By AstroKender
Warnings:The angst continues. Oh, and one quite naughty word gets uttered. (though the rules of PG-13 state I can use it once. Just once.) Notes: Well, this story is coming ever closer to the ending. While I have loved writing this fic, I think I'm ready for it to end (Try being a shonen ai freak and writing a multi part story with no boy love!) Look for a side fic to come out soon, which will indeed include some straight up hints of pirate luvin.
Feedback: there is an annoying button at the bottom of the screen just begging to be punched.
Disclaimers: One Piece belongs to Eichiro Oda, 4kids and various other affiliates. I don't own em, I don't make money off em, I just play with them.
Chapter 12
Zoro silently cursed himself for the umpteenth time. He cursed himself for his own stubbornness, and moreover, for causing his captain pain. And, most of all, he cursed himself for his absolutely shitty sense of direction. The rain pounded down onto his shirtless form with a stinging fury as the Zoro scoured the overgrown land with frustrated helplessness.
"Where the hell am I?"
Though, in all defense, it couldn't be said that Zoro's being lost was entirely his fault this time. The swordsman's head swam with bouts of dizziness and alternately, pounded with a migraine fit to fell even the strongest of men. His gait was wobbly due to muscles weakened by the poison or blood loss; it was hard to tell which. But none of those were really the problem.
The problem was he was practically blind.
Something about how the poison effected him had rendered his night vision to absolutely nil. Pinpoint pupils, he thought he had heard Chopper say, whatever that meant. All Zoro knew, is without a firm light source, all he was doing was stumbling around in the dark, struggling to discern the darker shapes of trees and bushes among the dark backdrop of the night. All this was made doubly as difficult due to the sheets of rain that dropped like molten lead from the sky.
At least, in the clearing with Luffy, there had been the faint glow of moonlight to illuminate both his surroundings and the look of anguish in the dark-haired boy's eyes. No, those eyes had shone like beacons in the dark. And what did Zoro do? He walked away from them.
Spiting a mouthful of bile to the ground, the swordsman cursed himself yet again.
The small glow in the distance was so faint Zoro almost missed it. And, indeed, he performed a quick double take just to make sure it wasn't his own fevered imagination. The light was real all right, and only grew brighter as Zoro drifted closer. The pirate's stalking steps were as silent as a panther's, even in his unsteady condition.
A single man stood awkwardly under the shelter of an overgrown plant with even more oversized leaves. The man was big around both the shoulders and the gut, creating contrasting impressions of strength as well as sloth. He carried only a single pistol, which was holstered as the man desperately worked to keep his torch from extinguishing. For all his fumbling, the torch-bearer looked nothing like a common villager and Zoro would have bet his own weight in ale that the man was one of Uragi's henchmen.
Zoro crept closer, grinning to himself like a feral cat. Stepping over to the other man's back, Zoro raised Yubashiri's blade to rest right under the henchman's nose. The pirate's voice floated past his lips in a rumbling purr.
"Going my way?"
VVOOOVV
"Usopp!" Nami reached the sharpshooter's side at the same moment as Chopper.
"I-" Usopp was gritting his teeth as he rocked back and forth, clutching his left thigh. "I'm fine…." The words came out as a hiss.
"Oh, Usopp! You're shot!" Chopper shouted, his eyes wide. He cast his eyes desperately around the deck as he grabbed a hold of the dark-haired boy's head in a cradling grip. "Quick, we've got to get you to a doctor!"
Silence loomed as Nami hung her head in defeat.
"Chopper." Usopp managed a sickly grin despite the pain that seemed to rip through his whole body. "You are a doctor."
The reindeer quickly smacked himself in the head. "Right, of course. Doctor. Me." The two shared a weak laugh before Chopper's furry face turned serious. "Hold still while I take a look at your wound."
Usopp snorted and then gasped at the pain it invoked. "Chopper, I couldn't move if I wanted to."
"The gunfire has stopped." Vivi's soft voice filtered into their ears. "Mr. Bushido must have made it to the island successfully." The blue-haired princess knelt down by the others. "Are you all right, Usopp?"
"What about you, Vivi?" Nami asked worriedly. "I saw you fall. Are you okay?" the redhead watched as Vivi's arm came up to clutch a small patch of pink on her otherwise pristine nightgown. "You've been shot!" Nami exclaimed, unconsciously echoing Chopper's earlier words.
"It just grazed me." Vivi smiled. "Right above the scratch I got from the Drum Kingdom. I'll have quite an interesting set of scars to have to explain to my father." Nami felt herself relax slightly as the princess's light laughter washed over her.
Nami felt a splash on her neck and realized something else was washing over her as well. "It's raining." She commented aloud, just now feeling the chill from her dampening pajamas. Standing, the redhead looked across the waters of the bay as it vibrated with the repeated drumming of rain against its dark surface. She peered across the water to the island's beach, searching vainly for a figure moving about in the darkness. "I don't see Zoro anywhere. Why isn't he coming back?"
"We need to get Usopp and Carue inside." Chopper interrupted his voice low. He turned his attention to Usopp, who was trying unsuccessfully to sit up. "It's too dark to see properly, but I think the bullet is still in your leg." He told the sharpshooter.
Usopp immediately fell back onto the deck. "I'm dying, right? My warm blood spilling out of my body…." He sighed heavily. "Just let my kids know that I loved them dearly…" he whispered.
A rock hard hoof planted itself firmly into the sharpshooter's face. "Don't say stuff like that, asshole!" Chopper frowned sternly, though his eyes wobbled with sadness. "It's nothing to joke about right now."
Usopp rubbed his now tender nose and sniffed out an apology. Chopper had transformed into his human form and picked the dark-haired boy up with ease. From this position Usopp could clearly see the reindeer's tear-streaked face in the flickering lantern's light.
"Don't worry," Usopp smiled, suddenly feeling lightheaded as he tried vainly to keep his eyes open. "Luffy and Sanji are still out there. They'll bring him back." Unable to fight it, the long-nose boy let the darkness claim him.
Chopper looked down at Usopp's unconscious form sadly. "Another lie, Usopp?" he whispered as he passed through the entryway leading below deck.
A large boom and a sudden heaving of the Going Merry caused Chopper to stumble and miss a step as he plummeted down the small flight of stairs. Panicking, the reindeer swiftly twisted his body so he wouldn't land atop Usopp and the sharpshooter's fall was instead cushioned by the reindeer's large mass of fur.
The breath knocked from his lungs, it took several moments for the doctor to regain his senses. Just as he was about to rise to his feet a second thundering boom sounded followed swiftly by the sound of splintering wood.
"What's going on?" Chopper shouted as he pulled Usopp close to his chest for the sharpshooter's protection.
"Cannons!" Nami shouted down. "The bastards brought cannons!"
The navigator ran swiftly to the ship's starboard as she grabbed the winch that connected to the Going Merry's anchor. Normally someone like Zoro would just lift it barehanded out of the water but Nami's small strength could only even barely turn the well-oiled crank.
"What are we going to do?" Vivi asked as she to placed her hands on the handle, lending her own strength to help pull the anchor up one painstaking centimeter at a time.
"We have to get out of here, that's for sure. I don't know what happened to Zoro but we're on our own now and there is no way we can defend the ship from cannons."
Grunting. The anchor raised another fraction.
"But what about Luffy and the others? We just can leave them."
Nami snarled as she turned the crank, realizing that she had been forced to do way too much hard labor recently. Really, what were men good for, anyway? "We're not going to leave them." She quickly assured. "We'll just pull out of reach of the cannons—"
As if on cue another cannonball hurtled through the sky, just barely missing the mast.
"—And wait. Maybe pull around to the west side of the island and find a place to dock there—"
Another projectile crashed into the ocean so close to their ship that the spray from its impact could be felt showering over them even through the rain.
Nami's hands slipped off the crank and the chain fell a meter before two feathered limbs reached out and stopped the handle's rotation. Vivi looked up from her death grip on the wooden crank.
"Carue!"
"Quack, quack." The duck grabbed the handle with his spotted bill and slowly, laboriously rotated the crank so that the anchor began once more to rise.
Vivi stepped back and nodded. "You're right Carue. We all need to help." The princess grabbed onto Nami and gave the redhead a small push towards the ship's helm. "Go on! I'll take care of the sails. I've seen it done enough to know what to do."
"Vivi…"
"Go on!" the blue-haired girl pressed. "Like you said, we need to get out of range before they sink the ship."
As if the gods were listening in with sadistic glee, a still-smoking cannonball plowed into the side of the ship, causing it to list to the side. Both Nami and Vivi were thrown to the deck and Carue lost his grip on the anchor's winch and the large iron weight slammed back under the waves.
"Are you guys all right?" Chopper's voice filtered up from below.
"We're fine!" Nami winced as she rose to her feet, her elbows badly skinned. "How about you two?"
Chopper cautiously poked his head out the doorway. "Usopp's still passed out and I'm okay. But I think we're taking on water."
"Crap!" Nami didn't even have the energy to curse properly. With their fighters missing and their ship's carpenter out of commission, that left a potentially sinking ship to two women and a reindeer that would be as animated as a fifty kilo hammer if he so much as touched the water.
"Quack!"
Yes. And a duck.
"Quack! Quack!" Carue was flapping his wings excitedly. "Quack!" One feathered limb shot out towards the beach.
Turning, Nami could see shadows darting about wildly in the rain soaked sand, inexplicably flying through the air. If the navigator closed her eyes and concentrated, she could just barely make out a familiar battle cry. Smiling, the redhead dropped to the deck with a wet plop.
"Luffy…." Vivi whispered in awe as she stood at the rails and stared into the darkness.
"It's about damn time." Nami muttered.
VVOOOVVV
"Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun!" Two arms shot out with such speed that it seemed as there were twenty fists flying instead.
Sanji watched as Luffy went on a one-man rampage. The rubber-boy quickly had decimated the line of cannons that dared to fire upon the Going Merry and was now making short work of the men that had the gall to actually use them. Bodies flew into the air like playing cards and all the while his captain's face bore such a void of expression that the blonde, unable to watch any longer, merely closed his eyes and looked away.
"Zoro'll do what he wants. You can't stop him." Luffy had said when Sanji demanded an explanation after the swordsman's departure.
"But that cabbage head's gonna—"
"It's his choice!" Luffy's harsh words quickly silenced Sanji's protests. "Zoro lives by his own code! Who are we to interfere with it?"
Hearing the sounds of battle die down, Sanji's eyes opened as he unconsciously searched for his captain. Seeing the dark-haired boy's slumped shoulders for some reason made the cook's hands clench into tight fists. Staring at that unresponsive back, Sanji began to shake. It was all he could do not to march over the ring of unconscious bodies and kick some sense into Luffy's head. As it was, Sanji could only bite his lip as he stared through locks of hair plastered to his forehead, clenching his fists until sharp nails drew blood.
'Why?' He screamed at Luffy mentally. 'Why is honor more important than saving a friend?'
Something, probably a stray drop of rain, trickled down Sanji's cheek.
'Tell me, Zoro…What good is honor if you're fucking dead?'
Whether intentional or not, Luffy's walk towards Sanji was a slow one, giving the blonde time to collect himself. Pushing his bangs out of his eyes, the cook gave an audible huff and he propped on hand on his hip.
"Took you long enough." Sanji coughed before turning discretely away from his captain's uncanny gaze. "Can we go already? We've been out in the rain so long I've began to prune. If I catch a cold don't think I'd take the time to feed your sorry ass."
One eye peeked over his shoulder to see Luffy give him a tired, but genuine smile.
"Right." The dark-haired boy chirped.
Sanji's eyes widened as one elastic arm wrapped around his waste like a wet rubber band. Sanji opened his mouth to protest and nearly choked on his tongue as he was suddenly propelled through the air. Over the wind whipping and whistling past his ears, Sanji could vaguely hear Luffy call out a warning to whoever lay up ahead. The rain stung his face and eyes, preventing the blonde from seeing their destination, but instinct made him brace for a rough landing nonetheless.
The cook was surprised when an impact in which he imagined a face full of splinters never came, but instead he felt himself fall into something as soft and encompassing as a plush feather bed.
"Qua-aaack…" his cushion said.
Muttering apologies, Sanji quickly untangled himself from Carue's battered form. The blonde straightened, only to feel a powerful punch to the back of his head. Turning with a bit of a wobble, Sanji gazed questioningly down at their navigator, his hand massaging a growing lump on his scalp.
"Where the hell have you been?" Nami demanded. "Do you know what kind of hell I've been through tonight? And where's the damn food?" The redhead bristled like a drenched cat. "Didn't bring it, huh? Oh, great, I suppose we're just going to have to starve until we reach the next island—which is at least ten days away! I swear, you idiots-"
Sanji glanced up from Nami's ranting form to meet Luffy's gaze in question. The captain, who sported a matching lump on his own head, shot the blonde a piercing look before pasting on a bland smile that made Sanji's heart sink.
"—Usopp's been shot and Zoro's run off and I've had to deal with cannons and—"
Vivi's soft voice somehow interrupted the navigator's continuing tirade. "Mr. Sanji, did you two happen to see Mr. Bushido while you were out there?"
Nami shook herself to her senses and turned to their Captain, her expression serious. "That's right, we've got to hurry up and grab Zoro so we can get away from this crazy island. We've already taken some damage to the hull, we can't risk waiting around for those villagers to attack again."
Luffy gaze moved from Nami to Vivi to Sanji and back again. "You're right." He told the navigator. "Let's get out of here."
Walking over to the large iron chain that ran down into the sea, Luffy grabbed it with a firm grip and gave a solid yank. The hefty anchor flew up out of the water to land with a deafening clatter on the Going Merry's deck.
Nami blinked, thinking she must have heard wrong. "You want to go now?"
Luffy nodded wordlessly as he carefully maneuvered the boom so the sails could be lowered.
"But—" Vivi began.
"What about Zoro?" Nami demanded, her wide eyes incredulous and glimmering with something akin to fear.
"Oh, him." Luffy turned around, scratching the back of his head absently. "He decided he didn't want to sail with us any more."
A stunned silence barreled onto the deck of the Going Merry. Even the wind and rain seemed to lessen briefly as the others tried futilely to take in the captain's blithe statement. Just when the tense atmosphere seemed about to suffocate the ship's inhabitants, a giant booming slam reverberated through the stillness.
Sanji stomped angrily though the entry to the kitchen, kicking the thick wooden door, which was now slightly bent at the hinges, firmly shut behind him.
VVOOOVV
It seemed as though he had been walking for hours, dodging the mire as his eyes strained to keep site of the small trail running along in front of him. As it was, Zoro kept a sharp eye out and made sure to step only where his unwilling guide stepped. Around them Zoro could hear the rumbling sound of reptilian predators lurking in the brush.
The thick undergrowth had finally parted open to reveal a seemingly endless expanse of marsh, broken only by the dark silhouette of some sort of lumbering structure. By this point the harsh rain that had been pelting down was reduced to a fine drizzle, and Zoro could easily see, even with his night-blind eyes, the distant glow of life emitting from the few irregularly placed windows.
"M-mr. Urag-gi is in th-there." Zoro's guide pointed, nearly close to wetting himself with fear. Zoro knew how to be persuasive, to say the least.
"How do we cross?" the swordsman rasped, his voice gone hoarse from prolonged exposure to the elements and his ever worsening racking cough.
"The b-b-boats!" the man gasped.
Zoro noticed a handful of small flat boats, resembling miniature barges, tied to wooden poles driven deep into the swamp's depths. Zoro snorted to himself, wondering if the villagers knew their hero had access to such commodities. They were probably scavenged from the wrecks of other ships, Zoro decided. Which fully enforced his belief that Uragi was nothing more than a vulture, robbing the dead of their earthly belongings.
With a grunt, Zoro nudged his captive forward. "I'm afraid I wouldn't be very good at rowing like this." He pointed his sword-clad hands out as he showed his deadly pair of oversized accessories. "I'm afraid I'll need your for a bit longer."
The burly man nodded nervously.
Only a few minutes passed before they were silently gliding across the water. The swordsman's expression darkened as their little boat finally made dock at the makeshift pier of the warehouse.
As he thought, the structure was built on stilts to rest over the water, making it easily defensible against any large-scale attack.
But one lone swordsman would be easily overlooked.
"Thanks for the ride." A quick smack of the hilt of one katana and Zoro's unwilling assistant was knocked cold. Zoro hopped up onto the deck, after making sure the man didn't accidentally slip into the dark waters below.
Looking around, the green-haired man could see that the only entrance was a large set of double doors at the front of the warehouse. The sparsely set windows were all too high to gain entrance in Zoro's present condition. Not one to deliberate, Zoro lowered one shoulder—the one that hadn't been dislocated a mere hour or so before—and plowed the flimsy barricade down.
"Well, well, if this isn't quite a surprise…" An amused tenor intoned as Zoro was still trying to shake the splinters of wood from his body.
Growling, Zoro looked up with hate filled eyes. "Uragi."
Propped up like a king on his throne and baring a half-full bottle of wine, the bounty hunter gave the green-haired man a mocking salute. "Welcome to my sanctuary!" he gestured broadly to the crates upon crates stacked around them. "I apologize for not offering you a seat, but as you can see, I'm in the only one."
Zoro's hands began to shake in a way that had nothing to do with the poison coursing through his veins.
"In all honesty, I believed you to be already dead. You're even stronger than I thought, Roronoa. Very impressive." Snake-like eyes peered at him in a half-lidded gaze as the longhaired man shrugged lightly under his oversized coat "It's a shame we couldn't have came to some sort of agreement."
"Uragi…." Zoro repeated as he took one step, and then another, closer to his target.
"Let me guess," Uragi sighed melodramatically. "'Give me the antidote', right? Really, I've heard that so much tonight that I'm getting quite tired of it."
Zoro's approach didn't falter as the pirate raised his swords into a crossed formation.
"I don't care about the damn antidote. I want my sword."
VVVOOOVVV