Where the hell is he? Thought one green-haired swordsman, as he scanned the seemingly endless halls of this gigantic building. All the swordsman knew was that his captain had launched himself over here while he'd been napping to participate in some ridiculous tournament. So while the rest of the crew was off gallivanting around and blowing whatever money they had saved since Water 7, he was forced into searching for their captain. Grumbling to himself, he veered right to check one of the many directories the mall contained. He immediately face-vaulted as he realized he was back where he'd started.
"How the hell did I make a circle!? This damn place is so big I shouldn't be able to! (#!" As Zoro continued to make a scene, he was interrupted by a big, brown, and oddly smelling hand on his shoulder.
Smiling disarmingly as the swordsman turned, Death by Chocolate spoke knowingly, "Do you perhaps need a guide through this copiously spacious shopping center?"
Trying not to show his surprise, disgust, or fear of this chocolate being, he settled on showing a bit of his annoyance and frustration in the form of a tic in his left eye. Shrugging the demon's hand from his shoulder, he replied with a grunt, then a full-fledged sentence, "Yeah, I guess so. Who're you, exactly?"
Smiling even wider than before, DbC introduced himself the only way he knew how: with a touch of modesty and a lot of self-embellishment. "Why, I am Death by Chocolate, the officiator of the tournament currently taking place in this, El Centro De El Mundo. It is the crowning achievement of several horrendously rich, and altogether slimy corporate fat-heads. The tournament, however, is my beautiful little brainchild. It boasts contestants from–" Before the chocolate demon could go on, however, the swordsman and first mate of the Mugiwara no Kaizoku interrupted.
"That's great, but I don't care. I'm here to find my captain so we can easily grab him and be gone after the tournament is over. Where is Monkey D. Luffy?" Zoro was looking at DbC with an intensely bored expression, something the chocolate lover and liver was not used to. Therefore, his next small speech was somewhat... contrary.
Frowning slightly, the demon replied, "I am not aware of the exact location of your captain. However, I do know a way for you to inevitably find him." There was a distinctly manic gleam in DbC's eye by the end of his sentence, one that went completely unnoticed by the marimo.
Raising an eyebrow, he simply said, "Uh-huh?"
"You shall enter the tournament. We've actually had a few dropouts, unfortunately, so you will be taking the place of one of them. That way you're sure to find your captain eventually." Even with your obviously horrible sense of direction. The demon added this last to himself, smirking evilly.
For his part, Zoro seemed unmoved by the chocolate king's words, and said simply, "No. I'll find him on my own." Turning to leave, DbC's next sentence froze him solid.
"Even if you could be fighting the strongest people alive?" DbC had taken a gamble with that one, and was delighted to see it had payed off. Meatheads... all the same.
Turning back to the demon, Roronoa Zoro grinned sadistically and let some of his bloodlust reach his eyes. Freeing his swords in their sheaths, asked, "When do I start?"