Thank you for the reviews! You made me all fuzzy inside hehe ^^ On to chapter two! Oh, and I don't know Franky that well, 'cause, well, I'm on US manga… so I'll try to use him the best I can! I'm not sure whether I should work Brook into it…
Smoker stared Zoro down intensively. "It's pathetic when pirates have to come to this," he growled, releasing a puff of smoke. "Go ahead and fire," he called to the gunmen. Tashigi's eyes went wide. "Captain Smoker!" she cried.
"Time to go," Luffy laughed. Just like that, the Sunny's sails dropped and Luffy used his miraculous stretching to block the cannonballs, aided by Zoro, who shoved Tashigi into Sanji to help out. Sanji was ecstatic, but the same couldn't be said for poor Tashigi. Somewhere in the confusion, Tashigi's eyes caught Smoker's. He was smiling, a very unusual thing for him to do. Tashigi knew now that he had a plan, and almost relaxed as Franky sailed the Sunny sailed away, leaving the marines in a smoky haze of cannonball dust.
When the Sunny had gotten far off from the island, everyone's attention seemed to turn to Tashigi, even Chopper's, who was "hiding" behind Robin. Luffy was the first to approach Tashigi. "This is gonna be fun," he giggled. "I've never held a hostage before!"
"Don't you get it, Luffy!" Nami asked, arms akimbo. "She's not supposed to be our hostage; Zoro just pulled her into it without thinking! Don't you think Smoker knows we're not going to hurt her! We don't do that to people!"
"Oh," Luffy realized, looking back at Tashigi and still grinning. "Well, either way, we've never had a marine on our ship before." Tashigi just glared at all of them.
"Don't worry, Tashigi," Robin said, walking up to the marine and offering a hand (a real one). "I promise, neither I nor any of the rest of us will harm you in any way."
"We're not those kinds of pirates!" Luffy giggled.
"As long as you don't cost us any extra money, you're welcome to stay," Nami agreed.
"This is SUPAAA!" Franky said from the back of the group. "I feel like a really for-real actual pirate!" Tashigi looked at Robin's hand and slowly grabbed it in her gloved one and shook it. "I'll make a pact with you for now," she said warningly, "but when Smoker comes for me, I won't hesitate to capture all of you."
"Ahh, you're so beautiful, Miss Tashigi!" Sanji cooed, ignoring the malice in her voice. "I'll make drinks to celebrate!" He danced away into the kitchen.
"Okay, so that was Sanji, the cook," Nami said, pointing after him. She pointed to Luffy. "As you know, this is Luffy, our captain. That guy there is Usopp, our marksman."
"Yes!" Usopp said with sparkling eyes. "But more like, Usopp, the Brave Warrior of the Sea! And as Luffy's close friend, I consider myself the co-captain!" Nami rolled her eyes and pointed to Chopper. "That's Tony Tony Chopper, our doctor." Chopper bashfully waved.
"Aww," Tashigi said, leaning down to look at Chopper better. "He's so cute!" Chopper blushed, but to Tashigi's surprise, he yelled at her, "Shut up! That doesn't make me happy at all!"
"That there's Franky," Nami went on, pointing to the cyborg. "He's our carpenter."
"Nice to have you on board, marine girl," Franky said, grinning. Nami gestured to Robin and Zoro. "And of course you already know these two. Nico Robin's our archaeologist and Zoro's the first mate." Tashigi's eyes met Zoro's. For a minute, she could've sworn a smirk passed over his face. She scowled at him. Nami exchanged a look with Robin and smiled mischievously.
"Dinner is served!" Sanji announced, dancing around the room and setting all the food out. Tashigi's eyes were as round as the plates her food was on as she stared at the massive pile of meat. Some of the Mugiwara pirates she could believe ate so much (Zoro, that pig), but she didn't see the need for so much food. But when Sanji announced that they could all eat, Luffy easily devoured half the pile. Tashigi was lucky enough to have Sanji save her a piece and drop it onto her plate delicately (he had called for a seat beside her). She picked at the food while she eavesdropped on Robin, who was sitting on her other side.
"Do you think Zoro did it on purpose?" she was asking Nami. The redheaded navigator grinned back. "Maybe not, but we know he'll grow to like it, huh?" The two laughed quietly. Tashigi raised her eyebrows and, finding something to do, removed her glasses from her jacket pocket and buffed them with the hem of her shirt. She raised them up to her eye level. "Oh, no," she said quietly. Over one lens, there was a large crack in the glass.
"What is it, Miss Tashigi?" Sanji said, sounding concerned. "Is the food not cooked to your liking?"
"Oh…no, that's not it," Tashigi said, trying to look through her glasses. She winced. They were worse than she thought. "I broke my glasses."
"Surprise, surprise." Tashigi looked up to Zoro's voice and scowled again at him. Robin chuckled beside her. "What's so funny, Nico Robin?" Tashigi demanded. Robin smiled and answered quietly, "It's cute, this back-and-forth argument you two have. Sanji, may I have another drink, please?"
"Of course, Miss Robin!" Tashigi furrowed her brow and looked back to Zoro, who looked to be asleep in his seat. Cute?
Tashigi was made a place in the women's quarters to sleep. She eyed the bed for a moment, but oddly enough, she didn't feel tired. She didn't much want to listen to Nami and Robin whispering so much, either. Instead, she grabbed Shigure and headed onto the deck. The moon had only just risen and was already shining brightly. Tashigi leaned on the rail and wondered why the Mugiwaras were treating her so well. True, she was a hostage by mistake, but… why were they so kind to her? After dinner, Usopp had immediately remarked that he could replace the broken lens in her glasses and had mended them before she could protest. Sanji was especially nice to her, and even Nico Robin was being polite. It just didn't make sense. She sighed as her thoughts then wandered back to Smoker's expression right before the Sunny had sailed away. He knew they wouldn't hurt her, yes, but how was he planning to come for her? The aftermath of those deflected cannonballs couldn't be pretty- how was he expecting to sail anytime soon? How long would it be before she would be rescued?
"This is all Roronoa's fault," she said out loud.
"Is it?" Tashigi spun around on her heel to see Zoro standing behind her, arms crossed with a playful smirk tracing his lips. "What did you expect me to do; let them destroy our ship? We just got this thing."
"You couldn't have at least thrown me into the water or something instead of sailing off with me!"
"Usopp already had that idea," Zoro pointed out. "You didn't like it, though." He eyed her for a moment more and muttered, "She wouldn't have, either." He looked down at Shigure, which was still clutched in her hand. She looked down at it, too, and then back at him. Her eyes narrowed. Zoro sighed. "No," he said firmly.
"Come on; just fight me! Why do you keep refusing!" She drew Shigure and pointed it at him fiercely. Zoro raised an eyebrow at her and then, in one movement, pulled Wadou into action and knocked Shigure from her hold and over the rail, catching it before it fell to the sea.
"You're holding your katana wrong," he said, sheathing Wadou. He handed Shigure to her and straightened her arms tightly with his hands. "You can to bend your arms at the elbows; you can't just go swinging around everywhere. And stop assaulting your opponent. Defend yourself first, and then attack. You have a lot to learn." With that, he let go of her and returned into the ship again, leaving Tashigi with more questions than ever and a feeling that her confidence had just been shattered.
The next morning, everyone greeted Tashigi like an honored guest, all except for Zoro, who appeared to be inattentive. Sanji served her breakfast very flashily and complimented her every other minute. This time, she was seated between Luffy and Chopper. Luffy had his face full of bacon and ham, so Tashigi's only hope for conversation was the small human-reindeer.
"So you ate the Hito Hito no Mi?" Tashigi repeated, taking a strip of bacon from the little meat that Luffy had left for the rest of the crew.
"Yup," Chopper answered, nibbling on his own piece. "I can talk to other animals, too. What can you do?" This question caught Tashigi off-guard a little bit. She chuckled.
"Well, I can use katanas," she said. "Not as well as Zoro can, apparently, but I'll get there. Someday." She stirred around the coffee Sanji had made and looked to eye Zoro again. He was no longer in his seat.
"Oh," Chopper said. "You must be good if you're aiming to be as good as Zoro." Tashigi wasn't sure if that was a valid compliment or not, so she didn't answer him and continued looking for Zoro, wondering where he had gotten off to.
"Alright, Tashigi?" Robin said. The marine snapped back to attention. "Oh, yes, I'm alright," she answered.
"Good," Nami said. "We need to talk to you about when you'll be leaving the Sunny. We don't know when you'll be leaving the Sunny at all. We have no idea." Tashigi had figured that. Luffy let out a massive belch and grinned childishly. "Don't be talking about when she leaves, Nami! We just got her yesterday!"
"Luffy, having a marine on a pirate ship as a hostage is not a good thing," Usopp said. "Did you see how mad Smoker looked?" he shivered. A moment later, he stammered, "Oh, uh, not like I'm, you know, afraid of him or anything…" Tashigi wondered how gullible Usopp thought everyone was when Chopper gasped, "You, the brave Captain Usopp, afraid! You're never afraid!" She wondered if Chopper was being sarcastic, but the reindeer looked positively star struck.
"That's right!" Usopp declared, laughing. "I've never been afraid before in my life! In fact, once, when I was in a small dinghy being tossed around by the cruel, relentless, waters of the ocean, moments away from my fate to a swirling whirlpool…" Usopp continued to over-describe some obviously made-up adventure of his.
Tashigi quietly took the opportunity to leave, as had most everyone else but Usopp and Chopper. When she walked onto the deck, she found it surprisingly busy. Franky was repairing a damaged part of the ship near the observation tower. Nami was tending to her miniature tree grove while Robin lounged in a lawn chair. Luffy seemed to be having the most fun as he hung like a monkey from the foremast, holding in one arm a huge rack of meat and suspending himself right out of Sanji's reach. Sanji was busy yelling at Luffy to give the meat back to notice her entrance. Still, Zoro was nowhere in sight.
"The swordsman is in the crow's nest, if you're wondering," Robin said calmly. Tashigi looked to her with raised eyebrows, wondering how she knew who the marine was looking for.
"It was a lucky guess," Robin smiled secretly. "But, ah, be careful on the rope and the ladder, alright?"
"Um… thank you," Tashigi said awkwardly. This is ridiculous, she thought to herself as she climbed up to the crow's nest. I should be with Smoker right now; nowhere near these pirates. And why do they treat me so well still? Why am I treating them so well? She knocked on the trapdoor to the crow's nest uneasily and listened. Inside, she could hear a faint clinking noise. She knocked again, harder this time. After the clinking stopped and somebody grumbled, the door opened and she was staring up at Zoro. He was sweating hard, but Tashigi didn't even notice until she tore her eyes away from the long scar on Zoro's bare chest.
"What do you want?" he said gruffly. Tashigi had forgotten. What did she want up here?
"Er… I just was wondering where you went at breakfast," she said. That sounded good, but she wasn't wholly convinced that was her plan… "Can I come up?"
"No," Zoro said. He began to close the door when Tashigi held it open with her palm.
"Those weights in the corner," she said, nodding to them. They were huge; bigger than Zoro's body altogether. "Do you lift those?"
"None of your business. Go away; I'm busy." With that Zoro closed the door on her and she was forced to climb back down. Halfway, Luffy swung over and grabbed onto the rope beside her. The rack of meat had disappeared, but she was sure after seeing the Mugiwara captain eat twice that he had devoured it. He giggled. "Hi, Tashigi!" he greeted with a wave. "How do you like being our hostage? I think it's kinda fun! So does Sanji!"
"Well, I… really, I'm surprised," Tashigi admitted. "Shouldn't you be treating me a little… I don't know, as what I am? Your enemy?" Luffy laughed.
"As long as you're aboard the Thousand Sunny, you're not our enemy!" he declared. The marine became confused for a moment. "Luffy, do you know what a hostage is?" she asked.
"Nope," Luffy said, still grinning. And yet he refers to me as a hostage all the time.
"It's a person or thing that you take away from someone so that that someone will give you what you want. It's mostly for money." Luffy wrinkled his nose, again to Tashigi's surprise.
"For money?" he repeated. "This must be Nami's idea, then. I don't want to call you a hostage if you think it means I want money from Smoker. I can just call you Tashigi." So the navigator's behind the whole operation, Tashigi thought, stealing a glance at Nami on the deck below. She began to climb down again while still talking to Luffy, who followed her down. "Well, I'm not too thrilled to be a hostage," she said thoughtfully. "It would have been a good idea for the marines, you know. We could probably take in Usopp as a hostage, or Chopper." Luffy busted out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Tashigi asked. Surely he knew that Usopp and Chopper had to be the weakest members of the crew.
"Well, no offense, but you could never take down Chopper or Usopp unless you were really careful," Luffy explained. "Chopper has the Rumble Ball, for one, and he can turn really huge and knock people out with one fist."
"But we could take Usopp," Tashigi assured him.
"Ahh, I dunno," Luffy giggled. "Usopp can be a scaredycat, but he can fight alright. He's Sogeking! Oh, was I supposed to tell you that?" he wondered. Tashigi thought and decided that Sogeking was at least a reasonable opponent.
"Say, Tashigi, who do you like Zoro so much?"
"What? Oh-" Tashigi's foot slipped from its hold and she yelped. Luffy stretched out an arm and pulled her back like it was no big deal.
"Th-thanks," she said.
"So why do you?" Luffy said, leaning forward to see into her eyes past the walls of her glasses.
"I really don't," she insisted, continuing to climb downwards. "We're rivals." Luffy followed her until they again stood on the deck. "Nami and Robin don't think you are," he giggled. "I'm gonna go see if Usopp and Chopper want to go fishing. See ya later!" He ran off waving at her. Tashigi adjusted her glasses and looked up at the sky in thought. Such strange pirates, she thought to herself. A cyborg, a reindeer, the scaredycat Sogeking, a child captain, a former pirate hunter, a magnificent chef, a former Baroque Works agent and a former Arlong Pirate- what else can they do that I don't know about?
