[Author's note: 1. My birthday is this week, so I thought I'd share it with you all and post an extra chapter. Enjoy!
2. Several of the trainings that Karmen starts are continued throughout the story, but never mentioned again until their use becomes relevant. I will try to be better about that, but some things do not come into play for several chapters, and therefore, several months. I will go through what I have already written and try to give reference notes.]
Karmen watches Zoro lifting his 500 kg weights with Chopper and Vivi. "Not that I mind, but don't you guys have something else to do?" he asks as he swings the pole again. "2,673."
"Not really," Chopper admits. Vivi shakes her head but turns her attention to the ocean politely.
Karmen lies back on the deck and watches Usopp fishing. "Hey Usopp, can you set me up a sandbag's course?"
Usopp and the other crew members blink at her. "A what?"
He was still confused as he set it up for her, hanging small sandbags and pulleys from the ceiling in the storeroom. "So you want us to throw these at you and you're going to try to dodge them?"
"And hit them, or stab them, or whatever I manage."
"I used to do the same thing with giant logs," Zoro comments.
"Not all of us are insane," Nami murmurs. "But this is a great way to practice fighting skills. I may give it a try when you're done."
"Me first!" Luffy grabs a sandbag and chunks it hard. Karmen ducks as it zooms overhead, bursting open against the far wall. "Oops."
"Luffy, why don't you wait until I've had a bit of a warm up," she persuades. He agrees without hesitation and the crew sighs with relief. "Ok. Don't go too easy on me, but half of you just need to tap them at me." Sanji gives a sandbag a gentle push and it lightly bumps her shoulder. "Use your feet, crap cook."
"Yes, madam crap secretary," he hums. She can't help but smile at him. Then a sandbag slams into her back, sending her sprawling.
"Sneak attack!" Zoro yells.
"Why you dirty-" Sanji stars, but Luffy's laughter cuts him off.
"He got you good!" Luffy laughs so hard he falls off the crate he had been perching on. Sanji was about to kick him in the head, but Karmen laughs as well.
"Yeah, I guess he did." She stands up and smooths her shirt. "Let's try that again." Vivi sits with Karoo on barrels as the crew scatters around the room to prepare attacks. Usopp pushes one with some force behind it and she dodges it easily. Nami goes next, trying to take her from the side, but Karmen spins under it. Sanji halfheartedly kicks one at her and she sidesteps it. "I know you guys can do better than that."
Zoro grins. "You asked for it." Three sandbags hit her at once. Once she steadies herself she waves for them to continue. They throw so many sandbags at her that she only dodges a third of them before she instinctually slides to the side and catches one in a thunder clap. She instantly swings herself into a reverse turn and dodges four bags at once.
"Now there's an idea," she purrs. She lock steps to avoid a bag that swings mere centimeters in front of her nose and does a high kick, pulling a gancho to capture one. That's when a bag slams into her side and her foot slips out from beneath her, knocking her flat on her back. "Right. I need different shoes."
"Shoes?" Sanji asks.
"These ones don't' slide very well," is the only explanation before she runs downstairs. When she returns she is wearing her red outfit which is now has sleeves that flare around her hands loosely pinned in place.
"I thought you went for shoes," Zoro says, raising an eyebrow.
"They didn't match. Besides, I want to try something." Karmen pins the veil to her hood. "If I do this right, I won't get hit nearly as much."
"I don't see what difference an outfit will make, but here we go." Sanji kicks over another sandbag. She jives under and quick steps around eight more bags. She falls into the splits as two bags collide over her head. Kick flipping up, she combines a foxtrot and a rumba to dodge her way through a larger barrage. She cha cha's under the next set of bags and sambas to block three that come at her from Zoro's position. Testing her balance without a dancing partner, she dips herself as a bag slides over her from Usopp. She lunges under some from Nami and pulls two quill pens out of the side of her boot.
Karmen finds that if she moved her arms and hips like a cha cha and rumba she can slice nearly all of the bags thrown her way and if she moves her feet to a quickstep at speed of a Charleston she can dodge all the rest. Using these newly applied techniques, she only gets hit by three bags. She incorporates the tango, flash step, and paso doble into her turns and ducks and finds herself actually enjoying this form of training. She dodges all but two of the next round.
She has done this all her life. And when she has the red veil over her face, she can be herself. Usopp yells, "Get her!" and nine sandbags come at her from all directions. She triple spins into a lunge, slicing each bag open as she descends. She ends with her left hand by her extended knee and her right arm curving forward. Luffy punches a sandbag towards her. She rolls under it, using the momentum to fling a quill and pin the bag where it explodes against the wall. She exhales in fierce control.
Unpinning the veil, she removes the quill from the wall. She turns and finds the crew slack jawed and wide eyed. "I've never seen anyone fight so… gracefully," Vivi admits.
"What…. was that?" Usopp asks as she lowers her hood.
Karmen holds a fist in front of her mouth and grabs a fistful of her skirts in embarrassment, mentally chastising herself for dancing in front of the crew and the princess. "Rotten grape dodging," she lies. "Back home, when I was a kid, there were a group of boys who always tried to hit me with rotten grapes when I wore my best dresses. You can't hurt what you can't hit." She looks around the room and notices that only three bags remained unscathed. "Sorry, Nami. I guess I'll have to repair the bags before you can try."
"Do you have a name for that last move?" Nami asks.
"I think I'll call it the Scarlet Spiral."
"So changing clothes makes you fight better?" Luffy asks.
"Only if you associate muscle memory," Chopper says.
"Zoro! Let me wear your stomach scarf!"
"No!"
"Is that why you never eat anything with grapes in it?" Sanji asks.
"Partially," she admits. It isn't a complete lie with the location being the same. Back home there were rows and rows of grapes, and rotten ones meant bad things. "You guys go on ahead. I'll clean this up."
Sanji picks up a broom before she can get to the cleaning supplies. "It would go faster if we all helped. Besides, you'll get your lovely dress dirty." Karmen brushes an inch of sand off her shoulder. Her dress is already filthy. She shakes out her skirts and makes an attempt to help anyway. Zoro grabs three brooms, setting one in his teeth. Nami picks up one and holds it like a staff. Before she can move, all the sand on the floor is swept into a neat pile. Usopp and Chopper scoop it into a box while Luffy washes the floor. "Now we can all go relax on the deck."
Karmen laughs. "You guys barely let me clean anymore. I'll join you in a second. I'm going to go change back."
They leave her and the door swings shut behind them. Through the porthole window in the door, Zoro sees her turn graceful circles across the polished floor.