A/N: My first One Piece story. Let's see where this goes, shall we?

She thought it was ironic, really. That a swordsman - one who walked with death - would be done in by such a pathetic mishap. She had expected to die one day, don't get her wrong. That was inevitable. But to die by falling down the stairs because of one uneven piece of wood? She could only laugh at herself. She wasn't scared, she wasn't sad, she was just annoyed.

Zoro would probably laugh. He'd learn that the person who was always better than him died because she tripped. Like, seriously. Was this a gag routine? She'd rather be struck down by lightning. At least that was more memorable.

But no, here she was, falling with a dangerous sharp object in her hands. One that was about to impale her.

For fuck's sake.

Her father would chide her for swearing, but she couldn't really bring herself to care considering the circumstances. Not that the sexist old bastard was worth her time anyways.

Ah well. Hopefully the afterlife has its own share of adventures.

She closed her eyes and braced for an impact. And an impact she received.

"Oof!"

She hit the ground and she hit it hard. Like, the kind of hard that can only be obtained by jumping off a second story building. It knocked the wind right out of her. But that wasn't the strangest part. The strange part was the fact that she wasn't, ya know, dead. She could clearly tell that she was still breathing and the stone she was quite intimate with at the moment was real enough. Tasted real enough too. Blegh.

She placed her hands under to push herself up and froze. Since when were her hands that big?

She knew she was pretty big for her age, but this was something else.

"The heck?"

Wait- why was her voice so much deeper?! It sounded like her puberty had completed overnight.

"Tashigi, stop messing around."

Huh? Tashigi?

Her shirt was suddenly grabbed by a much larger hand as she was unceremoniously lifted off the ground and onto her feet. She glanced around and paled at the massive man standing before her. He was huge! He looked like he could break her in half with one hand! And two cigars? Really? That couldn't be healthy.

The man before her exhaled a stream of smoke.

"Come on, we've wasted enough time."

He walked past her and she caught the Kanji on his back.

Justice

He was a Marine.

But that didn't answer her - admittedly - many questions. Where was she? Why was she clearly taller and older? And who was Tashigi?

She instinctively reached for her waist, having felt the familiar weight of a blade there and was startled to see that it wasn't Wado. And yet . . . she somehow knew what it was.

Shigure.

What was going on? She shook her head. Whatever it was, it was better than being dead. Maybe if she stuck around tall, scary and smokey she'd get some answers.

"Coming!" she shouted as she jogged after him, quite pleased with the new stride she had.

So, she's learned several things since waking up in, what she had learned was, the future. She was a Marine called Tashigi. She served under Captain Smoker and was currently stationed in Loguetown. So, still East Blue, cool. Secondly, she was a swordsman. That was another bonus. What this meant was that, somehow. She ended up in the body of this girl who was remarkably similar to her in appearance and personality. She kind of felt bad. Did that mean Tashigi was gone for good?

She shook her head. She could worry more about that later. As for how she learned all this? Simple. Amnesia. She claimed she could only remember her childhood, which was true, so after convincing them of that, they gave her the rundown.

They even asked if she was comfortable being referred to by Tashigi anymore and she decided to just roll with it for the time being. Kuina was, after all, technically dead. And had been for a long time. She read about it. Her body actually did die then. So that makes things a bit more awkward. Especially when she eventually runs into Zoro again. There was no way she was going to avoid him. They may have butt heads, but they were friends and though she joked about him laughing, she knew he wouldn't have taken her death easy. She wanted to be there for him. Not to mention she was the only one who could challenge her.

Why? Because Tashigi had proven that girls could be strong swordsmen as adults! Suck it, dad! She might just go back there and beat him in a sword duel just to stick it to him. But that was for another day.

Now, you may ask what she's doing now. Simple, she's getting Shigure repaired. It was a fine sword, not on the level of Wado, but Wado was a blade in a league of its own. Not to say she didn't love Shigure either. In fact, she loved Shigure just as much as Wado now. It's just that in terms of make, Wado Ichimonji far outshined Shigure as a Meito.

The door opened with a jingle and she instinctively turned around to greet her fellow customer, only to freeze as she did so. Short green hair, resting bitch face, three swords, one of which was most definitely Wado?

Ah.

She lifted her hand and waved awkwardly.

"Hi."

There was an uncomfortable silence as they stared at eachother for a considerable amount of time before . . . he completely blew her off and started rummaging through the swords.

"Oi! Don't you ignore me, you mosshead!"

He paused and flicked a gaze back at her. "I don't have time for copycats."

C-Copycat?! Oooh, that does it. She's gonna shove Shigure up his ass.

"Who are you calling a copycat, huh?! If anything, you're the copycat, mosshead!"

That seemed to set him off as he whirled around and glared at her. "The hell do you mean by that?!"

"You're using Wado Ichimonji, right? That makes you a copycat!"

"How?!"

"Because that's my sword!"

"The hell it is!"

"It is too and I can prove it!"

"Oh yeah? How?" he asked as he crossed his arms.

She smirked before crossing the distance between them in an instant. Upside to having an older, more experienced body. Muscle memory. Kuina herself may have not been a swordsman for a long time, but Tashigi certainly had been and Kuina made full use of that by tapping into that experience and grabbing at Wado's hilt.

She was startled when Zoro easily caught her wrist. "Hell no."

And that's when she smirked. "So lil' Zoro grew a spine."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I dunno. It's just, by reacting like you did, you just won our 2002nd duel."

Zoro froze, his mouth hanging open. He shakily raised his right arm and pointed at her. "You . . ."

She pointed to herself. "Me."

"Are you actually-"

She gave him a bright smile.

"K-Kuina?"

She poked him on the chest. "The one and the only. Now stop staring, people are going to get ideas."

She then had to bite back a yelp when he slammed a fist on top of her head.

"Ow! What the heck was that for?!"

"To make sure I wasn't dreaming."

"That's not how it works, dumbass!"

"Still, I saw your body. I saw you get cremated. How the hell are you even here right now?"

She grinned sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head. "I can tell you're having trouble believing me. So I'll explain."

She made sure to whisper so that the shop owner didn't eavesdrop, but he seemed preoccupied with booze anyways.

"-and that's basically what happened."

"That's so unbelievably stupid that I have no choice but to believe you. "

She smirked at him. "Glad to hear it. So, whatcha doing these days? Besides honoring my memory." She paused. "You are honoring my memory, right?"

"Of course I am! That's why I have Wado. I'm still going to become the World's Greatest Swordsman!"

She beamed at him. "That's what I like to hear! So, are you a Marine too?"

He paused before grimacing. "Try the opposite."

She choked on her spit. "You? A pirate?!"

He nodded.

"I see. So you found some kind of idiot Captain willing to put up with your bullheadedness, I assume?"

"Try the opposite! He wouldn't take no for an answer!"

She snorted. "Sounds like karma, for you always being stubborn about fighting me."

"Oi."

"Eh," she waved him off. "As long as you're cherishing your blade, I don't see a problem with it. Still, a pirate huh?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds sweet. Count me in."

"I'll have to ask my Captain- Wait, what?! You're a Marine, though!"

"Meh, too stifling. Smoker is all grump and discipline. Reminds me too much of my dad. All I want to do is face strong swordsmen. Sides, if I go with you, we can spar every day!"

"So you're going to defect from the Marines because you're bored?"

"More or less."

Zoro palmed his face. "I don't know if you've gotten stupider or if I've gotten smarter."

"It is most definitely the former, I assure you."

"Screw off."