And Now You Will Learn What It Is To Fight Like Her
"You're like a little frog croaking in a well," says Mihawk.
Zoro lunges towards Mihawk.
"Croak."
Zoro tries lunging more quietly, even changing his direction at the last second.
"Croak"
Damnit, Mihawk blocked him. He tried to be swifter this time.
"Croak."
Zoro is pushed back to the restaurant's back door.
Fuck it. He's going all in. Zoro charges to Mihawk.
It's just a prick. Almost like needle, but pain seeps from the small dagger that has been thrust into Zoro just below his collar bone, and into his blood.
Zoro knows this is not poison circulating through his body. It's defeat. Roronoa Zoro is losing.
Luffy, Nami, and Usopp grow still, only being able to watch.
"Why don't you retreat?" asks Mihawk.
"Because I can't."
Mihawk studies Zoro's face.
"Or my dream will be lost forever."
Mihawk takes one step forward, driving the tiny dagger deeper in. Zoro winces, but doesn't flinch, though Luffy, Nami, and Usopp do.
"More than that will be lost."
"I know."
Mihawk looks down at his Zoro's left pinky. Zoro follows his gaze. With his free hand, Mihawk tugs at the air just below Zoro's pinky three times.
Nami narrows her eyes, confused, then her eyes widen as a deep, brilliant, red ribbon made of silk appears. It is securely tied to Zoro's left pinky and it floats in the wind as it extends across the dock.
Luffy gasps and moves out of its way. Nami pulls Usopp back. The ribbon slithers across the dock and dances along the sea as it extends well beyond their sight.
Luffy and Usopp continue to stare at the seemingly unmeasurable ribbon. Nami shakes her head and turns back to Zoro, who has not broken eye contact with Mihawk this whole time.
"Do you know who she is to me?" Mihawk asks potently.
"Of course, I do."
"And you would risk her life-"
"-Only for this. We promised each other we wouldn't just live for the other."
Mihawk's golden fire eyes narrow on Zoro's earth brown ones.
"The promises you've made weigh heavy on your shoulders, Roronoa Zoro."
Zoro clenches his left hand into a fist. The ribbon completely vanishes. Luffy and Usopp look around, dumbfounded.
Mihawk takes a step back. "You are brave, I'll give you that," he says.
He removes the dagger from below Zoro's collar bone.
Zoro stumbles back and falls to his knees. He uses his two swords to steady himself.
"So I'll do you the honor of defeating you with Yoru." Mihawk says as he unsheathes the giant sword from his back.
"Now, that's more like it." Zoro thinks and says out loud. Zoro places the handle of Wado Ichimonji in his mouth while he gathers the other two swords and starts to spin them, faster and faster.
Mihawk simply waits, though his eyes are focused curiously on Zoro.
Zoro lunges, exactly the way Mihawk expected him to, so Mihawk lunges exactly the way he planned to. He does preciously what he envisioned, he does not slice Zoro, but his two swords.
Both men land firmly on the dock and slide away from each other, facing opposite directions. The blade's of the two swords Zoro holds in his hands fall to the ground.
Luffy, Usopp, and Nami's faces fall.
Zoro pushes himself to stand up and turn around to face Mihawk.
Mihawk watches, with Yoru swung snuggly across his shoulder.
"You are defeated. Why do you persist?
"Wounds on the back are a swordsman greatest shame." Zoro says as he sheaths Wado Ichimonji. He holds his remaining sword and stretches his arms out wide.
"Magnificent." Mihawk says.
Nami slips her hand into Usopp's. Usopp looks over to her and she catches his eyes briefly before turning to look at Luffy. She can't hold his gaze for long, so she turns her head back to Zoro.
Before Mihawk moves he makes sure he has Zoro's gaze.
"And now you will learn what it is to fight like her."
Zoro nods.
Mihawk takes one step forward and swings Yoru with both hands across Zoro's chest. Slice is not a big enough word for what Yoru does. There's a slash, no, a gash. A long, deep gash across Zoro's chest.
Zoro falls to the ground.
Luffy, Nami, and Usopp are all spellbound still. Luffy is the first to break it.
"Zoro!" He screams, as he runs to his first mate.
Mihawk takes in this boy with the straw hat he knows and the pain in his voice he knows as well.
"Tell me, Monkey D. Luffy, what's your goal?"
Luffy bites through his teeth while looking at Zoro. "I'm going to become king of the pirates."
"That's a much more treacherous path than defeating even me."
The boy turns his head so sharply at Mihawk it takes him aback, but only in his breath, not his body.
"I don't care."
And there it is, that motion he felt when he first saw her. Like a gear moving in a clock that has been still for years. There really is something woven into this generation.
Who was he to stop the current of the sea.
"Roronoa Zoro, it's too soon for you to die. Grow strong and come find me."
Mihawk walks away, leaving this crew to the let the sea take them to wherever is next.