Sanji X Reader: Never Alone (Chapter 4)

"T-that's my closest friends sister! How did she survive?!" You said, shocked. "What are you doing with her Buggy!" You demanded.

"Well, since you're here, I'll be taking her with me! Unless you would like to tell me where the ruins are of course." I can only imagine the amount of treasure there!" Buggy said.

"Don't tell him _______!" Miki yelled, flailing her fists around.

"SHUT UP KID!" Buggy yelled, tossing her into a tree.

"MIKI!" You screamed.

"Oi! Big nose! Piss off and let the girl go!" Sanji yelled, stepping up.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME YOU PATHETIC SHIT COOK?!" Buggy screamed, steam coming from his ears. He then came to realize who he was talking to. "Wait, you're here, and that means that the rest of them are too. Damn." He mumbled.

"Let her go! She's just a little girl!" You pleaded.

"I don't care! Now since you wont tell me where the ruins are, and the rest of the crew is close by, I'll give you a chance. You have one week to tell me where the entrance is. In the mean time, I'll be taking this girl as a hostage! Come t the next island when you're ready to tell me where it is." Buggy said, marching off with Miki.

"NO!" You yelled, charging at Buggy.

Buggy scoffed and and sent a fist flying at you, knocking you into a tree. Hard.

"_______!" Sanji called, trying to help you, but Buggy's fist rammed him too.

"One week. Or the girl dies." Buggy restated, walking off.

"_______!" Miki screamed, trying to get out of Buggy's grasp.

"M-MIKI!" You called, trying to get up, but you struggled because of the punch he just gave you. He had clearly put ice somewhere because it was cold and painful.

A bomb went off, releasing smoke everywhere and limiting your vision to barely even a foot in front of you. When the smoke had cleared, you were finally up, searching frantically in the area for them. But it was too late. They were already gone.

"NO!" You yelled, slamming a tree with your fists. "They're gone!"

You began to tear up, knowing that you failed to save her, and you would probably never get her back.

Sanji had finally recovered and ran over to you. "_______, we need to go after him. We can catch up. Nami is our navigator and she can take us any place on the sea. We will find him and get that girl back." he said in a determined tone.

"Can we really?" You asked sarcastically. "The next island is at LEAST six days away! We won't make it!"

"Yes we will! I promise you we will get her back and pummel that red-nosed bastard! Nakama don't break promises!" Sanji said.

You looked at him with tears in your eyes. "Please... She's the only one left from Aomizu!"

"There is no way in hell I will let him get away with this crap." Sanji promised. "But if it's okay to ask, who exactly is that girl?"

"That's Miki. My closest friends little sister. She was everything to him, and he protected her always, as well as me. Whenever I was sick, Miki brought me medicine and he stayed behind to keep thieves and such away. But now he's gone. Buggy killed him along with everyone else. I'm surprised Miki is still alive. So... so I must protect her!" You said.

"I see. Well, lets head back to the ship. We can explain this to everyone in a bit, and then set sail as soon as we can. We can't waste too much time." Sanji said.

You nodded and and began running back to the ship with Sanji. It felt good to have new nakama that were willing to help you out right away. You couldn't believe he was so nice and willing to fight for you.. You just had to save Miki now. You needed to.

Approaching the ship, you climbed back aboard and woke everyone up in a few minutes. It was one in the morning, but it was also important. Everyone stumbled out on deck and started asking questions.

"What do you waaant? Its laaaate!" Nami whined.

"Nami, how early can we get this ship moving to the next island?" You asked frantically.

"Ummm, around five at the earliest. Why?" She asked.

"My closest friends sister was just taken by Buggy to the next island. If I don't get there in a week, he'll kill her!" You yelled.

"WHAT!?" Everyone screeched.

"It's true. I watched that big-nosed bastard walk off with her." Sanji said, clenching his fists.

"You were with her?" Robin asked.

"Yes! She dashed off into the forest! I couldn't just STAND here!" Sanji said.

"It's a good thing he did. I could have gotten out of control and hurt myself badly out of sheer anger." You admitted. "He's taking her to the next island, which is a six day sail by itself, and... and..." You started to panic.

"_______! Calm down, and tell us the whole story." Zoro said.

"And the reason why he's doing this!" Chopper added.

Once you had calmed down, you sat on the grass and sighed deeply before the explanation.

"Okay, not to long ago, I heard a scream. It was very familiar to me, so I took off, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was. But it was true. My best friends little sister, Miki, was being captured by Buggy. He saw me and decided to hold her hostage. He wanted to know where the entrance to the underground ruins was because there are lots of valuables down there. When I refused, he said he'd give me a week to tell him and that he'd be on the next island with her, and if I don't come to tell him, he'll kill her. I attacked him, but I wasn't focused and let one of his punched hit me." You explained, face palming. "I'm so stupid."

"Wait, why would he drag her all the way to the next island if he's looking for the entrance here?" Usopp asked.

"Because, the next island  is called Akamera, named after fire like ours is after water. The tunnel here is connected to one in Akamera underground. A cart on rails makes transportation quick and easy, especially if someone has devil fruit powers. In Akamera's tunnel, they have a devil fruit tree like us, only it had the mera mera no mi and plenty of other treasures there too." You explained.

"So, Aomizu and Akamera, the villages of fire and water with matching devil fruits and connected tunnels under the sea. That's amazing!" Sanji said.

"Yeah, Aomizu and Akamera are the original homes of the fire and water devil fruits, hence the names. Blue water and Red fire, makes perfect sense!" You said intelligently.

"Wait, so if there's a tunnel, why can't we use it if it's faster?" Luffy asked.

"Because, the cart only fits two people, the tracks are rusted, and the raid shook rocks loose because of his stupid Buggy Bombs. You can't even take the cart six meters before it hits a wall of rocks." You sighed. " Sailing is the only option."

"Jeez, this Buggy guy is a real dick." Franky said.

"No kidding. That's why I want to head after him as soon as possible. He's already left with Miki, and I'm worried for her. With a freak like that, all I can do is worry," You said, looking down.

"Don't worry _______. We WILL get her back. I made a promise." Sanji said.

"I'm with Sanji! If he made a promise, then we made it too!" Nami said. "Besides, I'M the navigator. We can't go anywhere without me!"

Tears formed in the corners of your eyes while you tried to keep a straight face.

"G-guys... I've been with you for less than a day, and you're willing to do so much for me already?" You asked.

"Of course _______! When Luffy decides that someone is our nakama, we'd do anything for them right off the bat. Luffy just knows when someone is our nakama." Robin said with a smile.

"Tell you what, go get some rest and we'll set off in four hours. The Thousand Sunny is an amazing ship. Nothing will stand in our way!" Nami said, giving you a thumbs up. "Our dear Franky built the ship after all!"

You wiped the tears from your face and looked up with your best smile on. "Thank you everyone! Thanks so much!" You said, running off to the kitchen where you were last sleeping.

Everyone had smiles on their faces when you left. It made them happy to help you, and see you feeling good about saving Miki after all that happened. But the biggest smile was coming from Sanji. He was the most happy to help you, and felt willing to do anything at the moment.

"We set sail in four hours!" Luffy yelled.

"AYE AYE!" Everyone cheered, running off to prepare and get a bit of rest for the long trip ahead.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

At five the next morning, everyone had set sail right away. They didn't bother to wake you up though. They set off and let you sleep in. When you finally woke up, you saw the clock and the time first. It said seven. You shot up from the couch in surprise, falling off in the process.

"Oh, morning _______!" Sanji greeted you.

You looked to your left and saw him standing in the kitchen, cooking pancakes.

"Sanji! I woke up late! Are we-!" You paniced.

"Relax!" Sanji laughed. "We set sail two hours ago. We figured it would be best to let you sleep in because you needed it. I made you your breakfast!" He said, bringing you a plate of pancakes.

"T-thanks!" You said, taking the plate. "So we're already sailing? I didn't even notice."

"I guess you were extremely tired then." Sanji said.

"Yeah, probably. I do need a lot of sleep, and I tend to sleep heavier because I heal quicker than others when I'm injured." You said, eating the pancakes.

"That's a small price to pay for quicker healing! Pretty awesome if you ask me." He said. "When you're done, feel free to come out on deck. We're discussing a strategy to kick Buggy's ass." 

"Kay!" You smiled.

Sanji smiled back and left you to eat. When you finished, you quickly fixed yourself up and went outside. You were happily greeted by everyone and soon went right into the discussion of how to get Miki back. It lasted nearly all day, other than being ridiculously stupid. Between discussions, Luffy would start doing something hilarious and you got sidetracked along with everyone else. Eventually you just gave up and laughed the day away with everyone. You had six days to figure out what you would do anyway.

When night began to fall, everyone headed off to bed, Nami decided for someone to stay up and make sure the ship didn't change course while they slept. Zoro was chosen, but he was also guaranteed to just fall asleep in the crows nest. He was never good at watching the ship. Just when the stars started to come out, you decided that you couldn't sleep at all. You sat there on the couch, thinking out loud to yourself.

"Can I really get Miki back? I couldn't even harm him when he had her. Will I ever be strong enough to?" You wondered.

While you pondered the thought, you remembered that you were out in the middle of the sea. You got up and went outside and stood on the edge of the ship, gazing out at the starry sky.

"If I'm not strong enough, then I'll just train myself to be stronger." You said, jumping towards the sea.

You decided that every night, you would jump to the sea and hover above the water to train yourself in various ways. You trained to become quicker, stronger, and more violent when manipulating water. But it was only on the second night that someone noticed you. Of course, it was Sanji as he walked by the kitchen and glanced out the window. He came outside as you were practising making orbs of water that were high in pressure. Nearly scaring you into a fall again, he started talking to you. You came back onto the lawn and hit up a conversation about how you wanted to train and become even stronger before you hit Akamera. You also explained that you felt weak because because of the raid and losing Miki.

After a few minutes, Sanji said that he wanted to help you in any way he possibly could. Your eyes lit up and you agreed with him happily. That night, you trained even harder. You practised manipulating water and using thing in your environment to your advantage. Occasionally, Sanji taught you some close combat fighting skills for tough situations.

For the next five nights, you kept trying your best to to improve. You were completely set on getting stronger. Sanji was also there with you every night, helping you along the way. Every day you were on that ship, you became quick friends and very close with everyone. It was as if you've known them your whole life. But the person you became closest to was Sanji. You have proven to be great friends with him, and you've grown attached to him in a way. Then, on the evening of the sixth day, as you were sitting out by the helm, you saw an island in the distance. You shot up and looked out at it, starting to feel nervous, excited, and angry at the same time.

"Guys! I can see it! Akamera! We're here!" You cheered.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and ran up front to see the island. From a distance, the trees made the island look like it was on fire. Especially in the sunset.

"Yosh! We'll drop anchor tonight, get some sleep, and head after Buggy tomorrow afternoon!" Nami said.

The rest of the crew cheered in agreement. You couldn't wait to beat the shit out of Buggy and get Miki back. You looked out to Akamera with a determined look plastered on your face.

"Miki, I'm coming!" You said as the Thousand Sunny sailed closer and closer to Akamera.