"What a storm," Nami said, staggering and holding a hand to her forehead. "We've been blown so far off course, I have no idea where we are!"
The day had started out like any other aboard the Merry Go, but before Sanji had called everyone up for breakfast, the sky had darkened and rain, wind and even hail had lashed the small ship until all the crew could do was hang on and hope. When the weather finally calmed two days later, they were miles from where they had been.
"A storm? More like a raging tempest!" Usopp shouted, throwing his arms into the air. "We were lucky to survive! If it weren't for me, the Great Captain Usopp, and my legendary navigating skills, we would have all drowned!"
"If you're such a great navigator, Usopp, you tell us where we are!" Nami snapped, her anger coming to the fore and crashing down on the unfortunate marksman, who cowered and backed away.
"We could follow the clouds," Zoro suggested, sitting down with his back against the mast. "It's always worked for me."
"Says the man who can get lost in his own room!" said Nami scathingly. "Any other bright ideas?"
Further discussion was cut off as Luffy remembered he hadn't eaten recently and the air was filled with pitiful wails for food. Sanji snorted and strolled into the kitchen, already thinking of what to prepare for his precious Nami-san and Robin-chan, when the sight of his kitchen shocked him out of his musing.
"What's wrong with the love cook?" Zoro asked sleepily as a cry of anguish came from the galley.
"Oh! Well, the storm kind of tossed everything around, and some things got broken…" said Chopper nervously, who had been sheltering in the galley during the worst of the storm.
Nami entered the galley to find Sanji on his knees, staring at his destroyed kitchen. "It's ruined…" he moaned. Shards of glass and crockery covered the floor, and various liquids, from wine to cooking oil to soy sauce, were soaking into the wooden floor. Some of Sanji's precious knives were embedded in the table, while his best frying pan had a huge dent in it, making it useless.
"Oh, Sanji-kun…" she said sympathetically, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Ah, Nami-san," he moaned. "How am I to prepare delicious meals for you when my tools are like this?" He held up the two halves of his favourite mixing bowl, then let them fall.
"We'll have to replace everything at the next island we come to," she said, inwardly wincing as she began to calculate the cost. However, Sanji's cooking was worth… "On second thoughts," she said, "I'll just charge you the normal interest."
"Of course, my Nami-san!" he gushed, his visible eye becoming a heart.
"When's lunch ready, Sanji?" Luffy asked, bouncing into the room. "Wow, what a mess. Did you do this, Sanji?"
Sanji's eye went back to normal, and a vein above it began to twitch. "You shitty…" he growled, but didn't bother to finish the sentence. He just kicked Luffy out of the door, and began cleaning up the remains of his kitchen.
x
"Well, Sanji-kun?" Nami asked, looking up at the chef from her favourite deckchair. "What's the damage?"
Sanji sank to the deck beside her, seemingly watching Usopp, Luffy and Chopper playing one of their ridiculous games, but from his seriousness, she could tell even before he started that the news wasn't good.
"The damage to my equipment," he said in a low voice, wincing, "isn't the worst part. All the food I had in the kitchen has been contaminated by spillage from the bottles that broke, and the only food that wasn't in there are some emergency rations that I store in the main hold. On minimum rations," he said, looking at her bleakly, "we have enough food for two days."
Nami glanced over at their captain. "Let's not tell them until we have to," she whispered. "You know Luffy wouldn't be able to handle it."
"Whatever you say, Nami-san."
x
"Hey, Nami! What's that?" Luffy cried, pointing at something in the distance. Sanji had ordered Luffy to stay out of the kitchen while he cleaned up, and Luffy was passing the time by sitting on the ramshead and staring out to sea, as he so often did. The others stared in the direction he pointed, until Usopp said, "It looks like a big rock."
"Not an island?" Chopper asked timidly, peering out from behind the mast.
"It appears to be merely a spire of rock, doctor-san," said Robin calmly, gazing out towards the mysterious object.
"A spire, Robin-chan?" Sanji asked, coming out of the kitchen and lighting a cigarette.
"Yes, cook-san," she replied. "A spire with a single crooked tree growing at its peak…"
Sanji choked. "A crooked tree?" he gasped. Looking at him strangely, Robin nodded.
"Who's got the telescope?" he asked. Nami passed it over, and watched Sanji as he raised it to his eye and stared out towards the rock. "It can't be…" he whispered.
"What is it, Sanji?" Luffy asked, oblivious to the chef's tension.
"Can I speak to you for a moment, Nami-san?" Sanji asked, and motioned she follow him to the other end of the deck.
Puzzled, she followed him. "What is it, Sanji-kun?" she asked.
He took a deep breath. "I think I know where we are," he said quietly. "There's an island about an hour's sailing in that direction," he continued, pointing beyond the rock. "It's the only island within a day's sail of here."
"What? Where are we, Sanji-kun? And how do you know?" she asked, flabbergasted.
"I recognise that tree," he said briefly, turning back towards the rest of the crew.
Nami followed, bewildered by the cook's strange behaviour. What's going on? she wondered.
x
An hour later, on the course Sanji had pointed out, an island came into view, the white walls of its buildings shining in the early afternoon sun.
"Wow, land!" Luffy cried excitedly.
As they drew closer, small children playing on the docks stopped to wave at them. "Are you real pirates?" one little girl called out.
"Yep!" shouted back Luffy, grinning from ear to ear.
"Cool!" the kids yelled, and ran along the pier, following the Merry Go until she docked and let a ladder over the side. Luffy jumped straight down, and was immediately surrounded by a crowd of children.
"We'd better keep an eye on him," muttered Zoro, and swung himself over the side to follow his goofy captain, who was already being led away by the kids.
"Right. Sanji-kun, you're in charge of food shopping…" Nami began.
"Please, Nami-san, can't I look for decent equipment instead?" Sanji said, putting on the puppy-dog look that worked so well for Luffy. "I really need to choose it myself, and if I do it while someone else gets the food, we can leave here much sooner."
Nami blinked. Since when would Sanji allow anyone but himself to choose the food that she and Robin would eat? "OK…" she said slowly.
Instead, Nami went food shopping with Usopp along to carry the bags, while Robin and Chopper stayed behind to mind the ship. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sanji slipped away into town, keeping to the back alleys wherever possible. All it needed was one person seeing his eyebrow, and he'd never get away…
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