(puts up a sign) There! 'Reviewer's Reply'!

Vivi: Nice.

You're still doing the ending part.

Vivi: I know. (brings out the review's basket) This is from MissChabre. (looks at it) Uh… this is a box.

Huh? (looks at it) How is this a review?

(door gets kicked open and Zoro appears) Found you!

Oh jeez! (drops the box and review appears) (gets shaken by puppet version of reviewer) (stops being shaken)

Zoro: Are most of your reviewers like this?

Only when it comes to the kissing scenes. (sees a blade towards her throat) Please spare me.

Vivi: Uh… here's a review from kamiam714. It's in a disc form. (places disc in and everyone listens to it)

Evil tone… scary…

Zoro: Shit, you're reviewers are hard-core on this, huh?

More or less, depending what I post up. You're not going to kill me right?

Zoro: Not today. (puts his swords back in its sheath) Seems like you're getting the shit beat out of you anyway.

Thankies!

Zoro: Don't do that.

How's Luffy?

Zoro: He's fine. Now go back to your review thing. (walks away) I'm going home.

You're going to fix that door.

Zoro: I'm not going to be paid for it, right?

No, but if it's not fixed by the time I finish my reviews I'll tell Nami about it.

Zoro: You're working for her?

No, but I'm not going to let you walk away after what you did.

Zoro: Fine! Just as long as you don't tell that she-devil.

Deal. Vivi?

Vivi: Uh… heartless-angel01, FablerPhoenix, setr, and Kyo-kun.

Thanks guys! I'm glad you liked it. And if you haven't checked out Kyo-kun's fic yet, you should! It's funny! A real mood booster for those who were having a bad day!

Vivi: That was nice.

Kyo-kun deserved it, and it made me smile.

Vivi: (giggles and takes out another review) LoretoW!

Ah! My favorite reviewer! Huh? There's only 20 ZoLu fics in your community? That's not many! Hopefully it will spread to more later. And that would really be awesome if you can translate this to share with your friends, I have no problem with that! And thanks, I try to grasp their personalities to the best of my ability! And you weren't wrong, I did mention that I wasn't good at describing fights, but thank goodness that YouTube was there to help a bit. I had to watch all the fights that Luffy was in and did an alternation to fit into my fic. All in all I think it went out well.

Vivi: (takes another one out) shadows-3019.

Yeah, it was a bit intense, but what did you expect with the last fight and Lucci? And it was Zoro that got Luffy, Sanji's upper strength isn't a lot and he's more of the 'carry the ladies' type. And don't say that you're not a good writer! It took me a few years until I started to get really good all of a sudden, but I'm still improving. One day you will come up with an idea that will become a great masterpiece! You just need to get inspired!

Zoro: Done.

How's the door?

Zoro: I'm not Franky, but it should do.

(tests door) Good enough, you may go now. Here's the map from here to your house. You're the green line.

Zoro: (sighs and leaves) A nap sounds good right now.

Well! That's all the time we have today!

Vivi: If, for any reason, that by the time she works on her next chapter and we didn't get your review into the basket. Don't worry! We will respond to it ASAP.

Enjoy!


Chapter 48: Thoughts

Zoro's POV

We're back on the train the next day, going further to the other side of the island.

You know, I never thought that this island, the same one I grew up in all my life, was so damn huge.

The she-devil had a map and I learned that the island is some of the largest of the four. Our island is known as a summer island in the Northern area. In the East was the spring island, South was the winter island and second largest, and West had the fall island.

All this was interesting and all, but I was more interested in when Luffy would wake up.

Yesterday was an intense battle, but I knew that he wanted to fight that guy without question. But it made me question myself a little, about when pride became too much. I mean, I talked back at Ace for crying out loud!

Luffy was in the small clinic all day after that fight, giving me some space in the hotel room to think. But I just ended up worrying about him and ended up spending the night in the clinic room, after I snuck in.

I look at him in his bunk, still asleep, as if he was dead to the world if wasn't for the fact that he was lightly snoring and his chest rising up and down. There were bandages covering his forehead and around, his arms and chest, but he still looked peaceful despite it all.

Though, now that I think about it. He didn't go after the guy when he was down, he waited until that guy was able to get up, and he didn't attack from behind either. I guess there is no right or wrong in having a fighter's pride. But that didn't seem right… It was more like believing that he would do the right thing. Yeah! That was it. I believed in him.

"Zoro?"

I looked up to see Chopper, who was doing an hourly check up on Luffy.

"Lunch is about ready, do you want me to bring it to you or are you coming?"

"I'm not really that hungry." I said. "Just wouldn't be a meal with out Luffy around." The little guy nodded and left the room and into the dinning cart. I stretched out a bit and looked out of the window from my bunk, which was mostly farmland with cows.

I never really like being in cramped spaces where movement was limited to some degree. I can't train at all and if I tried to do any of my push-ups, someone would walk in and complain about it. Being in a train for long periods of time really sucks, but what can I do? Come to think of it, Luffy doesn't like to stay in one place for too long either. Huh. I didn't realize we have something in common. What else do we have in common?

Ace came in just when I started to think about that and said that I should hang out with the others. "Can't have you hog my brother all the time, just because I'm dating."

I didn't get what he meant by that, but I agreed.

"Hey… Thanks for stopping me from trying to stop Luf…" He said as he patted my shoulder and gently shoved me towards the media cart.


The media cart looked more like a nursery than an entertainment room with its bright colors. Usopp, Chopper, Brook, and Shanks were playing some board game. Nami, Robin, and Kaya were reading either magazines or books. Franky was in the corner, fixing some broken objects and humming happily to himself, and I think he stole a glance towards Robin. Vivi and Kohzu were at a table with a bunch of papers around, probably for their wedding. Ben and Makino were watching some action move, so I headed towards them and joined them. The movie was okay, car crashes and explosives were okay, but my tastes were for samurai era themed movies or a good street fight action.

The Ero-Chef came in after awhile, brining some kind of snack for everyone. Now he was chatting away on how beautiful the women were, causing Usopp to be defensive about Kaya which was new, and Franky mentioned something about being considerate about women who have another person in their lives. That seemed to shut the guy up and apologized to Usopp and Kaya.

"Oi! Marimo! Come help me with the kitchen."

"The kitchen?" I said as I reluctantly got up and followed him to the kitchen.

"Yeah, there's a slab of meat I planned to use for dinner, but it's hard to carry."

"Didn't want to mess up your manicure, Princess?"

"Can it! Shithead! Be useful for once and grab the one that's has the number 20 tag on it!" He said as he opened this big ass freezer.

"Don't order me around!" I said as I walked into the freezer, and shit it was cold! And the sight of raw, skinned meat made me feel a little irked to say the least. But I found the damned meat, which felt like a ton, and got it out to that shit-cook.

"Now put it on that metal table."

"Damn Princess…"

"Seaweed head."

Once I placed that damn piece of meat down, I glared at him. "You wanna start something, Crap-Cook?"

"I would, but I have dinner to prepare."

We glared at each other for a while before he looked away to start cutting up the meat.

'Damn that guy!' I thought as I went back out and went through the dinning cart then to the resting cart, where I saw Chopper, looking up on Luffy.

"Hey Zoro." He said quietly.

"Hey." I responded as I looked at Luffy. "How is he?"

"Healing nicely. Probably up to have dinner."

"That would be good." Then a thought came up. "Though it would be bad for that Love-Cook, he would have to cook three times as much to satisfy this guy's appetite."

He giggled, as if he was agreeing with me. "I better head back, we're in the middle of a card game called BS."

"I'm guessing Usopp's winning."

"Yeah, he's good at it."

"It deals with bluffing." I pointed out as he went towards the other cart.

But it was then I noticed that Ace wasn't here. "That's weird." I saw but I was feeling tired and went to my bunk to take a nap.


After and hour or so I woke up to see that the flat land outside looked black with the sun setting down. I yawned and stretched before the feeling of some added weight on me was known as well as a familiar chuckle.

"Hey Zoro!" Luffy said.

"Hey… You seem better."

"Only a little, just need something to eat and I'm good as new!"

I just grinned. Honestly I haven't smiled or grinned so much since I met this crazy, yet likeable guy. "I'm guessing dinner isn't ready."

"Nope." He said with a whine. "I'm so hungry!"

"I'm sure it'll be ready before you know it."

"I guess… Hey, Zoro? How long was I asleep?"

"Only a day."

"Oh, that's good."

"Why's that?"

"That means Sanji only needs to make one day's worth of meals."

I laughed as I ruffled his hair. "I'm sure that Love-Cook would love that!"

He laughed as well. "Nuh uh! He usually kicks me out if I ever tried going through the kitchen."

I couldn't help but smile. "It's good to have you back in the waking world. It's not that much fun without you keeping it interesting." I wasn't sure if it was the trick of the lighting or what, but I thought I saw him blushing.

"Oi! Dinner's ready!" Sanji called out through the speakers.

"Food!" Luffy said excitedly and started pulling at my arm.

"Alright! Alright!" I said as I got up and was being dragged by him. It's been awhile since I was last dragged around.


We made it to the dinning table, which looked to fancy for my liking but what the hell. Once everyone is in the room, chaos started. Man I missed this!

Luffy trying to steal food from everyone that his thin, long arms could reach. Vivi, Kaya, Kohzu, Shanks, Ben, Makino, Franky, and Brook were laughing. Usopp was arguing with Luffy. Nami looking annoyed. Robin looking amused. Chopper trying to break the argument between Usopp and Luffy. And Sanji, being the idiot he was, looming around the witch, spouting out his affections. You think a guy like that would've been beaten up by the muscle-headed boyfriends of all the girls he must've flirted.

And of course some of my food was stolen by the vacuum called Luffy, but it was okay, I didn't really feel hungry. I was just putting a lot on my plate so he could have access when everyone else denied him.

(isn't that nice of him?)

It was then I noticed Ace wasn't around. "Where's Ace?" I asked.

"Had an important call." Shanks said.

"Oh…"

"Must be from that special person that he's been dating now." The redhead joked, and at that moment Ace walked in.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late." He said as he sat down next to me. "Hope Luffy didn't steal all the good stuff!"

"Hey!" Then the start of a friendly sibling argument occurred.

In all honesty, I would've been content being alone, but I felt more content with these nut jobs then staring at walls.

Then suddenly both Ace and Luffy had their faces in mash potatoes.

Yep, nothing can be compared to this.


How was that, huh? I know it's not much, but there's more coming your way!

Vivi: See you in the next chapter!