【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 286 The calm before the storm

"But this battle is over." Aokiji took a few steps back and said, "It's easy for me to destroy you here, but I owe Straw Hat Boy a favor, so his previous expedition against Crocodile will be written off."

"Or do you still want to fight?" Aokiji changed the subject and looked at Lucci with a cold expression.

"As you said, your battle with Luffy is over." Lucci put away his knife and said calmly that the most important thing now is to thaw Luffy, but one day he will make him pay for the injury that caused Luffy.

Aokiji picked up his coat on the ground and walked towards the bicycle on the shore, saying as he walked, "Let me remind you, if you continue to stay on this ship, they will only face it sooner... Pray that we don't meet again, Monkey D. Lucci!" After leaving these words, Aokiji left completely.

Lucci clenched his fists as he watched the man riding a bicycle away from the sea.

……

Zoro and Sanji made their way along the coastline, running and praying that Luffy was okay.

"damn it……"

Zoro stared at the front and ran, looking anxious, "Why are you always like this, Luffy..."

"That idiot better be okay!" Sanji muttered under his breath, keeping up with Zoro's pace while making sure Zoro ran on the right path, no matter how much he insisted on taking the wrong path.

"Great, they're there!" Sanji breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Lucci running towards them with joy.

"It's not broken!" Looking at the intact Luffy in Lucci's arms, Zoro felt the tension in his shoulders finally relax.

"Lucci, is Luffy okay?" Zoro and Sanji asked behind Lucci.

"He's fine, but he needs treatment as soon as possible." Lucci replied as he rushed towards Merry.

……

"Chopper!!" Zoro shouted at Merry.

"Send him to the bathroom!" Chopper gritted his teeth as he looked at the frozen Luffy.

Lucci placed Luffy next to Robin and held Luffy's hand, his face full of worry "Heal him, Chopper."

Chopper nodded heavily, entered his doctor mode, and said calmly, "Pour the water on Luffy, and use the cold water to dissolve it from the inside of his body first."

……

Luffy and Robin's breathing and pulse completely stabilized after a few hours. The crew members were exhausted from the difficult watch at these times. Qi recovered not long after Luffy returned to the ship.

In the kitchen, Sanji rolled up his sleeves, sweating slightly on his forehead, and moved gracefully between the cooking counters, a cigarette in his mouth, and the spatula on the stove made a sizzling sound.

He was completely immersed in the job, not only cooking for the injured crew, but more in immersing himself in it, which allowed him to concentrate, stabilize his emotions, and stay away from all the complicated thoughts, which at least gave his brain time to process some things.

But this moment of focus, concentration was interrupted by a hesitant step. Sanji continued cooking without turning around. He knew who it was. "If you're just standing there in a daze, why not get a knife and help."

After a moment of silence, Zoro snorted reluctantly, then walked over to the cutting board with a knife and started chopping vegetables. Of course, this was definitely not one of his swords.

The atmosphere was silent, with no sound except for the rough, fast, and skillless sound of Zoro chopping vegetables. Normally he would teach Zoro a lesson for his chopping mistakes, but this time he let him pass.

The kitchen was silent, save for the crackling of the stove, the snap of the knife on the vegetables, and the gurgling of the soup, until the cutting board under Zoro's hand was cut in half.

Sanji's eyes widened and he kicked Zoro in the shin in annoyance, but Zoro didn't react to it at all, just stood there and listened to Sanji's annoyed muttering.

Not paying any attention to Zoro's silence, Sanji muttered as he handed the new cutting board to Zoro, until he saw Zoro's shaking hands, he paused, his eyes widening slightly.

Sanji blinked and moved his eyes to his hand, and found that it was doing the same action. Sanji angrily stuffed the cutting board in his hand at Zoro.

They did their own things again, Zoro continued to cut vegetables, but this time slower than before. Silence broke out between them again, but this time it was heavier. They all knew the reason. Sanji finally couldn't help it and broke the silence first.

"What do you want, green algae head?" Sanji whispered without looking at Zoro.

"It's okay," Zoro muttered, trying to act like it was okay until he turned his head and noticed Sanji's shaking hands, and hesitated in a rare moment.

"We won't let that happen again." Zoro was silent for a while and finally said.

"Heh, do you think you can stop him?" Sanji's voice trembled. "I'm tired of pretending that nothing is wrong every time, watching him sacrifice himself for us, watching him fight for us alone, and we can't do anything."

Zoro stopped what he was doing, guilt flashing in his eyes, he knew Sanji was right, even though they had been training hard to protect him, the crew and themselves, talking about not letting him fight alone, Luffy always seemed to try to face powerful enemies alone, just like this time against Aokiji, just like before against Crocodile.

"We will...train...train hard and become stronger, strong enough to stand beside them and clear all obstacles in their way."

"certainly--"

Next, the two of them cooked and prepared food together. There was no sarcasm or ridicule against each other, only understanding of each other, and they were immersed in a silence that was more comfortable than before.

"Is there anything to eat?" Lucci's voice interrupted the silence.

Sanji turned his head and looked in the direction of the voice. Lucci was standing at the door. Sanji noticed that his face looked unusually pale, but he didn't ask too much. He understood. After all, what happened today was not reassuring.

Sanji placed a plate of grilled fish and a bowl of steaming soup in front of Lucci, and looking at his wet clothes, he reminded him, "Drink the soup first to warm yourself up, don't catch a cold."

"Here's this one, stop torturing my food," Sanji muttered, handing Zoro another plate of food, along with some sake, as they were definitely hungry from this experience.

"Oh." Zoro took the food and sat down opposite Lucci, eating quietly. It was a little quiet on the boat, the usually noisy people were still lying in bed, but after a while he actually felt a little bit nostalgic.

Sanji continued with his cooking, adding the vegetables Zoro had cut into the soup and continuing to simmer, only this time with a more relaxed mood.

……

Night falls

The crew members were all asleep around Luffy and Robin. The only ones who were not asleep were Robin, who woke up and sat on the bed, and Lucci, who was on duty on the lookout.