The unmerciful sun beat down on bounty hunter Roronoa Zoro's head. Sweat rolled down his forehead in waves. His throat felt like liquid fire. His arms chafed at the points they were bound to the rope The swordsman cast a wary eye around, searching for marines. Finding none, he dropped his guard and sighed. Soon he would be free. A feral grin split across his face.
He would make it. No matter what.
That's when the pain struck. Zoro's mouth opened in a scream but nothing came out, his body convulsed in spasm after spasm as paroxysms of pain coursed through his body. The green-haired man couldn't even breath. Couldn't even think. He had never felt pain on this scale before. The vision in his left eye began to blur and grow faint. A colossal headache pulsated through his head. Strangely, the ends of his fingers began to grow hot.
After what felt like centuries, Roronoa Zoro collapsed into the sanctuary of his own mind.
…
Zoro sprung to his feet, his hand instinctively reaching for swords that weren't there. He spun around in a circle, taking in his surroundings. This only disoriented him further, he was in a black abyss that stretched to the horizon and had no sense of depth. Zoro closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to remain cool and collected.
"Yo."
Zoro swung around towards the voice, fist outstretched in a powerful blow. He saw a hint of familiar green before his fist hit what seemed to be solid obsidian. There was a sharp crack sound and Zoro stumbled back, nursing his injured hand. He glared at the perpetrator. The first thing his eyes focused on was the sword casually held in the man's left hand. His sword: Wado Ichimonji.
"That's my blade," Zoro spat out with venom in his voice, "give it back."
There was a touch of amusement and exasperation in the other man's voice when he responded. "That's what you focus on. Really?"
Zoro nearly choked on his own spit when he focused on the thief's face. It was...himself? No,at second glance, there were differences between them. This man was slightly taller and had a slightly sturdier build. While he wore the same pants and boots as Zoro did, he did not wear the same white shirt and green haramaki..The doppelganger's battle-hardened chest was on full wore a cross pendant over said chest. Various small scars were nicked across his tanned arms, they showed the survival of a myriad of battles. A thin scar had permanently closed the man's left eye. Zoro could also see the beginnings of a scar at the left shoulder and right hip, but they had been obstructed by the most horrific scar of all.
It marred over half of the thief's chest, a large burn mark. It was a light pink colour that contrasted sharply to the otherwise tanned skin tone. It was stretched tightly and there was a few holes in it. Zoro swallowed nervously. By all rights,this man should be dead. "Who are you?"
The man answered with a question. "What's the date?"
Surprised, the date slipped off Zoro's tongue before he could even question why.
The other swordsman closed his good eye in resigned acceptance. "And where are you?"
Biting down a scathing retort, he somehow knew it would not be wise to anger this man, Zoro responded. " I was in Shells Town."
The scarred man nodded as if that was expected. The man's eye snapped open so quickly that it made Zoro jump, there was a determined fire raging in that eye. "In that case you'll be taking a back seat for a while."
Zoro strode forward and clamped his uninjured hand on the thief's shoulder, rooting him to the spot. "You will answer my questions, you will give me back my sword and you will send me back to where I was!" He roared in a mixture of anger and frustration.
The older man tilted his head down to look at him, it inexplicity reminded Zoro of a cat looking at a mouse. "Ask away."
"Who the hell are you?"
The man seemed to seriously mull over this question. "Calling me Zoro would be confusing for the both of us...hmm...how about Bushido?"
Zoro's frustrations reached breaking point. "Why would you be called Zoro? I'm Zoro!"
Bushido only smiled. "Zoro was my birth name but with you here I feel like it would be impractical to use it."
A vein bulged in Zoro's forward as anger pulsated through his veins. "And why, pray tell, would it be impractical to use it now?"
"Because I am you from four years in the future."
Zoro's hand fell to his side limply and he took a step back. "You expect me to believe something like that?"
Bushido gestured to himself and then to the empty void surrounding the two men. "Is there any other explanation for this?"
Zoro racked his brain for any sort of possible reason for this situation. "I've suffered heatstroke and I'm hallucinating."
At this, Bushido actually snorted. "You think we've got that good of an imagination?"
Zoro's anger once again rose to the surface. "Screw you. And what the hell did you mean by taking a back seat?"
Bushido opened his mouth to respond but stiffened, his posture going from slouched to ramrod straight. "I'll be back in a while." The older swordsman promised and, suddenly, the pendant and Zoro's sword began to glow a bright blue. The light encased Bushido and, in a flash, he was gone.
Zoro punched the ground. "God damn it!"
Bushido opened his eyes and, after encasing his arms in Haki, broke free of the wooden post. He instantly focused on Luffy's presence on the horizon, he was at sea approaching the island. It shone like a beacon in an area full of civilians but it was a only a small shard of what Bushido was used to sensing. But he would never mistook that vibrant aura for anyone else.
He took in his surrounding with a grimace. The righthand side of his vision was crystal clear, not a single marr in sight. The left however…
Was a mess.
Bushido could see maybe a fourth of what a normal eye could. Fuzzy outlines being the best he could manage. He snapped shut his left eye. He couldn't let it mess with his depth perception.
The green-haired swordsman cracked his neck and stalked towards the entrance to the marine base. He'd grab his blade and meet up with his captain. He pondered over his current situation as he walked.
His consciousness had been sent back in time to the day he had meet Monkey. D. Luffy.
Bushido was sure that it had something to do with that white poneglyph he had touched in his last moments. Still, he wasn't sure about the details. Could two consciousness's even inhabit the same vessel without side effects? He needed answers.
A shriek brought him out of his musings. Bushido focused his good eye on the shaking marine that was guarding the side door entrance. "H-how did you escape?" The marine demanded to know in a shrill voice. "I'll s-shoot." Bushido absent-mindedly cocked his right hand and swung it into the young man's jaw. The marine crumpled to the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut and Bushido pressed on.
Where was Wado Ichimonji? The swordsman activated Observation Haki and scanned the base thoroughly. He felt out the weakest presence in the building: Helmeppo. He faintly remembered that the arrogant youth had often gone out to the post and had taunted Bushido about his blades.
A blaring alarm rang out, it seemed they had noticed the downed marine or the empty post. No matter. The green-haired man padded up a staircase, taking note of two grunts ahead. He was nearly within grabbing range when they noticed him. They fumbled anxiously for their cutlasses but it was far too late. Bushido wrapped his hands around their necks, primal terror flashing in their eyes, and smashed their heads together.
Moving on, the time-traveler found the pink garish door that led into Helmeppo's room. He jiggled the handle. Locked. With a sigh, Bushido kicked the flowery door in. Helmeppo shrieked and fainted as soon as he caught sight of the determined swordsman.
Bushido's good eye zeroed in on the sword he had inherited from Kuina. He gasped. It was his sword! The katana he had wielded from the quaint waters of the East Blue all the way to the New World and Raftel. The sheath was battered and muddy (and Bushido had always religiously cleaned it) and the hilt showed deep gouges from deadly heart-stopping battles.
Bushido reached out his hand to reclaim what was his. His fingers brushed against the damaged hilt. The Supernova instantly fell to one knee as his mind was bombarded with memories.
A moonlit night over a grassy plain. Two children make their promise.
Slowly dying as the sun beat down and down upon the young man's head. He will survive this.
A large man with a bible in hand stands amongst the rubble. A red translucent bubble shaped like a paw formed. Pain.
Raftel. Rio Poneglyph. Death.
The swordsman forced back the bile building up in the back of his throat with a gulp. That had been unexpected. He warily studied the fallen sword for a moment. He braced himself and shot out his arm to grab the blade again. Knowing it was coming helped squash the flood of memories to the outer recesses of his mind but he still could sense them playing like a flash reel of his life in the background.
Bushido drew the blade and went through a basic kata, focusing completely on the sword. After a minute, he could ignore the stream of his memories completely. Satisfied, he sheathed the blade and placed it at his hip. He'd deal with the problem itself later.
Now to deal with the marines out for his blood.
Bushido took a running leap and smashed through Helmeppo's large window. He observed the shocked faces of an assemplying marine platoon and the seething rage on Captain "Axe-Hand" Morgan's face. Bushido landed just in front of the post he had been bound to only minutes before and smirked. Morgan drew himself to his full height. "Kill him!"
"Sanjuroku Pound Ho!" The green-haired man roared, slashing the very air itself. The slash flew straight towards towards the burly marine captain. The battle was finished before it had even begun.
Monkey D. Luffy absent-mindedly picked his nose as Copy tied the dinghy to the port with rope. "This is suicide," Coby whispered fervently for the umpteenth time.
Annoyed, Luffy bonked the small boy on the back of the head. "We'll be fine," he reassured the pink-haired marine-to-be, "I'm sure I'm stronger than this demon guy anyway."
"You don't understand," Coby hissed, "this man has left a trail of blood in his wake wherever he goes. They call him the devil reincarnated."
Luffy dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand. "Rumors over-exaggerate things, I'm sure he's not that bad."
Copy huffed but didn't press the issue any further. The dup began the trek up the main street of the town. Luffy looked around curiously at the merry people crowding the streets and shops. "These people seem very happy for a town housing some sort of monster in disguise." The rubber man muttered thoughtfully, scratching his chin.
"Well he's probably locked up underground in some sort of maximum security facility," Coby responded unconvincingly.
Luffy hummed before tapping a drunk man on the shoulder that was passing by. The red-faced man turned to them with a goofy grin plastered across his face. "Yeah?" .
"Have you heard of Roronoa Zoro?"
The drunkard let out a hearty laugh. "Looking to thank the man of the hour, eh? He was in Ririkia's bar last I saw of him."
"Man of the hour? Bar?" Coby questioned with widened eyes.
The man looked down on them, shock visible on his face. "Holy hell! Did you not hear the news? That Zoro guy killed Morgan about half an hour ago." The drunk staggered away from the duo leaving them to absorb this new information.
Coby's jaw hung open, the boy was flabbergasted. "W-why are the celebrating the murder of an esteemed man?" And where the hell are you going, Luffy?"
"Gonna speak to this Zoro guy," Luffy called back over his shoulder, "you coming?" Coby hurried after the black-haired boy, desperate for answers.
They soon arrived at the bar in question, they could hear the sound of clinking glasses and booming outside from the inside. Luffy pushed open the door and strode inside, his eyes glancing to and fro as he searched for the potential crew member. A gaggle of men were crowded around a table. At that table, a single man sat and Luffy instantly knew this was the guy everyone was talking about.
The man in question wore dark green pants and boots, a green haramaki, a white shirt, an eyepatch over his left eye and a green bandanna was tied around his right bicep. Oh, and his hair was green!
Luffy's eyes lit up at the sight. "So cool," he whispered taking in the unnatural hair colour. The sound must've reached the other man because the swordsman looked up sharply. Their eyes met and the green-haired man smiled.
Luffy felt a thud as something hit his back, he realised he had paused just inside the doorway and Coby had walked into him. He apologised and moved to the side to the the pink-haired boy walk forward. "Can I help you?" A gruff voice asked, the man had managed to move from his table to in front of Luffy in the blink of an eye. Coby shrieked and took a step back.
Luffy studied the man for a moment. "Roronoa Zoro?" He asked after a moment's pause.
"Yup," Zoro answered, "who's asking?"
"Monkey D. Luffy," he replied, future King of the Pirates."
"And what does the future King want with a bounty hunter?"
"Firstly, why did you kill the marine?"
"He was corrupt and ruled the town with an iron fist, the entire town feared him," Zoro answered promptly. Luffy took note of the nodding heads and raised mugs around the bar.
A grin broke across the rubber boy's face. "Then join my crew!"
"Sure, why not?"
Luffy laughed.
.
