AN: Well, here we are again. Another one-shot. Note that this takes place before the CP9 cover story, so CP9 isn't as close. This is my first One Piece fic, so sorry if all the characters are OOC. I think a make Kaku a little... less cold than he actually is. Ah well. Sorry. Enjoy anyway!
"Oi, Marimo! You got the key?"
Roronoa Zoro turned slowly to face his crew mate, Sanji. "Yeah, I just got it," he muttered, holding up key number five.
"Perfect! With this key we have all of them! Come on, we need to go save Robin-chan from that panda looking guy!" Sanji said urgently.
Zoro turned his head back around to face his fallen enemy. Kaku was passed out on the floor, lying in a pool of his own blood. Zoro too should have been out cold, but the world's greatest swordsman shouldn't be so weak that he passes out from blood loss. He didn't need blood to fight. He didn't need it to win. However, this was not the pinnacle of his thoughts. "Here, you hurry on ahead," Zoro said, tossing Sanji the key and sitting down. "I need to clean all this blood off my swords. Take the key and rescue Robin. I'll catch up with you."
"What?" Sanji breathed out in disbelief. "You're telling me that your stupid swords are more important than Robin-chan? Is her life so-"
"Just go!" Zoro shouted, startling the cook. "The more time you spend here with that key, the closer Robin gets to the Gates of Justice!"
Sanji just stared at the swordsman for a few moments, before spinning on his heel and dashing off. Zoro mumbled an insult under his breath before going back to looking at his unconscious enemy. How long would it be before he woke up? It didn't matter. Zoro would wait however long it took.
Fortunately for everyone, Kaku didn't stay passed out for too long. After maybe twenty minutes he stirred. Eyes still closed, he grumbled and tried to sit up. It didn't work. His body was still suffering from the loss of so much precious blood. He fell back down with a sigh.
"You awake, Giraffe?" Zoro asked from his enemy's left. Kaku opened his eyes painfully.
"Roronoa," he managed to mumble, his voice barely even a whisper. "Why aren't you gone? Didn't you say you'd be a loser if you didn't hurry to the aid of your friends?"
"I sent that ero-cook off with the key. I'm here because I have a question, and you're going to answer it," the green-haired man stated, placing his hands on his knees and leaning forward.
"Fire away, I suppose. I'm not in any position to object," the other man muttered.
"Why did you leave the shipwright company?" Zoro shot at him, catching Kaku off guard.
"W-what?" Kaku tried sitting up again, but his arms wouldn't support him. He slipped back down with a thud and coughed. "What do you mean? I've been a part of CP9 my whole life. I was never 'with' Galley-La to begin with."
The green-haired swordsman glared at him. "Don't lie," he said. "I saw your face when I told you that rope-guy said you were fired. That was regret. You didn't want to leave, did you?"
Kaku shut his eyes in pain, and not just of the physical kind. "I don't know what you're talking about. Regret? Ha. We of the CP9 were taught never to regret anything. 'If you can feel regretful, it means you're weak. If you're weak, you get killed.' That is what they told us. It was part of training."
"That's why you deny it, isn't it? If you were taught that, than of course you wouldn't want to admit you had regrets," Zoro speculated. The CP9 agent gritted his teeth.
"You wouldn't understand," he mumbled, opening his eyes. "I don't mind death. In fact I welcome it, so long as I can go out having fun. But when you have an ideal smashed into your brain every day practically from birth, it's hard to let that ideal go. I don't want to have regrets. Regrets are weaknesses. In CP9, weakness means death. Regrets equal a boring and quick execution, and, unless I am mistaken, no one would want to die with regrets in the first place," he finished huskily. His throat was dry and caked with blood. Trying to talk at a normal level hurt immensely. Then again, whispering was painful too.
Silence reigned for a long time as Zoro contemplated the other man."You can stop trying to deny it. I can see the regret written all over your-"
"Shut up!" Kaku shouted suddenly, causing him to start coughing violently. He was sure more than one of his ribs were broken, making it hard to breathe. The blood in his throat, now both dry and wet, didn't help him speak or take in air either. "Alright, I regret it, damn it! I regret all of it! But what was I supposed to do? I told you, I've been training for CP9 since I was a child. It's not like I chose to become a secret assassin for an organization that shouldn't exist! This isn't exactly how I wanted to live! It was the the best day of my entire life when Spandam told us we were to go undercover as shipwrights. That is what I wanted to do with my life. I loved working for Galley-La. It was the first time I had ever had companions that truly cared about me. They didn't know that I was an assassin. A murderer. That I had killed so many people just for the sake of 'justice'. I could be myself around them. Just Kaku. I didn't have to be a fellow agent in dishing out what the government says is right. They didn't use me as a tool for their dirty work. It wasn't like CP9, where there is no such thing as team work. We all stuck together no matter what the obstacle, and I didn't want that to end. But I was being selfish, and I recognized it. I left Galley-La because I realized I exist solely for the purpose of serving the government. I didn't want to hurt Paulie, or Iceburg. I definitely didn't want to kill them. Then what was I supposed to do? Defect? You can't desert CP9. A fate worse than death awaits you if you do that."
Kaku began choking again as blood started to fill his lungs. When he had coughed up a sufficient amount of the warm, sticky red substance, he resumed his rant.
"Nico Robin wasn't the only one who had to wear an expressionless mask that night. I couldn't begin to describe to you what it felt like when I knew we had to kill Paulie. I was hoping he would just stay down and pretend to be dead, but he kept getting up to fight back. That's how Paulie is, a stubborn fool. I wanted to stop Lucci from hurting him, but Lucci is much stronger than I am. I guess you could call me a coward. Go ahead, if it'll make you feel better, but do you know what would have happened? He would have killed me, and then Paulie. It wouldn't have accomplished anything. At least I know Paulie didn't die. That makes me feel a little better..." Kaku shook his head to clear the thoughts of relief toward his former co-worker from his mind.
"... And besides. If I had decided to stay at Water 7, Lucci would have killed them all."
Zoro ran a hand through his blood-stained green hair. "He would have killed who?" he asked.
"Everyone," Kaku whispered. He closed his eyes again, albeit slowly and softly this time. "Lucci would have massacred the entire city. He is capable of doing so. He would have done it, just to show me that I can't and shouldn't care about anything. Or anyone. Being the way he is, he would have killed anyone I was particularly close to slowly and painfully, deliberately before of my very eyes."
"...Paulie?" Zoro inquired as to the unspecified person. Kaku nodded. Zoro regarded the other swordsman carefully. "How exactly did the two of you see each other?" he asked slowly.
"Paulie and I?" Kaku coughed out. "Well I don't know how Paulie saw me, but in my eyes, Paulie was the best friend I'd ever had. He was nice, even if he was stubborn. He was always getting worked up about something, but he never really got mad at me. The only co-worker he ever really got mad at was Lucci, and I can understand why. Paulie and I had a lot in common when it came to ships and building them. I could always talk to him about what was bothering me, except for, of course, things regarding CP9. Vice-versa with my fellow agents. I couldn't talk to them like I could talk to him. Probably because I was only ever wearing a mask when I spoke with Paulie."
"The way I see it," Zoro interjected thoughtfully, and a bit out of character, "you weren't wearing a mask when you spoke with him, but when you spoke with the rest of CP9. You couldn't speak your mind with them, could you? Unless it was about a mission or something pertaining to it. So you would speak with Galley-La's young boss. You could talk to him about things, and he wouldn't ridicule you for being weak. You could speak your mind, and he could respond with something encouraging. Or not respond at all, if you just needed an ear. Am I ri-" Zoro froze mid-sentence. He needn't say any more. The answer was right in front of him.
His foe was crying.
"Paulie..." Kaku muttered brokenly, his eyes firmly shut. Still, the tears poured out of his eyes, like an endless stream of sadness and regret. He could do nothing to stop them.
Zoro felt as though he had inquired to much on personal information. It didn't seem normal for Kaku to be showing such an emotion. Just a while ago this man, trained from childhood to enjoy bloodshed and do what he was told by his masters, had been laughing while he slashed at his enemy, mercilessly doing what he could to kill Zoro. Now he was sobbing like a lost child, not even caring that his adversary was right beside him to witness this show of weakness.
"Wow. You really miss him, don't you?" Zoro whispered, not really sure if he should expect an answer or not. Not that he really needed one. The evidence was all right there.
Kaku's heart wrenched. Of course he missed Paulie. Paulie was the only person he cared about. However, Kaku didn't think he could get any sound out of his throat beside the one currently issuing from it. He didn't even try to nod his head. He just kept sobbing in regret at what he had thrown away by leaving the company for CP9, for a life of listening to and following relentless orders. A wonderful job. The admiration of a city. Freedom. Paulie. It had all finally taken its toll on Kaku's seemingly unyielding heart. And so he cried.
The green-haired Straw Hat gave him awhile to get the tears out of his system. It was always best to let it all out, even if there was no one there to comfort you. Even if you were a meant to be a stone cold assassin. Eventually Kaku's sobs turned to sniffles, and Zoro decided to speak again.
"You know, I once thought the same as you did," Zoro stated unexpectedly.
"What?" Kaku asked with a sniff.
"I too once thought regrets were weaknesses. I told my sensei so, and he told me something. He told me, 'You mustn't see regrets as weaknesses. When you regret something, that means you've made a mistake. You must learn from those mistakes, so that you never regret it again.' I really took those words to heart. I think you should too."
The hat wearing agent of justice thought it over. "Wise words," he muttered tiredly. It was getting very hard to breathe now. Not only the broken ribs, but the blood, the yelling, the crying. He was also on his back, making breathing even harder. Waves of unconsciousness lapped at the corners of his vision, but he pushed them down. He couldn't pass out yet. "Your teacher was a smart man."
"He was," Zoro said. "He was a very wise and kind person. I'm proud to call him my sensei, but he may not be so proud to call me his student," the pirate said jokingly.
Kaku grinned. "Ha ha ha ha!" he laughed, then choked yet again. "You're a funny guy, you know that? But being funny won't save you from the world you've just declared war on, or Lucci."
Zoro grinned as well. "Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I'll let Luffy take care of your leopard," he said, standing up. "So what are you going to do now? You can't move, can you? If that panda really does use the Buster Call, won't you get killed too?"
"Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Kaku rasped out, quoting Zoro cheekily. The other man chuckled and turned around.
"See you, then" he said, walking away.
Just as Zoro had gotten to the demolished wall that served as the exit, he was stopped by the orange-haired swordsman lying behind him. "Wait a second!" he called out. Zoro turned back around.
"What?" the other swordsman asked.
Kaku sucked in a breath. "If... when you see Paulie again, will you pass on a message for me?" he asked weakly. He was almost completely out of energy now. Calling out just then had taken quite a bit of effort.
Zoro's first thought was to say, "I'm not a messenger boy," but when he looked at Kaku, the agent's face filled with almost pitiful regret, just barely hanging on to consciousness, he decided against it. "Yeah, sure. What is it?"
His enemy sucked in another painful, shaky lungful of air. "Tell him I know he doesn't care. Tell him I know it won't make a difference." Kaku paused briefly.
"But tell him I'm sorry."
The Straw Hat smiled, then turned around for a third time. "I'll tell him, Giraffe," he said.
"Thanks, Mr. Demon."
Zoro frowned. Mr. Demon? Where did that come from? "'Roronoa', is fine," he said, turning his head.
"So is Kaku," the other man hinted. Zoro nodded.
"All right then, Kaku. Good luck making it out of here." And with that last statement of luck, Zoro was gone.
Kaku just lay there for a while, before he stopped attempting to keep consciousness. There was no point now. Barely in control of his voice, he said one last thing before the darkness consumed his mind.
"Thank you, Roronoa," he murmured, and he wasn't just talking about the message.
AN: So, what did you think? It's shorter than I wanted it to be, but oh well. I'm sorry. I'm thinking I'll make a sequel to this, where Zoro gives Paulie the message. Yeah, I'll do that.
Please review, my dear readers! Don't be afraid to give constructive criticism, like, "The characters are too OOC." XD Then again, don't be afraid to say nice things either. =^^=
~Gir Crazy ;3