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It was on a sunny day.
Zoro remembers, not as clearly as he wishes he could, but he remembers. It all started on that day. His arms tied to a large wooden stake, waiting for his possible impending doom by the Navy.
He didn’t necessarily have anything to do at that time, no. There was no other destination ahead of him other than to become the worlds greatest swordsman. A dream fueled by brisk childhood nights filled with the clashing of swords in a large outside meadow; all under a night sky that would never cease to shine on two kids that harbored the same dream. After his world had been turned upside down, Zoro learned that the fragility of a human’s life is no joke. He would remember that until the day he died.
He knew he wasn’t going to die that day in the middle of the Navy’s field, though, for he had not yet fulfilled his lifelong promise to his best friend. He wanted Kuina to be proud of him.
Zoro can recall the evening where it had all happened, like a hazy memory from years ago when he was the mere age of nineteen. He remembers the heat of the sun, the rope digging into his arms, the way his bandana was fitted onto his forehead, a little girl with pigtails that had the guts to bring him homemade food. There was a small bug on the ground. A tiny little thing crawling up his boot that was slightly covered in sand.
He remembers a boy he had not known yet.
A strange and lanky guy he was, suddenly standing in front of him. A straw hat was adorning his head like a fitted glove. On the ground where the rocky sand was crunched beneath his sandals, he looked at Zoro with nothing but curiosity. Similar to how his life changed at the age of eleven, it had felt like time was lingering on just for this exact moment.
Fate was the only thing Zoro could call it as he remembers the first words ever spoken to him by a boy who was filled with nothing but everlasting dreams and promises.
“I hear you’re a bad guy.”
-
He was never one for lingering on strange sentimentality; it was a simple act of just doing something, and then it was over. A simple meeting someone new before parting ways. There really wasn’t anything else to it.
Back then, it was similar to a chef’s cooking. They would simply gnash ingredients together until it was good enough to be a decent looking meal. As Long as things are edible, that’s all that mattered in the end. They make food and it gets eaten. Thats all there was to it.
It was similar to how a doctor would treat a patient. A child would catch the flu or a man who had seen everything the world had to offer was on his death bed. A patient would either get cured or they would die. Thats all there was to it.
It was similar to him in the way a person would feel after reading a book. Pages and pages filled with writing of god knows what, all for the eye to see. Different varieties of whatever information some guy had written down to publish for fame. Someone reads a book before moving on to another. That’s all there was to it.
It was similar to how someone spends money. It’s a universal language, the way people try to earn berry for simple things such as clothing or something to eat. Money would be obtained before getting spent the next day. That’s all there was to it.
It was similar to a telltale story that wouldn’t linger with much impact, or how someone would harbor a creation before simply moving on to build another. Someone singing a song before quickly moving on to the next tune. All these were simple ideas that weren’t meant for melancholic feelings.
It was similar to someone who has a dream worth dying for. Except it wasn't, because dreams are something that you simply cannot have without passion and care.
It was something you can’t have without love.
With that, Zoro quietly smiles to himself where nobody can see him. It’s not everyday he laughs as loud as he used to, but that doesn’t stop the amount of hidden happiness he gets whenever he remembers who his companions are. He knows life is fragile, but love for ambition is strong. It’s like how a person would feel whenever they thought of friends. It turns out that love has always been subtly familiar to him.
How could it not be? It’s around him every day.
He senses it in how the curly-browed idiot looks whenever he’s cooking, carefully picking out precise ingredients to satisfy the palette of anybody who has ever gone even the slightest bit hungry. Zoro thinks of blonde hair and an annoying voice nagging him to get away from one of the kitchen cabinets, yet the same voice calling him for dinner that cannot go missed.
He feels it in how Chopper would care for his patients, because care runs deeper than what’s on the surface, and having someone put their life and health in your hands is more than just a fleeting moment that passes by without any other thoughts. Zoro thinks of a day spent in the infirmary, little hooves carefully applying bandages around his bloody and bruised torso. A squeaky yet firm voice telling him to stop training and get back to resting, Zoro!
It’s in the way Robin picks up a morning book from her built-in library to fill her day with information worth the hours spent reading. A hobby the woman most likely never had the time to do when she was working under countless of those shitty agencies. Zoro thinks of a desperate admittance to the will of wanting to live. He thinks of an amused laugh teasing him whenever he somehow loses a game of chess. He always swears to never battle her again, although his losses keep on growing.
It’s whenever The Witch saves up and steals countless pounds of berry to buy the crew different varieties of items and souvenirs from all the various islands they dock at. Zoro thinks of his head getting brutally punched all because he tried taking some money out to spend at a nameless bar. It doesn’t go unnoticed to him, though, whenever she comes back from shopping just to hand him a new shirt that she swears she hadn’t picked out just for him.
It’s Usopp and his wild stories that stem from the man he wishes to become, the brave man he’s sure he will become. A proud stance that could fool anyone of an image of a brave warrior, spouting intense and mind-boggling stories that everyone in the crew knows isn’t necessarily all that true. Zoro thinks of a shaking man hiding behind his back begging him to protect and fight, but he also thinks of a man who tries hard to see through flaws and does whatever it is he can to fix it. Someone, who even in a dire situation of self-doubt, never truly gave up on himself.
He acknowledges it through the cyborg and his intense passion when it comes to all his creations, especially the very one they all stand on; the Sunny. A ship meant to take him and his friends through the entirety of the grand line, second in line to the Merry. He thinks of a loud and obnoxious voice offering to refer to him as a big brother. Zoro refuses every single time, and if the way Franky calls him ‘bro’ makes him have an embarrassingly warm feeling of belonging, then he doesn’t say it out loud.
He hears it in Brook’s song that he so happily sings from so many decades ago, one that never got old to him, for its a tune that lays heavy in his soul. Zoro thinks of a skeleton trying to find whatever role he can for a second life. A fellow swordsman who likes music and has a knack for telling awful jokes at the worst times.
He sees it. It’s Luffy and all the crazy and overwhelming passion he has to show across the entirety of the sea. A guy so ridiculous that even god couldn’t stop the way he lives. Luffy is idiotic and a nuisance, and it just so happens he’s also the very man Zoro would die for if time wouldn’t allow anything else. Zoro thinks of a determined and carefree guy with loud flip-flops and a large grin. The person who was there on that one lonely evening years ago.
Zoro thinks to himself, that in any other life he could possibly ever have, he wouldn’t of had been tied to a stake anywhere else.
It’s fate, and he knows. Zoro gets up from the men’s quarters to go down the stairs of the Sunny. Everyone is already up and causing mayhem like a normal day on the ship. Luffy and Usopp are wrestling with a large poisonous crab that the cook is yelling to throw back into the ocean. Both Nami and Robin are under an umbrella talking about whatever it is they do (Zoro has no clue), while Franky cranks up some other crazy invention to add to the Sunny. It’s probably some crazy ass projectile missile or something. Brook is messing around with his violin and drastically long cane, while Chopper’s eyes sparkle as he for some reason finds the skeleton’s jokes hilarious.
Zoro takes his place near the large mast of the ship, sliding down on the floor to shut his eyes. It feels like inserting yourself into a puzzle that you were always meant to be apart of. He’s aware that everyone feels the same way somewhere deep down, too. They continue to live their days through insane life-threatening adventures that they’ll just joke about the next morning.
All he can hear is his Nakama as he drifts off, and there hasn’t been anywhere else that had ever brought him this much comfort and belonging. In just a few seconds, Zoro dozes off to sleep.
It’s a Sunny day.