Well, here we go again. Same old routine, I get a story idea and write it out, only to slam into hiatus a few months or chapters later. Let's see what'll happen this time. Wanton Faith is still being slowly written.

Summary – AU: Roronoa Zoro and his cousin Kuina have just moved into a new house, only to discover that it is, in fact, inhabited by a pair of ghosts named the D-brothers, Ace and Luffy.

Notes: No pairings, just some good ol' mystery solving (i.e. why the ghosts are haunting the house and can't move on to the afterlife).

Haunted House

Ch. 1

House on the Hill

A tall young woman with short-cut black-blue hair sat in the shotgun seat of a dark-green car, quietly reading a large, leather-bound volume of a popular kendo series. Once in a while her dark-blue eyes darted up from the hypnotic words typed across the pages in order to get a grip on her outdoor surroundings. She also glanced at the driver of the car, a grumpy-looking young man with short green hair. Her name was Kuina. She was the heir to one of the last dojos still standing in Loguetown. The driver's name was Roronoa Zoro. He was Kuina's cousin.

Often in the past Zoro had grumbled about living in such a small apartment (they shared had a small flat they rented with their job money). Kuina had finally gotten fed up with him and went and bought a bigger house that was a little ways away from the city. It was far enough that they would not be disturbed by the daily comings and goings of the bustling city, but close enough that they could drive to the city in about fifteen minutes.

Kuina tucked a plain black bookmark between the pages of the book, closing it with a soft snap. She could already see the house from where they were.

A few minutes later the car pulled into the driveway. Zoro turned off the ignition and opened the door to let himself out. Kuina stepped out and shaded her eyes from the sun as she drank in the sight of their new living space.

It was a decent size, but since it had been unoccupied for a long time, there were a lot of things that they had needed to do to make it adequate enough to live in. The house had been painted a soft baby-blue, with a white doorway and window sills. The small porch in the front was made of solid oak that had been varnished. The glass windows reflected the outdoors well, but also gave a small hint as to what was inside. Up further were two separate balconies, each the size of four teachers' desks. There was a small greenhouse to the left. Inside was bare of plants, but many clay pots and other gardening things had been placed inside. A huge tree sprouted up from the ground on the right. Some of its branches reached over the gray-shingled roof.

Thud!

Zoro placed their trunks on the smooth dirt before shutting the trunk of the car. He dug into his pockets for the keys to the front door.

When he found it, he inserted it into the lock on the door and twisted the knob to open it. He took the key out and dropped it back into his pocket before turning around to help Kuina get the trunks into the house.

"Zoro, I want one of the balcony rooms," Kuina immediately claimed as she ran upstairs to take a look.

Zoro just lazily waved his hand as he took a good look at the inside of the house.

Elsewhere a childish voice, presumably belonging to a teenage boy, spoke up.

"We have visitors again."

"Finally! How long's it been since someone moved here?"

"Nii-chan, didn't you hear the people that renovated the house?"

"You actually know what the word renovated means?"

"Hey! I'm not that stupid."

"In any case, these guys better not move out once they see us, 'cause I'm getting so sick of people screaming when they see us and going away."

"How long has it been since we've had visitors?"

"Dunno, at least a hundred years. Pretty boring, if you ask me."

"Let's say hi!"

"Not yet, Luffy-chan. Not yet."

"Don't call me that!"

"I can call you whatever I damn want!"

"Nii-chan . . ."

Zoro finally finished unpacking his meager belongings and was lying on the bed, staring drowsily up at the ceiling. According to Kuina, when she'd ironed out the details of their move and which house, she found out some strange information about the past occupants.

The house was actually first built about four-hundred years ago, which was quite remarkable considering how it had been still standing when they had first saw it. But Franky, the master carpenter, had repaired the place well. Its first occupants were a man, his housekeeper, and his two adopted sons. The man was "Red-haired" Shanks, a master swordsman who was somewhat of an idol to Zoro because of his graceful sword style. His housekeeper was a kind woman named Makino. And the "D-brothers", Ace and Luffy, were the sons.

They'd lived there for a good while until a notorious underground drug dealer named Crocodile kidnapped one of the sons and threatened to kill him if Shanks didn't pay a hefty sum of money. The other brother went crazy with rage and tried to take down Crocodile and his evil organization on his own, but ended up getting stabbed by Crocodile's hook-like appendage. Shanks arrived to help him and they both took down the organization. The kidnapped brother was safe, but since the other brother had gone for a long time without treating his wound properly, not to mention that Crocodile's hook had poison in it, he died a few hours later. The family was devastated, especially the first son. The funeral had been short and quiet. The first son struggled to live on without his brother, but found it too hard to do so. He committed suicide by killing himself with one of the kitchen knives. Shanks, having lost both of his sons within two months, moved out of the house. He and Makino went to live in the city again, where they eventually died of old age.

A small family consisting of a single mother and three children moved into the house almost ten years after Shanks had moved out. But for some reason she moved right back out not even four days later. Apparently the house was haunted by the two brothers. This happened again and again and again. Every single person who moved into the house would leave within ten days because of the ghosts. It was last occupied almost a hundred years ago, so it was a miracle the house had still been standing.

Zoro snorted and let his eyes drift close. What a bunch of bullcrap. Ghosts didn't exist.

When he awoke, the sun was almost touching the horizon. The sky was awash with the brilliant merging of bright yellow, orange, red, magenta, purple and blue hues. Yawning widely, he rolled out of bed, shaking his head to wake himself more.

Zoro walked downstairs and found Kuina curled up on the couch, reading her book. She looked up as he entered, giving a small smile. "This house is nice," she said. "And I don't see any ghosts."

Zoro nodded. He glanced towards the backdoor that led to the backyard. Kuina understood that since the brothers had been buried there, they should both pay the graves a visit as a respect to the dead. She shut her book and placed it on the small coffee table in front of her. Zoro opened the cupboard where he had put the incense sticks and pulled them out, along with a box of matches.

They walked outside from the backdoor and saw the two graves, side by side, a few meters away. Zoro lit the incense sticks and placed them in front of the graves, kneeling and closing his eyes as he said a prayer to the dead. Kuina did the same, but she silently apologized for intruding the house.

After a few minutes they headed back inside, leaving the incense to burn sweetly in front of the graves.

The two ghosts watched them from an upstairs window.

"They burned incense for us."

"No one else has ever done that. They respected us too!"

"These people aren't too bad. Maybe luck will be on our side now."

"I hope so. I don't want to be lonely anymore. Even though Nii-chan is with me, I want to talk to other people too!"

"Well, as ghosts, it's quite hard isn't it?"

"Come on, Nii-chan. Let's introduce ourselves now."

"Patience, Luffy-chan. Let's wait until tomorrow."

"Aww . . . I told you not to call me that!"

Yes, chapter one is a bit on the short side, but it's mostly just to give background information and set the mood for the rest of the story. I hope I didn't make Zoro too OOC or anything, because respecting the dead is something I would imagine him doing.

Nii-chan means "older brother".

Please give me a review or good constructive criticism. I don't like flames.

MangaFreak15