Chapter 12

The next day, Luffy went to the cove and called Zoro up.

Zoro, sensing the other's urgency went up, only to be a little shocked. "Did you not sleep?"

Luffy had faint dark circles under his eyes as he looked serious at the sharkman. "Tell me what's going on Zoro."

"Huh?"

"I talked to Sanji the other day, and he told me that he recently saw a guy that's athletically built, strong silent type, and has green eyes."

"That could be anyone."

"Green eyes are not a common eye color around here, especially light green."

Zoro knew that he couldn't hide his secret anymore.

"Luffy, listen… I wanted to tell you, but I wanted to wait until this stupid hotel business gets shut down."

Luffy's hard serious face softened to that of confusion.

"I'm the guy Smoker mentioned."

Luffy's eyes went wide and his mouth open.

Zoro waited for the other to get over his shock, as well as having his own amusing show.

"Stupid Zoro! Why didn't you tell me this the first time!"

"I didn't want you to get involved." He said with a serious look. "If you get hurt, I would never forgive myself."

"But… Does Smoker know… about…?" He pointed to where the tail is.

Zoro grinned. "Nope. Turns out there's a witch out at the dead coral garden that gives me the ability to have human legs, its temporary though."

"Can I see?"

"Sure… at the festival."

"Aw! Come on!"

"Nope. You won't let me see you practice your dance, I won't let you see me walk like you."

Luffy pouted as he crossed his arms. "Meanie…"

Zoro smiled at the amusing scene before remembering what was going to happen at the festival. "Luffy, there's one other thing."

Before he could explain, the teen's phone went off and he answered.

"Yes? Luffy here." He said as he looked surprised. "Hang on! I'll be right there!" He disconnected his phone and got up quickly. "Sorry Zoro, family emergency!" He said as he ran out of the cove.

"Luf-" He tried to say, but the teen was gone before he could warn the teen. "Luffy…" He said as he hoped this family emergency isn't too great and that the teen will come back. He can't let his hopes up.

With Luffy, he went up to his beach home to see Ace and Smoker in the living room.

"What's going on?"

"You're brother is in deep shit, that's what." Smoker said, glaring at the man across from him.

"Ace?"

The said brother looked up and had a guilty look on his face.

"Sit down." Smoker said, pointing to the chair.

Luffy sat down, looking at the cop at his right and his brother at his left.

"Ace, do you have any idea the danger you just put your family through?"

Ace didn't say anything.

"You snuck into my office for the past couple of days, looking into my files of the hotel situation, and now you or your brother could be targets to the organization! Some of those cops are corrupt enough to sell you out!"

"Ace!" Luffy said, couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You wouldn't tell us what you found! And I'm tired of waiting, only to be disappointed!"

"Don't you think my man, who's doing this knowing the risk in your favor, is in danger if they find out that he is connected to the both of you."

"Zoro?" Luffy said, shocked to hear these news.

"What? You mean that guy is real?" Ace said.

"Yes, Roronoa Zoro is my undercover man for the job. Has been for weeks and moving up the ranks quite steadily. Until now…" Smoker sighed. "Like I said, if the organization leaders find out about his true intentions, they will execute him and the two of you. Now… I didn't get any news from him last night. I wasn't sure of the reason until I learned about what you did, Ace."

Ace looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in the room at this point.

"When I learned about that, I figured the reason why. He didn't want to come up to me because then the organization would suspect him of giving out information. I wish I could give you protection, but it seems that if I do that, I'm only harming his safety, especially after being so close to the upper ranks of the organization."

"What's going to happen to us now?" Luffy asked.

"I don't know." Smoker said. "If I know this organization well enough, they must've told my man to assassinate one of you."

"Assassinate?!" Ace said, eyes wide of fear and shock. "He couldn't do that to us! Especially Luffy! They've been friends since Luffy was just a kid."

"If he doesn't do so, then the leaders will suspect a weak spot and use that against him."

"Shit!" Ace said as he placed his hands on his hands. "What have I done?"

"You didn't know how these people work. As for what he's going to do about this situation… I don't know…"

"I just talked to him…" Luffy said. "He'll tell me what I have to do, that why the cops won't be involved and something will work out."

"If he has a plan in mind." Smoker added, almost forgetting that both Zoro and Luffy meet in secret. "You may want to talk to him about what's going on then."

Luffy nodded as he ran out of the house.

Zoro waited for the teen, as the said person ran through the vegetation and tripped face first to the sand.

"Ow…" Luffy said as he spit out some sand.

"Are you okay?" He asked as he searched the teen's face for any scrapes.

"You work undercover for Smoker."

Zoro stopped looking for scrapes and looked at the other in his eyes. "Yeah, I told you about that."

"Yeah… he also told me what Ace did and what stress that put you in."

Zoro sighed as he nodded. "Aye."

"Did the leader tell you to kill me? Is that what you were trying to tell me?"

Zoro nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment.

"What's the plan?"

"I don't know…" Zoro said as he laid back on the sand. "I've been trying to figure that out since yesterday."

Luffy, seeing the internal conflict that the other was going through, went up and rested his head on the other's chest, over his heart. "We'll figure it out somehow."

"I hope so Luffy… I don't ever want to see you disappear in my life."

Luffy grabbed hold of the other's hand. "I'm not going anywhere."