Chapter 11

They could only watch in horror as the ship with Mr. Igaram in the distance blow up in millions of pieces. Sanji heard Vivi's anguished scream as she understood that she had just lost an old friend. The navigator next to her quickly hugged her in comfort. Sanji respected the man. He had died in the line of duty protecting the Royal heir of his country. Any of the royal guards back at Germa would have done the same thing. But he could not help but think that this man's sacrifice was greater and his reasons were more noble. He did not exactly know why he had that impression. Perhaps it was because he had lived and worked with the man for a year. He had learned to respect him during that time. But they could not forget their mission, so he grabbed Vivi's arm and pulled her away from the railing. He nodded to Nami silently telling her to let go and he pulled the princess to the stairway where he sat her down. He did not want her emotional state to get in the other's way when they went to prepare the boat to leave the docks.

The girl was biting her lips and hugging her knees. She was probably trying to regain her cool. Good, Sanji thought. Her being calm and collected would make things easier for everyone. He saw Nami glance at them in worry a few times while ordering the others on what to do to make the boat sail in the right direction. After making sure that the princess he was responsible for was not about to do something stupid like jump off the boat or fall to tears, he went to help the others. Obediently he followed the directions of the talented navigator. When the boat was finally moving at a decent pace across the sea and the island behind them was getting smaller, they all met up on the main deck ready to discuss their next actions. And take a break from everything. Nami and Luffy were in the middle of the deck looking on the horizon. Zoro was leaning against the main sail, Vivi and Sanji were sitting on the stairs with Carue standing next to them and Usopp was next to the kitchen door looking through his enhanced sniper glasses from the upper deck while leaning forward on the railing.

It was foggy around the boat. The wind was lightly hitting the sails.

"Congratulations, you managed to escape. That was very good navigating."

Nami crossed her arms proudly at the compliment.

"It was nothing. We still have a lot of sailing to do before we arrive."

Sanji frowned in confusion; The voice did not sound like Luffy. It was deep but feminine. But it sounded really familiar to him. He stood up and looked around. Someone was standing on the railing. At the sight of this unknown intruder standing on the upper deck at the entrance of the kitchen, he instantly jumped from the stairs to the railing and then landed in a crouched position on the railing of the upper deck. He had one of his guns aimed at the intruder's head in seconds. The straw hat sniper had appeared to have had the same idea because he was aiming his slingshot the same way but on the other side of the intruder. From his peripheral sight he could see that the others had taken out heir weapons. He turned his focus back to the person standing there. And his eyebrows raised in surprise when he recognized the beautiful woman. What was she doing here? She was not the type to do such a showy move.

"This is a very cute ship." She said smiling at the people around her. She did not seem to care about the hostile tension aimed towards her and their obvious fighting stances.

"Miss All Sunday?!" Vivi gasped in recognition and fear.

"Who is she?" Nami asked her while keeping her eyes on the stranger.

"She's Mr. 0's partner!" Vivi exclaimed. The tension became thicker seconds after her words. They all understood that this opponent was strong and dangerous.

"Well hello to you to Miss Wednesday. And it's nice to see you again Mr. 9, it has been a while." He noticed the princess look at him in surprise. She was surprised to see that her partner actually knew one of the strongest top officers. Sanji tried to ignore her questioning looks. Now was not the time for him to explain himself. Explanations could wait.

"But I'm surprised to see that you've changed side Mr. 9. I always thought of you as an ambitious person. I did not know you did charity work now." She smirked.

Sanji tried not to roll his eyes at the woman's words. He could see she was trying to rile them up. She was good at playing with people. It was part of her job. And she was succeeding because Vivi had fallen for her bait.

"Don't look down on my country!" She told the woman. Her anger was visible.

Robin only chuckled at her reaction.

"What are you doing on my ship?" Luffy asked grumpily. Suddenly Sanji felt something disarm him and push him off the railing; he quickly flipped and landed in a crouch in front the straw hat boy and the navigator. The sniper had not been as lucky since he landed face first on the floor. It had been a while since he had witnessed Miss All Sunday's incredible devil fruit. He made sure to warn the others about it.

"Be careful, her devil fruit is strong and has a pretty long reach."

But it was too late because the woman had already disarmed everyone else and was now playing with Luffy's hat that she had stolen off his head. The boy was not happy about the turned of events.

"GIVE ME BACK MY HAT!" He yelled in anger.

"I'm not here to fight, so please don't point dangerous things at me. I'm not here following orders. I only wanted to meet the infamous pirate crew that is brave enough to go against Baroque Works." She twirled the hat on her finger. Luffy was still yelling at her to hand it back.

"I actually wanted to give you a bit of advice." She looked at each one of them while placing the hat on top of the purple one she was already wearing. "The island you will have to stop at before reaching Alabasta is called Little Garden. But don't let the cute name fool you. No one has ever gotten off that island alive." Her words made everyone shiver in fear. She took out something from her pocket and threw it to Luffy. Sanji immediately recognized it as an Eternal Pose. An eternal pose to Alabasta to be more exact.

"Here, this will take you directly to Alabasta. Make things easier for you." She explained to them.

Was this a trap? Or was it another one of her attempts to mess with their minds? But before he could warn Luffy about it; the boy surprised them all by smashing the eternal pose in his hand. He swore he saw Miss All Sunday's usual impassive facial expression look surprise. But it was quickly hidden behind her amused smile.

"Interesting." She said. She threw the hat back to the boy and started to make her way to the side of the ship. "I hope this is not a goodbye and that we will see each other again in Alabasta. Oh and Mr. 9, I will not tell the boss that you betrayed him. In his eyes, you were just defeated on Cactus Island and you are still part of the organization. Might come in handy later, we never know, since you were always good at the sneaking part of the job." He wanted to ask her why she was doing him this favor but after those last words she jumped off the ship; they all ran to the railing to see where she was. They had all been expecting her to be in the sea but instead the woman had landed on the back of a giant turtle that had been parked and waiting for her near their ship. The turtle and the woman sitting on it disappeared in the distance behind the fog curtain.

They watched the horizon and the waves hitting the boat's side a few more minutes in silence. But the tension was quickly forgotten when the captain's stomach growled loudly the boy fell to his knees crying about how hungry he was.

"Sanji, food!" Sanji's eyebrows twitched in anger at the boy's carelessness in front their dangerous situation. But he decided that cooking something would be a good idea. They still had a bit of time before they arrived at the next island. Cooking would pass the time. He climbed up the stairs; he noticed that the two girls were following behind him.

He opened the door and left the door open for the girls to follow him in. they both sat at the dinner table. He could feel their stares while he was preparing ingredients for a simple fish and rice dish and some fruity cocktails they could drink while the fish was cooking. He decided to wait for them to finally ask the questions. He could hear the boys outside playing chase and could swear he could hear the idiot swordsman snoring.

It did not take long before Nami broke the awkward silence. He was in the middle of preparing the fish.

"Mr. 9… I mean Sanji… how do you know that woman? Isn't she a really high-level agent? But she said she had met you before…"

He took his time in answering her question. He did not want to ruin the preparation by being distracted. When he was sure everything was perfect, he turned around and leaned back against the counter lighting up a new cigarette. He took his time in deciding what he was going to reveal to them. He though the best action would be to tell them most of the truth. He did not want them to discover his past with the organization from the enemy. It would destroy the work he was doing on making them trust him. He turned to Vivi because he knew she was the most curious about his answer.

"Before I was partnered with you, Your Highness, I had already been working for Baroque Works for a month or two. I was often doing small spy work missions for Mr. 0. I was good at it. And sometimes I would work with Miss All Sunday because she also worked on those kinds of missions. So, we have met here and there before. Then I was assigned to the position of Mister 9 and I was given the responsibility of leading the bounty hunters on cactus island with Miss Monday, You and Mister Igaram."

Vivi seem to calm down a bit after his explanation; she knew that a lot of the agents had been working for Mr. 0 longer than her even before the creation of the numbered positions. What of course he did not tell her is that he had joined the agency as soon as he had found out from his father Baroque Works' true agenda. And from Germa spies in the palace of Alabasta, he had found out Igaram's and the princess's plan to join. He had been assigned to this mission by his father one year and two months ago. It was probably his longest one.

Usually his father sent him to infiltrate foreign ministries or palaces in other kingdoms. But he had only been on the Grandline two years. His father had sent him here. He had sent his sons and daughters all around the world on missions for him. And he had chosen to send the son he disliked the most to the most dangerous sea in the world. Figures. He did not want to risk sending one of his better children here. However, Sanji was at least hoping that by being here he would grow stronger at a faster pace than his siblings.

He was so deep in his thoughts he almost did not notice that the girls were talking to him. He snapped out of it and turned back to them. Nami was the one asking him a question.

"What kind of drinks are you making? The colors are beautiful." On the side of the counter he had already prepared most of the drinks he was going to serve in a few minutes. The glasses were filled to the brim with liquids of different colors.

He started to explain the different layer of fruit juice and syrup and what kind of alcohol he added to make it taste even better. While he was explaining it. He picked up the tray and handed them gracefully a glass each. He then left the kitchen and climbed down the stairs. The sun was high in the sky. He was glad that he had chosen to make cold refreshing drinks. With this hot weather they were a perfect choice. He saw that the girls were talking calmly while leaning against the railing of the upper deck. He passed around the drink to the others. He noticed that the yellow bird was looking at his tray longingly.

Why not? Worse case if the alcohol is bad for it, it'll die and he can cook it for supper. He knew a lot of good recipes with duck. It was his head chef's favorite meat to cook with. He placed a drink in front of it and watched it sip everything in one go. The boys stopped what they were doing and started praising the duck and handing him one by one the other glasses from Sanji's tray. They all laughed when the duck finally passed out from the huge amount he had drank. Sanji could not help himself but smile a little bit at the scene. This was alright, he thought. This was not the worst way to travel.