-Chapter 1 The Princess who would be a Pirate-

As princess of the desert kingdom Arabasta, Nefertari Vivi was used to having to deal with recurring events throughout her life. Every day it was always this meeting or that ball or some other social event that required her presence. The little breaks in between were usually spent in the castle, though she did make it a point every now and then to at least try and mingle with the people of her country. Granted she could never manage to do so without at least one of her guards accompanying her, or trying to hide themselves nearby. Still the repetitiveness of her days had become fully accepted by her.

So her surprise when she woke up one day with an inexplicable feeling of confliction within herself was completely understandable. At first she simply passed it off as a onetime deal, figuring that when she woke up the next day everything would be normal again.

Almost two weeks later, here she was walking through the streets of the city of Alubarna, completely lost in thought as she tried to determine the source of this new feeling. Thankfully she had managed to keep this little secret from Igaram and Chaka, but she did tell her father about it, making sure to have him promise not to tell anyone else until she knew just what this feeling meant. Of course, he agreed.

It would be a little after midday that day that she would be presented with an answer, and it would come from a particularly unexpected source.

She had come across a group of children playing some sort of game. One of them explained that they had been reenacting the battle of Arabasta, and that she had somehow been lucky enough to get to play the role of Vivi. Vivi herself had smiled and asked if she wanted any specifics, so she could play her role better. The girl had declined, stating that she wanted to do her best to be a princess on her own. Her next words were what put the pieces in place for Vivi. "I decided I was going to be a princess one day. That is what my heart is telling me, and you always told us to follow what our hearts told us to do, right?"

For a moment, Vivi was frozen in place as her own words rang through her ears. Something about those words was connected to whatever was causing this conflicted feeling within her, but she couldn't pinpoint just what it was. She was sure that her heart was still here with her country. She was here amongst the people of her country, ensuring their happiness. That was all she really wanted…….. wasn't it?

"Look." The little girl's voice immediately brought her out of her introspective mood. "I even got the X mark you had. I remember that it meant something to you, so I made sure to get this. I wanted to get it tattooed on, but my parents wouldn't let me."

Almost immediately, her right hand involuntarily went to her left arm, right where she had gotten the X mark permanently tattooed. Her thoughts had taken her back to that day, to that very cliff side where she had tearfully watched as the heroes of her country had sailed off. As much as she had wanted to go with them, she had opted to stay. She wondered if she was starting to have regrets about not going, but tossed that aside. It wasn't regret, not by a long shot. So what was it?

Almost just as involuntarily, she had started walking back to the palace. While the palace itself had managed to escape being too damaged during Crocodile's attack, the courtyard that he had completely drained was still under repair. Thankfully, the path to the doors of the palace had been repaired, so she proceeded into the palace unimpeded. She found her father in the throne room, conversing with Chaka and Igaram about something.

"Father, I need to speak to you." She wasn't usually this forward with her father, especially when he was talking with someone else, but she needed to settle this while it was still fresh in her mind.

Cobra took one look at his daughter, and that seemed to be all he needed. "Does this have to do with that problem you came to me with?" At her nod, he turned to Igaram and Chaka. "Could you two leave us for a little bit?"

Before either of them could even open their mouths, Vivi spoke up. "No, it's ok. They can stay for this. After all, I think I have worried them too much as it is." She went silent for a moment, attempting to put her thoughts into words, took a deep breath, and began.

"For the past couple of weeks, I have been feeling somewhat at odds with myself. The first day this happened I passed it off, thinking it was just some sort of random whim. But the feeling wouldn't go away. I started to try and search for what was causing this, but I couldn't come up with an answer. Half an hour ago, I received a clue."

Pulling up the sleeve of her dress, she showed everyone present the X that was on her arm. "It's them. I know it has something to do with them, but I can't figure out just what it is."

Cobra had taken one look at that tattoo, and then returned his gaze to Vivi. "What exactly happened today?"

Vivi relayed her moment with the little girl in the city, repeating everything that was said. Cobra closed his eyes for a moment and then asked Vivi, "So then, what is your heart telling you?"

Vivi, clearly not expecting that question, was taken a bit by surprise, but managed to regain herself after a brief pause and answered, "What kind of question is that? Isn't it obvious? It wants me to be here, with my people."

Cobra was sure that inside, even Vivi didn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. "Vivi, I am your father. No one knows you better than I do. That being said, I am going to ask you again. What is your heart telling you?"

Vivi's face immediately shifted, and Cobra was more than a little perplexed when he recognized a look of shame on it. "It wants me to go out to sea with them."

To Vivi's immediate surprise, none of them even so much as looked surprised at this admission. Chaka was the first to speak up, the smile on his face causing a lot of confusion to rise within Vivi. "Is that all, Vivi-sama? We figured that this was going to happen sooner or later. You have nothing to feel ashamed about."

"But I can't go. I want to, but I can't just leave the country just because I want to be with them. I have a responsibility to the people here, and if I were to leave I would be completely ignoring-"

Igaram cut Vivi off there. "It wou- Ahem. Mah-mah-maaaaaaaah. It would be even more irresponsible of you to go against your own word. If I remember correctly, those words that little girl told you, to follow whatever your heart says, were given to the people of this country by you."

Vivi still tried to fight it off. "But I-" Once again though, she would end up being cut off.

"Vivi-sama." Pell's voice would come from the doorway, causing her to turn towards him. "I understand that you feel you must sacrifice your own happiness for that of the country, but it is ok for you to want to be happy as well. And if that means having to leave the country, then that is fine. You have my unquestioning support, as well as that of Chaka, Igaram, and your father."

"But what about-" Vivi was becoming just slightly irritated with constantly being interrupted like this.

"You have had the people's support since day one. I have no doubts that you will have it in this matter. And what more could a princess ask from her people than their complete devotion to her happiness?"

Vivi went silent once more, but this time it was not to think of another argument. Whatever wall she had placed between her and her true feelings about this matter had just been systematically torn down. A feeling she could not put into words had just been released within her, and it felt good.

Chaka smiled once more, reading the expression on her face perfectly. Not like she was making an attempt to hide it. "I take it you are out of reasons to think you have to stay?"

Three words, almost in a whisper, escaped her lips. "I can go?"

"Only if this is what you truly wish to do." Igaram placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

Vivi could feel the tears building but shook her head roughly, attempting to shake them away. She had done more than enough crying her first time with them, and she was going to make sure she stopped that right now. "Thank you, all of you."

"Vivi." As silent as his voice was, it still rang out for all present to hear, capturing all of their attentions. "I must ensure that you understand exactly what this means. If you are sure about going out to become a pirate, then I must take the proper steps to ensure the safety of this country." He paused to give her time to prepare for his words. "I will have no choice but to cut you off from the family name. You will be unable to return to this country as Nefertari Vivi, princess of Arabasta. You will not receive any support from me or anyone of this country. I know it seems cruel, but I have to think about the safety of the country. Just the fact that you were the princess of this country will be enough to put us under some scrutiny from the world government. If it gets out that we actually helped, then who knows what will happen. Understand that once you are with them, you will no longer have our support."

Igaram, not surprisingly, was the most shocked of everyone there, his eyes wide and his whole body rigid. Both Chaka and Pell barely managed to look simply downcast at this announcement. All three of them knew the protocols for such an event like this; a member of the royal family abandoning the country. That, however, did not mean that they had to like it at all.

Cobra had been expecting these reactions from the members of the royal guard, but the reaction from Vivi herself had taken him by surprise. "I understand, father." He face was set in a mask of indifference that he had not seen her use ever. "This is what I wish to do, no matter what the cost."

Cobra looked at his only daughter for a while before nodding his head. "Very well. Then I shall have our fastest ship to be made ready to take you-"

"No!" Aside from the feeling of satisfaction she got from interrupting someone this time, she was somewhat please at the shocked look on her father's face. "Not yet. There is one more thing that I need to do before I can leave. Chaka, Pell, I need the two of you to train me."

Both of the males in question turned towards the princess, waiting on an explanation. "I need to learn how to really fight. I wasn't very useful to the crew during my first time with them. Even when they were counting on me, even when I tried my absolute hardest, I only seemed to be a hindrance to them. This time, I do not intend to simply stand on the sidelines while they fight. If I cannot fight for myself, then I will not leave this country until I can." She turned her gaze to the both of them, and attempted to make it as hard as she could, something else she would have to practice at. "I don't care how hard you have to be on me. I want the two of you to toughen me up as best as you can."

Both of her guardians glanced over at each other and nodded. "If that is what you wish Vivi-sama. But understand that this will not be like before. When you were first learning how to use your strings, we went easy on you because you were a novice. If you are serious about this, then neither of us will hold back." Chaka spoke for the both of them.

"And that means we will be using our devil fruit abilities against you." Pell spoke this time.

"I would expect nothing less of you two. We shall start early tomorrow morning, before sunrise if that is alright with the two of you."

Both of them managed to look surprised at this, but they still smiled. "Very well, Vivi-sama."

"Oh, and one last thing father. Could you please make sure that Kohza does not, under any circumstances, find out about this?" Once again, Vivi had managed to surprise the hell out of all present.

"If he does find out, I can guarantee that it will be from no one in this palace. Though I doubt that will be difficult since he rarely comes to the palace anymore. I was beginning to worry that something had happened between the two of you."

Obviously not wanting to linger of that topic, Vivi simply waved it off. "Well, thank you father." She turned back to her two new trainers. "Ok, I'll be seeing the both of you early tomorrow, right outside the southern entrance to the city. Later." And with that she headed out of the throne room.

Once she was out of earshot, Chaka turned to the rest of the men present and held out a hand, a wide smile on his face. "I believe that is 500 berri a piece."

The three others place a handful of bills into his hand, while he thought to himself, "Whew. Lucky she didn't decided to do this a week earlier; else Igaram would be the one cashing in."

-Southern Entrance, 5:45am-

The city was dead silent. Not a soul roamed the streets of Alubarna this early in the morning, save for the occasional patrol. However, one other person made her way down to the southernmost part of the city through these streets.

Vivi, dressed in a pair of blue pants and a green short sleeve shirt, walked quickly towards the meeting area she had designated for her training, barely able to contain her anticipation for what was to come. She had barely managed to get enough sleep last night because of her excitement.

After reaching the southern entrance, where she broke off into a light jog for the last leg of her trip slowing down only to safely travel down the stairs, she had begun warming up a little bit while waiting on her two trainers to arrive. 5 minutes later, Chaka and Pell were seen coming down the steps, though only Chaka was armed which confused Vivi.

Pell would be the one to explain. "We will be using this first day to assess your skill level. You will fight with Chaka while I observe."

Vivi nodded her head and took a deep breath, ready to take her first step towards returning to where she now felt she belonged. "So you want me to just come at you as best as I can?"

"That is correct, Vivi-sama. Your goal today should be to try and defeat me. I doubt that you can, but that is your goal."

Her eyes narrowed slightly. Even if she knew that she didn't have the combat skills required to fight on their level, that comment still struck a nerve with her. She released both of her strings and settled into a fighting stance. She waited another couple of seconds before finally starting. "Kujakki String Slasher!" She shot her left string out towards Chaka, who easily sidestepped it. Vivi had already started running towards him, bringing her right string out in front of her, aiming for Chaka's head.

Chaka ducked under the incoming string and retaliated with a punch to her stomach, causing her to stumble backwards. Vivi coughed a little bit before retracting her first string and settling back into her stance. 'Well, that failed miserably.' Her gaze hardened slightly as she considered how she should attack next. 'Ok, then let's try this.' She jumped backwards and brought her right string around to Chaka's side, which he ducked under. Vivi then brought her second string around to Chaka's other side, this time keeping it low enough so that he would have no choice but to jump over it to dodge it, which he did. 'Gotcha!' Vivi then swung her first string back, attempting to catch him while he was in the air, unable to dodge. Unfortunately she did not take into account the fact that Chaka was armed. Chaka drew his sword and stopped her strings movement with it. Vivi recalled both strings and then charged Chaka. She brought both of her strings around this time, attempting to sandwich him between them. Chaka merely hopped over both of them, though he kept himself as low to the ground as possible and dashed forward as soon as he hit the ground. Vivi tried to bring her strings back, but wasn't fast enough and found herself frozen, Chaka's sword point right on her neck.

"Again." Chaka brought his sword down and stepped back, waiting for her to attack him.

For the better part of 3 hours it continued on like this. Vivi would attempt to find some way of defeating her guardian, and Chaka would easily defeat her. After Vivi had looked him in the eye after one of their mini exhibitions and said, "I thought I told you not to hold back on me," Chaka had started knocking her back with the butt of his sword. And while it was becoming somewhat difficult for Pell to have to sit and watch, Chaka was having an even more difficult time having to be the one to do it.

What really disturbed him was how she kept on getting up and asking him for more.

Vivi herself had started to become far more aggressive with her tactics. She still had yet to land a solid hit, or any kind of hit, on Chaka, but her attacks were just barely missing their target. She was also starting to employ different types of attacks, but they were still just as predictable as her others.

At this point it was unclear to either Chaka or Pell how she was still standing. She had taken a lot of punishment, and had to have been exhausted from all of the attacks she had tried. Yet, no matter how much she took, she would not stay down.

"Vivi-sama, let's end this now. You are clearly exhausted, and you have yet to even touch me. There is no res-" He would be cut off by Vivi once again charging him. Chaka sighed and brought his sword up in front of him.

"Kujakki String Slasher!" Vivi shot both of her strings out, aiming for his chest. Chaka sidestepped them and rushed forward. "Runback!"Vivi brought both of her strings backwards attempting to catch him from behind. Chaka was almost caught off guard, not expecting the follow up attack, but quickly turned and deflected the string. Vivi, shocked that her surprise attack had been blocked, tried to bring her other string back around to stop him, but was too slow and caught the butt of his sword in her stomach. She stood there for a few seconds before dropping to her knees and then falling forward.

Chaka closed his eyes and sheathed his sword. "I think we are done for the day Pell."

"Yes it would seem that way."

"N-no. Not yet." Chaka's eyes shot open, and he was met with the sight of Vivi, struggling to get to her feet. "I have not been…… beaten yet." She had made it to one knee, panting heavily. Her eyes came up to meet with Chaka. "Let's…. continue."

Chaka watched as she, rather unsteadily, stood up before him. Her strings were dangling down to the sand, meaning she barely even had the strength to hold up her own arms. "Vivi-sama, you can't continue. You-"

"I will beat you. I will-" There was a small 'whack', and Vivi's eyes rolled back in her head slightly as she fell forward, unconscious. Pell stood behind her, his arm held up in a knife hand.

"Was that really necessary, Pell?"

"It's like you said, she couldn't have continued. If she tried she might have seriously injured herself which would have been detrimental to her goals." In truth that was only half of the reason he had done that, though he wanted to keep the other half between himself and Vivi.

"I suppose you have a point there." He looked down at the girl and sighed. "She is a mess."

"Yes, she isn't bringing out her weapon's true potential. Her strategies are terribly easy to read, and even if she could come up with better ones, she is very slow," Pell observed.

"Though I will admit that she has a knack for thinking on the fly. Some of those surprise attacks she used probably would have hit if she had the speed and skill to use them properly. I suppose that will have to come with time." Chaka bent down to pick her up, draping her over his shoulder.

"True, though it may not be as much time as we expect. She is very determined to do this. While she may have gone a little overboard, the fact that she kept on coming back again and again is impressive. Who knows how fast she will get better." Pell started walking back to the city.

"I say we split it up. I'll take her during the mornings and work on her physical attributes; speed agility, strength, etc."

Pell nodded at this. "Then the afternoons will be spent with me. I can help her with her weapon skill. I was the one who introduced her to it after all. Then what do you say to meeting up and sparring after that? We can alternate between the two of us each day."

"Sounds like a plan to me. For now, let's get her in bed so she can have a chance to rest."

-Later that day-

Vivi would wake up feeling sore all over, though when she looked back on her day, it wouldn't surprise her. She had taken one hell of a beating that day, but she still had nothing to show for it aside from a couple of bruises she had found.

Looking back on the fight, however, made her wonder just how she ended up back in her bed in the palace. Try as she might, she could not seem to remember anything past getting up after Chaka had dropped her with a butt stroke to her gut.

"So you are awake finally." Her head turned to the door of her room, where Pell stood leaning against it.

"Pell, what happened? How did I get back here?"

"Chaka carried you back here."

Vivi looked down, feeling somewhat disappointed in herself. "I did horrible didn't I?"

"I am not going to lie. You are definitely not the ideal warrior. However, not only do you have much space for improvement, you might be able to fill that space faster than most anyone else."

Pell's statement caused a small glimmer of happiness to form in her. "I suppose, but still couldn't even touch Chaka when we sparred. I even ended up fainting at the end of it."

"You didn't faint. I knocked you out." Pell held up a hand to stop her from protesting. "If you had continued on there was a decent chance of you seriously injuring yourself, and that would have caused you to have to wait even longer before you could set out to sea."

Vivi allowed this thought to simmer in her head for a moment. "But still…."

"She was starting to come out again."

At that Vivi froze, eyes wide with terror and her mouth hanging open.

"No one else knows about her, and after what I saw that first time, I didn't think you would have wanted her to emerge while you were fighting Chaka. I had to stop you before you did something you would no doubt regret doing."

Vivi could do nothing more but nod her head dully. The last this she wanted was to be reminded of her. In fact, Vivi was sure that she had pushed her out of existence a long time ago.

"I know that you wish for us to be as hard as we can on you, but I must ask that you reconsider this. I won't always be there to stop you."

Vivi shook her head and looked back at Pell. "No, it's ok. I'll be fine. I just have to remember to stop before I get too far ahead of myself right?" She could see the look on Pell's face. "I'll be fine, Pell. Really."

Pell would eventually concede nodding his head with his eyes closed. "If you say so Vivi-sama." He stood up and headed for the door. "Oh, we have determined your training schedule. You will be spending the mornings with Chaka building your physical attributes. Then, you will come to me in the afternoons for training in your specific weapon. After that, we will all get together for an evening sparring session to gauge your progress."

"Ok." Inwardly Vivi smiled. Tomorrow would be quite possibly the most difficult day of her life, and she couldn't wait for it. "In the mean time, wanna join me for dinner? I haven't eaten anything all day."

"Of course, Vivi-sama.

-One month later-

The scene itself was almost similar to her very first sparring session with Chaka. She looked as if she had been put in a blender, with various cuts and bruises all over her body. Her hair, which had started out tied back into her usual ponytail, was cascaded down her body, parts of it covering her profusely sweating face. Her pinky fingers were starting to turn a bright red from the strain she had been putting on them.

The difference between now and then, however, was the fact that the half jackal and the half falcon that she was fighting looked even worse off than she did.

As she had anticipated, the first day of this new training regimen had been the absolute hardest of her life. Chaka had shown absolutely no remorse, demanding that she push her body harder than she thought any single person could push. Everything had to be done as fast as possible, or else she would keep on doing it until he was satisfied with her speed. As his primary goal was Vivi's speed and agility, cardio exercises were plentiful. There was a lot of running, sprinting, and various other things that required her to move quickly. By the time he was ready to call it a day that first day, she was in so much pain that she was seriously considering just going back to the palace and taking a nice long bath. For the rest of the day. Then Chaka reminded her of the next stage of her training day.

Though sore, she still managed to tough it out and make it to her meeting with Pell, who wasted no time in beginning to reeducate her on how to use her weapons. As a lightweight weapon, the Kujakki Strings were best used aggressively. Constantly attacking the enemy in order to keep them off balance. And thanks to their flexibility, they weren't just used to attack the opponent head on. Vivi had grasped this concept a little bit, but was still completely unaware of the many other ways she could use her weapons to defeat her enemies. Basically, the weapons themselves could become very powerful, if the user can think of creative ways to use them. What followed was Pell observing as she attempted to use different attacks of a set of dummies he had set up. He saw quite a few possibilities, and made sure to keep them in mind for their next session.

The sparring sessions after this was where she had started to build a little more confidence. Chaka faced her that first day, and while he had yet to truly open up on her, she did manage to get in a couple of glancing blows using a couple of the newer attacks she had come up with. She did remember to forcefully keep herself from going too far during this session. Last thing she wanted was another accident to happen.

And this was how it went for the better part of the month. Chaka attempted to run her into the sand, and Pell helped her to refine her attacks, as well as teacher her some battle strategies. With each passing day, she noticed that she was getting better and better. She was now keeping up with the demanding pace that Chaka had set for her, one time even outrunning him. Pell had to intervene less and less during their sessions. Now all he had to do was present her with a situation and watch as she planned out every detail. Her weapon skill had dramatically improved, though each of them had learned this the hard way during their respective sparring sessions with her.

Within the first few days of her training, she had managed to knock Chaka off of his feet multiple times. By the end of the week both Chaka and Pell felt she had advanced far enough to try and challenge them in their transformed states. It took her a couple of weeks, but eventually she had defeated both of them while they were transformed. That was when she had suggested they both come at her during their sparring sessions.

Fast forward a week. Vivi was at first surprised that she was holding up so well on her own against the both of them, especially since they had finally taken off the gloves and were coming at her full strength. Then she reminded herself that for all of that month, she had been sparring with them after they had got finished with whatever training they had her do. Today was the first time she had sparred with them at 100% since her performance evaluation against Chaka. And to be honest, it felt good.

Chaka would attack next, coming at her full speed with his sword pointed straight forward. Vivi brought her right string up and shot it towards him, though the speed at which she did this was nothing like what it had been. As it was, Chaka barely had enough time to divert it away from him, and was about to continue on when he noticed the smile on Vivi's face. A second later, she gave a small twitch of her wrist which caused the string to wrap around his sword. Chaka's eyes widened slightly. 'Where the hell did that come from?' Vivi then pulled back hard on the string which with the momentum he had already built from his lunge caused him to stumble forward.

Vivi used the force of her own pull to send herself shooting forward, ready to attack with her second string. However, a small bit of motion caught the very top of her vision, and she looked up to see Pell coming down from the sky, setting up a strike with his sword. In an almost fluid transition Vivi brought the string she had been about to attack Chaka with up, shooting it out towards Pell. He had already brought his sword up to block the string. One more twitch of her wrist and the string's path would be diverted, instead moving towards his legs and wrapping around them. Vivi then pulled down as hard as she could, pulling Pell down to the ground. There was a loud thump followed by a nice tall cloud of sand.

As she released her strings hold on Pell she was about to turn back to Chaka to finish him off, but caught something out the corner of her eye. She turned and was met with Chaka running towards her. He had used Pell's distraction to drop his sword and come around behind her. Fortunately, she was not completely out of options. Quickly releasing her string's hold on his sword she brought that one around quickly, hoping to knock him into next week. "Kujakki String Runback!" Chaka, however, had anticipated this and at the very last second, ducked under the incoming string. "Gotcha!" He lunged forward ready to deliver the final blow, but was once again met with a small smile on Vivi's face. "Double!" Continuing her rotation, she brought her second string around. Chaka had already left his feet, and didn't have his sword anymore. Even if he did, he doubted he could have moved fast enough to block it. So he was basically defenseless as her string crashed into his side, sending him sliding across the desert.

He wouldn't have much time to recover either. As soon as he opened his eyes, Vivi was there standing over him, holding one of her buzz saw like strings inches from his face. Chaka watched her for the better part of a minute before finally smiling up at her. "Congratulations, Vivi-sama. Your training is over. You are ready."

-Chapter 1 End-

Ok, it's only the first chapter, but personally, I am already enjoying where this one is going.

As you can no doubt tell, I will be attempting to add a little more detail towards parts that I feel need it. Of course, if any of you feel the need to voice your own opinions about parts that could have been done better, then by all means please let me know. Don't worry about the fights. I already know that they need the most work.

For those of you who are unaware, this story is a complete rehash of my original story "Vivi Returns". You can read it if you want to but I would suggest holding off on that. Wouldn't want to spoil certain parts of it for ya.

That's all I got for now. R&R&Have a nice day.