I'm so lucky! The weather is really nice now, so for my b-day (the 21st), I'll be hosting a barbeque party where everyone who want to come brings their own meat. That way I'll save a lot of money and everyone will have something cooked with them back home to enjoy another day!
Enough about me. You all stay safe! Wash your hands and enjoy the fact that even though we're suffering right now, the earth is feeling better. Apparently the earth looks cleaner even from space now that we're not driving as much... pros and cons.
Please enjoy this story. I hope it will give you a little bit of joy if you're feeling under the weather.
Part 2; Pirate Graveyard
Chapter 3/4; The monster within
Fighting people not used to a proper fight was turning out to be embarrassing. Zoro barely wanted to call it a fight at all, not only because he was only using one sword at a time. The bounty hunters were so uncoordinated they were killing each other as much as Zoro was killing them. Except for the children. Those he just knocked out along with their parents or guardians. Zoro was silently grateful that some people actually aborted their mission to kill him to take those children away. They were still humans, no matter where life had taken them.
Zoro had only one wound thus far. He'd been surprised by a muscular woman who was so calm Zoro had failed to sense her. She didn't emit any bloodthirst or joy for what she was doing when she grabbed Zoro by the throat and punched his head. If she'd been aiming to kill him, Zoro wasn't sure. It felt more like she had tried to knock him out. So he took pity on her; grabbed her head and pressed against the sides of her skull until she fainted.
He also thought he heard them say something about Ruffy's bounty actually being Zoro's. It stoked his ego a little.
The only person he had any kind of trouble with was the man with the curls. Zoro didn't know where those shotguns were hiding, but those bullets exploded and Zoro had been grazed by three of those. He needed some element of surprise.
The king, who had just a minute ago jumped off the roof along with his princess (Zoro was still not sure how that had happened) suddenly caught Zoro around the arm with his weapon. A baseball bat made of metal that clearly hid a roll of wire. A wire he also wrapped around his own arm so Zoro wouldn't come up with the bright idea to tear the weapon out of his hands.
"Get him, Mr 8!" the king shouted.
The man with the curls prepared to fire.
Chance. Zoro pulled the king towards him and into the way of the bullets. The princess was sitting on a duck that couldn't tell an apple from its ass, so Zoro put all his strength into tearing off the wire and using the momentum to throw the king into the man with the curls. It was followed by a satisfactory explosion.
He turned to the princess. She had an interesting expression now that she was alone against him. She wasn't stronger than Zoro, they both knew that, so if she truly wanted to defeat him, she would need to be smarter than that.
Then there was suddenly this cold shiver running through Zoro. Something was wrong.
He gripped his katana and got ready to attack, but the princess in front of him wasn't the cause. Her eyes widened and she hurried to arm herself with something she strapped on her pinkie. Her giant duck stood behind her, indecisive but apparently unwilling to leave his mistress.
No, this sense of dread was not caused by them.
Zoro turned, trying to locate where this sense of creeping danger was coming from.
The princess, who had the name of one of the days of the week but Zoro couldn't be bothered to remember, attacked with a cry.
The swordsman grabbed her mouth and forced her down. "Shut the hell up! Something's not right," he hissed at her.
"How pathetic."
Zoro turned. There stood a black man in a red trench coat and a white woman in a short, yellow dress with an umbrella over her shoulder, despite it being the middle of the night and not raining.
"Mr 5," the princess acknowledged. "Good, you've come to help. This man has-"
"Help?"
Zoro lost interest. The newcomers didn't seem concerned with him, so he distanced himself. The dread was still filling him to the brim. He had to go check on his crewmates.
Miss Wednesday was relieved when the swordsman left. Whatever had spooked him just now didn't matter.
"You honestly believe we would come all the way out here to help you with some pesky swordsman?" Miss Valentine cackled like a hyena. "You must all have gotten soft and fat out here."
"Boss' words were, 'My secret has been leaked'," Mr 5 went on, his voice arrogant and full of contempt. "Of course, I don't know what this secret is. Our organization's creed is "secrecy". You know that, don't you?"
Miss Wednesday stayed quiet. She knew where this was going, had been prepared for it since the beginning, but now was really bad timing.
She'd infiltrated this organization only to have one fact imprinted early on. It is unforgivable for the boss's identity to be known. She wanted to ask why, but Miss Wednesday already knew the answer. At least that answer. What she couldn't understand was why so many people could agree to blindly obey an invisible leader. Why was it that so many happily cast their name and identities away. This existence was no different from real life.
"We investigated," Miss Valentine giggled. "The mole is a certain kingdom's…"
"IGARAPPA!"
Everyone flinched when there was suddenly an attack from the roof.
"Igaram!" the princess yelled.
"Please run away!" he called back beside a confused Mr 9.
Zoro was still looking for the building that held Ruffy and the others, and he was almost certain this was the third time he'd seen this doorway with the half chair blocking the way.
"Where the hell is everyone?!"
Something was really not right, and it had little to do with the explosions going on. Zoro's heart was racing and every hair on his body stood on end. What if everybody was dead?
Something landed on the road before Zoro, surprising him. The sound of coughing revealed it was a person, and after a quick check the swordsman was relieved to see it was just the guy with the curls.
"Hey, Mr Curls or whatever. Where are my friends?"
The man looked at him wildly. He was burnt and bleeding and his breathing didn't sound right.
He grabbed Zoro's leg in a desperate hold. "Great warrior!" he croaked and coughed. "I've witnessed your strength and hereby humbly ask for your assistance!"
"Humble someone else! Leg go! I need to find Ruffy."
"Those two! They have abilities! My strength isn't enough! I beg of you, protect the princess in my stead!"
"What are you blabbering about? I don't care! Can't you feel that?"
"If you…" the man tried to clear his voice "if you take her home to Alabasta, you'll be greatly rewarded! So please!"
"Rewarded, you said?"
Both men looked up. Zoro was relieved to see Nami there, wearing a smirk worthy of a cat about to eat the canary.
"We agree to help you against a fee of one billion beli."
The poor curly guy sounded like he swallowed his tongue and it got stuck.
"I thought you were out cold from the booze," Zoro said.
The thief huffed. "If course I wouldn't get drunk in such a suspicious place. I could drink way more."
"Whatever. How are the others?"
"Sanji-kun and Usopp are still sleeping. I think Ruffy went out to use the bathroom. She was so drunk she was crawling."
Zoro caught sight of something further down the street, but Nami turned to the still coughing man on the ground.
"So then, Mr Royal Bodyguard. That's your title, right? You'll give us a billion beli, won't you? If we don't help, your princess will die."
Zoro ignored the blackmailing. There was a body there, right around a corner.
The street that met Zoro was red, even in the moonlight. There were bodies everywhere, and Zoro was certain this wasn't his handiwork. He knew because there was one body in particular, a man from the shape of it, that had been hit in the back and gotten his neck torn out. And there was a tiny arm sticking out from underneath him.
The cold settled in Zoro's stomach. He'd been right. There was something else here.
"Okay Zoro! Go save the princess?"
The swordsman spun around and straggled. He felt sick, and he had a very uncomfortable inkling.
"What?"
Nami blinked at him. "You're going to save the princess. Weren't you listening?"
"I don't have time to look for someone else! Where're the others? Ruffy!"
"They're all fine. You lured all those hunters away from us. Besides, you owe me money."
Zoro gaped, blindsided. "I don't… I have… what?"
"You forgot? I leant you money to buy those silly swords."
Nami's voice was way too sweet for the situation. Hadn't she seen the slaughter? Couldn't she feel something was wrong?
Zoro closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to clear the dizziness, but it only seemed to make it worse.
"I got the swords for free. I returned your money."
"But we agreed on three hundred percent of interest. Are you saying you can't keep a simple promise."
She didn't care. Zoro felt how his heart grew cold for the thief.
"Whatever. Take a look down this street and go make sure the others are still alive."
Nami straightened, satisfied with herself. One billion beli and riling Zoro was a good day's work.
At least until she caught sight of what Zoro had been looking at.
Princess Nefertari Vivi. In a way, it was a relief to hear her own name again, but the price was too high. Mr 9 had protected her, tried to buy her time. Miss Monday, Igaram's partner, had also tried to help. Because even though Vivi didn't know her real name, despite none of them knowing anything about each other, Miss Monday still considered Vivi a friend.
"Damn, damn, goddammit!"
Vivi wished she knew more curses. They had an oddly grounding effect.
Carue was fast, the fastest of all spot-billed great ducks, but somehow Mr 5 and Miss Valentine were always tauntingly close.
And then, out of nowhere, the swordsman appeared, and whatever he did the street collapsed, forcing Carue to a halt.
"Son of a… why now! Take this!" Vivi tried to attack, but her weapon was deflected.
"Calm down. I came to save you."
Vivi gaped. In front of them, Mr 5 tilted his head curiously.
"Oh? You're the swordsman who cut down all the low-ranking agents here? Why would you protect Alabasta's princess?"
That's exactly what Vivi wanted to know, but she would not have sounded quite as bored as Mr 5.
The swordsman returned with some truly terrifying news.
"Are you saying you're not responsible for the slaughter?"
Vivi froze. "What slaughter?" she demanded. Mr 5 and his partner also looked mildly curious.
The swordsman continued. "I left people alive. Someone else didn't."
Miss Valentine giggled. "It doesn't matter to us."
It should have mattered, because a breath later the air was pierced with a sharp cry, like from a bird of prey.
To Vivi's alarm, Carue fainted under her.
"Carue?! What happened?! Are you hurt?! Wake up!" Vivi desperately shook her friend and looked around. She hadn't heard a shot and there was no blood. So what had happened?
A scratching sound pulled her attention to a rooftop. There was someone there, leaning over the edge and scratching the wall. Something dark was dripping from them, leaving smudges on the surface they rubbed against.
"What is that? A freak?" Mr 5 demanded.
The person froze for a second. Vivi barely had time to register the flash of glowing eyes before they went straight for the black man.
He huffed and exploded on impact. Miss Valentine went into the air again, riding the pressure from the bomb.
Vivi was still shaking Carue, wanting to get out of the way, but it wasn't her Valentine was aiming for.
Zoro only had eyes for his captain, because that creature was his captain. He knew it, felt it in his gut as horrible insight hit him somewhere that hurt. Ruffy wasn't conscious. She was afraid of sleeping. Her heart was a sea of blood.
This was the real reason Ruffy didn't want to sleep.
Behind him the princess called out. "Mr. Bushido! That woman…!"
"Shut up," Zoro hissed, teeth gritted together as he stared through the smoke. "Shut the fuck up. Do I look like I have time to worry about you?"
The dust dispersed in a light gust of wind. From the shadows of hole in the wall she had crashed through, Ruffy slowly emerged, walking on all four, with the bomb guy's bleeding neck in her mouth. The image reminded Zoro of a jaguar making away with its prey, complete with golden eyes that reflected the moonlight, her penetrating blind stare locked on Zoro.
He shivered and tightened his hold on his katana.
Ruffy dropped the unmoving body and stepped over it.
"Ruffy, you know who I am. Friend," the swordsman tried, but the girl just hissed, spread her fingers and toes to get a better grip on the ground.
She had claws. Nami had been saying Ruffy acted like a cat for a while now. Zoro still wanted to disagree; Ruffy's spread attack-stance was something else.
Sighing at the inevitable, Zoro took his black bandana from his arm as he side-stepped the attack from the bitch coming from above screaming at him like a girlfriend he didn't pay enough attention to.
"Okay. I'll just have to pin you down again, captain."
Ruffy's hissing became a growl, then she was moving.
Nami was running through the streets as fast as her legs could carry her. She'd checked on Sanji and Usopp, and luckily enough they were still where they'd fallen asleep, still alive. They were the only ones beside the princess's royal guard who Nami had found alive.
If this was the work of those who was out to kill the princess, Nami needed to grab her and send Zoro to find Ruffy so they could get off this cursed island. This was about one billion beli for crying out loud!
But rounding a corner, Nami had to dig her heels into the ground.
Zoro and Ruffy were fighting. No, Ruffy was fighting Zoro who tried to overpower her. On the other side of the fighting pair was the princess; the Miss Wednesday girl that had travelled with them from Twin Peak, caught between the buildings, the street behind her collapsed and she was closed in by the fighting pair.
There were two more people there, corpses by the looks of them. A man by a wall, bleeding from his neck and a woman lying so close to Zoro and Ruffy she had probably been caught in the crossfire.
Nami was about to run forward and let her idiot captain and Zoro know they were alive, when Ruffy suddenly turned on her, claws first.
The sight of blind, golden eyes jogged a frightened memory. Ruffy wasn't awake!
Zoro took advantage of Ruffy's distraction, dropped his swords and managed to catch Ruffy's upper arm with one hand. The other hand grabbed the girl's jaws that immediately came to bite herself free.
Zoro thought he could ignore everything Ruffy threw at him now that he'd finally caught her, but she kicked him. Kicked him so hard Zoro almost blacked out.
Nami had one shot. She swung her staff at Ruffy's head with all her might. It had to work. It had to be enough. They just had to keep her down long enough to grab the princess and escape before the agents coming to kill the princess found them!
Zoro's whole world was down to one thing; pin down Ruffy or die.
"I WILL NEVER LOSE AGAIN!"
That's what he'd promised. Zoro wouldn't lose, no matter what. Not even against Ruffy. Gritting his teeth, the swordsman used all his strength and weight to throw his captain on the ground.
"Wake up!"
His call came out a wheezy breath. The girl clawed at his arms, tried to free her head and kick his side.
Zoro still had a grip on Ruffy's jaw and arm, so he pulled her up and hit her against the floor again, with all his might.
"WAKE UP!"
Ruffy made a strange noise, something between a strangled growl and a gasp. She struggled, but it was weaker, and the gold was fading from her eyes. She blinked rapidly and Zoro fought to calm his heart.
The expressions flashed across Ruffy's face. Fear, confusion, recognition, surprise and back to fear when she realized Zoro had a hand around her throat.
"Z-Zoro?"
"Are you finally awake?"
All colour faded from Ruffy's face. "I… I…"
"You fell asleep," Zoro groaned as he released his grip and doubled over. "You kicked me."
"Get up, both of you! You too, princess! Some really strong agent is on the island and has already slaughtered everyone else! We need to get off this island before they find us!"
The princess was kneeling by a giant duck with her mouth hanging open. When Nami addressed her, she looked even more shocked.
"But… they are… Mr 5 and Miss Valentine…"
She was pointing at one bloody body by a wall and the woman just a short distance from Zoro and Ruffy. Ruffy who was covered in blood and shaking and pale as a sheet.
"I… when I sleep… when I dream… I have to fight, and finish with the strongest opponent I can find."
Zoro was still curled around the agonizing pain in his crotch, but it eased a lot at those words. He patted his captain's thigh.
"I forgive you."
Nami looked around at them all. Zoro just had an ego boost in a rather unworthy position. Her captain had apparently saved them a lot of trouble by being a lot of trouble, and on the other side the princess was imitating a bird house.
The thief smiled patiently. "Let me explain."
