Perhaps the greatest reason Tashigi could not accept Luffy's leadership was that every pirate crew known to her, despite all their diversity in both membership and rules, always strictly observed one single principle: the captain was the strongest person aboard. Thus, if this Luffy truly was the leader of all the 'Pirate Slayers', then... then everything was very, very bad. It was also absolutely impossible and terrifying beyond measure.
"I don't look the part, do I?" Luffy pretended to be disappointed. "I know I don't compare well with these overgrown mountains of muscle." He lightly tapped a fist against the chest of Zoro, who stood beside him and truly towered over him like a mountain. "I have no idea how they turned out like this. We eat from the same table, but it feels as though somebody pumps them full of growth hormones every day... and not only them," Luffy added, walking over to Nami and poking one finger against her chest, immediately earning a well-deserved slap to the hand. "Whatever the case, I am the captain of this ship... But we both know that isn't the question troubling you most right now, don't we?"
Luffy was dressed in clothing almost standard for him: long shorts reaching below the knee, an acid-colored T-shirt, and open sandals on bare feet. Accordingly, he looked exactly as he always did—fourteen or fifteen years old at most, thin, without any visible muscle, and with the gaze of a year-old calf. Compared with every other member of the family, including Usopp, Luffy appeared the smallest, most innocent, and most harmless.
"The main question bothering you now is which of us is stronger, isn't it?" the smiling young man asked. "Me, or Zoro after all?"
Luffy was right. At that moment, the answer to that question interested Tashigi more than anything else. Meanwhile, everyone else wanted to know the reason for the young man's current behavior. No one in the family, Zoro included, could understand what purpose the conversation served. Luffy normally preferred to create mystery rather than dispel it, yet while speaking with Tashigi he did nothing but clear the fog away.
"The problem is that you won't believe me no matter which answer I give," Luffy continued. "If I say I'm stronger, you'll think about Zoro's reputation. If I say I'm weaker, you'll remember that the captain is always the strongest member of every pirate crew. Agreed?"
Before acknowledging that he was right, Tashigi nervously adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose, then gave a slight nod.
"Then how about this proposal... Would you like to see Luffy 'Straw Hat' with your own eyes?"
To an uninformed person, the offer might have sounded extremely strange. Several sharp gasps immediately filled the room, while other mouths fell open and other eyes widened. As Tashigi—the uninformed person in question—tried to understand what the young man standing before her meant, the actual family members struggled to recover the power of speech.
"Luffy, do you think that's a good idea?" Zoro asked with a frown, reacting more calmly than anyone else.
"A good idea?!" Nami demanded indignantly, abruptly regaining her voice. "It's a terrible idea! The poor girl has already suffered enough because of you, and now you want to show her serious Luffy?!"
As already mentioned, beside Nami, Tashigi truly looked like a teenage girl. Yet as had also been mentioned, the facts made her a full three years older than Nami. That fact was ignored completely. Nami genuinely regarded Tashigi as merely a 'little girl.' On the other hand, considering every circumstance—Nami's life experience and her everyday company—perhaps she was not entirely wrong in her patronizing attitude.
"First," Luffy said, raising one finger instructively, "I said nothing about serious me! I said the pirate Luffy, nicknamed 'Straw Hat,' and those are entirely different concepts! Second, you love dramatizing everything far too much." With those words, the young man proved for the countless time his extraordinary love of double standards. "All we did was kidnap her. She gave herself those bruises. Nobody forced her to try killing Zoro."
"All right, I understand that explaining how wrong the words 'all we did was kidnap her' sound would be useless, so you'd better explain this 'pirate Luffy' business." Lately Nami had become surprisingly skilled at cutting off hopeless topics.
"I thought it was obvious." Luffy sighed. "Now that we've become a pirate crew and are heading to the Grand Line, we'll almost certainly encounter opponents we'll actually have to fight seriously. Somehow, I doubt people with billion-berry bounties will prove easy opponents."
"We still have to reach them," Zoro muttered unhappily. "Judging by the newspapers, prey like that exists only in the New World."
"Not the point!" Luffy waved him off. "What matters is that they exist, and sooner or later we'll have to face them."
"And that's why you decided to create a 'pirate Luffy,'" Nami said with an understanding nod.
"Of course! Drama is everything!"
"Fine. Show us." In the end, as always, the girl could only accept the inevitable.
Surprisingly, Zoro held the exact opposite opinion.
"Luffy, I still don't think this is a good idea."
Those words instantly made everyone in the family realize that Nami had clearly been too hasty in agreeing. Zoro being worried about something was a reliable reason to panic. It was already too late, however.
"Oh, come on. It's nothing complicated..."
No sooner said than done. It also very quickly became clear that Luffy had once again told everyone nothing but the 'truth.' 'Serious Luffy' and 'Pirate Luffy' truly were completely different concepts, though that did not make anyone feel better. A little thought about Luffy's objective—he had explained it himself—when creating the 'Pirate Luffy' mask would have been enough to reach the correct conclusion. When Luffy became serious, he was not so much putting on a mask as following the natural order of things. Everyone joked sometimes and became serious at others. 'Pirate Luffy' was different. It was a mask, and that mask had been created for one very specific purpose: to impress something upon others. Primarily, it was meant to impress fear. How could it have been otherwise? Since ancient times, fear had served as one of the most effective restraints among all living creatures. In the end, of everyone aboard the ship, only Zoro was more or less prepared for what followed Luffy's words. Even he, however, had underestimated the enthusiasm with which the young man had created his 'Pirate Luffy' mask. If members of the family were caught off guard, what could be said about Tashigi?
"You know, you have such a wonderful expression on your face right now!" Luffy practically cooed, unusually delighted as he bent over the girl who had backed into a corner. "And I've only shown you the very first version. It still needs work. Guys" without any reason, Luffy abruptly straightened, turned to face the family, and spoke seriously "I think I've just found a new calling. From now on, no more frightening boys and grown men. My repertoire will contain only little girls, and nothing else!" The young man raised one fist, practically blazing with the 'Power of Youth.'
The very next moment, however, Luffy had to dodge the jar of ointment Nami reflexively hurled directly at his forehead. She was suddenly seized by the desire to hit her captain with something heavy and, making no attempt to restrain herself, threw the first thing at hand—or literally in her hand, in this case. The jar was small and light, so it would not have hurt whether it struck or not. Unfortunately, it contained a pale-green ointment with properties remarkably similar to ordinary jelly. Luffy dodged the jar and received most of its contents directly in the face, one large lump of that same 'jelly.' Unpleasant, but again, not painful... if it had actually been ordinary jelly rather than medicinal ointment. A clear demonstration that even Observation Haki could not protect one from simple chance.
"Calm down, and don't be afraid. I promise that while you're on this ship, no one will lay a finger on you," Nami said gently, helping Tashigi to her feet and putting one arm lightly around her. A soft, reassuring smile made her look more than ever like a kind and loving older sister. Everything would have been perfect if not for the complete indifference with which she stepped over Luffy as he shrieked and rolled across the floor. "You may not believe me now, but you truly are completely safe. For heaven's sake, though, don't try to kill anyone else aboard this ship. If you do, you really might die. The boys are accustomed to answering every threat in the most radical possible way, so they could kill you entirely by accident. Also try to keep away from our captain, and absolutely do not listen to anything he tells you. He won't touch you physically, but you should already understand how dangerous it can be to talk to him."
While Nami kept Tashigi talking and tried to calm her after Luffy's performance, the young man himself rolled around the floor and the rest of the family attempted to digest the 'Pirate Luffy' he had demonstrated.
"What the hell was that?" Sanji asked the most pressing question of all.
"...It looked most like a hallucination," Yosaku offered.
"It immediately reminds me of all our training to develop immunity to poison." Johnny shuddered from head to toe.
"Which ultimately proved completely useless," Yosaku finished darkly for him.
"Shouldn't have eaten every disgusting thing you found," Sanji snorted.
Unlike Johnny and Yosaku, the blond man had accumulated an enormous number of unpleasant memories. Immunity to poison was important and unquestionably necessary—quite apart from venomous insects and animals, people were very fond of poisoning one another—but Luffy had not particularly limited his choice of means and methods when pursuing the final result. Sanji now hated snakes. Hated them! Johnny and Yosaku had avoided most of the worst training because of the peculiarities of their Fruits, which the blond man still could not forgive. Why should he have been the only one to suffer so much? He and Zoro, that was.
"I wish I got disgusting things like yours," Usopp said with a heavy sigh.
Unlike every other family member, the long-nosed young man still regularly received doses of assorted filth in pursuit of that notorious 'immunity to poison.' On the other hand, he had been extremely lucky. Since Sanji and Zoro's time, Luffy had greatly improved the process—mainly by pouring enormous amounts of money into it.
"And still, what was that?" Yosaku returned to the original subject. "Maybe Luffy ate an illusion Fruit? It would also be an excellent explanation for all those ice creams of his."
"You mean they're not real?" Johnny asked in surprise.
Eating illusory ice cream solely to confuse everyone around him? Yes, that was entirely in character for Luffy. And he was insane enough to maintain such a 'game' for years.
"Conqueror's Haki," Zoro finally said after remaining silent the entire time. "Luffy has probably found another use for it."
"You think so?" Sanji considered involuntarily. "Actually, you know, that sounds plausible. I've always thought that for such a rare form of Haki, it was somehow too narrowly specialized."
"More likely even Luffy himself doesn't know every property of Conqueror's Haki, much less the rest of us," Yosaku said, shaking his head.
"Could someone finally tell me what all these forms of Haki are?" Usopp complained. As always, everyone ignored the question. Of all people, the one they were least prepared to forgive was Usopp. Whatever price he had paid to awaken Observation Haki, the fact that he had accomplished it in less than a month left no one indifferent.
The conversation was interrupted by Luffy himself. The red-eyed young man, tears pouring from his face, began by punching Zoro in the jaw—for failing to help him—then Sanji, then Johnny. He drew back a fist at Yosaku, but at that moment Zoro struck back, followed by Sanji, and then the entire affair collapsed into a chaotic brawl. The situation took a particularly bad turn when somebody knocked into the kitchen utensils during the fight—an enraged Sanji nearly tore everyone apart on the spot—but then Nami intervened. Realizing that her boys were finally losing all restraint—the arms of Zoro and Luffy coated in Armament Haki were excellent proof—the girl left Tashigi and began pulling the men apart. At such moments, Nami felt less like a navigator and more like the mother of a pack of small children. Resolving the situation required only shouting at Sanji, dragging Johnny and Yosaku away, and delivering a pair of blows to the backs of Zoro and Luffy's heads. Usopp was already hiding beneath the table. To finish settling matters, Zoro was sent to one end of the ship, Luffy was led by the hand to another, and everyone else was ordered to raise the anchor and unfurl the sail.
Thus, while most of the family slowly set about carrying out Nami's order the girl herself tended to the sulking Luffy, and Zoro had only just been preparing for a proper nap when he was interrupted. None of the men occupying the kitchen paid the slightest attention when Tashigi went out into the fresh air. After everything that had happened, it would perhaps have been stranger had she wanted to remain in the kitchen, so every man there completely ignored her departure. Nami, as already stated, was taking care of Luffy, leaving no one to stop the Marine. And who could have foreseen such a turn? A foolish question. Luffy certainly could have! Even if he could not, there was still Observation Haki, but predictably the young man did not consider warning anyone about anything. That was how, while everyone else was occupied, Tashigi found herself alone with Zoro.