A/N: So, this just flowed out really easily, which was nice considering the issues I've been having with my NaNo project. I know this event has been covered quite a few times but I felt I needed to put it in this story, I mean it is the first real point I found for Captain's Orders other than the incident with Buggy and Luff's run away order. Apologies in advance to the long intro into the point of the chapter but I felt that it needed a little Smoker context to how he thought over what he saw and understood.
Thanks as always for follows and faves.
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thanks.
Arxhaelogist: Yeah, that's what I meant, thanks for that. I like the fact that non-StrawHats POVs allow an outside world context on the crew. Thanks again.
Smoker pondered his decision to split from his crew as he continued to travel back toward his ship. He knew that it had definitely confused Tashigi but given all he had found out in Rain Dinners, he knew he had to split the resources he currently had and call in for backup if the pirates didn't do what he now knew they had currently been planning. It almost boggled his mind that that is what that crew was wanting to do but having done his research on the little crew after heading out after them, trying to find a way to track how they may move, he knew they weren't joking when they said that they were going to try and stop the civil war that was breaking out in this country.
In these investigations he conducted, he had found unexpected facts of the defeats of Buggy the Clown and Sawtooth Arlong, the facts hidden deep in the reports that the small crew had interacted with the people of the islands who had been conquered by these pirates and their actions while during these interactions inferred to them that they would fight the resident pirate for the people they interacted with. There was even hidden deep in these reports on the crew, a small mention of the island that had formally been controlled by the disgraced Captain Morgan that Straw Hat and the Swordsman who Tashigi had become obsessed with had been the ones to deal with the issue, not the former second-in-command as was the common story.
Not that he felt like letting Tashigi in on this little fact, she would probably do that female thing that interprets a fact as meaning something else. Not that she had a habit of falling into female complexity, but it seemed that that is what she had done in the response to the Swordsman's actions in Logue Town. At least, that is how he understood from what she reported to him the facts of what had happened, compared with how she had interpreted the Swordsman's actions. After reading all the reports on the crew's movements and actions that were available to him it seemed that he was right in his interpretation, but who knew how Tashigi would take the knowledge he had.
This was all information he had gotten from the reports. The most enduring impression he had of the crew as a whole from his own interactions with them was that they were all slightly insane. But this might just be from his interactions with the one they referred to as their Captain, and Straw Hat obviously had at least one screw loose. Though he also seemed to either have the luck of the devil, or was more intellectually gifted and strategically knowledgeable than he came across, or both to have gotten where he is now.
Which led his thoughts to what had occurred in that blasted city to change all his plans about his actions in Alabasta. He would not be able pursue Straw Hat until after this mess was cleaned up, because beside the matter of honour he was currently working under, he needed that unexpected crew of his to hold the line at least until he could get some marine reinforcements to help settle the matter.
Of what had occurred that day, this was what he knew for certain. He had pursued Straw Hat and certain members of his crew, the Swordsman, a red haired woman and a long nosed boy, into Rain Dinners, hoping to capture the pirate that had driven him into the Grand Line. He had followed them through to a section of the casino that branched off of the main floor and into what was, looking at it outside a pursuit scenario, a very obvious trap. This had dumped all five of them into a cage made of sea-stone in a room made of glass, surrounded by water and banadiles. This had led to them settling into the cage, Smoker sitting in a corner, watching the antics of Straw Hat and his long-nosed mate and the red haired woman yelling at the both of them, the Swordsman taking a place leaning on the wall, keeping one eye on his crewmates, another on Smoker and having a general air of perception of the room beyond.
Then had come the arrival of Crocodile and the woman, Ms. Sunday, the crew in the cage with him called her, but he recognised as Nico Robin and soon afterwards the arrival of Princess Vivi of Alabasta. It had been a little bit of a shock to see the believed missing Crown Princess of Alabasta, it was even more so to see the Straw Hat crew familiar with her, though it did answer some of the questions he had been asking himself. The plan against the country had been revealed and the trap fully set, water and banadiles set on them as their captors left to deal with a problem of a Mr Prince. After a few tense moments, a rescue was conducted by a man appearing to be another member of the crew who Smoker vaguely recalled from the Logue Town square and a display of fighting ability by the Captain and the Swordsman ensued.
Then had come an action that still slightly confused and worried Smoker. As the room had cracked fully and water came rushing in he had known he was in real trouble without a fellow marine to pull him out of the water that was his enemy. But, although he never heard any speech, orders or decisions being made, in fact the only utterances seemed to be sounds of panic, as the water rushed at him and started to drag him under he felt a strong grip on the back of his jacket and being pulled up toward the surface. When he and his rescuer reached the surface he had looked to them and saw the Swordsman his subordinate had become obsessed with. Smoker had known in that moment that he needed an explanation of why a pirate would save a marine, he had needed to know whether his suspicions of this man and his crew were close to right, because if they were, he knew they would be more dangerous than anyone had yet to give them credit for.
So, Smoker had made his move as the rest of the crew began to gather itself, he swung his jitte at the swordsman to get his attention. Asking the question, and getting the answer he had almost expected. The answer in itself also happened to answer some questions Smoker had had about the former bounty hunter.
Captain's Orders. Two words that said so much about the man, Straw Hat and the rest of his crew.
From these events he now had answers, to many of the questions he had developed about Straw Hat and his crew, though not all the answers he could know for certain. He did know this though, Tashigi had found herself an impressive goal, for all her not truly having much understanding of the man.
The Swordsman had been, for all his apparent lack of care about being in a cage, watching over his crewmates and making a point to watch Smoker, and Smoker had no doubt that if he had done something that could be taken as a threat to the man's crew, he would have reacted violently. Smoker also knew from the tone the Swordsman had used in his answer that he had not wanted to save Smoker, but had done it anyway because his Captain had told him to.
But what Smoker found most telling about the man and the situation was that Smoker had not heard any verbal order or argument about saving him, but it had obviously happened. That spoke of an understanding and a relationship between the two men that could be extremely dangerous to any who stood against their crew.
It was well known among the marines that occasionally there will be a crew that emerges that shows such a relationship between a Captain and a first mate, especially early in a pirate's career. It was also known that if they were left to grow with their crews, they would become very successful, there were rumours of these relationships seen in the Roger pirates, the Whitebeards and more recently in the Red-Haired pirates.
But these were worries for the future, for now Smoker needed to turn his attention to dealing with the situation in front of him and for that he needed to make use of this crew, that he thinks might eventually become legends. Of course that would only happen if he didn't catch them first.
A/N2: So, the next is the first of the planned StrawHat POVs for Alabasta. I'm planning on starting with Usopp, mainly because I kind of feel bad that he is the only East Blue crew to at this point only have his intro chapter, though I do think he with have a unique perspective. The next question is whether there will be only one more StrawHat after that or if I should add another.
