I do not own One Piece.
3RD POV
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"Meat! Meat! Meat!" Luffy chanted, banging his fists on the counter with his tongue hanging out. He needed to eat so he could get Katsu back. They would be in and out. With maybe some time to explore the kingdom before they rush to take down the flamingo.
The Captain hadn't noticed the absence of the other crew members. His mind was far too clouded with the thought of food, and of course Katsu.
A woman giggled as she placed a big pile of meat in front of the Captain. "You're very simple with your order, huh?" Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and secured back with a blue bandana over her head. While she also wore a toga like Luffy, hers was rather dull in compassion, having a faint blue tint to the fabric.
Luffy shrugged with his mouth already full.
She leaned in curiously, "You're not from here, huh?"
This made the Captain blink before answering honestly. "No. I'm a pirate. We're here to get a friend back. How'd you guess?" Then his eyes went wide as he swallowed the food and gasped. "Are you psychotic?!"
The woman gasped at first, then narrowed her eyes. "Do you mean psychic?" When Luffy met her with a blank stare she sighed and shook her head. "I can tell because of your clothes. Only nobles have the money to have such rich colors on their clothing, and absolutely no noble would come to this district. This place manages to stay open because of travelers, pirates do tend to bring a decent income. We're considered the poorer of the poor."
Luffy wrinkled his nose, "You sound proud to be poor."
She shrugged, "Someone's gotta be poor. We have fun down here without all the guards." Then she paused to look at Luffy. Her eyes narrowing as she inspected the hat on his head. "You look familiar."
"Eh?" Luffy frowned, pausing his chewing. "I don't know you."
"Aelia, order's up!" An irritated voice called from the back, banging down on the wall.
The woman sighed, then offered one more smile towards Luffy, "Enjoy your food."
Luffy nodded and continued to eat without any interruption. Though he swore there was something that he was forgetting to do.
What was it?
Only after a moment of thinking hard Luffy shrugged and continued to eat. Thinking was hard, especially on an empty stomach.
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Two figures walked down the streets, a heavy atmosphere of annoyance littered the air around them. The annoyance would only grow heavier when the swordsman would start to wonder and the chef would pull him back. However, their main distress was with their Captain, who had disappeared on them.
"That idiot." Sanji growled, "He's probably stuffing his face right now with no intention of trying to get any information."
"Pftt, the idiot got lost." Zoro couldn't stop the smirk that drew on his face. He was sure Katsu would love to hear about this later.
Sanji glared at Zoro with sharp teeth. "I don't want to hear about that from you!" Taking a deep breath, Sanji forced himself to relax. It became easy when he reminded himself as to why they were there. Katsu. She needed them right now.
However, it seemed that picturing Katsu wasn't the best thing to do. Hearts had replaced Sanji's eyes as he began cooing about 'Wife-Chan', followed by proclaiming he was going to save her. This only drew Zoro's attention to Sanji with annoyance. He allowed his foot to slide out and trip the swooning chef.
"Whoops." He mumbled monotonously.
"We need more information on the royal family." Zoro continued before a fight could break out.
Sanji dusted himself off, but refrained from lashing out. "Yeah."
"Royal Family?" A wispy voice rasped.
Both pirates turned to see an old withered man sitting on the ground. His hair was caked in mud and matted. The color looked to be a grayish brown, though it was hard to know for sure with all the mud. The man's skin was also covered in dirt and mud, and tanned too much that it was beginning to look leathery. His eyes were half open, revealing a pale blue color that was glazed over. His clothing could only be described as dirty rags which hung loosely on his skeletal frame.
Sanji winced in sympathy of the starving man. Already he knew that he was going to provide a meal for him.
"Yeah, you got anything on them?" Zoro responded.
"Tch, got anything on them." The old man repeated, "I used to be the head of the royal guard."
"How did you go from being head of the royal guard to being in this dump?" Zoro asked, crossing his arms.
"My sister died." Was all the man offered.
Sanji and Zoro shared a glance at each other before looking back at the old man. Sanji squatted down so he was eye level with the man. "Would you mind sharing? I can cook you a hot meal while you do so."
The man's face scrunched up in confusion as he appeared to look towards them, though his eyes stared blankly ahead towards the sky rather than at either Sanji or Zoro. "I've been ignored for years, but I guess you two would be curious since you aren't from here." He hummed out. "You must have something to do with the new people they've brought. But why would you want to feed me? Trying to poison me perhaps?"
"You're right, we're not from here. That's all the more reason we would have no reason to poison you." Sanji answered, "I don't like seeing hungry people."
"Makes sense. You must really hate this district." Then he shook his head, "You wouldn't last in the royal family."
Both pirates frowned, Sanji nearly glaring at the old man. "What do you mean?"
Rather than answer, the man rose his eyebrows. "Can I take you up on that free meal? I'll explain more once we're away from prying eyes."
Sanji nodded, helping the man stand up. Neither pirate spoke of the stench that surrounded the man. Though Zoro made a note to let the mean take a well needed shower after he had a meal. The he would force Law to clean up the bathroom afterwards.
"I'm Sanji by the way."
"Ah, Zoro."
The man cracked a smile, already piecing together some things. "Nice to meet you two nice gentlemen. I'm Pollux."
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"That's it!" Luffy slammed his hands on the bar, starling those around him. "Hey lady!"
Aelia turned around to look at Luffy with a frown. "It's Aelia. What's up? You need another order of meat?"
"Yeah!" Luffy grinned, then shook his head. "Wait! Don't distract me! Tell me what you know about the royal family!"
She blinked, "That's a weird request."
"I gotta know! It's really important!" Luffy demanded.
Aelia nodded then thought for a moment before smiling. "Oh! They're actually really nice! Princess Ayami helped King Italus put together a new program."
She pulled out a picture of a little boy who looked similar to her. "That's my little brother. He's part of the new program. They've taken all the kids in the first and second districts and have them live in the palace with them. There they will get a better education which we can't afford to give them."
"They also provide all clothing and food they'll need." She smiled happily looking at the picture before placing it back in her pocket. "I think it's great that they're doing that, it gives us poor guys a fighting chance for once."
"What about the assassin family?" Luffy asked, "Are they nice too?"
Aelia frowned, then her eyes widened. "The Kobayashi family? They're the sweetest! It was one of their family members that helped fund the whole program I told you about. They work close with the royal family, and of course protect them, but I wouldn't call them an assassin family."
"Oh!" Luffy nodded, "So they're good."
She smiled and nodded, "The best!"
"Yosh!" The Captain stood up, grinning. "Time to get Katsu!"
Since they were nice, Luffy was sure all he needed to do was ask for his Nakama back. Surely there had been some misunderstanding.
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It had been a long time since someone offered a meal to Pollux. He had gotten used to finding scraps int he garbage and just managed to scrape by with that. There had been a few times when he had grabbed something not food, but it was bound to happen since his sight was gone.
These two, which Pollux knew to be pirates, were kind. Sure, they wanted information, but they didn't have to offer anything in return. He would have gladly given information away, especially if it would secure the safety of the prince's children.
It had grown to amuse him how pirates were sometimes the kindest people around. He knew there were ugly pirates as well, but some of the most beautiful souls belonged to pirates. The prince belonged in that category, and it gave Pollux some peace knowing he was doing well.
The smell of freshly cooked fish and rice made the man's mouth water and his stomach growl. There was also the faint burning smell of sake, which Pollux believed belonged to the swordsman seated beside him.
"So, the royal family?" Zoro asked, looking away from the sake he was drinking and towards Pollux. When Law saw the old man board the ship he simply raised an eyebrow, but one look from Zoro sent him sitting back down.
"Terrible people." Pollux answered immediately. "I swore my life to serving them, one of my biggest mistakes."
Sanji glanced up at the man. "And you're going to share their secrets?"
"Yes. When I swore my life to them, I was ignorant. Just like all the fools are now." He answered. "I thought I was going to do good. What I saw changed my mind. Then, they killed by sister, kicked me out of the palace, blind me, strip me of my family title, ad label me as some crazy old beggar with drug problems. You bet I'm going to take any chance at telling their secrets."
Both pirates frowned, not liking where this was going. However, one thing had been nagging Sanji. He had to address this first.
"What did you mean by me not lasting in the royal family?" Sanji asked, "Do they starve the servants?"
Pollux snorted, "They don't care enough to starve the servants. Those guys get by with a beating if they do something bad. No, they starve their own children. When I was there we still had the prince and my sister Queen Rhea, may she rest in peace."
"Sister?" Zoro asked.
"Yes, it was the biggest mistake I made, approving my sister to be married to the King. Back then I had thought the royal family was made of good people. Even when my sister began to tell me things, I thought she was exaggerating the truth." Pollux shook his head sadly. "The King's favorite punishment for the prince was to starve him. Minor punishments would only last a day, more serious ones a month. At first I though she just meant dessert."
Sanji's blood began boiling.
"But then I finally started looking. My nephew was so malnourished, and even my sister was beginning to lose weight. However, instead of me trying to get them out of that situation, I decided to talk to the King about it." Pollux shook his head again. "Things didn't end well from there. I was blinded and kicked out of the palace. Drugged even, until I formed an addiction. The left on the streets as nothing but a beggar. It wasn't long after I heard of my sister's passing."
Sanji's grip on the pan tightened. Pollux had been correct. Sani wouldn't have lasted. He would have beat down the King the moment he ordered that.
"Do they still do that?" Zoro asked.
"Yes." Pollux nodded. "I heard a few guards talking about it the other day. Sa... Some guy with the name starting with an 'S' something was receiving a bunch of added on punishments." He recalled, tapping on his chin.
"Sato?" Both pirates offered.
Pollux nodded his head, "That's it."
"If you're related to the late Queen, then that would make Sato and Katsu your niece and nephews." Sanji said, turning the heat a little lower.
"I didn't realize my nephew was old enough to have children. Has it been that long?" Pollux mumbled, his head looking down.
Zoro instead looked towards Sanji, a frown on his face. "Oi, you don't think they're starving Katsu?"
Sanji's eyes widened in realization and he felt his anger double.
"No doubt, if she has any ties to the royal family." Pollux answered, not realizing the question wasn't aimed for him. "But I haven't heard of any Katsu."
"Mitsu?" They both offered, hoping to hear good news.
"Ah, the pirate princess. Kitiara hates her." Pollux almost grinned in amusement. "She gave them hell during her trip here. Many guards were bruised in the first two weeks, even with the sea prism stone and starvation. She's a fighter."
While neither Sanji nor Zoro were happy to hear of their Nakama's suffering, they were just the tiniest bit happy to hear of her raising hell. They both shared a look and offered a silent promise. Luffy would kick their asses first, then Sanji would follow up, only to be finished by Zoro who would slice them to pieces.
"How do you know all this?" Zoro asked.
A sly smirk pulled at the man's lips. "I can't share that information. Just know I know many secret way to get in. I need to stay informed, in any case there comes a chance to take them down."
Placing the steaming food onto a plate, Sanji carried it over and placed it in front of Pollux then handed him a spoon. Then, the chef took out a cigarette and lit it.
"Eat up, then you can tell us more." Sanji said, "Because I can guarantee you that we're going to be your best bet of taking them down."
Pollux didn't need to be told twice.
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End of Chapter 113!
This is not edited.