𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄 • Roronoa Zoro

chapter eighteen

After the fight, Miura just went straight to her room. She couldn't deal with talking to anyone right now, and she certainly didn't wanna cry in front of them. Not again.

She lay in her room, staring up at the ceiling. What now? There was no Grand Line map. That was the only reason she's stayed with them. Now she was staying for Zoro. But what if he never woke up? Would he just leave them? Hunt for Nami? Get the map back? Then what? Go back to them? Find the Grand Line alone? She hated questioning herself, her future, but soemtimes she couldn't help it.

She was broken out of her thoughts by Luffy shouting, shooting up out of bed. She ran to the source of the sound: Zoro's room. She stood in the doorway, looking at him and Luffy, having a conversation. A two sided conversation. Zoro was awake.

Usopp was in there, too, telling yet another one of his stories, acting it out. He turned around, seeing Miura.

"Oh, hey, Miura," he said, smiling. Zoro's eyes widened as he turned to look at the girl in the doorway.

"Hey, guys, Zoro."

Zoro nodded at the two guys, who took the hint to leave the room, closing the door behind them.

"It's really you," Zoro said. Miura sat by his bed side.

"It's really me."

He suddenly felt betrayed, his eyebrows furrowing. "But you let me hate you. At the beginning, you let me say all of those bad things about pirates, about you. Why didn't you just tell me?"

"It wasn't that simple, Zoro. I didn't know what kind of connections everyone had. Not just Nami, but Luffy and Usopp, too. I knew about you, about your pirate hunting gig. I didn't want you to hate Miura as well as Blade."

Zoro took Miura's hand in his. "I could never hate you, you know. Even as a pirate. Even if the whole pirate thing wasn't for a good reason, which it is."

"You heard that."

"Why do you think I squeezed you hand if I couldn't hear you?"

Miura smiled. He could hear her this whole time. Every word she said. "I'm really glad you're alive, Zoro."

"Me too. You know, I wouldn't have minded dying to someone like Mihawk, but I'm really happy I didn't, that I get to see you again." Miura frowned at the mention of Mihawk's name. "You shouldn't hate him, you know. I asked him for a fight to the death. It was him or me."

"I'd rather it be him."

"But it was neither of us. Come on, you think he thought what he did was gonna kill me? If he really wanted me dead I would be by now, but I'm not. He wouldn't kill your best friend, Miura, he loves you."

"Well he shouldn't. I don't love him."

"I think deep down you do."

Sanji joined the crew, and they left soon after the incident with Arlong. Buggy's head had been left, so they told him they'd get him back to his body as long as he behaved, although his promise to be good seemed empty.

It was hard without a navigator, but not impossible, especially since they didn't actually have a map they needed to follow anymore. Zoro sat over looking the ocean. Since their chat after he woke up, him and Miura hadn't spoke, both being in shock at her identity reveal. But they both knew they wanted to talk, and Miura was the one to break the ice. She sat next to him, looking forward like he was.

"Before you fought Mihawk, you said that, if you found me, I wouldn't be the same Miura, not your Miura," she said.

"I said if you'd been captured you wouldn't be the same. But you haven't. You're free, and you're still that same girl."

Miura let out a dry chuckle. "If this is what freedom feels like, I think I'm more of an imprisonment kind of girl."

"What do you mean?"

"You heard what I told you in your coma. About my parents, and why I became what I am. If I was free, I wouldn't be a pirate."

"Still, you're still Miura deep down."

"I haven't been. No one's called me that name for two years, and even before it was just Mihawk. I'm not the same girl, Zoro. I wish I was, I'd do anything to get her back, I just- she's long dead."

Miura now felt Zoro looking at her, and turned to look at him as well. "That doesn't matter to me. You still have the same heart."

"A vengeful one?"

"A strong one. You've been through so much since we last saw each other, and here you are, still fighting. You know how admirable that is, don't you?"

"I don't think piracy is admirable."

"But you know you're not like the other pirates. You have a kind heart, even if you don't show it very often. I don't think I'll ever forget how sweet you were to those people Buggy's crew took, showing them your face, making sure they knew not all pirates are evil."

"Most are."

"But you aren't. You're still my best friend, no matter what job you have now."

"You don't hate me even a little bit? I mean, we both know how you feel about pirates."

"Oh, please, Miura. I wouldn't hate you even if you have a knife to my throat."

disclaimer that last line is NOT any type of foreshadowing bc ik how wattpad readers can read into things lol