A/n Unfortunately, I don't own One Piece. I only own my OCs.

Regular text - Story

Italicized text - Thoughts

Chapter 5 - Sanji

3:00pm

Of course, he got lost. Stupid moss head couldn't find his way out of a wet paper bag. Torn in half! It had taken me a while to notice Zoro wasn't behind me anymore. What with Nami missing and my delicate Robin needing my constant attendance. But I should have known he couldn't focus long enough not to lose his way. And what was with his staring off into space? Maybe I've finally knocked him in the head one too many times?

"Do you think he's still back at the ship?" Robin asked distractedly. It pained me to see her gnawing at her lip and her delicate arched brow furrowed. Concern for Nami had made her sick with worry, and I was getting more furious by the second. Floating up to Robin's side, I just shook my head. "No, he left with us. He just got turned around again." It pained me to give him any credit, but he did have a habit of being around right when we needed him. "He'll probably show up just in time for some big battle." Keeping to Robin's left, I scanned the village for any sign of our crewmates. The terracotta houses and grey cobblestones had taken on a more sinister overtone since I walked these same roads with Nami this morning. Shadows had filled the shady tree groves with nefarious intentions, and every footstep on the stone gave the distinct impression of being followed.

As furious as I am at the situation, I'm even angrier at myself. If I hadn't been distracted by food haggling and hadn't taken my eye off Nami for even a second, she'd still be here. Or at least I'd have been there to fight for her. A tearing feeling in my chest made me wince. Guilt making itself known as physical pain in my body. We had to find her; the other option was untenable. Crossing the town center, we made our way past the fountain toward the busier shops. Thinking of Nami slipping so easily through my fingers that any one of these people could be the one who snatched her made my hands shake.

Tightening my hands into fists, I began looking around the square for a lead on where to start our search. A problem with a sailor's life is nowhere is familiar. We knew no one, and usually, that had benefits except when you needed help, and there was nowhere to turn. Every building was the same: the faces faded into each other and blurred into a sea of color. Chopper would have needed new medical supplies, so maybe a pharmacy? Though Usopp probably needed supplies as well. I noticed a garish building to my left with a giant cog for a sign just as I thought that. It was rusty and hung in front of the two display windows blocking most of the merchandise from view. The proprietors had painted the name Tinkerer's Warehouse in silver around the rounded edge of the cog. That's definitely the kind of place Usopp would check out. Tinkerers was a wide, tall building painted cherry red with brown shutters and a deep, vivid purple door. With a gentle hand on her back, I steered Robin toward it and pushed the door open with the other; a tinkling bell rang over our heads.

Inside, the shelves were stacked floor to ceiling and packed full of junk. Springs, gears, and nails littered the floor, and hammers, saws, and more industrial equipment lined every wall. Before I could even ask anyone if they had seen a reindeer or a tall boy with a long nose, Usopps' obnoxious laugh burst from between the stacks. Motioning Robin ahead of me, we rounded the corner and saw Chopper and Usopp laughing with a pretty bluenette and a burly bald guy with a large handlebar mustache.

"...and then I, the great Captain Usopp, slew the giant goldfish with nothing more than a piece of floss and gold bell." As we got closer, I could tell the girl was eating Usopp's words up, and the guy was trying hard not to laugh. It was so ridiculous, but the normalcy of his lying brought a slight smile to my face.

"Then what happened?" her voice was rough, far deeper than I'd assumed it would be, not masculine per se, more gravely, like a smoker's voice. Every word was pronounced carefully, like English wasn't her first language. It made me add a few years to her age. Maybe mid-thirties. She wore it well. There were a few lines around her mouth and a few grey hairs at her temples. She was relatively short, five-two, five-three tops. Her dress hung to her knees was a patchwork mess of over a hundred different fabrics, all in shades of yellow that set her short cerulean hair off brilliantly. She smiled beatifically at Usopp, and he ate it up. He smiled back with his schnoz still thrust in the air and said, "Then I served the villagers such a seafood feast they're still trying to finish it all." More laughter from Burly, Chopper beside him, was starting glitter-eyed at Usopp, and I could see him muttering 'So cool!' from under his breath.

I could tell from his posture that Usopp was drawing in a breath to launch into another fabricated story. Before he could release that breath, I knocked on the metal shelving beside me. Startled, Usopp jumped back in apparent shock, knocking metal knickknacks and a screw display to the floor, his hands thrown in front of himself. "Wha..what? Sanji, you scared the crap outta me." Mustache was full belly laughing now and had to place his hands on the counter to support himself. "Chagrin, don't laugh. The man is a good storyteller even if he does seem to have a habit of embellishment." The woman knocked the man, Chagrin apparently, on the arm fondly. He coughed and wiped his eyes. "Awe, Louisa, you take the fun out of everything." His voice was low; I felt it rumble in my bones.

Chopper cheerfully walked toward Robin and me, his side pockets and a backpack full to bursting. He was babbling about their day and everything they'd seen and bought. Robin fought her pain and worry to engage with the little reindeer, but I couldn't summon the strength. Finally, he stopped rambling and asked, "What are you guys doing here?" I should have shuttered my eyes and tried to shelter him, even if just for a few more minutes, but I couldn't. Instead, I looked into his smiling brown eyes and let him see the weight of what I was feeling. I saw the moment he realized this wasn't just a friendly meeting. "What's wrong?" His voice was already slightly wobbly.

I took a deep breath and reached into my pocket for my cigarettes, more for something to do with my hands than actual craving. "Nami's missing." I tried to keep my voice neutral. So much anger was built up I didn't want to leak it all over the wrong people.

Usopp snickered, "What do you mean missing? Like she ditched you to drink? Or snagged your coin purse and is off buying herself a whole new wardrobe? Cause we all already knew she was gonna do that." The urge to knock him a good one for slandering my sweet Nami's infallible character was so strong I had lifted my hand before I managed to control myself. He had flinched away, and I think my lack of violence was an actual giveaway that something was wrong. Am I really that violent? Huh, I'll work on that another time. Straightening, Usopp was suddenly very serious. His thin shoulders pulled tight, and his eyes wide. He wrung the strap of his bag nervously, the knuckles on his hands gone white.

My hands were still shaking as I took out my matchbox. It took me three tries before my match lit; finally, lighting my cigarette, I took a deep drag before I spoke. "Someone took her while we were out shopping, going on three hours now."

"Took her where? Where were you?" I released smoke slowly and counted to ten. Usopp was only looking for someone to blame. I was the last to see her, so I was an easy choice. "I looked away for a minute to talk with a food vendor, and by the time I turned to ask if she'd like to grab lunch, she was gone."

Usopp was winding up to ask more questions when a soft gasp made me glance at the counter. The shopkeepers looked very serious, very fast. Louisa spoke first, "Where did she go missing? In a park? By the clothing stores?"

Shocked, I looked at her sharply, moving closer to the counter. "How did you know that?" I raised my voice. Robin and Chopper's eyes widened, and I was shocked that I had yelled at a lady. Usopp took a step back, and Robin moved closer to my side. Louisa suddenly looked stricken and turned to her husband. Any previous mirth had leeched out of his face. A world of emotion swirled in their eyes—the kind of communication a couple only has after being together for a long time. Cautiously, Louisa spoke, "There is a store there, nondescript, but always with a rotating, flashy window display. Locals don't shop or even go near it. It's a baited trap."

Robin gripped the hat still in her hands harder."A trap, how?" Louisa looked at her sympathetically but seemed at a loss for how to explain.

Chagrin put his hand on Lousia's shoulder before speaking, "King Pin steals girls away. He has ever since she overthrew the King and Queen. Along with a couple of restaurants and a park, that store is patrolled by King Pin's goons and those in his pocket. They scout potentials, and then when the opportunity presents itself, they snatch them."

I suddenly crushed my cigarette in my fist. The burn from the ember was nothing compared to the fire burning in my chest. I slammed my hands down against the counter, "You know this! You know this, and you do nothing!"

"Watch your tone in my house, boy." The rumble of his voice took me by surprise; the anger in it mirrored my own.

Before I could respond, Robin spoke, "Who did you lose?"

Looking toward her, I noted how light blue eyes were watery. Louisa muffled a sob into Chagrin's bicep. He placed a large hand on her head and kissed her forehead. "Our daughter, Coralina, went missing three years ago. We fought, told her she was hanging with the wrong crowd and stayed out too late. One night she ran out in a huff and didn't come back. She was fifteen. We filed a report, but all we got was a letter from King Pin's assistant thanking us for our tribute."

"And you let them keep her?"

"Of course not, you idiot. We stormed the castle. I barely made it back. Of the thirty of us that went, five of us came back. But none came back whole." He slapped his leg and stood. I hadn't even realized he was sitting. Man must be at least seven feet tall. He lifted his left leg and pulled up his pant leg. From the knee down, it was a mechanical prosthetic. "King Pin himself chopped it off with an ax. Said I should be honored to lose my leg with the same ax King Elias lost his life to." I contemplated that. I didn't think I'd bounce back, let alone be able to laugh ever again if I'd lost all he had.

Lousia stood away from her husband a little and pressed her hand to her neck. "I was a concert singer. Before the war, I toured many nearby islands and performed with orchestras. I once even sang for King Pin and his parents on his home island. So he gave me an option; join his harem as his personal songbird or die. I chose death, so he strung me above a meat smoker. I hung there for days and screamed for help when I could get enough air. I don't know how I got down. One minute I was swaying in my cage, light smoke wafting across my body, and the next, I was on the beach. The smoke ruined my voice." She smiled sadly at Chagrin before she continued. "I dragged myself home, this was before this was a mechanic shop, just a house on the road, and Chagrin was here. He had been saved by a friend who had stormed the castle with us. When he saw me he tried to run to me and fell, I tried to call him, and no sound came out. We sat on this very floor and cried in each other's arms for our loss. All of our losses."

Chagrin placed his hand gently on the back of her neck, "You still sound lovely to me, dear."

She smiled watery at him before turning fully toward me again. Low to interrupt their sudden intimate moment, I asked quietly, "Who saved you?"

"I don't know. I think there is someone still in the castle on our side, but they are too afraid or too precarious a position to do much."

Robin stepped closer to her, "And your daughter?"

Chagrin pulled Louisa closer. "We received a letter a few days after we reunited. It had a photo of our daughter. She was... well, she was being held by King Pin by the neck. It said she'd stay alive as long as we all behaved."

"And did you? Behave?" The anger in Chopper's voice was so out of character I placed a hand on his shoulder. To comfort or restrain, I wasn't sure.

"We didn't have to. Coralina died in childbirth eight months later." Louisa stifled another sob, her face tight, "before I'd relearned how to talk and before Chagrin's prosthetic was finished, we were gifted her body in a cardboard box on her sixteenth birthday. A small note pinned to her soiled nightdress." Usopp made a sympathetic noise in the back of his throat.

"Her baby?"

"If it's alive or dead, we don't know. We buried our daughter out back under a cherry tree, and we opened this shop in her honor." Louisa looked fondly at Usopp. "She'd of liked you. Coralina was also a tinkerer. She loved to invent things." She sighed and seemed to deflate before our eyes. Chagrin took over for her. "We waited every day for something to happen. We'd actively betrayed the crown and gotten away. We never went anywhere without the other. Slept in shifts. We ate back to back. But little by little, the paranoia faded, and we realized he wanted us scared. We were less than nothing to him, and as long as we stayed in the shadow of shadows, we could skirt around his spies. Work to keep other girls from Coralina's fate. So far, we've only lost three girls in the last two years. That's down from 5-10 a month since Coralina went missing."

"That must have pissed King Pin off." I knocked on Usopps' head for using such language in front of a lady but agreed with his statement.

"His goons rough us up every couple of weeks. That's why stuff's all over the floor. We don't even bother to clean up; it's less likely to get broken if we let them think it's all junk." Now that he mentioned it, as packed as the shelves appeared, it was primarily bulky things that took up space; most of the actual merchandise was sorted into piles on the floor. "But they can't prove anything. The network is spread across the entire island, most members only know one other, and only a handful know our leader."

Curious, I asked, "And that would be?"

Louisa regarded me critically for a moment. I could see it in her coffee brown eyes. Her weighing her secrets against her need to get justice. She shook herself, and when she settled, she leveled a fierce stare at me and said, "The true King, of course. Alfonse Floria."

A confused looked crossed Robin's face, "The True King?"

Nodding, Louisa continued, "Eleven years ago, when King Pin overthrew the royal family and killed King Elias and Queen Valleria, he took the princesses hostage, but the prince was away training. He was never found. Most of us thought him dead. However, he started the resistance when he came of age, running it from the shadows—organizing the families of the missing and dead into a huge network of soldiers. All are willing to do whatever it takes to wrestle Fallnia away from those who wish her harm. We've slowly whittled away at their reign in the last six years. There's still a ways to go, but we are winning, and I know King Pin is worried. Why else would he be pushing to marry Princess Celia? He needs to solidify his place as rightful king before Al gets more traction. It's probably the only reason he's kept her alive for so long." She released a long breath as she wound down from her short speech and backed against Chagrin for comfort as if the words had taken more than the air out of her.

My fellow straw hats and I were quiet for a moment—all processing at different speeds, all coming up with nothing to add.

Usopp broke the silence; his face took on a steel resolve as he swung around to face me. "We have to find Nami now."

"Agreed. We need a lead."

Louisa walked toward the store's back and came out with two backpacks and a map. "We are part of the resistance. We have a meeting tonight at five to go over some details. Our leader put out the bulletin that a new player is in town and on our side. You are welcome to come." Handing Chagrin his pack, she turned and looked right at me. "We couldn't save our daughter, but tonight we'll help all the others that have been lost find justice." She sounded strong. A mother now and forever. After we agreed to go with them, she turned and began conversing with Robin in low voices. Details about Nami and her disappearance began to filter out into the air, and I couldn't hear them again.

So, shaking my head, I turned back to Chopper and Usopp. "I need to ask something of you."

"Anything." Chopper shifted to his more human form. Chagrin is still taller. What is this man part giant?

"I need you to go back to Merry and get her ready to sail. Get all the supplies tied down and be ready to leave at a moment's notice."

Chopper let out a disgruntled shout, and Usopp looked outraged, "You can't sideline us. We have every right to help save Nami as you do." Chopper nodded vigorously in agreement.

I pinched the bridge of my nose before sighing and scrubbing my hands roughly down my face. Putting my hand on Usopp's shoulder, I steered him toward a far shelf. "Usopp, I know you want to help. I want you there to help. But this isn't good, and it seems to worsen by the minute. Luffy's still MIA. Zoro is lost somewhere on this damn island, and the worse kind of people have kidnaped Nami. I have to have a way for us to get out quickly. And yes, you two are weaker physically," Usopp made a loud scoffing sound, but I waved my hand and continued, "but you're smarter than most of us. You can get everything ready and get us out of there fast. You know Merry, every problem, every bit of damage. You have the best chance of getting us all out of here in one Piece. I trust you with all our safety. I need you to trust me with Nami's." As I said this, the irony that she'd gone missing on my watch in the first place stung. Usopp looked at me hard for a minute, undoubtedly the same thought going through his head. Then, after coming to some inner decision, he nodded his head hard once and began rooting in his oversized satchel.

From it, he pulled an orange slingshot that looked newer than his usual one and a bright red/black pod. "If you need help, shoot this in the air. I loaded it with a special powder that will throw off sparks when it's shot. Bite it and then sling it. You'll have approximately five seconds before it pops in your face. I'll race to where you are and give as much help I can."

My breath left me in a rush. When had I started holding my breath? A small, relieved smile stretched my lips. "See. What'd I say? Smart." He grimly smiled back and walked to Chopper. They spoke quickly, Chopper looking outraged, and then glumly, he nodded. They thanked Louisa and Chagrin for their time and their story. Chopper handed Robin a small pack of medicine, saying that there would be something to hold them over if anyone got hurt until they got back to the Merry. They left for the Merry quickly after that, Usopp making me promise to use the Signal Star if we got into too much trouble.

I looked over at Robin and the words to ask her to go with them were at the tip of my tongue. She must have known what I would say because her eyes went icy, and she said, "Don't." She said before I could even open my mouth. We stared at each other for a few seconds. Finally, I looked away first, clenching my fists; I gave her a sharp nod. She's strong. Probably stronger than any of us. "Just don't run off on your own. We stay together, yeah?" She seemed relieved and inclined her head in agreement.

Louisa smiled at us. Not quite as bright as it's been when we first walked in, but still warm. "Well. Let's go topple a King."