Hi guys, it's been a while! As promised, here are the bonus scenes. There were supposed to be four of them, but I was having a major block with one, so I decided to wait on it. When I do get it finished, it'll be posted either here or in a separate fic (most likely the latter - that way I can add other scenes from both this story and the sequel if I want to).

The Demon

He didn't look like a monster, she decided as she studied him from a distance. The people in the village told lots of stories about him, but then, she'd always been the type to find things out for herself. Mama would probably scold her later for going into the woods alone. But if she did find trouble today, this man wouldn't be the cause of it. The moment she'd laid eyes on him, she knew he'd never hurt her. She couldn't say how she knew. He looked terribly fierce, even asleep under a tree as he was now. People that weren't dangerous didn't get those kinds of scars. Their faces were softer, without the sort of harsh lines that defined this man's craggy features. And she didn't miss the swords resting by his side, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.

He was clearly a warrior. Skilled, too, to have lived as long as he had. It was no surprise the village children were terrified of him, but she couldn't summon even a drop of fear. The breeze ruffled his white hair as she crept closer. That's not the right color, a voice whispered in her head, though she couldn't imagine what color the hair should be.

She was four trees away from him when a deep voice cut the air. "You lost, kid?"

She jumped, instinctively moving closer to her tree at the sudden noise. Once she realized it was the man who had spoken, she calmed herself and stepped out, no longer bothering to hide the noise of her footsteps. "No," she said.

A grunt. "Someone send you on a dare, then? How close can you get to the demon of the bay?"

"No," she repeated. "I came for myself."

The man shifted, and one eye slid open. As it focused on her, he stilled, the eye widening, his mouth slightly open. His left eye remained firmly shut. Stopping in front of him, she noticed a deep scar running across the closed lid.

"What's your name, kid?" he asked at last.

"Mama says you're supposed to tell someone your name before you ask for theirs," she told him.

Something shifted in his expression. She studied him, trying to figure out what had changed. Abruptly, he gave a gruff bark of laughter, and she knew. He was sad. She had seen Papa laugh like that after something bad had happened, like he was trying to cheer himself up. But giving your name first was just manners. How could manners make you sad?

"Ah, I suppose," he said. He smiled at her. It was a small smile, as if he'd forgotten how to make a proper one, but it was real and it was warm. "My name is Zoro," he said.

She smiled back at him. "It's nice to meet you, Zoro. I'm Renata."

"Renata, huh?" he said. "Well, at least it starts with the right letter."

"You mean an R?" she asked. "Why does that matter?"

Instantly his expression became closed. "It doesn't. Never mind."

"But I want to know."

Zoro sighed. "It's not important right now." He looked up at her. "Why did you come here?"

She pouted slightly at his refusal to answer, but spoke anyway. "I wanted to meet you."

He blinked at that, straightening as he pushed himself back against the tree. "Why?"

She plopped herself down in front of him. "They tell a lot of stories about you in the village. They're all different, and they can't all be right, so I wanted to find out the truth myself."

"Oh?" One side of his mouth tugged upward in a ragged smirk. "Have you heard the one where I'm a terrible ogre, who hunts little girls and drinks their blood?"

She looked at him disapprovingly. "You have to tell it right! That story says you eat boys, too."

"Ah, my mistake," he said drily. "The last boy I had was a little too bony, you see, so I'm afraid I'm partial to girls now. Much juicier."

She giggled. "You're just trying to scare me."

"Is it working?"

"Nope." She grinned at him. "I like scary stories. But I don't think that story's true at all."

Bracing his arm on one knee, Zoro cupped his chin in his hand and cocked a snowy eyebrow at her. "Well, what do you think I am, then?"

"I don't know, do I?" she said. "That's why I came to see you."

"Mmm, but if you want to discover the history of something, you have to ask the right questions. The only people who get answers handed to them are the ones who wait for others to do it first."

Renata thought about this for a moment. "If I ask you questions, are you going to tell the truth?"

His eye twinkled. "Maybe."

She frowned at him. "You have to! Or else it won't be the true history."

Zoro drew in a sudden breath, the cheery light in his eye shifting to something lost and hungry. She wanted to ask if she'd said something wrong, but a moment later his expression smoothed out and she received another small smile. "All right, then. I was never the liar of the crew, anyway. I can't say I'll answer everything, though."

"All right." She fixed him with a businesslike look. "Are you human?"

He gave a wry smile. "As much as some might believe otherwise, yes."

"How long have you lived here?"

"Hmm." He leaned back, thinking. "Guess it's been about sixty or seventy years by now."

"Why do you live out here by yourself? Wouldn't it be easier in the village, so you could get help if you needed it?"

"Why, because I'm old?" He shook his head. "I have a home. I don't need another one."

"You mean your ship?" Renata glanced in the direction of the sea. She could just see it through the trees, bobbing cheerfully in the water with its bright colors. "It's a nice ship," she said. "The ones Papa takes me on aren't cute like that one."

Zoro snorted. "A friend of mine built it. Everything he does is like that; after a while it's just normal."

"Where are your friends?" she asked. "Everyone says it's always just you out here."

Ah, that had made him sad again. She bit her lip as a stab of raw pain flitted across his face. She was about to ask a different question – to tell him it didn't matter – when he spoke.

"They left," he said, the words so quiet they were almost lost to the breeze. "A long time ago."

She looked down, fingers twisting through the grass in front of her. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to make you sad."

A rough hand touched her chin, lifted her head so she was looking him in the eye. "It's all right," Zoro told her. "I'm still glad you came. And my friends will come, too. I just need to wait."

She looked at him worriedly. "But, if they're all old like you—"

"Aah, I'm pretty sure they're not old like me." She could still see the pain in his face, but there was determination there, too. "And it doesn't matter, anyway. They'll still come. I don't know how long it'll take, but they'll come." He ruffled her hair. "You helped me remember that."

"I did?"

"Yeah." He smiled. She noticed this smile was a little bigger than his first one. Maybe he had just needed practice. "You're just what I needed."

"You're kind of strange," she said.

Zoro laughed. "But not a demon?"

"No." Renata shook her head firmly. "I don't think you're a monster or a bad person at all, Zoro. I think you're really nice."

"Tch, just don't spread it around. You'll ruin my reputation."

She gave him a stern look. "Maybe you wouldn't be so lonely if you didn't scare everyone away."

"I don't need people dropping in to see me every hour of the day. I'm fine on my own."

"Everyone needs friends," she insisted. "And until yours come back, you'll just have to have new ones." She held out her hand. "Come on, I'll be first. You can make more later."

He stared at the hand, his ancient face flickering with a mixture of emotions. At last, a low chuckle rumbled through the air, and he reached out. His hand dwarfed hers; the powerful fingers wrapped easily around her palm, squeezing lightly.

"I suppose having one friend around wouldn't be too bad," he said. "No promises on making more, though."

"You have to," she insisted. "I don't want you to be lonely again when I leave."

He looked at her sharply. "You're leaving?" he asked. "The island?"

She nodded. "Papa brought Mama and me to stay here while he went to another island for business. When he's done, he'll come get us, and we'll go home." Seeing his expression, she quickly added, "But I'll come back, don't worry! Papa goes this way a lot, and I'm sure he'll let me come with him again!"

"You like sailing?" he asked.

"Yes!" She beamed at him. "It's my favorite thing, besides books. I like books, too." Then she scowled. "But people keep telling me girls can't be sailors."

"Then they're idiots," Zoro said, leaning back against the tree. "I've known a lot of girls that went to sea. There were two in our crew, in fact."

"You had girls on your ship?"

"Yep." He closed his eye, smiling. "One was damn annoying, bossier than the captain – but she was the best navigator you could ever have. And the other…" The eye opened and slid to fix on her. "She was a lot like you, actually. Real smart and wanting to know things. She loved books, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah." He gave her a stern look. "So if you want to sail on a ship, do it, and don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise."

Two weeks later, Renata left the island. She'd been to see Zoro as much as she could, but Mama wasn't easy to sneak away from. She'd had no luck finding anyone else to be his friend, either. The village children were all wimps, she decided – and the adults weren't much better. But she would come back – she had promised she would – and she would try again then.

It took her more than seven years to return. Papa's ships may have gone by the island quite often, but the number of trips that he would allow her to come along for was much fewer.

She almost flew off the ship, running to the forest as soon as she could. "Zoro!" she called. "Zoro, I came back! I'm sorry it took me so long!" A bird twittered from somewhere in the trees, but no deep voice answered her. Her throat tightened. Maybe he was just in another part of the forest, she told herself. Maybe he was too far away to hear. Or maybe his friends had finally come back, and he had left. At least then he would be happy.

She ran for the bay. Breaking out from the trees, she sprinted across the sand, gaze sweeping the water ahead. Nothing. The ship was gone. That's…that's good, right? Doesn't that mean he left with his friends?

"You looking for something, girl?"

She spun around. A man stood there; old, but not so old as Zoro had been. He carried a bucket and a long pole, and he peered at her from beneath bushy brows.

"I—" She swallowed. Her throat felt dry, and suddenly she was afraid to ask. "The man who was living here. Do you know where he is?"

"The crazy old swordsman?" The eyebrows inched up in surprise. "Didn't expect anyone to ask about him. He's long gone, girl."

"Gone…?" She could feel a prickling heat at the corners of her eyes, but fought to keep it back.

"Disappeared. Nearly three years ago now. Most folks figure he died; last person to see him said he wasn't looking too good. Though where the ship could have got to, that's a puzzle, all right." He shrugged. "Either way, you won't find him here. Good thing, too, or I wouldn't dare come to fish." He held up the bucket. "Great spot for fish, this, but not worth risking your life with a demon."

"He wasn't a demon," she said softly. "He was my friend." And with one last look at the bay, she turned and left.

He stood at the edge of the woods and watched the girl – no, young woman, now, perhaps – as she plodded up the hill. "I'm sorry," he told her, though he knew she couldn't hear. "I'm pretty useless right now, aren't I? Can't even make you see me." He snorted softly, one hand running through his thick green hair. "Tch, maybe you wouldn't even recognize me like this."

He squared his shoulders, eyes narrowing in determination as he stared after the retreating figure. "But you'll come back someday, won't you? You and all the others. That's why I'm here. So I'll keep learning. I'll keep training, so that the next time I see you, you'll see me, too." He smiled.

"I'll be waiting…Robin."

Legacy

Nami ran a hand along the empty pot and sighed. Well, I suppose it would have been silly to expect them to still be here. Mikan trees could live a long time, but four hundred years would have been asking a lot, especially without her there to care for them. At least they had enjoyed years of life, even after she'd been unable to return. If Zoro hadn't accidentally killed them before he'd learned enough about what to do, that was.

"Oi."

Nami jumped and spun around. Zoro was standing a few feet away from her, the mid-morning sun shining through his translucent body. She shivered. It had only been a week since they had regained their memories, and while she was beginning to come to terms with all that had happened, she still wasn't used to seeing Zoro like…like that.

"Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you."

She swallowed. "Yes, well, you could try making a little more noise next time."

"I'll keep it in mind," Zoro said drily. He tipped his head in the direction of the mansion. "Luffy said to tell you they're making another trip for supplies."

"Again?" Nami shook her head. "There won't be anything left in town by the time they're done."

"Would've thought you'd be right there with 'em. Wasn't shopping kind of a thing for you, before?"

Nami drew herself up. "Yes, well, people change. There are more important things to take care of." Folding her arms, she half-turned away and muttered, low enough that she hoped he wouldn't hear it, "Besides, they haven't gotten anything new in since last week."

A snort from Zoro told her that she hadn't been quite quiet enough, but no teasing retort followed the sound. After a few moments of silence, she looked back at him. He seemed to be hesitating over something, gaze flicking to her before dropping to rest on the empty pots. Finally, he drew a deep breath – or at least looked like he did; she supposed he wasn't actually breathing – and spoke.

"Listen—" Zoro broke off, rubbing the back of his head. "Come with me for a bit," he said, looking back up at her.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

With an exasperated growl, Zoro stepped forward, grabbing her hand and pulling her forward. "Just come on."

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Nami asked an hour later, stepping carefully over a twisted root.

"Of course I do," Zoro said. "This isn't the first time I've been here."

"That completely fails to reassure me."

"It's only taking so long because you're so slow," he complained, stopping at the top of a small hill to wait for her to catch up.

"Well, excuse me for being human." Nami squeezed her way past a large bush, then ducked under a tree branch. "Some of us have to pay attention to our surroundings instead of literally walking through the forest!"

Zoro colored slightly, the faint pink overlaid by a sheen of silver. "Tch, I'd still be faster than you," he muttered, but offered no further comments on her pace for the rest of the trip.

Despite Zoro's claims, Nami was fairly sure it had taken them longer than necessary to make their way to wherever they were supposed to be going in the middle of the forest. Finally, though, he looked back at her and announced that they'd arrived.

"About time," Nami panted, struggling through a mass of vines and stomping over to join him. "Now what's so impor—" The question died in her throat as she got close enough to see what was waiting beyond the trees where Zoro stood.

A gently sloping hill rose ahead of them. The land was conspicuously clear of the sort of plant life flourishing in the rest of the forest, but that didn't mean it was empty. A dozen mikan trees dotted the hillside; dark green leaves waved gently at her in the breeze, the branches heavy with ripening fruit.

"What—" Slowly, Nami stepped forward, staring at the trees. "Zoro, what is this?"

"Your trees have been busy, the last few centuries," Zoro said.

She turned to look at him. "Did…did you do all this?"

"Not all of it." He moved forward, stopping in front of the nearest tree and placing a hand on the trunk. "I did okay with them, I guess, once I'd gotten the hang of it. I suppose you'd have come up with a hundred things I was doing wrong, but I tried to follow your instructions and they seemed healthy enough." He sighed.

"And then I died." His hand slowly ran over the branches, leaves slipping between his fingers. "I couldn't touch things at first, you know. By the time I learned, the trees weren't in the greatest shape. They needed help, and…and I needed to get them off the ship."

"Why—" Nami began, but Zoro pressed on.

"So I brought 'em here. Cleared the ground, planted them, and tried to help them recover."

"And you did."

Zoro hesitated. "Not exactly. There was a family on the island that was real good with plants. They had a lot of different kinds on their own land, and they came out to the forest pretty often to get stuff, too. One day, they went a little farther than normal and found the mikan trees."

Nami looked at him sharply. "What happened?"

"I showed myself to them."

"You did what?"

"I was trying to scare them off. Haunted forest, you know – I thought it might keep people away. Didn't work, though."

"What happened?" she asked again.

He chuckled. "They thought I was some sort of nature spirit, and were afraid I was angry with them for disturbing the forest. They were trying to please me, wanted to bring offerings and shit. So I used it. Told them the trees belonged to a friend of mine and if they helped me care for them, and kept them secret, I'd allow them to continue gathering plants in the forest."

"Are you serious?"

"Yep. And they've done a damn good job, too. Better than I could have. They decided to grow it into an orchard after a while, and they've never told anyone. They own this part of the forest now, so no one else comes here."

"I can't believe it…" Nami whispered. She moved between the trees, her vision slightly blurry as she reached out, touching a branch here, a cluster of fruit there. They weren't gone after all. Zoro hadn't said if the original trees were still here, but through their offspring, Bell-mère's mikans lived on.

She turned to him. "I have to take some back with us, Zoro," she said. "But…these people…they'll notice, won't they? If some of them go missing?"

"They're expecting it," he said. "I made sure they knew my friend would come back for them someday. Though it might be better to take them without being seen. The current generation hasn't seen me for themselves, and I don't know how much of the story they believe."

She nodded. They could figure out the details later. Something else had her curious. "Zoro," she asked, "why did you need them off the ship?"

Zoro looked away, fingers carding through his green hair. "Oh…well…" He sighed and looked back at her. "There's a lot I've had to adjust to, since becoming like this. Like my senses. None of them really work the way they used to. Sometimes they're expanded – I can see a lot of things I didn't before, for example – but mostly they're diminished, or just not there at all. Like smell." His hand came up, rubbing at his nose. "I can't smell things anymore. The salt of the ocean, the steel of my swords, food – none of it." He turned, pointing at the trees. "Except for those."

She blinked at him. "What? Why…?"

"I don't know." Zoro shook his head. "I just can. Mikans or any other kind of citrus, as far as I can tell." He looked at her, a strained laugh escaping from his throat. "I couldn't take it anymore, Nami. I love your mikans – because at least I can smell something – but I hate them, too, because they're the only damn thing I've smelled for three hundred years. Having them around me all the time…"

It was understandable, Nami supposed. Even she might, possibly, get tired of the scent if she had gone that long smelling nothing but mikans. Maybe. "Zoro…I won't leave them here. I can't. But if I take them with me, you won't be able to get away from them."

"I know." Zoro grimaced. "But…it might not be as bad once we're sailing again. I would never tell you to leave them behind for a reason like that, anyway." He gave her a sheepish smile. "And as I said, I do like them. I can't be around them all the time, but I come here quite a bit."

"Good." She smiled at him. "Thank you, Zoro. For taking care of them for me." She sighed happily, wiping at her eyes. "We should get back. Luffy and the others might be home soon."

"Yeah, sure," Zoro said.

They turned and began walking down the hill. Nami couldn't resist taking a last look at the trees before they reentered the forest.

When they got back to the ship, Sanji took one look at Nami's reddened eyes and immediately demanded to know what Zoro had been doing to her. Nami brushed off his concern.

She had some shovels to find.

Proof

Usopp stared. "A century? You really lived that long?"

Zoro shrugged. "Close enough. Could be off a few years – I didn't pay that much attention to birthdays."

"So if you were a shitty old man, how come you look like this?" Sanji waved a hand at Zoro's youthful face and green hair. "You never struck me as the vain type, Marimo."

Zoro rolled his eyes. "I'm not. What color my hair is, how smooth my skin is – they don't make a difference in anything important." His hand reached out to touch the swords lying next to him. "But old bones and muscles do. As hard as I worked to maintain my strength, eventually I stopped gaining ground…and then I started losing it."

He ran a hand over his face. "I didn't choose to look like this, exactly. It was just the way I was, once I became a spirit. But I think…I think it's because this is the way I looked when I achieved my dream. When I became the world's greatest. And I identify much more with that image of myself than the image of an old man whose body is failing."

"I suppose that makes sense," Robin said.

"Maybe," Sanji said, grinning. "Doesn't stop you still being an old geezer, though."

Zoro yawned. "Shut it, brat."

Sanji's eyes narrowed. "What did you call me?"

Zoro shrugged. "You're, what, in your early twenties? Seems like a kid from where I'm sitting." He smirked at Sanji, raising an eyebrow. "You can't have it both ways."

"Says the four-hundred-year-old ghost who looks like he's twenty-five."

Nami shook her head. "I can't really picture it. Trying to imagine you looking like an old man…"

"I bet you looked really cool," Luffy said. "You know, like those wise old masters in stories waiting for their chosen apprentice. And then the kid comes and the old guy is like, 'You're not ready!' And the kid is like, 'I can do it!' And the old guy is like, 'Do this really hard thing, then maybe I'll accept you.' And then the kid finds a way to do it, and the old guy teaches him everything he knows."

"Hah!" Zoro let out a bark of laughter. "Unfortunately, all I got were village kids trying to prove they were brave by playing pranks on the scary old man in the woods."

"And you probably returned the favor by scaring the crap out of them," Franky said.

Zoro grinned. "Maybe a few times."

"Would Old Zoro be more or less scary than the young one?" Usopp wondered.

"You should have taken pictures, Zoro," Robin said with a teasing smile. "Then we could decide for ourselves."

"Tch, why would I?"

"I would have liked to see," Luffy said.

Zoro sat for a while, an unreadable expression on his face. "Well," he said at last, "I don't have any photos, but…"

"What?" Luffy asked eagerly.

Zoro stood, gathering his swords in one smooth motion. He jerked his head in the direction of the men's quarters. "C'mon."

He led them inside, where they all watched as Zoro carefully shifted through the items in his locker, before drawing out a metal box. Carrying it to the table, he lowered himself to the floor as the rest of the crew settled themselves on the low sofas. With a soft click, Zoro popped the latch. The lid of the box lifted, revealing a jumble of various items.

Luffy leaned forward in interest. "What are they?"

Zoro reached into the box and pulled out a small wooden carving. He squeezed it gently. "Proof."

"Of what?" Robin asked quietly.

"Of you," Zoro said, holding up the carving so they could see. It was a leaping fish. The lines were rough but full of life. "This was made by a man I met about forty years after you left. We spent a lot of time fishing together and talking." He raised an eyebrow at Usopp. "Well, he did most of the talking. Told lots of stories. Most of them were about as true as the ones he told the first time I knew him."

Usopp's jaw dropped. "Wait, are you saying—" His eyes dropped to the carving. "Did I make that?"

Zoro nodded, placing the carving into Usopp's hands before pulling out another object. "Ah, here. About thirty years after that, I met a little girl who'd heard stories about the strange old man living on a boat, and wanted to see what I was like for herself." He turned to Robin, holding out a roll of faded paper. "Then she decided I needed friends, and volunteered herself for the job."

Robin took the paper, slowly opening it as the rest of the crew gathered around to look. It was an image of a forest drawn by a childish hand, trees and plants surrounding a small black-haired child and an old man, sitting together against a wide trunk.

"Pretty good drawing for a kid," Franky said.

"Robin-chwan is so talented!" Sanji said.

Chopper reached out and hesitantly brushed a hoof against the white-haired figure. "You look so old, Zoro," he said softly.

"That was just a few years before I died," Zoro said. "A week or so after she gave me that, she left the island with her parents. She promised to come back, but by the time she did, I was already a spirit. I didn't know how to make myself visible yet, so…"

"Zoro…" Nami swallowed. "Are all the things in that box stuff we gave you? In—in other lives?"

"If you interpret 'gave' fairly loosely, yeah," Zoro said. "Like I said…they were proof. They helped remind me that I really had seen you. That it wasn't over yet."

He reached for a toy soldier, flipping it deftly through the air to Franky. "A little boy came to the bay with his parents a few years after I became a spirit. He was damn proud of his new toy, wouldn't shut up about how great it was." He grinned at Franky. "He may have used the word 'super' a few times. But little kids don't always have the greatest attention spans, and eventually, he got distracted by something and set it down. Left it lying there when they went home. He never came back for it, and eventually, I took it with me to Sunny."

Next came a tie pin, set with a bright amber jewel. "I got this," Zoro said, passing it to Brook, "from a superstitious man who believed in evil spirits. He caught a glimpse of me like this, and I guess he decided that leaving an offering would give him the best chance of getting home safely."

Then, a delicate golden bracelet. "This came from a girl who unfortunately snagged the clasp on a branch while running through the woods. She came back for it, but, ah…" He looked sideways at Nami. "I may have gotten to it first."

"You stole it?" Nami snatched the bracelet from him, examining it. "This is real gold! I can't believe you stole this from me!"

Zoro shrugged. "You had more." He picked up a tattered black tie. "This was thrown at me by some idiot having a bad day." He tossed it onto the table. "Dunno why I bothered to keep it, really."

"Bastard."

One by one, Zoro went through each item, telling them who it had belonged to and how he'd gotten it. Luffy, he noticed, had been strangely silent during all the talking. As he put the last thing back in the box, though, a quiet voice spoke up.

"There isn't anything from me in there, is there."

It hadn't sounded like a question but Zoro answered it anyway. "No. I told you, I never saw you or Chopper until this time, so of course there wouldn't be."

Luffy nodded absently, brow furrowed in concentration. He made a humming noise, one finger vigorously rubbing his upper lip. Abruptly, his face cleared. "Stay there!" he commanded, before racing away.

The crew stared after him. "What on earth…?" Sanji said.

Robin chuckled. "I believe our captain is feeling left out," she said.

A few minutes later, Luffy came panting back into the room, a well-worn book tucked under his arm. "Here," he said, holding it out to Zoro. "Put it in the box."

"Oi, Luffy, you don't need to—"

"Yes I do!" he said firmly. "You have memories of us in there. It's kind of like a treasure box, isn't it? For family. So I should be there, too."

Zoro looked at him for a moment, then reached up and took the book. "All right, then," he said. "Thank you." He raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't have expected a book from you, though."

Luffy laughed. "It was one of my favorites when I was little," he said. "There're lots of cool pictures of animals and ships and stuff in it."

"Ah." Zoro grinned back at him.

"Me too!" Chopper said, leaping up and scurrying over to the lockers. "There's got to be something in here…" he muttered, rummaging through his belongings.

"It doesn't have to be anything big," Zoro called. "Seriously, don't give me stuff you want to use every day."

Chopper mumbled an acknowledgement, followed a few seconds later by a cry of triumph as he backed out of the locker, something soft and pink clutched between his hooves. He trotted back to Zoro and held the item out.

Zoro took it. "Gloves?" he asked, turning them over in his hand.

Chopper blushed a little. "My grandma made them for me," he said. "I can't wear them anymore"—he waved his hooves in the air—"but I didn't want to leave them behind. So…do you think they'll work?"

Zoro patted Chopper on the head. "They'll be just fine, Chopper. Thanks." He settled his new gifts into the box. It was a tight squeeze for the book, but he got it in, just barely.

"Wait," Luffy said as Zoro was about to close the lid. He marched to Zoro's locker and began digging through the items.

"What are you doing?" Zoro asked.

"Found them!" Luffy cried. Scrambling back over to Zoro, he opened his hand, letting a shower of gold fall into the box. "There," he said. "Now we're all in there."

Zoro looked down at the three golden earrings shining among the treasures. "Heh. Suppose we are." He looked at the collection for a few more seconds, then snapped the lid back into place and walked to the lockers, sliding the box carefully onto a shelf.

Luffy nodded happily and turned to Sanji. "Sanji, we should have food to celebrate!"

"Not everything needs a party, shitty captain," Sanji grumbled. It was getting on toward lunchtime, though. And if Luffy wanted to call it a celebration instead of a meal, well – he was the captain.

"C'mon, Zoro!" Luffy called as the crew left the room. "Time to party!"

"Yeah, yeah," Zoro said. "Be right there." He bent to gather up the contents of his locker, most of which were still strewn about the floor from Luffy's rummaging.

Once he was alone, Zoro hastily shoved the clothes and other items into a haphazard pile inside the locker. He moved to close the door, but hesitated. Reaching up, he pulled the treasure box off its shelf. Smiling slightly, he opened it, one hand gently moving through the items again.

It would be all right if he took a few extra minutes to get there. His family would understand.

Notes on the bonus scenes:

The Demon: I hate coming up with names, especially for characters that already have them. This one wasn't too hard, though. I found it pretty soon after I started looking. Renata means "reborn", and that (as well as it beginning with an R) seemed too perfect not to use. I'm a bit "meh" on the ending – I would have liked to show some of those two weeks she spent with Zoro, for one thing – but these are supposed to be short scenes, damn it! XD Maybe another time.

Legacy: First of all, I know it seems rather OOC for Nami to leave her mikan trees behind (especially with someone like Zoro, who hasn't been trained to care for them). But if she'd taken them with her, they'd have been lost in that final battle, and I didn't want her to be without them. So…let's just say she had a feeling to leave them on Sunny, like Luffy did with his hat? *sweatdrop* Pay no attention to the handwaving behind the screen.

About Zoro smelling the mikans – I've looked up a whole bunch of stuff about ghosts in the last few months, and one of the things I saw in a few places was that it's supposedly pretty common for people to smell lemons when there are ghosts around. Also, some people think ghosts have a sense of smell, some think they don't. My mind started playing with those, got the mikan/citrus idea, and I just kind of went with it.

Proof: This is sort of dedicated to my anonymous reviewer who was talking about Zoro's age and what he looks like now. I was actually already planning to write this scene (the first part, anyway), but your review helped me decide to do it for sure, so thanks. ;)

And yes, Luffy reads books in this life. Not to the level that someone like Robin does, but until he came to the island, books were the closest thing he had to going on adventures, so he does like ones with stories, interesting pictures, etc.

Thanks for reading! And now, the sequel. The title is From Mist and Ashes, and the first chapter is posted. (So go read it. ;P)