This is part one of a five-part series, exploring what would have happened if Zoro joined Baroque Works when he was asked to ages ago. Because I like AU speculation like woah.

Title: Baroque Works Saga: Hit-man
Theme: #21: Solitude
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 3,199
Rating: PG (mostly for safety's sake)
Warnings: AU-ness. Some islands and events are mildly different. And a meaner Zoro than usual, 'cause he was kinda gruffer before Luffy recruited him and obviously that didn't happen here.
Disclaimer(s): I do not own, or pretend to own, One Piece or any of its subsequent characters, plots or other ideas. That right belongs solely to Eiichiro Oda. I do not own the prompts either—those are assigned by 30_OnePiece.

Zoro frowned in irritation as something tingled at the back of his mind. His senses, always on full alert even at the calmest times, were especially heightened while he was running through his katas, and he knew with absolute certainty that someone had entered his home. He scowled. He hated when his training was interrupted. The intruder had better have a good excuse, or they were going to find themselves at the business end of his katana.

He looked up impatiently, staring in the direction he knew, without a shred of doubt, that the intruder would be entering from. He was standing in the small courtyard-like garden of the house that had been given to him ever since he'd climbed the ranks in Baroque Works, where he usually did his training, and there were only two ways to get in or out. The intruder wasn't by the back gate, so they were obviously walking through the house. He'd see them at the door in just a moment.

Sure enough the intruder walked plainly into view seconds later, and Zoro let out an annoyed snort, dropping the points of his precious katana slightly—but only slightly. Miss All Sunday might technically be a co-worker, but he didn't trust the woman as far as he could throw her. Something had always seemed off about the woman to him, like she wasn't completely devoted to the organization they worked for. He wasn't exactly a people person, but he was pretty good at reading opponents—or potential opponents—and she had that distinct, ruthlessly cold feel to her that said clear as day she would do whatever she had to to benefit herself. Or at least, it was clear to Zoro. He suspected she had her own agenda and her own reasons for joining Baroque Works.

But then, he wasn't exactly one to talk. After all, he'd only agreed to join Baroque Works after killing three of their messengers and making it perfectly clear that he had his own agenda, too. They desperately wanted his strength, and he had eventually agreed to give them it, at a steep price: the moment it started boring him, and he was no longer given tough opponents to test his strength against, he would kill them and leave. He was only with them at all because Baroque Works promised encounters with a slew of dangerous pirates, and assignments to defeat or kill those pirates—more often the latter than the former—would only push him to get still stronger for the moment that he would finally take that title for himself and Kuina. Plus, rumor had it that the mysterious Mr. 0 had a wide network of connections, including at least one contact with the Shichibukai, which would give Zoro a chance to find the infamous Dracule Mihawk—the greatest swordsman in the world.

So Zoro had agreed, and Baroque Works had enthusiastically absorbed him into their organization. They gave him almost anything he wanted, in exchange for his massive strength: difficult, challenging battle missions, a pair of high-quality ryo wazamono grade swords when his old, nameless pair finally shattered, an extremely generous allowance that provided for all the booze he could possibly want. They had even supplied him with a house on an abandoned island only one over from headquarters, so that he could spend his free time in the solitude he frequently craved, sleeping or training without obnoxious underlings tripping underfoot—the house he was in now.

It was a pretty good deal, but Zoro didn't hide for a second that it didn't buy his loyalty, just his strength, and the pansy-ass higher-ups knew it. They kept him satisfied with his fights, and knew the fine line they were walking by keeping him on the payroll. So he couldn't blame Miss All Sunday for having her own agenda either, and didn't begrudge her that, nor did he care enough to go tattle on her to her superior. It wasn't his problem, and he wasn't going to do the office's job for it. He'd just keep an eye on her for his own reasons—after all, people with their own agendas were dangerous, and Miss All Sunday didn't get her current rank by being a pacifist.

She walked delicately down the back steps into the garden now, approaching him without a shred of hesitation or worry. There was a hint of an amused smile playing at her lips as she drew nearer, high heels clicking on the stone slabs set out neatly as a walkway. He let her come, watching calmly but remaining alert as ever, and his only concession to her approach was to remove Wado Ichimonji from his mouth and sheathe it.

"Mr. Bushido," she greeted, as she finally came within speaking distance, and folded her arms casually across her chest. She too possessed the same calm alertness that he did, and Zoro had to respect her for that. Miss All Sunday had always been intelligent enough to know when someone was dangerous, and when caution was necessary. She was definitely a skilled fighter, unlike some of the other battle-crazed idiots down the chain of command who didn't know when to give it up.

He nodded in recognition of his Baroque Works title. He was a bit...unique, in the Baroque Works organization; something of a lone wolf, separate from the rest of the pack, acknowledging that he was a part of them just barely but always working alone when he could. His rank was one of the many ways he'd established that. Technically, it was somewhere between Mr. 0's and Mr.1's—Zoro had fought his way up the ranks very quickly upon being inducted, including a vicious defeat of Daz Bones and his blade-like Devil Fruit that had put both of them in the infirmary for a week. But although he'd managed to effectively establish his level of strength in the company, he'd flat-out refused to take a ridiculous number code name, or have that corresponding number tattooed into his skin or sewn into his clothing like all the other idiots did. The office had tried to convince him on that point, but he'd refused, and after he'd finally started resorting to violence to make their incessant yapping stop they'd backed off. They had insisted on a code name, however—it was vital to the way the company worked, they'd stated—and ended up labeling him after his swords. He'd relented—at least Mr. Bushido wasn't a stupid number name.

"All Sunday," Zoro said curtly in response. "Company business, I'm guessing?"

"Of a sort," the woman answered cooly. Her brown eyes watched him carefully from the cast shadow her purple cowboy hat threw across her face. "There have been some...difficulties...with some new arrivals in the Grand Line. A small pirate crew is assisting the princess Nefertari Vivi, escorting her back to her homeland of Alabasta. They caused severe problems on Whiskey Peak very recently."

Vivi...that had been the rat, if Zoro recalled correctly...the girl who thought she'd snuck into the company undercover with that servant of hers. Zoro wasn't really clear on the details. Politics had never mattered to him much. "Let me guess. Those idiots at Whiskey Peak got themselves trashed."

Miss All Sunday looked the tiniest bit amused at his blunt statement. "In essence, yes," she answered. "They tried their usual scheme, but it seems their navigator, at least, does not succumb as easily as they expected in drinking contests. I suspect she could give you a run for your money, Mr. Bushido."

Zoro snorted. He doubted it. He finally sheathed his other two swords, snatched up a towel from the bench nearby, and began drying off; he had a feeling an assignment was coming. "It figures. The morons stationed there are all small fry, anyway. If they have to resort to trickery in order to catch pirates, they shouldn't be bounty hunters to begin with. They'll get themselves killed in the end."

"Some of them did," Miss All Sunday answered cooly. "You are blunt as ever, Mr. Bushido." He shrugged, and she continued, "I spoke to the crew as they escaped the island—"

"You spoke to them? Why didn't you finish them off?" Zoro narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously.

Another hint of a smile, like she found speaking with him amusing, like she knew something he didn't. "Call it curiosity. The captain is a most amusing man. Straw Hat Luffy, his name is...captain of the Straw Hat Pirates." There was a small flurry of petals as a third hand blossomed from the woman's side, delicately plucking an object from the bag slung over one shoulder while her two natural arms remained folded across her chest. Zoro willed himself not to react when she used her Devil Fruit power—it unnerved him, because he still hadn't found a way to counter such a potentially lethal ability with his own swordsmanship, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let her know that.

The arm offered him a rolled up piece of paper. He took it, and the arm vanished in another swirl of petals as he unrolled the scroll. The crisp parchment still felt new and sturdy, and he realized after a moment that it was still a fairly new bounty poster. A picture of a relatively young looking man was plastered across most of the page. He was grinning ear to ear as he waved at the camera, and there was an old-looking straw hat perched on his messy black hair. The kid didn't look like a menace—if the photo was any indication, he still looked like he ought to be playing with the local village boys or just earning his first job or apprenticeship somewhere, not being a pirate. But the dead or alive warning at the bottom of the page, and the thirty-thousand beri bounty, was enough indication that he was still dangerous—however idiotic he looked.

Zoro eyed the bounty again. Thirty thousand. That was actually pretty impressive, for a newbie pirate out of one of the four Blues. "How'd he earn that kind of reward?"

"He defeated Arlong, of the Fishman pirates," Miss All Sunday answered calmly.

Zoro whistled. Now he was definitely impressed. The kid didn't look like much, but if he could take down Arlong, that was pretty noteworthy. Based on what other people on the Grand Line had told him, the guy had ravaged the first half of it for years before finally disappearing to settle somewhere in the East Blue.

"Not bad," he admitted finally. With that admission he could feel his blood starting to run faster, feel the tingle of excitement shiver up his spine at the thought of how much strength that kid had to possess. Someone who could beat Arlong was definitely a fighter. Zoro'd had some good fights in the Grand Line since he'd joined Baroque Works, but a fight with this...Straw Hat Luffy...that definitely promised to be good.

"I thought you might say that," Miss All Sunday said. "The rest of his crew seems decently strong as well, though none of them possess bounties as of yet. They are very...interesting. The crew is exceedingly loyal to their captain, and the captain himself is unusually headstrong."

"So he's stubborn." Admittedly a good trait for a potential opponent, but Zoro was starting to get tired of all the idiots who insisted they were the best and didn't realize just how completely outmatched they were. It was funny how fast a pirate could go from bragging about their skills to begging for their lives here on the Grand Line.

"I would say more...willful." Miss All Sunday smirked again, just barely, and said, "When I spoke to them, I told them their Log Pose was leading them to Little Garden. I even offered them an Eternal Pose to Nanimonaishima, as a way to avoid it."

Zoro raised an eyebrow. Clever. Although he'd never been there himself, Nanimonaishima had a very large outpost of Baroque Works agents—not unlike Whiskey Peak, the only difference being these guys actually knew how to fight. "Did they take it?" If they did, they'd be sailing right into a trap.

Miss All Sunday chuckled softly. "No. The captain refused to let me, an enemy, dictate what he and his crew did. They sailed to Little Garden anyway."

Zoro didn't show his own surprise often, but his eyes widened at that. "Is this guy insane?" he hissed, shaking the bounty poster in his hand. "He'd better be damned good or he's already dead." He himself wasn't terribly afraid of the island—he was quite confident in his abilities and had nothing to fear from the place—but most people who went there, pirates and marines alike, tended to never leave it.

Miss All Sunday shook her head. "I warned them. They did not appear terribly afraid. I have a feeling they are still safe, however. Mr. 3 was sent to dispose of them on Little Garden, but his most recent transmission was very...unusual, to say the least. I was ordered to dispatch Mr. 2 to the island to dispose of Mr. 3...my partner suspects foul play. The reports say the Straw Hats are dead...but having spoken to them, I suspect otherwise."

Zoro pulled on his shirt and began tying his bandana around his arm once more. "So I'm being assigned to take care of them, then," he summed up. He was fine with that. A captain that could defeat Arlong...and his crew had to be at least somewhat decent in order to be under this Luffy kid's command. It promised a series of very spectacular fights.

"That is correct." Miss All Sunday nodded. "Mr. 0's plans will be jeopardized if the Straw Hats are allowed to arrive in Alabasta."

As if Zoro cared about the boss's plans. As long as he got a good fight out of it, a way to test his strength still further, he was happy. "Fine. Who am I being assigned with? And it sure as hell better not be Bon Kurei. I'm real tired of dealing with that nutcase."

Unlike most Officer-level Baroque Works agents, Zoro didn't actually have a female partner to work with. The company had once again tried to instill a few of their rules on him, and had cycled him through a number of assignments with supposedly strong female partners, but they'd learned very quickly that he didn't exactly do the whole 'teamwork' thing, or cooperate well with others. More often than not his various partners had gotten in his way, ruining a perfectly good fight at exactly the wrong moment, or getting themselves into trouble by getting into a fight with an enemy way over their heads. Zoro got tired of babysitting them—it was a hassle to try and keep them alive. Even if he wasn't particularly loyal to the company itself, he did sort of feel somewhat responsible for the people that decided to follow him around, enough so that he didn't want to accidentally cause their potential deaths.

After several dangerous encounters the Baroque Works assignment officers finally gave up on giving him a permanent partner, and officially recorded him as a lone agent. Now they merely resorted to sending him a minor official to navigate to the assignment itself and point him in the general direction of the target. They had insisted on this part after a number of terrible directions they'd given him, resulting in him ending up six islands away from the pirate he was supposed to subdue, but that was hardly his fault.

Miss All Sunday shrugged. "There is no assigned officer this time. Instead, I think I will join you personally."

Zoro raised an eyebrow. "Don't you have better things to do with your time? Zero keeps you on a tight leash, doesn't he?"

The corner of Miss All Sunday's lips quirked, although this time Zoro couldn't tell if it was a smile or a grimace. "I am quite sure I know how to take care of my own business, Mr. Bushido...or should I say Roronoa Zoro?"

He shrugged. He didn't really care if anybody knew his name. It wasn't like he considered it a big secret, personally.

"I am currently not needed back at headquarters," Miss All Sunday continued, "and I believe the Straw Hats are more of an issue. This time I will personally accompany you to see that the deed is correctly done."

"This isn't an official assignment, is it," Zoro observed suddenly. "The boss up top doesn't know about it."

Another quirk of the lips. "Mr. 0 does not need to be troubled with this. He already has enough things to deal with as it is, now that his plan is beginning to come together. I think my talents are better served taking care of miss Vivi and her supporters."

Zoro shrugged. "Fine. Whatever. Long as you get me there and don't get in the way of my fight, I don't really care about whatever the hell it is you're up to."

Miss All Sunday just barely smiled. "Of course, Mr. Bushido. I would not dream of involving myself in your fights. That is the nature of your contract. Naturally this is why I thought of you, instead of Mr. 1 and Miss Doublefinger. Straw Hat Luffy seems to exactly fit your qualifications."

She was definitely up to something, Zoro could feel it. He still didn't trust her...but as long as she kept her (way too many) hands to herself and stayed out of his battles, then just like he said, he'd let her get away with whatever the hell she wanted. He couldn't be bothered to care. "Fine. Whatever. Give me a few minutes to shower and pack a few supplies and we can go."

"Of course, Mr. Bushido."

"Oh," he added, stopping suddenly as he reached the steps leading from the garden into the house. "One more thing."

"Yes, Mr. Bushido?"

He turned to look her squarely in the eye and said, "I ain't callin' you 'Miss All Sunday' every time we need to talk. Especially for addressing you in front of non-company people. It's just too much of a mouthful."

She smirked, just slightly. "Understandable, Mr. Bushido. It is a bit of a long code name."

"So?" He eyed her patiently, waiting. "I've never worked a mission with you before. What do you go by besides that?"

She paused, seemed to consider for a fraction of a moment. Her eyes seemed oddly distant for a moment, but when she answered she sounded in control as ever. "You may call me Nico, if you must call me something else at all, Mr. Bushido."

"Nico," he repeated, committing it to memory. "Fine. Works for me. I'll be back in a bit. You can sit inside if you want." And then he strode inside to take care of business before leaving his painfully empty not-quite-home for a very promising battle.

I've had this idea in mind for months now, but never had a way to get it done. Hooray 30 Pieces for finally giving me an outlet for it!

~VelkynKarma