The massive city didn't keep them distracted for longer than a day, when Franky declared that their new ship was finished. Sanji was impressed when he saw it too – how the hell can five people build a brig sloop in three days? It had to be some sort of record in the history of building ships.
Finding Shizu wasn't too bad this time. Before the brief fieldtrip to declare open war against the world government, he'd last seen her swimming happily enough down in the canals. For a while he'd been worried that she'd been stranded somewhere in an isolated body of water. Like a kiddypool. That thought didn't bring up anything good.
The sea-serpent was very good with stealth. When Sanji had asked around, he'd been rewarded with bewildered stares and a few no's. Some kids had told him that a friend of a friend had sworn they'd seen a mermaid in the sewers. That was better than nothing. Then a man renting Yagara bulls for tourists had poured out a rant about his animals acting wierd all day long.
And then he'd come across a little girl who had wordlessly pointed down a street when he'd asked if she'd seen a wierd mermaid today.
He found out that the hardest part of leaving Water 7 behind was to drag Shizu out of the Yagara pen where she'd been gorging on the remains of a bull. The said bull had been at least three times her size. Taking in the battleground, he'd made an educated guess and say that the bull three times her size had gone wild before it's death. There were morbid splatters all over the walls. She hadn't been able to drag it back to the water from where it had died on the concrete, and so the she-serpent was making regular awkward dunks into the pool to keep her gills wet.
Stubbornly, he'd ignored every single mental image of himself bleeding out on the stone instead.
Coaxing didn't work. She did take a long look when she realised she wasn't alone, but it seemed like his familiarity had ranked him "not worth my time". There were no second glances and words just rolled off of her like water from a duck's back. Not that much of a surprise.
Throwing her over his shoulder flickered through his mind, but there was no way he'd be able to do that. Shizu would've fought him for her freedom, and if he dropped her, she might've gotten hurt. That was not how to handle a lady.
Even when it wasn't particularily ladylike to be covered in blood.
Speaking of ladies, Robin-chan was finally back. It filled him with such a relieved warmth that he'd expected to start boiling. She was home and she was safe. Sanji was sure that even when covered in blood, Robin-chan would still remain heart-stoppingly beautiful and wonderful~!
Shizu was beautiful too. It was an innocent, eerie sort of beauty. Oh look at her, she just tilted her head! Shizu-chan was so cute when she was confused!
Conviniently, he omitted the fact that she had no facial expressions. The head tilt had been because of Chopper and Nami-san walking in on the scene. They had both gone green when they saw the state of the Yagara pen.
"So this is where you were," she'd muttered.
"Did she do this all by herself!?" the reindeer had scooted behind the gorgeous redhead, his voice all but a squeak.
Lo and behold, Shizu had not given a crap.
They had ended up waiting for the she-serpent to finish her dinner. Chopper had suggested that they try and grab a piece of meat and lure her away so they could wrestle her down. Sanji had pointed out that she could've suddenly develop a taste for reindeer and turn on him if they tried that. He didn't mention that she might've just as well try and sink her teeth in either him or Nami-san, and that was not pleasant. He had experience about it. Afterall, she'd never shown much interest in their little doctor. That was somewhat of a comforting thought.
At present, Sanji was standing in front of a wall made of glass. Behind it was a large amount of water and some nicely arranged sea plants to give the tank a more natural look. Franky had said that they could always have fresh fish this way, but besides that, the blond could see another possibility.
They would never, ever leave Shizu behind again. That thought was churning in his arms like a thousand adrenaline rushes. He wondered if his face would be left permanently with a smile. Oh god, he'd be like Luffy, then. Sanji found it disturbing that he'd been comparing so many things that were "like Luffy" these days.
Even the stinging bitemark on his shoulder couldn't hamper the giddyness. He could still feel it very acutely under the bandages, though. The injury wasn't life threatning and he could take care of it himself well enough, no need to bother Chopper with it. It had been more or less his own fault anyway.
He left to find Franky, to ask him if it was possible to leave some sort of underwater handhold, you know, just for the heck of it. No, no, definitely not because they were followed by a she-serpent on regular basis.
