That night, while Sanji slept during the last ten minutes or so he had, Robin was staying up, reading in bed. Nami sat up in her bed and looked across the room.

"Must be a good book," she murmured.

"Hm?" Robin looked up. "Yes, I suppose it is."

"Are you going to sleep anytime soon?" Nami asked, yawning.

"Sorry, is the lamplight bothering you?"

"Mm-hm."

"My apologies." Robin turned down the light. Nami murmured her thanks and immediately fell asleep.

Robin watched her for a moment then smiled. She quietly rose from bed, dressed, and crept to the window to peer outside. A few minutes later, she saw Sanji carefully exiting the kitchen, looking around, and moving as quietly as possible to the edge of the ship, where he jumped off onto the island below.

She lifted an eyebrow and quietly opened her own door. Closing it softly behind her, she stealthily snuck after the cook.

Sanji moved into town, brushing past the few people who were also wandering around this time of night. One time he paused and turned around, but Robin had already hidden herself. He shrugged and moved on, and Robin followed.

A couple of times he stopped and put a hand to his stomach, like he was very hungry. But both times he shook his head and pushed forward.

At last, he stopped in front of a house with a light on inside—presumably what he had been looking for. He glanced around (Robin slipped into the shadows), lifted a hand, and knocked on the door.

The door opened and Sanji faced someone that Robin couldn't see from where she was.

"May I help you?" the person asked (judging by the voice, it was a man).

"Ah, yes," said Sanji smoothly. "I seem to have lost my way; I'm new to this island, just got here a day ago. I was wondering if you had a map I could look at?"

"Yes, of course," the stranger said. "Come in."

Sanji stepped inside the house and the door was shut behind them. Robin closed her eyes and sprouted an eye and ear in the corner of the house.

Inside, she saw the stranger opening a drawer and shuffling through it. "Just a second," he said. "I know it's here somewhere . . ."

"That's okay," Sanji said. "I don't need a map."

"What?" the stranger said confusedly, turning around. "But you said—"

"Hold still."

The stranger froze in place. "What—?"

"Don't speak," Sanji commanded. The man fell silent. Sanji moved forward, tilted the man's head sideways, and carefully bit into his neck. Due to the fact that he hadn't drunk enough yesterday, and that he was losing sleep, he drank for longer than he should have.

Once he had finished (not noticing that it took longer than last time), he withdrew and carefully wiped his lips. The man's eyes were slipping shut already.

"Sorry," Sanji said. He wiped his first two fingers across the man's forehead, and the stranger fell asleep. Sanji picked him up and laid him on the couch, where hopefully the man would wake later and think that he had fallen asleep naturally.

Sanji was just about to leave when he stopped. He went back to the man and looked at him. His breathing seemed shallow, he looked rather pale, and when Sanji pressed a finger to his neck, his pulse was faint.

"Shit," Sanji gasped. He quickly grabbed the man again and, with some superhuman strength, ran out the front door carrying him. Robin made her eye and ear vanish and watched Sanji, carrying the stranger, run right past the alley where she hid. She waited a moment before following him.

Sanji ran across town until he reached the hospital that he had visited twice earlier that week. Hoping dearly that the secretary wasn't the wizened woman, he burst in and saw the secretary (a young man this time) look up.

"Good evening," he said. "What's the—"

"This man," Sanji said quickly. "Blood loss."

"How the hell—" the young man looked at the man in Sanji's arms. "Where's the injury?"

"I'll explain later! Just get some more blood into this guy!"

"Calm down," the secretary said. He called for someone through intercom, and soon enough the stranger was taken into a room, presumably to be given a transfusion.

Someone sat down with Sanji and asked him some questions. What relation did he have with the patient? How did the patient come to lose blood? How did Sanji find the patient? Sanji said that he wasn't related to him; that he had simply come knocking on the stranger's door, but when no one answered even though there was a light on, he thought he should check on the occupant. He had found the patient lying on the couch, unconscious, and with signs of blood loss (despite no visible injury); therefore, Sanji had brought him to the hospital.

The person stood up, thanked him, and left. Sanji opted to stay in the waiting room to see if the man's condition would improve.

Robin, after observing this scene with an eye planted in the corner, entered. Sanji looked up and brightened.

"Robin-chwan!" he cried. "What are you doing here, darling?"

The fleeting, terrifying thought that she saw what he'd done flashed through his mind and was gone again.

"I couldn't sleep," she lied. "I decided to go for a walk, and I saw you running while carrying that person. Naturally, I wondered what it was about . . ."

As she sat down next to him, Sanji told her the same lie that he told the person who'd questioned him.

"I see," she said. "And you're staying here to see if that man will recover?"

"Of course," he said nervously. "I found him, a-after all, so . . ." he trailed off.

A doctor came around the corner and cheerfully informed the pair that the man would make a full recovery. Sanji let out a sigh of relief; he didn't think he would be able to stand it if he had caused another person's death because he needed to drink.

"That's good news," Robin said pleasantly. "Thank you, doctor-san."

She and Sanji stood up to leave. Robin informed Sanji that she was feeling tired now and would return to the ship. Sanji claimed that he couldn't possibly sleep after what just happened and so would stay outside for the time being.

"Well?" Usopp asked Robin. It was after breakfast the next morning, and the two of them were in the aquarium room again.

"I saw him," she said.

"And?"

She closed her eyes. "He . . . drank a man's blood."

Usopp started trembling at the thought then tried to calm himself down. "Anything else?"

"Well . . ." she hesitated. "He saw me and asked what I was doing. I claimed that I couldn't sleep and went for a walk. He lied that he had just gone for a midnight stroll as well."

"So he slipped up," Usopp said, lifting an eyebrow. "I guess he forgot that he's supposed to be sick."

"Indeed. Maybe in his panic . . ."

Usopp looked at her. "Panic?"

She looked down. "I was thinking out loud," she chastised herself.

"Why would he be panicking?" Usopp asked suspiciously.

Robin sighed. "I didn't want to tell you . . . when he drank the person's blood, he took far too much."

Usopp's eyes widened almost comically. "D-Does that mean the guy's—"

"No, no," she said. "Before Sanji left, he realized what he had done and rushed the man to the hospital. I believe that the person is fine now."

"Oh, good . . ." Usopp said. "Man, Sanji would never forgive himself if some guy died because of him. So . . . what do we do now?"

"We should confront him," she said, "as soon as possible."