DISCLAIMER: Author owes nothing.

Step 1: Dawning Realization

"…do you wish me to pierce your heart thus? Why do you refuse to back down?"

The world had shrunk to a single moment; a moment that stretched from that moonlit night in the backwaters of the dojo to this blazing afternoon on the cleaved galleon that bobbed up and down with the lulling waves as a testament to the strength and skill that he had vowed to achieve.

"You're lucky to be born a guy, Zoro…"

His goal is in his arms' reach and yet it feels lifetimes away.

"Beats me…" he says because it does.

In face of such insurmountable strength and unprecedented skill, right now the weight of his dream and promise feel brittle in his hands like the blades that have become the embodiment of his own strength and skills over time. Standing as he is on a precarious balance between death and defeat if he makes one wrong step, his instincts roar at him, it would slip out of his grasp, fall and shatter in million pieces, to be washed away by time to never ever be retained.

"…not sure myself… but I get the feeling… that if I were to take even one step back right now, I would lose something very important to me… a promise or oath… whatever it is would irreversibly be broken, and that I would never be able to come back to where I am right now." Mihawk's blade slides a little deeper as the large chunk of wood shifts on the waves.

"Yes, such is defeat."Mihawk informs him.

"… haha… then I would rather die than be defeated." I may not be the strongest swordsman yet, Zoro smirks, but you don't get to defeat me.

It won't be your blade but Death's scythe that would put an end to our battle. An opponent against who even you would succumb to; what delicious irony would it be to fall prey to the very force that you prided to deliver, better than any other. And when you do, which you would, you get to see Kuina and tell her, "I was the one who killed Rororna Zoro but even I, the World's Strongest, could not defeat him. …Death intervened."

Miwhawk might be thinking something along the same lines for he pulls the little blade out and asks, "Kid… tell me your name."

"Roronoa Zoro."

He re-sheathes the small blade, "I shall remember it, for your strength is not oft seen in this world."

Well at least Zoro had made him acknowledge his metal, which might count as something.

"And to pay you my respects as a fellow swordsman," he sounds solemn none of the earlier condescending or mockery tints his tone "I shall end this duel with my Black Sword, the World's greatest sword." The shrieking of his sword as it's being pulled out induces a multitude if gasps and exclamations.

Zoro leaps back and swiftly lands. Standing proud as he always does he shifts his grip on his swords and aligns them allowing his mind, body and breath to become one.

And then it happens…

His swords begin to pulsate, in sync with his own thundering heartbeat. If the world had shrunk before and gone still, now it is throbbing with life- the wood beneath his feet, the sea across it floated and even the Black Sword poised to end his life; beating with the strength of a Sun.

Zoro hears his three swords calling him…

An undecipherable emotion flickers across Hawkeyes' face as if he could hear them too.

…and he calls back,

"SANTOURYUU OUGI!"

You have my gratitude, Zoro tells them, for wielding my strength and cleaving open a path as I charged ahead towards my dream for so long. Now our goal has literally walked up to us. This is it! Let's WIN!

"SANZEN ZEKAI!"

The muted silence returned. His shattered swords clatter around though Wadou remains intact, its blade shooting the sunlight back it caught, loyal until the very end.

He has been defeated. After so many years of being the undisputed best he lost and he finds the experience… oddly humbling and illuminating not frustrating or discouraging. Pushing Wadou back in its white sheath he turns to face, nay, welcome his end.

"What…?" Mihawk allows that emotion to play with his features again and this time Zoro recognizes it.

"A wound on one's back is a swordsman shame." He reminds him.

"Splended!" that emotion is that of excitement.

Arms spread wide Zoro, unlike others to wait for Death to claim them, announces, listen you Death and listen well, you may be absolute in your power and unbeatable in your domain but you did not defeat me. Instead I chose you, ungrudgingly.

Mihawk's gleaming blade glides down, gradually filling his vision until that's all he sees; the black, eternal expanse and when it slides further down a completely different scene greets him.

It's a familiar moonlit night illuminating, however, an unfamiliar topography- a wide, dark forest. And in front of him stood a beautiful girl in a silver kimono and flowing blue hair.

"I know," she tells him in exasperation but her smile is affectionate. "so go back now and don't show me your face until you are the best!". She pushes him back…

… and he feels the slithering waves crash against his back and azure afternoon sky fill his eyes . Slowly the sea pulls him in and darkness engulfs him.

That day as he slipped beneath the layers of brine Roronoa Zoro realized that his existence encompasses more than mere flesh and bones and muscles of his body, it's a part of it but not entirety of it. He would need more than constant physical training to be the best. What it would be he is not sure but he is sure to figure it out soon.

And that knowledge that day transformed him into something more than a pursuer of his dreams- a worthy contestant.

It deepened his understanding as Strawhat Luffy's first mate, as the man honored with the duty of protecting and aiding his Captain's grand dream to fruition.

That day Monkey D. Luffy took a giant leap closer to fulfilling his destiny: attaining absolute freedom across the seas as the King of Pirates.