Sword

Chapter 10

Shoko opened her mouth to scream at Zoro, but no sound came. All she could do was stare at him as he stood over Puck's body, blood dripping from his sword and pooling at his feet.

"He killed the doctor!" one civilian suddenly screamed. "The pirates killed Dr. J! This man is some kind of demon!"

No, no, no, no, no, Shoko thought, realizing what the civilians were seeing. No, we aren't the bad guys here. We aren't the cause of all this pain. We're here to save you from the pirates....

Right?

She finally ripped her eyes from the scene in front of her and looked around at the mess in the streets. People's belongings were thrown around in several of the streets. Vendors were salvaging what they could of their goods. Children were crying.

Shoko made her way to a low roof and hopped down, trying to be as gentle as possible on her leg, but still wincing as she dropped to the ground.

A vendor watched her with terrified eyes as she stooped down to pick up his things from the street. She handed his things back to him, and her stomach sank at the look he was giving her. He was so scared.

"I'm so sorry," was all she could say. She didn't mean for any of this to happen.

This is the kind of evil I wanted to stop, she thought. How did we bring all this chaos to these poor people?

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Zoro standing behind her, looking somber.

She slapped his hand away.

"Why did you kill him?" she asked, almost as softly as a whisper. "He was down, why didn't you just cuff him?" She felt herself trying to blame Zoro. He was the one who scared all these innocent people. He committed unnecessary murder. He was the one who spilled blood in this town.

Zoro stared at her, not a hint of remorse on his face.

"What was that?" she asked, her voice rising. Angry tears stung her eyes. "What happened to only killing in self-defense?"

"Scars on the back are a swordsman's shame." His voice was low, but steady. "That's what he told me."

Shoko stared at him. "'Shame'? You killed him because the way he went down was shameful?" Anger and confusion bubbled inside her. But Zoro's words didn't fall on deaf ears. Puck asked Zoro to kill him?

Zoro didn't respond. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn't have had the chance before Shoko turned away. She was furious, hurt, and confused.

Zoro wasn't some bloodthirsty bounty hunter. She knew that. But he should have known the terror that would have ensued from killing someone in the middle of town, whether the pirate asked him to do it or not.

And here was Shoko, using her position as a bounty hunter, trying to do good, but all she did was cause pain for the people of Sakura Town. She was no better than Captain Morgan in Shells Town, whether her mistakes were intentional or not.

After only two missions as a bounty hunter, she had seen reason to question everything she knew: who she was, who her best friend and partner was, whether she was truly fit to fulfil her dreams. She felt completely crushed.

She hurried around the town desperately, helping people wherever she could, cleaning broken glass, helping vendors set up their stalls as best they could, and trying to make up for any damage possible. It was all she could think to do. She didn't want to look at Zoro or think about her own failure, and she didn't want to go back to their boat. She had noticed that Puck Jenning's body was no longer in the streets where he was struck down, so she assumed Zoro had moved him onto their boat.