Chapter Text
What sat in front of Sanji could be described as the most important choice of his life.
Should he add the garlic before or after the chives?
Sanji raked his hands through his hair, letting out a tired sigh. The Sunny was currently sailing between islands, so everything was becoming increasingly boring. This left Sanji in the Galley for nearly ten hours of the day, so to say he was going through an artist’s block of sorts would be an understatement.
It was dark outside, the sun having set hours ago. He was currently prepping breakfast for tomorrow, just wrapping up. Deciding to leave the garlic-chive problem for Later Sanji, he put everything away after spending countless hours in the Galley.
Fortunately, the most lovely Nami-swan had confirmed they would be arriving at a small island early in the morning, giving something for Sanji to look forward to when that time came. It was always fun finding a new batch of fruit! And protecting his dearest Nami-swan and Robin-chwan from buuuuhh… g- no.
Not those.
New islands always had those, which Sanji could not deal with. Of course, the entire crew already knew about Sanji’s… ahm, problem with those devil-spawns. He had tried to hide his fear at first, but of course had failed immediately. Having such a big reaction to a bug in his hair led to a check-up with Chopper who hesitantly- yet kindly- told him he had a panic attack and was diagnosed with Entomophobia. Sanji decided that was an ugly word.
In any case it wasn’t a big deal! It's not like they ran into bugs that often- and if they did run into any he wouldn’t… even… know…
Immediately Sanji started brushing his arms off forcefully, even the hair on his neck making his skin itch.
Oh, tomorrow was going to be fun.
***
Seventeen years earlier
Sanji watched as the grains of sand slipped through his fingers until they were all gone. Giggling, he grabbed another fistful from behind him, brought it in front of him, and slowly built up the growing pile of sand in front of him.
He knew the sand wasn’t real- Germa didn’t have beaches. However, having something artificial was better than nothing at all, he supposed. Somewhere in the distance, his brothers were lobbing fistfuls of sand at each other. Like every other waking moment of him and his brothers’ lives, scientists stood a little ways away, scribbling on their clipboards.
It was all lost to Sanji, however, who kept building onto the pile of sand in front of him.
He was about to sprinkle more sand onto the pile, when some of the sand shifted. Sanji let out a tiny gasp before bringing his head closer to the sand to get a better look. A tiny bug lifted its head out of the sand, a few grains falling off its head.
[The art's mine]
Sanji smiled. Did the bug need a home? Could he make a little house out of the sand for it? He began planning how he would start the bug-house as the tiny thing climbed up the sand. It slipped, and Sanji pushed it up, helping it reach the top.
Judge had sent the four children to the beach and left the supervision solely to the scientists per usual. However, the supervision really only amounted to scribbles on paper. Sanji’s brothers knew this, so it wasn’t long until their fistfuls of sand was directed towards Sanji.
A clump of wet sand hit Sanji on the side of the head, very nearly knocking him completely over. He caught himself, however, before he crashed to the ground. Sanji scrambled to his feet right as his brothers reached him. Yonji was the first to lay eyes on his sand creation, wrinkling his nose in distaste.
“What is that?!” Yonji very nearly screeched.
“I think it’s supposed to be a sand castle,” Niji smirked, now looking down at the pitiful pile. Sanji only took small hesitant steps back, already preparing for the worst. In truth, the pile was a combination of seasonings to Sanji. What was so wrong for making a house for a bug made out of pretend seasonings? Different colors of the tiny grains of sand correlated to different seasonings, and-
“It’s so ugly. You’d think he’d never even looked at a real castle ‘fore,” Yonji sniffed. Both siblings crouched next to the pile simultaneously, finally noticing the bug perched on top. Ichiji stood behind them, glancing down at the pile with his arms crossed.
“Eww that’s so gross!” Niji gagged, poking the creature, who flopped over on its back and slid down the pile, legs writhing.
“H-hey!” Sanji choked out. “Don’t-” his determination wilted as all three brothers looked at him “-do… that…” he finished.
They were all vaguely aware of the scientists in the background watching the interaction, doing nothing to stop it. Apparently his brothers were feeling generous, however, because Niji and Yonji both stood up, throwing smirks at Sanji before stepping back. Sanji let out a sigh of relief as he looked down to the tiny insect that had now flipped back over onto its feet, surprised his brothers listened to him. But he should have known better.
Ichiji stepped forward bringing his foot over the pile-
“No! Stop!”
-And brought his bare foot down. Sand sprayed everywhere, some of it getting Sanji’s eyes. At least the tears helped get the sand out.
“Ugh, so gross.” Ichiji kicked around the pile of sand in an attempt to get the bug guts off his foot, burying the twitching bug corpse in the process. Once satisfied, Ichiji turned to Sanji. “Germa is a kingdom of destruction. Not creation. Why can't you get it right?”
With that, his brothers turned away and started throwing sand at each other again, interaction with Sanji already forgotten.
If some of that sand hit Sanji, who's to say it wasn’t an accident?
***
Present
“LAND! I see land!”
Chopper’s high-pitched call was heard throughout the entire Sunny, amplified by speakers Franky had recently installed.
Sanji had finally gone to sleep once the moon reached the middle of the sky, and was currently in the boys’ room with everyone else. Some crew members groggily rose (Sanji included) while others (Luffy) jumped up and were out of the room in two seconds. Sanji finished getting ready before stumbling out, trailed by Franky and Usopp.
When they got out to deck, everyone but Chopper and the mosshead were gathered. It was somewhat bright out, the telltale sign of the day beginning. The moon was just barely visible, peeking behind the distant island.
Luffy bounded over, slinging his arms around Usopp and Sanji, making both of them stumble.
“Oi…” Usopp grumbled at the same time Sanji yelled “Watch it!” All they got was a shishishi in response. Noticing the new island, Luffy released the two crewmates in favor of skipping to the railing and leaning over. He was quickly accompanied by Jinbe, ready to catch the careless captain if he fell overboard.
“Meat island?!” Luffy called out, met by a chorus of sighs.
“It’s still so early,” Nami grumbled. She was supported by Robin, who had a calm smile on her face.
“I did warn you last night that staying up wasn’t the best idea,” Robin reminded kindly.
“Yeah,” Nami sighed dramatically. “I probably should have listened.”
“The lovely Nami-swan is so cute when she’s tired!” Sanji crooned, mostly to himself. Nami ignored him, looking up to the crow's nest.
“Where’s Chopper and Zoro?”
Everyone looked up, sans Luffy, at the crows nest. Sanji sighed, about to offer to retrieve the doctor and swordsman (and make a comment about how the marimo must have gotten lost) when two figures slid down the rope. A pair of boots landed with a thud, followed by Chopper’s heavy-point form.
“Hey guys!” Chopper called, already switching to his smaller, more comfortable form. Him and the swordsman walked over to the group, the former looking well rested despite having been on watch with the marimo.
“Took you guys long enough to get down here,” Usopp huffed.
“I swear, marimo,” Sanji grumbled under his breath. “If you spread your direction-less disease to Chopper there'll be no one to heal him.”
Breaking his otherwise silent arrival, the mosshead turned to Sanji and glared at him. “Eh? What was that? You got somethin’ to say to me?” Gladly using the bickering to wake up, Sanji met the marimo halfway as they pressed their foreheads together.
“Did the moss on your head finally reach your ears? I said-”
“Enough!” Nami called. Sanji immediately folded, retracting from the mosshead quickly enough to make green-haired man stumble forward.
“Of course Nami-swan!” Sanji swooned, raising his leg as a pissed marimo struck at his chest.
“Damn cook,” was all Sanji heard as his eyebrow twitched. Choosing to ignore him, Sanji came to stand by Nami to get away from the moss infestation currently residing on their ship.
“Okay!” Nami clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention. Brooke and Franky broke off their conversation, and even a struggling Luffy in Jinbe’s grasp looked over. “We don’t know for certain if the island is inhabited yet, but I can’t see any boats so we can assume that if it is, all of the people there are native to the island. We’re going to stay together in pairs! I don’t want anyone wandering off.” She gave a pointed look to Luffy and the marimo, for good reason.
“I will stay with our captain,” Jinbe offered solemnly. Nami nodded her approval, trusting Jinbe with the rambunctious boy still in his grasp.
“Nami-swaaaan~!” Sanji called. “I would be honored to accompany both of my mademoiselles and protect-”
“No,” Nami said simply, resulting in a Sanji-shaped heap sulking on the ground. “Franky? Help Jinbe out, will you? The island is small, but I still want to chart it out. Your help would be appreciated, Robin.”
“Of course,” Ronin responded. “Although, dear navigator, Chopper was mentioning earlier that he was running low on some healing herbs. Perhaps he could come with us while we measure the island?”
“Yes yes, that’s fine.” She turned to look at the remaining four crew members. “Brooke’s turn to watch the ship.” (Yohohoho!) “Usopp, you have a very important task.”
Fearing the next words he knew were going to come out of her mouth, he asked, “Watching the ship with Brooke? Yes, I can do that! No problem! Haha! So happy you understand my life-threatening disease that prevents me from stepping foot-”
“No, Usopp. Make sure Sanji and Zoro don’t kill each other.” The two crew members in question immediately stiffened. “I want Sanji to direct you two in what rations we need.”
“Nami! You can’t be serious! There’s no way I’ll live! I truly am going to die…and at the tender age of nineteen…”
“Shishishi!” Luffy laughed. He was now out of Jinbe’s grasp, sitting cross legged on the deck, looking at Usopp with his signature smile. “You won’t die! You still have to become a brave warrior of the sea!”
“But we’re going to be on an island…” Usopp grumbled, glancing at the island that was nearly close enough to dock at.
Nami smiled cheerfully. “Okay! With that settled-” a groan from Usopp as he saw Zoro and Sanji exchange death glares “-we’re going to set out! Remember, what do we do if there’s any treasure?”
“It all goes to Nami…” everyone chorused, well practiced in the answer.
“That’s right! Okay-” A telltale laugh sounded from the trees of the close island. Nami stopped abruptly and looked around.
“Where’s Luffy?”
***
Seventeen years earlier
“My king, we are ready to discuss the results of this week's observations.”
Even though the king of Germa was sitting, it didn’t make him any less imposing. He was seated at an office chair of sorts, writing down the war strategies that kept coming to him. Every time he finished writing one in his note, a new one would come to mind.
Perfect strategies that his children would be able to use in no time. His four year old children.
“Go on,” the king glowered. The head scientist cleared his throat.
“The children are improving rapidly, sir. They already have the strength of a dozen soldiers despite their age and minimal training up to this point.” Judge nodded, expecting nothing less. “Well…” the scientist started, looking uncomfortable.
“What is it? Spit it out,” Judge growled.
“All of the children are exceptional… besides one.” Judge frowned. He hadn’t interacted with his experiments much, leaving that to the scientists. It was only recently the modifications were beginning to take place, a few months now.
“Which one?”
“Sanji, sir.” Ah. Yes, his third son. Through his few interactions with him, the child always seemed a little soft. Judge hadn’t thought much of it. The boy was quiet, which was fine because assassins had to be. Would this be a problem, unlike what Judge had first thought?
“Explain,” Judge simply said.
“We’ve noticed differences between him and the others, sir. Isolation, for one. The other children have seemed to take a liking to excluding him by picking on him, and on occasion hurting the child.”
“Hurting him?”
“Yes. As instructed, we haven’t interacted with the children beyond what is necessary.”
“Good,” Judge said, leaning back farther into his chair. With luck, the other children would push his third son to be more like them. “Keep an eye on him. We will begin training the day after next.”
“Understood.”
“You are excused.” Without another word, the head scientist bowed and left the room, closing the door quietly. Judge lost himself in his thoughts once more. The best he could hope for was that the child was going through a temporary setback, nothing more.
He didn’t want a failure.
He would do everything in his power to make sure that didn’t happen.
***
Present
Nami sighed. “Of course. When would it ever be that easy? Luffy can’t stay put, even though he was here two seconds ago. Okay, okay.” Nami rubbed her hands over her face. “Jinbe, Franky. Just find him; it’s a small island, he can’t have gotten far. Everyone else, you know what to do. Log pose resets in three days; we have plenty of time. What are you waiting for? Go!”
And just like that, the nine Strawhats dispersed, Jinbe and Franky jumping off the ship onto land immediately. Nami, Robin and Chopper ran off to grab their supplies, and Sanji, Usopp and Zoro grabbed the baskets under Sunny's stairs. With that, the six Strawhats climbed down the ship.
(Brooke called out, “No need to worry, dear crewmates! I will protect our ship with my whole heart! …If I had a heart, which I don’t because I’m a skeleton! Yohohohoho!”)
The two groups went separate directions, determined to complete their tasks. Sanji’s group, however, didn’t even make it past the trees into the foliage before the fighting started.
“Look, even Usopp is ahead of you!” (“Hey!”)
“Shut up Marimo, not my fault I can handle your stink; back here is stench-free.”
“Yeah right, you scared curlybrow?”
“Shut up you direction-less bastard! Why are you even leading us?! We’re going to get lost!”
“Guys, it hasn’t even been five minutes, stop fighting.” This comment received a glare from both Sanji and Zoro. “You know what?” Usopp squeaked. “Keep going, I don’t mind.”
A moment of silence passed as they walked through the thickening forest, daylight slipping through the canopy of trees. An occasional bush rustled from the wildlife, met with their footsteps and Zoro’s sword slashing through low-hanging vines.
“Keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks edible.” Sanji glanced at Zoro. “Or eye.” Zoro glared at him but said nothing, continuing to slash through plants.
They wandered for a long time, and eventually Sanji started to get confused. Hadn’t they been walking straight? They should have reached the end of the island by now, the island was tiny compared to others. Nonetheless, they kept walking, only interrupted by an ecstatic Usopp as he caught sight of what appeared to be fruit growing from the top of the trees.
“Nice,” Sanji said, clapping Usopp on the back.
“Heh heh, not a difficult task for captain Usopp, leader of this expedition!” Usopp said, rubbing under his nose. Sanji rolled his eyes fondly, preparing to skywalk to the fruit, when he was knocked off balance by a gust of… wind? No, it was the mosshead.
Sanji growled as he regained his balance, accepting the challenge. He leaped into the air, close behind Zoro. Once they were in the trees, it was easy to see the plethora of fruit. Deciding to grab as much as he could and let Chopper decide if these foreign fruits were poisonous or not later, Sanji filled the basket in a matter of minutes.
He dropped to the floor, confident he had beaten the stupid-
“Loser-brows.”
Sanji’s head snapped to Zoro, who had two baskets at his feet.
“Those baskets aren’t even all the way full!” Sanji complained.
“Why do you keep making excuses? It’s all right to admit you’re not as good as me, Curly.”
“As if a stupid, idiotic, sword-obsessed pile of moss could beat me fairly!”
At this point Usopp only stared at them, exasperatedly, moving to pick up a basket. Luckily, both Zoro and Sanji did as well, and they started going back from where they came.
Where… they came? Where had they come from? Usopp said as much.
“Uh… which direction is the Sunny?”
“Oh God it’s spreading,” Sanji groaned.
“Hey!” Usopp called. “I’m not as bad as Zoro! It’s not like you know.”
“Sure I do. Just gotta follow where the shit-swordsman cut the… huh.” Sanji looked around, but the vines that had been cut were nowhere to be seen.
“Told you stuff moves,” Zoro grumbled.
“Heh… um. You guys don’t think this is a weird island thing, do you?” Usopp asked nervously. Sanji shrugged.
“We’ve seen weirder.” Usopp gulped at Sanji’s reply. “Let’s just keep going ‘til we find something.”
They hadn’t even been wandering for ten more minutes before they came to a clearing.
In the center of the clearing, a humble structure took most of the space. It was made of stone, reaching the tops of the trees. It was clearly very old, with large chunks broken off as if it had survived multiple bombs. Zoro whistled.
“Creepy,” Usopp shuddered.
“Only you could get us somewhere like this,” Sanji muttered, statement directed to Zoro. He wasn’t graced with a response as Zoro continued to stare at the temple-like building.
Zoro narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like it.”
“Right, because the list of things you don’t like is so small,” Sanji snapped, however, he couldn’t help but agree. He couldn’t let the marimo know that, though. “Bet you’re scared,” Sanji smirked, tearing his eyes from the structure and to the mosshead. Zoro met him with the same look.
“Like hell I am. I could last longer in there than you,” Zoro announced. Sanji let out a humorless laugh, ready for some semblance of action.
“Oh, you’re on.”
They both dropped their baskets of fruit, and Sanji tucked one of the fruits in his suit jacket for good measure, glad it was small enough. They both raced to the entrance, Usopp groaning.
“No wait! I don’t want to go in there!” Clearly torn between going into the possibly-haunted temple and staying outside alone, Usopp made up his mind and followed after them, grumbling under his breath.
They entered the building, the light from the entrance slowly disappearing. Soon enough, they were all using observation haki to find their way around.
It’s weird, Sanji thought, that the walls seemed to close in even though he couldn't see them.
He wasn’t scared though, no way. He made that fact known.
“See? Not so ba-” a loud creak interrupted Sanji. Everyone froze in place as the walls settled. No one let out a single breath, still waiting for the inevitable. Finally, when everything seemed fine, Usopp spoke up.
“Whew, for a second I thought-”
CRASH!
Sanji hit the wall, thrown off-balance. His cigarette flew from his mouth, and ironically he was unable to breath. His two crewmates seemed to be going through the same thing if the shouts were anything to go by. More crashes sounded as the floor broke away, crumbling worse than a dry log cake.
And he fell down, down, down into the dark shaft, a growing sense of dread enveloping him.