Abstract: "Anyone apart from me notice that he's lost an eye?" Franky asked, going for sarcasm but it fell flat as he did, indeed, wonder at everyone else's attitude. Their swordsman was half-blind with a giant scar running down his face, and no one so much as comments!
Rating: PG
Setting: New World, generally. There doesn't seem to be a good moment with all nine members and only nine members. I'm behind, though – I'm part-way through the Cake Island arc. But I couldn't resist writing this – see notes at the end.
A/N: Based on the English translated manga.
"Oi, Doctor-bro," Franky's interjection caused Chopper to pause on his way from the galley, looking back at the cyborg as he tried to find his words. Franky stood, joints smoothly aligning, working perfectly in a way that he wished his crewmates could understand the benefit of.
"Not here," he added at the reindeer's curious expression.
What he had to say should not be overheard by the crew, least of all their swordsman.
Ducking out the galley door, a feat all the more difficult since his upgrades, Franky led the way to the more private sick bay, mentally rehearsing his speech. He didn't want to be shot down before his arguments could be made.
"What is it?" Chopper asked, taking a seat at his chair and looking like a child on 'take your kid to work' day. Not that Franky had encouraged such activities in his dangerous business, but he understood the theory.
"It's about Zoro-bro."
"Oh, no! Is he hiding an—?"
"Swords-bro isn't hiding anything, so far as I know," Franky commented, "His injuries are so bleeding obvious I don't know what to think."
"Bleeding?!"
"It's just an expression," Frankly pushed the doctor gently back into his seat, "Honestly, stop being so jumpy. We're not going to get anywhere with that attitude."
"Okay. But what is it?"
"Anyone apart from me notice that he's lost an eye?" Franky asked, going for sarcasm but it fell flat as he did, indeed, wonder at everyone else's attitude. Their swordsman was half-blind with a giant scar running down his face, and no one so much as comments!
"I know, Franky," Chopper answered sadly.
"So you've taken a look?"
"It isn't my place to say what I've done. I don't have his consent to release information."
"What?!" Franky bulked, backing up slightly, "We're his crew!"
"I don't care if you're his wife!"
There was a moment of silence.
"That's an entirely hypothetical example," Chopper mumbled, "Meant to illustrate a point."
"Yes, I gathered."
Franky did not add that he was no cradle-snatcher; Zoro probably wouldn't appreciate the implications.
"But, anyway, I wanted to say," Franky resumed his mission, "That I'm sure I can make something for him. You know, the actual eye isn't a problem – mine are torches!"
Chopper gave him a small smile.
"I'm sure he'd appreciate your offer, Franky. Maybe you should speak with him about it."
"I wanted to surprise him."
"You need to talk to him."
The expression on the little reindeer's face screamed secrets, and large ones as well. Enormous, world-shattering revelations, at least to the doctor's thinking, that were bubbling and as desperate to escape as shaken cola.
"Is there something you aren't telling us, Doctor-Bro?"
A rhetorical question, really, but Franky didn't want to make demands.
"I can't."
"Is there something Swords-Bro isn't telling us?"
Chopper simply gave him a long look, before turning away, his reply as gentle as the breeze-
"I think you should ask him yourself."
Moments after Franky's departure, Chopper found himself grinding medication in a monotony that allowed his mind to slip back to the very first check-up he had performed on his most notorious patient.
"Chopper."
"Oh!" The little reindeer leapt to his feet, staring at the newcomer at the threshold. He was tall, taller than Chopper at least, with a generally severe expression, muscular limbs and hair like snow-less trees. He had a strange aura, though, one which seemed at once to repel adult humans and attract animals. Chopper felt safe with him despite barely knowing the human, and that was rare indeed.
"Thank you for coming! I thought you forgot!"
"I didn't forget," the swordsman shrugged, "Everyone else is having a big party."
"Mmm..."
"You don't want to join them?"
"It's a bit much," Chopper admitted, "We had a party two nights ago."
"Yeah."
Two spent a long moment staring at each other, before Chopper realised that he was in charge, and directed his patient to sit.
"So...I suppose we should begin with your known medical history," Chopper said, not looking at Zoro as he gathered up a new set of records and poised himself to write.
"Ah."
There was some hesitancy there, a hint of nervousness in the air that caused Chopper to raise his eyes. Zoro was...to say that Zoro was scared might see him sliced into interesting shapes, so the doctor settled on 'anxious'. And the fact that brave and steadfast Zoro was anxious did not bode well for him, or for the rest of the crew's records. Maybe he should have gone in reverse order of seniority...
"You should know that everything you say to me is covered under doctor-patient confidentiality. I won't disclose anything unless I have your permission."
Zoro looked down at his hands, wringing them together before quietly, oh so quietly admitting-
"I have a degenerative vision disease. I...I'm going to be blind in five years."
Sighing, Chopper put away the fine powder he had absently made, deciding reminiscing, or ruminating perhaps, was a good time to get some routine tasks out of the way. Thinking about Zoro's condition always brought with it bouts of melancholy, feelings of inferiority regardless of what the swordsman said. Zoro didn't expect to be cured; had never expected to be cured despite Chopper's vow ("You'll get there, I know. You've got all the time in the world, though. Don't pressure yourself on my account", the selfless bastard). He'd heard his prognosis and set a target to be the World's Greatest Swordsman within those temporal bounds. Seven years, five when Chopper met him. Hereditary, Zoro had said, carried from his maternal grandfather down to him; a man he had not known and could not learn from.
It had been strange hearing the diagnosis from the patient themselves.
And under his watch, under his fine and healthy eyes Zoro had continued to deteriorate. Glasses had been useless, and his long-distance vision dwindled into unreliability by the time they were separated. Thriller Bark had felt like a knife in the stomach, Zoro finally awake and alert, and telling him that he could no longer see the chart, let alone the letters. Five years dwindled to an unknown figure, and Chopper knew it could only grow worse as they faced harsher foes and harder odds.
And then...
"Don't, Chopper."
"But I'm sure I can treat the scar tissue! I can restore—"
"That isn't the issue here, Chopper. Both are as good as the other, now."
"You mean..."
"Yes."
Zoro jerked awake at call, struggling to re-orient himself on the Thousand Sunny and prepare to have a discussion with Franky. One of the worst things about rousing now was the continued shock, after colour-filled dreams, of finding nothing but degrees of light from one eye. But he couldn't afford to give into that feeling of agitation. The enemy did not wait for one to settle into blindness again. They went for your head.
"Oi, Zoro-bro, you awake?"
"I am now," he replied grouchily, turning face and eye to the newcomer. It was instinctual, and it showed that he was listening.
"I was just talking to Chopper-"
Zoro allowed the words to flow through to audio-processing as he stretched out his senses. There was a slight delay between Observation Haki, which roused him while asleep, and his general sense of the world around him, the one he had used to cut steel before he found something more menial and necessary – surviving on a pirate ship. He could detect Franky's presence with his Haki, and the clump of metal that made up his form along with disturbing intelligence on how to vivisect it, which he would not be doing. The wood behind him was solid to touch and alive to feel, water slopping through his ears and into his brain as its sense sought dominance. The ocean was truly impressive to experience, even after so long using this technique.
"-and he told me I needed to speak to you."
"Uhuh," Zoro answered, noting the positions of his crew members, his own location on the lawn, the...what was Usopp doing? Details eluded him now, but there was definitely some experimenting going on a little too close for comfort.
"I wanted to make you a new eye."
Zoro instantly registered the pall of silence which fell on those around who had overheard, waiting on his answer with their auras screaming curiosity, darn them. It was a kind offer, but one he had already discussed with Chopper. The eye wasn't the issue, as both understood, and therefore fixing it wouldn't help.
"I'm not taking advantages, Franky, not as a swordsman."
"Oh, I won't do anything unusual with it. Just, you know, ordinary function."
Zoro sat up, pulling his swords on to his lap as Franky continued.
"I mean, having only one eye is pretty terrible, Zoro-bro. You're depth perception is shot, you have a blind spot. Trust me, you're at a disadvantage."
Actually, Zoro had neither depth perception problems nor a blind 'spot', so much as a blind 'panorama'. Constant use of his awareness technique was draining on energy and concentration, but was vital to his whole existence. Unfortunately, he could only stretch it out a certain distance, and could not keep it there for long periods. He was the equivalent of 'short-sighted' now, but with a 360 degree 'view'.
And no colour.
Thinking on his reply, Zoro declined to challenge Franky on the disadvantage idea – if it were the cook, maybe, but he only sparred with Sanji and Brooke, and occasionally (if he felt like swimming after an idiot), Luffy.
"Do you think Fujitora is weak, Franky?"
"Who?"
"A blind swordsman with the marines."
"Er, I don't know. I haven't seen him fight."
Zoro could feel it in a way that some people struggled to see on facial expressions; the hesitancy. Franky thought the career choice odd, for a blind man, and pitied him. But he didn't want to admit it to Zoro.
"I have."
Vaguely, blurrily.
"He fought Mihawk. He used to be the World's Greatest Swordsman, in his prime. And he was blind then. Mihawk tied a sash around his eyes to even the fight and Fujitora's first move was to slice it off. He'd make mincemeat out of any of us."
He wasn't like Zoro, though. He didn't 'see' the world through his sixth sense, or whatever it was. Haki was how one cut steel, according to most of the large-print books he had still been able to read, not the breathing of the world. But Zoro was glad he had taken this route, because he had no need to walk with a cane. Although now that he thought about it, the cane might have been part of Fujitora's trying-not-to-intimidate-the-youngsters act.
He was a little odd like that.
Franky, also incredibly odd, did not appear to be taking the revelations too much under advisement. Part of the issue with convincing his crewmates to change their attitudes was that they thought he was a moron, so did not take him terribly seriously in matters not relating to battle tactics.
"Life's about more than battle, though," Usopp spoke up from his experiment. "You can't even see this amazing contraption from over there."
"I have a neck," Zoro rolled his eye. His neck was rather more flexible than most, according to an astounded Chopper.
"And then you wouldn't be able to see the kitchen."
"Look—" he began, not caring for tiptoeing around word choices like a guilty doctor sometimes did, but he was interrupted.
"I don't see why you're so against this, Zoro-bro."
"I—"
"Zoro hates medical stuff," Luffy broke in, after nearly breaking whatever Usopp was working on, causing him to squawk and Zoro decided that was as good an excuse as any.
"Oi!"
Reverse psychology for the win.
"Hee, hee, see? You'll never convince him to have a...a...cooperation."
"Operation, Luffy," Usopp corrected patiently as Zoro moved to take his leave.
"He doesn't like the sleepy stuff," the captain elaborated, Zoro wondering vaguely who did. But they were buying the act, definitely, even if he secretly felt silly stomping away from the 'distressing' conversation. Chopper had told him that he ought to reveal his secret, but Zoro knew how 'handicapped' people were treated. Even if Luffy accepted him, the others would think him unsuitable for a pirate ship.
He had not so much as stubbed his toe on the stairs, yet, but they would. He had seen how Fujitora was treated.
He was already the butt of most of their jokes, anyway.
After leaving Dressrosa, Zoro knew that he had made the right decision in concealing his disability. Knew it with a heart that felt as if it weighed more than his heaviest training equipment.
"How can I possibly tell them?" Zoro asked after Chopper had quietly described the bounties to him, raising again his disclosure.
"What do you mean?"
"Their pity, their darn pity. We saw Fujitora, you know. Hiding his strength, as usual. He couldn't tell the colour of the gambling objects, and was relying on his opponents to tell him over and over again that he had lost. But our crew...I felt..."
He drew a deep breath.
"I never want to feel that towards me. I can't, Chopper. We've faced enough battles now, they know I'm not a dead weight. But..."
He rubbed his forehead.
"They won't trust me with anything that isn't fighting, I know it. And I don't want it to be obvious, either. I don't want to give the marines ammunition, or ideas. There are drawbacks to this that they could exploit and Luffy isn't exactly good at keeping secrets."
"I don't think you're giving us enough credit," Chopper objected, "And I think it's different if you know someone. You'll set them straight, with words or swords."
"I'm content with life as it is, Chopper. I don't see a need to rock the boat."
"That's amazing, Usopp!" Nami praised, eyes sparkling as he showed her his latest masterpiece. It was an exquisite (if he did say so himself) rendering of the crew on the Thousand Sunny in decidedly ordinary poses, contrasting with the marines' mostly terrifying pictures (cough, Zoro, cough).
"How much do you think it'll sell for?" she asked him, making him pause mid-joyful spin and nearly fall on his face.
"I'm not selling it!"
"Oh..." Nami allowed disappointment to enter and exit her expression, "If you can use it to remove Luffy's drawings from the fridge..."
"With pleasure!" he announced, turning away to find the next person to show. He could not contain his excitement in the wait for lunch, and had decided to find everyone individually to show them. Robin had been so impressed she had an expression, and Franky had declared it 'the superest'. Brooke had offered to compose something for the unveiling.
So he ought to organise an unveiling. But he was showing everyone first.
"Chopper!" he cried, bursting into the sick bay and causing a pill to fly into his cheek.
"Wah!"
A moment later, Chopper was hiding ineffectually by the bed as Usopp decided he was no longer angry at being hit.
"I can see you."
"Oh," Chopper had no trouble extracting himself from his position, before lamenting, "Can't you knock?"
"Sorry, Chopper, I guess I got carried away. I was so excited to show you...THIS!"
"Aaahhh," the doctor breathed, starry-eyed as Usopp stood in a very heroic pose, displaying his picture.
"Good, huh?"
"It's amazing, Usopp! Are you sending it to the newspaper?"
"Not for public viewing, Chopper. The marines might grow brains."
"Oh."
Usopp offered the picture to the doctor, who eagerly took a closer look.
"I think you've added extra muscles to yourself..."
"It's an artist's interpretation!"
"This is really good, Usopp," Chopper nodded, handing the page back, "You should be careful with it, though."
"Yeah. I'm gonna show it to Zoro before Luffy."
"Ah!"
Usopp, not noticing the look of alarm on the doctor's face, ploughed on, "You know how excitable he gets. To stop an unstoppable force you need an unyielding item, and all that."
Humming to himself, unbeknownst to him leaving the doctor in a panic, Usopp made his way to Zoro's hallowed training grounds. Technically anyone was permitted inside, but...Usopp couldn't really use most of the equipment in there...And neither could the others, although apparently Sanji went up sometimes. He would either train himself or mutter darkly about not having anything to fight about that day and go up there to fight.
They were a strange pair that Usopp was proud to say he had survived getting between.
Zoro was performing katana drills when he entered, lunging and swinging to an even tempo. He simply hummed in acknowledgement even though he couldn't actually see Usopp with that great big scar in the way.
"Yo."
The swordsman sighed, sheathing his blade and turning to the marksman with a resigned expression. Zoro hated to be interrupted, but Usopp was certain his work was so exceptional he would be forgiven in an instant.
"Yeah?"
"Tada!" Usopp announced without further ado, thrusting his picture at the swordsman.
Only to receive a meagre blink in response.
"Ah...Usopp?"
A complete non-reaction, and everything he had secretly feared for his entire life.
"Ohmygod!" Usopp screamed back, fighting to contain the tears which threatened to spill almost immediately. Zoro was never impressed, was he? Never ever. But who could expect a muscle-brained, sword-obsessed moron to care about the finer arts?
"You could at least be honest and come out with it!"
"Come out with what?" Zoro asked, tilting his head to one side.
"What you really think of my skills as an artist!"
Usopp had never seen that expression on the swordsman's face, but he wasn't processing much nuance at the moment. All he knew was that Zoro looked like he desperately needed to say something but it was something awful and he didn't want to admit it and Usopp knew it was about his painting.
"Ah...Usopp..."
There it was, the hesitation.
"You think I'm atrocious, don't you?! You think I'm wasting your time! Well, I'm sorry for bothering you and your stupid training! Clearly I expected too much!"
"Usopp, quiet down."
"What if I told you I thought you were weak?! That I thought you couldn't cut a sausage let alone an enemy!"
Usopp didn't really notice that Zoro wasn't getting aggressive in response to his diatribe, but rather, increasingly desperate.
"Calm down, Usopp!" he hissed, drawing closer with hands outstretched, "I'm sure it's very good."
"You don't care enough about me to understand what makes good art," Usopp responded in a choked whisper, "You...how can I trust that you care about me as a person and not something to protect if you can't even learn the basics of my hobbies?"
"Usopp..."
Turning away, Usopp drew a hand up to his nose, wiping away the snot and tears, and almost staining the work he had been so proud of, were it not hastily removed by a gentle hand.
"Usopp, this isn't about you," Zoro spoke quietly, like he did with Chopper sometimes, "It's not...it's not about your art skills..."
"Then what is it?" Usopp wailed, "I was so proud and you stared right through it! Everyone else—!"
"I'm not everyone else, Usopp."
"Why?" he hiccupped, in front of the stoic swordsman, no less, "Why? You could at least have acknowledged—"
"I didn't know what you were showing me, Usopp."
The confession was so quiet it seemed to have been made by the wind, and Usopp wasn't sure he had even heard correctly.
"I don't understand," he answered.
"This...this goes no further," the swordsman cautioned, spinning Usopp and pushing him to the floor. The sharpshooter allowed the move, no point in straining himself trying to resist, and rested on a weight larger than Franky.
"I can't see, Usopp."
That...didn't quite register, Usopp had to admit. It entered through his ears and hovered in his brain for a few moments before he asked the swordsman to repeat himself. Because he was having hearing problems if Zoro had said he was having vision problems.
"You heard right the first time, Usopp. I can't see."
"You..."
Usopp bit his lip, wondering what to do with it after a revelation like that. Zoro didn't look blind, not at all! He might have assumed he was lying if Zoro did that sort of thing; this was no laughing matter, and Zoro was not joking. The opened eye wasn't cloudy, it followed Usopp...
But there had been a distinct nothing when Usopp presented his picture.
"How can you...You've never..."
He swallowed in lieu of finishing the sentence. There were some things that ought not to be said to a proud swordsman with blades on his hips.
"I use my other senses," Zoro shrugged, "And then there's Haki and all that. It's not a big issue."
"But you can't see my picture."
"I can tell that there's a piece of paper there, if I concentrate. I haven't a clue what's on it. But, honestly, I meant it when I said I'm sure it's good. I heard some of the squealing from down there."
"You can't see."
Maybe if he kept saying it, it would sink in.
"No."
"You've never said."
"You've never asked."
"That makes no sense!" Usopp cried, slapping the weight in agitation and regretting it instantly.
"I...don't want you to know. Like I said, it's not a problem, generally speaking. I don't want you to look down on me. Can you honestly say I'll be treated the same if I tell the truth?"
Usopp couldn't. Luffy would probably be excited, but Sanji? Nami? Nami already wanted him on a leash...
"But why tell me?"
"You're the only one on this crew that I honestly believe respects me as a person," Zoro answered, his eye dark and deep with untold emotion.
"M-me?"
"Yes, you."
"But...I make fun of you!"
"Everyone does. You only give as good as you get. We both have a physical appearance that is mocked and behaviours that are scorned."
Usopp's cowardice and Zoro's...Usopp wasn't sure what the swordsman was admitting to there. Was it the idiocy they yelled at him for or the navigational deficits?
"Mmmm," he allowed in response.
"You're also easier to threaten," Zoro added lightly, thumbing one sword slightly out of its sheath.
"Yeek! Trust me, I'm still scared of you!"
"Good. You should be. Be afraid of me, but don't doubt that I care about you."
"That was really weird," Usopp informed him honestly.
"Shut up! I'm not a speech writer!"
"Do you..." Usopp licked his lips, a sudden thought occurring to him, "Do you want me to tell you what the picture shows?"
"That...would be great."
Such a simple thing, and yet Zoro seemed shocked at the offer. Well, that wouldn't do at all.
Everyone was very angry at Zoro. Nami had apparently, very clearly, told him that he was to mow the lawn, do the dishes, check the ship was safe for departure, and not leave the ship. But, no. One by one the crew had trooped back to be lambasted with Nami's ire as she complained to the heavens about the idiots she was forced to endure and what rewards she deserved as a consequence. Usopp did not pity Zoro in the least because he was blind, but he did pity him for being on the receiving end of that when he returned.
"And now we're expected to go and find the blasted idiot after he ignored my instructions completely and wandered off!"
A seagull concurred as Sanji tried to agree with Nami and offer his services gallantly with trickles of blood running down from his nose. Luffy was telling Chopper that it wasn't fair that Zoro got to go on an adventure when he'd been forced to help carry the supplies, and Franky was vocally irritated with the lack of preparations.
Usopp was certain that blindness had nothing to do with this laziness, as Zoro handled the ship as well as he had ever done, including the notoriously tight knots. He'd just decided to ignore Nami, and the sharpshooter was grinding his teeth both in irritation and because of his sore ears. Honestly, had the idiot been asleep when she told him or was he just stupid?
"Oh," Robin spoke up beneath the hubbub, but somehow everyone heard her, "Here he comes now."
"Idiot," Usopp added for good measure as their swordsman meandered up the gang-plank.
"Oi, you made it here!" Luffy gasped, causing Zoro to glare at him.
"Yeah, of course. I followed the screaming."
"ZORO!" Nami yelled, stomping over to him, looking like an anthropomorphic rice cooker, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
"Out?" he blinked at her, "What did I miss?"
"Only everything I asked you to do! What use are you as a crew member if you can't even be bothered—?!"
"You never asked me to do anything," Zoro scowled, expression darkening as his stance grew defensive. Maybe Usopp should...go and hide.
"Oh my god! Are you blind as well as stupid?!"
Usopp gasped, feeling like someone had punched him in the stomach as Zoro appeared to do the same – which was to say that he looked like someone had tried to do him injury in such a manner and he was growing increasingly annoyed with their pathetic efforts.
"I taped a note to your stupid training room door!"
Nami's hair had somehow managed to imitate a sea anemone, while Zoro shifted in a way Usopp was very familiar with. And so was Sanji, who immediately moved in defence of their navigator.
"Oi, stay out of this, Cook," Zoro growled, "I ain't hurting her."
No, but he felt attacked. He wouldn't retaliate against Nami, though. He never had.
"M-maybe we should all—"
Zoro blocked a blow to his head from Nami's climatact with his arm, his face set like granite.
"—calm down," Usopp finished pitifully.
"Guys!" Chopper implored, but Nami continued with the choice words their swordsman neither deserved nor appreciated.
"Or is it that you can't read?!"
"Oi, Zoro, can't you read?" Luffy stared at his swordsman, "You're so dumb."
Usopp didn't have Observation Haki, but he could clearly see the air behind Zoro solidifying as his fury increased. There were images...Usopp did not want to see those. He certainly did not want to be in a position to be hit by whatever those did. But what could he do? He had to do something before this whole episode went even further down the drain.
Nearby, Chopper's eyes were filled with tears, hoovers clattering together, begging them not to fight. He wasn't going to say anything, though. He couldn't, despite looking as if he might explode with the volume of his secret, but he valued his oaths. So did Usopp, but not as much and, frankly, if things didn't settle soon he might be forced to make a confession and risk being skinned alive. Desperately he flailed about, searching for Zoro's attention before realising his own stupidity.
The swordsman's senses brought them eye to eye, though, and he knew he was 'listening' with more than ears.
"Tonight," the man growled, "We'll talk tonight."
With that said he retreated from Nami's range, giving her his back and ignoring her yells as he disappeared into the men's bunk room. A moment later Usopp and Chopper hurried after him, the sharpshooter concerned that he might reconsider when alone. But then again, he had given his word and that was more solid than Adam wood.
"Are you sure about this, Zoro?" Chopper asked as they located him on the couch. He wasn't lounging, but had his swords up and prepared like he did when Luffy was gearing them up for a fight. Was that what he expecting from the others? What ought Usopp to be prepared for?
"Yes," Zoro replied, "When it was simply a matter of my pride it was my choice what I revealed. But this has shown how dangerous that mentality is. I have to let everyone know. I'd prefer to walk the gang plank than get all you killed because I couldn't read something."
With a patter of tiny feet the doctor settled beside the swordsman, eyes big and shining.
"It'll be okay, don't worry. Usopp and I don't think any less of you."
"Some will. If not for the blindness, than for being such a coward I couldn't speak about it," Zoro sighed, rubbing his forehead.
"It might be hard at first," Chopper conceded, "But in a few days' time things will go back to normal."
Usopp shambled over to the pair, dropping onto the rug in front of them and retrieving one of the notebooks he had left lying around.
"So how are we going to do this?"
Chopper and Usopp had decided to flank the swordsman in a show of solidarity, the doctor peering around Zoro to take in the expressions of the crew as they entered for dinner. Nami, Franky and Sanji were still glowering, Luffy was making doe eyes at the food, and Brooke appeared to find the whole thing woefully exaggerated. Robin was enigmatic as usual, and Chopper did not rule out the possibility that she already knew what Zoro was about to reveal.
He didn't do so immediately. Just sat down at his usual seat and crossed his arms in faux nonchalance. The movements were smooth, though. Unhesitating, and it was clear that he knew precisely where everyone was and what mood they were in. Chopper still found himself in awe at how the swordsman had adjusted to live an almost ordinary life.
"Well?" Nami seethed, "Apparently you have something to talk about?"
"Yes," Zoro answered, voice overwhelmingly casual in complete dissonance with his next words, "In answer to your earlier question, I am not blind as well as stupid. I'm just blind."
Usopp made horrified eyes at Chopper behind the swordsman's back as their carefully planned reveal was effortlessly negated. But it was Zoro's secret and his stage. If he wanted to take another route, then it was his choice no matter what Chopper thought.
"Huh?"
"I'm blind," Zoro sounded precisely like the Drum Kingdom's weather man announcing another day of snow. Chopper knew the swordsman had come to terms with his condition but this calm was disturbing.
"Hold on," Nami held up a hand, "Are you telling me that you couldn't read my note because you're blind?"
"Yes."
"That's ridiculous!" she snapped, "Blind people walk around with canes!"
"Oi, Zoro," Luffy broke in, snatching up a piece of cutlery, "What am I holding?"
It was a knife, but Chopper knew Zoro would not be able to tell.
"A piece of cutlery," the swordsman answered truthfully.
"Yeah, but what? Have a guess."
"Fork."
"Nah, it's a knife, Zoro. See?" Luffy looked at the others meaningfully, "Zoro doesn't lie. If he says he's blind, he's blind."
There was a moment of blessedly stunned silence that Chopper would savour for the rest of the night.
"WHAT?!"
Then questions began to fly everywhere – since when, how, how can you, what can you – simultaneously attacking Chopper's ear drums and forcing him to change to big point so that he had hands that he could press against his ears.
"Oi, Oi!" Zoro's voice broke through the din, "One at a time."
"How long have you been blind for?" Nami was the first to demand.
"Eh," Zoro scratched his head, "Bit of a difficult question to answer. Properly speaking, about a year, I think."
"You were blind when we met up and you didn't say so?" she shrieked.
The swordsman shrugged.
"Didn't think it mattered."
"Didn't think it mattered!"
"It pains my heart that you felt you needed to keep such a thing from us," Brooke stated, his tone level, "Although, of course...I don't have a heart! Yo ho, skull joke!"
"Inappropriate, Brook!" Nami snapped.
"A skull joke is always appropriate."
"What shall we do, Zoro?" Robin finally entered the conversation, leaning casually on her fist as she observed them.
"Do?" Sanji blinked at the group, "He can't stay here, surely."
Chopper dropped down the brain point, launching himself onto Zoro's leg as he tensed.
"Sanji!" Usopp cried, crossing his arms in front of him, "Don't say that!"
"It's not like everyone else isn't thinking it. I'm just being reasonable. He can't read, he can't tell the difference between a knife and a fork—"
"Bad table manners is never a good excuse to kick someone off a ship," Usopp groused.
Chopper let the conversation flow around him, squeezing with all his strength at the leg he was clutching. Zoro was so strong, he didn't flinch nor complain at the grip, and Chopper knew from experience he wasn't even in pain yet, not from brain point. And yet the others were debating whether he ought to remain on a pirate ship for his own safety. Usopp was arguing that it hadn't been a problem, but of course it had that day. They could avoid notes, though.
"I've decided," Luffy announced, cutting off the vibrant debate on how far Zoro could see and whether he would be shot by a sniper (he wouldn't, thanks to Haki, but he also wouldn't notice a small outcrop or non-hostile ship).
"If you can beat me in a fight, you can stay."
"WHAT?!"
Zoro simply stood as Usopp and Chopper protested, one hand resting on his swords.
"Are you serious, Luffy?"
"You'll wreck the ship!"
"Hey, this baby's sturdier than anyone you can throw at her," Franky growled, "But Usopp-bro's right—"
"I've decided."
"Aye aye, Captain," Zoro saluted, "Ready when you are."
"Meat first!"
"Everyone has to watch," Luffy instructed them, hat low over his face.
"Except for the mosshead," Sanji muttered under his smoke-coated breath.
Zoro and Luffy faced each other in either side of the deck, lanterns lighting up the grass with swaying shadows. That might, Chopper thought, give Zoro an advantage. But could he honestly expect to beat Luffy? Luffy was terrifyingly strong, and although he didn't train, and he was an idiot, and he couldn't pace himself, and...he always seemed to win, regardless.
Except when he didn't...
But their captain was always the one to defeat their worst foes, to smash through their barriers. He was the strongest of the strong – Zoro was simply fighting to keep up with him no matter what logic suggested about explosive power, weight-lifting, rubber and swords. Luffy didn't understand logic, so he ignored it and won anyway.
That being the case, what was he trying to do here? Surely he wasn't going to give less than his all – Zoro would be justified in taking that as an indictable insult.
"I won't be holding back," Luffy warned, as if reading Chopper's mind, "So don't with me."
"Can..." Chopper broke in, voice wobbly but determined, "Can we do a boundary fight? Only, you two are really good at using up the medical supplies, and—"
"Okay, Chopper," Luffy nodded, "First to fall in the water loses."
"Wait—"
"Ready?"
"Sure, Captain," Zoro grinned, trying the infamous tenugui* onto his head.
"I can't believe we're letting them do this," Nami moaned.
"Let's GO!"
To begin with, Chopper noticed that while Luffy liked to yell his attacks before completing them, as if reminding himself of what he was doing, Zoro shouted at the moment of impact. That was a better strategy all told, because Zoro seemed to know what Luffy was doing in a way that wasn't being reciprocated. Then again, they hadn't really seen Zoro fight since their separation. He'd just gone on a few joy rides.
There were massive and inappropriate grins on both the combatant's faces as they clashed together, Zoro's absorption of half the force of Luffy's attack with the sword in his teeth reminding Chopper that he really needed to research that jaw strength. There was unnatural, and then there was unnatural. And then he nearly sliced Luffy's nose off with that same sword in retaliation.
"Oh my," Brooke clapped, "I wish I could do that."
There was no skull joke forthcoming, possibly because teeth were some of the few things Brooke still had, and Chopper allowed his focus to turn back to the fight, where Zoro had kicked himself back down from the mast as a corkscrew. Luffy dodged back with a roar of laughter, clutching his hat to his head.
"Missed me!"
Those imbeciles were having far too much fun with their dangerous games, Chopper thought. They were keeping it relatively tame, though. No large area-effect attacks like Tatsumaki, although Chopper was going to have to restrain Luffy afterwards because he insisted on using his gears despite the health risks. Zoro, thankfully, did not have any gears, although he did grow two extra selves like a demon risen from the darkness below to devour their souls.
"Wah! His eye is definitely red!" Usopp announced, ducking down behind the railing, "He's going to feast on our corpses!"
"Don't be stupid, Usopp," Sanji muttered, leaning casually as he watched, "He's not having any more dinner."
"Anyone else find those techniques strange?" Nami asked.
"Sanji can set his feet on fire," Robin shrugged, which ended the conversation.
The techniques were strange – Sanji's at the very least was based on friction, and Chopper understood the theory behind Luffy's power-ups. Zoro...who knew what was going on there? Azura was not, as he had learned, some 'double image' technique. It didn't have any basis in physics or scientific learning. But neither did devil fruits so Chopper decided that he may as well let it go.
"Hee hee!"
"Nigiri!"
Chopper wondered idly how long it had taken Zoro to come up with the food puns for his techniques, and also how many bandages he was going to use up.
"Gum gum..."
Chopper blinked as Zoro took on a curious expression, almost child-like in glee. He darted around Luffy – or more correctly he was suddenly at the railing behind Luffy in that weird I'm-now-over-here-and-you've-been-sliced-open way, with his strong arms clamped around Luffy's as they stretched over the ocean.
"Ah!"
Luffy's flimsy sandals lost their purchase on the upturned soil, and a moment later he was flying toward Zoro, who launched and let go at the climax to send Luffy reeling into the air, the strength of both of them sending him crashing down.
"Zoro, no fair!" he yelled, hat sailing off into one of Robin's waiting hands.
Splash!
"I'll get him," Sanji sighed, "I'm faster."
"You are not!" Zoro protested, but the cook was already in the water.
A beat passed, before Chopper finally took in the mass of scrapes and bruises and who knew what else on their swordsman, and declared loudly that a doctor was needed, only to be informed, yet again, that he was one.
"Oh, right. Sit down."
Zoro casually dropped to the ground, silent but surprisingly open as Chopper tested one arm for breaks. Usually a broken arm would be easy to diagnose because the patient would be screaming in pain and would not allow the doctor to grab it, twist it and poke it. But Zoro's ridiculous pain tolerance meant Chopper had to be very careful with his examinations.
"Why, though?" he asked as he checked the other arm, rubbing ointment onto a particularly inflamed area that Zoro ignored as usual.
"Ask Luffy."
Chopper had the feeling the swordsman knew what his captain had intended, but had decided it wasn't his place to speak. He did that sometimes, and it was immensely annoying. What was the point in having an unofficial first mate if they didn't assume the role?
Thump
The crew gathered around Luffy, dumped unceremoniously at Chopper's feat, watching in silence as the effect of the ocean slowly evaporated.
"Ugh...oh hey everyone!"
He still had a slightly sleepy appearance, but the crew was too eager for answers to wait any longer. But the captain spoke up first, shocking their tongues to the roofs of their mouths as they struggled to process his strange logic.
"Hi, you're really strong!" he announced, shuffling over to where Chopper was putting a bandaid on Zoro's split eyebrow.
"You should join my crew!"
"Er, Luffy—" Sanji's mumbled protest about the swordsman's existing status fell on deaf ears as Luffy continued stubbornly.
"What's your name?"
"Roronoa Zoro."
Chopper thought that Zoro was the least perturbed of all of them, which wasn't fair. Sure, he understood Luffy better than any of them but there ought to have been limits and this made no sense.
"Cool! And you're a swordsman! I need one of those."
Brooke looked surprisingly unconcerned as Nami attempted to defend his honour.
"I heard you're blind, though," Luffy frowned, then nodded, "A blind swordsman is awesome cool! The navy has one of those! I want one too!"
"Are you better than that guy?" he added, leaning closer to his...former swordsman?
"I'm gonna be the best," Zoro responded simply.
"Well, that settles it," Luffy hit his hand on his leg, "The King of the Pirates needs to have the best swordsman on his crew!"
"Luffy, what the heck are you trying to prove here?" Nami sighed, rubbing her scowl line, "We know who Zoro is, and we know he's good."
"Huh?" Luffy blinked at her, "I thought...Zoro's really strong, and he's smart at fights and stuff..."
"Yes, Luffy, we know that," Sanji muttered, exasperation lacing his tone along with nicotine, "We didn't need a demonstration."
"I certainly didn't," Franky added, glowering at the damage done to the lawn.
"So, what's the problem, then?" Luffy asked, "I have a swordsman to do sword stuff. He can do sword stuff. And if I get a replacement Zoro will murder them."
Chopper caught a low mumble from Zoro about the purpose of duels and how not killing people proved that he had greater skill.
"Luffy, we know he can fight," Nami commented, her voice almost motherly as she squatted down, "It's the other things that are the issue. He didn't see my instructions today – they might have been life-or-death matters. We might have needed to blast our way out, and the ship wasn't ready because he couldn't read the note."
"So we don't leave him notes," Luffy answered simply.
"It's not just that, Luffy. He couldn't tell the difference between a knife and fork – that might be dangerous. Imagine if there a bomb that needs defusing and we ask him to cut the blue cord."
Luffy tilted his head, cogs whirring behind his eyes, before Chopper decided to speak up.
"I can't swim."
The others all turned to look at him, their expressions many and varied but he ploughed on.
"There's a lot of us that can't. And we're still here, sailing the seas on a pirate ship. If this is about what people can and can't do, what is and isn't dangerous-"
Franky had the self-awareness to look guilty at the identification of his worries.
"-we'd be hypocrites to treat Zoro any differently to how we treat our devil fruit users."
"Well spoken," Robin concurred, gently clapping, a smile tugging at her lips, "We will work around this as we have every other characteristic of our crew."
A fierce round of nodding followed, even if Nami and Sanji did not appear to have yet been convinced.
The next morning Zoro was still feeling nervous. He knew that not everyone had accepted him with the same enthusiasm as Luffy, while others were wary of making mistakes. Sanji was torn between Nami and Robins' opinions, as if he had not perspective of his own, Franky was giving him odd 'looks', and Chopper and Usopp were both concerned about how he was adjusting. There was absolutely no difference in Luffy's attitude whatsoever, which was just as well. He certainly didn't want any starry-eyed nonsense if he needed to explain how his other senses worked or why he had managed so well. He wasn't an inspiration, he wasn't special (in that sense at least), and if Luffy was not going to commend him on his sword-fighting skills like he did Franky's upgrades, then Zoro didn't want to hear it.
"Morning," he greeted absently, taking his place at the table. Unlike most meals breakfast was not communal but partaken in dribs and drabs – Zoro tended to be up early with Robin and whomever else deigned to join them. The cook left to train in the weights room while Zoro wasn't there, and the others continued with their sleep-ins.
Generally.
But that morning Franky and Usopp were with Robin at the kitchen table, and both were audibly buzzing with excitement. Robin's aura was one of contentment, and he could still picture the slight smile that went with it.
"Hey, Zoro!" Usopp announced, "We, uh—"
"Check this out!" Franky shouted, shoving a contraption against Zoro's chest. There had been no threat, so he simply took it, allowing his fingers to tell him more about the strange piece.
It did not help.
"Oi, don't shove it at him," Usopp protested, "Here, Zoro, put it down and we'll show you."
There was a moment of silence.
"I mean..."
"Don't worry about it," Zoro sighed, "Seriously."
"Right, well, anyway...umm..."
"Have you ever encountered Braille, Zoro?" Robin spoke up, the least nervous of the group.
"No?"
"It is a means of written communication that does not rely on sight. I thought we might learn it together."
Zoro couldn't help it, he was speechless. He had told her last night and now she was going to learn a new language with him? He felt...he supposed he felt warm inside. She could have offered to read to him everything he would need from then on, but instead she would give him the means to do so himself.
Yes, he felt warm, because it showed that she respected him.
"And this little beauty is based off that," Franky added, "I call her—"
"Zoro should name her," Usopp objected.
"I'm not following all of this," he sighed in answer, "Could you explain first?"
"It's a typewriter," Franky expounded, his voice overflowing with excitement, "But modified. Flick this switch that way-"
He directed Zoro to feel with his hands.
"-and you can write in Braille, but it will appear in ink. And this way is the other way around. We can leave notes for you. Neat, huh?"
Zoro couldn't speak. For all the strength his three-sword-style endowed, his throat failed him at this critical juncture. Mihawk and Perona...he had not truly expected them to care, but they had never attempted anything like this. But in the space of one night Robin, Usopp and Franky had found him a language and made him a machine.
"Is it that bad?" Usopp whispered, "Sorry, we thought—"
Zoro shook his head hastily.
"I...appreciate it," he whispered, "I really do."
Maybe...maybe he needn't have worried so much. Sure, there was more progress to be made with a few of his crew members, but he knew they would change their minds. They were family, and they would grow closer as a result of this, like always. His fears...they seemed so small in the light of this device, which embodied everything he had secretly hoped for but was too worried to take the risk to obtain.
"If you sit down, Zoro, we can start on this after breakfast," Robin offered, tapping a book. A book – he had never thought he would read a book again. He had struggled even before Sabaody, relying heavily on images to explain the drifting words. And now...
"Sure."
Now he had to say that things were looking up.
A/N: A bit late, I know, sorry! But anyway, a belated commemoration of the International Day of People with Disability focusing on physical disability.
Fujitora's career history is a wild guess that I hope is true; I don't know much about him but didn't want any spoilers.
*tenugui – kendo 'bandana'
I thought tenugui might be more accurate than the more commonly used bandana, but it is rectangular as opposed to triangular and I'm not sure the shape of Zoro's cloth. Just a bit of kendo trivia that might interest some readers.