The Many (Attempted) Marriages of the Sun Goddess

Boy is it nice when the inspiration flows! This story is on a bit of a roll, which feels pretty good after a day's work. Standard disclaimer applies, I do not own One Piece in any way.

Chapter 2

"Grandpa," Luffy said with unusual seriousness, looking up at her parental figure. Makino's bar was full of its evening regulars, who are torn between enjoying their evening meals and staring at the famous visitors who'd come to their island the morning. "My dad is supposed to walk me down the aisle if I get married, but I don't have a dad. Would you do it instead?"

Garp choked on the steak he'd been happily enjoying a moment ago, wheezing and hammering his chest. Luffy yipped as her grandpa's shudders almost tossed her off his lap to the floor. "W-What do you mean, wedding? Who's talking to you about such things, Luffy?! Who's trying to make off with my precious princess?!"

"Eh?! Nobody!" Luffy protested, baffled by his reaction. "Lots of fairy tales end with a pretty princess getting married, and I asked Makino about it after finishing the last book you got me." A giggle escapes her lips. "Makino got really flustered and asked me if I'd heard about it from Shanks! I wonder why? Shanks told me once that a pirate Captain has the authority to conduct a wedding on his ship; does she want to get married?"

Garp's eye twitched uncontrollably, while his companion chuckled into his mug. "What? I thought Makino was a quite sensible woman; don't tell me she's gone and fallen for a pirate!"

"Fallen for?" Luffy blinked at him. "Makino hasn't fallen down recently."

"He doesn't mean that literally, Luffy." The other man said, shaking his head. "'Falling for' is often used as a romantic figure of speech."

The girl uttered a little 'ah' of comprehension. Then her brow scrunched up as it always did when she was thinking very hard, and a few seconds later she gasped. "Makino wants to marry Shanks?" She whispered with the tone of someone who'd come to a tremendous revelation.

"Forget it! I didn't say anything." Garp said frantically. "Don't tell me you want to get married! My heart couldn't take that!"

"Why not?!" Luffy protested.

"Because no man is good enough for my precious princess!" Garp declared with all the authority of the Hero of The Marines; the men in the bar felt shivers go down their spine even though they know it isn't directed at any of them. Many of them cast apologetic looks at Luffy, who they all think is a cute little troublemaker; they now sense a lot of broken hearts in her future! Whatever man fell for her would have to go through one of the strongest Marines in history!

"But that's not fair!" Luffy flailed her arms. "What if I wanna get married in the future?"

"Then whoever that person is will have to pass Grandpa's test! Only the best of men is worthy of you!"

"You just said nobody would make you happy!" Luffy pointed out, very much taken off guard at the idea of her grandpa denying her something as important as her potential wedding – aside from being a pirate, which she intended to do regardless of what he said. But a potential wedding was different from that! For all that it was a vague concept to her at six, the story Shanks told her had the pirate's bride being really happy!

Looking around for allies, she pivoted toward her grandpa's guest and grabbed his sleeve. Few others would have the nerve to do so, but the man's mystique was very much lost on her."Neh neh, Zephyr-jiji, if grandpa is a big meaner and won't walk me down the isle, will you do it instead?!"

The purple haired man looked down at her with something between shock, hesitance, and a conflicted longing brought about by a very painful loss he'd endured some years before. "W-Well... that's..."

"Don't indulge her, Zephyr!"

"Says the man who spoils her more than anyone..." Zephyr deadpanned before looking down at Luffy again. Brief memories of his own wedding flicker through his mind, and despite his deep disapproval of the girl's dream, he shrugs and says, "If I'm still alive by then, I suppose I could do so if Garp gives you trouble."

"Yay!"

"Zephyr?!" Garp sputtered in protest, disbelieving that his old friend isn't taking his side.

Zephyr looked both happy and pained when a cheering Luffy launched herself at him, hugging him and looping her arms around him several times. Hesitantly he patted her head, then lifted his gaze and gave Garp a very serious look. "Garp! Of course you want to protect her forever; your little granddaughter is your greatest treasure. But even you and I can't keep them shielded from the world for all time... eventually, she'll want something or someone you disapprove of, and you'll have to chose between your comfort and her happiness! When that time comes... choose wisely."

For the life of him, Garp couldn't find the words to respond to that; not with the weight of loss that he knows is attached to those words. "Zephyr..."

"I'll invite you either way, Zephyr-jiji! You'll want to come, right? Even if there are pirates there?" Luffy looked up at him with big, hopeful hazel eyes. "They'll be real pirates, not lousy raiding fakers like the ones you've always fought."

Zephyr glanced sideways, hesitant. "If I live that long," he allowed, and Luffy cheered, unable to read between the lines.

Luffy blinked out of the memory, still staring blankly at the invitation with her head slightly bowed. All around her is chaos. "She's not getting married!" Zoro shouted, flicking Shushi an inch out of his scabbard. "Luffy will be King of the Pirates. Does Big Mom really think we'll allow her to try and take our Captain to be one of her trophies?!"

"It's obviously a trap!" Nami fretted. "I've seen Charlotte Katakuri's wanted poster; he has the highest bounty of the entire fleet except for his mother! He'll be the biggest monster of the lot of them."

"He's worth over a billion berries," Robin acknowledges, nodding her head. Her eyes are half closed as she draws up the relevant memories, looking unconcerned despite the implications absolutely worrying her. "Despite him not being the eldest, it's generally believed he'll take over the Big Mom pirates if or when his mother perishes."

Ussop started hyperventilating, all but vibrating in place. "Oh no! Luffy, you gotta say no! You can't marry a monster like that!"

"A Yonko won't take a blunt refusal kindly," Brooke pointed out, gently strumming his guitar. "She already has Sanji in her clutches. If there's any chance that she'll harm him in retaliation, we must bear it in mind."

"We're at war with Kaido now." Law said heatedly, gripping Kikoku ferociously. He's not shouting, but the venomous sharp edge to every word carries his voice into the chaos easily. "We can't afford to let Straw Hat-ya get trapped in Big Mom's web, now or ever."

Chopper rushed over to his captain and hugged her arm, trying to read her expression. His Captain, his big sister, was usually very easy to read – Luffy didn't feel anything quietly. Her joy, her anger, her amusement, her worry or her fear, it was always as brilliant as the sun's rays. And right now she looked...perplexed? "Luffy?" The little reindeer Zoan prodded, worried. Luffy made a faint sound and turned the card over again, her brow furrowing tightly.

"But what about Sanji?" Franky pointed out. "We can't just abandon our nakama to a Yonko, yet we also can't just give her our captain. We're in a tough spot here."

"I can't believe that idiot cook has put us in this situation..." Zoro seethed. "If I see him again, I'm going to kill him."

Nami immediately slapped him upside the head. "The absolute hell you will!" She bellowed as he cursed at her in protest. "He's our friend, and he's your friend too even if you won't spit it out because you insist on being such a man!"

"Friends?!" The swordsman sputtered in disbelieving indignation. "With him?!" Nami smacked him again, unamused. "Dammit, quit that, witch!"

Pekoms watched this all unfold with a disbelieving expression, sweat trickling down his brow as his eyes flickered between Straw Hat's first mate and the Surgeon of Death like he's watching a tennis match. He didn't think he'd be able to get clear of their attack radius in his current sorry state, and he's not interested in spending an indeterminate amount of time as a sentient head locked in a submarine's fridge! He should have asked to speak with Straw Hat privately. What a mistake!

Luffy stared even harder at the invitation, then she pointedly shot her fist into the ceiling with a crunch. And like magic, the babbling instantly stops. Retracting her arm, Luffy slowly stood up and fixed Pekoms with a penetrating stare; the mink began to sweat even harder, feeling rather like he was being pierced by the sun's unforgiving rays.

"Pekoms," The incarnated sun goddess intoned, her usually cheerful voice eerily level. "I need you to explain something to me."

He stared warily at her, reaching to tug his IV line free in case he needed to make a break for it. "Which... is what?"

Luffy held the card out in front of her face. "Katakuri," she said seriously. "Does he actually want to marry me, or did his mom bully him into saying it?"

"..." There's a perfect minute of stunned silence as everyone in the room slowly pivots to stare at her. Luffy's expression doesn't change one iota. "There's no writing from him anywhere on this invitation!" She barked, waving the paper furiously. "Is this a weird joke? Who doesn't write their proposal personally?!"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE UPSET ABOUT?!" Her whole crew shrieked at a volume that makes Zushina's ears twitch in discomfort. Pekoms blinked rapidly at the sheer intensity of the ringing in his skull, and for the life of him he cannot figure out why Luffy doesn't seem fazed in the slightest despite the wave of noise being directed straight at her. She's still staring a hole in his head waiting for an answer.

"Mama arranges all her children's marriages," Pekoms said when he could hear himself speak over the tortured ringing noise in his eardrums. "She selects their partners carefully to create more and more alliances for her crew. It makes them stronger."

"So he doesn't even want to marry me! He wants to buy groceries!" Luffy said, now looking well and truly offended. "That's so rude!"

"N – I didn't say that!" Pekoms sputtered frantically, his brain jamming as he tried to keep up with that logic. "You are Nika incarnate! Any man would fight and die for the chance to marry you! Do you not know that?! And what do groceries have to do with anything?!"

The glares that both Zoro and Law leveled at him in response to that – well, if both of those men didn't have Conqurer's Haki, Pekoms was well and truly fooled for a moment. He half expected to blink and find his all his organs sitting innocently in twenty different jars, damn what Mama would have to say about it.

"There's no note from him anywhere on this card!" Luffy complained, waving the offending invitation over her head. "He hasn't even written me a nice poem! There's only his mom asking the question! I'd almost think Big Mom was asking me to marry her for all that he's visible on it!" Ussop uttered a truly high pitched shriek at that notion and Zoro's face turned an interesting shade of purple for a second. Robin, meanwhile, has clamped one hand over her mouth to smother a very heavy fit of laughter.

"K-Katakuri is a man of few words," Pekoms stammered out in sheer confused disbelief. This conversation has gone down such a strange road. "Y-You'll understand when you meet him."

Luffy eyeballed him with naked suspicion, judging his honesty, before seeming to accept his words – or at least that he believed them to be true. This doesn't seem to change her mood however, because she then crossed her arms and huffed. "Gramps and Makino always said I can't marry a man I just met," She said stridently. "It's not smart. We need to go on dates before we decide if we want to get married. So you can call Big Mom and tell her that Katakuri and Sanji's bride can come and live on our ship for the next few weeks!; I'm powerful enough to protect them so she can't complain about that. We'll travel together and then we'll know if we want to get married."

Pekoms's eyes widened into plates, and he shot off his bed with a shriek of disbelief. He couldn't have heard that right! He must still be unconscious from the morphine and having a bizarre fever dream. This girl couldn't possibly be that audacious! Did she have any idea what she was saying?! He tried to imagine delivering that message to Mama and his blood pressure vaulted into previously unknown territory.

Mercifully, he's not the only one – her crew briefly when a uniform shade of white disbelief. "ARE YOU SERIOUS, LUFFY?!" Ussop shrieked when he was physically capable of speaking. "PLEASE SAY YOU'RE NOT BRINGING A MONSTER LIKE THAT ONTO OUR CREW!"

"YOU'RE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING IT?!" Zoro roared.

"LUFFY, JUST SAY NO!" Nami pleaded, her brain blanking at the idea of having Big Mom's chief soldier and any of his sisters on the Sunny.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" Law demanded. "Big Mom would never agree to that, and even if she did, her children would be honeypots! Their only task would be to deceive you and drag you back to her island after you let your guard down!"

Luffy turned toward him and blinked a few times. "Didn't Ussop say something like that about you when we met?" She asked confusedly, as if he's the one being ridiculous. Law twitched violently at the memory and gave the sniper a blistering look; the dark haired boy yips and dove behind Franky's massive frame for protection.

"Just because I had honest intentions when we forged our alliance doesn't mean Big Mom's children would," Law stressed, turning fully to face Luffy. "Don't think that just because she's an Emperor, she's anything like Whitebeard! They might both call their crews their families, but that's the only thing they have in common. Big Mom is not honourable or reasonable; if she gets the chance you would be nothing but her sugar-addled minion who only serves as a cog in her war machine."

That should get through to her, right?! She won't seriously contemplate courting a Charlotte. Any Charlotte. The fact that she knows about marriage and had given it enough thought to actually retain things she'd been told about it by parental figures not named Shanks didn't mean anything.

It didn't. Right?

His heart relaxed ever so slightly when Luffy flared in response. "That's never gonna happen!" She snapped, crossing her arms. "I will be King of the Pirates! Not her!"

And dammit, but Law believed her. He wanted to put the crown on her head himself.

Luffy then slumped a little, looking frustrated. "But I have to go get Sanji back, so I have to get to her island." She missed being able to just beat down anyone who tried to take her nakama from her. Arlong hadn't been this powerful. She's gonna have to...be smart about this. Like Sabo! Sabo was all about super-sneaky plans. He'd be so proud of her. "So I'm gonna say that I'll come and go on some dates with him. She'll think that I'm definitely gonna fall for her trap and not suspect anything!"

Aaaand that feeling came right back; Law's eye twitched violently. He exchanged a wordless look with Zoro, and the other man's expression is identical. The two men briefly share a moment of sympathy instead of wariness and sizing up an opponent. "We'll need a plan to get Sanji back; then if Kat actually likes me, I'll kidnap him and bring him with us." Luffy continued because she's deeply, deeply oblivious to their blood pressure needs.

Pekoms uttered a tortured wheezing sound and clutched his chest. If he was at all sympathetic to Big Mom's minion, Law would have offered him a paper bag.

"You're not serious." Nami whimpered. "That's just a joke. Right Luffy?"

Luffy paused and gave her navigator an honest-to-Nika look of confusion. "You have to run away with your fiance before you get married. Don't you?"

"You're not marrying him!" Her entire crew shrieked, and their goddess had the absolute gall to look confused by it.

"Loud..." Luffy complained, yanking her hat down over her eyes. She stood like that for a second, like they were the ones being unreasonable and just needed to get it out of their systems, before something suddenly occurred to her and she suddenly skipped up to Law. He tried not to jerk back in surprise. "Hey Traffy..."

She actually looked serious, then bowed down. "I'm sorry; I know this makes preparing to fight Kaido more tricky. I just can't leave my nakama behind." Luffy then straightened up, and there's a little glow in her eyes, her awakened form faintly bleeding through the way it always did when she was serious. "I don't want to fight a Yonko without my cook. I need him."

Law full-body twitched; then forced himself to breathe. You know this about her. For fuck's sake you were there when she forced herself to awaken her Haki and her Devil Fruit mere minutes apart to save Portgas. You knew this when she kept breaking everything trying to save you. She did this for him too, she would fight an Emperor for him. "I know," He said shortly, then impulsively continued "We're going to need to make teams. I trust Bepo to get my crew and the samurai to Wano and begin setting things up, but some of yours need to come as well and get embedded in the local population. Time is not on our side."

Luffy blinked. "You're not going? But you hate not having plans. Aren't you the one making them for fighting Kaido?"

"And you don't ever make any, which is why I'm going with you." Law responded doggedly, pointedly ignoring the disbelieving sounds from the traitors behind him and from Luffy's crew. "Knowing you you'll run up to Big Mom, punch her in the face and demand she give your cook back or else." She smiles and nods at him like he's a genius and he could already feel the headache coming on. The things I endure for you... "Then it'll be Marineford all over again. So with that in mind, who do you want to send to Wano?"

Luffy frowned thoughtfully and grasped her chin. About two seconds later she snaps her fingers and grins. "Zoro! Zoro is my first mate and he's the best at making sure things go smoothly."

"Because he's easily as reckless as you and leaves the thinking to others..." Robin remarked lightly, leaving Zoro torn between glaring at her and looking so very pleased. "I'll go to Wano as well, Luffy."

"We're really doing this...?" Nami moaned, rubbing her forehead.

"The Captain has spoken," Zoro responded. He sounded like he was forcing the words out through his teeth; Robin gives him this gentle sympathetic look and he scowls at her in response. "Franky, Ussop, you're coming with me." Law nodded, seeing his logic. Nami would get Luffy to Wano and Chopper would patch up the inevitable consequences of her idea of problem solving.

"...Okay," Ussop mumbled meekly. He is not fighting with Zoro when he's in a jealous fit. No no no, he'd learned his lesson back in Alabasta.

Luffy clapped her hands together. "Good! Let's get to making preparations," she declared. "We're gonna need to pack lots of food. And restock on gunpowder and stuff..." Her eyes widen and she snaps her fingers. "Oh, and I'm gonna need a dress just in case! Can't pretend I'm a bride if I don't have a wedding dress! Neh, neh, kitty!" She turned on her heel and ran off in the direction of Cat Viper's room. "Is there a seamstress I can talk to around here?"

"Hang on, little sis!" Franky protested, hurrying after her. "We need to do inventory first!"

Nami moaned pitifully and buried her face in her hands as Chopper and Ussop run after Franky as well, babbling about medical supplies and tools and things for repairs. She doesn't even want to look in the direction of her Captain's two present suitors; nope, she's not getting in the middle of that, no sir, not even if you paid her. Robin walked over to her and gently pats her shoulder. "There there," The older girl said comfortingly.

"This is going to be a disaster..." Nami groaned without raising her head. "I'm not even sure who I'm afraid of more. Do you think Big Mom would kill me quickly, or does she draw things out?"

Robin hummed soothingly, moving to rub her back like a mother. Law's crew was rambling at him as well, so she guided the orange-haired girl off to one side so they could hear each other speak. "We'd best place a call to those two about this," She reminded her navigator.

Nami peeked at her from between her fingers. It took her a second to figure out who Robin was referring to, but when she did, her eyes grew impossibly wide. "...Is that wise?" Nami choked out weakly, now well and truly getting visions of disaster. Fiery, burning disaster that would make Marineford look like a cheery romp in the park, that would make the Marines look at it and decide they hadn't gotten off that badly after all, things could actually have been worse.

"If you're concerned about their reaction to being told Luffy might be getting married now, how do you think they'll feel if they find out during or even after the fact?" Robin asked pointedly.

Nami froze as still as a statue, slowly rolling that point around in her head. Then she calmly walked over to what she judged to be a relatively sturdy-looking pillar and began to knock her head against it repeatedly, cursing her Captain in agonized despair. Robin let her do so for about a minute – Nami could hardly kick up a storm to vent with the still-recovering minks in close proximity – before calmly interposing a hand between her forehead and the stone so she wouldn't hurt herself. "Do you want to be the one to call, or shall I?" Robin asked lightly.

"I'm not calling her father." Nami said adamantly, putting her foot down. "Not happening. Luffy can tell him herself if she wants to."

"I think that's fair." Robin mused.

"...Fine, I'll call them. But I want your moral support," Nami said, slumping in relief when Robin immediately nodded in assent. "Then we'll...go help our captain with the dress." There's a faint spark of light in her eyes at that. "I haven't been able to play dress up in a long time."

Robin chuckled. Honestly she's just excited to see what Nami and the seamstress will do to make a bride out of her wild tomboy of a captain.

Sanji stared out across the ocean as the ship inexorably dragged him back to the life he'd tried so hard to abandon, occasionally glancing down at the picture in his hands. His cigarette was slowly burning down to a stub as he exhales puffs of smoke in the vain hope that it will help him stop thinking, or at least think less. Big Mom's minion has finally left him alone, though he doubts that will last long, so he has nothing to do but dwell on the sorry situation he's in.

Charlotte Pudding is beautiful. Delicate, cute, her eyes something to drown in; Sanji's heart jumped when he saw her picture, and then he was told she was a chef. The perfect woman. If he weren't being forced into this on pain of Zeff being killed, he would have gone after her without hesitation -

- or he would have, if not...if not for...

Sanji put the picture down and dug around in his pocket for a new cancer stick. He could still hear his Sunshine's laughter in his ears. Her yelling into the transponder snail at him to stay alive, to get to safety, that he's in charge and to take care of everyone. That she trusts him to handle it.

"They must be laughing," he murmured. "That the future King of the Pirates has such a useless crew member." He was able to protect Nami-swan, Chopper and Brook, but he was completely unable to prevent them from being dragged into his mess the very moment after they'd provoked Kaido, the Strongest Creature Alive.

He remembered hearing about Marineford second hand from Ivankov, dragging every agonizing detail out of the Revolutionary and screaming at them for not protecting her better, for letting her get poisoned within an inch of her life, for allowing her to force a premature Awakening that could have destroyed her mind and left her in the same state as Impel Down's Jailer Beasts. He screamed at him despite it not quite being fair, because he hadn't been as angry at Ivankov as he had been at himself.

How he'd hated himself for being weak enough that Kuma was able to send him away that day on Saobody. He should have been there with his Sunshine every step of the way, protecting her so she wouldn't have had to spend minutes not breathing, not spend weeks in a coma, not have to expose herself as Nika to every greedy pirate and wicked tyrant who'd been watching that farce of an attempted execution. What kind of man fails the woman he loves so thoroughly?

Yet Luffy hadn't cared, hadn't even understood what he was getting at when Sanji apologized to her upon their reunion. When he spelled it out for her, she'd gotten mad at the notion he'd done anything wrong and smacked him repeatedly until he reluctantly withdrew the words in order to please her. Then she refused to entertain the subject when Mosshead edged toward it, actually glaring at her first mate.

Sanji flicked his lighter uselessly a few times before managing to spark a flame. She'll come for me, he thought gravely as he lit his new cigarette. That's just who she is. It's a tactical mistake, though, isn't it?

Maybe that bastard surgeon would argue her around to delaying the rescue until after they'd fought Kaido, at least. She might actually listen to him... but even as he ponders that, Sanji acknowledges the chances of that are very low.

Sanji's blood pulsed in aggravation when he thought about the man, and how Luffy had gladly latched onto him and devoted herself to him like she'd known him as long as – as him – despite him and everyone protesting. The tattooed menace had struggled and protested the whole way, put up a front, but he hadn't been fooled at all. He could see Luffy defrosting him like Nika's sun melting winter's snow away.

Sanji could begrudgingly acknowledge he owes the man more than he could ever repay for saving his Sunshine, but that didn't mean he was willing to tolerate yet another rival! Mosshead was bad enough, he was even worse, he refused to let the surgeon have a chance as well.

...Though admittedly, it was likely rather bold of Sanji to assume that he himself had a chance with his sun goddess. More than causing her so much trouble at a critical time, he knew she would blow it off as irrelevant; more than being the unwilling son of an evil empire... he knew there was a strong possibility he'd lost long before he'd ever had a chance.

What was a prince to an Emperor, after all...?

Sanji shook his head firmly at the thought, gritting his teeth at the familiar flare of determination. His heart refused to give up even now. He truly is a fool. He looked down at the picture of Pudding again, wondering if there's the slightest chance that meeting her could change things. He doubted it, though.

He sent her a silent apology, hot guilt bubbling in his stomach. Nothing could be more humiliating than being promised to a man who's heart was distracted by someone else, after all. Forgive me; you deserve better, he thought.

"One of everything? For a single table? You're not serious."

"What, can't take a challenge Patty?" He laughed as he grabbed the corn and the butcher's knife and moved to the nearest cutting board. The other man yelled something he didn't hear over the sound of his blood pulsing excitedly at such an opportunity to test his skills. He'd make every dish as delicious as the next.

It took time, sending one dish out after another while the other cooks questioned how their new customer planned to pay for all of this. Zeff ordered two waiters to tend to the table in question exclusively, and he was as baffled as everyone else when the bewildered men reported that the table only sat four people... and one person was doing the lion's share of the eating! Sanji would believe that when he saw it.

When he finally reached the end of the dishes, his curiosity got the better of him – he wanted to see who this mystery customer was, and if they were enjoying the fruits of his hard labour. He felt like he'd just pushed through a lunch rush. So he left the kitchen and walked out into the restaurant proper, passing by the harried waiters.

"Shihihihi... it's so nice!" A beautiful, free spirited girl's voice rang in his ears, briefly leaving him floating on air. His heart quickening, Sanji zeroed in on the table at a brisk walk.

"Wow, you finally slowed down Luffy. Do you not like that dish?" One of the two guys at the table asked, sounding vaguely impressed.

"No! It's the best out of all of them!" Her back is to him; her curly black hair waves wildly when she shakes her head. The worn straw hat she wore fell down in front of her eyes; she laughed again, that unique and dizzying sound, and readjusted it. "That's why I gotta savour it."

Sanji took a breath, smoothed his hair to the side and walked up to the table, planning to put the charm on as usual. "I'm glad to hear that. I'm the cook; I've never seen someone order half the menu before and I was curious."

The chair twisted sideways in a flash and Sanji found himself underneath a pair of beaming hazel eyes and a brilliant smile, warm as the sun itself. "Ahh! You made all of this for me? Thank you! It's so good!" Monkey D Luffy clapped her hands together, and Sanji lost all the words that had never once in his life deserted him so. His heart almost stopped in his chest, and long before Nika awakened he thought he must be in the presence of a goddess.

Sanji shook his head and roughly ran one hand through his hair. For once, smoking wasn't doing a thing for his nerves. Slamming one hand onto the railing, he cursed the man who brought him into this world; he wonders if Reiju will be there when he's dragged before that warmonger again. He wondered if she'd be the same, or if Judge had crushed her spirit and her empathy over the years.

If he had, if he'd broken the only family he'd truly had before Zeff and after his mother, Sanji might have to kill him.

End Chapter

Sanji was fun to write here; I really enjoyed what Whole Cake Island did with his character. I also appreciate that the Live Action adaptation toned down his womanizing to genuinely charming flirtation rather than, err, manga Sanji.

Drop a review if you enjoyed!