Zoro's Wanted Poster
Summary: This is how and why they got the bounties they got.
Disclaimer: The author owes nothing.
The Marine HQ
"What is this?" rumbled the chief of the Threat Assessment Squad- a division of the Navy, comprised of competent men who are trusted by the World Government with the duty of evaluating an anarchist's potential of causing disruption to the laws and administration set by the World Government. And that estimation includes- pirates, revolutionaries, scholars dabbing with science best left moulding in obscurity, and many such.
A man of small stature and even smaller influence bounded up to his superior's side, and with a sharp salute stated, "These are the Strawhat Pirates, sir! The men responsible for Shichibukai Crocodile's downfall. The one with the hat is Monkey D Luffy, the Captain. And the one with..." the man gulped "...with the expression is is his first-mate. He goes by the moniker "Pirate Hunter", Roronoa Zoro."
The man in the vice-admiral's robes stared sourly down at the pictures of the pirates.
The kid with the goofy grin had a 'Monkey' and 'D' in his name. No wonder he turned out to be a hell-raiser. But Roronoa Zoro, now what manner of beast was he?
"What's with these photographs? I am profiler not a damn face reader! I already have the Captain's history, get me the first-mate's files!" there was an impatient growl in the Vice-admiral's voice.
"I-I'll get right down to it, sir!" the marine saluted and blundered off away.
The vice-admiral let out a stream of smoke around the cigar clamped between his teeth.
Monkey D Luffy. Evidently, the rabble-rousing gene of the Monkey clan hadn't skipped the little turd's generation. Beating Crocodile speaks a lot of that fact. That man had been trusted with the post of a Schihibukai for a reason, and his ruthless strength was just the tip of it.
And to make matters worse the boy had inherited the will of D.
But on the other hand, every dog has its day. Maybe with Crocodile Strawhat caught one such lucky break. It was sort of a stretch of an assumption, but hell, this was Grandline. The ocean where common sense more often than not ends up being the punchline of a cruel practical joke. And maybe Crocodile had slipped up, underestimated the Strawhat, and this time around the joke got played on him.
If that were the case then there wasn't much to worry about. Crocodile was neither the biggest nor the meanest fish in the ocean. Grandline itself is far more tougher than any pirate or marine sailing across it. It's natural selection at it's fiercest and most prejudiced.
The vice-admiral puffed silver smoke out again.
He turned on his heel and sauntered down to his offices. Better get to work, breaktime was over.
A tired sigh of resignation.
The room was empty of any personnel except for the vice-admiral slaving behind his large desk, slumped in his large chair, massaging his temples. Strewn upon the desk were documents, files and reports describing in great detail the past adventures of one Monkey D Luffy.
No doubt about it. They've got a live one on there hands here. Even if the kid were half the man his grandpa and old man were, things would've been difficult. But looking the reports it seemed that he was going to be just as impossible and unstoppable as his predecessors.
The Fishman Crew in the East Blue, the Shichibukai Crocodile and his entire clandestine organization of Baroque Works, this kid was ripping through high profile pirates like one his Grandpa's fist. Worse yet, he managed to pull it off with a measly crew of five or six (reports were still unclear on how many crew members Strawhat had or who they were).
The Chief of the Threat Assessment Squad had reached a decision: Crocodile's defeat was no fluke. He was just one domino down in a long, terrible chain of them to follow.
100 million Berries, that would be the Strawhat Captain's revised bounty. Let the world beware that such a Monster lurks amongst them.
There was a sharp knock on the door.
"C'min." the Vice-admiral straightened in his seat.
A young marine entered. He was the same one the vice-admiral had sent scurrying to look for information on the Strawhat's fist-mate. The scrawny marine shot a salute, under his other arm he was holding a small box stuffed with folders.
Gesturing at the box the vice-admral asked, "Goods on the other Strawhat, I presume?"
"Yes, sir." the marine answered.
Impeccable timing.
"Bring it all over here." The vice-admiral shuffled the documents on his desk into a haphazard heap and pushed them to the side to make room for the new ones.
The marine carefully set the box down on the desk, and saluted again before asking, "Would that be all, sir?"
"Yeah. Just stay here awhile and take these recommendations out with you. Shouldn't take long. At ease." added the vice admiral as an afterthought.
The Vice-admiral upended the box over his desk, and its contents spilled out to settle into a vanilla hep. The man immediately set to work, sifting through intelligence with brusque efficiency.
Being firstmate to a crew is a tremendous responsibility. It requires both, the patience to follow and the wisdom to lead. As such, a captain looks for their firstmate a person who's not just fundamentally their equal, but also capable of feats that the Captain themselves wouldn't be able to accomplish. Hence, the firstmate holds the Captain's absolute trust.
And any man who has won the faith of Strawhat Luffy, is a man to be reckoned with. But that alone doesn't earn the Strawhat swordsman enough points. Not on the Grandline.
The vice-admiral quickly perused articles and browsed reports, nodding and muttering to himself periodically.
The boy had earned quite a name for himself in the East Blue. Had the pirates running scared, which consequently smoothed the way for the marines. That is, until he ran afoul Axe-hand Morgan- the buffoon. Marines thus lost a great ally, and the conniving Strawhat snatched him right up. And since then the synergy of their alliance had been uprooting all the orthodox powerplayers in the region, making it subsequently into the Grandline and earning the notoriety of their misadventures.
While Strawhat Captain was busy bringing Crocodile down on his knees, the swordsman of the crew was battling it out with Mr. 1, aka Daz Bones, a famous ex-assassin of the West Blue, made even more formidable after he had gorged himself on the Supa Supa no Mi that swindled him out of the ability to swim for the strength and sharpness of iron blades. But the highlight of the whole incident was how the Strawhat swordsman had brought Mr. 1 down; with a "single deep, debilitating slash to the chest." Interesting. No use of kairouseki or any other subterfuge. Such fearsome display of a terrible talent so early in the game.
The man was obviously talented, and had secured the Strawhat's faith. Thus, a 40 million start-up bounty for the fearsome swordsman.
The vice-admiral had plucked up his pen and was rifling though the desk drawers for a sheet of paper to jot down his recommendations for the Fleet Admiral to approve, when, suddenly, the thinnest of sections of a buried document caught his eye, and stilled his breath. The words Hawkeye Mihawk had jumped up at him.
The vice-admiral carefully extricated the document from the bottom of the pile and scanned it with wary eyes, once, twice, and thrice. When, after every circuit his eyes completed up and down the single paged report, the words kept insisting on making the same damned sense the vice-admiral pinched the bridge of his nose, and swore under his breath.
Hawkeye Miawk, the crazy bastard. Apparently, he had chased some two-bit pirate out of the Grandline and into the East Blue. There were only eyewitness reports but apparently there he was challenged to a duel. That wasn't the worst part, however.
To end the duel Hawkeye had drawn his great Black Sword. Yet the opponent had survived.
The report offered only conjecture as to why Mihawk had let the young swordsman live, yet it was an indisputable fact that Roronoa Zoro had faced-off Mihawk and was alive still to tell the tale.
The Vice-admiral clutched his head.
40 million wasn't enough for an initial bounty. This guy's a 60 million berries demon at least.
And as for the snap shots, the Captain already had his. It was quite misleading, that sunny dental spectacle of his. It was as far removed from the darkness of the Great Pirate Era as one could get. But, hopefully, it'd coax more idiot bounty hunters into underestimating him. And who knows, one of them might get lucky enough to land a blow or two and make it that much easier for the marines to slip the chains on the Strawhats. So, no need to update the Captain's photograph.
Turning to the matter of providing a picture for Roronoa Zoro's Bounty Poster, the vice-admiral shuffled through the measly few snapshots they had of the guy. And each one of them looked more bone-chillingly demonic than the last. And if the vice-admiral were to put any of the photos he held as Roronoa's Bounty-head he knew he'd be risking scaring the young recruits, and the marines recovering from a fresh trauma, into surrendering arms even before facing the "Pirate Hunter" in a battle.
But, ultimately, the vice-admiral had settled on a snapshot to be posted as the Pirate Hunter's Bounty-Shot. And he hadn't eenie-meenie-minee-mo'ed to the decision, either. There was in fact some actual delibration behind it. In all his years as the Chief of the Threat Assessment Squad the vice-admiral had gained enough experience to know that in near future the Mugiwara pirates would gain great notoriety, especially the Captain and his first-mate. He had very little doubt that soon legends of their invincibility will be circling towns all across the world. And in those hopeless times this poster, in which the Pirate Hunter is bleeding, would serve as a reminder to the people that even these men are mortal beings. Not exactly human perhaps, but mortal beings nonetheless.
The vice-admiral scrawled down on the paper all he had to advise the Fleet Admiral on the matter of Mugiwara pirates. He folded the paper, pushed it into an envelope and sealed it shut. The Vice-admiral handed it to his subordinate and dismissed him.
A Few Months Later...
The Marine HQ, once again...
The sheer scope of the audacity! The ridiculous undertaking and the chilling consequence.
The Strawhat Pirates- they are some really outrageous bastards to have survived something of this scale. According to the reports the Strawhat crew had set out during an Aqua Laguna, had ripped right through it! And upon reaching the Judicial Island of Eines Lobby had laid waste to the entire force stationed there, including the strongest CP 9 in the history. All of this to rescue one crewmate.
But this was only half of what disturbed the vice-admiral of the Threat Assessment Squad. In any confrontation one party survives while the other rolls down past the gates of hell. Being the chief of the threat assessment he was less interested in the outcome than the science behind it, the patterns and the equations. But in The Strawhat crew's case there was none. And that's what unnerved him.
It was as if the Strawhats were riding some sort of divine imperative that the rest of the world could only submit itself to.
The vice-admiral's first curled tighter, and his jaw clamped harder. He had had a slight inkling that something like this would happen when he first reviewed their files after the Alabasta incident. But even he could not have fathomed that they would all make it out Captain, Monkey D Luffy, he was the real danger.
After so many years of excellent service the vice admiral had finally slipped up. He had assumed that the young Saru would be like his father and Grandfather, but turns out he's even crazier than the two put together. After Crocodile he straight out picked a fight with the World Goverment; the kid lacked any sense of strategy. And though this battle bore all the hallmarks of a duel that is long from conclusion, what with the Strwhat's luck and lethality and the World Government's pride and resources, but the Strawhat had drawn first blood and gave the World Government a big, black eye in the process. The sting of this defeat is going to stay with them for a long time.
The Strawhat crew hadn't just powered up, the only thing that came close to explaining their development was a butterfly breaking out of its chrysalis. They hadn't upgraded, but transformed into radically different fighters.
And to add insult to injury, the apprentice of the legendary shipwright along with the last Oharan scholar had joined the Strawhat.
The vice-admiral took a deep breath to calm himself. He was here now and he needed to set things straight.
"The Fleet Admiral will see you now." the pretty secretary notified.
"Ah, Thank you." The Vice-admiral rose to his feet, and walked to the double doors leading into the Fleet Admiral's office. He took another deep breath to compose himself, and then pushed in through the doors.
"Chief." Fleet Admiral greeted, "I was told you wanted to pick my brain over the Strawhats, what's up?"
"Nothing like that, Sengoku-san. I just have a small request." Chief answered politely. "It may come out as a bit impudent, so I apologize in advance." and the Chief bowed contritely.
Fleet Admiral waved away the formality like an annoying pest. "Never bother with that. I have great faith in you. So ask away."
The vice-admiral dropped to his knees and placed his forehead down on the ground before beeseching, "Please sir, I beg of you to take extraordinary steps to eliminate the Strawhats! They have reached a point where established methods will prove ineffective! They are too volatile a quantity to be left roaming the seas any longe! If Roger was the man who had set fires of the Pirate Era then Strawhat Luffy- and I say it with great responsibility- is the man who's fanning those flames wilder and wilder! It's time we act decisively or regret later!"
There was a long silence following the vice-admiral's raving, during which he wondered if he hadn't in fact overstepped his authority. But then the Fleet Admiral spoke, as if addressing a third party, "You hear that..."
Vice admiral raised his head to see a den-den mushi on the desk that he had failed to notice upon arrrival. It was on, had been throughout their conversation. And through it Fleet Admiral Sengoku was speaking to...
"...Gorousei?"
"Yeah." the den-den mushi uttered in an aged, resignated voice
"If I have failed to impress upon you of the need to handle the Strawhats immediately then pay heed to Chief's words here. He has never been wrong about a pirate before, and I have never seen him more worrried over a group as he's with these people." the Fleet Admiral concluded.
"We get it, Sengoku. We weren't goingto ignore your warning, but now that we know what the Threat Assessment Unit thinks of it we'll be even quicker about it." the person speaking through the den-den mushi raised his voice "So, Vice-Admiral, what is your proposed tactic to contain the threat of Strawhat Pirates?" Chief rose to his feet and spoke, "First of all we have to give up the notion of trying to contain them."
And after the Chief went into great length, sharing his trepidations and the strategy to prevent them from becoming a reality. The Gorousei listened attentively and finally acted as the Vice-Admiral had instructed them.
A few days later...
Upon Thriller Bark.
The news of another Shichibukai's downfall had reached the ears of the highest authority in the World Government. A great fear had been realized, and at such a crucial time. Indeed it was time to take decisive steps.
"Do you understand what I'm saying? There must not be any witnesses of Moria's defeat. This is a direct order from the World Government: the Strawhat crew, along with any survivors on the island, must be eliminated."
"That's simple." replied the "Tyrant" into the den-den mushi calmly.
And it would've been too. But standing guard over his nakama's lives and dreams was the member of the Strawhat crew-"Pirate Hunter" Roronoa Zoro. A man who had a history of denying death what it was due.
And in this bout, as well, death had to slink away defeated and empty handed.
Just like that, the Strawhats survived to brew more storms, break even more royal jaws and wreak total havoc.
A/n: Whatever mistakes I have made, point them out and I'll fix them. Enjoy!