Let Me Return
One – Landing on Kuro-neko's Grave
Luffy looked out onto the horizon. He strained his eyes, and saw the very island Nami had spoken of. It was fairly small, but the crew needed to stock up on food, for Sanji needed something to cook, and Zoro had been complaining about lack of grog.
It would be a very short mission, and even Usopp knew there was no time to mess around today.
The 'Merry Go' floated in the water, drifting cautiously towards the small island. The land was low enough to moor the ship without effort, much to Nami's glee, for she really didn't want to rig anything today. All five of the crewmates were hungry, and they didn't spare much breath on speaking.
"We're almost there," Luffy said flatly, trying not to waste any energy on speech.
"All right," Sanji responded. "Finally, off of this crap-ship."
"What did you say, crap-cooker?" Usopp sneered.
"Nothing, crap-liar," Sanji snapped back.
"Shut up, you two," Zoro sighed.
Nami interjected nothing into the argument. Her body was crying out for food, even though she had just eaten a mere two hours ago. She raised her eyes towards the island and noticed it was pretty close.
Nami walked over to the ship's various controls and moved it into shore. The ship stopped, having run into the sandy bottom. Just to be safe, Nami heaved the anchor off of the ship's deck and dropped it into the water below.
Zoro, Usopp, Luffy, and Sanji took notice of the dull thud ensuing from Nami's dropping of the anchor, and smiled.
"Land!" Luffy yelled, jumping off of the boat and landing safely on the ground.
Usopp pulled a ladder out from the deck and placed it down on the edge of the boat, creating a much safer pathway towards the bottom.
Luffy crossed his arms as Sanji, Usopp, Nami and Zoro (in that order) exited off of the boat.
"It would have been so much easier if you had just jumped," Luffy complained to Zoro. Zoro sighed.
"We can't ALL eat the Devil-Fruit, Luffy," Zoro reminded him.
"Hey, crap-swordsman," Sanji complained, "Get over here. Supplying will be a lot easier with you two helping."
Luffy and Zoro caught up with the other three crewmates of theirs, and together they walked into the village. But there was something vaguely familiar about the place…
Usopp's jaw dropped. Luffy, Zoro, and Nami gasped, too.
"My village!" Usopp cried, a smile breaking out on his face. "My village!"
Sanji indifferently lit a cigarette. "Yeah? What's so important about this place?"
Usopp couldn't contain his excitement. Before any one of the pirates knew it, Usopp began to run down the path, screaming, "PIRATES ARE COMING!"
The neighbors bolted out of their chairs, their windows, their houses.
"Usopp?"
"He's back!"
"Idiot still has it in him!"
"Shut up!"
"I don't get it," Sanji sighed, a cloud of cigarette smoke wafting over him.
Nami giggled. "Don't worry, Sanji. Let Usopp have his fun."
Usopp continued to run, screaming his statements, while the village followed him, screaming bloody murder or joining his mirth.
Luffy smiled. "Come on, let's join them."
Luffy and Zoro ran after the village, screaming the same thing as Usopp. Nami grinned and chased after them, laughing with glee.
Sanji smirked, put out his cigarette on a fence, and ran after his crazy crewmates.
--
Mistress Kaya looked out her window. A large group had begun shouting and parading around the village. Leading this chorus was a voice she thought she'd never hear again, and her heart began to pound with delight.
"Usopp," Kaya murmured.
Kaya was dressed fine enough, in a suit and skirt with a white shirt underneath. Kaya dashed out of the house, her usually frail body becoming strong with the desire to see her long lost friend.
Leading the group was Usopp, with the pirate crew that had saved her town a year before, only this time they had a new member, a somewhat attractive one with blonde hair.
Kaya didn't see anything in Sanji. She was just overwhelmed with happiness. Usopp was back. Her Usopp was back.
"Usopp!" Kaya called. Usopp saw Kaya and beamed. Miss Kaya was still there.
"Miss Kaya," Usopp said. Kaya, unable to hold back her happiness, ran to Usopp and held him tightly. Usopp blushed pink, even as Kaya let him go.
"What brings you four… five – back here?" Kaya asked.
"They've come to wake us up in the morning!" one villager cried.
"They've come to irritate us!" another villager said.
"They've come to get those three kids out of our hair!"
Luffy turned towards the crowd. "Actually, we need to get some supplies."
"Supplies!"
The roar echoed over the crowd.
"Get the supplies!"
"Bring our finest grog!"
"Feed them!"
Luffy looked at the villagers, all of them scurrying to get the supplies.
"Why do they revere us like this?" Sanji sighed, reaching for his box of cigarettes.
"I had to tell them," Kaya murmured. Usopp's eyes widened. Kaya looked at Usopp.
"They knew something had happened. So I gave in… but the three boys, Carrot, Onion, Pepper… they never told a soul," Kaya smiled. "They love you, Usopp."
Just as I love you, Usopp thought.
Kaya bowed. "Do you wish to come in?"
The pirate crew nodded, and followed Kaya into the house.
--
The young bar maiden scurried around her tavern, carrying boxes of grog in and out of her tavern.
On one such trip, the maiden was carrying a crate of grog towards the ship when she saw a man. She had never seen him before, yet she was instantly drawn to him.
He had blonde hair, which the man pushed out of his face in an extremely striking fashion as he took out a cigarette. He lowered his gorgeous eyes as he pulled out a lighter.
The bar maiden was frozen in her tracks. Never in her life had she been so taken by an individual person, never had she been so rooted to the spot she stood.
"Yohchi!" cried a voice. The bar maiden looked up; so did the handsome man.
"Hurry up, Yohchi!" the voice yelled.
"Coming!" Yohchi called, carrying the crate of grog as she tried to keep her face from becoming bright red. Yohchi, instead, focused on moving one foot in front of the other.
A warm hand rested on her bare shoulder. She turned, her strapless bar dress swaying with the sudden movement. The hand belonged to the man that Yohchi had been staring at.
"Do you need some help with that?" the man asked. Even though Yohchi was trying desperately not to blush, she did anyway.
"N-no… I'm fine, t-thank you…" Yohchi stammered.
"Yohchi!" the voice screeched. "Hurry up!"
"Yohchi?" the man inquired.
"T-that's m-me," Yohchi hesitated. Yohchi began to walk again when the man turned and stood before Yohchi.
"I'm Sanji," the man said simply. "You better hurry before whoever that is kills you."
Yohchi took off, nervous and at the same time exceedingly happy.
"Finally you show up, Yohchi! What took you?"
"Air headed bar maiden. We shouldn't have trusted her with the grog… she might drop it."
Sanji heard the feeble voice of Yohchi respond, amidst the cruel laughter of the others, "I-I'm s-sorry, Madame…"
Sanji turned on his heel and walked away from the tavern.
--
Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Zoro and Sanji sat down in a room, at the village inn. Luffy, Nami, Zoro and Usopp had just come back from Kaya's; Sanji had taken a self-guided tour of the island to get acquainted with it.
"We can only stay here three more days," Luffy stated. Usopp felt his heart become heavy. He finally saw Kaya once again, and he only had three days with her.
Nami nodded. "We can't afford any more than that."
"This place is great," Sanji told Usopp. "It's like a sanctuary from the real world…"
"I love it," Usopp smirked.
Zoro looked out the window, at the darkness. Suddenly his eyebrow rose up.
"Hey, it's the three kids," Zoro grinned.
Usopp threw the door to the room open and dashed down the stairs to see his old pirate crew.
Carrot, Onion, and Pepper waited patiently for Usopp. When Usopp opened the door to the inn, the three boys smiled widely.
--
During the night, Sanji stopped by the bar that he had seen Yohchi come out of. He had become somewhat interested in the shy little girl, so he walked inside the tavern.
It was nearly empty, with the exception of Zoro, who Sanji had come to grab and bring back to the inn. But there was something else he needed to do now.
Yohchi was mopping the floor up when Sanji came up to the bar. Yohchi didn't look up.
"Yohchi!" a harsh voice yelled. "We have a customer!"
"Ah!" Yohchi whimpered. She quickly put the mop back in its place and bowed to Sanji. "T-Terribly sorry, s-sir, how can I h-help you?"
Yohchi looked up, and realized that it was the man she had seen earlier. Once again, Yohchi became very red and even shyer than before.
"I'll just have some water, thank you, Miss Yohchi," Sanji responded. Yohchi turned swiftly and poured some filter water into a glass when she dropped the glass into the sink. A dull thud echoed throughout the pub.
"What did you do know, Yohchi?" the same voice screamed.
"S-Sorry, Madame!" Yohchi stammered as she picked up the glass, washed it out, and began to pour some more water. This time, she managed not to drop it and handed it to Sanji, her hand unusually wobbly.
Sanji put the water onto one of the small wooden coasters and looked into Yohchi's green eyes. "You have very stunning eyes, Miss Yohchi."
Yohchi became crimson red. "T-Thank you, S-Sanji, sir…"
"You seem a bit shy," Sanji noted. "Why is that so?"
"I-I don't k-know, s-sir…" Yohchi murmured, looking to the floor.
"Is it because of me?" Sanji asked bluntly. Yohchi started to breathe heavily.
"N-No s-sir, I'm always l-like t-this," Yohchi managed to splutter.
Zoro was still sleeping in a chair near the front, at a table with three empty beer mugs.
Sanji frowned. "What if I was to say that you were beautiful? What would you do?"
Yohchi said nothing, instead trying not to blush so hard. Sanji chuckled.
"I understand, Miss Yohchi," Sanji smirked. "Can you meet me on the beach tomorrow at ten am?"
"I-I d-don't know, s-sir…"
"Sanji," Sanji corrected. "Don't call me sir, just Sanji."
"…S-Sanji, I n-need to w-work tomorrow…"
"For heaven's sake, take the day off, Yohchi!" the Madame yelled from her perch, which Sanji couldn't find. "You cause me more trouble than some of the drunkards!"
Sanji looked into Yohchi's eyes again. "So?"
"Ah… I-I t-think I c-can, Sanji!" Yohchi said quickly, her face still very red.
Sanji smiled. "All right." Sanji went to rouse his sleeping comrade as Yohchi stood, as if stuck to the floor, unable to move at all. She was so nervous, but she was looking forward to… their date, as it seemed it was.
"Zoro, wake up!" Sanji yelled angrily.
Zoro opened his eyes, then jumped up. "How long have I been here?"
"A long time," Sanji grumbled. "Come on, we need to get back to the inn."
DISCLAIMER: I don't own One Piece, but Yohchi is my character. And before all the Sanji fans come attacking me, Yohchi is not a version of me. It's more like all of my friends rolled together - with the super-shyness of me around hot guys. Okay?
Ren: hahahah Sanji's not hot.
(Satine tries to kill Ren)
Satine: TAKE IT BACK, JERK!