I'm back!

Sorry for the loooong fucking delay. Had been kinda stuck in life, had to get my shit together. I hope I didn't lose you all.

Finaly new chapter is here, I really hope you enjoy reading it, tried to make it a longer one.

PS: Taki Kemora's hairstyle is similar to Worick Arcangelo from anime named Gangsta, but dark purple

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

Chapter 14

"Here you go," says the bartender as he fills the mans glass with rum for third time that night. "Thanks," the man mumbled and took a trembly sip. Honestly he was quite surprised the guy's still conscious after drinking so much. Like, normaly three would be okay, but this was rare high quality alcohol he was having there, people went belly up seeing stars after just half a glass sometimes, and even tho he seemed to be close to having his head bumped on the bar, he was still holding on. Shaking his head the bartender walked to attend another costumer.

The reason Roronoa Zoro's head was bouncing up and down wasn't the strong rum. He was hella sure of that, no alcohol could ever get to him. And yet here he was, embarrasingly close to a drunken state.

It was a true mistery to Zoro.

He suspected the bartender to have spiked the drink with a drug at first. Then he let the thought go, he saw no way the man would profit from it. He realised that it was probably the pulls acting up, fucking up his tolerance. Shitty thing.

He was getting weaker and weaker as the time passed. It wasn't as quick as before thanks to the amulet, but it was still very noticeable. Which pissed him the fuck off. He was such a burden for the crew, and if he wasn't one now he definitely will become one in the future. He wasn't so sure of his own worth as a worrior. All he wanted right now was to just leave them. Simply continue by himself. Or even better give up and become a fucking monster. To stop causing trouble for everyone.

He's such a coward. That was SO unlike him that it made him disgusted at himself. He drank what was left in the glass and ordered another.

Some long-ass glass containing green substance came to him along with his rum. "Attention from the man over there." A weird guy from the other end of the bar-table waved at Zoro with a smile. Zoro just ignored him and drinked his rum ignoring the questionable green liquid as well.

Shortly after he heard a voice from behind him. "It would be a shame to leave it here, the drink is pretty good."

Zoro flinched looking at the man with dark purple hair currently sitting down on a bar-chair beside him. He could see the scarres on the man's exposed neck and arms, and even tho the guy tried to hide them, Zoro could make out silhouettes of some sort of bladed weapons through his black coat. All in all, a suspicious and possibly dangerous person, the swordsman better not let his guard down.

He pulled one eyebrow up suspiciously. "Cannot say I don't agree, every alkohol should get their chance. But I'm going to have to leave it be, seeing as I do not know the man that bought it for me."

The guy smirked at him and held out his hand. "Let's fix that then. Taki Kemora."

Zoro didn't smile back, but shook the hand as not to seem rude. It was rought and calloused. Strong grip. "Anthony Hadley." wow, the name Usopp gave my alter-ego sounds even shittier then it had before. If the Ero-baka ever hears this, I'm gonna die. But not before killing them both first. "Knowing each other's names still won't make any different tho."

Kemora seemed to think about it before nodding. "How about this then, I'll drink half of it first to show you that it's safe."

Zoro thought about it and agreed. It was highly unlikely that someone would drink something they drugged first. They could have taken the antibody tho... Well whatever, he was strong against drugs.

Kemora took the drink and brougt it to his lips, winking at Zoro before sipping it slowly, every gulp audible and loud. Zoro swallowed as Kemora narrowed his eyes and hummed, seemed like the alkohol really was as good as said. He watched the man gulped down his half and put the drink in front of the moss-man licking his lips. Zoro locked his eye with Kemora's red ones as he took the glass and drunk his half. They were very enticing, the red color swirling and spinning, glowing, luring him in. The swordsman couldn't tear his gaze away. He started feeling lightheaded. The eyes were beautiful. Soon everything around him faded away, the tables and chairs, the bar, the laughing drunks, even Taki himself, the only thing left were those alluring red eyes.

no!...

Zoro frowned. What the fuck?

No!...

Something was whispering at him. He tried listening but was too focused on red glow of the eyes to-

NO!

The amulet in his pocket vibrated, warming up, making him blink and tear his eye away.

For a moment nothing happened.

And then Zoro dropped the glass and immediately darted out of the pub via front door. The strawhat run through the dark alleyways as fast as he possibly could, to get his swords from their carriage. He was in big trouble and he knew it. He only knew one other person with eyes like those, almost identical. A person that awoked fear in him when he was a child, a person that died long ago. He took few twists and turns, running faster. Fuck! Zoro thought. I need my swords AND QUICK!!!!

He reached the end of the aleyway and...

...stopped.

The street ended there with a wall.

A dead end.

"Aww, are you lost, lion's cub?"

Turning around Zoro glared at the fucker. He was slowly making his way to Zoro, eyes shining slightly in the dark, grinning like a devil. Zoro didn't answer, just glared some more. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted two fallen metal poles. He grabbed them and growled dangerously at Kemora.

Taki chuckled. "Don't be so angry, cub. I am not here to kill you. My master wants to talk to you first." Zoro didn't answer again, spinning and swinging the pole around, testing it out. Taki watched him before licking his lips. "He said to bring you alive." He flexed his fingers, scanning Zoro from head to toe. "But didn't say anything about how."

Zoro attacked immediately, barely letting the fucker finish talking. He jumped to the left and ran up to Kemora, quickly swinging his pole at his knees. As expected Kemora jumped up to avoid the metal, leaving himself open for Zoro to attack him with the other while in the air. Before the pole ripped his head off though, Taki blocked it with left forearm, kicking his legs downwards, pinning the second pole to the ground. Nails of his left arm grew into long thin claws as he swung them towards Zoro's face, aiming for his eyes. Zoro let go of the pinned down pole and moved back to avoid having his one good eye slashed out. Taking few back-steps he took defensive stance holding his remaining weapon with both hands, ready to take a blow from Kemora...

...who dissapeared from where the strawhat left him.

What!? Zoro looked around nervously not leaving the defensive pose. Where the fuck-

He left his trail of thoughts and swung the pole behind his back just in time to block Taki's claws. "Shit!" Zoro growled digging his heals into the dirt to hold the block. Kemora was unhumanly strong making the swordsman struglle - expecially in his current shitty state. He was too slow to stop the other clawed hand from stabbing him in his back, all four almost emerging on his front. Zoro grunted in pain, coughing out some blood. "Dishonest bastard!"

Taki chuckled again, wiggling his fingers around, causing more pain and blood to pour out of the wounds, before pulling them out sharply, blood splatting everywhere as he did. Taki sniffed it and grinned impossibly wide, bringing one claw to his mouth, licking down the blood. Zoro used him being distracted to turn around and attack Kemora, aiming for his head again, this time succesfuly hitting it, the metal digging into the flesh and scull. The force of the impact destroyed good half of Kemora's head, pieces of bone, flesh and brain splatting aroud. But Zoro sighed softly in relief, despite the sight, being already used to it. Partly.

The relief was shortlived though, as the swordsman's brows furrowed, eye wide in shock.

Kemora, totaly unfazed, licked the rest of Zoro's blood off his fingers, swallowing with pleasured moan. Zoro watched with rising fear as the wound slowly healed.

"I knew it. So SWEET."

He didn't waste any more time, turned around and run. He was right about the eyes. Well, fuck.

As Zoro rounded the corner he started feeling dizzy, head spinning. And not because of the pulls, or because of the wound, staining the green silk of his shirt red. Zoro remembered now, Kemora drunk the from the drink before giving it to Zoro. And he was so damn stupid to slurp up the rest happily along with the bastards poison.

He continued running a bit further, but his legs felt more and more rigid the more he ran, his arms stiffening, fog slowly covering his mind. Gritting his teeth he ducked another corner, before hiding behind a pile of boxes. Feeling his panicked heart beating itself out his chest, the swordsman knew that Kemora's going to find him. I'm probably going to pass out before he even gets here. His eyelid felt heavy, his body numb. He didn't have much time before getting found either. I have to let the others know what's going on...

Sanji walked into the third pub this night, staring around, all the while mumbling curses about green Neanderthals.

He was tasked with finding the angsty algae, and knowing the guy Sanji was currently going through all the bars and pubs in Koluka. After the performance he did with Brook, Marimo dissapeared to the backstage and never came out to them. At first the gave him some space and went drinking to the agreed table, but as he wasn't coming out Robin-chan used her powers to look in there and frowned, saying he's gone. She tried discreetly looking around for him, but didn't see him - for she didn't want to look inside the buildings just in case. They got worried and wanted to go search but half the crew was too drunk or kid - looking at luffy - to walk around without getting lost themselves. And seeing as Sanji and Savannah drunk least...

...so now he's here. The cook walked over to the bartender who looked up from cleaning a glass. "Can I help you?"

"Actualy," Sanji said looking around some more. "Have you seen a green-haird man around here by any chance? He's around my high."

The barmen put the glass down taking another and nodded. "I indeed have."

Sanji looked up hopefuly. "Oh, really? And do you know where he might be?"

"Hm...I'm not sure. He spent some time here, drinking rum. Strong stuff, got him quite drunk." Sanji raised one eyebrow scepticly at that. "After three glasses a man ordered him a drink."

Dangerous. Definitely suspicious. "Did he drink it?"

"Well, at first he pushed it away, but then the man came to sit beside him. They talked for a while, obviously coming to some kind of agreement. The man drunk first then gave it to the green one who drunk the rest."

The cooks frown deeper. Stupid moss, that hardly proves anything. What the hell... He's not usualy this reckless.' He looked to the bartender to prompt him to talk more."Then... weirdly mr. green-hair just shot up and run out to who knows where. Just like that, without paying." he shaked his head. "Fortunately the man payed for him as well."

"Thank you for your time." The bartender nodded and Sanji left. At least, now he had some clues.

The cook decided to look around a bit near the pub first. As he walked the streets he met up with Savannah-chan. Explaining her the situation she frowned uncomfortably.

"This is still a bit too soon to have been found out." she mused. "I just hope he's fine..."

After a while and few corners they found themselves in a dead end of a street. The scene completely crushed her hopes.

There was blood, flesh and what looked like bones everywhere. Savannah made a grimace and turned to a wall to vomit her shock out.

Sanji took in the horrifying sight. Oh no. What the hell Zoro, you better be okay.

He gave a quick check up look to Savannah and proceded to look around a bit more. He then saw a trail of blood, leading away from the place, to a different aleyway then the one they came from.

He followed it around untill it stopped. Glancing around, something hit his eyes. Something shiny on the floor. Comming closer he picked up a golden earing reflecting the moonlight, a dropp of blood visible on it. Sanji's eyes widened. Zoro. He inspected the area where the earing was, his heart dropping. Drawn by blood the was a text on the stone wall. Got caught by a bat. Meet you later. Go!

Sanji sqeezed the earing in his hand, growling furiously. "Fuck!!"

to be continued...