"Do you know what these earrings mean?" Shishou lifts her hair from the left side, the gold long earrings making a light tinkle.

He breathes heavily, lying on the grass, defeated and exhausted, shishou blocking out the sun, the world drowning in smiles, amber and green.

"The rule of three 'H'", she continues, well aware of his ignorance, her eyes twinkling in the depths of her pupils and her tone instructively affectionate. "Hazardous , Hardness and Heart. You must be firm enough in your beliefs, strong in your body, and following the call of your heart. A warrior's heart will not deceive. Perhaps this will be your only chance to get out alive from a situation over which you are powerless".

Kuma is something he can't handle; Kuma is something that could really kill their entire crew; Kuma is something that could kill his captain and his nakama.

Zoro stands there, bleeding, clutching his blades, gnashing his teeth, he can't let himself fall, he knows this body is capable of more. Kuma has a blank look and a loud, almost mechanized voice. He's ready to fight, ready to stand as long as he has to, if the damn body will finally move.

"Dammit..." he swears, feeling himself (white on red; in the silence, the chomping sounds are deafening; 'this is your fate', God laughs), just as helplessly as he did many, many years ago.

"And if the heart behaves stupidly?" he blows away the clinging wet bangs, collecting all the dirt and dust with his sweaty clothes.

Shishou smiles with a dimple at the corner of her mouth.

"That's what earrings are for. Remind".

The wind moves green hair, stone dust, and earrings.

He is offered a deal, the most unprofitable, terrible, very similar to the taste of citrus fruits in the garden of the shishou residence, which he hated — and he agrees.

His life on Luffy's life? Easy.

Not the worst thing he got, not the worst thing he experienced, not the worst thing that could have happened to him (and maybe, maybe, maybe, Zoro, never forget, happen). Luffy's pain is overwhelming and tearing from the inside out; Shichibukai chose another place for him from his words, and now Zoro could even feel some gratitude. Shichibukai assured him that he would die, given his injuries, Zoro almost laughed. He wasn't going to die. Not now. It's not even his deadline yet…

"How long are you going to lie around?" Kuina is small and demanding, standing over him like a judge or sensei. Her eyes are stern, far more serious than Koshiro's could be, and colder than Yomi's.

"I'm not gonna die", he says to the ghost, being somewhere without having the slightest idea whether he is alive or dead.

"You're not dead yet", she says, and suddenly she chuckles, sitting down next to him, towering and reproving. "It's funny that I had to die so that you could trust me with your secrets", her voice is young, not quite female, not quite childish, and soaked through with longing. She has dark, big eyes and a desire to hit him with something heavier. "You're — idiot, Zoro", she spits, looking away and hiding, "idiot-idiot-idiot..."

He doesn't argue. Kuina is always right, even as a dead girl in his dying mind. Zoro forces himself to breathe.

"You're weird", Kuina says when they're doing something other than another fight; she's holding a kitchen knife and vegetables, and he's holding a cleaver and cutting fish.

"What?" Zoro replied aggressively, almost advancing with just his voice, still shivering from the cold of North Blue. There, such words meant trouble. "Why is that?"

Kuina grunts, the knife slicing through the air, the carrots slicing into identical thin slices.

"You're not letting your father treat your wounds", she says, nodding at the blue dislocation of her shoulder from a bad landing on the ground and the bruises on her knees.

"Don't worry", he says, not for the first time in her memory, "they're not worth it".

For some reason, Kuina thought that even if they opened his stomach, spilling out half of his organs, Zoro would answer the same way. She grimaced, putting aside the uninvited vague thoughts. Even Zoro can't be such a hopeless idiot.

Zoro had done three of the most selfish things in his life that shishou could be both proud of and willing to rip his ears off.

In the first place, he had run away, renouncing everything he knew, everything he had lived and been, running away so far, washing his feet in blood, cutting off his hair and smearing it with thick tar, hiding behind oceans and unknown expanses, starving to death and digesting seawater instead of drinking water. For myself, only for myself and my life, wasting the lives of Yomi and thier parents, without looking back and without thinking about home. He refused to ever grow his hair back, each time frantically, almost paranotically, grabbing for scissors, knives, or, if nothing else, swords. He had given up the sun in his eyes, as shishou called them, and Yomi had smiled, never getting used to the blank gray in a decade (he had once been told that his eyes were so light that they seemed blind; well, he couldn't deny that a stranger was frowning back at him from the mirror.)

In the second place, he challenged Kuina. Over and over again. Again, again, again, again, and again. Three thousand times. Not a single victory. But he did not back down, never doubting in the slightest that he would one day overcome this obstacle. Until Kuina said the most unspeakable stupid thing he'd ever heard. Kuina believed that girls are weaker than boys that he will grow up a man and the only reason will win — it was funny, he wanted to laugh, to tell her about shishou, the strongest woman in his life, if not the world, about her skills and the fear that it could cause other a glance, (shishou was white hair and aged wrinkles, shishou was blind eyes and cold hands, shishou was weak voice and the blood tastes like rot) but it only angered him and he just says, what Kuina stupid idiot, unaware of the talk. There is a promise between him, the night, the sword, and Kuina. A promise that he carries with the same loyalty and confidence that he swore to the village that took the lives of Shishou and himself. Wado warms his hand and side, and Kuina's voice is reflected in shishou's earrings and Yomi's laughter, and he idly thinks that they will get along wherever they are right now. Shishou will look after Kuina, and Yomi will tell her some embarrassing stories about him. Zoro is more certain of this than he is of the fact that the world is moving, not he is wandering aimlessly.

In the third place, In the third place, Luffy. He met Luffy and followed him. He did what he became good at and what he was always good at: he lived for others. The useful with the pleasant. Even if no one really noticed, and Zoro's sacrifice was always attributed to his loyalty and affection for Nakama. Which was a consequence, but not a cause, because Zoro is always loyal to those he chose, to the detriment of himself.

On Sabaody his burning lungs and blurry vision. For the first time, Luffy ordered them to run, to retreat, to catch up with each other through three days. The blurred huge spot has a voice that is familiar and does not promise anything good.

"I can't stop admiring your dedication", Kuma says evenly and emotionlessly, Zoro feels his knees give way under his own weight. "And no less surprised by your tendency to survive".

Zoro wants to snap, almost ready, but the sun is hot on his tanned skin, and his long green hair is always on the edge of his subconscious— he bites his tongue until it bleeds, coughing it up.

"If you could go on vacation, where would you like to be?" ask him, and Zoro smiles against his will. Such a ridiculously stupid question. It couldn't be worse.

More than anything, he wanted to…

"To shishou", and Zoro doesn't care that this woman has been dead for most of his life.

Zoro may be faintly glad that no one has realized his momentary weakness in going after his mentor.