He has changed, thought Reiju as she observed her brother with curiosity. He had changed in myriad ways, had emerged from his chrysalis as a man almost unrecognizable to her. It seemed to her as if an entire millennium of memories and experiences separated him from the child she once knew. He had always been an enigma to her, had always been the only brother whom she could scarcely understand. Now, he was even more arcane a figure than she could possibly have imagined. Perhaps she could gaze at him for hours, and still fail to piece together an adequate picture.

Reiju sat in the kitchen of the Thousand Sunny, watching quietly as Sanji prepared a meal with mesmerizing expertise. Her younger brother was a sight to behold after thirteen years, and had grown tall and lean, robust and comely. He had also become a consummate chef during his absence, it appeared. His nimble fingers appeared to glide across the counter as he sprinkled dried herbs over a steaming saucepan, and his hands worked with dizzying speed and precision as he cut meat elaborately. Reiju recalled the little boy she had freed so many years ago, whose clumsily-made dishes could never have been mistaken for the work of a master.

Indeed, he was hardly comparable to the young, feeble boy he had once been. Reiju reminisced about the days of their childhood, when she and Sanji would often scurry-off in the evening to visit their fragile mother in the hospital bed. Sanji would grin delightedly at the sight of Sola and wrap his small arms around her bosom in a tight embrace, while Reiju would watch the giggling boy with wistful solemnity.

Unlike his brothers, he had always been a fundamentally kind and emotional person; it was a trait that he had managed to retain as an adult, she noticed. However, he was hardly the expressive boy he once was; it seemed that Sanji had developed a penchant for hiding his sensitivity beneath a cool demeanour. The affection that he had once showered as naturally as the sun emitted heat was repressed deep within him, she had concluded after days of observing his interactions with his crew. How did you become this way, she wanted to ask.

She wanted desperately to understand him. She wanted desperately to be able to see through him. He fascinated her, and she wanted desperately to know why.

Finally, she said aloud, "You've changed, Sanji."

At the sound of his name, Sanji promptly turned to face Reiju, setting down his knife. "Come again? The hell did that come from?"

"You've changed completely," she repeated, crossing her legs and resting her chin upon the palm of her hand. "You're not like you used to be."

Sanji shook his head slowly, his golden hair dancing before his eyes like the swaying ocean waves. "I've lived for twenty-one years," he said, "and I've been away from you shit-heads for thirteen of 'em. Of course I've changed."

Reiju laughed. He had always been a soft-spoken child, had never been as razor-tongued and abrasive as he was now. It was another way in which he had changed entirely. "This is precisely what I mean when I say that you've changed, brother," she replied. "What happened to you? What kinds of people have you met along the way?"

Who changed you?

Sanji withdrew a cigarette and set the tab alight with a pocket-lighter. "Why the hell should I be telling you anything?"

"We have a lot of catching-up to do," Reiju said teasingly, despite meaning every word. "I haven't had a proper conversation with you in so long. Is it a crime for your sister to want to know more about you?"

Closing his eyes, Sanji sighed. "I met a lot of people, and I owe some of 'em my life." He slipped the cigarette into his mouth. "That shitty old geezer you people were holding hostage—I'm in debt to him. He saved me and raised me in his restaurant up until two years ago."

"Then why did you leave?"

Why did you choose the pirate life, Sanji?

It was a question that had lingered in her mind since she first laid eyes upon that ridiculous wanted poster of his. The revelation that her (formerly) royal brother had been seduced by the prospect of a criminal's life had interested her. She knew that he had always yearned for freedom, but she had always believed him too hesitant, too selfless to pursue his desires. Who had instilled in him such conviction, she wondered.

Sanji exhaled gently, easing a billow of smoke through his lips. "... I've had a dream for a long time now. I've always wanted to be here in the Grand Line. But I was never really gonna leave."

Reiju tucked a curl of pink hair behind her ear. "What changed?"

Sanji remained quiet for what seemed to be an eternity before resuming speech. "One day, that idiot showed up at our restaurant."

"You mean the boy—Straw Hat Luffy."

He didn't confirm, nor did he deny, but his eyes softened ever so slightly at the mention of his captain's name. "He dragged me out to sea with him and changed my life completely. It's because of him that I can even think about that stupid dream of mine."

"Is this why you're still sailing?"

"It was, at first," Sanji murmured, his head tilted up to the ceiling and eyes gazing at nothing in particular. The corners of his lips were tilted upward in an inconspicuous smile. "But he's got a stupid dream, too. And I promised myself I'd see it through to the end."

Changed my life completely… The words echoed and resounded in Reiju's mind until Sanji's voice faded away entirely. She envisioned the young captain, his large, round eyes, his raven hair, his radiant smile. The young captain who had traveled all the way to Whole Cake Island in concern for her brother. The young captain who had declared adamantly that he would not eat any food unless it came from Sanji's hands, that he would wait for his chef until he starved to death.

Sanji's intricate relationship with this boy was yet another aspect of her brother that she would never fully comprehend. As much as it was fascinating, it was frustrating to be connected by blood to a man whose heart was locked and sealed away where she could never reach. She almost envied Straw Hat Luffy, who was undoubtedly as close in proximity to Sanji as their mother had been. Perhaps much closer, she dared to think.

They were brother and sister. She had witnessed his joy his sorrow, his tears, his desperation. They were brother and sister, the only two who were born with emotion. Yet he was a mystery, his every action cryptic.

Perhaps I was never meant to understand him, decided Reiju. She was the princess of Germa, and he was the banished prince, the outcast, the so-called failure. He would always go where she could not follow, and she would always be where he did not belong.

Perhaps they were destined to forever drift apart.

A.N.

Reiju is on the Sunny-Go for some arbitrary reason. Her reason for being here isn't particularly relevant, so feel free to use your imagination to fill-in the plot-holes.

This story takes place in the canon timeline, some time after WCI.