True Spirit Chapter 1 - A One Piece Fanfic

True Spirit

Luffy bounced back and forth from member to member of his crew, sizing them up and checking them out, his eyes sparkling brightly every now and again when he saw how amazing they all had become. The only thing missing was--

"Where on Earth is Zoro," Nami muttered, scratching in her journal with a quill and occasionally patting her adoring public – Sanji – on the head and telling him it was lovely to see him too. Beside her, Robin gently turned the page of her book and looked up. Franky was busy talking with Brook and Usopp, Luffy was still buzzing back and forth from nakama to nakama and Chopper was napping by a nice shady tree. After a moment of scanning the horizon and coming up with nothing, Robin returned her gaze to the book.

"Perhaps swordsman-san didn't survive his injuries," she muttered in her usual macabre way. She didn't mean any harm and was only having a joke, but the others often took it seriously. Nami paled slightly and sent a glance towards where Sanji had wandered off to join in the festivities between Usopp and Luffy and let her gaze fall on both the captain and the blonde haired chef. In reality, if Zoro really had died, then those two would be affected the most out of all of them, Luffy especially.

"I think he's just lost," Chopper piped up, pushing the brim of his obnoxiously adorable hat up and peeking at them with a smile and a wide eye. There was a tremor to his voice despite his confidence in his own words but Nami didn't pick at it and instead smiled at the little doctor. At least one of them was being optimistic.

"Hai hai, you're probably right, Chopper," she agreed, tapping her quill against the paper in a leisurely fashion. Luffy's joyful squeals at Usopp's stories – all true now, apparently – were heard over the top of every bit of chatter the straw hats were involved in and they all shared a moment of silent laughter and happiness that their captain was with them again. Without him, without each other, it had been a horribly tormenting two years.

The ship was ready to set sail, well and truly, but with the first mate missing, none were ready to leave. Despite the cranky swordsman's habits of always being in the way when napping, or threatening to kill long-nose or the chef, he was as loved and cared about as the rest of the crew, and as much a part of it as any of them.

Even if the rest of the crew did somehow decide that it wasn't worth waiting for him and he had betrayed them in some shape or form, Luffy wouldn't ever leave without his first mate. He would sit there and wait for a further two years if he had to, no way was Zoro going to be left behind when the two had been together since the beginning.

No, they were all perfectly content to wait and the only person to even remotely whinge about the circumstances was Sanji, and that was only because he was absolutely dying to get back into his kitchen and start a gigantic meal of celebration for them all. It was clear that he had missed them – the ladies especially – very, very much and the fact that he was currently goofing around with Usopp and Luffy was further proof of this. Franky couldn't stop dancing, his new body allowing for a much more impressive 'push' and 'sway' motion to Brook's joyous tune.

Nami wasn't sure what made her shift her gaze towards the ship, maybe a sense of wistfulness, a wish to be out on the seas again but when she did turn, in all honesty she wasn't sure what she saw. Sunny was exactly as it should've been aside from the coating which she was quickly getting used to but standing near the top of the rope ladder that led back onto their home again, was a strange figure. It took her a few minutes to completely recognize who it was but when she did, her heart leapt into her throat.

"P-Perona," Nami squeaked, getting to her feet and pointing towards the ship. Heads turned to follow the line of sight and each of them expressed a noise of confusion or shock – aside from Sanji who immediately began twirling towards the gothic girl and claiming that she had grown into quite a lovely woman – until Luffy called out over the top of them all.

"OIIIII! What're you doing on my ship, who are you," he bellowed, hands cupped around his mouth and hat pushed back on his head. The figure stood silent and still before she opened an umbrella and gently hopped off the ship, floating gracefully to the ground and putting a hand up to ignore Sanji's compliments.

"Horohorohoro, I'm not here to steal your ship, rubber child. I came here as a favor to Dracule Mihawk, who asked me to report to you some… unfortunate news," Perona spoke, flicking her umbrella and drawing it back down. Her frilly, black dress and lolly-pink hair flittered gently with a breeze as the Mugiwaras gathered around her. Usopp was wary, a hand trailing lightly over his pouch and his other hand flexing gently as if ready to act at a moment's notice. He remembered what this girl was capable of and with his newfound slight positivity, he wasn't going to take any chances here.

"Ah? Mihawk? News? What is it," Luffy questioned, hands on his hips and a wide grin on his face as if he didn't remember just exactly what this girl could do. Perona's lips lifted at the corner for a second before the look fell and her head fell forward a little, her grandiose hat shadowing her eyes.

"The swordsman, he landed unexpectedly on the island I had been sent to by Kuma. It just so happened to be Mihawk's hiding place. I found him and tended to his wounds the best I could, Mihawk was hardly interested if Zoro died or lived. He woke every now and again, tried to move, tried to ask for you, Luffy, saying he needed to know what was going on and needed to get back to the fighting. He was rather distressed, I found. I brought him the paper, the one where you sent the message to your friends so they would know what to do, he was delighted at the chance to spend two years training under Mihawk but his injuries were still severe. He took on Mihawk too early, trained too hard. He was… intriguing to me, always brooding about something or working—"

"We don't have time for your whole life story, weird black-y girl, where's Zoro," Luffy demanded, frowning and ignoring the bump over the head he got from Sanji who was complaining quietly that he shouldn't interrupt a lady. Perona just smiled sadly and lifted her head, eyes glittering with a strange emotion the others weren't used to seeing on the spoiled princess' face.

"Zoro died, a year ago. Mihawk ordered me not to come and tell you straight away because it was, at the time, an unnecessary burden to your training. I'm really sorry, Mugi—"

"Hahaha, you're funny, Miss," Luffy chuckled, his belly laugh rumbling out as he slapped his side and cackled at the 'joke'. The others weren't sure what to make of the situation. They couldn't trust an enemy, but she seemed to be telling the truth. Perona was confused by the captain's reaction for a moment before she smiled softly and took a step back, flicking her umbrella out and open to shade her from the rays of the sun.

"I'm not telling a joke, Mugiwara," she said, a firm tone touching her voice. Luffy stared at her before frowning. Nami stepped forward, her face pale and her hands pressed together.

"This isn't funny anymore, where's Zoro? He automatically promised to be here, he said he wouldn't die, so where is he?"

"Luffy--" Nami began but was surprised when her captain held a hand up quickly to quiet her. Sanji almost hissed but Robin laid a hand on his head, calming him instantly. Now wasn't the time to be interrupting the conversation at hand.

"He's gone, Luffy," Perona stated, her own face contorting into a saddened one. "I liked him, he was… fun."

"He's NOT gone," Luffy hissed, his eyes narrowing slightly. "This joke has gone too far, Zoro needs to be back here now, go tell him to get back here and stop fooling around." The Goth girl's expression remained hidden for a moment before she turned angry eyes on the captain in front of her, hardly afraid. At first, she'd been a touch timid but now… now she was ready to send him into the ground with a hundred horo ghosts. How dare he question her word?

"He's DEAD, Mugiwara! No amount of yelling at his corpse is going to bring him back!" Perona's harsh statement hung in the air but she didn't back down, eyes narrowed at Luffy and stance strong. Luffy stared at her, his teeth bared for a moment before he turned away and walked in a circle. Before any of them could stop him, he slammed his gaze into Perona, Haki making every bone and muscle in her body freeze in pure terror. Perona's eyes rolled back into her head and her mouth hung open. The pink umbrella dropped to the ground from her slack hand with a soft, muffled thud as her knees buckled.

A moment later, her unconscious and slightly shuddering form fell to the earth and nobody dared to move for fear that Luffy would direct his gaze at them. Another moment of pure and utter silence passed over the group, no one daring to say or do anything until finally Sanji grimaced and moved forward. He lightly brushed past the others and headed towards Perona's still shaking form, her eyes wide and her mouth open in terror. Chopper trotted after him, pulling his bag from his shoulder and kneeling beside the body.

"It's not her fault, Luffy," Sanji muttered, crouching beside the woman and shifting her to rest on her back and in a more comfortable position. Chopper instantly began performing tests and checking everything he could to make sure she was otherwise unharmed. There was no answer and when the blonde turned around to see what was happening, their captain was gone. Still nobody moved, all of them forming a small group of shocked and dismayed members of a ragtag group of pirates who had suddenly become some of the world's most wanted – without their first mate.

Reality seemed like a harsh slap in the face right now and the game they had been playing around in like children since East Blue was becoming far too real.

Sanji and Franky tended to Perona until she woke and fled the scene, but not before telling them where Zoro was buried and how to get there if they wanted to go. Nami wrote the location down, marking it out and taking down all the notes Perona gave her before watching as the gothic princess legged it away from the ship as fast as she could, a protective horo-ghost floating after her. No one knew where Luffy had headed off to, his form disappearing before any of them could even think twice.

Franky, Usopp, Chopper and Brook all called 'not it' for finding the captain – which Nami beat them over the head about because they were being horribly immature – and Robin had nothing to say, her former 'prediction' coming true having set her a little on edge. She'd never meant any harm and now all of a sudden, exactly what she had said had come to pass. It had only been a harmless joke and a stating of the most negative outcome so when Zoro re-appeared, it would be a bigger relief. Well that plan had backfired horribly and Robin was feeling the effects.

Nami retreated instead to the galley, hoping to seek some solace in perhaps a Sanji who would attempt to cheer her up because he hated seeing her sad; it was a failed effort, the blonde was quieter than she'd ever seen him. She seated herself at the table and pulled the paper towards her, eyes scanning the front page before she turned it carefully, the crinkling noise almost deafening in the strange silence. Usually there was always some kind of noise in the kitchen, be it Sanji humming as he cooked, or Luffy yelling that he was hungry.

The blonde was standing in the freezer, his eyes scanning the recently restocked shelves and an unlit cigarette caught between his lips. After a while he finally pulled down a large hunk of meat and moved out of the freezer with it held in his arms like a child. He spared her a quick glance but didn't say anything, eyes set firmly on the task of putting the half-frozen meat into a tray and getting it defrosted and ready for cooking.

"Sanji-kun," Nami finally spoke after what felt like hours and hours of nothing but an uncomfortably cold silence. The blonde picked up a knife at that moment and began chopping vegetables at breakneck speed, his hand flashing so fast it was merely a blur.

"Hai, Nami-swan," Sanji responded but it lacked the usual vivacity that made it so distinctly him that the ginger haired navigator almost flinched. Instead she calmly turned another page of the paper and stared firmly at the words in front of her without reading them.

"… I think you should be the one to go and find Luffy," she said softly, her words almost not heard from behind the paper but Sanji felt them like a cold rush of air to his face. The 'snick-snick-snick' of his blade cut off instantly and he craned his neck to look back at her.

"Haa? But Nami-san, I'm not- I don't- I really think that's a bad idea," he stuttered, unsure how to tell his precious Nami 'no' without sounding horribly harsh about it. Nami laid the paper flat on the table in front of her and raised her eyes to meet his, something trembling in her lips but a look of fiercely determined calm keeping her features solid and fearless. She took a moment to smooth the pages with her long fingers before instead clasping them together in front of her to stop them from shaking.

"I think it's a really good idea, actually. You were the one who found Zoro at Thriller Bark, you were the one who fought so hard to stop him being sent away… he was your best friend, as much as you deny it, you loved him as much as you love the rest of us. As much as we love you," Nami spoke, oddly sentimental about all this. Sanji didn't even light up or flinch at the confession of supposed 'love' for the chef and instead took it like an adult, bowing his head slightly and smiling to himself in modesty.

"I hate to sound weak or stupid, Nami-san, but I miss the stupid meat-head," he said, his voice barely above a whisper and his eyes set firmly on the counter-top. "I'll go find Luffy for you, Nami-san, I'll bring him back here."

"Thank you, Sanji-kun."