One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Misrepresented and Misunderstood ❯ A Powerful Dance ( Chapter 9 )

Recap: Zoro agreed to spar/train with Tashigi, Tashigi felt lost and confused and Smoker arranged a crew and ship to search for Tashigi.

 

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Chapter 9 - A Powerful Dance

 

Zoro idly looked up at the sky, silently noting that the stars were extremely bright and any traces of the sun long gone, suggesting that it was probably time for him to go to bed. Finishing the rum in his mug, he turned, a little unsteady on his feet, and looked around the others. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper were still clapping their hands and nodding their heads in rhythm whilst all singing a different song, each slowly raising his voice as he tried to block out the other two. Nami and Robin were playing poker for money, and Sanji was on his knees at the table, begging them to consider a game of strip poker instead. Zoro paused, running his eyes over each crewmember again, before eventually pointing a finger at each of them in turn and listing them off quietly under his breath.

 

“Idiot, coward, fluffy, pervert, liar, cheat…” he said quietly as he passed over Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, Sanji, Robin and Nami respectively. “Zoro,” he added, jabbing his finger at his own chest.

 

Zoro took a few steps forward, and as the wind rustled Nami's orange trees, he caught a glimpse of something at the stern of the ship. Frowning curiously, he walked sluggishly towards Nami's mini plantation, finding the back of the ship bathed in the soft blue light of the moon, the air oddly peaceful away from the rest of the crew.

 

“Thief!” he said, pointing at the person he found sat hunched by the very back of the ship.

 

The marine girl turned her head towards him, squinting desperately and leaning forwards.

 

“I thought someone was missing,” he called over to her. “But I see you now.”

 

She nodded her head slightly, before turning away from him again. Zoro made to retire to the men's quarters, pausing as he heard something faint.

 

“What?” he said, turning and staggering a little closer to the marine girl.

 

“I'm not a thief,” she said quietly.

 

“Yes you are!” Zoro argued. “You have quite clearly stolen Kuina's face!”

 

Tashigi frowned, slowly tilting her head to fix her eyes onto him.

 

“Kuina?” she echoed.

 

“Yes!” Zoro replied. “You're sitting there wearing her face!”

 

“Oh…”

 

Zoro grinned as he noticed that she finally appeared to understand what he had been trying to say to her for so long about her uncanny resemblance to Kuina.

 

“So, are you going to bed yet?” he asked, dropping to his knees at her side.

 

“I don't usually go to bed this early,” she replied. “Being in the marines, I have a lot of late nights.”

 

“Of course!” Zoro said, nodding his head.

 

“You've been drinking quite a lot tonight, haven't you?” she asked, smiling at him.

 

“No!” Zoro laughed, slapping her shoulder.

 

“I think you have…” she said slyly, flicking one hand through her hair and casting him a coy look.

 

“I have to go to bed, I like to get up early and get some training done before breakfast, but you behave!”

 

Zoro stood up, waving a finger at her, watching in amusement as she continued to watch him with a sly expression, licking at her teeth. Zoro shook his head, turning his back on her and staggering back.

 

“She wants me,” he muttered to himself with a cock-sure grin.

 

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

 

“And that one is the reindeer!” Tashigi explained.

 

“Oh wow!” Chopper sighed. “I never knew there were so many constellations! Where I come from, we didn't see much of the stars. You're really clever, knowing all those shapes and names.”

 

“Basic navigation in the navy,” Tashigi advised him with a small smile.

 

“Hey!” a voice barked, interrupting their conversation.

 

Tashigi turned to see the blurred image of Zoro standing by the three orange trees, one hand grabbing at the foliage, the other pointing lazily at her.

 

“I was asking you a question,” he said, his speech slurred from alcohol, each word melting together, making it difficult for Tashigi to decipher what he was saying.

 

“Excuse me?” she echoed.

 

“You were hiding her face, but I see it now!” he said.

 

Tashigi turned to Chopper, who shrugged his shoulders to tell her he was as clueless as she was.

 

“So-so Kuina, what are we doing now?” Zoro asked, releasing the orange tree to stagger over towards Tashigi.

 

“Kuina?” Tashigi echoed, frowning at him.

 

Zoro looked at her blankly for a moment, before smiling and shaking his head.

 

“Come to bed with me Kuina,” he said taking hold of her hand and leaning back to tug her to her feet.

 

“Oh!” Tashigi yelped as she was forced from her position sat next to Chopper. “Zoro!”

 

“Come on!” he moaned.

 

“Zoro, please!” she protested, tugging at her hand. “I'm very tired, I don't usually stay up this late. Being in the marines, I have to get up at five in the morning, I don't really have the energy to play games!”

 

“Oh Kuina, you're so uptight!” Zoro groaned.

 

“You've been drinking quite a lot tonight, haven't you?” Tashigi asked, glancing desperately at Chopper in the hope that he would offer her some assistance.

 

“No!” Zoro laughed, tugging her towards him and grabbing his other arm around her shoulders, holding her in a one-armed embrace.

 

“I think you have…” Tashigi said slowly reaching up a hand to tug her hair out from under the weight of Zoro's large forearm.

 

“Are you coming to bed with me or not, Kuina?” Zoro asked her, looking suddenly annoyed.

 

“No Zoro, I'm not,” Tashigi patiently replied. “And my name is not Kuina.”

 

Zoro groaned, dragging his arm up over the top of Tashigi's head, his elbow clipping the back of her head, causing her to inadvertently bite her tongue. She began licking at her teeth at the taste of blood, scowling disapprovingly at Zoro as he began to back away from her.

 

“I think he likes you,” Chopper said, coming over to her side.

 

Tashigi quirked an eyebrow at the little reindeer, silently wondering where he had been when she had been fighting Zoro off seconds earlier.

 

“I can't stay here, it will be the death of me,” she groaned.

 

“What?” Chopper echoed.

 

“I said I have to go to bed, I'm so tired,” she lied, forcing a smile for Chopper's benefit.

 

“Okay,” Chopper replied. “Goodnight then!”

 

“Goodnight,” Tashigi said with a small wave of her hand.

 

Moving slowly to allow Zoro to get well out of her way, Tashigi was heading for the women's quarters, something she had been delaying for as long as possible as she was secretly dreading having to share a confined space with two unknown female pirates. Although, she thought to herself, perhaps it was a good thing that there were other females onboard, otherwise she would have been forced to share sleeping space with the men, which would have been positively unbearable.

 

Fearful of entering the wrong part of the ship in the continued absence of her glasses, Tashigi prodded the door to the women's quarters with one finger, spying into the room cautiously before pushing the door fully open to walk in.

 

“I'll just get back into that hammock, and go to sleep,” she told herself quietly. “And maybe by tomorrow morning, we will reach land, or meet a navy ship.”

 

Tashigi removed her shoes and climbed into the hammock, pulling a sheet up over herself and closing her eyes. She began to relax and slowly drift off the sleep, but a few seconds later her peace was shattered as Nami and Robin came tearing into the room, screaming something about being chased.

 

“What is it?” Tashigi wailed, sitting bolt upright. “What's happening?”

 

“We're playing a little trick on Sanji,” Nami said with a grin, holding up a bundle of black cloth.

 

Tashigi squinted unable to make out just what she held in her hand.

 

“Are we being cruel?” Robin asked Nami. “It is quite cold tonight!”

 

“Who cares, it was worth it just to see his face!” Nami laughed, unfurling the pile of cloth and holding it up.

 

Tashigi's jaw dropped open as she saw the bundle take the shape of a pair of trousers.

 

“We have to have some fun, stuck on a ship full of men!” Nami said.

 

Tashigi moved her eyes to the young pirate girl, who merely grinned at her.

 

“Didn't you ever play tricks on the men in the navy?” Nami asked her.

 

“Um…” Tashigi mumbled nervously, her face growing hot as she remembered how it was more typically the other way around.

 

“You mean you never played a trick on Smoker?” Nami asked, slowly walking towards Tashigi.

 

“I think Miss Tashigi takes her job very seriously, Nami,” Robin advised.

 

“But that guy Smoker is just asking for someone to make fun of him!” Nami said, sitting onto the end of Tashigi's hammock. “He's kinda like Zoro - so serious and socially clueless, and just too easy to make fun of!”

 

Tashigi stared at Nami with wide, horrified eyes. Make fun of Captain Smoker? Play tricks on him? Steal his clothes? Just thinking about such things was making her blood run cold in her veins.

 

“Nami, leave the poor girl alone,” Robin said, tugging the trousers from Nami's grasp. “She's not like you and I.”

 

Tashigi watched Robin walk over to the door, open it and toss the trousers outside, before slamming the door shut again and turning to smile at her.

 

“Miss Tashigi chose all the safe options in life, and never had to worry about doing anything controversial,” Robin said, walking over and sitting down on a hammock by Tashigi's head.

 

Tashigi glared at her, emotions suddenly dancing wildly around inside of her. This woman had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

 

“Do you think it's easy for me to be a woman in the marines?” she spat out, eying Robin over scornfully. “You're the one who chose the easy life! You don't have to care! You just do what you want, when you want! I've had to work hard my entire life!”

 

“Really?” Nami echoed. “So you're in the marines because you want to be?”

 

“Of course I am!” Tashigi yelped, turning to Nami. “Why else would I be there?”

 

Nami shrugged her shoulders, rolling her eyes to the ceiling thoughtfully.

 

“I just always thought you were there because of Smoker,” she said.

 

Tashigi froze, her mind momentarily going blank.

 

“She means that we thought you were a marine because your man Smoker likes to keep you where he can see you,” Robin explained.

 

“I know exactly what she means,” Tashigi mechanically replied. “I just can't believe you really think that about me. I've worked hard to get where I am, and to find out that this is all I am to other people…”

 

“Oh,” Nami said, lowering her eyes to Tashigi. “Oh, I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry!”

 

“We all come from completely different worlds, ladies,” Robin said with a sigh.

 

“Yes, we do,” Nami said, nodding her head in agreement.

 

“We do…” Tashigi said slowly. “So, why did you choose to become a pirate?”

 

“I didn't choose to become a pirate,” Nami said, smiling sourly. “My mother was a marine, but she was killed by pirates, and they forced me to work for them. I was only a child. They tattooed my shoulder with their mark so that I couldn't escape.”

 

“That's awful!” Tashigi gasped.

 

“I was incriminated for wanting to research the ancient poneglyphs. I became an outcast and a criminal because I chose to do something I enjoyed,” Robin pointed out.

 

“But you…” Tashigi began, eying Robin over suspiciously.

 

“I do what I have to do to survive,” Robin told her softly.

 

Tashigi slowly nodded her head, trying to block out her memories of her fight with Robin back in Arabasta.

 

“So, there's nothing going on between you and Smoker?” Nami asked her.

 

“No!” Tashigi indignantly replied. “He's my commanding officer, I would never dream of it!”

 

Nami's eyes shifted to Robin, and Tashigi saw them exchange knowing looks and sly smirks.

 

“But if he wasn't your captain…” Nami said slowly. “What then?”

 

Tashigi paused for a moment, Nami's words slowly sinking into her mind. She had never thought of Smoker as anything other than Captain Smoker, her commanding officer, particularly when she had known so little about his life outside of the marines.

 

“I don't think we'd even speak to each other if we weren't colleagues,” she said slowly. “After all, that is the only thing we have in common. And besides, Captain Smoker is in love with Captain Hina.”

 

“Captain Hina?” Robin repeated.

 

“You know her?” Tashigi asked, turning to Robin.

 

“No,” Robin replied shaking her head. “Just seems like a strange name.”

 

“So what about you and Zoro then?” Nami pressed.

 

“What about me and Zoro?” Tashigi wailed, turning back to face her.

 

“Well, you seem to always want to kill each other,” Nami explained. “What did he do to you to get you so mad at him?”

 

“You even need to ask that question?” Robin scoffed. “Zoro is the most difficult man to like,” she added, turning to Tashigi.

 

“He takes months just to trust you enough to say hello to him,” Nami added.

 

“And he's quite selfish,” Robin pointed out.

 

“And he's so grumpy!” Nami said.

 

“But he's an amazing swordsman,” Tashigi said quietly.

 

“Sure, he is really tough, but he ought to be!” Nami replied. “He spends all his time training, sleeping and drinking! The man has no life outside of his swords!”

 

Tashigi found herself smiling weakly, feeling her life was oddly the same - outside of her passion for swords, what did she actually have to live for?

 

“Hey Tashigi, what do think of Sanji?” Nami asked, giggling as she spoke. “Or Luffy? Isn't Luffy crazy?”

 

Tashigi smiled as she watched Nami talk on about her other crewmates, playfully poking fun at them, her eyes sparkling cheerfully as she did so. These pirates were more than just colleagues like Tashigi and her fellow officers in the navy these pirates were all friends. Thinking long and hard about the matter, Tashigi began to wonder if there was anyone in the world that she could actually call a friend.

 

“Come on Nami, Tashigi must be tired, we should let her rest,” Robin eventually interrupted her.

 

“Oh right!” Nami agreed. “Well, good night Tashigi.”

 

“Good night, Nami,” Tashigi said softly.

 

“And in the morning, you can borrow some of my clothes,” Robin offered.

 

“Oh…” Tashigi said slowly, looking up at Robin curiously. “Thanks, that would be nice, I do need a change of clothes.”

 

“No problem,” Robin replied. “Sleep well.”

 

Tashigi nodded her head before slowly slipping back down into her hammock. She turned her back on the others and closed her eyes, slowly drifting to sleep listening to the two women whisper and giggle between themselves about silly things their fellow pirates had done that day.

 

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

 

Smoker sat hunched over the map, only half-listening to the two officers who were trying to explain to him which direction was best to pursue the Straw-Hat Pirates. As the Straw-Hat Pirates had not been spotted since destroying his ship, Smoker could only assume that they had continued in the direction they had left in: but with changing winds and various islands of interest in the surrounding area, they might easily have changed course entirely.

 

As he tried to make reasonable assumptions about which directions the Straw-Hat Pirates would not have travelled in, Smoker slowly became aware of a shadow across the centre of the map. Turning his head, he saw Hina standing behind him, her arms folded across her chest, her eyes thinned to dangerous, dark slits.

 

“What are you doing?” she asked him quietly.

 

“Plotting a course,” he said, frowning at her since the answer should have been obvious.

 

“I don't remember saying that you could have this ship, Smoker,” she said sharply.

 

“Well I'm taking this one,” Smoker flatly replied, turning his back on her again.

 

“You can't just take one of my ships,” she spat at him.

 

“It's navy business, you can't refuse,” Smoker plainly replied.

 

“You can't take my finest ship and my best crew,” Hina warned him.

 

Smoker sighed, reaching into his trouser pocket.

 

“Fine then,” he said, retrieving a coin. “We'll flip for it, shall we?”

 

Hina glowered at the coin balanced on the back of his thumb.

 

“You are so tiresome, Mister Smoker!” she snapped, snatching the coin from him. “Hina is very disappointed in you!”

 

Smoker watched her leave, before gladly turning back to the map. He did not particularly care how upset she was, just so long as she was still cooperating with his needs.

 

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

 

“Zoro!”

 

Zoro looked up at the sound of his name as he made his way to the deck of the ship, squinting against the bright sunlight.

 

“Zoro, I wondered if you might be free for a sparring session soon.”

 

Zoro moved his eyes to Tashigi, staring at her blankly as he tried to figure out what she was talking about. As he thought about it, the memory of making a deal with her slowly crept back into his mind.

 

“Not right now,” he told her frankly.

 

“Because you've just eaten, of course,” she said, bowing her head politely.

 

“No, it's not that,” he replied. “I need to take a shit and shave first.”

 

Zoro scratched his fingers at the splattering of stubble across his chin to emphasise his point, since Tashigi appeared to look confused.

 

“You can go ahead and start a warm-up, if you want,” Zoro added.

 

Turning his back on her and walking off, Zoro was torn between suffering through the day after drinking more than usual the night before and condescending to asking the chef for a cure for his discomfort. Although he would never openly admit it, Zoro knew only too well that Sanji did know the recipe for an excellent cure guaranteed to quickly erase the effects of drinking to excesses. However, upon hearing Sanji declare his undying love for Nami as he passed the kitchen, Zoro decided he would just suffer the hangover.

 

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

 

Tashigi stared at the swordsman, unsure if she ought to be horrified or amused. She had never heard the phrase “I need to take a shit and shave” uttered in her life, and she doubted she would ever hear it again. She watched him scratch at the dusting of stubble across his chin, apparently unaware of his own distinct lack of social grace.

 

“You can go ahead and start a warm-up if you want,” he told her, before walking off and leaving her alone with his words still ringing around her head.

 

Shaking her head in disbelief, Tashigi looked down at her hip again, the sight of the empty sheath at her side making her increasingly depressed. She could not believe that she had lost her sword - and it had taken her some degree of time to remember just how she had lost it. Of course, it had been during her battle with Zoro onboard the navy ship. Zoro had knocked the sword from her hand and then crushed her glasses, crushing her hopes of finding her weapon again. And, she thought miserably, the ship had sunk, doubtlessly taking the remains of her glasses and her sword with it. The thought of her sword at the bottom of the ocean made her want to cry more than anything she had ever experienced in her life. Just looking at the empty scabbard made her throat constrict and tighten to unbearable levels.

 

And all the rest of her belongings would be on the seafloor too, she thought wryly. All her clothes, her coat, her gloves - everything, all gone. Tashigi briefly wondered what had become of Captain Smoker: after all, thanks to him having consumed a Devil Fruit, he would simply sink to the bottom of the sea and drown if he ever fell into the water. Tashigi had never actually witnessed Smoker in the sea to know just how bad it would be - but she had seen him become considerably weakened by seawater in the past on the odd occasion that he had been drenched in the stuff. She silently hoped that the other crewmembers had been as diligent as she always was, and remembered Captain Smoker's weakness, and were there to assist him as need be.

 

Tashigi paused, something slowly sinking in her stomach. During the storm, she had been pleading with who she had thought was Zoro to release Captain Smoker - did that then mean that she had, in fact, been pleading with Captain Smoker to spare Zoro's life? What would Captain Smoker think of her, begging him to spare the life of a pirate? Tashigi gasped, her heart thumping in her chest as her mind began to race. What if Captain Smoker had fallen into the water and drowned after she left the ship? She would be to blame for his death!

 

“Hey Takeshi, let's go.”

 

Tashigi gripped at the railings of the ship, looking down at the water below, her eyes growing wider and wider as she found herself picturing Captain Smoker sinking slowly into the dark depths of the sea and drowning, his body lying alongside her rusting Shigure.

 

“Takeshi, come on!”

 

Tashigi began to feel her head spin, and she was forced to step back from the railings as she could no longer trust herself to keep her balance and not fall over into the water herself.

 

“Hey, Major Stupidity, do you want to train with me or not?”

 

Tashigi clasped a hand to her chest, the desperate thought that if Captain Smoker had perished, perhaps no-one would notice her gone, and she would be doomed to spend the rest of her life as a Straw-Hat Pirate.

 

“Takeshi!”

 

“Tashigi!” she roared, spinning around and almost bashing into Zoro.

 

“Right,” he said slowly. “Are you ready?”

 

Tashigi stared blankly at Zoro for a moment her preoccupied mind taking longer than it should have to register just how close she was standing to him.

 

“Okay,” she said lightly. “But obviously, I don't have a sword.”

 

Tashigi grasped the redundant scabbard at her hip for emphasis, at which Zoro's eyes dropped downwards, before slowly trailing back up to hers.

 

“You can use my Yubashiri, it's the lightest sword I have,” he offered.

 

“Right, thanks,” Tashigi replied, nodding her head.

 

Tashigi waited for Zoro to say something or to at least move, but he did neither. He was standing so close to her, she could feel the heat off of his body, and she could see a small scarlet tear by his jaw-line where he had obviously nicked himself shaving.

 

“Maybe we ought to start off with your technique,” he eventually said.

 

“Okay,” Tashigi agreed, feeling a little wary that he still had not stepped back from her.

 

Tashigi wanted to scream when Zoro did not continue his thought, her mind slowly wandering to the proposition he had made to her the night before. Tashigi then found herself being the one to step back and turn away as her face began to burn.

 

“Here,” Zoro said gruffly.

 

Tashigi shifted her eyes to peek at Zoro through her hair, marginally relieved to see that he was holding out his sword towards her. She turned towards him a little more, taking hold of the hilt in one hand. Zoro promptly released his hold of the sword, the sudden weight catching Tashigi off-guard. She heard Zoro growl out a displeased groan as his sword fell to the deck with a clatter.

 

“You're so damn uptight!” he muttered.

 

Tashigi hesitated, remembering that he had used those words the night before, her awkwardness multiplying. Feeling nervous, Tashigi knew her clumsiness would only become a bigger problem, and she tried to breath slowly and deeply, reaching to retrieve the sword. She looked up at Zoro as she picked it up, her eyes flitting down to his right hand, which was loosely cradling his other two swords.

 

“You need to relax a little more,” he suggested as she slowly stood before him. “Be more fluid, you know? You're very tense and rigid when you hold a sword. Using a sword is like…”

 

Tashigi clutched the Yubashiri to her chest as she waited for Zoro to continue, inwardly questioning if she was doing the right thing, since her mind was completely tied up thinking about her poor lost Shigure, the fate of her commanding officer and reliving Zoro's drunken behaviour the night before.

 

“It's like dancing.”

 

“Dancing?”

 

Tashigi tilted her head curiously as she watched Zoro waved a hand through the air as though he was trying to physically draw the thoughts out of his mind.

 

“Dancing, yes,” he confirmed. “It's like performing a dance. A powerful dance. You need to be loose but strong, you need to have rhythm, balance, coordination and a good understanding of your partner.”

 

Tashigi arched her eyebrows in mild surprise: she had not expected the ineloquent pirate to pull of such a cogent simile. She watched him place the Wado Ichimonji aside before withdrawing the Kitetsu.

 

“I'll make it easier for you, I'll only use one sword,” he offered, pointing the tip of the blade in her direction.

 

“Okay,” Tashigi agreed, drawing the Yubashiri. “That sounds fair.”

 

She tested the weight of the sword in her hand, silently noting that, whilst it was very light, the balance of the weight was not quite where she would have liked it to be - but she refused to back down from either the challenge of fighting Zoro or the opportunity to hone her skills.

 

“A powerful dance, got it,” she said with a nod of her head.

 

Tashigi had barely readied herself when Zoro came at her with as much vigour as he did when they had fought in the past, leaving her wondering if he was remembering that this was meant to be a training session. Or, she thought desperately as she fended him off, perhaps Zoro did not know how to take things easy when it came to using his swords.

 

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

 

“What the hell are you two doing?” Smoker demanded, scowling at the two idiot officers prancing around in circles in front of him.

 

“We're learning a new dance to show Captain Hina how much we admire her!” the one named Fullbody replied.

 

“Do you want to dance, Captain Smoker?” the one named Jango asked.

 

Smoker stared blankly at the ex-pirate as he leapt forwards, dangling an odd little metal ring in front of his face.

 

“What is this?” he asked quietly, pointing at the object; which - in his opinion - was sharp and looked more like a weapon than something a junior officer could be trusted with.

 

“Instead of telling you, why don't I just show you?” Jango offered, waving a hand around mystically. “The power of the dance will be yours!”

 

“Shut-up and get back to work,” Smoker snapped, grabbing the ring from his hands.

 

“You shouldn't under-estimate the power of the dance!” Jango warned him.

 

“And you shouldn't under-estimate the power of my fist, now get back to work!” Smoker growled.

 

Jango began to skulk away from him at last, muttering complaints under his breath. Smoker shook his head in despair, opening out his hand to inspect the ring for himself. Just as he had suspected, the metal was sharp, and had left hairline lacerations in his palm. With every passing hour, Smoker was becoming more convinced that Hina had gone insane. She had always been a little unorthodox, but some of the things he had witnessed since their crews had merged and taken off in pursuit of the Straw-Hat Pirates were simply bizarre.

 

Closing his fingers carefully over the metal ring, Smoker looked up, finding Jango standing on the upper deck, tying something to a piece of rope. Curiosity getting the better of him, Smoker watched as the idiot turned around, holding the rope up and allowing the attached item to dangle down. Smoker took two steps forward, planting his hands on his hips expectantly as he watched to see just what Jango intended to do with an old barrel lid tied to a piece of rope.

 

“One…” he said loudly, drawing the attention of everyone around him as he began to swing the rope back and forth. “Two… JANGO!”

 

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

 

Zoro stopped himself, stepping back as he patiently allowed Tashigi to rest for a moment. She was quite skilled, he silently admitted, but not nearly disciplined enough or confident enough to be a serious threat to him. And, despite his best efforts to get her to focus, she still appeared to be distracted, as if something mortifying was weighing on her mind.

 

“I'm-I'm sorry,” she said breathlessly.

 

“Five more minutes and we're done,” Zoro warned her.

 

“Are you taking my resting time off of our training session?” she asked.

 

“Of course I am!” Zoro quickly replied. “We agreed twenty minutes, I can't waste my own time just because you're can't keep up with me!”

 

To Zoro's surprise, the girl nodded her head, wincing slightly as she tried to straighten her back. As Zoro watched her try to fight off her exhaustion, he became aware of something blue and white moving in the water off one side of the ship. Casually lifting his head, Zoro started in alarm at the sight of a navy ship, heading for them.

 

“Hey Luffy!” he yelled. “Luffy!”

 

Zoro frowned as he located Luffy, standing in between Usopp and Nami, who were all having a hushed argument about something. Turning to Tashigi and finding her still doubled over and useless, Zoro then made his way over to the others, helping himself to a pair of binoculars sat nearby and training them onto the navy ship.

 

“Zoro!” Nami hissed as the ship came into focus before his eyes. “Zoro, you have to hide Tashigi!”

 

Zoro stared, unblinkingly, barely able to believe what he was seeing.

 

“But Smokey is after us too!” Usopp pointed out. “I say we put Tashigi in a lifeboat and get out of here!”

 

“No!” Nami hissed. “We have to protect Tashigi!”

 

“Protect Tashigi?” Luffy echoed. “From what? That's her crew, isn't it?”

 

“Luffy, could you be any more stupid?” Nami growled. “Zoro, you understand, right? If Tashigi sees that, she'll go crazy! Get her below the deck, and keep her there until they've passed!”

 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Zoro asked loudly, lowering the binoculars to look at Nami. “I don't see the problem. Smokey's on that ship, he must be looking for Tashigi. I agree with Usopp, put her off the ship and let the navy take care of her.”

 

“Zoro, did you even see what they're doing on that ship?” Nami snapped.

 

“Yeah, they're dancing!” Zoro replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “Looks like they're having fun, I'm sure General Disaster will be happy to go back to them.”

 

Nami began to grind her teeth, snarling out an animalistic noise of frustration. Zoro could not understand why she was so concerned - unless of course her money-oriented mind thought they ought to hold Tashigi for a ransom after all. Zoro turned his head at the sound of the girl in question joining them, watching as she squinted at the ship desperately.

 

“Here,” he said, handing her the binoculars he held.

 

“Zoro!” Nami snarled, stamping a foot at him.

 

Zoro shrugged his shoulders at her, at which she began waving her hands about as though trying to speak to him in some odd form of sign language, which eventually ended with her jabbing a finger in Tashigi's direction. Turning back to the marine, Zoro saw she was holding the binoculars a short distance from her eyes, and she looked as though had just seen a ghost.

 

“What the hell's her problem?” he asked anyone who cared to listen, frowning as Nami rolled her eyes at him.

 

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

 

Next Chapter: An unusual salute, a stolen kiss and waking up in someone else's arms with no idea how it happened: sadness, confusion, but above all, unrestrained anger… Chapter 10 - A Woman Scorned.