The post about the Vinsmokes gaining emotions after WCI is perfect, but what about they gaining emotions before WCI? To be clear, during the time the StrawHats are separated by Kuma and everyone think the crew is dead? (And with the East Blue Polycule?)
Judge reads this in the papers and says something about the failure finally dying and while Reiju knows how to mask her feelings but is almost crying inside, 124ji receive a wave of feelings upon the news.
So they wait until Judge isn't in the room and all the three of them panic. They kept asking to Reiju what that thing inside their chests is, every single thing they did to Sanji heaving on their shoulders.
Reiju wasn't expecting this reaction upon the news. Not even a little bit. But she is their older sister and does what she can do. After the brothers are calmed down, they start to make a plan to kill Judge.
A year and something after, they do kill Judge what destroy Germa. After the siblings focus on dealing with feelings and discovering emotions.
When the news about the StrawHats reuniting comes almost a year later, the 0124ji celebrate that Sanji is alive. They set sail looking for Sanji and to apologize. Take some time but they do find the crew.
The StrawHats are fighting the marines and when Sanji sees them he freezes. After the fight ends they try to talk with Sanji with the crew around them. Then they start to list all the things they have to say sorry for. Until Reiju says "Sorry for letting our father lock you in this dunsheon with the helmet for two years" and the crew is in chaos, even more Sanji's partnes (Luffy, Zoro, Usopp and Nami).
Sanji sighs and says he will explain to the crew, but he doesn't want to see the Vinsmokes while telling everything but they still have stay since he will think about the apologize. The StrawHats go to the kitchen and Robin uses her Akuma No Mi to keep an eye at the four.
Already inside the kitchen, Sanji tells everything to the crew and his partnes. It's chaos and everyone is chocked and angry. Zoro, Luffy, Nami and Usopp want to punch Sanji's brothers (the rest of the crew also wants but they're the ones who want more).
Alright, shit, okay. Fuck.
Judge is reading the paper and says the failure is finally dead and he's glad he doesn't have to worry about that mess anymore. Not that he really was, Reiju however, is being torn apart on the inside at the revelation the Strawhat Pirates are dead, the captain dead after Marineford. When Judge leaves the room, the brothers immediately asking her questions about what that weird feeling is in their chest, seemingly panicking for some reason. It's like a heavy stone just compressing their organs and Reiju explains feelings to them. Explains how she and Sanji had them thanks to their mother even if Sanji was their father's failure he was what their mother hoped they would all be. And now they are becoming that.
124ji ask what to do, what can they do? So Reiju offers a plot that will end their lives as they know them, and they agree. They start plotting to kill Judge and tear down Germa and sink it to the bottom of the seas. She is shocked whenever they approach her asking for help identifying new feelings. A lot of it is varying degrees of guilt and shame for what they did to Sanji when they were kids, for not stopping their father and letting participating to varying degrees in his torture. None of them are innocent, none of them, but perhaps they could start repairing things. Starting with the fall of Germa and its king, Judge. They set up, the brothers much better at reading rooms and people and not using their royal status to get things, to gain advantages.
Judge's death is rather anticlimatic for all that he's done to them and Sanji. 124ji shed tears as they sink the ship, sending their mother's grave to the bottom of the Grand Line with their father and kingdom. So they sail and just go on with their lives, Reiju showing them the world and helping them discover emotions. They still do a lot of dirty work, it's what they're good at anyway but it's weird, they don't like it. Feels weird and wrong now, but they need to live and unfortunately this is how they have to do it because they don't have real life skills. They have bought books on cooking, laundry, cleaning, maintaining a ship, sailing. They feel dumb because this is not what they were prepared for growing up, but growing up meant being weapons, not humans-not like they are now. They're going around as they normally do. It's a lot to deal with though, mourning their brother, their mother, even their father whether or not he deserves it is questioned often but they can never come to a conclusive answer.
Then the Strawhat Pirates return, Sanji is alive. They make it their mission to find him and apologize and try to make things right but they don't even know where to start looking for the blond or his crew because they move fast and quick and it's hard to keep track of where the crew has been seen and what they have done. They celebrate, certainly, celebrate he's alive and with his crew and has people like he didn't then, when he was in Germa. They've also noticed their skin, while still extremely tough, isn't cold and kind of bouncy now, it has give like muscle and flesh would. It's weird for them to be in this situation but good at the same time. To become more human even if they will never be fully human. It's weird how much they've changed since they thought Sanji died, but Reiju likes them better this way. Their curiosity overflowing into the world around them as they learn to appreciate things more, appreciate their mother and brother more.
Eventually they do find the Strawhat crew, the Thousand Sunny dwarfing their own vessel but since it's the four of them they don't need a massive ship. They sail under a flag that means nothing, it's not Germa's, it's not a jolly roger, it's not a marine flag, it's just.... nothing. They needed something and this is what they came up with okay? So of course the Strawhats aren't paying them any mind, they think they're civillians which is accurate now, they suppose. Also they're in the middle of a firefight with the marines so, they're timing is awful but they go help. They can do that, at least there's that. Sanji is flying though? Without a raid suit like they have? He's on fire? His siblings are very confused and so is he at the sight of them in all honesty. What the fuck.
Once the Marines retreat and time is given to recoup on all sides Sanji fucking yells what the fuck they're doing and he's never supposed to see them again only for an unstoppable torrent of apologies to fly at him. Sanji is utterly confused as are the four people around him, all holding him weirdly close, too close for the siblings to like but everyone on the crew is confused, not just Sanji who is so utterly lost by all of this but that green haired guy with the swords is looking more and more angry and the long nose is talking quietly with Nico Robin which isn't concerning at all. Nope. Not even a little. They are NOT afraid.
"Sorry for letting Father let you rot in the dungeon for two years with the helmet!" Reiju yells up to the blond which makes his crew lose it and weapons are drawn on them, Sanji is trying to calm them all down but the orange haired girl is demanding to know what the hell Reiju's talking about, what any of them are talking about, the captain is asking why the different Sanji's are doing in general as long nose is attempting to hold the green haired guy back. The robot seems to be getting ready to shoot something at them as hands sprout over the siblings' ship to hold them down and try to keep them where they are.
"Let them come aboard while I explain everything to everyone in the kitchen, they can stay on deck." Sanji says and they all agree and the siblings board the grand ship and their brother has corralled his crew into the galley of the ship, they know they're being watched there's no way they're not being watched but still. They wish they could hear what's going on in the galley, instead they're sitting on deck and Niji is fucking with his goggles and sitting on the grass as Yonji eyes the swing.
"What's that?" Yonji asks pointing.
"A swing." Reiju answers. "A toy. Like how you swing from your hands sometimes." The brothers stare at the swing with interest but decide against touching it. They wait what seems like forever.
Sanji meanwhile is explaining as Luffy is rubber armed around him and Nami who hasn't let go since he first met them. He explains how he's the failure of Germa who was declared dead at six and then left in a dungeon with a metal helmet, so no one knew who he was. How he was his brothers' punching bag until his "escape" when Judge traded Sanji's freedom for his silence. His mother dying and how he was declared dead only a few weeks after, the bugs that would crawl into the mask but couldn't get back out so they would eat him and his only friends were rats and mice. Zoro is being held back by Usopp sitting on his lap but also a very real threat of what the four out on deck could do after watching them fight the marines. Sanji says the emotions are new, that previously it had only been Reiju and even then she had been more than content to wait and maybe patch him up after. Luffy asks if he wants to do anything and Sanji shrugs, says he should make them dinner before kicking them off ship and Zoro points out he doesn't have to. Nami argues their boyfriend will feed anyone and if they came here on a ship like that to apologize, albeit awfully, Sanji's going to feel the need to feed them, which Luffy and Usopp agree with and then tack on that once they're gone they can all go to their room and pile on the cook. So Sanji starts cooking and the others filter out to the deck and other areas of the ship. Zoro and Luffy keep an eye on the siblings and Nami asks them questions about Germa and what it's like.
"We sunk it." Ichiji says.
"Huh?" Voices chorus from around them.
"Yeah, killed our father then sunk the whole kingdom, fleet, whatever you want to call it. We started plotting to kill the guy when he said Sanji died after The Summit War, killed him about a year later, here we are. Learning how to be human or trying to at least."
"You guys are fucking weird, dinner's ready, come on!" Sanji calls across the desk and everyone filters into the galley to eat. The food is good and the siblings all compliment the blond on it, they help clean up as well. They leave with waves and the denden number, handed over by Robin to Reiju with a shared look of secrecy. The East Blue crew are all in their room, formerly the captain and first mate's quarters which were combined before they set sail again, piled on the bed with Sanji at the bottom and covered by warm flesh and words of praise and thankfulness he's there. Something little Sanji never thought he would have.
