Chapter Text
Sanji and Luffy are about to deal the final blow on Satori when a massive cloud wall forms between them, separating them from the nearly beaten priest of the Ordeal of Ball.
“Hey! What the heck happened?” Luffy shouts.
He smashes his rubbery arms against the cloud wall again and again but the wall of white doesn’t budge. Sanji takes a deep drag of his cigarette before turning and throwing one of his hardest kicks against the barrier.
Behind it, Satori starts to giggle.
“HOHO, now you’ve done it,” the man tells them from the other side of the wall.
“Uh, I have a bad feeling about this,” Usopp mutters, pulling his slingshot taut.
“You should,” a voice says behind them.
All three men whirl around, weapons and limbs at the ready.
There’s a man sitting on one of the large vines behind them, a leg pulled up with his elbow resting on it. He looks lazy and out of place in this dangerous location they’ve been in.
“Who are you?” Luffy demands.
A darkness creeps up the back of Sanji’s neck. The energy coming off of this man is almost tangible. Power, wickedness, arrogance. All of it radiates off him clearly. It’s these things that make him know the answer before the man says it.
“I’m God,” the man says.
Hands grab at Sanji’s shoulders, and he turns his head to see Usopp now trying to cower behind him and use him as a shield. He tries to shake him off, but the other man holds stubbornly onto him.
“We were defeating your Priest before you chose to interfere,” Sanji says in annoyance, turning back towards the so-called God.
The deity in question faces Sanji, his eyes roaming over him from the top of his blonde hair all the way down to his shoes. Sanji doesn’t flinch. There is no way this man is a God, not truly.
“You’re the one I heard,” the God says once he’s done examining him.
Usopp quickly lets go of his shoulders to jump further away from him. Coward.
Sanji doesn’t say anything. All these villains usually have their monologues prepared. There’s no point in interrupting when they’re going to go on and on about their plans anyway.
“You heard Sanji?” Luffy asks, quirking his head to the side.
“The God Enel hears everything anyone says, he knows all! HOHO,” Satori’s voice comes from that wall that is still behind them.
This gives Sanji pause. That’s a new one. The ball-man had been predictive of their moves because of the mantra. This must be a strengthened version of that ability to hear all.
“You wanted to go save those girls - the orange haired one on the boat specifically,” the man, Enel he knows now, says.
Sanji’s blood runs cold at the mention of Robin and Nami. He knows about them, knows where they are right now. He’s the one that took them in the first place.
“What are you trying to say about Nami?!” He can’t stop himself from screaming.
Sanji doesn’t care what a weakness it shows in him when he lets these people push his buttons so easily. His skills speak for themselves in proving them all wrong.
What he cares about is Nami.
“You called it an Ordeal of Love, I liked that. I was getting bored watching you all fight my Priest. That’s not interesting. This love you speak of though, I’m interested in that,” Enel continues.
”What do you mean?” Usopp asks from his side,
The inventor flinches when the false God turns to look at him, but Sanji respects the attempt at bravery nonetheless.
“I don’t believe you. I don’t think this love you spoke of is real, which is why I have a new idea. You all are not going to survive the ordeals ahead. I know it. But, if you would like to prove me wrong then do it in an Ordeal of Love,” Enel explains, cocking his head to the side to look at Sanji again.
Luffy’s arm goes flying before Sanji can even think about the threat being told to them. He smiles as the fist heads right towards that arrogant asshole’s head.
Golden light nearly blinds them as Enel becomes a withering cackling form of lightning and Luffy’s fist flies by without getting a hit on him.
Luffy falls over from the momentum of his punch, and Sanji slides his feet into position ready to jump into this fight now that the first punch has been thrown.
“Hmmm…we can’t have a conversation like this, can we?” Enel sighs when he comes back into shape.
With a snap of his fingers the air turns crisp as bolts of lightning go flying towards them. Sanji jumps out of the way just like Luffy and Usopp do.
He’s still trying to catch his breath on the ground when there’s a whirling noise behind him. He jumps up in time to see whirling balls of cloud swirl around Usopp and Luffy, covering them from his view and lifting them off the ground.
He can hear the rapid punches of Luffy inside the cloud and while there are shakes visible, the shape holds.
An explosion sounds from inside of Usopp’s. He probably shot one of his exploding ammunitions.
“Ow,” a whimpering voice says from inside.
Sanji jumps up. He’s ready to kick one of these cloud prisons open when both of them suddenly fly high up into the sky out of reach. Whizzing in a direction further in the jungle, disappearing past the tree tops.
“Where did you take them?” Sanji whirls around to shout at the so-called God.
Enel only smiles slightly while Satori’s laughs get louder from behind that damned wall behind them.
“To where your Ordeal will take place,” Enel says.
“Whatever your stupid ordeal is, I’ll get them back,” Sanji says.
He gets himself a running start before throwing himself at the amused man on the vine. He’s going to kill him right there and then.
Instead there’s a crackle and he flies through nothing but a burnt smell in the air. He barely manages to stop himself from hitting one of those giant tree trunks around them.
The God Enel now stands back where he had started from near the giggling wall that is Satori.
He doesn’t even look upset about the effort, he’s laughing.
“You’re going to be fun to watch,” the man smiles at him.
With a wave of his hand and the sound of a ‘whoosh’, a cloud platform appears beneath Sanji’s feet lifting him in the air. It takes him higher than the trees, and he stares below all the sides of the platform looking for a place to jump down and start to save his friends.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Enel’s voice laughs from below him, “Especially not when I have her.”
Sanji stops moving.
They’d been fighting their way to Nami and the others this whole time and now the bastard is threatening her again? Directly?
He stands perfectly still on the platform as it starts flying in the same direction that the balls with Luffy and Usopp had gone. The darkness that he had felt emanating from Enel when he first arrived is nothing in comparison to what is coming off of Sanji now.
No one takes Nami from him.
No one lays a hand on her.
“You’re going to regret this,” Sanji tells the sky, as he pulls his cigarette from his mouth.
There’s no response, just a vibration in the air around him that almost sounds like a chuckle.
Bastard.
The platform lowers itself on the bank of the river, a giant stone structure sticking up into the sky at one end. When he steps off the cloud onto the solid ground, he immediately spots a cage on a tree branch on the other side. The white clouds that make it up remain unbroken even with the many attacks he can see.
Hands, swords, antlers. They all beat against the restraints with no hope.
“Sanji!” Chopper stops ramming his antlers into the wall when he sees him.
The reindeer transforms into his usual form just as everyone else spots him.
“Sanji! What’s happening -” Usopp is yelling to him when there’s a loud crash and golden light flashes at the top of the altar.
Enel stands now up there, a smile still on his face at their distress Sanji assumes. This man’s complex goes far beyond just the title of God he’s claimed.
What is on the ground next to him though sends Sanji into a sprint.
Nami sits at the top of the altar at the God’s feet, clawing at something on her ankle. Sanji only runs a few strides closer before cloud vines wrap around him and stop him. He’s close enough now to see though that it’s a white fluffy shackle that’s wrapped around her ankle, holding her to the altar.
Red clouds his vision.
He fights against the cloud restraints, but there’s no loosening them. He’s stuck here having to watch Nami try to pull the shackle off herself all while the man standing beside her looks down at her in pity.
“NAMI!”
“LET HER GO!”
“DO SOMETHING!”
All these shouts echo over from where the crew is being kept in their cage.
None of them are able to help.
“She’s cute, but cute enough for what I’m going to ask of you?” Enel observes, ignoring the screaming.
“I’ll kill you for this!” Sanji screams, still pulling against the clouds that are holding him back.
Nami looks in his direction, the desperation on her face breaks his heart. It’s quickly sewn back together though when she actually sighs in relief when she sees him.
She looks back up at the God and crosses her arms. Even from a distance, he can see the smugness dripping from her. He loves when she’s smug. She’s just so cute.
“Whatever it is you want, you’re going to regret doing this.”
Her voice is softer than all the others, but he can still hear it carried on the wind. Really, he could hear her voice anywhere, in any crowd, in any horrific situation.
“We’ll see about that. That man over there said he loved you. Multiple times. I want to see if it was just arrogance or if he was telling the truth,” Enel’s voice echoes, as he bends down to be face level with Nami.
The audacity of the monster to think he is even worthy of being so close to someone that is actually perfect, makes Sanji’s blood boil.
Even with his anger though, he stills at the man’s words. If all he wants to know is if Sanji’s love for Nami is true then he will answer a million times. It’s as true as any other fact of the world.
Sanji loves Nami.
“You will face an Ordeal of Love made up of three trials that will test your supposed love for this woman. If you pass them, you, her, and your companions can walk away from this altar. Free. But, if you fail a trial then she will be the sacrifice that pays for your insolence in coming here without paying,” Enel says, standing back up and looking down at Sanji.
“Prove your love is true, or she dies,” the God finishes for emphasis.
Sanji lets himself relax in the restraints still holding him in space. His cigarette will be burning out soon, and he’s already itching to light another one. Whatever he thought was going to happen, this is a much better situation.
There’s wails of fear coming from the other side of the river, but the only thing he concentrates on is the laughter coming from the top of the sacrificial altar.
Nami’s head is high now, and she’s laughing deeply in the face of the man holding her captive. Her laugh is infectious, as always. Sanji softly chuckles along with her.
Enel bends down again. Sanji can sense the displeasure coming from him.
“Your life is threatened, yet you laugh. Why?” the man asks her.
“He’ll save me,” Nami says, her voice louder and more confident now than before.
Sanji hears the sound of hearts fluttering around his head.
“You really believe he loves you?” Enel says.
He can hear a sneer in the man's voice, the mockery that he is lacing into each word to Nami. Sanji adds it to the list of reasons why this man will not exist by the end of the day. No one mocks his love.
“Of course,” Nami scoffs.
Enel turns his head in Sanji’s direction, his face no longer relaxed and leisurely like it was when he showed up. There’s anger now there.
Good.
“Then let’s find out,” Enel says, waving a hand.
The vines that had wrapped around his arms and legs disappear just as a new cloud platform appears under his feet. Sanji doesn’t even get another glance of Nami before the platform springs up, flinging him high into the sky and sending him far overhead.
“Poor Nami! She’s delusional, she doesn't want to accept that she’s going to die,” Usopp says, turning away from the bars to wipe a tear from his eye.
“Maybe they’ll let us take her ashes to spread at sea,” Robin says.
Luffy is now gnawing on the cloud bars, flecks of broken teeth dropping from where he bites.
Chopper sits on the floor with tears and snot running down his face.
“It’s not fair!” the reindeer wails, kicking his feet.
The only person in the cage not distressed is Zoro. His swords had been sheathed since he heard the ordeal, and now he walks to one end of the cage to lean his head against the bars and close his eyes.
Usopp takes notice and immediately stomps over to where the first mate sits.
“YOU OF ALL PEOPLE ARE NAPPING?! WHY AREN’T YOU DOING SOMETHING?!” Usopp screeches, reaching out with fisted hands.
Luffy stops biting on the bars and turns around to look at the screaming with a mouth full of broken teeth. Robin covers her mouth with her hand and watches with round eyes. Chopper scampers off his feet to stare too.
Without opening his eyes, Zoro throws his right arm out to his full length. He puts a hand on Usopp’s forehead that leaves the inventor running in place unable to come any closer.
After a few moments of Usopp’s attempts to keep coming closer, the green haired bounty hunter opens a single eye in annoyance.
“He’ll get her,” Zoro says simply.
Usopp stops in his place, letting Zoro’s hand fall back down to where he crosses his arms again. Chopper and Luffy look at Zoro with jaw dropped expressions. Robins lifts a brow in surprise.
“You believe in him?” Usopp whispers in horror, bringing both hands to the side of his head.
“Not usually, but he’ll save her and it saves us the trouble of having to fight our way through them,” Zoro says flatly.
“IDIOT!” Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy shout, surrounding him where he sits and pointing at him.
Robin stands nearby giving him a pitying glance.
“You hate him! How can you possibly believe that!” Usopp says, starting to pace back and forth.
“He’s annoying, he gets in the way, and he is useless, but he loves her. That’s the only redeemable thing about him,” Zoro shrugs again.
He says it as if it’s a fact with no hesitation or feeling behind it. The same way one would say that the sky was blue.
“Poor Zoro, you naive fool. Sanji loves any woman he sees, that isn’t really love,” Usopp sighs, giving Zoro’s green hair a pitying pat.
Zoro throws a fist up and there’s a smack when it comes into contact with Usopp’s face. The inventor lets out a squeak of pain before falling to the ground, the outline of a fist bright red on his cheek.
“He does enjoy flirting,” Robin says, staring off into the distance where Sanji was thrown.
Luffy lets out a yell of frustration, throwing another punch at the cell wall. The clouds shake slightly again, but they do not break.
“I don’t want to see Nami die,” Chopper whimpers, turning back to the sacrificial altar.
All of them except Zoro turn to face it as well.
There’s a thud in the distance and a whoosh of air as the atmosphere thickens, making it hard to breathe almost. The sounds that had been around them have gone silent. They can’t hear a thing through the dense air.
The first part of the ordeal is starting.
Sanji blinks up at the sky he can spot between the tree tops from where he had landed after being thrown. What was once that beautiful light blue that had drawn them there is quickly turning a deep dark grey. The entire jungle is becoming pitch black around him.
Guess that’s the start of the first trial.
Once the darkness has fully fallen, he braces himself. His feet move into position, his hands come up, and he listens closely to the sounds around him.
A single circle of dark clouds break above him revealing a stream of sunlight. The beam of gold shines down to a spot on a vine ahead of him where that fat ball of a priest they had been moments from defeating earlier now stands with a grin.
There are gaps where they beat the teeth out of him and there are still bruises littering his face and the visible parts of his arms.
“HOHO, welcome to the first trial of the ‘Ordeal of Love’,” the thing has the nerve to giggle.
Sanji sighs, pulling his lighter out of his pocket and getting a new cigarette ready. If this was how it was starting, it was going to be a long annoying path to get to Nami.
“Cut the theatrics - let me get to Nami,” he says with a wave of his hand.
The image of her before he’d been shot back, chained by the ankle to that sacrificial altar was seared behind his eyelids. That beautiful ankle was never supposed to have a shackle around it again.
This so-called God and his pathetic priests would pay for this.
Satori huffs, the air coming through the gaps of his missing teeth making a pathetic whistle noise.
“No appreciation for the thought being put into this, no matter. HOHO!” Satori laughs again, wagging a finger in Sanji’s direction.
Sanji only rolls his eyes. How much thought could even be put into something they hadn’t thought of until he mentioned it all of twenty minutes ago.
“For your first trial, you will prove your love through….knowledge!” Satori announces, pausing before the final word.
He holds up a finger with a flourish and there’s a small flash of lightning above them to add to the effect.
These were truly the most annoying people they’d come across so far in this adventure. Which was saying something. Sanji lives on a boat with Zoro after all.
“What the fuck does that mean?” He asks with the pinch of annoyance in his voice when Satori doesn’t go on any further.
”Our God is all knowing, he knows what someone is thinking of doing and when they are lying. Let us test if you know this supposed love of yours the way that he can,” Satori answers, bouncing down to another vine.
The spotlight of sunlight that was on him remains above meaning only the barest of lights shine on him, shadowing his face. There’s more seconds of silence before Satori clears his throat and looks up at the sky pointedly. When the light doesn’t move, the ball man bounces back up to the original vine.
Sanji turns his words over. Test his knowledge of Nami? He can do that.
“We will ask you five questions to see if you know the truth that is in her heart, not just in what she’s willing to say,” Satori says.
Nami loves to lie. She hardly ever keeps her words. She refuses to let anyone know anything about her that isn’t related to her love of material goods. It’s technically a hard trial.
For most people.
Nami’s been his focus on the ship since the day he stepped foot on it. There’s not a single expression of hers or like that he hasn’t taken note of. Or dislike for that matter.
He takes a deep drag of his cigarette.
“Well what are you waiting for?”
There’s a hiss as the air around them thins. The humidity was choking him earlier dissipates and with it the sounds of the jungle come back to life around him. There’s the hiss of insects and the cawing of birds up ahead.
There’s also the sound of distant wailing.
Not Nami’s. Instead Chopper, Luffy, and Usopp’s cries can be heard from somewhere beyond the trees surrounding him. The desperation of their yells sound as if they are about to witness a murder.
“DO YOU HAVE NO FAITH IN ME?!” He shouts angrily into the sky.
Out of all the ways they can find their way out of these woods, an ordeal to prove his love for Nami is the easiest. They should have been cheering in glee that he was doing this for them.
“No!” A resounding yell echoes back to him.
He smacks a hand to his forehead. Idiots.
“You got this Sanji!” A female voice yells out to him.
Nami.
A smile curls around his cigarette. While everyone else may doubt his love for her, she didn’t. That or she was lying to encourage him.
He didn’t care about the particulars.
Either way the surge of love that fills his heart lifts him to his toes almost in her belief in him.
“Of course I do Nami! Don’t you worry - I’ll be there in no time!” He shouts back to her.
”The first question is, what is her favorite color?” Satori grins maniacally at him, cutting off any further conversation he and Nami could have.
Sanji looks at the priest with raised brows. That’s the question that would prove his love for her?
“Tangerine!” Luffy shouts from further away.
“Yeah!! Tangerine!!” Chopper and Usopp join to form a chorus of the wrong answer.
There’s no shouts from Robin or Zoro, but it doesn’t matter. They’re all wrong anyway.
“Blue,” he says confidently, ignoring the screams at him.
The wailing from the crew has hit a fever pitch with his answer. Their screams of no and for Nami are stopped when there’s a faint smack sound.
“Will you shut up already,” moss-head’s voice can barely be made out.
Sanji frowns. The worst part about this ordeal so far is it forcing him to be thankful for anything the green haired nuisance has done. Still the quiet is a reprieve.
“Correct,” the flat voice of God announces.
There’s a reverberation when he speaks that rattles the air around Sanji, the vibrations being felt even in the ground beneath his feet. A begrudgingly cool but completely unnecessary effect to make him more intimidating.
“WHAT? SHE’S NEVER SAID THAT?!” Usopp yells.
Sanji’s eyes darken and his smile turns into something feral.
“NEARLY EVERYTHING SHE WEARS IS BLUE!? DO YOU NOT PAY ATTENTION?!” He screams at the trees.
The silence that comes after that is deafening.
Unappreciative scoundrels the whole lot of them. Having someone as beautiful as Nami in their midst and not even giving what she’s wearing the proper appreciation that it deserves.
Satori frowns from where he’s perched.
“An easy start, for the second question, we ask what is her favorite food? HOHO!” Satori’s manic giggles turn into a coughing fit as he speaks.
This ordeal has become boring. These basic questions are almost insulting if that’s what they considered proof of his love for Nami. Nami was worthy of much harder questions being asked on her behalf.
“TANGERINES! REALLY THIS TIME!” Luffy shouts to him.
Sanji brings his hands up to rub his temples. Maybe the ordeal is actually having to listen to these idiots know nothing about Nami. It was almost better when the air was so thick he hadn’t been able to hear anyone.
“Her favorite food is a pineapple tart,” Sanji sighs.
Sanji is not a baker - it is a completely different science after all - but he tries for Nami. While some other people on the ship usually make demands for what he serves, Nami is usually happy to take what is given to her. Which makes it all the more special when she asks for something.
She had a pineapple tart at a port once and asked him afterwards if he could make them for her. It took him seventeen tries, but he has perfected the recipe now. She asks for them at least once a week.
They’re nowhere near his best creations, but he’s never been able to tell from the way she smiles each time he presents them to her.
This time the shout that echoes over to him is a high pitched cheer. He brings his hands up to his chest and grins to himself. Nami is happy with his answer. Really that is the most important thing.
“Correct,” God says.
Two questions down, only three left.
“Did you know that?” Usopp asks the rest of the crew, his cheeks turning red.
“No, not at all,” Luffy chuckles, looking down at his feet.
“Nope,” Chopper says mournfully.
Robin shakes her head.
Zoro is back to resting against the tree and his head gives the smallest of shakes as well.
“Well, this is just embarrassing,” Usopp says, rubbing a hand against the back of his neck.
The rest of the crew around him giggle in agreement.
“HOHO! How is this one for you? Question three, who is her best friend?” Satori’s voice echoes up to the crew.
There’s a collective sigh of relief.
“Well that one is easy at least,” Usopp chuckles, putting his hands on his hips.
Chopper and Luffy nod vigorously in agreement. Robin looks over her face completely blank.
“Me,” Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy say out loud.
Robin backs away from the group of them, heading towards the direction where Zoro still sits.
The three of them turn to each other with slackjawed expressions and veins on their foreheads bulging.
“ARE YOU STUPID?! OF COURSE IT’S ME!” They shout in unison again, pointing at themselves.
“Well I know it’s not me,” Robin says with a sigh, sitting down next to Zoro.
“What do you mean you? I’m the Captain! I knew her first,” Luffy huffs, shaking a fist at the other two.
“She always takes care of me first!” Chopper argues, hopping up and down.
“All of you are wrong! I am obviously her favorite,” Usopp says, turning his long nose up into the air.
Luffy pushes Usopp, making him lose his balance and fall right into Chopper. This kicks off a fight now of all three of them smacking and pushing at each other.
Robin frowns from where she sits.
“Are you going to do something about that?” she asks Zoro.
Zoro sighs, but he stands up. He walks over to where the group is fighting in a cloud of mossy dust that they’ve kicked up off the vine with their fighting. He sticks his hands in and pulls Luffy and Usopp apart. He uses his foot to hold Chopper back as well.
“Enough!” He shouts at them, placing them back on their feet.
The three of them glare at each other around him.
“It’s me,” Zoro says with a smirk, pointing at himself.
Another round of fighting begins now, this time Zoro jumping with a grin to join the tussle. Robin rests her elbows on her knees.
“Couldn’t it be Sanji?” Robin asks.
The fighting stops again, the four of them pausing mid fight. Usopp has a hand full of the skin of Luffy’s face. Luffy’s rubbery arms are wrapped around Zoro and Chopper, restraining them. Zoro’s hand is mid punch towards Chopper whose hooves are off the ground.
They all stare at her with matching expressions of disgust.
“That’s ridiculous,” Usopp sniffs.
The rest of them nod in agreement before the fight continues, the sounds of “Ow! That was my eye!” and “Luffy if you don’t get your arm out of there-” coming from the withering mass of arms and feet.
Robin settles back against the tree and sighs. It’s going to be a long ordeal.
Sanji blocks out the sounds of the crew when the grunts and smacks become too loud. They’re blocking out the sound of Nami now, and that is something he will have to punish them for later.
It’s not him.
It would be lovely if it was of course and he thinks that he and Nami have a great friendship even when she’s threatening him with bodily harm. In fact he enjoys when she does do that, it means she’s speaking to him after all.
But the answer is easy again.
“Nojiko,” he answers.
While the sounds of their bickering had been loud enough to block out, now the silence has returned. He thinks that they’ve maybe fought themselves into unconsciousness when the silence is broken.
“Who?” Luffy’s voice carries over the trees.
His jaw drops open.
“YOU DON’T EVEN REMEMBER MY SISTER’S NAME?!” Nami’s shout is the highest pitch he’s ever heard from her.
He sighs imagining what she must look like. He adores when her teeth get all pointy like, and she looks like she’s going to rip someone’s head off. It brings out the brown of her eyes.
“It has been a while since we saw her,” Usopp laughs awkwardly.
“Correct,” displeasure drips from Enel’s voice.
Satori starts bouncing in frustration at his correct answers.
Sanji crosses his arms and smiles. If they didn’t want him to breeze through the questions, they should have chosen ones that would actually be a challenge.
Or picked literally anyone else on the crew.
Nami’s beauty is one thing that makes his head swim, but it’s all of her that makes him want to swoon. He obsesses over listening to every word that she says, he is constantly hungry to know about her and what is going on in that lovely head of hers.
“Your fourth question will not be so easy. When is she happiest?” Satori says harsher than he’s been before.
There’s a lot less giggling now when Sanji is winning.
The question is technically harder, more subjective and vague than the other questions had been before, but he knows it in his bones. Nami’s happiness has always been of the utmost importance for him. He’s noticed her smiles and laughs more than anyone else has. They fuel him on the roughest of days at sea.
He knows when she’s at her most joyful.
“Oh that is a hard one,” Chopper’s whimpering voice reaches him.
“There’s a moment after we’ve survived one of our adventures, when we have all returned together to the boat. We are usually not at our best physically, but we will sit together and speak about our future plans and where we may end up next. Those are the moments when she’s happiest.” Sanji answers, smiling down at his shoes.
He collects those moments each time. When he glances over her each time her smile is always the widest. He can always see the lack of tension in her shoulders and the way she’ll throw her head back and laugh from deep in her gut.
It’s one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen.
“Why is that her happiest moment?” Enel’s voice rustles the tree leaves.
The implication is that he is correct.
Still, he won’t lose Nami to a technicality.
“Because it means that we won’t be leaving her, she gets to hear about how she is included in everyone’s plans and she still has a place with us,” he answers.
Their trip to Cocoyashi was telling to him of why Nami was the way she was. While he would have gladly taken her with no explanation at all, it colored in the picture of her more clearly.
Nami’s mother was taken from her. She forced herself to leave her only family behind for the most part. She faced life alone before Luffy came across her.
He sees that fear of returning to that when he and Zoro’s fights become too dramatic or a battle goes particularly badly.
These moments where they speak of the future give her a peace of mind.
“You’re correct,” Enel announces.
Satori lets out a howl of frustration, his face turning red.
“That’s so beautiful,” Usopp cries from further away.
Sanji doesn’t know what the plan is for if he fails the trial, but the ball shaped man must have been looking forward to dishing out the punishment. With one question left and how well Sanji has done so far, it’s extremely unlikely the priest will get that chance now.
“One more question Sanji! You’re - you’re doing amazing!” Nami’s voice screams in his direction.
Sanji’s cheeks turn red at the compliment, but there’s a hitch in her voice that gives him pause. While he doesn’t think there is any shame in Nami’s feelings, she is a very private person. This trial must be a unique type of torture for her.
That’s probably why it was chosen.
“You have one more question. What does she hate the most?” Satori bounces out of the spotlight down to where he stands.
The lack of light makes the broken smile grinning at him look all the more horrifying.
Sanji, for the first time, needs to take a moment to think.
There’s many things Nami hates.
Not having money.
Unnecessary risks.
The way Chopper and Luffy will leave empty bottles on the deck and Chopper will trip over them because they don’t clean up after themselves.
Pirates.
But a majority of the things she hates stem from the same thing. They remind her of the worst moments of her life when Arlong first arrived in her village and changed everything forever. The hatred that feeds Nami the most is none of the things above.
“Herself, but we will love her enough to make up for it,” Sanji says, adding the last part to soften the blow.
Nami’s self-hatred fueled her entire life. The blame she places on herself about the loss of her mother, about what she did with Arlong’s crew, and the betrayal that she originally did against them to return to her original Captain.
It’s the thing that keeps her up some nights when he can hear her pace out on the deck.
It’s the thing that makes her hoard money or stop arguments or beg for them to be careful.
She thinks about all the times that she thinks she’s supposedly failed.
But Sanji has spent the entirety of his time knowing her, combatting this narrative he sees her try to battle.
He’s been her silent comrade in the fight, pushing her to overcome this war with herself. He will layer on every compliment and prioritize her in every conversation to slowly chip away at this hatred she has in her heart for her own reflection.
No matter what she has thought, she has not been fighting alone anymore. Not even against her own thoughts.
“What?! But Nami, we love you!” Chopper wails.
There’s silence for a while.
Sanji wishes he could see Nami. He wants to make her understand that he means what he said. He needs her to know that he will love her enough that there will be no space for hatred in her.
“It’s interesting. You’re correct. She hates herself most of all. She’s so sure of your love being able to save her life though, yet she still hates herself. Maybe you’re not enough,” Enel’s voice is mocking again.
His attempts to get under Sanji’s skin are obvious, but they sting nonetheless. Nami’s belief in him has been unshakeable this entire time. She knows that he loves her.
Yet, she still looks at herself with such disgust.
But he knows people are complicated. Overcoming your past takes time. He knows that first hand. Whether it takes Nami the next two days or the next twenty years, he will not change.
“Maybe, but it doesn’t mean I can’t try,” Sanji calls.
He isn’t talking to Enel or Satori or the crew. His words are meant for Nami and Nami alone.
He will never give up trying for her.
“You’ve passed your first trial in the Ordeal of Love. You know your supposed love well enough. Your second challenge won’t be so easy,” Satori spits at him.
There’s screams of joy in the distance.
“WAY TO GO SANJI!”
“He did it!”
“Take that you - you God! I knew he would do it,” Nami’s scream is loudest of all.
Sanji clasps his hands against his cheek. He adores when she gets competitive. It’s enough to make him nearly jump in place just to hear her smugness and joy.
His love may not be enough for some things, but it’s enough for now.
The dark clouds that had been suffocating him during the trial fade away, letting the entirety of the sunlight come streaming back into the clearing. Satori is bouncing around the trees, antsy.
Now in the distance, he can make out the top of the sacrificial altar. A blurry tall figure can be made out on the top. Nami at his feet is just a smudge of a shape. But what a beautiful smudge. The most beautiful one that’s ever graced an image.
A blast of lightning comes down five feet in front of him, the warmth of it hitting his face. A small fire breaks down on the jungle floor where it hits the broken branches and dead leaves.
Sanji holds a cigarette out over the fire, and puts the end of it in his mouth once it’s lit.
“Thanks, I needed a light,” he says.
“You’re arrogant,” Enel observes.
He’s gotten used to hearing the voices of people he can’t even see now. The rustle of the tree tops doesn’t even catch his attention anymore.
Sanji shrugs. Arrogance is only arrogance when you do not have the abilities to back it up.
“You were so sure you’d defeat my priests because of the power of your love. Your next trial will test your arrogance in a battle that you will never win. You will lose no matter what you do and pay for it in flesh,” Enel continues.
Sanji rolls his shoulders back. He’s not moss-head, he’s not lost a battle of his yet. This will be another easy challenge for him.
“Then why are you still talking,” Sanji calls out.
“There it is. That will cost you more than you know,” Enel says.
“Begin!” The God shouts seconds later.
A cloud ball comes into Sanji’s line of sight immediately.
Having learned his lesson about exploding them without knowing what’s inside, Sanji jumps out of its way.
Satori’s “HOHO!” echoes in the clearing.
“FINISH HIM OFF SANJI!” Luffy shouts.
Nami wrings her hands in her lap. From this high up she can see Sanji and the white ball of a man fight in the clearing, but she can’t see make out any of Sanji’s features behind his long fast limbs.
Why couldn't all of the trials have been a trivia challenge? While mortifying on every level that was less painful to watch than this.
Sanji is a brilliant fighter. He can beat this idiot priest, but the way Enel smirks above her head makes her think there will be more to this fight than what she’s currently seeing.
Sanji’s body gets hit by a ball and Nami swallows back a scream.
She thinks she makes out a flurry of small birds suddenly fly up from the clearing. That’s good at least.
“You worry for him,” Enel says, speaking to her for the first time since the start of the ordeal.
Nami glares up at him and chooses not to answer. This is all his fault after all. Torturing herself and Sanji for what? Because he was bored?
She sniffs and goes back to watching the fight, but the pounding of her heart must give her away because he starts to laugh.
“You don’t love him, yet. Sometimes you think you could though one day, don’t you? I find it odd. He risks his life for you even though you hide any inclination you may have towards him,” the God continues speaking.
Nami keeps her body perfectly still and tries to calm her own heart rate. This man doesn’t deserve to know these things about her. Her feelings should be her own, especially when she isn’t even sure herself about what they are.
Enel bends down low to her and stares at the side of her face. Nami keeps her eyes straight ahead towards the clearing. He wants a reaction from her, but she will not give him one.
“Most of your other companions don’t believe his love is true, but you and the famed bounty hunter do. Why is that? Are there not others as beautiful as you? The dark haired one over there is quite the remarkable looking woman,” Enel says, turning his head back to the cage that holds the crew.
Nami scoffs.
A thief pays attention to things, especially the miniscule details of someone’s expression or body language. It’s what keeps you from putting yourself in unnecessary danger.
She knows the way Sanji looks at her. She knows the way his body melts under her briefest of touches.
He may compliment Robin, but there are things that are reserved solely for her. It is those things that make her so sure that he will save her. What worries her is that it’s those things that will also lead him to get himself killed if he isn’t careful.
“He’s doing a good job, but let’s see how he does against more than one,” Enel smirks.
Nami’s head snaps towards him just as he stands again.
“Everyone in,” Enel shouts.
No one appears at the sacrificial altar. There’s no screaming or dramatic entrances. Nami looks between Enel and the clearing over and over again with dread filling her stomach.
Then they appear.
Three more figures walk into the clearing.
“What are you doing?! That’s not a fair fight!” Nami says, falling forward so her fingernails claw into the stone of the altar.
“No, it’s not. We did say it was a fight he would not be able to win,” Enel smiles.
Nami’s stomach churns. Her faith in Sanji is strong, but he’s alone in that clearing. There’s no Zoro or Luffy to fight at his side. She has to stare at him helpless. It’s torture to sit through this.
The blonde haired figure fighting in the clearing goes down as something white and sharp looking goes soaring through the sky at him.
Nami puts her hands in front of her mouth, but there’s no holding back her desperate scream of Sanji’s name.
“He’s going to die!” Chopper wails from the cell.
She wraps her arms around her stomach and stares with tears starting to well up in her eyes. Sanji’s body looks like it stands again and she sees his long limb kick at the beefy figure wielding the cloud sword.
It’s all the priests she saw earlier on the waver.
“Tell me, does it hurt? Knowing this is the consequence of love?” Enel says, peering down at her.
Nami doesn’t give him a response. She hugs herself tighter and lets her tears fall.
It does hurt.
So so much.
Fighting four people is significantly harder than one. Satori and the large one dressed in purple are not too difficult (if you just avoid the swamp clouds), but the one with the cloud sword and the one with the bird have done a number on his body so far.
Sanji fights for what feels like hours but is in actuality only half of one before he finally gets his first defeat.
Satori has shaped four balls of cloud in his direction, but he manages to get one extremely hard kick in while the ball man’s defenses are down that sends him flying.
Satori bounces against the tree barks, little “pings” sounding every time his bulbous body hits one. There’s a final smack when he hits a particularly thick tree trunk and then his body falls to the ground and stops moving.
The five or so balls that Satori had sent out last are still heading towards him, and he kicks the closest one into a nearby tree ready to take on the consequences for convenience. It lets out a loud fart.
Disgusting.
Sanji turns to move and find his next ball target when he has no choice but to scream. There is a barbed string behind him, the cloudy razor sharp material cuts him across the chest and brings him to his knees.
“SANJI!” Nami shouts.
A white ball hits him from behind then, sending him flying forward in an explosion. Something breaks inside him when he lands. The entirety of his back is aflame with pain.
He braces his hands to try to push himself up but stops halfway when purple pants appear in front of his face.
Sanji looks up to see the oafish one standing above him, but there are only whites visible in his eyes as the tall man moves his head from side to side in confusion.
Does he not even know how to look?
Sanji crawls back and away from the idiot. He checks beneath his hands to be sure there’s nothing that will give away his location if the doofus truly doesn’t know where he is.
“GEDATSU YOU IDIOT YOU HAVE TO FIX YOUR EYES!” The one on the bird screams, as he flies overhead.
The bird blows hot fire in Sanji’s direction but has to move itself at the last second to avoid one of the last of Satori’s balls that remain floating above them.
Sanji forces himself to his feet, ignoring the flare of pain that shoots down his back. He looks at the two balls flying above and to the priest in front of him that still hasn’t figured out how to roll his eyes back.
There’s the flapping of wings up above and the painful cuts on Sanji’s chests makes him decide his priorities. Taking in a deep breath, he gets into his stance and waits. The timing needs to be just right for him to get away with this.
When the bird appears in the clearing, Sanji jumps up and makes it look like his sole focus is on the large priest still standing with him. Instead at the last minute he shifts his kick to send one of the two balls flying towards the bird.
There’s a painful screech, and he lands in time to see spiked spears stick the ball to the bottom of the bird's chest, making it scream. The animal starts breathing out fire in every direction, as it tries to unstick the ball.
The priest on top of it tries to lead it in a good direction, but the bird crash lands deeper into the trees. It takes it’s owner with it leaving Sanji alone in the clearing again with the taller priest that has finally rolled his eyes back to see Sanji standing in front of him.
Sanji looks around and sees the last ball of Satori’s was pushed further into the clearing by the bird’s earlier movements. He runs at full speed, each step sending a pulse of what feels like earth shattering pain up his limbs.
There’s a whoosing sound behind him and when he finally reaches the ball he turns back to see the priest has created a giant puddle of dense cloud material.
More of the swamp.
Sanji leaps into the air, arching his leg to hit the side of the ball and send it flying. He lands with a wince, watching the ball soar in the direction of the priest.
The dumb man stands there, his mouth shut but the skin around moving as if he’s trying to speak. Sanji stares at him in disbelief for a few seconds before Satori’s final ball smacks right into the tall man and there’s an explosion.
The big body flies through the smoke and bright orange fire, landing head first in the swamp cloud he had created. The long purple pant covered legs slowly fall deeper and deeper into his own creation.
Two down. Two to go.
Sanji is so distracted watching it he doesn’t see the newly unspiked bird flying at him that runs him straight into a tree.
His body bounces off the tree trunk to fall right into the ground. A flash of pain so sharp makes him see stars. Every single injury he’s gotten so far lights up with a stabbing pain that makes him think he may not be able to get up this time.
Nami’s high pitched scream pierces the air, drowning out every other sound including the yells of the crew.
He must look dead for her to scream like that.
The dirt digs into his face, each slow painful blink brushes more of it into his eyes. There are spots on his face starting to bulge with painful bruises and welts. His wrists and arms protest when he tries to push himself up, collapsing under his weight.
His face hits the dirt again with a splat.
He is not going to give up.
There’s a flash of lightning, and darkness falls over the jungle. He doesn’t need to look to know that Enel must have come for a front row seat.
He will not give him the satisfaction of watching him fail.
Nami is counting on him to save her. She was cheering him on consistently at first and even now despite her screams, she has not given up on him. He will not allow her to die due to his own failures.
Sanji pushes himself up again, getting himself on his knees. There’s a rattle inside his chest with the deep breath that he takes. His chest constricts from the agony.
Still, he pulls his upper body up and sits back on his feet. The priests stand around watching him, their weapons at the ready.
They easily could have downed him again, but that would be a less exciting show for their God wouldn't it?
“Sanji! I swear if you get up right now that I’m going to kiss you so hard when this is over!” Nami’s voice barely reaches him with the thickness in his ears.
Sanji jumps up onto his feet immediately. Blood sprays around him from the quickness of his movements, and there’s a painful crack from inside his chest that must be another rib.
Nami is lying. She is usually lying. She says a great many things she doesn’t mean and will take back once she’s gotten her way. This is just another one of them.
But she’s lying to encourage him! What an amazing show of affection!
He may swoon. Though that could be from the blood loss rather than her false promise.
“Another round then?” Sanji asks, cracking his neck.
“How are you still standing?” Enel asks, tilting his head to study Sanji further.
Sanji looks coolly up towards where Enel is observing now.
“Love,” Sanji shrugs before throwing a leg out and kicking the giant bird flapping its wings to hover above the ground into a tree trunk.
“Fascinating,” Enel says before turning into lightning and leaving the fray.
Sanji throws himself to the side as Ohm swings his elongating sword in his direction. He rolls across the ground and flings himself over one of the fallen tree branches. It’s all less graceful than he would normally expect of himself, but it gets the job done.
“You got this Sanji!” Luffy screams from up above.
Sanji braces himself, now careful to pay attention to his surroundings so the devilish strings don’t take more blood from him.
There’s a crunch coming from his left and Sanji already is in motion when the wave of cloud blade comes bursting through the trees. He jumps, arching over the deadly attack to land near Ohm again who shakes his head.
“You know that none of what you’re doing matters,” the Priest tells him with a sigh.
It matters.
Nami matters.
These priests and this God may not understand it, but the fact is unwavering in him. Whether he bleeds out to death in a few hours from the injuries he’s gotten or he gets to spend the rest of his life making Nami food on the Going Merry, it all will have mattered if Nami gets to walk free.
Sanji fans his leg around, Ohm walking out of the brunt of the attack. Still his foot smashes into the big man’s shoulder and sends him momentarily to the ground.
He’s about to spin around and take him fully out when there’s a caw and a clawed foot grabs onto his shoulder. His feet leave the ground as the bird takes him higher up, and the talons dig into his skin with a tight grip.
Sanji squirms around until he gets a strong enough momentum to swing up and kick the bird at the bottom of his neck. There’s a tear as barbed string cuts through his pant legs and scrapes against his skin, but the bird’s grip is broken.
His body falls back towards the ground, and his landing is wobbly and jarring on his already hurt bones.
“Go Sanji go!” Chopper and Usopp cheer in unison.
Sanji glares up at the cage where the two of them are doing an in sync dance of encouragement.
“Haven’t you been talking about how I’m going to fail this whole time?” He complains.
The two of them stop their dance and look guiltily down from the cell.
“Well…” Usopp begins a defense of himself.
“SANJI! LOOK OUT!” Nami’s scream cuts through the air.
Sanji glances over his shoulder in time to see the swinging cloud blade coming for him again. He drops down to the ground barely in time for it to pass overhead.
Flipping himself back onto his feet, Sanji slides out of the returning sword’s path. That little flip back up has hurt his side even more, but he manages to stay on his feet.
“Are you an idiot?! Look behind you!” Zoro screams at him from above.
Sanji bends at the knees and jumps high into the sky just as the damned bird and its rider come soaring in. Their flight path now goes below his feet, and he lands onto the back of the bird to grab the priest on it by the neck and throw him off the bird.
There’s a loud crash from behind him as the body hits the ground, and Sanji dodges the peck that the bird tries to hit him with when it turns his head at him. It squeaks in protest and Sanji throws a punch out to hit the annoying thing in the head.
The bird careens into the tree line, and Sanji has no choice but to leap off its back to a nearby tree branch before it crashes into a trunk.
“I don’t need your help!” He hisses at Zoro.
He clutches onto the tree branch, sucking in deep breaths trying to catch his breath. His eyes darted around desperately to catch the next attack. Because there will be another one.
There’s a slash sound and then a large crack as the branch he’s laying on starts to fall straight to the jungle floor.
Damn it.
He hits the dirt for who knows what number of times this day, and there’s a smattering of white arching above his head down towards him when he opens his eyes. He rolls to the side watching Ohm’s sword waves slice into the dirt ground, leaving a crack in the Earth.
When another slice comes into view, he rolls out of its way again. This time it catches the edge of the shirt sleeve though. There’s only tatters of the bright colored fabrics left.
“This shirt cost money,” he says through gritted teeth.
He uses his arms to propel him up and forward, feet out and the impact of them hitting Ohm’s stomach sends them both flying. The priest flies ahead, crumbling into the tree line. The disturbance causes several more branches to fall.
Sanji is sent flying backwards, his body hitting the fallen branch from before which stops him from going any further back.
He’s wondering how he’s going to get himself up again when Enel’s voice reverbates through the ground and in the air.
“I’m bored.”
There’s rustling in the leaves around him, and Sanji watches as all the priests including the ones he had defeated limp into the clearing he currently lays in. They glare at him with spiteful eyes.
Sanji stands up. His legs are shaking and his upper body is swaying left and right. He lights another cigarette and keeps his balance.
“Is that all you have?” He coughs.
There’s a growing ache at his ribs, and his arms are slashed. The blood coming from his arm is soaking the remnants of his shirt sleeve and any movement of his arm hurts where the fabric sticks to his cuts.
The pain is meaningless to him in comparison to the fear in Nami’s voice when she was yelling out to him.
“You’re impressive, but this trial isn’t done yet. We said from the beginning you’d have to pay in flesh,” the God says from the top of the sacrificial altar.
“Look at him! Hasn’t he bled enough! Surely that counts!” Nami cries.
Sanji watches her from a distance. She’s standing up and is reaching out to the God not that far from her when he sees her get pulled back down by that shackle around her ankle.
“Our wording was specific. Flesh,” Enel waves her protests away.
The dismissal makes his fists clench at his sides. This man may be powerful and think himself a God, but Nami is brilliant and remarkable herself. If there is anyone of higher worth on that altar it is her not him.
Enel’s head snaps in his direction again. Sanji feels the weight of his stare from where he stands. The silence lingers and lingers, his stomach clenches in anticipation of what’s to come.
This is what prey must feel like before the predator clamps onto their throat.
The next words of the God bite through the air like that imagined fang mouth.
“You’ll pay with your hand,” Enel announces.