One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Misrepresented and Misunderstood ❯ What Did You See? ( Chapter 6 )

Recap: Luffy, Zoro and Sanji boarded the marine ship to stop Smoker and Tashigi following them but as they returned to the Going Merry, Tashigi got “into the line of fire” and was taken back with them.

 

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Chapter 6 - What Did You See?

 

`I've really done it this time!' Tashigi thought, cringing in anticipation of the worst.

 

Behind her, she heard Captain Smoker growling, his anger obviously bubbling just below the surface. She knew she should not have been doing what she had, but a small part of her felt glad that she had, because finally she knew something personal about Captain Smoker. Finally she knew that the rumours she had heard about him were in fact true: because the locket had contained a picture of Captain Hina. The other marines had all told tales of how Smoker and Hina were an item and that they had been so since their days as trainees in the marines, but because of their jobs, they spent little time together. Tashigi could not deny that the two captains did communicate a lot and Hina's crew had often visited Loguetown, even though it was usually out of her way. Tashigi had never thought of their relationship as being anything other than the typical camaraderie between two senior officers - just an association, like the relationship she herself had with Captain Smoker - but apparently she was wrong.

 

“I was just…” Tashigi began, spinning around to face him. “Looking for a coat, Sir…”

 

It was the truth, after all. It was cold, and she had been on her way to collect her coat and gloves, and stumbling into Smoker's room had been purely accidental on her part - at least initially. Apparently though, Smoker was not going to be fooled so easily, screwing up his face into a vicious scowl at her words.

 

“A coat?” he repeated gruffly.

 

“It's getting colder out there, Sir,” she said, slowly walking towards him, hoping to negotiate a way out of the room and away from him. “I-I forgot my glasses, I entered the wrong room again-”

 

“You're wearing your glasses, Tashigi,” Smoker interrupted her.

 

Tashigi opened her mouth to argue that, in fact, she had not been wearing them a moment ago, but since her only excuse for wearing them since was that she had needed them to invade her captain's privacy, she decided not to bother with that line. Smoker thinned his eyes at her, slowly folding his arms across his chest and leaning into the doorway, blocking her exit. His actions were slow and deliberate, and Tashigi began to fear that she might be about to suffer the nastier side of Smoker's famous ill temper.

 

“Captain Smoker Sir!” a voice called to him from the hallway.

 

Tashigi quietly sighed in relief, the memory of their pursuit of the Straw-Hat Pirates telling her that Smoker did not have the time to do anything untoward at that particular moment.

 

“Just a minute!” Smoker yelled back.

 

“But Sir, the Straw-Hat Pirates are trying to board our ship!” the marine called back.

 

“What?” Smoker growled. “What the hell are they thinking?”

 

Smoker growled, punching a fist into the doorway and cracking the wood, causing Tashigi to jump in fear.

 

“I'll deal with you later, little lady!” he warned, jabbing a finger at the end of her nose.

 

“Don't call me that!” Tashigi snapped irritably, marching after him as he began jogging back up to the deck of the ship.

 

Tashigi was certain Smoker had deliberately called her “little lady” because he knew that it infuriated her, and it was the only way he could make her as angry as he was in such a short space of time. Back on the deck and still without her coat or gloves, Tashigi was horrified to find that the sky had gone dark, it was raining and a wind was whipping at her hair. And, just to make matters even worse, Straw-Hat, Zoro and another one of their crew were onboard the marine ship. Angrily drawing out her Shigure, Tashigi readied herself to finish Zoro off once and for all, running in his direction, the sight of other marines confronting him only angering her further.

 

“Leave him to me!” she yelled at the others, waving a hand at them to step aside.

 

The others backed off at the sound of her voice, bowing out of her way until she was alone with Zoro, who was standing looking at her with a look that suggested he found something about her both disgusting and mildly amusing.

 

“And this time, you can't run away from me, Roronoa Zoro!” she warned, stepping closer to him.

 

Instead of taking her threat seriously as he ought to have done, Zoro began looking about himself, apparently more interested in watching his crewmates than worrying about Tashigi. Gripping into her sword until her fingers started to ache, Tashigi swung her sword at Zoro's neck as though to behead him, deciding that such an action ought to get his attention. To her chagrin, Zoro effortlessly lifted his own sword with one hand, catching her blade and holding her back before even moving his eyes back to her. She heard him curse, but he appeared not to be concerned by her attack. Determined to show him how serious she was, Tashigi began attacking him relentlessly, her arms quickly hurting from the force of her blows and strength with which she was gripping into her sword. She knew she was wasting too much energy, letting her emotions rule her again, but she was determined to teach this ignorant pirate a lesson.

 

As she fought him, Tashigi continually stole glances at the precious Wado Ichimonji at his side, silently wondering how a fiend like him had managed to get his hands on such a priceless and beautiful artefact. To her horror, Zoro began to grin at her, holding her back with one hand as he drew out the sword she had her eyes fixed on, turning it on her. He smirked at her, obviously hoping to cause her pain with his actions; but Tashigi was no longer thinking like a marine - after all, Smoker had taught her that sometimes, to enforce justice, she had to step outside the realms of the marine laws. Smirking back at the pirate, she lunged forwards and grabbed his third sword, pulling it out to even the score between them.

 

“You idiot!” he said to her, his smirk vanishing. “Do you know what that is?”

 

“This?” she asked, raising the sword a little higher. “This is the Kitetsu, the sword I helped you buy!”

 

“You didn't help me buy it, I chose it, I overcame the curse, and the old man gave me it for free!” Zoro snapped back. “You're not strong enough to carry a sword like that, give it back!”

 

“Ha! I knew it!” she declared, feeling a little delirious. “You don't think I'm strong enough to be a swordsman because I'm a woman!”

 

“I never said that!” Zoro yelled back. “I just said you shouldn't mess with my Kitetsu! It's cursed, remember?”

 

“It hasn't brought you any bad luck,” Tashigi smugly pointed out.

 

“Well it's about bring you some!” Zoro growled, raising his two remaining swords.

 

Tashigi saw Zoro run his eyes over her sceptically. She had tired herself out by fighting recklessly, and the Kitetsu was considerably heavier than her own trusted Shigure. Carrying two swords was something she had only tried a few times in the past, and she had always found it too difficult to concentrate on what both hands were doing, much less put enough power behind each weapon to make wielding two swords an effective move. And, she thought bitterly, unlike Zoro, she was not ambidextrous.

 

“Do you even know how to use two swords?” he asked her quietly.

 

“I'll learn!” she stubbornly replied, deciding there was no point in denying her inabilities, since they would be plainly obvious, especially to an expert swordsman like Zoro.

 

“You want me to fight you seriously?” he asked her. “Fine then!”

 

Tashigi yelped as Zoro slammed his swords against both of hers at once, her arms buckling under the force of what he made look like an easy, sweeping motion. Trying to stay focused, Tashigi began to fear for her safety as Zoro slowly and methodically swung his blades at her, moving much slower than she had seen him do against other foes. He was deliberately going easy on her, which only made her feel even more ashamed of her own shortcomings. Staggering helplessly back under his immense strength, Tashigi cried out pitifully as her back hit the railings, the realisation that she was trapped causing her to panic. In her moment of confusion, she saw Zoro's two blades come straight towards her face, swinging outwards at the last possible second. As Zoro hit the swords in each of her hands, Tashigi's arms were thrust apart, and her hands opened against her will, both her own sword and Zoro's flying from her grasp and bouncing along the deck of the ship.

 

Tashigi stared up at Zoro fearfully, feeling certain that he would kill her this time. She stiffened as he brought around the Wado Ichimonji, the beautiful sword he had no right to own, pointing the tip at her face. She began to fear that he was going to opt for disfiguring her as opposed to killing her, a truly evil, pirate thing to do; but instead he hooked her glasses with the blade, pulling them from her face. She blinked through the blur of her poor eyesight in the absence of her glasses, straining and squinting to focus on Zoro's blurry outline before her.

 

“This ought to slow you down,” he said to her.

 

Despite not being able to see clearly what was happening, Tashigi clearly heard her glasses snapping and cracking, and she could see Zoro closing his fist.

 

“How cruel!” she gasped, as she watched his actions helplessly. “How could you do that to me?”

 

Zoro threw the crushed remains of her glasses over his shoulder, returning his swords to his sides and starting in the direction of his Kitetsu, apparently not caring that he had just left her all but blind.

 

“Damn it!” she groaned, dropping to her knees and feeling about for the remains of her glasses.

 

Maybe, she thought to herself, just maybe her glasses would still be useful if she could find them. And of course, she would have to get her Shigure back. Crawling about across the deck, Tashigi tried to block out the voices around her, feeling confident that Captain Smoker could handle the Straw-Hat Pirates until she had sorted herself out. She eventually located her glasses, finding one leg hanging loosely from them, the other bent upwards. She lifted the frames over her eyes, finding that one lens had been knocked clean out, the other reduced to nothing more than a few broken shards that threatened to stab out her eye. Dropping them to the deck with a sigh, Tashigi spotted something green and white, smiling in relief that she at least still had her Shigure.

 

Tashigi scrambled across the slippery boards of the deck, grabbing at her Shigure and hurriedly slipping it through her belt before turning in the direction of her captain's voice, squinting around the rain at the two figures standing by the railing of the ship. She gasped in alarm as she saw the blurred outline of one shirtless man leaning over another, in the process of pushing him overboard. Tashigi was too far away to make out their features clearly, but she could see that both men had green hair, their colourings looking too similar since they were both wet from the rain. She could not tell which was Zoro and which was her captain; but as she crawled along the deck, she saw them from another angle, and clearly saw the large scar down the chest of the aggressor. This, she concluded, was Zoro. She had noticed the scar on his chest before: it was a large, thick and vicious laceration that ran diagonally across his chest, and looked to be from a sword-fight. The first time Tashigi had fought Zoro his white shirt had been soaked with rainwater and clinging to his skin, making every detail of the scar quite clearly visible.

 

And, she thought in a blind panic, Zoro was about to push Captain Smoker overboard, into the water, where he knew he would sink to his death. Tashigi gasped as she saw one of Smoker's feet slip on the deck, his body bend further over the railings. Hoping that Zoro had a shred of honour and integrity, she cried out in a desperate attempt to spare her captain's life.

 

“No!” she yelled.

 

To her relief, both men went still, but, from what little she could make out, Zoro was still holding Smoker over the edge.

 

“No, please don't do it!” she cried.

 

Zoro straightened a little, and Tashigi saw Smoker attempt to push back up against him. She clasped her hands together, bowing her head as she fought off tears.

 

“Please don't throw him over, please!” she begged.

 

`If anything happens to Captain Smoker, it will be all my fault for not being able to help him,' she told herself darkly.

 

“Please, I'll do anything you ask, just please don't throw him over!” she added, tears slipping from her eyes despite her best efforts to remain stoic. “Please, I'll leave the marines, anything, just don't do it! Throw me over instead if you must!”

 

Tashigi peeked through her hair, watching in relief as Zoro released Smoker, both men standing firmly on the deck. She collapsed to the deck in her relief, almost wanting to laugh.

 

“Oh thank you!” she sobbed. “Thank you so much! You truly are a man of honour! Thank you for sparing him!”

 

Clenching her fists until her fingernails bit into the skin of her palms, Tashigi allowed herself to smile into the deck, waiting until the tears had subsided before lifting her head, finding Smoker standing a short distance from her.

 

“You're alright!” she blurted out, leaping up and running over to him.

 

Unable to contain her relief, Tashigi threw her arms around his shoulders. She barely had time to worry what her commanding officer might think about such a blatant display of emotion when suddenly something collided with the two of them from one side. Tashigi found herself clinging to her captain for dear live as her feet left the ground, and they were thrust forcefully through the air. Although the experience was terrifying for her, it ended just as suddenly as it had begun, as Tashigi collided with a stiff sheet, sliding over it and landing hard against another body.

 

“Wow Zoro, did you find me a musician?” she heard a familiar voice say.

 

Pushing herself up, Tashigi squinted at the person sat next to her, a wave of nausea washing over her as the shape of a straw-hat began to come into focus, framed around a grinning face decorated with wild strands of black hair. Just as she began to fear the worst, Tashigi felt a movement at her hip, and she looked down to see Smoker lying beneath her, flat on his back. She smiled at him in relief, taking his face in her hands.

 

“You're alright!” she said softly. “I was so worried about you! I thought that scoundrel was going to throw you overboard and you would drown! I would have jumped in after you, Sir!”

 

“Wow Zoro, she really likes you, huh?” the familiar voice said again, suddenly registering in Tashigi's mind.

 

“Straw-Hat?” she asked cautiously, leaning towards the grinning face again.

 

“My name's Luffy!” he replied, waving at her. “I remember you, you helped me find Crocodile!”

 

“She can't see you,” Tashigi heard Zoro's voice say quietly.

 

Gasping in alarm, Tashigi looked down at the man beneath her, the apparent source of Zoro's voice. Leaning over him and squinting hard, every detail of his face came clearly into focus at last, the sight of Roronoa Zoro staring up at her causing Tashigi to scream and leap away from him.

 

“Roronoa Zoro!” she wailed.

 

“Who did you think I was, you stupid girl?” Zoro yelled back at her.

 

“But…” she began, looking about herself desperately. “But where's Captain Smoker?”

 

“Best guess is he's back on your ship,” Zoro sarcastically replied, standing up and straightening his clothing.

 

“My ship?” Tashigi cried. “But if I'm not on my ship, then where am I?”

 

“You're on my ship!” Straw-Hat cheerfully told her. “The Going Merry? Would you like to join our crew?”

 

Tashigi turned to glare at him with wide eyes, wondering if he even knew that he was a wanted criminal and she an officer of the law hunting him down to have asked such a ridiculous question of her. Turning her head slowly, Tashigi scanned over the other faces watching her, finding every single member of the small crew of Straw-Hat Pirates: the blonde-haired man, the orange-haired girl and the long-nosed boy. But, to her alarm, also onboard with the pirates was none other than Nico Robin, one of the most wanted criminals of the sea, and the same woman who had almost broken Tashigi's leg back in Arabasta. And, hiding behind a barrel, a strange little furry creature was watching her intently.

 

Unsure if she should scream, cry or simply start brandishing her Shigure at the pirates, Tashigi finally turned her attention back to Zoro as he spoke to her again.

 

“Over there,” he said, handing her a pair of binoculars and pointing back over his shoulder.

 

Tashigi hurriedly lifted the binoculars to her eyes, refocusing them on the only other visible object in the water. She quickly recognised it as the ship she and Captain Smoker had been sailing on; but as she watched, the mast collapsed, shattering the boat, the integrity of the hull destroyed. Tashigi began to shake, the image of the ship disintegrating to nothing more than driftwood leaving her feeling extremely light-headed. She felt the binoculars slip from her fingers, and her eyelids fall shut, everything around her eventually dissolving into a dark silence.

 

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“But Sir, the Straw-Hat Pirates are trying to board our ship!”

 

“What?” Smoker growled, barely able to believe what he was hearing. “What the hell are they thinking?”

 

Smoker hesitated, torn between explaining to Tashigi what she had just seen and capturing the damned Straw-Hat Pirates. Growling in frustration he punched the doorframe, fixing his eyes onto Tashigi.

 

“I'll deal with you later, little lady!” he told her, deliberately calling her a name he knew would anger her.

 

“Don't call me that!” she snapped back, hurrying after him as he turned his back on her and followed the others out to the deck of the ship.

 

He was furious that Tashigi had entered his room to snoop around his personal belongings, especially at such an inopportune moment. She ought to have been focused on the Straw-Hat Pirates, but instead she was fishing through her captain's private quarters - and for what? The girl never expressed any interest in discussing anything outside of work, why was she suddenly so curious about his private life?

 

Spotting the irksome Straw-Hat himself, Smoker wasted no time in going after him, gladly taking out his anger on the scrawny boy of a pirate. Beating into him relentlessly, Smoker could still remember the arrogance of the boy back in Arabasta. As if it had not been shameful enough that the pirate Roronoa Zoro had saved his life, but this kid had then told him, the marine captain who intended to have him executed, that he actually quite liked him. Smoker did not know if Straw-Hat Luffy was an idiot, or simply too confident to make such a remark.

 

“You won't like me by the time I'm through with you, Straw-Hat!” he growled.

 

After a short while, Smoker began to notice that Luffy was no longer looking at him, but instead appeared to be preoccupied by something off the side of the ship.

 

“Sanji?” Luffy called out. “Sanji!”

 

“Sanji?” Smoker muttered.

 

“Zoro!” Luffy called out. “Sanji fell overboard!”

 

Smoker shrugged his shoulders feeling satisfied that at least his crew had managed to dispose of one of the Straw-Hat Pirates successfully. However, Smoker's joy was short-lived.

 

“Hey Smokey, over here!” a voice yelled.

 

Smoker turned in the direction of the voice, blinking back in shock as a wall of water and seaweed smacked into him hard. He groaned, feeling the draining effects of the seawater and seaweed almost instantly. Blinking through the seaweed hanging over his face, Smoker saw the blonde-haired pirate grin at his handiwork - apparently he had intentionally thrown himself overboard in order to retrieve a bucket of seawater to debilitate him with. With their own captain having all the strengths and weaknesses of someone who had eaten a Devil Fruit, Smoker thought bitterly, these pirates knew all the tricks necessary to get the better of him.

 

Smoker began tugging the seaweed from his hair, refusing to give into the sudden weight in his limbs and dizziness developing in his head.

 

“Quick, push him overboard!” he heard Zoro yell.

 

“No, he'll drown!” Luffy protested. “He can't swim, remember? He'll sink to the bottom of the ocean and drown!”

 

“Exactly!” the other two yelled back.

 

“No!” Luffy insisted. “Come on, let's get back to our ship before it gets too far away!”

 

“Right.”

 

Smoker watched as Luffy began stretching himself back to catapult himself and his men back to their ship. Looking quickly around the ship, Smoker saw Tashigi crawling around and looking defeated. He was vaguely aware that she had confronted Zoro again, his eyes shifting back to the green-haired menace. Using what little strength he had left, Smoker stretched out a trail of smoke, tying up Zoro's ankle and tripping him over. Luffy launched himself and his blonde-haired companion off the ship, but Zoro remained flat on the deck, cursing to himself.

 

Smoker grabbed a hand at the railings next to him, trying to catch his breath as he released Zoro. He still had a long, thin strand of seaweed draped diagonally across his chest, but he did not want to waste any effort in removing it, as he would need what strength he had left to give Zoro what he deserved. As he had expected, Zoro got up and charged towards him, aiming as though to shove him overboard. Smoker quickly swung a boot at Zoro's chest, kicking him hard where he knew the swordsman had an old injury, catching him with a hard punch to the jaw as he staggered to recover from the initial kick.

 

“Ow!” Zoro groaned, rubbing at his jaw. “Still got some fight in you, huh?”

 

Zoro smirked at Smoker confidently, the look on his face only angering Smoker even more.

 

“The rest of your crew might have gotten away, but you won't,” he warned the swordsman, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against the railings.

 

Smoker ignored Zoro's attempts to claw his hand from his throat, leaning his weight onto his hand, forcing Zoro to bend backwards over the railings. Zoro was starting to lose his balance, starting to get a look of panic in his eyes. Although he could probably swim well enough, Smoker knew Zoro would not last long in the waters, as the waves had become wild and unpredictable, and his pirate crew were too far away to save him this time. Grinning at the prospect of finishing the pirate off, Smoker almost did not hear the sound at first.

 

“No!” a voice cried out.

 

Smoker's face straightened, his mind reeling at the sound of Tashigi's voice, faint and lilting in the wind.

 

“No, please don't do it!” she called again.

 

Smoker leaned back slightly, the lessening in pressure allowing Zoro to plant his feet back on the deck and straighten a little. Turning his head to look back over his shoulder, Smoker saw Tashigi on her knees in the middle of the deck, her hands clasped together. Her face was wet, her hair plastered to her features, and she looked on the point of tears.

 

“Please don't throw him over, please!” she wailed.

 

“What?” Zoro grunted.

 

Smoker growled, yanking Zoro to his feet and leaning over him.

 

“What did you do to her, pirate?” he growled, thinning his eyes at Zoro.

 

“Nothing!” Zoro argued back.

 

“Please, I'll do anything you ask, just please don't throw him over!” Tashigi pleaded. “Please, I'll leave the marines, anything, just don't do it! Throw me over instead if you must!”

 

Smoker's eyes grew huge at Tashigi's words: his worst fears about her developing feelings for this worthless pirate were true after all. He had never thought he would hear Tashigi offer up her career as a trade for anything, least of all the life of a pathetic pirate. He watched Zoro shrug his shoulders as though what Tashigi had said was not really worth their concern, something inside of him turning suddenly very cold.

 

“She knows I could never refuse her anything,” he said softly, opening his fist and releasing Zoro.

 

Smoker turned to Tashigi, watching as she broke into a relieved smile before dropping her head to the deck.

 

“Oh thank you!” she sobbed. “Thank you so much! You truly are a man of honour! Thank you for sparing him!”

 

“Zoro!” Luffy's voice cried out.

 

Smoker groaned as he saw the rubber pirate crash into the mast of the ship, silently hoping that the collision had hurt like hell. But, just as the chipper little man appeared to bounce back from everything else, he cheerfully bounced over to Zoro, apparently unaffected, despite the fact that the mast was threatening to collapse.

 

“Quick Luffy, if that mast falls, the whole ship will break in two!” Zoro yelled, rushing over to his captain.

 

“Right!” Luffy said, stretching his arms out to the bow of the ship to create another catapult.

 

Zoro stepped in front of him, and, to Smoker's absolute horror, Tashigi ran over to Zoro, putting her arms around him and hugging onto him tightly as Luffy flung himself at them, sending all three of them flying off the marine ship in the direction of the Straw-Hat Pirates' ship.

 

“Tashigi, no!” Smoker yelled, running to the bow of the ship to watch her disappear from his sights.

 

“Sir, the mast, we have to abandon ship immediately!” a marine called over to him.

 

But Smoker was still staring out to sea, too shocked at what he had just witnessed to even care when the mast fell behind him, shattering the deck of the ship.

 

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Next Chapter: Tashigi panics when she finds herself sailing with pirates, Zoro wants her off the ship even though his crew don't seem to agree and Smoker makes a deal with Hina. Chapter 7 - Misunderstood.