Disclaimer almost everything belongs to Eiichiro Oda that genius of a man, there's also a poll on my profile so vote for that!
He groans and opens his eyes to look around, he notices that he was once again on Kuraigana Island. He lays there for a few moments before forcing himself to stand up, he sees Mihawk's castle and starts to make his way there, he arrived at the castle to see it empty sighing he finds a nice spot and sits down closing his eyes hoping to get some sleep. He's awakened a few moments later by a girl screaming at him, he opens his eye to see that it was Perona,
"What do you want?"
She scoffs at him,
"This is my place what are you doing here?!"
He groans and stands up,
"Kuma sent me here with that ability of his."
Perona proceeds to yell at him more but he tunes her out and walks around the castle a bit, finally finding a bed he gets into it still soaked with blood and sleeps. He is awakened a few moments later when he feels something touching him, he opens his eyes to see Perona putting bandages on him. He quirks an eyebrow and looks at her, she grows flustered and turns away,
"You saved me from Kuma on Thriller Bark so I'm just repaying the favor! It's not like I like you or anything!"
Zoro chuckles at this,
"Thanks. Though how did you get away from Kuma?"
She grumbles a bit,
"After I saw what happened to you I decided against fighting him and found a ship inside Thriller Bark took that and sailed away, I ended up on this island and I liked it so I stayed."
He chuckles at this,
"You do know that this is Dracule Mihawks island right?"
She freezes before staring at him in disbelief,
"What?! Ahhh I have to get off this island!"
He chuckles at this and she turns and glares at him,
"What are you laughing at?!"
He waves her off and grins,
"Mihawk won't just kill you just because you're on his island."
She breathes a sigh of relief,
"You better not be lying to me."
Once she applied bandages to his body he stands up and heads towards the entrance of the castle,
"Where are you going?"
He opens that door and steps out,
"Training."
She chases after him,
"Training?! You're practically bleeding to death right now and you want to train?!"
He chuckles,
"Yea."
She groans at him and he continues on his way looking for the humandrills, Perona complains while floating behind him the entire way. He finally comes upon the humandrills they were all clumped together in a small encampment, it was uncanny how similar to humans they were. Zoro walks towards them,
"Perona you should stay back, this is gonna get a bit hectic."
Perona complies staying a few meters back from where he was, Zoro dashes forward and stabs one humandrill through the chest causing it to fall over screaming in pain. Zoro removes his blade with a dangerous glint in his eye,
"Who's next?"
~Three Days Later~
Mihawk gets off his boat and hops onto the island, he sighs a bit as he walks towards his castle. Whitebeard along with Portgas D. Ace are dead now and he had participated in the battle that had lead to this, it was his duty as a Shichibukai but he did not enjoy it. The older generation was slowly falling apart especially now with Whitebeards death, though the thing that was bothering him the most was the arrival of the Blackbeard Pirates and the prisoners of Impel Down. Blackbeard was sure to stir up a storm in the years to come and he was not looking forward to the headache that he would bring, he is shaken from his thoughts when he looks forward to see the cut up bodies of multiple humandrills. He quirks his eyebrow and starts to pay more attention to his surroundings, hoping to see if he could find the assailant using his Observation Haki. He doesn't find anyone, he proceeds to shrug his shoulders and continues towards his castle, upon entering his castle he notices a blood trail by starting from the door. Narrowing his eyes he follows the blood trail for a few moments before ultimately being lead to one of the rooms in the castle, he opens the door to see Zoro and a pink-haired girl arguing while she was applying bandages to his body,
"What are you guys doing on my island?"
Perona tenses up and jumps back in fear, while Zoro grins at him,
"Hey there Mihawk."
Mihawk crosses his arms obviously not amused,
"You have still yet to answer my question."
Zoro chuckles,
"Kuma sent me here with that pesky ability of his."
Mihawk quirks an eyebrow,
"Bartholomew Kuma?"
He would continue if Perona didn't choose to speak up in that moment,
"Don't ignore me!"
They both ignore her,
"Yea, you should have known about the whole Tenryuubito fiasco at the Sabaody Archipelago."
Mihawk sighs,
"Are you going to stay here for long?"
Zoro waves him off,
"Maybe, maybe not. Who knows."
Mihawk sighs and rubs his forehead walking away,
"Just don't destroy anything."
Zoro chuckles at him,
"No promises."
He continues to chuckle until he yelps in pain, turning towards Perona who had tightened his bandages to an uncomfortable degree.
"What was that for?!"
She huffs,
"That was for ignoring me!"
He sighs at her and stands up, going to find Mihawk, he finally finds him after a few moments of searching.
"Do you have a boat that I can borrow when the time for me to leave comes?"
Mihawk thinks for a moment,
"I do believe that there is a small rowboat somewhere on the island. Though I must ask how long do you plan to stay swordsman?"
Zoro thinks for a moment,
"Probably 2-3 months."
Mihawk nods,
"What are you going to be doing during those months?"
Zoro grins at him,
"Train my ass off."
Mihawk nods at him and returns to his wine but Zoro continues,
"Though I would request a duel with you, I need to measure my current strength and know how far I still have to go."
Mihawk sighs,
"Then lets get this over with."
They both exit the castle and stand across from each other with their blades out, Perona was floating to the side with a pout on her face obviously from being ignored.
"Come at with my your full strength or you'll die."
Zoro grins at him,
"Would never dream of it."
They stand silently across from each other for a few moments before Zoro charges forward,
"Jinsoku!"
Zoro's speed increased tenfold but it wasn't enough to catch Mihawk by surprise, he blocks Zoro's attack but doesn't counter-attack yet. Zoro relentlessly attacks Mihawk hoping to scratch him at least but he was making no progress, growing slightly frustrated he jumps back,
"Tamashi no Fujikome!"
Mihawk watches as Zoro's appearance and attire change, he quirks an eyebrow at this,
"How is changing your look suppose to help you?"
Zoro grins at him,
"Just wait and see."
He charges once again this time even faster, they lock blades but to Mihawk's surprise Zoro was slowly overpowering him. He puts a bit more effort into it only to find Zoro had disengaged and disappeared, looking around he turns to the right to see Zoro closing in on him.
"Ashura Hakai!"
Mihawk blocks the strike with Yoru but was just a bit slow, this leads to a small gash on his neck and forearm. Mihawk smiles at this and decides that he should stop playing around, he takes the offense this time with Yoru raised high above his head he brings it down on Zoro. Zoro blocks the strike with all of his blades but Mihawk had put more strength into the strike than he had expected causing one of his arms to give in a bit leading to a rather deep cut on his shoulder, Zoro jumps back and grips his shoulder before grinning madly at Mihawk,
"We should end this soon, my body still hasn't completely recovered so I'm slowly reaching my limit."
Mihawk nods at him and readies for a final strike, Zoro closes his eyes and concentrates,
"Kiki Kyutoryu: Ashura!"
Mihawk watches in fascination as Zoro grew two more heads and four more arms, he grins wildly at Zoro,
"That is a fascinating ability you have there, but it still will not be enough to defeat me."
Zoro stares at Mihawk with a crazed look in his eye,
"We'll have to see about that, Ashura Hakai: Ajimasuburesu!"
"Yoru Dasshu!"
The two stand silently after the attack with Perona floating anxiously to the side waiting to see who would fall, Zoro sheathes his blades and collapses backwards with yet another large slash on his chest this time not as deep. Mihawk looks at Zoro clearly impressed as he touches the nine cuts around his body,
"Impressive, but you still have a ways to go, get some rest and train to become more powerful my friend."
Mihawk walks away leaving a panting Zoro on the ground and a fuming Perona to the side, she floats over to him with bandages at the ready,
"Stupid swordsman, you're still injured why would you fight him?!"
Zoro chuckles at her but yelps in pain when she once again tightens his bandages to an uncomfortable degree,
"I have to know how much further I must go to finally achieve my goal."
She huffs but silently applies the bandages onto his body, once done she dusts herself off and heads towards the castle. She doesn't see Zoro following her and turns around,
"Are you coming or not?"
Zoro chuckles embarrassingly,
"Yea, well I'm in a bit of a situation here. My body kind of gave up so I can't move a muscle here."
Perona groans in annoyance before floating over to him she mutters under her breath,
"Insufferable swordsman."
But Zoro hears her,
"If I'm so insufferable then why are you helping me?"
She scoffs and turns away grabbing one of his arms and putting it over her shoulder as she floated over to the castle, Zoro looks up at the sky and sighs,
"I still have a long way to go."
~A Month Later~
Zoro stumbles back into the castle covered yet again in injuries, Perona notices this and floats over,
"What the hell happened to you this time?"
He grunts and collapses onto the couch already asleep, Perona sighs at this and floats away looking for the bandages. This has been how Zoro had spent the last month, training all day then coming back and collapsing onto the couch. Perona was getting annoyed but the idiot wouldn't change he would just continue to do this until he would leave, she sighs grabbing the bandages and floats back to the couch. To her surprise Zoro was awake and sipping some tea,
"Oy why are you awake idiot?!"
Zoro looks up at her confused for a moment before smiling,
"I'm not the boss, he's still asleep. I'm just using his body since I've been bored recently."
Perona pauses and looks at him oddly before throwing the bandages at him,
"Stop messing around idiot!"
Zoro pouts at her,
"But I'm not! I'm Decimation not the boss man."
She narrows her eyes at him,
"Well then Decimation how are you possessing his body?"
Decimation smiles at her,
"The boss man always merges with me, this time he forgot to separate after he finished training. Passed out before he could do that so that leaves me in his body."
She sighs,
"I don't know why I bother dealing with this."
Decimation grins at her and puts the cup down, he stands up and starts running around the castle. Perona chases after him very annoyed,
"Stop! I haven't even replaced the old bandages!"
Decimation continues to laugh and run away from her, he finally comes across Mihawks room and barges in. Mihawk turns towards him and sees a bloody and grinning Zoro, he quirks an eyebrow at this,
"What are you doing here?"
Decimation runs up to Mihawk then proceeds to run circles around him,
"I have control over the boss mans body for a few hours!"
Mihawk looks at him quizzically and sighs,
"Don't destroy anything."
Decimation grinds to a halt before nodding rapidly at him and running off once again, next Perona runs into the room clearly exhausted,
"Where did he go?"
Mihawk shrugs his shoulders returning to his wine, Perona huffs in annoyance at this and continues on her way. While running she looks out the window to see Zoro outside, grumbling she chases him outside hoping to stop him from getting any further. She chases him all the way to a cliff on the other side of the island, panting in exhaustion she stops and glares at Decimation who was calmly sitting at the edge of the cliff staring out. She was about to say something but Decimation beats her to the punch,
"The boss man is sad."
She pauses after hearing this, looking at him oddly she asks,
"Why is he sad?"
Decimation turns around and smiles at her sadly,
"The moment he hopes to change is getting closer and closer, but he hasn't done much. He hates himself for what happened then and now that he's back here he hasn't changed it enough, it's going to end up the same way and that scares him."
She narrows her eyes at him,
"What do you mean?"
But Decimation was already gone, Zoro has returned and he groans looking at her,
"Why am I here? I thought I got back to the castle."
Perona takes a moment to decide what to do, deciding to not tell Zoro what she just learned she puts on a face of annoyance.
"You didn't! I had to come all the way out here to find you, idiot!"
He grumbles at her straining himself to stand up,
"Yea yea, lets just head back."
He walks past her and she stares at him curious about what Decimation said, Zoro pauses and looks back at her.
"Are you coming or what!"
She shakes her head filing the information for another time,
"I'm coming alright!"
They both quietly head back to the castle, once they reach it Zoro once again collapses onto the couch this time not instantly falling asleep. She takes out the bandages but looks at his right arm,
"Is that a burn? How did that happen?"
He pops one eye open and looks at her,
"Less questions you ask the better."
She huffs at him but stays silent as she applies the bandages onto his body, once done she spins around and leaves Zoro alone. Zoro sighs as he lays there alone with his thoughts,
"You are still nowhere near powerful enough to take on Akainu much less the Marines as a whole, if you don't get your act together you're going to have to relive that experience."
Zoro growls at him,
"You think I don't know that! I'm trying and trying but I don't see anyway I can just instantly increased my strength to the point where I could take on an entire army!"
Volron scoffs at him,
"Pathetic."
He snarls at Volron,
"Shut the hell up, I beat you last time! You don't have the right to speak right now!"
Volron grumbles at this but stays silent,
"There is always a way to become stronger, you must simply go forth and search for it."
Zoro sighs,
"Well I'm not going to leave until it's another two months here so I can't become stronger yet."
They are all silent, Zoro sits up expecting a response from them,
"Hey, nothing?"
Volron shushes him,
"Quiet mortal, we sense something."
Hearing this Zoro gets up with his hand on the hilts of his blade, he slowly walks towards the door keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. He opens the door and peeks out seeing nothing, he sighs and moves to close the door but a voice rings through his head.
"Behind you!"
Diving to the side Zoro unsheathes his blade and looks for his opponent but he sees nothing, narrowing his eyes but still on edge he speaks,
"What was behind me?"
He doesn't get a response but he senses something charging at him, still unsure of what he was up against he rolls out of the way instead of trying to block it. This time he sees something a black-furred dog with flames on it's body, it's body seemed to be connected to it's shadow on the ground. The dog growls at him before diving into the ground surprising him,
"What the hell was that?"
"That was a hellhound."
He pauses for a moment activating his Observation Haki to search for the beast,
"Don't bother, once it's within the ground with the level of your Observation Haki you would never find it."
Zoro grumbles at this but stays on edge relying on his senses to tell him when the beast would strike, standing stock still Zoro waits until the beast jumps out of a shadow on the wall it's jaw ready to tear into Zoro. Thankfully Zoro sensed this he strikes the beast with his blades but to his surprise even though he had pierced straight through the beast it was still moving, jumping back he studies the beast before it disappears once again.
"Use the Soul-Devouring Flames, most of these beast are already dead so pain means nothing to them. Target the beasts core, it's the link that keeps them, well I shouldn't say alive but you know what I mean."
Zoro nods at this and coats his blade in flames waiting for the beast to attack him once again, this time the beast appears from his own shadow. Zoro brings his blade up to block the creatures strike, he could feel just how powerful it was as it slowly pushed Zoro back. Having enough of this Zoro disengages and counter-attacks,
"Ashura Hakai!"
This time since it was coated in the Soul-Devouring Flames the beast howls in pain before collapsing his wind slightly on fire, he studies the beasts fallen body as Perona races down towards him and Mihawk slowly walks forward.
"What is that?!"
Zoro sheathes his blades before answering,
"This is a hellhound."
Mihawk narrows his eyes,
"What is such a creature doing here?"
Zoro quirks an eyebrow at Mihawk's nonchalant attitude but shrugs his shoulders,
"No idea."
He walks over to the couch and lays down waiting for an answer from Ashura,
"It seems yet another demon is hunting you."
Zoro groans at this,
"Which one is it this time?"
Ashura thinks for a moment,
"Maybe Satan."
Zoro pauses for a moment,
"You're joking."
"I'm not Satan is usually the only demon to send in hellhounds to do his bidding."
Zoro groans at this,
"What does he want with me?"
"Who knows, but you'll have to deal with him eventually. I'm going to say dealing with Satan is nothing like your fight with Leviathan, Satan is a not a beast that attacks blindly but a sentient being that can be reasoned with. Though always think before you agree to anything and don't piss him off as hard as that is, he's a crafty demon that embodies the Sin of Wrath."
Zoro grumbles in annoyance and closes his eyes hoping to get some sleep.
~Yet Another Month Later~
Zoro groans as he laid on the floor staring up at the sky, he had trained himself to the point of exhaustion once again and it was showing as he could barely move his body. He was stuck here for now until he would be able to move his body properly again, sighing he closes his eyes to get some rest in the mean time. He would be able to do this until he hears movement to his right, straining himself to sit up he looks to the side looking for the source of the sound. He narrows his eyes when he sees the figure of a person slowly approach his location,
"Who is it?"
The figure freezes before popping out of the treeline,
"It's me you idiot!"
Zoro sighs when he sees that it was Perona,
"What are you doing here?"
She huffs at him,
"I'm coming to check on you!"
He sighs and lays back down on the ground,
"I'm fine, you don't need to be here."
She growls at him,
"Fine then!"
She storms off leaving him alone on the ground, he closes his eyes and returns to his sleep for a bit longer. That is until he hears a bush rustling on his right, not even opening his eyes he speaks,
"I said I'm fine Perona, just leave me alone."
He doesn't receive a response so he opens his eyes and looks in the direction of the sound,
"Perona?"
Instead of her appearing from the bushes something else emerges, at this he jumps up hands on his blades ready to attack what would emerge. To his surprise what emerge was another hellhound, the difference this time was that the hellhound which appeared this time was much larger than the last one he faced. It was about as tall has he was and it's fur was pitch black with hints of red, it growled menacingly at Zoro who unsheathed all three of his blades ready to defend against any strike the beast would take. To his surprise the beast didn't strike him, it spoke to him,
"Demon Wind Zoro."
Zoro pauses for a moment to register the fact and another moment to try figure out if he was dreaming or delusional,
"I am not an illusion mortal!"
Zoro narrows his eyes at it,
"Who are you and what do you want with me?"
The beast growled at him,
"I am a messenger of my lord Satan, the fourth son of the Alran clan!"
Zoro takes a step back still staring intently at the beast,
"What do you want with me then?"
The beast growls at him and stalks closer,
"My master wishes to have me monitor your abilities, he has heard of your battle with Leviathan and is curious of what could have gone against it and survived."
Zoro narrows his eyes at it,
"You've seen me now get out of here."
The beast slowly disappears back into the shadows,
"This is not over human, my master will deal with you in due time."
Zoro sighs as he lets his guard down to relax a bit, slightly uncertain about the events that had just transpired.
"Forget that for now, the day is still young get back to training!"
Zoro sighs at him and gets back to his training even though his body was aching for him to stop, he sheathes his three blades and brings out Decimation for the next part of his training.
"You better get stronger soon or Satan wold steamroll you completely."
Zoro ignores Volron as he concentrated on coating the entire blade in Haki and the Soul-Devouring Flames, once coated he surges forward practicing his swing with the now coated blade hoping to work on controlling the output of the flames.
"You still have a long way to go."
Zoro growls at him,
"I know."
He brings the blade up aiming out towards the ocean,
"Kaitai Ryusei!"
The fireball barreled outward onto the ocean, Zoro watches as the fireball keeps on going until it finally dissipates about fifty meters from where he was. He narrows his eyes at it before concentrating to try again,
"Saiko no Kaitai Ryusei!"
This time the fireball come out as more of a comet, barreling forward much faster and burning much hotter. Zoro smiles as it streaks across the ocean quickly disappearing from his sight, he looks at Decimation and grins,
"Now that's what I'm talking about!"
Volron scoffs at him,
"Getting excited over something as small as this? You truly are pathetic."
Zoro chuckles at him,
"Is calling me pathetic the only insult you have?"
Volron growls but doesn't answer, Zoro takes this and turns back around to enter the forest.
"How bout teaching me that Genshi Shokku thing?"
Ashura answers this time,
"To be able to do that you must discard your humanity and become a demon, as a human you do not posses the ability to do such a thing."
Zoro sighs at this,
"Don't want to discard my humanity yet."
Ashura chuckles,
"Then you won't be able to do that yet, though you can slowly progress and as you embrace more of the demon blood. Ultimately it would reach the same result with less chance of death but it would simply take longer."
Zoro sighs,
"Then no matter what I do, the moment I accepted the demon blood I couldn't do anything against becoming a demon."
Decimation chuckles at him,
"Yep!"
Sighing Zoro makes his way back to the castle grinning to himself.
~The Day of His Departure~
Zoro opens his eyes to see Perona standing over him with a frown on her face,
"You're leaving today or something right? Why are you still sleeping on the floor idiot?!"
He groans at her,
"I'm not leaving right now, so let me sleep the remainder of the time I have left."
She huffs at him but leaves him alone as he returns to his sleep, this was the day that he was suppose to set off. Where he was suppose to go he had no idea but staying on the island was not an option, he sighed as he remembered the encounter with the gigantic hellhound that happened about a month ago. Satan was keeping an eye on him that wasn't boding well with him, but he didn't have to think for much longer as once again another hellhound appeared. It growled at him,
"Demon Wind Zoro."
He quirks an eyebrow at it,
"What do you want?"
It growls at him clearly annoyed,
"My master wishes to speak to you."
Zoro narrows his eyes at it,
"Then tell him to come and find me then."
"My master does not go to those he wishes to speak to, they come to him."
Zoro scoffs at him,
"Well then you can can tell him to piss off."
It growls angrily at him,
"Do not test me human, my master is not a patient man. If you waste his time he will kill you right where you stand, that is if I don't kill you now!"
It lunges at Zoro intent on striking him down, Zoro saw this coming and dodges the strike and jumps back taking Decimation out.
"Ashura Hakai!"
It dodges Zoro's strike and glares at him,
"You belong to that cursed god Ashura?! I will deliver your head to my master!"
It charges at him once again though this time Zoro doesn't dodge he takes his blade and shoots forward to meet it head on,
"Kami no Hono Tatsumaki!"
The attack hits the creature dead on tearing into it's side, it screams in pain and jumps back hoping to put some distance between them, but Zoro already rushed forward and had his blade against's it's eye with a menacing grin on his face.
"Go and tell your boss that if he wants to talk to me and won't find me himself than he can piss the fuck off!"
It growled at him but a glare from Zoro caused it to back off in fear and disappear into the shadows, sighing Zoro dissipates Decimation and heads towards the coast. Once he reaches there he sits in silence for a few minutes before standing up and getting onto the boat, he turns around not seeing anyone sighing he gets the boat ready to sail. But a voice calls out to him,
"Zoro!"
He pauses and turns around towards the voice to see Mihawk,
"Yea?"
Mihawk grins at him,
"The next time we meet be strong enough to defeat me!"
Zoro grins at him,
"You better not get weaker on me old man!"
Mihawk shakes his head in amusement before turning back towards the castle, Perona floats over to the coast,
"Hey, what about me?!"
He doesn't hear her leaving her pouting on the island with Mihawk before turning around and following him back to the castle, Zoro stares off onto the ocean with a grin on his face.
"Time to raise some hell!"
That's a wrap this chapter was a bit harder to figure out for me, I had to balance a new idea without making it seem contrived but also not too boring. It was a bit repetitive to have a hellhound attack him every month but I believe that it should be alright, I apologize if the newer chapters seem a bit off. This has been taking up a lot of my time so I haven't been able to play video games or watch anime as much as I used to, so I've been watching anime while writing this so my attention is kind of split between the two making the content of the chapters might be a bit poor compared to usual. Along with that this chapter was released a bit later than usual because I've been kind of sick this week and I was practically bedridden the entire time which really suck. Once again if you're reading this and like it thanks for reading.
