Disclaimer: I don't own One piece.
Recap:
—
Which reminded him. Something weird was going on around here, and what with all the bull that had happened that evening he hadn't given much thought to the fact that the cook was all alone right now.
He frowned.
Well fuck. Sanji had better have made it back to the Thousand Sunny alright.
—
Earlier that afternoon…..
—
The sun was just starting to set and the mixture of pinks and oranges made the town look almost peaceful during twilight. All the buildings were just beginning to become silhouetted and things had started to cool down for the coming night. He took a deep breath of fresh air and and savored the smell of well cooked food coming from the building he was behind. He wished he had a cigarette, it'd make this moment pretty much perfect. A faint groaning came from the ground.
Sanji looked down at the guy currently under his shoe and smiled beatifically. Yep, a cigarette and it'd be perfect.
"Don't start complaining now shithead. You shouldn't have fucked with me, now should you've?"
Scar-face had hardly even put up a fight. It was pathetic really. He almost felt sorry for the guy…Almost. The majority of him was quite happy to have been able to get ahold of the bastard and fuck up his face.
Pressing down harder on his chest, he made sure that the bastard would be keeping these bruises as a reminder to not go around threatening little girls for a long while. He'd already made sure to cover his neck and collar with a few well placed kicks and Sanji had even blackened the guy's right eye when the "fight" had started.
Sanji reviewed his work and smirked, satisfied. Today was a good day again.
Now if I could just get ahold of some more cigarettes…
Shoving his hands in his pockets he habitually fished around for what he knew wouldn't be there. He had bought a few new packets that morning but he had only kept one of them with him. The others were with the rest of the food supplies and he had had to use the one he'd kept as a distraction.
Lamenting the loss of an entire pack of perfectly good King Ground cigs, he gave Scare-face one last kick in the side for revenge, and turned to saunter off and collect Seri from where he'd left her.
He left behind seven unconscious men, and one nearly, in the street to be covered by the shadows of a setting sun.
Yeah, good day…
—
Sanji stopped outside a quaint little flower shop and paused to take one last, deep inhale of the half finished cig in his mouth. He'd stopped by a shop on the way here and bought a new pack, his hands had actually started shaking and he thought it best not to subject the kid to him while he was irritable and snappish from withdrawals. It'd been over a day since his last one and damn, it kind of had him thinking that he should quite before that became a problem…
…Nah
After releasing that last, savored puff off his favorite brand he dropped it and stubbed it out with his heel. As much as he liked his nicotine he also knew that not everyone shared his appreciation for it. Namely children and the elderly, and he was willing to hold off for a while so that he could avoid bringing that around them. Besides he'd had enough to tide him over.
The ding of a store bell sounded as Sanji walked in through the front door.
As the door swung shut behind him he glanced around and soaked in all the beautiful arrangements and the variety of flowers on display. Some he'd never even seen before. He hadn't really had the time to appreciate all of it the one other time that he'd been in here. He was in too much of a hurry to kick some thug ass and teach a couple of bastards that you didn't mess around with Sanji Blackleg.
He had made it quick though. Not wanting to leave Seri alone too long. Sure she'd fallen asleep before he'd even left, that being the only reason he'd left at all, but still, he had wanted to make sure she stayed okay.
Strolling past shelves filled with dried, old herbs, he slipped behind the counter and through the door behind it. The adjoining room was a small kitchen/dinning room. The stairs off to the side led up to the top of the shop where the rest of the living quarters were.
Stepping inside the room he looked around, not seeing anyone, just some recently washed dishes and a single cup of tea lying abandoned on the table.
"Mabel, I'm back!" he called up the stairs and waited for a response. If they weren't upstairs then Seri must have woken up and insisted on going out back to the flower garden where Mabel, the sweet, elderly woman they'd run into grew her store's merchandise. The child had been enthralled when they had first stumbled upon the place.
The flower shop was nearer the outskirts of the town and thus had room enough for a fenced off garden to grow in the back. He had out run those thugs awhile back and had been looking for a place to safely stop so he could get his arm looked at and give Seri a break; the poor thing had looked dead on her feet.
That fatigue had quickly disappeared though the minute she caught sight of the garden through the fence gate that had been left open. She had immediately perked up and dashed over, swiftly disappearing into the densely growing greenery. He had followed her in, hoping to get her out before the owner could find them messing around on their property.
That plan had, of course, failed miserably.
While Seri was busy gawking at the exotic flowers he had had a chance to scoop her up into his arms before turning around so they could get the hell out of there, but had, almost immediately, been accosted by an old woman with a broom.
After hastily explaining that his "sister" had just wanted to take a look at the woman's lovely garden, he had managed to calm her down enough to reassure her that he was not one of those "hooligans" out to ruin her garden as she had been convinced he was. He was able to come out of the confrontation relatively unscathed. Just some severely tousled hair, a few scratches to the face, and a slowly developing, handle shaped bruise on his previously, uninjured arm.
Yeah…not one of his proudest moments.
Damn broom.
After explaining that they'd come into town to run some errands and had run into some trouble with a few thieves, Mabel, as she insisted they call her, took pity and allowed them to join her inside where she lent him some bandages and ointment for his arm. Luckily, the bullet had just grazed him but it had defiantly bled like a bitch.
The shirt he'd been wearing was white and stained beyond repair. That wasn't such a loss, but his jacket, that had disappointed him. The thing had cost a lot and it was one of his favorites, fucking fit him like a second skin, it'd been tailored to him perfectly; and Mabel had seen just how upset he was over it. She then offered to work on it to see if she could get the stain out and sew up the tear, she had also said that she couldn't promise anything but he hadn't cared. He was just grateful that she was willing to try.
By the time he'd finished up with his bandage and putting his shirt back on, Seri had fallen asleep with her head pillowed in her arms on top of the table. The little girl had been quiet and reserved for a while, just fiddling with the small bouquet Mabel had given her. Sanji had hoped it was just her fatigue showing but he had had his doubts. He didn't really want to wake the child and was kind of relieved when Mabel offered to let them stay for a while. He quickly took her up on the offer, gently picking up Seri and being carful not to jostle her awake, he followed Mabel upstairs to the lone bedroom at the top and laid her down on the bed. He had tucked a thick blanket around her before going back downstairs where he'd insisted on making something to repay Mabel. She hadn't had much to work with but he'd still managed to make a meal that put a smile on her face that he'd remember for a long time. Those types of smiles were part of what made cooking so worthwhile to him.
While he'd been preparing the meal he'd decided on going back out before it got too dark to see if he could find those assholes and teach them a lesson. He had told Mabel that he was going to go run those errands while Seri slept. She had just smiled with this strange, knowing look in her eyes and told him to be careful before returning her attention back to Sanji's suit jacket. Smirking, he had left knowing that Seri would be fine in the good hands of a very smart woman.
Sanji's attention snapped to the door that led out into the garden when he heard a muffled reply coming from behind it. Striding over to the door he opened it and stepped out onto the porch. The backyard was lit up by paper lanterns strewn up on the overhanging, similar to the ones out on the streets. Seri was sitting down near a bush of yellow flowers that kinda of looked like delphinium. He held back an amused snort, the only reason he knew that at all was because Robin had compared him to one once. (1)
"Hmm…I see you made it back just fine."
He leaned back against the door and grinned down at Mabel, who was sitting in an old rocking chair and finishing up on his jacket.
"Yep, I was able to knock out those errands pretty quickly."
She chuckled and shook her head, "Well, I'm glad you didn't run into any more of those thieves."
He let his grin grow wider, "That would have unfortunate."
She continued to laugh as she set down the needle in her hands and picked up his jacket to shake it out.
"I think I'm all done here child, how about you try it on and see if its up to snuff."
Beaming, he took hold of his jacket and swung it around, sliding his arms into the sleeves. Running his fingers over the place where the tear had been he could feel the threads that had been sewn into the sleeves to pull the tear together again, but just barely. You couldn't even see it.
Perfect.
Bending down he enveloped Mabel in a big hug, squeezing only as tight as he could while keeping in mind how frail she was.
"Thank you, you angel."
"Oh no child," she laughed, patting him on the back, "I'm no angel. Just a senile old woman. Now take that back off so that I can clip off those pesky threads."
Pulling back he moved to take off the jacket off, feeling like his smile was about to split his face. "You are an angel, Mabel, no doubt about it."
She smiled and took the jacket back, "Whatever you say child, whatever you say."
"Sunshine!"
Sighing resignedly he turned and sat down on the porch steps so that he was eye level with Seri. She'd given him the nickname awhile ago and wouldn't let it go. He'd told her to call him Sanji but she'd said she liked "Sunshine" better. Something to do with his hair no doubt. Oh well, he didn't really mind too much, but he thought it best to at least put up a feeble protest. He had an image to maintain. If the marimo ever found out he'd never let it go.
"Look what I found." She exclaimed and shoved a yellow delphinium in his hands. "Granny said I could pick one and this one looks like you!"
He still didn't really see the resemblance but decided to humor her anyway. Must be a girl thing.
"You think so?"
"Yeah! Its pretty, just like you." She grinned up at him innocently and he heard Mabel stifle a chuckle behind him.
He just shook his head and grinned, ruffling her hair.
"Thanks princess."
Nodding she shuffled over and plopped down beside him on the stairs.
"Are we going to go home soon?"
His face softened, "Yeah, we'll head out in a few minutes, kay?"
Her head tilled up to look at him and she nodded before going back to fiddling with the flower.
"Kay."
"All done over here." Mabel called from her place in the rocking chair.
Standing up, Sanji hurried over to where Mabel was slowly trying to stand up and gently took ahold of her arm to steady her as she got up.
"Thank you, child. Old crones like me tend to get a little stiff in the joints sometimes." She waved him off as soon as she got her balance and handed over his jacket.
"Its not a problem."
"Yeah Granny, the gentlemen is also supposed to help the pretty laddies!"
The sweet old woman looked a bit stunned for a moment as she looked at the both of them before she broke out in a smile that made her look years younger.
"You children sure do know how to make and old woman happy, I have to say I'm glad that you both stole into my garden."
They followed her back inside and out to the shop. Sanji draped his suit jacket over his arm and gave Mabel another hug, thanking her again. Seri attached herself to her legs and squeezed as tight as she could before promising to come back and visit someday and then shot out the door, obviously eager to get a move on.
He reached forward and had just started to ease the door back open so that he could follow when a hand grabbed onto his arm, stopping him with a surprising amount of force considering who it belonged to.
Looking back at Mabel he turned to face her fully when he noticed the serious look on her face, letting the door fall shut behind him.
"I honestly enjoyed having you children here, you remind me of my own grandchildren and I don't want you to get hurt."
"Mabel, I won't le…"
She cut him of with a stern look, completely different from the type of expression he was used to seeing on her. "No, you listen here, cause what I've got to say is important. Just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm stupid and I know that sweet little thing out there isn't your sister. It doesn't take a genius to figure out just what she is, which is why I'm thinking you're not from around here."
He stood there, a little stunned at what he was hearing. He had known that she was perceptive, but damn. And what did she mean about "just what Seri is"?
"You're doing a right good thing helping her out and I can make a pretty good guess as to what kinda trouble she was in when you found her. But theres something you need to know. Until you get her back to her people you need to watch yourself and keep a close eye out for anything suspicious. You hear me boy? I don't want neither of you getting hurt out there."
Relaxing her grip she patted him on the cheek and gave him a caring smile before saying, "Now take care of yourself, child." And then she turned and walked back into the kitchen leaving him to stare after her and wonder just what the fuck that had been about.
—-
Sanji walked a little behind Seri as she held onto his hand and led him though the streets toward the outer edges of the city. Looking down at the small child he noticed that she still looked pretty tired even after the nap that she'd had earlier. It was getting pretty late out, he would put the time at about 10:00, and it was getting chilly as well.
Coming to a decision, he slowed them to a stop and waited until she turned to face him with a confused look before kneeling down and unfolding the jacket in his arms.
He smiled and held his arms out. "Come on princess, tell me where we're headed and I'll get you home. I think you could do with a nap."
She gave him a tired smile and voiced her thanks before giving him directions to where she said she and her family were staying while they traveled to the other side of the island.
Wrapping his jacket around her he made sure that it'd keep her warm and then lifted her up to cradle the small child in his arms. His curiosity over what Mabel had told him was eating him alive but he reframed from asking Seri about it for the same reasons he hadn't questioned her about the thugs from earlier. He just didn't think that adding an interrogation to the list of things she had to go through today was such a good idea.
Feeling her rest her head on his shoulder he started to hum out a quiet melody. A song with no words, at least not from what he could remember. They were there in his head, he knew, but he just couldn't seem to grab ahold of them. It was an old song after all. One that he hadn't heard in a long, long time.
The soft, lamenting melody, was a lullaby actually. He had learned it back before he'd ever even met the shitty old geezer. Zeff had really never been one to coddle him and Sanji snorted at a mental image of the old geezer trying to sing him to sleep as a kid.
No. There had only ever been one person to do that. Well, maybe two he supposed, but… his fingers started to tighten their grip on Seri before he realized what he was doing and shook his head, loosening his grip. Best not to get lost in such distant memories, it always led to the more…unpleasant ones.
—-
"You have got to be kidding me." He muttered to himself.
Sanji had made it to the very edge of the city, where the tree line started to grow thicker, eventually turning into a dense forest. Looking around for confirmation he spotted the sign that Seri had described and hung his head in resignation. She couldn't have had a nice little house somewhere near town for him to deliver her to; or at least a decent inn.
Nooooo…
Nothing was ever that easy for him. Instead he had to trek through a dense forest looking for some obscure group of people that apparently preferred camping to a nice bed when it came to traveling.
He looked down at the girl buried in his jacket and heaved a sigh.
Well, I guess I'd better start looking…
—
Somewhere else….
—
"Damn this guy is heavier than he looks."
"Oh stop complaining, you're fine."
"How the hell would you know? Its not like you've lifted a finger to help all night."
"Chill Zoro-bro I can take him off you're hands for awhile."
"Che, its fine, I was just saying."
"Thank you again for all your help."
"No problem, its kinda like a mini adventure~!"
"Your thanks won't make me happy!"
"The Great Captain Ussopp is happy to help, why there was this one time…"
"Ignore them, and really don't worry about it, we're happy to help."
"…and then I leapt out from behind the rocks and…"
"I know but I feel as though I'm taking advantage of your kindness."
"Ugh, stop questioning it, say thanks and just be done with it."
"…then a HUGE plume of fire came outta no where…"
"Zoro! Don't be so rude."
"What are you gonna do about it witch?"
"…there was blood everywhere! But I still had the muffin…"
"Settle down everyone."
"…so I say the chicken came first and he gets all offended…"
"Shut up Ussopp! No one cares!" Nami shouted at the sharpshooter causing him to cross his arms in front of his chest indignantly and pout before walking off ahead of the group while grumbling to himself.
"Jeez, he never stops." Nami huffed.
Luffy ran off behind him shouting, "Wait Ussopp! I wanna know what happened to the penguin!"
"Umm…"
"Don't worry, this is normal." Robin smiled reassuringly at Aerona who was walking beside Robin at the head of the group, leading them all to where she said the rest of her group was staying. They'd been walking through the forest outside of town for about an hour now and Zoro was already starting to get sick of this "mini adventure" as Luffy had dubbed it. He'd gotten saddled with carrying Gye since he had yet to regain consciousness and Chopper assured them that he wouldn't until morning at the very least.
When he had brought these two to the side of the restaurant and gone inside to retrieve the rest of the crew he'd know that they were going to get pulled into something; he just hadn't realized that something involved a hike through a dense forest to some unknown, potentially dangerous, destination…
In the dark.
That and he still wasn't too sure about whether or not Sanji had made it back to the Sunny, everyone else seemed unconcerned, but he had his doubts. Not that he thought that the shit cook couldn't take care of himself. No, that was never even a consideration. But the damn idiot had a knack for attracting trouble and even though he was reluctant to admit it, even to himself, he was a tad worried.
"We're almost there." Aerona called back to them all.
"Finally." Zoro grumbled, shifting Gye back up on his shoulder when he started to slide off.
Aerona's pace slowed and she came to a stop, the rest of them halting behind her. Turing around she regarded them all with a hesitant, almost nervous look.
"I feel I should tell you…"
Before she could finish her sentence Zoro's sensitive hearing picked up a slight rustling coming from the foliage surrounding the group, alerting him to the presence of at least six others surrounding them.
Shit.
How they had managed to sneak up on him he didn't know but now wasn't the time to think about it. He could reprimand himself for not being as vigilant as he should have been later, he had more important things to concentrate on right now. He quickly caught Luffy and Robin's eyes and saw that they had noticed as well, nodding to them he turned and dropped Gye in the middle of their group before facing outward again and unsheathing two swords. Crouching down and holding them at the ready he eyed the dark forest for any movement.
Robin grabbed Aerona and ignored the startled expression on the woman's face, instead she smiled at her in a calm, reassuring manner and moved her to stand beside Gye. The others had seemed to catch on and they formed a loose circle around the two, all except for…
"Aahhhhhhhh..." A girlish scream came from up ahead of the group, alerting them to where Ussopp was.
They all snapped their heads over in the direction he was in and saw Ussopp being held with his arms behind his back and a sword at his throat. The man holding him captive had what looked like tribal tattoos covering his bare arms and part of his face. They looked like they extended to the rest of his body, but, despite the markings and longer hair, he was dressed in regular clothing and didn't look like any of the other types of tribal people the Straw Hats' had ever run into. Five other strange men stepped out from behind the trees and pointed a variety of weapons at them, one even held a spear that looked longer than he was. They were fanned out so that they surrounded them on all sides.
The one that had Ussopp spoke up, raising his voice in an authoritative tone.
"I demand to know who you are and what your reasons for coming here are."
Luffy took a step forward but stopped when the man's grip on Ussopp tightened and the sword drew closer to his neck, drawing a terrified squeak from the sharpshooter.
Luffy frowned and a serious look covered his features.
"Let Ussopp go and then we can talk."
"And if I say no?"
Luffy kept the severe look on his face and smirked, "Then we kick your asses and get him back anyways."
The man's face clouded with anger, "You little…" he ground out between clenched teeth.
"Everyone stop!"
Surprised at the interruption everyone turned to stare at Aerona who was pushing her way out of the circle around her to stand in between Luffy and the bastard that had Ussopp.
"Aerona!" the guy sounded relieved and he loosened his hold on Ussopp, letting him drop to the ground.
Wait a minute. They know each other?
Ussopp took this chance to quickly crawl over to the rest of his crew and pop up between Zoro and Luffy. He then crossed his arms in front of him and puffed out his chest, evidently trying to seem like things had gone exactly as he had planned them and that he hadn't just been shaking in fear two seconds ago.
Zoro just raised an eyebrow at him and snorted. Idiot.
"Vincent what do think you're doing? This is not how we treat others." Aerona said in a stern tone.
The guy looked incredulous and narrowed his eyes.
"Aerona, you three have been missing all day. You know better than to leave the camp and we couldn't find you anywhere, there was nothing, not even a note. What were we supposed to think? We sent out the others to look for you but they came back not an hour ago with nothing. The Elder thought it best to tighten security around camp." His voice had slowly risen with an angry tone coloring it but it softened when he took notice of the increasingly guilty look on Aerona's face. "We've been worried sick. You know how dangerous it is for us to be here."
She averted her eyes and looked to the ground, "I'm sorry Vincent we…"
He shook his head, "No. Save the apologies and explanations until we get you back to the Elder. He'll want to hear everything straight from you."
She nodded and looked back up at him, her face crumpled with worry, "We should hurry, I lost Serenity and I haven't been able to find her."
"What?" The grip he had on his sword loosened and came forward to place a hand on her shoulder.
"Aerona, I'm sorry. We'll send a search party as soon as we can."
She shook her head and instead of answering she gestured to the crew. "These people have helped me a great deal and I want you to treat them with respect, alright Vincent?"
His jaw tightened and he eyed them with obvious suspicion before giving a stiff nod.
"Of course. Thank you all for your…assistance."
Well, someone doesn't like us. Zoro was surprised that the guy's eye hadn't started twitching when he said that.
Aerona looked like she wanted to add something but thought better of it and instead looked to the other people surrounding them. "Could you please help carry Gye back to the camp? We ran into some trouble earlier and he was injured."
They all nodded and the one in front of Zoro gave her a smile before stepping over to Gye and lifting him over his shoulder.
"We're all really glad you're all right Aerona."
"Yeah, and don't worry about Gye. He's one of the toughest guys we know." One of them added putting an emphasis on "guys" and making the others laugh.
She gave a small smile and said, "Yes I know, and these nice people have a doctor with them that was kind enough to treat him."
Chopper blushed and squirmed a little, "You're thanks won't make me happy!"
Aerona just laughed, used to Chopper, but the rest of her people paused and stared at him wide eyed.
"Did that reindeer just…"
"Stop gawking and get a move on." Shouted Vincent as he started to walk off, leaving the others to shake off their astonishment and follow.
Aerona looked to the Straw Hat crew and smiled, though it was obviously strained. Something was really bothering her. Zoro supposed it had something to do with that Serenity person she'd mentioned.
"Please, come stay with us for tonight. It must be past midnight already and it'll be hard for you all to find your way back through the forest in the dark. Don't worry you'll be welcomed, we don't usually act like that towards others but, well… we don't travel often and its made everyone jumpy."
Luffy laughed and situated the hat on his head. "Sure, we'd love to come with. Right guys?"
Nami looked uncertain. "Well…"
"I'm sure it'll be fine navigator-san. And she is correct, getting back out without a guide and in the dark would probably take an inordinate amount of time."
"Yeah, especially with Zoro here."
"What'd you just say?"
"Um…."
Chopper spoke up before Ussopp got himself hurt. "What about Sanji and Brooke? They're probably already really worried."
"True, but they know we can take care of ourselves and we'll be back in the morning." Franky said.
Luffy nodded and looked at the swordsman. "What about you Zoro?"
"Che, whatever." He shrugged his shoulders and beat back down that stupid nagging worry he had for the cook in the back of his head.
"Then thats that. Lets go!" Luffy announced, bouncing after Aerona who laughed and turned to lead them away.
The rest of them followed but stopped not even a minute later as Luffy abruptly ground to a halt.
"Wait!…"
"What is it this time!" Ussopp cried and looked around wildly for some unseen danger.
"…You do have food at this place, right?"
—
At the Thousand Sunny…
—
Brooke sat on the railing looking out at the ocean.
"….."
"…."
"…"
"Where is everyone?"
—
Somewhere in a forest…
—
"Oh fuck, finally."
Sanji let out a relieved breath at the sight of multiple fire lights up ahead. He'd been wondering around this damn forest for two hours now.
Two fucking hours…
At some point after the first hour he'd wanted to just say "fuck this" and take the kid back to the Sunny with him and come back out tomorrow when there was actual light and everything didn't look the same, but he couldn't. No, that night had found him doing an incredibly impressive imitation of Zoro.
So he had continued walking, and walking, and walking. And really, now he just wanted a nap. It had gotten to the point where he was about ready to start kicking down trees, and he swore, if he saw one more fucking bug anywhere near him again he was going to…
Breath Sanji, breath.
…Anyways, he hoped everyone else wasn't too worried about him. Granted he should have been back at the ship hours ago but, oh well, he couldn't do much about that right now. He couldn't help but to feel badly about being gone for so long though. He was their cook. It was his duty to provide a decent meal for all of them, and damn, he'd pretty much screwed that up today. Sure it was for a good reason, but still.
He really hoped that they had gotten something to eat while they'd been in town. At least then they'd have full stomachs (excluding Luffy) and his precious kitchen wouldn't have to suffer. He cringed a little at the thought of any of them trying to cook a meal by themselves. As much as he loved all of them, he had to admit, none of them could cook for shit.
Now that he was thinking about them, he wondered if Ussopp, Chopper, and the marimo had managed to get back before dark.
He snorted. Nah, the moss ball had probably managed to drag them all over the city before they ever found a way out.
Shifting Seri around in his arms, being careful not to jostle her too much, he tried to take some of the increasing strain off of his wounded arm. It hadn't been bothering him earlier but for a while now the pain had been steadily increasing and it was getting really distracting.
Making his way closer to the light up ahead he wondered if he should ask Chopper to take a look at it when he got back to the ship. He quickly decided against that though, there was really no need to bother the little doctor. Chopper would overreact and worry himself unnecessarily, and the last thing Sanji wanted was to put extra strain on anyone else. Besides, he had disinfected it earlier and the bandage Mabel had given him was clean. All he needed to do was give it a brake before he got up in the morning to make breakfast
He had finally managed to cross the tree line and enter into a small clearing but he quickly stopped to look around, confused.
The fire was still burning brightly and there was even a half eaten slab of meat hanging on a pick over it. A few scattered bedrolls were laying about and what looked like personal belongings where strewn around; but there were no tents, no people. Glancing around the surrounding area he saw lights from a few other fires up ahead, beyond a grove of more trees.
He shrugged. They must all be gathered over that way. He started to head over there when he had a thought.
Wait. If they're actually staying over there, then why would they set up a fire all the way over here? Unless…
All of a sudden a group of men wielding different sets of weaponry seemed to morph in out of no where and Sanji was immediately surrounded.
"Well shit."
—
Zoro looked around the campsite when the group emerged from the tree line. The place was actually pretty large. They must have had a group of about fifteen, twenty people (not including the guards) gathered here. There were tents of different colors scattered about, arranged so they led to one large, blue one on the far side of camp. There were stacks of personal belongings and what looked like herbs and collections of feathers outside of some of them. Honestly, it looked like a camp for a mix of shamans and gypsies. People milled about, men, women, and two children by the looks of it; all staring at them with obvious curiosity.
Why is such a large group traveling together? It's obvious that they're wanted for some reason, this just makes them an easier target.
"Meat~!"
The first thing Luffy saw, of course, was the large slab of meat roasting above the fire in the middle of the encampment. He would have shot off to devour the whole thing, no doubt, had Zoro not taken ahold of his collar; keeping him in place.
Aerona giggled and waved her hand, "Oh its fine, we have plenty to go around."
She gestured them for follow her, "Come. Please, I'd like you to meet the rest of my people."
The others looked interested enough. Luffy immediately sat in front of the fire and helped himself. Ussopp and Chopper joining him. Franky moved off to follow the group of guardsmen that they had met as they moved toward a tent to set Gye down, asking them about their weird weaponry. While Robin and Nami left to follow Aerona as she went towards the large blue tent and ducked inside.
This left Zoro alone with Vincent, and he'd be lying if he said he was fine with that. Something about the other man rubbed him the wrong way.
Vincent glanced over at Zoro and opened his mouth to say something when he stopped and tilted his head to the side, looking like he was listening for something.
Zoro had heard it too. There was the faint sound of shouting that seemed to be coming a little ways away from the main encampment. Nearer one of the smaller light sources that Zoro assumed was a watch site.
Something about one of those faint voices was nagging at Zoro's senses, making him feel like he needed to be over there, and in a hurry.
Vincent seemed to come to a decision and called over to the men that he had had with him before. "You all stay here and keep an eye on things, I'm going to go check on the watch."
Not bothering to wait for a response he left and stalked off to where all the commotion was coming from.
Zoro stood there for a moment more before following after.
—
"Get that out of my face, before I brake yours."
Sanji glared at the son of a bitch that had started to wave his swords in Sanji's face demanding to know who he was and for him to surrender and put whatever was in his arms down. The guy obviously couldn't tell that the cook was only carrying a child. His suit jacket covered Seri completely and she had her head buried in his chest, still sound asleep.
Not the reception I was looking for.
He couldn't fault these guys for being cautious and all but, damn, they could stand to tone it down a bit.
The four guys surrounding him took a few steps forward when Sanji made no move to put Seri down, but he just continued to stand there, not really concerned.
"Whats going on here?"
Oh look at that, theres more of them.
A guy with more tattoos then the rest of them put together stepped into the clearing. When he saw Sanji he shot him a real nasty look and pulled out a sword, joining the others and snarling, "You will leave here now, or not leave at all."
Sanji almost scoffed. Yeah, cause that was going to happen.
"Shit cook?"
Sanji's eyes widened and he leaned to the side a bit to see an equally confused Zoro come walking out of the forest.
"Wha.."
Unfortunately, the moment he moved to get a better look his jacket also decided it needed a change in position and shifted to allow Seri's head to be seen. Now, normally that wouldn't have been such a big deal in his opinion, but apparently these people would like to disagree, vehemently.
"Serenity!"
The new guy's eyes widened and he started to yell.
"Let her go you bastard."
The others had seen as well and started to come at him.
You've got to be kidding. They knew they could hurt her too, right? Sanji moved to tightened his hold on Seri, covering her as much as possible. He was at a real disadvantage here. His hands were full so he could only use one leg at a time. He was able to knock out the one behind him and spin around to catch the one to his left in the stomach, but he knew that he wasn't going to be able to turn around to get any of the other three before one of them skewered him.
He curled himself around Seri, in a last ditch effort to keep her safe an had one thought.
Fuck, this is going to hurt.
….
Nothing happened for a moment and Sanji slowly opened his eyes.
Well damn.
Zoro stood in front of Sanji, inches from him, facing the guy he'd gotten there with, while the two other guard guys were on the ground, dazed.
"You lay a hand on him and I'll cut it off."
The menacing tone to his voice and the steely look in Zoro's eyes left no doubt in Sanji's mind that he was completely serious.
Whoa, where the hell did that come from.
Not that he wasn't grateful but shit, he'd never done that before. Sanji was still confused as to how he had gotten here.
The tribal idiot was actually looking like he was putting in serious consideration into attacking again and Sanji decided that he needed to diffuse this situation before marimo killed someone Seri knew. Not that Sanji would mind, the world could use one less aggressive dumb ass, but still, Seri might mind. So…
"Whoa there, calm it down marimo. Don't kill anyone."
Zoro didn't move but the tension in his shoulders melted a little and he addressed the guy in front of him.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just knock you out."
"Just look at him! She isn't moving and he's got blood all over his arm!"
Zoro tilted his head to look at Sanji and narrowed his eyes in concern at the sight of blood all over the cook's arm.
"Yeah, what the hell is that about?"
"Concentrate marimo."
He snorted. "Sure, whatever."
Seri chose that moment to start to wake up. She shifted around and he loosened his grip to let her move more. She lifted her head and looked around blearily before rubbing her eyes and looking up to regard him.
"Waz goin on Shunshine?"
Oh shit. Please don't notice, I swear t…
"What'd she just call you?"
Damnit.
Giving the shitty swordsman a quick glare to shut him up, he turned his attention to Seri and chuckled a bit.
"Hey princess, I think I found your family."
"Seri? Seri!"
A small group of people came through the trees and one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen came running over to them with a look of utter relief on her face.
"Sister!" Seri exclaimed, squirming out of Sanji's arms she ran over to meet her and the woman imeadeatly fell to her knees and enveloped Seri in a hug that looked tight enough to squish the poor girl.
"I was so worried," she held Seri back and checked her over, "You never do that again, you hear me." She picked her up and held her tight. "Never again." The poor woman looked to be holding back tears now and Seri lifted her small hand to touch her cheek.
"I'm sorry, I promise I won't. Please don't cry Aerona."
Aerona smiled and shook her head turning to look at Sanji.
"You must have been the one to bring her back to us. Thank you, thank you so much."
Sanji smiled charmingly, glad to she that she wasn't going to cry. He hated it when women cried. "It was no problem at all, my dear. She was a joy."
Aerona beamed at him and put Seri down briefly to give him a rib crushing hug as well before stepping back and reclaiming Seri.
"I'm so grateful. I don't know what I'd do without her. Please come back to the camp, you're more than welcome to stay with us for as long as you like." She then turned and walked off, nodding and listening avidly as Seri described her little adventure that day.
The tribal guy had started scowling the moment Sanji opened his mouth and gave him such a venomous glare when Aerona had hugged him that Sanji was surprised he hadn't tried to run him through again.
Someone's a possessive bastard. He made sure catch the guy's eye and smirked at him. Causing the guy to growl and stomp off. Good. He didn't like the son of a bitch anyways.
Zoro had caught the interaction and smirked as well.
Sanji looked over at the swordsman and grinned. "So moss ball, how'd you end up out here? Even you couldn't have gotten so turned around."
"Hmph, everyone else is here too, got caught up in some shit, you?"
Sanji shrugged, "Same."
Zoro glared at him, "You gonna tell me what the fuck happened to your arm."
Sanji pretend to think about it as he slipped his suit jacket back on.
"Well that depends marimo, you gonna share what all that a minute ago was?"
Zoro starred at him for a moment, "You're nakama, a friend, do I need another reason?"
Sanji stood there for a second, too stunned to reply. He hadn't really thought that Zoro considered him a friend.
His face melted into a smile, "Well you're alright too marimo."
Zoro's smirk just widened and he turned to walk back to the camp with Sanji following, leaving the people that had come with Aerona to help the four, still dazed gaurds.
"So really, how did you end up with the beautiful woman while I got the little girl?"
Zoro chuckled, "I knew you were going to say something about that. What, you jealous?"
Sanji scoffed, "Whatever, it was probably for the best that I found the kid, you would have traumatized her."
"What? I'd be great with kids."
Sanji lifted an eyebrow.
Zoro scowled.
"Oh shut the fuck up Mr. Sunshine."
—
The shadows danced as a figure glided by, leaving a trail a bloodied foot prints behind him.
He made his way up the stairs of the hotel and kept close to the dark corners as he stalked toward a room at the end of the hall. The hotel's manager had been reluctant at first to give him the room number of the man he'd asked after, but after a little…persuasion on his part, he'd been all too happy to part with the information. He hadn't really need to do it, he could have easily found what he was looking for by other means, but it would have so much less entertaining and not nearly as satisfying.
He grinned maliciously, at least he'd had a tiny amount of fun tonight. After all, the meeting he was about to engage in was sure to try on his already non-existent patients. Why the captain thought he was the best one for this job was debatable, seeing as how everyone knew that he absolutely loathed the bastard he'd been sent to retrieve.
He arrived at the door to the room and didn't bother to knock before he forced the locked door open with relative ease. Honestly, he didn't even know why the man bothered.
"I thought one of you'd show up soon. I'm surprised its you though, Decroy."
He turned his head to the side of the room where a window stood open. Frowning slightly, though no one could see that behind his high collared coat and the scarf that covered the bottom half of his face, he saw the man that he was looking for standing in front of the window with his head tilted to the side to regard his room's intruder. The moon only lighting up a small portion of him.
Decroy's voice rang out in the silent room with a smooth hiss. "Hmmm. You're late for the party."
"I was on my way. What, did you think I was abandoning the crew?"
"I don't know Held," he spat the name like it was curse, "maybe you finally grew the balls to try defying the captain again. Not that everyone doesn't know how that turned out for you the last time." The smirk on his face twisted it cruelly as he savored the slight twitch that that drew from the other man's constantly stoic face. It was as good as drawing out a full fledged cringing from the son of a bitch.
Held's fists tightened slightly and his eyes narrowed in a silent warning. "I've been informed of the meeting, now I think it'd be best if you left. There's no reason for you to travel all the way to Gran Granada with me."
He smirked, "Tell me, did you find anything?"
"No, if I had why wold I still be here? Now leave Decroy." The pretentious bastard tried to cover the slightest shifting of his eyes but Decroy caught it and inwardly started to cackle. This was just too good. Does he really think…
"Fine, I'll go. But do be sure to make it there in time, yes? We wouldn't want to upset the captain, now would we?"
He kept his smirk hidden until his back was to the blonde man. There was no way he was leaving just yet. That motherfucker was hiding something and he was going to stick around and find out what. The captain would forgive him of his tardiness to the meeting, he probably knew he'd end up staying to get some dirt on the bastard anyways. If Decroy could uncover something good enough maybe he'd finally get rid of that useless son of a bitch.
Held was trying to hide something from them, something big enough to risk exposure and punishment. He would find out what.
After all, the captain must have sent Decroy after their illustrious first mate for a reason. Nobody could hide from him and nothing went beyond his notice.
He gave a feral grin before disappearing into the dark.
Oh yes, this is going to be gooood…
—
To be continued…
—
Ja ne~
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(1) Thank goodness for One Piece Wiki.
A/N: It is now 4:21 a.m and I've had no sleep…todays gonna be a bitch. Aw well. I'm sorry this chap took so long to get out, I was supposed to post last week but unfortunately school has, once again, been plotting to thwart me and undermine all my fun. *Shakes fist* Darn you governmentally funded educational institute! Darn yooouuuu!…*cough* ehem…anyways, yay, real villains! Finally, I smell plo~ot! Took a while but we're gettin there :D the words on the screen are starting to blur together now, please tell me if I got sloppy with this chap, kay? Its late and I've been rushing with this one. A big thank you to everyone that reviewed the last chapter, your kind words keep muah motivated! You're all amazing! XD