Chapter 2: That Damn Woman
"How could Luffy allow this woman to join? She was Crocodile's partner. What was he thinking?" These thoughts have passed through Zoro's mind ever since the crew had increased in size, courtesy of the archaeologist. Everyday, he kept his guard up whenever that woman was around. They had recently fought with her and her cohorts no more than a couple of weeks ago, so how is it that everyone has already accepted her as if it never happened? He watched it all unfold in front of him when she first arrived. She gave jewels to that miserly navigator Nami, used her femininity on that dumb ass ero-cook Sanji, and entertained those childish fools Usopp, Chopper, and his captain Luffy with her Devil's Fruit powers. He didn't understand why they all allowed this to happen. With this going on, he took it upon himself to keep that woman in check and keep his eye on her.
However, fortune seemed to smile and mock Zoro's task, for the crew's newest adventure would lead them to a place deemed impossible: an island in the sky. After their altercation with Bellamy and Sarquiss in the bar at Mock Town, they were led to a small house on the opposite end of the island of Jaya. During the evening of before their trip, they were informed by Montblanc Cricket that they must find a special bird for their next leg of the journey, a South Bird. They decided to split into three groups: Usopp, Nami, and Sanji; Luffy and Chopper; and Zoro and Robin. As much as Zoro despised being near this woman, he felt that if anyone needed to be with her, it should be him since he is the most capable of handling himself against her. During this task of finding the bird, Zoro had to put up with her comments, especially the ones that embarrassed him, such as pointing out that he was walking in the wrong direction. He knows that his direction skills aren't the best in the world, but to be reminded by this woman, Zoro couldn't very well take this without a slight bit of embarrassment. Nevertheless, they managed to obtain the bird and prepare for their journey, while Luffy made a side journey to recover Cricket's gold from Bellamy.
The crew, with the South Bird and a repaired ship, flew into the sky and ventured into the world known as Skypeia. As the group met with Conis and her father Pagaya, they encountered the White Berets which led to the capture of Robin, Nami, Chopper, and Zoro as well as their ship to be punished by the god Eneru and his priests. As they fought against the priests with surprising strength and abilities with the assistance of the former god Gan Fall and the Shandians, the crew begins a search of the area to locate the others. Once again, Fortune laughs at Zoro as he once again finds himself with Robin, but this time, Gan Fall, Nami, and the Shandian Wiper are also in the grouping as they come face to face with Eneru. Zoro watched as Eneru electrocuted Gan Fall with thirty million volts thanks to his Devil's Fruit power over lightning. His attention changed to Robin as she began to converse with the god of Skypeia, only to have a bolt of lightning shot at her due to her apparent "shallowness" as Eneru put it. On impulse, Zoro caught her before she hit the ground. In this brief moment, he had forgotten about what she had been before and only saw her as Nico Robin, member of the Straw Hats. On the following impulse, he launched an attack at Eneru, resulting in him being electrocuted twice.
As he laid unconsciously on the ground, his mind began to wander. He didn't realize that Luffy had tried to wake him, or that Robin had awaken and moved him to a safer spot. All that played through his mind at that moment was why he caught that woman before she could hit the ground. He was certain that he felt nothing for her, not even as a member of the crew but as an outsider. Why did he do it? He had a very strange feeling that he could not describe as of yet come up as he delved deeper into his reasoning behind it. "Why did I get angry at that Eneru guy when he attacked her? Why did I catch her? Why am I thinking about her? That damn woman."