~This new water world~
Ch. 2
A.n.: Second chapter.. I'm on a roll today! XD So this will be the chapter about Keii's first crew member .w.
"I'm sick of this shit! Go and cook it all yourself!" Shouts a voice from a small restaurant on an island. It's another bright day on this island and it's quiet. But that silence got broken when the voice shouted. A girl with red hair right past her shoulders, an orange scarf, yellow and green shirt, blue vest, blue short-shorts with a belt and black boots with yellow and green socks stomps out of the restaurant after another complain of her cooking-skills. The chef yells after her: "You know what? Don't show your face here ever again, Layla! This was the 8th person to complain this week and I'm sick of your lack of skill!". Layla almost tears up at his words, but she's strong and doesn't dare to cry over this. She stomps back to her house, ignoring the people who stare at her and she furiously closes the door of her house. She walks over to her couch and lies down on it, staring at the roof and sighs, thinking about what happened that day.
This sunny day started good for Layla, as she went to her work with a bright grin on her face. She loved cooking for others, and the good part was that she worked in a local restaurant. She got complains sometimes, though. About the food being too cold or too salt. The people in her village were not quickly pleased when it came to cooking. They only wanted the best of the best. Layla entered the back door of the restaurant that morning, and she immediately went to work. Her father, the chef of the restaurant, was already busy with breakfasts for a few customers, and smiled brightly when his daughter walked inside. "Oi, Leyla. Slept well last night? I was home late, because of the cleaning, so.." he started. "Hmn. It doesn't matter, dad. I know you're busy." Leyla interrupted, forcing a smile on her face. She knew her father was almost never home. He was mostly busy with cleaning up the restaurant after a busy day of work, or he had to go far away with his small boat to get more ingredients, because the ground on the island wasn't very fertile. He had a party too every month. The only times he talked to his daughter was in the mornings at the restaurant and at break-time in the afternoon. "So, what do I need to do today, chef?" Layla said emotionlessly. She hasn't got a strong bond with her father, so she never acted happy to see him. "Some people ordered a vegetable salad. You can go and prepare that." He said. Layla nodded and went to work right away. She chopped up the ingredients nicely, placing them in a bowl as careful as possible. She tried her best not to ruin the looks, and when one of the vegetable pieces cracked a little, she replaced it. But then there was the worst part: Spices. It was always too much or too little for the customers. Layla tried her best to put exactly the right spices in it with the right amount. She was confident that they would like it this time and she walked back to her father, holding the salad in her hand. "I'm done, chef. Do you want to taste it first or should I bring it to them right now?" "You can bring it right now," her dad answered, "they must be waiting for a long time now." Layla nodded and brought the salad to the right customer, placing it on the table and waited next to the man. She hoped that he would like it. He would be the first to like it in the long time she worked here. She always did her best for the meals, but it was never good enough. "Too salty." Said the man quietly, and brought the salad to the trash can, throwing it away. Layla tried her best to restrain herself. It wouldn't be good for the reputation of the restaurant to start a fight. She just walked back to the kitchen, no emotion showing on her face. "And? What did he said?" Layla's father said as she entered the kitchen. "H-He said.. It was too salty." Layla whispered. "What? Again? Layla, this is shameful! You are pure disgrace of this restaurant! What are you trying to do? Ruin my reputation?" Her father yelled. "It isn't my fault! I tried my best, okay? Why do you always want me to get the best of the best? Only to hold YOUR reputation good? What am I, some sort of machine to you?" Layla yelled back. Fights like this usually occurred between her and her father when a customer wasn't happy, but it was different this time. "You know what? Go home for today." Her father said extremely calm. Layla stared at him in confusion before yelling: "You know what? I'm sick of this shit! Go cook it all yourself!" And she stomped out of the door.
And now she was here, still lying on the couch and staring at the roof. It was always her fault, even though she always tried her best to cook as good as possible. It was never good for these people. She stood up and walked through her back door to the forest. She needed a bit of fresh air, she needed a bit of running. She closed her eyes, soon changing in her wolf-form and running into the forest. She still remembers the exact day she ate a devils fruit.
It was a cold, winter evening and Layla was still only 8 years old. She was playing in the snow because her father was busy at the restaurant, and she couldn't help him. At these kind of late evenings, she would always play outside. She was playing around in the snow, rolling in it and giggling happily. She eventually got a bit hungry, so she decided to check in her father's ingredient storage for a small snack. She rummaged through the ingredients until she found a small box. The box was labelled: 'SPECIAL INGREDIENT. DO NOT OPEN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.'. And like every normal child, Layla got curious and opened the box. She saw a strange-looking, grey coloured fruit. It had a swirl pattern on it and it was shaped like some kind of melon. Layla started laughing at the strange fruit because she thought it looked tasty, but funny at the same time. She brought the fruit inside and inspected it. She also smelled it for a moment, noticing how exotic it smelled. 'Must be from a foreign country..' she thought and she grabbed a knife, slicing a small piece off of it. "Well, here goes nothing." She said before eating the piece. Her eyes went wide when the rich taste flowed through her mouth. In 10 minutes, the whole fruit was gone and she sat contently on the couch, stroking over her almost round stomach with a sleepy smile. After a few minutes, she fell asleep on the couch. The day after that, her dad scolded her for eating the fruit. He explained it was an Inu Inu no mi, wolf model. Layla tried her new powers right after the whole explanation and it changed her whole life. She had to keep it hidden, though. Nobody liked a cook who was part wolf, so she could only change at night.
She was thinking about this day when she was running through the forest. After a while, she was running back to her house, changing back and went to bed. Her thoughts being completely clear, she fell asleep.
The next day, Layla decided she was sick of this. She packed her stuff and was now walking in the direction of her father's boat. She quickly jumped in the boat, and raised the sails. So here she was, sailing on the sea and waiting for the wind to bring her somewhere. After a long time of traveling, she heard screaming in the distance. She shot up and looked around her, noticing another small boat on the water. She steered to it and noticed there was a blonde-haired girl on the other boat. She screamed: "Hey, you there! Are you looking for a captain?" Layla thought for a moment. Maybe this was some kind of pirate? She never actually thought about being a pirate. But she was very spontaneously sometimes, so she yelled back with a big grin: "If you need a cook, then I can help you out!" "Alright, can you get over here? My boat is kind of going in one direction because I can't steer this thing!" Layla laughed at the silliness of this girl, and after a while of struggling with the sails she finally reached the other girl's boat. She ties one end of a rope on the front of her boat, and the other end on the back of the other boat. "Well, this is another way of meeting people, right? Who are you anyway?" Layla questioned. "I'm Aoi D. Keii! But you can just call me Keii for short. And you?" Keii questioned back. "Oh, ehm.. I-I'm Layla.. Nice to meet you?" Layla said with a sheepish smile. "Nice to meet you too! So I guess you want to join my pirate crew, right? I was sailing around to find some crew members. You looked rather lonely, so I decided to just ask!" Keii said happily. "Ehm.. Sure? I'll join your crew. But I bet we need a better boat than this soon, because this one doesn't have a kitchen. "
After they both told what happened to them today, they decided to work together to build up a crew. Keii as the captain and Layla as the first-mate, they headed to a new destination to find new members for their crew.