The girl who crossed the sea

When two souls understand

Her eyes strained to watch the ever move of the big bird as it sits on the ground. It sits, no sudden movements but a it cocks it's head left and right watching her eyes move just the same. She crouches in the open, frozen as if unseen but the bird doesn't move. She can't tell if this hawk, this predatory bird will attack or flee. Neither of them move.

All is silent, even the bell on her collar.

Alas, living with Mihawk has been somewhat strange and sharing the mansion with Persona even stranger but never once was I unwanted. Always having something to do, always somewhere to be, but never forced to be or do anything.

" I've left something in your room for you. Take a look at if after you've eaten." His voice hold so much authority that I still feel uneasy when he speaks but I know that he is kind. Maybe the kindest manI have met so far in this world. As usual, he doesn't look up from his latest paper and continues to drink while Persona and I finish our meal.
After so many weeks, he has become somewhat of a father figure to me. Maybe it is because I have a hard time remembering my own father that I look to Mihawk for guidance.

My father, he was the town's doctor and before the white lead outbreak, he was well liked. Diane and I were kidnapped before the outbreak had gotten bad so I do not know what exactly happened to our parents but I'm sure that they are dead. If not, Kid wouldn't have become a pirate. He would have followed our father in becoming a doctor for the town, that was all he had ever talked about. I had lost him, my father, I lost him before I could find my way back to them to make good memories. Only me. Diane and Law, even our youngest sister remembered him perfectly. From his hair to his everyday shoes, his smile and even his laugh. Diane would talk about him everyday to pass the time in our metal jail while we were captured yet me, I couldn't remember a single thing.

" What's causing you to play with your food Layla. " He startles me with his question.

I say what on my mind at that exact moment and feel the dripping of tears form my eyes. Not that I am afraid or sad. Some how, I pity myself. The life that I am forced to live.

" I will die one day, only know as the Joker's fool and nothing more. Just as I do not remember my own father, no one will remember me."

I feel a gentle hand on my head. I failed to notice Mihawk standing and standing beside me. He's looking out the window into the dreary scenery with a simple hand on my head, maybe doing his best to comfort me.

" Walk with me." He holds out his hand for me and helps me out of the chair, leading towards the rooms.

" I never married nor did I ever take a lover. " He starts and I can't help but look up at him I wonder.
" I never thought that I needed a family. I wanted to use every speck of life I had to reach my goal. To be the greatest. Not pirate king or to find ONE PIECE, I didn't even care for the marines. I simply wanted to be the greatest, the strongest there is. Along the way, I became a pirate and while being a pirate, I became warlord so that I could move around freely and continue becoming the greatest." He pauses as we reached my room. He faces me.

" over the years, I killed, captured, and worked like a dog for the marines but I never once abandoned a blade. After so many years, after obtaining my current sword, I realized something." He opens the door and I see a long box laying innocently on my bed.

Walking closer with caution, I see the gleam of a beautiful silver blade.

" I will not always be the greatest. I do not even remember the name of the man who stood where I am before me. When I die, when my time comes, because I never married, took on a lover, or had children, I don't have anyone to carry on my legacy. I made enemies of possible apprentices, I turned down any who wanted to learn under me because I know that there can only be one strongest. I had no interest in training the next greatest but my legacy. When years pass after my death, who will carry on my will, to battle to become the next greatest."

This is the most I have ever heard him speak, noting the fact that I have probably found out more about this man than the marines have found out in all of his life time.

" and then I saw you."
I pull the blade from the box and inspect it under the light. It truly is a beautiful blade. The hilt is worn but sturdy. The sheath is newly polished and a single phrase is scratched into the butt of the hilt. to be brave

"Just as I was thinking back on my past I saw you running towards the water, gasping for breath desperate for escape. Weak, pitiful, and more than anything afraid. It was a whim for me to bring you here. I thought nothing of it. Maybe to ease the loneliness I felt at that moment. But now, it has only been 2 months and I can not remember myself before meeting you. For the first time I thought that maybe being the strongest isn't all that matters."

I swing the blade slowly to watch the light reflect off of the silver and finally come to face the greatest sword man.

" I will raise you to be my successor. You will be my legacy so perhaps one day, when you are old and have children of your own you will speak of me with pride as if I am your family. I will not be simply remembered as Taka no me, but as Dracule Mihawk."

He finishes his monologue and all I can do is stare at the great swords man before name.
He doesn't move as I walk into him. I refrain from wrapping my arms around the man but I stand in his presence, head against his chest, listening to the calm sound of his head beat.

" I will always remember you Mihawk. As the greatest swordsman I have ever met and as the man who saved a helpless girl from drowning in herself."

A surprise to me, I feel his one arm wrap around me, as if hugging me too himself.

Neither of them moved until the hawk let out a shrill cry before ruffling his own feathers while down turning it's head to watch from another angle. The cat unconsciously follows the movement an lay on the ground and finally, their eyes meet.

Heterochromatic eyes meet the golden eyes of a hawk.