Chapter Text
By his best estimation, Sanji’s been in his cell for about six months when they bring the other children down. It’s mid afternoon - he knows because the guards have brought him his lunch, but not yet his supper - when the door opens at the top of the stairs and people start to descend.
At first he’s confused, since not enough time has passed for the guards to be bringing him his next meal, and he rarely gets any other company. Then he realizes that it’s not just the usual two guards, but several, and they’re accompanying a number of prisoners.
Sanji’s cell sits at the very end of the block. He knows this because he’d been fully conscious when Judge had first dragged him down here, all while ignoring his pleas for mercy. The king had personally carried him to the very last cell, and had tossed him inside as casually as someone would throw away their garbage.
Since that time, Sanji’s been the only prisoner down here, but it appears that’s about to change. By listening carefully he can tell that eleven other cells are first opened and then closed, meaning that almost every one in the bloc is now in use.
Unable to help his curiosity, Sanji wraps his hands around the bars of his cell and presses his face as far out as the iron helmet will let him. Unfortunately, this does nothing to let him see what’s going on, although he’s positive there’s now someone in the cell next to him.
And an angry someone at that. Spitting all manner of curses, the person - or boy, rather, and based on the voice, likely one close to Sanji’s own age - lashes out at the guards repeatedly. He must even manage to connect at one point because two of the guards grunt in pain, while the boy’s body hits the ground hard when he’s placed in his cell, indicating that he’d been shoved inside with more force than the others.
“You can’t keep me in here!” The boy shouts, banging his fists against the bars. “I’ve got stuff to do!”
A guard laughs. “What ‘stuff’ could a little street rat like you have to do?” He wants to know. “Other than starving to death, that is.”
“None of your business!” The boy snaps, remarkably unaffected by the situation he finds himself in. “Now lemme outta here, or I’m gonna kick your asses!”
Multiple guards are laughing now, and a different one speaks up next. “You’re not going anywhere, brat. You and the rest of these runts are now the guests of His Majesty, the King. If anything, you should be grateful that he’s putting a roof over your heads and food in your stomachs.”
“Screw that!” The boy snarls, and this time Sanji suspects he kicks the door instead of hitting it. “You tell him I said to come down here, and I’ll beat his face in too!”
“Fuck,” another guard breaths, his tone creating an image of a man shaking his head in disbelief. “Where did they find this one? I think he’s feral.”
“Agreed.” And that’s the first guard speaking again. “Which is why he’s all the way down here. His Majesty thinks he’s going to prove to be the strongest of the lot, so he’ll be going last over the course of the trials.”
“Wonderful,” someone else mutters. “That means we’re going to have to listen to him for weeks, if not months until this is all over.”
“Ours is not to question why. Besides, we’ll only have to listen to him when we’re down here. You know as well as I do that when the door’s shut upstairs you can’t hear anyone yelling from down this way.”
“Isn’t that right, Your Highness?” The man asks suddenly, startling Sanji by rapping his knuckles on the bars of his cell without warning. “Heh,” he snickers, when Sanji recoils with a whimper. “I’ll never get over the fact that someone with your lineage is such a sniveling coward.”
Sanji doesn’t say anything, well aware that would only make things worse, and the guards laugh amongst themselves. That’s all they do, however, so it’s not long after that that they all exit the cell, directing that the newcomers behave themselves as they leave.
“To hell with that,” mutters the voice Sanji’s already beginning to recognize as belonging to his neighbor. “Like I’m gonna do anything you losers say.”
His words fall on deaf ears, at least as far as the guards are concerned. They’re long gone, and only a few more moments pass by before the sound of the upper door closing can be heard down below.
“Fuckers.” The boy says eloquently.
“You shouldn’t talk like that.” Sanji murmurs, the words slipping unbidden from his mouth without him thinking better of it. “They’ll hurt you if they hear.”
“Huh? What was that?” The boy’s voice gets louder as he shuffles closer to the wall between their two cells. “Is somebody there?”
“Yes?” Sanji replies, confused.
“Huh,” the boy repeats. “I thought I was the last one they dragged in.”
“You were,” Sanji clarifies. “I was already down here.”
“Oh.” The boy falls silent for a bit, and for a time Sanji thinks that’s going to be the extent of their interactions. However, then he hums quietly to himself, and says, “Why? You didn’t get grabbed with the rest of us, so why’d they nab you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Sanji says. If he talks about it, he’ll start crying, and he can’t wipe tears away thanks to the mask. “Do you know why they took you? There’s never been anyone else the whole time I’ve been here.”
“Dunno, really,” the boy replies, sounding more annoyed than frightened. “They just came through the island shanty town where all the homeless people stay and grabbed as many orphans as they could. They said the Germa King told them to.”
“That’s bad then,” Sanji says quietly. “Judge is - ” His breath hitches. “Judge is a bad man.”
“No shit,” the boy scoffs. “All the people say that. They call him a tyrant all the time, ‘cept they do it where he can’t hear ‘em cuz they’re scared of him.”
“I’m not scared, though,” he adds fiercely. “I fought the guards all the way down here, and it took a ton of extras to lock me up. I’ll kick anyone’s ass who comes near me, even some dumb old king who thinks he owns the place.”
For the first time since his mom died, Sanji feels a giggle escape his throat. “He’s a king, dummy.” He hears himself say. “That means he does own the place.”
“So?” The boy demands, sounding petulant. “That’s no reason to go around snatchin’ kids up off the streets!”
“No,” Sanji agrees, immediately sobering. He doesn’t know what Judge might want with a bunch of street urchins, but he’s positive it can’t be good. “I’m sorry, but you’re probably in really big trouble.”
“The fuck are you sorry for?” The boy now wants to know. “ You didn’t grab us and stick us down here.”
“Well, no.” Sanji concedes, figuring that’s a fair point. “I guess not.”
“Then don’t say you’re sorry,” the boy insists. “Apologizing for stuff that’s not your fault is just dumb.”
“I was trying to be polite,” Sanji says, feeling a spark of annoyance flare somewhere in his gut. “Haven’t you ever heard of having manners?”
He hears the boy scoff. “Manners are dumb too. They’re a waste of time. Don’t you know anything, or have you been stuck in this cage so long that your brain’s turned to mush?”
As quickly as his annoyance had arrived, it fades and leaves Sanji feeling awash with something much worse. The crushing weights of loneliness and despair that have been his only companions for months come rushing back, such that he starts sniffling before he can stop himself.
“ … hey,” the boy says, suddenly sounding concerned. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Sanji chokes, his vision blurring. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t sound fine,” the boy says dubiously.
“Well, I am!” Sanji snaps, trying to save face. “So, you - you just leave me alone, and I’ll do the same for you, okay?”
“Hmm, nah.” The boy replies. “Don’t feel like it. Think I’ll do the opposite, actually.”
This statement is followed by the sound of shuffling, and that of someone sliding to the ground right by the cell wall. Then, much to Sanji’s surprise, a hand is thrust through the bars right above the floor, where it thumps the cold stone commandingly.
“C’mere, would you?” The boy says, smacking the floor more forcefully when Sanji doesn’t move. “I know the wall means we can’t see each other, but this is better than nothing, don’t you think?”
His instincts warring with themselves, Sanji stares at the offered hand, half expecting it to be some kind of trap. His brothers used to play games like this with him, after all, and they’d only ever ended in pain and tears.
“Come oonnn,” the boy says, openly pleading now as he rotates his hand so that it’s palm side up. “I won’t bite. Promise.”
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Sanji sags to the ground in his own cell, and carefully stretches his arm out. He lets his hand hover over the boy’s for a few seconds, but ultimately drops down and grabs it.
“See?” The boy says as their fingers lock together. “Not so scary, is it?”
For Sanji it’s actually terrifying in how overwhelming it is. He hasn’t felt a non-painful touch since the moment his mother died, and if he’s being honest with himself, he’d been convinced he never would again.
Feeling more than a little amazed, he stares down at the hand now clasped in his, categorizing the noticeable difference between the two. His fingers are longer and paler, while the boy’s are broader and thicker. There’s also a number of nicks on the boy’s skin, while his fingers are calloused and there’s dirt under his nails in a way that Sanji wouldn’t stand for if given the option.
Above all else, however, the boy’s hand is warm, and he does nothing other than grip Sanji’s gently as the seconds tick by.
“I’m Zoro by the way,” the boy says after a while. “Roronoa Zoro. Have you got a name?”
“Sanji,” he replies, licking lips that have gone dry. “Just Sanji.”
*****
The other kids are here to be experimented on. Sanji’d suspected as much from the moment he’d heard that guard mention the word ‘trials’, but it becomes abundantly clear he’s right as the weeks pass by.
They disappear one by one. The first is taken the day after their arrival, and there’s no pattern to when the next will go. Sometimes it’s a few days, others it’s as much as a week, and then the process will repeat itself. The only constant is that no one ever comes back.
Everyone knows it too. The guards talk in hushed tones when they bring them their meals, muttering words like ‘live specimens’ and ‘failed tests’. Meanwhile, the children start pleading not to be taken when each of their turns come, and more than one of those that remain have nightmares during what little sleep they manage to get.
Out of all of them, Zoro’s the only one who seems unaffected. No bad dreams plague him, and he snarls at the guards defiantly when they tell him his time will come eventually. He shows no sign of fear, and instead spends his days planted down by Sanji’s side of the cell, telling him all the things they’ll do once they’re free.
Sanji has no idea where he’s gotten the idea that escape is possible, much less for both of them, but Zoro treats the concept like it’s a foregone conclusion. He’s adamant that he’s going to survive whatever Judge might throw at him, and equally convinced that Sanji’s going to do the same.
“It’s cuz I’m gonna be the greatest swordsman in the world someday,” he says when Sanji finally works up the nerve to ask him where his conviction has come from. “I made a promise to a friend, and I can’t die until I keep it. So, that means I’m not dying here.”
“I … don’t think that’s how that works,” Sanji says diplomatically. “In fact, I don’t think that’s how anything works.”
“Pfft, that’s just cuz you royal types are built weird,” Zoro says dismissively. Raising the hands that they’re once again sitting with joined together, he shakes Sanji’s admonishingly. “You’re gonna see I’m right. Just you wait.”
“We’re gonna get out of here,” he says, letting their hands fall back to the ground, but not breaking their hood. “Then I’m gonna be the greatest swordsman, you’ll be whatever you want, and your stupid dad is gonna be the big loser everyone already knows he is.”
There’s a lot to unpack among those claims, but Sanji doesn’t feel like talking about Judge. Therefore, he rolls his eyes and opts to focus on a different detail. “Never mind everything else. How’re you going to be the world’s greatest swordsman if you don’t even have a sword, dummy?”
He can feel Zoro bristle in the way his grip shifts. “I do too have a sword,” the other boy insists. “It’s called Wado, and those stupid guards took it off me when they grabbed me. I saw them put it in a room upstairs with all the other kid’s stuff before they locked us up.”
“Oh.” Sanji says. “Well, still. It’s all the way up there, and we’re down here. It’s not like it’s doing you much good under those circumstances.”
“‘Not like it’s doing you much good’,” Zoro mocks in a high pitched imitation of Sanji’s voice. “Why do you always gotta talk so fancy?”
“There wasn’t anything ‘fancy’ in what I just said,” Sanji sputters. “And there’s nothing weird about the way I talk. It’s just that I’ve had more education than you, you know that.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Zoro grumbles, as indifferent to Sanji’s background now as he had been the night the disgraced prince had told him about in hushed tones when neither of them could sleep. He’d been almost frightfully angry over the treatment Sanji had suffered at the hands of his father and siblings, but otherwise hadn’t cared about his connection to the Vinsmokes.
Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. He’d perked up noticeably when he’d learned that Sanji had some level of magic, positing that this might be the way for them to achieve their freedom.
Sanji had thus felt more ashamed than ever when he’d had to admit how much of a failure he is. He’d quietly explained that he’d never been able to wield magic with any sort of strength, possessing only a talent for growing plants and occasionally conjuring small flames, which was why Judge had finally grown tired of him and locked him away.
To Sanji’s utter shock, however, Zoro hadn’t been bothered by his confession. He’d completely ignored the fact that Sanji was admitting he was of no use to anything, and simply declared that they’d have to come up with a different idea.
Almost as if he can sense the path down which Sanji’s thoughts are currently treading, Zoro gives his hand a comforting squeeze. It’s an effective way of shaking him out of his stupor, and Sanji squeezes back to show his appreciation.
“Anyway,” Zoro says then. “That’s why I can’t die down here. I’ve gotta get Wado, and get back to fulfilling my dream. What about you?”
“What about me?” Sanji asks, thrown by the question.
He can practically feel Zoro rolling his eyes. “Don’t be stupid, stupid. Isn’t there something you’ve always dreamed of doing?”
“You mean aside from living quietly without my father and brothers torturing me?” Sanji asks dryly. “I mean, maybe? I always wanted to be a cook.”
“A cook.” Zoro says flatly. “ … okay.”
“What?” Sanji demands, offended. “I like cooking. No, screw that,” he clarifies, having picked up some of Zoro’s more colourful vocabulary over the course of their acquaintance, “I love it. And I didn’t half suck at it, either! I used to sneak into the castle kitchens to make stuff for my mom, and she always said it was great .”
He freezes, genuinely surprised at how easily he’d been able to make that casual reference to his mother, and Zoro must sense as much because he strokes his thumb comfortingly over the back of Sanji’s hand.
“I bet it was,” he says softly. “Your mom wouldn’t lie.”
“My mom lied all the time,” Sanji says thickly. “She lied every time she told me she was feeling better and that she was sure she’d be able to get up soon. She did it to protect me, so she was probably doing it about the food too.”
“Nah,” Zoro disagrees. “Lying about the food wouldn’t have gotten her anything. I bet it all tasted real good, Cook, and it’s gonna be exactly the same when you make stuff for me.”
“What are you talking about?” Sanji grumbles, wondering not for the first time what goes on inside the other boy’s head.
“I’m talking about when we get out of here,” Zoro replies. “Obviously we’re gonna stick together, and you’ll have to do something to earn your keep. So, you’ll feed us, and I’ll fight off anyone who tries to mess with us. Sound good?”
“Zoro …” Sanji starts. He hates it when his friend makes him be the realist out of the two of them, and he’s been doing it more and more lately. Each time another cell gets emptied, he gets increasingly emphatic that they’re going to escape. “You know that’s not - ”
“I said ,” Zoro says, raising his voice to cut Sanji off. “Sound good?”
“Fine.” Sanji huffs, not having the strength to argue with him today. “I guess that’s a fair trade off.”
“You’re damn right it is,” Zoro says, and then lapses into silence.
*****
It’s the middle of the day when the guards come.
They’re tucked up in the same spots as always, holding hands maybe a little tighter than usual because they know separation is coming any time now. The second last orphan was pulled from his cell over a week ago, meaning Zoro’s next.
If he’s finally starting to feel a spark of fear, Zoro doesn’t show it. He talks to Sanji like normal, postulating on what they’ll get up to once they're free, and fondly antagonizing him when that’s not enough to get a response.
His latest thing is to comment on how he imagines Sanji will look once they finally lay eyes on each other. Too date, all they’ve seen are each other’s hands, but Zoro is now insistent that Sanji must be ridiculous looking, no matter how many times Sanji provides him with a verbal description.
“Please,” Sanji snorts, having had enough of the insults for the time being. “I bet if one of us looks stupid, it’s you , you jerk. It’ll be a match to that big, empty head of yours.”
“Are you kidding?” Zoro scoffs in return. “I’m so cool looking you won’t know what hit you. You won’t even be able to look at me head on.”
“Yeah, ‘cause of how ugly you are,” Sanji retorts. “I’ll probably go blind if I try and look you in the eye. Like when you look right at the sun.”
“My eyes aren’t suns,” Zoro replies. “They’re regular gray eyes. Totally normal.”
Sanji blinks, startled by the realization that that’s the first physical detail Zoro’s ever given him, and it’s in that moment that he hears the upper door open. Well aware it’s not yet mealtime, he gasps in horror at what that must mean.
As always, Zoro’s much calmer about the whole thing. He uses Sanji’s momentary lapse in judgment to pull his hand free, and then climbs to his feet as the guards begin descending the stairs.
“Zoro, no - ” Sanji snorts, but the other boy hushes him.
“Quiet, Cook.” He says, his voice pitched low, so that the guards won’t overhear. “This is all part of the plan, remember?”
“There is no plan!” Sanji hisses back. He wraps his hands around the bars of his cell, wishing with all his might that the stupid helmet wasn’t preventing him from pushing his head out. “There’s just you being crazy!”
“I said, be quiet,” Zoro repeats. “Don’t put their attention on you.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” Sanji starts to say, but then the guards reach the bottom of the stairs and he trails off with a desperate whimper.
There are more guards than usual. A lot more. Every other time a kid’s been escorted out, only two men had been dispatched to deal with the task. Today, however, there’s at least half a dozen. Sanji can tell by their footfalls, even if he can’t see them all from this angle.
“Well well, what have we here?” A voice drawls, and Sanji can’t be certain, but he thinks it’s one of the guards Zoro had given so much trouble when he’d first arrived a few months ago. “Look who’s turn has finally come to go see the King.”
“Yeahhh, I’m not really feeling it,” Zoro says, as insolently as he possibly can. “Can you tell him I’m not interested, and to maybe try again later.”
“Heh, you’re funny, brat.” The guard replies. “Hell, I almost admire the balls on you. I think I’m going to enjoy watching you lose that bravado all the more, though. You know we’re taking you off to die, don’t you?”
Sanji gasps, his hold on the bars tightening since he can’t fist them in his hair like he used to do when he was distressed. “No,” he chokes, the single word getting lost in the torrent of the rest of the guards laughing.
Zoro snorts. “I’m not gonna die,” he says firmly, stomping one bare foot against the floor of his cell. “Not here, anyway. I’ve got more important things to do.”
“Sure you do, kid,” the guard taunts. “Now, why don’t you come quietly, and at least this way your death will mean something. It’ll go towards helping His Majesty progress the glory of Germa.”
“Germa’s dumb,” Zoro says flatly. “And Judge is just as stupid.”
More laughter. “Kid, it’ll make my day if you say that to His Majesty’s face. He might up and kill you before you even make it to the lab.”
“Let him try.” Zoro snarls, and Sanji closes his eyes as he hears the sound of the cell door opening.
A scuffle ensues that results in a lot less laughter from the guards. Sanji still can’t see what’s happening, but he hears more than one pained yelp, and multiple curses as someone demands that they ‘get the little fucker under control’.
Someone chokes, and someone else gurgles out a noise of surprise as a body hits the ground, but in the end it’s not enough. Multiple guards let out triumphant noises, and a person he assumes is the commander starts barking new orders.
“You and you! Get him over to the lab before he breaks free again. Do not lose him, or it’s just as likely His Majesty will strap you to a table for the next phase. As for the rest of you, clean up this mess. You should all be ashamed that a worthless street rat managed to do this much damage!”
The commander pauses after this, and takes the few steps necessary to bring him into Sanji’s line of sight. “I almost forgot you were still here,” the man sneers, staring down his nose at him. “Sorry, little failure, but I’m afraid we’re under orders to take the last of your company away. I hope you won’t miss him too much.”
His piece said, the man turns on his heel and marches off after the rest of his troops. His footsteps echo sharply around the room as he reaches the stairs, and then the door slams shut behind him, leaving Sanji alone again for the first time in months.
Not knowing what else to do, Sanji sinks to the floor and wails.
*****
Sanji cries so hard that the tears well up inside his mask, leaving his face tacky and damp when they have nowhere else to go. He beats his fists off the lid of the helmet, the bars, the floor - yowling his frustrations and hating more than ever how weak he is.
He’s always known he was useless - Judge and his brothers had seen to that - but never has it been so blatant when he can’t even lift a finger to help his friend.
“I’m sorry,” he tells the empty air. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
No one answers him. It’s exactly the way things had been before, before Zoro and the other children had been locked down here with him. He’s as alone as ever, only now he’s had a taste of real companionship that makes its absence all the more potent.
“Dumb. Useless. Failure.” He recites these words and dozens of others of a similar nature over and over again, so full of self-loathing that he half expects it to well up and choke him.
If he’d been stronger, better, anything , he might have found a way to be able to help. He thinks of all the skills Judge had tried to force on him - the fighting techniques learned in the training yard and the spells taught deep in the inner workings of the castle - any of which might have helped him here, and all of which were beyond his grasp.
He’d thought he’d never be able to feel worse than the day his mother had died, but he’d been so, so wrong. At least her death, no one would have had the ability to prevent. If he’d been stronger, though, Zoro he maybe could have saved.
“I’m sorry.” He says again, a mantra he takes up over the coming days. He finds himself repeating it whenever he thinks of Zoro, something that occurs often since the other boy had been the sole beacon of light in the otherwise pitiful darkness that is his existence.
The guards notice the change in his behaviour right away. Several of them comment on the way he takes to picking at his food, postulating as to whether or not he’s given up, and is finally going to waste away like the King is so clearly hoping.
Their musings must spread outside the recesses of the cellar because on the fourth day after Zoro had been taken, he gets an unexpected visitor.
“People think you’re dying.” Reiju says from where she’s standing a few inches away from the door of his cell. “I heard the guards talking about how you’re even less spirited than usual, and they say you’re not eating anymore.”
“Well,” she says when Sanji doesn’t respond. “Is that true?”
“I’m still eating,” he says listlessly. “I ate just this morning.”
He’s sitting on his bed with his back to her, having refused to turn around despite her request, and he doesn’t need to see her to picture the slight frown that must be twisting her mouth. Most people have long considered her expressionless, but he’s always been able to read her.
“It’s nighttime,” she says when he doesn’t add anything else. “If you last ate this morning, that means you didn’t eat lunch or supper.”
“I guess,” he replies, shrugging. “I don’t remember.”
He hears her steps closer, and can tell the moment she wraps her hands around the bars of his cell. “What’s wrong with you?” She demands, and her voice would likely sound inflectionless to anybody else, but he picks up the note of panic loud and clear. “Are you sick? Do you need a doctor?”
Beneath his mask, Sanji feels his mouth turn up in a grim smile. “Judge wouldn’t let a doctor see me. He wants me to die.”
“Well I don’t.” His sister spits. “If you don’t need a doctor then you should snap out of whatever this is right now. I don’t like it.”
“I don’t care,” he replies flatly. “I don’t like being in here, and you haven’t helped me with that, so why should I help you with anything else?”
“Just go away, Reiju.” He adds, feeling suddenly exhausted. “I don’t have anything you’re going to want to hear.”
“ … fine.” She says, the frustration in her voice arguably the most blatant he’s ever heard it. “I’m supposed to be up on deck anyway. We’re about to set sail to a country further south than we usually go. Someone’s requested Father’s services for help in a civil war, and they were willing to pay handsomely to get it.”
Sanji doesn’t tell her that he’d been able to feel the flagship changing course. He simply shrugs again and stares resolutely forward.
“Ugh, you are impossible,” she growls. “I’m going, but I’ll be back when I can. You’d better still be alive when that happens.”
Sanji continues to say nothing as she leaves, but he does blow out a heavy breath and shifts into a more comfortable position when he hears the door quietly close behind her. He’s alone with his thoughts again, yet that’s actually preferable to Reiju trying to convince him to talk in that emotionally stunted way of hers.
Wrapping his arms around his legs, he rests his chin on his knees, a position he can only hold for so long before the weight of the helmet becomes a problem. He wonders, almost idly, what’s going to happen in the coming days, and is probably much less alarmed than he should be when he finds he doesn’t care.
*****
The sound of the upper door opening and men cursing jerks Sanji out of what was already a poor night’s sleep. Startled, he sits up in bed, and then climbs all the way out of it when the noises don’t stop, but rather appear to be drawing closer.
“Watch it - watch it!” Someone shouts. “We’ve all seen firsthand what kind of damage he can do with those claws. Don’t let him get you!”
“That goes double for the teeth!” Somebody else barks. “Fucker’s already gotten me twice, and he’s not pulling his punches.”
“Why the hell are we even doing this?” Another voice demands. “I thought the latest project didn’t work, so shouldn’t we be putting him down like all the others?”
“We didn’t put any of the others down, moron . They died all on their own, which is why this one gets to live for now. His Majesty says the fact that he survived the first change means it’s worth keeping him around to see if the second part can be made to work too.”
“But it’s been weeks ,” the last voice complains. “You’d think if it was going to work, it would have by now.”
“Yeah, well, if nothing else, maybe we can use him as some kind of attack animal once he’s fully grown. He’s sure as shit vicious enough for it.”
“Hey,” An entirely new voice pipes up. “Uh, not to criticize, but why are we dragging him all the way to the last cell when all the others are still empty from before?”
Silence descends among the guards, but all this does is serve to further illuminate the sound of frustrated growling that’s now more noticeable in the absence of any other noise. It makes the hair on the back of Sanji’s neck stand up, and he hangs back away from the front of his cell out of an abundance of caution.
“Just get him in there.” Someone finally snarls in frustration. “We can keep the two failures side by side. It’ll be poetic or some shit.”
“If you say so.” A voice grumbles, only to taper off in a shrill scream, combined with the unmistakable sound of flesh tearing.
“Aw fuck, not again! I said get him inside !”
Sanji hears the door to Zoro’s old cell being wrenched open, and then there’s a series of scuffling noises as whatever animal the guards are apparently dealing with is forcibly wrestled inside. The door then slams shut even faster than it had opened, only a moment before the bars rattle thanks to a body slamming into them.
An ear-splitting yowl reverberates up and down the corridor, and Sanji wishes he could clamp his hands over his head to make the noise stop. Several of the guards shout rude epithets, and at least one must kick the door because they’re quickly told not to be an idiot.
“Let’s just get the hell out of here.” Another of the guards pants. “All we were told to do was lock him up down here, which we’ve managed to pull off. Anything else can wait until the King decides his next steps.”
“Yeah, but hopefully those steps will keep us as far away from that thing as possible.” Somebody else mutters. “I’m not going near it unless I absolutely have to.”
Several of the other men make similar statements, and Sanji stays frozen in place as he hears their voices fade in the distance. Then the upper door closes, and the only sounds are that of his own harsh breathing and the continuous growling coming from next door.
“H-hello?” Sanji hears himself call, wondering if he should even be trying to make contact. “Um, are you okay?”
The growling ceases immediately. It’s then soon replaced with a much more inquisitive murmur, one that sounds downright excited compared to how furious the creature had been mere moments before.
Emboldened by this, Sanji shifts closer to the wall that separates the two cells, only stopping when he’s pressed right up against it. “Can you talk?” He asks, curious.
Whatever it is that’s next door snorts. It sounds downright disgusted, but whether this is at the assumption that it can talk or it can’t, Sanji has no idea. All he knows is that the animal is clearly pissed off at being put in a cage.
“My name’s Sanji.” He tries next. “I won’t hurt you, if that’s something you’re worried about.”
The thing is quiet for a moment, until it lets out a low rasping noise that Sanji belatedly translates as laughter. A little annoyed, but trying not to show it, he frowns at the wall between them. “You don’t have to be rude about it,” he scolds. “I was trying to be nice.”
Now the thing makes a noise that’s somewhat akin to contrition. It’s also noticeably closer, like it too is pressed up against the dividing wall the way Sanji is. The action causes something an awful lot like hope to start building in the pit of Sanji’s stomach, but he does his best to crush it back down lest said hope be dashed if he turns out to be wrong.
“Okay,” he says aloud. “I think you can understand me, so maybe there’s a way for me to understand you too. How about we say that you knock once for yes and twice for no. Sound good?”
A single knock bounces off the wall, and Sanji can’t help but grin to himself. “Awesome,” he says, only to trail off when he realizes he has no idea what to ask next. “Um, are you hurt?”
Two knocks this time, and Sanji breathes out a sigh of relief. “That’s good,” he says, “because I don’t think I’d be much help to you if you were.”
Two more knocks ring out again, far sharper than before.
“Um?” Sanji says. “Sorry, I don’t know what you meant by that one.”
His neighbor grumbles, and Sanji hears him (or her, he supposes) move towards the front of the cell. He then feels his mouth drop open as a large striped paw pokes out from between the bars to smack at the floor, exactly the way a much smaller hand used to do.
“No way,” he breathes, staring at it. “Zoro, is that you?”
The paw slams emphatically against the ground, just once. Then it rotates until the pads are facing upwards, the request plain.
Feeling a little weak in the knees, Sanji crouches down to cover it with his hand.
*****
Their yes or no system combined with a game of process by elimination reveals that Zoro’s been transformed into a tiger. His limited vocals make it impossible for him to explain exactly why this was done to him, but Sanji is able to work out that it was a result of Judge’s ongoing experiments.
As far as he can figure, Judge must be up to his usual tricks of trying to warp magic through science. That’s what had led to the creation of Sanji’s brothers after all, and it’s not like Judge was ever the type to quit while he was ahead. He’s been able to combine science and magic before, so why not do it again?
Except, it clearly hasn’t worked out the way he’d wanted it to here. The guards hadn’t referred to Zoro as a failure for no reason, and based on what Sanji’s been able to glean, it sounds like the change was never meant to be permanent. The fact that Zoro’s currently stuck as he is wasn’t the desired outcome.
“M’sorry,” Sanji mumbles once he’s ascertained this. He strokes his hand over Zoro’s right front paw, amazed at how soft his fur is. “This never should have happened to you.”
Zoro makes an admonishing noise that Sanji suspects is meant to tell him to get over himself. He’s remarkably unbothered by his feline plight, and almost seems content to be back in his cell.
“You’re so weird,” Sanji says after Zoro signals once for yes when he voices this thought out loud. “But I’m really glad you’re not dead. You were gone for so long that I was sure you would be.”
This time Zoro makes a disgruntled noise, as if he’s annoyed at Sanji for not having enough faith in him. Sanji laughs at him in turn, which leads to a whole series of grumbling noises from the other ‘boy’.
“I wish I knew what they were planning,” Sanji says once his laughter has faded. “I mean, I guess there’s not much we can do in here anyway, but it’d still be nice to just know .”
“Perhaps you should spend less time worrying about the unknown, and more focusing your immediate surroundings.” Reiju’s voice, sharper than usual, cuts through the hallway like a knife, and the next thing Sanji knows she’s standing in front of him.
Sanji scrambles to his feet, and next door he hears Zoro do the same. “What are you doing back here?” Sanji demands, gaping at his sister. She’s never made two trips down so close together before. He’s lucky if he sees her once every few months.
Reiju purses her lips. “I,” she says stiltedly, “have been thinking a lot about our last conversation. You were right when you said I haven’t tried to help you since you’ve been down here, so I’m rectifying that.”
“You are?” Sanji says, his mouth dropping open when she holds up a set of keys. “Where did you get those?”
“That’s not important,” she replies. “What is important is that they’re sure to be missed, so we need to be quick about this.”
At a loss for words, Sanji nods. The doors are spelled such that magic and brute strength can’t force them open, but rather only the correct key. He has no idea how Reiju’s managed to obtain said keys, but she’s right to say that their absence is bound to be noticed.
There’s dozens of keys on the ring Reiju’s holding, and by his count she gets through seven of them before she finds the right one. She then hauls the door open, motioning for him to come out with her hand.
He hesitates for a brief moment, abruptly terrified of the risk he’s taking. Then he thinks about what his life will continue to be like if he doesn’t accept this opportunity, and steps resolutely forward.
Reiju stares at him for a second, before holding up an entirely different key. “For the helmet,” she says simply. “It was in its usual spot.”
Letting out a shaky breath, Sanji turns around so she can unlock the horrible thing. He gasps as it’s pulled away, one hand coming up to touch his hair without his permission as Reiju sets it carefully down on the ground.
“You need to go,” she says now. “We’ve just docked at Cozia, the country I mentioned where Father’s taken a job. He’s going to be caught up with that for a while, and shouldn’t notice you’re missing until the morning at the earliest. Get off the flagship, and run as far away as you can.”
“He’ll follow me,” Sanji says. “You know what he’s like, how much he hates to lose. He’ll have the others track me with magic, and then he’ll be really, really mad when he catches me.”
“Father doesn’t care enough about you to chase you for long.” She replies, giving no indication at all that she understands how cruel her words are. “If he hasn’t found you by the time he’s done in Cozia, he’ll leave without you.”
“Which is where this comes in,” she says, holding up her hand. Sitting center in her palm is an unassuming glass bead that Sanji can nevertheless feel the power oozing off of. “I’ve been practicing shielding spells, and I’m better than the boys are. This should hide you from them until it runs out of power, which will take at least a week to happen.”
“Any other protests you’d like to make?”
Biting his lip, Sanji shakes his head no and accepts the bead when she offers it to him. He quickly slips it into the pocket of his pants, hoping like hell it’ll be safe there as he turns back to his sister.
“Thank you,” he says firmly, “but I need one more thing. Give me the keys.”
“Why?” Looking uneasy, Reiju moves to pull the key ring further out of reach. “You don’t need them for anything, and I have to get them back where they belong.”
“I need to let Zoro out.” He tells her. “And I’ll scream as loud as I can if you don't give them to me.”
Reiju’s mouth drops open, and Sanji uses her momentary break in concentration to snatch the keys out of her hand. He then side steps over to the next cell, coming to a rest right in front of the lock.
“Hi, furball,” he says, taking barely a moment to glance at the cell’s occupant as he starts frantically jamming keys into the lock. “It’s nice to finally meet you face to face.”
In answer, Zoro presses himself right up against the bars, snuffling at Sanji’s closest arm while he works. He’s even bigger than the guards had made him sound, albeit definitely not full grown compared to adult tigers.
“Sanji, what are you doing?” Reiju hisses. “You’re wasting valuable time, and all for someone you don’t even know.”
“Zoro and I have known each other for months,” Sanji hisses back, while Zoro growls in Reiju’s direction. “He’s nice and he’s my friend, so if I’m going he’s going too.”
“This is ridiculous.” Reiju says, but she must realize his threat to start screaming and expose her was a valid one because she makes no further move to force him away from the door. Instead, she stays where she is, waiting not-so-patiently as he tries the various keys.
He gets almost to the end before he finds the right one, and it’s all he can do not to crow triumphantly when the lock clicks. Yanking the door open, he steps back so Zoro can come through, surprised when the tiger darts right up to him and snuffles happily at his face.
“What are you doing, dummy?” Sanji asks, laughing in spite of himself as he swats him away. “I’m glad to see you too, but we’ve got to go.”
“Now,” Reiju emphasizes, holding out her hands for the keys. “Give those to me and come on.”
They make it to the top of their stairs without incident, but once there Zoro veers off in the wrong direction. He doesn’t go far, however, and comes to a stop in front of a heavy wooden door that he scratches at with one paw.
“What are you doing, furball?” Sanji demands. “Also,” he adds, having now noticed something that wasn’t obvious in the poor light of the cells, “why are you green ?”
Zoro gives him a look as if to say “really?”, and Sanji bristles at the implication.
“It’s a fair question,” he insists. “Tigers are supposed to be orange.”
“Do we have to do this now?” It’s clear from her tone that Reiju is fast losing her patience, and she glares pointedly at Zoro. “We don’t have time for whatever he thinks he’s doing. Either he comes with us, or he gets left behind.”
“No,” Sanji says flatly. “He doesn’t.”
His point made, he grabs the handle on the door and twists, unsurprised when Zoro promptly darks inside. A quick glance in reveals a mass of accumulated belongings, all covered in a thin veneer of dust, and it dawns on Sanji what his friend must be poking for.
“It’s all the stuff the guards took from Zoro and the other kids,” Sanji says, shooting his sister a look that she meets head on. “They just dumped it in here like it was worth nothing.”
“Because in their eyes it was,” she replies coolly. “I don’t approve of what’s been happening, but it’s not like there was anything I could do to stop it.”
As much as he’d like to, Sanji knows better than to argue with her, not when he has more pertinent information he might be able to obtain. “What do you know about the experiments Judge has been running? Why’s Zoro like this?”
Reiju shrugs. “Judge is trying to create different kinds of super soldiers. His current project would see people able to transform into individual animals and make use of whatever traits they can. Unfortunately, all the other test subjects died, and your friend there got stuck in that form. He’s supposed to be able to switch back and forth at will, but nothing they did to him made it work.”
Sanji doesn’t like the sound of that, but Zoro returns before he can think of any more questions. In his mouth he’s holding a long, curved sword with a white scabbard and a rounded hilt. He then blinks up at Sanji expectantly.
“That’s Wado?” Sanji asks, unsurprised when Zoro nods. “Then can we go, please?”
Another nod, and Sanji turns to glance somewhat sheepishly at his exasperated sister. “Alright, I think we’re ready.”
*****
Sanji wishes he could say that stepping off the flagship, technically the only home he’s ever known, is a big deal to him, but it sadly isn’t. He barely says anything to Reiju, who’s equally tight lipped and sends him on his way with a rough shove at his back, and there’s no time for more than that. They’ll only have the cover of darkness for so long, so they need to get moving.
Zoro leads the way. His sturdier form makes him better at traversing the land, and it’s obvious that he can see more than Sanji can. Sanji thinks he remembers reading somewhere that house cats can see in the dark, and he’s going to assume based on the evidence before him that this applies to tigers as well.
They run for hours, until the sun starts peeking out over the horizon, and Sanji realizes he can’t go much further. He’s been staggering along for a while now, having tripped more than once, forcing Zoro to double back for him. Currently, he’s moving with one hand on his friend’s back to try and steady himself, but even that’s not going to last for much longer.
“I can’t run anymore,” he gasps the next time his feet give out from under him. He lies sprawled on the ground with tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as he gasps for breath. “I’m too tired, and I’m just gonna slow you down.”
Zoro makes an affronted noise at this, his paws jittering back and forth as he prances in place. He clearly wants Sanji to get up and keep going, but also clearly can tell that’s no longer an option. Huffing in distress, he drops Wado down next to Sanji in the dirt, and then bounds away without another word.
If it weren’t for Wado, Sanji might think the idiot’s gotten wise and decided to fend for himself. The sword being left behind can only mean one thing, though, so Sanji clutches the hilt protectively as he waits for his friend to come back.
He’s not sure how much time passes, only that the sun is considerably higher in the sky by the time Zoro finally re-emerges. Sanji gives the tiger a weak smile when he sniffs at him, and hooks a hand around his neck as he attempts to get to his feet.
“M’okay.” He promises, one hand slung over Zoro’s shoulders and the other holding Wado as they stagger off into the bushes. “Just show me what you found.”
Zoro proceeds to lead him on a meandering path that Sanji suspects is confusing for more reasons than his general exhaustion. Eventually, however, his friend makes a triumphant noise, and up ahead Sanji spots an entrance to a cave that looks like as good a hiding place as any.
“Nice work, Marimo,” Sanji says, giggling a little deliriously when Zoro makes an offended noise. “Can you help me over?”
Grumbling under his breath, Zoro does as requested and lumbers towards the cave’s entrance with Sanji slumping lower and lower on his back. Once inside, he lets Sanji sag carefully to the ground, sitting down on his haunches expectantly.
“You did good,” Sanji assures him, releasing his death grip on Wado since it seems safe to do so. “I’m gonna sleep now, ‘kay?”
Any response Zoro might have made gets lost between one blink and the next. All Sanji knows is that one minute there had been sunlight streaming in through the entrance of the cave, and the next shadows are starting to appear, suggesting that considerable time has passed.
Crunching noises reach Sanji’s ears, making him blink. Sitting up with a yawn, he scrubs tiredly at his eyes, and then glances around until he spots Zoro. The tiger’s sitting nearby, with what looks like a rabbit carcass between his front paws, tearing into it with gusto.
“Ew, Marimo,” Sanji wrinkles his nose. “It’s not even cooked.”
Zoro pauses long enough to give him an impressive stink eye, but quickly returns to his meal.
“ … fair enough,” Sanji says, belatedly noting the way his own stomach’s rumbling. “Is there any more?”
This time Zoro nods his head to the side, and by craning his neck around to look, Sanji spots another rabbit. Its neck is resting at an odd angle, signaling how it’d most likely died, but otherwise it looks perfectly fine to eat.
Except that’s easier said than done, he supposes. Between the two of them they have Wado, Reiju’s camouflage spell, and the clothes on Sanji’s back. They hadn’t stopped to gather any other supplies, which in hindsight may have been a mistake.
“Alright,” Sanji says, figuring the only way out is through. “We need to be practical about this. Is there any wood around?”
The answer to that question appears to be yes. He’s able to gather up enough dried kindling to make a small fire, and calls on years of Judge’s survival training to complete the task. After which, he glances first at the rabbit, and then at Wado.
“I’ve got to skin it,” he says when he catches Zoro looking. “I can’t eat it with all the fur still on.”
Zoro chitters at him, whatever he’s saying most likely rude, but he doesn’t try to stop Sanji when he picks up the sword. Instead, he simply watches him through slitted eyes, as if he’s judging his technique.
The blade is remarkably sharp, albeit too long for Sanji to wield with anything resembling grace. Luckily, it’s enough to get the job done, even if he does have to clean it off using the hem of his shirt.
“We’re going to have to find a way to get some supplies,” Sanji says as he waits for the rabbit to cook. “Otherwise we’re just gonna wind up starving or dying of exposure. Or at least I will, you might be okay.”
If he’d thought Zoro could make unimpressed faces before, that’s nothing when compared to the expression this comment earns him. Disdain is all but dripping from the tiger’s countenance, making it clear that he doesn’t care one whit for the idea of Sanji dying and leaving him alone.
“We’ll figure something out,” Sanji says diplomatically. “A lot of Judge’s history lessons talked about people abandoning their homes during wartime. Maybe we can find someplace like that since we’re still not far from the battlefield.”
He’s half expecting Zoro to hate this idea, but to his surprise the tiger’s expression turns contemplative. Eventually, he nods, the motion choppy in a way that suggests it doesn’t come naturally to his current body, and Sanji lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“Glad you approve,” he says. “Now that we’ve both had a chance to rest, I think we should get moving again once we’re done eating. So long as it doesn’t get too cold, it makes more sense to travel at night. We’re less likely to be seen.”
Zoro shrugs, as if to say “suit yourself”, and Sanji nods decisively. “Okay, that’s what we’ll do for now, but we can always reassess once we’ve put some more distance between us and Germa.”
“Let’s wait out the week until Reiju’s spell has died off,” he suggests. “And then we’ll go from there.”