Sword

Chapter 3

Shoko led Zoro to a small clearing in the same woods she'd practiced in since she was very young. Over the years, she had transformed the clearing to become her own perfect training grounds.

There were mannequins spread all around, some attached to strange homemade devices with purposes Zoro couldn't begin to guess. He stared at one particular group of mannequins all attached by wooden poles to a sort of wind turbine.

Shoko followed his gaze and smiled proudly. "When it gets windy, those move around," she explained. "They make great practice for moving targets."

"You made all this?" Zoro asked incredulously.

"Mmhm. Riri helped a lot though. And her husband, Ripper, whenever he's off duty."

"Riri? The lady at the restaurant?"

"Yep. She's my sister. I help her at the restaurant even though I'm not very good at cooking, and she helps me out here even though she doesn't like being outside much. Ripper is good at putting all this stuff together, but he doesn't get a lot of time."

"Hm," Zoro mused. "You really don't mind if I practice here then? I don't want to ruin these things if they're not meant for swords."

"Here, you can practice with these for now," Shoko gestured towards some thick tree trunks that had been cut down and had rounded bottoms so that they wobbled around in the grass. "If you think you'll hang around for a while, I can make better mannequins for you to beat up with your swords, but these can work for now, I think. I don't use them much anymore."

Shoko stood back and watched anxiously as Zoro unsheathed two of his three swords, holding one in each hand, and began striking several of the wooden mannequins. The mannequins began wobbling back and forth precariously, but if any of them began to fall to the ground, he would send them moving to an upright position with another hit from his swords.

He stood back after his test run and placed his swords back in their holders on his hip.

"What do you think?" Shoko asked. "Does it feel too weird since they're not meant for sword practice?"

"It's not what I'm used to," Zoro admitted. "The targets are too predictable."

Shoko looked thoughtful for a moment before suggesting, "What if we fought each other?"

"Huh? With your bow?"

"Yeah, it could be good practice for us both! I can shoot at you, and you have to deflect with your swords. I don't get much practice with a human target, so it would be great for me! And if you need to practice with something unpredictable, I can move around a lot, so you don't know where each shot is going to come from."

Zoro grinned. "Sounds fun," he said, and took out all three swords this time, placing one between his teeth.

"Don't worry, I'll start easy. Do you want to wear some kind of armor? Just in case you miss an arrow?" Shoko offered. Her tone was slightly teasing, but the offer was genuine.

Zoro scoffed, sword still in his mouth.

Shoko put her hands up defensively, suppressing a giggle. "Alright, your choice!" She then hoisted herself up onto a branch. Zoro watched warily as she turned and moved further away in the trees' canopies until she was mostly hidden behind branches.

Then, with hardly any warning, an arrow was whistling straight towards him. With all his focus on the arrow, he was easily able to knock it aside with one sword, but when he looked back towards where Shoko had been only a moment ago, she had disappeared.