Title: Lost
Theme: #1: Ghost
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 8,392
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some bad words and a tiny bit of mentioned blood/death...that's about it I think.
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 stepped outside after putting the rest of the treasure they'd managed to steal away in the Sunny's hold. He had to admit, even he was impressed by the haul they'd manage to get off that marine ship today—it looked like the navy had confiscated some other pirates' hoard, and the Straw Hats had been more than happy to take it off their hands. Nami was practically in a state of catatonic shock, basking in the gold they'd gotten a hold of, and Zoro doubted she'd be coming up for fresh air any time soon. It'd probably be days before anybody saw her again, other than a few rare moments when she checked their course.

The deck was oddly clear at the moment as Zoro walked across the lawn. He supposed everyone else was off getting back to whatever they'd been doing before the marine ship had attacked. It made the deck seem much bigger than it was, open and barren without anyone standing around on it—

And that emptiness also emphasized all too clearly the little girl standing barefoot on the lawn, staring forlornly down at the grass.

For one bewildering, heart-stopping moment, Zoro could have sworn it was Kuina standing there, just like the last time he'd seen her years ago. He got a hold of himself a moment later, and realized his eyes were playing tricks on him. The little girl looked to be younger than Kuina, maybe eight or nine years old, and her hair was black and came down to mid-back. She wore only a little blue sleeveless dress that came down to her knees, leaving her arms, legs, and bare feet exposed, even though it was a pretty chilly afternoon on the Grand Line. The only other thing she wore was an odd necklace, what looked like a single gold coin with a hole bored through its center for a thin chain.

Zoro frowned. The necklace looked familiar, and he suspected he'd seen it on one of his earlier trips, transporting treasure from the marine's ship to their own. He didn't know how on earth this little girl managed to get past Nami, but he suspected they had a stow-away thief on their hands.

"Hey," he said sharply, striding towards the girl. "Hey, you. You're not supposed to steal—give that back. And how the hell did you get on the ship, anyway?"

The girl whipped around, and stared at Zoro in surprise. "Adel?" she asked, eyes wide, and then shook her head after moment. "No, you're not Adel, your hair is wrong..." Then she blinked, and stared at Zoro harder. "You can see me?"

"Of course I can see you," Zoro said with a scowl. "You're not exactly hiding."

"But nobody's seen me in years!" the little girl said. And then, to Zoro's complete and utter horror, the girl burst into tears right in front of him, sobbing loudly as she crashed to her bare knees and started rubbing her eyes. "Oh...I'm...so...waaaaah!"

"Woah, woah, woah, cut that out, stop it!" Zoro hissed in surprise. He glanced around the deck hastily—nobody there still, which was great, because otherwise they'd never let him live down that apparently his face had made the girl start sobbing. And she was still going, too...where the hell did all those tears come from?

"I'm so-so-sor-ry," the little girl wailed now. "I...di-didn't m-mean to m-make you ma-a-aaaaad..."

"No, I'm not mad, don't worry about it, just stop crying," Zoro said hastily. Shit, he could take on zombies and super-powered marines and people with Devil Fruits, but girls crying made his skin crawl uncomfortably. How the fuck were you supposed to turn the tears off? Grimacing, he crouched down in front of the girl and added, "Really, I'm not mad, promise, just—just calm down, okay?"

The girl sniffled, and watched him with wide, watery eyes. "You're n-not m-mad at m-me?" she hiccuped after a moment.

"No," Zoro said, very insistently. The girl blanched, and he realized that maybe his tone was a little too...uh...stern for the girl's tastes, although he couldn't exactly help that; hell, it was the way he always talked. He took a deep breath, did his best to make his voice much calmer and more relaxed, and added, "I'm really not mad, I swear. Now how about you tell me how you got on our ship?"

"You brought me," the little girl said after a moment. "I'm always brought onto ships."

Zoro frowned. "Were you hiding in one of the treasure barrels or something?"

"No."

"Okay, maybe you were with some of the food supplies the cook grabbed?" Now that he thought about it, the girl did look sort of skinny—he wouldn't put it past her to have been trying to steal from the marines to eat, although how she managed to go unnoticed when Sanji grabbed the foodstuffs was still a puzzle. The cook was an idiot, but Zoro was reasonably sure he'd be able to find a little girl in a crate of apples, or something.

"No," the little girl said more insistently, and her bottom lip started to tremble warningly, a sure sign that she was getting frustrated. "You brought me. You did!"

"Okay, okay!" Zoro said, and held up his hands hastily, forestalling future waterworks. "Calm down, okay? Look, forget that for now. What's your name?"

"Jana," the little girl said promptly. "Who're you?"

"I'm Zoro," he introduced himself, and was relieved to see the girl calming a little.

"Hi," she said. "Are you the captain on this ship?"

"No. Luffy is the captain, but don't worry, I'm sure if you're lost he'll be willing to take you home. He's around here somewhere." Zoro glanced around, noticed the decks were still empty, and with a sigh pointed up at the closet sail and the Jolly Roger painted on it. "He wears a hat like that, see? We'll go look for him and figure out what to do."

The girl followed his finger to where he was pointing, but at the sight of the skull and crossbones she gasped and scuttled away from him frantically, eyes watering up again. "You're pirates," she whimpered miserably. "Pirates are always bad. Always. They do bad, mean things. They hurt Adel too."

There was that name again...she'd called him that also. Zoro raised his hands placatingly and said, "Woah, calm down. Jana, right? Listen, we're not like normal pirates, okay? We won't try to hurt you or anything. Luffy's a big friendly idiot. Promise."

The girl still looked apprehensive, and huddled on the deck several paces away from him, arms wrapped around her knees as she stared at him through a curtain of black hair. "Pirates lie," she whispered softly. "Adel told me pirates always lie."

"Yeah, well, Luffy's a really bad liar," Zoro said, entirely truthfully. "Look, do you know where you're from? We can probably find your island around here somewhere I'm sure."

Instead of giving him an answer, the girl's eyes crinkled with the threat of another sobbing session—dammit to hell—and she whimpered softly, "Home..."

"Yeah, where's that? I'll ask Nami, I'm sure she can find it—"

"Home. I want to go home. I want to go home. It's been so long, I just want to go home..." The little girl started rocking on her feet, hugging her knees tighter to her chest and burying her head down, curling up as tight as possible.

Oh, hell. Like he really had time for this. Gritting his teeth, Zoro stood slowly, and very carefully and unthreateningly stepped forward, deliberately clacking his sword sheathes slightly so he didn't catch the little waif unawares. She shivered and looked up at him warily through bleary eyes, and once he had her attention he said, "Look, we'll take you home, okay? You just have to tell me where it—"

"Um...Zoro?" Usopp had appeared on the deck, with Franky alongside, both of them carrying metal bits and pieces, toolboxes, and rolled up blueprints, probably with the intent of setting up shop on-deck to create something new. But now they were staring at him in confusion, and making no move to head over to a clearer part of the deck.

Jana whimpered at the new arrivals and watched them with a lonely, wary expression on her face. Great. Just when Zoro thought he might maybe have been getting through to the frightened little thing, these two had to come along and scare her all over again. "What the hell do you want, Usopp?" he said, fighting very hard to keep his voice unthreatening so the girl didn't scare further.

"It's just...we were just wondering, ah..."

"Why're you talking to yourself, sword-bro?" Franky cut in, getting straight to the point. "You feelin' sick? Should we call the doc out here?"

Zoro stared at them like they were idiots—which they were. "Are you blind?" he said, scowling at them. "Obviously I'm talking to this little girl, not myself. Maybe you should go get checked out by Chopper."

Usopp glanced over Zoro's shoulder, exchanged looks with Franky, and then said almost timidly, "Um, Zoro? There's...there's sort of nothing there."

"What?" Zoro glanced back over his shoulder, expecting the girl to have maybe run for cover while he was talking to his crew mates—she was definitely a timid little thing, he wouldn't put it past her. But she was still crouching there quietly on the lawn, watching the three of them with a frightened expression on her face. "You morons," he growled. "She's right here. You really are blind." He gestured to the girl again as proof.

"I dunno, sword-bro," Franky said doubtfully. "Is this some sort of game or something? You really don't strike me as the type, but everyone has their off days..."

"They can't see me either," Jana interrupted tiredly, and tucked her chin miserably down onto her knees as she watched the sniper and shipwright. "I guess nothing's different..."

"What?" Zoro raised an eyebrow at her. "No, they're just idiots, don't pay any attention to them."

"Zoro, really, who are you talking to—"

"Sword-bro, this is weird—"

"You can still see me?" Jana said, a little more hopeful.

"You're still not hiding, so of course I can still see you," Zoro said, exasperated. "Why do you keep asking me that?"

"No one ever sees me," the little girl said miserably. "Just like them. I'm invisible I think." One of her little hands came up to clutch the gold coin necklace around her neck, fiddled with it with a gesture of far too much familiarity for her to have only had it for a few minutes.

Zoro frowned. Okay...something weird was definitely going on here. "Hey," he said slowly, turning back to Usopp and Franky, still standing nearby and shifting uncomfortably. "You really can't see her?"

"Her? There's nobody there, Zoro..."

"Go get the others," Zoro ordered suddenly. "Find somebody else. Don't care who. Maybe it's a trick or something."

Usopp and Franky obediently set down their supplies and trotted off, chatting with each other and giving Zoro uncomfortable looks over their shoulders. Zoro ignored them, crouched down again, and said instead to Jana, "We'll figure this out. In the meantime, do you remember where you live?"

The girl watched him warily, but she seemed to trust him a little more now, possibly because he could see her when nobody else apparently could. She gripped the necklace a little more firmly in her small fist and said after a moment, "Dissen Island."

Zoro blinked in surprise. "Really? We were just there a week and a half ago. I'm pretty sure Nami can find the way back." If we can separate her from the gold long enough to do it, he thought to himself internally, but no need to scare a little girl with that bit of information. Then he frowned. "But it looked like nobody's lived there for a while," he said slowly. "You sure it's Dissen Island?"

"Yes," the little girl said. "My mama made me say it every day so I'd remember. So I remember because I'm really good at remembering the things mama told me to." There was a defiant look in her eyes now, daring him to call her a liar.

Great. She couldn't decide if she wanted to be a crybaby or a little spitfire. Women were all the same no matter what age they were, it looked like. "Okay, okay," he said to the girl instead, attempting to pacify her. "I believe you. Just wanted to be sure. Who's Adel? Is he also hiding on the ship somewhere? Or maybe back on the marine ship?"

The girl smiled, and said with a fond, happy tone, "Adel's my big brother! He looks like you but his skin isn't as dark and his hair isn't a weird color."

Zoro's eye twitched, but he forced his usual snappish responses about his hair color back. Calm. Don't scare her. "Okay, so is he around here? If he's on the marine ship I guess we could go back and get him, it's not too far—"

But the girl's face fell now, and she whimpered softly, "No. Adel got...got hurt. Really bad. And he wouldn't wake up. The p-pirates were t-trying to hurt m-me and he t-tried to m-make them g-go away and...and he w-wouldn't get up...he j-just kept sleeping..."

Oh, double shit. He was really not having any luck with this kid. "Woah, okay, calm down. Relax. I promise nothing'll happen to you, okay? I'll talk to Luffy and Nami, I'm sure we can turn the ship around and drop you off at home." Not that it was much of a home...

The girl's eyes were wide and clear, and she stared at him trustfully. "You promise? Adel always kept his promises and you remind me of him..."

Great. He was now a walking reminder of her dead brother. No pressure or anything. "Promise. We're nice pirates, nothing bad'll happen to you."

Jana stared at him for a moment, and it made Zoro unexplainably aware of just how fragile she was, of how easily he could break her in half if he wanted to, and of how much he very much did not want to let that happen. Stupid trusting kids, being all naive and defenseless...they always made him do stupid things to protect that. Hell, it was the reason he was on this crew right now, what with Rika and all.

But then Jana smiled, all happy and trusting, and Zoro felt some measure of relief as her tears finally seemed to dry up. "Okay!" she said happily, and stood up on the lawn. "Thank you so much, Zoro!" And before he could stop her she'd thrown herself forward and wrapped her little arms around his neck in a very solid hug, nearly knocking him over from his crouch. It took pretty much every scrap of his willpower to keep himself from immediately pulling her off again—he was not a fan of hugs. But if the girl hadn't been seen by anyone in years, she probably hadn't had any contact with anyone either, and he had a weird feeling she was probably desperate for it right about now. That, or she'd start bawling, which he did not want even more than he didn't want the hug. He'd put up with it—hating every minute of it, but he'd put up with it.

"Yohohoho! What an adorable vision to greet my eyes—although I have none!"

Zoro grit his teeth. Okay. Or not. She'd had enough of a hug by now—he quickly disentangled Jana's arms from his neck and stood up to face several other members of the crew, trotting towards them over the lawn. Brook he'd heard and expected, but Robin, Luffy and Chopper were coming across the way as well, led by a still uncomfortable looking Usopp and Franky.

"Where's the invisible girl?" Luffy asked. "I want to see her!"

Zoro groaned at the sheer idiocy of his captain. Jana giggled, an oddly pretty sound after all the girl's gloomy sobbing, and whispered almost confidentially to Zoro, "He's silly!"

"Yeah," Zoro said dryly. "Very."

"Very what, Swordsman-san?" Robin asked.

"Nothing," Zoro answered. "Just something Jana said."

"Where is she?" Chopper asked, looking around. His eyes tracked over Jana twice and didn't stop for a second. "If she came from that marine ship she might be hurt, I thought maybe I should give her a checkup..."

"She's right here," Zoro said, pointing with exasperation at the little girl standing next to his leg. "Hell, can none of you see her? I'm not crazy, okay—there really is a little girl here!"

"I can see her, Zoro-san," Brook said cheerfully. "She is quite an adorable little vision!"

Jana looked excited at the prospect of not one, but two people being able to see her, and turned to Brook excitedly. But her eyes widened in fear a second later, and with a scream she ducked behind Zoro's leg, wrapping her fingers anxiously into the fabric of his haramaki as she hid, trembling, behind him. "Demon," she whimpered, "It's a demon, don't let it eat me, you promised!"

"Hey!" Zoro said in exasperation. "That's just Brook, he's not—"

"A demon!" Brook shrieked, looking around frantically. "Where, where is it? I hate demons!"

"No," Zoro growled, "That's not—"

"Guys," Usopp said in surprise, "Zoro's haramaki is moving on its own! Wh-wh-what's going on?"

"If you stop interrupting me I can tell—"

"I believe Swordsman-san has discovered a ghost," Robin said, with surprising calm.

Her words cut through all of the voices at once, and for a moment there was silence. Then the deck erupted into noises again, louder than before.

"A ghost! Cool! Like on Thriller Bark?"

"G-g-g-g-ghost! Aaagh, not again!"

"Oh no! Usopp, you know how to exorcize it, don't you?"

"Ow, a ghost, huh? Sounds like another super adventure on its way!"

"Oh my, I've had quite enough of ghosts in my lifetime—although I am quite dead, yohohoho!"

Jana huddled behind Zoro even more, and he could feel her trembling alarmingly against his back. "They don't l-like me," she whimpered softly, clutching tighter at the haramaki, like it was a lifeline.

"No, you just startled them," Zoro said to her hastily, before she could start sobbing again. Then he turned back to the others and yelled louder, "Hey, shut up, you're scaring her!"

They fell silent again, staring at him with a mix of confused, bewildered, and wide-eyed expressions.

"Why don't you explain, Swordsman-san," Robin said with a smile.

Zoro shook his head in exasperation, but said, "She's just a little girl. Her name is Jana. She told me she's from Dissen Island, and she just wants to go home." He eyed Luffy and added, "That fine with you, captain?"

"Yeah!" Luffy said enthusiastically. "Where is she?"

Zoro rolled his eyes, but managed to extract the nervous little girl from behind himself, putting his hands carefully on her shoulders to indicate where she was. No way this is a ghost. She feels solid, real...what the hell is going on? Though, now that he thought about it, she did feel a bit...fuzzy...to his swordsmanship senses...less like something solid, and more like something that existed in a different sort of way. Like Sandai Kitetsu, but much less malevolent...which made sense, since she was just a little girl. He shook his head; he could focus on that later. "She's right here, Luffy."

The pirate captain bounded forward and came to a crashing stop in front of Jana, clapping his hand on his hat. The little girl flinched at first, but at Luffy's enormous grin, directed right at her, she smiled back—hesitantly at first, but then more genuinely as she started to relax. Luffy might not see her, but he knew she was there, and that was probably more than the little girl had had in years. "Okay! Zoro said you're Jana, right? We'll take you home, Jana. Promise!"

"He's gonna take me home!" she told Zoro excitedly, as if he wasn't standing right there and heard it.

"Yeah, and he'll do it," Zoro said. "He keeps his promises too."

"Yup, always!" Luffy agreed cheerfully. "You just take it easy until then."

"But how can Zoro and Brook see her if the rest of us can't?" Usopp asked, curious. He started tentatively inching a little closer, now that he had a measure of how big Jana actually was.

"Brook seems simple," Robin said with a shrug. "He has already died once, and his Devil Fruit is of the soul. I imagine that gives him some affinity for this sort of thing. Swordsman-san is a bit puzzling, though."

"He can tell when things are cursed and stuff," Chopper offered. "And he always knows when people are hiding nearby. Maybe that's why?"

"It is possible," Robin conceded. "I will not claim to be an expert on swordsmanship, but I do know most styles practice meditation techniques and the heightening of senses. Perhaps this is enough to give our swordsman access to the realms of the dead."

Actually that sounded pretty accurate, not that Zoro would admit to it out loud. He'd been training himself for a long time to sense the rhythm of all things, and meditated for hours to sense life and movement all around him; he supposed that could manifest in other ways. And as Chopper had pointed out, he seemed to be using the same sense to see the girl that he did to see Kitetsu's curse...that could be it too.

"Or perhaps," Robin added, almost conversationally, "Swordsman-san has come close to death so often that he stands now with one foot in the grave, and thus can interact with its inhabitants."

Everyone on the deck visibly shuddered. Zoro wondered if Robin's sense of humor would ever get any less morbid.

Jana's eyes widened. "You almost died?" she asked anxiously, staring up at him with child-like worry.

"Uh," Zoro said dumbly, because he really wasn't sure how to answer that for a kid. Especially a kid who had apparently linked him to her actual dead brother. "I'm better now," he offered lamely. "Promise."

She looked relieved, and then added with an anxious look at Brook, "And...and he is dead? Like me?"

How the hell was he supposed to explain Brook? Fortunately, the skeleton took it upon himself. "I am just bones, but I'm no ghost!" he said cheerfully. "Do you know what a Devil Fruit is, miss Jana?"

She nodded dumbly, and pressed back a little against Zoro, apparently still nervous around a walking skeleton. Not that he could blame her, really. "M-magic fruit," she offered after a moment.

"Very good," Brook said, still with impeccable cheer. "A very long time ago I ate the Yomi Yomi no Mi, which let my soul come back once after I died! But it took me a bit longer than expected to find my body, and sadly it turned into nothing but bones by the time I got back to it." He wiggled one skeletal hand, clicking bony fingers, and then tipped his top hat to her. "But I am quite friendly, I promise!"

"Brook's my nakama," Luffy said cheerfully, interjecting himself surprisingly well into a conversation he could only hear half of. "Everybody here is!"

"So...so you're all nice pirates?" Jana asked slowly, and glanced up at Zoro for affirmation. Oh boy. Somebody was getting attached. He supposed it was to be expected if he looked like her brother, but...crap. Chopper was one shadow enough as it was.

But he was careful not to let that show on his face, and nodded. "Yeah, they're all friends, everyone here'll want to help you," Zoro promised. "Oh—and don't be surprised by Luffy, Chopper or Robin," he added, pointing to each one in turn, "since they've also eaten Devil Fruits and have powers."

"They do?" Jana asked, wide-eyed, but Luffy was already demonstrating with a wide grin and one finger hooked into a stretched cheek, Chopper timidly transformed into Walk Point and back, and Robin created a small flurry of rapidly vanishing hands, without needing any further prompting. Jana's eyes, if possible, widened even further. "Wow! So many magic fruit powers!"

"There are two more crew members, too," Brook added helpfully. "Nami-san is downstairs counting the treasure, and Sanji-san is cooking dinner."

"Do they have magic fruit powers too?" Jana asked.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "Curly-brow might be a Devil Fruit if that eyebrow is any clue," he said dryly. Jana looked shocked, and reminding himself he was dealing with somebody as gullible as Chopper, he amended hastily, "No, nobody else has powers. Or are fruits."

"There is just one question presently at hand," Robin said, bringing the conversation back on track. "We can bring Jana-chan back to her home island, but how did she come here to begin with? The laws of ghosts are tricky things, I imagine. There has to be a reason she is here."

"Well, how long as she been here?" Chopper asked reasonably. "There must have been something we did that changed something else to let her be here!"

"I have not seen her around at all until just now," Brook offered helpfully. "What about you, Zoro-san?"

But Zoro was staring down at the necklace around the girl's little throat with a frown. He turned her around to face him and crouched down in front of her again, and reached out to inspect the necklace carefully—the same one he'd seen earlier in their treasure haul, and had assumed she'd stolen before realizing she was a ghost. Jana let him handle the threaded coin, and said happily, "Isn't it pretty? Adel gave it to me, he found it in the woods and made me a necklace!"

"Yeah," Zoro said slowly. "That was nice of him."

"Zoro?" Usopp asked. "What is it? Did you find something? Did she tell you something?"

"No," Zoro said shortly. To the girl, he asked, "You said we brought you on, right?"

She nodded. That confirmed it. "Wait here with Brook, okay? I'll be right back. He can translate if you want to ask anybody anything." She nodded again, completely trusting, and he headed down below decks for their newest acquisitions—and, most likely, to do battle with Nami.

The navigator was exactly where he expected her to be, busily polishing and cataloging all the treasure they'd just acquired, now humming delightedly to herself as she busily cleaned off a solid gold chalice. She completely ignored Zoro after one quick glance and went back to her work, and that gave him the opportunity to start digging through the piles of gold and jewels, searching for one item in particular.

"You can't have anything," Nami told him sharply. "It's all valuable this time, and it's going straight towards our expenses."

"We've got a situation upstairs," he said. "There's one piece in here that you can't—ah, here it is." He extracted the gold coin on its thin chain from the pile of gold and gems. "There's nothing else like this one, right?"

"No, I didn't see anything else," Nami said with a scowl, "But you can't have that either, that coin is over a hundred years old, and solid gold, do you know how much that's worth—hey, get back here!"

Zoro ignored her. Clenching the coin and chain in one fist, he headed back up above decks, with Nami following and shrieking loudly in his ear behind her. Getting onto the lawn again was a blessing—her voice echoed less in his head.

"This is it, right?" He said, striding back over to Jana, who was inching nervously towards Robin and away from Brook. Clearly it was taking her some time to adjust to the fact that he wasn't a demon.

Almost immediately she gravitated back towards him, looking relieved, and then delighted at the necklace in his hand. "That's this!" she said happily, holding her own copy of the coin still fastened around her throat.

"What is going on here?" Nami shrieked in frustration. "Has Zoro gone crazy? He's stealing my—our gold, and now he's talking to thin air! Chopper, maybe you'd better take a look at him—"

"It's okay, Nami," Chopper said. "He's not crazy, he's talking to Jana. She's a ghost."

Nami sputtered, and Robin took the opportunity to say, "What is that you have, Swordsman-san?"

"She's wearing the same necklace," Zoro said, fisting the chain to display the coin to them. "And she said we brought her on earlier, too. I've heard stories of old swordsmen getting attached to their blades even in death—can that happen for jewels and things, too?"

"I expect so," Robin said. "Then, in order to return her to her home, we must also return this necklace to her home as well."

"And then I can stay there?" Jana asked hopefully, staring up at Zoro.

"Yeah," he said. I hope.

"Alright!" Luffy said, punching one fist in the air. "Nami, set sail for Dissen Island—we're gonna take Jana the Ghost home!"

Nami looked back and forth between the crew members, and then finally said with a sigh, "Okay, fine. But somebody had better bring me up to speed on why you've all gone crazy, alright?"

And so, the next week and a half of their lives was spent going backwards, escorting a little girl dead for far too many years towards her home. It was possibly the weirdest escort they'd ever done. It wasn't uncommon for Luffy to give people a lift and even help them out, like Apis and Vivi, but generally speaking they were at least visible. With Zoro and Brook as the sole people who could see, hear, and interact with Jana, this was by far the most unusual case of getting somebody home they'd ever had.

Not that Zoro saw it that way, since he was one of the two that actually could see their guest, so nothing really looked any different to him. Hell, it was weirder to see his crew mates talking in entirely the wrong direction when attempting to address Jana for something or other, but that made them look crazy, not her unusual. To him, Jana appeared completely solid. There was no blood or hints of old injuries for how she died, no see-through skin, no flying or creepy powers (including, thankfully, a complete inability to make one negative at the slightest touch), and if she was a little paler than was probably normal, it could just as easily be attributed to never seeing the sun as opposed to being, well, dead.

She was a quiet little thing, too, and sometimes it was hard to remember she was even there. She wasn't an especially malevolent ghost; she was just a scared little girl that wanted to go home, and acted exactly like it. Zoro almost felt sorry for her—almost because she'd decided to attach herself to him for the duration of the trip.

He had sort of expected it, really. Whenever the girl did talk, it was always Adel this and Adel that. Zoro didn't really try to pry, because he didn't want to dig up anything particularly painful for the timid little thing and start her sobbing again (the horror), but it was obvious the girl had adored her brother in life. Based on what he could pick out from her stories, the brother had been very protective of her too. They'd always been close, from the sounds of it, and now that he was practically a walking reminder of the brother that she'd been so attached to, it was unsurprising that she'd latch onto him as a replacement for the journey...green hair or no.

So she followed him around everywhere, like a little puppy desperate for the attention. At first he thought she wanted him to play with her, which he really was not looking forward to. But as it turned out she just liked to have somebody close by that she felt safe near, and occasionally to talk to. He was decent enough at listening, so the arrangement wasn't as bad as he'd thought. Even though he suffered irritating levels of ridicule from the rest of his crew mates, when they realized he had a shadow (he suspected Brook was the one who had told them, and mentally promised to deal with the skeleton when the little girl wasn't around to see it).

Of course, there were downsides to it too. Zoro didn't sleep well as long as Jana was around. She seemed very frightened every time he went to sleep for longer than an hour, and would shake him awake frantically, asking if he was still alive. He supposed he was causing her to have a few flashbacks of his counterpart Adel's death, and she was only nine (relatively speaking), so he couldn't exactly blame her for it, but damn it was making him very tired. He started foisting her off on Brook for several hours at a time whenever he needed a nap, and then hiding somewhere that she wouldn't immediately find him—if he stayed out in the open, she still worried.

And there were the waterworks, which he still never knew how to handle. Jana seemed to flipflop from happy and cheerful to sobbing like crazy in the space of a single heartbeat, and Zoro was never exactly sure what would set her off. Or how to make her stop, short of calling over Luffy or Usopp or Brook to do something silly or play some cheerful music. He gathered from her frantic sobbing that she'd been lost for at least ten years, maybe more—Brook said it was sort of hard to keep track of time when you were dead, which made sense, Zoro supposed, considering how long it had taken Brook to recover his body—and Zoro was beginning to suspect it was far longer. But either way, the girl had been shuttled along by whoever stole her necklace and dragged her around for years, always alone and unseen, and sometimes she would grow afraid of not getting home. All he could do then was reassure her that Luffy kept his promises, and she was going to get back to Dissen, no matter what.

Not to mention the weird habits she seemed to have, which Zoro was pretty sure were associated with her death. Jana had an unusual fascination with his swords—well, one of them, to be specific. She would sometimes reach out to almost, but not quite, touch Wado Ichimonji, and insisted that it was 'very bright,' and that it 'shined warm.' "It belongs to somebody," Jana would whisper quietly, almost reverently, every time she paid attention to the sword. "Not you. Somebody else. Strong on my side. Waiting. But strong. And warm." That part had been quite unsettling, mostly because it was oddly accurate even though Zoro hadn't told Jana a damned thing about Kuina.

By contrast, Jana was positively terrified of Sandai Kitetsu. Every time she tried to touch Wadou Ichimonji, she took very great care to never let her fingers get close to Kitetsu, and regarded the sword with fear. She never said anything about it, until the one incident they'd had on the way back to Dissen Island, encountering another ship of marines. The crew had been forced to battle, and when Zoro walked back over to a frightened-looking Jana afterwards she started shrieking about the sword in his hands. "Monster," she'd cried, "Monster, there's a monster in it, it's evil, it's bad, it's cruel, it hurts, not even the bright one can hide it, there's a monster—" She hadn't stopped until he'd locked Kitetsu in the boys' room, and she'd hovered possessively near Wadou for an hour after that, insisting that the brightness of it would save them from the monster.

Of Shuusui she said nothing at all, other than it felt old. There must not have been something attached to it, Zoro thought.

But mostly, she was pretty easy to get used to—and although Zoro would never, ever admit it out loud, he was sort of growing fond of her. There was something about a kid trusting you like that, so absolutely, that made you want to make sure they stayed safe, because they believed you'd keep them that way. That was probably why he always got so defensive of Chopper, too, come to think of it. He would act gruff and complain foully around the crew whenever they mocked him about his shadow. But he really didn't mind her company, listened to her cheerful chatter without complaint, and allowed her to curl up against him while he sat out on deck when she finally got too tired to keep her eyes open (ghosts, apparently, could still feel fatigue).

"There has to be blackmail material there," Nami said once with a sigh, glaring at the way Zoro's shirt and haramaki were crinkled on one side, clearly with an invisible weight there—though Zoro, of course, could see the little girl curled up next to him. "Why does she have to be invisible?"

Score one for the can't-be-seen bit. It had probably just saved him several million beri.

Zoro wasn't the only one to interact with the girl on the trip, either. Brook, of course, could see Jana as well. It took her a few days to warm up to the skeleton, but when she was finally convinced that he wasn't a demon she seemed to enjoy playing with him. He would play cheerful songs for her, and Jana would dance on the lawn or sing along if she knew the older ditties, genuinely enjoying herself.

Usopp would come over to Zoro, ask of Jana was there, and then promptly start to tell her stories—anything he could think of that a little kid might enjoy. Zoro would use the opportunity to doze, although he'd occasionally repeat one of Jana's questions for Usopp's benefit, or translate a particular story request. Usopp always delivered, and Jana would clap her hands with delight at the particular actions of the heros and princess and dragons and who only knew what else in Usopp's stories, and always ask for more.

Sometimes she would manage to play hide-and-go-seek with Luffy and Chopper, with Zoro or Brook's help of course. The younger crew members would hide, and Jana would look for them, with Zoro or Brook trailing along behind her to translate when she found somebody. Zoro found it sort of irritating when he got roped into playing such games—it was time he could spend sleeping—but Jana seemed so happy to finally be able to play with others that Zoro was forced to suck it up and deal. He supposed she didn't exactly have many ghost friends to play with, after all.

Even the less active members found ways to get involved with the little ghost. Jana thought Franky's antics on deck were hilarious, especially when he and Brook started doing duets and strange dances together, and would giggle delightedly as she watched. And Nami and Robin, being the only other women on the ship, found time to have some all too girly conversations with Jana. The little girl seemed to enjoy it; Zoro found it mortifying to have to be involved, as the only translator trusted to not turn everything into requests for panties.

And then of course there was Sanji, who was simultaneously obnoxious and the source of great hilarity. As soon as the cook had learned there was a ghost girl on the ship, he had immediately turned to his usual so-called charming antics, being enormously polite and proper to even the dead child he couldn't see. Zoro had found it obnoxious ("She's dead, curly-brow, of course she doesn't need any damned refreshments!") But as it turned out, Jana was positively enthralled, even if she couldn't benefit from about ninety-five percent of Sanji's usual doting other than the compliments.

"He's so nice to me," Jana said once, with a soft sigh, as she watched the shit cook serving Nami and Robin tea and snacks on the other side of the lawn.

"He's nice to everyone who's a girl," Zoro said with a shrug, mentally keeping track of his reps on one of his dumbbells. Six thousand nine hundred seventy eight... "Even ghost girls, I guess."

"But he's so...polite, and nice, and...and...um...h-handsome..."

Zoro choked at that, and promptly lost count of his reps. After a moment he took the opportunity to glance over at his temporary dead charge, and raised an eyebrow at the very obvious blush on the very pale girl's face. She had to be kidding. Puppy love. On Sanji. What was this world coming to.

"He's nice, right?" she asked, giving him a shy look.

Well, crap. Now what was he supposed to say? "There's worse," he finally offered by way of compromise. At least Sanji would be guaranteed to never hurt her, unlike some creeps out there. That was, if she wasn't already dead, and like...nine. Fuck, this was such a weird conversation.

Jana's little crush continued, and as payback for constantly mocking him about his shadow Zoro decided to 'accidentally' let it slip to some of the other crew mates, who thought it was just as hilarious. Curly-brow was now the subject of ridicule whenever they could be sure Jana wasn't around (harder than it sounded), but he grit his teeth and continued to treat the girl as nicely as ever. Sucker.

But despite being dead, and invisible to a good three quarters of the crew, Jana seemed to enjoy her stay with the pirates. After only a few days with the Straw Hats the little ghost smiled more often. She seemed much better than she had been when Zoro first found her on deck, lonely and afraid and desperate to go home—she'd been noticed, and she felt happy.

So it was that they arrived at Dissen Island in good spirits a week and a half later. The island was old, and once inhabited, but looked like it had been abandoned about twenty years ago; there were still standing houses and villages, but they were in disrepair, falling apart. Robin had estimated when they first arrived at the place, before finding Jana, that pirates had raided the island searching for treasure or supplies and had likely killed all the inhabitants. That checked with what Zoro had managed to figure out from Jana's stories.

Zoro tucked Jana's coin-necklace in his haramaki so the girl could leave the ship, and she enthusiastically led the way onto the island, insisting upon returning to her house at once. Zoro followed her, and everyone else followed him, unsure where to go otherwise since they still couldn't see their guide. She ran for over an hour, frequently pointing out anything that she could find to Zoro that was special to her, until he effectively had a life history of all the dull things the girl had ever done. But he let her keep talking, and the others kept following.

At last they came upon a run-down house, which Jana insisted was her own. Robin used her powers and reported a pair of graves in the back of of the house. They found two simple wooden crosses shoved into the dirt there, with grass growing much thicker and greener in patches in front of them. One cross, and one patch of greenery, was smaller than the others—just the size for a nine-year-old girl. The other looked like it could be an adult, or a teenager.

Zoro frowned. "This the place?"

"It's my house," Jana said. "And that's me...I can feel it..." she drifted towards the smaller grave slowly, looking distressed. "But...but were's Adel? He would wait for me, I know he'd wait for me, he promised he would, he doesn't break his promises..."

"Calm down," Zoro told her, and carefully looped the necklace around the smaller of the simple wooden crosses. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere, we just—"

There was a sudden flash of light as he finally let go of the necklace, and all of the Straw Hats gasped. When the light faded, there were two people standing there, not one.

"Woah," Nami said, surprised. "I can see her now! And..." her eyes widened. "Holy...is that—"

"No way," Franky said, stunned.

"Zoro's two people now!" Luffy yelled loudly, jaw dropping, as he glanced back and forth between Zoro and the newcomer.

"No he isn't," Sanji said, kicking his captain in the head.

"Although," Robin finished with amusement, "The resemblance is rather remarkable. I suppose it isn't surprising at all that Jana-chan grew so attached to Swordsman-san."

Zoro privately had to agree. The newcomer was unmistakably Adel, based on everything he'd heard, but despite being told time and time again by Jana that he looked like her brother, he was unprepared for just how similar they really were. Adel was a little shorter than him, with paler skin and black hair. But they had the same eyes and facial features, and while Adel was clearly no swordsman he still appeared fairly muscular from farm work.

"Adel!" Jana squealed delightedly, and hurled herself at the new figure. The other Straw Hats (sans Brook) watched the girl in surprise as well, able to see her for the first time, but Zoro regarded his counterpart curiously. The other ghost scooped his little sister up and hugged her close protectively, looked relieved to finally have her back.

"Adel, look, nice pirates, they brought me home!" the little girl said, now looking strangely at peace. Her eyes drooped sleepily, and she added, "I've been lost and scared, but Zoro and Brook could see me, and Luffy promised he'd bring me back, and Nami drove the ship, and Franky and Chopper are so silly and they made me laugh so much, and Robin is smart and figured out how I could stay, and Usopp told me tons of fun stories, and Sanji was so nice to me, and now I'm back, and you're here like you promised!"

It was a good thing she didn't need to breathe, Zoro thought dryly. That was sure as hell a mouthful.

"That's good to hear," Adel said, speaking for first time. Zoro was half expecting to hear his own voice coming out of that mouth, although thankfully it wasn't the case. He hugged her a little more tightly, more securely, and added soothingly, "Just rest. We're going to go see mama in a bit, okay? I've just been waiting for you."

"Like you promised," Jana said sleepily.

"That's right," Adel answered. The girl's eyes slipped closed, and he looked up to regard the pirates. "Nice pirates, huh? I wouldn't have believed it, but you brought her back, so..."

"Yup," Luffy confirmed cheerfully. "Don't worry, we won't steal anything."

Adel snorted. "Like there's anything to steal."

"How come you didn't look for her?" Zoro asked, raising an eyebrow. "She wouldn't stop talking about you the whole time she was with us."

Adel looked frustrated. "Bound by a promise," he said flatly. "I couldn't leave this grave, because I promised to wait for her when I couldn't protect her. I didn't realize she'd get bound to that necklace..." He glanced at the chain and coin, wrapped around the grave at his feet.

"What happened?" Zoro asked. He'd gotten wrapped up in this far more than he'd wanted to be. He deserved to have the answer at least.

Adel shrugged. "Pirates attacked," he said quietly. "She was wearing the necklace I gave her. They were after treasure. They tried to kill her and take it. I tried to stop them. I died." He grit his teeth, and added, "They probably killed her and took it anyway after that. I couldn't see it."

"That would explain why she was bound to it," Robin observed quietly. "A violent death surrounding an item...it seems inevitable that her soul would be connected somehow."

"But she's back," Adel said, and looked down at the little girl in his arms fondly. "Thank you. I can't say it enough. I've been worried for so long..." He looked up, caught Zoro's eyes, and said directly, "Thank you."

He shrugged. "I didn't really do anything except translate."

"Naw," Adel said, and smirked a little—a freakishly familiar expression. "I saw how she acted with you. She liked ya." He eyed the swords at Zoro's hip for a moment, and then said, "Bright. Want me to deliver a message? Least I can do."

Hell. Last thing he needed was somebody with his face delivering a message to Kuina. Tashigi freaked him out enough as it was. "No, thanks. Said all that can be said already, anyway."

"Suit yourself." He nodded to the rest of the crew, and added, "Thanks to you guys too, for bringing her back." Then there was another brilliant flash, and when the light faded again both figures were gone, leaving behind nothing but the graves.

The nine of them stared down at them for a moment, and then Luffy grinned widely. "Well, that's that," he said. "We brought her home. Now we gotta go back to our adventures!"

The others nodded and cheered in agreement, and turned to head back to the ship. Zoro paused for a moment in front of the smallest grave, at the little gold coin waving just slightly in the wind, and smiled ever so slightly. "Later, Jana," he said to it. "Have a nice afterlife." And then he turned and followed after the rest of his crew.

When I first saw this prompt my initial thought was Kuina...but that felt way too obvious, so I decided to keep thinking. And then this happened. Lol.

~VelkynKarma