Disclaimer: I do not, in fact, own One Piece, though I mist admire Eiichiro Oda and Toei, who do. And even 4Kids, who owns One Piece to do what they will with it.
A/N: Very sorry that it's pretty long for a one shot, and for somemessed up spacing. I wrote it all at once, so I thought I'd post it all at once. My first fic, hope you like it, and if you don't, I hope you find one you do like xD
It was he who had finally done it. That Smoker asshole wasn't half bad, really, but against Luffy, himself, and the bastard cook, he was nothing. Not that Sanji had done one hell of a lot. But it was he, Zoro, who had slashed him across the chest, unnervingly similar to what Hawk Eyes Mihawk had done to him. Only he hadn't let his attention slip, and he had survived. Zoro heard the chorus of "Good job Zoro!" from Nami, jumping up and down, "Mellorine," from the cook, watching her, and "I WANT MEAT!" from Luffy, running around in circles behind him as he looked down at Smoker's undoubtedly dead body and wondered why he was so interested in his Captain, and if he was really willing to die for this.
The swordsman idly turned around to see none other than that Marine bitch Tashigi run off in tears. He sighed. I guess I'd better go after her.
She was practically out of sight by the time Zoro began to run after her, but he saw where she was going and knew which direction to head in. He would go, get her, bring her back, and then, because of him, they would have to kill yet another hoard of Marines.
The wind was picking up. Crap! He hadn't accounted for a sandstorm. Ignoring the calls of "Zoro! Where are you going? Come back!" he sprinted faster, knowing he had to get to her. If he didn't, she'd be alone, lost in the desert, in the middle of a sandstorm. He couldn't figure out why he cared, but he was filled with an overwhelming need to reach her and protect her.
As he caught up with the Sergeant Major, he screamed 'Get down!" and dragged her down with him into the sand, just as the wind picked up to a dull roar and his eyes began to fill up with grit. As he lay still in the sand for what seemed like hours, but was in actuality mere minutes with his arm around Tashigi's shoulders, he tried to adjust himself, but kept getting pelted with sand; not that he really wanted to move. It wasn't that Zoro was tired from the run, far from it. It was that all he could hear was the storm, and all he could feel were the shoulders he was holding, so confident every other time he had seen them, now shaking and trembling like he'd never seen before. He wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know why. He hated her…right?
By the time the wind stopped screaming and everything had settled, they were half-buried in sand, and Zoro somehow knew that there was no way he was going to be able to find his way back to his nakama now.
As the two swordsmen extricated themselves from the sand, Zoro heard Tashigi mumble miserably "Thank you for sa- YOU!"
She had turned around, and was currently pounding her fists onto his chest as fast and hard as she could. To be sure, it had about the same effect on Zoro as a few mosquito bites might- just plain annoying, so he held her at arms length.
"He… You… I… We…" She was on the verge of tears. "AND YOU KILLED HIM, RORONOA ZORO!" she screamed, almost as passionate as Luffy was when he was lucid, and then she broke down completely, sobbing until she couldn't breathe.
Ah jeez…"Why is it bothering you so much?" he yelled. "It's not like you were in love with him or anything!"
Tashigi took her head out of her hands and gave him a Look so full of anguish and helplessness that he wished he had never said anything. Then, she went back to crying, more quietly this time, but just as sadly.
Zoro turned around. He couldn't watch something so… pathetic.
No…
He shocked even himself at the realization that he couldn't look at her, not because she was pathetic, but because he couldn't watch someone who so reminded him of Kuina in such pain, couldn't stand knowing that he was the one who caused it. Somehow, the pride in finally getting Smoker was dissipating. How was he supposed to know that helping his captain would cause another such… misery?
He knew he would never be able to find his nakama, or even somewhere to wait for them if he couldn't look at her, so he decided that he was going to have to comfort her.
Alright. Just suck it up. I've survived worse than this… Why me?
Zoro walked over to Tashigi, helplessness washing over him just watching the girl who looked so much like his childhood friend in such pain. He sat down next to her, and once again, though much more gently this time, put one arm around her shoulders and patted her reassuringly with the other. She angrily pushed him away.
Instead of blowing up at her like he would of done had this been anyone else in the world, Zoro just pulled his knees to his chest and put his arms around them instead.
Tashigi, tearfully, said "I didn't even get to tell him…" and her voice trailed off.
"I know…" Zoro had to work hard to keep his voice gentle and compassionate, and he didn't know how long he could keep this up without telling her to get her freakin' ass up and start walking. "But face it. Would he have wanted you to die here, in the middle of a desert, because of him, and with a 'Straw Hat' of all people?"
He flinched at the glare of pure hatred he received. "It wouldn't be because of him, it would be because of YOU!" she shrieked, and dissolved again.
Zoro's patience was at it's end. "Now you listen. I don't intend to die here. I intend to get you up, start walking, and find a town where we can wait for both our nakama, get off this freaking island, and then we can both get on with our lives."
Tashigi looked at him meaningfully. "Why do you care if I live or die?" she inquired.
"Because of her…" And for good measure, Zoro gave her a hard look, as if challenging her to say something, but she seemed to know better, and stood up.
"Where to?" she asked.
Zoro looked relieved. "Well, I figure we'll go North, so then we don't have the sun in our eyes, and we'll look for the nearest town and just wait, because nobody will ever find us if we keep moving around. We'll have to go pretty quickly too. What the hell were you thinking, wasting your energy like that in the middle of the freaking desert? Don't you have any common sense?"
"Why me?" Tashigi muttered under her breath.
"My thoughts exactly."
It was still morning, and there were still plenty of hours left in the day, so, hot as it was, they started walking. They didn't speak to one another at all, but as hard as Zoro tried not to look at her, he found himself studying the similarities and differences between Tashigi and Kuina. The hair, the nose, the mouth, Tashigi WAS an older Kuina; they even shared their swordsmanship. And the eyes…it was those eyes that haunted him the most, that absolute wilfulness to see through whatever they wanted, and, even worse, they shared the quality of disappointment when it didn't happen…
He finally snapped out of it when Tashigi said "Hey, that what we're looking for?" and pointed to a dark spot on the horizon that did look vaguely like a town.
"Yeah. Didn't think we'd find one so quick, though"
Tashigi seemed to notice an odd quality in his voice. "I thought I was the one who was depressed…" she tried to joke, but neither of them had it in them to laugh.
"It's almost nightfall. You got any money?" Zoro asked.
"Why, you gonna take it from me?" She was acting strangely too.
"No, we ought to find some food and a room for the night, unless you want to sleep outside, which I don't mind in the slightest bit."
"Oh… here…" she said, handing him a handful of coins and paper from her pocket, embarrassed. She swayed a little, and crumpled at his feet.
SHIT! WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
Zoro looked around frantically for some help, or at least for some water, but found nothing. He finally resigned to having to carry her into town. She was light in his arms, and for the first time that day, she looked peaceful, even though she was now sick from exhaustion. Lot of good her crying's done her now. Zoro began to make his way towards the town, and by the time he got there, he didn't mind carrying Tashigi in the slightest. Now, he just stared at her face, not having to worry about her noticing, and wondered if she was dreaming, and about what.
He quickly stopped the nearest person, and found out that the town was called Hael and several places to find a room with directions. After being turned down by three people because they recognized him as a pirate with a bounty on his head, the 4th and second last landlord rented them a room for the night, and said they could stay as long as they needed.
When he walked into the room, he saw a bed, a dresser, a bathroom, and some floor space. He placed Tashigi down on the bed, took off his shirt, and began to look for something to train with. The bed wouldn't do… Tashigi was on it, but the dresser suited him just fine until he could get back to his weights. He lifted the dresser up, down, up, down more times than he could count. He started to lament getting a room- at least outside he could practice with his swords. Deep in thought, he accidentally bumped the dresser into the wall with a loud Thump. He heard Tashigi moan behind him.
Great, now I woke her up. I don't want to deal with her just yet.
He turned around to see her sitting up, hand on her head. "Ohhh…. My head…. Where am I? What happened? Ooohhh…" and she lay down again.
"I TOLD you not to cry so much! Did I not tell you? You passed out from exhaustion, that's what happened!" He sighed, and went to the bathroom to get her a glass of water, because, as much as he couldn't help it, yelling wasn't helping. He took a deep breath, walked over to the bed, and sat down next to her head. He propped her up on his bare chest, and tilted the glass to her lips. She took a sip, and gave him a helpless smile, as if she couldn't stand being at the swordsman's mercy. He sighed, but knowing she felt just as awkward caused him to stay put, and he said "Drink, unless you want to do it yourself," knowing full well she wouldn't be able to.
After three glasses of water, she seemed to look a bit healthier and lost some of the paleness she had when she was out. "Thanks. That feels a lot better," she resigned.
"No shit." Zoro was still quite unhappy with the current situation. He was still lost on a completely unfamiliar island with her. "So, now that I've saved your life twice today, what do we do?"
"Well…" Tashigi began taking of her jacket, and then her gloves and then her jeans…
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"
"Taking a shower. Though you're a boy, so-"
Zoro didn't hear anything after that. Her comment hit him like a hammer to the head. All he could do was remember the last time somebody had pointed out that obvious fact to him…
Kuina had just beaten Zoro for the 2001st time, the first time with real swords. The fight hadn't lasted long.
"I don't believe this!" Zoro wailed, with a sword sticking into the ground next to his head. How could he lose yet AGAIN?
But Kuina was the one crying more. "I'm the one who should be upset, Zoro."
He couldn't believe his ears. Why her?
As if in answer to his question, she said "When a girl grows up, she loses out to boys in physical strength… I'm going to fall behind you soon… Don't you always say that… You wanna become the worlds number one swordsman? Papa says that girls will never become the worlds number one. It's good that you're a boy… I want to become the world's best too! My chest has already started to develop… if only I were a boy…"
And he yelled at her. He called her a wimp, told her that she was running away, how could she say things like that after she had just beat him? And she cheered up. And then they made that lifelong promise, that promise that, even now, kept him going when all hope seemed lost.
"One of us will become the worlds best swordsman."
And the next day…
Tashigi closed the bathroom door rather loudly and he snapped out of the memory. He must have looked completely horrified because all she said was "What's up with you?" He tried to shrug it off, but he just couldn't get it out of his head.
"Let's just… go to sleep. You take the bed, I'll sleep on the floor."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, whatever, it's fine."
"Alright…"
It took Zoro over an hour to get to sleep. He kept going over all of his memories of Kuina, the good and the bad, and he finally fell asleep thinking of the funeral.
They were back in Logue town.
"Fight me, Roronoa Zoro." Tashigi said. And ignoring the likeness to his friend in her, he complied. It wasn't a very long fight. She wasn't very good at defending. Then, in one fluid movement, he stabbed her through the heart, pinning her to the wall with his sword.
And then the scene changed.
He was small again, inside the dojo he had trained at. He was holding one of the bamboo swords he had learned with. But the girl on the end wasn't Tashigi; it was Kuina.
"Kuina… Two thousand and one" she gasped. "Zoro… One"
And then the life seemed to drain out of her. The puddle of blood that had come out of the body seeped across the floor of the dojo, growing larger with every passing second.
His sensei came out of the shadows of the corner. "We're not here to kill anyone, Zoro," he said, his eyes full of disappointment, and then pain. "How could you murder my daughter?"
Zoro stood still, stunned. He looked at Kuina's father helplessly, and ran off.
But he never found his destination.
He had fallen down a flight of stairs.
Zoro sat up as fast as he could, whispering "Kuina…" He noticed that there were tears running down his face and he was drenched in a cold sweat. He hadn't cried since he was first told his best friend was dead.
Tashigi, who had gotten up to get a drink in the middle of his dream, sat on the bed cross- legged and waited for him to calm down before she asked, "Are you okay? I woke up and you were tossing and turning and whimpering and your face… oh god, you were so pale…"
He turned his tear- stained face to look at her. "I… I killed her…"
"Well, you've killed a lot of people. I thought you might have realized that by now…"
"No… I killed Kuina." And he told her all about Kuina, about how alike they were, about that night, how it had been his idea to fight with real swords. "And then, when she went to put her sword away… This sword…" He clutched the Wadou until his knuckles were white. "And… she fell down the stairs and she… and she died."
"So that's why you won't fight me…" Tashigi said softly, tears running freely down her cheeks.
Zoro felt a lot better. He hadn't realized how good it would feel to talk about Kuina to someone, so he never did, but it was nice. Only then, when he felt calmer than he ever had in his life, did he notice that Tashigi wasn't wearing any pants. Just that long, spotted shirt that she had underneath he jacket.
Dammit!
'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING, WALKING AROUND HERE HALF NAKED!" Zoro jumped up and pointed at her accusingly.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WALKING AROUND?' I was underneath the blanket until SOMEONE woke me up!"
As much as he tried, and stood there sputtering and trying to think of a rebuttal, he finally had to admit she was right. Not that he'd woken her up on purpose.
A knock came from outside the door. When Zoro answered it, the lady who had given him the room began "I'm sorry to disturb you, but I've been receiving complaints from the other- oh, I'm sorry…" She blushed when she saw Tashigi pantless and Zoro shirtless. "I'll just be going now…"
Zoro yelled after her "No! It's nothing like that! Nothing like that at all!" and then to Tashigi "See what you did?"
Surprisingly, Tashigi laughed. "Did you see the look on her face when she thought we… yeah."
"Uh huh. Why don't we just go to back to sleep? We've got a long day tomorrow."
"Yeah… Okay."
So Zoro lay back down on the floor, and heard the even breathing of a sleeping Tashigi coming from the bed relatively quickly. It took a long time, but eventually he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
That morning, Zoro was the first one up, right at sunrise. Although he knew he'd just go back to sleep later, he decided that if he was quiet, he could probably pull out his swords and swing them around a bit before his temporary roommate woke up.
So he grabbed his swords, situated himself in a place where he wouldn't accidentally impale Tashigi or something, and began to train. Approximately half an hour later, Tashigi woke up, with a "How come every time I wake up you're either training or crying?"
"Very funny."
"Hey, if you want to train, why not just fight me?"
"We have work to do. We need to ask around and see if anyone has seen our nakama, even though I don't see how they could possibly be here right now."
"Then you'll fight me, right?"
Zoro didn't really want to, even though he could get along with her a lot better now.
"If I fought you, I'd kill you. I guess I'll let you practice on me, though. May as well salvage some combat training out of this."
So they both finished getting dressed, Tashigi strapping on her sword, and made their way out into the town. The few people who didn't recognize Zoro from the wanted poster or weren't afraid of him hadn't seen anyone looking like a pirate besides him, so he led Tashigi to a small shady area just outside the town. "Alright, for now, I'll fight you with one sword," he said, unsheathing the Wadou. "This sword. If you don't like me going easy on you, prove to me I shouldn't."
And at that, the two swordsmen began sparring. Stabbing, slicing, defending, and all in all, she wasn't that bad. She was good enough that Zoro had to pull out a second katana, but within a minute, he had her pinned to the wall with one sword, the other at her throat. They stood still for a few minutes, breathing heavily.
Tashigi asked, "Uh…so can I move now?"
Zoro came out of the trance he so often entered these days when he was fighting and practically jumped off the wall when he remembered why he was fighting. "Sorry… uh… That wasn't bad. Want to go again?"
For the rest of the day, all they did was spar, and at sunset, they walked back into town, exhausted, and went back to their room. They had a silent understanding, and just before they went to sleep, Zoro once again on the floor and Tashigi with the bed, Zoro said "We didn't get anything done today. Well, you did improve a lot… but nothing in terms of finding our nakama. I think we need to head out tomorrow."
"Yeah," Tashigi agreed. "Today was fun though."
"Yeah. Well, goodnight."
"'Night."
The next morning, the duo woke up, collected their things and left the room. But word had obviously gotten out about the Roronoa Zoro staying in Hael, because there were almost 500 people waiting for them as soon as they set foot outside.
"Heh. Guess we stayed to long…" said Zoro as he smiled.
"Too long! We've only been here a day!" Tashigi was obviously not used to being hated wherever she went.
"It's pretty lucky. Luffy usually has us run out of town in less than that."
A man from the crowd spoke up. "Roronoa Zoro, we've come to place you and your accomplice under citizens arrest and collect the 60 000 000 belli bounty!"
"Accomplice?" Tashigi was beginning to panic.
"Don't worry… I can take care of them easy…" said Zoro, reaching for his swords.
"No! I'll handle this! We don't need to kill them." Tashigi stood facing the mob. "Please, listen! We are only passing through here, with no harmful intent. See, we got-"
But she couldn't finish, because the man who had spoken had waved his arm, and two men had grabbed Tashigi. Plus, they were closing in around Zoro so fast, there wasn't even room for him to pull out his swords…
It took six men to contain Zoro, three on each arm. He was still putting up a decent fight when someone came out in front of him with a short, but heavy, length of lumber, and hit him over the head. The whole world went black.
Hours later, Zoro woke up, and everything was blurry. Blurry and dark. He couldn't form coherent thoughts. His head was pounding. But he ignored all that.
"Tashigi?" he called out.
"Yes, I'm here"
"Where's here?" Zoro's head was still fuzzy.
"Well, after they hit you over the head with a two by four, they took us to the basement of some house in the middle of the town. I'm right behind you."
Zoro looked down to see a dark stain on his shirt, unmistakably blood, even though he couldn't see the colour due to the meagre light. He tried to reach to find where on his head it had come from, but found his hands were tied behind his back, around a post. Hard as he tried, he couldn't break the rope. He was briefly reminded of the last time he was tied to a post, way back when he'd first met his captain. He looked for his swords. They certainly weren't on him. He finally spotted them in the corner. Well, at least he knew where his katana were.
He heard someone walking down the stairs. The door opened, and a woman appeared with two glasses of water.
"So you've woken up, I see," she said. Way to state the obvious. "No matter. You're not going anywhere until the Marines get here."
"IDIOT!" Tashigi screamed. "I'M A MARINE!"
The woman scoffed. "What are you doing mucking around with a wanted pirate, then, Marine?"
Tashigi said nothing. These people would definitely not listen to reason. Zoro felt kind of sorry for her, but not sorry enough to back up her story. After all, they wouldn't be in this mess if she had just let do things his way. A thought occurred to him, but he didn't put a voice to it until the woman had given them the water and left.
"I could just rip this post out of the floor, you know."
"I don't doubt you could, but this post is just about the only thing holding the house up right now."
"So?"
"So the house collapsing might not hurt you, but I don't think I could live through it. I know you and your crew can live through just about anything, but I can't."
"Damn."
As the hours passed, Zoro felt himself going mad with frustration and boredom. There were so many ways he could escape, but he couldn't do anything without hurting Tashigi. Well, we'll both be fine once the Marines get here, so I may as well nap. He fell asleep with no problems, despite the uncomfortable position. His crew always ridiculed the fact that he could sleep just about anywhere. Well, right now it was saving him from unceasing hours, maybe even days, of boredom.
Later, neither of them knew how much, Zoro was awoken by a swift fist to the head.
"Oi, Zoro," said a voice.
"What the hell are you doing, waking me up like that?" complained Zoro, rubbing his head… His hands were free!
The voice giggled. "C'mon Zoro, the Marines are here, and I might have accidentally gotten their attention… we gotta go."
"Luffy?"
His captain roared with laughter. "Yup!" he said, and offered his hand out to help Zoro up.
Zoro took it, grabbed his katana, and he and Luffy ran out of the house as fast as they could. Marines were nothing, but there were a lot of them. "How'd you find this place?" he yelled as they ran.
He should of known better. "Hmm… I dunno. You might want to ask Nami, it was her idea…"
Their nakama were waiting at the outskirts of town for them. Just before they started the journey back to the ship, Zoro said to Nami "Really, how did you guys find us?"
Nami grinned evilly. "Well, you had a Marine with you. We just followed them. I didn't think you could get into much trouble with a Marine, but I guess someone in this crew can manage anything… How'd you get captured and held for your bounty anyways?"
"It was all her fault…" muttered Zoro.
"Now. In return for saving you, I think we can tack 1,000,000 belli onto what you already owe me."
"WHAT THE HELL!"
"Fine, I'll cut it down to 100, 000 belli, even though it's much less than that town would have gotten if they'd killed you."
"You bitch! You're definitely going to hell!"
"Yup. But I'll be rich when I get there!"
As Zoro went to go join Chopper and Robin in the lead, he smiled. He was definitely home.