Night and Day

A Post-Piracy Sanji Side Story

By Aoikami Sarah

Chapter Eight - Sofserv's Fine Balance

The following day was declared a holiday and the twenty some-odd people on the island enjoyed music and festivities that started as early as mid-morning. Sanji watched Harmony carefully as she interacted with her old friends and family, especially the blushing blue-haired Hare. She seemed to have forgotten she even brought the chef along. His sulking didn't last long however as he spotted Rebecca and Hare's mother Weda heading his way carrying a large, earthenware jar marked 'sake'. They seemed to have already started on the brew and wobbled toward him.

"Allow me to help!" he sang and pranced toward them.

Harmony couldn't help but turn her head and watch him flirt with the older, but still beautiful women.

Hare noticed this as well and gave a relieved sigh. "And here I was worried that you two were an item!" he laughed.

"Yeah. Funny, that…" She muttered then turned her attention back to her friend with a pleasant, but false smile.

Everyone prepared for the feast to be held later in the afternoon. People gathered fruit and strange jungle animals native to the island. Sanji wobbled away from Weda and Rebecca as he heard the sound of knives being sharpened from a nearby hut. Inside, Dama was directing three men, one of whom was asleep, standing up with his head on a pillow pinned between him and the wall. One of them was prepping vegetables and the other was waiting for instruction.

"Ah, Sanji-kun, good timing," Dama said without breaking stride. "It seems Reiji has conked out on us again." She pointed to the man dozing against the wall. "Wiggle here is helping me with the vegetables but Gupta needs someone to fish with."

"No I don't," the shaggy dark haired young man argued. Dama shot him an evil glare that scared him white. "Right. Help. Need. Yes."

"I'm really most interested in your cooking techniques, Dama-san," Sanji admitted.

"And so you shall be privy to them after we have some fish. Try to get the gamut Gupta," she advised and he nodded.

"Come on. This way," Gupta motioned for Sanji to follow with a nod of his head.

They went down a path to a different beach than the one his ship was anchored on. The waves lapped awkwardly at the shore at what looked like an almost 45 degree angle. They got in a small boat and Gupta used a pole to get them about 100 feet from shore. "Gupta, why does the water do that here?" Sanji asked as he was handed a sizeable fishing pole.

Gupta threw a trap into the water and blinked as the buoy bobbed in place. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I've been to like a hundred islands on the Grand Line and I've never seen the waves wash to shore in such a way." The young man shrugged. 'This is going to suck,' Sanji thought. Almost instantly Gupta's fishing pole twitched. Before Sanji could comment his own pole did the same. Gupta reeled in a long, blue fish with large eyes and bright yellow fins. Sanji's fish was green and silvery with thick sides and a small head. He blinked at the thing. "This is a Wave Rider," he said. "I've never seen one except in books…" Gupta threw his catch in the basket. "And that's a Wide-eye Azure fish! That's from North Blue!"

"It's from here," Gupta said, not meeting his eyes. "We're going to need more. There's a lot of hungry people waiting."

Sanji frowned, pulled out a cigarette, lit it and went back to catching fish. 'There's something weird going on here…' he thought. Gupta's next fish was purplish and round. "That's a Glinnis May! Native to South Blue!"

"Native to here," Gupta corrected him.

"Bullshit!" he cried and pulled his line out of the water. Another strange, brownish fish flipped around on the hook. "This is a Yellow Bottom Sucker from East Blue. Total crap and not worth eating, trust me," he said, freeing it and throwing it back into the ocean. "What kind of a prank are you trying to pull?"

Again, Gupta practically ignored him. He pulled the trap up. It was full of crustaceans of different sizes and shapes. Sanji's eyes boggled. He threw the cigarette into the water, kicked off his shoes and dove in.

Sure enough the water was packed with fish of so many different shapes and sizes Sanji almost choked. 'It can't be! I don't believe it!' he thought and bolted for the surface. "What is this place! Tell me!" he cried at the little boat now full of sea creatures for the feast.

"This is Sofserv," Gupta answered. "Come on. Dama will kill us if we're late."

Sanji grit his teeth but decided that he wasn't going to get any further with him.

.x.

Dama was pleased by their catch. As he had requested, she showed Sanji how she and the other helpers prepared the multitude of dishes for a festival of this sort. The chef remained fairly quiet, but his delight in cooking was obvious. Finally, the dishes were ready and Gupta, Wiggle and Reiji started taking the staggering piles of food to the feast table outside.

Dama cleaned a knife and watched her own reflection in it, stealing a glimpse at Sanji behind her as she turned it slightly. "Tell me, young man," she began. "What did you think of our waters?"

Sanji narrowed his eye and wished they were out of the kitchen so he could hide his expression behind a cigarette. "I've never seen anything like it," he answered truthfully.

"You're a five-star gourmet chef," she added. "Surely their bounty is astounding!"

His guard went up. "Surely," he said, beginning to get the idea that she was leading him on. "There are fish from every ocean calling the water around this island home."

"We're quite fond of them," she said, nodding. "Do you know why there can only be twenty humans living on this island at once, Sanji?"

He leaned against the wall Reiji had dozed against earlier. "Harmony said it had something to do with the balance, but I'm not quite sure what that means," he admitted.

Dama turned to face him, checked the edge on her knife and looked up over the rims of her glasses at him. "The balance is delicate. Between the flora and fauna, the sea and we humans, if one of us is out of balance, it is said that Sofserv will tip and fall and all will be lost. If the humans consume too much of the fauna, if the sea drowns the flora, if one of the four elements becomes too strong or weak this island cannot survive. We are very lucky to live in such a paradise and we strive to protect the balance."

Sanji grinned and pushed himself off the wall. "I understand such a thing. Having sailed on a ship at sea I know about balance. Having conditions between people, the ship and the elements in balance is crucial to a voyage's success."

She nodded. "So, Pirate Chef. Have you ever heard of All Blue?"

"I've been searching for it many years now," Sanji admitted. His heart hammered in his chest but he did his best to appear calm.

The older woman continued to play with the knife. "Then I shall tell you what I know of it. "What the world calls All Blue is shrouded in mystery. Most believe it is an ocean, an area of the sea and so most search blindly." She used the knife to draw in the air. "From the North, East, South and West strong currents flow under the calm belt and supposedly under the Red Line. Those four currents meet and churn up the seabed, spinning it around into a whelk-shell shape island so small it is impossible to locate with a log pose and therefore safe from having its fine balance disrupted." Dama's voice dropped to a near whisper. "And the inhabitants of that island will do anything to protect that balance."

Sanji's grin widened. "Just as I thought," he said and pushed off the wall. "Since I was small, I've dreamed of finding All Blue."

"To declare that you had found the legendary ocean?" Dama asked, piercing him with her glare.

He shook his head slowly. "To experience a legend. Thank you, Dama-san. This party you're throwing us is more than I had ever dreamed of." Sanji waved and walked out of the kitchen, calling to another cute island girl who was helping set up.

Dama watched him go and laughed lightly to herself before sheathing the knife in a block and following him out to the festival.

More to come…