Zoro looked towards the redline as it was going up in the skies, it seemed to never end as it's height was gigantic. Luffy's eyes transformed into stars as he looked at the mountain which had a current that was going upwards instead of downwards, he muttered to himself:

"What a mystery mountain."

Nami started to explain her theory on how the mountain was supposed to work but no one understood her, Kaya understood a bit but she was a doctor, not a navigator, Usopp also understood a bit due to his tinkering mind but he was at most an average engineer, maybe a blue-haired pervert would have understood what she tried to convey but he wasn't here.

Zoro meditated on the deck as the ship started to sail upwards on the current, everyone else started to try and sail the ship so it wouldn't hit the boulders or the gate that stood right in front of them!

The ship started deviating from course but with Luffy's gum-gum balloon the ship was saved from crashing in the mountain walls and collapsing into pieces, Usopp and Kaya sweated as they looked at Merry's almost instant demise, it was the last keepsake of Merry the butler so they wouldn't want to see it get destroyed.

Luffy grabbed on the railing and pulled himself back up after he used his balloon technique, Zoro gave him a thumbs up and Luffy laughed, then Zoro took a plank from seemingly nowhere, Luffy started to sweat, he wanted to train his observation even in this situation?

But Luffy didn't say anything and blindfolded himself and started to take the rain of blows coming from Zoro, sometimes he would dodge by a fluke, it wasn't Haki his senses just started to get a hold of Zoro's tempo, Zoro smiled then he immediately changed his tempo and cracked Luffy on the head with the plank creating a giant bump on it.

The ship was still going upwards but Luffy and Zoro were seemingly staying on the deck without being tied to anything like gravity weren't affecting them at all, the others were grabbing things for their dear life so they wouldn't fall off, only Kuina was like Zoro and Luffy, Sanji himself tried to imitate their behavior but he failed miserably and almost fell off the ship if it wasn't for Luffy's timely catch.

Just by sound alone, he found out that Sanji was falling and caught him before he could die or get possibly mortally wounded by falling from such a height.

Finally, they reached the peak of the redline and they quickly started to go down, their speed was extremely high as they plunged in the nearby waters, it was clear as the clouds that stood on the other part of the red line disappeared.

Zoro breathed in the air of the grand line, he finally reached it after a long while, he felt like it was time for a little celebration as they docked the ship at a nearby lighthouse where they met an old man named Crocus, he acted a bit strange at first which annoyed the whole crew but afterward he just kept reading his paper.

Crocus eyes narrowed as he looked at the wanted poster in the paper then at Zoro, it seemed he met a big shot already!

Sanji started cooking the elephant tuna he got in Logue Town as Zoro approached Nami and he asked:

"You got that log-pose in Logue Town as I asked you to?"

Nami stuck out her tongue at Zoro then took something out of her pocket, it was the log pose!

She put it on her arm and then watched as it started to point towards a nearby island, she nodded then said:

"So do we just follow the needle?"

Zoro nodded his head, Koshiro taught him a lot about the grand line so he knew a few things and what important items were needed to sail the grand line, even though their ship was decent for paradise they would still need to change it in the future, the new world would transform the Going Merry into trash.

Hopefully, both Kaya and Usopp would understand, if not... things would get a bit ugly.

Zoro ate with his crew as the elephant tuna melted in his mouth he couldn't lie to himself, even though Sanji was an annoying pervert he was an extremely good cook, however, he would never tell him that.

Luffy's eyes turned into stars as he shouted:

"Soo good!"

Crocus eyed the food himself, it was a bit of time since he last ate, Sanji looked at Crocus and saw how he eyed their food and took a plate with food and approached him:

"Hungry old man?"

Crocus nodded and took the plate and enjoyed the elephant tuna, Sanji smirked and said:

"If you want we can give you another plate, the elephant tuna was extremely big."

Crocus smiled, even though these guys were pirates it seemed like they were good guys, he thought to himself.

Suddenly the redline started to shake as a whale cries could be heard, Crocus let the plate down and jumped in the water swimming quickly then disappearing underwater.

Zoro, Luffy, and the others scratched the back of their heads at the same time and asked:

"What's with that old man?"

The shaking of the redline stopped along with the whale cries but the crew decided to ignore that, Crocus came back dragging two people with him, a blue-haired lady who wore white shorts a green vest and a purple-colored shirt underneath her hair was done in a ponytail and she wore white shoes.

And an orange-haired man who had a crown on his head and a nine tattoed on his right cheek, he wore green clothes that resembled royalties making him look like a budget king.

They wailed as they looked at Crocus like they were looking at a monster:

"Spare us old man, spare us, we won't go after the whale anymore!"

Crocus snorted as he looked at the both of them, it wasn't their first tango but Crocus decided it was time to give them a piece of his mind this time around, he was not going to be the good guy anymore, these guys found the hatch that led to the whale's insides and almost blew him up from the inside!

Crocus was almost pondering if to silence these guys but there was the chance Whiskey Peak would send more guys like them.

He shook his head as he saw their shivering forms, Sanji started to swoon as he saw the blue-haired lady and tried to help her up but she declined Sanji as he was a stranger and got up, Crocus decided to let them go but not without a warning:

"This is the last time I'm going easy on you, next time you will leave as bodies in the sea!"

Crocus the man who wore a floral shirt and white shorts with sandals who looked like a flower made it's on his bald head was pretty intimidating now as his glasses glinted in the sunlight.

Zoro even caught a few traces of Haki from the man:

"So the lighthouse is protected by this guy huh."

Zoro decided it wasn't any time to get into Crocus's business and decided to leave with his crew, there was nothing he wanted to see here anyway.

The Going Merry started to sail away from the lighthouse as the strange duo started to swim towards Whiskey Peak the nearby island since it's gravitation pull strung the needle of Nami's long pose they were moving to the same direction.

After a few hours of navigating towards the Whiskey Peak, they finally reached it but there was no one on the island, they looked around but they couldn't find anyone, Zoro snorted as he could feel countless living beings on the island but it seemed they didn't want to find them making them think that the island wasn't populated but Zoro decided against meddling with their affairs, if they didn't want to meet them then they wouldn't meet them.

Zoro eyed the strongest presence here and unleashed his saki (Killing intent) towards that direction making the man known as mister eight to shiver in fear as he looked at Zoro's eyes, the man gulped as he thought to himself:

"He can see me? How?"

But then Zoro moved his head from the man's location and he breathed out the breath that was he was unconsciously holding.

Zoro shook his head, everyone wasn't that strong here and they were hiding away from him and everyone else for some reason, he remembered something, however, these two guys from before looked quite shady and he was sure the woman called the man Mr nine, he knew of an organization that had these kinds of codenames he and Kuina were invited into it a long time ago.

Baroque Works! The organization was shady as the boss was unknown but Zoro decided that it wasn't his job to dismantle a criminal organization that he didn't know anything about, he decided to wait till the log pose set itself then leave.

Unfortunately, the log pose needed at least one day or two before it could set itself so they had to wait.

Finally, the strange duo arrived at Whiskey Peak and looked around in wonder as they saw no one.

They thought to themselves:

"Strange where is everyone?"

Suddenly a low voice could be heard:

"Pssht, over here Mr nine miss Wednesday."

Mr eight came forward from the shadows and told them about the pirate crew:

"That man over there is Roronoa Zoro with a bounty of 350,000,000 we can't deal with him, you know his bounty is even higher than *his*" he narrowed his eyes at miss Wednesday when he said his so she could understand.

Mr nine was completely lost in their conversation as he didn't know who they were talking about but his eyes bulged out when he heard the number of 350,000,000, this bounty was extremely high!

He decided to hide with Mr eight and the others so he wouldn't get cut into pieces by Zoro, he started sweating as he remembered how they met on Crocu's small island.

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he sensed the trio's interaction and finally decided to act, they were annoying hiding around like mice, he wondered for what reason?

Zoro quickly found himself near them as he said in a low voice:

"I wonder why you guys are hiding around like this?"

Mr eight paled as he looked behind him and found Zoro!

Mr eight finally stammered after a few seconds of being frozen:

"Mr deddddeemon swordssamaaan, Roroonoaaa Zoroo."

Zoro looked at him then said:

"Stop stammering you are a man!"

Mr eight coughed a bit then said:

"Mr demon swordsman we weren't hiding it's just uh, we are scared of pirates, we are just villagers."

Zoro shook his head and looked at the nearby giant cactus and said:

"Hmm, quite the high population you had in the past, so many gravestones."

Mr eight eyes widened, did Roronoa Zoro realize what they were doing on this island?

Zoro smiled as he looked at Mr eight's reaction and continued:

"Are you perhaps from Baroque works?"

Mr eight finally turned hostile at his words as he suddenly took a gun shaped like a saxophone and tried to shoot it at Zoro, Zoro easily dodged the bullets with his Observation and quickly approached Mr eight and chopped him directly in the neck with his hand making him go limp on the ground.

Miss Wednesday was ready to scream her lungs out, Igaram was her guardian and protector and this pirate took him out like it was nothing for him!

Princess Vivi of Alabasta knew she had a bad day today, first, she failed the mission of recovering the whale meat and now a pirate with a bounty higher than Crocodile made his way over to Whiskey Peak and incapacitated her guardian and good friend!

But this wasn't the worst of what could happen today, it took a while for the duo to arrive at Whiskey Peak so it was already past noon and it was approaching six o clock.

Suddenly a burst of jarring laughter could be heard coming from seemingly nowhere:

"Kya kya it seems we don't even have to do anything right Mr. Five?"

A bored voice sounded from nearby:

"Miss Valentine you gave out our position to the enemy, quite unprofessional."

A blonde-haired woman wearing a helmet and a lemon inspired dress started flying out of the sky as she was holding an umbrella

A black man with messy hair sunglasses and a red coat came from behind some houses as he said to Miss Wednesday:

"Quite the troublesome one aren't you miss Vivi princess of Alabasta, knowing the boss's secret, tsk tsk he sent us to make sure you can't spread it around."

This commotion attracted the other straw hats over here and they asked Zoro what everything was about, Zoro explained as best as he could:

"Seems this blue-haired girl called Vivi is a princess and she knows this organization boss secret so they sent someone to silence her."

Luffy nodded his head as it all made sense to him but he didn't understand anything that Zoro said.

Sanji immediately went into his white knight mode and tried to attack Mr. Five as he couldn't attack Miss Valentine, suddenly Sanji was blown backward by a literal explosion!

The black man with sunglasses known as Mr. Five chuckled as he threw another bugger towards Sanji and he said:

"I ate the explosion-explosion fruit, and now I'm an explosion man! Come try and attack me again you curly eyebrowed freak!"

Sanji's eyes transformed into a fire as he quickly ran towards Mr. Five and gave him a good kick in the stomach pushing him back, he trained himself with Nami Usopp and the others so he grew a bit stronger than he was before, he felt that Mr. Five wouldn't be a problem for him to handle even though the man had a devil fruit.

Zoro looked as Sanji fought back and forth with Mr. Five to help Vivi but he thought that he wasn't particularly interested in helping the princess, she had nothing to do with him but Luffy wanted to help as well as he threw himself at the floating woman and punted her into the dirt making her go unconscious immediately, it didn't seem she was particularly strong or useful.

Of course, Luffy was a monster, Miss Valentine was a devil fruit user who ate the kilo-kilo fruit which let her change her weight, Luffy took her by surprise and knocked her out while she was as light as a feather.

Mr. Five grunted as Sanji broke one of his ribs with a kick then suddenly Sanji shouted:

"Anti Manner Kick Course." he took a handstand and started to spin his legs kicking him in the head numerous times and breaking his glasses, this fight was done as well.

Igaram finally came to as he saw both Mr. Five and Miss valentine being knocked out cold by the pirates he wanted to help but Vivi immediately gave him the news.

Igaram straightened himself out as he introduced himself and Vivi:

"Igaram head-butler of Alabsta royal family and she is princess Vivi Nefertari of Alabasta, I'm thankful for your help!"

Sanji shook his head and said:

"We didn't help you, we only found these guys to be eyesores."

Zoro scoffed at Sanji's words, Sanji was salivating when he was looking at Vivi, he wondered what was going through the perverts mind.

Luffy as clueless as ever walked forward and asked:

"What's up?"

Zoro shook his head, Luffy was as direct as ever. Vivi directly expressed her concerns about her father's and her Kingdom and how Crocodile acted against them making villains in the front of their people, they framed the royal family making the citizens think that they used dance powder to make the capital take all the rain.

A sudden click was heard from the skies as the Unluckies the information gathering otter and vulture took a picture of everyone's faces, unfortunately for the animals as their name indicated they were unlucky as Zoro quickly found their location and ended their little lives with a flying slash.

They dropped from the sky in front of Vivi as she gasped and put a hand at her mouth, the swordsman easily killed the duo that could make big problems from them.

Vivi pondered and asked:

"Maybe you guys could help me?"

Nami as the opportunist she was immediately said:

"Maybe for the small price of a billion bellies?"

Vivi sweatdropped even if she sold the Kingdom they would barely get a billion bellies, the price was too high!

Vivi knew these guys were pirates but they were very black-hearted!

Sanji continued his white knight tirade as he said:

"Of course I will help you Vivi-chawn, I can be your knight in shining armor!"

Luffy was undecided as he looked towards Zoro, he seemed to rely on Zoro more and more these days as Zoro was becoming like a big brother to him, Zoro actually reminded Luffy of Ace, always cool and stronger than him.

Kuina and Kaya were women with soft hearts so they wanted to help Vivi with her plight, however, Zoro wasn't interested that much, he suddenly felt a voice that tried to hide, the voice was very good at masking its presence but Zoro could still feel it, while it was good at masking its presence it didn't know Observation Haki so it couldn't mask it's aura as well.

He decided to play it by the ear as the presence was relatively strong, but for him, it still wasn't any problem even if tens of presences like these attacked. He was worried about the others of the crew who were relatively weaker.

Kuina and Kaya approached Vivi and patted her on the back as they said:

"Maybe we can help you..."

Zoro shook his head as he said:

"We can help I guess."

Everyone wanted to help Vivi and he couldn't just tell them no, especially since Kuina wanted to help, he could disregard Usopp's Sanji's and Luffy's opinions but not Kuina's he decided to end everything fast with this Crocodile who was a warlord of the sea, get to him fast and cut him in two, he was a logia so he wouldn't think he had Haki, take him by surprise and end him. He already wanted to go to the new world and there was no time to waste for him!

Of course, along the way, he could train the others so they could survive the new world with him.

The new world would be like a sharpening stone for him, he would be the sword who will be able to cut through everything and reach the peak and even surpass it!

A will burned deep in his eyes, a will that wasn't his but combined with his which led to a mutation of his original one, naturally, Zoro wouldn't have Conquerors Haki but due to the fusion of his memories and will with Miyamoto's he unlocked it he just didn't know how to use it properly yet as Koshiro didn't teach him about the third Haki.

Vivi was certainly happy that such a strong pirate crew decided to help her, Igaram wanted to become a decoy to help Vivi escape safely but Zoro stopped him and said:

"Ok you can get out now, I know you are hiding!"

A woman with dark-ish tanned skin appeared from behind a nearby house, she had dark hair and wore a cowgirl outfit, she had blue eyes and quite the big asset on her. Zoro narrowed his eyes as he didn't recognize her at all.

Kuina took some wanted posters that she got at Logue Town and looked over them then she said:

"Nico Robin, it's you?"

Robin chuckled as she looked over at Kuina and she said:

"Oho aren't I a little bit famous? I just came over because Mr. Zoro called me over, I wanted to give you a piece of advice but I think you don't need it anymore, I think I will take my leave already."

Vivi muttered to herself:

"Nico Robin, she works with Mr. Zero aka Crocodile!"

Zoro decided to not stop Robin as she didn't have any bad intentions in her aura, it seemed she genuinely wanted to give them advice but decided not to after she was found out by Zoro.

Zoro shook his head as he didn't understand what that woman was thinking about, Kuina walked over to Zoro and put a hand over his and said:

"I think that woman is bad news Zoro."

Zoro didn't know what to say to Kuina so he just nodded at her, Igaram left afterward crudely dressed in imitation of Vivi's clothes and some lipstick since Robin already left he easily disappeared over the horizon in a small ship.

Vivi walked towards the Going Merry, she didn't know that her decision right here would change her life forever.