The prompt 'skeleton' immediately reminded me of Indiana Jones, and after that I just had to roll with it...
Title: Exploration
Theme: #30: Skeleton
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 6,312
Rating: PG
Warnings: Few grim images...uh, maybe a few minor swears? Nothing terrible really.
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.
"So then, I bravely faced the giant living mutant cactus and despite all its incredibly venomous spines I reached for it with my bare hands and—"
"Will you shut up?" Zoro groused, giving his current traveling companion a look. "We'll never catch anything at this rate, if you keep scaring all the game away!"
Usopp ground to a halt with a sharp click of teeth, looking a little intimidated, with Zoro largely suspected had to do with the surly glare he'd sent in the sniper's direction. At least he'd shut up. Zoro turned sullenly to start stomping through the thickly overgrown jungle again, searching for something even remotely edible out in the wilderness that he could bring back to the ship (and, hopefully, something that would put whatever the cook brought back to shame, too).
Usopp hesitated a moment, and then meekly trailed after him, grumbling under his breath but being markedly more quiet than before. It was at least an improvement, although Zoro still sort of wished he'd been allowed to go out on his own. He'd intended to explore this uninhabited island they'd stopped at by himself, and to bring back any game if he found it, but Nami had been extremely insistent that he was to bring a partner with him to make sure he didn't get lost (as if he would). They'd drawn straws, and Usopp had been the one to get stuck following him around. Neither of them had been particularly happy about the arrangement—while Zoro craved a little solitude, Usopp clearly had not been interested in exploring a possibly monster-infested island, to judge from the way his so-called 'step-on-the-island-and-die-disease' was acting up.
The result had been a rather uninteresting, unproductive, and frequently annoying two hours of exploration. The place seemed entirely uninhabited by sentient life; Zoro hadn't seen any traces of anything as long as they'd been wandering, not even overgrown ruins or abandoned villages. He hadn't seen much of anything edible, either—or at least, nothing that would satisfy Luffy. There had been some wild blackberries a ways back that Usopp had picked for Sanji to make a desert out of later, but although Zoro had caught a few fleeting glimpses of birds they'd yet to come close to (or get attacked by) any animals worth eating.
"Maybe we should just head back," Usopp said finally, breaking the silence after another half hour passed. "We haven't seen anything, and it's going to start to get dark soon."
Zoro was just about to grudgingly agree that they might as well, when he heard a rustling nearby. They were currently skirting the edges of a curious clearing in the enormous trees, one of many that they had seen that day; circular areas always roughly the same size, devoid of trees but so thickly overgrown with fat, dark green vines it was impossible to see the ground beneath all the coils. The rustling noise came from the other side of the clearing, and since there was no wind it was definitely something alive—and hopefully edible—causing the sound. Without hesitation Zoro turned on his heel and charged across the vine-covered clearing, picking his way carefully between the living coils so as not to twist an ankle or break a leg.
"Zoro, wait for me!" Usopp shrieked frantically, and the swordsman could hear heavy footfalls behind him as Usopp ran after, trying to catch up. He grimaced to himself—with their current string of luck, Usopp would almost certainly scare the whatever-it-was away before he could reach it, and then—
His thoughts ground to an abrupt halt as the ground seemed to sag beneath him. He felt more than saw the tangle of vines beneath his feet starting to snap like a rotting net, and to his immense surprise suddenly he was falling through a wide hole in what he'd been certain was solid ground ten seconds ago.
It felt like he was falling for a very long time, and judging by the shrieking in his ear he guessed Usopp was along for the ride. Then with a painful and abrupt thud he finally hit the ground, and covered his head hastily as pebbles and thick torn vines crashed down all around him.
The falling objects thundered down for quite some time, and then finally everything went silent. He paused for a moment, waiting to see anything else was going to smash down on his head unexpectedly. But nothing did, so he shoved his way out of a pile of rubble and freshly dead plants and looked around quickly for Usopp. The sniper's hand was sticking out of a pile of similar mess not too far away; Zoro waded over to him through the fallen earth and vines and dragged him out, setting him on his feet.
"You okay?" he asked, giving Usopp a quick once-over. The sniper definitely looked dazed from the fall, but nothing looked broken and he didn't see any blood, so he figured everything was probably fine.
"Y-yeah," Usopp said shakily after a moment. "Thanks. W-what happened?"
"We fell," Zoro said, unnecessarily.
Usopp glanced around, and said with a frown, "Okay, better question then...where are we?"
That was a good question. Unfortunately for Usopp, Zoro didn't have an answer. He took a better look around himself now that his crew mate was taken care of, crossing his arms as he glanced at the surroundings.
At first he'd thought they'd fallen into a trap of some sort. They were in a perfectly round chamber almost exactly the same size as the clearing very far above, and the walls were smooth, so Zoro would easily have mistaken it for a deliberate pitfall. Except that it lacked any of the usual other things such pit-traps had, like spikes at the bottom to kill the person. Although the drop had been pretty far, it wasn't enough to kill somebody—break a limb at best, but only a really unlucky person would die. It didn't even seem to be intended for holding captured prisoners, either, since there was a tunnel leading off to somewhere on the right-hand side of the chamber. No, this definitely didn't feel like a trap at all—maybe a well, or—
"A window," Usopp cut in, staring up above with one hand shading his eyes. "I thought it was sort of weird when we were exploring. Trees don't grow in perfect circles, but the ones above us had been trimmed back, like they were letting in sunlight."
Zoro frowned. "So what, there really are people here?"
Usopp looked thoughtful as he stared around the room. "No, I don't think so," he finally said. "This place looks like it was a mess even before we brought all that stuff down with us." He kicked aside a broken vine, revealing a stone floor with deep-cut grooves, rather like a sandbox cut into the ground. "Maybe it was a garden or something? Plants need sunlight, right?"
"Who knows, who cares," Zoro said. "No point standing around down here, so let's just get out."
But it was easier said than done. The walls were worn incredibly smooth with age, and it was impossible to get a good grip to climb at all. There were thick vines trailing over the edges of the hole far above, but even when Usopp stood on Zoro's shoulders they were still completely out of reach. Zoro wouldn't risk damaging his swords by using them as handgrips in the walls, and after a good ten minutes of searching they finally decided that escaping the pit by climbing was impossible.
"Might as well take the tunnel, then," Zoro said with a sigh. He doubted anything was living down here at all that could be eaten, which meant they were just wasting even more time messing around trying to find their way out.
Usopp trembled visibly and regarded the shadow-strewn tunnel with an audible gulp. "Go in th-there? B-but we don't know what's in there! Anything could have moved in! There could be horrible tunnel monsters or ghosts or labyrinth guardians or—"
"If any of that stuff gets in my way, I'm killing it," Zoro interrupted. "We don't have time to wait around. Plus, the monsters might be edible and this side-trip won't be a total waste."
Judging by Usopp's dread-filled moan this wasn't exactly the properly comforting thing to say, but Zoro was already heading for the tunnel, which got steadily darker as he moved away from the late-afternoon sunlight streaming through the hole they'd made. Usopp squeaked in fear, but caught up moments later, getting as close as he possibly could to the swordsman without actually clambering up into an unwanted piggyback.
Zoro rolled his eyes, but he was fairly used to the sniper's cowardly antics by now and let it pass. Instead he said dryly, "Might as well make yourself useful and get a light going."
"Er, right!" Usopp said. He dug hastily through his bag by feel, withdrawing a little invention of his, a hand-held torch that was powered fairly constantly by a flash dial when triggered. He tapped it on, and seconds later a steady beam of low-level light cut through the gloom, sweeping around the corridor in front of them shakily as it searched for monsters. There weren't any.
"Good thing I remembered to fill the dial the other day," Usopp added, a little more calmly. The light, and the comforting revelation that there weren't any monsters waiting bare inches in front of them, seemed to relax him a little. Zoro nodded in satisfaction and took the lead down the corridor again, and was somewhat satisfied to find Usopp giving him a little more space this time. If a monster did suddenly attack out of nowhere, it'd sort of be difficult to kill it with Usopp hanging off his shoulders screaming bloody murder, after all.
They walked for some time down the corridor, which was apparently quite long, and growing bigger and wider as well. Occasionally they would spot a hole carved into the wall, large enough to count as a doorway; but whenever Usopp illuminated the area, the trembling light of the dial-torch only revealed small rooms with rubble and old junk but little else. If Usopp's initial guess was right, and the room they'd fallen down in was a garden of some sort, then Zoro reasoned these were probably store rooms or pantries or whatever. Whatever the case, it soon became very clear that while people had lived here once, however long ago, they definitely weren't here anymore.
"Why do you think they left?" Usopp asked; the trembling in his voice was all too clear.
"Dunno," Zoro said, bored. The entire place all looked the same to him so far, and there was nothing interesting going on here. "People leave for all sorts of reasons."
"But not this many people," Usopp said. "I bet it was monsters. Horrible cave-dwelling monsters that ate everyone and made the rest run away—"
"Stop that," Zoro told him sharply. "You're waving the light all over and it's hard to see. I already told you, if there are monsters they're not beating me, so calm down already."
They walked a little longer, with Usopp now chattering about pointless, happy things non-stop to fill the otherwise oppressive silence. Zoro let him—when he was telling his stories he wasn't panicking, and although Zoro doubted there was anything dangerous down here, it wouldn't do for him to start freaking out and put himself in a bad situation. Zoro was responsible for keeping him alive as long as they were out, and if that required listening to occasionally annoying chatter, he'd deal with it.
And while they walked, they made a few more discoveries. The big tunnel they were walking along started to have more rooms branching off of it as they passed, and these were starting to get larger, sometimes even with additional compartments for extra rooms. Zoro was oddly reminded of dormitories or military barracks, and although he'd never call himself an archaeologist he could make a fairly decent guess that they were wandering into the busier living areas of...whatever it was they'd stumbled into.
His guess was confirmed ten minutes later, when they came across a particularly large dormitory-cave and discovered a pair of human skeletons sprawled out in the front compartment, reaching out ineffectually for the carved doorway. Usopp gave an undignified shriek, and this time he did leap onto Zoro's back in a half-assed attempt at a piggyback, yammering about how this was a bad omen and death and destruction were coming for them (and also, skeleton zombies, just waiting for the signal to tear them to bits). Zoro yelped as Usopp's frantic attempt to scramble to safety on his shoulders knocked him off balance, and he stumbled forward before he could stop himself, his boot crunching down on one of the outreaching skeleton's hands. The entire thing shivered for a moment (eliciting another frantic yelp from Usopp in response), and then the whole skeleton crumbled slowly into dust.
"Will you calm the hell down?" Zoro snapped at him, as he finally regained his balance (and thankfully before crushing the second inhabitant of the room). With Usopp still clinging to his back like a terrified monkey he couldn't exactly glare at him, but he crossed his arms and made his annoyance very apparent. "They're just skeletons! They're dead. Do you seriously expect them to get up and attack you?"
In retrospect, this was actually a stupid question and not at all a ridiculous thought, seeing as one of their crew members was a walking and occasionally attacking skeleton. But Brook was a once-in-a-lifetime exception, and Zoro really doubted there was another one wandering around in the world, and certainly not here, where there was no hint of life or movement at all. Usopp seemed to recognize this as well, because he mumbled sheepishly under his breath, "Well...it's not...that is...never mind," as he slowly let himself back down to the stone floor.
They stared down at the remaining skeleton for a few more moments (which remained steadily unmoving and very, very dead), before Usopp asked tentatively, "What do you think they're doing here?"
Zoro shrugged. "Dunno. But it looks like they were trying to get out of the room." He pointed at the way the remaining skeleton was still reaching out for the doorway, like it'd been trying to crawl away.
Usopp shivered. "My monster theory is looking way more likely by the minute," he moaned.
Zoro rolled his eyes. "Don't be a pansy. Look, there's nothing in the back." He proved it by walking through every single room in the little dormitory-cave, and coming back out completely attack-free. "If it was a monster, it's gotta be dead by now, anyway. The way that other skeleton crumbled, they've been dead for a real long time."
"I bet we're next," Usopp said pessimistically. "Then it'll be our skeletons down here for hundreds of years—"
"Please. Luffy'd find them," Zoro said idly, as he stepped back into the corridor. Usopp moaned in fear again (so once again he'd apparently said the wrong thing), but followed a few moments later.
They wandered for a bit more, and now it was becoming increasingly apparent that they'd quite literally stumbled across something huge beneath the surface of the island. There were several more (completely immobile) skeletons in a few of the other dorm compartments they'd passed, all dead in various states of movement, and all like they'd been trying to leave. Usopp refused to enter most of the rooms with the skeletons, but thankfully didn't leap on Zoro again, so that at least was a plus, and they left the dead alone to their eternal rests. And not too long after the dorms and their unmoving occupants they came across new tunnels, branching off from theirs in all directions. Zoro was all for heading down one to see where it led and if they could get out, but Usopp pointed out that all of those newer tunnels were smaller than the one they'd been following, which by now had grown so enormous a small house could fit in it.
"This place seems sort of like a city," Usopp pointed out, swinging the dial-torch around as he examined the place. "It's underground, but it looks like it works the same way. All those rooms were like houses, and the tunnels are like streets. And this one's the biggest, so it must be like the main street. I'm sure if we keep following this one we'll find a way out, right?"
Zoro hadn't the faintest idea, but it sounded logical enough, so they continued to follow the same tunnel as before. If it came to it, they could always backtrack to the other tunnels, after all.
Usopp's estimation that the place was like a city seemed accurate enough. They soon reached a point when the main tunnel had swelled to being more of a giant underground cavern than a corridor; they had to be at least a hundred feet underground by this point, maybe more. This, clearly, was the heart of the civilization they had stumbled into. Skeletons were strewn all over the place now, like they'd been about their daily business when they'd all of a sudden died. Their were more home-caves carved around the edges of the enormous cavern, and massive stalagmites stabbing up towards the ceiling had been carved out to make buildings as well...maybe apartment complexes, or businesses, or something. The place was long-dead and eerily silent now, but it seemed obvious that this had once been a thriving culture.
They stepped carefully over the skeletons and made their way across the enormous cavern. Usopp kept flashing the dial-torch around frantically, searching for the cause of all the death and the silence down here, likely expecting a monster to come leaping out of the gloom to add them to the death count. Zoro could have told him it was pointless (and in fact, he had, to no avail). He couldn't sense anything living down here, and he didn't have that instinctive scratching at the back of his mind that warned him to be careful. This place was a little eerie, but it was long since abandoned, and posed no problems.
So as they walked Zoro spent his time looking around curiously—not for monsters, but for signs of escape. He didn't see any, but he did notice there was a lot of writing on the cave walls, and covering the stalagmite-buildings as well. It didn't look like anything he'd ever read, and although he couldn't read poneglyphs it didn't look similar to what he'd seen of those, either.
"Too bad Robin's not here," Zoro said absently, after he'd pointed the writing out to Usopp, who hadn't recognized it either. "She could probably read it. A hundred beri says there's probably directions to get out written right here and we can't even understand them."
"You wouldn't anyway," Usopp muttered under his breath, but at Zoro's glare he added hastily, "Look, there's the end of the cavern, and man is it a big tunnel! I bet that's the way out."
Zoro followed Usopp across the rest of the city-center chamber, and stared up at the large tunnel Usopp had pointed out. There was a lot of carving around the entrance, far more than their was anywhere else, not that he could understand a word of it. He disregarded it as unimportant and stepped into the tunnel, but almost as soon as he did he felt a prickling on the back of his neck, and immediately went tense. Something was different about this section, something important, and he knew enough to stay on his guard.
The new tunnel went on for quite some distance ahead, as far as they could see. Usopp's spirits seemed to have lifted now that they were at what he figured was the end of the trip, and he chattered amicably as they walked. Zoro wasn't so sure it was all over, though, and the further into the tunnel they walked, the more that insistence at the back of his mind that he needed to be on his guard grew. There was definitely something different about this place compared to the rest of the complex they'd wandered through, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it, and it left him tense and wary.
His preparedness was all that saved them, because the warning came bare seconds before the attack did. Zoro swore, dived forward, and pushed Usopp's head down just as a pair of blades came sweeping out at neck level, missing severing their heads by inches. Usopp let out a blubbering yelp and froze in place, like a rabbit staring down a hunter, and shuddered fearfully.
A second instinctive warning told Zoro it wasn't over yet, and he leapt forward again, wrapping one arm around Usopp's torso and tucking him unceremoniously under one shoulder like a sack of flour as he bolted forward down the tunnel at top speed. Several projectiles shot from well-concealed spaces in the walls, clacking and ricocheting off stone behind them as they barely missed the pirates. Usopp was screaming bloody murder the whole time, although to his credit he managed to keep a hold of the dial-torch in his hand, and even keep it shining forward most of the time to illuminate Zoro's path.
The projectiles continued to blast out of the walls for a good fifteen seconds as they darted down the stone hall, barely missing their heels, before they suddenly stopped firing. The clacking behind them ceased, leaving Usopp's blubbering shrieking filling the silence, and Zoro had just enough time to puzzle over it before something in his mind screamed at him to stop, now, right now! He skidded to a halt, twisting Usopp safely behind him, just in time. With an enormous crash, a blade almost as wide as the corridor smashed down from the ceiling, missing his boot by less than a hair. If Zoro hadn't stopped, he and Usopp would have split neatly in two.
It went quiet again, very suddenly. Something about the air still told Zoro to be careful, but he didn't have that incessant nagging at the back of his mind now that told him danger was nearby, and he had the feeling the worst of it was over. He set Usopp down on the ground, where the sniper promptly covered his head with his hands and bemoaned the fact that he'd been unlucky enough to draw the short straw for Zoro-babysitting-duty today.
"I don't need babysitting," Zoro said hotly. "Anyway, get up, we've got more exploring to do." He eyed the fallen blade in front of them, and tapped it experimentally. It was just plain iron, and would be easy to cut. Within seconds he'd drawn his swords and shattered the obstruction to pieces, leaving the way cleared.
Usopp, meanwhile, was staring at him dumbfounded. "Are you serious?" he nearly shrieked. "You want to keep going this way? Zoro, you're crazy! Clearly whoever used to live here does not want us getting to the end of this tunnel, and I say we respect their wishes, turn around, and pretend none of this ever happened!"
"I don't," Zoro said. "This is the first interesting thing that we've seen since we got down here. I want to know what makes these people so gutsy they think they can risk killing us over it."
"But there could be more traps! Worse traps!"
"And? I got you through the last ones, didn't I? We'll be fine. Besides, there might be something important down here. Maybe there's a some interesting weapons, or a poneglyph, or treasure. We won't know until we look, right?"
"I still don't think this is a good idea," Usopp moaned. Zoro ignored him as he started back up the tunnel, and predictably Usopp came trotting after a moment later, insisting, "You'd better not get me killed!"
"Tell you what. If I do, you can blame me," Zoro said absently. Usopp shuddered, but kept following.
The rest of the tunnel wasn't that long; it seemed the traps were thought to be efficient enough that any trespassers would be dead already. Not too long after they passed the ceiling blade a soft light began to flicker ahead, and soon it had grown so strong they could see even without Usopp's dial-torch. The sniper clicked it off nervously, insisting that the lights must come from ghosts, taunting wayward travelers into the darkness to become lost before they were set upon.
"We're already lost," Zoro pointed out. "It can't get any worse." They kept going.
He'd never admit it out loud, least of all to Usopp, but Zoro's senses were screaming now that something was definitely off. He still hadn't been able to figure out why this tunnel was different than all the others, but the air was so saturated with the difference now he suspected even Usopp could feel it, untrained in such things as he was. Zoro didn't think it was dangerous, or at least, not exactly; he sensed no malevolence, or intent to do harm, but there was definitely the potential for it there. He decided to remain on his guard, although he didn't let on to Usopp, who was already panicking enough as it was.
And then they hit the chamber at the end of the tunnel, and suddenly it all made sense to Zoro.
It was an enormous cave they reached at the end—not quite as cavernous as the city heart they'd passed through earlier, but definitely enough to hold the Merry at the very least. It was well lit from torches that seemed to stay aflame regardless of having no caretakers or fuel, even though by all logic they should have burned down long ago, because it was obvious no one living had been here for a long, long time to tend to them. There was more of that writing on every square inch of the walls, carved in sharply and with obvious importance, and although Zoro couldn't read so much as the smallest scribble he suddenly got the feeling that they were something vital to the people that had once lived here, like scripture.
He figured as much due to the occupants of the room. While nothing living had been here in a long time for sure, many dead things had apparently resided here for decades, or more. There were thrones stretched across the entire length of the cavern, and in each one sat an ancient-looking skeleton, withered and drooping forward in age but looking no less majestic for it. Each skeleton was adorned with treasure and rich looking clothing. The cloth had long since rotted into little more than scraps, but the crowns, necklaces, and rings were as shining and resplendent as ever, and more riches sat heaped at the foot of each throne as though in tribute to the dead.
"Wow," Usopp gasped softly, staring around at the awe-inspiring sight. "This is...this is amazing. These guys...I bet they're the old rulers of this underground city! That would explain why they've got so much treasure."
"And why the people worked so hard to trap this place," Zoro agreed. He had to admit, the sight was pretty impressive to him, too. But the unsettling feeling scratching at the back of his neck was growing too, and now he understood why this place was making him so tense, or why that tunnel had felt different from the others. This wasn't just a part of any old city—this was a sacred place, both the city's temple and its tomb. He could feel something very old and very strong about the place, and knew instinctively that the people that had once lived here hadn't left their regal-looking dead undefended, and there were more than simple tunnel traps in place to protect their ancient rulers. Of that much he was absolutely certain.
"Should we take some of this?" Usopp asked, a tad hesitantly, gesturing to the gold and jewelry at the feet of the old kings. "Nami'll be real mad if she hears about all this and we didn't..."
"No," Zoro ordered sharply. "Don't touch any of it." The thick potential for danger hovering just barely out of reach felt all the stronger now, wary and waiting. He gripped the back of Usopp's overalls and hauled him back, away from the skeletons and the jewels, pushing the sniper behind himself back towards the tunnel. "We saw what we came to see and got our answers."
"Zoro," Usopp said doubtfully, looking quite confused now, "you're the one that pointed out we might find treasure here, and we did! Don't you think we should—"
"No," Zoro interrupted, "I don't. This belongs to the dead. We don't want to cause trouble here, and we're going to be respectful of their resting place." He eyed the ancient, sitting skeletons in their thrones—they stared back at him sightlessly, blank eyes unseeing but somehow still watching—and added, "And as soon as we can find our way out, we'll leave them all alone."
Usopp frowned, but seemed to pick up on Zoro's tenseness, and said with a trembling voice, "O-okay. If you say so..."
They turned and left, with Usopp clicking his dial-torch back on again so they could see back into the depths of the dark tunnel and underground city. Zoro deliberately kept himself behind Usopp—and between the sniper and the tomb cave—just in case whatever curse or thing guarding the old kings decided to strike anyway. But whatever the protection for the dead was, it had apparently decided they weren't threats, because nothing attacked them from the rear and no more traps were triggered on their way out. They stepped over dozens of sharpened stake projectiles and around the neck-height blades, with Usopp trembling the whole while and remarking on how close they'd been to really dying (and cheering up slightly when he realized how good a story it would make later). Zoro just kept an eye out, and let out a mental sigh of relief when they finally made it back out of the tunnel and that ancient, sacred presence seemed to evaporate into the dusty, stale air once more. He had no intention of crossing whatever that protection was if he could help it. It was just a good thing Nami wasn't here, or she would have crossed the skeletons to steal their gold anyway, and likely triggered the final trap.
"Now what do we do?" Usopp said, sounding anxious and now more than a little tired. Zoro didn't blame him—they'd been down in the dark for at least an hour or two by now, and coupled with all the exploring they'd done earlier, it was no wonder they were starting to wear out.
"Just gotta start trying the other tunnels, I guess," Zoro began, when a a sharp clattering noise came from their left. Usopp shrieked and swung the dial-torch immediately in the direction of the noise while ducking frantically behind Zoro, who placed a hand on one of his katana reflexively as he turned to face the threat. Monsters he could care less about, but if they'd managed to trigger the curse or trap or whatever it was after all—
But there was nothing there when the dial's light flickered over where the noise had originated from; just a tunnel entrance, with a few pebbles and clumps of dirt crumbling from its ceiling. Zoro blinked in surprise. It was sort of weird for the tunnel to start falling apart now, after probably centuries of being intact without care. Why had it picked that moment to make that noise? At the same time, he had this bizarre sort of feeling that was exactly the tunnel they should pick to finally get out of here...
"Zoro," Usopp said slowly, sounding a little bewildered and more than a little freaked out, "This is going to sound crazy, but I've got this impression that if we go out that tunnel, we'll get above ground really fast."
Zoro blinked again. "You, too?" he said. Odd...maybe whatever it was that was guarding this place wanted them just as gone as they wanted to be, and was giving them a nudge. Or, maybe it was a trap, and the thing was leading them to their deaths. Whatever the case, there was only one way to find out. "Let's try it," he said, and strode forward resolutely, hands ready on his swords. Usopp, still looking nervous but holding the dial-torch with a surprisingly unwavering hand, followed after.
Zoro fully expected the tunnel to collapse on them at some point, or for more traps to spring out of nowhere and try to kill them. But he didn't feel that overpowering, ancient presence that he had in the tomb's tunnel, and while his senses were on keen alert it didn't feel like they were in any more danger than usual. They followed the passage for a good thirty minutes, and just as Usopp's dial-torch started to flicker weakly, finally running out of the light stored in its interior, they saw an amazingly welcome sight ahead: natural light, all in oranges and reds and golds, as the sunset filtered into the tunnel.
They burst out of the strange underground complex into the jungle above with more than a little relief, and in Usopp's case a yell of delight and many, many heartfelt praises for the Great Captain Usopp's navigational skills. Zoro was more reserved, but couldn't help but breath deeply from the fresh air. He hadn't realized how stale the air down below was, or how wide open the sky truly was either, after having a city-sized ceiling above his head for several hours. He wasn't the claustrophobic sort, but he couldn't even begin to imagine how people had managed to live down there like that.
"This way, Zoro!" Usopp called. "It's gonna be dark soon, and we want to get back to the Sunny before that happens, right?"
"Lead on," Zoro said. In the end they hadn't found any game, but they'd definitely done more than their fair share of exploring today, and that was enough for the both of them.
It took them almost an hour to get back to the ship, and they arrived just in time to head off their own search party. "Where were you, bros?" Franky called to them with a sob. "We were worried sick, you know?"
This was all the invitation Usopp needed to launch into a (highly embellished) recount of their explorations, as he and Zoro ate the dinners Sanji hastily prepared for them (it seemed they'd missed dinner with the rest of the crew as well, which had ended up prompting the search party to begin with). The crew listened with varying degrees of interest—Nami wanted to know more about the treasure they'd left behind, Luffy wanted to know about all the skeletons and the cool 'mystery city,' and Robin had them recount as many fine details as possible, even going so far as to bring paper in for them to sketch whatever written symbols they could remember on.
"Do you know what this place is, Robin?" Chopper finally asked excitedly. "I've never heard of an underground city before!"
Robin considered, and nodded slowly. "I can't be certain," she said eventually, "But there are some old legends and mythology concerning an ancient underground city called Grand Laccolius. It was supposedly a highly advanced civilization and fully self-supporting, but legend tells that the inhabitants all died in a single night, completely unexpectedly."
Usopp whined and said frantically, "Was it a curse? Me and Zoro aren't going to die, are we?"
Robin shrugged. "Reports are inconclusive," she said. "After all, the city is legendary, and no one has ever found its exact location. Some say the people died of fire, others of disease, or war, or poisoning. Based on your observations of the skeletons I would guess the last is the most likely, especially if they died of natural gas poisoning from an accidentally opened vent in the ground, but it would be hard to say without further study."
"Are you going to go back tomorrow then, Robin-chan?" Sanji asked delightedly. "I would be happy to accompany you in your explorations!"
"I would like to," Robin admitted, "But I suspect it might be best to let some secrets lie." And although Zoro had never spoken once about the presence he'd felt in that final tomb room, based on the look she quietly exchanged with him, she knew about it just as well as he did. He nodded quietly to her in acknowledgement—they both understood full well that the living weren't wanted there, and that it was best to leave it alone.
"That's too bad," Nami said miserably. "We can't just leave all that treasure behind. Argh! Zoro, this is all your fault! I'm raising your interest by twenty percent for not even thinking about taking any of that gold!"
"What?" Zoro scowled. "That's ridiculous!" He glared across at her, and she scowled back. Across the table, Usopp winked at him in amusement, and then nodded in understanding as well.
Zoro got the message—for all their faults, it was nice to be back amongst the living any day.
Not my best, but I suppose not every prompt can be awesome haha.
~VelkynKarma