Chapter 33

In one bite

Sanji gritted his teeth, his gaze fixed on his preparation. His movements were stiff over his bowl but he didn't release the pressure of his muscles on the spoon and slowly dripped the honey onto the goat cheese and figs that would garnish his tart. He tried to estimate the right quantity by watching the food flow and he was so focused that sweat began to bead on his forehead. The cook remembered that he had tasted this honey when he had bought it with his friends and he tried to recreate its aromas in his head using his memory and sight. He knew that the task was difficult because the specificity of this ingredient created infinite variations depending on the recipe he decided to mix it with, but the blond didn't want to give up.

For days now, he refused to let Zoro come help him in the galley and spent his days alone working on his meals. And while he had been afraid to even pick up a knife some time before, there weren't enough challenges to satisfy him now. Preparations of all kinds where flavors mixed and crossed according to their properties and associations. Recipes that deliberately put him in difficulty because of the absence of his sense of smell and taste but which also tapped deeply into his shaken confidence.

Since the tests with the Raid Suit were over, the blond wanted to spend all his time in his galley. Zoro had looked at him funny at the time, as if somehow wary of this new attitude, but he hadn't tried to impose himself either. After all, the fact that the cook wanted to fully reclaim his position was an irrefutable step forward and if the fencer didn't yet completely trust him on this matter, Sanji knew he was going in the right direction. For example, he had been able to serve dishes that he hadn't even considered until recently. The feedback had been rather enthusiastic and this had only increased his desire to persevere. Certainly, the proportions of the sauces tended to differ from those he actually wanted to serve, but the dishes weren't bad.

It encouraged the cook to continue his efforts and he didn't spare himself. All his will was focused on the sole aim of demonstrating that his skills as a cook were still the strongest in him. Indeed, Sanji couldn't afford to let go again and fade away in favor of Stealth Black. He had seemed dangerously close throughout his trials with Franky and wearing the Raid Suit had served as a wake-up call.

Sanji was now totally focused on his cooking and so what if fatigue and tension literally shook his limbs at the end of the day. Once, Chopper had even worried, asking him not to forget to rest. The blond had nodded while knowing that he wouldn't slow down despite his guilt. He knew that the little reindeer cared about his physical health but his mental health was just as important and at this moment, it was the latter that Sanji wanted to strengthen.

Cooking had become exhausting because stress inhabited his every action but with practice, the blond had no doubt that his ease would return. And that was the most important.

Sanji glanced at his timer and transferred his preparation onto his already pre-cooked dough. Nami had planned a quick stop on the island they were going to approach in the afternoon. Actually, the crew didn't need to make any stock and they could have continued directly towards one of the other Tri-Log Pose islands but the young woman had informed them that their priority was to search for the Hearts submarine at the request of their captain. Given that the cyborg's radar had pointed in this direction the day before, the navigator wanted to make sure to take the same route and she planned to join the other pirate crew by the next call if they hurry.

The blond hadn't commented on this news. Like his crewmates, Luffy's opinion took precedence above all and if the straw hat boy wanted to force destiny to see the surgeon of death, then so be it. Only his cooking occupied his thoughts anyway.

Three days later, Nami was on deck with Usopp and Brook when the outlines of their final destination began to take shape. The navigator slowed down the ship to observe it from a distance. She had little information because the island wasn't popular as she had understood where the crew had made a brief call to locate the Hearts submarine. It was probably a fairly lonely and rural land but it benefited from a rather calm spring climate compared to most other places in the New World. Yet it didn't arouse keen interest because of the streams that they had to cross to access it and Nami had gritted her teeth several times to find a way for the Sunny. In itself, this position was ideal for pirates who wished to remain discreet and it didn't surprise the young woman that the other captain had chosen to disembark over there.

"The place looks quiet but I can't see his submarine," Usopp said, studying the surroundings through his binoculars, "Do you really think they're here?" He asked the navigator.

"Franky's radar didn't deceive us last time," she reminded him.

"They must be on the other side of the island," Brook suggested.

"Well, let's assume they are. We find them and then what? What's the strategy?" The sniper asked.

"None," the young woman replied, shrugging her shoulders. "I suggested we find the Hearts submarine but that was it. It's up to Luffy to take it from here."

"It's risky," his friend muttered.

"This is something I don't want to miss!" The musician rejoiced.

"We have nothing to negotiate with him so I don't see what we can do," Nami pointed out to Usopp.

"Maybe we should have waited until we found something." The sniper grimaced. "Now, there's even more risk that it'll scare him away…"

"Luffy wanted to see him and I got the opportunity so I did but he has to take matters into his own hands." The redhead insisted, "If we interfere every time, he has no chance of really seducing him."

"I agree with our navigator," the skeleton said, "Romantic conquest is a strategic element for the future of their relationship!"

"Ah, maybe I'm worrying too much," Usopp conceded. "It's just… I'd really want this to work out for him."

"Rest assured, my friend," the musician continued, "When our captain has a goal in mind, he's the most determined of men!"

"Look! There's a food vendor!"

Gathered on the deck of the Sunny to observe their now widely visible destination, the crew turned towards the straw hat boy who was pointing a little up towards the island. Above the beach, on a grassy cliff, a small shop stood out against the landscape and smoke was escaping from it, proving that it was indeed occupied.

Next to his captain, Franky lifted his sunglasses to get a better look. "How can you be sure they sell food?" He asked, puzzled.

"I smell it and it's so yummy!"

"The scents are absolutely divine!" Brook got enthused not far from him.

"What, you smell it too?" Usopp wondered, frowning. "I don't smell anything…"

"Me neither," Chopper lamented. "I have a very developed sense of smell though!"

"Our friends have a particular perception when it comes to certain circumstances," Robin reassured him.

"What kind of food is it?" Sanji wanted to know.

"Meat!" His captain replied immediately.

"Marinated in spices," the skeleton agreed, nodding.

"It's very specific," Jinbei noted.

"These two think with their stomachs," Nami sighed. "It's not that surprising."

"What do we do? We let them go?" Zoro asked.

His friends turned their heads towards the swordsman who had crossed his arms across his chest and who pointed to their two tempted friends with a nod. Before anyone could make a move, Luffy had jumped out of the ship thanks to his rubber hands wrapped around a tree and Brook had jumped into the water to run on the waves towards the same place.

Nami saw red. "He's got some nerve! We come here precisely because he absolutely wants to see Trafalgar and he drops everything to stuff himself at the first opportunity!"

"Perhaps he'll think better on a full stomach," the Fish-Man pointed out to her.

"It's likely," Usopp grumbled, "He becomes completely obsessive when there's the slightest food around. Until his stomach is full, he'll be unable to focus on anything else."

"That proves that Trafalgar isn't that important to him," Zoro pointed out. "Luffy will always prefer food no matter what."

At these words, Sanji frowned. "Don't talk shit. Luffy's perfectly capable of restricting himself if he thinks there's a good enough reason to do so. It's just that we're not in mortal danger so he doesn't see the point, that's all."

"I've never seen him refrain from eating even in the middle of a fight if he had a chance," the swordsman replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, I did and that's why I'm telling you so shut up."

Zoro glanced at him suspiciously but before he could ask more questions, Nami chimed in. "Luffy refused to eat anything that wasn't cook by Sanji-kun in Whole Cake Island," she explained. "I didn't believe it myself but he did it."

"Looks like him," Franky noted.

"Which means we can't determine his attachment to Law with food," Usopp sighed.

"We just have to leave it to fate," Jinbei decided.

"Let's just hope that Law is in better spirits than last time when he'll see him," Chopper said.

"We might as well wish that he was completely someone else." The sniper sighed. "This guy's problem is that even in a good mood, he looks like he's gonna hang himself! Sometimes I think he's worse than me…"

"Law-bro is super tense but he's a nice guy!" Franky said. "Hopefully he can help me speed up the research to understand how the Raid Suit works!"

"It's a riddle that might interest him," Robin agreed.

"Either way, we'd better find these two oddballs before they devour all the food on this island," Nami growled. "If Trafalgar's crew ends up without stock because of them, it won't be good for Luffy and for us."

The surroundings of the island where the rest of the crewmembers had disembarked were calm and they took the time to climb the small dirt road towards the heights where was the stall to observe the landscape. It seemed like the few dwellings of the island weren't on this side and they saw no indication of human construction. On the other hand, a tempting smell of grilled meat was gradually perceptible as they climbed.

"I wonder how this merchant can do business here," Jinbei noted.

"This place is super empty," Franky agreed.

"If they got a few customers like Luffy during the year, it must be enough for them," Usopp pointed out.

"Hey, look!" Chopper showed his friends the Hearts' yellow submarine half-emerged on the beach east of their position, visible now that they were higher up.

"Well, we're sure they're here now," Sanji noted, his cigarette butt in hand.

"I guess Luffy saw it too but I'd be surprised if he went directly to see them," Nami said, noticing the end of the path which led them towards the cliff.

"Anyway, either they're still inside or they have gone for a walk," Zoro noticed as the beach was deserted around the submarine.

"Maybe they're near the houses," Robin suggested.

"The Tri Log-Pose will take two days to recharge and they probably didn't arrive that long ago," the redhead said. "Unless they decide to leave in a hurry, I think we'll have the opportunity to meet them smoothly."

"In the meantime, let's go taste this meat!" Usopp got enthused, "Luffy and Brook were right; it smells really good!"

Soon after, the crew finally come out onto the top of the hill amidst laughter and light conversation. Instead of the peaceful lunch they had planned though, the good mood vanished and the pirates froze when they took in the scene before their eyes. In front of the stall where the fragrant meat was still grilling, a man was brandishing a small object in front of the straw hat boy who had fallen to his knees. Breathing short and blood dripping from his mouth, Luffy's face was tense and his crewmates immediately understood why. On the other side of the man keeping him at bay, the skeleton lay face down on the ground, motionless.

"Finally, everyone is here."

"Don't come any closer!"

The man pressed the object in his hand and Luffy choked, spitting out long spurts of blood. "Quiet, Straw Hat. Let me inform them instead."

"Wh-Who are you? What do you want?" Nami asked him, her face pale.

"What happened to Brook?" Chopper exclaimed while running towards him.

"What's going on here?" Sanji said, glaring at the man.

"All excellent questions, really. Let me answer."

The man turned towards them and in the meantime, Zoro had already drawn his swords to rush forward. Yet before he could reach him, the man pressed again on the object he was still holding in front of the captain and Luffy doubled over, blood splattering the green grass around him. Zoro stopped abruptly.

"You should stay calm. If I get what I want, I'll give your captain back to you before he completely bleeds out."

Sanji clenched his fists and at his side, he felt Jinbei's energy strengthen. The Fish-Man carefully observed their opponent, his senses on alert, and the blond did the same. Not far from them, Franky stared at the scene, his face closed, while Robin tried to understand the situation by assessing their surroundings. A few steps away, Nami observed with concern the trail of blood in front of her captain who was unable to get up and Usopp looked anxiously at the little reindeer who had knelt next to Brook. In front of them all, Zoro stared straight into the man facing him, his swords gleaming in the spring sun.

"You probably don't remember me."

The Straw Hat Pirates shared a look, confused. The man was blond and rather slender but without any particular features and neither of them actually remembered him.

"We crossed paths with creeps everywhere on the Grand Line; we can't remember all of them," the cook finally snapped.

"I don't blame you. After all, my first goal has always been to go unnoticed. My name's Sebastian, I'm an engineer. And a casino robber."

"Casino robber?" Franky repeated, stunned.

"So you were planning to rob the casino we were at," Jinbei understood.

"Bingo," the man replied. "It had been more than six months since I had moved into the place and that evening was to be the final touch."

"I don't understand how we could have interfered," Nami protested. "We didn't do anything special; we participated as simple guests!"

Sebastian turned towards the straw hat boy who seemed to be struggling with every breath and he looked at him, his eyes brutally darkened with hatred.

"He's the one who ruined everything. Six months of meticulous work observing day and night the functioning of the slot machines and it disappeared in a snap. All the so-called random electronic devices in the casinos follow an algorithm and only the best can hope to decipher it. That evening, I had precisely calculated that the jackpot would fall and at the right time, I came closer. But this idiot walked past me at the last second!"

"The man Luffy bumped into while bending down to pick up the coin that triggered the jackpot," Robin remembered.

Sebastian gave her an icy smile in return. "At that moment, all my hopes were crushed."

He took a step towards Luffy and kicked him hard in the ribs. It made him cough more blood until he crashed head first into the dirt from lack of oxygen. Immediately, Zoro brought his blades close to their enemy's neck but the latter sent a new shock to the straw hat boy who convulsed in the grass. Blood gushed from his mouth as well as his nose and Usopp flinched.

"Z-Zoro!"

"When will you understand?! If you come any closer, I'll kill him!" The man yelled. The swordsman stepped back, glaring daggers at his opponent, and Nami swallowed. "What do you want?"

"What's mine!" The man spat back. "I want the gold you stole from me!"

"Seriously, all that for a coincidence." The cook hissed, "Luffy didn't even do it on purpose, he had no way of knowing!"

"I don't care! This money was mine; I spent months studying their machines from every angle and disguising myself so as not to be caught! It was my time!"

"A sore loser," Jinbei growled.

"Shut up!" Sebastian shouted, beside himself. "You don't know how much work it was! That gold was meant to pay off my debt and if I don't have it by next week, I'm a dead man! I have nothing to lose!"

"You followed us from this island," Robin noted.

"Exactly. I travel by submarine; you had no possibility of noticing me. As soon as I realized that your destination would be this island, I took my chance. I left before you from the previous one and I arrived just in time."

"By submarine?" Franky was surprised. "We got a super sophisticated sonar and it never showed up!"

"I ain't one of those pirate or Marine suckers, I'm an engineer!" Sebastian replied dryly. "How do you think I was able to calculate all the probabilities of all the machines in the casino?! Echolocation is easy to elude when you have some common sense!"

"Tell us what you want," Zoro growled.

"It's simple," he replied, turning towards him. "Give me all your gold and leave. There's no way you've already spent it all, I've been following you for days. If you keep your word, I'll leave your captain here and you can come pick him up in three days."

"Th-Three days?!" Usopp stammered, "We-We ain't gonna do that, he's already injured!"

"This is the time I need to leave without you having the possibility of finding me."

"You fucking bastard," the fencer hissed.

"What did you do to Brook?" Chopper repeated angrily, "He's not moving!"

"He paid the price for his captain's arrogance," the man replied. "He served as a demonstration." He pointed to his stall behind them and then to the object in his hand, a small detonator.

"I quickly realized that this idiot was attracted to food wherever he went. That such a moron earned the title of the Fifth Emperor by the press must be a joke! Simple meatballs on offer and he swallowed up everything without imagining that they were stuffed with microscopic fragments of sea stone. His friend didn't waste any time either."

He then pointed to the motionless skeleton in front of the little reindeer. "At the slightest pressure on my detonator, the fragments explode inside their bodies. The fragments are distributed along the mouth, from the trachea to the stomach and with the progress of digestion, they'll travel throughout the intestine. The longer I press, the more they explode and since your captain is a devil fruit user…"

"He's pierced from the inside," Nami understood, paler by the second.

"Exactly. And your companion suffered the same fate but because he has neither muscles nor tissues, the fragments crushed the bones directly."

A shiver of fear ran through the crew and Chopper turned the musician around. His eyes filled with tears at the sight of the pieces of bone scattered around him then. "He-He no longer has a trachea!"

At these words, Luffy slowly raised his head. "Brook…"

"You poisoned the food," Sanji fumed, pale with fury. "You piece of shit!"

"If you stopped wasting time, I could already be far from here!" The man suddenly became impatient. "You just have to-

"Take Brook! Chopper, you need to treat him!"

Luffy got up and despite his trembling legs, he pounced on his enemy who stepped back, surprised. Zoro immediately took the opportunity to rush towards him too but Sebastian firmly activated his detonator and the straw hat boy collapsed again. He was unable to completely escape the swordsman at the same time though, and narrowly dodged one of his swords before diving his hand into his pocket. An object came out that the fencer recognized when the man placed it in front of his face but he had no time to react.

"Impact Dial!"

"Zoro!"

The power of the Dial violently pushed the swordsman back and he crashed several meters away as Sanji rushed to take over. Sebastian took another Dial out of his pocket then.

"Stay away from me! Axe Dial!"

The air blade was so strong that the entire crew had to protect themselves to avoid being swept away. Not far from the man, Chopper was trying to help up the still unconscious musician and the pressure was too much. Brook's body slipped from his crewmate's grasp and before anyone could move, he fell off the cliff.

"Brook!"

Horrified, Chopper wanted to rush towards the edge where his friend had disappeared but Jinbei was faster. "I'll go get him and meet you on the Sunny." The Fish-Man dove towards the ocean below and Chopper nodded shakily. He then turned into his Walk Point form and ran down the slope before the man could draw another weapon.

On the grass, the rest of the pirates just regained their senses between the shock of the air blade and seeing Brook topple over. Nami had stood up but was still staring at the cliff in disbelief.

"Brook!"

Usopp's cry of rage and pain echoed in each of his companions and Robin slowly stood up while Franky helped Zoro to his feet. The swordsman's face was heavily bloodied and he wiped it with his forearm, his swords still in his hands. For his part and despite the Axe Dial that had hit him head on, Sanji was also standing again not far from the man. He was looking at Luffy whose wheezing worried him from second to second.

Suddenly, the clank of the swordsman's weapons was heard behind him and he turned around.

"You're gonna pay for what you did." Sebastian frowned at the increasingly rapid spinning of the blades. He felt that this attack was going to hit him head-on and he took a step back. "Three Swords Style Ultimate Attack: Three Thousand Worlds!"

Strengthened by Armament Haki, the swordsman leapt forward and a split second later, three red marks had lacerated the man's chest. He crashed against the front of his shop and the little wooden house collapsed around him in the middle of heavy dust.

A few steps ahead, the fencer put away his swords, breathless and blood once again preventing him from seeing clearly as Robin's arms spread around Luffy to try to protect him from the debris. Sanji was about to join them when a movement got his attention.

He turned his head towards the man who was suffocating under the rubble and thought he could see his right hand twitching in his pocket among the dust. A shiny object was then thrown towards the straw hat boy and the blond's eyes widened when he understood what it was.

"Luffy!"

The Straw Hat Pirates captain opened his eyes with difficulty when he heard his name. Sanji was rushing towards him and he tried to stand up but he couldn't move his limbs. Thousands of tears dotted the inside of his entire body and his blood was leaking far too quickly.

Sanji suddenly barged in front of him and he heard Robin's voice shouting his cook's name. Sanji was blocking his view almost entirely and Luffy didn't see the threat until some brightness drew his attention. His eyes then filled with horror as he saw the projectile rushing towards them.

"Sanji!"

His voice shook the island but it wasn't enough to deflect the grenade from its trajectory. Robin's hands closed on his jacket to pull him back and despite his cries of rage, he could only witness the inevitable.

The grenade exploded and the blast threw Luffy backwards into his crewmates.

In front of him, the figure of his cook faded.

I hope you love angst :)