Fortunae Gauntlet

Part ten of a fanfiction by Velkyn Karma

Disclaimer: I do not own, or pretend to own, One Piece or any of its subsequent characters, plots or other ideas. That right belongs solely to Eiichiro Oda. The only thing that belongs to me here is the concept for the story.

"What brought you boy? Have you no fear of death?"

~On Baile's Strand, W.B. Yeats

It felt a little wrong to just abandon the marimo—no, Zoro—like they did. There was no place to hide his body, so they left it leaning against the rocks where he had died, still in the pool of blood saturating the dry, rocky ground. He probably wouldn't have cared anyway; he had been vehement on insisting it was only a game. And Usopp commented that he almost looked like he was just taking one of his regular naps anyway, if you didn't look at the blood and the vicious stomach wound.

So they left it behind, pausing only long enough to tend to Usopp's injured foot. They headed down towards the beach by means of the slope they had taken that night, the same one Sanji had fought on. The cave was inaccessible now, not that any of them wanted to go back into it. They were still exhausted, but nobody felt like sleeping. They were all hungry though, and there were only so many of the unusual fruit-nuts left to hand out, stowed carefully away in Usopp's bag. Sanji suggested checking the pink ocean to see if they could find any fish.

Luffy lead the way after re-securing Chopper's bag to his shoulders. Usopp still carried his own artillery and what passed for their food supplies, so that left Sanji carrying Zoro's three swords, bound together tightly with a strip of cloth that Usopp had provided. To the cook, it felt just as wrong to be carrying those weapons as it had to leave the body laying out there for the metaphorical crows (he hadn't seen any actual crows yet). Nobody touched Zoro's katana, ever, unless they were on the receiving end of one of his attacks. It felt strange to be handling them now, partly because he was adamantly against hand-held weaponry as a cook, and partly because he never had. Combined, they were far heavier than he had anticipated and it gave him a little more grudging respect for their swordsman.

They reached the shockingly pink ocean quickly, and Luffy waded in the water long enough to discover that the strange astral ocean affected him just as the real one would. Usopp dragged him free of the water with exasperation and took over the fish-searching duties himself, but he saw nothing edible, which troubled Sanji all the more. If this kept up they would have to go back to the spiral-forest to get more food. If the crap-Scorpions knew the food was there too, it would be an excellent place for an ambush.

They paused long enough to bury Zoro's katana in the strange-colored sand, far enough from the water that the waves wouldn't eventually reveal them. They couldn't carry the swords with them—nobody else knew how to use them, and they were too cumbersome to continually lug around otherwise. Luffy wanted to put a marker for them, but Sanji talked him out of it. For one thing, Zoro wouldn't be needing them any more here. When they went back to the real world (when, not if) his real swords would be there anyway, still on his hip. And for another, marking the place of the swords could tip the crap-Scorpions off as to where they were, exactly the opposite of what Zoro had wanted. So they dug deeply into the sand, Usopp placed the swords almost reverently, and covered it up quickly, swishing the sand around until it looked like they had never been there. And in five minutes, when they left the place behind and headed further down the beach to explore and Sanji looked back, he couldn't have recognized the spot again if he tried.

They wandered for most of the day, constantly on edge. The game was three on three now, and both sides had a respectful measure of each other at this point. Robin-chan had guessed that the Scorpion Hunters had played this game before, but Sanji doubted they had ever played against a team that put up as much of a fight as his nakama had. Four of the Scorpions were dead, and it sounded like Zoro had at least fought back before he went down. From the sounds of Usopp's tale, their second in command had been seriously wounded before running off.

And yet despite being constantly at the ready, always on guard, they encountered none of the three remaining Scorpion Hunters for the rest of the day. The pastel green sky began fading to its darker shade slowly, the Strawhats had walked the entire length of the beach, and they had seen neither hide nor hair of Sasori, Kawazu, or Moult.

"I wonder if we scared them off?" Usopp asked timidly. He had been twitchy for most of the day, and his slingshot never left his hand. They had been on their feet for most of the day, and his limp was becoming more and more noticeable, but he was making a valiant effort (for Usopp) to downplay it.

"Maybe," Sanji said. "More likely they're licking their wounds right about now. Probably trying to figure out what next cheap shot to use." He reached for his coat pocket automatically for a cigarette, but caught himself quickly, tried to force back the demanding screech in his mind that begged for another dose of nicotine. Only two left, and he had promised himself one tonight when he was on watch to try and help keep himself awake.

"It doesn't matter," Luffy said firmly. "No matter how much they cheat, we'll still beat them. They hurt my nakama. I'll make them pay for that." His eyes narrowed fiercely, and Sanji noticed yet again the pressing intensity of their captain. Luffy had been a little more like his old self since being reminded that he could still rescue his crew, but it was an on-and-off again sort of cheerfulness. He acted like he was still in combat most of the time, even when they weren't physically in battle. Sanji supposed they were in a fight, even when they weren't; this entire challenge was one huge test of their endurance and combat prowess, not to mention their loyalty.

It was a little frightening to see Luffy so intense all the time, but at the same time it was reassuring to know their captain cared so deeply about them. Luffy wouldn't let them down, no matter what. Even if Sanji somehow got taken down in this game, he knew Luffy would come through for them, just like he always had, no matter the situation.

Not that he intended to go down easily. At the very least he still had to figure out how to beat that tracker, Moult. He was certainly the closest to doing so, and had no intentions of going through this entire game without contributing somehow. Hell, Luffy already had two kills to his credit, and even Zoro and sweet Robin-chan had beaten him in that! Sanji was one of the strongest members of the crew, and currently the second-strongest in their new pecking order—there was no way he was going through this game without having a say in the matter.

"We should probably find someplace to rest again," Usopp suggested meekly. Sanji glanced over at him and mentally kicked himself. The sniper was clearly doing his best not to complain, but he was obviously in pain, and was as close to hopping on one foot as he could manage without actually doing so. The constantly shifting sand probably wasn't helping matters either.

"You might have a point," Sanji said, cutting off Luffy's outburst before it began. When Usopp wasn't looking, he glanced meaningfully at the sniper's foot, and for once Luffy caught on.

The captain nodded in agreement and added in truly Luffy fashion, "Yeah, break time! And food time too, right, Sanji? Huh?"

"Sure. Food too, once we find shelter," Sanji humored. He calculated their meager food stores in his head once more. After doling out two more fruits per person that morning for breakfast, there were only twelve of the strange astral fruit-nuts left. That was enough for dinner and breakfast tomorrow. After that, they would not only need to find the remaining three Scorpions, but a new food supply as well.

He kept his concerns to himself for now, however, and simply walked alongside his companions, slowing down when Usopp hit a rough patch. Neither he nor Luffy could afford to carry him unless it was an emergency, as both needed to be ready in case of ambush, but Sanji wasn't about to let the younger teenager get left behind either.

They walked for another hour, and just as darkness hit they found a second, steeper slope leading up the cliffside. The blood-red moon was out again, casting its morbid gleam all over the awkwardly-colored landscape. By its light Sanji thought he could see the same yellowish mountain that they had first seen, when all seven of them were still freshly arrived in this astral world. It had only been two days ago, but it already felt like another lifetime.

Usopp had noticed it too, and as they began walking up the slope (Luffy noticeably on his outside, in case the sniper tripped and started falling off the side) he frowned up at it. "I wonder if they're there?"

"Eh?" Sanji glanced at the mountain again, and Luffy did as well, curious. "Why would they be there?"

"Ah...it's just that that's where they first attacked us," Usopp explained. "Remember, Eagle-Eye...it was like they staked out that mountain for themselves, they attacked from it immediately. And they've been splitting up a lot, so I just wondered if they've been using it as a base is all..."

"They wouldn't be stupid enough to stay in the same place, would they?" Sanji said, frowning.

Usopp winced. "Er...probably not...it was just an idle thought, sorry..."

"No, no." Sanji waved one hand placatingly and added, "Stop that, you're being even less confident than usual. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. In fact it probably has a lot of merit to it. They don't strike me as being used to losing, and if they've done this before they just might have established a place for themselves."

"If that's their place, then we should go break it," Luffy said, very seriously.

"What? But who knows what they could have done to booby-trap it, or guard it or something—"

"But it's a good idea," Sanji agreed. "Even if we don't beat them, just breaking into their self-established stronghold might send them a message. They're already nervous around us, or they wouldn't have run back there. If we could break their resolve..."

"I don't care about that," Luffy scowled. "I just want my nakama back." The words were almost childishly forthright and painfully simple, but this was Luffy, and just because of that they had power behind them.

Usopp had started shaking again, and Sanji was sure it wasn't entirely from fear either. They managed to reach the top of the cliff's slope, but now the sniper stumbled, nearly hitting the yellow stone nose-first. Sanji managed to catch him by the shoulders before he hit.

"Not tonight," the cook said firmly. "It's a good plan Luffy, but we can't do it tonight. We're all tired. Even if the only fight was this morning, we've been on edge all day, waiting for another. We'll find a safe place to rest, eat up, re-bandage, and then try going on the assault in the morning. Tomorrow is only the third day, and we've got five. Plenty of time."

Luffy looked vaguely annoyed at the delay, but eventually nodded. "Okay. You're right. We'll get the others back, but I don't want to see the nakama I still have get hurt any more."

They surveyed their surroundings quickly, and found themselves not too far from the bright yellow stone quarry where they had originally hidden when trying to rescue Nami-san. Sanji nearly choked at the thought, but managed to compose himself. He dreaded going back, but it was the safest place for them to hide at the moment, and would provide a decent amount of shelter, so there really was little choice in the end. Fortunately the quarry was quite large, and they managed to find a small outcropping of rocks far from where they had buried their fellow crew-member. It wasn't ideal shelter, but it kept them decently hidden, and they would have enough warning if one of the Scorpions managed to find them.

None of them ventured out to find Nami's astral-grave. They were afraid of what they would find if they did, and so unanimously decided to stay put for the night.

Sanji handed out their dinner, cracking the fruit-nuts as usual and making a mental note that when he got back to the Going Merry he was avoiding any and all recipes that required peaches. He never thought he'd say it (and he certainly didn't out loud) but he was getting quite sick of this bizarre astral-food.

After eating, Sanji helped the two of them with their wounds. He was still the least injured of the three. Moult had given him some fairly bad bruises with those last few kicks, but he'd had far worse just from disobeying the crap-geezer back on the Baratie and didn't even consider those wounds. Luffy's bite-wound from Tazan was getting quite infected however, even with Chopper's special salve, and was now quite red and puffy. And Usopp's foot injury looked equally painful. In the ideal situation it would have had stitches, but all they could do was bandage it tightly and hope he could hold out. Usopp tried very hard not to complain, obviously influenced by Zoro's near-silent death, but couldn't help it when the occasional whimper or whine escaped his lips.

Since they were worse off, Sanji offered to take the first watch of the night. He was tired himself, but he knew for a fact that Usopp was exhausted, and while Luffy could probably power on through if he had to it was best that they got their rest while they could. Usopp accepted the offer gratefully and curled up at the back of their small outcropping, pillowing his head on his bag; he was out in seconds. Luffy was a little slower in accepting, but eventually curled up next to his sniper and dozed off as well, occasionally flexing his newly re-bandaged hand in his sleep.

Sanji watched them for a long time, until he was sure they were both out cold. Then he shifted his way quietly to the front of their small outcropping, sat down on one of the smaller, slightly more comfortable rocks, and stared out into the red-drenched gloom, thinking.

A part of him was furious with himself. When Robin-chan had told him he would probably be the next target, he hadn't been afraid. Rather, knowing there was a time-limit on his life, he had vowed to himself to do what he could to protect his nakama until his end came. Even if he did die—and part of him had been sure he would, Robin-chan tended to know what she was talking about—he could still contribute to the battles, make sure nobody else died on his watch before him.

But he had fucked that up, and badly. Robin-chan had died saving his life, instead of the other way around. He would have been glad to die for her, if he had to, if the opportunity presented itself. He didn't think he'd ever forgive himself for failing in that, for letting her take his place, and the fact that she'd never given him a chance didn't even cross his mind as an excuse.

And even Zoro was gone now, which was still an impossible fact to wrap his head around. Zoro had been there from the beginning, since Sanji first joined the crew. He was obnoxious and crude, but he was always there to pick a friendly fight with, and the cook had never imagined their first mate ever leaving them behind.

Only now he wasn't going to get up again either; neither of them would, unless he, Luffy and Usopp managed to pull through. Even Usopp had been wounded, and while it wasn't fatal it was one more injury that Sanji had been determined to prevent, and failed miserably at. Hell, he would have been dead if Zoro hadn't intervened. The damn bastard had beat him at that, too. Stupid marimo.

No more, though. They might have lost four of their nakama, but the Scorpions had lost four of their own as well, and it meant the Strawhats were even closer to victory. Only three more to go, and he knew who he was going after next.

His thoughts strayed to Moult, and he could clearly see in his mind's eye the drooping, lazy-eyed man, replayed how the bastard blocked each one of his attacks with ease. It made him furious to think he had been so easily brought to a halt, but he was determined to work through it, to find some sort of weakness. The others hadn't been able to come up with any ideas earlier, not when he explained his own fight to them while they wandered on the beach, and he knew now that Moult was going to be entirely up to him.

So he spent his next hour on watch replaying the fight in his head, over and over, analyzing each part of the fight with blow-by-blow detail. No matter what he did, no matter what he thought of, he couldn't find any form of pattern. The man was able to predict what he did, and it had nothing to do with straight up skill. The key to beating him had to be in the Devil Fruit power, but short of tossing the man in the ocean and letting him drown he had no idea what he could possibly do about it.

Frustrated, and feeling a little sleepy himself, Sanji finally shook his head and awarded himself his second-to-last cigarette. He lit up quickly, shielding the tiny flame with one hand to prevent it signaling their location, and learned quickly if he turned his head just so the burning end of the cigarette could be hidden in the gloom and wouldn't give him away.

It was like a breath of life through his body. The smell of the cigarette smoke burned in his nostrils pleasantly. Normally he barely noticed the scent since he smoked so often, but he had gone for more than a day without a single smoke in this pure, astral air, and it seemed much more noticeable now. The pungent, sweet aroma of poison had never seemed so relaxing before—

Aroma...

He nearly lost the cigarette as his jaw dropped, barely managed to snatch it up in his fingers quickly before he lost the whole thing. That was the key to the fight. Moult had been a sniffer, he said; his Devil Fruit power was based on his keen scent. Beating him wasn't a matter of outsmarting the man, or using random maneuvers. It was about blocking that sense, so that he couldn't use it at all.

Sanji could have kicked himself for not thinking of it earlier, but at least he had some sort of answer now. It was better than nothing, and hopefully might give him an edge when they assaulted the mountain tomorrow. Feeling a little better, he allowed himself to finish his smoke in silence, watching out into the red dyed world beyond.

It was close to the end of his shift when he actually felt it. Most of the four hours had been quiet and uneventful. There were no crickets to chirp, no birds to sing, no squirrels or deer or other animals to shuffle through the quarry at night. The only noise he could hear was the crash of the pink ocean waves in the distance, and the faintest whistle of a night breeze. So when he heard the light trickle of a dozen tiny pebbles rolling over stone and looked up, he was sure they were being watched. And the more he stared in that direction, straining every sense he could, the more he was sure there was somebody there.

He moved quickly. Withdrawing into their haven, he gently shook Usopp awake, covering his mouth when the sniper started to moan and grumble in surprise. Sanji gestured for him to be quiet with a finger to his lips, and then bent close enough to his ear to whisper without making too much noise.

"My shift's up," he said. "You were next."

"It's been four hours already?" Usopp muttered sleepily.

"Yeah, believe it or not. Near as I can guess anyway. The moon's shifted a little." The sniper nodded and began shuffling forward to take up the guard point, but paused when Sanji didn't take his own place to rest.

"Sanji...?"

"You keep watch," the cook said in answer. "I'm just going to go check for food and water real quick."

"Alone?" Usopp's eyes widened. "You can't go alone, Sanji! Wait until morning, we can get more of those nut things from that spiral forest, it's not too far from here—"

Sanji shook his head. "No, it's better to go now. It's dark out, so nobody'll see me moving around. I'll be fine."

"But they could be out there!"

"I doubt it," Sanji lied. "Not this late. They're probably resting too, they're just as human as we are."

Usopp looked anxious. "We should still go together. Hold on, and I'll wake Luffy up and we can all go—"

"No!"

Usopp jumped at Sanji's forceful answer, and looked both confused and nervous. "Why not? We should—"

"We've got a big battle coming up tomorrow," Sanji answered. "We both know it. Luffy's already poisoned or something, to judge by that bite. He needs all the rest he can get, because we'll definitely need him tomorrow. Don't wake him up."

"But Sanji—"

"Look, Usopp, I'll be fine," the cook reassured. "I'm just going to go scout, I'm not even bringing anything back. I just want to make sure we have enough food and water to last this thing out, and I want to make sure we can reach it safely too. That's my job as the cook, remember?"

Usopp still didn't look entirely convinced, so Sanji tried his last ploy. He could practically feel whoever it was shifting around behind him some distance down the quarry, and if he waited too long whoever it was was going to get away and know their position. He couldn't risk that. "Look, I promise I'll only be gone for half an hour. And I'll only head that way," he added, pointing towards the spiral forest. "I'll be back in half an hour and I'll hopefully have something else we can use for food, alright?"

Usopp finally nodded, but curled up miserably on the lookout rock. He clearly was not happy with Sanji's decision, but couldn't fully argue against his points. "Okay. Fine. Half an hour. If you're not back by then, I don't care what you say—I'm waking Luffy up and we're gonna go looking for you."

"Deal. I'll be back." And before the sniper could argue further, Sanji turned around and trotted off in the direction of the forest.

He knew his decision had been right immediately. He could tell by now that there was only one person tailing him, but while they had initially seemed like they were going to leave, they latched onto his trail as soon as he separated from the other two. It was the oldest law for catching food; leave the bait, and the fish would come soon enough. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he continued on, pretending he had no idea he was being followed. He kept up his charade of a food and water search (though he really did hope to locate more, if he could) and eventually wound up at a small open area just at the edge of the spiral forest.

It was there that he turned around, faced the direction of his follower, and said cooly, "All right. Get out here."

He was unsurprised when Moult melded out of the red moon's dim light from between the scattered quarry-boulders, still chewing on his stupid toothpicks and still looking as though he would rather be taking a nap. The man blinked at him owlishly and then said calmly, "You're good. You knew since your friends, right?"

"Maybe." Sanji narrowed his eye at the tracker. "You're alone. Dangerous, don't you think?"

"I always scout alone," Moult answered with a yawn. Predictably, he lost his toothpick and replaced it with a new one from one of his pockets. "It's so hard to track humans with clunky, muscly people thudding around after you, see?"

Sanji could see his point—he knew how to be stealthy when he had to be, but he doubted Luffy or Zoro would have been able to follow him without tipping somebody off. Still, he wasn't sure what to think about the man bluntly admitting it. Either he was very stupid, or very confident his solo runs wouldn't be taken advantage of.

"If you're alone," Sanji pressed on, "You haven't reported back yet."

"No, I haven't," Moult agreed, watching the cook sleepily.

Sanji's eyes narrowed further. "Then you understand why I can't let you leave. You're the one that led the other hunters to us last night, aren't you? You think I'd let you lead those bastards back to my friends?"

"You can't force me to do or not do anything," Moult answered cooly. "You couldn't get past me last time. Or stop me from leaving."

"That was last time," Sanji said. "You're not going anywhere this time."

"Prove it," the tracker said, and turned on his heel, starting to walk away.

"I will," Sanji answered with a snarl, and launched himself forward.

I end Sanji's sections like this a lot. Sigh. I'm so uncreative.

Nobody guessed Moult's inspiration, so here it is! In The Wheel of Time series, there's a man named Hurin who's a 'sniffer.' He can smell violence; the worse the violence, the more putrid the stench. He's used by his king as a bounty-hunter hound of sorts for murderers.

As always, should you choose to leave a review, please make it constructive! A little of everything helps a writer grow.

~VelkynKarma