Chapter six: Lost hope

Now it had been over two months and still not even a word from his Nakama Sanji checked the paper and looked out his window every morning and still no sign of the Straw hats Annie and the rest of the staff of the bear claw did their best to cheer up the poor Chef even the cook, who's name apparently was Yuki, let Sanji handle the kitchen on his own for a while hoping it would help out unfortunately that didn't help in the least as time went on the cook grew more and more depressed it went to the point where on one particularly slow day Annie sat on the bar with Tom, Susan and Terry all watching as the cook stared out the window at the grey dreary sky depressed Annie sighed and looked at the two girls
"We need to cheer him up" she said finally

"How?" the two girls asked Annie smiled and Tom knew she was up to something as Annie took the two girls upstairs and Tom wasn't sure how he felt about this plan even though he didn't know what it was but usually when Annie had a plan it resulted in worldwide Nose bleeds and blood transfusions what was more was this one involved his twin sister so this was another thing that might bother him Tom watched the cook who was now tracing circles on the table with his pointer finger now giving up on looking out the window Tom felt this was one of the most depressing things he had ever seen,

It was a few hours later when the girls finally came down Tom was surprised they weren't dressed as sluts but still in the same outfits but Annie had a large bag over her shoulder and handed it to Susan who went to the kitchen Annie approached Sanji and sat on the table in front of him crossing her legs she knew this was the only way to snap the cook from his trance like state as he stared at her confused for a while but then Annie shoved a piece of paper in his face he took it and examined it carefully
"What's this?"
"You're going to the dock tomorrow, picking up a boat and going out to find your Nakama" Annie said Sanji looked at her his eyes wide in shock as Annie gave him a rather sad smile
"I promised that if they didn't come soon I would take you out to look for them Terry and Susan are packing our supplies right now so that we can leave first thing in the morning if weather permit it" Annie told him
Sanji smiled and stood up hugging her
"Annie, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this I mean I truly am surprised and I love this" Sanji said before staring down sadly at the paper and handing it back to her
"But I can't" he said Annie was now puzzled as he smiled at her sadly
"You've done so much for me if I get to do something like this then I want to earn it myself no matter how long it will take I will fund my own voyage to find my Nakama" Sanji said "Besides I don't think I want to leave this Nakama just yet" Sanji added Annie smiled and hugged him again Sanji smiled before looking out the window once more at the dreary sky
I will find you guys again, some day but for now I'll stay with this new Nakama of mine but I swear I will never forget you guys and I will find you one way or another

Luffy woke up with a start as lightning flashed across the sky and he heard a scream hurrying out of bed he hurried out as did several others to Nami and Robin's room they opened the door to see Robin on the floor sobbing and Nami holding her gently
"What's going on?" Luffy asked them Nami sighed
"Robin can't sit through storms like this anymore and had a nightmare"
"She's still convinced this is her fault isn't she?" Franky asked Robin nodded slowly through her sobs Luffy frowned a little and walked over also sitting next to her and hugging her Chopper did so as well hugging her around the waist before Robin knew it, this had turned into one giant group hug from the crew even Zoro though he had been forced to do so
"Robin what happened was an accident you didn't know that it would happen if we had known we would have done everything we could to try and avoid it hell either way we did and we didn't know we'd lose Sanji along the way" Nami explained to her Robin slowly wiped her eyes with difficulty feeling restricted by the crew
"I know…but if I had just paid a bit more attention-"
"No do not go and continue to blame yourself" Luffy said to her
"It'd be easier to think if you guys were suffocating me though" Robin said with a small smile the crew soon let her go Nami smiled glad to see that they had somehow cheered up the Archeologist Robin looked a little better though it was still clear that there was some doubt in her eyes and that she still had some stray tears here and there Nami was however determined to find out what had happened to the cook and prove that it was not Robin's fault as to what happened somehow some way they would but now it seemed that Even Luffy was beginning to doubt that they would find Sanji alive at this point his feeling had left about Sanji being in danger so that meant one of two things, Sanji had taken care of it or it had taken care of him. Nami hoped more for the first one than the second the crew.

It wasn't long before the crew all went back to bed but Luffy stared up at the ceiling he was starting to lose his hope as well sadly the more time went past the more it began to seem hopeless that they would find the cook alive what if the marines had gotten him? No they would have announced it in the paper if they had caught a famous pirate that way they could try to get the rest of the crew as well in hopes of them going out and trying to save the chef. This was a rare feeling for the straw hatted Captain the feeling of dwindling hope and doubt he usually was positive about these things but now he was just wondering if he was in denial like the others had thought at first but that feeling from a few days ago…it was there Luffy knew it had been there and Luffy knew it had to do with Sanji because nothing happened to the crew or the ship or anything he sighed a little bit before rolling over and staring out the window, the moon now shown bright and full reflecting on the water of the endless ocean Luffy almost hoped to see a small ship with their beloved cook heading their way but sadly there was nothing Luffy sighed rolling over again knowing it was pointless

"I'll find him one way or another" Luffy promised himself before slowly drifting off into an uneasy sleep.

I do not own one piece that belongs to Oda sensei I only own the bear claw and its residences not including the straw hat chef