Together in the End
Notes: This will be a 7 chapter story, one chapter uploaded every day this week! This first chapter's theme was Bonfire!
Chapter 1: Bonfire
It sits on her tongue, in the back of her throat. Like communion wafers, like words that can't be said aloud, like seeing someone you used to know but no longer. Tashigi takes a deep breath, ash and salt, metal, wood and paper whooshing into her lungs. Into the sky.
Their ship is sinking. Drowning under cannonfire from former allies. Former friends. Former comrades. Her men are dashing to the lifeboats, but who would come to rescue them? The sea of the Grand Line would swallow them up, swamp them under waves larger than skyscrapers, or doom them to be annihilated by monsters from the deep.
But still they went for the boats. An ensign was yanking on her arm, trying to pull her towards the silly little rafts. She couldn't hear what he was saying, his lips flapping uselessly. Just the sound of wailing. Was it her? Was it the soul of their warship?
A blinding white, snuffing out flames that only came back stronger crashed into the corner of her vision. Then amber eyes were meeting hers. The light that normally sat deep inside them was sad. That anger that always sat there, that drive, that life… His gloved hand was on her shoulder for a moment that seemed to last eternity. Then she was airborne, her superior officer disappearing as she fell over the railing, her body slamming into hands grabbing and pulling-
With a start, Tashigi blinked and the bonfire in the middle of the camp came back to her. The bowl of food in her hands was warm, though the food itself was just reconstituted rations. The tents and makeshift barracks sat around them, men and women of all shapes and sizes talking and exchanging news.
She shivered though it wasn't cold. This camp on an island South of Baltigo was in the full swing of summer, an ocean breeze rolling in off the coast. She took in one breath, then another. The sounds of feet tapping on the sand, spoons scraping bowls, the squeaks of sandpipers. "Did you read the news this morning? Blackbeard nabbed another couple big devil fruit users," her eyes slid to the group of soldiers off to her left. The red patch on their uniforms seemed too vivid in her eyes.
"Yeah, saw that, and there's been Pacifistas deployed to Sabaody…won't be long before we see some action," one of the soldiers crossed their arms as his friends nodded their assent. Good. Her fingers curled around Shigure's hilt. Her katana was calling for blood and Tashigi would oblige.
Better than reliving that horrible moment over and over. The feeling of his fingers on her cheek, a hundred thousand million things never said. She should have gone down with him, closed that gap between them, sunk into the depths of the sea together–
"Oi Autumn Rain!" Tashigi looked up, startled as Lieutenant Tealc, a Gazelle mink, called to her from the Commander's tent. His nose was red and runny, as usual. Allergies he says, but never to what. He gestured for her to follow him into the tent. She got up, food forgotten. The Revolutionaries had need of her.
Messengers scurry in and out of the other entrance to the tent, papers scattered on tables equally scattered throughout the space, snails sit lined up or stacked, puru puruing with news from all over. Her commanding officer, a woman with a bushy mustache named Amande (not to be confused with one of the Big Mom Pirates huehuehue! she always said to everyone she met) was writing furiously with both hands on two different reports, then handing them off to runners. A single curved horn poked out from underneath her red beret.
"You summoned me Ma'am?" Tashigi nearly saluted, her arm making it halfway up before she dropped it uselessly next to her side. Old habits die hard. Amande looked up and tossed a crushed up ball of paper to Tealc, who proceeded to eat it.
"Got a mission for ya Autumn Rain," she grinned, her mustache thinning to deadly sharp points, twitching on either side of her face. A piece of paper is slid across the desk towards her. She picks it up. A wanted poster. A man with a hefty chin smirks at her from under his cap.
Ex-Navy, just like her. But a bastard, unlike her. Well… maybe not so much anymore. Tashigi shoves that thought away.
"Think you can take out Shiryu of the Rain for us?"
Tashigi looked up, Shigure humming on her hip. "Yes," she says.
Amande's mustache curves upward with her smile. "Then godspeed, good luck, and viva la revolucion."
Notes:
I wrote this whole fic in like 9 days for this fan theme week so please forgive any plot holes! Stay tuned for the next chapters, y'all are in for a ride!
Check out more works for OP Marines Week on twitter using #OPMarinesWeek! Let me know your thoughts! As always, thank you for reading and you can find me on twitter at buggyisbest!