Disclaimer almost everything belongs to Eiichiro Oda that genius of a man

The ship descending into the sea as they made their way towards Fishman Island, Zoro was once again cooped up in the crow's nest finally reunited with his former weights training beyond human limits. The crew was spending most of their current time reconnecting but Zoro had opted not to do so instead deciding to train, they would drag him out eventually anyway but he would let them have their fun for now and would focus on a bit of training as getting as strong as he could, would be preferable for the coming future. Not that it was ever not his goal to become the most powerful but he was more determined than ever to get stronger especially after what he did on Harby Cay, they were going to be after him not only because he was a pirate but also because he had murdered a Celestial Dragon.

He was so distracted with his thoughts that he didn't even notice when someone had entered the crow's nest, she was able to sneak up on him and smack him on the back before he would be able to notice her. This caused him to jump dropping his gigantic dumbbell and entering a defensive stance ready to strike whoever had done that, he grumbled when he saw who it was, "God damn it don't sneak up on me like that, Robin."

She giggled at him and sat down beside him, obviously amused with his reaction, "We all just got reunited and what you're doing is hiding up here again and training?"

He grumbled at her, "As much as I enjoy being together again I still have a long way to go before I reach the strength required."

She placed her head on her hand with sighed, "But you can't even take a day or two off from training?"

Zoro shook his head, "I took far more than a day off from training while we were separated so I can't let up for even a moment now."

She quirked an eyebrow but chuckled instead, she stood up and kissed him on the cheek before heading down, "I'm not going to tell you not to train but try to have some fun too, everyone was so excited to be together again, so try to make some time for them."

Zoro grunted acknowledging her statement but returning to his training, he would come down later but for now, he would train. But was immediately interrupted when Nami popped up from the hatch glaring at him, "Zoro!"

Zoro sighed and turned around meeting the fiery red-heads gaze, "Stop training for one god damn minute and come here and have a drink with the rest of us."

He glared at her and wanted to say something but she threw one of the smaller dumbbells at him forcing him to dodge, "What's wrong with you stop throwing things at me!"

She rolled her eyes and walked over grabbing the back of his shirt and started dragging him out of the crow's nest, Zoro just grabbed onto the side of the wall and completely stopped her as she was unable to move his much larger frame. She glared at him and he responded, "Stop trying, you're not going to be able to move me."

She grumbled then kicked him in the shin and left with a huff, he rubbed his shin in annoyance before sighing and leaning back. He admits that he had isolated himself ever since they reunited but something in him was telling him to let them have their fun before he would join them, it wasn't that he didn't want to be with them but something was making him avoid them. There was just this odd feeling that had surfaced which told him that staying away from them would be the smarter idea, for now at least but he didn't like this feeling. He sat there silent for a few moments contemplating what to do before sighing and heading towards the hatch, he climbed down the ladder to see the rest of the Strawhat crew still partaking in the festivities as countless numbers of barrels filled with alcohol were consumed.

He jumped down with a thump and a smile on his face, "Got any more for me?"

Luffy snapped his neck towards him and barreled into him with an excited look on his face, "Zoro! I thought you weren't even going to come down from the crow's nest which is weird seeing as we have alcohol down here!"

Zoro chuckled and pushed Luffy away from him while grabbing the mug out of his hands and taking a huge gulp from it, "You know there was no way that I would miss out on some sake."

He chuckled and pushed Luffy off to Usopp while he dropped the mug and went to grab a barrel when he passed by Nami she glared at him and turned away with a huff taking a sip of her own mug, Zoro rubbed the back of his head and continued forward deciding to deal with her another time. Robin approached him from behind, "Nice to see you actually coming down, I honestly didn't expect you to come down on your own."

Zoro rolled his eyes grabbing the large barrel and hefting it over his head, "There was sake out that was enticing enough for me to come down without you guys trying to goad me into doing it."

She giggled at this before hugging his arm, "Well, do enjoy yourself who knows when the next time we'll get an opportunity to enjoy such peace."

She smiled at him while he gave her a blank look before she let go of him and returned to her corner opening her book, he gave her an odd look before beginning to drown himself in sake trying to rid himself of the unsettling feeling with intoxication. He put the barrel down and stared into the dark abyss while they partied away around him, he was meant to be happy but it felt like there was something else there, like someone was watching them from within the water. From what he had heard from Nazuna the Divine Six Wings had failed to defeat Satan so this was his main assumption of what was going on, a servant of Satan following them to look for an opportunity to kill him or just to study him.

Zoro was so concentrated on his thoughts that he didn't even notice when Surume the giant octopus emerged the screams of panic from Nami and the excited yelling from Luffy was completely ignored by him. He knew that Satan would be coming for him once again though he was unsure when he would do so along how exactly he was going to come for him as he was sure that Satan knew better than to just go straight for him as Ashura was bound to stop him, that was if Satan personally came for him if he were to send a soldier as strong as Tyrranth or something like that then Zoro himself would have to deal with it. Though the chances of him being defeated were far less then if he were to fight Satan it would still be terrible for him as Satan would be able to endlessly send more and more men as an attempt on his life. He himself was fine with them coming after him but that same feeling couldn't be said about endangering his crew in such a manner, he shook his head ridding himself of those thoughts for now before turning towards the creature that was threatening their ship.

He took a step forward ready to take on the creature but he paused when his entire surround turned pitch black, he instantly hovered his hand over the hilt of his blades, he looked around cautiously confused about where he was. As he did this a loud booming voice emerged from the darkness, "You aren't wrong human, I will come for you once again and your demon friends can do little to stop me this time."

Zoro growled at him, "Ashura almost defeated you in your own domain last time what makes you think he won't be able to kill you this time around!"

Satan let out a booming laugh, "It matters not."

The darkness around him shifted and changed to a much more colorful scene though it created no happy image for him as he was met with the sight of the Thousand Sunny, he would have thought that he had been released from the hallucination if it were not for the sea of blood surrounding the ship and the raging fire that encompassed the entire ship with weird white-winged creatures floating around it and screeching. He knew that what he was seeing wasn't real but he couldn't stop the feeling of dread from seeping into him, "Ahh, fire, an element that even you have basic control of, don't you just love the smell of fire and brimstone."

Zoro seemed unable to move his body as some unknown power seemed to drag him forward into the ship to display the bodies of his crew all bloodied up and broken, his dread grew even stronger as the way they were scattered and battered was far too similar to how they were when they had fallen in Raftel. He clenched the hilt of his blade in rage and searched for Satan to find that he was still unable to move his body, "Isn't this a fabulous sight, a world dominated by monsters of the night rather than you pathetic humans, a world where I reign supreme!"

Zoro growls, "You ba-!?"

He was cut off as blood filled his throat and shot out of his mouth, shakily he looked down to see a white three-pronged trident pierced through his chest. The clouds above him shifted to form the face of Satan who sported a look of twisted glee, "Now I wouldn't do that if I was you, I may not be able to physically harm you currently but I am able to tear you apart mentally, your mind is my plaything to toy with human."

Zoro took a step forward only to collapse as the trident was ripped out of his chest before being impaled into his leg, "Now now, we're in no rush, we can just take out time and enjoy every moment of this. Well, I will, you not so much."

Zoro grunted in pain before looking up to see one of those winged creatures in front of him, he finally got a good look at the creature to see that it didn't possess a pair of eyes where eyes usually would be. Instead, it had multiple eyes decorating different parts of his body along with two pairs of wings on his back one of its back and one of the back of its hip. Its face was missing many key features that usually make up a face, with its face was completely covered with what seemed like a batch of feathers. But despite the lack of a mouth it seemed to take a deep breath before screeching in his face, "Piss off you you angel looking shit bag."

It stood straight up to tower over his hunched over body as more of these creatures started to gather around Zoro, in his hand a bronze axe appeared, "As much as I would love to drag this out longer, but I got other things to do. So for now just live with the image of your past failures and your incoming future."

The creature raised his axe and brought it down right down the middle of Zoro's head, leading to a world of pain as though this wasn't physically happening to him it felt like it was as Satan's hallucinations deceived his senses making it seem like it was physically happening to him. His vision swam as multiple images cycled through before he clamped his eyes closed before cautiously opening his eyes to find himself back on the Thousand Sunny he blinked slowly to make sure that he was actually back, "You alright Zoro?"

He turned towards the voice to see a slightly concerned Robin standing over him, "It's nothing just a bit tired."

She gave him an odd look before joining the rest of the crew and stopping Luffy from jumping out of the ship, he got up slowly and stared down the giant octopus. He took a step forward before feeling something trail down his face, he stopped and put his hands up to his face to find a trail of blood coming from his eye. Growling he wipes the blood off and heads towards Surume intent to distract himself, in a single stride he shot off the ship, "Ashura Hakai!"

He brought the blade down in a powerful strike dismembering two of Surume's massive tentacles surprising the giant beast, he didn't attack again afterward only giving Surume a harsh glare which worked well enough as Surume froze and seemed hesitant to attack again and instead slowly started to slink away back into the darkness. Zoro sat down in the bubble he was in and huffed annoyed not specifically at how easily Surume backed off but more so of the hallucination that he had experienced at the hands of Satan. His bubble rejoined with the ship's larger one and Luffy immediately rushed him with an annoyed look on his, "Why did you go for him? I wanted to fight him!"

Zoro grabbed Luffy's head to stop him from getting close to him with a blank look on his face, "You were too slow that's on you Luffy so don't blame it on me."

Luffy was grumbling as he tried to desperately hit Zoro, he shrugged him off and pushed Luffy into Usopp and the both of them collapsed as Luffy pouted. Zoro went back to his barrel of sake as Chopper followed behind him look fascinated, "You got so much stronger Zoro."

Zoro chuckled at Chopper and rubbed his head before grabbing a bottle of milk for him, "You can be that strong too."

Chopper pushed his hat up and his eyes shown with excitement, "Really! I can be as strong as you?!"

Zoro smiled and nodded, "Of course you can, you just gotta train and you'll eventually be this strong."

Chopper jumped up with a confident look on his face and punching the air, "I'm going to be stronger than you Zoro!"

Zoro smirked, "I'll be waiting for that day then."

Chopper ran off to join Usopp and Luffy as they played around with whatever they found, Nami approached him sighing, "Was it a really good idea to let that octopus go? There's a chance that your situation would come to bite us in the ass later."

Zoro shrugged, "Well, I'll deal with it if it ever came back for us so don't worry about it, it isn't going to be a problem."

Nami grumbled and this and went to join the rest of the crew as Zoro sat alone at the railing gulping down another barrel of sake, once he finished the barrel he leaned back and looked up towards the slowly fading sunlight. He grabbed another barrel and lifted it up towards the last ray of light, "See you on the other side."

He downed the barrel and tossed it aside and moved his gaze towards the rest of his crew for one last look before closing his eyes and falling asleep, things were going to be hectic when he woke up but for now, this little slice of paradise will keep him company.

~A Few Hours Later~

He awoke to a giant jolt and pushed off the barrels that had fallen atop of him, he opened one eye to see what was going on only to find a projectile on track to impale his head, he moved his head to the side at the last second to avoid it. He sighed and opened both eyes and took a look around to find that the Thousand Sunny had landed on Fishman Island, he got up slowly and saw a group of Fishman rushing towards him. He knew what was going to happen and knew exactly what to do, with a groan he jumped off the ship slowly moving towards the group unsheathing his blades. Landing he sways slightly before steadying himself and shooting forward he disarmed them easily before cutting into their Achilles heel to disable them. He shook the blood off his blade before he turned back towards the ship searching for his crew, he found them easily as Luffy was screaming loudly and in his usual excited manner.

He sheathed his blades and slowly headed back towards them, "Are we here?"

Nami emerged from behind the yelling Luffy looking at the log pose, "Yes we have, though with how many Fishman with weapons are rushing towards us it seems this isn't going to be a joyful entrance once again."

Luffy disposed of them easily as Nami started to think of what to do, Zoro zoned out during this and would awaken later when Usopp woke him up telling him that they had stumbled upon Camie and were going to head towards Pappag's house. Zoro was never one too impressed by glamorous homes but even he could admit that Pappag had a very nice house, though he didn't give off and reaction for the rest of the crew to see. As usual Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper rush forward without a care in the world to take in the sights of the new island, Zoro, on the other hand, had decided to wander on his own for a while seeing as this would be the little bit of time before things would go wrong. Wandering around aimlessly brought forth a simple type of joy that Zoro didn't know he had, not the same type of joy as downing endless amounts of Sake or training or sleeping but still joy. Even though he refused to die before achieving his goal and Luffy's goal he knew that he was never going to live out a peaceful life like those around him as no matter what happened he was destined to one die on a battlefield dyed in not only the blood of his foes but his own. But to know that others would be able to live in such a way was comforting as he knew that was most likely what would happen to the rest of the Strawhats after they had completed their goals, he laughed at his own thoughts as he never once thought of such a life for himself as the very idea of him settle down to a peaceful life was just seemed laughable to him as he could never imagine himself living a life free of fighting.

He shrugged the thought off for another day and decided that he had enough sight-seeing for now and turned towards Ryugu palace, even though Neptune would come for the Strawhats soon enough he knew that would turn out badly faster than he wanted to so he would down as much sake as he could and take a nap even faster before he would be forced to fight. Getting to Ryugu palace was a bit more difficult than he expected but he got there regardless headed straight towards the food storages, as he was heading there he would come across a few Fishmen who would panic before returning with the Minister of the Right who would then invite Zoro to join in the banquet. He shrugged and followed after them quickly deciding to let things run there course this time around seeing no need to change anything, he would just enjoy the sake and food given to him for now instead. He had his fill ignoring everyone else that was there including any of his crew that would arrive, it wouldn't be too long before he would awaken again this time in a cage along with Usopp and Brook. He shook his head and stood up ignore the screams of Usopp who was panicking as the water level began to rise, he unsheathed Wado Ichimonji and easily cut through the bars of the cage and walked through annoyed at his now water-soaked shoes he saw Neptune also being held captive and sighed knowing that another annoyance had emerged this time being a very arrogant Fishman, Hody Jones.

He ignored all the chaos around him and made a beeline straight for him, "Ittoryu: Yakkodori!"

Hody laughed at the crescent projectile and grab one of the Fishman standing next to him used his body to block the shot, Zoro knew this was going to happen and instead of being shocked continues in his attack. Zoro heard his speaking but grumbled and ignored every word knowing that it was just going to be another villain monologue that meant absolutely nothing, the water was rising and he knew better than to let a Fishman drag a battle underwater, even if they were technically already underwater. The water was starting to rise above his knee and he this would hamper his movement soon enough so he planned to end this fast, he stopped for a moment and got into a lower stance focusing on his legs, deciding that he would still have a while before getting into any serious fights so he could experiment with a few things. He set fire to his blade and put it into the water curious to see if Ashura's flames would be able to withstand normal water, to his surprise it did and he traced his blade around his foot which made the water around his feet steam, he used this and shot forward practically skating on the water towards Hody.

Hody laughed at him and Zoro laughed back with an attack, "Ittoryu lai: Shi Shishi Sonson!"

The rest of the New Fishman Pirates watched in shock as their leader Hody was easily trounced, Zoro chuckled at this and lifted his foot inspecting the flame that was covering the bottom of his foot. It had weirdly enough changed from it's usual color of black to a more cyan color, he didn't know what it meant but this flame seemed to be less of a destructive flame and more of a power-up that made him faster than he usually was especially on such different terrain. This did beg the question of exactly what else these flames could do and what other types of flames that he could create with the one he currently had, he would think that he had until Luffy and the others arrived at Wano after them to figure everything out. If he took any longer than that it would be dangerous as the war with Kaido would be waging by that time and it would be far too late for him. It was not as much time as he would have wished for but it was still enough time for him to experiment and figure out everything he needed to know about the flames he controlled, though with the added addition of Nazuna it puts a whole new element to the flames he possessed, he would have Nazuna sort that out herself so that would spare more time for his own abilities. He cursed when he noticed that while distracted the water had risen even farther not reaching up to his chest, he waded through the water and heads towards Neptune.

He notices that Neptune is unmoving on his back, "Hey, what's wrong with you? Hody is down for now but we need to get moving, I can't fight to my full capacity underwater, the coward can't really fight, and the skeleton is completely useless once water touches him. Looking at you and your men I don't think you guys can really put up a fight against Hody or his men, so let's get out of here now."

Neptune gave what Zoro assumed was a glare before getting up slowly, he called out for Hoe his whale it wouldn't take a few moments before the creature appeared they all got onto the beast, Zoro waited a bit longer to stay near the tail of the beast. He waited for Hody to appear again and as he expected the Fishman wouldn't give up on his prey that easily and tried to latch onto the tail of the whale to stop them from leaving. He wouldn't allow this to happen, "Sanbyakurokuju Poundo Ho!"

Hody watched the oncoming strike and was stuck between either holding on and getting hit or letting go of his target but avoiding the blow, fear won over leading Hody to let go of Hoe. Zoro sat back still keeping a careful eye on Hody to make sure he wouldn't try anything else but he was focused on the wrong thing as a bunch of Hody's crewmates blocked Hoe from leaving the palace which ultimately annulled his efforts, Zoro growled and went to try blow past them quickly but Hody shot forward trying to catch Zoro off guard. Zoro clicked his tongue in annoyance as he was forced to block the trident which was all the time that Hody's crew needed to bring Hoe crashing down and Zoro back into the water, he shook his head in annoyance and stayed afloat as Hody's crew started rounding everyone up.

Hody swam over to him with a smug look on his face, "I'm going to make you pay for that attack human."

Zoro grunted as they slowly closed in on him, he stayed silent as this happen he kept a careful eye to see if there was any way for him to get out. It would be difficult but it was still possible for him to get out of there, though it would be difficult for the rest of them to escape without him they would still be able to pull it off. He let them get closer before finally making his move, "Kokujo: O Tatsumaki!"

Not only did the attack blow all the Fishmen away it also displaced a large amount of the water enough for Zoro to move as fast as he usually would, with this he finally makes his move taking a deep breath and rushing past everyone. He charges at the wall and ready's an attack, "Ichi Gorilla, Ni Gorilla! Nigori-Zake!"

He burst through the wall with a bang and falls out of Ryugu Palace, he would be lying if he said that he had planned for this part but he wasn't complaining at the moment as he had successfully got away from the New Fishman Pirates or whatever they called themselves. Though he got away from the worst of his current problems it was replaced with the very precarious situation facing him, plummeting from thousands of feet up the air, "Senhachiju Poundo Ho!"

He used the projectile to soften the landing but as much as that reduced the impact it would still rattle his bones as he slammed into the ground, "Ahh fuck! God remind me to never do that again."

Nazuna manifested in front of him, "You do know that you have wings right?"

Zoro got up slowly cracking his neck, "Damn it forgot about them, haven't used them in so long that I didn't even remember that they existed."

He strained his neck to look up and stare at Ryugu Palace for a few moments before shaking his head in annoyance and walking towards Gyoncorde Plaza, the rest of the Strawhats would find their way there eventually so might as well just get their earlier himself and watch the place descend into chaos.

He turned towards Nazuna, "Hide in Luffy's shadow and when they start making their way towards Gyoncorde Plaza come and find me."

Nazuna nodded and immediately broke down into a shadow and disappeared, Zoro looked up at Ryugu Palace one more time before quickly heading towards Gyoncorde Plaza. It wouldn't take him too long to get there and he would climb up one of the buildings surrounding Gyoncorde Plaza. He got to the roof and laid back keeping an eye on the center of the plaza, he glanced back at Ryugu Palace to see if anything had happened since he arrived and though he wasn't able to catch every detail it seemed that a commotion had risen since he left. It wouldn't be much longer before they would arrive but Zoro wouldn't make his move yet, not until Nazuna returned with the news that Luffy had started to head out. He was still uncertain of what to do afterward as he knew Luffy would manage to anger another Yonko, Big Mom, and that was just trouble for everyone, letting events transpire as they did before was less likely to mess with the timeline that he was familiar with but were certain aspects of those timelines truly necessary was something he was uncertain of. He would have the next couple hours to figure out his next course of action but regardless of the answer, he wasn't going to like it.

That's a wrap, I'm really sorry that I put this chapter off for god knows how long but ever since I came back from summer I haven't really had the motivation to write as I did before. That's bad in of itself but the Fishman Island arc was one of the more forgettable arcs for me and I've just been rewatching most of the arc to try to finish this chapter which took even more time than I wanted too but ultimately I got it done, like two months later than I usually would but I digress. Honestly, I feel like I'm just kind of stalling for time since Wano is still going on and that's one arc I really don't want to ruin in any way but there's barely any material for me to work with at the moment and also a problem with Whole Cake Island, cause you know Zoro isn't in that arc at all so I'm kinda brainstorming things to deal with that problem. Once again if you're reading this and enjoy it thank you.