A/n: Request done! Anyone feel like checking out Loofahlover is welcome to! Real good One Piece writer that one. Alright, getting straight to it! Just saying, a bit of gore in this one. Not too bad though, I think. Do you like executions?
Disclaimer: Is not own One Piece.
Open Doors
0o0o0
There was a guard that stood outside the palace, who carried three katana and had the eyes of the devil. He was said to be a fearsome beast, relentless in his attacks. Unlike regular soldiers, the guard bore no armor, looking more like an armed civilian. No one ever got away from him, not thieves nor assassins, they all fell to his blades of steel cold justice. A demonic predator they tagged him, or more simply: the Demon Hunter.
"Hey Zoro!" waved the same kid as always from over the wall, laughing that laugh and grinning that grin.
The guard simply rolled his eyes and ignored the idiot.
0o0o0
A week of this routine and the guard finally sighed, raising a hand to grab the finger poking him on the cheek. He was rewarded with a 'shishishi' and another blinding grin.
"What do you want, kid?" Zoro growled, hoping to quickly scare him off and be done with it. Usually the basic 'screw off' look worked but this, he could already tell, was going to be trouble.
"Eat with me!" The boy said, deciding it was a good day to show off his perfectly white teeth. Zoro thanked the clouds for shielding the sun. He was pulled back into the conversation when the boy pushed a basket into his hands, surprisingly light for this so called meal.
He opened it to find a lonely ham sandwich and raised an eyebrow.
"I kinda ate the rest," the kid laughed,"but I saved one for you!"
Zoro felt an unwilling smirk tug at his lips. At least this way he wouldn't have to see that shit cook's face today.
0o0o0
"Zooooorooo~!" Waved Luffy, illegally hopping over the wall and giving him a grin, the swordsman just grinned back.
"What's the grub today?" He ruffled the boy's messy hair, teasing a laugh out of him.
"Ace baked a cake!"
0o0o0
The two sat together, one with his hands all over both their plates and the other watching the palace gates intently.
"This is really nice," Luffy laughed his snickering laugh and grinned at him, eliciting a small smile from the guard.
Cuddled into his side, the teen sighed and promptly fell asleep, mouth open and snoring like he was in his own bed at home. Zoro gave a sigh of his own and watched the kid sleep.
A flash of bright orange made him whip his gaze to the right, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. It was probably just the flowers, Zoro told himself as he returned to being a pillow for Luffy, they were in the gardens after all.
0o0o0
It was a fact, not a rumor, that the palace executioner gave special treatment to those especially heinous criminals that deserved severe punishment. He dulled his axe, raising it and bringing it down, once, twice, thrice... Letting the scum reflect on his wrongdoings as his neck was brutally severed in half.
Zoro hadn't blinked, watching as the poor man's head finally snapped from the remaining tendons holding him together, the carpeting red with fresh blood, he hadn't twitched even as the villain's head rolled a few more times, bumping into his left boot. The swordsman had examined the frozen grin on the man's slowly greying face and returned a feral one of his own. This man, he hadn't screamed, not even once.
And now Zoro was kneeling, hands cuffed behind his back as he stared at the velvety carpet, a beautiful rich shade of red, and wondered how dull his blade was going to be.
"You!" The king's accusing finger trembled in rage, his face flushed with anger,"YOU HAD ONE JOB! NOW ALL MY RICHES ARE GONE!"
The guard didn't raise his head, knowing that he had failed and no longer had the right to protest. And protest he did not, as the order was given for the executioner, a hulking giant of a man, to raise his axe, and bring it-
-down?
Zoro twitched when he felt the heavy axe embed itself into the carpeting, bouncing off after leaving a hefty crater. He opened his eyes when a hush fell over the courtroom. He froze up again when his vision was taken by dull yellow, blinding red and- oh no.
"Don't kill Zoro," Luffy said coldly, his eyes dark, mouth unsmiling,"he's mine." The bear of an executioner lay on the ground, completely out cold.
Still too flabbergasted to speak, the guard (or ex-guard at this point) could only breath out one word,"L-Lu?"
"Yeah," his gaze narrowed straight at the king, and Zoro knew Luffy could be serious when he wanted to but he really didn't have to make their great ruler whimper like that. The swordsman watched in horrified fascination as he noticed a definite relation between the amount of time the teen stared at the king and the distance the man shrank into his throne.
"G-guards! Seize this man immediately!" He opted to roar, kicking the stupefied sentries into action.
Zoro's eyes widened as Luffy readied his fists, his glare leaving the king to terrify the soldiers instead. They still approached, for fear of being executed. The swordsman growled in frustration as he was grabbed by the back of his shirt by another guard, he turned and started to see a little pink haired brat, dressed as a lowly page and shaking in his boots.
"S-sir Z-Zoro, Mr Luffy said that-"
And then Zoro saw the executioner stir, the metal mask that shielded his face to the world cracking off, revealing eyes wild with fury. His eyes flickered back to Luffy, who was wiping the floor with the guards and completely oblivious to the executioner standing up, ready for revenge.
"Give me my sword," Zoro growled, leveling a glare onto the kid.
The brat reeled, eyes wide,"Wha-"
"Give me my sword." He snarled and the kid fumbled at Wado's hilt before unsheathing her partially. Not wasting a moment, Zoro leaned down and grabbed her in his jaws, drawing the full blade with a metallic 'shing'. Once again, the giant axe was raised, ready to take the life of the boy he had met just a month ago, at the palace gates.
Zoro gritted his teeth and charged.
The courtroom was greeted to a sight of their beloved executioner falling again, this time because of the three large slashes that cut deep into his body. Behind him stood a demon of a man, eyes shaded by a black bandanna and chains which were cleanly sliced through clinked on his wrists. The boy that had barged in halfway through the execution finished off the last guard with a smashing fist to the head.
The duo stood for a moment, the swordsman sheathing his weapons and giving the king a glare. "I quit." He stated before looking startled as the boy whooped and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him out of the royal palace.
The audience were stunned, no one made a move, even as the medics nervously started forward and checked for the executioner's pulse. The only life happened when the king, face red and eyes bugging in rage, bellowed.
"CAPTURE STRAW HAT AND THE DEMON HUNTER, DEAD OR ALIVE!"
0o0o0
A/n: Sorry it was jumpy but I guess it turned out not as bad as I thought it would XD Trying out new styles always turn out weird at first go. For my FMA readers, I just wanted to say, I AM SO SO SORRY FOR JUST DROPPING EVERYTHING LIKE THAT. I don't think I'll be writing any more FMA now, so I hope you won't be too mad at me?
Talon out~!