Chapter Text
Roronoa Zoro laid sprawled out on the backseat of the car he was in. He huffed out a long suffering sigh as he eyed the expansive water surrounding the bridge they were on as he and his adoptive father and sister traveled to the island they were to call home now. The open windows of the car filtered in the spring air into the car ruffling Zoro's hair from where it rested by the window.
Perona spun around in her seat to level him with an annoyed glare. “Stop complaining so much Zoro. I’m sure this new school will have a kendo club, even if you will be an unknown third year they may take you in still. Also what do you have against quaint old islands with abandoned buildings and ruins that we can explore?”
Zoro shot back a glare. “I wasn’t worried about that!” Zoro blushed lightly he had been thinking of if he would join this schools kendo club or if they even had one, he had been in line to be the captain of his old one and then that all changed when Mihawk announced their move, his eye twitched as he recalled the rest of Perona’s sentence. “You’re the only one who likes that old building shit anyway!”
“That’s just because you are boring and no fun. Who knew old age would affect you like this?” Perona faced the front of the car again and put a hand to her chest acting as though her heart were aching and, with her free hand, pretended to wipe tears from her eyes.
“Old?!” Zoro sputtered sitting up quickly in his seat reaching for his sister who just moving just beyond his reach. “I’m only 17 stop acting like I’m your grandfather!”
Perona giggled and just shrugged but still stayed just a hair’s breadth out of his reach so Zoro could muss up her hair which he had been dead set on doing in retribution.
“Zoro,” Mihawk sighed from the drivers seat. “sit back we are almost there and I’d love to not have an accident in this car before we've even arrived on the island.”
“Fine, fine just you wait until we’re out of the car, Perona.” Zoro muttered smirking as he redirected his attention to the scene outside of his window; he could still see the sea from where they were driving despite already having made it to the mainland.
Perona squeaked and covered her head with her arms out of instinct, she hated when Zoro went after her hair because it took a lot of time to get it into such even pigtails and he always destroyed her hard work.
Time passed by silently after that, or Zoro must have drifted off because the next thing he knew the car was stopped but they were definitely not as the new house and Perona was chattering loudly about something.
“What is happening?”
“Nice of you to join the land of the conscious again Zoro.” Mihawk intoned from the driver’s seat as he unbuckled he seatbelt and made to get out of the chair.
“There’s this abandoned town it looks like beyond this wall!” Perona said happily vaulting herself from the car, brushing off dust and opening her umbrella once she was standing up straight.
Zoro leisurely stepped out of the car as well, stretching as he came to full height, reveling in the warm spring sun on his skin and the crisp air that still carried the scent of the sea this far in the island where he couldn’t see or hear the sea at all.
“Yeah but why are we here? I’m pretty sure Mihawk wasn’t dumb enough to get us a new house in a town of ruins.”
Mihawk shot him an unimpressed look as Zoro smirked at him smugly. Perona sighed at her two idiotic family members and gestured at the old entry way tunnel that was behind them.
“Yes this is not our new house, but I saw the old town from the road and I asked if we could stop to see, and since you were asleep and therefore couldn’t object, we are going to explore the town for a bit.” Perona said tapping her foot impatiently.
“We are ahead of time to move in anyway, I doubt the movers have finished their job so we might as well stay out of their way for the time being.” Mihawk said already walking towards the entry way. “Come Zoro, its not like this is that much of a hindrance on our time.”
Perona skipped after their father and turned to face Zoro sticking out her tongue at him. “If you want you can just stay with the car, but who knows how long we’ll be.”
Mihawk sighed at the antics of his children and kept moving towards the tunnel.
Zoro groaned and stuffed his hands into his pockets scuffing his shoe against the dirt. He’d rather not be sitting here for that long and knowing Perona she’d take forever exploring this damn thing, and something in him was urging him towards the dark opening of the tunnel. Zoro cut his losses and jogged to catch up them before he lost sight of them walking down the tunnel. He expertly ignored Mihawks amused chuckle at his arrival and Perona’s smug cackling as he caught up with them.
As they walked through the darkened tunnel, Zoro tried to focus on the surroundings and how far it was to the end of the tunnel, but he kept getting distracted by the same odd pulling sensation in his gut from the entry that almost seemed to be forcing him to keep moving in the tunnel and not give up and turn around like he had wanted to after the first few minutes. He had at first assumed the pulling sensation was something like hunger but there was something else in the back of his mind quietly urging him to get to the other end.
Zoro found it was easier to idly listen to Perona’s excited babble about the possibilities in the old town rather than think of the persistent feeling in his gut which still refused to go away as the exit finally came into sight. When they stepped back out into the sunlight, Perona was happily pointing at the old building they could see from here to an amused Mihawk who quietly listened to all of her gushing with his usual small bemused smirk on his face while Zoro could only think of how the feeling in his stomach was possibly stronger than before.
He was surprised to see that out of the three of them it was himself that set off towards the old town first, turning to look at Mihawk and Perona who watched him questioningly with varying degrees of interest, ranging from idle confusion to gaping at him.
“Zoro? I thought you didn’t want to see the town?” Perona asked leaving her spot by Mihawks side to walk next to him. Zoro could hear the scuff of Mihawks boots rather close behind them that meant he was still following.
“Yeah but the quicker we get there the quicker this is over right?” Zoro said, trying to cover up how quickly he had set off for the town, even he was unsure of his own actions. It was much easier to fall into the same old routine with Perona than think too hard on why he was so driven to get into the town.
Perona pouted at him. “And here I thought you were excited to see the town too.”
Zoro smirked and raised his right hand, setting it between her two pigtails and began rubbing it back and forth, mussing up her hair in a mock ruffle. Perona gasped indignantly and ducked out from beneath his hands and spouted angry half formed words at him as she went to fix it. Mihawk was quietly laughing behind them and Zoro himself could help the loud laughs that escaped his own mouth as he watched Perona glare at him as she tried to fix her hair while simultaneously trying to jab him with the sharp end of her umbrella.
The three of them had set off back down the small rolling hills towards the abandoned town. Perona latched on the Zoros arm at one point, her umbrella folded and hanging off the crook of her elbow. Zoro eyed it warily, Perona usually would wait some time to try and attack him in retribution, he was probably safe for now, but it was better to keep an eye on the umbrella than get a pointed jab from it in his kidneys later on.
He raised an eyebrow at his sister. “What’re you doing?”
“I’m about to tell interesting facts about spirits obviously so you don’t accidentally offend any lingering spirits with your brutish nature.” Perona huffed looking up at him.
Zoro chuckled and turned his head back towards their path. “Okay whatever. Do what you want, I probably won’t listen.”
“So rude.” Perona sighed. “Anyway, those small houses we saw before the gate were houses for the spirits, they act as shrines it’s very important not to mess with them.”
Thinking back on it, Zoro hadn’t actually even really seen any of those tiny houses. But then again he hadn’t been actively looking for them. Perona continued to lecture him on the proper respectful ways to behave around places that might have spirits but Zoro tuned her and directed his gaze to just idly looking at the village.
They came upon the village, standing just before the archway to enter. Zoro felt the sudden urge to sprint off into the town; something in his gut had been steadily urging him closer to the town and farther from where they had started. Zoro hazarded a look behind him, maybe something had been following them and his instincts were telling him to get away from it, but when he looked there was nothing but the green hills behind them and the tunnel off in the distance.
“Well Perona, would you like to enter?” Mihawk asked calmly looking to Perona who stared wide eyed into the town.
“Yes, lets go!” Perona said excitedly. “I was just taking it all in; this is very exciting I hope you both know that.”
Zoro and Mihawk both exchanged a dry look of skepticism before being tugged past the first few buildings by an eager Perona who had latched onto one of their sleeves each and forced them to keep with her pace.
Perona eventually released her hold on their sleeves but still lead them through the town, Zoro folded his arms behind his head and cast a bored look around. There was nothing special about all of these old buildings; nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the town. Mihawk just walked with his head forward as if he’d already been to this town before, while Perona was running back and forth to each building but never taking step inside them.
“Didn’t you want to explore?” Zoro asked cocking his head at her.
Perona stopped abruptly and spun on her heel to look at him as if he’d asked her the color of his own hair.
Mihawk kept walking, chuckling to himself about their behavior, but not bothering to stay and watch it play out.
“Obviously I’m just not going to enter the buildings! If there are spirits entering so offensively would be very disrespectful to them. Its polite to just admire from here.” Perona said turning back around.
Zoro shrugged and examined the part of the town they were in, the shops seemed to be similar to food stalls in a market a little beyond them he could see a stone staircase leading up to somewhere and Zoro every part of his being pull him towards it and without really noticing his feet began heading towards the stairs not realizing he was now walking opposite of Mihawk and Perona.
Zoros boots scuffed the dirt path and kicked up clouds around him as he stopped at the base of the stairs. He could see a large clock at the top and the stairs seemed to be a good vantage point of the whole town. He jogged up the steps and turned to face the town below him. A humid breeze blew by him and ruffled the tanktop that was sticking to his back from the heat of the sun and his sweat. He breathed in and closed his eyes; the area was silent save for the whistling of the wind through the old shops and the flutter of their signs.
It was nothing if not peaceful in this old town.
Turning in place, Zoro noticed Perona and Mihawk had somehow gotten separated from him. But he only shrugged at this development in events. Those two were always getting lost, but they’d eventually find him again.
Zoro felt the weird sensation pull at his mind and he turned away from the stairs and followed a path winding deeper into this second level of the town.
Zoro wandered among the old buildings until the path gave way to a small red bridge, leading up to what looked like a bathhouse that was located on the edge of the town. Oddly enough there was steam rising out of the top of the smoke stacks.
“The bathhouse is still open?” Zoro asked himself questioningly. “I thought this town was abandoned.”
Off in the distance, Zoro could see and hear a train running past them. He idly wondered where that would even go on this island. The island hadn’t seemed that large when they were driving up to it. Zoro padded over to the edge of the bridge leaning over to look at the ground below.
He glanced between where the stairs were and the ground below them, they were higher up than he expected but he surmised it as the town was built into one of the hills that seemed common on this part of the island. Another breeze wafted around Zoro, and once again Zoro could smell the scent of the salty ocean though there was definitely no ocean anywhere near him at the moment.
The tightening pull in his gut that had been steadily growing since the moment Zoro stepped in the village disappeared as soon as he heard a voice talking behind him.
“Hey, are you lost guy? You shouldn’t be up here.”
The boy before him was dressed in red, with messy black hair and what seemed to be a straw hat hanging off his back. Zoros eyes focused on the small scar beneath one of the boys eyes.
Before Zoro could answer however, the other boy took notice of the lengthening shadows on the planks below them and the rapidly setting sun in the distance. He shot Zoro a wide-eyed look.
“Okay now you really shouldn’t be here.” He said pushing at Zoro’s arm, “You need to go back to where you came from before it gets dark.”
Zoro could only offer half protests as the boy practically pushed him away from the bridge.”
He heard a chuckle behind him as he was unceremoniously pushed back onto the pathway. “I can distract these guys for a while but you really need to go.”
Throwing a confused thanks over his shoulder Zoro began to set off back down the pathway but as he rounded the final turn that would hide the bridge from his view Zoro turned to look at the boy again. He saw the boy give him a cheerful smile and wave, Zoro finally turned and head to the stairs he had come from.
The boy behind him lingered on his mind and Zoro could hear what sounded like tinkling glass as he walked further and further from the bridge and the boy on it. As he walked though, his thoughts were overtaken by the fact that lanterns were suddenly lighting up beside him.
“What the hell is going on here?” He yelled angrily as another set of lanterns came to life as he passed them, this was supposedly an abandoned town but it seemed to be functioning just fine.
Mihawk and Perona paused in their walking.
“Maybe Zoro already returned to the car? It feels like we’ve been searching for him forever.” Perona sighed looking for her wayward brother wearily. Normally she’d be more despondent in her search for her brother, but Mihawk was weirdly determined that they had to find Zoro quickly.
“We need to find him before it gets dark; we need to return to the car.” Mihawk said turning to walk down another path, his head sweeping the streets for a sign of his son.
If Perona didn’t know any better she would have thought Mihawk was beginning to get very worried over Zoro’s disappearance, but she mainly shrugged it off, it wasn’t the first time he’d gotten lost and it definitely wouldn’t be the last.
More lanterns were lighting up around them and Perona was enthralled by it, she couldn’t see anyone lightening them and her heart was telling her it had to be spirits doing the work, but her good mood faltered as Mihawk swore under his breath at the rapid number of lit lanterns surrounding them.
“Seems like you’ve gotten yourself into some trouble.” A voice said teasingly from behind them, “You also seem to be missing a kid, looks like you could use my help.”
As Perona and Mihawk startled at unexpected third voice, they turned to the source and Perona became more confused while Mihawk sighed deeply as he eyed the man before him.
“You usually don’t help much.” Mihawk drawled. “But we really do need to find Zoro.”
Zoro swore loudly as he was met with another dead end. He could have sworn this was the way he had come but suddenly there were buildings where the path used to be and a path where building should have been and it was dark all around him. He didn’t know why that boy wanted him out of here so quickly but it seems he was here and it was night and nothing bad had happened so what was the worst that could happen to him now?
As Zoro turned and rounded another corner he was met again by a deadend of buildings. He swore under his breath, how was he still getting turned around in this damned town? The town hadn’t seemed all the large on the drive end but now it seemed endless.
He let out an annoyed breath and headed back up the path he came, he was bound to get out of here somehow. Zoro was also steadfastly ignoring the rapidly spreading darkness that was spreading all around him, most of the lanterns on the street had been lit by this point and the sun was only a sliver over the horizon.
Mihawk was swearing under his breath and pacing in short steps at the edge of the town. Perona nervously twirled her umbrella in her fingertips. Zoro got lost pretty much once a day so it was nothing new but she had never seen her father acting this distraught over her brothers’ commonplace disappearances.
Perona turned her gaze past her father as they waited for the man who had helped them earlier to return from scouring one side of the town. She eyed the village behind her and watched more and more lanterns come to life, still without any visible people tending to them, she’d put it at the lanterns being on a time or a solar powered system but this town was far too old for such devices.
The idea of the town being haunted was extremely pleasing to her as she loved anything and everything to do with spirits and the supernatural but her father’s worried atmosphere was putting her on an anxious edge and she kept craning her head for any sign of Zoro’s bright green head.
She sighed trying to expel some of her own nervousness.
“Honestly this always happens.” She mumbled to herself, resigning herself to twirl a stray strand of pink hair around her fingers as she waited.
For most of her life she can remember events in which she and Mihawk had to search or wait for Zoro to appear as he could never keep still or stay with the group it seemed. He was always walking off somewhere on his own.
Perona stared at the ground and the scuff marks she had been steadily making in the dirt, there was something one of their neighbors always used to say about Zoro that she could now hardly remember. The last time she had heard it she had been still young, no more than 8 was her guess, and they were living in their original house and not the one they had just moved from, but she could recall the sly smirk of the womans lips and the amused glances she would throw at Zoro, who true to form never really was one for paying attention. She could remember Mihawk bristling in response to whatever she had said about Zoro and she could remember feeling confused since she had thought the remark had been rather silly to her, now if only she could figure out what it had been.
Perona shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she thought, blowing strands of hair out of her face as she did so, when the memory finally came back to her, Perona’s head shot up as she frantically looked about the town for Zoro again. The things the woman said couldn’t have been true but the gleam of her eyes in her memory was less amused and more cold and calculating now that she thought about it and Mihawks irrational anger then and his worry now seemed related and Perona could guess as to why. As she quickly looked down the neighboring streets from where they were standing the womans cold voice echoed in her ears.
“It seems that boy of yours is always one step off from being spirited away. You may want to watch that one.”
A throat cleared behind them and Perona flung herself around hoping to see Zoro but it was only the man from earlier.
“Did you see him?” Mihawk asked quickly his voice clipped.
“Not from the parts I was in. This kid of yours really takes getting lost to another level.”
“We have to find him it is almost night.” Mihawk said his voice taking on a tone of urgency.
“Yeah, yeah I know that but we also have to get you guys out of here too because its not almost night, it pretty much is night. So I’m going to take you guys out of here and me and some of my friends will keep an eye out for him.”
“I am not leaving without him.” Mihawk said darkly leveling a glare at the red-haired man.
“We can’t just abandon Zoro here! What if a spirit gets him? He lacks some common sense he’s bound to offend one of them!” Perona huffed stamping a foot into the dirt.
“Spirits?” The other man laughed a little under his breath and Mihawk just gave one of his own quiet laughs in equal parts affection and amusement.
“Don’t worry you aren’t going far, I have a place just a little off of the town where you two will be safe from this area but close enough that if one of my friends finds Zoro we can get you guys together and out of here quickly.”
“What is happening here anyways? Why do we have to make sure to be out of here by night?” Perona asked looked back once more as she was led away by Mihawk.
“I will be sure to explain it all when we are out and safe.” Mihawk promised her, his hand on her back steering her on the path out of the town.
Perona could only nod and take solace in the fact that her father had somewhat calmed down even though she could easily see the tense posture in which he held himself, but at this point what more could she do but trust in her father and hope that Zoro showed up soon.
Zoro sighed in relief as he came upon the entrance to the village. He was finally going to get out of here, now all he needed to do was find his family and they could leave.
However as Zoro drew closer to the exit he saw something was wrong, before the area surrounding the town had been small hills with the old town lying in the valley, now the town seemed to be the one resting on the hill and water surrounded the town, far off in the distance he could hear the whistle of the train from earlier.
“What the hell in happening?” Zoro asked falling into a crouch at the waters edge.
There was no way in hell this water had been here before, but more importantly he couldn’t see Mihawk or Perona anywhere.
“Shit that kid said to get out of here. That probably applies to them too.” Zoro looked around for them but he couldn’t see or hear them at all.
While he was looking a boat drew up to the edge of the water and lowered a walking plank that slapped to the ground by Zoros feet. Startled Zoro looked up and saw people dressed in masks and colorful outfits getting out of the boat. Zoro watched them approach and was a little confused when it appeared as if they were all gliding off the boat.
As they drew closer to him something deep in his being urged him to get away from the shore and the people arriving and Zoro all but stumbled back as this urge hit him, scrambling back up the small slope and ducking down a small grassy area besides the entrance of the village turned port.
He sank into a sitting position and covered his face with his hands letting out a shaky exhale. He was loathe to admit it but he was most certainly lost now, and he was stuck in this town some kid told him to leave by dark. But here he was sitting alone in the town at night and his family was still missing. He scrubbed his hands over his face and his face roughly for a few moments before freezing when he heard light chuckling near him on the hill.
He jerked upwards in surprise, knocking his head against the building behind him as he eyed the boy from the bridge who was outright laughing at him.
“What the hell is your problem? What’s so funny?” Zoro asked angrily.
The kid stood up and paced over to him. “You’re not too good at listening to directions are you?” He laughed again.
From Zoros spot on the ground he had to now look up to see the kids face which was shadowed more so now by the lack of light and the straw hat he wore on his head.
“Its not my fault this town has so many damn dead ends.”
The kid paused, eyeing him for a moment, before laughing again and crouching down to his current height and sliding the hat of his head to rest on his back, mussing up his black hair along the way. Despite himself and his situation Zoro felt his own smile pull at his cheeks as boy continued to laugh.
“Well theres not much we can do about this now.” The kid said propping his head in his hands, resting his elbows upon his knees, “I tried to get you out of here before hand but that was before I knew you sucked at directions.”
Zoro sputtered indignantly. “Im not bad at-” His sentence died out on his lips as the caught sight of his hand gesturing in the moonlight except something was wrong because it almost seemed like the light was going through his hand.
“Okay now what the shit is this?” Zoro said holding up his hand to the moon feeling his body run cold as the outline of his hand disappearing against the bright light. He immediately turned his face away from his disappearing hands and focused on the blades of grass next to his still visible feet.
The other boy’s hands reached for his wrists to bring both hands up to his eye level, Zoro felt an odd sense of relief drift over him in a wave as the boy took hold of his wrists. Zoro looked up at the boy from his downwards glance, bracing himself for the next horrible turn in this weird nightmare.
Zoro didn’t like the now serious set to the boys face, up until now he had only seemed cheerful and this serious set to his eyes was raising all sorts of alarms in Zoros mind.
“You’re disappearing.”
Zoro felt his heart bottom out. “What do you mean disappearing? Besides that I have to find my family!”
Zoro felt his heart begin to race was this happening to Mihawk and Perona too?
The boy cocked his head at him confused.
“My dad and sister are out here somewhere too, is this happening to them?” Zoro asked his tone verging on desperation.
“I haven’t seen them, so they might have made it out of the town already or someone came along to help them.” The boy said.
Zoro felt a little relief. Hopefully they had gotten to the car before night. Maybe they weren’t disappearing as well. He turned his gaze back to his hands still held lightly in the other boy’s grip.
“Can we stop this or am I just going to disappear?”
A large smile wound up on the kids face and Zoro felt his heart unclench. “All you have to do is eat!”
“What.”
The boy was cackling again, thoroughly amused by his reactions, “You’re a human, you can’t survive in the spirit world without eating some of our food of course. That’s why you are disappearing; your body doesn’t belong here so that’s going away.” He paused before his smile increased, “Unless you eat of course, then you’ll be fine.”
Zoro sighed in relief and slumped against the wall of the building. “Well then let’s get me something to eat because now I am starving.”
The kid laughed again and Zoro felt his worry for the situation ease slightly as the kid handed him something that looked like a meat bun but at this point Zoro was far too hungry to care and ate the thing without a second thought. Then he replayed to kids explanation in his head and almost choked.
“Wait what do you mean spirit world?!” He asked wiping his mouth with the back of his arm giving the kid a wide-eyed stare. “Who are you anyway?”
“I’m Monkey D. Luffy!”
He extended a hand towards Zoro and Zoro slowly shook the boys hand when he noticed that his hand was fully visible again.
“Holy shit that’s a relief.” Zoro sighed. “I’m Roronoa Zoro.”
Luffy chuckled again standing up, letting Zoros hand slide from his grip, and stretching his arms above his head. “I already knew that!” Another bright grin lit up his face and Zoro found himself smiling along.
“Oh yeah!” Luffy said smacking his hands together. “This is the spirit world. The town we were in before is kind of a link between the two which is why I was trying to get you out of here before dark.” Luffy shrugged. “But now you’re here so we gotta find you a place to stay so we can find your family and get you back.”
The smile Luffy offered him helped Zoro feel marginally more at ease.
“Well if this is the spirit world Perona must be having the time of her goddamn life.”
Luffy laughed at that and Zoro was not really surprised to hear his own deeper laugh reach his ears. The laughter cut off when he saw every line in Luffy’s body go taut like a wire as he stilled, eyes sharp but not really concentrating on Zoro even though they were directed towards his face. It vaguely reminded Zoro of an animal bracing for an attack or even preparing to attack.
Zoro was about to ask about what had happened when Luffy fluidly slid into a crouch once again, one hand bracing himself on the building behind Zoro and the other grabbing the back of Zoros head and smashing his face into Luffys chest.
“What are you doing?” Zoro whispered, anger filtering into his voice trying to remove his head from Luffy’s grip. But the serious set to the other boy kept him from raising his voice and getting truly angry and he had surprising strength in his smaller arms as Zoro found it futile to try and fight his grip.
“You’re being looked for, don’t move.” Luffy whispered into his ear, his eyes still trained on a point in the distance.
Zoro shivered almost imperceptibly and for once, Zoro had no compunctions following Luffy’s directions so he stilled and let out another breath letting his head rest more comfortably against the chest it was currently pressed against. With nothing better to do than wait, Zoro idly traced the outline of the boy’s sandals with his eyes and then moved on to counting the blades of grass by his feet. A few long moments later, Zoro realized that he must truly have been in the spirit world because Luffy had not yet breathed from what he could recall and even from his place against Luffy’s chest Zoro could hear no beat of a heart.
Zoro closed his eyes as the realization that this must truly be the spirit world washed over him again. He breathed deeply through his nose, almost laughing at being able to smell the ocean all around him, but then he vaguely recalled the new found port that was somewhere to his left and summed it up to being that.
“How’d you know my name?” Zoro asked quietly, practically whispering the question into the fabric of Luffy’s shirt.
Luffy gave a quiet hum for a moment as he thought. “It’s just always been there I guess?” Luffy shifted a little on his feet. “I looked at you and your name just popped into my head.”
Luffy finally relaxed from his tense and guarded posture and fell back onto his heels releasing Zoros head, Zoro however just moved himself into a comfier sitting position against the wall and regarded the slightly mysterious spirit boy.
The boy laughed loud for a moment. “Maybe I’ve just always known it huh? I feel like I’ve known you for a long time.”
They both held eye contact for a long moment and Zoro thought that a saying like that should confuse him or worry him in some way yet the notion that they had known each other for a long time sat well with him and he let the other thoughts go.
Zoro broke eye contact first, looking around them curiously, “So now what?” He looked to Luffy who just gracefully pulled himself to his full height once again.
“Now we have to get you somewhere safe for the night and while we find your family. But we should probably get out of here before they come searching for you again.”
“Why were they searching for me?”
Luffy hummed in thought again placing a hand on his hip the other reaching up to ruffle through his own hair. “Probably because you’re a human. Some spirits don’t like that, a lot of spirits dislike humans and some are super against them and try to kidnap them, but the ones looking for you probably just didn’t want a human around.”
“Well that is super comforting.” Zoro drawled sarcastically, leveling an eyebrow up at Luffy. The boy in question just chuckled under his breath and shrugged, holding out a hand to help Zoro up.
“Anyway I know a place you can stay for a while; you’re probably going to have to work and some people might not like you because you’ll smell like a human for a while but it’s safer than wandering out here.”
Zoro mumbled his assent and once again slid his hand into Luffys, looking down in shock when he couldn’t bend his legs from their current position.
“Im…stuck? How does this even happen?”
Luffy crouched down again, looking at Zoros shocked face amusedly, before whispering something and sliding his hand over Zoros knees. To Zoro mounting shock, he felt a cool rush in his legs, as if water had been poured over them, and suddenly he was being yanked upward by Luffy with no resistance.
“You good now?” Luffy said, his amusement hardly veiled by his attempt at a normal tone.
Zoro leveled him a dry look. “Yes. Let’s go.” Zoro was just about ready to be done with this entire day.
But his day, or more accurately night, was far from over when Luffy offered him and sharp grin before gripping his hand tightly and sprinting off in the direction that Luffy had appeared from early. The wind whipped at his face and Zoro marveled at the speed in which they were running and found that he wasn’t winded or tired for running this fast, but he resolved to pay attention to where he was going when Luffy kept making sharp turns that almost sent Zoro sprawling into the streets.
He made a sound of annoyance as they made another quick and sharp turn, the wind biting at his heels, and the only response Luffy gave him was another large grin, amusement lighting his eyes and Zoro resigned himself to following this kid at his break neck speed until they got to their destination.
Though if he were being totally honest with himself, the happiness Luffy was feeling and showing through his countenance was identical to, despite the entirety of what Zoro had been through up until that point, the happiness Zoro could feel bubbling up deep in his chest.
Luffy slows them down to a halt after a few more long moments of practically flying through the village, peeking around the corner Zoro can see that they have stopped a few yards off from the bridge where they met earlier.
Luffy turned his wide grin back towards him. “Okay, this is the next thing we have to do.”
Zoro looked around the corner again. “Walk across a bridge? Seems pretty simple to me.”
Zoro said smirking eyeing the bridge which was no longer empty of people but had people similar to the ones from the boat crossing it and others welcoming them.
“Yeah but you can’t breathe on the bridge.” Luffy said shrugging. “Besides that yeah it’ll be simple.”
Zoro did a double take staring incredulously at Luffy who just looked up at him innocently as if he hadn’t just suggested something slightly close the edge of possibility. “Why can’t I breathe?”
Luffy stared at him like he was an idiot for a long pause of time before rapping him lightly on the forehead with his knuckles. “Spirits don’t need to breathe. Are you kind of stupid Zoro?”
Zoro felt his annoyance build in his chest. “No.” He ground out. “But in case you didn’t know humans kind of need to breathe.”
“I knew that!” Luffy huffed. He drew in a bunch of air and let out a deep exhale, in some kind of mock form of a sigh. He continued a little quieter, “You just have to hold it to the edge of the bridge okay?”
Zoro nodded and ran his hand through his hair, allowing himself to be pulled forward by Luffy once again. As they drew upon the edge of the bridge, Luffy grabbed his hand.
“What are you-?”
“They’ll be less likely to notice you and notice you’re human is we walk like this. Also you need to hold your breath as soon as we cross to the planks.”
Zoro just nodded and drew in a deep breath, trying not to concentrate too much on the lack of air, instead focusing on Luffy’s cool grip in his own, using that to anchor him.
They walked quickly across the bridge; Luffy’s face was set forward and determined, it was oddly serious once again. Zoro watched him out of the corner of his eye, noting that the seriousness of his expression was belied by the quick glances he would throw to Zoro out of the corner of his eye.
The bridge was nearing its end as Zoro could feel his lungs burning for air, when one of the spirits who was welcoming the guests ran up to them.
“Master Luffy! You have come back!”
The fact that the spirit came largely out of nowhere and popped up directly in front of them sent Zoros breath rushing out of him in the form of half made curses. He cursed under his breath once again as the people began causing chaos around them, shouts of “Human!” were ringing out on the bridge.
Zoro felt ashamed they had been so close to the edge of the bridge, however throwing his gaze back to Luffy he saw that the other boy seemed to have no problem with this change in events. If anything he looked more excited at the new chaos and danger clamoring towards them. The wide grin wound its way back to Luffys face and the grip in his hand tightened for a moment.
“Now we really got to make an escape!” He laughed loud and gleefully and Zoro felt himself smirk in kind. “Hold on!”
Not a second later, Zoro was mere inches from the ground as he and Luffy wound through the population of the bridge, Zoro kept his hand clenched around Luffys and swore he could hear the others laughter ringing in his ear. Zoro forgot what he said earlier about their running having been like flying through the town, if Zoro didn’t know any better he could say he and Luffy were flying right now.
Luffy threw one more large grin back at him, before cutting a quick corner and practically throwing themselves behind a gate. Zoros felt touched the ground as they both landed in a crouch and he took a deep gasp of a breath. His feet had definitely just hit the ground, so they must have been flying somehow, he looked toward Luffy and couldn’t help but laugh along with the quiet chuckles the other had been trying to smother.
The two of them laughed for a long moment as Zoro tried to process that he had literally just flown, when he remembered why they had to fly in the first place. He scrubbed a hand angrily over his face. “I messed that up. Sorry.”
Luffy laughed and waved a hand. “It’s no problem. Zoro did better than I thought he would anyway.”
That comment earned him an unamused look from Zoro which just sent Luffy into another fit of laughter. Once the shorter boy had calmed down he stood up and looked around.
“Okay, I have to go deal with all those people on the bridge, but I’m going to show you how to get to the basement of the bathhouse. Just remember to ask for work and kept asking no matter what they say until you get some kind of job okay?” Luffy asked crouching again, placing two of his fingers on Zoro’s forehead.
Zoro fought back a flinch as images flew quickly through his head. After Luffy was done the boy stood up and hopped over the fence, he leaned over the posts for a quick second, sliding his straw hat back onto his head before speaking. “Just get any job; I’ll come find you later okay?”
“Yeah. You got it, we’ll meet up later.” Zoro nodded, cringing at the lilt of hopefulness he could hear in his voice at the end of the sentence.
Luffy nodded again, a wide grin partially hidden by the brim of his hat was the last Zoro saw before he was off again walking around the corner.
Zoro could hear his voice echo and fade as he talked to the people on the bridge. He waited for a moment before standing up slowly, relishing in the way his back cracked with the motion. Zoro felt a little off with Luffy having been gone, since it was the straw hatted boy who had gotten Zoro this far into the night safely.
He rolled that thought out his mind and the accompanying feeling of loneliness as he picked his way through the yard he was in and out the back gate. A gentle urging in his mind kept him on the path and Zoro was little dismayed by how often he could feel something in him tugging him back onto the path, he never seemed to almost get this lost before,
Zoro chalked it up to the stress of the night.
He silently followed the directions Luffy had placed in his mind, the trip took quite some time as Luffy had seemed to have given him very odd out of the way paths for him to take, probably to avoid the most people but it left Zoro wishing he could finish the trek quicker. Or that he could have company to ease him of his boredom.
In his walking, Zoro’s thoughts kept drifting back to the thoughts of his family; he hoped fiercely that somehow the two of them had made it safely away from the town before night fell. Zoro could imagine Perona and the excitement she would have over the people of this town and the strange events that Zoro was finding himself in, he could vividly imagine her running about the town trying not to be too obvious about staring at the populace.
He could also imagine her failing that task.
The thought left him laughing quietly to himself, which was followed shortly by ducking beneath a window as the houses resident heard the laughter and peeked outside to investigate the noise.
This night was beginning to become wearisome for the 17 year old. Moving back away from the house and continuing Zoro was a little taken aback to realize that this had really all happened in about a day. It was hard to imagine this morning he had been napping in the back of his father’s car and now here he was trying to navigate an unknown town as quietly as possible, to get to a bathhouse, just to have the hope of reuniting with his family soon.
Zoro found that he was already missing them.
He quickly shook that thought from his head too. There was no time to be regretful of what had happened his only choice at this point was to keep going forward and strive for the best possible outcome.
The path in his mind led him around a couple more twists and turns, while Zoro let his thoughts drift back to better thoughts of his father and sister, and he supposed, amongst his musings that it was for the best he was the one with this task. He could imagine Perona would have gotten past the bridge, her joy over seeing spirits would have given her away instantly and Zoro just couldn’t even begin to imagine Mihawk going through these trials. The image of Mihawk holding his breath and walking across the bridge with Luffy caused Zoro to have to smother his snickering behind his hand.
It was for the best that he was the only dealing with all of this after all.
The thoughts of the bridge brought Zoro’s mind back to Luffy and he wondered how the other was doing. Back when they were on the bridge, that spirit that had messed the whole thing up had called him master, so hopefully he would be able to easily resolve the situation and meet back up with him soon, as the other boy had promised to do.
Though, thinking on it, with Luffy’s personality Zoro assumed the other boy wouldn’t mind the challenge of dealing with the people on the bridge or the resulting chaos of the event. He could easily recall the way Luffy’s, and not to mention Zoro’s own, excitement grew as the danger also grew.
Zoro pulled up short as he was faced with a heavy iron door.
Somehow in his thought he hadn’t noticed that he’d reached the place in his mind that Luffy had directed him to as the basement entrance.
Zoro drew in a deep breath, as he could only guess the real difficulties of this journey were about to begin, he pulled open the door and quickly stepped through it.
The resounding slam echoed about like a heavy verdict in his mind