"I'm the damn sous chef, the fuck do you mean I'm not needed?!" Sanji shouted.
"You fawn over any of the women that walks in here, and you frequently fight with customers. You're a lousy cook and none of the other cooks like you either. Go be a pirate and just leave."
"Don't you fuckin dare! Talk shit about me all you want, keep my food out your fucking mouth! I'm stayin whether you like it or not!" Sanji passionately explained to his father figure, grabbing his collar.
"Don't lay your hands on me ya fucking eggplant!" Zeff said, grabbing Sanji's arm and slamming Sanji towards the Straw Hats' table, almost spilling their food if they didn't grab them in time.
"Hmph."
"You can't kick me out! I'll be cooking here long after you kick the bucket!"
"I'll live for another hundred years."
"Gotta have the last word in huh?!"
2 days later...
"This is bad! Zoro, we gotta go!" Usopp was scared of the gigantic banged up ship that pulled up on Baratie.
"Just grab your equipment and get ready to fight." Zoro calmly said. Usopp then reluctantly followed his order and went below the deck to get his stuff.
"Big Bro... let's just sail away." Both Johnny and Yosaku begged Zoro, obviously not liking the fact that they might need to fight.
"Don't be such wussies, go inside with Luffy if you want to be safe." The brothers looked at each other, then decided to follow Zoro's advice and went in Baratie for safety.
"Don't...You'll damage the ship Nami, and it wouldn't work anyway." Zoro told Nami, who was sneakily preparing to hit Zoro with lightning. He looked at her, then at her artificial cloud, and raised his eye brows, waiting for her to dissipate them, which she did.
"Yeah...it probably isn't the best idea to ambush someone with precognition." Nami answered, dispersing her cloud.
"On the contrary, hitting a haki user while they're unfocused is probably one of the best moves you could make. But that's besides the point...You know, Arlong is not going to honor your deal. Even you should suspect it's a probable, if not the most probably scenario."
"How do you even...know about that?" she just looked at him incredulously.
"I told you I was from the future, remember?" he shrugged.
"I thought that was just an excuse! That you just didn't want talk about your past."
"Nope, and here's what happened...or will happen?...Anyways, you take our money, get close to the agreed upon price of your village, we arrive, you push us away and don't want our help because you're oh so close and you think we can't beat them, he tells Marines where you keep the money, they take it, you ask for our help, and then we beat them."
"What are you even..." she was overwhelmed.
"You can do whatever you want. I'm just telling you the relevant information and what's going to happen if you do...certain actions...Also, tell Usopp when he's done to find me in Baratie." Zoro, after saying his piece, then jumped towards Baratie. He arrived to Krieg threatening to kill Luffy with Johnny and Yosaku behind a table. Krieg then left with the sack of food for his crew, which was when Usopp "arrived". Sanji, Zeff and the cooks then all got in an argument, which became a conversation about Mihawk and the Grand Line.
A loud noise rang outside the Baratie. The Krieg Pirates' flagship, the Dreadnaught Sabre was cut into pieces, causing large waves that rocked Baratie. Everyone ran outside to look at what happened, shocked, except for Zoro. He instead looked at the Going Merry, still anchored and her sails still furled, with Nami on her deck, her prominent sun-kissed hair easily highlighting her.
That's when the World's Strongest Swordsman made his presence known. A lone man, with a big black blade, and a small coffin shaped boat. Everyone subconsciously held their breathe when the man as pale as bone appeared. The legend, Dracule Mihawk, took his sweet time to get near the the floating debris where the Krieg pirates were.
"Why do you keep chasing us?!" Some of the Krieg pirates shouted.
"Boredom." Mihawk plainly answered.
They then got angry at his answer and opened fire at him, which he easily deflected. Only one person They stared in disbelief at his feat, some being in denial.
"Don't bother, none of you are capable of even touching his clothes."
"It's Roronoa Zoro!"
"Dracule Mihawk! Let me quench your boredom." Zoro said while drawing his swords and infusing them with both Armament and Conqueror's haki. 'My old swords are definitely not going to survive this much haki beyond this fight. Though, I myself would probably only be able to last at most 15 minutes with this rate of consumption.' he thought, then internally started timing himself on how long he could last going full throttle from the jump like this.
"Interesting...How did a shark, get as big as you, in such a small pond like this?" Mihawk said, drawing Yoru from his back, a slight smile on his face. His eyes' glint showed genuine interest to the young man in front of him.
"I don't exactly know myself." Zoro said, before rushing towards Mihawk. Mihawk easily blocked Zoro's initial attack. Raw power radiated from their clash. Waves of Conqueror's haki caused most onlookers to pass out. Mihawk then pushed back Zoro and sent a bunch of flying slashes and slashing tornadoes towards Zoro, who was about to go under, before he then started running on water and charged at him again.
"Flowing Cerberus Blade"
Zoro weaved through Mihawk's ranged attacks, but Mihawk easily blocked Zoro's attacks up close and quickly blew him away again. 'I need more power!' Zoro thought as he started overloading his already strained pace of haki, which allowed him to not be as easily pushed back before. Yet Mihawk was still easily stronger while still not straining himself that much.
The two continued their titanic fight, that was very much out of place in East Blue, cuts piling up on Zoro's entire body, his face, limbs and torso, all painted red. The only thing that the still-conscious onlookers, except for one, could see are the shockwaves of every clash and the devastation caused by their power, despite the two swordsmen intentionally trying not to cause wanton damage.
"Asura!" Zoro 'grew' four more arms and two more heads, spirit manifested with physical presence.
"Now that's something one doesn't see everyday." Mihawk commented, looking genuinely interested at it.
"King of Hell...9 Dragons Style: Divine Felling Blaze...Kagutsuchi!"
What the onlookers saw was a violet flame burning on Zoro's swords, but all Mihawk saw on Zoro was a conflagration of black flames borne of his haki.
"This is fun." Mihawk muttered. Zoro only saw a very thin film of black light covering Mihawk's blade, but he knew that it was a showing of Mihawk's control, not lack of power.
When they collided, Zoro's flames were extinguished, his two black swords were cut cleanly, and he had a new horizontal cut on his upper torso. Mihawk on the other hand, only got his hat's brim cut a little bit. Zoro immediately dropped on all fours, not necessarily because of the damage he received, or pain, or because of feelings of inferiority, but pure exhaustion. He went in and out of consciousness, but he still, albeit slowly, managed to struggle on his feet.
"Wounds...on the back...are...a swordsman's...sh-shame." The various cuts Zoro's received from Mihawk keeps squirting out blood, and he couldn't help but tremble all over. He opened his arms and readily offered his torso for Mihawk to attack, though it would be obvious to anyone that the fight was over.
"Magnificent." Mihawk genuinely appreciated Zoro's resolve and strength, specially at his age. "But I'm not the type of person to hit someone while they are down." he said as Zoro collapsed face first, blood pooling up around him.
"Zoro!" The Straw Hats shouted. Luffy immediately grabbed Zoro and then slingshotted towards the deck of Going Merry. Nami sprinted to get bandages. Usopp used a grappling hook to quickly boost himself towards Merry, then he assisted Nami in covering up Zoro. Everyone in the crew made haste to give Zoro any help they could give. They did their best to bandage up every single cut on Zoro's body.
"I think...that should be enough to stop from bleeding out? Right?" Usopp asked Nami.
"Yeah." Nami answered. "Zoro, don't move too much, we just bandaged you up." she told Zoro while he was trying to sit up and grab his white sword, the Wado Ichimonji.
He eventually did then redid his oaths like last time. "Luffy!...Dracule Mihawk!..I swear, from today onwards!...till the day I beat you!...I shall never lose again!...You got that, King of the Pirates?!"
"Yup! Shishishishi!"
"Then...I swear this to you too, Roronoa. Till the day we fight again, I will remain at the peak. Discover yourself, see the world, and grow even stronger! Strive to defeat and surpass me!...You make a good team Straw Hat, I hope to encounter you two again, someday." Mihawk swore to Zoro, then talked a bit to Luffy before he was about to leave.
"Hey, Hawk Eyes, aren't you forgetting something?!" Krieg cut in as he aimed his guns at him.
"You are indeed...retarded." Mihawk said as he completely blocked all his attacks. He already felt that the Straw Hat kid has conflict with the buffoon, and after fighting against Zoro, in contrast, he felt that obliterating Krieg was simply beneath him. He quickly left and headed back towards the New World. He wants to have a chat with an old peer.