Beside him, Luffy leaned so far over the rail that Usopp immediately grabbed the back of his vest to keep him from pitching into the water. 

The thrill of the unknown. 

Another call for adventure waiting to happen.

Luffy's eyes sparkled when he made his decision.

"We're going!" 

"We are absolutely not," Nami answered without missing a beat.

She looked exhausted. After successfully bribing, threatening, and guilting Usopp into taking over dinner, she'd clearly intended to spend the rest of the evening doing absolutely nothing.

"We'll check it out tomorrow," she continued. "It's dark, everyone else is asleep, and I am not setting foot on some creepy island in the middle of the night."

"I agree with Nami!" Usopp said immediately. "Look at it! It's obviously cursed."

Zoro paid no mind to the comment and continued to stare at the island.

Usopp thought every island was cursed or dangerous.

Jinbe remained at the helm, his calm expression unreadable as he studied the waters ahead. Unlike Nami or Usopp, he didn't dismiss the idea outright. If Luffy wanted to investigate, Jinbe would bring them in as safely as he could.

Below deck, Chopper, Robin, Brook, and Franky had long since gone to sleep, blissfully unaware that another detour had already hijacked tomorrow's plans.

As always, Luffy got his way.

The Thousand Sunny adjusted course to the island.

With every passing minute, the enormous landmass grew larger. Its jagged ridges became clearer, though no less strange. 

Movement caught Zoro's attention.

He rested his forearms on the rail, narrowing his eye.

Along the shoreline, soft blue lights shimmered to life.

It glowed beneath the darkness in winding ribbons, spreading over the coast before fading away again. A heartbeat later, new lights bloomed somewhere else, rippling through the black landscape in slow, flowing patterns. Almost as though they were flowing beneath its surface.

"You guys seeing that?" Luffy exclaimed in awe.

‘Beautiful.’ Zoro couldn't help but think to himself.

The lights pulsed again.

For a fleeting instant, Zoro could have sworn the coastline flexed with them.

Then everything settled, leaving only the quiet glow washing over the darkness.

A subtle lurch beneath his feet drew Zoro's attention away from the lights.

The Sunny was drifting.

He glanced toward Jinbe.

The helmsman held the wheel steady, guiding them toward the illuminated shoreline, yet the ship refused to answer. Instead of closing the distance, the current carried them sideways, as though unseen hands were gently but insistently pushing them away.

Jinbe frowned.

"I can't make sense of these tides."

There was a hint of alarm in his voice.

For Jinbe, that was unsettling.

"Just turn on the paddles!" Usopp called back.

"They're already running."

The mechanical paddles churned harder, their rhythmic splashes echoing across the water.

The Sunny groaned.

Its hull shuddered under the strain as waves slammed into the starboard side, each one nudging them farther from the glowing coast no matter how Jinbe corrected their heading.

The helmsman adjusted again.

The bow began turning back toward the island at a painfully slow pace.

It felt less like sailing against a current and more like forcing the ship through invisible hands determined to push it away.

Zoro's instincts prickled.

‘Something is wrong.’

Before he could voice the thought, the sea fell silent.

In the space of a single breath, the ocean transformed into polished glass.

The Thousand Sunny drifted upon a perfect mirror, every star reflected beneath them with impossible clarity.

The world had gone unnaturally still. 

The silence was deafening.

Even the steady churn of the paddle wheels seemed to fade into nothing.

A sharp tap broke the stillness.

Zoro's head snapped toward the starboard side.

"Did you hear that?!" Usopp yelped.

"Quiet!" Nami hissed.

Everyone froze.

Zoro held his tongue waiting for the sound to return again.

Tap.

Tap... tap.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. TAP. TAP. TAP!

Zoro could feel the thrumming under his hands where they rested on the rail of the Sunny.

Something was under the boat. Maybe hundreds of somethings

An image forced itself into his mind before he could stop it: countless unseen hands gliding beneath the ship, nails scratching across the Sunny's hull, probing every plank for weakness.

"What the hell is happening?!" Usopp shouted, his voice cracking. Sweat glistened across his forehead despite the cool night air.

No one answered.

Luffy walked across the deck to the front of the Sunny. His straw hat cast a shadow over his eyes, as he stared toward the distant island with intense focus.

So… Luffy sensed it was the island too.

Without another thought, Zoro drew Wado. Steel whispered from its sheath.

He planted one boot atop the railing.

Whatever was beneath them, he'd cut it down before it laid another finger on the Sunny.

A hand seized the back of his robe.

"What are you doing?!" Nami snapped.

"I'm ending this." 

Zoro leaned forward to pull himself free, but Nami tightened her hold.

"By throwing yourself into water where we can't even see what's attacking us?"

"Whatever it is, it's damaging the Sunny!"

"And it'll probably drown you before you even find it! We don't know what we're fighting!"

A violent splash shattered the argument.

Every head whipped toward the sound.

The space beside the rail… It was empty.

"Luffy?" Nami breathed.

Water streamed down the railing in glittering ribbons. It was as though the ocean itself had reached up and taken him.

For one frozen heartbeat, Zoro couldn't breathe.

Instinct took over.

His boots thundered across the deck to where his captain disappeared before his mind caught up with his body.

He had to get to Luffy.

He ripped his robe from his shoulders as he ran, Wado already clenched in his fist.

Behind him, someone shouted his name.

He didn't stop.

The rail disappeared beneath his feet and the sea swallowed him whole.

The water was bitterly cold. The shock of it nearly stole his breath, but he grit his teeth, defiantly holding back a gasp. Salt burned his open eye, blurring the darkness into shifting shadows, but he forced it open wider to search for Luffy.

He could hear the muffled cries of his crew mates still aboard the Sunny, a ripple of concerned voices hovering just above the surface. Then he spotted it.

A familiar straw hat drifted weightlessly beneath the surface.

An empty hat without its owner.

Zoro surged forward and snatched it from the water, wrapping the string tightly around his wrist before it could float away.

His gaze swept frantically through the deep.

A trail of bubbles churned beneath the Sunny. They swirled together into a dense, shifting cloud that concealed whatever moved below the ship.

Luffy was there.

He had to be.

Zoro kicked harder, closing the distance.

His hand tightened around Wado's hilt.

Every instinct screamed for him to cut through the cloud but he didn't dare with Luffy somewhere inside it.

Just as Zoro reached the edge of the churning bubbles, the sea changed.

A current caught him broadside. It was startlingly warm against the frigid ocean, as though he'd plunged into a sunlit spring hidden beneath the waves.

The heat wrapped around his waist and shoulders before surging forward.

His body twisted helplessly.

One moment he was swimming toward the Sunny with every ounce of strength he possessed.

The next, the current carried him away as effortlessly as a feather caught in the wind.

His fingers reached instinctively toward the cloud of bubbles, but it was useless with the distance growing between them

His head burst through the surface with a ragged gasp, the cool air biting at his cheeks.

He spun wildly. The Sunny had already drifted several ship-lengths away.

The strange warmth had vanished the instant he broke the surface.

Only the bitter chill of the sea remained.

"...Damn it." Zoro cursed under his breath.

Whatever that was could have drowned him. It could have dragged him into the abyss before anyone noticed. It could have crushed him beneath the pressure of the deep. Instead, it had simply moved him aside. As though Zoro wasn't worth fighting.

Zoro took that as a personal insult.

He filled his lungs and plunged beneath the surface once more.

A splash echoed somewhere nearby.

Jinbei shot past him with astonishing speed, his powerful strokes carrying him beneath the Sunny in seconds.

The cloud of bubbles pulsed.

Soft blue light spread through the darkness.

Each pulse illuminated the sea around it, revealing ribbons of ink-black water weaving through the depths with impossible grace. They coiled and unfurled like living currents, flowing wherever the light carried them.

One drifted toward Jinbei.

Without striking him, it wrapped around the fish-man before guiding him away from the Sunny into deeper water.

Why was it doing that?! Why wouldn’t it fight?!

The light swelled again, as if the water was breathing.

Within the glowing cloud floated Luffy. His limbs drifted peacefully, as though the sea itself cradled him.

Zoro sheathed Wado then kicked with everything he had.

The ache in his lungs vanished beneath a single thought.

‘Reach him.’

The water warmed around him once more the closer he got.

His head broke through the barrier for an instant, revealing an impossible pocket of air that opened beneath the Sunny's hull where Luffy was.

His arm shot around Luffy's waist and the pocket collapsed.

Cold water rushed over them again as the current seized both men, spinning them away from the glowing all blue sea until every sense of direction disappeared.

Zoro clung to Luffy, refusing to let go.

He reached upward, searching blindly for the surface, but only water met his hand.

Warmth brushed against his fingertips.

It curled gently in his palm. Like someone reaching back.

Zoro's breath caught.

His eye opened to find that someone was watching him.

A pair of luminous blue eyes shone beneath a pair of eyebrows that swirled like the currents. Long golden hair drifted weightlessly through the water like strands of sunlight. Intricate markings glowed beneath blue skin, pulsing in slow waves of brilliant blue that matched the light spreading through the ocean around them.

The stranger's gaze lingered on Wado.

Then returned to Zoro's face.

There was curiosity there, but also caution. It was as though he couldn't decide whether the swordsman before him was dangerous or not.

Zoro raised his hand away from the hilt of his blades.

The stranger's shoulders eased ever so slightly.

He drifted closer.

The warmth surrounding him deepened until the bitter cold faded into a distant memory.

It reminded Zoro of dozing beneath the afternoon sun after a long day of training… heat soaking through aching muscles until the strain melted away.

Without thinking, he drifted closer.

The stranger didn't retreat. He lingered where he was, studying Zoro with quiet uncertainty. He slowly raised a hand. Long slinder fingers brushed against Zoro's cheek.

The instant they touched, brilliant blue light blossomed beneath his fingertips.

It spread through the water in slow, luminous ripples, each pulse scattering tiny stars of bioluminescence into the darkness.

Warm currents circled them.

Tiny air bubbles drifted against Zoro's lips, allowing him to steal a much-needed breath without breaking the surface.

The heat sank beneath his skin until he became drunk from it. It burrowed past muscle, past bone, until it settled deep inside his chest.

His heartbeat lurched.

Zoro should have been thinking about Luffy. Instead, he was focused on the impossible creature floating before him.

When those gentle fingers began to slip away, Zoro’s body moved before his thoughts did.

His free hand caught the stranger's wrist to keep the warm touch against his cheek.

The stranger froze. His luminous eyes widened ever so slightly.

For one impossibly still moment, neither of them moved.

Zoro couldn't explain why he refused to let go. Only that the thought of losing that warmth felt strangely unbearable.

The stranger lowered his gaze.

A quiet sadness settled across his features, so subtle Zoro almost missed it.

His eyes lifted to meet Zoro's once more.

There was longing within them. A yearning like someone standing before an open door they desperately wanted to step through… Yet had already decided they never would.

His lips parted.

"...Leave me alone."

The whisper dissolved into shimmering light.

Before Zoro could answer a warm current swept between them.

His fingers slipped from the other’s wrist.

‘No!’

The word escaped in a burst of bubbles that went unheard. The connection between them was torn away in an instant.

Zoro and Luffy were carried away as though the sea itself had made its decision. A heartbeat later, they exploded through the surface.

The warmth had vanished again.

Cold rushed back with startling cruelty.

Zoro dragged in a ragged breath, coughing as icy air filled his burning lungs.

He tightened his arm around Luffy. His pulse thundered in his ears.

Immediately, he turned. Searching for any glance of those luminous eyes or even a trace of that impossible warmth.

There was nothing.

The ocean stretched beneath the moonlight, no longer frozen into a mirror, but gently rolling as though nothing unusual had ever disturbed it.

Only the Thousand Sunny floated nearby.

Even the island had disappeared.

It was as though the entire encounter had been nothing more than a dream born from moonlight… but dreams didn't leave Zoro’s cheek tingling where gentle fingers had rested.

Dreams didn't make his chest ache with a loss he couldn't explain.

‘Leave me alone.’

Zoro did know what haunted him more. That plea or the lonely look in his eyes.

A weak groan stirred against his shoulder, immediately stealing Zoro’s attention.

Luffy blinked blearily, seawater dripped from his soaked hair as he struggled to focus.

"...Where's..." he mumbled.

His eyes wandered across the empty sea.

"...Sanji?"

So that was his name.

Another splash broke through his thoughts.

Jinbei surfaced beside them, relief washing over his usually composed features as he reached for Luffy's shoulder.

"Are you both injured?" Jinbei asked, guiding them toward the Sunny.

Zoro barely heard him.

His gaze lingered on the empty stretch of ocean where the stranger had vanished.

Sanji.

He silently repeated the name, committing it to memory.

He would find him again.