A/N: hello it's been a while, idk if theres still people reading here in ffnet but have a great and i hope u like this update

It's been days since Zoro left Kuraigana. The castle was empty without the swordsman. Without him, who would she pester? That warlord? Ha! He doesn't even move a budge on his seat when reading his gothic novels. But Zoro? That idiot wouldn't even pick up a book not unless Mihawk would force him to do it. Well, it's for- etiquette purposes, or that's what the warlord says. But the thing is… That idiotic swordsman— she somehow missed Zoro.

But after he left… Well, Zoro didn't actually really leave all by himself. It was more like Zoro disappeared right in front of Perona and the humandrills.

"Why would he even jump there in the first place? How could he even do that? What an idiot! It wasn't my fault that he jumped! It's Zoro's fault that he jumped right into the river." Perona grumbled to herself. Nothing seemed impossible in the Grand Line so, yeah, it was Zoro's fault. That's why, it should stay between her and the humandrills who saw what happened to Zoro or else she will be using her little ghosts to haunt the humandrills if they tell it to the warlord.

Also, what if the Straw Hat Pirates would come after her if they happen to learn about Zoro? Or worse, Zoro drowning at Kuraigana's river? Oh, for fuck's sake she didn't want to see those Straw Hats coming at her. Not that long nose again!—

"What's bothering you, ghost girl?" Mihawk said, disrupting Perona from her thoughts. The warlord had sensed his companion's uneasiness at tonight's dinner. She has been doing that the past few days ever since the young swordsman had left… no, as he got lost for the hundredth time around Kuraigana.

Perona waved her hands, dismissing him, "N-nothing really!" Perona said as she forced a smile at Mihawk, then resumed eating.

"Suit yourself." The warlord said.

A moment of silence embraced them, then after a while, Perona spoke.

"So… when do you think Zoro will come back?" Perona asked the warlord.

The soft clutter of the warlord's utensils being dropped on his plate made Perona stop on her eating as well. He let out a soft sigh, then the warlord looked at her.

"I thought I already told you? If Roronoa was fortunate enough, then he'll be back in a month or so. You know that kid's sense of direction, ghost girl," Mihawk bluntly replied.

Perona nodded, "Yeah, you're right…"

"I thought you were with him the other day? Why are you even asking me this again?"

Perona flinched. Oh shit. Right, she's been asking him every now and then. Maybe Mihawk was already noticing how she avoids answering his question when it comes to this.

"Umm… Well… He got lost?" Perona said with a hint of panic in her voice. As always, she would reply vaguely to the warlord the past few days. She really wished to the Gods that Mihawk wouldn't see right through or else she might be kicked out of this castle. This castle had been her refuge after Kuma sent her here. She just hoped that she wouldn't leave this place. Oh Mihawk! Have mercy—!

"You're missing Roronoa, are you?"

Perona looked at him with widened eyes, then frantically shook her head.

"Never! Never! Never! W-why would you even ask me that? I'm not missing that idiot…" Perona pouted, yet thought for a while. Maybe the warlord was right… Zoro was such a nice company, a good friend, too. Although she and Zoro were always bickering, he never said that he despised her even though she can be annoying or hates her.

"Fine, maybe I do…" Perona muttered, slinking back on her seat as she calmed down.

Mihawk had smiled at that, yet as faintly as it was, Perona never took notice of it, then, "Like I said, we'll wait for a month for that kid to come back... if Roronoa was lucky enough to go back here." Mihawk finished, resuming eating their dinner that night.

Zoro would have loved their dinner for tonight: pork blood stew.

"We will stop by at the City of Grand Line for a few days so do what you have to do in the city before we go to Ohara."

Robo-Franky's announcement was heard once again around the ship. Another groan came out of Zoro hearing that from the crow's nest. He was hearing that for forty times! Why the fuck Franky let it repeat itself? Groaning, Zoro already decided to get down from the crow's nest, going all the way to the dining room to eat. As Zoro arrived, Sanji was already serving the food on the table while the others were up early as they gathered at the dining room.

A pleasant 'Good morning' coming from Robin and the others greeted him. Although a little bit awkward on his part, he was still greeted with a smile from Robin. Shit, he just hoped that Robin didn't mind what happened last night. Maybe Robin wasn't really overthinking about what happened last night, was she?

Fuck, he just hoped—

"I thought I would repeat the announcement again in order for you to get down here." Franky said with a grin seeing Zoro.

Zoro rolled his eyes at Franky, "Shut up."

He then plopped himself on one of the seats beside Chopper.

As Sanji was serving the food, as always, the cook had served Zoro last. Unlike when he served Nami and Robin, his jovial mood was over the top— rivaling his grimace when he served Zoro. While in the middle of their eating, Robin began to speak.

"I got good news and bad news."

Zoro and the others stopped their eating for a while just to listen to Robin except for when Luffy was busy eating the biggest meat Sanji cooked for today.

"Well, the good news is, we're about to stop by at the city of Grand Line." She said as if mocking Zoro. He had been hearing that for the nth time, there's no need for Robin to repeat yet, he still listened.

"Since Franky said that we can do what we want, then I bet there are resources that I can read stored in my previous workplace about Rustbay. But the bad news is for Zoro..." she considered her words, looking at the swordsman, "You're gonna leave your swords here."

"What?!" Zoro stopped eating, dropping his spoon and fork. He should never leave his swords! never! part of him will die if he happens to do that.

"There's no way you can make me leave them here!"

"Look, Zoro, unlike in Rustbay, they will arrest you for illegally possessing a weapon there. You're lucky the townspeople shrugged it off when you got there."

"But I can't..." Zoro sighed in exasperation, "but what if something happens to my swords?"

Robin gave him a reassuring smile, "You can just leave it at the crow's nest, will that make you reassured?"

"No." Zoro scoffed, this would be the first time he would be irritated at Robin but then, a little hoof came on top of his hand.

Zoro let out a sigh, "Fine, I guess I can just leave my swords."

Robin smiled at him, "Well that settles it, glad you're okay with that."

"I'm not…" Zoro whispered, but Chopper seemed to continue reassuring him.

After their breakfast, one by one, they headed out of the ship all the way to the port. Franky insisted that he and his men from the delivery services will stay there to guard the ship. He gave them a car named, Mini Merry, for them to drive around the city. Even though the car has a name, Luffy marveled but Zoro thought it was the same as the Mini Merry although that's a car.

For some reason, Luffy asked if he could drive a Mini Merry but Robin refused. Although Luffy knows how to drive— like who in their right mind taught Luffy? Well, Robin taught him— so instead of Luffy, Usopp was the one driving Mini Merry.

They haven't even made it inside the city, but then they were immediately greeted by a huge statue that resembles someone Zoro knows.

"Look! A tall man statue!" Luffy shouted, sticking his head out of the window. Chopper also followed him with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Oh, that was Mihawk, a lone swordsman like Zoro. He once stood protecting the city all by himself. With his strong prowess with swordsmanship, he was even asked by the people of Grand Line to be their leader but he didn't accept their offer..." Robin said as Luffy and Chopper listened intently at her.

"That is so cool!" Luffy cooed. This has been his first time being out of Rustbay. Since tall buildings weren't common in Rustbay, it has been a sight for both Chopper and Luffy. After a while, Robin and Zoro were already dropped off to their destination. As the two walked off, Nami nudged Usopp's side, looking at him with raised brows. Usopp grinned but when he already got what she said, his face turned sour.

"Not again," he muttered in his breath. He knew if Nami would look at him like that, for sure she was about to bet on something again.

"What did you say?" Nami glared.

"Nothing… Then fine, how much will be your bet? The two continued on betting but for Chopper, he just stared at the two adults. He didn't understand what they're doing, but he was sure it's connected to Zoro and Robin.

Luffy then looked at two, clearly annoyed that they're taking so long, then, "Enough of that! I wanna eat!" Luffy grumbled on his seat, "Come on, Chopper let's go!" He was about to open the car's door but Sanji was quick enough to drag Luffy's shirt back from him, "You don't even know where you are going, you idiot. You might end up getting lost. Fine. Usopp, let's go find the food place around here."

"Roger that!" Usopp said.

It didn't take them long to find a food court, Nami and Sanji watched from a distance while they waited for the others to come back. Sanji has been thinking about asking Nami something but Nami's sigh interrupted his thoughts.

"I still don't know where Luffy stores that food on his stomach. Like where the hell does it go?" Nami said.

"Don't worry, that's what he is." Sanji smiled at her, holding her hand across the table, reassuring her.

Nami returned his smile, "Yeah… I guess you're right."

"By the way, Nami… There's something I wanted to ask you."

She hummed in response, focusing her gaze at Sanji.

"I know it's been a while since we've talked about this but… what are we?"

Nami just looked at him, then she let out a laugh much to Sanji's surprise, then she said, "We're together, silly. That's what matters, right?"

Sanji opened his mouth, but instead, he just slowly nodded. But that was not he was looking for. Deep inside him, he was looking for something more than that. Like a label of some sort. But, knowing Nami, for sure, she wasn't into that. But to Sanji, he definitely wanted their relationship to be defined… But then a grinning Luffy startled Sanji, as always, when she saw him scrambling all the way towards them, "Nami! Sanji! Food is here!"

"Luffy, I told you don't go running, we don't want—" Usopp bumped into someone, and a tall beautiful lady glared at him.

"Watch it!" The lady exclaimed, yet eventually left in a hurry.

"Damn! Calm down, lady!" Usopp grumbled, but the lady was already out of earshot.

"Are city folks like that woman?" Usopp grumbled. To his relief, the food on his hands left unscathed, and didn't fall off of his hands. He knew Luffy couldn't trust Luffy holding their food, and he knew Luffy wouldn't hold the food properly.

Even though Luffy just arrived at their table, he stood up, rushing to where the meat store was located.

"I'm gonna go ahead and order more meat!" Luffy said even though Usopp had already set their food on the table.

"Why would you order— Hey! Come back here!" Sanji shouted but Luffy was already within earshot.

"You couldn't stop that idiot." Nami sighed, already tired of Luffy's childish antics.

However, while they were busy stressing at Luffy, they didn't notice that Chopper was nowhere to be found.

As Robin said earlier, they were heading to Robin's former workplace. Seeing the building in front of him, this would definitely stand out around the high-rise buildings. Unlike the surrounding tall buildings that were constructed with sleek, modern architecture, Zoro noted that it has tall columns on the outside and it looked like it stood erect for many millennia— obviously he wasn't that well versed in architecture.

A cheery brown-haired woman was waiting at them as they entered the hall.

"Robin!" The brown immediately hugged Robin as soon as they were led in the archives. "I couldn't believe you were really back here so soon! I really missed you, Robin!" She hugged Robin but then she spotted the green haired man behind Robin.

With a smirk, Koala whispered at Robin, "Who's that? He seemed cute, Robin."

"Ah, that's the swordsman I found sleeping on a bench in Rustbay." Robin giggled.

"Ah… Rustbay things." Koala chuckled, cheekily glancing at the swordsman.

"I heard that." Zoro muttered.

"By the way, Koala, how's the archives doing?"

"It's been good! We kinda missed how you used to work here. But I think it's okay, it's your decision. You know, sometimes, Sabo would ask me when will you come back." And just in time, a blonde man with a scar arrived, Zoro thought this was Sabo.

"Nico Robin! I never thought that you would come here again!" Sabo grinned and gave Robin a welcoming hug.

It's been a while and the three of them caught what Robin was up to. Koala and Sabo weren't surprised that Robin had already built herself a flower shop because since then, Robin has been fond of growing flowers. Good thing she had found a way to spend her time doing what she loves. If Robin had found her passion in flowers, then, why not? And as a friend, they will support what she's been doing.

Since Robin had already told Koala that they needed something in the archives, they headed there. more to this

Now Koala had left them in the library, Zoro felt like a puppy following Robin around. He honestly didn't know what to do. When Robin was looking for a book, Zoro followed her as well. In every shelf Robin would look, Zoro, on the other hand, would skim the covers of the book even though he didn't know what titles they were looking for. It wasn't necessary to look for information, he just did it just to feel like he was doing something.

Although it took them an hour just to look at what they're looking for, Robin got the reading materials she needed, and settled on one of the tables to begin reading them. Most of those were about Rustbay, and honestly this was the first time she had done research about the place. There would be newspapers, books stacked in front of her. This would definitely take her a day or two to read them. Flipping through the reading materials, what caught her eye was an excerpt from an article in one of the journals. The phenomenon that caught the attention of most Oharan scholars, world's renowned group of archeologists.

It read:

A time of celebration— everything had been okay that night of the festival. As flickering flower lanterns, and the ever so jubilant townspeople and tourists have come to celebrate the Floraleigh festival. Everything seemed fine that day. Nothing was wrong, nothing seemed to look suspicious. But one thing had happened on that island. A strange phenomenon had occurred that attracted most of the Oharan scholars. The world didn't know about this phenomenon, except for the Oharan scholars, the people of Rustbay, and those who were nosy enough to learn what happened in the disappearance in Rustbay

As she started reading the first paragraph, Robin was drawn curious. Disappearance? She hadn't known of this… So, it happened in Floraleigh? But what could have happened that day? Perhaps the article would explain more. Continuing, it said:

There was one mysterious disappearance that happened that last day of Floraleigh. At the same time of lighting the flower lanterns, there was a man named Manuel Balderrama that was never found. How could it even be connected to the strange phenomenon in Rustbay? Since there are traditional people in the town, most people speculated that he left his family. That could be a valid reason. But to those people who couldn't get enough of making up rumors, with that said, Manuel's disappearance was the one that lead Oharan scholars to investigate the town…

As Robin was still busy reading Zoro, he just stared at the stacked books right in front of Robin. How can she even do that? Reading all of those without getting bored. He sighed, then what should he do? Stare at it until it reads for him? Nah, he wasn't in the mood to read. Tracing his hands on each one of the pages, he pretended that he was reading just to mimic Robin… that's something. He still didn't know why he would even join Robin here in the first place. Honestly, he would rather be in another place than being in the archives. He wasn't even that interested in books but since this was Robin, he thought that he would let it slide. As frustrating as it was for him, how does she even do that? But, seeing Robin so focused. When Robin couldn't even remove her eyes as she read those, carefully analyzing each word— suddenly, he forgot his unwillingness to be inside the archives.

…But up until now, it was still a mystery up until this day. No one has yet drawn their conclusion…

"Zoro, come read this. It looks like something was— Zoro? What are you looking at? Is there something wrong?" she asked him, snapping Zoro from his musings.

Zoro blinked. Shit he was daydreaming again, then, "Uh…There was a stain on your face." He blurted out all of a sudden.

"Huh, where?"

Zoro stood up on his seat and across the table, he moved his hands, gently caressing her face with his calloused hands.

"Right here." He said as he brushed the so-called stain. Although there wasn't any stain at all, Zoro wouldn't admit to himself that he just used it as an excuse to hold her face. He couldn't even move away nor step back. He got that urge to tuck in those stray hair on her ear, yet refrained himself.

"Now it's gone." He finally said after standing for a few seconds before he dropped his hand, and slinked back to his seat, resuming to take a peek at the books in front of him.

Robin just nodded. She didn't want his hand to move away from her face— What's gotten to her the past few days? Robin, get ahead of yourself. This was just Zoro. As always, Zoro was just being nice… wasn't he? Yet his hand, she wanted his hand once again to touch her face, gazing at her like that… Stop it, Robin. Good thing Robin mastered hiding her emotions— with her calm demeanor, she never showed what she was feeling inside. She shook away those feelings, and proceeded once again on reading the books in front of her.

"Hey Robin, I think you need to see this—" Koala arrived but stopped on her tracks seeing the two. As Robin's friend for years, she definitely knew there was really going on between these two. Friend, my ass. Koala shook her head as she silently dropped the book on the table. She will just let those two enjoy their moment. Even though Robin hasn't yet told her anything, she kinda knows what's going on in her friend's mind. But unless Robin will clarify anything to her, probably that was just nothing. She wouldn't want to jump into conclusions, so maybe it's best to say for now that Robin and Zoro are friends… unless?

Since Robin knew that Zoro was getting bored in the archives, she insisted that they should go out to walk around. As Zoro was trailing behind Robin, he felt someone tugging his shirt, and spoke softly, "Sir Zo? Is that you?"

Zoro stopped in his tracks, he saw a woman with turquoise hair.

"Do I know you?" He asked the woman.

The woman seemed to be surprised, when he saw his face. She just shook her head, saying, "Oh pardon, I thought you were someone I knew. I'm sorry, mister." She bowed her head and quickly excused herself.

Zoro was confused by that woman. From her appearance she was dressed with casual clothes, yet judging the way she speaks, probably she was born oriental of some sorts.

Robin looked behind her shoulders, sensing that Zoro halted on walking, then, "Do you know that woman?" Robin asked.

Zoro shook his head, "Nah, maybe she just mistaken me for someone she knew."

Ignoring what happened, the two continued on walking even though they didn't know where they were going. However, for Zoro, he once again sensed something behind his back. He looked around, searching for someone suspicious... Yet, there's no one or so he thought. He continued to walk, trailing behind Robin. When he was about to relax, someone was running towards them. Kind of like he was aiming for Robi—

"Shit!"

Zoro quickly pushed Robin out of the way, blocking the attacker's attempt to slash Robin with a dagger. Why would they even have a dagger? Wasn't this not allowed? He scoffed, that doesn't matter. At least he was fast enough to unsheathe his pocket knife. Good thing he had his pocket knife or else! Zoro immediately tackled the stranger on the ground, putting his pocket knife against the attacker's neck.

"Who the hell are you?" Zoro scowled. Zoro couldn't identify who they were as the stranger was blocking their face with a mask. Yet, they matched Zoro's strength. With the attacker's prying hands, they managed to shove away the knife pointed at his neck. As dumb as it was, the masked stranger spit on Zoro's face, grasping free from Zoro's hands— which is effective, that he quickly ran away from Zoro.

"What the hell was that attack for?! Gross!" Zoro shouted, then followed the attacker on his way.

Robin was on the verge of processing what just happened more to this, "Zoro, wait—!" Robin shouted.

Yet, Zoro didn't obey Robin nor hear her since he was already on his way catching up to that stranger. Why would they even try to kill Robin? Robin didn't even mention that someone was after her. Was that her life in the city of Grand Line that's why she moved out, and lived peacefully in Rustbay? He let out a sigh, but first, things first. He needed that stranger to speak up. He will pay for that! Zoro still went to trail behind the stranger. Good thing, his reflexes were still in shape as he squeezed past through strangers along the way. Yet, Zoro was still from afar. Then, all of a sudden, the stranger leapt from one building to another, startling other citizens on the sidewalk.

"Shit if only I really have my swords." He grumbled as he followed them. Still, a pocket knife will do the trick. He smirked while eyeing his prey. As soon as his eyes had landed on them, he unsheathed his pocket knife on his legs, hoping it would maim his prey.

"Ichitoryu!"

Zoro swung his knife as its slashing wind maimed their leg despite his mere blade. They were about to jump on another building but they failed as their legs dropped them on the ground. It was a nasty fall from the roof, but, as lucky as they were, they landed on a garbage bin. Zoro moved fast to where the attacker was situated.

"Let's see who the fuck are you—" Once he unveiled their mask, Zoro never looked horrified and amazed at the same time when he saw who it was.

The attacker looked exactly like him.

end notes: see you next update!