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The island was lush, full of multiple species of animals and plant life. Nami was extremely excited, and had dragged Usopp with her to the market.
There were rumors. Rumors of ghosts and people going insane, rumors of a past older than any textbook or written document (much to Robin’s joy).
Everyone had noticed the graves that littered the island, some barely visibly as the vines and ground rose above and around them. Zoro noted it had a date from around 200 years previous, and another that had one 300 years earlier. It was slightly saddening. He had seen some older gravestones being sold at the market to tourists, some gravestones being used as walkways to houses. Forever to be trampled on by the living.
After walking around for a bit, Zoro found an old light grey gravestone under a tree. The name and number had long been rubbed away from erosion, but Zoro found himself reminded of someone. Who? Who did this gravestone remind him of? The gravestone was framed by vines with white flowers- ah. Kuina. He sat down next to the grave, pulling out a bottle of sake he had stolen from the kitchen.
It was around the third day on the island (and of sitting and drinking by the gravestone) that he started hearing whispering. It was hard to make out, so he blamed it on the wind bringing the villagers words up the mountain he was on. Eventually the whispering became full speech. The voice claimed to be the woman who was buried in the grave he would drink by. She said her name was H’letta. She said she was a pirate before the pirate age had begun, she said she had been around far before Gol D Rogers, before anything really. She said that people had called her the queen of the sea. The pirate queen nobody knew was there.
H’letta was grateful that Zoro had not been scared away by this information, while Zoro was just glad the ghost he had apparently been drinking next to didn't seem pissed that he had been getting mildly drunk on her grave.
H’letta described a world resembling the one he lived in, but with many similarities. People were too scared to travel, and kept to themselves. She and her crew were one of the more famous explorers who would chart the uncharted and explore the unexplored. She described a world without marines, and where pirates were looked up to, held as peacekeepers and scholars. The island they were on had been her hometown, turned into a tourist attraction. She explained how she could control the wind. No devil fruit aided her with this, she was able to control the wind. People could dance on it, fly with it, sleep in it. All thanks to her. She described how she missed seeing people dance.
Zoro told her he couldn’t. He really couldn't. Dancing with his swords in a battle was different from waltzing in the air.
She tells him of a barista (who she calls a booze-craft) who used to come and sit with her as well. She told him how she was weak-minded. The constant stress of speaking with someone dead had gotten to the barista, and she became the village crazy lady. Children would make fun of her, laugh at her. Everyone would. She killed herself. All they found in her possession was a wooden boat toy, metal embellishments covering the bow and crows nest. There were wooden people on the boat, manning it. Caring for it. There was a pair of bird wings on the front.
Zoro doesn't tell her that he found a boat like that covered in vines earlier in the week and had taken it to his room in the Sunny.
One day, much to the rest of the crew's enjoyment, the wind on the island picks up. Luffy launches himself into the air and stretches his body to catch the wind like a sugar glider. Sometimes he took Chopper up with him, which stopped the second Chopper almost falling off. He said he heard laughter and singing, which surprised him so much he had let go of Luffy’s vest. Eventually it gets louder, and everyone hears it.
“Mystery wind!” Luffy declares, pumping his fists into the air. He, Chopper and Franky scrambled over each other to get to Robin, who said she had been investigating the island and its happenings.
“To put it most simply, a ghost might be at play here,”. She explains.
Luffy exclaims that he’ll find it first, which is met with protests from Franky and Chopper. Usopp chaperones Chopper as he runs off, Nami with Luffy, and Robin with Franky.
Zoro doesn't notice Sanji lurking in the background, shaking his fondly as he watches the teams run off. He doesn't notice Sanji’s curiosity peaking when he mutters H’letta’s name under his breath. And he doesn't notice Sanji trailing him as he makes his way up to see her.
When Zoro eventually comes upon the graves, he sees a transparent woman near the poorly maintained grave of H’letta. It’s her. She’s dark skinned, her hair twisted into braids that were embellished with gold and other expensive metals. She wears a white lantern-sleeved top, although it seems yellowed. She’s wearing scruffy brown leather pants, and seems to go without shoes. She turns to him, eyes unseeing with a hint of what might’ve been green once upon a time.
“Zoro…?”
“Aye,”. He responds.
He sat down, pulling out a bottle of Sake and the wooden boat from his haramaki. She picks the wooden boat up from the ground.
“You...found it?”
“Mm”. He nods, popping open the sake and taking a sip.
They sit in a comfortable silence for a few moments.
“It’s the anniversary of my death.” She explains to Zoro. “I can control the winds once more. I can make people laugh and dance in them once more. I might cry when it's over,”. She admits.
“Then don't cry. Be happy you even get one day.” He reprimands softly. He takes a drink.
Sanji can't help but glare from his spot behind a tree. The asshole took that from his pantry.
H’letta chuckles. “You are honest and blunt. You remind me much of my first mate. She was like you in many ways. I.. am not certain where her grave lies any longer. I am not certain of her name. I have forgotten so much as I age with time. She had gold earrings much like yours. Four, I believe. On her left ear, same as you. They were one of her prized possessions.”
They relapse into that familiar comfortable silence again, a few minutes later Luffy comes bounding out of the forest with a panting Nami on his heels.
“Zorooo!” He greets before taking note of H’letta.
“Hey! Mystery lady! Watch’a doing with Zoro?”
She just smiles warmly at him. Zoro starts zoning out at this point, looking out at the ocean while the familiar buzz of voices drone on in the background. Sanji walks out after a long time of watching. Standing next to Zoro.
“Who’s that beautiful lady?”
“H’letta. Go ask her yourself,”. He deadpans, pointing back to where she was being bombarded with questions from their captain and navigator. They were both certain Luffy had asked ‘do you poop?’ somewhere in there, because not even a moment later Sanji was berating and slapping Luffy on the head for asking such a question.
Eventually the entire crew arrives, and for the first time in centuries, H’letta has a group of people who are begging her for stories. She almost starts crying.
Hours upon hours go by, and the group dissipates. Everyone except Zoro had gone back to the Sunny to rest, and it was around five minutes until midnight.
H’letta floats over to him, melancholy clear on her rapidly fading face.
“Thank you so much. You have made me more happy now than I have been in the last couple hundred years.”
“That was mostly my crew's work.”
“No, without you I would never have materialized.”
Zoro looks at her, confused.
“I…I’m not sure how it works. But that booze-craft was also around before my death day. I half-materialized when she had been doing that, however her mental state was not as strong as yours,”.
“Mm. So someone with a strong mental state needs to be around then?”
“That would seem to be the case, yes.”
They sit together for another few moments in silence.
“I believe I remember why you remind me of my first mate so much now.”
Zoro hums in response.
“You were both so strong-willed, and…well.” She reaches behind her ear, pulling out a gold earring exactly the same as Zoro’s three.
“This was hers. I believe it is yours now.”
She drops it in his hand, beginning to fade with strong wisps rushing from the forest.
“Thank you. Zoro, thank you so much.”
Zoro watched with a pit in his gut as she wisped away, smiling as tears ran down her face.
After thirty minutes of just...sitting. Not really thinking. Not really doing anything. Just looking out at the ocean where her spirit floated off to, He walked back to the Sunny. He pointedly ignored everyone else, making a beeline to Sanji’s room (where he knew the cook wouldn't be, he was fighting Luffy out of the kitchen). He rummaged through a few drawers- there it was a sewing needle.
Backtracking, he arrived at the bathroom and locked the door. Zoro leaned towards his reflection in the mirror, studying his face. Then he took the needle from his pocket, hovering it over the next empty space in his ear and plunging it inside. Zoro quickly shoved the earring in, taking the needle out and watching his ear close around the smaller area of the earring.
He stood back from the mirror, looking at himself. A gust of wind came in through the window, jingling the four earrings softly together. Yeah. This was right.
Later, as he stood out on the Crows nest, he could swear he saw a ship. People partying and joyful as wind thrust them into the air. Some were dancing in it, playing in it. There were two women standing on the crows nest, waving at him. H’letta, and a green-haired lady with 4 gold earrings next to her.
The ship slowly began to fade away, but not before a gust of wind flew from the ship over to him, carrying a message.
“Thank you.”