"So it's true?" the girl asked, stopping before the swordsman. "You really aren't the captain?"
After Nami's order, Zoro had gone to the bow. He sat on the deck, leaned his back against the railing, and had nearly drifted off when events took their course. Hearing footsteps and then a voice, he reluctantly cracked one eye open and examined the girl standing over him.
"I'm Luffy's first mate," Zoro replied calmly, closing the eye again without changing position. "I became his first mate a long time ago, and now I always will be."
"And my captain? Why did you kill my captain?" The girl's fingers involuntarily clenched into fists and her voice trembled slightly. "He was one of the best people I ever knew! He always set an example for everyone! Before he arrived, Loguetown was a place where pirates from all over East Blue constantly gathered. Robbery and murder were considered normal, and the local residents were afraid to leave their homes without good reason. The captain was the person who changed Loguetown beyond recognition. After his appointment, not one pirate who decided to visit Loguetown left the island without handcuffs. Thanks to Captain Smoker, every resident could sleep peacefully again. They no longer had to fear that pirates would break into their homes one night and begin robbing and killing... And now, because of you, everything will return to the way it was!"
It was difficult to say which emotion dominated Tashigi most at that moment—rage, despair, fear, bitterness—but there could be no doubt that her heartfelt speech shattered against the swordsman's thick armor of indifference. Once, before meeting Luffy, such words might have affected Zoro. Since then he had grown older, wiser, harder, and had seen an unbelievable amount of assorted shit. Now Zoro would not have cared about Tashigi's words even if he truly had killed Smoker. Had the girl chosen to say something similar directly to Luffy, it might have been much more effective. The young man would certainly have supported her hatred of his first mate.
"If the situation in Loguetown concerns you so much, nothing is stopping you from returning there and taking Smoker's place," Zoro answered without changing his tone or posture.
To be entirely honest, the only thing that genuinely struck the swordsman's nerves was the girl's appearance—especially now, with bruises covering her arms and her left eye slightly swollen. He felt guilty, though intellectually he understood perfectly that he should not. Who had asked her to try killing him? He had defended himself and had every right to do so. Those thoughts did not silence the guilt... but they did an excellent job of banishing his drowsiness. Zoro continued sitting with his eyes closed purely out of stubbornness. The same stubbornness made him continue pretending that he wanted to sleep and Tashigi was preventing him.
"Return to Loguetown?" The girl frowned more deeply. "You say that as though I have a choice. Let me remind you that I did not come aboard your ship willingly!"
"Neither did I bring you here willingly." The young man shrugged indifferently. "You can direct every complaint to Luffy."
At the relevant name, Tashigi visibly flinched and immediately cast a frightened glance toward the opposite end of the ship. Zoro involuntarily opened one eye again and studied the noticeably paler girl. His guilt intensified. He could easily tell her that Smoker was still alive and correct the situation instantly. Of course, doing so would ruin whatever plans Luffy had for amusing himself, but Zoro was not afraid of the consequences. He knew for certain that they would never go beyond theatrical whining. And still Zoro remained silent. Whatever the young man thought about his captain's jokes—or rather, 'jokes'—he could not bring himself to ruin them. Nor was he alone. Even Nami, the kindest-hearted member of their family, had not said a word about Smoker's fate, though she of all people certainly had no need to fear the consequences.
"Are you saying he kidnapped me as a joke?" The girl clearly did not believe him. "How can kidnapping a person possibly be considered a joke?!"
"My captain's sense of humor is extremely specific," Zoro replied, pointing toward the opposite side of the ship. "And you were lucky. Often, only corpses remain after his jokes."
"Corpses after jokes?!" Tashigi's eyes widened considerably.
"His humor is extremely specific."
"Does that mean he'll kill me later too?"
"I already said you were lucky." Zoro frowned. "No one is going to kill you. If you hadn't tried to kill me, then just as Nami said, no one would have laid a finger on you."
"You killed my captain!"
Everything returned to where it had begun.
"So what?" Zoro asked without the slightest emotion in his face or voice. "I've killed many people in my life."
"The captain was a good man!"
"So what?" the young man repeated. "Does that make him immortal? He has only himself to blame. He was warned not to interfere with us."
"It doesn't matter!" The girl's fingers clenched into fists once more, and hatred blazed in her eyes. "I will never forget this and never forgive you! If I survive, then one day I will become strong enough to put you in prison for the rest of your life! You and your entire family!"
At such bold words, Zoro froze for an instant. Then a broad, smug grin spread across his face.
"Good luck, then," the young man said. "You'll need it!" A no less smug tone and those particular words accompanied the grin, instantly triggering a deeply buried 'mine.'
"You think I can't do it?!" The fire in Tashigi's eyes burned even more intensely. "It's because I'm a woman, isn't it?! You think that because I'm a woman, I can't accomplish anything?! That because I'm a woman, I can't be strong?! Do you even understand how humiliating that attitude is?! If I could choose, I would have chosen to be born a man too! I didn't become a swordswoman to play with toys! A woman's arm may be weaker than a man's, but that doesn't mean a woman cannot be strong!"
Zoro's words and tone had unquestionably struck Tashigi where it hurt. In response, however, the girl happily danced across nearly every 'mine' buried deep in the young man's soul at once. Her words twisted the swordsman's face beyond description. The enraged young man was on his feet in an instant.
"Stop talking that kind of nonsense!!!" Now the furious Zoro towered over the visibly intimidated Tashigi. To her credit, the girl was no coward; an enraged Zoro was not a sight for the fainthearted. Someone else in her position might have collapsed unconscious. "Unless you want to be thrown overboard, never say that crap about women being weak again, you damned chameleon!!!"
"Ch-chameleon?!" Fear instantly gave way to profound confusion.
"You!" The swordsman's index finger pressed directly against Tashigi's forehead, while his nose almost touched hers. "You look exactly like a friend of mine who died long ago, and now you've even started spouting the same nonsense she once did! Stop copying her! The mere fact that you exist already gets under my skin!"
"Huh?!! W-what kind of ridiculous insult is that?!! I'm not a chameleon, and I'm not copying anyone!!! I'm an individual with my own dreams and interests!!! I'm sorry about your friend, but my feelings belong only to me!!! Why does that mean I'm copying her?!! Why isn't she the one copying me?!!"
"Wh-what did you just say?!!"
Zoro and Tashigi were clearly well matched. The girl looked ready to begin smoking from indignation, while her last pair of sentences made the young man appear ready to explode.
"Now at least it's clear why Luffy-aniki stole this particular Marine instead of some other one," Johnny shared his opinion.
"I once heard or read somewhere that every person in the world has a double," Yosaku added. "Our Marine is probably the double of Zoro-aniki's dead friend."
"Every person in the world has a double?" Sanji asked, exhaling a whole cloud of cigarette smoke toward the sky. "A complete double, or only in appearance?"
"Uh... honestly, I don't remember."
"Only in appearance, obviously!" Nami rolled her eyes. "If every person had a complete double, the world would contain two Pirate Kings, eight Emperors, and worst of all, two Luffys at once."
"It would be fun to meet my double," Luffy said without taking offense, staring at everything through red, swollen eyes.
"Personally, the thought terrifies me." The girl shuddered.
"I don't know, I don't know." Johnny shook his head. "Considering Luffy-aniki's personality, it could easily have ended in an enormous battle."
"Most likely it would have," Yosaku agreed. "Otherwise he'd have to accept that he wasn't the only one of his kind in the world."
"It would still be fun!" the young man in question laughed happily.
"A battle between two Luffys?" This time Nami visibly shivered as though she had suddenly become cold. "I stand by my opinion. The very thought of two Luffys terrifies me!"
Naturally, such a loud argument between Zoro and Tashigi could not pass unnoticed by the rest of the family. The instant everyone heard the girl shouting at the swordsman, every person aboard appeared beside the quarrelling pair. Sanji and Nami had come running to rescue Tashigi, while everyone else simply wanted to watch a free performance. The appearance of an audience did nothing to cool the passion between the pair. On the other hand, their argument was moving in circles, so to speak.
"A weakling like you couldn't defeat me alone in a hundred years, never mind my entire family!"
"You're just a typical chauvinist! That's why you're convinced no woman in the world could ever surpass you!"
"Do you have any brains at all? You're the only person here so absolutely convinced of male superiority that you wish you'd been born a man!" It had to be admitted that if Tashigi had not reminded Zoro so strongly of his dead friend—thereby thoroughly affecting both his nerves and his mind—the Marine would have had no chance in their argument. Even so, the longer they fought, the stronger the young man's advantage became. "You won't defeat me in a hundred years, not because you're a woman, but because no swordsman in the world will defeat me! The title of World's Strongest Swordsman will soon belong to me, and I won't surrender it to anyone—man or woman!"
Zoro could probably have slapped Tashigi with all his strength and still failed to silence her as completely as those final words did. For a girl who had effectively grown up at the edge of the world, and in sheltered conditions besides—meaning under Smoker's dependable protection—it was unbelievable to hear such immeasurable ambition. It was as though the strongest young man in a remote village—the greatest swordsman in the weakest sea—had publicly announced that he intended to become king.
"The strongest swordsman in the world?" Tashigi finally recovered the power of speech after some time. "Do you even understand what you're saying?!"
"I understand, and believe me, far better than you can imagine." Zoro smirked, finally regaining his composure completely. "I'm two full orders of magnitude stronger than you, so I know perfectly well what I'm talking about."
"Two orders of magnitude? You haven't even seen me with a sword in my hands!"
Although Tashigi acknowledged Zoro's indisputable superiority, she could not agree with him now. The young man truly had never seen her fight! Because he had been asleep when she attacked him... which perhaps only confirmed Zoro's words. The girl still had no intention of admitting such an enormous difference between them so easily.
"Even without seeing you hold a sword, I can already say with complete certainty that you still don't know how to cut steel." Folding his arms across his chest, the young man calmly looked at the girl before him. "Since you can't cut steel, you still belong in the category of weak swordsmen. I, meanwhile, have long been mastering the third level of a strong swordsman. So I wasn't exaggerating when I said I'm two orders of magnitude stronger than you."
"The third level of a strong swordsman?" Tashigi repeated in confusion. She had never heard of such a classification among swordsmen.
Naturally, having no alternative, Zoro had gradually begun dividing all swordsmen exactly as Luffy did. Moreover, the stronger he became, the more clearly he understood the usefulness and accuracy of that approach. Zoro did not rule out the possibility that Luffy's classification of strong swordsmen might be mistaken, or that he did not know about another category—something like 'great swordsmen.' But until the system failed him, there was no reason to abandon it.
"That's my current level." Zoro nodded as though his words explained everything. "You, on the other hand, even after learning to cut steel, could only be considered an average swordsman. A weak average swordsman!" he immediately clarified. "Because cutting steel is the bare minimum for any average swordsman."
"Then what's the bare minimum for a strong swordsman?" Tashigi's expression and tone made it easy to see that Zoro had captured her complete attention.
"The ability to use at least one form of Haki."
"Haki?"
"There's no point explaining it. You're still far too distant from that level!" The swordsman shook his head.
"I've never seen Zoro so talkative," Yosaku said after a long silence.
"Tell me about it," Johnny agreed. "He wasn't even this talkative with Nojiko!"
Those words immediately earned the young man a displeased look from Nami. Zoro then received one of the most devastating glares in her arsenal. Yet however much one stared or argued, facts remained facts. Zoro's present behavior truly bore no resemblance to his usual indifference toward the opposite sex.
"You'd better shut up and bring me two practice swords," Zoro said to Johnny, turning toward the gathered company and completely ignoring Nami's glare.
"Why do you need practice swords?" Johnny asked in confusion. One additional look from the green-haired young man made him vanish instantly, and ten seconds later Zoro held the requested weapons.
"Here." He handed one of the swords to Tashigi.
In truth, it would have been more correct to call them training bokken, but that did not matter.