Chapter 3

"Nice to meet you. I'm Monkey D. Luffy, but Luffy for short."

Not quite sure how to act towards a person like him, Zoro's movements suddenly became awkward and rigid. Thankfully, he found a seat was left for him at the wall opposite Luffy's cell.

As he sat down, Luffy's smile faded into a pout, "Why are you sitting so far away? Come, sit closer. I promise I won't bite."

Shuddering ever so slightly, Zoro shuffled his chair forwards, but so he was still a good distance away from Luffy.

"Closer," Luffy said in a teasing tone.

Feeling extremely uncomfortable at how laid back Luffy was, he edged forwards even further, leaving him a couple of paces away from the glass, just in case.

Sitting down cross-legged behind the glass, Luffy grinned up at the man on the other side.

"What's your name? You haven't told me yet."

Clearing his throat, Zoro replied, "DCI Roronoa Zoro. I'd like to ask…"

"Can I see your I.D.?"

Slightly annoyed, Zoro reached into the inner pocket of his jacket, and removed his I.D., and pressed it firmly against the glass.

Leaning forwards to get a closer look, Luffy's eye's brightened up, "COOL! I wish I had one of those! That's awesome!"

Replacing the wallet back in it's rightful place, he said, "Well, if you wouldn't mind…"

"What does DCI mean?" Luffy cut in, before Zoro could finish his sentence.

Rolling his eyes, he said, "It stands for Detective Chief Inspector."

"Oh!" Luffy cried in realisation, "You look a bit young to be so high up in the ranks. How old are you?"

"Look, I don't have time to…"

"Sure you do. So, how old are you?" Luffy cut his sentence short once again.

Deciding it best to keep the guy amused, Zoro answered, "I'm twenty one."

"Wow!" Luffy said in amazement, "You must be really good huh?"

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth, "You could say that. Now, let me speak to you for a couple of minutes, then we can chat all you want."

"Sure thing!" Luffy grinned.

"Right, I need to ask you a few questions about your old friend Zeff."

"Zeff?" for a couple of moments, Luffy racked his brain, trying to remember who he was, "Oh yeah! I remember, I did some work for him a couple of times, since I blew up a part of his restaurant, the Baratie…and grabbed a few snacks along the way."

"Blew up!" Zoro couldn't believe what he was hearing, "How did you manage that!"

"Well, when I was fifteen, I was the kinda kid that liked to play with things that went bang! So, when I was with my parents at Baratie, I accidentally brought one of my home made bombs with me. I thought it'd be a laugh to set it off in the toilets, so I did…but Zeff caught me, and made me work for him to pay for the damages. When my parents died, Zeff took me in for a year until I got on my feet, and I worked for him some more."

"How did your parents die?"

"I ate them!"

Leaping ten feet in the air, Zoro was beyond shocked, "What! You ATE your own PARENTS! How could you!"

Luffy began to laugh hysterically, "Bwahahahahahaha! I was just kidding! Geez, I say I ate someone, and people automatically believe me!"

Wiping the sweat drop from his brow, Zoro sighed, "Jesus! You shouldn't joke about things like that!"

"Why not?" asked a bemused Luffy, "It's funny! To answer your question though, my parents went missing. Nobody ever found them."

Trying to avoid the subject, as Zoro noticed the boys slight frown, he got back to the point, "Well, Zeff died recently," sadness filled the boy's eyes, "He supposedly died of a heart attack, but the police department have reason to believe that he was murdered. I'm trying to track down his stepson, Sanji. He might be able to let it slip how and who killed him, and I'd also like to get evidence on his drug circuit. Now, do you know anything that could help me?"

"I remember Sanji! We used to hang out a lot! After work that is. Zeff took him in when he was seven. He must be feeling really bad right now."

"I doubt it kid. He seems to be loving it, since he's inherited all of Zeff's wealth. Now, can you help me or not?"

"Hmmm?" the cogs in his head began to turn, plotting, planning, "No, I don't think I can."

"You can't or won't?" Zoro was pissed off with his attitude.

"Well, I might be able to help, but the problem is…"

"What's the problem?" He just wanted to get out of this dank place. His patience was running very thin.

"…the problem is, I can't do anything while I'm in here." Luffy tapped the glass suggestively.

"Hell no!" this was just great, now the kid was trying to bribe him, "You're a cannibal for fuck sake! How am I meant to trust you, never mind get others to trust you?"

"You'll figure something out, that is, if you want to crack this case that badly."

Kicking the chair from beneath himself, Zoro cursed, "Quit fucking me about Luffy! All you need to do, is tell me some things about Zeff, and that's it!"

Shaking his head, continually smiling, "Nope. Sorry, no can do."

Punching the wall behind him, Zoro placed his hot head onto the cool bricks, "…Fine. I'll see what I can do. But, if this goes through, you'll have to be supervised non-stop. And, once it's all done, you'll be back in prison, is that clear?"

"Yup, sure is!" Luffy stood up, and wiped the dust off his jeans, "Just one more condition though."

"What?" Zoro knew this probably wouldn't work, but even if it did, he couldn't keep asking his boss for more favours.

"It's been a dream of mine, to live by the sea," he went over to one of his paintings, and ran his finger down it longingly, "I know I'll be spending the rest of my life in prison, and I'm only nineteen. I've still got a long way to go. So, I'd like to be in a low security prison, with a window, that has a view of the sea. I wouldn't cause any ruckus, and I'm a man of my word. I'm sure a small request like that will be easy to get."

Softly smiling, feeling sympathy for Luffy, Zoro said, "I'll see what I can do, okay? I'll be back in a day or two. You'll be notified if you'll be leaving. So, I guess it's goodbye for now."

Picking up the chair and placing back against the wall, Zoro started for the exit.

Meanwhile, around two hundred miles from the imprisoned Luffy, his old friend was currently situated at a small pig farm.

Flashing a handful of paper money at the farmer, he asked the old man if he could feed his pigs what he liked to call 'a little something special'. More than willingly, the farmer snatched the money, and told the well dressed man to go ahead.

Motioning to his henchmen, they got the message, and went to get the pig's 'feast'.

Poking the frail farmer dressed in a chequered shirt and dungarees, he warned, "Don't go spilling any dirt on tonight. You ain't seen or even heard of me right?" nodding his head, the farmer shoved the cash hastily in a pocket, "Believe me when I tell you that if I hear you've been talkin', I won't hesitate to pay you a little visit, comprende?"

"Y-y-yes, sir! Of course sir. Won't say a word, not one!"

The farmer gasped, as the young gentleman reached for something in his pocket. He sighed with relief, as the man was only removing a cigarette and lighter.

Lighting his cigarette, Sanji inhaled deeply, before slowly exhaling the fumes onto the old man.

"And for god sake! Go buy yourself some decent clothes!" he threw some extra cash at the man, who only watched it in awe, as it floated down onto the hay, "Not even my stepfather would be seen dead in those slacks!"

Why the man laughed, was unbeknownst to the old farmer, but he thought it best not to ask.

Flicking the ash from the end of his cigarette, the young man left the barn, not wanting to stay in the old man's presence any longer.

On entering the den, his right-hand, Gin, asked, "How shall we go about this Sanji?"

Nudging the corpse at his feet, he replied, "I don't know. Just chuck the old geezer in I guess."

"Right you are. Hey Patty, give us a hand would ya?"

"Why do I have to do the dirty work eh?" rubbing the back of his head, Patty looked in disgust at the body bag.

"Because you get paid good money, that's why!" Sanji glared sinisterly at Patty, "Now get to it. This old geezer is wasting my time. Even in death, he's deadweight."

Chuckling to himself, Sanji took great pleasure in watching his stepfather being slid out of the body bag, and then thrown into the pig pen. Gin and Patty turned away, as the pigs began consuming Zeff's corpse. But Sanji watched intently, both disgusted and sickly fascinated by the way the pigs greedily ripped the old geezer's flesh from his limbs.

"He always did look like a pig's dinner," Sanji joked, taking in the mixed stench of pig's sweat and the rotting corpse. Two weeks is a long time for a body to lie untouched. After shooting the old geezer down, Sanji decided just to dump him in an abandoned warehouse for a while, until everything settled down.

"I think I'm gonna puke," Patty stormed out the den. He couldn't stand the smell or squelching noises for much longer. Now, he deeply regretted ever betraying his old boss. At least he never made him do the dirty work.

Gin could understand why Patty had left. Even he was getting light-headed by the whole situation. Then if he left, he'd look bad in front of Sanji. To keep this job, you needed to be ready for anything, even witnessing the demise of an infamous drug lord, no matter how foul it was.

Dropping the butt of his cigarette, Sanji crushed it into the hay with the heel of his shoe, "Patty's gotta learn a few things, or I'm gonna be forced to get rid of him. I can't afford to risk my business, just cause someone is weak or doubtful. Especially now. I'm glad I can count on you Gin."

"Course Sanji. You're the boss."

"That's right. Now that the old geezer is outta the picture, I can make a fortune," picking out yet another cigarette, he hung it from his lips and lit it up.

"You know those things'll kill ya?" Gin said in all seriousness.

"Not unless one of Zeff's men kills me first eh. He may have been an old bastard, but some people were actually fond of the geezer. God knows why," Gin noticed the lighter was still lit in Sanji's hand. In turn, Sanji noticed that Gin had taken note of this.

"I wanna make sure there's no evidence left," he explained, "So, I'm gonna burn the den down."

"But, what about the owner?" Gin referred to the farmer, "What if he…"

"He ain't gonna say a word," Sanji reassured, "I gave him more than enough money to rebuild this dump. We'd better go."

"Aye, aye!"

Crunching through the filthy hay, Sanji looked towards the pit where the pigs and his stepfather was, "Adios 'Red Shoes'. I'll see you in hell."

Carefree, Sanji let the lighter drop to the ground. The fire began to slowly spread throughout the den.

Gin was almost disturbed at the way the flames ominously danced in Sanji's eyes. He looked like a malevolent demon, as a wicked grin formed on his handsome face.

Sweeping his golden hair back, Sanji let out a sigh of satisfaction, before leading Gin back to the car.

"Quit vomiting and get driving Patty!" Sanji ordered, as he gave the sickened man a whack on the back.

Wiping his grimy mouth, Patty reluctantly jumped into the black Mercedes, and escorted his new boss back to the penthouse, which Sanji had also inherited from his stepfather.

"Lucky bastard." Patty said inwardly.

Quite content, Sanji broke out the champagne, and drank from his flute glass, as he watched the burning building fade into the distance.

Evil Sanji is gooood! He makes the perfect villain, no? Once again, I'm sorry for the previous chapter, which stunk worse than dead rats (eww, that's bad). However, it was necessary as a link between this chapter and the prior ones. I'm sure that other writers will know exactly what I mean.

Next chapter, Zoro's got a lotta propositioning to handle, poor guy. And Luffy has some fun with chalk. Need I say more!

Well, as Sanji said earlier, 'Adios!'

R&R