Chapter Text
“Don’t see what we need to go back to the beach for.” Zoro complained loudly as their little group made its way steadily down to what apparently was actually known locally as Mar’s Cove. He scowled at the sea where it was becoming more visible down the road. “We held our end of the deal and he held his. We’re all squared up as far as I’m concerned.”
Sanji rolled his eyes before squeezing Zoro’s hand tightly for a moment.
“Marimo I don’t think we should ignore a request from an actually living and breathing sea god. Especially since we have to sail away on the sea he is the god of. Or did you forget that part?”
Usopp hitched Chopper up higher onto his shoulders as he grimaced.
“Yeah Zoro! The last thing we want is to piss off the guy who can sink our ship at any moment cause he’s cranky! We have to be nice!”
“I for one, am fascinated by this opportunity to speak once again with a godly entity from another time.”
Robin chimed in now from where she led the way down the street. She reached over to pat Sterlino’s shoulder soothingly where he walked next to her, anxiety and awe written all over his face as his head continued to whip back and forth wildly as he looked at his home island in a new light. She deftly tucked her arm through his and linked their elbows, pulling him close.
“And Sterlino, do try to remember our doctor has asked that you try and focus your sightline on the road itself for now to avoid triggering another dizzy spell.”
He blushed at her reprimand, adjusting the bulky pair of sunglasses Chopper had prescribed over his eyes a little better as she continued.
“After all of Mello’s hard work to repair your body, I’m sure his beloved Mar would be upset to find out you’d damaged it again so soon by falling.”
Chopper tugged furiously at Usopp’s ear to make him veer to the left with a shriek, aiming them towards Sterlino with a harrowed expression on his little face as they came up beside them.
“She’s right Sterlino! You don’t want to make Mar mad, or worse -hurt your body again! I mean, he was really nice to us on the beach when I was helping him keep your body alive, but still!”
Zoro scoffed, attempting to lead Sanji down a narrow lane on the right absentmindedly before the cook jerked him back onto the correct path.
“Well he sure as hell wasn’t nice to Saude and all those other nutjobs that were obsessed with him when he drowned them all. If that’s how he treats his rabid followers, I’d hate to see how he treats his enemies.”
Sterlino stiffened up considerably at that comment, his head hanging low once more to prevent himself from being overwhelmed by the many colors around them.
“I think…I might remember some of that part.” He brought his hands up partially and flexed his fingers as he stared down at them. “It was like I was dragging each of them underwater and strangling them with my own two hands. He was so angry.”
Usopp blanched as Chopper’s jaw dropped in horror over his shoulder.
“St-Sterlino! That’s so scary!”
Zoro sneered.
“I say he was still too easy on those bastards then! He should’ve made it much worse!”
Sanji kicked Zoro in the shin, making the swordsman hop up and break away from him with a furious hiss as he turned to the cook.
“The hell was that for?! He should have done worse to those nasty people!”
Sanji didn’t back down for a second, his lip curling furiously as the two suddenly butted heads in the middle of the street.
“Of course he should have but don’t go reminding him of that when we’re about to see him! We’re not trying to piss him off -he just wants to talk!”
“But about what?!” Zoro snarled back, their foreheads smashed together angrily as he leaned in more. “What could that guy possibly want that isn’t more trouble?!”
Sanji pressed forward on his own now, matching Zoro’s ire bite for bite, lifting a foot threateningly as Zoro unsheathed one of his blades a fraction of an inch.
“How the hell should I know, you Moss for brains moron?! That’s the point of talking!”
Before the two could slip into the first physical fight they’d had in nearly a week, arms blossomed between the two and aptly separated the two raging combatants.
“Though I’m sure you two’d love nothing more than a little privacy for your courting ritual-“ Robin admonished lightly from the front, making Sanji and Zoro both spring back with red faces and sputtering excuses, “I think we’d best hurry along and see what the terrible sea god wishes to speak with us about. Later the pair of you can fight and frolic together to your heart's content.”
Usopp murmured over his shoulder directly into Chopper’s ear as the two continued to loudly splutter out feeble excuses.
“-What were they arguing about in the first place?”
Chopper shrugged.
Mar’s Cove was still barricaded off from the local public by the large and jagged wall built up of coral rock and stone. It was a beach that had been cordoned off generations ago and there weren’t many businesses or buildings in general that were nearby, apart from the ashy black stain that now resided just a block or so away from the makeshift sea wall. Robin rubbed at her chin thoughtfully as she regarded the charred remains of one of the Marist’s churches.
“I’ve learned that Mar’s Cove and this whole stretch of the beach in particular is considered bad luck.”
She said to no one in particular.
“Many swimmers would drown and ships would sink, all attributed of course to Mar’s furious and vengeful nature. So the locals built this sea wall to keep people out. In hindsight, by making this particular area taboo, they made it much easier for Saude and his accomplices to use the secluded beach for their nefarious business transactions. We will have difficulty climbing over the rocks, but I believe Ace may have left their tunnel and basement still intact for the time being.”
Chopper was walking on his own now, tippy tapping his way over to the burnt up foundations of the church, having grown tired of Usopp’s piggyback ride.
“He said it was so his crew could look for clues about who they were selling the people to.” He sniffed around before grabbing a hunk of what appeared to be a half cracked and blackened support beam. “The basement is under here. I helped him cover the entrance back up so people couldn’t get inside before he was done.”
Zoro’s lip curled in distaste as he moved to help Chopper lift the heavy beam of half burnt wood off the pile of debris and shingles below.
“He’s been running off every day, why didn’t the bastard just finish up here and burn it already?”
“I believe his priority during his outings was to clean up Sterlino’s workshop and repair the damages done so that the sale would go through smoothly.” Robin replied as she crossed her arms. A dozen or so appeared around the two and began helping them pull away a larger chunk of what had clearly been part of the roof once. Usopp nodded in agreement as he cast a wary glance around the abandoned edge of town.
“Yeah, we kept going back to Sterlino’s to clean up the mess and try and get the smell out. We finished patching up and smoothing the slashed walls yesterday.” He gulped audibly now. “You wouldn’t believe the places we kept finding bloodstains. He didn’t want the realtor to know something so terrible had happened in there and back out.”
Sterlino worked his jaw open as though he had something to say, but quickly snapped it back shut, turning now to face the greyish wall of piled rock nearby instead as Usopp hopped in now to help unbury the basement. Sanji moved to his side slowly, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lighting one up quickly as he watched the others work. They’d both been warned by a furious Chopper to not even try to lift a finger to help with anything that day and were dutifully staying out of the doctor’s wwy to avoid his ire.
Sanji let a plume of smoke out slowly into the air as Chopper and Zoro flipped a particularly thick hunk of plywood off the top of the basement steps, revealing the opening below.
“You look like you got something to say about all that.”
The cook remarked casually as Sterlino kept his back firmly to the others working in the ash. The young metalworker’s fists balled up tightly at his sides, the two missing fingers prominent on his right hand.
“I just…” Sterlino paused as though searching for the right words. “Didn’t think…He’d still want me after everything that happened.” He held up his maimed hand and turned it over, studying the ruined fingers on the end. “Like this.”
His hand squeezed tightly again and he grimaced.
“Apart from it being so ugly, and not being able to even do my best work anymore -I did such a shit job in that situation. I put Ace in danger. Whitebeard won’t want someone weak like me on his crew now. Someone useless. Ace won’t-“
He cut himself off with a tsk, pulling the sunglasses from his face and turning his head up now to gaze at the sky with a frustrated expression.
“It’s all blue.” He said quietly as he stared in awe, his face slowly smoothing out again despite his worries. “The sky is the color blue. And it’s different but it’s the same as the sea.”
Sanji nodded pointedly, looking up at the clear afternoon sky above them as well.
“And the clouds are called white Sterlino. They go nice together don’t they?”
Sterlino dropped his head now to look over at the cook with a strange expression.
“Why then, in your dream, was it all those different colors? They called it The All Blue. But it wasn’t just blue. There was more. A lot more.”
Sanji’s lip curled up into the barest hint of a smile as he pulled the cigarette free from between his lips and let out another pillar of light grey smoke.
“The sky and the sea can have many colors Sterlino. You’ll see soon enough when the sun goes down.” He placed the cigarette back between his lips and tucked his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “And there are many different colors and types of people on the sea. Some people are like me, lighter with yellow hair. Some people look more like Usopp, or Ace and even darker browns. Some people are missing fingers like you, or even legs.”
An image of a greying blond head with a gargantuan chef's hat and a peg leg came to mind for a moment.
“But nobody is useless. No matter what they look like, or what they’ve lost. Yeah. You might not be able to do your best work right now. But soon enough you’ll find your new best. And Ace’ll be happy to have it.”
He snickered now as Chopper called at them to come join them as they began to descend into the rubble.
“I’m pretty sure Ace isn’t the type of guy to get hung up on what you can and can’t do for him. He chose you for the person you are. Not for how good you can handle an unfair fight alone or how many ships you can fix with two good hands. He’d never call you useless.”
He kicked lightly at Sterlino’s ankle now to jostle him back from where he seemed to have drifted off. The taller blond gave him a sheepish grin, his cheeks tinting pink before stuffing the sunglasses back onto his face as Sanji finished his cigarette and flicked it off into the rocks just as Zoro began to complain.
“Oi, you two! Hurry up!” He frowned at them from where he was already partially down the hidden stairwell. Sanji waved him off.
“We’re coming impatient Marimo!” He nudged Sterlino in the side to start him moving forward. “C’mon Sterlino. Let’s go see what the bodysnatcher has to say.”