When Sanji opened his eyes, all he could see was darkness. He tried to move his arms and legs, but he wasn't able to. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark room.
When he was finally able to see, he noticed that he wasn't alone in the room. Most of the crew was there as well. The only ones missing were Usopp, Zoro and Luffy. Those three weren't there when they were attacked. He also noticed that he was in fact pinned to the wall and not laying down as he originally thought.
The cook looked down at his arms to see what was holding them down. There were metal straps on them, attaching them to the wall. He guessed his legs were in the same condition. The rest of the crew was in the same position as he was. He seemed to be the only one awake right now.
He groaned, tugging at the restrains. The straps didn't budge an inch. Frustration grew in him. Damn, why had they underestimated them so much? Did they even have a chance of winning?
It's all the fault of those two bastards..
- Flashback-
The sun was starting do go down and most of the crew was back. Dinner was almost ready. Luffy and Zoro were not back yet, like always. Usopp was not back either.
'They better be back before dinner or they won't get any food.' Sanji thought, but knowing him, the three would still get their meal. Hungry people (and women of course) were his weak point.
"Guys, there are strangers approaching the Sunny!" Franky suddenly yelled at the others. Some of the crew stood up to see what he was talking about while others just continued doing whatever they were doing, trusting their friends to take care of the situation.
Sanji walked out of the kitchen and to the rail to take a look. There were indeed two men approaching the ship. They didn't seem to be posing any threat to the crew, but somehow Sanji wasn't completely reassured. He didn't know why, but he had a weird feeling about the men.
"Can we help you with something?" Sanji asked the men. One of them, the skinny, long-haired man, answered. "You could come with us without resist, but I don't think you would do that, am I right?" He said. Sanji frowned. "Why would we come with you? Trying to capture us?" He said in a somewhat mocking manner. The men didn't seem to be that strong and if there was something needed to take care of the strawhat crew, then it was strength.
The skinny man sighed. "I take that as a sign to take you all with force." He said. The men then jumped on board. Sanji and a few others took a fighting stance. The men just stood there. The long-haired man seemed to be waiting on something.
"Dammit Dean, you're gonna do it or what? We don't have all day!" The man finally snapped at his companion. The other man, who was slightly shorter and had a little more muscle than the other man, groaned. "I get paid way too little for this.." He said before holding up his hands. A small, white ball of light formed between his hands.
'Crap, he's a devil fruit user!' Sanji thought. He began to move to attack the men, but he was too late. The man, Dean, threw the ball of light towards the crew where it exploded in some kind of shock wave. The wave of light hit everyone on the ship, except of the two strangers.
Everyone froze, but not because they wanted to. They just couldn't move. No matter how much they tried, they just couldn't move a muscle. They were literally frozen in place. The only thing they could do was breath and watch their enemy's next move.
Dean grinned. "Alright. Now, do your job Sergio." He said to the other man. Sergio grabbed his bag, which Sanji hadn't noticed before, and opened it. He took out a spray bottle.
The man walked towards the closest person near him, Franky, and sprayed some kind of liquid in the cyborg's face with the spray bottle. Franky couldn't do anything to stop him. Not even five seconds later the cyborg passed out. His body was still standing because of the other guy's weird power.
Sergio then walked over to Robin. The cook wanted to attack the man, yell not to touch the lady. He tried with all his might to break free from the man's power. But he couldn't. He was forced to watch as the man sprayed whatever it was in Robin's face. He was forced to watch her eyes roll in the back of her head.
The man with the spray bottle then walked over to Sanji. He held the bottle up to his face and sprayed. The cook tried not to breathe in, holding his breath for as long as he could. Sergio continued to the next person.
Not even a minute had passed before everyone was unconscious. Sanji's lungs were burning for air. He just couldn't hold it any longer. At the same time he breathed in, his body was released from the man's power. He fell to the ground, his body not strong enough to hold him up. The spray had taken effect and he was losing consciousness fast.
The last thing he saw before he passed out was a ship approaching the Sunny. The same ship that had followed them ever since they entered the New World.
-Flashback end-
Sanji groaned. He was so angry at himself. He, as one of the monster trio, should have been able to keep the crew safe. Why couldn't he? He fought against his restrains. They still wouldn't budge. He couldn't break them.
He sighed. They'll just have to wait for the others to arrive. They would get them out for sure.
A few hours had passed since the sunrise. Luffy, Zoro and Usopp had already eaten their breakfast, though they didn't eat as much as they normally would, especially Luffy. The food they had made for themselves didn't even come close to what Sanji could make and they weren't that hungry to begin with.
Usopp was sitting on the bench near the mast. Luffy had taken over the helm since the sharpshooter had steered the Sunny all night. Usopp was trying to catch some sleep, but just like the others he couldn't. He was worried about the crew.
Then there was the note. He hadn't had the opportunity to read anything that was written on the piece of paper before Luffy put it away, but he did hear who was responsible for their missing friends and that they wanted to trade them for his captain. Why did those people want their captain so badly? They didn't try to capture any of the other crew members except for him. If they were some kind of bounty hunters they would try to kill or capture all the members of the crew instead of only Luffy. Sure, the captain had the highest bounty on his head, but the rest of the crew were worth millions too. And bounty hunters would probably look for an other target when they realized that they couldn't defeat them.
In other words, the situation didn't really make sense.
Usopp decided that he should probably ask Luffy and Zoro about this. Somehow, he had the feeling they knew more about this than they let on.
The sniper stood up and walked towards the place where his captain should be. Luffy was indeed still steering the ship. Zoro was standing next to him. They were not talking, just staring at the sea before them. They turned to face him when the sniper approached them.
"Hey guys, can I talk to you for a second?" Usopp asked the other two males. Both of them nodded. The teen took a deep breath before talking. "I.. I don't know what is going on, but at least one of you must know a little more than me. Luffy, why do they want you so badly? It can't be because of your bounty, because that wouldn't make sense. They would take everyone if they wanted to collect the money that's on our heads, not just you. Please, tell me. What is going on? What do they want from you?"
Luffy's eyes left Usopp's as he looked back at the ocean. Part of him was telling him to just tell the sharpshooter what he was. He was part of his crew, his friend. He deserved to know. But another part of him was yelling at him not to tell anything. The voice in his head was telling him that Usopp would hate him, hurt him, and, worst of all, leave the crew again.
But than again, Zoro told him he didn't need to worry about it. The crew loves him and that wouldn't change, even if he was a little different than them. He's still the same person, right? He didn't need to worry. Actually, he didn't even know why he was so hesitant about revealing himself to the crew. It was like some sort of instinct that wanted to keep the dragon inside secret.
Luffy turned to face his friends. His eyes met Zoro's only eye. The swordsman knew what he was going to do and nodded, encouraging him to tell the other man.
Luffy then looked at Usopp. The sniper looked back at him, waiting for him to tell him something. Anything that would at least explain a little about their situation.
Luffy sighed. How was he going to do this? He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck as he started to talk.
"Usopp, I'm not what you and the rest of the crew think I am. I'm not.. I'm not completely human. I know that it sounds weird and all, but.." He paused for a second.
"..I am part dragon."
Zoro gave a little smile, almost if saying 'Look, that wasn't that bad, right?'. Usopp, on the other hand, had an unreadable look on his face. Luffy waited for his reaction.
Finally, Usopp started to talk. "So, you're saying that you are some kind of mythical beast without any of us knowing? Are you joking? This is not the time to joke around. I was serious about my question, you know." He said. Luffy sighed. "And I'm serious about my answer."
Usopp shook his head. "It's impossible. There's no way you're a dragon. You don't look like one at all!" He yelled.
Luffy looked a little troubled by the sniper's answer and looked at his first mate. The swordsman was a bit irritated by Usopp's reaction. Couldn't he at least try to understand? Luffy's eyes asked the swordsman for help. How could he convince the other man? He only could think of one way.
"Should I show him?" Luffy asked. Zoro nodded. It seemed like the only option they had.
Luffy took a few stepped away from the other men and started to take off his clothes. Usopp was taken aback by this. "Hey wait, why are you taking off your clothes?" He asked, slightly looking away when the rubberman removed his shorts (still not wearing underpants).
The captain took a deep breath and began to change his appearance. Usopp set a few steps backwards in shock, tripping over his own feet and landing on his rear. Zoro had seen it countless of times before, but he still found it very fascinating to watch. Usopp just watched the transformation in awe.
Not long after the change started, it ended. Luffy, now the big red and black dragon, looked down at the sharpshooter. Usopp looked back at the beast. The man didn't know what to say. He was really confused. Not even a minute ago he was looking at his captain, human captain, and now there was a huge dragon in front of him.
"W-what.. H-how.." Usopp stuttered. The creature took a step towards the sniper. Usopp backed up a little, unsure what the dragon wanted from him, temporarily forgetting that the beast was his kind-hearted captain.
The other teen's movements saddened Luffy a bit. Usopp seemed scared of his dragon form. The dragon stopped approaching the other man and sat down on the ground.
'Do you believe me now, Usopp?' Luffy asked. The sniper jumped slightly at his friend's voice. Even though the dragon's mouth didn't move, the voice came from the direction of the beast.
"I-is that really you, Luffy?" Usopp asked a bit unsure. The dragon nodded. The sniper looked even more confused now. "B-but how? How is this possible? Why are you a dragon?" Usopp asked. The beast shrugged. 'Honestly, I have no idea..'
They were very close to their destination now. Luffy was back in his human form and he had told Usopp all he had to know about his dragon form. He also told the other teen that he and Zoro trained on the islands they docked at and in the training room.
Luffy and Usopp were now both sitting on deck. Zoro was steering the ship (he would hopefully not bring the ship off course). The teens were sitting in silence. It wasn't exactly a comfortable silence, so one of them decided to break it.
"Why didn't you tell us? We're your friends, right? You can trust us." Usopp said. Luffy sighed. He knew that question would come. "I don't know.. I guess I was afraid of your reactions. That and I didn't really know how to say it.." The rubberman replied.
The silence returned for another ten seconds before Usopp spoke again. "You know, what I said about hating winged creatures.. it doesn't apply to you. I don't hate you at all. Sorry if I made you think I did.." He said. Luffy gave a small smiled. The sniper continued. "And if I said something else that might have upset you, I apologize for that too." He said. Luffy smiled brighter. "Thank you, Usopp."
Usopp smiled back at the other man before standing up. "I'm going to check if we're still on track. You never know with Zoro." He said and walked in the direction of the steering wheel.
Now, Luffy was alone on the deck. He was still smiling. He was glad he told Usopp. He still needed to tell the others, but telling at least one person was a begin.
His mind then went to the rest of his crew. He wondered how they were doing. He missed them. It was really quiet on the ship right now. With only three people on the Sunny, the ship felt empty. He hated that feeling.
Half a day had passed now and the three of them had almost arrived at the place the coordinated led to. It was a small island without any vegetation. It looked like a big rock in the water.
The closer they came, the more they could see. One thing they could see were three ships docked at the island. One of the ships was a little bigger than the Thousand Sunny while the other two were not even half the size of their ship. There were no people to be seen.
Some time later the Sunny docked at the island. The three crew members went through their plan one last time. It wasn't really a plan, more like a back-up plan because it was almost impossible to let a certain rubberman follow plans. "Remember Luffy. You have ten minutes before we jump in action, so you better be done by then." Zoro said. The teen nodded.
Luffy then got off the ship and walked in the direction of the biggest ship. That's where his crew was. At least, that's what the note said. He just hoped that they were okay.
Now, he had to get the crew out and beat up those stupid people. They didn't know what the plan of those people was, but if they were smart enough to take the crew, then they must have a good one. They needed to be prepared for everything.
Luffy approached the enemy's ship, his hat shading half of his face.
It's time to get his crew back.
AN: Sorry for the late update. I was on vacation the last two weeks and the chapter wasn't done yet before that.
I don't think there are many chapters left after this one. Maybe two or three. Like I said at the end of the first chapter, I didn't really know how to continue this story (I'm literally making most of the story up while writing it). It was more like a one shot I wrote. The reason I continued is because you all wanted it. You were/are the motivation I needed to write this story, to continue this story.
Thank you all so much of reading this story.
