Smoker and his crew were preparing for their newest mission, one that had been given to them by Admiral Kizaru. The crew was to try to defeat the Equal Dealers, a new pirate group that had formed in East Blue. The group seemed to have plans to take over the region, and Smoker and his crew were going to stop them.
At the bow of the ship were Tashigi and Nami already ready. Tashigi had her sword on her and was ready to go at any moment. Next to her Nami was standing, her yari on her back as well. The pair were smoking cigars to calm their nerves and because they were not sure if they could smoke any during their mission. Smoker was able to fight while smoking, but the pair had attempted to train while smoking and it had led to some near misses on burns and horrible coughing fits.
The pair had approached Smoker once, and Tashigi had asked Smoker how he was able to fight and smoke at the same time.
"I do not know to be honest", Smoker replied. "I guess it might have something to do with having eaten the Moku-Moku Fruit, but I am not sure. Anyway, don't you think you smoke enough Tashigi?" Smoker had finished asking Tashigi, not even realizing that Nami was there with them. The pair ignored Smoker trying to get them to cut down on their smoking and just went on.
So, the pair liked to smoke before missions, as they were doing now. As the island that the Equal Dealers had made their main base of operations came into view, Tashigi took one last drag of her cigar, then threw it into the ocean. Nami copied Tashigi's motion one-to-one and did the same right afterwards.
The pair then joined the rest of the crew on the deck, getting their last instructions.
Smoker saw Tashigi and Nami come in late and for a second considered calling them out, but decided against it, he knew the pair were the best fighters he had, and Tashigi had shown herself to be able to fight back against him if she put her mind to it, something he did not want to deal with right before a major mission. He also felt slightly guilty because he had not told the pair, or the rest of the crew for that matter, that he had been promoted to Commodore. He was afraid that such news would lead the crew to want to have a celebration. With a mission about to start, he felt that this would be the worst time for that type of merriment. He looked over the crew and then gave his orders.
"We will take a pair of boats instead of this ship. The ship is to anchor six hundred meters offshore. I do not want such an obvious Marine ship to be seen by anyone keeping a lookout." Smoker then motioned to the sails of the ship, which like all Marine ships had the word Marines written in big letters.
"We have already discussed the signals that we can give using mirrors, but I want the men in charge of the signals to discuss with each other again to make sure that they are one hundred percent certain they are correct." Smoker took a drag of his cigars, then blew out the smoke. "On one boat will be team a, led by me, the other boat, team b, will be led by Tashigi. While you are on her boat, you will treat her how you would me, with one hundred percent discipline."
Smoker stared at Tashigi, who gave a determined look back. Smoker chuckled to himself, then continued on. "We will meet again in ten minutes to set out. Till then, dismissed."
The crew started to go their separate ways. Amongst them, Tashigi and Nami approached Smoker.
"Is everything okay Tashigi?" Smoker asked, seeing his vice-captain approach him.
"Yes Smoker, everything is okay, I just wanted to go over the signals that we can give each other while on the boats one final time." Tashigi explained. Smoker felt pride hearing his vice-captain take such initiative and started to discuss the signals that he had ordered the men to have ready so that Tashigi knew the exact wording to use for her orders.
The two boats were slowly lowered and started to row towards Maru Island, the location of the Equal Dealers base. On one boat Smoker led a group of four lieutenants. They were some of his finest officers and he trusted them all with his life. The reason he was comfortable to take four of the best was because of the lead pair on the other boat.
The other boat contained Tashigi, Nami, and two other lieutenants. This boat had fewer people so it could move faster and get onshore quicker. They were the ones who were supposed to scout the area, something Nami was a master of.
Due to her time as cartographer of the Arlong Pirates, Nami was amazing at cartography and this skill, maybe even more than her skill with a yari, was her greatest contribution to missions. The fact that she still, even now, enjoyed doing it, was a plus.
Tashigi's ship, as planned landed first. The two men pulled the boat into hiding while Nami went ahead to a hill, close to where the boat had landed. She quickly got up the hill, being unseen, and took in the island that she could see. She pulled out paper and quickly started to draw a map of the area. She was done quickly and got back down to find Tashigi and the two lieutenants looking out toward the sea with worry.
"What's wrong Tashigi-san?" Nami asked in a whisper.
Tashigi turned to Nami with a worried look on her face. "The other boat flashed a message that they were being led off course and would be landing on a beach about one hundred and fifty meters west of where we landed. "We had to wait for you to come back before we went over to check on them, they should already be heading this way."
Nami bowed slightly to apologize, then started to walk behind Tashigi who led the group of four to the west. As the group was walking, they noticed that it was starting to get colder and colder. This was strange because it was one, the middle of summer, and two, unlike on the Grand Line, the weather did not change that often. Nami, not used to the cold at all, started to shiver a bit, Tashigi, seeing Nami shiver put her hand over Nami.
"It's okay", Tashigi told Nami, who blushed.
As the group was walking, amazingly, it started to snow, something that even took Tashigi by surprise. She started to walk more carefully and signaled to the others to do the same. She did not want any enemies nearby to be able to hear the group taking steps in the snow.
Soon, they saw the other boat on the shore, covered in snow. Nearby, they saw a group of marines laying down, shivering. Tashigi ran up to one of them and grabbed him.
The man who she grabbed was named Ferdenand, and he was the man in charge of sending the messages from the other ship. He was freezing, and shivering, but otherwise seemed to be fine. Tashigi shook the man, who was nearly asleep awake. "What happened? Tashigi asked, then looked around. "Where is Smoker?"
Through chattering teeth, the man answered back. "Our boat went off course, it started to snow, we landed on shore, the snow became worse. Before we knew it, we were covered in snow, Smoker dug us out, then ran into the forest that way." The man, barely able to make sentences, his hand shaking, pointed to a path in the forest.
Tashigi nodded, then looked at the group that had come with her. "You two", she said, pointing at the two lieutenants, "I want you to take these four towards our boats where it is warmer. I hate to do this as well, but you will need to start a fire to warm them up." Tashigi then looked over at Nami. "Nami, you and me are going after Smoker."
Nami saluted and the pair started to run towards the path in the forest. The pair of lieutenants were strong enough to each lead a pair of shivering Marines and started to walk towards where Tashigi's boat had landed.
Soon Tashigi and Nami found what could only be called an igloo in the middle of the forest. Slowly they approached it and Nami put her head against it to listen to the inside. She heard muffled voices, then looked over at Tashigi and nodded. "Smoker is in there".
Tashigi took Shigure out of its scabbard and cut a hole in the wall. As she did snow started to blow out, like pressure had been released from the room. Also blowing out of the room was Smoker in his plume form. He looked over at Tashigi and Nami and a small smile formed on his face.
"I'm glad to see the two of you are okay." He said, then stood up. "Sadly, I am going to have to ask you two to leave though, only I can handle this guy, Smoker said. He then pointed towards a castle, in the distance. "That is their main headquarters, and the guy here is a blabbermouth and told me that the only person there is Stormbreaker. Apparently, they were expecting us." Smoker then blew smoke out of his mouth from the cigars he was smoking. "I am ordering you two to go there and stop Stormbreaker."
Nami wanted to complain, but Tashigi saluted, understanding there had to be a reason Smoker wanted them not to come in the igloo. "Consider it done Smoker." She answered.
Tashigi started to run in the direction, which Nami, after looking back one more time towards Smoker, followed.
Smoker smiled at Nami showing so much concern then jumped back into the room. The man in there, a slim man with grey eyes and black haired, smiled. "Why didn't you invite them in? I am certain they would have loved to meet Phule Gotfreed."