"WHAAAAT!" Nami screamed, stamping her feet. "YOU'VE GOT TO BE JOKING! THIS ISN'T TREASURE! Treasure is supposed to be glittering or golden or beautiful! This is… a bunch of paper!" After the lid had been lifted, what had shown itself was an abundance of hardcover books.
"Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Robin said, leaning down and picking up the single piece of paper on the top. "There's a note."
"What's it say?" Nami said, coming behind her. "Is it directions to a better treasure!"
"No," Robin said, sweatdropping. "It says, 'Don't belittle the power of knowledge. With this gold comes death and life, and destiny and fate. The curse upon it brings knowledge of those around you. Never say you know a man until you've seen into his heart.' That's quite a riddle, isn't it."
"THE NOTE SAID GOLD!" Nami declared. She went to the chest and swept out all of the books. At the bottom of the chest was a heaping pile of gold coins. "FINALLY!" she laughed. "Franky, Sanji! To the ship! We're packing up and setting sail again!" The two obliged quickly, ready to leave.
"C-c-curse?" Usopp stuttered, trembling. "I don't think we want a cursed treasure, Nami…"
"Big deal," Zoro muttered. "We're tough enough to handle whatever it is."
As they boarded the ship, they ran into Luffy, who seemed to be hiding.
"Finally," he said quickly, jumping up on deck. "We have to go now!"
"What's wrong?" Nami said as Sanji unfurled the sail. "Why are we in such a hurry?" Luffy checked behind them. "Monkeys," he said quietly.
"Monkeys?" Usopp said, scratching his head. Luffy nodded. "Zillions of them."
"Let's go; he might be having hallucinations or something," Robin muttered. They drifted away from the shore, heading towards the horizon calmly.
A little too calmly, in fact.
After they had settled back into things, it was a little late, maybe around four judging by the sun's position. Zoro considered a number of ways to deliver his message to Luffy before deciding on the direct approach. He grabbed Luffy by the wrist and started dragging him across the deck.
"Oi, Zoro, where are we going?" Luffy said. "Are we going on an adventure!"
"Shut up, Luffy," Zoro said. He dragged him into the unused room from chapter three and shut the door. "Listen, you can't tell anyone about this."
"Ooh, a secret!" Luffy said. Zoro rolled his eyes. "Luffy, I think that Tashigi should become a Mugiwara pirate." Luffy's eyes got big, round and sparkly.
"SUGOIIIII!" Zoro clamped a hand over his mouth and shushed him. "Shut up," he hissed. "It's a secret."
"Tashigi wants to stay! Really!" Luffy asked, grinning. Zoro shushed him again, looking around as if to make sure no one heard and was coming to check on them.
"I…. think she does," he nodded. "But I'm not entirely sure, so don't go around telling anyone about it, okay?"
"But why?" Luffy whined. "Everyone likes Tashigi! They'll be glad that she's staying!"
"I'm not so sure about that," Zoro said. "Just… keep your mouth shut." Luffy sighed. "Okay," he muttered.
"Promise?"
"Fine, I promise."
"Good." Zoro opened the door and they went back out on deck. Tashigi was cleaning Shigure and talking to Chopper, who was fascinated with one of her stories. Usopp was on the other side of her, clearly about to react with an outrageous tale of his own. Zoro sat down against the railing, ready for a nap. As he looked up at the sky, he found himself thinking about Kuina again, but Tashigi's picture was pushing hers out of the way; they were battling with each other… Zoro closed his eyes and let the sun warm him.
Meanwhile, Smoker was at a loss. He had one hand constantly running through his hair as he considered the option that chasing after his subordinate would be a complete waste of time; that she no longer wanted anything to do with the Marines. That couldn't be right.
And Hina had sounded so sure of herself. The whole situation presented itself as what looked like a whole big trick. It sounded like Hina was pulling the strings here, that she was putting Tashigi into the wrong position… but why would she need to do that? Nothing made sense anymore.
Smoker looked out the window. The repairs were almost done. His sails were all rolled up. He ached to be on the sea again, even though there was always the constant threat of being pulled under, drowning. He had felt it in Arabasta, shortly before someone had saved him.
Roronoa had saved him.
So why was this… hate there?
Why did he hate them?
Sighing, Smoker considered the den den mushi and then waved it off, not looking forward to Hina's voice coming in through the transceiver. Sometimes her voice calmed him, but now, he needed another voice.
"Tashigi, where are you?"
"Hey, Marimo," Sanji said, tapping Zoro's shoulder lightly. "Didja notice that weird smile Robin was making back at the island?" Zoro nodded lightly.
"What about it?" he asked. Sanji grinned and held up a leather-bound book. "Wouldn't you like to know." Zoro raised his eyebrows. "If it's about the curse, I honestly don't care," he muttered. Sanji's grin extended. Zoro glared. "What is it, Dartboard?"
"Wanna look at this picture?" Sanji flipped the book open to a marked page. "I had Robin-chan translate this all for me so I could read it. Remember the dude Tobias from the curse story? This is him, and the picture next to him is his wife." Zoro took the book boredly and tried to control his eyes from popping out of his head; they only widened slightly as a result. The man on the left, Tobias, had slicked-back hair that was spiked at the end. He was fixed in a bored stare, with a heavy square forehead. On one ear, he wore three earrings. He was in an old-fashioned captain's coat. It could have been Zoro. It was scary how alike they looked.
And the woman… Zoro nearly fainted.
The woman was a dead ringer for Tashigi. Her hair was short and dark, hanging nearly to her shoulders. She had glasses hanging around her neck over an old-fashioned dress. Her face was the same shape, and her eyes were Tashigi and Kuina's. Zoro shuddered, forgetting about Sanji's presence. When the cook began to snicker, Zoro shoved the book back at him. "So what!" he growled.
"There's also a legend in here, Marimo," Sanji said, flipping to the next page. "A long time ago, Tobias came back from one of his pirating adventures with an egg that he brought to the island. This was when he was far younger, before he had met the chick. When he met her, he started to gradually fall in love. By the time he was infatuated, the egg had hatched and a great silver bird had emerged from it. He took one of its feathers and gave it to the woman, asking her to marry him."
"And?" Zoro asked, ignoring the suddenly obvious presence of the silver feather in his pocket. Sanji smirked. "Zoro, haven't you figured it out? Do you realize that by giving her that feather, you proposed to Tashigi?"
"Who cares; it's not like I kn-knew," Zoro said, reddening. Sanji closed the book. "And the curse," he went on. "If you ignore the proposal, you might have an angry ghost captain coming after you."
"I'm not scared of something that isn't real," Zoro said stubbornly. Sanji nodded and held the book up. "It'd be a shame if she found out," he said. "After all, she also gave one to you, did she not?"
"I found my own," Zoro said.
"I think that Tashigi would like to see this."
"No!" Zoro said, a little too loudly. Sanji grinned. "What's the matter, Marimo?"
"Show that book to her and I will kill you," Zoro promised. Sanji could hardly contain his amusement.
"Fine," he said. "I won't say a word, at a price."
"At what price?" Zoro asked. Sanji's eyes glittered mischievously. "Hm," he said.
"How would you like to be my slave for a day?"
A/N: Whooo chapter 10! :D Yeah, yeah, I know I rushed them getting off the island, but it's really annoying when you dig them into a situation and then have to take forever getting them out, so… yeah. You'll hear more about the proposal next time.
Speaking of Next Time…
"Tashigi-chan," Robin said. She beckoned her closer. "I have to tell you something."
