Author's Note: Hello, everyone! First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the long wait. I am so, so, so terribly sorry that I haven't updated in so long. A lot of things happened between now and the last time I updated, and I was caught up in it all. My studies also played a part in the delay. ;u; Moving on, I will still be continuing Devil Origins. However, and much to my regret, I cannot make any promises about weekly or biweekly updates, etc. I can tentatively say the next chapter should be up by the end of September, though.

Again, I'm very sorry that I haven't updated in forever. It did make me very happy to see that my fanfiction was still getting viewed and stuff when I logged back on today, and that's what drove me to finally upload chapter four. c; Thanks so much for the continued support, guys! Seriously, your reviews and kind words motivate me to keep going. Enjoy the latest chapter, and please consider submitting a review when you're done reading!

The usual disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

Chapter Four - Of Blades and Bloodlust

9:07 AM. May 7. Lawn Deck. Floor 3, Thousand Sunny. Open Sea. New World. Grand Line.

They were out on the ship's lawn deck now. Yumi and Zoro stood at opposite ends of the grassy terrain. Their crew mates watched them from the tables and chairs set up nearby.

"I hope they don't damage the Thousand Sunny," Franky muttered under his breath as he watched them.

Yumi unsheathed her katana at the same time as Zoro. He'd selected Shusui for their match.

"Not going to use your traditional three-style attack?" Yumi called out. She'd heard much about Zoro's swordsmanship from fellow pirates and Marines alike. They all said he was extremely powerful, but she needed to win no matter what. She didn't want to have to explain anything to him.

"It's to make things fair," Zoro called back. "I think one sword will be more than enough, though." Yumi's eyes narrowed into thin slits. He was clearly underestimating her.

Red Carnage seemed to vibrate under her touch, almost as if it was eager to draw blood. It sent a similar fighting urge throughout her body. The blood that had been imbued into its blade… she could not afford to disgrace it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I'll get this over with quickly.

A moment later, her eyes flew open.

"Demon Howl," she uttered, slicing diagonally upward from her left hip. A shadowy projectile ripped through the air that seemed to scream as it raced towards Zoro. Yumi started charging forward before it had even reached its target.

"One Sword Style: 360 Pound Cannon!" Zoro swung his arm forward, sending an equally powerful projectile that countered Yumi's. The two attacks met head on and canceled out, earning some gasps from the other crew members. Unfazed, Yumi spun as she neared Zoro, lashing out with a spinning cut that Zoro quickly blocked. From there, they exchanged several rounds of close-range blows.

"I almost can't keep up with them because they're moving so fast," Chopper commented out loud. "They look like they're dancing!" Beside him, Usopp wordlessly nodded his head in agreement, keeping his eyes glued to the match. If he took his eyes off of Yumi or Zoro for one second, he'd definitely miss a large chunk of the action.

"You're as good as they say you are," Yumi remarked. She and Zoro currently had their blades pressed against each other. Both of them were pushing forward with all of their weight in an attempt to force the other down, but neither was budging.

"You're not too bad yourself," Zoro smirked, straining to knock her down through sheer strength. She needed to end their deadlock.

In one fluid motion, she suddenly spun to the side and held her katana straight up, using it to keep Zoro's weapon away from her while she spun. Then, without missing a beat, Yumi brought it straight down upon the green haired swordsman. She wasn't surprised when Zoro quickly stepped back and brought his katana up to parry the blow. In fact, she'd been hoping he'd do that.

She slammed her sword hard against his, using the impact to boost herself up and do a somersault over his head. As Yumi spun in the air above and passed him, she used her spinning motion to launch a twisting projectile which quickly transformed into several projectiles that spiraled outwards. "Spinning Hell!" Zoro was forced to jump back and block the projectiles that came at him. In the meantime, as soon as Yumi landed on the ground, she swiveled on her heel and came at Zoro with sword raised.

Her heart pounded heavily against her chest as she did so. A familiar rush of exhilaration and bloodlust coursed through her body, heightening her senses. It was only a simple challenge, not a real match with the enemy, but she was on high alert. She didn't face tough opponents like Zoro too often. Without her noticing it, Yumi's breath started getting more and more ragged, and it wasn't because she was tired.

She was hungry for blood.

Suddenly she was slashing wildly at Zoro, her every movement deadly and precise. Yumi wasn't even thinking anymore. Her body just moved on its own, years and years of experience and pure instincts taking over. With every blow she aimed at Zoro, her pace seemed to pick up a little. Zoro noticed this, of course, and was startled by the intensity of her attacks. Her movements had somehow changed in the middle of the match. Glancing at Yumi, he was even more surprised to see the look in her eyes: they had the intent to kill.

Something had changed in her.

"Shit," Zoro cursed to himself as he quickly parried several strikes from Yumi. He was forced to defend constantly against the woman's relentless onslaught of attacks, and she was only getting faster and faster.

In just a split-second, the entire situation changed: an almost sadistic smile, a small but powerful projectile of compressed air added into the barrage of sword strikes, and then Shusui flew far above his head, lodging itself into the lawn deck several yards behind him. Yumi was already thrusting her sword at him for the finishing blow by the time he'd registered what happened.

She was going to kill him.

Don't stop.

The thought repeated itself in her mind. Other than that, Yumi didn't think. Her mind was in a haze as she kept striking at her opponent. All she needed to do was win like she'd always done and survive. She merely moved with the intent to kill.

Kill?

Who was she fighting again?

And then the haze was lifted from her mind, the thirst for blood dissipated. She saw Zoro standing in front of her without a sword, her own speeding toward him, and her eyes widened.

NO!

Her arm came to an abrupt stop, the tip of her katana less than a centimeter away from plunging itself into Zoro's throat. Yumi was breathing heavily, much like she had that morning when she'd first woken up from her nightmare. Her eyes were still wide with shock as she looked at Zoro. He was staring back at her with equally wide eyes, eyes that reflected a swirling mess of emotions she couldn't quite make out.

She'd almost killed him.

Without a word, she sheathed her sword and turned around. She barely saw the other crew members – all of them wore shocked expressions and looked as if they'd jumped up from their chairs in a hurry, probably because of what had almost happened – and marched past them, heading for her room. For a moment, no one spoke. Then:

"Yumi… beat Zoro…" Franky's voice was quiet with disbelief, and then everyone unfroze and began conversing in low tones at once. Zoro made no move to join his crew mates. He stood where he was, his heart still racing from what had occurred just moments before. He'd lost the match and nearly died in the process. The green haired swordsman could still see Yumi's eyes full of murderous intention. One thought plagued his mind.

"What was that?"

9:31 AM. May 7. Yumi's Bedroom. Floor 2, Thousand Sunny. Open Sea. New World. Grand Line.

Yumi slammed the door shut behind her, locking it before sliding down to the ground. She brought her shaking hands up to her face and stared at them.

She'd almost killed Zoro. For a moment, she thought she saw blood on her hands just like in the nightmare she'd had.

Yumi let out a choked sob before squeezing her eyes shut.

In the deepest crevices of her heart, she could still feel the bloodlust raging inside of her.

3:08 AM. May 8. Yumi's Bedroom. Floor 2, Thousand Sunny. Open Sea. New World. Grand Line.

Yumi awoke with a start. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead.

Another nightmare.

This one had been worse than the last. She glanced over at the clock hanging on the wall. It was 3:08 in the morning. Breakfast was still a few hours away. After the duel with Zoro, she'd stayed in her room all day. Sanji had had to come by her room and drop off meals for her. She just hadn't been able to face Zoro after what had happened.

She shut her eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but her pounding heart made sleeping impossible. With a sigh, Yumi got out of bed and left her room, quietly shutting the door behind her so she wouldn't wake the others. She wiped the sweat off her brow as she headed for the lawn deck, intending to clear her head with fresh air.

Stepping outside, Yumi found that the night air was cool. She silently made her way across the lawn deck to the railing. The moon cast a glow over the calm water, lighting up a path across it. Looking out over the sea at night was calming, she thought. Her heart rate was finally returning to normal when she heard quiet footsteps from behind her.

Spinning around, her eyes met Zoro's. He abruptly stopped where he was by one of the entrances to the men's quarters, eyes widening at the sight of her. An awkward silence settled between them. She tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind. Yumi eventually turned back around to face the sea. She heard Zoro unfreeze and move toward her.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked when he'd finally reached her side. The swordsman focused his gaze on the sea.

"…Yeah. You?" Yumi answered quietly. Zoro gave a brief nod before they fell into silence again.

"I'm sorry for earlier," Yumi spoke again. She turned to look at him with apologetic eyes. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

"Why are you apologizing?" Zoro turned to face her with a slight frown. "I asked for a challenge and you gave me one. I lost, so as promised, I'll stop prying into your past and do what you want for a day." Despite his words, she could sense he was still curious about her past, though he was trying hard to hide it.

"But I almost killed you-"

"'Almost'," Zoro pointed out. "I wouldn't have let you kill me. I'm not that weak." She was about to respond with, "You don't know for sure", but thought better of it, letting the matter slide.

"You didn't lose," Yumi said instead. Zoro raised an eyebrow. "I didn't really win." I need to make amends. She owed him an explanation.

"How?"

"During the match, I unconsciously drew powers from my katana," Yumi explained. She hesitated before continuing. "My katana… I mentioned before that it's imbued with blood. Without realizing it, I started controlling the blood around my blade and manipulated it so that the blood hardened, making the sword stronger and harder. I… kind of got carried away after that. So you see, I wasn't being fair at all. Besides, I would have definitely lost if you'd used three swords instead of one. We can call it a draw-"

"A draw is the same as a loss to me," Zoro interjected, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked imposing in the glow of the moonlight. "So I'm going to keep my end of the deal no matter what you say." There was no use arguing. His eyes held a steely determination. He was a surprisingly honorable man, and Yumi couldn't quite say she hated that about him. She was quiet for a moment.

"You said you wanted to know whose blood my katana was imbued with if you won… and what I was hiding. I still think it's a draw, so I'll tell you a little bit," Yumi finally said. She almost couldn't believe she was about to tell Zoro some of her secrets. The green haired man seemed just as surprised as Yumi felt. Maybe it's because I want to be honorable, too. "The blood that's on my katana… It belongs to my parents." There was a faraway look in her eyes as she glanced off to the side.

"They were murdered a long time ago." Zoro's eyes widened.

"How did it happen-" Zoro started to ask, but quickly caught himself, remembering his end of the deal. His mind was swirling with questions for the young woman before him. Yumi blinked, returning her gaze back to Zoro.

"That's right. Don't forget about the deal. It's a story for another time and day," Yumi chuckled softly. Her voice suddenly dropped a little as she reached out to take a hold of the ship railing. "I'll tell you one other thing about myself… it relates to my powers and what happened in our match today. I didn't mention it during my explanation of my powers yesterday because I didn't want the others to know, but I'll tell you as an apology gift."

With a mind still full of questions, Zoro gave a small nod, indicating for Yumi to go on.

"When I told everyone about my Devil Fruit ability, I only talked about the basics and benefits of having it," Yumi's hands tightened on the railing. "I didn't mention how there was an issue with the Chi Chi no Mi. As far as I'm aware of, no other Paramecia fruit is like mine in this matter. The ability to control blood is powerful, yes, but it comes with a price other than not being able to swim like all Devil Fruit users… It affects me on a mental level." Once she started talking, the words spilled out of Yumi's mouth like a waterfall. She'd held them in for so long it almost felt good that she was letting them out to be heard.

"Maybe it's because the element I control is blood, or that I kill a lot of people, or even both, but sometimes when I'm fighting, I lose control of myself like today. Bloodlust takes over me. I usually don't realize what I've done until after the bloodlust wears off, but there are times when I forcefully break free like I did in our match. Those times rarely occur, though. These 'bloodlust attacks', as I like to call them, have happened more and more frequently this past year. I never know when the next attack will hit, or when they do come, if it'll eventually wear off or not. I might never snap out of the next one." She let go of the railing and looked at Zoro with a wry smile.

"I'm slowly losing my sanity."

In that moment, Yumi suddenly looked so fragile to Zoro, so vulnerable. She was trying to hide it, but he could see the agony and despair she felt in her bright eyes. He'd looked into the eyes of hundreds of enemies over the years, eventually learning to discern the various emotions he saw in them. Hers were among the most emotional and sorrowful Zoro had ever seen.

At the same time, she seemed so strong. Yumi was like fire, he thought. It could flicker and almost go out, but until it did, it kept burning intensely. He felt a sort of respect for her then that almost overrode any suspicions he still had about her. How long had she been fighting the bloodlust attacks?

He wondered what exactly she'd gone through to have eyes like those.

It was her greatest fear: losing the part of her that made her who she was and becoming a mindless killer. Her goals made weakness impossible, however, and she'd learned to keep the fear locked away. Every now and then it threatened to overwhelm her, but she pushed it back down and fought on. Her powers had become a part of her. Without them, she couldn't accomplish her goals.

Yumi watched as Zoro's eyes seemed to search her own, looking for something there. She abruptly turned away so he wouldn't see the fear she felt, letting her hair hide her face. She waited for him to say something, anything. The silence was almost unbearable.

"…When the world shoves you around, you just have to stand up and shove back," Zoro finally said, recalling words he'd spoken two years prior[1]. His hand tightened into a fist at his side. He could still clearly remember how powerless he'd been against Kuma at that time. "It's not my place to say this, but… don't let the attacks control you. Fight back against them. I don't think your fate is to succumb to those stupid bloodlust attacks."

Despite not knowing her very well, when he looked at her, he couldn't imagine her losing her sanity in the end. It was the same when he looked at Luffy; he couldn't see any other fate for him other than becoming the Pirate King, but perhaps that was also partly due to the fact that Zoro had such unshakable faith in his captain.

"How do you know my destiny lies elsewhere?" Yumi wanted to know. She desperately wished he was right, but her fear told her otherwise.

"I just do," Zoro shrugged. Yumi stifled a derisive laugh. She should have known. "Hey…"

"Yes?"

"Can I see your sword?" Her eyes widened.

"Why?"

"I'm a swordsman. Isn't that reason enough?" Truthfully, Yumi's sword had been on his mind all day. He felt drawn to it like a moth to flame.

Yumi considered his request carefully. She didn't see any harm in letting him see it…

Without a word, she headed to her room for Red Carnage.

"Here," Yumi handed Zoro her sword when she returned from her room. She watched nervously as he took and unsheathed Red Carnage, examining it by the glow of the moonlight. She had never let anyone else touch her sword before. It was ridiculous, but she half expected Zoro to cut her down right there and then with her own sword.

Yumi's fear vanished when she saw the gentle way in which Zoro handled Red Carnage and tested it out with light swings. She could tell he cared for swords deeply.

Reassured that Red Carnage was in good hands, she leaned back against the railing and silently observed Zoro.

The first thing he noticed was the bloodlust. It was faint, but he could sense it as he held Yumi's sword up. Zoro immediately thought of Sandai Kitetsu, one of his three swords. They're both "problem children"… They seemed to have minds of their own. Compared to Sandai Kitetsu, however, Red Carnage appeared to be more vicious and bloodthirsty.

"I can feel its bloodlust," Zoro murmured as he swung Yumi's sword about. She said nothing but looked a little surprised. Zoro stopped swinging the sword and stood still, narrowing his eyes in concentration. He could sense other things besides bloodlust. A moment of silence passed, and then he exhaled.

"I see."

Yumi was surprised to find out that Zoro could sense her sword's thirst for blood, but then again, she shouldn't have been. The man had a reputation as a swordsman. It was to be expected that he held a strong affinity with blades. So when he suddenly said, "I see", her curiosity was aroused. What exactly had he sensed other than the bloodlust? She voiced her question out loud as Zoro sheathed her sword and handed it back to her.

"It's very temperamental. It'll only obey you, its master," Zoro chuckled. She thought she understood what he meant. A serious expression took over Zoro's face. "…Your sword has been through a lot and killed many people, but it won't rest until it gets revenge." Yumi's eyes widened. Before she could say anything in response, Zoro shook his head.

"I already said I wouldn't ask questions," he reminded her. She blinked with grateful eyes as he started heading back to the men's quarters. Zoro reached one of the entrances and paused there, one hand on the door. His next words were so quiet Yumi almost didn't hear him. "…Thanks for telling me stuff, though." He pushed the door open and disappeared through it, leaving Yumi to stare at her sword. She thought about the long conversation she'd had with Zoro and gripped her sword tightly.

"Whatever fate lies ahead of us, we'll share it."

[1] "When the world shoves you around…" – This quote is from episode 377 of the anime. Zoro said it to Bartholomew Kuma after getting seriously injured along with the rest of his crew mates at Thriller Bark.

Hopefully Zoro didn't sound too OOC in some parts, especially towards the end and when he told her 'thank you'. I thought that he'd gained enough respect from her strength (both physical and mental) to lose some, not all, of his doubts about her and be able to give thanks.