A few cookies later, Luffy called for a general assembly. Everyone gathered around the dining table. Ideas were thrown about in the room as the crew tried to connect the dots. Everyone had noticed something strange on the island. Sanji listened from the kitchen, busy turning fruits and vegetables into pies and compotes.
In the end, they agreed on multiple issues to launch an investigation. The intervention of the Marines –whose real identity they were starting to doubt– and the discovery of fresh but not-too-fresh ingredients was no coincidence. Luffy chanted a hundred times over that there was a mystery beneath it all, that he loved it, and that it was really strange how these fruits lost their taste so quickly. When asked, he laughed and replied, "Of course we're going to investigate! Shishishi!"
.
They split up. Sanji went with Usopp and Luffy. He avoided complaining too much because Nami had threatened (had offered him. She had delicately offered him) to "dump Zoro on him if he kept whining." The girls had gone with Chopper, and the marimo was staying to guard the ship. That lazy bum was probably happy about it too, since it meant training without any distractions.
They had a lead to follow, for which they needed to go back to the market. Sanji was upset. He was convinced that the merchants had tricked him by selling them withered fruits. There was no way a decent merchant wouldn't notice the deceit unless it was intentional. He was planning to make them confess their little scheme.
For once, Luffy was following them. Sort of. Let's just say he wasn't bouncing too far ahead. At the moment, he had spotted a caterpillar on the corner of a house and was amusedly watching, having fun following its progress. Sanji had made him a bento, and the captain periodically dipped his hand into it. Suddenly, a particular scene caught their captain's eye, and he stared intently at a mother kneeling on the ground, trying to comfort her child. The little girl was in tears. She had dropped her candy on the ground.
"Shhh, it's okay, sweetheart. It's not a big deal." The mother was trying in vain to soothe her daughter's tears by saying calming words and wiping her face with a cloth. "You'll have more at home."
The little girl was inconsolable. Her cries were starting to attract the attention of passersby. It could have been a mundane event, but Luffy kept his eyes fixed on the scene, which prompted Usopp and Sanji to stop.
The mother continued, "Do you want a snack? How about some fruit? Here, I have a nice apple. Wait, let me cut it for you."
The mother, half crouching, managed to find a somewhat comfortable position to retrieve an apple and a small pocketknife out of her pocket. The girl mumbled something. Sanji understood the words "no" and "not good." She weakly pushed away her mother, who was trying in vain to get her to eat a slice of apple before it turned yellow.
Luffy approached. The mother's attention shifted to the stranger, but she couldn't tell whether the young boy was a threat or not. Finally, Luffy squatted down at the girl's level and said bluntly:
"Your apple's not good, huh?"
Surprised by the interruption from a stranger, her tears abruptly stopped. She shook her head no.
"Did you see mine?" Luffy showed her a quarter of his apple. It was their last fresh one. Sanji had sliced it and added a hint of cinnamon on top. "It's super good. It's the best cook in all Grand Line who prepared it for me."
Sanji rolled his eyes, partly because it wasn't grand cuisine, and partly to hide any trace of a blush. Usopp subtly turned towards him, a hint of amusement in his eyes, but he sensed that something important was happening and didn't interrupt the conversation.
The young girl was hanging onto Luffy's every word. Hypnotized by the quarter apple, which she didn't see turning yellow, she forgot to answer him. She leaned closer to the fruit as if she could feed off its scent.
"I'll give it to you," Luffy continued, "but only if you give me yours in exchange."
With nothing to lose, the little girl waited for a nod from her mother to agree, and she took a bite of the fresh quarter of an apple. Her eyes widened, and she finished the piece in three bites. She handed one to her mother while biting in a second, this time slowly enough to savour it.
Luffy chewed on the old, yellowed apple he had exchanged. He ate it without rushing, but without showing any signs of distaste. Sanji couldn't help but wonder if he had done it to prevent the fruit from going to waste, or simply because he didn't care about the state of the apple. A question he would never have the answer to.
"Thank you, sir," the little girl said timidly. "My name is Sarah. Where did you find this apple?"
"Very far, on another island," Luffy said. Sarah looked disappointed. "But my cook says there's something wrong with your fruits, so we're finding the problem and fixing it! Shishishi!"
Sarah looked like she had just been promised a pony for her birthday. Luffy never broke his promises. Sanji was fired up. Usopp looked proud of his captain too. He straightened up, tall and sturdy despite the mother's sceptical gaze. The cook pulled out a cigarette.
"Mama, see?" Sarah tugged at her mother's sleeve. "The man says he'll bring them back! It looks like one of our apples! It's one of our apples! "
"Sweetheart, you know that's not possible." She ruffled her daughter's hair, then straightened up and reached out a hand to Luffy. "Thank you, young man, you're very kind. But I don't know if you'll be able to do anything. The situation is too tragic for pretty promises."
"What's going on, my lady?" Sanji asked. "Do you know why your fruits are like this?"
"Yes, of course. There was a fire a few months ago. All our farmers perished in it, and all our lands burned."
Luffy looked solemn. Sanji continued, "A few months ago? I heard of a fire, but not as recent."
"You're thinking of the first fire, the one from several years ago." The young woman continued her explanation, absentmindedly wiping her hands on her apron. "No, this one was beneficial for the land. The ashes made the land more fertile. That fire gave us our reputation, in a way. But there was another one earlier this year. It took over the entire agricultural side of the island." She pointed to a hill. " It has been burning ever since. I don't know where you got this fruit, but you should have kept it. There won't be any more, because nothing grows on our island now."
"Huh? It's been burning for several months? But that's impossible!" Usopp stepped closer to Sanji's shoe for distrusting a beautiful woman's words. "Are you sure about what you're saying?"
"This is Grand Line, sir. Anything is possible."
"Where do you buy your fruits?" Luffy asked. "We want to know why they're so bad."
The woman took a moment to think. She wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, and had to reformulate her sentence in her head several times before arriving at an honest answer.
"Why do all tourists say that the fruits here are low-quality? Aren't they the same as everywhere else?"
She looked deeply into Sanji's eyes, as if seeking an answer or her solace. Cigarette forgotten and hanging low, Sanji could only utter a simple "No, my lady", too choked to answer correctly, as he was starting to grasp the extent of the problem.
"But… That apple you had," she continued, "it was so tasty! It must have been one of ours, wasn't it ?"
She wanted them to say 'yes' so badly that she overlooked the flaw in her reasoning. Usopp, however, caught it.
"Huh? But ma'am, an apple doesn't last that long!" he pointed out. "If the fire started several months ago, how could we possibly have one of your apples?"
She seemed suddenly lost. Her daughter grabbed her by the hand, still slowly munching on her apple.
"Did Captain Irrelevant say that?" Asked Luffy bluntly.
Feeling overwhelmed from all sides, the mother attempted to steer the conversation elsewhere. "I don't know anymore… You should go speak with the merchants. They're the ones dealing with imports. They handle the imports. I can't assist you further."
Sarah called at her mother and whispered something, providing her with an excuse to distance herself from the group. But before leaving, the little girl waved them goodbye and thanked Luffy once again.
"Soooo… " Usopp pondered. "A fire caused the bad fruits?"
"Nothing would put a fruit or a vegetable in that condition, Usopp," Sanji replied. "It's a scam. Let's go see the merchants."
He set off without waiting for the other two. Usopp chimed in with a "Roger that, chef!" and Luffy laughed as he joined them.
.
The vendors hadn't packed yet, and the market was still there when they arrived. Fewer people were milling about, but the air was still filled with the clamour of sellers shouting their prices. Sanji had had time to stew over the lack of honour among the merchants endangering the health of young ladies, and he was quite fired up. The banner of the fruit vendor Sanji approached read "Garcia, father and son, fruits and vegetables," yet the hefty man in front of him was alone, advertising his wares like the others. He spoke with an accent. When he reached the vegetable merchant, Sanji forcefully slammed his foot on a wooden crate, startling both the vendor and his customer.
"Hey shit seller, where did you get your fruits?"
The salesman, having recovered from his fright, handed his shopping bag back to his customer and focused all his attention on the irritating scrawny blond. He crossed his arms, ready to defend his turf.
"Hey there, young man, I don't like your tone very much! And I don't have to answer your questions so skedaddle."
Sanji knocked over the crate. It fell and crashed.
"You have to answer my questions if you sell adulterated products, you fraud."
"ADULTERATED products?"
The man emerged from behind his stall. He approached Sanji, puffing out his big belly, foolishly thinking he had the upper hand because he was more imposing than his opponent. To him, Sanji looked more or less like a shrimp in a two-piece costume.
"I'll have you know we only sell quality products here! See this pear? It's the best pear you'll find on this island, you little arrogant!"
"I couldn't say. It's hard to assess the quality of it when it rots before reaching your mouth." Sanji remained surprisingly calm, but his foot was twitching. In his book, it was a clear sign that a blow could land at any time.
Usopp tried to calm him down. "Um… Sanji? We've got an audience."
"I see how it is." The merchant appraised Sanji up and down. "Another tourist. They're all the same. They come here and they criticize our fruits, without even knowing what happened!" He swept his gaze over the crowd. A small group had gathered and was observing the interaction from afar. He played it up as if he were the master of the market. "Everyone here has suffered from the fire. We lost good men and all our crops, and all you can think to do is mock us? Shame on you, sir! This island is doing its best to recover from a tragic accident!"
People were starting to side with the seller. Luffy didn't flinch, but Usopp was squirming as if he had ants in his pants.
"If you're importing your fruits," Sanji pressed on, unfazed by Mr Garcia's protruding gut invading his personal space. "Why are they all so revolting? They're impossible to cook properly with! And you're endangering the health of all these lovely ladies!" He gestured towards a trio of young women, who blushed and hid in the crowd. "You could at least make the effort to import decent fruits! Not fruits that rot barely after being cut!"
"Good heavens, you're insane!" the vendor retorted. "Do you understand when I tell you that we lost the crops? They are RUINED! They burned down! All the good fruits are gone! All we have is your imported fruits and vegetables!"
"I'm gonna–!"
This time, Usopp managed to stop Sanji before anything could happen. He took him aside. "Sanji, stop! This is going nowhere!"
"But this idiot doesn't understand anything I'm saying!"
"These guys aren't lying to us. They're angry because they believe in what they're saying. They don't know anything. They're being abused like the rest of the village, I'd stake my life on it."
Sanji grumbled and stepped back. He lit another cigarette. Usopp was better at reading people than him, which meant he was probably right. That realization was aggravating Sanji further, knowing he'd have to postpone ass-kicking until they found the real culprit.
"Wait!" Little Sarah dashed into the square, chased by her mother. "Wait, they're nice!"
The crowd made way for the darting child. Sarah crashed into Luffy's legs and looked up at Mr Garcia with wide, pleading eyes.
"He promised to bring back the good fruits! Don't get mad at them. Help them!"
"Mr Garcia," the mother intervened, a little out of breath. "Please calm down. It's not their fault if they're accustomed to quality products. They aren't aware of our situation."
The vendor remained unconvinced. Sarah's mother turned to address Luffy directly.
"When I told you to go see the merchants, I didn't think you'd create such chaos. You have to understand that our island is struggling after losing its main source of income. None of our fruits are cultivated here. We are dependent on other islands to import all of our fruits and vegetables."
Mr Garcia deflated. Luffy gave the little girl a comforting pat on the head before turning his attention back to the vendor.
"Where do you buy your fruits?" he asked.
"All our fruits and vegetables are imported. The Marines are the ones who ration us. Since Ritu can no longer support herself, the Marines bring us the cheapest fruits they can find. Naturally, quality suffers."
This was in direct contradiction with what the "Marines" had told them before they landed on Ritu. And besides, it wasn't really the Marines' job to regulate the food supply of an island. Usopp and Sanji exchanged sceptical glances.
"And where are these Marines stationed?" Usopp asked in a small voice.
"Over there. They keep the fire from spreading." Mr Garcia pointed at the same hill the mother had indicated earlier.
.
They remained silent on the way back. Sanji had pulled so hard on his cigarette that it was already finished. He was finding it difficult not to light another. Usopp was dying to talk about what had just happened, but they didn't need words to reach the same conclusion: No self-respecting Marine would provide rotten fruits to an island in distress.