One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Misrepresented and Misunderstood ❯ If You Only Knew ( Chapter 4 )

Recap: Smoker was concerned that Tashigi had developed feelings for Zoro, and swore to bring the Straw-Hat Pirates down.

 

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Chapter 4 - If You Only Knew

 

“Remind me why we're here?” Zoro asked moodily, scanning their surroundings with a suspicious eye.

 

“We need to find a new member for our crew, Zoro!” Luffy cheerfully replied. “The most important one of all: a musician!”

 

“Idiot,” Zoro grumbled as Luffy jogged off towards the village ahead of them.

 

“Stay close to me ladies, I'll keep you safe from any dangers,” Sanji said sweetly, sliding up between Nami and Robin.

 

“I need to get some paper and ink,” Nami commented, ignoring Sanji. “Then I'm shopping for clothes.”

 

“I'll meet you at the dressmaker's,” Robin offered.

 

“And I'll help you ladies chose the perfect outfits!” Sanji offered.

 

“Just drop dead, you slimy bastard!” Zoro growled at Sanji.

 

“Hey, back off Marimo!” Sanji snapped back. “It's not my fault the ladies don't like you.”

 

“They don't like you either, you miserable creep!” Zoro shot back.

 

“You got a problem with me, sword boy?”

 

“Maybe I do! I thought you were the ship's cook, not the ship's pervert!”

 

“Oh yeah? And I thought you were the greatest swordsman. I saw you get wasted by Mihawk and you ran away from a girl!”

 

“I didn't run away from her!”

 

“You did too. I was there I saw you!”

 

“You don't know what you're talking about!”

 

“Knock it off, you two!” Nami yelled.

 

“You see what you did Marimo?” Sanji said, pouting sweetly. “You made the beautiful Miss Nami angry!”

 

Zoro opened his mouth to argue back, but Nami hurriedly stepped between the two men again.

 

“And we've lost our captain again!” she pointed out.

 

“Damn Luffy!” Zoro growled. “I'll start looking for him, you be sure to get some food supplies, and don't just spy on the women!” he added, scowling at Sanji.

 

Zoro marched off in the direction he had last seen Luffy heading, reasoning that if there was a restaurant nearby, their captain was sure to be there. He did not wish to spend too long pointlessly chasing after Luffy, since he was still painfully aware that he needed to take his swords to a blacksmith. As he began his search for Luffy, Zoro began wondering how he would pay a blacksmith, since he no longer felt he could ask Nami for money. He really thought she was being ridiculous and selfish asking him to repay her, since the money he needed was to service the swords he used to protect her life from danger; but Nami was so blinded by her love of money, he doubted she would even listen to him if he tried to forward such an argument.

 

Zoro began walking around the village, but soon found himself completely isolated from the rest of the crew, and his hopeless sense of direction left him completely lost. He had not found any sort of eating establishment, but he could see a blacksmith nearby, and so decided to take the opportunity to drop off his swords.

 

Upon entering the blacksmith, Zoro found it to be welcomingly warm, feeling drowsy just standing by the entranceway.

 

“Can I help you there?” a voice called to him.

 

“Yes, I'd like you to work on these swords please,” Zoro replied, walking further into the delightful heat of the workshop.

 

“Alright then, three swords, that will cost you 3,000,” the man advised. “Would you like to borrow a sword to use while you wait?”

 

Zoro paused thoughtfully, eying a pile of sandbags by the entrance to the workshop.

 

“Can I just wait here until you're done?” he asked.

 

“Certainly,” the blacksmith replied.

 

“Thanks,” Zoro said, bowing his head politely.

 

Zoro happily sat down amongst the sandbags, and within minutes, he had fallen blissfully asleep.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Tashigi stretched her arms above her head, glad to be walking on solid ground again. After being stationed at Loguetown, she had not done much sailing until her captain had decided to leave his post to pursue the Straw-Hat Pirates, since which time, Tashigi had found herself spending more time at sea than on land. She looked about herself for any signs of her captain, but could not locate him. Probably just as well, she thought quietly, he never really approved of her visiting a blacksmith, as he knew she was always gone a long time when she went anywhere that involved swords.

 

Taking the opportunity to sneak away without being noticed, Tashigi quickly worked her way through the village ahead, soon locating the local blacksmith. She cheerfully made her way inside, handing her Shigure to the blacksmith.

 

“Could you please work on this sword for me?” she asked him.

 

“Certainly Miss, it would be an honour,” the blacksmith replied, taking the sword from her. “But I have another job to finish first, so I may be a while.”

 

“That's alright, I can come back later,” Tashigi assured him.

 

“Ah good,” the blacksmith said, hanging Tashigi's Shigure up on the wall. “That poor fellow has fallen asleep waiting for me, I can't keep him any longer.”

 

Tashigi turned in the direction the old man was pointing, her face twisting in horror at the sight of none other than Roronoa Zoro, sat in a pile of sandbags, his head lolled back to one side, his mouth hanging open as he snored shamelessly.

 

“Wh-when did that man get here?” Tashigi asked, turning to the blacksmith.

 

“Well now, I couldn't say…” he began slowly scratching his head. “About an hour ago, I guess. Or maybe it was two hours ago…”

 

“Did he come here alone?” Tashigi demanded.

 

The blacksmith looked up at Tashigi, smiling at the look on her face.

 

“You know the young man then?” he asked slyly.

 

Tashigi felt her face burn, nervously adjusting her glasses as she tried to talk her way out of her predicament.

 

“I've been looking for him,” she explained.

 

“I see…” the blacksmith said, smirking at her as he nodded his head.

 

“Never mind!” Tashigi said, waving a hand at him dismissively and marching over to Zoro.

 

She paused as she stood over him, finding it oddly undignified to see the mighty Roronoa Zoro sprawled over a pile of sandbags, his legs spread apart, arms draped over the bags, his jaw hanging open. Shaking her head to clear her senses she planted her hands on her hips firmly and straightened her back.

 

“Roronoa Zoro!” she yelled.

 

“Whuh?” Zoro grunted, lifting his head and closing his jaws.

 

Tashigi watched him lazily rub at his eyes with his fists before looking up at her, blinking through the haze of his own sleepiness as he tried to focus on her.

 

“Kui…na…” he muttered, squinting at Tashigi for a moment.

 

Then suddenly Tashigi saw Zoro adopt the same expression he always seemed to wear when he saw her: that look of utter horror and disgust. He shot upwards, scrambling back through the sandbags and almost falling over again.

 

“What are you doing here?” he wailed.

 

“I challenge you to a duel, Roronoa Zoro, and this time, you won't run away from me!” Tashigi barked, waggling a finger at him.

 

She watched Zoro glance about himself desperately, silently noticing then that his swords were absent from his hip. Frowning, Tashigi reached a hand down to her own hip, feeling suddenly stupid as she remembered that she had just handed over her own weapon. Before she could think of what to do next, Zoro threw a sandbag at her, knocking her off her feet.

 

“Hey!” she yelled, watching him leap over her fallen form and run off at full speed. “Damn him!”

 

Wrestling against the heavy bag, Tashigi eventually freed herself, tearing after Zoro as fast as she could.

 

“Get back here and fight me you cowardly pirate!” she screamed as Zoro darted around a corner out of her sight.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Smoker was distinctly sure that he had just seen one of the Straw-Hat Pirates - the long-nosed sharpshooter Usopp - but a second glance had presented him with an empty alleyway. Shaking his head he walked on, rounding a corner where something smacked hard into him, knocking the wind from his lungs and almost causing him to fall over. Staggering to regain his balance he growled angrily, his eyes quickly locating the cause of his problem: lying a short distance in front of him was Zoro.

 

“You!” Smoker growled, narrowing his eyes and clenching his fists at his sides.

 

“Damn it!” Zoro cursed, scrambling to his feet.

 

“You won't get away from me this time, Zoro!” Smoker warned him.

 

“Leave him to me Sir!” Tashigi yelled, running towards them.

 

“What?” Smoker grumbled, looking up as his Sergeant Major came running at Zoro.

 

Zoro squeaked out an alarmed noise before dashing off to one side, leaving both marines behind him. Smoker turned to watch the swordsman run before turning back to Tashigi, who had altered her path to pursue him.

 

“I've got it under control, Sir!” she called to him.

 

Smoker pulled a face at her, but apparently Tashigi was suffering from one of her famous lapses in concentration, as she was chasing after one of the world's most notorious swordsmen without a single weapon on her person. The only thing more ridiculous than watching the silly girl running after a wanted criminal unarmed was watching Zoro running away from her, looking genuinely terrified of her.

 

“What the hell is this world coming to?” Smoker grumbled.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“Damn it!” Zoro yelped, skidding to a halt as he reached a dead-end.

 

“I've got you now, Roronoa Zoro!” he heard the marine girl yell behind him.

 

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” he cursed, shuffling back a few steps.

 

Glancing over his shoulder, Zoro winced as he found that she was still wearing Kuina's face. Logic leaving his mind Zoro charged at the wall ahead, attempting to scale it to freedom. Scrambling desperately for the top of the wall, Zoro muttered out a curse as one hand missed its intended target, dragging against sharp stone and tearing his skin. He refused to look at that girl a minute longer he had seen enough of Kuina's face lately without having to endure it again. Grabbing desperately with his uninjured hand, Zoro finally managed to hook his fingers over the top of the wall, holding on desperately as his feet slipped beneath him.

 

Zoro hurriedly swung up his other arm, grabbing his arm over the top of the wall, hooking his weight on the crook of his elbow as he kicked with his feet in an attempt to throw himself over the wall completely. Just as he began to grow confident that he could actually escape the persistent girl, Zoro suddenly felt something yank at his trousers, stiffening as he felt the girl's fingers curl around the waistband of his trousers, her fingernails brushing against the bare skin of his back.

 

“Get back down here and fight me, you coward!” she cried, grabbing her other hand onto his trousers and tugging downwards.

 

“Stop it!” Zoro wailed, looking back over his shoulder at her.

 

“Get back down here!” she insisted, tugging at his trousers again.

 

“Are you trying to undress me?” Zoro yelled at her. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

 

“Why won't you fight me?” she yelled back. “You don't think I can fight just because I'm a woman! That's it, isn't it? You don't think I'm as strong as that orange-haired girl on your crew!”

 

Zoro quirked an eyebrow at her, silently telling her that she had far more power over him than Nami ever would.

 

“Fine!” he grumbled, jumping back down to stand before her, relieved that her hands were forced from him as he jumped.

 

“Let's settle this!” she said, grabbing a hand at her hip.

 

Zoro lowered his eyes to her side, cocking a grin as he saw that the belt hanging around her hips was empty. He slowly lifted his eyes to hers, feeling a little more confident to find her so unprepared.

 

“I left my Shigure at the blacksmith's!” she wailed.

 

“I don't have my swords either,” Zoro confessed, holding out his hands. “So, did you want to settle this with hand-to-hand combat?”

 

Zoro grinned again as he saw the girl's throat move and heard her gulp audibly. Taking advantage of her moment of panic, Zoro slowly scanned his eyes over her, noting that her sword and gun were not the only items she had discarded since he had last met her. She was wearing the same dark trousers he had seen her in before, but her loose shirt and bulky jacket had been swapped for a fitted vest that clung to her figure, leaving very little to the imagination. Looking at her body, Zoro felt his face begin to twitch as he instinctively began to think of her as Kuina again. Kuina had only just begun developing the curves of womanhood when she had passed away, but this marine had the body of a woman, despite her hopelessly girly face.

 

“I'll make a deal with you,” Zoro began, unable to look her in the eye.

 

“I don't make deals with pirates!” she hurriedly snapped at him. “And stop looking at me like that! My face is up here!”

 

Zoro quickly turned his head to one side, cringing as he realised that he had been staring at her chest.

 

“How old are you anyway?” he asked, the question slipping out before he could stop himself.

 

“It's not polite to ask a lady her age!” she shrieked.

 

“I thought you wanted me to treat you like a man!” Zoro yelled, turning back to face her, unable to stop the kinks in his expression as he locked eyes with the grown-up Kuina.

 

“I'm twenty-one!” she moodily answered him.

 

“Gah!” Zoro yelped. “You're the same age as her too!”

 

The fact that the marine girl had the same colour, style and length of hair, the same dark, determined eyes, the same small, sharp features as Kuina was bad enough for Zoro, but to learn that she was the same age Kuina would have been had she survived was simply too much to bear.

 

“Get your face away from me, it's too scary!” he wailed, leaping at the wall again.

 

Tashigi growled, watching the pirate throw himself at the wall again. He was a nasty, rude, dishonourable idiot. She had been insulted many times in the past, but she had never been told that she had a “scary” face before; and hearing the insult from a man made it all the more hurtful.

 

“Fine, I'll fight you with my bare hands!” she declared, feeling she had little to fear from a young punk of a pirate who was stupid enough to think he could defy gravity and throw himself over a ten feet wall.

 

“What?” Zoro echoed, sliding down the wall and casting her a withering look.

 

“I'll fight you with my bare hands,” she growled, lowering into a defensive stance. “It's not like I haven't been trained in hand-to-hand combat!”

 

Zoro groaned at her, scratching a hand at the back of his head. Tashigi licked her lips nervously as she saw the sinews in Zoro's thick arm twitch as he scratched at his head. He was not only taller than her, but he was probably also twice her weight just in muscle. But she refused to show fear; she was determined to prove that she was as good a marine as her male counterparts, and, just because Zoro was a skilled swordsman, it did not necessarily follow that he would be able to out-manoeuvre her in hand-to-hand combat.

 

“I don't want to fight you,” Zoro said, his eyes lowering to her chest again.

 

“Stop treating me like a silly little girl!” Tashigi yelled, swinging a well-aimed kick at Zoro's shin.

 

To her amazement, Zoro did not dodge her attack, the toe of her boot clunking against his shinbone.

 

“That hurt!” he protested. “Just leave me alone! And stop looking at me with that face! You shouldn't be allowed to wear that face!”

 

“Stop insulting my face!” Tashigi argued back, kicking her other foot at Zoro's other leg, again connecting with his shin.

 

“Ow!” Zoro yelled, clenching his hands into fists. “Stop it!”

 

“Fight me!” Tashigi growled at him.

 

When he failed to make a move, Tashigi decided to take the lead again, and thrust a fist at Zoro's gut. With unexpected speed, Zoro bent back out of her range, grabbing her wrist and twisting her arm around and up her back, pinning her up against the wall. Tashigi struggled against his hold, wiggling her shoulders as she tried to slip her wrist from his hold; but he held onto her tightly, leaning over her to keep her firmly pressed against the wall.

 

“You're trying to humiliate me!” she wailed.

 

“I'm trying to stop you from beating the crap out of me!” Zoro growled into her ear, the sudden closeness of his breath causing Tashigi to stiffen.

 

Tashigi slowly moved her eyes around to look back at Zoro, yelping as she found his face mere inches from her own.

 

“I'll make a deal with you,” he said softly.

 

“I don't make deals with pirates!” Tashigi snarled back.

 

“I'll let you go, and you'll let my crew get off this island before you go running to tell Smokey about us,” Zoro offered.

 

“Captain Smoker will kill you all before you get anywhere near your ship!” Tashigi said confidently, despite being inwardly torn between wishing Captain Smoker would come to her rescue and feeling relieved that Captain Smoker could not see the predicament she had so foolishly gotten herself into.

 

“Not if you distract him for us until we can escape,” Zoro replied.

 

“And why would I do that?” Tashigi spat at him.

 

“Because you don't want me to break your arm?” Zoro asked.

 

Tashigi felt a rush of adrenaline flush through her body as Zoro tightened his grip on her wrist and pushed her arm upwards until she squeaked in pain, holding her at the point of pain.

 

“What's it to be?” he asked, moving closer to her.

 

“I won't let you escape again!” Tashigi replied, thinking quickly and stamping one foot backwards, stomping her heel onto Zoro's toes.

 

Zoro growled in pain, loosening his hold. Tashigi quickly slipped her wrist from his grasp, spinning around to face him. She raised her fists in front of herself, but Zoro hurriedly grabbed her wrists, pushing her back against the wall, leaning the weight of his body against his hold. Tashigi stared up at him fearfully, frowning a little as she saw his eye twitch and his top lip curl.

 

“Why do you have that face?” he growled.

 

Tashigi mewled out a cry of despair, baring her teeth at him angrily as she realised that she could not even manipulate her legs to kick him thanks to his close proximity to the entire length of her body. And, to her utter horror, as he held her pinned to the wall, his eyes were dropping to her chest again. She cried out, closing her eyes to block out the image of what was happening before her.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“I've got you now, Straw-Hat!” Smoker yelled, charging after the scrawny captain of the troublesome pirates.

 

“You've got to catch me first, Smokey!” Luffy called back over his shoulder, grinning impishly at the marine.

 

“Smile while you can, Straw-Hat!” Smoker warned him. “You'll be hanging from the gallows by noon tomorrow!”

 

“I can't die yet, I have too many things to do first!” Luffy replied, jumping up a pile of barrels and onto the roof of a nearby house.

 

Smoker made to follow him, skidding to a halt as he heard Tashigi screaming. He felt his blood run cold at the sound of her cry the distinct memory of her chasing Zoro unarmed replaying in Smoker's mind.

 

“Tashigi!” he bellowed, turning towards the direction of her voice and taking off.

 

“That was easy…” Luffy muttered, scratching his head curiously as he watched the captain charge off.

 

Cursing himself and Zoro under his breath, Smoker could not get to Tashigi soon enough for his own liking. He eventually reached a long narrow street, slowing as he began to check the smaller side alleys for any trace of his Sergeant Major.

 

“How dare you?” he heard Tashigi cry.

 

Jogging further up the street, Smoker eventually found Tashigi, standing at the end of an alleyway, pinned to a wall by Zoro, who was standing far too close to her for comfort.

 

“Get your filthy hands off of her, pirate!” Smoker barked, marching down the alleyway towards them.

 

Zoro glanced back at Smoker, ducking out of harm's way as Smoker tried to grab his neck. Zoro dropped down and tried to aim a sweeping kick at Smoker's legs, but Smoker stepped back out of his range. Zoro grabbed up something and threw it forwards, darting off down the alleyway as Smoker recovered his senses. Smoker growled, turning to see the pirate running off. He made to follow him, but a whimper from Tashigi brought his attention back to her with a jolt. He watched in alarm as she dropped to her knees, burying her face in her hands.

 

“Tashigi?” he said softly, leaning over to look at her face.

 

“I-I'm sorry, Sir!” she said into her hands. “I failed you Sir, I let him catch me off-guard!”

 

Smoker sighed, relieved to hear her words.

 

“Did he hurt you?” he asked her.

 

“Only a little Sir,” she replied faintly. “Mostly my pride.”

 

Smoker smiled, feeling more relieved by the second.

 

“Did he touch you?” he asked, hoping that she would understand his meaning without the need for further explanation.

 

She slowly lifted her head, her dark eyes looking up at him from between loose strands of her silken black hair. Smoker frowned at her sternly, wondering just how naïve she was: he had found her pinned to a wall by a pirate surely she understood his concerns?

 

“I-I left my Shigure at the blacksmith, Sir,” she said, slowly standing up and brushing at her trousers with her hands.

 

Smoker frowned as he watched her stare blankly ahead of herself, her skin growing paler by the second.

 

“Tashigi…” he said slowly, reaching a hand out towards her.

 

“I'm sorry Sir!” she said firmly, turning to face him, saluting him, her face once more set into its typical look of the determined and ambitious marine. “It won't happen again, I promise Sir! Once I've retrieved my Shigure, we'll catch those Straw-Hat Pirates!”

 

Smoker looked at her for a moment, feeling an over-whelming urge to just take her into his arms. He was relieved that she was alright and so proud that she was still willing to get up and fight as a marine, just as he had trained her to.

 

“Damn right it won't happen again,” he said sternly. “Because the next time you go running off without reporting to your captain, I'll court martial you, damn it!”

 

Smoker abruptly turned his back on her, closing his eyes as she muttered out another apology. As her commanding officer, he was obliged to say such things, but as a man who genuinely cared about her wellbeing and her career, it almost killed him every time he had to do it.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Zoro stared at the girl in front of him, unsure of what to do next. At least with her eyes closed he did not have to endure looking into those intense, determined eyes that sparkled with the same spirit as Kuina's had. But seeing Kuina's face on a woman's body was beginning to seriously mess with Zoro's psyche: he did not know if he ought to even be looking at her, and he was starting to feel an urge to rip his own shirt off and throw it over her, if only to remove the image from his mind before Kuina started appearing in his dreams with breasts.

 

Groaning again as he warred with himself, Zoro looked down at each of his hands in turn, finding they were still gripped around the girl's wrists. It seemed too easy to over-power this girl, which just confused Zoro even more, since over-powering Kuina had never been an option. Zoro had been pleased with himself if he could even stand after a confrontation with Kuina. Was what Kuina's father said true? Would Zoro have grossly surpassed Kuina in strength and ability as they grew? Was this girl a real representation of what Kuina would have become had she lived?

 

Zoro wanted to release the girl and run as far away from her as he could - after collecting his swords of course. His crew could go to hell for all he cared at that moment he simply had to get out of the mess he was in.

 

“Hey girl,” he said, looking at the girl's tightly shut eyes. “You got any money on you?”

 

“What?” she squeaked, opening her eyes to glower at him.

 

“I need money to pay for the repairs to my swords,” Zoro explained, hoping to use stealing her money as an excuse to get away from her.

 

“How dare you!” she screamed, struggling against his hold again.

 

Zoro arched his eyebrows at her, wondering if she had any idea how ineffective her movements were. She had no strength behind her actions, and Zoro wondered if she was just struggling for the sake of being seen to be fighting him off rather than because she actually wanted to escape.

 

“Get your filthy hands off of her, pirate!” a familiar, gruff voice echoed down the alley.

 

Zoro turned his head looking over his shoulder to see the marine captain Luffy had nicknamed “Smokey” pouncing at him. Zoro hurriedly ducked out of his grasp as Smokey tried to clamp a hand around his neck, gladly releasing the girl and dropping down to kick out Smokey's feet and make his escape. Zoro suppressed a curse as Smokey jumped back, avoiding his attack. Thinking as quickly as he could, Zoro grabbed up a nearby barrel lid and flung it at Smokey, using the distraction to leap to his feet and run back to the blacksmith's. Zoro did not dare to look back, deciding that, if Smokey and the girl had managed to find him, they had doubtlessly already encountered most, if not all of the rest of his crew, and everyone would be heading back to the ship already.

 

“Hey Zoro!” Luffy greeted him, leaping out of an alleyway to run alongside him. “Smokey's here!”

 

“I know,” Zoro tightly replied. “I have to get back to the blacksmith's to get my swords.”

 

“Which way is that?” Luffy asked.

 

Zoro skidded to a halt, turning to Luffy, who staggered back a few steps, blinking up at him blankly.

 

“I can't remember!” Zoro groaned, grabbing at his hair in frustration.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Tashigi kept her eyes tightly shut even though she was beginning to worry what Zoro might be doing while she could not see him. The urge to cry was building up inside her, and she was determined not to break down in front of her number one foe. She would not show such weakness. Inside her head she could still hear Captain Smoker yelling at her to “suck it up”, and she would show him she could be just as strong as he was.

 

Tashigi held her breath as she heard Zoro let out an animalistic groan, a sound she had never heard any human make before, leaving her suddenly terrified as to just what he might be doing. Both of his hands were still grabbed around her wrists, pinning her against the wall; but Tashigi did not have to speculate as to his line of thinking for much longer, as he finally spoke.

 

“Hey girl,” he said, his voice suddenly very casual, as though they were old acquaintances. “You got any money on you?”

 

“What?” Tashigi squeaked, opening her eyes to glower at him.

 

“I need money to pay for the repairs to my swords,” Zoro explained, looking at her earnestly, as though his request was perfectly acceptable and reasonable.

 

“How dare you!” she screamed, struggling against his hold again.

 

Between Zoro's deceptive level of physical strength and her own weakness caused by trying to contain her tears of shame, Tashigi knew that thrashing around against Zoro's hold would do her no good; but she did not want him to think that she had given in to him. Finally, just as she thought she could hold in her emotions no longer, Tashigi heard her captain's voice.

 

“Get your filthy hands off of her, pirate!” Smoker shouted, the tone of his voice assuring Tashigi that Zoro was about to get what was coming to him.

 

Zoro turned his head from Tashigi, releasing her as Smoker tried to grab a hold of him. Dropping her arms to her sides, Tashigi let out a small sigh of relief, keeping her back pressed to the wall as her head began to spin, her eyes losing focus on the unfolding tussle before her. Tashigi bit her bottom lip, determined to “suck it up” and not let her emotions win her over. She saw Zoro run off and Smoker going after him, and finally allowed herself to let out a moan of defeat and relief. Her legs weak and buckling beneath her, Tashigi allowed herself to fall to her knees, burying her face into her hands as tears began to burn her eyes.

 

“Tashigi?”

 

Tashigi stiffened at the sound of her captain's voice, peeking through her fingers to see his shadow standing over her.

 

“I-I'm sorry, Sir!” she said hurriedly, trying to keep her face hidden from him until she had recomposed herself. “I failed you Sir, I let him catch me off-guard!”

 

She heard Smoker exhale heavily, probably exasperated with her inability to fight Zoro off, especially after telling him that she would. And her captain was a very observant man - she was certain he had noticed that she had no weapons whatsoever at her disposal, and he was probably disappointed in her and thinking about how stupid she could be.

 

“Did he hurt you?” he asked her.

 

Tashigi frowned behind her hands, surprised to hear the question leave her boss's lips.

 

“Only a little Sir,” she replied quietly. “Mostly my pride.”

 

Smoker was silent for a moment, further proving to Tashigi that the man had absolutely no sense of humour, since she had been trying to make light of the situation, if only to distract him from her pretty amateur errors.

 

“Did he touch you?” Smoker muttered, his question barely loud enough to reach her ears.

 

Tashigi froze for a second, Smoker's implications suddenly proving to be the catalyst Tashigi had been looking for to suppress her tears. Wiping carefully at her eyes to remove any traces of tears that may have escaped her earlier, Tashigi slowly lifted her head, looking up at Smoker from behind the curtain of her dark hair. Smoker looked suitably angry and disappointed, just as she had expected him to. He actually looked quite frightening, standing over her like a large, foreboding shadow, narrowed eyes looking down the length of his nose at her. No, Zoro had not touched her - at least, not in the way Smoker was implying. He had spent a lot of time staring at her chest, but Tashigi was not about to release such information to her captain. In fact, she thought darkly, even if Zoro had touched her in an unwelcome manner, Captain Smoker was the very last person Tashigi ever felt she could confide such a problem in.

 

“I-I left my Shigure at the blacksmith, Sir,” she said, slowly standing up and brushing at her trousers with her hands, trying to keep her chin up.

 

“Tashigi…” he said slowly.

 

“I'm sorry Sir!” she said firmly, turning to face him, saluting him, refusing him the opportunity to point out just where she had gone wrong. “It won't happen again, I promise Sir! Once I've retrieved my Shigure, we'll catch those Straw-Hat Pirates!”

 

Smoker looked at her blankly for a moment, before the creases deepened in his face as he adopted a stern scowl.

 

“Damn right it won't happen again,” he reprimanded her. “Because the next time you go running off without reporting to your captain, I'll court martial you, damn it!”

 

Tashigi winced at his words, wondering why he always had to be so cold.

 

“I'm sorry, Sir," she muttered.

 

Sticking her tongue out at his back, Tashigi began following her captain at a respectful distance as he started off out of the alleyway.

 

`Give me time, Smoker,' she thought to herself. `I'll capture Roronoa Zoro, free the Wado Ichimonji, and when he hangs from the gallows and I finally get my promotion, you'll have no choice but to take me seriously as an officer and respect me then!'

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Next Chapter: An ill-timed storm, a disastrous confrontation with the navy, a lot of confusion, and Zoro finds himself in a very unexpected position. Chapter 5 - How Cruel.