𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄 • Roronoa Zoro

chapter eight

Zoro and Blade walked over to the room Nami was being held in, and she was already walking out. She'd clearly found a way to hide a lock pick and pick the lock herself. Blade smiled at her for her smartness, but of course no one noticed.

"What's the plan?" Zoro asked, "You do have a plan, right? That's your thing, plans."

"I say," Nami said, "We beat the hell out of every clown we see."

And that's exactly what they did. The clowns came at them but they fought back, all of them obviously having much more experience in fighting than Buggy's freaks.

"This is why I kill pirates," Blade said to Zoro, using both of her her double sided swords to chop off four heads at once, "To protect myself and the people I care about." Zoro and Nami smiled. "Please, don't flatter yourselves. I only care because you have the map I need."

"I don't doubt that," Nami said.

Once they'd taken out as many pirates as they needed to, they ran back to the ring, where Buggy had Luffy trapped in some sort of glass box filled with water, erasing the effects of his devil fruit.

"You want out?" Buggy asked, "You know the price you have to pay."

Luffy smiled, tapping on the glass and pointing to Nami. She threw her staff at the box, cracking the glass.

"Where are my freak?!"

Zoro and Blade came out of another entrance, each wielding their swords. Zoro had his bandana on and Blade had replaced her mask with the real thing.

"They're not coming," Zoro said. The glass of Luffy's box finally smashing, water pouring out as Luffy fell. He began to choke, coughing up the map to the Grand Line.

"My map!" Buggy yelled.

"My hat!" Luffy began to reach for the hat and Blade rolled her eyes.

"Don't," Zoro said, "If it was between your mask and the map, what would you pick?"

"The map. My mask isn't sentimental, I just don't want people to see me. If they've already seen me, what's the point?"

"Well, I'd go for my bandana."

Blade looked away from Zoro, knowing that, if she looked at him, he'd be able to tell she was smiling just from her eyes.

Buggy laughed maniacally as he held the map in his hands, Luffy on the floor with his hat. Nami, Zoro and Blade all approached Buggy. He walked towards Zoro and Blade.

"You want a piece of me?" He asked, "Let's see what you got." Zoro tried to chop off his head, which detached from his body. He then tried to torso, which just split in half. "Surprise, shithead!"

Nami walked over to the two as Buggy began to break himself apart, his body parts flying around the three of them. They all pressed their backs against each other.

"How am I supposed to slice a guy who's already in pieces?" Zoro asked.

"This is not part of the plan," Nami said.

"We don't need him dead," Blade said, "We just need that map."

Buggy's body parts flew around them, and they managed to fight off the kicks and punches for a little bit, until all three of them were eventually knocked to the ground.

He put himself back together and approached Luffy.

"Ah, would you look at that? Somebody escaped my Tank of Doom. Well I'll be back to finish you off. Right after I tear apart your sad excuse for a crew!"

Nami, Blade and Zoro were all struggling but succeeding to stand up.

"You can dump seawater on me, and I'll let it slide," Luffy said, "But don't you ever threaten my friends."

Luffy attempted to punch Buggy in the stomach, but it went right through, before reattaching itself.

"So you want to die first? Be my guest." Buggy broke up his arms and legs. "Chop Chop Cannon!"

"What is it with these idiots naming their moves?" Blade whispered.

Luffy jumped on top of Buggy, but was knocked back by his hand. Buggy used the blades on his hand to take off Luffy's had, stabbing it into a pole. He ran for his hat, but was punched in the stomach, falling to the ground and Buggy wrapped his hand around his neck.

"Nami!" Luffy yelled, "The crates!"

Nami, Zoro and Blade finally got all the way up, hitting Buggy's body parts into the crates at the side of the ring.

Eventually, all he was was a head, his hands and his feet.

"What have you done to me?" He yelled.

"Cut you down to size," Luffy said with a smile on his face.

"The One Piece will never be yours! You're just a sad, lonely little boy wearing another man's hat!"

"I know exactly who I am," Luffy put his hat back on, "I am Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates." Luffy stretched his arms all the way back. "Gum Gum..."

"No, no, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait!"

"Bazooka!" Luffy whacked Buggy right through the roof of the tent, sending him flying. He picked up the map and handed it to Nami.

"You're giving this to me?"

"You're the navigator."

"Let's get out of this clown show," Zoro said.

"There's still one more thing we need to do."

The four walked up the stairs and towards the captives, untying their chains. One of the little boys looked down at Blade.

"You're-" He began, a shaky and scared tone in his voice. Blade felt her heart drop, she didn't want kids to be scared of her, but she understood why. People twisted stories about her. Plus, even if they didn't, her truth was pretty scary, too.

She looked over at the other three. They had her backs to her, and she had her back to them.

"My name is Miura," she said sweetly, "I promise you, I won't hurt you. I'm not as scary as people say I am."

Once they were done freeing all of the captives, they went to the dock to retrieve their boat. A man picked up a crate full of things.

"We don't have much," he said, "But please, take this as a token of our gratitude."

"You need it more than we do," Luffy said.

The four began to walk away, when Blade was met with a pair of small arms wrapping around her waist.

"I'm gonna tell everyone how nice you really are!" The little boy who she'd freed said. She knelt down to his height, pulling him her mask and showing him, along with the rest of the town, her face. Her back was to her friends, so they couldn't see.

"As long as you don't tell them my name, right?"

"Right!" She hugged the boy, standing up and winking at the crowd before pulling her man's back down and jogging towards her friend.

"You just showed them all your face," Zoro said.

"Mhm. Sometimes, you just have to show people you're human, just like them."