Chapter Five



Tashigi prowled the corridors, looking for anything (or everything) suspicious. Captain Kuro had declared a need for further information, and left her behind as he strolled away with his best imitation of casual harmlessness.

Not that she needed him at her back. Not that she wanted him at her back.

She turned a corner, and almost ran into Bonney, who was loitering there, cigarette in hand.

"Hello," Bonney said.

Die, evil fiend who has hypnotised Colonel Smoker! "Hello, ma'am," she growled, and reminded herself very firmly that this was a case of picking time and opportunity, and not simply charging in.

Bonney smiled, and blew a ring of smoke from her cigarette. "I thought we'd just have a little talk," she said. "Woman to woman."

Tashigi adjusted her position. Her hand itched for the hilt of her sword. "Of course, ma'am," she answered politely.

Bonney sighed theatrically. "And now you're going to tell me it's Captain to Bodyguard, or something like that? Oh, don't try to pretend." Her smile was as polished as glass. "I can see you're a professional. How about we have a little talk, then, professional to professional."

Tashigi felt her mouth twitch a little. The woman was disarmingly charming. Pirates usually are, she reminded herself. "Certainly, ma'am," she replied.

"I thought I told you to call me Bonney." She shook herself free from the wall gracefully, and wandered across towards Tashigi. "Don't you remember?"

Tashigi hesitated before the words came to her. "You gave that permission to my captain, ma'am. Not to me."

"Oh. Well, I'm giving it to you now." She rested a friendly hand on Tashigi's shoulder, her skin warm through the thin leather. "I'd like to think we're going to be the best of friends."

Tashigi twitched her shoulder. It wasn't enough to move the hand. "Ma'am -- Bonney -- I wouldn't want to be your enemy." It was what a sensible pirate would say, she assured herself.

"Walk with me." Bonney's arm slipped round her shoulder, and Tashigi knew her tenseness must be perceptible. "We can talk about all sorts of things."

Tashigi looked at her sidelong from behind her tinted glasses. "Such as what, ma'am?"

"Captain Kuro."

Tashigi maintained a stubborn silence for the next few paces.

"Oh, I'm not asking you to tell me anything vital." Bonney had a pleasant, sweet laugh. "Just a few general things about him. For instance, do you think it's worthwhile for me to recruit him?"

"Captain Kuro doesn't need me to puff his reputation," Tashigi said flatly. "Everyone who matters knows it already."

"Everyone who matters knew that he was dead," Bonney pointed out. "It's a truly amazing resurrection."

The walls that they were strolling past had those paintings on them, long scrawls of colour that almost made sense if one looked at them for too long.

Tashigi wasn't stupid. She kept her attention on Bonney. "The Captain's a private sort of man," she answered. "I've never liked to ask him . . ."

"If he was alive or dead?"

"Seems awfully impolite, ma'am," Tashigi agreed. "I've always felt he'd know that sort of thing without me needing to ask."

Bonney laughed. She really did have the most wonderful laugh. "And how about yourself, Claw? Have you any ambitions?"

Tashigi swallowed. "I'm not made to be a captain, ma'am." Not a pirate one, anyhow. "I've always seen myself as attached to a good commanding officer who wanted a good bodyguard . . ."

"Oh, good," Bonney said. Her smile curved at the edges, to somehow become as edged as Tashigi's own sword. "Because I've been feeling that I could use a good bodyguard."

Tashigi almost stopped in her tracks. She jolted back into movement a pace behind and out of step. "But, ma'am . . ."

"Think of it," Bonney suggested, "as moving up. Exchanging one commanding officer for another one."

Tashigi thought frantically. For all she knew, Captain Kuro would positively approve of the matter. Dispose of her and sail off into the sunset. This wasn't something that she could refer to him. "It's a matter of personal loyalty, ma'am," she invented desperately. "How could you trust me if I'd just go over to you at a moment's notice?"

"Absolutely," Bonney said warmly, and Tashigi realised that it had been a test in itself. "More and more you seem to be the sort of woman I need at my back, Claw. It's a difficult thing, being at the top. Everyone has eyes on your position. I need someone to guard my back. Someone I can trust. Someone with standards. Someone who won't hesitate to speak her mind."

And if I said yes, then I could get her to let go of Colonel Smoker, and that'd be him free, and then I could work out what to do next . . .

"This is all very flattering, ma'am," Tashigi said. The wheels in her mind went round and round, spun loosely, and gave up and hung there letting off smoke. "I honestly don't know what to say. Perhaps I should take the matter to Captain Kuro to ask if he would like to, um, oblige you in this way."

"Oh, I wouldn't bother him with this," Bonney said carelessly. "I'll raise the matter with him when I get round to having a private chat with him. If I consider it appropriate. I just thought I'd sound you out first. I've always felt that one can tell a commander's character from looking at the people who serve under him. Or her."

"And, just out of interest, ma'am." Tashigi kept her eyes on the ground in front of them. "If I should feel like leaving Captain Kuro's service and coming over to you on the spot?"

"Well then. Kuro wouldn't be an issue any longer, would he?" There was something terribly satisfied about Bonney's tone.

"I see." Tashigi swallowed. "Perhaps if you could give me a few hours to think about this, ma'am? I need to . . . spiritually prepare myself."

Bonney squeezed her shoulder, then released her. "I'm so glad we had this little heart-to-heart, Claw. I'm sure we'll deal well together."

Tashigi gave her a formal half-salute, and realised a fraction too late how Marines-trained it was.

Bonney's eyes narrowed. "Well now. And to think I didn't know anything at all about your background. Do tell me, Claw. What happened?"

Tashigi looked Bonney in the eyes. "I . . . walked out, ma'am. After a few little disagreements. I felt that my talents would be better appreciated elsewhere."

"And are you still being looked for?"

Tashigi shrugged. "Not in this quarter. One of the reasons I took employ with Captain Kuro was that he was going somewhere they wouldn't be looking for me." There, that sounded nicely authentic. "Of course, that was a few years ago."

"About the same time," Bonney said, her eyes narrowed, "as Kuro himself dropping out of circulation and being presumed dead. What was going on there, Claw?"

Tashigi didn't answer.

"I think I'm going to need your decision very soon, Claw," Bonney said. "Preferably before tomorrow. And if it should come accompanied with a very final and definite separation between yourself and Captain Kuro, well, who am I to complain?"

She smiled, and gave a little wave of her hand. "See you later," she said, and sauntered off down the corridor.

---

It was three corridors later, as she paused to stare out of a window, that memory finally got around to connecting the rigging and running up the flags of recall. Painting. Art. Mind control. Baroque Works.

There had been that woman -- what was her name, now? Miss Goldenweek. That was it. The artist who was able to change moods through the colour of her paints. That was what had been nagging at the back of her mind. If one painter could do it, so could another, and was it too unreasonable to connect the new paintings all over the place with the astonishingly placid behaviour of everyone from pirates to Marines?

But in that case, why wasn't it affecting her, or Captain Kuro . . .

She touched her spectacles of tinted glass. Maybe they affected the colour of the paintings and somehow blocked or weakened the result. Maybe it was just that she and Captain Kuro were short-sighted and accustomed to living with it. Maybe they were affected and the first thing they'd know about it was when they happily signed up with Bonney.

Another piece clicked into place at the back of her mind. If short-sightedness and spectacles could temper the effect, perhaps that was why Bonney was so eager to have her dispose of Captain Kuro, or (more likely, alas) Captain Kuro dispose of her, or both of them kill each other. She wasn't entirely convinced by Bonney's offer of employment. It was a little too fast and a little too convenient.

The worst case scenario was that Colonel Smoker had recognised her, and then told Bonney about it, but she didn't think that he had. She was sure that he would have reacted more strongly if he had. She'd been working under him for years, after all. That made some sort of bond, even if it was the sort of bond that involved a lot of shouting and her running after him and tripping over things.

She flexed her leg cautiously. Knee still working fine. Absolutely no reason to worry. Totally healed. Definitely.

So why didn't Bonney just order her "loyal" men to take care of Captain Kuro and Tashigi? An interesting question. Perhaps they weren't quite as loyal as they looked, or perhaps Bonney didn't trust her control of them in an actual fight. Either had possibilities. Maybe a quick surgical strike, when Bonney wasn't expecting it . . .

Common sense pointed out that Bonney would be expecting it. Bonney did not seem remotely stupid. This was an occasion for one of Captain Kuro's incredibly clever plans.

Assuming that Captain Kuro could be trusted.

---

Outside the window, a few floors down, she could hear the rattle of weapons in a salute. It warmed her to know that the Marines were still being at least that, well, Marine-like.

"What news?" a voice demanded.

"New flag sighted," another reported. "Still half a day out or more, but heading our way."

"A known flag?"

"The Straw Hat pirates."

Tashigi straightened, a sudden and unaccustomed feeling of sheer horror curdling in her stomach. It wasn't that she was scared of them. It wasn't even the urges she had to push Roronoa Zoro's nose through the back of his skull. It was the mental picture of what would happen if Bonney got her hands on them, together with the little dotted arrows and labels which her subconscious insisted on supplying. That, and the fact that the odds of someone recognising her would jump rather more than somewhat . . .

She glanced up and down the corridor hastily. No sign of anyone watching her. Hopefully she hadn't given herself away. She had to find Captain Kuro and tell him.

---

At the bend of the next corridor, she found him, his bag slung over his back.

"Claw," he greeted her, with an inclination of his head.

She held onto self-control viciously, and mentally stamped on any displays of emotion until they were well-subdued and begging for mercy. "Sir," she responded.

"I've been having some very interesting discussions." There was an edge to his voice that he hadn't had since the first time that they'd met. "More to the point, Claw, I hear that you've been having some very interesting discussions."

Oh -- oh now, surely he couldn't think that she'd sell him out to Bonney, that she'd seriously consider going over to Bonney -- "Sir," she said hastily, "perhaps we should talk in private . . ."

"I don't think that we want to do that, Claw." He swung his bag around, sliding one hand into it. There was a shifting whisper from inside it, an echo of steel on steel. "It could be . . . misinterpreted."

She could feel eyes watching them, even if she couldn't tell where from. "It's urgent news, sir."

"Not so urgent that I'm going to turn my back on you." His hands crossed in a sliding blur of movement, and the bag slipped to the ground, leaving him gloved with ten long vicious claws of steel. "Draw your sword, Claw."

"You -- you don't want me to fight you, Captain?"

"No." His voice was just the same. Light. Barely inflected. Calm. "I don't expect it to make the least bit of difference whether or not you try to fight. Ah, Claw. You never were very good at grasping reality, were you? Time's up."

---

One Piece Fanfic