“I wish I could have seen those cherry blossoms!”
Jinbe gets out of the bunk quite refreshed from his late morning night. He hears screams outside, joyous ones that make him at ease. They were promised an island soon, but his watch ended just before he could see what it looked like in the distance.
The smell of fresh fried seafood and vegetables reaches his nose. He’s used to it enough to know Sanji just finished preparing pirate bentos for the crew. There’s a whiff of his favorite smoked tea, rolled omelets, miso soup… It’s a whole feast already.
Then Luffy screams at the top of his lungs:
“Jinbeeeeeeeee! Come out, we’re waiting for you!”
“Jinbeeee!” imitates Chopper, who is not always as enthusiastic when it comes to exploration. “I think you’re gonna like it!”
The giggles ring in his ears. He adjusts his clothes and opens the door, smiling already at the light atmosphere that follows his crew.
He breathes in, enjoying the warm air of spring they’ve been sailing in for a day or so.
He doesn’t breathe out.
It’s snowing.
Jinbe has seen snow before, but never this color and never this shape. The shape of Chopper’s hooves in the snow on deck. The color of his favorite treat: cotton candy.
There’s giant cotton candy everywhere on the island.
They spread like an avalanche, coming from the top of the hill adorned by blue sky and rays of sunshine, expanding along the way until they reach the river where their ship dropped anchor.
His heart has sunk with it, frozen in time by the pink snow flying in the wind. It’s fine if it stays there, full and fulfilled, like he has reached some kind of transcendent state that gets him closer to a peace he thought he had found, but here it is, real peace. Real blissfulness. Real marvelment.
"It is those people who shape eras: those who let themselves look at the world with marvel in their eyes."
Happy birthday to sweet Jinbe, resharing some Stendhal syndrome for you 🧡
archiveofourown.org/works/77150436
Written for #opgenweek2026
#onepiecefanfiction #jinbe #chopper #hiluluk #fluff
