Leave Me Out of It

It was all too easy to turn her back on just a few of the people she had come to know while she trained on the island of Purgatory. She only wished that facing the rest of the Straw Hats could be so easy.

How pathetic was it that she still had her doubts, even after two years of hellish training?

She was absolutely certain that she had gotten stronger. She had learned so many new and powerful techniques, but the question remained... was she strong enough to be their equal now? Was she good enough to be a member of the Straw Hat crew?

Of that, she wasn't so sure.

So, here she was, actively avoiding the whole lot of them sans the Captain, who had yet to arrive.

She was keeping a close eye on the Straw Hats that had arrived on Sabaody Archipelago though. She was curious, but wary. Two years wasn't all that long in the flow of time, but people could change all too easily.

She wanted to know if they had changed or if they were still the same old Straw Hats that she remembered, if they were still her nakama.

It was cowardly, she knew, but she had always been and would always be nothing, if not overly cautious.