I am currently thinking about Zoro’s swords being able to communicate with him.
Prolonged contact with them creates a bond and since Zoro is almost never away from them and takes very good care of them, their connection runs very deep. They communicate mostly in feeling, not with real words when they talk to him. Which is fine with Zoro because doesn’t care much for talking.
Most of the crew doesn’t realize they’re ‘alive’, so they don’t get why Zoro is like That when it comes to his swords. Luffy gets it almost immediately, he holds them like twice and is like oh these things got shit to say and he’ll ask to talk to them every now and then cause they are apart of his crew. Zoro has let the others hold his swords several times but no one else really forms a connection the way he and Luffy did.
Except the cook. His bond with them forms very slowly though. He touches those blades at least once a day when they spar, but it’s always a fleeting moment. Zoro hears their opinions on the dartboard, it’s usually superficial. ‘He’s strong’, ‘he’s loud’, ‘sparing with him is fun’, a lot of it is stuff Zoro is already thinking. Over time Sanji shows interest in the swords and it starts to change their opinion of him.
When they go shopping Sanji will point out any blacksmith they pass and ask if Zoro needs to stop by and have them looked at. After battles he asks how they held up, if any are hurt, like he noticed they could feel in a way. Zoro refers to Wado as she and so now Sanji treats her like a lady and yells at him when he ‘manhandles’ her outside of the battlefield. She finds it amusing, though Kitestu and Shusui think he needs to shut up if he’s not gonna tell Zoro to treat them all the same.
They never really ‘talk’ to Sanji until a battle messes up the rope on Kitestu’s sheath. Sanji fixes the crews clothes and stuff all the time so when he points out the rope, Zoro hands the sword over for him to fix without a second thought. Sanji is surprised when there’s immediately a voice in his head that says ‘Don’t mess it up’. He thinks it’s Zoro at first so he whips around to argue back but he’s already across the deck about to clean Shusui. He looks back down to the blade in his hand and it’s like he can feel a heartbeat for a moment. Then there’s agitation that bubbles in his head that isn’t his.
‘Get on with it, Cook.’ The voice is similar to Zoro’s, but not really? It’s barely even a voice honestly, it feels close to Sanji’s own thoughts. He’s intrigued by it and while he makes his way to his locker to get his sewing kit, he thinks about all the times Luffy has snatched these swords and spent hours talking to them while he fished. He figured it was just a Luffy thing but .. were these things alive?
The blade is quiet the entire time Sanji redoes the cording, he’s starting to think he hallucinated the interaction until he finishes and it speaks again. ‘Your hands are kind, I see why you refuse to fight with them.’ It makes Sanji jump, caught completely off guard, and he drops the sword to the ground. ‘Never mind.’ There’s a feeling of annoyance that fills his head when he picks Kitestu back up. Its so odd to feel something that isn’t coming from him and he stares at the blade in mild shock. He’s not really sure where to go from here, he should go give it back to Zoro but. well. he’s curious. This sword called his hands kind, he’s surprised to be complimented by an inanimate object- or something that’s supposed to be an inanimate object. ‘You think they’re kind?’ He finds himself asking.
‘They are, it is rare to be held as if I am more than a tool. Even bladesmiths aren’t as gentle, they feel steel and believe they can be as rough as they’d like. Zoro tells us you only use your hands to create, nourish. I did not understand until now what he meant by that.’
Sanji frowns, it’s weird to have a sword tell him something so .. sweet? He slides his hand over the cording he just fixed. ‘Thanks, it means a lot coming from an overgrown toothpick like you.’
He feels the blade shudder in indignation, it falls off Kitestu in waves. ‘Take me back. I do not wish to spend anymore time with you, Cook. Wado is right, you are an annoyance.’
Ouch. It sort of hurts being told that the only sword he kind of likes thinks he’s annoying. He leaves the boy’s cabin and brings Kitestu back to Zoro where he belongs. Zoro barely looks up when Sanji shoves the blade in his face, but when he goes to set it down next to the freshly cleaned Shusui he pauses. Then he lets out a loud cackle that makes Sanji freeze.
‘What?’ The swordsman just keeps laughing and shakes his head. ‘Nothin, Cook.’ That only makes him want to know more, so he steps closer. ‘No, what’d he just say?’ He points to the blade that sits on the bench, and despite not touching it he can feel a distant taunt coming from it, Zoro lets out another laugh.
‘Say it to my face, bastard!’ He knows he must look ridiculous yelling at a piece of metal, but he can feel the stupid thing making fun of him. It pisses him off that he can’t fully hear what it’s saying and something tells him that if Kitestu wanted to, he could say it directly to him. But he’s not. And Zoro is being absolutely useless.
‘I’m gonna throw you in the god damned ocean.’
