OR, welcome home, Zoro
Whatever Mihawk had planned for the very cool looking floating restaurant, it was safe to say it was not going to happen.
Maybe it was the fact that both of you came across a ship with a sheep of all animals as its figurehead steered by a crying ginger-head on the way to the restaurant, or maybe it was the fact that as soon as you had arrived, a beaten-down galleon welcomes you with open arms and a literally ripped open deck.
Or maybe, maybe, it was the bad decision of accompanying a man that tried to kill you. Just a maybe.
At least he let you sit on his chair. That's something.
Luffy's straw hat on your head doesn't give the sun a chance to shine on your face, hidden in the casted shadows as you lazily draped yourself over the chair. Mihawk stands on the bow of the boat, facing the worn-out galleon from behind with one hand raising his sword. You could barely see the outline of the restaurant around the edges-
he swipes his arm to the side, a graceful motion that contrasted its deadly effects. The galleon goes down in chunks.
-nevermind. You could see the restaurant perfectly now.
You whistle, as shouts from the other side reach your ears, and eyed his handiwork. "Was that necessary?"
He shrugs, putting his sword away, "it was in our way."
"Imagine the cost of repairs..." You leaned on your gloved hand. He keeps standing on the bow of the ship, obscuring your view of the front and the destroyed galleon.
"They could swim. It might do them some good."
You sweatdrop, "so mean."
The boat sails undisturbed by the strong waves caused by the galleon being cut up and sinking so suddenly, the candles still lit with those strange green flames only Mihawk knows how to do, and floats near the floating restaurant.
"That man..!"
"Don Krieg! It's him!"
"The man who destroyed our fleet!"
"He followed us here...to kill us!"
Debris floats everywhere, several even bigger than Mihawk's boat but it doesn't detter anyone on the coffin boat; including you. If anything, you're enjoying the show.
You chuckled, crossing your legs. "You seem kinda famous."
"I sure hope so, otherwise my title as a warlord doesn't amount to much."
.
.
.
"...eh?" You blink. "Warlord?"
A nearby shout, a much more clearer one than the rest, cuts of whatever you wanted to say. You look over, Mihawk doing the same in the corner of your eyes, to see a man among his crew panicking.
"Damn you! You don't have anything to do with us. Why do you have to follow us?!" Angrily punching the ground in frustration, he climbs back to his feet to look at Mihawk.
The back of Mihawk's head slightly tilted to the side as if pondering the question before he nonchalantly replied. "Just to kill some time."
Your eyebrows shot up, "oh my god."
He looks to the side almost sheepishly, and under his breath, he adds, "I honestly don't even remember them."
"Oh my god."
"Stop insulting us!" The offended man barks before two shots were fired. The bullets headed for you, and totally not at the man that you're pretty sure was at fault here.
As you're still leaning back with a grin on your lips, Mihawk moves to redirect the course of the bullets, letting it gently slide upwards against the black blade of his sword.
"Please refrain from bothering my guest."
"He missed?!"
"No matter how many times you keep shooting, you won't be able to get him." Several thumps of footsteps follow after and a silhouette of a man emerges from the debris. "He uses his sword to change the course of the bullets."
"T...that's impossible!"
A man-no, a boy with green hair stands tall with three swords by his side, shooting you a glance before focusing on Mihawk. "I've never seen someone with such a gentle skill before."
Mihawk puts his sword back with a slight shiing. The glinting jewels and the shining gold rips the attention of anyone from the sharp blade that lurks in the shadows.
"If a sword doesn't have gentleness, it is not strong."
You look up, the blazing sun hitting your face and the straw hat is itchy against your head.
Gentleness...
Your gloved hand takes hold of Luffy's hat.
What a load of bullshit.
But your train of thought doesn't even leave the station before it was interrupted by multiple thumps and a voice yelling over the conversation between the two swordsmen. A familiar set of rubbery arms takes a hold of your waist, circling over and over until the grip is practically crushing you and-
"-Davy Jones save me-"
-you're sent flying in the direction where the arms came from, and as the wind whizzes past you, you wait for the inevitable collide that could lead to your premature death.
"It's been such a long time!" The person breaths out before laughing, mushing your face against his red vest.
Your words came out jumbled as you're more or less being suffocated by the person's tight grip. You force your arms to pop out from their hold and got a good look at their face.
. . .
You brighten up, smiling widely as you hugged him around the neck just as tight. For once, you're not afraid to touch somebody a little longer than a minute.
"Luffy!"
"Shishishi!"
His arms retracts to a normal length, letting his hands rest on your waist as laughter keeps coming out from both you and him. You felt yourself relax, the tension from the past few weeks on your shoulders slipping away like it was never there.
Oh...
Luffy's contagious laughter rings near your ear, prompting you to chuckle alongside him, forgetting the world around you as you're back to your Captain's side.
And you think to yourself, oh, this is nice.
You pulled back, resting your hands on Luffy's shoulders to steady yourself. He's still laughing and wearing that stupid wide grin you came to associate with him. When both of you calmed down, you take a step back to fully look at him.
"Here," You placed his straw hat back on his head, "you don't look complete without it."
He hums, testing the strings of his hat and pulling it over. "Just like I thought, it doesn't feel right without it."
Still brimming with uncontrollable joy, you nodded. "Yup! You look naked without it."
"Thank you for keeping it safe." He grins even wider, if possible, and stands next to you. "I knew nothing would go wrong if it's with you."
"You put too much faith in me." You tried not to squeal in joy right there and now, instead flashing him a smile that could win millions. "But, for you Captain, sure."
He returns the smile, and your shoulders feel a lot lighter.
"O-oi, Luffy! Now's not the time! The ship is getting away!" Someone interrupts your reunion, a boy with a long nose looking into the distance. "The Going Merry will be out of sight soon!"
You look to Luffy, "Going Merry?"
"Yeah," he turns serious for a second, before smiling. "It's our ship."
"Ah, I see." You look in the direction the other boy was looking in, squinting to see a faint outline of a ship in the horizon. Damn, the boy must have some kind of sniper's eyes to be able to look on the horizon without trouble.
"Is he a crew member?" You asked, meeting sniper boy's eyes. He cowers under your heavy gaze and failed to hide his shaking legs.
Beside you, Luffy smiles and nods. "He's Ussop! Our sniper, isn't he neat?"
"Hmm," was your only answer. You left the poor boy alone and turned to the boy with the three swords. "And that one?"
Luffy's face turns serious once again. Honestly, you can never get used to that face. It just doesn't feel right when it's Luffy.
"He's Zoro, our swordsman." The straw hat casts a shadow over his eyes as he doesn't move to stop the oncoming duel between the two swordsmen.
Zoro stands in front of Mihawk, either out of pure stupidity and recklessness or pure bravery and pridefulness. Either way, it could get him killed.
"Ah," Luffy makes a noise before pointing to the side with a finger up his nose, "that's Sanji. Our cook."
You turn-just in time for a blond to kick Luffy at the back of his head with a snarl around his cigarette.
"Stop counting me as your crew member!"
Luffy falls down and breaks the floorboard with his face. The blond towering over him.
"Like I said, I'm not allowed to leave this place until I completed what I need to do!"
"What a stubborn brat." A gruff man huffs out with crossed arms, his chef hat even towering over everybody. "You're useless here. Go away."
"What'd you say, you goddamn old geezer?!"
You look down, "you good, Luffy?"
He snaps back, literally, to standing up with not a scratch on his body and laughed. "Isn't Sanji funny?"
"You've certainly made yourself busy recruiting all these people." You mused, looking at the three new members to your pirate crew. You're sure to look more into them later and see what they're made of. It's only right for the First Mate to do so, after all.
"So, have you found a musician yet?"
Luffy pouts at the reminder. "Nope. But I'm sure they're out there somewhere, waiting for us."
You look to the sea beyond the destroyed galleon. "I hope so."
"I'm no beast that goes all out when hunting a rabbit." Mihawk grabs your attention once again. You look over and see the tiniest dagger in his hand which causes you to choke back a burst of laughter. "A hunter only goes all out when they cross paths with one of their own."
Mihawk glances towards you when he said this, piercing you straight in the eyes. "It is only customary to do so, to see who is the stronger one."
The bells of your escrima stick chimes with the breeze. Luffy staring right at Mihawk in return with you not backing down from his gaze.
"Do you know him?"
"Yeah. He tried to kill me."
"Is he your friend now?"
"I mean he hasn't tried to kill me again after that, so yeah, I guess he's my friend."
"Ah, I see."
The sniper boy waves a hand, "oi, what kind of logic is that?"
"The obvious one." Both you and Luffy answer simultaneously.
Tears begin to stream down the sniper's face. "Oh God, there's two of them."
You don't look away from Mihawk's eyes, and neither does he. It's a bit unnerving, to say the least, with him staring you down like that like he had a hundred problems and 99 of them were you.
...you did run his wallet dry from ordering a couple dozen boxes of takoyaki, so you understand him. More or less.
"I know that there are many people in this world who want to become famous." Mihawk finally looks away from your staring competition, ultimately coming out as a loser in your book. "This place is East Blue, the weakest of all that are separated by the Grand Line and the Red Line."
Mihawk states his next words as he's looking down on Zoro, gesturing for the knife he held in his hands. You could practically taste the condescending tone he used.
"Unfortunately, I don't carry a knife smaller than this one."
"Watch your words, man..." Zoro readies to attack first, sword on his mouth and on his hands, "otherwise, you'll regret it when you die!"
"You are just a boy, who has never seen the real world."
"Oni Giri!"
-Mihawk stops the attack with the tip of his tiny knife.
And it is everything you knew would happen.
"Zoro!" Luffy cries out, but forced himself to stop moving towards the swordsman, his eyes wide and unblinking like he's scared he'll miss something important.
"He can stop Zoro-senpai!"
"Even the greatest technique?!"
"He might die," you found your voice just as Zoro began to attack wildly at Mihawk, dishing out a barrage of slices from all sides. Mihawk looks as if he's only dancing with no real sweat.
Mihawk whips his arm upwards, making Zoro fall on his back with a loud thud and a grunt. Luffy looks on with contained frustration.
"Pull yourself together and get serious, Zoro-senpai!"
"Stop joking around!"
Zoro gets himself back up again, although it looked like it took all of him to do so, and still attacked Mihawk relentlessly.
"What a crazy skill you've got."
"I practice to win!" Zoro cries, swords against a knife clashing with an obvious victor. "I've practiced so hard to defeat this man!"
"What do you bear on your shoulders?" Mihawk steps to the side as Zoro wasn't able to keep up. He falls on his back, chest erratically going up and down. "What do you desire once you've obtained power, you weakling?"
"You called our senpai a weakling?! Stupid!"
"We have to teach you cross bastard a lesson!"
"Stop! Don't get involved!" Luffy slips past you to slam the two boys from their pursuit of interfering with the duel, his hands pushing them against the floorboards. "Yosaku! Johnny!"
Yet, when you looked at Luffy, with his eyes wide and his arms full of veins as he grits his teeth together to fight down his frustration, you could tell it was taking everything of him to not stop Zoro.
"Zoro won't die!"
Zoro doesn't relent, and dishes out another technique.
"He's going to become...the greatest swordsman!"
Mihawk stabs Zoro in the chest.
Luffy bit his lips from screaming something out and something weighs heavy on the pit of your stomach. But you looked forward, just like your captain does.
"...do you want this knife to go through your heart?" He asks when Zoro doesn't move. "Why aren't you stepping back?"
You see Zoro's legs shake and his shoulders quivering. Mihawk's lips move but you're too far to make sense of it. Blood drips down from Zoro's mouth as he says something.
"...even if it means losing your life?"
"If I have to lose, I'd rather die!"
A wind ruffles your hair and throws Luffy's hat askew, but he doesn't seem to notice. Mihawk takes a step back as removes his knife from Zoro's chest.
"Tell me your name, kid!"
Zoro answers as he goes into a stance. "Roronoa Zoro!"
"I'll remember it. I haven't met someone with such a strong will like you for a long time. And to repay that..." Mihawk then pulls out his sword from behind, the jewels catching light and dancing against the blue lit sky. "...as a swordsman's courtesy, I'll sink you using the world's strongest black sword.
Luffy's veins almost seem to pop out, and the fact that the other two boys were screaming doesn't help the tension either. Zoro runs forward like a tiger pouncing on its prey, but a hawk that has watched over it all this time swoops in for the kill.
The two swords in Zoro's hands breaks and shatters, leaving him kneeling on the ground with one sword left in his mouth.
You look away, internally sighing. What a waste.
Someone sheaths their sword, followed by a couple of thumps.
"What are you..."
In the corner of your eye, Zoro is standing in front of Mihawk, arms spread wide open with a grin that could rival a crazy bastard's.
"Scars on the back are a swordsman's shame..."
"Well said!"
-and Zoro goes down in one single strike.
"Zoro!"
"Big bro!"
"Senpai!"
"It should be easy...to give up on your dream, right?!"
The blond's scream makes you look at him, eyebrows raising in disbelief. If it weren't for dreams, you wouldn't be here, nor would Luffy be.
"Damn you, damn you..." Luffy hastily pulls his arm back to shoot himself across the water, grabbing the rails behind Mihawk and flying. "Damn you!"
"Big bro!" The two boys yell out before going to dive in after Zoro, but you stopped them.
"Don't worry. I got him." You dived in the water after an intake of air.
Having done this a million times, you grew up in the sea for goodness' sake, you easily found the color green among the color blue.
Bubbles comes out of you as you snorted disbelievingly, grabbing him by slinging his arm over your shoulders and holding his torso. Blood escapes the huge gash he now has on his chest.
You pull him along with you to resurface above the water.
"...worry...didn't...kill him..."
Gasping for air, you readjust your hold on Zoro, grinning at him when you feel him stir and begin to do the same. "What a troublesome swordsman..."
"Zoro?!"
He coughs out blood and weakly holds onto your shoulders, the bobbing of the waves disorienting him even further. But he's alive.
"Captain!" You grin at Luffy. "He's good!"
"Now, hurry up and get him up on the ship!" The sniper boy calls out with the other two behind him, all holding out their hands for you to place Zoro in.
After getting him safely on the boat, you heaved yourself over. The three scurrying around to probably get medicine from the cabin and making sure Zoro was alive by patting his cheek.
"Don't worry, he's still alive." You plopped down beside the laying man, pulling your shirt over your head to wring out the water.
One of the two boys, Yaku..sabi?, looks at you with tears in his eyes. "B-big sis..!"
"This is medicine. Throw it over him!" Sniper boy places down a basket of bottles and pills. The other two immediately gets to work after wiping their snots away. Zoro grunts at the borderline abuse of treatment he's getting.
"It's still early for you to die. My name is Dracule Mihawk!"
All kinds of medicine was thrown over Zoro's chest as his breathing slowly evens out. You pull your shirt back over your head, having gotten most of the water out.
"Learn about yourself! Learn about the world! And become strong!"
You pulled your gloves out to exchange them for the other pair later, putting it inside your bag without looking.
"No matter how many years it takes, I will hold this seat of the strongest and wait for you. Surpass this sword."
Leaning back with a quiet sigh, and Mihawk's voice ringing in the air for all to hear, you felt your lips pull to a grin.
"Try to surpass me! Roronoa Zoro!"
You closed your eyes for a moment, feeling the slight breeze of the sea and the smell of the salt filling your lungs. You peek an eye open, "you gonna say something?"
"Big bro! Say something!"
You notice Mihawk looking back at Luffy to say something to him. Zoro is still trying to breathe evenly with his newly acquired gash across his chest.
"King of the Pirates!" Luffy answers, with utmost certainty and determination. You smiled.
Yakusabi and Jimmy almost throws all the medicine over Zoro if it weren't for Sniper boy holding them back and bonking them in the heads when they tried to pour rubbing alcohol on the gash.
"How would I know when I haven't done it yet?!" Luffy sticks his tongue out like a child, like a stupid child, like what you would have also done.
"He's alive!" Sniper boy calls out with glee and relief. The two almost crying a whole goddamn river from the tears that's spilling out of their eyes.
"Big bro!"
"Big bro, say something!"
"Weren't you listening to me?" You sweatdrop.
Zoro's finger twitches for a moment, before it circles around his sword, pulling it out of its cover and raising it towards the sky.
"L...Luffy...can you hear me?" He puffs out, heaving with blood still spilling out of him.
"Yeah!"
"Did I worry you?" He continues, his own sword catching the light and raining down spots of sunshine. "You need no less than the world's greatest swordsman, right?"
"Big bro! Please don't talk anymore!" YakuJimmy cries out when he coughs blood.
"I..."
His green hair lays damp on the floorboards of the boat. The three earrings jingles slightly when he moves his head to speak more easily.
He brings a shaking hand to his forehead, and tears begin to flow freely from his eyes, dripping down the side of his face and mixing with the sea water below.
"I will not be defeated ever again!"
But the hand holding his sword doesn't shake.
"Until the day I defeat him and become a master swordsman..."
The heavy weight on your stomach disappears as Zoro continues on, his words comforting your unvoiced worries and unknowingly proving himself.
"I'll never...be defeated! Got any problems with that..."
You feel yourself smiling.
"...King of the Pirates?!"
What a troublesome swordsman, indeed.
"Nope!" Luffy answers, a grin splitting his face in half.
"'course not." You chuckle, leaning on your hands.
Mihawk seems to be smiling, you don't know, you can't really tell. But he walks toward his boat with light steps and you countes that as something.
"You're a good team. I want to see you guys again."
Then Mihawk sailed away against the pretty sunset of the East Blue, is what you wanted to say but a harsh thump was heard when someone placed themselves in front of Mihawk.
"Hey, Hawk-Eye!" You squint at the gold the man was wearing, clashing with his purple hair atrociously
"Didn't you come to take my life...the life of the East Blue's ruler, Don Krieg?"
. . .
You have never heard of this man. Ever. Not in that one year you spent in East Blue. Not once.
"I was going to," Mihawk pays no attention to the new presence, instead his eyes settles on you, "but I had enough fun. So I'm going home to get some rest."
"You may have had enough, but I'm tired of getring beaten."
You horrifyingly gasped out, "Mihawk! You said you were getting me lunch, don't walk out on me now!"
Mihawk almost freezes, comedically enough. You pouted, shaking your fists at the man when he just calmly turns away once he got his bearings back together.
"Maybe next time."
Don...something yells as he brings out guns from his armour plate, bullets already flying, "don't just ignore me!"
Mihawk smiles, a small one but he lets you see it nonetheless.
"When we meet again, in the Grand Line!"
With a single swoop of his sword, the debris they were all standing on finally gives and sinks to the ocean floor. Then Mihawk was gone.
"Damn...he got away."
You block the splash of water from getting to your eyes, helping Zoro to not jostle around too much when the boat violently shakes.
"Usopp! Go! I'll leave Nami to you!"
"Got it! Zoro and I will bring Nami back for sure!" Sniper boy clambers back to his feet to waves his arms around, with Luffy's hat in his hand. Since when did he get Luffy's hat? "Make sure you get that cook to join us!"
Sniper boy looks back to where you're keeping Zoro from falling over deck, grinning at you and motioning for you to stand up.
"When all six of us are reunited," he pushes Luffy's hat into your hands, "let's go to..."
Luffy vaults over the rails, grinning when he gets the message Sniper boy was trying to convey by harshly pushing your shoulders.
"...the Grand Line!"
You feel Luffy's arms around your waist once again, but this time, you were ready to be sent flying in the air at the speed of sound.
"Yeah!" Both you and Luffy agreed, one laughing and one yelling.
"Let's do that!"
- ❐ -
LOG ENTRY
Mihawk thinks, in another life when the events that cost you your swordsmanship never happened, he thinks you would have been a worthy opponent.
- ❐ -
A/N* and so, the end of the East Blue Saga is upon us
yay! u got reunited with crew finally!!! cheers for that cause ur gonna be stuck with them for next hundred chapters!!! haha
pretty long chapter, but a fitting one for meeting the second mate, no?
also, i might take a little bit more time from making the next chapter since I plan to rewrite the chapters 0.1-0.3 since there was too much exposition there, and new readers might get a little overwhelemed. I might also edit the chapters 1.1 and 1.2.
I simply ask for your consideration, that is all!
EDITS - Added Pedro, Hawkins, Bartolomeo and Carrot as love interests.
THANK YOU FOR 200 HEARTS💕💕💕 AJDJDJDIKEIEDN I CAN'T IM GONNA DIE- (quotev)
And thank you for 800 reads and 78 votes!!!! 💕💕💕🤧🤧 (wattpad)
see ya~
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Artwork Credit: @Epll_plle on Twitter