Bushido was loathe to admit how powerless he was in this situation. He had no way to get in contact with his foolish younger self and he didn't want to remotely try and force control: the human mind was a fragile thing after all.

He estimated that it had been an hour, give or take, since he had awoken to find himself trapped. Who knows how much damage the younger Zoro was causing in the real world? Potentially, the headstrong swordsman could cause a lot of heartache for him.

Arlong Park was a sensitive matter. It was a horror of Nami's past and also the moment the Straw Hat Pirates had officially became a single working organism, rather than a ragtag group of nobodies working together. Bushido could still vividly remember the walk to Arlong Park, his spine shivered as he remembered the way their footsteps has fallen into synch as they had marched down that dusty road to save Nami.

He ran a hand through his short green hair and sighed, he just had to hope his younger self kept his damn mouth shut. It was a fool's hope. He remembered the lack of tact he had had, and still did to an extent, back then. The chances were slim to none.

The all encompassing darkness seemed to shimmer and bend as the man of the hour appeared a few metres away, Wado Ichimonji landing beside one..

Bushido strode over and assessed his younger self with a frown on his face. Roronoa was out cold. There was no way of telling how injured one was in the mental plane but if Bushido knew his younger self, and he did, then Zoro was probably badly injured.

Bushido forced himself from reaching out and taking back Kuina's sword for himself. He just knew that his body wasn't ready for use yet. No way in hell after the wound from Mihawk and whatever damage Zoro had done since.

As much as it pained him, he was going to have to rest. A week, he decided with a frown, he'd wait a week. There was the chance that Zoro had left the crew and, if so, Bushido would need the weeks rest to push his body to catch up to Luffy.

And the raised another problem. He had no way of knowing how long a week was. Guess correctly and Luffy would be at Loguetown but guess incorrectly and wake up with a body too injured to move or a world where Luffy had already reached Sabaody and the crew was separated. Everything could rest on Bushido guessing time correctly.

His eye snapped to his younger self as a groan reached his ears, the nineteen year old was sitting up and rubbing his face. Bushido's hand snapped out and picked Zoro up the hem of his white shirt. The younger swordsman's eyes widened as Bushido growled. "What did you do?"

Zoro's eyes reduced to slits, a familiar cold steel appearing in them. "I did nothing," he snarled, futilely trying to pry apart Bushido's fingers, "let me go."

Bushido's hand crawled upward, moving from the shirt's hem to the edges of Zoro's windpipe. "Did you leave the crew?"

"Find out for yourself, asshole."

Bushido's hand, now fully wrapped around Zoro's neck, closed. "Don't test my patience. Now answer the question."

"Maybe." It wasn't a gruff avoidance of the question. Zoro was, as far as Bushido could tell, telling the truth. He honestly didn't know if he had left the Straw Hat Pirates. Bushido threw him a few metres across the void.

"How do you not know if you left a pirate crew!"

Zoro sat up, rubbing his throat and glaring. "A lot happened in a short amount of time, okay?"

"Ah, yes." Bushido's voice was deceptively pleasant. "And how did Arlong Park go?"

A shimmer of emotion entered Zoro's eyes but was gone before Bushido could identify it. "That Luffy kid is interesting. I sorta see why you followed him."

"Did you fight against the Arlong Pirates?"

"Yeah." His younger self answered in monosyllables, unwilling to part with the information.

"Of course you did. I assume you lost?"

"No," Zoro said, "I just about won."

"You beat Hatchan in your body's condition?" Bushido felt a grudging respect at the achievement.

"The octopus Fishman? Yeah, I killed him."

And just like that, the respect was replaced with all-consuming rage. Before he knew what he was doing, he had pinned Zoro beneath him with a roar. "Do you know what you have done, you fool?" He hissed.

"Get the hell off me!" In his anger, Bushido had left himself wide open. Zoro's leg shot up and sunk into the older man's gut. Winded, Bushido fell back with a curse.

"This is why I didn't want you in control!" Bushido ranted after regaining his balance, "the smallest change has far-reaching consequences!"

Zoro sneered. "Don't exaggerate, that guy was just a henchman."

Bushido clenched his shaking hands, his nails digging into his palms. "Don't speak of things that you do not understand, boy." The last word was said with utter loathing.

Zoro's eyes darted to the discarded Wado Ichimonji, it now lay in between them. "Screw this." Zoro said, and dived for the katana.

Bushido Soru'd in front of it and held out his arm, letting Haki form over it. The familiar crunch of bones breaking filled the air as Zoro's face made contact with Bushido's forearm. The younger man crumpled to the ground, unconscious. "Shit," he muttered softly, his mind racing. What were the consequences of being injured inside the mental plane?

Bushido sat down cross-legged, and rubbed his face. He once again fought back the urge to take his sword and awaken, consequences be damned. But he needed the extra time to bode.

And he had a lot to bode over.


Nami tried to her best to enjoy the sights and sounds of Loguetown, with its loud merchants and their vibrant wares.

She really tried.

But she just couldn't. Everytime she tried on clothes or bartered with shopkeepers it happened, the image of Zoro's confused face as she explained where they were and who she was popped into her head. She had tried to block the images out but they'd only come back with a vengeance: with Zoro's cold, murderous eyes (the ones used on only his enemies) staring at her from the back of her mind.

Zoro had seemed so angry, so furious. Angry at her, angry at Arlong, angry at the world. Rage had seemed to pour off him in waves and Nami was reminded of the old tales of Roronoa Zoro.

The Pirate Hunter is a monster, plain and simple. Blood flows in his wake like a river, sanguine fluid coating all. His multiple swords slice and dice through objects like butter. Mountains, forests, towns...people, it matters not to Roronoa Zoro.

It had been hard for her place Zoro, the gruff pirate who had a secret soft side, with the Pirate Hunter, the demon who bathed in corpses. But in the moments after Zoro had woken up, Nami had known. If Zoro had been healthy enough to bust out of his chains, he would've destroyed Arlong Park and her by extension.

She had tentatively broached the topic with Luffy as the teen had sat by Zoro's bedside. Luffy had looked confused, his head tilted to the side, and had said that he hadn't noticed anything odd with Zoro. Though, he admitted, he hadn't interacted with the swordsman much during the incident.

So Nami had turned her attention to Sanji, recognising the shoemark on Zoro's face to belong to the cook. Sanji had poured her some lemonade and shrugged his shoulders and said that he didn't know Zoro well enough to comment on any odd behaviour but that green-haired swordsman had made an odd joke. When pressed, Sanji had frowned and said he had called him Luffy and said he was leaving the crew.

Horrified, Nami had turned to the last of the crew. Usopp had known Zoro for a while and had interacted with the amnesiac version. Usopp had been fiddling with some metal when she had approached him with questions. The sniper had put down his materials and sighed. He was serious, Usopp had murmured at such a low volume that she had nearly missed it, Sanji took it as a joke but it wasn't it all. He was deadly serious and that scares me.

Nami was full to the brim with questions but Zoro slept on and on. It had been a week now and he still wasn't awake. Though, his wounds seemed healed now so it was only a matter of time. Nami just hoped that it was Roronoa Zoro who woke up.

And not the Pirate Hunter.


Instinctively, his hands were grasping at his bandaged covered body before he had even opened his eye. He opened them and immediately closed them because of the shaky double vision that came from having a blurry eye. Covering the offender with his hand, he found his stereotypical pirate eyepatch on the dressing table. After putting it on and double-checking that he had ripped off all the stained bandages, he looked at himself in the mirror.

He was dressed only in a pair of briefs, which gave him a great view of his toned body and its new additions. First was the scar from Mihawk's wound, an ugly beast that covered the centre of his chest. It ran deeper than his old one and he frowned when he tapped it, the muscles were weaker there and would have to be retrained. Surprisingly, there were a second set of scars…

These were more reminiscent of the type Mihawk had given him in the old timeline, long but not as deep. They started at the back of his shoulders and were deepest there before thinning out as they headed towards either side of his neck. It looked like he had nearly been decapitated

Bushido had a sinking suspicion that that was exactly what had happened.

He had more important things to dwell on however and so he walked onto deck, after grabbing his sword. A glance at the scenery assuaged all his fears. He was aboard the Going Merry and Loguetown was stretched out in front of his eyes. By the position of the sun in the sky, he figured that it was still early in the day.

Activating his Haki, he let it wash over the port town in front of him. He quickly deactivated with a hiss, hands automatically going up to cover his face. His balance shot, he wobbled and nearly fell over. He had been expecting to easily find the familiar aura's of his crew and the Buggy-Alvida Alliance but, and it was a big but, he had forgotten one rather important detail.

Monkey D. Dragon. Or rather, Dragon's strength.

The Revolutionary Army's Leader aura encompassed the entire town, its blinding light destroying any chance of finding anyone in the town. Bushido cursed as Plan A crashed and burned before it even began. He liked Plan A too. The idea of defeating Buggy and his cronies, nabbing his swords, getting Luffy to the ship and talking to Dragon before Smoker noticed would've been satisfying.

Ah well, newly minted Plan B it was. Plan B aka "Get swords and just camp out at execution stand until Luffy arrives".

Bushido quickly used Soru to flicker to the town's main street. Two things immediately came to his attention. One, a port town had no lack of weapons shops. And the familiar call of his swords were being blocked out by Dragon. And two, as the sudden silence and plethora of horrified gazes assured him, he was still only dressed in a pair of briefs.

To make a bad situation worse, his landing had toppled someone over. A someone who was on eye level and only an inch from his crotch. A someone who happened to be Tashigi. Bushido mulled over his options for a half a second.

He bolted.

"Get back here, pervert!"


Nearly an hour later, Bushido collapsed against an alley wall. Sweat pouring down his body, he gasped and clutched at his knees. He had managed to snatch a simple pair of denim pants, sandals and a black t-shirt from a vendor during the chase.

Tashigi had been very persistent in her desire to apprehend him, calling in an entire platoon of marines to help bring him down. Bushido was honestly shocked that the mass hysteria hadn't made Smoker appear. Bushido could only theorise that whatever Luffy was up to was causing even more problems.

Bushido had also passed a gaping Usopp, who had spluttered out "Zoro?" As he watched the red-faced Tashigi chasing after him screaming that she was going to cut his junk off even if she had to chase him down to the ends of the earth.

Chasing him down to take Wado Ichimonji in one life.

Chasing him down to lob off his family jewels in another.

To-mah-toe.

To-may-toe.

Bushido grinned as he spotted a shop from the edge of the alley, from this distance he could heard the whispering beckons of his blades over the interference from Dragon's aura.

Yubashiri.

Sandai Kitetsu.

A reliable katana reduced to a rusty stub, left at the monument to the Rumbar Pirates at Thriller Bark.

A cursed blade that had killed all of its owners until Bushido, a sword he had lost in the massacre that was Hitsuzen.

Entranced, Bushido shuffled towards the shop with hungry eyes. His fingers were brushing against the door handle when a stray comment from a civilian pricked his ears.

"Hey, did you hear some kid is standing on the execution platform? Let's check it ou!"

Shit.

Smashing the door off its hinges in his haste, he sprinted into the small shop. The shopkeeper with a runny nose immediately pulled out his sword. "You'll pay for that, hooligan!"

Bushido's fist was already smashing into his face. The man fell to the ground, dead to the world for the next few hours. "Sorry," he said, "I'm running low on time."

He grabbed Yubashiri first, the sword seemed to hum in his hands. Evidently it had no problems with its new owner.

Next, he grabbed Sandai Kitetsu. The katana was instantly in his head and screaming about death and destruction, promising pain and bloodshed. "Shut the hell up," Bushido growled, his killer aura causing the room to grow cold. The blade seemed to mentally whimper and grow quiet, deciding to pick its battles.

Bushido nabbed three sheathes on his way out and put his three katanas into them before using Soru to head for the town centre. Despite the tenseness of the situation and the storm clouds now hanging in the sky, he felt a soft smile appear on his face. The weight of three swords at his side was welcome.

The smile turned into a grimace as he landed on the rooftop across from the execution stand. He was too late. Lightning was already streaking down from the sky and the green-haired man watched as the platform glowed a blinding blue before collapsing into a pile of metal.

Bushido had already hit the ground running, pushing and shoving to get to Luffy before Smoker had time to mobilise. In a surreal moment, he pushed aside a man with a mane of green hair and facial piercings. The future user of the Bari Bari no Mi, Bartolomeo. Second Division Commander of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.

Ignoring the flash from the past (or was it the future?), Bushido easily hoisted the bemused rubber teen over one shoulder and put the strawhat across his back. He roared to a shocked Sanji to follow him. Luffy hopped off his shoulder a few seconds later and the trio dashed down the street towards the docks.

Bushido drew his blades as he spotted smoke condensing at an intersection ahead. "Run ahead," he told Sanji and Luffy before sending a simple air attack at the smoke, no Haki involved. The marine captain easily avoided the attack and took Bushido's bait, flying at him with his jitte. Luffy and Sanji easily running past, their paths free of any obstacles.

Haki coated his swords and Smoker barely had time to widen his eyes and put his jitte in his defensive position before Bushido was upon him.

"Rengoku Oni Giri!"

Jitte shattered, a bleeding Smoker collapsed to the ground. Bushido calmly sheathed his swords and grinned. It felt good to be able to use Santoryu again.

Now onto the last order of business. Bushido quickly Soru'd to a rooftop three blocks away. "Hello," he greeted.

If Monkey D. Dragon was surprised at getting his personal space invaded, he didn't show it. "Boy," he said, "I see you know Haki."

"Yeah, but excusing pleasantries if you would, I'm short on time. I have something important to tell you."

"Go on."

"It's about a boy who came into your vocation about ten years ago. Or more so, about his family. His brothers to be precise."

Dragon was silence, his eyes glittering.

"I am, of course, talking about Sabo."