Marimo and the Maiden
Chapter 2
Roronoa Zoro stood rooted to the spot as Tashigi rose out of the lake. A blush quickly found its way to his cheeks as he observed her lack of attire. The swordswoman however didn't seem to notice as she glared at the blurry green figure standing by the entrance to the clearing.
"Who are you and what do you want?" she called out.
"Uhm, ahh, no one!" Zoro stammered, unable to get out the words he wanted.
A thousand thoughts were rushing through his head, and he was unable to process them. Here she was, that blasted marine that looked so much like her; the very figure that haunted his nightmares from time to time. And she was naked. Zoro was normally in control of emotions, but this time it seemed they had deserted him.
Even though it would seem to most that Zoro isn't interested in women, he is indeed a full blooded male. And while he was not as open about his thoughts of the opposite sex as Sanji was, he was a man, and he found the nude female body arousing.
These somewhat pleasant thoughts collided with the more negative ones in his mind, and the result left him speechless. Perhaps if it was another woman that he saw in the nude he would've reacted better, but it just had to be Tashigi; the woman that was so much like her, yet so different. It took him a few moments to compose himself, although to him it seemed like an eternity.
"Mind your own business!" he managed to say.
Tashigi frowned, and opened her mouth to respond, before she noticed what she was wearing. Her cheeks turned red, first in shock, then in anger. "Why you pervert! Stay right there! When I get a hold of you I'll send you straight to Impel Down!" she waded out of the water as quickly as she could and threw a towel she had placed behind the rocks around herself. She quickly picked up Shigure and turned to the edge of the clearing only to find it empty.
"You bastard! Don't think you can hide from me!"
With that she took off into the forest with a speed she didn't know she had.
A few metres away the object of her fury was hiding behind a tree, panting furiously and still red in the face. He heard her calling after him but he didn't respond. He didn't want to face her, but he didn't want to run away either. His legs fought against his inner desires, but his mind prevailed, and he felt as if he had some business he needed to take care of. He was broken from his thoughts when he heard a snap and a loud woosh of air which reminded him of the many times his captain had launched himself up to the crow's nest with his rubber arms.
"Kuso." muttered Tashigi.
She was running after the pervert when she felt her foot fall into a hole, and before she knew it she was hoisted up into the air by a rope, and found herself looking at the trees from behind a net.
'Well at least I'm clothed.' she thought to herself before the blush from her earlier embarrassment returned to her cheeks.
She couldn't believe her misfortune. First she had been seen in the nude by a pervert, in an area which she thought was deserted. Then as she was chasing after the bastard she had fallen into the most simple of traps. And now she sat tight in a net, like a rabbit awaiting his demise. She cursed her bad luck.
Meanwhile, Zoro was debating with himself on what to do. He heard the snap, and he had been in enough situations to know when someone had been caught in a trap. A part of him wanted to leave her, to be rid of her and the thoughts she brings for good. But another part of him wanted to help her, because despite everything, she reminded him so much of his childhood friend. But Roronoa Zoro was not an evil person, and the goodness in his heart prevailed as he stepped out from behind the tree and walked towards the trapped woman.
Tashigi heard the sound of footsteps, and looked up to see the green headed swordmsan come near her net. A brief moment of joy at the thought of being rescued passed her thoughts, before she remembered just who it was that had come. "Oh, it's just you Roronoa." she said as she looked at the pirate hunter.
She spied his stony face, and saw that it was devoid of emotion. "Well, what are you doing here?" she asked him.
Zoro took a moment to respond. "Just out for walk. What's it to you?" he replied, face as emotionless as ever.
"There was a pervert around here a few moments ago. I was chasing after him as I had planned on castrating him," she thought she saw Zoro's eye twitch, but she dismissed it quickly. "You haven't seen him around have you?"
"No, I haven't seen anyone in this forest apart from a couple of birds. What are you doing here?" he looked at her again. "And why are you dressed like that?"
Tashigi blushed again, but quickly composed herself. "I just happened to be taking a bath in the lake when I sensed something was wrong. When I got out of the water I saw a pervert looking at me," she looked at Zoro's face once again, but there was no discernible emotion there, so she continued. "I rushed out of the water and picked up my towel and sword and ran after the bastard, but I ended up getting caught. But I swear on the Marine Employees Handbook, I will find the guy who saw me naked, castrate him and then send him to Impel Down!" she spoke with a fire in her eyes.
"That poor guy." Zoro muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
She looked at his face closely again, but like before she could see no emotions. "So are you going to help me out?"
"Why should I?"
A vein popped in Tashigi's forehead. "Because I said so! I am a marine under the command of Smoker-taisa, and I demand that you get me out of this net!"
"And I am a pirate under Monkey D. Luffy. What makes you think you have the authority to tell me what to do?" Zoro retorted, a slight hint of anger breaking his stony facade.
"Of all the people that I could've asked to help me it just had to be a pirate," the bespectacled woman sighed. "Make no mistake Roronoa! This is as hard for me to ask as it is for you to do, but right now you're the only one that can help me. So will you?" she asked, a slight look of desperation in her eyes.
To her surprise Zoro sat down cross legged in front of her and crossed his arms. "No."
"Then why are you sitting down there?" she demanded, her anger building.
"Because I feel like it." the stony faced swordsman answered.
Tashigi had heard enough. The calm facade she was keeping broke and she lashed out at the pirate. "Curse you! You filthy pirate! I should've expected as much. It's because I'm a woman isn't it?" his eye clearly twitched this time, but she continued her tirade. "It's because I'm a woman that you won't help me, isn't it? You think I'm not good enough to be helped? Well you can go to hell! But not before I take that beautiful Wado Ichimonji from your cursed being!"
That broke the straw for Zoro, and he leapt to his feet, face red in anger. "Who are you to talk about this sword so freely when you have no idea what it means to me?" he shouted. "You sit there and talk about ideals so similar to hers, and then you lay claim to hermost prized possession!"
"What the hell are you talking about Roronoa?" A now startled Tashigi enquired, but Zoro wasn't done with his tirade.
"And to top it all off, you have to look exactly like her! It drives me insane!"
"Oh, so this is about one of your old girlfriends looking like me? Grow up Roronoa!" Tashigi spat out with a hint of smugness.
Zoro was now at breaking point. "You couldn't be any more wrong you stupid woman! She was my childhood rival who died before she could even set out to accomplish her dream!" Zoro finished, face crimson with rage.
All the anger faded from Tashigi's face as her mouth opened in shock. "I'm sorry." she said softly.
"It's ok, you didn't know." said a now calm but still slightly red faced Zoro.
He sat down cross legged on the grass again, and for a while neither of them spoke, until Tashigi broke the silence. "Tell me about her."
The swordsman hesitated for a second, but gave in to her request. "Her name was Kuina. She was the daughter of my sensei," he looked at Tashigi who was silent, a sign for him to continue. "She was the only person I could never beat. We dueled 2001 times and she won every single time."
The dark haired woman's eyes widened, before she found her voice again. "She sounds like a great person."
"She was. And she was like you in so many ways, which is why it's hard for me to even look at you."
Tashigi was now very curious, and decided to ask the question that had been bothering her the most. "What happened to her?"
Zoro too a deep breath. He knew he would be asked this question ever since he had resolved to tell her about Kuina, but that didn't mean he was looking forward to it. "I challenged her to a duel with real swords and lost badly. But she believed that because she was a woman she would eventually grow weaker and lose to me in strength, and be forced to give up the life of a swordsman. That's what she was told by her father."
Tashigi's eyes narrowed and a frown found its way to her face. "That sexist bastard! How dare he!" she shouted.
Zoro stared at her curiously, and she blushed from embarrassment. "I'm sorry. Please continue."
The swordsman nodded and resumed his story. "When she told me that it pissed me off, and I told her that it's willpower, not strength, that makes a swordsman, and that if I surpassed her one day it would be because of my own skill. After that we promised each other than some day one of us would become the world's strongest swordsman," Zoro sighed. "The next day she fell down the stairs and died."
Tashigi gasped and put her hand over mouth. "That's awful. I'm so sorry." she said softly.
"It's ok. After it happened I asked her father if I could have her sword, Wado Ichimonji, so that I could fulfil our shared promise. But even if I do become the strongest swordsman in the world, she will always remain the only person I failed to beat." he said dejectedly.
The bespectacled woman looked at him with a newfound respect. "That's a very noble thing you did. And I'm sorry for thinking you were just another horrible pirate."
"It's ok."
She looked at him for a moment, before her voice became stern once again. "I respect your promise, but I won't give up trying to take those meito from you!" she paused for impact. "I am my own woman and I have my own goal, which is to take back the meito from all the pirates in the world! And nice guy or not, you're still a pirate!"
She looked at him for a reaction, but didn't get any. "What do you have to say to that?" she said with an air of authority.
Zoro just looked at her calmly. "I don't care. You have your own goals and I respect that." he looked up at her with a smug grin. "But that doesn't mean you'll ever take my swords."
A vein throbbed in the swordswoman's forehead and her eyes once again narrowed in anger. "Why, you! I was wrong about you! You're just another typical pirate!" she shouted.
Zoro laughed at her outburst, so she continued her shouting. "Damn you Roronoa you egotistical bastard! I challenge you to a duel!"
The Santoryuu user stopped laughing and stroked his chin as if he was deep in thought. "Hmm, I suppose I can give you that much." he replied.
The anger left Tashigi's face and her eyes widened in happiness reminiscent of a child's. "Really? You have no idea how long I've waited for this!" she said excitedly.
Zoro just grunted. A silence passed between them for a while, and Tashigi, once again growing irritated, decided to break it. "Roronoa?"
"Hmm?"
"Why am I still in this net?!"
AN: I'm not super pleased with how this chapter turned out. I knew it would be longer than my previous chapter but I didn't expect it to be this dialogue heavy. The dialogue itself was a pain in the ass to write too. I tried to keep it in character and didn't want to make it too angsty and melodramatic (I hate that stuff), as well as keep some of the traditional One Piece humour, but it wasn't easy trying to write these two characters in this situation. But in the end I think I did a decent job.
Also, I'm never going to be the type of author who demands an x number of reviews before they post the next chapter. That's cheap. But I would really appreciate some feedback, especially since this is my first fanfic. Thanks to PinkWhalePJs for the review. This is one of my favourite pairings and it sucks that there aren't more Zoro x Tashigi stories on the site. And thanks to everyone who followed my story. You guys are awesome.