A/N: No, I am not dead. Though my ghost would probably tell you all if I was. I apologize for the month long update, but midterms are coming around and I can't risk my dad's belt for the fourth year in a row. Also I'm renaming this story "The Relapse Effect," cause I think it fits the story parameters better lol.
Chapter 3: Past History Time Changes
"Sit boy!"
The dog barked in response and sat down. It wagged its tail happily as Luffy ruffled his head. Throughout the party, Luffy and his crew met with each and everyone of the villagers, all praising them for their help.
"He's a good boy, isn't he?" the shop owner said as he scratched his dog. The dog let out a growl in satisfaction. "The name's Henry and I own the pet food store across town! I came to thank you guys for saving our village!" the man said as he introduced himself. "Meet my partner in crime, Shushu!"
Zoro let out a rare smile. The man had survived his disease in this timeline, and his bright personality gravitated smiles all around him. Luffy reached his hand out.
"Shake, boy!"
Shushu did as Luffy said and held out his paw.
"Good boy! Well nice to meet you, old man, but we've got to get going!" Luffy said as he began walking away. Henry hummed happily in response.
"You know, out of all the pirates I've met in my long life, you guys are definitely the best!"
Luffy chuckled. "You know it, old man!" He tossed some of his meat where Shushu sat.
The dog picked it up, paused, then dropped it.
"Woof!" it called out, and Luffy turned around to face the panting dog.
"Yeah, you be strong too, Shushu!" Luffy responded with a smile. After a final farewell, the group headed back to town.
"Wow, I never thought you could get along with animals so well," Nami commented.
"I'm not surprised. They're practically from the same species," Zoro added on, and Luffy pouted.
"Hey! The love of meat is universal!"
Zoro held his hands up in defence as they continued walking down the dirt path towards the party.
"So you guys are pirates, huh?" Nami asked, catching their attention.
"I wonder what gave that away," Luffy smirked sarcastically.
"Well the old man was onto something. Pirates aren't usually this nice. You guys are more like Marines."
"Ew," Luffy and Zoro said in unison. Nami chuckled.
"That means you'll be headed to the Grand Line, right? To find the One Piece?"
"This guy right here is the next Pirate King," Zoro said, catching both Nami and Luffy's attention. Zoro said it with such finality that even Luffy was a little surprised
"Confidence in your Captain, huh?" Nami smirked. "That's wonderful, but neither of you can navigate, let alone walk in a straight line without getting lost."
Luffy and Zoro flatly denied this.
"Well, as gratitude for helping me free this town, I think I can help you navigate the seas of the Grand Line… but I have a fee of 20 million berries for each island we land on."
"That much?" Luffy exclaimed.
"Hey, you're paying for quality. There's no better navigator in the East Blue than me!" she huffed out in pride.
"I guess the chance to draw that World Map is not enough of a reward, huh," Zoro remarked absentmindedly, which he regretted instantly.
Nami was stunned and her mouth was wide agape, while Zoro silently cursed himself for letting that slip.
"What... what was that?..." she asked.
Luffy, noticing his first mate in trouble, spoke up for him. "Oh that? We can just see it in your eyes, Nami. The drive to explore every crack and crevice that this world has to offer."
He held out his hand. "Your dream acknowledges Raftel as the endpoint, but that's not a problem to us. You're not going to find another crew that will sail as far as we will."
Zoro was as surprised as Nami. Luffy had just pulled that out of him and as Nami's eyes met his, there was no hesitation or doubt that could be seen. Just confidence.
Nami, for her part, didn't know how to respond. "I'll… have to think about your offer, Luffy," she said as she walked ahead of them into the town. Luffy didn't stop her, he just shrugged.
"We'll set sail tomorrow morning. Sleep over the idea, and let us know by the docks."
"Thanks, Luffy," she said as she bid them farewell. This left Zoro staring at Luffy intently.
"What?"
"Where the hell did you pull that one from?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "Instinct, I guess. Well I'm going to join the party!" he said as sprinted to the nearest bonfire.
This left Zoro in deep thought. The "Pirate King" persona was merging with his latest reincarnation. Sooner or later, his captain would have all his memories back and would become a force of nature that could crush nations on a whim. Well, that was unless someone got all 4 Emperors involved.
But that could easily be solved if the rest of the crew got stronger as well. At their peak, the Straw Hats required the full force of the world to take them down. The idea that they were even stronger this time made their defeat seem unfathomable.
Once again, it all came down to being prepared.
Zoro was never the social type. Sure, he would party with his Nakama if there was something to celebrate, but he usually stayed out of the limelight. This is why he was training in isolated dockyards of the island with a bottle of sake in his hands.
He took a swig and sent another wind slash careening across the waves. His strength was definitely returning, but his armaments were still at his pre-New World level. His observation worked fine, but his body was too weak for him to maneuver like he used to. After all, Observation haki was useless if you're too slow to dodge. Physical training was what he needed to get back into shape.
And maybe he could meditate more? Try to get his preemptive observation back? The options he had were endless.
Then there was this whole thing about his new sword. He wondered how he ended up with it, and what happened to Wado Ichimonji. Zoro slowly unsheathed his black bladed sword and felt the familiar aura it gave off.
"What exactly are you?" Zoro asked his sword, who rumbled it response.
"I think I can help you with that, Onii-chan,"
Zoro turned around and met the eyes of the familiar child. She waved at him with a huge grin on her face.
"Hi, Zoro!"
"Hana," he said.
"You picked it up from a wandering swords merchant after leaving the dojo. Well, after that nasty incident with Kuina." This caused Zoro's eyes to perk up.
"What happened to Kuina? Is she dead?"
Hana waved it off, deciding to sit on a nearby rock. "Nah, she's fine in this timeline. Has great friends, a loving family… a strained relationship with you, everything!" she tacked on.
Zoro groaned. "What did I do?"
"Remember that promise about being the greatest swordsman ever? Yeah, that still happened. About a week later, you left to enter bounty hunting. Said it was the only way you could get stronger at that point."
"An 8 year old boy leaving to fight off pirates, huh? I guess I must have been pretty brave to start this early."
"How old are you now, Zoro?"
"19."
"And that's the problem. Before you left, she made you promise to come back after 5 years so that the 2 of you could test each other again."
Zoro's eyes widened as Hana continued.
"Either that terrible sense of direction got you lost or something, but guess who thinks you're the biggest coward on the 7 seas because you didn't come back"
"So Kuina hates me because she thinks I'm a coward?"
"Extra hates you. It's been 10 years, Zoro. Imagine the look on her face when she sees you again." Zoro sighed.
"Anyways, back to the sword," Hana said. "I have no clue what that thing is, but that…" she pointed to the sword, "... is crazy powerful. Damn, I could even feel it from the original timeline."
Zoro sheathed his sword at that point. The heavy aura that came with it disappeared.
"I don't know if you've realized this, but given your experience, and swordsmanship already, that thing puts you on par with an Admiral basically."
"I'll be even stronger in this timeline if I train, is that what you're saying?"
Rather than responding to Zoro's question, Hana flipped around and hung upside-down on the rock. "You never got the hang of the 3 Sword Style in this timeline. You can still try it if you want, but this version of you uses the 1 Sword Style."
Zoro hummed in thought. He took a few moments to process everything that Hana said. He was going to be on another level in this timeline, not that he wasn't planning to be anyways. He needed to protect his Nakama this time after all.
"Oh, before I forget," Hana said as she sat upright again. "You can try using your "original" attacks instead of these basic moves you mastered 20 years ago. I'm pretty sure your new sword can handle the stress."
Zoro took another drink from his sake bottle and set it down near a tree stump. He stepped towards the water's edge and his hand slowly traced towards the hilt of his sword.
"One Sword Style: Continent Splitter."
He felt a surge of power transfer from his body to his weapon and the waves rocked with the sheer power of the strike. A colossal blade of wind was produced and flew into the distance as Hana jumped for cover.
"What the hell are you doing, you dingnut!?" Hana shouted as the waves calmed down. "Are you trying to split the Red Line or something?!"
Zoro merely chuckled. "I didn't think I could pull that off this early."
Hana puffed and sat back down. "Honestly, I think you may have destroyed a few islands back there. Anyways, I'm glad no one saw anything."
"Uh…." came a sudden voice behind them.
Zoro and Hana turned to see the former's captain, holding 2 skewers with a dumbfounded expression on his face. Well, only one as the other was dropped to the ground in shock, but neither party averted their eyes.
Zoro was the first to speak. "How long were you standing there?"
"5 minutes..." Luffy responded, his mouth still wide-open. "I… uh… got us some food, and I thought you might want some, but then… uh… that happened…"
Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose as he groaned out loud. That meant his captain saw everything. He didn't come early enough to know about his past, but hell. How was he going to explain that flying blade attack to him? The concept of the attack hadn't hit them until Water 7, but by then all the crazy stuff that had happened made wind slashes pretty easy to digest.
But now he was dealing with a naive, go-lucky version of his captain who wasn't even close to seeing the world yet.
As Zoro thought things over, his Luffy picked up the dropped skewer nonchalantly, then preceded to continue eating it. "Alright then…we'll save that part for later. Who's the girl?" Luffy asked.
Hana thinking quickly, ran up to Zoro and hugged his leg. "Thank you so much for saving our village, Onii-chan! Please visit us again in the future!"
With that, Hana skipped away towards the village. That left both Luffy and Zoro standing in awkward silence.
"So, listen…" Zoro attempted to begin. He wasn't sure how to start explaining everything, but he was suddenly stopped by his captain. Zoro finally took notice of the object that Luffy unstrapped from his back. Zoro felt surprise for what felt like the fifth time today as Luffy held out a sheathed sword.
"I asked the shopkeeper for this. That wind blade thing that you just did. I want to learn it."
Zoro looked deep into Luffy's eyes, searching for any type of hesitation. His captain was serious about this.
"You want me to teach you how to use a sword?"
This came out as more of a statement, then question, but the resounding "yes" that he heard was one brimming with conviction that his captain showed in a rare few instances. Zoro walked to the tree stump where he set his sake bottle and finished it.
"Well, then captain. I hope you don't plan on doing anything else tonight," he said as he unsheathed his own sword as well.
Luffy grinned.
"Let's get started…"
Luffy's body ached. No really. It ached. When Zoro accepted his offer, Luffy kind of expected some sparring, katas, maybe hack a few trees here and there if Zoro was drunk enough. But this was humiliating.
"Every time you twitch, I'll hit you. That simple." Zoro said as he slapped Luffy's leg with a stick, moving it back into position. Zoro had him hold a basic swordsman stance throughout the night.
"Your stance is the most fundamental element of your swordsmanship, period." Zoro lectured as he slapped Luffy's sword arm back into position, who let out an "ow." "All of your attacks, defences, and movement stems from your stance. You fuck it up, and the scales will tip faster than you can blink."
Luffy grumbled, but was only hit by Zoro's stick once again. "How the hell are you hurting me with a stick? I'm made of rubber!"
"It's called the Haki colour of arms. I'll tell you about it lat- What the fuck did I say about not moving?!" Zoro shouted as Luffy was hit again.
Luffy let out a small whimper like a puppy that had just been kicked. His body may have been bruised all over, but he didn't bother to check. If he looked around, Zoro would only add another to his already darkened skin. The sun was rising steadily, which meant he had only another 5 minutes to go.
"God, if this wasn't training, I would have pegged you guys for watching one too many explicit videos," a female voice said with a giggle.
"Hi Nami! You're ba-" Luffy was struck down by Zoro before he could even finish the sentence.
"Well the sun's coming up anyways, I think I can let you go early." This lead to a loud cheer from Luffy as he stood up and dusted himself off.
"So miss treasure hunter, thought about our offer?"
"You guys don't seem so bad, and I can't refuse with everything that you guys have done for me."
This lead to another loud cheer from Luffy, which Nami expected, but emotionless reaction from Zoro wasn't. It was as if he knew she would join regardless. Or that he simply didn't care. Zoro's voice brought her back to reality.
"Welcome to the Straw Hat Pirates, then. As a general rule, we keep the captain away from the compass." Zoro said with a smile and a hand held out.
Maybe she really was just overthinking things. Nami returned the smile and firmly shook Zoro's hand.
The three were suddenly interrupted as Village Chief Bodum appeared sprinting to the group. "I figured I'd find you youngsters here. I want to see the swordsman for a second, is that alright?"
Zoro nodded as he stepped forward. "What is it, Chief?"
"Come to the village square. Buggy wants to talk to you,"
Zoro cast an eye over to Luffy and Nami who were both chatting amicably with one another, before turning back to Bodum.
"Lead the way."
"Roranoa Zoro," the Clown spoke as Zoro approached the separated body bundled up in rope. "You and me. Man-to-man, please."
Zoro nodded to Bodum, who understood and left the 2 alone.
"Alright, let's get the cat out of the bag. Who are you exactly?" Buggy asked.
That threw Zoro for a loop, but Buggy pressed on.
"I may not look like it, but I am one of the few people in history who set foot on Raftel. I've sailed the seas long enough to know crazy when I see it."
"What do you want to know?"
"I'm wondering why would a pirate who can easily take down Admirals is still in the East Blue. Not only that, he decided to follow under someone else. Lay the truth on me, I can take it."
Zoro sighed. He saw no reason to lie. Buggy could easily tell if he did.
"I'm from another timeline. And the man I'm following is the captain who hasn't realized it yet."
"Explains," was Buggy's response. "Listen, you have an otherworldly spark surrounding you, and whether he realizes it or not, so does your captain."
Zoro let his words sink in.
"I normally wouldn't do this, but I know the future King when I see him. Take my nose off."
"What?"
"Take my nose off," Buggy repeated and Zoro did what the clown said.
As Zoro did, it revealed a folded piece of paper inside.
"You've made it deep enough in the Grand Line to know what a Vivre Card is, right?"
Zoro nodded. He suddenly heard a loud horn coming from the docks and saw a marine vessel approaching.
"These guys are probably going to take me to Impel Down, but I have a plan to break free in a week or so. My crew and I will be in Loguetown by then. My number's written there as well. Give me a call when you can."
As Buggy finished, Marines began disembarking their ship. An officer, from what Zoro could guess, approached the duo.
"Roranoa Zoro the bounty hunter, correct?"
Zoro nodded. So this squad didn't know that he was a pirate yet. He wasn't about to correct them either way.
"Were you the one who took down Buggy the Star Clown?"
"Yes, I am," Zoro responded.
"Very well, then," the officer responded and a junior marine returned seconds later with a large bag of berries. "The bounty on the head of Buggy the Star Clown of 15 Million Berries, paid to the order of Roranoa Zoro for apprehending him," the officer said procedurally.
The officer then pulled out a bingo booklet and handed it to Zoro. "Mark it off."
Zoro reached into his green haramaki and pulled out a red permanent marker that he reserved for times like this. Taking the booklet into his hand, he crossed an "x" on the portrait of Buggy. He then took a small knife and carved 3 horizontal lines onto the page, his signature. With the formalities done, he handed the booklet back to the officer.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Zoro," he said as the booklet was exchanged for the bag of berries.
Zoro left without saying a word, but cast another eye at Buggy as the Marines loaded him onto their ship. He had a good feeling when they were going to meet again.
When he had returned to his Nakama, he noticed there were several villagers awake to see them off.
"Thanks for everything, guys!" Luffy shouted as he began to load the gifts that the villagers brought to see them off. Similar to last time, Luffy and Nami agreed to leave some of Buggy's treasure for the town. In return, the villagers brought them whatever they thought would help them on their journey.
The gifts ranged from food from the local farmers, to beads and charms from several village elders. A surprising gift was the donation of several cannons and swivel guns from the armoury, who had claimed they had enough weapons to fend off future attacks.
An enormous shout caught their attention.
"WAAAAAAIT!" they heard Village Chief Bodum shout as the elderly man sprinted down before the anchor was raised.
He tossed a small case of sorts at Zoro who caught it with a look of curiosity.
"It belonged to my father before he passed away. I have no idea what it is or how it works, but please take it on your journey! You youngsters will probably find it more useful than I ever will!"
"Thanks, old man!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs. "Let's set sail!" The ship sailed off amidst loud cheers, the rest of the village waking to see them off. This gave Zoro the opportunity to look inside the gift from the old man.
Zoro chuckled, he didn't think they'd get their hands on one this early. Nestled inside the the chest was a three-pronged Log Pose.
A/N: If you don't know what the three-pronged log pose is, check out the end of the Fishman Island Arc. Will save me the explaining.
Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you're all ready for another month long update! Ciao!