Chapter Twelve: A Day With The Marines

I have no idea what I'm writing, and this all just sounds like some police show or something (I think I've been watching too much Lucifer). I also just wanted to say that Watanabe Haruto (lastname, firstname) is my own character that I just made up on the spot. I'd say he looks like Dazai from Bungo Stray Dogs but with a little longer hair. He's not that significant, but will come up occasionally.

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Smoker couldn't sleep.

Maybe it was because of the thoughts that ran through his brain. Maybe it was because of the fact that you're sleeping beside him and he doesn't want to turn and accidentally crush you. Or maybe the flashing lights emitting from those bracelets of yours is too damn annoying.

Red.

Blue.

Green.

Yellow.

Purple.

Orange.

The colors just kept changing over and over and over. Why were they doing this? Was it because you were sleeping? Did you know it did this? And why did you have a bird on your lap?

Smoker is confused.

---

Tashigi is confused.

Confused, actually, is an understatement.

"Smokey! What are we working on today?"

Why was there a girl clinging onto her captain so desperately as he's doing paperwork? Actually, the question was why wasn't he pushing her away. Especially with how annoyed he was looking right now.

"I can help you with anything! I have experience!" Smoker let out a puff of smoke, giving you a very skeptical look.

"You're saying you have 'experience' doing reports?" You furiously nodded your head. Smoker was giving you very odd stares. "So you're saying you were a marine at some point?" You opened your mouth to say yes, before pausing. Saying yes would be a very very bad idea. Smoker took your silence as a no, and huffed.

"I know you're trying to be helpful, but if you can't do it then you can't do it." Smoker turned his attention back towards his reports. You furrowed your brows at the one beside you, picking it up to inspect it. Smoker paid you no heed as you did your thing.

"Hey Smokey... why does this one say 'Robbery on the Twelfth' when this report was made on the ninth?" You stared at the paper in wonder. "It also says that they solved the robbery violently with two casualties and that the perpetrator was arrested around 2:00 down on Eleanor, but we were down that street at the time too right? Did you see a robbery?" He grabbed the paper from your hands, inspecting it.

"Tashigi, who made these reports?"

"I-I um, I don't know sir but I'll go find out now." Tashigi took the report out of his hands and rushed out of the room. You went back to looking at the reports, not paying any mind at how fondly Smoker was watching you. But no matter how much he liked you (he'd never admit that) there was suspicion.

"You're pretty smart." You looked up, gazing into his blue eyes.

"I am?"

"You pick up details and information easily, and piece them together quite well. I can see how you easily put together how the legend and The Little Princess match up." He turned in his seat so that he could properly face you. "You said you had experience. Were you a marine?" You didn't exactly want to tell him, but you didn't want to lie either. But hey, he wouldn't find out that the two of you knew each other!

"... I was in the marines, but I quit, seeing that it really wasn't for me." You fiddled with the paper in your hands.

"Well you're very intelligent. If you had stayed with the marines, I'm sure you would have made a name for yourself." Smoker couldn't help but begin to see how similar his first love and you were. But you guys couldn't possibly be the same person, right? How many people are drafted in the marine each year? It would be nearly impossible to find his love again, with how their last encounter turned out.

Did she even want to see him again?

"Well I'm not really looking for fame at the moment."

Because fame would be coming to you, with the path that you were choosing.

A knock at a the door caused Smoker to sit up straight. "Smoker-san? This is urgent," Tashigi spoke hurriedly behind the door.

"Come in." She immediately opened the door, closing it right behind them.

"Smoker-san, nobody knows who ran the reports, but the person who was arrested is going to be executed for first degree murder. Witnesses also claim that he had killed two people." Smoker furrowed his brows. That didn't seem right, especially since he didn't see any robbery. But there were two dead bodies, so either the report was incorrect, or somebody was trying to frame someone.

"Who was the officer on scene?"

"Er... Watanabe?"

"And wouldn't that mean he was the one to have made the report?" You winced as you got a mild migraine, before widening your eyes at what you saw. Smoker turned towards you.

"Lady Phoenix, what do you- what's wrong?" You stood up, running out the door. If your foresights were usually right then you had to get there quick. You could hear Smoker call out to you, but you didn't stop.

Someone purposefully created a fake report, knowing that no officers were usually down Eleanor. However, that day Smoker had decided to take you down there, meaning that they couldn't have know where Smoker was going to be. Witnesses can easily be bought off either by threats or massive amounts of money, but you doubted that there'd be any insanely rich people in Loguetown.

You ran out the building, glancing around.

Phoenix, where are you? I need you to direct me to the port. A squawk from over head caused you to sigh in slight relief.

Watanabe, however being the first person on the scene (or fake scene you should say), was not the perpetrator, but a decoy. But Watanabe was a good man with a good streak, you sifted through the papers when Smoker wasn't looking, so he must have been threatened. But moral had triumphed his fear.

And now he was going to pay the price.

But you weren't going to let a good man die when you knew you could prevent it. Perhaps the days in the marines had done you some good. The analyzing, the intuition, and putting your powers to use.

Besides, it was your dream to help people, was it not?

You skidded to a stop, hiding behind a building as you heard distant voices. Peaking around the corner, you saw them.

"You think you can stop me by telling the marines?" the black haired man spoke in distaste. You remembered that voice from your vision.

"I know why you're doing this, but it's not going to solve anything," the other one spoke. He was taller than the black haired male, with brown locks that went down to his shoulders. That had to be Watanabe. "I don't care if you're threatening me because I know that you won't kill me. We're brothers. But I can't just sit around and pretend that you killed our parents. Why couldn't you have just told me instead of manipulating me? We could have worked something out."

"You wouldn't understand what they did to me, Haruto." The man growled out. "And you never will." He ran towards his brother with the intent to kill, pulling out his knife. Watanabe just stood there with a sad smile on his face.

"I know."

Clash!

The sound of metal metal was heard, and the black haired male growled in confusion. Before him was a girl holding a bokken to his knife. But weren't bokkens made of wood? With a simple flick, you had launched the stunned male into the side of the building, embedding him several inches in. You winced at how uncomfortable the bracelets got, digging into your skin.

If you were at your full power you would have blasted him into the other side of the island.

Thankfully, you weren't. You didn't want to have accidentally killed someone. Turning around, you looked up at Watanabe. "Ah... you're Watanabe right?" Who were you kidding, you saw his info, of course it was him. But you had to check so that you didn't come off as creepy.

"Uh, yes..." He was still stunned at how easily you launched his brother. "D-Did... H-How?"

"Phoenix!" Smoker called out. "Watanabe." The captain had seen everything that had transpired. He couldn't believe it. How did you know what was going to happen? How did you know where to go when you hadn't a clue just the day before?

"I-I'm sorry Smokey for running away!" You bowed your head. "B-But I didn't want someone to die when I knew that I could solve it! Please don't be mad... I even made you chase me all across town..." You widen your eyes when you felt him ruffle your hair, before pulling you in a soft embrace.

"Don't worry about it." He immediately released you when he realized that he had an audience. That being Watanabe and Tashigi. They looked at him with a very befuddled expressions. He coughed into his arm. "Er, good work." You beamed up at him.

He wasn't angry!

You were about to hug him before you stopped yourself. Right, he didn't like audiences. You dropped your arms to your side, before fiddling with the bokken. Looking up, you saw that the three marines were approaching the building that you launched Watanabe's brother at, and you immediately went to follow them.

"He's alive... right?" Smoker checked his pulse.

"Alive, but unconscious." You breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good." All of a sudden your stomach growled in hunger. You felt your face redden in embarrassment as the three of them turned their heads towards you. "Sorry. I didn't eat breakfast this morning because I was so excited to help you, Smokey."

"I guess we could go out an eat..." Smoker mumbled. You cheered.

Tashigi meanwhile furrowed her eyebrows at the interaction between the two of you.

---

"What are you going to get?" You asked Smoker who was sitting beside you.

"Smoked chicken." You nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. It's has your name in it. Er kind of." Smoker choose not to respond to your comment. Meanwhile, Tashigi was looking very peeved. She leaned closer to Watanabe, eyes flickering between you and Smoker.

"I think there's something wrong with Smoker-san," she whispered. "He's not getting annoyed like usual." Watanabe shrugged, staring at the menu in his hands.

"He might have a thing for her." Tashigi's eye went wide.

"You can't say that! This is the captain we're talking about!" Watanabe rolled his eyes at Tashigi who was currently ranting about why he isn't the type of person to date someone. Especially someone so childish.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you had a thing for him." Tashigi's face went pink. "Oh. OH."

"It's not what you think! Don't say it like that! I just really respect him!!" she whisper-yelled. Thankfully, Smoker was preoccupied with entertaining you with some of his cool Devil Fruit powers.

"Whoa make a cloud!" He made a face before complying with your wishes. "How about a flamingo?" The cloud morphed into a flamingo as your eyes sparkled in awe. Smoker was glad and kind of worried at how easy to please you were. What if someone offered you candy and kidnapped you?

The chances of you getting kidnapped versus a child was too high. But surely you would be smart enough to get out of the situation, right?

Soon enough, a waitress came by to take orders. She was a very pretty woman, with dark skin and hair in a nice little bun. After getting everyone's orders, she left, not before her gaze flickered a second bit too long to Smoker's liking. But maybe he was reading into it too much. He was quiet as you talked with his two other subordinates, and he would be lying to say if he wasn't slightly interested in your conversation.

"Tashigi, what's your favorite food?" The girl in question blinked in shock that you would actually be interested in talking to her.

"O-Oh, um.. I don't really have a preference, but I do occasionally enjoy some hot coffee." Her face became red at how intensely you seemed to listen to her. Why was she feeling this way? Was it because she never really interacted with someone so personally before?

Tashigi spared her stoic captain a glance. Smoker never really seemed interested in having a conversation with her. It was always something work related. Heck, she didn't even have any genuine friends at the base. Watanabe's been working at the base for a while now and this was the first time they've genuinely had a conversation.

So it was different to suddenly get attention from someone. But still, she couldn't understand why Smoker would go to lengths to tolerate you. Then again... She could only focus on the happy smile that was on your face as you laughed at something Watanabe had said.

"Tashigi?" She blinked, realizing that she had been staring at you for quite some time.

"Sorry, yes?"

"Can I call you Shigi-chan?"

"EH?!" You looked away sheepishly. "Sorry, is that a bit weird? I kind of thought it was a cute nickname." Tashigi's face was red as she stuttered to get her words right.

"No- Ssorry I-I don't... why?"

"Well... I like to give my friends nicknames." You pointed at Smoker. "I call him Smokey. But I think Smo-chan is cute too." Smoker gave you an irritated face, but didn't interrupt you. "So I though it'd be nice to give you one too if that's okay."

You thought of Tashigi as a friend? The swordswoman felt her heart warming at the thought.

"I-It's totally okay! I love it!" You gave her a big smile. "Do you want one too, Watanabe?" The man nodded his head, mostly because he thought it would be rude to say no, and you excitedly tried to come up with one.

"So your first name is Haruto? Then you can be Haru!" Tashigi couldn't help but smile at your anatics, her heart fluttering.

What was this feeling in her chest?

---

The mossy dragon watched the yonko in amusement and curiosity as he stabbed his sword into the ground as a sign of peace. In his hand was a bottle of alcohol, and the beast could tell that the man didn't mean any harm. Well, not anymore at least.

Shanks took long and confident strides towards the beast, before pausing at the stump he had passed before. He sat down before it, noticing that the piece of chalk was still there. Placing the bottle on top of the stump, he gazed at the dragon expectantly. The creature tilted its head, before taking steps towards the man.

He knew that Shanks couldn't kill him. He was created for the soul purpose of protecting, he cannot be killed no matter how powerful the opponent. The only person who could kill him would have to be another Ancient One, but they had died with the last.

Though Shanks couldn't kill him, that didn't mean that the dragon could kill the yonko. Yonkos were probably the only people who were on par with the dragon. So as a result, they were at a somewhat of a stalemate. Before long, the mythical creature had stood before him, before a green light had enveloped it. When the light had disappeared, a human had replaced the dragon.

Well, not counting the green horns, wings, and tail, then yes, human. His golden eyes bored into Shanks' own with interest, sitting down on the grass to amuse the human before him. His large black tail with a green underside swished back and forth before finally settling down to a rest on the ground. Brushing his white hair aside, he grinned, pearly whites gleaming.

"So you've finally stopped sulking. How amusing. Now what do I owe the pleasure of having someone like you on my island?" The dragon paused, before realizing he hadn't introduced himself yet. "Ah, I should probably introduce myself. I am Sage. It is the utmost pleasure to meet you, Red-Haired Shanks. Though, not much of a pleasure to being decapitated. It is very unpleasant to regrow one. I'm sure it was also unpleasant to see it as well."

"Oh? So you've heard of me?" Sage laughed.

"Who hasn't heard of you? I have a friend who absolutely loves to gossip about you. Though most of your endeavors I've heard of are more private, but they were certainly entertaining." Shanks quirked a brow. 'More private matters'? What did that mean? There's been someone watching him this whole time and he didn't notice?

"You look a bit peeved. Trust me, it's not that bad." Sage was leaning on one arm, inspecting his nails. "Then again, my definition of bad would a be a bloody massacre."

Oh no.

"So tell me, what brings you to my home? Are you perhaps looking for treasure? If you are, I'm going to have to politely turn away-" Sage paused as Shanks pulled out the ruined copy of The Little Princess he got from you. Turning it to the page where you wrote your message, he showed it to Sage.

"I want you to explain this." Sage gingerly grabbed the book, inspecting it in fascination.

"How queer." He tilted his head to look at Shanks. "It seems as though you are indeed a special case, Shanks. Dare I say, exception." Sage stood up, holding a hand out to the man on the ground. "Though I am not one to consume alcohol, allow me to give you my word that I will not harm you or your crewmates during your stay here." Shanks took Sage's hand, pulling himself up.

"I'm sure you have many questions, and I will be sure to give you a small tour. I have been waiting for someone like you to show up."

"Hmm... someone like me you say?" Sage's golden eyes glinted.

"Yes... someone who's willing to change destiny."

---

"Is that all you have to report, Fullbody?"

"Y-Yes ss-sir..." The pink haired man cowered before the admiral before him. Fullbody couldn't believe that he'd actually find himself standing in front of such a powerful man in his life.

"Are you sure they had H/l H/c?" Akainu spoke, eyes trained intensely on the lieutenant.

"Y-Yes and they threatened me sir..." The admiral glared down at the man. "Did I ask for what they did to you? You pathetic weakling. Disgrace to the marines. You should feel lucky that I didn't demote you after the humiliation you received."

"T-Thank you sir.."

"Tch. You may leave." Fullbody quickly left, shutting the door rather forcefully. If he had stayed in there any longer, he probably would have shit his pants, that's how intimidating the admiral was. Akainu sighed to himself wondering if it was really you who was at Baratie. You weren't really one to threaten people, but how many people had Garp's transponder snail that looked like you?

He clenched his teeth.

Why did you leave him dammit? And to become one of those disgusting pirates nonetheless! It just irritated the volcano man to no end. Oh the things he would do to you when he finally captured you. He'd beat you up until you apologized over and over and over again.