IAPITWOP 724: Zoro's Nightmare Self
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May 1
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"A stranger? Is she the one Shirogai asked me to protect?"
Roronoa Zoro frowned slightly, then instinctively used Moonwalk to reach the falling girl. He caught her by the neck as easily as lifting a kitten.
"Ahhhhhh..."
Meanwhile, Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper flew past him, continuing their descent.
Usopp had already spread his arms wide, fully expecting Zoro to save them too.
"Damn Marimo! Picking a girl over your own friends and leaving me and Chopper to fall!"
His expression twisted with disbelief as he kept dropping.
"You must have caught that perverted habit from that kappa cook!"
Usopp shouted as he tumbled helplessly toward the endless void.
"I don't want to die!"
Beside him, Chopper screamed and cried, flailing as he fell.
"Zoro, save us!"
"Two idiots."
Zoro stood suspended in the dream world and glanced at them.
"Have you not figured it out yet? You only fall because you believe you are falling."
"This is a dream. It changes based on your thoughts."
"As long as you stop imagining the fall, you will float instead."
He shifted his grip on the unconscious girl and gave her a slight shake.
"She has already lost her sense of self."
"If I let go, she will drop back into the collective dream."
"Shirogai told me to protect her."
"Oh, right... where is Shirogai?"
Usopp finally remembered, looking around nervously.
"Do not worry about him," Zoro replied casually. "With his strength, he does not need us. Even if all of us were trapped here, he would still walk out on his own."
Without warning, Zoro tossed the girl toward Chopper.
"Eh? Eh..."
Chopper scrambled to catch her. After steadying himself, he stared at her face and froze for a second, then his eyes lit up.
"Usopp, look! She looks just like Uta from the Visual Den Den Mushi!"
"Wait, you are not serious..."
Usopp floated closer, squinting at the red and white-haired girl. Despite her unconscious state, her beauty was unmistakable.
"Eh... Eh... EH?!"
His eyes bulged as he screamed in shock.
"It really is her! Uta! The world-famous diva!"
"Keep your voice down, you are annoying."
Zoro narrowed his eyes, scanning the shifting layers of dream fragments below as if searching for something hidden within.
"Hey! That is a legendary idol that no one has ever met in person! How are you so indifferent?"
Usopp stared at him in disbelief.
"Idiot, you still do not understand where we are," Zoro replied flatly.
Then suddenly, his gaze sharpened.
"Hmph, found you."
His eyes locked onto a nightmare wrapped in pitch-black darkness not far away.
Through the distorted layer of that dream, he saw it.
A figure.
A human demon radiating overwhelming killing intent, standing atop a mountain of corpses.
It looked exactly like him.
No, it was him.
The figure gripped three swords tightly and roared like something beyond reason.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
...
Silence fell.
...
The two Zoros stared at each other across the dreamscape.
One stood composed, his expression steady.
The other looked like a madman, consumed entirely by bloodlust.