That night, Luffy was on watch, looking up at the moon while the ship was docked. For once, Luffy wasn't mulling over a mistake, or those annoying thoughts that had popped up a lot: what could I have done differently? A variation of that sentiment. This time, he knew he wasn't at fault for what happened with Sanji. Nobody was.

It didn't make him feel any better as a captain. Now he'd had four of nine members ditch at one point or another, even if they all ended up coming back. Nami, Robin, Usopp and now Sanji. He laid down on the roof of the crowsnest, back bent to lay along the curved surface. Well, even if Sanji didn't want them coming after him, he should have learned his lesson about taking back members when they went after Robin.

They never leave one of their nakama, even if they want out or not. Luffy would get Sanji back, and then they'd all go to Wano and do whatever smart Ace and Law said. He switched shifts with Chopper, who was looking deeply upset. "Chopper? You okay?"

"If I was stronger, do you think I could have stopped Sanji?" he asked tearfully. Luffy said screw sleep, and went to the crowsnest with Chopper.

"It's useless thinking about that, Chopper. There's no way to go back into the past to change things. I've felt those feelings a lot. Like after Sabaody, and I watched all of you disappear, one after another. 'What could I have done differently?' I kept thinking that. And then in Impel Down, when I got beat by Magellan, I thought the same thing. I was a failure, losing everybody and then I was about to die and never get back to you all.

"The thoughts hurt a lot, but they were also useless and not helpful in moving on. I think it's normal for you to think that. But you shouldn't, because this isn't your fault," Luffy said nicely. Chopper cried into his shirt, and Luffy just rubbed his back.

He was tired the next day, but not terribly. Not so much that it affected his performance as captain or on the ship in general. He kept getting kicked out of the kitchen, and the storeroom had a lock on the door handle, too. It wasn't fair, he was hungry! "Naaammiii! I'm hungry!" Luffy begged, gripping onto her ankles. "Feed meeee!"

"God, now I know how Sanji-kun feels! Stop it!" she shouted, and kicked Luffy away. He still begged for food. "No!" And he gave up for now. Zoro was laughing at her from the railing, making her even more irritable. Luffy went downstairs to the soldier dock system to look around, with Chopper stopping him.

"Not without Franky and Usopp! That place is off limits!" Chopper declared.

"It's like you're all babysitting Luffy," Carrot said happily.

"Hey, I'm the captain!" Lufy replied indignantly.

Nami said they all had their respective roles, and with some of those roles empty, they had to keep Luffy from causing them trouble. "No cooking, no tinkering or touching anything that isn't yours!" Nami commanded. Luffy went and pouted in the corner until Zoro called him over. He trotted over and sat in his lap, muttering about how mean everyone was.

"I'm super capable," he argued.

"Well, not at cooking or building things. They have a point." Luffy scowled. "You know that, too. Remember what you said all those years ago? 'I'm confident I could never live by myself'. You know that already." Luffy pouted some more, but eventually moved on when it suddenly got very cold. They got on their jackets from Punk Hazard, with Nami wearing that cape from Hancock, bundled in the warm fur.

Zoro was just wearing a slightly thicker robe. "I liked you in a suit. Neehee, you looked so fancy. But your scar is really nice," he said casually, running his finger along the diagonal line. Carrot was watching with a huge blush while Nami told Luffy Zoro would get cold if he didn't let him close the shirt.

Luffy pulled his finger away, and Zoro covered completely, and then wrapped his arms around Luffy's waist as they all looked out for any icebergs they would have to avoid. Carrot came up to Luffy and asked if he was with Zoro. it should have been quite obvious by now. "Yeah! He's my boyfriend."

"Aww… I've never seen boys and boys!" Luffy raised a brow. There were a lot of minks, surely some were gay? Maybe? Well, they were all very affectionate with one another, so it would be hard to see, maybe. Luffy said it wasn't a big deal. "So cute…" she giggled. Luffy saw Zoro with an annoyed and pink face that might not just be from the cold.

Nami firmly told Luffy, "There will be no dates on this trip. We're getting Sanji, the poneglyph rubbing, and getting out." Luffy agreed. He got to spend a few days with Zoro on the ship, that was good enough. Then they'd be really serious at the place. Though they only knew from Pekoms the territory was called "Totto Land". And that the islands were food themed.

That set Luffy and Chopper off, wondering if the island were edible and free to eat. It was shot down, but neither lost that wonder or dream. Luffy would eat a house, no matter what! Of course he didn't share this goal with anybody else. He didn't want a scolding from anybody. They all survived the cold that day, not seeing a single iceberg, luckily.

-x-

"This is embarrassing," Zoro complained while Luffy made him dance with him to Brook's music. Luffy pointed out that Carrot and Chopper were doing it. And that they all had to lighten up before they made it there. "Still. I don't see the point of this, we could just drink some booze and play cards or something."

"You already drank all of our reserves," Nami said from her beach chair, taking photos of Zoro and Luffy dancing, one much more enthusiastic than the other. "And you know Luffy would cheat at any card game, too," she added. Pedro and Pekoms still looked surprised with what kind of guy Luffy was, the captain of a very strong crew. Someone who went into the Marineford war and stole back his brother.

When they'd caught a fish, Chopper had to partially strangle Luffy to not eat the poisonous fish until Zoro could kick it over the side of the ship. None of the Strawhtas were shocked by his behavior.

"Don't worry, when push comes to shove, he's a good captain," Nami assured them both. Pekoms said he didn't care about who he was, and Pedro seemed wholly uninterested. Their dancing was brought to a sudden halt when it was instantly boiling. Luffy hadn't even heard the water boiling before it was terribly hot. Hell, they weren't even in the boiling water when the heat got them!

Luffy hated being hot. And Chopper did, too. As well as the other three minks, who had fur and would have to deal with the heat. The food storage was dwindling as their week of provisions (having not taken Luffy's appetite into account) was getting low, and everything they fished up was too small or inedible.

Water was getting low as well, and right now, they couldn't get any to filter without burning the gear to purify it. The water was hotter than boiling, and releasing steam that made it hard to see, and also soaked their clothes. It was miserable, and the heat just made them dehydrated, which wasn't helping their water shortage.

Half of them stunk of BO after being so sweaty, including Nami, who would vehemently deny smelling. All of them took showers or baths with recycled water, which was slightly disgusting, but necessary. Of course Nami and Carrot showered first.

But the heat had passed, and they filtered as much water as they could afterwards. The heat had been so much steam it got into the interior of the ship and had ruined most of their food supply. "Well, crap," Luffy said, picking up some of the ruined fruits and vegetables. "We don't have any limes! Nami! We need limes!"

"Hey, you remembered! Wow!" she said, impressed at him remembering a situation from two years ago, when Jonny and Yosaku got scurvy. "But we'll be fine as long as we restock somewhere soon. Surely we can get some food from the islands in secret," she said proudly. Pekoms scoffed. They ignored him.

Luffy and Zoro disposed of the rotten foods over the side of the ship before they stunk up the place too bad. Luffy frowned as the food sank, but everyone said they couldn't eat rotten food and it would let off bad smells and gases. So, goodbye perfectly good rotten food. There was a storm directly after they threw the food out, and they had to weather it as fast as possible, getting through the short lived burst of bad weather.

They were tired and laying on the deck when it started to snow, only Luffy smelled it was sweet, not just water. It smelled good! He caught one in his mouth and found it was cotton candy. He'd thought so! Luffy had his left arm resting on his chest while his right caught the cotton candy flakes that Chopper was pretty much going rabid over with the drool. Luffy ate the chunks off of the deck of the Sunny, collecting all of the bits, not wanting to waste a single one!

Sanji had a hard time making cotton candy with the equipment they had on the ship, so Chopper and Luffy always ate as much cotton candy as they could when they got the chance. "It's cotton candy," Nami muttered.

"A few days have passed since Black Leg Sanji left," Pekoms voiced. "He and his captors should be in Mama's territory by now. Don't think it'll be just one island, Totto Land is a kingdom of islands. It's nothing like you've been to before." He said it dismissively, truly thinking the rescue team were idiots.

Luffy said it didn't matter. "There's no map you have of Totto Land, you don't even know which islands would have the chance of holding Black Leg."

"Mm, that's why we have you," Nami said sweetly.

"No! I'm not a traitor! No matter what that Bege thinks or says, gaoh!" PekomW said in annoyance and frustration. Luffy heard multiple den dens going off inside, and hurried in. Who was calling them all at once? He tried picking one up, but there was nobody on the other side. It just made a buzzing noise until he hung up. Then it started ringing again.

"Nami, the snails are broken!" he shouted in worry, running out onto deck.

Pekoms told them it was signals coming from the territorial sea slugs from below in the water. People in Totto Land should now know their ship was there, it had entered their waters, trespassed. Now, they had come uninvited to a yonko's territory, which wasn't a good idea in the first place.

"I take it Totto Land doesn't get much tourism, then," Zoro said conversationally. "The ringing is really annoying, can we turn them off?" Pekoms told them they weren't taking this mission seriously. "Why do you care? You're just baggage, not an ally, not an enemy." The lion got mad at this disrespect, but of course Zoro didn't take it back or apologize.

"Well, we know it's dangerous. But why be super scared?" Luffy wondered with a laugh.

Chopper was super scared, and Nami had situated herself directly between Zoro and Luffy.

"Regardless, you should all disguise yourselves! You especially!" Pekoms shouted, pointing at Luffy. "Cover those marks and wear sunglasses," he commanded. Luffy pouted, and went to get a different shirt that covered all of him, which was obnoxious. He hadn't worn sunglasses to hide his eyes in years, either.

Disliking it greatly, he put on some sunglasses. Not the ones from Dressrosa, because even if those didn't get lost, they would have popped out of existence again with Kin'emon's devil fruit power. So, he wore a spare pair of Robin's sunglasses and a button up, long sleeved shirt. "You look so fancy," Chopper said.

Luffy lifted the sunglasses. "Do I have to wear these?" he complained.

Pekoms nodded. "If I were you, I'd keep the fact you're different as secret as possible. I don't know what the family and Mama would do if they knew somebody like Katakuri-sama was out there." Luffy wanted to ask if he drank blood, because that was what would really show the similarities. He asked if the man had any weird appetites. Pekoms had no idea.

The captain sighed, and moved the glasses down, and the beanie stretched around the top of his hat, the brim the only thing showing straw. He should probably hide his hair, then, too. He had no idea what Katakuri looked like, though. He couldn't exactly smell that Law was like him, so it was likely he couldn't tell that way, too. Only similarities or the sight of drinking blood would give him away.

He sat on the railing, huffing for a bit before he sniffed, and said, "Hey! There's people near!" he called. Everyone ran out to the railing to see. "It smells weird, though." Pekoms told them to all stay quiet so the ship could pass without much fanfare, but it wasn't the kind of ship he assumed it was.

"Germa speaking! Confirmed sighting of the Straw Hat pirate ship!"

The ship came into view, and asked what their purpose there was. Luffy lifted his glasses on habit to look at the massive snail ship. How were they so damn big?! And how did they not sink? Amazing! He wanted to pet it, wondering if it was slimy. Its eyes searched them before laying sight on Luffy. The eyelids widened slightly, and the entire ship halted.

"Why have you come here, Straw Hats?" a voice called. Luffy knew he was standing right behind the left eyestalk. When Luffy made eye contact with the snail, its eyes rolled inwards like a threatened snail would, and stopped, starting to drift off to the side, slouching. The eyes rolled far, far back until it couldn't see anymore. "Hey, what's wrong with it?" the same male voice asked in irritation.

Luffy calmly put the glasses back on. This guy smelled similar to Sanji. Like how Garp had to Dragon when they briefly came into contact three years ago at Louge Town. Biologically related, Luffy mused. The others thought he was Sanji based on the small amount of face shown beneath a black cape that Sanji would never wear.

"That's not Sanji. Probably related to him," Luffy said simply. He was right, the guy took his hood off to show he had a similar face, with the curly eyebrows as well, but with green hair instead, and no hair covering half of his face. Zoro scowled already at the sight of him. They'd had a very serious talk about Zoro being nice, and not pissing Sanji off and making him feel unwelcome.

So Zoro was going to control his attitude on this ship, which Nami found hilarious. "I'm not Sanji, though we look alive. I'm Yonji. The relationship I have with your Sanji is secret."

"He's a little brother then," Nami stated. The snail continued to fail and curl in on itself. It was weird to see one so huge acting so cowardly. Well, it wasn't like Luffy tried to scare it, or was continuing to do so. Yonji got more irritated with it, and some men in off uniforms came over and started to inject huge needles into the snail, which woke up, but then curled in again.

Yonji kicked its head angrily and the snail paid no attention to it. "Yonji!" a female voice said, a leg coming out to kick the fourth-ji over and off the ship. "Stop battering it, you're scaring it more," she scolded. She had pink hair and pink clothes, much different than the futuristic look of Yonji's outfit.

The sister, clearly Sanji's sister with the curly brow and half of her face covered by long strands of hair, took the snail and directed the eye to look at her. "Don't look at whatever is scaring you anymore. We won't let you get hurt." Even though Yonji was just kicking it. The snail's eye faced down to the water, and resumed being stable and reliable.

Yonji was hovering over the air, and Luffy watched him with a blank face. He didn't like him.

When Chopper was surprised about him hovering over the water, which Luffy only noticed and was distracted by once it was brought to attention, Pekoms and then Brook explained that they were only joining Big Mom because of their technological advances. The Germa Kingdom (Germa 66's kingdom) didn't actually rule over land, but they were part of the World Government.

"Then we made you an enemy, huh?" Luffy mused. Zoro raised a brow at the comment. It was a useless comment that had nothing to do with the moment. Wait, if they were Sanji's siblings, and they were royalty, then Sanji was a prince, too?! In a different way from Momonosuke and Ace. Well, Ace wasn't a prince, Luffy just thought it was funny to think of him as one.

But Yonji didn't seem like a nice person, and Luffy didn't know what to make of Reiju. She was nice to the snail, and polite to them. "So, your Sanji's sister?" Chopper asked.

"Yes, that's right. I want to thank you for taking care of my little brother. Sanji left us when he was very young, and ever since then, my father has been looking for him." She explained that two years ago, a wanted poster with his name and a slightly similar looking to him was put out, but it ended up being someone named Duval.

"I swear, that poster looked just like love-cook - Sorry, Luffy," Zoro said with the elbow to his gut. It seemed he couldn't resist insulting Sanji no matter what. Luffy looked at him in heavy disapproval and Zoro shrunk on himself a bit.

"Poor Duval-san," Brook sighed, the others who were there nodding.

"With the newly revived Straw Hats doing so much, a new bounty poster was put out for Black Leg Sanji, as the government had finally agreed to capture him alive. Immediately, father raised the bounty and changed the status to 'only alive'," Reiju explained patiently, pleasantly. Luffy could tell she was mostly telling the truth, if not sugarcoating some of it about their family looking for him.

Nami muttered, "So that's why Sanji's poster stuck out like a sore thumb."

"We're here to get Sanji back. He's our friend. I hope you know that," Luffy said, his voice cutting across the deck. It could be interpreted as a threat if you looked hard enough, but it was just him stating a fact. "Where is he?"

Reiju was unbothered, and kept smiling. "Well, right now he's probably on one of the other ships with Father, or maybe already with Big Mom. Well, we won't get in a fight and risk having the wedding called off." Yonji asked why Pekoms was there, if he was a traitor, as the Straw Hats were obviously an enemy by default.

"I got my own reasons, kid! You don't need to know! We ain't tied yet!"

Yonji didn't yell back, and walked away. Before Reiju shot back onto her snail ship like a blast came from her feet, she said, "Try not to scare any more of our snails. They're a bit sensitive," and winked. "Best luck with you saving Sanji!" she called when the snail gladly turned and booked it.

Chopper sympathized with the snail. "I hadn't meant to scare it," Luffy said in defense. "Sanji's sister is nice, but I don't like his brother very much."

The others nodded, and Brook commented on Reiju's beauty. It didn't take long after that for the first island to make itself known, but only for Luffy. He ran around the ship, demanding to know where the chocolate was. He throttled Nami before she shoved him. "I want the chocolate," he moaned.

"I don't have any chocolate!" she shouted.

"No, we're nearing the first island!" Pekoms declared. "Everything is made of chocolate!" Luffy and Chopper gasped. Luffy wanted to eat a building. "No, you can't do that, gaoh!" Luffy quietly mumbled he would. It didn't need to be somebody's house. But eating a building sounded so funny!

When they got to the shore of the chocolate island, Pekoms smoothly talked the guards into saying that the ship was hijacked, had once been an enemy ship, but was no longer anymore. So, having him there was actually useful in the end. Lucky for them! Chopper and Luffy jumped off to get a good look at the mouth watering city. Well, island. Even the trees were made of chocolate! How was this possible?

"So many different people!" Chopper said in shock at all the diverse people in appearance and size. Luffy made sure to go back to the water and shove his hands under to keep the burst not very noticeable. Then he returned to Chopper. "Hmmm, which building should I eat? Neehee? Oi, Zoro, where are you going?!" Luffy demanded.

Zoro turned around and honestly said he didn't know. "Come!" Luffy said. He ripped off a ring of the bottom of his shirt and tied one end around his wrist and the other on Zoro's. "Now… this isn't a date, but let's go eat chocolate together!" he said, wanting to take advantage of this. Getting information and eating chocolate at the same time wasn't a bad plan.

Chopper jumped onto Zoro's shoulders, and they started to wander off before Nami called them back. Luffy and Chopper whined, "But Namiiii! Chocolate buildings!"

"Apparently every island here is made of food, are you going to eat from each one? Control yourselves, and behave. You can get some chocolate when Sanji comes back, I'm sure he'd be happy to." Luffy didn't want to wait that long when there was so much chocolate there in front of him. Surely a little drink from the chocolate fountain wouldn't be bad…

"It takes about a day to get from Whole Cake Island from here," Pekoms said. "Get some food while we're here, I'll watch the ship." Carrot asked about the other islands around this one, and how they were made of food. "I don't know, they just are. Everything in the nation of Totto Land is food themed because Mama loved sweets. Each one has a ruler from the family.

"This is Cacao Island, named 'Chocolate Town'," he explained. Brook asked if there was a strong ruler here, too. "I never said each ruler was strong, but most are. This one is by Charlotte Pudding, the 35th daughter."

"Hah? This woman has had 35 children?" Zoro asked in shock, still tied to Luffy, finding no problem with it. Pekoms laughed and said, as of now, there were 85 Charlotte children. "Props to any woman who has birthed 85 children," Zoro said in his bland voice.

"Can we go now? I want to go grocery shopping," Luffy insisted, drooling at the chocolate town. He wondered if there were any others like him in this very diverse population. Totto Land apparently was home to every kind of race there was, including minks and fishmen. Of course mermaids had a tough time there due to not having bubbles to carry their weights, but they still lived there.

Pekmons said there was nobody similar to Luffy or Katakuri, or they'd have never been let on. Well, that wasn't really how it worked, they didn't migrate and spread, as far as they knew, Luffy's kind were made from the presence of blood stone. "Has Katakuri always lived here?" he wondered, just thinking of that question.

"No, he hasn't lived in Totto Land this whole time. He was born somewhere else." Ah, that made sense, then.

Luffy turned back and faced the chocolate town. "Ne, can we eat anything? Nami says no, but what do you say? Is the place made to be eaten? It's chocolate, isn't it?!" Luffy asked excitedly. Then they were told they could eat everything chocolate besides roofs or personal belongings. That meant Luffy could eat a building like he wanted! Before anyone else said anything, Luffy ran off with Chopper and Zoro, who just wordlessly followed him as they looked for the best chocolate building. Luffy and Chopper ate everything in sight, gladly eating the entire corner and more of a chocolate house that was crunchy, also having some raspberry jam in the middle. "So good!"

"Hey! You can't eat that much!" Zoro was inside the cafe, looking for booze even though nobody was there. "I'll have to write you up and bring you to the station!" Luffy burped, and worked to not throw up his last face full of chocolate. It was incredibly rich, so it was hard to eat all at once, yet he and Chopper succeeded, and Zoro now sat on a lounge chair inside the damaged building, drinking the booze. "And you can't just break and enter someone's kitchen!"

Zoro's reasoning was that there was no lock on the fridge. The policeman, or whoever he was, was getting thoroughly irritated before a teenager on a flying carpet with a face came over, and started to give the swollen and stuffed Chopper and Luffy a scolding for not eating the best parts of her cafe.

"Do we know her?" Chopper asked.

"No, but she wants to feed us!" Luffy replied, and patted his stomach, though he didn't know if he could eat any more of this building. But it was delicious! Zoro was drinking in the booth like a gentleman with his sunglasses, which had actually been Sanji's and were stolen when the moment arose.

She covered for them and made them seem to be like people who eat buildings for their jobs. It sounded like a wonderful job. If Luffy wasn't a pirate, maybe he'd try that as a job. Definitely better than being a marine. She was then congratulated for her wedding, and addressed as Pudding, the ruler on this chocolate land.

They climbed over the pretty low wall and into the cafe, with Pudding smiling the whole time, and asking what they thought of her cafe wall. "Wow, did you make this place?!" Chopper asked. She smiled and nodded. "Is it okay that we ate it?"

"Yeah! They have to get replaced every now and then, being made of food and all, the buildings need to be kept up," she explained. "How do you like the sake?" she asked Zoro. He said it was good, and that was it, and continued to drink. "I see," Pudding said with a smile, seeming fine with all of their bad behavior, which was lucky for them.

Nami, Brook and the minks came next, surprised by Pudding's responses that weren't anger about her cafe being destroyed and refrigerator raided. "Oh, she's so cute," Nami said, looking at Pudding. "Well, if she's okay with it…"

Luffy heard another mink recognize Pedro, who grabbed his snout immediately, and asked them to not make a scene, pretend they didn't know him. Luffy wondered why, but didn't ask. Now wasn't the time, he felt.

Once the Sanji retrieval team was all in place, all sitting inside with Zoro offering to share the next bottle with Pedro (who declined), Luffy thanked Pudding for bailing him and Chopper out. "But letting us get away with eating your building was really nice!"

"I was just so happy when you said you liked it!" she squealed. Then she explained the baking process, which went in one ear and out the other for Luffy.

"I thought all you needed was flour and sugar and milk! It's all so complicated."

"Oh yes, clearly you always watch our cook work enough to do it in his stead," Nami said sarcastically. Brook laughed.

"Sanj-" Nami shoved her hand over his mouth. He was going to say something about Sanji. The room went quiet awkwardly. Nami took her hand away and Luffy ate some of the table they were sitting at. She tried to play it off by making small talk before them saying they had to be somewhere urgent, and wanted to ask for directions.

"Were you going to say 'Sanji'?" she asked. "Are you his crew?"

Luffy nodded, unable to help it. "Wait, Pudding! Are you Pudding, the ruler of this land?" Nami asked.

"Y-yes. I'm also meant to be Sanji-san's bride. And you're his crew! I didn't recognize you at all!" she said to Luffy. They were equally shocked that she was to be Sanji's bride. What were the odds of meeting like this? But was their plan completely blown? "But you're not subordinates to Big Mom! How'd you get past everything?!" she asked in disbelief. They were in a more private area of the cafe away from the broken walls, so they had a fair amount of privacy.

But then she seemed to start getting overwhelmed by being around pirates that were clearly there illegally. Luffy's face went hard. She was a liar, and this was all an act. Zoro took his hand under the table and squeezed, shaking his head slightly. He recognized the tense and firm look Luffy got when he sensed a liar.

Well, he would try and play along. It was better to learn while knowing none if it was true. Maybe? But he didn't say anything and continued to listen to her show.