The Marks of Times

Author's Note: Based while Luffy is on Skypeia.

xXxXx

"If you are only going to stare at my right arm, then you should just leave."

Tashigi flushed at being caught staring while Smoker just grunted around his cigars as he carefully examined the woman that they had been ordered to see.

"And put out the cigars already. It's hot enough today as it is." The woman looked up from what she was writing to glare at Smoker. She slid an ashtray across the table and waited till the cigars had been stubbed out to look away.

Tashigi's eyes drifted once again to the woman's right arm, where burn scars stretched from her fingertips to her shoulder. When she realized that she was staring once again she quickly looked away.

The woman sighed and wiped sweat off her brow as she put away the papers she had been working on. "Do either of you even know why you are here? And don't say because you were ordered to, we both know how likely you are to follow orders like those."

"We were told that if we wanted to understand who we are chasing, we needed to talk to you."

The woman chuckled as she stood, quickly disappearing into another room momentarily only to reappear with a tray of cool drinks, two of which she placed in front of Smoker and Tashigi. Tashigi gratefully accepted the drink, sighing in relief as the cool spread from her hands.

The woman gently rested the cold drink against her forehead. "The only way to truly understand Monkey D. Luffy is to get to know him. Talk to him not as a marine to a pirate, but a person to a person." She looked into Smoker's eyes before sighing again. "The best way for you to understand him? Try just observing him. You noticed, didn't you? In Alabasta. He did not act very much like a pirate, did he?"

"But he is a pirate." Confusion covered Tashigi's face while Smoker remained silent, listening intently.

"Yes. But he is like no pirate you have ever encountered before, nor like any you will meet in the future." The woman pulled her long hair into a ponytail as she stared off into space. "Viewing him as a pirate is ingrained to deeply in you already. You need to stop trying to fit him into a box, because he'll never stay there. Just when you think you have him packed away nicely, he'll burst free again. Stop viewing him as a pirate. Yes, he will always be a pirate, but it's his view of what it means to be a pirate that really sets him apart…" She let her words trail off into silence.

"His view?" Smoker's eyes were intent as he stared at the woman across from him.

A smirk spread across the woman's lips. "That's for you to find out." She stood up and gathered the now empty glasses from the table. "Tell Aokiji that I will be charging him for this the next time I see him and that his next visit had better be soon."

Without another word, Smoker stood up and left the house. Tashigi began to follow him but hesitated at the door.

"What?" The woman asked when she returned from the other room.

"How…how did you get those scars on your arm?" Tashigi knew it was rather rude to ask, but something urged her to.

The woman was silent as she walked over to the bookcase. "It's rare for people to see my scars. I normally have them covered by long sleeves and gloves. Today was just much too hot for that…" She pulled a book off the shelf and flipped through it. "I reached into the heart of a flame." She turned and disappeared again into the other room, not giving Tashigi time to say anything else.

When the woman did not reappear after a few minutes, Tashigi quietly left.

xXxXx

"It always amazes me." The woman sat on the windowsill of the back window, enjoying the evening breeze that finally brought some relief to the heat. "How long it takes people to figure Luffy out. He's such an open book."

"Where is Luffy right now?" The transponder snail that rested next to her emitted a calm voice.

The woman laughed, bright and clear. "He's on an adventure in the sky!" The one on the other end of the call joined her in her laughter.

She drew her legs up and tucked her knees under her chin as her laughter quieted. "What do you think it means to be a pirate?"

"You know the answer to that." The caller was quiet for a moment. "What does Luffy think it means?"

A soft smile. "Freedom."

xXxXx

Author's Note: …Okay, no clue where that last bit came from. But I think I like it. Not sure how I feel about the first part. Sorry. Smoker was uncooperative. Blame it all on him.

Next is…who is next? *checks chart* Oh. Aokiji.

Also Tashigi will visit the Information Broker again…just not for a while.

Sooooo…Wanna guess who the caller was? I will reveal it in the next chapter—in the author's note if nothing else.

I am not a writer! I am a puppet controlled by fictional characters!