First off, I'm really sorry that this is so late, but while I did have a chapter ready for Tuesday, I'm still not completely satisfied with it, and decided to write a new chapter for this week instead.
Secondly, this is another two parter, so next chapter will continue this one (It's been a while since I've done a story driven chapter...)
Lastly, I don't know if I should put a spoiler alert on this... Personally I think it's good, but let me know if you think it spoils anything...
Story set: Timeless
Not so ordinary after all (pt.1)
Sanji was listening. At first it hadn't been intentional, but as he slowly understood what they were talking about he was glad he'd caught their conversation. At first Sanji hadn't picked up on the importance of the conversation, simply because he thought that there was no way anyone would be stupid enough to have a conversation like that in a public place. But then Sanji realized. They weren't speaking in the common tongue. Sanji was surprised that he hadn't noticed before, because the language was quite different from the common one. But even after years of not using it, Sanji could still perfectly understand.
Sanji dared not look too much in their direction so he settled for only listening. There were eight of them; three women and five men. It seemed that only one woman could speak the language fluently, leading Sanji to believe that she was either their boss or their client. She was the one explaining their job, so it could be either really. As the others spoke Sanji picked up on every broken sentence and mispronounced word, trying to figure out who they were. After listening for a while he decided that they must be business people. People who only knew enough of the language to communicate with a client and nothing more.
Sanji felt someone shift besides him, but ignored it. There was a good possibility that these people could pose a serious threat. Sanji took a look at them as a waitress approached them. They seemed to be placing some orders, which meant that they'd stay for a little while longer at the very least. Sanji wanted to hear more. He quickly looked away as the woman in charge turned her head in his direction. They continued talking.
"Sanji-kun..." Nami's voice came from somewhere in the room, and Sanji turned to look at her, not knowing what she wanted, "Are you even listening?"
"Huh?" Sanji answered intelligently and she face palmed, making Usopp explain to him what was going on.
"Nami said that the island will change seasons soon, and we should leave before it does. Do you have all the supplies you need?"
"Um, yeah, I have everything..." Sanji said automatically, but then reconsidered, "Actually, I still have a few things I want to buy, so I'll go into town later today."
"Alright..." Usopp said sceptically, but apparently decided not to pry into it.
Sanji went back to listening. He must have missed something, because they had changed subject. He hoped it wasn't important, but shot them another quick glance just to make sure nothing had changed. How strange. The woman in charge was gone. Maybe she was their client and she had finished explaining what she wanted them to do. However, not five seconds later, Sanji's attention was caught when someone arrived at the table. It seemed the woman hadn't left after all.
"Hello~" She said and all the strawhats' attention was instantly on her, "You're not from around here, are you?" She spoke the common tongue, but her accent was thick giving Sanji the impression that she was either faking it or exaggerating it.
"No, we're just stopping by," Nami smiled. Her guard was up, but there was no hint of suspicion in her voice, "Why?"
"Ah~" The woman sang and leaned over the table. She was a little too close to Luffy in Sanji's mind, but if she was dangerous, Sanji did not doubt that his captain would pick up on it. Looking closer she was quite pretty, but Sanji found it hard to focus on that, "My friends and I were stopping by as well, and we were wondering if you knew what the next summer island was? You see, I'm not too fond of winter."
"The previous island was a summer island, was it not?" Robin said, looking to Nami who agreed with her and gave her the name of the island.
"Thank you very much~" The woman clapped her hands, and returned to her table.
After that their conversation turned trivial and Sanji knew there was nothing more to come for. Nami was paying the bill anyway, so they'd be leaving soon.
Sanji sighed and looked to his friends. None of them seemed to bothered by the woman, but then again, they hadn't heard the conversation. As Sanji eyes scanned the table his gaze met Zoro's. The swordsman was very quick to pick up on Sanji's expression and lifted an eyebrow in question. Sanji brushed it off. If he needed help, he would let someone know... and that someone would not be Zoro. The swordsman mimicked him and sighed. Sanji didn't know whether that meant fine I don't care or whatever I trust you. As much as Sanji would hope it was the latter, he had a weird feeling it was the first.
The strawhats slowly made their way back to the Sunny. The mood was light, and they walked slowly, sometimes stopping if they went past something particularly interesting. When they finally got back to their ship everyone had their hands full of different things. Most carried food, a few carried weapons or general supplies. Robin and Chopper had stumbled upon a small book store, and with all the purchases, Sanji was surprised to see that Nami was still as happy as she had been this morning.
After Sanji had stored all the food, he stepped out of the kitchen and looked at the sky. It wouldn't be too long until the sun set and he quite wanted to leave before it did. Anything else would seem suspicious. He had prepared dinner early and he was sure the crew could fend for themselves should he leave for a few hours. He quickly let them know that he was going back to town to get some last minute supplies and left the ship.
The town was still lively, and Sanji quite enjoyed just walking amongst all people going about their daily life. He did stop once or twice at some food stances, but he never bought anything. He wasn't really out for shopping. If he remembered correctly, he shouldn't be too far from the place, and when he started seeing less people, he figured he was right. When Sanji reached the edge of the town he tried to keep to alleys and rooftops. The last thing he needed was to be spotted.
Sanji watched from a rooftop as the sun set. He could see the Sunny in the distance and he smiled to himself. He didn't do this a lot, and it wasn't a complete secret either. Both Zoro and Robin had caught and confronted him once about it, but even after that they never tried to stop him. Sanji was sure that a few others, if not every single one of them knew he did this, but it wasn't something they talked about. Simply because pretty much everyone once or twice had snuck off to deal with a threat that only they had been aware of, and while Sanji just happened to be the person to deal with most of those threats, it was okay. Sanji wasn't exactly underestimating his friends nor overestimating himself. He had asked for help twice. Once from Usopp and once from Robin. The reason he always did this alone was mostly to not worry the others, but also because he knew that bringing all the strawhats into minor conflicts could easily go out of hand.
The strawhats liked big fights. They were exciting, and people would never forget them, but sometimes big fights weren't needed. Sometimes you just needed a bit of discreet meddling, and the threat was eliminated. Sanji was the perfect person to do this. He was strong and could stand his own, but unlike their idiot captain and their idiot swordsman, Sanji had a brain. Besides, Sanji got a weird feeling of satisfaction when he could outsmart and win against his enemies without engaging in a physical fight. It was like a fun game. Of course, it didn't always work out that way, but Sanji had never even been injured in a solo-mission.
He didn't let any of that get to his head though. He knew that he was dealing with different people each time and there really was no telling how smart they were. Sanji was actually a little on edge with this particular group. They'd been smart enough to talk about their plans in a language which was understood by almost no one, and even then Sanji knew that he didn't know everything... Though he really doubted that they knew he'd been listening.
Sanji was currently observing a warehouse. What was inside it, he didn't know, and he honestly didn't really care. What he did care about were the people who were now slowly approaching said warehouse. The woman who had approached them earlier was with them, so Sanji ended up settling for her being the boss. They all entered the warehouse, and Sanji slowly followed. He jumped to the roof of the house, landed silently and slipped in through a ceiling window. As luck would have it, the ceiling consisted mostly of metal bars nicely hidden in shadows, which gave Sanji free mobility as long as he could remain silent.
The warehouse was completely full. If these boxes were stacked any higher they might just have crushed the boxes on bottom unless they all contained nothing but rocks. One of the guys in their party made a quiet wow sound, while a girl in the back rolled her eyes at him. The two of them were definitely the youngest in the group, probably around sixteen, which gave Sanji a reason to believe that they were either new recruits who posed zero threat or people with powerful abilities who posed the greatest threat.
"Let's get to work," Their boss commanded, this time speaking in the common tongue. Her accent wasn't nearly as thick as it had been back in the restaurant, but it was still slightly present in her words. The young boy from before moved forward and touched one of the boxes and... it disappeared? Sanji's eyes widened. What? One of the guys was holding a big bag and it looked like the boy put something inside it. The boy then touched another box, but this time Sanji saw what happened. The box didn't disappear, it just shrunk. Well, that answered a few questions.
When about half of the contents of the warehouse had been shrunk and put into the bag, the boss signalled to the people who were not on watch to do something. The young girl moved to the wall and started spray painting it. It looked like she was painting a skull... The rest of them seemed to be spreading some sort of dust all over the place, while their boss was standing over them, telling them whenever they did something wrong.
"Um, miss?" One of the dust spreaders slowly asked, and she looked to him, giving him permission to speak, "What does this do again?"
"It will lead the government away from us," she answered. She seemed quite level headed and not the type to yell or get annoyed at her probably below average intelligent subordinates, "This dust is connected to my ability. It will lead the government away from us and directly to the strawhats." Ah, there is was, the reason Sanji needed to deal with these people.
Her subordinate seemed to be satisfied with the answer, and while Sanji wanted to know more about how exactly it worked, it didn't take him long to figure out that it wasn't coincidence that she had been standing that close to Luffy earlier. Sanji was willing to bet his life that she had done something back then. Well, nothing to do about that now. Sanji needed to find a way for the strawhats not to become a sudden target. The government didn't like them to begin with. They were pirates and they had done a lot of things to piss of the government, but Sanji quite liked when the marines didn't know where they were. Not even the strawhats would survive long if they were pursued constantly, and Sanji had a feeling that the woman's ability might make that happen.
Sanji then shot a glance at the girl who was painting and wasn't surprised when it looked like she was painting their jolly roger. These people were trying a little bit too hard to frame them for whatever crime they were committing. Now, Sanji had a choice. Did he want to let them get away with what they were doing and then just make sure that the government couldn't track them by removing whatever the hell the dust was and clean the walls. Or did he want to stop them from committing a crime, so that the government wouldn't have to track anyone down. The first one was tempting, but Sanji didn't know what half of these people were capable of and with three women, one of which was probably extremely strong, Sanji didn't want to engage in a fight.
"Just tell me if you need any help," a low voice came from Sanji's left, and he almost jumped from surprise.
"What are you doing here?" Sanji hissed, trying his best not to raise his voice.
"Nothing in particular," Zoro said casually and looked at the people working beneath them, "but if it comes down to a fight you'll be happy I'm here." Zoro gave Sanji a sly smile, and Sanji would have kicked him if they wouldn't have been found out.
"I can handle this myself," Sanji said and turned away from the swordsman, "Why did you even come?"
"Luffy sent me," Zoro answered and Sanji immediately looked back to him again.
"Really?" Sanji could hardly believe that Luffy wouldn't trust Sanji with something like this. Enjoying Sanji's distressed expression, Zoro waited a little too long to explain what he had meant.
"He just wanted you to buy more food. Nami said the voyage will be long, so we need more supplies than usual."
"Oh..." Sanji said silently, and went back to watching the group of people beneath them. There were almost no boxes left, so Sanji had to start acting soon if he wanted to do something more than just erase proof.
Sanji sighed. He knew he wouldn't feel right if he just let these people get away with this. He felt like it'd be an insult to Luffy. Sanji looked to Zoro again, though the swordsman had his gaze on the thieves. He then noticed that Zoro was only carrying his white sword, which probably meant that even Zoro wasn't in the mood to start a big spectacular fight.
Sanji was a bit disappointed that it all ended up in a fight, but he wasn't really in the mood to start erasing the trails that would lead anyone to their crew and then replace them with things that would lead them to the actual culprits instead. It seemed like a waste of time, especially if Sanji wouldn't even be there to witness as they got hunted down. He signalled to Zoro and they emerged from their hiding spot.
The fight was pretty short, and not really all that taxing either. The youngest two didn't even join the battle, and when Zoro had dealt with the women (gently as Sanji had kept on yelling at him), he had just sat back and watched as Sanji took out the rest. Sanji had gotten quite annoyed with the swordsman at that point and kicked a guy in his direction when he saw him yawn.
When they'd finished up, they tied them all up, left and locked the warehouse. Sanji made sure to keep a close eye on Zoro in case he should wander off and be lost the entire night. While Sanji didn't really care that much, Luffy probably did, and Sanji personally did not want to go on a midnight marimo hunt, when he could just keep an eye on him. They made it to the main street in time to buy the extra supplies before the shops closed and they were now a ten minute walk from the Sunny.
"Say..." Zoro said suddenly not looking at Sanji.
"Hmm?"
"Are you hiding something from us?" Zoro continued walking, but Sanji had stopped dead in his tracks.
"What do you mean?" Sanji asked, slightly confused.
"Those people... How did you know what they would do, where they would be?"
"I just overheard their conversation," Sanji said and began walking again, but this time Zoro didn't follow.
"In a different language? That's not something you just do."
"And how would an idiot like you know?" Sanji snapped. He wasn't sure why he was angry, but he suspected it was because it was Zoro he was having a conversation with.
Zoro sighed, and continued walking. Neither of them said anything for a while.
"I don't really care..." Zoro said again, and Sanji wasn't even sure what he referring to, "and I know Luffy doesn't really care either, but you shouldn't hide too many secrets from us."
"Huh?" Sanji exclaimed, confused.
Zoro stopped and looked at Sanji who was beyond confused. Sure, he had secrets, but they were mainly connected to his past which hadn't even remotely been an issue in his currently life for a long long time.
And then Zoro's eye slightly widened as it looked like he realized something incredible, "You don't even know, do you?"
Sanji was sure that he was looking like a pure question mark at this point, but then something rare happened: Zoro started laughing. It wasn't the short mocking laugh Zoro made when he was teasing him, but a genuine laugh which Sanji found he really enjoyed. Possibly because he generally just liked people laughing out of happiness, but mostly because Zoro rarely laughed.
"Care telling me what's so funny?" Sanji asked after a while, and watched as Zoro slowly stopped laughing.
"Nah, I don't want to give you the satisfaction," Zoro said and this time smiled a victorious smile in Sanji's direction before he started walking again.
"Oi!" Sanji yelled and aimed a kick at the swordsman who dodged effortlessly like he had done so many times. Sanji would have started a fight right then and there if it had not been for Luffy's voice calling their names in the distance. They fight would have to wait.
So not only will this be a two parter, but I want to do a side story, which will more or less be this chapter from Zoro's point of view instead. The story will probably start before the beginning of this chapter and also end after the ending of the next chapter, so it WILL be different and provide new information :)
As always, fave if you enjoyed reading, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughts :D
