Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He didn’t understand he was dying, at the time. It had been ages since he had eaten, yes. He chewed holes in his cheeks to try and stave away the gnawing agony of starvation until the hot air could reach in and dry out his tongue. The desert he was walking through was dry and unforgiving, its sands pelting his skin with every blow. He did not burn. He refused to. 

The nights were cold and unrelenting. He held on to his blades as if they would somehow bring him warmth. As if they could soothe his aching muscles. 

He had been losing muscle mass as he walked. Stumbled. Fell. 

He had been losing focus as he pushed himself up. Knelt. Stood. 

He had been shutting his eyes when his breathing slowed. Stuttered. Stopped. 

But he refused. He had a dream. He couldn’t let hunger and thirst kill him, no. He wasn’t going to let death, with a cloaked skull, lead him to the afterlife. The straight road paved with stars before him twisted. He wandered away from it. He would not go with death. He refused. 

He had been dead, ashen, decaying. 

His heart sputtered, blood that had been clotting and congealing being forced to move. Boiled insides popped and melted, and he fell to his side. He expelled the black goo that had once powered his body. He did not need it. 

What he needed was his determination. His will. Her white blade hummed, pleased that he was continuing. Pleased that he had returned. The others were quiet, they did not understand. They were not as clever as her sword. 

He wiped viscera from his chin and groaned. His stomach did not rumble. But he hungered. It was a violent feeling. Perhaps a reminder of death. Straying from the path of his doom. He ran his tongue over his teeth to remove his own insides from them. Sharp. Deadly. Different. 

Subconsciously, he understood their purpose. He understood why his teeth had been pushed out of his gums. Why tender flesh had scavenged calcium to form into sharp carnivorous fangs. Canines and incisors are meant to tear. To bite. To rip. To devour. 

The monster in him laughed and laughed and laughed. 

No one was around to hear if perhaps, he was the monster who broke into unrestrained laughter. Crazed and delirious from heat and sickness. 

Walking was easier when he could turn his brain off. His body was automated. He could float and let time pass him by, now. He could let the blistering sun, still attempting to char his skin red, bear down on him without feeling the heat. 

His body remained. It did not burn. Nor did it tan any more than it was. The corpse would forever remain tan and ashy. His skin would not warm with his blood. It would stay dark with the slow rot trudging through his veins. His muscles began to develop as he walked, strength building the appendages easily. 

When he next reached a town, he found the nearest bounty.

He ate everything but the head, which he turned in for the money that was needed. He used the leftover bones as toothpicks. 

He was not as horrified as he perhaps should have been. He considered the possibility that his emotions were dampened. That the first part of his brain to decay was his emotions. Maybe he would forever wear a neutral face with silver eyes that were almost as pale as her blade’s sheath and handle. 

He had never minded being covered in his enemy's blood. It would occasionally get in his mouth, so the flavor of iron was not unknown to him. The copper tang had become friendly. 

But now?

Blood was delicious. The flesh was fresh, springy, and textured. Depending on the part he ate it could be easy to snap apart or stretch like chicken skin. Muscles were filling and tasty, and the heart was plump and refreshing. It popped into his mouth. He knew which organs not to eat, just out of knowledge. He refused to eat kidneys. 

Something else he had discovered was that whenever he opened his mouth, the holes he had gnawed into his cheeks back in the desert would stretch and become a window into his mouth. It freaked people out. So he stopped talking unless necessary, and even then it would be barely audible. 

This was not an issue. He always managed to get his point across. Pointing only got him so far, so he started carrying notepads in his pockets with a pen or pencil. He adapted. 

The first time he ‘faked’ his death was accidental. A few bounties in the area had heard he was there and joined together. They attacked in the night (a coward’s move) and shot at him. Stabbed him. Sliced his head off.

They did not need to check his pulse. His head was not on his body. Why would they need to?

Well, Zoro lived. The nerves in his neck extended until they reached his body, which he watched crawl back to his head. He placed his head back on and felt his skin mend itself together.

All his other wounds were mended within the next day.

He hunted down the bounties, ate them, and turned in their heads. 

Shellstown was cool! 

Luffy chatted on and on about the crew he was going to accrue over time to Koby, who was walking beside him with quick shorter steps. Luffy thought Koby was cool, but Koby wanted to be a Marine, so he couldn’t be on his crew. He caught the tail end of a somber conversation while walking past two people.

“Roronoa Zoro? Such a shame…I heard about what he did for Rika and her mother…”

“Someone should have told him that the marine's bastard son was never going to keep his end of the deal…”

“I feel just awful about it…”

Luffy’s large owlish eyes blinked. He grinned. He had heard a bit about Roronoa Zoro when dealing with Alvida, so finding out he was there was lucky! He had to be strong if Alvida was even a bit nervous about the name. Luffy wanted him on his crew!

The straw hat-wearing teen turned to Koby, who was looking towards the two conversing with a confused expression. 

“Koby! We gotta find that guy! I want him on my crew!”

“Ah- Luffy I think he’s-“ 

But it was no use because Luffy was already running off in the direction of the marine base. Koby followed with a frown. 

Luffy peaked over the edge of the marine yard and spotted a wooden cross in the yard. Ropes lay on the ground beneath the arms of the structure, but there was no one there. 

What there was, however, was large drag marks on the ground that lead up to a gate and likely continued on either side. Luffy grinned before dropping down and running off to follow the trail. 

“Ah! Luffy- wait! I don’t think you’re going to find the guy you’re looking for! The way they were talking about him…” Koby spoke, leaving off the tail end for Luffy to fill in. Which he did not, instead Luffy just laughed his signature laugh and shrugged off the other’s concern. Koby sighed. 

The tracks eventually led around the base and dragged a bit of dust and sand onto concrete, where a dumpster was located. With a leg hanging out of it. 

“Oh my god…” Koby put a hand to his mouth in shock. He felt sick.

Luffy’s grin did not waver as he walked up to the dumpster and propped his arms up on the side of it. 

“Hey! Are you alive?” 

The eyes of the corpse met Luffy’s. 

“Not really…” Quietly spoken. Near missable. His lips had barely moved.

Luffy’s grin stretched further. 

“Hey! Join my crew!” 

“…What?” 

“He’s alive?!” Koby bounded over and looked into the dumpster. Yes. The man was looking up at them with a bored expression. He was not dead. 

“Holy shit! Luffy! We gotta get him out of here!” 

“Yep!” Luffy lowered his hand down for him. Zoro stared at the hand. How long had it been since he’d touched a hand in a non-aggressive manner? 

He took the hand, accepting the help to pull himself up. His boots hit the ground and he dusted himself off. The missing weights at his side were all too obvious.

“Hey! Hey! You’re going to join my crew, right? 

“Swords,” Again, he spoke. Quiet and hoarse. Luffy found that he liked it. 

“Oh, you’re a swordsman, right?” Koby murmured, eyeing the spot where Zoro’s arm dangled uncomfortably. It was clear he was used to propping his right arm on the hilts of his blades. 

“Oh! Where are your swords?” Luffy cocked his head. Zoro pointed behind himself. At the Marine base. 

“If I get your swords, will you join my crew?” Starry-eyed and alive. 

The dead looked up at the building. He had not blinked once, someone observant would notice. 

He shrugged, and that seemed to be a good enough answer for the teen because his arms suddenly stretched- up and up and up and the teen catapulted himself to the roof. A burst of surprise jumped in his chest, the sudden sting of emotion causing him to wince. 

“Yeah…he uh. Does that,” The kid with pink hair sighed. 

Zoro furrowed his brows and looked at him. 

“What?”

He motioned vaguely. 

“Oh, he’s made of rubber. A devil fruit, actually,” He adjusted his glasses, “So why were the Marines mad at you?”

Zoro didn’t respond, instead, he walked away and towards the Marine yard. 

“Do you not want to talk about it, or something?” 

Again, no response. Zoro pushed the gate to the Marine yard open, the metal screaming as the doors were pushed open without the use of whatever mechanism usually opened them. 

“I mean, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to! I don’t mind!” 

Again, Zoro did not attempt to converse with him. The man still wore a dark green bandana tight against his head and seemed to be looking for something on the ground. 

“Huh? What are you looking…for…” Koby’s eyes widened and he took a step back. 

Zoro looked over at him and tracked his eyes to what he was looking at. 

A finger. Severed, with nails a deep black. Dead. 

Zoro picked it up with his right hand and held up his left. Which was missing a finger. 

“Oh my god…that's…awful!”

But it only got worse, because now the swordsman was mutely pressing the severed appendage back onto the spot where it was missing. 

“Hey! Hey that’s not how it works! Stop that!” Koby took a few steps forward but stopped when he watched the left hand flex. All its fingers. 

“A-Are you…A devil fruit user, too?”

Zoro looked at him. Koby looked into his eyes for the first time. 

Horror. There was nothing in those eyes. No light shone off of them. They were pale and milky, this was a corpse. A walking corpse. This was death. He was staring death in the eyes. He was staring into the void, if he so much as breathed wrong he would fall into those eyes and fall for all of eternity. Fear. Visceral and guttural. He took a step back-

And Zoro looked away, up at the laughing and yelling from the marine base. A window broke and out swung Luffy, holding three swords and looking mighty pleased. He landed beside them with a proud smile before holding three blades out to Zoro, who blinked at him with a dumbstruck expression. 

“I didn’t know which one was yours, so I grabbed them all!” He admitted. 

Zoro took the blades and attached all three of them to his side. 

“Woah! Do you use three swords?! That’s so cool!” Luffy laughed. 

Zoro nodded once. 

“How do you use three swords?” Koby asked. Zoro pointed to his mouth. 

“You carry a sword in your mouth?!” The other two shouted. Luffy out of pure wonder and excitement, and Koby out of utter shock. 

“There he is! With- Holy fuck! He’s alive?!” A foreign voice shouted. Marines began to swarm inside the yard. Luffy looked at the Marines and then back to Zoro. 

Maybe it was the angle or the lighting. The sun that beat down on them brightened his new crewmember’s face, and Luffy swore he could see a hint of a grin. Just a hint. The swordsman rested a hand on the hilt of the white sword at his side before flicking the handle a bit of its sheath. 

Zoro looked at Luffy and- yep. That was a smirk. 

Luffy gives him a large closed-eye grin of his own, and the two dash towards the Marines. 

Luffy knows this was a good choice.

He was an odd sort. 

No, not odd. Creepy. He was absolutely creepy! 

The way you had to actually look for his eyes to tell where he was looking. The way he slept with a chest that barely rose (she couldn’t even tell if it did!). The way he didn’t speak? Three swords? She was so confused. And a bit freaked out. 

But at the same time? The brute that seemed to think with his swords and not his brain let their captain, clingy and loud, climb all over him like he was a play set. 

Nami thought this was absolutely contradictory to the man’s brooding nature. 

Also! Three swords! Where does he hold the third sword? She had yet to see him draw the white katana that hung at his side, even though he seemed much more attached to it than the other two. 

Nami sighed from her place in the cabin of the boat that she adamantly refused to let the other two inside of. After all, she was a woman and deserved her privacy! 

It was late, and she naturally assumed that the other two would be asleep. She wasn’t due to a sudden bout of nerves about her situation and how she would handle it. She knew how to handle it, it always worked, after all. But a small part of her yearned. It was painful. 

“Woah! Zoro, your teeth are sharp!” 

Huh?

Nami left the sleeping bag she had been wrapped in to peek outside of the cabin window at the boat beside hers. 

Zoro sat, hunkered, with his sword lying horizontally on his lap. He looked tired like he had just woken up. Luffy, on the other hand, was as energetic as usual. He leaned forward and cocked his head at Zoro’s surprised expression.

“Can I see? Please?” Their captain put his hands together and repeated that phrase of wording a couple of times before Zoro slumped and seemed to give in. 

He opened his mouth. 

Holy shit. 

Those weren’t scars on the sides of his face. They were holes . Holes that opened whenever he opened his mouth which was- wide. Unnaturally wide. It was like he unhinged his jaw, and now Nami was staring at his large animalistic teeth. 

“That’s so cool!” Leave it to Luffy to think that sort of thing was cool. 

“Not really…” Holy shit, he could talk?! 

Luffy nodded his head, “Yeah! They are! You have super sharp teeth! Like a shark!” 

Luffy then paused before groaning, “I’m hungryyyy! I want to eat a shark now!”

Zoro rolled his eyes, “You shouldn’t have made us run off so fast if you wanted actual food,”.

The swordsman’s voice was gravelly from disuse. It was gruff and strained. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. He clearly didn’t talk a lot.

Luffy flopped onto the bottom of the deck. 

Zoro seemed to consider something over. 

“So that’s it?” He asked. 

“Hm?” Luffy maneuvered his head so he could look at the man better. 

“You don’t…care?”

“That your teeth are really sharp?” 

“No…well. Yeah, I guess. But that’s it? You don’t have any questions?” 

“Nope! If you want to tell me something, you can tell me! I don’t want to make you! That’s no fun!” 

Simple logic. And yet, it could make all the difference. Nami scooted closer to the window until her back was flush against the wood and her ears were pressed against the planks. 

It was silent for a few more seconds before Zoro finally spoke again. 

“I died,”. 

Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn’t that. Her eyes widened. 

“I died a couple of years ago. And then I was alive. But I’m not. Alive, I mean. I don’t know how to describe it,”. 

Nami could picture the way Luffy’s head tilted at that. 

“I can do this, though,”.

Nami peeked out the window again, just in time to see Zoro slice one of his hands off . Luffy had a similar reaction to her and sat up. Zoro picked up the hand from where it was laying on the floor. A black smudge of…something…remained where the hand had been. Actually, his blood. Was. Black. Fuck, what the hell? 

Zoro held the severed hand to the stump of his forearm, tiny blackened veins slowly reached out from both sides. The stump. And the hand. Until they connected, slipping together with ease. The hand was quickly pulled to the stump, and the black line from blood squished out. There was no mark, no remains. 

“That is so cool!” Luffy grabbed the hand and looked it over, while Zoro looked a bit flustered. 

Nami felt sick. That was disgusting. 

“You’re like a zombie!” 

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good word to describe me,”.

“Do you eat brains?” 

Silence. 

Holy shit, did he? We’re they stuck on two boats with a brain-eating zombie? Was she dead? Her town- her sister, had to get the money! 

“No,”. 

Instant relief. 

“Kinda,” Zoro amended a few seconds later. Adrenalin spiked again. 

“Kinda?” 

Zoro made a noise of affirmation, “I need to eat…human flesh. Or, just human, in general. To survive,”. 

Holy shit. This was it. This was her death. Eaten by a zombie. 

“But I ate one of Buggy’s goons before we set sail. I’ll be fine for at least another week. I don’t need to eat a lot. It takes a while to digest,”. 

“Like a snake!” Luffy cheered. 

“Yeah, sure. Like a snake,” An audible eye roll followed. 

Zoro was a zombie, who eyerolled. Used three katanas. And let his captain climb on him like he was a tree, and Luffy was the monkey. 

The terror dimmed slightly. 

“So why don’t you talk much?” Luffy asked next. She could hear the neighboring boat creak with a shift of weight. 

“Ah. People tend to freak out when you have holes in your face,” The zombie explained. 

“Oh! That’s dumb!” 

“You’re telling me,”. 

It was silent for a few more seconds.

“So…do you poop?”

“What?!”

These two were fucking insane. Luffy had been sharing a boat with a zombie and didn’t even seem to care! In fact, he seemed more excited than scared, like he should be! Nami herself carefully lodged the cabin’s chair under the door as an extra security measure that night so she could try and sleep. 

It was still difficult, though. 

Joining Luffy was a whirlwind. He had known the teen for maybe over a day before setting out to sea with him and leaving everything he had ever known. He enjoyed playing with Luffy, chasing each other around Merry’s deck was a good way to spend his time.

Nami was a bit mean. Very stingy, she was very very stingy. She loved money, and he had no doubt that she would consider (even if just for a moment) selling him for even a scrap of money. But, it was clear she cared. Getting after Luffy for not thinking was a very big-sisterly thing to do, he thinks. He wouldn’t know, he never had one. 

Zoro…was scary.

He never seemed to talk, and when helping with Kuro, his almost empty eyes looked wild. He often wondered what happened to get those scars on his cheeks. They looked painful. Maybe he didn’t talk because the scars hurt to talk with? But that still didn’t explain his rigid posture. Or the lack of warmth in his skin.

Seriously! He had clapped a hand on Zoro’s shoulder while bragging to Luffy once and it felt like he was touching a rock! Both in definition (he must be absolutely built under that shirt…) and in temperature! 

He was on watch for the night, something he was a bit scared of doing alone, but he had to get braver if he wanted to be a great warrior of the sea!

Right?

Crunch.

What the hell was that? 

Usopp looked down at the deck, but he didn’t see anything. Maybe he had just imagined it?

Snap.

Nope! He definitely did not imagine that! 

He looked around the deck until he spotted the galley door a bit askew. Was that where the sound was coming from? Maybe Luffy was having a midnight snack? He couldn’t eat too much of their food, they needed that! 

Usopp shook his head before climbing down the crow's nest and landing silently on the deck. What approach should he take? Should he knock on the door first? Nah, Luffy was fast. He might have enough time to hide, and then Usopp would have to find him. 

He grinned, he should just swing the door open! Catch him red-handed! 

Usopp stepped towards the open galley door with silent steps, keeping his snickers muffled. 

He pressed a hand against the door, the cool wood familiar on his palm before he swung it open.

“Aha!” He shouted, pointing at…Zoro. 

Over a corpse of one of Kuro’s men. 

Or more specifically, Zoro, with one of his hands in the rib cage of one of Kuro’s men. He still had those silly cat ears on. Zoro’s mouth was agape. His jaw clicked before snapping shut. Blood coated his mouth. 

It wasn’t hard to piece together what he was doing. 

Usopp let out an absolutely blood-curdling scream before promptly passing out. 

--

“What the………you do!?” 

“Shi….shishi!”

“How….galley………was open?!”

“You two………he’s waking up!”

Usopp groaned, blinking up at the lit ceiling of Merry’s galley with blurry eyes. 

Luffy was above him, grinning. 

“Hey! You passed out!” 

Usopp sprung up, looking around the room before he zeroed in on the subject of his fear. Zoro still had blood covering his hands and his jaw. 

“HE ATE SOMEONE!” The liar screeched.

“We know!” Luffy just laughed. 

“WHAT?!” 

Nami groaned.

“Zoro, go wash your hands and face, you're freaking him out,”. 

“Don’t tell me what to do, witch,”. 

“YOU CAN TALK?!” 

Luffy just fell on his back, kicking his legs in the air while laughing. He truly reveled in chaos. 

Zoro walked over to the galley’s sink after a few more seconds, mumbling to himself. 

“Ok! I get this must be…a lot!” Nami clapped her hands together.

Usopp looked towards the ground- and yep! The corpse was still there!

Nami snapped her fingers and his attention went back to her. 

“Oi, I’m trying to help you stop ignoring me,” She growled. Usopp nodded meekly. 

“Good! Listen, this is probably a lot, being that Luffy or Zoro don’t think it’s necessary to inform people that Zoro is a fuckin zombie…” She glared at their captain, who was now assisting Zoro with scrubbing the blood from his face. 

“But…I don’t think he’s going to eat us. Any of us,”. 

Usopp watched as Luffy stuck his hand into Zoro’s mouth and used a rag to scrub blood from the most terrifying set of teeth he had ever seen on a living creature. Er. Undead creature. Any creature? 

“What is he?” Usopp whimpered. 

“Zoro’s a zombie!” Luffy bounced back over, Zoro in tow. The zombie made a hum of confirmation. 

“Z-z-zombie?! Don’t eat me!” Usopp crawled under the table and peered out at him. Luffy grinned at his cowardly behavior while Zoro rolled his eyes and moved toward the corpse laying on the floor. 

“See? This is what happens when you don’t tell someone that you’re a zombie- hey! Don’t ignore me!” 

Zoro grabbed the leg of the corpse and lifted it over his shoulder without as much of a grunt. 

“He knows now, doesn’t he? It doesn’t matter anymore,” Zoro grumbled. He walked out of the galley, blood dripping from the dead body while he walked.

“Yeah!” Luffy cheered. 

“No!” Nami groaned. 

Usopp, still cowering under the table, was then joined by Luffy, who crouched next to him with a grin. 

“Zoro’s good! He’s a cool zombie, he won’t eat you!” His captain patted his shoulder…reassuringly? Maybe? Before launching out and standing next to Nami. 

“That’s…good…” Usopp eventually got out. 

“What? Scared?”  Zoro drawled. He had just entered again and was now leaning against the doorway. His grin was terrifying. 

Usopp furrowed his brow before standing up with shaky legs and propping his hands on his hips.

“Absolutely not! I, the great pirate Usopp, have defeated many monsters in my amazing life! I am not afraid!” 

“Woah! You have?! Have you beat up a vampire?” Luffy gasped.

“Of course I have!”

Usopp then sprang into a complicated tale in which he defeated a horde of vampires that had come to drain the entirety of his village. 

Nami rolled her eyes before leaving and descending to her room. Not before ordering Zoro to clean the blood that now coated the floor of the galley in the corner he had eaten in, of course. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Sanji stood in front of the green-haired swordsman that followed his crewmates around silently with his arms crossed. Currently, he was sitting against the wall of the Baratie and Sanji had just woken him up from a nap. Smoke from his cigarette twirled in the mid-day fog like a ballerina while he stared him down. 

The swordsman pulled a notepad out and jotted down a few words. 

What’s your problem?

“My problem? What’s your problem?!” He tossed one of his hands into the air in exasperation. 

What the hell has your panties in a twist?

“Oh fuck off! You’ve been giving your food to Luffy!”

It had taken him an embarrassingly long while to realize that the mossheaded man always disappeared whenever Sanji delivered food to the table that Nami had chosen. When he had inquired about the man’s disappearance, Nami had simply waved off his concern and said:

“Oh, he doesn’t eat often. Don’t worry about him!”

He respected the woman to the degree he did every woman, but it was not something he could just not worry about. He was a cook, damn it. His job was to feed people, and she acted like it wasn’t! She acted like, in regards to the man, it was not his job. But, and he hated to say this, the woman was wrong! This is exactly why he started seeking out the man in order to give him food. It lasted for about two days before Luffy, their new chore boy, went up to him and asked if he could make him ‘that yummy fish with lemon’ that he had made. For the swordsman. 

When Sanji had asked just how Luffy knew about that, the teen had told him that Zoro had given it to him. 

Along with the other food Sanji had given him. 

Which brought him to this moment of confrontation. Sanji was fuming, he couldn’t believe this. There had been a part of him that believed maybe it was some sort of insecurity with eating that made the man not eat with others. A part of him believed maybe he wasn’t allowed to eat with the others. He didn’t want to believe that one, of course, but it had been a possibility. But, none of those had been the reason why. 

Because Roronoa Zoro, the silent swordsman with scars on his cheeks, the moss-headed brute that had surprisingly good penmanship, the man with too-pale eyes, was choosing not to eat. 

So?

“So?! Are you fucking dense? Do you have a brain in there?! I made that shit for you! I haven’t seen you eat once!” 

I don’t eat often.

“That doesn’t- you can’t just-!” Sanji took his cigarette from his mouth and tapped it a few times to let the ashes fall. He took a long drag of it. 

“Why? Are you choosing to not eat?” Sanji eventually got out as calmly as possible. Which, in all actuality, wasn’t very calm. His teeth were tightly clenched and his brow was creased down over his eye. 

Don’t need to.

“Bull-fucking-shit!” 

Why do you care?

“Why do I- I’m a cook! My job is to feed people! That’s why I care!”

Zoro looked at him as silently as he always did before pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. He hesitated for a second before writing down his next sentence. 

Do you really want to know why I don’t eat?

Something about the way that the swordsman was now looking at him made him…well. Nervous. His eyes were no longer relaxed and drooping, but sharp and focused. 

“Yes,” Sanji nodded firmly. 

Zoro nodded back before standing. He looked around for a second, which served to make Sanji’s heart only pick up more. He would never admit it out loud, but the guy was fucking creepy. He blended in with the fog to a disturbing degree. Like he belonged in it. 

And then? Zoro opened his mouth. 

Well, more like, he unhinged his fucking jaw. 

His one visible eye widened and his cigarette dropped from his mouth. 

“I don’t eat a lot. And I can’t eat…normal food,”.

Oh god, he could talk ? His voice sounded like he had garbled nails or some shit!

“W-What the hell do you mean you can’t eat ‘normal food’?” He asked after a quick second of gathering himself. He couldn’t look away from the gaping holes in the side of his face. 

“Don’t freak out,” Zoro brought his hands up placidly. 

“Why would you need to tell me that?” Sanji took a step back. 

“Because that tends to be the response,” He shrugged. 

Sanji silently stared at him, his lips pursed. He stomped his cigarette out mindlessly. 

“I eat people,”. 

WHAT.

“EXCUSE ME?” He brought up a leg defensively. He ate people? This guy ate people? Was he going to eat his crew? Was he going to eat Nami? Was he going to threaten the restaurant? 

“I just said don’t fr- you know what? Nevermind. I’m leaving,”.

Sanji couldn’t let him leave, he couldn’t let this danger threaten his livelihood! He rushed forward, a kick aimed at the swordsman’s head. He didn’t expect to be blocked mere milliseconds before his foot could make its mark. Zoro held one of his swords up, its scabbard firm beside his face. His eyes were narrowed dangerously. 

“What do you think you're doing?” He asked. As if it wasn’t obvious.

“I won’t let you eat the patrons!” Sanji growled. 

Zoro pushed his blade and subsequently Sanji’s foot away, jumping back to get some room between them.

“I’m not going to eat them! I already ate two days ago! I won’t need to eat for another few days!” 

“Why should I believe you?”

“I haven’t done anything . And what good would it do me to tell you if I was going to eat the patrons?”

Sanji narrowed his eyes but lowered his leg. 

“So what are you?” He asked.

“Luffy thinks I’m a zombie, so that’s what I am, I guess,”. 

“He knows?”

“They all know,” Zoro grunted. 

Sanji watched as Zoro turned, then, and walked into the fog. His footsteps were nearly silent, and within seconds, He couldn’t hear anything from the man. 

God, what the fuck was wrong with Luffy if he thought getting a zombie in his crew was a good idea?

--

Later, Sanji watched, stunned, as Zoro was nearly cut in half by a warlord.  He did not question how the man could survive.

He only helped Zoro, later, by properly preparing a meal for him, using the corpse of one of the marines that had gotten cocky after they destroyed Arlong Park.

It was not as awful as he thought it would have been, and it was well worth it to see a slight glimmer in Zoro’s eyes after he spent an absurd amount of time trying to figure out how to cook human flesh.

Vivi was eternally grateful to Luffy and his crew. They didn’t need to help her, and yet, they were. She appreciated that to an unbelievable amount. The crew was friendly and quickly integrated her into their routine while they sailed. Although her nerves were absolutely shot and her mind constantly drifted to her country, the Strawhats did their best to make her happy. And they often succeeded.

There was one crewmate that didn’t seem to do that, however. 

Roronoa Zoro. Apparently, an ex-bounty hunter who had become famous in the East Blue. She had seen the carnage he inflicted on the other Baroque Works members, and she had seen the utter brutality that he was not averse to using. She had quickly pinned him as the most dangerous in the crew, the most terrifying. 

When Vivi had asked Nami about the scars on his cheeks, Nami had just looked thoughtful before sighing and shaking her head. 

“No idea, sorry, why don’t you ask Luffy? He’s known Zoro longer than I have,”. 

Nami had not mentioned that Zoro had only known Luffy for three days, though. Because when she asked Luffy, Luffy had just laughed and said that they were ‘mystery holes!’. Which was odd, because they were clearly scars. 

Talking to Usopp was no better because the sniper had just awkwardly begun a tale that was clearly made-up about how he had saved Zoro from man-eating bears. It had no relation to how the man got his scars.

If Sanji knew anything, he avoided talking about it completely. She had asked about them while he was bringing her a drink, and his simple response had been, “Oh, don’t think about that brute while drinking my lady, please, enjoy!”

The only person she had not asked was Zoro himself, which had brought her to how she was now. She was standing nervously at the bottom of the stairs that led to the main deck. Zoro was asleep at the railing a few feet away. 

“Ah…Mr. Bushido?” 

Zoro opened one of his pale eyes and focused on her. He made a grunt of recognition. 

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are the scars on your cheeks?” 

Zoro pulled out his signature notebook. The corner had become red with blood after the group had left Whisky Peak. 

You’re the first one to ask.

“Really?” She walked over, sitting down beside him. 

Yeah.

“That’s…” She furrowed her brow. It was odd, no one has asked before. 

I got them a while ago, in a desert.

“A desert?”

Yeah. Chewed through my cheeks because I was starving. 

Oh. That was horrifying. She could only imagine the agony of starving that was so bad that it would push someone to eat their own flesh.

“I’m so sorry…” She gasped. She lay a hand on his shoulder. It was shockingly cold, she pulled it back. If Zoro cared, he did not show it.

“Is that why you don’t talk? Do they hurt?”

Something like that . 

“That must have been awful. Are you okay, now?” 

As well as I can be.

“That’s good, at least,” She smiled. He did not smile back.

--

An odd thing she noticed about Zoro was just how much he slept. He had slept through almost all of the storms they had been through. One time she thought he had actually died because he had been buried under snow for an entire night without anyone noticing. Later that morning he rose and yawned before starting to work on whatever Nami had ordered him to do. 

Actually, Vivi thought he died a lot. Whether he was sleeping or just had his eyes closed, Vivi sometimes felt her heart skip a beat…he just looked so dead. She scolded herself the first time she had caught herself thinking that, but then she started to notice how Nami, Usopp, and Sanji did the exact same. 

Sanji would freeze for a moment when walking by to watch Zoro for a second before shaking his head. Nami would throw things at Zoro, only for the man to catch them and glare at her, and Usopp would watch until he could see Zoro’s chest rise ever-so-slowly. 

Luffy was the only one who didn’t do that, although, a small part of her whispered that Luffy clinging to Zoro was just his way of confirming that he was alive. 

He was alive. 

Well, that’s what she thought until Little Garden. 

Because Zoro had cut his legs off.

And then he had actually fought, afterward. 

His stumps had left black marks on the ground, and after a minute or so of getting used to it, he was using the black shit to his advantage by skating on it . It was the most fucked up skating Vivi had ever seen, and later on, Nami had been able to get his legs free from the candle wax and delivered them to him.

“What…is he?” Vivi had whispered to the redhead.

Nami had scratched at a bug bite and shrugged before saying, “A zombie,” as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

“Oh,” Vivi had weakly commented. 

“Don’t worry, he won’t eat you! He’s a big softie!” She shouted the last bit, and Zoro flipped her off before yelling , “Fuck you, witch!” 

“You can talk?!” 

--

Vivi should have known there would be something bad to do with that bug bite. Getting a bug bite at a prehistoric island, well, it should obviously be a bad sign. 

Even stranger, though, was that Zoro avoided her like the plague. Nami had requested to talk to him after he had tried to navigate to yell at him, but he hadn’t even entered the room. He had just peeked his head in, and after it was obvious that she was only going to yell at him, he left. 

Vivi would later approach Zoro to talk to him about this while on the way to Drum. 

“Why are you avoiding Nami?” She asked. It was not in a rude manner, but more in a curious manner. 

Zoro looked at her before looking back out to the ocean. 

“I can smell it on her,” He spoke into the night air. 

“Smell…what?” 

“Death,”. 

“Death?”

Zoro nodded once. 

“Is it…strong?” 

“No. But it can get stronger. I don’t like the smell of death,”. 

A lie, she knew it to be a lie. She had seen his demonic grin when he fought against the Baroque Works members. He enjoyed it. But she understood what he was saying.

He did not like the smell of death on her . 

“Why?” She asked anyway. 

He waited for a few moments, his mouth opened and closed a few times as he was trying to figure out what to say.

“ It makes me hungry ,” He growled. 

“But…didn’t you eat…” The Baroque Works members? Sanji had said Zoro only ate once a week or so, right? They had just left and she knew they had to have taken a corpse or two…he couldn’t have eaten them all, right?

“Yes. But reconnecting myself takes energy. I’m getting hungry ,”. 

She shouldn’t be afraid of this man, this man who had cut his legs off to protect his friends. But she was. He ate people, and he was hungry. If he wanted, he could lunge at her now and rip her throat out. He could easily tear her organs from her still living body and devour them while she watched. 

Zoro seemed to catch the look in her eyes. He looked away and had the decency to look nervous. 

“I’ll be fine. I’ll try and find food on Drum,”. 

“And if you don’t?” She couldn’t help but ask. 

Zoro was quiet for a second.

“Then I guess I’ll have to be wrapped in chains and locked away until I do have some,” He shrugged. 

“B-but…” 

“Do you want to be eaten?” 

Vivi shook her head. 

“And I don’t want to eat anyone on this ship either. So that’s my best option until I find more food,”. 

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,”. 

Zoro nodded. He hoped so as well.

But it did end up coming to that. 

They were not able to find any dead in Drum, and Zoro had nearly lost it a few hours later. He had lunged at Usopp, who had gotten a cut on one of his whittling knives. Luffy and Sanji were able to restrain him, and after coming back to himself, Zoro was insistent that he be put into the deepest part of the Merry and locked away until he could get food. 

Luffy had originally been against this, telling Zoro that he believed Zoro wouldn’t do any harm to his crewmates. But upon Zoro’s own insistence on the matter, the captain complied. He and Sanji brought him to the lowest room of the Merry, a room meant for storage. They took all the items out of the room and set up a few pillows and blankets (mostly to make themselves feel better about locking one of their family in a room). Zoro had sat still as they wrapped ropes and chains around his body. He had then asked for them to keep an eye on his swords. They had carefully taken his swords, apologizing before leaving. 

--

The following morning after Sanji and Luffy had locked Zoro in the bottom of the ship, Sanji had gone down to check up on him. It was silent as he approached the door and he was hopeful. 

The moment he stepped in front of the door, there was a crashing sound. And there, in the barred window, was the growling face of his crewmate. His teeth seemed impossibly sharper and were covered in his own blood. And then? 

The beast screeched. 

It was deafening. It sounded so wrong coming from the normally silent man’s mouth, but this was not their swordsman. Zoro’s eyes were not empty, there were hints of a pupil. There was nothing in the monster’s eyes. Pure white marble rolled in their sockets. 

Luffy came running down moments later, sliding to a stop beside Sanji and staring at the snarling corpse. 

“Zoro will be back soon,” He said. 

“What?”

“We have to get Zoro food. And then he will be back,”. 

Luffy had always had an uncanny ability to read the crew’s thoughts.

“Yeah, he will,” Sanji nodded along. 

They left the beast when it began slamming its head on the door, warbled screams leaving its slobbering maw as they stepped up the stairs. 

No one said anything when the two came back up.

When Alabasta was reached, they realized something. 

They had no idea how to get food for Zoro. They couldn’t just kill someone for the sake of getting food for him, that would be…well. Not morally correct. And the Strawhats were very much so morally correct people. 

They couldn’t really focus on that at the moment, though. Because once they had landed, they were forced to set off again with an extra passenger. Luffy’s brother Ace. Everyone was a bit grateful that Zoro had been mostly quiet. That was until Ace destroyed a few ships, blowing them up with his flames. The moment Sanji spotted two definitely dead bodies floating close together, he dove into the water to grab them and bring them aboard. 

Once Ace was back on board he watched confused as Sanji hauled two dead bodies into the ship. Luffy had talked extensively about his cook when he had run into him, so it was a bit of a concern if there was the possibility of the meat being fed to him being human. 

“Say, Luffy, you know that your cook just took a few dead people into your ship, right?”

Luffy just smiled and nodded, “Yep!” 

Moments later, Ace nearly jumped out of his skin when the most harrowing roar reached his ears. It was a hollow scratch that stayed in the air for a few seconds. Everyone on board seemed to freeze for a moment before trying to act as normal as possible. Usopp was even whistling in a nonchalant manner. 

“Luffy?”

The teen in question just shrugged.

“What do you have in your ship?”

“Zoro! He just needed to eat, he’ll be back to normal soon!” He smiled once again. 

Sanji reappeared a few seconds later, shakily lighting a cigarette. 

“I never want to see him like that again,” The cook muttered after a second. Luffy just nodded. 

“Zoro…that's your swordsman, right?” Ace questioned after a second. He looked at the door that lead into the ship. 

“Yeah, he’s pretty cool!” 

“Please, he’s a brute with no manners,” Sanji scoffed. 

“Mean!” Luffy pouted. 

“It's not mean if it's true,” The blonde took his cigarette from his mouth, tapping it a few times against another finger and letting the ashes fall to the ocean. 

“Don’t think that's particularly true, though!” Ace smiled. Sanji glared at him for a moment before focusing on the sea. 

Five minutes later, Ace felt a presence appear in his range of Haki. 

Two minutes after that, a green-haired man wrapped in chains wormed through the open door and onto the deck. A trail of blood was left in his wake, and when he looked up, Ace could see the blood absolutely covering his face. 

“Zoro’s back?” Luffy popped up, approaching the restrained man. 

The man in question, Zoro, nodded. 

“Zoro’s back!” Luffy cheered. Sanji approached, taking a key from his pocket and unlocking the chains. 

Zoro stood, stretching his arms above his head. 

Ace looked at the swordsman (whose swords had just been tossed to him by a gagging navigator).

Zoro looked back.

Ace had seen death. He had watched life bleed from begging men’s eyes. He had witnessed innocent lives being ripped away, he had seen so much of it. And those eyes, they were all of those things. They were the death of an innocent, they were a pleading man’s death. They were tortured. Ace felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up when he finally recognized those living but dead eyes. He had encountered one such creature before, after all. 

An Undead, a being that was denied the release of death. Most undead went mad, refusing to consume the flesh of the living, but here this one was, staring at him with intelligent eyes. 

“Zoro! This is Ace! He’s my brother!” Luffy introduced. Ace watched as Luffy climbed onto the undead’s back until he was firmly sat on his shoulders. 

Zoro nodded at him. Could he speak?

“Zoro! Say hi!” 

The swordsman furrowed his brow and Ace felt flames sear under his skin in preparation. 

“Hey,” The gruff voice of a fanged jaw and bloodied face awkwardly greeted. 

“Great job meeting each other! Zoro! Wash your face!” Nami interrupted. 

“Why? I don’t need to shower for at least another two days,” The zombie scowled. 

“Oh my god,” Usopp groaned. 

“You smell really bad…” Chopper groaned. He then made an ‘eep!’ noise and dove behind the mast when Zoro directed a look at him. 

Luffy looked down at Zoro’s blood-soaked hair, grinned, and enacted an impulsive plan. He reached forward, grabbed the railing, and launched the two of them forward and into the ocean. 

There was a common cry of Luffy’s name and a few seconds later, Zoro was back up on deck, a limp but laughing Luffy thrown over his shoulder. 

“Fucking…damn it Luffy!” The swordsman cursed, tossing Ace’s brother to the ground. 

Luffy just laughed and laughed and laughed. 

Ace felt a little bit better letting a man-eating monster near his brother.