Chapter 2

Roronoa Zoro, now Okubo Zoro, woke up several months after his birth in this new world. The first thing he did was attempt to begin training. Of course, as he was a baby with next to no muscle and a lack of coordination it didn't work that well.

It wasn't so bad though, being a baby. Yeah, the food was terrible and he could barely move, not to mention diapers, but the person he began to recognize as his mother (and wasn't that new) was kind. She sang to him, fed him, changed his diaper, and did all of it without any help.

Zoro figured that either his mother had him without getting married, or his father was dead. It didn't really matter to him much, unless of course someone had broken his mother's heart. She deserved the best, not getting her heart broke.

His opinion was not being influenced by the fact that he had seen her cleaning a clearly high quality katana while she sang him to sleep.

Either way, Zoro knew that he'd have to start training as soon as he was capable again. Death had told him that he was supposed to help some brat called Percy Jackson complete his destiny. Something about titans or giants… eh he'd figure it out eventually. All that he was really supposed to do was fight a whole lot of people and teach some kids how to fight with a sword.

An evil grin lit up the face of an otherwise innocent seeming baby at the thought of the tort-training, a baby with oddly natural green hair. He'd really startled his mother when she saw his hair color. However she did get over it very soon, something about Zoro's father…

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Life didn't really get interesting very much until far later. Yeah, Zoro trained as well as he was able to, but it didn't really go anywhere for the first several years, it did serve to make his mom happy… and for some reason caused her to coo at him like he was adorable. He wasn't cute. Still, she let him look at her sword, Yoarashi, which was a very good katana. A little bit bloodthirsty, but Yoarashi really liked his mom and worked well with her.

His mother, to her eternal exasperation, also seemed convinced that he kept on getting lost. Zoro though, was adamant in claiming that the rest of the world just liked to move around when he wasn't watching it. This just earned his mom becoming extremely paranoid in trying to make sure that she always knew where he was.

How a toddler managed to get all the places Zoro did, his mother would never know.

But other than learning to live with the woman, his Mother, known as Ririko Okubo life was extremely boring in the toddler years.

However, it was on the day that Zoro turned five and his mother took him to her family's dojo for the first time, that life began to get interesting again. While he lived in a place called America now and spoke in a new language, his mother also spoke in his old language which was now called Japanese. She claimed that she was a Japanese American and that she wouldn't let him forget where he came from as she 'taught' him her language. Zoro didn't mind though, but America was interesting, he had to admit. It could be easy to forget some parts of the past if you weren't reincarnated from a place that spoke the language of your new ancestors.

Zoro looked around the dojo, very interested in this new place. It seemed like a good dojo, almost like his old one from when he was a kid the first time. Many different weapons were hanging on the wall, including some decent katanas.

"Hey, kid, you Riri-nee's brat?"

Zoro looked over, mildly impressed the man had snuck up on him even in his child form. The man looked a lot like his mother, with the same spiky black hair and dark eyes. While he'd kept his old hair color, his eyes now looked like his mother's.

A hand came out of nowhere and smacked the man upside the head. The hand was attached to Zoro's mother, Okubo Ririko. "Of course he's my kid, little brother. Now be nice to your nephew," she scolded him.

The man leaned down and grinned at him. "Hey kid, I'm your uncle Satoshi," a bit of mischief lit his eyes, "So, since I finally get to meet you, do you see anything that's caught your eye?"

Immediately Zoro pointed to the katanas on the wall, "I want to learn how to fight with a katana."

Ririko gave a smug look to her brother, "I told you he'd take after me."

Satoshi just grinned, "Well, I suppose there was always a good chance he'd be like you and just know exactly what he wants the moment he walks in here. Well, kid, I'm sure you'll be a natural. After all, there is nothing else an Okubo could be."

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Four years after he'd first gone to the family dojo, and Ririko was finally letting him use a third sword. Apparently in this world more than two swords was never really used by anyone.

Zoro had been practising, and even if this world seemed to have a lower baseline of strength that wouldn't stop him from regaining everything he had worked for in his old world. Because even though he had become the World's Greatest Swordsman on his last world, in this new world he was starting over.

It sounded like a lot of fun.

However, what was not fun was going to school. Zoro already knew what he wanted to be when he got older, and it didn't require learning about algebra. Yes, reading and writing was important in life, but a lot of the stuff the teachers taught was useless to him.

So all the teachers knew that Zoro didn't really want to be there. And since the teachers didn't really like him because he didn't even try, the other kids would try and pick on him because he didn't have that protection.

Not that they succeeded. Being a swordsman, even one limited by a young body, was very helpful in that regard.

It was at ten years of age that Zoro found his first friend in his new world, the person he was supposed to help, Percy Jackson.

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It was a new school year, and Zoro had had too move to a different school. The principal had refused to allow him back after he'd left behind a mess of traumatised teachers with sharp blade phobias. The guy had even called his mother to 'talk' about his behavior, of course she'd just coolly looked at the guy before calmly leaving with him to go back to the dojo. When she announced what Zoro had done to all his teachers to the rest of the family, they'd thrown a party. Uncle Satoshi had loudly proclaimed how proud he was of his little nephew. Apparently traumatising the teachers was a right of passage for the Okubo family.

That night, Zoro found all three of his swords, Wado Ichimonji, Sandai Kitetsu, and Shusui, lying on his bed. They all greeted him, same as they'd done in his previous life. It was comforting, hearing the voices of his blades after so long.

"I guess that you guys are all excited as I am to face this world's best, and become greater than them. A whole new world to fight…"

And all of the swords showed their readiness, burning with the desire to best the world again. Wado was glad, because even though Zoro had kept the promise the first time, he would do it again in this new world.

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Zoro left his house to head to his new school. It wasn't that long of a walk, though his mother was right beside him the entire time. She had this odd idea that Zoro would get lost if she looked away for even a second. It wasn't his fault buildings liked to move. He also wasn't allowed to bring weapons to school, as it was apparently illegal, but he'd worked with one of his cousins that specialized in hand to hand to better his mutoryu technique so he'd be able to defend himself if need be.

He was fairly confident that he could take on even the weird monsters that crept around everywhere in this new world without his swords. Or at least the ones that he saw regularly, which seemed to be mostly wimpy and weak. Even going easy on them he couldn't get a fight to last more than a minute.

Though his mom did seem kind of upset the first time he hunted down a monster to fight. Probably because he didn't tell her. She then tried to explain to him about the monsters, but gave up when she realized that he didn't really care.

All that she asked was that he didn't go after the stronger ones, she called them the named ones, until he was older. And while he normally would have ignored anyone who interfered in his quest to become the strongest, for Zoro's mother he was willing to wait until he could train his body to be far stronger.

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Sitting in his new classroom, Ms. Sylvester's class, it looked a lot like Zoro was taking a nap at his desk in the back. However, even though he was dozing Zoro was very much aware of where every single person in the room was. He'd mastered the ability of napping and paying attention to his surroundings a long time ago, first on the Thousand Sunny, and then later during his training with Mihawk.

He waited throughout the first day of class, which was even more boring and useless than every other class day, for school to end so that he could go home and practice. At lunch time, when they all had to go outside for recess, he went out and sat under the tree to take a nap. The one thing that school was good for was sleep.

Most of the other kids stayed away, 5th grade being a grade where the kids are far more interested in running around than just napping. It was during his nap that a group of kids Zoro's age surrounded one of the 4th graders near the tree. They mostly seemed to be making fun of the 4th grader because he was new, and a seemingly easier target than Zoro, who was fairly tall and muscular for his age.

Zoro was mostly content with ignoring it, until the 5th graders started to beat the kid up. Admittedly, they weren't doing a very good job of it, but the kid didn't seem like he was very good at defending himself either.

Right as a particularly ugly bully began to punch the kid named Percy Jackson, Okubo Zoro, the World's Strongest Swordsman in his previous life, intercepted the fist.

"Hey," shouted the bully, "what do you think you're doing!"

For the first time inside of the new school, Zoro grinned as he easily defeated some bullies.

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Zoro was waiting outside of the school after class ended, for some reason his mother refused to let him walk home by himself. As he stood there leaned up against the side of the school building, footsteps hesitantly walked towards him.

"Why?" called out a voice, a voice full of the knowledge that it was alone in the world and that no one would help it without asking for something in return. The type of voice that Zoro had heard in his own nakama, heard every time Luffy gained another crewmate. It was the sound of a person who desperately needed someone to shore up the cracks, that needed someone to lean on.

Zoro, even if he hadn't been sent to this world to help this kid, would have helped regardless. Because someone had hurt this kid, people that the kid was powerless to stop, and Zoro… well, if you asked any of his nakama they would say that for all Zoro seems tough, he is a softie for kids.

"Because," Zoro told him.

The kid frowned, "That's a stupid reason."

"Well kid, it's the only one I got. They were weaklings anyway."

The kid actually frowned at that, "How did you get so strong? I mean, you beat up those bullies like it was nothing."

"Look, kid, it was nothing. And I got strong by working hard for it."

Big, hesitant sea-green eyes looked at him. Then, "Can you teach me?"

"What do you have to protect?" At that the kid stared at him incredulously, seeming to ask how Zoro knew that. "No one looks that determined without something to protect, and you seem like the type to ignore your own issues while focusing on others. So, who is it?"

"My mother, Sally Jackson," he said, "She keeps on getting hurt, and I can't do anything to stop it."

"A mother, huh?" Zoro nodded, "I know I'd beat up any scum-bag who dared hurt mine. So, who's the person beating on her?"

Percy Jackson looked scared then determined as Zoro spoke, before he said in a quiet but determined voice, "My step-father, Smelly Gabe."

"You have a deal, Percy Jackson."

It was at that moment that Ririko pulled up to the curb in her car. She looked out, noticing the kid standing next to her son (A kid that wasn't being ignored or beat-up) and said,

"Who's your new friend?"

"Mom," Zoro said looking her in the eye, "This is the kid, Percy Jackson, and I'm going to be teaching him."

And both Okubo's grinned viciously at each other, causing apprehension to fill Percy Jackson's body. 'What have I gotten myself into' Percy wondered.

He really had no idea what kind of hell training the Okubo's were about to put him through.

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It had been a month since Sally Jackson's son had made his first real friend. And while he was happier, was doing better, she was worried. He'd come home from his new friend's house, Zoro's house, covered in bruises and completely wore out. And even though Percy claimed he was fine… well it is a mother's job to look after her son. So Sally decided that she'd go talk to Zoro's mother while the kids were in school.

She didn't have a lot of time, having to walk to the Okubo house between work breaks, and even then she'd probably have to call in late to her retailing job. But for her boy, it was worth it. Anything was worth it.

So she knocked on the front door of decent sized house, and within a minute the door opened. It was a woman, with black spiky hair, and dark eyes, who seemed to be measuring her, or weighing her in some way.

Gathering her courage, Sally Jackson looked straight into the dark, fathomless pools of Ririko Okuba's eyes and said, "Can I talk to you? It's about my son."

Ms. Okuba looked at her for a moment, before nodding, "Come on in, It's Mrs. Jackson, right?"

"Please, call me Sally," said Percy's mother.

"You can call me Ririko," said Zoro's mother.

Looking around, Sally noticed the the inside of the house gave of an oriental feel, but it was also warm and cozy. The people that lived there obviously all cared for each other a lot. Ririko led Sally to her kitchen to begin boiling water for tea, before turning to Percy's mother and motioning for her to ask questions.

"Ririko, I am worried about my son. He keeps on coming home from your house covered in bruises, and I want to know why," Sally told the other woman. Ririko nodded, poured some hot water into two cups, and added teabags.

"My son has decided to teach yours how to fight," Ririko said bluntly, "Which I agreed with, especially when told of the reason he wanted to learn."

"What do you mean by reason?" Sally asked wondering how much a kid only a year older than her son would know about fighting.

"You," Ririko sighed, "Even though the kid gets beat up regularly, the reason that he chose for learning how to fight was to protect you."

Sally was conflicted. Because even though she was proud of her son, she wanted to do things on her own.

"You know," Ririko said, "I get it. Not wanting others to fight for you. I looked into you, trying to see what type of person you were, to make sure that Percy wasn't being abused by both his parents," At this Sally became guilty and kind of mad, she had known that Gabe was a terrible person but she'd thought that he'd mostly left her son alone, "So, here is what's going to happen, Sally. You divorce that jerk, and move out immediately. I'll be happy to have both you and your son staying at my house until you can find a decent apartment. Then, I'll teach you how to fight, so that you'll be able to protect yourself."

Sally choked, "I can't do that, not yet. I don't like Gabe, but for now I need him."

Ririko nodded in understanding with a smug smirk on her lips, "Because your kid's a halfblood, right? Don't worry, my family found a way to cover up the scent a long time ago, or else I'd be a lot more worried about Zoro's habit of getting lost."

"Zoro is…" Sally wondered.

"A halfblood, yeah. Okubo's figured all of it out centuries ago, though"

Sally looked unsure, "What do you mean?"

"Look," Ririko said kindly, "my family is made up of fighters, everyone specializes and finds what they are good at. This has a tendency to attract weird supernatural things, especially since all the best weapons tend to have an element of the weird in them. So, a long time ago we figured out how to hide our auras from various pantheons. It works so long as nothing is looking specifically for you."

"You can hide my son from the monsters."

"And you," Ririko insisted, "So, will you take my offer?"

At Sally's hesitant nod, Ririko's grin widened into the one that she had shown Percy Jackson when he had taken the offer of training. Unconsciously Sally Jackson's thoughts mirrored that of her son, but she was resolved to do the best for her baby, and loved the idea of an option that didn't involve Gabe Ugliano.