16 Chapter 15

Everyone was panicking after what happened. The cooks and the guest of the restaurant were screaming how they are doomed. The Don Krieg pirates from the ship were scrambling about and jumping into the sea. Everyone from my crew, expect Zoro, was terrified at witnessing that power, even I was scared at this. It's simply amazing how strong can one person be. That attack was not even close to his true strength, looking at how relaxed his posture is and his blade still behind his back.

Zoro was ecstatic to see him and had a mad look on his face, he was barely able to control himself. Moments, later a platform was raised from underneath the Baratie and Zoro immediately jumped on it.

"Mihawk, I set sail to meet you and fight you." Zoro challenged him.

"You are weak and I have never even heard of you. Show me you are worth to fight, by dealing with those fools." Mihawk pointed at the pirates, from the ship he cut. The whole time he was talking, he didn't stop staring at me. For a moment there I felt paralyzed being stared by those yellow hawklike eyes. I felt like prey in front of an apex predator.

"Capture those fools for me and I will fight you." After saying that, he jumped and landed right in front of me.

"Where did you get the hat from?" I was barely able to keep my cool under his stare, but I did my best to keep eye contact.

"It was given to me by a friend and I promised to return it to him, once I become a great pirate." He kept staring at me and I didn't know what to expect to happen next. I was hoping to Oda, he doesn't straight up slice me apart.

"You don't seem that special, what's your name?" He didn't kill me so that's good. I tried my best, to not stutter while saying my name and once I did, I heard him chuckle.

"And your plans for the future?" Mihawk was still staring me with those hawk eyes, but I was already getting used to the pressure, so I was a bit more relaxed.

"To become Pirate King and find One Piece along the way. There are also a few more other things I have in mind that I would like to do." Despite getting used to his stare, I still felt pressured and suffocated by his presence. It's one thing reading about, but it's a whole other thing being the presence of a powerhouse like Mihawk.

"You Monkeys always have a weird way of thinking and you remind me of him when he was younger, but without a sword. The person that challenged me, was from your crew right? He will die if he fights me. Are you going to let that happen?" Mihawk asked me.

"That's his dream, that's the reason he pushes himself every day. Zoro set sail to find you and beat you, even if he is weaker than you, he will still fight you, simply because that's his dream. His dream is what's pushing him forward. I won't stop him from trying to achieve his dream."

While we were talking Zoro had already dealt with everyone from Don Krieg's pirates, including Don Krieg himself. The reason Zoro wasn't able to learn Soru with the help of Zeff was that he focused almost solely on Rankyaku and to produce wind blades even with his swords, which he had great success with. Zoro was almost able to cleanly cut steel now, he had the biggest gains from Zeff's torture, aside from me, despite being a sword user.

Hawk-eyes seeing Zoro comeback, jumped to the stage and pulled out a small knife from the pendant on his chest. Zoro got really mad thinking that Mihawk is looking down on him.

"Do not think of me underestimating you, I have already gauged how good you are with a sword, so I will simply show you the difference in our skill."

Zoro definitely is a genius with a sword, considering he can even use it with his mouth. In the future, he will surpass him. Unfortunately, right now Mihawk is on a completely different level.

Throughout the whole fight, Mihawk was parrying and blocking all of his attacks, while also attacking him at his weak points. A couple of minutes after they had started fighting Zoro calmed dawn. Once Hawk-eyes noticed that he started pointing out his mistakes.

"How are good your skills with only two swords?" After five minutes of fighting. He took out his Yoru, the large sword on his back. Mihawk cut one of Zoro's swords into two and asked him this.

"How good are your skills with only one sword?" Eight minutes into the fight, Zoro was left with only Wado Ichimonji in his left hand.

"How good are your skills without a sword?" Mihawk aimed to cut his last sword, but Zoro positioned himself in the way of the strike and took it himself. He was sent flying in the water, Johny and Yosaku jumped after him, but he managed to pull himself out.

"Come fight me again in a few years once you have improved." With that, a gigantic whirlwind appeared. Moments later, it disappeared Mihawk and the pirates Zoro captured were all gone with it. Has he eaten a Devil Fruit as well? How did he do that?

We got Zoro back on our ship so that we can bandage him up. He a nasty wound on his back, starting from his left shoulder until his waist. It wasn't life-threatening, but he will need to rest for a long time to recover.

While Ussop and I were patching him up, Nami had gone to Don Krieg's ship and salvaged everything valuable she could find. She looked extremely happy and told me with the amount of money she found there, she now has enough to buy of Cocoyasi Village from Arlong.

This whole vent turned better than I expected. Honestly, the moment I saw Mihawk, I thought we were all dead, luckily we survived and Zoro even had gained a lot from that fight, despite losing two swords.

Don Krieg, on the other hand, was surprisingly weak. With the tough fights with Buggy and Kuro, I thought he will have a Logia fruit or something like that, but Zoro had easily handled him and his crew. Unfortunately, I had not seen Gin at all, I was thinking of maybe inviting him to the crew, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I wanted to let Zoro sleep on the bed in the Captains Room, however, Nami kept refusing by saying Aisha hasn't recovered yet. I'm pretty sure that is just an excuse to continue using the room with her.

The past three days Nami was the only one that white-haired girl shared more than, what she told me the first time we talked. After that, she spoke no more than a few more words with the man on the crew.

From what Nami learned she was from a rich family named Jolderik, in the Asena Kingdom. The family is known for the great hunters they have produced in the kingdom and that the family members have jet black hair.

The kingdom is located on Amarok Island. The symbol of the kingdom is a wolf and that the animal is considered sacred there. Almost every family there owns a wolf. For a tradition, the citizens of the kingdom hunt a fox at the end of each month and offer it as a sacrifice to their wolf. Those who present special foxes are believed to have better luck for the following month.

A week ago, Aisha was gifted a fruit from a family that always was on good terms with hers. After eating a bit and tasting how horrible it is, she didn't eat any further, but the deed was already done. Her hair turned white and she suddenly felt some weird power in her gut. Aisha instinctively transformed into an animal, a fox to be exact.

Some of the servants that were around her at that time of her transformation, though that she is the most special fox someone can sacrifice and went to inform the elders of the situation. A few others stayed to make sure she doesn't escape and the rest stayed to protect her. None believed her that the fruit is the cause of her transformation since they tested and nothing happened to the other people who ate it.

She was somehow able to escape with a few of the remaining servants, but her family had offered a five million Berri bounty for her head. Having nowhere to go in the kingdom, they managed to get a caravel and escape to sea. Unfortunately, the marines had caught them and the rest we all witnessed.

Since Aisha had opened up to Nami, they had started sharing the room together since the bed is pretty big. At the very least she looks better and I am pretty sure she had recovered already.

Zoro didn't care if he sleeps on a bed or on the floor and simply got laid on a hammock and fell asleep instantly.

Nami was excited she had enough money for her village and wanted to leave immediately to go there.

I really wanted to get Sanji for the crew, however, no matter how many times I asked him he always refused. Zeff brought him to train with us for the last two days, but he kept denying my requests. I tried, but I don't want to stay here forever, despite the improvements, thanks to the training from Zeff.

When I went to find Zeff and told him that I would be leaving today, he smirked at me and said: "So you are leaving without upholding your deal. "

"I tried and you saw, he doesn't want to leave this place, so won't force him to do it." I even promised him that we will see mermaids on our adventure and that didn't work.

We started talking about a few random things and I asked to buy some meat and vegetables from him. He agreed but said he will charge me more since I didn't convince Sanji to leave. I couldn't do much about that and I don't want to starve on the sea, so I had to agree.

After we stocked the food and gave him the money, we were saying our goodbyes. Zeff and a few cooks that we got closer throughout our stay here, were there saying how they will miss us.

Before we left, I saw Sanji coming with a backpack and two sacks. He said he will join the crew and that he had already decided that the day we spoke.

Sanji apparently went to talk with Zeff later that day and told him he is considering joining me. Zeff even encouraged him to do it and to follow his dream. He also told him that he should join us only right before we are leaving and to refuse me every time I ask him before that, in order to rip me off before I leave. The old bastard was laughing the whole time when Sanji told us that.

No one from the crew was against him joining since they all liked his cooking and though he is a nice guy. Considering he was also tortured by Zeff with us, we had already created a small bond just with that.

I didn't really know what to do with Aisha, as she didn't want to be left on the Baratie and she didn't want to join my crew when I asked her. Apparently, she has told Nami, she would like to stay with us for a bit and decide what she wants to do later.

With that, we were on way towards Cocoyasi Village and I already have six crew members, yet I still need more, due to the size of this ship. I wonder if Aisha would join us and if there would be anyone else who would join us before going to the Grand Line.