Chapter Text
Law was a little disappointed.
When Zoro had told him he wanted to meet, he had expected a lot more kissing and less bragging.
Because that was what Zoro was doing, he was completely bragging about his little brothers showing him his brothers wanted poster, at least it was cute.
Zoro was not one to talk that much, only smiling softly from time to time — When he wasn't playing a role to deceive some poor fool — so it was kind of cute to see the way his face lit up when talking about his little brothers.
"Ace looks so handsome on his poster! Although I would like for him to use a shirt, he can get a cold just going around like that" Zoro commented and Law had to admit that going that poorly clothed could be bad for his health.
"You wanted to see me talk to me about your little brother?" Asked Law and for a second Zoro's face went serious.
"Actually I need a favor" Law raised an eyebrow because Zoro was pretty self-sufficient, and even if he needed help with a job, he was more than sure that Hawkeye would happily help him.
"What type of favor?" He questioned and in that moment someone opened the bar's door.
"Wraith of the east! I finally found you! I have been looking for you ever sin—
"You are late" commented Zoro and the newly arrived pirate — Law recognized his face from a wanted poster — blinked.
"What?"
"I expected you earlier, I mean, I went through all the trouble to make sure that someone in your crew saw where I was going" Zoro answered. "Anyway, is the rest of your crew here?"
"They are..."
"Good, let's go outside I don't want to break anything here" The swordsman commented standing up leaving some money for their drinks. "Let's go Law" he said with a tight smile.
.
Law looked at the poor guy who had been telling his sad back story about how Zoro had killed his father and brothers — That were part of a pirate crew that had their hand on human trafficking — and he had decided to become strong and hunt down Zoro to make him pay for what he did.
And Zoro looked well... bored, but there was something else, a certain edge that if Law didn't know that Zoro could handle these guys without breaking a sweat he would call anxious.
But what did the wraith of the east have to be anxious about?
"Are you done?" Asked Zoro after the guy finally seemed to have finished his tale.
"Well yeah... now that you know who I'm —
"I don't"
"What do you mean you don't? I just told you who my family were—
"Do you have any idea how many people I have killed? The fact that your family were pirates doesn't really narrow down things for me, besides I don't know the names of the ones I kill only the one that matters" Zoro answered shrugging.
"You! Well it doesn't matter because this is going to be your end! Soon your name will also be forgotten and I will—
"Yeah, yeah" Zoro sighed and looked at Law. "Pay attention and don't move from here" he instructed and Law saw something that called his attention.
Zoro was going to use his sword.
Sure, Zoro was a swordsman and carried three swords, one made of wood, one that according to Zoro had poison in it and the third sword was the one he used when he was serious.
Law had never really see Zoro use that sword before.
Zoro took a deep breath and unsheathed his sword.
"First movement, sword of the seventh elders" Murmured Zoro and Law could feel—
The pressure and the pure power of Zoro's ability, while in the blink of an eye Zoro was moving, his movements were so fast that Law could barely see him moving while something danced in the air with Zoro.
In less than a minute everyone was on the floor, not even having the chance to defend themselves, they were like sitting ducks against an apex predator.
But there was something else that was bothering Law.
"Are those petals?" He asked looking at the bright pink petals and suddenly the cherry blossom fragrance that Zoro always had made sense.
"You can see then too?" Asked Zoro surprised.
"Wait you thought I couldn't?"
"Well, Daddy never said anything about then and the rest just well" He signed to the people on the floor and it was true that dead people couldn't tell any tells.
"So, that's what you wanted for me to see— Law was stopped when Zoro started to cough. "are you okay—
There was blood.
Zoro was coughing blood.
Too much blood.
"Yeah, I need your help with this" Zoro said after coughing cleaning his mouth with a handkerchief. "I think I may be dying"
Zoro certainly always had a way to take Law's breath away.
.
"Is this necessary? I don't really like needles— Zoro tried to say but Law just raised an eyebrow and he sighed giving him his arm.
"So, when did the symptom first start?" Asked Law while taking a sample of Zoro's blood.
"Like a couple of day—
"Zoro" Law called him and Zoro totally looked like a kid that had been caught doing some mischief.
"Fifteen, the first time it happened I was fifteen" Zoro sighed avoiding Law's judgemental look. "In the beginning it was just a small pain in my stomach, a headache or a nose bleed"
"And you didn't do anything about it?"
"It usually went away after a couple of minutes or when I meditated" Zoro shrugged.
"No one noticed? " it was a dumb question because Law was damn sure that Hawkeye would have kidnapped the best doctor or a whole hospital to treat Zoro if he knew he was sick.
"I'm good at hiding stuff and like I said it wasn't that bad in the beginning. But..."
"But?"
"It got worse, I will throw up blood when I push myself a little too much, or black out"
"Black out?" He questioned raising an eyebrow.
"I will be fighting some idiot and next thing I knew the fight was over and I was covered in blood" He admitted and Law remembered the guy who had been after Zoro.
Maybe Zoro wasn't just being a little shit and he had really no memory of who that guy was.
The wraith had a reputation of being vicious and cruel, but Law had always believed that it was intentional on Zoro's part, so people would fear him and would think twice about crossing him, but now that Law knew the truth...
"Any idea what might be causing it?" He sighed because the symptom didn't sound like nothing he knew.
"Not really" Shrugged Zoro. "Although it may have to do with the fact that I died and got reincarnated I mean it's the only thing that comes to my mind really"
"You what now?"
.
"You died, and came back to life?"
"Not like that, I'm not a zombie" Zoro corrected. "I died in a different world and then I was reborn here with most of my memories intact"
"Do you know how crazy that sounds?"
"Says the guy that can perform surgery without a scalpel"
"It's different"
"Yes, because magic fruits that give people magic powers, is so normal"
"I—" Law tried to defend himself but to be honest he did have a point.
"That's what I thought"
.
Reincarnation thing apart, everything about Zoro looked normal.
Which was incredibly frustrating.
How was Law supposed to cure him if he didn't even know what he had? He needed more information and more time.
And that's the reason why Zoro joined the heart pirates.
Mostly because Zoro refused let people know he was sick, and sure they could say that Zoro and Law were having a fling and used that to justify the time they spent together, but Law wasn't even close to know what was making Zoro sick — what was Killing him — and he have other plans and he couldn't put them on pause for too long.
So it was safer for Zoro to sail with them while Law figured what was wrong with him and came up with a treatment.
Besides Zoro said that at least that way he could pay him back for his help.
Adding the wraith of the west to his crew certainly was helping their growing reputation a lot.
It was a win-win situation for everyone — Just that it wasn't, Zoro was dying and Law had no idea how to help him and it was slowly driving him insane, was this how Cora-san felt?—
.
"They like you" Law commented while having breakfast with Zoro, and Law thought he could never go back to who he was after eating Zoro's special pancakes, they were a religious experience.
"Yes" Zoro nodded and then paused. "But who are you referring to?"
"My crew" Law commented.
Originally he had thought that Zoro would have troubles adapting taking in consideration that it had always been him and his dad, so the swordsman didn't have many people skill.
Well he was seriously mistaken.
It only took a week for his crew to completely accept Zoro like if he was with them from the beginning — And the fact that Zoro baked like a god was only like half the reason why—
"Oh yes, everyone is really nice"
"They like you more than me"
"Well I baked them a cake"
"I'm their Captain"
"It was a very good cake" Law would like to argue against that but.
It was actually a really good cake.
.
"So you didn't have pirates?" Asked Law one day while he was running some tests on Zoro — He had learned that it helped calm him down, and truly I calmed him too taking in consideration that he had made zero progress —
"We did, but they were more movies and history books about them that anything else. We mostly had heroes, villains and Aliens"
"Aliens?"
.
"And that's how I ended up in the middle of a cornfield with only a poncho and a pineapple" Finished his story Zoro and Law had so many questions. "I also learned that some Aliens don't have a dick but they have learned to use their tentacles in many, many... interesting ways"
"I have so many questions"
.
In the moment they entered the grand line, Law found out that he didn't know Zoro as much as he thought he did.
"This happens a lot?" Asked Law when in the third island that they visited people started to greet Zoro like some kind of celebrity — In the second he even have a fucking statue — asking for his autograph, showering him with gifts and asking for pictures.
"What?" Asked Zoro confused while he ate an ice cream, on the house.
"People giving you stuff"
"Oh yes, It's called pretty privilege" Zoro said with a shining smile and Law considered to ask more questions but decided that maybe for his mental health it was better to not know.
.
Usually because of Zoro's condition, Law didn't let Zoro participate in the fights with other pirates.
It was safer and if his crew found it weird that their best fighter, didn't fight, they decided not to ask which was nice, because he didn't want to have to lie to them.
But they happened to find a pirate crew that had someone who ate a devil fruit.
He was able to create a toxic fog that left most of his crew on the floor seconds after he released it.
Law was trying to think about a plan to get everyone to safety, away from the fog when he saw pink petals fall and just like that the fight was over.
"I didn't tell you to fight!" Law screamed when once again Zoro couched blood but the swordsman just ignored him and walked to Bepo.
For a second he believed he was going to try and wake him up but instead he put his hand on his back and started to do some breathing exercises.
"What—
"Zoro?" Asked Bepo waking up a little confused.
"You should rest" Zoro said and moved to penguin, repeating the process again and again while Law just watched both amazed and confused.
How? How was he doing that? Could he learned that to—
"Captain! Zoro passed out!" Someone screamed and Law ran.
He was supposed to have more time.
.
Zoro had spent two days fighting an awful fever and coughing blood, while Law... Law tried to not rage about the fact that he allowed that to happen.
He was supposed to save Zoro, not get him sicker.
And yet, he was nothing more than a failure right now, Zoro had entrusted his life to him and he had—
"Zoro-chan is going to be okay, he is strong" Said Bepo because now all his crew knew Zoro's secret.
It was hard to keep a secret when the swordsman collapsed right in front of them.
"I'm supposed to help him" Law murmured.
"And you are doing it"
"I'm doing nothing while he die—
"He is not dying yet— he is just resting" Bepo corrected and Law wanted to lash out but he knew that Bepo didn't deserve it so he just sighed.
"I must be in heaven because I'm seeing an angel, a very fluffy angel" A weak voice called their attention and they watched Zoro looking at them with a soft smile.
"You—
"Oh no, there is a demon too, well, have I ever told you that I fucked the devil once— well he did the fucking, but I won't mind a repeat—
"You—
"Wait the devil—
"He had less horns that you would expect but his dick was huge—
.
So once Zoro was awake Law was finally able to get some answers — and not just about his one night stand with the devil, although it was a very interesting story, Law didn't know you could use hot sauce like that —
Law had originally thought that Zoro's sword style came from his father, but apparently it was something he learned in his previous world.
"Master called it, cultivation, he was like me, he got reincarnated too and he learned it in his previous world but to be honest I thought he was just messing with me" Zoro admitted.
So cultivation used spiritual energy and mostly created a perfect balance between mind, body and soul that allowed their users to strengthen their movements.
The only problem was that in his last world, spiritual energy hadn't been really great, so I just made Zoro a little more resilient and allowed him to clean his body and other people's bodies from bad energies and poison.
"It was a very good ability, do you know how much I saved in gas masks?" Law considered for a second why he would need a gas mask, but he decided not to.
What Zoro didn't know was that this world was rich in spiritual energy.
"I think Daddy mentioned Haki before, but I thought that it was some sixth sense or something like that" Zoro shrugged, so Law had to explain the whole thing to him.
And it made him think.
After months Law finally knew what was wrong.
.
"So this is your body" Said Law placing a cup in front of Zoro. "And this is your Haki" He said making Bepo hold a water bottle.
"Why can I be a glass one?" Zoro asked but Law ignored him.
"Normal people have this much Haki" Law said and Bepo filled the cup only a little. "And if you train you can develop two Haki, and have this much" Bepo filled the cup to the half. "But you have a conquer Haki, which without knowing you have been nurturing and strengthening since you could walk" this time Bepo didn't stop pouring the water on the cup and the water was falling to the floor.
"That... doesn't look good"
"It's not, your body can't take your Haki's strength, that's why every time you use it, your body rejects it and you get sick" law explained and Zoro nodded.
"So what do we do now?" Asked Zoro a little more seriously and Law smiled, because finally, finally he had a plan.
.