Chapter 8

The next evening, Zoro was dressed like a biker thug as he looked at Smoker.

"You sure this is nesseccary?"

"You have to look rebellious. They know my face too well that I can't get in anymore. So, being the new tough face around, you have to prove yourself."

"Okay…" He said as he looked at the attire, black leather jacket, a shirt that has a flaming skull, black jeans torn in many places, black, fingerless gloves, his black bandana, three spike studs in his left ear, chains around his waist, and black combat boots.

"You ready?"

"Just a few things…" Zoro said as he took out all but one chain belts, ditched the jacket, and gathered some dirt to rub it on himself. "Now I'm ready."

"I like the change."

They went deep into the warehouse complex and saw at least one warehouse being active.

"You're on your own from here."

"Leave it to me." He said as he casually walked down to one warehouse, where there were guards, dressed up as sailors, posted.

"Is this were the fight is held?"

"What's it to you?"

"I just made some guy squeak for not turning him into pulp and said that there's a fight club of some kind around here."

The guards sized him up before letting him through.

'That was close…' He thought as he could smell the blood, sweat and saliva as he entered to see a group of men, shouting and hollering in a circle where there's a possible fight going on.

He dared a glance to look up to see some people just sitting there, watching the fight.

'So those are the judges.' He thought as he moved his head from side to side, ready for a fight. 'I wonder how these guys can fare in a fight with a shark?' He grinned as he heard one of the men going out.

"Who else want to fight me!?" Said a man, who was obviously the champ for some time now.

There was a momentary pause from the group of men before he stepped out.

"I'll fight you."

"Who are you?"

"Just a walk in who heard of this place."

"You better now squeal."

"I found this place because of a squealer." He said with a dangerous grin. "How about it?"

The man grinned as well as he mentioned Zoro to come. "What are you called?"

"Don't know… I was never given a proper title."

"That so? Well then! Let our fight determined your title, eh?"

"Sounds like a good way to get known." He said as he cracked his knuckles, the way Luffy would do when he was doing a warm up for a war dance.

"Fighters ready!?" A guy said as he looked at both competitors. "Fight!"

Both men sized each other up as both threw some mock punches to determine their agility, and strength.

Once the warm up was done, both looked serious as they charged and started throwing punches, dodging, kicking, and tried to take one limb to break. There was no rules here, only to fight.

Zoro got some punches in, as well as got hit a few times and kicked to the side once. 'Shit… This guy has the power of a ramming motor boat.' He thought as he started to feel excited. He dodged one punch and managed to put in an upper cut in, making the guy stumble a bit.

He waited for the man to get his balance back.

"What's the matter? You could've finished me off there!"

"And make the fun end there? Sorry, I'm not the one that makes this quick."

"Ah!" The man said as both did the routine again.

Zoro could tell the man was putting more energy in the fight, which was a waste in his opinion as he easily dodged the man as he got a good punch into the man's face, knocking him down. He waited as the man tried to get up, but was unable to.

"Our new champion! Shark Attack!"

He breathed heavily, not realizing how much extrusion he was in as the men cheered him. 'Yeah, yeah, I won. But I'm not after some stupid title…' He stole a glance at the 'judges' and saw that they didn't seem to stir. 'What I'm after is something none of you could never understand.'

After another three hours of fighting, Zoro stumbled out to where he last saw Smoker, being sure he wasn't followed.

"Well?" Smoker asked.

"I got into their little fight club, but turns out I have to defeat a certain number of people before I could get officially in."

"Shit…"

"That's what I thought too."

"Let's get out of here."

Both went into the car and drove along the country road.

It was a first for Zoro when he was in the car, but somehow he managed to seem like this wasn't new. When he recognized one particular area of the road, he told the man to stop.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I can walk from here. Thanks for giving me a lift."

"No problem. Same time and location. You don't need me there this time."

"How would you know if I got in?"

"I'm giving you three nights, then I'll meet you in the village in one of the alleys."

"Okay, sounds like a plan."

"Good, because it's the only one I've got so far."

With that, the cop drove off and Zoro waited until he can't see the car before he went into the vegetation and fell into water, where he quickly took off the clothes and turned to his sharkman form.

"Ah! Hell!" He started to feel the pain more, now that he was beaten up and the changed to add the ever growing pains. "How the hell am I going to explain to Luffy about this?" He said to himself as he went to the cove and laid down on the sandy bank.

"You look like you went through hell." Said Old tentacles.

"I guess you could say that…" He said as he went to sleep.

Luffy woke up that morning and was going to visit his friend, only to see more people blocking is way and decided to visit later.