I don't own anything but my ideas.
The Fighter
An occasion couldn't have come faster.
Ever since the city had reinstated itself as a worthy power in the country, the underground had become a booming industry—albeit not an industry, because in all legal senses, it didn't exist.
That didn't mean, however, that other more legal things couldn't also pick up recognition throughout the country. One of them being a small private practice that Law had set up, mostly to take in wayward people from the underground, but also people that knew nothing of the city. They couldn't turn away patients if they didn't want to draw any eyes, and Law was good at what he did, so he attracted a lot of patients looking for a phenomenal surgeon that would take risks that they needed. Chopper said all the time that the amount of paperwork involved with getting a go-ahead to do such risky surgeries almost made the process not worth it, but it was always so easy to tell that he was lying. Chopper would have done it even if he had to do the paperwork three times over for every patient. Law, not so much, but Chopper was devoted like that.
About a year and a half ago, Law had suddenly said the hell with teaching Chopper everything on his own (sometimes he just wanted to cut things) and sent him off to work at an actual hospital for a year. Law was good enough to realize that no matter how helpful or good Chopper was with surgery, he needed the actual legitimate foundation as a doctor. Also, he liked slicing people up. Sometimes Zoro wondered where he would have ended up with a personality like that if he wasn't smart enough to become a doctor. So Law had forged the paperwork for Chopper's undergraduate and medical degree and the first three years of his residency and sent him off to finish the "last" year at an actual hospital. He wanted Chopper to have the networking to get himself settled outside the underground should the need ever arise. Chopper was adamant that he'd never leave the underground but Law didn't lose arguments.
Chopper, being Chopper and brilliant, and dedicated, and caring, and far better than any aspiring surgeon there, and with Law's instruction, had flown through the year with almost uncanny ease. Towards the last few months, after the surgeons recognized that he was much farther along as a surgeon than his peers, despite them having nearly ten years on him, had allowed him to focus on actual medicine and clinical trials for pharmaceutical development. Medicines were a passion of Chopper's that he didn't really get to spend much time on when he was with Law. He'd recently published an article about the medications he'd been developing while working with injured fighters from the underground, studying Killer's blood and working to accelerate natural healing in the body. No one knew that his work was based off of an already existing virus that caused this, and none of it was actually in any of the paperwork, so the work the article was centered around was extremely advanced and well-developed to the outside eye. So much so that he'd been selected as a recipient for the AVCS Outstand Surgical Resident Award.
This particular function that they had all been invited to was just the after party. Chopper had taken pity on them and not asked them to come to the actual award ceremony, and tried to tell them that they didn't have to attend the party, but like hell they weren't going to be there to support him for this. Also, Luffy had heard the work "buffet," so all hopes of not traveling for hours by car with the monkey's insanity were lost.
And the event was in formal attire.
Sanji had spent way too much time gleefully holding the shirts and ties up to Zoro's naked torso, trying to select the one that best fit both his skin tone and the sky blue-azure shirt and tie combination he'd chosen while Zoro sighed heavily the whole way through at Sanji's rejections of his attempts to get the cook out of his clothes too.
Sanji had finally gone with the lavender-patriarch shirt and tie. Whereupon Zoro had finally gotten Sanji out of his clothes, and all was well.
Until the five-hour car ride in formal attire happened. Though Sanji was good to have on those rides; he was much quicker to kick Luffy in the head for any stupid antics, which meant fewer injuries for everyone else (namely Usopp and Zoro) before arrival. But any car was cramped with Luffy, let alone for five hours, so when they'd finally reached the hospital's reception hall, no one had cared how stiff and ridiculous they felt in the clothes and launched themselves out of the doors before the car had even stopped to get the hell out of Luffy's way as he barreled for the buffet, screaming for meat. Zoro had joked about them giving the valet a story to tell at the dinner table and Sanji had growled for him to shut up, still pissed about the wrinkles in his shirt from kicking Luffy so many times. Zoro had called him a priss and offered to see if they could borrow an iron from one of the penguin-suits walking around with h'orderves and Sanji had told him to shut up again and grabbed two champagne glasses from one said penguin-suit and downed them both.
Once Luffy had food, it was much easier to settle into the party. There were too many people in Zoro's opinion, but Sanji didn't seem too bothered, especially when he spotted a group of women in tight, revealing—but still sophisticated—dresses and spiraled over to them to offer his services bringing them any h'orderves from the buffet table. Zoro sighed to himself and went to mill with people (find a quiet place to sleep).
But first, sake. The food here looked expensive, after all, which meant that the booze would be good.
He found himself by the drink table, browsing through the options there when a firm tap on his shoulder turned him around, his face splitting into a huge grin.
Saga was as handsome as he ever was, tall and strong, hair sleek and framing his defined cheekbones, feet planted like he owned the whole place, sleeve of his right arm hanging limply by his side. He had a glass of cognac in his one hand, and was smiling confidently back at Zoro's grin. Seeing him brought back a rush of weird feelings. Nothing because he was the first guy Zoro had ever been with, but more just a reminder of when the city had been demolished, and before that too. They'd never really intended to lose touch—the guy was a damn good sparring partner if nothing else—but they didn't have much time or ability to once the NSPH superior had started turning up more and more frequently in the city. Saga lived two towns over, so when the city had been shut down and everyone outside sealed out and phone lines and electricity cut, they'd just stopped. Zoro had more on his mind to think about than if Saga ever knew what happened.
"Did you forget how your phone worked or did you just regret that night?" Saga asked smoothly around his smile and Zoro snorted, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. He never knew where to start, how much people knew, what they thought about everything… he didn't know if Saga even anything outside what the government was telling everyone about the city during that time.
"Um…" he started, but Saga shook his head and took a sip from his drink.
"I'm joking."
So he did know then.
"…How… how much do you…?"
Saga shrugged with his one good shoulder. "I've been fighting freelance underground for a while, just keeping up with it outside work. I've been moving around a lot, so you hear different versions of what happened from every place, but I've been able to piece together a lot of it. I don't think anyone really knows what happened; seems like it's a secret that you guys have kept pretty securely."
Zoro nodded and selected a bottle from the table behind him, pouring himself a large drink as he started from the beginning, right from the first killings that left bodies drained entirely of blood. Saga was a good guy, and trustworthy. Zoro wouldn't have minded having him around to fight sometimes, or even just to hang. Zoro didn't tell him about Sanji or Killer. They'd never been that close, Zoro was pretty sure that Saga had never seen anyone from his makeshift family and there seemed no need to check that off the list.
Saga listened quietly the whole time, only slight changes in his expression indicating that he had an opinion about everything that he was hearing. By the time Zoro was done, he'd finished his drink and went to pour himself another one.
"…Shit," he said finally. Zoro just nodded. He was almost done with his own drink. Telling his history got easier every time, but the alcohol always helped to neutralize the lingering uncomfortable twinges he got telling it.
"…But you all got out ok?"
Zoro winced inwardly. He'd kind of been hoping that Saga wouldn't ask that. "…Do you remember Sabo?"
"…I'm sorry."
Zoro just nodded.
"…How's the quest to be the best swordsman going?"
"I'm fighting for Shanks' traveling team, Luffy is the captain and I'm… first mate, or whatever. Never had the desire to be captain."
"Who needs to lead when you can just sit back and be the best?"
Zoro shot him a look that slowly turned into a smirk. It was nice to see him again. And he knew Saga was thinking the same, so neither had any desire to voice it out loud. This was fine.
"Hey, marimo, Chopper's looking for you. You haven't even said hello to him yet?"
Zoro shook his head, passing Sanji a champagne glass from the table behind him as the cook stepped up to his side. Sanji nodded his thanks and sipped on it, still eyeing him like he should feel guilty or something about not hunting Chopper down the second he got there.
"Chopper knows I'm proud of him, and I'll see him at some point."
Sanji rolled his eyes and turned to Saga, exchanging nods.
"Saga, this is Sanji, the newest addition to Shanks' team."
Saga put down his glass to offer his hand to Sanji, who had to switch his glass to his other hand in order to shake it but did it so smoothly it was like that was something he did every time.
"You fight?" Saga asked and Sanji shook his head.
"Cook," he corrected. "I'm not from the city."
"So then you do fight?"
"Err, yeah, technically. Savate. I cook so I don't use my hands fighting."
"You any good?"
Sanji refrained from giving this guy a look. Why the hell was he being so forward and comfortable? He was acting like he'd known Sanji for years and it wasn't freaking rude to ask that.
"Why?" he returned easily. "The marimo boring you with all of his baton-swinging?"
Zoro's look darkened and Saga snorted around his drink, the first break from all his suaveness.
Saga grinned devilishly in Zoro's direction, head cocked slightly to the side. "Marimo?"
"Shut up," Zoro huffed, refilling his drink as Saga barked out a short laugh.
Oh. He and the shitty-swordsman had history.
No wonder Sanji had bile collecting at the back of his throat.
No! Wait, what the fuck?! So what if they had history?! Zoro knew Conis and didn't have any problems!
But Sanji couldn't keep his eyes from running up and down Saga's form, taking in his powerful stance and wide shoulders, even with only one arm; the way he seemed to always stand in a fighting position; his confident grin that was making Sanji's upper lip curl back in a territorial haze. The guy looked like a powerhouse; of course the ape would be into something that he could throw weights around with. And Saga had asked him if he fought too, so obviously he did. And they talked so easily. Sanji had never heard anything about this guy, how long had it been since he and Zoro had seen each other?
And why did he even care?
Fuck this, he decided abruptly and excused himself on the grounds of finding Chopper to tell him that Zoro was taking his sweet time getting around to seeing him. He ignored the odd look Zoro gave him, stalking away with as little contempt in his step as he could. He was not about to cause a scene, especially since Luffy and Usopp had already almost toppled a whole table of food with their antics. This was important to Chopper. When Sanji had talked with him earlier, the little doctor had gushed about how many incredible doctors and surgeons were here and how he was way too nervous to talk to any of them but he wanted to so badly. Even Law had come up for this, dressed up and everything, and he did not do that. Sanji wasn't about to ruin any part of this.
But when he did a lap of the room, talked to a few dozen assholes that were all way too pretentious for their own shoes, and had finally gotten fed up with doctors and surgeons trying to impress each other by using the biggest words and most complicated descriptions of surgeries that they could—honestly, all of these fucking asshats had PhD's, who the fuck were they trying to impress?—he'd finally said fuck it again and gone to find Zoro. His jealousy be damned. He could chat Saga up without getting jealous, damn it.
Zoro however, before Sanji could get to him and grace him with his charming mood, had been found by Laki. So when Sanji found him, Saga was drifting off in the distance and Laki was taking her turn joking around with Zoro and trying to get him to smile as much as she could. When she offered him food from the buffet table behind him that had been Sanji's last straw.
The food was fucking his territory.
Sanji wasn't even sure what was going through his head when he marched over. "Fuck it" circled a couple times. "How dare that bitch offer him food" was another key phrase, along with a couple others with colorful phrases. In the back of his mind, the more cynical side of him whispered, If I'm going to get kidnapped and experimented on for hundreds of years to come, I might as well enjoy this as much as I can right now. So I can at least remember it when I'm starved and delusional and emotionally and physically broken.''
But oddly enough, when Sanji stuck himself physically in between them, cutting off their conversation abruptly, and grabbed Zoro's lapels, the thing he could most clearly comprehend was: He really does look good in these colors.
And then he yanked the marimo in and laid his lips firmly against Zoro's, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to stare back awkwardly into the idiot's slack-jawed, wide-eyed, dumbass gaze.
In Zoro's defense, however, when Sanji finally pulled back, he didn't look all that disappointed. Sanji wasn't sure the red of his rising blush really went with the purple or the green—too many strong colors all together—but it was so cute that he didn't really care.
He rolled his eyes mentally. There he went with the "cute" again.
Sanji smoothed out Zoro's jacket, ignoring the way the marimo's mouth had dropped open, before turning back around to face Laki and her pleased, albeit somewhat scorned, smirk.
Good, he couldn't help but think.
"Excuse me," he smiled politely, nodding to her, before muttering something about finding the head chef for the catering and marching off again, leaving Zoro spluttering and trying not to smile and Laki to try and pick up their conversation again, grinning inwardly to herself at how hot under the collar Zoro was getting.
If Conis was more upset, then she could be the protective older sister that she always had been, but she knew that Conis wanted Sanji happy more than anything. She truly did love him, even if he had someone else, and she knew that Conis wouldn't want that ruined for anything.
She sighed. Her sister was too nice. Sanji was damn lucky.
-oOo-
"I can't believe he just called a fight like that."
"I can't believe you just kissed me like that."
"And Shanks just said yes! Just like that! Doesn't he have a reputation to uphold?!"
"You just… kissed me. In front of everyone."
"Does he know how hard it is for me to pack food for Luffy? Or call ahead to places and order it?! He's lucky we're not going to be there for more than two days; I'd have to clean out every damn grocery store in the area just to feed you idiots."
"…You just… kissed—"
"How many damn times are you going to say that?!"
Zoro hadn't stopped grinning the entire time back in the car, all through Nami and Usopp and Chopper teasing Sanji and Luffy asking all of his oblivious questions, even when Luffy had inquired if they were going to start holding hands everywhere like Ace did with his girlfriends and Sanji had bitten his head off, asking (screaming) if he looked like that Don Juan idiot of a lady killer that had no clue how to treat a lady properly.
"…It's just… you kissed me, in front of everyone."
"And? You got a problem with it?" Sanji snapped, leveling him with an impressive glare, pausing in his process of completing the monstrous grocery list that they would cart up to Thriller Bark for Luffy's fight with Gekko Moriah's best fighter. Sanji and Zoro would have to take their own small, rented ice truck up while everyone else drove separately, then they'd drive back together with no more use for the truck, although Sanji was debating paying for it for another day with their own money so he didn't have to deal with Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp's antics the whole way back. And Nami's voice was glorious, but even that got to be a bit much if she screamed at them the whole way back. And generally fists started flying if Luffy annoyed Zoro enough, and he was not about to get his nose broken again, no matter how fast he healed. That shit hurt.
Zoro shrugged, shit-eating grin still full-blown. "No. I didn't say it was a problem."
"Good," Sanji snarled, turning back to his list. He was forgetting something. "…Then I'm going to keep doing it."
"That's fine."
Zoro had replied to the comment so easily, no hesitation at all. Sanji couldn't help the smirk that tugged at his lips, and quickly dug into his pockets to pull out a cigarette and muffle it a bit. Zoro snorted, recognizing the cover, and Sanji's face dropped back to a glare. Shitty marimo.
Oh, mayonnaise, just in case Luffy was lacking on carbs and he had to cram some bread down the idiot's throat in a sandwich.
"Are we going to start singing to each other and doing stupid, cheesy shit now? Lovin' you is easy 'cause you're beautiful—*"
"Ugh," Sanji rolled his eyes. "I hate when people say that."
"I—what?"
"Lovin'. It's such a bullshit term."
"…I'm pretty sure she uses it as a noun there—"
"I know that! I just hate how overused it's gotten!"
"Never thought I'd hear you say there was something about romance you didn't like, shitty cook."
"That's not romance, that's bullshit. That's why I hate it. It's not… I don't know. It's like you're taking the other person's love for granted, not holding it to mean as much as it does. "Lovin'"—Sanji shuddered—"It's belittling, attributing it to love but making it obvious that you're not referring to the same thing. You say "lovin'" when you're in the midst of a one night stand and you don't want to tell them you don't love them and ruin your chances of getting in their pants."
"…You put way too much thought into that."
"Shut up, it's important. It's cruel manipulation, leading the person on by deliberately twisting words."
"…Lovin' you—"
"Oh god," Sanji snorted, finally looking back up at Zoro's attempt at reaching those notes. "Please don't."
"I seeee your soul come shining through—!"
"Please, have mercy."
"Dood'n dood'n doo doo—"
"Please," Sanji attempted again, snorting too hard now behind his hand to even get the words out. "It's sacrilegious to her voice."
"Aaaaaaah—!"
Sanji launched himself over the counter and into Zoro's chest, knocking him back onto the ground with a sharp grunt from the swordsman, and then the marimo's powerful arms locked around him and threw him to the side, Zoro's weight coming down on top of him to pin him.
As if.
Sanji's one of Sanji's legs snapped around Zoro's hips and the other slammed into the floor, flipping them back over as Sanji's muscles clenched and Zoro choked as the cook's leg locked around his middle, constricting his air as Sanji used his arms to keep Zoro under him, the marimo struggling under him.
Until the marimo twisted like a fucking alligator, spine contorting like Sanji had never seen it, surprising him so much that he suddenly found his shoulders back against the ground when Zoro rolled against the ground while Sanji replayed sparring with Zoro over again in his mind, trying to figure out if he'd just missed Zoro doing that or if he always could and never had. Zoro's arms snapped against his wrists and slammed them back into the ground, Sanji's leg around his middle the only hold the cook had on him.
But Sanji was stubborn, and he tightened his hold around Zoro's middle again, Zoro huffing heavily as he lost more air and Sanji grinned casually, good to sit this out for a second until the marimo gave up—
"Hey!" he barked suddenly, jerking and unconsciously loosing his grip on Zoro's waist as the marimo fucking gyrated between his open legs. Zoro grinned, suddenly in the upper hand, and twisted again like a python and forced himself more between Sanji's legs so that Sanji's knee was almost back against the ground and he couldn't get his knee to bend the right way around Zoro, arms still up by his head.
He scowled, rotating both ankles experimentally. Not much liberty. But he could still—
Zoro leaned down before Sanji could get too riled up by his need to win, rocking again between the cook's legs and laying his lips against Sanji's, oddly gently for how tight his grip was on Sanji's wrists. Sanji sighed, relenting to the hold, and let the marimo kiss him, returning it after a moment. Though he wasn't too keen on being pinned. That was Zoro's kink.
…It wasn't as physically nerve-wracking though anymore. Maybe it was Zoro's body heat against him, or how bright the room was, but even with his back flat against the floor and his arms pinned to his side… it wasn't triggering anything.
So Sanji took the time to enjoy the moment, even if it wasn't his kink.
-oOo-
Gekko Moriah' arena was the type of place that reminded Zoro's of any and all dungeons, caves, and subterranean lairs that comic book villains had. The lights were so dim you could barely see and hung from the wall like ramshackle spotlights hung up in mining caves. Cracks ran deep through the ceiling, walls, and floor, and on more than one occasion the crew had tripped and nearly fallen from the neglectful disarray of the building. Zoro was on edge before they were even halfway down the stairs to the arena, and that wasn't even including the extra two floors down they had to go to get to the lockers underneath. Sanji found his side, which normally would have helped assure him—even if not calm him—but nothing was helping now. This place was wrong.
"I don't like this," Sanji murmured, the only one to talk since they'd approached the front door to the disgusting warehouse hiding their location. No one felt good about this fight. Sanji had a hand on his shoulder where there was no doubt the cactus crawling up and down his spine, signaling just how wrong their surrounding were. Zoro just nodded his agreement.
Zoor looked forward at their captain, the determination in Luffy's walk, the sureness in his clenched fists, swinging at his sides and leading them all onward and downward. His captain would never listen, but more than that, Luffy would never disappoint Shanks, and that meant taking on this battle. Zoro was sure Luffy felt at least something off in the building's air, but the tak-tak-tak of his sandals never slowed or wavered.
So Zoro sucked in a deep breath through his nose and squared his shoulders. Beside him, he felt Sanji realize the same thing he had and reach into his pocket for a cigarette—maybe the last one before the fight, and the crew strode out into the pitiful roar of the pitifully small crowed. What was this place? Wasn't Moriah really big in the underground? Why were the stands so empty?
But he shut down his thoughts and let his fingers wander subconsciously over the hilts by his side.
The captain had decided. They were going to win this.
-oOo-
Zoro hated Dr. Hogback before the man had even set foot in the arena. It was his smile, or his cackle, or his glasses, or his stupidly small legs that somehow held up his massive body. There was something familiar about him that Zoro couldn't place, but that was probably because Moriah's stadium had so many knots tied in his stomach that he couldn't concentrate on much else. This guy wasn't weak, but he wouldn't win against Luffy, Zoro knew just by looking at him.
But even so he couldn't stop his racing heart. His lips pinched tighter, and Sanji slid in closer on the decrepit bench beside him so their arms were connected. Again, the touch should have calmed him, but did nothing.
Giant footsteps started to ring around the dome, and the crowd that Moriah had maybe even swept up off the streets began the same hyena whooping and calling they had done when Luffy's team walked down the entryway steps and Zoro swallowed unconsciously.
Wrong.
Gekko Moriah stepped out of the drowning shadows leading to his private sitting box and up beside his throne where he grabbed the microphone hanging from the ceiling. The button was grungy, and made a snapping sound when he pushed it in, and almost immediately the sound system screamed with feedback, making Zoro's hackles stand up on end.
Wrong.
"Let the match begin!" Moriah screeched, and the crowd erupted in feral sounds of joy and anticipation.
Wrong.
"We have to get out of here," Sanji blurted out suddenly at his side and Zoro nodded, on his feet immediately, but Hogback hadn't wasted time after getting the go-ahead and was already pulling a blade from his side. Zoro could tell just from the way he held it that the man had almost no experience whatsoever holding a knife like that, let alone fighting with it.
"He's never used that thing in his life," Sanji said next to him, his voice harsh with confusion.
"I know," Zoro grunted, his hands on his swords. What the fuck is happening? Why the fuck does this feel so goddamn wrong?
"Is he using poison? Drugs?" Sanji's anxiety was high if his tone said anything. Somehow, it was setting Zoro even more on edge. He wanted to snap, to tell Sanji to shut the fuck up so he could think.
"D-Does anyone else feel like the Grim Reaper has been in here the whole time?" Usopp asked shakily, and the rest of the crew nodded around him. Zoro could feel that everyone was ready to attack at a moment's notice.
Luffy raised his fists, and it took everything Zoro had not to scream at him to get out of the arena.
This was wrong.
-oOo-
It happened so fast—Hogback was using poisons, and in almost no time Luffy began to swoon and attack the air around the enormous man like he could see three of him. The team was out of their seats and sprinting for the ground floor before even the crowd realized what was happening and could really start to cheer, leaping over everyone's heads, stepping on limbs, slashing at people that tried to reach for them and stop them.
Luffy figured out what was happening to him just before he lost all control over his body, and as he dropped to the ground he spun, his foot connecting with Hogback's face and sending the man into the metal rungs of the arena behind him where his spine cracked sharply against the unforgiving surface and he slumped motionlessly to the ground.
Moriah let out an earsplitting shriek, and with a loud clack and a giant explosion of sparks from the ceiling, the lights began to shut down from the outside of the arena in until only the dim emergency lights lined the room, a siren blaring through the room and metal doors slamming down across all of the exits and echoing around the stadium, locking them all inside as the whooping from the crowd somehow grew even louder than before.
Zoro had an uncanny feeling that most mice felt like this after being dropped into a snake pit.
-oOo-
Zoro slashed down to knock his opponent's swords away, a freak of nature that unnerved him unlike any NSPH had managed to, hacking at him with sewn-on arms.
Zoro couldn't find anything in his brain that could actually use logic to explain how dead-eyed the man looked. It was like he was a dead man walking, he never spoke, paused, or even seemed to breath in between slicing at every part of Zoro he could reach. Zoro swallowed a yelp as the blade tore through his upper thigh and whipped his right hand back, slicing the man's hand clean off and sending it flying through the air.
Zoro waited for the fountain of blood, the cry of pain, the reaction that anything would have made, but the man simply stopped next to his hand and bent slowly, reaching for his sword. Zoro's breath picked up to what he would never admit was a terrified—but also a bit impressed—level. The man hadn't even blinked. He was a zombie, or he was so drugged out of his mind that the idea of his very existence wasn't even registering.
"I am Ryuma," the man said matter-of-factly, flicking his sword in his remaining hand as if to test it out. "You will die."
Zoro grinned a tight, uncomfortable grin at the fight response rising in his blood.
A quick glance around found his teammates fighting with other members of the crowd, and he winced as Sanji took a hit straight to the chest from another zombie-looking motherfucker who was roaring like a lion, but he forced himself to face his opponent again when the cook landed on his feet, skidding to a halt, and charged back at his opponent. Sanji was bleeding. This guys were not to be trifled with.
Luffy was still in the arena, missing nearly every swing he took at Hogback, who had thankfully stayed down long enough to let some of the poison wear off, but not nearly enough. All Luffy could do at this point was dodge and keep from getting more poison in his system. Zoro had to get down there.
"Fucking try," Zoro hissed, and lunged.
-oOo-
Zoro's elbow were slogged in blood as he rested on the ground, heaving and trying to keep his vision straight after losing so much blood. On the other side of the arena, Chopper was trying to help Luffy with his injuries while keeping his own blood from dripping on everything. Nami and Usopp were closer to him, both on the ground surrounded by the dismembered body parts of the creatures that didn't bleed, all of which had to be entirely in pieces to stop fighting them. Sanji lit up another cigarette, refusing to look at any of them, but Zoro didn't care. As long as the fucker was safe he could brood as much as he wanted, although it wouldn't help them until they actually got out of here. Brook walked slowly up to Franky as the larger man gave one of the bigger pieces of torso a sharp kick, testing it's resolve to stay dead or taking some frustrations out on it.
"Is Luffy ok?" Franky called out, and Luffy called out a pained, "Yes!" from the under Chopper's hand, ignoring Chopper squawk for him not to talk.
Good, Zoro sighed heavily, heavier than he had meant to, but the calm felt forced. This wasn't done.
And almost immediately after the thought had crossed his mind, the floor started to shake with looming, ominous, booming footsteps that just kept getting louder and louder and louder and louder, until the whole crew was on their feet again, not ready for the monster they knew was about to walk into the room.
"Fuck," Sanji snarled, puffing a huge cloud of smoke from his cigarette before tossing it away, sliding into a fighting stance to mimic everyone else. Luffy pushed Chopper away from him grimly and stood to face whatever was coming for them, stitches pulling in what looked like an incredibly painful manner even from across the room.
Zoro's eyes unconsciously found the body parts of the ripped-open zombies under his feet, vibrations in the floor starting to feel like they were leading his heartbeat and making him feel even uneasier. His eyes found Luffy, where the captain still wasn't standing up straight, remnants of Hogback's poison still circulating in his system. He wasn't doing so good.
Fuck.
Zoro sucked in one last deep breath, and then the wall exploded inward like a bomb had been set off behind it, raining chunks of rock and piping down around them where they pummeled the zombie remains even more. Water was spraying out from the ruined plumbing system and layering the room with a thick mist, blinding everyone momentarily enough just to set their nerves on edge one last time, and a creature the size of a fifteen-story building thundered into the room, overtaking the gaping whole in the wall like he was the ground caving in to swallow the room whole.
Zoro took in his mangled, red, patchwork skin, the enormous fists swinging over the entire room, the gargoyle teeth gnashing in his jaws, the bones visible through the missing portions of flesh on his body, and the devil horns sticking out of his head, and couldn't even get his brain together enough to breath, "Fuck."
-oOo-
Zoro dug his painfully tired feet into the ground, forcing himself up the steps, his arm slung over Sanji's shoulder as the cook helped him along, the latter having lost only half of his blood and not most of it. Zoro coughed heavily and spit up blood and chunks of something else and Sanji gripped him tighter, pulling him faster even though Zoro grunted in pain.
Behind them were the decimated remains of the thing that had introduced itself as "Oars." Zoro knew that, had they had more time, Chopper would give a foot to look over the medical aspect of whatever the fuck kind of black magic had made the zombies move—let alone on the size of a skyscraper, but as it was, not many of them had the strength to stand for long period of time. Luffy had passed out the second he'd managed to tear Oar's head from his body, leaving the rest of the crew to hack the rest of it to pieces now that it was a bumbling, debilitated, battle ship-sized chicken with it's head cut off, and Moriah had fled the stadium, forcing him to open the metal door, and they had to get out before the option for Moriah to close the doors again from the outside became a really scary possibility.
Oars had taken hours to defeat, with Moriah watching from behind barred windows and cackling the whole time. The creature had been a literal brick house of reinforced skin, metal bones, and the most goddamn annoying, scratchy, whiny voice that wouldn't shut up even when it was losing chunks of it's body. Zoro had stopped keeping track of how many times the thing had smashed him clear across the room with a hand or a foot when his vision had started to tilt from the impacts and counting started to be a real headache.
Zoro wasn't sure how much blood was his and how much was Sanji's. Sanji, to his credit, was much faster and had taken fewer hits than the rest of them over the course of the fight, but he'd taken the hardest hit to bring Oars down. He'd scaled the creature with his claws and teeth, ripping and tearing at its eyes and ears to keep it from attacking them so quickly—because the thing was fast too—managing to get Oars to smash itself in the face once when he jumped out of the way and knock it onto it's back, but when Sanji landed on the thing's neck and prepared to kick its throat in, a giant hand had swept up and grabbed Sanji in it's gargantuan hold. Oars then rolled to the side and pitched Sanji into the ground, where Zoro had been able to see Sanji's neck snap back and blood spurt from his mouth from all the way across the room as his tiny body bounced against the cement floors. Zoro's brain had shut down, and he was on his feet and running as straight as he could with his sideways vision to the blond, maybe screaming his name in his half-conscious state, and Oars raised a fist, bringing it down like a wrecking ball on Sanji's entire body.
The rest of the crew had screamed Sanji's name but Zoro hadn't heard them. His vision went black except for the fist crushing Sanji and lunged, flinging himself farther than he ever had and driving Wado to the hilt into Oar's wrist before wrenching his body back and slicing the giant's hand off with a shower of blood, chunks of flesh, sparks, and oil.
Oars had screamed and fallen back, Franky taking the opportunity to land a perfect uppercut and knock the monster back onto it's back as the rest of the crew raced to heave the clenched fist off Sanji's body.
Please, please, please, please, Zoro remembered thinking blindly, scrambling under the hand the second it was high enough off of the ground and crawling to Sanji's side. He'd braced himself on the ground and shoved back with a scream, maybe in pain, maybe in determination, maybe in fear, and sent the hand flying.
Sanji coughed a harsh and wheezing breath as the bones in his ribcage snapped themselves back into place, reforming his crushed torso and allowing him to breathe. Zoro dropped to his side as everyone else turned back to Oars, the thing finding its footing again, death in their eyes.
Zoro touched Sanji's battered face carefully as his nose fixed itself with a painful crunch and the blond winced heartily, moving to push himself to a sitting position. Zoro put a hand on his shoulder to stop him but Sanji brushed him away, groaning that it was just his ribs and pelvis, nothing bad. Zoro pinched his lips together, but couldn't find the energy to stop Sanji, not with his head throbbing the way it was. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wanted to kiss Sanji, but his brain couldn't focus enough, and then the blond was on his feet again and Zoro was racing after him.
Luffy had taken the worst of the attacks though, partially because Oars was so focused on him as the strongest fighter and partially because his body was a bit akin to a rubber band after Hogback's poisons. He couldn't dodge nearly as well as he normally would have.
Luffy needed help now, and the rest of them weren't much better. Franky and Brook were carrying him, but they themselves barely had the strength to. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper had run ahead to get the truck, making sure that some of them were outside at least just incase they did get closed in again, but damned if Zoro was going to be the rat in this trap for any longer.
Something was humming in his ear, and it took a while for his brain to zero in, but he finally realized the rhythmic thrumming as Sanji's voice—a long string of curses and promises of pain and never ending death on anyone that was even associated with this place. Even laced with a need to maim and kill, Sanji's voice still managed to calm him—now that they were on the way out of Moriah's rat's nest. Disgusting, fucking, bastard son of a bitch. Sanji's words were giving Zoro a new fire to get up the stairs and home as fast as possible so they could come back and burn this place to the ground, blinding the pain and forcing him on.
Rays from the sunset screamed across the horizon and into everyone's eyes as they hit the surface of the grungy city, Sanji letting out another fowl string of curses—not hindered at all with Nami gone for the moment—and clawed at the air like he could put up a barrier to shield himself. Zoro grunted and ducked his head, letting Sanji be his eyes until they got to the truck. His vision was pretty blurry anyways.
They turned the corner to start the maze of alley ways back to the street so Nami, Usopp, and Chopper could get to them, when Sanji's body jolted to a harsh stop, making the rest of them snap up.
Zoro could practically feel the prickling running up and down Sanji's spine and the way it made the cook shiver. Sanji's iridescent eye was locked on the next turn in the allies, his neck uncomfortable straight and his fingers clenched tight around Zoro's shirt, like a feral cat waiting for the predator it new was coming.
"You're got to be fucking kidding me," he keened, mostly to himself, before a giant teddy bear—No, just a man in a bear hat, Zoro realized, blinking a couple of times to straighten his sight—thumped slowly into view.
The man's stance was calm, and almost laughably huggable, but the tension in Sanji's back told Zoro without any question that it was very bad that they'd run into this man.
"Bartholomew Kuma," Sanji whispered, almost with humor, as if he just couldn't believe that this day could get any more ridiculous.
This was too many freak shows for one day. It had to be a glitch in the matrix. There was no other explanation why the universe seemed to be throwing another "fuck you" right into their faces.
"I'm here for Luffy D. Monkey. Give him to me, and I will let you all live."
A snarl rolled off of Sanji's tongue, Zoro imagining clear as day his eye going black as he stared this "Bartholomew Kuma" down.
"You can't have him," Zoro snapped, beyond fed up with all the fucking attitudes of the people around here and too fucking tired to care anyways.
"You are not strong enough to fight me," Kuma said in his solemn, clear voice, and slipped a gun from the holster at his side. Zoro grimaced. He'd only seen laser guns in the hands of marines.
"Get Luffy out of here," Zoro ordered. There were no footsteps behind them, and for one horrible moment Zoro thought that Franky and Brook were going to insist on fighting with Luffy "safe" nearby, but they suddenly turned and dashed in the other direction.
Kuma's blank eyes met Zoro's, time freezing solid for what felt like years, Kuma maybe waiting for them to change their minds, and then faster than Zoro could see and with barely enough time for Sanji's lightning reflexes to throw them out of the way, Kuma's hand snapped up and fired the gun.
Sanji had gotten them out of the direct shot, but the following explosion was what really did the damage. Sanji and Zoro were ripped apart, Zoro colliding with the wall beside him as asphalt and glass tore through his skin. He threw his arms up over his face, his wrists and forearms taking the brunt of the hit as he fell to the ground, the dust from the blast whipping up in the wind tunnel in the alley.
Zoro's body reacted, Wado yanked from his side with an echoing ring that sang through the commotion the gun had left, and Zoro shot for Kuma. He grunted against the pain screaming through his every motion and twisted, landing a deep cut in Kuma's shoulder, but a recoil that shouldn't have happened had he hit a normal body rocked Wado like a sledgehammer and Zoro was thrown back, skidding against the coarse ground until he hit the crumbling wall of what had once been a building and came to an abrupt stop, choking as he tried to force air back into his lungs.
Zoro's eyes found sparks, the only thing he could see clearly as the dust finally started to part, fighting to find Kuma's body before the larger man attacked again. He struggled to his feet, using the wall as balance, letting the wind clear the air before he did anything.
Zoro squinted, gasping for breath and shaking his head to try and clear his vision. The sparks could not be coming from Kuma's shoulder. Zombies were one thing, but Zoro was not about to believe that a fucking robot had wandered down after the fight to meet them. But the more he concentrated, the more sure he was that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. Below Kuma's sliced shirt and skin was gleaming titanium, spitting playful sparks out into the air where wires had come loose.
The man was a robot.
The man was a fucking robot.
"I'm surprised you're even still awake," Kuma said thoughtfully before he turned away from Zoro, no longer interested, "but it doesn't matter. I am only here for Straw Hat." And with that his giant lumbering feet started to where Franky and Brook had fallen unconscious from the explosion, Luffy's broken form sprawled between them.
Arrogant bastard. Zoro snarled, throwing Wado into his teeth and yanking Shusui and Sandai Kitetsu from his side. He lunged at Kuma, trying desperately from below, not really sure how this was going to help but just knowing that it had to. His swords were inches from Kuma's legs when the giant teddy bear hand snapped down, slapping Zoro like a fly into the ground. Zoro screamed, blood spewing from his lips, his eyes swimming, and Kuma kept walking.
Zoro's ears were ringing. He couldn't hear anything but the sound of those giant footsteps advancing on Luffy. Rage welled up inside of him like water overflowing a well, and there was nothing to stop him from getting back on his feet and swinging futilely again at Kuma, who slapped him effortlessly back into one of the alley walls where he slid slowly to the ground.
"You're drive is impressive, but you will not win. Stop now, before you die."
Zoro sat gasping, mind whirling, body reeling, desperate for some way to end the forward progression of the horrifying figure in front of him. Inwardly he was glad he was the only one awake, none of them could have won against Bartholomew Kuma.
Maybe it could just be Zoro that had to go.
"Kuma," he growled as the lumbering giant stepped up to Luffy's side. Kuma paused, turning slightly so that he could look at Zoro while he spoke. A respectful man, then.
Zoro's lips pinched together and he forced a grim half-smile. This idea might work if the man was honorable.
"I offer you my life for his."
Kuma was still for longer than Zoro had anticipated. A good sign. Not for him though.
"Please," he said forcefully, using any energy he had left. "Luffy means more to so many people than you will ever know. He's going to be the man to control the underground. He's going to be the one to make the world right. He's going to put the world back together."
Kuma was silent, so Zoro continued. He supposed it couldn't hurt at this point. "I must get him to his dream, he's the only reason that I ever had a shot at reaching my own. I owe him everything."
"Hold up, you fucktard."
Zoro sucked in an involuntary panicked breath, his eyes snapping to Sanji, who was stumbling towards them, leaking blood from all corners of his body—too exhausted for even his NSPH genes to heal him—a cigarette hanging from his lips and his hands in his pockets like he was out for a goddamn stroll.
No no no no! What was the fucker doing?!
"Why are you in such a goddamn hurry to die?" Sanji's voice was more animal than it was human, but his eye had lost most of the feral black it had at the beginning of the hunt. Sanji was loosing steam faster than his NSPH side could replace it. "What about your own goddamn dream, huh? Did you forget about that?"
Sanji stood strong and looked Kuma right in the eye, growl on his face like he was in charge of the situation.
"Hey gargantua," Sanji spat, no waver in his stance, "take me instead. I promise you the government wants me much more than they want this guy," he jerked his head in Luffy's direction.
Zoro breath stopped dead in his throat. Behind his eyes he could see Sanji dropping dead, just like that, after all the fighting he did to stay alive. Zoro's mind flashed with images of Killer dying in his hands, far too close to death to ever forget.
No wait, Zoro's eyes snapped open in realization.
Sanji wasn't offering to die. He was offering himself back.
Alive.
Zoro scrabbled to his feet, grabbing for any purchase as he fought to get to Sanji's side.
"Your bosses will give you a promotion like you never believed you could get," Sanji gritted his teeth, rolling his cigarette stiffly to the other side of his mouth. "I'm what they call a—"
Sanji gasped heavily, dull pain washing over his body as his mind fought to stay awake, his eyes dropping down to find Wado's hilt rammed into his broken ribs, electric pain shooting in pulses throughout his entire body.
Sanji let out a what was supposed to be a roar but was closer to a mewl, reaching with furious claws for Zoro's arms and shoulders to hold onto consciousness, digging them deep into Zoro's skin as his mind flooded with fury, fear, and a need greater than he'd ever felt to kick the marino's face in for overstepping his bounds. But his vision was going black and his limbs wouldn't work.
No. No no no no! What are you doing, you fucker?!
"You bastard," Sanji hissed, daring Zoro not to look him in the eyes before he blacked out, but Zoro refused to meet his gaze, and Sanji couldn't stop fear from overtaking him.
"No… plea…"
Zoro kept his mind cold and blank as Sanji's grasp lost all strength. It seemed to take hours for Sanji to hit the ground, landing partially on Zoro's feet, but he refused to let himself look down. He wasn't sure he wouldn't falter if he saw Sanji's gorgeous blond hair, Sanji's powerful back, Sanji's lean hips, Sanji's glorious lips and stunning iridescent blue eye—
Zoro steeled himself and took one slow breath before stepping over Sanji's still form. He wobbled, and almost had to catch himself on the wall but managed to steady himself. He took one last slow breath, counting back slowly from ten, before he walked right up to Kuma's side.
Zoro couldn't feel the pain anymore. He wasn't sure what had passed to make that happen—maybe the blood loss—but it was a good thing, he supposed. Better to enjoy his last moments not in pain.
Kuma was still for a long time, and Zoro was beginning to worry that the larger man had changed his mind when Kuma suddenly let out a low sigh and turned to face Zoro.
"I would bear shame if I were to touch Straw Hat Luffy after your words."
"…I am in your debt."
"…You are devoted."
Zoro blinked at the hesitation in Kuma's voice, but he was too tired to really be curious until the man spoke again.
"I will give you a chance to show your devotion to your crew."
Kuma knelt beside Luffy, Zoro's instincts screaming at him not to let Kuma any closer, but his reflexes couldn't react quickly enough, and Kuma slipped a device from his pocket, pulling a needle attached by a wire to what looked like a monitor and stuck it in Luffy's arm.
"This piece of equipment will measure Straw Hat's heart rate, brain waves, electrical waves, hormone levels, and many other components of his physical and mental state. This will show the state of pain and fatigue that Luffy is in, and I will inflict the same amount of pain on you. If you wish to take his place, you must take all of his ailments." The monitor beeped, and Kuma said assuredly, "With your injuries, it will kill you."
Zoro nodded, looking over Luffy's small, shredded form, amazed that the younger man still had the determination to cling to life after everything he'd been put through.
Something tight inside Zoro's chest cried for one last look at Sanji, one last reminder of the beautiful creature he had shared so much wonderful time with. Zoro traced Wado's wrappings with his fingers. He was a man of discipline, and he deserved nothing from Sanji, not after what he was going to do to him.
I'm sorry Sanji.
"Just take me to another place, farther from here."
-oOo-
Tires screamed as they peeled around the corner, Nami throwing open the passenger door so early that she was almost thrown clear from the van when Usopp slammed on the brakes and swung the vehicle around so that the back doors were as close to Luffy as possible. Everyone was just starting to come to from Kuma's blast, some looking around in confusion, others just struggling to get themselves off of the ground. Chopper was the first to realize what his duties were and was at Luffy's side in a second, checking everything that he could—heartbeat, breath pace, every visible wound and then some.
The usually incredibly rowdy crew was painfully silent as Nami dropped down to her knees at Luffy's side, sliding her hands under their leader's back as Chopper held his neck straight. They struggled under Luffy's weight for a moment before Franky came to their aid, Brook right behind him, both of them easily taking the brunt of his weight and allowing Chopper to free his hands to put pressure on some of the graver lacerations. No one said anything about Kuma. No one asked if he'd done anything to Luffy. Nothing was outwardly apparent, and no one wanted to make it true by saying anything out loud, as if it would jinx the situation.
Nami backed off slightly as they reached the van, Usopp already there with the doors open, and turned to survey the scene. The windows in the alley had all been blown in from the force of the shockwave, loose bricks knocked free and scattered in bits and pieces along the pavement. Sanji pulled himself shakily from the debris and hissed loudly, moving to hold his side tenderly.
Nami swallowed and staggered over to him, kneeling down slowly and placing her hand on his shoulder. With the other one she pulled back his shirt where the buttons had all been popped off and grimaced. A thick bruise, almost darker than the dried blood on his shirt and pants, swaddled his bottom couple of ribs on his left side. She could see easily through his skin—his impossibly strong NSPH-protected skin—that they were shattered. Her fingers drifted unconsciously toward the bruise, but she immediately realized what she was doing and pulled back, pulling herself to her feet to help him up.
Sanji didn't move for a minute, and then his feet found the ground, legs wobbling so much that he almost couldn't stand, but he grabbed her forearm suddenly—surprising her with how much force he had unconsciously behind the grip—and let her help him up. Nami grimaced again, wishing so much that she could tease him for accepting help from a woman.
Sanji's head swiveled around, free hand massaging his side as he slowly forced his back up straight. He was tracing the ground, looking for something, movements become more and more frantic as he couldn't seem to locate—
Zoro, Nami realized with a start, whirling around, suddenly very aware that she hadn't seen him on the ground amongst the others. Her eyes found the van where Luffy had been placed carefully in the back and Franky and Brook had both seemed to realize that they were missing one of their people and had started doing the same swiveling, scanning the whole area and trying to put together where the hell—
The hand on her arm vanished suddenly and Nami whipped back around, Sanji's name unconsciously bursting from her lips and shattering the silence uncomfortably, but he was already vanishing into the shadows down one of the allies. Nami whirled back to Franky and Brook, teeth gritted tight, met with their unsure gazes and raced after Sanji into the blackness illuminated only by the occasional choking and spluttering streetlights.
-oOo-
Sanji's insides—outsides—brain—muscles—bones—were exploding in pain. Every movement he made was sending bursts and triggering flashes of pain through his head. Every flickering streetlight he raced through was making his vision swim as his mind regressed to when he'd first broken out of the facility and had been unable to process the light, like his brain had literally forgotten what it was. Every time the soles of his feet hit the ground it sent a convulsion up through every nerve in his body, and he could feel the blood dripping from his skin, his fangs extending and retracting and slicing into his tongue and his lips, his clothes snapping against the spot on his rib cage where it felt like his side had been caved in by a meteor.
Sanji gritted his teeth, tasting thick blood that was lacking far too much on liquid substance, and forced himself to go faster, eyes searching as well as they could through the alternating dark and light, through the confusion, through the anger, through the paranoia—
Through the dead look in Zoro's eyes as he let Sanji fall to the ground, gripping the place on his side where Zoro had struck him with the hilt of his sword, playing on repeat through Sanji's mind like some twisted form of Chinese water torture.
Something flashed by out of the corner of his eye—not black and not the sickly warm light of the lamps—and his feet found the ground as he ground to a halt just past the alley, slowing down just quickly enough for his brain to register green before he slid past it.
Sanji choked on the breath in his throat and fell back, palms connecting harshly with the ground and he scrambled towards the green, ignoring the stabbing sensations in his hands as he tore into the alley he'd passed, skidding to his knees next to Zoro's limp body laying face down in the street.
His hands hovered in a blind panic over Zoro's back as his mind took in the green and red through the darkness. Blood oozed from it seemed Zoro's every pore, thick bruises and slices and stab wounds and brunt traumas and every single injury that wouldn't reach deep enough to hit the swordsman's bones marred his skin and flesh. Sanji's eye was so wide it might have been falling out of his head and he wouldn't have even noticed. A strangled sound fell from his lips and his fingertips found Zoro's shoulders, jerking back as he registered just how wet Zoro was from just the sheer amount of blood dripping to the ground. Sanji's knees were sinking in a lake of blood that was leaching up his pants and staining them redder and redder, and Sanji shook as he eyed his fingers, as red as a blood moon splitting the night sky.
He screamed slightly, at first unaware that it was even him that had made the sound, his brain still only half able to comprehend what it was seeing in front of him. His fingers found the swordsman's neck unconsciously and he felt tenderly for his pulse. Low, but still there.
Immediately Sanji's brain was in overdrive, estimating the amount of blood on the ground and in Zoro's clothes and how much blood the human body contained. Zoro was ok, but not for long. And that wasn't even accounting for other wounds, that was just if he was bleeding out. Sanji's fingers on his neck twitched, tuned into the steady thumping of the artery.
He could bite him.
He could bite him now. It would only take minutes to turn. Minutes to start the healing process. Minutes to stop bleeding. Zoro had minutes before he bled out—
Sanji gasped, realizing suddenly what he'd been considering, tasting the blood in his mouth from where his fangs had cut clear through his tongue and it had yet to heal. Black, black thoughts tore through his mind, leaching out without authorization—a sterile smell that overwhelmed even the blood, stabbing pain in his arms and wrists from thousands and thousands of needles poking and prodding him and taking his blood and injecting him with every sort of serum, liquid, poison—
Sanji scrambled to get to his feet. Chopper. He had to get Chopper—
A black shape dropped in front of his eyes, a long, limber, impossibly fast limb whipping towards Sanji's head and somehow his leg snapped up, taking the brunt of the blow even though it knocked him back a couple wobbly steps so he was standing just over Zoro's body and the man halted like a statue in front of him, staring Sanji down.
Sanji gritted his teeth, eyes bleeding black and fangs now long enough to be used as weapons. Below him, he could feel Zoro's presence. Zoro's weak, vulnerable presence, and it was making his insides boil. He couldn't have cared less that the force from the hit hat shattered another two ribs that were screaming in protest and panic now at the adrenaline surging through his system.
"You've been letting your guard down too much," the form drawled, straightening out from his fighting stance and pulling a sword from his back, voice slow and clear. "Trusting the people around you to pick up the slack."
A thick, feral sound rolled off of Sanji's tongue and he felt his fingers twitch unconsciously, begging to find their way deep into the skin of the man standing before him. His right foot slid, out finding better ground ne he leaned forward slightly, far to aware of Zoro's blood he could smell—feel—see—touch—taste—pooling under his soles. His ribs wailed at the forward movement, but he either didn't care enough to feel it or didn't feel it enough to care and the pain went unheard.
The man shot forward like a bullet and Sanji whipped to the side, a sword slicing through the air where his shoulder had been moments ago. His leg whipped up and caught the edge of something—maybe the man's elbow—but it wasn't nearly enough to do any damage, and the sword came down again, forcing him to contort his spine so far out of the way that he heard another rib crack under his skin and spots of black started exploding behind his eyes. But he still couldn't feel it.
Sanji dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way of the next few swings, pushing up with his hands and launching himself over it again as he kicked out. His toe caught his offender's cheek and the cold steel tore into his other side. Sanji snarled and twisted, spiraling out of the blow and dropping back to the ground, knees hugging the pavement while he fingered his side gently. The man straightened to wipe at his check with the back of his hand.
A stab of uncomfortable prickly shot up his spine and Sanji sucked in a harsh breath at the feeling, vaulting up and flipping backwards as a pair of heels smashed into the ground, intending for his middle. He hadn't been prepared for that one, and stumbled as he landed, falling back on his elbows.
The woman moved to stand, and Sanji could see all too clearly under the warm glow of the streetlamps that her heels had made actual divots in the asphalt where she'd landed. That one would have done him in, especially with his broken ribs.
But not enough to kill him.
These were the people that had found him in Zeff's territory.
Sanji pushed himself to his feet, snarling again, and both lunged at him. Sanji was a whirlwind, twisting and flipping and kicking and blocking and clawing, but there were two of them, and they were fast.
These were the people that had kidnapped him and forced him into the truck.
A heel and a sword slashed for his neck and Sanji's legs split open, dropping him to the ground and he arched his back, pulling his legs back up into a spin, both heels connecting with either target and the man and the woman jumped back slightly.
These were the people that had drugged and beaten him, tried to break him again, destroyed all of his hard work trying to just live again after escaping from the facility.
The two lunged again.
Sanji's lips pulled back into a grin, eyes blacker than the night air around them.
These people were going to die.
Sanji leg snapped up, heel catching the blade where it sunk into the rubber and stuck, Sanji slamming his foot to the ground and taking its owner with it and his hand shot out, claws digging deep into the neck of the woman. He pushed back, hard, her back connecting with a ground and she cried out in pain as Sanji rotated his hips and slammed his other heel so hard into the shoulder of the man that he flipped back, letting go of his sword and smashing into one of the buildings lining the alley.
Sanji growled, rearing back, fangs bared and black eyes locked on her beautiful neck, so pale and delicate. He could see it dripping, crimson liquid trickling down her skin, seeping into her clothes and the blackness of the pavement under them, his fingers relishing in the hot substance—
Sanji's head snapped up as something dropped down from the rooftop of the building next to them, his breath locking in his throat and eyes snapping back to iridescent blue as the large man slammed into the ground, missing Zoro's head by no more than two inches. His toe nudged at Zoro's ear and Sanji sanity became nonexistent, heart simultaneously popping and shriveling in his chest as he lunged forward with a snarl, just as something flashed out of the corner of his eye—a third man—and a foot caught him across the face hard enough to smash him into the wall where he'd sent the other man.
Sanji coughed harshly as he hit the ground, blood spurting from his lips and dripping down his chin. Something smashed down into his back and he cried out, a hand suddenly grabbing the back of his collar and yanking him up. Sanji choked as his esophagus was forced closed, and then a fist connected with his cheek, cracking his head back into the wall behind him. His head was ringing and light was bursting behind his eyes, so he couldn't see the next hit coming before a freight train collided with his broken ribs and he screamed, feeling another two snap under the force.
He lashed out desperately, stumbling as the two around him jumped back, and the woman appeared in front of him, throwing something in his face that made his eyes burn like he'd stumbled into a miasma and his throat close in a pathetic attempt to protect his lungs. He choked, falling back, but before he could hit the wall, something was thrown over his head—burlap, his realized inwardly and with a growing sense of horror, as he clawed at it, scrambling to get it off of him, mind going black, fear eroding his senses, and the sack was yanked tight around his waist, pinning his arms to his side. His foot snapped up of its own accord, trying to do something, but he hit nothing, and then something smashed into his right temple, his head cracking back into the wall behind him for the third time, and he dropped.
-oOo-
Jabra jumped back as the immobile form hit the ground, waiting for Blackleg to start moving again, but he didn't. He took the second to wipe at the slash on his collarbone where the NSPH had caught him earlier in a blind panic, grumbling angrily to himself about the nick in one of his favorite shirts, and readjusted the glasses on his head.
"Kumadori," Kaku murmured, sliding his sword back into his sheath and moving to pick up his hat from where Blackleg had kicked it off earlier. Kumadori's long hair swished against the ground as he pulled tighter on the rope around the mouth of the sack, testing to make sure that Blackleg was indeed unconscious before he got his own face kicked in—Kaku looked in pain—and drifted forward to tie it tightly, locking Blackleg's claws and fangs away for the moment. He grunted, hoisting the limp frame up onto his shoulder.
"Someone's coming!" Fukuro announced suddenly from the rooftop, and the five on the ground scattered into the alleys around them.
Nami raced around the corner, gasping for breath, eyes trained for the blond hair that she knew she wouldn't be able to see through the black air and gold lighting from the lamps unless she really looked. Green, though, that she could see, and she skidded to a halt, gasping loudly, hands clapping over her mouth, Zoro's broken body, swimming out in blood, laid out in front of her.
"CHOPPER!"
-oOo-
-Minnie Riperton – "Lovin' You"
''I had this horrible, horrible thought when I wrote this that at the end of the story I could have Sanji wake up a hundred years in the future strapped to a metal table. Doctors would be hovering over him, murmuring numbers and measurements, and he'd be swaddled in pain that had become the norm long ago. Just as the doctors go to draw more blood, Sanji hears Zoro ask him what he's looking at and looks over into the shadows of the plain white room to see Zoro, and suddenly he's back in their dojo sparring with Zoro as dinner simmers away and just goes back to fighting, wondering idly what the sterilized smell is. But I immediately realized just how horrible it was and decided to only make it a tidbit here ;p You're welcome. If you want, I could make a short one-shot for the darker of you all portraying that, but you can rest easy that that isn't how the story will end~