PIRATES vs. NAVY BATTLE LOG

[highseasmods]

December 9th finds some new arrivals to this world, the same curious phenomenon that's been occurring for the past few months.

This time, however, the Navy is prepared -- or so they think.

They've got troops stationed around the island, and ships on the water to stop any arrogant, foolhardy pirates and would-be sailors from trying to make port.

So hit them with all you've got, but they're not going down easily...

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[yourotherleft]

Zoro had torn off his fake moustache by now, but he was still in the suit and sunglasses, which were perched on top of his green head. At the voice behind him, he gave up snarling at the barkeep and glanced back instead.

"Huh? Oh, it's you. Finally showed back up from wherever you ran off to, huh?"

Except...wait a minute. Curly-cook looked a little less curly than usual. And less hairy for that matter. Zoro turned fully around and peered at him across the empty tavern, trying to figure this out.

[serving_love]

"Wherever I ran off to—oh."

So he hadn't figured it out yet. Not surprising. It was so not surprising that Sanji almost laughed. What an idiot.

But somehow it was kind of a relief, too. The last time he'd seen Zoro, the other man had been half dead and Kuma had just paw-swiped him to fuck knows where. Everyone had told him he was fine, of course, not that Sanji gave a shit, but still.

He was about to comment further, but then Zoro turned all the way around and Sanji got stuck with his mouth half-open, which was fortunate since gaping was about the only thing he could manage right that second anyway.

No. No. No no nonono what the fuck, why was this his life?! First no Nami-san, and now this Zoro was CLEARLY...not...from the right time.

Sanji stared.

And then he shoved his hands in his pockets and did an about-face, moving to exit the tavern.

"Well, gotta run, Marimo, people to see, shitty things to do, places to be that are anywhere other than here, you know how it goes."

[yourotherleft]

"Oi, get back here!"

Ordinarily he probably would have let Sanji fuck off to wherever he wanted, but not when he looked so weird. Zoro needed to figure this out, not to mention one crewmate would likely lead him to the others. He strode quickly to catch up and reached to snatch at the cook's arm.

"Don't just say something stupid like that and walk off, dumbass! We were supposed to stick together and then you just disappear, and now you look different. What the hell is going on? Brook didn't make any sense and now you're making even less sense!"

[serving_love]

Sanji yanked his arm out of Zoro's grasp immediately, whirling back around to face him. But that turned out to be an awful decision, because Zoro had gotten a little taller over those -- two years, was it? Same as Usopp had. And if Usopp made him want to stand on his toes, then Zoro made him want to buy a pair of stilts.

He put some space between them, rolling his shoulders back in an attempt to not look...young, dammit, this was so unfair. But there wasn't much he could do about it, aside from finding Luffy stat, telling him they needed to sail the hell away, and hoping Zoro got lost before he could find the harbor.

But that probably wasn't an option.

Probably.

"I don't look different, you idiot, you've just forgotten because apparently you've got the memory capacity of a shitty goldfish."

Sanji removed his hands from his pockets, pulling a cigarette and his lighter out with them. He lit up, then took a drag and glowered at Zoro for a second before rolling his eyes. He tucked his lighter back away, then used his free hand to gather up the hair covering his face...and pull it across his other eye.

"You think I should be wearing it like this, right? That's what Usopp said."

[yourotherleft]

There it was. Zoro straightened up a bit, letting it all sink in. That's right, the stupid cook used to look exactly like this, two years ago. It didn't make any sense whatsoever, so for a moment he was torn between angrily demanding an explanation and laughing his ass off at how young and scrawny the cook used to be. He settled for scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Look, I don't know what the hell is going on here, aside from this island being attacked by Marines, or something like Marines," he grumbled. "You can tell me why you look so weak later, let's just catch up with the rest of the crew."

[serving_love]

Sanji spluttered.

"Asshole, it's only been two years, not ten! I ain't weak! Tch."

He spun away again, intending to stomp back off toward the town center, but he only made it about three feet before the uncontrollable urge to kick the shit out of something had him slamming his foot into the gut of the nearest Naval officer...who really hadn't been doing much other than exiting another pub at an unfortunate time.

"Where the hell do you think you are, anyway? Because this ain't it," Sanji said, turning halfway so he could give Zoro the stink-eye. "There is no rest of the crew, not everyone's here."

[yourotherleft]

"What are you talking about?" Zoro scoffed, similarly tipping his head to one side to let an errant bullet pass him by as if he sensed it coming from his blind side. "I ran into Brook already, before he got lost. Now you're here, you mentioned Usopp. We're all supposed to be here, the only ones on the ship should be Nami and Chopper and the kid."

He looked around, then. What did Sanji mean? "This is Dressrosa, right?"

[serving_love]

"Right, sure, Brook's the one who got lost," Sanji muttered under his breath, accompanied by a snort. Louder, he continued, "I've never even heard of Dressrosa. We're not there, hell, we're not even on the Grand Line. This is some other place. Nami-san, Chopper...Franky, too, none of 'em are here. And the kid—"

Stop.

Pause.

His eyes widened.

"Wait, what kid? Someone had a shitty kid?!"

[yourotherleft]

"Kin'emon's brat," Zoro shot back, "the one we picked up on Punk Hazard. You really don't remember any of this at all?" It was starting to sink in - sort of. He still couldn't fathom not being in the New World at all, but clearly something was very off. Sanji, at the very least. "Did you get hit in the head and lose two years of memories?"

Yes, that had to be it. Somehow he lost his memory and decided it was two years ago and he needed to shave. Made total sense.

[serving_love]

Sanji gave him a flat look and spoke in a matching tone.

"Yes, that's exactly what happened. Hard hits to the head often result in time going backwards two shitty years, didn't you know?"

He gave an exasperated sigh, before pointing his cigarette at Zoro.

"Okay, let me spell it out for you before you sprout flowers from thinking too hard. I haven't lost any memories, I didn't change my fucking look, I'm still nineteen. I'm—a couple years behind you. Me and Luffy are. And Brook."

[yourotherleft]

Zoro peered him through his good eye for a good long minute or two, completely silent, ignoring the sounds of battle getting closer. It took that long to sink in. And then, he grinned widely, enjoying the thought way too much. Sanji was younger than him. And weaker, the way he saw it. What was it he used to call him, back then?

"How does it feel to be Pirate A, again?" He stood back and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, finally really seeing it for himself. Yep, this was Sanji as he was two years ago, before their training. Poor thing. "Looks like I'm going to have my hands full protecting the crew, now."

[serving_love]

...Oh, that. There. The big shit-eating grin. That was going to be a serious pain in the ass. Normally he would've given Zoro a shoe to the face right about now, but. Well. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but there was no denying what he already knew anyway -- Zoro had a solid two year's worth of hard training more to him than Sanji did. He wasn't sure where that left him, and now wasn't the time to find out.

It was a fact that had him grinding his teeth together, probably loud enough to be heard, and his hands clenched into fists.

"I'm no more Pirate A than you are, you shitty swordsman! No one here even knows you exist! And hell if the crew needs your protection, we've been fine without you. So take your fancy suit and fuck off back to Dress-whatever, we're—"

His blustering cut off abruptly, and he blinked at Zoro.

"...Wait, what the hell are you wearing?"

[yourotherleft]

"Keep your pants on, I didn't raid your locker or anything," Zoro replied with a lazy wave of his hand. "It was part of a disguise."

He felt his face, double-checking that he had actually gotten rid of Kin'emon's stupid moustache. That meant at the moment, he looked pretty much exactly as Sanji would on any given day. Whoops. "But if this isn't Dressrosa, then I don't need the disguise anyway. What's going on, who are these fancy-ass troops attacking people?"

[serving_love]

"...A disguise," Sanji repeated faintly. He lifted a hand to his face, gesturing at his own left eye. "And is that part of it, or did you manage to stab yourself in the eye at some point?"

Without waiting for a reply, he turned to look down the street to where some Marines seem to be gathering. They'd have to take care of them soon.

"Those guys are this world's Navy. Just more of the same shit, really. They're attacking because they think we're pirates." ...Well. "I mean, they think everyone who ends up here is a pirate. It's—hell, it's a long story. Fight first, talk later."

[yourotherleft]

Zoro completely ignored the question about his eye - if he wasn't telling anyone in the present, he sure as hell wasn't telling anyone from the past. He followed Sanji's gaze to see the Navy gathering, seemingly stalking them, and set a hand almost lazily on Wadou Ichimonji's hilt. "That's a strategy I can approve of," he murmured. "The ones I tossed around by the fountain weren't enough to whet my appetite."

Without waiting for his crewmate, he turned and charged the pack of Navy soldiers, pulling two swords free as he went. They didn't look strong enough to need all three.

[serving_love]

"Nah, doubt any of 'em will. They're pretty useless."

Sanji didn't immediately follow when Zoro charged off. Part of him wanted to see what he could do now -- though it wasn't likely he'd get a chance to show anything off, not against these guys. Still, the differences were there. This Zoro was far beyond the one Sanji was used to.

Which was both impressive and annoying.

He took a final drag of his cigarette, then dropped what was left on the ground and crushed it out with the heel of his shoe. Then he was pushing off and diving into the gathered soldiers, as well, feet flying.

[yourotherleft]

The soldiers really weren't a challenge at all, Zoro blew through them with ease. He could sense Sanji behind him, and paid him absolutely no attention at all as they unconsciously cleared the street in tandem. He sent the remnants flying with a well-timed Tatsumaki and then breathed a huff, sliding the swords home. "Idiots," he complained. "You're not ready to face pirates."

[serving_love]

"Told ya," Sanji said, with a final kick that sent someone crashing into a wall. He dusted himself off and straightened his tie before eyeing Zoro again. "What do you want to know, and what don't you give a shit about?"

[yourotherleft]

Zoro didn't really want to take orders or information from the cook, at all, but after the weird things he said, he figured he had no choice. "Where's Luffy, and if this isn't Dressrosa, then where the hell is it. That's all I care about right now."

[serving_love]

Sanji shrugged.

"You know Luffy. Look for the biggest debris cloud, that's probably where he's causing trouble. As for this place...I don't know if the world has a name, but this island is Isla Empieza. Like I said, it ain't the Grand Line anymore. We're somewhere else entirely."

He looked away down a sloping path, shading his eyes. The ocean was just barely visible from here.

"We've got a new ship called the Million Merrily."

[yourotherleft]

Zoro absorbed this with nothing more than a twitch of his eyebrow. Somewhere else. That was still going to take time to really sink in, it just wasn't possible. He decided to focus on things he could grasp, like ships, their captain, and their foes.

"Million Merrily," he repeated, testing the name. "Is she a good ship?"

[serving_love]

"She's no Sunny, but that's a given since Franky ain't here. And it's too soon to tell if she's got the same spirit Merry had, but...yeah. She's good." He smirked a little. "We're still breaking her in."

[yourotherleft]

Zoro nodded slowly. That sounded good enough, at least for now. "Guess I'll see for myself. Let's find Luffy."

He promptly turned to just stride off, up the street in the direction the Navy had come from, and most likely the wrong direction.

[serving_love]

...Yeah. Sanji watched him go, in no hurry to stop him. But after a few seconds of letting him blithely walk on, he called out.

"Oi, dumbass! Town center's this way." He jutted a thumb over his shoulder at another road. "Guess you didn't manage to find a less shitty sense of direction in those two years, huh, Marimo?"

[yourotherleft]

Zoro almost ignored him, but then that age-old insult got his attention, and he stopped short, bristling. "I'm not taking orders from you, Pirate A!" he shot back. Nevertheless, he did return and shoved past Sanji to follow the road he indicated.