OMFG I wrote something under a thousand words!
Title: Bloodbath
Theme: #20: Bath
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 592
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Dark!Zoro, some 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.
Most of the time, the Straw Hats are completely comfortable with one another. They might argue with each other, or spar, or ignore someone being irritating, or hide themselves away in a quiet corner for a while to be sure. But they all feel safe around each other, and know without a shred of hesitation that if one of them falls into trouble, the other eight will be there for them in less than a heartbeat.
Zoro is no exception to the rule, and every single Straw Hat knows that although he is monumentally strong they are always perfectly safe around him. He might threaten on occasion, and he might growl angrily, and loves saying he'll kill somebody when he's displeased. But everyone on the ship knows that his bark is worse than his bite, at least when the crew is concerned.
But there are times when they might forget that. There are times when the Zoro of the Straw Hats seems to have left, and in his place Pirate Hunter Zoro, the Demon of the East Blue, stands ready. And in times like that, it almost seems completely justified to be afraid, because there's an old remnant of something that was smothered when Luffy arrived, but that didn't quite die, and no one quite knows what to make of it.
They are times in the heat of battle, always. When enemies attack and fall, and fall, and fall, and the blood runs slick on the grass or the decks and the swords and the demon himself are bathed in red. There's a wicked gleam in his eyes then, and he's not disgusted at all; it's like he enjoys the challenge, enjoys the rush of winning, of proving he's stronger. The circle of fallen around him then is frightening, the stench of iron thick in the air nauseating, the heat and intensity smothering. And through it all the Demon's teeth glint in a primal, smiling grimace around his red-drenched blade and the eyes are wild, lost in the throes of battle, and it really is as though a demon has dragged itself out of the depths of hell to lay waste to the enemies set before him.
In those moments Roronoa Zoro the man is dead, and the Demon of the East Blue is at his most terrifying, and not even the Straw Hats can keep themselves from shuddering.
All but one, at any rate, because Luffy is never afraid; he trusts his first crew mate too absolutely for that. And that unconditional trust is the very thing that seems to bind the demon completely, because for all the potential that the Straw Hats can sense from that bloodthirsty battle-hungry side, he never reaches it fully. The violence that surrounds the Demon of the East Blue is like a tangible aura, but it never unleashes completely uncontrolled like they know it could, without that trust to hold it back.
And it is in those moments, when Zoro is almost-but-not-quite-dead and the Demon is almost-but-not-quite-alive, that the Straw Hats are thankful that it was Luffy of all people who managed to contract that potential monster and bind it, tame it, control it. Because the only other option is that the Demon goes free, alone and searching for that primal intensity, leaving a bloodbath in its wake, and somehow it is all the more frightening to think of what he might have been, than to have a Demon on their side, in their midst.
The image I got for 'bath' was 'bathed in blood' which just goes to prove how much of a horrible person I am.
Also I always have a hard time believing that Zoro has never killed anybody since he joined Luffy's crew...we know he's done it in the past, we know he's capable of it easily, and we definitely know he likes violence a teensy bit too much. And he was probably worse before he met Luffy...'cause he was a jerk then lol.
~VelkynKarma