I can't believe, that I have 40+ reviews. Thanks so much guys! I have never gotten so many before! EVER! It's so exciting! My only other stories that come a little closer are 'Tashigi's Heart' and 'Starlight Stalker'.
You might not believe this but my favourite fanfiction so far is Tashigi's Heart. :D But I am really enjoying writing this one.
Please let me know who your favourite character is, and give me a scenario to put them into, and who knows it might just come up in the next chapter. :D
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Luffy, Always Bounces Back: Robin to the rescue.
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Chapter 7:
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Nico Robin had been accused of many things, but among the top of all the insults she had received was being called 'a heartless demon' that seemed to be the favourite. However all her friends new the truth. There were times when she would say something sarcastic and uncaring, but that only hid the pain and worry that she had grown up with all the years of her life. They would all act shocked, but then would let it slide. She was Robin, that was all they needed to know. She was their friend and crew-mate.
After having come out from the cave Robin had started looking for Zoro before he got himself too lost. And as always she found tracking the large-footed individual rather easy. The heavy well-built man left a very obvious trail.
Quite a few hours later Robin found her way into the cave and marvelled at it's beauty. After wandering about the pools edges she came across the bundles of green cloth that she recognized all to well. "Zoro?" she bent down and lifted up the top section that was covering his face.
"Well," she paused as she gazed upon the unusual sight before her. "you most certainly did find the fountain of youth." she pulled off the coat-like clothing that Zoro used to cover himself with, his haramaki seemed to have been used as a cushion. She knelt down beside him, but once she had put a hand on his skin she found him as cold as ice.
"I hope he isn't dead." She said to herself and bent over his chest to hear for a heartbeat. "Very faint." she shook her head.
I wonder where his swords are?
"Wake up sleeping beauty." Robin said, she felt the strongest urge to poke his nose and she did until he woke up. He's such a little cutey when he was little.
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Zoro thought he could taste something weird in his mouth and tried swallowing it, but his mouth was dry and his head seemed to ache. He opened his eyes lazily at first, but then was very much suddenly awake. A grown up lady he had never met was staring at him. He shot up into a sitting position and glared at the person who was watching him sleep.
"Who are you old lady?" Zoro's serious dark eyes bore up at Robin keeping his expression of seriousness on his face as he examined her. She was a pretty lady, but there was something in her smile that he really didn't like. Why is she smiling at me like that? She doesn't know me.
'Creepy old lady. Where did she come from and where am I?' At the moment he looked away to take in his surroundings Robin embraced him in a huge inescapable hug.
"You look so cute." Robin said, patting the top of his green head and smiling at the stupidly shocked expression he was giving her.
"Let go of me you creep!" Zoro yelled having been startled.
"Don't worry Zoro I'm not going to hurt you." The creepy smile came onto her face again and Zoro freaked, 'How did she know his name?' and tried even harder to get away. "Look here you go." She let go of him and crossed her arms. Just as Zoro was about to ask who she was again and why she was here, an arm came out of the ground and picked up his haramaki and handed it to him. Zoro went deathly white.
"Witch!" Zoro yelled as he grabbed a hold of his clothes and made a break away. This failed tremendously as he tripped over his own far too long trousers.
Why am I wearing all these big things? Where's Kushiro and the dojo? Where is Kuina?
"Zoro let me help you..."
"No!" Zoro yelled as he very quickly and badly put on his clothes facing her, while watching her every move.
"You don't need to be afraid of me, I'm your friend."
"I don't have any friends!" Zoro growled back.
She held out her own hand to him. Her eyes were a beautiful blue that made him feel calm, but something about her just made him feel nervous. "If you come back with me I'll let you have three bottles of Sake."
He frowned. Was she stupid? He couldn't drink Sake he wasn't... as she smiled down at him he noticed three hands coming back out of the ground and waving at him.
"AAHHHHHH!" he hit her hand away, "I don't care if you act nice or not! I'm not going to be tricked and eaten by a witch!" He jumped over her arms and ran with his oversized clothes as fast as he could toward the door.
That had to be right. How else could he have ended up in this position. She was a witch, and had spirited him away to this place to test him. He had to get back. He had to go.
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"Oh dear." Robin rubbed the side of her temple. "Maybe that wasn't the best way to convince him." Zoro had been the most against her joining up with the crew after all. "Such a suspicious character." she muttered after Zoro.
She sighed and made her way to the lake where she gathered up some of the water in a drinking container. "The doctor will want to see and experiment with this. I wonder how it works." She packed up her stuff and made herself ready to follow her now much shorter companion.
"I hope he doesn't get lost."
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Zoro ran as fast and as hard as he could until he was well away from the cave, and from the witch until he saw a tall person in the distance.
"Hey! Old man! A witch is after me! Help I need to find my way back home!" Zoro yelled to the cloaked man he seemed to be carrying a few swords with him, that was good, he could probably direct him back to the dojo. The striding man stopped and waited for Zoro to catch up with him. But as Zoro got closer and closer he could see that one of the swords he was carrying was one he had only just witnessed defeating him the night before.
"Oi!" Zoro ran toward the old man. "Oi, Old man. Did you know you're carrying my friend's sword? Give it back to me now! She wouldn't want an old weirdo like you to have it."
"I would have thought you'd be sleeping a bit longer than that." The hooded stranger muttered.
"I don't sleep in the day! That's stupid! Now give me Kuina's sword! It's not yours."
"I will if you can tell me it's name." the old guy smirked down at him, as if he knew a secret. Zoro frowned. 'He looks like dad.' Zoro's mind went blank for a few seconds. Name? Does the blade have a name? …. "Um, it's name is … 'Kuina's Sword'."
"Nope," The 'old man' bent down and picked up Zoro by the scruff of his very baggy clothes and swung him over his shoulder carrying him to the edge of the forest. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice."
"OI!" Zoro yelled, kicking and screaming. "Let me go! Right now damn it!" Zoro to his relief was getting freed slowly by all his movement because the clothes he had been wearing beforehand were so baggy.
Unfortunately, the other guy noticed it too. "This won't do." He pulled Zoro off his back and threw him to the ground. Zoro lay there for a few seconds temporarily winded, and whizzing, but wasn't able to catch his breath before the nasty old man had leaned over him and tied him up.
"What are you doing!?" Zoro asked angrily, but had started to get a little scared. He couldn't fight this guy he was too strong.
"I'm just making sure you don't get hurt." the man had wrapped the green kimono tightly around Zoro's body, and then twisted the sleeves tightly around Zoro's arms, folded them over one another on his chest and then tide the sleeve ends around his back. Zoro fought back the entire time, but soon couldn't move. He reverted to screaming.
"SET ME FREE YOU BASTARD! LET ME GO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" His screams seemed to have no effect on the man. As the old man started to rip the hem of the green piece of clothing away.
Zoro still had his legs free, but he didn't have the balance and the freedom to move he tried it anyway and fell over.
"Don't hurt yourself you fool." the stranger came toward Zoro with the two freshly ripped pieces of cloth.
"DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP! SET ME FREE!"
The man bent of Zoro's tiny form and shoved the first ripped piece of cloth into his mouth, Zoro could do nothing to prevent it. He then tied the other across his mouth and knotted it at the back of his head. He had tied it very tight and if Zoro's mouth had been uncovered he might have let out a groan of pain and discomfort.
'What am I going to do? There is no one around. How can I get away?'
"Excuse me Swordsman, but that child belongs with me, and I don't like seeing children being beaten." The woman he had seen before was coming up behind them the look in her eyes had changed.
'Great he was going to get saved by the witch.' The man that had just tied him up threw him over his shoulder like a sack of grain and drew out Kuina's sword.
Zoro's eyes went wild when he saw arms flying up out of the ground everywhere. He wasn't quite sure which one he wanted to win. The witch or the old man.
"I know your weaknesses Nico Robin." The man charged at her, but from Zoro's perspective he couldn't really tell what was going on at all. Except for the fact the man had a lot of strange attacks, there were lots of hands, and they both started to create holes in the ground. Until he felt himself being thrown from the tall man's body. He waited for the hard impact of the ground, but was shocked when he noticed how far he had been thrown.
Zoro would have screamed if his mouth had not been covered as he noticed there was no ground beneath him as he fell.
Zoro saw his life flash before his eyes as he was hurled over the cliff, but then arms came out of the rocks and grabbed a hold of him. He was momentarily relieved, but at the same time became extremely anxious. 'What would the witch do with him?'
He was left hanging there for a few moments and then the hands holding him in place started extending themselves making a longer chain of hands as he slowly descended the cliff.
The witch lady was there waiting for him at the bottom and caught him as her fake hands disappeared. "Are you alright Zoro?" she embraced him as she leaned over his small form. "We have to stick together, there is something far larger and more terrifying than we could have imagined at work here." She untied his covered mouth and smiled down him. "You're safe with me."
Zoro still found it hard to believe that this woman was safe to be around, but she didn't seem to want to hurt him, yet.
"Um, Lady?" Zoro spoke, but didn't look into her face.
"Yes."
"Who are you? And where are we? And how do you know my name?" Zoro was determined not to be taken in my the strange lady again and her pretty eyes. He still didn't trust her, but he needed to get her to untie him first so he could escape. "I need to get back home." he said as he initiated eye contact. He winced, her witch's eyes were to powerful he should have know better. The sharp blue pieced into his soul.
"My name is Nico Robin." she smiled causing her blue eyes to flash with cheerfulness.
"I..." Zoro didn't know what to say he had never met a lady like this before. "I... I promised Kuina that I'd become the world's strongest swordsman." Blue eyes, Blue eyes. "So I can't be eaten by a witch here. Please let me go." The sound of laughter came to his ears and he found himself being embraced by the woman again.
"You look so cute when you're embarrassed." she sat down and pulled him across her lap so that he was facing skywards. "Let me see how much do you need to know?" she thought about it for a little while and then started.
"Okay, Once upon a time there was..."
'What have I gotten myself into?' Zoro sighed as he lay on the lady's lap. He was still tied up so he couldn't move anywhere. He would just have to take it and listen to her story. He scowled as he listened to her story.
But, She really does have nice eyes.
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I hope you liked that chapter. Don't forget to review. :D
