One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Misrepresented and Misunderstood ❯ Lessons of the Past ( Chapter 11 )

Recap: Tashigi was furious when she saw Smoker dancing with Hina and apparently not caring that she was stuck with pirates, Zoro showed her a little compassion and a little passion, and Smoker woke up with no idea what had just happened.

 

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Chapter 11 - Lessons of the Past

 

Finishing his dinner, Zoro became increasingly aware that Tashigi had not reappeared since she had run away from him earlier. It was growing dark outside and despite Robin calling on her and Nami going to attempt to coach her out twice, Tashigi still had not shown her face, even for dinner. Zoro briefly wondered if this was a result of something he might have done or said; but he quickly dismissed the idea again. After all, the only thing he had done was to bring her a towel and try to stop her from falling ill. Zoro's mind began to wander off, showing images of Tashigi falling ill, Luffy taking her pathetic form back to Smoker and Smoker losing his temper and smashing Luffy over the head with his jutte.

 

Deciding that such thoughts were neither healthy nor constructive, Zoro pushed his plate aside and stood from the table, moving quickly before anyone could call him back. Taking long, brisk strides, Zoro headed directly to the women's quarters, the one logical place Tashigi could have been hiding for so long. He knocked on the door, leaning one ear close to the wood to listen for a response. When she did not answer within a few seconds he knocked again, rapping his knuckles harder against the wood.

 

“Tashigi?” he called.

 

He waited another few seconds before pushing open the door and sticking his head into the room.

 

“Hey, Tashigi?”

 

Looking around the room, Zoro could not see Tashigi, or even any sign that anyone had recently been in the room.

 

“Damn girl!” he cursed, turning on his heel and heading up onto the deck, silently hoping that she had not decided to dive into the water again, like the idiot that she was.

 

Jogging around the deck, Zoro eventually heard a noise near the stern, and as he headed towards it, Tashigi came into sight, sat crouched over something. Continuing towards her, Zoro stumbled to a halt as she turned her head sharply in his direction and gasped in shock. Zoro froze, his eyes on the item cradled in her hands.

 

“I thought we made a deal,” he said quietly, pointing at the unsheathed Wado Ichimonji resting on her upturned palms.

 

“I-I'm so sorry Zoro!” she said hurriedly. “I just-I-I just had to see it!”

 

Zoro slowly eyed her over, the urge to grab his treasured sword back lessening as she looked up at him with childish fear in her eyes, looking just like Kuina, and making the sword seem as though it was in the hands of its truest master.

 

“It's just so beautiful…” she added meekly, gently placing the sword down on the deck next to its scabbard.

 

She smoothly rose to her feet, turning to look at Zoro, chewing on her lower lip as she frowned up at him with watery eyes.

 

“I'm sorry, I know I promised not to touch it ever again,” she said faintly.

 

“And you lied,” Zoro replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “Isn't lying a pirate's business? What sort of marine can't keep their end of a simple deal?”

 

To Zoro's absolute horror, Tashigi blurted out a strange noise, clamping a hand over her mouth and swiftly spinning on her heels to turn her back to him. Again, Zoro reflected on what he had just said, but again could find nothing wrong. Tashigi made another noise that sounded worryingly like a sob to Zoro, her shoulders shuddering as the sound left her throat.

 

“You're right,” she said faintly. “What sort of marine am I?”

 

Zoro pulled a face at her, silently wondering if he would ever understand women - surely she realised he had not meant her to take his every word so literally?

 

“Obviously not a very good one,” she continued, her voice breaking a little. “Since my commanding officer was celebrating finally getting rid of me, and didn't even bother trying to rescue me from the pirate ship he could see I was stuck on!”

 

Zoro slowly thought over Tashigi's words, casting his mind back to when she had first looked through Usopp's binoculars at the navy ship. She had looked horrified, and had started acting crazy afterwards, threatening everyone, sending an offensive “salute” to her commanding officer and finally jumping into the ocean in search of a sword she had lost miles back. Women tended to think in a bizarre and irrational way, Zoro thought to himself, so obviously this had something to do with Tashigi and Smoker's relationship. Thinking harder on the matter, Zoro remembered seeing a very attractive, tall, slender woman in Smoker's arms. She had been very attractive, Zoro thought with a small smile. In fact, he thought slyly, he could understand why Smoker looked so pleased with himself, holding onto such a woman.

 

“I've been so stupid!” Tashigi croaked out, awakening Zoro from his thoughts.

 

“What?” he echoed.

 

“I was so stupid… And now look at me! Without the navy to tell me what to do, I'm a total wreck!”

 

Zoro blinked at the back of her head curiously, the sound of another sniffle warning him that he needed to act soon to stop her from bursting into a hysterical fit of tears.

 

“That's not true,” he began slowly. “Because even without the navy, you still have your dream.”

 

“My what?” she muttered, casting him a sideward glance over her shoulder.

 

Zoro noticed a tear stain on her cheek, the sight of it forcing his mind to step up a gear.

 

“Your dream,” he said firmly. “You still have your dream. Without you and all your hard work, who will be there to reclaim the world's finest swords from the clutches of evil?”

 

Zoro tensed as he repeated his own words inside his head, feeling distinctly aware that he had been a little too over-dramatic.

 

“But…” she said softly. “I'm not very good at it…”

 

“Then work harder and get better at it!” Zoro quickly replied. “You mustn't give up! That's not the attitude to have!”

 

“I guess not,” she agreed, sniffling and dipping her chin, hiding her face from his view.

 

Zoro leaned slightly to one side, watching a teardrop inflate on her chin before falling to her feet.

 

“We'll get you back to the marines,” he tried, softening his voice in the hope of sounding sympathetic.

 

“I don't want to go back,” she said shakily.

 

“Of course you do!” Zoro said dismissively.

 

“I don't belong there any more!”

 

Zoro bit his tongue to stop himself from pointing out that she blatantly did not belong with a crew of pirates either, least of all his crew.

 

“I can't do it on my own,” she continued, turning to face Zoro, but keeping her head down. “I-I always had Captain Smoker to help me, I'm not strong enough on my own. My father was right. He told me when I was young that I could never be as strong as a man, and he was right. I've only been strong before because I've had Captain Smoker there to help me when things got too difficult for me.”

 

Zoro growled in frustration, silently wondering how many times he would have to listen to similar speeches whilst looking at Kuina's face.

 

“That's not true,” he said. “You don't need Smokey, you can achieve your dreams just fine on your own.”

 

She shook her head, another drop landing on the deck.

 

“Listen to me!” Zoro said firmly, grabbing her shoulders as he spoke. “You can do anything you want to, you just have to believe.”

 

She slowly lifted her eyes, looking up through her hair at him questioningly.

 

“You can,” he insisted.

 

She dropped her chin again, her face disappearing from Zoro's view behind her hair. Her shoulders shook in his hands as she began to sob. A sudden rush surged up through Zoro's chest, and before he could stop himself or even think about his actions, he had grabbed the girl against his chest, holding her in a tight embrace. Within seconds he began to feel the wetness of her tears through his vest, but the odd need to hold her close remained.

 

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Tashigi slowly withdrew the Wado Ichimonji, smiling as the blade lit up under the light of the setting sun. It truly was a masterpiece of craftsmanship, and probably the most beautiful, elegant and honourable sword she had ever had the pleasure to see up close. It was, she thought bitterly, immensely too graceful and wondrous for a scoundrel like Roronoa Zoro. It was not a sword she would ever consider keeping or using herself: it was much too fine and she could not entrust such an excellent sword to such a clumsy hand as her own. As she watched the blade gleam before her eyes, Tashigi began to feel an overwhelming sadness gripping her. She slowly lowered the sword, her mind wandering back to the sight of a navy ship passing her by at a painfully slow speed, her captain and what looked like most of his crew all dancing and celebrating. They had never danced or celebrated anything when she had been on a ship with them: was it possible that they had been celebrating getting rid of her?

 

Gently laying the flat side of the blade against her upturned palms, Tashigi lifted the famous Wado Ichimonji closer to her face, catching her own reflection in the metal. Her first thought was that she looked so entirely awful, her captain and crew probably had not even recognised her. Her hair was matted and unkempt, she was paler than usual, but still had pink blotches on her cheeks, forehead and nose where she had mild sunburn. Without her glasses she did, in her opinion, look like a child, which only made her all the more unrecognisable. She was still in her own clothes, having decided not to accept the offer of clothes from the female pirates. Tashigi's logic for not dressing in their clothes had simply been that she did not want to look like a pirate; but currently, she thought miserably, she looked more like a common bandit, and looking like a pirate was suddenly a much more desirable option.

 

Although the sight of all the marines dancing had been an odd one that Tashigi had yet to fathom, the most unusual and inexplicable thing had been seeing Captain Smoker waving at Straw-Hat Luffy. Ever since he had escaped Captain Smoker in Loguetown, Straw-Hat Luffy had been all that the marine captain had spoken about. When Tashigi had fist met Captain Smoker, he had told her that he prided himself on being posted in Loguetown, because he was stopping countless pirates from entering the Grand Line. But Straw-Hat had been a big enough force to make Captain Smoker abandon his post without a second thought, and yet he had simply grinned and waved when his sworn enemy sailed past him.

 

Tashigi began to wonder if Captain Smoker had secretly wanted rid of her so badly, he was actually going to let Straw-Hat walk free because his crew had taken her off his hands. Maybe, Tashigi thought fearfully, that was the reason for everything strange that had happened to and around her lately. Maybe Captain Smoker had wanted rid of her because she was useless, and now he had decided to merge his crew with Captain Hina's to allow them to spend more time together. Thinking more and more about the matter, paranoia began to chew at Tashigi's common sense: Smoker and Hina had been laughing and dancing when they saw her with the Straw-Hat Pirates, and in the past when she had walked in on the two of them in conversation, their behaviour had usually been as joyous and playful. Tashigi narrowed her eyes, memories of being alone with Smoker and Hina replaying in her mind.

 

Tashigi had always considered Hina to be a nice lady - a little eccentric and extremely ambitious, but always polite and kind. She had always said nice things to Tashigi, and so Tashigi had never found any reason to dislike the woman. Smoker had occasionally passed light insults against Hina's name when her name was raised in conversation, but Tashigi had thought little of it, since Smoker tended to say more bad of people than good. And when the two captains were together, they exchanged insults frequently - but again Tashigi had assumed this to be part of the nature of their relationship, since there had never seemed to be any malice behind their words. But, thinking more and more about things the two of them had said about her and to her, Tashigi began to suspect that she had completely misread both marines. Tashigi could particularly recall one instance where she had arrived back at the base late, after spending too long at the local sword shop - when she had returned, Captain Smoker had yelled at her as usual, asking what was wrong with her disappearing like she had, to which Hina had suggested, whilst smirking widely, that “Mister Smoker ought to get a lead for his little pet”.

 

At the time, Hina's odd words had always seemed like a strange form of humour to Tashigi - but spending time analysing Hina's words, Tashigi began to suspect otherwise. Calling her Smoker's “little pet” could be seen as amusing, but it also could just be a huge insult. And what of Hina's regular comment of “Mister Smoker, you have something trailing from your ankles - oh it's Tashigi”? Tashigi began to frown, her mood becoming increasingly negative. Was that smile Hina wore when Tashigi was speaking about her love of swords an amiable one or one of contempt and condescension? Did Hina think of her as one big joke? And what about Smoker? If the two of them were a couple - which their earlier performance dancing together so had seemed to confirm - did they then both share the opinion that Tashigi was just a liability?

 

Tashigi gasped as she remembered one particular instance when Hina had hidden her glasses from her, and proceeded to spend the best part of an hour laughing at her as she tried to find them again. Feeling thoroughly mortified by the idea of Smoker and Hina secretly laughing at her behind her back, the only thing left to make Tashigi feel even worse was knowing that she had been ignorant to it all for so long. Maybe, she thought miserably, that was why Smoker never wanted to listen to her talk about swords and why he got so angry when she spent time having her sword repaired or visiting a sword shop: he was in fact embarrassed of her and her obsession, and he did not like Hina laughing at him for having such a useless second-in-command. Smoker made no secret of the fact that he considered himself one of the strongest and most powerful men in the marines and so what use could he possibly have for a clumsy, short-sighted, sword-obsessed girl like Tashigi?

 

Tashigi felt her throat tighten again as tears began to threaten; but she did not have long to dwell on the idea, as the sound of footsteps moving quickly towards her back awoke her from her thoughts. Turning her head with a gasp of alarm, she saw Zoro slow to a halt behind her, his eyes locked onto the sword in her hands.

 

“I thought we made a deal,” he said quietly, pointing at the unsheathed Wado Ichimonji she still held.

 

“I-I'm so sorry Zoro!” she said hurriedly. “I just-I-I just had to see it!”

 

Tashigi stared up at Zoro, hoping that he would not be angry with her, as she did not have the energy or the will to fight him. His eyes wandered over her, an unreadable look on his face.

 

“It's just so beautiful…” she said, gently placing the sword down on the deck next to its scabbard.

 

She smoothly rose to her feet, turning to look at Zoro, chewing on her lower lip as she frowned up at him, hoping that she could get away from him without any sort of fight, verbal or physical.

 

“I'm sorry, I know I promised not to touch it ever again,” she said faintly.

 

“And you lied,” Zoro replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “Isn't lying a pirate's business? What sort of marine can't keep their end of a simple deal?”

 

Zoro's words were a sharp and venomous confirmation of everything she had just been worrying over, and they stabbed through Tashigi's fragile nerves, shattering what little self-control she had left. Her eyes blurred with tears and a pitiful sob left her throat. Hurriedly clamping a hand over her mouth in a vain attempt to hide her emotions, she turned her back on Zoro, holding her breath as she tried to suppress her cries. When she did allow herself to breathe again however, another whimper left her mouth, her shoulders jerking with the effort.

 

“You're right,” she confessed. “What sort of marine am I?”

 

Zoro did not answer her question, but Tashigi was not entirely sure that she had wanted him to anyway, since her ego could not take the wallop of another insult.

 

“Obviously not a very good one,” she continued. “Since my commanding officer was celebrating finally getting rid of me, and didn't even bother trying to rescue me from the pirate ship he could see I was stuck on!”

 

Tashigi sighed softly, a tear escaping one eye as her words were yet again met with silence. She knew she ought not to be so surprised: Zoro apparently was a man who had no qualms about expressing the extremes of his own emotions, but the moment someone else showed any emotion of their own, he panicked.

 

“I've been so stupid!” Tashigi added, her voice sounding pitiful to even her own ears.

 

“What?” Zoro echoed.

 

“I was so stupid…” Tashigi repeated, feeling mildly glad that he had at last said something. “And now look at me! Without the navy to tell me what to do, I'm a total wreck!”

 

“That's not true,” Zoro said after a short pause. “Because even without the navy, you still have your dream.”

 

“My what?” she muttered, casting him a sideward glance over her shoulder, genuinely curious to hear what he was about to say.

 

“Your dream,” he said firmly. “You still have your dream. Without you and all your hard work, who will be there to reclaim the world's finest swords from the clutches of evil?”

 

Tashigi arched her eyebrows in surprise that Zoro had said something that made her sound so important. She wondered if he had meant his words to sound they way they had, since he had put significant emphasis on them.

 

“But…” she said quietly. “I'm not very good at it…”

 

“Then work harder and get better at it!” Zoro quickly replied. “You mustn't give up! That's not the attitude to have!”

 

“I guess not,” she agreed, sniffling and dipping her chin, hiding her face from his view to prevent him from seeing her cry.

 

“We'll get you back to the marines,” he said in a gentle voice.

 

“I don't want to go back,” Tashigi whispered, her words containing more truth than she cared to think of.

 

“Of course you do!” Zoro said dismissively.

 

“I don't belong there any more!” she said decisively.

 

Taking a deep breath and slowly sighing out the air to calm herself down again, Tashigi tried to relax before she continued.

 

“I can't do it on my own,” she said, turning to face Zoro, but keeping her head down. “I-I always had Captain Smoker to help me, I'm not strong enough on my own. My father was right. He told me when I was young that I could never be as strong as a man, and he was right. I've only been strong before because I've had Captain Smoker there to help me when things got too difficult for me.”

 

“That's not true,” Zoro moodily replied. “You don't need Smokey, you can achieve your dreams just fine on your own.”

 

Tashigi shook her head, silently wondering why Zoro was even bothering trying to be nice to her all of a sudden.

 

“Listen to me!” Zoro said firmly, grabbing her shoulders as he spoke. “You can do anything you want to, you just have to believe.”

 

Tashigi looked up at him curiously, surprised to find him looking quite determined about his words.

 

“You can,” he insisted.

 

Tashigi looked down at her feet again, Zoro's sudden kindnesses only making her feel all the more pathetic and miserable. Losing what little self-control she had left, Tashigi began to cry openly, silently wishing Zoro would release her so that she could jump off the ship and dive beneath the water, hiding herself from the world. Just as she was considering running from Zoro, he suddenly stepped forwards, grabbing his arms around her waist and tugging her sharply against his chest, holding her a little more fiercely than she had either expected or even wanted him to. Stiffening in his arms, Tashigi half-expected Zoro to push her away again at any moment. But Zoro continued to hold her close, and the warmth of his body combined with the offer of emotional reassurance that she had been lacking for so long soon began to overtake her concerns. Pressing her face to his shoulder, Tashigi gently slid her arms around his shoulders and closed her eyes, relaxing into his embrace with a soft sigh.

 

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Smoker picked up another stone, moving his hand to add it to the pile he had created on the table before him. He knew that it was a somewhat fruitless exercise to do such things onboard a ship that was constantly in motion - but he desperately needed something to distract his mind. He was finding it hard to believe that the sun was setting on another day and they still had not seen any trace of Straw-Hat's ship. The thought of Tashigi spending another night with the pirates was almost too much for him.

 

Smoker placed the stone onto the top of the pile, watching it wobble a little before settling. He paused, thinning his eyes at the pile of stones before slapping a hand at the tower, scattering the stones over the floor of his cabin. He dropped his head into his hands, closing his eyes as he tried to contain the mounting rage within his being. The Straw-Hat Pirates had quite clearly been heading southwest when they left the island, and, since the marine ship Smoker was in was considerably faster, they should surely have caught up to the pirates by now.

 

“Mister Smoker,” Hina said loudly, shoving the door open and stepping into the room.

 

“Do you ever knock?” Smoker growled moodily, keeping his head down.

 

“Hina doesn't need to “knock” on any doors in her own ship,” Hina snootily replied. “Sitting here smashing rocks won't help anything, Mister Smoker.”

 

“Unless you're here to tell me we've caught up to those pirates, or that you know where they are, get out and leave me alone,” Smoker warned, lifting his head and slowly turning to scowl at Hina.

 

“Not exactly,” Hina said slowly, something in the tone of her voice capturing Smoker's interest. “Hina spoke to some of her junior recruits, and it seems we have been tricked, Mister Smoker.”

 

Smoker arched his eyebrows at her expectantly, but much to his annoyance, she did not continue.

 

“Tricked?” he pressed. “By who?”

 

“Well, first of all by two of my junior officers,” Hina replied. “And secondly by your little pet Tashigi.”

 

Smoker felt his face twist at the mention of Tashigi's name. He could not think of any form of trickery Tashigi would possibly get involved in, least of all turn on her own fellow marines.

 

“One of my junior officers is a former pirate, Mister Smoker,” Hina eventually continued. “He is a master hypnotist. He is close friends with another junior officer, and the two of them hypnotised most of our crew earlier today.”

 

Smoker began to shake his head to deny her words as nonsense - but the memory of suddenly waking up on the deck of the ship with Hina inexplicably attached to his side still made no sense to him, and so he remained silent, allowing Hina to continue.

 

“They hypnotised most of the crew, including you Mister Smoker, and even Hina herself,” she said sadly. “A few officers were not under their control, and they reported to me that, whilst we were all hypnotised, we passed a pirate ship in the water.”

 

“What?” Smoker growled, standing up abruptly.

 

“The ship had a red and white stripped sail, and a sail with the insignia of the Straw-Hat Pirates on it,” Hina said. “The ship had a ram's head at the front, and a row of orange trees near the back.”

 

“We passed Straw-Hat's ship?” Smoker roared. “When? Have we turned back yet?”

 

“No, Mister Smoker, we have not turned back,” Hina tightly replied. “And we are not going to turn back.”

 

Smoker narrowed his eyes, the increasingly angered look on Hina's face starting to bother him.

 

“Your pet, it would seem, has defected, Mister Smoker,” she hissed viciously, curling a lip at him as she spoke.

 

“What?” Smoker echoed.

 

“My men have described what they saw onboard the pirate ship. One of the women they described could only be Sergeant Major Tashigi. Several of our officers saw her standing with Straw-Hat and Zoro, and many more officers saw her run to the back of the pirate ship to salute us.”

 

Smoker stared incredulously at Hina, barely believing what he was hearing.

 

“Are you telling me that we passed the Straw-Hat Pirates and let them go,” he said darkly. “That we passed Tashigi without offering our help. And that she was trying to salute to us, and we left her there?”

 

“Yes,” Hina replied, looking suddenly bored with the whole affair.

 

“If this isn't a joke, you better have at least turned this ship around!” Smoker warned her.

 

“We had a deal, Captain Smoker!” she shouted, her face suddenly enraged. “I only agreed to go after her once!”

 

“What?” Smoker yelled. “That's it? Because we missed them once, you're giving up on me? What the hell is your problem?”

 

“The girl is my problem, Mister Smoker,” Hina coldly replied. “Hina warned you against going after girls who elope with pirates, and now all you have done is wasted a lot of time and a good ship. We ought to reach land by mid-day tomorrow, you and your crew will leave my ship there.”

 

Smoker clenched his hands into fists, silently wishing that Hina was a man so that he could punch her in the face without marring his conscience.

 

“We're turning this ship around, and we're going back for her,” he said quietly.

 

“No, Mister Smoker, we're not,” Hina stubbornly replied. “Tashigi has chosen to stay with the pirates, and no officer in his right mind would continue to chase after her now.”

 

Smoker eyed Hina over suspiciously, wondering if she was acting so viciously out of some form of resentment she felt towards Tashigi.

 

“Turn this ship around,” he said again. “And do it now!”

 

“No,” Hina replied, shaking her head.

 

“I'll do it with my own hands,” Smoker warned her.

 

“Try it, and you will find yourself at the bottom of the ocean.”

 

Smoker growled in frustration, the very idea that, with every passing second, the gap between his crew and Tashigi was growing larger scratching at his raw nerves.

 

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, hoping to at least reason with Hina.

 

“Why not ask some of the officers who saw Tashigi themselves?”

 

Smoker paused, the look on Hina's face telling him he would not get anything else out of her.

 

“Fine,” he said with a sigh, marching out of the room.

 

Moving through the bowels of the ship, Smoker passed several officers, all of who appeared to be trying to avoid him. Eventually he sighted Jango and Fullbody and, remembering the ring he had confiscated from Jango, he suddenly realised that the ex-pirate was the source of the problem.

 

“You!” he barked, pointing at Jango.

 

Jango turned his head to look back at Smoker, starting in alarm and moving to stand from his seat. Smoker grabbed a hand onto his shoulder, shoving him back down into his seat and holding him there.

 

“I hear we passed the Straw-Hat Pirates,” he growled. “What happened?”

 

“It was the power of the dance!” Jango replied.

 

Smoker turned to look across at Fullbody, who was sitting facing Jango.

 

“How about you?” he asked. “Can you tell me what happened, or do I have to throw you both overboard?”

 

Fullbody gulped audibly, his eyes widening.

 

“We were just having fun, Sir!” he nervously replied.

 

“The Straw-Hat Pirates,” Smoker pressed. “What happened?”

 

“We passed them, Sir,” Fullbody replied. “There were five of them onboard the ship.”

 

“Five?” Smoker asked. “Was Sergeant Major Tashigi with them?”

 

“I don't know Sir, I don't know who Sergeant Major Tashigi is!” Fullbody nervously replied.

 

“Sir, Sergeant Major Tashigi was onboard the Straw-Hat Pirates' ship, along with Monkey D Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, a further male pirate with a long nose and a female pirate with orange hair,” an officer offered, saluting Smoker as he spoke.

 

Smoker straightened away from Jango, roughly releasing his shoulder.

 

“And why was nothing done to recover Sergeant Major Tashigi?” he snarled, leaning towards the officer who had spoken.

 

“Well Sir, she appeared to be conversing with the pirates and they were laughing with her,” the officer replied.

 

“The pirates were laughing?” Smoker echoed. “That's not a valid reason not to help an imprisoned marine!”

 

“Sir, after talking with the pirates, she stood up and shouted on you Sir, and she… She made an offensive gesture at you, Sir.”

 

“Oh that was Sergeant Major Tashigi!” Fullbody blurted.

 

Smoker rounded on the junior officer once more, watching him cringe beneath his shadow.

 

“What happened?” Smoker demanded.

 

“She shouted “oi Chase, here's your salute, Sir” and she raised her middle fingers at our ship.”

 

Smoker froze, wondering if he had even heard correctly. Tashigi had raised her middle fingers at a navy ship? Tashigi? Surely not!

 

“Is that you?” Fullbody asked, fighting off a smirk. “Are you Chase?”

 

Smoker paused, wondering if there had been some sort of mistake. He had never heard Tashigi refer to him by his first name, and he was not even sure that she knew what it was; but it was even less likely that one of the Straw-Hat Pirates knew his name, which meant it probably had been Tashigi after all.

 

“Sir, Tashigi had a sword, and she didn't try to leave the pirate ship,” the marine next to Smoker added quietly.

 

“Are you sure it was her?” Smoker asked.

 

“Yes Sir,” the marine solemnly replied. “I wasn't the only one who recognised her.”

 

Smoker sighed lightly, an image of Tashigi standing on the back of the pirate ship sticking her middle fingers up at him flashing into his mind. It was not at all like Tashigi to do something so brash, which meant that perhaps Hina had been right all along. If Tashigi had chosen to join the Straw-Hat Pirates, the best thing Smoker could do, would be to return to Loguetown, he decided. After all, there was no point in pursuing her if she had chosen to run away and, by choosing to run away, she had just become a criminal - no longer Smoker's constant ally and aide, now Tashigi was his enemy and it was his duty as a marine to arrest her for such behaviour.

 

Smoker turned to Jango, briefly considering strangling him; but he decided against taking his anger out on Jango. Had Jango not hypnotised him, Smoker thought to himself, he would have been conscious to witness Tashigi's behaviour; at least this way he could remember her as the determined and kind girl that she had been in the years they had worked together.

 

“Round up my men, we'll be docking at the next island and returning to our post in Loguetown,” Smoker told his officer.

 

“Aye, Sir!” the marine replied, saluting him.

 

Smoker marched back in the direction of his quarters, hoping that he would make the journey alone. Unfortunately his luck appeared to just keep getting worse, as he entered his room to find Hina still standing more or less where he had left her.

 

“You see Mister Smoker, Hina was right again,” she said to him as he passed her. “Tashigi amused Hina too, but she was no marine. She was a nice girl, but a bumbling fool with no intelligence outside of her knowledge of swords. Hina thinks Mister Smoker liked the girl because, just like Mister Smoker, Tashigi didn't always stick to the status quo. She had a strange idea of justice, just like Mister Smoker does. I think she flattered your ego, and that was why you kept her around as long as you did.”

 

Smoker rounded on Hina, again forcing down his anger as he spoke.

 

“Hina?” he snarled.

 

“Yes, Mister Smoker?” she purred, pouting up at him.

 

“Eat shit and die, bitch!”

 

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

 

Next Chapter: Zoro is confused and angry when Tashigi does something stupid, Tashigi begins to understand why Zoro has such a problem with her face, and Smoker makes a reluctant confession to Hina. Chapter 12 - Facing the Truth.