Hey everybody,

hope you're getting ready for a great weekend ;-)
And I hope you guys are aware by now how much I enjoy having Jiroushin around, because guess what, he's still there (probably regretting some choices he made in life) ;-P

Thank you all for your kind words, it makes me really happy to know that there are people out there reading this story and following the adventures of our two favorite idiots.

See you monday^^


Chapter 36 - Scale

-Zoro-

If he was honest, it didn't really surprise him that, in addition to the Shichibukai, also Jiroushin awaited him in the entrance hall,.

But something about the two was weird. Mihawk grinned smugly as if he had just won an extremely witty word duel. Jiroushin, on the other hand, seemed unusually serious and stared at Zoro both suspiciously and contemptuously. It was almost as if the two had swapped their bodies, they just seemed so untypical and opposite to their usual selves.

"Are you ready, Roronoa? Today, Jiroushin will help us with your training."

Zoro just nodded and followed his teacher. He didn't trust the situation at all. Something was going on here.

But he had a very different problem. This was going to be his and Mihawk's first training session since the had placed Zoro in front of a choice. Zoro knew that he could only master the Busoshoku Haki if he trained it, and that meant that sooner or later he would probably lose control again.

The way Mihawk behaved, Zoro suspected sooner rather than later, and he didn't like that at all. Especially not now, with Jiroushin being there as well. But Zoro said nothing, instead followed Mihawk silently to the ruins where they used to train.

The Marine at Mihawk's side had his arms folded and looked anything but happy, Zoro decided to ignore that. He didn't care what they had discussed, but he really would have preferred to not drag Jiroushin into the matter. In contrast to the Shichibukai, who seemed delighted with the latest developments.

"Well," Mihawk said, leaning against an overturned pillar, "as we all know, Roronoa learns the quickest through direct confrontation, so I think it makes the most sense if we continue exactly where we left off last time. Only this time Jiroushin will be your opponent."

Zoro nodded only as the blond looked around.

"And at what point are we?" Jiroushin muttered dissatisfied, bending down for a broken bamboo stick. "Hardening?"

Mihawk nodded: "Quite right. Roronoa is not ready yet to harden weapons. But his armor is becoming more and more even. You will enjoy it, Jirou."

Jiroushin just murmured something under his breath and strapped off his sword. "And all this nonsense just because you don't want to fight this bastard yourself."

Zoro knew perfectly well that he was the bastard, but he could live with that. So, he reached for one of the bamboo sticks from the big as ever pile and went into a fighting position.

Shaking his head, Jiroushin did the same.

"I still can't believe it," he grumbled as he confronted Zoro. "That's why you behaved so odd those many times... that's why you were so good."

Grinning, Zoro shrugged and hardened his weapon.

"I have no idea what you mean," he replied, grabbing the bamboo harder, "but don't think I'm as weak as Loreen."

Somehow it was liberating to finally say it out loud in front of the blond.

"One more moment." Mihawk came over to Zoro, now again a cool, rational expression in his eyes. He leaned down to him and spoke so softly that Jiroushin apparently shouldn't hear it. "Since your control about whether you absorb foreign Haki or not is still not steady, this will not be our main focus for the moment. First of all, just make sure that you harden the stick evenly, understood?"

Zoro nodded, still keeping an eye on the Marine, who looked at him coolly again.

"And there is no need to worry, as long as you absorb his Haki, your own reserves should not sink into a dangerous area." Again, he nodded, but then he looked at the other as Mihawk touched his shoulder. "Jiroushin will certainly not try to kill you, but he will not hold back as he did on Sasaki. Concentrate!"

"Obviously."

"Can we get at it?" The Vice Admiral interrupted. "How long do you want to keep flirting?"

Apologetically lifting both hands, the Shichibukai went back to his pillar and Zoro faced the soldier. A tingle crawled over his skin, which had nothing to do with Haki. For the last few months Mihawk had always tried to actually fight with Zoro, so his last real fight had been a long time ago. It didn't matter that he was just holding a bamboo in his hands, that the other was superior to him, that Mihawk would prevent any kind of bloody confrontation.

All that mattered was his opponent in front of him and Zoro could see exactly how Jiroushin was watching him. His first real fight against the peaceful warrior, fifth best swordsman in the world. For a second, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, felt this familiar calmness, and then Zoro attacked.

Mihawk should be right; Jiroushin apparently was not trying to kill him just bluntly, but he probably had no objection to a moderate concussion.

Pretty quickly, Zoro noted three things.

First, he couldn't move his swollen left wrist the way he wanted without it gnawing at his concentration, which was why he led the staff with his right hand. Second, he noticed the sharp eyes of his teacher, and Zoro was not sure who the Shichibukai was watching. Didn't Mihawk trust that Jiroushin would hold back in the end?

But both were unimportant.

Because what Zoro noticed the quickest was that he was good. Not Jiroushin - he had assumed that from the beginning - no, Zoro's last real life-or-death fight, victory or defeat, had been months ago, and to see his own performance in relation to the best swordsman in the world had apparently clouded his self-assessment.

No, Zoro noticed how good he had become.

Of course, he could not compare today's confrontation with the last time he had fought Jiroushin. At that time, he had been Loreen and Jiroushin hadn't even given half of what he could, but most of all it had been six months ago and Zoro just wasn't the same as before.

Now he knew what the Shichibukai meant.

Still, that didn't mean the game was easy. It could be that Zoro was not as inferior to the Marine as he had thought, but on one hand they were fighting with damn bamboo sticks – and only one of them at a time – and on the other hand, Jiroushin had years ahead of him in using Haki application.

But he didn't really care. Zoro had fun.

Mihawk was right, as long as he absorbed some of the other's Haki on every impact, he wouldn't run the risk of going crazy, he could just surrender to the fight and for the first time in a long, long time he could enjoy what he was doing.

Hours passed like mere seconds and Zoro just didn't get tired, even though he faced a powerful opponent. Every time their stick clashed against each other he could feel some cold slipping through his fingertips; he imagined it felt different from the Shichibukai's Haki, but he could just as well be wrong.

Over time, he became more and more secure; after breaking several pipes in a row at the beginning, the current one finally held. Zoro could feel the sharp eyes of his teacher, as well as the no less harsh eyes of his opponent. But unlike usual, Jiroushin barely talked.

Back on Sasaki, the soldier had constantly spoken during combat, had explained how or why he did what he was doing, had explained tips and tricks, or had simply talked. Now he was calm, highly concentrated, and deadly, mercilessly exploiting every of Zoro's mistake and giving him little time to dodge an attack, to jump up from the ground, gave him little time to breathe.

But very slowly Zoro could see it, could see that this fight was not only exhausting for him and that gave him a nice little extra push.

"You have good reserves," the Vice Admiral said as dusk began to begin. Of all the things he could praise, he decided to take the one Zoro was obviously cheating at.

"Whatever," he replied grimly, blocking the coming attack.

Then he noticed the Shichibukai slightly tilting his head and nodding to him. Zoro understood and nodded back; he had also suspected that Jiroushin's comment meant that his Haki reserves were slowly running out, so now Zoro should turn up an absorb more. He could do that, and he would like to see how long it would take him to take all Haki out of the Vice Admiral.

But it was harder than he had expected. It was one thing to grab the arm of the Shichibukai and draw energy in peace, here two coated objects touched for only one millisecond and he should use this moment to suck out the other as fast as he could, without it being noticed and still concentrating on the fight. Yes, not so easy.

"What in heaven's name are you doing?!"

Both swordsmen interrupted their attacks and looked over to the lord of the island, who had not said a single word until then and had only watched them with his arms crossed. Now, however, he looked over to Zoro in anger.

"What?" Zoro had no idea why Mihawk was staring at him as if he had just knocked Yoru off its drawer.

Once again, the elder gave him this look and nodded slightly.

"What, I'm doing it!" Zoro growled.

"Obviously not!"

"What's going on here?" Jiroushin looked back and forth between them disapprovingly.

"You drive me mad, Roronoa."

The Shichibukai rose and walked over to Zoro, sighing heavily.

"I gave you the sign," he grumbled, unnerved.

"Yes, I know," Zoro replied no less annoyed.

"Then why are you still absorbing his Haki?"

Once again, only Zoro could hear the Shichibukai, but that didn't mean he understood what the other wanted to know from him.

"That's what you told me," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"What? When should I have told you that?"

"Yes, just when you nodded like you were trying to give me a bad hint."

Zoro had to admit that he found it difficult to stay calm with so much stupidity.

"What are you talking about?" Shaking his head, Mihawk looked at him almost indignantly. "I told you that you have absorbed enough and that you should stop now. So that your own reserve will also fade at some point."

"What? When did you say that?"

"Just when I nodded to you, giving you a hint."

"You just nodded!" They were both not as quiet as they wanted. "How am I supposed to know what you meant by that? I thought you said finish him off and not hold yourself back."

"What point would it make to carry on as before, Roronoa? It was obvious what I wanted."

"Obviously not, otherwise I wouldn't have misunderstood you!"

"Hey, hey!" Jiroushin had joined in and pulled them more or less apart. "Could someone please explain to me what's going on here?"

"Roronoa is too stupid to follow my instructions!"

"How can I know what a fucking nod means? A nod is not a clear instruction, it's no instruction at all, you could have just as easily had a stroke."

"Stop using my age as argumentation basis."

"Stop taking things as a given. If you want me to do something, explain it to me with words like any normal person would and don't just nod to me in the middle of a fight."

"I've discussed with you before that you should get used to the fight first and then..."

"And after that what? You didn't say anything about and then!"

"Now, calm down!"

Zoro and Mihawk simultaneously turned to the Vice Admiral, who just apparently regretted drawing both of their angry looks on him.

"Okay," Jiroushin muttered, raising both arms reassuringly, "now everything is cleared up, isn't it? You know what to do now?"

He looked directly at Zoro.

"Yes, now," Zoro grumbled.

"Good," Jiroushin interrupted the Shichibukai's emerging comment. "Then we can move on now. The day is coming to an end, you don't have much time."

"Not much time for what?" Zoro asked suspiciously.

But the blond gave him only half a grin and waved off, Mihawk also remained silent, but Zoro knew immediately that the danger of the morning had not yet disappeared.

Again, he went to his starting position.

"One more second."

Surprised, Zoro received a second bamboo stick from the Shichibukai.

"For your Haki," the elder muttered calmly, and Zoro was pretty sure he understood it correctly this time. He had to increase his Haki consumption, apparently they were really running out of time, whatever that would mean.

Up to this point Zoro had come many times, but at this point the Shichibukai had interrupted their last training. Zoro had to prove to him that he was serious, that he was ready to face his monster.

The bamboo broke.

-Mihawk-

"Concentrate!" He barked at his student, handing him two new pipes.

He could see exactly that Roronoa was nervous, for a moment he had lost control over his Haki flow. It was obvious after all. Roronoa learned quickly and thanks to his talent and strength he was already able to keep up with the big ones, but he was still a beginner in the use of Haki and accordingly made novice mistakes. At this level, they were simply even more noticeable.

Then the fight continued. Now that Roronoa no longer tapped Jirou's Haki, Mihawk was able to concentrate on other things.

Even if Mihawk wouldn't admit it, it was exhausting for him to follow Roronoa's Haki flow. It took special skill to be able to perceive the Haki flow of another, something Mihawk had perfected. But to catch tiny drops of energy exchanged between different armors, that was not easy to see, even for him. If he could feel it, it would be more practicable, but from several meters away, in the midst of a serious fight, yes, that really demanded him, too.

But now that part was over, now he could dedicate himself to the fight and assess Roronoa's progress. It did not take a master to realize that his little frog was no longer the same as he had been six months ago. Although the training had mainly focused on Haki, had hardly recreated a real fight, Roronoa had developed well.

Still his Kenbunshoku Haki was lacking, far too often it took him too long and he could only parry attacks at the last moment, even less often dodge. Now, as a man and equipped with a considerable raw power, he was able to compensate these slips, but as Loreen he would have been defeated long ago.

But Mihawk credited the youngster for not even showing in the least that his wrist was obviously hurting, not even talking about the ribs and bruises. A stranger would not have noticed his vulnerabilities at the moment.

It was remarkable. Compared to Jirou, Roronoa was rough and immature, still trying to balance with sheer muscle power what he lacked in skill and speed. His Busoshoku Haki was already quite good, not perfect and still too unsteady to be a base of reliance in a real fight, but it seemed almost more developed than his Kenbunshoku Haki – but that simply did not speak for the latter.

Under these conditions, one would think that Roronoa still had a long way to go before he would even catch up with Jirou, let alone Mihawk. One would think, because the longer the fight lasted, the better Roronoa got. This was when his true strength, his true talent, something that the Shichibukai had noticed early on, showed.

In the beginning Jirou had still been reluctant, Roronoa might not have noticed, but the soldier was almost perfect in recognizing how far he could go without directly injuring his opponent.

However, the longer the fight lasted, the less Jiroushin held back. When he had commented on Roronoa's reserves, he had not meant his Haki - because it would take a longer, harder fight to let this source of energy dry up - but his very simple reserves of raw, muscular strength.

Jirou had assumed that Roronoa had fought with full strength from the very beginning and was right to wonder why the younger one did not let up with time, but only became stronger and better.

But that was exactly the mistake. With every attack, parade, block, and breath, Roronoa got better, faster, stronger. But not because he had held back at the beginning, no, but simply because he had the ability and perfected it to read his opponent. Just as he did with Jiroushin.

By now, the fight had reached a level that confirmed Mihawk's assumption. Roronoa was able to take on the Vice Admiral. Not from the beginning, not in every area, but the longer the fight lasted, the stronger Roronoa became. If his opponent made the mistake of giving him time - either because he was not taken seriously or to play with him - Roronoa would use that for his advantage, just as he did with Jiroushin now. In the beginning, Jiroushin had been the clear winner, but Roronoa caught up and he was damn fast in doing so. How it annoyed Mihawk! This damn, unnatural, unfair talent!

As the sun swiped the horizon, he noticed a quick side view of his best friend.

That surprised him. On the one hand, it meant that Roronoa's Haki absorption had been so subtle that the Marine had not even noticed how the youngster had used his reserves. On the other hand, it was highly unusual for Jiroushin not to focus his attention entirely on the fight in front of him.

But then Mihawk smiled. The blond's look had made it very clear to him that the other wanted to remind him of the bet, that his time was running out, and that the soldier was still not convinced by Roronoa.

Yet that Jiroushin had taken the time to even look at him actually meant the opposite, Jiroushin no longer needed any more information to make his judgment, even if he himself might not have been aware of it. This glance had just meant that the Marine wanted to stop before Roronoa could convince him, because slowly the scales tipped.

This little side view meant that Mihawk had won his bet, although Jiroushin thought he would be the winner. And they were not finished just yet. He could tell by looking at Roronoa, although strain was sliding over his face, his body was still as light-footed as it had been at the beginning.

Since his little frog fought with two sticks, it became clear that he felt safer, that he was more in his element. But two pipes also meant twice as much Haki consumption and the younger one had apparently not calculated that.

This fight would not last that much longer and an expectant tension filled Mihawk. This time he would look very closely, wanted to see exactly what would happen. His shoulder tingled slightly, he wanted to see the monster, Roronoa's true self.

Suddenly it got much darker, the sun had probably just set and Jiroushin doubtless took this as a sign to end the fight.

"Enough is enough!" He yelled in a direct attack. Bamboo broke and Roronoa slipped across the ground on all fours. The air was full of electricity, like just before a thunderstorm. Apparently unaware of this, Jiroushin looked over to Mihawk. "I'm sorry, Hawky. It's over, your protégé could not..."

"Shh..."

Mihawk raised a hand and interrupted his friend as he took a few steps towards him. His gaze was pinned on Roronoa, who was still squatting on the ground, his hands drilled into the dirt like claws. There he was again; the Demon of the East Blues had awakened.

"Hawky, what's the point...?"

Slowly Roronoa rose, his head tilted to the side, an almost insane grin on those narrow lips, the dirty fingers closed and opened up as if they were claws lurking with tension, and still it were these eyes fascinating Mihawk more than anything else. A quiet, throaty laugh echoed through the burgeoning darkness and Mihawk felt his own lust for blood rising. He wanted to fight.

"What the...?"

"May I introduce, Jiroushin? The Demon of East Blue: Roronoa Zoro."

It was just like last time, but now Mihawk knew for sure. Now he at least understood the trigger of this monster. Roronoa's own reserves had not yet been exhausted, his Haki had not yet sunken to a life-threatening level. But that was only true at first glance. In fact, Roronoa's storage was still well filled, but not with his own Haki – which Mihawk could barely perceive, nothing more than a hint – but with the Haki that Roronoa had absorbed from Jiroushin.

But the problem was that this foreign Haki had completely covered the remnants of Roronoa's own. That was why the monster consumed so much Haki. It prevented the foreign Haki from destroying his own.

At least that was Mihawk's guess. Mihawk could not do much more than make assumptions based on his observations one way or another, and yet he was almost certain why. If two different Busoshoku Hakis overlapped, the stronger would always destroy the weaker one. The more powerful Haki broke through the inferior. He could well imagine that too much foreign Haki could be deadly for Roronoa if his own became so dangerously low.

But then he came up with a new idea, something that would explain why Roronoa took so long to regenerate. Perhaps such a drastic mismatch between Haki destroyed Roronoa's ability to produce new Haki, at least temporarily.

"Interesting..."

"Hawky, what's going on here?"

Roronoa was still staring almost through them as his scratchy, reverberating laughter wafted through the rising darkness. Mihawk's blood pulsated, remembering the last time the other had been in this form.

"Do you see it, Jirou?" He whispered almost reverently. "The beginning of a new age!"