Angel of Death Fruit

Book One: Deadline

By Dixxy Mouri

Chapter Three – March 1, 7:32 pm

Dinner had been quiet but wonderful in a morbid way. Sanji had outdone himself again with three fabulous dishes – two of them Nami readily recognized as her favorite meal and Robin's favorite, but the third was something she'd never tried before. It was, however, very good. It was a chicken soup with tender meat and a brilliantly wonderful broth with just enough seasoning – a seasoning she wasn't familiar with, but it was quite possibly one of the best things she had every tasted."Sanji-kun, what is this soup?"

Sanji, who had been eating but seemed disinterested in the meal, looked up. "Ah, that's a personal favorite of mine – my mother and grandmother used to make it back in North Blue when I was a kid," he said. "It's just chicken with a little bit of saffron to flavor – we had some in the refrigerator that would have gone bad soon anyways. I added some chopped onion and potato as well."

Nami looked at the chicken soup intently. That was the first time Sanji had ever mentioned his family (sans his co-workers at the Baratie, the whole lot of whom Nami considered something similar to Sanji's "family"), or that he'd ever made something he personally liked. Funny, she never thought of Sanji as even having a mother, but here he'd just mentioned the woman.

By now, however, they'd started to play cards at Robin's request. The game was going as could be expected, and was interjected with various stories from the pasts of the three crew members. Currently, Nami was telling stories about some past heists that had gone terribly wrong. In this case, this particular theft had gone very, very. . . wrong.

"Wait, wait, wait – CHICKENS?" asked Sanji.

Nami was laughing. "Yes – lots, and lots, of chickens. They were actually merchants transporting them to a farm and using the jolly roger to hide from the pirates in the area. But those things were everywhere! I just remember people screaming and feathers flying for the next twenty minutes. By the time I got back to my boat I was covered in feathers and I didn't have a single berry for my trouble."

"What happened to the chickens?" asked Robin.

Nami shook her head. "Well, the fiasco did make it to the papers the next day. . ."

Sanji chuckled. "I've got a good farm animal story myself." He cleared his throat. "This one time I was told that, as a promotional idea of Patty's, the Baratie staff decided to serve fresh meat killed right at the restaurant, so we had this pig brought onto the boat. What I wasn't told was that this was actually a sick joke from the minds of Patty and Carne, but I was about fourteen so I bought it – I was pretty pissed when I figured out it was a joke, but at the time I had this pig to deal with."

"So?" asked Nami.

"They greased the pig with lots and lots of soap," said Sanji. He rolled his eyes. "Then they let it loose and told me I had to catch it. So without even thinking that this might have been a joke I took off after it." He leaned back into his chair and crossed his legs. "The customers were mortified, and I just told them it would only take a minute to catch the pig."

Nami slammed her cards down on the table to laugh. "Oh no!"

"That little son of a bitch was FAST," said Sanji. "You wouldn't think it, but pigs can be pretty fast. This one. . . I don't know what they were feeding that pig but I bet I fell flat on my face trying to grab this thing at least a dozen times – my arms and chest hurt for the next two days. Zeff was pretty pissed but eventually some of the customers thought it was a riot."

"How long did it take you to catch it?"

"Three hours. And that was after a couple of men took pity on me and offered to help."

Nami shook her head. "Robin, do you have any funny farm animal stories?"

Robin shook her head. "No, but this is a very amusing conversation."

Nami sighed. "Makes me miss Cocoyashi Villiage a little bit, talking about the past – I'm glad to be here and all, but I still think about Bellemere-san, Nojiko, Genzo, and all the other villagers from time to time. It's nice thinking about the happy times but it's sad, too." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs.

"I didn't know my mother very well, but I do miss her, as well," said Robin.

Sanji sighed. "I miss the Baratie a little, too."
"What about your birthplace in North Blue, Cook-san?" asked Robin.

Sanji sat up and stared blankly at the table surface. "I. . . I don't think about that much."

Nami leaned forward and rested her head on her arms. "Is everything all right?"

"Uh. . . yeah."

The navigator frowned. "You sure?"
Sanji closed his eyes to think. "Back in North Blue. . . I was part of a real family. My parents owned their own business – it was like a cross between a book store and a hair salon. People would go in and browse the books, buy them, and then my mom would cut their hair. It wasn't like we were wealthy, but we lived pretty comfortably and we were well liked. I got along well with the neighborhood kids and this old man who lived across the street from us would give us chocolate if we got all the sticks out of his yard. It was a nice place to be a kid."

"Was it just you and your parents?" asked Nami,
"No, I was second born of three," said Sanji. "Middle child. One on either side." He sighed. "I haven't seen any of them in a very, very long time." He lit a cigarette and leaned forward towards the table. "I really don't think about them very much at all anymore. . . and it sucks." He laughed, looking away. "But it doesn't really matter anymore, does it? I'm a pirate now, right? I'm sailing the high seas. . . I'm wanted. . . they probably wouldn't want me back even if I came crawling."

Nami reached over to touch his shoulder. "Sanji-kun, I'm sure that's not true."

Sanji shook his head. "I was a disappointment. Though after my older brother. . . I couldn't have lived up to that. Akito was a genius – I was smart but I wasn't smart like him. He was able to read by the time he was three and when he was six he was already doing math meant for kids twice his age. I guess I was a little athletic but it took Zeff before any of my real physical potential came out, and by that time I hadn't seen my family in over a year."

"Cook-san. . . how long has it been since you've seen your family?" asked Robin.
Sanji turned away and took a drag on his cigarette. "Twelve years," he said.

"Why?" asked Nami. "What happened?"

Sanji stood up and politely pushed his chair it. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Sanji-kun, we're your friends! You can tell us anything – we won't get mad!" said Nami.

But the cook refused to look at her. "I'm sorry Nami-san, I just. . . I just can't, okay? I'm sorry." He seemed to be shaking slightly, making it painfully obvious he was really upset about talking about his family. "I. . . I need to be alone for a few hours, okay? Don't try and find me. . . I need to be alone." And with that, he left the galley and slammed the door shut, leaving Nami and Robin in stunned silence.

Twelve Years Ago, North Blue

The streets of the town were alive with life, and little Sanji looked on in awe. Normally he wouldn't go into town without his mother or father – sometimes his older brother – but today it was just him and his uncle. He had an ice cream in one hand, the older clutched in his uncle's hand.

After all, tomorrow was a special day – he was going to be eight years old!

"It's too bad everyone else forgot about your birthday," said his uncle. Sanji frowned and nodded, licking the ice cream forlornly. His mommy and daddy hadn't said anything about his birthday, and by now they would have normally asked him what kind of cake he wanted or something. But this year there was nothing, and he was too afraid to ask directly.

So it was a good thing that his uncle had found him and told him that he hadn't forgotten about his birthday. So he decided to bring him out into the village for a nice afternoon to get his mind off his forgetful parents. "But you've still got me, right kiddo?" Sanji nodded and smiled nervously.

It's not that Sanji didn't trust his uncle – he just didn't know him very well. He saw him once in a while if his mother invited him over for dinner, but he was away on business a lot and didn't really talk to him that much. He was a little strange, sure, but at the very least he was proving that no matter how far the distance was between family members, you could still depend on them to pick you up when you were down.

Sanji's uncle patted him on the back and smiled. "Hey, wanna go down to the docks?"

"Yeah!" said Sanji. "I love boats!"

"Maybe we can go on one."

"AWESOME!"

"Uncle. . . there's no one here," said Sanji.

This was sad but true. The area of the docks that his uncle had taken him to was an old, no-longer used area. The sea water was eerily calm from the lack of people swimming or boats moving around, and the whole area kind of smelled funny, too. The wood of the docks wasn't in very good condition, and several areas had broken off and fallen into the water from rotting out. Why would his uncle bring him here to see boats?

There was a building that had once housed a ticket office for pleasure travelers to arrange travel for weddings and births and other matters, but it had long since gone out of business – back before Sanji could remember – and was little more than a rickety little shack that the older kids liked to break into thinking they would run into a ghost or a murder victim's body.

Strangely, that's where his uncle was taking him.

"Uncle. . . what's going on?" he asked.

His uncle looked down at him and smiled – albeit a little creepily. "Sanji, relax – I just want you to meet somebody, that's all." He beat his chest. "Remember, I'm your uncle, and didn't your mother tell you to respect and trust your elders? You know me, and besides – I just bought you an ice cream."

Sanji nodded, but something just didn't feel right about all this. . .

March 1, 11:50 pm

Getting onto the Straw Hat's ship had been no easy task, but she'd done it – Sanae was on the deck of the strange looking ship, trying to keep from being spotted by the three pirates on board. She could NOT be seen – she didn't want to even think about what would happen then. That would be disastrous.

Thinking carefully, she dumped the rope she'd used to board the ship over the side – she cringed when it splashed, but didn't hear the sounds of anyone coming. Perhaps they were all asleep or too occupied with. . . well. . . something pirate-like. . . to notice. They must think it was a animal that made that noise – still, I'd best not make any more noises or else they might investigate.

She relaxed for a moment and decided to look around the strange vessel she had boarded. She scratched her head in confusion. Out of all the pirate ships the Iron Butterfly had seen, this one was unlike any other. Sanae had seen ships with fifty cannons on deck, or armories that would make Marine Headquarters jealous, and even a captain who had his own gallows from which he would hang his captives or misbehaved crew. But the ship belonging to Straw Hat Luffy was unlike any of them. This is no ordinary pirate ship – it looks more like a playground.

That indeed, it did. Instead of a traditional wooden deck, the floor was grass and had several mikan trees taking root. She saw a slide nearby and wondered if there was a swing set on board as well. She was a little confused – what in the world was a pirate worth three-hundred million berries doing with a floating playground? Shouldn't he have canons or a weapon store or something out on deck instead?

But a PLAYGROUND!?

Although after a minute or so Sanae found no sign of weaponry on deck, she did hear a door open. Nearly panicking, she hid behind a lounge chair (once again, a LOUNGE CHAIR!? What kind of crazy crew was this!?) and watched as Black Leg Sanji walked onto the lawn of the ship. Sanae quietly poked her head over the top of the chair to get a better look at the blond man who was walking towards the bow of the ship.

Sharp dresser for a pirate, she noted. He was wearing what looked like black dress pants, nice black shoes, and a button-up white shirt that was in fairly good condition. Certainly not like the pirates she was used to seeing. His hair was neatly kept, and she noted that he looked a lot better than the picture on his wanted poster. Then again, Sanae was pretty sure she could do a better job than whoever the Marines got to do his composite anyways. They really need to fire that guy or get him a good art teacher.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. Sanae stuck out her tongue – smoking was a repulsive habit (but she did note that the terrible drawing the Marines had provided did include a cigarette). She almost gagged when he stuck not one, but two cigarettes into his mouth and lit them both. Two at once?Is that normal?

By the way he was standing and looking around nervously, probably not. She felt a pit in her stomach. He was nervous about something. And for a pirate worth seventy-seven million berries to be that nervous meant that something big was about to go down. Sanae hunted pirates for money, but she knew enough to keep an eye out if a pirate seemed antsy about something – it usually meant a stronger pirate or something worse was on the way.

So if he's that – NOISE! Sanae ducked back down when the door opened again – Nico Robin and Cat Burglar came out. She bit her bottom lip – now would be a very, very bad time to get spotted, especially since something bad was on the way. Still, she made sure she had a clear view of the group and watched as the women – clearly worried about their crew mate – went over to him.

March 1, 11:55 pm

After Sanji had avoided Nami and Robin for several hours, the women of the Straw Hat Pirates finally decided that something was not right. The cook wasn't himself, and as much as both of the girls realized it might be nice to not have him constantly by their sides and making an annoyance of himself, his recent behavior was rather disturbing. This wasn't the Sanji they knew – this was someone else, and they wanted to know what happened to their overly amorous cook.

Although one would assume that searching for a single person on a ship wouldn't be very difficult, it seemed that Sanji was pre-empting their search – although they had yet to actually see the cook, they saw several recently put-out cigarette butts, clearly letting the girls know that he HAD been there. . . but had successfully gotten away before he could be confronted. He was doing a very good job at not being found.

They didn't find him until it was just several minutes shy of midnight – both women were exhausted with the search, but deep pits of guilt corroding in their stomach were more than enough to make them press on in their search for Sanji. So when they finally saw him, it was a bit of a relief.

Nami was the one who saw Sanji by the bow of the ship. "He looks so sad," said Nami. She looked at the older woman with worry in her eyes. Normally, she didn't mind using Sanji or taking advantage of his kindness, but tonight she felt a tight knot in her stomach that made her feel like something was very, very wrong with the entire evening. "Robin. . . do you think we did something to make him angry?"

"I don't know, Navigator-san," said Robin. She lowered her eyes as the two slowly began to approach him. "But Cook-san doesn't get angry with us very easily. No matter what we do. Unless, of course, the mention of his family in North Blue made him upset. Perhaps it made Cook-san so emotional that he didn't want us to see him in a state of weakness."

Nami frowned, thinking about how strongly Sanji kept to his code of chivalry. Robin was right – it wasn't very likely that the cook was angry with either of them, unless he finally got fed up with their indifference to his gestures, or they had hit a sore spot when they mentioned his family. I probably should be a lot nicer to him every time he makes us a special drink or dessert, she thought.

When they got closer to the cook, Nami saw a serious red flag when she observed Sanji smoking two cigarettes at once while looking out at the horizon line. Even though everyone on board knew he was a heavy smoker, no one had ever seen him smoke quite like this before. He's scared shitless over something – but what?

"I never did find it," he said.

"What are you talking about, Cook-san?" asked Robin.

Sanji didn't turn to look at either woman. "All Blue. I never found it."

Nami felt a cold shiver run through her body. "Sanji. . . none of us have accomplished out dreams yet – Zoro's not ready to face Miwhawk, Chopper still hasn't found his panacea, I'm not ever remotely close to completing my map of the world, Robin hasn't found the true history, the ship isn't at the end of the Grand Line yet and no one knows anything about One Piece at all! Even Usopp's stunt as Sogeking hasn't made him into the brave warrior he wants to be yet. Are you just giving up on your dream? The whole reason you left the Baratie?"

"I'm never going to find it," he said flatly, taking a deep drag on the cigarettes. He blew out the smoke through his nostrils, turning his head to look at the girls. He gave them a weak smile. "But. . . I think I might be okay with that. I gave it my all, trying to find that sea. I just hope Zeff learns the truth someday."

Nami's mouth fell agape as she watched Sanji snuff out the two cigarettes, turning his body to fully face the women before him. The navigator flung herself at the cook, grabbing his shoulders and glaring at him. "Sanji-kun, what the HELL is wrong with you today!? You're not behaving like yourself and it's scaring me! You're more extravagant then usual today, you want nothing to do with your birthday, and now you're suddenly giving up on the dream you've had since you were a little boy!? Sanji-kun, please, tell us what's wrong!"

"Are you in trouble, Cook-san?" asked Robin, taking a step forward. Sanji's visible eye went wide and he turned away, refusing to answer her. "So. . . you are in trouble with someone, aren't you? Care to tell us who or what you've gotten yourself into trouble with?"

Sanji stared down at his feet. "All I'm going to say is that I'm glad I had the chance to know you both, Nami-san, Robin-chan. I care about you both a lot and I hope nothing bad ever happens to either one of you ever, ever again. I don't want another Arlong to hurt Nami, and I don't want Robin to loose her family again. These past several months getting to know two girls as beautiful as you two has been paradise and far more than I could have ever asked for. I enjoyed making you special drinks and snacks every day. . . and even though you might have not always needed it, I liked being the one to protect you all, even if in the end you might've been the ones who were protecting me. Thank you."

"Sanji. . ." said Nami.

"And Nami-san?" Sanji said. He lowered his head so she couldn't see his eyes, but she could hear a quiver in his voice. "I know. . . that I chase after a lot of women. And I know you probably think I'm some kind of womanizer who couldn't settle down with any one woman. I know that's what it looks like. . . I've told countless women I'm in love with them, but in the end you're the only one I've ever truly loved."

Nami wasn't sure what to say until Sanji lifted his head and looked into her eyes. And suddenly, she KNEW that he was serious – the one eye she could see told her all she needed to know. The sincerity and desperation in his eyes were real. He wasn't the lovesick flake with hearts in his eyes that Nami was used to whenever Sanji went girl crazy. Right now he was serious – he was actually declaring his love to her.

But Nami saw something else in Sanji that frightened her – desperation. It was almost as if Sanji thought this was his last chance to say anything he wanted to say to them. But how was that even possible? They still had such a long way to go on their journey. . . why now, of all days?

Unless. . . does Sanji think he's leaving us?

"Nami-san. . . Robin-chan. . . can I be alone for a little bit, please?" he asked.

"Why?" asked Nami.

Sanji gulped. "I can't talk about it."

Nami turned back to Sanji, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Sanji-kun, if there's anything going on, you can talk to us about it – we're your friends. Robin and I will help you if you're in trouble, even if we can't – we'll find a way. We're nakama – practically family. You've been acting strange since Usopp wished you a happy birthday and Robin and I don't like it. Please – tell us what's wrong!"

Sanji made an attempt to back away from Nami, but instead bumped into the railing of the ship. He looked at Nami like she was some kind of forbidden fruit, not used to the redhead advancing on his like she was now. "Nami-san. . . please. . . you don't know what you're getting yourself into. . ."

"Sanji-kun, what's wrong with you!? It's just a birthday! Is that what it is? So what? The first digit of your number age is going to change? You're not going to officially be a teenager anymore!? It doesn't matter! Why are you acting like everything's suddenly about to change!"

"BECAUSE IT IS!" he yelled. This, Nami noted, was the first time Sanji had ever actually yelled at the girls. "Everything's about to change and you can't possibly understand why! Damn it, Nami, I love you and I don't want you to see what's about to happen to me!" And with that, he threw a hand over his mouth.

"Sanji-kun. . . what the FUCK are you so scared over!?" asked Nami.

Sanji shook his head, and now he was near tears for real. "Nami-san. . ."

"Sanji-kun, if you love me as much as you say you do then tell me what's wrong!" Nami cried, clutching the fabric of his shirt. "Damn it, Sanji-kun! You're acting like you're dying on us and it's not fair! If you're sick then we'll get Chopper! If you're being hunted by someone we'll all work together to help you fight them! If you're lost then I'll find you and lead you back to safety! We're all your nakama and we give a damn about what happens to you!"

"Of course I know that, and I give a damn about all of you! Even that stupid marimo!" Sanji yelled. He looked so upset. . . and Nami was in a panic trying to figure out what was wrong. But he wasn't giving them any help. "And that's why. . . that's why I don't want you to see me like this!"

Nami sighed. "Sanji? I'm going to shut you up now and then I'm going to give you a piece of my mind. You're acting like a lunatic right now, so just shut up!" With that, Nami grabbed his shoulders harder and pulled his upper body down, closing her eyes as she prepared to kiss the cook.

And then. . . Sanji wasn't there anymore.

Author's Notes

The second half of this chapter was originally supposed to be chapter four, but I decided to condense the two chapters into one. Based on the way things are going, that might happen a lot (which will benefit you, the readers, because stuff gets out faster).

Part of this chapter was written back on July 30, 2006 – the eve of my twentieth birthday.

The next part is probably going to be on the short side. I want the next chapter to be very focused and there's only so much I can do with this one event before it gets to be too. . . much.

Dixxy