Chapter 4 – Zoro's P.O.V-

Luffy launched his arm in my directon, hitting me squarley in the face while Chopper runs in and whack me on one of the injuries that he just healed, sending a huge wave of pain shooting like an electric shock throughout my body. Then a noise ,that was not unlike the snarling the wolves were doing earlier, fills the room. Its only after Nami makes a terrified sob and robin gasps that I realize the source of the sound is me. I'm scaring the people I fight to protect, even Chopper was shaking and his scent told me it wasn't just from fury. wait, his scent?

The others are stood there, silent observers to what is occuring. They're a mess. Even Robin looks shaken up. Which never happens, since she hides her emotions from us, habit I supose. But she hasn't been this emotional since the incident at Enies Lobby. Even though it's just above the breeze I can hear the quiet sobs of Nami and the raised heartbeats of the others. Usopps being the fastest. He's terrified, his scent, body language and pulse says it all. Wait, something definitley isn't right here.

Someone finally speaks. To my suprise, it's Usopp.

"Allow what to happen, guys. What is going on?"

Chopper finally leaves me, expression shadowed by his top hat. The already cold and tense atmosphere becomes alot colder as the other crew memebers wait for the young doctor to tell them what had happened. Luffy, who's arm had retracted, had walked off to join the other crew members to listen to what the usually cute and cheerfull reindeer had to say.

Instead, he turns to me. Expression still hidden under his hat and quietly states

"Are you going to stop hiding and come out or am I going to have to drag you out by your tail?"

"What are you talking about doctor? Mr. Swordsman, what are you hiding?"

Robin speaks after finally regaining some of her composure, but her eyes still betray some of her emotions. The air shifts until a dark aura surrounds the archeologist, a quiet threat directed at me. Man, she can be scary sometimes.

So, i left the room. walking as best as i could with the bite on my leg. Hold on. Heightened senses, tail, bites... OH FUCK NO!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx General Point of View xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Realization, finally, struck the Green haired swordsmans features as he became visible to the other Straw Hats. If things didn't look bad now, it looked a whole lot worse once Zoro limped onto the deck. The bandages wrapped around his torso had torn slightly and they were stained red from where Chopper hit him, his green hair was a little longer, making it more spiky and unruly than usual. Two green ears poked out from the now almost gravity defying hair, wolf ears to be exact. His canines had elongated into sharp, pointed fangs that poked ever so slightly over his bottom lip. While a long, green tail swung out from behind him. But what shocked the others the most was his eyes, the usually stoic expression that was held in the swordman's eyes was replaced by a wild glare that set everyone on edge, the dark orbs that comforted people was gone, replaced by a mad, dark amber, they were nearly red. If he didn't have his swords in his hand, the crew was sure that it would have been nearly impossible to recognise thier friend. The rare hair colour was the giveaway but it was still different. It looked alot thicker. If people thought he looked demonic before his "Change" then they would be certain that he wasn't anything close to a human by now.

Luffy was the one to speak up first, thinking that it was too quiet. Although he was pissed off with his friend for being so stupid, he wanted to know how he managed to get bitten in the first place, he was glad he was alive even if he looked different now. he was still Zoro, his friend and first mate.

"How did you get like that, you look like some sort of animal now. shishishishishi!"

At Luffy's light hearted statement, the others started to relax. Trust thier captain to say something so blatantly stupid, obvious yet take his first mate's,the person he's known the longest out of all of his career as a pirate, fought with side by side, change in his stride so easily. at this, the others went into some sembalence of normality. By insulting thier friend.

"Hey dog breath, looks like someone needs to cut the grass you call hair."

"Stupid love cook, you wanna die!?"

"Now now, you don't want me to put a muzzle on you do ya? It would teach you for not listening to Nami now wouldn't it?"

Sanji was the first to start, being as he thought the shitty swordsman had just the probably the stupidest thing yet. In a long long line of really stupid things he has done in the past. He was still pissed off with him for cutting him off just before they docked at the god-forsaken island. So aswell as completley ignoring Nami's warnings, he went into the woods. Dragging Chopper behind him. So low and behold, they got attacked and both came back covered in blood. Not only was the idiot injured but Chopper was also hurt, however thankfully, the doctor only recieved some scratches. Even if some of them were pretty deep.

"So how did you get like that anyway, and for your information, i'm tripling your debt."

At this, Zoro glared at Nami. Before, she would have been able to match the stare of impending doom but this new, almost mad gaze sent shivers down her spine. It was thriling and affected the other members of the crew. Instead of Zoro answering her question and rising to the bait; it was Chopper who answered her. Most likely to keep the peace;

"He protected me from an attack that had been initiated by two wolves. He vanished for a moment then the next thing I knew, i was on the ground and two of them had sunk thier teeth into his shoulder and leg. But the wierd thing was that his swords were sheathed, why?"

As Chopper was retelling the story, the man in question limped over to the mast and sank to the floor. one of his legs bent and the injured set straight. His three katanas laid on the floor next to him. He waited until everyone noticde he had moved, hoping to get out of answering. When Luffy turned to him, looking uncharacteristically serious.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself, why did you sheath your katanas?"

To him, the answer was simple. He did what he had to do to protect his nakama. He sheathed his swords because he knew that either way, something like this was going to happen. Better him than Chopper, or so he thought.

"Well?"

"The answer is simple. I was just protecting another crew member."

Brook had finally just grasped the situation, after the major shock of seeing his fellow swordsman's change. He thought he appeared even more dangerous than before and it somewhat terrified him, even though he was also not entierly human, he was nothing more than a skeleton already dead and had lived his life.

"Well, in all honesty, i'm so suprised that I think that my eye balls will pop out... wait, I don't have any eye balls for them to pop out! YOHOHOHOHOHO!"

Zoro was somewhat thankful they were ok with the...changes, if thats what you could call them. Nami still appeared to be shaken up and the growl from earlier didn't help. He needed to get a better grip on the whole wolf thing. Training could help with that. Sanji was back to normal, his newly lit cigarette proof of that, while Luffy's endless repitition of the question "can you poop?" gave away the fact that him being ok was a no brainer. Robin had fully pulled herself together and had an inquisitive look on her face, a sign that he was probably going to have a visitor on his watch tonight. Brooke had finally pulled a skull joke, so he was fine. Usopp was telling a story to Chopper about something or other, probably trying to cheer his young friend up after his little ordeal. The only one who hadn't said anything was Franky. In fact, the speedo wearing cyborg was no-where to be seen. No one seemed to notice this. However, the noise coming from the crow's nest-turned-gym was enough indication as to the shipwright's location. Franky was the kind of guy to adjust to different situations ok, but when it came to not getting his own way, he could be pretty childish. In fact, he was one of the most immature members of the crew, minus Luffy, who was still bugging him, Usopp, who had completley captured the attention of Chopper with another one of his elaborate stories. Finally Chopper, who was the youngest member of the crew, so his immaturity was to be expected. Franky not shouting his usual ~SUPER~. This concerned Zoro, maybe everything wasn't as ok as he first thought.