Author: AstroKender
Warnings: Just a wee bit of torture..
Notes: no notes today, just fic.
Feedback: Fell free to use that comment bar at the bottom of the screen.
Disclaimers: I don't own One Piece or it's affiliates. This fic is written for entertainment purposes only and is not meant for sale. Don't sue.
Chapter 15
"Are you sure you didn't want to go with him?" Nami asked the blonde as the Going Merry glided silently across the dark water towards the west side of the island.
"Yeah." Sanji murmured. "I'm not sure what Luffy had planned, but we're working against time here. The closer we get to where Zoro is, the better chance we have of saving him."
The room was silent for a long moment, save for the natural groans and creaks of the wooden caravel in which they sailed. The dark outline of Black Feather was visible just outside the porthole. The sky behind the island was beginning to turn gray, highlighting the cook's words.
'Sanji has been acting off', Nami thought to herself as she darted a few furtive looks in the blonde's direction. The cook was normally much more composed than this. After turning the Sanji's last comment about in her head, Nami hesitantly decided to break the nearly deafening silence, her curiosity overcoming her usual tact.
"You're really worried about him, aren't you?" Nami cast a sideways glance Sanji's way.
"Zoro, I mean."
"What?" Sanji sputtered, his eyes widening before he was able to wrestle his emotions in check. "Are you kidding?" Sanji snorted and lifted a tattered cigarette to his lips all in one smooth motion. "Of course not." He muttered.
"Oh?" Even with her face turned away from him, the blonde could practically hear Nami's raised eyebrow as she quietly mocked his flippant answer. Frowning, Sanji for some reason felt the need to explain.
"Yeah. I mean, he's an ass for one thing. And he's stubborn and pigheaded beyond belief…. And he's an ass."
"You said that already."
"Right. Well, he is. And the moron wouldn't no how to take care of himself if you handed him a manual. But…As much as he is stupid lump of muscle with no direction sense and even less brains, I just don't want us to have to deal with some shitty replacement, with less skill, stomping around like he owns the place." Sanji muttered out in a rush, avoiding Nami's gaze.
That blanket of silence draped over the kitchen once more as the redhead turned to scrutinize the ship's cook. Nami smiled gently as she regarded her companion's down-turned face. "You're right. It would be a real pain, and it'd probably be costly even, to get another swordsman. Not that we could find one to match Zoro's skills"
Staring out the porthole, Sanji grunted his agreement.
"So we'll just have to get back the one we had, right?"
Another grunt. Sanji was even beginning to sound like their missing comrade. Nami sighed. This downtrodden Sanji was not someone she was used to dealing with. An idea flashed quickly into her minds and, this time, Nami found it hard to hide her smirk.
"Oh, Sanji dear?" she purred.
"Nhh?" Sanji hadn't even turned in the redhead's direction.
Nami donned her most helpless expression as she wriggled in place. "My bra's too tight…uhnn…and it's itching me too…." The redhead held her breath expectantly.
3…
2…
1…
The transformation was almost miraculous.
"I'll be happy to take it off for you Miss Nami!" Sanji, whirled around, his eyes morphing into bulging hearts. The blonde practically floated Nami's way. "Tell me, are your panties too tight as well?" Sanji's fingers wriggled predatorily.
Nami's eye twitched at the thin line of drool sneaking from in between Sanji's lips. Perhaps a sulking Sanji wasn't really so bad. Nami raised her fist, preparing to knock the cook down a peg.
"Guys!" Vivi burst through the door, effectively saving Sanji from being pummeled. "Guys!" She panted out, panic clear on her face as she scoured the kitchen frantically with her eyes.
"Vivi?"
The blue-haired girl looked close to pulling her hair out in worry. "Have either of you seen Carue?" she asked desperately.
VVOOOVV
It was with much coughing and sputtering that Luffy emerged from the marsh. Covered from head to toe in slime and algae, the dark-haired boy looked like some sort of monster floating through the pre-dawn mist. Alarmed, his companion floundered back a few steps merely at the sight of him.
"Well, that answered that." The rubber-boy panted, as he tried to wipe the mud from his eyes.
Luffy's gaze raised to the sky, where one by one, the stars were beginning to fade against the onslaught of the oncoming day. That little errand had taken longer than he thought. Although the rubber-boy couldn't precisely judge how much time there was before the sun roselike Nami or Sanji could do—Luffy could easily tell that time was quickly running out.
"Quack?"
Luffy glanced over at his companion, a giant grin spreading across his face. "Yeah, I got it." The captain held up his prize.
"Qua! Qua!" Carue hopped about impatiently, motioning for Luffy to hurry and climb upon his back.
Nodding, Luffy took a moment to struggle into a certain item before jumping onto Carue's back with a wet plop. The spot-billed duck's feathers ruffled slightly at the sheer, well, sliminess of his burden. But Carue was a soldier and swiftly took his mind off just how long it would take to clean his saddle not to mention his feathersafter this little escapade.
"Vivi said you were fast," Luffy patted the back of the duck's mangled helmet. "Let's see what you can do."
If Carue were capable of it, he would have grinned. He wasn't just fast; no one in his squad, nay—in all of Alabasta—could match the yellow duck's lightning speed. Shaking his shoulders, Carue silently vowed to show this pirate just what he could do. Marsh or desert, Carue could run like the very wind.
"Quack!"
VVOOOVV
"Wake up…Roronoa…You're strong enough that you couldn't have died yet. Open your eyes or else I shall be forced to simply remove your eyelids."
That cold, snakelike voice was as effective as being doused with water. Zoro jerked awake with a start, amazed, and a little grateful, that he had finally passed out after the pain that had seared through his body. If he had been capable of rational thought back then, he would have fully expected never to wake up.
But he was definitely awake now.
Uragi squatted before him, practically nose to nose with the swordsman. Zoro stared blearily at that crooked grin, recognition dawning as memories slowly returned to him. Frowning fiercely, the green-haired man wished he could drag enough saliva from his mouth to spit into the smirking man's face.
"By that look I assume you're ready to play some more?" Uragi rose to his feet, patting imaginary dust from his oversized jacket.
Zoro, unable to move and unwilling to speak, could only glare as he struggled to update his mind on his body's condition.
His lower back burned like fire; that hadn't changed. And he was bleeding from numerous cuts across his body, though they seemed superficial at worst. His arms were bound together and tied above his head with a thick length of rope, more—he suspected—to keep him upright then to keep him from actually escaping. He definitely wasn't in any shape to move about at this point.
His body was still plagued with a sort of numbness, evidence that whatever new toxin Uragi had injected him with had yet to wear off. His body had been forced into a kneeling position and, looking down, the green-haired man quickly realized that he had been divested of the scant remainder of his clothing. Judging from the scratches marring his thighs, it was done with his sword.
Now that made Zoro mad. Those were his last pair of pants.
"It appears that last bit with the acid was a little too much for even you, so I'm afraid we'll have to return to more traditional forms of torture. It's really no fun if you're not conscious to scream."
Uragi walked a few meters away, to where a small table had been set up. The dark-haired man stood before what Zoro guessed to be a decent array of torture devices, trying to decide which to use on him first. Using this distraction, Zoro forced his head back to find out what exactly he was bound to.
Zoro's eyes widened at the sight of two of his swords—both Yubashiri and Sandai Kitetsu—propped in the space between two stacks of crates. The swords formed a makeshift bar of folded steel that easily held up the swordsman's dead weight. Zoro growled as he stared balefully at his weapons. So close…. Uragi was taunting Zoro with his own helplessness.
"You know," Uragi called out, as he lifted something long from the small table. "The one thing people constantly get wrong about me, is that I only became a bounty hunter after I ingested the Doku Doku Fruit."
Zoro watched Uragi slowly approach, bile rising in his throat.
"But that is incorrect. I began my life as a bounty hunter long before I partook of the miraculous Devil's Fruit. I had many ways of convincing my prey to give up without a fight." The dark-haired man tapped a large wooden stick against his palm. "They had to be alive, you see, or the reward was halved. But I convinced them to come with me peacefully, oh yes. The Devil's Fruit just made my job easier."
"Do you—" Zoro coughed out, his throat dry and raw from screaming. "Love to hear yourself talk—or what?" another cough. "Stop your bullshit and do whatever you're gonna do…before I die from listening to your irritating voice yammering on." The swordsman croaked out irritably.
Uragi laughed. "Forgive me if I bore you with my nostalgic tales."
The bounty hunter pressed the stick against Zoro's neck and slowly dragged it backwards. Puzzled, Zoro frowned, feeling something gritty and coarse scrape across his skin.
"Sand?"
Uragi positively beamed. "Indeed! This 'bat' has been dipped in special glue and rolled around in the roughest textured sand on the island. A regular beating just does your general amount of damage. This little tool will inevitably spice things up a bit." Uragi swung the stick back. "This may make your skin a bit raw, I believe. I can't say for sure since I've never gotten the opportunity to use it. Do tell me what you think afterwards"
To his credit, Zoro barely flinched as the first of the blows rained down and his skin began feeling as if it were being ripped from his body. None of them were direct hits, of course, as the feeling of the sand scrapping across his skin stung worse than any relatively solid blow to Zoro's body.
The swordsman knelt there silently, with nothing but the occasional grunt being forced from between his lips, as he watched Uragi as the man slowly wore himself down. All the while Zoro tried to get his arms to move all the while praying that the poison would let him live long enough for the opportunity to rip his opponent to pieces.
VVOOOVV
"Shit!" Sanji cursed as the ship listed wildly on its side before rocking back violently. That last projectile had missed them by mere centimeters.
The blonde stared angrily at the shoreline, where a pair of cannons sat amongst the island foliage, ready to pick them off if they attempted to move even a meter closer to the island. Sanji heard a muffled shout from below deck, from a voice that sounded like Usopp's. The rounds of enemy fire and the Going Merry's subsequent evasions were probably jarring the sharpshooter's leg painfully. Sanji clenched the rail in a sort of helpless fury.
"Damn it…" he spat. "We don't have time for this."
"Sanji!" Nami's voice filtered out from the helm. "I can't get us any closer, we're not going to be able to dock here! We've got to sail around to a different spot!"
"No!" Sanji shouted back, his eyes glued to the pink glow on the horizon. "Damn it…" he repeated, his mind racing for some solution.
Another cannon shot fired, this time missing them by a wide margin. The tide was receding, and the Going Merry couldn't travel very much further into the shallow water even if they weren't being attacked. If they were to get to the island, they would either have to follow Nami's advice or….
Closing his eyes, Sanji cursed the inevitable ruining of yet another pair of good shoes. "Nami!" Sanji shouted as his eyes shot opened resolutely. "When I give the word, pull the ship back beyond cannon range! Don't get closer until you stop hearing gunfire!"
"What?" The navigator's voice rang out of the kitchen hollowly. "What are you plan—"
"Now!" Sanji screamed as he took a deep breath and dove off the ship.
The water was damn cold and Sanji felt his heavy clogs trying to drag him under. The cook could have easily left his shoes on the ship, but his kicks wouldn't pack the same punch without his sturdy footwear. Right now, he needed the ability to break cannons…or heads.
Sanji's head emerged from the water a short distance later. The cook hastily brushed his hair from his eyes and glanced back towards the ship. He was relieved to see that Nami was following his orders as the Going Merry slowly turned back towards the ocean. Spitting out a mouthful of salt water. Sanji prepared himself for a warm up swim to shore before—
"Come on, Mr. Sanji. We don't have much time, am I right?"
Sanji whirled, sending a small spray of waves in every which direction. Wild eyes stared at a certain blue haired girl without comprehension.
"Vivi…." The light cracking of gunfire caused reality to crash down swiftly onto the blonde's shoulders. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?" he shouted.
"I'm a fighter too, you know." Vivi scowled delicately as she held aloft one of her deadly peacock blades like a pointed reminder. "If I could infiltrate Baroque Works, I can certainly help you out with a few untrained villagers. But I won't allow you to kill them." She hastily added. "We'll just beat them up a little, right?"
Sanji had a feeling there was going to be a bit more to it than that, but declined to say anything. After all, it was too late to do anything about it now, save for making the girl dog paddle in the middle of the bay until their ship returned. The cook heaved a sigh before breaking out a crooked grin.
"Well then get ready, Princess. Because you are about ready to partake in a full course of ass-kicking."
Vivi returned his grin with a growing one of her own. "Right!"
VVOOOVV
"Thanks, Carue." Luffy whispered as he hopped off the yellow duck's back.
The trip hadn't taken long, with most of the time spent avoiding any groups of villagers that were still roaming about bearing their shovels and kitchen knives. The islanders seemed even more upset that before, and Luffy had caught snippets of their conversations at the times he and Carue were forced to hide in the underbrush. Apparently, his crew was now being blamed for all the cannon fire earlier, regardless of the fact that the cannons had been shooting at them.
Staring across the vast expanse of swamp, the rubber-boy's eyes narrowed dangerously. There, in the center of a large, seemingly unending expanse of marsh, was the warehouse that he was searching for. Uragi had really slipped the wool over the eyes of the villagers, if such a vast armament could remain hidden for so long. Who knew what kinds of weapons were being stored in the ponderous building? It was like a dark hole that that snake Uragi had slithered into.
And Luffy was going to flush him out.
There in that snake's den— hopefully, he would find Zoro alive and the grease guy already dead. Luffy was willing to sacrifice a good fight in order to save a crewman's life. And if it meant saving Zoro, Luffy would almost swear off fighting for good.
The pirate felt a small nudge at his back and turned around to look at his traveling companion. Carue was looking up at him questioningly, impatience clear on his feathered face. The duck clearly thought that they should spend less time sightseeing and more time moving. Luffy wasn't the only one ready for a fight if need be.
The Straw Hat Captain knew, however, that this wasn't the mallard's fight. In a slow, deliberate movement, Luffy removed his precious straw hat and hung it upon Carue's bill. A wide grin stretched the rubber-boy's cheeks.
"Go find the others. They'll be west, I think. Wherever that is."
Carue quacked angrily in protest.
"Go on." Luffy gave the duck a gentle shove. "How else are they gonna find this place?"
Carue, dumbfounded by the dark-haired boy's logical retort, could only watch as Luffy carefully tightened the black bandanna before winding his arm back like a corkscrew. The rubber-boy glanced back once and with a wink—suddenly let his arm fly, throwing him into a sort of self-pitch towards the warehouse. Carue soon lost his figure in the murky distance.
VVOOOVV
Usopp stared at Chopper pensively as the reindeer worked. The animal turned doctor was mixing a variable cocktail of liquids as he moved about, lighting Bunsen burners and digging out packet of unknown powders.
"Do you think they'll bring him back?" The sharpshooter asked in a rare display of uncertainty that could only be attributed to the recent dose of painkillers.
Looking up from his mortar and pestle, Chopper paused. "I don't know." He admitted in a tiny voice still couched in misery. All of his mixing and rushing about was really just to give him something to do during the excruciating wait, or else he would probably go mad. The so-called 'Quack' Doctor's face hovered jovially behind his eyelids, reminding him of his very first failure in saving a life. The reindeer desperately didn't want Zoro as a second mark against his record.
"Ah, it's Luffy we're talking about, right?" Usopp chucked halfheartedly, as he tried to surreptitiously adjust his injured leg. "Of course he'll bring Zoro back!"
"What's Zoro really like?" Chopper asked abruptly. "I've known him for such a short time but, even if he looked really scary, he always seemed kind. Uh, except when it came to Sanji…er…or Nami." Chopper laughed weakly. "Or you, for that matter."
Usopp propped his hands behind his head as he gave this ponderous new question some thought. "He is scary looking, that's for sure. So much that, when he and the others landed in Syrup Village, I nearly piss—ah, anyway," the sharpshooter swiftly switched his train of thought as he wondered suspiciously if Chopper had slipped some sort of truth serum into those pain-killers. "He looks scary and he is scarywhen he gets angry, or irritated, or slightly miffed…."
"Usopp." Chopper sighed.
"Right, right. The point is, that's just the surface. Deep down, I think, he really cares for all of us even Sanji if you can believe it. He tries to take care of us too, though he doesn't do it in that obvious kind of way."
The sharpshooter stared unseeing at the adjacent wall as he mused aloud. "He's sort of like the ocean. It can be dark and turbulent on top but, deep below, its calm. It's got the power to crush the largest ships, but it also carries even the smallest of fish in its gentle current." Usopp waved his hand in the air for dramatic effect.
"Wow." Chopper exclaimed in awe, impressed that Usopp could think such deep thoughts.
"Yeah! He's the backbone of the crew, really." Usopp exclaimed. Warming up to his metaphor, began to elaborate with his own personal anatomy lesson. "Luffy, of course, is the heart. And Nami's the brain. And Zoro is the backbone." The sharpshooter nodded at his own profound wisdom.
"Then what is Sanji?"
"Oh, Sanji is definitely the pen—" Catching the little reindeer's widening eyes, Usopp faltered. "The legs. Yup. That's Sanji. Definitely the legs."
"Oh." Chopper breathed, obviously relieved. The doctor stared down at his the floor for a moment, as if he were trying to process all this new information.
"A-and us?" he whispered softly, as if afraid of the answer. "What are we, Usopp?"
Usopp closed his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. "Us? Well, we're the hands." The long-nosed boy cracked one eye as he judged his companion's reaction. "They're very important you know. Can't do much without them."
Chopper's eyes widened as his slowly raised his small hooves in front of his face. "The hands…." He murmured as a wide smile curled slowly across his lips.
"Mmmhmmm." Usopp's eye drifted closed once more as the corner of his mouth quirked up faintly. "Very important."
VVOOOVV