Author's Note: This here is my first torture fic, so please be nice, okay? Sanji is going to get tortured here, so if you don't like that, then don't read.

Chapter One

Arriving at the Town of Torture

Pirates are rats of the sea. They spread nothing but misery. Because of that, pirates need to be treated cruelly. Torture them so that if they ever live through that hell, they'll learn their lesson.

-Captain Hellfire S. Hades

The sun shined in the cloudless sky while the seagulls flew through the air. There was hardly a wave in the water as the Going Merry sailed across the sea. Yes, it was yet another peaceful day. If you weren't Sanji, that is. Sanji had spent the morning after breakfast checking for supplies in the kitchen. The icebox had little food and the cupboards were filled with almost nothing but dust. Sanji frowned at this sight. He predicted that the food will be all gone by the end of next day. That meant they had to find the nearest town quick to get more supplies. Sanji went out onto the deck. Luffy was sitting on Merry's head, looking out to the sea with a smile on his face. Zoro was asleep as usual, snoring loud enough to wake up the dead. Robin was sitting in a chair, reading her book on archaeology and ancient cities. Sanji walked up to the girl's cabin door and knocked.

"Come in," came Nami's voice. Sanji opened the door and went in. Nami was sitting at her desk, drawing a new map. "What'd you want, Sanji?" asked Nami without looking up.

"Nami-swan, it appears that we are running low on supplies," said Sanji. "I was wondering if you could find the nearest town on your map so that we could stop there." Nami got out one of her maps from her desk and looked it over.

"Okay, we're right here," said Nami as she pointed to a spot on her map," the nearest island from here is Shi Island, and on that island is a town called Crueltown. It'll take us three hours to get to it."

"Right, then we'll stop at Shi Island."

"But there's one thing that's bothering me," said Nami with an uneasy look on her face. "The town's called 'Crueltown,' but why they name it that? I'm worried."

"Nami-swan, if you don't want to go there, then we'll just go to the second nearest island."

"But the second nearest island will take us two days to reach."

"Oh. Well, it can't be helped. The food will be long gone by then. Looks like we'll have to go to Crueltown. But don't worry, Nami-swan! I'll protect you from any terror that will appear there!" Nami smirked at this.

"My knight in shining armor," said Nami before going back to her work.

- - -

"Look! An island! Is that the island we're stopping at?"

"It sure is, Luffy."

"Wow! This is so exciting! I can't wait to see what kind of town this is!" Shi Island was now close enough to be seen. Luffy stared out eagerly at the faraway island; a craving look filled his eyes.

"Don't do anything stupid once we get there, Luffy," said Zoro. "We don't want to attract attention." Luffy grinned at his first mate.

"Don't worry! What could go wrong?"

"I hate it when he says that," said Usopp. Soon, the ship reached the port of the island. Crueltown was a fairly large town and was bustling with people. A small crowd had formed to watch Merry dock.

"Hey, look!" said Luffy. "Some people are looking at us!" Some of the people in the crowd gasped when they saw Luffy. They started murmuring to each other. Luffy gave out a puzzled look. "Um…what's going on?" One of the people broke out of the crowd and headed towards the Going Merry.

"Um, excuse me!" cried out the person. He was around sixteen and had ginger hair and blue eyes. "Are…are you Monkey D. Luffy?" Luffy and the others looked at the boy in surprise.

"How do you know my name?" asked Luffy.

"Pirates are quite famous here," said the boy. "However, that isn't always a good thing. This place is swarming with marines. If they see your ship docked here, there'll be trouble."

"Oh no!" said Nami in dismay. "This is just what we need! I knew coming to this place was a bas idea!"

"Do not fear, Nami-swan!" said Sanji. "We've dealt with marines before! I'll protect you to the very end!"

"I know a place where you can hide your ship," said the boy. "It's called Mangrove Forest. It's so dense and full of trees, you can get lost easily. I'll take you there."

"Wait a minute," said Nami. "Why should we trust you?"

"That's right!" said Usopp. "You could be a disguised marine leading us to a trap for all we know!"

"I understand that you guys don't trust me since we just met," said the boy, "but you have to believe me. If you ask any pirate that's been here before, they'll tell you that I helped them out." The crew looked at each other.

"Okay, we trust you!" said Luffy.

"What!?" Nami grabbed Luffy's collar and looked at him in the face. "Are you insane!? What made you decide that we should trust him!?"

"C'mon, Nami!" said Luffy angrily. "He said he was going to help us, right? I think he's a good guy!" Nami sighed as she let go of Luffy.

"Fine. Do what you want." Zoro threw down the ladder for the boy to climb.

"I haven't introduced myself," said the boy when he got on deck. "My name is Sakaba. I work at as the town's bartender."

"I'm-" began Nami, but Sakaba interrupted her.

"I already know who you are, Nami," smiled Sakaba. "And you're Roronoa Zoro, Usopp, Tony Tony Chopper, Nico Robin, and…um…" Sakaba looked at Sanji, confusion clearly visible on his face.

"Sanji," said the cook. "My name is Sanji."

"Really?" said Sakaba, completely surprised. "You look different on the wanted poster." Silence hung in the air as the crew recalled the ridiculous drawing of Sanji on his wanted poster. All because the photographer failed to take his picture. A vein popped on Sanji's forehead. "Huh? D-did I say something wrong?" stammered Sakaba when he saw that Sanji was getting angry.

"Never mind him," said Nami. "You said you were going to take us to some forest, right?"

"Oh! That's right!" Sakaba pointed ahead of them. "Mangrove Forest is that way!"

"You're not a very good navigator, are you?"

"I'm afraid I suck at navigating," said Sakaba, smiling sheepishly. "If I ever head out to sea, I would get lost right away."

"Sounds like a certain swordsman that I know," said Sanji, who had now forgotten about his wanted poster.

"Are you asking for a fight, Shitty-Cook?" asked Zoro, glaring at his smart-aleck crewmate.

"There will be no fighting on board!" said Nami. "Now, let's get going!"

- - -

"There's one thing that I don't get," said Usopp. "Are we that well known in this town?"

"You bet," said Sakaba. "Your wanted posters are plastered all over town. We heard amazing stories about you from travelers that come visit this town, such as how you fought Don Krieg and defeated Crocodile." Luffy grinned. This town might not be so bad after all.

"But what I don't get is this town is called 'Crueltown,'" said Nami. Sakaba stiffened. There was a long pause before he said anything.

"This place…this whole island…is run by the cruelest man you'll ever meet." Sakaba started to sweat a little. "He's the captain if the marines and he absolutely despises pirates. If one of you is unlucky enough to be caught by him, he'll torture you horribly until you tell him where the rest of your crewmates are hiding. If you don't tell him, he'll keep torturing you until you have stopped breathing. If you do tell him, he'll stop torturing you, but you'll soon die from it. At least, that's what the marines around here have told me, but I don't want to find out. He named our town 'Crueltown' so that everyone will know that this isn't a place you want to stay for long." Sakaba wiped the sweat from his brow. "The townsfolk, including me, don't believe that anyone should suffer from terrible torturing, so we help hide any pirate that comes here."

"He t-t-t-tortures people?" asked Chopper, his eyes wide with fear.

"Don't worry!" said Usopp. "The Brave Captain Usopp is afraid of nothing! Being tortured doesn't scare me one bit!"

"Then why are your knees shaking" asked Nami.

"Darn it!"

"What kind of torturing does this guy do?" asked Luffy. "Does he break fingers or saw legs off or boil people alive or-?"

"Please stop guessing, Luffy!" yelled Sakaba. "Do you think I want to know what he does? Oh, look! We're here!" The ship had finally reached Mangrove Forest. Just as Sakaba had said, the forest was completely populated by trees. The trees, which were mangroves, were large and their roots entangled with each other. There didn't seem to be any entrance at all.

"How are we supposed to get in?" asked Nami.

"Steer the ship that way," said Sakaba, pointing to the right. "There's an opening that's hidden by vines." Sure enough, there was a large opening between two roots that was completely covered by vines. The Going Merry went right through the vines and into the forest. Because the trees were growing so close together, there was hardly any sunlight. The crew had to lit lanterns in order to see their way clearly.

"This place gives me the creeps," said Nami.

"This is the first time I've seen mangroves growing so close to each other like this," said Robin. "How interesting."

"Stop right here," said Sakaba. The anchor was thrown into the murky water. "Now the marines will never find your ship. Come with me. I know how to get back to town."

"Um, I think I should stay here," said Usopp. "You'll never know if the marines will somehow find the ship here. I'll guard her, okay?"

"That's fine," said Sakaba, "but I must warn you that there is another reason why the marines won't come here other then being easily lost. There are rumors that bloodthirsty monsters live here."

"B-b-b-bloodthirsty monsters?"

"Well, I've never seen them myself, but you'll never know. Just be careful, okay?"

"Wait, on second thought, I'm coming with you guys! I doubt that the marines will find the ship!" Everyone smirked before they followed Sakaba. He led them across the mangrove roots.

"When I was a young boy, I've always heard the adults talk about monsters living here," said Sakaba. "I was pretty brave for my age and decided to see if this was true. I got lost and thought I would never see my family and friends again until I discovered this." Sakaba stopped before a curtain of hanging mangrove branches and pushed them aside. Behind the branches was a small tunnel, big enough for a grown man to go through. "This tunnel leads all the way back to town. No one knows about this, so I used it to get here and hide all of my secret belongings and play by myself. Then, I began using it to help pirates get to and from town so that they could buy supplies." Sakaba and the crew began walking through the tunnel. As they walked farther, they noticed that the tunnel was growing smaller. Soon, the tunnel became too small and they had to crawl.

"How much farther?" asked Zoro.

"Almost there," answered Sakaba. They kept crawling until Sakaba called out, "Here we are!" They had reached a small opening at the end of the tunnel. Sakaba crawled right through it. The others followed him. They were greeted by sunlight and chirping birds. As they stood up and stretched, they noticed that the small opening that they had crawled through was almost covered by bushes. Ahead of them, they saw the town in the distance.

Author's Note: This was the first chapter. The Sanji torture will begin next chapter. Please send reviews.