Sol Invictus
Chapter Fifteen: Wild Things
A barrage of punches rammed into Don Krieg at such speed that they appeared to have happened all at once, leaving the transient afterimage of innumerable fists fading in the air as the man was hurtled through the broken doors of Baratie and driven directly into the hull of his own galleon. The assault ended only when Krieg's body was enveloped fully into the blackness of the ship and Luffy could no longer see where her fists were landing.
"Don't you dare," she snarled in the direction of where she knew the other pirate was. She stalked forward to the open deck of the restaurant, nostrils flaring, eyes blazing with dangerous promise. "Someone like you doesn't get to hurt Sanji's family."
Her forward advance was stopped by the lack of ground on which to stand. Luffy glanced down at the short stretch of water separating her from the ship holding her prey... but found her eyes riveted to her reflection, at her vicious scowl and bared teeth.
She looked... feral. Wild. Inhuman, almost.
Luffy raised a fist up to her eyes and studied it, appraising the straining veins and tightly coiled muscles of her hand and wrist.
Ah. Oops.
This kind of reaction... it wasn't - Luffy was fond of Sanji, she really was, but he wasn't one of her brothers, he wasn't even properly nakama. Not yet. She hadn't meant to get that angry. She had meant to get pissed to some extent, but the rage shouldn't have affected her to the point that she could barely recognize her own likeness in the water.
And yet -
Sanji wasn't Sabo but in that moment, in that split second, the haze of an evoked memory - of that memory - wouldn't allow her to make the distinction. Luffy had never been one to hold grudges but even she wouldn't forget something like that, wouldn't forget Sabo's terrible, terrible face that day. Couldn't forget, even if she wanted to.
Sanji wasn't Sabo, though. Zeff wasn't Ace.
And she... she wasn't that weak girl from eight years ago who couldn't do anything.
"Gin," called Luffy, her voice carrying well in the silence that had blanketed the restaurant in the face of her sudden attack. It sounded normal enough, which was good.
Gin slowly replied, "Yes?"
She couldn't quite describe it, but his voice was cast with a strange quality that hadn't been there before. He had seen her just now, she knew. Was Gin - was Gin afraid of her?
"Take the food and give it to your crew mates. You don't mind, right?"
Gin said nothing, but the rasping of a sack and the clump of his boots across the deck was sufficient answer. Shaking off her own perturbed state, Luffy brought up a grin and turned back to the rest of the restaurant.
"Sorry," she laughed, eyes crinkled closed. "I got a little angry."
The noirette startled when the hilt of a sword tapped sharply against her forehead, and her eyes flew open to see that Zoro had swiftly moved from his perch all the way across the restaurant to stand behind her instead.
"A little angry," her first mate drawled back, mouth in a sarcastic smirk but gaze concerned. "Of course."
"I'm okay, Zoro." He continued to look unconvinced. "Really," she insisted, and after a moment's pause he gave her a slow nod but didn't lift his heavy scrutiny.
For once, Patty's angry shouts were a very welcome distraction. "Are you satisfied with yourself, Sanji?! Once those pirates get up their strength, they're going to attack this restaurant!"
Murmurs of agreement reverberated through the air from the other cooks. Sanji only drew back against the large main mast, taking no action to defend himself.
"Hey!" Luffy yelled, stepping around Zoro and into the ship main. "Zeff made that food and I let Gin take it, so why are you only getting mad at Sanji?"
"He's the one who started it all," Patty snapped back. "Giving food to that Krieg pirate and then to Don Krieg himself."
"That's enough," Zeff interrupted lowly.
"Owner, why are you taking Sanji's side? He's just trying to destroy this restaurant that's so dear to you - "
"I bet he wants to use this chance to become the next head chef - "
"Or he's just completely lost it - !"
"Silence, you numbskulls!" Red-Leg Zeff barked, her words like a lash. Whatever cutting words the cooks had left on their tongues dissolved in the face of her wrath. "Have any of you ever been hungry enough to die? Do any of you know how terrifying and painful it is, to be stuck in this ocean, deprived of food and water?"
Zeff and the other cooks had more to say but Luffy wasn't quite paying attention anymore, rather contemplating what was taking Krieg so long. Her Gatling wasn't enough to take the guy down, she knew that already, but for some reason he wasn't coming out of his ship. Probably, she thought, he was gathering his forces to press the advantage of numbers - and now that he had an inkling of her abilities he was likely to be thinking of a plan. He was the type for that.
Unfortunately for him, she had a better idea of his arsenal than he did hers.
Krieg could probably tell that speed and flexibility made up a large part of her fighting style, especially with her build. He hadn't had a good look at the stretching of her arms but he would suspect something about the way she had managed to keep punching him even despite the distance. Gatling had only been successful because of how unexpected the attack had been, otherwise he'd have brought out the spiked cape to make her bleed.
With respect to the weaknesses of his armor, Krieg's head and neck and collarbones were unprotected, as were the insides of his elbows and upper arms. Behind the knees would also be a weak point, as she'd already seen him kowtowing. She wasn't sure if he'd lined all of the rest of his legs, but she didn't put it past him to have shielded his crotch too.
The pirate's normal guns were nothing, but his stake machine gun would be troublesome, as would his exploding spear. Due to its limited range, the morning star wouldn't be too much of an issue as long as she avoided it, but the little bombs and shuriken that he had would be annoying to handle. And that gas bomb would have to be dealt with.
Basically, her plan of action was to deal with everything as it came.
It was a very good plan in her opinion. She felt better prepared already.
As did the chefs of Baratie, apparently, since they were all facing the open doors of the restaurant with oversized cutlery for weapons and looking mightily determined.
"Here they come," someone said grimly, as if anyone could miss the roar of stampeding feet. "Brace yourselves! This ship is our restaurant!"
"Move it, you damn cooks!" the first pirate to board bellowed - and then the Dreadnaught Sabre fell to pieces behind him.
"WHA..."
"WHAT?!"
Baratie went into another uproar, even Zeff falling into shock from the sight of an enormous galleon ship seemingly being torn into pieces and sucked into a sudden vortex. Zoro's eyes were blown wide and Sanji's mouth had fallen open a little and even she was taken aback by this spectacle of strength - it was one thing to read it, to know it was coming, but to see it first hand was just - though she managed to chuckle at the mass of hilarious faces surrounding her anyway.
Luffy tried to adjust her weight as the deck bucked under her but only managed to keep balance by grabbing onto her first mate, who stood steady in the chaos.
"Raise the anchor!" Zeff roared, springing into action. "Or our ship's gonna get pulled under!"
The restaurant exploded into a flurry of movement as the cooks rushed to do as their employer bid. "Yes ma'am!"
Zoro kept his dilated eyes trained on the galleon falling to shambles in front of them as he noted, "How convenient that you sent Merry away earlier. And far enough to avoid this whirlpool."
There was no accusation in his voice, but still Luffy winced. Her nakama was as sharp as he kept his swords.
"You know how Krieg said five thousand of his crew were killed in a week?"
"I remember."
"Gin told me what happened. All those people were beaten by one guy."
His eyes shot to her in disbelief. "One man?"
"Uh-huh."
"A man that strong... so the Grand Line has someone like that. A monster." As the shock died away, Zoro looked contemplative and seemed to have realized something. "A monster...?" he repeated, as if tasting the words. There was a poignant pause, and then some epiphany appeared to have dawned on him, for he continued, "I think I understand. If it were me, I wouldn't feel completely satisfied if one of my prey escaped either. I would have hunted that man down and destroyed him, just to be thorough. And if anything got in the way, or just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, I would destroy that too. So you knew he'd come - and sent both our least combative crewmates temporarily away from the conflict to avoid it, and give us a potential escape if necessary. That's - " he paused and stared at her with new eyes. "Luffy, that's really something."
Zoro looked terribly impressed with her, but in actuality she was far more impressed with him. Despite his rather horrid sense of direction and single-minded focus, her first mate was very smart indeed. She never would have thought of all that. Of course, this display of intelligence was slightly undermined in that he was wrong about her decision to send Merry away, but she was too relieved with the out he had given her to care in the least. She wasn't even sure how she would have explained herself. Now she didn't need to.
It was odd though, that Zoro thought of himself as a monster. It was even odder still that Zoro's thought processes just so happened to be similar enough to Mihawk's that his explanation for the Shichibukai's actions was probably right on point.
"But, wait," her nakama said. "How are you going to tell those two when it's safe to come back?"
Luffy's face went blank. "Uhhhh..."
"You don't know."
"I hadn't thought that far," she confessed.
Zoro knocked her chin up lightly with his thumb and sighed, but she could see his lips quirking up in the corners anyway. "At this point I don't even know if I'm overestimating you or underestimating you."
"Don't you know? If you don't bother with that kind of stuff, you'll have way more fun - "
A shriek rose up into the air, cutting Luffy off mid-sentence.
"It's him! Don Krieg, it's him! The one who destroyed our fleet! He followed us all the way out here, he's come to kill us all!"
A strangely shaped black dinghy floated past the debris from the Dreadnaught Sabre and into vision of the restaurant. A single black sail furled tightly onto a tall mast, supporting a large black seat that had no other protection from the elements.
Luffy could identify exactly when Zoro became aware of the man sitting upon that solitary throne, could feel the rigid lock of his body, the coiling of his muscles, the sheer anticipation that spired in his heart and wreathed his every exhale. The air around him tasted of something that she could almost recognize, a cocktail of shock and excitement and bloodthirst and a little fear too.
"That's the hawk-eyed man," her first mate breathed. "The greatest swordsman in the world."
Zoro suddenly lurched forward, one foot in front of the other, as if he had lost control over his own body. And then he began to lengthen his stride, crossing broken hull and floating planks with the ease of a man walking on packed dirt as he pressed steadily towards Mihawk. She watched his back and bit down on her knuckle.
Zoro had to do this. This was his decision. It wasn't her place to say anything, or try to stop him out of her own selfish desire to see her friends unharmed.
He had to do this.
Luffy took a deep breath through her nose and forced it out all at once. She relaxed her jaw and absently rubbed at the red indentation her teeth had left against her skin as she watched Zoro confront Mihawk. The rest of the restaurant had congregated onto the exterior deck surrounding Baratie as well, gathered to watch the exchange between the swordsmen. Johnny and Yosaku had pushed through the crowd to stand together at her elbow and both were clearly captivated by the spectacle.
"Aniki..." one of the two murmured.
Luffy remained silent, but she didn't dare tear her eyes away. Both Zoro and Mihawk exchanged words, the former veritably vibrating in place with anticipation and the other gazing forward with a blank face and glowing eyes. Both spoke in low, deep tones and though their voices reverberated in the thick air, she could not hear what either of the swordsmen were saying. Zoro glanced back at her once and shook his head, vehemently insisting on something; Mihawk followed his gaze, looking decidedly intrigued.
Her first mate drew his white sword and though she still couldn't hear him, it was clear as day what he meant by it.
"Fight me."
The Shichibukai smirked and plucked at the cross hanging from his throat, gazing at Zoro with such condescension that even Luffy jerked forward in protest before she caught herself.
"It's your death, fool."
The confrontation began as well as could be expected. Zoro attacked with vicious, vindictive fury and Mihawk used his little knife to disarm, deflect, and otherwise degrade with every word that he spoke.
But -
Even as his body showcased only scorn, even as the few words that spilled from his tongue dripped with disdain, Mihawk's famed eyes remained ever watchful, contemplating the boy throwing himself bodily forward.
And it was only by virtue of such keen scrutiny that both Luffy and Mihawk caught the exact moment the flat of Wado Ichimonji whispered along the furthest corner of the Shichibukai's cloak. The blade did not cut, did not even nick; indeed, there remained no evidence of the brief brush of steel against cloth.
The next moment the Greatest Swordsman's smallest blade drove into Roronoa Zoro's flesh and all eyes were captured by the potentially lethal wound. What had happened the previous moment seemed like nothing in comparison, almost as if the contact had not occurred.
But it had occurred. The two of them, if none other, had borne witness, and both paid such a phenomenon the gravity it was due.
Mihawk pulled short before his blade could plunge into Zoro's heart. Luffy clutched desperately at both Johnny and Yosaku's sleeves and allowed a quick breath to whittle in through her teeth. A full-bodied tremor ran through her bones with the sheer effort needed to keep herself in place. Perhaps the only thing that kept her rooted to logic was the exertion of holding both straining bounty hunters where they stood.
Zoro pressed into the knife and held firm.
"Stupid dumb idiot," Luffy mumbled under her breath, unsure as to whether she was talking about Zoro or herself. She scowled and jerked her head to the side, as if she could tear her eyes away so easily.
"Go get your boat."
"L-Luffy-aneki?" asked Johnny, though his eyes too were glued ahead.
"Your boat. Bring it there," Luffy told them, pointing at the rippling water directly behind Zoro. The both of them hesitated. "Hurry!" she snapped, setting burning eyes on the bounty hunters. They scrambled to do as she bid.
Luffy grit her teeth and forced herself to continue to watch the forging of history.
"If I have to lose, I'd rather die!" her first mate snarled, and though the previous conversation had been too subdued to hear, these words met her ears almost too clearly.
The knife soon returned to its place, and Yoru emerged from its sheath on Mihawk's back. A final interchange of words and Zoro charged forward for the last time, his three swords spiraling through the air in a hypnotic vortex of silver.
The two swordsmen rushed past each other.
Metal screamed loudly against metal.
Steel fell into the sea.
Blood.
Zoro sheathed his only remaining katana and spun to face the encroaching Mihawk with arms spread wide, his entire body left vulnerable to any oncoming attack.
A pulse of frozen time. Zoro's jagged smirk was met with a sharp quirk of lips and a single word.
Yoru sheared the air into two.
Right away Luffy saw that Johnny and Yosaku wouldn't be fast enough. She bit her lip, stricken by the realization that she should have sent them out sooner, she should have been faster about it, because now Zoro would fall into the ocean and there would be no one to catch him.
As Yoru finished its descent and Zoro began his own, Luffy made a split-second decision - she bent her knees, coiled herself tight into her core, agitated the blood running through her veins, and pushed.
"Gear... Second."
A wisp of vapour curled around the plume of Dracule Mihawk's hat as a blur shot over his shoulder. With honed eyes he tracked the flight of the straw hat that had once belonged to his rival, watched its owner stumble a landing and snatch frantically at the falling Roronoa Zoro's haramaki and sword. She caught the boy with her own body and crumpled to the ground with his head cradled in her arms.
"Come on Zoro, wake up for a second. Just one blink, 's all I need..." Tearing off the cloth apron she wore, the girl bent over Roronoa and began to press on the grievous wound across his chest.
"Fear not," Mihawk told her. "That kid is still alive."
Wounds on a back are a swordsman's shame, indeed. In exchange for Roronoa Zoro's courtesy towards him, Mihawk had extended a courtesy of his own – the boy's life.
The girl blinked up at him and grinned. "'Course he is. Zoro won't die from something like this. I just thought he might want to be awake for this next part." She sounded so utterly convinced of her own words that even he, with his keen senses, would have been deceived by her confidence - had it not been for the thin sheen of tears filming her eyes and dewing on her lashes. Feeling his gaze, she reached for her face with pale fingers and scowled when they came away wet. "I know he isn't dead, but I can worry if I want, you - you - you acorn."
"Hmm," Mihawk responded, feeling vaguely amused. "What is your goal, girl?"
"King of pirates," she answered bluntly.
"King?" He smirked and crossed his arms. "That is a foolish dream; you would have to surpass even I, you understand."
"So?" she asked, giving him a glance that seemed to convey a volume of words. Then she stuck her tongue out. "I'll make it happen. Just watch me."
A ragged cough spat wetly into the air.
"L-Luffy..."
"Zoro!" the girl yelped, eyes snapping back down to her lap. Her hands hovered uselessly over Roronoa's face as he laboriously parted his lips and began to speak.
"A...corn...isn't...an...insult...stu-pid..." the boy rasped out. Mihawk could see him struggling to find his sword, fingers scrabbling against splintered wood in search of the hilt.
"Shut up," Akagami's chosen shot back with a weak half-grin, her voice thick with relief. "It is if I say so." She lightly smacked both hands against blooded cheeks in a sort of reprimand.
As his palm fell over the hilt of the Wado Ichimonji, the boy's eyelids slipped closed again.
"...Ow."
Mihawk allowed a single bark of laughter to escape him. If the kid had enough energy to say such ridiculous things, he'd be fine.
"My name is Dracule Mihawk," spoke he, golden gaze intent on the young man with such potential. "It is too soon for you to die, kid. You have much to learn about the world and about your true self. To become stronger you must practice not only your skill, but also your heart. You must become stronger, Roronoa, for no longer how long it will take, I will always be the 'Greatest Swordsman in the World', and I will be waiting for you! Dare to challenge me again, Roronoa Zoro!"
"Dracule Mihawk..." the boy exhaled softly. "...Bet on it."
Slowly, ever so slowly, the other swordsman gripped his remaining sword and drew it from its sheath. The rest of his body shook from the exertion but his sword rose steadily towards the sun and did not waver. "Luffy... you're such a crybaby." Roronoa gave a strangled chuckle and blood dribbled down his jaw. "Even though I already knew you would... I'm sorry... for making you cry over me. If I can't become an Invincible Swordsman... you'll only cry more, huh?" Another grisly cough wracked his body but still he pressed on. The girl said nothing, only watched the drip of his tears with a dawning smile. "From now on... I won't lose to anyone ever again! Until I can defeat that man and become the Greatest Swordsman! I swear it... Never again will I be defeated!"
A stillness pressed upon the lungs of all witnesses. The sea pulsed once in acknowledgment of this oath. Mihawk found himself smiling wide and did nothing to quell the loud show of emotion.
"Do you have any problems, future Pirate King?"
"Nope!" replied the so-called 'future Pirate King', with a grin that split her face wide and crinkled her nose.
A sort of warmth burned from within her, and Mihawk took this chance to properly assay the child Akagami no Shanks had chosen as not only his own successor, but also the successor of the late Pirate King - because that worn, frayed straw hat was a claim, a crown, and a promise.
It said, I hold this one in high regard.
It said, I trust this one not to bring shame to my name.
It said, I have faith that this one will make me proud.
Most importantly, it said, I believe in this one.
And wasn't that quite the interesting picture to be painting? Akagami had returned to the New World without his signature straw hat ten years ago, when this girl would have been but a young child. What an impression she must have made, for Akagami to have named her a worthy heir to the throne at such an age. It was entirely up to the girl to claw her way up to that exalted title of King, but Shanks had put his conviction in the success of this one child in particular, and that told a story all of its own.
She was small, this girl, and thin-boned. Her wrists and ankles seemed too easy to bend, too easy to break, and Mihawk could almost understand why Don Krieg now watched her as a predator would its prey.
But he understood much more intuitively how she had brought such a wild dog as Roronoa Zoro to heel.
Only fools believed that size gave a weapon power. Perhaps Yoru gave his words the appearance of irony, but in his hands, the tiny blade hanging from his throat was just as dangerous as any O Wazamono grade Meito. It was the skill of the wielder that truly coaxed out the power of a weapon.
And thus, whereas others may see this girl as something fragile and easily shattered, Mihawk saw something far different. In that slim body he heard the sharp crack of a whip, the whisper of a blade cutting through mountains.
This stagnant world was far due for a bit of a churning, after all. Yes, she was still weak, but one day she would come into her own... and wouldn't that be quite the sight to behold?
So he would await her arrival in Grand Line along with this boy, this young man who swore such fervent allegiance to Akagami's chosen. He held the sort of fire that would scald everything in his path if fostered to its fullest potential, and though the boy may have been almost brutish in his mannerisms, in the way he bore himself against the world, he was not without skill or discipline. He carried the fortitude and pride that this path necessitated, but most of all, he had that indomitable spirit.
And if Akagami could pick and choose favourites amongst the rookies, then he would not hesitate either. And though his mark was not quite as conspicuous, not quite as prominent, it would serve its purpose, would remind Roronoa of his drive with every ache and burn.
Perhaps it would truly take years upon years, but Mihawk was nothing if not patient.
He could wait.
AN
FOUR MONTHS I SOWWY
NO KILL TORA PLS
ILY
The first part of this chapter was just ajsdkjfaksdF? because I had a hell of a time trying to continue this chapter after the whole punching Krieg in the face thing. Guh.
Haramaki - Zoro's green sash thingy.
"Wounds on a back are a swordsman's shame". Unlike popular translation, this doesn't mean that having wounds on his back would be Zoro's shame - it means that striking someone's back would be Mihawk's shame. So actually Zoro was considering Mihawk's pride when he said this, even though getting slashed across the front would in most likelihood be more fatal for Zoro.
I've been sitting on this one chapter for ages, and I'm so sick of it; I can't stand to read it over for errors. If I made any offensive spelling or syntax errors here, I'd love to know so I can fix them asap. It'd be great if the first few readers could alert me about whatever I missed during writing.
Reviews (woah, it's been awhile since I've done this)
Trololololololol: I AM NOT BLUSHING. DON'T THINK THAT MADE ME HAPPY, YOU BASTARD! / (ajskdfadfkjsdfthankyousomuchilu)
Animefreak1145: Thanks for your long review, you really made my day! And you gave me an idea for the 500 follower thing (though it's 600 now) :3
Everyone I haven't responded directly to: THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEWS YOU GUYS ( -aggressively throws hearts at everyone- x) Even if I don't say anything, I read reviews the very moment they ding into my email inbox, and I love every single one of them.