There was a particular sensation Nana got whenever an Aqua Laguna was approaching Water 7 that she could never quite explain. It always happened just before the storm struck. Nana could never see the storm or sense any signs of its presence. The air would be quiet and the water would be still. Nothing out of the ordinary and yet, when Nana would look out onto the horizon, she just knew that it was coming. Something was coming and it was not something good.
She wished she had felt that sensation even before she she walked through the door. She wished that something, anything, would have alerted her to the news but even as she sat there, motionless and numb, with her nakama surrounding her, she knew there was nothing that could have prepared her for this.
She had stayed with Pygmy and Momonosuke, supervising the dog as he ate the meals that he had been missing and caring for him under strict orders from Chopper. She found it surprising that the usually cheerful and upbeat child was tight lipped and was hesitant to engage even with her but she decided not to pry. Pygmy's well being came first and she wanted to make sure he was okay.
The reindeer was called out when a Mink arrived to announce the awakening of some Duke Dog-something. He must've been someone of great importance because the sloth Mink that came to bring the news was in tears of joy while Chopper wasted no time to check on the Duke.
It wasn't until hours later that Brook came to get her. Pygmy was happily awakening from a much needed nap with a full belly so Nana finally felt it was okay to meet up with the others. They had left a few Minks outside the door, guarding Momo, but again, the child did not say much to them.
Yes, when she walked into the house where all her nakama were, the Minks had stopped whatever they were doing and hustled out, giving the pirates their privacy. Only Wanda and Carrot stayed behind. Yes, when she entered, the music stopped and so did the dancing, singing, and any type of merriment. Yes, she noticed that Nami, Chopper, and even Brook were avoiding her gaze but how was she to know...how was she to expect this?!
"What...what do you mean Sanji's gone?" she asked quietly. Her throat was dry and her voice came out crackled and hoarse.
Nami's bottom lip quivered as she clasped her hands tightly in front of her. "I-I'm so sorry, Nana. There was nothing we could do to stop him. And after how we left Dressrosa too...Ugh...I just...He was...He..." Nami's head dropped and she began to cry so hard that no words could be formed.
"Oy. Nami. It's super not your fault," Franky said. He and Pygmy flanked Nana's side, with Pygmy resting his head on the mechanic's lap. Even though the cyborg had an arm around the mechanic's shoulder to support her, he looked pretty shaken himself.
"Maybe," Robin said and Nana was surprised her voice could get even gentler than its usual calm tone, "Maybe I should explain since...it seems it's still hard for Nami and them to talk about it."
"No, Robin-san," Brook came to the center of the circle and he sat in front of Nana. He took a deep breath and then faced the mechanic square on, "Let me...We owe Nana-san a full explanation of this since we saw everything first hand. She deserves all the details."
"Tell me everything," Nana murmured. Her voice sounded distant and foreign even to her. Like it was coming from someone else, "What happened when you guys left Dressrosa?"
Brook nodded. "Ah. As you know, we encountered Big Mom's ship. Thankfully, she wasn't on board. However, the duo that Luffy-san met on the Fish-Man Island were. Surprisingly, they didn't come because of Luffy-san's challenge. Instead, they came to take back Caesar...And they came prepared. They brought along Capone 'Gang' Bege, part of the Worst Generation along with Zoro-san and Luffy-san."
"Bege?" Nana repeated, "What was he doing there?"
"Seems like he and his crew became Big Mom's subordinates," Brook said, "They came to take back Caesar alive but the gas man seemed to prefer being our captive than to go with them...He was terrified of Big Mom. Of course, we had no choice but to leave Dressrosa and flee from Big Mom's ship."
Goosebumps prickled up Nana's arms. "Yeah. Sanji mentioned something about a counter attack."
"Alright, guys! We'll wait for you at Zou!"
Nana's fists clenched on her lap. Why didn't you wait for me, you idiot? You said you would be here!
"If it wasn't for Sanji-san's brilliant plan for a counter attack, we never would've escaped," Brook admitted, "He took advantage of all our abilities, even Caesar's, to get away."
"Sanji-Bro has always been super smart," Franky said.
"How long did it take you to sail here?" Nana asked.
"1 day..." Nami sniffed, "Apparently, Zou was close by around that time."
"So that was 10 days ago," Nana said. She forced herself to clear her head and try to focus on the facts, rather than the rising bile creeping up her throat, "When...when we arrived here, we saw that the gates were smashed open. Did you guys do that?"
"No," Wanda replied as she stepped in closer to the group, "That part I can explain...We were attacked by someone else about half a month ago. When Nami and the others arrived here, most of the country had already been destroyed....But that day...that day could only be described as a miracle! If not for everyone's bravery...if not for Chopper's medical expertise...every single person in the Mokomo Dukedom would've been helplessly killed."
Wanda's eyes moistened and her whole body trembled.
"Oy," Nana said softly, "This looks like it's going to be a rough story for everyone involved so maybe Robin really should-"
"No! I would like to explain to you-teia," Wanda said and she gave a firm nod of conviction, "We...were attacked by one of 'the King of Beast' Kaido's right hand man, Jack the Drought and his men. They demanded that we hand over a man named Raizo, a supposed samurai from a kingdom called Wano."
Nana blinked. "Wait! What?! They came here looking for Kin-"
"Oh! Brat! I know, it's too much for you!" Franky shouted suddenly and then tackled the mechanic to the ground. He mushed her face into his metal chest and rolled around the floor with her. All the way to the back corner of the room, "Cry if you need to! It's okay. Big Bro is here!"
"What the-" Nana squirmed away from Franky's hold and socked him in the jaw, "What is wrong with you?"
"Ah ha ha ha ha," Usopp laughed nervously as he jumped in front of them to block Wanda's curious eyes, "Look at that sibling love right there. Just give them a minute."
Wanda nodded. "I understand. It is a lot to process."
"Oy! Brat!" Franky hissed from behind the sniper, "Don't mention Kin here or the samurais. Don't even mention Wano. It's taboo here!"
"What?!"
"Just keep your damn mouth shut and hear the story."
"Ugh! Fine! I just want to know what happened to Sanji!" Nana grunted as she got up to her feet and stomped back to her place with the group. She sat down in a huff and folded her arms over her chest, "I'm sorry about that. Continue, Wanda. You were saying Jack came demanding you handover the sam-er...some guy?"
"Oh...yes," Wanda said, "But we knew nothing about the man they called Raizo. We told them that man was not here but Jack didn't listen to us at all...and so...the fight began. The peaceful Kurai City was instantly turned into a battlefield. Our citizens are trained in combat but it was too much even for them. We, the Musketeers, came in as soon as we could and even Duke Dogstorm intervened. We tried to tell them that there is no samurai here but they did not listen to what we had to say at all. Jack the Drought is man with a bounty of 1 billion bounty and the battle we fought was long and arduous. Thanks to the Rain-Ruption, we briefly gained the upper hand but once the water drained away, they came back at again."
"Rain-Ruption," Nana repeated, "That's when the elephant splashes sea water everywhere, right?"
"WHAT?! That's what you focused on?" Usopp exclaimed, "What about the 1 Billion Bounty?! Jack the Drought sounds so scary!"
"Please," Nana scoffed and pointed a finger at Chopper, "Whoever makes those bounties suck ass at their job! Look at Chopper. His bounty is 100 bellis and he's easily worth 100 million at least and my bounty should be at least 500 million belli. Not this tied with Zoro crap."
"OY!" Franky and Zoro shouted with indignance. Behind them, Chopper wriggled with delight.
"Are you saying you're better than me?" Zoro growled.
"What about me, Nana-brat? I super deserve a higher bounty too!" Franky yelled.
"Just hurry up and get to the end of the story," Nana barked back. Their annoyance at her ignited the rage she was trying to suppress, "What the fuck happened to this country? How the fuck did Duke Dogstorm end up in a coma? And where the fuck is Sanji?!"
The group returned to their original nervous and solemn state, including Wanda, and Nana put a hand to her face.
"Sorry," she groaned, "Just...please...continue, Wanda."
"When night fell, Duke Dogstorm and the Musketeers fell back and Master Cat Viper and the Guardians of Whale Forest came to take their place in battle," Wanda explained.
"And who is Master Cat- Wait no! Robin, you can tell me everything about this country later." Nana said and put her hands up in the air in defeat, "I'll shut up now."
Wanda waited a moment, unsure of how to handle this temperamental mechanic, and then she hesitantly continued. "Day and night...without break...the battle went on for five days. But Jacks' reinforcements kept coming from the sea and we could hardly fend them off. However, we were steadily overwhelming the enemy. I can say there was only one that we couldn't bring down and that was Jack. He is, indeed, a monster...However, even Jack was getting tired of the two rules, who he couldn't take down. So on the fifth day, he brought out a weapon."
Nana's ears perked up and she raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess. Poison gas?"
"Eh?!" Wanda and her nakama looked at her with widened eyes.
"How'd you-teia know that?" Wanda asked.
"Smelled it in the air when walking through the forest," Nana said.
"Yeah. This country was ruined by Caesar's poison-gas weapon," Chopper said.
Nana's jaw clenched. "Of course it was...If Caesar was working for Douchemingo and Douchemingo was creating crap for Kaido...Those little shits."
Wanda gulped as she recalled the horrible memory of the weapon detonating. "It all happened so quickly. The deadly gas was filling the whole country at the speed of a blast wave. No one could possibly escape it. The gas filled up the whole city and half the forest and totally paralyzed us. Except for the people who evacuated to the back of the forest, everyone else was killed and tortured by Jack and his men...And then they took Master Cat Viper and Duke Dogstorm...and then...and then..."
Nana held up a hand. "Stop," Nana said to the now weeping Mink, "I get the picture. You don't have to say anymore." Nana's hand turned to a finger and she directed it at Brook, "You. You're up!"
"Ah! My turn?" Brook gasped and he cleared his throat. "Y-Yes. Erm...It seems that monster, Jack, tortured the two leaders here to get the information he wanted but...of course, they couldn't tell him where this R-Raizo was because he's not here. On the sixth day, Jack left the island but he kept a few men back...It seems, Jack left because of what happened on Dressrosa."
"Eh?" Nana asked, "Dressrosa?"
Brook nodded. "Ah. The news of you all taking down Doflamingo was enough for Jack to abandon his mission here and leave. Most recently, it was reported that Jack had died while attacking the naval ships that was transporting Doflamingo."
"Y-You saved us," Wanda said as she wiped her tears away, "We're alive because of you-teia."
"Our group arrived here right after Jack left," Brook said, "To make a long, painful story short, we discovered the state of the Minks and the presence of the nerve gas. We forced Caesar to remove the gas using his Devil Fruit power while Chopper created an antidote and treated all the surviving Minks."
Nana snorted and she put a hand on Chopper's head. "See? Told you guys he was worth more than 100 million bellis."
"Shut up! Complimenting me like that won't make me happy, you jerk!"
"You didn't even know who we were," Wanda wept, "But you saved us without giving up on us. We'll never forget what you did for us. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude."
"I'm happy for you all. Honest," Nana said and folded her arms over her chest, "But if this story ends so well, why is Sanji and Caesar gone?"
"To be honest," Brook stated, "This was a big event that happened just two days ago...Big Mom's ship, the one we had fled from at Dressrosa, arrived here."
"What?!" Nana yelled, "How?!"
"It turns out, someone on their ship, Pekoms-san, from this very island," Brook said, "They had overheard us saying that Zou was our destination and tracked us down. To avoid any more damage to the Minks, Sanji-san agreed to negotiate handing over Caesar to them at a private location in a distant forest. It was truly kind of him to do so."
"So they took him and Caesar?" Nana demanded, "Big Mom fucking took him?!"
"It's...more complicated than that," Brook sighed, "Pekoms-san was touched by us saving his own kind so he was willing to take Caesar out of our hands and be done with it...However, his own ally, Bege, was not in agreement with that. He shot Pekoms right from behind and riddled him with bullets."
"What?!" Nana was on her feet at this point and she was shaking with rage. Both Pygmy and Franky tugged on her shirt and arm to get her to sit back down, "I thought they just wanted Caesar! Why the hell would Bege not be agreement with that?! And to shoot someone on the same side?!"
"Like I said. It's complicated," Brook said, "It turns out, they came after us not just for Caesar. Big Mom had another business with us...WIth Sanji-san, in particular."
"What? To cook for her? To make her delicious candies?" Nana demanded.
"Just sit down and listen, brat!" Franky begged, "You need to hear it all."
"Ugh! Fine!" Nana plopped down on the floor and recrossed her arms. "Go!"
"Are you aware of Bege's Devil Fruit powers, Nana-san?" Brook asked.
"What do you think?" Nana snapped.
"Don't kill the messenger!" Franky warned and Nana rolled her eyes.
"Okay. No, Brook. I'm not," Nana said.
"He ate the Castle-Castle fruit. He's a castle human, which means his whole body can become a fortress. He was able to shrink down his men and have them hide in his body. Before we knew it, Sanji-san, Caesar, and I were surrounded by Bege and his men," Brook said, "They were even able to capture Nami-san and Chopper-san and brought them over to our part of the forest. They chained us up and brought us into his body fortress."
Nana raised an eyebrow but held her tongue.
"Inside there, he had a tete-a-tete with Sanji-san, who was the only one of us unchained and sitting freely. Apparently, Bege was tasked to give Sanji-san an invitation to one of Big Mom's tea party. The highlight of that particular tea party would be a wedding ceremony...involving the third son of the Vinsmoke Family."
Now Nana's silence was completely involuntary. She felt Franky's hand on her arm tighten to a point of being slightly painful but she said nothing.
"The...The bride would be...the 35th daughter of Big Mom, Charlotte Pudding," Brook said slowly. He knew well enough that the mechanic was now a ticking time bomb and he was so scared of what would pull her trigger, "It is...a m-marriage...set up by his family, the Vin-"
Thwack!
Nana flung her arm out of Franky's grip and punched a hole in the wooden floor with her bare fist.
"BULLSHIT!" Nana roared as she stared at her bleeding fist and a few Minks gaping at her from a branch underneath the house, "FUCKING BULLSHIT! We're his family. Me! Franky! Pyg! Us! Not that fucking Vin-shits! Sanji doesn't consider them his family. Old man Zeff. Whoever the fuck is back on the Baratie. That's his fucking family!"
"Nana-brat, super calm down. Please!" Franky said but he did not touch the mechanic. No one dared to approach her.
"As I thought," Brook sighed, "You knew about Sanji-san's ties with the Vinsmoke Family."
"Severed ties," Nana spat.
Brook nodded, "Ah. Exactly what Sanji-san thought as well. He flatly refused the invitation. He said there was no way he would marry this woman as he already had one in mind and he would never make the Straw Hats a subordinate of the Big Mom pirates as Luffy-san is to be the King of Pirates."
"Oh yeah..." Zoro muttered.
Nana whipped her head over to him and she glared at him. "What?! What 'oh yeah'?!"
"I'll tell you later," Zoro grunted and waved his hand over to the skeleton, "Brook's not done."
"Apparently, showing Sanj-san the invitation was only a polite gesture. Sanji-san actually had no say in it. While they were talking, Bege was already moving his body to Big Mom's ship. We were going to go to this wedding whether we liked it or not...and there's also the added factor that Sanji-san couldn't refuse it anymore."
"Wh-Why? Why couldn't he refuse?!" Nana demanded.
Brook gulped. "Ano...that part we don't know. A man named Vito whispered something to Sanji-san and whatever they said, made him stop resisting. He was angered by what he heard. He did nothing but ask for a pen and some paper."
"He wrote a note?" Nana asked.
Brook nodded. "He gave it to Nami-san and told her to give it to you and Luffy-san. Then...he asked us to believe that he did not mean to hide anything from his friends. And then...-"
"Then he hugged us - Chopper, Brook, and myself," Nami said, "And threw us right out of the fortress."
"He said...it was his problem and that he'll sort it out by himself," Chopper added, "The last thing we saw before the fortress door closed on us was his smile...He told...He told us to say hi to all of you."
"Give me the fucking note," Nana said. She held out a hand and when it was in her possession, the paper trembled as she read.
"To my buds...I've gotta go see a woman. I'll be back."
Nana crumpled it into a ball. "That stupid fuck...How dare he?!"
"It's not his fault!" Nami shouted, "They must have threatened him with something for him to do this. It's not like Sanji-kun to-"
"HOW DARE HE FUCKING LIE TO ME?! 'I'LL BE BACK'?! WHO THE FUCK DOES HE THINK HE'S WRITING TO?" Nana yelled as she threw the ball down the hole and shot a mini-cannonball right at it.
Kaboom!
"AHHHHHH! Nana! What did you do?!" Usopp screamed as the whole house began to tilt and the pirates came crashing down with the falling tree.
As the dust and debris settled down onto the fortress floor, the Minks crowded around the crash site with nervousness.
"Are you trying to kill us all, Nana?!" a short growl came as the green haired swordsman pushed himself out from under a broken piece of roof.
"Everyone okay?" Luffy asked as he slowly shrunk down his expanded belly, while Nami, Chopper, and Usopp rolled off from it.
"I told you guys we needed to sedate her before we told her everything!" Nami chided.
"Ow! SUPER!" Franky came bursting out from under a pile of planks with Pygmy in his arms, "Where are you, brat? Brat!"
A piece of siding slid off the side of what was left of the tree trunk, revealing the mechanic. She was kneeling down with her hand clutching a very burnt ball of paper. "Luffy..." she whispered. Her voice quiet but enraged, "I'm going after Big Mom. Cool?"
Luffy got to his feet and he tilted his straw hat over his eyes. "Ah. I'm coming with you."