Here is chapter two. There is some ShanksxMakino in this one, for those of you who are fans of that particular pairing. Hope you guys like it! Thanks for the most excellent review, ladyvelveeta, OPobsession and twinfin666! I do have plans for Usopp; he's going to be awesome!
I'm trying to work out the continuity for the world... I am probably going to need a name, but I don't know what to use! I still don't know if the world of One Piece has a decided name, or I would use it. Would somebody help me with that?
--Des
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-Kismet-
Chapter One: Roronoa Zoro, the Guardian of the Secret Sword
The world had been torn between those who believed magic was life and those who believed everything could be proved through experimentation and reason. The Mages and the Scientists had been enemies for as long as anybody could remember. Two completely different ideals that could help the world so much were too busy fighting with each other to do so. It was so horrible, many innocents died in an almost pointless war. So many good minds and brave souls were lost... If it were not for Gold Roger, the Emperor of All Oceans, the two opposing parties would have destroyed the world in a mighty battle involving their strongest weapons. The only way he was able to stop them was an ingenious hybrid instrument of machine and magic; the now legendary One Piece.
It has been a full century since he united the world, and it has begun to fall apart once again...
It was a fair day, sunny and warm with tiny puffs of cloud accenting the blue of the sky. Luffy was enjoying it to the fullest by relaxing under a tall, leafy elm-tree. The slight breeze ruffled the leaves of the tree he was under, his black hair and his simple homespun clothes, cooling his sun-warmed skin. He put his arms behind his head and yawned loudly. He was thinking about the family that he had been with for the past seven years, and though they were a rather unofficial and untraditional family they were close enough. Shanks and his friends had promised to take care of him and to teach him how to get by in the world. Shanks was most like a father to him, Ben, Lucky Roux and Yasopp were sort of like uncles. They may have been constantly on the run because of their job as spies, but Luffy liked it better than staying in one spot all the time even if he didn't get to make that many other friends. There were some other people in the crew that he got along with, but he didn't know them nearly as well as the people he was proud to call his family.
He brushed the rough scar under his eye. It was one of the only pieces he had of his past that he had forgotten. Shanks had told him that his parents died in an accident and that he was the only survivor. He also explained that he must have lost his memory when that accident happened. The first thing he remembered was opening his eyes and seeing Ben and Lucky Roux standing over him, carefully removing large shards of glass from around him, and he felt pain, but not much. He remembered how guilty he had felt when Shanks had to get a cybernetic arm after the rescue, he felt like it was his fault.
He yawned again, and s he was dozing off, he heard a call from behind him. "Luffy? It's time for lunch! We're going to those temple ruins Yasopp found for a picnic." That voice was unmistakable; it belonged to Makino, Shanks' lady friend. If anything, she was his mother in the group.
"All right! What are we having?" He jumped up and dusted off his homespun blue shorts and darted around the tree to where Makino stood.
"Oh, I don't know. I think Ben went deer hunting..." She said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "We'll probably be having venison steaks."
"YEAH! MEAT!" He whooped, jumping up in the air. He ran over and hugged Makino, then grabbed her hand and pulled her along. "C'mon! What are we waiting for?" She laughed as the seventeen-year old boy led her through the stand of piñon, elm and juniper pine trees to the hovership where Shanks was waiting.
"Hey, Luffy, Makino," he nodded to each one respectively. "You ready to go? The others are on the ship already."
"Are you kidding? Of course I'm ready!" Luffy jumped up again. "Are we going to explore the temple, too?" Shanks nodded in reply. "I figured. So, let's go?"
Luffy ran up the steep gangplank to the deck of the mighty hovership, waving for Shanks and Makino to follow. Shanks offered his mechanical arm to her, and she took it, walking with him up to join Luffy. "All right, start up the engines!" He bellowed, and there were scattered 'Aye Sirs!' from about the ship. Lucky Roux hoisted up the gangplank as the 'ship lifted higher and higher into the air. Yasopp stood at the key, awaiting movement from the hovership. One member of the crew scrambled up the rigging and began to untie the heavy ropes that held the large oilcloth sails in place. The sails unfurled, and the wind caught them, sending the huge 'ship lurching forward. They turned east, and headed for Yasopp's ruins.
Luffy climbed up in some rigging on the side of the flying ship and hung off of them by a foot and a hand, closing his eyes so that he felt only the wind and the smooth movement of the ship. The speed of their travel was causing a counter-wind that made his unruly black hair whip around his face, stinging only slightly. He grinned happily, then opened his eyes and made his way up to the crow's nest to take a better look at the grand valley they had been traveling in for the past few days. Table-like mesas to the east, mountains of red stone to the west, each landform dotted with sparse desert evergreen trees and desert grasses. There was a river running through the center of it, and it was lined with cottonwoods, elms, thorny ocotillo plants (as one of the crewmen had told him) and some kind of olive-tree with pale-green leaves. It was beautiful here, though it was quite different from any other place he had been while traveling with Shanks' crew of spies. At night he could hear coyotes or wolves yapping from all around, as if the different packs were communicating with each other, and at dusk bats could be seen flitting across the sky. His survey of the valley was interrupted by a call from Yasopp.
"There are the ruins; we can let down the 'ship over there!" He pointed to a crumbling ziggurat in a clearing just below them, its many steps chipped and worn by the elements and age. There was a clear spot suitable for landing, and for the picnic. Luffy's favorite pass-time was eating, as much of the crew knew well, so it was no surprise he came down from the crow's nest in a flash. He helped carry down a table and some kegs of ale, and helped set everything up.
"So, when do we eat?" The young man asked Shanks hopefully.
The redhead shrugged. "Whenever Ben finishes cooking the venison, I guess." That reply rose an impatient groan from Luffy. "We can check out the ruins while we wait, it shouldn't take too long for those steaks to cook."
"Yeah! Great idea Shanks. I wonder what's inside..." Luffy looked at the large, half-crumbled arch that led into the fortress-like temple. In the walls he could see intricate carvings of serpents and men fighting.
"These are the remains of a Skypian temple, so I bet we can find some pretty good stuff to send back to headquarters." Luffy grinned and nodded.
"So, what are we waiting for? Let's check it out!" He laughed and ran through the arch, hopping over stray chunks of broken white-granite pillars. The red-haired spy chuckled to himself, then called over to Makino to tell her where they were going.
"All right, be careful!" She answered fondly. "Don't let Luffy do anything stupid again." There was a yell of disapproval from within the walls of the ruins, and Shanks snickered a little.
"Okay, no problem!" He waved and strode through the crumbling gate and into the ancient ruins that he was sure held treasure beneath their rubble. He looked at his cybernetic arm and winced.
He had lost his original arm because Higuma's final shot had burned it beyond repair, and they could not have possibly gotten to a cleric in time. They stopped by a normal hospital and got it rigged up, all the while he was reassuring Luffy that he wasn't to blame. He hadn't shown his face in headquarters for seven years because of it, but without both arms he couldn't get much work done. No matter how many times Makino told him that the boss wouldn't care, so long as he was still alive he just didn't feel up to facing a Mage like this, that he would seem to be a traitor. He sighed and shrugged the thought off and began to keep a sharp eye out for anything unusual.
Luffy was far ahead of him, already running up the steps of the ziggurat-style temple. He almost slipped several times, but caught himself before he fell; it was a long way down and the stairs were quite steep. "Almost to the top..." He panted. There were certainly a lot of steps; he made note to count them on his way down. He reached the top and flopped down, dizzy and winded from the run up.
He rolled over and noticed a tiny, gold, bell-like earring laying on the granite next to him. First treasure today! He thought, smiling and congratulating himself. He was about to call shanks over, when the floor beneath him cracked. His call became a shocked cry as he fell through the unstable top of the temple. He landed, though not softly, safely, and rubbed his backside. He couldn't see well in the dim light, so he stayed in the same place until his eyes adjusted. He was in a small antechamber with an eastern entrance that was covered by fallen blocks of weathered stone.
The collapsed antechamber opened into a room that was pitch black save for a single ray of light that fell upon a pedestal in the center. Luffy's eyes became large when he saw what was on it: A magnificent crystal-bladed katana sat on a stand by its sheath. The light reflected from its faceted surface, scattering a myriad of faint rainbows on the floor. He gasped in awe of the majestic blade. He ran back to the antechamber and called loudly for Shanks to come in, but he did not know what trouble he had bought with that action.
"Who goes there? Show yourself!" Luffy froze in his mid call, his voice dropping to silence in a second. Who would be in ancient ruins except for...?
"AAUGH! A GHOST!" He cried. Desperately, he scrambled to push rocks out of the blocked doorway to no avail. The hairs on the back of his neck rose as he heard footsteps coming closer and closer... How was he going to get out of this one? He thought for a moment before reverting to the obvious. "AAGHSHANKSHELPMEHELPMETHERE'SAGHOSTHELPMEAGH!" He flopped to the ground, once again dizzy and winded. A shadow loomed over him, and he whined, not in fear, but because the so-called ghost was not an actual ghost, and thus he had just wasted his energy for nothing. It was a tall man, and he wore a menacing black headband that shaded his eyes from view and held short, messy green hair out of his eyes. There were two swords belted crossways on his back, their sheaths not unlike the crystal katana's. Two earrings dangled from his left ear, something seemed quite unbalanced about them to Luffy.
"Why did you int--" He began, but was cut off by Luffy, who thought he knew what was coming.
"I'm sorry I intruded, but I just fell through the ceiling and the door over there is blocked..." He explained.
"Oh, that too. I was going to say, 'Why did you have to interrupt my nap by being so damn loud?' Usually thieves are very quiet about their business and they don't wake me up." He lifted his headband up and scowled. "The stupid thing won't stay up."
Luffy squinted at the man's earrings. He pulled the one out of his pocket to find that it was identical. "Is this yours?"
He looked closely at the gold trinket and smiled a little. "Yeah, thanks, uh...?" He picked it up and put it on.
"Luffy." He supplied with a large grin.
"Luffy. Name's Roronoa Zoro." He returned. "I heard you calling your buddy, so you can wait here until he comes. I am the Guardian of these grounds, and I don't want you to take anything. You and your friend must go, when he gets you out anyway."
"I understand. We thought this place was abandoned." Luffy shook his head and sighed, but then his head shot up. "Want to join us for lunch?"
Luffy grabbed his arm and shook it vigorously. "What? I--"
"There's more than enough for you to have some! Can't you stop guarding for just a little bit?"
He sighed, pushing his headband up once again. "It's my job to keep people like you from getting that sword. I will stay here."
"But how can we take the sword if we're eating lunch?"
"Luffy? Are you okay?" Shanks peeked over the broken ceiling. I was way across the ground when I heard you yell, sorry it took so long to get over here. Who is that?"
Before Zoro could talk, Luffy spoke for him. "He's the Guardian. We can't take any stuff here, Shanks, he said so." Luffy stated with a little jerk of his shoulders. "But he'll be coming to lunch with us."
"What? I never-- Oh, fine." He crossed his arms and scowled. "I suppose I do owe you something for finding my earring, so I'll come along." He pushed his headband up again, then finally retied it in frustration.
"Great, now, let me get my rope." Shanks said as he reached to his back, but Zoro waved his hand, motioning the man to stop.
"That's not needed. There's a ladder in my room; we'll meet you at the bottom of the temple." Shanks nodded and left, then Zoro jabbed his head towards the door to the sword room. "This way... Luffy, right?"
"Mmhm. So, what is that sword, exactly?" Luffy stepped around a couple of loose stones.
"That's the treasure of this place, the Wado Ichimonji of St. Kuina. Many call it the Secret Sword, because not many people have found it. I'm waiting for a true swordsman to come to claim it, but I have been at this ten years and nobody has come."
"Ooh, I did some sword fighting with Shanks and Ben--"
"No, it's only for master swordsmen!" He growled, yanking Luffy back and giving him a thump on the forehead with the hilt of one katana. "Though I shouldn't really sat swordsmen, because St. Kuina was a girl and a kid."
Luffy glanced at Zoro. "Maybe you're the one. How good are you?" He indicated the two katanas at the man's side.
"I was sent to guard this place, not to take the Sword." He said, shaking his head.
"So you haven't tried?"
"No, but it's a sacred relic for all of my profession, how could I do that?"
Luffy laughed at Zoro's logic. "If you're waiting for a swordsman to come and take it, wouldn't it be a waste if you were him? You never know until you try."
Zoro was silent for a moment as he considered. "True... Wait here for a moment." He took off towards the pedestal, and looked into the light. "Kuina, saint of swords, I would ask your permission to--"
The light blazed brighter, and a spectral image of a little girl appeared. Her eyes were slightly sad, but when they turned to Zoro they brightened just as the light had. "So, you have been here this whole time! I've been waiting, why didn't you try sooner? Oh, well, that isn't important. You may take the Wado Ichimonji if you take me along with you, wherever you go. I wish to fight again."
"As you wish." He placed his hands on the blade, and the girl faded to smoke which floated over to linger around the sword. He turned to Luffy, a wide smile on his face. "Thanks, kid. Yeah, I'll join you for lunch. Is there any ale?"
"Yeah, Makino makes the best!" Luffy had the same smile on his face, because for the first time in ages, he had made a friend