Thrice Prophesized - Zoro x Reader

Chapter 18: (Pro)Visions

The next morning you wandered into the kitchen for breakfast, sitting down and nearly falling to sleep waiting for the rest of the crew to wake up. Sanji kept you semi-company, asking you how you slept and trying to chat while he was cooking, but once he realized you were starting to doze off, he left you to it, only humming softly while he worked. The pleasant tune was enough to let you rest your eyes a little longer.

You hadn't had trouble sleeping the night before, but you had gone to bed a little later than usual by the time you and Zoro had parted ways. Your body still woke up when it was used to waking up, however, and if you dawdled in the bedroom Robin might not let you leave for breakfast before roping you back into more research about the clues.

The soft clunk of a mug against the table caught your attention and you look up to see a mug of coffee in front of you. You look over at Zoro who has seated himself next to you and smile as you sit up and take a sip of the dark liquid. You knew he wasn't a fan of the stuff, but you were grateful for it. Sanji probably brewed it, since it tasted good, but you were still grateful to Zoro for it.

A few days passed by in that way. Quiet mornings, quiet nights, and the long hours between spent with Robin as you worked through the clues and the languages. The two of you ran into dead end after dead end in trying to glean more specific meaning from the writings. What you were becoming convinced of, however, was that the One Piece wasn't where everyone thought it was.

The best way to be sure you were right was to go to the Grandline Metro and see if you could sense any winter magic anywhere. Unless you managed to decipher everything that the clues had to offer, and ended up with a certain route to follow. None of the ciphers the crew were familiar with were working, and even when you mashed the processes together with what you knew from your world it wasn't enough.

Someone in the Metro might be able to help. There were a lot of people, and a lot of knowledge to tap amongst them. Robin explained to you some of the alliances Luffy and the crew had with others, and how you'd be able to access several lines of information once they arrived.

The One Piece might not be in the Metro, but the key to finding it could be.

The risk was that the Grandline Metro was one of the most well-guarded islands in the world, second only to the Red Line. It was big, and there were ways to move around undetected, but it was crawling with pirates, bounty hunters and Marines more than anywhere else. Once the world caught wind that the Straw Hat Pirates were returning, it was only going to get worse.

Nami had spread out maps of the area and walked you through how the next few days would go. Heading toward the Grandline Metro's island was easier than heading away from it. It was just how the currents worked. There was still the risk of adverse weather, but nothing like what they had experienced on their journey as they had made their way out in to the seas.

While the journey was easier when heading toward the island, it wasn't very fast. The currents were sluggish, and outside of the occasional storm, the winds were mild too. The Sunny had a few ways to expedite the return, but it required fuel, and so they were taking a small detour to stock up on what they needed at an island that manufactured the fuel by the galloons.

Once that island was reached, and the fuel was brought on board, the journey back to the Metro would only take a few days, and not a few more weeks. The hope was that the shortened travel time would allow the crew to arrive in the Metro far sooner than anyone expected. Which, if everything worked as planned, would give you a couple days of freedom before anyone would seriously begin to look for you on the massive island.

"This island we're getting provisions on, it's called Carbra Nation?" You question, pointing on the map.

"Carbonation is the fuel that powers the Sunny," Nami corrects. "The island itself doesn't have a name, but I bet Franky will want to call it Carbra now." She adds, smiling.