Yo everyone! Hopefully i didn't kept you waiting for too long, and without much to say...i'm humbly thankful to all my readers who give some of their time to read my story and leave reviews to inform me about my writing. So, let's get starting...
Chapter 3
Zoro slowly regained consciousness. As he opened his eyes, a sharp pain ran through his head representing the aftereffects of KYP drug. Zoro made a motion to try and move his right hand to rub his head to soothe the pain only to realize that he didn't have the liberty to do so. His hands were tied. It was not only his hands but his feet, as well as his whole body and that wasn't all. He was naked. Without any clothes, he was tied to a cross made of thick steel as if he was crucified. There were no injuries on his body but he was bound with very strong chains. Insanely sturdy chains ran across his arms, his chest, upper thighs and lower calves binding him firmly to the steel cross. The chains didn't seem to be made of steel. It was something much stronger, maybe Sea-Stone or maybe the same material used to make PX-0. That wasn't the only surprise; his head was free to move so he could observe most of his surroundings. He was in a dark room with only enough light to have a proper look at the walls and the door, which was a few meters away right in front of him. From the look of it, it appeared to be a…torture chamber.
Damn! This is bad. I have a feeling that I'm in real trouble now. Zoro was pulled out of his thoughts when the door in front of him opened and Mikumo entered, followed by the same woman who led Zoro to this fortress.
"I see you are back to your senses."
She earned a scowl in reply.
"What an amazing sight it is."
Still no specific response except a glower.
"You don't have to be so hard on yourself," she said while bewitchingly sauntering towards him. "Just entrust yourself, your body, to me and you don't have to go through this."
Getting closer to Zoro, she slipped her left hand into the space where his back arched away from the steel to push herself into Zoro's bare chest, caressing his cheek with her other hand.
Despite all her attempts to seduce him, there was still no change in Zoro's expression.
She was getting a bit frustrated now. She lowered her eyes as a slight frown appeared on her face
"Why?"
Zoro's facial muscles tensed up a bit at the question.
"Why is it that no matter what I do, it doesn't seem to bother you in the slightest? I know very well the worth of my charm. But why do they have no effect on you?"
A smirk appeared on Zoro's face.
"If you just want to try out your allure on someone then you made a wrong choice. You would be better off looking for someone more suited for the job, annoying woman." He ground out the words, specifically emphasizing his last words.
Mikumo's eyes widened. After a few moments, she took a few steps back with sullen eyes. She covered her face with her left hand and started laughing as if she had gone mad. Her sinister laugh affected even Zoro's mind, sending chills down his whole body.
What the fuck is wrong with this woman? Zoro thought as he kept staring at her, struck with an ominous feeling.
She stopped laughing after a minute. Zoro could clearly see her flushed face beneath the hand that hid her eyes. She separated her fingers to take a peek at Zoro's dumbstruck face. Another sinister smirk appeared on her face.
"Too much, this is just too much. This just makes me want you even more."
Moving her hand aside and regaining her composure, she calmly combed her left fingers through her hair. Turning her gaze to the woman who was humbly standing at a corner, Mikumo signaled her with a gesture. Bowing down once, that woman left the room.
"Roronoa Zoro, do you remember what I said about you being a wild horse?" No response from Zoro just like before. Just then five other women entered the room following the one from before.
What now…? Zoro's face flinched a little bit.
"A wild horse never lets anyone ride it, because of its pride," Mikumo said getting closer to Zoro once again.
"What are you trying to say?" Zoro asked in a rough tone.
"You are just like a wild horse. But there is a way to tame it." She glared right into Zoro's eye while holding his chin. "If we break its spirit by riding it over and over again, its spirit and pride will be shattered. What was once a wild horse will become completely civilized and will always listen to its master."
Zoro's eye widened as her words sunk into his mind, trying to extract the possible meaning behind them.
"Like I said, the fuck are you talking about?" Zoro asked in an even gruffer tone.
"These women here are experts in administering torture. Let it be physical or mental, they can do it flawlessly." Mikumo's cocky smirk disappeared when she heard a chuckle from Zoro.
"Come on, do you honestly think that you can scare me with this?" Zoro threw another death glare at her. "Enough with the child's play already."
"This is no child's play. Believe me when I say I'll do anything to make you mine," Mikumo said while narrowing her eyes. "I know simple physical torture won't be enough. Besides, you can survive without food for over a month. But imagine what will happen when you'll receive physical damage as well as have your energy sucked out of you. Yet you wouldn't get any source to restore your lost energy. That will be dangerous even for you."
Zoro's eyes widened a bit as he realized that she wasn't wrong about this.
"So, for your own sake, you should think carefully." Letting go of Zoro she turned around, taking a few steps further she stopped near the previously arrived group of women. "Do whatever you want with him. Just be careful not to do any extensive damage. I want him while his body is still useful."
She glanced at Zoro over her shoulder and yet again she saw just an angry frown with a few sweat drops on his face before closing the door behind her.
Four days later…
In the middle of the ocean, Thousand Sunny was floating several miles away from its previous destination. Everyone except Franky was standing around a small pile of mini-bombs on the lawn.
"We've been on it for five days and still we've found only 41 of these," Sanji said, gritting his teeth in frustration. He was holding five mini-bombs in the palm of his right hand. He threw them in a pile of those mini-bombs before him.
"They did a pretty good job of implanting a hundred of these. I'm impressed," Ussop praised while holding his chin.
"Well, we better find all of these as soon as possible," Nami said.
"The sooner we accomplish our task, the sooner we can go to help out Zoro," Robin said while closing her eyes once.
Just when Robin finished her sentence, Franky came out holding a metal box with a red button on its top. He had been working in his workshop ever since they had left the Island.
"Oi Franky, what's that?" Luffy asked curiously.
"Is this some new gadget?" Ussop joined in.
"What does it do?" Chopper asked while jumping on Ussop's shoulder.
"Wow, wow, easy there. I was about to show you what this baby can do." Everyone gathered around Franky one by one, and he placed the box down on the lawn. Standing up again, he turned around.
"Don't touch it. I'll be right back." With this, he left to his workshop again.
Luffy, Chopper, and Ussop were staring at the box very curiously trying to figure out what kind of cool gadget this would turn out to be. Everyone else was also curious but not as much as these three. Franky then came out, this time holding a casket-sized case on his shoulder. He placed it down on the lawn and Sunny shook a little bit, indicating the immense mass of the case.
Franky opened the case and started preparing something. After about twenty minutes, Franky stood beside a black colored cage-like structure as tall as himself with just a small opening at its door. Next he took out an electrical toy and placed it near the box.
"I have tested it already but just to be on the safe side…" Getting up, he opened the door of the cage and entered it. After closing the door, he looked outside through the small opening. Everyone was curious as hell now, even Robin. All the apparatus Franky had set up was quite amusing, so everyone wanted to know what kind of miracle it could perform.
"Ok then, who wants to press the button?" Franky asked from within the cell while peeking out through small opening.
"ME, ME, ME!" Ussop, Chopper and Luffy shoved their faces before Franky's eyes while jumping around excitedly. Nami was about to explode in anger though.
"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Nami's rumbling voice forced the three to calm down.
"Oi Franky, whatever you want to show us just do it already," Sanji was trying very hard to hold his anger in as well.
"Okay, since Luffy is the captain, he can do it," Franky introduced the lucky winner and Luffy smirked to the other two childish crew members, receiving disappointed sighs from them. Getting closer to the metal box, Luffy squatted down before it.
"Now Luffy, open the lid on the button." Luffy did as Franky said and opened the transparent plastic lid that was on the button.
"Now, press it after counting to three." Franky quickly closed the small opening completely shutting himself in the black cell.
"Got it." Luffy nodded once while looking at Franky and turned his eyes back to the button while hanging his index finger over it. "…3"
He quickly pressed it.
"WHAT ABOUT 1 AND 2?" Ussop yelled while backhanding Luffy. Then along with the others Ussop noticed as, well…nothing happened.
Getting frustrated a little bit, Luffy started pressing the button again and again when he heard Franky's echoing voice from inside the cell.
"Luffy, did you press it?"
"Yeah! I'm pressing it but nothing is happening. What is this thing suppose to do anyway?" Luffy was still continually pressing the button.
"Stop, stop, stop, that's good enough! You only had to press it once."
Luffy stopped after hearing what Franky said. The door opened and Franky came out. He bent down and lifted up the toy that he placed before. He pressed a button on its back which was supposed to be an on/off button but it didn't start.
"Yosh! I guess it worked perfectly," Franky said while smiling.
"Franky."
Franky turned his gaze towards Nami who seemed a bit too irritated now. "Would you please explain what is going on?" Her voice sounded dangerous enough to send chills even to Franky's bones.
"D-don't get angry, I'll explain everything." Franky walked up to the metal box and lifted it up. "This here is an EMP Generator"
"EMP Generator?" Robin asked a little bit surprised "But…only Vegapunk knows how to make one."
"Heh! You think I'm any less than Vegapunk?" Franky said with a confident smirk. Nami squinted her eyes while crossing her arms and gazing at Franky, which make him sweat a little bit.
"Well…not as good as Vegapunk but I can still do a lot of things. Anyway…this generator releases an electromagnetic pulse, and a strong one at that. I had to use a pretty strong battery with it too. This pulse disrupts any electrical or electromagnetic device's circuits completely destroying its functionalities. In other words," Franky bent down and picked up a mini-bomb, "just like that toy, circuits on these explosives are also dead."
"So, is Sunny out of Danger now?"
"But what is this big cell for?" Sanji asked, resting his left hand on the black cell.
"Oh that. I made it for my own security. 1 foot thick lead walls and 5 cm thick aluminum lining inside. I had to protect myself from such strong EMP as well." Franky answered.
"So, is Sunny out of Danger now?"
"Of course, 90 percent of your body consists of circuits and machines after all. It would have affected you as well," Ussop said while shaking his head.
"Now if anyone of you had any electrical device with you, I'm sure it will be dead as well."
"Oh no, my electrical guitar!" Brook was holding an electrical guitar in his hands.
"WHY ARE YOU CARRYING IT HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?" Ussop backhanded Brook.
"If the circuits are disrupted, then explosives won't respond to their transmitter any longer, right?" Robin simply ignored the distracting conversations and got back to the main topic.
"Yup! That's right," Franky answered.
"So, is Sunny out of Danger now?"
"You wasted five days on making these gizmos?" Sanji seemed rather disappointed. "If you helped us from the beginning, we could have found all the bombs in just a few days."
"No, actually, I finished it in three days. It took two days to finish this protective cell."
"WHAT?" Sanji's eyes twitched a bit at hearing this.
"Heh! You don't understand anything do you? Look at these bombs," Franky further explained the facts as he had anticipated. "Just by judging their size, do you think we can find all of them as quickly as possible? And do you really think that there are exactly one hundred in number?"
"Oh! I see." A slight frown appeared on Sanji's face.
"At least now we know that Sunny is not going to be blown by a remote or something like that," Franky stated.
"So, is Sunny out of Danger now?"
"We can go help Zoro as quickly as possible and take care of remaining explosives afterwards," Nami said while holding her chin.
"That was quite sharp thinking. Very smart of you to anticipate every possibility and come up with a countermeasure right away. I'm impressed," Robin praised Franky with her trademark smile.
"Oh come on now, Nico Robin, you'll make me blush," Franky said while scratching back of his head.
"So, is Sunny out of Danger now?"
Everyone's attention finally turned to Luffy who had been repeating the same question again and again.
"Yes Luffy, it seems like Sunny's out of danger…for now," Ussop was the one who answered.
"Yosh! Then," turning around Luffy cracked his knuckles before wearing a dead serious expression on his face, "let's go get back what's ours."
Everyone simply smiled in their own way and got ready to rescue their nakama.
Meanwhile…
Mikumo opened the door of the torture chamber, and Zoro's broken up body was right before her eyes. He was panting. Blood was dripping down from different spots of his body. Still, there was no extreme external damage. But he looked weak. Considerably weak as compared to what he looked like about a week ago. Five women who were serving Zoro all these days stopped their respective activities and bowed humbly before Mikumo.
"Has he still not given up?" Mikumo asked while intensifying her gaze at Zoro's body.
"No, not yet. But we sure are enjoying serving this guest of ours," one of the women answered while getting closer to Zoro's tied up body and caressing his face with the back of her hand.
"Oh, I see." Mikumo walked closer and slapped that woman with the back of her left hand which caused her to fall down. "Don't dare to touch him before my eyes!"
The targeted woman gasped as she saw the deathly glare.
"Y-yes, Mistress," she simply answered in a husky voice while lowering her eyes.
Mikumo diverted her attention to Zoro, walking closer to him she cupped his face in her hands and lifted it up to gaze into his eyes. His eyes were still strong. They had the same strong and determined look in them as they had a week ago.
"Why? Why is it that after so much happening, I still can't see fear in your eyes? Do you not know any fear?" She was still looking intently into his eyes.
"Fear? Heh! Sorry to disappoint you, but I've never heard of this word before" Zoro said while spreading a mocking smirk on his lips.
Mikumo closed her eyes and let out a disappointed sigh. "But to make you completely mine, I have to inject fear in your heart, in your eyes."
Opening her eyes again, a very sinister smile appeared on her face. "I have already separated you from your friends. Can I see fear in your eyes if I take your promise away from you as well?"
Zoro's eye widened as he heard her words.
"If I take your goal, your ambition, away from you can I see fear in your eyes?"
Zoro clenched his teeth in anger and spoke up again after a few seconds "Dream on. No matter what you do, I'll never give in to the likes of you"
"Very well." Letting go of him she turned around facing her back to Zoro. "This is the life you have chosen for yourself after all. If I can't make you mine, then I won't let anyone else have you either. At least in this room, you'll stay by my side."
Looking over her shoulder she glanced at Zoro once again. "Forever."
She finally noticed a hint of slight fear in Zoro's eyes which excited her once again. She left the room, once again leaving Zoro on the mercy of those five succubi…
Well, here it is. As always, thank you for reading. I'll be waiting for your kind reviews :)