The Sun, the Drum, and Rubber 1

* Special Side Story *

* Different settings from the main story *

* Original timeline (2018, Zoro is 18 years old) *

* What if people and worlds that should never meet, did? *

...

One day, as she passed by, Tsumiki casually asked Zoro.

"Do you think there are impossible things in the world?"

Pausing his window cleaning, Zoro hesitated after Tsumiki's question. After a long silence, he answered.

"I guess."

"That's unlike you. I thought you'd say everything is possible."

Zoro laughed involuntarily.

"If it's a living being, then yes."

As long as it lives, the possibilities of existence are infinite.

One can become strong enough to defeat an opponent who seems unbeatable.

Past glories can become so diminished they're hard to believe.

One can dream new dreams, or live a life completely different from before.

That is what it means to live.

On the other hand, death is the complete conclusion of all things.

Whether the life lived was good or bad, nothing more can be done.

In this world, people leave curses as they die, and these curses continue to circulate within the cycles of reincarnation; perhaps it's a concept that doesn't quite fit with this world.

As for Zoro, he's a reincarnated being who has lived a second life after dying once.

Zoro stopped his thoughts and firmly wrung out the wet rag. As he diligently cleaned the window, Tsumiki set down a bowl of freshly washed grapes.

"Maybe it's possible?"

"..."

"You always told us that the world is vast."

To not limit oneself on the path forward, to live freely doing whatever one desires.

Zoro has always tried to ensure that Tsumiki and Megumi live such lives. He constantly reminded them of the possibilities and freedom of being, of existence. Meanwhile, he found it amusing to speak of death as something insurmountable.

"Even if the God of Death came, you'd cut him down."

"...I've cut down something like that before."

"See?"

The world-cutting swordsman is Zoro. Would death be an exception? Tsumiki didn't think so. It's just that he chooses not to cut it. Perhaps there might be a way if he really wanted. However, Zoro has never sought to encroach upon the realms of life and death.

It's more about respect than a sense of defeat. Respect for the beginning and the end of an existence.

That's typical of Zoro's stubborn nature. But Tsumiki said with a smile,

"Stop cleaning the window now and come eat some fruit. And no more sneaking cooking wine, or it won't just end with window cleaning like this time?"

"...."

...

A while later, Zoro confronted a group of necromancers.

Having operated primarily outside of Japan to evade Gojo and Zoro, they were discovered by Zoro as soon as they entered Japan.

When their hideout was raided, the chief necromancer was found barely alive, having exhausted all his magic in necromantic rituals.

Zoro quickly surveyed the location. Nothing. There were no bodies possessed by summoned curses.

Zoro grabbed the old chief necromancer by the collar and lifted him up.

"Hey, where are the bodies you've necromanced?"

And, who exactly did you necromance?

The chief necromancer chuckled upon hearing Zoro's question.

"We weren't sure we could do it."

They hadn't expected such a target to exist for this monster. But there was one, and they had succeeded. They would probably die as a result, but it was worth it.

If it could end this monster's era.

"Hey, answer me."

Under Zoro's intense pressure, the chief necromancer trembled and confessed truthfully.

"Someone you believe without a doubt... is stronger than you."

That person, we summoned here.

...

Toji, Gojo, and Zoro followed the traces left by the necromancers and entered a building.

Then, a sound was heard.

Dong-doo-dong-dong, dong-doo-dong-dong.

As the sound of drums reached their ears, Gojo and Toji frowned.

"What is this sound?"

Under different circumstances, they might have found the rhythm quite lively.

"...!"

Zoro stopped abruptly, unknowingly. Toji turned to look at him.

"What's wrong?"

However, Zoro couldn't respond to Toji's question. He hadn't heard it at all.

Dong-doo-dong-dong, dong-doo-dong-dong!

Once again, the drum sound echoed, and a fierce wind blew. A powerful Conqueror's Haki, like blood-red lightning, exploded from deep within the building, sweeping over the three men and spreading far and wide.

"—?! What is this?!"

Toji's body tingled.

"...Wow, this is no joke."

Gojo whistled. It was an enormous Conqueror's Haki. If they hadn't evacuated all the non-sorcerers from the nearby village beforehand, they surely would have all fainted.

Without realizing it, Zoro clenched his fist tightly.

—Dong-doo-dong-dong, dong-doo-dong-dong.

Many called this sound the drum of liberation.

But to Zoro, it was the heartbeat of just one person.

It was the sound of Luffy.

...

Deep inside an underground building, the body of a boy, tightly bound in chains, moved with a thud. After moving, it made another sound, "thud." Then again, it bounced like a rubber ball.

Dong-doo-dong-dong. Dong-doo-dong-dong.

Following that rhythm, the body that should not have moved bounced like a rubber ball. The chains touching the boy's body stretched like rubber and then contracted repeatedly.

The boy's body turned completely white. His hair, eyebrows, and clothes were as white as a freshly drawn picture on a blank canvas. His eyebrows curled like whirls, and his hair twisted like burning flames.

His closed red eyes slightly opened. The boy blinked dumbly.

"Where am I?"

His eyes popped out like stretched rubber, then retracted. The boy flexed his arms.

"Here goes!"

Crack! The boy inflated his body like a balloon, breaking the chains binding him as if they were rubber bands.

With a foggy mind, he looked around. He was in an unfamiliar place, and there was no one around.

The boy, wearing a cloak made of steam, scratched the back of his head and said,

"Am I not dead?"

He had said goodbye to everyone last time.

People were coming. The boy, sensing this with his Observation Haki, turned his gaze towards the door. His Observation Haki naturally focused on the presence of the person standing in the forefront.

The presence of a very powerful person who seemed to wander for a short distance before finding the way was familiar to Luffy.

No. More precisely, very familiar—

The door creaked open. There stood a man the boy could not possibly fail to recognize.

His first mate, who had started the pirate journey with him.

"...Luffy."

Zoro called the boy's name. His gray eyes were dilated to their limit because it was unbelievable. After all, Luffy was...

...supposed to be dead.

But that was something Zoro realized a bit too late about himself as well.

'Is this real...?'

That small doubt disappeared completely when he saw Luffy's grinning mouth stretching up to his ears. Luffy, smiling brightly enough to show his gums, cheerfully shouted.

"Zo—roooooo!"

Luffy's arms stretched like rubber bands, wrapping tightly around Zoro before Toji could even intervene, and with a snap, Luffy flew towards Zoro.

"Yoo—hoo!"

Slap!

Luffy stuck to Zoro's body. Zoro didn't fall over, but he staggered a few steps back from the impact.

Luffy hugged Zoro tightly and laughed loudly.

"Ahhahaha! It's been so long, Zoro!"

Toji, who noticed Zoro late, silently observed Luffy clinging to Zoro without malice. What was even more astonishing was the power emanating from Luffy.

'What kind of power is this?'

The strength felt through his Observation Haki was incredibly immense. He had never felt such a presence except from Gojo and Zoro. It was as if the earth danced along with every beat of the boy's heart. Each time the boy bounced, the ground too bounced like rubber.

Toji carefully observed this and roughly figured out the nature of the power.

'Does he impart rubber-like properties not only to himself but also to his surroundings?'

It was a ludicrous ability, but if a person with such a massive presence had this power, it told a different story.

Keeping his guard up, Toji quietly tolerated Luffy's antics and asked Zoro.

"...Son, do you know him?"

Zoro paused for a moment, wondering how to explain, then said the first thing that came to his mind.

"He's my captain."

The only one, no matter how many lives he lived.

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