Chapter Text
He was there, running away from them; fighting for his rights, stopping every man on his way and trying to get out of there.
Breaking the window of a house and hiding himself there as he looked at the trace of blood on his right leg, looking at a small girl with weird hair that had green tonalities looking at him. He knew he wasn’t safe there.
“Grandma! There’s a stranger in the house!”
“Shit!”
Getting out from the same window and jumping some trash cans, he ran as fast as he could, even if his legs started to hurt, he wanted to be free. Dodging every attack and kicking his enemies, he opened a way to a certain tower, he had to run.
Soldiers with powerful guns followed him and that was the moment he knew things were getting even more difficult.
He entered an abandoned church and ran through the big place full of rats and spiders. He kept on running through the stairs, kicking everyone and everything on his way and throwing kicks without looking.
He lost every weapon he had, he lost all he had left to survive out of that place, but he didn’t care anymore.
He suddenly felt a hand on his leg, pulling him down the stairs, it was impossible for him to walk. He was trapped and suddenly the hand pulled harder.
He fell through the stairs and five men tried to catch him.
“No! Leave me alone!” He moved his arms and legs, trying to stop them. “Don’t touch me!”
“Take him! Take him back!” One man shouted at the others,
He said he would save him, he said he would go and support him, they would fight like the old times, just like before. But he didn’t come, he wasn’t there with him.
Every trace of hope was gone and he let the man take him, take his hopes away and then just throw his life away.
No, it wasn’t gone, hope wasn’t gone.
He kicked everyone around him in an acrobatic move and then lifted his leg to hit the tallest one on the chin.
“Fuck you!”
The sound of bullets was near, he felt all the energy from his body increase in his legs.
“Don’t fucking touch me!”
He kept on throwing kicks to them until he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He turned around and suddenly a syringe was on his neck. He threw it away and kicked the man behind him.
His chest started to burn and his sight blurred, his ears suddenly failing and his fingers feeling cold as ice, it wasn’t easy to look around him. It was some kind of drug. Everything was over.
He wanted his freedom back, he wanted to be free again.
Why didn’t he come? He said he was waiting for him there, he said he would come.
His suspicions were right…
He suddenly saw black hair and slightly tanned skin, he was there, it was hard to admit it but he wanted to be saved.
It was in vain.
“H-Hey…” All he could do was extend his arm and open his hand as he watched the man in front of him smile like nothing happened. He suddenly saw black and knew it was all for him. He could still hear voices and he understood everything before falling to the floor.
It was over.
Beep
One sound.
Beep
Another one
That was the only thing he could hear, he couldn’t breathe properly. He soon felt sharp pain going through his back, his legs, his feet, he opened his mouth as the pain intensified. Water going inside his throat and horrible nausea.
“He’s waking up!” That was the voice of a woman, her voice didn’t sound familiar.
“Help him!”
His eyes weren’t opening
“Take all those things away! The machine! Turn off that machine!”
He could hear the voice of a man again and hands touching his arms and back, opening his eyes was a hard task, they were closed and he could feel something around them, the pain increased when he felt he was falling from a high place, right to the floor and the only thing he could let out were small noises, just like a newborn.
With all the strength he had on his hands, he tried to take off the thing around his eyes but a gentle hand suddenly helped him and took it off.
Not a single word out of his mouth until the thing around his neck was taken off.
“W-Whe…Where—?” He said, his eyes still closed and his chest hurting so bad.
He was so tired but he tried to open his eyes and let the light fill his view, hurting in so many possible ways, there was just white around him and his eyes hurt so much. He closed them again and he could feel so much calm inside him. He was going through a deep sleep.
“I think he’s better now…” A woman was beside him, looking at his pale hands and tracing small circles with her thumb on his arm.
“How is he?”
Was he surrounded by people?
“Let’s see…”
“His brain doesn’t indicate any damage, cranial structure intact, fast heart and respiratory rate, his temperature is stable and motor functions are recovering slowly”
“Fine, let’s leave” One of them said. “Makino, take care of him for a moment okay?”
“Y-Yes!”
It took a long time for him to open his eyes slowly and take all the air possible with his nose.
His back was aching and his mouth was dry.
“W-Where am I?” He said weakly looking at the woman beside him. “Water… I need water”
“I’ll call the doctor… don’t worry”
She suddenly walked away and he was left alone at that place.
After a while a woman entered the room and looked at him. She was really tall, with long green hair and beautiful eyes, her legs were long and perfectly shaped, her hands were long and thin as well. She looked like a model and he looked at her all surprised at her looks.
“Who are you…?”
“My name doesn’t matter, how’re you doing?”
“Fine…?” He tried to lift his arm but suddenly sharp pain invaded his shoulder and he stopped trying. “W-Who am I?”
“Hmm?”
“What’s my name?! Tell me the reason why I can’t remember!”
“Do you remember something?”
“Just tell me, please!”
His head hurt, it hurt so bad.
“Your name is Sanji Vinsmoke, you’re one of our greatest experiments”
“Experiments?! What do you mean? Fuck it, it’s 2020, experiments with humans aren’t legal!”
“Wrong”
“What?!”
“It’s March 2nd, 2090, you’ve been sleeping for a long time, my dear”
“What?!”
“I’ll bring your stuff so you’ll be able to walk around here…”
“Where am I?”
“I can’t answer to that”
“Just tell me, please!”
“Laboratory number 64710, Punk Hazard, you’re our experiment 0302. I should repeat your name is Vinsmoke Sanji and you’ve been sleeping for a long time, feeling hungry? I’ll call for some food.”
“You’ve got to be kidding”
“I’ll go for some clothes for you”
She walked away, ignoring him and walked out of a white door. Sanji tried to sit on the edge of the bed, ignoring all the pain on his body.
He looked to the back and looked at all the wires connected to his skin, his arms, back and one on his head.
“W…What is this?!” He screamed in fear. “Help me!”
-----
Still sitting at the edge of the bed, he looked up and tried to stand up but his feet failed a lot and he had to put all his weight on the bed.
“Fuck…”
“Here’s some food for--- Oh god! Don’t force yourself!” A woman entering the room looked at him, leaving a tray with food on a table near the bed and ran towards the blond to take his hand and help him climb back to the bed.
Her hair was a dark shade of green and her eyes were big and black.
“Who are you?”
“Me? My name’s Makino” She smiled at him and took his hand. “Please, don’t force yourself, wait a little more and you’ll be able to walk properly again”
“Please take all those wires off of me”
“I’ll do it; just wait until she gives me permission”
“Who?”
“Monet, the woman that was here a few minutes ago”
His head was still hurting and suddenly his sight blurred and lots of fragments of memories came to his head.
Pale hands as his, cutting vegetables and a familiar tanned hand that looked really masculine.
The feeling of adrenaline through his body was something he could feel when a small memory came to his mind, he was being chased and his legs were in pain. Why was he running?
“Excuse me, when did I get here?”
“Hmm? Well… I don’t know, you’ve been here since I got the job some years ago…”
“Hah?! You look pretty young!”
The woman laughed and looked at him with soft eyes.
“Thank you”
“Hmm? Why is your hair green?”
She laughed again.
“It was some kind of sickness or syndrome that appeared some years ago… some children were born with green hair and it passed from generation to generation… It’s not weird nowadays and it doesn’t affect the functions of the body…”
As the blond heard her explain her syndrome, he could remember a little girl with pale skin and hair with green tonalities that looked weird.
“Really?”
“Well… we don’t have a lot of body hair and we tend to look younger but that’s all…”
“Awesome…”
She smiled and looked back at the door.
“Monet must be coming back… please eat your food, I’ll come later, okay?”
“Yeah”
The blond started eating and lots of memories of an old man patting his head or kicking him flashed in his mind. That man calling him eggplant or some other names and cooking with him.
Those hands cutting vegetables were his. He was a chef; he knew how to cook.
“That old geezer… Z-Zeff, yeah, Z-Zeff!”
The blond looked at the white ceiling, his blue orbs shining and tears filling his big blue eyes.
“Maybe you should really come… There’s a new guy, maybe a victim…” Makino said looking at the door. Sanji was still eating and there was no one around.
“We can’t, that would be too risky!” There was a female voice on the other side of the phone.
“Just send one person, please”
“We can’t, please, wait a little more, okay?”
“Fine… But I think you might hurry…”
Just on the other side of the phone, there was a woman with long red hair and a black dress that suit her perfectly fine, she was looking at some guys talking while sitting on the floor and smiled.
“What should we do, captain?” She asked to a young man sitting at the middle.
“Hmm? There’s another one?!”
“Yeah”
His smile widened and he looked at the man sitting next to him.
“Makino said we should hurry; it’s not like it is the strongest lab in the city...” Another woman with pale skin, blue eyes and black hair said while closing her book.
“But…”
“If you want, I’ll go” She said and smiled softly at the young man.
“Take him with you” The redhead pointed at a man on the corner of the place drinking from a bottle of wine.
“Huh? Me?” He turned around and left the bottle on the floor.
“You said you were bored” The other woman smiled and he stood up.
“Well… so we need to save Makino and the victims there?”
“Yeah, It’ll take at least two days to get there so hurry up!” The young man said with a smile on his face and the redhead looked at him with a serious expression.
“Okay… Let’s go” He walked to the door but the redhead stopped him.
“Your swords!”
“Ah, thanks!”
One day later, the blond was already free from those wires on his back and walking through the halls of the laboratory.
Some hours before he had to spend some time with Monet taking about the rules of the place, like going to the cafeteria with the rest of the experiments to eat something three times a day.
He sat on the floor, leaning on the wall and looking at the ceiling while trying to remember something else about him. His hands were on his pockets and his smile widened when he noticed a young teenage girl with pink hair getting out of a room in front of him.
“Huh? Who are you?” She looked at him. She was wearing a long white shirt that touched her knees and her arms were bandaged.
“Sanji, and you?”
“Well… My name’s Perona”
“Are we the only ones here?”
“Hmm? Well, I don’t know… This is the first time in years I get out of that room…”
“What?!”
“Like I know… I was full of scars and wounds from surgeries I don’t remember I had requested”
“Like all those weird wires incrusted on my back…”
“Hah! I didn’t have those, What’s with your hair?”
“My hair?”
He didn’t have enough time to find a mirror and look at his appearance but he was sure he looked pretty bad, he knew he was blond by the way his bangs covered one side of his face but that was all.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember how I look”
“Lucky! I have a mirror!”
She took his hand and took him inside the room. It looked slightly different from his. Instead of all the machines there was cute furniture and a big mirror with a closet next to it.
When he finished looking around, he slowly walked towards the mirror and looked at his reflection.
His hair was long and shiny, his eyes were big and blue and he had a beard and a mustache, his pale face had small tonalities of red on his cheeks and nose and his lips were a light shade of pink that combined perfectly with all of him; He looked at his body, his long legs covered in the white pajamas and his thin hands touching his long neck. There were two tattoos on his arms. Numbers. “0302”.
There was just one thing that disturbed him.
A curled eyebrow.
“Agh! Why?!”
Perona laughed and looked at the man making a weird face to his reflection.
“Why?! Why is it so curly?!”
“Let me help you with your hair…”
“Huh? Now that you say it… it looks messy…”
Somehow a memory of him on his young days appeared, his hair was shorter and his bangs covering his left eye as well.
“What will happen if we change the bangs? How about covering your right eye?” Perona touched his hair and tried to fix his bangs but she stopped when she saw the other eyebrow.
“Ha…Ha…”
“What?” The blond looked at the mirror and his eyes widened. “No!”
“Oh my, let me help you…”
She started fixing his hair and after a long while she stood away from the blond and pointed to the mirror.
“Tada~”
“Looks good”
“I know, right?”
Perona smiled, full of herself and opened the door.
“Come on! Let’s go! There must be more people around!”
They got outside of the room and walked through the hall but a window caught the sight of the blond.
“Look, a window!”
He walked towards it and looked through the clean glass. His eyes couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The lights of the town in front of him, just at the other side of a beautiful ocean shining beautifully with the moonlight. The amazing buildings that made the lights of said city look even more precious. Some people of his time would’ve believe that the future would be a terrible place or a place full of robots, cyborgs and electronic stuff everywhere. At least he could remember that.
Did he have someone to show that? No, he didn’t; it was obvious that Sanji had nobody left if he ever had someone by his side.
“The sea is so beautiful…”
“It really is…”
“Let’s get out of here! Let’s go to that city, let’s find a way to go there!”
“We can’t. What do you expect us to do? Escape out of this place and swim through that ocean?”
“N-No…”
“We’ll be on this island forever, right inside this lab…”
“Let’s go get something to eat, I want to know where the cafeteria is…”
“Yup!”
They kept on walking through the halls until they found the cafeteria’s entrance, after looking at the door, they walked inside and noticed there was just a few people there. With them, there was a teenager that looked younger than Perona, one of his eyes was blue and the other one was brown, his hair looked pretty messy but Sanji could notice something weird on his eyes.
The little teenager looked back at him with a shy expression and then looked down again.
“Hmm?”
Sanji walked towards him with a soft smile on his face and noticed the young guy making an alarmed expression.
“Hi!” Sanji said.
“Hmm? Who are you?” The boy blushed when he saw the blond standing next to him.
“ Oh, I’m new here, my name is Sanji, and yours?”
“Tony…”
“Hey, Chopper! Who are you talking to?! We got one!” A man with red hair and only one arm walked towards the cafeteria and stood behind Sanji. “Let’s go!”
“Y-Yeah! See you later, uh… Sanji, right?”
“Yes…”
“So tell me, since when are you here?” Perona asked, taking a clean plate and putting it on her tray.
“Monet said it’s been years…”
“Really? But you look so young…” She said, putting her tray full of food on a table in front of Sanji.
“There’s just a few things I can remember from my old life… back in 2020”
Perona threw the spoon on her soup by accident and looked at Sanji with her eyes wide.
“You’re kidding…”
“I wish I was… I can’t even remember a thing!”
“How can you still look like that and be alive?!”
“Like I know!”
“That’s weird, really weird!”
Sanji looked down and tried not to face Perona.
“Fine, I’m tired of being here, let’s go, let’s try to escape”
Sanji opened his eyes in surprise and looked at her.
“Really?!”
“I’ll just go and check something” She stood up and walked towards the exit.
Sanji was worrying way too much, since Perona walked away, she hadn’t appeared again. The workers of the lab forced him to get back to his room and feeling the lack of energy on his body, he just let them do as they wanted.
Right when he entered the room, he noticed all the machines were gone and were replaced with a normal bed and a closet full of clothes different from his pajamas, along with some other furniture.
“Hey, Sanji…” Perona’s voice called from outside of his room.
“Perona!” He opened the door and looked at her wearing white pajamas like him.
“We’ll have to wait… Let’s just wait this week, okay?”
“You took it seriously” Sanji looked at her with confusion.
“Well, it’s the first time in a long time that someone has ever told me to escape…”
“Let’s go, then!”
“We’ll have to wait! Promise me you will ” She shouted and walked away making a face.
Sanji sat on the edge of his new bed and looked at the tattoo on his arm.
“What does this mean?”
“Your birth date…” Monet was leaning at the door frame, looking at him with sad eyes. “Why don’t you remember anything? This is the first time something like this happens to us”
“Well, I don’t know… I can barely remember some things…”
“Have you started to remember?”
“Just a little…”
“Well, try to remember more… Now, go to sleep”
“Yeah, yeah…” Sanji rolled his eyes. “By the way, Can I use those clothes on the closet tomorrow?”
“They are there for that; I hope you get comfortable again in those weird suits”
“Huh?”
“I was reading a report about you, you used to dress with suits and look like a gentleman” She smiled and crossed her arms.
“R-Really?”
“Yep”
“I… can’t really remember that… Can I read it too?” He said with a wide smile and she walked backwards.
“I-I can’t let you read that… You must remember by yourself”
“I can’t remember” He looked through the small window on his room and smiled. “The sea looks so beautiful”
“I might go, I’ll come back in three days to see if you can remember something” She walked outside and stopped suddenly, turning around to see the blond again. “And… If you feel the need to smoke, there are some in there” She pointed at a small box next to him.
“H-How did you know?!”
“You were smoking in all your photos”
“Photos?”
The door closed behind her and it was all silence around him.
“So? How are we going to cross to that island?” Zoro said looking at the bright island on the other side of the small portion of ocean separating them.
“There’s a bridge, we can use it and leave the van here…”
“Okay… what’s up with the weird trench coat?”
“Hmm? I don’t want to be seen” Robin said with a soft smile. “Let’s find a place to park and get some information”
She drove to a corner and parked the black van there, after a while they got out of it and walked through the street looking at the people around them.
“They must know something” Robin pointed at some men sitting at the street with a serious expression but they looked at Zoro and walked away making a face.
“Hmm? I think we parked on the wrong side of the city, sorry” Robin looked at him with a soft expression but Zoro just ignored her, walking through the street and looking at two guys getting out of a restaurant.
“Hmm? Oh! Yozaku, Johnny!” He said running towards them. “Hey, we need to ask you something!”
“Ah! Zoro!” One of them smiled and looked at Robin walking behind Zoro. “How are you?!”
“Ah… Fine, I guess”
“It’s been years, Zoro!”
“Yeah”
“So, what do you need to know?”
“Is there any way to get to the other island by walking or by car?”
“Uh… now that you mention it… There’s a huge bridge at the east of the city but you can only get there by walking”
“So, that’s the only way?” Robin asked with a serious expression.
“Well, yeah… or you can rent a boat, that’s better than being kidnapped” Yozaku said with a playful expression. “Right, Johnny?”
“Uh? Yeah, there’s this myth that all the people that crosses that bridge suddenly disappears and after years they are found with prosthetic bodies or some other shit they put on them instead of limbs”
“I see... But I thought there was a law on this city to stop experiments with poor people, right?”
“Come on, all those guys inside that lab were poor teenagers and adults that didn’t have a home or somewhere to sleep and stay warm… of course they would sell their life in exchange of money, a warm place and food…”
“Those bastards…”
“Well, do you need help, pirates?”
“Hey, don’t say that like it’s nothing”
“Guys, just by seeing you, we can notice you are from that group… Under the orders of one of those “Monkey” guys”
“Hey, hey…” Zoro glared at them and put his hand on the swords hanging from his belt.
“Look, we are by your side, we don’t like that damn company anymore, they stole something important from us”
“What is it?”
“Our freedom” Johnny said and his expression changed drastically.
“Now that I think about it… They say the biggest experiment on that company is hiding on that island…”
“Their biggest experiment?” Robin asked, she looked alarmed but somehow she could soften her expression.
“Have you ever heard of preserving young life for decades? Even more than a century is impossible now…”
“I can’t understand, explain yourself” Zoro leaned on the wall next to him.
“Some guys that could get out of that place told us about an experiment that has been there for almost seventy years… We don’t even know if that’s true but if it is… It could be a bigger step to get to their principal goal”
“Are we talking about a human life?”
“Have you ever heard about animals being used for experiments?”
“They were used some decades ago, but the protests could finally make it and they stopped using them” Robin explained.
“Exactly, and we know that they got tired of only using printed human skin, organs and bones made by stem cells and some other stuff they got from donators, so this company used some homeless people for their experiments, also human rights were gone to the trash can after the last non-nuclear war”
“Yeah…”
“Do you remember what are they looking for?”
“Preserving a young body through ages, even if it involves artificial life…” Robin covered her mouth and looked at Zoro.
“Yeah, and if the thing about their biggest experiment is true, then… someone must’ve been there for ages!”
“You’re kidding, right?!” Zoro sent them a threatening look.
“Come on, Zoro! We know each other since we are kids…”
“Yeah, you’re right… But that’s… I can’t believe that!”
“We’ll help you cross to that island, okay?”
“Really?” Robin asked.
“Yeah, we want to see it by ourselves…”
“About that… Did you see a young teenager walk through that bridge?”
“Young teenager?” Robin asked and looked at Zoro’s worried face.
“Ah… One day I got lost and that guy told me he was going there just to get money for his father’s sickness. I think he doesn’t know that man died some years ago”
“So?”
“Kureha knows him” Zoro looked away from Robin and made a face.
“Why didn’t you tell her?!”
“Ah well…”
Two days passed really fast, Sanji was now using a pink shirt and black pants instead of the white and uncomfortable pajamas, he looked even better than before but somehow he noticed he wasn’t gaining any weight, he was losing it instead.
Old memories were appearing for him again, he knew about some voices from his past, his favorite stuff, how he used to spend time and his hobbies; but he couldn’t remember any face, not a single face of a friend, a family member, nothing but just two names and Zeff’s face.
“I’m starting to think I used to be alone…” The blond said to himself, looking at his feet, his finger moving through a scar on his left foot. “Huh? What’s this? I thought I didn’t have scars… This doesn’t look recent”
“Sanji! Prepare your best clothes and shoes!” Perona said, running through his room’s door.
“Huh?!”
“Let’s go! Some people wants to help us!”
“W-Wait for me outside!”
“Fine!”
The teenager left the room and sat outside, a wide smile that went from ear to ear on his face and her hands moving nervously.
“Let’s go” Sanji said, getting out of his room while fixing his necktie. He was wearing a black suit and a blue shirt. His clean and perfect shoes matched perfectly with all his clothes.
“We’ll go back to the real world!”
They walked through the halls and went to Perona’s room; a group of people was there, sitting on the floor.
That young teenager and the redhead from the cafeteria, a blond guy with a mask and another woman with pink hair and a mad expression.
“So… he’s the new?” The redhead said while looking at him with a judging look.
“I hope so”
“S-Sanji, right?” The young boy with the brown and blue eyes said shyly.
“Tony”
“So you’ll help us get out of here?”
“Huh?”
“We started investigating about you, mister fighter…”
“Fighter?”
“What about all those krav Maga, Savate and Tae Kwon Do tournaments you won?”
“Well, it seems I can’t remember a single thing… I can only remember some casual stuff and two names, that’s all”
“Names?”
“Zeff… It seems he was my father and… I don’t remember this guy but the name is Zoro”
Everyone’s eyes opened wide, all their looks locked on him.
“W-What’s wrong?”
“Zoro?”
“Yeah, do you know something about that guy?”
“W-We’ll tell you later”
Everyone crossed looks and made a terrified face.
“Can I?” The redhead looked at Perona and pointed at the blond.
“Sure”
In an instant, he tried to punch the blond on the face but the other man stopped him with his leg and kicked him right in the stomach.
“Good one, bastard” The redhead said, almost laughing.
“Hey! What’s wrong with you?!”
“Your body remembers pretty well”
“It was just pure instinct”
“Then let your instincts flow when the time comes”
“Don’t make him waste that much energy! You already know we don’t have much left to escape!” The young boy shouted and the redhead took a sit again.
“What do you mean?” The blond asked, confused.
“The food… it has less than the calorie intake we need as teenagers or adults… Have you noticed that there are nearly no kids in here, and if there are some, they are trapped inside their rooms?” Perona looked at him and sighed.
Sanji remembered some days before, he walked through a hall with walls of different colors and small pictures of clouds and animals printed on them, he heard some kids playing but didn’t see them.
“Yeah… I thought it was normal. But now that you mention it…”
“They can’t survive with that low calorie intake! We at least don’t waste too much energy since we are inside our own rooms trapped like prisoners and the only thing we do is sit on our beds and look through the stupid hole they give us as a window! But those kids…! They need to play, they try to play and then…” Chopped looked down.
“I-I didn’t know that…”
“We need to be fast or we’ll end up fainting halfway” Perona said with a serious expression.
“Y-You’re telling me they are giving us less calories and food for a normal person, so we can’t escape?!”
“Uhh… Yeah, that’s pretty much it, are you dumb or something?”
“Here” Perona threw a small empty bag to him and the blond caught it, he tried to bent it and put it inside his pocket. “Use this to put on your stuff, we don’t want to lose anything.
“I want to see doctorine…” The young teenager said with a sad expression, hiding his face on his knees.
“Doctorine?” Sanji asked.
“Doctor Kureha, she’s pretty old; I think you could’ve known her back when you were free”
“Kureha… Ah, that doctor that--- I remember her, I remember her! Is that old woman still alive?!”
“You knew her?!”
“Yup, she was my doctor! I…” The blond pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. “She once saved my life, I was at a place full of snow and I fell from a high distance, my back was broken and… I Remember her face…” The blond said the last part in a low tone and looked at the kid.
“She must be 130 years old now” Chopper said with a smile. “And Hiruluk… I wonder if he has fully recovered”
“He used to be Kureha’s friend, right?”
“Yeah!” Chopper smiled again “If I get out of here, I want to be like him! A great doctor!”
“Then let’s get the hell out of this place!”
The door behind him suddenly opened and Monet was right there, getting inside the room with five other men in white suits with electrical sticks on their hands.
“Too bad for you… I already told you, you guys are our great experiments. You won’t get out of Punk Hazard!”
The men entered the room and forced them to bend on their knees and look down.
“So… I think your plans are ruined…” Monet said, fixing her hair and looking at them. “Take them to their rooms. And use violence if necessary! Hurry!”
Each of them were taken to their rooms, Sanji was moving violently to escape from them but suddenly a violent punch on his face let him down.
“Listen, Sanji… We don’t really like to use violence that much; but if you make us use it, we’ll gladly show you what we are capable of!”
“I don’t know what do I have to do with you, I don’t even know what you did to me, but I will discover it, I promise!” The blond yelled before being thrown into his room.
“Why don’t you remember it? I think you can surely remember that” Monet laughed as the blond looked at her with intense eyes. “Spend all your life peacefully inside here, inside Punk Hazard… just like all these lab rats, okay?” The green haired woman smiled at him.
“I’ll get out of here… I promise…”
“So what? You’re alone, you have nowhere to go, not even a damn family member. That was the plan since the beginning, you’re safe here”
“I’m not safe here!”
The blond kicked the door violently, time after time until he felt like he was fainting.
“Fill the room with sleeping gas and bring some food for him after he wakes up again” She said, walking away from there.
“We might arrive to the other side in ten minutes” Johnny said, looking at Zoro. “What are you going to do when you arrive?”
“Kill all the security without making a scandal, of course” Robin said while reading a book, not looking at the other man.
“Two of us are enough, wait for us right on the boat, okay?”
“Fine” Yozaku said.
“I must tell you, four”
“Four?!” Zoro looked at her, his eyes open wide.
“Luffy sent Nami after we left and she might be already inside “fixing” the security system for us, there’s another guy infiltrated in there, maybe more but I’m just counting the one we have information about since I don’t know if the others are still alive or complete”
“Is she this cold every day?” Johnny asked without any hint of education.
“Cold as ice” Zoro rolled his eyes to the sky.
Lights turning off on the whole place, the bright walls getting darker once the redhead woman wearing a black spandex suit and carrying an electrical stick on her back walked through them with a smile on her face.
Doors opening and a big hologram of a map next to her hand.
“This is pretty easy~” She said and continued walking through the place. “Now, where should I go~?”
She pressed the small thing in her right ear and smiled.
“Robin, you can start at the east when you arrive”
“Okay, Nami. Tell me where are the experiments, so we won’t hurt them”
“Okay! I’ll leave the rest to you!”
“Take care”
“Get me out of here!” The blond shouted after waking up, he was forced to change his suit back to a boring pajama and he could barely breathe, his eyes hurt really bad. “Hey!”
He kicked the door until a big mark was on it but after a moment it suddenly opened.
“W-What?”
He looked outside and noticed the lights on the hall were failing and it was slowly getting dark. He ran inside his room and took the bag Perona threw him before, he put all his clothes inside it and walked through the door nervously.
“I don’t know what’s happening but… it’s a good opportunity” The blond smiled and started running towards Perona’s room.
After a while he arrived to his destination and knocked the door. “Hey, Perona!”
There was no answer, the door opened and Sanji looked through the door but Perona wasn’t there.
“Fuck, I don’t even know where are the other’s room!”
Meanwhile the green haired man was running through some dark halls, trying to look for a more illuminated place.
“Zoro, you are an idiot! We told you to follow us but went to the other side instead!” Nami’s voice was loud through the small device on Zoro’s ear.
“Hey, hey… Shut up!”
“Why do you always get lost?!”
“I don’t get lost! The walls just move!”
“How?!”
“I don’t know! Just… Just send me a map!”
After minutes walking through the dark place, the silhouette of a man kicking something appeared in front of him, he tried to focus his eyes but the lack of light didn’t help that much. He put his hand on the handle of one of his swords and walked cautiously towards him.
“Who are you?!”
The other man moved nervously and left something on the floor, he looked like he was fixing his hair and taking his hand to his pocket.
“Don’t move!” Zoro shouted and unsheathed his sword. “Don’t move or I’ll cut your head off!”
“H-Hey, who the hell are you?” The other man asked, he seemed to be strong but more to the skinny side and tall.
“I’m asking that! Don’t you dare to move!”
“Hey, hey… I’m just looking for my lighter…”
“Lighter? Don’t fuck with me! You’re one of them, aren’t you?!”
“Hey, chill man…” The other man took out something from his pocket.
“Stop moving!” Zoro pointed at him with his sword instinctively.
“I think I’ve heard your voice before…” That thing on the other man’s hand was a lighter, suddenly fire appeared in front of his face. Golden hair covering pale perfect skin, only one eye visible and long eyelashes. That man was lighting a cigarette between his lips.
“Who are you?”
“Hmm?” The blond put his lighter a bit closer to Zoro and looked at him with wide eyes, his hand seemed to stop working and the lighter fell loudly to the floor.
“W-What the--?!”
“I know you…! You are Zoro!” The blond shouted, surprising the other man. “Aren’t you supposed to be dead?!”
“What the fuck are you talking about?!”
“How do you know my name?! Who are you?!”
“I can barely remember you but… your voice, your face… What happened to your black hair? Why did you dye it green?”
“Don’t make fun of me, bastard!” Zoro moved his hand furiously, the blade of his sword moving directly to the blonde’s neck.
It happened so fast, the sound of steel being stopped by a really strong leg echoing through the hall, that same sword being dropped to the floor and the sound of the air moving along with the fast moves of the blond’s legs, kicking Zoro fiercely as he was trying to protect himself with his arms.
Such fast moves were inhuman, as Zoro tried to open his eyes he noticed the red mark on the blond’s neck, it was a characteristic mark on humans used for experiments.
“So… You’re not one of them…”
One kick.
“What did you do to my friends?!”
“What?!”
Another kick that made Zoro fall to the floor and hit his back on the wall. It didn’t take long before the blond threw another kick right to his face, this time Zoro could dodge it, surprised by the sound of the wall cracking and the small drops of blood on the floor.
“I don’t know why, but you seem to be on my memories… So speak now!”
Zoro stood up and cleaned the sweat on his face with his hand. The lights on the hall were fine again and now he could see the other man completely.
“You’re one of the experiments here?”
“Hah?!”
“We are trying to get you out of here, so stop acting all weird and let me find a friend of mine, okay?! Run to the damn exit, I don’t know where it is, and just stop wasting energy. You must feel pretty tired right now” Zoro glanced at him.
For being an experiment, the blond looked pretty nice, his eyes were blue as the ocean, pale skin, skinny -but normal for someone who had been there-. His golden hair was shining even if he wasn’t completely healthy and his legs were pretty long. The only flaw was a curly eyebrow.
“Have you seen a teenager with brown hair, pale skin and… eyes of different colors?”
“Different colors?” Sanji looked at him. “Chopper…”
“Hah?!”
“Tony, isn’t it?”
“Do you know him?”
“I was looking for him…”
“Well, it doesn’t help at all… See ya’” Zoro took his sword from the floor and walked away from the blond.
“W-Wait, Zoro! Let me go with you, I’m worrying about him and… I don’t even know where the exit is…”
The green haired man shook his head and looked at the blond.
“Fine, but answer one question!”
“What is it?”
“How do you know my name?”
“Ah, this… You don’t remember me?” The blond laughed nervously. “I thought we knew each other… yeah, I remember that we used to be friends and… It’s all so blurry…”
“I don’t know you”
The blond didn’t know why but his words hurt something deep inside him.
“You must’ve forgot about me; did you lose your memory just like me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I know I haven’t lost my memory” Zoro rolled his eyes.
They started walking through the hall, looking through the open doors of different rooms.
The silence between both of them broke when the sound of kids running surrounded the place, they entered one of the rooms and found some of them playing with stuffed animals.
“Where are we?” Zoro asked, looking at the empty room full of noises of children playing and laughing.
“I don’t… know…” The blond threw his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it. “But this is kind of creepy…”
“Believe me, after all I’ve seen… this is nothing to compare.”
“So, tell us Mr. Roronoa; What have you seen?” Monet and a tall man with a white suit and sunglasses entered the room through another gate. The man was carrying an unconscious Nami on his shoulder and Zoro opened his eyes like plates.
“Hey, Monet… Where are all your men, huh?”
“That damn bastard standing next to you killed most of them with his damn swords. But Vergo is more than enough to take you back to that room and make you sleep for another decade”
“What is that bastard doing with---!” Zoro stopped speaking when Sanji put his hand in front of him.
“That’s not the correct way to treat a woman... Why don’t you put her down and try to make her words a reality?”
The other man smiled and put down Nami. After a second fixing his coat, he ran towards the blond, pushing him outside the room with brute strength.
“Bring it on”
Sanji stood up, coughing and looking at his shoes.
“Ah, now I remember why people called me blackleg…” The blond laughed and threw fast kicks towards Vergo, his legs weren’t failing at all, kick after kick he could remember more and more.
And there he was, putting all his weight on his hands and kicking the other man with acrobatic movements, he didn’t want to use his hands at all, and he didn’t need that.
“Watch where you’re kicking!” Vergo punched him on the face before the blond’s foot could land on his face again, he kicked him on the stomach and sent him away to a certain distance, just to make sure he could land more kicks to the blond.
Sanji stood on his feet again and tried to kick him again, their shins colliding fiercely, bringing pain to both of them.
“Ah, I feel alive again…!”
Right at the east of the laboratory Robin was still fighting some men, shooting at them and punching them away to make her way to the place where all the experiments were.
“Robin!” Perona shouted as she ran towards her.
“Perona, what are you doing here?!”
“You know… I got lost one day and… I ended up here” She smiled, pulling out a grenade. “Ran towards here, I’ll take care of this faster” She said with a smile.
“Always the same” Robin shoot at some other men and ran towards her as fast as she could. The grenade exploding behind her and sending all the men away.
“Where are the others?”
“Inside the cafeteria, along with all the other experiments”
“Did you block the gas outlets?”
“Yeah! But… we need your help” Perona looked at her. “There’s another man… he’s super important in this...”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you heard about the great experiment they have been preserving for years?”
Robin nodded and Perona smiled.
“Well, he’s lost at the other side of the place… Could you go for him? He’ll need more energy if he wants to get out of there alive”
“What do you mean?”
“Monet and Vergo”
Robin covered her mouth and opened her eyes.
“Is the other man still here?”
“Yes, he might be there too, but it’s better if all of you are there. Kidd and I will try to gather all the people here.
“Let’s meet at the north, there are two guys there, friends of Zoro. Show them the tattoos to let them know who you are.
Robin ran through another gate towards the other side of the building, she covered her face with her hood and pushed a small button on her bracelet.
“Law, are you there?”
“Ah, Robin-ya… I was sleeping, what’s with all the noise out there?”
“We are already inside the Lab, Zoro must be fighting against Monet but that’s not the problem here…”
“Huh? Then, what is it?”
“There’s another man… he must be fighting an old “friend” of yours”
“Please be more specific. I’m still tired.”
“Vergo is here too; Please help that man, he’s an experiment too, a very important one…”
Robin could hear the sound of Law’s breathing getting faster.
“So? Will you help us?”
“I’ll consider it. It was time for you to get me out of here…”
“I’ll get there after a while, please help them”
Kick after kick, it had no end, nothing else to do and Sanji knew he didn’t have much energy left. His kicks were losing impact and his sight was blurring.
“Feeling tired?” Vergo laughed and punched the blond in the face. “We all took care of you all this time, at least be grateful”
“I don’t even know if I got here by my own, but I know I wouldn’t let myself being touched and hurt by all of you!” Sanji shouted and kicked Vergo on the face, his leg stretching really high. “The next time you try to make fun of my damn situation, I’ll fucking kill you!”
Those words took away all the energy from his body, his head started to feel heavy and all around him was darkness.
“Good job, 0302” A tall man with black hair, jeans, a black shirt and a white fur hat caught him before he fell unconscious to the floor and put him slowly on the floor. “So, it seems it’s my turn now”
Vergo cleaned the small drop of blood sliding through his forehead with his hand and looked at the other man.
“It’s been a long time…” Vergo said, looking at Law unsheathing his sword.
Law Ran towards him and kicked him on the side, making Vergo fall back inside the room where Monet and Zoro were fighthing.
“You stay there, 0302!” Law shouted as he closed the gate as fast as he could before he had to stop a kick with his sword.
“Ah! Torao!” Zoro shouted as he ran towards a corner while Monet was shooting at him. “How about lending a hand here?”
“Hey, hey… I got my hands full here”
“I forgot you always have that bad attitude”
Law ignored him and continued to fight Vergo, running towards him and moving his long sword precisely.
“Do you think that sword will be enough?”
Law smiled and took out a small blade that seemed to have some electrical device connected to it. The black haired man smiled as Vergo was running towards him.
As robin ran through a certain hall, she looked at the silhouette of a man lying on the floor, his back against the wall and a long curtain of blond hair covering his face, pale skin and a complexion.
“Hmm?”
She walked towards him and sat on the floor in front of him.
“Perona, how does the guy you said look like?” She said in a low voice to her watch.
“Uhhm… Blond, pale and has a curly eyebrow”
“Ah, found him. Don’t worry, he’s fine”
“Really?! Oh! I forgot to tell you… He said he knows Zoro, well,he says he can remember him…?”
“What do you mean?”
“He has been here for at least seventy years, he lost his memory and he says he can remember his name. I don’t know what that means but…”
“I’ll check it later with Zoro, please go with the others and let’s meet at the house tomorrow, okay?”
“Fine, see you!”
Robin looked at the young man in front of her, he looked like he was having a nightmare; the blond shook and fell to his side.
“Hey, hey…” She caressed his head and smiled. “Wake up”
The blond slowly opened his eyes and looked at her, he looked tired and showed her a small smile.
“You’re not Zoro” The blond said looking at her, his eyes closing slowly as she kept caressing his head.
“He’ll be back soon, don’t worry”
As the sound of iron and people fighting inside the room was getting away and his eyes closed completely, he could hear himself murmuring nothings that stopped in a moment.
The sound of people calling him, they were laughing and making fun of him, but it gave him a warm feeling. He didn’t want to wake up from that dream. As he walked inside a certain kitchen, he could easily recognize some smells, delicious food and the people in there but he couldn’t stop himself from walking right through another door and find himself in another room with beautiful furniture, tables and chairs. It was all elegant and had small touches of rustic stuff, it was awesome; Was that his old job?
As he continued walking, the background changed and he was in front of a man with black hair and a sword on his hand looking at him and waving at the blond with a small smile on his face. It was Zoro, they were inside an apartment, the light making its way through the window.
As the blond smiled back at him he could notice the other man turning around and showing his back to the blond, simply ignoring him.
Somehow he knew Zoro was like that and after smiling at him for a moment, in a blink of an eye everything was dark again, just to have another weird dream.
The time passed slowly, Robin was still sitting at the floor and caressing Sanji’s head until Zoro and Law walked out the room.
“Oh, you’re back” Robin smiled at them.
“What are you doing here?”
“Perona told me this guy was missing”
“Who’s him, by the way?”
“Eh? I thought you knew that already; Perona told me he said he knew your name and… well, she hasn’t explained herself” Robin looked at the blond. “What was he doing on the floor, anyway?”
“Ah, about that…” Zoro scratched the back of his neck. “I left him fighting with Vergo without thinking, then eyebrows took him out of the room”
“Eyebrows?”
“Look at his curly eyebrows” Zoro pointed out and Robin moved the blond’s bangs out of the way.
“Ah” She said in surprise. “That’s… unique?”
Robin smiled and looked at Zoro.
“Well, since it’s your fault that he’s in this state, you’ll take him back to the city by carrying him on your back”
“Hah?!”
“We don’t have enough space on the boats and it is your punishment”
Zoro growled furiously.
“And, he says he knows you”
“I already said I don’t know him!”
“But he said your name multiple times while holding my hand…”
“I won’t do that!” Zoro blushed instantly.
“Just do it, you know you won’t convince her!”
Zoro looked at Law and sighed, after seconds of thinking he walked towards the blond and carried the blond without thinking twice.
“So I’ll just have to carry him to the city and leave him there?”
“Now that you mention it… Carry him to the house” Robin smiled at him.
“What?! I can’t do that!”
Robin laughed.
“We’ll go and take you two in a day or two… We just need to leave all the experiments at Smoker’s. We’ll call you, okay?”
“And where am I supposed to stay?!”
“You need to take him to the hospital” Law pointed out.
“You’re a doctor, aren’t you?!”
“Yes, but I’ll take care of the other experiments. You take care of him”
“Hah?!”
“Let’s go… The bridge is free and out of enemies… By the way, where’s Nami?”
Law and Zoro looked at each other with wide eyes.
“Yeah, where did you leave Nami?” The redhead walked out of the room with a furious expression.
“I’ll call you” Zoro ran as fast as he could with the blond on his back.
“Wrong direction” Robin said crossing her arms.
“Shit!”
After a while trying to find the exit, Zoro was finally crossing the bridge, the sun was starting to shine and the blond was still sleeping; it was starting to get cold so the green haired man made a face.
“Why is this guy so heavy…?” Zoro growled “Ah, fuck…”
Even if the blonde’s back was cold, he could feel something warm on him and smiled when the smell of steel filled his nostrils, it wasn’t familiar at all, but he liked it as well as the warm feeling he had on his chest.
“Zoro…” The blond said in a low voice, holding the swordsman harder and smiling on his neck.
“Are you awake now?” Zoro asked quietly.
“Hmm”
“Can you walk?” The green haired man rolled his eyes and looked at the small drops of blood on the floor. “Ah…”
The blond’s feet were bleeding from all the strong kicks, of course he couldn’t walk.
“I like it”
“Hah?”
“Your green hair, it suits you more; I like it”
Zoro chuckled.
“You’re the first person ever that says something like that to me”
“Hmm”
“Keep on sleeping, we need to cross this damn bridge, get some food and warm clothes and go to a hospital to cure---“
“Thank you…”
“Just sleep”
They had to go through that bridge along with the break of dawn, the sun rising and illuminating their path and both of them getting a warm feeling inside. A warm feeling that brought memories to both of them.