Chapter Text
Musketeers idea version 2, Zoro/Mihawk?
The way Roronoa Zoro remembered it was something like this; an extremely suspicious man (probably evil) had insulted him, he had challenged him into a duel, the stranger had cheated (there was no other explanation for Zoro was the best swordsman around, and the guy was probably evil), defeated him and disappeared (evilly) into the night, cackling (evilly).
Zoro woke up with a hangover, a messed up eye, and an alarming lack of remorse which any normal person would feel after the previous night’s events. The young man seethed, trying to will a clear image of the stranger from his memories. What he did remember clearly was the man’s infuriating cocky smirk.
“My, my, such unrefined potential. Perhaps you might become a musketeer when you grow up little one.” Zoro’s whole body tensed up at the memory of the man’s mockery. “I might even consider a re-match then.”
Fine. Musketeer it was then. I took some years to gather up some money and move to the capital, and great effort to prove himself worthy to be even considered as a cadet - but he made it. He couldn’t help but feel proud of how far he’d become - a bounty hunter from a small village in the middle of nowhere, now standing here amongst fellow cadets. But his goal - the stranger in the black cloak still eluded him.
Whispers from other cadets caught his ear. Officers of the Royal musketeers were entering the room, among them legends he had yet to see with his own eyes, such as lieutenant Dracule Mihawk, one of the Lieutenant-Captain’s most trusted officers, famed as the “greatest swordsman in the world”. They’d see about that… the young man’s excited smirk faded immediately when he lifted his gaze to look at the passing officers. After all this time… there he was - the stranger in the black cloak… one of the officers!