his greatest fear

Zoro shivered as the crew disembarked at a very cold winter island. Well, that was definitely an understatement; the place was absolutely freezing. The streets were lined with so much snow that the den den plows were in use. Sure, it was picturesque — snow always had that quality — but Zoro personally didn’t care for scenic views and neither did most of the crew.

One of the locals, Iris, invited the crew back to her cabin, insisting they stay for some hot chocolate and to warm up. Nami told them the log pose needed a few hours to set anyway so the decision was easy. Warm cabin and hot chocolate!

Zoro entered the cabin last, but as soon as he did his body relaxed. He hadn’t known he’d been so tensed up out in the cold; he was usually among the least affected by cold weather.

The crew quickly fell in love with the cabin. It had some neat features, such as a visual den den mushi that was projecting a film onto the projector screen, a fully stocked kitchen, a large desk with all sorts of stationery, a guitar, and one of the walls covered by nothing but books. Unfortunately for Zoro, there was no exercise equipment; however, that hadn’t stopped him before. He would be able to improvise.

Iris told them to make themselves comfortable while she prepared the drinks. Naturally, the crew split up—Sanji hovered around Iris in the kitchen, Robin and Chopper browsed the selection of books, Nami worked at the desk, and Brook tuned the guitar. Franky, Jinbei, Luffy, and Usopp watched the action film playing. Zoro, however, found himself in an empty corner of the room and started doing some one arm push ups. However, they weren’t much of a challenge.

He didn’t know how long he’d been working out, but by the time he was done and proceeded to drink his green tea — hot chocolate wasn’t really his thing — it had gone cold. The rest of the crew had congregated to watch the film so Zoro joined them.

The film itself was amusing. There was a sword fight between the hero and the villain but the choreography for it was not realistic at all; it made Zoro cringe. Despite that, the rest of the crew were absorbed in it. Chopper cheered for the hero, while Luffy sighed when the villain lost.

Zoro made himself comfortable on the carpet next to Luffy, their backs leaning against the brown velvet sofa where Franky and Usopp sat.

As the credits for the film rolled through, Luffy sat up straight and stretched. “Okay! Adventure time!” he said. Zoro was impressed Luffy had made it this long without complaining. The guy was the most restless person about.

“But it’s so cold outside!” Nami said before sinking into the sofa further with a woolly blanket over herself.

Usopp nodded. “I suddenly have can’t-go-outside disease!”

Chopper sat up. “What!? Somebody call a doctor!”

Nami sighed. “Chopper, you’re the doctor.”

Realisation dawned on Chopper’s face. “Oh, right! Usopp, let me run some tests,” he said before approaching Usopp.

Luffy sighed. “Eh. Nami and Usopp are so boring,” Luffy said. Usopp squawked at the insult and Luffy turned to Zoro. “Zoro, you wanna come?”

Zoro shrugged. “Sure.”

The two of them wrapped themselves back up in their winter clothes and took their leave. Only, when they pushed the door open, it wouldn’t budge. One look through the small pane of glass above the door and they realised the problem pretty quickly: they’d been snowed in.

“I guess that’s that, then,” Zoro said, shrugging off his winter wear.

Luffy hummed, his finger on his chin—a sure sign that the man was thinking. “Zoro could slice through the snow. That should work…”

Zoro smirked, feeling the swords at his waist. He was never one to turn down a challenge.

Nami groaned, marched up to them and flicked them both in the head. “Are you two idiots!?” she said, putting a hand to her temple. “Wait, don’t answer that.”

Iris approached the three of them with her hands up in appeasement. “Please, bear with me. I’ll make some phone calls and the den den plows will get us out in no time. While we haven’t seen this much snow in years, we’re still well equipped to manage it. Given the nature of the New World, it’s a necessity. If you’ll excuse me a moment,” she said before proceeding towards the den den mushi.

“Be much quicker if I just slice it, you know?” Zoro said, rolling his shoulders. He was about to go ahead and do that, but then he felt a hand on his arm.

Nami was smiling. Only, it was one of those scary smiles she sometimes had when talking about Zoro’s debt. “You’re not going anywhere. You’ll just make matters worse,” she said.

Zoro raised an eyebrow. “You can’t stop me.”

Nami’s eyebrows raised. “Oh, can’t I?” The smile somehow turned more sinister.

Zoro let go of his swords and stepped back. The last time he’d seen that smile, Nami had added another surcharge to his debt.

“That’s more like it,” Nami said, letting go and giving Zoro’s shoulder a firm pat, as if she hadn’t been menacing him moments ago.

Sanji and Usopp broke out laughing. Zoro frowned.

“Never seen you so scared, Marimo!” Sanji said, holding his stomach.

Zoro’s hand went straight to his swords. “You wanna fight, Cook?”

But then Usopp was hunched over, wheezing almost. “Can defeat a Yonko’s right hand man, but trembles at the sound of debt!”

Zoro clenched his fists but closed his eyes and counted to ten, trying to block out his annoying crewmates.

Nami, in a complete turn of character, had his back. Kinda. “I wouldn’t be laughing if I were either of you. Your debts are nearly as bad. Zoro is right to fear it and if you two were wise, you would too.”

And amazingly, that shut them up.

Zoro needed a nap.