The sound of gulls gently echoed through the peaceful seaside town. It was a quiet, peaceful day. As a matter of fact, Satsuki doubted that the town of Crabton had ever had an exciting moment in its lifetime.
The most exciting thing was happening by the docks, where a couple of fishermen were struggling to pull in a shark that had been lured into their snare. The beast wasn't even very big, but it fought furiously against the net and snapped at their harpoons. A crowd had gathered by the pier to watch the show, but no one went to help. Nobody wanted to get on the wrong side of a shark like that.
Satsuki watched the struggle for a while, before eventually wandering off to the Marine office on the far side of the town. For such a quiet town, it was surprisingly popular among bounty hunters like her. There was a small Marine base overlooking Crabton, but the marines had very little to do except sorting and paying out for bounties. This caused a regular stream of bounty hunters coming in to collect their rewards in Crabton. People like Satsuki.
None of it was very big work. There were no big fish in the East Blue. Instead, Satsuki got by hunting down little fish; small-time pirates and mountain bandits, yet it was enough to make a living. Satsuki was young, but strong enough to get by.
The man behind the desk at the Marine office glanced at the girl as she entered, frowning at the large sword draped across her back. Satsuki knew that she looked like a mess. Satsuki was small and scrawny with ragged clothes, and yet she kept her sword, a hulking blade with a huge cross-guard, hung on her back. It made her look like a mouse trying to carry a particularly large knife. Satsuki kept her blade wrapped up in bandages so nobody noticed how valuable it was.
"Aren't you a bit young for a bounty hunter?" The clerk asked critically.
Satsuki laughed brightly. "I've got to eat somehow, right?" She walked up to the desk. "Anyways, I'm looking for a new bounty."
The clerk glanced at the wrapped up blade on her back. "Are you sure your sword is large enough?" He said sarcastically.
"It's a family heirloom." Satsuki muttered with a sheepish smile.
The man shrugged, and pulled up a pile of papers. "Name?"
"Satsuki." The girl replied. "Dracule Satsuki."
"There's a very serious name." He commented.
"My friends call me Satsuki."
"Alright, I've found you." The clerk said, pulling up a sheet of paper. He examined it for a moment. "I've got your record. Yeah, I think we've got a couple of bounties for you."
The man left for a moment and then returned with a large booklet of papers. He flicked through the big names without a thought and went straight for the small ones at the very back. He pulled out a few and handed them to Satsuki.
"These should be alright." He said passing the papers to Satsuki. "All of them small, all of them in the area. There's one for petty theft, a couple for disturbance of the peace, and the last one's for excessive littering."
"Got it." Satsuki smiled, grabbing the papers and flicking through them quickly.
"Be careful with that one." The clerk cautioned, pointing to a bounty in the middle. The reward said 500 Beli. "That one might get violent. Maybe put it back if it's too much, yeah? Don't be a martyr, kid."
"It's fine." Satsuki grinned confidently. "I'm strong enough."
The clerk inspected her critically. "How old are you, anyways?"
"Fifteen."
The clerk nodded. Satsuki was small and skinny, she looked younger. "And you decided to be a bounty hunter?"
"This is all just training." Satsuki bragged proudly. "I'm going to get stronger. I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman."
The clerk had to stop his eyes from rolling. He heard that all the time, but there was no way to stop kids like her from going out and getting themselves killed.
Satsuki was just about to leave when she heard the gunfire. It came so suddenly that everyone in the building flinched and took cover. It started slow at first, but then quickened into an orchestra of bullets that echoed throughout the town. Then the loud booms of cannon fire cut through the air. Outside in the street, suddenly people were running.
"What the hell…?" One of the other bounty hunters murmured, slowly peering out the window. The sounds of battle were coming from the harbour. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Everybody take cover!" He screamed, before jumping to the ground. Satsuki was suddenly frozen with fear. It sounded like a warzone outside. Fortunately, one of the other bounty hunters tackled her to the ground, just before the room exploded.
The flying shrapnel burst through the wall and the room shattered. She felt the debris fly over her head. Suddenly, half the building had been torn in half and Satsuki had a clear view out over the harbour, where she could see the sparks and explosions of what looked like a huge battle between the marines and some sort of invisible enemy. Just what was attacking the town?
Satsuki glanced behind her and she saw the cannonball that had burst through the building. Except it wasn't a whole cannonball, she realised slowly. The metal ball had been sliced cleanly in half.
"Everybody move!" Someone called and all the bounty hunters and marines started to run out. Satsuki followed them by pure instinct. All of the bounty hunters had their weapons drawn.
"What's happening here?" A bounty hunter screamed. "Who's attacking us?"
"It's him!" Came a panicked scream, so frightened it bordered on hysteria. "The Demon Hunter!"
Satsuki felt the entire crowd stiffen as the name was called out. "Roronoa Zoro!"
The even the very name send chills down the bounty hunters' spines. They all put their weapons away and started to run faster. Satsuki felt her heart beat with excitement. She knew who that was.
"Roronoa Zoro." She whispered under her breath. "The world's greatest swordsman…"
"Don't even think about it, kid!" A bounty hunter next to her shouted as they ran. He was a man of medium build wearing a green overcoat and red headgear. "Don't you know who he is? Roronoa Zoro is one of the Eleven Supernovas!"
Satsuki glanced at the man. "The what?"
"Along with the Marines and the Four Emperors, the Eleven Supernovas are one of The Three Great Powers! They disrupt the balance of the entire world! They're all ridiculously powerful!" The bounty hunter screamed.
"Roronoa Zoro." Came another voice from the crowd. He said the name like a curse. "That man… he's the first mate to the World's Most Wanted…"
Satsuki felt her heart racing. Around her, the sound of gunfire was slowly dying down. Somehow, she didn't think the battle had been won for the Marines.
They were running into the main plaza of Crabton. A crowd was gathered there, everyone was nervous and not sure what to do.
"What the hell is Roronoa Zoro doing here?" A man muttered with panic. "A monster like that has no place here in the East Blue! He belongs in the New World with all the other monsters…"
"Maybe he just got lost." Another man murmured. He was old, broadly built, and wearing a chef's hat.
"I was being serious, old man!" The man snapped in fear.
"And I wasn't joking." The chef muttered darkly. "That's the sort of place the Grand Line is."
For a while, there was silence. Nobody dared to speak unless it brought the wrath of Roronoa Zoro down upon them. Finally, a strangled voice called lowly from the end of the plaza. "He's coming!"
The footsteps were light, but they carried a weight that echoed through the town. A figure was casually walking across the plaza, like it was just a stroll in the park. The crowd cut apart to let him through wordlessly.
Satsuki had imagined a monster nine feet tall and breathing fire. Instead, Roronoa Zoro was of average height and normal build with lightly tanned skin. He wore a long, open, dark-green coat, closed on his waist by a red stash with a black bandanna tied around his arm. His swords were tucked into his waist. Three swords, Satsuki noticed absentmindedly, all of them of exceedingly high quality.
Still, somehow the man was everything that Satsuki had predicted. He carried an aura of indescribable power that filled the plaza. It was an aura that made it hard to breathe.
The crowd split around him without a noise. It was so quiet that nobody dared to even breathe too loudly. Zoro just walked through, not paying any of the citizens a second glance.
The excitement was building within Satsuki. She could feel her body twitching. She had dreamt of being the greatest all her life, and now here was her chance. Her arm slowly moved to her sword almost automatically.
Next to her, one of the bounty hunters glanced at Satsuki with shock. "What are you doing, kid?" He hissed.
"I just need to beat him." Satsuki whispered under her breath. The adrenaline was pounding through her. "I have to beat him…"
Satsuki had barely even whispered, but suddenly, even across the plaza, Zoro's ears twitched. The Supernova stopped walking and turned to face Satsuki. The man's grin was usually only seen on sharks.
"Was that a challenge, girl?" Zoro asked quietly.
In under a second and without a noise, people vanished from Satsuki's side. Suddenly, Satsuki was a very dangerous person to be around. All of Zoro's immense killing intent was suddenly focused on to her, and it was enough to make Satsuki feel faint. Still, the adrenaline pounding through her forced her to step forward.
Wordlessly, Satsuki drew her blade and let the cover fall off it. The Black Sword Yoru glinted in the bright sun.
For a moment, Zoro looked impressed. "That's a fine blade." He praised, examining Satsuki closely. "But do you know how to use it?"
Satsuki gritted her teeth and took a firm grip on her sword. "I will… exceed … you…" She muttered under her breath, her whole body so tense that she felt like she was going to explode. There was a moment of silence that felt like it stretched an eternity.
Then, without warning, Satsuki burst forward. She moved so fast she blurred, effortlessly swinging the seven foot tall blade in a large arc. She felt the surprise flow over the crowd as she charged. Wow, that girl is good, they thought as one.
Satsuki moved faster than she had ever done before, attacking more viciously and hacking more furiously than she had ever managed. All she could see was blurs as she slashed repeatedly at the green shape that was Roronoa Zoro. A wordless scream left her lips as she swung Yoru so hard that it blew up a cloud of dust.
A feeling of euphoric victory passed over her quickly as she couldn't see Zoro standing in front of her any longer. She was left panting weakly, trying to comprehend what was happening. I have just beaten the world's greatest swordsman. The thought was like a lightning strike. I must have done…
The voice from behind hit her like a bombshell. Suddenly, Zoro was standing directly behind, re-sheathing one of his blades.
"I'm sorry." Zoro apologised faintly. "I should have used a smaller blade on you."
It took Satsuki a few seconds before she even felt the pain. All she knew was that her chest started to pour with blood, and then her whole world collapsed. She dropped to the ground as the gash across her chest, from shoulder to hip, started to bleed out.
Roronoa Zoro was standing over her. There was blood on one of his blades. Only one blade, the part of Satsuki that wasn't delirious with pain, thought weakly. I'm not even worth one of his swords.
"A blade like this is wasted on you." Zoro muttered with almost disdain, glancing at Yoru. "A sword can only be as sharp as its user, and this one is blunt in your hands."
Slowly, he bent down to pick up Yoru. "I will be taking this blade. A blade like this must be starving for proper combat." He muttered emotionlessly. He slung Yoru over his back and was already walking away. "Your form is weak, and your motions are crude. You have no talent for the sword so please stop trying. Give up whatever dreams of glory you have, they will never come true."
He paused to look at Satsuki, who was bleeding out on the ground, and staggering for breath. "I have left you alive." He said finally. "Consider this a second chance and devote your life to some other ambition."
Satsuki barely managed to look upwards. "That sword… it was my fathers…" She gasped.
Zoro didn't even turn around. He was already nearly out of the plaza. "You are not worthy of it."
The rage boiled up inside Satsuki, overwhelming the pain. Her pride, her dreams, and her heritage was at stake, and she refused to give in. She staggered to her feet, and pulled out her small dagger from around her neck. Her body refused to give in to her wounds and suddenly she was charging towards Zoro's back, her knife in her hand.
The Supernova waited until she was mere yards away, and then moved so fast he blurred. Zoro's hand reached out and grabbed the stone wall of a nearby house, tearing through it with ease. In under a second, the concrete started to shake and the foundations buckled. The next thing Satsuki knew, tonnes of rubble were accelerating straight towards her.
He just threw a freaking house at me, Satsuki realised with shock. That was the last thing Satsuki remembered for a while.
By the time the villagers had finally evacuated the rubble, everybody was shocked to discover that Satsuki was still alive. Nearly every bone in her body was shattered, and she was almost dead from blood loss, but she was still gasping for air even as they lifted the house off her.
The girl was taken to the doctors, who wasted no time in wrapping her whole body in bandages. Strangely, the girl's heartbeat was completely calm even as the bones were reset into place.
It took months for her to recover, during that time Satsuki never said a word. People tried to talk to her, but she just stared blankly through them. Eventually, people started to whisper that she had been to the very edge of death and had left her soul there even as she crawled back. Whatever was left was just a shadow of a person, lacking any emotion.
People tried to help her, yet her whole body was wrapped up in bandages. The only part of her that was visible was her crimson eyes, which just kept on staring forward; unblinking, unwavering. They were eyes of pure vengeance, so sharp that the stare could cut through steel.
Eventually, they started calling her "Crimson Eyes" Satsuki.