Tashigi hated green hair.
It wasn't some deep seated phobia or dislike, spurned from some childhood tragedy. No, it was much more of an acquired thing. A recently acquired distaste at that. Of course, anyone on Smoker's crew, and those who frequently got reports from the captain himself knew well enough how this sudden hatred developed.
So why now was she dreaming of a sea of green-haired people? Bad enough that one gave her fits and nightmares, now she had to dream of thousands of them? It wasn't even a fun dream either, just a crowd of ugly, sea green heads as far as she could see from whatever subconscious precipice she stood on. "What is going on..." she whispered to herself, unconsciously reaching up to try and adjust her glasses, only to find she didn't have them. "Wh...where are my glasses!" she shouted, searching the ground in front of her frantically with her hands in hopes of finding her spectacles. After a few minutes though, she heard a sickening crunch, heavy feet smashing down on fragile glass. With a gasp, she looked up from her knees, eyes wide to see...
"FIGHT ME DAMMIT!"
With but a gasp, Tashigi woke up, bolting upright in her hammock...or at least as well as her tangled covers would let her, which wasn't much. It WAS, enough, however, to set her off balance enough to spin out of her hammock and land unceremoniously on her face. "OW!" Groaning as the rest of her body followed her onto the floor, she laid there, cheek pulsing from the rattlng fall down. She stayed here for a few seconds, partly because, well...it's hard for anyone to get up after such an impact with solid wood. Flesh and bone against sturdy wood board isn't that good of a matchup after all. However, her main reason for staying like this, eyes staring off to the side at the wall next to her, was becase of that dream. That dream, the same damn dream she had been having since Alabasta. The green hair all around her. And it always ended the same way...
With that same familiar boy, with short sea green hair, with an angry look and two shinai in his hands, shouting for her to fight...
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One Piece:
Memories
By Kryptik
Chapter 1: Of Dreams and Denial
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Disclaimer: One Piece and is characters are the property and creation of Mr. Eiichiro Oda and should be treated as such. In other words, I own NO ONE in this story.
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It took Tashigi a good thirty minutes to clear her head after her rather uneventful fall. It took another ten or so to realize that she was the only one left in the barracks. Yet another five passed before she realized what time it was and rushed out of the barracks out onto the deck with a screech, hair deshevled and naught a worry about her state of dress. Punctuality, it had to be said was not exactly Tashigi's strongest suit.
Patience with Tashigi's scattered brain state was not one of Captain Smoker's strong suit's either. "OI! TASHIGI! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!" he shouted, prompting the Sergeant to rush down the stairs, still in her pajamas. She managed to make it down to the final step before she tripped over herself (a new personal record of hers), the poor disheveled Navy Officer set into a none too comfortable roll across the deck, coming to a stop right at the feet of the fearsome looking White Chase himself.
"...what are you doing?" Smoker asked her in his usual intimidating baritone, sharp eyes staring down irritatedly at the swordswoman.
"I-I-I'm sorry, Smoker-san, I must've..."
Rather than let her finish though, Smoker simply sighed, a puff of his trademark cigar smoke filling the air in front of him. "Nevermind. Just get up." Turning away from the apologetic Sergeant, the gruff Marine Captain quickly made his way to a table set out over the deck, chart after chart piled along the surface, with one in particular pinned down with a rather large knife.
"We got word from reconnaissance about the Strawhat Pirate's location since they left Alabasta," the Captain said, his leather gloved finger prodding down on one of the many string of islands along the Grand Line, specifically the one where the island of Alabasta lies. "It looks like they stuck around long enough for their log post to point them to the next island on the chain. This one…" He stabs his finger down again at the island just after Alabasta. "…Star-Crossed Island."
"Star-Crossed Island?" Tashigi repeated, trying to think of just what that name was supposed to invoke. A slight blush formed over her cheeks as she thought of one thing…
"Astronomy island. It's supposed to hold the best telescopes in the world…" a lesser officer quickly inserted, though he quickly faded under Smoker's stern glare. "….sir."
Smoker simply sighed, nodding before turning to Tashigi, his finger drawing across the map into the sea between Alabasta and Star-Crossed Island. "Best estimate is that they're smack in the middle between two islands. If they stop there, their post will take a week to record. An eternal post is already on way from HQ, so we should be able to hit them before they can leave the island, unless they're fools." Of course, Smoker knew well enough that they weren't fools. Even if their captain was a bit dim, and the rest of the crew half-insane in their own right…fools don't go up against one of the strongest pirates in the world and beat him, especially one with the kind of power Crocodile had.
Tashigi meanwhile had other things in mind. Specifically, a certain green-haired bounty hunter. Roronoa… She fumed internally. While he redeemed himself slightly in Alabasta, she still couldn't forgive him, for fooling him at Rogue Town, as well as his stubborn refusal to fight her straight. Soon… "Un….this time, we'll be sure to capture them, right, Captain Smoker?"
Smoker gave Tashigi a look, one which most would wither under. Somehow, though, Tashigi simply took is assurance of her claim. Still, Smoker didn't outright agree with her, at least out loud. He simply barked out, loud as he can, "TO STAR-CROSSED ISLAND, FULL-SAIL!" An enthusiastic chorus of marines chanted back at him as they readied the sails. Even Tashigi joined in, thrusting her fist into the air with the others.
Yet something nagged her…that dream. And that kid……
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Usually, when it came to daytime on the Going Merry, the swordsman known as Roronoa Zoro could be found doing only one of two things: 1) Training or 2) Sleeping. Surprisingly, today, he wasn't doing either. Not for lack of trying, however. His eyes were closed, and he was leaning against the deck rail as he always did on his usual naps. The only problem was he couldn't actually get to sleep. Perhaps it was that ero-chef moping over not having Vivi to flirt with anymore. Maybe it was Nami splitting her attention between similar moping and obsessing over the jewels their new 'arrival' had given her. Maybe it was Ussop trying to convince Chopper of yet another one of his outlandish lies, and having an entirely too easy of a time. Maybe it was Luffy being…well, Luffy. Maybe it was even that damn Ms. All-Sunday, which everyone seemed to charm up to all too quickly.
But as annoying as most of those were, they alone weren't enough to keep Zoro from his nap. After all…he's slept through the worst kind of weather the Grand Line could offer. No, it was something a little more personal. The kind of thing that Zoro kept seeing when he tried to close his eyes, and kept thinking about the times he could manage sleep.
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"That is an order…"
"But Sergeant Major, this is our chance! While they're unconscious, we can…"
"Right now, I will not allow ANYONE to lay a hand on them!"
Amid the aftermath of a battle that nearly destroyed the country of Alabasta and deposited it into the hands of one of the cruelest masterminds in recent history, Tashigi was conflicted. However, despite the protests of her own soldiers, she had made up her mind. As if the rain, which had been so long denied to this country by Baroque Works helped cleanse her mind of any doubt she had over normally would be an unthinkable offense for a Marine such as her. But it had to be done. She, the Marines…this whole country owed a handful of pirates for the salvation of their country. Even if medals were out of the question, rewarding them with capture wouldn't be justice of any sort. And any protest from her officers…well, that was simply met with a stern glare, one which chilled them to the bone. A glare that they would have expected from Captain Smoker, not their clumsy Sergeant Major.
As the marines shuffled off, conveniently 'ignoring' the passed out Straw Hat pirates in the middle of the city street, Tashigi sighed. She gave the group one a look over before turning away, looking toward the center square, where King Nefertari Cobra was no doubt addressing the people, the long looming threat of revolution finally vanquished.
"Don't think this is some favor I'm doing you. You saved this country…and for that, I'm grateful. But just because I curse my own lack of strength to help save this country doesn't mean you're not still criminals. Roronoa…and the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates…one day, I will help stop you." Looking back, she held a heavy glare toward the slumped over form of Zoro, frowning. "And I will take back those swords from you…I swear upon my life, as a Marine and as a Swordswoman…" With those final words, barely a whisper fallen upon deaf ears, she marched off. After all, Smoker was likely waiting for her to come back…
As she left, though, a grunt escaped Zoro, the San-To-Ryuu master barely cracking his eyes open. Even in his utterly exhausted state, he couldn't ignore the commotion the marines made. Sure, he could sleep through a storm, but with enemies like the Marines about…well, it would be shameful for a swordsman like him to be caught off guard. As Tashigi walked off, Zoro's eyes opened a little more, watching her back as she made her way back to port.
"Damn woman…"
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(I could swear….) Zoro thought to himself. (She looked even more like her than before…) Thinking back to the glare she gave her subordinates as she ordered them to keep from touching the fainted Straw Hats, Zoro could only find frustration. (What is with that annoying woman!) he thought angrily, clutching a sword tightly in his hand. Aborting his attempted nap, he looked to his side…grimacing as he noticed just WHICH of his swords he had brought his hand to: Wado Ichimonji. (Geh….it figures.) Muttering, he opened his eyes up wider, looking up to the bow, looking at where the captain sat, as he always did.
"Oi, Luffy. You know where we're going?" the swordsman called out, prompting the captain to look back, hand holding his hat in place as he gave his unofficial first mate a somewhat blank look.
"Mmm? Where? Sure!" Luffy paused for a moment, as if thinking to himself before turning away, a hand cupped to his mouth. "Oi, Nami! Where are we going!" The Navigator, looking up from her newly acquired horde of jewels blinked as her name was called.
"Huh?" Quickly switching away from her starstruck state, she looked over to the charts out on the table nearby. "Oh…Star-Crossed Island," she read off rather matter-of-factly from a chart thankfully offered from the Royal Family to give them fair warning as to what to expect from the islands further down the chain. As if right on cue, Sanji came in, a long flowery speech over turbulent love, directed at both Nami and Robin…but Zoro tuned it out, looking down as he brow furrowed.
(Why do I have a bad feeling about this?...)
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