Hey everyone! I am not dead, yet...

I really have no excuse for not writing anything for literally a YEAR, except the fact that anxiety got the better of me.

I'll try to be more active even though I only have a month of vacation left...

~ Contains slight spoilers to the main fic(s) ~

The slight numbing pain felt in the entire arm and hand weren't the reason this entire training session was awful. But the hot weather in the middle of late summer were what made it intolerable.

A deep sigh emerged from the person in training as they fell to the ground in agony. These next seven months were going to be a major pain, literally.

"Paty..."a low commanding voice called, "...Don't tell me you're given up after only 7 hours of today's training."

Paty suddenly jumped up in retaliation. "No sir! I was just trying to catch up on my breath for only a second!"

She looked up to the tall commander who stood in front of her. If she wasn't messing around like she did around the beginning upon arriving, she would have been gushing over the fact that the person who was in charge of her extreme private training was really attractive to her standards.

"Say, Commander Ara. Why you become a leading knight in Castlellum?" she inquired suddenly.

Castlellum was a secluded island in the Grand Line, located in Paradise. It was an independent island, that lived peacefully because of the Knights, who were in their name; knights who protected the island.

But despite being peaceful, the knights were tremendously powerful with their Haki, which they controlled almost to a degree of perfection. Something the crew did surely not have in their amateur strength.

When the last shipwright on board, Vani, recommended at random to stop at Castlellum when they were in their third day of their escape, they weren't expected to be welcomed with open arms and no strings attached when they arrived. They truly never meant harm to outsiders because they were a practically unknown island

But when they found out the truth strength of the Knights, everyone then had the idea of becoming stronger by learning from them.

That was almost two months ago, and a year approximate to when she newly left Water Seven to start her journey and adventure...

"Me? Well I guess it was mostly because I desired to become stronger to protect others." he answered genuinely but seriously.

"What, that's all? No sappy story or tragic backstory?" Paty joked as she grabbed the pistol she was practicing with in the beginning.

Commander Ara looked up at the sky, his serious demeanor faded again once again, as he bit his lip before speaking once again.

"I also wanted to become strong enough to also leave the island..."

"Leave?! Why would you want to leave?!" Paty exclaimed all of a sudden as she felt her pistol become heavier as she accidentally stopped using Haki.

"Because I wanted to go find my brother. He had left the island when I was still young in age to explore the world. I know he is still alive because he left a Vivre Card before leaving..." as he finished he pulled out a piece of paper from one of the pockets in his chest piece inside his armor.

"Maybe one day, I can find him... I don't want to stop in his a journey though, I just want to confirm something that has been bothering me from the day he left, I'm sure he is the only one who can answer it."

Paty looked down to her now callused hands and pulled them to a fist. For a second, all her crew mates, old and new passed through her mind. She wasn't the only one going through training, she wasn't alone.

"I am also looking for my brother."