The Tiger Beneath the Sakura Tree

Chapter 3

That night, Zoro and Sanji sat down and stared at each other for minutes on end as they got back to their cell. They both seemed to share the vibe, which was one of depression, annoyance, embarrassment, and confusion.

"What happened to you?" Sanji asked, finally breaking their dark staring contest to light up.

Zoro sighed. "Decided…for no good reason, that I'd rather take torture than tell them anything. Pretty stupid, considering you're telling them anyway."

"Nh," Sanji grunted, shrugging.

"Well. What about you?"

Sanji expelled a long, smoky breath. "I…don't think I can bear to tell you, to be honest, you son of a bitch."

"Same to you."

Sanji nodded. He sighed again. "How much longer are we going to be here?"

Zoro thought for a long few moments. "I'm not ready to leave yet."

This earned him a suspicious glance from Sanji. "Right. Your swords," he said in a testing tone.

Zoro blinked for a moment. "Right."

Sanji sat back in the chair with another big sigh, ready to admit that his suspicions about Zoro were correct. And if so, he might as well be honest too. "I groped that fucking lieutenant," he finally admitted.

"Why do you think I need to know that?" Zoro grunted, with absolutely no interest.

"You're not…surprised or anything?"

"Not really. Why should I be after all your horn-dogging all this time?"

"Well…" Sanji muttered, dubiously. "Yes, but that was with women. Just how desperate do you think I am exactly?"

That caused Zoro to stop. He raised his eyebrows and his eyes were wide. Suddenly Sanji's were too as he realized they had been having different conversations. "You…that…" Zoro took a deep breath, trying to articulate this impossible idea. "You were talking about…Abarai? Kuchiki's lieutenant? You were talking about the six foot fucking tattooed muscular man? Is that what you're trying to fucking tell me?"

Sanji was mashing his face up with his hands in agony. "You thought I was talking about Rangiku-chan…" he murmured in despair.

"Yes that is what I fucking thought." But now an evil grin started to spread across Zoro's face. "Oh, you've lost it. What will your dear Nami-san have to say I wonder?"

Sanji shot to his feet. "You say one word, and wax your pubes while you sleep."

Zoro bent over, laughing. "Oh, this is priceless. You say you groped him? Not the other way around? Ahh." He wiped away a tear from laughing. "You'll never be able to live this down. I can't imagine what you were thinking."

Now Sanji's expression grew cold. He calmly sat down and folded his arms in contemplation. "I'll admit, I didn't think much about it and he was pretty far out of my strike zone. You, my friend, have a far more serious problem."

Zoro's smile vanished. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"What does it mean? What do you think it means? Just what do you think your eyes are saying when you look at that stuffy captain?"

Zoro's cheeks gained a light blush, though his expression was murderous. "I dare you to say clearly what you're implying. Just try it."

"I don't mind," Sanji said, throwing up his hands. "I'm getting cabin fever anyway. Let's blast this place to hell while I tell you that you already have romantic feelings for that asshole, whether or not you've done anything about it yet." Zoro's fists clenched at his sides as his jaw muscles tightened. "Though judging from his reactions yesterday, I'm going to guess that you have. Well, macho man? How about it?"

There was a long, tense pause and then Zoro stood up and kicked his chair to the far end of the room. "Fuck you," Zoro barked, and he jumped up to his bunk and pretended to be asleep.

"We're not staying here," Sanji continued regardless. Then his enthusiasm faded and he smoked quietly. "We can't stay here. There's nothing for us here."

Zoro gritted his teeth silently. In his head he knew that was true. So why…why was he so drawn here? Why was one man important enough to abandon everything he believed in?

…

It shouldn't have been surprising, but after that, the 6th division officers left them alone for a while. And though a lower-level officer took them back and forth from the bathhouse, that was pretty much their only break from that cell and each other. One afternoon, Sanji was been sitting on his bunk, bouncing his knee while Zoro did one-arm pushups in the corner. His expression grew darker and darker and he smoked his cigarette down to the filter. Finally he flicked it away and rose to his feet, angrily tapping one foot.

"I'm going to break this fucking door."

Since he was exercising, Zoro didn't pay him any attention.

"I swear to God, I'm breaking this door. Right now."

Still silence from Zoro.

"Goddamn it! Are you at least going to try to stop me?!"

Finally, Zoro relaxed and got up to a seated position on the ground, wiping his forehead with the back of his arm. "Nope," he said finally.

"You know as well as I do, it would do not good! Why aren't you stopping me?!"

"Do what you want."

A vein popped in Sanji's forehead. "This is payback for what I said about you and that captain."

Zoro was silent for a moment. Then he turned over, and resumed his pushups.

Sanji desperately grabbed onto the bars and slid down them in hopelessness. "I can't take much more of this," he moaned, sliding down. "I'm going crazy. Locked in a room for over a week with this gorilla! Nami-san…are you there? Save me…" By this point he was on his knees, head and arms hanging despairingly through the bars.

At that moment, the door to the cell area opened. Sanji and Zoro's attention immediately turned there. Sure enough, it was Kuchiki and Abarai. They walked in solemnly, though surprisingly, even though days had passed since then, Abarai was blushing.

Kuchiki glowered at Zoro, much though he was largely expressionless, as always. "We will attempt one final interrogation on the two of you. If we do not glean the necessary information this time, stricter measures will have to be employed."

Zoro merely sighed, rising and dusting off his hands.

However, at the next moment, they heard a woman scream outside, followed by some shouting and sounds of a commotion. With his powerful legs, Sanji jumped off the ground, kicked off the top bunk and grabbed onto the bars of the window, easily crouching there against the wall so he could see outside.

Abarai's jaw had dropped and Kuchiki's eyes were wide. "Taichou…" Abarai murmured. "Did you see that? It wasn't shunpo…was it?"

Kuchiki closed his eyes in annoyance. "No. It seems that at least in that man's case, the claims that they do these things using pure physical strength is true. And I fear…we may need to make them a stronger cell."

"What is it?" Zoro asked Sanji.

Sanji frowned, looking around. "I can't see much, there's so many little pathways, it's like a maze. Wait, there's some people running and…holy shit!"

"What?!"

"I've never seen anything like it, it was a gigantic, black thing with a white mask…like some kind of ghost!"

Kuchiki and Abarai immediately turned to one another. The next moment, a grunt came in crying, "Kuchiki Taichou! An adjucas somehow chased some members of a patrol team back into Soul Society! It keeps killing people, and we can't get near it!"

"Very well. I will-"

The shinigami was already shaking his head. "Normal techniques don't work. It has a way of sealing off reiatsu, sir!"

"Permanently?"

"We don't know yet."

Kuchiki thought for a moment. "In that case, we have no choice…"

And then, "Hey."

Kuchiki and Abarai turned to look back in the cell. Sanji jumped down, then lit up as Zoro grinned at them.

"Sounds like you could use a hand," Zoro said, some of his energy returning at the thought of leaving this cell.

Sanji gave a demonic grin with his cigarette clenched between his teeth. "It's true. Apparently you need some monster-killing. Did we ever tell you how we almost killed the Kraken?"

"And I'm pretty sure I did mentioned how I killed a dragon."

As they were talking, the two of them walked toward the bars. Now Sanji leaned one shoulder there, folding one leg across the other, and Zoro clapped his hands against them. With his shirt of and his hungry grin, he looked as if he could tear them apart with his bare hands.

"How about some swords?" Zoro asked, darkly.

Kuchiki observed him for a moment. Two pairs of black eyes met and seemed to electrify the air between them. Then Kuchiki closed his eyes, and he merely turned away in annoyance. "I will go," he said, and began to walk away, followed by Abarai and the lower ranking shinigami. "And where is Zaraki Kenpachi?" he asked as they left.

Zoro sighed. "Worth a try," he muttered. Then he glanced at Sanji, who was still leaning there contentedly, smoking away as if nothing was happening. "Hey, asshole," Zoro grunted.

"What, asshole?"

"Do it."

"You do it."

"No swords, dickhead."

"Use your head. It'd be more useful as a battering ram anyway."

"I'll use your head. I'll hit you so hard you'll go bald. I really want to see you going around with asymmetrical eyebrows all the time."

Sanji bit his cigarette in half, his rage from the past few days at its absolute peak. "Fucking hell!" he roared, then easily crashed the bars off their hinges. They blasted all the way to the other side of the room in a cloud of dust and debris, leaving a sizeable dent in the wall beyond. Sanji spit out the remains of his cigarette. "Happy?!"

In a rare show of camaraderie, Zoro clapped Sanji on the shoulder as he walked out. They looked around. Then Zoro went to a cabinet where he'd seen them take out spare uniforms.

"What do you want with those?" Sanji demanded.

"I need to find out where my swords are. Anyway, it'll be easier to move with these."

"You need to…" Sanji sighed heavily, rubbing a crease between his eyebrows. "You absolutely moron. That guy's house is a five minute walk from here. You're telling me you came all the way here not knowing that?"

Zoro stopped riffling through the clothes for a moment, trying to cover his embarrassment. "Well, if you know where it is, then we don't need to ask. But it would still be easier to move around if we wear these."

Sanji scoffed. "You be my guest. I'm from North Blue. I will not look good in those clothes, trust me. I have an image of like a yellow worm coming out of a black bowtie," he commented, drifting off irritably.

"Whatever. In that case I could just pretend to be escorting you somewhere."

"Let's go with that. It has a certain idiotic scheme-type charm."

"I hope you bite your tongue the next cigarette you light."

They crept stealthily out into the hall. Fortunately there was so much going on, no one really noticed. They passed by an empty room, then Zoro stopped and picked up a sword that was lying there. Sanji raised an eyebrow.

"You sure you want to do that? It might be one of their crazy, magic swords."

Zoro unsheathed it a few inches, feeling it out. Then he shook his head. "Nope. Nobody in here."

"I find it very unsettling that you can do that."

They came out into the open and even battle-hardened men like them felt shaken by what they saw. There were three or for shinigami in the courtyard alone, lying dead.

"Cook," Zoro muttered.

Sanji was unusually silent for a moment, then he lit up. "We have a job to do. Keep going."

Zoro had to admit that this was true, but it seemed pretty cowardly not to help. They walked out into one of the alleys. Suddenly, a shinigami came flying past in one of the cross streets. Sanji's cigarette fell out of his mouth. It was Abarai. He was kneeling now, panting in the dirt, glaring back the way he'd been thrown from. The lieutenant's bright red hair was flying freely around his face and shoulders, mixing with the blood dripping down his face.

Shakily, he got back up. Sanji was already running toward him. He stepped in front of Abarai, facing the threat. Abarai gasped when he noticed him. "You…" he murmured.

"Goddamn it," Sanji grunted, reaching in his pocket for another cig. "You people. I'm going to go through twelve packs a day at this rate."

"Don't you mean twelve more?" Zoro commented, coming up beside them and looking toward the enemy.

"Take a seat, Marimo. I'll take Giant Monster Face over there."

"Hey…" Abarai murmured.

"You're dreaming," Zoro barked back. "Either way, we've both been shut in that cage for so long…"

Then they both chorused, "We need some fucking exercise!"

Byakuya was tossed back and landed hard against a wall. He was ashamed. Just taking away his reiatsu, and suddenly he was completely useless? The adjucas laughed at the sight of him.

"Shinigami captain," it croaked. "Oh, this is going to feel good."

It lunged toward him, obviously planning on taking a bite out of him, but suddenly into Byakuya's vision came a sword and a leg. Together they stopped his mouth before it reached Byakuya, and presently threw him off with a second, powerful strike which broke three of its teeth.

The adjucas staggered backward. "What is…you shouldn't be able to…"

Zoro glanced down at Byakuya. "It's just a suggestion, but I think you should get off your ass, Captain," he said.

Byakuya blinked at him. However, since now didn't seem the time for questions, he obeyed and rose.

Taking a puff, Sanji commented, "I've never cooked anything like that before. What do you think?"

Zoro considered. "Sashimi."

"You're joking. I think deep fried."

"Bad taste, as ever."

"I don't want to hear that from you." Sanji's foot lit up in a blaze, and he ran toward the beast, who was still recovering. "Haven't done this in a while. How fun," Sanji said, grinning as he leapt into the air.

"Diable Jambe: Bien Cuit!"

Sanji spun in the air and landed a solid back kick to the creature's torso. A cloud of steam rose into the air, as well as a disgusting smell that was a mix of burning flesh and somehow dead rats for some reason. The creature screamed.

Sanji jumped back to join Zoro and Byakuya, holding his nose. "Sweet Jesus! If I'd have known it would smell that bad, I'd never have used Diable Jambe!"

Zoro shook his head, clicking his tongue. "I told you. Sashimi or nothing."

"I doubt that would make a difference!"

Byakuya's eyes were the size of dinner plates as he gaze at Sanji. Renji too had approached and was staring with equal disbelief. "Impossible," Byakuya murmured.

The creature was still wailing, then it turned toward them with hate. "You dare to do this to me…you'll regret it!" It began barreling toward them.

Sanji's leg went out. He stood there smoking, calmly. "You got this?"

"Yeah," Zoro replied. Byakuya and Renji were somewhat curious, but already on their guard, keeping an eye on the monster. "Well, this sword is a bit shit, but…I'll give it a shot, I guess."

He stepped forward into the creature's line of charging, then turned sideways and used one hand to curve his sword up and around toward his back. "36-pound…" he murmured, as the creature was mere feet away. "…cannon!" he cried, bringing his sword down.

The swirl of bluish white energy that was flung from the blade his the creature dead in the face, stopping it in its tracks. Its jaws worked absently for a moment. Then it murmured, "It's…not…pos-"

That was all it could say before it promptly disintegrated. There was a long moment of silence.

"See, there, you overcooked it," Sanji said, shaking his head.

"Ahh. Guess we'll have to eat out, then."

Sanji groaned loudly, though at this point they both started walking back toward their cell. "I haven't had enough exercise! I want to cook something!" His voice grew whiny and girlish. "It's been so long since I made delicious food for a beautiful woman. Wait for me, Nami-swan! Robin-chwan!"

Zoro bonked him on the head to turn him off. They bickered a bit more, but left Byakuya and Renji completely stumped in the dust behind them. Though they obediently went back to their cell (since A, they had blown off some steam and B, they were standing right in front of their captors), they neglected to but the door back on. So it was more of a hutch than a cell.

A couple of hours passed, and Zoro and Sanji assumed they'd been forgotten. Then Zoro sat up in his bunk, listening.

"What?" Sanji grunted.

"My swords…"

"What about them?"

At that moment, Byakuya and Renji came in. Byakuya was holding a piece of cloth, which had been wrapped around something heavy. He and Renji stood outside the (lack of a) door, evidently waiting for Zoro and Sanji to approach. Sanji seemed content where he was, but Zoro immediately jumped down and walked up to Byakuya, his eyes on the bag.

Byakuya held it up. "These are for you."

Much though he was extremely pleased to see them again, Zoro only accepted them hesitantly. He raised an eyebrow at Byakuya. "Are you sure? This seems like something you might get in trouble for."

"I have made your case to Yamamoto Soutaichou, who agreed with me that there is no longer any necessity to confine you, although you will be watched of course."

"Hm," said Zoro, dubiously. "Well we did save you, but didn't we also break out of prison? That's gotta be a crime."

"Yes, it would be," said Byakuya. Then he covered his mouth to clear his throat, innocently. "Fortunately for you, there was that gas main explosion, which ripped off your cell door."

Zoro and Sanji both looked at the captain in amazement. A straight-laced guy like this was openly lying for them? Sanji though absently to himself, "The big green Martian works fast."

"Well then. You may stay here for the night, and I will wish to talk to you more tomorrow, in detail, about your techniques. Goodnight."

With that, they started to leave. However, Zoro turned just in time to see Sanji wink at Renji as he was leaving. Even more amazingly, the red giant then turned even redder, cleared his throat and kept walking.

Zoro was staring at Sanji and making a disgusted face.

Sanji lay back on his bed, trying to pretend his face wasn't bright red at having been discovered. "You have something to say, green goblin?!"

"It can wait till after I'm dead and buried, and can't be disgusted by mismatched eyebrows making a pass at six-foot, red pineapples."

"Die in your sleep, Marimo."

"Don't let me wake up, Love Cook."