Chapter 38: Learning Swordsmanship!

"Why are you searching for Pirate Hunter Zoro?" Johnny asked.

"Well..." Rin give it some thought and said "I wanna learn swordsmanship from him. I heard he's a strong swordsman. I also heard he looks like a demon so I came see with my own eyes."

[You just thought that up at that moment, didn't you?]

'Saying something like "I wanna see him in real life because I'm a fan of One Piece!!" would be worst, right? '

[...]

"Teaching swordsmanship isn't his thing. Find someone else." Zoro stated. His face shows no emotion.

"Um... how would you know?" Rin asked.

'Pretending to be dumb is hard...' Rin thought.

"Because he IS him." Johnny explained.

"What..." Rin pretends to be shock by what Johnny said.

"Why do you want to learn swordsmanship?" Yosaku asked.

"..." Rin have an answer but she hesitated.

'Because right now, I'm too weak to save Ace or protect Luffy and Sabo... so I need to find more ways to fight.' Rin thought.

She changed her answer a bit and hesitantly said "Because... I... I have someone I wanna protect... but I'm not a strong person physically. I'm stronger than a normal person but if I have to fight someone who uses brute strength, I don't think I can win if I also fight with brute strength. That's why I need to learn more ways to fight."

If someone wanna ask Rin what makes her special in her previous world. She would probably answer, "The ability to adapt to anything." Why? Because she can kinda walk through any situations. For example, she sleeps in 50% of her classes for a whole year and still get an average score in every exam. How? It's simple, she adjust her mind to adapt to the questions and logically find the most suitable answers. This is also the reason why she appeared unfazed when she arrived in One Piece.

"...I won't teach you." Zoro said. He hold Johnny's and Yosaku's shoulder and said "But these two might."

"What-" Yosaku tried to say something but was cut off by Zoro.

"And I'll watch your progress from time to time." Zoro added.

Rin couldn't help but feel happy. "Really!?" She asked excitedly.

"Wait! We never agree-" Johnny tried to refuse but again Zoro intervene.

"She's a girl who wish to get stronger. Let's help the girl." Zoro said.

"...Fine..." Johnny and Yosaku sighed.

"How long can you stay at this village? We'll shorten the training as much as possible. I'm sure you have somewhere else you need to go." Johnny said.

'Somewhere else to go... not really. I have two years before Luffy sets sail but... staying on this island might disturbs Zoro's journey. And if Zoro didn't meet Luffy, that means Luffy lost a strong person in his crew. As his sister I can't let that happen!' Rin thought.

"Can you teach me the basics in one week?" Rin asked.

"One week! We can't teach anything in just one week!!" Yosaku shouted.

"Why not?" Zoro asked like it's not a problem at all.

"I don't know about you, Aniki but it took us longer than a week to learn the basics, so there's no way she could in such a short time!" Johnny explained.

"Just teach me anything you can in a week. Just learning how to hold a sword properly would help. I'll improve by myself on my journey." Rin insisted while putting her hands together like she's pleading.

Johnny sighed and hesitantly said "... Okay..."

"Wait are you sure!?" Yosaku asked Johnny.

"Well, we'll just teach her whatever we can in a week." Johnny answered.

"... Alright..." Yosaku reluctantly agreed.

'Yes! I can learn swordsmanship and befriended Zoro.' Rin thought.

"We'll start tomorrow. For now, let's go find something to eat." Johnny said.

"Okay!" Rin answered.

They went to the bar they intended to go (until Zoro got lost...) and had their meals. They chatted and introduce themselves to Rin and Rin did the same.