Hello gentle readers, and welcome to my ZoroxOC fanfiction. I hope you like this wacky beginning to a wackier story.
The swordsman weaved through the bustling marketplace, arm resting casually on the topmost hilt of the three katana at his side. He seemed to pay no mind to the people who stared at him, yet he noticed them all. He could not blame them, as he was sure his scowl was particularly deep set at the moment. Every other member of the Mugiwara crew had wandered off on him, leaving him to wander about the small port town. While he vastly preferred to be near his nakama, the relative quiet peace was pleasant enough. He was in no particular hurry to find them. At least for a few more minutes, since a light drizzle had started to fall.
While he was nowhere near Nami's calibre when it came to weather prediction, he had been on the sea long enough to know when a light drizzle was just the beginning of what the weather had to offer. He spotted an empty stone bench under an ancient shade tree. He made himself comfortable on it just in time for the rain to pick up speed, leaning against the tree, arms folded behind his head. He glanced around one more time before closing his eye, intent on napping while he waited for the rain to pass.
The island was small and self-sustaining, so the marine activity was next to non-existent. The only person within fifty feet of him was a small figure with their hood pulled tightly around their face, on a neighboring wooden bench. They seemed about as threatening as the tree behind him, eating their sandwich and reading a thick stack of papers under the canopy of a tree nearly as large as the one he was using as a backrest.
Add that he was Roronoa Zoro, rightly called Demon of the East Blue, and he had little to worry about sleeping here.
Sleep was almost upon him when he heard purposeful footsteps on the cobblestone square and someone roughly kicked his boot. He grunted in annoyance, wondering if the owner of the boot that kicked his had a death wish today.
"Roronoa Zoro?" The voice attached to the question was gruff and was either older or gave hint to possible chain smoking.
He opened his eye, glaring at the fairly large group of armed men. Nothing I can't handle and hardly satisfying.
"Yeah, and what of it?" He did not even bother to sit up fully, just continued glaring at them with a half-hearted snarl.
A rough middle-aged man holding a copy of his wanted poster proved to be the owner of the voice that woke him, but anymore thought on that subject was gone with the man's words.
"You're under arrest for desecration of Hero's Monument. Your penalty is death."
Lithium had been watching him wander back and forth on the market street for about an hour. She had first noticed him when she walked out of the local bar, the passable local brew entirely forgotten when she laid eyes on the swordsman.
She was not sure if it was the attention-grabbing compliments of green and red he was wearing, the fact that his hair itself was green or that she could spot well-defined muscles sliding beneath his loose clothing that drew her attention. She simply knew she had to draw him and hoped she did not have to be a bit of a stalker to do so.
Not like I don't do that anyway for every anatomy study I do...
She sighed, pulling the deep hood of her sweatshirt over her head so she could shift out of her disguise. She had been wearing a generic human shape for a couple hours so she was already beginning to feel the prickling crawly sensation of needing to wear her own face again. While this was a quiet place, being stuck in shift was not something she wanted to do either way.
She shifted back to normal slowly as she walked across the street to a nearby park bench. The slower she shifted, the less obvious it was to anyone who happened to glance into her hood. She readjusted her clothing to avoid flashing any gray and white skin to people who did not need to know about it. Namely, everyone.
The shapeshifter settled in to eat the other half of her sandwich and alternate between watching the swordsman wander past and reading up on the local laws of the island. One of the pirates whose ship she had been on for the trip here had mentioned there were some oddball laws, so she read a copy of them as she finished her sandwich. While the bar's alcohol was lacking in potency, their food was particularly satisfying to her inner carnivore.
As the rain picked up, the swordsman took cover under a near-by tree, looking surprisingly relaxed in public. She could never been that casual anywhere, not if she wanted to avoid capture. She felt a bit of concern though, that the bench he was sitting on was stone rather than the other wooden benches around the square. Something about it played at the edged of her memory.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a group of about twenty armed men approached the dozing man. She re-wrapped her sandwich and stuffed it and her papers into her bag, ready in case the swordsman happened to be a heavy sleeper. She did not want to be involved, but she also was not about to let anyone get away with harming someone if she could help it.
Under her hood, one animal-like ear swiveled to better catch what was being said, but shot upward when she heard the large older man state the name "Roronoa Zoro?" and the swordsman confirm it. She had seen his wanted poster many times in checking to see if her own was posted on the islands she visited. It certainly explained why, aside from his unusual appearance, he seemed to stick in her mind. She had a good memory for faces, though she was not always able to attach the proper names to them.
"You're under arrest for desecration of Hero's Monument. Your penalty is death."
Lithium's head whipped around toward them, hidden eyes huge in shock. Sweet sake, that stupid stone bench is the Hero's Monuement? Dammit...dammit...
The weird laws on this island were mostly innocuous based on what she read, aside from one set. The Hero's Monument was this islands greatest treasure, practically deified in the resident's eyes. Any infraction against it was met with the harsh punishment of beheading, no exceptions.
Except that one...
Mind whirling with the plan she set into motion, she slipped off the bench and ran into the neighboring park, shucking off her sweatshirt as ran. She did not want any of the men arresting Roronoa Zoro to recognize her from the bench. She found the entrance to the park that came out on the other side of the Hero's Monument, and ran up to them, hoping she looked appropriately breathless and worried.
Saints preserve me in alcohol...I hope this works...
She felt a blush creep up her cheeks as she readied herself for the next part of her plan. Everything depended on this moment. She pushed roughly past some of the armed men, her ears laid back, putting herself between the large man and Zoro, throwing her arms around the swordsman's neck.
"I've been looking all over for you!"
"Oi!-" Zoro started to protest but she cut him off.
"-You said you would wait for me at the bar until I was done shopping! " She whispered into the flustered man's ear. "I'm Lithium, play along...I'll get you out of this mess."
To his credit, Zoro calmed down and even placed a hand on her back, albeit tentatively so.
The large man half-growled at her taking a step closer to them, though the shock at her unusual appearance still registered on his face. . "What do you think you're doing, girl?"
Lithium let go of Zoro, whirling to face the older man, her fangs bared a little. "What do you think you're doing to my husband?"