A/N: this fic is dead when I say its dead.

"Zoro loses."

Zoro hissed, panting on the floor, the kendo swords he was using rolling to his sides.

Dammit.

Kuina stood before him, barely panting, pointing her kendo sword to his head.

DAMMIT.

"You are so weak." she chided, but there was no bite to her words.

It somehow made it all worse.

GOD. DAMMIT.

He was on the ground again.

Using real swords hadn't helped him at all.

All his training hadn't helped him at all.

Kuina was victorious all over again, barely breaking a sweat.

"Dammit!" he hissed, rolling to his back and looking up to the night sky. "DAMMIT."

"Why am I so weak!" he screamed up to the heavens, not even caring Kuina was hearing all of it, "It's so unfair!"

"It is," Kuina mumbled, taking a seat on the porch of the dojo. "You'll surpass me in no time."

"Huh-" he grumbled, hissing as he sat up. "What the hell do you mean?"

"Zoro, we are young- that's the only reason I can beat you." she mumbled, resting her hand on her chest. "My dad- he was clear with me about this."

His eye twitched, groaning as he got to his feet. "The hell do you mean! You think you can talk down to me just cause you beat me?"

"Zoro, I'm being honest!" she spat out, almost disgusted by the words she was uttering. "I'm a woman- there is no way I could keep up with your strength as we grow older!"

"Eehhh?" he grit his teeth. He knew it, she never took him seriously.

He wasn't even worth her mockery.

"So you are saying when I beat you, it'll be cause I'm a man?" he spat to the side, disgusted by the prospect. "How low do you think I am!?"

Kuina looked shocked for a moment, before starting to giggle lightly with a soft blush.

To this day, he couldn't figure out what that meant.

"You are the only one that beat me in all the dojo's on this island." he hissed, trying to ignore the weird sensation bubbling in his chest. "Don't go disgracing me by saying you're so weak."

"That's- so you," she mumbled, stopping her giggling and looking up to the night sky. "Do you have a dream Zoro?"

"Of course," he hissed, looking to the side, focusing onto the swords he had left on the floor. "To be the greatest swordsman."

"Ah. We had the same dream." she mused behind him.

"Had?" he shot a look to her over his shoulder.

"I'm not the right-"

"Shut! Up! About that!" he hissed, turning to face her, his hands balled into fists hard enough to ache from his nails digging into his palms. "You are gonna let something that little get in the way of your dream!?"

She smiled, getting off from the porch and making her way to him. "Y'know… you are right."

"I'll meet you at the top then, Eh, Zoro?" She chided, patting him over the shoulder. "One of us will be the greatest swordsman in the world."

"I'll fight you all the way to the goal!"

"She died."

Zoro couldn't even look up to the Dojo owner.

"She fell down the stairs, snapped her neck." He clarified. Sorrow leaking with every word, but none showing in his posture. No tears.

He knew then that it couldn't be a dream.

"I'm sorry Zoro."

"Her sword- can I have it?" he muttered, shocked by how hollow he had sounded.

She died.

He didn't hear a response, only the weight of the white blade in his hands.

He slowly pulled it free of the sheath, seeing himself in the reflection on the steel.

"Zoro" he heard the muffled sounds, brain relating them to his late friend.

"Zoro-"

"Zoro!"

Were the sounds getting louder?

"Kuina?"

"ZORO!"

He opened his eyes, sight slightly blurred from the sudden light, one of the darker blurs moving debris aside with urgency. "Zoro, you ok?"

Zoro sighed, blinking a bit as his sight returned, noticing Luffy standing over him with-

"The hell are those on your head?"

His captain laughed, the oddly cat-like ears on his head twitching with delight before slowly sinking back into his hair and out of the way.

"Bat ears," he explained, dusting off his vest and sighing in relief "how did you mess up hiding behind me?"

Zoro didn't have an answer to that, only grunting and attempting to get to his feet.

Luffy looked worried for a moment before helping him up, getting under his shoulder to give him some support. "You're tougher than you look, y'know?"

"Something that little won't do me in." he hissed, other hand doing a once over himself and sighing with relief at the contact with his swords. "What's the plan? Captain?"

"Hit you over the head a few times, then leave you with the captain of the village while I take care of Buggy." he explained, ruffling the older mans hair. "You did well today, first mate. Rest for a bit."

"You're pushing me to the side?" he hissed, the memories bringing out some of his resentment of being weak. "I'm not done yet ."

Luffy seemed to stop, his eyes looking deep into his.

Zoro could feel the hair on the back of his neck start to rise. Something primal in him was getting restless under the gaze of his captain.

His face broke in a smirk. Just what had he gotten himself into?

Luffy laughed, pulling away and slapping him on the back, causing him to stumble to his knees but not fall on his face, his arms barely catching him.

"What gives!?"

"Good." Luffy hollered from behind him. Moving forward, he chuckled. "I was worried over nothing in the end,"

"What!?" Zoro stumbled to his feet, one of his hands going to his swords. "Was this just a test?"

"Eh?" the straw-hat wearing teen turned around with an unreadable expression. "What kind of idiot would test their crew like that? I just underestimated you-"

Zoro's eyes narrowed, hand leaving his sword.

He had one eccentric captain, that was for sure.

"I hope you won't make that mistake again."

Luffy laughed, turning his back on him.

"Ronoroa Zoro, you have my word."

"Nami!" he shouted out, the navigator almost tripping at the shout from behind her. Shooting a look back, her eyes widened

Zoro was standing again.

ARE THEY FUCKING MORONS?

She sighed, halting her trek towards the village chief, and hopefully medical care, and instead rushed back to the two in her crew.

"Luffy- I thought you had some modicum of sense!" she hissed, gripping his red vest and shaking him back and forth. "You know how dangerous it is for him to be standing up! What if he has a concussion? Orinternal hemorrhaging?"

The cute idiot laughed in her face at the questions, gripping her hand and stilling her shaking. "He's fiiiiine, Nami. Besides, since when did you care about the health of pirates?"

"You two are different!"

She blinked, starting to slowly blush at what she had spilled out in the heat of the moment.

He blinked, his face slowly splitting into a shit-eating grin.

She punched him in the head, causing the young captain to fall flat on his back.

She stopped caring for Zoro's health when she heard him cackle in the background.

That. fucking. IDIOT.

Few minutes earlier

"Captain Buggy." One of his subordinates rambled, shuddering as he made his way to the throne the clown was lounging on.

"Mohji hasn't…"

The captain clicked his tongue, noticing that the crewman was looking at his nose.

Unacceptable.

He cackled as the crewman suddenly floated into the air, gasping and groaning. "You got something to say about my nose?"

"N-no captain..."

"You sure?" he grinned, enjoying watching the life start to drain from the crewman. "Nothing about it being big? You seem to be unable to look away from it."

"N-no, I wouldn't say anything about your red nose sir!"

"RED?! YOU THINK ITS DISGUSTING DON'T YOU!"

"N-no captain-!"

"Fire the buggy ball."

His crew worked efficiently, the cannonball being loaded and lit faster than the crewmember could choke to unconsciousness.

Then again, he wasn't squeezing that hard. It was always funnier seeing the last expression on their faces before the cannonball hit.

The moment of knowing they would die. Ahhh, pure fear.

It nourished him in a way booze or food couldn't.

Fire and brimstone shot through, taking the crewman with it, wreaking havoc to the town behind him too.

"Aaaah, another happy explosion..."

"Now then," he turned around, raising a mug high into the air. "LETS TOAST!"

A nearby movement drew his attention, which turned out to be his fidgeting first mate, the acrobat Cabaji.

"What's wrong, first mate?"

"Something feels… off"

"Y're overthinking stuff."

"Welp." Luffy looked down on the unconscious Mohji who had somehow managed to get knocked out in the few minutes that had taken him to echolocate Zoro.

Kinda weak, isn't he?

"Is that going to hinder our plans, captain?" his first mate groaned, shaking his head again, combing through his lime-green hair. " God, I need some booze " he added under his breath.

"I mean," Luffy smirked, looking at the pathway the explosion had carved out for them to follow. "guess we don't really need him at this point, do we?"

"No shit, Sherlock," Nami muttered from his side, leaning on his shoulder, staring up to him with an unimpressed expression. "I'm gonna take the side route and loot everything they have while you guys take care of the fighters-"

She paused when the young captain tilted his head, then shook his head "Nah, I'm gonna take them all down in one shot, stick to us."

Nami blinked a few times, growing content with his words. Just something about how he said them filled her with the urge to believe, to trust him fully.

It was frightening, considering what he was, and what she was forced to be.

"Besides, if you took the side route you might accidentally get caught in the crossfire."

She blinked, fear crossing through her mind. "Ah."

"OI!"

The party Buggy started ground to a halt, every single one of the crewmembers twitching with anger at the interruption.

"You guys the Buggy pirate crew?!"

"Who's asking?" Buggy called back out, walking to the railing of the bar's rooftop seating area "Who the hell are you?"

"The man that's going to be the king of pirates!" the red-vest screamed in response, puffing his chest with pride.

He reminded him of that straw-hat wearing buffoon he had dealt with all those years ago.

Buggy choked on his spit when he spotted the same straw hat on the head of the new idiot bothering him.

"You!- YOU!"

He breathed out. Centering himself, no need to pop a gasket over this, after all, there was no chance Red-hair would be here. Besides, the group of three looked tough; maybe wanna-be recruits?

Ah. Its good to be infamous.

"Do you want to join our crew?" he called out, smiling sweetly down at the three.

Wait, is that Ronoroa Zoro?

"Nah." the kid with the straw hat called back, seemingly stretching his joints.

Some of his clown crew screamed in anger at the speed of the rejection.

"Then what the hell you want?"

"To punch you in your red clown nose, obviously."

"OH YOU THINK YOU'RE FUNNY HUH?" he exploded, chopping his arm to the side, crew already moving to prepare the Buggy cannon. "MEN. FIRE THE BUGGY BALL!"

"Luffy. If I die, I will haunt you 'til you die too." the orange-haired woman whimpered, her eyes flashing with a delectable amount of fear.

The pirate captain's eyes glanced at the kid who had spat his life away and paused.

The kid was laughing at him, no fear as the fuse reached its end, fire glowing in the depths of the armament.

At that moment, Captain Buggy knew fear once more.

"Captain, you got this?" Zoro mumbled, only shooting a weary glance at the younger man, eyebrow rising high.

"Now who's underestimating who?" he shot back, arm starting to transform and growing darker. "Nami take a step back I need a bit of personal space for this."

The woman noticed that she was almost hiding behind her captain at that point, jumping away with a blush. "Aight, aight. You sure though?"

Luffy didn't respond, cackling as the cannon shot forth, his eyes changing and watching the cannonball sail towards him, the insignia of Buggy's Jolly Roger pasted on the red explosive.

Now, gotta do this with the right timing.

He breathed out, reaching out with his hand, waiting for the moment of contact.

And in mere milliseconds, he felt the touch of the scorching hot metal against his armored fingertips.

His body reacted, pushing his arm to the side, feeling the satisfying weight of the mass of steel stuck to his palm and followed through with a spin, forcing his fingers closed at the end detaching his palm with practiced ease. Effectively redirecting the shot right back to the group of clown pirates on the rooftop with one fluid motion.

He laughed, shaking his hand with a hiss after the fact, watching the fear in the eyes of the pirate crew before the cannonball hit.

Zoro whistled, chuckling lightly at the scene. "Didn't know you could do that..."

Nami looked paralyzed in her spot. "H-how?"

"Well you loosen your shoulders a bit, spin around- ah but you gotta have something very sticky in your hand." Luffy explained, tapping a finger on his chin. "You should be able to do it, though, you look dexterous enough"

"I'M HUMAN, LUFFY!" She shot back, chopping him on the head.

The man only laughed more boisterously, not even reacting to her chop. "You're underestimating yourself!"

"Luf-" whatever Nami was going to say got cut off, as the thief noticed the still standing forms of a few pirates, hiding behind her young captain. "H-how are they still standing?!"

Luffy blinked, taking note of how the pirates still 'standing' were being held up by Buggy and another crewman. "Oh." He grit his teeth "They used their crew as cover."

Nami took note, as this was the first time she had seen Luffy get even close to angry.

Part of her registered how menacing he had become in one short second. It was like night and day.

"Cabaji." Buggy hissed out, dropping the three pirates he was holding, and shooting a look at his first mate. "Kill him."

The green-haired man pulled out an unicycle out of nowhere and reached in his mouth, pulling out a sword. "With pleasure."

"Ew." Luffy mumbled, looking at Zoro. "You wanna deal with him?"

"If spit gets on me, I'm going to be mad." His first mate muttered, biting onto the hilt of Wado, pulling the other two out of their sheaths "want me to toy with him?"

"Eh, don't be callous now." Luffy shot back, shrugging lightly. "Just finish him in one move, but no killing."

"You got it captain."

"YOU!" Buggy called out, taking the attention of Luffy, Zoro focusing purely on the target in front of him. "You are the bounty hunter Ronoroa Zoro, aren't you? Are you here for my head?"

"Oni."

Luffy ignored the commotion, taking a look at Nami. "You go ahead and loot the place, we got the rest covered."

The wind picked up, Zoro appearing behind Cabiji in a glint of metal. "GIRI."

Nami shivered at the sight, nodding without a word and dashing away into the rubble.

The Acrobat struggled, the unicycle breaking apart under him, causing him to drop to the ground on his knees, wheezing from the many shallow cuts all over him.

"W-wha… how?" he muttered, trying to turn to take a look at the Ex-pirate hunter. The effort was enough to cause his body to give under him, crashing to the ground unconscious.

"Gah." Zoro groaned, rubbing his forehead with irritation. "They still don't put up enough of a fight. It's getting annoying."

"We'll get better fighters in the Grand Line" Luffy called out, staring down Buggy.

The clown's expression sat somewhere between scared and absolutely livid.

Luffy's eyes narrowed, something was off.

"Zoro. you hang back with this one."

The swordsman huffed, sheathing his weapons once more. "You got it cap'n."

"AH!" Buggy seemed to shiver, taking a step back. "Why did you call him off?"

"...suspicion confirmed." Luffy breathed out, cracking his chitinous hand. "You ate a Devil Fruit didn't you?"

"Wha-" Buggy's face paled. Can he read minds? My power was supposed to be unknown!

"Neither you nor your first mate seemed to question my arm." Luffy shrugged. "Kind of a dead give away, don't you think?"

" Shit. " Buggy hissed grabbing three daggers from under his cloak, gripping each between his fingers as he pulled a fist. "But just knowing that won't give you the fight! Shitty Strawhat!"

Luffy blinked as the man punched forward. Way out of range, to be of any danger. Only for the Clown captain to smirk as his arm split at his wrist, gloved hand shooting forward at unexpected speeds.

Luffy didn't dodge, instead raising his other hand with a tired expression.

"Iron-clad"

Buggy regretted his life choices.

Luffy grabbed the hand-turned projectile with ease, crushing the daggers under the grip, Buggy barely pulling his hand back in time to not have it be turned into a mass of mangled flesh.

He flexed his fingers as his hand reattached back to his arm, thankful that he managed to dodge that. "What the hell are you! A beetle-men?"

"Of sorts. What are you? A sectioned man?"

He didn't need a response as Buggy's eyes bugged out, both almost popping out of his skull at the accusation.

On the side Zoro mumbled something about 'pain in the ass,' likely thankful he didn't try to cut the captain himself.

"I got everything!" Nami called out, lugging a giant bag of loot over her shoulder, her legs trembling lightly from the weight. "And the map too!"

"Good going, I'm about wrapped up here anyway!" Luffy called out with a smirk that caused Buggy to fear for his life.

One last ace in the hole...

"Bara-Bara Escape!"

Buggy laughed as his body separated into small parts and started spinning around Luffy, trying to confuse the man. He just needed a second, just enough to get a lethal hit in, a stab in the kidney and he would be victorious.

He questioned what was going on as the black gauntlet on his target's right arm faded away, dark eyes locking up onto his segmented ones.

'Now' his brain screamed, one of his hands gripping the dagger shot at the man's back, aiming to maim him for life.

Only to fly off without hitting a target as Luffy took a step to the side, touching one of his separated parts.

What the hell is this kid...

"Doesn't matter!" he cackled, the sections starting to spin faster "You can't hurt me when I'm like this! And I just need a moment to-"

"To…"

He gulped as he noticed his body parts were starting to clump together, tied tightly as if caught in a spider… web.

He blinked, noticing the tell-tale glint of silk coming from the fingertips of the captain.

"Oh no."

Luffy smiled, his left hand transforming again, white gauntlet melting away and replaced with neon green fingers and red bulbous fingertips, looking ready to flick something to death.

"Oh yes."

He really didn't want to test out what would happen if one of his parts was too far away from his body, instincts forcing him to re-assemble as fast as possible.

Only to end up as a head with hands and feet, the rest of his body stuck to the ground by the spider web his opponent had conjured up.

"Thanks for making this easier!" Luffy roared, fist pulled back and ready to fire.

Buggy had a one second prayer.

"Shrimp! TWIN-IMPACT!"

Luffy's fist hit hard, almost breaking Buggy's more-than cushioned nose before all of his fingers flicked too, the generated shockwave sending the abomination against nature high into the sky, turning into a twinkle on the horizon.

Zoro whistled. "Did'ja kill him?"

Luffy shook both of his hands as they transformed back into their natural states, raising an eyebrow. "Hmmmm- I feel like I didn't. But if he falls into the sea, I'unno"

"Why are you so Ok with killing a man?" Nami mumbled shivering at the sight.

"...Nami, we are pirates, and he tried to stab me in the kidney."

"...well when you put it that way..."

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed it, see you all on the next one!