AN: Inspired by a super cool personified swords AU by CodenameZimbabewe-Art. You should definitely check out their art; it is very cool.
Has anyone else noticed that I seem to have a lot of stories that start with 'S'? Hmmm.
Wado is tiny when she first appears before him; her tears are as silver as her hair and moonlight, and they gleam from within with golden fire as they pour down her cheeks. She looks tall, standing above his kneeled body, but he can tell she'd only be about Kuina's height.
Zoro's heart stops in his chest for a very, very long moment.
They look similar; when Wado moves, it is with the same grace that Kuina had. When she kneels in front of him, bends and rests her forehead against his own, says his name with her voice-
His heart beats again, pounding out pain like glass shatters through his blood, and every breath almost feels like it burns.
Koshiro doesn't breathe again for a very long time – when he does it is shallow and painful, like hearing a dead man exhale his last.
He doesn't look at Zoro for a very long time, either. Even after he begins to again, his eyes are always drawn to the sword now against Zoro's hip, or the spirit that shows him how to wield a blessed blade; what it means to have another's life quite literally in your hands.
Zoro leaves before Koshiro starts to look at him properly again – leaves before his old teacher's hands try and pick up Wado's sheath.
Luffy goes after his swords before Zoro can scream at him no!
Before he can shout that no matter what Luffy tries, he will not be able to pick up Wado –will not be able to lift her without burns lacerating his hands and his muscles screaming out in agony at the effort it will take to lift her.
The pink-haired kid's hands fumble against the coarse ropes holding him up, and if only they'd come a few days earlier; then he may've been able to break the bindings himself, and chase after that stupid, reckless pirate before he tried to touch Zoro's swords.
To have a spirit bind themselves to you is a special thing; Wado told him that so many times over the years that it has become his mantra when people have asked to see her. He doesn't mind showing his others, though they still hold places in his heart and he is hesitant to, but Wado is special.
Wado is different.
In swearing her allegiance to him, Wado made it so not a single person bar him would ever be able to wield her lest he gave consent-
Or he died.
Coby is blabbering, like he expects an answer, but though he won't show it Zoro can still feel the hunger pangs try and rip their way through his stomach, like his entire abdominal area has been eaten alive in his starvation.
To this kid, Zoro can tell, Luffy is a miracle; Zoro thinks it'll be a miracle if they even get out of there alive, considering that there are now numerous guns pointed their way.
He asks Wado about it when they are sailing off the island; after Luffy has started to snore and the starlight is all there is to light up their path.
He's special, is all she will say, and there is a laugh to her tone that he's never heard her use before. He'll gather up all the lost and broken dreams that make the seas glitter and the stars shine, and he'll show the whole world that he will make his own come true.
That is all she will say, when he asks what makes Luffy so special, but she sings in his grip for the first time as he fights by Luffy's side; her song one of glory and bravery, of passion and strength and sunlight against the flicker of wildfires when Zoro fights for Luffy instead of because of Luffy.
When Kitetsu changed in the shop, his form shifting from sword to human, Zoro can't hear his name from his new sword's lips over the gasps of the other two in the store with him.
He knows Kitetsu has said it, anyway.
Opening his eyes, he turns and can see Kitetsu move from where he's knelt, standing in a jagged move that screams danger. Zoro's pretty sure that their grins are mirrors; wide and wild, unbroken, untameable.
This'll be a good sword for him.
He extends his hand, and Kitetsu grabs his forearm, and they fit together like Zoro knows they would. Kitetsu shifts back to his sword form and becomes a balanced weight; a blade that Zoro will soon wield to carve blood from body.
Kitetsu sings in his hand, off-key and discordant against Wado, but a call that he can hear none the less. Problem child, he remarks, and hears Kitetsu's gleeful laugh run through his head.
Zoro turns to the girl who picked Kitetsu, and asks her to pick another; the shop keeper interrupts, and when Zoro walks from the store, Yubashiri's smooth notes balance the melody of Kitetsu's blood-hungry song.
Usopp is the first – and last – to try and pick up his swords without Zoro's permission; his nimble, fingertips grab Yubashiri's sheath, hefting the sword for barely a second and Yubashiri is the only one of Zoro's swords that does not sing of battle, yet Zoro can still tell when Yubashiri's melody changes.
Yubashiri sings of snow on mountains, the beauty of the white covering a landscape as far as the eye could see. His song is cold but free, like wind through low valleys and the hidden edge of a snow storm, patient but waiting to envelop all. Yubashiri's song is not one of battle and pride, nor one of blood-hunger and a lust to fight.
His song is the calm of the frozen sea, the danger of being dragged below the surface of the icy cold water and the peace of ice crystals, glittering in the rising dawn of a new day.
But Yubashiri still turns in Usopp's hand, freezes the sniper's fingers so quickly that Usopp can't help but drop him with a scream that echoes above the deck, and Zoro is already hurtling from the bath, ripping the sword from Usopp's grip and moving them as far away from each other as possible.
Yubashiri shifts in his hands, white and blue cloth replacing metal, and his grey snow-cloud eyes are apologetic and afraid. Heedless of the fact that he's not dressed, nor that he's dripping water everywhere as he hurtles up the stairs, Zoro gets Usopp to Chopper before Usopp's scream can even dissipate into the air.
Wado and Kitetsu shift behind him, from swords to humans, and Wado's face is afraid for the man Zoro's started to call his nakama – but Kitetsu's is vicious and gleeful at the pandemonium Yubashiri has caused.
All Zoro can be thankful for is that at least Usopp didn't try to pick up Kitetsu.
He paces outside the kitchen, having been kicked from it as soon as Chopper realised that having a worried swordsman inside also meant having the swordsman's three swords, and Kitetsu, Wado and Yubashiri all watch him move in front of the door, his restless prowling accompanied by the odd growl as he tries to figure out what he's meant to do.
He whirls on Yubashiri, mouth open to yell, to scream, to accuse his sword of anything to make him feel less guilty about having forgotten to tell his new crewmates not to touch his swords, but his mouth won't speak any words, and the sound dies in his throat.
He'd gotten so used to just sailing with Luffy, who doesn't ever show any outward indication that he's even touched Zoro's swords, and Nami who full on stayed away from them, that he hadn't thought to warn anyone else.
He slides down the wall, just outside the kitchen's door, and Nami drops a towel on him as she passes.
Zoro grunts an acknowledgement, unable to trust his voice to speak, and dries himself off slowly; the sea wind has already taken care of most of the water sticking to him, but he wraps himself in it anyway, feels the strain of the fabric against his shoulders as he clenches it with his white-knuckled hands.
He can feel the stare that has locked onto his prone body, and his eyes flick up to see Luffy on the figurehead, just looking at him.
Luffy watches him from underneath the brim of his hat, resting his chin on his hands and gazing at him with something akin to an understanding in his dark eyes.
It's gone fast enough for him to think he's mistaken it, but Zoro knows he hasn't.
Usopp will be fine, Chopper says less than an hour later, and the tense chord he didn't even realise he was holding in his body finally relaxes. What happened, though?
Zoro's eyes flick to his swords, Wado perched on the rails, Yubashiri sitting cross-legged and calm, Kitetsu looking ready to prowl and fight as he leaned languidly next to the both of them, and Chopper looks confused for a moment.
Don't touch my swords, he half-growls, and Chopper looks surprised at the anger and venom in his tone, at the barely-hidden warning to Zoro's words. He's still new to the crew, still doesn't fit in like the rest of them kind-of do, but the fear will be a good reminder, if he ever thinks about trying.
Zoro won't forget to warn anyone else, not after this.
Did you burn Luffy? Zoro asks one day in a tone that doesn't phrase it as a question but still asks for an answer, and Wado swings her legs against the rails, her hair brushed from her face by the sea wind.
She doesn't speak for a while, watching the flag that grins and snaps in the breeze, the clear blue sky stretched wide over her upturned face, the trailing edge of a leaf fluttering overboard from Nami's trees.
Yes, she says, but never elaborates.
Let me, Kitetsu screams in his head, words running like jagged lines from Zoro's arm all the way through his body, and Zoro has never dropped his swords before but he wants too now, when Kitetsu is yelling at him.
His sword pours all the rage and indignity that it has ever felt on behalf of his wielder, the loss of pride as whoever he'd chosen to use him falls before a stronger opponent through Zoro's body. You think I can't lend you the strength to defeat this man!?
I don't want to know what it will cost, Zoro growls back, levers himself up on his elbows and staggers to his feet, and sheathes Kitetsu before the sword can decide to change back in the middle of the fight.
He draws Wado instead, hears Kitetsu's enraged screams in his head, and jumps in front of the cloud blade before it rips through Chopper.
They are all still alive; they are alive.
He wasn't conscious during the moments when the battle got furious and difficult, and for that he's angry at himself, but they are all alive, and that means he can still breathe, though he doesn't know when he began to associate their lives with being able to survive his own.
Wado has turned again, and now sits in front of Isa, letting the young girl braid her short white hair with grass and tiny flowers, before the two of them swing by the fire place and dance with the wolves.
Kitetsu has stubbornly refused to talk to him since the disastrous not-a-battle against Eneru, shifting and stalking away to glare at nothing with Wiper, but Yubashiri has been tiredly leaning against a tree in human form, half against him, half on the huge plant.
You did quite well, he remarks, sounding old and exhausted but nonetheless proud, and Zoro turns his head slightly to see a smile on Yubashiri's lips. Kitetsu may have pride, but it requires more strength to turn down the promise of power than it does to continue fighting with such a thing.
Zoro takes another drink, feels his own grin on his lips as he watches the crew dance around the burning bonfire, and sees Luffy beckon him over. He heaves himself to his feet, holding a hand to his sword. Wanna dance with those dorks?
I have two left feet, Yubashiri replies with a laugh, but gets up anyway.
If you truly believe you are to insignificant to make a difference, then get out of my way, he growls, and sees Usopp flinch in front of him, like Zoro's words were one of his weapons.
Usopp swallows, his knees still clacking together in fear, and suddenly Yubashiri has changed in his hand, bending to sit in front of Usopp cross-legged.
Zoro, he speaks, his voice just as calm a baritone as it always is, and Zoro can see Usopp's eyes open wide at the sight. It's not a common one, that his swords will change in front of one of the crew, and it's even less a common sight that they speak, You are being both unreasonable and unnecessarily prideful.
Zoro grits his teeth, clenches his hand around Kitetsu, and hears Wado's quiet voice in his head, reason where he hadn't wanted any.
He lets Kitetsu's tip drop to the dust, hears the relief in Wado's next melody, and feels like screaming. There is nothing he can do, not now, but it doesn't mean he has to be happy with it.
Usopp's relieved expression as he sheathes Kitetsu and Wado soothes the guilt slightly, and Yubashiri stands without his help, instead giving him a small smile before shifting back to sword form. Thank you, he says, quiet and voice just a bit off, but Zoro doesn't question that tired tone, focussing more on the words.
No, Zoro says back sternly, I should be thanking you.
Yubashiri laughs in his head, and when he collapses to rust in Zoro's hands, Zoro remembers every moment that Yubashiri's quiet strength stopped him from doing something idiotic and stupid because of his temper.
To have three sheathes against his side is a comfort like it's always been, but one of them is too light and his fingertips constantly brush it, like he expects Yubashiri's voice to echo in his head like it always does with every touch; reason and responsibility, wise advice and patience.
To get used to silence again, that slightly wrong notion of Kitetsu's song and Wado's twining together without Yubashiri's to balance them-
Well, he hadn't thought he'd ever need to get used to it, actually.
When the stubbornly annoying children and their mother need his help, however, he almost staggers at how strong Kitetsu's blood lust is now that Yubashiri isn't there. Zoro almost contemplates taking the sword from sheath, just to take out that lingering undercurrent of uselessness that he felt at not being able to save Yubashiri, but leaves Kitetsu be.
Wado is a sad note, low in his head like she can sense his sadness and his anger, and he knows she can, but he doesn't want to think about it. Doesn't want to think about anything but shifting to a stance and sending all these men flying in one smooth stroke – barely a fight, after what he'd just been through, but a distraction that he's thankful for nonetheless.
Zoro doesn't think about how impossible it will be to replace Yubashiri, how to get him fixed again, and as they turn their backs on the city of water to continue their sails on the wide open sea, he doesn't think about what he will do now that the balance he has achieved with that sword is gone.
When you die, Wado whispers to him, as he tries to breathe and stand and fight, we are remade with parts of you.
You see Kuina in me, because that is who I had sworn myself too previously. Kitetsu is wild and angry because he has lost so many times, but never been picked up again because of his curse; Yubashiri will not be remade because you ask it of him.
He carves through Ryuma, nearly feels like collapsing afterwards, but manages to stand and be handed Shuusui.
Do not be afraid, Wado says, Do not be fearful or lonely because he is gone. To have fought with one like you for so long has been his honour, and Yubashiri was tired of the life of a sword.
Shuusui's voice is quiet, at first, the barest whisper of the sea he can hear behind him. Deep blue fabric graces his legs, and his stance is proud and strong, like Kitetsu's but without the constant itch to battle. He whispers softly of storms and the beauty of the sea, of dancing in the rain when water is all that surrounds you, when heat seeps through your bare feet and raindrops make you shiver as they drag down the curve of your spine and drip through your clothes.
But Shuusui's song is still one of battle and pride, one of blood-hunger and a lust to fight.
Shuusui's song is of the deceptive calm to the waves, the danger of being dragged below the surface of the sea, the longing of the ocean as it pulls at his blood.
It does not feel like Yubashiri's strong melody, and Shuusui watches him with sea-shifting eyes, waiting to see what he will do.
Ryuma does not plead with him to take his offer, but it almost feels like that would have been easier. To take the sword on a dying man's wish rather than because of his own will, but though he knows that Shuusui will be a problem child just like Kitetsu, he still holds out his arm, and sees the smirk that pulls up Shuusui's lips when he takes it.
Get along, he orders sternly, but his steps feel off for hours as he gets used to walking to this strange new melody.
It's not bad, but neither is it good.
When Brook has joined their crew and they leave Thriller Bark behind, Chopper constantly asks him if he's fine, because his strides always seem a little off; Zoro seems a little bit different, to the young reindeer.
Zoro squishes Chopper's hat further onto his head, shifts his weight to the right again like he forgets to do, and tells him not to worry.
They arrive at Sabaody before anyone else, and for the first time he has felt worthy enough to draw Wado from her sheath to actually fight with her.
She shifts as soon as he does, stands between him and the men he faces down, and there is anger and betrayal and hurt written like the passages of a book in her eyes.
Fight with me, he asks of her, fight with me because of the boy you claim is made from dreams.
Seconds fall away between them, as they each wait for the other to bend, as Wado tries to read his eyes and figure out the words he means to say but can't, as Zoro tries to tell her those things without speaking and breaking the silence between them.
Fight with me, he asks of her again, quieter and more of a question, and he holds out his arm; sees the edges of Wado's bright smile grow in her eyes once more.
Always, she promises, and grasps his forearm.