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"He won't be coming up." Zeff muttered behind Sanji's back. Sanji almost got whiplash from how fast he turned to look at his adoptive father behind him. "What!? Tell that to me faster. What if it's too late?" he yelled, before jumping in to the water.
The cold seawater shocked him as he plummeted. Sanji swam deeper, always on the lookout for any sign of the chore boy’s red shirt or blue shorts. The seafloor was unfortunately especially deep here. He wanted to go up for air, but that would’ve cost him more time than he had. Every second counted here.
He finally saw the boy laying on a piece of broken wood that was descending to the bottom of the sea. 'Atleast his descent was slowed by the sinking ship piece.' Sanji thought to himself, but was quickly discouraged by what he saw.
The boy was limp and lifeless and his mouth hung open. Sanji went to rouse the kid without success. He instead turned to look at the opening of the steel net, which was now tangled into the splintered wood and around itself. Sanji growled at the predicament, but held his anger, as he too was now running out of air.
Sanji began tugging on the net in hopes of untangling it, but the feat seemed hopeless. He kept on struggling though and by some miracle did manage to get the net open. He pulled the boy out of the net by his ankles and started a quick ascend. Holding the chore boy on his shoulder he kicked his powerful legs to get to the surface faster.
Black spots were beginning to appear in his vision but Sanji powered through. Soon he broke the surface and gasped for air, but the kid in his arms didn't. "Oi, don't you dare die on me!" Sanji yelled, as he swam back to Baratie's deck.
Sanji pulled the kid on deck and laid the boy on his back. He placed his ear on the kid’s chest, but heard nothing. No heartbeat nor a breath.
"Fuck!" Sanji sucked in a breath through his teeth as he cursed.
He placed his hands on the kids chest and started compressions. He counted to 30 and moved his hands to the kids' chin to tilt his head back. He gave two rescue breaths and continued with the compressions.
Sanji didn't know how much time had passed since the kid fell in. Maybe he had already drowned before he got to him. Maybe it was too late. He hadn’t even learned the kids' name.
He gave two more rescue breaths. Loosing hope as seconds passed without even a flinch from the boy. 'His friends are going to be devastated.' Sanji thought.
Suddenly desperate to save the kid Sanji hit the kids' chest with his fist once, twice... a loud gasp as the boy coughed up seawater. Sanji scrambled to turn the boy to his side to expel all of it.
Sanji heaved a sigh of relief and fell back on his ass. His arms ached from the exercise but he didn't mind it all that much.