After breakfast, Sanji left with his brothers to the practice field for drills. Their sister was asked to stay behind, for Miss Charlotte wanted company. Sanji dared to glance back as he left the dining room and saw Reiju's stiff shoulders walking away out the other door. She walked just behind and to the left of their future stepmother.

Reiju was always a quick study.

As it was Judge Vinsmoke's first time back, their exercises were particularly relentless and designed to show the king no one had been slacking off during his absence. Even so, as Sanji glanced up at his sister sitting next to Pudding, he would not have traded places with her.

At their first break, while drinking from the water pitcher, the brothers finally had time to speak to one another with some privacy. "How bad?" asked Ichiji quietly.

"She wanted me to say she was more beautiful than our mother," answered Sanji.

Ichiji grimaced and Yonji dropped his cup, but Niji swore, the words a mismatch to his young age. "I knew there was something wrong as soon as I saw her and last night proved me right," he continued. "She asked us what should be done with the weak. If a ship should keep dragging an extra anchor along. If it was up to her, she would just cut it loose."

Sanji looked at each of his brothers, the feeling of dread already present in his stomach growing. If anyone was an anchor, it would have to be him, the smallest and weakest of his father's children. Ichiji took Sanji's water cup and pushed it up to his mouth, "Drink, or you'll regret it later. I think she was just trying to scare us. In all the stories, a stepmother's worst enemy is the children."

Pudding must have grown tired of watching their exercises. By the time of their midday meal, she retired to her bedroom, claiming sun fatigue. Reiju was allowed to join her brothers again. She was even more reserved than usual and barely ate. In her hair was a new bright red velvet ribbon. A color and style she would have never chosen for herself. The red clashed with her pink hair, forcing the eye to look at a warring combination of colors.

When Reiju reached to pass the pitcher of milk, Sanji saw numerous crescent moon injuries on her forearm as her sleeve pulled up.

Reiju caught him looking and turned her head away.

The rest of the afternoon went by easier. Their father chose not to observe them, as he decided to entertain his future wife by playing parlour games. While his children and his men practiced the art of war out on the sea and out under the sun, Judge and his young fiancée played card games, and one of them pretended not to understand the rules of backgammon to make the other feel smart and in charge.

It was during dinner that the day took its sharpest turn. The children sat at the table, waiting and watching the food grow colder and colder. Sanji could hear the servants behind him shuffle as their feet and knees grew stiff from standing still. Finally, their father and Pudding entered and everyone stood at attention, until they took their seats. Judge, instead of his usual expression of angry frustration, looked smug, like a cat who drank all the cream.

Pudding kept her eyes downcast, giving the impression of being bashful and blushing. However, when she lifted her head and peeked over at the Vinsmoke children, she grinned for the merest second, sharp and triumphant, before returning to her shy pout.

Their father, standing next to his chair, cleared his throat and then announced, "After careful discussion, Miss Charlotte and I have decided to move up the wedding date. It will be a fortnight's time. Everyone will assist Miss Charlotte in making certain it goes according to her wishes. She has chosen efficiency and fidelity over an expensive, unnecessary event. Miss Charlotte has proven her character and will not be left unsatisfied. Anything she says, she says with my full backing."

Niji narrowed his eyes and whispered, "Careful discussion, right." Sanji didn't need to see Reiju to know she pinched their brother to keep him from talking further. All of them clapped, of course, when Judge sat down and all of them knew, of course, that their lives were irrevocably altered.

Thankfully, Pudding did not appear to want to make a habit of seeing them to bed. However, she did make Reiju come with her to assist in her nightly preparations. As they left the dining hall and were out of earshot of their father's staff, Yonji expressed his worry for his sister. Ichiji said it was a way for Pudding to show her dominance, by making her future husband's first born her handmaid.

Judge's first born as far as Pudding knew.

The brothers parted, all of them thinking of Reiju and of a future with a new mother who played such dark games with children, though barely not a child herself. Sanji wondered as he pulled a blanket over himself how Pudding learned such tricks at such a young age. She must have been taught to think in such a way. And whoever taught her must have been very cruel indeed.

From the black, deep darkness where one sleeps after working until the muscles quiver and want to give up, Sanji felt himself abruptly pulled out, like a boy dragged up from a well into sunlight. "Would you wake up already? We don't have much time." Sanji shivered, his room far colder than usual and he opened his eyes. Standing next to his bed, with the expected scowl and crossed arms, was the ghost boy Zoro.

Once his brain and eyes caught up with each other, Sanj sat upright and whispered loudly, "What are you doing here? How are you even here? You're going to get me in trouble."

A hand went over his mouth, numbing it. Sanji tried to shove it off, but his own hand went through it. "You'll get your own noisy self in trouble. And I got here by walking, same as you," answered Zoro, taking his hand away. "Though I've heard old ghosts can fly."

Sanji got up and out of his bed. He put on his coat and then asked, "Do you just walk around the castle, spying on us? Where are we going anyway?" Zoro made a motion for Sanji to wait and walked through his door. He came back and nodded, indicating it was safe to head out. "I explore around the castle. It's pretty clever, the way it's set up like a maze. That's a good defensive strategy."

"It's just a castle, not a maze. Why would you think that? Do ghosts have no sense of direction?" asked Sanji. "Does Sabine get lost too?"

Zoro glared at Sanji. "My sense of direction is just fine. How many castles have you been to? This one is a maze. Sabine and Ernst can't leave the cemetery, only me. I think it's because they died here, but I don't know for certain." With that, Zoro explored ahead again while Sanji waited. He came back again and they went on ahead.

Sanji wasn't sure why he was just following the ghost boy or why he knew he could trust him. But it was the same way his heart and stomach told him to be scared of Pudding and to admire Sabine.

"What are we doing?" he asked Zoro again.

Zoro stopped and they both pressed against a wall. "I was exploring last night and found something your father brought back from his last trip. I can't do anything about it, but you can. It's in the storage room, where he keeps all the items he's raided from villages."

"Like yours," said Sanji quietly, feeling guilty for his father's actions.

"Yeah, like mine," Zoro answered. He frowned at Sanji and laid a hand on his shoulder, unwittingly freezing it. "He did that, not you or your brothers or your sister. The only thing you did was have prissy manners. So embarrassing to watch."

"The storage room is to the right, not the left," said Sanji, feeling grateful despite the insult, and he could swear the ghost boy's cheeks looked pinker. "They must have moved it since the last time," Zoro replied. "Let's get going. We need to get him out before your father realizes what he has."

"Get who out?" asked Sanji. "What do you mean?"

Zoro hurried ahead impatiently, but did reply, "The ghost in the bell jar. He's trapped there and I can't do anything about it. You'll need to do it."