Supreme Swordsman Zoro

After they started sailing a few hours in Luffy finally left the figurehead of the ship and started to aimlessly walk around the ship, even though he wasn't that smart Luffy realized that even though Zoro joined his crew he had no power over him, even though he was a captain in name all of his crewmates saw Zoro as the captain, there was nothing he could do about this besides getting stronger than Zoro, Luffy wasn't one who would train in the literal sense of training, he grew stronger from very unconventional training that his grandfather put him through, combined with the sparring with his brothers when he was young made him what he was today, even in the paradise his strength wouldn't fail him much but the new world would thoroughly destroy him till nothing was left behind.

Even though Luffy was extremely strong physically he was lacking in everything else, technique, Haki and the improvements on his devil fruit which he wasn't using it at its full strength, Zoro saw some potential in Luffy but he didn't decide to train him due to him not having enough trust in him, he just met the kid, while his heart was in a good place as he helped Ririka out of her predicament and his dream was big Zoro didn't trust him as the time he was with him was too low, even Nami sailed with both Kuina and Zoro for one year already so he could say that he understood her quite a bit.

Luffy walked towards the kitchen to get himself a snack, which meant that Luffy wanted to eat half the supplies or more when Zoro saw him going to the kitchen he immediately stopped his training and appeared in front of Luffy in a burst of speed, he saw how much food Luffy ate at the restaurant, he couldn't let him eat the same amount or they would remain without supplies in a very short while.

Luffy looked at Zoro with a questioning look on his face and he asked:

"What's wrong, Zoro?"

Zoro shook his head at the question then said:

"You want to eat right 'captain' ?" The tone Zoro used to say Captain wasn't that respectful but Luffy didn't catch on it as he was quite the simple guy who couldn't see undertones or facial expressions, he gave Zoro a toothy grin and said:

"Well, I just wanted a snack." Zoro nodded his head then entered the kitchen and came out with two apples which he gave to Luffy then said:

"This is your snack for the next few hours before we all are going to eat launch together." Luffy eyes widened as he saw only two apples and he asked:

"Just these two apples?" Zoro nodded his head then said:

"I know you want to eat more but we have limited supplies and you should know that everyone needs to eat on this ship 'captain' we have to rationalize our food till we can get a cook who will do it better, do you understand Luffy?" Luffy grumbled something under his breath but then nodded his head, even though he was dumb he wasn't that dumb, both Ace and Sabo scolded him a lot due to his eating habits and sometimes fights ensued between them when they couldn't share the prey they hunted on Mount Kolobo.

Luffy ate the apples in two mouthfuls then didn't go near the kitchen again, that was on the surface as an arm started to stretch towards the supplies stealthily unfortunately for him Zoro's Observation Haki was almost always active these days so when his arm was near the supplies Kitetsu was immediately found over the hand if Luffy would touch the supplies the sword would go down and his hand would be cut off, Luffy's senses were superior to even animals so he knew he was caught red-handed, his arm immediately snapped back to its normal lengths and he laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head, Zoro reappeared near Luffy and he said while shaking his head:

"Don't do that again ok? I wouldn't want to make a mutiny in the first days of you being the captain, Luffy." Luffy gulped, Zoro was a scary guy, even though he didn't have Observation Haki Luffy could somehow feel that Zoro was way stronger than him, it was just like his grandfather, he could feel a presence that he couldn't contend against in Zoro.

Zoro got back to his training as he started to lift some giant weights while he tempered his Armament and Observation Haki, Luffy eyes widened as he felt the power of armament coursing through Zoro's body, this feeling was eerily similar to his grandfather's fist of love technique that made him a rubber man feel pain from blunt attacks!

Luffy approached Zoro slowly and he asked:

"Hey Zoro, What kind of technique are you training?"

Luffy was always interested in his grandfathers marine techniques but his grandfather said that he would never train him in the techniques unless he promised he would become a marine, Luffy always said he would become the pirate king after he met Shanks so his grandfather never trained him in any techniques besides the body tempering training and survival training he gave him, Garp never trained Luffy in anything else due to his affiliation with the pirate faction.

Zoro looked away from his training as he saw Luffy approaching him and asking him about his training, the look on his face showed that he saw Haki somewhere before, Zoro was intrigued, this straw-hat wearing kid knew someone who knew how to use Haki? That meant he knew someone from the new world as paradise thoroughly lacked people with knowledge in Haki.

Zoro asked Luffy with an inquiring tone:

"Do you recognize the technique that I'm using?"

Luffy nodded his head at Zoro then said with a reminiscing look on his face:

"My grandfather used to hit me on the head every time I said I would be a pirate and I would get the same feeling from him that I get from you now."

Zoro's eyes narrowed at Luffy's words, his grandfather must be someone important then, what kind of pirate boss was he? Zoro decided to inquire directly from him:

"Who's your grandfather?"

Luffy responded easily not knowing of his grandfather's reputation at all:

"Monkey D Garp, marine."

Kuina gasped as she stopped her training then looked at Luffy with wide eyes, Nami who was inside working on her east-blue map also heard Luffy's words and she almost messed up her map in shock, Garp was a living legend!

But Zoro didn't know much about Garp and he asked:

"Is he supposed to be famous?"

Luffy started picking his nose then said with a neutral tone:

"Eh, I don't know."

Kuina shook her head, the man's grandson didn't even know about his reputation, what did he even teach him?

Kuina approached Zoro and started explaining Garp's feats to Zoro:

"Zoro, Monkey D Garp is a Marine vice admiral with a great reputation, it's said he with the current fleet admiral caught the pirate king! You should know what that entails right?"

Zoro's eyes widened at Kuina's words, the pirate king wasn't any pushover, Gold Roger had countless stories told about him around all of the blues and the grand line both in the new world as well as paradise. His strength was legendary even dwarfing the world's strongest man Edward Newgate also known as WhiteBeard, Garp catching him showed that he was on par with him even though he had help from the fleet admiral Sengoku.

Zoro then asked with a questioning tone:

"Since your grandfather is such a great marine why didn't you become a marine?"

Luffy's finger never left his nose as if he was digging for gold and bellies in there and he responded:

"Never liked the marines, too many rules I want to be free! Also, the uniforms are ugly!"

Zoro sweatdropped at the uniforms comment but he did understand Luffy's dislike of the marines, Zoro himself wouldn't want to join the marines if he had to decide between the marines and the pirates he would take the pirates freedom any day, he didn't know much about the world government but he knew that it wasn't any good as he saw the corruption of the marines through his travels in the east-blue the most recent one being Captain Morgan, he treated the villagers like animals he could harvest and no one did anything about it because he was strong and a marine, which meant he was a 'good guy'.

Zoro's view of the marines deteriorated with time, he didn't look favorably on the pirates either as he saw what kind of atrocities they were capable off, but Zoro didn't see the world only in black and white as he was a man who traveled quite a bit, he realized that not all marines are good and not all pirates are bad, he found a bunch of pirates who didn't even want to be pirates but like himself were accused of being pirates due to some dumb reason and they had to stick with it. Even now he wondered if the headquarters decided to give him a bounty yet, considering how many high bounties he cleared in east-blue.

Zoro stopped wondering a few seconds later, he didn't truly want to train Luffy as he didn't have his trust yet but he decided to inform him about Haki as there was no problem in it:

"What I'm training right now is known as Armament Haki, it can strengthen your attacks and increase your defense at the same time while also bypassing devil fruit defenses, here let me show you, even though you should already know what it feels like."

Zoro suddenly slapped Luffy over the head as a giant bump appeared on his head and he clutched it while shouting:

"What the hell Zoro, it hurts!!"

Zoro chuckled then he said:

"Yes this is what I meant by bypassing devil fruit defenses, you are a rubber man so normal hits shouldn't hurt right?"

Luffy nodded his head as he seemingly realized what Zoro was talking about then he asked directly:

"How can I learn this Haki thing, it seems useful!"

Zoro shook his head at Luffy question which made Luffy c.o.c.k his head like a dog:

"I'm sorry Luffy but I can't teach you yet, we just met and you don't have my trust, trust is an important thing between people and you haven't earned mine yet, even though you are my supposed Captain you are weaker than me currently and to be frank with you I don't respect you, then you would ask yourself, why did I join you?."

Zoro continued:

"I'm not sure why I just feel like you are different than other people that I met during my east-blue travels, you are also quite strong even though you are weaker than me I guess you could survive the first part of the grand line by yourself, well if you don't starve or lose yourself at sea strength-wise you would be ok, this is by approximation of what my teacher taught me on how the grand line is like."

Luffy nodded his head at Zoro's words, he wasn't offended by them at all, might make right, even though he wasn't intelligent he still knew about this type of stuff as his grandfather imprinted this type of teaching in him since he was a little kid below seven years old, no one would respect you if you weren't as strong if not stronger than them, he could feel that both Kuina and Zoro were stronger than him by quite a high deal the only one he had a chance at beating was Nami, but Nami wasn't a fighter she was the navigator of the ship so it didn't matter.

Luffy realized that to truly became the Captain of Zoro and the others he would need to start training, he didn't like that Zoro didn't trust him, weren't they friends already?

Luffy asked:

"Zoro aren't we friends, why don't you trust me?"

Zoro shook his head and said:

"We could be said to be friendly acquaintances at best, we know very little of each other besides our dreams, I can be called your savior since I helped you out at the marine base, even though you might have escaped and defeated Morgan by yourself I still helped you out there which is a fact."

Luffy nodded his head, suddenly he took a thinking look but his face started to redden and steam was almost coming out of his ears, Zoro was perturbed by his look but his jaw almost hit the ground at Luffy's next words:

"Man thinking is hard, I know, I will just train and get stronger so you can trust me better Zoro!"

Thinking hurt for this guy? What was his brain made of? Oh yeah right it was made of rubber.

Zoro sighed as he got back to his training, Luffy wanted to mimic Zoro's training so while Zoro bought himself some weights Luffy decided to train with the heavy anchor, Luffy's muscles bulged out as he took the giant anchor and started to lift it up and down to train. Zoro chuckled at Luffy's attempts to copy his training but he didn't stop him, it was good he wanted to train maybe he could even catch up to him one day.

After a few hours of training they ate launch, after training Luffy's appetite was especially high but Zoro still gave him only the needed amount without letting Luffy eat more, Luffy was a glutton that ate more than he needed due to his rubber stomach that could stretch by quite a lot, he ate more than he needed due to his love of food, of course, he could turn the excess food into nutrients that could heal his injuries somewhat or restore his stamina in needed times but he didn't know how to do that yet.

The quartet continued their training as they sailed along to Orange Town, after a few days of sailing they met with a trio of wandering buggy pirates which they immediately beat the living daylights off and stole their treasure then left them stranded. Since Zoro became a pirate he couldn't turn in bounties anymore so to get the money he had to resort to thievery from other pirates, having more money never hurt anyone especially if you could also protect it.

After a few more hours after they met the trio, they finally reached Orange Town where they were met with a sight of destruction, a giant red cannonball with Buggy's symbol on it destroyed tens of houses with its flashy explosion, Zoro didn't really like needless destruction as there was no reason to it.

Luffy's 'crew' docked the ship and walked on the streets of Orange Town, Zoro already locked on the Buggy pirates with his Observation Haki all three of them did, Kuina and Nami too but they waited for Zoro to give the command, Luffy was ready to wander in Orange Town trying to find Buggy. Zoro put a hand over his shoulder then said:

"Follow me Luffy I already know where Buggy is, we will make short work of him get the grand line map then leave Orange Town, Ok?"

Luffy nodded his head, he could only comply with Zoro's plans as he wasn't a plan guy he didn't particularly care either as long as he sailed and had adventures towards his goal of becoming the pirate king, that's why he became a pirate in the first place, for the sake of adventure! Shanks's stories about his adventures inspired Luffy on trying to become the king of pirates.

They walked towards the bar of the town where all of the Buggy pirates where partying Zoro decided that it wasn't time for an introduction and such, he unsheathed Yubashiri and Kitetsu and a peculiar aura started to appear around him as his muscles started to bulge out and increase in mass, he said his technique out loud:

"Two sword style: Two gorillas slash!" The town bar was cut into two like a cross then collapsed like a card house, Luffy's eyes widened as stars appeared on them and he said to Zoro:

"Wow Zoro that was so cool!"

Zoro was embarrassed that was the first time someone so genuinely thought of him as being cool, Luffy was a pure guy who couldn't lie at all so his feeling was all over his face, he genuinely thought that what Zoro did was very cool!

Out of the rubble, a cough was heard it seemed there was a survivor!

Buggy got out of the rubble, unfortunately, he was the only survivor and that was because of his devil fruit, Zoro didn't know about his devil fruit so he didn't imbue his slashes with Haki thus he only took the brunt of the damage of a building falling on him instead of a stray slash slashing him in pieces as his crewmates did, the slashes combined with a building falling on them sealed most of the Buggy pirates fates.

Buggy got out of the rubble coughed some blood and he shouted like a cat that's tail was stepped on:

"Which flashy bastard did this!"

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he muttered:

"This guy survived whatever, let's cut him into pieces."

Zoro threw a flying slash at Buggy who was still shouting while he said:

"One sword style: one hundred and sixty phoenix pound cannon."

He used Yubashiri for the flying slash as it was very light and he could execute a flying slash faster than with Kitetsu, he wanted to finish everything fast as he already told Nami she could go to take the treasures and the map from Buggy's safe.

Suddenly Buggy was cut into two from the waist by flying slash but there was no blood!

Suddenly his torso started to hover there as his attention was taken by the direction the flying slash came over, even though he was a weakling Buggy was still a veteran that lived on Gold Roger's ship so he knew what a flying slash meant, this was no two-bit swordsman he was against!

Fortunately his fruit countered swordsmen that's what he thought but Zoro already realized that he was fighting a devil fruit users and unfortunately for Buggy that meant he was done for.

Suddenly a dark glint appeared on Zoro's swords as Armament Haki covered them, Buggy's eyes left their sockets as he saw Zoro using the advanced form of Armament Haki which was Hardening, only someone with above-average mastery in Armament could use Hardening!

What kind of swordsman who knew Haki would still stay in east-blue? Buggy thought but his thoughts were suddenly cut as he looked down at his throat, blood overflowed from it as the final words he would hear in this life were heard from behind him:

"Armament Two sword style: Sudden decapitation version two!" Buggy's painted face turned deathly pale as the blood left his body his red nose finally dropped from his face showing a normal face as he muttered to himself:

"Was I wrong Shanks?" He plummeted to the ground like a sack of potatoes his slashed half fusing back to normal making him whole again but his head slid off his neck.

Buggy the clown was dead! A few minutes later Nami came with a sack of gold and bellies with the map of the grand line in her hand, her eyes widened at the sight of Buggy's corpse but then she remembered how Aarlong ended then shook her head, Zoro was quite the brutal guy.

Zoro took Buggy's head and wrapped it in a bunch of cloth while he put his red nose back on his normal one then he threw it at Kuina:

"I might be a pirate who will get a bounty soon but you don't have a bounty, cash in this head at the next marine base, it should be fifteen million bellies right?"

Kuina nodded her head at Zoro's question, Buggy's bounty was indeed fifteen million and now it was theirs to take. Luffy didn't have to do anything as he twiddled his thumbs, he felt left out of the conversation as well, it was like he wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, he didn't know why he felt like this but he decided to ignore this feeling.

They embarked the ship and decided to get towards the next marine base where they cashed in Buggy's bounty, the marine who was the 'boss' of the base looked at Buggy's severed head multiple times before to check its authenticity when he saw that it was the real deal he immediately got the cash and gave it to Kuina, someone being able to kill a monster with a devil fruit was even a bigger monster!

Unknowingly to Zoro one of the apples on his ship transformed into a pineapple with strange swirls around it, it's color was a deep orange with a tuft of green as it's leaves on the top of the pineapple looking fruit.

Luffy almost ate the fruit the first time he saw it but Zoro stopped him immediately as he realized it was a devil fruit!

If he didn't stop Luffy from eating it in time he might have exploded due to the conflicting nature of devil fruits.

When Zoro explained to Luffy that he almost died Luffy sweated like a pig in a sauna and he decided to never try to eat strange fruits again without the opinion of a second party, the second party being Zoro of course.

Zoro sighed as he looked at the devil fruit, being honest with himself he felt that this devil fruit was useful only for the first part of the grand line as the second part would just destroy it, while making your limbs detachable was useful it wasn't that useful to him or anyone else on his ship so he decided he would sell the devil fruit when he got to League Town, maybe Tashigi could help.

But he still decided to ask Nami and Tashigi if they wanted the devil fruit and the responses were, of course, both negative, Nami didn't want the power as it didn't suit her or her occupation while Kuina said that she didn't want any type of devil fruit power. Kuina and Zoro were on the same wavelength regarding devil fruits, Zoro himself would never eat one as he enjoyed swimming too much and the weakness sometimes didn't make up for the power.

Luffy's stomach growled but unfortunately, they were finally out of rations, but fortunately, they were near a habited island where they could get their hands on some food, Zoro found out there was something strange happening on the island, however as he felt that there were a lot of 'voices' that his observation Haki felt that they were just disappearing they were going quiet for some reason, he thus realized that the Island was under attack!

The Island was called Syrup Island, it was a small island with nothing particularly interesting about it why would it be attacked by pirates?

Zoro decided that it was time to find out, even though he wasn't a hero he wouldn't ignore people being hurt while he was around, that was how he was, Luffy himself was on the same wavelength as him, Nami and Kuina as well, when Nami and Kuina finally felt the situation both of them immediately wanted to help.

So they started to sail at extremely quick speeds due to Zoro becoming a motor for the ship. Time to save one more island and this island had a surprise for them as well, a good one, a ship sized surprise.