I don't own One Piece

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I walked in silence, watching the woman in front of me. She was taking in the information I had shared about Mamoru raising me. The scowl still lingered on her face, but I had noticed something change. Her narrowed eyes, which were identical to Mamoru's, had softened just a touch. Having been raised around Mamoru, I could easily see the change in attitude. Them being siblings made it easy, since they still shared similarities. 

It made me wonder. Would I still be similar to my twin after all the time we've been separated? The thought alone made my heart feel heavy.

"So, you're Mamoru's kid." I snapped our of my thoughts to look at the marine.

"What?" I blinked, then shook my head. "No, he just watched me when I was younge-"

"And clothed you, fed you, schooled you, and taught you to defend yourself." She interrupted, her scowl lifting into a smirk. "Even if you both deny it, he was like a father."

I paused, looking down for a moment. It wasn't something that any of us acknowledged, though I suppose I couldn't deny what she said. It was just something unspoken. Maybe Mamoru didn't want to claim it in case I remembered who my actual father was and tried to return to him.

"Well I guess that makes me something like your Aunt." She let out a sigh, trying to act annoyed though I could see clearly the smile she was trying to choke down. "How annoying, a pirate for a niece."

This time I smirked at her. That sounded like something Mamoru would say. I held out my arm, raising an eyebrow in question. "Can I get this off now?"

"Hmm?" She muttered, then cleared her throat. "Right, I suppose you don't seem much like a threat." Reaching over towards me, she took off the cuff and placed it back in her pocket. Immediately I could feel my energy rise back up again. "Besides, if you try to fight, I'll just beat your ass again."

I winced at the thought, there was no doubt in my mind that she would indeed beat me. Adjusting my bag around my shoulder, I noticed the purple haired marine pause, her lips pulling to the side in thought. Raising an eyebrow at her, I waited a moment for her to continue walking.

After a good few seconds of just standing in the forest, I frowned and sighed. "What?"

"Well..." She trailed off, letting out a breath. "How is my little brother doing? What does he look like now? I know I saw those pictures your drew, but those were older weren't they? I bet he's all shrived up and old and gray now."

I snorted at her comment, thinking of the many boxes of black hair dye he uses. "He's fine, despite the fact that he's always complaining and frowning." I smiled softly, "He's happy."

She nodded softly, "Good. Now tell me, how much has he aged?"

Why was she obsessed with that?

"You know," I frowned at the woman, "shouldn't you at least give me your name?"

With my response the retired marine blinked. Then her eyes widened for only a second before her scowl returned o her face. Clearly, she had forgotten to introduce herself.

"You're right, Crimson Hurricane." She said, "I'm Arisu."

"Right. I'm Mits-" I frowned, my eyebrows pulling together as I coughed and cleared my throat. "Ah, I mean Katsu. Sorry-" Then I stopped, her name suddenly clicking.

Snapping my head back up to look at the woman I felt my eyes growing in size. Looking at her hands, I saw the dry paint which lingered on her knuckles and fingernails. Then I looked back at her face. Though her hair was different, and she had a couple more wrinkles that the last picture, it had to be her. There was no way she would look so similar and have the same name.

"Wait. Wait." I breathed, my voice shaking in awe. "Are you Arisu the famous artist that can paint, sculpt, and draw in hyper realism? Like anything you do can bring anyone to tears?"  Why was talking suddenly so much harder to manage?

Though he scowl remained, I noticed her eyebrows pull upward only slightly. "You've heard of me?"

Did my heart just stop? "How could I not?!" Oh god, I hope I wasn't squealing. Not in front of her. "You're literally the best artist the world has to offer! Every painting you've ever done... it-it-it's like it transports you there! Almost every artist aspires to be at your level! I asp-" Taking a breath, I let out a cough to try to calm myself down. With a slightly more composed face I nodded and shrugged shakily. "I mean, yeah-yeah I've heard of you." I needed to think before I speak. Especially in front of her.

Then it came back to me that she had seen one of my pictures earlier. She had complimented it. Arisu had complimented my art. My face lit up in flames and I could feel my heart racing as I tried to look anywhere but at the marine as a big smile grew on my face.

"A fan, huh?" I glanced up to see her scowl lift into a grin. "I'm surprised you didn't recognize me sooner then."

I didn't know it was possible for my face to burn more, I could almost swear that my face was on fire now. Slowly, I found myself inching backwards and clearing my throat. Before I spoke I tried to organize my thoughts well enough to not look like a fool. God, I hope I don't look like a fool.

"Well, the pictures I had were a bit dated, and nobody has been able to get a clear picture of you the past few years. So I honestly wasn't sure of your appearance, but last I saw your hair was short and black, and you were younger." I rubbed my shoulder, "Plus, everything is kinda jumbled in my head right now..."

A vein formed on her forehead. "You calling me old?"

Quickly I snapped my head up and shook it. "No! Not at all!" I wasn't lying. Now that I knew she was older than Mamoru, I knew for sure she was likely in her seventies and I could say without a doubt she looked like she was still in her early to mid fifties. "You still look young! I just meant that the last picture I saw you were way younger, like thirties."

She blinked at me, then smiled and held her hand to the side of her face. "Oh, well thank you. When I first became known I was actually in my forties." She then placed her hand under her chin as she closed her eyes. "My secret to looking so young is red wine. I drink it everyday, and absolutely no sake. That stuff ages you. I used to tell that to Mamoru, but I'm sure he didn't listen."

I'm not completely sure red wine is an actual secret to her looking younger, since Mamoru also had aged fairly well. But I wasn't about to throw away any information she gave me, especially advise. So I nodded to every word she said, and figured I would drink more wine. It wouldn't hurt even if she was wrong.

With a sigh her smile reverted back into a scowl. "Well then, let me take you back to town. You'll love this place, it's every artist's dream."

My eyes widened as I realized just where I might be. "You're not talking about the Artist Haven are you?"

I could just make out a small smirk as she turned away from me. "Come on, I wanna see more of your sketchbook."

Now I felt as if I had died. I've died and gone to heaven. It was the only thing that made sense. Regaining some memories, being separated from my crew, and now the person I've looked up to for years said they wanted to look at my art.

With a skip to my step, I quickly followed after Arisu.

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When I first heard about Artist Haven I was thirteen years old. A weird looking guy, who made it clear he was neither a pirate or a marine, was traveling around the grandline and somehow he had landed on Gol's island. He was a sculptor with incredible skills, and he was trying to find the Artist Haven. Apparently he had goals of becoming Arisu's student.

I very quickly had come up to the assumption that he had to of eaten a good luck devil fruit, or he somehow was born extremely lucky. He swore to me he had not consumed such a devil fruit. I figured he must have been born lucky then because only had he managed to sail across the grandline completely by himself on a little row boat, but he did so with absolutely no fighting skills. I managed to meet him because he was standing by while another pirate was making threats and almost landed a hit on the short man. Once again, he came out lucky that he didn't get hit.

His name was Kenji, and he was the one who first introduced me to my idol. Kenji had spend the whole week sharing stories of this island, and the person he wanted to study under. That was all he wanted to do, just study and work with Arisu.

Kenji introduced me to Artist Haven. That wasn't the original name, but it was the name given from multiple artists. All because it literally was a haven for artist. It was a place that welcomed any artist with open arms. New or old, marine or pirate. If they wanted to learn, or just do art they were welcomed.

Then came in Arisu, the one who lived on the island and gave it it's name. When Kenji told me of her he had also given me a headshot of the artist. Nobody knew her background, as she never spoke a word to any reporter and no friends had come out to speak for the woman. Even the picture wasn't the best. Her eyes were shadowed over by her bangs, only showing a small smirk which was smudged in blue paint and short wavy black hair. Very little was known of the artist. Everyone knew she was a master artist, and that she lived and protected Artist Haven. Plus one big fact that Kenji made sure I knew. Arisu had never taken a student, and anyone that has tried to become a student has been shot down.

It still is unheard of.

Feeling the grass come to an end, I looked up to see that we no longer were surrounded by endless trees. My breath caught in my throat as I caught sight of the town. It didn't look terribly big, though that could just be because I stood in front of it. It consisted of a hoard of colorful cottage style homes which were scattered around, each decorated differently.

The pathways were decorated in stone, which upon closer inspection had different signatures on them. Some of which I recognized to be famous artists. This area wasn't filled with a lot of people, but it was certainly bright and colorful in a whimsical way.

As we walked further into town, we came to another set of cottages, these containing different pieces of instruments as music filtered into the air. My heart skipped a beat at the thrilling tunes being played by the grinning musicians.

I looked at Arisu, a big smile on my face. "T thought only artists that draw or paint or sculpt would be here."

"Don't be stupid." She rolled her eyes. "This is the Artist Haven. We welcome all artist. Art, music, cooking, architects, actors, you name it."

I nodded silently, my pace slowing as Arisu came to a stop in front of a yellow cottage which contained no decor, unlike all the other cottages. Instead this one was left plain and only colored with a splash of yellow paint. Because of that, it managed to stand out the most from the other homes.

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End of Chapter 38!

So when I first wrote this, this chapter was like double or triple the length. After reading it I kinda figured I would split it in two different chapters. Mainly because it works better but also because if you guys are like me I do not have the attention span to last that long in any chapter. Extremely long chapters kill me... Anyway, the next chapter has some more information about Mamoru.

On another note... You guys probably know where I'm going with this now. My thoughts when thinking of what island did I want Katsu to land on kinda included how was she going to  get better. In both strength and with her art, because the Straw Hats don't accept second best at anything. So then I thought, what better way than for her to land on an artist island? And well, you'll learn more about Arisu in future chapters. Did I do good with this?

This is not edited.