New chapter, more action... whop, whop... enjoy!
Chapter 25
Suddenly, Zoro was very aware of how distance he had been these two days. He was about to marry a freaking stranger for god's sake! It's like he had watched his life pass by through a dirty window without bothering to interrupt. But now he seemed to have control over himself again.
When he hear his name again he recognize the voice. It was from the beach, and it was Sanji who spoke. It was Sanji all the time.
"Zoro."
The swordsman's stomach fluttered when his name was called out by that voice and those lips. It had been Sanji all the time.
"Sanji."
The blonde head looked back at him, blue eyes filled with worry. But soon the worry melted into something else and the blonde gave him a dazzling smile, only for him.
"Hi there idiot swordsman."
Zoro blinked. It was a little weird to hear Sanji talk back to him.
"You- You can talk", Zoro said and walked towards the blonde. "It was you all the time. You're the one."
"Well congratulations to finally figure that one out", the blonde said with a smirk.
The tanned calloused hands wrapped around Sanji's thin waist and pulled him closer, locking their lips together. Sanji's stomach did flips over and over again, and a single tear ran down his cheek. They pulled apart and Zoro brushed the drop away with his thumb.
"Sanji, I'm sorry I didn't notice. I've finally realized. I love y-" but Zoro didn't get the chance to finish that sentence, because Sanji took in a pained breath and slid down towards the deck and out of Zoro's grasp. The sun had sunken down below the ocean surface.
"You are too late!" Crocodile's dark voice thundered over them.
Zoro stared down at Sanji, the blonde's pant's had shredded to pieces and instead he had a fishtail. The swordsman couldn't believe his eyes. Sanji was a fish? No, the term was merman.
"Oh WOW SANJI!" Luffy screamed enthusiastic. "You got a fishtail? That's awesome!"
"He's not the only one"
Everybody looked over at Brook who had spoken. The butler was pale and his arm was pointing at the end of the boat. Ace turned his head and saw Smoker support himself on the railing. He had a fishtail too.
"Smoker", Ace whispered and the gray-haired man gave him an apologetic look.
Crocodile's blood-curdling laughter cut through Luffy's surprised screaming and everyone turned towards Duval.
"It's too late!" the crocodile said with a rumbling voice.
The blonde tall man rose his hands to the air and strong wind blew over the ship. Clothes and skin was ripped apart as Crocodile's cover broke and the crocodile-man beneath it grew into his normal shape. The fair skin tore and fell off to show the sickly dark grey skin of the seasorcerer. The blonde hair was blown away in the wind and the dark-purple hair took its place. The last thing that appeared was the golden hook when the skin of Duval's hand fell down to the floor like a human glove. Sanji looked at the transformation in disgust. A whole shell of a human skin and clothes was just lying there on the floor.
Bon Kurei was rushing towards the seasorcerer and threw a dark green coat over Crocodile's clad shoulders and the look was complete.
Panicked screams from the watching audience as the half crocodile, half man stormed over towards the two princes with inhuman speed. The sharp claws scraped the wooden-floor and the tail was swaying back and forth dangerously.
A strong arm laced out and grabbed Sanji's narrow waist and hurled him up. Sanji was in Crocodile's grip and he didn't have any good angle to hit the stupid reptile with his fin.
"Sanji!" Zoro screamed and tried to get a hold of the blonde, but Crocodile's strong tail hit him and easily threw him back over the deck.
"Good bye lover boy" the crocodile-man said with a sneer then jumped back over the railing, merprince under his arm.
"Sanji!" Zoro screamed again, fast up on his feet and leaning over the railing.
The water was too dark and he can't see a single trace of Sanji.
"I'll save him" came Smoker's voice and the man heaved himself up so he sat on the railing. "You both stay here."
Smoker looked with a serious and hard gaze at both Zoro and Ace, the freckled boy was standing beside him. Before he jumped back into the waves he grabbed Ace's face and gave him a last chaste kiss before jumping down, letting the dark water surround him.
Smoker sank down on his own a few moments, just letting the familiar feeling of water wrap around him. Then he starts to look around for the merprince and the seasorcerer. There, deeper underneath him he could see the bubbles from the big reptile. Sanji was still trapped under on big arm. Sanji was a strong merman, but the blonde's upper body had nothing against Crocodile's.
"Poor little mr. Prince", Crocodile said with a smirking face. "It's not really you I'm after. I've got a much bigger catch going on-"
"Stop right there, Crocodile!"
Crocodile stopped abruptly, a golden trident only inches away from his scarred face. In front of them was king Zeff, trident raised and a furious expression on his face. Behind him was a shaking Usopp hiding, peeking up but hid fast again when he got a glare from the seasorcerer.
"My, my, if it isn't king Zeff", Crocodile said with a quirking corner of his mouth, his tail slowly pushing the trident away from his face. "How have you been?"
"Let the eggplant go!" Zeff said and stuck the now angry glowering trident towards Crocodile's throat.
Crocodile tilted his head upward to avoid the sharp ends and quirked an eyebrow, smirk still intact on his face.
"That won't do king Zeff. He is mine after all."
The seasorcerer wrapped his strong tail around Sanji's upper body so he had his own grey-skinned hand free. His hand searched inside his big coat and pulled out the same parchment Sanji had signed one week ago.
"We made a deal."
Zeff frowned at the parchment and tried to destroy it with a bolt from his trident. It didn't work. The parchment was without a scratch and Crocodile only flew a few meters backwards due to the strong force behind the bolt, Sanji still in a strong grip with his tail.
Sanji felt how his stomach ached with guilt when he saw his father's faltering face. There was nothing the old man could do and Sanji had never meant for it to end like this. It wouldn't have ended like this if that damn reptile had never interfered in the first place. That must have been cheating, one way or another. Now his beautiful Nami-swan should have been here, she was the best when it came to writing and finding loopholes in contracts.
"Now that won't do", Crocodile said with an evil snare as he get his composure back. "The contract is legal and unbreakable, even for you. Of course I am a reasonable man. The only son of the seaking is a very precious specimen to my collection."
Crocodile let go of the contract and the parchment flew over and twirled around Sanji very fast. Sanji felt how the tail around his body loosened and the green, hard thing disappeared. But now he couldn't move because of the parchment, which had turned into a golden stream and twirled around his whole body; trapping him effectively. Then Sanji started to shrink. The blonde looked over to his father with a panicked expression.
Zeff reached out for Sanji but the reptile's tail wrapped around the old man's wrist. At least Sanji's shrinking stopped. The seasorcerer had rounded the seaking and Usopp shot away like a arrow behind a stone on safe distance.
"I could make an exception, for someone even better", Crocodile whispered to the king, his crocodile-tail slowly trailing over the golden crown on his head.
"Give me a boat, god damn it!"
The sailors was running around on deck to get one of the lifeboats ready for the prince.
"Zoro over here", Ace shouted.
The swordsman looked over at Ace and then down at his three swords. He wondered if there were any point in bringing them, they wouldn't get destroyed by the saltwater since they had such a quality, but he couldn't fight with them underneath water. Another shout from Ace and Zoro decided to bring them with him anyway.
Zoro jumped down in the boat, holding onto Ace's strong arm. He reached for the oars but another thump that got the boat to cringe made the swordsman turn around. Ace had also jumped down into the boat.
"Smoker is down there too", Ace answered the green-haired man's questioning expression.
Zoro grinned at the determined freckled face and the prince nodded and agreed that his friend could follow.
"Zoro! Don't do anything hasty now!" Brooke shouted from the deck on the bigger ship.
"I've lost him once Brook, I'm not letting go of him now when he is this close!"
"Ace, Zoro I wanna go too", Luffy shouted and tried to climbed over the railing too, but Brook held him in place.
"No way Luffy", Ace shouted back with a little grin on his face because of Luffy's eagerness to help. "You will just be in the way since you can't swim. Stay on the boat and protect Makino and the other's if something happens."
Luffy pouted but stayed put.
"Brook, take the ship back to the shore, just in case", was Zoro's last order before the two youngsters left.
Smoker watched with big eyes from his position higher up in the water how Sanji started to shrink again. His clothes had fallen off pooling around him and he wasn't bigger than one of his human shoes. He had become really tiny and there seemed to be only skin on his bones. The color of his skin had become even paler and slightly green. The blonde was turning into one of those polyps. His one visible big blue eye was staring at Zeff, begging him not to do anything stupid.
"So," the seasorcerer continued persuade and wiggled a new contract in front of the king. "Do we have an agreement?"
Zeff looked down at Sanji, his only son. It wasn't the first time that little rascal had got into trouble, but this situation must have been the worst ever. What had Usopp said? Something about that bloody human Sanji apparently loved. But wasn't he, Zeff, the one that always said that his children should find that certain someone and then he would be happy for them. The king wasn't a judging person, but did the eggplant really have to choose a human of all creatures to fall in love with?
The seaking gave a heavy sigh before making up his mind. He raised the trident and with a new bolt of yellow bright electricity, he signed the parchment with his own name.
"Excellent", Crocodile said with an alluringly calm voice and snatched the parchment away.
The golden stream that had surrounded Sanji left him in a flash, leaving him all grown up and healthy-looking again. Instead Crocodile's spell went over to surround Zeff, and only in a few second, the big strong seaking had turned into a polyps.
Usopp, who peeked at them from behind his safe cliff, looked down at the green creature on the ocean floor. Without a sound his mouth filled with froth and he fell to the ground too, unconscious from fright.
Sanji was frozen to the spot, just as Smoker. They both stared at the little creature, and Usopp beside it, that was ones the seaking over All Blue.
"I've finally got it" Crocodile said with a leering and triumph in his voice. "The ocean, All Blue, is finally within my grasp."
The green tail wrapped around the shaft of the trident and brought it to Crocodile's slightly grayish hand.
"No fucking way in hell!"
That was Crocodile's warning before a heavy kick was aimed for his smaller back and the reptile was flying into one of the rocks. Sanji was furious. This slimy reptile had tricked him, stolen his voice, cheated and now this! There was no fucking way Sanji would let this go any further.
"Why you little-" Crocodile started and just managed to block another kick aimed for his head with the shaft of the trident.
His big grayish hand grabbed the end of Sanji's fin and twisted, threw the blonde down so his back hit the rock instead. The table was turned.
"You would do best not to annoy me little brat!" Crocodile threatened and pushed the sharp trident against Sanji's throat. "I can turn you into dust in on s-"
Crocodile roared with pain as his arm was penetrated by a sharp spear. The reptile jerk around and saw that god damn human-prince float in the water above him. When Zoro saw that Crocodile's attention was on him and not Sanji, he started swim back up towards the surface.
"Son of a bitch", the reptile mutter. "After him Bananawanis"
"Zoro, watch it!" Sanji screamed and tried to swim around Crocodile, but that freakishly strong tail of his trapped the merprince in a strong grip once again.
Zoro broke the surface with a deep gasp and took a hold of the railing.
"Zoro, are you alright?" Ace asked worriedly and grabbed the man's arms with his hands.
The raven tried to pull him up into the boat, but a scream from Zoro startled him and a heavy force pulled them both down into the dark water.
Ooh, really exciting here. Sorry to leave you in a cliffhanger, but it was unavoidable right? Anyway, I promise not to drag out the fighting-scene as they do in One Piece... but that is mostly because I lack of skill hehe. Hope you liked this! Be good people and review and there will be something real interesting when all this crap is over!