Moving the schedule up just a tad, since I'd like the last fic to be out by this weekend...

Title: Bound
Theme: #11: Spider Web
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 2,046
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Some gruesome imagery and description. Takes place during the Baratie arc.
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.

Usopp, Johnny and Yosaku sat back in exhaustion, surveying their handiwork as they wiped their brows and washed the blood from their hands into the ocean. It had only been an hour since they'd left the Baratie, chasing after Nami and the Going Merry, but in Usopp's opinion it was still one of the most frightening hours of his life. After all—Zoro's life had been on the line, and after joining the Straw Hat pirates he'd discovered nothing was a more terrifying prospect than losing a new friend.

Mihawk had insisted that Zoro would be 'fine' to Luffy, and Usopp had to admit, that final sword stroke must've been brilliant even if he could only comprehend the bare basics of it. The wounds cutting across Zoro's chest were terrible, but not as deep as it had originally looked, and that enormous black sword hadn't sliced through bone or vital organs like the sniper was all too aware it could have done if he'd really meant for it to. In that regard, Zoro was fine.

But Usopp wasn't a doctor, and neither were Johnny or Yosaku. They'd fought a battle with severe blood-loss that they'd almost lost towards the end, until they'd finally managed to stitch the wound closed with inexperienced fingers. Usopp figured the results of their handiwork would be forever branded across Zoro's chest; it had been difficult to close that massive wound without the right tools or really knowing how, and Usopp could fix things alright, but not people so much. He'd started to get the hang of it by the time he'd taken care of the less dangerous wound cutting across Zoro's chest from right to left, but he had a feeling the gash ripping violently across his body from left shoulder to right hip was going to leave a bad scar for the rest of his life from their inadequate stitching job. He hoped Zoro wouldn't mind so much.

But they'd finally won their own little battle for Zoro's life in the end, and the wounds were taken care of and the bleeding had finally stopped, and Johnny and Yosaku were simultaneously sobbing and dancing with delight at the front of the ship now that 'big bro' was okay again. Zoro himself was still unconscious (he'd passed out again only minutes after making his vow to Luffy), but they'd laid him out flat in the middle of the boat with a blanket beneath his head to make him more comfortable, and he was already starting to snore a little, which was a great sign if there ever was one.

While the bounty hunters cheered and got back to the business of steering their ship, Usopp let himself take a short break to rest, and more importantly to make his hands stop trembling. He hadn't realized just how scared he was about the whole thing until now, after it was all over. Funny, how the heat of an intense situation did that. He tried to relax, breathed deep, let himself calm, and ten minutes later when he was sure he could handle it again he got back treating Zoro. That was when he was able, for the first time, to really think about what had just happened, instead of merely acting on it.

It started with the wounds themselves, as he dabbed away the excess blood with a clean cloth so that he'd be able to wrap the swordsman's chest in bandages. There had been so much of it, and the red liquid ran in dozens of rivulets all over the skin and onto the boards of the ship beneath them, and in a strange moment of almost artistic observation he realized the patterns resembled the cobwebs he used to clean out of his house. The vicious, lopsided 'x' across his chest looked almost like it was trying to wrap around him like a net, to seize him, and the way the edges of the wounds puckered and tore from stress and strain created a frightening network of dozens of tiny scars, like little spider-web filaments tying the whole mess together. Even the fraying mending thread from his bag that he'd been forced to use as sutures for lack of anything else seemed to add to the effect, and though they were the only things holding Zoro together at this point they still looked foreign and indescribably wrong, buried in his chest like that. The whole mess together created the frightening effect that Zoro had been bound in blood, painfully ensnared, like he was never going to escape that web or the violence associated with it.

Usopp knew instinctively that the look would go away in time—already as he cleaned the skin off the blood trails slithered away and the web became a little smaller. But the more he cleaned the physical web, the more he began to realize that even though the blood itself could be wiped away and the stitches removed, the snare itself would never go away, not now. Zoro had been marked, and that scar he was definitely going to have created a whole different sort of binding that he would never break out of, for the rest of his life.

Because that wound was more than just a frightening gash—it was an oath, an agreement, and now it bound him eternally to Hawk-Eye Mihawk. Thinking back on that encounter now, Usopp could see that. Mihawk had sworn to wait for Zoro at the top, no matter how many years it took; but in return Zoro would be watched by that steely gaze as the world's greatest swordsman observed him and waited, and Zoro would never, ever escape that look again. Before that encounter at the Baratie Zoro still could have backed out on his dream last minute, decided to take a different path, and no one would ever have known the difference. But he would never again have that opportunity now, with the eyes of a shichibukai on him, and the mark on his chest would tie him to that commitment now until death.

And it would be until death, Usopp knew, with sudden, frighteningly grim understanding. The web Mihawk had drawn Zoro into, the one he'd lashed into his opponent's skin, would accept nothing else now. Zoro's life was promised to Mihawk, one way or another; in the end the world's greatest swordsman might kill him, or Zoro might kill the shichibukai and claim his title, but the only way it would end was in death. Even if Zoro somehow died during their adventures with Luffy, it would still be in tribute to Mihawk—because each stroke of the sword while battling alongside his friends would also be made to get still stronger, still more powerful, to rip that title from the warlord and seize it for himself. It was a fate that wouldn't be escaped, not now, not with that mark to seal it, to bind him to his oath more strongly than even his own conviction.

Usopp supposed Zoro had known all of this from the beginning, even as he challenged Mihawk, or when he began to realize that he was hopelessly outmatched. His pledge to Luffy after the battle certainly suggested as such, and Usopp knew Zoro took his swordsmanship too seriously to go into such a situation without understanding the ramifications. Zoro had certainly known from the beginning that showing himself to Mihawk was a life-altering moment, and that he would never again be just Zoro of the three sword style, no matter what the outcome was. And it probably hadn't even crossed his mind to try and back down, to hide, to avoid such a binding oath in the face of death. Zoro just didn't think that way.

But to Usopp, as he cleaned the wound and began to wrap the swordsman's chest in bandages to protect it however he could, the whole encounter had made things suddenly so much more real. He'd heard Zoro's dream time and time again since he'd joined the crew, but those had just been words. Now he'd seen what that dream entailed with his own two eyes, and suddenly he understood what it meant to try and take the title of world's greatest, and he was in awe of the discovery he'd made.

It wasn't just that Zoro had been willing to die for his dream, either. It sounded nice in stories, all tough and scary and determined, but Usopp had heard too many real stories to take that entirely seriously, either. For every person like Luffy or Zoro there was inevitably somebody who died because they were foolish, pursuing something they couldn't have, and in the end it made such a final sacrifice worthless and meaningless when nothing came of it. He was impressed by Luffy's or Zoro's abilities to make such a claim with a straight face, but if Usopp was honest with himself he'd admit his own beliefs swung more towards what that cook, Sanji, had shouted at Zoro as he was going down—that it was better to give up his ambition for the sake of living. If you were alive, you could pursue your dream again another day, after all.

And that was what did really awe Usopp, when he began to understand, really understand, Zoro's dream. It wasn't the fact that he'd been willing to die for it—it was the fact that he'd been willing to live for it, too. Despite being brutally wounded and on the edge of death Zoro hadn't hesitated for a second; his first words hadn't been to give up or to curse his opponent, but to insist that he was going to keep going and keep getting better. Zoro was going to be eternally scarred for the rest of his life, marked by the web of promises Mihawk had cut into him, burdened with both the physical and mental signs of his goal, and that was far more impressive than one flashy but ultimately pointless and idiotic death. It was truly a mark that Zoro was willing to do anything for his dream, to risk death and to suffer living, and that sort of dedication was terrifying in its own way because Usopp had never seen anything quite like that before.

So Usopp felt that he could suddenly understand why Zoro had done it—why he'd stepped into the spider's web willingly, understanding he'd never get out of it again, let himself be tied up into an eternal oath that would never be forgotten until, one way or another, it brought death with it. And perhaps it was almost fitting, in a way, that the physical wound reflected the symbolic trap Zoro had accepted anyway, just like he'd willingly taken the worst of the injuries to prove his dedication.

It was still a little hazy to the sniper, he had to admit. He definitely understood his crew mate better, knew why Zoro made the decisions he did, knew now just how dedicated he was to his goal. For Zoro it made sense, but for Usopp himself he still wasn't sure if he could dredge up that same sort of dedication, that willingness to live or die for his ambition.

But then, maybe that was how he'd really know he was a great warrior of the sea, Usopp reflected. When he'd be able to see the web in front of him, and still be that determined and that willing to step into it anyway, knowing and accepting what it meant for him, too.

Well, he still had time to get there. For now, he just finished wrapping the last of the bandages around Zoro's torso, checking one last time to make sure the swordsman was okay (relatively speaking). For now, they just had to focus on getting Nami back and reuniting the crew. Later, they'd head for the Grand Line, and Zoro would fulfill that promise marked by the deep scars in his skin, and face Mihawk one day. And Usopp would definitely be there then to cheer him on, because by then he was sure he'd understand and feel the situation far better than he had today.

They'd both be a lot stronger by then, after all.

I realized that I don't think I've ever seen a piece done on Zoro's chest scar, which is sort of...important and there throughout the entire rest of the series lol. People seem to focus on Thriller Bark more. I decided I wanted to do a piece on it and this happened.

~VelkynKarma