REWRITTEN!

AU: Thanks to everyone for all your patience with the updates of this story. And thank your for your continuing support and reading. Your reviews kicks my mood up sky high.

Thank you!

A Big thank you to both Mari-chan (Skriblerier) and Mei-chwan (Silvey115) for Beta-reading this chapter as well.

Please enjoy! ~^o^~

Every time I look at him

I think about you

…That is why I hate him.

When can everything turn back to like it was before?

6. Chapter

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Lost in Memories of Nightmares

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The ray of the sun bathes the village underneath it, creating a happy atmosphere between the chattering townspeople. The market is full of life, the news about the upcoming festival is the biggest gossip these days, they had looked forward to it for a long time and couldn't wait for it to begin.

He sniffs to the fruit interestingly -he's never seen anything like it. It had the shape of a grapefruit, but its flesh is green and smells of something in between a kiwi, a banana and a clementine. Did it taste just as it smelled?

"One of the finest fruits you can get on this island." The seller from the stall promises.

"Maybe, but not at the whole of Grand Line."a passer-by points out and the seller tells him to mind his own business. Thought so. They know he's new here, but not all that new again, he'd been living here and there on this island for a while now. Finally getting the fruits down to an affordable price, not to the sellers liking, he buys a crater of them and carries it to the cart he'd borrowed, placing it among the other bags of supplies, and pulls the cart with him back to the harbour. A swift of light blond hair tickles his nose. He stops and looks up at the biggest ship at the dock, the one with a lion's head. Sniffing the air, his smile grows.

"You can come out now, Chopper!" The he calls, without turning around. The little reindeer-doctor tiptoes out from the shadows and looks up at him with amazed eyes.

"It still surprises me that you know I'm around." He says amused.

He chuckles and points to his nose. "I got a pretty good smell, that's all." Chopper nods and then tilts his head to the other side. "What?"

"You look so much like him." the reindeer says, with a tad of sadness. "It's hard to believe that you're not him, Nicki." Nicki sighs and looks down at his little fellow, after a while he looks back up at the ship.

"I know, that's why neither your captain nor the first mate likes me… am I right?"

"No no, it's not that!" Chopper hurries to say and shakes his head violently. "They like you, it's not that."

"But I look like him too much." Chopper sighs, knowing he can't get around that. Ever since Nicki came on board their ship, offering his help in return of a roof over his head -they had the same target in mind, so why not help each other out? -, though things had been awkward between them since then, especially the first mate and the captain. Even his voice was almost the same, they said.

"I still have to use my nose to convince myself that you're not him. Sorry." Chopper finally confesses and looks more than miserable about it.

Nicki goes to his knees before him. "Don't think about it pal, things will be alright, 'kay?" he says, smiling and ruffles the fur on the kid's back. Chopper nods and follows him up the plank. "Oi! I'm back again!" he then calls out to the open deck. The navigator looks up from her newspaper and gives him a small smile.

"Ah, nice to see you again, Nicki-kun." She says. Nicki bows in return, but as he turns around, he hears that undefinable sigh, as if he's missing a part of his gesture. They don't know of his fine hearing, and he doesn't attempt to tell them either, it would only put them in a worse situation of not even daring to say anything in his near, fear of saying anything to hurt his feelings, only it was the silence there hurt the most. Been there, tried that way too often before.

Nicki looks around at the huge ship. He's still amazed over the beautiful craftwork of the ship, everything is just so perfect created, and he still can't believe it's the creation of that blue-haired pervert. "We don't have more than what the big guy has given us, right?" the shipwright, Franky was it, once said with a blinding smirk, when Nicki pointed out his wear of clothing near the townsfolks kids. Well, might be, but from what he knows, 'The big guy' didn't give any living beings any metal parts from birth.

Finally finding the one he was looking for, Nicki walks up to the oldest of the teens, his smile growing back to his lips as he sees that green mess of hair so well blend in with the grass underneath. "Oi! Marimo! Help me in the kitchen, will ya?" he needed to talk with him, and this is the only way to get his attention. Zoro's presence changed and the usual uncomfortableness started to return. But he had to push it a bit further and stepped right up behind him. "Oi! Grass-head, you hear me?" he asks as he pokes him with the toe of his shoe. Suddenly a hand grabs his foot and squeezed it hard, that actually hurt this time. The first mate turns his face slowly up and glares daggers at him. If looks could kill, Nicki would've been dead a long time ago.

"Stop calling me that," he whispers in a sinister tone and tightens his grip. Nicki swears that if he doesn't get his foot free soon, he would be limping the rest of the month, foot broken. "Stop act like him, stop look like him and stop talk like him! You're not him!"

"I found out about that the day I was born, shit-head." Nicki teases, though he knows he's tossing fuel onto the fire. "Now, let the hell go of my foot and help me up with the rest of the supplies. You and I need to talk!"

-TOBD- TOBD- TOBD—

"Stop fucking around like that, shit-head! You and I need to talk!" Zoro grits his teeth and stamps after the blond teen, mumbling curses until they reach the kitchen.

"Oi! I'm here, first mate!" Nicki calls and waves his hand. Zoro looks surprised around and finds himself standing near the railing, hands full with bags of supplies. Not good. He's thinking of him again.

"Shit," he grumbles and turns to follow the blond man who keeps waving at him. "Stop waving, piss-head, I'm not blind!" he sneers and stomps after Sanji… no, Nicki! Damn it!

The kitchen's dark and empty; it feels cold when entering it. Zoro hasn't been in here for a while… he couldn't stand being here… then again, other times it was, as if he couldn't stay in other rooms but this. He places the bags on the counter and looks at it, running his finger over the cold surface, stopping as he reached the refrigerator.

"Oi! Moss-head! No alcohol before after dinner!" Sanji says and points at him with a large cooking knife. Zoro grumbles and grabs a bottle anyway, as the blond cook curses himself for ever had given him the code to the lock.

"Just shut it and tell me when dinner is ready," Zoro say and dumps down in one of the seats, as he rips the cork off the bottle and starts drinking.

Zoro sits and stares from his seat next to their captain's. They never decided who should sit where; it just came up like this. He looks down at his hand, stares intensely on the bandage covering the new long wound, neatly closed by their doctor. The voice of the temporarily replacement-cook faints out as he keeps staring at his hand, as could he see the wound through the bandage.

That baker had told them where to go, the blog next to the bakery, the entrance to the old apartment around the corner. The clocktower just stroked nine as they rounded the corner and silenced as they came in front of number five; a single door with a single glass window, belonging to an old rundown building, there threatened to collapse any minute, even the door Zoro suspected would smoulder if poking to it.

Luffy had slammed the door in, impatient as ever, the closer they got and just ran in, roaring in anger, pulling the attention of the culprits as he stormed the first apartment. Second floor, the baker had said, so Zoro went up, while Luffy checked this floor, or rather rampaged it.

Then the storm came. With a bounty as high as this Hunter was, Zoro's guess about his lackeys weren't any weaklings either weren't wrong. He fought, made sure none passed by him to interfere Luffy, though he had his share of fight, from what he could hear. Sandai Kitetsu sliced through them, when suddenly he was grabbed from behind. The man was larger than him, much taller, chuckling as Zoro even had troubles getting free.

"Looking for your little whore?" The fat man had said, his breath smelling like rotten fish andold socks. He had furrowed his brows at that comment and tried to point his katana towards him.

"One move, fat-ass and you'll lose your balls!" He'd said, the man stiffened and finally released him. A kick was enough to make the fat-ass loose his balance, a punch to the face and the man fell, tumbling all the way back down the stairs. Zoro had continued up the stairs, the battle roars from below suggested Luffy had his hands more than full, though nothing the youngster couldn't handle.

He didn't see the fist come, as he reached the last step, and fell tumbling back down the stairs, managing to grab the handrail in time from plummeting any further down. Cursing, Zoro had thrown himself back on his feet, searching up and connecting his own fist to the hovering person's jaw, before sending him down the same flight of stairs he wanted to send Zoro down at. The man didn't get up again, and Zoro almost didn't either. Grabbing the handrail, he'd suddenly felt dizzy, taking a deep breath, he'd hurried to cover his mouth. Someone had released some kind of gas downstairs.

A roar, before the sound and shakes indicated that a wall just had been beaten down, but then after that, even though he could see the green smoke escape out the new opening, there were silence.

He'd worried about Luffy, but knew the captain only would've send him back up looking after their cook, so he'd continued up, the corridor meeting him had too many doors. Taking down one door after the other, searching each apartment after the other, Zoro started to worry that second floor were the floor above him.

Then he encountered that apartment.

The eighth apartment welcomed him with a strong stank of rotten meat. Covering his mouth and nose, Zoro stepped inside. Ruined furniture, broken windows and yet the stank hang heavily in the air. And then the blood. It was literally everywhere.

Heart taking up a pace, his feet lead him into the bedroom, finding the same chaos. As he neared the bathroom, the heavy smell of death amplified. He opened the door slowly, readying himself if an attack was in wait for him, though, something told him, before looking inside, that no one would come at him from here.

The sight greeting him where horrible.

Bodies. Bodies upon bodies were thrown into this small room. The corpses of men, women and even children laid and stared empty out into the room. Fear was slashed into their bloodied faces. Limbs twisted in the most inhumanly ways, some were either torn or cut off. Their bodies shredded open, revealing human organs, that insects already had started feasting on. A head rolled down from the top of the mountain of dead people and landed right in front of Zoro's feet, its hollow eyes and twisted face stared horrified up at him. A fat cockroach crawled out from the mouth and hurried back to the mountain of bloody bodies.

Zoro gulped, nothing would attach him in here, except the undeniable illnesses there high possibly swirled around in this room. Zoro hurried out of the room, out of the appartment and went back into one of the previous apartments he had been in before. He gulped again as he sheeted his katana and went out to the bathroom and opened the toilet seat.

He fell back with a scream as he sat face to face with another bloodied, horror-stricken head there looked back up at him. Scrambling away, he hurried out to the kitchen where he just in time made it to throw up in the sink. Whatever he had eaten the last couple of days was now wasted in the old sink. He didn't give a shit if it would lay there to rotten; the sickening smell of rotten bodies and dried blood from the apartment right beside this one was even stronger than this. Shit! He put his head back down in the sink and threw up once again. This was too much. He had seen many bloodied bodies before, fallen in battles newly killed, but this… never something like this… this was the worst, this was almost too much.

Panting, he dried his mouth and turned on the faucet to wash his hands in the clear and fresh water. But the water there came was far from fresh and clear; it was rusty red, like blood, even smelled like blood. Zoro immediately pulled his hands away and stared wide-eyed at the sink. It was actual blood. Whoever stood behind all of this, must have more than a screw loose, because this was sick!

A scream ripped through the air and made him look up. Shit! Sanji! He hurried out the door, drying his bloodied hands in his pants and looked bewildered around. Where had the scream come from? And where the hell was Luffy, anyway? He walked slowly up the corridor, cursing his heart for beating as loud as it did, almost deafening his own footsteps.

"No, no! Please, don't!" Another horrible scream. Zoro stopped and turned around at once. There! It was in that apartment the cook's cries came from. Cries. The heck were they doing to him, to make the stubborn ass to even let out a sound? Zoro throws himself at the door, not caring that it might be open, but freezes as something sharp lays against his throat. Damn it!

"Now now, isn't this our dearest knight in shining armour, or should I say; pirate?" speaks a scratching voice into his ear, fallowed by an ice-cold laugh. Damn, he'd been too reckless. Moving a hand slowly down to the hilt of his katana, fingertips barely touching as he felt the knife press harder against his throat.

A new horrified scream ripped through the air and Zoro make to move, but the knife pressed warningly against his throat. "Why the hurry? You'll get plenty of times with him soon enough." The man snickered and played with the knife around his throat.

"Let. Him. Go!" Zoro threatened. The man snickered.

"You really wanna see him now, swordsman?" he said teasingly, as he forced him up against the door. The knife disappeared, but before he could act, he was kicked in the back. "Then go and take a good look at him then!" The door flew open and Zoro barely managed to get his hands out before him, before kissing the dusty floor.

Shaking his head, he tested the wound on his throat. Nothing to worry about. Though, what was to worry about, was the grotesque scene unfolding before him.

In the middle of the room stood a tall orange haired man, operating on an patient bound to an old wooden table. The cries indicating the patient weren't sedated, far from, and the patient were no other than their missing cook.

Eyes widened at the sight of the large gash at the middle of the blond's abdomen. Tears welled out from his eyes, head shaking, body twisting and pulling with all its might to get free, though instead resulting in making the ropes gnaw deeper into his wrists, ankles, arms and shins. Gasping heavily, straining for air, the tall man worked untouched with his small operation knife, a hand rummaging inside the cook's opened chest.

Sanji's own hands were pale, nails scraping against the wooden surface.

Zoro were stunned for a couple of seconds, shocked at what he saw. Then he finally woke up and rage fired him up. "Oi!" he called, pulling two of his katanas, though no reactions came but from the blond on the table. "Carrot-head! Leave him the fuck alone!" He moved fast, made ready to even cut the psycho's head clean off, but something about the chuckle send chills crawling down his back, awakening an old forgotten memory. Pulling himself together, hating the rising fear, that he so carefully had worked to bury in the dirt, Zoro raised both his katanas.

"Now, what would you then do with him?" carrot-head asked, fully fixed on what he was doing, pulling something there made the cook gurgle and cry out again. Zoro stopped in his execution, but didn't lower his katanas. His eyes drifted to the man on the table and were met by a single wide blue eye, staring horrified back at him. Sanji were utterly naked, revealing way too many wounds, infected gashes, stained with blue, green and yellow marks all over his pale body. His wrists and ankles cut to the bones by the ropes, still bleeding, but the worst, if he even could say so, were his feet. Scratched and tattered – would he ever be able to walk on those? Unbelievable the man still was alive.

Sanji looked away with shame, hiding a sob as he forced his jaw to spout out mockingly; "Took you long enough, to finally show up, Mari - mo." Even in a time like this. Bravado were nothing but a cracking shield, the forced smile as he finally looked at him, just as fast disappeared, as the cook suddenly rolled his eyes back and his head fell lifeless down.

"Cook?!"

"Ah aah~, you're not allowed to die yet, kid," carrot-head sang as he pulled his hand back out from the cook's stomach and walked calmly over to a brown bag standing on a table, completely ignoring Zoro's katanas, there lowered, as he ran to the cook's side, feeling for a pulse at his neck. None. Or was he feeling the wrong places? It's hard, with all those wounds. Zoro looked frantically at the blond, but had no idea of where to put his hands to make heart compressions, unless pressing right against his exposed ribcage.

Zoro turned, stepped faster up behind the man, who rummaged through his bag, and laid Wadõ's blade against his throat. The man mere smiled at it and chuckled.

"Are we getting impatient, former Pirate Hunter, Roronoa Zoro?" he said calmly. "What would you do after you've killed me? Cut the ropes of your friend and run off? Hope he'll make it till you get back to your ship?"

"Bring him back, patch him up, then I'll kill you." Zoro answered, pressing the blade closer to the skin, threatening to break it. The man raised his hands, in it he had a vial.

"If you want him to survive, he needs this blood thickening medicine, or he'll bleed to death."

"He's not even breathing!"

"Oh yes he is, weakly, but breathing." He said, pointing to his own ears "I can hear it, even from here. If you don't' believe me, go look for yourself, though, I'll say he approximately only haves a minute or less, if you keep me standing here." For the first time since Zoro entered the room, the tall, muscled man looked back at him, eyes locking. "Would you really be able to have your friend's death on your consciousness, when knowing if you hadn't killed me, or moved aside in time, he'd still be alive?"

"Patch him up and release him, Hunter!" he ordered, lowering his katanas and stepping aside to give the other space to get to Sanji in time, though, just as he took a step back, he was stabbed in his abdomen by a needle he hadn't seen. The next he knew, he was laying on the floor, staring up as Hunter stood at Sanji's side, injecting him with the syringe he had in hand, seconds after the cook gurgled in air of life.

"Cook…!"

A forceful jolt in the body made the blond's head smack hard against the table, heaving for breath, Sanji's hands and feet clenched and twisted in their bindings, as Hunter stood with his hands once again inside of Sanji's open wound. Then another bloodcurdling gurgling scream tore through the room, as Hunter moved around inside of him, the wet sound of flesh being ripped apart made Zoro feel sick in his cores. And Hunter mere hummed approvingly.

"Looks like your milt is okay, and the same goes for your lungs and intestines," he said as he moved his hand further up.

Zoro furrowed his brows, tried to get his legs to co-operate, to get back up and capitate that psycho. He should had done it when he could. Damn drug.

"Now, let's see how your heart is doing, shall we?"

"Cook…! Shiiit…!"

Sanji shakes his head, slowly. "No, no more… please, d-do-don't…!" he begged, Sanji's voice raw and dry. The cook never begged, it wasn't in his genes to do so, that bastard!

"Now, we have to be careful when pushing at the ribs, or else-"

Blood spurted out of the cook's mouth, almost like a small fountain, before his back hunched once again in pain. "…ups, that wasn't meant to happen. Let's see; it must be around your windpipes –ah, here it is; I accidently cut a hole in your windpipe. Let's see, then we just have to patch it up again. Can't have that you die before I've had my fun with you, now can we?" Hunter grabbed a needle that he had in the near and started sewing, to great discomfort and pain for the cook.

"Stop this." Zoro ordered, his voice thick of anger, but were ignored. "STOP THIS, I SAID!"

"And who is going to stop me?" Hunter finally asked. "You? You can't even stand on your legs, thanks to the drug I gave you. Now, sit still and watch." His hand went back into the wound, searching for something, he took the small knife and opened the gash even further. That Sanji still was alive was unbelievable, to sustain that much pain. Then his voice changed, the body jerked violently every now and then, the sound of wet meat pulled further apart, the sound of breaking rips, the hand moved around before the jerk stood with a bloodied lump in his hand. Zoro widened his eyes in horror as he recognised what it was.

"Have you ever wished to see your own heart, Mr. Black Leg?" Hunter asked and showed the content in his hand to the blond, whom looked horrified back at the beating heart in the man's hand. That shouldn't even be possible! "You can say, literally, that I'm holding your life in my hands." the fucker joked, laughing as he locked his hand around it "So young, so fresh, so… vulnerable," and squeezed. Sanji jolted in an instant, gasping, choking on his own air.

"Stop it, you freak!" Zoro roared, finally getting some control of his legs, enough to get up on his knees.

Hunter mere glanced his way, then smirked and clenched harder.

"This, my dear Roronoa, is what a heart attack looks like."

Sanji choked, he could see the tears running from those overfloating blue orbs, bristled with panic and horror.

"You're fucking killing him, damn it!"

Hunter smiled at him, replaced the heart into the panting cook's chest, whom gulped with relieve, as his heart were allowed its freedom again. He looked pale, deadly pale, cold sweat bathing his whole trembling body, as Hunter operated further with him, investigated him, before, finally patching him back up, and all along Sanji didn't lose his consciousness. Did it have to do with that injection he got earlier?

He tried again to get further up from his position on the floor. His legs and arms were as if paralyzed, cramping as he forced a movement. Then suddenly Hunter stood before him, pulling off his bloodied rubber gloves, tossing them aside, as he grabbed Zoro by the throat and slammed him against the nearest wall, his large fist closing all the way around his throat.

"Now, it's your turn, Roronoa." It was a promise, and something about those words send a chill down Zoro's spine, as if he'd heard them before, a very long forgotten time ago. The fist clenched, Zoro choked, his hands unwillingly letting go of both of his katanas, one hand forcing its way up to release the fist.

"Don't," Sanji croaked from the table, looking almighty tired, as if at the verge of passing out. No wonder.

"So, this is what I need to break you completely; this youth's dead body, am I right, kid?" Zoro's hand finally reached, trembling tremendously, as Hunter's hand closed tighter around his throat. Any more pressure and the man would break his neck. He tried to pry the hand off, to clench around it and break it, though his strength was returning and his mobility as well, it wasn't enough. His other hand at the same time moved to Shusui's hilt.

Hunter figured what he was up to and flung him across the room; sent him crashing into a chair. Shaking his head, Zoro sat up, but as he looked up, he immediately was tackled by what seemed like a giant tiger, who at once dug its sharp teeth into his throat. Where the hell did that one come from? Groaning in anger and pain, he tried to pry the huge tiger off him, though with no such luck. The damn creature was strong and heavy, or he was still weak, thanks to the drugs.

A rough tongue licked over the bleeding wound, almost as if drinking the blood welling out the deep wound. He kicked it, punched it and kneed it right in its guts, but as he did, he just reserved another bite in his shoulder.

Another needle bit into his other shoulder, liquid was forced violently into his bloodstreams. Zoro glared to his left, seeing the paw now turned into a humanoid hand holding a syringe. Shit! The tiger had now transformed into something in between a human and an animal. The drug worked fast, he felt drowsy and utterly heavy in his body, as the teeth's released his shoulder. Hunter smirked down at him with a literally bloodied smirk. He heard Sanji scream from somewhere… crying, maybe? Over him? Did he think he was dead? Zoro made to move, but soon realised that wasn't an option. He couldn't move, he couldn't lift his hand, not even a finger. Did the cook really believe he was dead?

Hunter pulled away from him, leaving him sprawled on the floor, unmoving. Zoro panted hard, his breathing being forced to a minimum, and watched as the tiger-man walked back to the cook, who was screaming his lungs out to him.

"Marimo! Get, the hell up! Marimo! Zoro! Don't you get near me, you fucker! What have you done? What you've done to him? No! Get -!" Turmoil and suddenly the cook were silent. Ropes where cut, he could hear them snap, then fall to the ground. Things where packed into the bag, while Zoro tried to gain his full consciousness to move, to get back up, to fucking fight!

Forcing and by stubborn willpower, he finally managed to roll over and get back on his knees and hands. Almost crawling up on his feet, leaning heavily against a wall, he saw Hunter, standing by the open window, bag in his hand, and in his arms were Sanji. He didn't move, he didn't speak and he barely breathed, the scarring chest heaving just the slightest, over him was tossed an old blanket, covering him at least a little.

Zoro felt the rage give him a new injection of strength, as he with a roar got up on his feet, grabbed Shushui and in a drunken run dashed at the two. He planned to get away with the cook, he wouldn't allow him that!

Hunter smiled triumphantly and jumped out the window from the second floor.

"NO!" Zoro stumbled towards the window, and was about to jump out the same way, not caring that in his bodily state it would even break his legs or even kill him, but as he got to the window, Hunter was long gone… with Sanji.

Leaving out an animalistic roar of rage, he slammed his fist through the window, crashing it and cut his hand open on a sharp cullet, but not giving a fucking care.

He'd failed.

Zoro glares at his bandaged hand, mind slowly returning back to the present, the cooks name as he screamed it out, still echoing in his mind. He had been so close, yet failed. Clenching his hand into a fist, he watches with weird amazement as blood soaks through the bandages. He hadn't told it to anybody of what he had seen; they didn't have to know it. The blood on the table was enough for Luffy to know that something horrible had happened. He didn't remember when the captain came or how they even got out of there.

They lost the trail of both Hunter and Sanji, because he was too slow, to weak and because Luffy chose to help him, instead of chasing after the two. He didn't blame him though, the option had been slim; loose one, or loose two nakamas. The only one he blamed for all of this, was himself. The distressed look on the cook's face still haunted him, that terrified, lost look. And then his screams. Had he believed he was dead? Those reactions, those desperate agonising screams for his name.

What did they do to him now? Where is he? Is he even still alive? The baker had said that the 'victims' always returned back, but when? And how?

"Oi! Moss-head! Did you even hear anything of what I said?"

Zoro shoots his head up at the same he realises that it isn't the blond. Well yes, blond, but not their blond cook. This one, the one in front of him didn't belong here, and it only infuriated that he looked so much alike their missing cook, almost like a walking humiliation and reminder of how he'd fail to safe the real one.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Don't clutch your hand like that!"

'You're dripping blood everywhere, shit-head! Dry it up yourself before it dries into the table's wood! You any idea of how hard that is to clean?' would the cook had scolded. He misses that annoying womanizing lovestruck fool.

Nicki are next to him, a piece of cloth pressing against his hand, trying to stop the bleeding. "Damn, I think it has reopened again. Shit! You know;"

'Now comes the yelling, and after that the kicking.' Voices Zoro's inner mind.

"You're an idiot. Stop walking around and reopen your wound all the time, it never gets to heal properly that way."

"Hm," is all Zoro says, not pulling his eyes off the drops on the table, feeling the disappointment well up inside of him. Sanji would be pissed if he saw this.

"Hey, stop! Where the hell are you going?" Nicki calls in surprised annoyance, as Zoro suddenly stands and walks to the counter. Zoro finds a piece of clothes and wets it under the running water from the faucet, before returning to the table.

"Have to wash it off before it dries into the wood." He mumbles, high enough for the temporarily replacement-cook to hear.

"Fucking idiot, what about your own wound? Stop being so reckless!"

"He would never allow blood on his table."

Nicki shuts his mouth and looks away, allowing Zoro to do his mundane job. As he finish scrubbing the surface clean, relieved it wont leave any stains, and returns to the sink, he stops and looses himself once more to his thoughts, something he has done quite a lot lately.

A hand dares carefully to rest on his shoulder, before the clothes is just as carefully being taken out of his hands. "Come, let me take a look at that again." It sounds in his ear, and Zoro has once again to remind himself of that it's not the cook, but that cook.

Zoro pulls his hand away, before this Nicki gets the chance to take a proper look on it, he stares at this imitator, hating his clean resemblance of Sanji. It's not the man's fault, he knows, yet he can't stop feeling freaked out in his presence, and it annoyed the hell out of him.

Nicki sighs and throws his arms over the head. "Look, kid, I'm just trying to help you here! I'm not trying to take his place or anything like that! I told you: I got separated from my own crew and I can't find them again! That's why your crew and I came to the agreement that while we're searching for each of our lost parts, I'll be helping you in the kitchen while we'll help each other out! Remember?"

In a flash he has Nicki up against the counter with Kitetsu against his throat. One visible eye widens in fear, yet he still manages to blabber out in a calm voice: "I, I've seen your posters, your bounties – you don't scare me." He chuckles, nervously, "I don't get it. I've seen his poster and I can't see any resembles except his nickname and my last name – unless the artist of the poster has been drunk as hell, then – "

The pressure from the blade increases and the blond winces as it cuts.

"Why?" is all Zoro asks.

Nicki blinks in confusion and utters an idiotic "Huh?" Moving the blade just enough not to capitate him, Zoro grabs the blonds' head and turns it from one side to another, examining it closely. As he moves his fingers to the golden bangs covering the left side of the face, he catches the fearful protest in Nicki's visible eye, there just as fast dies down as he reminds him of the position of the blade, blood trickling down to the neck of that stupid pink shirt. A groan tells, that the blond isn't pleased with the staining. The reaction just like the cook's, whenever he got any hard stain on his prissy shirts.

Carefully pushing the hair aside, Zoro quickly understands why the blond holds his breath and looks shamefully to the side, though only one eye does this, the other… the other is…

Nicki braces himself and tries to calm himself down, while the swordsman stares at his face. No one has ever seen the hidden side of his face, no one ever asked, respected his privacy, or rather discomfort about the subject, like the subject about his shoulder and neck. Somehow it was like they just knew however that could be possible. She hadn't been able to heal it all properly, had no energy left to do so, had already made wonders giving him back his ability to speak, it lessened the pain, the memories, it didn't even hurt anymore. What more could he ask for? Some barely visible scars were nothing from how they'd used to look like. His face though, did she ever see it? He didn't remember, hoped that she didn't, that no one else did.

But this swordsman does, he sees, stares at it. Like they had done, back then. Nicki grabs tighter to the counter, as he tries to steady his own heart. Shit! What now? He curses himself for feeling this vulnerable, like baring oneself completely to a stranger.

Zoro's eyes soothes though, as he tilts his head once again; looking at the nasty scar running over his eye. Nicki gulps at the feeling of the first mates thumb brushing over the rough ripped skin, looking at it in some kind of fascination. He even seems guilty, almost as if he's the culprit. No. no human had done this. Monsters. They had been nothing but monsters. Like them. He trembles at the memory of it, all of it, he can almost feel the knife slashing over his skin, he can almost hear their disgusting laugher, their pity apology for doing that before they attacked him.

And then that other memory resurfaces. The room, the lock-down, the building collapsing, threating to crush them. Luckily the refrigerator had been there, but its contents only lasting for so long with fourteen hungry men, and him. They even began eating the raw meat, since the stoves where out of electricity and gas. And that taste of blood drew them mad, or at least the most of them. Only one dared to protect him, as their hunger turned towards him, only one dared to speak up and where shut down and held back. If he didn't want any of it, he could please shut the fuck up.

Then they'd ganged in on Nicki, their colleague roaring at them to stop, as they attacked him, held him down, tore his clothes off and sank their teeth into his skin. Taking five hungry bites each. He can almost feel it again, feel as they tore it apart, as they feasted on him.

Monsters. Hunger turned people into monsters.

Not quite human, they said, so it was okay, they reasoned, it was okay to do it. He barely remembers how he even survived the cannibalism. Only a roar of anger, screams, curses, something breaking and then the roof came down, crushing them all, somehow, he survived, though breaking his legs and right arm. It took days, he thinks, before he was found. A miracle, they said, they'd thought that they infected had got to him, needed to run blood test on him to make sure if he needed surgery or a bullet to his head.

Nicki shivers and almost misses Zoro's words, as his eyes widens in realisation. "You… you're blind?" Nicki's body tenses and he looks surprised up at the swordsman. He hadn't expected him to talk to him in a that kind of tone. He nods slowly, realising that the blade has already retreated.

"Old… old accident… long story," he just says, ensuring himself that no one else has heard him. Zoro's brow raises slightly, indicating that he doesn't really believe it. Nicki sighs, his heart is pounding, his hands trembling. "I… me and my brother, well, not my real one, we met some bandits when we were little, uhm…" he swallows to wet his throat, Zoro's dark gaze fixated on the left, blind eye. "They w-w-were after my little brother. I-I t-t-thought that I c-c-could pro-protect him. In short we c-came up in a fight with th-them. T-they t-to-took m-me, and uhm," he points to his left side, while thumbing a rhythm against the counter with his other, counting. He hates it when he gets his relapses, he hates it when he can't control his speaking, has to tap a rhythm to be understanded. He takes a deep breath "and did this. They… they took my eye, ripped it out; this isn't a real one." He sighs "And then they took him, left me bleeding… but I was found, just in time… We met again, years after."

"In that world you said you came from?" Zoro asks sceptically, clearly still having a hard time to believe that there exists more than one worlds, or dimensions, even more than one "layer" of each world. He too had a problem to comprehend it all in the beginning he were presented to the facts. "And what about this?" he then ask, pulling the neck of his shirt to reveal that scar." Nicki pulls the shirt back up.

"That's… a complete other story."

The swordsman stares, though, something in his dark gaze has softened, and Nicki realises that he's seen those eyes before, belonging to a different person. Then he nods, letting go of the subject, for once showing Nicki some respect, as if he has pieced the truth together.

"Then why do you look so damn alike?"

"Hah?!" Nicki furrows his brows, looking perplexed at the swordsman, at the sudden change of subject. "Who says that I look alike him? I'm even two years older than him; therefore, I have more the rights to look like this, damn it!"

Then suddenly something strange happens. Zoro piffs, before laughing. Nicki looks on with surprise, as the swordsman returns the katana back into its scabbard and shakes his head. "That is the most stupid explanation I've ever heard." He retreats to his chair to study his bandaged hand again, the smile falters. "Who did he take?"

Nicki sighs and takes a seat opposite the swordsman. He really needs a smoke right now. Running his fingers through his hair, he tells him, what he told the others the first day, apparently, he hadn't been listening. "My little brother, Oliver. Hunter captured him right before my eyes." Nicki grits his teeth by the memory and almost spits in self-loathing, as he speaks. "I failed him! I promised Anna to protect him, even that I couldn't handle. Now it's been three weeks since I last saw him, and I can't… I can't show my face to the other without him…" he stops and lets the unspoken speak for itself.

Zoro is about to say something, but gets interrupted, as someone suddenly call everyone's attention to the deck. Nicki looks surprised around, since he can't find the source to the voice anywhere. Zoro smirks and throws a thumb over his shoulder.

"It's from the speaker," he informs and then Nicki sees the small intercom hanging in the corner.

Suddenly he freezes, as he sniffs the air. "That smell…"

Zoro looks strangely at him and calls, as Nicki jumps from his seat, sending the chair scrambling to the floor. He barely registers the heavy stomps from the first mates boots following him, he just can't believe what his nose is telling him.

He stops abruptly and stares wide-eyed. His nose hadn't tricked him.

Because there, walking towards the ship is a young kid, wearing nothing but a single long dirty shirt, on his head is a straw hat.

"Oliver?" He says, almost in disbelieve. Then he sets off, towards the railing, jumps over it and runs to meet the kid on his way. "OLIVER!" He kneels before him, all shaken, he lays his hands on his way too thin shoulders, thinner than what they used to be, it makes a coil in his stomach.

He tries to get his attention again, but Oliver isn't responding, he isn't even reacting to his presence. Something about his silent nature, sets off all his alarm clocks.

"Oliver? Oliver, please look at me. Look at me kid! Hey, you hear me, bro?" His voice trembles as he shakes him lightly, and finally the kid looks at him from the shadow of his straw hat, its blue ribbon tattered and dirty. Nicki's heart skips a beat as the shadow of the hat reveals a pale, beaten, sunken face. His normal lively eyes are empty. shaken he pushes the fire-red bangs from his face, clutches of dried blood makes it hard. Yet still, Oliver does not react.

They hadn't given him a lobotomy, had they? The mere thought tears out a shameful sob, he can feel the tears, as he with a desperate hope whispers his friend's name again. The fuck had that son of a bitch to Hunter done to him?!

Then, Oliver finally reacts, as he turns his empty blue eyes to his. "Who…" he croaks with a dry voice.

He hears Nami's gasp, Zoro's hiss and Chopper's panicked squeak. He has seen it, the blood running from the thighs, pooling between his legs, soaking Nicki's pants.

He mumbles something incoherent, and then he's off, following the trail of blood. Chopper grabs Zoro's arm before the swordsman even thinks about following the captain.

Nicki blinks. He must have misheard what the kid before him just whispered. Everything stills inside of him. "Wha… what?" he manages to breathe out in disbelief. Oliver stares with his cold empty stare

"Who are you?"

To be continued