As soon as the screaming started Nami and Tashigi's hands shot to cover their ears. Even still, the pair could hear the scream coming from Stormbreaker. Stormbreaker then started to speak, much softer again.
"I'm sorry if I hurt you, but I needed to show you what I could do." Stormbreaker explained, then started to walk back and forth again. "You see, I ate the himei-himei fruit. It gives me the power to make noises I make louder."
Tashigi looked up, realizing that the noise that had drawn her and Nami to the room they were currently in was made by Stormbreaker. "So that beating we heard throughout the castle?"
"Was my heartbeat." Stormbreaker answered back. "Like this", he said, before the beating of his heart quickly gained decibels, till it was so bad that Nami had to cover her ears again, and Tashigi put back in her ear plugs. It didn't fully get rid of the sound, but it helped a lot for Tashigi. She looked over at Nami who was struggling with the loud noise.
"Nami, just bear with it; we will figure something out." Tashigi tried to tell Nami, but her voice was drowned out by the loud sounds coming from Stormbreaker's chest.
Slowly, Stormbreaker lowered the how loud his heartbeat was. The pair could still hear it, but it was not an overpowering sound, one that made it so they could not even hear their own thoughts. Once that happened Tashigi tried to repeat what she had just said, but Stormbreaker cut her off.
"No, no, no", he said, in what sounded like a whisper, but came out as a scream, "I can't have the two of you making plans or anything like that. That would ruin my ability to ask you again, since now the pair of you have seen my power." A grin formed on Stormbreaker's face, him seeming to think that he had won, "Are you sure you do not want to join me?"
Tashigi did not get a chance to answer before Nami had already dived at him, her yari out trying to strike him. Surprisingly, Nami was the faster fighter, in fact she might have even been stronger, if Stormbreaker did not have a Devil Fruit power.
The moment he realized he was in trouble, he raised the noise of his heartbeat, which caused Nami to have to drop her yari and cover her ears. Her face showed massive anger at Stormbreaker, but there was nothing she could do. She looked down at her yari, angry that she had to leave it behind, then hopped back next to Tashigi. The entire scuffle having only taken thirty seconds.
Tashigi looked over at Nami, and attempted to, without using words, tell Nami to calm down and wait so she could think. Luckily the pair had been together for so long, that nonverbal communication, to a point, was possible. Nami looked at Tashigi in the eyes and Tashigi could tell that Nami understood. Tashigi could see Nami's muscles loosen up and her breath, which had become erratic, calmed back down.
Satisfied that Nami was calm, Tashigi stared at Stormbreaker again. Stormbreaker still had on the same grin and seemed to believe that he was not in much trouble now. As Tashigi gripped Shigure, trying to decide how to approach him, Stormbreaker's eyes went from staring her in the eyes to down at Tashigi's hands. His grin disappeared and he started to speak again.
"Really now, I have shown that my ability completely takes away you and your partner's ability to fight. You would just be wasting your time." He finished, his speech loud enough that Tashigi could hear it through her ear plugs, which Stormbreaker had to know were in her ears.
Tashigi glanced at Nami, a look of apology in her eyes, before she struck at Stormbreaker herself. All at once the heartbeat started up again, and the intense sound grew and grew. Tashigi ignored it, and dove at Stormbreaker, and to her surprise she was able to make contact with his arm. Satisfied, she hopped back, as she had seen Nami do, and joined Nami a bit away from Stormbreaker to avoid any possible counterattacks.
It was at this point Tashigi realized that Stormbreaker did not have a weapon to defend himself. While Stormbreaker moved his right hand to cover the cut that Tashigi had inflicted on his left arm, Tashigi took another stock of the situation. The heartbeat she could still hear was beating faster, which meant that Stormbreaker was worried. That meant that he knew he was in trouble.
For a moment, Tashigi allowed herself to relax, not only was Nami faster than him, she herself was stronger than him. As long as she had the earplugs in her ears, and they continued to at least mitigate the noise she heard, she would have this fight won.
Tashigi prepared for another slash, feeling much more confident this time and dove again. Once again, Shigure found its mark, this time, slashing Stormbreaker's left leg. This left Stormbreaker in pain, which Tashigi could see on his face. "AGGG", he screamed, then fell to a knee, to try not to hurt his leg more. The scream caused Tashigi to need to cover her ears, even with the ear plugs in.
Worried, she looked over at Nami, who had her eyes closed. Nami's face showed extreme pain, more than Stormbreaker showed. Stormbreaker looked up at Tashigi, and while he had a grin on before, then showed pain, now all she could see on it was anger. He seemed to realize that the scream was enough to cause Tashigi pain still, so he breathed in, seeming to try to put as much air his lungs as possible and then screamed as loud as he could.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed and Nami fell to the ground in pain. Next to her, Tashigi feel to one knee, then, due to the massive volume let out, Tashigi's glasses shattered.
Suddenly, Tashigi found herself blind. She could not see anything, it was like her sight was gone, all she could see was blobs. To her right, where Nami had been, she saw what she thought was Nami. The figure was wearing something white, and had an orange blob on top, which Tashigi thought was Nami's hair.
"Hahahahahaha", Tashigi heard Stormbreaker laugh, not as loud as his scream had been. "It seems you can't see now. How horrible for you, you don't even know how bad off your partner is." Tashigi listened and heard footsteps come to the pair of them. She prepared to be struck, but nothing happened. Instead, the blob that had approached her walked up to the Nami blob and kicked it a few times then walked back.
"Hmm", Stormbreaker made his thinking obvious with saying hmm out loud, "what should I do with the pair of you now? You have made it obvious that you do not wish to join me, and, well, if I am being honest, I think the pair of you might be able to beat me if we ever fight again."
Tashigi just sat there, not sure what to do.
Then Stormbreaker continued. "I'm, and I want you to know this was not my first choice, I'm going to have to kill you." Tashigi gulped, but suddenly she saw the Nami blob dive at what she assumed was the Stormbreaker blob. They tussled for a moment, then the Nami blob was thrown back towards Tashigi, into her in fact.
"A last-ditch effort from a defeated foe?" Stormbreaker asked, then started to laugh. "Man, if only you could see her." Stormbreaker laughed some more, "she has some blood coming out of her ears, and well, now she has a crushed rib cage."
Tashigi took her hand and rubbed it against Nami's body, which was currently on top of her. To Tashigi's surprise, Nami rolled off of her, then touched Tashigi's nose. After this Nami's hands, which were shaking, held two fingers to Tashigi's lips, then touched her nose again.
Tashigi could tell it was a sign, but for what, she did not know. With Nami off her, Tashigi made her way back to her feet, and slowly moved her hands in front of herself, hopeful to either not find, or maybe even find Stormbreaker.
Nami tapped Tashigi on the butt now, her left buttocks, for reasons Tashigi could not figure out. She looked down at the Nami blob, trying to make out what Nami was trying to tell her. It was at this point, with Tashigi's hearing greatly reduced, and her sight almost useless, that another sense started to work harder, Tashigi suddenly smelled a cigar.
It was strange, she had no idea why there would be a cigar smell, she wasn't smoking, Nami wasn't smoking, maybe Smoker was here, but that thought went away fast, Stormbreaker would have reacted to Smoker appearing. Once again, Nami tapped Tashigi's left buttock, and Tashigi wanted her to stop and to instead make sure she was okay herself. All this time, the cigar smell was getting stronger.
Then it hit her, all at once, Nami had bopped her nose to tell her to use her nose and sense of smell, the two fingers were what Nami used to remove a cigar from her mouth when she smoked, and the left buttocks, the left buttocks, that must be where Nami had hidden the cigar.
Tashigi calmed down, she needed to find where Stormbreaker was by smell. She closed her eyes and tried to find him.
"What's wrong, why did you close your eyes?" Stormbreaker asked, his voice booming in Tashigi's mind, even with her earplugs in. She ignored and used the smell, till she found the smell.
Tashigi and Nami had smoked so many cigars together that Tashigi now could tell where Nami was by where she smelled cigars, and since Nami had attempted to use this to help Tashigi, Tashigi figured that Nami could do the same.
"He is a little under two meters in front of me, and", Tashigi took a small sniff, "14 centimeters to my right." Tashigi thought to herself, seeing the room in her mind and placing Stormbreaker. "No, 10 centimeters, the cigar is in the left back pocket."
Satisfied that she knew where Stormbreaker was, Tashigi calmed her breathing, and brought her heartbeat, which had been thrown off by Stormbreaker's back under control. She would only have one chance at this, to take him by surprise, only one attack.
Tashigi cracked her neck, then in a split-second grabbed Shigure, then dived at Stormbreaker. "Wha", was all Stormbreaker got out before Tashigi slashed at him.
She heard him cough, then again, then again, with each one, the cough became quieter and quieter. Soon, the coughing stopped, as did the constant heartbeat that Tashigi had been listening to for so long, she had almost gotten used to it. Tashigi did not let off though, she stayed in position ready to react if Stormbreaker tried to fight back.
Suddenly, she felt a small tug at her leg and moved Shigure in position to strike the person there. Luckily, her brain was able to comprehend that it was not Stormbreaker's hand, but Nami's that was tugging at her. Tashigi sheathed Shigure and fell to her knees, happy that it was over.
Nami moved her hands over Tashigi's face and grabbed the ear plugs out of Tashigi's ears and started to scream.
"Are you okay Tashigi?!" Nami asked.
"I'm fine." Tashigi answered.
"What?" Nami asked back. Nami shook her head, but still heard buzzing coming out of her ears. It was faint but she could hear Tashigi, so her hearing was not completely destroyed, but it seemed she was going to need to rest her ears so they could recover. Nami looked at Tashigi who looked worried, so she told Tashigi what she was dealing with.
Tashigi listened and felt guilty. She should have taught Nami to carry ear plugs with her always. It was Tashigi's failure as a superior that had allowed Nami to get hurt.
"I'm sorry Nami, I won't ever let something like this happen again." Tashigi told Nami. Nami looked at her superior and was able to read Tashigi's lips to a point, so she had the gist of what she was saying. Nami shook her head, an action Tashigi sort of saw, then changed the subject.
"Do you want a cigar?" Nami asked. Tashigi looked up and smiled. She accepted one from Nami and allowed Nami to light it. Once she had taken her first inhale and exhaled the smoke, she smiled at Nami and told Nami she could have one. Nami quickly lit one up for herself, she winced in pain due to her hurt ribs. The pair then sat and enjoyed the cigars, deciding to wait for Smoker to come and find them.