Zoro was standing on the 'Fin' with crossed arms and a frown in his face as he tapped his foot impatiently. Really, how much longer would he have to wait for Mihawk? He was suppressing his aura so Mihawk wouldn't get too suspicious and now he had no way of using Haki and was stuck waiting.

He sighed and looked at the pathetic state of Krieg's ships. He wondered if Luffy would let him get away with destroying the whole fleet as he was waiting. Ah, who was he kidding! Luffy really wants to beat up that guy for declaring that HE would be Pirate King. What a joke!

But he wasn't the only one. Krieg was waiting for his men to eat up so he could go and kill that straw hat bastard. He wandered around the ship, growling and frowning, while planning the right way to kill Luffy... As if he could anyway.

"Not coming yet, huh?" Zoro turned to see his captain and sighed again."I swear, five more minutes and I'll need to slice something up." He stayed, making Luffy grin as he remembered the warlord.

"You two are really like each other." He said and then threw a look at the enemy ship and then at the cooks who were coming out along with his crew.

"Waiting for anyone?" Asked Zeff with his usual stoic face. Luffy was about to reply when they heard a bunch of cheers coming from Krieg's ship as pirates started to crawl on the Fin. Luffy also noticed Zoro grab his white sword, a smirk fixed in his face.

"He's here." As if on cue, a black sword sliced the whole galleon, sending huge waves and making the ship split in pieces. Zoro noticed that many pirates, who had fallen in the sea, were gradually climbing on the ship's pieces and excitement went through his body.

'Finally' He thought, eager to see Mihawk again. Zoro wasn't one to express emotions, but he had formed a close bond with the other swordsman. He couldn't really explain it himself, he just felt a connection with his mentor.

And there it was. A small, square ship with a giant cross on its back. As well as a candle on each corner to end it, on all of its glory, the Warlord's was slowly nearing the mess of what had remained from the galleon. On it sat a man, cross-legged, with a big black sword on his back. His eyes... the one thing that made him famous over the four blue seas and easily recognizable, was his pair of bright yellow eyes, which earned him the nickname "Hawk-eyes". The nickname had hit the nail on the head, as his eyes looked like they'd pierce deep in your heart, in the places that even you couldn't reach.

"Bastard! You followed us all the way here from Grand Line!? Why! What have we ever done to you!?"

"Probably because they interrupted his nap." Suggested Zoro and Luffy burst laughing, thinking it had a really good chance to be the case. "Or maybe he was bored and needed to cut something." He continued, making Ussop and Nami glare at him.

"If you want to guess, fine! But at least give us a real possibility." Nami yelled at him, only to eat her words after Mihawk's answer.

"To kill time." He stated simply making Ussop and Nami stare in shock and disbelief.

"See? Told you." Zoro said, pointing at Mihawk and then jumped on the broken deck of the ship. Then, when one pirate shot two bullets at Mihawk, Zoro seriously had to fight the urge to face palm. If Mihawk would be that easy to kill, then the Pirate Age would be nothing but a lame joke.

Zoro decided to act nice and answer the curious question on how Mihawk was able to dodge with relative easiness.

"The sword." He supplied simply, while making his way towards Mihawk, who stared in return. "He simply deviated the bullets with the edge of his of black sword. Speaking of which, I must say I've never seen a sword used so gracefully." And that still remained true to this day.

"Hm. A sword with only strength is not powerful." Mihawk stated, as he observed the reactions the pirates had when realizing who Zoro was. He was studying this man with a calculating, cold stare. Mihawk could sense the aura around him being suppressed, but not as greatly as the strawhat kid's. He assumed the two were comrades and turned his attention to Zoro again. He could feel many emotions on this man's body language and expression. It seemed. Like his eyes screamed excitement, impatience, respect and...nostalgia? Why would an emotion like that be on his eyes?

"What's your name, kid?" He demanded and Zoro unleashed all of his swords, along with a terrifying aura that brought up waves and answered.

"Roronoa Zoro." Mihawk's eyes narrowed for just a fragment of a second. It was so fast, yet so meaningful that Zoro thought it had been a trick of the sun. Luffy however, noticed it clearly and wondered what it was.

Mihawk then gracefully jumped on Zoro's left, some meters away and asked again.

"What's your mission?"

"To be the best." Zoro answered, warmly accepting the feeling of deja vù. "And seeing as you have free time, I challenge you to a duel. What do you say?"

Mihawk gave a smirk. "Foolish." But his hand didn't agree with him and went to pick up the black blade. Zoro was a bit surprised. 'He's not using his tiny toy?' He wondered and mentally shrugged. 'Maybe my aura has impressed him. Oh well, like in the good, old times.' He was brought out of his thoughts by Luffy's scream.

"Oiiii, Zorooo! Try not to get yourself killed, 'kay?" Zoro sweat dropped and Mihawk looked at Luffy with his usual blank, emotionless face. Zoro sighed.

"Your support is truly touching, Captain! Any more of your great advises?" The first mate asked sarcastically, his eyes still locked on Mihawk.

"Hmmm...No, in fact no. But if it's for what you should tell Mihawk regarding your techniques, then I guess I could lend a hand." Zoro hadn't thought of that. Some of his strongest techniques required putting in use his training and a style that Mihawk would definitely recognize as similar to his own. Also, he was far too used to fighting with the techniques Mihawk had taught him that he had almost forgotten how he used to fight before. Zoro couldn't even think of winning with only his second-hand techniques. Against small flies or vice admirals, certainly, but not against Mihawk.

Zoro groaned.

Meanwhile, Mihawk was trying to figure out the meaning behind the words of that straw hatted kid. What did it matter what techniques this kid used? And even if he had some good moves, what was in for him?

He quickly got his answer when the fight began. Firstly, he was going easy on him, while analyzing the way of Zoro's fighting. He could clearly see that he had learnt the way of the sword in theory and was struggling to put it in action. They say swords choose their master, but two of his swords looked like they weren't his, only the white one was in perfect sync with him and that puzzled Mihawk. He could think of only two possibilities: The swords weren't his or...he until recently had used different ones. The swords in his hands were weak, he could tell, so pushing his entire skill in them was out of question. But his moves made up for that.

Zoro firstly used the Oni Giri, which was blocked in the center, but Zoro expected that so he used brute force and made Mihawk step some feet back. He then moved his swords up and along with the one on his mouth, they formed a triangle, the same technique that he had used the first time, and he again got slashed, but it was less deep and he also sliced Mihawk's coat, mere centimeters away from his ribs.

'Damn! So close!' He cursed inwardly, aggravated, and quickly hopped out of Mihawk's attack. Zoro took some steps back to get out of his range, breathing heavily and shaking.

Mihawk could tell that and didn't know what to make out of it. Zoro was strong, so how come his body couldn't keep up with him? It looked like it wasn't even his! Luffy was thinking along the same lines, only that he knew the answer. They just came from the future, so they hadn't had time to train their bodies and Mihawk was certainly no pushover.

Luffy although, wasn't a bit worried. He had come to respect the man, maybe not as much as Zoro, but still in a high level, and not only because he had helped Zoro after he had swallowed his pride for the sake of his crew, or because he was Shanks' friend.

For Luffy, it was mainly because Mihawk was one of those few, who were worthy of being called pirates. He had the power, but wasn't corrupted and wasn't like those scum that would kill innocent for the hell of it. No, he held his head high and, like Zoro would say, was proud to call himself a swordsman, and worthy of his title.

He had the ability to cut what he wanted to, down to the smallest millimeter, like that one time at Marineford, when he cut a gigantic iceberg without the slightest effort.

He knew he could trust this man, for he was one of those who despised betrayal.

Luffy unleashed a slightly bigger aura, which made both swordsman stop and glance at him. Luffy slowly nodded his head at Zoro, whose eyes widened for a bit of a second, and quickly turned to normal, but with a hungry look. So Luffy said it was alright to get a bit wild, huh? Well, time to show his teacher what he was made of by using that technique.

Mihawk's eyes widened at what he saw. Zoro's legs, hands, swords and head tripled, his right eye closed and left eye a dangerous color of red. The Krieg's pirates gaped, Gin's eyes widened, the chefs found their jaws on the ground, Sanji dropped his cigar as Nami screamed and Ussop shook in shock. But Luffy and Zeff watched with a composed face, and Mihawk soon joined them.

"Three sword style..."

Mihawk thought he was seeing things. It had to be it! How else could he explain the sight before him? Zoro's swords had formed a cross, with two swords on his mouth making the horizontal arm, and two other in his 'own' hands the vertical arm, as the other hands formed his other technique,The Purgatory swords.

Mihawk was, for the first time in ages, really confused, dare say shocked. It was such a similar technique to the one he had years ago, when he had just made a name for himself. At that time, he used two swords. One of them was the Black Sword, the other was a two-edged sword that he only used for this technique, the Holy Cross. A technique he used on strong opponents that robbed life instantly. You couldn't know which part of the sword would hit you,and how, so surprise was the key. But no one who had faced that technique had lived to tell the tale, so he had no idea how that kid had gotten it.

Zoro charged at Mihawk. He wasn't going to kill him, Luffy's nod before showed that they were going to tell, even if he didn't know why, so he was just carrying out the orders of his captain. Or so he told himself. Let's see now how Mihawk liked his own technique used against him.

Mihawk quickly braced his black sword and, much to everyone's surprise, took out the knife on his chest. Using the black sword, he stopped the cross technique on its weak spot, sending lightings and increasing the pressure, thus making even the sea shake in fear, while with the other sword, he slashed Zoro's whole upper body. Zoro winced in pain, but was able to take one of his extra swords to cut Mihawk's chest. Then both departed, back to back with each other, only some meters away. Zoro's other parts disappeared as he fell to his knees, the two swords on his hands shattered and a huge gash on his chest that went down to his hip could be seen. Nami cried out his name and Luffy stopped Yosaku and Jonny from interfering, curious to see what Mihawk would do.

Zoro sheathed his Waido Ichimanjou and stood up, while Mihawk turned around, his black sword still in his hand. The crowd gasped again, seeing a gash similar to Zoro's on Mihawk, only that it was shallower.

'I was lucky his extra swords weren't really swords ,but just his Haki.' Mihawk thought while staring at his chest.'But how? How is he so strong, yet I haven't heard of him? And that technique...' His train of thought was interrupted by Zoro turning around and holding his arms wide open.

"What?" Mihawk questioned, not understanding.

Zoro smirked. "Scars on the back are a swordsman's shame." Mihawk forgot for a moment all the puzzles on his mind, a feeling similar to pride filled his chest, as he too smirked.

"Well said." He brought down his sword, making Zoro's blood splash like a fountain. Even after such an intense fight, Zoro surprisingly didn't pass out, he didn't fall, he only stood tall and strong.

"Urgg...Ah...Sorry captain." He weakly turned at Luffy with a tired smile. "I'll get him next time." Luffy grinned and catapulted himself there, startling nearly everyone who didn't know of his devil power. He quickly went to Zoro's side, helping him stand up and they shared a truthful look, only to become slightly worried when feeling Mihawk unleash his aura and walk towards them, slowly.

"So, young men." He said, a little too calmly for their taste. "Explain."