𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄 • Roronoa Zoro

chapter three

FIVE YEARS AGO

Blade. That's what they called her. She wore a mask made solely of gold, with diamond embellishments. She wielded two swords, each with two blades. Everyone on the East Blue feared her, yet it was so difficult to identify her.

She had no jolly roger, no crew, and no ship of her own. She'd steal smaller boats, then swap them out for another stolen one when she got bored.

No one knew how old she was, the mask concealing amy identifiable features in terms of age, but they did know that she'd collected a bounty of five million within six months. Five million isn't much, but in that amount of time, when you hardly do anything?

Blade's average routine consisted of parking her boat up on an island, looting as much as she could, threatening people, but not hurting anyone who didn't deserve it, killing any pirates that may have been there, sometimes killing marines if she felt like it, then leaving.

Her mask and swords were flashy, but she herself was non-chalant. No one knew what her facial expressions were like when she mercilessly beheaded her fellow pirates, but many assumed it was cold and emotionless, and they weren't wrong.

They called her Blade because of her swords, obviously. In total, she carried four blades on her. She'd often break the swords of those she fought, as if to say they were worthy of wielding such a weapon. There were only three people other than herself who Blade believed deserved to hold a sword.

Blade's kill count was high, but the marines didn't really care much about her. She was killing pirates, after all. She was making their job easier, really.

Really, Blade hated being a pirate, but every day she got closer to finding whoever took away her parents, and making them pay.

She wouldn't be able to recognise a ship or jolly roger, since she hadn't seen it. Unlike many pirates did, the crew who raided her village didn't have any specific uniform, they just dressed like basic pirates, but maybe that would be their identifiable feature. Their simplicity.

Their voices, too. From what she'd heard, they all had the same, thick Irish accent. She hadn't came across an accent like that in years. How far could they have gotten? She's travelled the whole East Blue and, so far, came up with nothing.

Oh well, she was only fourteen, she had her whole life ahead of her to find her parents captors and make them pay for the merciless crimes.

There were only three people other than herself who Blade deemed worthy of wielding a sword. Right now, one was stood in front of her, his hand out, inviting her to take it. Dracule Mihawk.

"You want me to join you?" Blade asked, "I thought you didn't have a crew."

"I don't, but I see potential in you. I don't know much about you, but I can tell you're young just by that voice. There's so much I could teach you."

"I'm fine on my own."

"I don't doubt that. But you could be even better under my guidance. Me and you could rule the East Blue."

"I don't wanna rule the East Blue."

Mihawk furrowed his brows. A pirate who didn't want to rule the East Blue was certainly a rare case.

"Oh, really? Then, tell me, what do you want? You've made quite a name for yourself considering you say you don't want it."

Blade sighed. "I'm looking for someone. Another private crew."

"To do what?"

"Kill them."

"Oh, dear. Quite aggressive, are we? And who is this crew?"

"I don't know. If I did, my pirate days would already be over and done with. The only thing I know about them is that they all have a heavy Irish accent."

"That's strange. I've never heard of them."

"No one I've came across has. Usually, when people don't give me the answers I need, I chop their heads off."

"But you know better than to do that to me, don't you? Now, Blade, what do you say? Join me, and I'll help you track down those pirates."

"I wanna kill them myself."

"And I'll let you, just say the word and I'll help you find them, then you can do the dirty work."