Title: One to a Thousand
Rating: M for language, adult themes and sexual content
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
Spoiler Warning: Takes place after the time skip. There are numerous spoilers including events that occurred during the Thriller Bark arc and Sanji's whereabouts during the two years that the crew was separated.
CHAPTER TEN
Sanji panted heavily as he discarded his cigarette butt onto the ground. It rolled forward, not stopping until it hit the toe of an enemy's shoe.
He gloomily wondered if it was futile to light another, seeing as it was impossible to taste or smell it through the choking stench of the gunpowder in the air. This shitty fortress they were stuck in was a deadly maze of gunfire and explosions.
Besides, it felt like he had been facing a nonstop onslaught of attacks for hours now. He had to concentrate. Focus. They had to get out of there—so he had to disregard the foreboding sense of doom in the pit of his stomach. And even more, ignore the sharp pain in his side.
Still, as he continued to fight, he ached for the the rush of nicotine in his lungs. Carefully, he shifted the weight of the small parcel that was loosely tied to his shoulders; a bag holding an unconscious Chopper, who had been forced to overuse his abilities earlier. After using monster point, he had collapsed and hadn't woken since.
In between furious kicks, the cook managed to snatch a slightly bent cigarette from his pocket, jam it in his mouth and light it. He sucked down the first puff greedily as he aimed his heavy shoe at the face of one of his attackers. The heavy-set man flew backward, toppling down half a dozen of his comrades behind him.
He, Chopper and Zoro had gotten separated from the rest of the crew some time ago. He could feel the swordsman's familiar, ominous presence looming behind him. Even though they weren't touching, raw energy felt like it was flowing off of his back.
They were going to reunite back at the Sunny. That was all that was important. Not all of the uncertainty and uneasiness fluttering in his stomach. For now, Sanji had to worry about how to get the three of them out of there, because even when they made it out of the enormous chamber they were currently trapped in, Zoro sure as hell wasn't going to be able to lead them through the maze of rooms and corridors beyond.
Still, no matter how many times he tried, Sanji could not completely ignore the dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach, slowly eating away at him. He didn't dare voice it aloud, though; it was not as though anything would change if he did. Instead, every word he said came out cocky, confident, and assured of victory. He wouldn't let the swordsman know about the trepidation he felt; he couldn't let him know the reason for his apprehension.
For the most part, their attackers were pathetically weak. But rather than their pitiable fighting prowess, it was the sheer number of them that was proving daunting. It was unfathomable. Bodies were beginning to pile all along the large room where they were fighting, but still, new attackers came at them in hordes. The word massacre flitted across his mind, and it made him feel a little nauseous, but he had to move past it. They had to press on, and survive.
"We're getting nowhere like this. We need to do something to break out of here," Sanji called over his shoulder, still standing back-to-back with Zoro. He heard blades reverberate through the air, followed by the sound of collapsing bodies.
"Yeah, I think that's pretty obvious, dumbass cook," Zoro replied scornfully. "Did you notice they're coming in the only door, though?"
Sanji leapt in the air to attack three men making a concurrent charge toward him. When he landed, he twisted his body toward the swordsman as he perplexedly took a drag from his cigarette. "I know that, shitty swordsman. That's why we're going to make another one."
"Ah, I get it," Zoro replied. Although he couldn't see his expression, just from the way the other man pronounced the words, he could sense the grin emanating from his face. "Sounds good. Where?"
"To your left. I think that one should open into a hallway."
"Alright," Zoro replied, leaping into action.
Sanji was already ready for it. He grabbed Zoro's arm as the idiot marimo promptly jumped toward his right. "Wrong way, dumbass," he growled, forcibly dragging him in the right direction.
With frenzied flashes of steel and swirls of black, almost too fast for the naked eye to discern, the duo mowed through the enemy legion as though they were cardboard cut-outs, swiftly carving out a path to the far end of the room.
When they reached the thick, cobble-stone wall, there was no need for words to coordinate. The two men struck in unison, creating a far bigger gap than was necessary for them to get through.
"Hold on, I want to close it so they can't follow us," Sanji said, once they had escaped into the hallway. Leaping upward and striking the ceiling with his shoe, the ceiling started to crumble until it collapsed, the ensuing avalanche effectively blocking the exit.
He said an inward thank you to no one in particular that he had somehow been able to hold back the wince of pain that was desperately trying to make its way out of his throat. He clenched his jaw, desperately trying to keep himself focused on moving forward. There was no time to fret; they had a long way to go.
"That should hold them back for a minute," Zoro replied smugly, as Sanji fell in line beside him and they started to run.
A minute was a good guess. As soon as they turned a corner, the two pirates found themselves once again facing an impossibly large group of the lowlifes who kept attacking them. He didn't know where the hell they were all coming from, but his feelings of anxiousness were gradually increasing. And perhaps even worse than the anxiety was the ever-increasing pain.
The weight of the unconscious reindeer in the satchel on his shoulders, the small bundle that had seemed so light at first, now felt like it was growing exponentially.
Sanji took a deep puff from his cigarette. He was too careless; he had needlessly taken too many blows that he should have been able to easily avoid. Pissed off and angry at himself for his sloppiness, and steadily losing blood, it was no wonder the situation was bothering him more than it probably should have.
The place they were in—the large, ancient-looking fortress that had been built for god-knows-what purpose and now housed a bunch of mindless rogues that had no apparent agenda other than trying to kill them—looked like it only had one entrance, from what he had seen from the outside. And other than the front entrance, which faced the sea, the rest of its rocky walls were surrounded by nothing but dangerous, sharp crags and rocks. It would be challenging to escape that way.
But then, the prospect of scaling dangerous cliffs seemed far less daunting than their current predicament.
They were cornered in a small room now, so the amount of enemies that could approach had lessened, but they still were faced with the same dilemma: they had to force their way out.
"Oi, marimo," Sanji muttered lowly, wiping a nervous sweat from his brow. He backed up into Zoro until he felt the broad, familiar back just barely graze his.
"You finally come up with something?" Zoro replied gruffly.
"Don't act like it's my fault we're stuck here. You could've come up with an idea, too," Sanji jeered, an intentional dig of his elbow into the swordsman's back coinciding with a frustrated kick into the chest of an attacker.
"Tch, my idea is to just defeat them all."
Sanji's brow twitched. Their conversation had to be paused for a moment, as they both simultaneously unleashed an attack.
"It's going to be too hard to get back to the entrance. I think we're going to have to make our own exit," Sanji said finally, when he had a moment to place both of his feet on the ground again.
Zoro turned to look over his shoulder, grinning, and Sanji noticed a cut on his forehead. With the back of his hand, the swordsman quickly wiped the trickle of blood away that was threatening to spill into his good eye.
"So it's the same plan as your last one," Zoro replied flatly.
Sanji started to retort, but suddenly, the swordsman surged ahead, breaking through the horde in front of him.
Baffled, Sanji sprinted after him, spinning wildly to kick away the enemies threatening to rush toward him to close the newly-created gap.
"Where the hell are you—"
His sentence was interrupted by the crumbling of stone and mortar. Dumbfounded, Sanji watched Zoro attack the wall near the back of the corridor, causing it to collapse and reveal some sort of storage room.
Brow twitching wildly, Sanji kicked him on the back of the head. "What the hell are you doing, you shitty swordsman?"
"I was breaking down the wall so we could get outside," Zoro replied. "Must not have cut far enough..." He crouched down, preparing to strike the wall beyond the random bric-a-brac that was now covered in crumbled stone.
"That's not the way to the outside. Who said we were anywhere near the outer wall?" Sanji shouted angrily, once again readjusting the bag on his shoulders containing Chopper.
Zoro's body relaxed and he stood up straight, looking at Sanji expressionlessly as he wiped away more blood dripping from the cut on his forehead. "You said we should break it down."
"I didn't say it was that wall we should break down, idiot." Furiously, Sanji stomped out his cigarette butt, barely able to contain his rage.
But suddenly, he realized that even their pursuers were momentarily stunned by Zoro's incomprehensible behavior. After exchanging a knowing glance, Zoro and Sanji came to the same understanding simultaneously, and took off.
Running behind Zoro, Sanji was able to confirm an earlier suspicion that had added to his overall unsettled feeling. There was an irregularity in Zoro's movement that could only mean one thing: the idiot swordsman had also let himself get injured.
He hadn't cried out in pain and he certainly would not mention it, but there was a certain roughness in his swordsmanship, a slight peculiarity, that Sanji could just barely detect. He wondered which one of them may have done it; very few of their attackers had been very strong, but it seemed unlikely that he would get hurt by someone who wasn't powerful.
But then, he had been hit, too; unconsciously, he hand flitted to the sharp ache beneath his ribs. He knew the blood wasn't visible through the material of his black jacket, but he could feel the thick wetness on his hand. A flicker of surprise crossed his face; it was far more than he had expected. Once again, he felt his already overwhelming sense of unease increase, until the weight of it felt like it just might crush the breath out of his chest.
Then suddenly, Sanji caught the faintest whiff of cool, salty air beyond the choking smell of gunpowder, and it was like a surge of hope had been injected into his veins.
"Oi, we've got to be getting close," he remarked, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. Pleased, he reached in his pocket for another cigarette. They reached a room at the end of the hallway—a room with the smallest slit of a window, but a window, nonetheless. And behind it, Sanji could just barely make out the ominously dark night sky.
Sanji slammed a heavy wooden door shut behind them and tipped over a giant cabinet near it, barricading the door. This time, he couldn't help but grunt a little bit. He just had to ignore the discomfort beneath his ribs a little longer, he reminded himself. Then they would be out of there.
Swords drawn, Zoro faced the outer wall. Hesitantly, he glanced back at Sanji. "This one, right?" he asked, through teeth clenching a katana.
"There's a window right there, dumbass!" Sanji shouted, pointing upward at it angrily. "Yes, this one!"
A flicker of an emotion Sanji couldn't place resonated in the swordsman's eye, just before he quickly turned and sliced into the heavy stone wall. But he immediately turned back around, not even bothering to pause long enough to confirm the chunks of masonry had crumbled away.
Instead, the green-haired man's agitated stare was fixed on Sanji, his brow twitching wildly. Specifically, the look was fixated on his chest.
"Oi, what the hell?" Zoro said emphatically, his voice startlingly thick with anguish.
Surprised, Sanji looked downward, wondering how the hell the other man had noticed his injury. But immediately, he realized there was no way the other man could have missed it. The blood from the wound below his ribs had begun dripping onto the floor, and a tiny puddle was already forming at his feet.
"Shit," he murmured, pensively taking a drag from his cigarette as he stared downward at the falling droplets of crimson. Unexpectedly, the restlessness that had been plaguing him suddenly seemed far off in the distance, and was replaced by a sort of numbness. He felt absolutely nothing at this new development. They were almost out, after all; there was no point in worrying anymore. They just had to hurry.
"Why didn't you tell me, bastard?" Zoro asked peevishly.
"The same reason you didn't tell me," Sanji replied calmly, furrowing his brow slightly. "We can talk about it later, but we need to get the hell out of here right now."
A brief flicker of uncertainty crossed Zoro's face. He opened his mouth as though he was about to protest, but after a moment, he clamped his jaw shut and stormed toward the opening.
Suddenly, something blindingly bright and unrecognizable surged toward them, and Sanji barely had time to jump out of the way to avoid it. Frantically, his eyes scanned the now smoke-filled room until he saw Zoro, a short distance away, who looked surprised but unscathed.
"What the hell was what?" Sanji said lowly, glancing toward the doorway—or more accurately, where the doorway had been before the attack. Now there was a gaping maw in its place, smoldering embers clinging to chunks of broken and splintered wood that had once been the door now littering the floor. And then the incessant horde began filling the room.
Sanji cursed under his breath, quickly preparing himself to go on the offense, all too aware he was no longer in the best condition to fight. And sure enough, once the battle began, one, two, three more hits landed—nothing fatal, barely anything to slow him down, but the cumulation was beginning to have an effect.
The swordsman, who was faring significantly better, despite the fact that he had to keep wiping blood off of his brow, finally jumped in front of Sanji, putting a buffer between him and the enemies.
"We're never going to get away at this rate. Get out of here while I hold them off—I'll shake them off later," Zoro declared. Even standing slightly behind him, Sanji could not miss the determined expression on his face.
"Like hell," Sanji spat, flicking his cigarette into the crowd of attackers, faintly satisfied as someone let out a yelp of surprise.
"Tch, listen to me, stupid dartboard-brow," Zoro demanded, glaring at him furiously. "I'm telling you to go because I know I'm going to make it out of here."
"That sounds like you're saying I won't," Sanji replied sharply.
"I went along with your plan to find an exit, dart-board brow. Now go along with mine. It'll get us all out of here alive." He paused frequently as he shielded all of the incoming attacks, fending off all of the enemies attacking both him and Sanji before the cook had a chance to retaliate himself.
Zoro glanced back at him, smiling arrogantly. "See? This is nothing for me," he replied.
There was another flash of white light. Zoro leapt toward Sanji, pushing him out of the way, and the two men plus Chopper tumbled to the side as whatever the blast was whizzed past them. This time it was smaller, but felt like it burned much hotter.
Sanji was seeing stars from the pain of being violently shoved backward on the floor despite his wound, but he managed to pull himself upright. "What the hell is that," he muttered, scanning the crowd as he pulled himself to his feet, grabbing the fallen bag. Chopper's head lolled to the side slightly as he reaffixed it around his shoulders. The reindeer let out a small whimper, but did not awaken.
Zoro was already on his feet. "The big one near the back," he said, gaze focused forward, his expression dark. Sanji followed his line of sight, but it wasn't hard to figure out who he meant; the man near the back of the horde, shoving his way past his allies like they were blades of grass, was enormous.
"Listen to me, ero-cook," Zoro said lowly, as Sanji stepped up next to him. "Get out of here, and I'll be right behind you."
"Like hell I will!" Sanji repeated; this time, however, there was a slight tremor in his voice. "The best thing we can do is stick together. What if something happens and you can't get away—" he started.
"Don't doubt me!" Zoro roared through the teeth clenched around his sword, emphasizing his anger with an angry strike of his blades against the two men charging him. They cried out piteously in protest. "I'll make it out of here and meet up with you at the ship. I said I may not do it the way I'm supposed to, but I sure as hell intend to do it right beside you."
"Hah? The hell are you talking about?" Sanji scowled deeply. "Do what the way you're supposed to?"
Zoro cheeks flushed slightly, but he didn't avert his gaze from his attackers, nor did his swords falter even once as he continued speaking. "Is your memory that bad, dumbass cook? I'm talking about what I said to you that... that time."
That... time?
"You're the only one I can say I've felt this way about," he said lowly.
It was Sanji's turn to turn a shade redder, as he realized what conversation Zoro was referring to. But he couldn't help but be astonished that Zoro had said it so unwaveringly, when those words must have been so difficult to say.
But he couldn't tell the swordsman that. "Oi, you're going to say all that here?!" was all he managed to cry out.
"I don't give a shit about what all of these weakling goons think. Just like I don't give a shit about all of the girls that turn you into a worm-legged nosebleed, as long as... as long as..."
Sanji buried his face in his hand, silently begging Zoro not to say it aloud again. Not here, not in this situation.
A flood of embarrassing words entered his head, coupled with the sensation of eager lips and a fiery touch. This wasn't the time to think about these things.
The cheesy, embarrassing words the swordsman had uttered.
I don't know what it means to be in love with somebody.
Those words he spoke that night, when they were alone in the kitchen, after they had not been speaking for some time. That night was the last time Sanji had ever tried to seriously run away from the other man... even after all the embarrassing shit that happened.
But you don't seem like you'll mind very much if I don't do it the way I'm supposed to.
The intensity and the sincerity in those words that he had mulled over countless times. Even now, they were so embarrassing and corny to think about, yet they seemed burned within his brain.
And I don't care if you're in love with a thousand women, just as long as you're only in love with one man.
"I don't give a shit about any of that, as long we can keeping going like this," Zoro finally finished his difficult sentence, breathing heavily as he continued facing the onslaught. "Do you get it, dumbass cook?"
He turned toward him for the briefest moment, giving him a heartrending look of concern mixed with anguish that Sanji never would have thought he was capable of making.
There was a twinge of pain in his chest. Sanji felt wholly defeated as he stared back, his lip trembling faintly, a strained expression on his face.
"Alright," the cook sighed heavily. Normally he would have argued with Zoro until he had his way, or more likely, until they both realized neither of them would reach a satisfactory resolution... but he didn't want to see Zoro make that kind of face. "Dammit, I'll go, shitty marimo."
Dejected, Sanji stepped to the edge of the floor, where the gaping hole in the wall opened up into the dangerous crags below. He clutched at the bag holding Chopper, ensuring that it was securely in place.
"Oi," he heard Zoro utter. Without thinking, he turned around. He was surprised to see the other man staring at him with yet another complex expression painted over his face; a strange mixture of determination and sadness, of dread and expectation.
"I don't know if you can really remember everything I said, but, well..." the swordsman's jaw tightened as he obviously struggled with whatever he was about to say.
I do remember, Sanji thought, but he could not speak. His chest felt tight, and his body felt frozen in place. He was utterly unable to move or respond; merely able to wait until Zoro found the words he was desperately searching for.
After a moment, he pulled his katana out of his mouth and clenched his eye shut.
His booming voice resonated crystal clear, even over the din of the fray.
"...I meant everything I said that night."
And then, Zoro's attention was immediately back on the fight; he couldn't turn away for much longer without risk to himself. Sanji's jaw trembled slightly at he stared at his broad back for a moment.
I know, you idiot, he thought, clenching his fists, nails digging into his flesh. But he couldn't say those words aloud either, even after the fearless swordsman had so openly laid out his own emotions in front of him.
Inwardly cursing, he jumped out of the opening in the wall, landing roughly on a flat edge among the sharp rocks below. He glanced back at Zoro, who from below appeared silhouetted in front of the men he was fighting.
He raised a quivering fist, unsure if he was shaking from the uncertainty of leaving Zoro behind or the nearly blinding pain in his side, and shouted back at Zoro the only words he was courageous enough to say. "You better make it out of there, because I sure as hell can't take on your objective of being a meat-head swordsman if you don't."
He immediately berated himself; what a dumb thing to say.
But if the swordsman thought it was dumb, he didn't show it. "I know that," Zoro called back smugly. "Somebody as weak as you couldn't get half as strong as me, even if you devoted your whole life to it. But don't worry, cook-I'll make it back so I don't need to give up on that ambition... and besides, I'm kind of interested in seeing that All Blue place, anyway."
For a moment, the swelling feeling in his chest almost rivaled the crippling sense of dread that had been washing over him. But then, another dangerous flash of white light burst out of the gaping hole, and Sanji was forced to retreat.
"That All Blue place, huh," Sanji muttered under his breath, shaking his head from side to side. He thought he had said something strange enough, but somehow, the swordsman has managed to effortlessly up the ante. Honestly, he had no idea where Zoro came up with these ridiculous, saccharine lines he had been spouting; it was unexpected, to say the least.
Carefully jumping over the sharp rocks surrounding him, trying to make his way toward where he knew the water had to be, he couldn't help but fixate on the deafeningly loud explosions raging behind him, and how they still hadn't stopped...
When Sanji's eyelids fluttered open, he was instantly confused by his surroundings.
It was pitch-black outside, save for half a dozen or so stars that were visible through the hazy cloudcover in the sky. Even if he hadn't been facing the sky, though, he would have known he was outside from the crisp night air and the penetrating cold that seeped in through his clothes from the rocks underneath his back.
He could feel dull pressure just below his ribs, and make out the silhouette of a small, antlered figure leaning over him.
"Chopper...?" he murmured hoarsely.
"Ah, good, you're awake!" Chopper said brightly, sparkling eyes looking down at him in surprise.
Sanji started to pull himself upright, but he felt the reindeer hold him down. "Hold on just a minute, I'm almost done. This was a pretty bad wound you got on your side," he told him. "I gave you a mild painkiller to take the edge off, but I'll have something stronger for you when we get back to the Sunny."
A mild painkiller... That's why the sharpness was gone. Now, he only feel a small ache, fuzzy and distant.
Yeah, the three of them needed to get back to the ship. He, Chopper and Zoro...
Suddenly he snapped fully awake as his mind was flooded with the image of hordes of men overwhelming them, and the silhouette of Zoro's broad back as Sanji made his retreat. "Oi, where's the shitty marimo?" he asked, alarmed.
"Eh, Zoro? I don't know, when I woke up, you were alone. You were slumped against a rock and there wasn't anyone else around."
His mind reeled. It made sense; he vaguely remembered sitting down to catch his breath, so he must have lost consciousness once he paused to rest.
"Dammit, I have no idea how long it's been now," Sanji gritted his teeth, slamming a fist against the ground.
"What?" Chopper looked at him with concern, confusion apparent in his large, innocent eyes.
"That idiot swordsman stayed back so we could get away..."
"Oh," the reindeer gasped, concern sweeping over his face. But after a moment, he relaxed slightly. "But it's so hard to see anything around here, he could have walked right past us and not seen anything. He could be back on the Sunny already."
"Even you couldn't have seen him? Or smelled him?"
"Ah... ah, I guess I would have," Chopper admitted sheepishly. "But it could've been before I woke up."
Sanji rubbed his face tiredly, then reached down toward his jacket pocket, groping for a cigarette and lighter as the doctor finished patching him up.
"Okay, all done," Chopper announced, backing away from Sanji. "You can sit up now if you'd like. Be careful, though, or the wound might reopen."
"Ah, thanks," Sanji nodded in gratitude, raising a lighter to his cigarette before he cautiously pulled himself upright.
He was trying his best to appear outwardly calm on the outside, but internally, he was seized by panic. He was pretty sure Zoro had made it out of the fortress, but he knew he had been injured as well, even if he hadn't been able to tell exactly how bad it was.
And what's more, if Zoro hadn't caught up to him and Chopper by now, there was no way the shitty swordsman was going to find them or the Sunny by himself.
"Oi, Chopper, can you go back to the Sunny and tell everyone I've gone to find Zoro?"
"What are you talking about?!" Chopper exclaimed. "We need to get back to the Sunny together so I can finish treating you. I only stopped the bleeding for now."
"I'll be back soon, don't worry. I don't plan on getting in any fights."
Chopper insistently tried to convince him to head back to the ship, but Sanji would not be persuaded.
"Then I'll come with you," Chopper said firmly.
Sanji shook his head, taking a long drag of his cigarette. "Like I said, I won't be long. You need to get back to the ship to tell the others we're okay. And what if someone else got injured?" He turned his back to Chopper, clutching his hands in front of him. "Why, if Nami-swan or Robin-chwan got hurt and you weren't there to help them, I just couldn't bear it," he wailed, his body writhing back and forth as he spoke.
Reluctantly, the reindeer agreed to head back himself. He did insist the cook take a fistful of random bandages, as well as some antiseptic and a couple of painkillers along with him—just in case Zoro was in a similar condition. And really, they both knew he would be; the swordsman had a knack for getting pretty banged up.
With that, they went their separate ways. Chopper headed back to the Thousand Sunny, where the remainder of the crew was hopefully awaiting their return.
And Sanji, with a look of determination on his face, began the trek back in the direction of the fortress. He somberly puffed on his cigarette as his eyes desperately flitted back and forth along the landscape, searching for any trace of the shitty marimo.