Sanji had always thought that he had been dreaming, hallucinating, going absolutely crazy! But what stood directly in front of him, teeth dripping with fresh blood, proved him very VERY wrong.
The giant dog that Sanji had seen only a week ago was in the center of the crows nest, hunched over something that Sanji could only believe was the source of all the blood.
The dog stared at Sanji with unmoving eyes, letting Sanji know that it had heard the cook drop the soup bowl and was not very keen on letting the cook get away with it.
Sanji could do nothing but stare back, confusion washing over him like cold water from a shower. How had a massive dog-wolf-thing gotten into the crows nest without anyone knowing? And more importantly where the hell was Zoro!?
The cooks blood ran cold as he thought about what the dog had been eating. Praying to whatever god would listen that it was not who he thought it was.
The dog licked its blood stained lips as it continued to stare at the cook, not moving a single muscle. The cook not daring to break eye contact with the creatures surprisingly heterochromatic eyes. One dark grey, the other a bright golden that illuminated the dogs face in the darkness that surrounded it.
After a few seconds of this, Sanji finally found his voice. His cold blood began to boil instead as he thought about what this creature could have done to his friend. Sanji glared at the best.
"What the fuck did you do to Zoro you son of a bitch." He hissed lowly.
The dogs ears perked up at the name 'Zoro' and its position relaxed, greatly surprising the cook. But this was short lived as it quickly went on alert again, anger evident in its eyes.
The dog began to growl at the cook. It lifted itself up on all four legs and glared at Sanji, its pupils formed into slits as it bared its sharp teeth.
Sanji flinched at this and slowly started to move back as the dog approached him. At the sight of the cooks movements the dog growled louder to the point that Sanji knew that it was not a dog, but some sort of wolf.
Its ears were low and it was hunched close to the floor, making it obvious to Sanji that it would pounce on him and kill him instantly if he let his guard down. The cook did not yield.
Soon the two of them were circling each other, waiting for the other to show any form of weakness. Sanji knew that if he was going to make it out of there alive then he would have to fight.
Sanji quickly looked to the carcass on the floor his stomach twisting when he saw it move slightly. The cook was about to think that it was Zoro until it moved again, flopping around in fear and pain of the hardwood floor below it.
Sanji breathed out a sigh of relief after his brain finally understood that the wolf had been eating a giant fish. But that still did not tell Sanji where the swordsman had gone off to.
The creature let out a loud bark and charged at the cook. Sanji had to jump to the side to dodge the large creature.
It quickly whipped around, smacking Sanji straight in the chest with its tail. The cook flew to the side and gasped for air, completely winded.
The wolf growled lowly, its deadly intentions evident as is slowly crept towards the cook.
Sanji picked himself back up and glared at the creature in fury.
"Alright that's it." He muttered. "You asked for this." Sanji quickly whipped his leg forward and struck the wolf in the side of its head. It yelped loudly and it stumbled to the side after the impact. Sanji took this chance to finish it off.
To the cooks absolute surprise the wolf was able to reorient itself much faster then he had predicted and it lashed out at him again.
Sanji quickly dodged and tried a counter attack, but was thrown off by a surprisingly fast tail to the chest once again.
The cook had underestimated how strong and fast the creature actually was. It was even able to shake off Sanjis kicks like they were nothing.
The cook knew he would not be able to slay the beast, so fending it off until he thought of a reasonable escape plan was the only way he could survive.
The wolf pounced again, but Sanji was ready that time. He dodged and kicked again, that time hitting it square in the jaw.
The wolf yelped and stumbled back and Sanji took the small window of time that it took for the beast to attack again to flee the scene.
Sanji ran out the door to the crows nest and quickly began climbing down to the main deck.
The wolf followed him out and glared at him, its single golden eye lighting up its entire face.
It tried to follow Sanji out on the ropes, but realized that it was far too big to keep itself up. It stepped back and growled in frustration.
Sanji flipped it off and continued to quickly climb down the ropes until he made it to the deck. He looked up to see that the wolf had gone back inside the crows nest in defeat.
The cook let out an exasperated sigh and quickly walked off to the other side of the ship. He would go back to that big problem later, after all, he still needed to find Zoro.
ZOSAN
Deciding to not wake the others in fear of being called crazy again, Sanji walked around the ship, looking in every corner to see if he could find the swordsman.
After looking for seemingly hours, Sanji found no sign of the green haired man. It was like he had just disappeared off the face of the earth.
Sanji began to become a bit nervous and worried. Zoro was nowhere to be found and there was a giant wolf running around the crows nest. Sanji wondered if he really was going crazy.
He circled around the top deck once more before searching every other level once again.
Nothing.
After scratching for what felt like hours, the cook finally gave up. Though that did not exactly lessen his anxiety.
Sanji sighed and took out a cigarette as he stood on the grassy deck once again. He lit it up and took in a sharp inhale before breathing it out again.
He stared up at the sky, the full moon reflecting all of its light on the water's surface almost making it glow. It was beautiful.
A loud bang interrupted Sanjis short moment of peace however. The cook snapped out of his trance and stared at where the sound had emitted from.
The crows nest.
Sanjis blood ran cold as he remembered the giant wolf that was still up there. Was it trying to escape? Or was just making a mess of the crows nest? Whichever it was, Sanji had to put a stop to it. He had wasted enough time searching for the damn swordsman, but he really had to focus on the main threat. A giant wolf that somehow ended up in the crows nest.
The cook ran over to the ropes leading to the crows nest and began to climb, without the soup bowl on his head he made it to the top in less then a minute.
The cook ran to the door and threw it open to confront the wolf.
"Oi!! Over here you piece of shit!!" Sanji gained the idea to trick the wolf into charging at him and, if the cook moved out of the way quickly enough, it would fall off of the crows nest and either on the deck or into the ocean. Either one would definitely knock it out, perhaps even kill it. But of course, Sanji first needed to piss it off enough for it to actually charge him.
Sanjis outburst got the wolfs attention. It turned around and growled at the cook, teeth sharp and bloodstained. Sanji glared back at it.
The wolf barked again and charged, just as Sanji had planned it to.
He held his ground, but was prepared to jump out of the way when the time was right.
Sanji counted down in his head from three as the wolf charged him, readying himself to jump when he reached two, shifting his foot when he reached one, and diving to the left when he reached zero.
As soon as he did this the wolf emerged through the door and, as Sanji had planned, was about to fall off of the crows nest.
But something happened that the cook had definitely NOT planned.
Instead of going over the edge from its head-on charging momentum, it swung its body to the side and was stopped by the railing.
Sanji was stunned at how smart the creature was. As if it knew that there was a railing there to stop it.
Sanjis surprise was short lived however as the wolf was facing him and definitely not happy.
It growled at the cook with pure anger. Sanji tried to defend himself with a swift kick to its muzzle, but the wolf somehow grabbed his leg with its mouth mid kick.
Sanji cried out in pain as the wolf dug its teeth into his leg, but it was not finished there.
With a firm grip on Sanjis leg, it was able to lift him up into the air.
Sanji was held upside down by the wolf and, without any warning, it tilted its head to the side and then swung Sanji to the right, letting go of its grip on the cooks leg.
Throwing the cook over the side.
Sanji let out a terrified scream as he fell from the crows nest, unable to find anyway to stop his fall.
The damn wolf watched over the side as he fell, and became smaller and smaller as Sanji got closer to the deck.
Was he going to die or just be knocked out? Sanji had no idea, and no time to even make a plan to stop his fall. He could only brace himself for the impact, knowing that it would hurt like hell.
The cook felt his body hit a hard surface, pain coursed through his back, and then his mind went dark.
