Sanji

Sanji puffed on his cigarette as he mulled over his mission. He turned his eyes to his only companion. The monkey's lifeless eyes stared right at him. "Must you keep staring at me like that? You're creeping me out."

The monkey responded by showing him a holographic map. Sanji studied it for a few minutes before speaking up again. "So, it's in this city. I guess you're handing after all. It would have been a serious pain if I had to look for this thing the traditional way."

Sanji stood up and smothered out his dying cigarette. He walked along the edges of the building. He was looking for a fire escape, but the building didn't have one. "I guess this place isn't big on safety. Ah well, I don't need a ladder anyway."

Sanji walked to the edge of the building and jumped over to a rooftop that was lower than the one he was currently on. Before he jumped the monkey leaped up onto the cook's shoulder. He maneuvered along the rooftops until he got onto one low enough that he could jump down to the street. When he got to the ground he noticed why the buildings didn't have any fire escapes. The locals all had wings on their backs. Some of them, their wings and their skin were snow white while their hair ranged in natural hair colors and unnatural hair colors. While others looked like falcons, eagles and other birds.

"Well, that explains that," Sanji shoved his hands into his pockets and started to walk along the streets. "No point to fire escapes if you can easily fly out your window in an emergency." As he walked along he took in the surroundings and the people. He noticed that the majority of the people he saw looked like thugs. They were grouped together, sporting some kind of insignia for the gang they were in. Other people would keep their eyes down as they walked along. They didn't make eye contact with any of those who looked like they were in a gang, mothers would hurry their children along, men, the elderly and teenagers would step aside for the gang members.

One gang member picked up at stone. He tossed it up and down a couple of times before tossing it, breaking a near by window. A store worker came running out and demanded who through the rock. "I did, pops. Got a problem with that?"

"N-No sir, it was all my fault," The store worker wrung his hands as he back way. "I should have been more careful with what I was doing."

"Sickening," Sanji narrowed his eyebrows, but continued walking. While walking the monkey guided him with the map. Eventually it led him to a courtyard where there was some kind of cooking contest going on.

As he watched the contest he quickly picked up that there were two favorites among the ten bird people cooking. One of them was a dove while the other was a falcon. The falcon was obviously in the gang that plagued the city. He was being cheered on by gang members. The gang members were also throwing out profanities at the dove guy.

And while they were cooking, other gang members would through things at the cooks, all of the cooks, but the one who was one of them. The cooks did their best to ignore the almost rioting crowd. Occasionally picking out whatever projectile item that fell in their food.

Sanji lit himself another cigarette. "Tough area."

When the monkey, who was still hanging on his shoulder, chirped at him, he turn this attention to it. It showed him the map again. The shard was extremely close. He followed the map and came upon a display area. Sitting in the middle of a table was ten golden bars and a trophy that had a shard pierced on top of it.

Sanji leaned closer and inspected the trophy. It didn't show his reflection. It was the shard he was looking for. He turned to one of the bird creatures standing near by. "Excuse me, this is a cooking contest, right?"

"Thats right," The bird nodded.

"And this," Sanji nodded towards the table. "Is the prize for winning?"

"Of course it is. What are you stupid or something?" Some gang members walked up to Sanji. The one who spoke looked Sanji up and down. "Who are you? You're not from around here."

"No, I'm not," Sanji blew out some smoke. "I'm kinda on a vacation here, just passing through, really."

"Good," The gang member crossed his arms. "We don't like strangers in our territory. The sooner you leave the better."

"I take it that it's too late for anyone else to enter the contest?" Sanji asked. The gang members laughed.

"You are stupid," Another gang members said.

"Don't blame him," A third gang member said. "Like he said, he's not from here."

"This contest started last month. Hundreds always enter in this thing. And our boss always wins the contest," The first gang member who had spoken before spoke again. "Just like he's going to win this year."

"Not if Colman keeps it up," The second gang member jerked his chin at the dove cook. "He's totally into it this year. And he's passed all the preliminaries."

"Shut up!" The third gang member grabbed the second by the front of his shirt. "The boss won't loose to a loser like him."

"Chill! You two are acting like hatchlings," The first gang member ordered. The other two released each other and straightened up. "If Colman becomes a real threat then the boss will have it taken care of."

Sanji's eyebrow twitched at that. He didn't say anything as the group walked off from him. His eyes wondered back over the contest in progress. He was thinking about his predicament and thinking about what Pendulum had said.

"You all are currently safe for the moment. I, however, cannot say how long that will last since I don't really know all of the areas you are in."

"I've been watching you all for a long time. And I believe you have all the skills necessary to succeed in your missions."

"Sure you didn't know anything about these areas. And, yet, here I am. The cook of the Straw Hats being dumped, wherever this place is, during a cooking contest," Sanji mumbled to himself. He took a long drawl on his cigarette as his eyes wondered over the crowd and the cooks. "Lied to again. So is this guy just after the shards like he said or is Neo his real target and these shards are just a way to keep us busy? No, that can't be it. If he really wanted Neo, why reveal himself to us at all? Why not just take Neo and leave us back on Purlieu?"

Sanji sighed and shook his head. "I can figure that out later. Right now, I have to figure out how to get that shard. Since I'm alone, fighting isn't an option, at least not yet. Some of these guys look pretty tough."

Sanji's attention was broken when a voice rang out over the group. "Times up! Now the judges will sample the dishes and will soon announce those who will be advancing."

About thirty minutes later the voice rang out over the crowd again. He announced the names of the winners moving on to the next round. The only name Sanji knew was Colman. At the sound of that guy's name, Sanji's eyes searched for those gang members he was talking to before. He found them. They were several yards from him, joined by other members of their gang and their boss who had walked over from his cooking area.

Their boss didn't look like he was happy. Sanji watched as the boss talked to his group. The guy was obviously upset. Soon a menacing look passed through the group. They laughed and nodded then fanned out and disappeared into the crowd that was starting to leave the area.

Sanji then noticed Colman packing up his gear. He was being watched by the gang members. Once he was finished, Colman, obviously unaware of being watched, slung his bag over his shoulder and walked off. The gang members, using the passing crowd as a shield, began to follow after Colman. Sanji shoved his hands into his pockets and followed after the gang.

At one point, Sanji lost them in the crowd. He found them again when he heard sounds of someone being beaten up. He rounded a cornered and found just that. Colman was being ganged upon by about ten bird people. Sanji wasted no time in jumping in to help. He knocked the gang away from Colman with a round house kick. "No matter the species, it's just pathetic to gang up on someone. I thought you all might be strong, but you're just pathetic lowlifes."

"It's you," One of the gang members Sanji was talking to before pointed at him. "I don't know who you are, but you shouldn't interfere with our business."

"You're beating up someone who obviously doesn't have the skills to fight back. I'm making it my business," Sanji flicked away his cigarette as the gang charged at him. With a barrages of kicks, Sanji defeated the gang with no problem. "Hm, guess I was wrong about you people being strong. You're all weak. You just look strong."

Sanji walked over to Colman and helped him sit up. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yea-Ah!" Colman grabbed his right arm.

"Okay, that was a stupid question. Of course you're not fine. Come on. I'll help you get some help," Sanji said as he helped Colman get up off the ground and grabbed his bag.

"W-Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Colman asked.

"We'll talk about that later," Sanji said as he assisted Colman away from their current area. "Just guide me on how to get you to the hospital."

A little over an hour later, Sanji waited patently in the waiting room of the hospital. While he waited a dove lady, wearing a simple faded yellow dress and a sling around her neck, came rushing in. "Where is he?! Where's Colman?! Where is my mate?!"

"Calm down, ma'am. Your mate is being looked at by the medico," The attendant said while flipping through some papers. "The man who brought him in is still here, if you wish to speak with him."

"Yes! Where is he?!" The attendant pointed over at Sanji. The lady rushed over to him. "What happened?! Who are you?!"

"Calm down, ma'am," Sanji waved his hands at her. "I'm just-"

"Tell me what happened!"

"Leta?" Colman's voice broke in before anyone else could say anything. "What are you doing here?

"Colman! I heard you got beat up! Where else would I be?!" Leta rushed over to him. Colman was now sporting several bruises, cuts and a broken arm. "Your arm!"

"It's not that bad," Colman smiled.

"Not that bad?!" Leta cried, tears streaming down her white cheeks. "Your arm is broken! How are you supposed to cook like that?! You can't! You can't win like that! We're never going to be able to move away from here!"

"Calm down, honey," Colman begged. "I-it's not over yet. I can still cook like this."

"And win?" Sanji finally said. "I mean no disrespect, but you can't win like that. I watched you all during the contest today. It can't be done."

"Who are you?" Leta asked as if she hadn't seen Sanji just seconds before.

"Leta, this is the man who helped me, um," Colman looked to Sanji to fill in the rest.

"Sanji," Sanji nodded at them. "And I might have a solution to your problem."

"Really?" Colman asked. "Why would you help us?"

"Can we talk in private?" Sanji asked, eyes scanned around the busy hospital.

"Of course," Colman nodded. "We can talk at our home."

Sanji remained quiet as he followed Colman and Leta to their rundown little house that was only a couple blocks from the hospital. He remained silent as Leta helped Colman sit down. Colman then turned his attention to Sanji. "So, why will you help us? Not that we're ungrateful for your offer."

"I need the trophy that comes with winning," Sanji stated simple. He looked down at the monkey standing beside his chair.

"But we need that money to move away from here! We can't let our babies be hatched here in this place!" Leta cried.

"Babies?" That's when Sanji noticed the sling the woman was wearing. Inside it was two speckled eggs.

"I'm sorry, but we can't give you the prize money," Colman said.

"I don't want the prize money," Colman and Leta gave him a surprised look. "All I want is the trophy that comes with the prize money."

"Why would you want that instead of the money?" Colman asked.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that," Sanji replied. Colman and Leta exchanged confused glances. "I know it sounds strange, but we're both backed into a corner here. From what I can gather, you two want away from this area because of the gang, right?"

"That's right," Leta nodded. "We want the prize so we can move out of this city. That gang has done nothing but mess everything up. As you can see from our own house, those gang memers have no problem breaking in and taking whatever they please. We can't let out little ones live like this."

Sanji ran his eyes over the house. It was almost completely bare. Colman then spoke up. "They even steal our we eat we have to go out and buy food for one day only."

"Then let me help you. You'll be helping me in return," Sanji said. "I'm a cook as well. All you have to do is teach me your local recipes."

"Can he do that?" Leta asked.

"There's never been anything in the rules about switching cooks due to injuries. As long as the new cooking makes the recipe that has been submitted," Colman said thoughtfully.

"We have a deal then?" Sanji asked.

"Very well. We accept your help," Colman nodded. "The final round is in two weeks. We don't have much time."

"Just show me what to do," Sanji smiled.

"Let's get started then," Colman said, leading Sanji to the kitchen.

Sanji about swallowed his cigarette when Colman brought out the food they were going to use to practice with. It was an array of bugs. Sanji sweat dropped. "Oh boy."

…

"And this is where the library would be," Velocity said as she lead everyone into the room. The sprites were giving her a tour of the house. "Although, you won't be able to read the text so I guess it's kind of pointless to show you this room."

"What kind of language is this?" Neo asked, pulling out one of the books and looked at the title. The words looked like nothing but lines haphazardly thrown together.

"It's an ancient language of the Time Keepers," Elian replied. "Not everyone in the Time Stream can read it."

"Time Keepers?" Neo questioned, pushing the book back into its place and returned her hand to Law's hat.

"Empress Futura and her royal guards are Time Keepers. Pendulum is also a Time Keeper, but obviously has gone rogue," Elian explained. "They guard the flow of time to make sure nothing happens to it. It's a very delicate string that needs to be protected."

"I know!" Velocity snapped her fingers. "I could read to you! What do you like to read? You like to read, right?"

"I really like anything," Neo turned to the sprite as she flew up to the bookshelf. She scanned over a few books before finding the one she was looking for. She used her magic to pull the book off the shelf. When the book flew over to her it shrunk down until it was small enough for Velocity to hold.

She turned back to Neo. "Would you like me to? I can. At least that way we can pass time quicker than just sitting around staring at the walls. I just love this book. I've literally read it over a hundred times."

"If you really want to," Neo replied. "And if it's no trouble."

"No trouble at all, Princess," Velocity said, she flew herself and the book over to the one of the high back chairs in the room. She clicked on the lamp by the chair then settled into its thick cushion.

"You don't have to call me princess," Neo said, she walked over to the other chair.

"Apologies," Velocity replied. "It's our customs to address those with a title by their titles. It's mostly a habit, but also respect. Even those who are best friends with those of titles call them by their titles."

"Very well then. If you wish to call me princess then feel free to do so," Neo sat down on the chair, Law's hat in her lap, and gave them a small nod. Elian sat down on the arm of the chair is sister was sitting on, he crossed his arms and legs as Celeste laid down on the back of the chair. She was on her stomach, kicking her feet while humming to herself as Velocity started to read.

A couple chapters into the book Neo noticed some similarities to the story and to the time Law had become a Warlord. The hero in the book was trying to become a solider for the king. Velocity's voice faded away as her mind drifted back to that day…

Neo was leaning her back against the wall of the sub, near the exit, with her feet slightly out in front of her and her bangs falling over her eyes. Law had ordered her to stay inside the sub. He didn't want the Navy to see her. She understood and obeyed him, but she couldn't stop herself from being concerned about the whole ordeal. She really didn't like the idea that he, a wanted pirate, was just waltzing right up to Navy Headquarters. So many things could go wrong here.

She had no idea how long Law would be out there. And she had no clue how long she was standing there waiting for him to return. She was so concerned about him that she didn't even hear the door open and close or notice him standing beside her. He stroked her hair. "Neo?"

She pushed off the wall, pressed her forehead to his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. He held her in that position for a while before sweeping her up into his arms and carried her to their room. None of the crew questioned them as they made their way through the sub. Once in the room, he sat down on the bed with her in his lap. "Talk to me. What's wrong?"

"I don't know," She mumbled into his neck. "I'm just worried, I guess."

"There's no need for that. Everything went as planned," Neo nodded slightly as he rubbed her back. "Now, let's see if I can get you to stop worrying."

Before she could even think of what he meant by that, Law began to tickle her sides. She squealed and tensed. "L-Law!"

"Stop worrying now," Law ordered as he continued his assault.

"H-How can I-ah aha- worry when- ha ha- I can't stop- aha ha- laughing?!" She lost her balance and fell back onto the bed. For a split second she thought she was free and took a deep breath. But Law followed her. He straddled over her and began his assault again. He got her laughing so hard that she couldn't even form her crystals to assist her. "Okay! Ha aha! Okay! I'll stop worrying! Ha! Ha!"

"Good girl," Law stopped tickling her and smiled. He leaned down and kissed her…

Velocity's voice slowly began to filter back into Neo's ears as she stroked her fingers over his hat and choked back her tears. She rubbed the tears out of her eyes and continued listened to the sprite talked for a while longer before she became tired and fell asleep.

…

Author's Notes: Ah, Sanji, I think I have soft spot for him, despite his constant state of perverted thoughts. Hmmm…it looks like all of you, who are commenting, have the same conclusion about Neo's possible condition. Still, I won't confirm or deny anything, since I don't know if everyone who's reading this has come to a conclusion or not. I'll let the story do that. We're getting closer to it.

PuddyKatz: ^_^ hee hee

sarge1130: Hi! Yup, clings to his hat. It helps keep her sanity, as well as her three little companions. They did pick up on the fact she a delicate person. I had to make sure I gave her something to help her not loose her mind. Usopp's a fun character to make suffer. :)

Apple Bloom: Absolutely more to come! :) As far as I can tell, this one is going to be a few chapters longer than the previous one. I'm tempted to go back and rewrite Neo and Law's story to follow along with the actual story line of One Piece. Have to wait for this one to get closer to the end though. But more Neo and Law is 'very' tempting.

Mei: Yeah, I really tried to make this as original as possible. I noticed that everyone "always" makes their OCs either marine or pirate/becomes a pirate (despite Neo becoming part of Law's crew it wasn't her intention on doing so, she just fell into it and couldn't/didn't want to leave) and has devil fruit powers. There's very little who don't go that way. I definitely didn't want a Mary Sue. So I wracked my brain for this one.