Chapter Text
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—CHAPTER ONE—
The Great Fall
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MARINE HQ (GREEN ROCK ISLAND)
March 22, 21:34
His hand hurt.
He hoped it wasn't broken, but he was pretty sure that it was. Part of it was swollen so much that the bruised skin on the top of his hand felt tight and tender. Whenever he tried to clench it, it felt like it would burst.
He scowled darkly at it, feeling as if it were possible to intimidate it back to the way it was. Naturally, that wasn't the case. So instead, he settled for testing the extent of the damage, bending his wrist this way and that. He found it didn't quite hurt when he did that, so he turned his attention back to his hand and tried making a fist again.
The pain flared back, and he unclenched. Ah, he thought. So his wrist wasn't the problem; it was his hand. Maybe his knuckles? That's where all the swelling seemed to be, though he couldn't really tell in the darkness he was in. Stubbornly, he clenched his hand again. The pain came to welcome him back before hurriedly shooing him away. He stopped only when he the pain was enough to make bright spots spring up before his eyes.
He wished Chopper were here. At least then he'd have company — and someone who'd know what to do with his hand.
Clucking his tongue and giving a frustrated growl, Sanji leaned his back into the mud and looked up. The sky above was dotted with stars, the only indication that it was, indeed, the sky. He was in a deep, narrow ditch of mud; he'd fallen into it — very uncoolly, by the way — while breaking out from a marine cell.
It was completely black in the ditch he was holed up in, as the sun had set nearly four hours ago, and he'd struggled for hours to try and get out of his predicament with no such luck. He tried not to think about how things could've ended up in his favor had the marines not weighted and chained his feet to Lucia's hands.
At the thought of the woman it had been such a pleasure to be chained to in the cell, his mood lifted and his heart almost burst with affection. Lucia! Such a beauty she was with her dark, ebony hair and bright eyes — it was for her that he had found the need to break out. As a man, it was his duty to save the woman from horrible bondage at the cruel, cruel hands of that disgusting brute of a jail keeper the marines had hired. Lucia; the sweet, sweet darling! How his heart yearned for her, despite her leaving him in this ditch and escaping into the sea on a lone wooden raft. But she'd promised to send help for him, promised him with a loving kiss and a gorgeous bat of her eyelashes and—
"Lucia!" Sanji cried, wrapping his arms around his body as he writhed with ecstasy, "I'm waiting for you!" Sanji leaped up to launch himself into the air again. He thrust his hand forward into the mud to get a good grip, and in his poor haste he'd forgotten his right hand was useless to him. With a howl of pain, Sanji slipped and fell back down to the bottom of the ditch.
As he lay there, he could still see in his mind's eye the petite woman waving down at him from above, with the sky burning orange and red with undying passion; She blew him a kiss and promised him in that sweet, sweet voice of her's that she'd come back for him…
But he knew she wouldn't be back. Sanji wasn't a fool. He was well aware that Lucia had only seen him as a means to escape and nothing more. But he'd rather be struck with lightening than to have taken back what he'd done.
It wasn't fitting or proper to have such a lovely woman like that stuck in a muddy ditch. Who knows how long it'd be until she found a way to escape? At least with Sanji, he had the beautifully clever Nami-swan and the gorgeously cunning Robin-chwan (as well as those other idiots he called his "nakama") to wait for. Whatever the situation, he was sure to be found.
But Lucia? She'd been captured months ago, from an island on the other side of the Red Line. There was no telling when her crew would get here. Or, Sanji thought grimly, if they were still alive.
And so, to save the lovely damsel in distress, Sanji had to break through the cell with his fists, as his legs were chained to Lucia's hands — hence his broken hand. It was all worth it in the end, he thought, remembering that dazzling smile on the woman's face and a cunning spark that had burned in her once hopeless eyes once they were free. Lucia would sail the seas again. She would live. Sanji had made sure of that.
As he looked back on his decision with approval, Sanji reached for his cigarettes. He scowled again when he'd picked up his right hand, and instead used his left to draw out a cigarette and fumble with the lighter. When it was finally lit and in his mouth, he lay patiently in the mud and smoked, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the Mugiwara crew arrived.
His only hope now was that Nami-swan or Robin-chan (or both!) would find him soon. Chopper came second in preference, as he would no doubt be taken care of by the little reindeer doctor. He wouldn't protest at being found by Usopp or Brook, either. Those two were handy in their own ways, and helped to lighten the mood every so often with their slapstick jokes and uncanny sense of humor. Franky and Luffy were good candidates too, he thought with an appreciative nod, though it'd be guaranteed that they'd run into trouble along the way. They always seemed to draw the most attention.
It really didn't matter who found him in this ditch, actually. Sanji wasn't too picky when it came to his crew…
But if, by some miraculous twist of fate, that shitty swordsman Zoro actually happened to find him first, Sanji would make sure to kill him because this whole ridiculous fiasco he was caught in was all that stupid marimo-head's fault.
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