Chapter Text
“Mosshead! We really should go back to the ship; it's been a couple of hours already. The crew might be worried about where we are.”
Kuina glared,
“Why don’t you go back to the ship then? We didn’t ask you to stay.”
The thought never even entered Sanji’s mind. He didn’t trust Kuina, much less leaving her alone with one of his crewmates. Even with his own conflicting thoughts about Zoro, he wouldn’t want anything to happen to him.
“Splitting up is not a wise choice, especially with the information we have now. Acting brave right now is not a wise choice, Kuina!”
The march further in the forest gives way to a slowly collapsing path. It is becoming increasingly narrow. The leaves are eating up any easy way of walking through.
“GOD! You are useless! We have a job to do, and if you want to go and cry to 'mommy' every time you have to decide anything, then nothing gets done! I have already told you that if you want to go back, you can.”
Zoro sees Sanji violently flinch at Kuina's words. The green-haired swordsman felt a deep wave of protectiveness flow through his chest. But something stopped him from speaking in his friend's defense.
Instead, he looked at Kuina.
“Maybe he has a point, Kuina-”
The woman sharply looked at him,
“You would rather your crew starve than face a little danger, that MIGHT happen? What happened to Zoro that he does what's necessary?”
Zoro nods,
“You're right, we have faced the worst things.”
Sanji finally chose to try once again to get them to stop.
“We have enough food to last a couple more days, if I plan the meals right. We don't know why the villagers are scared of this forest, we don’t know if we CAN handle the dangers in here.”
Kuina snarls,
“Fine. We go a couple of miles deeper than we can turn back. But no sooner.”
Sanji hated this! He felt sick; he felt an all-consuming fear of a trap. The blond made eye contact with Zoro, begging him through his eyes to LISTEN! He needed his friend to listen!
His stomach drops when the green-haired swordsman turns and follows Kuina.
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“They aren't back yet, Nami.”
The navigator looks at Luffy, who was so unnaturally focused on the island. His every muscle is stiff, and his tone has an edge of seriousness.
“Maybe they are headed back now? Sanji wouldn’t let them stay out last night; they could be running late.”
Luffy furrows his brows,
“I don’t think Kuina is…right.”
Nami stands next to the captain.
“Right about what?”
Luffy shakes his head sharply, almost childishly,
“No, not like that. She's not… simple…right.”
The Navigator is now very confused; she is trying to make sense of her captain.
“Luffy, no person is simple. Are you trying to say that something is wrong with her?”
The Devil Fruit user frowns deeper,
“Everyone is simple, Nami. They say everything in anything someone does. But she… I'm forgetting something… something… needed?”
Nami knew from her captain's fading words, the conversation had ended. Leaving her unsettled, making her contemplate her own bad feelings about this island.
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Sanji was tracking the miles, his feelings building and building to the point of hurting. The sun has now set, and the trees are blocking the light from any moon or star.
“It's time to turn back, Kuina. No food, now we wasted our time-”
Kuina continues to walk forward, and both Sanji and Zoro stop in their steps. Watching as she got a couple of feet ahead, Zoro was almost dead center between the women and Chef.
“You should have turned back, Sanji. You should have taken my warnings about meddling. I have no idea why YOU weren't affected by my devil fruit, but you were immune. But here we are-”
She turns, wearing a grin that carries only achievement. Zoro felt a pressure grow behind his eyes, and pain started to trickle through his head.
“Kuina…”
The woman grows blurry in Zoro's eyes, the swordsman clutching his head as the pain keeps getting worse.
“Moss-head, what's happening?
The vice-captain dubbed over,
“My head…”
The woman raises her hand and flicks her wrist; in seconds, Zoro falls to his knees in pain. He cried out, trying to release pressure; he tried to look at Sanji and Kuina. But his vision was getting spotty.
He heard the Cook, though.
“FUCK! You aren't!"
Zoro now tries his hardest to look at the woman who used to be Kuina; now, she is replaced with a woman who is tall and has bright silver hair. Dead gorgeous.
“You should have turned back, sweet Sanji.”
Zoro heard a rush of noise, a series of yells and bodies running. Steel sliding through the air, the noise added to Zoro's mind until he could only hear buzzing.
He wanted to get up. He wanted to fight. He knew something was happening. But his vision started to disappear, his head forcing his body to fall fully on the ground. He's slipping… The pain is getting worse and worse. Until nothing
_________________
“FUCK!”
Sanji watches as Zoro collapses in sheer pain from his head. He needs to get them out of there. Kuina flicks her wrist, and almost like a curtain raising, she becomes a whole new person. Sanji felt panic.
This was a trap. Shit!
“Fuck, you aren’t-!”
The woman smiles, and as if on a trigger, a battalion of men came from the forest. Weapons already poised to attack, Sanji quickly tries to fight back.
He looked toward Zoro and found the swordsman fighting tooth and nail to get up. Sanji is going to lose this; there are too many, and it's too dark.
The attacks keep flying at the blond; he parries one but finds himself stuck in another attack from behind. As he jumps away, there is another to meet him in the trees to knock him back down. He feels the bite of the weapons slowing his movement.
Fuck fuck fuck
As his movement becomes sluggish, more hits land. He is losing; he can't win this!
“Zoro! Get up, you ASSHOLE.”
Sanji takes a second to look at his crewmate and finds the other collapsed, passed out.
That second was the only damning second that solidified his capture. The men kick his feet from under him as others restrain him to the ground, keeping all his limbs and body pushed. He cries out from the joints and bones, close to snapping.
“Vinsmoke Sanji…”
The blond sharply looked toward the voice, the best he could, and found a man now next to the Kuina impersonator. His hands held her close, intimately.
“It's a pleasure.”
Then a sharp pain sliced through his head as his thoughts stopped.