Disclaimer: One piece characters.

Zolu. Au.

The Protector

Prologue

I hold my twin sister as we sat in the rain in front of a grave. I listen to her sob as she cried from the loneliness. I couldn't cry with her for I had to be strong for her knowing she needs me now more than ever.

"Brother, what are we going to do now?" She asked through her sobs. "She was all we had."

"I-I don't know."

She looked up at me with her big green eyes that are filled with sadness. They made my heart ache in pain even more but I do not dare to show it to her. She finally looked away from me and back at the gravestone that had our mother's name carved into it.

"You know you can get sick in the rain." A gentle voice said from behind us.

It had scared us at first, but when we saw whom it was caused our body to relax as we looked at the man with the umbrella. He had such a gentle smile upon his face as he looked at us, but it slowly faded as his eyes passed us and looked upon the gravestone.

"Come on kids." He said as he handed us an unused umbrella. "Kuina is waiting for us to return."

I looked at my sister as she looked at me before we looked back at the man in front of us. "Sensei?" We both called the man.

"You two will live with us." Sensei replied to us.

At that moment I could feel happiness from this sad day and opened the umbrella for my sister and I. We followed him back to his place where Kuina was waiting for us with a smile on her face.

Days went by and my sister and I worked hard with our swordsmanship along with Kuina. Sensei would train us with other kids that wanted it and we just had fun. My sister became happier and happier in front of my eyes and that itself was my happiness.

"Kuina, you're so awesome at this." My sister told Kuina as they spar against each other.

"Zoey, you are not bad either." Kuina replied with a smile. "Just need a little work."

I watch as they continue on with their sparring until Kuina beat Zoey. Zoey let out a sigh as she reached up to her hair to pull it down from her ponytail then looked at Kuina. They started to laugh with each other as they both fell onto the floor. I just shook my head and walked toward them.

"Oh look," Zoey started as she looked towards me. "Mr. Sunshine is coming." She joked causing them to laugh some more.

"Ha ha," I mumble to them once I stood over them. "Kuina, let's spar one more time."

"Zoro, you are going to lose again like the other fifteen hundred times." Zoey said as she stopped laughing. "You will never beat her, so why try?"

"Then why do you even spar with her then?"

Zoey just smiled, "I do this for fun, unlike you two, so I have someone who won't be too serious with me."

I sighed and shook my head at her answer, but I didn't say anything more to it. I looked at Kuina who had a serious look in her eyes. A smirk grew on my face as I looked at her knowing she had become serious again.

"Oh, boy, there you two go again." Zoey muttered. "Why don't you two just go at it with real swords? I bet that'll be even more of a challenge for Kuina."

"That's not a bad idea, sis."

"Huh?" Her eyes grew wide as looked at me. "No, I was kidding! You know like ha ha… Oh, man, me and my big mouth."

She shook her head causing her light brown hair move all around her. Then she stood up and walked away like she didn't want to hear anymore thoughts of this nor wanting to know if we are really going to do it or not. I couldn't help but to chuckle at her knowing that she will not tell anyone what we are truly thinking.

"So how about it?" I asked as I look back at Kuina.

"Sounds like fun." She replied.

We agreed on it and then we figured that we should do it where we wouldn't get caught. The fact that Zoey knew this didn't bother us since she wasn't down on telling on people and it was her idea anyway. So we decided when everyone should be a sleep as a good time and the place would be in the back, in the big open field.

Until then I retreated to my room to figure out how I'm going to beat Kuina. I open my door just to see Zoey sitting on my bed, staring at the wall. I closed the door and walked up to her and rubbed my hand on her head. She looked at me with her big green eyes and she looked right into my light brown ones.

"Its weird, we are twins and yet our eyes and hair are different color from one another." She said as she continued to look into my eyes. "But the funny thing is my eye color is the same as your hair color and same for yours." She finally looked away from me, but her eyes went back at the wall. "You are stronger than me and way better than me at swordplay."

"Zoey," I rubbed her head again to reassure her. "I might be stronger than you and the opposite of you, but you are you." I smiled at her when she looked back at me. "You can sing better than anyone I know and dance way better, too. On top of that, to make up from lack of offense you have great skills for defense and trust me that is the best way to go since that's how Kuina always beats me."

She giggled a little, "Zoro promise me that everything will be okay and no one will get hurt anymore."

"Zoey, I can't-"

"Please." She begged.

I sighed knowing she won't be happy unless I agree. "Zoey, look, I want everything to stay the same as well, but it's just not guaranteed that it would." I sighed before smiling again at her. "But I'll try."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

She stood up and hugged me before rushing out of my room to who knows where. I shook my head before crashing down onto my bed. I closed my eyes just to think about my plan to finally beating Kuina, but instead I fell into complete darkness.

When I woke up, it was about the time I should be outside starting the fight with Kuina. I jumped out of bed grabbing my two swords and ran out of my bedroom door right into Zoey. I blinked a couple of times before helping her off the floor.

"Man, bro, not only are you late, but blind too." She muttered.

"Shut up."

She just laughed as I ran around her and headed out to the meeting place. I kind of knew that Kuina will be mad and take it out on me during the fight, but that will give me more reason to beat her. She stood impatiently but a smirk grew when she saw me as her hand lay on a white hilt of a sword.

"Ready?" She asked me.

I nodded as I drew both swords that I had as she drew her own sword. We stood in a stance and looked at each other. I was the first one to move, then her, and then a sword clash. As always I was on offense as she defended and that was always my downfall when I battled her.

Our swords crashed into each other and the weight of them was taking their toll on us. We were breathing heavily but we would not stop until someone loses this fight. Our swings just blocked each other from making a hit, but one block I did made me lose one of my swords. I cursed under my breath as I just kept going with one sword and I must say it was a little easier with just one.

I fought as hard as I could but it wasn't good enough because she was not fazed by it at all. I clench my teeth together as she finally came out of defense and into offense. What I didn't know at that moment, was that her next swing would throw my last sword and knock me of my feet. Then she slammed her sword into the ground right next to my head, which made me glad that my green hair was short at that moment.

"I win." She huffed out.

"Y-yeah."

She held out her hand to help me up. I smirk as I grabbed her hand then stood up, with her help, of course. We talked for a while, then we made a promise that we will be the best at what we do and always protect Zoey. Then we heard Zoey singing and it was getting louder and louder until eventually she was standing right next to us and was still singing. We smiled as she kept singing until we all grew tired and headed back to the house to crash, not knowing what was in store for us.

"Brother." Zoey whined.

I turn to look at her just to see that she was way far away from us. I looked at Kuina who just nodded and headed into the building as I went back to Zoey. Once I got to her she was already on the ground breathing weirdly.

"What's the matter?" I asked her as I bent down to the ground to look her in the face.

"I-"

Before she could get anything out, something interrupted her that scared us both. It was the sound of an explosion that was near; really near in fact when it happened it knocked me into Zoey, causing me land on top of her. I sat up coughing as I looked at Zoey to see if she was okay, but, when I did, her eyes were wide and watery. Her eyes were locked onto what was behind us that lit the area around us. I turn slowly to look at it just to see that our house was burning up flames, well, what left of it at least.

"No." I mumble.

I stood to my feet then slowly walked toward the building. As I grew closer to the building my foot hit something. I looked down to see it was the white sword that Kuina had just few minutes ago. My eyes widen as I remember Kuina walking into the building just before the explosion.

"Kuina," I muttered to myself. "KUINA!" I soon yelled hoping she would reply back to me to tell me she was okay.

But the thing was, she didn't, and she would never reply to me. A tear ran down my face knowing that Sensei and Kuina were both gone. I couldn't be strong for her knowing that she needed me to be like that before but I just couldn't, not this time.

all reviews are welcome. i wanna know your personal thoughts on it.

i try to make the grammer best as possible. even got someone to go over it.