Our last sail

36. Bonding time (3)

The crew, except Luffy, had figured there would be something wrong with Sanji's family, because he had mentioned that this was a depressing story, but this wasn't the thing they expected. Never known a father would perform an experiment on his own kids, this man was truly out of his mind. They, minus Zoro, all looked at Sanji with an empathetic look, showing their concern for him. The more he heard about Sanji's story, the more furious the captain became.

"As I was saying, the four princes and the princess were all turned into the king's lab rats, and let's say that it was a success. All the kids ended up having different unhuman powers, but they also lost their emotion in the process. Well, except for the third prince, I just ended up a normal human being. Because of that, I was looked down on by my own brothers and father, and also, because of that, I got bullied by my brothers every single day", Sanji said with a disappointed tone, so Usopp decided to hold the chef's hand as if he was Sanji's emotional support

"Reiju, my oldest sister, is the only one that truly cares for me, besides my mother. She never hit me like my brothers did, but she was the one who always bandaged me up after my brothers had bullied me. I also spent a lot of time cooking, even though it wasn't that good, my mom really enjoyed it like it was her best meal. But then she left me alone in that damn family". A few of Sanji's tears had already fallen down to the floor.

"Since I didn't seem to develop an unhuman power like my siblings, Judge was disappointed. He didn't want anyone to know about this, so he decided to lock me up while wearing a metal helmet. I didn't believe it at first, so I called out to him, hoping he would release me out of there if I could become better, but no one came. Then one day, Reiju showed up and told me that Judge was faking my own death. Just thinking about my siblings being happy with the man I called my father, while I myself was locked up inside a cold cell, I then started to hate my family, except for my mom and Reiju, of course. Later on, my brothers found out that I was still alive, so they decided to continue their daily bullying. I went on with my life like that, until Reiju showed up again, but this time she decided to help me to flee away from that hellish family. That was also the day my father disowned me. Not like I like him anyway, I'm glad he decided to disown me to be honest. After a few months, I met Zeff and lived with him up till now."

The room was full of silence, no one knew what to do, or what to say. Suddenly, Nami and Usopp gave Sanji a big warm hug. Zoro even gave him a small pat on the head, as if he was saying that Sanji didn't need to hold back, and the chef did just that. He cried out loud, glad that he had finally got rid of the burden he had been having for so long. They were like that for a while, then went back to their seats, only leaving Usopp to continue comforting his lover with sweet-nothing words.

After everything went back to normal, the captain then walked out the room in a hurry. It was like if he stayed with them any longer, he would definitely drag someone out to fight him. The crew then heard a lot of things breaking inside the captain's room, and they had figured that Luffy was letting his anger out. Then they heard a den den sound, but the conversation was so quiet, they couldn't figure out what they were talking about, except for Zoro, who knew very well who was the one on the other line. After a while, Luffy came back with his usual smile.

"Can I sleep in the boy's dorm tonight? My bed and a few things in my room are broken", Luffy said playfully.

"S-sure" Usopp replied.

"I guess it's my turn then" Zoro said while rubbing his hair.

Later, Luffy went back to his seat, and continued to drink his hot cacao. Zoro then spoke up again.

"Listen, I don't really have any secret besides my family, so I'll be quick with my part."

Hearing this, the crew suddenly felt confused, since they already knew about his Pa was a pirate captain, Ma was a Warlord and her older sister, Perona, had a ghost-like ability. Then what were the other things he didn't tell them? Maybe it wasn't about their adopted family, but it was rather about his biological one? No one could answer that, so they once again wait for Zoro to tell them.