Note: here's an extra from Zoro's POV. Only it's about as long as the real story...ah well. In which Roronoa Zoro is a devoted first mate, and an emotional, poetic idiot.

Zoro wakes up one morning to a world of gray. He puts two and two together, and realizes that his soulmate, whoever or wherever they are, has just died. He didn't think he'd care about someone he'd never met, what with kendo as his only obsession, so he's surprised by the feeling in his chest that something's gone horribly wrong. He runs toward the dojo, ready to spar against Kuina, because he feels like that will get rid of the anxiety. But once he's there, Koshiro is grasping his shoulders with red-rimmed eyes, and talking about accidents and stairs...

And everything falls apart.

Zoro quickly realizes that he hasn't exactly lost sight of colors; not all of them, at least. For some reason, he can still make out the color red. It's a comforting color on his blade in the wake of cutting down an enemy, and it's handy for making out any injuries on his body. Most likely, he would have long ago died from blood loss, had he never noticed them.

He does wonder, though. Why can he still see red? Is it the promise with Kuina that somehow binds them together? The thought makes his heart twinge, so he walks more quickly. He won't become the World's Greatest Swordsman by standing around, getting lost in the past.

Zoro sees the boy, and wonders if it's an illusion. The boy has on a red vest, bright as a raging fire. He's wearing a straw hat, lined by a red ribbon. There's a boy with a bowl-cut next to him, yelling and gesticulating wildly. But the hat-wearing boy doesn't care. He's just staring at Zoro intensely, to the point that Zoro almost wants to turn away. Must be the exhaustion getting to him. So he tries chasing the boy away instead.

A few days later, he finds himself stretching against the side of a little dinghy. He and his new Captain have talked about anything and everything. Their dreams, their fighting styles, their favorite foods (Luffy) and drinks (Zoro). That straw hat. That white sword. Zoro's throat actually becomes hoarse; he hasn't talked this much in so long. Soon they're running out of things to say. And it's not a bad feeling. It's like they know enough about each other to last the rest of their lives.

"Do you see colors?" Zoro asks, eyes following a seagull.

"Yeah, since I was born. I've always wondered who my soulmate is. I bet they're a pirate too!"

"Heh, I wouldn't count on in it."

"Boo, you're no fun. Though I guess it doesn't matter. I'm going to be Pirate King. I don't have time for that stuff."

Zoro swallows heavily. "Got that right. But who knows. Maybe you'll end up recruiting your soulmate."

"Really? That would be awesome!"

"...Or maybe, your soulmate will be up being your enemy. They might even be a marine."

Luffy makes a grossed out face and slouches against the boat. A few moments pass in silence, then: "That's fine."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It doesn't matter who they are. Marine, pirate, whatever. Even if they're my enemy, they won't be, not really."

"That's pretty generous of you," Zoro says, though he feels like his Captain just said something rather astute. Maybe that's why he suddenly had the impulse to ask: "Why a red shirt?"

Luffy being Luffy doesn't question the random topic. "Because that's what Captains wear!"

It makes perfect sense to Zoro. And there's this feeling of a gear clicking into place, like something after Kuina's death has finally returned. He scratches off his previous theory about the color red, glancing at the white sheath of Wado in his hands, and makes a decision.

White is the color of the promise to his rival.

Red is the color of the promise to his Captain.

Zoro doesn't trust Robin at first. He changes his opinions to some extent after Skypiea. But it isn't until they leave Water 7 that he feels comfortable enough to discuss the issue with her. It's not that he has an issue with the color red. Far from it. But even if he accepts it, he still has to wonder if there's a more logical explanation than his own self-imposed one.

Predictably, he finds her in the library. "Robin."

"Yes...Zoro?" She hesitates, still reveling in the wonder of referring to her nakama by name.

Which makes Zoro feel even more awkward. He crosses his arms. "Got a question for you."

"What is it?"

"Have you...ever read about people who only can only see one color?"

"Not to my knowledge. Why?"

"Damn...It's like that for me."

She gapes. "Fascinating. Have you tried asking Chopper?"

"He doesn't know. It's never been documented before."

"I see. Has it been this way your entire life?"

"No. I lost my other colors when I was young."

"Why would-"

Thankfully, Robin must have noticed a change in his expression, because she decides to change the subject.

"Which color, if I may ask?"

"Red."

"Red? Interesting. I would assume you have many encounters with the color on the battlefield."

"Don't we all."

"Fufu. Still, I wonder why it's red, of all colors."

Shouldn't I be the one asking you that, Zoro wants to say. But he shakes his head, smiling. It seems that he's had the answer all along. "It's Luffy's color."

"Luffy?"

"Yeah." He walks toward the window of the observatory, watching his Captain run around the deck with Usopp and Chopper. He hasn't been wearing red shirts lately, so Zoro can't tell what he has on. But the red ribbon on his hat is unmistakable.

"Fufu, I see," Robin stands beside Zoro. "That red ribbon; it's a bit like a crown on his head, isn't it?"

Yeah, Zoro silently agrees, staring hard at the straw hat bouncing against Luffy's head.

A crown fit for a king.

Zoro steps backward to avoid a humandrill attack, when he suddenly notices that he can't see the blood on his opponents. His strength, already spent by his multiple battles in the past 24 hours, finally leaves him. He falls to his knees. The humandrills almost get to him, but he's saved by Perona. The monkeys are muttering something in monkey-speak, curled up in a fetal position on the ground.

But he doesn't care. He stabs himself in the thigh and watches something black ooze out from the wound. He bends forward, his head touching the ground, and screams until his consciousness fades.

(Not again.)

The next time he wakes up, he's lying with his back on the ground, with the ghost girl screaming in his face. He looks at his hands. They're bandaged, with red -thank God- blood soaking through.

He wonders if that moment of color blindness was a mistake; some kind of hallucination, or a conscious nightmare. He doesn't fucking care. He jerkily raises a sore arm to cover his eyes, laughing through his tears. He doesn't know how long he does that, but when he opens his eyes again, Perona is looking at him like he's gone crazy. He slowly gets up, using his swords as a crutch, and heads toward the direction of the humandrills.

Zoro sits back against the side of the deck, watching the Thousand Sunny sink into the depths of the ocean. He lets the chatter wash past him like a calm breeze. They're talking rapidly, making up for two years' worth of loneliness. How they trained. What they saw. Who they met. Somehow, the conversation drifts onto the topic of clothing.

"Looks like the shitty marimo's wearing dresses now."

"Talk like that, and I'll stuff YOU into a dress, you pansy!"

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

They're at each other's throats, but the tension is quickly diffused by the sound of Luffy's laughter. Zoro sheaths his sword, a grin tugging at his mouth. It's been two years since he's heard it, after all.

"That's a really cool sash, Zoro!" Chopper chirps.

"Ah. thanks."

"You're totally matching Luffy-bro. What made you guys decide on wearing them?"

Luffy smiles. "I didn't. The girls on Amazon Lily gave these clothes to me." His grin doesn't leave even as Sanji starts to mock-strangle him. Meanwhile, Zoro grasps the red sash.

"Here." Mihawk tosses a pile of clothing onto his bed.

"The hell is this?"

"Clothes. Perona picked them up on a nearby island."

"I have clothes." Zoro states the obvious.

"You have rags. They will fall apart any day now."

Not like being naked will stop me, Zoro wants to say, but he starts picking through the clothes. His hands stop upon a red sash.

"Ah yes, you can see the color red, can't you?"

"...How could you tell?"

"You have a certain habit. The greater the enemy is bleeding, the better you fight. It's a weakness you can't allow."

"Hmph. I know."

"I must admit it surprised me. I've never met a person who could only see one color."

"I get that a lot." Zoro takes the sash, then experimentally ties it around his waist.

"Why?" Mihawk asks.

Zoro grasps an end of the sash. "To hold my Captain's life in my hands."

To anyone else, that statement would make no sense. Mihawk only chuckles quietly.

"What about you, Zoro-bro?"

"Just felt like it."

Luffy gives Zoro that 'shishishi' laugh, and Zoro can't help but grin back. He never told Luffy about the color red; they never got around to it. But honestly, it didn't matter. Zoro could almost swear his Captain already knew. After all, that red shirt of his was almost too perfect for their arrival in the New World.

Luffy isn't his soulmate; but as Luffy himself once said, who had time for that. He may not be able to see everything, but Zoro will follow that blazing red back to the ends of the earth.

Note: I should probably clarify. Zoro considers Kuina his rival, and he says he doesn't have time for soulmates, and you're probably thinking, "but where's the love, man?" But that wasn't the relationship between them, I don't think. They were, first and foremost, rivals. Even though Kuina was the most important person to Zoro, it wasn't based in a way where you sit down and spend time with your soulmate and go on dates and stuff. And now that he's older, he no longer grieves over Kuina, getting bogged down by the death of his soulmate. Because his promise to be the World's Greatest Swordsman essentially makes up his relationship with his soulmate. Which is rather tragic, but it's ok, because Zoro is strong enough for that. Hope that made sense.