Across the Ocean (Zoro x OC)

7 - Goodbye

"One more."

She snorted through her nose. Straightening up with aching muscles, Akiko saw him restoring the distance between them. Then he gave her the signal to start a new attempt.

Akiko took the first step forward, a second followed, and covering the next meters, she drew her shinai as if she was wielding a real katana in order to come up with a diagonal blow from below.

As before, Zoro held his own practice sword at eye level, ready to parry the pre-coordinated sequence. The redhead approached him, carrying out her attack, and was immediately repelled. She was supposed to use the resulting momentum for a backhand blow, which he parried, too. Now Akiko would side step, raise the shinai above her head, turn on her own axis and strike from above - blocked. She would then have to push him aside. Should... but-

"Focus, damn it!"

Zoro's gruff voice just brought her back from her thoughts, when she had been planning to branch off of the sequence. He already knew her well enough. An alternative movement pattern had probably just occurred to her, but his loud tone startled Akiko so much that she literally lost her balance. He took advantage of this and gave her a counterattack with the broadside of his sword, so she had trouble catching herself instead of wiping the floor with her butt. However, her defence was finally broken and Zoro made short work of it, gritting his teeth in annoyance: rushing forward, he brought Akiko to the ground by tackling her hard in the side - what a brute!

The woman felt how the narrow end of the katana handle stung into her waist. A groan escaped her throat. The sharp, fine stones scratched her skin, when she hit the ground. She immediately supported herself with her forearms because the shinai flew out of her hand and slid a few meters further. She wanted to grab it, and at the same time she wanted to complain to Zoro whether it was necessary to treat her so roughly. However, she could not even take a single breath, let alone sit up properly: Zoro pushed her back by her shoulder and rammed his shinai into the ground next to her head. Kneeling over her, his right foot planted firmly on the soil, he pressed his left knee against her hipbone to symbolize that she could no longer escape and that their fight was over.

This was how most of their practice matches ended: Another point for Zoro.

Johnny and Yosaku, who were watching from a safe distance, swallowed in awe. Of course, they had followed the two out of curiosity as they announced to go to a nearby field, on the outskirts of town, to train. Very close to the coast and therefore also very close to their ship.

In this field, the boys were hiding behind a parked farm cart.

If they got closer, they would definitely have a better view, but given the subtle and obvious aggression that were about to explode, they decided against it. That was also the real reason why they had followed Zoro and Akiko like two detectives in the first place: They had pondered what this enormous tension between the swordsman and the cheeky redhead this morning was about.

"Shouldn't we better leave?" Yosaku interjected quietly, not feeling well. "If we'll get discovered, our number is up."

"You're right. It would be better, but..." Johnny hid himself back into the save spot they had, too. "It seems, Aniki didn't just get up on the wrong side of the bed, after all."
"Anego isn't making things easier, either!" Yosaku commented, also pulling his head back, remembering the scene only two hours ago:

The redhead had come into the dining room for breakfast in a similar bad mood like Zoro and had not been the most talkative member during the meal. You could usually get her into talking a bit - and if it was only for a few sentences, even since she had become so reserved - but today it had not worked out. Akiko had eaten her mean and had drunken her coffee in total silence.