Chapter 128: Dinosaur Feast
"Huff... huff... hah..."
Night had already fallen, but that small, stubborn figure was still running.
"I... I was so close..."
Sanji felt like his entire body was falling apart. His lungs were burning, every breath rough and ragged, and his sweat soaked through his already filthy clothes.
His legs no longer felt like they belonged to him. They just shuffled forward step by step, as if each tiny movement was a victory stolen from the ground.
"You know, Sanji, an elder once told me, 'Run, Roy, do not stop. When you are the most tired, that is when you must keep moving. Once you start moving at that moment, that is when you break through your limits.'"
Leaning casually against the railing, Roy smiled down at him.
"Do you want to push your limits?"
"I... ahhh! Of course I do!"
Sanji suddenly let out a hoarse roar.
As if a switch had been flipped, his exhausted legs picked up speed again. He charged forward with a desperate howl, body and will stretched to the edge.
He would run to the end.
He would finish what he said he would do.
"Not bad, kid. You even ran an extra four laps," Roy said, laughing softly. "You passed the training goal, so tonight you get a proper feast."
He was very satisfied.
That line he had just used, the one about pushing past your limits, was something his PE teacher had once shouted at him back in his previous life.
Roy had not let that teacher down either.
Back then, he had chased a transfer student who was a dedicated athlete, kept pace the entire way, and finished every lap in second place.
Of course, pushing your limits still depended on the situation.
Knowing when to stop was part of surpassing yourself. You could only call it breaking limits if it was still within the range your body could handle.
Otherwise, you were just asking to get yourself killed, you fool.
"Huff... huff... y... yes..."
Sanji staggered closer, tears mixed with sweat on his cheeks. He could barely force out the words as he stared up at Roy.
"Rest for a while. We will talk after you catch your breath. Then take a shower. I prepared some clothes your size, so change into those."
Roy turned and walked back into the cabin, heading straight for the warm dishes waiting in the galley.
"No... you... food..."
Sanji was still panting so hard that even speaking hurt.
What he had wanted to say was: "What delicious food can you cook? Do you need me to teach you?"
But Roy did not hear the full sentence, and even if he had, he would not have agreed.
It was a joke to let Sanji cook now. The kid's current cooking level was still in the beginner range, and the stuff he had made back in childhood... was honestly tragic.
Better to let the foodie from a civilized gourmet country handle the cooking first.
Inside the ship's dining room, Roy and Hancock sat side by side.
A mountain of food covered the table.
Dinosaur meat, dinosaur eggs, and a spread of vegetables had all been transformed into a feast fit for giants.
Sanji walked in after washing up, now dressed in clean children's clothes. His short blond hair had been scrubbed until it was soft and fluffy.
Roy looked at him and smiled gently.
In his heart, though, he thought, If this kid shaved his head, he would look even sharper and more energetic.
Sanji climbed onto his chair and stared wide eyed at the sheer amount of food laid out before him.
"This is..."
He pointed uncertainly at a massive slab of meat.
Even with all the cookbooks he had read and all the ingredients he had experimented with, he could not recognize the texture of this meat at all.
"Oh, that is Tyrannosaurus rex meat," Roy said. "The texture is a bit much for you. It suits a tough guy like me more."
He picked up the huge piece of T rex meat and took a big bite, chewing with obvious satisfaction.
The grilled meat was unbelievably chewy and dense. It was the kind of bite that made your teeth and jaw ache in a way that felt strangely wonderful.
"This one is from a herbivore type dinosaur. A baby like you should start with smaller cuts like this."
Roy took up his knife and sliced a few small, manageable cubes of roasted meat, then dropped them onto Sanji's plate.
"...!"
Sanji stared at Roy, eyes blazing.
Unforgivable.
That shameless master...
He actually had the nerve to call him a baby.
It was clearly a direct insult.
Not manly enough, was it?
"I want that one too!" Sanji snapped, pointing at the Tyrannosaurus barbecue with stubborn defiance.
He was a man.
A real man.
He, Sanji, was going to eat Tyrannosaurus meat.
It did not even occur to him to ask where the dinosaurs came from.
"Are you a tough guy too?" Roy asked, amused. "Because right now you look like a soft little kid to me."
"I am a tough guy, do not look down on me!" Sanji kept insisting, jabbing his finger at the T rex meat. "That one, I want that one!"
"Then you double your training load tomorrow," Roy said.
Reverse psychology, set and done.
"Fine!" Sanji answered without even pausing to think.
"Hahaha."
Roy laughed out loud and cut a slice of Tyrannosaurus for him.
Hancock could not help chuckling too, and the two adults began eating with easy, practiced bites.
Meanwhile, Sanji clutched his own piece of T rex meat and launched into a desperate battle with it, all teeth and willpower.
"Mmff... rgh... uuugh...!"
He bit into it with everything he had, tugging until his face turned red, mumbling nonsense through clenched teeth like a tiny wolf cub trying to rip off a scrap of a giant beast.
Watching him, Roy could not help having a strange thought.
To be honest, he suspected the voice actor for kid Sanji was also Chopper's voice actor.
The way the little blond brat sounded now was so similar to Chopper that it was almost unfair.
Too cute.
That adorable outfit Sanji was wearing was also one Roy had picked out for him in town earlier.
This Chopper like little Sanji was absolutely delightful.
Judge was a complete idiot for throwing away such a fun son.
Roy was more than happy to pick him up.
While chewing, Roy quietly pulled out a small recording Tone Dial that a nun had once given him.
With a light press, the shell lit up and a chorus of children's voices drifted out, singing "Binks' Sake" in a clear, innocent melody.
The song of the Sheep's House children filled the dining room.
Sanji paused mid duel with the Tyrannosaurus and tilted his head, listening to the beautiful song.
Roy was already an adult and long past his own childhood. His voice had changed, his body had changed.
Sanji did not recognize the familiar voice mixed into the chorus.
"This is..." Sanji asked curiously.
"Here, have some dinosaur egg drop soup, tough guy."
Roy slid a steaming bowl of dinosaur egg drop soup over to him.
Then his gaze softened, drifting somewhere far away.
When he had left that period of his life decades ago, he had entrusted the sheep's House to the orphaned fish man children.
In all the years since, he had never dared to go back.
In a later conversation, Linlin had told him what became of them.
Some of the children had died of old age.
Some had died of illness.
The fallen prince had perished in battle, fighting to restore his lost kingdom.
The little long armed boy had grown up, gone to war against the long leg tribe, and died as well.
Linlin had still failed to mend her relationship with Elbaf. She could only pass news of those children to Roy through her web of intelligence.
As for exactly which of those kids might still be alive, the information was patchy.
Even Linlin could not give him a clear answer.
"We should go back and take a look sometime," Roy murmured.
Time was a cruel blade.
It scraped away faces, blurred memories, and left scars where warmth used to be.
He had originally taken out the Dial to quietly record Sanji's cute voice, so that he could listen back and laugh at these childish moments in the future.
In the middle of that thought, he almost forgot that the empty shell he was holding still stored the singing of the Sheep's House children.
Roy placed the Sound Dial carefully to the side.
He decided he would go to Skypiea himself one day.
But he would not overwrite this one.
He would leave this shell as it was.
Let the song inside remain forever.
Proof that he had once pretended to be a child and enjoyed a fragment of that carefree time.
Sanji watched Roy put the shell away and lowered his eyes to the bowl of soup.
"This thing must be very important to Master," he thought quietly.
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