"Before I was a pirate hunter I trained at a dojo that was renowned for the unique sword skills its graduates were allowed to perfect. Rather than sensei sticking rigidly to tradition he allowed each one of us to develop our own style using the basics he taught as a foundation.
At that dojo his daughter was the strongest student there, he showed her no favouritism, he didn't teach her more than us - she was strongest because she worked for it. When I joined I was determined to beat her, but no matter how hard I tried one sword, three swords, a million swords! I just couldn't beat her. One night we duelled with real swords away from the dojo and after being beaten again, rather than tease me she became depressed. She knew that because of the strict traditions of the island soon she would be forced to stop learning sword skills and made to "become a proper woman" as the head of the village used to say. After fighting so hard all her work would go to waste and she would become weaker.
That night we made a promise based on neither of us shirking our training, that no matter what we would become stronger and one day one of us would be the strongest sword fighter in the world.
I dreamed of beating all the opposition and the final deciding fight being between me and Kuina… but a few weeks later Kuina died." Zoro paused for a moment and Sanji could see it still hurt the stoic swordsman deeply to talk about this.
"They said she had been cleaning her sword and went to put it away. It was in one of the lower rooms of the dojo and there were a really steep set of spiral stone stairs leading to it. The elders and mothers of the children who lived at or near the dojo always yelled at us for racing up and down the steps but as kids we never listened. She fell near the top of the stairs and when one of the other kids found her she was badly hurt at the bottom.
I was out training and knew nothing about it, apparently the doctor tried everything but she had broken her back and badly injured her head… she didn't make it. My friends came to tell me about it later that day when they finally found me miles away from the dojo.
I don't really remember the funeral, just that it was raining and colder than it had ever been on the island. I eventually begged sensei for Kuina's sword." Zoro subconsciously caressed the white hilt of Wadou Ichimonji while he was speaking.
"I told him of our promise and he left the sword in my care." Zoro's voice cracked slightly and he took another long drink of the saké.
"Roughly two weeks after I had been given the sword I had been sent into town to bring supplies up to the dojo from the port. I had heard rumour of a strict dojo opening a few months earlier, they were big on tradition and ancient techniques that had fallen out of use, because of that they hated our dojo with a passion. They said that the techniques sensei was allowing us to develop were a "perversion" of the purer arts they were teaching. A few of the younger students had been bullied by the younger students from the new dojo… but I thought nothing of it, there is always competition between rival dojo's you just get on with it." another large gulp of saké.
"When I got to the port one of our youngest students was in a heap on the floor with bad lacerations all over his body, he was a real mess, but nobody was helping him, they all just cowered away from the older boy and his friends stood over him and laughed. I knew it was going to be the boys from the new dojo and sensei had told us to steer clear of them but this was different. They had really hurt him, they had made such a mess of his hands and arms that even I knew he'd no longer be able to hold a sword properly." Sanji shuddered at the thought, his hands were his life, to lose them would be….
"I lost it and jumped in without sizing up the opponent first. For the first time since Kuina I lost a fight… badly." Zoro's eyes were hard and he swallowed back tears draining the remainder of the bottle.
"Not only did I end up out of commission for weeks but that young boy died… with no one left to run back to the dojo for help because I'd been too stupid to think first rather than act, that boy lost his dream and his life all in one go. The only thing I could remember about that fight was an adult coming to move the rival students away, he'd spat on the boys body and in my face laughing all the time. He said he'd be surprised if sensei's dojo would stay open after the "tragic" loss of his only daughter and two students." Zoro breathed deeply for a few seconds, the rage he'd felt all those years ago coming back with full force he gripped the saké bottle shattering it, not even feeling the shards of glass bite into his palm. He cursed loudly as Sanji took his hand and pulled him over to the sink to clean the cuts. When Sanji had finished he sat Zoro at the table and began to dress his hand.
"Go on." Sanji quietly encouraged the swordsman.
"It took weeks for me to recover and sensei lost all his students apart from the really dedicated ones. Parents were pulling their kids out by the dozen and enrolling them with the new dojo due to pressure from the village elder and the new dojo master. I went back to training as hard as I could staying away from most of the people I knew. I was ashamed of letting that boy die, but even more so I was angry. The anger I felt, I couldn't contain and I'd take it out on people left right and center… in the end only sensei understood I think… I had told him about what the adult from the fight had said and I saw him tense, he said that I had proved them wrong by living - it wasn't two students but one. Although he said nothing more about it I believed that he had come to the same conclusion as I had. I could see it in his eyes. Kuina hadn't died by accident. She'd raced up and down the stairs thousands of times and never once stumbled, she wasn't a clumsy person. If I was to describe her injuries to Chopper I know he'd say the head injury couldn't have been sustained in the kind of fall she'd had - I asked every doctor I came across on my travels and got the same answer - she must have been hit by someone causing her to fall.
After two years I had mastered the Santouryu style I had been developing, no one in the dojo could master it or beat me using their own techniques. Around the same time the village elder announced that there would be a tournament between the dojo's of the island, the winning dojo becoming the style and teachings that the rest of the dojo's would then follow.
Sensei had already heard that most of the dojo's around the island had caved under the pressure of the elder and our rival dojo and were all beginning to convert to the "traditional" sword art. This was just their way of eliminating any of the opposition still brave enough to stand up to them.
While sensei had advised none of us to enter and to just agree to accepting the traditional teaching continuing our technique development in secrecy he couldn't force any of us to obey him as we had all already come of age and could do as we pleased.
Three others and I entered the tournament. We trained hard making sure we were ready to uphold sensei's pride and the dojo name… wrongly we presumed that they would fight with pride in the way of bushido being as traditional as they were… we were wrong.
Two of them were crushed in the qualifying rounds by underhanded tactics, a boy called Naga and I made it to the semi finals. We had already seen the way our rivals fought. Pushing their opponent into the crowd where one of their fellow dojo members were conveniently standing giving the opponent sneaky stabs to the back n the gaps to the padding we were issued, drugging them, going for the ankles to weaken their stance. They were out to win and if they couldn't win they would kill.
Naga had his Achilles tendon slashed when he was forced back into the crowd. He tried to continue, but with only one good leg he didn't stand a chance. It was obvious that the referee should have stopped the fight but he'd been paid to look the other way. He let the bastard maul Naga to within an inch of his life.
I then faced Naga's opponent in the quarter finals only to find it was the same bastard who had killed that young boy years before. He was extremely good with the Katana and kodachi. I had watched him through all of his fights and knew he used the kodachi - a shorter blade to create a solid defence drawing the opponent in as close as possible before attacking with the full length katana. Doing this most of his opponents were unable to block the longer reach of the katana after having got caught up on breaking the kodachi's defence. I knew if I could force him to defend with the katana I'd find an opening. I never got the chance to try it though. While I slept, the night before my fight I was drugged and could barely stand let alone fight the next day."
"So he didn't want to fight you?" Sanji asked
"Oh no, nothing like that. He knew I would be forced to forfeit. He wanted me to be shamed in front of all the spectators and he got his wish." Zoro was shaking with anger.
"To make it that much more shameful, not only was our dojo renounced meaning that we could only take on students refused by all the other dojo's as no-hopers he spread the rumour that I had faked the drugging, that I was too afraid to fight after what had happened to Naga. I was completely disgraced by everyone other than the few supporters of our dojo.
Sanji was disgusted. How could someone do that? Zoro would never back out of a fight.
After another year of training I went out to sea as a bounty hunter to find more challenging opponents because "Zoro the Disgraced" was not allowed to challenge true warriors. I was also making it more dangerous for my sensei by staying, on more than one occasion they had tried to get into the dojo to destroy it, every time I beat them down but one night they stood over sensei as he slept, a knife over his throat threatening that they would kill him and anyone else who associated with me if I didn't leave." he looked up at Sanji. "I told sensei it was because I wanted to see the world, find better opponents and keep my promise… I couldn't tell him about the threat." He paused and stared Sanji right in the eye.
"I didn't leave because I couldn't win, I didn't leave because I was scared."
"I know…" Sanji said quietly. He had no idea that Zoro had been through anything like that. No wonder he had problems with people being close to him. "Did you ever encounter one of those bastards again?"
"Yeah, once a couple of months before Luffy recruited me. I found out that the traditional arts they had been teaching were not "traditional" but Forbidden. Centuries ago there were a sect of swordsmen who had developed techniques that gave them immense power and speed. They were called the Blood Techniques. It was nothing to do with it being a race thing passed on generation to generation as blood kin or anything like that. It was called that because they used your blood. I couldn't compete with him - again I lost and again he almost killed me. It was only because of the kindness of an old couple who lived nearby that I survived, they spent a month tending to my wounds in the hopes I'd come round. A month wasted, all because of a dark magic using swordsman. I refuse to accept them as true swordsmen." Zoro slammed his fist into the table.
"How long ago was all this?" Sanji asked
"Almost three years now." Zoro slumped back in his seat taking a deep breath.
"So is it likely tha..?"
"Zoro!!! I didn't tell you it was ok to leave the infirmary! I can smell saké!! I told you not to drink!"
"Sorry Chopper I let him have half a cup of saké to celebrate him being out of bed. I know that because he's had such a good doctor tending to him that he'll be well now… I got carried away, sorry."
Chopper looked up at Sanji eyes glazing, wiggling and tapping his hooves together, "I don't need your compliments ass hole!" a little more coddling from Sanji and Chopper forgave Zoro making him choke down his medicine.
Hearing the commotion the rest of the crew came into the galley and all began a noisy celebration of Zoro being out of the infirmary. For the first time Sanji just wanted his galley empty but for one green haired swordsman. He served the food quickly without much fuss over the girls. He wanted to know the answer to his next question. Zoro was last to be served and as Sanji leant over him Zoro whispered in his ear, the rest of the crew too intent on celebrating to notice,
"I'm going to take watch tonight. See you up there?"
"Ok." he said simply putting another large spoonful of curry on Zoro's plate.
"Oi Sanji!! Why does Zoro get more? I'm starving!" the captain whined from the other end of the table already working on stuffing his face with his own food and other peoples.
"He just got out of the infirmary, he's only been eating soup Luffy."
"Just soup?? Give him more!" Luffy's attention was then drawn away because Usopp had slapped a rubbery wandering hand from his plate.
Zoro gave Sanji a rare half smile and began to eat with enthusiasm. For once he agreed with Luffy about food, soup just didn't do it for him. The meal was noisy as always but it was a lot happier an atmosphere tonight thanks to Zoro's recovery. Everyone ate and drank their fill. Except Zoro … Chopper made sure the swordsman didn't drink any more saké, for once Zoro only put up a token resistance because all he really wanted was to get on watch to find out what Sanji's question was.
Eventually the straw hats began to go their separate ways. Usopp was about to leave the galley for his watch when Zoro rested a hand on his shoulder,
"I'll take watch tonight, I've been sitting around doing nothing for long enough now."
"Zoro your not supposed to be doing anything!" Chopper sounded exasperated.
"C'mon Chopper, it's not like I'll be doing anything strenuous I'll just be on watch that's all. Take my weights out of the crows nest if you like. You've lectured me enough on how much I need to make sure I rest this time around."
Chopper eyed him suspiciously. It wasn't like Zoro to give up his training even when he'd been injured.
"Doctor-san, it would seem you have finally got through to the swordsman so shall we not trust him and go to bed, it is late after all." she stretched delicately as Chopper stifled a yawn.
"Ok, but if I find out he's been training I'm pouring all the saké we have over the side of the ship." With that Chopper plodded off to bed followed by Robin and a very grateful marks man.
"I'm glad you're better Zoro." Luffy grinned as he left.
Nami left the galley at the same time as Zoro, "err.. Zoro?" she said standing slightly behind him.
"Hmm?" he turned to look over his shoulder.
"I've been meaning to say thanks for the other day…" she said awkwardly.
"You don't have to, it's what nakama do isn't it?" he shrugged earning a grateful smile from Nami as she left him on the deck alone.
The night was clear and the air was cool and fresh. He took a deep breath. Now that he'd voiced his worry over going back to his home island, he actually felt a little better, almost relieved. If he'd read Sanji's reaction correctly he had been wrong to feel stupid for worrying, to have someone understand his feelings was a strange but kind of nice experience. Usually he didn't share enough for people to be able to do that.
He slowly climbed up to the crows nest pondering what Sanji's unfinished question was. Sitting on the couch he waited for the cook to kick Franky and Brook out of the galley.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TO BE CONTINUED~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
oooooo conspiracy theory or what?! Next chapter on it's way soon.
Let me know what you're thinking of this :) (oh...and there is more ZoSan nudity on the way!)
