Chapter 4
"Waaaaaaaaaaa! It's sooooooo huuuuuugeeeeeeee!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper said. All of which had stars in their eyes at the sight of what was in front of the Straw Hats.
The ship in front of them was not a ship but a giant transponder snail, that looked to have a gray brick castle tower built on top of it. Well, giant was an understatement given the fact that it would take millions… no… billions of normal sized transponder snails stacked on top and lined up next to each other just to fill the side of this monster of a snail. Unlike the rest of the crew, Sanji had seen snails like this before, having lived in Germa, so the size didn't phase him.
"The Sunny is cooler," Sanji muttered, his arms folded across his chest and cigarette in his mouth, trying to hide the fact that his arms were trembling. The cigarette was helping a little but not as much as he would have liked. What he really wanted to do right now was put the whole box between his lips and light them, but he didn't want the others to think something was wrong… even though something was wrong. He especially didn't want to show his fear to his brothers more than he already had. How did this happen? Sanji asked himself trying to think back to the past few weeks in Zou and Dressrosa, trying to find any sign that he might have missed indicating his brothers had been around to interfere with the Sunny's course but came up empty. He was sure he would have sensed them with his highly developed observation haki, so he couldn't figure out how he overlooked their presents.
Before anyone could say anything else, Luffy stretched his arms to grab the edge of the brick grond of the ship. Chopper and Usopp held on to Luffy as he rocketed them onto the ship. Niji and Yonji followed, flying, to most of the Straw Hats surprise, except for Sanji, as well as Law, who had heard of the Germa Princes' abilities. Ichiji stayed behind for the moment, probably to make sure Sanji didn't try something funny. Sanji decided that probably was the case. Although there was no need for it, after all he did say he had some on finished business to take care of.
"Sanji," Ichiji said in a tone that said 'you better board the ship now'. Ichiji never had to say more then one or two word for a person to understand what he was thanking, his tone always said it all for him.
Sanji sighed before turning to Nami, Robin, and Carrot, "Would you three like a lift? I can carry you girls but that's about it." His voice didn't have it's usual cheerfulness it had when he asked Nami and Robin if they wanted help.
"Thank you, Sanji, but I think I can handle myself," Rodin said taking a hand from above her head that was linked to a bunch of other hands creating a chain that appeared to be growing out of the ship.
Carrot being a rabbit mink jumped onto the ship. She looked over the edge, "Thank you for the offer Sanji but I'm good."
"Nami-san?"
Nami walked over to the blond and jumped into his arms. "Thank you, Sanji-kun."
"Skywalk," Sanji said pushing off the air. He sat Nami on the ground but didn't let himself land on the ship until Law threw two rocks up and teleport him and Zoro both safely to the ship with the rest of the Straw Hats.
After Ichiji finally flew up, he called over to a man dressed in a black outfit with an orange 66 on the front and a yellow bandana like scarf. He wore a white head piece that covered the top half of his head, aside from his eyes which were covered with goggles, and a pair of black headphones that also read 66 on each ear piece.
"Yes, Prince Ichiji?"
"Have Cosette show our guests to their rooms."
"Yes, Ichiji-sama," the man turned and ran towards the castle tower.
"Cosette…" Sanji muttered to himself. The name brought the image of a little girl with dirty blond hair, brown eyes, and a freckled face.
Ichiji lead them to the castle. Sanji reluctantly followed. Niji and Yonji walked behind the crew to insure none of them tried to escape.
"You going to start explaining, Cook?" Zoro's tone told Sanji that the swordsman wasn't going to trust him unless the cook's explanation satisfied him.
Sanji, who's eyes never left the ground as he walked towards what he felt like was his doom, replied in a whisper, "I'll explain everything later."
Inside, Ichiji walked up a large set of stairs to a thrown and sat down crossing his legs. He put his elbow on the arm of the trown and rested his head on his fist. "You can just wait for Cosette there," he said cooly.
"Tch," Sanji said walking over to sit on the bottom steps.
Niji and Yonji left the room as Nami went to sit next to next to Sanji's.
"You really are a Prince?"
He stared at the ground and slowly nodded, unable to bring himself to look at her.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Nami-san… I don't expect any of you to trust me, but can you at least believe this? I never meant to keep secrets from you and I do promise to tell you everything later. I swear I'm not trying to buy time to make up some excuse or anything… I just… need to be able to tell you when we're alone," he said quietly, so Ichiji didn't hear… he hoped.
"We never said we didn't trust you, Sanji-kun."
"How can you not? I lied to you. To all of you. For two years! What kind of person trusts someone who's lied for that long? And if Zeff finds out… oh man! I'm dead. Zeff will never trust~"
"Stop right there!" Nami said grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing him to look at her. "Zeff may have never came out and said it but he loves you! You are his son!"
"No, Nami-san, I'm the son of the Devil."
"Sanji-sama?"
Sanji looked up to see a familiar freckled face girl, now thirteen years older, but still the same girl from his memories. An unforgettable old friend. "Cosette-chan."
"Cosette, show them to their rooms," Ichiji said walking down the stairs and passing the Straw Hats.
"Y-yes, Ichiji-sama," Cosette replied as Ichiji left the room.
As soon as Ichiji was out of sight, Cosette ran over to Sanji's, who was now standing. She threw her arms around him in a tight hug. Sanji hugged her back, lifting her off the ground and spinning in a single circle before sitting her back on the ground. They both knew what would have happened if Sanji's brothers saw this, so they knew it was best to wait until Ichiji was gone.
Sanji looked the girl over, his hands on her shoulders, "Cosette-chan, you look great! How's your grandfather?"
"He's wonderful! He's retired now but he's doing great."
"Really? Is you dad head chef now?"
"Uh-huh," she replied shaking her head.
"Your mom?"
"Nope. Guess again." If the girl wasn't smiling before, she sure was now.
"What? No way! Cosette, you're head chef! That's amazing!"
Zoro simi lightly hit Sanji on the head with Kitetsu's sheath, "Oy, Cook? Enough Cook-talk! Start explaining!
"Eh, one moment, Cosette-chan." He spun around, kicking Kitetsu out of the swordsman's hand, "I'll Cook-talk for as long as I want!"
"Damage my sword and I'll cut you to bits!"
"It was in the sheath!"
"I'm surprised you even know what a sheath is! Did you just learn that?"
"Moss Head!"
"Twirly Brows!"
"I'll kick you!"
"Not if I cut youre leg off!"
"Do they not realize that they're already kicking and cutting at each other?" Usopp said, a drop of sweat forming on his forehead.
"Sanji-sama?"
"They do this all the time," Nami said, seeing Cosette's surprised expression.
"A-all the time?"
"Yeah. It's become a daily routine for them." She smiled at Cosette before walking over to them. Her hands fisted. "WOULD YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF!" She punched them in the head and the two men fell, face first, to the ground. You could faintly hear Sanji weakly mutter, "Nami-san".
Cosette gapped at Nami.
Nami turned to Cosette and placed her fists on her hips, "There, now that that's taken care of, I believe you are supposed to be taking us to our rooms."
"Huh? ...oh… umm… rooms… right. Ah, follow me."
Thank you for the awesome reviews! I'm so glad you guys are liking this fanfic! Like I said before this story was inspiered by an odd dream I had. I decided to write it because it was a really odd yet intriguing dream, but I woke up before it was over even though I really wanted to know the end... So I decided to write the end myself. I just hope I can capture how amazing some of the things in the dream was in writing! (I tend to have a very active imagination when I'm dreaming that sometimes it's difficult to put into words lol).