A Father's Betrayal

Chapter 4

"Waaaaaaaaaaa! It's sooooooo huuuuuugeeeeeeee!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper said. All of which had stars in their eyes at the sight of what was in front of the Straw Hats.

The ship in front of them was not a ship but a giant transponder snail, that looked to have a gray brick castle tower built on top of it. Well, giant was an understatement given the fact that it would take millions... no... billions of normal sized transponder snails stacked on top and lined up next to each other just to fill the side of this monster of a snail. Unlike the rest of the crew, Sanji had seen snails like this before, having lived in Germa, so the size didn't phase him.

"The Sunny is cooler," Sanji muttered, his arms folded across his chest and cigarette in his mouth, trying to hide the fact that his arms were trembling. The cigarette was helping a little but not as much as he would have liked. What he really wanted to do right now was put the whole box between his lips and light them, but he didn't want the others to think something was wrong... even though something was wrong. He especially didn't want to show his fear to his brothers more than he already had. How did this happen? Sanji asked himself trying to think back to the past few weeks in Zou and Dressrosa, trying to find any sign that he might have missed indicating his brothers had been around to interfere with the Sunny's course but came up empty. He was sure he would have sensed them with his highly developed observation haki, so he couldn't figure out how he overlooked their presence.

Before anyone could say anything else, Luffy stretched his arms to grab the edge of the brick grond of the ship. Chopper and Usopp held on to Luffy as he rocketed them onto the ship. Niji and Yonji followed, flying, to most of the Straw Hats surprise, except for Sanji, as well as Law, who had heard of the Germa Princes' abilities. Ichiji stayed behind for the moment, probably to make sure Sanji didn't try something funny. Sanji decided that probably was the case. Although there was no need for it, after all he did say he had some on finished business to take care of.

"Sanji," Ichiji said in a tone that said 'you better board the ship now'. Ichiji never had to say more then one or two word for a person to understand what he was thanking, his tone always said it all for him.

Sanji sighed before turning to Nami, Robin, and Carrot, "Would you three like a lift? I can carry you girls but that's about it." His voice didn't have it's usual cheerfulness it had when he asked Nami and Robin if they wanted help.

"Thank you, Sanji, but I think I can handle myself," Rodin said taking a hand from above her head that was linked to a bunch of other hands creating a chain that appeared to be growing out of the ship.

Carrot being a rabbit mink jumped onto the ship. She looked over the edge, "Thank you for the offer Sanji but I'm good."

"Nami-san?"

Nami walked over to the blond and jumped into his arms. "Thank you, Sanji-kun."

"Skywalk," Sanji said pushing off the air. He sat Nami on the ground but didn't let himself land on the ship until Law threw two rocks up and warped him and Zoro both safely to the ship with the rest of the Straw Hats.

After Ichiji finally flew up, he called over to a man dressed in a black outfit with an orange 66 on the front and a yellow bandana like scarf. He wore a white head piece that covered the top half of his head, aside from his eyes which were covered with goggles, and a pair of black headphones that also read 66 on each ear piece.

"Yes, Prince Ichiji?"

"Have Cosette show our guests to their rooms."

"Yes, Ichiji-sama," the man turned and ran towards the castle tower.

"Cosette..." Sanji muttered to himself. The name brought the image of a little girl with dirty blond hair, brown eyes, and a freckled face.

Ichiji lead them to the castle. Sanji reluctantly followed. Niji and Yonji walked behind the crew to insure none of them tried to escape.