I honestly just felt like writing it, so I started and... kept going? So here we are! Thanks for reading!

She opens her eyes, blinks, and finds herself small.

Too small.

She sighs. She knew all those fanfictions would catch up to her someday.

And wait, she's not… a she anymore. There's something, well, extra added on.

Oh well. She had always wondered what living like a boy was like anyways. Surprisingly, she didn't feel any sort of dysphoria or unnaturality from what little she could tell from her infant body. Maybe rebirth had hardwired it to ground zero. That was a plus, definitely. She could grow her hair out or something. Looking cute was always great, no matter the gender.

Taking another deep breath, he turned around and went back to sleep.

That was his first encounter with the outside world. He'd figure it out later, no use worrying over it now.

It takes him embarrassingly long to learn his own name. But still, thank god for english dub, he'd never make fun of 4Kids again (that was a lie). He'd never be able to handle having to learn a new language, could as well just throw himself into the sea early. Might land somewhere marginally better.

But anyways, his name was Goji Vinsmoke, and he was pretty sure that last name was familiar. Then again, after hearing his other siblings' names (zero through four, no wonder the mother had died), it was kind of obvious where he had landed. Smack dab in the hideous mess Sanji's childhood.

Great.

Thank the gods (or Oda, he supposed) that the whole Germa 66 thing came out before he died. Also thank himself for reading most of it, since he hadn't been that much of a One Piece guy. Or girl, whatever. He knew most of the manga stuff, kind of, but only secondary information. Everything up until the Alabasta arc was clear, but then his knowledge more or less jumped forward to Ace's death, and apparently there was a two year time skip? It was fairly confusing. And way too long. He'd gotten bored pretty quick.

But he digressed, he was super lucky he had eventually developed a fondness (Read; intense fictional crush) for the flirtatious cook back in the day, or else he'd be here completely blind. That would be immensely not fun. So, so much not fun.

On the note of fondness...Would he even be straight? He was a girl turned physically-and-mostly-mentally guy. Or at least, molded into one. Or something. Who knew?

(On another more disturbing note, wasn't that basically like… having a crush on his sibling now? Creepy, no thanks. Best not to think about it.)

Back to Sanji. He twisted his fat baby head around to stare at what he assumed was the guy. Hard to tell, surrounded by his more-or-less quintuplets until more distinguishing features grew in. He would always be the runt in this group, assuming Goji himself didn't fall behind (An actual possibility, she had hated exercising) but was canonically always the kindest and the most compassionate. Like Mother, from what little he saw of her.

Of course, from this potential to be a decent human being would stem years of abuse and neglect from his family, who would shun and bully the boy who worked so hard to earn their love and respect. Oh, the irony. The sister (Zeroji? He actually had no idea) had been less of a hellion and tried to help at times, but mostly just a bystander out of fear. She would eventually set him free from a dungeon their Father had locked him in.

Their Father. His Father. He'd deal with that later.

Goji tried to understand. He really did. But from what little he knew about this world, where corruption ruined the great and hurt tore open the kind, he couldn't muster up less than a bad taste on his tongue when it came to the torment Sanji had (or would) gone through.

(She had been bullied. Not nearly as severely as Sanji, but she had, and for a while. And with it had come a wallowing wave of thick loneliness and anxiety that had nearly swallowed her, even years later.)

He wouldn't let that happened to someone else, not if he could help it. And for that, he needed a plan. Despite all that brave talk, Goji was unfortunately not selfless enough to save someone at the risk of his own sense of self. One life had been enough for that, thank you. He wanted to protect Sanji from as much brutality as possible, but he needed to keep himself safe as well.

What could he do?

Helping him directly would probably get him beat up… or reported to his Father. Helping him indirectly didn't feel like enough. Maybe he could stay behind a bit at times to make him seem less crappy in comparison to his genius everyone's? Nah, they'd catch on sooner or later. How would he make himself impenetrable enough to save someone else?

Impenetrable…

Perhaps he could… Maybe? Possibly? Could he really do that? Force himself to be the strongest, the smartest, the best of all of them, so much better than them all so that he could hold power over his siblings and respect under his Father?

He had 16 years of life under his belt. All of them as a studious individual, although lazy to a fault when it came to exercise. When it came to brainpower, he was in the upper faction. And now, with a body that was superpowered or something that was basically impossible in the real world…

Goji would give it a try, he decided.

And he did.

He starts talking and walking earlier, so much earlier than his male siblings (not that hard, seeing as he'd done it before for so long already) which means he starts training himself faster. As much as he hated exercising back then, in a body that's literally made to fight even the most hellish training isn't nearly as bad as it should have been. The fast healing is a boon from the heavens themselves.

(It is also surprisingly easy, he finds, to pull strength from himself when there was something to protect. Cheesy as it may be, whenever it comes to the point where his toddler body is ready to give out from the pressure, bringing his memories of the future to the forefront of his mind gives him the energy to move just a tiny bit further. Thanks, Luffy, for making him into an actual sap.)

He trains and he trains and trains as desperately as he can, running when it's not required, swimming when he doesn't have to, sloughing through pushups and pullups and every exercise imaginable. He doesn't talk to anyone much, but he didn't mind. It lets him focus more, think harder. Eventually, he comes to love the burn of pushing himself to the limit, the sweat in his eyes and the clenching of his chest when oxygen was in short supply.

He comes to love his siblings. Or at least, most of them. Some of the time. It was obvious why he liked Sanji, who would turn out to be decidedly less asshole-ish than the rest of the group. But even the others, who are but mere infants at this point in time, slowly grow on him.

… He really, really misses him own family, though. His own world… But they would want him to keep moving on. He's sure of it.

He has to be.

Whenever his Father decides to check on him, he pulls his most fancy, hoity-toity vocabulary from the recesses of his brain dictionary. It seems to make him happy, or at least look on him with favor. Whenever he went to check on Mother, he listens carefully, ears perked up. Wisdom came from the old and experienced, and she was the kindest person he had known in this lifetime.

His past-That is to say, her dad-hadn't turned out to be a massive asshole, though. Small blessings.

One day, Reiju (That was her name, apparently. He'd liked Zeroji better.) asks him why he works so hard, peering down at him from above as he lies collapsed on the ground. Goji blinks, smiles, and doesn't reply.

He likes to think it was mysterious. Reiju just thinks he's weird.

Then again, a lot of people thought he was weird. But the respectful thought, one of awe. After all, he was the genius Prince of the Vinsmoke family, one who could walk and talk from the day he was born, picked up knowledge like a dry sponge, and could maybe beat a grown man in spar. The youngest and yet the best, he genius of geniuses. It's almost fun to watch eyes widen in shock at his ability, although it gets a bit old after a while.

It's not a bad life, overall. Not yet.

Not until the plot begins.

His eyes are dry when news of his Mother's death arrives. So are his Father's. He wonders if either of them loved her at all, and works harder.

Scientists scratch their heads at him, astounded at the rate of his growth. It almost makes the rest of his family seem lackluster. Sucks to be them. Hopefully they wouldn't hold too much animosity over this. Probably wouldn't, they'd be too busy aiming it at Sanji.

In any case, his siblings start training much later than he thought, but also much earlier than he'd hoped. He was pretty sure children weren't supposed to withstand this kind of punishment, but whatever. They were genetically modified or some other science mishmash. He watches from his throne (How weird was that? Seriously, she had been so poor compared to this life it was hard not to feel spoilt beyond her wildest dreams), barely paying attention as the rest of his siblings stand straight and declare their loyalty to discovering their potential. Brainwashed? Maybe they are.

He can trounce them easily right now. This was fact, built up from a head start and voluntary exercise for at least a few years. But whether that would remain a fact was not yet decided.

Goji is feared, Goji is respected, Goji is loved.

Goji is powerful.

He would remain so. Has to.

He trains with them, and then more than them, and then perhaps further than that. He's been watching and waiting for years, looking for the first sign of falling behind in Sanji.

He sees it. From where he's at, it's truly pitiful to watch him struggle with what seems like a mere jog for the rest of the crew and a lazier one for him. A dark urge to sneer rises up in him, mock his sibling for his utter incompetence in performing such a little task. Then he turns around and punches himself in the face, because he was being a fucking asshole. Dear Oda, he was literally a 20 year old! Had his maturity minimized along with his body?

He blames his father for rubbing off on him, and he blames himself for forgetting what weakness felt like. Still, he's pinpointed the beginning of the mess that would become Sanji's childhood, and that's always helpful. Nodding to himself, he takes a fast lap around the track, slowing down to what felt like a snail's pace next to the panting boy as he ignores the surprised looks of pretty much everyone (and wasn't that just terribly, terribly sad) on his back.

"Don't give up, niisan!" Goji cheers louder than he's ever really bothered talking before, shouting, "I know you can do it!" from next to him. Sanji shoots him an exhausted, grateful look, and he thinks he can see his legs move a bit faster. He resolves to give the other a few pointers on running technique later.

The horrid swimming scene comes next, and he drives himself to torpedo across the water faster than he's ever done before, reporting a new personal record snappily before diving back in. Breaking the waves as quickly as he can, he barrels forward in the water and dives just in time to see Sanji's form beginning to sink into the water, already half-dead from the track session. Goji drops like a stone, moving forward to curl an arm around the other's gut and hightailing it back to the surface.

He's glad he doesn't have to face the scene of a child's bloated body, and wonders again just how cruel his father is.

(She had been gentle, gentler than he could be anymore. He missed those days, where strength wasn't decided on your body but more of your soul. Here, it's always a brawl to be the best. Unfortunately.)

He insists on sitting in on their first class session. "I wish," he declares primly to his tutor, "To observe the progress of the others. I think it would be an educational experience on the development of the less gifted." He sounded like such a snob, ew, but it lands him a few weeks in their classes so he's okay with that. He still needs to study in his own time, of course, but sleep was for the weak.

Goji smiles when his brother (so so young and so so innocent) smiles fondly at the turtle, eyes sparkling in delight at such a tiny thing even as his face is covered with bruises. He's also too preoccupied in that to notice Yonji sauntering up to kick the turtle until he does.

(Children can be so so cruel and it really hurts to see his brother so gleeful and yet-)

Then it's chaos. Sanji explodes at his brother, reedy voice screaming in anger. The aforementioned jerk snarls and then manages to get one devastating punch in, strength serving him well.

He says one, because Goji is there the second the fight begins, intercepting his brother when nobody else will. As enhanced as Yonji might be, he's no match for someone also enhanced and also holding more years of experience under his belt.

He glares then, cold and crushing, hard enough that if looks could kill the fourth son would be on Mars without a spacesuit.

Yonji backs down.

Thank god.

He turns to the other, nursing a purple welt on his eye the size of an apple, picking up the turtle as he holds out a hand. "Sorry." Goji says.

And that's all.

But even after all of this, he can not spare the other from everything. Sparring is brutally one-sided, and he is not allowed to interrupt something that was pretty much in the rulebook, especially not with his Father standing right there.

But his chest burns at the other's laughter, and his hands are shaking when he realizes Niji is basically just beating Sanji half to death.

As soon as the match is over, he snatches a wooden sword from the nearest stand, storming over to the field. A silence falls, cheers abating. "You," Goji quietly snarls, channelling rage into icy concentration, "You, him, her, and him." he shoves the tip of his stick in each of their directions, ignoring how ballistically stupid this idea was. "Four against me. Now."

It's brutal.

He realizes he made a mistake when he wakes up to a white ceiling above of him, antiseptic scenting the air. He sighs, then stops halfway through, because breathing hurt. Blinking, he shakes away the fog invading his mind, trying to recall the spar.

Oh, yeah. He winces at the recalled thought. No matter how hard he had tried, a few years wasn't worth much when it was four versus one. One of which was at least marginally more experienced than the rest. He wonders if this incident had derailed his plans any, but then decides it doesn't matter. He could train harder then. Not a problem.

"Goji! You're awake!" He yelps as a voice screeches in his ear, twisting his head to the side to see a bruised and battered future cook. "I was so worried!" The boy blubbers, and Goji smiles.

In the end, if he's not training, Goji was easily found literally stalking his third brother around the house. Heck, he trails behind him like a lost duck while simultaneously training! Thank goodness for weights.

He likes to think he manages to dull the pain, but he can never be sure. But he tries, harder than he'd ever done with anything before.

"I think cooking sounds useful," he informs his Father matter-of-factly. "It could help with many things, like memorization, preparation, management skills, organization, hand eye coordination, general survival, and distinguishing poison. As deserving as we may be, we must be prepared for the worst. After all, potential is equivalent to power, and knowledge is also a form of power, no?" Goji then proceeds to 'order' Sanji to teach him the skill, announcing that the cooks were incompetent idiots with no real sense of talking to royalty. Their father is super unconvinced, but hey, at least he let's him.

"The mouse?" He sniffs, because snorting would be unbecoming for a perfect being such as him. "We're just using it to test for the effects of poison, Father. And it was an opportunity to test our cooking skills, anyway. Don't be ridiculous. Why would we ever feed that?" He picks the rodent up by its tail and studies it for a moment, before pocketing the squeaking animal. "I'm going to save it for live dissection. It should be interesting to see if I can perform any sort of operation while it's still alive. Maybe see what effects our treat had on the thing."

(He returns the rat to Sanji later, coldly advising to let it go. Goji melts a bit at the hurt look that the other gives him, giving the other a tight surprise hug. "Sorry," Sanji sobs in his ear, clutching the back of his shirt.

"I'm sorry too.")

"... Don't you think that's a sort of bullying on its own?" He asks Reiju softly, watching her hands nimbly work the bandages around Sanji's face. "To laugh at another's suffering… Is that truly what you think is the right thing to do? Although, I suppose I can understand your fear." He thinks his sister laughs a little less at the fights afterwards, patches Sanji up a bit more.

"Go away, you three. I've trained much more than you have, with the time you spend beating people up like utter brutes. Honestly, why do you even do this? Don't you have literally everything else to do? Don't make me tell Father that his precious children are ruining their potential by neglecting their work." Goji threatens darkly, bristling from his guard position in front of his brother. They glare at him, hackles rising, but they know he will make good on his promise. Besides, they can just come back later when he's not here, or maybe just take it out during sparring, which he was pretty much banned from going to after the last fiasco.

(He cannot believe half the bullshit he spews from his mouth works)

Sanji dies.

Sanji dies.

Sanji… dies?

He doesn't know what's going on, doesn't remember this, really can't think or breathe or talk or do anything-

But he trains.

He blocks everything out except training, training training training training training training training training training-

Sanji is dead and it's probably Goji's fault.

Everything's a blur at the funeral speech and all he can hear is his father spewing bullshit over lies and crocodile tears.

Godamnit.

He distantly hears his brother say something. Probably one last snark about his deceased brother.

Take in a deep breath, Goji, count to ten.

… Yeah, fuck that. The world explodes back into clarity for the instant of the fight, and he's acutely aware of him pummelling his brother with everything he had. He's also very aware of the other two trying to beat him up, but he's too past pain to feel it.

He wakes up the white ceiling and the smell of antiseptic for the third time in his life. He sighs, turns around, and goes to sleep.

He wakes up.

Trains.

Spars.

Fights.

Doesn't cook.

That's the end of that. Father tries to get him to open up, says he loves them. Goji doesn't care. He prays to his Mother on some nights instead, hoping she and Sanji were okay up… wherever they were.

When modifications are announced as available, he refuses vehemently and goes back to training. "I can beat them without using fancy gadgets." He mutters. That's not entirely true. The matches begin to get closer, losses accumulate.

But whatever. What did he care of that? As long as he was strong, Father wouldn't bother him.

The siblings hear stories of ghosts in the dungeons, and eventually, Ichiji brings up the topic of exploring. He shrugs, turns around, goes back to training. His gut screams at him that something is wrong, but he doesn't really care. Whatever was wrong could handle itself.

Turns out, it couldn't.

Goji screams both internally and externally as he bursts into the cage, alerted by Reiju, thank God. "GET OUT!" He roars at the three, barreling into them. "GET OUT!" Modifications be damned, he had been doing nothing but training relentlessly for three months and he could more than take their fledgling powers.

That was a fact.

Okay, maybe it wasn't, he discovered, being bandaged up by Reiju again. But fuck, he doesn't give a shit about that because Sanji is alive and not six feet under, and he's still blubbering into the said person's shirt after she finishes. "S-Sanji, I though-ht you were dead!" Goji wails, not even ashamed of his ugly crying anymore. "I'm so so-" his voice cracks, breath hitching. "Sorry! I should've… should've tried ha-harder!" Hell, why is he the one crying? That should be Sanji, except he's staring at them with a new sort of fire in his eyes that he's so, so relieved to see.

It meant he hadn't been broken.

Thank god. Thank god, thank god, thank god.

"It's alright." Sanji soothes him, although a few tears escape from his own eyes. "It's alright, and I'm alive."

Sanji is alive.

It takes a while for him to stop crying, but once he does, well-

The reality of what Father had done hits him hard. Gods, he never thought he'd meet a man so cruel. "You need to escape." He whispers. Reiju starts at the statement, and then agrees.

Sanji nods tears forming in his eyes, and that's that.

Luckily, there's an invasion going on soon. It's a hard, grueling three weeks of wait away, but it's going to happen. They survive the time together.

Then it's just a quick twist of the bars and a snatch of keys. He plays distraction while Sanji gets out, and Reiju plays the guide to the cruise ship. While he's stalling his father, chattering aimlessly, his mind wanders. If only he could follow his brother out… but that was impossible. Sanji would face starvation with just one other guy. Adding another mouth to feed was just asking for trouble.

Holding off the monster complete, he sprints outside, almost crashing into the other two as they hid. They're crying, he knows.

Goji is, too.

He knows the gist of what his Father would have said to Sanji. But he also has his own words to say. Taking a deep, shuddering breath to compose himself, he closes his eyes before changing his mind and opening them. He wanted to see his brother's face one last time before he left.

"Never," he begins, voice low and grating, "Never identify yourself as a part of this family." Goji glares at Sanji, not out of hatred or malice but out of pure desperation, a need for him to understand. "Don't you dare call yourself a Vinsmoke!" He shouts, shocking all three of them, although it's half-lost in the cries of dying people. "In fact, as Genius Prince and one of the heirs to the throne, I hereby excommunicate you!" Lurching, he lunges forward to grab Sanji in a tight grip, as if doing so would stop the knot in his chest from tightening. "Find yourself a better family, a better life, a better everything, you hear!? Don't you-" his voice breaks, and Goji takes another rattling breath. "DON'T YOU DARE CALL THIS PATHETIC FAMILY YOURS! I FORBID IT!" He screams, and Reiju breaks her calm exterior, wailing wildly as she chimes in.

"Never ever come back! This world is h-huge! Find people who treat you the way you deserve, Sanji!"

"Y-Yeah!"

Goji forces himself to let go, fingers mechanically unclenching from the other's shirt. "... Ha. I don't want to let go." He breathes, before speaking up again. "Run. Run away, don't you dare look back! Go!"

Sanji does what he's told.

Reiju and Goji are left there, crying in the middle of an invasion, clutching each other because that's all they have left, now.

It would have to be enough.

Goji accepts modifications.

As his eyes drift shut, he prays that he will stay kind.

Oops I tried-I'm not going to lie, Sanji's backstory really struck home. Please review!