Stronger
07 - Breaker

"You shouldn't bruise. Much."

Tashigi helped the villager she'd injured to his feet. She felt guilty for lashing out like that. She probably ought to be more apologetic. But Tashigi was very tired of playing games of faults and apologies, snakes and ladders. And there were a lot of things that she ought to be, yet wasn't.

"I'm very sor.. um, never mind. Are you going to be able to take me to the Mayor, or will you have to call someone else to guide me? I don't think I've broken anything of yours, but you should tell me if you are unable to help me. There's no use in my pushing you farther than you can manage," Tashigi babbled. "I could take you back to one of those huts to lie down."

The man stepped back, warily.

"I can take you," he winced and started walking, apparently expecting her to follow. "You don't have to hurt anyone else. So don't."

"I don't intend to hurt anyone else, unless they break the law," Tashigi cringed. "Thank you for your help. I... understand that you thought you were doing the right thing, even though you were misguided."

Just before they hit the beach, Tashigi grabbed a sturdy-looking broom from the doorstep of a nearby shack, and broke it in half across her knee. She let the thatched part drop, so that she could give the top section a few experimental swings as she walked. It was almost as good as a bokken. Anything was better than using her scabbard. The scabbard, like Tashigi, was as good as useless without her sword.

Shigure made her a soldier, made her a swordsperson, made her someone. Now there was only the hollow place where her confidence had been.

She had memorized its edges, could still feel it indented into her palms, was able to imagine it glinting at the edges of her perception...

That would have to be enough. She was doing the best she could to cope with this.

"What are you doing?" Tashigi's guide asked, as she twirled her way through a perfunctory training set.

He sounded nervous. Did he think that he was a hostage? Did she think that he was a hostage? Tashigi was against hostage-taking on principle, but sword thieves didn't deserve to be treated with the kind of basic courtesy that she reserved for petty criminals. Except he might not be a sword thief - he might just be a citizen who'd gotten caught up in a bad situation. Oh, why the hell did this have to be so difficult? Most pirates were considerate (or foolish) enough to make themselves easily identifiable for Marines, with their vulgar language and outlandish garb. They weren't supposed to look like regular people. It was as duplicitous and dishonorable as a Marine running around out of uniform!

Tashigi pondered her demi-hostage's question, for a second, before responding.

"I'm pretending."

Could she even do this? Tashigi'd never imagined being this sort of Marine before - the kind of bullying, hostage-taking Marine that she hated. But then, Tashigi hadn't been doing so hot at being the kind of Marine that she wanted to be, either. Maybe this was a sign. Maybe it was a message. Like she should stop trying, because she'd never be...

Tashigi brought her makeshift weapon down sharply, a hair's breadth away from striking the tip of her hostage's nose.

"You're pretending... to smash my face in?"

"No," said Tashigi. "Just plain pretending."

Maybe that was all she'd ever done.

***

The tent that they were keeping him in was hardly his dressing room, but for Bon all that was secondary. He could hear the crowds outside, cheering almost loud enough to drown out the music. The ceremony had begun, the warm-up act had taken to the streets, and all of Nanohana was waiting for their star to make an entrance. They were waiting for THEM - the diva Bon Clay and his delicious leading man, dashing Marine Captain Smoker-chaaaaaaan!

Oh, if only he were not trapped in this ridiculous female body! Then they could appreciate his true fabulousness! The tragedy of it all was almost enough to make Bon weep; but no, he would manfully soldier on.

"Your Lieutenant must have really liked swords, if she wore one even on formal occasions," Bon leered at the dull practice blade they expected him to carry, utterly clueless as to how this was supposed to compliment his ensemble. Butch and dashing, this woman was not. "A woman after my own heart."

"Don't talk about Tashigi's swords like that, you freak!" hissed the Sergeant that had been assigned to watch over him. Bon was puzzled; why wasn't the man making jokes about swords being like phallic symbols? Even a captain with Bon Clay's delicate constitution knew that nearly forty percent of sailor conversation was composed of dirty jokes.

(Alas, what Bon could not have known was that, on the good ship Enforcer, making jokes about swords standing in for phalluses was likely to lead to unpleasant sword/phallus interactions of a far less symbolic nature. At the very least, it guarantee dishwashing duty for all of eternity. Rumor had it that some newbie private once made a comment about Tashigi being "awfully eager to handle Roronoa Zoro's mighty blade." Tashigi ordered him to lick the D-deck showers clean with his tongue until he was no longer a "filthy male chauvinist pig fit only to eat slop." And she kept him down there UNTIL HIS TONGUE WORE OFF.)

"But we're suppoooooosed to be talking about her, Marine-chan! Someone has to help me get into character!" Bon's said huffily. "I, Captain Bon Clay, will never give a substandard drag impersonation, no matter what style-impaired buffoon I am impersonating. That would be against The Okama Way!!!"

"Would you shut up about that? Captain Smoker will be along any second, and then you can go get your medals, and then all this will be over. Fullbody and Jango's interpretive dance reenactment of the Battle of Alubarna is almost done."

"... did you say, interpretive dance?" Bon shook with outrage. There were OKAMA in the MARINES!? Those cretins! How dare those wannabe Okamas sell out, and betray their artistic pride! This performance was a crime against everything that Bon stood for. Bon could not - WOULD NOT - forgive anyone who dared taint the Okama Way with military propaganda! Dance was meant to express the fiery passion within a virile pirate heart, not to service the cold, soulless Marine agenda of that pink-haired hag. At least Bon was acting under duress, rather than voluntarily submitting to indignity like those Marine Okama louts.

"H-hey! Clay! Captain Smoker's not here yet. Where the hell do you think you're going?" the Sergeant demanded.

Bon treated the annoying lunk to a quick boot to the head, before stomping off to find the limelight. His balance was a bit off in this body, but that wasn't about to stop him. He'd show these amateurs exactly who was the REAL prima donna of the Grandline! Poor Smoker-chan. Bon hoped that he wouldn't be too disappointed if the ballerina began his performance a little early. Art must always come before pleasure, you understand.

***

Tashigi and her guide walked for a good half an hour before they reached another complex-looking set of docks. The journey was pretty pleasant, since they stuck to the shoreline. Tashigi got the impression that her demi-hostage was more afraid of the forest than he was afraid of her. That should probably make her feel less like a complete bastard for threatening him.

It didn't.

"Hello," a voice greeted her from the center of a knot of burly-looking fishermen. The crowd parted, and Tashigi locked eyes with their leader, and elderly woman decked out large lilac shawl.

Alright, now she didn't feel so much like a bastard after all. This was the woman who had poisoned Tashigi and taken her Shigure!

"What sort of Mayor are you, thief?!" Before she'd looked solid and comforting, but now Tashigi could see that the woman was was as rough and sharp as stone. What kind of village allowed itself to be led by a sneak and a felon?

The group of fishermen - there must have been a couple dozen, at least - were giving Tashigi suspicious looks. She didn't know if that was because the Mayor had told them to expect Tashigi, or because her guide was still limping.

"What have you done to Hans?" said the Mayor. "My dear, that's very poor way to repay us for our hospitality. I dare say I'm disappointed. If you've crippled him, and he can't serve any longer, that could be his death sentence."

"I haven't crippled anyone!" Tashigi protested. That... that... that was completely unfair! She was sorry, even if she hadn't come out and said it! She was! This deceitful criminal was trying to get her all worked up over a few bumps and bruises. "I am a Marine, and I don't accept hospitality from thieves. Plus, I hardly think that drugging me qualifies as hospitality."

The sky had cleared from ash grey, into a brilliant blue. It could be so pretty out here, on the sea. Tashigi couldn't understand how such rotten people could come from such beautiful surroundings.

"Hospitality was not turning you over to him the minute I saw you! He'll be very angry if he finds we've been harboring a Marine. What will you accept, to leave and get all of us out of danger? I can't give you much in the way of a bribe, but..."

A bribe?

For once, Tashigi could live with that, because what she had in mind wasn't really a bribe. It was a reclamation.

"Fine. Give me my sword, Shigure."

"Ask for something else," the old woman's vioce took on a worred edge. "That's the one thing I can't give you."

Tashigi noted that some of the fishermen were picking up large poles... the better to hit her with?

"Yes you can. You don't seem evil... you were so kind to me. People like you don't attack Marines. What are you afraid of? Your people don't need to arm themselves."

Tashigi was puzzled.

"There's a pirate here," the Mayor said.

Tashigi was still puzzled.

"So give me my Shigure."

Shouldn't they be happy to see a Marine, with pirates around?

"We used to dive for shellfish," the elderly Mayor explained. "Now, we dive for Devil Fruit so that he can sell them."

Oh. The pirate must be the boss of the man who got her stuck here. Good! Now she could find a way back to Nanohana, and also bring an illegal industry to its deserved end. This might be a way to redeem herself in the eyes of Captain Smoker! She needed her sword; there was work to be done.

"So give me my Shigure," Tashigi ground out, frustrated.

"If we eat them, he kills us. There's nothing we can do."

That old woman sounded so sad - so resigned. Couldn't she see that she'd been handed an opportunity?

"So give me my Shigure! I'll help you!"

"You can't defeat him. You don't know what you're asking for! You're young and hopeful, but believe-you-me... there's no slaying the devil's brood. Especially when..." the old lady paused, uncomfortable. Her hut had smelled like gingerbread and cotton. Tashigi could tell that she didn't want to say anything impolite, even though she found Tashigi ridiculous. Tashigi appreciated that. If the Mayor could not express herself, then Tashigi would have to do it for her.

"No. It's okay," Tashigi smiled softly. Now she understood. "You can think what you will. I know what I look like. I don't expect you to be polite. I'm short and skinny. I'm not intimidating and I don't see too well. I've been weak."

They paused for a short, uncomfortable silence.

"I've been weak for a very long time..." Tashigi said, half to herself. She raised her bokken, and steeled herself to attack the villagers. This... this .. this wasn't her, damn it. It wasn't her at all. She was better than this.

But those pirates were the ones who dispensed Justice in Alubarna, while Tashigi watched uselessly from the sidelines. They must have been doing something right, while she was doing something wrong.

Some of the burlier villagers moved to the front of the circle of people surrounding her. They'd fall hard. Their movement held far more strength than technique, and strength without technique was about as useful as a katana without a handle.

"I can't say how sorry I am that I'm the Marine you're stuck with. Someone like my commanding officer would be able to help you without breaking a sweat. I'm all technique and no brawn and there's nothing I can do about it," Tashigi said. She wasn't sure who she was talking to. "That's why I've been such a failure. Ordinary people underestimated me because of my size and my gender, so I got into the habit of overestimating myself. But I was never on the level of a real swordsperson, and I don't have the strength to accomplish any of my goals. I learned that from a... a very skilled person, recently."

Another non-fight with Roronoa Zoro would probably get her killed, too. He'd tire of her chasing him, and slaughter her, no matter what ex-girlfriend of his she looked like.

Roronoa was right not to respect her. Only those who ran wild thrived on the Grandline. Idealists like Tashigi ended up like those poor Albastan rebels - deluded and eating dust. How must that rebel leader have felt, when pirates traipsed in to his country and accomplished in weeks what all his years of patriotism and deprivation could not? What must it be like to owe your home and happiness to criminals? Had the Straw Hat pirates taken pity on him, as Roronoa took pity on her?

Probably. Those pirates were unimaginably cruel.

"That's why you need to return my sword. I'll fight my hardest for you; not only for Justice, but because I have nothing left to lose. If you give me Shigure, there's a chance that I could fail. But there's also a chance that I could free you! Please, you must believe me!"

The Mayor wouldn't look her in the eye, " ... enough. Remove this woman, before the Captain hears of this!"

One of the large fishermen broke ranks and charged her. Tashigi evaded his punch with a neat sidestep, and her bokken repaid him with a sharp rap behind the kneecaps. The man collapsed like a house of cards.

"If you don't believe me, that's okay too. I'll still help you. I've decided to be stronger."

***

Just when Smoker thought that this ceremony could not possibly any more humiliating, Hina's crew sunk the whole operation to brand new levels of stupidity. He wasn't sure what pissed him off more: the fact that Marines were dancing in the streets, the fact that their dance was reenacting whatever bullshit story Headquarters had come up with to explain the defeat of Crocodile, or the fact that HE was being played by that snot-nosed prettyboy Fullbright, or Fullbottom, or whatever the hell the guy's name was.

Smoker wondered how much money they'd spent to make those sparkly costumes. That cash probably would have bought a shitload of ammo. He might even have been able to buy a rail gun off of Hina for the ship.

The cheering throng lining the streets wasn't helping his mood. Smoker wasn't sure if they were cheering for him, or for Crocodile's fall, or for Vivi Nefertari, who was enthroned on a fancy podium Hina'd had constructed in the town square. He hoped that this was for the Once and Future Princess. She would appreciate it more than Smoker did. She looked thrilled to be up there, playing politician.

"This is pissing me off," Smoker gestured angrily at the dancing, from his vantage-point on the balcony that was Hina's operations center and his so-called place of honour. Smoker could have waited in a tent like Clay, until it was time to get his award, but Hina refused to set up another tent and Smoker didn't have any tents of his own. He suspected that Hina was making him watch this as some kind of private joke. He'd forgotten how much that bitch got off on busting his balls.

"Is it? I had no idea. Hina enlightened."

That sarcasm was uncalled for. Ball-busting bitch.

"They did a good job finding a dancer who looks like Tashigi for the pantomime, don't you think? And the boys from the Wayfarer really outdid themselves putting together that brass band." Hina said sweetly, lighting up a cigarette. That was also uncalled for. She knew that he'd left his cigars in his regular jacket. Was this revenge for the fight they'd had before? Women made no goddamn sense.

"I wouldn't know," Smoker stiffened.

"Sure you do. Don't play dumb to indulge your macho pride, Smoker. You used to like music, when we spent that one semester hanging out at the Cow and Rooster. And whoever that dancer is, he looks almost exactly like her. Hina impressed."

"Whatever you say."

"Cigarette?"

"NO." Smoker refused to sink that low. Hina knew damn well how ridiculous a man like him looked smoking some tiny cigarette - almost like he was sucking on a lollipop.

Dancing Crocodile had just broken out into what looked like a seizure, but was proably just some artsy crap that Smoker was relieved not to understand. Hina was too damn easy on these pansies; that was why they pulled shit like this.

"Do you remember being idealistic like her, when we were younger?" Hina asked.

"Hell no," Smoker snorted.

"Yeah, me neither. But you were still pretty hard on her," Hina pressed. "You shouldn't attack her for having principles, just because you're disorderly and disreputable. When she called, the girl sounded scared half to death that you'd have her keelhauled."

"I'm aware of what people think of me."

Of course Tashigi was scared of him. He was her CO. That was the natural order of things. What the hell point was Hina trying to make? Wasn't it enough that he was putting up with this charade? This was why Smoker never bothered with women long-term. They always wanted to change him. Well fuck that! If Hina thought she could mess with him when they weren't even sleeping together, she was in for a rude goddamn awakening. Smoker had his pride.

... although, that dancer did look a lot like Tashigi. A lot like Tashigi. Or at least a lot like a lot like Tashigi would look, if Tashigi could actually stand on one foot without tipping over.

Wait a minute.

"Hina, that Tashigi dancer's got Clay's collar on. What the fuck?"

"Shit! You're right. I knew that something like this would happen," Hina hissed. "Although, the crowd's loving it."

"Fuck the crowd!"

"There are thousands of people out there, Smoker. I doubt you'd have the stamina."

What a special day this was. He'd know from the start that this ceremony was a terrible idea. Fake-Tashigi was twirling and whirling her way to an escape! With a crowd like this it wouldn't matter if Clay had an ID collar on. There was no way they'd find him if...

Smoker shrugged off his dress coat. It was too long, and it impaired his mobility.

"Would you stop bitching and moaning? We've got to do something!"

"Chain 'Tashigi' down in full view of half of Nanohana? Are you insane!?" Hina grabbed his arm before he could march off of the balcony. Her fingernails cut into his bicep. "No one will mind if 'she' doesn't collect her award. It looks like it's part of the show. Besides, he won't get far. Not with my men ringing the island, to keep the remaining Baroque Works agents from escaping. I... I thought that something like this might happen. They'll all be looking out for that iron collar."

"I don't CARE what you've done, or what it looks like. He's getting away!" Smoker tried to pull out of her grip. Damn, but the woman was a cage. "A pirate escapes custody on my watch when HELL freezes over!"

How could she have let this happen, when she'd anticipated Clay's escape from the start?

"I'm trying to help you!" Was she... pleading with him? No, that couldn't be right. Pleading wasn't Hina's style. "Why must we keep having this talk, over and over?! Couldn't you listen to me, for once in your goddamn life? If you make a wrong move now your reputation for lawlessness will only get worse. That was why we needed to fake Tashigi being here. Everything had to look legit, or else they'd have the half-excuse they need to send special forces after you. Recapturing Bon Clay won't do any good if the Admirals decide you need to be court-martialed for disobeying orders! It doesn't matter if one pirate goes free, so long as you stick around to put a dozen more behind bars. Can't you see that? You know what cons think of Marines! If they send you to jail, the pirates in there will tear you apart!"

She sounded really worried. Smoker hated that. Hina should never sound that worried, ever. It wasn't right. Hina was a tough old bird, a ball-busting bitch, and Smoker... Smoker wan't listening to this. She needed to stop it.

"Give your speech to someone who gives a shit!" Smoker roared. He couldn't look her in the eye.

Hina's expression became flat, cold, and calculating. A small part of Smoker relaxed, a little.

"Don't make me lock you up. Again."

"You wouldn't dare," Smoker's eyes widened imperceptibly.

:"Try me." Hina wouldn't back down an inch, even when he shot her his fiercest glare.

"I'd pass right through."

"Through a solid iron box? Hina skeptical."

Did their friendship mean so little to her, that she'd choose Headquarters over him? Over hunting down a criminal?

Smoker guessed so. Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised. They weren't kids anymore.

"You can't make a solid iron box. You couldn't in school, you couldn't when you locked me up in my office, and you sure as hell can't now. And even if you could, you wouldn't be fast enough on the draw to put me in there."

"TRY ME."

...

Fuck. Clay'd probably vanished in to the city by now. Hina's fake concern and banter must have been stall tactics.

"You're not my fucking nursemaid, Hina."

"You sure about that? With the childish way you're acting, I wasn't so sure."

She let him go. He didn't move.

They stood in hostile silence until it was Smoker's turn to play nice for the cameras. He walked up to the podium, and received a gold medal from some damn fool princess who probably had no idea what people had gone through to save Daddy's country. Come to think of it, one of those pirates had looked an awful lot like her. Smoker chose not to dwell on that.

He could melt the medal down later, and maybe do something useful with it. A couple of his men needed fillings.

***

Step and lunge and slash and turn and these fisherman were not even a match for the privates that she trained and it seemed so easy. But it wasn't. It never was. Tashigi had to fight her treacherous body for control of every move she made. It didn't want to work the right way. It had no sense of balance. It liked to fail and falter and fall. It didn't want to hit as hard as a man's body could, or dodge as fast, or jump as high. But no matter what anyone else might say about her clumsiness, Tashigi's body was not in command of this operation. This was a matter of willpower, not construction. Tashigi would not accept defeat!

"Young lady, you need to stop this! Do you hear me? If you attract his attention you'll bring his anger down on all of us! That's why I... I threw your sword into the sea."

"STOP LYING!" Tashigi barked.

Tashigi spun her bokken, and heard a man's jaw crack.

Another fisherman took a swing at her. She deflected his blow, and he stumbled. Tashigi had to be careful not to fall over any of the unconscious bodies surrounding her. She was breathing heavily, seething with anger, and the only way that this was ending was with Shigure in her hands.

Nobody expected anyone to be good out here. That might be why the people were so bad; they didn't have any standards to live up to. But was it too much to ask that someone, somewhere give her a frigging break? That someone watch her back, or help her up, or take her out for a drink, or tell her she wasn't hopeless? Captain Smoker had Captain Hina and even those wretched Straw Hat pirates had each other but she had no one, ever, because even though they were freaks Tashigi was a swordswoman, and therefore an even bigger freak and what had she done to deserve that? Not even people that should back her up for their own frigging good could be bothered to support her!

Why weren't these people cooperating!? She was always very careful to be polite so that people would listen to her. That was what people were supposed to do, when you asked things nicely!

"You don't want to make me do something we'll all regret!" Tashigi bellowed.

Tashigi shook the hair out of her eyes. She was breathing more heavily than she'd like. She tried so hard to be a good person and stop criminals but nothing ever went right and nothing was ever fair and now even the citizens she tried to protect were sabotaging her and it made her so ANGRY that she didn't know what to do, didn't know what to do with all that rage except grip her bokken tighter and CHARGE...

"GIVE ME MY..."

Suddenly, all thoughts of violence were driven from Tashigi's head with an impossibly loud, high-pitched ringing sound. The Marine dropped her bokken and sunk to her knees, hands clutched over her ears.

Then the noise stopped, and she looked up.

A well-dressed young man carrying a small silver bell was standing over her. The bell that had been ringing. But small silver bells didn't ring like that, so.

Devil's Fruit.

Oh, well this was typical. Admirals forbid that something positive happen in this godforsaken blue!

... Unless this was a good person. She shouldn't judge. She knew that she'd be angry if someone judged Captain Smoker on his power alone.

"Hey," the man smiled gently. "You alright?"

... her head hurt.

"W-what was that noise?" Tashigi massaged her aching temple. Her body had taken a lot of abuse over the past few days. She hoped that this wasn't some kind of concussion. Tashigi had never heard anything like that before. It had been like this pressure, at the back of her brain, ringing and throbbing until she couldn't do anything but hope that her skull wouldn't crack open like an egg under the stress. It was frightening.

"I amplify sound. It's sort of appropriate," the man shrugged. He was dark, a little older than her, and a lot well-off. Tashigi wondered if he was local nobility. Some of them were misguided enough to eat Devil's Fruit to show off at parties, or whatever it was that rich people did with their time. "I'm sorry - I should have introduced myself. My name's Captain Clarion Bell. That's why the power's appropriate. Funny how things work out that way, hunh?"

"Oh, I don't know. You'd be surprised how often things like that happen," Tashigi said, wryly, thinking of the reports she'd read about Bon Clay's malleable form. Tashigi didn't actually know if Captain Smoker's given name was Smoker or not. She certainly wasn't about to go and ask him. "I'm Sergea... er, Lieutenant Tashigi. East Blue Marines."

"Yes, I know. I got a report about the commotion from a loyal villager," Bell crouched down to talk, so that he was relatively level with her. "You did a pretty good job of working that lot over. When they told me that a Marine was here, I expected an addled sailor who'd run off-course. I had no idea that I'd actually find a competent professional thug."

Say what now?

"I'm not a thug!" Tashigi yelped. This was the first polite person she'd encountered on the island, other than that kid, and she wasn't going to let his crew get a bad impression of her too. Hopefully her ears would stop ringing soon and she could explain herself properly. The noise made it hard to think. "This isn't what it looks like! They took something that belonged to me. I wanted it back, that's all. I never meant for it to come to this."

.. although she hadn't minded too much when things came to blows, had she? A part of her had been very, very pleased when they attacked her; the part that said they got what they deserved.

"Captain! We disarmed her - don't punish us for disloyalty!" the Mayor interrupted, stuttering, from where she'd curled into a fetal position on the edge of the dock. Hunh. Tashigi had forgotten about that thief.

"Did I say that you could talk?" Bell snapped.

The Mayor whimpered.

Bell turned his attention back to Tashigi.

"Please excuse my employee's rudeness. She stole something of yours? That's so typical of these bumpkins. "

Maybe the guy was a noble after all. He might be a bit stuck up, but at least he was more sensible that the madpeople in this village. It was unfair to be prejudiced against noble people, even if they often did very silly things.

The ostrich feather in the Captain's cap bobbed wistfully as he shook his head.

"I assure you, my crew isn't nearly so shoddy. If we stole from you, you wouldn't live to try and take it back."

...

Oh NO...

"...you.. you're the pirate? The one that these villagers are afraid of!?"

Wait, that couldn't be right. Pirates were unreasonable on principle. The citizens attacking her, and a pirate coming to her aid? Ridiculous! This... this must be some kind of pirate ruse! Perhaps there'd been a mistake, or her anger was still clouding her vision. Perhaps, between the sound and the drugs, there was something wrong with her brain. A true pirate would wear a much more ridiculous outfit than this person. Couldn't the man be a friendly trader, or a tugboat captain?

Tugboat captains didn't own coats that nice.

Tashigi should probably seriously consider standing up soon. There was now a pirate to fight, and all. It was just that her eardrums still felt as though they might burst, and her balance wasn't very good at even the best of times.

"You probably haven't heard of my pirate crew, but we're working on that," Pirate Captain Bell took Tashigi's hand, and pulled her to her feet. Good. The fighting could begin then, um, once she found her makeshift bokken. Hopefully it hadn't fallen into the sea. Tashigi wasn't sure that swimming would be a very good idea with the state that her head was in. Granted, it would be hard to beat someone with that sound power even with the bokken, let alone swim, but she had to start somewhere.

"You wouldn't happen to be looking for a position, would you? It's sad that your Marine crew abandoned you here," Bell grinned conspiratorially. "Started taking bribes, hunh? Or maybe filching from the stores? Running illegal boxing matches below-decks? That's solid business. Too bad you got caught. The Marines run on such an outdated corporate model; it completely discourages individual commercial initiative."

Tashigi just stared.

"What?" Bell asked.

Tashigi stared some more.

"No, seriously, what?" Bell looked deeply alarmed. "There... there's not something on my coat, is there?"

Staring was still a reasonable reaction.

"I can offer you a five percent take of net booty, and a better weapon than a stick. I can guarantee you that that's at least two percent more booty than you'd be making with Johnny Sawlegs two islands down."

Then Tashigi blinked.

"You want me to join a pirate crew!?" Tashigi squeaked. Outrageous! What kind of person did this shady character think she was? Well, alright, he must think that she was the kind of person who ran around abusing villagers, which she supposed was a pretty pirate-like thing to do, but there were extenuating circumstances in play! He had no right to go around slandering her like that!

"Are you insane!!?"

"Ah, I see you're skeptical about my standards and practices. That's understandable. You're probably used to Marine discipline, and I admit, I have let the indentured labourers in this village run a little roughshod. Look, I know that layabouts like Shanks give us pirates a bad name, but you should be more openminded if you're trying to break in to the thug industry. I'll have you know that I have an excellent work ethic!" said Bell, preening his black greatcoat. "I read all the latest in military and management theory. I even use a series of color-coded charts to effectively schedule crew activites and training."

There were no words that Tashigi could have said, which would have been so eloquent as her stunned silence.

"So what do you say? Are you in?"

The pirate captain pulled a knife from his coat, and started to throw it up in the air and catch it. What unsubtle posturing. Captain Smoker was much better at it.

How could this horrible pirate suggest that she join his crew?! Marines stood for Justice! She couldn't let these villagers get an even worse impression of what Marines were like, than the one they must already have. They might lose more of their faith in the rule of law, and steal from more innocent people! The very thought of it made her feel sick. Besides, there was no way that she could ever behave in such a disgraceful manner.

...Was there?

One of the men that she'd incapacitated twitched on the docks. It seemed to her that these villagers had lost their faith in the rule of law a long time ago. How were they any different from the pirates that oppressed them?

Tashigi was so confused.

She could never taint Shigure, but Shigure wasn't there, and there was no way that she could beat this Devil Fruit user unless she joined him.

Who was a failure like her, who let pirates dispense her justice, to pretend that she was special enough to remain morally pure?

Was this was Captain Smoker meant, when he told her to get stronger? Had he been telling her to swallow her pride and... and... learn to be like those pirates were?

Are you saying that what happened in Alubarna wasn't the justice you wanted?

Tashigi had no right to demand any justice that she could not enforce with her own two hands.

You have to get stronger!

Recently, many people that I once respected have gone rogue here, gaining wealth and infamy. They know that running wild is the way to survive.

There's only one thing to do in a place like this. Go forward or die.

She was always the one who minded when the citizens of Roguetown called Captain Smoker a monster.

Captain Smoker hadn't cared at all.

Why are you crying, Tashigi!?

Weren't you the one who decided to come here in the first place?

"Yes. I will join your pirate crew."

***

Author's Note: Yeah, I didn't think I'd write more of this either. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're trying to avoid working on a boring term paper. I'm all inspired now.

A few days ago I realized that, as far as we know, Tashigi has her mentor but NO nakama to support her. And in a series like this that's sad. Poor Tashigi. It's no wonder that she has so many self-esteem issues.

Either the ending of this fic will make sense to you, based on previous characterization, or you'll think I should be horribly eviscerated for OOCness by the Fanfiction Marines. I have it on good beta-reading authority (thank you, Tiamat) that the former is more likely than the latter, but I worry a bit. Either way, um, I hoped that you enjoyed it?

The italicized bits of Smoker's speech are paraphrased from a translation. So. I'm not sure if they're particularly accurate, but they DO reflect the gist of what happened. I hope.

Next Chapter: Hina + Smoker - Bon. An abridged version of what I was going to write in Young Soul Rebels, but never did.