I'm flying to Europe for a three week trip so no updates for a while. :( I'll be writing alot in trains so there will be much more updates after instead! Do any of my readers live in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France or Spain? Any advice, social faux pas to avoid, any tips at all would be great.
One scene is from the series, the rest aren't. My take on why Zoro began to save Chopper from some point.
Five Times Zoro jumped after Luffy to save him...and one time he didn't, but saved Luffy anyways
i.
"Zoro," The name is a promise, the lilt of a question and Luffy, while balanced dangerously on the edge of their ship, looks at him. His gaze is serene, solemn and impossibly steady-and that is the only warning Zoro gets before Luffy steps back off the ship and into the sea.
The swordsman blankly stares at the spot for a full twenty seconds before remembering, realizing, and diving into the waves after his captain. To be fair, it has only been two days since Luffy 'recruited' the swordsman and Zoro had become far too accustomed to watching his own back to realize that sometimes, people couldn't watch their own.
"You're out of your damn mind," Zoro snarls as he heaves his captain into their cramped boat, water-logged clothes and all. He sweeps his wet hair out of his eyes and when his vision clears, Zoro growls. "What the hell were you thinking?"
Luffy is laughing, eyes closed, head tilted back to the sky and with a grin, fierce, brilliant and alive.
ii.
Buggy the Clown, it's a familiar name. Zoro heard of him; it's hard not to with his reputation and all the requests that are thrown his way. The swordsman vaguely remembers Yosaku mentioning the pirate had a Devil Fruit ability and then shrugs it off. Devil Fruit user or not, his captain is missing and if Buggy the Clown may have a clue to where Luffy is, that is where Zoro will go.
Zoro follows the idiots who had tried to threaten him back to their base, and cannot find it in him to be truly surprised when he sees Luffy in the middle of all the trouble. None of the Buggy crew pays attention to ex-pirate hunter's appearance as their attention is completely fixed on the scene before them; Luffy trying to chew off the bars of the cage he is trapped in.
The swordsman rubs his forehead with his palm as he assesses the situation. The greatest threat to Luffy is the cannon and that will mean he will have to cover for the orange head-whoever she is.
He jumps forward with his swords sheathed but raised and incapicates four pirates with one blow. Zoro snorts into the shocked silence.
"Just how many of you are going after one girl?"
iii.
'Pirate Hunter' is never a nickname Zoro gave himself, nor did he ever consider himself one. Rather he needed money and taking pirates to any marine base gave him that. If the pirates put up a fight and were met with three particular swords from one particular swordsman, well, that was hardly Zoro's fault; it just wasn't in Zoro to pass a good fight. Yet whatever Zoro thought himself, it is true that he spent years hunting pirates and he has witnessed and grown familiar with the methods actual 'pirate hunters' use.
It is why when Luffy steps up to face the leering pirate hunter, Zoro recognizes the way the pirate hunter's gaze flickers to the side, the way a man who had been quietly drinking in the corner behind them shifts. Luffy doesn't notice, and that's the point; one pirate hunter distracts the target while another, bids his time for an opening to strike.
A pity they haven't realized the fatal flaw in their plan.
"Hey," Zoro turns to the man in the corner, teeth bared and lips stretched into something far more predatary and terrifying a grin should be. The grin only grows wider when he sees the flinch of a surprised and guilty man. He draws Wado Ichimonji slowly out of its sheath, the blade glinting in the dim light. "I guess you don't know who I am."
iv.
"Damnit Luffy, you do not just go jumping into the water after some cool fish you see-no, I do not care how many eyes it had!"
v.
"Shouldn't we go and help him or something?" Nami asks, the question contrary to her very comfortable position in her chair with a drink in her hand.
Her male counterparts, all who are leaning against the balustrade of Going Merry's deck and looking down at the battle make no sign of movement. Despite the fact that Going Merry is docked in plain view on the shore, the marines take no heed for one rubber boy is wrecking enough havoc that they will have their hands full until reinforcements arrive.
"He can take care of himself beautiful and kind Nami-swan," Sanji, on Zoro's left, swoons at the last words. When Zoro snorts, he throws a warning glare before straightening up and pulling his cigarette pack out of his jacket. "Besides, it's his own fault for announcing our arrival and attracting every single marine in the perimeter."
Usopp nods furiously in agreement and begins to chatter about 'Usopp-sama's elaborate plan Luffy is following.' Zoro tunes him out and watches the battle with a surprising amount of detachment for a pirate whose captain is outnumber by tens. Luffy can handle it, Zoro knows this, because if he couldn't take care of this much Zoro wouldn't be following the boy in the first place.
Then again, Zoro thinks as he grips the smooth wooden bar and swings himself over the side-off the ship-and lands neatly on the shore before shooting off into the dust and battle. Nobody notices a new enemy slipping between their defenses. Nobody, except a rubber boy who shifts to his right so his back is bare.
But then again this is better, Zoro listens to the satisfying ring of his raised sword meeting an enemy's, as he steps into the opening his captain has given him. He senses Luffy's sudden and blatant disregard for all blades heading in their direction and he grins in answer to the exalting glee radiating from the press of the familiar back against him. Yes, Luffy can handle this but this is better.
... vi
It is the worst storm Zoro has ever seen.
He's heard that Grand Line's weather is whimsical at best but even those warnings hadn't warned him for this, the thundering clouds and brutal waves. Nami, having sensed the change in wind, has pulled them out of the worst and yet even at the edge of the storm, Merry shakes.
"Guys!"
Zoro looks up from the knot he is making at Nami's panicked shout and instantly sees the problem.
The tide that is coming their way is as high as Merry and too close to avoid; the force will knock them all off board.
Zoro finds Luffy the same time Luffy twists around to lock him in a gaze from across the deck, the same gaze he'd given Zoro before falling into the sea from that cramped boat on a sunny day. Zoro understands.
The wave crashes onto the deck and sweeps their feet under them, but just before that, Zoro tightens his grip around his swords and takes a deep breath.
Ten minutes later, when Zoro breaks through the surface and greedily gulps in the cool air, it is with Chopper, their second Devil Fruit user to join their crew, and his limp figure curled carefully around his neck. Zoro blinks the saltwater out of his eyes and when his vision clears, he sees his friends already back on Merry, soaking and yet stubbornly huddled along the balustrade to wait for their last two crew mates, the bright clouds hanging behind them, and his captain, who has found the two of them and is laughing, his eyes closed, head tilted back to the sky and with a grin, fierce, brilliant and alive.