He vanishes years ago.
He should be dead.
He survived.
They found him again.
He stood before them with a new title.
As the greatest swordsman in history.
Everyone had woken up, and Luffy felt amazing! He had so much energy, he felt so...so...fresh! He showed it to everyone.
"Guys, look! I can move! Im not tired at all!"
As he played and goofed around, he saw Sanji wake up a little further away, and saw him search around and dash off in a panic.
"Whats up with Sanji?"
"I don't know." Nami replied, holding her head. "Probably nothing important."
"Then where's Zoro, Nami?"
"Not important now, Luffy! Where are all your injuries?"
But it was important. Sanji came rushing back, something dark in his hand and something wrapped in his suit jacket.
"He's gone!" the chef frantically called back to them, eyes wide with worry. Too much panic. Luffy stopped bouncing. Everyone, including Lola and the others, they knew it too.
Something was incredibly wrong.
"Isn't that Zoro's bandana?" Usopp pointed shakily to the dark fabric in Sanji's hand. The chef nodded, a deep frown on his face.
"It's Zoro...I can't find him anywhere. Or that Warlord, Kuma."
Reluctantly, Sanji explained how Zoro offered himself in Luffy's stead, and how Sanji tried to stop him. The skeleton Brook told them what he saw afterwards, but he passed out once they were out of sight, too tired to follow.
"So is he...dead?" Chopper asked, tears in his eyes but still in shock, staring at the ground and nothing at the same time.
Zoro and dead don't belong in the same sentence. Ever. But there it was.
"Was there a body?" Robin asked, shoulders slightly shaking.
"All I found was this." Sanji held out the bandana. "And this..." The straw hats leaned in unknowingly. His swords? Were his swords there?
"His white katana. The...Wado...Ichimonji." He unwrapped his suit and took out what was inside.
It was shattered. The Wado. Broken in pieces. The hilt, the blade fragments, and the sheath itself were stained red, some still dripping.
"And nothing else..." Sanji ended, monotone.
"That's Zoro's treasure..." Luffy's eyes widened, remembering that one night on the Merry, when Zoro told him the history of his sword, his dream.
Luffy hated the state of the sword. As if mocking him. Saying over and over again. 'A shattered dream...a shattered dream...'
"NO! If there's no body, then he's still alive! I know it!" he roared. "What kind of joke is this! Zoro! come out! Captain's orders!"
No one dared to move. Luffy's fists were clenched tightly.
"WHERE IS HE?!"
The Strawhats became empty. They were missing one. It felt too empty to bear. Their family wasn't whole anymore.
--elsewhere, three days later--
"You..." He drove his katana into the ground and tried to pull himself up. "What are you doing here?"
The bubblegum-pink haired girl pouted. "You're that swordsman from Strawhat's crew. Did that stupid Kuma blast you here, too?"
"Go away."
"You're not cute at all! I'm the one who tended your wounds, you know!"
"Well, I'm not one to say thank you."
"Whatever, do your own thing, I don't care."
He responded with a grunt. Moments later, baboons using a variety of human weapons appeared. The ghost girl, Perona, ended up helping the swordsman again. She would never admit it, but having the swordsman's company was better than having none at all.
On the way back, all Zoro could think of was the crew.
'That Kuma guy better have kept his promise. I don't care if he sent me to this place to die...as long...as long as Luffy and the rest are okay.'
Zoro decided that he'd stay with Perona, and get back to full strength. The baboons could be good training.
He would be there for a week, and soon, his teacher will arrive.
There was a thud suddenly, beside him. The news coo delivered the newspaper. Perona picked it up. And read the headline aloud in surprise. Zoro froze, eyes widening in disbelief.
'No...! What was my sacrifice worth if he just...'
"STRAWHAT PIRATES DEFEATED IN SABODY ARCHIPELAGO BY BARTHOLOMEW KUMA."
"It was pointless..."
'Wadō Ichimonji...everyone...everything I stood for...'
"Pointless..." He repeated. He didn't hear the ghost girl's frantic shouts.
'My nakama...!'
He didn't care how she saw his tears. He just lost everything, damn it! He didn't care how his frame shook, didn't care about his pride.
'What is there to be prideful about, with no dream or family?'
He remembered a saying his old sensei once told him at Kuina's death...
"Some people don't cry because they are weak. They cry because they have been strong for far too long.."
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He guessed that Koshiro was right. He was now too far gone..
