one piece: moving past the end of the world
notes; inspired to write a little zoro/tashigi. same universe as my previous post-series work: chasing those shattered dreams. drabble format because I'm just trying to ease my way into this pairing. deal with it bro.
1. Prelude
[Zoro's world grows in intangibles]
Luffy's ending came at Raftel. His came sometime before it and after it. To this day, he wasn't very sure when exactly it had happened. It bothers him a little, that he doesn't know something so crucial as his own end, but he doesn't ponder on that thought for too long. Zoro was a simple sort of man which was just what he wanted. He didn't need to worry about intangible, useless things.
Even before his days before his eccentric mad monkey of a captain, his life had been simple. Back in the dojo, his days raced by in the familiar routines of: wake up, fight Kuina, lose to Kuina, scowl at Kuina, argue with Kuina, train to beat Kuina, meditate with Kuina, eat, spar again with Kuina, lose again to Kuina, and sleep - rinse, dry, repeat. That had suited him fine. And then Kuina died.
So he moved away from the village, taking her sword and their promise with him. But those days were set by a routine as well. Wander around, ask about Mihawk, train, beat up wanted criminals for a meal, and that was it. Be it by his own two feet or a ship, Zoro went where he wanted to (or where his feet led him, he still wasn't too sure about that either). But everything he did, it came right back to his sole purpose: his promise: Kuina.
Monkey D. Luffy's unexpected (but not unwelcome) appearance into his life changed all that. Soon, there was another facet for him to latch onto and focus on. As the first of his crew, Zoro had been tasked with the duty of captain-watching out of sheer lack of other candidates. It had been trying ordeal after ordeal: feed Luffy, catch Luffy, resuscitate Luffy, stop Luffy, protect Luffy, Luffy, Luffy, Luffy.
But Luffy wasn't satisfied with just the two of them. More faces, more voices, more people to look after soon arrived. Nami, the orange greedy harpy and Usopp, that cowardly warrior artist adventurer dreamer that does prove everyone wrong; Sanji, that shitty cook with his damn stupid rules and stupid weakness to women everywhere and Chopper, the least monstrous out of all of them yet the most misunderstood; and Robin, sad, dangerous, vulnerable Nico Robin, coupled with larger than life Franky and their Yohoho-ing musician, Brooke. There had been more after them, but Zoro didn't really like to complicate his life any more than it already had been complicated. So he had stopped counting after that.
There were times when he hadn't thought of Kuina in days. He was guilty and still is for this. It had happened slowly. He wakes up one day and he doesn't think of Kuina. Instead, he hears that shitty ero-cook calling for breakfast and the sounds of Nami shouting at the other boys on deck - Luffy, Chopper, Usopp - and Franky's already pounding away in his workshop to the rhythm of Brooke's boisterous laughter from the galley. Zoro doesn't hear the cyborg work so much as feel the faint vibrations beneath him. The only ones he doesn't hear is Nico Robin, but by that time, Zoro knows perfectly well where she is on the ship.
Yes, Zoro was a simple man who claimed that hadn't cared for intangible things. Yet he cared for a promise, and he cared for a title and then he cared for nakama.
Yes, it was surprising, but he was rather sentimental.
So when it all came to an end without him even realizing it had ended - something just broke.
He sees this brokenness reflected in his former captain's eyes sometimes, when it's just them and Robin. They had been fragments of something great but that was all over now.
2. Little Cracks
[The pressure built up and then...]
The end began with Franky and ended with him. Mihawk had only been a beginning, he sees this now.
Franky's departure, Robin's empty silences, Chopper's flagging health - those had been the signs, but they had been high off adventure, the sea and the promises yet to be fulfilled to truly care or worry.
Nami, that damn woman, had asked him once, her eyes unfocused on the fading light across the horizon, "Zoro, where to next?" She had meant something more than just what island followed, for she could easily answer that. But he hadn't understood. The thing with Zoro was that he didn't handle intangible well.
He didn't get the nuance of it, so he answered, young, confident and content with the world, "Wherever Luffy's heading, I suppose."
So when Nami leaves a few islands after Raftel, slipping into the night, Zoro doesn't stop her. He could have, probably should have, but didn't. He may not know much about the intangibles but he did know he had no right to stop her. It had taken Luffy a few weeks to understand, but he did eventually.
They doubled back, with a new navigator - Kozo? Joko? Whatever - and Brooke finally returned to Laboon. Luffy hadn't even bothered asking Brooke to leave. Zoro and Robin had been expecting some sort of fight - but Luffy, Luffy merely smiled, pulled his hat over his eyes and bid skeleton nakama and whale adieu.
They say they're still the same but when Chopper dies, two weeks after he returns home... The funeral had been nice. Heartfelt and warm. Chopper would have liked it. They picked up another doctor, a student of Doctorine's - she wasn't Chopper, but Ivana was capable.
After a few more years on the Grand Line, Usopp says enough was enough and it was time for him to return. Sure, it was hard saying good bye, but they had gotten used to it.
With only himself, Robin and that damn ero-cook left, the Straw Hats were forced to recruit. And that led to even more complications. Which ultimately led to Sanji being stolen away (as he'd always suspected, fucking ero-cook and his woman thing) by Bonney, of all people. The fight (for there had been a fight) had been disastrous. Pirate King or not, trashing islands was not something Marines approved of which led to their subsequent flight - without Sanji.
He leaves when he was invited to leave. Actually, he hadn't been given much choice in the matter.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of him." Robin smiles, broken but still steadfast.
3. Reintroductions
[Some Marines don't believe in Shichibukai]
Fate truly did hate him. The first person he meets before his first meeting at Mariejois was Rear-Admiral Tashigi.
Old habits die hard, after all, and what with years spent chasing him and his old crew, Zoro doesn't hold it against her.
Even if the witch had tried to slice him clean through the middle.
Hmm... She had gotten quite good, actually, which makes forgiving her even easier.
4. Lose - Lose
[The Meeting couldn't have gotten any better...or worse for that matter.]
"So why is she here?" Zoro asks in a low whisper as the meeting continues around them. Meetings at Mariejois were supposedly reserved for those of Vice-Admiral class or above.
"Vice-Admiral Smoker didn't want to come." Law replied smoothly, "So he let his lackey come instead." Clearly, Law had been to enough of these meetings to realize that nothing worth knowing came from them. So Zoro, who had never been part of the planning process back with the Straw Hats, decided to follow his lead and not pay attention.
A lackey wasn't the term he'd have used to describe the Rear-Admiral, but he wasn't going to even bother defending her against his former ally - of sorts, "So... why is she glaring at me?"
Even after explaining why he was in Mariejois, how he had been invited to join the Shichibukai after defeating Mihawk, how he was not technically a pirate any longer and sorry, no, he wasn't going to give her his meitou, Tashigi had tried to decapitate him. This first time was forgivable but the second was just pushing it. But he was on her turf and had Law not come along...
"She doesn't like pirates." Law smiled, lacing his fingers together at the back of his head. The damned man looked like he was in on one particularly sick joke - and Zoro suspected he was the butt of it.
"But - " He wasn't a pirate anymore...
"She doesn't like Shichibukai either."
"...I see." He sounded more off-put than he had meant to.
Law smirked.
5. At A Loss
1. Prelude
[Zoro's world grows in intangibles]
Luffy's ending came at Raftel. His came sometime before it and after it. To this day, he wasn't very sure when exactly it had happened. It bothers him a little, that he doesn't know something so crucial as his own end, but he doesn't ponder on that thought for too long. Zoro was a simple sort of man which was just what he wanted. He didn't need to worry about intangible, useless things.
Even before his days before his eccentric mad monkey of a captain, his life had been simple. Back in the dojo, his days raced by in the familiar routines of: wake up, fight Kuina, lose to Kuina, scowl at Kuina, argue with Kuina, train to beat Kuina, meditate with Kuina, eat, spar again with Kuina, lose again to Kuina, and sleep - rinse, dry, repeat. That had suited him fine. And then Kuina died.
So he moved away from the village, taking her sword and their promise with him. But those days were set by a routine as well. Wander around, ask about Mihawk, train, beat up wanted criminals for a meal, and that was it. Be it by his own two feet or a ship, Zoro went where he wanted to (or where his feet led him, he still wasn't too sure about that either). But everything he did, it came right back to his sole purpose: his promise: Kuina.
Monkey D. Luffy's unexpected (but not unwelcome) appearance into his life changed all that. Soon, there was another facet for him to latch onto and focus on. As the first of his crew, Zoro had been tasked with the duty of captain-watching out of sheer lack of other candidates. It had been trying ordeal after ordeal: feed Luffy, catch Luffy, resuscitate Luffy, stop Luffy, protect Luffy, Luffy, Luffy, Luffy.
But Luffy wasn't satisfied with just the two of them. More faces, more voices, more people to look after soon arrived. Nami, the orange greedy harpy and Usopp, that cowardly warrior artist adventurer dreamer that does prove everyone wrong; Sanji, that shitty cook with his damn stupid rules and stupid weakness to women everywhere and Chopper, the least monstrous out of all of them yet the most misunderstood; and Robin, sad, dangerous, vulnerable Nico Robin, coupled with larger than life Franky and their Yohoho-ing musician, Brooke. There had been more after them, but Zoro didn't really like to complicate his life any more than it already had been complicated. So he had stopped counting after that.
There were times when he hadn't thought of Kuina in days. He was guilty and still is for this. It had happened slowly. He wakes up one day and he doesn't think of Kuina. Instead, he hears that shitty ero-cook calling for breakfast and the sounds of Nami shouting at the other boys on deck - Luffy, Chopper, Usopp - and Franky's already pounding away in his workshop to the rhythm of Brooke's boisterous laughter from the galley. Zoro doesn't hear the cyborg work so much as feel the faint vibrations beneath him. The only ones he doesn't hear is Nico Robin, but by that time, Zoro knows perfectly well where she is on the ship.
Yes, Zoro was a simple man who claimed that hadn't cared for intangible things. Yet he cared for a promise, and he cared for a title and then he cared for nakama.
Yes, it was surprising, but he was rather sentimental.
So when it all came to an end without him even realizing it had ended - something just broke.
He sees this brokenness reflected in his former captain's eyes sometimes, when it's just them and Robin. They had been fragments of something great but that was all over now.
2. Little Cracks
[The pressure built up and then...]
The end began with Franky and ended with him. Mihawk had only been a beginning, he sees this now.
Franky's departure, Robin's empty silences, Chopper's flagging health - those had been the signs, but they had been high off adventure, the sea and the promises yet to be fulfilled to truly care or worry.
Nami, that damn woman, had asked him once, her eyes unfocused on the fading light across the horizon, "Zoro, where to next?" She had meant something more than just what island followed, for she could easily answer that. But he hadn't understood. The thing with Zoro was that he didn't handle intangible well.
He didn't get the nuance of it, so he answered, young, confident and content with the world, "Wherever Luffy's heading, I suppose."
So when Nami leaves a few islands after Raftel, slipping into the night, Zoro doesn't stop her. He could have, probably should have, but didn't. He may not know much about the intangibles but he did know he had no right to stop her. It had taken Luffy a few weeks to understand, but he did eventually.
They doubled back, with a new navigator - Kozo? Joko? Whatever - and Brooke finally returned to Laboon. Luffy hadn't even bothered asking Brooke to leave. Zoro and Robin had been expecting some sort of fight - but Luffy, Luffy merely smiled, pulled his hat over his eyes and bid skeleton nakama and whale adieu.
They say they're still the same but when Chopper dies, two weeks after he returns home... The funeral had been nice. Heartfelt and warm. Chopper would have liked it. They picked up another doctor, a student of Doctorine's - she wasn't Chopper, but Ivana was capable.
After a few more years on the Grand Line, Usopp says enough was enough and it was time for him to return. Sure, it was hard saying good bye, but they had gotten used to it.
With only himself, Robin and that damn ero-cook left, the Straw Hats were forced to recruit. And that led to even more complications. Which ultimately led to Sanji being stolen away (as he'd always suspected, fucking ero-cook and his woman thing) by Bonney, of all people. The fight (for there had been a fight) had been disastrous. Pirate King or not, trashing islands was not something Marines approved of which led to their subsequent flight - without Sanji.
He leaves when he was invited to leave. Actually, he hadn't been given much choice in the matter.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of him." Robin smiles, broken but still steadfast.
3. Reintroductions
[Some Marines don't believe in Shichibukai]
Fate truly did hate him. The first person he meets before his first meeting at Mariejois was Rear-Admiral Tashigi.
Old habits die hard, after all, and what with years spent chasing him and his old crew, Zoro doesn't hold it against her.
Even if the witch had tried to slice him clean through the middle.
Hmm... She had gotten quite good, actually, which makes forgiving her even easier.
4. Lose - Lose
[The Meeting couldn't have gotten any better...or worse for that matter.]
"So why is she here?" Zoro asks in a low whisper as the meeting continues around them. Meetings at Mariejois were supposedly reserved for those of Vice-Admiral class or above.
"Vice-Admiral Smoker didn't want to come." Law replied smoothly, "So he let his lackey come instead." Clearly, Law had been to enough of these meetings to realize that nothing worth knowing came from them. So Zoro, who had never been part of the planning process back with the Straw Hats, decided to follow his lead and not pay attention.
A lackey wasn't the term he'd have used to describe the Rear-Admiral, but he wasn't going to even bother defending her against his former ally - of sorts, "So... why is she glaring at me?"
Even after explaining why he was in Mariejois, how he had been invited to join the Shichibukai after defeating Mihawk, how he was not technically a pirate any longer and sorry, no, he wasn't going to give her his meitou, Tashigi had tried to decapitate him. This first time was forgivable but the second was just pushing it. But he was on her turf and had Law not come along...
"She doesn't like pirates." Law smiled, lacing his fingers together at the back of his head. The damned man looked like he was in on one particularly sick joke - and Zoro suspected he was the butt of it.
"But - " He wasn't a pirate anymore...
"She doesn't like Shichibukai either."
"...I see." He sounded more off-put than he had meant to.
Law smirked.
5. At A Loss