The marines around him were starting to move. He could hear their bodies and clothes scrape against the concrete where he lay sprawled on the dusty floor. It was pretty surprising to hear them move already, considering the amount of damage the Dragon Coil must have done to them. The swordsman gave up a hoarse, dry laughter before opening his eyes to analyze the result of his attack. There were large slashes all over the walls and the ceiling, most of them lightly curved, as from sweeping cuts from a huge sword. Injured Marines were lying all over the floor around him. Some of them were screaming or moaning in pain, but most of them were moving quietly, fighting to get back up from the floor.
The first thing he could think of once his mind slipped out of observation mode was how long he could have been lying there. If he had been out cold for too long, he wouldn't blame his nakama if they had set sail and taken off without him. He would be annoyed and maybe even angry at them for it, but he wouldn't blame them. Then again, if they hadn't taken off without him yet, he should probably try to get out of the base.
Turning his head so that his forehead was pressed against the floor, he tried moving his arms to support himself. His muscles burned and protested as he pulled his arms to his sides and pushed himself off the floor, his blood dripping from the deep cuts in his chest and arms when he moved.
"What? Is the great pirate hunter Zoro starting to feel the blood-loss creeping up on him?"
The cook's voice echoed in his mind and made him clench his teeth harder as he pushed himself up on his hands and knees. No. He would show that pathetic excuse for a cook that losing some blood wasn't going to slow him down. Plus, he was pretty sure that he had won their little competition now when there were no more Marines to beat.
Blood was dripping into his eyes as he hanged his head towards the floor, taking deep breaths to stop his vision from slipping out of focus again. For a moment, he couldn't feel anything in his whole body. Everything was swept into a warm, numbing mist that threatened to swallow him, just like the darkness had swallowed him once he allowed his body to rest after releasing the Dragon Coil upon the marines. But this time, he wasn't going to allow himself to fade away like that. Lifting a hand he knew was located somewhere in the numbness that was his body, he pressed his fingers against the slash in his cheek, feeling the searing waves of pain wake every muscle in him as they rushed out in his limbs.
Awakened by the new pain, Zoro found new strength flowing inside him. Pulling up one knee towards his bleeding stomach, he set down his foot firmly against the ground. When he felt that his balance was returning to normal, he did the same with his other leg and slowly stood up. Colorful spots danced in front of his eyes when he straightened his back and pulled off his bandana. He tied the black cloth around his left upper arm and waited for his vision to return, swaying lightly when his body tried to adjust to the temporary loss of one of his senses.
The moaning and screams of the Marines were growing stronger around him when he regained his vision, and he made sure that his three swords were securely tied to his waistband before turning towards the open double doors. As he started walking, an explosion echoed in the room and a bullet embedded itself in the wooden door frame just in front of Zoro. The sounds in the room died out, leaving only the creaking of the outer doors moving in a gust of wind.
Turning around, Zoro spotted the shooter lying on the floor, the pistol aimed directly at him. The Marine's bloodstained hands were shaking violently, and he stared wildly at Zoro.
"Stop right there!" he called out, his voice trembling. "Don't move or I'll shoot!"
"Che." Zoro smirked at the Marine, turning away again. "If you wanted to shoot me, you wouldn't have aimed at the doorframe to begin with."
It wasn't a wise move to turn his back against an armed opponent, and Zoro was well aware of this. He kept on walking through the first set of doors, the armed man's strained threats to shoot echoing behind him, but there were no more gunshots. Instead, the clattering of a metal item falling to the concrete floor reached the swordsman's ears and he smirked once more.
Reaching the outer set of doors and walking out to the edge of the wooden platform outside the base, Zoro lifted a badly cut hand to shield his eyes from the strong sun. A cold breeze brought small droplets of saltwater with it as it passed by him where he stood above the ocean. The stinging pain from the saltwater seeping into his wounds made him hiss involuntarily, and he turned away from the edge of the platform just in time to catch the sound of running steps coming from inside the building. In one sweeping moment, he unsheathed Sandai Kitetsu and held it out towards the open doors, feeling the sword's bloodthirst pulsate against his palm.
The bespectacled woman stopped dead in her tracks as she came out through the open doors, staring up along the blade of the cursed sword at the swordsman. Zoro barely kept himself from rolling his eyes. Challenging the Marine at that point would be very stupid.
"Oh, it's you again," he said tiredly. "What do you want?"
The woman pushed her rectangular glasses further up over the bridge of her nose. The edge of the sword was still pointing directly at her face, but she gathered herself enough to glare at him.
"Why did you do that?" she demanded to know, looking almost as if she hadn't meant to say anything. "Why would you kill so many men just to protect some pirates?"
"I'm also a pirate," Zoro pointed out, blinking as new blood started to trickle down into his eyes. "And I think the men in there are very much alive – dead men usually don't mention that they are in pain, and they definitely don't scream about it."
"The men in there are dying!" the woman shouted, pointing in the direction of the entrance. "They're dying just because of some pirates who didn't like it in prison!"
Zoro sent the female Marine a cold glare, turning his sword away from her and sliding it back into its sheath. He had had just about enough of the woman – her attitude, her face, her voice; everything about her.
"Yeah well, my captain is probably dying at this very moment as well, because some psycho with stupid sand powers thought that it would be fun to destroy a whole kingdom. So if you're not going to fight me again, I'm going to join my crew now."
He turned away and noticed the stone stairs leading away from the platform. There were smeared, dark red footprints leading down the stairs, and Zoro decided to follow them. But as he set his foot on the first step, he stopped.
"Tell them not to move around," he said without turning around.
"What?"
"The soldiers. The Dragon Coil does the most damage and causes the most blood-loss if the victim moves around after being hit by it. So tell them to stay still."
He wasn't even sure why the hell he was telling her that, he had intended to let them try to stay alive on their own, but then Luffy's voice as he ordered Zoro to save the Marine with the smoke powers back in Crocodile's lair had come to his mind. Zoro shook his head and started walking down the stone stairs again, his open wounds stinging and bleeding as more saltwater was sprayed over him by another gust of wind.
- e – e -
Behind the swordsman, Tashigi sank down to her knees on the platform, her hands resting in her lap as she looked after Zoro. She cursed under her breath, lifting her left hand to remove her glasses.
"I'll practice harder, Lolonoa Zoro," she muttered. "The next time we meet, I'm going to free those swords from your command."
- e – e –
When Zoro came down to the docks, he was relieved to see the familiar sheep's head at the far end of the harbor. It looked like the ship was ready to depart; the flags were fluttering in the breeze and the sails were ready to be set and seemed to be anxious – if sails had the ability to be anxious – to be filled with wind and set out to sea again. Zoro straightened his back as he got closer to the ship, trying to keep himself from looking too tired. He definitely didn't want to attract Chopper's attention with more than the open wounds that covered his body. Getting scolded for pushing himself too hard was nothing he looked forward to in addition to the doctor's usual nagging about not working out while his injuries were healing.
"Zoro!" a voice echoed from the prow of the ship. Zoro looked up and spotted Nami standing by the railing, waving down at him. "It's about time you showed up. Cast off, will you?"
After cutting the ropes that tied the Going Merry to the dock, Zoro walked up the gangplank to the main deck, catching a glimpse of Chopper – back in his small teddy bear-like form and with bandages covering most of his little body – adjusting the bandages around Usopp's shoulders over by the main mast. When he jumped down from the railing, he stopped and stared at the black-haired man who was dancing across the deck dressed in a white uniform and a long pink coat with white wings attached to the shoulders.
Nami came limping down the stairs from the prow, her left leg wrapped in bandages up to her knee, and her right shoulder hidden behind a thick layer of bandages and band-aids. It looked like Chopper had recovered enough to start patching up the crew. Nami nodded towards the former numberagent, who was spinning around with amazing speed while singing some strange song way out of key.
"Turns out that Bon Clay here has been guarding the ship disguised as a Marine," she explained, not taking any notice of the blood covering the swordsman. "In return, he just asked for a lift to his own ship, so he's going with us for a while."
Zoro groaned as he bent down to lift up the gangplank. He put it down against the railing and sighed. Having a former enemy aboard the ship could be dangerous.
"Not all the way back to Alabasta, I hope," he muttered, turning to walk to the anchor deck. "Should I raise the anchor?"
"Yes, but we're not going back to Alabasta, I'm afraid," Nami said sadly, looking after Zoro.
"Why not?" Zoro frowned. Not going back to Alabasta? What the hell was going on? Then, an unfamiliar voice was heard, causing Zoro to turn around, this time staring at the tall woman who was walking towards them across the deck with her arms folded.
"Because, swordsman-san, the Marines have established a temporary base in Albana while the kingdom is being rebuilt," the woman said calmly. "It would be very unwise to return there, especially since you've just escaped from a Marine prison."
"I meant to tell you," Nami said, leaning towards Zoro as she spoke. "This is Nico Robin. She's our new crewmember."
Shaking his head tiredly, Zoro rubbed at a sore point in his left temple, wondering what else could have happened during the time he had been away from the crew. Having two former enemies aboard the ship could definitely be dangerous, considering how highly ranked both of them had been in the hierarchy of the Baroque Works.
"Whatever…" he said roughly, shrugging as he turned away again. He hoped that he looked as indifferent as he had meant to when he entered the military storage room to raise the anchor. Inside the military storage room, he turned the capstand with one hand and felt the tug at the line as the anchor made its way up from the water. Once the anchor had been raised, Zoro wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, wincing as the pain in the wounds flared up again. He had completely forgotten about the injuries and everything else that had happened. The only thing he wanted to do was to sleep. Now that he thought about it, a month wouldn't be close to enough time to sleep.
Leaving the anchor deck, he noted that the sails had been set and that the ship was slowly moving away from the rocky island. Finally, they were on their way again. Zoro intended to go up to the stern and sleep under the mandarin trees, but in his increasing sleepiness, he wasn't paying much attention to where he was going, and found himself on a collision course with the former numberagent, who was entertaining Usopp and Chopper with his Mane Mane Montage down by the main mast. He tried to avoid getting hit or kicked straight in the face as the okama was performing a re-enactment of his battle against Sanji, and made it to the other side of the ship without anyone noticing him. Or so he thought.
Chopper suddenly cried out as he noticed Zoro's blood-drenched clothes and hurried over to pursue the swordsman to go down to the storage room to get his wounds cleaned. Zoro tried to convince the little doctor that he just needed to sleep. Despite Chopper's persistent demands to know what had happened to him, Zoro walked up the stairs to the upper deck, where he lay down in the shade of the mandarin trees and immediately fell into a deep sleep. He didn't even wake up when Chopper and Bon Clay brought him down into the storage room below the lounge so that the doctor could start stitching up the numerous deep cuts on his body.
- e – e –
The night that followed wasn't pleasant. Usopp tried to turn around in his hammock below deck, glad that the pain killers Chopper had given him were working. The pain in his heavily bandaged shoulders had been reduced to a dull throbbing, but he still couldn't sleep. The silence in the almost empty room was only broken by the occasional snore from Zoro, who was fast asleep on the couch by the wall to the left. How the swordsman could sleep despite his injuries – which had to hurt like hell, since Chopper had mentioned that Zoro had refused to take any pain killers – was completely beyond his understanding.
Sighing, Usopp swung his legs over the edge of his hammock and he slid down onto the floor. With great difficulty, he climbed up through the hatch in the ceiling up onto the main deck. The sky above wore a deep blue color with stars scattered like diamonds over the caravel that lay anchored close to a small reef. They had been sailing in the direction Nami's log post pointed out until it turned too dark to see where they were going in the moon-less night. Bon Clay and Robin had offered to keep watch during the night, and no one had objected to that. They had all been too worn out to even think about staying up half the night, keeping an eye out for Marines who could be chasing after them.
But when Usopp looked around over the deck, he noticed that he wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep. Nami was sitting in her beach chair next to the stairs to the lounge, wrapped in a blanket against the chilly wind. Sanji came out from the kitchen, carrying a tray with two cups filled with something that was steaming hot in his hand. The cook walked down the stairs, his posture strangely stiff each time he put his bandaged feet down. He nodded towards Usopp as he took notice of his presence.
"There's tea in the kitchen if you want some," he said calmly before offering one of the cups to Nami. Her compliments made him bow stiffly, as if the small movement was very painful to make.
"Thanks," Usopp said, now feeling a bit cold. Tea could be just what he needed to get some sleep. "Where are the others?"
"The okama is sleeping in the lounge," Sanji said as he walked up to the main mast and looked up towards the crow's nest. "Robin-chan, my love! I brought your tea!"
"Thank you," came a soft reply from the crow's nest above their heads. A row of over twenty arms suddenly sprouted from the mast, carefully taking the tray with the cup from Sanji's hands and slowly but steadily lifting it up to the platform. Sanji smiled as the woman complimented the drink. Then the cook turned to Usopp again.
"Robin-chan said that she'll keep watch, and Chopper is down in the storage tending to Luffy."
"How's he doing?" Usopp asked, shivering in the cold wind blowing past them.
"Luffy? I have no idea. Chopper won't let anyone get down there." Sanji said, pulling a cigarette from the pack in his inner pocket. He lit it casually, and as he shook the match to put out the flame, he nodded for Usopp to follow him. "Come on, I'll get you some tea. Chopper would kill me if I let you catch a cold on top of your injuries."
"So… uh…" Usopp said, following after Sanji up to the lounge. "You're not mad at me anymore?"
"What? Oh, that. Of course I am," Sanji said casually, opening the door to the kitchen and walking inside. "But not even hitting three women is something I would let you starve or get sick for. No, I have something better in mind for that." He looked back at Usopp with a devilish grin on his face.
"Oh." Usopp walked inside the lounge, not completely at ease with the thought that he at least would be full and healthy when Sanji decided to kick his ass.
The warm, sweet scent of the dinner they had eaten earlier was still lingering inside the kitchen, and it was making Usopp's stomach growl a little. But he decided against asking for something to eat, Sanji didn't seem to be in good shape, no matter how much he tried to hide it. Instead, the marksman sat down by the table, leaning lightly over the table top. Bon Clay was sitting at the other end of the table, leaning his head against his folded arms over the wooden surface. His pink coat was hanging over one of the counters in the kitchen area, and Usopp noted that except for the heavy make-up, the man looked almost normal when he was sleeping.
Something soft hit him in the back of his neck, and he turned around. There was a grey blanket lying on the floor behind him. As he picked it up, he saw Sanji coming towards him with a mug filled with tea.
"Come on, get out. I don't want him to wake up. I can only stand so much of that okama in one day," the cook said, handing the mug to Usopp and gesturing for the door.
"Okay. I should start working on Nami's new Clima Tact anyway," Usopp said, draping the blanket over his shoulders with some difficulty. The blanket kept getting caught in his bandages and it caused him some amount of pain before he got it wrapped around himself. "Thanks for the tea and the blanket."
"Don't mention it," Sanji said, walking away towards his kitchen. When Usopp opened the door and let the chilly wind into the room, Sanji turned his head to look towards the marksman and said with a weak smile: "Four days left, you shitty sniper."
"Right." Usopp smiled and walked out into the darkness. First when he was walking down the stairs towards the main deck, he remembered that the material for the Clima Tact and his tools were all down in the storage room, where Chopper wouldn't let anyone enter. The marksman frowned. This could prove to be difficult. If not…
"He won't let you in," Nami said as she looked up from her teacup at Usopp when he walked past her. "We've tried everything." Usopp shrugged and knocked on the door to the storage.
"Chopper? I brought you some tea," he said to the door. There was the faint sound of footsteps from behind the door before it was opened a little bit and Chopper poked his blue nose out into the darkness.
"Tea?" he said with a voice that sounded both tired and confused, and Usopp wondered if the little reindeer had planned to get any sleep at all.
"Yeah, I thought you could need some tea," he said forcing an almost cheery smile as he held out the mug towards Chopper. "But it's not just any kind of tea, you know. It's a magic kind of tea called Eronel, and the one who drinks it will earn a special power, just like when eating a Devil's Fruit but the one drinking it won't lose the ability to swim… If he doesn't already have Devil powers, of course. Do you want to try it?"
"I don't have the time to drink tea," Chopper said, moving to shut the door again.
"Okay, then I'll drink it myself while I tell you about how I fought the swamp monster of Woogie Doogie to get my hands on this very special tea. But maybe you don't have the time to listen to that story either…" Usopp let his voice trail away, keeping his voice low and adding a tone of disappointment for effect. "Maybe I'll go and tell Sanji and Bon Clay the story instead…"
"No, I- I want to hear it…" Chopper said quietly, opening the door a little more while he looked expectantly at Usopp. "But please keep your voice down. He's sleeping."
Usopp winked at Nami as he entered the storage room. The story of the swamp monster of Woogie Doogie and the magic Eronel tea was already in his head, ready to be told. Nami blinked as she looked after Usopp. Taking a sip of her tea, she smiled and leaned back to watch the stars above the ship.
"The swamp monster of Woogie Doogie…" she muttered as she rolled her eyes. "Why didn't I think of that?"
When the door closed behind Usopp, he was suddenly aware of how sticky the air in the room was. There was a feeling of sickness hovering in the room that stuck itself to his very skin. At the far end of the room, a very pale Luffy was lying on the wooden table that had served as an operation table when Chopper had taken out the bullets from Usopp's shoulders and stitched up all Zoro's seventy-three deep wounds. Usopp felt his stomach twist as he watched the captain, and he turned to Chopper, who had walked over to the table to check the Luffy's temperature.
"How's he doing?" he asked, trying not to sound too worried.
"Well…" Chopper looked almost as if he didn't know what to answer. "He's stabile at the moment, but his fever is still high and he gets attacks of hallucinations and he talks in his sleep. Do you know who Shanks is, Usopp?"
Usopp was at first startled by the question. He hadn't thought that there could be anyone who didn't know who Red-Haired Shanks was. But then he remembered that Chopper had lived a very sheltered life in Drum Kingdom, and walked up to the table.
"Well, he's a well-known pirate, who has sailed all over the world. He's also known as Red-Haired Shanks. My father is a sharpshooter in his pirate clan. I think Luffy knew him when he was a kid, and I think I heard that Luffy's straw hat once belonged to Shanks…" Usopp's voice trailed off as he looked at the captain's hat-less head. "He looks weird without the hat, doesn't he?" he asked, looking at Chopper.
The reindeer nodded and pulled the blanket up to the captain's chin. Usopp lifted the mug he was still holding to his lips, but put it down again, as if he had changed his mind. He smiled and reached out to pat Chopper on the shoulder.
"How about that story, now?" he suggested, feeling his mood rise when Chopper returned his smile. "Well, this all happened about a year before I met Luffy, Nami and Zoro. One day, I was out fishing in my little boat when I spotted something by the horizon.
"It was a large clan of pirates, who were heading towards a little island due north of my island. When they came up next to me, I asked them why they were in such a hurry. And the captain – who was a large man with green beard, beady little eyes and black body armor – told me that they had heard of the fantastic power of the Eronel tea, and that they were going to get their hands on this magic drink to get rich. When they took off again, I decided to follow them and see what adventure I could find on that island."
Chopper was looking at Usopp with wide eyes where he was sitting on a long-legged chair next to the table. He had been grinding herbs for medicine, but the beginning of the story had caught his attention, so he was just sitting there with the mortar in front of him. Usopp looked down at the mug in his hand and pretended to hesitate before he took a sip of the still hot liquid. The doctor stared at him, as if he expected the powers to appear at once. But when nothing happened, Usopp continued.
"When I came to the island, I found the pirate ship anchored by the coast, but it was completely deserted, they hadn't even left anyone behind to guard the ship. The island was very beautiful. There were large yellow forests in which amazing birds and other colorful animals were living, and a tall, blue mountain with a pink waterfall.
"In the middle of the island, there was a small village. When I came there, I found out that the pirates had already been there, asking about the Eronel tea. The village elder told me that the source of the island's magic was the water from the pink waterfall, but since a monster had come to live in the Woogie Doogie swamp near the village, where the villagers got their special ingredients for the magic tea, no one could get any tea at all. But I told them that they wouldn't have to worry, because the brave Captain Usopp would free the island from the monster…"
Usopp's story continued for a long time, and as he finished his tale, he found that Chopper had fallen asleep over the table with his head leaning against Luffy's stomach. Putting aside his empty teamug, Usopp took the blanket from around his shoulders and put it over the sleeping doctor before walking over to the box where he kept his tools and his unfinished inventions. He sat down on the floor and started planning out the construction of Nami's new Clima Tact while both Chopper and Luffy slept peacefully. He would ask Chopper for another dose of those pain killers once the doctor woke up, but until then, he had to endure the pain. That wouldn't be a problem for the brave Captain Usopp.
Hmm… this chapter ran off and wrote itself… I intended to have things starting to return to normal routines in this chapter, but I have to leave that for the next one, since this turned out getting so long.
(Something I'd be happyto know is why the QuickEdit iscreating run-on's... ee; Oh well.)
Karaleyn – Ha ha. Thank you so much. I hope you like this chapter.
Jaelle – I love that song. I just had to include him in the story… But since I don't know how he speaks in the English translation, I unfortunately had to keep him from talking ):
Jade Tatsu – Oh, don't you worry. Everything will be fine…Sorry about the cliffhanger, though.
Magus Black – You are so right, the day couldn't possibly get any better than that.
FireyKitsune – Yeah, it's fun to add obstacle after obstacle for them to get past. They have very interesting lives. –envyenvyenvy- If I wasn't the one causing all their injuries, I'd also want to kiss their boo boo's away… -cuddles Straw Hat pirates-
