"We haven't time to discuss it now," Sabine continued. "The grey light is upon us and we must sleep. Your first proper day will begin later tonight. Come, Sanji. Stay with your mother. She needs you and it will be good for your first night as a ghost to be with her."

Sora took Sanji's hand and they carefully sat down, with his mother urging him to rest his head on her lap. The other ghosts got themselves settled as well. Ernst snuggled with Sabine, while Brook sat next to her and played a soft tune on his violin.

Zoro stood apart from the others, standing watch, peering at the castle for any threats. Sanji started to call out to his friend to at least sit down, but his words were overtaken by a yawn. And then he closed his eyelids for just the briefest second, only to find himself powerless to lift them back up.

It was the blackest sleep Sanji could remember ever having, as if all outside sensations had been extinguished and he had drifted into a deep well where no light or sound could penetrate.

And when he awoke, he felt every part of him renewed. He was braced to begin for the day, save that it was actually night, with every part of his incorporeal practically humming with energy. It took him a moment to realize perhaps that no small part of that was because he had not awoken cold or hungry, with bones aching from resting on a mattress filled with shredded rags.

"The first few times take some getting used to. It's so very different than our old lives," offered Sabine.

The other ghosts stood or sat in a semicircle around him. Sanji stood up, ready to apologize for keeping them waiting, but immediately felt a sharp elbow in his back.

"You got that dumb look on your face, like you did something wrong. Just remember, you're dead and you don't need to go around saying you're sorry for every little thing anymore."

Sanji turned and threw his own elbow out, but Zoro stepped aside too quickly, laughing as he did, a wide open-mouthed laugh that made the sword boy close his eyes and draw his arms around his belly.

"You're a bad example to Ernst," Sanji scolded him, but it was difficult to hold back his own smile as he watched the little boy peeking through his fingers at the two of them teasing one another.

Zoro gave out a long sigh of pretend annoyance and then composed himself into a more serious face. He turned to Sabine and asked, "Are you ready?"

To Sanji's amusement and Zoro's embarrassment, Sabine reached over, tousling the little swordsman's hair. "Yes, my grumpy guard, I am."

While Zoro roughly scrubbed his hair back out of place, Sabine bent over to kiss Ernst on the top of the head. She thanked Sora for watching over him while she would be gone and then Brook took her by the crook of the arm, escorting her out of the cemetery like the queen she had been and still was.

Before following her, Sanji ran over to his mother and gave her a hug, whispering, "Please, don't look sad. This has been my very best morning, or evening rather, in the longest time."

"Be careful," she whispered back. "Cruel men are too often clever and you know too well that your father is heartless."

Sanji promised his mother that he would watch for himself and the others too. Then he jogged on to catch up with the others, reveling in how light his steps were, in how gravity itself seemed to lose some of its grip against him.

Once he caught up with Sabine and Brook, and had kicked Zoro in the back of the knee, Sanji asked, "What's the plan for tonight? Not more dead rats and busted windows, I assume?"

"No," assured Brook. "Sabine is going to find Pudding. Many of the staff are treating her almost like a prophet because she saw a demon and her vision foretold the evil that has befallen the castle now."

"That was you," laughed Sanji as he poked Zoro in the side. "You're the evil vision."

"No," disagreed Zoro, poking Sanji back. "I was the demon that scared a whole castle."

"If she saw you as a demon, what do you think I'll look like? What will my true form be?" wondered Sanji.

Zoro gave his friend a thorough look over. "Most likely something loud and also useless with a sword, so maybe a pelican." Sanji aimed another kick at Zoro, but he dodged out of the way again, as Brook laughed at their antics.

Sabine, however, was paying little attention to what the three of them were up to. Her gaze was fixed on the castle and, more specifically, to the tower where Judge kept his war room. There were no guards patrolling that Sanji could see as they neared and he wondered how his father had prioritized their placement.

The staff and servant quarters would not be considered important, nor the kitchens and other working areas. Judge kept a well stocked larder in his own quarters in case of a siege, and Sanji supposed this was as close to a siege as they had ever experienced.

The question remained as to whether his father chose to protect his children and his too young bride.

As they entered the castle, Sanji kept a careful watch over Sabine. It would be her first time back in many years, back to the place that she had thought would be her wedded home, where she thought her son would grow up and become a young man.

It was the home where her husband killed her child and murdered her without a shred of guilt.

Sanji wondered if much had changed since those foul deeds had been done. Were those the same vases with painted bridges on pedestals and the same heavy, dark blue tapestries hanging on the walls?

He looked up towards the high ceiling, looking at the cobwebs. Maybe way up there were the great, great, too many greats too count, grandchildren of spiders that were around when she was alive.

And now Sabine was back, ready to exact her some semblance of vengeance.

The emptiness was disturbing, though Sanji could tell there were other people in the castle. He could hear them, gathered in groups, behind closed doors. Some engaged in more private, adult activities that left him pretending he hadn't heard.

His friend was less discreet.

"Gross," Zoro muttered.

Sabine held a hand up, stopping the group. "I've had a change of plans. A queen, dead or not, does not seek out her audience. Her audience comes to her."

"Oh," replied Brook. "What do you have in mind?"

"I'm going to the throne room. The only question is whether Sanji and Zoro think they can convince Pudding to leave her room and come down to meet me."

Sanji looked at Zoro, wanting to give Sabine the answer she needed. Zoro quirked his head and raised an eyebrow, as if asking Sanji if he was up for the challenge.

To his delight, Sanji discovered he could pinch the sword boy hard enough to draw out a distinct ouch.

"Of course, at your disposal, my queen," Sanji answered her.

"She'll come, if she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life with a frostbitten nose," agreed Zoro.

Brook shook his head at Zoro's gruff answer. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that, young man. Remember, she does think you're a six-armed demon so perhaps less drastic measures can be used."

"Tell her that a queen of the past requests an audience with a queen of the future. I believe that should appeal to her ego and her curiosity," advised Sabine. "Sanji, play the role of emissary and Zoro, you know what to do. Brook, you'll have your hands full, I believe playing diplomat."

Sanji wondered if it was a trick of the light or if, perhaps, Zoro knew more tricks about death he needed to share, because when the sword boy smiled at Sabine his teeth looked sharp and pointed like a giant land cat.

"Come on, emissary, let's go. The night's just getting interesting." Zoro grabbed Sanji's hand, sending an odd warmth through his arm, like submerging it in bathwater.

"It's this way," answered Sanji, pulling his friend the other direction towards a staircase opposite of where they were heading. "Maybe you need to leave more handprints?"

"Fine, we'll take the easy way there," grumbled Zoro and Sanji now realized how much more of his friend's face he could read. For now, he could see the faintest shade of pink on Zoro's cheeks.

"Perhaps haste is in order tonight. Much is to be done," offered Brook who, for some reason, was smiling at the two of them.

As they made their way up the staircase, the three of them began encountering more and more servants and guards. However, neither boy was in a mood to scare them.

Many of those they encountered were praying or writing letters, or having someone who could read and write, put down what they thought were their last words. They cried and scrambled out of the way upon seeing the two child ghosts and their tall companion.

Sanji attempted to assure them that neither of them bore any ill will towards those who hadn't harmed them, but it did little to assuage their fears, and several tripped and fell down the stairs in their hasty efforts to get away.

"What did you and Brook do?" whispered Sanji angrily at Zoro.

"Your father threw you in a dungeon to starve you to death. I don't regret what I did," responded Zoro, looking straight ahead.

Finally, the they made it to Pudding's quarters. As they had gotten closer, fewer guards and servants ran away, though they had paled and shook in fear. Zoro did not change his demeanor the entire time, looking angry and ready to fight while Sanji tried his best to look conciliatory and nonthreatening. Brook spent his time humming an odd little time that sounded vaguely nautical.

At the door were two guards, neither of whom Sanji recognized. He drew in a breath, but didn't breathe for that was a function of the living. "I'm here to present a message from her Queen Majesty, the Lady Sabine for the future Queen Majesty, the Lady Pudding."

The guard he spoke to looked over at the other guard, uncertain what to do.

Zoro stepped forward and rested his hand on the wall next to the guard, creating a pattern of frost on one of the stones. "I'm here to make sure it gets delivered."

Before Sanji could scold Zoro for being unnecessarily threatening, a muffled voice came from behind the door.

"Sanji? Is that you?"

There was the sound of locks being undone and then the squeak of hinges as the heavy door was opened.

A face peered out.

"I can't believe it! We thought you were dead." Yonji's face was twisted up in emotion. "Come inside!"

"Actually, he is dead," corrected Zoro.

Sanji pushed Zoro through the door, with Brook following behind, and they made their way into Pudding's room.