By chance or sheer luck, after what felt like half a day's walk, they suddenly arrived at a market square where there were actually people bustling about.
For a brief moment, Zoro was deeply impressed by his captain's orientation skills, until he spotted the goods at the first food stall, which Luffy was heading straight for.
Of course. The glutton had simply followed his sense of smell to the freshly roasted meat that was being sold here. He should have figured as much.
"Hey Zoro! Come and try this meat! It's so delicious!" his captain called out to him as he caught up with him over the last few meters.
"Mmh," he simply said, eyeing the meat with interest. His hand inconspicuously felt his trouser pocket. He hadn't had a chance to take any money with him from the ship, thanks to Luffy, his departure had been such a quick and unexpected one.
Luffy, meanwhile, was already on at least his second skewer of meat and left no doubt that he liked it.
"MMMH, the meat is sO good, old man. Sanji needs to cook that too."
- "I'm very pleased that you like it, young sir," smiled the merchant, who, Zoro thought, reacted very calmly to Luffy plundering his wares, "The meat comes from our local cattle farms and is the pride of our little island."
Luffy nodded with interest, but his real focus was on grabbing another skewer of meat. However, Zoro interrupted this by seizing his captain's wrist.
"Cut it out, Luffy," he warned, "We can't pay for that. We have no money with us."
Quietly, he thought to himself that Nami, that red-haired witch, would surely increase his own debts to her as punishment if he incurred any here.
Luffy tried to extend his hand to reach for the skewer of meat despite the grip, but Zoro thwarted this too by blocking his captain's fingers with the hilt of Wado.
"Just one more, please. Zoro can have a bite too." Luffy whined, and Zoro watched as his captain, still eyeing the meat, salivated.
Zoro was about to offer a counterargument when he caught the merchant's gaze, who now, no longer so calm, stared with wide eyes at the sword hilt and Luffy's stretched rubbery fingers. Zoro furrowed his brow.
"Is there a problem, old man?" he asked, and the merchant swallowed hard before lifting his gaze, looking Zoro directly in the eyes with a strange expression.
Was it fear, or no, surprise?
Zoro's attempts at deciphering the old man's emotions were interrupted by the merchant's words as he finally dared to respond.
"No no, well, yes, maybe, no, well... Are you by any chance the Zoro, I mean Roronoa Zoro, the famous pirate hunter?"
- "Who wants to know?" Zoro retorted grimly, feeling it convenient that he already had one of his swords in a raised, thus presumably more threatening position.
Luffy seemed to be in a different mood.
"Yes, but of course he is," he proudly confirmed, "but now he's my first mate in my pirate crew."
It was typical of Luffy to play with such open cards, thought Zoro amusedly, but maintained his tough, stoic expression.
"Your crew?" exclaimed the merchant in surprise, "then you must be the Straw Hat, right? I heard about a new pirate crew with a captain wearing a straw hat, but when I saw you I wasn't sure."
Zoro didn't appreciate the merchant's curious tone, but since Luffy didn't seem to mind, he decided not to have a problem with it either.
Luffy burst into laughter and removed his hand from Zoro's sword to adjust his hat.
"Hehe. That's me. My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be King of the Pirates."
Zoro repositioned Wado to its rightful place at his hip and felt immensely proud at that moment to be part of Luffy's crew.
The merchant laughed warmly and looked at the young men with a very friendly gaze. "Well, that's certainly a worthy goal."
Upon noticing the longing look Luffy cast towards the meat, he added, "Please, help yourselves. It's on the house. In honor of this esteemed visit."
Luffy needed no further encouragement and immediately grabbed several skewers of meat with both hands.
After Zoro had furrowed his brow thoughtfully at the merchant's exaggerated solemnity, he nevertheless helped himself to one of the delicious-looking skewers of meat.
Luffy was right, he thought instantly. It was delicious!
With half an ear, Zoro caught snippets of the ongoing conversation between the merchant and his captain, which, as he found, was rather one-sided, causing him to quickly lose interest.
The old man rambled on about inner peace and life dreams, to which Luffy merely contributed munching noises.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the old merchant take something out of his pocket.
Zoro's hand immediately went to his swords.
On careful inspection, however, he realized that it was only a necklace with a stone pendant.
So, not a weapon.
Feeling somewhat relieved, he turned his attention back to his meal, which he should have finished in a few bites.
"You will feel incredibly strong in every battle," said the merchant in a boring, monotonous voice as he swung the pendant back and forth in front of Luffy, "Especially when you hear the name of the person I am about to mention, you will yearn to fight them, and you will do so relentlessly until you are victorious, and they are incapacitated. Their name is..."
What the merchant said next was drowned out by one of the most annoying voices Zoro was familiar with.
"IDIOT Mosshead," the unfortunately all too familiar voice yelled almost right next to his ear and Zoro immediately felt his previously subsided headache return.
"I've been looking for you for three hours. How stupid can one be to catapult oneself onto a completely unknown island without having a clue about anything? You should be grateful that Nami-san is worried about you. If it were up to me, we would have sailed off without your stupid asses."
Sanji's curled eyebrows twichted in annoyance as he took a smoke of his cigarette, regarding his two trouble-maker crewmates with a disapproving look.
- "What are you yelling at me for, eh?", Zoro shouted back, hands instinctlively at his sword hilts again, ready to fight the annoying cook, "It's not like I volunteered to be catapulted onto this shitty island. That's on Luffy, not me!"
- "You're right. With Luffy, it's clear by now that he doesn't think before he acts. Why do I still assume there's a brain under that mosshead of yours!"
It was clear that a fight between the two of them was almost inevitable now. Zoro had drawn one of his swords and Sanji had raised his leg slightly, and the air around them seemed to be getting hotter and hotter with the many breaths of anger being exhaled.
"Sanji is there!", exclaimed Luffy while still stuffing his mouth and surprisingly carrying two boxes in his one hand, "Look at what this old man gave us. Free meat! It's so delicious! Make me some food with it now!"
This unexpected demand snapped Sanji out of his heated argument, and he furrowed his curled eyebrows. The idea of someone giving Luffy two boxes of meat for free was quite strange. Perhaps there was something wrong with the meat, and someone wanted to get rid of it?! As a cook, all his alarm bells were ringing.
The merchant must have noticed his doubts because he nodded kindly and said, "Yes, indeed, it's a gift from the house to Mr. Straw Hat, so he doesn't forget us when he becomes the Pirate King."
Sanji snorted. Had Luffy made a striking impression? At first sight? That would be something new!
"Anyway," he sighed and stubbed out his cigarette on the ground, "Now that I've found you, we can finally do the shopping for Nami-san. Let's go! And if any of you get lost on the way, I'll personally knock your teeth in."
Luffy laughted whole-heartedly and reached for another meat skewer from one of the boxes. Zoro also protested with an insult towards the cook but began to follow the blond suit-wearing man.
"Such nice young people," the old merchant muttered as he watched the three disappear into the crowd of the marketplace. Then he looked at the pendant in his hand, "I only hope it worked!"