Sunrise the next morning finds Sanji and Ripa following the roads upward to the top of the canyon, munching on fresh pastries baked by Sanji and drinking from thermoses of coffee snitched from the shop by Ripa.

She tries to refuse his offer to carry the waist-high shoulder-strapped net baskets she's brought along with her tools, but he somehow succeeds in making it sound like she would be doing him a favor to let him carry them.

She's glad they got an early start. Ripa had assumed her aunt had been exaggerating about a great many things in her letter regarding the Strawhats and the downfall of Hody. She hadn't minded, it made an excellent story.

Now though…she finds the rumors passed on about Sanji far more believable. As they walk through the stirring market, she watches him grin and coo at several women who are doing nothing more provocative then setting up their stalls.

It's not like he actually does anything, but the faces and noises he makes cause several of the women to pull the shutters on the stalls down and one of them to rather pointedly lay a cudgel on her counter top.

In frustration, she eventually takes hold of the baskets he is carrying for her and starts to push, hoping they will get through the market before it gets too late in the day, this provokes an offended, "Hey!" But they finally get moving and make it to the edge of town.

From the rim of the cliff the island rises more slowly in rolling hills interrupted by rocky outcrops. The land around the canyon has been divided into fields and pastures following the creeks that eventually empty into the canyon in narrow terraced waterfalls. Corn and beans wave in the breeze and llamas stare incuriously at them as they pass, chewing grass.

They work their way upward till they reach a high point where the land flattens out. It's drier up here, all brush and rocks. Ripa glances over Sanji's way before taking the handkerchief off her head to wet it down, exposing the flattened head fin that bisects her corn row braided bright yellow hair.

Sanji asks, "Is this the way you would usually go to get to this cove?"

"Normally I would swim," Ripa admits, "but there's no safe place to leave a boat, it's all cliffs along that side."

She ties the handkerchief back over her head, "I'll be fine, it's only few miles. I grew up here, I'm probably better prepared for all this sun then you are, with your pale skin."

Sanji snorts, "Defensive much?"

"Come on, let's just get past this part. It's nicer near the coast," she starts to jog and Sanji matches her pace. As they move along the landscape slowly drops again and fades into grassland. After a couple hours, the sound of waving grass blends with the rumble of crashing waves.

Ripa slows down, "Careful here." The edge of the island is abrupt, between one step and the next the grass ends and they are looking at a twenty foot drop into the ocean. Ripa studies the coast for a few moments then chooses a direction, "A bit this way."

After another half mile she when Ripa is satisfied with their location, Sanji puts down the basket and she stakes a rope to the ground dropping it over the edge so it hits the water.

Then she turns around, like that's actually going to hide anything, and pulls off her shoes, loose clothes, and head-covering handkerchief. Underneath, she's wearing a halter top and some close fitting thigh length shorts. Facing away actually gives a better of her back, which is colored with broad stripes of black and yellow, highlighted with gold. She has more fins along her spine and along the back of her forearms and calves.

She stretches and the fins snap out into stiff blade like curves. "Trigger fish," she offers in explanation over her shoulder, wanting to get the rest of the weirdness out of the way in one go.

She turns and adjusts the top looking slightly irritated, "I probably shouldn't even bother with this. Hey, you might actually know, is it normal for fish girls to be so flat chested? My ma said so, but maybe she was just trying to make me feel better."

Sanji clears his throat, looking uncomfortable and irritated, "You can't just go asking a guy questions like that. I don't know. I was kind of busy at the time."

She grins at his blush, "Humuhumuku, that must mean my ma was telling the truth, because if they'd had boobs you would have noticed."

He growls, "You're way too young to be saying things like that."

She huffs in amusement, "I'm fifteen and, just from walking across town with you, I know it's true."

Sanji scowls, "Can we just get on with shitty clam harvesting already?"

"There's a really pretty kelp forest," she pulls some goggles out of her basket and offers them to him, "You want to check it out while I pry up the clams? It shouldn't take too long."

Ripa picks up a basket, a tool that looks like a sharp edged spade, and another that looks like a claw, "Ah, this is gonna be great, it'll be nice to be able to swim here again."

She ignores Sanji's, "What was that?" as she dives in.

She orients herself and spots the clams about forty feet below. They line the base of the cliff, opening and closing in the current swirling against the rock.

She side paddles quickly when Sanji hits the water a moment later, much too close to her.

He's stripped down to his shorts and is wearing the googles. He turns looking around at the fish swimming through the kelp. His movements are confident, but Ripa feels a spike of nervousness. She'd forgotten how slow humans are in the water, it's been a long time since she swam with anyone else.

She shakes her head. He's strong. That's why she brought him along. He should be okay, even hampered by the water.

He turns toward her and smiles. He does seem to like the ocean a lot. She back paddles a little more, "What we came for is down there." She points to the clam bed, far below them and is gratified to see his eyes widen and a boyish grin come to his face.

The clams are as wide across as her forearm. The plain porcelain curve of the top of each shell contrasts beautifully with the spirals of iridescence that can be glimpsed within those open to the current. The shifting light coming through the waves on the surface creates an array of twining rainbows across the ocean floor.

Ripa takes a few moments to appreciate the sight before getting back to business. She wants to harvest maybe a fifth of what's here since she has someone to help her carry and it may be awhile before she can come back.

"They're too deep to be comfortable for you," Ripa explains quickly, "I'll bring them up. Just stay near the surface and, uh, watch out for anything that might want to eat you."

He definitely looks suspicious at that, but she turns and dives and he has to return to the surface to breathe.

She pulls out her tools and starts prying clams off the rocks. She looks up every few clams to see him circling near the surface, watching the marine wildlife.

She started avoiding this stretch of coast after finding bits of several bull sharks with bites as wide as her arm span taken out of them. However, she's nearly gotten the basket full and nothing has shown up.

Maybe she was just being cowardly.

A couple body lengths away the sand around the clam bed, which has been shifting in the current against the cliff, thrusts silently up in a column, engulfing a school of large silver bigeye trevally swimming nearby.

As a few fish left around the edges scatter, the column of sand turns its attention toward her.

And just like that, a tunnel filled with ring after ring of cooked, needle teeth is rushing toward her.

She drops down with a grunt of surprise and kicks up as the teeth pass through where she was just floating. She lands a solid strike, but it doesn't do more than elicit a rumble from the creature.

The beast's body fades to blue grey, nearly blending into the water above it, as it passes over her. The camouflaging, eel-like monster is as big around as she is tall and probably ten times that in length.

Her plan, if this monster showed up, had been to kill it herself if possible, with Sanji as backup if she couldn't handle it. She hadn't been certain what was down here, but she knows from stories that he's killed much bigger.

She belatedly notices a sharp discomfort in her wrist.

When she dropped down one of the clams snapping shut in reaction to the beast's growl had closed over part of the fin on her arm. She curls around so she can place her feet on the mouth of the clam and push away. It budges a little but not enough to get free. She growls in frustration and pain.

There's no time to mess around with this, the predator has folded back on itself and is heading for her again. She grits her teeth and before she can rethink it, swipes her spade knife though the trapped tip of her fin. It feels similar to when she sliced her palm open with a paring knife. She lets out a clench jawed yowl and launches straight up from her crouch on the clam bed. She feels the fin on the top of the beast's head brush her foot as she frantically starts paddling upward.

She's had to chase off sharks and other predators around her size before. She could hardly swim around down here without at least being able to do that, but she's never tried to deal with anything near the size of this eel before. She had been pretty sure she could at least outswim the thing, but she'd failed to realize how incredibly frightening that margin of doubt could be.

She feels a current slowing her down, the eel is sucking in water to pull her in. She pulls extra water in through her gills, blowing it out through her mouth, and pushing herself backward so she ends up beside the monster rather than in its jaws.

As it's flat black eye focuses on her, she lashes out with her spade in an attack that is more panicked then planned. Blood gushes out of its eye and its scream vibrates through her body, making her bones ache.

The beast starts to thrash and coil, smacking into her. She tumbles and starts to paddle as she stabilizes herself.

Since she's dizzy, it takes her a second to realize that she is swimming the wrong way, down instead of up. The beast spirals around and circles above her. The injury she managed to inflict might slow the monster down, but it's not going to kill it any time soon.

It's been less than thirty seconds since this started, but she's terrified that she hasn't spotted Sanji. The major flaw in not explaining her plan is that he might not have realized the importance of staying nearby.

Ripa starts to swim toward the kelp forest where she last saw blackleg, face up so she can see the beast. It tracks her, keeping its distance, but not letting her go up.

That is odd behavior for a fish, they usually either attack or flee. Stalking prey that can see you isn't usually profitable, unless…

Quickly she reorients herself upright and spins around.

She can spot three or four distortions in the water, blue grey and green to blend in with the kelp. Circling her and moving closer.

She needs to get by the one she's already injured. If she can get just behind its jaw and she can strike at its gills or other eye.

She turns and picks up as much speed as she can heading for a point just behind the beast's head. She needs to time this right. She snaps sideways just as she comes within its striking range and the teeth pass by her. Almost.

The eel's head snaps sideways and catches her foot in the corner of its mouth. She feels several sharply pointed teeth sink into her foot, grinding against the bones. She screams and starts striking wherever she can reach with her tools. This elicits more growling, but the teeth don't release her foot.

In desperation she curls herself around and clamps her teeth over the bridge of the creature's muzzle and bites down as hard as she can.

The bone between her jaws creaks and cracks. The sound is disturbing and the taste is awful, but letting go is not an option.

The beast snaps its head back and forth, opening its mouth to try and toss her away as she successfully takes a chunk out of its face. She reaches up and uses the claw tool to anchor herself, spits out the mouthful of skin and bone; and levers herself up so she can sink her spade tool into the monster's other eye.

It gives another bone rattling shriek as she pushes off its giant head. The beast is blinded and its thrashing is quickly getting weaker, but the others are circling closer. She keeps heading toward the surface, but her paddling is awkward.

If she stays here she will be caught between them, but she isn't going to be able to work up the speed for a proper charge either.

What if she was wrong and one of these things managed to sneak up on Sanji and hurt him? It would be on her head. Not that she'll have much time to regret it.

A tornado of fire strikes the surface and streaks through the water, leaving a trail of steam bubbles behind as it snaps between the creatures stalking her.

Monstrous bodies start to appear clearly, their camouflaging colors fading to dark grey as their necks are snapped one after another.

The number had been six not four, two more had been coming up underneath her.

The comet finishes up by slamming into the one still weakly thrashing behind her, causing it to go silent.

The fire dissolves into the Strawhat chef treading water in front of her. He looks pissed.

Ripa snaps her mouth shut from her slack jawed stare and tastes blood. She must look appalling right now, teeth stained red from attacking like an animal.

He has probably realized she knew there was danger here. Though it turned out to be both more and less then she had suspected.

"Well, the least I can do is keep my end of the bargain," She turns to dive down and retrieve the clams.

Sanji's arms latch around her waist and a moment later they are shooting up. He doesn't stop at the surface, continuing to push off the air until he can deposit her on the ground.

"You stay right shitty here," he demands before turning and jumping back in. A minute later he is back with the basket, several hundred pounds of oversized clams resting inside. Guess she worried about the water pressure for nothing.

He rummages around in her tool basket and pulls out a towel, muttering "I turn my back for one shitty minute…"

He starts tearing the cloth into strips as she gingerly pours fresh water from her canteen over her foot. Three of the monsters teeth caught her foot between the outer most bones, they are probably cracked. She's lucky she didn't lose half her foot. She's lucky she's alive.

Sanji starts wrapping the strips of towel around her foot, still scowling. Ripa offers a quiet, "Thank you for saving me. I was hoping I could deal with the threat on my own."

Sanji's response has a growl in it, "You knew there were monsters in this cove. I figured you were hiding something from me, but I didn't think it was that you were suicidal."

Ripa takes offence at that, "I am not! I just wanted to get those clams I've had eye on for weeks! And I was being careful! I knew even if I couldn't kill whatever was here, it would be no problem for you." She hesitates, saying that last part out loud makes it sound kind of bad, "And we got the clams so its ok, right?"

Blackleg looks incredulous, "Do you think these clams are going to mean more to your mother then the fact that you nearly got eaten?"

Ripa tries to hold onto her defensiveness, "I didn't expect to get hurt this badly, so I didn't think she would find out." She wilts, that also sounds pretty bad when she says it out loud. Sanji raises an eyebrow at her.

After a few moments of struggling with her pride, she mumbles out, "Sorry for being so pathetic that you had to help me. I need to get better weapons and learn how to use them."

Sanji blinks at this conclusion, "You intend to keep swimming even though there might be more of those things lurking around?" He finishes wrapping her foot and ties off the makeshift bandage.

Ripa nods, it's obvious, isn't it? "I'm pretty much a failure as a fishman if I can't even swim in my home waters. What else am I going to do?"

Sanji snorts as he stands up and brushes off his knees, "As my captain would say, whatever the hell you want. On Fishman Island there's a whole modern city occupied almost exclusively by fishmen and mermaids. You've really never thought about what that means?"

Perhaps it is foolish that she has never consciously considered how the inhabitants of the underwater city spend their time, but it's like he just threw open the doors to a gloomy, stuffy room. All she can offer in explanation is, "I've seen other fishmen time to time. They're always pirates and usually pretty scary looking."

She shrugs her shirt back on and ties her head covering back in place as she thinks. She gets along well enough with the people in her neighborhood; they often complement her on the quality of her catches. And she loves the reef, but… "It would be nice to know what it's like to just blend into a crowd. I'd probably still be weird there, but at least it wouldn't be tattooed on my face."

"Don't sell yourself short, tropical fish markings seemed to be popular in the ads I saw in the market down there," Sanji finishes buttoning up his shirt, "And if you still want to learn to fight underwater, that would be the place to go for that too."

Ripa tilts her head, "You aren't going to tell me I have to stay away from the dangerous water?"

Sanji pulls a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and talks around it as he lights up, "I've learned over time that sometimes the best way to keep people safe is to help them become stronger." He blows out smoke while looking away, "You have courage; with a little training you could rule the waters around this island."

At that compliment she grins in a sincere and, Sanji thinks, deliberately menacing way, "I like that idea."

Focusing on gingerly working her foot through the leg of her pants deflates her new found sense of bravado a bit.

Sanji puts the towels on top of the basket of clams, helps her get herself settled, and then hefts the whole three hundred plus pounds up onto his shoulders and starts jogging back along the trail to town.

He really is an amazing and incredibly kind hearted person, Ripa thinks. It's shame he turns into a flailing mess whenever he sees a pretty girl. He seems cursed to only gain the kind regard of those he doesn't desire it from. It's the first time she's felt lucky to look the way she does. She's actually gotten to talk to him.


When they get to her home, Ripa tells Sanji to wait while she goes inside to tell her mother where she has been all morning.

Regina shrieks at the bloody bandages on Ripa'a foot. Then she has to stop gathering medical supplies to thump Ripa on the head several times over the course of her daughter's story.

The fish girl finishes her confession and leans back in a chair in the kitchen, while her mother cleans out the wounds in her foot.

"Unbelievable girl, how could you do this to your poor mother?" The older woman shakes her head and then says with the air of someone looking for an out, "You sure you're not just smitten with a pretty face?"

"Maaaa, were you listening to anything I just said? He. Saved. My. Life. That's not an exaggeration. I've been dying to get to that clam bed for weeks and I did something dumb and he saved me." She pouts her already prominent lips, "If I can't convince you to teach him, who knows what I'll have to do to pay him back?"

Her mother swats her on the leg, "Don't say things like that!" She rubs the bridge of her nose and mutters, "Ah, what kind of daughter have I raised? Ok fine! Let it never be said we don't pay our debts."


Regina opens the door and addresses the younger chef leaning against the wall of her house.

"Ok, young man, I owe you thanks for saving my foolish daughter's life," she gestures to the basket and actually smiles; "The bribe doesn't hurt either. Drag that in here."

Regina hefts the first giant clam out of the basket and starts scrubbing down its outer shell. Ripa limps over to a large wooden butcher's block and pulls out a cleaver. She takes the first cleaned clam, places one hand on top and swings hard with the thick bladed knife wedging it into the seam of the shell. See works it around a little before pulling it out and repeating the process two more times on the front and other side.

With a final twist and a huff she pries the two halves of the clam shell apart. The inside is lined with creamy white swirled with fractal spirals of iridescent color. Ripa uses a smaller knife to cut the clam meat away from the shell. They now have about three pounds of clam meat and ten pounds of shell.

Sanji, who had watched the process, eagerly reaches for the next clam, "Here, let me try." He steps up to the block and deftly wedges the heavy knife into the shell, smoothly dragging it around the seam and popping it open with a twist of the blade.

When he looks up from cutting the meat away Ripa is giving him a toothy smile, she holds out a colander for him to put the meat into and nods toward her mother. He glances over to see Regina giving him a look of consternation, which she quickly covers by handing him another clam and turning back to the basket.

Ripa leaves him to split the clams and starts helping her mother scrub. Pretty soon they have about sixty pounds of the greyish meat ready to be made into dishes. As Regina and Sanji start discussing recipes, Ripa starts quietly moving half the shells into another room so she can work on them without disturbing the two chefs.

She can tell her mother's defensiveness is still warring with her desire to talk shop with someone who shares the passion that drove her to leave her home all those years ago. Sanji is unwaveringly polite though as she starts giving him instructions.

Her Ma has him start chopping onions; apparently most dishes that involve clams also require onions. The kitchen is filled with the rapid fire clatter of the knife against the board. Ripa pauses for a few moments to appreciate his speed. She's no cook, but it takes confidence and skill to pass a knife that close to one's fingers that fast. She looks over and just barely avoids giggling at her mother's dumbfounded expression. She hefts up the last few shells and limps to her workbench.

A couple hours later she finishes grinding the first shell down to its iridescent inner lining and stops to stretch. She pulls off her dust mask and goggles and shakes out her bandanna before going to check on them.

There're lots of wonderful smells coming from the kitchen now. They've finished with clams and moved on to what Sanji had originally come to ask about. There's a pot of seafood stew on the stove. She takes a bowl and sits down at the kitchen table.

Regina gestures at a large bowl filled with corn kernels stripped off their cobs, "If you want to keep all of the flavor you need to make the dough directly from fresh corn," she pulls out the bag of slaked lime she keeps in one of the cabinets and starts measuring it into a pot of water, "This will help soften it up."

"If you do use the dried stuff, keep in mind that even that is not the same as corn meal," she waves the measuring cup at him, like she thinks he's going to contradict her on this point.

Sanji smiles, "Of course not mam, they don't even use the same types of corn."

While they're waiting for the corn to soak Regina starts going over prepping the pork and seasoning for the filling.

Ripa sidles over and takes another bowl of stew. Her Ma is going over stuff even Ripa knows about trimming meat, but Sanji just nods as she talks and then starts working on the pork loin while asking questions about the chilies used in the seasoning.

She finishes up the second bowl, letting the conversation flow past her. She knows she won't remember most of what they're talking about right now, but it's fascinating how engaged they both are in the conversation.

She hopes someday she finds something that makes her light up like that.

In the meantime, she will keep saving up to help her sister get to Water Seven. She smiles at the thought of accompanying Maritza as far as Fishman Island. It's a long journey and a dangerous one, it would be better if they make it together.

She should write her aunt. These are turbulent times in her mother's old home, and yet soon they may be safer there then in the New World, considering the recent unbalancing of the Emperors' domains.

Ripa gets up to get another bowl of stew. She's is glad her mother has never paid much attention to the bounty posters. It would probably be best if she doesn't discover that the man now blending chilies and spices on other side of the counter from her had a major hand in that as well.


I thought about naming this story 'Sanji's True Love,' but I was worried that, despite the tags, that might lead people to expect shipping.

Thank you for reading :)
Constructive criticism or tag suggestions welcome.