Chapter 12 – Crossing
-Zoro-
"Are you ready, sweetie?" He was asked by a well-known voice.
"Almost." He lied and looked down in horror at those shoes. The dress, the bra, the hair, he kind of accepted all of those things, had to accept them. But those shoes…
The dried blood of the last day had turned the inside almost completely black. He hated this pain sensitivity of his new body.
He remembered one long gone day, when he had tried to chop off his own feet. He swore it hurt less that time than wearing those shoes. Miserable he stared at those innocent torture tools.
The housekeeper chose that moment to rush in, like the happy tornado she always was.
"The dress fits you amazing. But we should cover up your décolleté with some scarf. No one should see those nasty bruises. Downstairs I have some… oh my dear child."
He did not say anything, which was not even necessary. The housekeeper's eyes slid from his feet to the dirty shoes and back, before she nodded serious, disappeared for a moment and showed up seconds later with some flat shoes.
"Luckily I do have some other shoes as well. Seira already told me, you had a tough time wearing heels yesterday. Those should fit you. But you need to wear some tights."
"What?"
She laughed.
"You will be fine, but we need to hurry up, before the lord grows impatient."
"Well, he can't grow any more, can he?"
But he did let the housekeeper do, whatever she wanted. It was easier than fighting; her bullhead was stronger than his, which impressed him actually. After minutes of pulling and tearing at him, he fled.
"Wait up, my dear, your hair."
"It's okay! Thank you, have a nice day."
He hurried down the stairs and down the hallways into the kitchen, where he found the Shichibukai reading the newspaper.
"Get up! We need to leave now before she wants to put make up on me again."
Slightly surprised the older one looked up and just met his view.
"Are you deaf? Let's get moving!"
He grabbed the other ones arm and pulled him outside.
"Move it, Hawk Eyes!"
"Stop yelling, you annoying little brat. And I told you to call me Mihawk!" The older one answered unnerved. Surprised he turned around.
Yawning bored the elder followed him slowly and put his strange hat on, coat and sword already present.
Grumbling low he waited for the Shichibukai to catch up.
"So, what's the real deal?"
"Hu?" The older one looked down at him with one eye.
"Kanan might believe we're visiting Sarue, but spit it out now: What's really going on?"
The black haired one folded his arms behind his head.
"Like I said, the deal is Sarue."
"Let it be, Hawk Eyes. What's the actual plan?"
Before he could even react, a big hand grabbed his shoulder.
"For the last time." The Shichibukai growled at his ear, making him shiver.
"We visit Sarue and you call me Mihawk, stupid brat."
Confused he looked up.
"What's wrong with you? It's just your name, not an insult. You call me Roronoa all the time, so where's the difference? And why are we wasting a whole trainings day for visiting some damn island? Aren't you the one, who hates wasting time?"
Hawk Eyes let go of him and walked on.
"You are a real pain in the neck. Sometimes you drive me mad."
The Shichibukai sighed. "I never know, if you are simply stupid and just talk this way to annoy me or if you are simply slow-witted."
Mad he followed him. "Hey! You…"
"Very well, I shall explain it to you. But I expect you to remember it with your little piece of brain."
They had already reached the clearing. Just now he heard the singing birds and felt the soft warmness of the first summer days, mixed with some fresh spring wind. It was actually a nice day to spend outside.
"Like I said, we will continue your training tomorrow." The Shichibukai said finally and waited for him. "This is why I would like to use this day to take a look at the island, where your crew will arrive within the next month. After all we are planning an ambush."
His voice was filled with evilness and his deadly grin heated the usually cold facial features.
"It would be smart to arrange some advantages for us."
"Nothing without strategy." He commented sarcastically.
"So that's the whole, big reason behind it? Quite a procedure."
"There is another reason to it."
"Aha." He only answered and watched the small village show up.
"It is possible that someone lives at this island, who could actually help you to obtain your former body."
Suddenly he got tense.
"Really?"
Hawk Eyes nodded.
"I had almost forgotten him, but when you talked with Sarue's mayor yesterday I remembered this strange person. Banri or something like that was his name. He is the owner of the library and if somebody has knowledge about Incarnation and Reincarnation, it would be him."
In silence they walked through the village, each of them caught in their own thoughts, ignoring the active village life around them. People hurrying to work, building up market stalls. Children running to school. The villagers seemed happy.
But Zoro did notice the way they fell silent and change the street's side, as soon as they noticed the two pirates. He was used to those kinds of looks, but for the first time in years he did not like them.
"The fault is not on you." The calm voice of the Shichibukai said.
And then he realized it. Those looks were not meant for him, but for the tall man by his side. He realized as well, that fear and a little bit disdain was written in the villager's faces. The swordsman grew up with those people, but yet they did not like him around. He knew those looks. He was never bothered by them, but now they bothered him very much. Even the warm sunlight could not fight the cold within him. He shielded his eyes with his hand and looked up at the other one with big eyes.
"You don't care?" He asked finally.
For another time the swordsman looked down at him. A soft smile warming his striking features and he stroked his beard like he was in thoughts.
"I am not here because of the villagers. I do not care for their thoughts."
Zoro looked down.
"But you care for me calling you Mihawk?" He asked sudden.
The Shichibukai laughed softly.
"I explained it to you just yesterday, little greenhorn."
Zoro folded his arms, while a warm wind pulled at his thin scarf.
"Yeah, but I thought that was just because of the other people."
"You are indeed slow on the uptake, my dear Roronoa." The other one said grinning and shuffled his hand through Zoro's hair, only to pull it back before Zoro could slap him away.
"My God, the grass of your head is almost burning."
"What the hell?" He hissed, but the Shichibukai already crossed the street, not even waiting for him, going to a little booth.
"At least listen when I'm yelling at ya!" He yelled and followed the black haired one. It was impossible for him to read the other one's mind.
The elder talked with a saleswoman, thanking her as Zoro reached him.
"Here you go." He grinned and placed a white hat on Zoro's head.
"Before your grass turns to hay."
Mad he stared at Hawk eyes.
"The hat suits you perfectly, young lady." The girl behind the booth smiled friendly.
He met her view in panic. For a moment he wanted to stuff that hat down her throat, but with those weak arms he would probably fail. So instead he bowed swiftly.
"Thank you. You shouldn't have done that, Dulacre." He ended with a daring voice.
"Everything for you, my lovely Loreen." The Shichibukai answered with the same voice. "So may we head for the ferry?"
"Ferry?" He asked, while the other one had already grabbed his wrist and dragged him down the street.
"What're ya doing? You know what this looks like?" He murmured and tried to pull his hand away, obviously not able to free it.
"I like it." The other one suddenly said without looking at him, when the first sea breeze greeted them.
"Ro-ro-noa. I like the way it sounds, that's it."
The Shichibukai was still heading to the haven, looking at the ocean. "And I do not like Hawk Eyes."
The older on let go of him and continued their way.
"I like Hawk Eyes." Zoro whispered almost unheard and knew that those golden eyes were placed at him.
"Hawk Eyes means fighting, winning, becoming stronger, never giving up."
For a moment only the wind talked.
"There is the ferry for Sarue." The Shichibukai changed the topic and reached out for his hand again. This time Zoro bit down the unfriendly words, already crawling up his throat, and simply held onto his stupid hat.
At the end of the rack was an old man waiting for them, waving his arm.
"Hurry up guys. Time is money and I want to be on time." He yelled, already unlocking the fold-out wood-bridge. He stopped, when they were only a few meters away.
"Oh my, Master Dracule Junior. I haven't seen you for years." The old man bowed deeply. "The last time you were with the beautiful lady Sharak. You were much shorter and had to carry all her shopping bags. It's been an eternity, hasn't it? And now you're all grown up and accompanied by such a lovely lady." He babbled on.
Zoro looked up at the Shichibukai who did not even bother to glance at the elder.
"Yes." He answered stiff and led the girl up the bridge.
The ferry man bowed again.
"I'm sorry for my thoughtless words. I'm sorry for your loss. Your sister and the honorable Misses Mihawk were truly enrichments for our islands."
The young pirate was already up the wooden bridge. In his back he could feel the folded arms of his teacher, who did not even reply to those words.
The ferry was filled with people, some of them obviously on business trips, trading people and other folks, wearing suits. All of them sat on simple benches and talked eagerly about unimportant topics, like the weather or the news. But as soon as they saw the newest addition for their traveling group they fell silent for a heartbeat, before whispering exited.
Their curious eyes were already annoying, so Zoro walked down the alley until he reached the end of the ferry. The last two benches faced the other direction than the other ones and were not sheltered by the roof anymore, so they had already lost their darkblue color, but Zoro liked them, because he could watch the ocean.
The cursed pirate sat down at the left of both benches and already regretted he forgot to grab a coat, before leaving. The ocean breath was cold and his slim body was shivering within seconds, wearing only the thin dress.
Mad over his own stupidity he folded his arms. He was ridiculous.
The Shichibukai leaned against a pillar next to Zoro's bench, which was supporting the old roof of the ferry. He pulled out the newspapers and started reading, despite the biting wind pulling at his paper.
After a while he sighed silently.
Meanwhile Zoro starred at the ocean, ignoring his freezing body. Early this day he had woken up, sure he heard his captain calling for him. Nonsense of course. Nothing more than a desperate dream and so he watched the waves almost craving. He would never thought that those blue motions would fill him with so much nostalgic.
Suddenly his shoulders were touched by something warm and then he was covered by the heavy coat of the Shichibukai.
"What…?" He asked indignant. Dracule sighed again.
"Your chattering teeth are irritating. Remember to bring a coat next time, if the cold bothers you so much." The older one murmured calm, without looking up.
"I never asked for your help." The green head growled mad, holding his ugly hat.
"On the contrary, you did. Kneeling if I recall it correctly." Hawk Eyes answered relaxed and turned his pages, before sighing again.
"What's wrong this time?" Zoro asked annoyed and looked up to the other one, who folded the newspaper with thin lips.
"Nothing. It seems the news has too much time to spare." He murmured and folded his arms.
Obviously he did not want to talk about it.
Not really interested in it, Zoro let the topic drop and crossed his arms as well, shoving his shaking hands deep inside the warm coat.
So the minutes passed in mutual silence, only disturbed by conversation pieces of the other travelers, drifting to them on and off. Their talks were really superficial and not few seemed to be about the strange couple at the end of the ship.
Zoro tried to ignore their stupid babbling, but in his mind he was already grabbing Hawk Eyes' sword and slicing up some bodies. Yet he knew, he would not be able to actually fight with that sword, so it would be anything but smart. Well on the other hand he never really had needed a sword to make his point clear. Some simple words, supported by well-meant clouts should be just fine.
He inhaled sharply and stood up, already searching for the right comment, to his surprise the Shichibukai left his spot and went towards him.
"Let them talk, Roronoa." He said calm, placing a hand at Zoro's shoulder before passing him and leaning against the rail, looking at the ocean.
"The folks here lead a simple life, a boring life. Except for the news they have nothing to gossip about. Do not waste your energy on them. You will probably never see them again."
The greenhead folded his arms and regarded the other's sword before answering.
"But aren't they your folks? I mean you grew up with them. They shouldn't talk about you like this. After all, your name protects them."
Hawk Eyes tilted his head back, looking at the sky.
"It is neither my duty nor my responsibility to educate strangers. This island is protected by my family's name. Its inhabitants hold no importance to me."
"Still, it's your name written on that shield at the harbor, not your father's one." Zoro mumbled and leaned his back against the rail. He could see heads flipping forward, as he gazed down the rows of benches.
"Say." He said after some more passing moments, pulling the big coat closer and taking that stupid hat of before it was blown away. "I noticed, you got kinda a strange name, your old man as well. Gat or something like this was his name, wasn't it? And your's Mihawk."
"Thank you for reminding me of my name, I had almost forgotten it."
"No, seriously. Your name is really odd compared to the other ones in this area, but not your sister's. Hers was Sharak and your mum's was… What was it again?"
The older one sighed.
"About all the things you could ask me. All the important matters of life, you chose this topic to spend your interest on?" The Shichibukai looked down at him for a second. He put his forearms on the rail and watched the Island they just left getting smaller. Silence greeted them.
"Taruchie." He murmured finally. "My mother was named Taruchie."
Zoro nodded, more to himself than to the other one.
"So why's your name different."
The other one sighed again, making him look so much older.
"I was given the name of my father's grandfather. My sister had the one of our grandmother motherliness. Dracule is my mother's family name. She met my father when he was stationed here. They fell in love and he took her name. Another way to climb up the ladder. It was important to him that I would follow his path, so he gave me this name."
Zoro's fragile fingers followed his stupid hat's hem, thinking. He did believe he knew everything about the greatest swordsman in the world that he needed to know. After all he was chasing the other man's title almost his entire life. But in the end he didn't knew anything. Anything at all.
"So your old man must be damn proud of you. Being the greatest swordsman and all. Your father cared for that, didn't he?"
Once again he watched the other travelers, their conversations loud enough to cover up the silently exchanged words between the swordsmen.
The Shichibukai laughed cold.
"Hardly so." He meant in a bitter tone.
"What do you mean?" Zoro asked. He would be damn proud, if one day his kiddo would reach that title.
"My dear Roronoa." The Shichibukai sighed, almost drowned in the ocean breeze.
Zoro took that as an answer and stopped questioning. His eyes were stuck at his annoying hat.
"Everyone liked Sharak." Zoro said no word, while the other one talked. "She was beautiful, intelligent and always happy. A real prodigy." The voice of the Shichibukai was caught in deep thoughts.
"And she was the best swordfighter you can imagine."
Zoro grumbled in approval.
Mihawk sighed for another time and laid his head on his arms, like it was too heavy to carry it any longer.
"She was six years older than me and did not care for politics, arts or culture. She did not like to read or to behave. But the moment she reached for a sword, she was unbeatable. When I was eleven, she defeated my father easily and after him many well-known navy fighters. She was my family's pride. How I wished to have at least half of her talent. But I could never keep up with her. She meant everything to my father."
"Aha." The greenhead could not think of something better to say. This girl did not sound like someone he would like. He had nothing left for people born with a silver spoon and raised like little kings and queens.
"I loved my sister." Those words kind of surprised him, though.
"What? Why?" He asked before he started thinking. But Hawk Eyes was oblivious to his sarcasm.
"Although she was strong and bold, she was unbelievable naïve as well in matters of the daily life. I cannot count the times she was crying over some stupid guy she fell in love with. She never understood why it was important for the likes of us to learn about politics, trading or why my father insisted that both of us would join the navy. I doubt she ever understood the act of piracy. People killing or robbing other ones made no sense for her."
He sighed again.
"That was why her younger brother, namely me, had to protect her. It was my duty to make her happy. I made each idiot pay who hurt her. She was a nightmare with a sword, but without she was nothing more than an innocent girl. Getting hurt by words. She would have never survived the navy drills. In the end she was too soft for the real world. Incredible strong but unable to give the final blow."
Zoro did not say a word. He understood this better than he wanted. He knew those feelings, Hawk Eyes had for his sister. It was more than a dream or a duty to protect his sister. He had simply no other choice than to always be there for her. Yes, he understood that very well.
"My father was more than proud of her. Because even though she was not like him at all, she was the best swordfighter he ever met."
"And you? Was he proud of you?"
It had to be tough sometimes, to always pose the almighty, discreet, inapproachable strategist. The pirate guessed that the Shichibukai had never told anybody else before about this stuff. A life without any friends was just lonely.
"Not really. I was the little molester. In my childhood Jirou and I were always up to no good and I did care about our family businesses just as much as my sister did. Not a bit. When I was seven, my father refused to train me any longer, because I was a hopeless case in his opinion. I was simply not good enough to be spent time on."
"So you trained on your own?" He asked silently.
"Oh God No!" The older one laughed. "I wanted to quit. I did not care about my parents. Actually I was already initiating to become a priest."
Zoro could not stop his jaw from dropping.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. A simple, humble life, without political constraints and without false pomp. The name does not matter and all that does is your commitment towards God. Well, and wine for free. Sounds quite nice in my ears."
The man shook his head.
"But Sharak kept begging me to train with her and of course there was no way I could refuse. I never realized she actually wanted to train me and not vice versa."
Dracule sighed another time.
"If it was not for her, I would not be the greatest swordsman in the world. But if she would not have died, I would not be neither."
In front of the ferry Zoro could spot the shadow of an island.
"How did she die?" He asked the one question, bothering him for such a long time already. How could such a strong person die?
"Pirates." The Shichibukai answered plain. "I should accompany my mother to an assembly but was not in the right mood. So my sister was nice enough to go instead of me. They were escorted by a warship but attacked on their way to the Sabaody Archipelago. No one survived."
"When?" He asked emotionless.
"She was eighteen. Not a full month after her engagement."
A loud gong silenced every conversation and vibrated through the old wood.
A speaker told the passengers to sit down because they would dock in within the next minutes.
The Shichibukai awakened from his dreamlike position and cleared his throat.
"You should seat yourself." He mumbled, slumping down on a bench as well and crossing his legs.
One hour later the odd pair ambled over Sarue's busy market. The cursed pirate hugged by a brand new thick white coat, fitting his stupid hat of course. A few minutes ago they had left the library with disappointing news. The man, Hawk Eyes was looking for, Banri or something like that, was death for more than ten years.
Instead of wasting the rest of the day they took the time to inspect the island detailed.
But even this seemed unnecessary in Zoro's mind, because the other one seemed to know his way around.
"We should head back." He murmured. "So we can at least train this evening."
Hawk Eyes on the other side seemed to really enjoy their field trip. Like he wanted to forget the dark memories he drowned in a little while ago.
"Stop complaining like a child. The sun is shining, it is a good day. You should not worry over your training so much. I know exactly what to do. I know my stuff. You can trust me."
"Sure." Zoro grumbled sarcastically and wondered what the other one wanted to do here.
Suddenly someone grabbed his shoulder.
"You're actually live, Roronoa Zoro!"