-1 Two hours elapsed before Roronoa Zoro opened his eyes again. His position hadn't changed from the last time he awoke. His katana were gone, and two blue doe-like eyes bore into his face once more. At first, he thought it was déjà vu. He was pretty ready to wager that once again, as he opened his mouth to speak, he would get no reply from the seemingly mute female hovering over him.

"Whe-" his lips formed the syllables, only to be cut off by a somewhat deeper, masculine voice that caused him to shudder.

"Where are you?" came Hart's reasonably cautious tone. The wounded sailor who had proved violent earlier was far too close to his only nakama for the merman's comfort. Still, she couldn't be dissuaded from leaving his side. It irked the mermish outcast quite a bit. In fact, his bodily language might have even betrayed a flash of his concern.

Zoro's eyes flared for a moment, startled at the communication that had taken its sweet time in coming.

"Yeah, that." he said, visibly relaxing. His fists that had been balled before untangled themselves, revealing open hands.

Blinking his tired eyes, Hart shrugged. In a twist of irony, he knew EXACTLY where they were. What eluded him was the ability to explain it to this human. They were near the darkened wreck, equidistant to two reefs, and at least three days away from the nearest island. On that note, he really didn't know the name of the island either, but he knew that the two of them bought groceries there about a week beforehand. The shopping trip had turned into quite an adventure, too, but that was irrelevant to their location. Helplessly, he looked at his female counterpart. She pantomimed something with callused hands, and he groaned.

"I'll go get the map. It'll only take a second." the lionfish-man mumbled, not taking his eyes off Zoro. In the span of thirty milliseconds, Hart managed to make the largest nonverbal threat he had ever made to anyone in his reasonably short life. 'If you touch her, you're dead. Then, after you're dead, I'm going to hunt down everything you hold dear and destroy it'.

Zoro tensed. He might not have understood the death glare word-for-word, but he got the general gist of it. Noticing that Hart was waiting for a response, the former pirate hunter gave a curt nod. With that, Hart stormed out of the room as quickly as he had entered. This just left the silent chick. Akward silence reigned.

Having nothing better to do, Zoro studied his hostess for a second. His eyebrow quirked a little when he noticed she was staring back. It wasn't quite scrutinizing, and he inwardly thanked his luck that she wasn't checking him out, either. Her eyes were just there, boring into him.

"…What?" he finally asked, knowing full well that she wasn't going to answer his question. He was almost smug over the fact.

"Treasure." she said in a voice that sounded far more normal than anything he would assume could come out of the oddity's mouth. It startled him. It made him irritated. Between the two, it did the latter more. A bead of sweat fell down his forehead from this new chain of events. Once again, silence reigned.

"Treasure." came that voice again, this time grating into his nerves. Wasn't she supposed to be mute? In the heat of the moment, he almost said something vulgar, but was interrupted by a loud sound. A rather voluminous one, at that.

It was the sound of a fart. Not just any fart, either. No, this was the Grand Line, filled with mystery and intrigue. If it could be said, the sound that just ensued was an 'ultra' fart. Thunderous and loud, it caused Zoro to flinch for what must have been the fourth time that day. A horrible fume filled the air. The female sitting next to him didn't even bother reacting, like this was a normal occurrence. What had he gotten himself into?

"Found it!" came a muscular voice from above, accompanied by the sound of a drawer slamming. There was no sound insulation in the boat, Zoro then noted. He'd have to be careful if the two ended up being his enemies, or worse… if they found his wanted poster.

Hart's thunderous footsteps went down some stairs, and then abruptly came to a halt before the open door.

"We're near F!" he shouted, excited at his accomplishment. It was quite a contrast to Zoro's reaction, which ranged somewhere between questioning the merman's literacy, and wondering where the hell his nakama were.

"F, huh?" Zoro asked apathetically.

Silence once again took over, the sound of the waves presiding over it all.

"TREASURE!" the anonymous female shouted once again, this time causing BOTH her male companions to flinch. Hart's eye twitched, but soon was replaced with a sort of anticipation. It'd been a while since his little wealth detector said it with such conviction The girl's finger slowly rose, indicating the location of the item she'd been speaking of. Hart held his breath, and Zoro swore inwardly. She was pointing at him. Tensely, the pirate waited for the epiphany, the loud conclusion that the two were going to turn him in; or for her to pull a poster out of her belt, or something. The something didn't come, leaving a very bewildered swordsman baffled and a tad disappointed in his lack of ability to predict things..

Hart wore a very puzzled expression. Was the man holding jewels? He didn't seem especially important. In fact, he just seemed like a face that the fish man had seen around town. She'd never failed him before, though. Then, some idea dawned on him.

"Oh! The treasure is that way!" he said, almost like a placating elder sibling. Zoro let out an audible sigh of relief at this, causing Hart to look at him suspiciously. The girl grinned, nodding slowly.

With that, Zoro stood up, his patience with the situation diminishing. Of all the people he had to be rescued by, it had to be a mental couple of divers. The girl was probably brain damaged from being underwater too long. Pfft.

"Listen… could you guys just drop me off at the next island? I have some business to take care of." he said, crossing his arms. He had to find the Going Merry, for one, and…

"Um… sure." Hart murmured. He was pretty sure that rescues didn't usually turn out like that, but it wasn't as if he enjoyed the other male's company.

"…Who are you, anyway?"

That caught Zoro off guard. He considered a moment before deciding to use an alias. It never escaped his lips, though, because right then, Ms. Mute decided to yell again.

"Zoro!"

Hart jumped, looking apprehensively from the man he now recognized from his posters, and then to his human counterpart. Three words came to mind. Whose mind it came to is still being discerned, but they became the closing words to the chapter.

'WHAT THE HELL?'