Not long after stepping out of the shower, Zoro's footsteps came to a halt when his auditory senses caught up to a conversation that Robin had initiated with Nami.
"What!? Are you sure it was him, Robin?" The younger girl questioned.
"Yes, there's no doubt about it. It definitely is."
Robin's answer left Zoro wanting more depth to what they were talking about, so he pressed his ear against the door before leaving the bathroom and continued to quietly eavesdrop on the ship's Navigator and Archeologist.
"This isn't like him. Is this really.... Luffy?"
"I'm just as shocked as you are. It doesn't seem like our Captain at all."
Based solely on the way they were expressing themselves on their Captain, Zoro jumped to the conclusion that what they were commenting on was the video that he watched before with Sanji.
The idea of the entire crew watching such an explicit video that was filmed to blackmail and torment Luffy and Sanji, was what encouraged the Swordsman to take action on this before things got out of hand.
"Wait! Don't!!"
He flung the door open with a force so strong that it made the shower curtains vigorously oscillate back and forth against the pressure of the wind until the door shut, allowing them to settle back to the way they were before.
Heads from all around the Sunny turned to face Zoro as the man ran out in his bathrobe, dripping cold water everywhere: From the strands of his neon green hair, to the bottom of his legs.
"What's going on?"
The Swordsman asked, standing in the middle of the dining room where everyone was slowly gathering after he rushed out of the restroom.
"YOU TELL ME!"
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YA!?"
"YOU MORON!! DON'T SCARE US LIKE THAT, BASTARD!"
Oppose to obtaining the answers he needed, Zoro ended up getting scolded by a few of his friends who were taken back by his sudden and calm attitude.
"Don't do what?" Nami questioned, glancing at the Swordsman.
"Don't..."
Locating a useful item on top of the dining table that could help him maneuver his way around the tight spot he got himself into, Zoro cleared his throat to speak again.
"Don't touch that thing, it's mine. You can't have it."
The man's unbelievable confession silenced the entire crew, leaving them with their jaws hanging to the floor in complete shock and disbelief.
"S.... Sanji's handkerchief?!!"
"THIS IS YOURS!?"
"What the hell's going on with you two lately?! What the hell's happening around here in general with you three!? Someone explain it before I rip my chest hairs off!!"
Franky shouted in an overly dramatic voice, grasping at the hairs on either side of his head, having no chest hair to physically pull off of his chest.
"I keep worsening things instead of improving this situation for myself. I can't keep screwing up..."
The Swordsman furrowed his eyebrows when the feeling of anger and anxiety took over him for a moment, the closer he was to exposing everything right before everyone.
"Never mind that, right now. I can't believe you have the time to think about useless things like that and not the fact that Luffy's in danger!"
Nami's disquieting disclosure worked as a distraction for everyone to forget about Zoro's odd behavior.
It especially worked on Zoro himself as he couldn't pay attention to anything else, even to what he had said before, after he heard Nami's speech.
"Zoro, where have you been all day? It's almost midnight and neither you, Sanji-Kun, or Luffy have been anywhere around the Sunny."
"She's right!"
Chopper spoke up, remembering how much trouble Zoro and the other two pirates put him through, along with the rest of his crewmates.
"And I'll tell you. I'll let everybody on this ship know what's going on and where Luffy and the Cook are."
After finally stating this, everyone around Zoro breathed out a sigh of relief, while some anticipated his next response.
Putting himself on the spotlight was the last thing that Zoro wanted to do, but he couldn't afford to lie back and wait for the issues or potential rumors to go away on their own.
So he lifted his head up, standing strong before the rest of his friends, wanting to get this problem solved as soon as possible.
"But before I say anything else... What article were you two talking about, earlier?"
The Swordsman asked, looking over at Nami who had a newspaper in her hand, folded in half.
Staring back at him, the orange haired woman nodded at Zoro then parted her lips to give the man a proper response.
"This. A stork dropped it in Robin's hands when you got back to the Sunny. There's a photo of that horrible child molester we saw in Prism Paradise... With a photo of Luffy on the other-"
Nami's eyes widened in shock when Zoro snatched the newspaper out of her hands to read it.
"The things it says about Luffy is absurd. What's worse is that the Government is going to be on his back, more than they already are, for killing this man." The woman stated, crossing her arms.
"Serves him right."
To her surprise, Zoro's answer to her statement was not what she or anyone else was expecting.
It was very out of place for the Swordsman to make such a bold comment when his Captain's freedom was at risk.
"Y-you do realize that if they find Luffy, they'll lock him up or even execute him for this?"
Usopp responded, raising his eyebrows at the older man who, in return, smirked darkly and shook his head at him.
"That not only goes for Luffy, but for any criminal that does this type of thing. But tell me one thing, Usopp,"
Zoro's body grew heavy with the remorse he was carrying on his shoulders while walking closer towards his crewmates.
"If the Marine's security system is strict enough to give Luffy a death penalty for doing justice to innocent lives, but not the reinforcements to capture the criminal that was raping and killing them off, what do you call that? An act of bravery on their end?"
Not a single voice echoed throughout the Sunny: Everyone aboard the ship was astonished by Zoro's outstanding response, they grew speechless.
"You know what I call it? An excuse. The excuse they need to not give credits to a pirate. They could kill us off in the name of justice but the moment we do it, we're the bad guys?"
Nami and Chopper jolted and nearly screamed when Zoro slammed his fist against the table, causing a loud ruckus.
In his eyes, something had changed, completely.
There was an epitome of oppressed anger and indignation consuming every living cell within his body, almost setting his soul aflame.
"You know, it's a sick world we live in. And humans like them are the virus infecting everyone else."
He lifted his hands up and let them drop to the sides of his pants, as a symbol of him giving up on humanity.
After voicing his opinions on the Marines and Luffy's article with his crewmates, the Swordsman walked away to collect some fresh air outside on the deck, leaving everyone with a look of curiosity cast upon their face.
"Is this really Zoro? It's as if the person talking through him was someone else! I've never heard him talking like this."
~~~
