Aaron Ran Into a Ghost

"Hmm... I really do know it!" Aaron nodded with certainty. "Let's find somewhere to test it out."

Only then did he come back to his senses. The scenery racing backward left him a little dazed. "Huh? How did I get sent flying?!"

When Kuroobi had knocked him away earlier, Aaron had been busy wondering whether he knew Karate, so he had not felt it at all.

Who knew whether Kuroobi would cough up blood in anger if he found out.

"Why did Mr. Arlong suddenly send me flying?" Aaron asked in confusion, crossing his arms and tilting his head.

He did not care about his current state in the slightest.

Being a human cannonball was no big deal.

Then Aaron looked ahead. Under the pull of gravity, he gradually descended. Once he had dropped low enough, he viciously jerked his head downward.

Screech!!

He used his face as brakes.

His whole body, starting from his head, drilled into the dirt. Because the stop had been too fierce, the smell of scorched feathers drifted up from the soil.

"Whew!" But the results were obvious. Aaron stopped immediately. He yanked his face out of the dirt with all his strength, yellow earth and black scorch marks streaking across his face. "Safe landing!" he declared proudly.

"Safe landing, my ass!" A woman's voice suddenly came from beside Aaron. He looked up and saw a sexy, tan-skinned woman who looked... even darker under the sunlight.

"Hello, Shadow Sis," Aaron said.

"What kind of weird nickname is Shadow Sis?" The woman rubbed her forehead. With the sunlight shining behind her, Aaron could not make out her expression. "So, ghost, who are you? How did you fly here? And what are you doing here?" She fired off a string of questions.

"Uh... could you pull me out first?" Aaron climbed out of the dirt, got to his feet, dusted himself off, and looked at the woman again.

This time, he could see her clearly.

She had short light-blue hair, bright eyes glowing with a steadfast light like stars, and an Arlong tattoo on her right arm, exactly like the one on Nami's arm. Seeing Aaron stare blankly at her, the woman raised a brow. "Hey! Ghost, I'm asking you something!"

"Huh? Ah, ah!" Aaron snapped back to his senses and hastily bowed to her. "I'm terribly sorry!"

"Well, can you answer now? Why did you appear in my orange grove? And why did you fall from the sky?"

"Okay!" Aaron nodded. "My name is Aaron, Copperfield Aaron. I'm a pirate. I came here to find our navigator, Nami. As for why I flew here..."

Aaron scratched his head and said uncertainly, "I think Mr. Kuroobi sent me flying?"

He truly had no idea how he had ended up flying through the air.

Yeah, Kuroobi would definitely cough up blood in anger.

"..." The woman stared speechlessly at the blond boy before her. He had been sent flying by Kuroobi and was completely unharmed? Was this kid really that strong? So she asked, "Nami? Are you with that long-nosed guy?"

"Long-nosed guy? Do you mean Usopp? Mm-hmm, he's my companion too."

"How many companions do you have? Are they all as strong as you?" she asked again.

"How many..." Aaron scratched his head and started counting on his fingers. "One, two, three..."

"There are six of us in total!" Aaron said with a goofy grin.

"..." The woman stared speechlessly at Aaron, who had spent ages counting.

There were only six of them, and it had taken him that long to count! Was this kid an idiot?! The woman rolled her eyes wildly inside.

"Sigh." She let out a breath, glanced at Aaron, and said, "Come with me."

"The oranges here smell so good!" Aaron sniffed hard, then turned around with sparkling eyes to look at the woman.

"You've got good taste. The oranges here are very sweet," the woman said with a proud smile.

She led Aaron into a wooden house. At the moment, Aaron was leaning outside the window, looking at the orange grove.

"My name is Nojiko. You could say I'm Nami's older sister," Nojiko suddenly said as she watched the excited Aaron.

"Mm-hmm." Aaron nodded, then froze for several seconds before whipping around to stare at Nojiko in shock. "Older sister?!"

"...Now I believe you really are that long-nosed guy's companion." Seeing the identical shocked expression, Nojiko rubbed her forehead.

"I never knew Nami had an older sister..."

"We're not related by blood. We were just raised by the same adoptive mother," she continued.

"I see..." Aaron said. After falling silent for a while, he stared at Nojiko and asked, "Why did Nami say she was Mr. Arlong's navigator? And why does she seem so unhappy?"

Ever since the Baratie restaurant, Aaron had noticed that Nami seemed to have something on her mind. After coming here, he had not seen her smile even once.

Nojiko sighed. Looking out the window, her expression grew distant. "She did it to save this village."

So Nojiko told Aaron about Nami's past. Perhaps because Aaron's face looked young, Nojiko unconsciously let down her guard and poured out all of Nami's history in one breath.

From the time Nami and Nojiko had been taken in by Belmere, the owner of this place, from Nami's wonderful, carefree childhood, to Arlong's arrival and her struggle to live while bearing the hope of saving the entire village, Nojiko told him everything.

"I never knew Nami had a past like that." After hearing Nojiko's story, Aaron was not as loud and excitable as usual. He listened quietly, then sighed with a calm expression.

"So you should leave quickly. You can't defeat Arlong. The word companion is an extravagant luxury to Nami," Nojiko said.

"No, no." Aaron shook his head, his face full of certainty. "How could we possibly abandon a companion? And Luffy will definitely defeat Arlong. I never expected Arlong to be so heartless. I even thought he was a good person! He's awful!" As he spoke, Aaron smacked the table indignantly.

Nojiko stared at Aaron speechlessly. "...You really are an idiot."

What normal person would ever mistake the vicious-looking Arlong for a good guy?!

"Oh, right!" Aaron suddenly remembered something. He jumped off his stool and ran outside.

"Hm?" Nojiko watched him curiously, then went to the window to see what he intended to do.

Aaron walked up to the orange grove and closed his eyes without saying another word.

Suddenly! Aaron snapped his eyes open, copied Kuroobi's stance, raised his hand in a strange, awkward motion, and chopped at an orange tree.

Thud! "That hurts!"

Aaron cried out and frantically shook his right hand. Nojiko took a closer look and found that his hand had swollen up like a pig's trotter. She could not help rubbing her forehead. "Are you an idiot? The trunk is that thick. Did you think you could chop it apart? And don't go chopping up my trees again! If you want to chop something, go do it somewhere else!" With that, she turned around, intending to look for medicine for external injuries.

"Ugh... but I always felt like I knew Karate too. Weird. Kuroobi clearly did it like this..." Aaron looked tearfully at his hand and tilted his head in confusion.

"Karate? You mean Fish-Man Karate? Don't be ridiculous. That's a martial art unique to Fish-Men. Only Fish-Men, with physiques ten times stronger than humans, can learn it. You should just forget about it." Nojiko turned back disdainfully, then widened her eyes.

She saw the swelling and redness on Aaron's right hand fade at a visible speed. In merely a few seconds, it had disappeared completely.

"You really are... thick-skinned." Nojiko did not know how to comment on Aaron anymore. Then she added, "Well, that saves us the trouble of looking for medicine."

"Hehe, thanks. But I usually don't need medicine anyway," Aaron said embarrassedly. Then he assumed a stance toward the orange tree again. "All right, let's continue!"

"Get away from my orange grove! Go mess around over there!"

Nojiko roared, casually pointing in one direction.

Hearing Nojiko's shout, Aaron scratched his head, took two steps to the side, and assumed his stance again.

"I told you to get farther away, and you only took two steps?! Get a hundred meters away from the orange grove!" Seeing Aaron's actions, Nojiko felt her blood rush to her head. She roared furiously, her chest rising and falling.

"You never said how far..." Aaron muttered softly, his face full of grievance.

"Get lost!!"

"Honestly, she wasn't clear herself, then she had to yell at someone else." Aaron pouted and grumbled unhappily.

Then he looked around and nodded in satisfaction. "This place will do."

It was a cliffside clearing with an open view that reached all the way to Arlong Park in the distance. At the edge of the cliff stood a mound of earth with a cross planted on top.

It was clearly a grave.

But Aaron did not notice it. He walked beneath a large tree.

"Ha!" Aaron struck a pose and glared fiercely at the tree. "Yah!"

Then he chopped at it with one palm!

"That hurts!" Naturally, his hand swelled up again.

"Again!" Once the swelling in Aaron's hand disappeared, he charged the tree once more.

Thud!

"That hurts!"

"Again!"

Thud!

"That hurts!!"

An endless cycle.

"Yah!" Aaron glared fiercely at the tree once again. His hand was already itching to move. He raised his arm high, about to injure himself again.

"Sigh, what a foolish child." A sigh suddenly sounded behind him.

Aaron stopped his arm and turned around.

A woman had suddenly appeared atop the cross. She sat there, looking helplessly at Aaron.

The woman had dark red hair, shaved short at both sides of her head, with a ponytail tied behind her. She looked exceptionally heroic.

"Why did you call me foolish?!" Aaron planted his hands on his hips, pointed at the woman, and shouted loudly.

The woman was startled when she saw Aaron pointing at her. She pointed at herself and looked at Aaron. "...You can see me?"

"Why wouldn't I be able to see you? Don't change the subject! Why did you call me foolish?!" Aaron continued to demand.

"That's true." The woman smiled gently and looked at Aaron. "From the looks of it, you're imitating Fish-Man Karate?"

"So what if I am?" Aaron's tone remained aggressive.

"That's exactly why you're foolish," she replied with a smile.

"...Huh? But Kuroobi did it like this." Aaron could no longer keep a straight face. He tilted his head at the woman, looking utterly foolish.

"He is him, and you are you. Don't blindly imitate others. What suits you is best," the woman said.

"Oh, oh!" Aaron nodded in sudden realization, then looked at her. "...What does that mean? I didn't understand."

The woman: "..."

"In short." The woman, nearly choked speechless by Aaron, held her forehead. "You need to understand your own body again. Make Karate adapt to your body, rather than making your body adapt to Karate."

"...I don't understand," Aaron said awkwardly.

"..."

"Follow your instincts! Demonstrate it for me right now!" she suddenly shouted.

"Yes!" Aaron shuddered in fright. He hurriedly turned away, closed his eyes, and felt his body.

Why did that shout feel so familiar? Aaron wondered in confusion.

"Calm your heart. Slowly feel the power within your body, dig it out, then release it all!" The woman's gentle voice gradually soothed Aaron's restless heart. He calmed down, and his thoughts slowly sank deep inside.

After a while, Aaron opened his eyes with a puzzled expression. "Why does it feel like... my whole body is water?"

"That's it! Slowly pour what you feel into your fist, then throw a punch!" the woman suddenly said.

"...All right." Aaron said hesitantly. He closed his eyes again and slowly infused the water he felt into his right hand, little by little, until his arm felt completely full.

Then he recalled Kuroobi's opening stance, imitating it bit by bit and breaking down its movements bit by bit. Finally, he slowly formed a strange, bizarre starting stance.

"Ah-da!" He suddenly opened his eyes and roared. His right hand shot out like lightning, smashing viciously into the trunk with blinding speed.

Crack!

The trunk shattered in response.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Aaron panted heavily. He stared blankly at the fallen tree, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Ahahaha! I did it! Ahahaha! Ahahahahahaha~ Ahahahahahaha~" He did not even pause to catch his breath.

"..." The woman looked at Aaron speechlessly.

Why was this kid's laugh so creepy?!

"Thank you!" Aaron turned around in delight. He wanted to ask who the woman was. "May I ask, who are you..."

Then he saw below the woman's waist. From her thighs down, her color grew fainter and fainter, until her feet were completely invisible.

There was a special name for people like that.

Ghosts.

And this sort of encounter was called running into a ghost.

"..." Aaron stared blankly at the woman's legs. His eyes widened further and further, while his expression twisted bit by bit as if someone had put it in slow motion. The sight made the woman's teeth ache. She unconsciously reached out and said, "I..."

"Ghost!!" The woman's movement was like a fuse. Aaron screamed wildly, flailed his arms, and ran into the forest in a bouncing, comical yet incredibly fast dash, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.

"..." The woman stared blankly at Aaron's retreating figure, helplessly withdrew her hand, and smiled. "He really is... a foolish child."