2
Zoro woke up the next morning with a painful crying headache. It was dull in comparison to the rest of his growing discomfort, yet more than any of his other injuries, a nagging, shameful reminder of his detestable weakness.
He wondered if his eyes were still blood shot and more importantly if the guards would notice.
"Go ahead. Say something," he mumbled to himself quietly as the guards approached him. "...I'll bite your hand off and eat it...you stupid..."
"Yea that's what I was saying," said Yonro to Hanz as they approached. "I mean the government right? Right?"
"Ok, so I'll admit that's a valid argument," said Hanz. "But on the other hand...what are you going to do about it? Nothing. Right. Exactly. That's what I thought."
Yonro stopped short of Zoro, careful to keep a fearful and cautious distance.
"This job is so degrading," Yonro said.
"Tell me about it," said Hanz.
It goes without saying that this comment pissed Zoro off tremendously. So much so, in fact, that he decided right then and there to go through with his cannibalism plan. He was going to survive this ordeal one way or another, even if it meant scraping the bloody, raw meat right off the bones of that asshole's fingers. If it meant not starving to death, while at the same time, permanently shutting these stupid people the hell up, then he was ready to do it.
"So what are you waiting for, go shave him and give him the water," said Hanz to Yanro.
"No way. He'll bite me."
"He will not bite you."
"Why not. He bit you."
"Yea, but only because you gave him the idea."
Zoro couldn't help but imagine how good it would feel to have something in his stomach again, even if it was a bloody chunk of raw human flesh. He glared hatefully at his captors as they inched cautiously closer to him.
"Man, its been a week," said Yonro, lathering Zoro's face with the shaving cream. "Shouldn't this swordsman guy be dead already?"
This asshole was just asking to have his hand ripped off, Zoro thought. He waited patiently for the fool to let down his guard, and let his hand linger too close to Zoro's mouth for too long. Treat me like an animal and I'm going to act like one. I'm a stupid animal that can't understand what you're saying, and I'm hungry, hungry enough to rip you open like a antelope, Zoro thought, and Yonro withdrew his hand, his expression fearful.
"He's staring at me like he wants to eat me!" Yanro exclaimed in disbelief.
"Oh what an incredible load of crap, like it's even possible for him to eat you." said Hanz. "Give me that strait razor."
Yonro handed the strait razor to Hanz. Hanz began to remove the bristles from Zoro's chin along with the shaving cream, but then, as his hand rested for too long in one spot too close to Zoro's mouth. Zoro saw an opportunity. He clamped his teeth down hard on one of the man's fingers and tasted blood.
Hanz screamed and the strait razor fell out of his hand. Instictively, he attempted to pull his hand away from Zoro's mouth, but Zoro's powerful teeth did not relent, they sunk further down into the flesh, and hit white bone. Hanz screamed and screamed, blood dripped from his finger and tears from his eyes. Zoro released his hand and he withdrew it quickly.
"S...son of a bitch..." Hanz swore.
A moment or two passed, as Hans held up his dripping, wounded hand, and Yonro gawked at it in abject terror.
"Uh...Sooo..." said Yonro after awhile. "What do we do now?"
"I think its time to go," said Hanz.
"What-wait? We can't just leave. If his beard starts growing, Helmeppo'll know we disobeyed his orders."
"Yea, I'm not going near him again." Said Hanz and he began to walk away.
"Hanz!"
"Helmeppo doesn't scare me."
"Well he scares me!"
"Well then I guess you'll just have to decide who you're more afraid of, then."
Yonro put a hand to his forehead and paced the crucifixion yard several times, contemplating his options. He looked at Zoro and then to the door which lead back into the marine headquarters, and then at Zoro and then at the door which lead back to the marine headquarters.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit." Yonro muttered, his heart beginning to race. He closed his eyes and thought about what he should do.
He didn't notice as Hanz disappeared from the courtyard, presumably to get treatment for his bloody, mangled hand. He had been too preoccupied, imagining what his superior officers might say if he were too cowardly to carry out his petty, menial duty...and then what kind of horrible pain the dirty fugitive might inflict on him if he were to get too close...and then... Helmeppo. Helmeppo scared him just as much as Zoro did.
Well then I guess you'll just have to decide who you're more afraid of, then.
Yanro glanced over at Zoro, whose had hung low, mouth dripping with blood, and then back to the government building, where he knew Helmeppo was waiting for his underlings to make mistakes, biding his time.
...Helmeppo or Roronoa Zoro?
Well, Yonro thought, If I don't do what he wants Helmeppo could have his father dishonorably discharge me from the marines, plus he's a scary sadist that does pretty much whatever he wants whenever he wants...and Roronoa Zoro, he's scary, but let's be smart about this. He's also tied to a pole in the middle of this sand pit and will be dead within a week.
The answer was clear. Yonro knew what he had to do.
He found a heavy branch, and picked it up, freeing it from the place where it had been half buried in the sand. Then, he glanced up a Zoro again. The swordsman's head hung low, his deep set eyes, hidden in shadow. He showed no sign of having noticed the trembling marine or his pitiful branch.
"R-roronoa Zoro?"
Zoro raised his head slightly and opened his eyes.
"Yes?" he replied in a voice which was both irritated and menacing.
"If you try to b-bite me...I'll...I'll hit you," Yonro stammered.
Zoro glared at him and didn't reply.
Yonro stepped closer, wielding the branch defensively.
"I-I'm not kidding." Yonro stammered.
He swung the branch to let Zoro know that he was serious. Zoro didn't flinch. He hung there, limp and exhausted, albeit painfully conscious.
"...You don't have the guts," Zoro muttered, tiredly.
He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
...
"Do you have any idea how pathetic you are?" Kuina's voice taunted from the back of his brain.
"Shut up," Zoro mumbled in his sleep. "...You're not real."
"Well do you swordsman?" Kuina's voice persisted. "What kind of a man sleeps his life away?"
"...Leave me alone."
"A man who hates himself and wishes to die," Kuina's voice continued, answering its own question. "What kind of a man succumbs to pain and shows weakness? What kind of a man cries because he is alone and friendless? Because there is no woman to kiss his pain away?"
Kuina's voice paused as though waiting for a response from Zoro and then concluded: "A man who deserves to be alone. A man who deserves to be in pain."
These words hurt Zoro deeply, and for a moment he forgot that Kuina was dead and that this was a dream. Tears leaked out from under his sleeping eyelids and cut tracks down his grimy face. He sobbed, ashamed of grateful he was for the minimal comfort the streaming tears provided.
"That's right, Zoro, cry. Cry like the pitiful weakling that you are," the phantom voice taunted him.
...
Zoro awoke to find his face wet with tears. It was much later in the day, now. The sun had nearly set on the horizon and the sky was growing less orange and more purple with this slow sinking motion. The pain of his bruises and broken bones was nothing when compared to the agony of starvation, and he spent the next two or so waking hours trying (unsuccessfully) to force back tears as he wished desperately to have his hunger alleviated. He closed his eyes for a moment, and, forgoing any final shred of dignity, bawled like a small child. For a moment, he was too utterly miserable to feel ashamed of himself for doing this. The tears provided a welcome distraction and a bizarre sense of release. It made him feel better to let the pain out for while; to let it show on his face. He opened his eyes.
A cloaked and hooded figure emerged from the shadows. Zoro stifled his weeping abruptly. An involuntary blush creeping over his grimy, stubbly cheeks. The figure had been watching him. It had seen him cry.
"G...Go away!" Zoro shouted at the figure.
"Shhh. Don't yell. The guards might come out here," the figure told him. It spoke with a quite female voice.
"You're the woman from the restaurant?" said Zoro, who recognized the voice immediately.
"Yes. Shh. Please don't tell anyone who I am."
The woman from the restaurant seemed to be carrying something. She lifted it up and Zoro saw that it was a takeout box.
"I brought you some food," the woman from the restaurant told him.
The smell of teriyaki pork and mushrooms wafted from the box. Zoro's mouth watered. It was the most delicious thing he had ever smelled.
"Lady, I'm not hungry," Zoro told her. "Now, get out of here."
"Please don't be stubborn."
"I don't need to eat," Zoro insisted.
"If you don't eat you'll die," the woman from the restaurant countered.
"Then let me die."
The woman from the restaurant opened the take out box, and removed a piece of meat from it with a pair of chopsticks. She walked closer to the place where Zoro was tied, and moved the food in the direction of his mouth.
"Please eat?" she asked him.
"Lady, I told you-"
The woman from the restaurant dropped the food into his mouth as he opened it to argue with her. Zoro's mouth closed around the food. After a little over a week of eating hardly anything, it was the most indescribably delicious thing he had ever tasted. He chewed the pork and swallowed it, forcing back the tears of gratitude that he felt prick the corners of his eyes.
"Good, right?" the woman from the restaurant asked him. "How 'bout some more?"
She put the chopsticks back into the take out box, and picked up another piece of pork.
"Why are you doing this?" Zoro asked her.
She fed him another piece of pork and he chewed and swallowed it eagerly, obeying the commands of his aching body as it screamed for sustenance.
"You're a good man, Zoro," the woman from the restaurant said. "You did a good thing for us."
She continued to feed him from the takeout box, brushing moss-colored hair away from his sweaty forehead to comfort him as he began to weep involuntary tears of gratitude. When the take out box was empty, she put the chopsticks inside of it and closed it. Then, returned the empty box to her handbag, beneath the cloak. She waved goodbye and turned to leave.
"Wait." said Zoro feeling what was left of his pride crumble. "Don't leave."
The woman from the restaurant turned back around and walked over to him.
"Stay with me for a few minutes," he asked, immediately ashamed for succumbing to this selfish weakness. The longer this person stayed the more likely she was to be spotted by the guards.
"Of course," the woman from the restaurant replied empathically.