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Chapter Text

Sanji put his hands inside the pockets of his yellow-and-white striped yukata, finally finished with disassembling his soba stand.

The battle at Wano was finished, with the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance victorious. The resulting celebration spanned across the whole country, and Straw Hats and Wano residents alike partied for days and nights on end.

However, the Straw Hat’s journey was far from over, and they were gearing up to leave alongside the Heart and Kidd Pirates tomorrow. The alliance was set to dissolve when they disembark.

All that was left for Sanji was to use up the remaining materials, disassemble his soba stand, then hand out his food for free. His soba had become quite famous, and soon all his food had been taken care of.

As Sanji gave away his last bowl, he noticed a tall woman with dark, curly hair and striking red eyes. She had a tanned complexion, a stark difference from the normally pale residents of Wano, and donned lipstick that matched the color of her dark eyes.

Sanji’s eyes turned into hearts, and he was about to throw himself at her feet when a group of men approached her instead, leering towards her and aggressively puffing out their chests.

“Hey there, beautiful~” “Your appearance rivals Komurasaki!” “What’s your name?”

She eyed the group apathetically, then continued strolling at the leisurely pace she was previously walking at.

The group followed her, taking her silence as an invitation to step into her space.

Fires lit in Sanji’s eyes. “Hey!” he yelled, kicking the man closest to the woman, “How could you disrespect a lady like that?”

An awkward smile appeared on the woman’s face.

The other men floundered at the sight of their downed leader. They ultimately decided to run off, recognizing the famous Straw Hat member by his signature eyebrows.

“Blackleg Sanji.” The woman noted, looking him up and down.

Sanji swooned. “You know who I am, ma’am! Could I have the honor of knowing your name?” He simpered from a respectful distance, arms and legs turning into noodles from the attention.

The woman laughed, then coyly responded, “Perhaps later.” Her expression became more serious, and in turn made Sanji stand at attention. “I would like to meet your captain. I am hoping to borrow a ride from any of the three visiting pirate ships to the next island.” She spoke in a smooth, deep voice, not unlike Robin’s.

“Of course, Madam! Follow me ♥”

~ . ~ . ~

The mysterious woman sat across the Straw Hat captain and his Navigator, who had met the woman on Sanji’s request. Robin sat with a cup of coffee in the back as well, listening in to the conversation.

“Hello, my name is Estelle. My ship crashed when attempting to reach Wano, drowning my crew and forcing me to remain on this island for years, with no way out. With so many pirates finally in the land of Wano, I must request a ride off the island. I can find my way after I leave, but I cannot just let this opportunity pass me by.” She sobbed at the part of her crew’s deaths, making both Sanji and Robin melt with empathy at the woman’s distress- she must have been through a lot in the last few years.

Nami clicked her tongue sympathetically. “Were you able to collect any money while in Wano? We do charge a small fare for transport…”

The other woman straightened up and fished some berries from her pocket. “Would this do?”

Luffy looked like he swallowed a lemon, looking towards the woman, then to the sympathetic stares of his chef and archeologist. “I don’t know. Maybe you should try Traffy or Kidd instead. If they don’t take you first, then fine.”

Sanji hit him on the head with his leg. “Oi! How could you deny a lady like that?”

“You may stay, Estelle. No large fees, either, Nami. We agree to drop you at the next island.” Robin spoke up, agreeing with Sanji.

Nami and Luffy pouted as Estelle smiled at Robin in relief. “Thank you.”

“We set sail tomorrow. Would you like to stay for dinner, Estelle?” Sanji offered.

Her eyes lit up. “Yes! I would love to get to know everyone before we set sail.”

Estelle smiled to herself as Sanji finished up the rest of the meal he was preparing and set the table.

Chapter Text

Sanji set out 11 plates on the table, drawing a long chair from the countertop to the edge of the table for their guest.

“Simple dinner for everyone tonight,” he stated as people started filing in. “Wano-style, boiled, fresh-caught octopus served on a potato bed and seasoned with sweet and spicy paprika.” He pointed at the dish in the center, and the surrounding Straw Hats hungrily eyed the plate, patiently waiting for Sanji to finish setting the table and for everyone to arrive. Zoro was holding Luffy’s hands down, trying to keep him tame for the guest. 

“Next, we have some slow cooked lamb chops which are marinated in garlic and rosemary, glazed with balsamic vinegar reduction.” Zoro lost his restraint on the increasingly animalistic Luffy, and everyone took it as an invitation to start digging in as well, the ladies having already had their plates dished out by the chef.

“Who is this?” Zoro finally asked, after the main part of the meal had died down.

“Her name is Estelle. She’s staying for a ride to the next island.” Nami answered.

Introductions were made around the table, though each of the Straw Hat’s identities were already quite widely known across Wano.

Shortly after, Sanji’s Haki spiked. His exoskeleton automatically hardened in response, and Sanji, Usopp, Zoro, and Luffy all straightened their backs.

“So… this is all the Straw Hats.” Estelle mumbled to herself.

“Uh… yeah.” Brook unhelpfully supplied, “Also, may I see your panties?”

She suddenly looked up, a powerful aura surrounding the room to almost suffocating levels. “ You will trust me above all else and protect me with your lives .”

The heavy atmosphere in the room died down immediately afterwards, and everyone continued their meals as if nothing happened. Sanji observed the room with a growing confusion.

“Um. Is no one going to acknowledge what just happened?” Sanji was looking from person-to-person, an alarmed look on his face.

“Acknowledge what?” Chopper asked. Everyone looked at him questioningly.

Sanji locked eyes with Estelle, who was looking at him with a mirrored expression of surprise and  disbelief.

“She just ordered everyone to trust her. Is that a devil fruit ability?” Sanji got up from his seat and positioned himself defensively, fully expecting his crew to also assume battle formations, as they usually would to aid Sanji when the opposing party was a woman.

No one had moved from their spots at the table.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do that.” With Estelle’s words, everyone relaxed their shoulders and sank back to their respective chairs.

They are following her orders to trust her.

Her eyes narrowed. She asked Sanji, “Could I have a quick smoke break with you?”

Sanji numbly nodded and followed her outside, offering no exaggerated response at the thought of being alone with a beautiful woman. Nami and Robin shared a concerned glance at the anomaly.

Sanji heard “Sanji’s acting strange” before the door closed behind him. He stood directly outside the door, lighting a cigarette before looking up at the taller woman.

“You’ve figured out that I have the Emo-Emo Devil Fruit and can manipulate people’s emotions from a distance.” She placed a hand on his chest, then gave him a mental ‘ forget’ command. Sanji gave her a frown and she huffed in frustration.

“They won’t remember what I command of them,” Estelle explained, mentioning back to the galley, then smirked, “I’ve done my research on you. It seems that the rumor that you will not harm a woman is true.”

She stepped forward as Sanji’s teeth clenched down on his cigarette. “Thank you for bringing me to your crew, it really makes this so much easier. Though, I must not have been able to reach your temporal lobe through your exoskeleton.”

How did she know so much? Sanji’s mind reeled with panic at the situation unfolding in front of him.

“I would normally have ordered your crew to kill you and forget, but since you helped me back at the island, I will give you a chance.”

Sanji let out a shaky breath. What does she want with the Straw Hats? The possibilities are endless.

“Give Monkey D. Luffy an ultimatum- you or me on the ship from Wano.” She tilted her head to the side, then continued in a sing-song voice. “Or I make them kill you.”

Chapter Text

Estelle left Sanji outside as she strode back into the galley with confident steps. The night air suddenly felt a lot colder.

What am I going to do? I brought her to the ship- I can’t allow her to bring harm to my Nakama.

He followed her back inside, mind going miles-a-minute.

Luffy won’t choose her over me if I give him an ultimatum. He may trust her, but he loves me. He said he couldn’t be the King of the Pirates without me.

“Luffy.” All eyes drew back on Sanji. “You were right, earlier. I don’t like her. Leave her on Wano, please.”

He was met with silence and blank stares.

“No… I want her to stay. In fact, would you like to join the crew?” Luffy asked Estelle enthusiastically. She shyly lowered her eyes before giving a sheepish, “I’d love to!”

The room cheered, apart from the blonde.

He chose to speak quickly to Robin instead, knowing now that he was fighting a losing battle. “She’s manipulating you all with her Devil Fruit. Do not trust her!”

Robin frowned, but Estelle suddenly burst into tears. “I’m not! Why do you hate me so much, Sanji?”

Chopper rushed to her side before shooting a glare at the cook. “Why are you joking like that, Sanji? It’s not funny.”

Sanji was filled with dread. This conversation was not taking a good turn. Estelle could order his death at any moment, and he had already overstepped. “Luffy. Me or her? Only one of us will leave this island on the Thousand Sunny.”

Luffy leapt out of his seat. “What? Why?”

“I’m telling you not to trust her!”

Luffy made a face of annoyance.

“What, so you’re leaving the crew again?” Zoro joined his captain, standing as well, offended at the ultimatum.

Sanji’s heart sank to his stomach. He spoke to his captain again, slowly. “No… I’m not leaving because you won’t leave me behind. You need me to become the King of the Pirates, remember?”

Luffy’s face contorted and Zoro started seething in anger beside him. Franky and Brook huffed in frustration behind the two.

“Ask yourselves why you are so adamant on taking her side! You’ve known her for hours, at most !” Sanji tried to reason with his crew again.

“It’s just that you are making unreasonable demands right now!” Nami cut in.

“I agree. If you don’t like her, Sanji, then you could at least bear with it for a week until the next island. Then we could reconvene and reestablish Estelle’s place in the crew.” Robin sounded exasperated, like she was trying to reason with a greedy child.

“Exactly! How could you offer to leave the crew after everything they did to get you back?” Zoro said this, gesturing towards the Straw Hats that went after him to Whole Cake Island. Multiple voices agreed with the statement, expressing their outrage at Sanji’s ultimatum.

“I’m not leaving! Because we are leaving Estelle to be saved by Traffy or Kidd!” Sanji defended himself.

The argument stopped when Luffy put his hand up, a thoughtful look settling on his face. He spoke carefully, weighing his words before they came out. “Crewmates… do not hate other crewmates. You should have accepted her and my decision after she accepted her place on my ship.” Luffy looked Sanji very seriously into his eyes, expression unchanging. “You could have settled it out as crewmates, but you insist on only one of you staying on board.”

Sanji bit his lip as his captain’s words cut into him. Everything he is saying is true, but it’s not like I have a choice in this matter.

Luffy continued. “You are the one who made the ultitum,-”

“-ultimatum.” Nami corrected softly, her frown forming deeper on her face.

“-So, Sanji, you are the one who needs to leave.”

Anger morphed into sadness on all the Straw Hat’s faces, but all were also determined to accept Estelle into their crew.

Sanji’s mouth went dry.

“You are dismissed.”

With those three words, Sanji turned around and fled into the men’s quarters.

~ . ~ . ~

Don’t despair. You need to save them. They are being manipulated. This is your mess.

He briefly entertained pushing Estelle into the ocean, then groaned.

Why did she have to be a woman? Why am I like this? Would the Devil Fruit effects even dissipate after her death?

He gathered a couple of shirts and pants, shoving random items into his small bag, not caring whether they were actually his or not.

I think I put a random dial in. Is that Usopp’s experimental brown hair dye? That’s Zoro’s shirt.

Sanji hands grabbed everything that would fit that was in sight, not bothering to use his brain to filter the items.

He finally stopped when he found a sticky note pad in one of the drawers. With the small pack of belongings in his hands, he ran into Robin’s office, scrawling ‘ EMO-EMO FRUIT. DO NOT TRUST ’ and leaving the pack of notes on her desk.

Running back out on deck, he was met with the sight of Franky, Usopp, Chopper, Brook, and Nami in tears. Luffy’s mouth was set into a hard line and his hat covered the upper half of his face, so Sanji knew he was fighting back tears, too. Zoro had his hand clenched over Wadou , and Robin’s eyes were uncharacteristically wide in distress.

“We still love you!” Chopper yelled as Sanji skywalked off the ship, fighting to keep his expression blank.

“Keep in touch, Sanji!” Nami screamed after him.

“You can find your All Blue! We believe in you!” More teary encouragement followed, amongst it, Usopp bellowed, “Why? Why would you do this to us, Sanji!” Loud bawling from more Straw Hats was heard.

Turning off his senses, Sanji lifelessly walked on the rocky trail leading back to the center of Wano.

How can I help them? I can’t stow away on the ship, nor can I convince them of their impending doom. Sanji had no idea what the woman had planned, but he doubted it would be good. He knew he had time for his temporary retreat, however, seeing that one of her goals was to bring the Straw Hats to the next island. I wouldn’t be able to fight her, either.

Shit. Sanji stopped walking and curled in on himself, reviewing his options.

He only had two.

Chapter Text

“Fuel tank full? Systems ready for the morning?”

“YES, CAPTAIN!” His crew cried out in tandem, scurrying around the submarine, checking the numbers at each of their control boards.

THUNK.

Law’s crew all looked to the ceiling, as if they could see through the metal and identify the source of the noise.

“The radar scanner didn’t pick anything up.” Shachi checked his screen again.

“Must have come from the sky, then. We are only half submerged.” Law moved past his crew members, walking towards the hatch that led outside.

Opening the door to the night sky, he was met with the sight of Stealth Black, eyes swollen and broken trails of tears staining his face.

“What, did someone kill the Straw Hats?” Law looked over Blackleg’s body- no battle wounds .

“Maybe she will later.” Blackleg spoke stiltedly, eyes tired.

Intrigued, Law quirked an eyebrow, then let the distressed man inside the Polar Tang.

As Blackleg had explained his dilemma, Law found himself mildly disappointed at the ease that someone was able to take control of the Straw Hats. They had, after all, talked up a big game of becoming the next Pirate King’s crew. That fact had, in turn, made Law their rival, a position that he intended to take very seriously.

“If a single woman can take down the Straw Hats, it is all the better for me.” Law got up from where he was sitting. “There is nothing in it for me to save you all. Our alliance has already been deemed over.”

Blackleg sat up. “Not yet. It is supposed to dissolve tomorrow when the three pirate groups set sail. And I know that this is not how you want to win over Luffy. You see him as a threat, but being taken down this early in the game would only disappoint you.”

Well, he has a point.

Blackleg sank down deeper into his seat, then after a moment, added, “Please.”

It felt wrong for Law for a Northern royal to be begging for his help. Stealth Black , a fictional character that Law had idolized as a kid. He recalled the feeling of thrill he had felt from the (former) Straw Hat Chef’s transformation, back when they fought together on Wano.

Law fought with himself for a minute. It was unprofessional to let such personal feelings affect his choices as a Captain of the Worst Generation.

“Let me discuss this with my crew.” With that, he left the disgraced Straw Hat behind in his ship’s galley, walking into the control room.

He was immediately greeted by Hakugan and Bepo, both vibrating with excitement.

“Is Stealth Black really on our ship right now?” Hakugan shoved his white mask-covered face into Law’s space.

“I’m such a big fan!!” Bepo gushed, the polar bear pushing Hakugan away and grasping Law’s hands with his paws. “You’ve gotta ask him for an autograph! For me!!”

Law rolled his eyes, then looked towards the remaining members of his crew. Clione, Uni, and Ikkaku had previously expressed their discontent with allying with the Straw Hats, but after fighting alongside them in battle, their views might have changed.

“What did he want?” Clione grumpily asked. His short brown bangs peeked from under the gray hat he always wears. 

I guess some opinions stayed the same.

“The Straw Hats are in trouble. He requests our help.” Law explained.

Stars appeared in Hakugan and Bepo’s eyes, while Clione and Uni groaned audibly. Jean, Penguin, Shachi, and Ikkaku frowned, but remained silent, waiting for more information.

“A woman is manipulating them into taking her to the next island. We do not know her intentions. They kicked Blackleg-ya out of their crew.” Law continued.

Penguin gasped; everyone had been taken aback by the turn of events.

“Should we help them or leave them be?” Law asked, leaving the decision to his crew.

“YES!” Bepo and Hakugan yelled out at the same time.

Their decision was obvious.

“No. I’m done with this alliance bullshit.” Uni answered through his striped, gray mask, and Clione nodded in agreement.

We’re at a tie. Law turned his head towards the remaining crew members.

“Yes. I would hate for the Straw Hats to be taken out of the game so easily.” Penguin spoke carefully after weighing the options.

“The Straw Hats really helped us out back on Wano. We owe them,” Shachi agreed with Penguin, making Clione roll his eyes in discontent.

“We owe them nothing. It was a war .” Jean Bart argued. “We have no time for this many detours on our path to making Law the Pirate King.”

Ikkaku nodded her head. “I still agree with my previous stance that we shouldn’t ally with the Straw Hats. Once it ends tomorrow, I say, let it end.”

Still a tie.

Law sighed, then looked to the ceiling, debating. “… I feel like I owe Mugiwara-ya for Dressrosa.”

“You had already saved his life back in Marineford.” Jean refuted, ”He paid you back in Dressrosa.”

“He paid his dues for Marineford on Punk Hazard, when his crew saved those kids for me.”

The disagreeing party huffed, then slowly nodded their heads.

“I guess we should return the favor, then.” Ikkaku relented. Bepo cheered, then left the room to retrieve Sanji on Law’s request.

“How will we help Sanji, then?” Penguin asked. “We do not know any information about the woman or her abilities, yet. We cannot get caught in the same trap the Straw Hats did.”

“The Emo-Emo Fruit.” Law supplied. “We cannot risk engaging until we know more, or until she shows her hand to the Straw Hats. Otherwise, we risk being forced to fight them while they are still under her influence.”

Jean nodded, then suggested, “We could follow the Straw Hats without their knowledge and monitor the situation until we know more.”

Shachi looked at the controls in front of him. “We should be able to cloak our presence from their Observation Haki while inside the submarine.”

Law nodded. “Good. We need a way to hear them.”

Ikkaku pulled out a transponder snail from her pocket. “It’s Escargot’s time to shine!”

Sanji and Bepo arrived at the door to the control room at the front of the submarine. Somehow, in the minutes of discussion, his eyes had sunken further and his hair was in disarray. He looked miserable.

Bepo had held back on his Mink instinct to rub his face with the other, instead opting to give the suffering man his space. Law watched various members of his crew twist their faces in sympathy before forcing it back to a blank stare. They did not want their guest to feel like he was being pitied.

Law certainly pitied him, however. It must be tough to be kicked out of your own crew, manipulation or not.

“Blackleg-ya.” The man looked up at the Heart Pirate captain. Law held up Escargot. “Is there anything on your ship that could replace this snail, without being seen, and will not be noticed missing for a week?”

Blackleg thought for a moment, before concluding, “We usually do our planning and conversing in the galley or out on deck. A place that could capture both places would be in the hatch that leads up to the deck from the galley. They won’t notice any kitchen supplies going missing, and Escargot can move there later tonight when everyone's sleeping. There is a mini-skillet inside one of the more obscure cabinets of the kitchen. I doubt anyone would look there tonight. You can switch Escargot with that.”

Law closed his eyes and opened a Room . Inside the space, he sensed the Polar Tang, most of the Thousand Sunny, and the railing of Victoria Punk. He concentrated on the middle-lower section of the Sunny, zeroing in on the galley.

I need to be quick. Mugiwara-ya or Roronoa-ya might be able to sense the Room if I take too long.

Finding the mini-skillet, he gave a Shambles command, switching the two chosen objects.

Escargot’s partner-in-crime, Fausse Limace (or Limace for short), was held high in Ikkaku’s hands, broadcasting sounds from the Sunny’s galley for the Heart Pirates to hear.

“…t are we going to do?!” Chopper’s voice filtered through the den den mushi. The doctor was crying, and Soul King’s voice was filtering in and out, trying to reassure the doctor.

“Oh, would you stop crying already? You don’t miss Sanji. You are resentful he left. ” Estelle’s voice reached the Polar Tang’s control room, everyone gasping at the force of the command.

“I can feel her power over the mushi!” Ikkaku remarked. “I am not inclined to follow it, due to the distance, but I can tell that it is an order that I would want to follow.”

The wet sobs had stopped immediately.

“Damn, she’s really powerful.” Penguin noted.

“We must be ready for any possibility when we disembark tomorrow. For now, let us rest. We will wake up at 2 AM to monitor the transfer of Escargot’s location.” Law ordered.

With that, the Heart Pirates left the control room, leading their new guest to his quarters.

Chapter Text

Escargot waited until everyone left the galley to sleep. At 2 AM, it was finally met with silence.

It poked an eye out the side of the cabinet it was teleported to. The Heart Pirate logo had been stripped off its chest for its undercover mission, leaving only the completely dark-blue skin and white shell to be identified by.

Moving at a snail’s pace, Escargot traveled up the cabinet’s door, then up the attached wall, moving towards the hatch of the galley. When it had just reached the ceiling of the room, however, the door to the galley burst open.

“…Can make my own damn hot chocolate in the middle of the night, take that , Sanji!” A frustrated voice muttered out, opening the fridge and grabbing a carton of milk.

“Me too! I want hot chocolate.” A whiney voice accompanied the first.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s make one for Chopper, too, while we’re at it.”

“Thank you, Usopp! You’re the best.”

Escargot stayed glued to the spot, not daring to move. It was half-a-room’s distance away from the hatch, attached to the corner of the ceiling and the wall above the sink, with the fridge directly under its path.

“Can Estelle cook? She could be Sanji’s replacement.”

“Yeah, she can! I’ll ask her in the morning.”

The two voices faded as spoons clinked from being stirred in the three mugs. The door closed shut.

Escargot breathed a sigh of relief, then continued its slow path towards the hatch.

Approaching the hatch, it was a thick door made of two wooden plates, and black handles on each side of the door to flap in or out of the galley.

Lightweight , as it had been deemed by Escargot’s crew.

Thrusting all its body weight upwards, Escargot pushed the wooden trapdoor to hinge towards the deck’s side. Twisting its body, it squeezed through the hole between the two wooden plates (Usopp had been going to “fix” that for a good couple of weeks, the blonde had informed the snail) and settled in the hollow space inside of the trapdoor, microphone still trailing shortly behind it.

Job done, Escargot closed its eyes and fell asleep.

~ . ~ . ~

Penguin and Shachi let out huge sighs of relief when the job was done.

“That was so close.” Penguin lamented, squeezing his eyes shut in worry. “If they found him, they could have squished him!”

Shachi sank down in his seat beside him, then turning to Law, he yelled, “Give the little man a leaf! He deserves it.”

Law rolled his eyes, then pointed at a piece of lettuce from the pile Limace was currently eating from. It disappeared, a piece of dust taking its place.

“If the woman really becomes the new cook, it would do us good,” Law stated, a small smirk forming on his lips. “If the galley becomes her safe space, then she would be making any calls to potential partners or organizations there, as well as conversing with most of the crew from that location.”

Penguin, Shachi, Law, and Sanji leaned back in their chairs, satisfied that their plans were finally fully in place.

“Tomorrow, we will do more research on the Emo-Emo Fruit. For now, it looks like you really need to rest.” Law said this to Sanji, who looked even more haggard than before, despite having been given time to sleep for a couple of hours. “I understand that you are distressed about your crew, but you will do them no good if you are out of shape tomorrow.”

Sanji nodded his head, then the four of them got up to head to their rooms- Sanji to the guest room, Law to his quarters, and the other two to the men’s bunkroom.

Tomorrow, they would be meeting the Straw Hats, and potentially their newest member, as they disembarked from Wano.

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe they made you an Emperor of the Sea, Mugiwara-ya.” Law disapprovingly looked towards Luffy as the man laughed wholeheartedly.

Most of the three pirate groups were on the shore of Wano, getting the last materials into their ships before departing. The Straw Hat crew were all on deck, with the exception of Luffy hanging from Law’s neck, without a care in the world. Heart Pirates were loading crates into their submarine, with two people bearing Penguin’s hat, which covered the upper half of their faces, and wearing the standard beige overall uniform. No one noticed the extra “Penguin” of the crew, dismissing it as another quirk the Heart Pirates had to offer.

Mugiwara-ya­ is not acting differently at all, Law thought pensively.

“I heard you kicked your cook off your crew.” Law stated, wanting more information from the man.

Luffy frowned, then replied, “Yeah, he didn’t want to stay.”

“It would be hard for him to leave the island.”

“He’ll find a way. He needs to find the All Blue, after all.”

Law hummed in agreement, then added, “He might not survive the journey alone.”

Luffy sighed. “Then he’ll die for his dreams. I’m willing to do the same.” Frustrated with the direction of the conversation, Luffy launched himself at the Thousand Sunny.

“Bye, Tra-guy!” Chopper yelled from the railing, waving happily at the surgeon.

“Shut up.”

The Heart Pirates were finished loading up. Law teleported himself to the top of the Polar Tang, double checking that his crew (and guest) were all ready to go. “No sight of the target. She must not want her presence to be known to everyone else.”

They departed from Wano, signifying the “end” of their alliance.

“Looks like Straw Hat and Trafalgar Law are taking the easy routes off the island.” Kidd gloated, making Law snap his neck towards the offending pirate captain.

“HAH?”

“No, Captain! Let’s keep going the safer route, he’s just teasing you.” Bepo’s words were lost as his captain ordered them to keep their course. The Straw Hats are going this way, too. It’s best to keep an eye on them.

The three ships fell, making the Heart Pirate crew members shriek out in terror at the drop, hurriedly running into the submarine and closing the hatch. The metal of the submarine fell heavily under the surface of the ocean, and the Tang creaked as the ship stabilized underwater.

Hakugan went to the helm. “Keeping the course under the Straw Hats.”

“Pressure equalized.” Shachi flicked some of the knobs on his control panel.

“No one is in the galley, and the waves surrounding Wano are making it too hard to decipher what is being discussed on deck.” Ikkaku reported, Limace held to her ear.

Silence engulfed the control room as everyone fell back to their normal pace of controlling the submarine.

“Course stable. We can all leave our stations.” Hakugan stepped away from the helm.

“Where is Sanji?” Bepo asked, looking around the room. The Heart Pirates filtered out of the control room to the smell of bacon and pancakes coming from their kitchen area.

Coming into the room, they were met with the sight of breakfast being made by their guest, who had finally decided to clean his face and comb back his hair.

“Ohh! What is this?” Bepo nudged a crepe, which was sitting on his usual spot at the table.

“It is a smoked salmon crepe with crème cheese and chives. I figured I might as well make food for everyone while you are all doing me this favor.”

Penguin sat down, eyeing the toast warily before glancing back at Law. Grabbing two pieces glazed with jam, he ate them hungrily as Sanji served Law some sunny-side eggs with bacon on the side.

“I know Law doesn’t like bread from his stint on the Sunny after Punk Hazard, so I made him some eggs instead. Would anyone like some as well?”

Some hands were raised, and the Heart Pirates ate a filling breakfast on the Polar Tang for the first time in a long time. Even Limace was eating from a piece of lettuce beside Ikkaku.

“We don’t usually eat breakfast, let alone together!” Jean commented.

“It’s nice to eat with everyone. We should do it more often.” Uni shoved bacon into his mouth. “Looks like no one has to cook from the chore schedule from here to the next island, while Sanji is here.”

“I usually make everyone eat at once when I cook.” Sanji said, and everyone nodded at the unsaid request.

~ . ~ . ~

Robin settled in her office, finally taking some time alone after departing from Wano. Glancing at her desk, she noticed a notepad with ‘ EMO-EMO FRUIT. DO NOT TRUST ’ written on it in bold letters.

Sanji must have put this here.

Frowning, she walked up to the Devil Fruit section of her large library. Shifting through Zoan, Logia, and Paramecia types, she settled on the book ‘Paramecia-type Devil Fruits’ and pulled it out. Opening the table of contents, she found the page reserved for Emo-Emo, and flipped to it.

Sitting back down, she read up on the chapter. Emo-Emo Devil Fruit users have the ability to control or sense the emotions of others. Their commands could be non-verbal (touch) or verbal, with the option of the affected person not remembering the command being issued.

Robin scrunched her eyebrows together in thought. Cook-san is still hung up about Estelle being a Devil Fruit user. She huffed out of her nose harshly, but continued reading.

The order is sent directly to the temporal area of the brain and can make the affected experience a variety of emotions, from crushing depression, undying trust, to ultimate happiness.

Robin thought back to the moment in the galley when Sanji had made his ultimatum. He had accused Estelle of having the fruit and forcing us to trust her … She scoffed, then tossed the book backwards on her table. Impossible. She said she didn’t.

She tapped the desk lightly, mind reeling. No. Do not think of Estelle . Think of this objectively. It is emotional manipulation we might be dealing with here.

Sanji brought a stranger on board. The stranger wanted to hitch a ride. Sanji had said yes, then ultimately changed his tune, accusing the stranger of mind control. He gives the crew an ultimatum – him, or the stranger which we had known for a couple of hours. We chose the stranger over him.

She sucked in a deep breath. In a normal situation, this stranger is guaranteed to have bad intentions.

Her mind screamed out; This stranger is Estelle ! She means no harm! We trust her more than everyone on the ship!

She shot to her feet. More than everyone? How did I trust someone so quickly?

Mind control was no joke. Robin grappled with her mind, toggling back and forth between ‘stranger’ and ‘Estelle’, who she had grown to love.

If I am struggling this much over this, how do I convince the crew, too?

Her heart sank to her stomach. Sanji… We left him on Wano.

Robin grabbed the book again, flipping back to the page she was originally on. I need to find the stranger’s weakness. We can go back to pick up Sanji later. He would be stuck on Wano with our Samourai allies, being treated well.

She continued reading where she left off. Weakness of the Fruit: In addition to the obvious loss of strength with contact to seastone, this Devil Fruit User’s ability would have no effect if the verbal orders are not heard and no physical contact is made. It also affects the entire area the order is heard, affecting enemies and allies alike.

She flipped the page. How would I negate its effects?

If one is already affected, the Devil Fruit User must either release their hold or come in contact with seastone or the ocean for them to be released from their influence. Its power is not released when the User is rendered unconscious or killed, as one might normally assume Paramecia Devil Fruits with active properties would behave. However, due to the passive nature of the fruit after the initial order, the altered emotions of the affected would remain after the User's death.

Robin let out a deep breath. I must throw the stranger into the ocean, then, without allowing her to touch or speak to me.

This is going to be tricky.

Chapter Text

Estelle looked over the pristine countertops of the kitchen.

I know how to cook, so I just need to feed everyone for the week.

She got out the ingredients to make 10 simple sandwiches for lunch when Luffy burst into the galley.

“I’MM HUNGRYYY!” He drooled over the unassembled sandwiches, giving puppy-dog eyes to his new chef.

“Not yet, Luffy. I’m almost done.”

“Give me lots of meat!”

She hurriedly made a sandwich, making sure to pile 3 times the normal amount of meat on it. He snatched it out of her hands, then grabbed the bread and meat from 4 other sandwiches in his other hand before running out of the galley.

Estelle looked at the remaining bread and sandwich materials in horror.

“Did he just take 4 other sandwiches from everyone else?” She huffed, then got out extras for the other crew members’ lunches.

Robin entered the galley, a large cap covering the top half of her face and her long, black hair framing the sides of her head.

“Your sandwich is almost ready, Robin.”

She didn’t acknowledge what was said, instead opting to grab her arm with a gloved hand and tossing her out of the galley in one smooth motion.

“Hey! What’s going on?” Estelle asked.

Luffy watched from father on deck, and Chopper and Brook were curiously watching the scene unfolding in front of them.

“We’re playing.” Robin explained with a smooth voice. Everyone immediately relaxed at that, and Robin grabbed the fallen woman in front of her, again, and shoved her closer and closer to the railing of the ship.

There was a distant ‘I wanna join’ from their captain, but Estelle was getting more and more agitated with the woman in front of her. She wants to push me off the ship , she finally realized.

“Stop.” She ordered, but Robin made no indication of stopping.

Her back touched the rail, and her voice got higher with desperation. “ Wait! ”

She tried to reach out to the taller woman’s body, but gloved hands stopped her from making contact. A hand was clamped over her mouth, keeping her from issuing any more orders. She looked towards Luffy and Zoro, seeing Robin sunbathing in a tanning chair on deck, eyes closed and earbuds in to block sound.

Estelle’s eyes shot back to the clone she was “playing” with. Beneath the cap, there were no eyes on the clone, and a pair of ears were missing from the sides of her head.

Shit! How did she figure me out?

She was balancing precariously on the railing, almost tipping over the side. She fought hard against the hand to her mouth, finally jerking her face to the side and freeing her lips.

“ Zoro! Help me! ”

He strode over immediately, though with not as much urgency as Estelle would have liked. “What, don’t like the water, girl-cook?”

“ GET HER OFF ME! ”

Zoro held Robin’s shoulder and pushed her back, making the real Robin flinch. “No, swordsman-san, let me do this,” the Robin from the deck suddenly yelled out.

Her clone surged forwards, getting ready to toss itself and Estelle overboard. Zoro grabbed the two close, forcing the two of them away from the side of the ship by carrying them in a bear-hug.

Estelle finally felt skin contact with the archeologist, breathing a sigh of relief from the swordsman’s help. MEET ME IN THE GALLEY. YOU WILL NEVER TOUCH ME AGAIN. TAKE OFF YOUR EARBUDS. DO NOT TRY TO INFLUENCE YOUR CREWMATES.

Robin immediately shot out of her tanning bed and strode into the galley, making her clone disappear into a flurry of flower petals.

“Haha. Fun game.” Estelle gave a quick nod to everyone on deck, then closed the galley door behind her and locked the door.

“ Sit. ”

Robin sat down in the chair, reluctantly.

“How did you find out about my abilities?”

Robin sighed, then looked to the ceiling in distress. “You will use your ability to find out anyways, so I might as well just tell you. Cook-san left a note on my desk. It got me thinking.”

Estelle nodded her head. “And how did you find out my weaknesses?”

“There is a book on your Devil Fruit in my office, on my desk.” Robin paused, eyes catching on something on the ceiling, then asked, “What do you want with the Straw Hats?” A slight smile pulled on the edge of her lips.

Estelle was vexed by the other’s sudden change in mood. “There’s no point in telling you right now. I will already make you forget this conversation, as well as any information you know of me.”

“Call it…” Robin eyed the small, slimy trail on the ceiling of the kitchen, “…morbid curiosity.”

“I am a Marine.” She answered, “Straw Hats are my next paycheck and promotion, minus Blackleg. He introduced too many new variables with his ability to resist my Devil Fruit.”

“So, you are making Nami unknowingly head towards another Marine Base, not Egghead Island.”

Estelle smirked. “Yes. Capturing the Straw Hats is too easy.”

Robin was looking too relaxed for this situation, and it was rubbing Estelle the wrong way. She gave her forget and new trust commands, then walked into Robin’s study, looking to retrieve the book on her Devil Fruit.

She looked over the desk but couldn’t find any other books besides ‘Nolan the Liar’ sitting in the middle of the table.

~ . ~ . ~

Ikkaku had come running into the Polar Tang’s “living room”, which was lined with glass, allowing the room to be filled with dark blue light. Sanji was sitting in the middle of the room on a red rug, gazing out of the window to watch the endless groups of fish pass the submarine by. He had been watching for almost an hour, having already finished making lunch for the crew.

Penguin and Bepo were resting on the couch playing cards, and Hakugan was taking a nap on an armchair to the side, allowing one of their fuzzy-gray blankets to surround him completely. The ambiance in the room was relaxed, and the four of them had settled comfortably in each other’s silence.

The four of them turned towards Ikkaku’s panting. “Where’s Law? He’s usually here after lunch.”

Penguin shrugged. “I’ll call him real quick”. Everyone paused for a second, some wondering where he’d get a mushi from, when he screamed at the top of his lungs, “LAWWW! IKKAKU’S LOOKING FOR YOU!”

Hakugan winced at the loud sound, still groggy at having been woken from his nap. “Take it easy, would you?”

The room fell silent when Limace let out Estelle’s desperate voice from the receiver. “ Stop. ”

The audio was distant, so it was coming from somewhere above deck and far from Sunny’s galley. They all turned towards the snail, curious.

“What’s happening?” Bepo asked Ikkaku.

“I think Nico Robin is trying to toss her off the ship!”

“Wait! … Zoro! Help me!”

Sanji walked closer to Limace, settling down beside the snail, a worried look on his face. “She could order everyone to kill Robin-chan! We need to help!”

Law hurriedly walked into the room, responding to Penguin’s call, then joined the group sitting on the rug.

“ GET HER OFF ME! ”

Sanji was as tense as a coiled wire, letting out both a depressed and relieved sigh when he heard “Haha. Fun game.”

“Thought she was going to kill Robin-chan.” He muttered, sitting up again when Limace ordered “ Sit. ”

“She has Nico Robin in her grasp now.” Ikkaku commented.

More conversation passed by, and Law’s back straightened in interest when they heard “And how did you find out my weaknesses?”

“There is a book on your Devil Fruit in my office, on my desk.” Law made a hurried waving motion with his hands, and Penguin stood up, striding to the collection of books lining the room. Grabbing a copy of ‘Nolan the Lair’ , Law closed his eyes and switched the book with Robin’s, based on her description of its location.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief, and Ikkaku traded Limace with the book from Law’s hands, flipping through it to the Emo-Emo Fruit page.

“What do you want with the Straw Hats? ... Call it morbid curiosity.”

“I am a Marine…”

The five of them looked at each other. “We need to find a way to nullify the effects of her Devil Fruit without being affected by it first.” Law explained to the group.

“ …Capturing the Straw Hats is too easy. ”

Sanji frowned. “She hasn’t captured us, yet.”

Law curled the side of his mouth up. “You mean ‘ them’ .”

Sanji shot him a glare in response, then let silence pass over the group. 

“We cannot risk hearing her or letting her come into contact with us. The only way to nullify the effects is if she lets them go or by capturing her in seastone.” Ikkaku read aloud the information from the book.

Law tipped his head back in consideration. “We can’t risk fighting her head-on, because we would need to communicate with each other, leaving earbuds out of the question.”

“How would you suggest saving the Straw Hats, then, Captain?” Bepo asked.

“We could send one of our own as a Marine. Beat them at their own game? That way, the lady marine would release her hold on the Straw Hats, and we could get the jump on her instead.” Penguin suggested.

“They already know what everyone looks like, though.” Ikkaku contended.

“They don’t know what I look like under this hat.” Penguin stated, and everyone looked at him in surprise.

“Penguin, even we don’t know what you look like under your hat.” Bepo gasped.

It was Penguin’s turn to smirk. “Yeah, I’m too handsome without it. Had to leave all the fangirls to Law.”

“We are not letting you go undercover alone in a marine base , Penguin. I know you would be able to fight the marine girl, but there are also a lot of more marines to worry about with this plan.” Law argued.

Hakugan looked ready to jump into the conversation, his own face having not been revealed to the public yet, but Sanji suggested, “If Penguin takes care of the lady, I could take care of everyone else.”

“Oh, right. Your bounty poster is a terrible sketch of you.” Hakugan snorted when Sanji shot him a dirty look.

“Your eyebrows are still very distinctive.” Law mentioned, pointing to Sanji’s signature eyebrow.

“I can try shaving it off. It won’t stay for more than a few days, but the mission is short, anyways. And I think I have some brown hair dye, too, in my bag.”

“Ooh! I also have some colored contact lenses, for your eyes.” Ikkaku shoved her face towards Sanji in excitement, making his face turn pink from the woman’s attention.

“What about my eyes?” Penguin complained, and everyone rolled their eyes as they got up.

“We will do more planning later in the day. Let me know if anything else comes up, Ikkaku.” Law ordered.

Ikkaku gave Law a thumbs up, and everyone settled back into the positions they were in before. Sanji felt the energy building up in his body, getting ready to burst out. It had started building in his chest when he overheard Robin’s encounter with Estelle. He needed an outlet, but there was no Zoro to spar with him.

“Law?” Sanji looked at the Heart Pirate Captain.

“Yes?”

He pointed out the living room hatch. “Wanna spar?”

Chapter Text

Law narrowly dodged a kick, slicing Kikoku upwards, his long sword cutting the air by his guest’s ear.

I’m sparring Stealth Black!

Law dismissed any useless thoughts from his head and kept his expression blank. Clione was standing at the edge of the room, and he had to keep up his appearances. They exchanged blows for a couple of minutes, the Heart Pirate Captain not using his Devil Fruit abilities and instead relying on his sword techniques.

He always relied on his Devil Fruit in a fight, keeping his sword skills secondary. It was good to be brushing up on his skills, in the meantime, and he felt a small amount of thrill rising in him as he fought the Straw Hat’s former cook.

Law grunted as he was pushed back by the blonde, going on the defensive as the hits from the leg got heavier.

He’s trying to get his frustrations out.

It was nothing the captain couldn’t handle- he’d already fought against Kaidou and Big Mom. Law responded to the attacks in kind, making his sword move more aggressively as they got into the rhythm of their fight.

~ . ~ . ~

Sanji looked around the room, doing various handstands and kickboxing moves against Law. They were in a training room that looked modeled after a dojo, with padded floors and mirrors surrounding the walls.

Law was keeping up with his angry kicks, something expected of a Captain of the Worst Generation. Law’s eyes momentarily widened when Sanji lit his leg on fire, making it turn from orange to blue, and flying through the air to do more aerial attacks.

“Room.”

So, he’s finally using his Devil Fruit ability.

Their fighting escalated, and both men found themselves smiling at the thrill of sparring at full power against relatively new fighting styles.

Sanji thought back to his newest attack, Hell Memories . The power behind the move was from remembering a painful memory and letting the emotion take over.

What if, instead of a sad memory, I feel rage? Sanji dully wondered, gazing down at his fiery blue leg.

He didn’t have a lot of memories where he had felt hateful. Even locked up by his father in a dungeon at 8 years old, he had only felt sadness.

Sad memories were easy enough to remember. Hatred, however, …

Sanji thought back to Estelle. No, I couldn’t hate a woman.

He thought of himself, falling head over heels for her and leading her thoughtlessly to his ship, directly to his captain. He remembered his captain suggesting for her to try the other pirate groups, then getting hit on his head in response.

This is all my fault.

An ugly emotion pooled in his stomach. His leg turned brighter, and both men were taken aback when the color changed from blue to a blinding white, making the ends of his dress-pants disintegrate completely.

“Hold on, this is just a sparring match. No need to get so-”

Mépriser Shoot - Sanji launched himself towards Law, white flames engulfing his leg as he threw a kick at the captain. Law’s eyes went as wide as baseballs, and he ‘ Shamble ’-d himself away at the last second, replacing himself with one of the swords hanging from the wall.

Both men fell to the ground at the same time, Law against the far wall and Sanji in the middle of the room. Clione ran to the deteriorating sword, expressing his disappointment. “That was one of my favorite swords!”

Clione got to his knees and pouted as his sword faded to ashes on the floor.

“I’m sorry about your sword. Got in my head for a second.” Sanji lamented.

Clione continued to whine. “That sword was so expensive! Umiishi !”

Law got up, then walked up to Clione. “ Umiishi , the sword with the sea stone blade?”

The three took a moment to process the statement, then Clione’s jaw joined the ashes on the ground.

Sanji had broken through sea stone.

Chapter Text

Law paced in his quarters, mind turning over the plan to send Penguin and Sanji undercover.

He frowned. This mission was something that he could not take any risks on. While Penguin was strong, he certainly could not fight against an entire base of marines.

What worried Law the most was how recognizable Sanji’s face and fighting style were. The only reason he was chosen over the others was because he had a hideous bounty poster.

Law momentarily grappled with the idea of sending Hakugan instead. No, I can’t force him to take off his mask. He wears it for a reason. Besides, one of my crew members is enough to put at risk.

If the life of one of his crew was at risk, Law determined that he would do his best to dissipate any foreign hazards.

Law sighed, then picked up his transponder snail, dialing a number on its shell. This is an asshole move, but Sanji is unlikely to find out, and I doubt the Straw Hats would believe it.

Weighing the risks and benefits in his mind, he finally spoke to the receiver. “Hi, Momonosuke,”

“Oh! It’s Law! What’s up?”

“I’m calling for a favor. The Straw Hats are in danger.”

Scuffling was heard from the other side of the line. “What do you mean, the Straw Hats are in danger?!” Kin'emon practically yelled into the mushi.

“They are being mind-controlled. Have been, since they departed from Wano.”

There was a gasp, then, “AND YOU DIDN’T TELL US?! We could have helped!”

Law let out a deep sigh. “I didn’t think you were all prepared to face the full might of the Straw Hats. Especially right after becoming Shogun. It is not a good look to immediately start fighting your renowned  allies in public.”

Kin’emon sighed. “What do you need from us?” Momo finally asked.

“I’m sending Sanji-ya undercover with the Marines. I need to protect his identity to keep my own crewmate safe.”

“How could we do that?”

“The Straw Hats were manipulated into leaving Sanji-ya in Wano. No one knows he is hitching a ride with us-”

“Oh no! Poor Sanguro-san!” Momo bemoaned.

“-So, to help falsify his new marine identity, I need you to fake Sanji-ya’s death and make it public.”

The line was met with silence as the two Samurai processed his words. “We have been making significant progress on reaching the outside world. It is possible, ever since Morgans had made contact with us. He’s been trying to interest us in giving information for the newspaper on the liberation of Wano.” Kin’emon seemed to be saying this more to Momo than Law.

“Okay, we’ll do it. For you and the Straw Hats.” Momo decided.

“A believable report would be that Sanguro-san tried sailing off the Land of Wano on his own but got caught in the currents and drowned. ” Kin’emon added. “We can send it to the World Economy News Paper to be distributed by the News Coo.”

“That works, but when evidence ultimately proves it to be incorrect, would you be okay with the backlash from WENP? They are powerful.” Law added, remembering its close ties with Germa, which aided the distribution of the Sora, Warrior of the Sea series that he read as a kid.

“That’s fine. We will have our own sources of finding information, soon enough.” Kin’emon responded.

The mushi clicked off, and Law went back to planning his mission.

Chapter Text

Law sat at his dinner table in the galley, watching amusedly as his crew took turns with the karaoke machine.

Bepo and Uni were singing “Love Story” at the top of their lungs, trying to make their voices match the much-higher pitch of the original female singer.

Ikkaku turned the machine off, ranting about her ears bursting. Snatching the mic from the polar bear’s hands, she turned it on again, and replayed the song from the top, trying to sing the song alone.

Shachi and Jean sighed and covered their ears at the tone-deaf singing coming from the woman.

Sanji was still preparing dinner, putting a large rack of lamb in the oven. “What a beautiful voice you have, my dear~”

The others belched, and Hakugan said, “You don’t have to lie, Sanji. We all know she’s terrible at singing.”

“No woman can be terrible at anything. You are simply going deaf.” Sanji vehemently argued, making Ikkaku laugh at the ridiculousness of the statement.

The rest of the Heart Pirates joined in laughing, passing the karaoke machine around to put in a CD of a different song in the Northern language.

“Do a male singer this time!” Cheers were heard as a different song started playing, and the crew started grappling over who would get the two mics.

“Get Law to sing!” A shout was heard in the throng of wrestling men (and one woman).

“No.” Law stayed stoically glued to his spot at the edge of the table.

Sanji sat down next to Law as the singing continued. “It’s nice. I haven’t heard these songs in a long time.”

Law looked gently at his rowdy crew. “Yeah. It’s nice to have a crew from the same region growing up. We all share the same culture.”

“Parles-tu toujours français?” Sanji asked. <Do you still speak French?>

“Ouais, mais un peu.” Law replied. <Yeah, but a little.>

“Oi! No speaking Northern. Jean doesn’t understand it.” Penguin yelled to Law.

“You’re literally singing in it?” Sanji argued back.

“Singing doesn’t count.” He laughed, and what started as a karaoke singing session somehow ended as an arm-wrestling fight on the dinner table.

“Your crew is as random as mine is.” Sanji lightly commented, getting up to pull the lamb from the oven.

Law watched the members of his crew all nod and laugh towards their guest as he passed by. Ikkaku slapped him on his back good-naturedly, and Penguin thanked him for the food. Bepo nuzzled his snout on Sanji’s cheek before sitting back down at the dinner table.

My crew is as random as yours was , Law mentally corrected Sanji’s earlier statement.

“Rack of lamb. Seared, coated with mustard, and encrusted with garlic and rosemary-flavored breadcrumbs, roasted to perfection.” Sanji laid the dishes down in front of the Heat Pirates, who had started salivating at the mouth after settling into their respective chairs.

Sanji had sat down with the crew, between Penguin and Shachi, after dishing out some vegetables on Ikkaku’s plate.

The crew has taken quite a liking to him. Law ascertained, taking in everyone’s visible happiness from around the table.

He looked down at the plate in front of him.

After all, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

~ . ~ . ~

“What do you mean, you’ve been to the Sky Islands?” Bepo asked, thinking back to his crew’s time at Jaya.

“Yeah, we traveled up the Knock-Up Stream and found Skypea. We found a Poneglyph there.”

Heart Pirates looked at him in shock. “We just skipped over it, deeming it too dangerous to do at the beginning of our journey.” Bepo lamented.

Sanji told his stories about the antennae and wings on the Skypeans, fighting against Enel, finding the Poneglyph, as well as their escape, where they tried to rob the Skypeans of their gold, when they were in reality more than willing to give it away.

The Heart Pirates listened with rapt attention. Bepo looked at Law with stars in his eyes. “Can we go there, Captain?”

Law grunted. “Maybe after Laugh Tale. Can’t go back now.” He turned away from Bepo’s pleading puppy-dog eyes.

“I wonder what would happen if we store one of Law’s Rooms into a dial.” Sanji mused, looking over at Law. Everyone groaned. “I wanna know, too! Let’s go to Skypea!” Uni whined, when Sanji perked up.

“I actually have a dial in my bag!”

Everyone perked up as Sanji left the galley to retrieve his pack. Even Law sat up in his seat, curious about the new Skypean technology. “I had no idea that such a thing exists…” He murmured, and his crew nodded excitedly as Sanji re-entered the room.

He laid the dial on the table, letting Law put a hand over it.

“Room.”

Sanji picked up the dial, then held it out. Pressing the button, he was knocked back when a small room appeared from where the dial was being held.

Sanji let the Heart Pirates experiment with it as he prepared some hot chocolate for the Mink and a few others. Excited chattering filled the room, and Law had a thoughtful look on his face.

“This dial could certainly prove useful in a variety of situations.” Law stated.

Sanji hummed in agreement. “It could even be useful when me and Penguin go undercover.”

Law nodded, then continued to carefully inspect the dial in his hands.

Chapter Text

2 days to port.

Shachi found Sanji in the living room, as he had expected. Ikkaku was splayed across the couch with Limace on the table, broadcasting the random noise from the ship above the surface, and Penguin was on shift, sitting on the ground and leaning against the table, listening in to the various conversations for useful information. Law was reading the News Coo on the far armchair. Jean had come up to him and requested the newspaper, but was denied, so he had opted to read a different book from the surrounding library and sit on the bench on the edge of the room. Bepo was laying in a crescent shape on the rug in front of the window, and Sanji leaned against the crux the Mink created, dozing lightly with a cooling cup of tea in his hands in the center of the room.

Shachi took a moment to observe the room. The window had cast a blue glow into the room, adding to the relaxed atmosphere. The smell of cinnamon bread and herbal tea filled his nose, and he looked at the table to find it filled with snacks for the crew to eat as they pleased.

Bepo looked content as he curled in closer around the Heart Pirate’s guest. The crew would normally run away from the bear, only choosing to cuddle him outside of the ship, due to the unbearable heat the contact would bring within the hot confines of the submarine. Sanji hadn’t shown any signs of discomfort, instead looking reassured and uncharacteristically vulnerable by the sudden act of closeness given by the First Mate. He had since fallen asleep to the warm ambiance and hushed conversations within the living room.

“Peut-il être notre cuisinier?” <Can he be our cook?> Shachi suddenly asked the room, looking towards his captain.

“Quoi?” <What?> Law was startled, putting down his paper to look at his Nakama.

“Ses Nakama l'ont abandonné. Nous pouvons l'emmener.” <His Nakama abandoned him. We can take him.>

Bepo tightened his hold on the cook, then moved his head to face Law’s, shooting his puppy eyes from where they were laying on the floor. A droplet of sweat formed on Law’s forehead.

“Yeah, we wouldn’t abandon one of our own!” Penguin added, and Ikkaku snorted. 

“Even with the Devil Fruit lady manipulating us, right?” She whispered back sarcastically, and Penguin made a face.

Law let out a soft laugh. He took a moment to recall the words from his birth tongue, speaking formally with a jilted accent. “Il ne voudrait pas nous rejoindre. Il est trop fidèle.” <He wouldn't want to join us. He is too loyal.> 

Law leaned back in his chair, musing to himself. “Besides, he has an extremely high bounty. That would make him my left hand man, and not Jean.”

This got Jean’s attention, having previously been lost to the conversation spoken in a foreign tongue. “That’s fine. Penguin was the previous left hand man. It is just the order of things.”

Law let out a sigh of defeat, then let the room fall back to silence. After a couple of minutes, he said, “Vous pouvez me rejoindre à tout moment, Sanji .” <You can join me at any time, Sanji .>

Sanji’s fingers twitched against the mug, but he only rested his head deeper into Bepo’s midsection, eyes squeezed shut.

The Heart Pirates let out a shared sigh, then went back to their hushed activities.

~ . ~ . ~

The remainder of the trip went by smoothly, with endless planning and preparation on the Heart Pirate’s part.

The Heart Pirates had worked day and night to knit life-sized replicas of all Straw Hats. Knitting and crocheting was Hakugan’s pastime, so he was leading the efforts, creating small mushrooms growing out of the green-haired swordman’s hair on Sanji’s request, and making Sanji’s mannequin far too detailed for what they had planned for the dolls. Penguin’s replica was also made from Hakugan’s store of string, and the 11 life-sized dolls were made with barely enough time for Sanji and Penguin to finally start getting ready to go undercover.

A couple of days before, Sanji had been experimenting with the hair dye that he had found in his bag. It was a brown powder, and he had applied it liberally on his blonde hair, wanting to go for a Cocoa or Chestnut color. What he hadn’t known was that Usopp had created it for short-term use, and most of it had come off in the shower he took the day after.

Sanji now sported a dirty blonde look, hair unparted and fully covering his forehead. Even with his eyebrows hidden from view, he had shaved the curls off them, just in case his hair decided to part naturally.

A couple hours from reaching the Marine Base of Adhara, Sanji had borrowed Ikkaku’s brownish-red contacts, which she had initially gotten to highlight her own eyes’ colors.

Sanji sat beside Penguin, who had changed out of his jumpsuit uniform and into plain clothes. He was adamantly refusing to take off his hat, assuring everyone that he would take it off at the last possible moment.

Law’s breath caught in his throat, and he looked at the dirty blonde with a sudden reverence. “Cora?”

Sanji looked up. “Hm? No, I am Commander Sora .”

He motioned to Penguin beside him. “And this guy is going to be Officer Condoriano.” Sanji snickered to himself while Penguin tried to pronounce his fake name.

“Hold on.” Law walked back to his quarters, getting out an old Marine uniform from the depths of his closet. He looks just like…

He walked back and handed it over to Sanji. He slipped on the pristine uniform (bullet holes patched and blood stains cleaned), and Law held his breath.

… Cora-san .

“We’ve arrived. We cannot go any further without being seen- the water turns transparent in a channel running to the middle of the island.” Hakugan had made his way from the control room to the mud room by the hatch to outside.

“We need to get Sanji and Penguin undercover before the Straw Hats get captured, to reduce suspicion.” Law stated.

Everyone nodded, then walked back to their respective planned positions.

They were ready to save the Straw Hats.

Chapter Text

Estelle gasped when the Sunny approached the island. Pointing to the shore, she excitedly asked Nami, “Is that a channel to the inside of the island? Can we go in?”

Jinbei was at the helm, squinting into the distance to where their new cook was pointing.

Nami looked at her map. “Hmm. It might not be the best idea, Estelle. We don’t want to get trapped and have no way out.”

Estelle pouted. “But I am from Adhara, and it goes all the way through, trust me!”

Nami sighed, then gave the order for Jinbei to steer Sunny in. Estelle and Luffy both jumped up and down in excitement as the ship entered the channel, now completely bordered on the sides with orange walls of stone. The walls had many holes and caverns of various sizes, and the water turned a turquoise-blue color that was transparent enough to show small schools of fish swimming by the ship.

Usopp and Chopper peered down the side of the Sunny, leaning on the rails to watch the colorful fish flit around in the water.

“Wow! This island is really pretty!” Usopp said.

“You really grew up here?” Chopper excitedly asked.

“Yes, I did!” Estelle answered.

“Are there any good restaurants on the island?” Luffy didn’t want to admit it, but he missed the flavorful meals made by their former chef.

“Uhm. Yeah.” Estelle supplied. “It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been on the island.”

“Estelle said that the channel runs through the whole island. Should we just stop here and start exploring?” Zoro asked, eagerly eyeing the walls of rock surrounding the Sunny.

“Uhh… there’s a ledge of rock which would make it easier to disembark. In just a few minutes.” Estelle had started to sweat profusely.

The Straw Hats hummed and continued admiring their surroundings.

Zoro suddenly reached for his sword, his captain and sharpshooter suddenly on the alert. “We’re surrounded!”

Everyone got into battle positions as the Sunny was suddenly surrounded by hundreds of marines, appearing from the top of the rock formation and from within the surrounding wall’s caves.

“How were they expecting us?!” Nami exclaimed, getting out her clima tact.

A gunshot tore through the air, sea stone bullet lodging itself into the Straw Hat Captain’s shoulder. Estelle was pressing a gun to Luffy’s throat and holding his limp body in front of her.

Everyone’s jaws touched the floorboards.

“Estelle! What are you doing?” Chopper screamed.

Zoro’s eyes were blown open, unsheathing his swords and fixing his eyes on their newest crew member.

“Is someone forcing you to do this?!” Brook gasped.

“They must be holding her family hostage or something!” Franky started crying, not knowing whether to attack Estelle or ask her if she was okay.

Estelle rolled her eyes. Finally releasing her hold on the Straw Hats, she reveled in the looks of growing understanding creeping up on the pirate crew.

Sea stone nets were thrown over the devil fruit users, with soldiers surrounding all of the Straw Hats, each helpless due to the gun pointed to their captain’s throat.

Everything had gone according to plan.

Chapter Text

“Sir!”

Admiral Oliver, the Marine running the outpost at Adhara, looked up to one of his officers.

“There are two men at the gate. Commander Sora and Officer…” He looked at his sheet again. “Condoriano, here for a … Health and Safety Audit?”

Oliver’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “An audit? Aren’t they supposed to give us a warning before sending people here?”

The officer shrugged. “They said that if we had known, you would clean up the place.”

Oliver clicked his tongue. “That’s true. Bring them in.”

Two men entered the office, one tall dirty blond adorned in a Marine Commander uniform and a shorter officer in plain clothes.

“Hello, Sir. I assure you, we are not working against you, but are only striving towards making your post a safer and healthier place,” the commander assured. “We’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

Oliver grunted. “Why was I not told of this beforehand?”

Sora looked confused. “I sent you a pigeon telling you that an audit was coming within the next year. Did you not get it?”

Oliver hesitated before nodding his head ‘no’.

Sora let out a little huff from his nose, motioning with his hand to Condoriano, who lightly clicked his tongue and started writing on a notepad.

“We’ll need to check the mail-receiving station.” Sora muttered not-so-softly to Condoriano, who nodded in response. “All right. Don’t mind us, but we will need full access to the base. Especially the underground cells, that’s usually where the conditions are worst.”

Oliver considered the statement for a second. There’s no one important in the brig right now, so it’s probably the best time for an audit, concerning its cleanliness. He reached for the master keys and gave Sora a copy.

Sora gave Oliver a brief nod, then the two marines headed out of the office. Oliver put his head down on his desk, his hands covering the top of his head. “That’s gonna give me a headache.”

He turned to the officer who brought the auditors into his office. “Follow them. If they made any wrong moves, call me immediately.”

After a couple of minutes, another marine came in. “Straw Hats have entered the chasm! Lieutenant Estelle must have brought them in!”

Oliver shot out of his seat in excitement. “After so long of no contact! She had me worried.”

Leaving his office, he was greeted with the sight of the Straw Hats being dragged away from their ship. Approaching Estelle, Oliver gave her a bright smile, which she returned.

“You did great, Estelle!”

“Yep! All Straw Hats accounted for.”

Oliver looked over the Straw Hats as they were being bound by chains, the captain bonelessly laying on the ground, blood seeping from a gunshot wound on his shoulder. “I see only 9.” Oliver’s mind briefly landed on the unexpected blonde guest he had received a couple minutes prior.

“I left Blackleg Sanji on Wano, Sir. He didn’t respond to my Devil Fruit abilities.”

It would be difficult for him to arrive earlier than the Straw Hats, then.

“It’s okay, Estelle! It was on the News Coo a couple days ago- Blackleg Sanji’s body washed back to Wano after a daring attempt of braving Wano’s currents alone!” A random officer defended the Lieutenant, worried that the Admiral’s silence had indicated him being upset.

“Good,” he muttered. Commander Sora and Officer Condoriano check out.

He sent the Straw Hats to the dungeon, making sure to attach special handcuffs to the captain and first mate.

“Good job, Lieutenant. Looks like you are getting a promotion!”

~ . ~ . ~

Luffy’s head was hanging limply from where he was bound to the wall, and he groaned periodically as he fought the lethargy that accompanied the seastone bullet inside of him.

The men were all put into a cell and chained to the surrounding walls, minus Brook and Chopper.

Zoro grit his teeth, looking at his helpless captain. “We need to get that bullet out.”

Robin and Nami were in the cell across from the others, both unchained to the walls, but each had a pair of heavy handcuffs on their wrists, with Robin’s made of seastone.

“Chopper? Brook?” Franky looked down at the lifeless skeleton and reindeer. Chopper had lost all humanity, instead walking around on all fours with a seastone cuff around one of his furry legs. Brook had a seastone cuff around one of his arms as well, losing his ability to speak as he laid expressionless on the murky floor.

“Did you hear what those marines were saying? They said that Sanji had drowned.” Usopp whispered.

Nami started sobbing again, and Robin shifted to put a reassuring elbow over her shoulder.

“Would he really attempt to sail through the currents of Wano alone? That’s basically suicide.” Jinbei asked.

Zoro closed his eyes. For his crew, for his dreams, he would.

 Everyone knew the same.

“He died for his dreams…” Luffy slurred out, staring sadly at the ground beside Brook. Chopper nuzzled his snout on Luffy’s leg and curled up on the stone underneath him.

Zoro banged his head on the bricks behind him repeatedly. How could I allow this to happen? How were we all tricked so easily by one person?

10 marines were stationed outside of the Straw Hats’ cells, standing with their backs straight to the walls of the hall. Some were chattering with each other, and the overall mood of the marines was joyful from their most recent capture.

Everyone stopped talking when a conversation was heard from above.

“That sounds like Sanji.” Luffy muttered halfheartedly.

A marine that was obviously not Sanji entered their sight, accompanied by two other officers.

“…just checking the state of the cells, OH MY!” the dirty blonde backed away in surprise, then looked accusingly at one of the men.

“You told me there weren’t any prisoners.”

“There weren’t at the time! We didn’t want to tell any unnecessary information. This is all highly confidential.” The shortest man meekly replied.

The tallest sighed, then inspected the cell, pausing on Chopper, then Brook.

“What the fuck? You are just leaving a rotting dead body in there? Condoriano , write that down.”

Usopp’s head shot up and locked eyes on Zoro. He mouthed, ‘ Condoriano? ’

The marines outside the cell were too busy arguing with themselves to notice the interaction. “No, Commander Sora. That is Soul King.”

“Does that look like Soul King? He’s fucking soul- less !” Sora screeched.

“Haha. That guy’s funny.” Luffy mumbled beneath his breath.

The other marines stationed by the Straw Hats’ cells held their breath as Chopper got up from underneath Luffy, pushing his snout out of the bars to investigate the source of the sound.

“A REINDEER? IN THE DUNGEON??? WITH PEOPLE?” The man blew up at the poor officer again, completely losing his shit at the sight of the animal.

“That’s their mascot.”

“An animal with the prisoners? That’s breaking so many regulations.” The blonde got out a key with a flourish, opening the door to the Straw Hat men’s cell.

“Wait, Sir! Please do not do anything unnecessary.” The 11 marines anxiously gathered into the opening of the cell as Sora and Condoriano stepped into the cell.

Sora opened the seastone on the skeleton’s arm, loudly proclaiming to the group, “Soul King, huh? Why don’t you all check this out?”

To the Straw Hats and Marine’s amazement, Brook turned into a string skeleton.

The shorter marine gasped. “What the hell did you do?”

“Oi! What did you do with him?” Zoro started struggling in his chains, looking dreadfully at the string version of their musician.

“Relax, I’m just storing him, so he isn’t outside of regulations. Sweet Devil Fruit ability, no?” Sora looked towards his coworkers now, who had all looked at each other and started anxiously mumbling to each other, not knowing what to do in this situation.

He moved towards the reindeer, unlocking the cuff, “I need to check Chopper for any possible diseases he could transfer to the other prisoners.” The reindeer momentarily looked like it gained its humanity, then promptly turned into a fluffy life-sized doll. Usopp and Franky joined their first mate in their struggle against their chains, horrified at losing their doctor.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m calling the boss. You may be a commander, but all of us report to our Admiral, Oliver.” The shortest marine got a snail out from his pocket, getting ready to ring up his overseer.

“Ah, he finally showed his hand!” Condoriano suddenly punched him in the face, catching the snail in his hands as the marine fell unconscious on the floor.

The other 10 marines jumped into action, Condoriano unsheathing his katana and Sora delivering swift kicks to the opposing party’s faces.

“Someone, go get help!” One of the marines cried, and the marine farthest from the cell started running up the stairs.

Condoriano threw his katana straight into the marine’s shoulder, then cut through the group to place himself strategically at the middle of the stairs, blocking the remaining standing marines.

“I’ll take care of them, you free the Straw Hats!” Condoriano yelled, and Sora hurriedly moved to the lady’s cell and unlocked the door.

“Cook-san?” Robin asked, relief heavy in her voice.

Sanji quickly removed his hat and brushed his hair off his forehead, dirty blond hair parting back to his usual style. There was no signature swirl on his brow, and he looked down at her with reddish-brown eyes and a broad smile. His fighting style, however, had made his identity obvious to the Straw Hats.

“Robin-chwan~ how very smart of you!” He removed her seastone handcuffs and moved on to Nami’s briskly.

“Sanji! We thought you were dead!” Nami cried out. Sanji looked confused at the statement, then chose to ignore it, instead, telling her softly, “We will catch up later, Nami-swan. We don’t have much time.”

With that he muttered, “Nami, Robin, check ,” and the two women were replaced by their respective dummies.

Condoriano had dispatched all the marines and strode into the cell of the remaining Straw Hats, signaling to Sanji that he wanted the master key. Sanji tossed it to the man as he started digging into one of the pockets in his uniform.

“Free them before us.” Zoro had motioned towards Jinbei, Usopp, and Franky, and Condoriano nodded.

“Who are you?” Franky asked, as Condoriano moved on to the cyborg and fishman’s chains. “How did you two end up on the base?” He glanced over to Sanji, “How did you leave Wano?”

“No time to explain.” Sanji started sounding frantic. “Shit, there are cracks forming. We need to move quickly.”

“Then, this news isn’t going to sound good.” Zoro started, and Sanji looked towards him questioningly.

“Me and Luffy’s handcuffs were specially made when they put them on us. I don’t think the master key would work.” Zoro explained, and Sanji swore in response.

“They’re free!” Condoriano yelled, and Sanji replaced Franky, Brook, and Usopp with dolls.

Closing his eyes in concentration for a second, Sanji’s leg turned red, blue, then finally a blinding white.

Zoro glanced at where Sanji was targeting with his eyes, then blanched. “Hold on, it’s made of seastone! You can’t break it!” Zoro shouted, but Luffy stirred from beside him.

“Zoro first!” Zoro looked at his captain with wide eyes as a fiery leg tore straight through his seastone handcuffs.

The swordsman yanked his hands away, his wrists getting burned by the surrounding melting material.

“Sanji. The shell is almost completely broken.” Sanji’s ally was starting to panic.

“Shit.” Sanji let out a deep breath, then started muttering underneath his breath.

“Oi. Don’t you dare send me away!” Zoro started striding towards the cook, when he and Condoriano suddenly appeared on the deck of the Sunny.

Chapter Text

Law watched the deck of the Sunny as Chopper and Brook were replaced by their string dummies.

A droplet of sweat ran down his forehead as he concentrated on the two rooms spread across the island.

The dial certainly helped him keep the room within the marine’s dungeon in place from within Sanji’s pocket, but the distance and teleportation between the two had been taking a lot out of Law.

Hakugan was at the Thousand Sunny’s helm, steering through the chasm and back out towards the open sea, trying his best to swerve around the unconscious bodies of the many marines who had been guarding the ship.

“I made sure that no one would be able to contact the base.” Bepo and Uni walked along the railing, making sure that no one had escaped them and ran into the caves on their first pass.

“Only 15 marines guarding the ship. They never saw us coming.” Uni snickered.

Law was sprawled on the bench surrounding the mast, breathing heavily.

“Nami, Robin, check, ” Escargot was stuck to Law’s shoulder.

Nami and Robin switched places with their respective string dolls, gasping in surprise as they took in their new surroundings.

“Franky, Usopp, Jinbei, check. ” With their command word, ‘ check’ , Law knew he was good to switch the three Straw Hats with a Shambles command. The ability to teleport between rooms had been one of the newer developments, accompanied by Law having awakened his Devil Fruit abilities.

The three Straw Hats sprawled on the deck. “It’s the Heart Pirates!” Usopp commented to the others, “Is that how Sanji got off Wano?”

“Hurry, Sanji. I can’t hold this much longer.” Law grunted towards the snail resting on him, straining as he started feeling the limit of his fruit approaching.

“Shit.” The voice on the other side of the snail sounded strained, too.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing… Zoro, Penguin, check .”

Both Penguin and Zoro appeared on deck with wild looks in their eyes. “Wait, send me back!” Penguin yelled, making Law squeeze his eyes harder in concentration.

“Why can’t I feel the other room ?” Law asked, “What happened?”

“The shell started cracking. It must have broken completely.”

“What about Sanji and Mugiwara-ya?”

“They are still in the base. Straw Hat Luffy is incapacitated.” Penguin explained. “Sanji noticed the shell cracking and sent us back before we got stuck in the base.”

Law sighed. “It would be easier for him to sneak out with only one person, rather than three.” He motioned towards the Straw Hats on deck, some getting up, and other Devil Fruit users opting to stay sprawled on the ground. “We got most Straw Hats to safety. All we need to do now is make sure our cook and Mugiwara-ya are retrieved.”

The Sunny finally reached open waters, meeting the half-submerged Polar Tang. Ikkaku and Clione stood out on deck, awaiting orders.

“Sanji will try to sneak out of the base with Mugiwara-ya. We might need to provide them back-up.” Law yelled to them, then teleported the Heart Pirate crew members on the Sunny and Tang to the shore. Law stayed standing on deck, then gave the Straw Hats a terse look. “Protect the ships. We will retrieve your captain.”

“Wait! We will come with you.” Usopp held Sanji’s and Luffy’s string dummies in each hand.

“This is your rescue mission, Straw Hats. Do not interfere with our planning.” With that, he disappeared from the spot he was standing in, releasing the room around the Sunny.

“Did he just call Sanji their cook?” Usopp muttered.

“Protect the ship.” Zoro commanded no one in particular, jumping off the ship and into the ocean, swimming to shore.

Jinbei looked back at the rest of the crew. The Devil Fruit Users were still trying to get their stolen strength back, and Nami and Usopp were exhausted from their brief stay in the dungeons. To keep both pirate vessels safe, Jinbei realized that he would have to stay.

~  . ~ . ~

Luffy watched his cook light his leg up again, allowing himself to kick straight through the sea stone chains holding him to the wall. While the man’s appearances did not match Sanji’s, his voice and mannerisms certainly did, even if the fighting style hadn’t given it away.

Sanji eyed the broken dial on the ground before hauling Luffy up and wrapping him around his back. Adjusting his marine uniform’s cape, he covered the smaller man with the cloth. “Hold on, Luffy. Let’s get you off the base.”

Luffy groaned as he held onto Sanji’s waist. The wound to his shoulder was causing blood to stain the white uniform at the larger man’s torso. The sea stone had also made it harder to find the strength to follow his orders. But, Luffy still held on with whatever energy he had left in his body, gripping desperately as his body shook from running further and further up many flights of stairs.

A couple minutes of blood-loss induced haze, a voice drifted into Luffy’s consciousness.

“Commander Sora! Have you completed your inspection?”

Sanji suddenly stopped moving, then slowly turned around to meet the marine. Luffy tensed at the energy surrounding the man. The man is strong.

“Yes. Thank you for your cooperation, Commander Oliver. Here is your key.” Sanji reached over and handed something over to the man, clutching his cape over his torso to cover the rubbery man’s hands wrapped around his waist.

”Where is Officer Condoriano?”

“He headed out already.” Sanji started turning back, but something caught his attention, making his body tense up. “Where did you get those swords?”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about it.”

“I saw the Straw Hats in the dungeon downstairs. There was a decaying body and a literal animal in there.”

“Ah, that was a recent development. I had hoped you wouldn’t venture there. But yes, these are Roronoa Zoro’s swords. I left the remaining weapons back on their ship, but these were too valuable to leave laying around. Maybe I’ll sell them.”

The two pirates were growing more agitated at the situation. “I’ll keep quiet about the breaks in regulations if you give me the white sword.” Sanji tried negotiating, but the other laughed in response.

“Your silence is not worth these swords. Go ahead and report me.” He eyed Sanji, then asked, “Are you … bleeding?”

Sanji looked down at his torso, a surprised expression crossing his face. “Yeah, but it’s not mine.” He slowly looked up at the marine, shooting him a smile. “I might get some more on me, soon, though.”

“What?” Oliver was flabbergasted, then a shocked expression replaced his confusion when Sanji’s hands shot out, snatching the swords from his side, letting his cape fall from being draped around him to its normal position behind him, revealing a pair of bloody arms around his midsection, and a grinning Luffy peering from his side. Sanji turned around, then leapt out of the top story of the building, smashing through the window and skidding down the slanted roof of the structures below.

Chapter Text

Jean and Shachi leaned against a tree, looking at the base from a distance.

“Man, imagine having a left-hand man who’s more than one-third our captain’s bounty.” Shachi sighed, towards the base sadly. 

“Imagine wearing a lame-ass shark hat all the time.” Jean snarked back.

“It’s a killer whale!” Shachi defended, jumping to his feet. “Wanna fight?”

“No, we’re supposed to be looking for Sanji’s signal in case he needs back-up.”

“We never decided on a signal. If things go to shit, we’ll blow up the base and cause a distraction.”

“It’s a marine base and Sanji is underground, in the dungeon . How would we know if things go to shit?” Jean pointedly looked towards the base when an outer window at the top of the base abruptly broke, revealing a bloody blonde man in a marine uniform with a dark haired man hanging from his torso.

“Like that.” The two sprung into action, with Shachi grabbing into his bag and Jean drawing his arm back. Shachi threw a block of dynamite into the air, and Jean punched the air with great force, creating a shock wave strong enough to launch it into the middle of the base.

“Give me more, quickly!” Jean yelled, and Shachi threw 20 more into the air, then ran up the tree as the second wave was sent. Launching himself into the air in front of Jean, the larger man sent the swordsman into the base with one last burst, Shachi drawing his swords in both hands and running towards his cook.

They joined on the roof of the third floor of the base, running along the horizontal part of the roof and towards the edge of the base as large explosions surrounded them, downing many marines in the courtyard below.

A tall marine admiral had followed Sanji and Straw Hat, and started gaining on the three pirates as they fled.

Shachi let out a Burst attack from his sword, making a long-range cut towards the approaching figure.

Dodging the blow, the man lunged forward and grabbed Sanji’s cape, pulling the blonde towards himself. Shachi sliced the cape in half, and the three pirates jumped down from the roof and onto the yard in front of the gate to the base of Adhara.  

Sanji removed the Straw Hat Captain from clutching at his body from behind, instead carrying him in his arms as he kicked off the surrounding marines, curling into the man protectively as they were surrounded. Shachi sliced down more of their attackers to his side and Jean had just broken through the front gate’s defenses when Estelle joined the previous commander on the ground closer to the building.

“ Stop fighting .” She ordered, and marine and pirate alike froze at her words.

“ Shit .” Sanji breathed. His body tensed, and he prepared himself to defend himself from the woman standing in front of them, alone.

A room surrounded the pirates, and the Heart Pirates appeared around them, creating a protective barrier of people around the chef and Luffy.

“Law!” Sanji perked up and clutched Luffy tighter, sending the captain a smile.

Smiling back, Law pointed at his ear, which was blocked with large wads of wax on each side. “Can’t hear you, Sanji.” With that, he launched himself at the Marine Admiral, who was standing helplessly from his coworker’s earlier order.

“ Fight! Fight! ” Estelle cried, releasing the affected marines and Heart Pirates.

A Haki infused katana met an armored arm, and Law and Oliver took their fight to the skies.

Sanji put Luffy down in the middle of the courtyard, safe in the middle of the Heart Pirate’s respective fights, and leaned him against a wooden barrel. “Protect him.” Sanji ordered Jean, who couldn’t hear him but understood the gesture, nodding in response and planting his feet beside the frail rubber man.

Penguin threw a flask at Shachi, keeping one for himself, and the two rounded on the Emo-Emo fruit user, smirking. Taking deep gulps of water from their flask, they hurled sea water at Estelle from their mouths, hitting her with extreme accuracy and force. Ikkaku and Clione cut down the surrounding marines that were trying to stop the two, and Uni advanced on her with twin daggers in both hands.

Estelle shrieked, then started running in the opposite direction. 

“If she leads you too far away, she could try to use her powers without affecting other marines!” Sanji warned, then skywalked towards Law’s fight. None of the Heart Pirates paid him any mind, not able to hear the man as he left.

Oliver was a skilled Haki user, and was able to shave and use geppo to jump on air, like CP0. Law was sweating profusely from his previous exertion, and he had started breathing heavily as he created more rooms and infused his sword with liquid-like Haki. 

“ Anesthesia .” He pointed Kikoku at Oliver, who was taken by surprise when the sword extended beyond its obvious limit and lodged itself into the man’s body.

The man panted, then looked curiously at the blade in his body. “That doesn’t hurt at all.”

“ Shock Wille !”  The man jerked back in the air, losing his footing momentarily as a large shock flew through his body. Sanji spared the man no extra time, flipping gracefully in the air above him and knocking him to the ground below. Hakugan hurled himself towards the downed man, an ax held high above his head, before sending the blunt end of the weapon to his chest, knocking him unconscious. As Sanji and Law landed back on the ground, the rest of the Heart Pirates finished off the remaining marines, leaving only the Heart Pirates standing in the destroyed marine base, except Estelle, who had been cornered to the wall by Clione’s daggers. The man was debating between knocking her out and slitting her throat through the vocal cords, his medical knowledge running through his head as he visualized the procedure.

Sanji glanced back at Luffy, who was looking at the scene with a mix of admiration and something else he couldn’t place. It took a moment for Sanji to realize it looked like possessiveness , as he had unintentionally positioned himself at Law’s side, himself to the captain’s left and Bepo to the right, with the rest of the Heart Pirates surrounding the trio in a half semicircle. He had seamlessly joined the Heart Pirate’s battle, fluidly attacking the marines and complementing each of the member’s fighting styles.

Though none of the Heart Pirates were talking (no one could hear the other), they smiled with the satisfaction of having easily defeated the marine base and saving the Straw Hat Pirates. Everything had worked out to plan- all that was left was to deliver Luffy to his doctor and for Sanji to say goodbye.

Say goodbye? Sanji’s heart stuttered for a second at the thought of leaving the crew that had treated him so well over the past week. He was going to miss them.

Zoro appeared at the gates, panting heavily, as he had run nonstop from the coast to the base, making some unknowing detours along the way. He looked at the Heart Pirates, the downed marines, then finally to his injured captain at the center of the courtyard.

“It’s over?” He asked, approaching the group of pirates, most of which responded with blank stares, some reaching to their ears to point at the wax questioningly. Sanji tossed Zoro’s swords back to him, smiling smugly. “Yup.”

A thought crossed the blonde’s mind, eyes widening in horror, as he realized too late that Zoro had not thought to wear hearing protection. “Hold on, Moss! Estelle still hasn’t-”

“ ZORO, KILL LUFFY! ” Estelle screeched at the top of her lungs, back to the wall as she desperately clawed at the man trying to hold her down. Clione startled at the sudden movement made by the dark-haired woman, slicing through her throat with much less care than he had initially intended to give her, cleanly severing her vocal cords. The rest of the Heart Pirates curiously looked towards Clione, unable to hear what the woman had said.

“ Shit !” Sanji threw himself between his captain and first mate, who had lunged toward the injured man. Sanji had fought Zoro before. They sparred against each other every day, but Sanji realized as Zoro approached the two that he was going to fight with full power. Sanji could not fight to kill or hurt Zoro badly, yet still had the job of defending the injured rubber man.

Seeing that Estelle’s voice was out of their list of worries, the Heart Pirate crew removed their ear protection, confusedly looking at the swordsman running towards the cook, deadly aura spiking as a wave of Conqueror’s Haki burst out. Those still standing in the courtyard from the battle hadn’t lost consciousness from the blast, but the weaker members of the Heart Pirates still dropped to their knees.

“What’s going on?” Bepo yelled at Clione, who held the bloodied woman up by the shoulders.

“She yelled something out! I don’t know what she said.” He explained.

“Since she lost her voice, we can only reverse the order by forcing her to command him through touch.” Law stated as Sanji met Zoro’s swords with enough force to send a shock wave out, blowing away the smaller debris from the area.

“Only you can intrude on the fight, Captain! The rest of us would just get in the way.” Bepo told Law, standing helplessly on the sidelines with the rest of the crew.

Law joined the chef on the battlefield, taking the offensive against Zoro, as Sanji moved to stay back with Luffy, crouching defensively beside the man and blocking any flying slices that came their way.

“How are we going to make her reverse it?” Ikkaku got up from her knees then threateningly walked up to the woman, aggressively shaking her through her clothed shoulders. “Listen very carefully. We are a crew of surgeons . If you do not do as we say, we can and will make your death very slow.”

Estelle made a guttural sound from her mutilated throat, then shot a glare to the other woman. Ikkaku’s lips pressed into a thin line and she glanced at Jean, not knowing how to continue.

“We could break her legs?” Jean shrugged, equally perplexed at the woman’s response.

Penguin sighed. “How about this? You rescind that last order you gave Roronoa, and we will try to fix your vocal cords.”

Estelle seemed to consider that, then finally nodded her head, vanity winning over the promotion she was promised but likely lost already. The crew triumphantly looked back to the fight, satisfaction turning into horror when they saw Zoro’s sword thrust through Sanji’s chest. 

Sanji had put himself between Luffy and Zoro, facing his captain as he pushed back against the blade in an attempt to keep the tip away from his captain’s chest. Luffy was looking up with a shocked expression, unable to move from his position of sitting against the barrel, the tip of the sword grazing the topmost layer of skin. Zoro pushed harder on the sword, but Sanji put one of his legs up against the side of the barrel, pushing back against Wadou , making the blade move away from his captain as it sank deeper into his own chest.

Law looked at the scene with a wild look in his eyes, before tearing his eyes away and toward his crew.

“Captain! She’ll do it!” Bepo yelled, and Law immediately teleported the woman and himself close to the affected swordsman.

She extended an arm to Zoro, closing her eyes in thought as she delivered her restore order.

Zoro’s senses returned to him, and he took a moment to process the weight on his sword before carefully drawing it out with a growing bewilderment. The blonde collapsed to the ground after Wadou was fully out, and Zoro stared at the sword for a moment before locking eyes with Estelle, who was being held up by Law.

Law threw her to the ground, grabbing at the chef, and creating a room around him, making the edges turn liquid around the bleeding man and stretching it around his form. “ Encapsule ”. He turned to the rest of his crew. “Take him to the operating table.” The Heart Pirates teleported as far as Law could take them, leaving an aghast Zoro and Luffy in the middle of the courtyard.

Luffy looked at Zoro with a lost expression and spoke with a small voice. “He looked just like Ace.”

Estelle made a dismayed sound from her throat, something that sounded along the lines of ‘What about me?’ to the area the Heart Pirates disappeared from.

Zoro slowly turned to the woman, who suddenly became aware of the swordsman’s presence. She shot him a glare and wrote on the dusty ground, ‘We made a deal’ .

Zoro shot her a feral grin, one that did not quite reach his eyes. “Did you, now?”

Her eyes widened as the man took a step towards her. She let out a guttural scream as he sliced through her with a vengeance.

Picking up his captain, the two Straw Hats trudged towards the port, not speaking a word.

Chapter Text

Law cut around the wound on Sanji’s chest, slicing desperately through his marine uniform. He was asleep, a peaceful look on his face as he laid on the cold metal slab of an operating table. “He needs blood. S RH-, Penguin, quickly.”

Law’s frown deepened when he looked at the wound. It had just grazed his heart, making the blood accumulate in the pericardial sac surrounding the organ. “He’s going into shock. He has cardiac tamponade.”

Penguin rushed to his side with a bag of S RH- blood in his hands, setting the needle into the patient’s arm. 

Ikkaku and Shachi rushed around Sanji, handing Law a small tube to send into the sac to drain the excess fluid. Hakugan, Jean, Bepo, Clione, and Uni stood rigidly on the other side of the operating room’s glass, observing the procedure.

“Check the heart monitor for any abnormalities. It could be fatal if they don’t catch it.” Clione muttered to Uni, who glued his eyes to the monitor, not wanting to continue looking at their downed Nakama.

They watched as Law carefully disinfected the wound, then breathed a sigh of relief when he removed the tube and started stitching Sanji up.

“Um. It looks like Captain’s going to have a panic attack?” Bepo commented. The 5 heart pirates looked at Law through the glass, observing the mildly hysteric expression that started to cross his face as the operation reached a close.

“I’ve never seen him look like that. Hakugan muttered, and they continued watching as Ikkaku reached over to the captain to rub at his back as he worked. Delicately opening his eyelids, she removed the contacts from Sanji’s eyes, not wanting them to get infected.

The Heart Pirates never knew of Law’s past. Of course, they observed the subtle hints of Law’s behavior and drew their own conclusions about it, making sure to never bring anything up that would upset him. Everyone on board had their own stories- growing up in the North within the grandline and somehow ending up as a pirate was a good indication of having a difficult life. Even so, each of them knew by the way their captain would pull towards the smell of cigarettes, or how his eyes softened when he saw blondes with messy hair, or when he would smile sadly to himself when someone would trip over themselves and make a mess, that Law had lost someone close to him- someone similar in appearance to Sanji.

Law was normally over-the-moon when he had the chance to operate on someone. His crew would observe him from behind the glass to the operation room, and Law would feel peaceful as he cut through his patients, observing the problem and fixing them up with extremely steady and well-trained hands.

Law took a seat beside the blonde, not bothering to remove his blood stained gloves and robe, staring at the man with a blank expression and a heavy heart.

“He’ll be okay.” Penguin reassured, patting his captain on the shoulder before walking out of the room with Ikkaku, the two of them joining the remainder of the crew.

They all sunk to the ground of the observation room, spent. 

“He should wake up in a few days.” Ikkaku explained to the group.

“What about the Straw Hats?” Jean asked.

“We are still locked on autopilot with them. We are headed to the next island together, currently, moving half-submerged alongside the Sunny.” Hakugan replied.

The Heart Pirates had tuned out the incessant banging coming from the top of the vessel during the whole ordeal, but again heard the banging after they had calmed down, which had returned with a renewed vigor. “SAAAANJIIIII!” A muffled voice rang out from outside the submarine. The crew let out a deep sigh.

~ . ~ . ~

Zeff was in the kitchen when he heard the news. He was yelling at Patty for making the pastries too dry when Carne walked into the kitchen, his body language signaling extreme distress as he blundered his way past the chefs.

The others made way for the upset man, the room quieting down as they stopped their work, curiously glancing between Carne and Zeff as the two stood facing each other.

“I’m so sorry.” He whispered, and Zeff suddenly forgot to breathe.

It could only mean one thing.

The older man snatched the newspaper from the charcutier’s hands, then retreated to the office, too scared to glance down at the words on the way. The other chefs regarded him with wide eyes as he passed, the older chefs who had known Sanji taking a seat on their chairs to process the new information. 

He sat down in his private space with his heart in his stomach, eyes first being drawn to the picture on the side of the main article, a detailed sketch of a man’s body lying lifeless on the shore of an island- a body Zeff was too familiar with, and could recognize by even the shape of his shadow- the man he had raised from a child.

“ Eggplant. ” Zeff’s eyes rose to the date of the newspaper. Five days ago. It had taken five days to find out about his own son’s death.

His eyes scanned over the text, too distressed to actually remember the words for the first and second times reading through it.

Headline: Blackleg Sanji’s body washed back to Wano after a daring attempt of braving its currents alone.

His eyes skirted down to the body of the article.

Blackleg Sanji, a hero of the Raid of Onigashima, was found on the shores of Wano, in an attempt to leave the island alone after being left behind by the Straw Hat Pirate crew. He was dragged below by the ocean’s currents, making him one of the many victims taken by the surrounding island’s dangerous climate-

Zeff tore his eyes from the article, having read everything he needed, and seethed in his chair, anger and despair filling his body.

Left behind by the Straw Hat crew?

Zeff’s mind shot back to the Straw Hat Captain’s face- innocent yet trustworthy with that broad smile and those big dreams- and he crumpled the paper in his hands. He had trusted him.

His hand grabbed the den den mushi a bit too aggressively as he dialed the Sunny, fuming. The last call with the ship had been after the Straw Hats won the war on Wano, and his Eggplant had called with the good news. He sounded so happy.

The snail rang for a minute, before someone received the call, signified by the ‘ click’ of the receiver. 

“ Hello ?” The voice was deep and gravelly, and so unlike his son’s that Zeff was filled with a renewed rage.

“ Roronoa Zoro . Why didn’t you tell me? You killed my son.” He grated out the sentences with all the hatred contained in his body.

The other man’s breath hitched, then, “ Red Leg Zeff. I am so sorry about Sanji. ”

“Give me your damn captain.” 

Scuffling was heard from the other side of the line. “ Hi, Zeff. This is Luffy. Sanji is being treated right now. I am trying to reach him, but Tra-guy is not opening up. ” The sentences were curt, but were told respectfully, and the new information filled Zeff with confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“ He was stabbed, but Tra-guy is a good doctor. He’ll be okay. ” 

Zeff let out a deep breath, and his body filled with relief. Will he be okay?

He finally allowed his tears to fall, blinking rapidly as he stated his confusion. “You left him on Wano? I thought he’d drowned to death.”

Zeff was met with silence for a couple seconds. “ ... I did leave him. But he didn’t drown. He rode with another crew to the next island. ”

Zeff let out a string of curses. “I trusted him with you . Don’t tell me you kicked him off the crew? He’d be better off with the new crew, if that were the case.” He yelled into the receiver, almost scaring the snail half to death with how close he was getting.

“He’s mine.”

And that was all Luffy had said. Zeff wondered what kind of argument he could make to refute that, but opted to sink into his seat instead, knowing that it was useless to disagree with the headstrong captain. 

Zeff allowed the feeling of consolation over the fact that they were arguing over who Sanji would choose to follow his dreams with, rather than grieving over his death.

“You let him choose that, Straw Hat. Perhaps you do not deserve the second chance.” Zeff didn’t allow the other man to talk back, “Call me immediately after you are able to contact Eggplant.”

He hung up the call, running his hands through his hair, and breathing heavily to gather himself. After allowing himself the time to regain his composure, he hobbled downstairs to share the news with his chefs.

Chapter Text

Usopp sat on the bench of the galley as Zeff hung up on Luffy, all the Straw Hat’s lips set in grim lines. Zoro’s face still held the grimace from Zeff’s comment on killing Sanji, having unintentionally hit too close to home.

Usopp remembered the scene of the Heart Pirates teleporting to the deck of the Polar Tang. They all had haunted looks in their eyes, and Law had held the lifeless form of their cook close to his body, blood pooling within the liquid-like room he was held in, and a peaceful look on his face. 

Chopper had gasped at the sight, pointing at the incision to the man’s chest. He had almost been pierced straight through his heart, and Chopper burst into tears at the sight. He kept repeating that the job was out of his scope, and that Sanji had a large chance of dying.

Even Robin had audibly sucked in a breath at the statement, dread and shame filling the faces of all the onlookers, each helpless to save their cook. Franky joined the doctor crying, and Brook's face kept a blank expression- too blank for even a skull, which had usually sported a smile or a grin. Robin gripped a bit too firmly on Nami’s shoulders as the smaller woman had hid her face into Robin’s chest.

Two figures had appeared on the shore, leaning against each other heavily as they looked at the Sunny with defeated looks on their faces. It took the Straw Hats on the ship a moment to remember that Luffy couldn’t stretch himself to the ship, so Robin made a ladder of hands between the shore and the railing.

After everyone was back on the Sunny, Jinbei steered them away from the accursed island, the Polar Tang following the vessel on autopilot.

Usopp waited a moment for the captain and first mate to gather their thoughts, but his curiosity won out in the end. “What the hell happened?”

That was how the Straw Hats ended up in the galley, having listened to the story of what happened to their chef, with Luffy alternating between listening to Zoro’s recounting and banging on the side of the half-submerged Polar Tang to see his injured Nakama.

“ You let him choose ” is what Zeff had demanded, and Usopp had half a mind to leave Sanji be. He had been abandoned by his crew, having been picked over a woman they had all known for a couple of hours, then stabbed by his former first mate in an attempt to rescue the captain. None of which was actually the Straw Hats’ fault, but must have been painful to experience, nevertheless. 

Luffy returned to the galley, having finished his latest assault on the submarine, looking more agitated than he was before the call with Zeff.

Usopp felt his skin slightly prickle, recounting the occasions he had felt the same over the last week. It had been the feeling of entering Law’s room , Usopp finally realized. He straightened his back a second before Law appeared in the galley, a limp Sanji held delicately in his hands. His marine uniform had been exchanged with a medical gown, and his hair washed enough to reveal its normal bright blonde color. His hair was parted normally, but his eyebrow still missed its signature curl, having been shaved off for the undercover mission.

The Straw Hats sat at attention, watching Law put down their chef on the couch. “It would be best for him to recuperate in his kitchen rather than my operating table.” He explained, and the sounds of Heart Pirates landing on the deck of the Sunny was heard from the galley. They also rushed in, and the two pirate crews stayed confined within the small space.

“Will he be okay?” Luffy asked Law in a serious tone.

“Yes, he is stable.”

“Good.”

Silence washed over the galley, then, “Did he join your crew? In exchange for saving ours?” Luffy asked tersely.

Law debated with himself for a second. “No, but that is a good idea.”

The Straw Hats were miffed by the response, but only Franky allowed it to show on his face.

“However, if he chooses to stay with me, I will allow it.” Law continued, quirking the side of his mouth upwards.

“Comme s'il allait le faire!” <As if he would!> Penguin huffed from his spot at the countertop, the translation lost on all Straw Hats, besides Robin.

Sanji spoke out into the room, surprising everyone enough to startle them out of their chairs. "Faire quoi?" <I would do what?> His voice was deep and tired, but he still moved his head around, trying to take in his surroundings.

Luffy rushed towards Sanji, jumping over him, and positioning himself over the injured body, hands and knees carefully placed on the couch beside his chef, and pushing his face into view. Law got on his knee and peered from the cook’s side.

“Sanji! Are you okay?”

Sanji looked at the Straw Hat Captain, tiredness changing into sweet fondness as he gazed at the man with undying loyalty in his eyes.

Usopp released the tension from his shoulders. Oh, right. He’d almost died saving Luffy. How could I even consider the thought of Sanji wanting to join another crew?

“Yep.” The blonde reached up and ran his hand through the raven-black hair of the younger man above him.

Without saying a word, Law looked between the two, then glanced back at his crew. He got up, and the Heart Pirates calmly followed him to the door of the galley.

“Attendez.” <Wait.>

Luffy tensed minutely, and the Heart Pirates paused on their retreat, some looking back at the chef with hope, and others with curiosity.

“Merci.” <Thank you.>

Law gave him a curt nod, and most of the Heart Pirate’s eyes glazed over. “Tu seras toujours l'un des nôtres. <You will always be one of our own.>”

Sanji gave the room a wide smile before falling back asleep, missing the Polar Tang pull ahead of the Thousand Sunny and disappearing underwater.

Chapter Text

“Eggplant?”

“ Old geezer. ”

Zeff let out a breath of relief before opening the door to his office, making his chefs pour out of the sudden opening and fall to the floor on top of each other.

“EGGPLANT?! You’re alive!” Various cheers and sobbing made its way to the mushi.

“Have you all gone senile? Of course I’m alive.”

The chefs could feel the smile on the other man’s face through the snail, each wearing their own fond expressions as they threw curses at each other and through the mushi. Zeff finally allowed himself to relax, finally hearing his son’s voice after what felt like a lifetime.

“Eggplant.”

“ Yeah ?”

“Don’t catch cold.”

“I won’t. ”