Thank you, BossCampers, for beta reading!
Zoro was incredibly grateful when the boat finally landed at the port in Foosha Village. His younger body definitely hadn't gotten sea legs yet.
On top of that, he felt like he was in a trance for most of the ride. Why did he not consider how showing the things he learned before, especially the Asura, would look for his teacher? He had lost the Wado. The sword that carried his promise to Kunia. His dream. Their dream.
For most of the journey he was slumped against the railing, barely responsive when any of the merchants tried to cheer him up. At most he only answered with head nods or shakes, if at all.
Sometimes his pain turned into anger, and he started pacing around the ship, snapping at everyone who dared to come too close. Other times he just wanted to bang his head against the railing for his stupidity.
He started to think that he was the wrong person to go back in time. All he's done since he got here was exhaust himself and lose his sword.
Maybe Nami, Ussop or even the idiot cook would've been better, they were much better at negotiating and getting people on their side and more sociable.
Or Franky and Jinbe who were adults and even on the Grand line already. Or Robin, she could probably figure out an amazing plan.
Aside from Brook who was stuck in the Florian Triangle with a broken rudder and soon no shadow, and Chopper, who was still an infant, he was probably the worst choice for this. The only thing he had going for him was his geographical closeness to Luffy.
Was going to Dawn Island even a good idea? Was there anyone who wouldn't think of him as a liar? Would he even be able to contact Shanks? What could he even say to make Shanks even consider meeting him?
He needed to make a strategy for how to go forward. Zoro went over his own memories and the extra information Roger had put into his brain so much that his head was spinning. Thinking so much was definitely not his strong suit.
In the end, Zoro concluded that it would be best to talk to the woman who ran the local bar, Makino. He had learned about her through the story, and she seemed to always be around Luffy and Shanks when they were in the village.
After getting off the ship, he tried to find his way there.
Since being confronted with an outside view of Roger's story, he had to begrudgingly confront the realization that he did, in fact, always get lost. He could hear swirly brow mocking him from the future, but at least now, maybe the realization would help.
Somehow, he didn't get lost this time. He was flabbergasted when he found his way straight to the bar. The roads didn't even move once. Not that he was complaining, but what the hell?
As he stepped into the bar, he was way more nervous than he would ever admit, but he had already thought of so many things that could go wrong, that messing something up was inevitable. Damn, he really needed to stop thinking and worrying so much, he thought, shaking his head.
His inner dialogue was interrupted by a soft voice. "Hey, kid. I've never seen you here before. Are you here with the merchants that got here today?", Makino smiled.
"Yeah, I hitched a ride with them", he said. Take it slow, he reminded himself and kept himself from cutting straight to business and pushed his growing anxiety down.
"Oh, so the parents are the merchants and you're traveling with them?", nodded Makino.
"Uhm no, I just hitched a ride to get here", Zoro rubbed the back of his head and looked away.
"Did you run away from home?"asked Makino concerned. She grew still, to better observe him.
"Not exactly", Zoro bit his lip. He cursed his young body once again, people asking about his parents was not good. Was steering the conversation towards what he wanted to talk about too soon now? How could he get away from the topic of his parents?
Makino furrowed her brows questioningly and tilted her head.
Okay fuck it, Zoro thought with resignation, if he was just going to get disbelieved again, he was just going to bite the bullet, "I know this is going to sound very unbelievable. I got sent back in time and there are bad things I need to prevent in the future."
Predictably, Makino pursed her lips and looked around the bar for a patron to take back their lost child.
Zoro let out a long, low sigh. "I know I sound like a terrible liar, and you have no reason to believe me. Please, listen to what I have to say anyways", he requested seriously.
"Why are you even telling me about this?", asked Makino uncertain.
"You know Luffy? And about his dream to become the pirate king, right? I was on Luffy's crew…", Makino looked startled and gripped her hands together. Zoro continued and told her about the things that happened before he got sent back.
The longer he spoke, her face turned paler and paler and covered her mouth.
"I know there is no way I can prove that, but if you have any way of contacting Shanks, please do. I need his help to prevent what I just told you", pleaded Zoro, his voice grew more and more desperate, "if I can talk to him, I can prove I'm not lying." Probably... Hopefully, he added silently and held his breath.
Makino looked unsure, moved her weight from one foot to the other and bit her lips. She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly.
"I'm only telling you this because that might prove you right...", she said hesitantly, "He's been in the area recently and was here a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned he'd be back in about a month before leaving the East Blue again."
"Thank you!", Zoro let out a long breath and sagged against the back of his chair.
Despite her obvious uneasiness, Makino offered him a meal. During the meal Zoro forced himself to talk more than he normally would. He figured showing openness would help getting her to trust him. It was a challenge to not fall back into his usual taciturnity, but he was desperate to not repeat what happened with Koshiro. It was already so close to that again and probably only Makino's soft nature had saved him from being yelled at or thrown out.
Without mentioning any names of people or islands he told her in broad strokes about the kinds of adventures Luffy got up to.
Makino seemed to fight with herself, his stories captured Luffy's character so perfectly, that it was near impossible for a stranger to have made them up… At the same time, his story about time travel was not something she could fit into her worldview.
After the meal, Makino asked with a pained, uneasy look, if he wanted to stay at the bar until Shanks arrived. Zoro didn't want to burden her more than he already had, and was seeing forward to meeting Luffy, he declined to venture into the jungle. She slumped her shoulders, relieved to not have to have the reminder of her inner turmoil around for a month.
Zoro was very confused that, like earlier, the trees did not move the whole time as he made his way through the jungle. He just shook his head as he thought back to the last two weeks. While his feet always managed to find his training spot without issue, when he was further away on a run or carrying a boulder, he had lost his way multiple times.
Aside from how this sudden change happened, he was also taken aback when he realized that he now experiences the world like everyone else. Nothing moved, and following the path was easy, he noted shaking his head in bewilderment.
It took a few hours along with the sun's descent before he finally managed to spot some smoke in the distance. Soon he made it to the smoke's origin around a clearing of trees. "This had to be where she is," he muttered as he looked both inside and out for her but found nothing.
From Roger's story and from what Luffy told him, he knew Dadan should've been easy to spot based on sight alone, yet her camp was completely abandoned. He shrugged thinking, Maybe she just took a hike to go to the ladies room or something. When she comes back, it would be a heck of a lot easier to get on her good side if he brought her some fresh meat.
Using his Haki to snake through the underbrush, he quickly found game and scored a clean cleave on a deer with antlers the size of his blades. He hoisted it onto his back as he took it to the still empty hut. "The hell is that lady doing?"
Since she didn't seem to be coming back anytime soon, he decided to rest his kill in front of the hut and leaned his head on a nearby tree, quickly falling asleep.
"Who the hell are you, brat?" bellowed a deep, almost indistinguishable female voice. That voice along with the shadow over him, made Zoro start to wake from his nap.
"Huh," he muttered, rubbing his eyes open to look up at the sour face. Blinking he started to realize who was standing in front of him. "Oh, it's just you," mumbled Zoro, yawning before turning away from her.
"Hey! You're not allowed to fall asleep kid!? Who are you?!" she screamed as she aggressively shook Zoro by his shirt like a human bobblehead.
"La-! -dy! Stop! Sha-! -king! Me!" screamed Zoro as his voice kept getting cut off. Is this Nami's brutish, deranged aunt!? The hair color would fit. "I give! You! Deer!" he finally gasped out as Dadan let him fall back to the ground.
"Humph! A little guy like you couldn't possibly have gotten one of those deer. Who else is with you?" she spoke seriously, glaring daggers at the kid.
"You hag," muttered a dazed Zoro as he clutched his head, "The hell are you talking about? It wasn't even hard to score it! Damn, I give you free food and you're acting like a maniac", growled Zoro, gritting his teeth as he tried to hold back his harsher insults.
She let her brow rise in mild surprise. "That's a Dawn Deer, kid. Do you really think people around these parts aren't interested in eating venison? They're too skittish to get close to and too smart to fall for any of the traps we or anyone else set up." Dadan then unfastened her worn lumber axe from her back to raise it right over the Zoro's moss-laden head. "So, spill the beans twerp. Who the hell helped you kill this dee-"
"Dadan! Is that you, over there?"
"Yeah, we heard you screaming your head off. You hit your head?"
"Ugggh," visibly groaned Dadan as she rested her axe back on her back, taking the time to rub her face as the voices came closer. "How did you find me... this was meant to be a private little camping trip?"
Zoro flinched when he heard their voices. Only now he realized, he wasn't fully prepared to meet them yet! He was just barely able to see past her hunched figure. Right behind her were the two people. Zoro's body went rigid, caught between wanting to bolt away and just being frozen on the spot.
"Well, we both thought you attracted a bear. Would've been an easy meal if we came in time, shishishishi!" said the younger of the boys, a straw hat nestled comfortably on his crown.
"Although, if you just so happened to be killed, at least we'd have free oil for lamps for the rest of the year," grinned the older brother with a dark yet mischievous expression.
Zoro's heart really pounded like a drum when Ace's eyes drifted over to him with a look of confusion. "Who's the other kid Dadan? You can't seriously be taking in more kids."
He wasn't ready. He wasn't ready! He wasn't ready!, reverberated through his mind, as he had to face the hardest challenge of this long trial.
The much younger Luffy looked at him with that childlike optimism that never faded till his last breath.
Stop thinking about that!, Zoro reprimanded himself. He was the King of Hell, damn it, he couldn't be fazed by meeting with his deceased captain.
He had to keep holding his tongue from them most of all. He couldn't tell them of Ace's culling in front of his brother, tell him that he broke his promise. Or telling Luffy that despite all his work... he still wasn't strong enough to... stop! Stop! STOP! He needed to keep his mind from going there!
It was no use, Zoro felt tears well in his eyes. In an attempt not to cry, he rubbed his eyes red desperately, ignoring the confused looks from the three.
"Hey Dadan!" began Ace with an upset shout. "All that yelling scared him! He's shaking," frowned Ace.
"What!? He was just calling me names a second ago! It's not my fault!" seethed Dadan in fury, yet, she still had enough awareness to step back to let Ace and Luffy get a better look at the sniffling child.
"Hey," began Luffy, kneeling down to Zoro so he could look face to face with him.
It's those same eyes, my damned body won't calm down. This is too unreal, Zoro swallowed hard, to keep himself from sobbing, as images of his last moments on Laugh Tale shot into his mind.
He felt Luffy's hand rest on his shoulder, making Zoro calm down just enough to meet his younger captain's stern eyes…
"DID YOU KILL THAT DEER ALL BY YOURSELF!? IT LOOKS SO YUMMY!" exclaimed Luffy in absolute amazement, as everyone, even Zoro fell to the ground in shock.
Even Luffy was surprised when, despite how shaken and crestfallen the moss-haired boy was, he was now... laughing, "Hahahaha! Yup, I killed it alright!"
"SO COOL! You must be really strong!", grinned Luffy as he jumped around excitedly.
"Of course I am! I'm going to be the Greatest Swordsman one day after all", replied Zoro, who couldn't keep himself from grinning widely too. His smile faltered with a pang of regret caused by that declaration. He stiffened up as he thought back to Laugh Tale and how badly he failed to protect his crew. Now he didn't even have Wado anymore…
"Really?", Luffy shouted, "I'M GOING TO BE THE PIRATE KING."
"So, you have an even bigger dream than mine?", Zoro forced himself to give a small smile. The conversation gave him deja vu.
"Yeah! Ace and I both want to be Captains of our own crews, so we can't sail together. Do you want to be a Captain, too?"
Zoro shook his head, "Nah. I just want to be a swordsman. It's a lot simpler anyway."
"You fight with two swords?", asked Ace, leaning in to take a closer look at his scabbards.
Zoro hesitated and answered with a heavy voice, "Actually three, but I lost one recently."
"Three?", Ace asked baffled.
"I fight with the Three-Sword-Style", Zoro shrugged.
"Are you stupid?", mocked Ace and Dadan at the same time.
If only Dadan had said that he would have just ignored it, but Ace…
He glared up to the taller boy, getting a familiar feeling of anger rising through him. "I'll show you it's not stupid, when I have three again."
"Whatever you say", sneered Ace, "Bet you can't even use those two."
Zoro growled and got up, "Fight me!"
"Fine. You'll lose", drawled Ace so arrogantly that Zoro had to use all his self-discipline not to punch him in the face right here and now.
Maybe he was overreacting… But... Controlling his emotions in this younger body was much harder, he thought to himself. Also that look on his face reminded him of that damn snotty cook. Ace was just the perfect opportunity to blow off some steam.
"You shouldn't be so sure of yourself", declared Zoro with a feral grin.
"Tsk", Ace got his pipe from behind his back at the same time as Zoro got out one of the worn swords he had.
Using his Observation Haki he easily evaded Ace's attack and disarmed him with a few quick slashes with the blunt side of his sword.
He was pretty sure that the Haki wasn't necessary, but he was so pissed and annoyed by Ace's attitude, so he wanted to show him how overconfident he was and put him down as fast as possible.
"Didn't even have to use two to beat you", he laughed, and held out his hand to help Ace up.
Ace glared at him.
"So cool! You really are strong!", cheered Luffy.
That helped to break the tension a bit.
That was until Ace slapped Zoro's hand and got up himself. Apparently, getting his butt beaten in seconds didn't make his attitude any better. "You just got lucky that's all," muttered Ace as he dusted himself off
"Do you want to join my crew?", yelled Luffy excitedly as he pushed past Ace to get in Zoro's face.
"Pft! Idiot, you can't have a crew, when you're not setting sail for years. No way is he going to agree to something like that", scoffed Ace smugly.
"Sure, I'd like to be in your crew," said Zoro with a plain wave.
"Really?", Luffy and Ace screamed at the same time, Luffy was jumping with joy while Ace stared at him with his jaw falling to the floor in shock.
"Yeah, why not? I'm sure being part of your crew will be fun."
"Woohoo, I have a Vice-Captain!", Luffy grinned widely at his brother and threw his arms into the air.
Now Zoro was full-on laughing. The older Luffy had never cared to establish a hierarchy in their group. He probably only did it now to one up his brother.
"I can help you get stronger, too", said Zoro, still snickering. Damn, he couldn't remember when he laughed like that the last time. Meeting a young, innocent, excited Luffy was really healing. "By the way, what are your names?"
"You just joined someone's crew without knowing their name?", jabbed Ace and let out an exasperated breath, "You know what, it's perfectly for an idiot like you."
Zoro shrugged his shoulders and was suddenly extremely glad for Luffy's easygoing nature. Seriously why is Ace being such jerk?
Okay, dumb question, he knew the answer from the story Roger put in his head but still... He didn't like having Ace's inner turmoil projected onto himself like that.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy and that is Ace. This smelly mountain bandit is called Dadan", explained Luffy, "You?"
"I'm not smelly!", barked Dadan.
Before Zoro had a chance to answer, Ace cut in again, " Hold on! Not before he tells us why he's even here?! Are you from a rival gang of bandits?" questioned Ace defensively.
"I got lost", grumbled Zoro. He didn't, but it was a good cover… and who knows if the roads wouldn't just start moving again tomorrow.
"What do you mean, 'You got lost?!'", barked Ace.
"The roads move", Zoro gritted out. Could they please already move onto another topic?
"What?", asked Luffy.
"Don't know, they just do…", he sighed, and thought he should have thought of a different explanation for showing up out of nowhere.
"How do you keep sounding stupider?", yelled Ace.
Ace was really causing his blood to start boiling again. This was so annoying. Zoro let out a long breath and reminded himself to keep cool and not lose his temper a second time in the first five minutes, if he wanted a chance to stay here until he was going to meet Shanks.
"So, they are mystery roads", nodded Luffy, like Zoro's explanation was a perfectly normal thing to hear about.
"Where were you trying to go?", asked Ace, looking at him like he was dirt, "You don't look like you are from the city?"
"I'm not from the city, I'm from a different island. I'm a swordsman, and just wandering around to find opponents", Zoro said keeping his face neutral.
"Ohhh, cool! We should fight!", yelled Luffy with stars in his eyes, "My punch is like a pistol!"
"Yeah? You need to show me", chuckled Zoro.
Luffy immediately got into position, ready to fight.
"Wait", Zoro scratched the back of his head. Luffy tilted his head and lost the tension in his fighting stance. "Um.. you know... it's getting kinda late? Why don't we do that tomorrow?"
Luffy got stars in his eyes. He jumped around excitedly, "So, you're staying here?!"
"I could stay for a couple of weeks, but then I want to go look for other opponents again. If I'm on your crew, I want to become as strong as possible, before we set sail", Zoro explained seriously, he couldn't bring himself to smile. All of his self-control was needed to shove away a barrage of negative thoughts.
Damn it, he had accepted this second chance, so he had to focus on the Luffy right in front of him!
After a bit of back and forth Dadan finally agreed to let him stay for a while. Ace really didn't look happy about how easily he was accepted.
"Make yourself useful then", grunted Dadan.
"Sure, I brought dinner", Zoro grinned and gestured at the deer again.
Dadan grumbled, "Try not to die while you're here."