.:Chapter 24 - Battle:.
There was no turning back now.
Sanji watched his captain's chaotic entrance in awe before sky-walking Pudding off the collapsing altar. It didn't take long for the anarchy to send the ceremony into an all-out panic. Sanji looked back in time to see Jinbei facing off with Big Mom. The fishman completely unaffected by her power.
"The man who I have chosen to follow," Jinbei was saying, "will surely be King of the Pirates someday. I cannot be intimidated by a mere Emperor of the Sea!"
Sanji smiled.
As did the Straw Hats.
It was good to have Jinbei onboard. Their helmsman had been scouting the waters when the gas incapacitated their ship, so had been spared capture. If Hollowell and his specialists realized the Straw Hats were a crewmate short, they never showed any sign of it, and the crew wondered if Jinbei would somehow find them and break them out before they managed themselves – he had a way about doing that time and again.
His crew clearly had everything under control, and he figured he was far enough away from the frontlines now to land somewhere.
"Are you okay, Pudding?" he asked the still-sobbing girl in his arms. "Let's find someplace safe…"
Pudding glanced up at him as he spoke, eyes shimmering, then angry. She whipped out another pistol from her dress and fired. Sanji's head snapped back as the shot echoed.
Every muscle in each crewmember tensed automatically.
"Gah! Why did it show like that?!" Usopp whined, he and Nami clutching at their hearts. It wasn't like they didn't know Sanji dodged it. "Geez!"
Pudding fell from Sanji's arms as he dodged and scrambled back. The girl was lucky they were so low to the ground already. Sanji stumbled again as she fired two more rounds.
"Pudding, stop!"
"Be quiet," she growled. She cocked her gun again. "Look – this is the real me! See? You surprised?" She grinned her evil grin, all three eyes fluttering in shadow. "Or maybe disappointed? Not to worry, though – you won't have to live with the truth!"
She fired.
Missed.
Despite what she was saying, she was wavering. Teetering on the edge of something Sanji couldn't place. There were more than two sides to Charlotte Pudding, and Sanji didn't think even she knew which one was the real her. Had she ever been allowed to find out? Or just designed by her family…like Reiju and his brothers and even himself?
Big Mom and Judge weren't that different. Not really.
Chopper frowned. "It's sad when he puts it like that."
"Sanji is quite observant when he's paying enough attention," Brook said. "I don't suppose he's entirely wrong about her."
"There is a difference, though," Nami pointed out. "Pudding still has emotions, and she wasn't completely alone or with only bad influences. She had siblings like Chiffon and Lola and probably a lot more. I mean, there are a lot of Charlottes…"
"Plus, she was super cruel," Franky added. "Not saying she's gotta be perfect or anything. But it's not really a good excuse, either – is it?"
"Maybe not," Robin supposed. "But whatever people and circumstances influenced her the most, she either never considered there was another path or wasn't strong enough to take it."
"Maybe Pudding saw most of her siblings behaving that way and figured that was just how the world worked?" Usopp suggested. He tilted his head, face twisting, uncertain. "But then she knew how to act like good person, so she knew the difference between 'good' and 'bad'…" He shut his eyes and shook his head furiously. "Agh! This is too complicated!"
Sanji leaned away from another candy jacket aimed for his head, then straightened. With calm, determined steps, he walked toward Pudding as she fire again and again, shot after shot. The closer he got to her, the more she trembled. Panicked when she ran out of ammo, the girl switched to verbal shots.
"I've been conning idiot like you my entire life!" She laughed. "You're so easy to deceive—"
"And what about you?" Sanji interrupted, making her pause.
"What?"
"What I mean is, you've also been deceiving yourself, Pudding – haven't you?"
There was a moment of stunned silence as Pudding tried to regain her composure. Her lips quivered again, and she shook. "Don't—Don't act like you understand!"
In their distraction, Sanji almost didn't see another of Big Mom's children appear, and he barely got himself and Pudding out of the attack's radius in time. Apparently Sanji was still a main target.
"He attacked even with his sister right there?" Franky said, eyebrow quirked.
"Daifuku!" Pudding cried, reaching for the broad man with shaved blonde hair and a nasty scowl.
"You screwed this one up, Pudding," her brother scolded. "You useless twit. We don't have time to screw around like this! Things can't proceed until this chump dies."
Sanji didn't like the way he spoke to her. It was too familiar a family dynamic.
Robin smirked slightly. "You see? Our cook will always have a soft spot for abused siblings."
"Sounds like her problem," Zoro grumbled, earning an eyeroll from Nami beside him.
"Zoro, be nice," Chopper admonished.
"It's okay, man, I understand why you don't like her." Usopp nodded seriously. "Here you are with one good eye left, and she gets to have three. Life can be so unfair."
Zoro's swords flashed. "Does Long-Nose wanna become No-Nose?"
"Wha-?! Now, now – let's not get hasty!"
Luffy laughed at his crew's antics.
As Pudding shoved out of Sanji's arms and ran for the safety of her brother, a blue smoke erupted from Daifuku's belt, manifesting into a solid being with a long blade.
Usopp's and Franky's eyes bulged. "Is that a genie?!"
Sanji had to dodge a new array of attacked while Pudding pleaded for her brother to stop, swearing that she could finish the job herself.
She was trying to prove her usefulness, Sanji though with a tsk.
"You already had your chance and completely blew it," Daifuku said. "Now take a seat!" He backhanded his sister across the cheek.
Sanji's eyes widened. "Hang on, Pudding!" But as he parried with the genie, leg to blade, Vinsmoke Judge's booming voice rang out.
"HOW DARE YOU TRY SOMETHING LIKE THIS ON US!"
Back amid the action, the Vinsmoke family table was encased in purple goo and surrounded by Charlottes. The goo solidified, trapping Judge and his children in their seats. Sanji cursed.
"Dammit! This wasn't supposed to happen…"
Big Mom seemed to be in some sort of shock rather than letting out the scream she was supposed to. Nami and the others were waiting for that cue to bring the raid suits out. It was all going too slow, and now Sanji had to get over there sooner rather than later.
Judge struggled against the hardening candy, fuming. "What's the meaning of this, Big Mom?! I TRUSTED YOU!"
"Did this guy really never consider she'd double-cross him?" Franky questioned. Seemed naïve as hell for a leader.
The Vinsmoke siblings, however, remained calm and disinterested in their own seats. Four pistols were at the ready behind each of their heads.
"What about our agreement?!" Judge was demanding. "Even in the underworld we honor decency! Answer me!"
"There was nothing decent about their arrangement to being with," Luffy said, shrugging.
Beside him, his eldest son was smirking. "A little late to whine about it now, Father. We sure walked into this one, huh?" Ichiji chuckled. "This candy has us bound."
"They swiped all our weapons at the gate," Yonji added with a sneer of his own. "They even have our raid suits."
"Looks like we fell for the perfect setup," Niji said. "I guess we aim too high, huh?"
The brothers laughed.
Judge glared at his sons. "What is wrong with you?! Stop laughing!"
"Pft. Isn't he the one who made them like that?" Zoro said.
Reiju eyed her father with zero sympathy. The boys didn't fear their own death. He was the one who had made his sons hardly human. What did he expect?
Big Mom's children laughed, too, mocking the Germa King whose face grew so red it was almost purple. "You're making jokes?!" he shouted at them. "I've worked so hard! I've devoted my life to this! All for the sake of vengeance against the countries of the North Blue. I've shed blood, sweat, and tears for the Germa Empire! Big Mom, what do you have to say for yourself!"
Big Mom, however, was still in her own shock. There was no talking himself out of this.
"Please tell me…" Judge started to cry angry tears. "Tell me this is all a lie!"
"He's crying?!" Zoro, Usopp, and Franky bellowed.
The lanky first son of Big Mom – Perospero – tittered at Judge. Pistols slanted and cocked as they leveled with the captive Vinsmokes, and Sanji's white legs shimmered through the air, catching aflame, shooting his body forward like a rocket to clear his path toward his blood-family.
Judge was still bawling like a child throwing a tantrum.
"You bastard!" Judge sobbed, struggling futilely against his candy prison. "If I had my raid suit…then we would be the ones laughing at you!"
"Bro, you don't though," Franky shook his head. Guy was a super sore loser. No amount of whining was gonna save him. And he acted so high-and-mighty…
"Man, he's really nothing like Sanji," Luffy added.
Thank goodness for that, Zoro thought. Although he had to admit, watching the Germa King crumble was satisfying.
"Raid suit? What is that?" Perospero drawled. "A weapon? Do you think that would help? I don't think so. How sad – you tried to sneak a weapon into your own son's wedding and got caught."
Sanji sped toward them, almost there, eyes catching the glimmer of a gun brush close to strands of pink hair. "Leave now, Reiju!" he cried, garnering all their attention.
Daifuku's genie was hot on his tail. No matter how many times the cook knocked it back, it was on him again, aided by the speed of the wind in the air. It grabbed at Sanji desperately and slammed him face-first into the ground. The blonde forced his head up as far as he could, eyes searching for his sister. "Run…Reiju…"
But Reiju… She only smiled at him. Kind and soft.
The look of their mother. A woman who had also accepted her fate, and Sanji's heart plummeted.
"It's like she feels a sense of peace seeing her brother all grown up," Brook said. "She's ashamed to be a Vinsmoke, but Sanji's a blessing to their bloodline as his kindness confounds all reason."
"She must see Sora in him," Robin agreed. "And feels she understands how their mother must have felt when she looked at Sanji, too."
Brook hummed. "Quite poetic."
Perospero watched Sanji's display with amusement. "Look at that, Judge. He wants to rescue you. How sweet ~lick. But sadly it's over for you Vinsmokes. Now, let the lickety fun commence!"
Guns cocked. Triggers pulled back. Sanji's fear ignited through his bloodstream like a fuse.
And then, Big Mom's scream reverberated through the chaos.
Weapons fell forgotten as her shrill cry shattered eardrums, rendering every person in the vicinity immobile. Even the Vinsmokes shuddered, until three new fighters entered the fray to come to their aid.
Nami, Chopper, and Carrot arrived quietly on scene, slipping earplugs into each of the Vinsmokes' ears, sparing them from the noise.
Germa 66 had no idea what was going on anymore, and then, suddenly, a flaming wheel spun from out of the sky. A single heel shattered the purple candy that had them trapped into millions of sparkling shards. The Vinsmokes' eyes rose up to see none other than Sanji, coat billowing in the heat as fire licked up his legs, sending sparks floating around them like ash and casting the blonde in the orange glow of his own power.
Zoro wasn't even attempting to hold back his grin. Pride and satisfaction unbridled. And – damn – that was good look for Curly, too.
Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper had stars for eyes. "Wow! So cool!"
Judge's pupils shook as he stared up into the fiery, formidable gaze of his underestimated third son. The 'weak' one who was disowned until convenient. The one who had just saved Judge's sorry ass.
Franky laughed. "Alright, Sanji! Bro totally deserved that moment."
"Mhmm," Robin smiled, delighted that their cook had demanded to be seen even if it was simply a side effect of the compassion that drove him forward.
The shocked Vinsmokes were distributed their respective raid suit canisters by the Straw Hats, and somewhere in that moment, allegiances had shifted.
The memory blurred, showcasing a lot of running after that as their plan was thwarted on every account.
"Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong," Nami sighed.
Their initial escape back into the mirror world was deterred by Big Mom's scream destroying the mirror in Caesar's grasp before anyone could get to it, and Capone Bege had to turn himself into his tank castle form for their escape instead. Meanwhile, the Charlotte children had regained their composure and ascended with ferocity, including Big Mom herself. Sanji was surrounded immediately back at the Vinsmoke table as he watched his crewmates be snatched up by the Charlottes.
In the middle of his panic, five canisters were held outward, and beams of light blinded the attackers as Vinsmoke Judge and his children transformed into their raid suits in dazzling displays.
The Straw Hats stared.
"Still don't get why their change is so fancy," Franky muttered, but he was a fan of the dramatics, so whatever.
Did Curly go through that when he used his? Zoro chortled. He was sorry he missed it.
"Burn like the trash you are!" a Big Mom pirate yelled in the midst of it all, setting the table alight.
Sanji was immediately surrounded by capes. Not a single scratch or burn was inflicted on him or the siblings that surrounded him.
Definitely wasn't expecting that, Sanji thought.
But as quickly as they appeared at his side, his siblings jetted away, toward the apprehended Straw Hats. Chopper and Carrot were freed quickly, while Nami was thrown into the air as Reiju attacked her captor.
"I've got you!" Sanji cried, catching Nami in his arms and running her to the safety of Bege's castle, Chopper and Carrot flanking him on either side.
Nami smiled up at the cook. "Nice catch!"
Sanji seemed to sparkle. "It's my pleasure, I assure you."
"Crew's coming back together nicely, I see," Franky chuckled.
Luffy cleared the way for his crew, and Germa blasted through to the castle as well, just in time for the gates of Bege's body to close. Everyone had made it to their barricaded safety point, but they weren't out of the water yet. They were only protected by Bege's abilities. They needed to get out of Big Mom's territory. If Caesar could fly Bege – who held everybody inside him – to the shore, they could all escape their separate ways there.
Plans could never be that simple, though, and while arguing erupted, Sanji felt a tall presence come up behind him.
"Answer me one thing, Sanji…"
Sanji stiffened. Turned slowly to face Judge. The King of Germa glared down at him as if he was inferior still.
Zoro narrowed his eye.
"Why did you save us?" Judge asked. "We fell into that trap on our own, and we're hardly your allies."
There was a moment of silence as Sanji truly contemplated his answer. And then, with absolute transparency:
"Because my father would be disappointed in me if I didn't. That's why."
Judge balked, but Sanji persisted.
"I used to hold onto all the resentment from so many years ago…"
A dark cell. An iron weight. A little boy crying. 'What did I do wrong? I'm sorry… Sorry I was born so weak! Please help me! I can't live in here by myself!'
The Straw Hats' hearts did not like being reminded of that.
"But if I grew up to be such a coldhearted man that I would laugh at the death of my own flesh and blood, I couldn't face him. If I can't stand tall and look my father in the eyes, then I've failed him."
Sanji walked forward, remembering all the cruel words Judge had ever spoken to him as he disowned him all those years ago. He was no longer a Vinsmoke. Hadn't been for a long ass time. And he needed them to fucking know that. Right here, right now. He was Black Leg Sanji, the cook of the Straw Hat Pirates and the son of Red Leg Zeff. Nothing else mattered to him.
"Thirteen years ago, Vinsmoke Sanji escaped from the Kingdom of Germa and died at sea," Sanji told Judge. "You got exactly what you wanted that day." Sanji threw his fist back as if he was about to punch the man. His palm opened at the last second and grabbed at the edges of his cloak instead, dragging the king down to his knees. Now that Judge was eye-level with him, the cook spat, "After this – we're done. You're not my father, Vinsmoke Judge. And don't you forget that!"
The Straw Hats smiled. It took a lot of courage to face your past, to accept it, and even more to stand up to it.
"After this, I don't ever want to see your face again!"
Judge smacked Sanji's hand away and stood. He turned away quickly. "I understand. You have my word – this is the last you'll see of me. And I'll stay away from the East Blue, as well."
"Well, that was easy," Usopp mumbled.
He walked away and Sanji let him go. There was a silent moment of tension, nobody knowing quite what to do or say.
"Open the castle gate!" Judge suddenly demanded of the room. "Hear my words, Bege – until Caesar delivers you safely from here, Germa 66 will act as your guards."
Usopp blanked. "Haah?!"
Sanji stopped Luffy from offering his help as Germa 66 made their exit, Judge throwing one final thing over his shoulder.
"I don't want to be indebted to that failure any longer."
"Oh." That cleared it up for the now-unimpressed sniper.
Zoro knew he would never be able to be in a room with that pathetic excuse for a man without giving him something real to cry like a baby about.
As the memory progressed, the Vinsmokes kept their vow. Sanji and Luffy joined in the fight when Reiju was knocked into trouble, and together the two Straw Hats fought alongside the Vinsmokes, head-to-head with the Charlottes. Sanji ran forward, Reiju flying by his side. When it seemed everyone had been restrained, there was an explosion from down below and the chateau began to topple. Sanji grabbed Luffy and air-walked off the falling chateau. Nami called to them, and Ichiji and Reiju worked together to clear a path from the falling debris for them.
All of this… It was the first time Sanji had ever fought alongside them. Was this what it would've been like had Sanji turned out like them? Or perhaps if they had retained their humanity and they were all just a normal family?
Hell, it didn't matter anymore. Sanji had a family – and it wasn't them.
"That's right!" Chopper beamed, so happy in this moment his little eyes were scrunched in the corners.
"Let's go!" Luffy called out when they had made it to the shore and broke off from their allies. Luffy was grinning ear-to-ear as they ran to find the Sunny. The Straw Hats had made it this far, and now Sanji could go home.