An Old Cliche:
the desert's rose
Chapter 02 - Elegance Under War
By: L.R. Pelgina
and Starfirehime
Authors Note: Sorry this is late. I guess my computer was having problems loading But it's up now sooooooo -- This chapter has a slightly different writing styles then the rest and may seem a bit...odd. It's because I kept changing the point of veiws in which I was writing. If you don't like this change let me know in the reveiws and I'll go back to the way I was writing in Chapter 1! Also you may be confused at the end of this chapater but worry not! All will be explained in the next Chap. Thanks and reveiw damn it! I know alot more people are looking at this then are reveiwing! My stats say so! To those that DO reveiw, thanks so much!
Disclaimer: Besides the villians I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyrights.
Kobra was quite proud! His little Vivi was off to her first King's meeting. Kobra inwardly sighed. They all grow up so fast don't they?
"I'm sorry to interrupt you your highness," Iguram was standing at the end of the throne room and seemed to be regretful that he had interuppted the king's remenising, "But I have a message for you that just came from Insula." he said and brought the king a small slip of paper on which there was a note.
King Kobra read it, obviously uninterested and unamused that his musings had been interfered with, that was until he realized what he was reading.
"Oh no!" Kobra said, apparent worry in his voice.
"Your highness?" Iguram questioned.
"Vivi's in danger!"
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Zoro yawned and stretched out as best he could inside the crow's nest. It was getting to be early morning and it was his turn to keep night watch again. Whatever the case, he had lost sleep during the night and did not appreciate it; sleep to him was almost as important as his swords were. Zoro then decided that he wasn't going to get a proper stretch unless he stood up, so he arose from his seated position and proceeded to do so when something caught his eye.
"Oi! Nami!" Zoro yelled over the side of the nest, he was answered by a sleepy looking redhead coming out from the cabin and shooting him a tired but angry look, "I see an island," he finished before he received a scolding for ruining her morning for no apparent reason.
Nami snapped awake instantly and was about to announce their arrival on an island, but Luffy beat her to it.
"ISLAND!" Luffy yelled at the top of his lungs and jumped up to the top of the Going Merry head, his "personal seat".
"Taku!" Nami muttered and headed for the kitchen, Zoro assumed, for breakfast. He couldn't really be sure anymore. It seemed to him that Nami and that ero cook had been getting closer and closer to each other with an intention different then just being nakama, but that wasn't really any of his buisness to begin with. In fact, it seemed that everyone on the boat had someone they were interested in. Luffy was taking more interest in Robin after the whole Aokiji incident, Usoppu was suddenly content in his speaking of Kaya (probably due to all the talk of getting the boat fixed), and of course, there was the navigator and the cook. It seemed as though he and Chopper were the only ones without someone in mind. But, as he said before, it wan't any of his buisness. Besides, he didn't really have time for girls until he completed his promise and beat Mihawk anyway. And in any case, none of the ones currently on the boat interested him like that anyhow.
They reached the island within an hour's time and instantly started laying out plans, in other words, they all had things they wanted to do and agreed to meet up again at night when, Nami explained, the rouge pose would be done recording and they could leave.
Luffy left instantly, Robin followed him closely, no doubt feeling a bit more secure with the captain after noticing all the marine boats. Usoppu and Chopper went to look for medical supplies and supplies for fixing the boat. Nami just plain wanted to go shopping and the ero cook more than happily offered to carry her bags. So Zoro by default was left to watch Merry.
After they were all gone, he got out his exercise equipment. He was just about ready to start when he saw a very familiar shade of yellow. Zoro instantly dropped his exercise equipment when recognition dawned on him.
It couldn't be, it was impossible. Never in a million years did he think. . . the odds of this were a million to one.
Zoro jumped off the boat in a hurry and rushed toward the speeding flash of yellow. When he caught up, the other individual seemed just as suprised (only gladder) to see him.
"Carue!" Zoro exclaimed, "It IS you! What are you doing here? Where's Vivi?" he asked.
Oops. That was probably something Zoro shouldn't have asked. The spotbill instantly burst into a flurry of tears.
Zoro sweatdropped, "Alright! Alright! I get it! So you're lost! I'll help you find her," he said trying to calm the flurried duck down.
Carue reluctently stopped his crying and followed Zoro as he lead him into the city of Eden.
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"Carue!" Vivi shouted over the crowd of people, but it was no use, her spotbill duck was nowhere in sight. Vivi knew he had a habit of taking off but this was getting to be just rediculous. She was starting to get worried
"Vivi, we haven't really got the time for this. We're going to be late for the Gathering of Kings," Kohza said, flustered at the bad name that they would give Alabasta if they showed up late.
"I can't just leave him," Vivi said, worry evident on her face and in her voice. Carue was her special companion to her. He was a nakama too damn it! He had worn the second mark just as proudly as any of the strawhats, "Besides, Pell went ahead to explain that we would be late for us."
Kohza sighed, "I'm going to ask around for a bit. Wait HERE!" He insisted and turned around to ask a few selling vendors not far away about the missing duck.
Vivi frowned at his retreating back. Kohza hadn't changed a bit since they were kids. He still saw no difference between royalty and himself and therfore had no problem bossing her around. She sighed and looked around for Carue once more when out of nowhere there he was!
Vivi waved, elated, towards Carue, "Car--!" She began to call to him but the words caught in her throat when she saw who was with Carue. She nearly broke down in tears at the sight, "Mr. Bushido," she whispered to herself and then, forgeting Kohza's words completely ran straight for them at her full speed. She never thought she could run so fast in her life.
Zoro saw Vivi ahead of them, saw her notice Carue at first and began to wave for him. Knowing Vivi, Zoro was sure she probably had been worried sick. Vivi did like to worry after all.
Then Zoro noticed her freeze her movements entirely. So she had noticed him. She looked at his face with a mixture of shock, relief, and overwhelmed happiness, it seemed. And then she was running toward them as fast as she could, Zoro halted himself and Carue in order to avoid a complete collision.
She reached him within a matter of seconds and he smiled at her as he approached.
"Yo, Vi--," Zoro started when Vivi threw her arms around her long-lost nakama and the rest of his words died before they could.
"I-is it r-really you, Mr. Bushido?" Vivi hiccupped between sobs.
Zoro's mouth hung open but no words came out. He had never been shown this much attention before. Hell, he had never even been hugged before, let alone by a girl, especially by a girl as pretty as Vivi. What? Were did that come from? Zoro stopped his train of thought immediatly. He was getting uncomfortable and he could feel the blood in his cheeks rising to the surface; this had to stop.
Zoro grabbed Vivi by her shoulders and held her at arms length. She was still crying and her face was flushed because of it. She raised a free hand to wipe her face.
Damn! There came that blood rising to his cheeks again, and what was worse was he couldn't find anything to say to her. Fortunatly for his sake he didn't have to.
A strong battle aura was heading their way at a deadly speed. Zoro narrowed his eyes and had just enough time to push a shocked Vivi out of harms way before the sword came down on him.
He blocked it easily. It was a large sword, somewhat similar to that of Mihawk's, with less of a wide blade but just as long, and the man attached to the sword was no Mihawk. This man was tacky with his swordsmanship at best. He was, after all, attacking Zoro with an obvious display of anger.
"Get away from Vivi," he snarled through his teeth.
Zoro's eyes turned dangerous and he pulled out a second sword with his free hand, "That's MY line," he said and slashed at the man with the other sword, which, surprisingly, the man sucessfully dodged.
Zoro smirked; well, he could do SOME things with a sword if he had been able to dodge that. Zoro placed Wadu Ichimonji (the white sword ) in his mouth and drew his last one free from it's sheath. The other man raised an eyebrow but kept his defensive stance.
"Come," Zoro commanded through the sword clenched in his teeth. The other man wasted no time and began to run foward when Vivi's voice rang out.
"Leader! Stop!" Vivi yelled as she whipped out her peacock slashers and wrapped them around the man's legs.
Carue was in front of Zoro, holding up his wings, trying to prevent any further advances from Zoro, who relaxed a bit but didn't put his swords away.
The man nearly tripped, but didn't. When he regained his balance, Vivi was at his side.
"Vivi! What the hell!" the man began but was cut short by a look from Vivi.
"He's a friend of mine. A precious nakama and I won't have you fight him," Vivi said and Zoro could see the man glare at her, and then at him as Vivi unwrapped her peacock slashers from around his legs. The man hadn't put his swords away either, "You'd never beat him in a million years, leader, and I don't want to see you dead."Vivi said as she finished off the last of the unting.
Zoro looked the man over slowly. What sort of man does a princess call leader? Just who was this guy to Vivi? How did she know him? And more importantly, why shouldn't he cut him to pieces?
Zoro of course wasn't sure why he instantly took a disliking to this man, but hey, stuff like that usually came natural. Like how he didn't get along with a certain ero cook.
After Vivi had finished untying the other man, she immediatly went to go explain to Zoro. Zoro figured, from her earlier comment, Vivi thought it would be better to explain to him first what was going on, as he was the more "dangerous" one. Besides, she didn't need to keep any secrets from him, and Zoro was pretty sure this man wasn't one of the few that knew pirates had actually helped Vivi save her country.
"I'm sorry Mr. Bushido," Vivi apologized, "He doesn't really mean any harm. He just tends to jump to conclusions a little quickly. Plus I think he feels a little endebted to my father, and my father was the one who sent him with me as part of my protection. . ." Viv trailed off when she realized she was rambling, "You'll look over this, won't you?" Vivi pleaded.
Zoro's frown tightened. Vivi really sounded as if she thought he would slice this guy up. Of course, the fact that he still had his swords drawn probably wasn't helping much.
Zoro looked at Vivi, who was still pleading silently with him for his forgivness of her. . . "leader." And for some reason, Zoro felt as though he couldn't really deny her what she wanted, even if he had wanted to. Zoro didn't like this feeling very much, in fact, he didn't like it at all.
Zoro sighed and put one of his swords away so he could take the Wadu out of his mouth, "And, who the hell is he exactly?" he asked.
Vivi understood that this was as eased as Mr. Bushido was going to get before he understood the situation and Kohza put away his sword.
"Isn't that what I should be asking her?" Kohza asked.
Zoro scowled at the man standing behind Vivi. He really wasn't getting off on the right foot with this man, but somehow Zoro felt as if this man had wronged him, or someone close to him before, which of course, wan't helping Zoro like him any better.
Vivi turned on the man she called leader. Zoro had never seen Vivi fight with anyone, or even argue with them, and that was saying alot after she had been stuck on the Going Merry with someone like THEIR captain, so he was surprised when Vivi snapped at the man standing behind her.
"If you'd wait a moment leader, I'll properly explain to BOTH of you!" Vivi snapped, "Now put your sword away before we draw any more of a crowd."
"He's still got his swords out," Kohza protested.
"Mr. Bushido won't put his swords away until the threat is gone and right now, that's you and your sword. Put it away," Vivi responded.
The "leader" paused for a moment, eyeballing Zoro to make sure he didn't try to pull anything funny, then finally did as Vivi told him and slowly slid his long sword back into it's sheath. After he finished, Zoro followed suit.
Vivi sighed, "Now, first things first. Mr. Bushido, this is Kohza. You remember Uncle Toto from Yuba? This is his son."
"He's met my FATHER!" Kohza interrupted.
Vivi frowned at him and decided to ignore his rude outburst, "And, Kohza, this is Mr. Bu-- I mean Roronoa Zoro, he's a nakama of mine that I met during those two years I was gone from Alabasta," she introduced.
And that was when Zoro realized why this man seemed familiar. Hadn't that old man Toto's son been the rebel leader in charge of bringing down Vivi, her father, and her country? No wonder he felt this man had wronged a friend of his! How could the king let Vivi travel with someone who had tried to destroy them? Now Zoro really didn't trust this guy. How on earth could Vivi trust him?
Zoro realized Kohza was eyeballing him with much of the same distaste and mistrust. And Zoro wondered if this "Kohza" knew if he was a pirate. But Zoro didn't think Vivi would have told this man his real name if she thought he knew Zoro was a pirate or if she felt she couldn't trust him with this information. Perhaps Kohza just thought Zoro looked suspicious. How many people who walk around with three swords would you trust right away?
"We're in Eden for the King's Gathering," Vivi told Zoro, bringing him out of his thoughts.
So that's why the rebel leader was with the princess. He was here to show the world government everything was well and good between the Alabastan monarchy and the rebels.
Vivi gasped, "Oh, that's right. Mr. Bushido, you don't know. Pell, he --"
But there was no need to finish, the person in question flew down, seemingly out of nowhere.
"I see you found Carue Vivi-sama, so let's get going. We're quite late and we already look bad as it is, I'm sure, Pell said, then spotted Zoro and was suddenly all smiles, "What a stroke of good fortune. The pi- I mean swordsman that helped us so much in Alabasta is here. Long time no see, how have you been, uh, Roronoa-san, wasn't it?" Pell asked.
Zoro knodded, entierly stunned, "I'm great, but shouldn't I be asking you how you are? It's almost like I'm seeing a ghost right now," Zoro mused.
"Yes, well I'm afraid I didn't make it back into Alubarna until after you and your group had left. But it's good to see you in good heatlh as well. I can't even being to relate to how much Vivi-sama has been worried about you," Pell smiled at Zoro.
Zoro smiled in return and it seemed to get wider when he realized Vivi had turned a light shade of red.
"Everyone in Alabasta has been worried." Vivi said trying to hide her embarassment, "About all of you I mean,"
Kohza wasn't liking this one bit. Even Pell was forgetting his duties in front of this man. It was time to end it.
"Vivi, Pell, we ARE late. Souldn't we be going now?" Kohza asked. They had a job to do for the country and Kohza was going to see to it that it was done.
Vivi frowned at him despite the fact he was right. Kohza always had somewhat of a problem looking past his first impression of people.
"I'm sorry to say he's right, Vivi-sama. As good as it is to see Roronoa-san again, we really should be going," Pell sombered.
"I know," Vivi said sadly, then smiled just as sadly at Zoro, "Tell Luffy-san and the others that I said hello, and that I hope they stay well," she said.
Zoro nodded then watched as Vivi and her group turned to leave. He frowned, that bastard rebel leader was sure in a hurry to get rid of him, wasn't he? Zoro didn't trust this any further then he could through him, well, less, because Zoro could throw him pretty far. It would probably be better to say he didn't trust the rebel leader any father than Usoppu could through him
Then a great idea struck him.
"OI! Vivi!" Zoro shouted.
The group turned and Zoro could see, plain as day, that the rebel leader was not happy.
"Oi. . ." Kohza muttered under his breath, feeling somewhat insulted that this man would talk to her so casually.
Zoro jerked his head, indicating that he wanted Vivi to come over to him. Vivi ran up without hesitation.
Kohza was flat out astonished that Pell was allowing this to go on, then he heard Vivi laugh and nod, "Sure, why not? Besides I'd be delighted to see them again," she said.
Kohza and Pell exchanged glances for a moment before turning their heads back in time to see the both of them walking toward them.
"Vivi--" Kohza began but Vivi interrupted him.
"Mr. Bushido is coming with us," Vivi said.
And for some reason, Kohza noted that this did freak Pell out.
"Vivi-sama!--" Pell started.
"In disguise, of course," Vivi said to Pell.
"But Vivi-sa--"
"Pell! We are from the desert country Alabasta. There is nothing odd with having a member if the royal gaurd with us who happens to be wearing a headwrap that is covering his face."
The stern look on Vivi's face told Pell this conversation was over, but Kohza never did know when to shut up when it came to Vivi.
"Vivi! We can't just bring some guy into the world government building with us. We don't even know if we can trust him," Kohza argued.
Vivi flashed him a dirty look.
"No, we can trust him," Pell said, "We already have. I'd bet all of Alabasta on this man and his nakama."
"As would I," Vivi said, "Because I've already done it once, and wasn't disappionted."
Kohza opened his mouth again, but Vivi wouldn't budge.
"He's coming even if we have to leave you behind to bring him," Vivi insisted.
Kohza frowned at her and Zoro smirked.
"A princess's orders are absolute to the people of her country, just as a captain's are to his crew," Zoro said and the group moved ahead. Kohza followed behind reluctantly.
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Surprisingly enough it seemed that Vivi was right about there being no problem with Zoro's presence. With the head wrap and his face covered he was virtually unregonizable.
Pell sighed. He understood Vivi wanting to see the pirates again but allowing one of them, one of the ones with a wanted poster none-the-less, into the King's meeting in order to do it was just reckless. Whether she was right about them regonizing them or not.
At least he wasn't much trouble. Zoro stood quietly next to Pell directly behind Kohza and Vivi, who were sitting at the long table and taking part in the King's meeting, and just observed everything going on.
But what Zoro was actually observing Pell didn't notice. Zoro was watching a man down the table. This man looked normal enough but, for a king anyway, but what Zoro didn't like about this man was that from the time they had arrived to the very second that they were on, this man hadn't taken his eyes off of Vivi. Not once. And what made Zoro even more suspicious is that when this man across the table was looking at her he looked just like Luffy when he was heading for a pieace of meat. All hunger and no sense. Like he was an animal hunting his prey.
The mention of the word Alabasta by the main announcer during the meeting brought Zoro out of his thoughts but wasn't enough to make Zoro that his eyes off this yarou.
"Which brings us to our recent event in Alabasta!" said one of the older kings that had been appointed announcer, "We have the princess here with us today instead of the king. And I believe it is on all our minds when we say congradulations for being able to subdue an entire rebellion on your own."
"Oh! I can't take credit for doing it on my own I had some help from friends," Vivi said and her gaze darted to Zoro for just a second.
"But are we absolutly sure that the rebellion in Alabasta is over with?" The elderly king asked, "Can you be sure that there will be no more rebellions?"
"Well that's why I have a guest here with me today. The man sitting next to me is the rebel leader," Vivi indicated Kohza and there was a hushed whisper throughout the crowd, "He's here to reassure you that there will be no more rebellion on his part."
Kohza stood but kept his head bowed, showing the others that he was respecting them but he was not to be taken lightly, "The rebellion on our part was a mistake," He said clearly, "It was insinuated by a horrible man with a horrible cause and we realize that now. We have nothing against the King of Alabasta or the rest of the monarcy."
Another hushed whisper went around the table and the elderly king nodded at Kohza indicating that everyone understood and that he could sit down, "Well, if that's all the questions for Alabasta we can move on to other things..." the King continued.
The meeting dragged on and on and all the while Vivi was unaware of the yarou just down the table continuing to look at her as though she was food. Zoro was really begining to get sick of this guy.
"Hey!" Zoro whispered to Pell as the old King announcer was reading his finishing statements for the meeting, "Who is that yarou down across the table there?" he asked Pell, nodding toward the man he was indicating.
Pell looked around Zoro in order to see who he was talking about, "Hmm, that's odd." he said more to himself rather than to Zoro.
"What?" Zoro asked.
"Oh, it's nothing much. That's the Prince of Insula, Brutus Horatius. The only thing is that it's odd he is here. Usually his father comes." Pell explained.
"I see, " Zoro said and turned his attention back to the man as the meeting broke up and the royalty left to the outside gardens to mingle.
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Dear King Kobra,
Due to the recent dissappearence of the King of Insula, we would like to inform you that his son, Brutus Horatius will be taking his place at the king's meeting. We will be informing you and the rest of the King's in hopes that you will al welcome him to the meeting. Thank you.
Signed,
The World Governement
Authors Note pt.2: Thanks so much for reading. Reveiw and let me know what you think! Thanks so much. Next update will be on Nov. 11! Otanoshimini!