Disclaimer almost everything belongs to Eiichiro Oda that genius of a man
He was pissed, well maybe not pissed but really annoyed. They had left Cocoyashi Village a few days ago and were currently about to enter Loguetown, but his injuries from both Mihawk and the fishmen were still healing. Nami had stopped him from training in anyway, that was one of the most annoying parts of this. Not the pain or boredom, it was the fact that she wouldn't allow him to train. He should have been strong enough to take all the fishmen out himself but he hadn't been able to beat Chew simply because Ussop had led him away and Arlong. He won't let himself be comforted by the fact that he was still recovering from his injuries courtesy of Mihawk, he wouldn't give any excuse besides the fact that he was too weak and that frustrated him to no end. He had to start training soon or he would lose his mind, meditating could only do so much to quell his angers and frustration. He's shaken from his thoughts when he hears Usopp call out for them saying that they had landed, he stretches and heads out to join the rest of the crew. Luffy and Usopp are bubbling with excitement, Sanji isn't paying attention to the island deciding to swoon over Nami would be a better idea and Nami well she was keeping an eye out for three different things, the island, the weather and him. Groaning to himself when he remembered the debt that he had owed her after borrowing a hundred-thousand berries he contemplates whether or not he should ask her again. As great as their relationship is right now he doubts that she would just borrow him money without trying to add interest to it. Sighing he knew that no matter what he needed new swords,
"Oy Nami."
She looks at him,
"Can I borrow a hundred-thousand berries?"
She pauses for a second before answering,
"Why would you need that much money for?
Zoro answers,
"I am the master of Santoryu and I can't do that with only one sword."
She puts her hand on her chin opting for a look that makes it seem like she was thinking,
"Sure but you're going to have to pay interest for that."
She sticks her tongue out and winks at him when she says that, Zoro sweatdrops before shakily saying sure. She hands him the money and grins at him mischievously, Zoro sighs knowing that she would hold this debt over him for a very long time to come. He jumps off the ship heading towards the town knowing exactly where to go, he arrives at the store and sees Ipponmatsu lazily looking over a magazine.
"Yo I have 100,000 Berries get me any two swords you can."
Ipponmatsu scoffs at him and is about to tell him to piss off, but he notices Wado Ichimoji at Zoro's waist. He looks like he was going to have a heart attack Zoro finds it really amusing.
"H-h-hey t-t-that -s-sword on y-your waist! L-l-let me look a-at it!"
Zoro smiles knowing what was about to happen, he willingly hands his sword over to him. Having determined that this sword was authentic he starts bargaining for it.
"I'll give you 200,000 berries! No 250,000! What you want 300,000!"
It was at that point Zoro tunes him out, he waits for him to finish but that doesn't happen until Tashigi enters the store. She notices the sword in Ipponmatsu's hand and she gasp,
"Is that Wado Ichimoji?"
She takes the blade from his hands and looks it over,
"It is!"
She takes out her little book to find Wado Ichimoji,
"This blade is worth 10 Million berries."
Finally having enough Zoro reaches over and takes his blade back,
"I know what sword this is and I know how much it would be worth, seriously you walk into a store see a nice blade and instantly make a grab for it"
Tashigi looks away embarrassed while Ipponmatsu huffs in annoyance,
"The 50,000 berries swords are in those barrels take anyone of them and get out."
Zoro grins and walks over to the barrel, rummaging around a bit he finds the sword he wants Sandai Kitetsu. He tunes out Tashigi's talking and studies the blade, he already knew it was cursed but would it recognize it as it's master or would he have to do that again. He unsheathes it and feels the blade growl at him, he returns to hear Ipponmatsu yelling,
"I can't sell you that sword!"
"Why?"
Zoro answers,
"It's cursed."
They look at him both shocked,
"H-how did you know?"
Zoro grins at him,
"I can feel it's blood lust."
Ipponmatsu pales and recounts the tales of the Kitetsu swords, while Zoro's grin grows wider.
"Let's see which is stronger this sword's curse or my luck."
He throws Sandai Kitetsu up into the air ignoring Tashigi and Ipponmatsu's yelling. He sticks his left arm out closing his eyes and listening to the blade cutting through the air.
!Thunk!
He opens his eyes to see the blade embedded into the wooden floor, he grins.
"Guess my luck is stronger."
Ipponmatsu and Tashigi both fall over in shock of what just happened, Ipponmatsu recovers faster,
"W-wait here!"
He runs into the storage area for a few moments returning with another sword this one Zoro recognizes as Yubashiri.
"T-this is Yubashiri, my family's prized heirloom! Take it."
Zoro grins at him,
"Thanks old man."
He takes his two nearly acquired blades and walks out of the store happy, leaving Tashigi still sitting on the floor shocked.
"Man it feels good to be carrying three swords again."
He heads towards the execution platform where he knows Buggy will appear, the problem well the last time Buggy had trapped Luffy here because he had defeated him. But this time around Buggy didn't even see Luffy at all the only one he saw was him, since he had taken up the task of defeating them all by himself. Sighing he found a nice secluded spot near the execution platform and took a nap.
~Roughly 2 hours later~
Zoro wakes up and stretches, he looks in to the plaza to see many people wearing cloaks. Grinning to himself he knew that they were the Buggy Pirates, he decides to wait out a bit before defeating all of them. He looks up to the execution platform to see Luffy standing up there excited that he was in the same spot the Pirate King Gol D. Roger was when he was executed. Smiling at him Zoro sneaks around to the back of the execution tower and calls out for Luffy,
"Oy Luffy!"
Luffy hearing his name being called looks around for who called him, he looks down the back of the platform and sees Zoro,
"Zoro!"
"Luffy we should go soon I see a couple of suspicious people in the plaza and with a Marine base so close by we shouldn't cause too much trouble."
Luffy grins before jumping down from the tower, together Zoro and and Luffy start to head back to the ship avoiding as many of the cloaked figures as they could. When they arrive they find Sanji already on the ship carrying a giant fish,
"Hey Ero-cook, where did you get the fish?"
Sanji glares at him and ignores him, scoffing at him Zoro asks another question.
"Hey dartboard brow, where's Nami Usopp?"
Still glaring at him Sanji answers,
"They were looking for you guys, Nami-swan mentioned something about a storm before running off to find you and Luffy."
Zoro says ok before telling Luffy to wake him up if anything happens, he walks over to his spot near the bow of the ship. Sitting down he cracks his neck before closing his eyes, happy that he had finally gotten most of his swords back. Though he remembered that he would most likely lose Yubashiri in Enies Lobby he sighs, but he also remembers that he would obtain Shusui from Ryuma on Thriller Bark. They were going to enter the Grand Line soon, their adventure was going to start soon. Smiling to himself he finally lets himself
~A While Later~
Zoro is awakened by a strike to his head, he growls and looks up to see Nami completely drenched and yelling at him.
"What was that for?"
"There's a storm and we need all the help we need everyone helping so that we can get out of it!"
Hearing this Zoro stretches and gets into action, they're about to enter the Grand Line he had to be vigilant in case anything happens. Though he doesn't remember how they had gotten to Reverse Mountain through the calm belt, he yawns telling himself that they would figure that out later. He watches as Nami talks about the mountain and the calm belt, looks up at the sails.
"Too late, seems like we've already entered the Calm Belt."
They look at him before noticing that he was right the ship wasn't moving and there was no wind Usopp starts panicking, Sanji just follows Nami around like a dog, while Nami tries to figure out a way for the ship to get to the mountain, Luffy was just laughing at Usopp's panicked state and him well since no one has any idea of what to do he could try something. Pushing himself to stand up groaning while doing so, he walks over to the back of the boat grabbing some rope with him while walking there. Nami watches him curiously, Zoro takes the rope and tries to tie himself to the back of the boat. Nami sees him struggle to tie himself to the boat and sighs walking up to him to help.
"Why are you tying yourself to the boat?"
Zoro thanks her before answering,
"Just watch and see, also tell the rest of the crew to hold on."
She comply's yelling at the rest of the rest of the crew to grab onto something, Zoro unsheathes Wado Ichimoji and readies himself.
"Sanbyakurokuju Poundo Ho!"
With this strike it blasts the ship right out of the water, while soaring through the air Zoro thinks.
"Maybe should have checked which direction Reverse Mountain was in."
Lucky enough they had landed not too far away from Reverse Mountain, Zoro grins to himself it worked itself out. He's about to untie himself when he feels something hard slam right into his head, he looks up to see a very angry Nami.
"Jesus what was this one for?"
"Don't just do stupid stuff like that without telling us!"
He growls at her,
"I gave you guys a warning that should be all you guys need!"
She huffs before walking away, Zoro grumbles and scratches his head.
"Why is she always so violent."
Untying himself and seeing that they wouldn't reach Reverse Mountain for at least an hour or two he decides to take a nap. But before he can he overhears Nami talking about a few things,
"While I was in the town I saw wanted posters."
Luffy excitingly ask,
"Of who? And how much!"
"Jeez Luffy calm down, there was wanted posters for you and Zoro."
Luffy starts celebrating already and Zoro grins proud that he got a bounty even earlier than he did last time.
"How much!"
Nami punches Luffy over the head,
"Calm down you idiot, I was getting there."
She breaths out and relaxes herself before resuming,
"Luffy you have a 35 Million Berrie bounty and Zoro has a 25 Million Berrie bounty."
Luffy start celebrating again, Sanji finally decides to speak up.
"Nami-swan, was there no wanted poster for me?"
"Sorry Sanji-kun I didn't see any for you."
Zoro laughs at his dejected look,
"You got to do something big to make them notice you."
Sanji turns towards Zoro annoyed,
"And what did you do huh Marimo."
Zoro grins at him,
"Besides defeating two officers of the Fishman Pirate, well I landed a cut on the Strongest Swordsman in the world."
Sanji looks like he wants to argue but he knew Zoro was right, he opted to grumble to himself. Zoro laughs again before looking at Nami,
"Wake me up if something happens, and you know a little less violent and painful this time."
She grins at him mischievously,
"No promises"
He grumbles before falling asleep. Within his subconscious he sees Ashura again,
"What are you doing here?"
"You know this is no time to be sleeping right?"
"What do you mean?"
"Your time is short The Demon of the Core is awakening more and more each day."
Zoro sighs and leans back,
"Yea I know."
"You should spend all the time you can with your friends before you disappear."
Zoro scoffs at him,
"Who said I was going to let him take over my body."
"I know you won't but you are not powerful enough to stop him nor do you possess a drive like Φλαμε, you can do little to stop this."
Zoro looks at him,
"I am Roronoa Zoro, the man who will become the Strongest Swordsman in the world. I can't let some little demon overpower me before I achieve what I need to!"
"You keep telling yourself that, the demon is more powerful than you could ever imagine. There is little you can do to stop him mortal."
"Well I have an idea of what to do."
"And what would that be?"
Now wheres the fun in just telling you now?"
Ashura chuckles at him,
"I hope whatever you have planned can actually help you."
He can feel Ashura fading from his mind,
"Me too."
Zoro is awakened by Nami this time not so violently thank god. They had arrived at the base of the mountain, he sees just how amazing the mountain is again. A mountain that possesses a stream that moves up instead of down, was a quite an amazing sight. Nami yelled for all of them to get ready to ride the stream up, the only problem well the ship wasn't exactly straight when they entered the stream meaning they were heading straight into one of the walls to the sides of the stream. This time Nami and Usopp were both panicking and Sanji was trying to reassure Nami that he would always protect her no matter what. The only ones that did something were Luffy and him, Luffy went to the right side that was about to impact with the wall,
"Gomu Gomu no Fusen!"
The ship bounced off of Luffy's body instead of crashing into the wall, this time the ship was sent to the left. Grinning to himself and seeing how much power he would need to correct the direction of the ship he readies himself,
"Sanjuroku Poundo Ho!"
The ship is on a semi-straight path straight up the mountain, Luffy and Zoro seeing their jobs done stand and admire the mountain even more. Nami and Usopp watch them,
"God both of you are monsters."
Zoro laughs at this,
"Just enjoy the ride and worry about everything else later!"
They reach the peak of the mountain soaring into the air, they are greeted by the sight of a rising sun before they start falling back down. Zoro simply grins it was great going through this adventure again and this time there would be a happy ending for all of them, he will see to this even if it cost him his own life they would live
That's a wrap this concludes the East Blue Saga, I'm really looking forward to writing the Grand Line arcs. The only problem is that I want to show that Zoro is stronger than the rest of the Strawhats by a large margin but I also don't want to take away some of Luffy's opponents in the story. I would create OC's for this but I don't think I would do too great of a job at this so I probably won't do that or get a friends to help me create one. All I can say is that I most likely will have to create an OC eventually it's I'm just saying there probably won't be one anytime soon. On that note I just want to mention that I'm still brainstorming an original arc, I didn't want to put one in the East Blue Saga. I felt like it would have been better if it was in part of the Grand Line. The only idea I have so far is for two separate stories, one where Zoro has to deal with The Demon of the Core and the second one involves him and the crew fighting a sorcerer of sorts that has been summoning demons into the One Piece world. To add to that after this chapter I will most likely be posting new chapters a bit slower, since I feel like my chapter are a bit short so I'm going to work on making them longer. Once again if you're reading this and enjoy it thanks for reading.