Hey guys, Cosmos10 here! So this is my very first fanfic to ever publish so I have a few things to say. First of all I want to get the very important disclaimers out of the way. As I'm sure you all know I do not own One Piece or any of its characters, obvious. I would also like to give Sho-A0YCupid the credit she deserves since this story is heavily based on her story, Loyal. Sho-A0YCupid is the one that came up with the original idea of Zoro turning into a dog in a gang riddled city and becoming friends with Luffy. If any of you have read Loyal you will likely see many scenes and dialogue that are very similar, however I did try to make the story my own with my own writing style and plot. If you haven't read Loyal and you're interested in romance and drama, I recommend giving it a read.
These first few chapters will be most similar to Loyal, but I promise the point of my story is very different and will diverge. My story will also be quite a bit longer as I totally want to stuff as many One piece characters into this AU as possible. It is not yet complete, but I do have the end in sight and if this story is well received then I will keep posting chapters.
Well, that's all I have to say for now. Thanks you all for trying my story out and I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 1: The Kitsune
It was one of those dry, windy nights when Zoro liked to stand outside on the hill above his apartment complex and watch the trees wiping back and forth while the moon shone brightly over the city. It was his favorite spot to just sit and meditate. In the daytime when the sun was high he would sit in the lee of an old abandoned shrine that sat covered in moss and nearly hidden by shrubbery, the symbol of a nine-tailed fox barely visible on the crumbling archway above it. At night trash and debris skittered down the streets and alleys below him and the street lamps, few and far between, flickered as small tornadoes of leaf litter and dust swirled around them. The hill was also high enough that he could almost see the whole city, stretching across a wide, lush valley surrounded by mountains and high plateaus.
It was a large city, even streetwise Zoro had never been to its farthest reaches. It was so large that it had to be broken up into districts so the local authorities could manage it with some semblance of efficiency. The higher-class districts had lower numbers. You'd be considered rich and fancy if you lived or worked anywhere within one or five. These districts lay to the north of the city on the distant mountain sides and plateaus and were partitioned off from the rest of the city by a massive, twenty-five-meter wall. You had to meet certain standards to get through the gates so Zoro had never been there before. The lights from these districts were the brightest, shining boastfully across the city valley. Neon sighs flashed and high-rise towers and mansions glittered from their perches, looming over the rest of the city.
Then there were the middle class, an area more to the south of the city ranging from six to ten. People could live modest lives there and enjoy relative safety from vagrants. There was even farming lands closer to the outskirts of the Southern City, and it was where most of the higher districts got their produce from. This portion was also partitioned by a wall, but it was only ten meters tall and was more for show of status than retention.
Zoro had only been to the mid-districts once or twice, his home territory lay in the lower-class districts all the way to district twenty-nine. He knew these streets like the back of his hand, every alleyway, every hidden nook. Since the lower-class districts made up the major area of the city, it gave Zoro a massive range for wandering.
To maintain the standards of the other two classes' districts, the third-class districts were for the most part ignored by the city authorities and left to fend for themselves. Gangs controlled the streets and crime was an everyday, every hour occurrence. It had gotten so bad in recent years that the crime had started to seep into the more respectable districts. The higher up couldn't allow that, and were only now starting to turn their attention to filtering out the more dangerous gang groups.
This was fine by Zoro. As an independent, he was hard to pin down and fewer competitors from other gangs meant he had more freedom to roam unhindered. He'd even taken the time to offer gangs he had defeated to the authorities now and again, just to get them off his streets. He took any chance he could to fight punks who thought they could take him. Both for the fun of a good challenge, and for the pleasure of seeing them crash and burn when he was finished with them.
That was the reason he was he was here now, high above the streets atop the highest hill in the twenty-fourth district. People sometimes liked to choose special places for their fights, and Zoro figured, why not here on his favorite hill.
He barely noticed the sound of feet trekking clumsily up the steep gravel trail behind him over the howling wind, but he knew who it was before he even turned around. He gripped the hilt of one of his three swords strapped to his right hip.
"So you did show up," a nasally voice sneered. Zoro turned to face the four leather-clad men with a frown of indifference, glancing at their brass knuckles and iron clubs, unimpressed.
To anyone else they would have looked more threatening than him, with their pumped-up muscles and spiked studs adorning every inch of their clothing. Zoro himself was still only nineteen, tall and lanky despite his impressive physique. He had an older face though, with stern black eyes and a scowl that betrayed his years of fighting to survive in the city's unforgiving streets. His unevenly cropped hair was bright green, but colorful hair wasn't uncommon these days. Flashes of vibrant red, purple, blue and orange were hardly something to turn and stare at anymore. He didn't bother with all the leather most thugs wore either, finding it too heavy and restricting. He preferred comfortable t-shirts, black sweatpants, and sturdy leather boots. The only thing suggesting he wasn't a common civilian were three gold, teardrop-shaped earrings hanging from his left earlobe, and three very deadly looking swords strapped to his right hip.
Sure, guns, clubs, switchblades and good old fashioned fists may be enough to impress most weaklings, but Zoro's three blade style was what put him that extra notch higher than the majority. It also made him a popular challenge among the more daring gangs and thugs. None of them presented much of a challenge for him though, but that hardly stopped the idiots from trying anyway much to Zoro's chagrin.
Zoro tapped his fingers on the hilts of his swords leisurely, expecting no different from this group of sweaty thugs. "You said you had a proper fight for me," he yawned lazily. "I've been a bit board lately so I thought I'd take you up on your offer."
"As if you could take on all four of us at once!" the nasally voiced thug snorted in disgust.
"What a disappointment," Zoro sighed, ignoring the man's indignant growl. "This isn't even going to kill five minutes."
All four men lunged at once, snarling and jeering with their fists and weapons held high. Zoro drew his white sword in a flash and cut down two of them before they could even get near him. The other two pushed him back and he deflected their blows as one swung a massive club at his head and the other jabbed at him with a long, glinting knife. Zoro easily dodged their attacks and sent one man tumbling headlong into the shrine statue while the other got a blade to the gut. Their groans of pain and surprise moaned with the angry wind as Zoro deftly flicked the blood off his blade and returned it to its sheath. He stepped over the four bodies with a snort of indifference. It was a shame really, he had been enjoying the wind storm, the electricity in the air always filled him with such exhilaration and the wind was cool and refreshing. The gang just had to go and ruin a perfectly stormy night.
Zoro sighed in disappointment once again and started to head down the gravel path towards the street again when he found his way blocked by a strange, glowing creature. It looked like a fox with nine tails, but it was bigger than any fox Zoro had ever seen, easily the same size as a grown man, and its red fur glowed with an ethereal light that seemed to flicker like flames.
"What the- is that a Kitsune?" Zoro halted in his tracks. He had heard of the creatures from common folklore and myths, he wasn't completely uncultured even if it he was indifferent to societal norms. Shrines and temples dedicated to similar creatures were found throughout the city's parks and outskirts, though most were generally forgotten these days. Zoro himself had certainly never believed in such spirits so as he stared at the ethereal fox before him he was starting to question his sanity.
The nine-tailed creature tilted its head the way a dog does when it's confused and Zoro took a step back. It cast him a baleful frown before turning to the four unconscious bodies, then at the shrine statue. "So it's finally come to this, has it?" a deep and rumbly voice reverberated inside Zoro's skull and he flinched unconsciously.
"Y-you can talk?" he stammered in surprise.
The fox looked back at him, scowling. "I had been under the assumption that someone so in-tune with the earth's energy would show a bit more respect for its spirits"
Zoro frowned in confusion, growing nervous though he wouldn't admit it. "What are you talking about?"
The fox rolled its eyes. "I see you up here almost every day, sitting there with your fingers pressed together like some monk. Tell me, Roronoa Zoro, are you actually tuning in to the earth's energy, or is it just an excuse to nap?" the fox huffed quietly.
It took a second for Zoro to finally realize what the fox was talking about. It was true that this hill was Zoro's favorite place to sit and meditate. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, not even himself really, but sometimes the things he saw on the streets got to him. Meditating cleared his mind somewhat and let him get back to nature. Whoever this fox was had clearly been watching him, but why?
"Listen… Kitsune, I don't know what you want from me, but why I meditate up here is none of your business," Zoro grumbled, irritated with the Kitsune' presumptuous rambling despite his uncertainty of its intentions. The Kitsune simply stared at Zoro through unconcerned, half-lidded eyes for a moment before turning to the carnage behind the green-haired teen.
"I supposed the fact that you not only destroyed my personal property but also left these clearly outclassed young men to die on my doorstep is also none of my business?"
"Huh?" Zoro turned and glanced at the four fallen men in confusion, finally realizing that the fox was referring to the shrine they had destroyed in their fight.
"You mean these punks?" Zoro scoffed, only slightly guilty at the realization that he might have gone a bit overboard. "They were the ones that asked me for a fight, it's not my fault they bit off more than they could chew."
The fox did not seem convinced. "You've been alone for a long time, Roronoa Zoro, and I think all that time has left you incapable of seeing what your truly capable of," it said gently after a moment of silence.
"What I'm capable of?" Zoro muttered, confused.
"Your destiny, your purpose, the reason you're alive, the gifts you have to offer the world," the fox clarified.
Zoro scoffed, truly offended this time. "What would you know about my true purpose? You don't know who I am or what I go through every day. I'm the only one who has the right to choose what my true purpose is!"
"So, your destiny is to wander the streets of this city alone for the rest of your life, beating down those weaker and dumber than you until you become the strongest man to ever wield a sword?" The fox rolled its eyes, shaking its head in disappointment.
"I don't believe in destiny," Zoro spat, "Whatever comes, comes. I'll face it on my own and become stronger for it. That's all that matters."
The fox, released a sad sigh, staring at Zoro for a second pensively. When it did speak again, it's voice was low and soft, as if in pity. "… So naive, but I suppose that is to be expected of someone who's been alone for so long. However," the creature's eyes glowed suddenly, a stern coldness in its voice making Zoro shiver, "I think it's time you learned a lesson on what your true purpose is, whether you believe in it or not."
A circle of fire suddenly appeared around Zoro and he gasped in surprise as he realized he couldn't move his body. "What is this!?" he shouted, trying to hide the growing panic in his voice.
"Baptism by fire, Zoro, you either learn what your true destiny is or you suffer for the rest of your life. It's that simple," the fox sniffed, lifting its nose snobbishly. "And… You woke me up in the middle of the night and destroyed a perfect statue of me, so I'm a bit miffed at you right now."
"W-what!?" Zoro stammered, more confused than ever. He grunted in startled pain as the fire that surrounded him suddenly grew in intensity and heat until he was completely engulfed. He screamed, wriggling against his bonds of flame, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't move. His head felt like it was splitting in two and his chest was burning, seemingly from the inside-out. He couldn't bend to see what was happening to him but he felt his whole body start to painfully shift and contort in ways he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to. It wasn't long until the pain and the strong pounding in his head made him fall forward, hearing his own screams die down as he slipped into blackness.
"Now you listen carefully, Zoro," the fox's voice rumbled calmly, barely within the reaches of Zoro's quickly fading consciousness. "The only way to get out of the curse is to sacrifice yourself for someone you care about. However, if you can't figure out what that has to do with your purpose in life then, well, see you in the spirit world. Oh, by the way, if you do care to find me, the name is Kyubi…"
Zoro groaned as he felt his eyes crack open. Bright sun in his eyes made him squint in discomfort at the same time he realized he was lying on a cold, hard surface. He finally opened his eyes to see that he was lying on the bedroom floor in his own apartment. He was too sore and exhausted to try and turn his head to look at the alarm clock by his bed but judging by the sun just peeking over the window sill it was still early morning. After some deep breaths, he finally tried to get up, slightly dizzy and feeling that there was something seriously wrong with him, though he wasn't exactly sure what just yet. His vision finally cleared somewhat and he looked down at himself to assess the damage. He felt his heart skip a beat when he saw paws where his arms were supposed to be.
"What-!?" he gasped, his jaw moving oddly and his voice coming out in a strange guttural yelp. "I'm a dog!?".
After several shaky attempts, he managed to get up onto his four padded feet and limp carefully towards the mirror across from his bed to look at himself. He almost jumped in surprise when he saw the biggest dog he had ever seen staring back at him with wide, black eyes. He was easily taller than a Great Dane, with long, thick legs and a thickly muscled body and head. His fur was wolf-like, thick and course, with silver and black markings across his shoulders and belly. Most unusual was the yellowish-grey fur along the top of his back and head. His head was muscular with a long wolfish snout and upright ears, and his tail was slightly curled and bushy, even more so now due to his own alarm and surprise at his current situation. The only thing he wore that had been on his person the night before, were his three golden earrings, now so heavy on his large left ear that it was flopped to the side.
"This is just wrong!" he growled. "I'm gon'a rip the tails off that damned Kitsune!" He looked at himself again. "I can't fight like this. How the heck am I supposed to turn back into myself?"
He suddenly remembered the fox's last words before Zoro fell unconscious. "Right," Zoro sighed, "to turn back into a human, I have to sacrifice myself for someone I care about? As if! I haven't cared about anyone since-" He paused in his thinking before the name had a chance to come to his mind. With a growl, he shook his head and turned away from the reflection in the mirror, not wanting to see the creature he had become any longer.
It was moments like these that he wanted to go find some pathetic, lowlife street gang to harass and get his mind off things. Zoro suddenly realized he had no idea where his swords were. With a growl he turned circles, looking around the room for any sign of his precious weapons. Two of them were prizes he had won off of opponents over the years. He could replace those easily if he could find someone with enough skill and practice to be worthy of the fight. The third, however, his white sword that he called Ichimonji, was irreplaceable, a gift from someone in his childhood, or rather, an inheritance. If that fox had somehow caused him to lose Ichimonji, it was in for a lot more trouble than a silly broken statue.
Zoro eyes only had to scan the room for a moment before he spotted his three swords, lying faithfully in their velvet lined box on his dresser where he always put them. Zoro stood up and pressed his front paws against the dresser to inspect each one carefully, taking in their suddenly very strong but comfortingly familiar individual smells. They were fine, in perfect condition as always. The blood had even been cleaned off Ichimonji's blade after the fight the night before.
Content that his swords were safe, Zoro got down off the dresser and began to inspect his new body's abilities. He hadn't realized until now, but all his senses seemed extremely heightened. He could hear the sounds of cars doors slamming from blocks away, people talking in the streets below, and feet crunching on the gravel paths in the hills behind the apartments. He could smell things stronger too, the scent of cigarette smoke off the street, of chip crumbs under his bed, and stale coffee in the kitchen. His vision was different though. He wasn't completely color blind the way people always say dogs are, but colors were muted and he struggled to differentiate reds and greens. He realized that the strange yellowish-grey color on his back and head was likely actually green when he saw that his normally green bedspread was a similar color. That wasn't surprising considering it had been his hair color as a human too.
Zoro, sat for what must have been at least an hour, taking in details he had never noticed about his own home. Not that it was much of a home. He had lived in this small one-roomed apartment for four years already but he rarely spent any time in it aside from eating and sleeping. After a while however, more pressing matters came to the forefront of his mind.
What was he to do now? He couldn't go out into the streets looking like this. Not that anyone would recognize him, but he wasn't exactly harmless in appearance and he wasn't altogether comfortable with the idea of getting chased around by dogcatchers and hostile gangs. He couldn't stay here forever, though. He had some food in his cupboards, and he might still have a bit of pizza left in his fridge, but that wouldn't last long, and it wasn't like he could cook up rice or oatmeal on the stove with his paws. He would have to leave to find food at some point.
Then there was the issue of security. Gangs and thugs ran rampant in the streets these days and would think nothing of breaking into an unlocked apartment and stealing Zoro's things. Not that there was much to steal but Zoro knew he at least had to hide his swords, they wouldn't do him any good as a dog anyway. Operating a lock and key wasn't exactly feasible with paws either unfortunately, so Zoro knew that once he left his apartment unattended, there would be no going back, not until he got that fox to return him to normal anyway.
That left only one option, Zoro realized, he had to go back to that shrine and get the fox to turn him back into a human.
"Sacrifice myself for a loved one? As if. I'm going to make that fox regret ever crossing paths with me."
After carefully hiding his swords under a lose floorboard under his bed (with great difficulty due to his lack of opposable thumbs) Zoro managed to get the apartment door open and scuttle out of the building without being seen. He headed straight for the gravel trails behind the building and found the hill where he had fought the gang the night before. To his horror, the shrine was not there.
"What the Hell!" Zoro barked, sniffing around the spot where the shrine had once stood. There wasn't even a trace of the stone pedestal and statue, even the shrubbery that had surrounded it was gone as if it had never been. Zoro wondered briefly if it as the wrong hill, but he could smell the stench of the gang guys' blood in the grass where they had fallen the night before and knew he was definitely in the right place.
"Damn fox! Where are you?" Zoro remembered the fox's final words just before he had blacked out, "Kyubi! Show yourself Kyubi, you mangy animal!"
"Who are you calling a mangy animal?"the same smooth, deep voice from the night before suddenly rumbled from behind him, only this time the voice wasn't inside Zoro's mind. Zoro spun around, his claws scraping in the dirt as he came to face the glowing fox spirit now in his full nine-tailed form.
Zoro bared his teeth threateningly. "Turn me back."
"I have already told you the conditions of the curse, so unless you want me to give you someone's number, I happen to know some very foxy ladies, I'm afraid I can't help you."
"Cut the crap!" Zoro barked, lunging for the fox only to pass right through him. Zoro spun around to face the fox again to see it staring at him over its shoulder with an unimpressed frown.
"You know, Roronoa, I've had some time to nap a bit longer and think about last night. If you had come here to beg for forgiveness and ask politely for me to turn you back, I might actually have considered it." The fox's eyes suddenly glowed angrily and Zoro was thrown back by a ball of flames, sending him sliding towards the steep hillside. "But since you showed up and so rudely started insulting me and even tried to attack me, I can only suggest that you find a good butcher shop because you're going to be begging for bones to survive for the rest of your life."
The fox glowed brightly and began to disappear. "Bastard! Get back here!" Zoro snarled, scrambling to his feet, but he was too late. Zoro stood panting, his legs splayed out beneath him as he came to grips with his situation. There was nothing to be done now. He had blown it. He was doomed to be a dog for the rest of his life.