"Are you done yet?" Sanji grumbled, leaning against the wall in Chopper's office.

"Mm-hm! Just finished!" Chopper said, hopping down from his seat. "Make sure to get some sleep before you do anything tonight! And by the way . . ."

"Yeah?"

"I told the others that you're sick. I said that your disease isn't contagious, so the food is safe, but it makes you tired all the time and you shouldn't go outside."

"Hey, thanks, Chopper!" Sanji said in gratitude. "That's pretty clever of you!"

Chopper grinned and started dancing. "Y-You idiot! Your praise doesn't make me happy! Just go already, you bastard~!"

Sanji was halfway out the door when he thought of something. Turning back, he said "Hey, Chopper . . . ?"

"What?" Chopper asked. "What is it?"

"Is it okay if I practice . . . mind-control on you?"

"Eh?"

Sanji left the clinic a few minutes later, having successfully forced Chopper to walk back and forth, hold very still, and go mute. Chopper said that he hadn't felt anything strange afterwards, aside from being slightly creeped out. He went to the men's room—Chopper had said that he should sleep on his bed, since it was better for him than the hard kitchen floor.

He entered the men's room to snores and sleep-mumbles. He grumbled a bit and lied down on his bed.

When he woke up, he sensed that a few hours had passed. Chopper was in his bed now, fast asleep. He got up as quietly as possible and crept outside.

The moon was covered by clouds tonight, throwing everything into shadow, but Sanji could see just fine. As he moved towards the railing, his shoes made clacking sounds against the deck, though he didn't think this mattered. He leaned against the railing, looked out at the town (in which a few lights shone through windows) and sighed.

"What to do . . . ?" he muttered. "I guess a lot of people are sleeping right now . . . can I do it without waking them up? Or maybe—"

"H-Hey! Turn around so I can see you, v-villain! I'll have you know that I have 8,000 men working under me!"

Sanji turned around to see Usopp facing him with his slingshot ready to fire. Oh, right, he was on duty tonight.

"Wait . . . Sanji?" Usopp asked. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," Sanji said. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Oh, thank god," Usopp said, relieved, lowering his weapon. "I saw someone moving around, but it's dark, so I couldn't tell who—wait, what are you doing outside?" He tilted his head. "Aren't you sick? Chopper said you were tired all the time and had to stay indoors . . ."

Sanji thought fast. Usopp had seen him outside and wide awake. Surely he would suspect something, possibly telling the others. But if he didn't remember Sanji being outside in the first place . . . and Sanji did have to drink . . .

Sanji swallowed nervously. "Let's go up to the crow's nest."

"Huh?" Usopp said. "Why?"

"Because otherwise I'll have to use my foot to erase your memory instead."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Usopp scratched his head and followed the cook up to the observation deck. As he closed the hatch behind him, he turned to him and said "Is there something you wanna ask me, or what? Why'd we have to come up here?"

Sanji steeled himself and faced Usopp. "Usopp," he said in a commanding voice, "hold still."

Usopp froze in place. "W-What—what's going on!?"

"Don't say anything," Sanji commanded, moving towards him. Usopp's eyes widened slightly as he fell unwillingly silent. The cook stood in front of him and swallowed nervously again. He had to remind himself that he wasn't going to take all his blood, and Usopp wouldn't remember this, anyway.

He carefully tilted Usopp's head to the side, exposing his neck and giving him enough room to place his mouth. He opened his mouth and bit down as gently as possible with his elongated canines. They pierced the soft skin, allowing crimson blood to well up. He placed his mouth over the wounds and sucked out the thin liquid.

When he sensed that he had drunk enough, he moved back and looked at Usopp. The sniper opened his mouth. "San—"

"Quiet," Sanji commanded, and Usopp fell silent again, looking up at him with fear. If he had been able to move, he surely would have run away.

"Usopp," Sanji said, holding out the first two fingers of his right hand. "Sorry."

He placed them on Usopp's forehead and wiped them across. Almost immediately, Usopp's eyes slipped shut and he began to snore. Sanji picked him up and carried him over to the bench, where hopefully he would wake later and believe that he had fallen asleep by himself. Noticing the two small holes he had made in Usopp's neck, Sanji took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the place clean. Since the wounds were small, they would probably heal by morning.

Stealing one last guilty glance at his sleeping friend, Sanji vacated the area and went back down to the deck. Since there wasn't much to do on the Sunny at night, and Usopp was already on guard, he decided to head into the town to go lady-hunting.

Seeing the gray light starting to peek over the horizon in the east, Sanji went back to the ship as quickly as possible. In case Usopp was already awake, he was sure to stay in the shadows and out of sight. In this fashion, he stole away to the kitchen, where to the others it would seem he had spent the entire night. He rolled up his sleeves, washed his hands, and got started on breakfast.

Soon enough, Luffy found his way into the kitchen, placed his chin on the counter, and stared at the food longingly.

"Go away," Sanji said without preamble.

Luffy looked up at the cook. He took off his hat, held it in front of his chin, and made puppy-dog eyes.

"I said go away, dammit!" Sanji exclaimed. "Making cute faces won't get you any food from me!"

Luffy sighed and put his hat back on. He went back to staring longingly at the food.

Sanji kicked him out of the kitchen.

Once the croissants were finished, he yelled that breakfast was ready. The crew spilled into the room while Sanji served up the food. He glanced guiltily at Usopp, who seemed to be acting normally.

"How was watch last night, Usopp?" he asked in what he hoped was a convincingly casual voice.

Usopp looked down. "Well . . . I fell asleep . . ."

"Usopp," Zoro said sternly, "you can't go falling asleep on watch. What if someone attacked?"

"Says the one who'll fall asleep anywhere," Nami muttered. "Coffee with milk, please, Sanji-kun."

"Of course, Nami-swan~!"

As Sanji mixed in the milk, Robin spoke. "How are you feeling today, Sanji?"

"Eh?" he remembered that he was supposed to be sick. "Ah, Robin-chwan, thank you for thinking of me~! I'm tired, of course, but otherwise fine!"

"Hm. May I have more coffee?"

Chopper looked at Sanji as he poured the coffee. He asked with his eyes if Sanji had accomplished what he had set out to do last night. Sanji gave him a subtle nod and a slight jerk of the head towards Usopp. Chopper's eyes widened and he looked worriedly at Usopp. Sanji indicated that Usopp was fine.

"I did have a weird dream," Usopp said after a moment. "I saw you out on deck, Sanji . . ."

"Yeah?" Sanji asked nervously. "Did I say anything?"

"Hm . . . you told me to come with you . . ." he frowned. "That's all I remember."

Sanji let out an internal sigh of relief and made sure to give Usopp a slightly bigger helping than usual.

Usopp was looking for Luffy and Chopper, in hopes of starting a new game, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw a hand sprouting out of the wall next to him. There was an eye and ear next to it.

"Robin?" he asked. "What is it?"

The hand pointed downwards.

"Below deck? Where?"

The hand made some wave motions.

"The aquarium?"

The hand gave a thumbs-up before vanishing with the eye and ear. Usopp shrugged and went to the aquarium.

Robin was waiting for him, sitting on the bench in front of the glass.

"Good morning, Usopp," she greeted.

"Hey, Robin," he said, sitting next to her. "What is it?"

She was silent for a moment. "Have you noticed that Sanji has been acting . . . a bit strangely as of late?"

"Strangely . . . ? Wait, Chopper said he was sick, right? So—"

"About that," Robin interrupted. She held up something. "I took this from Sanji's shoe earlier."

Usopp looked at the object. It was a blade of grass.

"If he is truly sick," she said, "then why is he walking around outside at night?"

"Weird . . ." he muttered.

"I believe that there's something else going on with him, something that either he asked Chopper to cover for or that Chopper wants to keep secret." She looked at him. "What do you think?"

"If you're right," he muttered, "then . . . he probably asked Chopper to cover for him. I can't see Chopper doing that by himself."

"I think so too," she agreed. "Now, the question is: What could be wrong with Sanji that would prevent him from going outside in the daytime, making him tired at least during the day, and have paler skin?"

"I dunno," he said confusedly. "And I don't know why he'd want to keep it a secret . . . but wait."

"Yes?"

He looked at her. "Why did you tell me this?"

"Hm?"

"I would think that you'd keep this to yourself . . . so why?"

"Well," she said, "I believe that you are one of the smartest of our crew in certain situations. I couldn't tell Luffy because he would most likely let the secret slip; I couldn't tell Zoro because he might use any information against Sanji as blackmail; the same with Nami-chan; Chopper, of course, would tell Sanji that I'm suspicious of him, assuming that he is indeed covering for him; and Franky is . . . a bit too ostentatious."

"Y-You really think so?" Usopp asked, beaming, focusing on the part about him being one of the smartest.

"Not only that," she added, "but now, if one of us were eliminated, the other would still have the knowledge."

Usopp groaned. "You're so pessimistic!"