Bloodline Cocktail

Three years had passed since Luffy's lifelong dream to be King of the Pirates had been achieved. Three years since his discovery of the One Piece had set off a chain reaction, toppling the World Government from the bottom up. Three years since that shockwave had shaken the Marines to the core and finally started its reformation. Those series of events three years ago resonated across the world...but for Zoro, it was just another Tuesday. And on this Tuesday evening, he had just woken up from one of his sporadic naps…in his bed? No, no, it couldn’t be, he rarely ever actually slept there nowadays and even when he did, it never felt this uncomfortable and stiff. Opening his good eye, he could not see much around him, the room being darker than night. Then the smell hit him. The scent of dank still water, of the rot of dead rodents, and of other desiccated and forgotten things left in a cold and unfeeling area. Pushing his body up, he felt around him, the bed he was on simply being a slab of suspended metal and the walls being suspiciously moist stone.

He was in a cell.

Fuck, how the hell had he been captured. Were the rest of the crew also captured? A quick pat down told him that not only had his swords been confiscated but…he had even been stripped down to his fundoshi! He squeezed his thighs together, instinctively, feeling a cold breeze shooting up somewhere it did not belong. Think, man, think, he thought to himself. WHAT happened for him to end up like this? Zoro wracked his brain, putting together what pieces he could remember. He was…he was on the Sunny, doing the night watch with the kitchen gremlin. To avoid any fighting, they had taken to being on the opposite ends of the ship at all times. It was deep into the night, meaning they were the only souls awake under the cloudy sky and relatively calm sea. And then…and then…

Zoro groaned to himself when he could not remember anything after that. He had to have been drugged and brought here if that was the case, but by who?

“Lights on.”

A set of bright, blinding lights switched on at the command of this deep voice and the swordsman had to squint hard for a few seconds for his eye to adjust to the change. When he could somewhat see again, he was able to realize that he was surrounded outside of his cell, with two figures in front of him who stuck out of the crowd. The larger figure was towering, with a shocking head of long and spiky hair and a mustache that looked like it could cut through flesh and frown that could cut through any lesser man’s heart. Next to him was a pink haired woman who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but here right now. It looks like they were seated and had been sitting there, waiting for his awakening, for a while. Around them were identical soldiers, eyes hidden behind opaque glasses and a rifle in every one of their hands.

“So, you're finally awake.” The large man growled. He shifted in his chair and straightened his posture to make his already gargantuan self look taller. An obvious intimidation tactic. Like hell Zoro was going to allow his bastard captor to even feel the satisfaction of making him feel small.

“Yeah, and I'd like some damn answers.”

He shifted his weight to get up onto his feet, but this sudden movement made the already jumpy guards cock the hammers of their rifles. He was strong, sure, but without his swords…

Zoro settled down and instead glared at his captors with more contempt.

“Quite a demanding little thing you are, even knowing what position you are in. Do you even know why I brought you here today?”

The tall blond spoke through his teeth, biting back on some deeply held anger.

“How the hell should I know? All I remember is being captured by your cronies and plopped into this cell!”

The blond tsked. He got up from his chair, slowly walking towards Zoro with his hands behind his back.

“Mister Roronoa, while we may not have met before, your reputation has preceded you. A reputation I can acknowledge, as a combat expert myself. But even with that, what you have done to my daughter…it is just unforgivable.”

This statement confused Zoro for a second. Something he did to someone’s daughter? Sure, he had fought some women before, and their blood spilt, as with many of his foes, but none he could remember that were part of a kingdom like this.

As the older man got closer, though, Zoro could make out the details of his face more clearly. Much of his face was covered by an ornate helmet, but at this distance, the swordsman could see his eyebrows…his curly eyebrows.

It all came together suddenly.

Zoro’s eye widened and his knuckles turned white from how he gripped the bench.

“You’re shit cook’s sperm donor!”

The man, the king, Vinsmoke Judge, growled and bared his teeth as his shoulders tensed.

“It took you long enough to see that. I am guessing Sanji has been blabbing about Germa to anyone who will listen, dispensing his sob stories?”

“He told me enough to know how much of a short sighted, bigheaded, cowardly mad scientist you are.”

The swordsman could not help his tone becoming more aggravated and edgy, making the already on edge soldiers poke their guns directly into his cell. Judge put a hand up to keep them from trying anything further. The pink haired woman, still in her chair, face partially covered by her hair with her head downturned, shrank into her seat further.

“So you do at least know about us Vinsmokes. To an extent. Hmph, only makes what you did far worse.”

What the fuck was this man talking about? Judge kept yammering about what Zoro did to one of his kids but…he couldn’t recall ever meeting one of them. He definitely would remember seeing someone else who isn’t Curlybrow with those coiled brows.

“You sure you don’t have the wrong guy? I’ve never even seen any of you people until now.”

Judge’s frown deepened and the room somehow felt even icier than before. He gripped one of the cell bars hard as he brought his face closer to the space between the metal.

“Oh you most definitely have, Mr.Roronoa. Or did you forget your little rendezvous on Innsmouth?”

Innsmouth…Innsmouth…

Zoro’s eyes flicked over to the pink haired woman again, which had to be…Reiju. She shrunk away at Judge’s mention of that island. And while her arms were covering her midsection, it was undeniable how…round it was. In a solid way that could only mean…

Oh God, Zoro was a fucking moron.

His mouth and throat felt dried up and incredibly parched.

“No way…no way, there is just…that woman didn’t even have her eyebrows or tattoos!”

His floundering was obviously unfounded and desperate, the product of his mind trying not to believe what was right in front of him. Judge seemed to revel in breaking this news to the man, seeing him squirm a little.

“Reiju has been trained to be a little more covert than her brothers when it comes to assassinations, including the ability to disguise her most prominent features with makeup. Either way, though, it does not matter how you try to worm your way out of this, considering I finally got Reiju to give up the identity of the sire.”

A shaky exhale came from the woman. Zoro clamped his lips together as he kept eye contact with Judge. Looking away at this point would just be giving the man what he wants.

“It took a few months, though, to get it out of her. Despite my best efforts to make sure she would not keep secrets,” he turned away for a moment to shoot a look at Reiju, “she did keep this child situation out of my sight until it could no longer be hidden. And then she kept you out of my knowledge until I managed to twist her arm enough.”

God…fuck…

“And that leads us to now. You, here, in my dungeon, Roronoa. Do you know why I brought you here now that you know what has been done?”

“You…you want me to marry her?”

It was all Zoro could think of on why he was forcefully brought here, that usually was the byproduct of the father of the woman you knocked up dragging you to his home, but this made the king laugh at him mirthlessly.

“Not in your life, you little whelp. You may be part of that Straw Hat crew, but to me you’re still just a commoner. No, I brought you to my home because I am beyond livid that this was done without my consent. Who are you to try and stake your claim in my kingdom, in my daughter, by sowing your seeds around so carelessly? You’re just some uppity little pirate who does not know his place. So, in order to keep our image, and so you will not reap the rewards of your harvest, I decided it would be best to keep you here at Germa…permanently.”

Zoro’s heart was pounding in his chest, thrumming in his ears, as he kept his body still. A blood lust was coming over him at this revelation. He was being kept down here, kept from his crew, all because this big blond bastard was possessive over his daughter? At least from what he heard from Sanji about his former family that this was par for the course.

Sanji…oh shit, Sanji.

“Where is my crew, then,” the swordsman snarled, “where are you keeping them?”

“Feh, I am keeping my promise I made to Sanji all those years ago. I left him and alone along with the rest of your crew. Though, I cannot say they might not have been roughed up by the extraction crew for resisting.”

Oh.

Oh he was going to KILL this man.

Composure lost, Zoro ran up and slammed against the bars of his cell. He heard a gun fire in his direction before Judge put a hand up for his soldiers to halt.

“What did you do to them!” The green haired man bared his teeth.

“As I said, I do at least know they are still alive…though, from the mission reports, they are not in the best shape. All because you could not keep it in your pants.”

The audacity of this statement, just the thought of his crewmates being hurt and him being unable to do anything about it…fuck the guns around him, he was ready to go for this man’s throat, swords be damned. One of his hands shot up from the bar it gripped, ready to choke this man out…

…until his eye locked with Reiju’s. The tiredness. The despair in them. The arm around her stomach.

None of this was easy for her too.

He…couldn’t be tough in the way he usually was, not now at least. The woman looked stressed enough as is. He started yapping from his cell and bringing Judge down from his humiliation high, and she might have to pay for that.

Zoro pulled both his hands back and stuck them to his sides. His movements were robotic as he contained all the emotions he had at the moment.

The blond king clucked his tongue condescendingly.

“Aww, nippy little thing, aren’t we? Well, don’t worry too much about that, I took the liberty of installing a little extra security on your person while you were out.”

Judge reached into his breastpocket and pressed something. In an instant, Zoro’s wrists and ankles slammed together and were stuck with great strength. He attempted to pull them apart but it was a fruitless effort. On further inspection, Zoro finally noticed what was keeping his limbs together: deep black tattoos, freshly inked, circled his ankles and wrists like cuffs.

Satisfied for now, Judge pressed a button again and his limbs were released.

“A new piece of technology,” he coolly informed the swordsman, “so you do not get any escape ideas. If you try to jump or swim off, all it takes is a push of a button to leave you retrievable…or to leave you to drown.”

“You…you…” Zoro felt like he was about to explode again with the mounting pressure, until he flicked his eye over at Reiju again and back at Judge. He could bark all he wanted, but even then he knew Judge was the one with all the cards in his favor. There was nothing sharp in his cell he could use as a weapon and slice through the bastard, he was outnumbered, outgunned, all of this was not to mention the king would most likely sic his super powered sons on him to pound him to mush.

Reluctantly, he deflated and took a few steps back. The king of Germa sneered at this, feeling a shot of satisfaction at Zoro’s silence.

“No more comments, then? Then we’re done here. I assign a handler to you tomorrow to wake you up and get you ready for work,” he waited a second to see if Zoro would react to this new phase of his life, “Do not think just because I have you imprisoned here that you will get any sort of special treatment from work. Being in Germa means being useful, and I am sure many of my citizens would have usage for you, especially when it comes to the jobs no one else wants to do.”

“So are we done here?” Zoro finally said in a bid for defiance. Judge’s expression simmered down a bit now, his face turning stony as he nodded.

“Yes, yes it is.” He shot a lighting bolt look to his daughter before gesturing to the entourage of soldiers to lower their weapons and leave. They left in single file, marching away robotically, leaving Judge and Reiju alone with Zoro. The pair did not leave quite yet, Judge looking straight down at his daughter, his expression unreadable. Reiju herself could not even bear to glance at the captive man, her blue gaze averted and paying much closer attention to the floor.

“Reiju,” the blond king’s voice was crisp and devoid of empathy, “look at Mr.Roronoa Zoro.”

The woman’s head snapped up, as if possessed, and her hands gripped her nightgown skirt with a tremendous force. Her pair of eyes made firm contact with his remaining one.

Even though she did not say anything, the apologetic and strained look in her eyes made the message clear.

I am so, so sorry.

The few seconds where the two were forced to soak in each other’s states seemed to stretch on for infinity, his heart seemingly twisting in on itself as all the information dumped on him began to sink in. The discomfort between the pair was thick and palpable until Judge finally broke it with a snap of his fingers. He ordered Reiju to follow him upstairs and she obliged. As Zoro was left alone with just his thoughts and digesting all the information that had been shoved onto him, one thought kept repeating itself over and over throughout the night:

What was he supposed to do now?

🦋🦋🦋⚔️⚔️⚔️

“So,” her father shifted his hulking form around to face her as the door to the dungeon was closed and locked, “do we have an understanding now?”

Reiju forced her neck to crane her head up to look at Judge, even though the floor was a much more enticing sight at the moment.

“Yes, father,” she forced her voice to be pillow soft and docile, “I cannot hide anything from you and…” she swallowed down the build up of saliva in her throat.

“And?” her father pushed on in anticipation.

“And anything that has to do with me or my body has to be approved by you first. Because I am not just your daughter, but your soldier too.”

Something resembling a smile crossed his mustached lips and he gave her a pet on the head, a rough one.

“Good girl. And now you know what happens when you try to slink around me. Now, go to bed.”

Once she was relieved from having to spend a second longer in the display of punitive shame her father just put her through, Reiju beelined back to her room and shut and locked the door behind her. She pressed her back against the wood and breathed slowly and deeply. It was like there was a heavy weight pulling down on her lungs.

She was expecting this, to an extent, but this did not mean that it hurt to see any less. Her father wanted her to regret her actions and it worked. He won. He got what he wanted, at least in this case, and she was left…having to take it. Having to see the father of her child confined, taken away from his true family, all because of her father’s ego.

Most of Judge’s anger seemed to stem from the fact that this was something he had no control over. He could not oversee the…copulation, and he could not oversee the first trimester of her pregnancy and make any modifications in the early stages. Maybe he would make changes to her child post birth, but…

Reiju grit her teeth together hard enough they felt that they would shatter from her head.

No…no, she could not let her mind be clouded by such horrid thoughts, not with this much more pressing matter in the present.

Today's outcome…had been expected. After all, she held out on her pregnancy until there was no way she could ever hide it. The excuses of stomach bugs and overindulgence only held up for so long until she was practically cornered by her father who told her that he would extract the truth out of her the easy way or the hard way.

Needless to say, she had a child now to look after, and as much as it pained her, she admitted what she had done…for the most part.

Using a loophole in the programming that controlled her, she had been able to skirt around the subject of the father of her child, Zoro, up until a few weeks ago when she was given an ultimatum.

Bile rose up and burned the back of her throat at the memory.

Needless to say, betraying the identity of her child’s father was a far better option than that.

Reiju had hoped and hoped for weeks that her father would not be able to track down the Straw Hats, at least for long enough until his anger ran out. That would at least mean he could be safe from the man’s wrath. Of course, it was a pipe dream, as she sat here in front of her door, the swordsman rotting in the dungeon.

A small limb hit her stomach with all the force the small being inside of her could muster. It was enough to put some of her thoughts on pause as she looked down at her stomach.

“So, you're awake,” she stated rather matter of factly to the child inside of her, “right on time.”

Yes, now was the time of evening when her child became active, moving and rolling around her abdomen without a care in the world. If only she were so lucky as to have that attitude. Reiju placed a hand on the crest of her stomach, the child giving a good kick just right next to her palm.

“So…that was your father back there, in the dungeon, if you did not know…though, not like you would know anything at this point. Except…maybe my voice…but you do not seem to always react to that, so perhaps I am assigning traits to you that are…” she pursed her lips and lowered her voice even further, “...nevermind, I am just rambling.”

The pink blonde’s nerves were still frayed, with seemingly every misstep she had made up until this point culminating into the present day.

She just wanted to see Sanji again, just one more time and never again due to extenuating circumstances, but then that swordsman…he just waltzed into her world, even if unintentionally, and it was like something had been wrenched out from the recesses of her chest and exposed to the sunlight for the first time ever. No man, woman, or person had ever been able to tickle her fancy and the princess had assumed love and pleasure just were not for her…but maybe it was more that her lock needed a very specific key, so to speak.

Now if only that key was protected…

Once she figured out she was pregnant, Reiju labored over what to do with this situation, with this life growing inside of her. A life that was innocent of the sins of Germa and the sins of their mother. A life that deserved nothing more than to be free, to be someone good.

The princess would put something good out in the world if it was the last thing she would do. She spent months feverishly scheming any and every way to give her child a better future than that of Germa. Just as she was about to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat…

Well, needless to say, she could still hear whispers from the staff and soldiers concerning the blowout her father had at the discovery months ago.

Another flutter rippled through her stomach and Reiju managed to pull her body away from the door. There were two beings who needed to escape Germa now, and only if one of them would even want to work with her or even talk to her now. The princess desperately wanted to talk to Zoro back there, give him anything, words of comfort, a heartfelt apology for dragging him into her world, anything at all, if only her father had not commanded her silence in his presence. For someone who was often called a “demon” or “king of hell”, he looked so vulnerable and tender, nearly naked in that cell, like a turtle that had lost its shell. It made her feel even lower than before and her chest seemed to tighten.

He probably hates her now, and for good reason, but hopefully he would cooperate enough to get him back to where he belongs so he would never have to see her again. Reiju only hoped that none of his animosity towards her would affect how he saw his child.

Another kick hit her square in the ribs, causing a grunt to escape her lips as she sat down on her bed.

“I have never seen you be this excited before,” the princess commented, rubbing the kicked area. It did not hurt, of course, but feeling anything physical like that, and in such a rapid succession, was very unusual for someone of her body type. Reiju welcomed it in a way, though. Her family was not touchy feely, obviously, but even handshakes or a hand on the shoulder was nearly alien for her, so having this sort of…touch, it really was…

…No, no no no, she had to remind herself to stop getting so attached to the baby. Setting down roots would only make it troublesome for the tree to be planted somewhere else.

Well, as much as her head was swirling with emotional pain and guilt, it would have to subside for the evening so she could get some sleep. Her father had kept her up for the example of Zoro and she had already lost an hour and some minutes of precious sleep. She needed all the rest she could get if she was to start planning out the new escape route for the new prisoner now that the leash was tightened around her neck. If her resources were limited before, her father had strangled them to nearly being cut off now. Her life was already just work, training and sleep, with mercenary missions in between, now it was just work and sleep and now without any access to more sensitive areas such as the armory or treasury. Her already closed off world was even smaller and more cramped than ever and she was not how long this would keep up.

Either way, she had managed to pull off two miracles with her brother Sanji before…perhaps the third time would be the charm. Or at least it had to be the charm, nothing less.

Slipping under her covers, she gathered up her long pillow she had begun using and hugged it close to her body, belly supported by its cooling comfort. With the stress her body still had curled up, sleepiness began to unfurl it, leaving all behind until tomorrow…

…which was the idea, but was not working in practice as something small and still awake kicked her square in the kidneys. Reiju breathily groaned and wrapped an arm around her stomach.

“What has made you so riled up?”

Only the silence responded.

She had no idea what she was going to achieve by asking such a question, but for some godforsaken reason, it felt right. Reiju had become accustomed to talking to those who could say nothing back during her pregnancy, starting with the trips she made to her mother’s grave and evolving into relaying whatever feelings she had at the moment to her child. She felt foolish and a little bit like her sanity was slipping whenever she did so, but it provided some comfort, and that was enough for her.

“...Is it because of what happened today?”

Nothing once again, not even a stir.

“Look, I…” the words seemed to die on her lips as she tried to put together something comforting. Reiju was never good with being able to say comforting or soothing things, stumbling over the basics of language whenever she tried. If anything, she was a woman of action, though mainly because it was a role forced upon her. Words meant nothing if she could not back them up with anything. So, wetting her lips, she tried again.

“I know this situation has taken a turn for the worse, but…I can at least promise you that I will do everything in my abilities to solve this. Your father will be freed, you will be freed, and I will make sure of that even if it…”

Kills me were the last words she wanted to say, but some winding and tight part of her heart could not verbalize that. The princess was far from superstitious, but considering the fate of her mother…

Two more kicks poked her stomach and her baby seemed to calm down after that. Hopefully now she can get some sleep. She would begin her machinations in the morning along with the usual humdrum of work.

Once she was able to fall asleep, for once, Reiju’s slumber was dreamless.

🚬🚬🚬

With a makeshift respirator over his face, making each of his puffing breaths muted, Chopper was dashing back and forth between patients in the infirmary, checking vitals, observing their status and keeping Luffy and Robin breathing, getting fresh air into their lungs and ridding them more and more of the crystallized seastone powder out of their lungs. The ship’s captain started heaving, gagging as if to vomit, and the young reindeer caught it just in time to catch the now watery expulsion into a bucket. Sanji could no longer watch much more, limping through the hallway to the upper deck, where Franky was repairing the front mast. The cook turned his attention to their navigator, who was all bandaged up from the previous events of the evening, and giving commands to Jinbei on where to steer to get to the nearest populated island as soon as possible.

He took a huff of his cigarette, so much so, that he almost sucked the whole thing down in one breath. Sanji let the tobacco pool in his lungs for a minute, soothing his nerves to an extent before slowly letting it out.

Zoro is gone now. Snatched away, right in front of their eyes, and by Germa soldiers, no less. The operation seemed to be planned out far in advance since it seemed like every possibility had been accounted for. Some sort of seastone gas had been released, catching Robin and Luffy before they could act and rendering them too weak to fight. The rest of the crew mates had to fight packs of clone soldiers, all specific types that played into their weaknesses, that kept them busy while Zoro, looking like a pin cushion with all the tranquilizer darts, was gathered up and pulled into the clouds.

Sanji got close, so close, to rescuing Zoro before a soldier took a pot shot at his knees while he wasn't paying attention with a large and heavy weapon. The cook was sprawled across the galley, his knees burning with pain (he wouldn't be surprised if they were broken in that instant before his healing factor kicked in) and he was unable to pull himself up. All he could do in that time was watch, and listen, to a pair of guards holding Zoro by his arms and legs as they were hoisted up to the clouds. For a duo of soldiers who were still just pulling away from the ship they had just shanghaied someone from, they seemed calm enough to begin talking to one another.

“Hopefully this’ll fix the king’s mood.”

“I dunno about that. He's been in a real tizzy ever since what happened to the princess.”

Their short conversation was eating at him, Sanji’s mind replaying the moment over and over along with what happened to Zoro, as if the 56th rewatch of it would reveal new information. If the soldiers didn't confirm his father had a hand in this, their direct mention of him did, but then hearing Reiju be brought up and it threw his mind into a tailspin. “What happened to the princess”, what in the hell did that mean? What happened to his sister that required capturing one of his crew mates? WHY would it require Zoro? Was she still-

Sanji sucked down on the tobacco smoke even harder, letting it infest his body and his brain, smoking out the terrible thought.

She was fine when he last saw her, he was sure of that, but there still was the question of what connection those two had. The cook had told Zoro about some of his past after the failed wedding while they were in Wano, including about his sister, but that was the extent of it. There absolutely was no other connection between the two that he knew of. But…perhaps there being no connection was the point. Maybe he was looking into a crackpot theory, but what else was he supposed to work off of?

The cook took another gaseous swig of his cigarette, nearly done with it already. The burning end of it threatened to nip his fingers with heat, but that was nothing right now.

He knew that he and his crew would heal up soon enough. They always had freakish recovery rates that made most people not accustomed to them drop their jaws to the floor considering the damage they took. Luffy, Robin, Nami and the rest would get better by, at most, tomorrow, and they would begin to try and find Zoro again. That was all a fact.

They would find Zoro, and maybe, no, would find his sister, and they would kick some ass to get their swordsman back, this was also a fact.

What wasn't set in stone, though, was what the swordsman would go through while in that hell hole.

Sanji bit down on the butt of his cigarette, no usable tobacco left in the burnt out end.

He had escaped his former family once and had escaped them again, and now it looked like third time was going to be the charm from the way things were shaping up. The cook had every intention of leaving those people in the rearview mirror and now he was u-turning right back into that world. Every cell in his body was trying to implode on themselves so he wouldn’t have to confront them again, but he couldn’t do that…not to Zoro, not to any of his crewmates. Sanji would just have to suck it up, whether he liked it or not.

In the meantime, though, all he could do was hope that whatever was happening to Zoro, he could make it through for just long enough for them to pull through and rescue him…but since Germa 66 was the cause of this…there were no guarantees.

The whole night, Zoro could not think about anything else but his crew. Perhaps he was a terrible person for focusing solely on that when he just had something equally as important revealed to him, but the swordsman could not help himself. He trusted when Judge said they were not dead...but there were other, worse things than death, and with that psycho clown man with him, the two could cook up horrors beyond most people's imaginations. Zoro had to trust his crew in being able to hold their own (they HAD taken on the entire government and Imu themselves, after all), but some part of him could not help but think of the worst case scenarios. If a bunch of soldiers could take him, the world's strongest swordsman, down, then it meant Luffy, Sanji, and all the others were fair game too.

He could see rays of sunlight began to climb up and into his cell. Time had seemed to pass so slowly last night with his thoughts racing, yet he did not notice the passage of time in the slightest until now. Zoro thought back to Judge's words from the evening before, how his refusal to work with Germa was going to leave him as the lowest man on the totem pole. He had a gut feeling it would most likely involve some sort of hard labor or other hardships in order to "punish" him for dare impregnating the princess of Germa, but he would simply have to steel himself for the trials. Escape would have to wait, seeing as he was not only stripped of his swords, but now had restraints in his skin that could be turned on and off. Zoro thought about finding something sharp and just slicing off those pieces of skin, but he firstly did not want to bleed to death if he nicked the wrong vein, but also because he knew his captors would not let him get off that easily.

Speaking of the devil, the door to the dungeon groaned as it was opened in one swift movement. A tunnel of light poured down on the green haired man as he turned his head up to see who was entering. Muscular and stiff, the man wore a Germa soldier uniform, though it also had the addition of a red and black kepi hat, adorned in gold with the insignia of the Germa Kingdom, and a short black cape around his shoulders. Unlike many other soldiers, though, he had a long and black neatly groomed beard going down to this chest. In his left hand was a tray containing a serving of bread and eggs with a cup of water, all balanced with the precision of an experienced waiter. He looked directly at the swordsman as he glided down the stairs, sunglasses betraying no emotion.

“Good morning to you, Mister Zoro,” the soldier greeted with a perfectly flat affect.

“Mmm.” Zoro only offered a grunt back. The man took no heed of this, padding over to the cell and opening a slot on the floor to slide the tray through. He took a few steps back and leaned against the wall, arms crossed, gaze fixated on the prisoner. Zoro shot daggers at him back as he pulled the tray towards him. It was not much, definitely not as good as Sanji’s cooking, but it would at least fill his stomach, which was already growling.

“Please do eat as much as you can,” the soldier commented, “we have a long day ahead of us.”

“Like what?” Zoro could not help being curious on what was in store for him now. The Germa soldier reached into his cloak, pulling out a clipboard and pen that had been nestled under his arm the whole time.

“Firstly, the cooks got first dibs on you and require you to help reorganize all their stock and supplies, then you will work down near the snail breeding grounds to clean up the slime from yesterday’s breeding session, afterwards, the laundry for all four castles need to be done, and then finally, it is onto the blacksmith’s grounds, where you are needed in order to man the bellows and dump coal into the fire for the rest of the day, which at that point, should be about four hours,”

The man looked up from his board after the long spiel.

“Any questions?”

Zoro sniffed at the man.

“…No.” Even if they all, especially the last one, sounded like dirty work no one else wanted to do that were passed off onto him because of his predicament, the green blond felt that these were all something he could handle, at least until he found some sort of plan to escape from this place or when his nakama inevitably came to rescue him.

“Good, that’s great to hear,” the man replied, “by the way, the name is Rodrick, Colonel Rodrick, to be specific, but you can just call me Colonel. In fact, you should probably call me Colonel when we are out there. I would think you do not want to get into more trouble out there.”

“What are you, my handler?”

Rodrick nodded.

“Why in fact, I am. I have been assigned specifically to keep any eye on you, hence why not just any random soldier is taking charge of you while I get back to work,” he twirled some of his dark mustache on his index finger, “Mister Judge wants us to be very carefully when it comes to handling you, seeing as even without the swords you are one formidable opponent,” the man pushed his glasses up, “It’s hard not to take him seriously since I got to see your ferocity last night.”

And then it dawned on Zoro. Something in the back of his head had been nagging at him the entire time he was speaking to this man and he now remembered that this was the leader behind the team who kidnapped him. The memories were fuzzy, no doubt from the drugs they shot into him, but the details matched. That deadpan voice, the beard, the way he held himself with such nonchalance…

“Hmph, guess I wasn’t ferocious enough then if you’re still in one piece in front of me.”

The bearded man waved a hand, deflecting the aggression.

“No need for such harsh words, Mister Zoro. It was not like I wanted to do that to you in the first place…” his voice trailed off, but only for a second before he snapped back into place, “besides, it is not going to be beneficial to either party, me and you, if we spend this morning fighting. If you get all your tasks done quick enough, you might be able to squeeze in a few more hours of sleep for tomorrow’s task.”

“And what’s that going to be?”

Rodrick’s lips pulled down into a wry frown.

“Under direct orders from Vinsmoke Judge, I am not allowed to share that information with you.”

Zoro huffed but accepted this. Sanji did tell him that the soldiers of Germa were modified to never disobey orders, so squeezing any information from him would be a no go.

“Fine,” he finally replied, pushing back the now empty tray and glass, “let’s just get this over with as soon as possible.”

“Wonderful, let us get you dressed up, then.”

From the other side of his cape, he produced not only a long coil of rope, but also a metal collar, thick and solid with a locking mechanism and blue bulbs adorning the circumference.

“Figures they wouldn’t give me actual clothes to wear,” the swordsman commented bitterly, “what’s the collar for, another device to keep me trapped here?”

“Oh no, it’s not for that, your tattoo cuffs do the job well enough, it is more of an…incentivizer.”

Zoro could already feel that this “incentive device” was designed to cause him suffering, but he still mushed on to ask “What does it do?”

“It’s quite simple; if you resist or procrastinate during the job, and the people you are working under complain to me about it, I am to press this button,” he brings out a small remote, “and it will send an electric current through your body for as long as I hold it.”

“Huh…wow, I’m so glad I asked.”

“No problem. Now, I don’t want to do this next part, personally, but I am obliged to, so no hard feelings about this.”

The colonel pops his hand into his cape and presses something. In an instant, Zoro’s wrists and ankles snap together, the suddenness and force of it catching the swordsman off guard.

"There we go. Now, let's get this collar and rope on you, and it's off to the races."

Zoro made a mental note of popping this man third, after Judge and Caesar of course, once he was able to bust out and get his swords back.

~~~

Many things people said about Reiju were things she could agree with. Cunning and manipulative? Why yes, she had to be those, in fact. Good at following orders? It was not like she had a choice. But to say that she was just a cog in her father’s machine and all these traits were all that she was, all she could ever dream to be, was verifiably false.

She was good at crunching numbers, too.

One of the aspects of having a massive private army and being military for hire that was often overlooked by the layman was how much mundane paperwork and accounting was involved. Each soldier was a mouth to feed, a set of arms that needed weapons placed in them, a body that needed to be clothed and bedded, a head that needed to be accounted for when it came to training, housing and all the other amenities for living and fighting. This was not accounting for the non soldiers and their needs and pay too. Reiju had been the one to shoulder that job ever since her father deemed her old enough to take over the role.

Usually, now that her duty to Germa had been stripped to strictly clerical work due to extenuating circumstances, she would be in her office, toiling away in a climate controlled room with comfy seating. But this was more than a normal day, the snails were about to cross the Red Line from East Blue to West Blue for the upcoming mission on Havnor in about a week. This meant having to go some time without being able to resupply on essentials such as food (for both humans and the animals), medical equipment, medical supplies, the parts for certain vehicles and machinery, parts and supplies for just the lab, clothing, construction materials, and the list went on and on. If this were a more sane organization controlled by someone who is not a megalomaniac, she would receive a report from all the relevant parties and would go from there.

Since she did not live in such a world, she had to go from place to place to confirm what they said they needed was true and absolutely not asking for more than required.

This is why she was currently on her knees having to go through the protocol of inspecting the item reported as broken, one of the ovens in the royal kitchen, when it was obviously damaged at the glass from its shattered viewing area and the fact that the inside was covered in soot and broken metal. Using the end of her pen, she delicately tapped the handle of the door that was hanging off, and almost comedically, it immediately fell to the floor. Yep, definitely broken beyond repair.

“Hmm, alright then, I guess we can afford to send an order for another oven,” she reported to the head chef, Cosette, who had been shaking in her boots the entire time.

“Really, Lady Reiju, I have NO idea who did this, but we are definitely still lo-“

Reiju put a hand up before heaving herself onto her feet.

“Yes, I know, someone messed with the oven when they should not have, which caused…this,” she gestured to the stove, “the most important part is that we get a replacement for this as soon as possible.” The princess wrote down the condition of the oven and a note to put in an order for a new one. The freckled head chef swallowed and nodded.

"What shall we do in the me-meantime then?"

"We will just have to subside without baked goods for a while then."

"But-but, what if the princes need bread or something that's b-baked? I can't turn them down exactly."

"Yes you can," Reiju said, "if anyone gives you trouble then..." she had to fight the urge to say 'tell them I don't have one to pull out of my ass for them' and instead replied with "tell them that I already put in an order for a new oven."

Cosette nodded and gave a shaky half bow.

"Yes, my lady." she hastily affirmed before turning around and to order a chef to clean up the mess. When the head chef was out of view, Reiju let out a sigh and stretched out her arms and back, hearing a crack as she did so. She was only about a third way through her list of the rounds she would have to make and it was almost noon already. She desperately needed to sit down for a few minutes, just a little break so she had enough energy to check on the tailors next.

One would have thought she would not have to do all this physical work as her pregnancy wore on and just standing too long made her dizzy, but seeing how her father treated her mother when she herself was expecting, Reiju was not surprised in the slightest. Though in this case, she wondered if this was also to intentionally hurt her for daring to obtain her condition. Though that thought was brushed away when she remembered that her father and brothers would not DEIGN to work this position, yet still wanted to reap the benefits of their conquests with reckless abandon and she was left tugging back their leashes.

Finding a nearby bench, she placed herself down and spent a minute just breathing. The kitchen would not look her way, mainly because he presence alone was uncomfortable, but that was fine, she was used to being feared to an extent.

With this moment of respite, she allowed her mind to wander from work for a bit. Of course, it never landed on anything pleasurable. It went straight for what had been residing in the back of her mind, Zoro.

She was truly worried about what her father had in store for him. Being the lowliest soldier in Germa had many consequences, not including death. The biggest one for those clones who failed to live up to their peers, but were not quite bad enough to be culled, was to be assigned as the sparring partner for her and her brothers. It was not too different from a death sentence, considering how many bodies they had piled up, but a greater majority lived, though in complete agony as their broken bodies were wheeled to the medical wing to fight another day. If Zoro were to go against one of her brothers…well, it was starting to make her sweat, and it wasn’t because of all the activity that caused the perspiration.

Her father would not allow the man to die, he and that freak clown man wanted to see him pay for his “sins”, but considering how her brothers were absolute monsters and the swordsman would definitely not be allowed to use any swords, her mind began to conjure up images of her child’s father with broken bones, ripped tendons and muscles, and her just standing there on the sidelines.

‘Aren’t you already used to just standing around while the ones you care about suffer? Why so horrified now?’ A thought twisted itself into her head. Reiju pursed her lips. Yes, she was a coward, but what power did she truly have? Sure, she was modified like most of her brothers, but they had been freakishly powerful since birth while she had to be worked on as a child. They were bigger than her, stronger than her, and even if she tried to fight them back, there was the large looming presence that was her father and the fact she could never ever fight him. He could thrash her around if he felt inclined and her mind would hold her back from lifting a finger. Because of that, she had to focus on herself, to live another day so she could…well, she was not sure why she kept going after Sanji left. Perhaps out of pure animal instinct for survival. But now she had another reason to keep going, now two, considering yesterday’s events.

The woman caught herself picking at her bandaged hand. Between the fabric, she could see a bit of the nearly black bruised skin. Finding out her father had kidnapped Zoro and brought him back to Germa all because she could not hold her ground for once…it lit something up inside of her. More than a fire, it was a burning heat, waves of rage, at her father, at herself, and it manifested in her absolutely destroying one of the walls in her bathroom. Yonji had got to her in time before she could punch anything else and actually break her hand, but she had done enough damage to leave her offending extremity in immense pain and totally bruised. Of course, it was healing quickly due to repairs to her exoskeleton and the fact her body could heal quicker than regular people if no skin was punctured, but it still needed to be wrapped up for another day or two. It was one of the few times since this pregnancy that her masked slipped off and her true emotions became revealed and she knew it would not be the last. But…she could NOT allow it to happen again. Her only line of defense against her family was crumbling like wet tissue paper, even more so since the reveal of her condition, and that meant she would be useless to them, useless like how Sanji was considered. She was not resilient like Sanji, though, because she had NOTHING, she had no dreams, no ambitions of her own, no-

No. This was not the time to spiral out. Too much was resting on her back for her to become undone. She had a little slip up, that was it.

Still, it was becoming very inconvenient when he emotions would torrent out like that. No longer could she keep them bottled up, as now she would be left with pieces of glass in her hands. Trying harder to keep them down would not work, she already figured, as they would just inevitably explode like a molotov. And now with Zoro around...

She would have to find a private release for them, but at a later date.

Right now, she had spent enough time resting and needed to get to the next stop for her rounds. Pulling herself up, Reiju left the kitchen for the tailors, putting her work first before any scheming could proceed.

Caesar Clown had felt so much more giddy and actually happy the past few days than he had in the previous months. With all the doom and gloom that had been brought about the past two months from one of Judge’s precious pups getting herself bred, having one of the Straw Hats be brought to the base of operations for all sorts of pain and humiliation was just the pick-me-up he needed. In fact, when he had some spare time earlier in the day, he would find a spot with the perfect view of the mossy swordsman being made to carry back breaking weight or accidentally slip on some snail slime and get covered in the foul smelling muck, and those viewings would make his cold, cold little heart get that just warmer.

Unfortunately, the good times never last, and the Straw Hat’s right hand man was ushered back to the dungeon for the day. Pity, he would have savored seeing him get shocked one more time, but there was no time to complain. He had to give Judge a weekly report on all the findings and progress down in the labs. Going into his gaseous form, he crept down the rock walls, down the cobblestone paths, and finally, was in his lab. Judge was already waiting there, leaned against a wall in a rare display of casualness.

“So,” the blond gruffly began, “what is it today?”

“First off, not even a hello?”

Judge rolled his eyes at Caesar’s comment.

“Secondly,” he pulled a clipboard out from his lab coat, “so far, the test run with the CloudScratchers went swimmingly. Only took them 2 hours to go from the West Blue to the North Blue and another 2 hours back. Though, we’re going to need to work on their stamina as they’ve been lazing in their pens ever since you brought that Straw Hat here…or it could be they’re just acting like cats.”

Judge nodded along, twirling the end of his mustache with his pointer finger.

“And how are those…explosive rats you are working on?” He slightly grimaced when mentioning the rats. Caesar lit up at the mention, flicking through his pages to get to the relevent report.

“Oh! Oh yes, them! They’re incendiary organs are starting to grow in quite good now, and it’s not even noticeable to the naked eye! I think in about a month or two, we could start letting them out onto any targets and remotely detonate when needed.”

“That’s…good to hear.” Judge looked off distantly. Ok, now Caesar was getting a little peeved from this detached attitude from his lab partner. He had been putting up with his excessive brooding for long enough now and he was about sick of it, especially when he was not even listening when HE had something he was excited about to present. He pressed a bony finger into the blond's chest.

"Alright, that's it, what is bothering you NOW? I thought you’d feel better with that scrubber headed swordsman being put through the wringer, but nooooo.”

The gaseous man crossed his arms petulantly. A vein appeared to pop up on the side of Judge’s forehead, but he breathed slowly to compose himself before speaking.

“Even so, that does not change that Reiju blatantly offered herself up out there like a dog in heat. Do you know how much of my work would have gone down the drain if someone got their hands on that child and used them as their own weapon?! All my work, for nothing!”

Caesar resisted the urge to roll his eyes until they went to the back of his head.

“And yet, both of them are right here with you, with no chance for no one to steal your work or any of that. Hell, didn’t you say you were going to find out what your grandchild’s gender is tomorrow? Shouldn’t you look forward to that a LITTLE?”

“Eh, not really. I couldn’t control this from the start like I could with Sora, so there’s no way that it could be a boy.”

Ugh, if there was one thing Caesar could go without concerning his partner, it was his propensity to value men over women. Not because the horned scientist himself was some bleeding heart, but because he felt like Judge was not utilizing his resources well enough. But he could not say that now…or ever to his face, really.

“Well,” he began, “it’s a 50/50 chance, so maybe-“

“I don’t like ‘maybes’. ‘Maybes’ are what led me to putting up with Sanji for so long.”

“But this isn’t LIKE Sanji, Judge,” Caesar said through gritted teeth, “so maybe lighten up and listen to what I’VE been working on instead of brooding like-like-“ the words failed to materialize, but his attitude said everything. Judge looked at Caesar like a detached husband looking at his wife as she asked for him to care for more about her besides what food and housework she provided for him.

“Uggggghhh,” Caesar groaned, “You know what? Here, take this.” He shoved his clipboard of notes into Judge’s chest. He stormed out of the lab, underling scientists practically leaping out of his way. The melancholic control freak could read about what he had been working on when he finally got his head out of his ass. He could not wait for it to get to the ninth month and he could finally actually work with him like a colleague again.

God, he needed a drink.

~~~

Yonji could practically feel his blood pushing in and out of his veins as his excitement built for tomorrow. He only got to meet half of the Straw Hat crew at the time when reunited with his failure of a brother at Big Mom’s archipelago. While he would have loved to see the lovely Nami once again, being able to spar with Greatest Swordsman Zoro had a great promise. The man had chewed through enough soldiers during his sparring sessions that it was becoming busy work now. Headlock a soldier, crunch them until something popped, and they would be out cold and carried off. Booooring. It was becoming mind numbingly dull.

But with this new opponent in the ring, the promise of a half decent fight was enthralling. The green haired man could barely hide his desire at the dinner table, his behavior catching the attention of his two brothers.

“What’s got you all fired up?” Niji inquired while picking at the steak tartare he was no longer interested in. Yonji had already gulped down a plate of it and was currently mowing through the second while Ichiji nibbled at his and watched the conversation.

“Oh, you have no idea how awesome tomorrow is gonna be. Dad told me that I’m gonna fight that Zoro dude in a sparring match tomorrow!”

His blue haired brother scoffed.

“Oh please, what makes you think he’ll be any more interesting than the other cannon fodder?"

"Because he's the right hand man of the Pirate King! He's got to be worth his salt!”

Niji scoffed and leaned back in his chair. Even behind his dark glasses, Yonji could see him roll his eyes.

“And yet, he still got captured and trapped here. Can’t be that strong.”

“He will not be sedated tomorrow, though,” Ichiji calmed butted in, “that could make all the difference between then and now.”

The green haired man gestured to his red haired elder brother.

“See, even Ichiji sees his potential.”

"But at the same time, he is a swordsman, and since tomorrow will be a sparring match, he might be debilitated in a way."

Yonji deflated momentarily before hitting the table with his fist.

“Damn it, don’t kill my excitement, man!”

Ichiji shrugged without any emotion on his face.

“I am just stating the facts.”

“Mmm, well, I’ll check it out anyways,” Niji said as he spun his fork between his fingers, “ain’t got anything else I wanna do, so maybe seeing Reiju’s boytoy get thrashed will be something.”

“It may be, it may not be.” Ichiji pushed his now empty plate back, signaling for a servant to pick it up.

Well, whatever the case, Yonji looked forward to tomorrow.

~~~

“Chopperrrrrr, let me go, we gotta get Zoro back…”

Luffy struggled in the arms of Chopper’s muscular Heavy Point, but even as he tried to get out of them, the effects of the gas still neutralized much of his strength and he flopped loosely like a fish in his raspy voice. The reindeer frowned sympathetically.

“Not yet, Luffy, you need to heal up more before he try to find Germa.”

“But…but Zoro…”

It was breaking Chopper’s heart twofold, seeing his captain like this while also thinking about how Zoro was truly gone and they had no leads yet. No reports in the newspaper on their activity, no trail of destruction, nothing. It did not help that the havoc wrought by the soldiers meant the Straw Hats had to dock at a nearby island for the time being. The Sunny had been in worse situations in the past, but the crew was never this wiped out with it.

Putting Luffy back onto his cot in the medical room, Chopper let the rest of his residual strength fade before his captain finally gave his body a rest. Robin was much more amiable with needing to rest, but the doctor could tell the noxious gas equally left her sapped. He would have to check on the two in about half an hour.

In the meantime, he needed to get to the dining hall to join in the discussion with everyone else on what to do next. After everything and everyone recovered enough, they would go looking for the swordsman and Germa 66 in the process. How long it would take, though, he was not sure. Luffy and Robin mainly needed to heal from the gas, but Sanji had a dislocated knee, Nami was bruised and had cuts almost everywhere, Usopp’s right arm and hand were broken, and to add to that, the perpetrators had actually managed to break pieces of the ship, making Franky work round the clock to heal his creation.

“-and then he just went up with the rest of the soldiers."

Chopper made it to the dining hall, now in his brain point form. Everyone was gathered around the table, attention on Sanji as he finished telling them as much as he knew. Nami rubbed her chin, wincing a little from the sting of touching the bruise there. Chopper managed to get to his seat before the redhead spoke.

"So, do you think your sister is connected with this?"

Sanji was about to shake his head before pausing.

"Well, from what that bearded guy said, if she is, it's definitely not because she choose to."

"Even so, it doesn't explain why kidnap Zoro like that. If it is not something she wants, then, what do you think Judge wants out of him?"

Having already puffed through one cigarette in less than a minute, Sanji quickly pulled out and lit another. Ever since Zoro had been taken, by Germa no less, the blond had turned his smoking to chainsmoking, his whole being smelling like anxiety and cigarettes. Chopper resisted the urge to wrinkle his nose at the stench, not wanting to make the man feel even worse.

"That's where I'm at a dead end."

"Wait, guys, I may have a theory about this."

Usopp raised his good hand, turning everyone's attention to him.

"Go on," Nami pushed.

"Ok, so, hear me out, what if they took Zoro to your sister...because they're trying to pull off...a breeding program.

Crickets were all that replied to the long nosed man's conspiracy theory and his face turned red and blustering.

"L-look, there's not much to go off of, that's the best I've got."

Sanji sighed deeply and tapped the ash of his cigarette off into a nearby ash tray.

"Honestly, with how much we know, that very well could be true, even if we don't want it to be."

"This is so awful," Nami moaned, "we're never going to get him back at this rate."

"Hey, Nami-sis, don't say that," Franky tried to reassure, "we just got to find even a trace of where Germa and their snails are going and we can set sail there."

"And how are we going to do that? Even if they leave a trail of war in their wake, lots of rebellions and violence have been going down lately. How do we separate what is what?"

It was then that a light bulb flashed into Chopper's head. They DID know someone who could give them a lead after all...maybe. It was a big maybe, considering this person's fixation was on something at least Germa related, but it was best to at least try this connection than do nothing at all. He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. When the melancholy was too strong even for that, he made the loudest fake cough he could to get all eyes on him.

"Umm, guys? I think I have an idea on a possible lead."

Everyone leaned in closer, hanging on to his every word.

"But first, we have to find a way to contact the Heart Pirates."

A morning for Reiju did not truly start until she could slip into a warm shower and after scrubbing herself clean, spend a few minutes just basking in the wet warmth. Being able to have that time of the day where she could relax her body and muscles to an extent before having to continue the rest of the day under tension was needed for her to keep going. She knew she would be admonished by her father for wasting water and time if he knew about her longer showers, but that was only if he knew. One of the good things about keeping her emotions under lock and key is that whenever she could find little things that she could derive even a sliver of joy from, it was hers and hers alone, with no one else knowing about it and being able to ruin it for any reason.

And considering what her father had in store for her today, she was going to need any morsel of goodness she could get her hands on.

As the warm water washed over her face, Reiju thought back to how the servant who had delivered her dinner (she had preferred to eat her meals away from her family now, not wanting to feel the gaze of their judgment while eating) had also delivered the news of her needing to go down to the labs tomorrow with the king for a medical appointment. They did not divulge details, as they had not been provided them, but Reiju knew exactly what this appointment was for. The woman was far along enough that the gender of the child in her could now be determined. Germa technology was advanced enough that they had the machinery to look inside of her and she dreaded to see which way the coin flipped.

Reiju should not have been partial to a gender as a mother to be, but this was not just about preferences, it was about the potential fate she could see for her baby just because of which sex they may have. While she herself was not considered a "failure" like Sanji was, there was always an underlying current of being lesser than her brothers in a way purely because she was a woman. One of the most useful things a woman could do was to produce more male heirs and Reiju knew her father was banking on having another boy in the family. She never understood, considering the type of man he is, why Judge never moved on to another woman to breed after her mother died, but perhaps it was a boon that some poor woman was swept into Germa.

Still, even if the pregnancy was unexpected for him, she knew her father would turn this around into something positive for himself. More children, more heirs, more test subjects, more men like her brothers…

But a girl would not be out of the woods. They would go through the same treatment she has endured, perhaps even worse as she would solely be surrounded by murderers and death. Reiju knew, too, that no matter how she tried, she would never live up to the positivity and humanity her mother practically radiated. She would never be able to fill her child up with the needed components to make her as good as Sanji and this fact gnawed at her.

She took a breath in, held it, and then slowly let it out.

Even if both options were not savory, they were only the options she had if her child stayed in Germa. If she could somehow get them away, let them free into the big blue world, then maybe...

Reiju turned off the water, grabbing a towel hanging near the shower before getting out. She dried herself off and was about to reach for her clothes when she remembered that she left them on her bed. Letting out an annoyed sigh, she wrapped the towel around herself before stepping into her room. She passed by the full length mirror nearby, glancing at herself at first before turning that glance into a full body turn and assessment. It had been a while since she had fully looked at her form. There was no real reason why she had not done so, none at all. She just did not feel like it and nothing else.

...Okay, maybe there was one reason.

It was something she would never admit (not like she had anyone she was willing to share anything to), but Reiju was almost afraid to see how she was looking now that she was starting to balloon. Her body did not look too different in the first trimester, but now in the second trimester and beyond, she was definitely looking much more fecund. This would not bother most people, but the last pregnancy Reiju had ever witnessed was very scarring. Her mother, her poor, poor mother, was made to carry four times the amount the average pregnant woman would usually carry, leaving her bed bound for the final months of her gestation. Reiju’s younger self witnessed all this and much more, the medical complications, the way her mother's body morphed and bloated into something unfamiliar and alien. The worst, part, undoubtedly, was when he father brought her to see the boys be extracted via c section, seeing her mother be cut open in the operating theater.

“Drink it in, Reiju,” he said as the doctor’s were pulling Niji out, “this is history in the making.”

He did not want her to forgot the moment, and she sure did remember. She remembered especially how angry that smile on her mother’s stomach looked while she was in recovery. It was like a mocking grin, as if knowing what effect its presence had on the three year old girl.

All these events painted a picture for Reiju, despite logic and statistics from the books she read on the topic saying otherwise, of pregnancy being something that should be feared. It changed you and not for the better, taking away more of more of your abilities until there was nothing left you could do but wait it out. Until the day they would finally be taken away from you.

But then again, this was not the same situation as then. For one, she was only carrying one child, which would put less strain on her body compared to quadruplets, but secondly, she was different from her mother Sora. Maybe…maybe things would not be so bad with her in particular. It could be a smooth pregnancy with no complications and the biggest concern should be how much she was filling her head with fear…

…Fat chance of that, but it was something that could be latched onto like a teddy bear for a scared child. It was at least enough to convince herself to give her body a once over, which was going to be necessary moving forward anyways.

Making sure he curtains were drawn so she did not accidentally flash the kingdom, Reiju unwrapped her towel and observed her nude form.

The first thing she took note of was how softer she had gotten. While not chiseled like her brothers despite her tremendous strength, she had always kept a sort of hourglass figure, one that was now filling out. Her muscles were less defined now and swelling was occurring on her ankles and wrists, only rounding her further.

Not only that, but along with the softening, and despite her efforts to use as much vitamin E cream as she could, the angry red lightning strikes of stretch marks were starting to form and creep up her stomach and down her thighs, resting above the 66 tattoos on her legs. They were small for now but would undoubtedly grow and stick out as the final months went on. Her breasts were growing too, losing their perkiness and sagging above her midsection, also not helping the stretch mark situation.

She was…normal. Her form was that of a textbook photo marking how things would look at the weeks she was at, down to her getting that “glow” she had always read about. Whether that glow was the kind of the sun setting over the horizon or the glow of radioactive material that was about to turn any living creature into goo was yet to be seen. It was a far cry from what had been imprinted on her mind and it gave her some slight relief. Just slight relief. She still had to see what her child's gender would be with her father and she damned with either path.

Speaking of the devil, a knock came to Reiju's door, slinging her back into the moment as she quickly wrapped her towel around herself again.

"Lady Reiju," a female servant's voice came from behind the wooden door, "your father requests your presence at the royal medical bay."

"I will be with you in a minute," she coolly replied, "thank you for informing me."

Pursing her lips, the pink haired princess finally got to dressing herself, steeling herself for the impending appointment.

~~~

While the green haired swordsman had steeled himself to be thoroughly worked like a mule for his first day in Germa, he was not anticipating the humiliation wrought upon him by doing so in front of every day people evidently uncomfortable of his presence. It was definitely because he was a pissed off near naked prisoner being made to work around ordinary people, but Zoro could feel the eyes burrowing into him and it just soured his mood even more. The feeling was only bolstered by the work he was made to do, the worst of which being cleaning all the slime in the breeding caverns for the ship snails. He got some of it in his mouth accidentally after a slip and now that bitter and musky taste would not leave his tongue and throat. It even soured him being served his favorite, plain white rice, for his dinner last night. If anything, though, the soreness and tiredness of his muscles made it easy for him to just lay down and pass out for the entire night until Rodrick woke him up. He did not say anything at first, passing the food to Zoro and assuming a military rest position. The swordsman could see the slightest tug of the edges of his lips pulling downwards, giving the ghost of a frown.

Neither party said a word until Zoro finished his extremely plain yet adequately nutritional meal.

"So what humiliation am I being subjected to today?"

"Well...technically, it will not be humiliating if you're skilled enough, but the king and princes expect your failure."

The mention of the princes caught Zoro's attention. He had not met Sanji's brothers or even seen them yet, but from what little the blond had said about them, his image of them was already soured.

"Why are those three involved?"

"Because...you are going to have to spar with Prince Yonji today."

"...You're shitting me."

Rodrick shook his head. "Afraid I'm not. Judge just handed me the orders early this morning. I even picked up the clothes you have to wear for it, picked out by the King's science partner himself."

Oh, fucking great. He had a feeling that gasbag took enjoyment in some way of him working his ass off yesterday. Even if he did not see him, his slime ball presence was very much there, probably meshing with the snail slime.

“How bad is it?” He bluntly asked. Rodrick cleared his throat to give a sliver of time to delay the inevitable before reaching into his uniform’s pocket to and pulling out a lime green piece of clothing and pair of shoes. Oh God no.

Zoro took it and unfurled it and his face twisted into a disgusted grimace.

It was the unholy and bastard love child of a leotard and a mankini. It would cover up some of him, but expose much more of his body in...weirdly lewd ways. And now that he had a closer look of the thing, was that fucking glitter??? He was going to look a total pervert if he wore this thing!

He gave Rodrick a serious stare, glare hardening.

"What consequences would there be if I refused to wear this?"

"I've been ordered, in that case, to turn your tattoo shackles on and put it on you myself."

The only thing worse than wearing the…thing was if someone had to dress him up with it. Grumbling how he would stick his sword so far up where the sun does not shine in Caesar, the swordsman acquiesced and put on the garment. The material was breathable and light, but that was cold comfort.

“Well then,” his handler commented, “you look…nicely green now. Like a ripe lime.”

“Fuck off.”

“…I was trying find some way to compliment you to make you feel a bit better.”

Zoro breathed in, and slowly let it out while pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Ok, so this sparring thing, how does it work around here?”

Rodrick put his hands behind his back, prepping for his spiel.

“Well, the first thing you are going to want to know is that there are no weapons involved on either side. It is purely hand to hand combat, plus your abilities if you have them. No one is going to die, we are going to make sure of that, but it is meant mainly for the princes’ training…and entertainment, sometimes. Personally, if you ask me, I'd prepare myself for some wrestling since Prince Yonji IS a powerful grappler. The last few guys who went against him got thrown hundreds of feet out of the ring and into the sea."

Wrestling, huh…well, shit. Zoro was a swordsman, after all, and he flourished the most when with his weapons. Without them he was competent, but against someone who was more versed with hand to hand combat was when he started to crumble.

Well, there was no use in floundering about this. He was going to get dragged to the arena either way, so it was best to pony up and shut up.

“Ok,” the swordsman replied. That would have been the end of that, but in the moment, Zoro decided to tack on something he has been wanting to know about.

“So, like, is this gonna be a private thing or public?”

“Public. The usually involve most of the soldiers and the Vinsmoke family being in attendance. Citizens may watch, but most don’t because these can get…messy.”

“Is the whole family going to be there today?”

Rodrick picked up on what Zoro was getting at and shook his head.

"Judge and Lady Reiju will not be there today due to a health related appointment."

Damn. He did not know what he expected, seeing as her father seemed to have an iron grip over her, but Zoro at least wished to see her again, perhaps even talk to her, even if that would require getting her away from Judge, because...hell, where did he even start? Even after digesting the fact that his pull out technique had failed so miserably this time that he knocked up a woman, that woman out of all people had to be Sanji’s sister. Sure, he didn’t know it was her at the time, his hormones swaying his decision making slightly and the fact she had on makeup so good that he didn’t see her leg tattoos or the curly brow, but the fact still remained that it was HER. He still awaited for his crew’s arrival, but had to figure out how he was going to handle the love cook once he found out this. This all was not bringing up the fact that he was still sort of the fence about the woman herself. All he knew about her before getting dragged here was what Sanji told him and...well, she definitely was better their brothers, but after that there was not much else he knew about her. She was still a part of Germa, still participating in it, and always putting on a mask. He did not know how much he should trust her, especially seeing how their situation occurred from her donning a false identity, but he also knew that he HAD to trust her to some extent as there were not many other options.

And none of that was bringing up the fact that Zoro was going to be a father soon.

He was not a bum, even if having a child was not in his near future plans, and had no intentions of leaving his child behind here. He still had to figure out what to do after that, all the parental and caretaker stuff, but one of his biggest priorities now besides getting out of this hell hole kingdom was bringing his kid along with him. The biggest snaggle, there, though, was that he absolutely needed Reiju to work with him on this and right now he could not even speak with her.

“Mister Zoro?”

Rodrick snapped his fingers to gain back the swordsman attention. The green haired man grunted from being perturbed, but knew he would have to be pulled away from his thoughts for a while. He had a fight to get to.

“Ok ok, let’s just go now.” He put his wrists together, his soldier handler clicking the button to close them together. Rodrick retrieved some rope from a pocket and began to tie the green haired captive’s wrists together, which Zoro gave a quizzical look to.

“Is it really needed to keep tying me up when you already have my wrists stuck?”

“Eh, it’s more like…a leash. So you don’t get lost.”

This brought out a pang of anger from Zoro.

“I can follow you very well.”

“So all the newspapers, eyewitnesses, and your crew themselves are liars?”

“Look,” Zoro raised his voice, “it just so happens in those instances that the areas were always confusing and-“

Rodrick gave a chuckle he tried to hide in his hand.

“Ok ok, I get it. Let me rephrase, then: this castle is very confusing and I would not want you, an outsider, to get easily lost here.”

“Hmph,” he shot his handler a short glance, as deadly as a bullet, and looked away.

Once his already bound wrists were wrapped up with rope, Rodrick led Zoro from the cell and brought him out of the dungeon. Zoro used the time to think about how he was going to deal with Yonji. The last time he had really done hand to hand wrestling was when he got pulled into fights with other boys at the dojo as a kid. Rusty was not enough to describe him. There was also the fact that this Yonji most likely had much more experience and from what he heard from Sanji, was a big bruiser. He probably had an advantage over Zoro from weight and height alone.

If he wanted to get out of this in one piece, he would have to find a way to get it over as possible and most likely need to deploy dirty tactics.

The pair made it to a pair of large wooden doors, Rodrick knocking on it in a certain pattern in order to signal for the soldiers outside to open the doors. Slowly opening, Zoro could see the crowd outside, their hollering that was muffled earlier hitting him like a sea train. They were all clone soldiers of varying sizes, turning their attention and quieting down as the green haired swordsman marched out into the yard. Now being able to see many of the soldiers up close and all together, it was uncanny how they all looked like they came from one big family tumbleweed. Zoro also noticed how many of them were clean shaven and had minimal facial hair and short hair, making him question why Rodrick looked the way he did even more now. Up on one of the balconies in the castle, he caught sight of two flashes of brightly colored hair, red and blue respectively. Looks like Sanji’s other brothers turned up to watch the match too.

The crowd soon switched from silence to roaring jeers and sneering at the swordsman and his ridiculous outfit. Zoro chose not to listen to them, instead craning his head around the clone soldiers to get a look at his opponent as his handler led him to the middle.

Yonji was a spitting image of Sanji if he worked out like a maniac and grew a few inches. And was green. His hair slicked back, he wore his own wrestling singlet, a proper one, along with white wrestling shoes. What stuck out to him was what he could see of a tattoo on the man’s chest. Square geometric designs wrapped around his pectorals and crept up his neck before stopping at his collarbone. The other thing that stuck out to Zoro too was how weird he looked without a fringe covering half his face. One look at Yonji and Zoro realized why the lovecook always kept one side of his face hidden. He’d also hide his face if his brows looked so stupid together like that.

That was the least of the issues he already had with this man. His stance, his sharp smirk and even the way he crossed his arms all made him come off as an overly confident bully, one who thought he was better than everyone else and could do whatever he wanted to others with no repercussions. It made Zoro want to lay him out on the ground as soon as possible.

Yonji bounced on his heels as he caught sight of Zoro. Rodrick untied and unbound the green haired man’s wrists as he got into arena area.

“So, this is the famous Roronoa Zoro, huh?” He scanned Zoro up and down, giggling at his purposefully ridiculous outfit, “I never took you for the…glitz and glitter type.”

Zoro scowled and unconsciously tugged on one of the straps of his leotard abomination.

“You know damn well this is not of my own volition.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that Caesar the Clown has a bone to pick with you and has been pulling some strings.”

“HEY, it’s just Caesar Clown, you little-“

Once the eyes were on him, Caesar choked on what he was about to say, ducking down into the crowd with his cameko snail. Zoro sent him a hellish glare. Watching AND recording this? Maybe Zoro would have to put him on the top of his hit list after all. Yonji seemed amused by this interaction.

“I guess EVERYONE really wants to see our little match. Why don’t we make sure this is an interesting one?”

Zoro kept his slightly pissed off face, not wanting to give the other green haired man any reaction to feed off of. He still wanted to punch him, of course, but he had a feeling that giving into those feelings would end up with him in traction. If only he had his swords…

He clenched his fists, veins in his arms popping up. No, this was no time to mourn his tools of trade, he just had to focus on the here and now.

The soldiers, ever loyal to the royal family, were all hyping up and cheering on Yonji before the match even started, only fueling the man’s ego more. Hmmm, maybe with all the ego inflating, it could be an advantage for the swordsman to overpower him.

“Alright, men!” A soldier, short but stout, stepped out of the crowd, hands outstretched and a yellow ascot in one hand, “we’re about to start this spar, so stay back!”

They all followed, moving into place until forming a perfect ring around the pair of green haired men and the lone soldier. The way they moved into perfect position in synchronicity with no missteps was a bit creepy.

Yonji hunched down into position, barely containing his excitement.

Zoro tried to copy his position as best as possible. The shorter soldier raised the yellow cloth up, everyone in the audience on the edge of their non existent seats.

He swung it down forcefully.

“Go!”

~~~

Reiju was more than used to medical check ups and the invasive poking, prodding and collecting of data that entailed. She had been doing it ever since she received her enhancements and never complained once about them. At least not out loud. She had to accept that her body was no longer hers years ago, to expect at any moment to be called down and inspected like a show dog. The woman just wished that her child was not about to get that sort of judgment now.

Her father was there already, the large man finally wearing something non-combative, but not casual, for once. He instead wore a dark grey three piece suit, lab coat hanging in the crook of his right arm. He had probably just came out of the research lab for this. His eyes flicked down to his daughter, dark sclera piercing through her.

“So you have made it.”

Reiju nodded, bowing slightly.

“I came as soon as I was called, father.”

“Good. Now come, this is extremely important.”

She followed her father like a trained hound as he made his way into the medical bay. The obstetrician and nurses were already on standby, all heads flicking towards the king and his daughter. Reiju noticed that one of the scientists was there too, probably to gather information on her child for research into how to modify them once they were born.

“Ah, your majesties!” The obstetrician gave a curt bow, his spiky hair shaking with the movement of his head, “we already have all the equipment warmed up. Just allow us to do a few checks of the princess first and we can get to the ultrasound.”

“Hmph,” the tall blond sneered, “be as thorough as possible.”

“As always, sir.”

The nurses led Reiju to the examination chair and sat her down, promptly beginning the usual routine of taking her vitals. She was used enough to being pulled around like a trained animal, though this time any sort of touch was making her skin itch. Not an itch on the skin itself, but an uncomfortable feeling that raised up at any hands that brushed against them. As the staff began to take her blood pressure, heart rate, and other vitals, Reiju glanced up to her father. His own gaze bared down on everyone like the powerful rays of the sun on a sweltering day. A lot of weight was being placed onto everyone by him at the moment, even if the results were ultimately out of their control. Some of the medical staff were even sweating a little from that hot pressure. She could already see how his brain was ticking off like an abacus, calculating what to do in either gender situation. Judge already saw her child as making the best out of a “bad” situation, now he was working out how…”bad” for him it was.

Seeing this made the uncomfortable itch Reiju had been experiencing worsen.

The nurses took down the results of their checks and gave them to the doctor. His eyes scanned the papers as he combed his free hand through his hair.

“Respiration normal, heart rate ok…the blood pressure is a little higher than I would like it to be-“

“What is the rate?” Judge interjected suddenly. The doctor, to which Reiju now remembered his name, Dr.Wu, flinched minutely at the booming voice before replying.

“I-it’s 128 over 83. I think we should keep an eye on that in case this could lead to preeclampsia.”

Judge nodded.

“Is that all?”

“Y-yes, sir,”

“Good, send a copy of that to the lab,” he motioned to the scientist on the sidelines, “Now, the ultrasound.”

Oh joy, here it comes. The moment of truth.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

The ultrasound machine was one of the few useful pieces of Germa technology that Reiju could see having potential to revolutionize the medical field. It was too bad it was like her and would never see the outside of the castle walls. Using pre existing sonar technology, they were able to use the sound waves in order to see inside of someone in a 2d image. It had already seen much use being able to diagnose any tumors or pregnancies in the workers of Germa 66 and now the eldest Vinsmoke was going to be added to the list of recipients.

Too bad the piece of tech was producing more anxiety for her than anything.

Not even allowed to pull her shirt up on her own, the nurses pulled it up for her, exposing her stomach. Reiju’s now healed hand twitched but nothing else indicated what she felt. One thing that was going to follow her during the whole pregnancy was how self conscious she felt for the first time about her body when it came to her stomach. It was like she was baring a vulnerable part of herself for the first time ever and it made her skin crawl how much people focused on it.

Dr.Wu retrieved the wand from the machine, the black monitor screen behind him continuously giving an electrical hum. Next to him, a nurse brought out a small container of clear gel, lathering some of it on her fingers. She rubbed it on Reiju’s pronounced stomach, the pink haired woman’s skin now feeling like it would rip away from her body to get away from all the touching of that area. The doctor neared with the instrument.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Judge watched from the sidelines with bated breath, all the staff there twitching with anticipation.

Once some adjustments of placement on of the wand were made on her womb area, Reiju and Zoro’s child came into view. And for once, one of the very few times she had ever done so, Reiju temporarily let her emotional shields down to marvel at this glance she got of her child.

She had seen ultrasound photos before, mainly when her mother was gravid with her brothers, but seeing HER child floating in there up on the snowy static screen, making small movements, moving their feet while she felt it at the same ti-oh god, were they sucking their thumb?

If her ability to let herself cry had not been sanded off years ago and if her father were not there, she felt that she would have fallen apart this very moment like wet paper at seeing her baby for the first time. Instead, she gasped gripped the seat as she kept herself in check. As much as her hormones threatened to blow up the dam, the most she

Reiju was so lost in the moment further connecting with her child that she almost forgot about the point of this procedure. Almost.

“Ahh, I can see what, um, the g-gender.” Dr.Wu’s expression turned morose at what he saw. Judge’s brows knitted in impatience.

“What. Is. It?”

“It’s…it’s a girl.”

The other shoe had finally dropped and the tension had finally released for her father. He shoulders slumped as his expression turned to one of disappointment accompanied by a sigh. When seeing that he did not blow up from news he did not want to hear, the rest of the medical staff and the scientist beside him could now breathe a sigh of relief.

Reiju could not do the same, though.

“Of all the…” Judge began, “Ok, this is not the end of the world, only a set back. This can be…salvaged.”

The way he spoke of Reiju’s child, her daughter, was a knife to the heart, though it would have to make room with all the other ones first.

The gravity gender reveal was laying its full weight on her now. A daughter…she was having a little girl. A little girl that was going to come into this world pure and innocent of the sins of her family, of the sins of her…mother.

The doors to the medical area burst open as a soldier, gasping from running all the way here, barreled in. Her father snapped around, his mood taking a nose dive now that he was interrupted.

“What’s going on?” He hissed. The clone soldier gulped down a few more lungfuls of air before answering.

“Yonji…prisoner…gone wrong…incident…”

Judge gritted his teeth and curled his hand into a fist.

“Beautiful, bloody beautiful, right after I get this news…”

~~~

Ten minutes earlier…

Zoro was now beginning to wonder why Sanji decided to call him the “green gorilla” when his younger brother existed.

Yonji’s stance was seemingly impregnable, any attempt to sweep him down or get him to fall was useless. The swordsman gave up quickly trying to sweep or kick him down as his body felt like steel and hitting it like that hurt himself. He’d have to focus on keeping his own stance on the ground.

On the upper end, he was desperately defending himself from any other throws ensnaring him. He slipped up a minute ago and gave the Vinsmoke the opportunity to grab his waist, lift him up and slam him down on his side. The swordsman did not feel that any of his bones were broken, but everything on that side HURT.

At this moment, Yonji had gotten behind him and wrapped an arm around the swordsman’s neck, starting to bend him backwards as if trying to fold him. This presented an opportunity though as his arms were still free. Reaching behind himself, he grabbed Yonji by the back of his head and using all his strength he had at the moment, wrenched his whole body forward, lifting and throwing the larger man in front of him with a surprisingly hard “thud”. Any noises the crowd made were amplified at watching the “beloved” prince be thrown. The green haired prince did not immediately get up, though. He took a second to let out a joyous laugh and rolled over before popping up onto his feet.

“Woo, that actually stung a little!” And Yonji dove back into Zoro.

The best way to describe the rest of the battle was crushing. Even though he managed to defend himself from anymore throws, Yonji still had the advantage of experience over Zoro and quickly turned to keeping Zoro in his grasp at almost all times. While the swordsman was able to grab and sloppily throw Yonji a few more times, each one harder than the last and making the ground crack more, this emboldened the green haired prince, increasing his taunts per minutes and making him more aggressive with his moves.

He did not want to admit it, but Zoro was starting to lose steam, and fast. Struggling against the brawnier man was taking its toll on his body and even dirty tricks like throwing gravel in his face and elbowing him in the sternum did nothing to slow him down. Ending this fast was something easier said than done, now he just wanted it to end before the man could attempt to throw him again.

Luckily, if he could look at it like that, keeping the fight going this long with Sanji’s younger brother was making the sparring last longer as he basked in lording over the right hand of the Pirate King. At this moment, when he had gotten Zoro to fall to the ground, he clamped down on his neck with his thighs in a vice grip, not giving him any room to breathe or wiggle out. His hands firmly grasped Zoro’s calves and wrenched them backwards, inching the green haired man’s feet closer to his back. At this rate, Zoro felt that his spine would break under all this tension.

Yonji turned to him, yelling over the audience who had now become loud background noise.

“How you holding up, mossy?”

Zoro’s eyes burned with a fire of rage at hearing this green haired curlybow call him by the name only HIS curlybrow could say.

“Can’t…breathe…you…big ape.”

Yonji squeezed his thighs tighter and bent Zoro more harshly.

“Damn, already? And here I thought we were just getting started. Laaaame.”

He accentuated the drawn out last word with a pull that made Zoro wince in pain.

“Ahh well, toys break sometimes. I’ll try not to mess you up too badly.”

Fuck, he was going to get his back broken if you did not do something quick. But what options were there? His hands could do nothing to against the brute’s muscular physique and his legs were crunched together by Yonji’s hands. There had to be some way he could, perhaps, use his teeth to get out of his hold before he either passed out or was snapped in half.

It was then that Zoro noticed how close his face was to…something between the prince’s legs. A part of his bulge that was moved around to not get crushed by his powerful thighs. If he craned his neck closer to it, the swordsman could…

Well, it would not be the first time he had a man’s nuts in his mouth and it probably would not be the last.

~~~

Present

Something…stirred within Ichiji at that moment. It was not something that happened often, or ever, if he correctly recalled, but seeing Yonji yowl at about three octaves higher than his normal voice, and medics setting up a little tent around his groin region as they attempted to treat his most likely swollen and sore family jewels, well…he felt some sort of sympathy. It was more in the way of imagining himself in that situation and cringing at how it would feel, but it was something new nevertheless.

Niji, who was leaning close to get a good look at the action going on, had now reeled back and contorted his face into that of pure horror and disgust.

“Dear God, there’s teeth marks here!” One of the medics exclaimed a little too loudly. Niji’s frown deepened.

“Fuck, I can’t believe that mossy swordsman took a bite out of Yonji!” He turned to his older brother, “Do you think he’s going to lose one of them?”

Ichiji cupped his chin in his hand and hummed in thought.

“Well, from the looks of it, he was mostly protected by his singlet, and I did not see any blood, so it is most likely a superficial wound. Hurts like hell, though.”

“I thought we had exoskeletons for situations like this, man.”

“We do, just not there.”

“Ugh, apparently,” Niji craned his neck to look at something else but Yonji’s pain, finding a distraction almost immediately. He snickered and pointed down.

“Hey, Ichiji, take a look at what’s happening to the boytoy.”

Looking over, next to their brother, Zoro’s bearded handler was fighting off other enraged soldiers from taking a piece out of the man, his prowess in hand to hand combat showing as he tossed clones back like bags of flour. It was unsurprising that they would go after Roronoa. The clones were programmed to have total loyalty to the royal family, defending them in times of needs (or when they needed meat shields). Any attempt to injure a Vinsmoke and they would be swarmed like a defenseless caterpillar against an army of ants. Perhaps it was a good thing then that father assigned someone tough like that bearded clone to protect him from more serious injuries.

“Huh,” the red haired prince mused at the pure chaos, “perhaps we should have had him do the sparring.”

“Where’s the fun in that, though?” Niji sneered.

In that moment, their father stomped onto the balcony, Reiju close behind him. His eyes bulged at the unfolding situation below him.

“What in the HELL is going on down here!?”

Everyone on the ground stopped what they were doing and looked up at the king of Germa. Scanning the crowd, Judge stopped and focused on his youngest son, who was now being laid out on a stretcher. Something looking like concern spread across his aged face.

“What happened to Yonji?” He looked at Ichiji. The red haired man shrugged.

“Zoro bit his testicles.” He laid out plainly.

“He WHAT?” Judge and Reiju said in unison. Curious, he had not seen Reiju be that expressive ever.

“Yeah, he bit him like a dog.” Niji chirped. Judge cradled his face in his hands, trying to hold himself back from screaming. Reiju was not looking too hot either, mouth slightly agape at what she had just heard. Niji noticed this too and pounced on the opportunity to make a jab.

“Damn, it must hurt you Reiju to see your man in a-“

“Niji, please, shut up,” Judge sniped. He pointed accusingly at Zoro, his face turning red. The swordsman looked up, his one eyed gaze defiant and evidently feeling no guilt over what he had done. Even worse, he crossed his arms in front of their father.

Oh yes, this would not end well.

“You!” Judge snarled, “Youuuuuu…you little…you were supposed to SPAR, not actually hurt my son like that!”

“Well,” Zoro shouted back, “maybe he needs better training so he would not leave himself open like that.”

The remaining Vinsmoke siblings took a step back to avoid the upcoming storm of insults to be exchanged. Reiju bumped into him on accident and she jumped away from him as quick as a cat from water. It did not seem that there was going to be much gleaned from the interaction between his father and the prisoner at the moment, so he decided to see what he could get from Reiju on where her and father had been.

“So…where were you?”

Any sort of shock from the current events were ironed out of Reiju’s face now. She leaned against the stone door frame.

“He did not tell you?”

“You know father chooses not to fill us in on your ‘womanly affairs’.”

The pink haired woman sighed.

“Did an ultrasound. It’s a girl.”

Ahh, that made sense. Their father had been eager to know the gender of the child and now was the appropriate time to take a look. So they were having a niece, huh…He felt that Niji and Yonji would be disappointed by another girl coming into the fray, but Ichiji did not feel much of anything about that. Only wondering if this girl would be on par with everyone else or be a failure like her uncle.

Niji took immense pleasure watching their father threaten to come down and give the swordsman a piece of his mind and fume when Zoro yawned to his face.

“Hey,” Reiju wrapped an arm around her growing midsection to support it, “what is going on with that hideous outfit on Zoro?”

“A little gift from the goatman, I heard.”

Reiju groaned.

“God damn, not him.”

Ichiji solemnly nodded. If there was one thing his sister and him passionately agreed on, it was of their distaste for Caesar Clown.

“Yes, him. I even saw him bring a cameko snail to record the fi-“

“He RECORDED this!?” Judge sputtered. His grip on the railing was enough to break two chunks off of it. He looked either on the end of screaming or ripping out his hair.

“You know what? I am too damn stressed to think of a proper punishment for you right now, Roronoa,” he turned his head to Zoro’s handler, “no food for him for the rest of the week.”

The bearded soldier nodded, Ichiji noticing out of the corner of his eye how Reiju clenched her jaw shut at this.

“Fine, don’t give me any food, then,” Zoro retorted, “I’ll live.”.

And with that, his handler was ordered to turn all his tattoo cuffs and drag him away with his face to the ground. As the pirate threw in a few more expletives towards their father, Judge turned away and grumbled that he was going to find out the extent of Yonji’s injuries, and find Caesar, and stormed off. The remaining three siblings stood on the balcony awkwardly.

“Hey, I earjacked a little and heard you had an ultrasound,” Niji poked his head into their space, “what was the ge-“

“I need to get back to work. Need to get the inventory done before we land for a restock.”

Reiju hurried off in the opposite direction, not giving the brothers a second glance. Niji sucked on his teeth.

“Bitch.”