Disclaimer: One Piece not mine.
Summary: The difference between Pirate and Straw Hat Pirate, Sanji begins to see. Baratie Arc spoilers.
This is the Difference
Even thinking the name – All Blue – gives Sanji goosebumps. It's akin to brushing against the skin of a beautiful woman or inhaling the fragrance of a rare spice. Only more intense, more painfully visceral.
All Blue lays claim to a large portion of his heart, but Sanji has plenty left over to appreciate the charms of daily life. He is not unhappy on the Baratie before the Straw Hat and his mismatched crew literally crashes their way in. Cooking is a continual source of delight and it doesn't matter whom he serves – pirates, marines, scoundrels, aristocracy – though he likes to picture some ethereal woman with dewy eyes savoring his food.
No, he's not unhappy. A complex new recipe here, a delicious flash of bare leg there, and Sanji could be content to stay on this floating restaurant for another ten years. Almost. And if he spends hours leaning over the railing each night after the guests leave, blowing tendrils of smoke out into endless ocean and dusky sky, it's nobody's business but his.
Sanji dismisses Luffy's eager invitation instantly, though perhaps not for the obvious reasons. A shipwreck, a leg and a (hell of a) man have obliterated any and all childhood prejudice against pirates. For them, especially the strong, honorable ones, Sanji now feels nothing but respect. But this boy-pirate and his motley gang would not last two weeks on the Grand Line and Sanji values his life and his debt too much for that.
The green haired swordsman's fight with Hawk-Eye is what first alerts Sanji that something might be wrong. They are as loud and rude and immature as most inexperienced (and doomed) pirate crews, but there's still a nagging feeling that somewhere along the way, he's missed something important.
Then Zoro (the Straw Hat screams the name) spreads his arms and Mihawk's black blade flashes once. His victim doesn't flinch and when he falls, his legs don't give way beneath him. Sanji has never seen defeat so triumphant or so glorious. The man has shown more dignity in death than most in life.
It is finally when his nameless captain, hat skewed on his messy black head, turns to face the most powerful man in East Blue and slams his hands (without hesitation, without even a blink) into the spikes of Don Krieg's invincible armor that it clicks for Sanji. The vague sense of unease and growing déjà vu explodes into instant recognition. He's felt this way before, only once – when he realized the magnitude of Zeff's sacrifice to save his puny life.
The awe almost sends Sanji to his knees.
Strong? Honorable? The description is whittled away to nothing, absolutely nothing, before such a captain and his first mate.
Sanji is beginning to understand. With this crew, All Blue is not a dream, but a destination.
If this is Mugiwara Kaizoku, he thinks, sign me up.
-end-