I was going to pace these chapters out week by week, but i've already written 5 :P so i'll give you another one.
btw, thanks for all the reviews! i appreciate it! i'm still just a writing noob :)
more advice is appreciated! :D
oh and, no. the mystery of how Luffy destroyed the barrels is not going to be revealed because even I don't even know how he managed to destroy all of them! but hey, it's Luffy! xD
Title: Zoan
Author: ZOroronoaRO
Fandom: One Piece
Pairings: nearly gen, but with pairings hinted at and/or mentioned.
Timeline: After Ennies Lobby before Florian Triangle Series.
Spoilers: Do not read if you care about spoilers and are not up to date to Ennies Lobby.
Summary: At the newest island, Zoro's strength is admired…a bit too much, and he is now the next target of an X-world government scientist.
Zoan – Chapter two
[Target: Roronoa]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Zoro woke up and yawned. He had slept great, unlike last night. It was the first time he had heard Robin have such a bad nightmare.
He shook his head, as if shaking the thoughts away.
He got up and stretched, noticing they had docked at the island.
Zoro was a little perplexed that they hadn't woken him up to carry water, but he was happy about it, more sleep and training!
He stretched some more and stood there in the sunlight, it was a great day to be outside. He cracked his neck and thought now would be a good time to clean his swords.
He went to the men's cabin and grabbed a box he kept his cleaning things in and brought it outside on the upper deck.
Laying everything out, he noticed he was out of polish.
He frowned; he forgot to get more at Water 7.
Sighing, he looked at the island. Was it worth taking back water to get the polish? He would find out.
He hastily put everything back in the box and sheathed his sword.
After putting it away he took rummaged through his things to find his secret stash of money, hopefully enough to buy polish unnoticed.
He descended down the ladder unto the dock that looked like it was going to fall apart.
After most of the way he jumped down. When he landed, several boards gave way and half his body was soaked.
Zoro pulled himself up, grumbling. Two heads popped up over the side of the Sunny-Go.
"What are you doing!?"
Zoro didn't turn around, "Going to the island, moron."
"Oy! You'll get lost! Wait for the others to get back!"
Zoro kept walking. "I'll be fine!"
"Fine, just follow the one path all the way to the city!"
After Zoro was out of earshot Usopp turned to Chopper.
"He is soooo going to get lost."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sir! Checking in like you wanted me to with the horizon." Chris was out of breath, obviously ran here at full-force, "Some have left boat, but Roronoa Zoro hasn't."
"Blast!" His fist slammed against the table.
"Make preparations for plan 21!"
"Yes sir!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Zoro tried drying the water from his clothes as he walked, to no avail. He wrung out the water from his pants as he preceded to follow the dirt road. He was engulfed by a forest of trees almost immediately, save the road he was traveling on. He walked closer to them, trying to see if there were any other cities that were close. He soon looked around and found himself in the middle of the forest.
"Where'd the road go?" He said scratching the back of his head.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sir!"
"Are the preparations done?"
"No, sir, but Roronoa Zoro just jumped off the boat and is now on this island!"
A smiled appeared on Rika's face, "Wonderful! Locate him and track him. Once he gets to the old oak we'll initiate plan 11."
Chris nodded, "Should I call the K brothers?"
"Yes, contact them immediately, and if they refuse, double what I told them last time. I need their full cooperation."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zoro stumbled through the dense forest, helplessly lost.
"I turned left at the tree with a knot in it…right?" He looked around and saw three other trees had knots in them.
"Maybe it was this one…"
He heard a tree branch snap and his hand reflexively went to his swords.
He scanned the area, but he couldn't see much with so many trees.
He continued on until he heard screaming.
"GAHHHHH!!!"
Zoro's left hand held a back hand grip on one of his swords and he turned towards the sound.
He saw a man in his mid 30's running straight at him.
"Help! Please help me!"
Zoro realized the source of his terror where two men with huge blades chasing him.
The man stopped in front of him then quickly hid behind Zoro.
He looked down at the terrified man, he reminded him of a certain long nosed marksmen he knew.
He looked back up at the two men, then realized how freakishly huge they were. Even with their faces were covered with masks he could tell they wanted blood.
"Give us the man." The left one said
Zoro looked down at the shivering figure, "Please no! I'll give you anything you want! Money! Grog! You're a swordsman, I can see that. My dad was a swordsman, I still have his things! He had a fine quality sword I could give you! And anything a swordsman could need! Please!"
Zoro contemplated this, he could get some money, grog, maybe he had a good enough sword to replace Yashiburi, and he probably had sword polish. It was like he knew what Zoro needed.
"You take too long. We'll just take him by force then." The right one moved to strike, but Zoro was faster.
In a blink of an eye he was down for the count, a huge gash across his midsection.
The left thug blinked in wonder, he didn't even see him draw his sword, but sure enough the red-handled sword was out and sparkling in the sunlight.
He let out a battle cry and tried to avenge his partner's failure. Only to fall the same way he did.
Zoro watched as the second thug fell to the ground and didn't stir.
He sheathed his sword and looked at the wide-eyed man.
"T-that was amazing! Thank you!"
"I didn't do it for you; you have something I need, that's all." Zoro replied gruffly.
"Of coarse! Or coarse!" The man chucked, "Come this way, to my house."
He waved him to follow and they maneuvered around trees for a little while until he spoke, "I live out here because of my research on different animals."
He looked at Zoro, "but the bandits don't like that, they always try and follow me home so they can burn it down. They think I'm out here to catch them." He chuckled, "I've been able to outrun them so far, but today I guess I'm off."
Zoro really didn't care. He just wanted the stuff and to go back to the ship so he could clean his swords. His thoughts were interrupted by the guy.
"-call me Rika"
"Huh?" Zoro looked at him.
"What's your name? My friends call me Rika."
Zoro's gaze drifted away, "Roronoa Zoro."
"Hmmm…" Rika said, hand at his chin, "I think I've heard that before, but I just can't place it."
Zoro tensed for a second, if he found out he was a pirate he probably wouldn't help him, "Common name."
Rika nodded, "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Zoro smiled inwardly though, after the Ennies Lobby incident the Straw Hats were now know nation-wide. He hoped it would cause stronger swordsmen to find him and challenge him.
They walked in silence until they came upon a small cabin, no bigger than the men's sleeping quarters on the Sunny.
"Here we are! Home sweet home. Sorry if it's a little messy, I wasn't expecting company."
Zoro entered with caution, scanning every inch of the way.
The man went in first, clearing mountains of papers off the table and replacing it with two glasses.
Zoro cleared away some papers on a chair and sat down.
"Sorry, I told you it was messy." He smiled, "My work is my home so it's a little cluttered."
He pulled out a jug of water, poured himself a glass, but stopped before Zoro's, "Would you like some water? I have some juice, I think. And some sake, it's kinda early for that, but it's up to you, I have plenty."
Zoro leaped for joy in his mind at the chance for sake, but coolly answered, "I'll have some sake."
"Alright!" He hummed as he exchanged liquids and poured Zoro a tall glass of golden brew.
Zoro jugged it, it was so good, it had been a while since he'd had a good drink.
"Oh my, you do like your sake, don't you?" he refilled Zoro's glass and drank his own water.
"I'll go grab my dad's sword, I'll be right back." With that Rika disappeared into another room.
Zoro drank the last bits in his cup and reclined in his chair.
Something about the place didn't feel right. He grabbed one of the many papers and scanned over it.
It was nonsense to him, diagrams of who-knows-what and percentages of really long words that he could barely pronounce. Zoro blinked as the paper started to blur. He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and four finger and looked at the paper again. It seemed like it made it worse. He looked around and it wasn't only the paper, but the whole room started to spin.
He got up abruptly, knocking over the chair and stumbled to the door, only to have his knees give out just short of it.
He felt this feeling before. He was definitely drugged.
"Ah, they've taken effect." A voice from behind him said, "The chemicals I put in your drink is quite rare, took me weeks to get it just right for you. Odorless. Tasteless. Highly effective on your blood type. The perfect Roronoa Zoro knockout. And completely safe with alcohol!"
Zoro couldn't speak, let alone hear what he was saying, his head pounded too much.
Zoro reached for his sword and tried to unsheathe it, but couldn't find the strength.
"Dimn yoh…" Not even his lips obeyed his command to curse.
His head spun more and he fell to the ground unconscious.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Alright, count them off; I don't want that stupid vendor ripping us off." Nami told Robin and Sanji over the business of the market.
"25. I counted three times."
"Ahhhh! Robin-chan, you count so well, I got the same."
"Hmmm, you think it will be enough?"
"It's all they had, so we'll have to take it." Robin replied
"I guess…" She looked around, "Now where'd Luffy go with the cart? I swear, I look away for a second and he's gone."
She scanned the crowd to see a familiar straw hat and a wooden cart in its wake.
"There he is." She said with a relived sigh.
After loading the barrels they started back to the ship.
"Make sure they're secure, we don't need anymore breaking."
She sent a glare at Luffy.
"N-Nami! I said it was an accident!"
"I'll forgive you…." She said looking off into the sky innocently, but Luffy saw a glimmer in her eye and knew that wasn't the end of the sentence. "….For twice what I paid for the water you wasted." A grin spread on her face.
"But I don't have any money…"
"That's ok; I'll just take it out of your next cut."
Before Luffy or anyone else could speak Nami pointed forwards.
"Now, back to the ship! Sanji-kun would you be so kind to push the cart?"
"Anything for you, Nami-san!!"
And with Luffy pulling, Sanji pushing, the four started back to the Sunny-Go.
review pwease! :D