Worst Nightmare

by Sarcasticles

The Straw Hats do, in fact, have things that keep them up at night. Chapter 9: For two years the nightmares persisted. For two years Luffy worked night and day to conquer them. With time they faded, but they never went away entirely. Luffy got the feeling they never would. Now Complete.

5. Zoro

Zoro had nightmares about stairs.

Not literally, of course. To fear something so mundane was ridiculous and unfitting of a man walking down the bloody way of the warrior. Zoro did not quake in terror every time he thought about stairs. Not that he brooded about stairs. Often. Anyone who suggested otherwise would become intimately familiar with the edge of his blade.

He did, however, fear what they represented.

Stairs proved that life wasn't fair. They showed how a dream could be needlessly snuffed out unfulfilled. How sometimes accidents happened, people died, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.

Could Kuina have become the best if given the same chance? Was it possible for Zoro to die that night? Did the same fate that led her to an early grave destine him to a glorious future?

It was probably a good thing Zoro wasn't a superstitious man, otherwise he'd probably dedicate his life to cutting down the asshole who had cheated Kuina out of her chance. But he didn't believe in that kind of nonsense, so he had to settle for making sure the same thing never happened to his crew.

Zoro was not the first mate of the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy had never made such a declaration, and Zoro didn't want that kind of responsibility anyway. But he was their protector, and he even if it meant he gave up his own dream, he would do everything in his power to make sure that history did not repeat itself again.