Zoro watched as Luffy and Sanji donned ridiculous diving suits crafted from barrels. Usopp stood by them and patted the side of Sanji's barrel. "There are no flaws in my design!" he boasted proudly, grinning widely at himself. Zoro only barely listened as the sniper quickly explained how the two divers could communicate with the ship from in the barrels.
Nami approached the three of them with her hands on her hips. She glanced to both Sanji and Luffy in turn before addressing them together. "Ready to go?"
Sanji just nodded while Luffy threw his arms into the air with an exclamation of, "Yeah!"
"Get going then!" Nami commanded, though with a smile, as she pointed at the sea.
She, Usopp, and Chopper, went to man the strange contraption that fed the air hoses to the two males while Sanji and Luffy dove under the waves. Seconds later, Luffy's voice reached their ears. "Cool! Sea snakes!"
"Did we dive into a nest or something?" Sanji demanded, not sounding anywhere near as thrilled as their captain.
While Nami replied to them, shouting for them to stay focused, Zoro stared off into the clouds. He probably could have ignored Robin's presence by his side… had she not decided to speak. "What Crocodile said during your fight with him…" she started slowly.
"Don't," he cut in sharply. He remembered full well what Crocodile had said, and he had no desire to have it brought up again.
"This is important." He turned his head slightly to look at her. "You don't remember what happened after that conversation, do you?"
No, he didn't, and he was pretty sure she knew that. The very next thing he remembered after that conversation was waking up, standing over Crocodile's dead body. After that, he'd grabbed Luffy, hauled his rubber butt out of the collapsing underground tomb or whatever the hell it was, gone back inside for whatever reason, grabbed Robin and hauled her out of trouble as well, retrieved Luffy, and then, leaving Robin behind, he'd headed back to the others. Not long after stumbling across Nami, everything went black. He assumed that that was when he'd collapsed. Beyond that, that whole portaion of the day was a blank. He remembered nothing of the fight. "What's it matter?" he finally asked.
"It does," she replied solemnly.
"It doesn't," he muttered.
"It does," she insisted.
"It doesn't."
She was quiet for a moment before posing an entirely new question. "What is the name of the Sky Island?"
"Skypiea," he replied immediately. He frowned then, and said, "It said that on the map."
She smiled. "You'd be surprised what a person can learn through looking into another's eyes." She must have seen his puzzlement for she then added, "You knew what it was called before even looking at the map. I could see it in your eyes."
"Hmph," he murmured somewhat moodily, looking away. He didn't like this conversation at all, and he wished that it would just end. He didn't understand why she'd brought it up in the first place.
"I wasn't completely unconscious," she said suddenly, causing him to look back to her sharply. "I saw what happened to you in there."
He stared at her for a long moment, trying to decide whether or not he actually wanted to know. Finally, he looked away again. "I don't care what happened." With that, he turned and walked away.
We'll have to go to Jaya. That's the key to getting to the Sky Island. A soft knock on Nami's door pulled her from her thoughts. She looked up from the papers on her desk and turned slightly in her chair. "Come in."
The door opened and Robin stepped in. "May I speak with you?"
Nami blinked. "Of course." Robin closed the door softly and sat down on the bed. She seemed to be trying to gather her thoughts, so Nami stayed quiet. After a few minutes of silence Robin seemed ready to speak, but another knock interrupted her before she could even begin. Nami sighed. "Come in."
Sanji entered with a tray in hand and a wide smile on his face. "I brought drinks!" he announced cheerily, though that mood quickly faltered when he saw Robin's serious expression. "What's wrong?"
Robin gestured with a slow sweep of an upraised palm for him to sit down. "You should probably hear this as well."
With a bemused glance at Nami, he set the tray down on her desk and sat down against her closed door. Nami looked back to Robin. "What do you need to speak with us about?" she asked.
Robin met her gaze evenly, though there was a hint of something in her gaze that she didn't seem willing to admit to. It wasn't uncertainty. Nami wasn't sure what it was. "I know what happened to Zoro."
Nami and Sanji both froze as they stared at her in shock. Sanji, however, recovered quickly. "How?"
"I was there," Robin began, "when the fight between Luffy and Crocodile began. I had been stabbed by Crocodile, but I was conscious." Nami frowned. She'd heard of how the other woman had been attacked for her betrayal f the Warlord. "Severl minutes into the fight, Crocodile used a smaller hook concealed underneath the gold one he wore to poison Luffy." The fact that Luffy had been poisoned was common knowledge as well. Chopper, as well as everyone else, had been quite concerned over the severity of the poison. "Luffy managed to stay awake for a few minutes longer, but he eventually collapsed."
"He only lasted a few minutes?" Sanji frowned.
"The poison was very strong," she replied. He nodded, and she continued. "Just as Crocodile was about to deal the final blow, your swordsman rushed in and stopped the hook with one of his swords."
"He'd said that he had a bad feeling," Nami helpfully supplied. "I guess he sensed that Luffy was in danger."
"That guy is perceptive," Sanji conceded, "I'll give him that much."
Looking down into her lap and staring at her hands, Robin continued as though she had never been interrupted. "As the fight progressed, Zoro quickly grew more and more… angry."
Sanji scoffed. "That's nothing new. He loses his temper all the time." Despite his word, however, Sanji couldn't quite keep the frown off of his face, hinting at how troubled he was. It's true that he loses his temper all the time, but… that never really happened during battle.
"Or at least he used to," Nami amended. Then she turned to look at him. "Fr that matter, you do the same thing." Sanji seemed prepared to ignore that comment, so Nami huffed and returned her attention to Robin. "Why is this so important?" she asked.
"Since Alabasta, we have all observed changes in his behavior and, perhaps, even his personality," Robin answered. "Correct?"
"Yes," Nami nodded. That was the reason why she was so worried all the time nowadays. She swore she was going to have a stress-related breakdown or something if this kept up.
"Those changes all began when his anger reached a breaking point during that fight." The tension and seriousness in the room was so sharp that it was almost palpable. "Something in him snapped and, in that moment, when that happened, he changed." She paused, then added, "It was more than just his behavior."
"What do you mean?" Sanji demanded.
"At one point during the fight, Crocodile tried to distract Zoro by pointing out how badly injured Luffy was." Sanji snorted then, clearly communicating how unlikely he thought it was that such a tactic would work. "However, when Zoro glanced at Luffy… the look in his eyes… it was as if Zoro didn't recognize Luffy. As though he had no idea who Luffy was."
Sanji visibly tensed and Nami's eyes widened, though a horrified frown kept them from truly opening all the way. "But that's not possible!" Nami exclaimed. "Zoro's been with Luffy the longest, so of course he'd recognize-"
"But he didn't," Robin cut in smoothly.
Sanji gritted his teeth. "You're sure?'
She nodded once. "Yes."
He sighed heavily, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the door. "Damn…"
"There was one more change," Robin said after a moment's pause, prompting the cook to open his eyes once more. Once she had their attention once more, she continued speaking, her gaze shifting inward. "When he snapped, there was a physical change as well."
"Physical?" Nami asked quietly. She almost didn't want to know… but she had to. It would never leave her alone otherwise.
Robin nodded again. "His eyes changed."
"Changed how?" Sanji demanded.
"His pupils elongated," she said. "They became slits, like an animal's." Sanji and Nami's own eyes widened as Robin murmured, "His eyes were no longer human."
Long, impossibly tense moments of silence passed before Sanji just burst out," Why the hell didn't you tell us sooner?!"
Nami jumped, shocked by his outburst, and turned her wide-eyed gaze on him. Sanji never yells at women…!
Without waiting for a response, Sanji stood and, throwing the door open so hard that it slammed into the wall, he stormed off into the night.
Posted 04-25-15.