Chapter 17: The Training Under Zoro

"Pour, o pour the pirate sherry! Fill, o fill the pirate glass!" Steven was singing bright and early. "And to make us more than merry, let the pirate bumper pass!"

The previous night's revelry left most of the crew incapacitated from a hangover. As such, when Steven awoke in a happy mood thanks to his new paintings, he had nobody to talk to beside himself.

"Argh! Hoist the sails, Frederic, lest ye be walking the plank on the eve of the night you would be free of your indentures!" Steven pointed his hand at nobody.

"Aye-aye, Pirate King!" Steven responded back to himself in a slightly different voice. "Where we be sailing to today?"

Steven let out a hearty laugh. "Ye barnacle brain! Ye know we be heading to the lagoon! That's where General Stanley is! I 'aught ta..."

"What the hell are you doing?" a male voice called from the top of the Going Merry.

Steven looked up and saw the sweaty form of Zoro staring at him confused. He began to wave. "Hey, Zoro! I'm just playing Pirates of Penzance! You want to play?"

"...no."

"Oh! How about we play Peter Pan instead? You could be Captain Hook and I could be Peter Pan and we could have a duel with swords! It would be so cool!" Steven begged.

"...no."

"Aww," Steven kicked the floor dejectedly. "Say, why aren't you sleeping? What are you up to?"

Zoro held up one of his swords. "I'm training."

"TRAINING?!" Steven's irises turned to stars. "Can I join too?!"

"Steven, I'm training to cut steel. I don't think you can keep up with what I'm doing," he frowned. He turned to go back to his training. However, in an instant the boy had managed to run up and gave Zoro puppy-dog eyes.

"Please, Zoro! I know you are so awesome at sword fighting, but I need to make my shield useful for you guys! That throwing trick you showed me before we docked at Drum worked out great, but it won't be enough! Please teach me more!"

The swordsman twitched his eyebrows but then smiled. "Well...I am pretty awesome. Fine...but if you are training with me, I want you to give it your all."

"Aye-aye!" Steven saluted.

Zoro sighed and rubbed his jaw. "Okay, so I haven't really seen you do any actual fighting. Why don't you punch me? Let's see what you've got."

Steven spit on his hands and rubbed them together. "Alright! But I have to warn you, I'm stronger than I let on."

"Then show me," Zoro hit his stomach. "Punch me right here. Put all of your energy into it."

The young boy swirled his arm into a circle and threw the hardest punch he could. He closed his eyes and yelled. "Gah!" Peeking from his closed eyes, he whispered. "Did I hurt you?"

It turned out Zoro didn't even move...at all. He looked down and shook his head. "Was that it?"

Steven nodded while blushing. "I mean...sometimes, when I'm mad, I can get a bit stronger, but I don't think it's by much."

"...this is going to be harder than I expected," Zoro ran his hands through his hair. "Okay, physical combat isn't your thing. That's fine. Summon your shield."

"That I can do!" Steven smiled, willing it into existence. "What now?"

"Now? Now I'm going to attack you to see just how much your shield can take!" Zoro said, picking up only one of his three swords.

"Wait, what? Ah!" Steven raised his shield up to block Zoro's strike. Again and again, the swordsman lunged at him. Steven found it incredibly hard to keep it up and to hold his concentration.

Zoro increased the fury of his attack. Steven was forced more and more backwards until he found himself trapped by the railing. With a single swipe, Zoro went to break his shield, but Steven used all of his energy to push him forward, catching him off-balance slightly. Unfortunately, it drained the last of Steven's willpower and his shield disappeared back into his gem.

"Hmm...you actually caught me off-guard for a moment. Not bad, kid," Zoro admitted. "But it's still...what are you doing?"

The half-Gem was grinning ear to ear and bouncing on his toes. "You complimented me!"

"Oh, brother!" Zoro smacked his face in disgust. "Knock it off and make your bubble-thing. I'm testing that too."

The smile instantly disappeared and Steven frowned. "But...but I don't think my mind and gem can take too much more so soon after that!"

"Will an enemy give you the chance to rest?!" Zoro hit him with the hilt of his sword. "If you are training with me, you will follow my every instruction! Now, make the bubble!"

The boy jumped back in fear but nevertheless did what he was told. Zoro proceeded to hit Steven's bubble with all three of his swords, getting faster and more intense with each strike. Inside of the bubble, Steven cowered while looking at the swords coming inches away from his face.

"Stop looking away!" Zoro yelled at him. "You are giving your enemy everything he needs with your body language!"

"I'm trying! I'm...wait, how are you talking with a sword in your mouth?!" Steven asked, cocking his head in the bubble.

Zoro was not amused. "If you aren't going to take this seriously, then I'll show you just what to expect in combat. Tiger Trap!" He put the two swords he was holding over the blade in his mouth and slashed them at Steven, popping the bubble and sending him flying off of the ship into the ocean.

"Gah! Help! Gem overboard!" the boy was yelling while gargling water.

Zoro's eyes widened when he realized exactly what he did. "Aw, shit. That's not good."

*AGITR*

"What the hell were you thinking, Zoro?!" Nami yelled at him a short while later.

The commotion of Steven crashing into the water woke practically everybody but Luffy up from their alcohol-induced comas. With some teamwork from Nami and Sanji (who was clearly doing it to impress Nami and Petrea), Steven was brought back onto the Going Merry and wrapped in a towel. He was presently getting looked over by Chopper.

"I told the kid I was going to go all-out on him. I wasn't trying to knock him overboard..." Zoro sighed. It was clear this was the exact reason he didn't want to let Steven train with him: overprotective crewmates.

"Mr. Bushido, you should have shown better judgment!" Vivi joined in. "He could have died! What if there was a sea king or another carnivorous animal by us?!"

"Yeah, moss-brain," Sanji added, clearly not caring about anything but the women. "Don't you see the stress you are putting us through?!"

"We don't need your help, Sanji!" Nami and Vivi yelled at the same time. The cook instantly backed up and got out of the line of fire.

The green-haired man just gritted his teeth, prepared to zone out, and nodded his head. Yes, he had gone a bit tougher on Steven than he had anticipated, but Zoro had tried to dissuade the kid from joining him. He barely tolerated Damian spotting him, but at least he was a reminder of what he needed to overcome.

But then the damnedest thing happened.

Steven hopped off of his chair and started to stretch his arms and legs. The small reindeer seemed to be panicking, but the boy just walked over to the swordsman and gave a weak smile.

"Chopper thinks I should rest a bit or else I might get sick, but Jasper or Crocodile wouldn't wait for me to get better. So, what should we do now?"

The swordsman was speechless. This kid was full of surprises, wasn't he? He might be young and inexperienced, but his will and dedication were to be admired. Maybe there was hope after all.

"Steven," Vivi tried to interject. "You aren't thinking clearly! You almost just got hurt!"

"I'll get hurt in battle, won't I? The Gems get hurt all the time but they still fight," Steven stood his ground. "If I can get stronger, I can save your country!"

As Vivi covered her mouth in shock, Zoro couldn't help but smile. "Come on, kid; let's get to it. If we can master your bubble, you could actually be a Gem to be reckoned with."

"REALLY?!" Steven asked in awe. His face started to blush but then he smacked it, forcing himself to adopt a serious expression. "I mean...let's do it!"

As Zoro walked by Nami and Vivi, he made sure to flash both of them a smile. 'Just to rub it in their faces,' he thought.

*AGITR*

For the next two days, Steven and Zoro continued to train whenever they could. Luffy forbade anyone from witnessing them for fear of ruining the surprise. Since fusing with Steven, Luffy was getting more and more curious about the boy and his heritage. If he wanted to get stronger, he would do what he could to help.

After fusing with him, Luffy knew the best way to help him was to keep the watchful eyes focused elsewhere.

Thankfully, this worked out for the best. Usopp had taken the time to create and finalize a personal weapon for Nami known as the Clima-Tact. Resting, he decided to go fishing off of the Going Merry with Karoo. On the other side of the ship, Vivi and the former members of Baroque Works pooled their resources together with the other Straw Hats to figure out the best possible plan of attack against their former boss. This was useful for Chopper, who had no idea what Baroque Works even was.

It was during this meeting that Zoro and Steven took a break to see what the commotion was about. They found them gathered around a table with a plethora of information written down on paper, including the remaining known Baroque Works agents, the members of the rebel army, and the key people in the Royal Army.

"Since we know for a fact Crocodile is Mr. 0, do we know where he frequents in Alabasta?" Damian was asking as the two walked over. The bomb-man turned to acknowledge the two with a nod. "Kid. Zoro."

"Typically he roams around on his own...but I know that he owns the Rain Dinners casino in Rainbase," Vivi was pacing around. "But we can't just march right to Crocodile's front door!"

"Why not?" Luffy asked. "I'm gonna kick his ass anyway. Why not get it over with?"

The princess shook her head. "If we can do this without getting more civilians involved with the rebellion, then I would be happy. We can't let more people get hurt by Crocodile's manipulations!"

"Vivi, if we stop Crocodile before the fighting begins, then the rebellion could be quelled before it became a problem!" Petrea tried to explain. "If we have a shot at Crocodile early on, I think it'd be best to take it!"

"No," Sanji thought about it. "No, Vivi-chan is right. If we were to attack Crocodile early on before he made his move, the rebels might think that the king was using him as a scapegoat...damn it, that shitty asshole has made it impossible for us to do anything without the war actually starting!"

"Exactly! That's why we need to convince the rebels that Crocodile is the enemy! We can stop the fighting and keep the people out of this!" Vivi seemed relieved that somebody was getting it.

However, Damian shook his head "Princess, you need to understand that the rebels are going to fight either way. The best option would be to get them on our side. That way, they can join with your father's men and we can take Crocodile on together."

"But..." Vivi said dumbfounded. This was clearly not the reaction she was expecting. Steven could see that and went to pat her back. She stiffened a bit, apparently defensive, but calmed down after a second.

"It'll be okay, Vivi. We will be there to help the rebels! I've been getting stronger to do just that!" the boy smiled.

While obviously still hurt, the blue-haired teenager forced a smile. "Really now? And how strong have you gotten, Steven?"

"Very! Zoro and I thought of some sweet moves! We'll give Baroque Works the works for sure!"

"That pun was terrible," Genevieve frowned.

"What would you know about the art of puns?" Steven pouted. Then he blinked and started to laugh. "Get it? 'Art of puns?' Hahahaha!"

The young painted continued to frown, but slowly the edge of her mouth twitched. Unfortunately, the half-Gem noticed it and continued to pester her about it for the next several minutes, much to the painter's annoyance.

The crew decided to ignore them and continued on with their war council. "Now, the other alternative is to capture Crocodile alive and force him to admit to his crimes, but that is practically impossible," Nami tapped her finger on the table. "The man is a Shishibukai for crying out loud! It'd be a suicide mission!"

"There is one thing that I can think of that would make this easier..." Luffy closed his eyes and thought about it. "Yes...one thing..."

The crew held their breath, waiting to hear what the captain would say. Would this be a stroke of strategic genius?

"We need meat! Sanji! We need food...now!" Luffy pounded his hand on the table with great force.

The cook kicked Luffy right in his face and into the wall. "YOU SHITTY IDIOT! YOU CAN'T DO THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF A TENSE MOMENT!"

"Actually, some food would be much appreciated," Zoro held his stomach as it growled.

The blond merely laughed. "Please, we are in the middle of important planning. You all are so inconsiderate of the feelings of Vivi-chan."

"Um..." Vivi's face turned red. "I'm hungry too..."

"Ditto!" the others agreed. Sanji lit up a cigarette as his exposed eye turned into a heart. He started running toward the kitchen as fast as he could.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO, MY LOVE?! I'LL MAKE YOU THE GREATEST MEAL I CAN MUSTER!"

The chef entered the kitchen in a flash while the rest of them started to chuckle. In a tense conversation such as this, a little humor was appreciated. That was Steven's mentality as he tried to lighten the mood with more puns.

"I bet we will all get a kick out of the lunch Sanji will make us!" Steven tried, raising his eyebrows up. "Eh? Eh? 'Kick?' Get it?"

The only people who laughed were Luffy, Chopper, and Damian (who was trying to stop himself from doing so). Usopp and Karoo appeared to be laughing too, but their laughs were muffled a bit. Unfortunately, the laughter was cut short by Sanji storming out of the kitchen angrier than Steven had ever seen. "How is it possible that the food I carefully rationed to get us to Alabasta DISAPPEARED OVERNIGHT?!"

His eyes locked with Luffy, who shook his head. "Hey, I only took my usual portions! You know I raid the food at night!"

Sanji rubbed his jaw. "Well, I do account for that..." he admitted. "But that doesn't excuse ALL OF IT!" He went over to Zoro and looked over his face. "You're too stupid to raid my fridge." Then he sauntered over to Steven. "You're too innocent." He moved to Chopper. "I don't think you even know where the fridge is." The last one at the table that he questioned was Damian. "...and where were you last night?"

"Passed out...in Petrea's room," he grinned.

"WHAT?!" Sanji went to choke him before Petrea knocked him out of the way so she could choke him herself.

"STOP IMPLYING SOMETHING HAPPENED WHEN IT DIDN'T!" she grabbed the bomb-man and slammed him into the ground. "YOU PASSED OUT ON MY DOOR IN A DRUNKEN STUPOR!"

"Is that what happened?" Damian tried picking himself up. "I honestly blacked out."

"Wait, why are you only questioning the men?" Zoro asked irritated.

Sanji laughed. "No woman on this ship would be so heartless as to go behind my trusting and loving back! You should be ashamed for insinuating that it could have been any of them!"

The he paused and began to count the various people on the ship. "Shitty bomber...shitty moss-head...shitty captain...shitty emergency food...shitty kid...where's..." Sanji stopped and realized just who he was missing. "THE SHITTY LONG-NOSED LIAR!"

"So much bad language!" Steven covered his ears. Thankfully, by doing so he missed all the colorful insults he yelled at Usopp and Karoo, who were found to be eating a large quantity of food. When Steven uncovered his ears, he caught the tail end of Usopp saying how inventing makes a man hungry.

"Oh, is that so?! Well, be a man and provide for your family! Go catch us some dinner!" Sanji threatened. "And if any of you shitheads want to eat tonight, you should get down there and join him!"

Steven looked to the other men, who all stared down at their stomachs. Every single one of them shot Usopp a venomous look. The sniper shuddered in fear at the retribution that was no doubt coming his way. Finally, each of the men grabbed a fishing pole and found a spot on the Going Merry.

And that was how Steven began the most grueling part of his training: learning how to fish in the Grand Line.