Naghi-Tan: It's a beautiful song. I absolutely love it! And it fits the story in its weird, messed up way. Man, I tell ya – whenever I get sucked into a black pit, I use my writing to get through it. Transfer all the dark stuff to paper so I can work through it. I feel like I do my best writing when I'm in the dumps – weird, huh?

3: He's Not Much For Words


It was nearly three in the morning, and Sanji was watching the road for the Uber he'd ordered. He was shaking – not from the cold, but from the uncertainty and unease he felt with that one phone call. He was trying not to give into the impulse to get answers from the group, but his mind was pulled in various directions. These roiling feelings of guilt and unease from hearing the other man's (men's?) voices left him feeling like he'd cheated on a twin.

"Why this place?" he mumbled, clutching his backpack. Robin looked back at him, skirts slithering against the sidewalk as she examined the parking lot and the trees beyond that. Beyond that, Sanji could see a storm sweeping by in the distance. Lightening danced and flashed – Law and the others were in the opposite direction, hours from this location.

"A mini-vacation. To take your mind off your worries," Robin said with a wistful glance out at the storm. From their position at the train station, the winding road from the off ramp of the freeway gave them visual confirmation of their Uber. There were others lingering about, smoking cigarettes or making quiet phone calls. Their presence was too distant for Sanji to feel any type of self-consciousness, speaking low with his mouth barely moving.

Robin's smile seemed to lose its strength. "But it seems it would not help much, considering your phone call."

Sanji exhaled slowly. "Dumb fuck old shit."

"I would not worry about him. He has lived this long, surviving many obstacles that are…considerably more worrisome than the task he's taking on, now."

"I don't think it's because I'm…worried," Sanji mumbled, adjusting his backpack once more. He wasn't sure how to explain it, feeling awkward trying to explain his confusion of feelings. He fell silent, jaw tensed as Robin looked away. Sanji felt liked he had to say something – something to remind Robin that she was valuable to him.

It often felt like he had to push unnecessarily to gain others' approval or attention.

"It's because they're two different people …"

Robin glanced back at him as a single car pulled up slowly through the separated lanes, taking careful ease to find the right Pick Up lane. A man smoking a cigarette looked at his phone with examination, then back at the car. But he put out his cigarette and hauled up his suitcase, moving back into the station once he determined it wasn't his ride.

"You don't have to explain yourself, Sanji. I understand."

Sanji watched the car pull up in front of them, the window lowering to reveal a somewhat cheerful blond man.

"Hi! I'm your driver! My name is Sabo! You're Sanji, right?"

"Yeah." Sanji opened the back door, and Sabo extended a hand, waving at him to sit in the front. Uncomfortable with the choice, Sanji hesitated. Robin slid into the backseat while he wavered, so he shut the door after her and reluctantly pulled himself to the front passenger seat. Sabo watched him settle with a pleasant expression, then touched his phone screen a few times before easing away from the curb.

"What brings you to this terrific town?" Sabo asked him with too much exuberance for three in the morning. When he looked at Sanji again, Sanji realized that this man's face was heavily scarred from some long ago burn. The pink edges looked accusing.

"I actually don't know why I'm here," Sanji said, pulling on his seatbelt and locking it for extra insurance. "I'm just here."

Sabo looked at him with immense sympathy. "Oh, I see. You're a runaway. You're running away from an arranged marriage because your parents forced you into it, and you can't do it because you don't love her, because you only marry for love."

Sanji stared at him for several seconds, then uttered, "No."

Sabo gave a laugh. "I'm only trying to wake you up, give you a laugh. I see your destination is the most haunted hotel in area…I thought that was a mistake."

"I had no idea it was a haunted hotel when I booked it," Sanji said with gritted teeth.

"You can't actually book a room there," Sabo stated, reaching out to fiddle with the radio. "But that's where I gotta drop you off."

"Can it be another hotel?"

"No," Robin stated firmly. "Don't worry. There is room for us there."

"We're actually staying there," Sanji said aloud to himself, lowering his hands ever so slightly. "We're going to stay there. At the most haunted area in the whole friggin' area..."

"There's nothing to worry about there. I know some friends," Robin assured him.

"Oh, friends…there's friends there," Sanji muttered underneath his breath, Sabo staring at him. "That's a relief."

"They're good people," Robin guaranteed him.

"I'll be the judge of that," Sanji said, Sabo's expression changing to utter confusion.

"Who are you talking to?" he asked Sanji with a shaky laugh. He gave him a nervous expression. "Are you okay? Perhaps it's too early in the morning – judging from your appearance, are you a recreational user? Maybe you can find something in here to bring you down a notch…"

He opened up his middle console to reveal a container of various shapes and sizes.

Sanji glanced in, mouth dropping before he looked at Sabo. "Are you a drug dealer?"

"I find them in my car. I just save them for someone else."

"Are you a real idiot, or just…?"

"I'm not the one referring to myself as 'we'!" Sabo said nervously, closing the console.

At the light rustling sound from the back, Sanji twisted to back at Robin to see what she was doing. She was smiling over at the area behind Sabo, where a dark-haired boy was bent over his knees to examine the contents of a greasy bag. Not that he could get it open – his hands floated uselessly against the presence of the fast-food bag, and he was steadily getting frustrated with it.

Sanji stared at him then at Sabo, who was nervously twirling at a curl of hair at his temple while guiding the car onto the freeway. He looked back at the ghost, who sat up with a whine of impatience. His unruly black hair was covered by a backwards cap, and he wore an athletic jacket, a red shirt underneath that. His blue jeans were ripped at the knees, and while he showed no indication of death, the boy was definitely dead.

He noticed Sanji looking at him, and froze in place.

Sanji broke eye contact with him and looked at Sabo before sitting straight in his seat. He heard rustling once more, and saw the kid attempting to unzip his backpack that Sanji had thrown onto the seat.

Because of his new-found knowledge on what gleams were, Sanji observed the rather bright light that surrounded the ghost. It was a strange glow – like black, shiny oil without a rainbow. Some outward tinges revealed a smoky maroon – every movement he made seemed to catch it to stretch with the sense of rubber – like a rubberband being forced to stretch.

"Who the hell are you?" Sanji asked him with bewilderment.

"I'm Luffy," the kid said to Sanji with confusion, stilling in movement. His eyes darted back and forth; to the driver, then back at him. He scooted up in his seat, leaning over the middle console. "Wait, are you talking to me?"

Sanji righted himself in his chair. He swallowed tightly as Sabo looked at him from the corner of his eye with nervous suspicion.

"Hey. Were you talking to me?" Luffy whispered – rather noisily, Sanji thought. He forced his attention forward, rigid in his chair. "Hey. Hey, you were talking to me, huh? You were looking at me – hey, do you see me? Can you actually see me? Hello?"

"Don't be rude, Sanji," Robin chided gently. "Introduce yourself."

"Oh my god," the boy straightened in his seat to look at her. His voice rose several notches, causing Sanji to cringe. "You- ! I heard you!"

"My name is Robin," she said.

"Oh my god! Ha ha! This is great! I haven't spoken to someone in so long - hi! My name's Luffy! Wow, this is great! Hi, Robin! Wow, this is amazing! That's an awesome costume you have – what happened to your head?"

"Headache," Robin said lightly, indicating her obvious bullet wound with a gloved hand. Luffy stared at her with amazement, then his face dropped several notches as his big eyes scoured the wound with gravity. He froze.

"That's no headache," Sanji heard him whisper with horror.

Sanji wore a troubled expression as he reached up to clutch his seatbelt with both hands. Sabo glanced at him with worry, hands rigid on the wheel. He exhaled slowly before turning the volume up on the radio, strumming with discomfort over his passenger's subtle behavior.

Sanji glanced over at him, then resolved to stay silent. He could hear the boy shifting around in the backseat, once again leaning over to attempt rummaging through the balled up fast food bag. While he couldn't touch it, his muttering caused Sanji to twitch ever so slightly.

Luffy straightened up with an exasperated sigh. Sanji could feel the boy's eyes crawling all over him.

"So, Sanji," Luffy said slowly, leaning forward once more. "What brings you out here? Why are you going to a haunted motel? I mean, yeah, I get it, it's a tourist town, we get tons of visitors from the big cities, but, like, you have relatives here? Friends? No, WAIT!"

Sanji stared back at him while Luffy thought hard, veins bulging at his temple and neck. Sabo noticed Sanji staring into the backseat, so his eyes took to the rearview mirror to view absolutely nothing. He grew steadily more nervous, apprehensive about his passenger and his behavior. He gripped a suspiciously bent steering wheel with both hands.

"From the looks of you, I'd say you're a college kid visiting old friends who are set on spelunking in the mountains, to vacation at the hot springs, and to eat great food. Right? Am I right? At least a part of it?"

"No," Sanji answered Luffy. He adjusted his glasses stiffly.

"Visiting parents?"

"No."

"…Lost?"

Sabo cleared his throat noisily, causing Sanji to twitch before straightening in his seat, blushing with mortification. Uncomfortably, Sabo asked, "Did you have too much coffee? You are seeing and talking to nothing. Quite frankly, it's making me very nervous."

"I'm his brother, and as his brother, I assure you, Sabo gets nervous a lot," Luffy said cheerfully.

Sanji struggled to think of an acceptable answer to give, but there was nothing acceptable about the situation. He briefly watched the scenery pass by, Sabo watching him from time to time with slight turns of his head. Sabo's scarred face turned worried, fingers clenching and unclenching over the steering wheel.

"Luffy," Robin interjected, "how did you die?"

Luffy straightened up to stare at her. He flopped back against his seat with a blowfish exhale. "Well…! Um…honestly, I'm not sure," he said slowly. He rummaged through his jacket and pants pockets before withdrawing a Pokémon wallet, and pulling out what looked like a Student ID. Robin took it, examining it thoughtfully.

"This was a year ago," she said aloud.

"Yeah, it's been awhile since people stopped talking to me. I thought people were just mad at me, but then I was at my own damn funeral, and it hit me. I was dead," Luffy said, a dazed expression in his voice. Sanji couldn't help but turn and look back at him. "I can't even remember what happened, but Sabo was in the hospital for a long time, and Ace was so mad at him…"

Sanji looked to Sabo. "Car accident?" he asked.

Sabo looked at him, frowning with discomfort. "What?"

"Were you in a car accident?"

"…a year ago," Sabo said, voice cracking slightly. "My scar? You're questioning my scar?"

"Sorry," Sanji apologized.

Sabo exhaled with a heavy expression. He nodded. "Yeah, it was a car accident. About a year ago…I…I lost my little brother in that accident."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Robin told Luffy, who looked alarmed. "That seems like a common death nowadays."

"I follow my brother everywhere. As you can see, he's a right mess," Luffy added.

"But he's so friendly!"

"Sorry to hear that," Sanji said to Sabo. "He seems like a nice guy."

Sabo performed a double take. "…What?"

"I mean…I'm sure he was a nice guy."

"I am a nice guy," Luffy insisted with a shrug. "At least, I thought I was…then I died. I really have no memory of dying! I only knew that I did when I found my brothers at my funeral! Like, how'd I die?"

Sanji looked to Sabo. "How'd he…?"

Sabo glanced at him, fumbling for words as this complete stranger brought up such an uncomfortable topic. "Head injury. Fell into a coma and didn't…he was brain dead. They had to pull the plug."

Luffy reached up to his head, touching frantically. He removed his hat, revealing unruly black hair that scattered as his fingers searched. But all that he found was a scar on his face, his expression so confused that Sanji looked back at him with sympathy.

"Sorry," Sanji repeated to Sabo before returning his attention to the window.

Sabo looked at Sanji skeptically, the other blond attempting to ignore that look. Sabo looked at his phone to see how close they were to their destination, Luffy pushing himself up between them. He squinted at Sabo's phone, then gasped as he looked to Sanji.

"That's your destination, right? Oh, man! I'd love to go, but no one ever wants to go with me. Too scared. That hotel's dangerous, y'know? I YouTube'd it and stood outside sometimes, but it's not fun to do something without friends, and my friends are scared of ghosts," Luffy said.

"Maybe now you can," Robin suggested, Luffy whipping his head around to look at her with delight.

"Can I go in with you guys?"

"You can go anywhere you like," she assured him with a wink.

"Oh, man, this is going to be great! I've always wanted to!"

"Can you both keep it down? I feel like I'm losing my mind," Sanji murmured, hand to his forehead while Sabo looked at him with utter confusion. He adjusted his glasses clumsily with the back of his hand.

Sabo exhaled heavily, glancing at his passenger from the side of his eye while facing the road.

"There it is," he then said, pointing out at a tall building nestled between some smaller ones. The dark shape of it told Sanji it was a multi-story structure with old fashioned signs still clinging to its brick. The parking lot was maintained to allow parking for other, more brightly lit buildings settled around it. Considering that hotels were notorious for lingering souls, Sanji felt downtrodden encountering any of them. He rested his head back against the chair, struggling to maintain a sense of dignity.

Luffy gave an excited whoop, clinging to Sabo's seat. "I dunno, man, it looks pretty creepy. It looks crazy during the day, too, but at night? Looks even worse. And you're gonna stay there? Man, you're wild."

"Why are you going there alone?" Sabo then questioned Sanji skeptically. "Why is this your destination? Are you a ghost hunter, or something?"

"Something like that," Sanji muttered.

"Is that why you're able to see me?" Luffy asked Sanji. "You can see ghosts? WOW! Where were you when I needed you? Like, a long time ago?"

Sanji glanced over at Luffy. Sabo sped up a little, noticing his passenger's odd actions. Once they were in front of the building, Sanji hesitated for a moment as Sabo touched the screen of his phone a few times to clear the ride. Looking back at Luffy, he said, "What do you want Sabo to know?"

Luffy and Sabo looked at him with puzzled expressions. They weren't blood brothers, Sanji thought.

"Hurry up. Before he has a heart attack."

"It wasn't his fault," Luffy said slowly. "I should've wore my seat belt. I'm sorry."

"He apologizes for not wearing his seatbelt, and wants you to know that he's sorry," Sanji relayed to Sabo, who looked at him with an expression of frozen horror. Sanji pushed the door open, then opened the back. Robin climbed out first, Sanji allowing her time to clear his way before he reached in for his bag.

Sabo's mouth opened and closed a few times while Luffy looked at him with confusion before telling Sanji, "Also, tell him to tell Ace that Ace can find his stupid hat at our old base in the woods," Luffy added hastily. "Ace has been looking for that thing for so long -! It's under the bookshelf. Tell him I'm sorry, but he deserved that for sleeping with Sabo's girlfriend."

Sanji told that to Sabo before reaching in and snatching up the greasy fast-food bag. He then shut the rear door, leaning in through the passenger side door to indicate the bag as he was throwing it away for him as a favor. Sabo stared after him in stunned silence, unmoving. Sanji shut that door, scanned the area for a trash can, and just ended up stuffing it into his backpack.

He turned to the face the building with rising apprehension, pulling the backpack straps on with nervous hands. He used some twitching of his nose to readjust his glasses. Robin was already approaching the boarded front doors. Sanji noticed that most of the windows on the first and second floor were boarded up, tagged with maintenance and city symbols. The town was seemingly empty at night – with the vague sounds of the freeway in the distance, and a new weight of peace and quiet that wasn't common in the city where he was from. It was almost unsettling, Sanji glancing around apprehensively, expecting to see people on the sidewalks or driving through the empty lanes of the main road.

He jumped ever so slightly as Luffy bumped into him, looking up at the building with a low whistle. "We going in?" he asked.

"'We'?" Sanji repeated. Sabo was still staring at him in incredulous silence from his running car. "Dude, get back into your car and scram."

"Rude," Luffy muttered, frowning at him. "You're the first person I've talked to in ages, and you're trying to get rid of me already. You city people are so rude."

After a few moments, he looked back at his brother. His expression drew long and sad, Sanji glancing at him once he registered the silence.

"Sabo thought it was his fault," Luffy mumbled. "But it wasn't. I didn't listen to him. It was mine. The car that hit us ran a stop sign. I've wanted him to know that part…I should've listened to him…"

Sanji wasn't sure what to say as Sabo looked away, still caught in the grips of his own feelings. But he could hear all of Luffy's. It made him uncomfortable, but at the same time, it felt like he'd helped in some way.

"You can't go in there by yourself!" Luffy then exclaimed, gesturing wide at the building. His voice carried at an obscene volume through the silence, causing Sanji to twitch. "Are you meeting someone? If you are, I can go with you…"

The lock to the front door bounced off the sidewalk, boards and planks clattering noisily soon after. Sanji watched Robin push the door open, walking into the building with a billow of dust shooting out onto the sidewalk. Sanji glanced at Sabo cautiously before digging into his backpack, withdrawing a flashlight. The scarred man, with slow, heavy actions, put the car into drive and pulled away. At the sight of his taillights moving down the street, Sanji wondered if it were better to have said nothing at all.

Boundaries, Sanji, he heard Law admonish him.

Luffy ventured after Sanji in strange silence. Despite the scene that had taken place, his face lit up with excitement. Walking into the building, Sanji examined the lobby with his flashlight. Robin was nowhere in sight. Abandoned furniture had been covered with rotting canvas sheets. There were cobwebs collected against the joists in the ceiling. Mirrors reflected dully with his moving light. The silence was still and heavy, the air thick with dust and the taste of something familiar.

"Shit!" Luffy exclaimed, startling Sanji with the sound of his voice. "This place is so cool! Everything looks so…spooky!"

Only Sanji's footprints were left behind as they walked forward, following a rotted running carpet that led directly to the front desk. Luffy followed after him with an awed expression, careful to step where Sanji had.

Hearing no other movement than theirs, Sanji lowered his flashlight with a slow exhale of breath. "Robin?" he called out cautiously, wincing slightly after as his voice carried through the place like a shot.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Luffy asked, his voice ringing loudly off the stillness. "Isn't she kinda old?"

Sanji looked at him impatiently, glancing back and forth towards the various doorways that represented strong shadowy portals. Dust motes drifted aimlessly in front of his flashlight, wood creaking with light disturbance from somewhere ahead of them. Sanji ventured in that direction, Luffy following along with a light exhale.

"Oh, man, where are all the ghosts? Hey, ghosts!" he called out, cupping his mouth with both hands. "Come out, come out, wherever you are! Hey, I'm a ghost, too!"

"Kindly shut your shitty trap, please," Sanji ordered him. "You're a ghost. I'm not. I'd rather not talk to every single one of them. "

"The fact that you can see and talk to me is…or is it us? Do you talk to other ghosts, too? Hey, are you like, a psychic?" Luffy asked him curiously.

"Sanji."

Sanji looked up, hearing Robin call for him a distance away. He took the rest of the stairs carefully, Luffy still wearing a bewildered expression as he followed. On the second floor, they were greeted to the sight of a hallway littered with empty beer bottles, trash, blankets and broken furniture. The windows were broken, but the boards nailed over them allowed the night wind in through the open slits. It caused an uncomfortable whistling that made both of them anxious.

Sanji caught sight of Robin standing in front of a large corridor, so he eased in that direction, hearing Luffy follow.

Robin waited for their approach, wearing a light smile. Luffy eased in closer to Sanji, bumping the other man. Sanji elbowed him away.

"What are we doing here?" Luffy asked Robin. "This place has been abandoned for years. Are you leading us to some kind of treasure, or something? Are we solving a mystery?"

"My companion here has been suffering from the immensity of life's little pressures," Robin said, pushing the doors behind her open. Hinges creaked noisily, causing Luffy to shout and startle, watching with wide eyes as he saw this happen. "So I thought this little vacation would help lift his spirits."

"How'd you do that?" Luffy cried. "I've been trying to touch things all the time! I never can!"

Robin looked him over, wearing a head tilt. To Sanji, she said, "He has a gleam."

"I watched him struggle with opening up Sabo's leftovers," Sanji said with a puzzled look at Luffy. "So why can't he touch anything if he has a gleam…?"

"Luffy," Robin asked, looking at the boy as he looked up at her with his arms crossed over his chest, an expression of excitement on his face, "what did you love while you were alive?"

"Pft, that's easy," Luffy said with a light chuckle. "Food and my brothers. Food, mainly. Hamburgers…anything with meat. I miss eating. Oh my god, I missing eating as much as I miss my brothers…"

Robin looked to Sanji with understanding, Sanji wearing a puzzled frown as he remembered the bag he'd stuffed into his backpack. Looking from one to the other, Luffy slouched his shoulders. "None of ya'll are going to actually finish this weird questioning? I feel like you're supposed to finish it…."

"There's a lot for you to learn, Luffy," Robin assured him. "There's plenty of time to show you."

Sanji lifted the light to shine forward as Robin turned and walked into the room that had opened, Luffy looking after her with a fitful frown. But he followed after them.

Sanji waved the light about, unsure of what he was looking for. All he caught within the cone of light were tables piled atop of each other, chairs stacked in stark rows up against the wall, and more boarded windows. But the carpet here seemed brighter, with a disorienting design. He examined that, catching bird and rat droppings before lifting his head. He stilled.

The room changed right before their eyes – restoring back its original state with carpeting that smelled new, windows that gleamed with brilliant illuminance, with a dance floor teeming with men and women moving to music being played by a quartet in the corner. The bar area was glittering with candle lights, flickers of electricity and busy bartenders. Tables were aglow with single candles, glasses snatched up by workers dressed in crisp blouses and trousers.

The air smelled of tobacco, body odors, cologne and perfumes – laughter, voices and music became a heavy weight that caused both of the living immense disorientation. Robin's dress had changed to pure white, her mortal wound gone – her black hair gathered in a stiff collection of curls that dangled around her bare shoulders.

Luffy uttered a sharp sound, paling significantly as his eyes rounded to the size of dinner plates. Sanji blinked heavily from behind his lenses, enraptured by the sights around them. Swallowing tightly, he looked to Robin with a sense of lightheaded disbelief, the woman as alive and solid as the living.

"Enjoy yourselves," she said, her voice thick and soothing, a quality that seemed alien for Sanji. Her dress whispered at her feet as she turned and mingled in with the dancers, disappearing within their depths.

After some moments of being frozen, Sanji looked down at the flashlight he held in one sweaty hand. He flicked it off as Luffy continued to gape, so pale that he nearly matched Sanji's white shirt. Sanji put the flashlight aside, apprehensive of the eyes that didn't linger in their direction. It was almost as if he'd stepped through time, and while his thoughts scattered with his disorientation and disbelief, the fact that Robin did this for him caused him immense gratitude.

He wasn't sure what to say, wasn't sure how to formulate words. He looked down at himself, knowing he was sure to stand out in his modern clothing. But a couple walking by with full glasses in hand swept through him – like he was a ghost. Being ignored caused Sanji some odd relief. He looked to Luffy, the boy stock still at his side.

He elbowed him. "Let's go check it out. How often do you run into a situation like this?"

"I don't know how to dance…how the hell is this some kinda of vacation?" Luffy then added on a wheeze, looking at Sanji with confusion. "What the hell are you? Are you really a ghost hunter?"

Sanji shrugged, unsure how to answer. "I'm new at this," he muttered. "I mean, not new at hearing or seeing them, but…looking for them on my own."

"What are you looking for?"

"I don't know. Robin…Robin just brought me out here."

Luffy gave him a skeptical look. "Are you sure she's not your girlfriend?"

"Quite positive."

"Your mom?"

"Obviously not, jackass."

"Wow, there's that rudeness again…"

"Look, kid," Sanji said, looking at Luffy with a frown, "I'm sorry things are the way they are for you. But I don't know why I'm here. She's sort of an enigma. All I know is that I'm hours away from home, and this…this is something I'd never seen before. Meeting you wasn't my intention."

Luffy frowned sullenly, plucking at his coat. Sanji stared down at him, feeling a wretched feeling yank at his chest.

"But maybe we were meant to meet," Sanji then said low. "Maybe your older brother needed to hear what he needed from you, and…I don't know."

"So, like…you're an angel?"

"No. Far from it. I'm just a guy that hears ghosts. A nutjob."

Luffy looked up at him skeptically. After a few moments, Sanji pulled his bag around to his front and began rifling through it. He found the bullet that he'd tucked into his notebook, the metal dull underneath the gleam of lights around him. Rolling that between his index finger and thumb, he wondered what Robin meant to do here with his assistance. Glancing around, he noted the reveler's clothing, the setup of the room. He pulled out his phone from his back pocket, then quickly texted Shachi a question.

Once he received an answer, he understood; Robin was looking for information on the man they were hunting in the haunted forest. He locked his phone and slipped it back into his pocket, shoving the bullet into his shorts pocket. He pulled his backpack on, Luffy standing there with a strong sense of mystification.

Sanji looked at him with a tired smile. "C'mon, kid. Let's go look at things."

"That's it?"

"Robin is helping someone gather information. It's complicated. Explaining it would be a waste of time."

"This is what ghost hunters do?" Luffy asked skeptically, following after him. "Solve mysteries and shit?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"Who's your Scooby? I can be your Scooby," Luffy snickered, and for a moment, he did look like a puppy. Sanji had an urge to pat the top of his head, but he instead fisted his hand into his pockets.