Chapter 8: Justice
Coby sighed in exhaustion as he trudged back towards the base. He'd just escorted the girl -Rika, her name was, back to her house. Turns out the girl's reason for offering the rice balls to the pirate hunter had been as a show of gratitude. According to her Zoro was imprisoned because he'd killed Helmeppo's pet wolf which was terrorizing the locals and was about to attack her, thankfully before it could Zoro had put it down with a slash of his sword.
Coby's head was swimming with conflicting thoughts from that revelation, did he really want to join an organization that didn't serve the justice they preached? Exhaling another breath of exhaustion he continued his walk back to the base, luckily the walk wasn't too far but the steep hill the marine base stood on proved to be more of a challenge than the distance itself.
His brain finally caught up to his body's exhaustion; his muscles were not used to this forign burn, even when he was the caretaker of Alvida's ship, his tasks were not as physically demanding. Glancing up at the hill he proceeded to make his way up the slope, his head filled with concern for his new friend. 'I wonder what Luffy's doing?'
Ever since he'd met the boy his life had changed drastically, now he was free to pursue his own ambition instead of being oppressed by Alvida's, though that didn't stop him from feeling worry for the straw hat boy, the teen's blunt and goofy personality probably got him in all sorts of trouble from the short time they've traveled. The ache with each step to the base anchored him back to his trek up the hill.
Shrugging off the exhaustion, he pushed through, laying his eyes upon the gates up ahead a couple minutes later. He could've sworn one of the forts looked like it was on an angle. Rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from weariness, he peered toward the fort base to find a large splintering hole, the iron completely torn and crumpled like cardboard.
Coby blinked a few times, picking up his open jaw as his body jumped into immediate action. He didn't even have to guess as to who made that hole. 'Shit what'd he do this time!?' He hurried his pace knowing Luffy was most likely the cause of this new development.
XxX
Inside the highest floor of the marine fort that Luffy had blown apart stood an office; A wide hallway floored with velvet carpets and portraits that led towards a large oak door leading to an office. Inside the office sat the captain of this marine base, This particular marine was known to be ruthless and unforgiving, both to enemies and allies alike, preserving the 'justice' in the town.
"Sir! We've got an urgent situation to report!"
The captain looked on lazily with a cigarette resting between his lips. Taking that as a cue to continue the marine officer goes on.
"It appears there's a large breach in the fort! The hole is the size of a small boulder! Judging by the damage it doesn't look like a boulder or projectile caused it!"
Second hand smoke mixed with air as silence settled in the office. The large man with blonde hair and an axe for a hand stood up calmly as he processed what he'd just been told by his subordinate. The marine officer in front of him gulped as he stood rooted in fear.
"You're telling me… there's a hole the size of a boulder on my fort?! And none of you know what caused it?!" The marine offer began sweating bullets as he nervously squirmed under his captain's furious glare.
"Wait! sir! Please let me exp-"
Axe hand Morgan grit his teeth in impatience, swinging his axe cleanly through the officer's torso, a trail of bright blood splattering violently over the red rug in his office.
"I have no patience for incompetence in this fort!" He picked up his navy coat laying on the back of his chair, putting it on whilst addressing the two marine guards outside his office door.
"You! Prepare the men! It seems there's someone who's arrogant enough to go against justice! I'll capture them for a public execution to remind everyone why my name is feared in this town!"
"Yes sir!" The officer scampered away as Morgan turned towards the remaining trembling officer.
"And you… go clean up that mess in my office!"
XxX
"I didn't know which two belonged to you so I brought all of them!"
Some time had passed before Luffy appeared before the pirate hunter once again, In his hands lay three katanas of varying quality, one of them containing a black handle with fine strips of white cords forming adjacent sharp diamond patterns all the way up to its golden hilt. The golden guard finely complimented the contrasting silver of the blade, at a glance one could immediately tell that this was no ordinary sword, its craftsmanship did not allow such thoughts.
The other two blades were similar to each other, however none were even close to the level of quality of the first, the blunt edges and uneven weight indicated the shoddy quality of work that went into these swords.
"All three belong to me; I use three katanas"
"How do you use three swords if you have two hands?… Wait!.. So does that mean… No way! HAHAHA!" Zoro looked at the chortling boy in front of him, confusion etched on his face as he struggled to understand his implication. Zoro looked mortified a moment later once he understood Luffy's insinuation.
"NO YOU WEIRDO! GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE GUTTER YOU MORON! I USE THE THIRD WITH MY MOUTH!" His angry words did little to stop Luffy's laughter as he doubled over clutching his stomach once again.
Recovering from the joke a moment later, he stood up wiping away the remaining tears."HA!.. heh! Heh.. Alright! Here.. stay still now!" Luffy proceeded to unsheath one of the shoddy katanas and cut away the ropes binding Zoro to the wooden post.
Zoro threw the ropes off him as Luffy cut them open one by one, mumbling something along the lines of "Bastard" as he stood up and stretched, rubbing his wrists to massage the rope marks on his arms.
"Here! These belong to you. Now we can say our farewell to Coby and set sail!"
Zoro gave a nod in appreciation as he caught the swords, taking a moment to hang them on the side of his hip. He took a moment to stretch his stiff muscles and joints that were begging for movement, being tied up in the same position for nine days without any food had left him slightly weak. Zoro glanced at Luffy as the teen had stopped smiling and looked to be gazing at the hole he'd made in the fort earlier.
"Before we depart I'll need some food"
Having caught Luffy's attention, The boy shook himself out of his thoughts and addressed his first mate's unspoken question with a grin. "Yea! food is always a good idea!"
Zoro was satisfied with that answer as he relaxed his body, relishing in the presence of his treasured swords, the familiarity of the weight assuring him with a sense of security and strength. He'd have to get back to training once he could if he wanted to defeat the World's strongest swordsman. His eyes drifted towards his new captain who seemed to be having an internal debate with himself.
Luffy paused as he contemplated what to do in this situation, there was a large number of presences near them, all of them were hiding themselves outside of the marine base right behind the wall, It seemed he'd finally caught the marines' attention, 'well no surprise there, a hole in the fort is pretty hard to ignore… Heh… maybe I should've been more subtle...'
This however provided him a good opportunity to measure the swordsman's skills in combat, Luffy had no delusions of Zoro being anywhere near his level, though that wasn't his fault since the East blue was the weakest sea, along with the fact that almost no one uses or has heard of Haki in this side of the world. Either way Luffy would back him up if he needed it since he had gone nine days without any food, honestly the fact that Zoro could still stand was impressive enough and a testament of the swordsman's endurance.
"Eh screw it, I would've fought them at some stage anyway. Zoro! get ready!" Zoro frowned in confusion under the assumption his captain had lost it and was now talking to himself. "Huh? What are you talking about? There's no one her-"
"FIRE!"
The cry of gunshots filled the air as the marines carried out their ambush, Luffy activated his Observation Haki to dodge and predict the trajectory of the bullets, tanking the ones heading for Zoro with a coating of Armament Haki on his arm. The bullets immediately crumpled when they made contact. The group of marine officers were astonished and stopped shooting as the strawhat figure shrugged them off with a grin like they were nothing.
"That won't work on me, You'll have to try a lot harder!" The marines were terrified at what they were seeing.
Zoro paused in shock the second time that day. The kid had just stopped bullets like they were nothing but an annoyance, 'with his bare ARM!'
"Just who are you?!" Zoro's mind couldn't make heads or tails of what he'd witnessed. The teen had first surprised him by tearing through iron without even touching it, then if that wasn't enough he just tanked a bullet head on with his bare hand! 'And there's not even a scratch on him!'
Turning to his first mate Luffy released the coating of armament Haki as he grinned at the pirate hunter. "The name is Monkey D. Luffy! The next King of the Pirates!"
Out from the front line of marines, Morgan walked through the group with a scowl towards the pirates as veins throbbed on his forehead. "IF BULLETS DON'T WORK USE YOUR SWORDS!"
Luffy raised his brow in confusion, 'What kind of stupid logic is that?This guy's pretty dumb!' The marines drew their swords charging a grinning Luffy but before they could reach him Zoro cut the distance between them in the blink of an eye, intercepting their swords with his three katanas.
Luffy stood, maintaining his grin as Zoro held off the numerous swords with his three swords in front of him. "Heh! So you weren't lying about where that third sword goes!"
Zoro's eye twitched in annoyance as he vowed to have his revenge later, right now he had bigger matters at hand, He could feel his blades shaking as the opposing blades struggled for dominance in the pushing of swords against the marine officers'. A cold sensation emanated from Zoro as the swordsman coldly stared at his opponents.
"All of you better not move! You move… and I'll kill you!" Zoro icily challenged.
Luffy toop a step back, surprised.'That burst of Haki! That was from him!?' Zoro's opponent's looked unnerved as they held their swords against his. 'Heh! What are the chances? Seems like he's unconsciously using Haki!' He could see drops of sweat decorating the marines faces as they cowered in fear at the small showcase of Haki.
"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS STANDING THERE FOR?! HURRY UP AND FINISH THEM OFF!" Morgan's impatience voiced itself as the man's iron jaw clenched even harder than before at the sight of Zoro holding off nine marine officers simultaneously.
Deciding to lend him a hand, Luffy had to slightly concentrate as he calibrated a burst of pure energy, He'd found that he was able to control the strength of the repulsion, which was good anyway because there were only a handful of times he could use big repusions with full strength before it drained his stamina.
"Zoro! Dodge!"
Deciding to trust Luffy, Zoro obeyed without hesitation as he swiftly leaped away from the marines he had locked blades with. Luffy's palm rose up pointing towards the marines as he used his devil fruit.
"Compressed Air!"
A deafening boom erupting from his palm propelled a large gust of air that rocketed towards the marines as it blew up dust on its path. Morgan's arm rose as he shielded his eyes from the strong current and dust, hearing the diluted screams of the marines who were blasted away violently from the impact.
Zoro looked on in slight awe at the strength of his new captain, wondering why he didn't use the attack sooner when he clearly could, the difference in strength between them was made clear from the beginning. 'The sneaky bastard! He wanted to test my strength!'
"If you wanted to test my strength you could've asked"
Luffy turned back towards him with a smirk, "Now where's the fun in that?"
Zoro's eye twitched in annoyance at his captain's dismissive response. He glanced at the groaning marine soldiers sprawled around the prison, Turns out Luffy's attack had been stronger than he thought.
"Captain! We can't kill these two!"
"They're too strong for us!"
"We'll just die if we face them! "
Ax hand Morgan stood in silent fury as he listened to his men, his fist clenching in anger. "Whoever just said that… Get a gun and KILL YOURSELF!..."
Morgan's men listened in fear as Morgan continued to degrade them whilst looking directly at them in disgust, "I don't need… useless soldiers! THAT'S AN ORDER!"
Tears streamed down the marines' faces as they had no choice but to obey their superior. Their hands shook as they struggled to pull the trigger wondering if this was truly the moment they would die without saying goodbye to their loved ones.
"What the hell do these dumb marines think they're doing?!" Zoro couldn't believe what he was hearing, These men with people to go back to had to kill themselves for someone who didn't remotely even care about them, 'this was just pointless suicide!'
Acting quickly Luffy let out a blast of conqueror's Haki, An overwhelming presence washed over the prison yard as the air grew heavy with Haki, The marines dropped with foaming mouths as their eyes rolled back into their heads, their guns dropping on the dirt. Captain Morgan watched his men fall unconscious as he struggled to stay on his feet, Luffy had made sure to leak a small amount of his conqueror's Haki, making sure the corrupt captain didn't take the easy way out and fall unconscious, No.. Luffy was going to make sure he suffered for his audacity to give out those orders to his own men.
"Zoro…"
"Leave it to me... Captain!"
Without another word Zoro rushed Morgan who barely managed to put up his axe in defense, three swords clashed with his axe as Zoro began his assault on Morgan, using his strong and bulky build against him. Zoro immediately started with a myriad of fast slashes and stabs, most of which earned the marine captain small cuts and nicks on his body. Morgan's swings began to get more aggressive as he was forced to acknowledge the obvious speed difference between them.
"Pirates like you, Without status… HAVE NO RIGHT TO OPPOSE ME!" The captain's anger allowed Zoro a clear opening, his previous attacks had seemed to wear him down. The axe swung down towards Zoro who gripped his katanas in exhaustion as he prepared to deliver the final blow.
"GO TO HELLLL!"
"Oni.." Zoro crossed his arms together as he held two of his swords on the sides of his shoulders, the third being clenched tightly between his teeth. The world slowed down as he launched his body with full force towards his opponent, Zoro had reached his limit, he'd put everything he had into this final attack
"Giri!"
Morgan's rage was lost in the wind as Zoro finished him with his signature move. The two men stood frozen, one in shock and the other in silent anticipation. Three deep wounds revealed themselves on Morgan's torso as his unconscious body landed roughly on the ground. Zoro pants with obvious exertion as his weak body finally registered the fatigue of the battle, Luffy caught Zoro's body as his knees buckled from the weariness, dragging him into a dreamless abyss.
Luffy stared at the slumped form of his first mate in his arms with a proud smile, The fact that he'd manage to recruit someone with such potent haki this early in the weakest of the seas was a miracle, Luffy made a note to himself to teach Zoro the full extent of Haki as he was sure this would help the swordsman get closer to his goal.
"You did well… Zoro. It seems I chose right…"
XxX
Author's note: Done with that chapter, I spent some extra time on this one, lemme know how it was! Next chapter/chapters (depends on if i have time) will be out within a couple of weeks.