When Zoro awoke in the men's quarters of the Thousand Sunny his first thought was the ever-present desire to train. Raising a hand to his face, he rubbed his eye before tracing the line of his scar. A vivid memory of Mihawk landing the ultimate blow in their training sessions sent a soft, reminiscing pain to his eye socket, and with a groan, he rose from his hammock, reaching for his swords and made his way to the Observation turned Training Room.
After a few thousand repetitions, the swordsman could hear his nakama entering the galley, and with Luffy's loud yell of food, Zoro deigned it time for breakfast. When Zoro entered the galley he had expected a tangle of rubbery limbs to be snaking through the tables contents and stealing copious amounts of food, however, what he found was his crew sitting rather tamely, looking towards him with strange yet expectant looks upon their faces. What was even more surprising however was the rather large parcel waiting on the table.
"What's going on?" the swordsman asked, as he slowly entered the room, having overcome his initial shock.
"It's a parcel, obviously. It's addressed to you." Nami explained, looking at him curiously, "Who would be sending you something?" she continued, asking the question on his own mind. The swordsman simply stood there, looking dumbly between the parcel and the navigator.
"I dunno… There's no one to send me anything." He answered, before walking towards the parcel and the spot that had been left vacant for him to sit in, and subsequently, open the ominous package. He was too single sighted to notice the somewhat awkward silence that fell on the crew after stating himself as having no family left.
"Well… Open it!" Nami all but yelled, excitement evident in her voice. He looked at her, and then the rest of the crew, each watching him with small smiles on their faces, before turning back to the parcel.
"Is this a trick?" he asked, expecting a contraption of Usopp's design to jump out and attack him.
"No," Sanji stated, "It was on the deck when I came up to prepare breakfast. I brought it in here before the rain Nami-san predicted would come and destroy it." He took a drag of his ever-present cigarette before adding, "That's when I saw it was addressed to you, Marimo, otherwise I would have left it on deck to rot." With that, Sanji took a few steps backwards to lean on the bar, watching Zoro intently, waiting for a reaction. But Zoro didn't take the bait, and instead, he turned his eye back towards the parcel and read the small tag that read 'Roronoa Zoro'.
Sighing and knowing he could fight any threat the parcel could throw at the crew, Zoro ripped the tape off. Eyes scrunched in confusion, he reached inside and pulled out a polished mahogany flip top box, latched down with a golden lock.
"Wow Zoro-bro! That is one perfectly lacquered and polished box! Whoever sent you that must have slaved over it for hours, days even! Or they had some mighty fine beli to spend." With each exclamation of excitement the shipwright moved a little closer, subsequently pulling everyone in so they could better view the beautiful box.
"But I don't understand. Why would Zoro want a box?" Chopper asked, looking as innocent and confused as always. Zoro simply shrugged as he lifted the latch and unlocked the box. Everyone leaned forwards as the lid was thrown back and everyone gained the similar expression of confusion, before gauging Zoro's reaction. For a moment, the swordsman stood in silence, a blank expression on his face as he gazed at the box's contents.
A small smile found its way onto the swordsman's lips, surprising the Strawhat pirates.
"What is it..?" Usopp asked, but the only thing that came from the swordsman was silence as he reached into the beautiful box and withdrew a few utensils.
"Ah, looks like some maintenance tools for Zoro-san's swords." Brooke announced, as the familiar item was withdrawn. Zoro merely glanced at the skeleton before he turned back to the contents of the mahogany box. His face softened surprisingly, revealing a look of longing to the crew, before it hardened somewhat. The crew became curious as to what could force their swordsman to make such a face, when he pulled a picture frame out of the box.
"I remember this." He whispered as he touched the glass of the frame lovingly.
"Who's that?" Luffy asked, turning, Zoro could see the boy had stretched his neck to look at the image. The swordsman smiled at his captain.
"An old friend." Was his only response as he looked at the image of two children. The photograph caught a moment of perfection between a blue-haired and laughing young girl pulling a green-haired boy towards her in a headlock, the boy trying, and failing, to stop a smile creeping onto his youthful face. The young girl's face seemingly peered out of the frame and leapt into Zoro's heart, both comforting and stabbing his chest. He didn't know what he looked like to his crew, long past the ability to contain his emotion as an overwhelming feeling of loss and love overtook him.
"A good friend, Zoro-san?" Robin inquired. Without taking his eyes off of the girl smiling up at him in the photograph, he nodded,
"She was the best." He said simply, not really feeling the desire to reveal too much about something that still caused him some grief. Placing the picture frame back into the box carefully he withdrew a scrapbook. Opening to the first page he started to read the words in his head before Sanji growled at him to 'read it out loud you shithead' and so he did.
"Zoro, I hope you enjoyed the small gift my current students and I pieced together for you. The contents of this book was their idea, and of course, contains their artwork and stories for you to remember your home, and those awaiting your return. I thought you'd appreciate knowing that your first wanted poster inspired many children to join my now renowned dojo. The streets are usually littered with children playing 'Pirates', which consists of boys, and girls, wielding cardboard or wooden swords and pretending to be you. You're an inspiration and a hero, Roronoa Zoro, and you deserve to know how loved you are. I wish the safest of journeys and look forward to the day I read your name in the paper as the new World's Greatest Swordsman. Happy birthday son. With love and regards, Koshiro Sensei."
…
The crew remained silent, watching the swordsman's movements carefully; unsure as to how he would react. He simply lowered the book from his face, and turned the first page. What the crew saw was his wanted poster, on the other page was a child's drawing of 'Zoro slaying an evil pirate' as it was captioned. The pages continued in a similar fashion, some with pictures, others with stories, and the rare few that had photographs stuck down onto the pages, usually of his own childhood with the blue-haired girl being present somewhere in the image. It was those pages with the pictures that were captioned, usually with the date and sometimes with a paragraph of what the picture detailed, that caused the biggest reaction from their swordsman. Zoro skimmed through the bulging pages until he came to the final page. The swordsman was unaware of his surroundings now, and his crew had been watching the man's face and the contents of the scrapbook in silence, trying to piece together the pieces of the swordsman's past. The usually carefully controlled expression had changed from surprised, to elated, following through unrestrained joy, as a previously unseen smile that not only softened his features, but made him look like the twenty-one, now twenty-two, year old man he was, instead of the stern-faced stoic man the crew were used to. The final page's had the swordsman gasping as he quietly read the pages aloud.
"Zoro, sensei told me to write to you, to try and make you feel like you weren't the demon the village claims you to be, and after witnessing you train today, seeing the frown and frustration that shouldn't be seen on an eleven year old boy's face, I decided that maybe I should. Even though you're not burdened by womanhood, you still train at impossible levels to improve, to get better than me. I suppose it's somewhat inspirational, even if you've already lost 2000 times to me. I still think you'll become a great swordsman, and I promise to be by your side the entire time. A constant challenge, an adversary, for you to overcome. I want to let you know that I'm glad we met. I'm glad you give me a challenge. But most of all, I'm glad I can call you my friend. Love always, Kuina.
The crew had collectively held their breath as Zoro had begun whispering the letter on the final page of the scrapbook. They watched now, awed, as he ran his hand gently over the page, a soft tear trickling down his cheek, before being followed by another. A look of agony, of heartache was present as the swordsman raised his other hand to his heart. After a few moments, Chopper spoke,
"Zoro?" he whispered, "are you alright? Is your chest okay?"
Zoro jumped, glancing around the room and seemingly remembering where he was.
"Yeah, Chopper." He replied simply, taking a last look at the page before closing the book and replacing it back in the mahogany box and closing the lid.
"Ne, Zoro, is today your birthday?" Luffy asked then. The swordsman was silent for a moment, looking down at the polished lid of the box.
"What's the date?" he asked in lieu of answering.
"The eleventh of November, Zoro-san." Robin said quietly, not wanting to break the tender mood by speaking too loudly.
"The eleventh, huh?" Zoro asked rhetorically, "Yeah, it's my birthday." And with that, the swordsman simply picked the mahogany box up in his arms and exited the galley.
"What about breakfast?" Sanji called after him. Zoro stopped in the doorway and peered back towards his nakama.
"I'm not hungry." He responded, before letting the door swing shut behind him and disappearing into his sanctuary, to be alone.
"Why did that make Zoro-bro so upset? I thought birthday's were fun occasions with booze and …"
"MEAT?!" Luffy interrupted Franky, with a sigh, the chef spoke,
"Yes Luffy, with booze and meat."
"OW!" Franky yelled, posing in his signature super position.
"So if birthday's are supposed to be fun, why was Zoro crying?" Luffy asked innocently.
"Perhaps Zoro-san's birthday is something that causes him grief and not happiness." Robin proposed. She was still wondering who Kuina was to the swordsman, but after witnessing his reaction to her letter, she had decided it would be a mystery she could only speculate on.
"Why don't we change that?" Nami suggested, "Why don't we distract him, make a banquet, and try to change his perception of his birthday?"
"But Nami-san, you predicted rain today. We can hardly hold a banquet on deck in the rain. The food would be ruined." Sanji informed his crewmates who looked at him like he had spoiled the best event in history.
"Well, what about the aquarium bar?" Usopp suggested, "I mean, it's big enough, and the fish make it look nice…" Usopp trailed off at the look on his nakama's faces. "What?" Usopp asked, a little concerned that he had done something wrong.
"That's a good idea Usopp." Nami put his mind at ease, "Sanji-kun, could you bring food into the aquarium and make a banquet in there?" Nami asked.
"For you my Nami-swan, I can do anything!" Sanji exclaimed with hearts in his eyes and noodle dancing.
"Yosh, let's have a party!" Luffy exclaimed and the crew exclaimed their agreement.
Zoro had spent the rest of his day training. Or so his crew had thought. The first thing zoro had done when he reached the crow's nest was to place the chest down gently before removing the photo frame and placing it on top of the back rest that ran around the perimeter of the room. He looked at Kuina and sighed, before pulling his new Hanwei Sword Cleaning Kit and got to work on cleaning and sharpening Wado Ichimonji, followed by his other katana. In the end, Zoro ended up sitting in the training room looking at the scrapbook, with a main focus on the letter from Kuina. By the time Luffy came up to the training room, it was already sunset.
"Zoro, you missed lunch, and breakfast. Sanji said you had to have dinner." Luffy said as he entered the room and walked towards his firstmate.
"It's dinnertime?" Zoro asked rhetorically before looking out the window at the slowly darkening sky. It looked bleak outside and Zoro almost laughed at the reflection it had on his own mood.
"Okay Captain, let's go." He responded, rising up and following his captain onto the deck and into the soft pattering of the rain. To his surprise, Luffy didn't enter the galley, he simply walked over to another part of the ship, (the aquarium bar?) Zoro thought, but he asked no questions, simply followed his captain into the new room.
When Zoro entered, he was left speechless. The room had been decorated with makeshift balloons, streamers and a large banner written in horrible writing proclaimed, 'Happee birthday Zoro' he assumed his captain had had a hand in the writing of the banner. Underneath it, his whole crew stood, smiling towards him, but he could see the nervousness in their faces, or sense it at least.
"What's with… all this?" Zoro asked, realising he had simply been standing there with a neutral expression. It was Robin who stepped forwards,
"We decided to make your birthday a little bit more special. We hope you don't mind Zoro-san." She responded. He stepped closer and noticed the contents of the large table they usually reserved for the frequent parties their captain demanded. It was filled with his favourite foods, the more simply delicacies such as rice balls, sushi and copious amounts of meat and sake. He felt a smile grace his lips and heard the crew let out a collective breath, before he smiled up to them.
"Why?" he asked, and it was Sanji that answered this time,
"Because Marimo, birthday's should be joyous occasions, not shitty ones."
"I see." Zoro muttered before he walked forwards and took one of the larger bottles of sake into his hands, taking a swig. He grinned at his nakama, his family, and smiled widely, the way he had that had made him look like the young man he was, untroubled by the world's grief.
"Happy birthday Zoro" The crew cried and he laughed softly.
"Yeah, it is a happy birthday indeed." And the party began. Drinks were served and Luffy ate all the meat. Zoro just sat and smiled as he watched his crew fighting and eating at impossible rates, but with an enormous amount of respect and fondness for each other.
"Ah, Zoro-san, I believe your young female friend is still with you." Brooke said quietly as he sat beside the swordsman. At Zoro's questioning look, he continued,
"I feel her presence in the ether on occasions. She is never far from you, always wishing you the best and cheering you on. She may be some cause of grief for you Zoro-san, and I apologise if I'm speaking out of term but, I believe she is also the cause of many of your victories." Zoro sat in silence for a moment, contemplating what the skeleton had said. Turning to Brooke, he schooled his expression and replied,
"Yeah, sometimes I think she is too. And being the living dead, I'm sure you know more about it than me. Thanks Brooke." With that he took an extra large gulp of his sake, and Brooke took his leave.
Glancing at the door, Zoro swore he saw a faint silhouette of his old friend, smiling and waving at him. He hadn't had a birthday party before, but he was certain this would be the best one he'd ever have.