New Life

Title: New Life: Chapter 11
Author: Genuinelie(s)
Rating: PG-13. If you can watch Bambi, you can read this.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: This is the chapter after which you hate me.

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Chapter Eleven
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Sanji had the early watch the next morning, and so was the only one awake when the sun rose red in the sky. The choppy water from the night before had only gotten worse, even though the sky was still as clear as blue crystal. Spectacular colors were spreading overhead with the sunrise, deep oranges and fuscia that bathed their deck in warm light.

From experience Sanji knew that this was not a good sign. He started to prepare the ship for the coming storm as much as he could on his own. He figured they had a few hours before it hit at the least, which was more than enough time to let the crew to get some sleep. He could do most of it by himself anyway, except for the securing of the sails.

The sea was empty on all sides. There were no other ships on the water, and with his bare eyes Sanji could see no sign of land. With the telescope, for that matter, he could see no sign of land. They could try using the wind that had picked up to outrun the storm, but it was blowing in the opposite direction of where they were headed. There was no telling how far off course they could end up, and Sanji wasn't about to risk that. Not when they were less than a day from their destination.

From All Blue.

A sudden breeze tossed his hair and rippled through his clothes. Water sloshed over the deck as a sudden gust hit their sails, throwing the ship sideways. Sanji skidded across the deck.

"Damn." Sanji grabbed the rigging, holding on as the ship righted itself. He flipped dripping blond hair out of his eyes. He was wrong about how long they had. Normal storms didn't pick up that quickly.

Suddenly worried, he sprinted across the deck to the cabin, but the door opened before he got there. A sleepy Luffy and a very grumpy-looking Zoro stumbled out, followed by the rest of the men.

"Storm?" Luffy mumbled, then shot awake. "Storm! Get the sails up!"

The crew scattered, equally alert.

Ana and their sharpshooter emerged a moment later from the women's quarters, dressed only in their nightclothes. They fell into the action quickly, securing their stores and tying down what they couldn't fit inside the galley.

Just as the crew started to raise the last sail, an enormous burst of wind caught the fabric. It billowed out, stretching until a horrific tearing sound signalled enough damage to set them back by days. The entire crew fell to the deck, scrabbling at the boards as they shot sideways toward the railing.

The sky was as dark as twilight, even though a mere moment before Sanji had been watching the sun rise into a bright dawn. The rain came a moment later in torrents, erratic patterns that were the sign of a storm even pirates didn't want to be caught on the water in.

Luffy had wrapped himself around the base of the crow's nest, and Sanji managed to secure himself again in the rigging, but Zoro for some reason was running across the deck. Squinting through the downpour, Sanji saw the reason. The swordsman's precious white sword was floating haphazardly towards the railing, pulled by a quick current.

That shitheaded, moronic, seaweed-haired bastard swordsman. What the hell did Zoro think he was doing? Waves the size of a small house were headed towards their ship, and anyone not holding on was sure to be swept overboard.

With a curse, Sanji disentangled himself and shot across the deck, slipping in the sloshing pool of water. He heard Luffy screaming his name. Before he could reach the swordsman he was yanked unexpectedly backwards. He landed with a loud thwap against the crow's nest, Luffy's rubbery arm secured around him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Luffy shouted above the wind. "You'll get swept overboard!"

"So will Zoro!" Sanji yelled. "His katana -"

Luffy's arm shot out again, reaching for Zoro. Sanji scrabbled at the pole, wrapping his legs around it as tightly as he could.

The wave slammed over the deck before Luffy's hand could grab hold of him. Sanji snatched frantically at Luffy, who almost was swept away as he was taken by surprise. He managed to grab a fistful of the rubberman's shirt, pulling him back up.

Luffy was screaming something. Sanji strained his ears before he could make out the chant: "Hat, hat, hat..."

Sure enough, when the wave cleared, their captain's hat was gone.

So was Zoro.

Sanji let go of the pole and ran to the railing, pushing off Luffy's arm. Zoro's white katana was wedged between two rails, caught in a bundle of seaweed. He snatched it up and leaned as far over the railing as he could go, but there was no sign of a person in the sloshing water.

He made to jump overboard but a harsh grip prevented him from doing so. He glanced back to find Luffy staring at him, lips thin.

"Zoro's down there, you bastard!" He screamed. His voice was lost in the wind.

A second wave rocked the Going Merry. Sanji tried desperately to hold onto both the katana and the railing, but the pull was too strong. The sword was ripped from his fingers as he gargled salty water.

The ship righted itself again and Sanji vomited over the railing. He fell to his knees.

Fucking marimo. Everything was spinning. That fucking swordsman. Swords weren't worth a life. He had trusted even Zoro would know that.

Another wave crashed over the deck. Sanji managed to hold on, almost absentmindedly.

The storm continued on, rocking the ship like a toy in a child's bathtub. Sanji hung on numbly as the waves crashed over the deck, one after another. The Merry creaked and swayed and cracked as pieces of her were torn visciously away by the sea.

The final wave cleared and suddenly Sanji was knocked forward as something solid but bouyant smacked him in his head. Dazed, he expected, illogically, to find that Luffy had hit him, but looking down there was a large fish flopping on the deck by his knee.

The Going Merry abruptly righted itself, throwing the crew who had been clinging to the railing back to the deck with a collective shout.

Sanji barely noticed as the storm clouds cleared and the sun broke out from behind their dark curtain, shining in sparkling rays down on the ocean.

The fish that was gasping for air by his leg should not have been in this part of the Grand Line.

Should not have been anywhere near it.

Sanji pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. The deck was a mess, their sails ripped possibly beyond repair, their crow's nest missing a railing on one side. The crew were disheveled and bewildered. But Sanji ignored all of it, stumbling instead to the railing to stare into crystal-clear water, now as calm as glass.

Underneath its surface, he saw a school of fish swim by.

Then another.

One was a cold-water species; the other was warm.

And that fish, there, he had never seen before in his life.

He felt a smile pull his lips upward, but it felt unsteady even to him. Genuine and broken.

All Blue.

"All Blue." He said. "All Blue!" He shouted. He held on to the railing to keep himself from going overboard, knuckles white, whole body shaking.

"All Blue," he muttered again, quietly.


Zoro had been right. He had found All Blue.

He had brought Sanji to his dream.

It wasn't worth it.

He laughed a couple times, then sobbed into the warm breeze that touched his face. He dropped to his knees. He took the fish by his leg and tossed it back into the water, watched it swim away.

"Zoro." An empty voice said by his ear. He felt a rubber arm wrap around his shoulders. "Zoro." The arm began to shake.

Sanji turned and pulled Luffy into a tight hug. They sobbed into each other, bodies wracking. Sanji hunched over Luffy's head, burying his face into Luffy's black hair.

Slowly, Sanji sensed the others walk hesitantly up to them.

"Is this?" Their shipbuilder Guri started hesitantly. "Is it?"

Sanji couldn't answer him, and Luffy wouldn't.

"Yes," Ana answered for them both.

"All Blue."

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