Warriors of Sora: The Curse of Kin's Blood - Chapter 7 - Acetaminophen_Only (2025)

Chapter Text

Zoro blinked awake, staring at the infirmary ceiling in shock before jerking up from the bed. He glanced at his hands, curling them in and out of a fist, then slowly raised his head to meet Nami’s furious eyes.

“What the hell was that, Zoro?” She asked, her hands on her hips, and she glared at the swords by Zoro’s waist.

Zoro had no idea why he acted out yesterday. It seemed right at the moment, but thinking back, a pit formed in his stomach as he felt the phantom sensation of pulling Wadou out of Sanji’s hand and cutting deep into his skin.

The feeling only grew worse when he remembered aggressively pushing away his captain, making the man fall backwards into the floorboards of the Veneration’s front deck.

Zoro sat dumbly as he stared at the navigator. “I don’t know.” He honestly responded, and his hands curled tightly around the white sheets of the bed, the swordsman growing upset with his obvious lack of control.

Chopper walked into the room with a clipboard in his hand, and the doctor perked up upon seeing Zoro awake. “Zoro! Are you feeling better?”

“I can move now.” He answered, but he was interrupted by an impatient, “Did anything come back on the drug test?” from Nami, making the glint in Chopper’s eyes disappear as he heard the question.

“No… All I could find were traces of the drug Himari used to immobilize him.” Chopper visibly shrunk with sadness, “Everyone keeps asking, but I couldn’t find anything that could get us Sanji back!”

Nami nodded. “Everyone is pretty upset. We just reunited after two years, and now we lost Sanji.”

Zoro clenched his teeth together. “ That wasn’t me. I know I can’t prove it, but I’m sure I was set up, somehow.”

Chopper nodded vigorously. “Luffy kept saying the same thing!”

Zoro rose from the bed, stomping out of the infirmary and walking briskly to the middle of the deck, seeing Luffy’s back as he sat on the figurehead in front of him. “Let’s fight them.” Zoro shouted, and his voice echoed throughout the ship from the force of it, drawing the attention of the other crew members, peaking out of their rooms with interest.

“But we lost, Zoro-bro.” Franky said, though there was no real argument in his tone, his lips curling upwards as he pushed his sunglasses up.

We’re pirates. We take whatever we want.” Zoro growled, and his entire body screamed with his desire for redemption . He wanted retribution for whatever had gotten the better of him. He wanted to quash his culpability behind his atrocious actions and do whatever it took to reunite his whole crew once more.

He couldn’t leave it like this. Zoro knew none of them could.

Luffy rose, his eyes blazing with a determination that each of his Nakama were intimately familiar with. A matching grin spread across his face, which Zoro found himself sharing out of habit.

“Nami! Get us outta the Calm Belt!” He commanded, and Nami nodded. “We’re almost headed back to the border. We’ll be faster with the winds once we’re out of the belt.”

The lively atmosphere of the Sunny returned once more, and Zoro watched from the corner of his eye as Usopp slipped into the galley. Zoro silently followed behind him, pleasantly surprised to find the sharpshooter having been in the middle of making sandwiches for lunch.

Usopp looked up from where he was preparing the food. “Pulled pork sandwiches for lunch. I don’t know where Sanji keeps the cheese, so it’s just…” Usopp’s lips curled up in distaste, “pork pieces with bread.”

Zoro shrugged, then opened the fridge to take a look. “Can’t be that hard to find the cheese.” Zoro said, and he paused upon surveying the contents of the stocked fridge, his eyes flitting from container to container confusedly. After searching for a minute, Zoro clicked his tongue and closed the fridge forcefully. “Pork and bread doesn’t seem too bad.” He relented, and Usopp laughed, setting a large pile of sandwiches to the middle of the dining table.

“LUNCH IS READY!” Usopp hollered to the door, knowing full well that it was enough to draw the ship’s attention, and he turned to Zoro, a small frown on his face as he glanced over at him. Zoro wasn’t disturbed from the action- Nami had told him that the crew was upset earlier- and he’d expected the sharpshooter to ask about Sanji since he’d stepped in the room.

“So you were drugged, but it can’t be proven, and we’re taking Sanji back by force?” Usopp summarized, and Zoro grunted in affirmation. Usopp sighed as members startled trickling into the galley. “Even if that was the case, the bet said that Kenji could use any method necessary to incite the ‘impossible’ situation that Robin decided.”

Zoro raised an eyebrow, making Usopp stutter and wave his hands around defensively. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t take Sanji back- I just meant that even if you were drugged, we unequivocally lost the bet! I was surprised when Kenji offered the drug test before kicking us off his ship.”

Zoro tsk -ed, then looked to the side grumpily. “Robin should’ve said something like ‘Franky wearing pants’.” Robin hummed in agreement as she took her seat. “At the time, it seemed impossible for you to willingly hurt Sanji’s hands.” She said pointedly, and she gave him a mildly disappointed look before grabbing a sandwich off the middle of the table, inspecting it closely before tentatively bringing it to her mouth. Zoro forced down the guilt growing in his stomach with a large bite into his own sandwich.

“Any one of us would have agreed with those terms.” Nami took Robin’s defense, making Zoro sigh with defeat.

“Speaking of Kenji-bro kicking us off the ship- did any of you notice how disappointed he looked?” Franky asked, and he lightly whapped the back of Luffy’s hand as it snaked across the table, making the younger man snicker as he pulled his hand back.

“Yes, I certainly did.” Brook agreed. “He looked so oddly protective that I almost reconsidered the rationale behind the bet he made.” Various voices of assent rang through the air, and the skeleton continued, “They could be-”

“-Lovers!” and “-Brothers!” were shouted at the same time with equal ardor, and each half of the table expressing their third-rate abilities of detective work sat in silence for a second before chaos erupted once more at the table.

“What do you mean lovers? The Cook is straight .” Zoro sputtered out to Nami, and the navigator crossed her arms together, shooting him a glare. “You can’t assume . I remember Sanji didn’t mind sharing a bed with him the night they got drunk.” She wiggled her eyebrow at the man conspiratorially.

Brook and Chopper nodded their heads. “They got close so quickly!” Chopper said, and Brook slammed his boney hand on the table to bring the crew’s attention back to him, standing up passionately as he made his case. “How could you say they are brothers? Sanji would surely say something about having siblings!”

Franky added his point to the argument. “Not only that, but wouldn’t Sanji’s brother also have a curly eyebrow? You surely couldn’t think the swirl was a cosmetic choice and not a genetic trait?!”

Zoro snorted at the mental image of Sanji curling the ends of his eyebrows every morning. “But they could be non-blood brothers!” Luffy supplied from Zoro’s side. “He looks at Sanji like Ace used to with me and Sabo when we were kids.”

The table became silent as they tried to connect the dots. Of everyone in the crew, Nami, Luffy, and Franky were the only ones with siblings, and amongst the three, Luffy was the only one granted the chance to grow up with them until Ace turned seventeen.

“My case in point is the fact that Kenji was disappointed when he won the bet. A lover would be elated, would he not?” Robin asked, and the Straw Hats nodded as they mulled over the point. “Besides, I’m sure some of you have at least noticed that his second in command is completely enamored with Kenji.”

Usopp nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, I noticed that! They’re obviously brothers, guys.”

Robin’s small smile grew as the Straw Hats finally all nodded in agreement, and her hands settled in her lap after she finished her sandwich, her expression faltering for a moment as her fingertips brushed the cover of the book on her legs.

Zoro’s eyes caught the small movement, and he looked over at her questioningly. “What’s wrong, Robin?”

Robin shook her head. “The book is a storybook of fantasies originating from the Void Century. There was a tale in it mentioning the next island we are set to arrive on, Cordelia. The narrative is of two brothers creating a curse for its residents for centuries to come- one that could only be resolved by a blood sacrifice.” She reassured her concerned crewmates by bringing the small smile back to her face. “It’s nothing to worry about. It was a story said it would only be fixed by two royal brothers, so I am sure it is just a coincidence. It is also just a fairytale.”

Usopp shrieked with worry. “Who knows?” He gasped, “What if that’s why he wanted Sanji? He needed a blood sacrifice!”

Zoro rolled his eyes. “We just established that Kenji is super protective of the Cook. He doesn’t seem like the type to make such a plan.”

“Even so.” Brook looked at Nami. “We should try to get there as fast as we can to get Sanji back.”

“I’m working on it. We just got out of the Calm Belt. The wind should drastically improve our travel time, while it should slow down the Veneration. Their vessel was made for the Calm Belt, not the Grand Line.”

Luffy sat up in his seat. “How far behind Sanji will we get there?” Nami pursed her lips. “One day.”

Luffy’s eyes lit up with the prospect of adventure. “The next island sounds fun!” He cheered, and he ran out of the galley with his hands in the air.

“Fun, indeed.” Robin said darkly, and Zoro watched the archeologist for a moment as she flipped through the pages of her book.

Warriors of Sora: The Curse of Kin's Blood - Chapter 7 - Acetaminophen_Only (2025)
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