Chapter 11
There was talking all around them and Sanji couldn't help gaping at the scene in front of him. Men and women of all ages, wearing dirty and ragged clothes, were walking around them. Some were dragging makeshift carts with various items on them, and some were carrying heavy sacks on their backs. All of them heading towards the same place, the gate.
Suddenly he heard a loud creaking noise, and he watched in awe as the enormous doors of the gate slowly opened. Excited murmurs came from the people around him as it happened.
"I wonder how much I'll get for this clock. I swear it has some gold on it."
"You know, if I don't get at least four beri for this chair, I'll gut the bastard."
"Hah! Four beri's, are you mad? You'd be lucky if he gives you one!"
"Shut it Seti! I know the guy's a crook, but I'll be damned if he scams me again!"
"Hey Mariana, where'd you get that?"
"None of your damned business Pintin!"
Sanji had difficulty closing his mouth. There were so many of them, and they weren't fighting or shooting each other dirty looks. They were ragged and looked malnourished, yes, but they were bantering good naturedly with each other. They were talking animatedly with their neighbours in the queue, all equally excited about selling what they'd managed to find or mend since the previous day, though no one divulged in where they had actually found it.
"You seem surprised." The Shepherd raised an eyebrow at him. "Did you not believe them to have a community?"
Sanji swallowed, "I-," It was true; he had thought they would be solitary, angry and mad. Living in this trash, he couldn't imagine how people even survived out here. "No-," he admitted apologetically, "I thought they'd be starved and desperate." He saw himself as he was about to kill the old geezer on that rock, and he bowed his head in shame at the thought.
"They might be untrusting of others, but they, like us all, crave human interaction as well. But do not pity them." The Shepherd watched them as they passed them by, "Many are content with living out here, and most do in fact hate the city within this wall."
Sanji looked at them again, he could get where the old man was coming from. A lot of them did seem, not exactly happy, but somehow genuinely okay.
A tall man suddenly made his way past next to him, and Sanji instinctively stepped aside. The man was wearing a cloak and was dragging a cart with him, a dirty sheet covering what was on it. As Sanji stared after him he noticed something was off about the way he moved. When he looked back on the cart he saw a scaled tail peeking out from underneath the sheet. "You can't be serious?" He chuckled.
The Shepherd chuckled as well at the scene, "I must admit, the disguise it not bad."
They decided to follow after the man, whom they could now see had way too small feet for his body. "Stacking on top of each other like that-," Sanji shook his head as he continued to chuckle, "Why are they even doing that?"
"I have an idea that they might not be welcomed in the city, I do wonder if we will see the reason why in this memory." The Shepherd smiled fondly.
"Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Luffy's fault. The Ace we met at Alabasta was refined and polite. Though I must admit that what little I've seen of Ace, and this Sabo kid until now, hasn't been too unlike how Luffy acts to be honest."
The Shepherd nodded, "Yes, but you must remember they were only boys here, and dare I say, quite unruly ones at that."
They walked with the boys as they made their way through the gate, and Sanji whistled as he looked around them; it was nearly as bad as in the Grey Terminal. The houses had boarded up windows with bars on them, and most people were walking with their heads down. As Sanji looked up he saw a sign that said Edge Town, "Edge Town?"
"Yes, this is the lowest step on the ladder in the hierarchy in this despicable kingdom, not counting the Grey Terminal, which in the minds of the nobles does not even exist." The hatred in the Shepherd voice as he said it was palpable. "This is where the criminals with just enough money to survive lives, and most live off of trickery, deceit, and other unsavoury businesses."
Sanji could see people slinking in the shadows between buildings, their eyes shining with contempt and malice. "If I didn't know the boys could fight decently I'd be worried for their lives walking through here."
"I quite agree."
Almost as soon as they had said it, a gang of thugs stopped the boys in their tracks. One of them got in their face as the rest circled around them, effectively cutting off any way of escape. Sanji and the Shepherd just raised an eyebrow as a metal staff shot out from under the cloak and tripped the supposed leader of the gang.
"When you mug someone you better be prepared for who you're messing with." The mirth in Ace's tone as he said it made Sanji grin. And when they threw the cloak off, he couldn't help chuckle at the sight of it. There they were, stacked on top of each other, Ace on top, Luffy in the middle, and Sabo at the bottom. He almost felt sorry of the Sabo kid, having to carry the weight of the two boys on his shoulders, but it didn't look like it was weighing him down at all.
"That Sabo kid gotta be pretty strong to not break a sweat with carrying those two." He said a little impressed.
The boys jumped off each other, staffs raised, and Sanji saw that Luffy had one as well now. When they charged at the thugs he saw that their teamwork had gotten a lot better, and Luffy had a lot more synergy with the other two boys. "This must be a while since the last memory, their fighting is a lot better."
"I suppose you are correct in that assessment," The Shepherd looked up at the sky and smiled fondly before he looked back at the boys, with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I believe this is a few months since the last one, it would seem that Sabo has been living with the boys since then." The boys made quick work of the thugs, before putting their cloak back on. This time Luffy was at the bottom and Sabo in the middle, and started walking again like nothing had happened. Sanji and the Shepherd fell in step behind them. "They had a conflict with a band of pirates around the time of the previous memory, and Sabo, who had been living close to the Grey Terminal up until then, decided it would be safer for him to live with Ace and Luffy from then on."
"He lived in the Grey Terminal all by himself? But he's like what? Ten years old at this point?" Sanji stared at the figure in front of them, his eyes on the middle part where Sabo was.
"Yes, he ran away from home when he was around five years old." The Shepherd nodded sadly.
"He ran away from home when he was FIVE?" Sanji yelled out in shock. Not even he had dared doing that at that age.
"Yes, he was quite an unhappy child." The Shepherd nodded again.
Before Sanji could say anything more however, the boys had stepped onto a new street, and his jaw fell open at the sight in front of them. It was like stepping in to another world. The cobblestone was so clean it was glistening; the houses were painted in vibrant colours, and again almost revoltingly clean. Sanji was sure he could eat off of the surfaces. "Wha-What the hell?"
"Yes, this is the Town Center-," The Shepherd said with an edge to his voice as he looked around them, his eyes shadowed, "As you can see, it is appallingly clean."
"I get it now, about it being called the cleanest and most beautiful kingdom in East Blue, but this is just abhorrent!" Sanji glared at the people around them.
The Shepherd only nodded, and they walked in silence for a little while as they watched the boys trade the crocodile skin for a decent amount of beri, though Sanji suspected that they had been ripped off. The boys didn't seem to mind however, and Sanji heard them mutter about how happy they were they weren't found out. Luffy was praising Ace for being a good actor, and both Sabo and Ace shushed him for talking too loud.
When the boys didn't turn back towards Edge Town, but instead headed further in to the Town Center, he started to wonder what they were up to. The people around them were giving them a wide berth, and he would have swooned at the all the beautiful ladies if it hadn't been for the disgusted look on their faces, and them hastily shying away from them while covering their mouth and nose with a handkerchief. As if the boys were contagious. When he saw the men do the same, he scowled at them, those fucking stuck up bastards! He would never dare to call a woman something as uncouth as that, it wasn't their fault. The men however, oh how he wished he could kick their faces in.
The boys didn't seem to care about the people around them however, and Sanji heard Ace ask them if they wanted ramen for dinner, to which both Sabo and Luffy wondered what was. Ace wouldn't tell them however and just told them to wait for it.
They followed the boys in silence, and Sanji saw that the Shepherd wore the same expression on his face as he did, contempt. Yes, he understood the old man perfectly if he had watched this place for centuries without it ever changing. Having to watch as they murder people again and again, and not thinking much of it because they don't even consider the people humans. He glared at the men as they passed them until they suddenly stood in front of a ramen restaurant.
He blinked as they stopped so abruptly, having been so absorbed in his own thoughts as they walked, he hadn't even noticed where they were going. As he looked up at the restaurant he heard Ace mutter gleefully, "This is the place," before they stepped into the building.
Inside, a man stood ready to accommodate them, but as he laid eyes on the ragged looking man in the door, he paled, "W-Wait a minute!" He stammered waiving his hands in front of him, "Your kind isn't welcomed here!" Sanji scowled at him and growled low through his clenched teeth, those insolent bastards, refusing someone food just because of their appearance. He longed to give these people a proper beating.
Before he could speak his mind however, a hand peeked out from beneath the cloak holding some sort of jewellery with a flower adorned on it. And he heard Sabo tell the man, in an attempt at a deeper voice, that he would like a private room. Sanji was about to ask about it when the greeter changed his demeanour completely, bowing low and stammering that he would find them a private parlour right away. "It's such an honour that a noble would grace us with their company."
Sanji raised his eyebrow at the Shepherd who only shook his head.
"That's a handy thing you've got there." Ace muttered quietly as the man ran off.
"Ah, I just found it somewhere not long ago." Sabo muttered back offhandedly, but Sanji heard the hesitation in his voice. He's lying.
"What was that crest?" Sanji asked the Shepherd as the boys were being led up the stairs to a private parlour on the fourth floor of the restaurant.
"That was the crest belonging to a noble family living in High Town, the head of that house is called Outlook," The Shepherd answered grimly as he watched Sabo with a sad look in his eyes.
"A noble family crest?" He looked at Sabo too, "You mean? Sabo is noble born?"
"That is correct," The Shepherd nodded, "He was their only heir."
Sanji couldn't do anything besides stare at the back of the figure in front of them as they ascended the stairs. His respect for the young guy rose to a new level; this kid ran away from that wretched life when he was five, he himself had only been able to escape his personal hell when he was ten.
The Shepherd opened his mouth to say something and closed it sharply, but Sanji couldn't help noticing the look he gave him.
He sighed. "It's hard to not see the parallel between me and Sabo, isn't it? Both noble born, and both running away from that life when we were younger."
"Yes, I am truly sorry that it is bringing you pain to see this." The Shepherd said sadly.
Sanji didn't answer and the boys were finally led to their private room. Ace ordered them three large bowls of ramen, and the beautiful waitress bowed profusely as she took their order.
They watched as the boys ordered bowl after bowl after bowl, but he couldn't even find the humour in it as it became more and more ridiculous, even when the Shepherd had started chuckling beside him. He watched Sabo and wondered how bad it had been for him, what it had took for him to finally say, fuck it I'm done, and leave. He was dragged out of his musings however when the door was suddenly yanked open and both the waitress and the guy who had greeted them burst through it. There was a pregnant pause as they looked at the three boys, all with food stuffed in their mouths.
"Shit! They found out!" Ace cried in surprise.
"We gotta go!" Sabo yelled before they all headed for the window.
Sanji stared after them, "We're on the fourth floor! Are they mad?" But as he ran after them, he saw that they landed safely on an overhang and jumped off before taking off down the street. He looked at the Shepherd who only shrugged and jumped out after them. What happened next however took him by an even bigger surprise, instead of falling down; the old man seemed to glide through the air before touching down lightly on the ground, and just started walking calmly, but briskly in the direction the boys were heading. "What the fuck?"
The Shepherd stopped and looked at him, "Are you coming?"
Sanji had to shake his head to bring himself out of the stupor, before he too jumped out the window. And to his surprise he too seemed to float down to the street.
"What the fuck was that?" He yelled at the old man as they started walking briskly in the direction the boys were running.
Before the Shepherd could reply however they saw a man dressed in a dark blue suit with a top hat, not too dissimilar to the one Sabo was wearing, yell after the boys, calling out for Sabo if it was truly him. Even at the distance Sanji could see the terror in Sabo's eyes as he looked at the man. But when the man tried to pursue them still yelling out for Sabo, Sabo took the lead and ran off, the two other boys staring at him for a second before joining him.
Sanji stared at the man, "I can only surmise that this is Sabo's father?"
"That is correct, and he is just as vile as most other nobles." The Shepherd nodded grimly before hastily making his way in the direction the boys had ran off.
Sanji shook his head and jogged after him, glaring at the man as he passed him. "So, wanna tell me what the fuck happened when we jumped out of that window? 'Cause that was weird as shit!"
"Ah yes," The Shepherd nodded, "You still have no recollection of our last time, my apologies." He gave Sanji a small smile, "When we are within the memories we are not bound by the same laws of physics as those we are watching."
When Sanji just looked at him with a blank stare he coughed a little. "You see, we are not strictly here in this world, meaning that we do not follow the rules of it. We can jump from high places and not fall down, we can also-," they boys had gotten away from them so he slowed and stepped over to a building and touched it, "Ah, it seems that the memory ended before I could show you." He shook his head. "No matter, you see, when we are in a memory we are able to also pass through objects. It is not exactly pleasant, but it makes it easier to move from place to place. I will have to show you in the next one."
"So we're like ghosts?" Sanji asked as he scanned the street around them, his eyes narrowed in a scowl. It was still unnaturally clean, but all the people were suddenly gone. "Yeah, that's not weird at all."
"Not exactly, but you will see what I mean when we find the next memory." The Shepherd looked at him.
Sanji nodded as he continued to scowl "Sure, ugh, I hate this place," He felt the familiar tug of the thread in his chest. "Let's go, we're heading back to the Grey Terminal it seems."
The Shepherd looked around at the buildings as well, disgust etched on his face, "Good, I do not wish to linger in this wretched place any longer than I have to."
AN:
I did say I'm trying to not make this depressing and angsty, right? Well emphasis on trying okay, it's so ingrained in me and my writing style, it's hard to stop. And also, it's Sanji, the character who's had the most depressing and angsty childhood ever, how can you not add that in? It will (hopefully) get more lighthearted later.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading it this far, and not giving up in those first few chapters.
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