Chapter Text
Reiju really could not say that she took “pride”, per se, in her clerical work, but she did take it seriously. VERY seriously. With not much else in her life to actually do besides warmonger and train, and not wanting to let her mind dwell too much on the things she had done and seen, Reiju had thrown herself into her job and had perfected what she had done down to a science. Countless days she had spent just organizing files and papers, making the routine trips back and forth to the document warehouse, both retrieving and depositing paperwork there, being a one woman conveyor belt when it came to processing all sorts of forms, and so on.
…No, it was not fulfilling work in the slightest, but being good at it was good for killing time. She had been killing time for 27 years.
But most importantly, it was usually something she could do all on her own. It started as her having to do it alone and she quickly adapted and needed no one else to do her job. Not until she got pregnant. The princess did her best to keep up with it all even when she felt her worst in the first trimester, morning sickness being her mortal enemy, yet a backlog still piled up slowly and steadily. It was especially apparent and staring down at her in her office now that it was becoming much more difficult to transport large amounts of papers back and forth as she treaded into the end of the second trimester. That, and even outside of physical labor, her factory line tactics were jammed up by fatigue that grinded everything to a halt and would not let up until she rested for a bit or had a small nap. Every minute she was not working was a minute wasted and Reiju could feel her father's specter-like presence lurking in the back of her mind with all the time wasted.
So, unfortunately for her, assistance was going to be inevitable at some point. While being behind the operations of everything was her domain (a domain she treasured since she was all by herself in it), she would have to share it for a while with one of her brothers. Which was good when it came to the wider plan with Zoro, but bad for her at the moment since she would have to deal with her brothers.
But who would she saddle with the task of essentially being her fall guy? She spent last night thinking about it and came a terrible conclusion:
Niji. God damn Niji.
While true that she had no affection for her other brothers, Niji was something else entirely. Yonji was a meat head but good at following her like a little puppy dog with only occasional complaints. Ichiji was silent and brooding, but also father's favorite as he embodied much of what he wanted his perfect soldier to be. Niji, on the other hand, embodied everything wrong with those who got their hands on power, and doubly so for a royal family member.
Spoiled, entitled, and would never lift a finger to do the type of work she does without being forced to, the blue haired man lived only for the sword and the luxuries being a Vinsmoke offered. In his mind, if he was already better than most other people, why try so hard? How nice that he had all the resources to think that way…
But, it was this ineptitude and attitude that would prove useful, even if it meant gritting her teeth the entire time. While her father had the ultimate authority around the kingdom, his hand could be forced, and if her brothers just HAPPENED to be useless when she needed immense help with maintaining literally everything, she could finally get some time alone and be able to speak to Zoro. And if gaining that meant spending time with her least favorite brother out of the three, then…
…Well, she would not die, that was for sure. But it sure was appealing right now…
“Ugh, Reiju!” the blue haired man yelled from a floor below, “Where the hell do these striped top boxes go?”
Her eye twitched as her grip tightened on the papers in her hands. Controlled breathing, Reiju, controlled breathing…feh, easier said than done. For some reason, Suzume was feeling quite lively today, and while she usually would welcome all the kicks and movements, with her soured mood, every jab to her side or organs made her wince.
“Can you specify what color they are?”
“It’s like, black and yellow.”
“...I already told you, those are our medical records, not the ones for everyone else in the kingdom, only the Vinsmokes, so do not mix them in-”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time.”
Her eye twitched again and she neatly put the stack of papers in her hands away before she could crumble them in her vice grip. Something that was becoming dangerously apparent as the day went on was how the hold she had on her emotions and displaying them was slipping as her pregnancy continued. It seemed cliche to blame it on the hormones, but that seemed to be the only explanation for why she either really wanted to cry so badly over the littlest of things or be ready to fly off the handle where there would have been cold and calculated responses. Is that one of the things Zoro had considered when he asked her yesterday if she was sure she could do this? Because if that was the case, maybe she really could not…
No. No backing down now. Reiju had gotten far enough into the weeds of things that there was no option for her to back out into safety. She had already roped Yonji into her plan, meaning she really could not stay at Germa anymore. Revealing her scheming here would show how duplicitous she was, and after that, events such as the wedding incident would probably click together for her father and brothers…
And yet somehow, thinking about leaving the place she had lived her entire life gave her pangs of melancholy in her heart…or maybe that was just pangs of pain from Suzume treating her kidneys like a pair of soccer balls.
“Woa-WOAH!” Reiju did not flinch when she heard Niji fall forward and splat right on the ground, metal clanking, the box of papers exploding everywhere, but she did allow a sigh to escape her chest.
Niji had been playing his role perfectly, first getting all huffy when father ordered him to be her helper, then loudly complaining all the way to the warehouse, and then being the absolute worst at listening to simple instructions and being as slow as possible about everything he did, dragging his feet. She really would just need one day of him on the job and she could perfectly prove to her father that she needed someone of her own choosing to work with. And yet…seeing her brother be so incompetent was stabbing into her like a knife.
Reiju peered at the scene as she made her way downstairs and slightly cringed at it.
Niji was pushing himself back up to his feet, a crushed flat box under him and papers surrounding him on the ground.
“Fucking hell…” he looked down at the mess he made and then at his sister, “uhhh, whoops.”
Reiju clucked her tongue.
“I guess we will have to clean that up.”
Niji groaned and put his hands on his hips.
“I still don't get why we gotta do this in the first place. This is…this is servant work!”
“Well, you know how father is with documentation and how protective he is of it.”
She got down on one knee and began to scoop up as many papers as she could.
“But, like, it's kind of stupid, don't you think?”
Yes, Reiju thought.
“If you have a problem, take it up with father.”
Niji said nothing else but grumbled as he helped her gather up the mess. Some of them had become crinkled and crumpled when Niji fell on them, but they were at least still legible. She could iron them later, as there still was the matter of the boxes she left behind on the upper floors that she had abandoned to fix this mistake.
Reiju and her brother spent about a minute cleaning up until they had stacked all the papers into a tall but neat stack.
“Alright, now that we fixed that, somewhat, come with me.” She could see Niji’s face just peek around the pile he was carrying before she about-faced.
“Wait a minute, I thought you had your own stuff to sort on the second level.” The blue haired prince rebutted.
“I do, but I obviously need to guide your own work since you cannot be left alone.”
Another bout of grumbles emanated from Niji, but he still went on to trail her as Reiju brought the pair to the family medical records section.
The layout of the document warehouse was intentionally confusing to the average layman, with everything looking the same and the matte filing cabinets towering to almost twice her height. Fortunately, her father had programmed a map of the place and all its areas into her when she first started her secretarial job, so navigating it was second nature to her. Hmm, the confusing nature of it was probably a reason Niji had problems doing simple tasks.
Good.
Suzume rumbled around inside of her again, giving a mean kick upwards. It was nothing that could knock the wind from her lungs, but it was yet another flicker of movement showing that the baby was going to be energetic out of the womb. Instinctively, Reiju wrapped a protective arm around her midsection. What had gotten her so excited? The princess could understand her thrums yesterday when getting to hear her father again, but today was much, much less pleasant (as if there was a pleasant day on Germa)...unless being around Niji was just so enthralling for her baby girl. If that was the case, poor thing, getting all kicky for not even one of her good uncles. Well, the singular good uncle, in this case.
A tiny foot jabbed her again, this time shifting slightly near her back. The princess frowned and hoped Suzume would either stay in that position or move somewhere else but there. Getting hit in the spine, even when it happened rarely, had to be her least favorite movements and negated all cuteness of her child for a moment when her already suffering lower back twitched in pain. She could not imagine how bad it would be in the later months.
…Speaking of her back, Reiju could feel a pair of eyes boring into hers. Flicking herself around quickly, she caught her younger brother duck his head back behind the papers he was holding. Reiju’s first thought was how he was holding the stack haphazardly, quickly adjusting his arms so they straightened out, but her second thought seemed to be observing her when she reacted to her rambunctious child. That made her a bit uneasy.
Her brothers had not taken her condition too seriously, unlike their father, and their interest in her child was of casual curiosity, like they were not about to have a new family member coming into the picture. Reiju indulged them to the extent that they looked and never touched, but even then was never fully comfortable with the setup, especially when it came to someone like Niji who, for lack of a better term, just saw “womanly matters” as entirely not his problem and did not deign to care much about them. So to see him looking at her like that…it was quite out of character. She'd have to keep a better eye on Niji from now on.
Once making it to the section for family medical records, which was in a deep corner of the warehouse, Reiju signaled for Niji to stop.
“Now, I REALLY hope sorting this area should not be too hard for you.” She said, motioning to the main cabinets. All of them were color coded around the rims of each drawer according to each member of the family: black for father, red for Ichiji, blue for Niji, etc. The only one evidently missing was Sanji’s, but she heard that all of his files post leaving Germa were destroyed. Niji rolled his eyes under his sunglasses.
“Oh come on, even I could see which is which.”
“Really?”
“Really.” He forced the words out through gritted teeth. Placing the stack down on the floor, Niji ripped a document off the top. Before he could quickly scan it to see who it belonged to, Reiju snatched it out of his hands.
“That is your first problem: you need to sort by name first.”
Niji sucked on his teeth, frustration growing.
“Then why didn't we do that when I dropped all those papers in the first place?”
“Because, Niji, that was just to make sure we had all the documentation that I had so carefully categorized in the helpless box you body slammed. Besides…you know I cannot be on my knees for long.”
Her blue haired brother let out an extremely loud, drawn out sigh before resigning himself to his fate. Some expletives were muttered under his breath but Reiju paid no mind to it as she joined him. She immediately established all the piles for each family and began delegating the appropriate documentation to their places. Suzume, who had been quiet for a few minutes, decided to get back to work and jutted her foot out, causing Reiju to make a small “oof” sound. The princess still was wondering why she was more active than usual. Was it really excitement like she thought, or was something wrong? The movements and kicks themselves felt the same as always, but in more rapid succession. What if that was some sort of distress signal? Her child was trying to call for help and here she was sorting papers like a god damn monke-
“Hey, Earth to Reiju.”
The snapping of Niji’s fingers snapped Reiju out of her trance and she turned to him.
“What?” She said more harshly than she wanted to.
Niji put his hands up.
“Yo, don't bite my head off. I'm just trying to get your attention since you've been staring at your stomach for an entire minute.”
Reiju realized that she had been cradling the swell of her belly with both arms and quickly brought them back to her sides.
“I, uhh,” she fake cleared her throat, “my apologies about that.”
The princess went back to work, leaving no room for questions. And yet…Niji was still looking at her. From the glances she gave, she could tell he still had something he wanted to say about the baby. Well, he could keep staring, because Reiju had no intention of-
“You know, I've been thinking, but how does it feel to be fat for once?”
…
What.
Reiju creaked her neck around to glare at her brother, a vein beginning to show on her temple as her temper was being tested.
“Choose your next words very carefully.” She stated, holding back any emotion in her voice. Steady and calm, she needed to stay steady and calm.
Her brother carefully placed another sheet onto Ichiji’s pile as he considered this. At least Niji, with all his vocal knives he liked to sink into weak spots, knew better than to test his usually cool and collected sister.
“Look, maybe instead of ‘fat’, it's more like you're…softer, now.”
This managed to put some cool water on Reiju’s temper…a little bit.
“Do elaborate.”
“Well it's like…we're all pretty solid, right? All muscles and the bare minimum of fat? Add on the exoskeleton stuff and you realize that none of us have any curves, just sharp edges. But now that you've got baby stuff going on, all these edges on you are starting to fill out.”
Reiju raised a curly brow.
“And?”
“And…I dunno, it's just so new and alien to me to see one of my own family members like this. It's like you're a hen gravid with eg-”
“Okay, back to work,” Reiju snapped her gaze back to the paperwork at hand while Niji silently turned back towards his stacks. It stayed silent for most of the time after that, Reiju preferring this to her brother running his mouth.
Her frustration rising, eyeing Niji as he sloppily organized the papers, leaving the pile uneven and haphazard, Reiju felt Suzume roll around in her again. She took in a deep breath and let it out. She had no idea if babies could feel their mother’s emotions, but it seemed like Suzume was getting riled up every time her temper flared up. Perhaps it was just a bunch of coincidences that should not be taken seriously, but something felt off, she just could not put her finger on it…
“Hey, Reiju.”
The aforementioned princess, with all the paper organization done, turned to her brother.
“Yes?”
“Why do you gotta, like…fawn over the baby?”
Reiju was taken aback by this for only a second before composing herself again.
“Why do you ask?”
“Hey, don't answer a question with a que-”
“Why do you ask?” Eugh, once again, it came out harsher than she intended. Niji made a show of covering his ears like she was just screaming at him instead of raising her voice.
“Alright, alright, I guess it's because I've been watching you for a bit now and you keep…rubbing and holding your stomach like it's a damn genie lamp.”
Oh hell, so he had been observing her. Tightening her expression, she forgot about the papers for a minute and got up.
“It is natural for a mother to fawn over their child.” She answered matter-of-factly.
“Okay, but why,” Niji asked, genuinely puzzled.
“You are quite inquisitive today,” Reiju slightly widened the gap between them, “what caused this?”
“Again with the que-ok, fine, fine. I'll…humor you,” Niji shoved his hands in his pockets, “This whole situation…it's just been weird. And seeing how you act now because of the kid is weird.”
Reiju's blood turned cold in her veins at this statement. What Niji said could go into many different directions, but she hoped it was just him seeing the facade she put up and not him actually noticing her change in behavior to help out the swordsman.
“Like, when the hell did you become so caring? I guess it's natural so the kid doesn't get neglected or anything, but it just isn't you, you know?”
Reiju gritted her teeth hard so she would not make any incendiary comments.
“And you're so flighty, too! Like, what the hell was that where you told Ichiji all the stuff about the baby and completely ignored me! What the hell was that about?”
“I had no idea you cared about my…child, Niji.”
“Oh no, it's not really about the kid at this point,” he waved his hand flippantly, “it's more of the fact that you're acting like you aren't really part of our lives,” getting more and more passionate in his ranting, the prince began to pace, “like you're receding away from us, from the family, Reiju!”
Reiju’s daughter’s movements were really picking up, but another unusual feeling was alongside them now. It was like some phantom force was making her stomach muscles twitch and contract, albeit in minute amounts. Perhaps that itself was a side effect of how Niji was getting under skin at the moment. A part of this family? He should not make her laugh with such ridiculous statements. Blood was their only tie.
“Would things really change if I was gone?”
Reiju was shocked that the thought came out of her mouth instead of staying in her head. She clamped her jaws shut as Niji stopped in his tracks.
“...I guess…realistically, I would have to take your job in that scenario, which if I had to work like this everyday, I'd probably kill myself, but besides that…” there was a flicker, just a momentary one, of sorrow across her brother's face as he figured out what would happen. That alone would have knocked Reiju right on her back if she was not trying so hard right now to keep it together.
And then Niji blew up. Literally and figuratively. Reiju had a feeling he would release a burst of electricity from the way she felt the static on her skin and the air smelled like ozone, so she took several steps back as blue lightning coming from her brother’s body rushed out and surrounded him like a cage, the man roaring, exasperated. The twitching in her stomach picked up and she clutched the swell of her belly. It was starting to hurt a bit.
“Look, you’re not like that failure, Reiju, you have a home here, a purpose here! And even if life would go on with just the three of us, it’s not a change I would want ‘cause I like things the way they are!” His pacing turned back into walking and he made a beeline to Reiju as he went on and on. As much as she hated to think it, Reiju was starting to feel a little fearful with her brother barreling towards her and her daughter right after his electric outburst, and the fact that her stomach felt tingly and twitchy during this did nothing to assuage her nerves.
“But things are quite literally about to change, Niji,” Reiju’s voice had a slight waver, “I am quite literally changing as we speak.”
“Yeah, changing for the worse. Now all you do is obsess over that kid inside of you and act like I’m such an insect that you can’t even tell me the damn gender of the thing you’re changing yourself for! It’s like I don’t even know who you are anymore!”
Niji began huffing and his face slightly reddened, and a bit of sweat lining the collar of his shirt. Reiju…had not planned for this in the slightest, but how could she? Niji was an asshole, but a very emotionally detached and short sighted one. He had been playing that part beautifully up until now with the revelation of his true feelings, feelings her father had surgically removed. The princess had no idea how to handle her prince brother because, ironically, it was like she was dealing with an entirely new person.
But while grappling with that, what bothered her equally if not even more was what he was saying, that she…that she belongs here, that she has a place here. Every statement he made was like an arrow to the chest because part of her agreed with that. A large chunk of her mind accepted that she was and always would be a Vinsmoke and she was right where she belonged. A family of monsters, cozy in their cave.
And yet…deep, deep down, a much smaller but still breathing part of her said “No”.
Perhaps it was a fledgeling form of hope or denial, but it made it all the more unbearable to hear her brother talk about her and her remaining family members like they had any real connections.
“I just…I just want my goddamn sister back, okay!?”
Niji threw his hands in the air, voice gaining airiness as he ran out of breath. Reiju only blinked back in response initially.
“You do not know me,” Reiju breathed, “you do not know a thing about me.”
Niji gave a rough and dry laugh, tangling his fingers in his hair as he combed them through the electric blue strands.
“Don't know you? I've lived with you my entire goddamn life!”
“You have only known what I have chosen to give to you,” Reiju hissed. She immediately regretted saying it, of course, but her emotions seemed to force themselves out now.
“...I'm gonna overlook that statement you just made as just your hormones flaring up,” Niji’s voice was dangerously calm, “but my point still stands that I cannot WAIT for that kid to get cut or pushed or whatever out of you so we can finally be normal again, have a goddamn conversation again!”
“Normal!?” Reiju winced in pain from Suzume’s rapid movements and her muscles tightening and relaxing, “NONE OF THIS is normal in the slightest, you-you-”
The blue haired prince put his hand up in front of her to get her to stop talking, which only aggravated Reiju more.
“Fucking hell, you’re acting all hormonal and shit now. Why don’t you sit down for a minute and-”
The pink princess tried to slap her brother’s hand away, ready to punt him if the spasming and kicks in her stomach were not making it hard to move without worry and pain ripping through her abdomen, but having quick reaction times, Niji caught her hand in his, gripping hard enough to keep her from hitting him, but not enough to cause serious damage. Her daughter was beginning to still now, but her muscles in her stomach tingled and contracted so tightly like an electric current coursed through them that tears threatened to sting Reiju’s eyes from the agony of it.
“Do not DARE talk to me like I’m a child!”
Niji, reverting back to his douchebag self, scoffed.
“And what are you going to do about i-”
Neither of them could have predicted or anticipated the nearby filing cabinet flying right into Niji’s head and throwing him off his feet. As the echoes of metal hitting metal receded, Reiju snapped herself out of her frozen position, instinctively protecting her abdomen and backing away, quickly hitting a wall.
Her brother, slightly dazed, got back on his feet speedily and began to scan the perimeter for whoever threw that. He locked eyes with Reiju.
“What the hell did you do?”
“Me? I-I was right in front of you, how could I have-”Another sting of muscular pain shot through Reiju and almost on cue, another filing cabinet ripped forward at an inhuman speed and hit Niji in the back. He yelped as he was bowled over, but the cabinet seemed to follow him downwards and press against him, trying to pin him down. Though, being a modified human with inhuman strength, he growled and punched the storage unit away, leaving a gaping hole in it and having it crash into other cabinets.
“Come out, you fucker, and fight me!”
That might have been his biggest mistake.
In an event that Reiju would not have believed to have happened if it did not occur in front of her own eyes, all the nearby filing cabinets leapt forward, spewing papers everywhere out as they began to pile onto her brother with reckless abandon. Sparks of electricity boomed from Niji as he tried to fend off the assaulting objects, but even when he smashed one, more followed in its wake and crunched together into him, trapping him as more and more of the things flew into each other. The crumpling of metal and Niji’s yells, which soon turned to screams, was deafening.
The filing cabinets, pushed by an invisible force, were packed on so tightly, so violently forcing themselves into each other, that they began to bend and deform, forming a ball on top of Niji, who was now trapped by the metal and pressure. Whatever or whoever was doing this wanted her brother totally immobilized and unable to fight back.
And yet, during all of this, Reiju was not even paying full attention to the attack. She focused enough to keep track of what was going on, but she was not directly looking at her brother in peril. Instead, she focused on her stomach, the pain pulsing through her system at an inordinate rate. It almost felt like she was having contractions, but it was only in her abdominal area, and the push and pull of her muscles contracting and relaxing was far too fast. Reiju’s thoughts were only on Suzume at this moment, if she was okay, if she was having a premature birth or what-what was going on? Hugging her stomach tightly, the Germa princess never felt any more vulnerable and…helpless.
As soon as the battering of office supplies started, it ended soon after Niji was silent, the only noises left were of fluttering papers and paper pieces. Many of the cabinets were now ruined, resembling pieces of abstract art instead of receptacles for important documents. But…screw the documents. Screw everything right now, all that mattered now was her daughter, her still very fragile and precious daughter. The pain, the spasms, it all stopped coincidentally when the barrage stopped, but Suzume was not moving. No…nonononononononononono.
With bloodshot eyes and trembling hands, Reiju felt for any signs of life, any movements in her belly. Nothing after a second. Nothing after five seconds. Nothing after ten seconds. Her heart was beginning to drop at the twenty second mark. Her daughter’s life…her potential as a human being could not end just like thi-
A kick. Right against her left palm. And then some stirring, like the baby was readjusting positions, like she was not about to make her mother’s mask crumble into pieces at the thought of her not existing just like that. Tears stung the edges of Reiju’s eyes, but she did not cry nor did she breathe a sigh of relief. She was alive, ALIVE. The princess never felt more grateful for her child to still be here after what happened with the womb that held her, but there still was the issue of the recent attack at hand. Just what had happened, and why did it only target Niji? None of the cabinets went near her as the invisible force maneuvered them around and even with their clumsy movements, they knew how much pressure to apply and to keep going until Niji passed out-
And then Reiju had a gut feeling she wish never happened.
The spasms, the fact that she felt them worsen every time a cabinet was picked up and used, how they stopped only when there was no need for the intimidating presence to be tranquilized any further. Maybe there were not enough pieces to put together a more definitive theory, but with those facts alone, Reiju could feel the truth bearing down on her.
Suzume had powers, just like the rest of the modified humans. Powers that her father could exploit and train his granddaughter in strengthening so he could finally conquer the North Blue. Powers that, if the girl were to get out of the kingdom, she would be hounded for because she would not be considered a failure, but a success that needed to be kept in the family.
She really would be…a Vinsmoke.
Never more did Reiju wish for her mama, if only so she could lay her head on her lap and cry.