Part 11 - Sanji 9/21

 "Not quite" Luffy promptly came to his rescue. The fruit's power does work in water, but the fruit user can't move. However, this limitation doesn't apply to zombies raised by Kuro, so they could move underwater without any problems."

Sanji cast a suspicious glance at Luffy but nodded slightly, acknowledging that the explanation was logical. However, 'logical' didn't mean Luffy's explanation was true. If any other person had given such an explanation, Sanji would have believed it without question, but this was Luffy.

 "So," Usopp continued, "by attacking ships, Kuro not only increased his army but also acquired money, which he used to outfit his army with powerful armor, making it stronger day by day. Zombies aren't limited by human constraints, so they don't care much about the weight of armor, which Kuro took advantage of. Oh, how I suffered with those iron towers when Kuro led them in an attack on my village," Usopp sighed heavily and shook his head in sorrow.

"Village? The one with the Mo-something? "

It was clear that, like Sanji, Usopp hadn't remembered the exact name of the "village" mentioned by Luffy, but this time he didn't falter:

"No, it's a different village; I left that one a long time ago, the boy lied without blinking.

Usopp's reaction was impressive, but he should have been more careful with his words:

 "A long time ago?" Sanji asked with clear skepticism, eyeing Usopp, who could barely be more than eighteen. "Weren't you the right-hand man of some Snake on that island? And when were you his right-hand man? In the cradle?" After two years of dealing with Luffy, tricking Sanji had become a challenging task, as Usopp was now experiencing firsthand.

 Ha-ha-ha… young man, I see you've been deceived by my appearance," Usopp's reaction was again impressive… though his laugh might have sounded a bit more convincing and less self-satisfied. "I don't even want to tell you my true age. A long time ago, I was fortunate enough to drink a life-giving potion that made me stop aging. I admit, I might never look like a venerable gentleman, but that's a small price to pay for eternal or, at least, very long life and youth."

 "So you don't know when you'll age?" Sanji reached into his pocket for a cigarette.

"Indeed,"Usopp nodded. "Fortunately, thanks to my appearance, I'm always underestimated. Sometimes it's frustrating and harmful, but more often it saves my life. Kuro underestimated me. That's why, when he led his undead army to my village to build his abominable Necropolis in its place, he didn't expect me to resist. You see, there lives a real fairy in my village," the boy said, looking Sanji straight in the eyes, "who healed my Dark-stricken heart. She loves all the villagers, and they love her in return, so even though I could have fled from Kuro and his army, I couldn't forgive myself if I did. So I stayed and faced that unequal battle."

"And how did it go?" Sanji asked involuntarily.

The boy still couldn't figure out if this Condoriano was telling the truth. On one hand, the whole story sounded too fantastic, and the name didn't inspire trust. On the other hand, having seen a person regrow a severed head with his own eyes, believing in zombies wasn't that hard. The Dragon-man existed, so why not zombies? Moreover, Sanji occasionally glanced at Luffy — who had somehow acquired ice cream again — who listened to Condoriano with genuine and unfeigned interest. More remarkably, he didn't attempt to interrupt him. Did this mean that everything the long-nosed man said was true? Sanji wasn't particularly confident, but that was always the case with Luffy.

"As you can see, I'm still alive" Usopp smiled somewhat patronizingly, sipping from his mug. "Since I knew about Kuro's attack in advance, I was able to set a trap for them. However, there were too many of them, even for me, and they were much more dangerous than I had anticipated. I managed to defeat most of Kuro's army, but then he played his trump card by summoning two particularly strong zombies, and I fell. I lay on that battlefield, surrounded by long-dead bodies, and prayed for salvation. Not for myself, I'd lived enough, but for the villagers and the beautiful fairy" Usopp added dramatic flair to his voice, fully embracing his role. "Fortunately, my prayers were answered. First, Nami, the Beautiful Warrior Maiden, came to my aid, able to deal with dozens of enemies in an instant, followed by the Noble Dragon, in human form, and the Great Immortal Warrior. Although they didn't need much time to finish off the severely battered zombie army, I couldn't have done it without their help. That's why, as soon as I learned about Luffy, the leader of my saviors, I immediately pledged my loyalty to him."

Sanji couldn't help but notice the change in Condoriano's speech. At first, the long-nosed man — or old man? — spoke quite normally, but towards the end, apparently caught up in the story, he began to lapse into a high-flown style. If he was used to speaking like that, it explained the odd choice of name. Condoriano — who would choose such a name? Sanji had a feeling he now knew who would.

"What about the part where you have to defeat Zoro if you want to become captain?" Sanji asked, extinguishing one cigarette and lighting another.

"Unfortunately, my pride doesn't allow me to serve a warrior weaker than myself," Usopp replied with the same regret he had mentioned before. "But Zoro turned out to be incredibly strong; it's no wonder his fame resounds across the world. And although our battle lasted four days, I still lost. That's when I became one of the members of the 'Straw Hat' family."

Sanji sighed with relief. Four days against Zoro? Yes, yes, of course! Against such an opponent, even four seconds would be a decent result. Finally, everything made sense. The whole story was just another setup by Luffy. Yet, Sanji had to give credit to this Condoriano — whatever his real name was — for being so convincing that even he, with his usual skepticism, had doubts. Nevertheless, it couldn't go unpunished.

 "Is there anything else about my story that interests you?" the long-nosed guy asked, noticing Sanji's intense stare.

Sanji took his last drag and leaned forward as if he wanted to extinguish his cigarette in an ashtray. Instead, he suddenly reached out to grab the face of the arrogant liar… and was surprised to find only air. Sanji stared at Condoriano, who, in turn, stared back with equal surprise, as if he didn't understand what had just happened.

"What's wrong?" Usopp asked, looking noticeably pale.

Sanji slowly turned his head towards Luffy, who, with a satisfied squint, was casually licking his new ice cream — where did that come from? — and appeared completely unfazed.

"Did he actually tell the truth?" Sanji asked.

The blonde cook was so flustered that he did the one thing he shouldn't have — he sought the truth from Luffy. It was somewhat paradoxical. Everyone in the crew, and sometimes even outside it, knew well what kind of person Luffy was, yet time and again, they fell into the same trap. Perhaps it was because for every crazy — idiotic, foolish, amusing, irritating, fill in the blank — stunt Luffy pulled, there was another, sometimes equally or more insane, but genuinely important one. Apparently, this confusion led people to forget that the seemingly harmless guy in the straw hat, who adored grilled meat and almost all flavors of ice cream, was actually not harmless at all.

***********************************************************************

Enjoy the chapter, and please support with power stones.

/ Just a reminder. A lot of power stones = a lot of new chapters /