He eyed the dish in front of him, scrutinizing it. He recognized it as a German chocolate cake right off the bat, but the smell that greeted him when it was placed in front of him differed quite a lot from what he'd traditionally expect. It was fresh out of the oven and clearly well-made, but there was a sweetness that didn't match dark chocolate, a fruitiness one couldn't get out of coconut…

"Juiced orange in the batter, sugar-toasted almonds in the filling. A little extra lemon for the topping, but that's not too unusual. Other than that, it's a standard German chocolate. The coconut is fresh from Jaya, not the cheap stuff from Binny Oat. A good choice."

The chef who'd brought out the dish stared at Sanji as if in a daze, accepting the compliment with a nod of his head as Katakuri waved him away. Just as it had been with the five other dishes before this, Sanji wasn't informed if his observations were correct.

It didn't matter. He knew he was right. His senses hadn't failed him once since his days at the Baratie, and the blank surprise on the faces of the chefs each time after Sanji guessed told him enough.

There were several more people lined up by the door, but Katakuri motioned for them to leave. He himself remained on the other side of the room, leaned up against the wall and flipping a jellybean up and down with his thumb, but Sanji felt the pressure in the air as the man focused on him. "I haven't heard of this ability before. Where did you learn it?"

Sanji inwardly reveled at the acknowledgement. He knew he was good, but the fact that he had something an island full of the best chefs in the world didn't was an entirely different boost to his ego. "Here and there. Some of it's just natural, but most came from traveling around. Everything looks different depending on what island you're on, so smell is one of the best ways to make sure you're getting what you want."

That wasn't the whole truth. Ivankov had been pretty adamant about making sure Sanji could identify a variety of ingredients by scent alone, but the New Kamas' methods of reinforcing his memory had been…unconventional. Sanji didn't really want to think about it.

Katakuri seemed to accept that answer. "Why were you sailing with Strawhat Luffy?"

"I wasn't. He's kept me captive on his ship for years, beating me daily and forcing me to feed him. I've just managed to escape, and now I'm finally free. Can I get a ship back to North Blue?"

Katakuri stopped flipping his bean.

Sanji waited another moment to see if he really believed it, but the man didn't speak, so he gave in. "He's my captain, idiot. Of course I'd be sailing with him."

Sanji was ready to dodge if he needed to, but there was no immediate repercussion for the insult. Katakuri's movement resumed.

"How were you recruited?"

"None of your business." It wouldn't really be that hard to get the information; if the Charlottes had been able to track his history all the way back to the Baratie, they should easily be able to find someone who knew about the incident with Don Krieg. Hell, if Sanji remembered correctly, there had even been a couple of articles in the newspapers about it.

"I'm willing to trade."

There it was again, that easy olive-branch offer. The way Katakuri seemed to be fine pretending that they weren't jailer and prisoner was really messing with Sanji's head. "Why the hell does this stuff matter to you? It's not going to help you."

"I'm interested in why a world-class chef would give up a safe life to travel with an unestablished rookie. It must be an extraordinary situation." Katakuri waited until Sanji opened his mouth to add, "And I would be able to know."

"I could just-" make something up and you'd never know.

Sanji didn't bother finishing his sentence. He'd heard about the strength of Katakuri's observation haki, but listening to rumors and seeing it in action were two completely different things. "Fine. But if you're already giving me a kitchen, who says I want anything else?"

Katakuri uncrossed his arms, holding up a rectangular box between two fingers. The thing was dwarfed in his hand, but Sanji would recognize a pack of cigs anywhere.

Fuck. That was another thing he'd been trying not to think of. He'd had to go without smoke for long periods of time before, several times when he'd foolishly neglected restocking his stash between islands and once when Chopper had hid them from him for a week in the better interest of his lungs, so he'd been mentally prepared to go dry while he was a prisoner. But having a box of his favorite brand waved practically in front of his face…

"You left quite a few of these in your former residence in the palace. It'd be no difficulty for us to procure more."

Sanji hesitated for a moment, gritting his teeth as he considered refusing just to see how Katakuri would react to it. Even if he'd made no attempt to hide his smoking habit, it still bothered him how easily Katakuri had gotten what he wanted. It wasn't like telling his story would help the man any, but the principle of it…

Whatever. He wanted a smoke a lot more than he wanted anything else right now. "Deal."

A flick of his finger sent the pack flying across the room, and Sanji reached up and caught it with ease. His hand automatically went to his back pocket for his lighter, then he swore as he remembered he was wearing borrowed clothes. That sneaky fucker…he'd probably have to trade something else for a lighter, why the hell hadn't he thought of-

Sanji's hand came up just in time to block the object from smacking him in the face, fingers closing over its cool metal surface.

"How were you recruited?" Katakuri asked, repeating his earlier question. He didn't seem to care that he'd just given a bargaining chip away for free.

Sanji didn't bother overthinking it, instead using the time to pull out a stick, light up, and take the drag he'd been dying for. "Pirates attacked the restaurant I worked at. Real mean fuckers, had a couple of ships and poison bombs with them. Luffy beat the shit out of them, so I felt like I owed it to him when he said he needed a cook. Been with him ever since."

"There's more to it than that."

Of course there was, but that was technically the way he'd been 'recruited.' "Maybe. How would you know?"

"I can sense when you're holding back."

Sanji considered calling bullshit, but his curiosity got the better of him. Katakuri just wasn't in a situation where he needed to lie; the guy was intimidating enough on his own. He took another long drag. "How? Is it a part of observation haki?"

"Perhaps."

Sanji frowned. It was a fair turnabout, but half-answers were only fun when he was the one giving them. "Luffy can do it sometimes," he offered. "He knows when people are upset."

"I'm quite well acquainted with what your captain can and cannot do."

Sanji had the slightest sense that Katakuri was mocking him. Normally, he would've mocked him right back, and in fact he'd just opened his mouth to do so when a better idea occurred to him. "I'm willing to trade,"

When Katakuri fixed him with a scrutinizing stare he grinned back. The man didn't respond for a moment, but it didn't take long for him to decide. "What are you offering?"

"I'll answer any questions you have about why I'm in the crew. In return, you gotta answer my questions about what you can do."

"That would be heavily tilted in your favor."

"What? I'm just curious why you get to be big and psychic, that's all." He was only half-joking when he said it; a lot of the enemies he'd faced who'd been physically strong to begin with had chosen to augment their strength with armament haki, and those who had been physically weaker had generally chosen to train in observation haki. Katakuri's ability in the former had to be considerable if he'd taken on Luffy, but the man was known as a terror for his foresight, not his strength.

"I'll consider it."

It wasn't a 'no,' so Sanji let it slide. Besides…"So, when do I get to see my kitchen?"

Apparently, the house was already fitted with a kitchen, behind one of the many doors that had been kept closed over the past few days. All of the appliances were human-sized, which confused him until he realized that it was likely built for a live-in chef instead of for Katakuri's personal use.

It was a little dusty, having obviously lain unused for a good while, but it seemed to be fully furnished. Sanji recognized a massive walk-in refrigerator, an industrial rice cooker, and a stand mixer that stood taller than him from just a cursory glance.

The cabinets were empty, but before Sanji could even think of what he'd have to trade to get ingredients, Katakuri spoke up from behind him.

"Supplies will be arriving tomorrow."

Sanji took in this new information. For someone who kept trying to get what he wanted through a trading system, Katakuri sure seemed to give out a lot of freebies. Wasn't he the minister of flour or rice or something? How the hell was he running a business with that kind of attitude?

He turned his back to the dusty room, hating how far he had to look up just to meet the man's eyes. "Great. Hey, quick question."

"Because I'm curious."

"Why the hell are you- goddamnit." Letting me do this.

Sanji was annoyed enough at how Katakuri kept answering his questions before he'd even asked them, but what was really pissing him off was the answer itself. "Oh, so you're curious. What the hell am I, a pet project? Don't you have a job or something?"

"You're a very interesting person. I'd like to know what makes you function."

Any other time, in any other context, he would have taken those words as a pretty sweet compliment. Any other time.

It was enough to fray the last of Sanji's already-thin nerves. "You keep saying shit like that, but you don't even know me. I didn't even know you existed until the wedding! For fuck's sake, you shot at me! You were all trying to kill me! And now it's 'you're interesting' and 'what makes you function'? What the fuck is going on?"

Katakuri seemed to think on that for a moment, leaning up against the doorframe to the entrance of the room. Sanji hated how easily the man came across as calm and collected after he'd just railed his head off at him. "Were you aware of your father's opinion of you?"

What the fuck does that have to do with anything? "Judge? The thing where he calls me a useless waste of energy and not-his-kid? Yeah, I've heard it before."

"When speaking with Mama, he pretended that you were like your siblings, and that you'd just chosen to go to sea instead of remain with him. In private, he was different. He didn't realize that everything has ears here, and they all report to Mama."

Sanji had noticed the homies in cups, plates, tables, and even pictures on the walls. He'd always known he was being watched, but Katakuri seemed to be implying that Judge had been careless. "You thought I was just a failure, because that's what he thought of me. Yeah, I get it. So what?"

"We had never planned to allow your family to leave alive, but the fact that he was attempting to double-cross Mama by presenting a cast-off as a groom instead of one of his modified children was enough to doom him. People do not attempt to trick Mama and survive. We had no need for a useless ally, so you would have been killed as well."

Sanji was starting to see where this was going. "But I wasn't useless, was I? You just didn't know it."

"A common sea-cook traveling with a rookie pirate crew is not generally a wealth of culinary expertise. We had no reason to believe that you were anything special. Had we known what you were capable of, I assure you, the situation would have gone much differently."

Sanji couldn't help it at that; he had to laugh. It was a short, bitter laugh, and it left a bad taste in his mouth that had nothing to do with the cigarette he'd just finished. He could feel Katakuri's hard gaze on him, and it didn't take foresight to know what the man's next question would be.

Sanji pulled out another stick and lit up again; he needed the nicotine if he was going to be talking about his family. "That's exactly why I was a failure to him, you know. Because I wanted to cook, instead of fight. He said I'd die alone in some dirty alley, trying to make food while the others were out winning wars. It's just fucking gets me that after all this time, they'd have died and I'd have lived only because of my goddamn cooking."

Katakuri didn't seem to care to respond to that, but Sanji didn't need a response. With this new information, it wasn't hard to finally make sense of his whole fucked-up situation, and he planned to take advantage of the silence by putting the entire twisted thing out in the air.

"You didn't know about my cooking before the cake, so you didn't care about me. You tried your goddamn best to kill me and my crew because we wrecked your party, simple as that. Then Big Mom went on her rampage and you didn't have what she needed. I made the cake, it calmed her down, but my crew wasn't out of range yet."

Katakuri made no attempt to acknowledge or deny what he was saying, so after a short moment Sanji continued.

"The cake works, we're on our way out but you have a whole fleet of ships after us and Big Mom's ready to go. I jump ship to go fight her, for whatever dumbass fucking reason-" his head was still foggy on that, his memories hadn't gotten any clearer in the days since, "-and you realize what you've got by having me. You let my crew go. You've got what you want."

Still no answer from Katakuri.

"You know killing them would make me hate you, so you don't chase after them. You find me, you treat me and give me food and a place to stay, but you tell me I'm just a prisoner. Then you test me. You make sure I can replicate what I did with the cake. You give me a kitchen and supplies so I can cook, because you want to test me there too. You tell me I'm skilled, you say I'm interesting, you make me feel comfortable…I get it. You're trying to recruit me. You want me to leave Luffy and join you instead."

Stating it outright was finally enough to have Katakuri respond. "That would be ideal, yes."

At this point, Sanji hadn't really needed the confirmation, but it felt nice to hear it anyway. "Tough shit then. You'll just be disappointed. I'd never leave my crew."

"Interesting," Katakuri said, tone as frustratingly even as always, still casually relaxed against the doorframe. "We'll just have to see."