A/N: OK! Number 12. Not a lucky number… not even a particularly interesting number. And long overdue. Oh well. This chapter brought to you by angelicyokai. Without her actually making me develop a plot, this chapter would not exist. Or would at least have been interminably delayed. Please suffer through (or skip) the first few paragraphs of flashback wrap-up. I promise not to do that again. Thank you for your patronage!

Chapter 12:

That man… Rokku. There was something wrong there. Something wrong… everywhere.

Nothing was right, suddenly. Roushu couldn’t place it exactly, but he had this strange feeling that there was something just underneath the surface that he desperately needed to be able to see.

He only hoped he wouldn’t be too late.

--

Kashu was out front when the King’s men arrived. He noticed their approach very quickly, since his cover of working in the family’s minimal front yard had worn thin quite some time before. It was just busy work, something to keep his body and mind occupied while he waited.

His father was two days late in returning, with no message or explanation forthcoming so far. This was a totally unprecedented situation, and everyone in the family was on edge to some degree.

Since that was the case, Kashu welcomed the arrival of officials that would provide them a solid reason for his father’s tardiness. Now they could stop worrying, since he had no doubt simply been caught up in his duties and simply unable to find time to send off a message. Two days wasn’t all that long, after all!

The King’s men rounded the building at the end of the street purposefully, their destination not a matter of question. Kashu managed to beat them to the house, but just barely.

He opened his mouth to ask about his father, what kind of reception the Marines from Headquarters had given them, but never got the chance to say a word. The leader of the troop immediately stepped up to Kashu’s mother and began speaking, the words that would haunt him for years to come.

“We’re here to take you into temporary custody. Come with us immediately.”

“What happened?” Kizake’s voice was controlled, but Kashu could sense something terrible, like a dead weight, in the air.

“Your husband has been convicted of the murder of over dozen people, including his second in command. His execution is scheduled in three days.”

--

Back to the present…

Zoro had finally had enough. Currently wandering the deserted halls in the upper part of the house, he kept himself alert for signs of any other guests or whatnot approaching. Luckily it was late enough at night and not close enough to the weekend for everyone to have gone ahead and settled in for the evening for the most part. He’d gotten bored and restless about five minutes into the explanation of these people’s history, and had taken the opportunity to flee the scene when it was presented.

It was, in the end, another long, boring story about someone Zoro didn’t really care about. Unlike his crewmates, he was uninterested in the trials of other people for the most part. He had enough trouble just trying to survive on his own, and other people were, in his mind, responsible for their own issues.

That being said, he was absolutely certain that if his companions found out about this ‘injustice’, they’d feel compelled to do something about it. Hopefully he could get this sorted out before Luffy got involved, because that sort of thing inevitably ended with rampant, large scale destruction, and he was trying to be sneaky here, dammit. And that wasn’t something that the Marines would be able to ignore either, and he didn’t dare press his luck with Tashigi any farther than he already had. That cruel streak of hers was uninhibited when it came to a certain pirate swordsman, he was sure.

And speaking of the female Marine…

She’d obviously been moved by the tale. But of course, there was blatant Injustice going on here, and that was something he was sure she was just compulsively driven to correct in some manner. He’d just have to find a way to avoid getting dragged in.

He’d roamed farther through the building as he contemplated his personal irritations, eventually finding himself on what appeared to be a small balcony on the second floor. That was as good a place as any to avoid the rest of humanity, so he settled in against the side of the building and stared out over the city. It was actually a rather nice view up there, but the peace was quickly disrupted, or rather never had a chance to fall. Tashigi’s innate ‘annoy Zoro’ ability had led her directly to his hiding place in an astonishingly short amount of time.

She got straight to the point. “We have to help these people.”

Zoro let his head drop to his chest for a moment before lifting his gaze to stare incredulously at the female swordsman. “I refuse to get involved in another governmental overthrow.”

That got him a rather inscrutable look from Tashigi. He wasn’t sure if she was angered at the reminder of his past deeds, suspicious that he’d been involved in a more revolutions and whatnot that she knew, or just disappointed in his lack of compassion.

Compassion be damned. Zoro was, first and foremost, as survivor. That meant focusing on his own problems, and not those of random others. He just wanted to grab his friends and make tracks as far and fast as humanly possible. Maybe even a little faster, if he could manage it. They simply didn’t have the time, energy or resources available to get involved in yet another twisted escapade of Other People’s Problems.

At any rate… “We don’t have to overthrow the government! And I can’t believe you’d suggest that I would be involved in such a thing!”

“Then what kind of ‘help’ were you planning on giving them?” He growled in disgust, “Motivational speeches? And what, exactly, are you planning on helping them with?”

She stared at him over the top rim of her glasses. “Excuse me?”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but as a swordsman most of the ‘help’ I give to other people,” Grudging as it may be, “involves my swords. Which I don’t have. Instead of getting all tied up in this retardation, we need to get back to that prison island while they’re still all riled up and disorganized and steal our swords back.”

He paused for a moment to let that sink in before continuing on to the final blow. “That Shigure of yours might not matter enough that you care to go and get it, but I refuse to continue on without my meitou.”

Aha. Obvious rage at the implication that she didn’t care about Shigure, but no abrupt panic. She must know where her sword was, and by extension his as well. And it mustn’t have been back on that prison island either, or he was sure he’d have heard about it as soon as her head broke the water after their jump. No, the only reason she’d been so willing to flee was because she must have already found out somehow that her meitou was elsewhere.

Now to get her to share that information with him…

“How dare you imply that Shigure means so little to me?! I care more for my meitou than you do, since you’re callous enough to use yours for such evil purposes!” He rolled his eyes at this proclamation but allowed her to continue. “I certainly would never simply abandon such a precious thing as my meitou, and I have no intention of allowing other scum to wander off with yours either! Those I will take from you personally!”

Well, it was certainly nice to have goals in life, though Zoro wasn’t too thrilled about this particular plan involving himself. At any rate, he still needed that key information, which he was sure she wouldn’t part with easily. “Then we need those swords back, don’t we?”

She huffed in outrage. “That’s not even a question! But they’re not back on that island anyway, they’re somewhere else in this country – one of the other leaders has them!”

There it was. Only one final piece of the puzzle… “Where?”

“I – I… don’t know…” Well. That admission took all the wind out of her sails right away. And it stopped Zoro in his tracks too, for that matter.

Zoro slumped back against the building, staring at her once again. So much for a quick and easy destination acquisition. “You don’t know?”

“… No.” She elaborated quickly though, obviously trying to justify her ignorance, “Rokku said he was a weapons collector, and a part of the government. Supposedly he takes all the quality weapons they steal from their prisoners.”

Zoro growled to himself under his breath. “Great. We don’t even have a damned name. Where the hell are we supposed to start?”

After a moment of thought, she answered somewhat hesitantly, “We could ask Kizake about him… from what Rokku said, he should be fairly famous on this island, I think.”

“Oh? And how are you going to explain why you’re so interested in this guy? Surely you aren’t planning on telling that woman that she’s harboring fugitives of a seriously dangerous and very wanted sort?”

“I’ll… think of something.”

“You do that.” Zoro pointedly turned his gaze back out over the city. What a complete waste of time. After all that, all they had were some vague insinuations from a moronic sleaze to go on. Not even a damned name.

By the time he finished stewing in his own outrage, Tashigi was already gone.

--

Tashigi slipped into the kitchen area, glancing around nervously. Surely this was in part due to the fact that she wasn’t sure if there were any other employees around to be wary of, but mostly it was because…

Well, her conversation with Zoro had brought to light their startling lack of progress on some points, and their desperate need of information in particular areas. And there was only one local she could really ask about it. Unfortunately, she really couldn’t think of a way to justify her curiosity without having to explain a few things that would be better left unsaid, in particular the part about being fugitives and all. She was sure that wasn’t going to go over well.

But, as Roronoa had also pointed out, they needed to get their swords back, and quickly. The longer they waited, the more likely it would be that Shigure, and Roronoa’s three meitou as well, would be moved elsewhere or otherwise become inaccessible. And she was perfectly willing to admit that their chances of freeing their respective comrades were higher with their familiar and trusted weapons in hand.

“Kizake…” She spotted the woman through as doorway, sweeping the last bit of the night’s dust off the stone floor. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

--

In the end, Tashigi was shocked, surprised and very, very relieved.

She had gotten through her whole little questioning session with Kizake without having to explain why she wanted to know about the local weapons aficionados at all. This was nothing short of a miracle, but the woman seemed honestly disinterested, or at least incurious, about the strange things that Tashigi managed to know about her homeland.

She had readily supplied a name to go with the reputation – Mottsa. The man was apparently well known for his various idiosyncrasies in these parts, one of the main ones being his obsession with collecting weaponry. One of the other major notables being his obsession with using every possible form of weaponry. This certainly didn’t sound like a good idea to Tashigi, who put more value into specialty than universality, but if the man was skilled enough to pull it off… then he might be quite a foe to watch out for.

Beyond that, the man apparently also had his own fortress. That seemed to be the means by which to determine who had weight to throw around on this island – whether they had their own personal bastion or not. His, luckily, wasn’t offshore, but was indeed coastal. What kind of governmental powerhouse builds a personal sanctuary without a view of the ocean, after all? Supposedly this place was a day long trip by sea… but more than three times that by foot. How exactly the pair of swordsmen were going to go about acquiring a ship Tashigi wasn’t sure, but she had confidence that they’d figure something out.

Feeling more than accomplished, and rather smug as well, Tashigi bid her hostess goodnight and headed upstairs. Kizake had been kind enough to supply the two swordsmen with a pair of rooms she had open for the night, and Tashigi was certainly looking forward to sleeping under an actual roof again.

Kizake watched her leave, ascending the stairs to the guest rooms, in silence, her expression unreadable.

--

Tashigi awoke, as was her custom, just as the sun began to crest over the horizon. Another day of her life on the run was beginning, but at least this one was starting with her in an actual bed, fairly comfortable, well fed and truly clean for the first time in days. She took a moment to stretch out before sitting up and slipping over the side of the bed, her feet touching down on the smooth, worn wooden floorboards of the inn. She didn’t bother putting her glasses on immediately since, theoretically, there was nothing to really trip over in the small, sparsely furnished room.

She took a grand total of two steps before she found that she was mistaken in that assessment. Her left foot caught on something on the floor, and she promptly fell into a spectacular face plant into those same old floorboards. They were quite clean, too, from her new and close up inspection.

More to the point, and more of interest, the thing she had tripped over had moved when her foot connected. And even more disturbing, a string of irate and sleepy curses could now be heard from the thing – no, person – she had fallen over.

“Roronoa! What the hell are you doing in my room?!”

The drowsy grumbles abruptly cut off, a momentary pause following. Then the green haired room invader abruptly sat up, shoving Tashigi’s legs off his stomach as he did so. This did not improve her mood, inclining her more towards a physical form of punishment toward him with waiting for any sort of explanation, but he made sure to move out of her immediate range before she could collect herself.

“Hell. You’ve seemed halfway coordinated for the past few days, so I thought it might actually be safe to sleep nearby. Guess I was wrong.”

“That doesn’t explain why you’re IN MY ROOM! You were given your own, you know!”

“Yeah sure. We just met these people, who are suspiciously nice, and they go ahead and split us up. Excuse me for not wanting to get caught sleeping in separate places when they decide to spring a trap on us!”

“You’re paranoid!”

“I prefer to consider it ‘exceptionally motivated by survival’.”

“These people are not going to trap us, or turn us in, or anything of the sort! Weren’t you listening to anything she told us about last night?!”

“Yeah yeah. Sob story, whatever. Anybody can make shit like that up, and if you fall for it so easily, it’s amazing you’re still around.”

“PARANOID!”

“Hey, you guys…” A voice, somewhat muddled with sleep but recognizable as that of Kajou, called through the closed door. The closed, locked door. How the hell did Roronoa get in last night, did he climb through the window or something? At any rate… “You guys should keep it down, right? There’s a lot of people still sleeping here, you know?”

Well, that silenced the escalating argument right away. The last thing they needed at this juncture was undue and irate attention. Instead, the two swordsmen glared at each other for a minute until Zoro rose to his feet and headed for the exit. “Now that you’re awake, I guess you can guard your own back. I’m outta here. Come find me when you’re ready to leave.”

She had to physically bite her tongue to hold back the variety of comebacks, some wittier than others, that sprang to mind. Instead she simply glowered at his back until he shut the heavy hardwood door behind himself. Rising to her feet, she sighed in irritation and set about preparing to face another day beside Roronoa Zoro.

--

Zoro slouched against the side of the inn. Somehow he’d wandered outside and was now in the rear yard of the place. At least it was quiet out here, and notably free of irritating female swordsmen. He shifted his shoulders, trying to find a more comfortable leaning position against the weather worn siding as he waited for Tashigi to come and find him. She would eventually, after all.

He’d intended to slip away before she’d woken up that morning, but his own exhaustion must have gotten the better of him. He’d stayed up late the night before, doing practice swings and various indoor-environment-friendly sword practices in his assigned space until he was sure that Tashigi would be asleep. He’d slipped into her room then and settled in on the floor, intending for more of an extended nap than actual sleep. It was true, he hadn’t wanted to be isolated from her in the event of some sort of ambush, as unlikely as it admittedly was. More to the point, he hadn’t wanted her to fall into some stupid trap that he’d have to waste time and energy springing her from.

And then the next thing he knew was being rudely awakened by a solid kick to the side. How irritating. Maybe he was losing his edge, if he was becoming that unaware of his surroundings.

The solution for this was, naturally, more practice and training. He’d have to work on resharpening his senses for the next few days. However he could fit that in around their already hectic schedule, as it was.

Speaking of his schedule, if they were going to get their swords back, he was going to need a third stand in. The two he had stolen were woefully inadequate but usable, but he needed three to pull of santouryuu, naturally. And that really was where the strength of his technique lay, in the end. He vaguely recalled a previous mental note to review his one sword style techniques, but immediately filed it away again. There was just no time at the moment, and the local expert, as it was, on that subject was undoubtedly Tashigi.

Definitely not something to contemplate deeply this early in the morning. Something of a safer topic… if he was going to go and rescue his swords – and his crew too, when he got around to it – he needed to procure that third temporary sword in the meantime. That thought in mind, he rose to his feet, stretching out languorously before setting out over the back fence of the inn.

Surely somewhere in this town he could find a cheap sword…

--

End Ch. 12

Ending Note: Apologies for the long hiatus between chapters. I have a lot on my plate, and it takes time to write decent fanfiction. And I won’t put out anything less. Hopefully I’ll be able to work my writing back into my schedule more often this summer.