Wings of Fire

1.

Zoro had just realized that he was alive. Apart from the lack of energy and numerous wounds from his last battle, he felt fine. The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes was that for some reason he was in the forest.

Where am I... What happened... Where is everyone else?

Trying to remember what happened, the events of the previous day popped up in his head.

×××
"NO! ZORO!"
Luffy screamed at the top of his lungs, but Kuma ignored him. When the Strawhat Pirates found Rayleigh, they did not know that a real hunt would begin for them. The attack on the Celestial Dragons turned out to be a much bigger problem than they expected. They were surrounded by enemies from all sides, it was impossible to win in this situation and everyone understood this. At a time when any wrong step can lead be deadly, the only thing you can rely on is yourself. And of course Zoro decided to stand and fight despite the fact that Luffy gave the order to run! Zoro spat out blood and looked daggers at the warlord.

"I- urgh- won't let you kill my friends."

"If you were to go on a vacation, where would you like to go?"

What? A lot of questions and thoughts popped up in Zoro's mind as he stood frozen, but Kuma raised his hand and-

(**BLIP**)

That's how Zoro woke up already on the island. He decided to look around. There was a paw-shaped hole in the place where he hit the ground.

I'll kill this freak...

Even though the sun was just rising, it was already quite warm and humid. The forest buzzed with the sounds of insects and other hidden creatures. Most likely, they were scared by this man who arrived at their island, Zoro thought. Without paying much attention to his surroundings, he walked through the depths of the forest, hoping to find at least some clue as to where he might be. If someone tries to attack me from under cover, i w-will have the agility to repel the attack. However, he shouldn't let his guard down.

The hopelessness of his situation slowly began to dawn on Zoro. He found himself in the middle of nowhere, almost uninhabited strange island. After all, no animals other than some small insects had yet been seen. Zoro tensed involuntarily. In the back of his mind he knew that he would have to solve this mystery if he wanted to get out of here. Even if the only thing he had the strength to do was to move forward.

There were times in his career as a pirate hunter when he had near-death experiences, not to mention the time he spent with the strawhat pirates. When he was chasing a pirate with Johnny and Yosaku that had a bounty of 50M berries, he end up fighting on an enemy ship. He cut the pirate's crew one by one, but because of the destruction, boards began to crack. They crumbled to pieces and after a while it snapped in half. The ocean began to take the ship to the bottom, and with it, the pirate captain who used the devilfruit powers. There was not a single place on Zoro's body where he was not touched by wounds. Internal bleeding, penetrating wounds, broken ribs... Vomiting blood, Zoro grabbed the board in the sea and concentrated all his strength not to lose consciousness. It's good that some fishermen noticed me after a while.

Zoro drew a parallel between these two situations. It's a miracle that he survived such madness. He was not one of the timid ones, so the prospect of fighting his way out of any trouble didn't bother him. Luck is on his side. No, he doesn't need luck at all. When the world shoves you around, you just gotta stand up and shove it back. With newfound determination, Zoro walked faster, despite the pain he tried to ignore.

×××

Judging by the position of the sun, not much time had passed. The surroundings remained unremarkable, except for the chirping of birds, twisted trees stretching into the sky, bushes with colorful berries and flowers, the poisonousness of which Zoro could not vouch for, the sound of rushing water... Wait, is there a source of water nearby? This is already something. It wouldn't hurt to freshen up and wash the grime off. Suddenly, Zoro sensed something was wrong, he felt like he's being watched. He stopped and turned around sharply.