Zero Factor
Vinsmoke Reiju is ground zero, the road to hell paved with good intentions.
She's not the 'first' in their newfound family naming scheme, because when it comes down to it, Father doesn't like uppity women or little girls, so she's not allowed to be either. She's still the Princess of Germa Kingdom, the commander of Unit Rei even at childhood, but Germa needs a King, not a Queen to lead. Oddly enough… she finds she doesn't care. It's not for lack of ambition either. She is the zeroth, who comes before them all, and the prototype to make her siblings into perfection.
Maybe it's because of the operation. Thoughts, emotions, sensations, they all come, but it's as if a filter or something has been cast over her brain because while she can acknowledge some things, others slip by. Amongst her siblings, she remembers what it means to be human. She was given initial modifications in the womb herself, and then modified again once the process had been perfected by her contribution.
The other four were never meant to understand. Except, one does. The third son, father's dud and mother's pride.
He's… odd, she'll be the first to admit- though she isn't, their father had gotten there before her in cherry-picking out all of his third son's eccentricities. It isn't a question about emotion and the fact her mother's tampering has saved at least one of them. It's Sanji's earnesty for all things, that's so foreign to her. It's one thing to be emotionally capable, and a whole other thing to be so selflessly kind. They are royalty, after all, and the smallfolk look to them for protection against the other organizations, other nations of the world. It's only natural to be offered up respect, devotion, and fear.
But Sanji is different, and like mother… he has love for all things, unlike the rest of them. It's a puzzling thing because in this finite world where something like immortality has yet to be unravelled by the power of science, who in their right mind has enough time or energy to devote to loving so many and much?
Even in a time before, when she'd had all of her emotions in their complete and unsullied state, she could only really remember having enough room in her heart for her father, mother, and the unborn quadruplets that were to be her brothers. Then, the modifications had taken place and suddenly Reiju found there was not enough room and too much blood to pay.
Father's love came at a price, one where their individual power was the tribute to be offered up in return for his efforts at granting them absolute strength. Power came easily to Reiju though, as it did for three of her brothers- it really was a small, small price to pay. Mother's love was free though, and though the woman was constantly bedridden after carrying the quadruplets to term and having ingested drugs to try and prevent the modifications from holding, she was… warm. It was like a drug itself, and though she could no longer look within herself for that same fire, her mother practically radiated it in defiance of her weakness and abandonment by her newborn sons and her husband.
That warmth- love, Reiju's mind supplies, to fill in the knowledge of which she can no longer truly experience on her own, draws her back over and over again like a moth to flame.
It is a flaw though, that she can still comprehend this emotion. But unlike her father, she has witnessed mother's strength of character and mind- characteristics that cannot be modified by genetic mutilation. And in sheer defiance of absolute science, her mother's love and will has restored humanity to one of her brothers. So, in Reiju's worldview, love isn't a weakness, but a strength to be carefully guarded and cultivated, not unlike scorn or disgust, something she can still embrace all too easily.
Her father had allowed that much- for all of them to retain a sense of wariness towards inferiority in all its forms. Little could he ever know, however, what Reiju's definition of inferiority was and how the murderous side of her family defined it perfectly.
Still, it is odd, that her brother, the inheritor of their mother's kindness and love, is so… weak. But it all makes sense, she soon realizes readily enough. Their mother had a strength born from a desire to protect her unborn children from the experiments that would rob them of humanity. Her brother, had no desire to protect anyone in this short walk of life.
His only hidden ally- herself- needed no such protection, and she is smart enough to recognize that she will only be in the best of positions to aid her human brother if she remains a callous, cold, and calculating monster like the rest of them.
But… it makes her human on the inside, doesn't it? Pride and satisfaction swell up easily inside her- emotions that bolstered their sense of superiority were meant to be encouraged, after all. Reiju lets it wash over and pass like any other. She's not like the three dummies who call themselves her brothers, she won't let it get to her head in this instance. Not at the cost of Sanji's suffering.
Nor will she let apathy be predominant in this predicament. Apathy led to stagnation, stagnation led to weakness.
She tries hard not to think of her mother's passionate initiative in preserving the human lives of her siblings, and subsequent decline and virtual bed imprisonment.
Sometimes, passion is dangerous too. Perhaps both, then, are tools, and have their time and place. Not here, not now. If she shows her fervent defense towards the runt of their family, she too, will be struck down, she knows.
Still, for now, he remains trapped, stuck deep in the seldom-used cells with a large iron mask poorly disguising his identity. As far as the citizens of Germa Kingdom knew, Sanji is dead, and there remains a high profile prisoner in the bowels of their dungeons.
Until the day she can put passion to good use, to salvage the last remaining good this accursed family had to offer, at least. Reiju is nothing if not pragmatic- the day she sticks her neck out for Sanji is the day he will escape the darkness that festers in their family. And if comes down between freedom and death, she will do her brother that personal kindness whichever way the pendulum swings.
She's still undeniably Germa, after all- perfection sings in her veins.
Reiju is on her way down a road to hell, with good intentions. Her three other brothers are back on their trip up, sniggering with all the maliciousness they are able to afford in their cruel blissful ignorance.
She can't even hate them properly. It's something more akin to pity- because none of them had chosen to be born, much less, to a father like Vinsmoke Judge. Pity that their mother's last act of desperation had only worked on a single child and damned him into the hell she was striding purposefully towards, transforming what should have been yet another lion cub into the sacrificial black sheep of the family.
They don't even understand the true depths of pain they've inflicted on Sanji- because in their own twisted way, they are trying to help him. Power, is the language of their family and this world, and if Sanji cannot afford it, then he will die. If he cannot stand to fight back, cannot grow to surpass what he currently is- he will die.
And power is the only language they speak and understand. They'll never know what she and their mother knew, and what it is that keeps Sanji alive and hoping, or what other powers out there exist that keep a person's dream alive.
It's love.
She doesn't love anymore, she can't love anymore. She doesn't know if it's her father's doing, keeping her head down and blending alongside her morally dead brothers, or her mother's death that stamped out the flickering flame in her heart. The operation? A natural reaction to grief? Or a shield to cage her own heart?
When she looks upon her father's failure and her mother's greatest success, she doesn't love as she should. She knows to pity him, this child who alone, was spared of inhumanity in a den of monsters. And that's why she'll place her salvation in his hands- for if she can't feel anything anymore, then she'll preserve the last shred of their mother to do so in her stead. She knows it's what both of them would have wanted. On most days it feels like just knowing what to feel and what to do is enough. But on other days when her brother lies broken and battered on the floor of his cell, she wonders if all of her rationalizing and strategizing is just inaction born from her innate apathy.
She won't humor this dangerous thought path for long. With a sigh, she sets the bandages and salves down, eying the miserable huddled form in the far corners of the cell. "Sanji. Stand." It's a command, from the commander of Unit Zero's Reiju.
It's more through habit than anything else that Sanji obeys, his swollen hands scrabbling painfully against the harsh stone grooves as he sought purchase to hoist himself up again. The alternative is always implied to be worse.
Pity, softens her gaze when her brother's snot and blood covered face peers up at her warily, not unlike a wounded animal, through the iron mask. She doesn't need the mask off to know her other siblings must have found the keys to the mask to relieve Sanji of it, if only to more thoroughly abuse every inch of him before slapping it back on over the now painfully swollen and bulging skin below.
"Where are the keys?" She asks coldly, over the sound of sniffling.
"R...reiju… please…" Sanji hiccups out, swaying where he stands. "I-...I can't…"
"Where are the keys?" She reiterates easily, cutting through him. It's so easy, lacking emotions. There is a goal. It must be accomplished. It keeps her from taking the bars in her hands right now and prying them apart with the simple ease she knows they'll come apart with. "Focus, Sanji."
He's not unused to the brusqueness, she knows, and now is not the time to wallow in self-pity. But calling his name again seems to work. It snaps him out of his stupor and he raises a trembling finger to point at her next target. "I-it's… over there." He whispers, casting his single visible eye back down.
"Good. Come closer." She orders again, turning to retrieve the keys. All the same, she expects her orders to be followed. When she faces him again, he's already there, at the bars, clutching to the metal desperately like a lifeline. "Where does it hurt, the most?"
"F-face… it's… too tight." Sanji manages, single eye wilting under her ever impassive gaze.
Reiju knows the rules- only the guards manage the mask. But since her siblings have broken that rule today, surely she can show a bit of family solidarity in following suit? "Where is the keyhole." She sighs, lifting the single key through the bars.
"I…It's in the back." Sanji replies, voice hitching with hope at being able to take off the mask. Without another word, Reiju motions for him to turn around so she can slot the key through the hole and twist, allowing the cage around his face to drop free. "Ha… haa.."
"You can't keep it off forever." She warns him, because the the guards come back from their lunch break and see them both down here with the mask off and the keys in Sanji's hands, they're both in for it, and Reiju has already sworn to herself that the day she sticks her neck out for Sanji is the day he goes free. There's no other better way she can honor her mother's sacrifice. Not even the brief respite she gives Sanji now is worth anything if they are caught and punished. "If the guards return and we get caught, I'm going to beat you up too." She says this without preamble.
Sanji stumbles back as if she'd already done just that. "But… but why, Reiju?" He whimpers, eye shining with tears at the perceived betrayal of the only family he still loved.
The truth is sometimes the kindest thing. "Because you need me, dummy." She replies harshly. "You need me in a position of power to help you. If father or any of our brothers thought I was doing anything less than tormenting you down here, it's your head on the line, ultimately. Father will send me away. Then, he'll hide you somewhere else. Or he'll forbid me from coming down. And then where does that leave you, Sanji?"
And me?
Every word she spits is another blow to him, but she can't care. Sanji must know, all he can know. He's too kind. His brothers are blind to anything except strength. She's pragmatic. Siblings help one another, and these realities are what little she can share. "That's right." She says, when he doesn't respond through the quieting sobs. "Alone. Locked up. I won't go looking for you again if that happens, but trust me, Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji won't be nearly so merciful." The irony brings a small smirk to her face. "They'll hunt you, find you, beat you, all over again. And this time they won't be so careless and let me follow."
Sanji is quiet, for only a little longer to consider her words. But she sees it, the moment when he slams down the gates and protects what remains of his battered heart from her. "... You're the same." He whispers, but her enhanced super-hearing catches it as if he'd screamed them.
"I'm what?" She asks him to dare again, frost creeping into her tone.
"No… you're worse. Always… just patching me up so they can do this to me again, and again! Lording it over me like you can actually do something when you just want to watch me get beat up and laugh about it! Your hands aren't as clean as you think, Reiju!" Now, comes the screaming, and Reiju's ears pick up the heavy stepping of booted feet heading down the stairs where her brother cannot.
Without another word, she kicks the medical kit she'd brought with her to a dark corner where they will be unseen, seizes the bars, and pulls. They come apart like rubber and she steps into the cell where her brother is slowly backing away, a light of horror and understanding entering his eyes.
She meets those eyes with equal parts fury and apology, and her fists begin to meet flesh.
Reiju escapes from hell with her sins running red down from her fists, clenched so tightly she doesn't even know if all of the blood is hers or if her own nails have broken through the exoskeleton skin. Unbreakable shield meet unbeatable sword.
But she's not punished, when she's marched in front of Father by the guards who'd intervened after a few minutes of watching the spectacle with empty expressions. They'd slapped the mask back on, taken back the keys, and then firmly requested she come with them.
In fact, Father doesn't even bat at eye at the blood running freely from her hands and the report the guards verbally hand over.
"Clean up, Reiju." He orders instead, with something vaguely like approval in his expression despite the initial frown on his broad face. "We Vinsmokes never dirty our own hands." But there's a distinct lack of chiding in his voice. Instead, Judge leans forward with a small, secretive, almost fatherly smile. "We are too skilled to have soiled them in the first place!"
Be faster, be stronger, and do not let yourself be marked. The mantra she's grown up with rings in her mind and Reiju straightens up cooly. If Judge wants to make this a father-daughter bonding moment, then she will play the role to perfection so nobody would ever know any better, the truth behind her visit today. "Yes, Father! I could hear him crying all the way from my room so I had to go shut him up. Why's he gotta be so weak anyways? We- Ichiji, Niji, Yonji, and I are all doing our best to make him better."
"Good, good. I have such wonderful children!" He chuckles, rising once more. "Who knows. Perhaps that one will learn from you all and finally develop a spine… At least then, he can be put to some use. It is a good thought, Reiju, but don't waste too much time on him. He's been a failure ever since his birth, and that simply cannot be changed."
Reiju smiles through her mental cries, both her own voice and that of her little brother's overlapping in discord. "Yes Father."
He can't stay in hell, she's already recognized this since the day she found him recently brutalized in a cell in the deep dungeons below, and not, after all, in a coffin buried with the highest honors in the royal crypts. Her hands take the bars almost automatically. "Stand back, Sanji." She says, bracing herself.
East Blue is a merciful, soft sea, idyllic and peaceful. Here… she's sure, her little brother will be able to find the peace and freedom he deserved. Germa is no kingdom for a weakling, and this way, if she rationalizes it, her father no longer has to acknowledge the shame he has hidden away in the dungeon and Sanji can finally find people who can accept him for who he is.
Everyone wins. Reiju tries her hardest to avoid thinking of their mother though. To have her sacrifice and love spat upon like this…
Deep down, she knows even she's not free from this sin. She's trying her best and still she falls short, something rather ironic for a Vinsmoke, but she knows the matters of mind and heart are two completely different, occasionally warring things. Her mother would have wanted for her to immediately break him out and smuggle him out to sea, the moment she'd discovered him imprisoned and in that hideous metal mask. She's years late, but it's for the best, she tells herself. North Blue is unkind, warmongering, and still savage as the pirates that roam the seas near their lands. Here, is the perfect time she's been waiting for. Sanji will be safe in the East Blue, it was necessary to wait this long…
In the midst of battle she drags her brother through the fray, shielding him with her body when she can. Bullets ricochet off of her skin, and the proof of her inhumanity startles a wide-eyed stare out of Sanji. He'd failed out of training shortly before their exoskeletons had begun to truly harden. "Do you get it now, Sanji?" She asks shortly, watching the small dents in her arms pop back out as if she'd never been shot. "You can't stay. Germa is a kingdom for monsters, and you're too human. It's not a bad thing- it never was. But you can't live here anymore. Out there, you need to be strong, but you don't need to be heartless." Grimly, she tugs him along insistently, and he obediently follows. "The keys to your mask are over there." She tells him, because after the incident, her father had moved the keys far away. "Go get them and meet me back here. I'll make sure no one follows!"
"O-okay!" He almost stumbles in his desperation, leaving Reiju to palm at her face. He's still as clumsy as the final days she'd seen him before his supposed 'death', but this time she knows the time behind bars have not treated his physical abilities well.
"What's this-?!"
Reiju's heart drops to the very tips of her toes, she swears it. What was Father doing down here!?
It's over, all over, she laments, sending an apology to her dearly departed mother. She tried. She's failed! In this moment she thinks she understands the most clearly what it means to hate someone- hatred is this, the bitter disappointment of failing her brother, her mother, and even their family, because Sanji is this family's sole good, and now he'll never be free-
But seconds pass and Judge does not reappear with Sanji captured or worse and Reiju creeps closer. It's as if she's listening through muffled walls but the words still come blasting through as clear as day as their father- no her father- systematically disowns her kindest brother and this- this-!.
She remembers grief- knows it well from observing her mother, who suffered it so deeply when the quadruplets were born and three of them turned out to be their father's successes. Grief was the look of melancholy and regrets when Sora could only watch the lights in her only son's eyes dim as the pressures of their family took their toll and the bruises racked up.
And then he's back and he's sobbing but she can see his face in all of it's raw emotion. Fear, hurt, despair, anger, hope, heart.
She doesn't dare to ask how he'd gotten the mask off or away from their father, but some distant part of her mind rationalizes that Judge too, must have understood this moment for the opportunity it represented. Finally, the Germa Kingdom could be rid of it's black sheep prince.
"Stop crying!" She shouts over the din, smacking him once over the head and relishing in the split second of contact with his straw yellow hair. Her fingers curl and rake through for only a split second, but Reiju swears to immortalize these precious few moments with her most beloved brother. Sentiments aside, this is Sanji's time, and now, no one stands in the way. "This is your only chance! Don't you dare waste this!"
She doesn't push him with all her might because that would send him careening straight into the ocean but just enough to get him running. "GO Sanji! And don't look back!" And he goes.
He listens to her for only a brief 14 years, and then the kindhearted fool her little Sanji is looks back. And when he stares up at them for the first time since that day, Reiju's chuckle, bereft of all amusement, is strangled and overshadowed by the cackling of her crueler brothers.
In the end, she's just the zero factor, and all her painstaking efforts are for naught.