Chapter Text
It's just one of those things, Sanji thinks distractedly while holding on for dear life to the railing, as wind rushes with a deafening roar past his head. The Sunny reaches the apex of its arc, and then begins the sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach that denotes free fall. It's one he's never quite gotten over; not the height, but the falling. Even after all these years, he's never managed to grit his teeth hard enough to make it go away, no matter how hard he tries.
When he attempts to push past it, he's back on that roof again with the wind tugging at his t-shirt, his legs wobbly, staring white-knuckled and sweaty at the tiny figures that only moments before had been his siblings. Now they're so far down that only the bright colors allows him to tell them apart, and he hurriedly swallows bile and tries not to think about what it would feel like to fall so far, what it would do to his body once it hit the-
Anyway. He straightens up a bit and watches the gleaming surface of the water speed towards them like a towering, way-too-solid looking mirror. It's fine. He's fine. And what just happened was just... one of those things.
Specifically, it was one of those series of escalating things that kind of just keep happening in a progressions of seemingly inevitable next steps. It starts with sailing into port in some backwater town and they're instantly recognized as The Pirate King's Crew, because of course they are. Even so, they try to get some shopping done and not make a fuss, bring the kid, be disarming and friendly. Everyone is staring, whispering, but while it would be a stretch to say the crew'd all acted normal - because no one on the crew knows how to fucking do that - at the very least they know how to act natural.
But then the kid goes missing. Okay, okay, no panic, she does this. That's Zoro's daughter. And Luffy's, too. Of course she wanders off and gets lost, it happens, it's something they can all deal with as rational adults and no one has to instantly lose their head about it.
...Yeaaah. Right. Luffy and Zoro had instantly run off shouting for her, followed by Franky and Bepo only a brief and dithering moment later. Law had tried to expand his room to scan the whole messy, sprawling marketplace, and had given himself a splitting headache for the trouble. Sanji had hyperventilated while cooler minds - relatively cooler minds, though the shrill edge in Vivi's voice didn't necessarily inspire confidence - were trying to come up with a plan. Robin's eyes and ears were all over the place, trying to catch a glimpse of dark hair and blue irises, a hint of that excited babble, but to no avail.
Cora was gone.
It was just one of those things, where a bit of seemingly haphazard misfortune quickly started to unravel, until they were suddenly uncovering a whole plot involving blackmailing Luffy into withdrawing his protection over a specific region and thus destabilizing the neighboring nations. Blackmailing him by stealing their fucking kid, no less. Huge mistake, obviously, but completely harrowing for the whole crew nevertheless.
It hadn't even been until the end of the whole messy endeavor that they'd found out that Sanji's own shitty family were in up to their necks in the whole conspiracy. Yeah. Judge had been smart enough, apparently, not to let their involvement be known, and by the widening of Reiju's eyes when Sanji had kicked through the wall of the underground bunker, she hadn't been told all the details either. And if she hadn't been told, Sanji doubts that his brothers knew jack and shit, because knowing stuff isn't exactly their job. They're just weapons, after all.
So they hadn't known who the little girl was, where she came from, or that they were related. They hadn't harmed her, Reiju had said, and there was actually a hint of pleading in her voice. Sanji can only imagine what he'd looked like, to make her shrink back against the wall like that, still clutching Cora in her arms.
"Give her to me," he'd said. To her credit, she didn't hesitate; her eyes didn't so much as flicker toward her father. She just did what she was told. Sanji, who had been looking at Judge, had seen the spasm of annoyance and displeasure move like the crack of a whip across his features. Right, so it hadn't just been about the blackmail for him. He'd wanted to put his hands on the second generation of his little science experiment, perhaps see if he could wring some use of of Cora that Sanji had never yielded.
He'd been lucky that Sanji didn't kill him. He wasn't going to kill anyone in front of his 3-year-old daughter. But there was a fight, and it was a big one. Well, once the reinforcements on either side arrived, it was closer to a small war. But at that point they'd already gotten Cora back and beaten eleven kinds of shit out of the ring leaders, so they'd left the mopping up for the Grand Fleet to deal with. Getting out and away was the priority - hence the Sunny's current airborne state.
Yeah. One of those things.
Over by the main mast, Zoro's back is turned against the rushing wind, his arms firmly cradling the kid. They're both surrounded by an intricate web of Robin's hands, anchoring them even more securely in place. Sanji would call that redundant on most days... but not today.
Today, he is so grateful.
"Here goes!" Jinbei cautions, his deep voice cutting through the onslaught of air. A moment later, the impact shakes the ship and all its inhabitants, but from the sound of it, only one person is sent flying by it. Probably Usopp. They're all pretty much used to the landings, after all; it's hardly something new.
"Phew!" Sanji almost jumps out of his skin at Usopp's voice right next to him, a little breathy but not too shaken - he sounds almost cheerful. So he wasn't the one who'd been knocked down. "Who the hell were those people, anyway? Those color-coded villains with the ugly hair? Freaky how they kind of looked like-"
Right, Usopp hadn't been there. Sanji hadn't been big on talking about the whole affair, and neither had anyone else. Luffy and Nami out of the same wish to bury it all and forget, and Jinbei, Chopper, and Brook out of respect for the rest of them.
But Usopp also isn't dumb, and he sees how Sanji's jaw clenches, his hand darting up to the back of his head, and quickly rips into reverse. "-like... like no one I've ever met before! Weird, that. They looked like total strangers, and that was weird. Anyway, I'm going to-"
From the other side of the deck, Law meets Sanji's eyes, communicating a great deal with his seemingly flat and unmoving expression. Of course he would've known instantly. Nerd. But he's right, there's no point in being cagey about something that was going to be so monumentally clear to everyone anyway.
He breathes in. There's the ubiquitous sea smell, and tar, and his own cologne, and... burnt hair? Ah, that's Nami, angrily combing through her mess of red locks with her fingers, trying to asses the damage. Her tussle with Niji had left her with some frizzled ends.
"My birth family," Sanji says abruptly, cutting the awkward moment short with a certain amount of finality. "They're exactly stupid enough to do some shit like this, so I shouldn't be surprised."
"Hey. Hey. We were only stupid enough that we pretty much had no idea what we were actually doing!"
Sanji rolls his eyes. As if that is somehow any better. In fact, it's categorically worse in every single measurable way. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I'll be sure not to underestimate how monumentally idiotic you can be ever again."
"Damn right! Or... hey, that's an insult!"
Give him strength. "Yes, Yonji, it was-"
Hold the fuck on. Yonji?
Yonji?!
"Oh, what the fuck are you doing-"
He doesn't even see Luffy move. Law doesn't actually move at all, he's just there. The latter has the tip of his sword against Yonji's jugular. The former has a glint in is eye that is far, far worse than any sword. Yonji, already flat on his ass because obviously he had been the one to eat shit when they landed, the only one not used to it, slowly raises his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"Whooaaa. Okay. I'm not doing anything."
Of course not. He's clearly here by accident. He's got no orders and no present imperative to follow in the absence of orders, simply because this whole situation is, well, fucking absurd. Just... so damn bizarre and stupid, Sanji doesn't even know where to start.
"What," he reiterates, patiently, "are you doing here?" But what he means is something more like: How did you get here? How did this happen? Am I losing my fucking mind?
"Not a whole lot," comes the reflexive answer - and it truly is like a reflection, bright and empty and cold. He laughs. "Your weirdo friend picked me up and spun me around and threw me here."
"Specify," Law suggests drily, because there certainly isn't a shortage of available weirdos, but Franky is already raising one hand.
"This one's on me. I didn't look where I threw him. Would've been more careful if I'd known I was throwing dangerous waste around." The look he gives Yonji is downright venomous, and Sanji has to appreciate it. Franky doesn't even know anything about his family, not really, but the void where that knowledge should be, that icy cold gap that cannot be filled, has to speak volumes in itself. Sanji has never been good at shutting up about the good things in his life. It's all the rest of it that he tries so hard to silence; to grit his teeth until it goes away.
Yonji ignores him, tilting his head sharply, almost mechanically, to look up at Luffy standing over him. Trying to assess the situation, probably. "I was dizzy, took me a while to get to my feet." He sounds mildly annoyed, scrunching his face up as if he's still feeling it. "Then suddenly, the whole ship was flying and boom, I'm here."
"I'll just take his arms and legs off and we can stuff him in the bilges," Law says, relaxing into his usual half-slouch, the glare of his sword sinking tide-like into its sheath.
"No need," Sanji says - and is surprised to find himself saying it, because sparing their lives once upon a time was one thing, but there's no reason at all to actually show them mercy... is there? But neither, he suddenly realizes, does he have a compelling reason to be actively cruel. They can't actually be blamed, can they? They're not even really people. They have no free will and no feelings, so what's even the point of trying to punish one of them? It won't matter.
...Well, if it was Niji he probably still would. But that's different.
Law raises an eyebrow at him. Sanji sighs.
"Look, he's got no reason to sabotage us or try to hurt us. He knows he's outnumbered, he knows he's not getting off this ship unless we let him. Threatening him is pointless because he can't actually feel threatened. Or anything at all. So just let him be, and we'll drop him off whenever we reach land next."
"Unless," Zoro says, voice low and menacing, "he's just lying to us to get us to let our guard down."
"You mean he had a sneaky plan to make Franky throw him bodily in the right direction? No. I mean, he might come up with a 'plan' that fucking stupid, but he's not the one who makes the plans." Sanji looks away rather than allowing himself to fry in Zoro's defiant glare, hands fumbling distractedly for a cigarette. He knows Law is giving him a Look too, because he has some strongly worded opinions about the smoking, but right now he needs it, damnit. "Look, just... just trust me. F- That man would never entrust Yonji with a solo infiltration mission on our ship in a million years."
"Yeah, probably not," Yonji agrees with a shrug. "I'm not exactly supposed to be the stealthy one."
That's unlikely to be an actual dig at how Sanji was supposed to be the stealthy one, and even if it were, Sanji has long since stopped giving a shit about all that. The weight of the lighter, the coldness of it against his fingers, the little click of the igniting spark all serve as good things to focus on. "Right, so just... ignore him. Of course, if he goes anywhere near Cora-"
"Mr Funny's not bad," the girl suddenly pipes up, wiggling out of Zoro's arms and skipping up to stand next to Luffy, tugging at his sleeve. "He's makes silly faces and throw me up hiiiiiigh!"
That makes them all freeze, Sanji just about swallowing his damn cigarette at the thought of Yonji's fucking hands on his child, his fucking child, how fucking dare he? Despite his best efforts to keep the memories out, he can feel those hands clamping around his wrists, feel them closing around his neck, feel the weight of them raining down across his ribs, his back, making the iron mask ring.
Luffy looks down into Cora's big blue eyes, at that slight hint of a pout which threatens to devolve into full toddler rage, and it's as if a switch is flicked. That intense, ignition point kind of expression of imminent and impressively focused violence melts away, and he grins. "Is that so? Okay then."
So help him, this man is going to cost Sanji years of his life.
"Cora, love," Nami states in an impressively steady and even tone, though Sanji can nevertheless hear the danger edging her voice and climbing steadily. "This guy is a very bad man, and we don't want you-"
"No!" She stamps her foot. "He's not bad 'cause- 'cause he's nice. Dumb Dumb maked me sad. Funny did all the funny faces so I laugh! S'not nice to tell lies - 'cept when it's funsies."
There's a rising plume of smoke from where Sanji's right foot is touching the deck, and a distant stinging sensation in his finger from where it's pressed against the lighter's spark wheel, until Usopp gently reaches out and takes it from his tightly clenched hand. The cigarette has already fallen from his numb lips and rolled somewhere out of sight. His mouth tastes like metal and ash.
"Who's Dumb Dumb?" Luffy asks, his voice light with seemingly unbothered laughter as he grabs the girl and hoists her up into the air.
"The big meanie who's has the silly mustache. Noooo, daaaaaad, let me dooooown!"
"Eh, yeah, she doesn't like Father much, and he told me to deal with her when she was throwing a fit, so I made her laugh to shut her up." Yonji stares blankly back at the murderous expressions being leveled at him. "What? She's a kid, they're not that smart, it's easy."
"You're not smart too, Funny," Cora points out reasonably from where she's hanging over Luffy's shoulders. "Though I'm not s'posed to say 'cause that's not kind and not pern- pert'nen," she hurriedly adds, as if she's expecting a lecture.
"That man's an exception. You can call him anything you want," Law assures her, before he suddenly leans in with the speed of a striking cobra, catching Yonji off guard. There's a sickening sliding sound, and then he straightens up, a heart now clenched firmly in his slender fingers. Yonji lowers one of his hands to investigate his own chest, and then gags noticeably when his fingers dip into the hole that Law has left there.
"Aw, what the hell?!"
"Oooh, gross!" Cora exclaims with delight. "Can I touch?"
"No." Law turns to Sanji, ignoring her protests. "If you think it's fine I will have no objections. But I'm nevertheless keeping this until we can get rid of him."
Except Sanji no longer thinks it's fine at all. There's a pit in his stomach that just seems to be getting deeper, as if he's been carrying the darkness and pressure of a deep sea chasm around with him all of his life. The thought of Reiju looking after Cora hadn't been so bad, and somehow he'd just... well, he'd assumed she'd had the sense to keep her away from the rest of them! He'd thought- He'd trusted-
Oh to hell with it, he'd just taken it for granted that there was enough of their mother in her that she would automatically know what to do - and what not to do. That she would magically just understand how to be everything Cora had needed in his absence. Which is to say, that's what he'd wanted to believe, in a moment where fear and anger and hurt had coagulated into equal parts of relief and self-blame, and he'd searched desperately for something to soothe his own seething, corrosive mess of emotions.
Was that fair to Reiju? Probably not. She's not an emotionless automaton, but realistically speaking she's probably several degrees more genuinely fucked up by their upbringing than anyone else in his shitty family. She can't be expected to be a substitute for even a halfway decent parent, not even if it was just for a week. She'd probably had no fucking idea what to do.
But... well, Sanji doesn't want to be fair. He wants to turn the ship around and grab her by the shoulders, shake her and ask her what the fuck she- No. No. He wouldn't do that, couldn't do that, why is he thinking like this? It's that shitty excuse of a sperm donor's fault, it's Yonji's fault, it's having to deal with fucking Germa 66 again when he'd thought he was done. It makes him think more like them.
Cora is upside down in Luffy's arms, shrieking with laughter, completely unbothered by the nightmare that has crawled out of the wasteland that is Sanji's early childhood and is sitting there on the Sunny's deck as if he has any right to. Yonji still looks a bit... unsettled, maybe that's the right word - that's not really an emotion, is it? His eyes follow his own heart as Law tosses it lightly a couple of times, and then he lets out a strangled sound as he suddenly throws it overarm across the deck. Zoro easily catches it, and locks eyes with Yonji as he tucks it inside his clothes, making it clear exactly how quickly he'll put three swords right through it if that asshole so much as breathes wrong.
Well, that... does make Sanji feel better. It really does.
"Okay, great!" Luffy seems to have already forgotten about their uninvited passenger, giggling as Cora pulls at his toes and stretches them out as far as they'll go before they slip out of her hands and snap back. "Man, I'm hungry! Sanji, what's for lunch? Owwww, what?" He gives Nami a wounded look as she clips him around the head on her way past. "What did I say now?"
"Don't bother Sanji right now. I'll make something just this once. I'll add it to what you already owe me."
"Awww, Naaaami, but I-"
"No, it's fine." Sanji draws in an abrupt breath, suddenly realizing how desperately he wants to be in his kitchen right now. In there, the world might still make sense. "I'll make something." A couple of more steadying breaths, and he's able to smile properly at Nami. "Thank you, angel, I truly-"
"Yeah yeah." She waves a hand dismissively, but her eyes are still concerned. "Come on, Cora, let's help papa in the kitchen, okay?"
"I'll help!" she agrees, as Luffy lowers her to the deck and she quickly rolls to her feet. "You have to watch me when I'm making a big BIG piece of SEA COW MEAT with EXTRA... um, CHERRY AND ANCHOVY SAUCE and also GARLIC ICE CREAM." She grins proudly; her favorite joke most recently has been to come up with the most unholy dishes possible, and this one is admittedly deeply cursed.
Sanji sighs. "Well, if you do, I'm making Funny over there eat it. Come on."
Sanji finds his brother on the poop deck, facing away from him as he approaches. The sheer size of him is still disorienting, uncomfortable. At least when they were kids, he wasn't that much smaller than the rest of them, although that hardly mattered when he was flat on his face on the ground. Then they'd towered over him anyway. Now, even though he's removed the raid suit, there just seems to be too much of him. His shoulders stretch his shirt in uncomfortable ways, making the fabric move as if it's under serious duress, but somehow the difference that stands out the most is his hands. They're warriors hands, large and coarse, while Sanji's most emphatically are not - even so, they're completely unblemished, unnaturally smooth, while Sanji's are marked with plenty of burns and assorted cuts and scrapes, souvenirs from the time before his own healing factor had developed.
How fortunate he is, really, to have all those scars.
Yonji is squinting across the surface of the sea behind them as if trying to make something out of the rising pillar of smoke and dust on the horizon. That's pretty much all that can be seen of the island and the whole shitty mess they'd left behind them now. So far the sea looks pretty smooth, but that column of smoke is starting to break apart as it gains altitude, the wind is picking up, and Nami is shouting something about the sails up toward the forecastle.
"Even if they figure out where I've gone, they're probably not gonna come after me. They'll figure I'll find my way back, unless I'm already dead." Yonji doesn't sound bothered, which... is normal, and not creepy at all. "What's that?"
Sanji snorts. "What does it look like, idiot? It's lunch."
He holds out the plate with ill grace, taking a deep drag on the smoke he can finally have now that he's no longer inside. Law and Chopper and Kaya had been very insistent on that after Cora was born, and he wasn't about to argue. Yonji looks at the meal as if expecting it to sprout tentacles... or maybe to find out that it's a dish of braised sea cow with a cherry and anchovy reduction, who knows.
"Why?" He takes the plate, tilting it slightly this way and that. "You let me just wander around and now you give me the same food you're eating? Stupid way to keep prisoners - not that I'd know." He smirks. "We don't usually keep prisoners."
Sanji scowls, grabbing the other side of the plate and holding it steady before something tips off it. "Stop fucking playing with it or I'll make you eat the plate as well," he shoots back, swallowing hard against the angry scream that wants to climb up his throat. No point. Better to not give him the satisfaction. "And everyone eats on this ship. It doesn't matter who they are. Everyone eats."
Yonji gives him an odd look, but then shrugs and starts shoveling food down his throat as if he hasn't eaten for days. His table manners might be for shit, but at least he doesn't seem like he's about to make some stupid show of throwing the food on the deck or dropping it overboard, the way Niji would, and probably Ichiji as well, though for different reasons. The former because he's a cruel and childish shithead, the latter because he's both those things, but also because showing Sanji that he's too good for his food would be more important than his hunger.
At least Yonji doesn't play games like that. He has neither the brains nor the patience. If he's hungry, he eats. Small blessings.
"You know," he grins, and Sanji grimaces at having to see his half-chewed food, "I used to dig the food you made out of the trash sometimes when we were kids."
There's a deep boom as if of thunder far behind them, but the sky is still clear - not that this necessarily means anything. He's not the navigator. Somewhere above, a seagull cries out. Sanji feels his fingers digging into the railing, as he stands uncomprehending and speechless, resenting Yonji with every fiber of his being. "What?"
Apparently not noticing, possibly due to being busy with his attempt to breathe potatoes, Yonji carries on. "Yeah, we'd usually drop the whole plate in there, right? So after we were done beating you up, I'd go back and pick it out when I could and just eat it." He chews thoughtfully, tapping his fork against his teeth. "Wasn't bad. I mean, food's food, right?"
It's unfair. It's so fucking unfair. Even this idiot can just take some tiny shred of his past and use it to split Sanji open, let all the monsters out, and he's not even trying.
How can he just stand there and say that, when all that Sanji had wanted back then was for someone, anyone to give a shit about what he loved? How can he not even notice, and just keep on eating the food that Sanji had made for his family, his real family, made with love and care and Cora's little hands helping him stir the garlic into the cream and butter? With Nami laughing and rubbing marinade off her cheek, telling her she'd need a bath later, scolding gently when she protested. With Luffy, like always, trying to steal a slice of meat off the griddle and open the oven "just to check" and then plundering the pantry for pre-dinner snacks after Sanji had tried to kick him out for the third time. With ingredients they'd bought in the sunny marketplace on that nice little island right before the whole world had turned into a hot, tight ball of terror and rage in Sanji's chest as he looked for his missing child that they had stolen.
"You're pissed," Yonji notes, possibly sounding amused, although it's hard to tell when his mouth is still full. "Why?"
"Why do you think?" Sanji grinds out, telling himself over and over that he's not just flinging this piece of shit into the sea, even though he deserves it. This had been a mistake. He should just have given him the food and left.
"Yeah, right. The kid."
It's the logical conclusion, and yes, it is the main reason, and Sanji doesn't really want to get into explaining why he's also furious with Yonji for eating his food back then but pretending like he didn't. So he just nods, blowing out a cloud of smoke and imagining setting his brother on fire with his mind.
"The Pirate King's kid... man, do you know how much some people out there would be willing to pay for her? It's crazy." He laughs, as if that's a joke and not the reason Sanji can't go to sleep sometimes. He loves and trusts Luffy and the rest of them so deeply, but they've made some terrifying enemies during their travels, and new ones keep popping up. That's what it means to be on the top of the world. "I can't actually believe Father was dumb enough to keep her and not unload her on some other schmuck immediately. Talk about asking for it, huh?"
That... is actually a lot more critical thinking than Sanji was expecting from Yonji, and sheer curiosity forces him to curtail his rage over his casual talk about selling his daughter to the highest bidder for a moment. "You think he should've?"
"Well, yeah. Look at what happened." He gestures vaguely back toward the slowly dispersing smoke with a broccoli floret. "The whole hostage thing obviously wasn't going to work. I mean, it didn't work the last time either, and that was back when you were all a lot weaker." He snorts. "Anyway, I don't get the obsession with the brat. She's just your captain's dumb kid, right? So why does he care?"
Sanji stares at his brother for ten solid seconds with no discernible result. He just keeps eating.
"Because," he says, once it's clear that the dots aren't going to be connected unless he hands Yonji a fucking crayon and guides his hand, "she's my kid too."
"I mean yeah, I guess you all treat her as if she's your kid, huh?" Yonji says, oblivious of Sanji's attempts at collaborative art; he's just trying to connect two dots, but Yonji is apparently doodling dicks in the margins of the paper. "Who's her mom, anyway? Bet it's the mature babe with the dark hair, she looks more like the kid than the other three - though personally, I'd go for the redhead."
"Only if you're not very attached to your testicles," Sanji mutters absently, still staring in disbelief. "And neither, you fucking moron. I'm the mom. I mean, I gave birth to her."
Well, that seems to have connected something, though it might just have been Yonji's last brain cell connecting with the bottom of the ocean. "You- You're a girl? But-" He rallies, spotting a flaw in the case as presented to him. "Hold on, I've seen you without pants on! Remember when we tore all your clothes up and made you run through the-"
"Shut up," Sanji suggests, "or die."
"-yeah yeah, right, anyway.... The point is you definitely have a dick! I mean, we kicked you in the nuts enough times that even if I hadn't seen it, I mean-"
Maybe he should just fling himself into the ocean? "I know. I mean, it's my dick, you idiot." He rubs his hands across his eyes, wondering why he's still here and not off somewhere doing something more enjoyable than having this conversation. Like shoving his hand in a meat grinder, or riding a bike over cobblestones while wearing pants made of sandpaper. "I was a woman when I gave birth to her. Ever heard of a devil fruit power, genius? That's why Judge wanted her. He probably wanted to see if my shitty 'defects' could be bred out or something."
The wind is getting really strong, causing the sails to boom loudly as they swing around. The sky is growing darker by the second. There's an electric crackle in the air, and a pungent hint of something briny and sharp. After thirty seconds of nothing but the rigging creaking and Luffy's manic laughter from the bow, Sanji gets tired of staring at Yonji's open mouth and shoves his laden fork the rest of the way into it. Then he turns around and leaves.
He's halfway down the stairs when he hears a lot of spluttering and gagging, followed by an incredulous, "You fucked the Pirate King?"
"Not very quick on the uptake, is he?" Brook asks pleasantly, turning to a new page in his novel and placing a bookmark there.
"Nope." Sanji scans the deck, relieved to see that Cora is 'helping' Jinbei at the helm and clearly not paying attention. "Holy shit, I need a nap. I'm going below deck. Looks like it's going to start pouring, so tell them to grab something large for dinner, and sing out if you need me."
"I'll make a whole song just for you," Brook promises, or possibly threatens, and Sanji ducks into the darkness just as the torrential rain of fish begins behind him.