Ch. 1: All Blue

There it was. All blue.

He had finally reached it. He was finally here. His new home.

Sanji watched the sunset on the balcony. It was beautiful and all he could have ever dreamed of. But he couldn't shake the feeling like he was missing something. Well, he actually knew what he was missing. He also knew he couldn't ever get it back.

It was the action, the fun. The adventure.

Those exciting, anything-goes years he had with the crew. Never knowing what was coming in the next island, the next turn, the next minute. Gambling your life for something when the only guarantee it was actually there existed in your heart.

All of it was over.

Of course it seemed to end faster than it actually did. They spent weeks saying goodbye. Partying every night. Crying each day. Laughing every other. They'd talked about good times and bad ones.

But after memories were discussed and farewells were said, the rest of the crew set sail.

And he was all alone.

No more fawning over the beautiful Nami-san and Robin-chan. No more pitless stomach to feed. No more cute reindeer to whip up some cotton candy for. No more yo-ho-hoing and random explosions and an occasional "SUPER" out of nowhere. And no more moss.

Well, annoying and alcoholic moss that sunbathed while taking a nap and stinking up the deck with their sweat from a stupidly crazy workout. No more stupid marimo to fight to let out some steam. No more quiet nights of smoking and drinking booze together peacefully admiring the moon's reflection on the calm ocean.

He sat down, pulled out a post-dinner cigarette, and watched the purple dolphins play in the distance with some baby sea kings. It was a wonderful sight to see. In other patches of his vision he could see other sea-life happenings. Interactions between species of marine life that happened in no other ocean in the world happened here. He was at the greatest sea in the world. All Blue. The one that all chefs dream to see, but most give up before trying. And he was there. Living on it's only island.

He had waited all his life for this.

On those cold bitter nights, after being beaten by his monster siblings, he'd lay broken and bloodied on the dungeon floor stained with his own blood and would dream of the magical sea.

All Blue. The paradise where he could cook freely without the threat of mutilation by his father or brothers. Far, far away from Germa. Far, far away from everything he'd known and feared.

He imagined it was like heaven. He would dream of playing on the beach with his mother who would still be alive. He'd show her all the fantastic creatures he found in the tide pools. They'd eat delicious meals that he created just for her. In the afternoon, they'd take naps on the beach in hammocks. At night, they'd sail on the calm waters to stargaze and catch jars of the fluorescent creatures made the ocean glow beneath them.

Everything would be perfect and wonderful in All Blue.

It was this dream that pushed him forward and gave him the will and strength to live throughout even the most miserable and traumatic moments of his childhood.

And though he was immensely more lonely than he imagined, he could honestly say that All Blue was every bit as breathtaking and incredible as he knew it would be.

There was even a phenomenon beyond what his years of imagination and conjured up. He had never thought he'd find such an astounding island here.

It was a large island with a lush green rainforest on the east side, temperate forests next to it, a prairie next to that, then a desert, and all other kinds of ecosystems continuing the chain around a mountain in the center of the Weatherly Challenged island. This island was the All Blue of land!

Just like how all the fish in All Blue were dragged in by ocean currents that ended here, all the animals on All Green drifted on driftwood and massive matts of debris created and expelled by massive tropical storms. They floated onto shore, just barely alive enough to recover and colonize their new home.

He briefly considered calling it "All Green", but decided that was a stupid name. However, that didn't stop him from referring to it as "All Green" in his head.

All Green was where he lived. Franky had made him a home on the island decked with a super advanced kitchen equipped with all sorts of devices (designed and manufactured by Usopp Co.) to create any possible dish he could ever imagine. Franky had also made him an unfathomable vehicle that he could use for transportation around the island as well as to leave to get necessary items like cigarettes from the closest islands nearby. Which were far. But not far enough for Franky's state of the art fishing boat/cruise/submarine/whatever-you-pleased vehicle to take him more than a few hours.

By the numbers the journey didn't seem so difficult, but in those hours he'd have to dodge variously sized rocks ejected from underwater volcanoes, burrow under or fly above coral reefs raised hundreds of feet above the surface of the water, enter through a literal water tornado, and survive a deadly raffle of other impossible obstacles. No wonder why All Blue was so hard to find.

The contraption that Franky made was modeled after the Sunny and could be powered by literally any type of fuel. But there was a special feature where when he used cola, it would yell "SUPER!" and little blue stars would fly out and fizz away.

Sometimes, he'd put a bottle of cola in the fuel cell just to hear it go. It was completely sporadic, but very occasionally the voice of the "Super!" would be in one of his other crewmates voice. And a couple of times, though he'd deny it adamantly if asked, he'd drunkenly stumbled onto Mini Sunny with a bottle of wine and a cooler filled with cola, and fed the fuel cell over and over all night just to hear his crews voices.

On those nights, he couldn't lie to himself. He missed everyone so much it hurt.

But he knew exactly where to find them. Nami-swan gave him eternal log posts to every island the crew would reside in. Well, except for Luffy, who continued to sail the sea even after finding One Piece, and Zoro who was still "the wandering swordsman". But even then he still had his vivir card for his former captain. Zoro had lost his vivir card coming back from the shop.

The wandering marimo would stay lost from him. He could be anywhere in the world at any time. Even if they agreed to meet somehow, who knows if Zoro would be able to find his way.

Damn.

The chef shook his head. How could he think such melancholy thoughts?

It was getting dark now on the balcony. The setting sun had disappeared under the blue horizon, and the aerial remnants of color from it's final stretch were fading. Streaks of red, purple, pink, and orange were replaced by the dark blue and purple of the night sky. The ocean was starting to glow a cool aqua as the glowing creatures emerged from the deep.

Sanji put out the cigarette he had been smoking and flicked it into the trash vent where it would travel to the automated waste sorter.

He dragged his feet as he walked into his home; the thick glass door slid open and shut. He carefully, though absentmindedly, hung his coat on a rack.

Maybe an invigorating hot soak in a hot spring and the novel send from Robin will ease his frighteningly fast dropping mood.

His pace quickened at the thought of a bath to warm his bones. Trekking to his room to snatch a robe and the book, he quickly made a beeline through the hallway and into his private hot springs behind his home.

Immediately upon entering the water, he could feel the minerals working to soothe his aching muscles. He opened his book.

It was about a man who found himself somewhere strange and scary. He ran out and escaped his captors in an attempt to go home to his fiancé only to find her dead and been dead for several decades. His eyes were glued. The stars in the sky shifted slowly as he read.

Eventually, his eyes grew too heavy to continue and his feet were wrinkled uncomfortably. He yawned. Damn. He would have to finish it another time.

Sanji rose from the bath and robed himself once more. He walked to his room and placed the book carefully on the bookshelf. After putting on some boxers he sank into his king sized bed. As soon as his head hit his pillow he fell asleep.