Zoro groaned as he awakened. His body felt sluggish and tired. He tried to move and every nerve ending in his body screamed in protest as his chest banged against metal. His eyes felt like they were glued shut and wouldn't open no matter how much he forced them. He tried to curl his fingers and toes and, after about a minute of struggling, succeeded.

"Did Don Krieg really hurt you this badly? I know he had a lot of manpower but he seemed more like a guy that was all bark and no bite…" A female voice asked him hesitantly.

Zoro flinched back, he hadn't known anyone else was in the room. "Who's there?"

He could practically hear her frown. "It's me, Nami. The one you boldly proclaimed you'd rescue, remember?"

Zoro grimaced at the revelation. So this was one of the pirates his older self had befriended. He managed to stick out his tongue and lick his cracked lips, he had been hoping to slink away without any confrontation. "Remind me, what would this rescuing involve?" He'd do it if it was some small time pirate crew.

"Are you serious? Did you hit your head or something? You made a whole speech about defeating Arlong and then you forgot all about it? Unbelievable!"

Shit.

Zoro knew that name. It was the name of a Grand Line Fishman pirate who was rumored to be somewhere in East Blue. He had a bounty of twenty million beri. A huge amount and, if the Fishman was in East Blue, the highest in the ocean. And that was the question, wasn't it? Was he still in East Blue or had that asshole already taken his body to the Grand Line. "And where are we?"

"Seriously? We are in Arlong Park, nitwit." The woman sounded exasperated.

With a grunt, Zoro finally succeeded in opening his eyes. He noticed three things as his vision came into focus. Firstly, he was wearing an eyepatch or something similar. Secondly, he was tied to a pillar with a chain. Thirdly, the woman.

The woman had a slim hourglass figure and was of average height. She had orange hair and light brown eyes. She wore a green camisole, black pants and high-heeled sandals. Zoro would guess she was around late teens, early twenties. "So, um," Zoro said hesitantly, "who are you?"

The woman actually recoiled and something akin to fear appeared in her brown eyes. "Are you okay? How much damage did Don Krieg do to you?"

"I'm not injured," he protested, "just-"

"Bull," the woman interrupted flatly, "your injury is potentially fatal."

Injury? Fatal? The green-haired man craned his head down and tried to see a wound, but there was nothing. The chains blocked any potential injuries. He tried to move against the chain and shuddered as a paroxysm of pain swept through him. Okay then, definitely injured.

"What happened," he croaked, suddenly desperate for water.

The orange-haired woman glanced around before crouching down to his level. "You really can't remember anything, can you?"

Zoro shook his head. It was technically true, he couldn't remember anything that damn Bushido had done with his body. "No, no I can't."

"Okay then…again I'm Nami." The woman introduced herself, jabbing a thumb at her breastbone. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Zoro paused to collect his thoughts. "I was captured and held in a Navy base. I'd guess that it'd be a month or two ago." At least, he really hoped he hadn't been any longer than that.

The woman, Nami, frowned. "But you know Luffy?" You have to know Luffy, right?"

Zoro griminanced, Bushido had mentioned someone named that in passing once or twice. "No, I don't."

Nami gaped at him, looking like a fish out of water. "You don't know Luffy?" Nami spoke like this was blasphemous, like not knowing Luffy was akin to not knowing of Whitebeard.

"I've a feeling that this Luffy is important then?"

Nami looked thunderstruck. "Important? Of course Luffy's important!"

"How do we know him?" Zoro asked mildly, even though he had a damn good guess. But he technically had no way of knowing he was now involved in a life of piracy.

"You really know nothing. Luffy's our, your, captain." She stressed the word captain.

Ignoring the correction she made about him not being her captain, Zoro focused on sounding shocked. "Wait...are you saying I'm a pirate?"

"I'm not sure how to break this to you gently but yeah, you are. First Mate of the Straw Hat Pirates."

Zoro bit back a groan. This only got worse, not only was he indeed a crew member but he was a high ranking one too. There goes his chances of just slipping away. "And what do you do in the crew?"

"I was the navigator and, I suppose, the one in charge of the treasure."

Zoro raised an eyebrow. There it was again, her distancing herself from this crew. "Did you leave?"

"Yeah, I guess I did."

The conversation lulled into awkward silence for a moment. "So, tell me Nami. Why am I tied up like a prisoner?"

"You sorta are one, sorry."

The temperature seemed to drop expentunely. "I'm certain I just misheard you. Mind repeating that?"

The navigator awkwardly rubbed her shoulder and looked at the ground, her toes scuffing against the ground. "Yeah...my current crew captured you. Sorry?"

Zoro felt a massive migraine coming on, his hands instinctively went to massage his temple and he winced as they banged against the chains. "Give me my swords." He growled.

Honest confusion laced the girl's voice. "Swords? I've only ever seen you use one."

Zoro's eye flicked towards the sword hilt he had just noticed peeking around the Nami's shoulder. It was Wado Ichimonji. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, he wasn't sure what he would have done if his old self had lost Kuina's blade. "I want it back. Now."

"Sure," Nami agreed easily, sliding the katana off her back and letting it clatter onto the ground, "I came over to give it back anyway. Now leave and don't come back." And just like that, the orange-haired woman slinked off through the imposing gates he could just see out of the corner of his eye and down the dirt track the island passed off as a road.

Zoro's hand snatched out like a snake and grasped the hilt, the sword a welcome familiar weight in his hand. He shook off the sheath and, with a grin, easily sliced through the cheap iron chains. And finally got a good look at his chest.

The swordsman's chest was covered in bandages, the centre of which was a dull red. Now that he was up and moving again, he could practically feel the thin stitches shifting. Zoro knew that the stitches reopening would be a bad thing, a very bad thing. He'd have to be careful to not go overboard.

He take a glance around the corner, taking in the base. A marble walkway was in front of the building and a large body of water lay beyond that. A bunch of hulking humanoids were walking around idylly. Zoro racked his memory to remember what they were. He snapped his fingers, Fishman. Definitely Arlong then.

The green-haired man felt a grin tugging at his lips. Hadn't Nami said something about him wanting to rescue her? He rolled his wrist and admired the way the sun reflected off Wado Ichimonji's blade, his older self had taken good care.

He strode around the corner, he could use the exercise. "Oi," he called out, instantly catching all of the Fishmen's attention, "anyone up for a spar?"

At unison, the enemy pounced.

Zoro smirked.

Luffy was still annoyed.

Well, that was misleading. He was begrudgingly over Zoro losing to the guy in the stupid hat but now he was annoyed by the island they had docked at.

They had left Zoro on the boat the Baratie cooks had given them with Johnny and Yosaku and had gone to explore. They had instantly found a destroyed village with seemingly no one around but a couple of weird guy with different colour skins and sizes. Who he had promptly beaten up when they had tried to attack them. They had said Arlong would kill them before they completely lost consciousness.

Then they got back to the boat to find Johnny and Yosaku beaten up and Zoro gone. Apparently more of those weird guys fromt the village had came and taken him away to Arlong Park.

There was that name again. Arlong. Whoever this Arlong guy was, Luffy was going to beat the crap outta him.

For Nami and Zoro.

That was another thing. Nami had left without saying a word to anyone other than Zoro and taken the Merry.

Honestly it was almost like she thought he would lose. And that was just silly. He'd decided as soon as he had seen the destroyed village what he would do, maybe even before that. Whoever this Arlong was, Luffy wasn't going to let this go.

He was going to find Nami and get her permission to kick the guy's face in.

Because there was no way Nami would leave without telling him if the reason was one that Luffy could agree with. Whatever the reason was, it was a bad one. This Arlong guy had forced Nami, directly or indirectly, to leave without saying goodbye. If Zoro hadn't somehow figured out she was going here then Luffy wouldn't know where to go. Arlong would've taken Nami away from them forever without even a goodbye note.

And that was not okay.

Luffy cracked his knuckles at the thought. He could currently count his entire crew on one hand.

And he'd fight the world for each and every one of them.

He heard Usopp mutter beside him. "Looks like we got company."

Luffy looked up sharply, ready to kick more ass. His body relaxed a bit when he saw a woman with blue hair blocking the dirt trail. Her face was marred with an ugly scowl as she took in the ragtag group. "What are you here for?" The woman challenged them as they drew closer, her eyes drifting to the tallest of their small group: Sanji. Obviously assuming him to be in charge.

Luffy took a step ahead of Usopp and Sanji, noticing the small spark of shock in her eyes. "We're for Nami."

"Why? She steal from you or something?" The woman's tone was light but the tenseness in her eyes was anything but.

"None of your business," Luffy replied, "either tell me where she is or move out of the way."

The woman laughed. "Or what, you going to hit me pipsqueak?" Luffy could practically hear Sanji tense at the idea of this woman being struck, "I doubt you'd make a dent in me," she mocked.

Luffy had grown up with mountain bandits that had pretended to be pillagers and murderers, he knew false bravado when the saw it. "Move," he commanded.

He could see the hesitation in her face, the automatic desire to obey the power in the order. After a moment of fidgeting, the woman stood strong. "I won't let you hurt her."

Luffy felt a smile tugging at his lips at the absurdity of the idea and knew he would've laughed in a more lighthearted situation. "I'm not here to hurt Nami. Just to bring her back."

The slap came out of nowhere, knocking his head to the side and making his cheek sting. He heard Usopp gasp. "She isn't an object," the woman spat with fury, "you can't just take a person."

Luffy took the woman's still raised trembling hand and gently brought it down to her side. "No," he agreed, "you can't. That's why I'm here."

For once real confusion blooms in the woman's eyes. "What do you mean?"

The rubber teen moved around her and set off at a stride. "Usopp, Sanji," he called over his shoulder as he walked, "you guys can hang back and explain if you want. I'm going to find Nami."

And that was it really. He didn't have time to stand around talking. He had to beat up that damned Fishman. But before that, he had another objective.

Making sure his navigator was okay.

Zoro sheathed his sword, took a cursory glance around to make sure that was the last of them, and collapsed with relief into a nearby deckchair. Sweat rolled down his face in rivets and his limbs felt lethargic. He gingerly placed a hand on his chest, ignoring the sharp jolt of pain the motion accompanied, to feel for blood.

He was safe. The stitches had held.

The swordsman forced himself to his feet, otherwise he'd just fall asleep from exhaustion. That fight had taken a lot out of him, far more then he would have liked. It had gone well at first, mowing through the generic enemies in his path. But then he had grown tired, barely blocking incoming strikes and not putting enough force into his own slashes.

As hard as it was to swallow, he was weak. He had just woken up his body far earlier than recommended. And he was paying the price. Zoro took one glance around the bloody courtyard, at least he hadn't lost. And hopefully that had followed the promise he had made to that Nami girl.

The swordsman knelt down and grabbed two low quality sabers from the recent battlefield. He sheathed them at his side and felt a grin form on his face. He felt complete again with the weight of three blades at his side.

He set off with a stride down the same pathway Nami had gone down. Momentarily pausing when the came to a crossroads. He quickly chose a direction and set off down one of the paths. It didn't matter which he picked, all paths lead to the sea eventually. Right?

A few crossroads later, he came across a group of people. A long-nosed teen in overalls, a girl with blue hair and a blond man in a suit. His ears prickled when he picked up they were discussing.

Nami.

He strode over. Maybe this was Luffy's group? Then the question arose which was Luffy? The girl was out for being, well, female. Luffy was a boys name after all. And the long-nosed guy was too meek looking.

With a sigh, Zoro revealed his presence. The blond and long-nose exclaimed his name in relief, joy evident in their faces.

"Luffy," he said gravely, looking at the well dressed man, "I'm leaving the crew."

.