"I don't deny the logic of your words, but if we reason that way, doesn't it mean all of us have been abnormal for a long time?"
"Relative to whom?" Luffy asked with obvious interest.
"Well... ordinary people, I suppose, since they make up the majority of the world."
"The majority defines what is normal?"
"Doesn't it?"
"What you said is correct, yet this same majority condemns a serial killer who murdered ten people and carries a War Hero who killed thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, upon its shoulders."
"You're comparing different things!" Nami objected sharply at once.
"Am I? Your enemy is exactly the same kind of person as you, only standing on the opposite side of the barricade. Are you saying it's normal to kill somebody's parents and children during war, but not in ordinary life?" Luffy's lips curved into a mocking smile. "In other words, the majority decides when murder is considered normal and when it isn't?"
"Nami is right. You really are comparing different things," Yosaku said again. "A maniac is like a rabid dog that has to be put down, whereas a War Hero is someone defending certain values, material or spiritual. The difference lies in the reasons for their actions."
"You're absolutely right!" Luffy once again made no attempt to argue, though he did not stop smiling. "But if your words are true, doesn't that mean murder is completely unacceptable—or abnormal—under one set of conditions, but entirely justified, and therefore normal, under another? Correct?"
Yosaku sensed in his bones that nothing good would come of this, but he could not disagree with those words either. After a moment's thought, he answered cautiously.
"Correct."
"Then how do we determine what is normal and what isn't?" Luffy's smile became dazzling. "When you kill people, are you behaving normally or abnormally?"
"Everything depends on the circumstances."
"Meaning whether an ordinary grocery-shop owner declares war on the World Government, or, for example, Whitebeard, the 'Strongest Man in the World'? The first is an abnormal lunatic, and the second a beacon of reason?"
"..."
"In other words, the boundaries of normality are highly conditional. The further a person stands out from the gray mass around him, the more difficult it becomes to judge his actions using the logic of the same gray mass he escaped. Agreed?"
"What about madmen?" Nami interjected again. "What do we do about madmen? They aren't like other people, but they're definitely abnormal!"
"Sick people." Luffy shrugged carelessly. "What do they have to do with this?"
"Ugh..."
The girl had clearly spoken too quickly there.
"So what does this ultimately mean?" Johnny, who had remained silent until then, asked. "If someone seems abnormal to us, then really we're simply not abnormal enough ourselves to understand how normal he is. Is that it?"
"Isn't it?" Luffy raised an eyebrow. "Only two years ago, Ryu and Yosaku would have considered attacking an entire pirate crew alone insane. Not long ago, your present selves considered it insane for four people to attack a pirate armada of one hundred ships and more than ten thousand men. Now the first is completely normal to you, while the second has already moved from the category of 'insanity' into 'difficult, but possible,' or even 'troublesome, but not fatal.' That is another reason many of my actions seem abnormal to you. Remember: unlike the rest of you, Zoro did not object in the slightest to attacking Krieg's armada, because by then he was already strong enough to consider such an attack normal."
Every one of Luffy's listeners found themselves thoroughly burdened with thought. Except Zoro. Unlike everyone else, he had heard nothing new. The swordsman had not yet reached the point where he could put his feelings into words as Luffy did, but he had understood everything just said long ago.
"And now I suggest we drink a great deal of coffee and finally set sail," the cheerful young man proposed after giving everyone time to consider his words. Why should he not be cheerful? Once again, he had logically demonstrated why black ought to be called white, and then convinced everyone else. The important thing, as always, was that he had not spoken a single lie. "Zoro, are you joining us or what?"
The swordsman did not answer. Instead of unnecessary words, he simply stepped aside from Tashigi's next attack and drove the hilt of his bokken into her solar plexus. The girl instantly collapsed onto the deck and curled into the fetal position, struggling to draw breath. And no, the blow had not been delivered from sadistic motives, however it might have appeared. The 'carrot and stick' method had arisen in ancient times and still worked flawlessly. Zoro had already shown the 'carrot'; now he used the 'stick.' Beyond that, the swordsman had no doubt that everyone would want to discuss Tashigi's abilities, so he arranged in advance for her absence during the conversation. Otherwise, she might hear too much.
"I'll start training you after breakfast," the young man said before leaving, remembering to toss the girl another 'carrot.' "You'd better skip breakfast yourself, or you'll vomit all over the deck." Zoro was neither joking nor exaggerating. Nami, Johnny, and Yosaku did not fear serious training with the swordsman for no reason. They still feared it! And Zoro intended to train Tashigi with complete seriousness. Admittedly, he did not know whether he would do so in Kuina's memory or because of the girl herself. Despite failing to land a single successful attack — no one expected otherwise — Tashigi had demonstrated enough to interest Zoro not only through her physical resemblance to his long-dead childhood friend, but through her talent as well. The girl possessed every prerequisite for becoming a future master swordswoman. Why not train such a person? Moreover, although Zoro was no Luffy, he could not avoid considering the time when Tashigi, as his student, would rise high within the Marine hierarchy. She certainly did not lack talent.
"What do you think?" Yosaku asked Zoro first once the whole family sat around the kitchen table. "She seemed pretty good to me. Of every swordsman we've seen, she'd easily make the top ten."
Despite their conversation with Luffy, every one of them had managed to assess Tashigi's current skill.
"Tenth place at best." The swordsman shook his head. "But if we're talking about potential, she'll definitely become first."
"Her fundamentals are good," Johnny nodded.
"Fundamentals are all she has at the moment," Zoro said, shaking his head again. "Apparently, she's been training for a long time under the same system used by every Marine taught at headquarters. In the end, she built herself a solid foundation, but everything above it barely qualifies as a child's shack."
"All the better for you," Luffy said as he accepted a mug of coffee from Sanji. "You won't have to break anything down and retrain her. Considering her talent and your supervision, even I'm curious how quickly she'll progress."
"Are we truly going to train our future enemy?" Usopp asked.
"I agree!" Nami pointed at the long-nosed young man and nodded. "You said yourselves that she has talent. That means even without Zoro's training, she might someday become a threat to us. Why make the situation even worse?"
Nami had always worried about the safety of family members more than anyone else. Luffification or not, seeing her mother murdered before her eyes had forever left a deep mark upon the girl's soul. She did not approve at all of training someone who might eventually join the ranks of their genuine opponents. The mere fact that Tashigi was aboard their ship already gave her an excellent opportunity to learn their strengths and weaknesses. Such information in her own hands would not threaten the family for a long time, but she could—and unquestionably would—pass it to someone who already posed such a threat.
"Relax, Nami." Luffy took a sip of coffee and spoke carelessly. "She'll never become a real threat to us. Her personality isn't suited to it."
"Personalities can change!" the girl objected.
"They can, but probably won't," the young man replied, as much contradicting as agreeing. "Besides, you're worrying about the wrong thing."
"The wrong thing?" Nami raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Then what should I worry about?"
"Her future children."
In the silence that followed, the splash of water against the hull could easily be heard.
"What damned children?!" Johnny asked in utter astonishment the moment his voice returned.
"Study history," Luffy answered in a patronizing tone. "The Pirate King once frightened the World Government so badly that as soon as rumors appeared about the possible birth of his son, they immediately raided every likely place where the child might appear. Many innocent people died that year, and they still never found the son."
"...I still have no idea what you're talking about," Johnny said again after a brief pause.
"Neither do I," Nami said in a voice cold enough to make the coffee in their mugs begin freezing. "Could you explain in more detail?" Usopp and Yosaku, seated beside her, involuntarily moved farther away.
Given enough time to think, everyone would easily have reached the correct conclusion. Yet it was Luffy who sought to become Pirate King, and the children of the Pirate King whom he had used as an example. On the one hand, it was understandable why every family member mentally paired Luffy with Tashigi. On the other, they really should have thought longer. Though once again Luffy was partly at fault. He could certainly have chosen a much more appropriate example—or simply answered the question normally.
"I thought it was obvious." The young man made a face appropriate to his words. "After we declare war on the World Government and it begins taking us seriously, those bastards may take Tashigi and Zoro's children hostage. Understand, Nami? That's the real threat to us! And here you are worrying about murderers and enemies... As far as I'm concerned, the stronger she becomes under Zoro's instruction, the better for us. Then the chance that she'll escape from government agents with their children will be higher, and the threat to us lower."
After those words, the silence ruling the kitchen was broken only by the wheezing and coughing of Zoro, who had choked violently on his coffee. Most importantly, if everyone spent the first few seconds in shock, then the next thirty mentally slapped themselves on the back of the head—they had relaxed and forgotten that Luffy was simply incapable of remaining serious for long. Then they began thinking despite themselves. Meaning, had it truly been a joke? The longer they considered Luffy's words, the less they resembled humor and the more they sounded like truth. Zoro's attitude toward Tashigi was unusual, a fact acknowledged by everyone. Yet if one thought about it, Tashigi's attitude toward Zoro was also... somehow different. No one could say with certainty how the girl's feelings revealed themselves, but they were definitely there. Naturally, she felt rage and hatred toward her captain's murderer, but there was something else as well—something deeply personal. Most importantly, everyone in the family knew that Zoro had not killed Smoker at all. Once that fact came to light... there seemed to be less and less humor in Luffy's joke about children, and more and more truth.
"You understand now? Exactly my point!"
At that moment, for the first time in a very long while, Zoro tried to kill Luffy.
"Truth hurts, doesn't it?!" Luffy asked ecstatically, catching the swordsman's katana blade between his palms.
The young man's delight had the most trivial cause imaginable: he had finally managed to provoke his first mate again. That was the entire reason. As already stated, Luffy was the only family member not particularly pleased by Zoro's newly acquired ability to ignore all his teasing. And now he had received such a gift! Unfortunately for Luffy, the swordsman also calmed much more quickly than he once had. Within a couple of minutes, every one of Zoro's swords had returned to its sheath, and the gloomy young man departed without finishing his coffee to train Tashigi. But his appearance and expression...
"He isn't going to kill her out there, is he?" Yosaku voiced the shared thought.
"Let him try!" Sanji immediately interjected. He was already thoroughly unhappy with the situation.
The blond man knew firsthand how difficult and painful training with Zoro could be, and he had no desire to watch the swordsman beat a girl unconscious every day. Naturally, such an approach made a person progress at a mind-bending speed—Zoro himself, Sanji, Yosaku, and Johnny were excellent proof—but there was little pleasant about the method. Rapid progress was effectively its only bright point. Everything else could pass for a waking nightmare. Sanji did not want such a fate for Tashigi.
"You'd better finish your coffee. Afterward, we're finally raising anchor and setting sail," Nami said, rolling her eyes.
Unlike Sanji, the girl could say with certainty that Tashigi was in no danger. Without joking. If a sleeping Zoro acting solely on instinct had managed not to kill the Marine, then an awake one was certainly incapable of doing so. It was more reasonable to worry that he might pity the Marine too much and therefore be unable to train her with full commitment. There was, for example, no one aboard capable of training Nami herself with complete seriousness. Luffy could probably force himself to put her through the same 'waking nightmare' every other man had endured, but the chance was almost nonexistent. Luffy hated 'forcing himself' perhaps more than anything in the world—or at least as much as he hated moments when someone decided to threaten his family seriously.