Chapter Text
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The mystery man in yellow
And
Sanji's fate in battle!
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"What a bunch of bullshit."
Sanji scrunches his face at mossy head's voice, the thin, glossy material of playing cards crumpling in his clenched hands.
"Hey...." He grits his teeth and slaps down the cards on the table, both men swaying slightly in their seats with the movement of the ocean waves. "You agreed to play, it's not my fault you suck."
The swordman's cards hit the table with a slap and he stands up, his hands pressing on the tabletop. "I don't suck, you just cheated!" He yells.
"Those are fighting words, asshole." Sanji stands to match the man's height, maybe an inch or two shorter. "If you wanted me to kick your ass you should have just asked, don't insult my honor by accusing me of cheating."
"Why don't you lay off being a prick for awhile and fess up?" The green haired man moves his hand to hilt of one of his swords (Sanji doesn't care enough about their names to know which one), his fingers twitch around it, not taking his eyes off the cook.
"Nothing to fess up to." A sharp grin spreads across Sanji's lips and he feels the muscles in his legs twitch, itching for a fight. "I already told you, I didn't cheat."
"Guess there's only one way to solve this..." Zoro's hand tightens on the handle and a steel blade glistens as it's being pulling from it's sheath.
"Looks that way..." Sanji slams his foot on the tabletop, sending some of the cards sliding off. If it's a fight moss head wants, he'd gladly give him one.
"Could you two give it a rest!?" Before either man can react, a suntanned hand smacks them both in the face and pushes them back, both stumbling to catch their balance.
"Nami-swan~" Sanji swoons, gushing at the woman standing between him and his sworn rival. The damn swordsman gives him a disgusted look which the cook decides to ignore, he's happy as long as his beautiful nami is there!
"For Pete's sake." The red-head sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "There's no way you can cheat in Go-fish, Zoro... It's just not possible."
"That damn cook found a way!" Zoro raises his voice, jabbing a finger in love-struck cook's direction.
"Just cut the fighting back to a minimum, alright?" Nami huffed out a annoyed breath. "And just so you know, there's an island up ahead." She tells them before leaving the common room.
"Got lucky, Mosshead...." Sanji growls, pulling a cigarette pack from his pocket and removing one.
"Whatever you have to tell yourself, Curly brows." Zoro moves towards the door, shoving it open, a wave of sunlight shining in.
"damn Marimo..." Sanji lights the cigarette, resting it between his lips and follows the swordsman out. They two head down the stairs to the main deck, their shoes thumping against the creaky wood.
"Land ahead!" Luffy shouts from the sheep's head, pointing his finger in the direction of a merky speck in the distance.
"Hey, chopper, let me see those binoculars." Swordsman says walking over the small reindeer and reaching his hand out. Chopper glady hands them over and Zoro lifts them to his eyes, looking through lens at the land.
"What's it look like?" Sanji steps off the last step and walks over to Zoro.
He huffs lowering the binoculars and tilting his head to look at Sanji with narrowed eyes. "Looks like an island, what else, cook?"
Sanji's eyebrows furrow and he makes a groaning sound in his throat. "You know what I meant, jerkface, Some islands on the grandline look like something, like a mushroom or something..."
Zoro grunts holding the binoculars out to Sanji. "Doesn't look like a mushroom." He mumbles.
Sanji takes the binoculars and looks through, focusing on the island that grows in the distance. He can make out tall mountains and beaches surrounding the shoreline and tall trees. "You're right, it looks like a normal island..."
"Told you...."
Sanji handed the binoculars back to the chopper and watched the island in the distance, a funny feeling settling into his stomach. his gut tried to tell him something bad was coming his way but like usual Sanji pushed it down, The strawhats had already proved multiple times they could handle just about anything that was thrown at them. Besides, mentioning it to the captain wouldn't change his mind, his heart was already set on exploring the new island and they needed the log-post to reset before heading out.
"Let's not rush in there blindly. " Nami's sweet voice draws Sanji out of his thoughts and he turns to see her coming down the stairs, looking as stunning as ever in her short blue jeans and orange and white Bikini top. She continued. "There should be town here so Me, chopper and Robin will head to the hotel and try and get us a room, Usopp will stay on the going merry, Sanji can go shopping for groceries and Zoro is on Luffy watch, everyone got that?"
"Anything for Nami-swan, any in particular you want me to pick up?" Sanji swoons over the red haired navigator, waiting for her response.
Nami doesn't give him a satisfaction of a long answer, shrugging her shrugs with a blank expression. "I don't know, Sanji, you're the cook, figure it."
Upon making a comment about Nami's beauty Sanji had already started making a shopping list in his head of things he'd used to make Nami and Robin's favorite snakes, along with the basic needs of cooking. While traveling Sanji quickly learned that milk from cows that grazed on wooded lands tasted different then ones that grazed on the more topical islands. Some towns did not even offer eggs and Sanji had to substitute often, but more recently He discovered an array of foreign flours he loved. The grandline was something amazing.
This island would be no different from the others, always offering new foods for Sanji to try and spices from all across the grandline. His favorite was going to sea food market and finding out what he could catch himself locally.
The going merry rocks and Sanji hears the signature splash of Zoro dropping the anchor. Sanji raises his head gazing at the island they ported at. The beach was long, stretching a few hundred meters before the sand started to mix with thin grass and met with the forest edge. Between the trees laid a wide path, noticeably used at least daily with deep wagon treads and foot prints pressed in the mud patches.
Nami had been right, there was a village near by, Sanji couldn't help the excitement bubbling inside him to try new things (though he'd never admit openly, he wasn't a child getting candy for the first time), Sanji grabbed a empty duffle from the kitchen before following the rest of strawhats down the ramp Zoro set up.
"Are you sure you're okay going alone, Sanji?" Chopper trotted beside the cook, wrenching his head back to look the man in the face.
Sanji gave half a shrug, reaching into the inter pocket of his blazer and pulling out the pack of his favorite smokes. "I don't mind, I'm used to being alone." Sanji answers before resting the cigarette between his lips and lighting it with a black zippo.
Chopper looks confused, scratching his hoof under the back brim of his top hat. Sanji's couldn't blame the little guy, saying he was always alone didn't make much sense when he was literally always with the strawhats or at least close enough. But sometimes Sanji needed space, he needed to cook alone in the kitchen, he needed to get up early to have his coffee or tea alone, and sometimes when he had a genius idea, he couldn't always get it into words to explain it to his crew, these times Sanji needed to work alone.
"I don't understand." Chopper spoke after a minute of silence. He smiled wide, his pearly whites showing, his chubby cheeks stretching to his ears. "But if you like to have time alone, I won't bother you."
Sanji grinned, the cigarette rolling in his lips. "Thanks, Doc, I appreciate it." Was all Sanji needed to say to make the little guy squirm and blush, doing the little dance he did when he was happy.
"Stupid, that's not going to make me happy or anything!" Chopper's soft tone of voice and pink tint to his cheeks said otherwise.
Sanji inhaled, the wave nicotine relaxing his shoulders, the small smile still present on his face. Making chopper happy; even just a little, it made Sanji's own heart pump a little faster. It wouldn't be the first time Sanji couldn't stop smiling because of a crewmate, he was truly blessed to be a strawhat pirate.
30 minutes passed slow and gracefully, giving the crew time to chat between themselves. Sanji couldn't keep up with everything said in those long thirty minutes but it didn't really matter, just hearing their voices lifted his spirits higher. Sanji must've been wrong about this island, even though it was still early he could tell everyone was in a good mood and happy to be together, even the Mosshead.
The wooded path ends and past his friends standing in front of him, Sanji can see the village, both small and large buildings crafted out for the wood from the island forests, a sweet aroma coming from the more freshly cut trees, Something similar to pine trees, Sanji thought.
Sanji can hear the villager's voices, little kid's laughs and a dog barking in the distance. Sanji's nose twitches, a sweet and savory smell comes past the cut pine and the cook falls in love with food all over again.
"Let's split up here, everyone remember their jobs?" Nami turns to the crew, her hands resting on her slim hips.
"Yes, ma'am..." Zoro and luffy groan in sync, splitting from the group to explore the new island.
Sanji sees the ladies and chopper off before heading into the depths of town, He discovered quickly that 80% of town always had the markets centered in the middle and always on a main Street. Sanji followed his instincts and headed down the main Street, the one that looked used the most, mud collecting everywhere with foot prints imprinted in the wet roads and dips where wagons had gotten stuck during the rain.
The cook lit a new cigarette, his third one now and placed it between his lips, inhaling the bitter nicotine. He blows out the clouds of grayish smoke, carefully watching his surroundings and town's people as he passed by them, his own freshly polished shoes getting coated with mud and the hem of his slacks soaking up the dirty water in the streets.
The market isn't far ahead of him, people seemed to gather around the stalls and Sanji could smell the fresh fruits and the abundance of herbs and spices for awhile now.
He took his time at each stall, asking the sellers everything to Know about their goods and the best recipes attaining to them. of course the strawhat's cook also looked for common ingredients he was already familiar with too.
Sanji was nearly done with first half of the market, the duffle he brought already filling up and extra bags hung over his arms. Sanji was in one of his elements, happier then Luffy on a sunny day and enjoying every minute of shopping for his crewmates.
But Sanji's enjoyment is cut short. A ear piercing scream tears through the air and for a moment time stands still and Sanji can hear his own heart beating against his chest. He drops his bags and without even telling his legs to move, he's running down the streets towards the scream. A lady screamed and Sanji couldn't just ignore it!
He can see her, a woman dressed in a green dress muddied in the back and torn at the sleeve. There's a child standing beside here utterly frozen in place, Stunned by someone he saw.
"Madame!" Sanji called out to her, making his way up the short hill to her side, he inspected the small scratch in her arm, thankful it was nothing serious. "Are you and your son alright?"
"You don't understand!" She grabbed his arms, and if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation Sanji would have swooned at her touch. She Continued, her forgien accent is thick. "He's not my son!"
Sanji wasn't going to get into the situation of her family tree, his senses alerted him to another presence, a dark, menacing one.
Sanji spun around, pushing his feet into a stance, his arms blocking the woman and kid behind him. A monster of man stood a few meters away, a bright yellow trenchcoat thrown over his shoulders and a white mask hid his face from Sanji reading any emotions.
Sanji huffed, pulling his cigarette pack from inside his Blazer and knocking a single smoke out of it. He wasn't sure when he lost his last one, possibly running up the hill. He props the cigarette between his lips keeping his eyes trained on the man standing as still as a wall.
"You like bullying women?" He growled, lighting his cigarette and blowing the smoke through his nose. "That's pretty shitty of you, don't you think?"
The man shifted on his feet, a grunt coming from under the mask. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about... You should be more concerned about her husband."
Sanji blinked, his eyes scanning over the hilltop, He didn't see any Husbands, just a Beautiful lady and her child.
"Doesn't matter." Sanji shook it off, inhaling another breath of nicotine. "I'm not letting you get away with shoving Madame in the mud like that."
"You won't win." The man says confidently and Sanji feels his blood rise slightly, He didn't satisfy him with a reply, launching himself across the space between them, He pushed from the ground, raising his leg and swinging it towards the man in yellow's stupid mask.
A hand grabs the Cook's ankle, his foot inches from crushing in the mask. Sanji grits his teeth, the hold tightening and squeezing his leg until he feels it compress against his bones. Sanji kicks off and the man let's go letting him land back on his feet.
"This fight was over before it ever started." Sanji's opponent grunts, lowering his hand.
"That's bold of you." Sanji chuckles, steadying himself on his feet. He kept a straight face but something was wrong, he felt weak and his knees wobbled ,refusing to keep him on his feet.
In a split of a second, Sanji hit the ground, the numbness creeping into his arms and legs, a tightening in his chest started and his skin tingled.
Sanji opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. slowly his vision blurred and turned dark, his hearing faded and Sanji felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness. He could only keep asking himself the same question, were his crewmates Safe?