"Please tell me Breaking Point works on this thing," Kuina said, as the enormity of the opponent they were all facing was made manifest, as it waved its many limbs about, threateningly, and stepped towards them.
Undoubtedly due to its large height and even larger weight, it was struggling quite noticeably to move forward with anything approaching grace. Each step it took shook the floorboards, and when it threw its weapons around, it scored gouges and tore bits and pieces of the room about. The flames were almost entirely out, by this point, save for the flames that it lit when it fired its flame cannon.
"Yeah not happening," Lee said, "I mean I can break individual parts of it just fine but manmade stuff's really hard to find a weakpoint for!"
The four separated, leaping in different directions, as the arms, made to look like extremely muscley limbs but clearly designed by someone who had absolutely no idea how muscles are supposed to work or look like, crashed many weapons into their prior positions, forcing them to space themselves properly.
Sanji was the first to get back into combat, landing against the closest wall, and then leaping back with a spinning kick that was intercepted by a flailing limb, flame blasting from the point of contact, but the muscle plates held. Sanji spat and pushed himself off of the thing before its counterattack could slice his head off.
"This thing is tough!" Sanji shouted, landing on the ground, skidding back only to be caught by Lee.
Lee grunted, but didn't really move from the impact. "That's not good," he muttered. "What's with all the fire by the way?" he asked. "And how many pairs of pants did you go through to figure it out?"
"I was saving those for you," Sanji muttered, "but an enemy attack's not the time for competition," he said.
"What about the pants," Lee said, stretching his arms as the two of them stood back for a few moments, as both Reiju and Kuina took to the offensive, having taken the opportunity given to them by Sanji's attack.
Reiju blasted straight past the attacking limbs, and targeted one of the spots where the muscle plates intersected, the place where she landed, with both feet forward, turning purple and hissing. She bent her knees and built up momentum, leaping away with an explosion of fire from the jets on her shoes, at the same time as the large mechanical foe slammed a mace over its own chest, the muscle plates that had turned purple cracking slightly.
"It's wide open!" Reiju shouted. "Don't waste that chance, I only have so much corrosive on me!"
"Got it!" Kuina replied, Roronoa flashing, the sound of steel on steel resounding, followed by a groan, a crack, and a crash, forcing the big robot to take a step back, the muscle plates of its chest shattering- only to reveal another set, seemingly growing back. "Oh that's bullshit, it rebuilds itself!?"
"It's probably using extra parts from the other robots!" Lee shouted, choosing a target of his own, as the robot flung a blade arm towards Kuina, he jumped towards it, catching the blade by its flat side with his palms, hissing as he did, "this looks much easier than it is!" he shouted, using the grip on the blade he had to break it, the blade snapping in half.
As Lee and Kuina hit the ground, Lee took a look at his palms, to see them bleeding. "This would be much easier if I could use Haki," he muttered to himself, cracking his neck, placing his hands together and cycling his chi through them. "Can you guys get me a second?" he asked. "I've got an idea that might work, but I need to stand still to do it."
"What about your hands?" Kuina asked.
"That looked pretty nasty," Reiju muttered. "If you need to take a break, we can handle it."
Sanji snorted. "I'll show you, I'll handle it just fine," he said, "however much time you need!" he shouted, jumping forward, doing a twisting flip through the air, spinning himself around, and then performing an axe kick that caught fire as he struck at the robot's head, only for it to be blocked by the robot's mace arm. Just as Sanji had expected, in fact!
The blond's kick actually caught the spiked mace perfectly, like a regular ball! "This is my Cast Iron Leg technique!" he shouted, flame exploding even brighter, "feel the heat of my burning passion, tin can!"
The mace went flying, not the way it came, but instead directly at the robot's head, striking it for lack of a better term, head on! An explosion resulted, of both metal and fire, as the head of the robot exploded, the half melted flaming sphere passing through and into the water, getting lost into the depths with a cloud of steam.
Sanji hit the ground on his feet, and instantly doubled over, grabbing his leg, revealing it was bloodied and his pants were torn. "I think I hit a spike," he muttered with a grin, "but there, how's that for buying time, hu- oh you've gotta be kidding me!"
Wires spread from the big robot once more, grabbing more bits and pieces of the other robots, but most important of all, dragging a replacement head from one of the broken robots and putting it on, so quickly that nobody had any time to react to it, even as Kuina's blade flashed once more, slicing several of the tendrils, preventing the robot from grabbing a bunch of bits and pieces of both the robots and kitchen utensils.
It had replaced the spiked ball with what appeared to be a ball of forks and knives, held together with black wires.
"Sanji!" Reiju shouted, tackling him out of the way, both of them rolling on the ground and dodging the barrage of weaponry, as the spikeball replacement unfurled into a barrage of weapons connected to thin black wires.
Kuina leaped into motion, Roronoa almost singing a song of flashing steel, a blur of silver steel and black wire covering her as she moved in front of Lee, preventing the robot from attacking with either its improvised weaponry, or the remaining weapons that were still connected to its limbs.
But there was a problem she could not just sword away, when it lined up its flame cannon, pointed it directly at Kuina and Lee, and began to fire, vomiting out a hail of fire both liquid and gaseous, sticky napalm-like fluid.
"LOOK OUT!" Reiju shouted.
"Shit!" Kuina's eyes widened.
"The floor!" Sanji shouted.
Lee instantly understood what he meant, abandoning the technique he'd been preparing, stepping forward past Kuina, and punching the floor right in front of her, the already cracked and shattered floorboards breaking, and more importantly, the force was applied in exactly the right way to raise the boards, like they were on a seesaw, blocking the incoming blaze, breaking it apart and preventing it from bathing the two of them in flammable napalm.
"That's not how- that's- PHYSICS DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!" Kuina shouted.
"NOT WITH THAT ATTITUDE!" Lee shouted in turn, raising his leg, placing the sole of his boot on it, and then pushing, tossing the flaming chunk of floorboards right at the robot, striking it square in the chest, spreading flaming napalm-like fluid all over the thing. While most of the robot shrugged off the impact and the sticky fire, quite a few of its wires snapped or melted under the attack.
Lee grunted. "We can't do that again," he said, looking at the hole in the ground where the floor had once been.
Kuina nodded. "How are your hands?"
Lee raised them and showed his palms to her. "Fine enough," he said, "a bit tender, but it should be fine," he added, raising his fists. "Let's attack together, it doesn't seem to be able to deal with more than one person at a time attacking!"
Another round of its fire cannon launched at Lee and Kuina, but now that Lee wasn't stationary, they easily dodged it, and as it splashed against the wall, Reiju and Sanji had freedom to strike while it was recovering, both of them deciding at the same time to dash past the robot, forcing it to turn around with all of its ungainly movement, swinging its arms and weapons madly as it tried to strike them, several of them hitting walls or the floor and getting embedded there.
Once they both met behind the robot and as it was trying to spin around, they both nodded at each other. "DO IT!" Sanji and Reiju shouted.
"Lee!" Kuina shouted, rushing forward, "I'll go low!"
"Then I'll go high!" Lee responded. "NOW!"
Both of the Vinsmoke siblings went for the torso, Reiju first, jetting off into the robot's chest, spreading a cloud of pink mist with a gesture, a smile, a kick and a blown kiss, and highly flammable poison on the Robot's chest, then pushing off of it just as Sanji landed his own kick, already set ablaze with the burning passion that had wrapped around his leg, the robot's entire torso going up in flame, igniting the poisonous mist that had slipped under the robot's muscle plates, causing it to explode within as well.
Kuina was dashing towards its legs, and contrary to the overly muscled form of its arms, its legs were like noodles, she stopped suddenly, almost looking like she slammed the brakes down on a vehicle, but all the strength of her run was transferred into motion as she swung her sword. She could not yet quite manage to cut the steel that made up the robot's faux flesh, but she could strike the knee joint of the robot's legs.
Even if she could not cut it, she could break it, the expert craftsmanship of Roronoa allowing the weapon to win the clash of steel on steel, causing the robot's legs to buckle under it, especially since it was definitely not standing in a way conductive to remaining on its feet.
Weakened, battered and breaking apart, it had absolutely no way to stay on its feet after a blow like that, almost but not quite toppling, sparking, triggering even further explosions, balls of fire appearing all over its joints, parts of it melting and breaking apart, some of its limbs breaking, melting, the wires snapping, it was losing control of its weapons, not even able to keep the flame cannon trained on anything, but it was able to fire, spreading fiery liquid around, combustion followed by explosions, unable to hit any of the people it was aiming at, but it was only a matter of time before it did.
"Look out, it's gonna blow and take us with it!" Reiju called.
"Like hell it will!" Lee shouted, jumping forward, cupping his hands behind his back and gathering up his chi. For all that he might not be Ranma, for all that he could not learn a technique after observing it once, and mastering it even quicker, he still had a wealth of references to draw for imaging, and imaging was half the battle when it came to the application of Chi…
Lee brought both of his hands forward, in a double palm strike applied directly to the back of the robot, the already unbalanced and weakened robot totally unable to brace itself or do anything to hold its place, especially when Lee's chi exploded in a wave of force, dispersing the fires still clinging to the robot's surface in an instant, and then a moment after, as if the world registered what had just happened, the robot was launched away, and back into the waters that it had come from.
Lee hit the ground and rolled, dodging some of the broken floorboards, and then getting back up, panting hard, and raising his hands, noticing that he had opened the wounds on them back up. "Ah, fuck, I think that was way too hard."
"You're talking about me setting my legs on fire, what the hell was that!? Conqueror's Haki or something!?" Sanji shouted.
"Can't be, no glow, right?" Reiju said. "Lee- you didn't mention that at all in your letter!"
Kuina panted. "That- Was that the Lion's Roar?"
"No, I can't use that," Lee said, shaking his head, "you gotta be a depressive fuck for that one to be any good," he raised his hand and wiped his mouth with the back of his palm. "That's- We'll call it the Tiger's Claw, it works under the same principle anyway, but-"
"Did you figure out a way to manipulate overconfidence?" Kuina joked, laughing.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it-"
And then the underwater robot fucking EXPLODED, throwing up a massive pillar of water, the explosion being so strong and potent that it actually rocked the Baratie, and knocked the four fighters flat on their asses, even as the water knocked into the skies began to fall down, and the Baratie was actually drifting away from where the robot had gone off.
They were also all yelling, unable to hear each other, all of their ears ringing from the explosion going off, none of them really able to communicate with each other for several seconds, until the ringing began to die down after a while, and each of them glared at the others for yelling in their faces.
Even that, however, stopped, and they finally relaxed.
"I- I can't believe that just happened," Kuina said. "What was that thing, those things, ugh," she lifted her sword, inspecting it. "I'm so glad this is fine," she muttered.
Lee chuckled. "Sure knows how to pick'em," he said. "Everyone fine? Everything's till in place? Missing any toes, fingers?"
"Everything accounted for," Reiju said, wincing, "gonna need maintenance soon though."
Sanji groaned. "Ruined my pants, but everything else's fine I guess… This might cost us many millions in damages though," he frowned.
Finally, however, the chefs, including Zeff, entered back into the room, little by little, seemingly having heard Sanji's words.
"We can replace everything, cookware, tableware, everything, even the appliances, we can replace with time and money," the man explained, crossing his arms, peg leg clacking as he took stock of the damage, before walking up to the four fighters, still sat recovering from their ordeal. "Well done, kids. Really, you did good," he said, nodding, not quite smiling, but showing some measure of pride.
Lee chuckled.
"You know, it's oddly satisfying… even if we had to work together," Sanji muttered. "It's the first time I've actually put my new moves to use for real," he said, groaning.
"I'm impressed," Reiju said, "at how much you've grown."
"Yeah, those were some great moves," Kuina said, sighing. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I've seen some of your moves before…" she muttered, looking at Lee for a moment.
"What? We both learned from Cologne," Lee responded, chuckling. "That's where our connection starts and end."
"Ugh, I hate to admit it but it's true, it was harsh training, but that woman seems to pull moves out of her butt," Sanji muttered. "And she was the key to- no, nevermind," he said, "you'll know when we have our proper duel…"
Lee snorted. "Look dude, I can't beat you in the kitchen, that's not my place," he said, waving his hand.
"Not what I mean but at least you're not delusional," Sanji chuckled.
Kuina laughed herself, and so did Reiju after a few moments. "It's funny… I never thought I'd be like this, just, just laughing while feeling exhausted to the bone."
"Yeah it feels… weird. I feel weird… I think all the fumes are doing weird things to us," Reiju stated. "My bad. But it's not poisonous, so it's fine, just- stress relief!" she said with a giggle.
"This might be too strong," Zeff said, waving his hand. "Still, we need to get you guys to a place you can rest, lick your wounds, get bandaged and put a meal in your stomachs, you definitely earned-"
Another explosion rocked the restaurant ship, then another, and another, almost like a rumbling purr from beneath the waves, the water becoming choppy and moving a lot.
Another pillar of water exploded, and an even bigger robot, with even more limbs, with a zillion abs, and seven faces on its head, popped out. Its torso was the size of a ship on its own, and it had a dozen arms on each side, each of them packed with bulging metallic muscles. Its shoulders opened up, and from each of them, a gigantic cannon popped out. Both cannons took aim at the gathered people, and began to glow red, heating up.
All four of the combatants got up on their feet, ready to block the attack, but none of them had the energy for it.
The cannons fired with a pair of deafening roars, twin blasts heading towards the gathered pirates and ship crew, who had all braced themselves, covering Zeff and the chef crew at the last moment-
"My my my," a soft, sophisticated voice spoke, the sound of the explosion fading into the distance. "If this bucket of bolts thinks I will allow it to injure my husband and apprentice," continued the same voice, "I suppose I must put it to evidence that even machines will know to fear the wrath of an Amazon."
"What the..!?" Reiju was the first to speak. "Who!?"
"Master Cologne!" Sanji and Kuina shouted.
"You took your sweet time!" Lee shouted, a grin drawing itself on his face. "You wanted the dramatic entrance, huh?"
Cologne hummed. "No comment," she said.
A multitude of the robot's arms wrapped around themselves, almost like a dozen tentacles coming together into a single, huge combination of fists, and then swung towards Cologne, who moved her hand forward, and then slapping the incoming attack down and to the right, causing the big mass of arms to bury itself into the floor. Cologne's arm swung, two of her fingers trailing along the arm, until she seemed to find what she was looking for, a flash of light following a poke that caused the arm to just suddenly come apart, muscle plates falling apart and wires snapping, bits of metal and dark wire flying everywhere.
"Beautiful and strong as always!" Sanji said, his eyes already expressing his nature better than his words ever could. Some might even think that they had become large pink hearts, beaming into Cologne's form, as she danced about the retaliatory attacks.
Dozens of arms, almost like muscley noodles, rushed towards Cologne, but she danced around them, spinning about, her slightly larger sleeves trailing, silk sliding past the metal limbs, especially as she began to step faster, leaping onto the arms themselves, and then following them up to the Robot's body, rushing past its flailing limbs and up its shoulder, then performing a perfect kick that hit the side of the head, knocking two of the faces off, humming thoughtfully as she landed.
"Tougher than I thought. You've done well," she said. "Husband, we'll intensify your training, I believe I need to accelerate your development."
Lee snorted. "Bring it," he said.
Kuina snorted. "We're gonna die and not to the robots."
"You'll live," Cologne said. "This thing, however… I tire of its presence. Anne, Mary, if you would?"
"Anne's here?!" Sanji perked up. "You've brought the most beautiful of this world's angels to me once more, aah, Anne, I can't wait to lay my eyes upon your radiant, world shaking beauty once more..!"
Lee threw himself on Sanji, tackling him to the ground as he began to wiggle in place at the thought of meeting Anne, an arm going through where he'd been not a moment before… but before it could be brought back, the sound of screeching steel was heard, and the muscle plates were sliced in twain, a black blur passing by as the arm fell.
"I'm here, Captain!" Mary said, as she stood to her full height. "We came as fast as we could, there were a lot of these things. Brought a submarine, too!"
"Yeah it's cool," Lee said, "did you guys blow it up?"
Mary grunted as she blocked an attacking arm, and sliced several wires that came towards her, even grabbing one that tried to steal her weapon from her. "Yeah about that…"
The robot raised many of its arms, and then prepared to attack, launching several of them, but Mary was able to destroy them as they came for her and blocked the others that went for the tired and weakened fighters.
Before it could launch an all-out attack, however, the head of the robot was struck by a powerful ranged attack, a bullet shattering part of the head of the robot and destroying three of its faces, leaving it with only two remaining.
As it was staggered and weakened, Mary jumped towards its head, slicing the final two heads in half, both of them exploding as she traced a line of split steel down its head and chest, opening it up wide, from faces to crotch.
"Captain, finish it!"
Lee grinned. He'd been preparing for this, since Cologne had showed up, he'd been charging up the attack that had been interrupted before. He got up on his feet and launched himself towards the robot, cupping his hands behind his back once more.
This time, a powerful yellow glow appeared between his hands. "This the complete Tiger's Fang!" he shouted, bringing his hands forward in another palm strike, this time it was a vastly more potent shockwave that erupted from the point of impact, the wound on the robot's chest glowing brightly before it exploded, the robot coming apart in halves, both of which separated and began to explode, arcs of electricity and blasts of fire surging around it as it sank once more into the water.
"EVERYBODY TAKE COVER!" Reiju shouted, her voice harsh and direct, commanding.
Everyone obeyed instantly, and they all threw themselves back, just in time to avoid the gigantic explosion that launched an almost tidal wave of water that washed over the crew and the chefs and even broke the wall and door behind them, after all the damage it took from the fighting, pushing them all into the hallway behind and flooding the ship quite significantly, at the same time as the restaurant ship was rocking away, pushed quite significantly by the explosion.
Everyone had to hold on as the force of the explosion faded, and it was honestly a wonder that there wasn't more structural damage.
It actually took a few minutes for everyone to recover after that, and they were all washed apart. Lee coughed up water, and opened his eyes to find himself half embedded into a wall. He pushed himself off, groaning. "Fuck me," he muttered, "I think it came closer to killing us by blowing up than it ever did in the fight."
He winced. His hands were fucked up again, and he tested clenching and unclenching his fists.
"Right, still need to work on that. I swear anime protagonists make this shit look easy," he muttered, "they don't have to figure out how to avoid exploding their own hands."
"They also don't have me to help them with it," Cologne said, as she walked towards him, seemingly from deeper into the ship. There wasn't a drop of water on her, which was quite annoying considering how close they'd all come just then to drowning. "Stand up, husband," she said, grabbing his hands, and helping him cycle his chi through them, promoting their natural healing and regeneration, by cycling her own.
Her power was, as usual, astounding, and her control was even more so. Even more important, however, was Lee realizing that she was showing him improvements to his own techniques, smoother flow and a better frequency for the cycling, allowing him to already soothe the pain of his burns and cuts. "Yeah, yeah, I know, you don't need to remind me how amazing my choices are," he said, looking her up and down, "I can see it plain as day."
She raised one arm and covered her face, faking a demure and embarrassed look, "I accept your flattery, husband," she spoke, "but you are not yet ready to lay with me."
Lee snorted. "Won't stop me from trying. Are the others okay?"
She nodded. "Yes. I believe Chef Zeff was quite quick on the uptake, our future companion and her brother were taken back, Kuina and Mary are okay as well," she spoke.
Lee nodded, stretching his limbs, wincing a little. "I think we might really need to step up the training. I didn't expect we'd have to deal with stuff like this so soon," he admitted, freely. "I thought we'd have more time."
"The strands of destiny weave a strange tapestry," Cologne mused. "Casting a stone into calm waters creates ripples, and I dare say, husband, we are some pretty big stones to throw into this ocean," she added.
Lee frowned and closed his eyes. "Fuck it, don't care," he said, "'s not a problem anyway, I always intended to get stronger anyway," he grinned. "Speaking about getting stronger, where's Drake anyway? She back on the ship?"
The two of them began to walk back towards the battle site. It just made sense to return to the origin point they were separated from, to check if the others had the same idea first. Ultimately, the Baratie might be big, but it was not big enough that there'd be two years of separation as they looked for each other.
Hopefully anyway.
"No, she had business with the Submarine, and went off chasing it. She was shouting something…"
"She said, and I quote, "Curse You Merciful Poseidon!" and dove into the water cackling like a loon," a new voice said, both Cologne and Lee turning to the window that the voice had come from, revealing Anne's voluptuous form sliding into the hallway from it. "Hey there, Cap'n, Cologne!"
"Good shooting, Anne," Lee said. "Did you guys have fun?"
"Oh, plenty! Mary was going crazy, too, it was great!" Anne said. "That said we didn't have any robots that big on our side," she spoke, "all the civilians are fine too, only scrapes and scratches. Didn't even put a scratch on our paintjob either!"
Lee snorted. "Good job. We'll play tender and help the Baratie get back on its feet."
"There's no way we have enough supplies to repair all this damage," Anne hummed. "Or money to pay for the labor, for that matter."
"Don't be silly," Cologne said. "They can't move the ship in this condition, we'll provide transportation to and from the nearest settlement to get the ship in sailing condition."
Anne nodded and hit her palm with her fist. "And then they'll owe use a favor, right?" she asked.
"You're damn right," Lee said. "Besides, I feel kinda guilty over this mess. I'm pretty sure I have an inkling on what happened here."
"We'll talk about it later, I assume you'll bring it up in private," Cologne said. "We've got company."
Lee nodded, and the three of them became silent as they approached the gathered group.
Mary and Kuina had rejoined Sanji, Zeff and Reiju, as the tall blond chef, with his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face, looked down at Sanji and Reiju, the latter of whom returned his serious expression, the former who looked a little embarrassed.
"If I had to guess, I'd say yes," Reiju said.
Lee hummed. "What did I miss?"
"We're discussing who the attacker was," Kuina said.
Mary shrugged. "I said it doesn't matter since we kicked their asses," she said, "but I got ignored."
"But- you can't be sure, they couldn't have tracked us down so quickly," Sanji said.
"You no, me, absolutely," Reiju muttered. "I might not have been as subtle as I thought when I left," she spoke, then turned to Zeff. "I can't say more than that, but it's entirely possible the enemies that attacked this ship were coming after me. I understand if-"
The chef grunted. "So what?" he asked. "Girl, do you know who I am?" he asked.
Reiju nodded. "I've… checked your background, quite thoroughly."
"That does remind me," Kuina said, "how did you guys meet anyway? I never saw her at the restaurant…"
Lee snorted. "That's easy. She tried to kill me the first time I beat Sanji in a spar."
Kuina blinked. "Ah… wait, what?"
"Oh yeah," the dark skinned captain said, grinning, "knocked one of my teeth out too," he added, raising a hand to his cheek and chin, "'course, didn't exactly go well for her once I got my hands on her, but she was the first person to actually hurt me outside of training."
"But- why?" Kuina asked.
"Well, apparently, she came tracking Sanji down just to make sure he was okay, and you know what Cologne's training was like, my spars with Sanji weren't exactly soft contact," he explained. "Overprotective sister worried about her kid sibling, sees him getting knocked for a loop, plots his bully's murder… honestly it was adorable. Kept trying to pretend she wasn't furious that I beat him up."
Mary laughed. "Ohhh, yeah, I remember that! She was trying to do the whole emotionless soldier thing right?"
"Yeah, that's- that's its own can of worms I don't even know where to begin," Lee said, shaking his head. "Anyway-"
"-is why I'll go with you," Sanji said, crossing his arms. "I'm your brother, I should be-"
"Yeah, how about no?" Lee said. "Seriously, are you going to give up your dream just like that? I'm disappointed in you Sanji," he accused.
Reiju looked at him. "Lee—I mean, he's right," she said. "Besides, I don't need your protection, Sanji. I'm Poison Pink- I can handle myself," she spoke, voice calm and even. "I'll reimburse the damages, I've still got access to some of my accounts," she spoke, addressing Zeff. "Will that be satisfactory?"
"Yes," Zeff said, simply. "Don't bring trouble to our door the next time you visit," he said, turning around and leaving. "Come on, Sanji, we have a lot of work to do, check everyone for injuries, take stock and get back to work!"
Sanji looked at Reiju, and then at Lee, then back at Reiju. "Just- look after yourself. Lee's an asshole but he's strong and trustworthy."
"Well I'm flattered," Lee said.
Sanji glared at him. "And as for you…" Sanji sighed. "Just- don't be that guy? I know, alright, I know Reiju's beautiful, I know the kind of man you are," he said, "and I'm not so stupid I can't tell," he added, glaring at Reiju who seemed ready to interject. "One day we'll meet again. I'll be stronger then. If you break her heart, we'll both kick your ass," he said.
Reiju looked at him for a moment. "Sanji..?"
"I'd never take that privilege from you," he said, solemnly, "just let me put a few kicks in too huh?"
She laughed, genuinely and openly, and without a care in the world, as the stupidest finish to a stupidest situation finally overwhelmed everyone's ability to keep their serious faces.
"I guess… that's the last loose tie," Reiju muttered, as she turned to Lee. "I'm ready now."
Lee nodded, and behind him, his crew stood tall and firm. Most of them anyway.
"Then welcome aboard," Lee said, "happy to have you, Reiju."
She gave him a confident smirk. "This wasn't the way I wanted to tie things off, but, I hope we meet again soon, Sanji… let's meet in the Grand Line. I want to see how much you've grown then," she said. "I want to see that technique of yours finished someday… I want to see all the potential that the others couldn't see realized."
"I will," Sanji said. "Until we meet again, sis, take care!"
"You too, little bro," she replied.
And then Lee's stomach growled. "Oh. Right. Food."
"Maybe we're not leaving just yet," Reiju said, laughing.
Sanji laughed, himself. "Well, it's the least I can do. I'll show you what I've learned since the last time we met, Master Cologne!"
"I look forward to it, Sanji Boy," Cologne replied.