In flashbacks, words in quote marks (') are thoughts and words in speech marks (") are speech.

Chapter 11:

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The Demon

Chapter 11

Nami stared at the demon Zoro, her hand nursing her face where he had hit her. It still hurt.

Gazing at her for a moment longer, he turned around and walked back to the table, taking a seat in the same chair he had been sitting on before. Slowly, she stood up and walked to the seat opposite him, before pulling it out and sitting down.

They sat in silence for a while.

"Zoro, how has this happened?" Nami asked the swordsman.

He stayed quiet.

"Why won't you speak?"

Still he said nothing.

Nami's stomach growled. It was only then she remembered how hungry she was.

Sighing, she took a slice of ham from the plate nearest to her and cautiously put it in her mouth. It was delicious! Not as nice as Sanji's of course, but it came somewhere close.

Quickly she grabbed anything in reach of her, stuffing it in her mouth in a way that she'd only ever seen Luffy do. She was starving! And all the while Zoro stared at her with his newly coloured eyes, seeming to look just past her, rather than actually at her. It was slightly unnerving actually, but she ignored it and continued to eat.

After finally taking her fill, she sat back in her chair and patted her stomach.

"Wow! That was delicious! I've never eaten so much in one go! Why don't you have some too?"

Zoro sat forever still. This was really starting to piss Nami off.

"Come on Zoro! At least say something! This is driving me insane! Speak for God's sake!"

He didn't.

"Urrrrrrrrrrrr! What's with you?!"

Calm down Nami! He's not doing this on purpose, I mean, look at him! He's been turned into some mind-controlled demon! You can't blame him for that!

Taking 2 deep breaths, she calmed herself down.

"Alright Zoro. So what now? Are we just going to sit here?"

Although he showed no sign of hearing her, he slowly stood up and made his way to the doors, then exactly as Kuzeo had done it, he raised his hand and they opened.

Nami's mouth dropped. How could Zoro do such things? How could he have that power?

He began to walk out, then stopped and turned round, looking expectantly at her. Nami took that as a sign he wanted her to follow him.

They walked around the castle for a while, with Zoro leading the way. Every so often they'd pass another demon, one of lower rank obviously, because they would always stop and pay their respects to Zoro, either by slightly bowing their heads or saluting him. Zoro paid no attention, just carried on walking. Whenever they passed a window Nami would sneak a look out, only to be crestfallen by what she saw. Demons. Hundreds of them, surrounding the castle. It seemed like Kuzeo had this place well guarded, which meant she had no way of getting out.

Eventually they reached a small door, which Zoro swiftly opened. It turned out to be a bedroom, and a very nice one at that. There was a huge four-poster bed in the centre, and a very nice vanity mirror to one side. Zoro gestured at her to go in. Slowly she walked passed him into the room.

The door closed behind her.

Whipping round she just had time to see the lock click.

So I'm still a prisoner, just a more nicely treated one.

Sanji leaned against the bow of the 'Going Merry', smoking his last cigarette of the day. He stared up at the ink blue sky, while inhaling a deep breath of smoke.

"Those things will kill you, you know."

He turned round. That little kid, what was his name again? Oh yeah, Jason, was standing there.

"What's it to you?" Sanji answered, tuning back to face the water. He heard footsteps and a moment later the boy was standing beside him.

There was silence between them.

"It's late." Sanji pointed out. "You should be in bed."

"So should you."

Sanji frowned at the boy. Who was he to tell him what to do?!

"Diasuke says we'll reach Skull Island tomorrow." Jason said.

"What of it?"

"Well, tomorrow, we may all be dead."

Sanji looked down at the boy. He hadn't said those words with fear or anxiety, but simply as a fact, as if dying was something that happened everyday.

"Are you scared?" He asked.

Jason shook his head.

"No. I'm ready to fight. I'm not scared of dying."

Sanji almost grinned.

"Really!" He said. "Then you must be pretty brave! Even though I'm much older than you, I'm still scared of dying."

Jason looked up at him in surprise.

"You are?!"

"Of course! I thought everyone was until I met you."

"But…your captain, he's not afraid of dying. He says he'll fight Kuzeo!"

Sanji smiled.

"Yes, he did. This is hard to explain kid, but you can still be afraid of death, but be willing to die for someone." He paused for a moment to let the words sink in. "Who are you willing to die for?"

Jason seemed surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you're so ready to die, then isn't there a reason for it?"

Jason thought about this.

"Well…." He said. "My parents were killed by demons, they died saving my life, so I'm willing to die to get rid of every demon once and for all!"

Sanji looked sadly down at the boy.

"You know kid, when I was your age a man gave his leg to save my life. He was a famous pirate and having only one leg meant he couldn't sail anymore. I stayed with him after that, waiting for a chance to risk my life for him, so I could pay him back."

He doused the cigarette on the banister.

"But when that time finally came, Luffy said something to me."

"What was it?"

"He said that that old man didn't give his leg for me so I could throw my life away, he did it so I could live. And you know what; he was right. So, do you really think your parents would want to see you get yourself killed, after they had died to save you?"

Jason stared down at his hands.

"N…no! They wouldn't!" He cried, tears welling up. "But now I'm here, what else can I do?!"

Sanji turned round to go back inside.

"You can do whatever you want." He said.

"WAIT!"

Sanji turned his head.

"What?"

"Why are you risking your life for Zoro? Don't you know he's Kuzeo's son! For all you know he could take over Kuzeo's place when we kill him! Why do you want to put the world at risk?"

Sanji laughed.

"You obviously don't know Zoro!" He answered. "He's strong, but not dangerous. He wouldn't take Kuzeo's place as devil either."

"How do you know? All demons are the same – they don't care about other peoples feelings, they just do what they want! That's what Zoro's like as well!"

Sanji frowned.

"Who told you that?"

"Diasuke, 4 years ago."

"Well he's wrong. Zoro isn't like that at all."

"But just look at his reputation as a pirate hunter!"

"It's just a reputation, just rumours, it's not true."

Jason looked a little ashamed of himself, and stared down at his feet. Sanji walked over to him.

"Look kid, you can't judge someone before you get to know them, especially if that image you see of them is based on a rumour or who their family is. Everyone is different and obviously Diasuke can't see that."

"Don't speak badly about him." Said Jason. "He's like a father to me."

"Even so, I'm going to find it difficult sailing with someone who can't tell the difference between a person and stereotypes."

And leaving his words to settle in to the young boys mind, Sanji walked back into the cabins – he was 2 minutes late for waking up Isamu for his watch – damn kid!

The next day was bleak and misty. Their new navigator had said that they'd be arriving at Skull Island at around 5 O'clock - that meant 9 hours of waiting.

Not that the straw hats minded waiting, after all, they lived on a ship and had to wait to get from island to island, but Sanji had a feeling that these 9 hours would be the longest that they'd ever felt.

Everyone was preparing for battle in their own way. Luffy was sitting on the goat's head, hungrily eating a piece of meat, Usopp was checking his sling shot pellets, Chopper was making more medicine in case anyone got hurt and Robin was silently reading the diary she was given. And as for him; he had been cooking, however he had stopped after breakfast and didn't intend to start making lunch for another few hours. Now he was bored. He hated not having Nami- San there to make something for, and he couldn't take out his boredom on moss head either. However, there was one person he needed to have a word with.

He made his way towards the mast and started the climb the ladder leading to the crows nest. It was Diasuke's watch, so he should find him up here.

As he neared the top, he heard hushed voices; it seemed like Diasuke was having some kind of secret discussion with someone.

Wasn't he supposed to be the only one up here?

He ceased his climb to listen to the conversation.

"We should tell them – they deserve to know."

That voice was defiantly a woman's, it sounded like Chikas, come to think of it.

"No way! They'd kill us! Don't forget the captain's worth 100 million! Who knows what he did to get that bounty!"

That was Diasuke.

"But they're risking their lives for our cause! Don't you think they should know the truth?"

"Not if it brings harm to what we're doing! If they found out then they would refuse to work with us! We wouldn't be able to beat Kuzeo!"

"I suppose your right……."

"Of course I am. But what made you bring this up anyway?"

"It's something Jason said."

"What did he say?"

"That Zoro isn't evil. Or at least, that's what one of the straw hats told him – the cook, I think."

"Well he would say that, he's Zoro's nakama! These pirates are just as bad as Zoro and Kuzeo, the only reason they're working with us is because they happened to get on the wrong side of the devil! They don't care who gets in their way, whether it's Kuzeo or the World Government, they'll kill them all! Pirates and demons are the same kind – you can't trust any of them! I don't want that cook putting anymore ideas into Jason's head! I'll go tell him not to speak with them..."

Upon hearing Diasuke start to stand up, Sanji immediately dropped down onto the deck, than carried on walking as if he'd never been up there in the first place.

A moment later, Diasuke followed him.

"Oi, aren't you supposed to be on lookout?" He asked him.

"Yes, but I need to talk to Jason, Chika's taking over for me." He answered with a grin, then walked off.

So he's still acting like our friend, that backstabbing bastard! I wonder what it was they did that Chika wanted to tell us.

"Sanji!! I'm hungry!" Came the call from the figurehead.

"Wait Luffy, you've only just had breakfast!" Sanji yelled back before going off to the kitchen to make some snacks.

Maybe I can figure this all out while cooking. He thought.

Zoro sat in his cell, legs curled up against his chest, leaning against the wall. Gone were the days where Kuzeo let him sleep in a bed; since 3 months ago he had been moved to a cell in the dungeons, all the comfort he had there was a rough, straw mattress and a few thin blankets

'What did I do to deserve this' He thought, while trying to keep in whatever warmth he had left in his body.

'It's so cold!'

A shiver ran down his spine, making the hairs on his back stand on end. Why did Kuzeo do this to him? Why?

"Ah, Zoro! I see you've made yourself comfy."

Zoro looked up. Standing just outside the cell bars was Kuzeo with an evil grin on his face.

"What do you want?!" Zoro snarled.

Kuzeo chuckled.

"I just wanted to see if you were warm enough. It's going to be a freezing cold night, you know, and apparently these dungeons make the air colder than outside!" He began laughing; a sound Zoro couldn't bear to hear.

"Shut up!" He growled. "You'll regret this one day!"

Kuzeo stopped his laughter for second, only to then continue laughing harder.

"You! You'll make ME regret this! Oh Zoro, you do make me laugh! You couldn't hurt a fly! You're just too weak!"

And, deciding that he'd had enough, Kuzeo turned and walked back out again, still laughing energetically.

Now Zoro was really pissed off.

'I'm not weak! I'll kill him some day! I swear, I'll kill him!'

Kuzeo sat in his planning room, along with his 4 generals – and Zoro.

It had surprised him how much the other demons feared and respected Zoro. They knew he was his son – but they also knew that they hated each other. Kuzeo hadn't asked them to treat Zoro any differently from anyone else, they just did.

Obviously he lets out that kind of aura. He thought to himself.

"Alright, how are things going?" Kuzeo asked.

His General -in –chief answered him.

"Everything's in place, all we need to do now is make our move on the World Government."

Kuzeo nodded.

"Good, we'll do that tomorrow."

Suddenly a younger demon burst through the door.

"Master! Master!" He shouted.

"What?" Asked an irritated Kuzeo.

"We've just received reports of a fleet heading this way – they fly the flag of the brotherhood."

"WHAT!" Kuzeo jumped up, staring angrily at the man. "What do you mean a fleet!"

"Well…..it's a fleet.." The demon could think of nothing else to say.

"How many?"

"500."

"WHAT! 500!"

"Yes master."

Kuzeo stormed angrily to the window.

"The brotherhood's sent a fleet to get rid of me – ha! Not a chance!"

He turned back round to his generals.

"It looks like we'll have to delay our plan for a while. Just get rid of that fleet!"

The generals saluted.

"Hai!"

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