Chapter 34! :)

...

Zoro carried the shoppings much to Usopp's astonishment. He didn't even complain about it. Well, of course Usopp was happy that the two members of the monster trio didn't ask him to carry the shoppings - he wasn't the one to fight back such monsters.

Usopp walked behind the two males, stopping at one shop on his way back to the ship. He told Sanji that he would catch them up after he has done his shoppings or meet them at the ship.

He looked around the shop for something specific. The salesperson looked at the weirdly dressed guy with weird nose a little bit weirdly but said nothing. The sniper looked for fertilizers to grow his pop greens properly. It wasn't like growing them was easy.

"Hello, Usopp-san!"

Usopp turned to look at Sara who was smiling brightly. "Sara! I heard you found your mother?" Sara nodded and smiled widely. "That's good to hear!" Usopp said in a friendly way. He saw that the woman had something on her mind. "Something bothering you, Sara?"

"No! I was just wondering if you could pass a message to Sanji-san," Sara stated her business, giving the long-nosed man a piece of paper. Usopp didn't refuse because he saw no reason to do so.

"Leave it to the great Usopp-sama!" Usopp vowed and Sara smiled at the man who had no idea of what she was going to do.

Or what she thought she was going to do.

Usopp bought some good fertilizers and rushed after Zoro and Sanji. He had the feeling that he shouldn't let Zoro know about the message so he waited for his change to give it to Sanji personally. He wondered what the message included but he didn't want to peek at the paper.

"You catched up on us pretty soon," Sanji wondered out aloud when he recognised the long nose of their sniper.

"Didn't they have chicken eggs?" Zoro teased, remembering how their sniper used to buy chicken eggs for fights.

"Ha ha really funny Zoro-kun!" Usopp laughed. "I am way past those games! I am a real hero now!"

"Whatever," Zoro hissed, not really caring what the long-nosed man spoke.

They went back to the ship and Sanji organized the shoppings in the kitchen. When Zoro left to train, Usopp took his chance to slip the message to Sanji. "Hey Sanji, Sara asked me to give you this."

"Eh?" Sanji voiced out. "What business does she have with me? Or is it a love letter ~ ?"

"I don't know, you have to read it by yourself," Usopp stated and left the kitchen.

Sanji opened the letter slowly and read it. He blinked when he finished reading, throwing the note to trashcan and heading towards the adress Sara had given to him.

"Hey! I will go out for a while!" Sanji informed Usopp who nodded. He knew he should not leave the ship without informing someone about his trip. Others would start to worry for no reason if he just disappeared.

...

Zoro trained up in the crow's nest. He was lifting one of his humongous weights yet again, like they were much lighter.

"I should probably buy new, heavier ones," Zoro thought out aloud. "But I already have a huge dept towards that Sea-witch...I am not going to afford new weights for a long time..."

He looked out of the window. He was getting hungry. So he headed towards the kitchen. Or a least he tried.

"Hey Usopp, do you know where Curly is?" Zoro asked from their sniper. Sanji was usually in the kitchen so he didn't need to admit he was lost.

"He is not in the kitchen! He left out for a while! Are you lost?" Usopp explained and teased the green-haired man. He knew full-well he was lost but he didn't want to admit it.

"As if!" Zoro hissed and climbed back up to the crows nest. He was actually heading towards the kitchen but he wandered to his usual training place and stayed there as if he had planned to go threre from the very beginning.

...

"Sanji-san!" Sara waved cheerfully at the blond.

"Sara-chan!" Sanji swooned as usual. "How are you? Why did you want to meet me here?"

Sanji had arrived to the destination. Sara has asked him to meet her at the far corner of the city, telling that she had something to tell to him. Sanji had no idea of what the woman would want to talk about but then again, he thought that she wanted to just talk to him about what had happened and what hadn't happened between the two of them.

"I just wanted to show you one place, that's all!" Sara smiled brightly and took the chef's hand, starting to lead him.

Blackleg Sanji could feel someone staring at them. He noticed few presences around them but said nothing about them to Sara-chan. He didn't want to worry a woman and besides, he was more than enough to beat those guys who were lurking around them. And first and foremost, they didn't seem to threaten them at the moment.

Sara lead Sanji to a beautiful, big mansion on the countryside. The building was surrounded by magnificent garden with red roses. The mansion wasn't as pretty as the pirate mansion they had visited but the garden made it look more impressive.

"Sara-chan, what is this place?" Sanji inquired but Sara only smiled at him, pulling him closer to the building.

Sanji could feel many precenses inside the building with his observation haki. He stopped in front of the building, checking the building troughfully.

I would say around 80 - 100 people in there... what's this place?! And how is Sara involved in all of this? I guess I just have to play along and act as if I have noticed nothing so that I can surprise them if there is some sort of a threat. Well, I doubt they would attack a pirate with a bounty just like that but better safe than sorry.

"What's wrong, Sanji-san?" Sara stared at the man, her smile fading a little. "Aren't you going to come in?"

Maybe Sara herself has no idea of what's going on also... she might have nothing to do with this...I don't know if I should mention about this to her.

"Nothing! Let's go!" Sanji made up his mind quickly and Sara smiled at him, blushing slightly.

Sara opened the heavy door slowly and they stepped in. The mansion was big, but not nearly as big as the one at the deserted island. Sara showed Sanji around the mansion. She showed him the humongous kitchen with top-class equipment and the library full of cooking books. The mansion was like a chef's dream. The roofs were high and there was lots of space to move around.

"Well?" Sara voiced out suddenly. "Do you like it?"

"I like it but...why did you show this to me?" Sanji inquired and Sara blushed.

"I just thought that...you would enjoy living here with me?" Sara explained, blushing like a maniac, playing with her fingers.

Sanji couldn't believe what Sara was suggesting. Was she serious about this? Sanji liked the place, of course, but it didn't mean that he would abandon his crew. He had everything he needed at Sunny-Go.

"Sara-chan, I thought I made it pretty clear for you that I am not interested in you," Sanji said, ashamed to turn down a woman. He was mentally stabbing himself because of his rude behaviour. He hated to see Sara like that but he had to turn her down properly.

"I know! I just thought that..." Sara tried to come up with a proper explanation. She was desperately trying to come up with something, something to make the man stay with her.

"Well well, do you like the place, Blackleg Sanji?" They heard a voice from the kitchen door. They turned to look at the man. Sara recogniced the man as the man who she had seen in the cafe.

This guy might mean trouble...I have a bad feeling about him...I don't know why because he doesn't seem strong enough to beat me! It's sort of a feeling you face when you are against a wild animal...

"I am sorry, but it looks like we don't need it after all..." Sara muttered, sounding really depressed. Apparently the man had promised to let them use the place but hadn't told Sara that there was many people inside while they looked around.

"Really?" The man almost laughed. "Then you don't need this guy too. You must be pretty bitter towards him since he turned you down again, aren't you?"

Sanji felt threatened. Somehow the man in front of him acted too confidently even though Sanji could feel that he wasn't that strong. Their power difference should be pretty clear to both of them!

"Did you know that you dragged this man, this pirate, into a mansion of pirate hunters?" the man chuckled but Sara didn't wince.

"Yeah, but I know this organisation doesn't hunt down pirates who don't cause trouble! The leader Guntar - - " Sara was about to explain something but the man interrupted him.

" - - the old, stupid leader Guntar is dead and I am the one ruling this place! And I am not going along with his stupid ideas! All of the pirates are rotten from their soul!" the man said and Sanji felt presences nearing them from behind.

...