Chapter Text
Brook woke up, his breath turning to steam in the freezing cold air. The snow fell so thickly in the blizzard that even if he put his hand in front of his eyes, he couldn't have seen it. Of course, Brook didn't have eyes.
"Hey! That's my joke!!"
Oh, my apologies. The point was that all around was pine trees and snow for forever. There seemed to be no end.
Not only that, but Brook was alone. There wasn't any sign that his crew mates were anywhere in the area.
He sat up, snow falling out of his empty skull and thought about how he got here in the first place.
------------- a few hours earlier -----------------
"Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiii, is dinner ready yet? I sure hope there will be lots of meat!"
"We just had lunch less than an hour ago, and you ate half of it!" Nami bonked him over the head with her Clima-tact.
Usopp appeared from below the ship. "Luffy, she's right."
"Eh??" Luffy's face pouted. "Then how long do we have to wait?"
"Listen, I have a better idea. Instead of asking for an early dinner or stealing it as Sanji makes it, we just convince him to make us a Linner."
"Linner?..." Luffy's face lit up as he started to understand Usopp's idea. "A mixture between lunch and dinner!! Okay, starting from now Linner will be a new meal served on the ship!"
Chopper cheered, and the three boys made a dash to the kitchen but were stopped by a twirly eyebrow cook coming out, his hands full of freshly made food. "Nami-swan!! I made this special coconut shrimp meal for you!!."
"Hey cook, we haven't run out of sake yet, right?"
"And we need super coca-cola too!"
Sanji nodded. "Coming right up!!"
"Yo-ho-ho-ho! A perfect meal for a peaceful day. Right, Nami-san? Eh?"
Nami scanned the horizon with her binoculars, focusing on some particular clouds in the distance. Her face looked slightly worried, slightly confused. "That's odd."
Chopper looked up from the cotton candy he was eating. "Nami, is something wrong?"
She thought for a moment. "There's a storm in the distance, but it's not moving at all. Must be a deviation in the gravity of an island nearby. But my maps say there aren't any islands for days." She looked up, face decided. "Don't worry, nothing's wrong at all."
Everyone nodded and turned to their previous activities, but Nami headed inside.
"Good book?"
Robin smiled. "Stories about legends that have never been confirmed true or false. Most of them are just fables, like dragons living underneath the sea or secret curses that can be passed on by just a look."
Nami laughed. "Oh, Usopp would love that."
"Oh don't worry, I'm storing them in my memory for a good time. There is one that caught my eye, however."
"Hmm?"
"An island with impossible weather predictions. It changes in an instance and never has any indications beforehand. Eventually, it became too much and the island was decimated completely."
"I've never read of anything near that level of extreme. It must have been really horrible. Hey Robin, could I-"
A commotion outside interrupted her. "Sanji!! Sanji, come back!"
The two girls quickly made their way out. "What happened?"
Chopper ran over. "Sanji just suddenly flew away without any reason or anything."
"No, there's a very faint, odd presence coming from that direction." Zoro narrowed his eyes, hand on his sword. "Lots of presences."
Nami looked in the distance where Sanji had gone. Her breath stopped. "Chopper, give me the binoculars."
As she looked through them, the previous storm had increased to a wicked, red colored superstorm.
And Sanji was headed straight towards it at full speed.
------------------- Somewhere unknown, around the same time --------------
"Wrong? Because it's wrong?" He laughed, as did everyone else around them. The little girl squirmed away from the fist that had grabbed her hair, her eyes full of tears she refused to let go. "Listen, crybaby, I'm a pirate. I don't care if it's wrong." He burst into laughter again.
"Sir, the public has all been gathered into the square."
"Oh, good. Time to tell them how they can appease Tezcatlipoca."
Her eyes widened, and he let her fall, the bracelets on her hands making a clinking sound against the marble ground.
"Should we put her in a cell?"
"Don't bother. What could a crybaby accomplish anyways?"
As soon as the doors closed, Sugey curled into a small ball and cried.
------------------------ In the ocean, around the same time --------------------
Pudding cried out, her body thrashed to the side of her small boat once again as the giant waves crashed over. She could feel herself becoming weaker as more and more water poured in. Her dress and piggy tails were completely soaked, but she continued to balance herself and use her bucket to throw the water out. It seemed, however, that the more she tried, the more the water came in. Lightning flashed, and a giant wave came over her. Somehow, the boat remained upright, but her bucket was sinking in a million pieces all around her.
She collapsed to her seat, pulled her shawl tightly around her, and closed her eyes. She had never wanted to see her own death. She didn't want to die. But sometimes death was better than other things.
Another wave peered over her, and just before it hit, she felt someone call her name and lift her up.
"Pudding-chan? You're okay, right Pudding-chan?"
She could hear the waves roar, but they seemed distant now, almost as if they were below her. Slowly, she opened her eyes. "S-Sanji-san?!"
The world seemed to be twirling out of control, both in her mind and in reality. "Sanji-san, what...what are you doing here?"
She looked around and realized they were headed straight for the ground. The hand around her waist tightened.
"Hold on!"