Hi again readers!Here's chapter 2! Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing, you're all amazing! Hope this update is quite enjoyable for you. Happy reading!

Chapter 2

A jolt of stinging pain brought Zoro back to consciousness. He wasn't sure it was pain in the first seconds but his body jolted violently and then the pain gradually appeared. He could hear someone mumbled something in the background but he couldn't care less for he was too busy panting and squirming in agony at the moment. The amount of terrible pain increased in a matter of seconds before it receded and gone completely just as suddenly as it came. His vision was blurry and his body shook harshly as the aftermath. The same person was mumbling curses to no one in particular. He heard rough shuffles of fabric and paper nearby and he knew that someone was standing close by. Slowly, his vision came back to focus and soon he noticed that he was in his master's room because he recognized the familiar ceiling pattern. So he was still alive after all, but how?

"It worked!" The same voice said excitedly. It was his master's voice. He turned his head slightly towards the source of sound and his eyes confirmed that it was his master with a large old book lying on top of a wooden pedestal table in front of him. His eyes studied his demon intently as if he was watching a lab rat he had been experimenting with and watched hopefully for any expected reaction. It looked like the young warlock had managed to save him from his death. Zoro attempted a scowl but his facial muscles refused to cooperate so his face was looked more like winching. He tried to rise from his lying position but then realized that he didn't have enough strength to do so. In fact, he didn't have any strength left to even lift his head. He was confused, angry and also a bit scared. But just a tiny bit because fear was really not in Roronoa Zoro's vocabulary. He wasn't sure how to react and the room was filled with long tense silence until his stunned master broke it.

"It's about time to wake up."

"Shut it, human." He said, or at least that's what he wanted to say despite the fact that he sounded more like growling incoherent words.

"You've lost large amount of life energy. You will need a couple of days to recover." The warlock continued.

"Tell me something I don't know. How come we all still alive anyway? Where's your afrit?" Zoro asked sarcastically.

"I've got enough time to chant the banish spell when he was devouring you. Listen, I really don't know why you did it but-uh…thanks." The warlock mumbled in awkward hesitation, the last word was barely above a whisper but loud enough for Zoro to hear it.

"You give yourself too much credit. I didn't do it because of you." He retorted, and then quickly regretted his lie because there was obviously no other reason for it.

"I-uh, I wan't thinking earlier. You're just lucky." He added hastily.

The blonde didn't reply, instead he moved closer and kneeled before the demon to scoop him with his arms.

"Wh-what do you think you're doing? Don't touch me!" Zoro protested. He felt very weird and uncomfortable because he never been this close to a human or been physically touched by them before.

"Shut up. I'm trying to help!" The blonde said in annoyance, he tightened his grips on the squirming body to make it stop before they both lost balance.

The demon complied for he didn't think any resistance would help much. Sanji carried him to his bed on one corner of the room and laid him there gently. A mental image of them as a newly wed appeared in Zoro's head, making him blush furiously.

"There. You'll be safe as long as you're here." The blonde said, his eyes glanced to the floor beside the bed frame. Zoro followed his gaze and saw a newly drawn large complicated pentacle on the floor surrounding the bed. It was a spell for heavy protection against any magic.

"This is ridiculous. What's this for?" He demanded, although he already knew what it was for. His master had gone too far now. He's not that helpless, was he?

"He had marked you, the afrit."

Zoro hissed at the sudden burning pain that on his chest and when he lowered his gaze he could see a glowing red mark with strange shape on the center of his chest that wasn't there before. The shape looked like an ancient rune he had never seen in decades. He shivered. It's a rare thing for a demon to mark another demon, unless they want something particularly important from the other. When a demon marked other demon that could only mean one thing: he wanted to make sure they would be easy to find in case they're missing or running away. The mark left an invisible thin line of arcane magic that forever linked a demon to their captor and made them easier to relocate. The afrit wanted something from him and it's obviously not something pleasant. He tried to remember what had happened but all he could recall was that the afrit said he's going to devour his life energy and that was it. Although he noticed there's something eerily different with the way the afrit talked to him. He shifted his gaze back to his master, waiting for him to talk. A little part of him was hoping the teen would have good news to tell but the way he looked at him told the demon it was the other way around.

"What?" Zoro glared impatiently at the blonde teen who was still staring at his new scar.

"Zoro I'm so sorry," The young started.

"What?"

"…There are rumors about evil warlocks who collect particular kind of demons to open the gate to hell."

"Don't be silly, the rumors have been around since your great granma was born and nobody has ever heard of such thing as hell's gate being opened by a bunch of loons. Besides, what does this have something to do with the rumor?" The demon pointed at his new scar. "It was your afrit who did this."

"The afrit, Mihawk, had a master who was a warlock many years ago before he was banished from the city. He was so powerful and arrogant; one day he tried to open the hell's gate to show everyone he could defeat the hell's creatures alone but he was stopped and made to pay his crime. What worries me is somehow Mihawk still bound to his master's last command and is still trying to do the job for him. Shit, it's entirely my fault."

"You damn right, blondie. Why did you try to summon him? It's better not because of our conversation about you having only one servant." Zoro gritted his teeth.

"Shut up! It's not that. A jerk challenged me. He envy my talent and try to anger me by saying I wouldn't have any guts to summon an afrit. Then he challenged me to summon Mihawk."

"And you failed."

"I know, I should've known. I was stupid." Sanji mumbled.

"You're stupid and had completely lost your mind." The green haired demon added.

"Oi!"

"You almost killed us both."

"I know! I said I'm sorry, okay?"

The demon sighed. He was angry at his idiot master but he felt angrier at himself for what he brought himself into. Why did he do it? Nearly killed himself to save a human's life, an insolent human who enslaved him and asked him stupid things to do. What made him ignored his logic and acted based on his impulse in the last seconds? He sorted through his list of thought and feelings he had for his young master and tried to inspect it thoroughly. Hate, absolutely; Loathing, no doubt; Anger? For sure; Distaste, yes; Pity? …hardly; Sympathy? …almost not; Fondness? ……what? of course not!

What the Hell??! Even his mind was playing a trick on him now. Mihawk must have sucked his life energy a lot more that he had thought and had damaged his brain cells. He really needed a lot of rest now and stop thinking anything. The young demon curled into a ball and closed his eyes and soon he drifted into deep slumber. A pair of skinny hands pulled up the pale blue blanket on the corner of the bed and use it to cover the sleeping form of the shivering demon.

to be continued...

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