Title: Severed
Theme: #16: Darkness
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 4,497
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Minor AU speculation, major angst, character death (not to be confused with a Character's Death), some disturbing and gruesome imagery.
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.
Light is perhaps one of the strangest of phenomenons. Light encourages human beings, makes them feel safe, makes them feel protected, makes them feel untouchable to all the evils of the world. But it is a matter of truth that wherever light falls, darkness falls in opposition; indeed, the latter could never exist without the former. And so it is an ironic sort of parallel, that the very thing humans find safe is the same thing causing the things they fear to begin with. Light never exists without bringing some form of darkness with it, not ever.
The Straw Hats unfortunately learned this lesson at a far more evolved level than any other human possibly ever could. Because a Light Man, as a higher form of light itself, causes all new forms of darkness that are even more effective and more devastating than the deepest shadow.
It begins on Sabaody Archipelago, at the end of the Straw Hat Pirates' difficult fight with PX-4. It's an exhausting fight for all of them, and with the arrival of another Pacifista and Sentoumaru Luffy declares they'll split up and meet up at the Sunny in a few days. But none of them expect an Admiral to make an appearance. Before any of them, least of all Usopp and Brook, can react, Zoro is on the ground coughing blood and Admiral Kizaru stands above him, staring around at the pirates with a lazy expression on his face.
He seems unconcerned at the presence of Usopp and Brook only a few paces away. He doesn't seem worried that Zoro will cause much of a problem either, even though he knows their swordsman is worth over one hundred million beris...after all, he states the bounty himself. He also notes that Zoro must have already been pretty exhausted, as he raises his leg, and encourages the downed pirate to take a nice long rest.
In retrospect, it seems obvious that Zoro was wounded at the time. Even before the fight with PX-4 had barely started he'd been lagging, and his status had only gotten worse from there. Hindsight, as the saying goes, is always twenty-twenty. They should have known. They never should have let Zoro get himself into that situation. They should have gotten him out of there as fast as they could have, should never have let him take that hit from the Admiral. (Usopp is especially insistent with the retrospection. He figures he could have survived the beam from Kizaru, looking back on it, and given Zoro a chance. He is sure he could have, and maybe they might have gotten away then. Maybe, maybe, maybe).
But in the moment it seems all so frighteningly clear, and while it's scary to see Zoro on the ground like that, with the Admiral standing over him, they aren't worried—not at first. Zoro is known for surviving things he shouldn't, and this will just be another case of that. He's known for protecting his nakama too, for taking the hits for them that he can easily shrug off with his freakish endurance and insane strength, and while it's frightening to see him so badly injured from that attack it isn't unexpected, what he did. It's just Zoro, being Zoro.
Only, Zoro doesn't get up. He doesn't struggle to his feet and mutter something about how the Admiral is getting in the way of his dream, or insist upon following Luffy's orders to run away. He just lays there, crumpled in a twisted, uncomfortable looking mess, coughing blood, and the glow in the Admiral's foot keeps building and building, a rush of power that even Usopp and Brook can feel, several feet away.
The sniper and skeleton can only stare in horror, at both the power the frightening Admiral possesses, and the power that they know Zoro should have, but doesn't. And although they don't know it, both of their minds are screaming frantically inside, almost identically: Zoro isn't getting up. Zoro isn't getting up. Zoro isn't getting up!
It's only when Luffy screams Usopp's name, in a tone so frantic and heart-wrenching it almost is unidentifiable as Luffy's voice at all, that Usopp can drag himself out of his frozen, wide-eyed state of fear and force himself to move. He draws the Kabuto, warns his opponent in a terrified voice that not even he can mistake for bravery to back away, and when the Admiral inevitably doesn't he fires a lead star straight at the man's eye. At this distance, point-blank with the full force of the Kabuto not five feet away, the shot is lethal, but Usopp is willing to kill to protect Zoro because Zoro would do it for him and more importantly, he still isn't getting up.
It does nothing.
Now there's a real edge of frenzied terror to Usopp's attacks as he fires the Kabuto again and again, using every shot he has, but each star does nothing, flits through Kizaru's face as though there's nothing but air. Brook attacks furiously as well, stabbing his sword straight into the man's chest, but it's just as inefficient as the shots. And although they try desperately to move the man, drive him back, kill him if they can, it does nothing. The Admiral calmly explains his ability as a Light Man as that brutal force of power keeps charging, charging, charging, not even a foot from Zoro's head, and he still isn't getting up, and if that attack hits he's dead, not just almost dead like he has been every other time. Zoro won't ever walk away from this one, and they know it with a cold, frightening certainty; nothing has been so absolutely clear to them ever before.
The thrill of fear runs through the entire crew now. Not a single one of them have ever been this frightened for one of their own before. All of them have been injured pretty badly before, but not like this, not even Zoro, and nothing has felt quite this hopeless in the past. Chopper screams frantically, a horrible, shrill, begging noise that none of the other Straw Hats have ever heard him emit before, for Zoro to get up and run. The noise seems to penetrate his stunned daze, but only barely, and while Usopp and Brook can see him make a struggling effort to lift his head slightly nothing else happens. He's injured to the point of a complete lack of control, and while it has happened before in the past it's always been after his opponents have gone down; never before has he let himself collapse so uselessly while still in combat.
Robin takes a different approach. If they cannot move the Admiral, then they must move Zoro, and she quickly uses her powers to roll him away. Several of the Straw Hats cheer her on as her dozens of limbs shift him. The swords are left behind, but they can be recovered later, and surely Zoro won't begrudge them the transgression for now—
But like all their other efforts, the last ditch attempt to rescue their swordsman is utterly useless in the end. Kizaru seems mildly put out as Zoro is shifted, but his whole body dissolves into light in a fraction of a second and shifts sideways, and when he reforms again it is on top of Zoro. The swordsman groans raggedly as Kizaru's newly reformed weight slams him bodily into the grass again, and the Admiral looks barely inconvenienced by Robin's rescue attempt. His leg hasn't even stopped charging power, and the glow is much stronger than before.
And just like that, there is nothing left that they can do. Robin tugs ineffectually at Zoro's shirt with a pair of hands, but Kizaru will not be dislodged, and her arms can't grip the light-man's body at all. Usopp and Brook attack frantically again, but their stars and steel are useless against a Logia, even when fueled by desperation. Luffy, Sanji and Chopper all charge for the Admiral, but it's useless—they're too spread out, too far away, and will never make it in time. Franky and Nami can only watch in horror. Franky screams desperately for Zoro to move, and it's rare for him to ever use the swordsman's name, and Nami can only cover her mouth to keep herself from being sick and sink to the ground as the inevitable draws ever closer. Only a miracle could stop it now, for all they try otherwise; a miracle has to come, to save Zoro, to save their crew—
But it doesn't happen.
Instead there is a sudden noise as the beam of condensed, powerful light finishes charging, and Kizaru fires it, straight down, point-blank, at the Straw Hat Pirate he is standing on—the one that can barely move of his own accord, let alone try to get away. The resulting explosion is enormous, so strong that Usopp and Brook are sent flying back dozens of feet, skidding and rolling painfully until they come to a stop on the grass.
But that pain is nothing compared to the heart-stabbing, agonized scream that escapes Luffy's lips as he calls Zoro's name desperately, too far away to be of any use. That scream cuts into the heart and soul of each and every Straw Hat present, because it echos all too strongly what they themselves feel, stabs a knife deep into them at the thought of something that should never, ever have happened, something they'd never imagined could happen.
Denial is the inevitable reaction. It shouldn't have happened, so it didn't. But as the smoke clears there's no way to deny that point-blank hit, or the damage that it caused. The grass beneath the Admiral doesn't exist anymore; it's just a small crater of obliterated life. He stands easily in the middle of it, atop something charred and blackened. Almost, the Straw Hats to a man wish it wasn't identifiable, because that would mean that it still wasn't true. Perhaps Zoro had escaped, or somebody else had taken the hit at the last moment, or—
But it isn't. Admiral Kizaru, for all his laziness, is too good at his job and too clever by half to make a kill like that. There are just enough features still recognizable to make it unmistakably Pirate Hunter Zoro, worth one hundred twenty million beris. The head is still intact, although he's no longer particularly marimo anymore with his hair burned and blackened, and the earrings are melted beyond recognition. The rest of the body is a charred, burned mess, the skin cracked from the heat of the attack so close, the shirt burned away. But it's likely his distinctive scar gained from Mihawk is still visible, another identification the Marines will probably use.
And it's still. Far too unnaturally still, not even gasping, not even struggling to lift itself, not even screaming. It is unquestionably a body, and not Zoro, and the distinction is sharp and bitter to them all, like bile in their throats, like truth in their minds.
The world is still for just a minuscule fraction of a second, and years seem to flash by in that one moment as they try to understand—Zoro isn't moving. Zoro isn't breathing. Zoro just...isn't. It's impossible. It's impossible. But it's true, no matter how much they want to deny it.
It's true. Zoro is dead. They couldn't save him. He's dead, and somehow it's their fault, every single one of them.
Kizaru moves, finally, stepping off the body and calmly climbing out of the crater. "Right," he says, in his slow drawl, as he starts pacing towards Usopp and Brook, "Attacking a Marine Admiral is a serious offense."
Luffy screams, a sound that is primal and desperate and very, very afraid and angry, and tries to throw himself forward at the Admiral, to intervene somehow before another crew member dies before his eyes. But he's still too far away; everyone is, no matter how hard they try to push themselves, they'll be too late to save Usopp and Brook just like they were too late to save Zoro even though he was always there in time for them—
Something rockets forward in a blur of speed that is blinding even to the well-trained combat eyes of the Straw Hats, and when the motion shifts to a stop Rayleigh is there, planting himself between Kizaru and his new targets. "I won't let you take these youngsters," he says smoothly. "Their era is just beginning."
Kizaru cocks his head quizzically, clearly recognizing his new opponent, and then says lazily, "I'm afraid you're a bit late for that. I've already apprehended Roronoa, you see."
Apprehended. Such a funny way to say brutally slaughtered a helpless opponent, but that was the marines for you.
Rayleigh's eyes widen behind his glasses for a fraction of a second, as he gazes around Kizaru and spots the crater and the body inside. He looks pained for a moment, but hides it well, and returns his attention to Kizaru with an expression of pure calm and control. "I won't let you advance further," he says instead.
Kizaru sighs. "Please get out of the way," he starts to say, but he's overridden by Luffy, whose sobbing scream drowns him out utterly as he charges, still, towards the man who murdered his first crew-mate. His eyes are blazing, both with wild fury and violent sorrow, and there's no way he'll stop, not after this—
But Rayleigh intervenes sharply, planting himself deliberately between Luffy and Kizaru as the Admiral turns with boredom towards the charging pirate captain. "Don't!" Rayleigh says quickly, and there's an ancient tone of command to his voice, one that hasn't been used in years and yet still contains power. "Your crew is still in danger. Think of them, now."
And stunningly he manages to break through Luffy's sorrow-fueled rage when it shouldn't have been possible. Luffy skids to a stop, looking almost uncertain, hesitating—he desperately wants to protect his crew, but he's got to make Kizaru pay for what he's done, and stuck in the middle he looks lost, childlike. "But, Zoro—" he finally says after a moment, with a tremble in his voice, glancing at the charred body laying only feet from the Admiral and his aged opponent.
"I'll take care of him," Rayleigh promises—him, not it. "Look after your crew."
And although it kills them with every fiber of their being, although it digs at them and they feel like nakama-abandoning cowards, leaving Zoro behind like that, they still run. They run and run, and they aren't sure how they escape, with a Pacifista and the powerful Sentoumaru at their backs. Luffy's agony seems to help at one point, allowing him to overpower an opponent he otherwise couldn't, and Brook and Usopp aren't even chased, when they're separated from Zoro, and Sanji is able to help Franky and Nami to give PX-1 the slip when it chases after them next. They run with everything they have, and regroup at the Sunny in a few days' time, shuddering and terrified and numb in the soul more than the body.
It doesn't feel like it's happened, once they escape. But it becomes all the more obvious when they finally regroup, and they only number eight, not nine, and Zoro isn't sleeping on the deck anymore or bickering with Sanji or evading Chopper's insistence on being bandaged again. It still doesn't feel real, and they don't speak of it, not even once. They just go numb inside, empty, and they wait.
Nami moves the Sunny to another grove just to be safe, but it's no surprise that Rayleigh finds them easily three days later, on the appointed reunion date. He brings Zoro with him, carrying the swordsman respectfully, and all three katana are slung across the Dark King's back—he hasn't missed a thing. He's even made an effort for them, to clean up the wounds Zoro received, at the end. The skin's been washed so he no longer appears charred, and his hair, if not its usual light mossy color, is no longer black...more like a dark green. There's a new shirt to hide the worst of the injuries, and what couldn't be covered by the fabric has been bandaged, to keep the cruel evidence hidden since it won't do him any good ever again. It almost looks normal, reassuring, to see Zoro's arms and neck and the flashes of torso visible beneath the shirt wrapped tight in gauze; like he's just unconscious, like a hundred other times before, and he'll wake up soon and demand booze or sneak off to his weights when Chopper isn't looking.
Except he's too still, days later, and too quiet too. There's no raucous snoring, no breathing, no pulse of life at his throat. Desperately they would love to believe he's just sleeping like he always does, but they know this isn't the case, and that he'll never wake up again.
"I am so sorry I didn't arrive in time," Rayleigh says softly, as he meets the full crew on the deck of the Sunny, and he looks it—genuinely, truly sorry that he hadn't made it in time to save Zoro as well as the rest of the crew. "I know what it's like, to lose such a close friend to the marines." And they know he of all people most certainly does know, because he had to have suffered when Gol D. Roger was executed, and he knew that was coming. To suffer such an unexpected loss...to the Straw Hats it is unbearable.
Rayleigh quietly hands Zoro over to his captain; the corpse's head lolls unnaturally as he is shifted, and it sends chills up the Straw Hats' spines, to see the one normally so strong and in control of himself moving in such a grotesque way. Luffy rips his straw hat from his head, throws it unceremoniously to the grass of the Sunny's deck, and reaches out with shaking hands to take the burden from Rayleigh.
It's a heavy weight he accepts. The Straw Hats can see the strain of the burden on their captain, almost too much to bear. Not in a physical sense—Zoro has always been heavy from so much muscle mass, but Luffy has never had a problem carrying and throwing him every which way before. The burden is all in the captain's mind, for as he accepts the body of his dead swordsman he is also forced to accept the realization that he was responsible for that life, and he failed to protect it; that he'd made a promise to never get in the way of that swordsman's goal, and now Zoro was dead because of him. It's a brutal, cruel weight to fall on his shoulders, and without so much as the suggestion that he is ashamed he takes the body and bears it to the ground, cradling it close to his chest and rocking slightly as the flood of tears begins, unchecked.
It's like it's a signal to the rest of the Straw Hats, and the numbness inside each of them breaks, releases as they stare down at that cradled, lifeless corpse that three days ago had been their friend and finally come to terms with the fact that this is real, unforgivably, cruelly real. Chopper is inconsolable. He sobs loudly as he clings to Robin, who manages only just barely to keep a calm facade, and even then it's weak, when her eyes are bright with tears. Brook and Usopp are horrified, both of them stammering through hiccuping sobs that it must be their fault, because they were the closest and they couldn't save him, and Zoro, he would have found a way to rescue them somehow if it had been different, he would have found a way, he wouldn't have let them die like they did him. Sanji just stares at the head tucked under Luffy's chin, at eyes that are closed and don't take the bait to open up and glare back. Almost, one would think that Sanji himself was glaring as well, except his lips are twisted into a grimace of pain, and his hands are fisted so tightly blood is starting to dribble from the palms although nobody notices. He only stops when Nami, crying for the first time since Arlong's downfall, turns to bury her face in his chest to try and conceal the sobbing that she hates to do in front of others. Her tears will inevitably ruin the silk tie, but neither of them seem to care. And Franky is simply blank, stares down at the body with a dead expression on his face, shockingly unable to start blubbering in the face of something so sharp and painful; like this is too cutting, too real, for even his tears.
Once released it's like the emotions won't stop, like they're an uncontrolled storm of rage and pain and guilt and sorrow and emptiness, and they huddle together in the dark on the decks of the Sunny and mourn in the only ways they know how. Rayleigh turns away and heads to the front of the deck, with the excuse of keeping an eye out for the marines still hunting them, although in reality he's just sympathetic enough to give them their moment. None of them even notice he's let them be.
But at last the storm begins to subside, and one by one they start to become aware of the world outside that tiny little bubble of nakama, that cradled body, that small patch of deck beneath their feet. The star shift implies it's been hours, it's bitterly cold to them in the night, and their stomachs are rumbling loudly, although none of them, not even Luffy, seem to be hungry. They uncoil slowly from their grief, and stretch cramped muscles, wipe eyes dry, reassure each other softly with quiet embraces—but still none of them are willing to step away from that little vigil. Luffy especially seems reluctant to release Zoro's corpse from his grip, even though his arms have to had long since gone to sleep from being wrapped so protectively around the body.
Rayleigh returns when he senses the Straw Hats have calmed slightly, and quietly lays the three katana still strapped across his back next to Luffy and the body they belong to with all the respect they deserve. "A burial at sea might be more fitting for a pirate," he says slowly, "but if you desire to bury him here at Sabaody instead, I'll find a place that will remain undisturbed for you."
Luffy shudders softly at the words, and regards the Dark King with dulled, dead eyes, red-rimmed from so much crying.
Rayleigh frowns at the silent response, but asks after another moment, "What do you plan to do now? The loss of nakama is a brutal thing. I've seen many great men falter because of it. It would be disappointing, but I don't think there's any great shame in end—"
"No," Luffy says, very insistently. He clutches the body almost possessively closer when he says it, and adds in a voice that is hoarse and wavering from sobbing but still strong, "I am not going to give up being the Pirate King."
The rest of the crew gives him surprised expressions, but a few of them Sanji, Brook and Robin especially, are nodding in determined agreement. Luffy continues on, with increasing determination, "I...I'm not a good captain, for letting my nakama..." His hand spasms, digs into Zoro's shirt slightly, like he's trying to drag him back, reverse what's happened. He shivers lightly, and then continues, "But Zoro died for my crew. He protected Usopp and Brook until the end, saved their dreams...and that means he saved and died for my dream as well. I won't ever let that be for nothing." His lips twist back into a fierce snarl as he finishes with, "There's no way I can give up on him like that, not now, not ever. So we're gonna do it. I can't be the best swordsman in the world, but I'll be the Pirate King, for him too now, not just me."
The Straw Hats understand, and almost as one begin making their pledges to Zoro—it doesn't matter if he couldn't hear them anymore, they'd make their dreams happen, and they'd be so strong even the dead would talk about them.
"I'll get stronger, Zoro...I won't ever forget what you did for me here, ever. I'll get so strong I can protect everyone here no matter what, just like you—I swear!"
"I will sing to Laboon about your bravery, Zoro-san! I'll make sure you are remembered as the man that let us reunite once more!"
"I'll definitely complete that world map, Zoro...not that you would have understood it anyway, but...I-I swear I won't give up on it, ever."
"I-I'll get s-so much better at healing p-people that n-no one else on the c-crew will e-ever die like that ag-gain...s-sorry if you get l-lonely, b-but I've got to protect my n-nakama just like you, t-too!"
"Damn it, Zoro, if you think you've got more resolve than me...hell, I'm gonna find the All Blue, and when I do I'm gonna shout it loud and clear just to prove you wrong, shitty marimo!"
"We'll definitely take the Sunny around the world...I promise, sword-bro! Thanks for defending her up 'til now, we'll take it from here...you just...t-take it easy, okay?"
"I promise I will not let your sacrifice be in vain, Swordsman-san...Zoro. I will never forget your protection of the crew and myself...and I swear I will see my goal through to completion, to honor your help."
Luffy nods grimly, slowly uncurls one of his arms from the cradled body of their friend and stretches out for his hat, abandoned on the deck for hours now during their moments of grief. He places the hat resolutely back on his head, and says fiercely, "You heard them, Zoro. We're gonna do it, 'cause you wanted us to. I won't let anyone stop me from being King of the Pirates."
Rayleigh smiles softly and nods in approval, although he knows it will be some time yet before the grief fades. He knows because he experienced it himself, and bonds that strong hurt the most when cut. They would recover eventually, move on, accomplish their goals if they were strong enough, of that Rayleigh had no doubt.
They would still do it—although their world would be that much darker for the Straw Hats, after what the light had brought.
I was rewatching some of the Sabaody stuff the other day, including the part when Kizaru shows up, and I thought—holy shit. It was like the first time in the series in which the Straw Hats were completely helpless. If Rayleigh hadn't shown up at the exact right moment, they woulda lost Zoro, end of story.
And then because I'm cruel and I like AU's, I had to roll with it.
~VelkynKarma