❛ I DON'T OWE YOU ANYTHING.❜
₊˚៹ . ❪ episode : ROMANCE DAWN ❫ ˖ ₊˚.⋆
࿐┊ CH. 3┊🏴‍☠️🌊👒

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SHELLS TOWN
153RD MARINE BRANCH

Many Marine soldiers were doing their daily marching portal around the sea side town, that was filled with many buildings and a lot of civilians carring out their life's. The Marine's marching created dust from the dry ground, as their dirty boots scuff along the surface.

Over near the bricked walls where all the bounty posters were, with another massive poster hanging off of someone important to the Marines, (Y/N), Luffy and Koby were all looking at what was pinned up on it.

"I didn't know there were so many pirates." She hummed to herself interested, spotting all the different menacing faces of the wanted people, as a face of a clown got her attention the most, and it brought a smile to her face.

"There are way worse pirate on the Grand Line," Koby informs both the siblings, coming up beside her in between them as he grimaces nervously, "It's terrible."

"Yeah, I know right?" Luffy surprisingly agrees which made Koby confused, but (Y/N) smiled knowingly as he walked closer to the posters pouting annoyed, "Where's our faces?"

She released a loud lough through her mouth, straw hat tipping back down her head more, as she went up to her brother to lop their arms together, "Sadly we're not on there yet. But, we're not gonna get into that base on an empty stomach."

"Right! Let's go!" Luffy instantly agreed with a wide grin across his lips, nodding his head in the air as the two began to make their way towards it, "Come on." He called back to Koby, who was fearfully staring at Alvida's poster on the board.

......

Stepping over the threshold of the bar to go sit down at a corner table, the noise hit like a tidal wave, a symphony of laugher, clinking tankards, and raucous conversations. The wooden floorboards shook, and creaked with every footfall, worn smooth by the countless patrons over the years.

The bar itself, a sprawling structure of aged oak boar the scars of the countless bar bawls. Table were scattered haphazardly throughout the room, each with its own motely crew of patrons, all either drinking, making more noise or sitting down to relax, which included Marines.

A girl waiter came over to the trio's table with another plate of food, which was a basket full of rice balls, and she placed it onto the table making Koby timidly speak up, "We already have our food."

Luffy's head perked up seeing the rice from licking the plate clean in his hand, quickly pushing that to the side as his beaming eyes land on the food, "No, more is better. More is better." He raised a scolding finger to Koby, "You gotta feed the brain."

(Y/N) stifled a snort with the back of her hand at her brother's typical eating ways, her own plate being finished also from a feed. Her arms crossed over her chest also, feeling some stares from others in the room which did make her uncomfortable but dealt with it.

"Alright, so..." Luffy started off picking up a rice ball that he handed to his sister, and grabbed another one for himself looking straight ahead, "We can't get inside the base through the gate, but maybe what if we get inside flying?!" He turned to the two who were deadpanning at his idiotic idea, as he smiled widely thinking it was smart, "I can grab onto a bird or something."

A groan of annoyce slipped from her hearing that, running her free hand down her face, and tugged on Luffy's ear who whined in pain, "That has to be your most dumbest idea yet, Lu!" She exclaimed incredulously, and let go of his ear to whisper softly, "We can always use my powers, y'know?"

His expression straight away hardened up into a serious, and protective one at that, as he strongly shakes his head whispering back, "No, we can't. It's too dangerous, and I won't have you in dangerous situations, (N/N)."

She recoiled taken aback by his quick shut down her idea, which normally wouldn't happen, and opened her mouth to question confused, but Koby was already snapping over her at Luffy, "That's a terrible idea. And keep your voice down." He warned looking around the bar full of Marines warily.

Over across near the entrance of the bar which now was pushed open, a figure of a muscular man carrying three swords, and had green hair walked in. His steps radiated pride, and power as he carried something behind him, that dragged along the wooden floor.

The top of the back showed half of a human head with red spikes, as it bumped against the seat around the bar counter. Zoro, the pirate hunter picked up the brown bag to place it onto a seat, and leant against the counter next to it.

"A bottle for me, and one for my friend." His voice was deep, and raspy octave asking the bar keep, who glanced cautiously to the bag beside him making him add on, "He's had a rough day."

The bar keep didn't even bother to ask what was going on, knowing it was better to stay silent, and bent down to pick up two bottles of acholo from beneath the bar.

He picked up the bottles slide across from him in his hands, turning his back around to lean against the wood, and spotted a little girl peeking around the counter. She giggled when he looked at her, and disappeared back around to go grab something for him.

She soon came back around with a plate of three chocolate covered rice balls, holding it carefully in both of her palms, and presented it to him smiling sweetly.

Zoro turned around again seeing her in the corner of his dark eye, leaning his right elbow on the counter while his other held the mug, "What's this?" He asked nodding towards the plate.

"Rice balls. For you." She answered happily showing him the food she spent time on, and hoped the pirate hunter would actually take them, unlike some other people who didn't.

"You made them yourself?" Another suspicious monotone question came out of his mouth, which gained a prideful hum from Rika in agreement, and he glanced down at the rice balls more, "What's the brown stuff?"

"Chocolate. Makes everything taste better." She chirped giggling, teeth showing from how wide she was smiling at the older male. She was going to give it to Zoro made heard her mother calling her, and so turned around.

She was not expecting the blonde haired Marine to bump into her, which made the food go onto his clothes, and dish to clatter loudly, as she gasped in fear backing away.

"You stupid, stupid girl." The bar fell silent at the sudden yell coming from Helmeppo, as it caught certain sibling's attention from across the room. The Marine stomped on one of the rice balls, making Rika gasp again, "Why don't you watch where you're going?"

"Rika, apologise to out guest." The same woman was quick to intervene on behalf of her daughter, sounding as if she feared the blonde male, and Rika goes to stutter out, "I'm... I'm so sorry."

"I'm so sorry!'" He mocked her stuttering words with a fake crying face, and it morphed back into a threating one on the poor shaking girl, "Next time, I won't be so nice."

(Y/N)'s jaw clenched watching the scene from her spot behind Luffy, fingers digging into her thighs as she tried to calm herself down from doing something stupid. The little girl was getting attacked for no reason, and if anyone should be more kinder is the Marine, who is supposed to protect children like her.

Up against the bar counter still Zoro tilted his head to the Marine with a expressionless face on, "You dropped my food." He rasped out dangerously, one hand on his three swords as he bent down to the rice balls on the floor, and picked some up from the mushed up bit.

Helmeppo cringed in disgust watching the swordsman eat the floor food, as Zoro hummed in satisfaction tasting the meal made for him, "Delicious." He compliment looking back at Rika, who bashfully smiled.

The (H/C) haired girl's eyes went wide seeing the handsome male doing this, feeling her breath hitch placing the back of her hand over her mouth. She couldn't really see what he looked like properly, but just from where she was, she knew he was something else.

Zoro placed the other rice ball back onto the plate, standing up with it in his hand and gently puts it onto the bar counter, as he lifts his head up to the Marine eerily, "Now you eat one. And apologise to the girl."

Helmeppo gasped out amused laughter, taking a few steps forward to stand up against the hunter, and his grin nearly falls down, "Do you know who I am?"

The green haired male gazed him up and down slowly, still chewing on the sticky rice, as he doesn't break intense eye contact with him, "A shithead Marine with a bad haircut."

Helmeppo seethed out a grunting noise, ripping his sword out of its holder around his waist as he holds it up in the air, challenging the actual swordsman who new very well how to fight.

"I wouldn't do that." Zoro warned with his eyes closed tiredly, just as Rika backed away having a feeling what was going to happen, but still stayed close to watch.

"Oh, come on, tough guy. Three swords?" He laughed a cackling taunt looking around at everyone, who had fearful looks over their faces, "I only need one."

Zoro's arm flexed against the counter showing his muscles and veins, as he slowly opened his eyes up rasping a low warning, "Okay. But it's gonna hurt."

Taking this as a sign to go for it Helmeppo grunts swinging his blade at Zoro, who easily blocked with the hilt of his black katana. Slipping from the block, he wacked the Marine's swords, and tossed his arms back to knock the blonde down.

Both the siblings were now paying close attention to the occurring fight, eating rice balls from their hands as Koby scattered underneath the table by her legs in fear, and it made her place a reassuring hand on his head, eyes fully on Zoro still.

Whimpering Helmeppo crawled to the side to retrieve his sword blindly, while Zoro remained unbothered leaning against the counter. That was until Marines suddenly came out him, making him push a chair onto the ground, and kick it into one of their legs as he fell to the floor yelling.

Another came swinging a punch at Zoro who dodged it easily, grabbing the back of the Marine's shirt to slam his head into the wooden counter, and knocked him clean out with a grunt to the floor also.

"Woah..." (Y/N) breathed to herself in awe through heated ears, now standing up with her brother on the sidelines to watch him fight more, and instantly knew they needed him on their crew. It was a must on her part.

Picking up his unfinished drink from the counter he took the last swig of the alcohol, before throwing it at a Marine who came at him from the side, and once more made the male grunt in pain onto the floor.

Helmeppo got back up from his last position to swing his blade at Zoro, who dodge him swiftly and it caused the blonde's sword to get stuck in the counters wood.

Grabbing the wrist of another Marine, Zoro forcefully moved him into the other one, and used his katana's handle to block their swords, as he slammed them into a pillar roughly.

Many more came at him which Zoro easily took care of, even without using his swords to their full potential, and kicked both Helmeppo and a Marine in the side with his boots.

He used the back of his boot to trip the Marine down onto the wood, while twisting Helmeppo's wrist around to kick him in the gut away into the counter.

Zoro maneuvered his back sideways sensing a Marine incoming, as that made them both collide with each other instead of him doing anything to hurt them.

"We definitely need him on our crew, Lu." She whispered to her brother excitedly, trying to hide her fangirling over how good Zoro was fighting, and didn't see Luffy's knowing smirk thrown at her hearing he reactions.

Zoro moved his body onto a table in the middle of the bar, kneeling down on it as he now had his black sword out, and used the hilt to defend off the Marine's coming at him with their weapons, which he easily took out all three at once.

He stood up when a Marine used his sword to swipe at his legs, causing him to jump over the blade and slam his boots into the males arm. Zoro cartwheels himself over he fallen body, as he heaved the Marine over his head and over the bar counter.

All the Marine were now on the floor in pain from Zoro's hits, which he didn't even break a sweat to defeat, and made his way over to the whimpering Helmeppo against the counters wood.

He roughly grabbed the blonde by his collars with a scowl on his face, picking him up to slam him onto the counter again. His three earrings clinked when he moved his face to the side of Helmeppo's head, and lowly rumbled, "You shouldn't draw your blade unless you're prepared to use it."

"Don't kill me, please." Helmeppo fearfully begged, his wide staring at the swordsman's face right near his, and swallowed the lump in his throat, "My father will give you anything you want."

"Who's your father?"

"Captain Morgan." He answered Zoro shaking, hoping that this excuse will get the stronger male off of him, "He's in charge of the Marine base."

Zoro just trailed his eyes to Helmeppo, tilting his head to the side as he grunted through a tight jaw, and forcefully tugged him upwards, "Then he owes me money."

......

Outside of the Marine's base in a massive yard, the sun hung high in the cerulean sky, a blazing sphere of relentless heat. The air shimmered with waves of warmth, and the world seemed to exhale a sigh of exhaustion.

As Zoro was left tied up on a post for his so called crime, the sun's fiery embrace turned from comforting to oppressive. His clothes clanged to his body like a second skin, beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and trickled down his temples past his freckles in rivulets.

His eyes were closed trying to most likely sleep, his expression a mix of determination and discomfort. However his face scrunched up when he heard the sound of metal clanging, followed by a girls voice complaining to herself.

"Why couldn't he have just come with me?" Zoro heard the girl's voice groaning from off to the side, as his eyes opened up slowly in confusion and turned his head the best he could.

The metal opening in the ground had fingers slipping out of it to grab around it, as the girl grunts trying to shove it open, but made a noise of annoyance when it wasn't budging, and made her fingers disappear back underneath.

Zoro definitely wasn't prepared nor expected what to happen next, to actually occur before his eye. The sound of wind rusting underneath echoed through the yard, which was followed by a loud bang as the top of the metal opening was blown off by a spiral of air.

Next appeared was the familiar figure of (Y/N) who shouted getting thrown up by her air-bending from inside the hole, and landed against the ground on her boots, but tripped a few steps forward yelping.

Her arms were outstretched down to catch herself in another push of air out of her palms, coming to a skidding stop with a sigh of relief. That was another reason why she hated using her powers, because she could never really control it with her clumsy self.

Zoro's eyes went wide seeing her figure now up in the yard with him, raising his brows weirdly wondering how she got here exacly, and how she could control the air like thar.

Her (E/C) eyes glanced around the unfamiliar area confused, as she stood up straight to pull herself together from that messed up landing. She walked a few steps forward from the opening, hand on her straw hat also, and still didn't realise Zoro watching her from behind.

Only when he made his boots shuffle against the dirt ground, did she eventually realise. Her shoulder tensed up to pause mid step, quickly spinning around to face him with an embarrassed laugh, "Oh, h-hey. You're the guy from the bar."

You idiot! You stutters like that in front of an attractive male!? She mentally screamed at herself in her mind, moving up closer to him on the post, and smiled awkwardly, him very unaware of what she was thinking.

Zoro realsed a puff of air out of his mouth, rolling his eyes annoyed as he'd like to be left alone while on tied up on the wood, "Get lost."

"Funny thing is, I am lost." She admitted smiling nervously, fiddling with her bracelets around her wrist not knowing how to act, and scanned the area around them grumbling, "I'm trying to get inside the base with my brother."

He just exhaled heavily not bothered to listen, and closed his eyes shut again. This made (Y/N) place her hands behind her back, and rocked on the heels of her boots, "Hey, I saw the way you fight. Pretty good if I don't say so myself."

At her sudden compliment his eyes peeked open a little bit to give her a cocky smirk, that had her stumbling over her words, and quickly correcting herself frantically, "I mean-! H-how did they even arrest you?"

"They didn't." He answered briefly in his deep voice, going silent for a few seconds that had her rocking back on her heels again patiently, "I gave myself up."

"Interesting choice." She murmured in a humming tone, pushing her hats brim back out of her face to let him see her more, and pulled her braids over her shoulders giggling, "I'm sure you had your reasons."

His eyes darkened on her now fully lifting his head up to glance up her figure, and then down slowly in an almost threating way, "You don't know anything about me."

(Y/N) pursues her lips in understanding, placing her hands on her lips as she pushed her bag to the side, and walked a few more steps up to him, "I don't, but I know that you protected that little girl from those Marines last night." She tells him in a cheery tone, and beams at him, "You're a good guy."

His jaw clenched up tightly, eyes closing for a second to calm himself, and reopened them to frown at her, "I'm Roronao Zoro, the pirate hunter." He emphasized the last words with a growl, that had her shuffling in her spot nervously.

"Uh, nice to meet you? I'm Monkey D. (Y/N)," She introduced a bit awkwardly, but regardless had a sweet grin across her face that had him faltering for a second getting to witness it, "and I will be the King of the Pirates. And I think you should join Lu's and mines crew."

A humours, deep laugh came out of his mouth hearing that claim, not finding a girl becoming a male's title wrong but at how she wanted him to join, which he found her insane to think so. But yet.... was intrigued.

His head tilts to the side a little bit, eyes going lidded as a slow but roguish smirk formed that showed his canines to her, "What makes you think I'd wanna play pirates with you, sweetheart?"

Her eyes widened in surprise at the patronizing tone he used the nickname in, trying her hardest not to freak out as this squealing feeling she's having has never happened before, "Well, you're a great fighter firstly. And that us, and my brother would make a pretty good team."

"I kill your kind for a living." He rasped out his reminder, narrowing his dark gaze on her radiant figure still smiling like she was having the time of her life, "Pirate... hunter."

She nods her head dramatically which made the straw hat slip down over her face a little, "You keep saying that, but is that all you are?" She questioned curiously, lifting up her hat to see him looking to the side now in deep thought, "Is that all you want?"

He kept his mouth shut for a few seconds thinking to himself hearing her personal words, and sighed heavily to himself, "I made a promise to someone a long time ago..." He confessed now staring at her fully, "to become the world's greatest swordsman."

"Impressive." She chirps amazed, grinning brightly at him as she nods her head in approval. She then tightens the strap of her straw hat, walking around to behind Zoro, and made a small flame of fire appear in her palm to burn away he ropes bounding him carefully.

He felt the warmth coming from both her hands and power, which had his muscles flexing to relax himself, and grunted out, "You can untie me, but I'm still not gonna join your crew, woman."

(Y/N)'s tongue was pocking out a little in concentration to not burn his skin off, using the fire to make the ropes break as she pulled them off of him, "Yeah, I know." She giggled teasingly, and smirked at the back of his head.

"I mean it. I don't owe you anything." His deep voice pressed strictly hearing her giggle, head facing downwards as he felt his arms becoming free now.

She twisted her wrist around to make the flame disappear from her palm, moving across the post to his second arm in ropes, "Hhm, I just think it's a waste of time for you to be hanging out here," She motioned to the are around them, smiling to herself pulling off the thing around him, "when there's something you want out there."

Once she successfully removed all of the uncomfortable ropes around him, he pulled his arms off the post to stretch them groaning, and she gawked a bit spotting his muscles flexing again right in front of he eyes.

However she quickly snapped out of it realising she needed to find Luffy now, strolling around the post to walk past him to the metal entrance, "Good luck on the sword thing." She remarks sweetly waving, and pointed down at the opening on the dirt, "Uh, hate to ask, but can you close this behind me?"

She didn't longer to hear his response, giving him one last look over from where she stood, before manipulating the air around her, to help her jump down into the hole with a echoing thump.

Not even a second later though, (Y/N)'s head popped back up from inside the entrance and beamed towards Zoro grinning, "Please, and thanks!" She called out, before disappearing back under leaving a confused, and interested Zoro in her wake.

─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :

ZORO'S HEREEE!!!! AND HE'S COCKY WITH Y/N ALREADY WHAHAHA!!! i was giggling and kicking my feet writing this chap i swear, i think i honestly write these fics for me to enjoy more then i want other people to LMAOAO😭😭

i wanted to keep writing this chap cause it wasn't as long as the others but that's alright since the next one will be out soon after this (hopefully) but like i said, daily updates since im obsessed <3

also once i found out how many arcs the live action is doing, i'll be doing my anime one afterwards following from whenever they don't cover in the live action since i already have an anime one in my drafts 👹

i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and pleaseeee don't be silent readers guys lmk whatcha think 🫶