Wanpi and Wanpi Accessories

While I'm on a SORTA roll, I wanna posit another idea into the fandom that I haven't seen much of yet:

Sanji just...kind of being apathetic to Reiju...and her caring more about him than he does for her in the end.

And I don't mean that in any sort of flanderizing way where we got super dickhead Sanji who goes "fuck my sister, all my homies hate my sister", but I do mean it in acknowledging how much he doesn't have much of a real love for his sister and thus him not really caring about a lot of what happens to her, even when she has All The Fucking Signs She Is Not Going To Do Well When He Leaves. Sanji is more apathetic than anything because she's really just his sister by blood. It's especially apparent post Reiju getting shot and how for a lot of it, he's either silent, gives curt answers, focusing entirely on everyone but his biological family sans his mother (for good reason! But your bio sister who is Right In Front Of You still wants to die! She is obviously suicidal!), or even when he does push back against Reiju's insistence on letting her die, he immediately folds when she rebuts him.

(And even though Sanji looks troubled in the panel after Reiju complains about lasting impressions, his silence is still louder than words!)

And we have to remember that this is call coming from Sanji. The same guy who, on two different occasions, had women he had known turn on him (due to a third party pushing their hand) while he still wanted to save them from their situation, went to bat for a woman he knew for a literal day, and having said THIS:

All for the people he cares about and loves.

And yet...when it comes to his own sister, the one biological family member outside of his mother that he considers better than the others...he saves her and the rest of them only because he doesn't want to be "heartless". Looking at all this, it's evident that for Sanji, Reiju is a Vinsmoke before she is a woman, before she is his sister, before she is anyone he can truly love...something sad to see when looking at how much more Reiju cares for Sanji in return.

Even though we know Reiju was not the best sister, playing both sides as a child, trying to support Sanji while also keeping herself out of the line of fire, she still holds a great appreciation and love for Sanji because she sees him as the Sole Good Thing to come out of Germa. The woman literally thanks him for existing, Sanji is obviously on a high pedestal for her.

There's something there for her brother, even if she won't let their relationship get any sort of patching up, and she holds onto this tiny ball of affection as the one apple spared from the bad bunch.

It's a very asymmetrical relationship the two have, one that I would argue is very much "talking at" rather than "talking to", but at the end of the day, Sanji just does not care about Reiju as much as I've seen in some depictions. Part of that is because she is his sister so of course he's not going to do his usual goofy song and dance, but there is no passion for her like he has with the Straw Hats, no flames, no love.

Sanji cares about Reiju... but just enough as not to make himself a hypocrite.

References for an AU I’m working on where both Reiju escapes Germa and has a daughter of her own, Suzume. I don’t have all the details ironed out, but here’s the basics:

Suzume is 4 while Reiju is 32.

Reiju finally found her passion as a doctor stemming from being a field medic for her family during Germa and now travels around to places that need medical attention.

While a normal child in every other sense, Reiju’s modifications also meant her daughter has some modifications, the biggest one being Suzume’s psychic powers.