Chapter Four

Heyoo! It's been quite a while! As I said before, I'm absolutely terrible at updating on some sort of schedule. I keep procrastinating dammit!

(Please don't kill me.)

One piece is, and never will be, mine. It belongs to GODA

(Fortunately enough, I would have messed it up long, long ago)

Arrie's POV

Deep breath Arrie, deep breath.

Why is it always so nerve-wracking to walk down a corridor?!

Maybe because your, most likely, walking to your doom?

Thanks brain, you're so reassuring…

I sighed inaudibly, and glanced over at Kei. He seemed to be completely calm with his blank expression.

I guess I'm not the only one who's nervous. Kei can shut out any outward emotion so easily, it's always disorienting, but…

I never want him to gain another ability the way he did again.

Don't go down that hole, focus.

I heard a door opening, and looked up to see Whitebeard holding his office door open. It seemed like we had arrived, way to soon.

Kei's POV

I subtly sent my sister a worried glance. She wasn't usually so out of it in new places. If anything, she would have her guard up, being almost paranoid with her surroundings.

Whitebeard motioned us to sit on a blue comfy sofa opposite himself. We sat there in silence, not awkward, or comfortable. Just silence. Eventually it was broken by Whitebeard laughing loudly with amusement.

Again with the amusement!

"Gurarara! You don't have to be so uptight! You aren't in trouble!"

I flinched at his loud voice, and I saw Arrie doing the same out of the corner of my eye. There was power behind that voice. Was he testing us somehow? Arrie shifted a bit, a sign she wanted to say something.

"Why are we here?"

Her voice was blank, but you could detect nervousness in it if you really listened. Whitebeard observed the way Arrie narrowed her eyes, and tensed as if she was ready to attack any second. Whitebeard seemed to consider his words carefully before speaking with a nonchalant tone

"Your father was a student here, a friend, and a real troublemaker."

Neither of us missed the way he put a barely there emphasis to the word friend.

I of course couldn't keep my excitement in check, and started spouting question with no time for anyone to answer.

"Really? How was he? Was he part of a crew? If so, which one?"

Whitebeard answered me readily.

"Yes. He was a cheeky brat. Yes. He was on Rogers crew."

My eyes shone in delight, but a frown made it on my face. Did he know?

I looked at Whitebeard, and asked my question with a carefully constructed monotone voice that didn't give anything away.

"Do you know what he is?"

Whitebeard gave a nod, and started explaining,

"I found out on accident, he was afraid of telling anyone from fear it would impact the crew negatively. If anything, when the crew found out, everything got better. The crew threw one of their biggest parties ever, and your father finally felt totally at ease since coming to the school. He could finally be himself."

Some humor flashed in Whitebeard eyes as he continued.

"The pranks that followed after the party will never stop being humoress. "The Awakening" they called it. Everyone was at least affected once. It did stop being as frequent after a while, but you could hear someone new cursing Akito everyday."

My grin couldn't get any bigger, and even Arrie got a small smirk imagining the things that could have been done. I exchanged a glance with Arrie, and I could tell she was thinking the same as me.

Now we have something to live up to, don't we? Who would have thought our dad did all this? A real devil.

Arrie was slowly relaxing in her seat. Trusting Whitebeard not to attack, but was still a little tense. Finally the words she wanted to say, were said.

"So, you're okay with, this?"

The question was hesitant, Arrie showing her hesitation was pretty rare. Better not fuck this up Whitebeard.

And he didn't, a tension I didn't realize was still in me was released at his next words.

"Every student here is precious, and I accept every single one of you."

A comfortable silence fell upon us, nobody daring to break it as we basked in the calming air.

"Thank you."

It was barely above a whisper, but it was loud in the silence of the room. Eventually we had to go, so Whitebeard stood up from his seat, sending us a smile.

"You two should get going, wouldn't want to keep you from your friends any longer."

Arrie, and I bowed as one, giving the biggest smiles we had yet to give to anyone here, and left without another word.

All this on the first day.

As we walked back to our dorms, Arrie turned to me with slight awe in her eyes.

"That was both the most intense, and most calming experience I have ever been through."

I couldn't agree more.

Arrie's POV

I waved at Kei as we split up to get to our separate dorms. It was time to pack up our stuff.

I made my way inside my dorm, taking off my shoes, and started opening one of my bags. I looked at the mess inside the bag with a slight frown. This is going to be a pain.

Time skip (More like laziness)

As I had thought it was a pain to sort through the clothes I had shoved into my bag. I had a slight ace in my back for sitting for so long folding all the clothes. Took way longer than it needed. I threw myself on my bed, sighing in bliss on the soft surface, and started typing a message to Kei after finding my phone.

"Have you finished packing up?"

The response came almost immediately

"I have, you?"

"Yup. how's the new D.M?

"He's cool! A strong swordsman I tell you! Don't think I can beat him either..."

"We could probably beat him together. What do you think about the crews?"

"They're interesting, you wanna join one?"

"Depends. We should wait, and see which one would be best for us."

"Alright. Sooo, what's with your D.M? Awfully comfortable around him for a stranger."

"Dunno. I just am? Oh, and he knows I'm a girl."

"How did that happen? You're usually much more careful!"

"I fell on him, and he figured it out, but he seems okay with it. Makes things easier, I don't need to hide anything in my own dorm! Not that I'm really acting how I am."

"That's true, sometimes you're even more like a boy than me!"

"Yup."

We finished up the conversation, and I lied in bed for who knows how long, before I heard the door open, and Law coming in. I contemplated on keeping quite, but curiosity got the better of me.

"Where have you been?"

Law looked at me with one of his eyebrows raised showing his surprise on the otherwise neutral expression.

"Why do you ask?"

"Curious."

He started searching for something as he answered me.

"I was with Straw hat-ya's crew, and mine. We have some sort of alliance going on. Don't know how it happened though..."

The last part was mumbled, likely not meant to be heard. I hummed in acceptance before asking another question.

"How many crews are there in the school?"

Law seemed successful in finding what he wanted, a medical book, and sat down on the edge of the bed before explaining.

"There are many crews in the school, but a specific number is hard to get. It changes to often for anyone to bother keeping track of every time a crew disbands or comes up. It's usually the worst when we get new first years."

I I thought about the explanation, There' more to it than that.

"Aren't there crews that last? Like yours, and the Straw hats?"

Law nodded slowly as he rested his head on his unoccupied hand which was being held on his elbow.

"There are, quite a few actually, it's usually big weak crews that recruit constantly to stay, or supernova crews, crews that have at least one supernova in them."

"What's a supernova?"

"It's someone exceptionally strong, and gets responsibility over some territory to protect, and take care of on the grounds of the school. The school relies on supernovas, and teachers to protect it, the stronger the supernova crew the more land they get to protect."

I was interested in the school system, it all seems to have something deeper behind it... I observed Law quietly as my curiosity peeked. Law seems like the kind of guy who would get annoyed by all the questions I was asking, but he seems completely fine with it.

Is that weird?

"The school library has a book about how everything in the school works, you can borrow it, and if you have any questions you can ask me."

Is he really the kind of guy that would offer all this help to someone that is basically a stranger?

"Okay, I'll do that."

Law made himself comfortable on his bed, opening up the book he had been holding dur time ing the time we were speaking, and started to read.

I sent a quick message to Kei saying to meet me at the library, pocketed my phone, put my shoes on, and headed towards the door.

"The library is on the second floor, center building."

I sent a small grateful smile at Law before stepping out of the room, sending another message to Kei telling him where the library was, and continued on my way.

Kei's POV

When I entered the dorm I saw that Zoro was already inside scrolling through his phone as he sat in bed. He had looked up when I came, nodded in acknowledgment, and went back to his phone. I went over to my bags, and started unpacking all my things. Shouldn't take long.

Small Time skip

I looked at my empty bags in satisfaction. It had only taken me a few minutes to put all my already folded clothes, and things where I wanted them. Arrie wouldn't probably finish until an hour or two. She did just stuff all she wanted in her bag…

With nothing to do, my eyes wandered over to look at Zoro, in what I thought was discreet way, before he said anything.

"Are you going to keep staring or are you going to say something?"

I jumped slightly at his accusation. I wasn't staring that hard, was I?"

"You were practically boring holes into me, who wouldn't notice?"

A light blush made it's way to my cheeks at his claim. He can read minds as well?

By now Zoro had put his phone down, and was now looking at me. I looked right back into his eyes, starting a starring contest. I became a bit nervous as Zoro slowly got a feral grin on his face. The silence was deafening before it was broken by Zoro.

"Are you up for that spar?"

I blinked in surprised first, but I quickly got a maniacal grin rivaling Zoro's feral one. All traces of nervousness gone to excitement.

"Sure."

But the moment was short lived as a frown replaced my grin.

"But I don't have permission to use my swords..."

Zoro looked at me like I was stupid. His gaze kind of made me feel a bit dumb.

"Then we get permission."

"Y-yeah"

Was that a stutter? Did I just stutter!?

...damn, it seems Arrie is not the only one acting weird…

"Take your swords, and let's go."

Zoro was already walking towards the door as he said that, and I quickly followed after him picking up my sword on the way.

Come on Kei, get it together.

We walked, and walked, and walked… We kept passing the same place every two minutes. Lovely. I got a bit confused, where we lost?

We made it back to the same spot we had just been two minutes ago.

Yup, we're lost

We kept walking for ten minutes without any progress, Zoro getting more frustrated by the minute, and I finally spoke up.

"Are we lost?"

Zoro blushed, the blush was barely there, but he blushed. He mumbled a quite "maybe" under his breath, not looking me in the eye.

Cute.

…

Wait, What!?

Keeping my calm facade, and not showing any of my inner turmoil, I chuckled quietly.

"Let's go to the reception, and ask for help.

Zoro didn't say anything as he followed after me, grunting doesn't count as speaking. Somewhere I took a hold of his hand so he didn't turn any more wrong turns while walking in a straight line.

It was ridiculous, like, really? Just really?

We eventually found our way to the reception where we saw a woman sitting instead of the old man that was there this morning. She looked up at the sound of our footsteps, and seemed to immediately focus on Zoro's, and I's still connected hands. I quickly released his hand which made the black-haired woman chuckle.

"I'm Shakky. Did you get lost?"

The question was more like a statement, if anything, her pointed look towards Zoro said enough about his "direction tendencies". I guess I'll spare him a little of the embarrassment.

"Not really, we want to find someone to give permission for my weapons, so we were walking around."

She inspected my two short katana hanging at my sides for a moment before picking up a phone, and dialing a number. There was a few beeps before the one on the other end answered.

"Hello Ray, we got another one. Interesting too."

The other person on the line, Ray, seemed to have said something funny, because Shakky snickered into her hand.

"Yes I'll tell them. The usual place? Okay, goodbye."

She hung up the phone, and stood up from her seat. She looked at us with a smile as she spoke.

"Shall we go? You have a challenge waiting."

Zoro smirked in satisfaction beside me. I quirked an eyebrow at him. Why was he satisfied?

What is happening? I'm confused…

"You're going to be fighting Rayleigh to get your weapon accepted."

Huh, isn't that exciting.

In no time we were entering a very large gym hall, and in the middle of the hall stood Rayleigh with a sword in hand. He smirked when he saw us enter. Shakky nudged me forward, and a walked towards Rayleigh until I was only a few meters away from him.

"So you fight with short katana, I hope you're ready for a little sparring."

I unsheathed said katana from where they lay hanging on my sides, and didn't waste any time before attacking. Rayleigh wasn't fazed by my attack only dodging to the side. I wasn't deterred in the least, as I continued my assault. To an outsider it would have probably looked like a blur was coming at Rayleigh from all directions. I relied a lot on my speed in a fight, but it didn't mean I was weak either.

I picked up my speed succeeding in making him use his sword to block a few of my swings he didn't dodge in time. All this happened, and he was standing still. I did however notice that with every swing he blocked with his sword he moved slightly backwards, barely noticeable. Rayleigh seemed to approve of something before he suddenly moved. I blocked the oncoming swing with both my katana. Giving me any chance to get my bearings back he started coming at me in quick succession.

It went like this for a while, me blocking, and dodging, sometimes getting to retaliate. I was panting lightly when he jumped back, and moved faster than any of his previous movements. I couldn't block or dodge in time, ending with a sword hovering over my neck. I sheathed my swords as he pulled his sword away.

"Why can't you use your full strength? You would have probably been able to get a hit."

I was a little surprised at his words, almost no one noticed that I wasn't using my full strength. I let a mischievous smirk take over my face as I answered him.

"My most important treasure isn't here to make me stronger."

Rayleigh raised an eyebrow at me.

"And what would that be?"

"The other devil."

Rayleigh let out a laugh as he looked at me with a knowing smile. Not the most common reaction you get.

"Whitebeard has a troublesome bunch this year."

Isn't that true.

Rayleigh threw something towards me, catching it, I curiously looked i over. Some kind of bracelet?

"Your weapon pass, you don't need to wear it, just have it on you if someone asks."

I shrugged and slipped it on. It was a surprisingly sturdy gray thread with a pearl the seemed to have clouds in it. Very fashionable for a weapon pass.

When I turned around, and started walking towards where the other two were, I saw Zoro with an excited grin. What's got him so excited?

I raised an eyebrow towards him ready to ask why when a phone sounded in his pocket. He fished the ringing phone from his pocket, and answered.

"What is it Ussop?"

Zoro listened to an answer nobody, but him heard. He didn't seem to like what he heard, because he started frowning in annoyance.

"Are they seriously doing this before school has even officially started? Yeah, yeah. I'll be there in a moment. Yeah, sure. Bye."

Zoro stuffed his phone in his pocket muttering about bloody jerks.

He looked at me sheepishly as he explained the situation.

"The spar will have to be put on hold for a moment, and if we have time we'll spar today or sometime during the week. Wanna exchange numbers so we don't have to go hunting for each other?"

I agreed easily enough, and soon enough Zoro was jogging out of the hall towards wherever he had to be. My eyes lingered on the door Zoro had closed behind himself. I guess I have to go back now…

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned around coming face to face with Shakky.

"You two look cute together."

It took me a moment to get her meaning, and I turned bright red at the implication. I heard Rayleigh sigh from where he stood as I tried to stammer out a response.

"T-there's nothing like that going on!"

She chuckled knowingly, pushing me towards the door. A sign to get going. I bowed at both of them, my face still red, and made my way out. As I walked I contemplated what I had felt before.

Why did I feel disappointed when he left? It's just a spar, and he had to go help a friend. Then if that's the case, why did I feel relief of all things when he asked me to exchange numbers?

…

Meh, I'll figure it out eventually.

My phone buzzed indicating I had gotten a message. I turned on my phone, and saw Arrie's name come up. She probably finished packing.

We exchanged a few words, I told her about my sparring with Rayleigh, getting my weapon approval, and how I still haven't sparred with Zoro yet. What has happened so far at least.

"I'm planning on joining the club Mihwak, the guy with the big black sword, runs. I'll train, and beat you so we don't have a draw again!"

"Like I'll let you beat me so easily, we'll have to spar, and see who wins after training."

"Yup, and I'll definitely win."

"We'll see about that. See you in a bit?"

"See you in a bit!"

I shut my phone, and continued the walk to the dorm building. At the entrance of the dorm building I got another message from Arrie saying to meet up in the library.

Where is the library?

I decided to wait outside the building. Arrie will be out any moment anyway.

I got another message from her telling me the location of the library, but decided to wait for Arrie anyway. Soon Arrie came out, and blinked in surprise when she saw me.

"Was on the way back when you texted me."

She made an "O" shape with her mouth, and nodded in understanding, and started making her way to the central building me right beside her.

Hello, again! So how was that? I suck at a lot of things, especially fight scenes, so I hope I didn't disappoint anyone to much with the spar scene. Personally, I'm not really happy with the chapter, feels really jumbled, and like a filler. I'll be trying my damn hardest to get the plot moving next chapter. Excuse any faults in the story, I try.

Let's all just give a slow clap to my updating skills.

I really appreciate everyone reading this, it's weird. Someone actually like this story!

Well, anyway, I'll see you next time! (Whenever that is..)