((Author warning: this chapter contains BS use of observation Haki cause I still haven't gotten to the point in the series where Rayleigh just FLIPPING SITS DOWN AND EXPLAINS WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON WITH HAKI and yes I have googled it and get the general gist so I apologize that this might deviate from some of the One Piece universe rules. But, ah, I feel like I already created a fictional scary Navy base so what the heck. Why not add incorrect Haki use to my list of non-cannon sins as well. Anyways, thank you for your patience and understanding and I apologize in advance.))

Tashigi POV:

Item 77 was a bronze rubber duck, item 79 an intricately molded cooking utensil. In-between them? the faint outline of a square in the otherwise dusty shelf surface.

"no, no..no nononono!" I whisper under my breath as I start looking all around the area, crouching and standing on tip toe as I search for a log pose, or anything that seems related to it! aaaahhhh where?! Where!

I run up and down several of the neighboring aisles, desperately searching for item 78, but there's not a single log pose in sight. You have got to be... I turn on my heel and sprint to the column in this room and start flipping through the copies of index books, looking for any abnormalities. The thin pages rustle against each other as I turn back to where my grandmother's entries are.

"Admiral Akari Kajiya"

I find her name, find the entry, cussing as it divulges the same information as the indexes in the other room. Are these two just mistaken? Surely there's a mistake, why would-

Why would it not be there?

I blink at how absolutely stupid the question is, before letting out a groan and face palming. This base specifically has been blocking my research attempts for over a month. I scowl as Commander Eiji's cold and searching eyes come to mind, their intrusive glare unsettling even just in memory form. I never actually believed I fooled him, but I didn't think he had time to remove the items this quickly! Although, he might have moved them elsewhere as soon as I started asking weeks ago.

"But why, why! and where?" I mutter out loud as I turn and look back at the many shelves in the room, my eyebrows pulled together in thought as I glance between the shelves and then at a clock hanging in the middle of one wall. 1:20. Frick. There's no way the Straw Hats can keep up appearances much longer. I start walking, my gaze constantly roving over the different shelves as I go up and down different aisles. I'm sure the commander will connect the dots any minute. Could it be in his office? I turn my head towards a door that leads to a hall at the thought, wondering if I need to go back up the stairs. Or would it just be stuffed in a random corner on a different level?

I gulp. 30 levels of archives... it could be anywhere. The room feels hot, stuffy as I lift my hand to wipe sweat in my face, my pace quickening to a light jog. Matter of minutes, in his office? should I search all the K rooms? Don't have time! Would it be in navigation? The imprint in the dust was square, so it's larger than normal log poses. Should I look in the wood section? Which floor has the W's?! not enough time! Not enough time! I'm sprinting, my arms pumping like pistons as I race up and down aisle's and into new rooms, my eyes bouncing between shelves-

"Stop Tashigi! Just- STOP!"

I freeze, panting at the memory of my grandmother yelling at me. Why do I keep thinking about her?! I flip around, the bookshelves starting to dance in my vision as my thoughts spiral and crash together, overwhelmed.

"I just want to help them." I whisper, squeezing my palms into my eye sockets to drown out the internal noise.

weakcommander's officepathetic

this level? which level?!-failure-are they still alive?

clumsy No time!stupid

"NO!" I shout the word, hating how high pitched my voice is as I drop my hands from my face and let them ball into fists. I close my eyes and push every thought out of my head as I clench my jaw in determination to still my mind.

This isn't about me.

It's about them. Calm down, think.

Just, stop.

.

.

.

"Just- STOP! Stop thinking about the big picture, and focus on the moment. If you want your strike to land, you gotta stop thinking."

My eyelids flutter open at the thought born from my stillness, and I suck in air at the ludacricy of it. I can't run around frantically looking with no direction. The office, another floor, I don't have time for guessing games. If I could locate it using observation Haki... it's not a living thing. But, it's had contact with living things. Contact with my grandmother. Maybe enough that a bit of her presence from the past is still on it... enough that I could try to sense it's location.

"This is crazy." I mutter to myself, turning to look at the clock in room K, 8. How would I even? is this? "Okay you know what? I'm just gonna go for it. Just, try! Okay. Okay." I close my eyes again and take another deep breath as I try to block out distractions of normal vision. I'm not looking for the Log Pose, I'm looking for her.

The sirens still wailing start to fade as the perimeter of my invisible vision grows in a sphere all around me, and I start sensing marines and other base residents scurrying along the halls outside the archive rooms on several floors below and over me. This floor only has a group of 10 marines stationed by one of the doors leading to stairs. All that's cool, but I need to see if I can identify past presences. I open my eyes and walk a few steps to a shelf, picking up an engraved wooden cube and taking a deep breath as I try to sense a presence on it. C'mon, c'mon... c'mo- THERE!

I gasp as I sense the cube light up with a thousand fingerprints, at least 50 unique presences swirling on its surface. Gently, I place the cube back on the shelf as I maintain the Haki on it, before looking at the rest of the shelf, extending the unique sensing method I felt to the rest of the shelf. Each item, the shelf, even the wall- my vision explodes with the auras of thousands of people and I step back at the tidal wave of information.

"..woah-.." I exhale as I keep trying to spread the vision, my head starting to pound with the effort. Within a minute, as I keep stumbling back until I find a work desk to grab and steady myself in the middle of the room, the auras of a billion people flit in and out of my senses that reach through all 30 floors of archive storage. My mouth drops as I fight to maintain the reach while also trying to solve my next problem. How do I know which one is her?! OOhh things are getting blurry, this is-

!SNAP!

.

.

.

purupurupurupuru

purupurupurupuru

purupurupurupuru

"mmm..." I groan as I blink an eye open, my head throbbing as I stare at red twisted fibers in the carpet, the textiles scratching against my cheek as my thoughts come back from darkness.

purupurupurupuru

What... "The Log Pose!" I gasp, shooting to a sitting position, my eyes wide as the Den Den Mushi continues to ring. I glance down at it for a moment- Zoro?

I wish he was here.

purupurupuru

Heat tinges my cheeks as I shake my head free of the ridiculous thought. I stand to my feet and ignore the last rings of the transponder snail, turning instead to the clock. 1:24. That green-haired bastard can wait. I've gotta find this log pose or this whole damn mission will mean nothing!

My head starts pounding faster as I close my eyes again, and I feel my stomach churning and my legs shake as I get ready to try again. "it was too much the first time.. gotta reduce what I look for." I mutter as I manipulate my Haki to cover just this floor again- this time only seeking out the archive items and ignoring the room furniture and files of paper. In fact, I don't need any bigger items either, so I think it's safe to just envision anything less than a 1 foot cu-

PURUPURUPURUPURU

My vision snaps and everything goes into spinning blackness while I stumble forward, before I slam my foot on the ground and regain my balance, panting, pissed. The snail continues to ring and I ignore it. I'm sure that wherever he happened to lose himself he can wait for just a minute at least! Now. Only items smaller than a 1 foot cube. I close my eyes and send out my Haki, applying my new past finder technique on the right items- 10 floors, 20, 30...

"still too much..." I mutter weakly, pulling back as I feel another vision snap coming. I don't have time to black out again! I need to identify her! What the heck would she feel like? Justice? Powerful. The greatest in swordsmanship in her hay day. Blind faith in the system? Almost, intentionally choosing ignorance...

PURUPURUPURUPURU

"oh for the love of" I let out an exasperated sigh as I finally pull the Den Den Mushi out of my pocket and answer the call.

"WHAT!" I hiss into the receiver, all distracting thoughts far from mind as I'm consumed with irritation.

"About damn time-" Zoro's voice sounds wry, the connection choppy.

"Look I'm in the middle of someth-"

"-supposed to meet? I'm on the roof-"

"-unless you're in imminent danger-"

"-jump to find the boat. Or you need-"

Our voices crackle over each other simultaneously, and I pull the snail away from my face to pinch the bridge of my nose. I can hear Zoro take an exaggerated breath of annoyance through the connection and I roll my eyes.

"Are we supposed to meet or not?" Zoro hurls the question out after 3 seconds of anticipating silence.

"No just- I'm almost done. Thanks for the help, just get back to the boat." I shoot back, hoping to end this quickly.

"Fine. Just wanted to make sure you didn't need back up. You didn't pick up the first few times I called." He mutters, almost so I can't make out the words. My eyebrow raises at his guarded tone. Was he, worried about me?

"I can't see the boat from here, but I'm sure I'll find it once I jump off the roof. Once I do you're on your own." He continues with much more confidence.

"I won't need back u-"

I pause, blink.

"Did you just say the roof?"

"Yeah." the sound of him slapping a bug and its intestines squishing into the night fills the receiver. "Jeez, this place is freaky. You marines suck at real estate picks."

...

"WHY ARE YOU OUTSIDE?!" My screech makes the small snail in my hand flinch, "How-? I literally watched them take you DOWN the stairs!"

"Yeah. We got to the sub levels when the alarms went off." Zoro starts, like he's explaining colors to a child. "Then I got distracted killing marine units in the stairs and I ended up on the roof."

"THERE ARE NO MARINES ON THE ROOF." I whisper hiss again.

"Everyone here is super weak. Had to add some personal handicaps to get any practice." He comments, and I hear the sound of another smashed insect, the noise making me wince.

"Zoro we don't even know if the insect repellant Chopper made actually works!"

"No Haki, only inflict injuries on their arms." Zoro ignores me. "Good precision melee practice. I didn't actually kill that many either. Figured that'd make you happy."

"I'm- I-" I stutter into the receiver, at a total loss. "How do you expect me to respond to that?!"

"I don't really care if you respond. I'm just telling you what I did." Zoro yawns. I stare at the Den Den Mushi, incredulous. Unbelievable. This man. I wince at more bug noises and shake my head. Did he really plan to just jump from a 50 story building and trek through a highly toxic rainforest?! another bug slap. Is that, hornet noises?

"... okay just, is there a trap door? Did you make a hole in the ceiling?" I suggest, as lost as he was in how to guide this hopelessness.

"No. Why would I jump off the roof if there was a door? Look I was just calling to see if you could survive if I jumped. There's no other way off thi-"

His voice freezes, and I hear him take a few steps before stopping again.

"Did you find the hole you made?" I ask, deadpan.

"... no-!" He throws back with venom, before quietly muttering "Someone else must have made a hole earlier. I couldn't see it cause of the glare."

"Of the, moonlight?" I tilt my head in absolute confusion.

"No, the sun you idiot. Of course moon glare! It's the middle of the night." Zoro states in disgust.

"..."

"Anyways I'm going down the hole."

"Please." I beg, closing my eyes and rubbing a hand over my face. "And then find some stairs and go DOWN them. Stop on floor 27. and then STAY!"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

Click!

I stare at the now resting Den Den Mushi, confused loathing swirling on my face before I groan and try to forget the whole conversation. For a legendary monster he is as stupid as they come! God please don't let me find him dead in some corner cause he got bit. I let out a sigh as I lean against the study desk again, closing my eyes to regain my focus. I'll just find him with observation Haki once I get the log pose.

Which means I actually have to find the log pose first.

So I have to identify her.

What made Grandma different? What would set her apart?

"The law is perfect, thus its enforcement should be perfect as well."

"No one said justice was pretty, Tashigi."

Focus.

"It can be as ruthless as lawlessness."

Focus. Justice. Laws. She always strived to uphold the law. No compromises. My eyebrows scrunch together as I continue to run through memories of her. Stone faced, stiff, larger than life, harsh. I slowly inhale, hold the air in my lungs, then exhale. Inhale, hold, exhale.

Nothing.

I can see everything in this base, and nothing matches her. My fists clench, and I let out a frustrated noise through my teeth. Why are you so stubborn even when you're already gone! Why-

"But.."

My eyes flash open at the word, her voice crystal clear in my thoughts. I stare at the bookshelves, and the cracked white walls behind them, their faults impossible for me to ignore.

"Tashigi... there is no difference between total justice and total lawlessness. Their motivations might be different but their results the same. Death."

The archive room disappears, and suddenly I'm standing at the edge of our kitchen, 12 years old again in my favorite blue nightgown, grandma sitting at the little square table that's next to the white fridge, a bottle of sake in her hands. She never drank.

"Absolute justice... perfect justice. No one actually reaches perfection, and I'm grateful for it. But plenty of people grasp for it, spend their whole lives chasing it. We think that somehow if we can become perfect in even one way, we will be whole. It's our weakness, to strive to fit this self ordained mold. The weak strive for perfection, whether in justice, power, or achievement."

A few seconds of silence passed in that kitchen, before Grandma spoke again.

"I'm weak Tashigi. I know the world will never reach perfect justice, and I don't want it to. So I strive for it, let it consume me and be my definition of complete. But your mother..."

For the first time in my life, I saw my Grandma cry. She turned to look at me, tears rolling down her old, haggard cheeks.

"Your mother was strong."

She laughed.

"She started talking back as soon as she learned words, the little brat." Grandma's laugh choked into a sob as she whispered "No regard for how the world worked on the surface, she always cut to the truth of the matter. She didn't care about chasing perfection, about measuring up to some definition placed on her. She reveled in the incomplete, the mysterious, the moment. I scolded her constantly, complaining that instead of a perfect child I got a perfect storm."

Grandma took another swig of her sake, in a mood to share her grief, her memories.

"When she was 12, the same age as you are now girl, she turned on me one time and gave the most impish smile I've seen to this day. 'mama' she said, 'I don't want to be a perfect child or a perfect storm. Why can't I just be?' I told her we should all strive to be perfect in something, to be the best we can be. She scoffed." Grandma turned to look at me, distant joy shining in her tear drops. "I want to live for the sake of life, to dance cause my heart beats and my soul sings. That's enough reason to be alive for me. That's what she said!" Grandma lets out her own scoff, before pushing her chair back, the legs scraping against the wood floor. "Me! A military admiral! and I gave birth to a flipping fairy!"

I remember my vision being blurry from tears, because Grandma never talked about mom. My mom. I miss her. Grandma had turned to me then, and walked over, the sake bottle still in one hand as she rested her other massive palm on top of my head.

"You're the spitting image of her." Grandma said, ruffling my hair at the words, bitterness for moments never to come mixing with grateful love for what she had now. She tilted my head back, and I couldn't escape that look. She loved me.

"Justice, rule breakers, dreamers, cocky bastards who think they're the best. Don't get caught up in how the world should look, like I do. Live for the sake of living, child. Live for the sake of living."

I blink, and the memory is gone. Like it was just a nice dream. A dream hidden in the convoluted mess that is my childhood.

Regret... and,

Justice, the best swordsman of her time, harsh, regret. love.

I smile, a tear slips down my cheek as I feel her, the wholeness of who she was. Who she is.

The whole building goes black, except a hundred items or so, spread all around, and I see it. I see her, and two stories up and to the right, I see a log pose, fastened in a block of wood with words inscribed in the side.

"Bingo." I whisper hoarsely, then rush out the door.

Zoro POV:

Damn, why did that thing have to be so itchy. I growl as I reach my hand up to scratch the festering sting on my neck.

"How was I supposed to know you had a nest there bastards!" I shout behind me at the swarming cloud of hornets that are barely 5 feet behind me, and my eyes go wide as I realize how much they're gaining on me. "EEEEH!" My throat starts closing in panic as I bump the speed up on my sprint, running so fast flames flick behind my feet. The end of the hall comes up quick, when suddenly a doorway opens and a guards steps out, gun aimed straight at me.

"Roronoa Zoro! You are under arreEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The guard keeps screaming 5 octaves higher than normal as I fling myself through the doorway, spinning to slam the door shut behind me.

THudthUDTHUDthudthuDThud

I trip over my feet rushing backwards as the metal door bows inward, the hornets slamming into its cool surface with such fury even iron can't fully hold them back. But it's enough to keep them from actually coming through. Both me and the guard are on the floor of a stairway landing, panting, propped on our elbows as we stare wide eyed at the door that suddenly sounds very very angry. We turn to look at each other, and then both let out relieved laughs before turning to look back at the hornet filled door. My eyes narrow though as I think I glance shadows in the door outlines.

"This thing is sealed, right?" I ask the marine.

"Yeah, every single interior defense is set up to guard against the toxic insects of the forest, all 540 species!"

I raise an eyebrow at the specific information, before lifting my hand to rub the sting. The marine eyes the red bump and winces.

"Toxic?" I clarify, before turning to look at the door and OH LORD ITS A HORNET ITS A- its gone. it was, damn. "So I probably should have avoided getting stung." I mumble.

"That would have been wise." The marine nods in return. "The green hornet sting produces hallucinations and if it goes untreated will result in death."

"That feels excessive."

"What did you do to make them mad?"

"I made a hole to go up to the roof, and I must've destroyed their nest in the process."

The marine stares at me, his eyes slowly growing wide. "you really are a monster" he whispers before turning to look back at the door. "I'm going to die now, aren't I."

I smirk.

"Not unless you show me where the antidote for this sting is."

Some stairs, incapacitated marines, struggling to find the light switch of a med bay, learning the marine's name was Joe, and an antidote later-

"The hallucinations might last a few more hours, but you should be clear after that." Joe, who ended up being a nurse, finishes his medical speech.

"Thanks. Do you know where floor 72 is?" I turn to ask Joe before I walk out the room again. Joe blinks and tilts his head to the side, and I frown as his look of perpetual terror turns into one of complete pity.

"We don't- there is no floor 72. Are, do you maybe need floor 27?" He asks, trying to be helpful.

"Watch it Joe-" I growl, "I can still kill you if I want, and that look you have really makes me want to spill blood."

Pity quickly turns back to terror and he raises his hands in defense. "okay! Okay! We're on floor 35 now! Anything close to 72 would be up!"

I nod in understanding, before rushing out the door to look for stairs. Gah, this stupid building has so many stairs. I'm sick of it! I stop running and pull my swords out.

"Dragon twister!" I shout, my teeth clenched against the Wado Ichimonji.

Looking at the hole in the ground I created, I give a satisfactory nod. This is definitely the fastest way to get to floor 38. I jump down, landing on my feet with a thud and look up to see the number 29 etched in a large font in the white hallway.

"That seems right." I muse, and walk to one of the doorways in the hall, looking for blue jeans and a green tank top in this disgusting world of bleach white. Turning into one of the rooms, I pause and step back as I see Tashigi and Commander Eiji standing 10 feet apart, staring right at each other.