The memory hit Zoro like a physical blow—the bounty hunters' bloodied faces, their broken bodies scattered across the tavern floor. They'd shared their food, their drink, their laughter. And then they'd drawn their blades.
They fed us, Zoro thought, the taste of their stew still ghosting on his tongue. And then they tried to sell our heads.
"ZORO!"
Luffy's roar tore through the dusty Alabasta street, raw with a betrayal so deep it vibrated in the air. His eyes weren't just angry—they were shattered.
"How could you?" Luffy's voice cracked. "They fed us! They were kind!"
Beside him, Vivi pressed a hand to her mouth. How is he this dense? she screamed internally. Can't he see? Can't he feel the trap?
But Luffy only saw the aftermath. Only saw what Zoro's blades had left behind.
"Captain, listen—" Zoro started, his voice low, controlled.
"NO!" Luffy's fist clenched, the air around it warping. "You cut them down! People who showed us kindness!"
"They were bounty hunters," Zoro said, each word measured. "They waited until we slept—"
"LIAR!"
The word was a physical thing, a weapon. It struck Zoro harder than any blade ever had.
Luffy moved.
Not with his usual playful brawl-energy, but with killing intent so pure it chilled the desert air. His fist came down not to subdue, but to erase.
Zoro barely twisted away.
The building behind him didn't just break—it vaporized. Stone and wood disintegrated into powder. The shockwave blew Vivi's hair back, stung her eyes with grit.
Zoro stared at the crater where he'd just stood. His heart hammered against his ribs.
"Are you… trying to kill me?" The question left him in a breathless rush.
Luffy didn't blink. "Yes."
Another fist. Another dodge. Another building gone.
"Luffy, stop! Just think!" Zoro danced between demolitions, the ground shaking beneath him. "Why would I—"
"I DON'T CARE WHY!"
---
Twenty yards away, Mr. 5 adjusted his sunglasses with a sigh. "Are they done yet?"
Miss Valentine twirled her parasol. "Boring. They're not even interfering. Just domestic drama."
"Our mission is the princess," Mr. 5 said, turning toward Vivi. "Let's finish this and report."
They took one step.
And the world exploded into motion.
Zoro, dodging another earth-shattering punch, spun and kicked—not at Luffy, but through the space Luffy had occupied. His leg became a blur of force.
It missed Luffy.
It did not miss Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine.
The kick connected with a sound like a cannon shot, sending all three bodies crashing through the wall of a sandstone inn in a shower of debris.
Inside the collapsing room, dust choked the air. Mr. 5 spat out plaster, his sunglasses cracked.
"You see?" Miss Valentine hissed, shoving rubble off her dress. "They were distracting us! Setting us up!"
Mr. 5's eyes narrowed behind his fractured lenses. "Fine. We kill the pirates first."
He raised a finger to his lips.
Vivi, from outside, saw it—the subtle inhale. The Devil Fruit power gathering.
"ZORO, MOVE!" she screamed.
"Not now!" Zoro barked, his eyes locked on Luffy, who was already winding up another punch.
Mr. 5 blew.
The explosion wasn't fire—it was pure concussive annihilation. The inn erupted outward, a sun-bright bloom of force that swallowed the street in thunder and light.
Miss Valentine shot skyward on her parasol, laughing. "Idiots! All of you!"
She floated, weightless, then focused. "Kilo Kilo no Mi… One Kilogram!"
Her body became light as a feather, hovering like a specter above the wreckage.
Below, the dust began to settle.
Vivi coughed, waving smoke away. "Zoro…?"
"Quiet," Zoro growled, his swords half-drawn. His eyes scanned the rubble. Not for enemies.
For his captain.
A figure stirred in the devastation.
Luffy walked out of the smoke, dragging an unconscious Mr. 5 by the ankle like a sack of rice. His clothes were scorched, his skin smudged with soot—but his eyes still burned with that unforgiving fire.
"Luffy," Zoro tried again, stepping forward. "The townspeople. They were hunters. They drew blades first."
Vivi held her breath.
Miss Valentine hovered, ignored, her face twisting. "Hey! I'm up here! I can become ten thousand kilograms!"
No one looked up.
Luffy dropped Mr. 5's body. It hit the ground with a thud.
"You're lying," Luffy said, his voice hollow. "No enemy feeds you. No enemy shares meat." He took a step forward. "You betrayed their kindness."
"OH, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" Miss Valentine shrieked from above.
Her parasol snapped shut.
"KILO KILO NO MI," she screamed, her voice echoing off the ruins. "TEN THOUSAND KILOGRAMS!"
The air changed.
It pressed down, dense and heavy. Zoro felt it first—the gravitational pull, the sudden vacuum above him.
He looked up.
Miss Valentine wasn't falling.
She was descending—a meteor of human flesh, her form blurring with speed and mass, her smile a crescent of madness. The ground beneath Zoro began to fracture in a perfect circle, crushed by the sheer anticipation of her weight.
And Luffy—
Luffy wasn't looking at her.
He was still staring at Zoro, his eyes holding only betrayal, as if the woman about to crush his first mate into paste was nothing but a distraction.
"Tell me the truth," Luffy demanded, his voice cutting through the roaring wind of Miss Valentine's descent.
Zoro's swords were out now, but they weren't raised toward the sky. They were pointed at his captain.
"I already did," Zoro said, his knuckles white on his hilts.
Above them, Miss Valentine hit the terminal velocity of a freight train.
And Luffy finally moved—not to save Zoro, but to close the distance between them, his fist pulled back for a blow that promised no mercy.
Two forces descended upon Roronoa Zoro at once:
The crushing weight of ten thousand kilograms from above.
And the shattered trust of his captain from ahead.
The world held its breath—
—as Zoro made his choice.
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