It's a long flashback.
"Lets see where to start from." she said to herself as she placed her finger to her chin to show she was thinking as Zoro remember that she did the same action from the time that he asked her in the desert.
"Oh now I remember...okay here we go," Alisha sounded as if she had a ephihany at that very moment.
"There were two major things that change my life. The first thing was a family and a very personal thing so you are going to have to ask Ace for permission to know that knowledge," Alisha paused when she saw everyone looking at him but he continued to eat his food when he nodded a 'no' to the group.
"Okay, well then you all won't know about that but anyway...I was in a town at the time when I realized that I wanted to hone my skills with my sword so I decided that I should find a local area to train. When I entered the dojo it was a rather decent size but something caught my eye. It was a rather young fellow guarding the door as if to guard certain people from entering or was probably waiting for someone to come. So when I entered the man recieve me rather cold and rude and I asked for entrance as a student. I came to learn that I would have to fight a fellow student, and I must add majority of the students were males with only a select few females in the dojo. I was pited against a young man by the name of Yue, who had been there for quite a while." Alisha had twirled some noodles around her fork before putting it in her mouth.
"It was a grueling three hour match as we clashed, it was a rather tiresome match but somehow I managed to outlast longer than he did which was like a second before I collapse from exhaustion. After my initation, I soon began to have a relationship with my teacher, more like a father and daughter relationship, and it was all uphill from there." Alisha's voice sounded as if there was some type of hidden happiness.
"Whoever said that happiness never last, they hit the hammer on the nail with that one," Alisha continued as her tone sounded sullen with grief as she swallowed some water before starting up again.
"It was one day that the dojo was close and so we had nothing to do that day, however on his days off our sensei would run errands to town and we wanted to pay him back so he would allow us to do some of the errands for him time to time. Me, personally, I had the most since I had ranked at the top for all the good he did for me so I had more than anyone to do." Alisha had touched her hat one time.
"So it was starting to get late and I was the last one to finish up and I was returning to the dojo. I went to go tell him that I was heading home when I heard some whispers that soon turned into a plain shouting match between him and about three strangers' voice."
"Where's the money?" said a voice that was unfamiliar to Alisha as she pressed her ears closer to the door so she could hear what was being said.
"I don't know what you are talking about." My teacher claim as his voice was still calm as if he was teaching his lesson to his pupils.
"The monthly pay for protection of the town." Someone said when Alisha realized it was not the same voice that was heard. This time which means it was two people were in the room with her sensei.
"We don't have the money yet, give us another month," Her teacher pleaded with these voices.
"This was the last month for it," a third voice chimed in as they all sounded were gruff as if to try and scare my master.
"This will not go unnoticed." said the first voice in finality, when I felt the door move beneath my ears and with a sudden burst of being caught and suffering the consequences from the men or my master told me to run away.
"I ran to the front of the dojo, what I didn't know was that there was a fourth one waiting right there." She said while now devouring a spoonful of rice that she had picked up from a nearby plate
"What happen next?" Nami inquired after swallowing her chewed food as she was so into the story that she forgot to swallow.
"Those sorry excuse for men took me hostage and the other three raided the dojo looking for anything with monetary value. When they deemed it was unsuccessful they thought that my life was of some value to my sensei so they took me hostage. I woke to find myself tied to a tree, that was nicknamed the Big Oak Tree, as those four had made a fire and sat around it. It looked as if they were enjoying what all that the did to my sensei and his beloved dojo."
"I looked at the sky and saw that it was no longer blue but a mixture of a burnt orange with dark purple mysterious clouds in the sky and that is when I realized that the sun was setting on the sea. A shadow, that soon revealed itself to be my sensei, with something unusal on his head that I realized that it was a straw hat with a ribbon through it. I remembered thinking that he had looked a little werid with it on as it did not seem to fit his style." Alisha had touched the hat again which was lying right next to her.
"So did you bring the money?" the first man asked once my sensei made it a couple of feet away from the criminals and about a good yard away from my position.
"Let the girl go, you monster." Sensei replied almost sounding like a superhero coming to rescue an innocent civilian from the clutches of evil doers.
"Who you calling a monster?" replied the second man angrily, who sat next to the third man.
"My teacher had never even made a motion to touch his weapon when he took a step forward and was in front of me now and the ropes were falling down by my sides. I fell to my knees as I looked up I saw what would be the last of my teacher's life. I saw the third man, the one who was offended by his previous comment had pulled out a revolver from his belt line and pointed it directly at his back."
"It seemed that time had slowed down as I could hear the click of the chamber turning to a new hole that held a bullet in it, the pop of the gun as the man pulled the trigger, the smoke from the revolver, the bullet that twisted and turned until it landed in my teacher's back as his face, the one that gives me nightmares to this day countured in a way as if he knew this would be the last thing that he would do." She said as she placed the piece of shrimp that she was eating back on the plate.
"Did he live?" Chopper inquired as he wonder what became of her teacher.
"I'm getting to that part...he had fell onto the ground as the clothes he wore was soon soaked with his very own blood. I had ran over to see if he was still breathing or something. When I turned him over and could see the pain but something of a peaceful look on his face I could tell that he might not recover. He tried to speak something as I had to strain my hearing to hear what he was saying to me. All I remember next was that he had placed this hat on my head."
"Listen to me Alisha, do not let what transpired over here weigh on your heart as you already have in your heart. Don't forget the lessons that I taught you and whenever you need help look for me in the sky." He spoke his wisdom and advice with his last breath.
"That's my story behind my hat," she replied while touching the hat for the third time during her story as well as the now empty plate in front of her.
"Well if you need me, I will be on top of the roof." She said while putting on her hat and leaving them at the table as everyone was still trying to process Alisha's story.
Everybody was in shock except Ace and Luffy, "To see numerous deaths at that age," was the only thing said by Nami as she was trying to come to grasp with Alisha's story.
"Our sister does not consider herself to be strong, but to her she is still weak because she could not find the strength to save her family nor her extended family. The bad thing about it was that she had the power but could never put it to use." stated Ace as he had finished his fifth plate before deeming himself full.
"That's why on her birthday and the day after we celebrate the people lives that sacrifice themselves to save my older sister." said Luffy after dumping a plate of rice in his mouth.
Sanji, Chopper, and Nami were crying. "Guys, my sister does not want you to cry over her past, even though it is still hard for her to move on." said Luffy.
"Let's leave it at that nobody tells anyone, the best we can do right now is help clean up." Ace suggested while getting up and picking up the plates.
"You are right, Ace, instead of sulking let us help out a bit." said Zoro as he was tired from all the emotion that was running high at the table and was personally fed up with them himself.
Everybody was shocked that Zoro would be saying those kinds of things after all he was the stoic or rather heartless of the crew.
'Is Zoro developing a spot for my little sister? I might have to keep a eye out on him.' Thinking Ace as his protective side began to emerge after hearing Zoro's comment.
'This is unlike Zoro to be saying this, I hope he does not have a thing for big sis,' thought Luffy as his curiosity was getting the best of him after hearing Zoro's comment as well.
They cleaned up their mess, just then a knock on the door came as they looked at each other to see who should answer the door.