PAGE TWO: It's okay, you guys can request again!
ONE PIECE FAN-FOR-ALL
Or, free-for-all-fic, or fic free-for-all, or fic-for-all, whatever phrasing floats your boat.
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Filled | Unfilled (BOTH posts updated to about half of page three, updated Sept 21, 11-something pm, GMT -5 ( Read more... )
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How would you feel about something like that?
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1.One stray bullet, that's all. The Marine behind the trigger isn't even looking their way. But somehow, he misfires, and in the middle of just another skirmish, Zoro is dead, and his captain and crew can't even take revenge ( ... )
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"Not a chance! Damn it, Luffy, just leave those alone."
Zoro's fingers stroke the grip of that sword like he's caressing a friend's face, and Luffy understands there is a boundary here he cannot cross.Sitting cross-legged by the shallow mound of newly turned-over earth, three swords across his lap, memories playing across his mind, he starts to feel bad about the plan to leave them. They might've been as good as an extension of himself, but Zoro also loved his swords like nakama, and they were wielded by other hands before him. They're tools of battle, needing the clash of steel and taste of blood. They should be wielded by other hands still, not left to rust with a man who'll never use them again. Zoro, he's sure, wouldn't want that ( ... )
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When he returns it's dawn, and he still has the swords, Wadou clutched in his fist like a drowning man's rope and Shuusui and Kitetsu dangling less ceremoniously from his trailing hand. The new obsessive fervour that burns in his eyes doesn't seem very much like Luffy at all.
His eyes, shadowed by grey daubs, blink around at them. They seem, despite their intensity, almost unseeing.
He says, "The sword spoke to me. No... Zoro spoke to me." He clutches Wadou against his chest. "There's something I have to do." He looks... there is only one way they can think to describe it. A man possessed.
But he's still Luffy, and he's still the captain, even though -- or maybe because -- Zoro isn't there any more; the one who always backed his crazier ideas. Nobody can bring themselves to question.
And it's possible they want to believe it too, that it's Zoro's spirit and not Luffy's madness driving them from inside that sword. Or maybe they're waiting to see their proof in the making, because-- well, there's surely nothing else in ( ... )
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"Waste of time. No."
Luffy stands his ground. The Teacher responds in kind. The volume rises and pleading turns to yelling on both sides. Brook, despite being an animate skeleton, manages to cringe, and among the watching crew is a certain gathering sense of, Oh, another one, and they remember that the name they've heard in whispers bookends an initial D.
Finally, the old man stands up. He takes Wadou from its sheath and slaps the grip into Luffy's palm, draws a thin blade from his ratty cane, and in a swift, merciless motion the sword slices, collapsing the captain's legs beneath him.
Luffy falls on his face without time to even try to block. With its next slice, the blade nicks an ear before stabbing the ground. Wadou, knocked from his fingers, lies on the grass. The Teacher stares down his nose, down the length of the bright, thin blade on which he leans, and says, in tones dripping with spite and spittle, "Get upHe says it with a challenge that anticipates failure, but Luffy grunts, fumbles for ( ... )
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The days wear on, and every one of them Luffy returns cut-up and miserable. It weighs upon all of the crew. It's enough losing one of their number. It's starting to feel that they've lost their captain as well.
The sense of futility grinds. Everyone knows there's no way Luffy will ever be the greatest swordsman in the world. Sanji tries to reason with him, the way Zoro might have. Nami tries to scream sense into him. It is in every way like talking to stone.
Nobody is sure what to make of the dream the sword whispers to him. It's supposed to be the other one that's cursed, but Kitetsu sits quiet in the hold, no whisper from it ( ... )
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Luffy wakes face down with his arms twisted underneath him and Wadou a painful bar digging into his wrists and chest. His face is damp, and it isn't just because the cut on his cheek has reopened to seep blood into the bedclothes.
He sheds tears for Zoro and his lost dreams -- the ones he can't follow for his friend, because though they shared the journey, they never shared the goal. Sobbing harshly into the pillow he presses against his face to muffle the sounds, he's finally able to let loose his grief. Further tears, he sheds for the freedom and dreams he has back; the power to take everyone forward again, even if it is without Zoro ( ... )
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On an island three days hence, a youth with straggling dark hair and a body full of healing scars carries Wadou Ichimonji to the doors of a small, well-kept dojo and a master who greets him with puzzlement. It's an emotion that only deepens as the youth tells him he has a meitou to give away and asks to be shown the right student to give it.
"Our best student..." the master mulls, weighing the merits of his flock.
Luffy cocks his head, grins, and corrects him. "Nah. The one with the biggest dream!"
***
When he gets back to the Sunny this time, the funeral atmosphere is palpable. He understands that today was the day they buried Zoro for real.
Sanji has made a special meal, and for once Brook isn't trying to cheer them up with wildly gyrating melodies. As for the rest... Robin has exchanged most of her books on swords at the bookstore in the town. Chopper has restocked on bandages. The Sunny has emerged from the months at anchor even cooler and smoother sailing than it was before. They talk to him again, at last, like ( ... )
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Daaaamn that was good! Made me cry a few times too. And I really really loved the ending ♥
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