A/N:

I haven't updated this fic for almost two months! That means I haven't procrastinated from real life for almost two months. XD Aren't you proud of me? (And here I am procrastinating again.)

I just realized the beginning part of this chapter can go to the end of the last chapter to make it more even. (It bothers me. XP) I'll move it over when I post more chapters so I don't confuse people on which part they've read and which part they haven't.

So this chapter is from this prompt:

Raigon chapter 30 . Mar 23

Next prompt ...the curse of the sword ...takes over.

Sanji Kitetsu 33

The cursed blade must be completely worn out by the stunt he pulled. By the time Zoro follows Luffy back to Merry, the blond has already turned back into sword form. He remains unresponsive to Zoro's calls, and Zoro decides to let him rest.

Thanks to the blade, the marines nearby are too busy tending to their wounded soldiers and burning ship to come find them in their hiding spot. Since it's already dark, Vivi agrees to spending the night where they are and set sail up a river the next morning. Carmen is still unconscious, and the man who tended to her wounds on the beach, who happens to be Luffy's big brother, left soon after getting her to the ship. The girls take turns watching her while Usopp and Chopper pull together a basic dinner for the crew. Zoro eats in silence, refusing to acknowledge his nakama's wary eyes on his blade. He knows he'll have to address it sooner or later, preferably sooner, considering they're currently on their way to stop a civil war and will more than likely end up in a few tough fights.

Not tonight though. He's not ready for that shit tonight. He heads straight to bed after dinner.

The next time Zoro wakes up he feels his body screaming for air. He instinctively inhales but quickly regrets that decision as the back of his nose burns with the presence of water.

Water.

His eyes snap open in alarm, but all he gets is darkness all around and the irritation of water against his naked eyes. His limbs thrash against the resistance of the cool liquid, desperately trying to orient his body.

"Zoro!"

He hears Usopp's voice and kicks to move closer to it. He breaks the surface of the water after a few moments to find himself floating in the sea beside Merry.

"Shit Zoro, you OK? What were you doing?" Usopp asks as he pulls the swordsman onto the deck with a rope. For a few minutes, all Zoro can do in response is cough and wheeze. He gives up trying to use his voice and raises a questioning eyebrow at the sniper instead.

"Wait, you don't know?" The expression on the sniper's face turns a few shades darker. His eyes wander to the side of Merry, where Zoro finds all three of his blades propped neatly against the railing.

"I was keeping watch and saw you come out of the dorm room. I thought you were going to the bathroom, but you went straight to the railing and took off your swords and jumped in!" Usopp shifts cautiously so that the swordsman is between him and the blades. "Were you dreaming? Can you at least remember what you were dreaming about?"

Zoro presses his eyes shut and continues gasping for air. He does recall hearing a voice before finding himself in water. An unfamiliar voice, deep and booming.

This is a warning. If you hurt him again...

"I'm OK. Probably just sleep walking." He waves at the sniper once his breath is steady. "Thanks. Go back to your watch. I'll get back to bed after I dry off."

He watches as Usopp reluctantly returns to his post before picking up his swords from the railing. His hand pauses when he gets to Kitetsu. The cursed blade is warm to the touch, a clear message that this whole incident was his doing. Not the blond. The blond is still not answering. Someone else is in this blade.

Zoro... Kuina calls, and Yuki hums in agreement to her unrest.

He wants to talk. He wants me to tune him, NOW. The swordsman slides the cursed blade into his haramaki and heads to the bathroom for some privacy.

He locks the bathroom door and drops to the floor, crossing his legs. A few deep breaths, and the room melts away. This time he doesn't find himself in the body of a black haired cook. He doesn't see a cheerful crowd in jumpsuit uniforms. This time he's on top of a large barren rock a couple hundred feet above the crashing waves of sea water in the middle of the day when the heat from the sun burns everything it touches.

"Beautiful place, is it not?"

Zoro turns to find middle aged man sitting at the edge of the rock, one leg dangling over the rim and the other tucked under the thigh. Messy waves of midnight black hair drape over his broad shoulders. He wears a wine red gown, just like the one the blond had on when Zoro found him on the beach this afternoon. Two strong arms poke out from loose sleeves to wrap around the body of a small child no older than seven or eight.

The child is fast asleep curled up in the man's lap. From where Zoro stands to the man's side, he sees golden blond hair with unnatural blotches of black spilling over the man's bent arm. The small body is covered in a tattered white uniform of some kind. One frighteningly thin fist tangles itself in the fabric of the man's gown. The other folds over the child's own chest.

He knows this child. He's-

"Kitetsu..." Zoro mutters to himself.

The man shoots him an angry glare with those blood red eyes through his pair of light sunglasses.

"He was willing to burn his soul just to be with you. The least you could do in return is to know his real name." The man looks down at the child protectively. "His name is Sanji."

"Burn... his soul?... But who are you?" Zoro takes a step forward to take a better look at the boy. He stops dead in his track when he feels the familiar air pressure from a moving blade and realizes that there's one pointing at his neck, an invisible sword.

"I will be the one talking. In case you have not yet comprehended the situation, this is my world. You are here only for as long as you have my permission."

The swordsman feels a light pressure at the front base of his neck. A small prick of pain and the feeling of liquid sliding down his collar bone tells him that the skin is broken. He holds his breath as he feels a small drop of his own blood peel off his neck and sees it float through the air to the boy.

"He might not have enough of his soul left to survive something this reckless again." The man says and lets the implications hang in the air.

"It won't happen again." Zoro answers. "I won't let it."

"I will remember your words. The next time you hurt him, I will wring out every last drop of your blood."

The man glares at him once more, and in a blink Zoro finds himself back on the bathroom floor. He brushes a thumb over the base of his neck and finds it wet with warm blood.

Kuina. He calls. I thought blades don't have souls.

We don't. The white blade hums.

Zoro rests a hand over the still warm sheath of the cursed blade. The blond... the blond is human.

A/N:

More prompts please? XD

And I borrowed a character from Bleach. I think you can tell. XP