As he exited Physics and tightened the bandanna behind his neck, he saw her. She was brushing back her raven-black strands behind an ear as she struggled to balance a huge pile of textbooks in her arms. Stumbling a little as she walked, she disappeared around a hallway.

He didn't know what made him do it, but he started to run in her direction. He ignored the surprised called of Johnny and Yosaku behind him. He crashed into several people trying to reach their lockers. He nearly nailed a teacher into her own classroom. But by the time Zoro reached the hallway, she was long gone.

Feeling foolish, the green-head made his slow way down the steps to the grounds. What on earth had inspired him to run, anyway? He could always catch up to her later on... or could he?

Maybe I'm afraid, he mused to himself. Maybe I'm scared I won't be able to talk to her later. Then he frowned. Why was he afraid? What was Tashigi to him anyway? Her retreating figure arose his eyes and Zoro suddenly felt depressed.

Sure he didn't know a lot of girls, but this was frankly ludicrous. She was just a friend to him, like a lot of other people. Just like how Yosaku and Johnny were... right? A flash of blue eyes melting into brown flashed in his mind, and Zoro bit his lip. He didn't want to think about the other soul in him, not now. That was too painful...

He didn't understand it. Why was she so angry at him now? Had he done something wrong? Maybe she doesn't like me, he thought. But that was weird. She seemed perfectly fine with him before...

"You were really cool. I'd never seen skill like that before. You-- you were amazing."

The small image of the blush at her cheeks passed his eyes as her voice echoed in his mind, and he felt his ears warm. Why the heck am I thinking of that time?! He thought irritatedly.

"Stop-- stop talking like that! Stop using that word!"

"You stop whacking me first, Miss. Charming."

Oh great. Now memories were playing a slideshow through his brain.

He suddenly flushed hotly in horror. Was he bringing memories of-- of flirting? He looked about frantically, hoping no one had seen his blush. This was embarrassing! Had he been flirting with Tashigi? He didn't want to know. Stupid prince and his stupid influential ways of thinking!

Shaking his head sharply to rid himself of the images, he stepped onto the springy grass outside and took a deep breath of fresh air.

Okay, he was cool with it. He wasn't thinking of her. He made his way resolutely towards the entrance, making sure he was thinking about about buying something for Luffy to eat and not her. Nope, he was definitely not thinking of her.

Resolutely he made his way across the grounds. Yep, still not thinking of her.

"See? You weren't listening either."

She moved her glasses to hide her blush to no avail as she replied,

"Well, at least I was awake."

Zoro put his head in his hands and groaned.





There was a little skip to Sanji's step as he walked towards the second floor of the dormitory block.

"Hel-lo, girls,"

He said cheerfully with a grin as he swooped past them. They greeted him back with curiosity brimming in their voices as they watched the model whistle happily as he cradled a small package in one hand.

With unnecessarily huge sweeping motions, Sanji knocked gracefully on Nami's dorm door.

"Coming, just a second..."

There was a few noises of shuffling. The moment the door opened the smallest crack, however, Sanji burst through singing,

"Naaaaaami-saaaaan!!!"

The girl stared at him as he twirled around ridiculously to sudden thrust forward a small package in tissue paper with a super-curly ribbon tied around it. Nami blinked. How amazing. He wasn't moving a muscle. There wasn't even a twitch in his brow as he stood there, balanced on one leg and offered the package to her in an extremely exaggerated gesture.

She took it hesitantly, and he snapped back into action, blinking and breathing again as he gave a small sigh of affection.

"Uh... Sanji-kun?"

The chef flounced behind him to shut the door before turning around and smiling as he said slowly,

"Yeeees, Nami-san?"

Nami wanted to tell the chef to leave - her excuse being she was due to meeting Usopp in around ten minutes - but something about the atmostphere sealed the excuse shut. She didn't know why; maybe she was just growing more benevolent to the model. Yet the little hook-like sensations clawing at her chest didn't feel as drastic as before. It was a lot less.

Sanji has started unpacking small things onto her desk, and he smiled brightly when she turned to look.

"See, Nami-san? Orange juice and some Koi tablets!"

Her eyebrows rose at the mention of the aspirin.

"How'd you know I needed some Koi?"

She asked in surprise as she walked over to her desk. He hopped over to pull out the desk chair as he explained cheerfully,

"Vivi told me, so of course I immediately whipped up a batch vanilla cookies and went off to get Koi tablets for you. You used to get constant headaches on the S.S. Going Merry, I remember!"

"I see,"

Nami said slowly. He started to chatter about the convenience store nearby when Nami nearly keeled over from the sudden squeeze and clench on her heart; she held a hand to her chest as her headache increased in pain ten-fold. He stopped talking abruptly as he saw her pale quite suddenly.

"...Nami-san?"

He prompted worriedly, unsure of how to react from her change in demeanor. So much for being happy that she didn't snap at me for three minutes, Sanji thought sadly. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath in effort to calm the rising pounding in her brain, then started to say,

"Sanji-kun, you really didn't have to worry. I can do perfectly well on my own--"

"That's not true."

He interrupted, his eyes beseeching as he continued despite her startled gaze,

"And you can't stop me from worrying. Because... I can't help it, either. I told you that already, Nami-san."

Nami settled in her chair wordlessly, carefully undoing the ribbon on the package and setting it down on the table-top. The vanilla cookies were still warm as she picked one up, the texture soft and the aroma delicious. She tentatively bit into one under Sanji's nervous eyes.

She swallowed, and Sanji felt himself almost jerk in surprise as she gave just the tiniest of smiles to him, and felt pleasure flush his cheeks as she said softly,

"Did you mix lemon with this?"

"Yes,"

He said, hoping he didn't sound too eager,

"I used some zest..."

She picked up her cell-phone and looked at it thoughtfully. Then she stood up, and he looked alarmedly at her. He'd over-done it! He knew he shouldn't have sounded so excited! He cursed himself as he forlornly watched her move towards the dormitory door. Then she turned to grace him with that small smile again.

"Excuse me for a minute, Sanji-kun."

She said,

"I just need to cancel an appointment..."





Zoro entered his dorm room to find Usopp sprawled on his bed with Nami and Sanji on floor. Luffy was sitting in a chair, and the four were in deep conversation.

"Hey."

He greeted as he set down a plastic bag full of instant noodles and candy bars onto the table near the toaster,

"What's going on?"

Luffy attacked the bag while Usopp explained,

"We're going to try something out tonight."

"Uh... what?"

He asked as he sat down next to the engineer. He noted with mild surprise Nami was sitting near Sanji. Not right next to him, but near him. It made Sanji seem happier than usual. It was with a smile that Sanji answered,

"We're going to go 'back in time' to the place we died and re-enact the scene again, only this time we're going to try to change what happened. It's like a simulation."

"It is a simulation,"

Luffy-- or rather, Kale called back over his shoulder with a mouthful of chocolate,

"So let's try this out now, eh?"

He plopped onto the floor as Usopp slid onto it from the bed, and produced a small orb from his pocket. It looked like a black marble, only it seemed to be made out of wispy material as he put it into the center of the circle.

"See this? It's a nifty thing I got from God. Just press a hand onto it and I'll plug you guys in. I'll bring you guys out later, right?"

They nodded. Nami felt unease fill her at the thought of seeing them all die again, but she reminded herself that they were going to try to prevent that this time.

"Now, I think this will work easier if you guys just think about your past selves. It should be easier."

A small pause followed, and Kale gave a wide grin.

"Okay, let's give this a shot!"

He said confidently, and pressed his index finger onto a part of the orb. The others followed suit looking dubiously at the strangely cool orb but knowing better than to comment.

Then, without another word, the five lost their minds to a fold in their dimension as they were plugged into the simulation.





The rains pelted down, and Zoro got a shock from the sudden freezing cold seeping into his bones. He tried to blink the water from his eyes. Sanji was looking just as surprised and confused across him. They were both holding some sort of wooden stick with a lamb head on it... the key, of course.

Lightning forked the stormy skies and a sudden figure was illuminated on the other side of the ship, a pony-tail and buckles flying freely in the wind. Then, without warning, the intruder grabbed Luffy in a single swipe.

Luffy let out a yell of surprise, and appeared to be struggling. This was different; he hadn't try to desist last time. Zoro held his breath as he stood up, ignoring the key, and was met with the sight of his captain being thrown off board anyway.

He looked to his left frantically; where was Usopp?! He was next to die-- he saw the sniper trying to sneak his way around Nami in an effort not to be seen, in hopes this would result in him saving Luffy....

The intruder held up a hand, and in a flash of white light, Usopp was on the floor and dead. Crap!! Zoro thought, then his eyes widened as he noticed, this time, Nami was on the floor next to Usopp too, sorely lacking breathing.

Sanji gave an enraged cry of horror next to him, and charged mercilessly towards the enemy.

"You idiot!! Stop running!!"

Zoro yelled over the howling wind, but it was too late. Sanji flipped over a beam, but was shot through the stomach with a second one. He crumpled onto the floor and died almost immediately.

The swordsman stood up, trying to bring power back to the muscles he was not used to having, and looked up to face his enemy. Except, instead of his enemy, he aw a white flash of light.

It filled Zoro's vision, and suddenly, he knew no more...





All of them gave a simultaneous sharp intake of breath as they returned back to Zoro's and Sanji's dorm room. They withdrew their hands quickly from the now glowing orb, which quickly sank back into its black marble-like state.

There was a long silence.

Without warning, Kale's face split into a scowl as he burst into a furious tirade.

"What the hell was that?!"

He demanded irritatedly,

"That was absolutely pathetic!!"

Exchanging sheepish glances, the crew didn't reply.

They really had nothing to answer with.





A/N: Okay, this is a pathetic chapter. But it's meant to be. :P Okay... so I skipped a day on my planned schedule. Damn it; with all the SARS thing going on in Hong Kong now it's getting stupid. I'm cooped up all day at home, not allowed outside, and if I do go out I need a mouth-mask. Stupid SARS. And you'd think I'd get multiple chapters down by now, but nooo, I'm too busy working! How dumb is that? Okay enough of my dumb rant. I'll rework this later if I read it later and think it needs reworking...