Chapter Text
Chopper tied off the bandage with a huff, as if this was somehow all Sanji's fault. "Let me know if you start running a fever or the pain gets worse, okay?"
"Think we can eat this for dinner?" Luffy poked curiously at the headless wolf corpse, a tad too hopeful for Sanji's taste.
"On the one hand, it'd be a shame to waste meat." The cook stood, hissing softly as he tested his injured leg. "On the other, it's bound to be tough and gamey."
"I'm sure you'll make it taste great!"
"I wasn't doubting you'd eat it. Ladies, I can make something a bit more suited to your refined palates."
"I might just take you up on that offer." Nami wrinkled her nose at the fresh body. "Seriously, how can you think of eating something that just took a chunk out of Sanji's leg??"
"Nothing I can't heal from."
"Well it's hardly something that stirs up my appetite." Robin glanced up from her book for a moment, before looking over at Nami. "How long until the log pose resets?"
"No idea. This island's so small that there's barely any records of it."
"Does it even have a name?" Usopp scooted closer- or rather, further away from the wolf.
She pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper, studying it intensely. "Canipul. Huh."
"At least there's no dinosaurs this time, right? ...Right?"
"No, probably not." She stuffed it back into her pocket.
"Probably??"
"Besides this lone wolf, we haven't had any encounters with wildlife." Zoro shoved at the corpse with the toe of his boot.
"I'm sure I could find something much more appetizing." Sanji tested his leg again. Aside from a minor limp, he could likely walk on it just fine.
"No, you have to stay put and rest!" Chopper practically cried. "No walking until I say so!"
"Relax, it'll be fine. Anything for the two most beautiful women I know."
Nami rolled her eyes. "Maybe let someone else gather ingredients?"
"I can do it." Zoro looked up from where he was toying with the body.
"Do you even know what you're looking for?" Sanji sat back down in the sand, if only to keep Chopper from pestering him.
"Not wolves."
"That's a start, I guess."
"Be back soon."
"Not by yourself, you won't. Usopp-"
"What if there's monsters in there? I should, uh, stay behind and protect everyone."
"I can go." Robin offered, closing her book.
"I would never ask that of you." He stood up again, much to the reindeer's dismay.
"I told you to stay put!"
"I'll let Zoro do all the heavy lifting; don't worry."
"You'll what?" Zoro glared.
"If I don't go with you, we're never seeing you again."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying you get lost easy, Mosshead. C'mon."
"Don't be afraid to lean on him if you have to!" Chopper called out towards their retreating backs.
"Be very afraid of leaning on me."
"This has got to be the smallest island I've ever seen."
"Well it's where the log pose was pointing, unless you see any other islands around here."
"Look at how tall those trees are!"
"Hopefully it's got some supplies. The kitchen's running low again."
"Didn't you just stock it??"
"Have you met our captain?"
Zoro fully expected to be slowed down by Sanji's limp, yet the cook was keeping up rather well. Even better, he was quiet, and really, Zoro couldn't ask for anything more than that.
Actually, he was... too quiet.
"Oi, Curly." He turned back. "Aren't you supposed to be telling me what is and isn't edible?"
"Huh?" Oh, Sanji did not look good. He was flushed and sweaty, ambling along with one hand on his ribs. He also seemed to have barely heard Zoro, given the glazed-over expression on his face.
"Shit." The swordsman moved in the blink of an eye, steadying him against a tree. "Should've listened to Chopper and stayed behind."
"No, I'm-I'm fine." He tugged at his tie. "Look, there's a patch of edible mushrooms right there."
"Alright, I'm grabbing them just so we'll have something besides wolf meat, but then we're heading back. Stay. Put."
"Relax, Marimo. I'm not going anywhere."
"Don't pass out on me, either. I'm not carrying you back."
He just gave a gesture which could either have been a thumbs up or flipping the bird, Zoro wasn't sure. He shot Sanji one last look before turning to the indicated patch of mushrooms, nearly as brown as the mud they sat in. "You sure these are worth eating?"
"...Positive."
"Don't like how that pause sounded."
"I'm just trying to think, shut up."
"You're clearly hurting yourself." He knelt down, rooting around in the mud. "Guess we can just blame you if we all end up poisoned."
"They're fine."
He snorted, gathering as many as he could before standing up again. "Alright, let's go- Cook?"
The space Sanji had occupied mere minutes before was now empty, with no sign of the chef in sight.
"Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me..."
"Is this place even charted?"
"It's showing up as a dot on my maps, that's about it."
"Cool, there's a lake!"
"Luffy, you can't swim!"
"I should probably start looking for ingredients."
"Holy shit- Sanji, behind you!"
Sanji didn't remember moving. He didn't remember getting up and walking away from his spot, but he must have, because he was in an entirely different part of the island now. All the trees were denser, wilder, less familiar.
His skin was also on fire.
Molten lava was running through his veins, eating away at his insides. His ribs felt like they were trying to escape his body. He was fairly certain he'd shed his shirt and jacket a while ago, somewhere. He really had no idea what was going on, much less where he left his clothes. Panting, he fell to his knees, some detached part of his mind wondering if the crew would find his body out there.
Water. He needed water.
There was a lake, wasn't there? It was up ahead, not too far away. The dying sunlight glinted off of the surface, a beacon in the increasing darkness. A promised respite. He forced himself back up again, tripping over rocks and roots as he went. Just a little... bit... closer...
A lance drove itself through his skull, brain exploding with pure, blinding pain. He was no longer there; his body and mind had completely separated from each other. There was nothing but a pressing darkness, smothering and comfortable all at once. It was almost like being asleep.
But he was still awake. Still aware, and unable to perceive anything. Unable to even scream.
"Are you okay??"
"Guess that's what I get for kicking too close to its mouth- ow."
"Just stay still while I grab some bandages, okay??"
"You got it."
"I'm still the one that beheaded it."
"You had an opening because it was chewing my damn leg off."
"I think it counts."
Luffy waved over the approaching figure. "Zoro, you're back! Where's Sanji?"
"He's not with you guys?"
"You lost him??" Chopper practically screeched.
"I didn't lose him, he just wandered off!"
"And you actually managed to find your way back here?" Nami huffed. "I'm impressed."
"...I was looking for him, actually."
"Oooooof course."
"He really shouldn't be wandering out there on that leg!" Chopper waved his hooves around, animated.
"He'll be fine." Zoro dumped the mushrooms he'd picked on the ground. "Watch, he'll come wandering out of that forest any second now."
They all stared at the dark thicket of trees expectantly, but there was no sign of the chef.
"He's gonna be so mad that you abandoned him." Usopp muttered.
"He abandoned me first!"
"I don't care who abandoned who, we need to find him!" Chopper clung to Nami's leg, using all of his cuteness at his disposal.
"Alright, alright." She patted his head. "Let's go find Sanji."
They all paired up, Chopper now firmly insisting he go with Zoro while Usopp took to Luffy. Not that that kept him from remarking on how Sanji might actually explode with joy if the women were the ones who found him.
"Just make sure Luffy doesn't get sidetracked." Nami shook her head a little.
"Huh?" Luffy looked over from where he'd been spacing out, staring at the now fully darkened forest.
"Made my point for me."
Chopper was extremely skittish standing next to Zoro, glancing back and forth between bushes like he was about to bolt at any moment. It took about the third or fourth time of him flinching for the swordsman to finally ask what was wrong.
"I'm telling you, this forest smells weird." Chopper hid behind him a little, trembling. "Something bad is in here."
Zoro's heart leapt into his throat. "Let's... keep going."
He was practically dragging Chopper with the way the reindeer clung to his pants leg. Sure, Chopper might scare easily, but this was beyond scared; he was utterly terrified.
"What does it smell like?"
"I don't think you'd understand."
"Try me."
Chopper scrunched his face up a little. "It's like... hunger. Something out there is hungry, and worse; it's an apex predator."
Zoro might've been impressed with how Chopper could pick that all up from smell alone if his heart hadn't just dropped from his throat down into his stomach. He tossed the doctor up onto his shoulders, swords drawn. "Hold on tight."
Chopper screamed as he took off running, unsure of where he was actually headed. All he knew was that he needed to find Sanji and he needed to do it now. Trees rushed past, turning the already identical landscape into a blur of shadows. If Chopper hadn't tugged on his sleeve, he would've missed the chef's jacket and shirt lying in the mud.
"Great, now where's the rest of him?" Zoro resisted the irrational urge to kick a tree in frustration.
"It doesn't look like there's any blood or damage on it, so he must've left it behind on his own."
"That doesn't exactly help."
"I'm trying! I-" Chopper froze mid-sentence, staring at the bushes with wide eyes.
"What? What is it?"
"It's... it's over there."
"What is?"
He didn't get a chance to respond, a low growl rumbling out from the darkness. A huge, hulking beast crossed their path, and Zoro could have kicked himself.
Of course there was more than one of these things on the island.
It was massive, the size of a bear if not larger, with handsome golden fur. It also had smatterings of black around its nose, paws, ears and tail, giving it almost foxlike markings. And currently its blue eyes were trained on the pair, teeth bared.
"Chopper. Can you talk to it?"
"N-no..."
"Are you just saying that because you're scared?"
"No! It isn't saying anything!"
He didn't get a chance to ask another question as the giant wolf lunged, teeth bared and claws extended. He blocked it just in time, blades sparking against those deadly paws. Chopper yelped, clinging on and nearly ripping Zoro's hair out.
"Nngh- let go!"
"But you said-"
"Well now I'm telling you to let go!"
The reindeer hopped back, but the beast was far less likely to retreat, jaws snapping an inch from Zoro's face. He kicked it in the chest (a move Sanji would've been proud of, he couldn't help but think) before slashing out, leaving long gashes in its muzzle. Which, unfortunately, only served to piss it off more than anything else.
"Shit!" One of his blades got caught in the wolf's mouth, ripped out of his hands and tossed to the side. He just barely managed to dodge another lunge, claws grazing his shoulder. This time, however, the wolf seemed fixated on a trembling Chopper. "Oh no the fuck you do not."
It certainly noticed the sword stuck in its ass, jumping and snarling as blood spattered on the ground.
"That's right, focus on me, ya mutt." He blocked an attempted swipe, stabbing it in the jaw when it tried to bite him, but the damn thing was persistent. "Will you just fuck off and die already??"
"R-remember the last one we fought??" Chopper squeaked, mostly hidden behind a tree. "It didn't stop until it was dead."
"We fought?" Zoro snorted, slashing at it again. "But I see your point."
The wolf backed up a little, legs tensed and ready to spring. Zoro gripped his swords tighter, staring it down. For a moment, neither of them moved.
"ZORO!" Chopper cried out, watching in horror as the beast leapt, but the swordsman was faster, blades piercing cleanly through its heart and gut. It made a strangled yelp, going limp and toppling Zoro to the ground.
"Mmph! Damn thing is heavy..."
"Are you okay??"
"M'fine." He shoved it off, flicking the blood off of his swords before going to gather the one that had gotten thrown to the side. "Now let's get back to looking for the dumbass cook."
Chopper didn't respond, staring wide-eyed at the wolf. If anything, he began to shake harder.
"Move it, c'mon."
"S-S-S-"
"What is it?" He followed Chopper's field of vision. His heart had gone from being in his stomach to stopping completely.
On the ground, where the wolf had been moments before lay the chef, bleeding out from deep stab wounds.
"SANJIIIIII!"