You have been sailing for the past weeks and still no island in sight yet. The food is slowly running out and you need to find an island asap. You have been sailing for a while until you found an island. Bingo!!
You steered your ship toward the docks and left the docks. You were walking endlessly on the island until you found a village up ahead. You were too tired from hunger as you slowly walk towards the village. Your vision has become a blur and then you blacked out.
When you opened your eyes, you got up and saw the boy with green moss hair looking surprised.
???'s POV
Who is she?? He found her lying on the floor unconscious on the outskirts of the village. When he told his sensei about you which took him a few days to get back to the dojo, his sensei told him to lead although regrettably, he took him in the wrong direction so he asked his student where you are instead.
When he found you lying on the ground unconscious, his sensei went back to the village to get help while the kid stay back to watch over you.
Your POV
He didn't answer but stared at you instead. Then he shook his head and shouted, "LISTEN UP. YOU'RE IN SHIMOTSUKI VILLAGE SO IF YOU TRY ANYTHING FUNNY, I'LL-"
"You'll what??"
"I- I'll use my swords to cut you!!"
"Pfft" you snickered.
"It's not funny!! Look, I'm serious that you better not do anything funny in this village!!" the little boy pointed his finger at you while his face reddened. You raised a brow. Why does this feel familiar??
"Sure, sure" you replied, and then the little boy left the room. You looked around and it seems to be a room(?)
"Ah, you must be awake" you turned to see a middle-aged man with medium-round glasses walking into the room with a tray of food. "You must be hungry. Your food is on this tray"
"Thank you" you bowed in thanks.
"May I ask, why are you on the outskirts of the village starving?" he asked.
"I was traveling on a ship alone but I ran out of food supply so I haven't been eating for weeks then I found this island which is how I found the village but I passed out after that" you explained.
"I see. You can stay here in the dojo for a while to regain your strength and energy" he said. "My name is Koushirou and this is my student, Zoro"
"Sorry for the trouble" you apologized.
"It's alright" he smiled and left with Zoro.
Now you're all alone and now that you've been energized, there are things you have to do before you leave the island. One of them is that you have to refill your food supply. After you finished eating your meal, you got up from bed and left the dojo.
While restocking the food, you overheard a commotion, something about a little girl dying. You were curious but shook them away as you shouldn't be too nosy with other people's affairs so you went back to find more food to restock.
After refilling your food supply and putting them in your ship, you decided to go back to the dojo. You walked into the scene to find out that the little girl is the teacher's daughter. You silently pray that she will have a better life in the next one.
"Ah, it's you again. May I ask why you're here?" he asked, noticing you standing by the doorframe.
"I came here to ask you if I can learn swordsmanship??" the little boy turned his head and shouted, "Are you kidding?? What's your reason to learn swordsmanship?!"
"Well, I know martial arts but I needed to be better equipped and I had never held a sword before so this dojo seems to be the right place for me to train" you replied. The little boy's head shot up and before he could say anything, his sensei stopped him.
"That's enough, Zoro. What's your name, girl??" his sensei asked. "My name is (First Name)" you replied. "Well, (First Name). I will allow you to learn swordsmanship although there may be some people who are not comfortable having a woman as a swordswoman. Are you still up for it??" he asked. You bowed to him in respect and replied, "I will be in your care!!"
Over the past few weeks, you have been training with the sword and you did quite well although Zoro is still wary of you. You tried to talk to him but he always ignores you or he escapes from your sight. Everything changes on that day.
______________________________________________________
One month later~
You managed to learn the basics of swordsmanship and you even found out that you're good with 2 swords. While you were training with your 2 bamboo swords, Zoro walked to you and raised his bamboo sword at you.
"(First Name), since you already know a bit about swordsmanship, I challenge you to a duel!! We will be using real swords!!" he declared.
Your eyes widened at his declaration. You, a duel with a kid?? You gotta be kidding right now. However, you always wanted to test out the skills you've been training for over a month. You asked the other students for a spar but they either refused or mocked you bc they don't want to have a duel with a woman and thought you were weak.
The students and your sensei are sitting at the side, watching your spar. You were holding 2 real swords while Zoro held 3. Two in his hands while one in his mouth.
"Zoro, you can do it!!"
"Yea, show the girl what you got!!"
You ignored their cheers as Zoro attacked first.
"Oni...giri!!"
You managed to block his attack with one sword as you put a bit more raw strength into it. The little boy was shocked that you managed to block that since no one could block it. He stepped back and tried to attack again.
"Tiger.....trap!!"
It was then you decided to strike. You parry his attack with one sword while you aim for his throat with the other. You stopped there and Zoro broke down in a cold sweat. As much as you wanted it to last longer, you have to end it quickly as you don't want to hurt his pride if you defeat him.
"There's no way our strength is this big of a gap!! I've been here longer than you so how?!" he asked.
You do not know why either but it was most likely thanks to your monstrous strength that you managed to beat him. You turn around and whistled to dodge the question. The kids and sensei were shocked that a newbie like you managed to beat Zoro.
"I'll challenge you to a duel with you again next time!!" Zoro said and you decided to play along with this charade.
True to his words, Zoro challenged you to spar with him over the next few months and finally, he gave up and admitted defeat.
"Argh!! Damn it!! I still can't beat you!!" Zoro threw a tantrum. "Just how are you so strong?!" he asked.
You barely broke a sweat and replied, "Didn't I say that I know martial arts?? I have a very powerful strength. I just put some of them into my swords"
Then your senior informed you that sensei wanted you to meet him. You got up and said goodbye to Zoro. You came inside to meet your sensei and sat down in front of him.
"(First Name), you're a fast learner and you managed to learn the basics of swordsmanship but I noticed something while watching you train. It seems as though you haven't been able to use your full power. Have you ever thought of using a different weapon?? Like a spear for example??" he asked.
You have never thought of that before. You hesitated for a moment then you replied, "I will try, sensei"
You tried practicing your spear using a long wooden stick the same length as a polearm and it turns out that sensei is right. The strength is much stronger than your dual swords so this might be your trump card.
After training your polearm for a month, you managed to turn your sword techniques into spear techniques. You stopped and decided to take a break for a while then you saw Zoro giving out the towel to wipe your sweat while looking away.
"Why are you looking away, Zoro??" you asked, knowing full well that he is looking away from you, blushing furiously.
"S-shut up, idiot!! Just take this and wipe off your sweat!!" he exclaimed. You chuckled and took the towel from his grasp.
While wiping your sweat, you saw Zoro fidgeting something behind his back like he wanted to say something.
"Is there something you want to say??" you asked.
"Are you planning to leave soon?" he asked.
"Yes, I am. Once I learned everything here, I will be leaving this island" you replied.
"Well, if you're interested, there's this tournament coming up in a week," he said as he gave out the newspaper from behind his back to you. You tilted your head and grabbed the newspaper to take a better look at it.
There was a swordsmanship tournament coming up soon in a week and the rules are quite simple. Daggers and Spears are allowed. No killing and no women. You frowned at the last rule and your eyes narrowed with vexation.
[No women?? You got to be joking with me. Are the ones who organized this event sexists??]
"Zoro. Look at the last rule. I can't join because I'm a woman" you said as you pointed at the last rule to Zoro.
"I know. That's why I want you to change that. Just disguise yourself as a man and I'm sure you'll be fine. It may fail at some point but there may be people who will cheer for you for that" he said.
You thought this over and you are interested in participating if it weren't for that stupid rule but there may be a chance that you'll be disqualified or worse. You decided to take the risk. You might be able to pull off the male disguise, just need to bind your chest.
You sighed and said, "Okay, I'll join. You can come with me to watch if you want" Zoro's eyes formed sparkles with excitement.
"Okay!!" you chuckled. Seeing him like that looks cute. He reminded you of Luffy, just with different interests and personalities.
Over the week, you trained your polearm and swords very hard while waiting for your spear and swords to be made. Ever since Zoro dueled with you a few times after the first, he started becoming even nicer to you and your relationship with him gets closer. He even starts to catch some feelings for you. Not like a sword maniac like him will understand.
It was the day before the tournament and you got your newly made spear and swords.
You put your spear on your back while you put your swords on your waist. You turned to Zoro who is looking at you with amazement.
"Zoro. Once the tournament is over, I will send you back to your village and go on my next journey so...." you took out 3 gold earrings in a set from your pocket and told Zoro to turn around. He turned around and you put the earrings on his right ear. Those earrings are one of the parting gifts given to you.
"Take these as my parting gift to you to remember me by" you smiled as Zoro's face turned 50 shades of red.
"T-thanks..." he muttered but you heard it and grinned. You got everything prepared. All that's left is a disguise to participate...