When moonrise came, Sanji felt tired—tired as if he had stayed up all night and morning was just arriving.
"Have fun staying up tonight, cook," Zoro said, passing by and slapping him on the back. "While the rest of us get a good night's sleep."
"Oh, it is my turn, isn't it?" Sanji muttered. "Yeah, you get all the sleep you need, moss-head."
Zoro yawned. "Shut up. I'm tired." He wandered towards the men's sleeping quarters.
Sanji waited in the kitchen until everyone else had gone to bed. When at last he heard Usopp's soft snores coming from the men's quarters, he stepped outside and looked at the full moon.
"Full moon, huh . . ." he muttered. "Am I going to transform? No, wait, that's werewolves, isn't it . . . ?"
He set to thinking. Vampires were supposed to be nocturnal, right? That would explain his tiredness. Come to think of it, he didn't know much about vampires in general . . .
His eyes strayed to the small tower where the library was located.
"Vampires," he muttered to himself, scanning the shelves. "Vampires . . ."
Sanji's eyes lighted upon a book entitled Supernatural Beings. He pulled it off the shelf, flicked to the index, and turned to the page on vampires. He sat down to read the section.
All in all, he found some useful and interesting information:
I. A vampire feeds solely on human blood. The vampire may draw blood from the victim and store it in a container, leaving it for a later meal.
II. Vampires are nocturnal. One of the three ways to kill a vampire is to force him into sunlight, where upon contact, will burn the skin of the vampire. The other two ways are to feed the vampire garlic (anything less than half a clove will merely make him sick) or to drive a wooden stake through his heart. While holy water and crosses do not kill vampires, either can be used to incapacitate one.
III. A few ways to recognize a vampire are thus:
i. When angry, a vampire's eyes will turn scarlet
ii. A vampire has unusually pale skin
iii. The canines of a vampire are slightly elongated
iv. Vampires do not show up in mirrors or photographs
IV. In order to enter a dwelling where he does not reside, the vampire must be invited into the dwelling by a resident. Otherwise, the vampire will be unable to enter.
V. Vampires are shape-shifters. They can turn into a cat, a bat, or a toad. They also have enhanced hearing and good vision in the dark.
VI. When feeding directly off of a human, a vampire has two weapons at his disposal. The first is that a vampire can control the victim to a certain extent, but only if the victim is in direct sight—seeing the victim in a mirror or other reflective surface will not do. The things a vampire can force his victim to do are 'simple actions', which are basic limb movements and muted voice. For example, a vampire might force his victim to walk towards him, expose the part that will be drank from, and then hold still and silent while the vampire feeds. The other weapon is a partial memory wipe: When finished feeding, a vampire may stroke two fingers across the victim's forehead. The victim will sleep and, upon waking, not remember coming into recent contact with the vampire.
VII. If the vampire has not been invited into a home, he cannot control the resident if they are inside their home.
Sanji shut the book, stood up, returned it to the shelf, sat back down, and thought about what he had just read.
So he was nocturnal now . . . that would explain his tiredness. He needed sleep, though, so that might be difficult to hide from the others. Faking insomnia was an option, but that might result in Chopper checking up on him . . .
He'd need to continue drinking blood, and it was highly doubtful that he would be able to pull off the trick at the hospital again. Chopper had some blood bags in storage, right? But he might notice if they started disappearing daily . . .
He scratched his head. In the meantime, he'd have to find something to do. No one else was awake—
Click . . . click . . . click . . .
He cocked his head and listened. The sound was coming from another part of the ship—it was very faint, but definitely there. He got up and moved silently towards the noise, pausing every once in a while to listen. Once he heard a groan of frustration. He quickened his pace slightly.
Entering the kitchen, he saw a figure crouched over the refrigerator, scratching his head. Sanji took a step towards the figure and said "Turn around nice and slow so that I can see your face, you damn intruder."
The figure turned around. "Aah! Sanji! What're you doing here!?"
"Luffy!?"
Luffy stood up and looked at him in surprise. "Geez, you startled me!"
"You startled me, too! What the hell are you doing!?"
Luffy glanced at the refrigerator. "Uh . . . I was trying to figure out the combination for the fridge."
Sanji glowered at him. "You'll never figure it out. Get out of here and get back to bed!"
Luffy sighed dejectedly and started to make his way for the door, but stopped and turned back. "Hey, how'd you know I was in here?"
"Intuition. Get out!"
Luffy shrugged and walked out the door. Sanji suddenly realized how thirsty he was.
"Er, wait, Luffy!"
Luffy turned around. "Huh?"
"Uh . . ." Sanji hesitated. "Never mind."
Luffy shut the door behind him, presumably heading back to the men's quarters.
Sanji sighed. Feeding from another human—especially one of his friends—was something he would have to become accustomed to. But in the meantime . . .
He snuck down to the infirmary and opened the miniature icebox, where several packs of blood rested. He glanced around, took one out, rearranged them to make it look like nothing had disturbed them, and shut the lid. He crept back to the kitchen, got out a glass, and carefully poured the blood into it. After going outside, sticking a rock into the bag, and tossing it into the ocean, he went back to the kitchen and drank the slightly sticky red liquid slowly, making sure to wash the glass well afterwards.
The sun started to rise. Sanji yawned, scratched his head, and started on breakfast. He mixed up the flour and milk, cracked some eggs, tossed in some butter, and soon had delicious-looking steaming pancakes stacked on the table.
"Nami-swan, Robin-chwan~!" he yelled. "Breakfast is ready, darlings~!"
As he started to make up the coffee for Robin, he yelled "Morons! Get in here! Food time!"
The men poured into the kitchen almost immediately, Zoro being the last, and the women following behind.
Luffy grabbed several pancakes, stuffed them into his mouth, grabbed some butter, stuffed that into his mouth as well, poured some syrup into his mouth, and then swallowed the mass whole. Usopp made a face.
"Geez, Luffy, how do you not swallow your own tongue?"
Luffy started choking.
"Did you swallow your tongue!?"
He nodded.
Chopper ran over to him, deftly reached into his mouth, and got his tongue out. Luffy gasped. "Thanks . . ."
And he kept eating.
"Coffee, darling Nami-swan, sweet Robin-chwan~?" Sanji offered up the pot.
"Yes, please, with a little bit of cream and sugar," Nami said cheerfully.
"Thank you, Sanji," Robin smiled.
As Sanji poured the coffee, Nami frowned. "Sanji-kun, you look a bit pale . . ."
He glanced at his hand. Indeed, it was paler than it usually was. He turned it over, examining the color. "I-It seems normal to me," Sanji said, mentally kicking himself again and then wincing at the imagined pain. "I did stay up all night on watch."
Robin narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Make sure to get some sleep today, Sanji!" Chopper exclaimed worriedly.
"Yeah, yeah," Sanji muttered, stifling a yawn.