Book One: Treasure of the Heart (Zoro X OC)

Chapter One Hundred Fifteen ~ Sabaody Archipelago

~Third~

The Sunny was making it's way through the archipelago while the others were completely enamoured and in awe of their new surroundings Nicole was anything but that, she shivered as old memories began to resurface and a feeling of dread started to bubble again, Zoro noticed and grabbed her hand squeezing it reassuringly.

Nicole smiled at him as all her bad memories and feelings of dread washing away, that's right, she wasn't alone now, she had Zoro and the others, anyway Hatchan explained how this place worked as the Strawhats made their way to Grove 41 and anchored their ship and got off the ship.

"Hey make sure you all remember the grove number okay? Like i said before the whole Archipelago is connected by a series of bridges so you won't get lost if you remember the number your docked at"Hatchan said.

Nicole sweatdropped, Zoro would find a way to get lost regardless at least she'll remember the way, maybe, she was a little distracted by her own thoughts, Luffy was playing around with the bubbles and came crashing down after the bubble popped, he was fine though.

"So Hatchi what's our objective on this island anyway? Didn't you say something before about the ship getting coated?"Nami asked "We'll meet up with one of the islands coating specialist and have him slap a coat of this resin on your ship, that's all it takes after that your ship will be fully equipped for underwater travel"Hatchan said.

"Seriously?"Franky asked "Yep the process works wonders and it's the only way i know of how humans can reach fishman island but you don't want an amateur to do it if it's not done right the water pressure will crush the ship and everyone on it, i've got one specialist i really trust though so you'll be in good hands"Hatchan said.

"But first in exchange for my help promise me one thing"Hatchan said "Sure, what is it?"Luffy asked, Nicole had a hunch what it would be "Once we cross the bridge into town there's a chance we might run into the world nobles"Hatchan said "Okay who?"Chopper asked "Yeah who are they?"Luffy asked.

"The pompous asses that live in Marie Geoise, supposedly they're descendants of the originators of the world government and somehow that makes them think their above everyone else, calling themselves Celestial Dragons and thinking their above other humans even, a load of crap they're even worse then slave traders"Nicole said a hatred in her eyes none of the Strawhats had seen before.

Then it died down as Nicole sighed "But you can't do anything to defy them, even if they kill someone you'll have to look the other way, they wear mask so as to not breath the same air, that's how pompous they think of themselves as and no one can do anything to knock them off their high horse, because if they do Headquarters will send an Admiral and a fleet of battleships loaded full with marines and with how close we are to it, it won't even take a day for them to arrive"she said.

A few of the Strawhats went back to the ship, Usopp and Franky were refueling the cola, Sanji was guarding Nami's treasure, Zoro had stayed behind with Nicole cause she refused to go any further into Sabaody however as Zoro jumped off running off somewhere she didn't hesitate to follow.

"Hey Zoro! Where are you going?!"Usopp and Sanji called "For a walk, that okay?"Zoro asked coming to a stop letting Nicole catch up to him "Of course not!"Usopp said "You're gonna get yourself lost moron!"Sanji yelled at him "I'm not gonna get lost! Only an idiot would get turned around in a place like this!"Zoro yelled back.

Nicole sweatdropped, she knew better "Don't worry you guys, i'll make sure he doesn't get lost!"she called "Alright then have fun!"Usopp called "Moss head! If you don't protect Nicole i'll kick your ass!"Sanji called as the two waved them off.

"Tsk, i'm not that stupid, at the very least i will always protect you"Zoro said glancing at Nicole making her blush before looking at the tree and memorizing the number 1 getting confused because a bubble happened to block the four before the one, he grabbed Nicole's hand dragging her with him as he walked off.

~skip~

Luffy, Brook and Chopper were lead into Shakky's rip off bar by Hatchan where all of that which i'm too lazy to write happened but i'm writing this bit cause i wanna, anyway "My contacts tell me you've got some infamous company out there with your arrival on the Sabaody Archipelago there are now twelve people with bounties exceeding one hundred million berries on the groves"Shakky told the crew.

"There are twelve people with bounties that high?"Chopper asked "That's right, adding Roronoa, Mihawk and Monkey here to the list you've got twelve so there are nine others, you had a choice to make when you crossed the Grand Line, there are seven sea routes that would lead you here and after you picked one you followed your log pose the rest of the way right?"Shakky asked.

Luffy nodded "Well naturally these other pirates picked one of the six routes you chose not to and trust me they went through just as much trouble as you did to get here, it doesn't matter which route you took you eventually hit the Red Line and everyone winds up on this archipelago with hopes of getting past that giant wall, it's a bit crazy that all of the worlds best rookies managed to show up here at the same time though and such a notorious lot at that"Shakky said.

"At the top you've got Kid, yourself, Hawkins, Drake and Law, the fifth spot is actually a shared one with your friend Mihawk, since her and Law have the same bounty on their heads, for now at least"Shakky said.

~skip~

"Hold it!"Nicole hissed grabbing Zoro and hiding in the alley "But you saw what happened we can't just-"he was cut off "I know!"Nicole said, Zoro stopped in his struggling noticing Nicole glaring at the Celestial Dragons.

"Believe me i'd like nothing more then to take out one of those pompous asses, they probably wouldn't even see it coming but like i said before if i did that an admiral would be called here, do you want to bring that kind of trouble here?"Nicole asked shifting her glare to him.

Zoro recalled the trouble they had with Aokiji and sighed "No but it pisses me off"he spat out also glaring at the Celestial Dragon "That's good, remember that"she said shifting her glare back to the Celestial Dragon and watching as they left.

Nicole sighed once the Celestial Dragon was out of sight "Come on"she said tugging him along as she went over to the guy shot earlier and Zoro picked him up before Nicole lead Zoro to the nearest hospital, they dropped the guy off and the pair decided to head back to Sunny which Zoro remembered was docked in grove 1, something didn't sound right to Nicole about that but she shrugged it off and held Zoro's hand walking with him.

~skip~

On their way back Nicole and Zoro ran into some trouble with bounty hunters but Nicole took care of all of them in the blink of an eye "So anyway as i was saying are you sure it was Grove 1?" Nicole asked putting her sword away as the pair walked away from the beaten group of men "Yeah i'm sure"Zoro said.