the question of a sacrifice!

chapter three

Robin sat at the main desk, quietly reading through one of the many interesting books that she found at the library. Volunteering as a librarian has allowed her to enjoy a lot of the things that she'd normally have slight anxiety about. Returning library books is easy...but also very stressful. Even though she's never missed a return date, she worries that she might.

She was currently waiting for the small group of high-schoolers that she sponsored to show up. They were supposed to do some 'investigating' in the basement, which was currently being uses as storage, of course. Robin didn't think there was anything supernatural going on, but she did believe there might have been a wild animal of some kind. She's always hearing strange noises when she's down there, but whenever she goes looking all on her own, there's nothing! Now, she'd love it if it were true that a ghost was haunting the basement. However, she didn't believe it because there hadn't been any strange disappearances or murders of her co-workers...yet.

The group of kids could be heard before they even walked through the doors; Usopp was scaring Chopper, Luffy, and himself with stories about ghosts and all kinds of supernatural creatures while Sanji and a green-haired male were arguing about the existence of ghosts altogether. At one point, it sounded as though the pair had come to an agreement but one of them suddenly changed their mind and carried on the argument. This left Nami to facepalm and attempt to get all of them to shut up and behave! Robin had seen this green-haired guy in the newspaper before. He was the famous kendo prodigy: Roronoa, Zoro! She read about his matches and how amazing he was. The eighteen-year-old created his own technique when he was barely ten! Kendo is a two-handed sport, meaning that the practitioners aren't typically allowed to take one hand off of their bamboo sword. However, because of plot reasons, Zoro created a technique called three-sword-style that allowed him to use three bamboo swords as long as he didn't let go of them. Robin remembered reading that before starting her morning Archeology class. Still, she's never seen him with the group before.

"Robin! We made it!" Luffy shouted, laughing and waving at her as he ran towards the desk. Already, he had captured the attention of other library-goers, but he ignored their harsh 'shush'es since they weren't coming from Nami or Robin. "Do you have any food? I'm starving!" He added, leaning against the desk like a curious child. "We walked all the way here and I'm pretty sure it burned off all the snacks I ate before we left."

"No food," Robin told him, watching as he practically deflated from her words. She closed her book after marking the page that she was on, placing it aside as the others crowded the rounded desk. Nami greeted her while Chopper and Usopp pestered Luffy to find out if he had seen a ghost already. A kind smile stretched over her lips as she looked at the redhead.

"Hey, big sis! How was class today?" Nami asked, cheery and bright. It's such a relief to talk to other females after the many days of having to be around only guys. Yet another guy was joining the group too so it was just going to get worse! She didn't even get along with this guy wither! What a drag.

"It went rather well. What about your classes?" The calm woman asked, her chin resting in the palm of her hand as she leaned against the desk. This woman was gorgeous, that much was undeniable. Zoro had seen pretty women before but never of this caliber. Not like he'd treat her special or anything. He just...wouldn't mind it if her face was the face that he had to look at for the rest of his life. Sure, he's seen attractive people before so he's not about to obsess over this woman and make her notice him. He has things to focus on...like school and kendo. His love life could be put aside until his dreams were accomplished...right?

"Oh, they were fine! I'm nearly done preparing my speech on global warming for Friday's debate. I can't wait!" It was very clear that Nami was excited about this speech. That actually reminded Zoro that he also had a speech to prepare that was due on Friday. He couldn't remember what exactly it was supposed to be about but he'd just look at his planner later before heading to work. Letting his eyes move from where they were trained on some random portrait of an old lady, he caught the intense blue gaze that belonged to this intriguing woman. He felt weird looking at her, suddenly feeling the need to fix his stance. His arms dropped to his sides as he shuffled and looked off somewhere else. He wasn't even paying attention to anyone or anything being said, just trying to plan out a good time for him to work on his homework.

"We got a new member today!" Chopper cheered happily, beaming up at the older woman as he held onto the edge of the desk. Robin's attention was given to the youngest member, nodding her head to show him that she knew that. "It's Roronoa, Zoro! The famous kendo guy!" Robin chuckled to herself as Usopp hit the kid upside the head. "Ow! What the heck was that for?!"

"She has eyes, Chopper. Robin can clearly see who it is. It's not like she lives under a rock," the long-nosed male snarkily remarked. He was unaware of the fact that Luffy, their club president, didn't actually know who Zoro was before meeting him. "Anyway, let's go on to the h-haunted basement. I d-doubt there are actually any ghosts there." Usopp stammered out in an attempt to hide the fact that he was scared.

"Oh yeah, the basement's this way," Robin stood from where she sat, motioning for the group to follow her behind the desk and further into the back. She unlocked the door labeled 'staff' so that she could go in and grab the key for the basement before leading them to it. Once outside of the door, she told them about all of the strange things that have been happening down there. With just those simple words, Chopper and Usopp were trembling.

"Y-you know, I saw a ghost before. I looked him right in the eyes and then he disappeared. Vanished!" Usopp told the group, the only one listening being the terrified fifteen-year-old holding onto him for dear life. Chopper let out a whimpered shriek as the basement door creaked open.

"I'll go down with you and turn the lights on. I'd also appreciate it if you didn't break anything down here," Robin's voice was so smooth and seductive that it could literally soothe someone out of a panic attack...which might actually come in handy if Chopper and Usopp continued freaking out. "Be careful. We just got a few new boxes of books that came in this morning. No one's gotten around to putting them on the shelves yet."

"Books? What's so important about some stupid books-?" Zoro was cut off by Sanji's retort. The swirly-browed male and him definitely didn't get along, especially since Sanji was so obsessed with women that he'd so easily sway from his task at hand.

"Don't insult Robin's passion! I think it's amazing that such a lovely woman like yourself would be interested in furthering your knowledge, Robin-swan! It further enhances your womanly feminity and my love for you has tripled!" The blond swooned, nearly causing Zoro to shove him down the stairs that Robin was leading them down. He would have smacked into Luffy which would have just caused everyone else to go tumbling as well. "I love an educated woman!"

"Shut up! What's the point in you telling her any of that? Like she even cares about what you find attractive!" Zoro shouted over the quiet conversations of Robin and Nami. "Do us all a favor and shut your mouth before I shove you down the stairs you lovestruck dumbass!"

"Oh, you wanna go you overgrown moss-ball? I'll kick your ass and pine after Robin at the same time!" Sanji shouted right back, his stupid voice aggravating Zoro even more. Just as the kendo prodigy was about to argue back, Nami hit the both of them upside their heads. The pair pouted and held their injured noggins, sulking about how mean Nami could be. "She's so pretty when she's mad."

"Nami's mean," Zoro murmured as he rubbed the side of his head. As Nami chewed the two males out, Robin stepped down from the last step and walked to where the string for the light dangled from the roof. This wasn't because the light switch didn't work, in fact, there wasn't a light switch in the room but that didn't stop Usopp from commenting on it.

"The switch never works in horror movies. This is how we all die," he whimpered, huddling closer to Chopper as the two of them inched their trembling bodies down the stairs behind Zoro and Sanji. "Tell Kaya that I loved her!"

"Yeah! Tell Kaya that he loved her!" Chopper echoed, his voice shaking alongside his small body. Zoro rolled his eyes at the two, finding their reactions to be childish and only slightly amusing. When the light in the basement flickered to life, it illuminated the cluttered storage room and cast an intense shadow on Robin's face. The shadow alone made Usopp and Chopper scream in fright, but it highlighted the sharp features on the woman's face. She was undeniably a woman, not a little girl, but she wasn't wrinkly and old. Robin just looked like a lady. She was very elegant.

"You guys are idiots," Nami grumbled, smacking her forehead in frustration. "Why the hell did we come here if you two were just going to act like this?"

"Yeah! Why the hell did we come here?" Usopp continued, wanting to bend the conversation to go the way that he needed it to. "N-no answer? Oh well, Nami! Can't give you an answer for that one so we might as well head on out, right? S-so let's go b-back upstairs to the very quiet an-and not haunted library."

"It's not haunted, moron," Zoro huffed as he stepped down from the final stair. Usopp and Chopper were still trying to convince the others to go back up while Luffy went off looking through the storage boxes. He complained that there wasn't anything interesting happening and just as the complaint left his mouth, there was a strange sound that echoed through the room. It sounded like something scratching the concrete floor or dragging something heavy across it. The seven of them froze, chills sliding down their spines. This is exactly the kind of adventure that Robin wanted.

"That's our signal! We should head out! The ghost obviously doesn't want us here! Sorry, Robin, but the basement belongs to the undead now!" Usopp shouted, fully prepared to throw Chopper at the ghost and take off running up the stairs. "Let's leave Zoro as a sacrifice! He's our newest member so he honestly hasn't done anything! No one will miss him that much anyway! We can just say that he never showed up, yeah? Come on, guys!"

"We can't leave Zoro, dumbass!" Nami cut in, hitting Usopp over the head. Zoro nodded, happy that someone was sticking up for him. He'd do it himself but he honestly didn't want to be dragged into this pointless argument. "He's in the newspapers! They'll go looking for him!" Really? That's the only reason why she wouldn't leave him behind?

"Come on!" He exclaimed, getting cut off by Sanji telling Nami that he'd sacrifice himself for her. This led Nami to tell Usopp that they were leaving Sanji behind because he was annoying. Luffy had an issue with that, yelling from his spot on the basement floor that if they got rid of Sanji then they wouldn't get free food from his place of work anymore.

"It's strange being the newest member, isn't it?" Robin asked Zoro, amused by the way things were going. Zoro jumped, not realizing that she was standing so close to him or, since she hadn't moved, that he was standing so close to her. The dark-haired woman found this funny, chuckling to herself. "You fit right in."

"The hell do you mean?! They were just going to sacrifice me to a ghost!" Zoro expressed, his eyes wide as he motioned to the group behind him. Usopp, Chopper, and Nami were all debating on who should be left behind while Sanji and Luffy argued because the club president had suggested sacrificing Nami since she's the meanest one. "Wait...ghosts aren't even real...?" He grumbled to himself, confused that he had gotten so caught up in the situation that he forgot he had decided the supernatural wasn't real while arguing with Sanji earlier. "What the hell is going on?"

"Okay, Zoro the skeptic, if ghosts aren't real, explain that noise!" Usopp retorted, having overhead Zoro's aggravated mumbles. The green-haired kendo prodigy grew irritated, unsure how he could explain this. He stammered out that it was probably a rat or something of the sort, which only made Usopp point out that they hadn't seen any evidence of an animal yet. "Just accept the fact that ghosts are real. I vote on sacrificing Zoro again, he's the skeptic and I don't think we need such a close-minded person in the club. He brings a whole bunch of negative energy that we'll definitely have to cleanse with sage. Not to mention, negative energy attracts dark spirits."

"We've already gone over this, he's too famous. I think it comes down to you or Chopper since we can't leave Luffy or Sanji, and I'm definitely too pretty for this." Nami said, making Usopp and Chopper gasp at her words.

"I'm not leaving Usopp behind! He's vital to our survival! If it wasn't for him then the baking club wouldn't give us any snacks!" Chopper explained, his voice whiny as tears formed in his eyes.

"Oh wow, thanks, man. I appreciate the loyalty," the curly-haired male nodded at his shorter, younger friend. Chopper smiled at him, waiting for him to return the favor of sticking up for him. "Yeah, we should probably leave Chopper. He's kinda pudgy so it'll fill the ghost up quicker."

"Asshole! That'll be the last time I ever stick up for you! Not only did you wanna get rid of me but you also called me fat!" The fifteen-year-old cried and ran off to Robin, burying his face into her stomach as he hugged her tight. Zoro listened to the kid cry and felt two things; frustration from how high-pitched the kid's voice was, and aggravation that the kid would get upset over something like that. He also kinda felt bad for him but he wasn't about to show that. "Ghosts don't even eat people, bastard!"

"Chopper, I was only joking! We can't leave you behind, you're too cute to be eaten by a ghost!" His apology was weak and the young kid wasn't accepting it, however, the whole interaction would be forgotten when the strange scratching noises came back. This time they were much louder and accompanied by an odd growling sound. The whole group was freaked out and nearly everyone raced towards the stairs. Robin and Zoro watched as the others struggled and tripped over one another.

"It was nice meeting you, swordsman. It's a shame that we're going to be brutally murdered by a ghost now, though." Robin hummed, glancing over at the male as they waited for the stairs to clear up. Zoro nodded in agreement as he turned his head and met her icy blue stare. Those eyes would be the death of him before some transparent mist got to him.