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Law looked at Ariun as she stalked out onto the deck in her leopard form. She spotted him and walked over to him, "Law."

"Ariun-ya," He had to admit her leopard for looked rather amazing in the sunlight, "Is there a reason you decided to walk around like that?"

Ariun shrugged and sat down next to him, "I felt like it," She continued to speak before he could ask her why she had come outside, "Buck and the others do not need my help at the moment, so I decided to come outside."

Law nodded upon hearing that, "Today is a rather nice day."

"That it is," Ariun looked up at him, "We will be reaching our first Grandline island tomorrow right?"

"At noon if the conditions stay favorable," Law replied with a slight smirk.

Ariun was silent for a while and Law turned his gaze towards the waves. The next island was a spring island which would most likely have a wide array of things they could use. He knew his more overzealous crewmates would be happy to visit the brothels on the island if it had any. He hoped they would encounter some type of marine or pirate ship along the way. Not only would it give them more supplies and money, it would also allow his crew to stretch a bit. He was broken from his thoughts when Ariun spoke again, "Have you decided how you're going to punish me yet?"

He looked down at her with a quirked eyebrow and teasingly asked, "Why so willing to get punished?"

She continued to look at the sea and for all the world it seemed as if she hadn't said a word. He admitted to himself that it was slightly unnerving. She spoke after a few moments, "I'd rather just get it done and over with. I find no use in drawing such things out and would rather not have it held over my head."

Law supposed she was right about there being no use in drawing out her punishment. He however was baffled by the fact he hadn't been able to come up with one yet. With a small chuckle, "I suppose you're right, but there is a small problem," She looked up at him and he could see curiosity swirling in her eyes, "I have yet to find a suitable punishment."

Ariun let out a small chuffing sound, "Really?"

"Yes," He set his hand on her head and lightly scratched behind her ears causing her to purr, "It's hard for me to find ways to punish you," He removed his hand after a few moments causing Ariun to huff at him and move away slightly, "You're a rather hard person to punish,"

Ariun let out a purr that sounded like she was humming, "How do you punish Bepo?"

"I make it so he can't eat fish for awhile," He answered with a raised eyebrow, "Why?"

"I love eating fish," She replied with a small shrug, "Why not use that?"

"I could, but I need to do more than that," It was a simple punishment which honestly sounded much better than anything else he'd thought up so far.

I shrugged my shoulders and yawned, "You'll probably think up something soon."

I walked over to the middle of the deck and curled up. I felt Law's eyes on me, but ignored it as I closed my eyes and began to sun myself.

Law was writing down some information he had found in the book that he hadn't known about Ariun when Bepo's voice came through the speakers, "Captain! We need you in the control room!"

Law bit back a sigh and closed Ariun's file before putting it away. He headed out of the infirmary and made his way towards the navigation room. When he opened the door, he was surprised to find Ariun standing next to Bepo. She looked to be trying to calm down his panicking head navigator and first mate. She caught sight of him and said, "Bepo you need to calm down. Law's here."

"Captain!" The bear shouted and immediatly rushed up to him, "We're being followed by a marine ship!"

"Are you certain?" He asked with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Yes," Bepo answered, "What do you want us to do?"

"Prepare the ship for a fight," He replied with a dark smirk.

Ariun looked at him as Bepo rushed about with the other navigators. Someone began to shout orders as Ariun walked over to him and asked, "So we're going to attack them?"

"Yes," He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Scared?"

"No," She was smirking slightly, "I was wondering what you would like me to do,"

Law was surprised to hear the question before remembering that Ariun was still new to the crew. He contemplated the thought and toyed with multiple things before deciding, "I want you to stick near me and keep the marine's off my back."

Ariun nodded her head before looking out of the window where a group of fish was passing by. She spoke after a few minutes, "Do you think I should be in my human form or my zoan?"

"Human for now, but if you feel the need to transform, do so," He replied wondering why she had asked.

She nodded head, "Very well."

Blood splashed against the ground as the cries of Marine's echoed around me. The other members of the crew were hard at work fighting them. I've barely had to fight which was a small shame, but I guess it wasn't too bad. Law had room up and a few marines were cut up inside of it. It was rather fascinating to watch him work, but I kept my eyes and ears on the world around us. A marine charged at me and I tossed a dagger at his throat with deadly accuracy. He fell with a gurgle just a few feet from me and I bent down to grab my dagger. I dimly noted that it needed to be replaced and mentally sighed at that fact. I would need to go to the weapons shop on the next island and see about procuring some new ones. Shaking my head lightly, I returned to my position behind Law. He glanced at me and asked, "Something wrong?"

"I need to go to a weapons shop on the next island to pick up some new daggers and maybe some other throwing weapons," I replied while focusing on the slowly diminishing marines, "Am I to assume that you'll want me with you again?"

"Yes," He placed a marine's head on top of someone's foot with arms sticking out of the poor soul's head like bunny ears, "You look rather bored,"

"This isn't that challenging," I heard Kuro let out a whoop as he once again smashed some poor idiots head in, "I love fighting challenging battles. Fighting lower ranking marines is turning out to be very disappointing," I grimaced as blood splashed against my cheek and some marine fell to the ground with a slit throat, "It reminds me too much of fighting idiotic thugs,"

"So you enjoy fighting tougher opponents?" Law inquired as another marine charged at me.

I nodded my head as I took out my bladed staff and watched boredly as the dumbass skewered himself, "You don't get stronger by fighting those weaker than you. If you fight those that challenge you, you will grow stronger with each fight regardless of winning or losing since you will always learn something new."

"You wish to get stronger?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded with a small smile that left my face as I twirled my staff around causing it to slam into the neck of the charging marine. The marine's neck broke with a sharp crack and he fell to the ground like a broken puppet. I felt Law's eyes on me as I swung my staff around and slammed the bladed end into a marine's chest. The marine cried out as I twisted my staff and kicked him off of it. I answered Law's question while ignoring the feeling of blood dripping onto my cheek, "Yes I wish to get stronger," the sound of fighting decreased revealing that the fight was almost over, "I wish to protect those that are important to me. In order to do that, I must become as strong as possible."

"So you wish to become stronger to protect those you love?" Law clarified making me nod with a slight smile.

"Yes and no," I tossed my bladed staff into the last marine still standing outside of Law's bunch of puzzle pieces, "I wish to become stronger for another reason, but only time will tell if that reason will ever show itself,"

Law watched her walk away from him in order to retrieve her bladed staff leaving him to wonder what the other reason was. He mentally shook himself and finished off all but three of the marines. He spoke to his waiting crew, "I want these three taken to my secondary lab," Shachi, Penguin, and Kaze grabbed hold of the still shell shocked marines, "The rest of you are to go onto their ship and get anything worth taking," They cheered and took off, "Ariun-ya," She looked at him from the back of the group, "I've decided to have you aid me in my experiments on those marines as your punishment."

Ariun nodded though he was surprised to see her skin pale somewhat, "Okay."

He walked over to the railing of the ship and watched his men work. Ariun followed him silently which was something that unnerved him, but he ignored it.

After everything of value was taken from the marine ship, Law sunk it. I followed Law back inside and he turned to me as the door shut behind us, "Go get cleaned up."

"You aren't going to work on those marines yet?" I asked trying to ignore the slight fear that rose up in my mind.

"No I plan to do that at a later time," He replied and I felt a small amount of relief, "I need to see if anyone has been injured," He eyed me, "Did you get hurt?"

"No I don't believe so," I didn't feel any pain which meant either I wasn't injured or the injury was small.

Law seemed to be thinking along the same lines as I was, "If you come across any wounds no matter how small, come to the infirmary. They may be far more serious than at first glance."

I nodded and left Law to go to my room. I could feel the blood that had gotten on me at various points during the fighting start to dry. I hoped that none of it had gotten in my hair since blood was a bitch to get out. I closed my door behind me and put my weapons on the table in my room before stripping off my clothing and heading into the bathroom. I grimaced upon seeing the fine white strands in various parts of my hair splattered with blood and sighed softly.

Everyone was eating lunch and boasting over their accomplishments during the battle. Law was listening to them with half an ear while wondering where Ariun was. Bepo seemed to be wondering the same thing, "Where's Ari-chan?"

"Most likely still in the shower," Kuro supplied making Law frown.

"Why would she still be in the shower?" Shachi asked with a raised eyebrow, "I thought she wasn't one of those girly girls,"

"She isn't for the most part," Maki said causing the other occupants of the table to look at him, "The only thing she really takes pride in is her hair,"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Penguin asked while frowning slightly.

"Storm's hair is white for the most part right?" Kuro asked and gained multiple nods, "We were just in a fight and Storm most likely got blood on her hair,"

"Blood stains white stuff easily and is hard to get off," Bepo murmured in realization, "Ari-chan's hair had blood on it and she's most likely trying to get rid of the red color,"

"Yup plus her white hair is one of the only things that she has left of her mother," Kuro nodded his head while Maki sighed.

"Kuro," Maki said as the group looked at the brown haired male, "You are not supposed to talk about Storm's mom,"

Kuro's eyes widen while the group frowned, "Oh shit!" The green eyed male looked at them in panic, "Don't tell Storm that I told you that! She'll kill me!"

I finally got out of the shower and shivered as the tip of my tail twitched. My eyes narrowed as I dried myself off and I mused, "I wonder what Kuro did this time."

Somewhere in the New World...

"Captain!" Someone shouted.

"What?" Said Captain looked at the one who had interrupted his pleasant dreams.

"The Kitten has a bounty!" The entire crew stopped and looked at the man before the Captain took the bounty poster from his hands.

He stared down at the grin on the girl that he hadn't seen in a while and chuckled, "Well Ariun it seems that you've grown," He turned to his crew, "Let's party!"

End.