Chapter 32

Instinct

Sanji had just handed Usopp his glass of lemonade when an explosion was heard from the shipwright's workshop a few steps away. Not far from him at the helm, Nami and Jinbei turned their heads towards the same place but conversely, near the mast, the noise didn't disturb neither the fencer's nap nor the archaeologist's reading.

"This is the third time since this morning," the navigator noted, frowning.

"Did Luffy make a mess there again?" The blond asked.

"He hasn't moved from the back of the ship since breakfast ended," Usopp replied.

Sanji nodded, remembering that he had actually seen Brook, Chopper and Luffy trying to draw the clouds in the sky when he had given them their snacks a few minutes earlier.

"I'm gonna see what he's up to."

Grabbing his last drink, he headed towards the cyborg's workshop but when he pushed the door, he was assailed by acrid smoke which made him wince even though he couldn't smell it.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Inside, Franky was covered in ashes and the room was upside down.

"Don't worry, bro. A little experiment!"

As the smoke cleared, Sanji glanced around. Franky was an extremely creative person and he was constantly testing new inventions, whether for the Sunny or his friends. The room was permanently littered with pieces of wood and electronic parts of all kinds but at that moment, everything had been blown away by the explosion, creating even more confusion. Obviously, the desk was the epicenter of the chaos and Sanji noticed quickly that the Raid Suit was right in the middle. Franky had probably tested it like he had promised. But was this outfit responsible for the explosion?

The cook handed his glass of cola to the cyborg who accepted it with pleasure and Sanji approached the desk to point at the Raid Suit. "You come up with something for this thing?"

"I am! This is super advanced and super efficient technology! The thing is, it's also super special and I ain't sure I understand exactly how it works…" The cyborg sighed, his glass already empty, then glanced uncomfortably at his friend who was staring darkly at his outfit.

"What is it, Franky?"

"No, nothing, don't worry, bro! I'm super optimistic to find a solution and help Chopper's medicine to work!"

Sanji turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised. "Spit it out."

"Uh…" Franky scratched his head then sighed. "I tested it in every way possible and I can say that it's almost indestructible," he finally showed him, pointing to the mess around them. "On the other hand, it's a bit complicated to work on its properties…"

"What do you mean?" The blond approached and examined the Raid Suit. It only had slight tears despite the power of the explosion intended to damage it.

"How do you activate invisibility?" Sanji turned to him, surprised by the question. "Well… I don't know," he realized. "I think about it and… it works."

"Uh-huh. That's what I thought; this Raid Sit was created just for you so it reacts only to you."

The cook stared at the outfit in his hand, feeling his body tense instinctively. "You mean this thing reads my mind?"

"I don't think it can do that, bro," the cyborg replied while he picked up his tools scattered in the room. "I'm thinking more along the lines of a technology linked to genetics. Something that would only react to the wearer for whom it was made, for example."

The blond looked more closely at the Raid Suit. Franky's hypothesis was plausible. Judge had manipulated the genome of his children before they were even born so modifying an outfit that would work only for them couldn't be so complicated for his scientists.

"You need to study it when I wear it, is that it?"

"It'd probably make my job easier to understand how it works," the shipwright admitted, "But I know you don't exactly like it so-"

"I can do it."

Franky stared at him. "You sure, bro? Not that I'm questioning your progress over the last few days but Chopper said you're still recovering…"

"I feel good; I can do it." Sanji turned towards him, the Raid Suit still in his hand. "The sooner you understand how it works, the sooner I'll recover my sense of smell and taste. Nothing will help me more."

The cyborg nodded and the blond looked back at his outfit as if to challenge it. Stealth Black was just a fictional character name and he only existed to the extent that Sanji decided to give him importance. Today, the cook inside of him was slowly finding his place and the fears from his past had no say. Today, Sanji was getting his life back together.

"Nami, I wanna see Torao…"

The navigator raised her eyebrows as she saw the straw hat boy dragging himself across the lawn of the Sunny. Luffy had devoured his meal as usual but instead of going back to painting with Brook and Chopper, he had dropped on the grass to stay there.

"I miss him…"

The redhead lowered her newspaper to share a look with Robin who was sitting next to her on her deckchair.

"I thought he didn't wanna see you anymore?"

"I don't care," her captain lamented, his head in the dirt. "I wanna see him…"

"Do you have any idea what we could offer him to get him to meet us again?"

"No."

"I don't see what I can do for you then," Nami pointed out to him, resuming her reading, and Luffy straightened up to look at the archaeologist. "Robin, do you have any new information on poneglyphs?"

"Unfortunately, I don't, Captain."

"Oh… But I'll die before finding the One Piece if I can't see Torao… No! First, I'll find the One Piece and then I'll die right after…"

Luffy dropped his head into the grass again and Robin gave a fond smile. For her part, Nami rolled her eyes. "Sanji-kun had the presence of mind to give him the chess set you were planning to give him just before he left. Hopefully this will allow him to reconsider his position."

"Have you considered contacting other captains?" Robin asked him. "If he sees you become interested in other people, perhaps his instinct will wake up?"

"Other captains? Like who?" He wanted to know, puzzled.

"I suppose that the more powerful he is, the higher your chances of arousing interest from him will be," the archaeologist said. "X-Drake would be an interesting ally," she suggested then.

"X-Drake? That Marine infiltrator? I won't trust him," Nami grimaced.

"From Trafalgar Law's perspective, this is a captain with crucial information and his strength has been proven," she explained, "Not to mention he's a quite handsome man."

The navigator pouted. "That is debatable. Besides, I don't know if Trafalgar is the jealous type…"

"The dino is cool but Torao is better!" Luffy agreed.

Robin nodded, a smile on her lips. "There's always the possibility of kidnapping him then."

"Cool!"

"Robin, don't give him such ideas…"

The archaeologist stifled a laugh at her captain's obvious excitement but before she could add anything, Chopper called out to him from the railing upstairs.

"Luffy, Jinbei called a whale; she's huge!"

"She tried to eat Zoro; you have to come see that!" Usopp exclaimed beside him.

"Really?!"

The straw hat boy immediately stood up with renewed enthusiasm and he left the girls without a backward glance. They followed him with their gaze before he disappeared towards the rear deck then Robin picked up her book while Nami shook her head.

"I feel bad for him," she realized after a moment.

"Do you now?" The navigator sighed. "I don't think he'll make it on his own and he looked so sad earlier…"

"Trafalgar Law is a mysterious and withdrawn man," the archaeologist admitted, "Our captain has always had a taste for challenge."

"You don't choose who you fall in love with, Robin," her friend reminded her. "It's not easy to know how to behave so that this person notices you without overdoing it or not doing enough…"

"Of course. You know what you're talking about."

At these words, Nami met her friend's amused gaze and couldn't help but blush. "Maybe so, that's why I feel solidarity. Even if I only had letters to try to make her understand what I felt, Vivi is a warm and friendly person. The complete opposite of Trafalgar."

"Do you plan to help our captain win the heart of the man of his dreams so that he can live his love story in broad daylight too?" Her friend asked, interested.

"I don't really know how I could go about it," the redhead admitted. "But we can at least make sure that they bumped into each other. The Hearts' submarine is probably still on the same route as ours and with the sonar Franky built, locating it shouldn't be insurmountable. Then it'll be up to Luffy to sort himself out."

"This is very thoughtful," the archaeologist noted.

"Tell me about it. I'll charge him for my services once he's got his hands on that idiot surgeon for good…"

"Sanji, what are we eating?!"

"I told you, rubber face, I made cupcakes but they're not baked yet."

"Oh…" Luffy slipped from the shoulders of his cook who was busy putting away his pastry boxes until he lay down on the floor. As he did so, he wanted to grab the cape that was floating behind his crewmate. "Can we play again like yesterday?!"

The blond skillfully strode over him to prepare his whipped cream and icing sugar. "This is not a game," he muttered. "Franky needs it to understand how the Raid Suit works."

"Still, it was fun trying to guess where you were!"

Sanji shrugged and his cape bothered him as he cleared his worktop. Annoyed, he pushed it away with a sudden movement.

For three days since he had suggested to the cyborg that he could wear the Germa outfit to speed up his research and so his chances of recovery, his friend had subjected him to a whole bunch of tests including some that hadn't failed to amuse the crew. The day before, for example, Sanji had engaged the invisibility and with a sensor, Franky had tried to guess his position on the Sunny. Obviously, Luffy had loved the idea and he had tried to flush his cook out at every opportunity by throwing himself into the void in the hope of bumping into him.

"Why do you wear it today?"

"Franky installed chips that record changes in the fabric. I have to wear it until they have enough interesting information."

The cook stepped over the straw hat boy again who was still lying on the floor, and grabbed his spoons and tasting tray. At the same time, he glanced at the oven and noticed that the cupcakes would be ready in two minutes.

Sanji grimaced. He hadn't been able to prepare drinks for his friends yet because he had lost time. Since the beginning of the afternoon, he hadn't wanted to take off either the glasses or the gloves from the Raid Suit to cook, knowing full well that the less clothes he wore, the longer the chips would take to obtain what Franky needed. The cyborg had simply kept Stealth Black's headphones because they were special and the engineer was thinking about specific experiments to understand their properties. Sanji hadn't wanted Zoro to help him either and he had insisted on taking care of the drinks and pastries alone. Indeed, he had quickly realized that wearing the Raid Suit made him want to establish his identity as a cook so he pushed himself all the more to hold his place.

The blond had thought that he wouldn't really feel the difference on his fingers if he did it right and that the glasses would certainly darken his environment, but the natural light of the room would be enough. He had been right for the first few minutes before each effort annoyed him more and more. After an hour, he had started to have a headache from frowning so much and his measurements were anything but precise, not counting the number of times he had almost dropped one ingredient despite his precautions.

Sanji had been angry but he hadn't wanted to change his first objective because it would have meant a much more important failure than a simple miscalculation. It would have implied that Stealth Black still had the upper hand over him and this eventuality was impossible to consider because the blond knew he had progressed.

Everyone could see that he resumed his normal cooking routine and that he felt more confident. Sanji felt it too. So he would no longer get consumed by an outfit, even if the man he saw with each reflection in the sink or a saucepan reminded him more of his demons than the cook who was working in his environment.

Sanji had understood that he still had difficulty recognizing himself in his outfit and he had worked even harder because of it: he had wanted to make personalized cupcakes for each of his crewmates to prove to himself that Stealth Black wouldn't stop him from doing what he had decided. He was one of the best chefs in the world and used to feed an army so he could make forty cupcakes, half of which didn't even need to be different since they were all for Luffy. Yogurt cupcakes for the ladies, blueberry cupcakes for Usopp and Jinbei, violet cupcakes for Brook, with lemon meringue for Zoro and Franky, with vanilla multi-colored for Chopper and with chestnut cream for the captain. Nothing insurmountable.

He knew the recipes by heart and none of them were complicated. A different outfit or his lack of taste and smell changed nothing. Sanji could have made around fifty of them in record time with only one hand and without all his senses a few months earlier. When he was still himself. In another life.

The oven rang at the end of cooking and Luffy sat up like a spring, his nose already pressed up against the hot viewing glass. Sanji pushed him away to reach it then seriously threatened to kick him out the room if he didn't keep quiet while he finished his pastries.

While sprinkling some cupcakes with colorful sprinkles and some others with fresh blueberries, the cook suddenly noticed that he was already late for dinner preparations. Not only did he still have to serve the drinks but afterwards, all the skewers for the grilled dinner that he had suggested during lunch. And if he switched plans to save time, he knew his friends wouldn't fail to notice it.

The blond took a short breath then. "Luffy, go get me Usopp."

"Usopp?"

"Yes, Usopp. He's gonna bring the ladies their snacks and you won't get yours until then. I don't trust you to even walk through the door with these cupcakes. I just need five extra minutes to prepare some refreshments."

"I go!"

A minute later, the sniper entered the galley, pulled by the impatient straw hat boy, and Usopp grumbled when he realized why he had been torn away from repairing his kabuto.

"I'm not their servant; they could do it themselves…"

Sanji ignored him and placed two freshly squeezed tangerine juices and the corresponding plate of cupcakes on the tray. He would have preferred to bring Nami and Robin their snacks himself but he needed every second he could get. Finally, the sniper sighed before complying and the straw hat boy sat up again on the stool facing the counter, obviously waiting to get his own snack.

As he continued to line up his glasses, Sanji felt his captain's intense gaze fixed on him and he felt suddenly annoyed without understanding why. Cooking with his friends had never bothered him even if he appreciated the solitude to concentrate. At this moment, Luffy was even sitting still despite the food placed not far from him but knowing that he was looking at him was enough to destabilize the blond. The bottle of milk for Brook's drink slipped from his grasp and he barely caught it.

Forcing himself to take a second to sort out his thoughts, Sanji changed tactics. "If you bring their drinks and snacks to the others without incident, I'll make you a drink twice as big," he offered his captain.

Immediately, Luffy jumped out of his seat, excited, and the blond pointed out the plates of Usopp and Jinbei that he had just finished. The straw hat boy grabbed them in a flash and the liquid swayed dangerously in the glasses as he ran through the door but he didn't spill anything. Taking advantage of finally being alone, Sanji resumed preparing the remaining drinks and after two more successful trips, Luffy got a huge glass of coconut milk and mixed raspberries which he sucked up at the same time as his cupcakes right on the counter.

While he feasted noisily, Sanji leaned against his worktop to take a breather. It had been a long time since he had kept such pace in the galley and he felt almost exhausted. He couldn't prevent a hint of disappointment from overtaking him then. It was just a simple dessert and a few drinks. How could he be tired already?

Glancing around, he noticed that his workplace was dirty and he would need to clean it up before moving on to his dinner preparations in a few minutes. Blame it on his constant clumsiness with his damn gloves…

Sanji wearily took off his sunglasses and the light made him blink. His headache had increased and to top it off, he was hot from moving around in this suit which clung to his body.

"It was so yummy!"

His captain's bright smile warmed his heart a little and the blond cleared his plate and glass while Luffy rubbed his stomach with satisfaction. The straw hat boy then brought his hand to his cook's face and Sanji tensed up, surprised.

"You got flour on your cheek!"

Luffy giggled, showing him his white finger, and Sanji turned towards the small mirror hanging above the sink, frowning. He felt like a beginner for getting flour everywhere. He grabbed his cloth and set about washing himself. As he did so, he couldn't help but stare at his reflection and the same feeling of strangeness washed over him again. No doubt he needed to get used to seeing himself like this. Either way, he couldn't spend his time being afraid of his image.

Sanji pushed his glasses firmly back onto his nose and forced himself to meet Stealth Black's gaze through the mirror. When he turned away, he noticed that Luffy had disappeared without him noticing and he took the opportunity to start cleaning his worktop.

He had almost finished the dishes when the galley door opened and the fencer yawned loudly. "I heard you need me, cook? What are we doing for dinner?" The blond turned towards him, surprised. "What are you talking about? I said I'll take care of it myself today."

Zoro frowned. "Luffy told me to come help you, he even woke me up on purpose."

Sanji felt his jaw tighten. "That little shit… I didn't ask him anything."

"Oh. He must have decided you needed it then." The swordsman approached the sink and took the cloth from the blond's hands. "He ain't wrong; you look like you need a break."

"I don't need a break, I have dinner preparation to do," his crewmate got annoyed.

"Take your pack of smokes and go for a walk for five minutes. I'm not gonna start anything without you, I don't even know what we're gonna eat."

Without paying him any more attention, Zoro grabbed a bowl to wipe it and Sanji gritted his teeth harder but didn't respond. It was true that he hadn't smoked for several hours and a little nicotine would probably do him the greatest good, if only for his headache. He instinctively had his hand in his pocket then but noticed that his pack wasn't there. He must have left it in his pants when he had changed earlier in the afternoon.

As he headed towards the galley door, Sanji noticed that he had never thought about lighting a cigarette since the beginning of the afternoon when he usually always had one at the corner of the mouth. But was it so surprising? After all, Stealth Black didn't smoke.

We're halfway through this story!

Sanji is fighting against himself and it's not over.