head, he's injured and he's probably upset that he has to put his training on hold for a few days. And also… you know. There is that. Remember what happened last week with the diary?

Her steps slowed halfway up the stairs until she came to a stop. Truth be told, when Zoro had stormed out of the dining hall that evening, a sudden sense of guilt had descended upon her. Some part of her knew she was being mean, and Mihawk's remarks about allies and kindness just made her feel worse because he'd put it into words.

Her head dropped and then came up in a silent scream. Having a conscience was no fun.

Perona returned to Zoro's room with a tray containing sandwiches, a cup and a pitcher of hot water. He was clearly surprised to see that she'd come back.

"Here." She set the tray down on the table beside the bed. Then she noticed that he was now sitting up in bed. Her brows knit together. "Did you force yourself to this sitting position? You probably put extra strain on yourself. You should've just told me you wanted to sit up."

"I can sit up just fine," he grumbled. "I don't need your help."

"Sure you don't." Perona poured out some of the water into the cup.

"I don't need your help."

"Whatever you say." With that, she set the cup down on the table – a little too heavily, because some of the water splashed out – and left him to his own devices.

… … …

Several days into his enforced bed rest (and Mihawk had enforced it indeed by coming into the room in the morning and checking on him and delivering a few stern words of warning), Zoro found he had to eat his words.

His upper body strength was sufficient for him to manage to sit up on his own and move around the bed, but walking was another matter. He could walk unassisted if he had to, but it was painful and extremely slow going. The injuries had been a little too close to his knees for it to not hurt. Mihawk clearly knew this, and had either given Perona instructions accordingly, or she herself had guessed as much.

In spite of his rejection of her help on that first afternoon, she still returned periodically for various reasons. She brought him meals, tended his wounds, and (to his embarrassment) even helped him limp to the bathroom when necessary. Thankfully, her assistance ended at the bathroom door. Tutelage from Hogback or no, Perona was not actually a nurse and Zoro could not have borne it if she had insisted on helping him further than that. She also left one of her ghosts behind in his room most of the day as a sort of watchdog which went running – or flying – to her whenever it thought Zoro might need assistance with anything. He wasn't sure if he was more irritated by that or more thankful for it.

She only spoke to him when she absolutely had to, but Zoro found that he could not continue to ignore her as he had originally intended. He grudgingly began with a nod of thanks, with the occasional muttered "thank you." She said very little in return, merely nodding back or saying, "You're welcome." She maintained the general silence, however. Zoro was fine with that. Or he was for the first day or two.

He got bored. Terribly bored. He couldn't train with his swords, and doing things like lifting weights from where he sat wasn't the most interesting activity in the world. Yes, sleeping was quite a hobby of his, but he couldn't actually sleep round the clock.

But worse than the boredom was the realisation that he'd become more accustomed to the constant hum of activity on the Thousand Sunny than he'd imagined. Franky and Usopp's tinkering with their various hobbies always produced a variety of background sounds. And Luffy's loud and cheery voice, or his rubbery bouncing from one place to another. The occasional rattling of kitchen stuff from Sanji. Chopper, Nami and Robin were the quietest, but there was still the sound of their voices, and of their movements aboard ship. Then there was the sea; it was probably the most constant sound on the Sunny.

Here at this gloomy castle where the world's greatest swordsman resided, a strange almost-silence reigned. The silence was due in no small part to the fact that there were only three people in the entire castle – no, on the island. Only one of them was naturally inclined to be chatty and that one person was currently not speaking much to him.

Though he wasn't the conversational sort, he became aware (much to his chagrin) that he missed her chatter. It had made the castle feel a little bit more like the Sunny. With barely five full sentences of conversation a day now, Zoro found the silence was beginning to eat at him. He needed to do something before he went out of his mind.

.

.

Author's Notes: Many, many heaps of thanks to Namibean for giving me so much encouragement and reassurance! This fic is proving to be quite a challenge for me... I probably wouldn't have gotten far without her feedback! (And if you haven't checked out her SanNami stories, you should!)

.