By the time Zoro located the kitchens, the dining hall was empty, long benches stacked on tables and stone floor neatly swept. There were a few people left in the kitchen, all busy cleaning. The three kids at the sinks, their acolyte sleeves tied back as they washed dishes, he recognized as yesterday's cheerleaders. They were standing on stools to reach the water, and the two boys were splashing each other as they scrubbed and rinsed. The girl, studiously polishing dry whatever they managed to complete, shook her head with all the disparaging maturity of a young woman among her idiot male peers. It put him rather in mind of Nami, though this girl's hair was long and curly.

While he wouldn't trust himself cooking, and no one had asked him to help when he had come into the kitchens earlier in the day, dishes were one task Zoro could do confidently. Taking up another rag, he stepped up next to the red-haired girl and started drying the clay cups stacked along the counter.

She glanced over, almost dropped her plate. "M--Mr. Pirate?"

The boys quit their water fight mid-splash, gawking at him from under dripping bangs. Zoro held up a dry cup. "Where does this go?"

"You--" The dark-haired boy swallowed. "You can leave it on the counter."

So he did, picked up another one and swiped off the water while the kids gaped. "But he's a--" the dark-haired boy began, and then the redhead nudged his friend and hissed back, "Yeah, and they can do whatever they want!"

"I've eaten here," Zoro said. "One of the other acolytes said all of you take turns with the chores. So I'm taking my turn."

"But you don't have to--"

"Not much else to do around here, from what I've seen."

"But you--" The boy gestured at his swords. "You can swordfight!"

"And no one else here does, so there's no one I can fight."

"You could--" This time his friend's nudge was hard enough the boy fell off his stool, hopped back on and smacked the other boy with his sponge.

Before they could begin wrestling, one of the others in the kitchen, a balding priest, called over, "So the sink will wash the dishes for you, now?"

The boys went red, ducked in quick bows as they chorused, "Sorry!" and spun back around to return to their chore with great industry.

The priest's hazel eyes lingered on Zoro. "You needn't be obliged," he said quietly. "This isn't why you're here."

"There's no reason for me to be here," Zoro replied. "It's not like I'm actually doing anything. So I might as well help out."

"As you wish," said the man. "Though I've heard otherwise."

"What do you mean--" Zoro began to ask, but the man had returned to mopping the tiles around the stoves.

Zoro and the girl dried while the boys washed, silently now, though all three kids kept sneaking glances at his swords. "So," he asked finally, after the fourth peek in a minute, "you guys know the priestess?"

"Lonlin? Yeah." The boldest, the dark-haired boy, shrugged diffidently. "We play with her sometimes. She's little, but she's not afraid like some girls. Even if we can't wrestle her or anything like that. And we have lessons together. She's smart," he admitted grudgingly. "But she can't run very fast."

"She swims well, though," said the other boy. "And she helps with chores. Except dusting the lamps, she hates that. But she'll give me candy if I'll do it for her," and he grinned.

"And she talks to the goddess sometimes."

"Oh, she does that all the time. In the morning and in the evening, and the afternoons on special days. We have to go sometimes, it's pretty boring. Unless there's something cool, like pirates--" The dark-haired boy stopped, though his anxious glance was not at Zoro but at his two friends, neither of whom met his eyes. "Anyway," he went on after a couple seconds, "she'd usually be doing that now. At the fountain or in her room. Except tonight, I guess--" and he swallowed again, this time blinking nervously at Zoro.

"Just shut up," hissed the redheaded boy helpfully.

"She told me that she would be at the ceremony tonight," Zoro said.

The water gurgled as the dishes splashed into the suds, the boys dropping them to stare at him, while the girl simply froze, the rag in her hand poised over a plate. "You talked to the priestess?" the red-haired boy finally asked.

"She came up to the room. She wanted to see how my friend was doing." Zoro shrugged. "He was asleep anyway, and I didn't touch her, so it's okay."

They looked quite shocked, or maybe awed. "If her dad knew..." the redhead muttered.

"...she'd be in such big trouble," mumbled the other boy.

"Why?" The girl clapped down her present plate on top of the stack, hard enough that the whole pile rattled. "It wasn't dangerous."

"But..." Her brother glanced at Zoro. "He's--they're--"

"Everyone's been saying they're good guys, right? Because the sinner promised, and hasn't tried once to run away, and he's stayed, too, he's stayed with him all the time, hasn't everyone been saying that means they're good? And this afternoon, Inste and Glibrech and Lady Wuani, weren't they praying for him? Weren't they praying for the goddess to be merciful to him now, so they both don't hurt? So they're actually really good."

Her outburst seemed to have startled the boys silent, and she went mute too, ducked her head with embarrassment to hide her bright pink cheeks.

Zoro sighed. "I don't know if we're good guys," he said, "but we're not bad guys, anyway. At least we don't torture--" but they were just kids; this didn't really have anything to do with them. He shook his head. "Never mind. But I don't mean your priestess any harm."

"You're going, right? As soon as this is over? That's what you said yesterday."

"Right. Our ship will be waiting for us tomorrow, and we'll go." Both of them, walking out of this damn temple. Because if it were otherwise...

"You wouldn't have to go," the girl said, staring down at her slippers. "We wouldn't make you, afterwards."

"Yeah, well, you and your people have been really hospitable, but I don't think my friend will care to stick around. I sure as hell won't."

"Sorry," whispered the girl, her voice tremulous, and the boys mumbled unhappy echoes.

Not more of them. As long as they didn't actually start bawling... Zoro rubbed his neck. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Your priestess was, too. It's okay, he doesn't blame you. Idiot thinks it's his fault, because he didn't know your goddess's stup--her rules. He's not angry with any of you."

The dark-haired boy raised his head enough to sneak a peek at him. "What about you?"

Zoro didn't think he did more than look at the kid, but the boy ducked his head again as quickly as if he had been smacked. "I don't have anything to do with this," the swordsman said. "They won't even tell me about the ceremonies--you probably know more about them than I do."

But rather than pursue that and possibly get the kids in trouble, he changed the subject, "By the way, I missed dinner. Is there anything left over?"

"Oh! We'll get you food!" The girl hopped off the stool, the two boys quick to follow. While they rummaged in the icebox, a tall walk-in affair that Sanji might have envied, Zoro went over to the opposite counter. Bowls of fruit had been set out, for late-night snackers or early breakfasters, he supposed.

While they had slowly done dishes the others in the kitchen had finished their chores, and now the place was deserted but for an old woman tending the low fires. He glanced at the back of her gray head, saw it nodding, and turned back to the counter, and the bowl of small purple grapes which had caught his eye. Passing his hand over the bunch, he plucked a handful of the fruit, casually reached down and pushed them, one by one, into a fold in his haramaki.

He concealed a second cluster likewise, popped the last couple grapes into his mouth as the kids returned with a bowl of cold rice and pickled vegetables, and several pastries, which they had personally sampled, to tell from the glazed sugar mottling their lips. They let him eat while they did the last of the dishes, hurrying through the chore with low excited chattering and much soapy water sloshed on the floor. They finished when he did, and he stood as they scampered over and drew themselves up. "Mr. Pirate," the dark-haired boy stepped forth to ask, "we're going into the town now, do you want to come?"

"There's a bard at the inn outside the gate, he sings very well," the girl said timidly.

Zoro shook his head. "Sorry, they asked me not to leave, and I should get back to the room. Don't know when the ceremony tonight's going to be over."

"Oh." The three looked at one another, and the bold boy said at last, "We don't know either."

"I hope it's soon," the girl said softly, and then she shyly reached out to touch Zoro's hand, clasped her fingers around his for a second and let go. "I hope your friend's okay. Even if you are pirates. You're not like those pirates. So I pray you won't be hurt." She didn't wait for an answer; blushing furiously, she dashed out the door.

"Tani!" the dark-haired boy called, and shot after her.

Her brother stayed for a moment, looking at Zoro darkly; then the kid nodded. "She's right," he said. "You are good guys, I think."

"Who'd she mean, 'those pirates'?"

"The ones who killed our parents," the boy told him. "Five years ago, we were on a ship that was attacked. Our mother and our father--they threw us overboard with a barrel, before the pirates could...they all had guns, and these long knives. Bur Satva was too far away, we were swimming and swimming and we couldn't even see land. Then a ship came, with blue sails; the priestess--the old priestess--was told by the goddess where we were, so she came to save us. Now they let us live here, where it's safe.

"And I always thought, someday I'll become a warrior, I'll learn sword fighting, or guns, and I'll sail out and hunt down all the pirates in the Grand Line. But maybe I don't need to hunt all of them," he concluded. "Just the bad ones, like the ones the goddess protects us from." He squared his shoulders, looked up at Zoro. "I believe that you didn't mean Priestess Lonlin any harm. I hope your friend lives, sir." He followed his friends out the door.

Zoro listened to them pound up the stairs, their raised voices echoing against the stone. He touched his haramaki, made sure those few grapes were entirely hidden before walking out of the kitchen, though it turned out there was no one in the dining hall to see.

"Yeah," he said to that empty room. "So do I." And he went to find the stairs.

to be continued...

So Sanji's off on fifth death and Zoro...does dishes. ...No, I don't get it either. Apologies for the delay - and the lack of torture in this chapter - but rest assured I will be posting the next soon, to make up for it...