Oh! Love is a battlefield! *dance*

[chibi_trillian]

After reading Ch. 417 of One Piece and going "WHAT," I started thinking a bit about Zoro's fighting style as of late. Bad idea. I'm sorry, ptps, I'll write yours sooooooon!

Title: Santouryu
Series: One Piece.
One Piece: Not mine.
Rating: PG.
Summary: SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 417, WATER 7, AND ENIES LOBBY. DUH. Zoro vs. Kaku isn't the only fight going on.


He calls upon my abilities again.

For expediency only, Kitetsu.

For strength. Your coquettish elusiveness in the desert offered me an opening in the armor you had around his heart, oh Blade That Cuts Nothing, and now he draws upon me as well as you.

Elusiveness?! I was teaching him! He needed to make the connection himself, or it would have meant nothing! I offer him self-realization, while you offer only raw, tawdry, bloody power—

Bloody yes, tawdry no. He knows my price and is willing to pay it. Whereas you, my lady, nearly let him die before you offered up your secrets to him. And his weak grasp on those so-precious secrets meant that the next time he needed a blade to cut only what he wanted it to, he used me instead.

He didn’t have a choice.

He did. One always has choices. He could have stayed there and drowned. He could have been bright enough not to get stuck in a chimney in the first place. He could have asked the reindeer to try to pull him free, and thus risked injury and possible death. He chose wisely.

He chose as you contrived. Your grasp on him will not remain.

Oh, I think it will. Already he bears my mark—even the giraffe-fool noticed it. And he has fed me richly on blood and rage this day. Even now, he allows me deeper, pulls upon the true extent of my power for the first time. Kyutouryu is only the beginning. Soon he will be wholly mine, just as countless others before him, and I will purge the last of this ridiculous weakness from his heart.

Mercy and honor are not weakness.

He allows his enemies to live that they may attack him again. Weak and foolish. The Black Blade would not—

Do not presume to speak about that which you know nothing of. I have faced the Black Blade and come away whole. Zoro still breathes because of mercy and honor and respect. You feed this day thanks to the “weaknesses” you so mock.

I would be feeding anyway. That puling shopkeep would have passed me on if he had to pay someone to take me, and if they had proved boring I would have taken their life and found another. It was foolish of Mihawk to allow such an enemy to keep living and growing stronger. I will have his heartsblood and power, and then I will have Zoro’s. His strong left arm is mine even now. I have only allowed him to keep it because he promised to be far more entertaining with than without. He has lasted longer than most, but eventually he will pay the price of my purchase in full.

****

Yubashiri guarded her master’s chest, her quick, light edge deflecting the giraffe-man’s nonstop attacks with difficulty. Wadou Ichimonji and Sandai Kitetsu’s bickering argument was both familiar and common, but this time, it looked like Sandai Kitetsu was winning. Even now, the curse that tainted him surged out and wrapped around her, feeling like a thousand grubby, greasy fingers on her blade.

The curse swelled, Zoro slashed out with three blades made nine made a thousand, and Sandai Kitetsu howled victory over Wadou Ichimonji’s protests.

Yubashiri worried and did not worry at the same time. She worried that Sandai Kitetsu would carve his name and bloodthirst into her master’s soul, but at the same time, she did what the other two blades did not—she considered the people around Zoro. Years of sitting quietly masterless in that sword shop had taught her to pay attention to matters other than whether she was clean and dry and sharp and whether her master would use her with skill.

What she had seen these many months heartened her. Sandai Kitetsu might demand his tribute in lives, but the boy in the straw hat would never allow it.

Comments

[tgecko.livejournal.com]

Awww....

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Thank you. *pets smiley face*

[dethorats]

Randomly blundering around and ran into this. Marvelous! For some reason I never thought of Yubashiri as female but it works. And the end sentiment is spot on.

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I was worried that this was too weird for most people and that it didn't make any sense. T_T

[ptps.livejournal.com]

Oh man, sword talk. XD Wadou is so lovely. And poor, sweet Yubashiri. XD;;

But dude, the nine arms was an illusion or something?! How did Zoro manage to call that shit up? O_o; And he's totally stealing Robin's abilities.

Zoro: Nine Sword Style! *sprouts nine arms*
Robin: Hundred Hands Fleur! *sprouts 645726433 arms*
Zoro: .....that is so not fair.
Robin: ^__^

...I'm not making sense and that was really lame.

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Frankly, even if he was manipulating chi in some funky way, Zoro shouldn't have been able to pull that extra-arms shit and it shouldn't have persisted after he finished Kaku. I'm thinking he's ganking some of Sandai Kitetsu's curse. There's no magic in the OP world, but there are demons and curses and chi flows and suchlike. Kaku commented at the very beginning of their fight (2837712894 chapters ago) that Zoro's chi flow was getting more and more like a demon's, and it comes out further in the course of the fight, to the point that his eyes change (I wonder if they looked like Mihawk's? Eeee!). I think it's like a Devil Fruit curse, but unluckier.

Then again, Kaku also commented that Zoro was displaying legendary characteristics, so maybe Zoro did pull this entirely out of his ass.

[ptps.livejournal.com]

His eyes changed?! Physically or just like that all "grrr you gonna de ded in five secs" changed? I don't recall seeing anything other than the extra limbs in the scanlations ;__;

But if Zoro really is falling under Sandai's curse, things will get totally epic. *bounces* =O

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Kaku thinks (right before his asswhuppin') that for a moment, Zoro had the eyes of a demon god. Unfortunately, thanks to manga being black-and-white, we don't know what color they turned. They looked pretty scary though.

YES. Things totally will, because I just BET this is how Sandai Kitetsu's other owners came to bad ends--they kept using the sword because it's badass and awesome, and in payment it kept getting more and more bloodthirsty until they turned into ravening monsters and either killed themselves or were put down...but the previous owners didn't have two other swords OR the Strawhat crew to help keep their heads on straight. Eee, such fun! *bounce*

[orange-smaug.livejournal.com]

This is so awesome, I love it when his swords talk. I remember someone noting once that most of his initial attack names were of animals and the most recent ones seem to feature demons (though his first attack is Oni Giri so I don't know how well that really works out, though it does seem broadly true), and the idea that it's because he's drawing on Sandai Kitetsu's power makes me feel all tingly :D.

Have you ever played Fire Emblem (GBA strategy RPG by Nintendo)? In the 7th game of the series, the first to make it out of Japan, there's a character (Class: Swordmaster >.>) who's called the Sword Demon. This game is actually a prequel to the 6th game, and while he's called the Sword Demon here something happened during the intervening years and in the 6th game he's called the Saint of Swords. I'm wondering if Zoro will go through a kind of similar progression, using Sandai Kitetsu because he thinks he needs it to become strong enough to defeat Mihawk, then growing past that and drawing on his own strength instead.

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Zoro's attack names are still all (to the best of my knowledge) puns, though. Dork.

Never played Fire Emblem--the only Game Boy I own is from the early nineties. Yes, I have an original Game Boy and it still works. XD

I hope so, though I think it's going to come down to his crewmates staging an intervention. Sandai Kitetsu is undoubtedly a sneaky whore, and can probably ease his way in under Zoro's radar. It'll take the people around him noticing the change to make him do something about it. Maybe he'll actually beat Sandai Kitetsu's curse.

[orange-smaug.livejournal.com]

Of course it still works, you can build bunkers out of Nintendo hardware XD. (If you ever get a GBA/DS, both Fire Emblems are highly recommended.)

I suppose, given that it's shounen, it's a foregone conclusion that he'll eventually beat the curse. But yeah, it's probably going to be the rest of the crew pulling him out of the trap. And what an appropriate avatar :D.

[kotszok.livejournal.com]

EEEE You wrote it! Creepy as hell, I love it!

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Indeed I did! Ha ha, I told you I would. XD