And here we have the revamped first chapter, completely different than the original.
I would also like to, a bit rudely, regrettably, let you know that asking me to update isn't necessarily going to get me to update. While I appreciate knowing that you guys are (probably) enjoying the story, it places more stress on me and actually makes me less motivated to write up the next part, rather than motivated. I don't mind receiving these notes but I just want you to bear in mind that it won't get you that far if you write one.
Changing the subject slightly, a beforehand warning I figured I'd give you all despite how obvious it may be, is that this story contains spoilers for One Piece, quite a few, and some minor ones for BnHA. There is also cursing and usage of profanity.
Anyways, on with the chapter.
The night wasn't necessarily cold and unforgiving, though one could describe it as such - the breeze blew outside, and the man shivered lightly. He'd never felt genuinely cold before, but maybe he was focusing on it more because he had nothing else to do. He didn't bring his three katana, nor his weights, or a shirt to boot. So here he was, having stuck himself in this predicament, shirtless, cold, and irritated sitting on the roof of his home. He hadn't been home in a rather long time and here he was spending his time in miserable silence once again, like he always was when he was with his hero group, the Strawhats.
A soft sigh left him before he muttered in displeasure as he willed himself to stand and walk along the roof back to the ladder that lead him there in the first place. Climbing down, the sound of his boots clanging against the metal steps filled his ears, and he took it in gratefully, glad he didn't have to listen to the wind whipping around him and giving him goosebumps.
When his feet hit the wooden floor of the front yard, he opened the front door and locked it behind him before looking up. His eyes met a pair that were green, just like his own. "Izuku, what're you doing up so late?" He asked the younger boy, Izuku, calmly. Izuku was maybe a head shorter than the older male, his hair also green though a shade darker. The man stretched his arms for a moment before smiling at the boy, which seemed to make the him lighten up slightly.
"Well...Zoro, I've been really worried about you..." the boy confessed to the older man. "You're my big brother, and I look up to you a lot, but you've been working so hard for so long and I just want you to relax and take a break right now..." Izuku trailed off and Zoro blinked, looking at him with his one functional eye. The green haired man made a soft 'hmph' sound and smirked a little. He stepped forward a bit and ruffled Izuku's hair with a light chuckle.
"Don't worry about me, kiddo. I'm fine, worry about yourself," he reassured his younger brother. "Anyways, you're going to take the U.A Entrance Exam, aren't you?" The boy nodded and Zoro patted his head again. "Yeah, worry about yourself." This extracted a sound of protest and Zoro chuckled again. "Don't worry. I've got complete faith you'll make it. Come on, let's get you to bed. You shouldn't be walking around this late in your pajamas."
His younger brother relaxed considerably and returned his smile with a nod. Zoro motioned for Izuku to follow as he walked down the hall, to the room he and Izuku shared during the rare times he came to visit his family.
"Hey, Zoro?"
"Hm?"
"What's it like...to be a hero?"
The green haired man rubbed the back of his head as he opened the door to their room. "Fun, exhilarating, and way too dangerous," he explained. "But it's the only thing I know how to do - fight." Zoro let the words sink in as he turned the light on and threw himself down onto the blow up mattress on the floor, ignoring the provided blanket. Izuku watched his brother close his eyes before he himself sighed, turning on his desk lamp before flipping the switch on the over-head lights.
"You know how to do other things to, Zoro," Izuku frowned, but his brother didn't answer. He smiled slightly when he heard a soft snore, realizing the man had fallen asleep. "Good night..." He murmured, to no one in particular, before climbing over Zoro and into his own bed, pulling the sheets over himself and falling asleep himself.
The black haired young man was rudely awoken by the sound of a bucket being hit by a hammer. He sat up rather quickly, letting out a sound of surprise and looking around to see if he was being attacked, but came up empty-handed. He pouted just a little, looking to the door of his bedroom to see a tall, blond man scowling at him. "C'mon Luffy, we don't have all day! It's half past eleven!" He shouted. Luffy shouted a long sentence of gibberish, startled and panicked, throwing himself out of bed and quickly putting on a shirt - he wore the same pants for maybe two days in a row before changing them, and that meant he even wore them to bed so pants were never a big problem in mornings like this.
"Sanji, did you make breakfast?" Luffy asked as he ran past said man. Sanji rolled his eyes at the man before laughing lightly.
"You bet, but no promises everyone's already eaten it."
"No! My food!" The man dashed down the hallway, around the corner and out of Sanji's vision. The blond chef heaved out a sigh, looking at the bucket and hammer in his hands before dropping them and walking after Luffy.
"What a piece of work, this guy..."
It wasn't really expected for the rubber man Luffy to come barging into the dining room this late in the morning, then again Zoro wasn't with them to wake him up at an earlier hour. Three screams of surprise echoed throughout the room when the door slammed open and Luffy jumped from the doorway into a seat. Well, that's what he wanted to do but instead ended up knocking over two of the three people who were screaming. "G'morning!" He grinned cheerfully as another man squirmed underneath him, his face on the floor as Luffy sat on his back. There were muffled calls for help before Luffy finally looked down, blinked and stood up. "Ah, sorry Usopp."
"Luffy you idiot! You always miss the chair whenever you jump from that far so stop doing that!" Shouted Usopp - the man had curly dark hair, a rather long nose and was wearing a pair of overalls. As he reprimanded the boy, he just picked his nose, letting all the words go over his head. "Listen to me when I'm talking to you!"
"Now, now, Usopp, let's calm down and have a nice breakfast," came a smooth voice. It was a woman with long black hair, a pair of orange sunglasses keeping some of the strands from getting in her blue eyes. Usopp looked like he wanted to protest before he let out a breath of frustration and sat down again. "There, that wasn't too hard was it?"
"You guys always have SUPER arguments in the morning!" This man, he's a bit of a pain to describe, so to grossly simplify him he's a large cyborg with a three pronged chin, a metal nose and neon blue hair.
Luffy was about to say something against this statement when an orange haired woman punched the back of his head, making his face hit the table. "Oww! Nami!" He whined in protest and she scowled at him, immediately shutting him up.
"If you do that again you'll owe me another million yen," Nami threatened and he nodded quickly. Luffy already owed the woman a lot of money and he didn't want to owe her more - Zoro had stopped letting him borrow his bank account so he was on his own. The man in question was ridiculously rich, then again it was pretty obvious from the amount of sake the man took in nearly every day - it was a wonder his liver hadn't melted. Who knows, maybe it was his Quirk.
"Yo ho ho! Thanks for the meal!" A jolly voice broke everyone from their chatter and they all chorused their thanks before beginning to eat. Surprisingly, this morning was quiet. Even Nami didn't have to bother with Sanji.
Wait.
"Where's Sanji?" Nami looked up from her food to look at the small reindeer that had spoken and her eyes widened as she looked around. The others quickly followed suit, before they all (save Luffy, of course) stood up to try to look for the blond man. Sanji would never miss breakfast, that wasn't normal. Especially if Nami and the other woman, Robin, were present.
"Fafi?" Luffy questioned, food stuffed in his mouth as he looked at his friends in confusion as some left the room.
"Sanji you idiot!" Usopp smacked the back of his head, ultimately leading to some of the food in Luffy's mouth flying away onto the table and the floor. The long nosed male flinched in disgust before going back to assaulting his companion's head. "He's been missing since he went to get you this morning! WHat did you do to him?!" He shook Luffy back and forth by his shoulders as he swallowed his food, much to Usopp's relief, seeing that he was safe from flying chunks of breakfast, but was still in a state of fear and shock.
The cyborg eventually pried Usopp off of the red-clad man and pointed at Luffy. "Usopp, does he look like he actually understands?" The long nosed man followed Franky's finger to see that the male in question was blinking in confusion. A moment passed before a look of horror came to him.
"Sanji's gone?!"
"Why did that take you so long to realize?!" Was the common thought between the three others in the room.
"We gotta find him!" Luffy nearly flipped the table over as he jumped off the bench, and stretched his arms to grab the open doorway and launched himself into the hallway and ran off.
"Get back here!" Nami screamed, chasing after him. Usopp and the cyborg stared after them before sighing.
"Franky, any leads?" "No, none at all."
"G'morning, Izuku, Zoro!" Came the happy greetings of their mother, short and slightly plump. Zoro somewhat questioned how he managed to be so tall while his brother and mother were rather short compared to himself but shrugged it off. He could think about that some other time.
"Hi Mom!" Izuku smiled brightly and Zoro just grunted and nodded to her - and to their mother's, Inko's, credit, she was delighted with both responses. She was quite alright with Zoro being somewhat rude, after all any time he was home was time she wanted to spend with both her sons, no matter what their attitude.
"Breakfast is on the table - Zoro, are you going to walk Izuku to school?" Inko looked to her eldest son who stared at her before looking to his brother before averting his gaze with a small shrug and smirk.
"Not like I have anything better to do this morning." Izuku whined at his response making both his mother and brother chuckle at him. Zoro ruffled his hair and patted his back roughly two times before sitting down at the table, watching his family take their seats as well. "Thanks for the meal," they chorused before digging in. Zoro ate a bit sloppily while Izuku ate in a very composed and clean manner, their mother somewhere in between. Downing the last of his water, he finished his food much earlier than the boy and woman on his either side and wiped his mouth before taking his dishes to the sink and yawning loudly. "I'm going to get changed," he announced and his mother smiled at him with a nod, one he returned as he left the kitchen.
Walking back to the room he shared with Izuku, he opened the door and stared at his backpack. It was one he was given by Ace back two, almost three years ago when they had encountered some organization full of villains in the Sahara.
Ah yes, Ace. Luffy's brother, who had died after being "executed" by a villain troupe calling themselves the "Hands of Absolute Justice." Some bullshit that was, Zoro concluded, before shaking his head and going to his bag, pulling out his street clothes which consisted of a wide collared black T-shirt that had a yellow star with two stitches on the chest, with sleeves that went just past his elbows, a pair of blue cargo pants (which he curled up until just below his knees since it wasn't the temperature outside for him to have them all the way down), and a brown belt to make sure the pants in question didn't fall down.
He slid his three katana into the small holders on the belt, which he had put on the belt to make sure he could be ready for battle at all times. Making sure his three earrings weren't going to fall out, he exited the room to see Izuku walking down the hallway to change into his school uniform. His younger brother sent him a friendly, happy smile before entering the room - he didn't bother to close the door since there was no real point, seeing he was comfortable around his brother enough to leave it be, and his mother was still in the kitchen.
"Zoro, when do you have to go back to work?" The silence was broken when Izuku's question reached him and he thought for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Saturday, if I'm not mistaken," Zoro replied and laughed in amusement when he saw his brother's eyes sparkle. "Calm down kiddo."
"You're going to be here until the end of the week?" Izuku sounded delighted and whisper-yelled "yessss" when his older brother nodded. "Come on, Zoro, let's go!" Izuku grabbed his backpack and jogged down the hallway, Zoro's long strides (compared to his brother's, at least,) making up for any fast walking he would have to do to catch up to him. "Bye, Mom!"
"See ya," Zoro nodded to their mother who smiled to the both of them and hugged Izuku before turning to his brother, holding her arms out. He grinned lopsidedly before crouching down ever so slightly and hugging her tightly before letting go. "We have to head before the kid's late," he reminded her and Inko nodded.
"Have a good day at school, Izuku! And don't get lost Zoro!"
"Don't worry, I'll just camp around the school until the day ends." Inko nodded, a little saddened since she couldn't spend that time with her son, but was happy nonetheless. If she grew lonely she could simply go find him. When Zoro said he'd stay put to her, that meant he was truly going to sit somewhere and stay still until the designated time.
"Let's go!" Izuku chirped and the two waved to her before closing the door behind them. Inko stared at where they were before sighing with a small smile and going to the sink to wash the dishes. Those two, they were always like best friends, no matter how incompatible they seemed at times.
Oh, how much she loved her sons.
" - and then he exploded his hand on my desk," Izuku told his story with a few pints of reluctance as Zoro stared straight ahead, a bored expression on his face, though in reality he was listening carefully, and internally scowling, though it was contained. Hearing about this boy, Bakugou Katsuki, who had been bullying his younger brother, would usually set him off immediately. But, though Izuku didn't know, Zoro had known of Katsuki for a long, long time. He had a history with the boy, albeit short, and Zoro knew more about Katsuki than Katsuki about him.
He would never tell Katsuki, but there were specific reasons he knew of that explained why the boy acted like he did, but it wasn't his place to tell it, not in a million years. Unless Katsuki opened up about it. Which, even then, was extremely unlikely.
The green haired swordsman may be known for being reserved and somewhat of a grump, but he was always more reactive when around his family. Well, he considered his Hero Group, the Strawhats, a family as well, but he meant biological family, as in Izuku and Inko.
For a short moment, he branched off from Izuku's words to realize his brother's and mother's names both began with "I" and his began with a "Z," but that wasn't really important right now.
"Zoro? Are you even listening to me?" Izuku's words broke him from his thoughts (that was happening too many times this morning), and Zoro looked down at him.
"Sure."
"Sure?! That doesn't tell me anything!" Izuku bristled and Zoro just put a hand on his head. His brother immediately calmed down at the familiar feeling. "Seriously, though, were you listening?"
"I was. Until maybe a minute ago," Zoro assured him and Izuku let out a breath, which Zoro wasn't sure if it was out of relief or exasperation - both seemed valid. The two of them walked in silence for another moment before Izuku noticed people pointing to his older brother and whispering. Zoro noticed the younger boy slowly inch closer to him, nervous and made a face that read 'not again.' "Izuku. Calm down, this happens every time I come to visit."
"Zoro, doesn't this ever make you feel nervous?" Izuku asked quietly, for maybe the twenty third time.
"No," he replied frankly. He was used to it by now, after all he'd been a hero for a very, very long time. It was only recently that he joined a Hero Group, which boosted his popularity, reputation and he became more famous. Especially since he used the full extent of his Quirk next to never. Izuku deflated even more at his answer and looked at the floor. "Kid, if you become a hero or anything remotely like that, people are gonna start staring. You should know that already." His brother nodded. "Anyways. I'm going to get bored sitting around. Are there such things as visitor passes at your school?"
"Um...I'm not sure but I can ask the front desk if you'd like," Izuku offered and Zoro shrugged.
"Doesn't matter." Izuku just nodded, resolving on asking for his brother. It would be cool to show Zoro around and let him see what his everyday school life was like.
As the two of them drew closer to the school, Zoro noticed a few female students, some males glancing his way and whispering. When he looked at them, some blushed and some bowed in respect. He nodded in acknowledgement to them before patting Izuku's shoulder and leading him into the gate.
Maybe they're surprised I'm with my brother, Izuku concluded nervously. Do they even know I'm his brother...? Zoro's never revealed his true surname, Midoriya. He just calls himself Roronoa Zoro. He turned to his brother when the reached the door and hugged him Zoro was a little startled by the gesture but returned the embrace nonetheless, albeit awkwardly, and patted his back. Izuku let go after a few moments and was smiling widely, something Zoro returned somewhat. "I'll go ask the front desk, but if I don't come back in five to ten minutes that means no, and I had to get to class, okay?" His brother nodded and Izuku held one of Zoro's hands in his smaller ones. "See you later, Zoro!"
Zoro's smile widened from a small one to one that could rival Izuku's own. "Yeah, see you later kiddo." His younger brother nodded enthusiastically before jogging off to change his shoes, disappearing beyond the door past the group of students that had stopped to watch the exchange. Once Izuku had squeezed past them and the whispered questions in his direction, Zoro's smile dropped as he looked at the volley of kids. Mostly girls, which didn't surprise him, but even then it was a little over a half female. He didn't realize he had so many fans here.
They all crowded around him and were asking so many questions that he couldn't keep track. He sighed deeply and held up one of his hands. Some of the students quieted down and Zoro glanced over them. "I can't hear all your goddamn questions if you're all demanding answers at the same time, only one question, honestly did your teachers do nothing for you?" He muttered. A few looked away, ashamed, before one raised their hand. Zoro grunted, showing that he had acknowledged them.
"Roronoa, why were you here with Midoriya?" Zoro recognized the voice as that of a male student, before all the others began to ask each other in hushed voices the same question. He glared at them icily and they immediately quieted down.
"Why does that concern you?" Was his response and some of them frowned. It really wasn't, but they were curious anyways. "If you guys are that desperate, the most I'll tell you is that I'm close with his family, and him." A few more whispers spread around the crowd before someone pushed through the crowd.
"Roronoa, sir, will you please give me your autograph?!" It was a loud question, and the student was holding a notebook, full of other signatures. Probably of other heroes, Zoro assumed. The poor student, a girl, he realized, was bowing her head and holding said notebook and a pen forward.
"Sure," was his short reply as he took the pen and put his signature. "Roronoa Zoro," in both English and Japanese with an underline. He gave her back her notebook and she was blushing with happiness. Was this really what he did to people? He had previous experience with fans but it always surprised him every time. Zoro never considered himself capable of doing anything other than fighting. As soon as he finished, several other people asked him to sign things, so that was what he had been spending the past seven minutes doing before Izuku ran to the door and saw Zoro practically being swamped by his classmates.
He was in a slight state of shock before putting his hands to his mouth, like a cup so his voice would travel better. "Zoro! You have permission! I have a pass for you!" Izuku shouted, holding a sticker in the air, which read, in bold black kanji, "Visitor's Pass." Some of the students turned to Izuku and saw the pass before putting two and two together.
Zoro would be spending the school day with them.
"Where the Hell am I?" Sanji muttered, rubbing his head. "Did I fall into a closet or something?" There was the soft sound of rustling and the blond cook was immediately on his feet, on alert. He didn't dare ask who was there, though, since you'd have to be an idiot to do that and he didn't want to draw unnecessary attention towards himself, assuming there was a villain in the dark room with him.
"Calm down, Sanji." It was the smooth, calm voice of a man who had worked with them several times. Not a villain, not a hero, just something in between. "I just wanted to talk."
He looked around before taking a lighter out of his pocket and lit it, so he could look around. Sanji's eye swept over the room before it settled on who he was looking for.
"Hello, Law. Now tell me where I am before I turn you into a soufflé."
