What's Not To Love

Ch 43

Sorry for the long wait.

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Zoro stayed hidden as the marine ship came closer. He tucked the transponder snails in his haramaki and changed his position to a crouch. With one hand on his sword, Zoro waited. There was no need to tell Sanji about what was going on, not if there were only a few soldiers that came aboard.

Gold eyes watched the rails of the Sunny as the marine ship's shadow covered the deck. He could hear the soldiers as they ran around. Zoro could imagine most of them getting into position to board.

"There doesn't appear to be anyone aboard the ship, sir." one of the soldiers said. He heard steps walk closer and saw a small shadow appear for a moment. Zoro assumed that it was the captain of the ship.

"It may appear that way," The rough voice paused for a second. "But we can never be too sure. Prepare to board the ship."

As the steps retreated, a chorus of yessirs could be heard. The sound of feet scrambling could be heard a moment after. Zoro gritted his teeth. He had hoped, on the off chance that they saw nothing, that they would just leave. Gold eyes continued to glare at the deck boards as he waited and listened. He could feel that familiar tug of irritation pull at his mind but he chose to ignore it. Whenever he listened to that feeling, he ended up in a brutal, drawn out battle. Something that he had absolutely no time to deal with right now.

Hearing a hard knock on the ship rails a few feet away, Zoro leaned toward the general area it had come from. The soldiers must have let down their ladders and set up some planks to board. A few moments later, Zoro only confirmed his theory. The moment he saw two soldiers jump on board, he readied his stance to pounce on them. A moment later, however, two other soldiers joined them and the amount of footsteps Zoro heard above him increased. His brows scrunched up. It sounded like more than he thought but he let that thought go a moment later when a soldier began to turn his way. In that very instance, Zoro leapt forward, knocking the soldier out while slicing the two that were in front of him. As they fell forward on their face, lifeless, Zoro charged at the remaining soldier in front of him, fully aware that more were coming behind him.

Zoro ran through the enemy's quickly. Already, there had been about 25 that he had crossed swords with. Another came charging at him from in front, while two tried to get him from behind with swords. Changing his stance, he sent them all flying in one go. More soldiers came at him as he went. Some had taken to higher grounds to try and shoot at him while he fought. The captain, through all of this, had not appeared once. Zoro didn't have time to wonder what that could mean. He was starting to get dizzy again and he almost felt like he was slowing down. Almost.

After a few minutes, the deck was littered with marines. Zoro looked around the deck as he tried to catch his breath. There was no movement but it was too quiet. His eyes lingered on the marines' ship. The captain still had not made an appearance. Should he go on board to find him? Keeping his eyes glued to the ship, Zoro made his way across the Sunny. He checked the space between the ships and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Looking towards the harbor, he could see that the other ships hadn't moved. He also couldn't see any more ships coming towards the island, but that wasn't saying much considering that the weather was too cloudy to see much of anything. Taking a deep breath, Zoro calmed his breathing. He watched the ship as he cautiously placed each sword in his haramaki. Zoro took a quick scan of the Sunny one more time before boarding the marine ship.

Zoro wandered along the deck for a moment before descending into the bunkers. There were no soldiers in sight. It didn't seem that smart to send all the soldiers over at once but that was exactly what their captain had done. Zoro clenched his fists at his sides. What kind of captain discards his men into battle without even going in himself?