"C'mon, you said you'd train me!" Zoro growls.
"I specifically said training would begin once you were recovered," Mihawk responds primly. Mihawk, as Zoro has discovered, is a lil' bitch.
"It's been two weeks. I'm recovered."
And he is, mostly. Well okay, a normal person would still probably be pretty beat up, but Zoro's fine. He's fought on much worse than this. Yeah, the wounds under his hamarki are refusing to close all the way because they ran out of anything resembling sanitary stitches the third time Perona caught him exercising without permission and they popped out, but it's, y'know, fine. It's not like it's still an open wound or anything, and his meditation techniques are pretty handy with stuff like this.
"I cannot train someone who only brings me youth, arrogance, and pride. A fully functioning body is required."
Zoro glares at Mihawk over the dining table. Hawk Eyes says nothing, just shakes the newspaper out once.
Zoro tries not to look at it with too much curiosity.
As expected, there hasn't been any word from any of his nakama. He's even started hoarding papers to try and look for clues or communications or something, since that seems like the type of thing Nami or Usopp or Robin would do. So far, nothing from the Straw Hats, but he has noticed that one couple seems to be using the classifieds to have an emotional affair from afar.
Zoro's kind of surprised he figured that out, to be honest.
He's been bored, okay?
In some ways, no news is good news. It means they're safe, because it would surely make the news if anyone turned up dead. It would be a point to the Marines, publicity-wise. Between the increase in violent piracy since Whitebeard's death and Sengoku's resignation as Fleet Admiral, public opinion of the Navy is low. Aokiji and Akainu are in a pissing match over leadership, and the smaller Marine bases are all overwhelmed.
Zoro doesn't really have an opinion on who should get the job either way. If he had to pick, it would be the ice guy. He doesn't seem as douchey as most Marines. He could have killed Lucy and Robin back on Long Ring, but he didn't.
Aokiji should have been a wake-up call, in hindsight.
"I need to train," he insists.
"Stop reinjuring yourself, and perhaps you'll be able to do so."
Zoro stabs his steak angrily. It makes him think of Lucy, stuffing her face while Sanji frantically refilled her plate until Nami put her foot down. "At least teach me something," He grouses. His temper has been higher than usual lately. Given the complete lack of exercise, a slight inability to sleep, and the prickly company, he can kind of guess why.
And, well. He misses Lucy. It's like that feeling people get when they try to take one stair too many and end up off-balance. There's supposed to be a stair. There's supposed to be a Lucy.
There isn't.
"Patience, perhaps."
Zoro just growls lowly to himself.
He's learned Mihawk does not often lose arguments. The closest he gets is changing his mind halfway through. He has a sharp tongue, and he's stubborn.
Perona is hovering above her chair on his right. Zoro's not exactly sure how the eating thing works when her body is technically asleep in another room, but he's not about to ask.
The ghost girl turns one beady eye on him, eyebrow raised, and asks shrilly, "What has you so determined to get training, anyway?"
Lucy, laughing on the lawn deck as the wind tangles her hair.
Lucy, screaming in horror, begging them to run, calling his name as Kuma's paw—
"None of your business," he snaps, like he always does when Perona asks a question he finds too personal. She's been more persistent about it recently than he would have expected.
"I would like to know as well, actually," Mihawk interjects smoothly, the yellow eyes locking on Zoro over the rim of the paper.
Zoro glowers at him. "Why does it matter? I want to train."
Mihawk stares for another moment. Zoro glares him down.
Instead he looks down at the paper again, apparently bored. "You said you had a deadline. You should heal before you begin training, to reduce the risk of injury later. Such compounded wounds would limit the effectiveness of any teachings I could offer, and you would run the risk of learning it all incorrectly. Thusly, you would waste the next two years." The paper rustles as Mihawk turns the page. Zoro catches a picture of Garp, under a headline announcing his retirement to the Naval Academy. "Did your previous instructors not teach you about this? Or are you just a poor student?"
"Nah, Sensei mentioned it." Zoro acquiesces. It's not like he'd fool anyone saying otherwise.
Perona chokes a little on her water. "You should be more repentant about that!"
Mihawk does not seem surprised. "I thought it likely. The swordmasters in the northern half of East Blue are known to be both meticulous and traditional in their teachings."
Zoro quirks an eyebrow. "You can tell where I was trained?"
Mihawk looks bored. "You're from East Blue. There are limited options. And while your Santoryu is a discipline unique to yourself, the roots of the style are easy to discern for anyone paying attention. It becomes more obvious the fewer swords you use."
Which, really, only made sense. Zoro grew up in a dojo. He bases his moves off of what he sees, and the blades he works with. It's why his repertoire became so much more diverse upon entering the Grand Line. Masters from all over the world travel here, and Zoro has drawn his newer moves from their inspiration. When he first fought Mihawk he'd never been outside East Blue, so his style was probably as pure as it will ever be.
"Finding its weak points is easy when you know what to look for," Mihawk adds cuttingly.
That grabs Zoro's attention immediately.
"What did you say?" Zoro demands.
"You generally make up for any weaknesses with speed, but that is not always possible—an example being our fight in East Blue." Mihawk sips his wine almost daintily. "There are easy corrections you could make, though, which would overcome such deficiencies."
What, was he trying to see if Zoro would beg? "Like?"
Something other than boredom flickers in Mihawk's eyes, but it's gone far too quickly for Zoro to see. "Oh? Are you willing to learn?"
Zoro frowns at him. "Obviously."
He wouldn't have asked if he didn't want to learn. That would just be stupid.
"…when you aren't weaponizing rotational air currents, randomly varying the speed of your one or more of your blades would be useful as a distraction technique…"
It's only much, much later, when Zoro is just about to fall asleep, that he realizes Mihawk actually started training him over dinner.
Bastard.
Finally.
He pulls the worn newspaper out from under his pillow, and looks at the solemn face of his captain.
I'll get stronger, he promises again. Much, much stronger.
Lucy's face, rendered in black and white, says nothing in response.
A sea of white and ash, magma dripping like blood from the sky. Lucy looks down, panicked, and sees a Vivre Card flutter in the wind.
She needs that card.
No—Don't—!
Light blazes before her, Ace's limbs spread in a protective wall between her and the attacker. Lucy rears back, surprised and terrified but it's fine because Ace is fire now, and no one can touch—
There's a hole in Ace's chest.
No. No, no, no, no no no nonononono!
The hot, molten thing in Lucy's gut releases, demanding Ace's life. The madman who impaled her brother just looks up, unimpressed.
"His blood is impure, just like yours, Lucy."
"Shut up, he's not—"
Ace lifts his eyes, somehow, dark irises burrowing into hers.
"I don't want to die, Lucy."
"So live, Ace, LIVE!"
"Lucy," The magma man's voice intones. "Lucy."
Ace tilts his head unnaturally, heedless of the hole in his chest. "Lucy, wake up."
Wake up? But—
That's not Ace's voice.
Lucy sits up, gasping.
"Easy, easy. It was just a nightmare." A large warm hand rests on her back, holding her in place.
She appreciates it.
"Thanks, Rayleigh," Lucy chokes when her vision clears a bit. Not Marineford. Ruskaina. Ace isn't dying, he's—
Her breath shudders a bit, and she feels her face crack with the effort to keep from sobbing.
"It's okay to let it out," Rayleigh reminds her. He's kneeling in the frosty grass around her makeshift pillow, which gives Lucy a little privacy. "You can always let it out."
Lucy nods, pressing her forehead to her knees, and some tears track down her cheeks as she cries—silently this time. Not the agonized wails she had before.
Most of the time, Lucy is fine. Maybe a bit melancholy here and there, but—fine. Genuinely cheerful, even. Training with Rayleigh is fun, and it's only been a week, but she feels stronger now than before. It's just—seeing it in her dreams, seeing it over and over again as that admiral impales her brother, brings all those emotions into sharp focus.
But she has an island of respite. People to live for, who soothe all those jagged edges in her heart.
She's started a game with herself, where she imagines their reactions to certain things. Like what Nami would do if she saw what Lucy is wearing. Or what Usopp's reaction would be to the big monsters on the island.
Or what Zoro would do if he saw her right now.
First he'd sit next to her, offering physical contact if she wanted it. Maybe rest a hand on her shoulder. Then she'd wrap herself around his chest, and he'd pat her back and tangle his fingers in her hair and awkwardly ask what was wrong. He wouldn't have any idea of what to do with her, none at all, and she'd be comforted more by the fact that he tried than anything.
A few tears slip out at the thought, but she smiles too.
In her head she counts them, pressing her fingers into her legs for every name. Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook. Over and over again, until her breathing slows, and her eyes are dry.
After a few minutes, she's recovered enough to look up at Rayleigh, a large, silent rock beside her. "Sorry I woke you," she tells him.
Rayleigh smiles. "Not at all." He tilts his head and his glasses flash in the embers of the fire pit. "You called on your Conqueror's Haki in your sleep. We'll start training it a bit sooner than expected." He gives Lucy's shoulder a squeeze, then stands and walks over to his side of the fire pit. "Try going back to bed. We still have a few hours before dawn."
Lucy doesn't feel the least bit tired. "I'm okay."
"You'll be tired tomorrow if you don't sleep now."
Lucy knows Rayleigh is correct about that, but she needs a minute before sleeping again. "I gotta pee," she informs Rayleigh, who chuckles and doesn't even watch where she goes as she heads for the tree line.
Rayleigh is good at not coddling her, which she supposes is impressive considering the trauma.
Outside the glow of the firelight, the jungle of Ruskaina is dark and silent. It's cold today, a frost somewhere between the typical weather of her own home in Foosha, and the chill of Drum Island. There's no snow, but every blade of grass and leaf has a fine dusting of ice. Sanji would serve her and Robin and Nami hot chocolate and bicker with Zoro while Chopper insisted everyone wear winter coats to avoid illness.
She feels warm inside, thinking of them. Lucy wipes the remaining tears from her eyes, and smiles. Her nakama are amazing. Truly. She's always known that—she begged them all to come because she noticed—but they even have the ability to cheer her up from a distance. They're the best.
Lucy likes Ruskaina. It's an amazing place, and it changes so much it's like a new adventure every day. Rayleigh is a good teacher, and seems to understand just how badly she wants to get stronger. It's only been a couple of weeks, but so far he's lived up to the promise he made on the ship. The separation's going to be worth it in the end.
If only she could get rid of the nightmares, this place would be great.
They haven't happened every night. Just most nights. This is the first time she's used Haki in her sleep though. Does that mean they're getting better or worse?
It's hard, sometimes, to wake up and not feel sad. She misses Ace. Misses him desperately. She wants Ace to be sailing with Whitebeard and Marco and having adventures, just like she is. She's sad because of what he said at the end, how he could have had a whole life ahead of him to feel that love.
But she's proud, too. Proud that Ace lived the way they always said they would—with abandon, without regret, pursuing their dreams.
She has to do the same.
She gets to do the same.
After a few minutes, Lucy walks back to the campsite. Rayleigh is asleep under his cloak, or at least pretending to be. Lucy crawls under her blankets and revels in the leftover warmth.
Greif, Lucy's found, comes in waves. Sometimes it's sharp and overwhelming, other times bitter, and often not quite present at all. But it's soothed with life, and with present joys. That's why she can laugh with Rayleigh and smile at the thought of her friends, scattered as they are across the globe. Today her life holds promise and adventure, and it will tomorrow, and the day after that, and the one after that. In two years, she'll gather her friends to her side again and they'll set sail for new seas and new adventures ahead.
Lucy drops off to sleep to thoughts of laughter, comradery, and joy, and dreams of—
Nothing. Nothing at all.
When Zoro is finally recovered enough to train, he trains like he never has before, so hard his nakama would probably intervene if they saw him.
The thought doesn't make him stop, doesn't even make him hesitate. It just fuels his drive.
Before, he trained for satisfaction, for duty, for growth. He trained with a purpose, with the knowledge that his goals would only ever be achieved if he pushed himself to get there. He trained eagerly, vigorously, thoroughly, never neglecting a single aspect of his swordsmanship or growth. He was careful, and his progress was obvious as time went on.
Now he trains for all those things, and much, much more.
Every slash of his katana is in his mind's eye an attempt to cut Kuma down on Thriller Bark, to amputate Kizaru's leg. He imagines Lucy's limp body beneath Kuma's hands and launches his attacks to match. When he fails or messes up, he hears his nakama's screams in his head, and feels their absence keenly. In his mind's eye, Kuma doesn't push Lucy's pain from her body, but life itself.
It is a desperate, fury-fueled way to train. His nakama would worry. Even the cook.
Mihawk sees it from the first morning he trains him. He doesn't even bat an eyelid, seems unsurprised, and says nothing.
Zoro would have told him to piss off if he tried to reign him in. He would have told his nakama the same, but they aren't here to hear or scold.
It's his fault if it's anybody's.
Zoro trains and trains as the fight rages on and on and on inside him.
Rayleigh ducks easily under her fist, and comes up connecting his Haki-covered knuckles to the underside of her jaw.
"Ack!"
Lucy flies up and back, lifted by her chin, straight into one of the strange, poisonous tree trunks, cratering it. She pushes herself up and out as quickly as possible, but Rayleigh is already there just when she's about to fall to touch the earth.
"Too slow!" He chides cheerfully, and sends another fist towards her face.
Lucy ducks left and—
Her head smashes back into the tree, rocked by Haki.
Lucy ducks right, rolling out of the way, and—
Rayleigh's left knee comes up, catching her in the sternum.
But there's nowhere to go, so Lucy tries to gather Armament Haki across her chest, fails, and is thrown feet first into the branches of the tree by the force of Rayleigh's kick.
"You used Observation Haki that time! Splendid!" The old man calls from the ground. Lucy scrabbles for the opening in the branches which will allow her to fall—err, jump, back to earth.
Lucy falls, and kind of lands on her feet. She looks up at all three Rayleighs with a vaguely concussed smile. "Think so!" She frowns, though, a little confused. "I didn't really mean to though. Just sorta…" she makes a swishing gesture with her hand. "happened."
Rayleigh crouches a little so he can look her in the eye. "That's the idea, in a way. We want you using it both consciously and unconsciously. For now, we're still trying to force your senses open. We'll work on control later." Rayleigh hums, dissatisfied. "I think you have a concussion. Does your head hurt?"
Lucy starts to nod, and then starts to fall over.
"Well, lunch then. We'll let your Devil Fruit's healing work on you a bit before trying anything else. We have been sparring all morning."
Lucy brightens at the mention of food, and Rayleigh grins a bit. His massive hand settles on her shoulder and guides her to the little campfire in the center of the clearing.
It's not the safe zone. That's on the other side of the island. Lucy suspects he caught her looking at the big white tree one too many times when missing her friends. Lucy knows they're getting stronger too, and that makes her selfish decision to postpone their meeting alright. It doesn't mean she doesn't want to see them though, or that she doesn't wish they were here.
Rayleigh guides her to the campfire, and tosses one of the fillets on the fire. They caught a big tiger yesterday, and it had more than enough meat to feed her for a week.
(If the tiger reminded her of hunting with Ace and Sabo in the jungle, well, she didn't mention it to Rayleigh. Some of the grief-memories have begun to feel happy again, the way they did with Sabo.)
"No painkillers, I'm afraid," Rayleigh tells her genially. "Pirates only use such things in dire straits." A pause. "Also, I don't have them anyway."
Lucy grins, and focuses on chewing. Was it always so hard before? Down, up, down, up, down…
Rayleigh tilts his head to the side. Lucy knows him well enough now to know he's using Observation Haki to map out the island's predators. He's probably deciding on where to put the campsite tonight. Lucy puts half an effort towards sensing…anything, and finds it more difficult than usual.
Rayleigh is, unquestionably, the weirdest adult Lucy has ever met. And that's saying something, because she's met both Granny Kokoro and Buggy.
The names bring back memories, and just like that, Lucy's thinking about her crew again. She hopes they're having fun, like she is. She hopes they aren't too mad at her.
Lucy only realizes she's been staring moodily into the firepit when Rayleigh seizes her attention by standing and moving toward a bed of flowers near the tree line.
"Ah!" he calls mildly, "Now look, Lucy, and try to remember the shape of these, and the color." He pauses. "…you have a concussion so you might not remember later but these are edible, if you're ever in a pinch. Don't taste very good, but they're better than nothing."
Lucy nods, figuring Rayleigh is probably counting on telling her a few times anyway, and tries to remember.
If she was Nami or Usopp or Robin, this wouldn't be a problem. Franky's really smart too. Sanji would know already if they were edible.
Melancholy settles on her a little, and stands to walk over to Rayleigh.
Dwelling, she has discovered, is a bad habit she dislikes.
Lucy loves thinking about her friends. They make her happy. It's not fair that they can make her sad, too.
When she makes it to the flowers, Rayleigh motions to the stem. "It's distinctive, see? It has all these white veins in it…"
Lucy's glad she has Rayleigh here. She's glad she's not alone. Not now, and not so long as her nakama are still breathing.
The stones in Lucy's chest melt away, a daily task she finds gets easier with time, and she focuses on the lesson.
A month after Zoro begins training in earnest, he's settled into a routine.
Wake up. Bicker with Perona. Eat. Train for twelve hours. Eat and drink. Bicker more. Sleep. Repeat the next day.
Admittedly, Zoro makes the whole affair more exhausting than necessary on purpose. It keeps him from thinking about shit. Like wondering how Lucy's doing.
(He thinks about Lucy a lot.)
It's not that he's avoiding thoughts of her, or anything. It's just...hard. He…misses her. More than he's ever missed anyone. There's this hollow place inside his chest that he's not sure what to do with, or how to fix, and he's forever thinking of things to say to her. He never realized how often she touched him, or how he's grown to crave the contact.
The thing that makes it manageable is the promise that he'll see her again in two years. Less, now. Frankly, Zoro doesn't want to know how he would have reacted to news that she died. He probably…well it wouldn't have been good.
Mihawk does not spar with him, and never will, but he does watch from a distance as Zoro works on defeating the baboons. These are stronger than the ones he met initially, and Zoro is having a much easier time with them. This is possibly due to the fact that he's no longer in constant agony, but that's neither here nor there.
Lucy looked pretty beat up in the photo. He wonders if she's fully healed yet.
"You are distracted," Mihawk rebukes from his observation point above. He likes perching on things so he can look down his nose at people easier.
"Shut up, I'm fine," Zoro growls, and the humandrill on his left goes down as he disarms it.
"Hmm." Zoro can tell Mihawk is sipping wine even without looking. "Tell me, what is your captain like?"
Zoro is so surprised at the question the baboon on his right nearly decapitates him. He snaps into realization, and lashes out at the last moment, breaking the ape's wrist. "You've met her," he grunts, finally.
"Twice," Mihawk agrees. "And both instances left me with an incomplete picture."
Zoro growls, slashes upwards and dodges his opponent with a backflip. "What's it to you?"
Mihawk's thick signet ring taps once against the glass before he answers. "Titans battled at the War of the Best. People strong enough to create legends, if they hadn't already. Men hailed as gods. Those who weren't at such a caliber should have died instantly."
Zoro backs up a step, and the baboons let him. They generally allow their opponents to rest if they wish, but never escape completely. Mihawk hasn't spoken about the war for almost two months. Last time Zoro asked for details threats of bisection were exchanged. He doesn't want to miss this.
"At first, it was a chess game. Sengoku and Whitebeard were old enemies, and they knew each other too well. Neither entered the battle early on. Instead they directed and strategized. Then, after the initial casualties had accrued, and Whitebeard's side taken a blow to morale, a ship fell from the sky, carrying two hundred escapees from Impel Down and your captain." Mihawk's eyes flick sharply to Zoro. "In a baffling stroke of providence, luck, or fate, they managed to land in the one part of the bay which would not smash them all to smithereens."
Despite the content of the speech, and the terror he's sure Lucy was feeling for Ace, Zoro can't quite suppress the urge to roll his eyes. "She does that."
Mihawk's expression doesn't change, but he does that thing where he gives off the impression of an emotion. This time it's incredulity. "Hm. At any rate, three minutes after she impacted the bay, she had utterly changed the momentum of the war."
Zoro's sure she did, but he's not exactly sure how. "What do you mean?"
"She prevented an attack on Whitebeard, challenged him for the position of Pirate King, and made what looked to be an alliance between equals with him." Mihawk's hat tilts toward the baboons. "Then she led the charge to her brother, and firmly raised the morale and cohesion of the Whitebeard pirates."
The baboons, now tired of waiting, spring forward with a war cry, and Zoro deflects as he speaks. "She made friends with him, that's all."
"Does Straw Hat frequently befriend people like Whitebeard?"
"Yes?"
"I see." Out of the corner of his eye, Zoro sees Mihawk glance from under his hat at the position of Shusui as it arcs through the air. He forces himself to slow the blade, just a bit. "Had the Admirals not turned one of Whitebeard's crew against him, it is possible the war would have been won on that charge alone, with both Portgas D. Ace and Edward Newgate alive and well."
"Yeah, well, they aren't," Zoro grunts, lifting the crossed blades of the baboon behind him off his back. If Ace had lived, Zoro is pretty sure he'd be with Lucy and the rest of his nakama right now, instead of listening to Mihawk ramble uncharacteristically.
He doesn't want to talk about Lucy. He especially doesn't want Mihawk to talk about Lucy.
"I met her on the battlefield. She was a middling fighter, on that stage." Zoro's stomach clenches hotly. If Mihawk is the reason Lucy was covered in bandages… "I didn't touch her. Her friends got in the way." The older man takes a sip of his wine. "She was unstoppable. Unlikely as it was, she just kept getting closer. She rarely stopped to fight, but she took hits frequently. Her agility prevented any such blows from being fatal. When she met an opponent she could not face or escape, a stronger friend stepped between her and the opposition." Mihawk looks at him pointedly. "Most pirates are strong-willed. They do not take direction well, and especially not from someone so much weaker than themselves."
Zoro spins out of a flurry of blades with grace, and sends Mihawk a warning glance. "Lucy isn't weak."
"On the contrary," Mihawk agrees unexpectedly. "She was the most formidable individual on the battlefield."
Let it not be said that Zoro in any way doubts Lucy, it's just… "What?"
"Your captain has the uncanny ability to make friends with the most powerful of people, and ally them to herself. I believe she does this unconsciously. She also has not fully developed her abilities, meaning her potential is unknown. She could grow to be stronger than even Whitebeard or Sengoku." A pause. "And then there's the matter of her Conqueror's Haki."
"What's that?" Zoro grunts, ducking under an axe. These enemies are a bit difficult sometimes because they learn so fast.
"I've told you about Observation and Armament Haki. Conqueror's Haki is the third type. It allows the user to impose his or her will on the weak hearted, and animals. It can't be learned—one either has it or one does not." A pause. "Straw Hat Lucy used hers unconsciously to knock out nearly three hundred Marines during the last surge of the battle—including the executioners who were about to kill her brother."
Oh. Zoro disarms another baboon—literally—and waits for the last three to approach.
Then he remembers meeting Duval, how Lucy downed the yak without even touching it. How he and Sanji noticed at the time, but hadn't known what it was. He thinks of Rayleigh, somehow knocking out an auditorium without a word or even a movement.
"Sounds dangerous," Zoro grunts.
"It can be, to the weak-willed. I do not know if that was her first time using it or not, but it seemed a largely untrained skill. At any rate, that was the moment both Marines and Pirates realized what I had—that Straw Hat Lucy was the most dangerous person there. The Marines ordered an all-out attack on her, demanding her head, and Whitebeard ordered his men behind her, protecting her as she freed her brother."
It doesn't…surprise Zoro that Lucy would end up the centerpiece of a battle, but the thought of her caught between two armies like that makes his stomach twist unpleasantly. "Why?"
"I told you Conqueror's Haki cannot be learned. It is an exceedingly rare gift. One said to be a blessing from the gods, and the mark of a king." A glance at the setting sun. "The Marines were afraid of her becoming the next Pirate King, or the next Whitebeard, or even just a problem down the line, especially with her heritage as Dragon the Revolutionary's daughter, and Whitebeard more or less appointing her the herald of the next age when he threw his support behind her as he did."
Zoro frowns, twists, and the baboon behind him is split from naval to shoulder. "Lucy doesn't give a crap about stuff like that. She told everyone she was going to be Pirate King a long time ago." Zoro grumbles. "I don't know why they expected any different."
Mihawk's mouth curls up at the corner in a rare smile. He only does that when he's really entertained. "Indeed. At any rate, I find her a fascinating individual. I have seen her act on your behalf and on her brother's, and both occasions left me with the impression of a girl who is both strong willed to the point of injury, and loyal to her ideals. Someone who cares deeply for those around her, and inspires similar depth of emotion within her contemporaries. Perhaps an individual even capable of bringing arrogant young men to humility for her sake." Mihawk's eyes light on Zoro again, sharp and perceptive. "At any rate, I advise you to cease thinking about her quite so frequently in training, or you will not be able to keep up with her growth."
With that, Mihawk slips over the edge of the concrete he was reclining on, and leaves Zoro alone among the agonized baboons.
Fuck, Zoro thinks. Just…fuck.
He wishes he could get the story of Marineford from Lucy herself, instead of Mihawk's truncated accounts. Between all the speculation in the news and the slow drip of detail from Mihawk, he keeps imagining worse and worse versions of the events she suffered.
He wishes he could have been there, helped her himself.
Zoro shoves his katana into his hamarki with just a little more force than usual. They're still acting oddly. Like they're as upset over something as he is over Lucy. It's giving him a headache.
Slowly, he makes his way toward the castle. One benefit to training twelve hours a day is general exhaustion. Sleep isn't something Zoro normally struggles to get but sometimes...well, sometimes he thinks about Lucy until the moon sets.
Mihawk's right. He needs to get a grip on himself. It's not like him to obsess.
He's scared for her. Has been since splitting up at Sabaody. It's like his mind can't process that she's safe somewhere, that she willingly—
Okay, so he's—he's mad at her. For making them stay away. For making him stay away. For doing so without consulting them first. For kissing him and then—
It's not fair, being mad at her for this. He knows why she did it. Had he been there, Zoro would have supported it. Would have suggested, maybe, that the two of them train together, but…
(He'll never admit to this, not ever, but he stared at that article nearly every minute he was on bedrest hoping there would be something there asking Zoro, specifically, to go find her. Shameful and pathetic, yes, but he still did it because he couldn't quite believe she'd just…disappear like she did.)
Zoro trudges up the massive concrete steps to the castle and sighs. He's being ridiculous. None of this is her fault. She made the right call. He's training under the best swordsman in the world to better support her and also to fulfill his own dream. He'll see her in approximately twenty-one months. He's getting stronger and it feels good.
But sometimes he can still feel her lips on his skin like a brand, and he helplessly wonders what she meant by it if she could just choose to stay away all along.
On Ruskaina, there aren't many good places to take a bath. Half the natural water sources are filled with algae that secretes a poisonous film which can kill a person if he or she either ingests or touches it. The other half are generally in the areas the most dangerous animals live.
Normally, Rayleigh forces her to try and use her own Conqueror's Haki to ward off any unwanted visitors from the bathing areas. But, occasionally, when he notices her rubbing her chest at the tight scar tissue and she's been doing well with training, he helps her ward them off so she can take a bath in relative peace. Rayleigh's so good he can do it from across the island.
Today is one of those days.
Lucy's spent the last thirty-eight hours awake and on the run, because Rayleigh decided it was about time she figured out how Armament Haki worked, and the normal methods weren't working.
Long story short, they played tag with boulders infused with Haki.
Lucy never got to be "it."
And then, because Rayleigh's a bastard, he refused to let her back into camp until she'd at least manifested Armament Haki at will. This meant Lucy spent the night fleeing various creatures that wanted to kill her.
Lucy forgives him, though, because now…
Lucy lifts her hand out of the water, inspecting the black bar spread across her knuckles. It's thin, and she can't hold it long, but it's there.
She wonders if Zoro and Sanji have started training their Haki yet. She wonders if the others have. She'd bet Sanji is really good at Observation Haki. Zoro too, actually.
With a last wink of effort, the metallic bar fizzes off her skin, and Lucy's left looking at dry, swollen knuckles rough from the training.
It's her left hand.
Lucy turns it over, and examines the scar across her palm.
It's been four months since she received it, and she can't look at it without thinking of Zoro. It healed into a pink, smooth line, a bit raised but nothing distracting. It's very unlike her other two scars—the one under her eye, and the one dealt across her chest.
Jimbei told her, when she pressed, that it was Akainu who did it, and that her friend took the brunt of the attack. Lucy, in her catatonic state, had no natural defense against it, and so still ended up the worse off between them.
She remembers wondering if she still had breasts when she woke up, the pain in her chest so terrible and diffuse she was unable to tell from feel alone. Part of her is glad she wasn't conscious for most of the initial healing. It was probably intolerable.
As it happens, Lucy does still have her breasts, and for that she's grateful.
Kitetsu at least had the decency to cut her cleanly, so the scar would heal nicely. Turns out magma does no such favors. The scar looks like a big X, diagonal lines crossing at her sternum, and stretching from the bottom of her ribcage to under her collarbones. The tissue healed unevenly in places, but it's mostly the smooth, angry red of a painful burn. It aches, sometimes. Like whatever Trafalgar did to save her life pulled the skin a bit too tight.
It's ugly, and it's painful, but it's a small price to pay. Lucy's never been one for vanity, and certainly not to the point where she'd trade her life for it. She has much more important things to live for, and if needs must, die for.
It's still a bit sensitive to touch, but Lucy traces it carefully with her fingertips, memorizing the ridges and releasing pressure points where she can. The scar is still novel enough that it feels strange to her fingers, and that seems weird, having her own body feel alien.
Lucy doesn't think Zoro will care about her scars much. That would be stupid, and Zoro isn't that.
(She occasionally does wonder, though, if Zoro is currently spending a lot of time with another girl in any sort of romantic capacity. While she doesn't think Zoro's feelings would change easily, two years is a long time and she doesn't know what he feels for her, or if those feelings were really as reciprocal as she thought. She wonders, in darker moments that make her chest feel too tight and her stomach hot, if the hypothetical other girl is pretty, or at least prettier than her, and if Zoro prefers girls who are bustier, or girlier or less independent than Lucy.)
The warm water of the spring makes her aches melt a little, loosens the scar tissue. She feels drained, exhausted, and that's only partly because of the training. The spring is in a saltwater basin, and even though it helps her scar tissue heal, it drains her more than freshwater does.
Lucy had to get used to bathing alone again. It still feels odd, being near water and knowing none of her nakama are around to catch her if she falls in, that Zoro isn't hovering behind her to fish her out of the sea. He does—did it so often that Nami started making bets on it against unsuspecting new crewmembers.
As it is, she's using a leather strap Rayleigh lent her. She's got it looped around a nearby stump to keep herself from falling in. Annoying, but necessary, since this water is deep enough to drown in and Rayleigh has stated on more than one occasion that he refuses to rescue her from a bathtub, which…honestly? Fair. That's fair. Pirate Kings should be able to deal with bathtubs.
With a sigh, Lucy tilts her head back on the rocks, throat exposed, and rubs her fingertips over the scar on her palm absentmindedly. She remembers promising she would tell Zoro when it was healed, use it as a marker for the novelty of Thriller Bark's trauma. She thought it wouldn't be more than a month before she had her answer as to how Zoro feels about her, whether he wants her the way she wants him.
When they meet again, Lucy's going to tell him on the first chance she gets. The thing she's looking forward to the least for the next twenty-one months is not knowing his answer, and sitting on her own feelings. It's against her nature, waiting for what she wants like that. She usually acts on her desires as soon as she knows them.
She waited in Thriller Bark, though. For good reasons, too. Zoro just seemed so…off due to whatever happened, and she doesn't necessarily regret it, but…well. Lucy wishes it had turned out a bit differently.
Lucy wishes a lot of things turned out differently.
When she isn't having nightmares about Ace, his death and his tortured thank-you, she sleeps dreamlessly. Before, she had really vivid, intense dreams. The kind that made her eager to go to sleep and see what kind of adventures her mind would conjure up.
Now, when she closes her eyes there's Ace, his blood, his death, his smile, or there's—nothing. Just oblivion.
Lucy's not certain which scares her most anymore.
Perona is a constant presence in Zoro's daily life at Kuraigana. She likes to bicker with him, like she's bored doing anything else, and watches him train from a distance a lot. She likes to insult him when he fucks something up. Mostly, Zoro finds her annoying, but…not awful. Actually some of her quirks remind him a little of his nakama. Her presence isn't the worst thing in the world.
But Zoro is not, despite some people's assertations, a total idiot. He knows from the way Perona sometimes eyes him, from a few innuendos, that she's…well, interested. It's happened before, in various bars. He knows what it looks like when someone is looking for sex. Zoro's pretty sure Perona isn't interested in anything more than that, at least.
Zoro has no interest in Perona at all—pathetically he can't even imagine holding interest for someone who isn't Lucy—and so he ignores it, hoping she'll get the hint. And mostly it seemed like she got it, until one evening four months into his training.
Perona, determined as she usually is, basically just barges into his room and whines, "I want sex!"
Zoro, caught off guard, rears back in surprise. "What?"
"I want sex! With you! Now strip!"
Zoro raises a defensive hand, unconsciously prepared to push her back. "No!"
Perona pouts, then glares and stalks toward him by a boot-clad step. "Yes!"
Zoro backs up a little, his knees hitting his bed. "No."
"Oh come on, I'm the only girl here, you must be frustrated—"
"I—Jesus, that is none of your business."
Perona stalks forward again, and Zoro scrambles backward to put the bed between them, knocking the pillow off in the process. "I'm frustrated," she tries, walking all the way up to the bed now, and Zoro plasters himself against the wall, edging to the left in order to make a break for the door.
"Dear lord, what is wrong with you?" He growls.
Perona doesn't say anything though. In fact she's not even looking at him at the moment. Instead she's staring at his bed, where the pillow was, and where the picture of Lucy from a few months ago has been cut out and still rests.
Slowly, Perona reaches out and picks it up, taking obvious care.
"Oh," she says, quiet and a bit surprised. "Oh."
Then she looks at him, frowning, and tips her head to the side. "That's why you asked Fancy Pants to train you, isn't it? For her."
Zoro says nothing. He doesn't have to.
Perona nods, and then sets the picture down carefully where she picked it up. "I see." Then she grins at him, and their usual relationship resumes, antagonistic friendship restored. "I think Fancy Pants has wine in the cellar. Want to go steal it?"
Oh God, being drunk right now sounds like a really, really good idea. "Yes."
"Great. Let us never speak of this again."
Perona may be a demon bitch perfectly manufactured to irritate him, but occasionally they're on the same page.
Time passes quickly. Quicker than Zoro expected, at any rate. One day he looks up and six months have passed since Sabaody, finding Zoro stronger than he's ever been before.
He still has a long way to go.
According to Hawk Eye he's "passably competent in the very basics, for an earthworm" of Armament Haki, but his Observation Haki is still "equivalent to that of vermin," and has banned him from drinking, again, until he improves.
Zoro hopes Mihawk never meets Robin. They'd like each other too much, the sneaky bitches.
Anyway, things had more or less settled for Zoro in a cycle of listening to either Mihawk or Perona bitch at him, training until he's banned from picking up his swords again, eating massive amounts of food, and unfortunately not drinking, when one morning Zoro wakes to a newspaper dropping on his face.
He bats it away on reflex, and glares at the offender.
Perona, her hair coiled in fancy pigtails and wearing her usual black-on-black getup, raises an eyebrow at Zoro. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you," she coos.
Zoro growls. "Why not?"
"Your captain made the news again," Perona tells him, like it isn't the most important thing he's heard anyone say in months.
Where's the newspaper?
He scrabbles around, out of his bed and checking the floor when Perona shoves it under his nose. He snatches it out of her hand and rips it open.
"Honestly, you're hopeless," she drones. "It's not even new news, it's—"
SPECIAL EDITION: SIX MONTHS AFTER THE WAR, THE FALLOUT AND FATES OF THE MAJOR PARTICIPANTS
Six months ago, the power differential between the Navy and organized pirate groups shifted drastically, and were forever altered with the deaths of Edward Newgate, the pirate Whitebeard, and Portgas D. Ace, Whitebeard's Second Division Commander and son of Gol D. Roger. This edition is dedicated to analyzing the verifiable strokes of the battle, the aftermath of the War, and follow-ups on the most significant actors of the battle.
****The information in this paper has been verified via the Revolutionary Army, a group which believes the public can and should be trusted with the truth, as recalled by eye-witnesses and secret reports which have been liberated from the Navy. The Revolutionary Army takes all credit for the dispersal of this information, and as such the Daily Coo is not responsible for the potential sensitivity of this content.
"Special edition…" Zoro whispers. The front-page article is titled Who, When, Where, and Why, the Story of the War. It's accompanied by a picture of the Whitebeard fleet amassing in the harbor of Marineford. It's in black-and-white, but Zoro can practically feel the tension radiating off of the image. He can picture the pirates rallying under Whitebeard's flag, furious at the capture of their friend. It probably felt a lot like what raiding Enies Lobby felt like for the Straw Hats.
"Fancy Pants says it's the most accurate reporting he's seen on the war. He has no idea how Dragon did it, but it looks like the Revolutionaries seized control of the papers for the day."
The story next to it is a biography of Whitebeard. There's a picture of his body, still standing tall even in death, with holes gaping from his chest and stomach so large Zoro could crawl through them.
Zoro didn't know the guy, but he thinks it's pretty sad he died. It seems like he was strong. Fighting him was probably fun, and Zoro never got a shot at it.
The article underneath the top story is a thumbnail titled Portgas D. Ace and His Pivotal Role, which is next to an analysis of the Fleet Admiral, the admirals below him. Next to that is an update on the pissing match for Fleet Admiral between Akainu and Aokiji. After that is—
MONKEY D. LUCY: THE GREATEST SURPRISE OF THE WAR—HER PAST, HER FUTURE, AND HER TRAGEDY.
They didn't.
Zoro checks the page number. Lucy has three full-page spreads in the paper, on pages 3, 5, and 7.
Madly, Zoro rips the paper to the correct page and—
They did.
Jesus, it has subtitles.
The reason it has so many pages though isn't because there's a lot of detail about her. It's because they have a truly ridiculous number of pictures of Lucy from the battle, like someone was following her the whole time. And all the photos are blown up disproportionately, so that the article itself only takes up a third of the page.
The one at the top of Lucy's first page is Lucy, standing next to Whitebeard. Apparently it's on his ship. The caption tells him about her "chaotic, but magnificent entrance" to the battle, and that a picture of the ship falling can be seen on the next page.
Lucy looks taller than she is, standing next to Whitebeard like that. It's an effect she sometimes has when doing something crazy. But the thing is, she already looks beat up. He can see her wearing bandages, and her clothes look clean but her face is bruised and she's got blood trickling out from under her hairline.
She was in Impel Down before Marineford, he remembers. She looks exhausted in the photo and she hasn't even started fighting yet.
The first section is an article summarizing how she's affiliated with the Whitebeard Pirates, and discusses various relationships observed throughout the battle. Mostly they talk about Whitebeard and his First Division Commander, Marco the Pheonix. Zoro assumes this is the flame guy talking to Lucy in one of the smaller pictures surrounding it. She looks much worse for wear in that one. There's blood rivulets down her arm, and a great deal more ash and bruising littering her skin.
The bottom half of the page discusses Lucy's heritage, and the circumstances which led her to become Ace's foster sister. There's a picture of Lucy leaping off of Whitebeard's ship, steam billowing from her shoulders. In the background of the picture there's something that could be a scaffold. Between them is the utter chaos of battle.
The bottom quarter of the page, however, is filled by a picture of Lucy sprinting across the battlefield, presumably toward Ace. The photographer got a shot of her so close that he can see acid burns on her arms. Lucy's hair is blown back by her speed, and a grimace stretches her lips. Her eyes are blown wide in desperation, in a way Zoro has never seen before.
The caption says it was taken on her initial charge to the scaffold, but her sandaled feet are already soaked in gore.
But there's strength there too, present in the clenching of her fists, the steel in her jaw. There's determination and willpower. Had this been the only picture of the war, and had he been given no other information, Zoro would have bet his life, his dream, anything, that Lucy succeeded in whatever she set out to do.
Zoro turns the page again, looking for the next part of the article.
It's hard to miss.
The top of the page is dominated by a picture of Lucy, soaking wet and carrying a mast, staring down the three admirals without a trace of fear. She's crouched in a horse stance, thighs flexing powerfully and her eyes blazing, even in the grainy black and white. Her cheeks and clothes are flecked with blood, and her wet hair arcs in mid-motion around her, water still curling from touchdown. Ace strains against his chains above them, horror evident in the gash of his mouth while the Fleet Admiral stands impassively above the brewing clash, observing and not interfering.
It's breathtaking. Zoro can feel the tension radiating off of Lucy, the absolute determination to move past the three greatest obstacles on the field. The look in her eye is terrible and beautiful, something he's not sure he's seen in her before. There's rage there, indignity, maybe even wrath, and Zoro can barely look away to track her injuries.
I AM THE INEXORABLE FUTURE, the article's subtitle reads, in all caps and a large, dominating font that takes up another inch of space in the paper. Zoro can certainly understand why they feel that way. The picture makes it look like she's declaring war on the government all over again, like there's no stopping her from marching straight through the Marines.
The article speaks in highly speculative terms about Lucy, and her relationship to the navy. They discuss the idea that it was feuding with Garp that drove her to piracy in the first place, and whether she hates the institution on a personal level or not. It discusses, too, the extreme response the Navy seems to have toward her, and decide this is due to her father. The article also mentions a "mysterious ability" Lucy presented on the battlefield, but which, due to eye-witnesses having either poor memories of the event or refusing to speak on it, is poorly understood to anyone who wasn't there.
Anyone with half a brain and who knows about Conqueror's Haki could probably figure out what the "mysterious ability" is, since it sent the Marines scurrying after her. But Zoro also heard it from Mihawk so he might not be the best judge.
At the bottom of the page there's a picture of Ace and Lucy, fighting back to back at the bottom of the scaffold. There's a fluidity to their movements that even in the photograph seems impressive. Fire blooms in whip-like tendrils from Ace's hands, sweeping across incoming Marines, and Lucy flings a fist out to catch those on the other side. Zoro can picture the move in his head, knows exactly the way each marine would fling away, and exactly how she would roll down so Ace could leap over her, switching opponents to confuse them.
There are two identical grins on their faces, wide and fierce, black hair lifting from both their foreheads under the brims of their hats. The caption says it was taken right after Lucy freed Ace, and Sengoku destroyed the platform. They both look exhausted, dripping with blood from various places, but they look happy. Joyous.
Zoro moves to turn to the next page, and a perfectly manicured hand shoots out, blocking his way.
Zoro rears back, growling at Perona. He forgot she was there. "Hands off!"
Perona lunges toward the paper, heedless. "No! The next page is…" she trails off. Zoro pauses. "Listen, did you know the kid? Straw Hat's brother?"
"I met him once," Zoro admits. "Why…?" He pauses. Looks at Perona in horror. "They didn't…"
Perona looks away. Zoro rips the newspaper open to page seven.
There's a picture taking up nearly the whole top half of the page. Lucy is on her knees, blood soaking her clothes, her arms, her hands, as she holds her palms in front of her facing the sky as if in prayer, and Ace is…
Ace is lying before her on the stone, his forehead brushing Lucy's knee. His hands are at his sides and his palms up, with a hole through his Whitebeard tattoo and ink-black blood dribbling from his smiling lips.
The expression on Lucy's face is—is—
There are no words for that expression. None. Zoro never wants to see her wear it again. There's something fragile about it, like something precious has broken inside her, and her lips are forming Ace's name, he can tell even in the picture. Her brother's blood is splattered across her face, stains her clothes and skin, pools around her knees and fills the grooves of the cobblestone beneath them.
TRAGEDY: JUST-FREED BROTHER DIES TO SAVE HER DURING RETREAT, the subtitle reads. The article then explains that Akainu targeted both Ace and Lucy after a retreat was called. Ultimately, Ace took a blow meant for Lucy, and died as a result. Lucy, it reports, went catatonic and had to be carried from the battlefield by the former Warlord Jimbei. Then she was taken in by Trafalgar Law and his crew, after suffering major injuries by the still-in-pursuit Akainu. There is, Zoro notices absently, no speculation this time that Lucy and Trafalgar are romantically involved.
Zoro closes the paper, and sets it on his bed. Perona hovers a few feet away from him, lips pursed and eyebrows pinched.
Zoro stands, going for his swords. They're screaming in his head, and their horror echoes his own.
But he doesn't want to—shouldn't—train like this, with so much—so much—
Rage.
But rage at what? At the paper? At the navy? At Ace, for dying? None of those—he can't rage at those. Rage is for people who don't have to control their lesser natures, rage—
He's sad. He's frustrated and impotent. Too little too late. Maybe he could have done something six months ago, but he was nearly comatose at the time, because he wasn't strong enough to beat Kuma. Instead Zoro was useless and got everyone split up, and he's still angry about it.
Zoro walks back over to the bed, fists clenching. He picks up the paper and reads the end of the article, folding it away from him so he doesn't have to see Lucy's face.
The End or The Beginning? The final subtitle reads. It describes Lucy's return to Marineford a month after the battle and her bizarre actions there. The article speculates that she was, perhaps, disbanding her crew as they have not been seen since. The other option, apparently, is that she was declaring herself the leader of a new age of pirates.
Horseshit, that.
"The revolutionaries published this?" Zoro asks. If so, Dragon's an even shittier father than he thought, publicizing these pictures. Publicizing that picture.
"Fancy Pants thinks so," Perona confirms, voice quiet. "Her father…he's the leader, right?"
Zoro doesn't say anything. Perona already knows.
"There's, uh, more." Perona adds. Zoro looks up warily. Perona squirms a little and then just sighs. "Turn to page ten."
Zoro does, and he sees—
The whole page is taken up by a picture of Ace, a pillar of magma through his chest and indominable as he holds back Akainu from attacking…from attacking…
Lucy's leaning back, away from the two men, but even though Zoro can't see her face, the shot taken from behind her, it's clear she's realized what happened. Her fingers grasp toward Ace, her supporting hand pressed painfully against the stone. Ace's face is grimaced in agony, but his eyes are pinned to Lucy.
"Why publish that?" Zoro asks hollowly. They already had a picture of his death, didn't they? They didn't need to have this, too. Dragon didn't, especially. Sharing the worst moment of Lucy's life like that is just…
"The article is an obituary," Perona explains. "I don't know why they didn't just use the wanted poster."
"They detest the government," a low voice counters. Zoro looks up to see Mihawk leaning against his doorframe. "They would likely find using one of their enforcement mechanisms…unpalatable." Mihawk nods to the paper. "The use of that particular photo, however, was probably an attempt to sway public opinion against Akainu. The paper in general is very sympathetic to your captain and Portgas."
Damn well better be, considering she's Dragon's own damn daughter—
"In response to this, I've been called for a meeting at the Naval Headquarters. Do what you wish until I return. I expect your Observational Haki to be vastly improved by then."
Zoro nods, but doesn't look up when he leaves.
"Well. So that's a thing," Perona tries.
That's an understatement.
He's so—glad, to see a picture of Lucy. Guiltily glad. Even if they're out of date and horrible they're still her photo and…
In the pictures where she's not terrified or agonized, Lucy looks exactly how he remembers her. Strong. Fierce. Determined. Beautiful, right down to the scar under her eye and the blood on her knuckles.
He's been thinking about her. More than he should be. More than he does their other friends.
He wishes they parted on a…more resolved note. This halfway-in-between thing is killing him. Part of him wants to be mad at her, and can't be anymore, especially not after seeing these pictures and the level of intensity this type of training requires. Nothing less than daily dedication would produce results, and that just isn't possible travelling Straw Hat style. A much larger part of Zoro wants to be mad at the world in general, but that doesn't really accomplish anything, and Zoro's never been one for letting circumstance control him. It's just fate.
Zoro dreams about her sometimes. Usually they're quiet ones, where he sees her alone, off in the distance. Nothing in particular is wrong, it's just…incongruous. Lucy likes attention. She never pulls away from Zoro. Sometimes in these dreams he tries to go to her and can't.
Pathetically, he always wakes from those thinking he just wants to hear her laugh.
Perona lets out a heavy sigh. "Look, were you guys in a fight or something?"
Zoro glances up from the paper, startled. "What? No. We weren't."
Kind of the opposite, actually.
"Then stop looking so mopey all the time when you think about her!" Perona whines, exasperated. "She's fine, you're fine, you'll see her in a year and a half!"
"I do not mope," Zoro retorts, stung.
"If you're not moping you're pining," Perona snips back.
"Pining?"
"Yes! Pining! Get over it already, she made a choice and you all decided to live with it!"
Zoro growls at her. "Shut up, you don't know anything about it!"
Perona is unimpressed. "Oh really?" She turns primly, nose in the air, and hovers toward the door. "Just accept the situation already, or you're going to be a mess when you do finally see her, you big dumb idiot." She pauses, and then whips around eyes wide. "Wait…you haven't told her, have you?"
Zoro glares, sitting straighter to gain more height. "What are you talking about?"
Perona's mouth drops open. "You…THAT YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH HER, YOU NEANDERTHAL."
Zoro snaps his mouth shut. Looks away. "I'm not—"
"Don't!" Perona interrupts, flitting over to him. "Don't finish that sentence. You might actually start to believe it, and then where would you be? Miserable and even more hopeless than usual, that's where." Perona gives a long, breathy sigh. "Jeez. And I thought you were dumb before."
Then Perona looks at him with uncharacteristic seriousness, and stares. Zoro, feeling more vulnerable than he usually does around Perona, glares back, defensive.
For once, Perona doesn't say anything. She just sighs, and then disappears through the door.
It's weird, but sometimes silence is louder than it used to be.
Zoro wakes that night in a cold sweat, dreaming horribly of Lucy lying dead on the cold stone of Marineford, eyes blank and blood soaking her clothes. Zoro lies awake until morning, unable and unwilling to sleep.
He wasn't there.
He wasn't there.
Well that was a doozy. Sorry if this felt like it dragged a bit-I didn't think you guys would appreciate me postponing the reunion six chapters to cut the time skip stuff down to a normal chapter length, so I made three jumbo chapters.
Here's my reasoning on why the revolutionaries have such accurate reporting—for one, they've probably got people infiltrating the navy, and probably some pirate allies. That's what they would do if they were smart, anyway. Two, Iva-chan was pretty close to Lucy, and stuck to her throughout the course of the battle. She would have been able to give accurate first-hand accounts, and snap pictures or have a camera recording everything somewhere on her person. Third, Inazuma, who shows up randomly at the very end after being declared out of commission. Somehow nobody saw him/her crossing the battlefield. My theory is that she/he was taking pictures the whole time, knowing it was a very important event in history. That is, of course, what happened here. I definitely think Dragon would publish it, thinking it necessary. The Revolutionaries really, really don't want Akainu as Fleet Admiral. Especially not Sabo. There was other stuff in the paper too, stuff like corrections on different events surrounding the war.
If you think Zoro's angsting is OOC, just remember how much uncertainty he's dealing with when it comes to Lucy. Like, he's gone for this girl, and even though he's pretty sure she likes him in return, they've never actually expressed how much/the extent of which this is true. His self-confidence took a really big blow in Thriller Bark and Sabaody, and with that in addition to the uncertainty, it's bringing up a lot of old issues that he's trying to work through, including generally low self-worth regarding his ability to have functional relationships. I will flesh that out more in the next chapter, but for now, understand that there's some stuff I've added to his backstory that makes this all make sense. That, and Mihawk and Perona generally aren't very good at being supportive, nurturing friends who would help him get in touch with his own issues, unlike Rayleigh and Jimbei.
I tried to make it clear that, while both Lucy and Zoro are still functional, they're both quite traumatized. They are both still having issues. Also, I tried to write it in a way that let the reader know they'd be the best people to help each other. Let me know how I did?