One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Misrepresented and Misunderstood ❯ That Unforgettable Face ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A/N: It's been a long, long time since I posted anything up here, and, yet again, I'm here for all the wrong reasons: spent a few weeks looking for fanfics about my favourite three characters from One Piece (Zoro, Tashigi and Smoker), and found very little, so decided to write my own.
 
I'm not a religious One Piece fan, so you have to forgive minor errors! This fic deviates from the original One Piece storyline, starting from the end of the Arabasta Arc. Intended as a light-hearted look at the follies of human nature to assume the unknown. You can expect chaos, confusion, calamity and comedy - and maybe a dash of romance, when the author eventually makes up her mind about how to conclude this little story…
 
Following from previous fics of mine, please do not flame me for any of the following (invalid) reasons: You do not like the characters this story focuses on (go find a fic that focuses on someone you like better); You do not like any actual or implied pairings (this fic could potentially end with ZoroXTashigi or SmokerXTashigi - if you don't like that, leave now); You don't like what this fic is about (I have only ever drastically altered the direction of a fic ONCE in response to a reader's comments, so please no requests/demands/suggestions, they will be politely ignored).
 
Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own One Piece or any of the characters in this fic. I do own the title and the madness though.
 
 
Chapter 1 - That Unforgettable Face
 
“Wow, you blew it right out of the water!”
 
Zoro opened one eye, looking across the ship in the direction his captain's voice had come from. Even though it was still early, and other members of the crew were busy with more important matters, Zoro found his captain standing by the canon, looking out towards the horizon with an impossibly huge grin plastered on his face. The crew's self-proclaimed number one marksman and weapon's expert Usopp had apparently just blown up another rock somewhere out to sea, and now looked suitably impressed with his handiwork, particularly since their captain was cheering his actions. Zoro sighed and closed his eye again, resting his head against the railings. Every member of their pirate crew had a sizeable bounty on their heads and more than one enemy who would gladly cash it in; and so, Zoro thought dryly to himself, Captain Luffy was helping the situation by needlessly causing large explosions around their brightly-coloured and already overly unique ship.
 
“Hey there Mr Swordsman, will you join us for a little snack?”
 
Zoro growled quietly, opening his eyes to see Robin standing over him with a plate in each of her hands. Before he could stop himself, he ran his eyes over the full length of her body before once more fixing his eyes onto hers.
 
“I was sleeping,” he lied, hoping that she would leave him alone.
 
“Are you sure I can't tempt you?” Robin tried, smiling sweetly down at him.
 
Zoro slowly and purposefully moved his eyes in the direction of the table Robin had just come from. She followed his actions, rolling her eyes as she guessed his meaning.
 
“Oh don't mind him,” she whispered, winking down at Zoro. “He's just being polite.”
 
Zoro pulled a face at Robin sceptically, but she appeared not to have noticed that their chef was making rude hand gestures in Zoro's direction.
 
“I'm not hungry,” Zoro grumbled, closing his eyes.
 
“Well, if you change your mind…” Robin said with a sigh.
 
Zoro remained silent, waiting for her shadow to move before opening his eyes to thin slits to watch her walk back over to the table. He involuntarily quirked an eyebrow as he saw the look of relief on the chef's face: apparently the love-sick idiot had only bothered preparing food for the women in the crew. Zoro was not sure if Sanji's constant fawning over the ladies was a sign of a deep-rooted insecurity, or if the man was just a hopeless womaniser; but whatever the case, Zoro really did not care. And of course, Sanji the love cook was not the only reason Zoro felt he could not join the others for a snack. Zoro was still actively avoiding Nami, as she was beginning to hound him for the money he had borrowed from her, and Zoro still neither trusted nor liked Robin. Everyone else in the crew had readily accepted her as one of their own, despite the fact that she had stowed away aboard their ship only hours after fighting against them all. To Zoro, it seemed just a little too convenient that, when they had first met Robin, she was hiding behind a strong man and his crew, and after Luffy defeated Robin's leader, she simply switched sides, finding herself someone even stronger to protect her. And Zoro really did not care for the way that Robin had won over the rest of the crew. Unlike the others, his trust could not be bought or charmed out of him with money or the bat of an eyelid.
 
Closing his eyes again and feigning sleep, Zoro continued to relax in the sun. He had actually been asleep before Luffy and Usopp began blowing up rocks, but the abrupt awakening had been a welcome one, as he had been in the throes of a turbulent nightmare. Zoro did not often dream about Kuina, but for some reason, she had suddenly begun appearing in his mind almost every time he fell asleep. Of course, he had dreamt of her regularly when she first died - which was only to be expected, since he had spent every minute of his life up until that point training for the day that he would defeat her in combat. Kuina had been the biggest thing in his life when he first began his training to become the greatest swordsman, and it never ceased to frustrate and motivate him when she defeated him so easily in every battle they had. Her funeral was still a sickeningly surreal memory to Zoro, as it marked the moment he truly began to accept that she was gone, and he would never see her face again, or have the chance to show her how good he had become in his years of training that would follow.
 
Zoro opened his eyes again, reaching into his pocket for a cloth. He was painfully aware of the fact that he had been using his swords a lot recently, and he had not devoted the necessary time and care to them that they now so desperately needed. He made a mental note to visit a blacksmith the next time they reached land. Of course, he thought with a growl of contempt, this would mean asking Nami for even more money, which she would gladly lend him, adding extortionate amounts of interest to the total when it came to repayment. But, as Zoro slowly slid the Wado Ichimonji from its sheath, he realised that he could not wait any longer. The surface of his favoured sword was scratched and pitted and the blade had lost its lustre. He began wiping the metal with the cloth he had, but soon realised that no amount of polishing could hide the damage the blade had suffered of late.
 
Zoro abandoned the cloth and picked up the sword, holding it up in the air and slowly turning it around, studying every inch of it carefully. Despite the fact that he had owned the famous Wado Ichimonji longer than Kuina had, Zoro still considered it to be her sword. In a sense, it was their sword. It was the key to both their dreams, and, to Zoro, a symbol of the promise he and Kuina made the night before she died: one of them would become the greatest swordsman ever. Zoro could see the look of quiet determination on Kuina's face that night, the tracks of her tears glistening in the moonlight.
 
“That girl…” Zoro muttered, slowly lowering his arm, his eyebrows drawing together as Kuina's face slowly matured inside his head and acquired a pair of red-rimmed glasses.
 
Perhaps, he mused, that girl was the reason Kuina had been on his mind so much of late. The marines had never really been a concern for Zoro until he met that girl marine in Loguetown. It had been shocking enough for him that she had been wearing Kuina's face, but when he had fought her, she had spoken the exact same words Kuina had once said to him: she accused him of not taking her seriously as a swordsman because she was a woman.
 
Zoro growled, roughly re-sheathing the Wado Ichimonji. Seeing the woman once had been bad enough, but she had followed him into the weaponry and lectured him on people like “that evil Roronoa Zoro who use their swords for their own selfish desires, which makes the blades weep”. And she had been the one to catch him on his way back to the ship and challenge him to a fight - where she had even accused him of lying to her about his identity. Had she honestly expected him to own his name in the shop that day after she had just confessed that she intended to hunt him down and take his sword, his Wado Ichimonji, his most prized possession, from him because he was - in her opinion - misusing it? Zoro had just recovered from the shock and horror of meeting with an adult Kuina, an experience that he had never expected after her death at such a young age, when the marines caught up with his crew in Arabasta, and Zoro once more found himself being challenged to a duel by that damn girl.
 
Zoro dropped his head into his hands, groaning loudly as he remembered how he had turned around and run away from her. He, the mighty and infamous pirate-hunter-turned-pirate, the man who sought to become the greatest swordsman ever, had turned and run away from a silly, clumsy girl who had challenged him to a duel. Running away from a fight for the first time in his life had been shameful enough, but Zoro was distinctly aware that, as he had been running away from the girl, he had shouted something back at her about not wanting to have to look at her face any more, which she had become irate about.
 
Why, Zoro growled inwardly, why did she have to look so much like Kuina? And it was not just that she was bore a striking physical resemblance to Kuina, this marine also had a very similar personality to Kuina. When Zoro had told her that he did not like her because she had stolen his friend's face and personality, she had gotten angry at him - although he really could not be sure why. After all, he was the one that had to suffer every time he had to look at her or listen to her go on and on and on; she certainly did talk a lot. Kuina had never talked as much as that. Kuina had always managed to maintain a quiet level of dignified composure; this marine girl was a clumsy, headstrong, short-tempered fool. The very first time he had seen her, she had fought off two bandits with ease, only to trip over and lose her glasses, which she was apparently all but blind without. Kuina was never that clumsy - Kuina had the spirit of a warrior, she would never have stooped to nagging like that damned marine had.
 
Just as Zoro had hoped that he would never meet the girl who looked like Kuina again after their first meeting, Zoro still hoped that he would not have to see her face again. But of course, seeing her again was now unavoidable. It was no longer a matter of if he saw her again as when he would see her again. After Luffy's fight with the girl's commanding officer back in Loguetown, the girl and her fellow marines had been following Zoro, Luffy and the rest of their pirate crew. Just as the marines had caught up to them when they docked at Arabasta, Zoro knew that the same marines would undoubtedly clash with them the next time they stopped for any length of time - none of which would have been a real problem, but Luffy, being the idiot that he was, had insisted that Zoro save the marine captain from drowning back in Arabasta. If Zoro had simply let the captain drown, he and his staff - including the girl who had stolen Kuina's face - would not be still following them.
 
“Damn Luffy,” Zoro muttered, wincing as he watched his captain cheer as another rock exploded on the horizon.
 
Luffy was an idiot, Zoro decided. He was a likeable idiot but an idiot nonetheless. Saving that marine captain had been probably the single biggest mistake Zoro had witnessed his captain make, and he was certain they would all soon feel the effects of Luffy's decision. Having consumed a Devil Fruit, the marine captain was exceptionally strong, and he was the only enemy Luffy had failed to defeat in battle - and not just on one occasion. The first time they had fought, Luffy, Zoro and the crew had narrowly escaped the powerful marine thanks to a storm, and on the second occasion Luffy's brother had come to their rescue. Zoro still did not understand why Luffy had instructed him to rescue the marine - as far as he could recall, the marine had been taken prisoner with Luffy, Zoro, Usopp and Nami, and, even though they were in a confined space and fighting a common enemy, the first thing the marine captain had done was to attempt to kill Luffy. And yet still Luffy had insisted that Zoro go back and rescue him from certain death. At least, Zoro reasoned, the marine had then allowed them to escape without pursuit. But he had also promised that the next time he encountered their crew that he would kill them all.
 
So, Zoro concluded, even though the view around the ship was of calm waters, somewhere not too far beyond their sights was a navy ship loaded with marines, including a captain with a grudge and a girl who was just too like Kuina. Zoro shook his head slowly as he thought about the girl again. She was too bossy and undignified to be like Kuina; but still, she wore that face - that unforgettable face.
 
“Speaking to yourself again Zoro?” Nami asked loudly as she strutted past where Zoro was sat.
 
“Yes,” Zoro replied, cocking a smirk at her. “I fancied some intelligent conversation for a change.”
 
“Very funny,” Nami said. “Just remember, you've got three days to pay what you owe me, or the amount doubles!”
 
“Doubles?” Zoro echoed, glancing down at his swords nervously. “That's hardly fair!”
 
“You knew the terms when you took my money,” Nami called back.
 
Zoro growled at her, to which she turned her head, smiling sweetly back at him. He was almost certain she only said such things because she delighted in tormenting him.
 
 
Next Chapter: Tashigi is having a particularly bad day, and finds herself thinking about her past encounters with Zoro. Chapter 2 - Take Me Seriously.