MarimoCookWeek2018

Fear (Day 1 - vulnerability)

„I don't think they want to show themselves," muttered Zoro, taking out his sword. „We have to go get them by ourselves."

„Just don't get lost, marimo," teased Sanji, before running between some bushes.

„Fuck off." Zoro smiled to himself and he too went to look for their enemies.

Turned out, they were good at hiding. Swordsman was able to cut four of them after running around for an hour or even longer. He was getting impatient. It was annoying already.

„Cook, we should think about something else if we want to get to town today," he shouted hoping that blond could hear him. After few moments, he heard the reply.

„Yeah, wait fo me where you are!" It was coming from far but Zoro understood words perfectly well.

He was about to argue but in the sime time another dart was thrown at him and he had to avoid it before defeating another man.

„You better hurry before I lose my patience," he yelled angrily.

It wasn't long after when Sanji showed up in front of him, little out of breath but looking good anyway.

„We should just run to town. It would be less troublesome avoiding them than looking for them and fighting them one by one," blond decided after making sure Zoro too loked alright, just a little annoyed.

„Yeah, we..." swordsman stopped when he noticed another dart thrown at Sanji's back. Cook didn't see it. It was stupid, one little object shouldn't be able to hurt someone like Sanji but Zoro moved either way and blocked weapon with his shoulder.

„Those fuckin..." he muttered before cutting some trees with one of their enemies.

„Why did you do that, Marimo?" asked Sanji, looking at him with surprise and shame. He didn't like the idea of Zoro, of all people, protecting him.

„Oh, you know, you were..." he started, pulling dart out of his shoulder, before stopping abruptly. „You..." he tried again, but felt how his knees bend dangerously. „Shit, what is it?"

„What is what?" Sanji furrowed his eyebrow, not knowing what was going on. Then swordsman's legs gave out and the man fell on the ground. „Zoro, what's going on?" He asked, catching him before he could hurt himself.

„I don't know. It has to be some kind of poison..." he muttered, not being able to move any of his limbs.

„Shit, hold on, I'll take you to Chopper." Sanji looked worried.

Zoro only nodded, feeling how his throat gave up too. Whatever they injected him with, it was strong. Swordsman was lifted and moved, but he couldn't do anything. He felt it was getting hard to breath. His heart started pounding in his chest louder. He tried to calm himself to made his body to move, his lung to work, but nothing worked.

And then he remembered that feeling. It wasn't the poison. Well, it wasn't only the poison. It was fear. It was that kind of fear, what Robin told him about. The paralizing kind of fear, that take away all of his strenght.

He wasn't afraid of being defeated. No, what he was afraid of, was loosing control. To not be able to control his own body, which he always trained so hard, made sure it always did what he wanted it to and nothing less. And here he was, not being able to move a single finger.

When he understood that, it was much easier. Usopp always fough his fears so why couldn't Zoro do the same thing? He concentrated on breathing and while it was still hard – his muscles didn't work the way they were supposed to – he could feel himself relaxing.