So this is the first story on this account that has an actual, pre-planned plot. And it's my second Zolu story on this account! Although Luffy doesn't even really feature until the end of the second chapter...
This story will be updated every Wednesday night, so it gives me plenty of time to write and beta the next chapter. The title is just a working title at the moment, I might change it later on. As always, please tell me if anything bothers you about my writing or the story itself; I'm sometimes too anxious to respond to reviews, but I do take all critique to heart; I'm not ignoring it, I promise!
Chapter 1; The Strawhat
Zoro didn't quite know what to expect when he'd been asked - or, to put it bluntly, blackmailed by Nami - to accompany his small group if friends after school. Although, friends was a strong word. They were more like irritating acquaintances that roped him in whenever they needed extra muscle and intimidation. In the past Zoro had scared off bullies, cruel relatives, even a couple of gamblers who were convinced, rightly so, that Nami had scammed them.
But this was just ridiculous.
"Haunted?" He asked skeptically, shooting Nami and Vivi a look. He kind of understood Usopp believing in something stupid as ghosts, but Nami and Vivi were rational, intelligent people. As for Sanji...
Zoro snorted, and Sanji's one exposed eyebrow twitched; he just knew Zoro was insulting him in his mind. Before he could pick a fight, however, Nami pressed her lips together.
"Of course I don't think it's haunted!" She snapped, placing her hands on her hips. Zoro looked up at the Gothic looking tower, and hummed. Well, if ghosts really did exist, this was definitely the sort of place they would haunt. Even in the middle of summer, with the sun beating down on them, the building gave off an eerie vibe to it, with the dark stone masonry and creepy sculptures littering its steeped roof. "But," Nami continued hesitantly, and Zoro turned back to her. "There is something weird about this place." Vivi nodded in agreement.
"Me and Kaya were down here a few days ago." She murmured. "And we heard some sort of screaming, like someone was being murdered in here..."
Zoro's eyes narrowed, but he shrugged.
"Sounds more like a job for the police than a bunch of kids." He commented, and Usopp shook his head.
"I went with them to the station." He replied. "They were almost completely ignored. Apparently they get these claims all the time; they consider it just a prank, or some kind of paranoia at this point."
"They're wrong!" Vivi insisted. "We heard it! It was... It was horrible." She swallowed. "Someone was dying in there." After a moment, Zoro sighed.
"Alright." He commented. "Could be fun." He shrugged, resting one hand on his swords at his hip. "We'll leave the door open, okay?" That way, he could send the others out if anything got too dangerous for them. Sanji hummed, lighting a cigarette and placing it between his lips.
"Naturally." He replied, placing one hand in his pocket, and he lifted his leg before Zoro could step forwards, kicking the door open. Zoro grumbled at him and stepped into the huge house, looking around and grabbing a heavy umbrella stand by the door, placing it against the door to hold it open. At the very least, the house was a lot cooler than it was underneath the beating sun. The others filed in, Usopp trailing at the back of the group and looking around nervously, and Sanji and Zoro ended up leading the way, Sanji taking full advantage of the situation to comfort the two girls of the group, showering them with reassurances and compliments.
It took them a while to comb through the rooms in the building, and every room was new and interesting. While the first floor was pretty impressive by itself, with a huge dining room, old style kitchen, and a ballroom with a gigantic, decadent fireplace, the other floors were fascinating.
"How many people lived here?" Usopp mused as they examined one of many bedrooms. Zoro hummed, looking over a large vanity table, adorned with carvings of snakes with large, jeweled eyes. Turning away as Nami admired a pair of golden snake shaped earrings, Zoro hesitated.
"Who..." He started, reaching for his sword, and Usopp tensed, hiding behind Zoro.
"What is it?" He squeaked, and Zoro frowned before taking a few steps forwards, looking around the room.
"I thought I heard something." He murmured, turning when he heard the whisper again, facing the long, heavy curtains that were drawn shut over the windows. Sanji's eyes narrowed as he made out the form of a person hidden behind the curtain, and he exchanged a look with Zoro. Zoro frowned, reaching out a hand and carefully gripping the edge of the curtain. When he pulled back the curtain, both boys preparing to attack, they were caught by surprise.
Hidden behind the curtain was a life size statue of a man. He had a starstruck, loving expression on his face, one hand reaching out as if frozen in time.
"Strange place for a statue." Zoro mused, sheathing his sword and backing up again. Sanji just huffed, turning away from the statue and tapping off some ash from his cigarette. Usopp, however, approached the statue, admiring it.
"It's so life like." He commented. "It almost looks real, whoever made this must have been an incredible artist." The art student wandered around the statue, humming. "I wonder what material was used, I've never seen material like this used before. Whatever it is, it must be hard to work with, it's quite grainy."
Zoro turned away, bored of listening to Usopp shower praises on the statue and its maker, looking around the room again. He could have sworn he'd heard a voice, but there really didn't seem to be anyone but them in the room, so he chalked it up to his imagination, leaving the room to head into the next room, Vivi hurrying after him.
"Roronoa-san, I really don't think we should wander off from the group," She started, catching Zoro's shirt when the man deviated from his course and clearing her throat. "And that's not the right way."
"Hmm?" Zoro looked around at her, his eyes following the direction she was pointing to the next unseen room, and he grumbled, letting the blue haired girl tug him towards the room he was originally headed for.
Each of the rooms were unique, clearly decorated by the people who used to inhabit them, but this one might have been the most interesting. It was messy and chaotic, the walls covered in dents, several chunks of stone gouged out from the heavy stone bricks.
"What the hell happened in here?" Zoro asked, examining one of the deep gouges. It had been worn smooth with age. The indentation was about a little bigger than his curled fists, but there wasn't any rubble around it, so someone must have been living here when it had happened. Zoro turned away from the wall, glancing around the room. There wasn't a bed; instead, a hammock hung from the ceiling, a pair of sandals hanging off of the end, the blankets tangled together in a confused mess of moth-eaten sheets. Similarly worn out clothes littered the floor, and Zoro picked his way through them to the corner of the room, where a wooden hook was installed. Hanging on it from a short piece of rope was a simple straw hat, and Zoro picked it up, looking over it. Unlike everything else in the room, all of which was damaged or torn in some way, the hat was in a nearly pristine condition, and it was obvious that it had been repaired numerous times; even the red ribbon around the hat looked like it had been carefully mended.
"Someone must have been really attached to that hat." Vivi mused, looking over Zoro's shoulder. The green haired teen nodded, carefully placing the hat back on its hook and resting his hand on Wado, fingers curling around the hilt.
There wasn't much else of interest in the room. A few childish scrawlings on stiff, rotting paper, that caused Zoro to assume the room had belonged to a young kid - the pirate theme the room seemed to have, with the hammock and dark wood furniture, would support that as well - and he almost smiled when he nudged some papers aside to see a messily drawn jolly roger, sporting a straw hat. "Cute." He muttered, straightening up again. "There doesn't seem to be anything else in this room." He mused, and Vivi nodded, pausing before taking the hat down from the hook. When she saw Zoro watching her, she cleared her throat.
"It, uh, it does't feel right, leaving it." She admitted. "Someone clearly loved this hat a lot. It seems a shame to just let it collect dust."
Zoro shrugged, turning away and heading out of the room, letting Vivi lead him. They caught up with Nami, Sanji and Usopp, who had gone on to the next room, and returned to their examinations of the rooms. One room sported several bookshelves, all of which were straining under hundreds of huge, old books on numerous subjects, from history books about wars, to stories of drama and tragedy. Another was filled with various instruments, music sheets stuck to every available surface. Every room had something unique and curious about them, and the group could have spent hours picking through each room, if Usopp's stomach hadn't started grumbling loudly.
"We've been in here a long time." Nami sighed, running her hand through her hair and tucking one orange strand behind her ear. "There really isn't anything here, is there." She turned to Sanji, smiling sweetly. "Sanji-kun," She chirped. "Can we come to your house for tea and sweets?"
Sanji's face lit up, and he immediately started babbling about the new recipes he wanted to show Nami, and that he would be delighted to have her and Vivi come to his home. His expression immediately soured when he looked at Zoro and Usopp.
"You two can go straight home." He grumbled, and Zoro scowled.
"Don't tell me what to do, shitty cook." He growled, reaching for his swords, and Sanji slipped his hands into his pockets, lifting one leg into a fighting pose. However, before Zoro could make the first move, something reached his ears, and he hesitated, looking around.
"What..." He trailed off, and Sanji lowered his leg, surprised by Zoro's sudden distraction. When Zoro and Sanji were getting riled up for a fight, they didn't just blow the other off! That was just rude.
"Oi, shitty Marimo!" He snapped, annoyed, and Zoro put up a hand to shush him, which only served to annoy the chef even more.
"Roronoa-san?" Vivi asked, and Zoro hummed, frowning.
"I thought I heard someone laughing." He murmured, staring down the hallway. He could have sworn he'd heard a little chortle of amusement. Taking a few steps down the hall, he hesitated when the rotting floorboards started to splinter under his feet, taking a couple of steps back and sighing.
"All right, enough now." Nami huffed. "This whole place is going to come down on top of us if we're not careful. Let's go." She grabbed Zoro by the ear, dragging the man after him and ignoring his angered protests. She hesitated when she reached the door, however, loosening her grip on Zoro and letting the man pull away.
"Who closed the door?" Vivi asked, looking around for the heavy umbrella stand that was holding the door open, which was no where to be seen.
"Usopp was in last." Sanji commented, and the group all turned to look at Usopp, who flinched.
"I- It wasn't me!" He defended quickly, and Zoro huffed, shaking his head.
"The umbrella stand would have been too heavy for Usopp to easily move." He commented, heading to the doors and pulling the handle. No matter how much he pushed, however, the door wouldn't budge. "Locked?" He asked, and Sanji snorted.
"What happened to that brutish strength?" He gloated, walking past Zoro and lifting his leg, kicking the door hard. It shook, but didn't open, and he paused, blinking at the door before scowling, as if the door's refusal to open was some kind of personal insult. He kept kicking the door, and eventually, with one particularly violent kick, he ended up breaking the lock, blasting the door open.
The cook staggered back as a harsh wind hit him, bringing a hand up to cover his face as snow was blown into his eyes.
"What the-" He started, and the others took several steps back as they stared at the furious snow storm that was wailing outside the door. Nami's eyes widened.
"What on earth?!"