Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 309 A MISSING CREWMAN

“Wait! You’re really friends with Nami?” The rabbit girl asked as we turned to follow Luffy.

“We are? Why are you in her clothes?” I asked. I was fairly certain she was a friend from canon, but it was best to double check. 

“She gave it to me. Nami and the others are that way,” she said pointing to where Luffy was. The rubber man had already run off though. We walked in a group following behind her. Kinnemon still hadn’t joined us but he didn’t feel dead so that was good enough for now. 

“What is this place?” Robin asked as we walked. 

“This is Zou,” the rabbit answered, looking at her confused. 

“No, the elephant we are on. I’ve never heard of a living island.” 

“That’s Zunesha. He has been carrying our island for hundreds of years,” she admitted. “No one knows why though.” 

“That’s a little odd,” I admitted. “Was the island always on the elephant?” 

“No one knows,” she said as if she was whispering a secret. 

“What do you know?” I asked. 

“I’m Carrot,” she said simply. “You must be Luffy.” 

“Why’s that?” I asked. 

“Nami said her captain was really stupid.”

“Listen here Bugs-” I growled, but was cut off as her ears perked up and she ran ahead. Robin hid a smile as we walked. I wondered how to get the rabbit-woman back but it wasn’t long until we were through the jungle. 

In the clearing was a city, or at least the remains of one. Stone and wood buildings were wrecked. It was apparent a fight had happened there. Luffy was laughing happily as he threw Chopper up in the air. 

“Guys, they’re safe,” Luffy said, surprised by the relief in him. I guessed he really did worry about important things like his crew. 

“I am going to look for my crew,” Trafalgar said walking through the town. We walked up to Chopper as Luffy set him down. He was carrying bandages and a bucket of water. I took them off his hands as he caught his breath. 

“It’s great to see you guys,” Chopper admitted. “We need all the help we can get.”

“What happened here?” Robin asked as she noticed a few more Mink Tribe members limping around. All different mixes of animals they appeared to be mammal bases at least. Canines, felines, there might have been a platypus guy too but before I could confirm Chopper started pulling us away. 

“Zou was attacked by the Beast Pirates,” Chopper said. 

“They attacked themselves?” I asked, confused. 

“No, the Beast Pirates are Kaidou’s crew,” Chopper clarified. “The Mink Tribe fought them for days and nights. Most everyone is injured.” He opened a large building to reveal Nami working to help bandage a small child’s leg. 

“Guys!” She said standing up. “So good to see you, we need help.” So we got to work. Making shadow clones we were able to streamline some of the work. Between cleaning, stitching, and bandaging wounds it was a few hours before we finished with the mass of injured Mink Tribe members. 

“We got here a couple of days ago,” Nami admitted. “Apparently the Beast Pirates called off their attack around the time you guys were taking on Doflamingo.” 

“I’m sure they went off to try to help them,” I said. “We are lucky the elephant moves or we would have run into the Beast Pirates on our way here.” 

“You’re telling me,” Nami whispered. I could feel her strong emotions through our Link. Relief was the main emotion, but there was a nagging fear on her. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Covered in dirt, sweat, and other people’s blood she was still beautiful. Eyeing me, there were tears in her eyes. “It’s Sanji, he-”

“Later,” I said. “Fix what we can now. We will worry about Sanji later.” She frowned but nodded. Lucky that no one else had mentioned the missing cook. It wasn't until we were through with the worse injured people until Luffy realized something was wrong.

“Sanji! I’m starving!” He yelled. Looking around he noticed for the first time that the cook wasn’t there. “Where is Sanji?” 

“He um isn’t here,” Nami admitted. 

“Dr. Chopper, are you good with the patients for now?” I asked. 

“Yes, most are out of danger,” Chopper said but moved to the side to begin grinding leaves for medicine. 

“What happened?” I asked Nami. 

“He was taken, or stolen, or whatever,” Nami said. Fear and regret coloring her Spiritual Energy. “It happened when we got here. The Beast Pirates had left a little before we arrived. But when we got to Zunesha, the Big Mom Pirates were here.” 

“Why were they here?” 

“Apparently they knew we were in an alliance with Trafalgar. One of Big Mom’s crew is from Zou so he led them here. They were looking for us, more specifically Sanji. They captured us and threatened Sanji that if he didn’t go with them, they would kill us.” 

“That’s not good,” I said, unsure what to tell the others. “Any idea why?” 

“Something about a wedding to one of Big Mom’s daughters,” Nami said. “Sanji is apparently a son of a group of assassins or something.”

“Curly brow?” Zoro asked, confused. 

“Yeah, the Vinsmoke family. Called Germa 66,” Nami said, letting out a long sigh as she got it all off her chest. I remembered the power ranger colored siblings of Sanji from the manga. Basically a Diet version of the Zoldycks from Hunter x Hunter they were supposed to be soulless killers. Killers that tortured Sanji when he was a child. He would never go back to them willingly. “Sanji didn’t hesitate to go with them.” 

“That’s not good,” I mumbled. 

“Well yeah, if they threatened my crew, that is not good,” Luffy said, growing angry. “But we can just go there and collect him, right?” 

“If he marries into Big Mom’s family that would make us all Big Mom’s underlings,” Robin noted. 

“That’s definitely not good!” Luffy said, growing angrier. “Sanji wouldn’t do that.” 

“No, which is why we need to assume he doesn’t consider himself a Straw Hat anymore,” I said. The others turned to me. “There is no way Sanji would make any of us work under someone else. But to save any of us he would gladly sacrifice himself and his freedom. Giving up his own dream, so our’s could live on.” 

“What can we do?” Nami asked, tears in her eyes. 

“Break him out, of course,” Luffy said. 

“But it’s Big Mom-” Nami tried to say. 

“Doesn’t matter,” Luffy said. “I don’t care if it’s the world government. No one takes our crewmates.” 

“True,” I said. “But we need to be smart about it.”

“What’s our plan?” Luffy asked. 

“A small group,” I said. “Not sure who yet. But Big Mom has answers I want, so I plan to go. Luffy, you’ll have to go as well.”

“Of course,” he said. “Do you think she will have any more of her candy?” 

“For sure. The island the Big Mom pirates use as a base is basically Willy Wonka’s wet dream.” 

“Who?” Luffy asked. 

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “We are pirates. We take what we want, don’t give anything back, and damn the consequences, right Cap?” 

“Yosh,” Luffy said with a smile. “Let’s kick her butt.”