#kuroobi

Hi, I'm doing a clean reupload of Sea, Salt and Sun. It's devided in a few parts for easier access and Ridding Currents is the first book! It centers mostly on Biri getting to know the crew and the land. There is a lot of friendship building, tensions between fishmen and humans and a lot of parties :D

I'm also putting illustrations in all the chapters ! I'm up to chapter 8.

READ IT ON AO3 Chapter 8 / Chapter 1 Summary : Take makes good on his word and takes her out to Kokoyashi. Kuroobi finally has his answers. Wordcount : 6900w CW: Implicit violence against humans, sex

Here is an extract :

Two officers and of course our boy Take. I need to draw Hatchan soon

𝐇𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧

【Ｆ𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭　𝐊𝐢𝐬𝐬　𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬】

Hatchan is absolutely the more flustered one out of the two

Your relationship with him builds off comfort first Cooking together, talking, laughing, spending time in a very easy and warm way

The feelings are obvious… just not spoken out loud

The first kiss happens very naturally

You are probably sitting together after a long day Maybe he made you food, maybe you stayed longer than usual, neither of you wanting to leave

He gets a little quieter than normal

You notice

He is fidgeting slightly, not making direct eye contact for once

“I… uh…”

He tries to say something and completely loses his train of thought

You end up being the one to lean in first

And the second you do, he freezes

Like completely still

Then slowly, very slowly, he relaxes into it

His hands hover for a second before gently resting on you, like he is afraid to mess it up

The kiss itself is soft, a little clumsy, but very genuine

When you pull away, he is so flustered

Face warm, avoiding eye contact, trying to act normal and failing miserably

“…That was… nice.”

He cannot stop thinking about it after

He gets more comfortable over time, but that first kiss stays very special to him

𝐊𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐛𝐢

【Ｆ𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭　𝐊𝐢𝐬𝐬　𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬】

Kuroobi is the opposite energy

Much more controlled, much more deliberate

Your relationship with him is built on mutual respect first

He does not rush anything, but once he decides something, he acts on it

The first kiss is initiated by him

It happens after a moment where you have proven your trust or loyalty to him in some way

He looks at you differently after that

A little more focused, a little more certain

There is no hesitation

He steps closer, tilts your chin slightly upward

Gives you a moment to pull away if you want

When you don’t, that is all the confirmation he needs

The kiss is firm, steady, not rushed

He knows exactly what he is doing

One hand resting at your jaw or the back of your neck to keep you close

When he pulls back, he does not look away

He studies your reaction

If you are flustered, he notices immediately

A small, almost imperceptible shift in his expression

Not quite a smile, but something softer

He does not tease you about it openly, but he does keep you a little closer after

The dynamic shifts after that

More physical closeness

More subtle possession

so i'm starting a series where i close-read one piece fights and try to analyze what story/character information they convey to the reader, because i think that one piece is great at storytelling through them. fight scenes in one piece aren't just spectacle — they're also used to develop characters and explore themes.

in this post i want to look at sanji vs. kuroobi, which is a fight that i think most one piece fans do not care about. and i didn't think i really cared about it either, until i looked closely at it this reread and i realized — hey this fight actually says a lot about sanji. i mean, it's sanji's first big fight as a full member of the crew, of course it says a lot about him! so i'm going to talk about it here.

first, i need to say a quick word about the chapter title. the viz translation of the chapter 86's title is pretty iffy. i've seen more translations of it that go "chivalry vs. fish-man karate." throughout the chapter, viz uses the word "heroism" as opposed to "chivalry." i don't know japanese so i don't know what the best translation of the word is, but i do think "chivalry" and "heroism" have two different connotations and "chivalry" is much more associated with sanji's character throughout the series.

so the fight technically starts a few chapter earlier, but i'm going to focus on chapter 86 here because that's the bulk of it. it kicks off with sanji and zoro basically having an exchange over reckless self-sacrifice. zoro's about to do some reckless self-sacrifice (throwing himself into the water while injured in order to save luffy.) sanji notices and stops him. and then he does the reckless self-sacrifice (throwing himself in the water where he'll be at a fighting disadvantage, to save luffy and also to stop zoro from doing it.)

i don't think a character always needs to turn to the camera and say "i'm going to be doing some self-sacrifice now" nor do they need to intend to die for an action to be self-sacrifice. sanji does it here and zoro was also about to, in the sense that they're putting their bodies on the line for others outside the context of straightforward fighting. we already know from baratie that sanji looooves sacrificing himself, this is another instance of that.

next, sanji and kuroobi both notice genzo trying to help luffy at the bottom of the ocean. kuroobi immediately moves to go kill them, and sanji stops him.

this is how kuroobi gets clued in to the fact that sanji is "chivalrous", and he immediately punishes him for it by beating him up with his fish-man karate (hence the title of the chapter.) i don't think kuroobi has much of a character foil relationship to sanji in this fight; he mostly serves as a representation of arlong's supremacist ideas and verbalizes sanji's insecurities to the reader.

then we get to the page that inspired me to write all of this out in the first place:

just to provide an alternate reading, here's the stephen paul translation:

this page is the emotional crux of this chapter, and what the sanji vs. kuroobi fight is trying to explore. the fight is about sanji's "chivalry" — what drives it, and what he is willing to do in service to it. sanji starts the chapter by doing a chivalrous action, taking zoro's place in the water. and throughout the fight, sanji literally throws himself into danger to protect others: zoro, genzo, and luffy. but he's also implicitly trying to protect usopp and nami and all the cocoyashi villagers. kuroobi picks up on that, and he spells it out for the reader.

sanji frequently gets moments throughout the series where he uses himself as a sacrifice in order to protect other people and frames it as "chivalry". in the baratie arc we see him do it for zeff, someone he's known for years and feels he has a debt to. but in this fight, we see that he also does it for people he barely knows and doesn't owe anything to. he's also very rash and foolhardy about it. when it comes to his chivalry/self-sacrifice, he often acts before he fully thinks it through (though you can see his logic and make arguments for it.)

also, sanji's chivalry is not just for women. i think we all know this, but this chapter spells it out pretty clearly. most of the people sanji is trying to save here through his actions aren't women.

of course, sanji is not powerless in this fight. he thinks quickly and adapts once he gets a better read on the situation, forcing kuroobi to let go of him so he can surface and bring the fight to land. still, his internal dialogue is focused on saving people.

so chivalry wins out in the end.

this fight builds upon what we learn about sanji in the baratie arc. we know sanji is self-sacrificing — now we know he's self-sacrificing for everyone, not just zeff. we know sanji fights to protect people — we get an insight into his anxieties over that. it also works to show that sanji and zoro care about each other, since neither of them want the other to put themselves in danger here.

Learn the correct traditional way to tie a karate belt (obi).