Roronoa Zoro: Pirate Hunter:
"RUN FOR IT! FORGET THE TREASURE, FOOLS, JUST ABANDON SHIP! IT'S PIRATE HUNTER ZORO~!"
Zoro remembered these lines fondly. He relished them in fact.
They were the last words spoken to him by at least 500 pirates in his pirate-hunting days.
Pirate hunting was a much simpler life than pirating. Kill a man, get money, kill another. Of course, this wasn't entirely true … he always brought them back alive … darn conscience and honor and all that. Killing would have certainly made the trip back simpler.
One peaceful day, a boat drifted across the East Blue carrying two passengers. One was a bloodied and beaten man, tied to the main post. The other passenger was a man with short green hair, carrying two swords, and twirling a third sword in the air that was still stained with dried blood.
"Please, I-I'll give you 30% of my treasure! No, 50%! Come on mate, just let me go. I ransacked a town the other day not far from here … I-I'll give you 80% of the booty."
"Stupid, I don't take stolen money." Zoro sheathed his third sword. "Besides, you expect me to believe that you're actually competent enough to plunder something. Your crew couldn't even make me break a sweat."
"No, I swear, it's true! I left behind some of my mates … we have women, we got booze, got some mone-
"Woah, woah, you got booze?"
The pirate captain's eyes light up, thinking there might still be a chance to bargain. "Oh yeah, we got plenty of grog, best in the whole East Blue lemme tell ya! I'll give it to you for free. Just let me go and you got yourself a deal mate."
Zoro smiled. He'd heard worse pleas before. "No thanks, but I'll definitely head over there" he said, "when I've collected your bounty."
Negotiating not getting him anywhere, the pirate captain decided to change tactics. Zoro already knew what was coming: the typical, empty, last ditch, fake as fool's gold, death threats. This ought to be good, he thought.
"You don't know who you're messing with, pirate hunter. I got connections real deep … with a, uh, 10 million berry worth pirate! Me and him go way back. He'll mess you up when he finds out what you did."
"Really?" Zoro coolly replied. "Good to know: I could use the extra 10 million berries. Maybe he'll actually be a challenge."
"You don't know who you're talking about. This guy…"
"…is as good as dead if he makes the mistake of challenging me," Zoro said evenly, finishing the sentence for him.
Still not resigning himself to his fate in a Navy prison, the pirate captain, all pride abandoned, shamelessly whimpered, "Please, I got a wife back home and some kids. They need a father and a husband, you gonna make orphans and a widow out of them?"
Zoro had had enough. "Listen!" he said, dropping his voice an octave "I haven't got any sleep till over a day ago and you yapping isn't making things any easier. I don't give a darn about you, your family, or any other lies that you're gonna try to tell me. So shut up and let me sleep," Zoro said, adding with a cold, indifferent, couldn't-care-less gaze, "or I'll rethink my decision about bringing you to the Navy alive!"
The threat should be more than enough to make him hold his tongue. And of course, it was.
Zoro thought to himself: Yes, he was darn good, scratch that, he was darn excellent, at pirate-hunting. He could easily make a living out of it, a lifetime of just training, drinking, fighting, more drinking, training some more, fighting some more…
But, he mustn't let himself get distracted. Pirate-hunting was just an occupation, a pastime, and a training exercise for his true goal.
Zoro rested his hand on his third sword. Kuina's sword. He swore that day he would become the greatest swordsmen the world had ever seen. For his sake. And for Kuina's.
The East Blue was said to be the tamest of the four seas and worthy swordsmen were becoming harder and harder to come by. The worthier the swordsmen, the greater the challenge … and the bigger the bounty. That bounty would be very necessary to his ultimate goal.
Mihawk was no doubt somewhere in the Grand Line. But Zoro had heard of all the maelstroms and typhoons that plagued those waters. Great galleons wrecked, entire crews obliterated. Not the best place for someone traveling on an old wooden boat that he had salvaged from an even shoddier pirate ship. He would need to raise enough money to buy the necessary gear to travel those waters if he ever wanted to find him.
And if he didn't want to make the supposed pirates' graveyard, his graveyard.
Thinking this, Zoro reprimanded himself. Just 12 pirates captured in two days? 12? He would need to do much better. More like around 50 pirates. Meh, maybe 80 pirates. He should really stop undershooting: 200 pirates and no less! Still too little, perhaps he should just do the Navy one big favor and capture all the pirates in the world. That ought to make for some good training.
Now, his 12 pirates just made him angry. Got to do better. I got to do better if I'm going to beat him…
And then he fell asleep.