Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda.
Chapter 2
(Somewhere in Shimotsuki Village)
Seeing the boy a couple meters away from him, once again training his skill in swordsmanship, made him sigh. He's lost count of how many times he's tried to chase the boy away from the vicinity of his fishing spot.
'Heh," he thought, 'The brat definitely inherited Ushimaru's stubbornness'.
Shimotsuki Kozaburo was an old man. Establishing Shimotsuki Village decades earlier, governing the village to rid it of bandits and pirates trying their luck when seeing a 'defenseless' village, fathering a son and later becoming a grandfather to young Kuina. He feels as though he's fulfilled all he could in life.
Or at least he did.
Up until a footman of the Shimotsuki Clan washed ashore in his small raft eight years ago. The man's face showed clear signs of severe malnutrition, his arms barely able to support the bundle he held protectively to his chest.
Inside that bundle was a small green-haired snoring baby who, in stark contrast to the footman, looked well fed if not a little lacking in the hygiene department. Held loosely inside the baby's small hands was a soggy letter that would later give him sleepless nights for years to come.
By the time he heard from one of his informants that Kaido of the Beasts had sent the entirety of the Kozuki Clan to death and had executed Lord Oden and The Nine Red Scabbards, he found it hard not to fear for his home country. The letter shed light on the circumstances surrounding these events and confirmed something he feared the moment he saw the crest on the footman's robes.
His son, and all of Wano-kuni's daimyos, represented Wano-kuni's last stand against Kaido and they all fell in battle facing the behemoth.
The footman succumbed to his condition on the very next day. Kozaburo himself had handled the man's funeral, paying his respects to a man that died ensuring the safety of his Lord's legacy.
Kozaburo knew himself well enough that he did not even attempt to raise his grandson (It was a miracle that Koushiro turned out the way he did, and even then the man had his faults). He didn't want the youngster to be involved in Wano-kuni's affairs either. Instead he handed the boy over to Koushiro, who was already the closest thing to a father to many of the students at his dojo, and Kozaburo only allowed himself to watch over the boy from a distance.
In the subsequent years he watched the boy grow into a rambunctious, bull-headed youngster. He had to carry the boy back to Koushiro's house, when he trained himself to complete exhaustion and beyond, more times than he cares to count. His granddaughter most probably had something to do with his obstinacy, what with her constantly kicking his ass.
Though he'd be lying if he said he wasn't surprised when the boy began to develop the Nitoryu in retaliation to all his losses.
'Of course something like this would happen, thousands of kilometers away and in a village as small as this. Your will truly lives on in him, doesn't it Ushim-
WHACK!
"Ahhh!" yelled Kozaburo as he fell on his back, his kiseru falling beside him.
"Serves you right, you old creep!" yelled the boy.
Quickly shooting up to his feet, Kozaburo held his head in pain while pointing at the child.
"Creep?! Who are you calling a creep, you midget?!" yelled Kozaburo right back.
"Midget?! Who are you calling a midget, you old geezer?!" yelled the boy, outraged.
"Geezer!? I'm only eighty-two years old!" Kozaburo shouted.
"I can't even count that high!" yelled the boy, hands raised in the air, clutching the kendo sticks he practiced with.
Kozaburo folded his arms and turned his back to the boy, nose raised high in the air.
"What does that say about you then?"
"Ehhhh?!" was the boy's indignant response.
Kozaburo turned his head to slightly look back at the boy and hmph-ed.
"What the hell are you doing here anyways? Weren't you training that fake Nitoryu of yours?", he asked in a patronizing tone.
"FAKE?! Say that again old geezer, I'll kick your ass!" the boy shouted.
Kozaburo scoffed "It'll be a wonder if you can kick anyone's ass with how inept your stances are."
The boy blinked, losing some of the wind in his sails. Inet? Imet? Internet? Was this old guy crazy?
Kozaburo, hearing no reaction from the boy, turned to face him fully. He sighed when he saw the boy looking at him as if he was the senile one.
"It means that your stances are incorrect" he said, rubbing a hand across his face.
The boy blushed furiously, "No they're not!"
"Yes, they are", the man replied, the amount of certainty in his voice sowing niggling doubt in the boy's mind.
The youngster scowled, tightening his grip on his kendo sticks.
"You don't know what you're talking about old man, these are the same stances that are practiced in the dojo!" he yelled, angry at the geezer for insinuating that the arduous amount of hours he spent noting the Nitoryu stances Master Koushiro's assistant taught in the dojo was a waste of time.
"And that's exactly why their incorrect, Boy", the old man said, a sardonic grin on his face.
Clear confusion passed through the boy's eyes for a fleeting second, then it vanished. Young he may be, but he wasn't eager to show any signs of weakness in front of the knarly old geezer.
The boy's silence caused Kozaburo to chuckle.
"I'm sure you're familiar with Kuina, yes?," he asked, more than enjoying the scowl that crossed the boy's face at the mention of his granddaughter.
"What of it?," came the boy's half mumbled retort as he looked away, scowl still adorning his face.
"What do you think seperates her from the rest of those snotnosed brats in the dojo?" he asked, deciding to take pity on the boy.
Not allowing the youngster any time to respond, he continued, "It's the sword she carries on her waist," he answered, "They treat swordsmanship like a sport, not willing to put in the necessary blood and sweat to advance their skills, stopping as soon as they feel pain, all because they don't realise that, despite the many poetic justifications you can conjure, swordsmanship is fundamentally the art of killing."
"She understood that fact as soon as she laid her hands on that sword, whereas they fool themselves with pretences of practicing swordsmanship with those kendo sticks," he spat the last two words out, "she realised that she was holding a weapon that could mean the difference between life and death of any individual, and with that insight, she gained a profound grasp of what true swordsmanship entailed." he finished.
The boy's silence, far more withdrawn than before, revealed his shock and disbelief that the elderly guy he had always dismissed as demented had such in-depth understanding of swordsmanship.
Kozaburo sighed and bent down to pick up his kiseru. Blowing the dirt off of it, he puffed a few clouds of smoke from the pipe before turning his sight to the horizon.
"Why do you practice swordsmanship?" he asked, his gaze still focused on the horizon but his mind traversing to a land far beyond the one he resided, remembering a time he posed the same question to a navy-haired boy practically a clone of the one that stood before him.
The lime-haired boy opened his mouth to shout the first thing that came to mind, but bit his tongue to resist the temptation. He had no idea why, but he had the strangest feeling that his answer to the old man's question was pivotal in deciding the direction of this and every future interaction between them.
Deciding to pay heed to this feeling, he took a deep breath and thought not to the immediate object of his goal, but to the sensation that poured through every ounce of his being the first time he picked up a katana. A sensation that got ever stronger with every loss to his rival.
"I want to become the world's strongest swordsmaster," was the boy's firm answer.
A ghost of a smirk crossed Kozaburo's face, before faint chuckles began to escape his mouth. The man tore his eyes away from the horizon and rested them onto the boy's form.
"Tell ya what kid, how about in exchange for not bothering me while I'm fishing, I'll teach you everything I know about the Nitoryu?" he proposed.
The boy's eyes almost bugged out of his eye sockets as he looked at Kozaburo. He opened his mouth to respond before quickly snapping his mouth shut and narrowing his eyes at the old man.
"Yeah right old man, you expect me to believe that you'll teach me everything you know just to ask for something so small in return? I'm not stupid!" he shouted.
Kozaburo blinked, not expecting such a reaction from the youngster, before he, in turn, narrowed his own eyes at the boy.
"What the hell does a youngster like you think you can offer me boy? I just want you to leave me in peace dammit!" he yelled.
The boy huffed and looked at the old man, as if assessing his worth, before he hardened his eyes.
"You got yourself a deal then, Old Man"
Kozaburo felt a tick mark develop on his brow. "Alright then, from now on, if you want to study under my tutelage, you're gonna call me Master, boy" he said, closing his eyes before puffing a few more clouds from his kiseru, his head held up high.
A tick mark, in turn, developed on the boy's own brow. "If you want me to do that, then you're gonna do the same, Old Man. My name isn't 'Boy', it's Zoro!"
Kozaburo opened his eyes and looked at the boy for a long while. Seeing the transparent shape of another blue-haired boy standing in the Zoro's place, the same fierce determination in his eyes.
Then, he smirked. "Alright then, Zoro" he said, wearing the boy's name out.
Before Zoro's temper could get the better of him, Kozaburo straightened his back and hardened his eyes, all signs of the grumpy old man gone.
In his place was a hardened warrior, ready to execute all who stood between him and his goals.
Zoro swallowed. Feeling the change in the air before he himself stood upright, ready to suffer through whatever means necessary to become the best swordsman he could be.
"Training starts now!" bellowed Kozaburo
The wind cannot defeat a tree with strong roots.
Everytime Zoro would lose his temper, everytime he'd get impatient and everytime he'd falter. That was the constant mantra his master would reiterate.
The wind cannot defeat a tree with strong roots.
And that's what Zoro spent the following four months doing, building a foundation. Training not only his body, but also his mind. Learning to not let his eyes betray his intentions, that the twitch of a muscle could mean the beginning or the end of a fight, that brute strength is meaningless in the face of refined skill and that properly reading the body language and facial expressions of his opponent is taking one step closer to ending the fight.
The first arrangement Zoro's master required was that he exclusively practice with actual katanas. When Zoro said he didn't have any, his master frowned and told Zoro to meet him back at the coast on the next day. The following afternoon Zoro saw him carrying two new katanas, each had golden circular guards with black hilts that had red-colored diamond patterns running vertically along either side, sheathed in black scabbards.
Then, his training begun in true.
At precisely six o'clock in the morning, his master would have him practicing dozens of stances for each of the two sword-styles he was learning: Ittoryu and Nitoryu. To perfect his fluidity from one stance to the next, he had to repeat the exercise if he made even one error. Such as having his muscles tensed too tightly, gripping his swords in too tight a grip, overextending a strike, or failing to balance himself properly after each stance.
He learned not to use his swords as clubs but for the dangerous blades that they were. He discovered that in order to evade his opponents' attacks, he needed to gauge the timing based on the distance between himself, his opponent, and their weapons. Although this was difficult initially, Master Kozaburo told him to watch his opponent's breathing in order to be two steps ahead of them, any tensing of their core usually indicated that they would attack at that point in time, allowing him to parry their blows all the more comfortably. He learned to coordinate every step he took with each strike he made, making it all the more difficult for his opponents to get him off balance.
Around lunchtime he would be shooed off to go and do as he pleased, which is time Zoro would use to challenge Kuina to his heart's content. This is where he discovered, much to his satisfaction, that his master's training was paying off. Much to his dismay, he still lost, but he discovered that his matches with Kuina were gradually becoming longer and longer. That she had exert more and more effort into finding an opening in his guard and that he found it more and more manageable to block, dodge and redirect her attacks.
Their matches would end with Kuina's slightly labored breathing and a slight sheen of sweat covering her brow as opposed to the frequent humiliating defeats he'd endure at her hands. Whereas Zoro on the other hand, from his position on his back, would give Kuina a savage grin in return and stand up, demanding an umpteenth rematch.
When he arrived back at Shimotsuki Village's coast at 2:30 in the afternoon, his master would be there to greet him. Once there, he would arrive to see training equipment such as barbells, but this time with boulders tied to every limb. He would keep training until there was no longer any light left in the sky. When that moment arrived, when sweat poured down his face in streams, when his lungs burned with weariness and when his muscles trembled with exhaustion, his master would stop him as soon as he reached his final set of stances. Then, he would advance toward Zoro, drawing the sword that hung from his hip at all times.
While Kuina was, and would always be, his goal, he looked forward to these occasions the most since he knew there wasn't a snowflake's chance in hell he could defeat his master yet.
Zoro had only recently started dipping his finger into the man's knowledge, which was a veritable fountain. He would apply all of the man's teachings, take into account all he had learned during his matches with Kuina, and even test out ideas that came to him on the spot. However, the outcome was always the same: him unable to support his weight on shaky knees, his fingers straining to hold onto the swords in his hands, and his vision beginning to blur, right before he would inevitably pass out. He always awakens the following morning in his own bed.
Night after night, the same result. However, instead of feeling discouraged at the crushing losses, Zoro would always motivate himself with the same words: 'My dream is larger than the mountain Master is'.
Then he would get out of bed and, despite his aching muscles' protest at the action, he would go and meet his master on the coast of Shimotsuki Village, ready to begin training anew.
At present, he and his master, along with a few other men, were boarding a ship. Zoro had heard from his master that he had, in Koushiro's place, accepted a request from a noble to teach their son in 'the art of swordsmanship' for a few months.
That statement was accompanied with a scoff. Disbelieving of the fact that the brat he was supposed to teach would learn anything other than how to not kill themselves by the end of their own blade.
Upon asking what the name of the place they were visiting was, his master responded with an answer that made Zoro's eyebrow quirk.
"Goa Kingdom, on Dawn Island"
"This doesn't look like a kingdom." Zoro said slowly, eyebrows furrowed as they docked at what looked like a small peaceful village.
His master scoffed. "Of course it isn't. Do you really think I'd let someone with your impulsiveness near a noble?"
Zoo scowled and turned around to retort, only to stop at the serious look on his master's face.
"Nobles have fickle tempers, Zoro. A vast majority of them believe they own this planet and everything in it. You haven't mastered control yet. It won't be a long time until you do. You, instead of letting their words wash over you like water over a stone, will lash out in defense of having your honour, pride or skills insulted."
Zoro remained silent as he thought over the advice his teacher had given him.
"I don't expect us to have to stay on this island for more than two months. You and a few of the men are going to stay at a local inn in this village. You will continue your training regimen down to the letter. The men you are going to stay with will help you since I won't be able to teach you for the remainder of our time here. One of them will report to me at the end of every week and, if I am pleased with your progress, once we arrive back home, we will advance onto the next phase of your training." his master finished.
Zoro's eyes lit up, pleased at the news. "You won't be disappointed, Master." he finished with a bow.
His master grinned, his kiseru wafting wisps of smoke in the air. "Of course I won't. Now then, let's go and meet with whoever is in charge of this village before we check you boys in."
"And here it is, The Windmill Inn, there's a pub across the street if any of you gentlemen ever want to relax", Mayor Woop Slap told them.
"Thank you for your hospitality, Mayor-san." Kozaburo said.
Mayor Woop Slap waved his thanks off, "It's no problem at all, if any of you gentlemen ever have need to consult with me, my house is right across the local bar, you can ask any of the villagers if you get lost."
He frowned before continuing, "I can't stress enough how careful you have to be around those nobles Kozaburo-san, I'm sure you're not a stranger to the tales of what they do to those that displease them"
Kozaburo gave him an indulgent smile, "There's no need to fear Mayor-san, I'm not a novice like a lot of the youngsters these days."
Mayor Woop Slap nodded, his concerned expression switching to a curious one, "I couldn't help but notice the amount of training equipment your men loaded off of your boat." he stated.
"Ah, yes" Kozaburo began, "A majority of that is going to be used by my student," he said, eyes drifting to where Zoro was helping with the offload of their belongings off the ship, "I doubt whoever the brat is I'll be teaching will be able to lift even half of the weights we brought."
Mayor Woop Slap followed Kozaburo's gaze and a shocked look crossed his face as he saw the subject of Kozaburo's answer, "The lime haired brat? He's the one that's going to be using all of that?!", he exclaimed.
Kozaburo chuckled, "You'd be surprised by the boy's endurance. Not even I anticipated how quickly he'd progress when I first took him on as a student."
The dumbfounded look remained on Mayor Woop Slap's face, "Huh, well what do you know?"
Silence remained between the two for a while. They watched as the men and Zoro bought in all of the supplies and weights that those who were going to stay in the village would need.
After a while, Mayor Woop Slap spoke up, "Do you already have a training ground in mind for your student, or are you still thinking of one?" he asked.
Kozaburo puffed on his kiseru for a moment, contemplating his response, "I noticed the large forest surrounding the village while we were docking," he said, "Do you have any idea whether there's a large expanse of empty land in the forest we could use?" he asked.
Mayor Woop Slap combed his hand through his beard. "Hmm, the forest is home to a lot of dangerous, gigantic animals. But it isn't impossible to traverse the forest without encountering one of them, however none of the villagers have ever braved these forest enough to know these paths...None except a young boy." he concluded.
Kozaburo lifted an eyebrow, "A boy?" he asked slowly, disbelief, however hypocritical, tinging his voice.
Mayor Woop Slap nodded. "Yes, when you and your men have finished organizing your supplies, ask one of the villagers for directions to Partys Bar."
Zoro, along with the men he was going to be staying with, stood at the docks of Foosha Village, watching as his master and co. prepared to sail.
Having already been introduced to the boy, who looked even younger than Zoro did, that was going to be accompanying them to their training ground for the next two months, his master deemed it time for the rest of them to depart.
When Zoro heard that his training would hinge on the knowledge of a boy, he was initially concerned that the entire escapade would turn out to be a disaster. But upon meeting the boy, upon looking into his eyes, upon finding out that the boy was studying him and looking for even the slightest glimmer of weakness in his eyes, Zoro knew.
This wasn't an ordinary kid.
"The boy - Luffy - is going to lead you all to your training ground after we leave. Be disciplined Zoro. The next time we meet, I want to see improvement in not only your strength and skill but also your character. We learn more about ourselves when in a foreign environment than when we are on home grounds." his master said, knocking Zoro out if his stupor.
"Yes, Master." Zoro said, taking the words to heart.
At that, Kozaburo and his group sailed away, circumnavigating the island in order to dock at the ports closest to the Goa Kingdom.
Zoro mentally prepared himself for the amount of work he would have to do while his master was away as he watched them disappear from view.
Zoro meticulously adhered to his training regimen, as prescribed by his master. Each sunrise was met with the arduous dragging of the cart carrying their equipment to their training grounds, all of them being sensible enough to realise that they couldn't leave their equipment where the prowling animals of the forest could snatch them at any point in time.
The slight changes in his training were, because of the foreign environment they were in and because they didn't want to risk injury to one of their own if they came across one of the giant animals of the island they were on, he could no longer train until late at night; instead, he, and the rest of the men, stopped training at sunset and returned to the village, with Zoro using the rest of the night to practice his stances and meditate. The other change was, because Kuina wasn't there for him to challenge during lunchtime, Zoro would occasionally use that time to wander through the village. This was when he discovered the absence of the boy - Luffy - in the village during the daytime.
Instead the only time Zoro would see him again was after sundown while walking back to the Inn, directly after completing the last of his daily training in the forest, looking as ragged and fatigued as Zoro did himself.
That piqued Zoro's interest, to find another kid willing to break through whatever limits nature inposed upon their bodies in order to attain strength.
Zoro found it intriguing to see the boy, who had been covered in scratches and tears the night before, smiling and sharing laughs with the lady bartender the next day. Observing the transformed appearance of the boy, one would never guess the rough state he was in previously.
To Zoro's surprise, when Luffy, the boy, noticed him, instead of dismissing him as expected, he made eye contact and, with a slight twitch of his head, invited Zoro over.
This was the start of a friendship that the two would value always.
Silence reigned across the training field. Every sound was muted to the two combatants circling each other. Each was watching the other's movements, looking for even the slightest indication of their opponent's motives. One, a green haired boy -Zoro-, wielded two kendo sticks. The other, a raven-haired young boy -Luffy-, wielded two rattan and wax wood escrima sticks in each hand.
Luffy suddenly shifted his left foot and, after planting his toes firmly in the ground, he ran at Zoro.
Zoro, noticing Luffy's change in direction, widened his stance and tensed his arms, waiting for the other boy to engage first.
Then, just as Luffy crossed half of the distance that previously separated him and Zoro, his arms stretched, reaching all the way down to the ground. The raven-haired boy started spinning on the balls of his feet, torpedoing in Zoro's direction with speed so fast that his elongated arms were mere blurs to some of the onlookers. Then, when he reached Zoro, his arms snapped back to their original length, the kinetic energy being released just as their weapons made contact.
CLANG!
Zoro's arms trembled under the force Luffy's weapons exerted. Skidding a small distance, as he refused to allow the power of Luffy's strike make him lose footing. Arms a little shook, he used the small pause after blocking Luffy's strike in his favour and pushed the other boy away from him before dashing towards the raven haired boy. Luffy immediately noticed his charge and used their difference in height to easily roll under one of Zoro's arms.
Zoro dug his feet into the ground and turned around, blocking the two hits Luffy sent to his ribs and to the side of his neck. When Luffy disengaged, Zoro didn't allow him to create a gap between them and quickly followed after him.
Jumping upwards, he bought the kendo sticks he dual wielded down towards Luffy with all his might, all the while keeping track of raven-haired's movements.
He hit nothing but earth as the raven-haired boy backflipped away from his strike and, after running at the lime-haired boy, brought one of his escrima sticks towards Zoro's left shoulder and the other towards the right-side of his neck.
Using the kendo stick in his left hand, Zoro blocked the blow headed for his shoulder and used the kendo stick in his right hand to redirect Luffy's second strike, leaving the raven-haired's guard wide open. He quickly sprung from his bent position and struck Luffy across his stomach, satisfied with the sharp breath the raven-haired boy exhaled.
Luffy swerved to the left, preventing Zoro from getting a second strike in. He quickly stretched his right arm, whipping it like a cord towards Zoro, the escrima stick he wielded in his right hand aimed at Zoro's left collarbone in what could be a fatal strike.
Zoro ducked, cleanly dodging the attack and right as he was about to engage Luffy again, the raven-haired boy's sudden burst of speed caught him off guard and he was headbutted right on his nose. Zoro, despite the tears that clouded his vision, was able to block the subsequent consecutive strikes Luffy sent his way, cursing the raven haired boy in his mind.
The next 30 minutes passed with Zoro getting more than a handful of strikes onto Luffy's person. Luffy, through the infrequent stretching of his limbs and speed, managed to keep Zoro on his toes throughout their match.
The fight reached its conclusion when Zoro managed to knock one of Luffy's escrima sticks out of his hands and, upon blocking the following strike Luffy sent towards his stomach, he got into Luffy's guard and managed to knock the raven-haired boy off his feet. When Luffy made to get back up, Zoro quickly struck the ground next to his head with his dual-wielded kendo sticks, trapping the boy's head in between the weapons.
The men watching on the sidelines clapped their hands at the duo's high spirited match, impressed with the skill both combatants showed.
Zoro, only slightly huffing at the amount of exertion the match took of him, gathered both of his kendo sticks in one hand. Looking down at the raven haired boy he bested, Zoro grinned and offered him a hand.
"You did good." Zoro praised, "Your control over your new body's been improving a lot over these past three weeks."
Luffy, who was breathing slightly heavily, was covered in several red marks on his skin from where Zoro had struck him. After accepting the lime-haired boy's hand, he groaned and stared down at his free hand, clenching and unclenching it a few times.
"Old man Naguri's training and the matches we have help," he said, "but my reflexes, reaction time, and muscle memory are still shot."
"Nothing more training can't fix." Zoro said as he picked up the escrima stick he knocked out of Luffy's hand and threw it towards the other boy.
Still frowning at his free hand, Luffy raised the one carrying his last escrima stick and effortlessly caught the one Zoro flung in between his fingers.
"See?" Zoro asked rhetorically, "A few months from now you'll have just as much, if not better, control over this body as you did your previous one."
Luffy looked up from his hand and stared at Zoro, eyebrows furrowed, "Why do keep calling it my 'new' body? It's not as if I grew an extra arm or something."
Zoro scoffed at Luffy, a smirk plastered on his face, "I don't know." he drawled, "You have been losing an awful lot of our matches ever since you ate that devil fruit thingy of yours."
"EHHHH?! YOU SAID THOSE WEREN'T GONNA COUNT!" Luffy yelled.
Zoro laughed.
Because their match was the last one to be had for the day, the two, along with the men who were spectating their match, gathered their things and started setting off towards Foosha Village to prepare for Kozaburo and his party's arrival later in the day.
"Your new body's tough too" Zoro complimented, staring at the other boy's arm as the red marks faded before his eyes, "It's almost as if we never had our match to begin with."
Luffy looked down at his arm and hmm'ed, "It's useless against any cutting attacks though," he commented.
Zoro shrugged the critique off, "Can't really call something a weakness when 99% of the people you're fighting are also subject to the same thing" he.
Luffy stayed quiet.
They walked on in silence, the men ahead of them conversing amongst each other.
"Why didn't you spit that devil fruit out?" Zoro asked suddenly, a confused expression on his face.
"Huh?" Luffy asked, turning his head to look at Zoro.
"You told me that you thought the devil fruit you ate was one of the desserts Makino made for you, but when you ate it, the thing tasted awful." Zoro explained, "If it tasted so awful, why didn't you spit it out?" he asked.
A melancholy look quickly flitted through Luffy's eyes. He stared at Zoro for a long moment, as if weighing whether or not he thought Zoro should be privy to the information circling around in his head.
"My mom." Luffy stated shortly before looking back onto the path ahead of them, "She always told me to never waste food." he said, before falling silent again.
Zoro nodded at the boy's answer. Having only heard stories of Luffy's crazy grandfather, he was surprised to hear the other boy mention a mother to him.
Seeing that the current subject matter wasn't one his friend wanted to explore, he decided to switch topics, "I saw the way you looked at them when they left, you're telling me you weren't even interested in going with them?"
Luffy let out a small chuckle, "Even though being a pirate sounds like fun, I doubt Makino could handle it," he remarked, wearing a cynical smile.
A confused expression crossed Zoro's face, "She saw what only one of them was able to accomplish against an entire group of bandits, what on earth would she be worried about?"
"Makino did...adult work when she was a child," Luffy began before he swallowed hard before he lowered his voice, "My mother took her off the streets and raised and protected her just before I was born. When my mother...left, Makino promised herself to raise me until I could take care of myself. Imagine how heartless I would need to be to remove the only method she believes she has for showing gratitude to the woman who gave her a second chance at life."
Zoro stayed silent for a few minutes as he digested the information Luffy just told him, "This doesn't sound like the type of information someone would give freely, how'd you find out about this?"
"Makino runs a bar, drunk people have loose tongues, especially when you ask the right questions," he answered.
"You've never been afraid that they'll get triggered and lash out at you or Makino?"
A dangerous smile crossed Luffy's face as he turned his head to look at Zoro.
"They know better," was all he said.
A chuckle escaped Zoro before silence prevailed between the two.
"Master Kozaburo isn't going to appreciate being kept waiting, Zoro, let's hasten our pace" a man walking ahead of them, Daiki, stated.
Zoro instantly deflated and drew a deep breath. "Sucks that I have to leave today." he muttered.
Luffy gave him a sad grin, "Yeah, but its not like we're never gonna see each other again." he said confidently.
Zoro grinned in response, "Yeah," he replied, just before inspiration hit him, "Tell ya what," he started, "If you choose to become a pirate by the next time we meet, and if you defeat me, I'll join your crew," he said, then added, "But if you lose, you'll be my first mate." he stated confidently, crossing his arms, "After all, a captain shouldn't be weaker than his first mate, right?" he concluded, his challenging grin growing wider.
"Why on earth would you decide to set sail out to the open sea with your horrible sense of direction?" Luffy laughed, although a glint in his eyes showed he was intrigued by Zoro's idea.
Zoro ignored the barb at the end, although the comment made his eye twitch, and dug through his robes to hand Luffy a folded piece of paper.
"I'm staking my claim for the title of the World's Strongest Swordsman," Zoro stated, a wide grin on his face.
Luffy unfolded the paper and looked down at the contents it held. It was a bounty poster, the smiling face of a man with clean cut strawberry blond hair with a moderate amount of facial hair on display. Although the scar running down his right eye and striped goatee were his only defining characteristics, the glint in his eyes screamed that of a man who clawed his way through obstacle after obstacle to stand on top of the highest mountains this world had to offer. His eyes lowered to the bounty placed on the man's head before they widened to comical saucers.
"Whooooaaaaa, those are so many zero's, I can't even count that high!" he shouted.
"I know!" came Zoro's excited response.
"I'm guessing that this is the person who's the current holder of the title?" Luffy asked.
"Yep!"
"Mmmh," Luffy hmmed, intrigue growing more and more by the second, "Silv-
"Zoro!" Daiki shouted, frustration and anxiety lacing his voice.
"We're coming, jeez!" Zoro shouted back before reaching out for the bounty poster from Luffy, who handed it back to him.
"So, what's your answer?" Zoro asked.
Luffy answered his challenge with a ferocious grin of his own. He walked forward and stuck out his hand towards Zoro.
"You got yourself a deal."
"I see you made a new friend in my absence." Kozaburo remarked, looking at Zoro from the corner of his eye.
Zoro, who was looking at the speck on the horizon that was Foosha Village, nodded, not even bothering to hide the grin in his face.
"I see." Kozaburo stated, before looking back at Foosha Village. "I hear he made a good sparring partner for you," he continued, "Daiki even stated that the two of you working together were able to take on more than half of their numbers."
Zoro's grin widened, remembering the days he and Luffy fought back to back against Daiki and his men. "Yeah, he has his own training regimen to follow, but everytime he'd join me we'd either pit ourselves against the rest of the men or spar against each other" he said.
Kozaburo hummed. "He also informed me that the only people you couldn't defeat during your time here was himself"
Zoro frowned. One could blame the losses on the fact that his body couldn't function properly after enduring the copious amount of training exercises he put himself through from early in the morning till sundown, but Zoro knew that if he truly wanted to become the World's Strongest Swordsman, he had to hold himself to a different standard. If he couldn't beat Daiki, then that simply meant he wasn't strong enough to beat him yet.
"He is one the best student to ever graduate from the dojo." Kozaburo said, "Frequently trains with Koushiro himself, it is not a shame to lose to him," he affirmed.
"I'll beat him someday." Zoro proclaimed, "I might not be strong enough to do so now, but one day, I'll beat him."
Kozaburo grinned around his kiseru, before deciding to lay a challenge in front of the boy, "The day you're able to fight and defeat him, that is the day you would've learned all you could at Shimotsuki Village," he declared, "Reach that point in time soon, and perhaps we will come and visit this island once more."
The grin on Zoro's face wouldn't have looked out of place on a menacing tiger.
Eighteen months later:
Somewhere in the East Blue
The cold breeze sent a shudder down his spine. He clenched his teeth to prevent their chattering from overtaking him. Hugging his boney knees up to his chest, he buried his face in them, suppressing another shiver.
He's lost count of how many days he and the old man that attacked the Orbit have been stuck on this desolate rocky mountain. He's lost count of how many times he's walked to the edge of the mountain, ignoring the old man's instructions of preserving energy, to look for a way down and away from this hell.
Having finished his last ration of mouldy bread six days ago (or what he thinks was six days ago), he took to tying his tattered and worn t-shirt tightly around his stomach to lessen the gnawing effect of hunger. All he did these days was stare out to the ocean, waiting for a speck on the horizon to alert him that a ship was coming. To alert him that he wasn't going to die without accomplishing his dream, without sailing the seas...
'Without finding the one thing you wanted me to Reiju.' Sanji thought, staring at the black canister he held in his boney hand.
Flashback
He couldn't bring himself to cry any tears in the solitude of his cell. His small hands, bruised from their repetitive bashing against cold steel, gripped the bars of his cell and his eyes, long since numbed at the rejection of his father, stared into the dark abyss ahead of him.
His jaw hurt, though he knew the only time the iron mask would be removed would be when they bought down his meals. He'd stopped begging his father to let him out of the cell and long since gave up hope that the man himself would come down here to even see him.
With his mother's passing, Reiju was the only person left who showed him any semblance of kindness. The last time she came down to, once again, clean his wounds (his brothers were assholes), she informed him of what was going on in the kingdom and to expect less of her presence in the coming weeks.
Apparently his father finally deemed it time for the Germa 66 to launch an attack on the East Blue. From the reading he's been doing over the past six months, Sanji was aware that the East and North Blues were divided by the Red-Line, a vast, ring-shaped continent that was thought to be 10,000 meters deep from the surface of the sea to the ocean floor and high enough above sea level to be considered impassable. He recalls wondering how his father intended on passing this obstacle, but Judge took the adage 'You don't need to go through an immovable object to move past it' to a whole new level.
He wonders if it's only the faded bruises on his back that protested to that idea.
A series of clicks sounds alerted him that someone was entering the dungeons. Eight year old Sanji, already used to procedure, assumed that it was the chefs that brought down his meals. Prying his fingers away from the steel bars, he turned around to show the chefs the back of his head, where the iron mask's keyhole was located.
"...Sanji?"
Blinking in surprise at the voice, he swiveled around, a unseen smile instantly forming on his face.
In his excitement, he gripped onto the steel bars separating them and his fingers, still bruised, protested at the action. Wincing, he gingerly removed and let them hang loosely at his side, trying to hide them from her inquisitive eyes.
"Let me see." she said, pulling out her regular medical supply bag from behind her back.
Sanji briefly thought about playing dumb, but ultimately relented, knowing his sister wouldn't be in the mood for games. So he stuck his hands through the openings in the bars and toward her.
She worked in silence, cleaning his hands with sterilizer and meticulously wrapping them in bandages. When she was done, she cleaned up the wool rounds she used for the sterilizer and packed up her medical bag before closing it's flap.
Sanji, too busy focusing his attention on his newly bandaged hands, didn't notice his sister was done until he heard her sigh.
"You never learn, do you?" she asked softly.
Sanji caught onto the meaning of her words and froze. He removed his attention from his hands and looked at her.
"Am I gonna die here?" he asked in a small voice.
She stayed silent, staring at him apathetically.
"I-Is Father gonna let me die in here?" he asked, his voice cracking at the end.
Reiju, still staring at him, remained silent.
Tears built up in Sanji's eyes as he clenched his jaw. Turning his head away from her, he clenched his hands into fists, heedless of the discomfort it caused.
"I don't wanna die here...I-I'm not gonna die here!" he proclaimed.
Reiju finally decided on breaking her silence.
"Then how are you planning on escaping?" she questioned "The Germa 66 is attacking Kohjia Island right now, do you have any idea what Father would do to you if you were caught trying to escape?"
"I-
"And even if you were to get away, how are you going to survive on the sea?" she continued
"I coul-
"I don't want to see you in here Sanji." she admitted "But I'm not going to send you to your grave by helping you esc-
"WELL I'D RATHER DIE!" Sanji shouted.
Reiju's eyes widened, shocked at the resolve in her little brother's voice.
Sanji, now crying, glared at his sister. "I'm tired Reiju. I'm tired of apologizing for being weak, I'm tired of apologizing for being born, I'm tired of apologizing for not being good enough." he rambled off.
He gripped the iron mask covering his face, feeling tears cascading down the work of metal. "Father had this mask put on me because he doesn't want to see my face." he whispered. "If I run away, somewhere here in the East Blue, then I'll never have to see his face again!" he finished with a shout.
"Please" he got down onto his hands and knees and bowed to her. "Please help me Reiju!" he cried out.
Reiju stepped back, shocked at the sudden action. She felt tears beginning to build up in her own eyes before she steeled her emotions.
"Step back!" she shouted, having stepped forward, ready to do what not even her inhumane brothers could.
Sanji, having heard her warning, stumbled back onto his feet and witnessed, in shock, as his sister bent the steel bars trapping him outward, creating a gap more than large enough for him to pass through.
As the pair were running up the stairs leading out of Sanji's cell, Reiju directed Sanji on what to do.
Reiju yelled, "You'll only have one chance! The key to your iron mask is in Father's room. There's a secret door on one of his walls disguised as a skull symbol; open it and you'll find the key."
"W-What are you gonna do?" asked Sanji huffing beside her in fatigue.
"I meant what I said. You won't be able to survive out on the sea on your own." Reiju declared "So I'm going to go get something that'll give you a better chance at survival. Meet me at the entrance of the castle when you're done!" she finished, running off to a part of the castle that, if Sanji remembered correctly, was the Science Laboratories wing.
Focusing his attention back on the matter at hand, Sanji ran off in the opposite direction his sister took.
'I'm gonna do it' he thought, mind filled with trepidation 'I'm gonna be free!'
"There's the ship you're gonna be getting on" Reiju raising her voice in order to be heard over the explosions and gunshots of the battlefield, pointing at the galleon ahead of them.
She pulled his hand, the one rubbing at the fat tears rolling down his face, away and tilted his chin up to look at her.
"I know it hurts" she said, tears staining her lashes, having heard what her father's last words to Sanji were.
"Look at me" she said firmly, hands now resting on his shoulders. "It's not your fault, okay?"
Sanji, eyes closed, tried to respond but could only settle for a shaky nod.
"He doesn't wanna kill you Sanji. He wants to destroy you, from the inside out. Don't listen to him, don't let him win. " she continued "You weren't born a defect, you weren't born a shame. Mom loved you just the way you are a-and...I love you just the way you are too, okay?" she asked in a shaky voice, trying to blink the tears blurring her vision away.
This declaration only made Sanji cry harder, ignorant of the attention his cries could draw.
"Listen! You have to leave. There'll never be anything for you in the Germa Kingdom except heartache and misery" she said, hammering her point in with the tightening of her grip on his shoulders.
Sanji gave another shaky nod, Reiju's words causing him to shut his eyes tighter.
She clenched her jaw to hold back her own cries as she exclaimed, "The sea is broad. You'll find people you can call a family one day, people who are kind" she said, this time, though, a few small sobs escaped her mouth.
Turning around to rummage in her medical bag, she pulled out what looked like a black canister. A white capital letter 'G' painted onto it, with the yellow painted number '66' below the letter.
"Never come back here Sanji!" she reiterated once more before putting the canister in Sanji's free hand, closing his hand into a fist onto the object.
"Only use that when you're in danger, and never ever use it in public, do you understand?" she asked, voice beginning to regain its firmness.
Though Sanji's attention wasn't on the strange object placed in his hand, he nodded.
She once again placed her hands on his shoulders, but this time used them to turn him around before giving his back a push that lifted him off his feet.
"Run!" she shouted, voice cracking "Run Sanjiiii!"
Sanji, now openly crying, could never remember a time he ran so far, so fast.
Present
He gripped the black canister tighter, sighing in fatigue.
Even while trapped in that hellhole, he couldn't remember a time he ever got close to this level of hunger. More than once he's contemplated whether or not rocks taste good, having depleted his share of the food split between him and the old guy.
"Stupid old geezer" he whispered, clenching his free boney hand in anger. "I wouldn't even be in this stupid situation if it wasn't for him" he said, unclenching his hand, exhaustion quickly creeping onto him.
He looked at the empty sack that previously contained his meagre supply of food.
He remembers looking on in disgust as the chefs on the Orbit ate the customer's leftovers. He remembers scoffing when they told him that he'd understand someday, what it feels like to be hungry.
When he first woke up after being marooned on this desolate rock, he remembers being confident. Confident he would be able to ration himself perfectly down to the last crumb of bread. But he remembers as he ate the last piece of mouldy bread left in the sack, the only thought running through his mind at the time was:
What I wouldn't do to have more of this.
Standing up on wobbly knees, he turned away from the open sea and focused his attention on the other side of the rocky mountain, where he knew the old man was. He took a deep breath, trying to muster up the strength the following task was gonna take then, and started walking. He stumbled after every few steps, legs too weak from malnutrition. He had to put the black canister in his mouth in order to use his hands to climb the large rocky hill separating him and the old man before reaching it's peak, and there he saw him.
Still sitting in the same cross legged position Sanji last saw him in, his captain's coat billowing in the cold wind and beside him was a large bag, filled to the brim with what Sanji could only guess was food and tied with a simple rope to keep its contents from spilling out.
His eyes focused on the large bag, breaths growing ragged. He clenched his free hand into a fist, mind growing more and more outraged at the audacity of the old man.
'Who the hell does he think he is?!' Sanji thought furiously. 'Neither one of us stand a chance of surviving on this shithole if we're too busy dying of hunger and his wise ass decided to hogg all the food!'
His legs lost any and all signs of weakness as he marched up to the old man, the canister gripped tightly in his left hand. Before he could open his mouth to inevitably give the old man the shouting of a lifetime, the old man got the first word in.
"Did you see a ship?" he asked, voice gruff from what Sanji could only guess was disuse.
"Screw you and your stupid ship!" Sanji shouted while walking closer to the man "While I was busy wasting away on the other side of this stupid rock, with barely anything to eat for the past I don't know how many days, you decided to keep all the food to yourself, you stupid geezer!" he continued, "What the hell is the point of asking me whether or not I saw a ship if I'll be too dead to see anyth-
He choked, staring at the stump where the old man's right leg used to be. He swallowed hard, trying to prevent bile from rising up his throat.
His thoughts were filled with alarming confusion. He remembered the old man having both feet when he first awoke. Two feet were clearly visible in front of the old man as he explained to Sanji what had happened to the two of them. He looked up into the old man's eyes.
"W-W-What?" he stuttered out.
He moved his gaze to the large bag beside the two of them. Stumbling towards the bag, his legs once again weak, he picked up a sharp rock nearby and used it to tear the bag open with his right hand.
Gold coins, silver trinkets and gemstones of all colours spilled out of the new opening.
'All this time' Sanji thought, mind unable to process what he was seeing 'All this time I thought it was food'
"W-What have you been e-eating?" he asked the old man, tears beginning to build up in his eyes.
"Funny, isn't it?" asked the old man "All this treasure and we can't even buy any food with it" he concluded.
Sanji began breathing heavily. "Y-You've been eating your l-leg, haven't you?" Sanji asked, voice cracking.
The old man stayed silent, still looking out onto the ocean.
Sanji grew furious, dropping the black canister and quickly walking up to the old man, he grabbed the old man's captain's coat with both hands and shook the him back and forth.
"You stupid geezer!" he shouted "What the hell were you thinking?! We could've shared the food, could've found a way to fish, anything other than eating you own damn leg, you idiot!" Sanji shouted, tears now running freely down his cheeks.
The old man stayed silent, not even looking in his direction.
"What the hell were you thinking?! What the hell made you give the only food on this stupid rock to someone you barely even know huh?!" he finished with a shout.
"Cause we have the same dream" the old man finally spoke, shocking Sanji with his words "I heard you, you know. When our ships were capsizing, amidst the fury of the ocean beneath us and the roaring of thunder above us, I heard a small voice shout, 'I still have to find The All Blue.'" the old man finished with a small chuckle.
"And I knew then" he continued, "I knew that it would be one of the most unforgivable sins if I were to let that voice get silenced forever" he finished.
"There are very few people out there who even believe The All Blue exists, brat. To meet another fool who believes it does and to let him die...I'd never be able to call myself a fellow fool, let alone a cook if I'd let that happen" the old man said, finally turning his head enough to look Sanji in the eyes.
Sanji bit his lip to stop his tears, though he was unsuccessful.
"Y-You could die" he said, voice still cracked but now softer.
The old man burst out laughing, oblivious to Sanji's startled jerk. He took a moment to gather himself, rubbing tears from his eyes caused by his laughter.
"If I have to die to ensure that a little eggplant like you achieves a dream only fools would believe in, I'll die without regrets, brat" the old man said, smiling with all his teeth exposed.
The floodgates opened and Sanji cried. Remembering only one other person that was willing to risk as much for him.
He sighed and clenched his stomach muscles, a desperate attempt to keep the gnaw of hunger from clouding his judgement.
"Stop doing that" the old m- Zeff said, having introduced himself to Sanji.
"I can't!" Sanji yelled out, "All I can think about is how hungry I am!" he shouted.
Zeff sighed, "Then think about something else." he said bluntly, "You're gonna end up killing yourself if you keep focusing on the hunger, brat." he finished.
Sanji sighed, resting his back against the old man's.
The two of them had moved to sit back to back on the large rocky hill that had previously separated them. The company would be better than the silence and cold, Zeff had aptly put it.
"W-What were you thinking about?" Sanji asked hesitantly, "While you were...down there" he said, referring to Zeff's previous position at the edge of the rocky mountain.
"...I was thinking about what I was going to do when I get off of here" Zeff admitted.
"A-and what are you thinking of doing?" Sanji asked, feeling more and more courageous about talking to Ze-
"You ask a lot of questions, brat" Zeff said gruffly.
Sanji slumped, 'Well, there goes that' he thought morosely.
Zeff sighed before deciding to humour the child. "I often lacked food on the high seas. More than once, me and my men had to ration ourselves down to scraps in the hopes that we'll reach land soon enough to be able to hunt for whatever we could find," he admitted.
Sanji listened intently, surprised that Zeff would admit as much to him.
"So, after I get off this rock, I intend to start a restaurant on the open seas. A place where everyone, civilians, bounty hunters, marines, and pirates alike, would be welcome to come and dine" Zeff acknowledged, "A place where you wouldn't have to worry about the number of coins in your pocket to be able to enjoy a delicious meal."
Sanji turned around to look at the man, a look of wonder crossed his face before a bright smile appeared.
"And I'm gonna help you!" Sanji exclaimed excitedly.
Zeff burst out laughing once more, instantly killing Sanji's excitement, a deadpanned look crossing his face in return.
"Hahaha...A little eggplant like you?" he asked, laughter still in his voice, "I'm gonna be serving marines and pirates, brat. Do you have any idea what the magnitude of the conflict on that restaurant could be?" he asked again, "Strong marines and strong pirates gathering together in one place, the only way for a project like that to work is if I have even stronger people on my side" Zeff concluded.
"I'm gonna be strong old geezer!" Sanji yelled, deferring Zeff back to his old 'title'.
"Question is brat, are you gonna be stronger than the people I'm gonna be serving?" Zeff asked, a challenge in his voice he wanted the brat to answer.
"I'm gonna be strong old geezer" Sanji repeated, resolve firm in his voice, gripping the black canister in his left hand tightly, "If our customers are gonna include strong marines and strong pirates, then I'm gonna be strong...I'm gonna be stronger than all of em!" Sanji shouted, his challenge clear to the world.
A savage grin bore it's way onto Zeff's face, one Sanji couldn't see in his stupor.
"Good"