Fic: Day By Day (Chapter Seventeen; FINAL)
Title: Day By Day
Fandom: One Piece
Pairing: Sanji/Zoro
Rating: this chapter PG
Warnings: mild violence. SPOILERS for One Piece
Summary: AU: what if Pinky Island and Gloom Island were close enough for Zoro and Sanji to have actually met up and begun to make their way toward Sabaody to keep the promise? PART 17: the resolution of their journey and the start of another. So to speak.
There was no way to tell how much time passed before Sanji woke up suddenly out of a deep sleep. He couldn’t tell what had woken him, and as he blinked his eyes open, he couldn’t tell where he was, either. The lamp had burned down and run out of oil, so the secret alcove in the back of the cargo hold was utterly dark. He could feel Zoro’s bulk still beside him and an arm still around him, but he had rolled onto his side at some point so they lay spooned together on the makeshift mattress. For a moment Sanji held still, listening, in case of any alarming sounds, but everything was quiet. The only noise at all in the hold was Zoro’s deep, even breathing against the back of his neck. At least with the lantern extinguished they were safe from prying eyes, but Sanji still wanted to kick himself for failing to keep watch so soon after they had almost been caught. Then, the body behind him stirred a little, and he realized what had cut through his sleep and brought him to alertness - the arm around him brushed across the ticklish spot on his ribs, making him squirm. That deserved an elbow in the side, and so he did. Zoro awoke with a startled snort. “Get off me...oh.” He paused so long that Sanji thought he had fallen back asleep and almost hit him again. “Why’s it dark?”
“The lamp went out,” Sanji muttered, rolling his eyes in the dark because it wouldn’t be seen. “This is your fault you know.”
“My fault?” That was enough to get Zoro’s attention fully. “That it’s dark? Shut up, cook.”
“I mean it. If you hadn’t grabbed onto me, I could have stayed awake.”
There was another long pause. The voice that came out of the dark definitely had a grin to it. “You fell asleep too.”
“No thanks to you.” Not that Sanji was really moving to get out from under the encircling arm.
“Is there any trouble?” A hint of wariness, the slightest shift of movement.
“Not that I can tell.”
Zoro slumped back against him and rested his face against the back of Sanji’s neck. “Then stop worrying and go back to sleep.”
Sanji grumbled under his breath, but his comrade was clearly not letting him up. On the contrary, he was snuggling closer as if planning to stay wrapped up together for as long as possible. They did seem more or less safe now that they had no light to draw unfriendly eyes to their corner, but Sanji was unsure. It was never a good idea to completely let down one’s guard while stowing away on an enemy ship, and yet they had just done so for however long he had been asleep. He didn’t like it, but for now he was trapped unless he shoved Zoro off of him. He put his head back down and closed his eyes, though he remained awake this time, at least for a while. If he slept it was only fitful dozes, interrupted often by his own mind returning to wary thought and observation. Nothing happened beyond their hidden alcove, though. No one else came down for the entire duration of Sanji’s dark vigil.
At long last, Zoro rolled over in his sleep and nestled down into the sailcloth, freeing his crewmate to do as he pleased. The long nap might have been ill-advised, but Sanji was feeling much better for it, he noticed as he sat up and scuffed a hand through his hair. The bandage stuck to his chest was starting to peel off from all the activity, so he just ripped it off and tossed it aside, done with it. Now to solve the problem of the doused lantern. He didn’t know where his lighter was, it wasn’t in his pocket, but if the lamp was out of oil then it wouldn’t light anyway. He decided in the end the easiest route would be to go back to the storerooms at the other end of the hold and get another lamp and some matches. It would save groping in the dark and possibly knocking into or losing things. It was too dark to even find the bag with their spare clothing, so he prowled through the cargo hold shirtless and shoeless, his bare-footed steps as silent as cat paws on the wood planking. It was a fast and simple mission and resulted in a fresh lamp for their convenience. Sanji brought it back to their hidden alcove and raised it high to search around for items. His lighter and tobacco purse were on the floor near the old lantern, his shirt wadded up and stuffed beneath Zoro’s knee. He decided just to get a fresh one from the bag, a regular shirt - the green one he had been wearing when he had been sent away from Sabaody, in fact, since it was on top. With that done, he could take stock of their situation and figure out the next move to be made. He was a little hungry, and figured Zoro would be as well when he finally got his ass up, so food could be a priority. The soiled uniform shirt needed to be thrown away somewhere, so he did that right away lest it become a further nuisance. Less urgent but certainly still important was finding out just how much time had passed and whether they were due to land soon. Surely the sleeping had passed enough time, they had to be close. Sanji resolved to simply take care of their needs and wait it out, since they could literally be landing at Sabaody at any minute. When Zoro finally woke up and stayed that way, stretching and prying himself up to a seat, he found Sanji cobbling together an edible meal out of supplies he had once more raided. All the scattered, cast-off items had been gathered and packed away, leaving the hiding-place as well-kept as a real ship’s cabin. Zoro crawled over to his crewmate and peered owlishly over his shoulder. “How long have you been up?”
“Long enough.” Sanji flashed a quick grin in his direction. “Got enough rest, Sleeping Beauty?”
Zoro recoiled for a moment before he realized he was merely being teased, and harrumphed it off. “Is that breakfast or dinner?”
“Damned if I know. We were both out at the same time, so I’ve lost all track of what day it even is.” He had a cigarette in his lips, unlit, and was rolling it around while he pondered and finished preparing their meal. As they made another picnic of it, he tucked the cigarette into a pocket and folded his long legs underneath him.
Though he rarely, if ever, said anything about Sanji’s cooking, Zoro always felt a quiet gratitude for his skills and the food he provided. Now was no different; he sat and ate silently with his gaze cast down, but he had no complaints about the slim pickings. It wasn’t nearly enough, and Sanji wished he could scrounge more, even raid the kitchen itself, but both of them could get by on far less. In between bites of melon, Zoro mumbled, “So what do we do now?”
Sanji sipped at the emergency-ration water he had nicked on his last raid. “We can’t have been asleep that long. The ship’s still moving so we’re still at sea, but we’ve got to be close to the archipelago by now.”
Zoro raised his eyes in his comrade’s direction. “What, no more sneaking up to the deck to find out?”
“Only if we have to.” Sanji sat back with his elbow on one knee. “I’m all for waiting it out. It’d be dangerous to try to infiltrate right before the ship lands, whoever goes up might be honestly mistaken for crew and pulled into service, and we’d get separated at the crucial moment.” He shook his head slowly as if in warning. “We’re so close, I’m not going to pull any stupid risks now.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Zoro reluctantly agreed. He was sick of waiting, but they couldn’t fail just steps away from their goal. He took the water bottle Sanji offered him and gulped some down. “Damn. What I wouldn’t give for a bottle of booze right now.”
“Stingy officers hoarding all of it up in their cabins,” Sanji snorted.
They went back to eating and lapsed into another comfortable silence, though there wasn’t much more to finish off. At the end of it, Zoro got up and brushed his pants off. “I’m gonna stretch my legs for a bit.” He set his hand heavily on the top of Sanji’s head but this time, didn’t tousle. It just trailed off as he shouldered through the gap between crates and left the alcove. Sanji sat there for a long moment, pursing his lips to hold back the quiet groan he almost made at the touch. It took a while for his face to stop burning, though.
A few laps around the cargo hold, some push-ups and chin-ups, and Zoro considered himself stretched enough. It was pathetically minimal exercise, but it was all he could do in that space. Sanji had come to join him partway through, but only to walk around and poke into things, maybe steal more supplies if he found anything of use. They returned to their hiding spot, where Zoro decided to fish out the striped shirt he had cast off in order to pose as a Marine for those ten minutes or so that he had, however long ago that was. He wanted to say yesterday, but only because he had slept long and deeply. Glancing at Sanji, he noticed that his crewmate was lost in thought, his gaze hard and yet focused on nothing, the cigarette in his mouth burnt down almost to the butt. Zoro could not resist grabbing him and planting a lazy kiss on the side of his face, and then letting him go when he spluttered. It successfully snapped him out of his gloomy thought, at least, which is what the swordsman intended. Now that he had Sanji’s attention, he proposed playing cards or doing something to pass the time, if they were so intent on waiting out the rest of the journey alert. Believing it still was only a matter of time, minutes or an hour, Sanji agreed.
Far more than an hour later, both pirates looked at each other across their nth card game and began to wonder. By the growling of Zoro’s stomach it was getting to be time to eat again, but it had been far too long since anyone came down into the cargo hold to fetch supplies. For that reason Sanji had surmised that they were so close to landing that the galley was closed, but now, he wasn’t so sure. Zoro tossed down a card without much care as to whether it was a winner or a loser, and then murmured, “Sure is taking them a long time to make landfall.”
“Maybe I miscalculated a little,” Sanji sniffed, just staring at the card without making a move. “Maybe we were only asleep an hour or two.”
Zoro hummed under his breath, a noise of uncertainty, and then folded his hand. “I don’t like it. We need to find out for sure.”
Sanji glanced at him, and then sighed and threw his cards down as well. He was bored and frustrated enough to give in and take the first step toward investigating the current time and location. He plucked the Vivre card out of his tobacco pouch and set it down on top of the pile of cards to double-check their heading. The scrap of paper moved toward Zoro - toward the stern.
Sanji snatched it up and stared hard at it, as if it could possibly be anything but the Vivre card labeled “Rayleigh” that was supposed to move toward the old pirate’s location on Sabaody. “It’s behind us?” he whispered, a note of worry creeping into his voice.
It took Zoro a second or two later to catch up, but then he voiced what they were both thinking. “We’ve changed course.”
“Shit!” Sanji tucked the Vivre card scrap away and made to jump up to his feet, but at that very moment they heard the creak of the cargo hatch and instead scrambled to shutter the lantern and hold still. Both sat with their backs pressed against the wall and their eyes cast upward to the little bit of light that could be glimpsed over the top of their crate-fortress. The Marines who came down stayed at the far end of the ship, so they couldn’t overhear any of their chatter about what time it was or what they were retrieving from the hold. It took them long enough, whatever it was, but the pirates didn’t move a muscle until the hatch had closed to and the space gone silent once more. Zoro found the lantern and uncovered it to find Sanji sitting with the heels of his palms pressed against his forehead in frustration. “I don’t believe this,” he breathed. “How long were we out? When did they turn around?”
“Stop freaking out,” Zoro grumbled. “You need to think of a way out of this.”
“Me?” Sanji’s head came up sharply. “Why the hell is it my job?”
“Because you’re the brains of this operation.” Zoro’s face was serious as he said it. “Now calm down and think.”
Sanji’s glare eased off his face, and he deliberately took a couple of deep breaths to refocus his mind on the matter. “There’s nothing for it, now,” he said heavily, “one of us is going to have to go topside to check things out. And by one of us I mean me, I’m sure.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“Of course it is.” Sanji slapped his hands on his thighs as he stood up. “But there’s no other choice. The Vivre card says we’re going the wrong way, so we have to find out why. And I don’t trust you to stay undercover for very long.”
Zoro scowled at him, even though he knew it was a valid complaint. “I don’t care about that stuff. I just want to get off this ship and get where we’re going.”
“And that’s why you’re not allowed to investigate.” Sanji stood there for the briefest moment to listen and verify that no one else was in the hold but them, and then swiftly ducked out of the alcove en route to the storage rooms at the other end. He needed another uniform, after they completely ruined the last one. There was no time to waste, every minute they fiddled around down there took them further away from Sabaody. He didn’t even wait for Zoro, though the swordsman got up and followed him without a word. Sanji raided the uniform storage for another shirt, buttoning it right over his dress shirt and tie, as well as a cap since he had just tossed aside the other one somewhere in the darkened hold. Hearing his crewmate come up behind him in the doorway, he tossed a second shirt over. “Keep watch, again, just in case I have to make a break for it.”
Zoro caught the shirt and boggled at it. “Why do I need one?”
“In the off chance someone comes to the cargo hold while you’re standing watch!”
Zoro eyed him as he shouldered past and then flung the shirt over his shoulder, not caring where it landed. “Forget it, I’m done playing pretend. That’s your deal.”
“Then use it to sneak into the men’s room up here, I don’t care!” Sanji snarled under his breath. He was actually thinking about doing so himself, on the way back down, to wash up properly if nothing else. He was already halfway up the stairs, and once again gingerly tested the cargo hatch to be sure he could get out. He caught a glimpse of feet and hastily lowered it again, but the Marine in the foyer above had been turned away and didn’t notice the hatch raise. Once the feet had gone off down the hallway to the right, Sanji hurried to slip out of the hold and close the hatch behind him as quietly as he could, before anyone else happened across him. He moved a lot more quickly than the last time, checking both ways before darting up stairs and through doors, making for the main deck. He got to the last doorway when he finally met someone coming - an officer, no less, wearing one of the Justice coats. Sanji’s breath hitched in his throat, but he composed himself and snapped into a salute as he stepped out of the way.
The officer glanced at him as he passed. “At ease, sailor. Report.”
Sanji’s eye twitched under the shadows of his visor cap, but otherwise he covered his tracks well. “Uh...all’s well as it…should be. Sir. Nothing to report.”
The man peered at him for a moment, but then shrugged and continued on his way. “They need more hands on deck, get out there.”
“Aye, sir.” Sanji waited until he was gone before shooting him a glare from under the cap and ducking out onto the open deck of the ship. There were a lot of sailors moving around, maintaining sails and lashing down objects. His attention was caught by a cluster of men securing the warship’s lifeboats in the center of the deck, against the mainmast. That was important to note, so he filed it away mentally. Someone shouted and gestured toward the bridge, so Sanji waved to indicate that he had heard the order and would go carry it out. It didn’t matter what the sailor wanted him to do, he wasn’t going to do it anyway - it was an excuse to get into the inner rooms and spy out the information he needed with a handy story to tell any officer who caught him lurking there. He did note that the mad scramble on deck was indicative of battening down the hatches, literally - there must have been a storm brewing. As he slipped into the corridors around the galley and officers’ cabins, he reminded himself to listen for weather information as well as the rest.
Knowing the galley had a clock, he checked there first. The galley cooks were in the middle of preparing a meal and didn’t even notice another crewman in the doorway. It was almost dinnertime, apparently. He managed to swipe a couple of freshly-baked rolls off a tray before drifting out, and stuffed them in his shirt to save for later. He really wanted to get onto the bridge or near to the helm to see what the actual heading was, but there were too many officers and he couldn’t fake a story convincing enough as to why a lowly (and incorrectly-dressed) crewman was in their midst. A couple of laps around the corridors told him where the captain was, at least, so he lingered extra-long around the map room and managed to always be ducking around the next corner if he heard someone coming. Just when he had exhausted every idea and resigned himself to making his way back down into the cargo hold, he heard the unmistakable sound of a den-den mushi calling. Sanji managed to slink up against a wall underneath a window in time to listen to the captain’s end of the call.
“...yes, sir, I’m aware of it,” he was saying. “Preparations are being made as we speak. Staying on this heading is the best course.” A long pause, then a sigh. “Sir, my helmsman is an experienced navigator who’s been through more typhoons than I have. I trust his judgment. It’s not about getting there faster, we’ll lose some time even if our bow is pointed straight into the storm current. No, I know. Yes, sir. Of course I will, sir.”
The call ended fairly quickly, and then someone else in the room spoke up. “The vice-admiral wanted us to change course?”
“Nah, he’s just trying to give advice where advice isn’t needed. Again,” the captain groused. “I trust Becksley, we’ll follow his lead. It’s not like we’re going to catch up to the revolutionary ship in the middle of a huge storm.”
“They’ll be just as hampered by it, anyway,” the other voice reasoned. “Especially if rumors are true and it’s the ship stolen from Impel Down. That vessel had to have been through a lot already, it might be damaged.”
Sanji’s eye widened as he listened. The captain harrumphed a bit. “We can’t rely on that, there’s no guarantee. But yes, that was the report - the revolutionary Ivanov was leading the ship that broke out of Impel Down. I actually don’t expect to catch up to it, but we should be able to get a bead on where it’s headed.”
“I suppose a revolutionary ranks higher than a supernova-level pirate captain, in terms of who to go after,” the other sighed.
“I have my doubts about those reports on Trafalgar Law’s ship,” the captain said in a much quieter tone. Sanji heard him anyway. “Good thing they gave us a new mission before we actually reached Sabaody.” There was a shuffling as of papers on a desk, and then he added, “Preparations are coming along?”
“We’ll have everything in place well before the storm actually hits,” his other officer proudly reported.
“What about the cargo hold?”
“Last on the list. We need to get the main deck and galley secured first.”
“All right, but don’t let it go. The last thing we need is to lose balance because some cargo shifted.”
Sanji didn’t need to hear anything else. He peeled away from the wall and darted down the adjoining corridor, making all due haste to get back to the cargo hold. On top of everything else, their secret hiding place was about to be compromised in the name of securing the ship against a coming storm. He had to stop and salute another officer at the top of the stairs, and then practically leaped down them to the hatch between decks. It was tightly closed; Sanji wondered if Zoro had been almost discovered, or worse, but as he approached and grabbed the handle, the door yielded with no resistance. There was no time to wonder where the swordsman was, footsteps were tromping up the adjacent corridor. Sanji dropped into the hold and eased the hatch closed overhead, waiting there stock-still for a moment until the sound of someone passing by toward the upward stairs died away. He let out the breath he was holding with a relieved sigh, but even as he was turning to go down he found the tip of a sword blade in his face. He recoiled and nearly shouted at the same time as Zoro realized it was him and lowered the threat. “Sorry. Thought you were one of them.”
“Dammit seaweed-head what the fuck are you doing?” Sanji hissed. “Out of my way, let me down! We’re in trouble.”
“What?” Zoro sheathed Wadou Ichimonji and stood back while his crewmate slithered down the stairs and rushed off through the cargo hold toward their alcove. Only there, in the shelter of the crate fortress, could they hold a normal conversation. Zoro made his way there at a more leisurely pace, though he didn’t doubt the warning. When he got there, Sanji had already tossed off the uniform, and now threw something at him. Zoro startled but reached to catch the dinner roll. “What’s this?”
“Fresh bread. Eat it.” Sanji was already gnawing on his, both out of hunger and anxiety. “We’ve got to make some decisions fast. We’re about to be discovered.”
Zoro gave him a questioning stare, already halfway through the bread. “Huh?”
Sanji quickly related to him what he had learned topside - that the Marines had changed course to go after the ship that had brought all the escaped prisoners from Impel Down, or something like that, and they were definitely heading away from Sabaody now. And, there was a storm coming, meaning very shortly the crew would come down to secure the cargo hold. “There’s not much we can do to hide from all of them,” he said warily, thinking as much as he was talking. “They’ll see the boxes done up this way and want to move them so all the ballast weight is down the middle. No matter how much we creep around in here, we’re not going to avoid them forever.”
Zoro stood over him, arms folded. “Looks like it’s time to abandon ship. If we wait this out, we’re going to be right back where we started.”
“Possibly. I don’t know what heading we’re on, we could be heading south or due west or...” Sanji huffed and shook his head. “I know, you’re right. We need to get off this ship.”
“Nowhere near land, though,” Zoro reasoned, “so we can’t just dive off. What about the lifeboats?”
At the thought, Sanji perked up a little. “They were securing them in the center of the main deck, I saw it. Not necessarily easy to tip overboard, but a lot easier to get to.”
They both fell silent while they thought it over, and a sly grin began to fill Zoro’s face. “Sounds to me like we don’t have a choice, then.”
“No, we really don’t.” Both of them knew what they had to do without having to share with each other. Sanji sat up and pulled the duffel bag to him, rummaging around in search of anything else he could chuck out to lighten the load. There wasn’t much. He actually put his suitcoat on, preferring to have it on his back rather than in hand, and then pulled out the little backpack. Into that he stuffed what was left of their cash winnings from Esme, some bandages, and a few other supplies that wouldn’t do well if they got wet. Dry clothes would also be important but he couldn’t guarantee the water-fastness of the duffel. “Take a few minutes to eat up any food we still have back here,” he said in a low tone. “If we’re getting into a fight, it’s best to do it with full bellies.”
“Not taking any with us?” Zoro wondered.
“We don’t have room.” Sanji decided his preparations were enough and cinched both bags up tightly. Each of them could now carry a little of it. “We can survive on fish until we reach an island or get picked up.”
Zoro rolled his eyes but consented, going to where they had been keeping foodstuffs and making the most of it. Sanji helped, and together they wolfed down their last meal in hiding. It was a real now-or-never situation, and even though they couldn’t guarantee their safety or comfort from now on, it was better than riding a Marine ship headed in the opposite direction. They had their Vivre cards to navigate by, and both were healthy enough by now to be able to take turns paddling a lifeboat. Or, they could use the spare clothing to rig up a makeshift sail. Either way, they were tough enough to survive such a journey. Of course, neither of them knew just how far from Sabaody they actually were. They had slept all the way through a change of course and the better part of a day, and the changing winds ahead of the storm had given the Marine warship a good tailwind by which to make considerable headway. They were, in fact, heading back directly toward Kamabakka Island, though still a couple of days away. Still, even if they had known this, it wouldn’t have changed their plans. They had to disembark while the ship was still clear of the storm, lest their tiny lifeboat get caught in it as well.
Over the last meal, they devised a few strategies for their attack. Sanji explained exactly where on the main deck the lifeboats were now stationed, hulls up, and they determined that the best course was to bum-rush the stairs and cut their way across the deck to the boats. Zoro would cut one free, and Sanji would kick it to launch it over the side of the warship. Then, all things working in their favor, they could fight their way to the railing and jump off into the lifeboat. With any luck, the Marines wouldn’t realize who exactly was bursting out of hiding on their ship and fighting them until they were well on their way. They were in complete agreement, and nodded to one another before snuffing out the lantern for the last time and creeping out of their hiding place. Sanji had the backpack, and Zoro threaded one arm through the handles of the duffel bag so it would be mostly out of his way. He might only be able to use two of his three swords, but two were enough against most Marines. They prowled up to the stairs and took a second’s pause to gather themselves, and then Sanji rushed up to push the hatch open and set them free. Except that the hatch didn’t budge. He slammed his head into it, and then had Zoro run into him from behind. Both tumbled halfway down the stairs, cursing far too loudly.
When he had shaken off the pain and regained his wits, Sanji approached the hatch more slowly and nudged it. It only budged the width of the latch holding it down. Apparently, someone’s idea of securing the cargo hold was merely to lock the hatch, and not actually secure the cargo itself. “Shit!” he spat, and then repeated it a few more times under his breath.
Zoro said nothing for a long time, as he was actually listening to see whether their accidental tumble had raised alarms. No one seemed to have heard them, though. Before he could remark to that effect, something else had his attention. He grabbed Sanji’s arm to pull him back and shut him up. “The waves are getting bigger,” he noted. “We’re starting to pitch.”
That just set Sanji off into another round of savage cursing. “We don’t have time for this!” he growled. “It’s now or never! We’ve already waited too long!”
“So bust open the door,” Zoro said dryly.
Sanji’s shoulders wilted. He had been too angry to see the obvious. “All right,” he murmured. “They’re going to hear us coming a lot sooner, but that can’t be helped. On three?”
He turned to brace himself to launch an Anti-Manner Kick Course on the hatch, but before he could even start the count, Zoro grabbed him by the tie and pulled him around into a hard kiss. “Ready,” he said huskily afterward.
Sanji blinked himself awake from that unexpected treat and resumed where he had left off. “One, two...three!”
The wood slat splintered away from the latch holding the cargo hatch shut under one enormous kick. The hatch whipped all the way open and slammed on the floor on its other side, loud enough that there was no way anyone on that deck or near the stairs could have missed it. Both pirates flew out of the hold as one, and made it up the first set of stairs before anyone came rushing to find out what the noise was all about. Two swords were already out, and Zoro zipped past Sanji to meet the startled sailors with a quick slash. The important thing was to get to the lifeboats first, they could have fun afterward. The cook shot through the gap in bodies made for him and raced for the open air, mindful of the first shouts of “Intruders!” starting to spread through the ship. It was clear that they had already reached the stormy seas, as the deck suddenly pitched wildly and necessitated a pause to keep his balance. Marines weren’t so lucky, staggering and flailing around him. He almost felt rather than heard Zoro come up behind him and kept going, adjusting his pace to match the slanting deck of the ship. Both of them burst out into the sharp, wet wind that blasted in their faces and kept going without faltering, ignoring the wayward gunshots echoing behind them. Sanji zeroed in on the lifeboats, finding them exactly where he expected, and grabbed for Zoro’s shirt to steer him along. The ship pitched again, and they could hear shouting coming from all directions now. Then, something much nearer and harsher than thunder rang out, and the warship shuddered from something that was definitely not waves. Sanji skidded to a stop and looked around, realizing belatedly that not all of the shouting was in regards to intruders, and half the sailors on deck were paying more attention to something off the starboard side than to the pirates onboard. As they sank into a trough and the deck tilted enough, he could see what had divided their attention - there was a small ship cutting towards them on the waves, its black flag snapping in the gale.
Sanji stared in alarm. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he said to no one in particular. “We’re under attack?”
Zoro had blown past him and gone to carry out his part of the plan, managing to control his slashes to cut only the ropes and chains securing the boats down and not the boat itself. Several Marines charged him at the same time, so he whirled around and blocked all of them from connecting. “What the hell are you doing?” he yelled over his shoulder. “Get over here and do your thing!”
Another burst of not-thunder announced the firing of a second cannonball, which missed the warship but not by much. The stormy swells were making it hard both to attack and to flee. The pirate ship was flying fast on the wind, cutting up from behind and beside and swinging to fire cannons at the warship’s stern, which wasn’t nearly as armed and armored as the bow. Sanji hesitated, but then raced to join his crewmate, kicking his way through the Marines that were finally catching up to them. The forces of justice were divided, completely nonplussed by the simultaneous attack from within and without. They might have even assumed the two onslaughts were connected, though the timing was a mere coincidence. The ship rolled again as Sanji reached the lifeboat, and he nearly lost his footing under the heavy shower of sea-spray that drenched the entire deck. The storm was upon them, the skies black as night and the wind tearing at the rigging. Spatters of wind-driven rain turned into a downpour, even while the two pirates busied themselves fighting off the cadre of sailors sent to apprehend them. Sanji happened to glance toward the sea just as the unexpected ship sailed by, looping around the Marine vessel, and he was so startled by the sight that he nearly failed to duck a punch. “No...it can’t be!”
“What?” Zoro snarled over the wind as he stood with his arms straining to brace his swords against a burly sailor. “What are you gawking at, idiot?”
“Your secret admirer took your advice!” Sanji yelled back, nodding his head in the direction of the other ship as he turned and back-kicked his attacker clear out of the way.
“Huh?” Zoro allowed himself a moment to look, and he, too, stared in surprise. If it wasn’t the skull figurehead on the rear of the ship, or the flag standing out almost straight from the mainmast, he could at least recognize the name painted across the side of the hull. The Grishend was indeed as fast a ship as her captain had boasted. Zoro boggled at it, not even bothering to push away his opponent. “What the hell?!”
“Hey!” the Marine snapped at him. “Pay attention, here, I’m fighting you!”
Zoro turned his head to glare at him, and then effortlessly tossed him off, flinging him and his broken saber halfway across the deck. “I’ve got more important things right now!” he shouted after the sailor.
Sanji smashed his foot into a few more faces to clear the way. “Of all the times for the lady to grow a backbone,” he complained. “Now is not the time for this!”
“Who cares, just get the boat in the water!” Zoro demanded. “Dammit - why this ship? Did she know we were on board?”
“I don’t see how.” Sanji waited a moment until the pitching ship had rolled conveniently to its other side and tucked his foot under the gunwale of the lifeboat, lifting it and flinging it so that it would clear the railing of the warship and land right-side-up in the water, taking advantage of the ship’s momentum and the storm’s interference. But the ship rocked back as another cannon shot hit it, taking them out of range again. Sanji steadied himself with a fist on Zoro’s shirt, and then yelled in his ear to be heard over the rain and thunder. “Cut all the lifeboats free! We’ll jump on whichever one stays intact!”
Zoro shot him a confused look, but didn’t argue. A twist and a slash and all of the boats slid across the deck, rumbling towards a bunch of sailors who didn’t get out of the way in time. More than one went overboard. The boats bumped into the railing and then slid back with another tilt of the deck. Sanji ran to them to kick them over the edge into the water, while Zoro held back and cut down anyone who tried to stop them. The warship was rolling less and foundering more, one of the cannonballs had torn through its aft and it was taking on water. The whole place was in chaos, sailors running this way and that to stop the attackers on board, defend against the ship tearing holes in their hull, and try to keep their own from sinking in the storm. The Grishend was smaller and able to slice through the waves with its low, sleek configuration, so it seemed far less affected by the storm than the bigger Marine ship. It cut around and riddled the other ship with enough holes that it began to list drunkenly from wave crest to wave crest. Sanji and Zoro were about the only people able to keep their footing on deck, but barely, bracing against each other. The rain had already soaked them through, and it was getting hard to see even the white-shirted Marines stumbling around or running at them. Then, a stroke of lightning hit the mainmast above them and shattered the top rigging spar, sending splinters of wood and shards of sail cascading down onto the deck. The thunder at that close range almost split their ears. Sanji pulled at his crewmate’s arm. “Time to go!” he declared.
Zoro fully agreed. The Marines had their hands full and couldn’t mount enough of a counter-attack to stop them, and the ship was going down. Whether or not Kika’s Pirates knew they were there didn’t matter, they needed to get off the Marine warship before it sank and this was the perfect chance. The swordsman sheathed his blades and together the pair ran for the railing, leaping on top of it even as the ship lurched sideways in the trough of a wave. There were no lifeboats immediately below them, but all were floating somewhat nearby - a short swim would be required. One after the other they jumped into the sea even as the ship practically threw them into it. As they surfaced, another cannon-boom shook the air, and the bridge of the warship exploded. Tossing wet hair out of his face, Sanji began swimming away from there as fast as he could, his strong legs propelling him rapidly out of the shadow of the ships. The shouting of Marines was growing fainter, but the whole ship began to creak loudly and eddies of current swelled under the surface of the water. The cook tried to glance back and see if Zoro was keeping up with him, but he couldn’t see anything in the jumble of wave, rain, and darkness. He made for the nearest lifeboat and grabbed the gunwale, and only then got a good look at their former transport. With a start of alarm he realized it was toppling sideways into the waves, almost on top of them. He couldn’t find Zoro at all. Bellowing the swordsman’s name into the storm, he grabbed on tightly to the lifeboat even as the warship listed and crashed down on its side, flinging sailors into the sea like toys. The rush of water clashed with the waves and ripped the boat out of Sanji’s hands, plunging him under. Fortunately, he was a good swimmer even when weighed down by sodden clothing and a bag and struck out against the current, fighting his way back toward the flashes of lightning above him. Air filled his lungs as he broke the surface once more, and then a floating board struck him in the back of the head. He blacked out for an instant, but came to before he could drown and beat his way back to fresh air a second time. By then he was completely disoriented, his chest aching, and he had lost his companion. He treaded water for a bit, and then spotted the chunk of hull floating nearby, drifting closer and closer with each lashing wave. The ocean was pushing it toward him, so he kicked out and swam for it, reaching it with little effort and heaving himself onto it.
The skies were still dark as night came on behind the storm clouds, and the rain was still falling heavily, but the wind was already changing direction to push the storm onward. Sanji crouched on his hands and knees on the raft-sized chunk of the warship until he had coughed all of the water out of his lungs and caught his breath, and then lifted his head to see where he was. The waves were carrying him further away from the half-sunken ship, visible only as a dark hulk in the water some distance away. Occasional lightning flashes revealed the Grishend floating along next to it, presumably raiding what was left and gloating over its victory. That ship, too, was too far away now to swim to, let alone try to board for an ironic rescue. Sanji watched in disbelief, wondering if Zoro had made it there at least. He sat up a little more and looked around in every direction, spotting struggling Marines, dead bodies, flotsam and jetsam of all types, but no swordsman. His heart began to sink, but he mustered himself and forced himself to keep looking, or to start thinking of a way out of this predicament. The wood planking was fairly secure and of a decent size to use as a raft, so for the moment he was safe enough. He knelt and swiveled around to look away from the remnants of the ship, and finally spotted a flash of green on the black water. There was a lifeboat drifting loose on the waves, or most of one, and nestled inside it was Zoro. They were too far apart for Sanji to see if he was injured, or alive even, but the fact that he had struggled aboard something to get out of the water was a good sign. He braced himself and got to his feet, cautiously riding the raft like a surfboard as it climbed the swell of a wave and sank down into the trough beyond. In those few minutes, the two makeshift craft had drifted close enough together that Sanji could see Zoro gasping for breath, his head tilted back. His bared chest bore long cuts as though something had raked across him, and he was bleeding from the temple, but definitely alive and alert. Taking a deep breath, the cook screamed across the distance to be heard over the storm. “Oi! Marimo!”
Zoro shook his head and sat up, throwing his arms out to balance the busted lifeboat. He had lost the duffel bag, but still had his swords and his life. He looked around for the voice calling him and caught sight of his crewmate even as both coasted up the crest of another swell and back down again. Now they were at least close enough to talk to each other if they yelled. “Yeah, I hear you!” Zoro shouted back, rousing himself as best he could. The lifeboat had lost part of its side, but the keel was still stable enough that it remained comfortably afloat without taking on too much water. He remained on his knees for now, and looked across the gap to where Sanji stood on his raft. “You all right?”
“Fine,” Sanji called back. “None the worse for wear.”
“Really? ‘Cause you’re bloody.”
Sanji blinked, and then reached to feel the back of his head where the plank had struck him, fisting his hand in wet hair. It came away smeared with blood. “Yeah, well, so are you,” he noted. “Can you make it over here?”
For a moment they lost sight of each other as they rode sideways over a wave. When they met again, the waves had pushed them further apart. “Don’t know,” Zoro said. “Why don’t you swim over here?”
“That boat’s not big enough anymore!” Sanji fretted. “I’d sink it just trying to climb on!”
Zoro looked down at his half a lifeboat. “Good point.”
Sanji gritted his teeth. He still had the backpack clinging to his shoulders, which meant he had all of the bandages and supplies. Their spare clothing was long gone. All the money in his bag was probably sodden, but it was little use anyway - all the beli in the world couldn’t bring them a rescue ship now. “Hang on!” he called, a little desperately. “I’ll think of something!”
Another wave came between them, and in the trough he could see that they were even further away from each other. The storm-tossed waves were washing them apart. If they waited any longer, they would be separated for good. When Zoro spotted him again, he realized the same thing and shook his head. “It’s no use. Don’t risk it!”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” The desperation was clear in Sanji’s voice now. He stood on his raft as if straining to see, his blond hair plastered to his face with rain and seawater. “Zoro!”
“Save it, Sanji!” Zoro’s head bowed for a moment, and then he was pushing himself up, wobbling before stabilizing himself on the damaged lifeboat. His use of the cook’s name proved how serious he was. Yet another swell, the crest rising like a mountain to block them from each other, and then the long rush down into the valley beyond. Yelling would now be pointless, they were too far apart. Even if he had been in any shape to swim, Zoro knew he would not make it across that distance alive. He was groggy and weighed down by his swords, which he would never part with even to save his own life. Sanji’s raft was bigger, but even he would find crossing that widening gulf difficult. Both silently came to the same conclusion at roughly the same time, as they watched each other ride up and down the sides of the waves: they would not be able to reach each other.
Sanji bit his own lip until it bled. They had been so close, they were working as a team and about to reach their goal! Getting separated now was more dangerous than it had been when they had been paw-punched off Sabaody Archipelago. His heart clenched in his chest, a tangle of conflicting emotions riding close to the surface. Then, as they came into view of each other once more, he somehow managed to meet his crewmate’s eyes, and to his astonishment Zoro raised his left arm straight up into the air, fist clenched. His dark eyes were hard and jaw set in a stony expression, but the upraised arm spoke the message clearly. Sure, the ink marks had been washed off ages ago, and his forearm was actually facing the wrong way even if he still had the x-mark, but the gesture was definite. Alabasta was far away, but the message was the same: we are crewmates. We will meet again.
For the briefest instant Sanji’s lip trembled. Then, he reached across and pulled up the soaking-wet sleeve of both his coat and the shirt underneath so he could raise his bare forearm in the same gesture. Zoro held still, managing to keep his balance as the sea rushed and heaved underneath them, and refused to lower his arm. It was hard to tell from that distance, but he smiled very faintly when he saw Sanji give him the same message in return. It was their silent agreement to each other. No matter what was about to face them, thirst and starvation, loneliness, attack, drifting, capture, loss, they would survive it and make it back to each other. Both kept their arms in the air until the waves finally pushed them so far apart that they couldn’t see each other, and night swallowed them both up. Only then, when he no longer had any shred of sight of Zoro, did Sanji collapse to his knees on his raft. He passed out a minute or two later, and laid senseless on the chunk of ship’s hull for a long time.
Fortunately for the two wayward Straw Hats, fate had something else in store for them. They were not to reach Sabaody mere weeks after being separated from the others, but each had a certain place to be for a certain reason. When they finally woke up after being washed up on separate shores, each noticed the cruel sense of irony. It was as if fate was punishing them for daring to join together and fight against it; landing back on the same islands each had started from was beyond ridiculous, it was downright stupid. At least, Sanji definitely thought so as he blinked his eyes open to find a ring of poorly-disguised male faces staring down at him with evil glee. A pink heart-shaped flower petal drifted down on the wind and came to rest on his chest, adding insult to injury - and he knew if he didn’t get up and start running, he was about to be injured all right. Zoro, meanwhile, pushed himself up to find a line of armed baboons blocking his path, the towers of the creepy house he vaguely remembered from weeks ago visible above the trees. No matter how tired, hungry, sunburnt, and injured he was, he drew his swords on the spot, prepared to hack his way through these strange enemies and get back to the docks he knew existed somewhere on this island. Starting over was not going to be pleasant, but as each man threw himself into the fray, he thought to himself that it was better than being dead and never seeing the crew again. They had a promise to keep, not just to the rest of the crew but to one another, now. That very day, each would find out about Luffy’s message. That very day, each would make a stand and decide on his own how he would survive the next two years. That very day, both Sanji and Zoro would face the worst test of their hearts. In two years, they would find out how well they passed.
THE END.
Previous Chapter
Fandom: One Piece
Pairing: Sanji/Zoro
Rating: this chapter PG
Warnings: mild violence. SPOILERS for One Piece
Summary: AU: what if Pinky Island and Gloom Island were close enough for Zoro and Sanji to have actually met up and begun to make their way toward Sabaody to keep the promise? PART 17: the resolution of their journey and the start of another. So to speak.
There was no way to tell how much time passed before Sanji woke up suddenly out of a deep sleep. He couldn’t tell what had woken him, and as he blinked his eyes open, he couldn’t tell where he was, either. The lamp had burned down and run out of oil, so the secret alcove in the back of the cargo hold was utterly dark. He could feel Zoro’s bulk still beside him and an arm still around him, but he had rolled onto his side at some point so they lay spooned together on the makeshift mattress. For a moment Sanji held still, listening, in case of any alarming sounds, but everything was quiet. The only noise at all in the hold was Zoro’s deep, even breathing against the back of his neck. At least with the lantern extinguished they were safe from prying eyes, but Sanji still wanted to kick himself for failing to keep watch so soon after they had almost been caught. Then, the body behind him stirred a little, and he realized what had cut through his sleep and brought him to alertness - the arm around him brushed across the ticklish spot on his ribs, making him squirm. That deserved an elbow in the side, and so he did. Zoro awoke with a startled snort. “Get off me...oh.” He paused so long that Sanji thought he had fallen back asleep and almost hit him again. “Why’s it dark?”
“The lamp went out,” Sanji muttered, rolling his eyes in the dark because it wouldn’t be seen. “This is your fault you know.”
“My fault?” That was enough to get Zoro’s attention fully. “That it’s dark? Shut up, cook.”
“I mean it. If you hadn’t grabbed onto me, I could have stayed awake.”
There was another long pause. The voice that came out of the dark definitely had a grin to it. “You fell asleep too.”
“No thanks to you.” Not that Sanji was really moving to get out from under the encircling arm.
“Is there any trouble?” A hint of wariness, the slightest shift of movement.
“Not that I can tell.”
Zoro slumped back against him and rested his face against the back of Sanji’s neck. “Then stop worrying and go back to sleep.”
Sanji grumbled under his breath, but his comrade was clearly not letting him up. On the contrary, he was snuggling closer as if planning to stay wrapped up together for as long as possible. They did seem more or less safe now that they had no light to draw unfriendly eyes to their corner, but Sanji was unsure. It was never a good idea to completely let down one’s guard while stowing away on an enemy ship, and yet they had just done so for however long he had been asleep. He didn’t like it, but for now he was trapped unless he shoved Zoro off of him. He put his head back down and closed his eyes, though he remained awake this time, at least for a while. If he slept it was only fitful dozes, interrupted often by his own mind returning to wary thought and observation. Nothing happened beyond their hidden alcove, though. No one else came down for the entire duration of Sanji’s dark vigil.
At long last, Zoro rolled over in his sleep and nestled down into the sailcloth, freeing his crewmate to do as he pleased. The long nap might have been ill-advised, but Sanji was feeling much better for it, he noticed as he sat up and scuffed a hand through his hair. The bandage stuck to his chest was starting to peel off from all the activity, so he just ripped it off and tossed it aside, done with it. Now to solve the problem of the doused lantern. He didn’t know where his lighter was, it wasn’t in his pocket, but if the lamp was out of oil then it wouldn’t light anyway. He decided in the end the easiest route would be to go back to the storerooms at the other end of the hold and get another lamp and some matches. It would save groping in the dark and possibly knocking into or losing things. It was too dark to even find the bag with their spare clothing, so he prowled through the cargo hold shirtless and shoeless, his bare-footed steps as silent as cat paws on the wood planking. It was a fast and simple mission and resulted in a fresh lamp for their convenience. Sanji brought it back to their hidden alcove and raised it high to search around for items. His lighter and tobacco purse were on the floor near the old lantern, his shirt wadded up and stuffed beneath Zoro’s knee. He decided just to get a fresh one from the bag, a regular shirt - the green one he had been wearing when he had been sent away from Sabaody, in fact, since it was on top. With that done, he could take stock of their situation and figure out the next move to be made. He was a little hungry, and figured Zoro would be as well when he finally got his ass up, so food could be a priority. The soiled uniform shirt needed to be thrown away somewhere, so he did that right away lest it become a further nuisance. Less urgent but certainly still important was finding out just how much time had passed and whether they were due to land soon. Surely the sleeping had passed enough time, they had to be close. Sanji resolved to simply take care of their needs and wait it out, since they could literally be landing at Sabaody at any minute. When Zoro finally woke up and stayed that way, stretching and prying himself up to a seat, he found Sanji cobbling together an edible meal out of supplies he had once more raided. All the scattered, cast-off items had been gathered and packed away, leaving the hiding-place as well-kept as a real ship’s cabin. Zoro crawled over to his crewmate and peered owlishly over his shoulder. “How long have you been up?”
“Long enough.” Sanji flashed a quick grin in his direction. “Got enough rest, Sleeping Beauty?”
Zoro recoiled for a moment before he realized he was merely being teased, and harrumphed it off. “Is that breakfast or dinner?”
“Damned if I know. We were both out at the same time, so I’ve lost all track of what day it even is.” He had a cigarette in his lips, unlit, and was rolling it around while he pondered and finished preparing their meal. As they made another picnic of it, he tucked the cigarette into a pocket and folded his long legs underneath him.
Though he rarely, if ever, said anything about Sanji’s cooking, Zoro always felt a quiet gratitude for his skills and the food he provided. Now was no different; he sat and ate silently with his gaze cast down, but he had no complaints about the slim pickings. It wasn’t nearly enough, and Sanji wished he could scrounge more, even raid the kitchen itself, but both of them could get by on far less. In between bites of melon, Zoro mumbled, “So what do we do now?”
Sanji sipped at the emergency-ration water he had nicked on his last raid. “We can’t have been asleep that long. The ship’s still moving so we’re still at sea, but we’ve got to be close to the archipelago by now.”
Zoro raised his eyes in his comrade’s direction. “What, no more sneaking up to the deck to find out?”
“Only if we have to.” Sanji sat back with his elbow on one knee. “I’m all for waiting it out. It’d be dangerous to try to infiltrate right before the ship lands, whoever goes up might be honestly mistaken for crew and pulled into service, and we’d get separated at the crucial moment.” He shook his head slowly as if in warning. “We’re so close, I’m not going to pull any stupid risks now.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Zoro reluctantly agreed. He was sick of waiting, but they couldn’t fail just steps away from their goal. He took the water bottle Sanji offered him and gulped some down. “Damn. What I wouldn’t give for a bottle of booze right now.”
“Stingy officers hoarding all of it up in their cabins,” Sanji snorted.
They went back to eating and lapsed into another comfortable silence, though there wasn’t much more to finish off. At the end of it, Zoro got up and brushed his pants off. “I’m gonna stretch my legs for a bit.” He set his hand heavily on the top of Sanji’s head but this time, didn’t tousle. It just trailed off as he shouldered through the gap between crates and left the alcove. Sanji sat there for a long moment, pursing his lips to hold back the quiet groan he almost made at the touch. It took a while for his face to stop burning, though.
A few laps around the cargo hold, some push-ups and chin-ups, and Zoro considered himself stretched enough. It was pathetically minimal exercise, but it was all he could do in that space. Sanji had come to join him partway through, but only to walk around and poke into things, maybe steal more supplies if he found anything of use. They returned to their hiding spot, where Zoro decided to fish out the striped shirt he had cast off in order to pose as a Marine for those ten minutes or so that he had, however long ago that was. He wanted to say yesterday, but only because he had slept long and deeply. Glancing at Sanji, he noticed that his crewmate was lost in thought, his gaze hard and yet focused on nothing, the cigarette in his mouth burnt down almost to the butt. Zoro could not resist grabbing him and planting a lazy kiss on the side of his face, and then letting him go when he spluttered. It successfully snapped him out of his gloomy thought, at least, which is what the swordsman intended. Now that he had Sanji’s attention, he proposed playing cards or doing something to pass the time, if they were so intent on waiting out the rest of the journey alert. Believing it still was only a matter of time, minutes or an hour, Sanji agreed.
Far more than an hour later, both pirates looked at each other across their nth card game and began to wonder. By the growling of Zoro’s stomach it was getting to be time to eat again, but it had been far too long since anyone came down into the cargo hold to fetch supplies. For that reason Sanji had surmised that they were so close to landing that the galley was closed, but now, he wasn’t so sure. Zoro tossed down a card without much care as to whether it was a winner or a loser, and then murmured, “Sure is taking them a long time to make landfall.”
“Maybe I miscalculated a little,” Sanji sniffed, just staring at the card without making a move. “Maybe we were only asleep an hour or two.”
Zoro hummed under his breath, a noise of uncertainty, and then folded his hand. “I don’t like it. We need to find out for sure.”
Sanji glanced at him, and then sighed and threw his cards down as well. He was bored and frustrated enough to give in and take the first step toward investigating the current time and location. He plucked the Vivre card out of his tobacco pouch and set it down on top of the pile of cards to double-check their heading. The scrap of paper moved toward Zoro - toward the stern.
Sanji snatched it up and stared hard at it, as if it could possibly be anything but the Vivre card labeled “Rayleigh” that was supposed to move toward the old pirate’s location on Sabaody. “It’s behind us?” he whispered, a note of worry creeping into his voice.
It took Zoro a second or two later to catch up, but then he voiced what they were both thinking. “We’ve changed course.”
“Shit!” Sanji tucked the Vivre card scrap away and made to jump up to his feet, but at that very moment they heard the creak of the cargo hatch and instead scrambled to shutter the lantern and hold still. Both sat with their backs pressed against the wall and their eyes cast upward to the little bit of light that could be glimpsed over the top of their crate-fortress. The Marines who came down stayed at the far end of the ship, so they couldn’t overhear any of their chatter about what time it was or what they were retrieving from the hold. It took them long enough, whatever it was, but the pirates didn’t move a muscle until the hatch had closed to and the space gone silent once more. Zoro found the lantern and uncovered it to find Sanji sitting with the heels of his palms pressed against his forehead in frustration. “I don’t believe this,” he breathed. “How long were we out? When did they turn around?”
“Stop freaking out,” Zoro grumbled. “You need to think of a way out of this.”
“Me?” Sanji’s head came up sharply. “Why the hell is it my job?”
“Because you’re the brains of this operation.” Zoro’s face was serious as he said it. “Now calm down and think.”
Sanji’s glare eased off his face, and he deliberately took a couple of deep breaths to refocus his mind on the matter. “There’s nothing for it, now,” he said heavily, “one of us is going to have to go topside to check things out. And by one of us I mean me, I’m sure.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“Of course it is.” Sanji slapped his hands on his thighs as he stood up. “But there’s no other choice. The Vivre card says we’re going the wrong way, so we have to find out why. And I don’t trust you to stay undercover for very long.”
Zoro scowled at him, even though he knew it was a valid complaint. “I don’t care about that stuff. I just want to get off this ship and get where we’re going.”
“And that’s why you’re not allowed to investigate.” Sanji stood there for the briefest moment to listen and verify that no one else was in the hold but them, and then swiftly ducked out of the alcove en route to the storage rooms at the other end. He needed another uniform, after they completely ruined the last one. There was no time to waste, every minute they fiddled around down there took them further away from Sabaody. He didn’t even wait for Zoro, though the swordsman got up and followed him without a word. Sanji raided the uniform storage for another shirt, buttoning it right over his dress shirt and tie, as well as a cap since he had just tossed aside the other one somewhere in the darkened hold. Hearing his crewmate come up behind him in the doorway, he tossed a second shirt over. “Keep watch, again, just in case I have to make a break for it.”
Zoro caught the shirt and boggled at it. “Why do I need one?”
“In the off chance someone comes to the cargo hold while you’re standing watch!”
Zoro eyed him as he shouldered past and then flung the shirt over his shoulder, not caring where it landed. “Forget it, I’m done playing pretend. That’s your deal.”
“Then use it to sneak into the men’s room up here, I don’t care!” Sanji snarled under his breath. He was actually thinking about doing so himself, on the way back down, to wash up properly if nothing else. He was already halfway up the stairs, and once again gingerly tested the cargo hatch to be sure he could get out. He caught a glimpse of feet and hastily lowered it again, but the Marine in the foyer above had been turned away and didn’t notice the hatch raise. Once the feet had gone off down the hallway to the right, Sanji hurried to slip out of the hold and close the hatch behind him as quietly as he could, before anyone else happened across him. He moved a lot more quickly than the last time, checking both ways before darting up stairs and through doors, making for the main deck. He got to the last doorway when he finally met someone coming - an officer, no less, wearing one of the Justice coats. Sanji’s breath hitched in his throat, but he composed himself and snapped into a salute as he stepped out of the way.
The officer glanced at him as he passed. “At ease, sailor. Report.”
Sanji’s eye twitched under the shadows of his visor cap, but otherwise he covered his tracks well. “Uh...all’s well as it…should be. Sir. Nothing to report.”
The man peered at him for a moment, but then shrugged and continued on his way. “They need more hands on deck, get out there.”
“Aye, sir.” Sanji waited until he was gone before shooting him a glare from under the cap and ducking out onto the open deck of the ship. There were a lot of sailors moving around, maintaining sails and lashing down objects. His attention was caught by a cluster of men securing the warship’s lifeboats in the center of the deck, against the mainmast. That was important to note, so he filed it away mentally. Someone shouted and gestured toward the bridge, so Sanji waved to indicate that he had heard the order and would go carry it out. It didn’t matter what the sailor wanted him to do, he wasn’t going to do it anyway - it was an excuse to get into the inner rooms and spy out the information he needed with a handy story to tell any officer who caught him lurking there. He did note that the mad scramble on deck was indicative of battening down the hatches, literally - there must have been a storm brewing. As he slipped into the corridors around the galley and officers’ cabins, he reminded himself to listen for weather information as well as the rest.
Knowing the galley had a clock, he checked there first. The galley cooks were in the middle of preparing a meal and didn’t even notice another crewman in the doorway. It was almost dinnertime, apparently. He managed to swipe a couple of freshly-baked rolls off a tray before drifting out, and stuffed them in his shirt to save for later. He really wanted to get onto the bridge or near to the helm to see what the actual heading was, but there were too many officers and he couldn’t fake a story convincing enough as to why a lowly (and incorrectly-dressed) crewman was in their midst. A couple of laps around the corridors told him where the captain was, at least, so he lingered extra-long around the map room and managed to always be ducking around the next corner if he heard someone coming. Just when he had exhausted every idea and resigned himself to making his way back down into the cargo hold, he heard the unmistakable sound of a den-den mushi calling. Sanji managed to slink up against a wall underneath a window in time to listen to the captain’s end of the call.
“...yes, sir, I’m aware of it,” he was saying. “Preparations are being made as we speak. Staying on this heading is the best course.” A long pause, then a sigh. “Sir, my helmsman is an experienced navigator who’s been through more typhoons than I have. I trust his judgment. It’s not about getting there faster, we’ll lose some time even if our bow is pointed straight into the storm current. No, I know. Yes, sir. Of course I will, sir.”
The call ended fairly quickly, and then someone else in the room spoke up. “The vice-admiral wanted us to change course?”
“Nah, he’s just trying to give advice where advice isn’t needed. Again,” the captain groused. “I trust Becksley, we’ll follow his lead. It’s not like we’re going to catch up to the revolutionary ship in the middle of a huge storm.”
“They’ll be just as hampered by it, anyway,” the other voice reasoned. “Especially if rumors are true and it’s the ship stolen from Impel Down. That vessel had to have been through a lot already, it might be damaged.”
Sanji’s eye widened as he listened. The captain harrumphed a bit. “We can’t rely on that, there’s no guarantee. But yes, that was the report - the revolutionary Ivanov was leading the ship that broke out of Impel Down. I actually don’t expect to catch up to it, but we should be able to get a bead on where it’s headed.”
“I suppose a revolutionary ranks higher than a supernova-level pirate captain, in terms of who to go after,” the other sighed.
“I have my doubts about those reports on Trafalgar Law’s ship,” the captain said in a much quieter tone. Sanji heard him anyway. “Good thing they gave us a new mission before we actually reached Sabaody.” There was a shuffling as of papers on a desk, and then he added, “Preparations are coming along?”
“We’ll have everything in place well before the storm actually hits,” his other officer proudly reported.
“What about the cargo hold?”
“Last on the list. We need to get the main deck and galley secured first.”
“All right, but don’t let it go. The last thing we need is to lose balance because some cargo shifted.”
Sanji didn’t need to hear anything else. He peeled away from the wall and darted down the adjoining corridor, making all due haste to get back to the cargo hold. On top of everything else, their secret hiding place was about to be compromised in the name of securing the ship against a coming storm. He had to stop and salute another officer at the top of the stairs, and then practically leaped down them to the hatch between decks. It was tightly closed; Sanji wondered if Zoro had been almost discovered, or worse, but as he approached and grabbed the handle, the door yielded with no resistance. There was no time to wonder where the swordsman was, footsteps were tromping up the adjacent corridor. Sanji dropped into the hold and eased the hatch closed overhead, waiting there stock-still for a moment until the sound of someone passing by toward the upward stairs died away. He let out the breath he was holding with a relieved sigh, but even as he was turning to go down he found the tip of a sword blade in his face. He recoiled and nearly shouted at the same time as Zoro realized it was him and lowered the threat. “Sorry. Thought you were one of them.”
“Dammit seaweed-head what the fuck are you doing?” Sanji hissed. “Out of my way, let me down! We’re in trouble.”
“What?” Zoro sheathed Wadou Ichimonji and stood back while his crewmate slithered down the stairs and rushed off through the cargo hold toward their alcove. Only there, in the shelter of the crate fortress, could they hold a normal conversation. Zoro made his way there at a more leisurely pace, though he didn’t doubt the warning. When he got there, Sanji had already tossed off the uniform, and now threw something at him. Zoro startled but reached to catch the dinner roll. “What’s this?”
“Fresh bread. Eat it.” Sanji was already gnawing on his, both out of hunger and anxiety. “We’ve got to make some decisions fast. We’re about to be discovered.”
Zoro gave him a questioning stare, already halfway through the bread. “Huh?”
Sanji quickly related to him what he had learned topside - that the Marines had changed course to go after the ship that had brought all the escaped prisoners from Impel Down, or something like that, and they were definitely heading away from Sabaody now. And, there was a storm coming, meaning very shortly the crew would come down to secure the cargo hold. “There’s not much we can do to hide from all of them,” he said warily, thinking as much as he was talking. “They’ll see the boxes done up this way and want to move them so all the ballast weight is down the middle. No matter how much we creep around in here, we’re not going to avoid them forever.”
Zoro stood over him, arms folded. “Looks like it’s time to abandon ship. If we wait this out, we’re going to be right back where we started.”
“Possibly. I don’t know what heading we’re on, we could be heading south or due west or...” Sanji huffed and shook his head. “I know, you’re right. We need to get off this ship.”
“Nowhere near land, though,” Zoro reasoned, “so we can’t just dive off. What about the lifeboats?”
At the thought, Sanji perked up a little. “They were securing them in the center of the main deck, I saw it. Not necessarily easy to tip overboard, but a lot easier to get to.”
They both fell silent while they thought it over, and a sly grin began to fill Zoro’s face. “Sounds to me like we don’t have a choice, then.”
“No, we really don’t.” Both of them knew what they had to do without having to share with each other. Sanji sat up and pulled the duffel bag to him, rummaging around in search of anything else he could chuck out to lighten the load. There wasn’t much. He actually put his suitcoat on, preferring to have it on his back rather than in hand, and then pulled out the little backpack. Into that he stuffed what was left of their cash winnings from Esme, some bandages, and a few other supplies that wouldn’t do well if they got wet. Dry clothes would also be important but he couldn’t guarantee the water-fastness of the duffel. “Take a few minutes to eat up any food we still have back here,” he said in a low tone. “If we’re getting into a fight, it’s best to do it with full bellies.”
“Not taking any with us?” Zoro wondered.
“We don’t have room.” Sanji decided his preparations were enough and cinched both bags up tightly. Each of them could now carry a little of it. “We can survive on fish until we reach an island or get picked up.”
Zoro rolled his eyes but consented, going to where they had been keeping foodstuffs and making the most of it. Sanji helped, and together they wolfed down their last meal in hiding. It was a real now-or-never situation, and even though they couldn’t guarantee their safety or comfort from now on, it was better than riding a Marine ship headed in the opposite direction. They had their Vivre cards to navigate by, and both were healthy enough by now to be able to take turns paddling a lifeboat. Or, they could use the spare clothing to rig up a makeshift sail. Either way, they were tough enough to survive such a journey. Of course, neither of them knew just how far from Sabaody they actually were. They had slept all the way through a change of course and the better part of a day, and the changing winds ahead of the storm had given the Marine warship a good tailwind by which to make considerable headway. They were, in fact, heading back directly toward Kamabakka Island, though still a couple of days away. Still, even if they had known this, it wouldn’t have changed their plans. They had to disembark while the ship was still clear of the storm, lest their tiny lifeboat get caught in it as well.
Over the last meal, they devised a few strategies for their attack. Sanji explained exactly where on the main deck the lifeboats were now stationed, hulls up, and they determined that the best course was to bum-rush the stairs and cut their way across the deck to the boats. Zoro would cut one free, and Sanji would kick it to launch it over the side of the warship. Then, all things working in their favor, they could fight their way to the railing and jump off into the lifeboat. With any luck, the Marines wouldn’t realize who exactly was bursting out of hiding on their ship and fighting them until they were well on their way. They were in complete agreement, and nodded to one another before snuffing out the lantern for the last time and creeping out of their hiding place. Sanji had the backpack, and Zoro threaded one arm through the handles of the duffel bag so it would be mostly out of his way. He might only be able to use two of his three swords, but two were enough against most Marines. They prowled up to the stairs and took a second’s pause to gather themselves, and then Sanji rushed up to push the hatch open and set them free. Except that the hatch didn’t budge. He slammed his head into it, and then had Zoro run into him from behind. Both tumbled halfway down the stairs, cursing far too loudly.
When he had shaken off the pain and regained his wits, Sanji approached the hatch more slowly and nudged it. It only budged the width of the latch holding it down. Apparently, someone’s idea of securing the cargo hold was merely to lock the hatch, and not actually secure the cargo itself. “Shit!” he spat, and then repeated it a few more times under his breath.
Zoro said nothing for a long time, as he was actually listening to see whether their accidental tumble had raised alarms. No one seemed to have heard them, though. Before he could remark to that effect, something else had his attention. He grabbed Sanji’s arm to pull him back and shut him up. “The waves are getting bigger,” he noted. “We’re starting to pitch.”
That just set Sanji off into another round of savage cursing. “We don’t have time for this!” he growled. “It’s now or never! We’ve already waited too long!”
“So bust open the door,” Zoro said dryly.
Sanji’s shoulders wilted. He had been too angry to see the obvious. “All right,” he murmured. “They’re going to hear us coming a lot sooner, but that can’t be helped. On three?”
He turned to brace himself to launch an Anti-Manner Kick Course on the hatch, but before he could even start the count, Zoro grabbed him by the tie and pulled him around into a hard kiss. “Ready,” he said huskily afterward.
Sanji blinked himself awake from that unexpected treat and resumed where he had left off. “One, two...three!”
The wood slat splintered away from the latch holding the cargo hatch shut under one enormous kick. The hatch whipped all the way open and slammed on the floor on its other side, loud enough that there was no way anyone on that deck or near the stairs could have missed it. Both pirates flew out of the hold as one, and made it up the first set of stairs before anyone came rushing to find out what the noise was all about. Two swords were already out, and Zoro zipped past Sanji to meet the startled sailors with a quick slash. The important thing was to get to the lifeboats first, they could have fun afterward. The cook shot through the gap in bodies made for him and raced for the open air, mindful of the first shouts of “Intruders!” starting to spread through the ship. It was clear that they had already reached the stormy seas, as the deck suddenly pitched wildly and necessitated a pause to keep his balance. Marines weren’t so lucky, staggering and flailing around him. He almost felt rather than heard Zoro come up behind him and kept going, adjusting his pace to match the slanting deck of the ship. Both of them burst out into the sharp, wet wind that blasted in their faces and kept going without faltering, ignoring the wayward gunshots echoing behind them. Sanji zeroed in on the lifeboats, finding them exactly where he expected, and grabbed for Zoro’s shirt to steer him along. The ship pitched again, and they could hear shouting coming from all directions now. Then, something much nearer and harsher than thunder rang out, and the warship shuddered from something that was definitely not waves. Sanji skidded to a stop and looked around, realizing belatedly that not all of the shouting was in regards to intruders, and half the sailors on deck were paying more attention to something off the starboard side than to the pirates onboard. As they sank into a trough and the deck tilted enough, he could see what had divided their attention - there was a small ship cutting towards them on the waves, its black flag snapping in the gale.
Sanji stared in alarm. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he said to no one in particular. “We’re under attack?”
Zoro had blown past him and gone to carry out his part of the plan, managing to control his slashes to cut only the ropes and chains securing the boats down and not the boat itself. Several Marines charged him at the same time, so he whirled around and blocked all of them from connecting. “What the hell are you doing?” he yelled over his shoulder. “Get over here and do your thing!”
Another burst of not-thunder announced the firing of a second cannonball, which missed the warship but not by much. The stormy swells were making it hard both to attack and to flee. The pirate ship was flying fast on the wind, cutting up from behind and beside and swinging to fire cannons at the warship’s stern, which wasn’t nearly as armed and armored as the bow. Sanji hesitated, but then raced to join his crewmate, kicking his way through the Marines that were finally catching up to them. The forces of justice were divided, completely nonplussed by the simultaneous attack from within and without. They might have even assumed the two onslaughts were connected, though the timing was a mere coincidence. The ship rolled again as Sanji reached the lifeboat, and he nearly lost his footing under the heavy shower of sea-spray that drenched the entire deck. The storm was upon them, the skies black as night and the wind tearing at the rigging. Spatters of wind-driven rain turned into a downpour, even while the two pirates busied themselves fighting off the cadre of sailors sent to apprehend them. Sanji happened to glance toward the sea just as the unexpected ship sailed by, looping around the Marine vessel, and he was so startled by the sight that he nearly failed to duck a punch. “No...it can’t be!”
“What?” Zoro snarled over the wind as he stood with his arms straining to brace his swords against a burly sailor. “What are you gawking at, idiot?”
“Your secret admirer took your advice!” Sanji yelled back, nodding his head in the direction of the other ship as he turned and back-kicked his attacker clear out of the way.
“Huh?” Zoro allowed himself a moment to look, and he, too, stared in surprise. If it wasn’t the skull figurehead on the rear of the ship, or the flag standing out almost straight from the mainmast, he could at least recognize the name painted across the side of the hull. The Grishend was indeed as fast a ship as her captain had boasted. Zoro boggled at it, not even bothering to push away his opponent. “What the hell?!”
“Hey!” the Marine snapped at him. “Pay attention, here, I’m fighting you!”
Zoro turned his head to glare at him, and then effortlessly tossed him off, flinging him and his broken saber halfway across the deck. “I’ve got more important things right now!” he shouted after the sailor.
Sanji smashed his foot into a few more faces to clear the way. “Of all the times for the lady to grow a backbone,” he complained. “Now is not the time for this!”
“Who cares, just get the boat in the water!” Zoro demanded. “Dammit - why this ship? Did she know we were on board?”
“I don’t see how.” Sanji waited a moment until the pitching ship had rolled conveniently to its other side and tucked his foot under the gunwale of the lifeboat, lifting it and flinging it so that it would clear the railing of the warship and land right-side-up in the water, taking advantage of the ship’s momentum and the storm’s interference. But the ship rocked back as another cannon shot hit it, taking them out of range again. Sanji steadied himself with a fist on Zoro’s shirt, and then yelled in his ear to be heard over the rain and thunder. “Cut all the lifeboats free! We’ll jump on whichever one stays intact!”
Zoro shot him a confused look, but didn’t argue. A twist and a slash and all of the boats slid across the deck, rumbling towards a bunch of sailors who didn’t get out of the way in time. More than one went overboard. The boats bumped into the railing and then slid back with another tilt of the deck. Sanji ran to them to kick them over the edge into the water, while Zoro held back and cut down anyone who tried to stop them. The warship was rolling less and foundering more, one of the cannonballs had torn through its aft and it was taking on water. The whole place was in chaos, sailors running this way and that to stop the attackers on board, defend against the ship tearing holes in their hull, and try to keep their own from sinking in the storm. The Grishend was smaller and able to slice through the waves with its low, sleek configuration, so it seemed far less affected by the storm than the bigger Marine ship. It cut around and riddled the other ship with enough holes that it began to list drunkenly from wave crest to wave crest. Sanji and Zoro were about the only people able to keep their footing on deck, but barely, bracing against each other. The rain had already soaked them through, and it was getting hard to see even the white-shirted Marines stumbling around or running at them. Then, a stroke of lightning hit the mainmast above them and shattered the top rigging spar, sending splinters of wood and shards of sail cascading down onto the deck. The thunder at that close range almost split their ears. Sanji pulled at his crewmate’s arm. “Time to go!” he declared.
Zoro fully agreed. The Marines had their hands full and couldn’t mount enough of a counter-attack to stop them, and the ship was going down. Whether or not Kika’s Pirates knew they were there didn’t matter, they needed to get off the Marine warship before it sank and this was the perfect chance. The swordsman sheathed his blades and together the pair ran for the railing, leaping on top of it even as the ship lurched sideways in the trough of a wave. There were no lifeboats immediately below them, but all were floating somewhat nearby - a short swim would be required. One after the other they jumped into the sea even as the ship practically threw them into it. As they surfaced, another cannon-boom shook the air, and the bridge of the warship exploded. Tossing wet hair out of his face, Sanji began swimming away from there as fast as he could, his strong legs propelling him rapidly out of the shadow of the ships. The shouting of Marines was growing fainter, but the whole ship began to creak loudly and eddies of current swelled under the surface of the water. The cook tried to glance back and see if Zoro was keeping up with him, but he couldn’t see anything in the jumble of wave, rain, and darkness. He made for the nearest lifeboat and grabbed the gunwale, and only then got a good look at their former transport. With a start of alarm he realized it was toppling sideways into the waves, almost on top of them. He couldn’t find Zoro at all. Bellowing the swordsman’s name into the storm, he grabbed on tightly to the lifeboat even as the warship listed and crashed down on its side, flinging sailors into the sea like toys. The rush of water clashed with the waves and ripped the boat out of Sanji’s hands, plunging him under. Fortunately, he was a good swimmer even when weighed down by sodden clothing and a bag and struck out against the current, fighting his way back toward the flashes of lightning above him. Air filled his lungs as he broke the surface once more, and then a floating board struck him in the back of the head. He blacked out for an instant, but came to before he could drown and beat his way back to fresh air a second time. By then he was completely disoriented, his chest aching, and he had lost his companion. He treaded water for a bit, and then spotted the chunk of hull floating nearby, drifting closer and closer with each lashing wave. The ocean was pushing it toward him, so he kicked out and swam for it, reaching it with little effort and heaving himself onto it.
The skies were still dark as night came on behind the storm clouds, and the rain was still falling heavily, but the wind was already changing direction to push the storm onward. Sanji crouched on his hands and knees on the raft-sized chunk of the warship until he had coughed all of the water out of his lungs and caught his breath, and then lifted his head to see where he was. The waves were carrying him further away from the half-sunken ship, visible only as a dark hulk in the water some distance away. Occasional lightning flashes revealed the Grishend floating along next to it, presumably raiding what was left and gloating over its victory. That ship, too, was too far away now to swim to, let alone try to board for an ironic rescue. Sanji watched in disbelief, wondering if Zoro had made it there at least. He sat up a little more and looked around in every direction, spotting struggling Marines, dead bodies, flotsam and jetsam of all types, but no swordsman. His heart began to sink, but he mustered himself and forced himself to keep looking, or to start thinking of a way out of this predicament. The wood planking was fairly secure and of a decent size to use as a raft, so for the moment he was safe enough. He knelt and swiveled around to look away from the remnants of the ship, and finally spotted a flash of green on the black water. There was a lifeboat drifting loose on the waves, or most of one, and nestled inside it was Zoro. They were too far apart for Sanji to see if he was injured, or alive even, but the fact that he had struggled aboard something to get out of the water was a good sign. He braced himself and got to his feet, cautiously riding the raft like a surfboard as it climbed the swell of a wave and sank down into the trough beyond. In those few minutes, the two makeshift craft had drifted close enough together that Sanji could see Zoro gasping for breath, his head tilted back. His bared chest bore long cuts as though something had raked across him, and he was bleeding from the temple, but definitely alive and alert. Taking a deep breath, the cook screamed across the distance to be heard over the storm. “Oi! Marimo!”
Zoro shook his head and sat up, throwing his arms out to balance the busted lifeboat. He had lost the duffel bag, but still had his swords and his life. He looked around for the voice calling him and caught sight of his crewmate even as both coasted up the crest of another swell and back down again. Now they were at least close enough to talk to each other if they yelled. “Yeah, I hear you!” Zoro shouted back, rousing himself as best he could. The lifeboat had lost part of its side, but the keel was still stable enough that it remained comfortably afloat without taking on too much water. He remained on his knees for now, and looked across the gap to where Sanji stood on his raft. “You all right?”
“Fine,” Sanji called back. “None the worse for wear.”
“Really? ‘Cause you’re bloody.”
Sanji blinked, and then reached to feel the back of his head where the plank had struck him, fisting his hand in wet hair. It came away smeared with blood. “Yeah, well, so are you,” he noted. “Can you make it over here?”
For a moment they lost sight of each other as they rode sideways over a wave. When they met again, the waves had pushed them further apart. “Don’t know,” Zoro said. “Why don’t you swim over here?”
“That boat’s not big enough anymore!” Sanji fretted. “I’d sink it just trying to climb on!”
Zoro looked down at his half a lifeboat. “Good point.”
Sanji gritted his teeth. He still had the backpack clinging to his shoulders, which meant he had all of the bandages and supplies. Their spare clothing was long gone. All the money in his bag was probably sodden, but it was little use anyway - all the beli in the world couldn’t bring them a rescue ship now. “Hang on!” he called, a little desperately. “I’ll think of something!”
Another wave came between them, and in the trough he could see that they were even further away from each other. The storm-tossed waves were washing them apart. If they waited any longer, they would be separated for good. When Zoro spotted him again, he realized the same thing and shook his head. “It’s no use. Don’t risk it!”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” The desperation was clear in Sanji’s voice now. He stood on his raft as if straining to see, his blond hair plastered to his face with rain and seawater. “Zoro!”
“Save it, Sanji!” Zoro’s head bowed for a moment, and then he was pushing himself up, wobbling before stabilizing himself on the damaged lifeboat. His use of the cook’s name proved how serious he was. Yet another swell, the crest rising like a mountain to block them from each other, and then the long rush down into the valley beyond. Yelling would now be pointless, they were too far apart. Even if he had been in any shape to swim, Zoro knew he would not make it across that distance alive. He was groggy and weighed down by his swords, which he would never part with even to save his own life. Sanji’s raft was bigger, but even he would find crossing that widening gulf difficult. Both silently came to the same conclusion at roughly the same time, as they watched each other ride up and down the sides of the waves: they would not be able to reach each other.
Sanji bit his own lip until it bled. They had been so close, they were working as a team and about to reach their goal! Getting separated now was more dangerous than it had been when they had been paw-punched off Sabaody Archipelago. His heart clenched in his chest, a tangle of conflicting emotions riding close to the surface. Then, as they came into view of each other once more, he somehow managed to meet his crewmate’s eyes, and to his astonishment Zoro raised his left arm straight up into the air, fist clenched. His dark eyes were hard and jaw set in a stony expression, but the upraised arm spoke the message clearly. Sure, the ink marks had been washed off ages ago, and his forearm was actually facing the wrong way even if he still had the x-mark, but the gesture was definite. Alabasta was far away, but the message was the same: we are crewmates. We will meet again.
For the briefest instant Sanji’s lip trembled. Then, he reached across and pulled up the soaking-wet sleeve of both his coat and the shirt underneath so he could raise his bare forearm in the same gesture. Zoro held still, managing to keep his balance as the sea rushed and heaved underneath them, and refused to lower his arm. It was hard to tell from that distance, but he smiled very faintly when he saw Sanji give him the same message in return. It was their silent agreement to each other. No matter what was about to face them, thirst and starvation, loneliness, attack, drifting, capture, loss, they would survive it and make it back to each other. Both kept their arms in the air until the waves finally pushed them so far apart that they couldn’t see each other, and night swallowed them both up. Only then, when he no longer had any shred of sight of Zoro, did Sanji collapse to his knees on his raft. He passed out a minute or two later, and laid senseless on the chunk of ship’s hull for a long time.
Fortunately for the two wayward Straw Hats, fate had something else in store for them. They were not to reach Sabaody mere weeks after being separated from the others, but each had a certain place to be for a certain reason. When they finally woke up after being washed up on separate shores, each noticed the cruel sense of irony. It was as if fate was punishing them for daring to join together and fight against it; landing back on the same islands each had started from was beyond ridiculous, it was downright stupid. At least, Sanji definitely thought so as he blinked his eyes open to find a ring of poorly-disguised male faces staring down at him with evil glee. A pink heart-shaped flower petal drifted down on the wind and came to rest on his chest, adding insult to injury - and he knew if he didn’t get up and start running, he was about to be injured all right. Zoro, meanwhile, pushed himself up to find a line of armed baboons blocking his path, the towers of the creepy house he vaguely remembered from weeks ago visible above the trees. No matter how tired, hungry, sunburnt, and injured he was, he drew his swords on the spot, prepared to hack his way through these strange enemies and get back to the docks he knew existed somewhere on this island. Starting over was not going to be pleasant, but as each man threw himself into the fray, he thought to himself that it was better than being dead and never seeing the crew again. They had a promise to keep, not just to the rest of the crew but to one another, now. That very day, each would find out about Luffy’s message. That very day, each would make a stand and decide on his own how he would survive the next two years. That very day, both Sanji and Zoro would face the worst test of their hearts. In two years, they would find out how well they passed.
THE END.
Previous Chapter