#nothing more to say reiju i love you too girl

[hauntingblue]

JINBEEE I LOVE YOU!!!! JINBEEEEEEEEE

[penkura]

Sanji feels nothing but anxiety as he waits for the transponder snail to ring. He’s not felt like this since he first called Zeff to tell him about your marriage and pregnancy, and that was nearly three years ago. He’ll have to call him again soon, but for now, he’s practically glaring at the poor, sleeping snail on your shared bed.

After a few minutes of nothing, Sanji lets out a heavy sigh and falls backwards, putting an arm over his face. He feels annoyed, and still anxious, but also somewhat scared? Yeah, he thinks that’s right. Maybe it’s more worry than anything else, he’s not entirely sure. Luckily he doesn’t have to dwell on it, as your daughter, two-year-old Angel crawls over to him on your bed, starting to pull on his arm with little giggles and shouts of ‘dada’ to get his attention. Those cute little sounds and her precious smile calm Sanji down quickly, as he picks her up and gives her a tight hug, making Angel squeal out of her own happiness.

“There’s my pretty girl!”

“Dada,” Angel giggles again, wrapping her little arms around his neck to return the hug, “Dada!”

Her laughs get louder when he kisses her chubby cheeks, causing you to smile as you joined them both on your bed.

“I get the cutest view ever with the two of you,” the two give you bright smiles, making you laugh a bit before you look at the transponder snail, “Anything yet?”

Shaking his head, Sanji stays quiet while Angel babbles and pats his face with her chubby hands, another small squeal coming from her when he hugs her close, kissing the top of her blonde head. You lean over, kissing his cheek and laying your head on his shoulder.

“…maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe she doesn’t—”

“She does, Sanji. She wants to know how you’re doing and how your life has changed,” stroking Angel’s hair gets her to look up at you, her smile making you move to take her from Sanji, “She’ll be so glad to hear you’re happy.”

Before he can even say anything in response, the snail starts ringing and Sanji feels that anxiety come back, looking to you while you smile at him as you go to leave. This call deserves every bit of privacy as any other.

“You’ve got this, Sanji.”

He lets it ring for a moment longer after you leave, before finally picking it up with a shaky hand and a deep breath.

“…Reiju?”

+!+

“Have you noticed that she looks like mom?”

Sanji tries hard not to let too much emotion show while he continues to make some tea for Reiju, but he still nods just a bit. You hadn’t invited her to the Sunny for such emotionally charged talks, just to meet her niece, since she’s the only one left of Sanji’s family that he doesn’t mind talking to. You made sure he was okay with it before you did so, promising that if he said no, you’d drop the idea altogether. You just wanted Angel to meet her aunt like she had all your siblings and parents more recently, and after Sanji thought about it for a few days, he agreed that it would be fine, as long as word about her didn’t get back to the rest of them.

“I have. I tell her that she looks like [Y/N] though, I think she doesn’t believe me since everyone says she looks just like me,” Sanji laughs while giving Reiju her cup of tea, sitting across from her with his own, “She’ll make a face at me like she’s skeptical, but she’s still adorable when she does it.”

The image makes Reiju smile as she sips her tea, nodding. “She probably has the same pout you did at that age.”

“Hey, I did not—”

“How old is she now?”

“…she’ll be three on Valentine’s Day, about two weeks from now.”

“How cute,” nodding, Reiju rests her chin in her hand, just watching Sanji, the love on his face is visible, “And you said [Y/N] is pregnant again?”

“With a boy, yeah. One of our allies is a doctor and did a check-up when we saw him last. He said everything’s fine so far.”

“That’s wonderful, Sanji.”

The two are quiet for a few moments, Sanji’s still nervous about this. When Angel was born he’d sworn to not let anyone from his biological family or Germa learn about her, but then he heard you were talking with Reiju. It upset him greatly at first, even though you promised up and down you’d not told her anything about you two being married or Angel’s existence, you only spoke to her about mundane, every day things, very rarely in fact. It took a few days before he stopped being upset, after you explained that it was simply to get to know her better, you were leaving the more important life things for Sanji to tell Reiju if he ever chose to. You’d never take that from him or cross that line without his permission.

Sanji did apologize for not believing you at first after he finally spoke to Reiju himself and heard how surprised she was to know you two had gotten married and had a child, she really didn’t know. She loved getting pictures of Angel after that, so she could see her niece and get used to the idea of being an aunt, before you suggested to Sanji that either the three of you meet up with Reiju somewhere, or invite her onto the Sunny, so she could have a real meeting with your daughter. It still took nearly a year for Sanji to feel comfortable with that idea, before you even asked if it would be okay, he had been thinking about it anyway, but needed some time still.

You and Angel aren’t even on the ship right now, you’d taken her into the town of the island you’re docked at, to let Sanji have some time alone with Reiju, he had somethings to talk to her about anyway. You’ll be back soon, Sanji’s anxiety over the meeting getting worse as time goes by.

“Reiju,” his voice is quiet, but Reiju hums a but in response, noticing Sanji isn’t even looking at her, “I don’t…I don’t want any of them to know about this…”

“Sanji—”

“If anything happened to my wife or children, I…I’d—”

“Sanji, I’m not going to let anyone know,” Sanji only looks at her when Reiju sets her hand on his, trying to calm him before he lets his mind run too far, “Father and our brothers won’t find out, nobody will, I’ll make sure of that. You deserve your happiness.”

It becomes quiet again, Sanji clenching his jaw as he’s not sure what to say, before Reiju speaks again with a smile.

“Mom would be proud of you. If she could see you now, and see that little girl, she would be so proud of the person you’ve become, how wonderful of a father you are to Angel.”

Sanji has to fight not to cry, especially when he hears you and Angel outside the kitchen door, you telling her that he has to be there like he always is when you come back. He’s quick to wipe away any tears that come up and stand from his seat, putting on a smile when you open the door and Angel sees him, grinning brightly before running to him.

“Daddy!!”

“There’s my princess!” Sanji lifts her up into the air, making her laugh, before he hugs her, “Did you have a good time with mommy?”

“Mm-hm!! We got candy!”

“Did you get your favorite, my dear?”

Angel nods, starting to try and tell Sanji everything both of you did in town, Reiju watches and smiles while you sit at the table, hand on your pregnant belly.

“I was right. He is a good father to her.”

Smiling yourself, you nod while watching the two loves of your live talk, Angel eventually noticing Reiju and starting to shy away, hiding her face in Sanji’s shoulder. She still takes glances at Reiju which Sanji sees, his own smile softening as he brings her over.

“Angel, this is your aunt Reiju. She’s my big sister.”

“Hi there, Angel,” your daughter starts to open up a bit when Reiju gets to eye level with her, holding her hand out for her, “It’s nice to finally meet you, I’ve heard so much about you from your dad.”

Angel really does start taking to Reiju as the day goes on, letting her hold her and talk to her more, your daughter even telling her she couldn’t wait to be a big sister too. It feels like the day goes by far too quickly, and Angel almost throws a fit when Reiju says she needs to leave, holding onto her and refusing to let go for you. Sanji crouches down to her level, giving her a smile.

“Sweetheart, we have to let aunt Reiju go now. She needs to go home.”

“Can she come back…?”

“If your dad is okay with it,” Reiju smiles and looks from Angel to Sanji, “I’d love to come back and see you all. And meet that little boy once he’s born.”

For a moment Sanji doesn’t say anything, but he nods and smiles softly at Angel.

“Yeah, she can come back.”

The three of you see Reiju off, Angel waving goodbye the whole time. You take Sanji’s hand and lean up to kiss his cheek, which he easily leans into.

“I’m proud of you, Sanji.”

[baahsu]

Just wanting to share a AU, do you mind? (It's a ASL brothers x Fem!Sanji AU)

Sanji is the fourth child of the King Judge and Queen Sora, also the second princess. But, she was considered a "failure" for not having the same habilities than her siblings (like, special habilities from the Royal Family), and because nothing make her powers appear, when she and her brothers made 19 years, Judge send her to live in a temple on a village far from the kingdom (against Sora's wish, of course).

She don't mind this as least, like, now she don't have to stand Judge! (Ichiji, Niji and Yonji are good here) But the place is... lonely, so Sanji sometimes wishes some company.

The temple is to worship the Sun God (Nika Luffy), and the Fire Gods (Nika Sabo & Ace). They are knowed to be siblings and prank anyone, but also help the ones who need. Because of how much they make pranks, no one lived in the temple for a good amount of time, making things boring.

Until, in a day during the spring, a blonde girl who seems to be in her's 19 years, appear and start to live here, taking care of the temple. The brothers are amused by her beauty and unique personality, watching her without really appear.

They just do it for more-or-less 1 year, before finally talking to her. At this point, they already are totally in love with her and, well... Want her as their godness, but they know it's better make her fall in love with them first.

Sanji is scared, but also surprised. Suddendly, three god's are always around her and courting her?! It's strange, but she's quickly to accept the new reality. At time pass, she ends up falling in love with them too.

Some time after she makes 21 years, the ASL confess to her, and she accepts them! This make they so happy that they started dating, they all just hug her during hours.

The three god's start to live with her, being her boyfriends. Until Sora, Reiju and Ichiji comes, saying that Reiju will be the queen soon and she will can be back to the castle, but Sanji reject this, saying that she's happy here.

The idea of their girlfriend going away and possibly having to marry some prince make them jeaolus, they don't want someone marrying their girl! But Sanji says “no, I will not go away! I love you three!” and this makes them soo happy, that they want to turn her into their godness right now.

And she lets them, she lets them make her their wife, queen and godness. She lets them make her theirs, body and soul, the three fucking her all night without any break (yes, they want her carrying a baby from them, or at least full of their cum). Making her wake up the next day without walk, but as happy as ever.

Tbh I don't ship sanji with ace and sabo, but I like that after reiju were to become queen sanji wasn't pressured to go back and could do what they wanted

[oneprompt]

hihi im the same person who asked for the cat devil fruit rq could i have the same scenario (gender neutral or fem reader im ok w both) but with reiju and aokiji? ty<3!!

authors note : why of course you can request that , doll <3 i havent written for aokiji much , so , i hope this is enough ..

Kuzan Aokiji x F! Cat Devil Fruit! Reader Headcanons

- It's not a surprise that Aokiji would love cats, especially an s/o who can turn into one! He's a man who greatly appreciates the world of comfort and laziness, taking naps whenever he can. So, having an s/o who’s in the same wave length as him is definitely a plus, when it comes to dating.

- Expect a lot of cat related pick up lines and stuff.. Aokiji is a ladies man, he looooves ladies. So, he’s bound to have the perfect lines written down for every genre of girl. Not that he’ll be needing any of the other ones now ..... Anywho, Aokiji is the type of guy to say the dumbest stuff with the most confident smirk on his face. Whether thats calling you “purrfect” or explaining how he’s “kittened (smittened) by you.”

- Probably teases you over your devil fruit, especially infront of others. Especially if you’re trying to be serious, Aokiji will be sure to tease you. He’ll look at you, swatting his hand like he’s a kitty, maybe pair it with a meow. You want to be mad, but all you get is flustered. And Aokiji is just... He’s just too cute! You just... can’t get mad at him.

- Aokiji is probably super protective of you. You’re already such a cute little thing, and your devil fruit only amplifies that. He’s the type to assume you need protecting. Aokiji is aware of how strong zoan users can be, but with that model... he’s not very sure. He’ll want to help get you stronger. I mean, it’d ease his mind to know you’ll be safe, even if he’s not there. Aokij loves you too much to let anyone even land a scratch on you.

- Aokiji loooves petting you, regardless of if you’re in your full fledged cat form or just your normal self. He’ll pet your head, singing out praises about how beautiful you are, how much he wants you, how he loves you so. He loves the faces you make when you’re embarrassed, so so much. Something about seeing you all blushy makes him feel a ton of things.

- He lets you lay on his lap aaaall the time. It doesn’t matter if Aokiji is just lounging around, doing paper work, his lap is reserved just for you! If Aokiji is doing his work, that’ll be quickly discarded to the end of your shared bed. You’re too much for him to just ignore for some stupid paper work. Wouldn’t you agree?

Reiju x F! Cat Devil Fruit! Reader Headcanons

- Reiju is fascinated by you and your devil fruit. Unlike her brothers, she doesn’t care much for ways she can exploit a persons powers and what not. She just thinks its cute and a tad bit silly. She doesn’t know very much people, let alone zoan users. So, Reiju is always eager to learn new things about you.

- She’s the type to constantly take pictures of you. Even if you’re doing the most mundane things, Reiju is quick to snap a polaroid. Her big sister side slips out sometimes, making her smother you with endless praise and take such mom-like photos of you. Its odd... Who knew such a deadly woman could be such a softy?

- Reiju gives you lots and lots of kisses. She likes expressing her love through her lips, whether in the form of compliments or kisses. If you ever close up from all of her love, Reiju just finds that even more endearing. She just adores shy people!

- If you ever meet her brothers, Reiju is sure to give them a harsh kick in the head if they say anything mean to you. Blood won’t stop her from defending her precious Y/n! In fact, nothing stops her from doing so. If a person says something mean, she’ll whip a composed insult at them. Or if somebody is trying to hurt you, Reiju lets her germa blood course through her, throwing the upmost painful beatings the harassers way. Nobody gets away with hurting you, not on her watch!

- Reiju smothers you in gifts. Like, all the time. She’s from a background of money, so, buying gifts is always a treat. She’ll buy you new dresses, any cute accessories you’ve been wanting and even cat toys! Reiju doesn’t mean to tease when she buys these, but she can’t complain about the adorable reactions she gets from you, seeing you huff and puff. Reiju knows you’ll always be eager to play with new toys, even if you try to hide it.

- Reiju is grateful for your lazy nature, as it helps her explore a new lifestyle. She’s used to training, fighting, attending royalty events, all that jazz. So, to finally be able to lay down and relax without a single care in the world is nice. You remind her to take time for herself, to engage in some self care. And Reiju is eternally thankful you introduced her into this slow paced world. She likes it much better then the germa life she lived...

[darthchic]

Whole Cake Island Arc - 7.5/10?

Felt like rating and writing about this arc, just to get it straight in my head how I feel about it. 

I wanna give it a higher rating, just from the pure emotions it gave me, especially since Luffy and Sanji are my two favourite One Piece characters, and I’d never really appreciated their relationship this much until now, but I’m with a lot of other critics who were displeased with the torturingly (that a word?) slow pacing in certain chapters. That really hurt (probably still not as bad as Dressrosa’s pacing though). To be fair, the pacing was really only bad during some sections of the Seducing Wood chapters, and then during the chapters 871-886 (til they finally got that damn cake moving!) The Seducing Wood chapters were saved by the Sanji backstory/family reveals, that stuff was great, but I never really cared about the Luffy vs Cracker fight. For me, anime fights can be pretty hit or miss since a lot of the time you feel like you already know who’s going to win, and since this fight occurred quite early on in the arc, it was a foregone conclusion that Luffy was going to win. I mean, what, he’s gonna lose, die and not meet Sanji? Pffft! I just wasn’t invested, but the Sanji stuff = Awesome. Everything between Chapters 844-870, I really loved/enjoyed, but then all the running away, making the cake, running away, and still making that damn cake!!!! ….Feels like that could have been shortened down somewhat, just saying. And I’m pretty sure a lot of other fans got frustrated in the same way as well.

I wasn’t even comforted by the Luffy vs Katakuri fight. I don’t know why. I like Katakuri, really like him, emphasis on like, but I didn’t get into the major hype of his character. I couldn’t tell you why, but I do wish I loved him as much as other fans do. It’s not fair!!! T_T

But maybe this is why I’m not too bothered by the outcome of their fight either, lack of investment. People seemed really angry over the way the fight ended, but I was just glad that it didn’t drag out much longer. I am pretty happy though, after reading Chapter 902, that there’s an implication that Katakuri may have slightly let Luffy win. (Seriously, I really do like Katakuri, the guy’s cool and I respect the dude.) A part of me did want Luffy to either lose or have the fight end ambiguously cause there’s only so many times in fiction where you see this supremely badass character get super hyped up, made to seem undefeatable, only to have the protagonist beat them through sheer willpower or friendship. That’s something that turned a lot of people off ‘Fairy Tail’ after all. Oda can usually pull off these kinds of fights without us rolling our eyes, and the Luffy vs Katakuri was decent, I guess I’m saying that if I had a chance to change things, I would have the fight play out mostly the same but to have the victor be a mystery (and eventually revealed in a later chapter), just to avoid too much major salt. Or, have Katakuri about to win, having Luffy at his mercy, only to let him leave because he really does know (or hint to know) that Luffy will become Pirate King, and he doesn’t want to interfere with that particular awesome future! But only I’d probably be satisfied with that ending.

I do like, for the most part how the arc ended. I’ve seen some people say that there’s a lot of loose ends left, but the only one that really bugs me is the threat against Zeff’s life/The Baratie. Are we to assume that they’re safe now? I don’t know why. All the way back in Chapter 852(?) I was scratching my head when even Reiju was telling Sanji that he doesn’t need to worry about Zeff or the Baratie, but why not? Big Mom was the one threatening Zeff’s life, right? And as we’d seen from a later Chapter (860 I think?), even some small time criminal that had been invited to the Tea Party and couldn’t attend had his father’s decapitated head sent to him (the scene was made into an even bigger deal in the anime), so why did anyone think that Sanji, the groom, running away from the wedding, wouldn’t have to face repercussions? And especially now that he was involved in an assassination attempt on her life, why would the extremely petty Big Mom let this go? Like for real, this all bothers me!!! Maybe it will still get brought up, and result in Sanji going to see Zeff again? Telling him to go into hiding or something? If this little thread is picked up again in any way, I think I’d be happy, cause I clearly can’t just sweep this under the rug.

One other major thing that a lot of people seem pissed about this arc is Sanji himself. Of course it’s the usual shebang: “Sanji is Lanji”, “Sanji be taking more Ls!”, “Sanji didn’t do anthing this arc!”, “Sanji was useless”, and so on and so forth. It’s annoying yet also hilariously ironic. To me, I would not be surprised if Oda based Vinsmoke Judge and Sanji’s brothers on all the fans that constantly rag on Sanji’s character. Look at Chapter 899 for Gawd’s sake, Judge says things like, “Sanji is worthless!”, “Sanji is weak!”, “All he does is cook!”, “He’s good for nothing!” and I swear these are the exact negative things that people have been saying about him. And they can’t see the bloody irony! For me, this arc, or the year of Sanji, was a tribute to Sanji’s character/values, not his fighting ability. We already know he’s an awesome fighter, why does he need to prove this again? Besides, he’s a Love Cook first, a fighter second. If he were given the choice between never cooking or never fighting again, which do you think he’d choose?

And besides, I don’t understand why anyone thinks that Sanji did nothing useful. Or didn’t achieve any wins. Here’s a list: Saved his friends from Bege & Co. (This may have happened before the arc officially started, but I’m still counting it), Discovered he’s in fact the ‘Success’ of his family rather than the ‘failure’ that his shitty family (and shitty fans) labelled him, Using just his sheer ‘Sanji-ness’ to prevent a bloodthirsty girl from murdering him, Saving his family/abusers and proving he’s a better man than his father (which we already knew anyway), Pioneering a cake that stopped Big Mom from completely destroying the Sunny, killing his friends and killing islands of people, and thanks to him being awesome and saving his family in the first place, he and Luffy got away from the Big Mom Pirates with their lives. Germa couldn’t have had their moment and swooped in to save the day if he hadn’t swooped in and saved them to begin with. To me, it feels like Oda really wanted to show Sanji’s kindness and passion for cooking saving the day, instead of him just using brute force/fighting ability, which someone like Judge prized above all else, but it’s Sanji’s ‘weak and useless’ qualities that come in the most handy in the end. So again, just seeing these certain fans act like real-life versions of Judge…. You just gotta facepalm man. Well done you guys (you know the ones), you would make great best friends with a man whose chin looks like a set of testicles.

So yeah, it’s really frustration that brings the rating down for me on this arc, and also wishing a few things here and there were written a little differently. It’s definitely an arc that everyone has differing opinions about, it’s not a universally loved arc like ‘Ennies Lobby’ or ‘Marineford’, or even a rather hated one like the ‘Fishman Island” arc. I’m still hoping we’ll get more discussion between the Straw-Hats about the Sanji beating Luffy incident, and I wanna know if Sanji’s face has healed or if he’s still wearing that mask. Only time will tell. Well, perhaps around May-time will tell, since we are technically on break now, right?

[onepiecefeatstuff]

The Wedding |Sanami June Bride 2017|

Planning a wedding is never an easy task. Much less if it’s a wedding between well-known pirates. And if those pirates are Nami and Sanji, the perfectionist couple, well… It’s a challenge.

The first few months were just perfect. They agreed on everything, and they seemed to want the same thing. Sanji agreed to hold the ceremony in Nami’s village, Cocoyashi; and Nami insisted that Zeff should be in charge of the catering. They would have the best of their both worlds. They arranged the menu, the venue, the seating… Everything went beyond perfection.

However, as time passed by, the tension started growing. They wouldn’t have the blue and orange bouquet they wanted, and Nami had to give up and choose an orange-themed one: orange Asiatic lilies, yellow roses and hypericum berries. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t as perfect as she dreamed it to be. Of course, the disappointed face from her beloved fiancée was easy to detect to Sanji, and that painful expression stuck with him for months, even though Nami assured him she was fine.

“I know it’s fine” Sanji told her, placing his hand on her cheek for comfort “But it’s not perfect. And you deserve perfection.”

Nami let out a sad smile. “It’s just a bouquet. Everything else will be perfect, I guarantee.”

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. There were lots of tiny details that went wrong, but just big enough for them to worry. Whether it was the dress, the tuxedo, the decoration or the ice sculpture that Franky intended to build them (although nobody asked for it); they were in constant tension. That tension intensified during the last weeks, and for the last days, they couldn’t even look at each other without arguing. The love bubble they rebuilt for the first months of wedding planning was falling apart.

“I’m telling you, Navy will be a much better color” Sanji said, extending a color palette of blue tones and pointing at the one he had mentioned.

“We won’t have Navy when we can have Admiral instead” Nami insisted, pointing at her color of choice.

“Navy? Admiral? Where?” Zoro asked, still confused by the whole situation.

“They’re arguing about freaking colors. They have been like this the whole morning” Franky informed him. “If you ask me, I would choose Cerulean.”

“No one asked for your opinion!” the couple yelled at the same time, and for the first time in the week, they laughed.

“Well, at least we know they’re meant to be” Usopp comented “But I still think those two colors look the same.”

“I like the one that Sanji doesn’t.” Zoro said, crossing his arms. “Just because.”

In the end, they chose Azure. With help from their respective mediators (Luffy and Robin), they survived without killing anyone. They wouldn’t kill each other, but the others weren’t as safe. When they finally got to Cocoyashi, Nojiko and Genzo were waiting in the port.

“Nami’s sister!” Luffy greeted her, with a big hug “And Nami’s weird man!”

Fortunately, Genzo didn’t hear that comment. He was too busy examining Sanji from head to toes.

“So you’re the man who’s marrying my d… My Nami.” He finally said, extending his hand. Sanji took it, and they shook hands.

“It’s an honor to meet you officially” Sanji said, with a truthful smile “I’m afraid the last time we saw each other we didn’t have much time for formalities.”

Genzo gave him a pat in the shoulder, and he declared himself satisfied. Sanji seemed like a good guy and he clearly had manners. He was almost good enough for his… Nami. The bride-to-be hugged both her sister and Genzo before running to the house, with Chopper carrying endless bags and boxes.

“Is that considered animal torture?” Usopp wondered, but no one dared to answer. Only Robin and Nojiko followed Nami and Chopper, because the navigator had specifically ordered that no one could go and disturb the peaceful rest she needed. Of course, she was so scary that not even Zoro argued.

“Okay folks, now it’s time to build a SUPER wedding venue!” Franky exclaimed, and gave a hand-five to Luffy. That enthusiasm soon passed on the rest, and they spent the day organizing tables and seats and leaving everything immaculate; and went to bed early. They had to rest before the big day.

At sunrise, Nami was already awake. She had never been the kind of person who sleeps a lot, that special power belonged to Zoro; but she knew better than to wake up that early. She was cursing herself for knowing better and still couldn’t help it but to stress. That tension was what woke her up, it was like a sudden shot of adrenaline took over her body. She couldn’t think straight, and she didn’t want to move because she didn’t want her friends to wake up too, but she suddenly felt the urge to pee.

She cursed herself over and over as she silently moved on her way to the bathroom. Why did she have to be so insecure? This wasn’t her. She wasn’t the nervous type, she was the furious one. Then why did her knees get so weak every time she thought about the wedding? It was her wedding, after all. There were no marines, no other pirates. Just people that loved and supported her. There was nothing to fear, right?

When she made her way to the bedroom again, she felt a strange presence. A whisper made her jump in surprise, as a shadow that she recognized perfectly came towards her.

“Robin” she whispered, feeling her muscles relaxing “You scared me to death!”

The archeologist just smiled in the dark “That would have been fun, wouldn’t it?” Nami supposed she was trying to make some joke, but her humor was usually too dark for her. Still, she let out a tiny smile.

“Did you forget to drink your midnight tea or what is it?” she asked her friend, pointing at the clock in the wall. It was five am.

“It’s my job as a bridesmaid to keep an eye on the bride” she just responded. “Are you doubting about the wedding? I’ve always thought that dress of yours is good for a runaway bride.”

“What? No!” Nami rushed to say, an octave higher than she wanted to sound. She lowered her tone again, afraid that it would wake up anyone else “I love Sanji, you know I do. And I want to marry him. It’s just…”

“Well if it’s not you or him, I don’t see any problem. It’s just irrational fear, don’t let it stop you.”

“It’s not that easy!” Nami complained “You don’t react to fear the way that I do. You are always so confident and fearless… I wish I could be like that.”

“If you were exactly like me, you wouldn’t have fallen in love with someone like Sanji. You complement each other, and like you said, you love him. And he loves you. The wedding is just another way to announce your love to everyone who cares about you.”

Nami took a deep breath. She knew Robin was right, and her words were such a good comfort. The knot in her stomach was putting less and less pressure, and she felt way more calm than just a few minutes ago. Everything had to be alright.

“Now since we have lots of time… Do you want to start preparing yourself? The others aren’t going to wake up for at least one more hour, but maybe you could use a shower to clear your thoughts.”

Nami smiled at Robin and gave her a big hug. “You really are an amazing maid of honor.”

“I take my job seriously. Now get in that shower and let me handle everything.”

For the first time in forever, Nami was the one following orders instead of being the one who made them. It was a silly, foolish command, but it kept her busy for a while; and she stopped stressing over things she couldn’t control. She could never change the fact that her mother wouldn’t be in her wedding, but she had Nojiko and amazing friends by her side. She couldn’t change Sanji’s family either, but she realized she didn’t need to. The Sunny was their home, and their nakamas were their true family. Although that didn’t stop her to invite Reiju, knowing that Sanji would be glad to see her.

Chaos came back to her mind a few minutes before the wedding. She was already dressed up, and looking at her reflection in the mirror, she knew she couldn’t have asked for more. It wasn’t the first wedding dress she wore, of that she was certain, but it was the best so far. It was, for the first time, her dress: the one she picked up, and not chosen by some imbecile who tried to take advantage of her. It made her feel like a princess. Her heart didn’t have any doubts… But the noise around was driving her crazy.

“You look so beautiful” her sister whispered in her ear, and the voice felt foreign to her. It was as if she wasn’t even there. Nojiko kept talking “Mom would have been really proud of who you’ve become, and she would be the first to cheer up today. She would have been the drunkest of them all, but that’s who she was, right?”

Suddenly, her voice cracked, and the two sisters found themselves wiping each other’s tears.

“Don’t you dare cry or you’ll ruin your makeup” Nojiko told Nami with a laugh. Nami wiped the rest of her tears and smiled.

“Okay” she said, looking at her reflection. “But I’m not doing it because you told me so.”

“I know, I know” Nojiko went along, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “Now get out there and be the best bride of them all, or else!”

“I’ve met scarier people than you, you know that right?” Nami teased her sister, and unwrinkled her dress.

“She’s talking about me” Reiju walked in, surprising the women in the room. She took the bouquet and handed it to Nami “Go and make my brother the happiest man on earth. He deserves it.”

Nami smiled and gave her a little hug “I know he does” she mouthed “But why is everyone pushing me to the entrance? I mean the music has not even started pla…” There wasn’t any time for her to finish that sentence since she had to eat her words, because the wedding march started to sound right after.

Now the girls were staring at her, and they looked like they were about to physically push her if she didn’t move soon. Nami put her hands up in a gesture of surrender and started to make her way to the aisle. Genzo was waiting for her, and she joined her on her march.

“Thanks for doing this” she told him, resting her head on his shoulder. “It really means a lot.”

“It’s my pleasure, my dear” Genzo told her, and let her go. They had already reached the aisle without her even noticing, and suddenly, she was facing Sanji. His soon-to-be-husband. It still didn’t feel real.

“You look gorgeous” Sanji mouthed, but he didn’t say it in his usual tone. He didn’t have heart eyes, he wasn’t trying to be flirty… He had the biggest smile on his mouth, and his eyes were shining like the blue sky.

“We are gathered here today to unite Sanji and Nami in a fusion…” Luffy started, trembling with the words. Maybe he wasn’t the best choice to officiate a wedding, but he was the captain after all. “In a fusion called marriage. It’s not like a real fusion for what Robin told me, so it’s not as amazing as everyone expects it to be. I’m sorry for that.”

“Cut the crap and hurry up” Nami pressured him, by giving him a discreet elbow.

“Okay” he grinned “As the captain of the best crew in the world, I now pronounce you…”

“We’ve got to say ‘I do’ first, Luffy” Sanji mumbled.

“Oh! I forgot about that!” Luffy exclaimed, making everyone laugh. “So Nami do you want to marry Sanji?”

“I do.” Nami pronounced, putting the ring in Sanji’s finger. She was smiling like a little girl, and Sanji had to correct himself: she wasn’t just gorgeous, she was radiant.

“And Sanji do you want to marry Nami?” Luffy asked him, bringing him back to earth. “That’s a silly question though, we all know he wants to.”

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” Sanji agreed with him, but Luffy wasn’t convinced with that answer. He couldn’t proceed until the exact words were said, so Sanji rushed to answer “I do.”

“I pronounce you husband and wife!��� he said with his big characteristic smile “Now you can kiss, but don’t make it too gross please. It’s already bad enough when you’re making out in the kitchen.”

If that was a normal situation, Nami would have smack him down. But with a ring in her finger and her whole life ahead of her, she couldn’t think of any response. She didn’t care, actually. The only thing she wanted to do was to kiss her husband, and that would make her life to make sense again.

“I’m the luckiest man that’s ever existed” Sanji said, getting closer to her “I’m sorry it wasn’t your dream wedding.

“Shut up and lift me over the ground” she told him with a laugh “It’s perfect. Now let’s make it gross.”

“Your wish is my command, my beloved wife” he said with a little reverie, and took her bridal style.

Luffy had to close his eyes when they kissed, but Usopp told him later that it was a very long and deep kiss, although he wouldn’t know when it ended since he had to close his eyes too when they started making out. Either way, it was a wedding to remember.

[forcedapotheosis-blog]

Solstice Ch. III

Alright, I've got a lot to say before this chapter begins, so let's get right to it.

First of all, take warning. This chapter contains graphic depictions of violence (nothing sexual / non-con, though), so if you're not into this kind of stuff, don't read this chapter and probably the rest of the story.

Second, there's again people I have to thank.

My boy Renillion (ffDotnet), who continued to support me through most of the writing of this chapter and supplied me with some nice creative input. I very much enjoy our conversations, man, hope to hear and read more about your original stuff!

Azoroadaywontkeepsanjiaway (on tumblr), who beta-read like 2/3rds or more of this chapter, thank you so much for the time you've put into it and for more that I'll mention a little later.

Onepiecefeatstuff / alaznesweeran (on tumblr and AO3) for giving me a much needed pep-talk and being a genuinely good and supportive person (who also writes fanfictions which you should read).

EastBlue (on ffDotnet), who always leaves reviews that encourage me to continue writing, even when I feel like a waste of skin. Thank you so much!

Year of the Goat for recording 'The Unspeakable', which had been a great source of inspiration for me.

Alright, coming to the third point, the one I was actively dreading. The beta-reading made me realise that this fiction started off wrong. Let me explain: When I said that I wanted to return to my roots as a writer, I meant that I wanted to write (cosmic) horror. I could've easily done that, but instead made it a fanfiction instead of an original work. So, the thing is that people who read fanfictions are rightfully anticipating a story that is driven by more or less fixed characters, no matter if it's AU or an Alternate Timeline. This is were I made my first mistake, because these kinds of stories usually don't revolve around the characters, not even the protagonists. Many mistakes followed but I'm not going to bore you with them.

Well, long story short: I'm putting Solstice on hiatus until I'm able to decide what to do with it. That might be in a week, a month or never. Sorry if you're one of the two people who actually enjoyed reading it.

Chapter III - Arisen

Sanji was quick to realise that the interior of the estate was still congruent with what he remembered. It actually seemed like nothing had changed at all.

At least, someone cleaned up nicely. He was pretty sure that his happened not to the courtesy of his siblings, but thanks to some underpayed worker. Setting foot inside the house again somewhat felt like entering another world, another time. Here and there, there was a new-ish painting to see, obviously made after he abandoned the family, or after the family abandoned him. It portrayed the tall, muscular .. and pretty ugly .. Judge Vinsmoke, towering over his three favoured kids, by the time of the painting around 14 or 15 years old. It was rather well done, to be honest, but it distorted reality in a mocking way. Even though they were the favoured kids of the Vinsmoke patriarch, they were still subject to his harsh, sometimes bordering on tyrannical, rules. I’m still surprised that I was the only one who wanted to win his freedom.

At least, Reiju was nice enough to hand him a towel to dry his hair. “Where’s Nami?”, he asked no one in particular, trying to sound as neutral as possible. “She still has my jacket.”, he added solely for him remembering that especially Yonji had, at least in the past, the rather disturbing nature to utterly destroy whatever he held dear, no matter if it was a toy, a book or even a living thing such as a pet rat. They were adults now, but he didn’t want to take chances. Especially not in that regard. “Probably in the kitchen, with Ichiji. I envy that lucky bastard, she’s a sight to behold, right? And she’s always by his side .. maybe he’s taking her on the table right now.”, and there it was again, the overwhelming wish to kick Yonji’s head in.

“Unlikely, Nami seems to prefer a professional relationship.”, Reiju intervened and Sanji felt a sliver of gratitude towards her. Despite the branding she had given him and the ominous way she talked.

The house was as big and cold and as utterly devoid of any soul as he remembered it. Long floors, laden with portraits of some ancestors he never knew made up a big part of it. These portraits weren't holding any decorative value to them, it seemed as if they hung around here because they no other place in this world would accept them. Other than that, he sure was surprised that the main source of light were actual lamps and not, as someone who might see only the outside of the estate might have thought, candles or torches.

“Hannah, Lily and Nichiji are already in the living room. I’m sure that you’re going to take a liking to them, they’re sweet girls.”, Reiju said, obviously addressing Sanji. Maybe I will, since I’m not related to them.

The living room, as nearly every other separate room in the whole estate, was large and the furniture within it was exactly the same it was twenty-ish years ago. A couch large enough to accompany up to three or four people was placed with its back towards the entrance and the same round, ornate carpet was still lying on the ground in front of it. Another couch, a smaller one, and a chair that looked rather comfortable and even regal complemented the room.

Wasn’t there a table, too, standing on the carpet?, he asked himself, not sure if his memories were accurate in that regard. Again, he contemplated that taking a step into this room came close to taking a look at his own past. Sanji could much too vividly remember Judge sitting in that exact chair, reading some old book or scolding him for being too weak. The rhythmic noises of a large grandfather clock were the only obvious sounds in the whole room. And, as Reiju had said, there were three people inside of it. One of these people he knew, even though his back was turned towards the entrance. The blue hair was a pretty distinguishing characteristic. Has he .. changed? The question didn’t pop into Sanji’s mind out of nowhere. Niji wasn’t alone on the couch. There was another person sitting next to him, crowned by beautiful and silky auburn hair. She wore it lose and it was just long enough to reach a little farther than her shoulders. It surprised him a little that his brother had his arm slung around her and she didn’t seem to mind in the least, even enjoying it as her head softly rested against his shoulder.

The third person, another woman, appeared to be sleeping on the smaller couch, leaning against the armrest of it. Is that Barbie?, was the immediate thought on seeing her. Indeed, she had hair that was even more blonde than his own and he couldn’t help himself but notice that her body had the form of an hourglass. But .. it seems just so .. exaggerated in contrast to Nami’s natural beauty .. it’s like a living caricature of an unrealistic beauty standard. He wanted to scold himself for these thoughts since he didn’t knew anything about that person, but again, he couldn’t help it.

Her sleep was light, though, and she slowly opened her eyes to be the first to greet them. But while  the rest of her body was an oversubscribed caricature of beauty, her big, blue eyes managed to take  it home regardless. Her smile appeared genuine and she was quick on her feet to greet them, her voice a soothing melody and not nearly as high-pitched as he had anticipated.

With more grace than Sanji had expected, she strode towards them, around the other couch, giving Yonji a wink before gracing him with her brightest smile. “Oh, it’s so exciting to finally meet the lost Vinsmoke! I’m Hannah, very pleased to finally make your acquaintance!”, she held out her hand and Sanji wasn’t really sure how to greet her. Probably better to stay neutral for now., he thought, shaking her hand and putting up a more-or-less honest smile. It didn’t really surprise him that her hands were as smooth and soft as they were, perfectly fitting the air of high class she radiated, but there still was something more underneath.

Being a first class cook, some of his senses were refined to a near superhuman level. His senses of taste and smell, needless to say, where already there, but there was another one, so easily forgotten. Not only did his hands develop a dexterity of nigh-legendary reputation, his sense of touch was equally well trained. Platinum, I’m sure about it. The metal was too smooth to be just silver, and nearly as warm as her hand was. The impressions didn't end there, as there was more to be found. Something that he only brushed with the tip of his middle finger. And that’s a diamond. Of course, he couldn’t be sure about it being a diamond and not some other gem that was embedded into the ring, but common sense somewhat dictated it to be the way to go for an engagement ring.

“The pleasure is all mine, Miss Hannah.”, another second went by and he finally let go of her hand. Despite the way she looked, he had the feeling that Hannah was a genuine and rather nice person. People always said that you weren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but that was a difficult task to achieve, to be sure. “I see that you’re going to be my sister, too.”, another smile he had to force, but the thought of welcoming a, for a change, nice and friendly person into the family wasn’t half bad. Her eyes widened a little and she exchanged a glance with Yonji, who was still standing behind him. “Have you told him, my love?”, to that he shook his head, answering with a slight snarl in his voice that felt like he was being apathetic to the fact “Probably saw your ring, hun.”, to which Sanji only nodded.

That was enough noise to finally wake up the last two persons within this room. The auburn-haired girl began to move rather slowly, as most people did after they woke up, and stretched her arms to the sides, letting out a suppressed yawn before turning around and slowly blinking the sleep out of her eyes. The blue-haired person sitting to her left also turned around, albeit slowly. There wasn’t any sign of exhaustion or sleepiness to find when it came to his face. Just the same old condescending look that seemed just so common within the Vinsmoke family that one might fear that it was genetically imprinted on them.

His lips twitched into a smile that lasted for about a second before it disappeared without a trace. “Looks like the most important person of the evening has arrived.”, what was that about? Sure, it was a family reunion, the first one after more than fifteen years for Sanji, but the most important person to arrive?

“Niji.”, there really wasn’t anything more to say, at least from his side. Sanji made the same observation that he made in regards with Yonji, though. Niji had just grown into an adult version of what he was as a child, even his hairstyle hadn’t changed at all, the blue hair still covering most of his right eye. Standing up, Sanji observed that he was less muscular than Yonji and more of a type that he classified as ‘lean and mean’. It took him only a couple of steps to walk around the couch, placing himself next to Hannah.

“Huh, someone changed for the better.”, he opened up, eyeing him from head to toe. “You’ve gotten a lot tougher since we’ve last seen you, brother. Not the sickly child you’ve used to be, right? I’m excited to see that.”, that drove his weirdness-meter through the roof. What kind of an introduction was that?!

“By the way, that’s my girl over there, name’s Lily.”, he just waved his hand in her general direction, not even making the effort of looking at her. She smiled rather shyly and raised her hand, breathing a soft “Hi.”, as she was still trying to rid herself of the sleepiness. “Now that you’re here, we can finally ready the dinner, hope you like .. lamb.”, again, why that pause before the last word?

And why did he exchange a glance with Yonji? Is this some kind of a stupid joke? Unconsciously, his right hand rubbed over his left forearm. The soothing effect of his wet and cold shirt had worn off and the branding actually began to hurt. Not too much, but it was a constant and rather annoying pain. Still, it was just so easily forgotten when the high, clear laughter of a familiar voice caught his attention, followed by fast steps, closing in on the living room. “I can’t believe that you’ve found an original!”, yes, it was Miss Nami’s voice. Even though they had spent not even a whole hour together, he would’ve recognised it everywhere on earth.

There she was again, only slightly changed. And to Sanji’s utter delight, she still had his jacket hanging loosely on her shoulders, but there also was something new.

Nami had her arms crossed in front of her chest, carrying some old book, as it seemed. Only the way she carried it was rather peculiar. It looked heavy enough, a large, old thing, bound in fissured, ancient brown leather, adorned with .. a freaking lock? Is that a diary or why on Earth would somebody walk the extra mile to put a shitty lock on a book?

Maybe it really was that special, judging from the surprisingly gentle way Nami pressed it against her chest, as if she was holding a newborn child. He also noted that she was wearing glasses now, not the big and unhandy kind that the hipsters that visited the restaurant he worked at sometimes wore, but slender ones with a black frame, modelled mostly for functionality. And they were fitting her face like a glove, adding only small accents while not taking away anything from a face that might as well had been sculpted by a literal god on a good day.

Unfortunately though, that was no place to be overly excited, especially not because she was followed closely by another person. The last to be present at this reunion. It would probably redundant to say that he, too, just grew up but did not change. Red hair, though of a darker tone than Nami’s, covered his right eye and he wore a confident smile on his lips.

Ichiji was neither the tallest, that dubious honour would go to Yonji, nor the most muscular of the Vinsmoke quadruplets. Though one might say that he was a perfect mix of Niji’s lankiness and Yonji’s muscular physique. His entire posture spoke volumes about him, too. With it, he radiated an air of confidence, of charisma, of cunning, all supported by his choice of clothing. Needless to say, he looked sharp and as his two brothers before him, he went with a black, custom-tailored jacket with a white shirt underneath, adorned with a tie that matched the colour of his hair.

“You’re looking good, little brother. Healthy and strong. A late-bloomer if I've ever seen one, eh? Took your body long enough to finally embrace its noble heritage.”, well, what did Sanji expect? Genuine, welcoming words? Don’t make me laugh. He had a feeling that, as with his other brothers, nothing had really changed. They were still the persons they had been fifteen years ago, only somewhat more refined in their ways.

“Thank you, I guess ..”, was the only answer that Sanji had, looking at Ichiji no longer than it was necessary and polite, but that moment passed and his gaze moved on towards Nami who was still holding that old book. When their eyes finally met, she greeted him with a warm and happy smile. “What’s that?”, he nodded into the direction of the book. “It’s a treasure, I mean, a real treasure.”, she answered, visibly trying to keep her excitement in check. Sanji raised a questioning brow and she continued.

“It’s the first issue of Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt’s ‘Von den unaussprechlichen Kulten’! That translates into ‘Of the unspeakable cults’.”, his brow was raised even higher if that was possible. Instead of clearing things up, it confused him even more.

“Pretty sinister name. What’s it about?”, he asked, lightly leaning his head to the side. “Oh, most of it is only some occult stuff, spells and such. Not really important if you want to have my honest opinion. But still, it’s invaluable! All the citations he used, his sources for the spells, they can prove the existence of books that were mostly shrouded in myth! For example, for one spell he cites ‘Cultes des Goules’, a book that many people thought existed only in the realms of legend, but according to von Junzt, he was in possession of a version of it written in Italian. If one could track down even a quarter of these books, it would be a milestone for research! Just look at it this way, the first issue of this book was released in 1839 in Germany and took so many other books into account, how did these reach von Junzt? The researchers can finally ask new questions based on hard facts!”, even though the topic was complicated, just seeing her flaming enthusiasm about it made him smile.

Meanwhile, Hannah had closed the distance between her fiancé and herself, taking Yonji’s hands. “It’s so nice to finally meet your whole family, my love.”, she whispered, her fingers intertwining with his. But instead of returning something, he just smiled at her. Not the usual smile that you saw between lovers, but .. that Vinsmoke smile. Never extending towards the eyes and, no matter what angle you looked at it, coming off as aloof, condescending. As if it was a part of their family to have a superiority complex. “My dear, you and Lily don’t even know in how many ways you’re completing this night. It’s going to be a great Yuletide.”, he whispered.

Sanji startled a little when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and for a second he hoped that it was Nami’s. But she was still standing too far away from him, gently holding that book. “Dear brother, why won’t you sit down? I think it’s time to have dinner.”, that was Reiju’s smoky voice in his ear and, even though he didn’t like it, he allowed her to lead him towards the lonely char that his biological father used to sit in time and time again. It actually turned out that it was rather comfortable, so much that Sanji didn’t need to use all of his willpower to lean back, allowing himself a moment of respite, a moment to relax and collect his thoughts.

He felt Reiju’s hands on his shoulders as if she was trying to massage him and further allowed himself to calm down. Maybe, after all, things wouldn’t go down as hard as he expected. It was then that everything happened simultaneously. All began with Reiju’s soft, whispering voice in his ear.

“I���m sorry ..”, in the same moment, one of her hands left his shoulders and a split second later, he felt that something hard was being pressed against the back of his head, accompanied by a click, and his mind was quick to make the association. He had never been confronted by a gun, but over the years, countless works of fiction used this sound to portray the hammer of a weapon being put into place, only the twitching of a finger away from unloading a deadly dose of lead into a body. His eyes widened at the realisation.

At the same time, Niji, who, after greeting Sanji, had retaken his place next to Lily, leaned forward, took hold of the carpet and pulled it away, going so far as to carelessly throw it aside.  Had the situation not started to feel like a nightmare as soon as he felt the gun pressed against his head, it would have by now.

Someone had drawn something on wooden ground beneath the carpet. At first glance, it just looked like a circle drawn with white chalk, but there was more to it. The circle itself was adorned with countless signs, most of them he had never seen before. Some might have been Greek letters while others had the nature of symbols, but there was no time to stare at it. A terrified cry cut through the relative silence and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of its source.

Hannah was still standing in front of Yonji, but her posture had changed. Her shoulders were contracting and she was holding her right hand before her face, grabbing it tightly with her left. “Sorry babe, but you’re not going to need this one where you’re going.”, it would have been easier if his brother’s voice was cold and lacked emotion, but that wasn’t the case. There definitely was amusement in it and it was only then that Sanji realised that her hand was drenched in blood. And it was missing her ring finger.

A ring finger that Yonji was now holding with his left hand while his right one was grasping the hilt of a long and terribly ugly knife. He was quick to snatch the ring from her finger and threw it, the finger, into some corner of the room. That was enough to break Sanji’s shock, it didn’t matter that Reiju would shoot him, but he wouldn’t let Yonji harm the woman any more!

“YOU BASTARD!”, he shouted, jumping to his feet, filled with bitter rage. It was stopped in its tracks, courtesy of Ichiji. “Hold your tongue, you disgrace.”, by now, he was also holding a gun, but instead of aiming at him, he just put the barrel to Nami’s temple. “Your decision. Try to make a move and I’ll make her head explode into a rather annoying stain on the wall. When that’s done, you’re next.”, contrary to Yonji’s sadistic pleasure, Ichiji really lacked any kind of emotion. That was what made Sanji believe his threat.

Nami’s eyes were wide open, all colour had left her face and it was obvious that she fought against the reflexes of shivering, screaming and crying.

“I see that we’ve reached an understanding. Yonji, proceed.”, and that was all he needed to hear. The movement of his right hand was so quick that even Sanji had great difficulty following it, but the results arrived within seconds. Hannah’s crying vanished only a moment after his movement had ended and ..

Her throat opened up, blood was gushing out in waves. Within her last conscious thoughts, she might have forgotten her missing finger and tried to press both of her hands against the gaping wound, but it didn’t matter anymore, there was just no way to stop it. Not even three seconds later, both her hands where bathed in her own blood and the light began to fade from her lively blue eyes, both of which were still fixated on Yonji, carrying a mixture of shock and silent indictment. He grabbed her by the shoulders and, with a needless excess of force, nearly threw her body into the circle that was drawn on the ground. There, she was supposed to find her final place of rest.

Even Lily, obviously not sleepy anymore, was crying out in utmost terror when she witnessed all of it, her gaze was nailed on Hannah's bleeding, dying body. Surprisingly enough and in contrast to many people who were part of such a dreadful situation, she wanted to get up and help her.

Somehow, even if it just meant holding her, being next to her when she moved on the the next world. Alas, standing up alone proved to be a task much too difficult for the circumstances. Just take the shaking of her legs into account, the fear and confusion that she might have felt. And then forget all of it, as the main factor that pulled her back onto the couch was the strong and absolutely ruthless  yank that Niji gave her hair, making her cry out again, a high and shrieking tone, this time stemming from pure physical pain.

“Sit down, you worthless waste of skin. Don't be so eager to die, you might not like it as much as you think.”, and even when he smiled that casual, easy Vinsmoke-smile, it was difficult to make out what he really felt. His voice wasn't nearly as sadistically aroused as Yonji's, nor was it as cold as Ichiji's. But before Sanji could think about that any longer, he had to fight down the urge to just walk over towards his brother and choke him to death.

He wouldn't have survived that, and, more importantly, neither would have Nami. She was still as white as a ghost, obviously knowing as little as he did. In that very moment, there were just so many things that he wanted to do.

He wanted to kick Yonji's head into the ground as long as necessary to leave nothing but a bloody pulp. He wanted the choke the life out of Niji. And Ichiji ..

I'm going to kill you, even if it's the last thing I'm ever going to do in my life. And when I'm done with you, everything the demons will throw at you in Hell will be nothing but relief .., his hands balled into fists, so violently that his nails, even in their cut condition, managed to tear deep into his palms. He was only barely able to control his fury and if it would have only been Reiju, aiming at the back of his head, he would've taken the chance. But with a barrel of stainless steel that was gently touching Nami's skin, things were different.

“Go ahead, Nami. Open it up. Page 351. Can't miss it.”, he heard the icy voice of his oldest brother say and Nami, clever girl that she was, complied. Better than having a bullet stuck in your brain, at least for now. She carefully opened the large book, it was already unlocked, taking only a couple of seconds to find the page she was looking for, proof that it had been read a lot.

“Ichiji .. Mr. Vinsmoke .. 'Hohelied der Wiedererweckung'? A chant of resurrection? You've killed poor Hannah for some stupid spell?!”, that woman .. gods, she definitely had some guts. Even when staring down the barrel of a .45, she still had the backbone to call him out on his madness.

Ichiji let out a deep sigh and cocked the gun, not even looking at her. There was no anger in his voice, just a slight hint of annoyance. “Look Nami, I know what these words mean. Though unfortunately, as of yet I’m not able to correctly pronounce all of them, that’d cost me a teensy bit of time to learn. Actually more time than we currently have at our disposal. Now, would that be a huge problem? No, certainly not, but we will then have to wait for another year. If that's what you want, for all I care, go for it. Close the book. But you might want to keep in mind that I'll paint the walls with your blood, throw in a little mash of what will be the pathetic rest of your brain and top it off with some tiny little splinters of bone. After that, I'm going to personally cut your carcass into pieces, feed it to the crows and come back after three days to burn the rest of it. If that's what you want, fine with me. Just close the book and consider it done.”, even the slightest hint of annoyance was gone at the end of his speech, leaving him just as cold and bland as his usual persona was.

Nami's eyes widened again and her rush of anger was extinguished. “I'll be counting to three. It's your call. One. Two.”, Ichiji didn't care for a dramatic pause between the numbers, it seemed like he just wanted to get over with it. Maybe that was the reason that Nami finally cried out. If he was spitting out empty threats, he would have taken his time. Just for the effect of it. In the same moment, Sanji wasn't able to hold back any longer and jumped to his feet, hell-bent on killing Ichiji.

He had run out of luck. Within a split second, he felt Reiju's tight grip on his shoulder, and if that would have been all of it, he might have even been able to power through. That thinking didn't take the gun in her hand into account, though, a fact that he learned to regret only a second later as his sister pistol-whipped the back of his head, easily sending him to his knees. The impact had a nauseating effect on him, indeed strong enough to make him vomit what little he had eaten that day all over the floor.

“Oh Reiju, be careful of not breaking our little brother. He might be a pathetic piece of subhuman waste, but we need him in one piece to finally be of use to the family.”, Niji playfully scolded her. His vision had become blurry, courtesy of the heavy impact against his head and the tears, equal parts the result of helplessness and vomiting, that were forcing their way out of his eyes. There it was again, cold steel pressed against the back of his head. There was no chance to escape.

“I’LL DO IT!”, Nami’s shouting seemed to be distant, just like everything else. The lines of this world were still blurry and it took him a substantial amount of willpower just to cease the puking.

“A wise decision. Go ahead, do it as long as there’s some life left within her body.”, Nami’s hands were visibly shaking when she supported the heavy book on her left forearm, using the fingers of her right hand to follow the written lines.

“Am .. am I supposed to just read it out aloud?”, her tension was perfectly understandable, as was the occasional cracking of her voice, though she handled the pressure of a gun being pointed at her head surprisingly well, let alone having to watch the poor Hannah bleeding out, who continued to mutter incomprehensible words that only exploded in waves of blood, pouring out of her mouth and the gaping wound that had torn the skin of her throat apart.

“Yes, Nami. Just speak the words and remember that you’re calling out to regain the soul of the man once known as Garuda. Now, proceed.”, again, it was Ichiji’s voice that answered her question.

She took another moment to steel herself for the task at hand, forcing her breath to go calmly. When she finally began, Nami proved her mettle once again: Her voice didn’t crack but was strong and steadfast, the shivering of her body had stopped and she had regained a solid composure. Regarding the words she spoke, it was a different beast. Sanji heard them but couldn’t understand a word, since they were German.

It all began with the invocation of the Gate and the Key.

“Erhöre mich, o König des unendlichen Raumes

Erhöre mich, jener, der an allen Orten weilt

Erhöre mich, o Kenner des Tores und des Schlüssels

Erhöre mich, jener, der du selbst Tor und Schlüssel bist

Erhöre mich, o von den Zeiten Unberührter

Erhöre mich, jener, der die Zeiten selbst berührt

O Yog-Sothoth, Herr des Tores und des Schlüssels

O Yog-Sothoth, Stammvater der Zeiten und des Raumes

O Yog-Sothoth, deine Diener rufen dich!“ (author’s note: For an English translation, take a look at the postface)

For a moment that seemed to be dragging on for an eternity, nothing of note was happening. At least it was nothing that Sanji was able to perceive, as that what had been put into play already started working when Nami chanted the invocation’s first line. The perception, even the understanding of a mere person didn’t matter where some powers reigned supreme. By now, all pieces were set into place and the real extravaganza began.

Everyone present, even his emotionally starved siblings, startled when something hammered against one of the windows, a frenzied clackclackclack, followed by the bird’s cawing that, even though the windows were closed, could still be heard inside of the room. It didn’t help, there was nothing it could have done to prevent the following events.

First, the supposedly Greek letters and symbols written onto the circle of chalk experienced a transformation. What had once been white and still and dead changed into something that was neither one nor the other, a plethora of colours began to supersede the plain chalk and tinged it into something that couldn’t be described with mere words alone. It was flowing, just as Hannah’s blood was, moving as if it had a mind of its own, touching the circle and becoming one with it. As strange as it sounds, the symbols appeared to be dancing around the innermost circle, possibilities were thrown out as if they were worthless, reality bent under the supreme rule of the powers invoked. It didn’t stop there. Sanji was looking around, more confused than ever before, and experienced it first hand.

The room itself was changing to make it more accommodating for who- or whatever had been called. Angles bent in impossible directions, the ground beneath his hands, seconds ago solid and cold wood, was heating up, developing a pulse of its own. His head started to hurt, as did his eyes. Not from the aftermath of the whipping he had received, but because of the sensory overload that followed all these things that shouldn’t, couldn’t be.

The living, colourful symbols were still engaged in a feverish, forced and mindless dance around the innermost circle, the once solid wood seemed to be living, breathing, having emotions that none of its kind should have. Somehow, he was able to identify these emotions. As long as the skin of the palms of his hands was touching the ground, all he felt was uncontrollable, frantic hatred, radiating from the very ground billions of people used to walk on, to live on, to die on.

He wanted to close his eyes, lest he wanted to preserve his sanity. But Hannah’s coughing and Nami’s terrified cry forced him to keep them open for just a few more seconds. His sight was blurred, but still, his eyes tried to focus on the poor girl that might have only had a few seconds left to live, the grip of her hands pressing against the gaping wound had grown weak by now and her spilled blood became the birthing ground for what seemed to be .. bubbles. One might have thought that it was boiling, but that would have only been half the truth.

The bubbles were not only inflating, bursting. No, they were giving birth. Birth to a thousand little arms and cramped hands, crippled, flayed and burnt. Reaching to the sky, to every living thing on this plane of existence, hoping for mercy, for help or just the swift gift of death that should never come. The first part of the ritual was completed, the might of Gate and Key, apparently going by the name of ‘Yog-Sothoth’, was completely invoked.

Poor Hannah already was too far gone to have any word on that matter, maybe her heart was still beating, maybe it wasn’t. Thousands of arms, stretching out towards her, using her blood as a gateway, didn’t make the distinction. The body was still warm, the flame of life not fully extinguished. It was enough for their primitive cravings.

Whilst the very laws of nature were aching and bending under the pressure of the forces summoned, it was a laughter, entirely devoid of emotion, that finally caught Sanji’s attention. It was Ichiji. The only person in the entire room, at least as it seemed, to remain unshaken and perfectly comfortable with these changes.

“Good, Nami, very good. The troupe is ready and the stage is set for the grand finale.”, but even though he was still pointing the gun at her head, his eyes were captivated by the ever-changing symbols on and within the circle.

“O Yog-Sothoth, erhöre das Flehen deiner Getreuen

O Yog-Sothoth, gestatte diesen Tausch

O Yog-Sothoth, gewähre uns deinen Dienern jene unendliche Gnade

O Yog-Sothoth, nimm hin Saft und Seele dieser Frau

O Yog-Sothoth, und gestatte jenem, der den Namen Garuda trägt, die Rückkehr auf diese Ebene des Seins!”

One might say that it had been increasingly hard to focus once the chanting had begun, but it amounted to nothing when compared with all that shouldn’t happen and still manifested itself in these realms. Another wave of nausea crushed over Sanji’s head, and only a part of it might still have belonged to the aftermath of the pistol-whipping. Things occurred that should not, should never be, but little did they care about the laws that humanity used to trust.

A large pool of blood gathered in front of Hannah, still spewing out bursting bubbles that gave way for the countless flayed and crippled hands that reached towards what, only a few minutes ago, had been the room’s ceiling. After witnessing everything that had transpired, it shouldn’t have surprised him that the ceiling had resonated with the powers invoked as well, bending in headache-inducing ways, not only towards the sky, towards the ground but within itself, beating like a heart, growing and shrinking again, feasting on its own parts while simultaneously giving birth to more. Sanji succeeded in forcing himself to look away, as his head felt like it was going to explode from witnessing these impossible things.

It was only by sheer luck (or rather, calamity), that he caught a glimpse of what was happening within the circle. Hannah’s blood was boiling, but not laden with bursting bubbles anymore. That didn’t change the fact that it seemed to have developed a mind of its own, forming a perfect circle on the ground in an environment that so dramatically had abandoned every geometric form that a human might perceive as ‘perfect’, or even normal.

A portal between this world and the realms of the dead had finally been established and it didn’t take long for the call to reach who, or what, it was looking for within these unspeakable depths.

It was a maimed hand that marked the beginning of the ascension, manifesting itself within her blood. Flayed, crippled and with only a few chunks of flesh still clinging onto charred bone, it was larger than everything that had sprouted from the bubbles, roughly the size of a human’s hand. In an astounding show of force, it tore reality apart and subdued the laws of physics, ripping the veil that separated the afterlife from our realm to pieces.

The initially steady pace was beginning to accelerate, and soon the hand was followed by an arm with equally charred bones, adorned with massive chunks of maggot-ridden flesh. Another arm followed and finally, when Sanji caught a glimpse of who it was that those arms belonged too, he had to bow his head again, giving way to the rising bile within his throat, spitting it all over his hands.

Name them what you will: Lunatics, maniacs, occultists, madmen, sorcerers.

It didn’t matter. The soul of a person who had consumed so much forbidden knowledge within his life might have been considered fragile within the terms of psychiatrically sophisticated minds, but these exact minds were still bound to human perception and interpretation. None of it mattered here. Contrasting all the poor, sodding souls that had tried to escape the realm from beyond the veil, with their little arms bursting out of bubbles of blood, this particular one was roughly the size of a tall human being, the wide shoulders being a testament to that. With maggot-ridden chunks of flesh and muscle, according to all the laws of this world, it shouldn’t have been able to move, specifically not with the strength it was showing whilst tearing apart the portal to accommodate its size. His size.

It wasn’t so much the barely recognisable face that forced Sanji to vomit again, even though for every other person, it might as well have been. Only one of its eyes was still being held in the socket, meanwhile his other one had become a nest of some sort for things that might have been centipedes. Centipedes that seemed familiar enough with their home that one of them left the socket, only to make its way into the nose of this horrifically disfigured abomination, just to reappear right out of his  his mouth. The sheer sight of something so otherworldly, while still being familiar, took a toll on Sanji’s sanity, in the worst way imaginable.

Within seconds, he was vividly reliving the worst of memories. This man, or whatever it was, was responsible for turning his childhood into a nightmare. Sanji had felt nothing when the authorities had informed him that he passed away.

He was back again, even though in a nigh-unrecognisable form. More dead than alive, fuelled by hatred, insanity and the knowledge of forbidden lore. The one thing that stood out in this form was the animalistic mane that had been his hair for all his life. It was unchanged, the same colour as Sanji’s, dancing to the impossible tune of an unseen current.

Finally, this wretched spectre, this misbegotten wraith of decades past began to make its move. Malformed hands reached out towards the dying Hannah, aimed at the hands that covered the gashing wound at her throat. The spectre didn’t try to remove her hands, the ethereal form didn’t even as much as touch her skin. Instead, his hands went right through her, giving away that the seemingly solid form was nothing but an illusion, the pitiful remains of a man who had sold his soul to unspeakable and innumerable devils and demons time and time again. Yet, he had risen to power, or was at least able to keep the remnants of his spirit mostly together, even within the realm of suffering. A shining beacon that lesser spirits clung to in hope of deliverance.

All they received was more pain, like parasites they clung to his foul flesh, still unable to leave their torment behind. Many lost their grip on the soul of his father, screaming out in anguish as they fell back into the endless abyss, others burned away as the wings of Icarus did, clinging too heavily to the sorceror’s soul that must have seemed like the sun itself within the lands of the lost.

Sanji wanted to force himself to look away, unconsciously sure that his mind would be torn to pieces of he continued to watch, yet he was unable to take control. Sickness and bile arose again when the wretched spectre’s arms followed his hands, sinking into Hannah’s cut throat. As impossible as it did seem, it still happened. The rest of his father’s ethereal body was following, taking residency within the small frame of the dying woman.

Endless seconds later, the work was done. The bleeding had subsided, as did the sobbing and her silent crying. No silent indictment remained within her face, no despair.

Actually, nothing of Hannah remained within what had been her face, he recognised when she turned it towards Sanji, staring at him with eyes that weren’t hers. Nothing of the blue remained, not the liveliness, the warmth that her face emitted.

Because these eyes did no longer belong to her.

These were the eyes of a dead man. Or, at least, of a man who should have been dead. They belonged to none other than Judge Vinsmoke.

Garuda.

“Welcome back, father.”, was the last thing he heard before he fainted. The first time since he arrived, there was a trace of emotion within Ichiji’s voice. It was pride.

[monkeydluffy19920]

Chapter 862 re-reviewed

Somehow it just felt that I overreacted to yesterday’s newest chapter and didn’t think clearly enough while scribbling so decided to read the chapter again with patience and re-write the review again after a break. So here we go, take 2: 

There might be some old things but also something new in this re-review but anyways the chapter begins from inside the Capone (sounded so wrong) where Luffy is still fast asleep and the retrieval team is almost running out of time with their plan and the tension is real because Luffy is important part of the plan. Now after re-reading the chapter it’s almost mind blowing to see that when Jinbe tries to wake Luffy up he does not talk and question about leaving the plan but leaving Sanji. Not a minor detail but I have a feeling that this reflects to the fact that Jinbe knows after the Ace incident how much Luffy values his friends and uses this fact as a way to trying to wake him up instead of blaming him to ruin the plan or something (wow this sentence could’ve written simplier but I guess you know what I mean) Elsewhere Sanji is still wearing that ero kappa-face and having some difficulties to not to fall into the beauty trap and Pudding clearly is preparing for the assassination. The wedding cake is finally brought in front of everyone and the pair prepares to change their wedding wows.  Besides digging into the wedding cake with passion Big Mom has also other plans in her mind, to kill Vinsmokes and as we remember, only Reiju is aware of Pudding’s plan and preparing herself to die, I guess she unfortunately still thinks that she and they deserve it. “Somehow” BM made their table located so that they are quite  surrounded by Charlotte siblings of course so it’s harder for them to escape but still, doesn’t Judge really doubt anything? I mean he is a big name in underworld and even though I don’t know much about mafia stuff I bet the betrayals there are something that happens every once in a while so this is why I wonder that why Judge isn’t at least a bit doubtful but well he is so focused on his ambitions so maybe that’s why he is so trustful. Well, if you ask me, Sanji’s brothers are still douches which makes me want to see Luffy getting furiously mad at them because brotherhood for him is everything and seeing how badly Sanji has been treated would be a plausible excuse for that…

By the way what is that cake made of?! it can easily hold on 3 adult people and I’m not saying they are overweghted or anything but that’s still quite a lot to hold onto but well on the other hand since that cake is huge anyways it needs some supportive stuff :D And yup there they stand as cake toppings meanwhile the retrieval team is rushing to fulfill their plan. I am not now dropping this following comment just because I happen to be a huge sanami trash but still I bet that every single of them are in a great worry whether they will make it in time but somehow I could imagine Nami being the most worried one. Why I’m feeling like this is because she knows personally how it feels to see someone dear shot in front of their eyes and that’s why she would prefer ths plan to work before another close person is gone (traumas about Bellemere’s death must’ve haunted her ever since Sanji flashed that “don’t worry”-smile when they separated)

Then the unexpected happens and Katakuri foresees Pudding falling to the ground and the reason is exlpained immediately. Pudding finally reveals the third eye for the whole world and Sanji is flinched immediately BUT instead of getting disgusted he suddenly drops a compliment that eye and Katakuri’s prediction hit the nail on the top. Yup, all I can say is that even though Sanji has his ero kappa-side he also has this sensitive gentleman-side of his and it seems that Sanji really has some heart to give empathy even for those who have betrayed him and if this is the real Pudding we see now, he surely forgave woman’s lies again and like my mate @k-nico-robin said, if anyone was expecting a fight between Sanji and Pudding then it’s clear who won. Sanji beat a(nother) enemy of opposite sex with simple kindness which for me indicates that despite his ero-kappa-side he seriously has the heart of gold. 

To be honest I was all hyped up to see a epic attempt of murder by Pudding with her badass gun but it seemed that Sanji (accidentally?) hit her weak point pretty hard. I think my mate @pernanegra summed up this very well here. Pudding might’ve had psycho tendencies when she was a kid which were triggered because of the bullying  BUT whatever your past is just shedding tears doesn’t make you immediately a good and reliable person.  ( Hope you don’t mind that I quoted  your words) 

Also this plot twist and Pudding’s story is still really conflicting and my mate @cintanna​ brought really good points here. It indeed feels a bit confusing that a character that has waited so eagerly to murder someone and has no trouble on smiling in middle of a shooting incident or chases other kids with a stab as a kid would suddenly break down because of kindness of a man whom she’d barely known for days.  To be honest her memories makes me wonder what in the world is going on between Pudding and her mother. Pudding says her mother despised her because of her outlooks. This is rather odd because isn’t one of Big Mom’s dream is to have utopia without discrimination? Secondly it feels really conflicting to hear that Big Mom would despise her daughter because the yonko has her weird collection of animals and she did kind of “fell in love” with Brook and “adopted” him as her doll. People are now also discussing about how BM has gotten so many kids and she must’ve had lots of sex but there is also a possibility that she could have also just used some help of medication or other ways to reproduce (remember that Rouge carried Ace in her womb for 20 months). Anyways Pudding inherits from a three eye clan and another thing why Pudding’s speech keeps me on my toes is that we’ve seen how these two characters have interacted before, at least in my eyes Big Mom did not show any disgust towards the third eye or demanded her to cover it and 35th daughter of the Charlotte family was portrayed as Big Mom’s favorite (Big mom might be controllable for example when she chose the wedding dress for Puddin but still I don’t see tension between them but well I might be blind.  Then we shall also not forget Pudding’s DF, the ability to control memories and I tried to think whether this all has something to do with that and could it be that she has manipulated her own memories for the wedding day but this might be just overthinking and really really far fetched?  Also there is still a slight possibility that their mother-daughter- relationship is good but Pudding simply has become bored that Momma gives her the orders and she would like to do more desicions of her own. This is what’s been up in discussions as well the relationship between her and Lola that what if Pudding really wants to be free like her and breaking the plan without further warnings would be her escape route. 

Along with pernanegra’s thought my mate @namibean​ also brought a important thing up. Even if Pudding now appeared to be a fragile girl it still doesn’t mean everything is fixed (or swiped under the rug) between her and Sanji. I haven’t checked any forums because this chapter has for sure caused some shitstorm but I bet that there are some people who assume things are suddenly now more than alright and sugarcoated and they could even now become a dream pair but that’s not how the healthy relationships work in my opinion. People should not forget that Pudding has shot someone Sanji holds dear, his sister and also she lead the retrieval team to a trap which lead to further troubles. To be honest I don’t think those kind of things are easily forgivable with few tears and also the fact that she broke Sanji’s heart as well.  On top of that people tend to forget that Sanji never wanted marriage in first place so would he really just out of sudden turn his direction, just because he sees few tears? 

Yeah I will admit that I overreacted yesterday badly and I still am upset that if this is now the real Pudding then she kind of is slowly turning into a victim. I am definitely not  floccinaucinihilipilificating (yes that’s a official synonyme for underestimating, can you imagine xD?) Pudding’s past if she is speaking the truth because even common sense tells that bullying is never right and simply harms the person and in her case it could be her “weak spot”. Also if her mother didn’t depsise her it can still be possible that the others really did.

I can’t still say whether I am buying those tears or not because there are still too many gaps in that story that are mentioned above but anything can still happen. However, if this is now the truth then her story will remind too much of one other characters’ Sanji met in my opinion. In Dressrosa Sanji faced the similar pattern: meeting a damsel whom he falls in love with who later turns their back at him and then end up being good. Everything can still change but yeserday it really felt that Oda wasted great potential for her to become the greatest female villain written in the complete history of One Piece BUT like said, nothing is sure before she gets her introduction box. 

I still ponder whether this change of plot will affect on the rest of the retrieval team who came here to save only Sanji. This is a what if-scenario but it would be really hard for them if Pudding would beg for forgiveness from the others and what would be their reactions and aftermath? We are talking about a person who first mislead them and boldly told how she is going to shoot the groom an now she would be begging for forgiveness? 

This is why I personally doubt that Pudding would be even welcomed to join the Straw Hats. Things are simply so messed up and she is definitely partly to blame to because even if sh did betra her own family it still doesn’t erase everything she has done before.  BUT there is also one good aspect on this plot twist which @lovemizumikan​ brought up. If Pudding is speaking the truth now then it means that this is a valuable lession about the fact that no one should be discriminated because of their outlooks. I will salute Oda-sensei for this message even though otherwise I don’t agree with this since this character is already too conflicting. Before we move on I just want to add here one important thing. That even though me and many others are really disappointed in this twist of fate I really hope that no one gets attacked in their inbox for this because of this. I am referencing on the shipping wars because there is a serious troll problem among the fandom and in situations like this it wouldn’t be surprising if someone woud use their chance to beat the beaten so I hope that we can keep it civil !

Meawhile Pudding is crying because of Sanji’s pure kindness the rest of the Charlotte family are dumbfounded but making their move and Sanji barely dodges the bullet shot by Katakuri (that shooting reminded me from Mr 5 who shot his boogers like that) and gives a aggressive glare at the enemy. I kind of sense Katakuri vs Sanji battle but there are many others whom to fight with so won’t place my bets anywhere.  What I have to say I like a lot was that deadly glare Sanji gave. This is something I’ve been waiting for a lot, for him to slowly becoming his old self after all the unluck and misery. 

The gunshot brings chaos to everywhere because now Vinsmokes are aware of that it’s dangerous out there but also there are others who don’t know what they should do next and then Luffy makes the epic entrance he has ben hyping for, jumping out of the wedding cake ! ::DD (should kinda have known it was something like that because it’s Luffy ::DDddd)

… and so the war begins !

[monkeydluffy19920]

Late thoughts about chapter 853

So, after some waiting the newest chapter is out ! It was already couple of days ago and I wanted to write but was so tired and busy so here are some late thoughts about the chapter

First of all I’m kind of disappointed because I was expecting a epic battle of the “soul royals” but on the other hand it’s understandable choice from Oda to leave the main battle for later chapters. At least we can see our rock star being kept by BM and probably they didn’t fight at all, Momma wouldn’t be that cheery if they did right? 

Also, we don’t know yet if Brook managed with his task but I’ve seen some speculation that if he did success then he hid it inside his head. That would be very clever but also such a risk if BM found out that his head is openable and what would she do if she  also found the tone dial for Laboon?

I’m not sure what to think about BM, on the other she is kinda funny when she is acting like a giant kid with her overly happy atittude but on the other hand she is just crazy..  Wel anyways I’m kind of worried what’l happen to Brook because as we remember from chapter 847 Big Mom collects all kinds of creatures so our humming skeleton is now in danger to be added to ger crazy collection. It also seems like Prometheus, Zeus and Napoleon are party BM’s soul if I understood her (correct me if I’m wrong). 

Big Mom also flashed some informaton about her past. According to her comment she has been involved with the Pirate King Gol. D. Roger and apparentally isn’t happy about what happened. Talks about Roger using a strange power of “hearing all things” or to read raftels/poneglyphs made me think that if Luffy is kind of “parallel” to Roger then would it mean Luffy might have some kind of ability to do this as well? Well we know he was able to hear Sea Kings but reading poneglyphs is Robin’s ability so can it be that Luffy could do that to with the “Will of D.”? and if he could, would that make Robin’s “lifetime work and studying” and role among Straw Hats kind of into waste?  Well maybe I’m just exaggerating things and thinking too much so nevermind that. 

Pudding appears and meets Brook again. As I’ve complained a lot, we don’t know much about her yet but at least she is now in her “sweet girl”-self. It seems like she is heritage of some powerful tribe and Mama is waiting for her true powers to be revealed. I think there has been lots of talk about Pudding’s true power and there has also been lots of discussion that whether Pudding could be a sweet commander (here is one theory from OJ). It wouldn’t surprise if we found out how powerful Puddig actually is because she already showed much potential when she shot Reiju and edited her memories. What I wonder is though is that when she is being “nice Pudding” why does she always keeps her third eye hidden?

About Pudding in general who has caused again lots of talk. People want to still believe that she is good and yes, even though she is now pretty rotten to the core I still don’t count out the possibility that Pudding might change her side during or after the main battle of Whole Cake island (probably Straw hats form an alliance wih Vinsmokes to take BM down). The thing however is that Pudding already has let down not only Sanji but also the retrieval team and doesn’t show any signs of remorse. Therefore I am pretty sure it’s very hard for her to gain their broken trust back, especially if we think about the fact that Sanji happened to hear all the trash she was talking and that she also went to tell Luffy and Nami that someone is going to die in the tea party. 

Elsewhere Pedro keeps fighting against Viscount chick whom he slices easily and he drops some bombs around the enemies. Later he is dragged to mirror  world with Bropper’s team. They change the latest news with each other and start to look for the rest of the retrieval team with the help of the Carrot’s stylish caricature of their crew mates. It worked and mirrors start finally talk so tey cann move on ! (If we want some shipping perspective then we could think that Nami is looking at Sanji’s direction but so does Luffy, hehheh)

Then we have Luffy who is eager to find Sanji. It is kind of interesting how Luffy’s and Nami’s roles has been changing along this retrieval mission. First Nami was the one who pushed everyone forward but after they separated with Sanji with some hard feelings I think she kind of has “lost her battle spirit” and then we have Luffy who first took this case pretty easy going  but after their fight he started to become more determinated to bring him back where he really belongs.

I actually didn’t notice at the first time that it was Reiju who grabbed Luffy’s hand menwhile he was running around (only thought his hand got stuck into a door and Reiju helped him). Luffy is reckless and got men after him so Reiju did a good deed and helped him. This isn’t quite remarkble thing in general but I find it interesting that Luffy doesn’t pay attention if there is a woman with less clothing. Remember in last chapter when they were saved by the prison and Nami’s clothes were pretty much wrecked? Well Luffy didn’t care at all that her clothes were ripped off and even though she was probably changing near them he didn’t notice it or at least said a thing about it. Now he is facing Reiju who appears to wear only panties but the first thing Luffy sees is the bandaged wound. Maybe this isn’t the right time to talk about it but somehow these things make me become even more sure about the posibility that Luffy could actually be an asexual because of these things named above. (it would actually be interesting to see if there was another character like Zoro or Usopp meeting Sanji’s sister in same situation and how they would have reacted.  Chopper’s mind is still too innocent fo dirty thoughts so he is out of the counts)

They shortly discuss about the hostages and we know it’s the people from Baratie (since we saw Zeff’s pictue earlier) BUT what we don’t still know is Vito’s whisper that could be anything “ Actually we talked about this in OJ community and there wre guessings that what if the third threat has something to do with Nami? Again this topic is mentioned but one reason Sanji could be so stressed could be that maybe the Cocoyashi village would be under the knife (we know that at last is something from East Blue that could be linked to both Sanji and his other crew mates) but these are just guessings so nothing will be sure until more revealed. 

I must say that what I love about Luffy a lot beside his adorable smile and characteristics is that he is so unwavering when it comes down to trust in his nakamas. He warned Reiju about Pudding but now that he hears that they already know about her plans he becomes so relieved and doesn’t anymore search for him aimlessly. Even though this arc is far from over and nothing has been resolved actually he still trusts that the poneglyph is secured by Pedro and Brook and that Sanji is able to keep his promise with their help. 

It seems like Luffy will meet Sanji alone and that the importance of Nami’s comment about Luffy consuming energy more than average human (852) and that bento Sanji made in chapter 850 starts to become more and more significant. Because Sanji didn’t left the basket for Pudding so now it’s more possible that we see the moment we’ve been looking for, captain and cook meeting in that spot and Luffy getting fed by foods made by Sanji. This would and if if happens wil be very big moment for these two nakama :’)  

Sanji is now making some important desicions and it seems like he has made up his mind, telling tha he can’t go back anymore. I still despise Judge a lot and you can still see the hatred from his father who just thinks Sanji as a “sacrifice” of alliance, really annoying.... There are many interpretations about his words around the forums but I think he has decided to put an end to his all. Remeber his comment (from mangastream translations) back from chapter 843 “I’ll be the one... to take all this trash back to where they belong” and now he tells that there is no returning back. I think he wants to “finish what he has started” because he kind of needs to “make up” his mistakes (hurting Nami badly with rough words and hurting Luffy physically) for his crew mates. Also on OJ community it was really well written: Sanji is tired of running away from his problems. He got his freedom when Reiju offered him a chance to escape but did that erase anything? no, he has carried all these wounds for years and now he is facing similiar situation where he is again offered with an opportunity to leave behind. Now he has to choose whether to leave everything behind again with all the guilt of “killing his relatives”. (all the credits to fellow shipper who wrote this, hope you don’t mind I borrowed these thoughts !) 

(and ah I still love the following panel especially Nami’s expression  because it’s full of emotions !)  I find it very interesting choice from Oda that Sanji recalls Nami’s teary eyes, not that adorable smile she flashed when they met (but well he was in shock to see them back then) but still, this shows how much this slap of hers has affected him because he can’t forget that and how guilty he must feel after first giving her a fierce glare and then afterwards hurting her feelings deeply.    Then for Luffy there isn’t the one where he declares the hunger strike. Well he apparently thinks about the missing tooth but the main point is that he really regrets everything he did when he pushed his nakamas away.  

One interesting thing I forgot to mention in last review is that Oda has kept Nami and Luffy together as a team since they left from Zou but now that they got free from the prison they are now separated. It means that it’s very likely that Sanji will meet both of them separately which would be good because at least Nami and him will have to have a proper reconciliation. Of course Sanji and Luffy will have to talk things over too but somehow I have the feeling that it will be kind of easier because Sanji knows that Luffy forgives easily and of course he is ashamed to face his captain after all this turmoil.  Then when it comes down to Nami, I think that will require a lot from him as well. This is the very first time there is tension between these two so Sanji has to gather up some bravery and face also the woman he adores (and loves) a lot whom he hurt as well.  I’m looking forward to see how the reunions will be handled !