A change of ships
Chapter 2 Enter Zoro: Pirate Hunter
It had been a year since Zoro had set out to sea again. He had gotton lost countless of times, but he was enjoying himself none the less. He had decided to become a Pirate Hunter, enjoying the irony. It was painful to keep such a low profile, being able to wipe out any of the pirates in the east blue, or the marines for that fact. He was sitting in his little dingy sailing along when a paper, with edges ripped horribly, slapped him in the face. He pulled the offending parchment from his face and growled at it, like the thing would actually be scared and run off. Taking a second to glare at it a little more he finally looked at the contents of the sheet. It was a bounty... for 'The Straw Hat Pirate Luffy.' Even after these two years apart from the Red-haired Pirates the name still struck a cord in him. So this was Shanks' kid, huh? Looks too naive and innocent to be involved with Shanks in anyway. Zoro crumpled the parchment and tossed it overboard, he was reaching the next town and had no time to deal with old memories, especially when he was seeing the face of some kid who he already hated.
It was a good twenty minutes later when Zoro set foot on the island which he soon found out was home to a naval base. Zoro had it bad, trouble always seemed to find him. It wasn't even an hour before he found himself tied up to a post in the yard of the naval base. He had walked into town earlier and saw a young girl get attacked by some mutts and sliced one across the side, as to scare the rest of them off. Thats when a really ignorant man made his way towards him and ordered him to be arrested. Zoro hadn't fought, he had worked an entire year to keep undercover and become a bounty hunter. The idiot son promised to let him go after surviving a month without food. Heh, he really was an idiot son. The father however was just as stupid, having a metal jaw and making statues of himself and all.
It was only a few days in when that little girl showed up, snuck into the grounds and everything. She had made me some rice balls which was actually one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. Even so, I yell and threaten her, but she sees through me to easily. Its too late as that idiot son comes through the gates and insults her food and makes those cowardly soliders throw her over the wall. It was then that I almost made a fatal mistake, I almost used the King's... well you know. After hearing the annoying screech of that idiot for an unbearable amount of time he had finally left. And there I was... once again waiting for my month to be up.
Thats when my world turned upside down. There in front of me was my unknown rival, that revealing red vest and the dumb boy that it is clung too. Luffy... The conversation that persued wasn't very eventful, except for the intial shock of the boy offering me to be his first mate on his pirate crew. Zoro couldn't help, but inwardly cringe at the thought. But it also made him laugh, like father like son. Perhaps the boy also had alterior motives. It wasn't long till the boy bounded off, convinced that if he found Zoro's swords that he would join his crew as the first mate, and Zoro had to admit, it was quite tempting. Really... the pirate life was really meant for him.
Thats how he ended up on the Thousand Sunny. That day hadn't too eventful... the down taking of the idiot father and son... officially becoming a pirate again. He stared off the railing, it was one of the few times he hadn't been sleeping. The events of last week shook him to the core, dreading up old memories, the bad and the good. He thought of the first time he and Luffy met Nami and she tried to play them as fools. He had taken a lot of damage saving Luffy and her that time. Trying to save someone and dumb down your abilities was harder than it looked. He smiled to himself. At least he and Luffy never had to just see where the sea took them anymore, she was a great navigator, though he would never tell her such a thing.
Then there was when they picked up long-nosed liar... interesting kid. The cat burglers or whatever the hell they called themselves... anyway... they were an interesting pirate group... dumb as hell, but interesting. Now that he was thinking about the long-nosed man he had noticed him start to stare at the idiot chef when he thought no one was looking. Heh, it woundn't surprize Zoro if the too had started some sort of secret affair.
Thinking about the chef... when they had met the chef it was also Zoro's first time seeing someone from the past since leaving Shank's crew. Mihawk played his game well, they acted like they had never met before and Zoro took the beating that Mihawk delivered him like a true swordsmen. Mihawk then set sail, Zoro didn't have to worry about the man telling Shanks about the encounter... Mihawk would find the situation more interesting if Shanks found out himself.
More people had joined the crew, one by one. However, last week Zoro had finally reached the point where he could no longer surpress his strength. Last week was... Ace's execution. He and the rest of the crew had managed to make it to the battle just as Ace had finally made it to the battlefield. Just in time to see the Admiral strike at Luffy and Ace jump in the way. Just in time for Mihawk to deflect the magma with his blade. Just in time for Zoro to fall into Mihawk's debt. The battle had been a hard and cruel one. There were many deaths and even Zoro nearly suffered such a fate. He and the pirates of white beard had managed to force both Luffy and Ace onto Trafalgar's ship and allow it to escape under the ocean. Both were badly injured, but that was the least of Zoro's worries at the moment. White beard was defeated and Black Beard had somehow obtained his power... All hell was about to break loose and he was amazed at the thought things could get even worse. It was then that all stopped. There he was, a visage of red flowing hair... Shanks. With a power only he held he stopped the battle and everyone began their retreat. It was then that my eyes met his and his eyes were unreadable. The rest of the crew snuck aboard the snake princess' ship with the promise of friendship, he however was ushered upon the ship of Mihawk who made a hasty retreat. His title was as good as revoked with his earlier actions. However, it made no difference to the man himself. Knowing Mihawk... Zoro would be paying a price that he was sure he probably didn't want to pay.
Author's notes:
I realize how painfully short this chapter was. However, its intention was to catch everyone up to the the latest episodes of the show, of course with my own twists. :D Anyhoo. I hope you like my story so far. The next chapter will contain smut! Mwhahaha Oh how I torchure poor Zoro. :D I hope you all look forward to the next chapter! Please review!