Of course, not that anything will come from it

“That felt weird.”

You had what could very generously be described a spar with Luffy. Even in good health you could hardly keep up with him when you were in good health and your legs still being in recovery were not helping, so what you did was you alternatingly threw punches at each other to train each others ability to counter. You yourself also used the opportunity to work on the little bit of fishman-karate you had picked up at Arlong-park and so you had just bent Luffy's arm around your torso so when he tried to retract it he pulled himself into your open palm.

“I attacked the blood inside your body. If we run into Jinbei on the Grand-Line, you'll have to learn how to deal with that.”

“So you used magic, but what does it have to do this Jinbei?”

“Jinbei is one of the Shichibukai! He is well known for being a master of fishmen-karate, like Mihawk with sword-fighting. What I just did wasn't magic, but ...”

“Stop wasting your breath, we both know he won't understand unless he absolutely has to”, Nami interrupted you.

“And even than it's a coin flip. Now why are you here fighting anyway? You should be resting, if you want to be properly recovered by the time we reach Logue town!”

And with that she pulled you down to your quarters.

“And now you tell me, why you've been avoiding me!”

Right.

Nami: 78/100.

That.

Nami: 5/100.

“So... you remember how I told you about my Devil Fruit..?”

“You said, you can tell we were friends...”

Your power wasn't much help in showing other people's feelings, but you didn't need supernatural abilities to tell, that this topic worried her.

“You also remember, how there was another number for Sanji, which was why I didn't want to talk about it in front of the others at first?”

She visibly relaxed. Was had she been worried about? That she didn't like you as much as the others?

You decided to rip the band-aid of, now that you were here: “You have a second number as well, but it's not that you last for me, but ...”

“I'm starting to reciprocate your feelings for me”, she finished my sentence.

“You knew?”

“It's not like it's hard to tell. You've been simping over me, ever since we met.”

“I mean fair, but so was Sanji.”

“Sanji is different. He's in love with my looks. You're in love with me. The way your face lights up, when I call you smart, or what qualifies as smart on this crew anyway. You didn't believe, that I betrayed you for a second, because you have paid so close attention to me, you could tell you knew the real me.”

“So... what you like to date...”

“Hell no!”

“What? Why?”

“You do remember we're pirates, right?”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“That means, in the foreseeable future we will spend every waking hour with each other.”

“That sounds like a reason we should...”

“That sounds like if our relationship does not work, it will be supremely awkward! Besides, if we're compatible enough, we'll grow closer without explicitly dating. We're the only two women on this ship, it's not like we won't spend time with each other alone.”

“That … okay I can't come up with a counter argument.”

“Look at it this way: With both of us single, we can flirt around as we like.”

Going out of that conversation, you thought it was Nami's way of letting you down easy. You had not expected to make good on her permission to flirt around.

As your legs were pretty much fully recovered, no small thanks to Sanji's cooking and Nami stopping you from going back to training, Logue town appeared on the horizon.

You laid anchor and as expected Luffy was gone, before you could coordinate anything. It was time for shopping. Zoro needed two new swords, Sanji wanted to fill the fridge, so you wouldn't have to eat exclusively fresh fish for the next few weeks. Usopp was hoping to pick up various goods, though it didn't sound like he himself knew what he was looking for. And Nami wanted to find some clothes.

“Shit. I wanted to warn him.”

“About what?”, Usopp didn't even like the sound of the word “warn”.

“When I was a bounty hunter, I've talked to the marines. One of the reasons, there are so few big bounties in the East Blue, is that no one makes it out of Logue town.”

“WHAAT?! And you're only telling us now?”

“There's a new broom sweeping in Logue Town. Captain Smoker. From what it sounds like he has a wickedly strong Devil Fruit.”

“Why didn't you tell us earlier?”, Nami complained.

“It's not like that would have stopped Luffy. I'm telling you now, so we know to meet up back at the merry, as soon as Luffy inevitably gets Smokers attention.”

And so you went with Zoro for the time being, if not to maybe upgrade your own weaponry, than to make sure Zoro's astoundingly bad sense of direction wouldn't get him. You had to help him three times already, on the Merry. Though at least he was getting familiar with the ship and the last incidents had been a few days.

Zoro had borrowed money from Nami and we had found a shop. As expected all the swords advertized were well out of his budget. You were not much of a swordswoman. Yes you could wield one, but the weight wasn't worth it to you, as long as you had a knife. That said, you didn't have a knife; yours was in the ocean somewhere the Conomi islands. The problem was that this shop specialized in swords.

There was a commotion across the street. Two large men were accosting a thin woman, around your age. Zoro wanted to help her and you went after him. Before she even drew her sword, you could tell, that the thugs had underestimated their intended victim. You were concerned for a different reason: Her technique was marine standard. Of course she was heaps better than the average soldier, but you had seen enough drills to know it when you saw it. She was almost certainly a marine and if she didn't have to abide by uniform regulations likely a lieutenant (after all she couldn't be captain, since you knew that that was smoker).

Than she tripped and dropped her glasses. Zoro went to pick them up and you basically fell on him and trying to pull him away you caused him to drop them.

“What are you doing? You could've damaged my glasses!”

“Kuina!”

“Sorry, we just confused you for someone else”

“She looks exactly like her!”

“Tell me about it!”, you said out loud “Later!”, you whispered into his ear. Zoro was a pretty famous bounty hunter. There was a chance the marine would recognize him, once she put her glasses or saw him with three swords. And by now you had to assume it was public knowledge that he had joined Luffy.

“Sorry about your glasses. That was my fault”, you turned your attention back to the marine lady, who had put them back on. One of the lenses had popped out of the frame and had now a scratch.

“Dammit, I'll have to go to the optometrist.” She had gotten up and started walking. You followed her.

“Shit. I hope that's not expensive. I don't have that much money right now. How about I give you a little lesson in combat to compensate?”

“You? No offense, but next to you, I look like Whitebeard.”

“None taken”, You said, as grabbed her sword, flipping her over it and disarming her in one move, “Lesson one: Your skill with a sword is capped by your ability to keep control of your sword and your body.”

You gave her back her sword and offered her a hand to get back up again.

“Lieutenant Tashigi.”

Tashigi: -10/100.

That's what she sounded like.

“Sorry, I was being kind of a dick. I mostly fight pirates and between Captain Smoker and Zoro those left for me are not exactly the height of martial mastery.”

“You're a bounty hunter?”

“Not by choice, but taking out pirates is all the income I've got the last year, give or take.”

“You could have joined the marines.”

“That actually was my first choice. I had a brother at the time and wanted to become an instructor, but … let's just say my application was rejected.”

Tashigi: -25/100.

Not really a surprise.

But a real shame. You would have loved to be on the good side of a woman who was not only good looking and strong, but also principled. Tashigi was a nice contrast to Nami.

“Listen: I'm sorry that I broke your glasses. I would like to do something to reimburse you and the only thing I'm good at is fighting.”

“Why do you want to fight me?”

“Don't you like a good spar? All the excitement of a fight, without the actual danger.”

“If only half my men had that kind of enthusiasm for training. Just thinking about having to deal with these sluggards...”

“If only I had had that kind of enthusiasm a few years ago... I take it, you have to oversee training soon?” You would not give up. Zoro was long forgotten. You'd have to find him again later.

Tashigi: -20/100.

“Fine, you can help me doing drills and if you do a good job, you get to fight me.”

It wasn't your words, that did that. At least not just your words.

It felt, like you were pushing goodwill into her.

Tashigi: -15/100.

Following a hunch you checked:

Sanji: 70/100.

Unless you somehow offended him in absence, you were taking his affection for you and somehow used it, to improve Tashigi's.

By the time you reached the marine base it looked like this:

Tashigi: 2/100.

Sanji: 60/100.

Luffy: 60/100.

Usopp: 68/100.

The first positive point had cost you three, the second four, so you decided to stop. You hoped, that you had not permanently damaged your relationships. Of course you had no qualms about sacrificing Sanji's lust for you, but you found, that you couldn't. You had a gut feeling, that it was not categorically impossible, but you simply couldn't do it right now.

Judging by the marine's comments, training with Tashigi usually went like this: Tashigi would tell her men, to do drills by the book, while she went around and “sparred” with two to four of them at a time. These “spars” were just her beating them up with a wooden training sword.

Naturally they liked it very much, when you took a different approach.

“One of the most important advantage you will have over most pirates, is numbers. The other is that you have reliable medical treatment available. If you survive, you will be able to go back to fight again. There are pirates, who are fine with just getting you out of their way, but most of them won't care if you life or die, and there are even some, who are outright murderers. So today I will teach you the basics of evading, countering and taking a hit.”

Lesson one was about assessing, whether an incoming attack was best blocked, dodged or countered: “Blocking is a contest of strength. The defendant is at an advantage, due to leverage, but if the likes of Arlong or Don Krieg had come here and you ended up in a duel with them, you should not attempt to block their attacks. Countering can have the best results, but requires the most skill. If your opponent is known to you to be a good martial artist, you have to assume they will see your attempts to counter their attacks coming. If your opponent is exceptionally fast, they are likely to react to your counter before it lands.

That said, let's go over, how most counters work: Step one: deflect, step two: close in. Step one is to make it, so that the enemies attack does not actually hit you.”

You picked out one of them, for a demonstration and had him attack you in slow motion.

“I see, he's coming for a downward strike, I intercept at an angle and move in at the same time. Now he can no longer hit me with this attack. Before he can try again”, you softly touched the marines nose with your knuckles, “I land my hit. If you pay attention, I am sure Tashigi will teach you a wide arsenal of counters and ripostes, but for now let's stick to the basics.

Next is blocking. By far the simplest move, but also the one where the most can go wrong. Blocking means bringing your weapon in the way of the attack, to stop it from hitting you. The reason static block”, you demonstrated holding the practice sword in front of you with both hands, “Are because of this perceived simplicity. However a lot can go wrong. Block to early, and the enemy will change the attack, to late and won't have your defense up in time. I already mentioned, that you enter into a contest of strength, so there are enemies, where blocking just won't work. So let's talk about my recommended way of not taking damage: Dodging. You move your body out of the way of the attack. This sounds exhausting, but you should be on the move during the entire fight anyway. The crux is to recognize the best direction to dodge. Generally speaking dodge vertical attacks and thrusts sideways and horizontal attacks backwards. This gets tricky, when you account for the battlefield. You won't always be able to freely pick where to dodge. If your task is to hold a line, you might not be able to dodge at all.

Let's put this to the test. Please form three groups. Two will fight, as I give the command and the third will go around and act as obstacles.”

You waited until they did and than you gave them orders, which group was allowed to attack, whether they had to stand in a formation or maybe exchange blows in a chase scenario while running laps in a courtyard.

When the exercise was done the marines were happy, that they were less bruised, than they usually were after training.

Tashigi: 22/100.

It seems you did a good job.

“Would you like to show your men, what it can look like, when pros fight?”

“So now you're done with showing manners?”

Even if she was far from liking you, it was obvious, that she enjoyed the fight. From what you understood the only person in Logue town who was of remotely similar skill to her was her captain. The problem was, that Smoker had strength easily comparable to Luffy or Zoro and absolutely no problem with using his Devil Fruit power so the spars wouldn't get to easy for her.

By your estimation, you got her easily beat on reaction time and technique. She had frequent issues with her stance, when she had bursts of clumsiness when changing from one position to another.

That said she had trained her moves to perfection and her actual speed was superior to yours, as was her strength.

For the sake of realism you had picked a short piece of wood, representing a knife, while her training sword was well over one meter long. You tried disarming her several times, but she had learned her lesson. Any attempt was met with swift and hard retribution.

You managed to get her off balance a few times, but failed to then follow through, so now you were running low on stamina.

Time to fight dirty: you kicked up sand, so she couldn't tell what you were doing. You took of a sandal and threw it with your left hand quickly following it up with your “knife” thrown with your right. You followed up with a kick and a punch and got an opening. You went for her sword to disarm her one last time and succeeded, but a hand firmly grabbed your wrist. Within seconds Tashigi and you had both gotten each other's legs in a lock, hands held in a bind and were rolling around the ground with your bodies pressed against each other.

After a while Tashigi way laying on top of you, still pressed firmly against you, your hands pinned to the ground on either side of your head. Her face was flushed with exhaustion.

Tashigi: 42/100.

Tashigi: 15/100.

Maybe not just exhaustion. Following a hunch you tried something and indeed, Sanji's lustdissapeared.

Tashigi: 42/100.

Tashigi: 30/100.

“I have to admit defeat, not that it feels bad in this position.”

It was a gamble flirting this aggressively, but it paid off. Instead of backing off Tashigi looked around to check if somebody was watching, than relaxed on top of you.

“Your knife hit my shoulder. Let's call it a draw.”

“I take what I can get... is it just me, or are you too in the mood for some contact, that does not involve fighting?”

“Or clothes. If you tell anybody, I will kill you.”

You took another gamble and leaned forward to kiss her.

“I don't plan to stay here for long or to return any time soon.”

“That's what I thought. You plan to try your luck with the monsters of the Grand Line. There's a good chance you'll die in the next few weeks. That's why I'm offering in the first place.”

“Do you want to do it right here?”

So you made your way to her room and suddenly your conscience spoke up.

“Shit!”

Tashigi was in the process of taking of her blouse.

“What?”

“I can't do it.”

“Why?”

“It'd be under false pretense. There's something I didn't tell you and I am certain if you knew, you would no longer be willing.”

“What is it?”

“I'd rather not tell. In a perfect world my friends and I will leave without issue, but I wouldn't be surprised if Smoker is trying to arrest one of them right now.”

“I hope, what you're not telling me, is not what I think you're not telling me.”

“You're smart, so there is a real chance it is. How about I leave to find my friend, so he has less off an opportunity to get into trouble, and we pretend we never met?”

She got back into her full get up.

“He was looking for a sword, wasn't he? You can join me for a while. I'm going to Ippon Matsu's anyway.”

Tashigi: 30/100.

Tashigi: 1/100.

How the hell had Sanji maintained that level of lust over such a long time?

Sanji: 60/100.

Sanji: 30/100.

How the hell was he this horny again already?!